10 Aug
Here is the latest YouTube promotional component for the launch of the film The Expendables. It is a YouTube takeover that features an interrupted interview with Sylvester Stallone. Oh, and don’t forget to share…
To experience it yourself follow this link: http://www.youtube.com/user/expendables
30 Jul

Diesel’s “Be Stupid” campaign platform continues to drive innovative work. This time they’ve said that Digital is smart. Analog is stupid. And with that, Diesel has created a social event called Facepark, a live event where thousands turned up to create an analog version of Facebook, simulating pretty much everything you can do on Facebook in a physical format, starting with every guest receiving a profile cut-out on arrival that would become your analog wall for the day! Very very cool!
post thanks to Digitalbuzzblog.com
20 Jul
Head over to paywithatweet.com, and you’ll find an intriguing new social commerce model – where you can buy digital goods (music, software, ebooks, videos etc) and pay for them simply by tweeting them. It works like this; you simply click on the ‘Pay with a Tweet’ button, are asked to login to Twitter (or Facebook), edit the proposed tweet/wall message – and click the download button – whilst your message is syndicated across your social graph. Simple.
Pay with a Tweet is billed as a ‘social payments system’ designed to create viral buzz for content creators and marketers alike who want to promote themselves, their brand, product or service.
It’s an interesting model, and one that is set up and run out of Hamburg/New York by the creative duo at Innovative Thunder (@innothunder) - Leif Abraham and Christian Behrendt, of BestBuy’s much lauded Twitter-based Twelpforce fame (Pay with a Tweet app developer is John Tubert).

To launch the service, French electro pop band ‘The Teenagers‘ (breakthrough track “Homecoming” – a French tongue-in-cheek take on American sexuality), have released their new single “Made of” from their upcoming album exclusively with Pay with a Tweet (video below of the band wooing tweets).
And if electropop is not your thing - you can buy Innovative Thunder’s ebook on digital business for a Tweet (16,000 downloads on the first day).
The logic behind Pay with a Tweet is compelling; the same logic that has spawned a successful sub-industry in PR where editors, reviewers, celebrities and journalists are sent swag bags for free in return for (hopefully) positive words. Sometimes word of mouth – particularly at product launch – is worth more that the product itself.
Pay with a Tweet is free and simple to use; vendors create a Pay with a Tweet button using a simple form on the app’s site, entering their Twitter account, desired message to be re-tweeted, and the link to a digital download. Then just copy and paste the button code to the web, push the button – and let viral tweeting take over.

Pay with a Tweet is barebones, and feels like a beta version of something much bigger – we think this or a similar social payments model could evolve in to a powerful word of mouth marketing platform for brands, bands and content producers. For example, Pay with a Tweet could be used to download not only promotional content, but also links/codes/coupons to exclusive promotions/previews/or even live events such as fashion shows.
Similarly, by auto-embedding the Pay with a Tweet buy button in a Google/Facebook ad – you could create a truly viral promotion. Another option would be to flip the process, so people do pay for digital downloads, but are then reimbursed for a Wall/Twitter review that reaches x number of people. (A simple mechanism could be added to the platform so if the review is negative it gets shuttled privately back to the sponsoring brand for ‘insight’ rather than shouted out on Twitter). Likewise, by teaming up with a sampling company – Pay with a Tweet could offer a viral sampling service; Tweet and get the sample delivered to your door.
As Pay With a Tweet evolves, we think it’ll have to be beefed up to host digital downloads (with virus scanning) onsite, offer a decent analytics dashboard, and propose a premium paid-for service (perhaps where the promoted tweet can’t be edited so tweets go out ‘on-brand’). Expect a Facebook ‘Pay with a Like’ service to appear soon (the service already the retired but not quite dead Facebook Connect).
In the meantime, Innovative Thunder suggest their fledgling social payments platform can be used by;
We like.
The Teenagers Promoting their ‘Buy with a Tweet’ Track on YouTube
Post courtesy of Social Commerce Today
16 Jul
Wow! Not only did Old Spice and Wieden Kennedy pickup a Grand Prix at Cannes for their campaign, they’ve just started rolling out one of the best social campaigns I’ve ever seen, all based on the ads that generated so much talk over the last few months.
Old Spice has just started delivering personal video replies to tweets (and now even YouTube and Facebook comments)! Yep, if you had tweeted about Old Spice, chances are you might have an @reply with a custom made video just for you. And if you haven’t, then you can tweet to them right now @oldspice and you might be lucky enough to get a custom video reply. So far they’ve delivered almost 120 videos in the last 24 hours alone, with each and everyone one a strategic response to a tweet or YouTube or Facebook comment.
It’s also possibly the best social meets viral strategy I’ve seen, what better way to get people talking about you brand than taking your super popular character recording personalised videos for hundreds of tweeps in record time and then tweeting them their custom video for the world to see! Now, not only are they creating videos for the general public, they’ve been busy creating videos for some of twitters most followed people like twitter founder Biz Stone, Digg founder Kevin Rose, Ellen DeGeneres, Gizmodo, Guy Kawasaki, Perez Hilton and even Ashton Kutcher…
So when these guys see those videos, they’ll be blogging and re-tweeting like crazy. Viral heaven!
This is a seriously big idea wrapped in a simple, straight forward, clever coating that just makes perfect sense. This campaign will be providing insights for social and viral strategy for the year to come and hopefully help big brands and agencies understand that content is king… still… What sucks for Agencies around the world, is that this campaign has probably just picked up half the awards at Cannes 2011! But on the back of this, I think we’ll see some great campaigns this year.
Click here to see a bunch of the reply videos!
Ok, so what does all this translate into in terms of results / activity so far? Well, bucket-loads of global conversation and brand engagement (those videos are clocking up hundreds of thousands of views already) and 10’s of thousands of new followers over night, acquired through mass amounts of re-tweets and great blog based campaign exposure…
17 May

Ever since Facebook moved beyond the college campus and Twitter joined the social media matrix, brands have been trying to figure out what to do with them.
Generally speaking, brands are using social networks in a relatively systematic way:
1) Create an account; 2) Run ads; 3) Collect fans; 4) Provide news, offers and promotions; 5) Repeat.
But the lines of the digital world and real world are blurring, and businesses should start thinking about how they can take their social media initiatives to the next level. This means looking at new ways to mobilize your social media audiences to take action in the real world. Here are six great examples of early adopter companies doing just this.
1. Twitter Scavenger Hunt Engages Fans Globally
On Easter Sunday 2010, Tony Hawk hosted his second annual Tony Hawk Treasure Hunt on Twitter, where he gave away skateboards, backpacks, guitars and other merchandise to fans. The scavenger hunt was announced on his website and Twitter feed using the hashtag #THTH. He sent items for hiding to friends in 60 cities in the U.S. and across the world and then spent hours on Twitter on Sunday revealing their locations and learning which ones were found.
Hawk was able to successfully leverage Twitter to instantaneously build his fan base, which is upwards of two million followers, and connect directly with fans in real-time.
2. Students Create Virtual Graffiti on College Campuses
The free social-networking and mapping game for smartphones, Foursquare(), is making its way into the world of higher education. While universities are still figuring out how to address Facebook, Twitter and other web 2.0 platforms, students are starting to use Foursquare to label, praise, and sometimes mock college campuses.
Through Foursquare, students can add places, leave public tips, or add to existing ones while gaining “badges” for checking into places. If they frequent one location enough, they may even be awarded the coveted “mayor” badge. Harvard University has even embraced Foursquare by using it to create an official school program that helps students explore the campus.
3. Users Participate in Tour de France via Web, Twitter & SMS
Nike’s Livestrong campaign for the Tour de France is a nice example of a brand blending the digital and physical worlds and enabling its audiences to take part in a real-time event.
Nike created a robot called “Chalkbot” that could write chalk messages on road surfaces. In support of a Tour de France tradition where fans write inspirational messages on the road, Nike gave people around the world the chance to get their inspirational sayings chalked on the Tour via WearYellow.com, Tweet or SMS. Users then received a link to see where their message was chalked.
The shoe and apparel company was able to cleverly connect user to a real world event using social media as the conduit.
4. Crowdsourced T-Shirts Meet Twitter
The online apparel store Threadless has built a loyal open-source community that actively submits new t-shirt designs for the chance to win cash prizes, votes on favorite designs, and purchases limited edition shirts. More recently, Threadless() and Twitter teamed up to launch Twitter Tees by Threadless, where its 1.5 million followers submit or nominate tweets to be featured on Threadless t-shirts. The community votes, and the winning tweets are added to shirts by Threadless designers, which are then sold through the Threadless store.
This is a great example of how social communities can be built and integrated into a company’s business model to powerfully drive awareness, encourage company evolution and impact a company’s bottom line.
5. Starbucks Offers Rewards via Social Media
Starbucks has created a loyal audience of coffee fanatics and continues to cultivate this group through a series of social media initiatives. These campaigns are driving fans from the web to the stores while empowering them to shape and improve the brand.
On Facebook and Twitter, Starbucks has built a fan base of 7+ million and motivated this audience to visit its stores and make purchases by offering downloadable vouchers for items like free food or music with purchase.
Another way the brand is leveraging social media is through its forum, MyStarbucksIdea.com, where customers make suggestions, ask questions, vote, and get behind-the-scenes scoops on the brand. Thus far, the company has implemented 70 user-provided ideas.
For mobile audiences, Starbucks operates two iPhone apps and is currently examining ways to enable customers to interact and pay through their iPhones.
6. Social Media for Social Good
What started as a brainstorm by social media communications company Everywhere while traveling to BlogWorld, ended up raising thousands of dollars for cancer non-profits and setting a new Guinness World Record.
The concept was simple –- get people to use the hashtag, #BeatCancer when sending tweets, updating Facebook, or writing blog posts during a 24-hour period last October. The social media experiment was supported by eBay/PayPal and Miller Brewing Company, which donated one penny every time the #BeatCancer hashtag was used. BlogWorld got involved to help spread the word, and participants at the conference and across the globe helped raise money.
The hashtag was posted over 681,000 times, and together, social media audiences set the Guinness World Record for sending the largest mass message through social media. This is a great example of digital audiences working together to create social good, and there will no doubt be many more social giving initiatives like this to follow in the future.
Conclusion
Consumers are seeking ways to transfer their digital interactions into something tangible. Businesses, big and small, will find ways to not only cultivate social media audiences but weave their brands into the daily lives of consumers. Your business should aim to empower them, excite them, inspire them, and enable them to engage with your brand in a relevant, new and useful way that adds to their real-world experience.
12 Aug
There is nothing new about the idea behind the Evian Roller Babies: create a viral and let people talk about and share it. But the remarkable thing about this viral is the execution and the success it achieved. Have a look:
It is assumed that the viral is heading forward to 50 million views at youtube, myspace, via embedded videos on several websites and downloads. Beyond that, the campaign has managed to attract people at Facebook. To date the campaign has over 35,000 fans. Also three protagonists, Anna, Tom and Vincent reaching fame with follow up interviews and videos, have an own profile and are gathering friends. Watch out for this little kid:
It is also a good example how classical media finds its way into the web. In 1998 a TV-Spot with a similar idea (“Evian water babies”) was broadcasted. The new spot was also broadcasted in France, Canada and Belgium, but it reached its global popularity through the web. The recent popularity was only possible via social media – if folks love it, they comment and more important, spread it! Autonomously!!
In sum: a good campaign can work out on several channels and is able to attract people at social networks. From then on it has its own momentum… Let’s see what comes next…
27 May
TV is a classical medium. Classical media are out. Social media are in. If you have a TV channel, you are the loser of the social media revolution.
Not true at all!
This story proofs that even TV channels can successfully integrate social media into their concept. Check out this example by Showtime, an American TV channel.
To promote the premiere of the new season of the TV show “Weeds“, the US TV Channel Showtime has recently launched a 2-minute viral video telling the history of all different kinds of drugs (like ganja, cannabis, paca lolo, marijuana, snop,..)

The video was launched only a week ago, but it already started creating buzz around the show. On YouTube it attracted more than 260.000 viewers. There are already 1.315 comments. In addition to this there is a rating. So far 1.529 people have voted. The result: 5 stars (out of 5)!
Watch the video here..
I think this is a smart tactic. Users have started watching the video with enthusiasm. Due to the fact that they think it is cool, they rank it with five stars and recommend it to others. People of today listen to other people more than to media. This means, those who receive the recommendation from a friend are very likely to watch the video themselves. Some of the viewers will copy-paste it into their blogs/websites etc. This is how the buzz spreads. The fact that they like the video on YouTube might encourage the viewers to watch the TV show as well.
Of course Showtime also announces the the new season of “Weeds” on TV. However, I’m quite sure the YouTube method is more efficient This is because people choose to watch the video, they are not just confronted with it – as on TV (Nice side aspect: Uploading content on YouTube is for free)
5 May
Social media shoppers want to be attracted and involved. They do not want to watch a spectacle from the distance, they want to interact in it. Shoppers who feel emotionally connected with their brands are way more likely to go over to purchase than those who feel no brand connection. T-mobile and their agency Saatchi & Saatchi know this. For this they have launched a viral video calling for the public to come to Trafalgar square on April 30th . As a follow up to the first group dance initiative in Liverpool street station and in line with the “Life’s for sharing” campaign on YouTube, T-mobile managed to gather 13.500 people on Trafalgar Square. Alltogether the crowd started singing ”Hey Jude” from the Beatles.
Watch the result here:
Good Job! T-Mobile manages to interact and engage with the people. Alltogether they create an impressing performance. People develop a feeling of being part of something big and impressing.This increases the likelihood of them developing a closer, more emotional connection with the brand.