In an interesting way to use social media to promote a luxury brand, French director Roman Polanski directed a short film for Prada featuring Sir Ben Kingsley as a somewhat disinterested therapist and Helena Bonham Carter as arather fabulously dressed patient.
At a little under four minutes, “A Therapy,” which is billed as Polanski’s newest movie, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this week, and is “presented by Prada,” according to the fashion house. The film short is up on YouTube.
Posted in Luxury Goods, Uncategorized, Videos, YouTube
The Jetsetter Curator Pinterest contest which asked pinners to create the “ultimate destination pinboard” over a two week period in the categories of escape, adventure, style and cosmopolitan caused an incredible boost of traffic to the luxury travel site. The winner in each category won a free three-night stay in the destination pertaining to that category. Referral traffic from Pinterest to Jetsetter increased 100 percent and pageviews increased 150 percent, according to an article on Mashable.com.
More interesting stats from the contest: over 1,100 users competed for a free trip, with an average of 40 images per board, totaling nearly 50,000 pins. On Pinterest, the contest helped Jetsetter jump from 2,000 to 5,300 followers.
“The overall goal of our Jetsetter Curator contest was branding, quality content generation and engagement with members,” said Jonathan Goldmann, Jetsetter social media manager. “We wanted to build an engaged community of travel curators on Pinterest. When people think ‘travel’ on Pinterest, we want them to think ‘Jetsetter.”
Posted in Uncategorized
Is this a cheap and easy way for brands to promote new products in the future? Dunkin’ Donuts has announced a three day Twitter sweepstakes for the first time ever promoting its new Mocha K-Cup packs that ends tomorrow, according to MediaPost.com.
The “Mocha MaDDness Twitter Sweepstakes” allows fans a chance to win a 14-count carton of the Mocha K-Cups before they hit stores for a limited time starting in June. All coffee lovers or addicts (like this writer) have to do is sign up to follow @DunkinDonuts on Twitter, and “tweet a message to that handle that includes the hashtag “#MochaMaDDness” and also includes their response to the question: “Why do you want to be among the first to try the new Dunkin’ Donuts Mocha K-Cup packs?””
Ten winners at random will be chosen each day for a total of 40 winners. Entries are limited to one per person.
As of this past Monday, Dunkin Donuts had almost 145,000 Twitter followers.
Posted in Restaurants, Twitter
Piggybacking off of yesterday’s blog post about the LA Kings’ effective use of social media, today’s piece focuses on FC Barcelona’s future plans to bring its “football” franchise to a global audience to draw further revenue for the brand and to communicate the club’s core values to fans, according to an article on the BBC website.
FC Barcelona already is one of the world’s most popular sports brands with more than nine million Twitter followers and approximately 31 million Facebook “likes.” The team is nevertheless looking at ways to monetize their popularity and has launched team websites in six languages and Twitter feeds in three. In addition to the Facebook and Twitter new-media strategies, the team is looking to YouTube and phone apps. A site launched on QQ in China already has one million followers.
In this vein, FC Barcelona business intelligence manager Pasi Lankinen has intentionally “lowered the threshhold of consumption” over the last 18 months for those who want to buy something from the brand.
“Whereas before the club might look at getting fans to buy a replica shirt as their first purchase, now the first point of commercial contact can be for a Barca app costing as little as 75 cents.” according to the article. This app can be the gateway point for consumers looking to purchase more expensive items in the future.
Que idea intelligente!
Posted in Facebook, Sports Branding, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube
The Los Angeles Kings hockey franchise has developed an enviable social media presence on Twitter by developing a “unique voice that connects with the fan base, while playfully taunting others,” according to an article on sports.yahoo.com.
Through funny, yet sometimes, snarky tweets and up to 90 tweets daily on game day offering links, news and interactions with fans and foes, the Kings had approximately 70,000 Twitter followers at @LAKings when the post-season began and now has about 40,000 more followers after only two playoff rounds.
L.A. Kings social media director Dewayne Hankins signed with the franchise in November 2010 when he realized the team was putting major money behind social media outreach. They added digital media coordinator Pat Donahue last September to add manpower and assist with social media, the team website and mobile apps.
“Part of the deal for me coming in was that if we’re going to do this, we’re going to go all-in,” said Hankins. “Be different. Be unique. In L.A., you can do that. We’re the little brother of the other four or five teams here, so we gotta do something to be entertaining,”
With a hilarious tweet like “to everyone in Canada outside of BC, you’re welcome” after the eighth seeded Kings beat the Vancouver Canucks last month, this social media duo seems to be doing something right.
Posted in Sports Branding, Twitter, Uncategorized
In a rare move for a criminal defense team to take, lawyers for George Zimmerman have launched a website and Facebook and Twitter pages in attempts to establish “the credibility of official digital properties that the media and the public can trust as the official voice for what is legitimate,” according to an earlier article in the Washington Post.
The O’Mara Law Group represents the alleged shooter of 17 year-old Trayvon Martin and notes on the GZLegalCase.com website the rare use of a social media campaign while defending a criminal client. Zimmerman, however, is not your average criminal defendant charged with murder. This particular case is being played out simultaneously in the court of public opinion and in an actual criminal courtroom as Martin’s death has caused national public outcry and protest. Zimmerman has been charged with second degree murder in the killing of the Sanford, Fla. teenager.
The website is being used to disseminate information and to solicite donations for what will be a hefty legal bill for Zimmerman’s defense team. Zimmerman had already received $200,000 in donations to his defense fund when lawyers shut down their client’s “unpolished” website and relaunched a target social media campaign with a professional site, and Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Posted in Facebook, Twitter, Uncategorized
Ice Cube has been part of an ongoing, traditional and online marketing campaign for Coors Light beer with humorous ads where he confronts the beer by asking whether he or the brew is “colder.” Coors Light recently passed Budweiser as the country’s second most loved beer brand, according to an article in Ad Age. No doubt these well done ads starring the former NWA rapper and founder turned more-tame family man has had some impact on Coors Light sales.
Posted in Uncategorized, Videos, YouTube
