Monthly Archives: June 2012

Aston Martin’s Vanquish a Social Media Sensation

Posted on June 29, 2012 | 1 Comment

Aston Martin has seen a 100 percent jump in traffic to its website following a new digital media campaign launched June 20 for the new model Vanquish, according to an article on LuxuryDaily.com.  The campaign on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and http://www.astonmartin.com included a digital car configurator, images and a video.

The YouTube video called “Aston Martin Vanquish – A Bold New Breed of Aston Martin” has had over 200,000 hits in just eight days. This is the fastest-growing video the British luxury car brand has produced to date.  The 2013 Aston Martin has a quite hefty $280,000 price tag, according to the New York Times.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Facebook, Luxury Goods, Twitter, Uncategorized, Videos, YouTube

McDonald’s Social Media Shift

Posted on June 28, 2012 | Leave a comment

In an interesting tactical shift for McDonald’s and brand promotion via social media, the Canadian marketing director for the House that Ray Kroc built intelligently answered a customer’s question why commercial images of burgers look better than actual restaurant purchased ones by taking online viewers on a video tour of how a McDonald’s ad is made, according to an article on Ad Age.

“Our Food.  Your Questions” has the marketing director, Hope Bagozzi, explain what is done by a photo stylist in the creation of an ad.  She appears to truthfully tell how the burger’s edges are browned, and cheese, lettuce and tomato painstakingly placed for advertising purposes.  As opposed to the quick turnaround at the restaurants (it is called fast food, you know), this video seems excuse why the burger looks so much better in ads than in hands.

This appears to be a change in strategy as the company several months ago was lambasted online for its Twitter campaign using the hashtag #McDStories.  We wrote about this several months back where instead of positive responses to the stories the company posted about the quality of their products, Twitter users inundated the platform with “horror” stories about their Mickey D’s experiences.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Restaurants, Uncategorized, Videos

NYU Study Says Target and Best Buy Tops at Customer Service through Social Media

Posted on June 27, 2012 | Leave a comment

  

A study conducted by NYU Professor Liel Leibovitz has concluded that Target hit the bullseye as the best national department store when it comes to customer service via social media, according to an article on the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal website.  Best Buy led the pack in the consumer electronics market when it came to addressing customer concerns on social media, even slightly beating out the “do no wrong” Apple, Inc.

Subway emerged from the underground and ranked first in the restaurant category nationwide for using social media to interact with its customer base.  It beat out the Golden Arches, Starbucks and Burger King in the survey.

Approximately 600 consumers were questioned in the survey.  Another interesting result showed that more than 50 percent of respondents called their experience interacting with brands through social media “disappointing” or mediocre.”

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Avoiding “Cringe-Worthy” Contests

Posted on June 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

Have you thought about vetting social media contest winners? If not consider how it would look to see a picture of your CEO handing one of those oversized checks to a convicted felon. In an interview with private investigator Shannon Tulloss, Kyle-Beth Hilfer, of counsel to Collen IP, discusses the risks and potential pitfalls of not vetting potential contest or sweepstakes winners. In some cases the risks or consequences will be legal. In most, there’s a significant danger of a PR disaster.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Contests, Law and Social Media

Tagged , , , ,

Google and Lego Team Up to Create Virtual Properties in the “Land Down Under”

Posted on June 26, 2012 | Leave a comment

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the celebrated Lego bricks hitting “down under,” Lego and Google Chrome have launched a program that always you to build 3D Lego creations online and put it on the Australian and New Zealand maps, according to an article on Mashable.

The innovative program is called Build and allows wannabe builders to design structures so long as they are original, apolitical, do not promote a brand, do not shock or offend others, and do not espouse religious viewpoints.  All one has to do is pick a plot of land on the Google map and start virtual erection.  You can check out other builders’ creations as well.

http://www.buildwithchrome.com/static/map

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Google, Trademarks, Uncategorized

Title IX Turns 40: Nike Honors the Federal Law with a Touching YouTube Video

Posted on June 25, 2012 | Leave a comment

“I’m 55 years old and I run close to 70 miles a week,” said Joan Benoit Samuelson, the first female Olympic gold marathon medalist, in a sentimental video for Nike on YouTube.  The sneaker company is celebrating the 40th anniversary of Title IX, the law which, among other things, bans discrimination against women in sports.

The touching video features Samuelson, boxer Marlen Esparaza, and basketball players Lisa Leslie and Diana Taursai.  The athletes discuss the challenges they all faced as younger women in their chosen sport.  The piece effectively flashes to young girls who speak about the same difficulties they face today.  Nike says the American athletic legends wanted to “play so badly that they wrote their own rules.”

Our favorite line from the video: “I’m a fashion model who can dunk,” says one adorable girl holding a basketball.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Sports Branding, Videos, YouTube

A Former New Kid on the Block Sings the Old Navy Catalog on Facebook

Posted on June 22, 2012 | Leave a comment

With kids across the region starting day camp next week and leaving for sleepaway in the coming days, no doubt parents are purchasing swimsuits, shorts and t-shirts at a rapid clip.  So, in a clever use of social media and branding, former New Kid on the Block Jordan Knight is promoting Old Navy on social media by literally singing the items in the Summer 2012 catalog, according to an article in Ad Age.

Not only will each item be sung by the former member of the original boy band that ruled the pop charts from 1984 until 1994, the now 42-year old Knight’s cheeky song and video has been uploaded onto Facebook and will be aired on network television.  A danceable club remix version of the songs can be downloaded for free by visitors to the Facebook page.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Facebook, Videos, YouTube

Jess Collen on “Best Price Friday”

Posted on June 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

In his latest column on Forbes.com Jess Collen talks about the resignation of J.C. Penney’s CEO Michael Francis. The straw that broke the camel’s back was “reverse false advertising,” according to Jess. No laws were broken, no shareholders law suits were filed. Apparently, JCP’s “Best Price Friday” program offered prices that were good through the entire weekend. At least until the goods on sale sold out. Illegal? No. Deceptive? Not really. No one ever complained about getting a lower price. The smell of retail fear and desperation? Absolutely.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Social Marketing Blunders

Tagged , ,

Carly Rae Jepsen: A Definite Brand in the Making

Posted on June 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

We promise this is our last “Call Me Maybe” blog post.  But the undeniable summer song of 2012 and contender for the most watched video of all time has had the effect of turning the Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen into Carly Rae Jepsen: the potential brand.

“Call Me Maybe” is up to 120 million views on YouTube, according to Mashable.com.  Mashable even held a YouTube faceoff of the best 15 covers of the catchy little ditty.  Time will tell if the 26 year-old former Canadian Idol contestant will be a one hit wonder, but with number one spots on the U.S., Canadian, Australian, Irish and UK record charts, people will be eagerly awaiting the songstress’ sophomore effort. Jepsen is the second Canadian to reach the top of the charts since Justin Bieber’s “Baby” in January 2010.  And with Bieber’s success, all we can say to Jepsen is: cha ching!

In case you were wondering, Tanner Patrick won the YouTube contest and his version of the song is below.  We’ll spare you from another link to Carly Rae’s original.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized, Videos, YouTube

NBA Honors Jeremy Lin in First Ever Social Media Awards

Posted on June 20, 2012 | 3 Comments

In the first time a major professional sports league has awarded players in the social media sphere, the NBA will honor Jeremy Lin as a “Social Breakout Player of the Year” at an awards ceremony tonight on NBA TV at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, according to an article on yesterday’s Mashable.

Following his addition to the Knicks starting lineup in February 2012, the 23-year-old Harvard graduate and point guard added more than 130,000 Twitter followers in one week alone, and earned the hashtag #Linsanity.    Tribute raps also popped up online heralding the Taiwanese- American’s basketball greatness.

And if you can’t quite remember how well Lin played from February until his knee injury in late March, take a look at the below YouTube video highlighting his top 10 plays.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Sports Branding, Twitter, Videos, YouTube