Free Desk Here Project

I really like this idea from London based Open Studio Club.

They created the Free Desk Here Project.

If an agency has some spare desk space going, they can post it on the Free Desk Here Project site for aspiring creative professionals to apply for.

This gives them the work space and facilities they need to get their career going. And they do their own work, not agency projects.

O2 Bring on the green

The O2 rugby campaign this year was called 'Bring on the green'. The campaign idea dramatised the impact Ireland rugby supporters have on the team when they get behind them.

I looked after the digital communications for this campaign. The role of digital was to get supporters closer to the team. So everything was executed against this.

The main element of digital was a web app. Creating a web app over a native app meant it was available on every smartphone so there was just one CMS to update.

The app was responsive design and mobile first. This meant the app would format itself based on the screen people were viewing it on, ie smartphone or tablet. There was also a desktop version.

This year was the first time we did tunnel cam. This gave people exclusive access to what went on in the tunnel before, during and after Ireland's home matches. This included everything from the teams arriving, to the coin toss, to the post match interviews.

Keeping with tunnel cam, one of the most exciting things we did was use Vine. This gave rugby supporters an almost real time view of what goes on behind the scenes. So within seconds of the team arriving or the coin toss happening, rugby supporters could see a video of this. You can see an example of what this looks like here.

We also did player video diaries with two of our brand ambassadors, Brian O'Driscoll and Johnny Sexton. People were asked to submit questions through facebook and twitter using #AskBrian or #AskJohnny. We then put these questions to Brian and Johnny, recorded their responses and posted the videos on twitter and facebook. You can watch the Brian O'Driscoll diary here.

Other exclusive content we created was behind the scenes videos and the making of our tv ad.

Adidas ad for new Chelsea home jersey

Really nice ad from Adidas for the new Chelsea 2013/2014 home jersey.

The jersey isn't out until mid summer but fans can pre-order it now.

Heineken: The candidate

Heineken in Italy were looking for an Events and Sponsorship intern.

So how do you find the right person for the job out of 1,734 applicants?

By not following the standard interview process.

Clever by Land Rover

I thought this was clever by Land Rover.

They sent prospects a mini Land Rover key to replace the 'Esc' key on their keyboard.

This way they were reminded they could always drive a Land Rover when they wanted to escape.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt

Recently I read Richard Rumelt's 'Good Strategy Bad Strategy' and I must say, it's the best book I've read on strategy.

The one thing I find with strategy books is they feel very like text books. They often remind me of the books I used to have in college and reading them can often feel like work.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy is not like this at all. It uses real world and real company examples to get across the author's points and arguments.

One thing the book explains very well is what strategy is and, probably more importantly, what it isn't. This is something I come across almost daily. Presentations on strategy which are actually goals and objectives, not strategy.

You can order Good Strategy Bad Strategy here on Amazon.

Most Contagious 2012

Most Contagious 2012 from Contagious

Contagious has released their annual round up of the landmark events, key movements and socio-economic shifts that have shaped the last year in their Most Contagious 2012 report.

Google Zeitgeist 2012 - What the world searched for

See what the world searched for during the year with Google Zeitgeist 2012.

Ricky Hatton gets fans closer using twitter

I posted here about Leeds Rhinos replacing the player names on their jerseys with their twitter handles. Last weekend I came across another example of this.

After being in retirement for three years, boxer Ricky Hatton made his comeback last Saturday. He had his twitter handle, @HitmanHatton, on the back of his shorts.

In the run up to the fight, fans could tweet in messages of support using the hashtag #RickysCorner. He took a selection of these messages and turned them into posters that he hung in his gym.

Hatton also held a Q&A for fans on twitter the week of the fight. Fans tweeted in their questions using the hashtag #AskRicky. He then posted two videos on YouTube of him answering his favourites. You can watch the first one here.

Hatton has always been close to his fans and this was a boxing first. It's another example of sport and social media coming together to get fans closer to the action.

Low potential does not necessarily mean low performance

I came across this video in a tweet by Clive Woodward, the 2003 Rugby World Cup winning coach with England.

What have Asafa Powell, Richard Branson, Michael Jordan, Ronaldo and Paul McCartney got in common? They were all classed as having low potential and overlooked, but turned out to be world class performers and very successful.

These are the findings of Rasmus Ankersen, an ex-footballer, bestselling author, advisor to businesses and athletes around the world and speaker on performance development.

Rasmus travelled the world, studying the best talent and performance environments in sport and business. In his latest book, “The Goldmine Effect”, he explains that by understanding three lessons, people and businesses can improve their ability to spot talent.

1. Great talent is not necessarily right talent
If you are not clear on what critical competencies are needed to drive success, then you will be looking for the wrong talent and you will overlook people that have real potential.

2. What you see is not necessarily what you get

It’s not just the result that counts, it’s the story behind the result. Don’t judge potential based on the result alone, look beneath the surface to understand how the result was achieved and what stood in the way of achieving it.

3. Don’t overrate certificates and underrate character

Once a basic level of competence is present in a person, then the key question stops being what can you do today and becomes what can you learn tomorrow and what are you prepared to do for it.

Two things came to my mind when I was watching this video. One was my experience of the Irish education system and the other was job interviews.

Social Media Revolution 2013

Erik Qualman has released the 2013 version of Social Media Revolution.

You can see the previous versions of Social Media Revolution here.

Priority music campaign

Last month I worked on our latest campaign for Priority music which went live today.

Priority music gives O2 customers priority at The O2. So as well as being able to get tickets to The O2 up to 48 hours before they go on general sale, O2 customers can now get Priority access. This is separate queue just for O2 customers, so they get in first.

And in The O2, O2 customers can hang out with their friends in the Priority lounge before and after gigs.

The campaign is supported by radio and digital. The music track on the ad is 'Steve McQueen' by M83.

Lynx says sorry to Prince Harry

I came across this today.

Lynx ran some very clever press ads saying sorry to Prince Harry.

Brilliant.

O2 Think Big cinema ad

Back in June I worked on our new ad for Think Big.

Think Big, in association with Headstrong, is O2's CSR programme. It gives young people, aged 14-25, funding and support to do projects that help make things better for other young people in their community.

The brand idea behind the campaign is 'Positive change makers'. We wanted to 'big up' the Think Biggers. So this is what we did. We made an ad that tells the story of a Think Big project.

The ad stars 19 year old Eimear Naughton from Roscommon. It was shot in Eimear's home, so the room in the opening scene is Eimear's actual room and the back garden where the cinema club happens is Eimear's back garden. We wanted the ad to feel very real and authentic, right down to Eimear's voice over.

The ad went live in cinemas across Ireland on 20th July and it will be shown before all of this year's major blockbusters. It also will be on tv in September. Local radio partnerships and digital make up the rest of the campaign.

Leeds Rhinos swap player names on jerseys with twitter handles

This is brilliant.

To help get fans closer to the team and increase the club's exposure, Leeds Rhinos are replacing player names on jerseys with their twitter handles. They already have over 18,000 followers on twitter.

Football team Valencia did something similar and swapped their jersey sponsor with the club's official twitter handle, @valenciacf. There's more on this here.

More recently golfers on the LPGA Tour replaced their name on their caddy's bib with their twitter handle. Find out more here.

MINI "Store" in Paris

I came across this MINI campaign a while back and thought it was clever.

What do you need to sell a MINI? A MINI.

So MINI decided to roll out ten of their cars across Paris with a 'MINI STORE' sign on the roof of each one.

To go for a test drive, people just waved one down, jumped in and were driven around. So instead of people going to a dealership, MINI took the dealership to people.

While I thought this campaign was clever, there is one thing missing for me.

I think MINI missed a trick by not having social built into this campaign. I think it would've been a nice idea if you were able to book a test drive through facebook or twitter. So people interested in buying a MINI would've been able to find one of the cars instead of randomly coming across one, especially in a big city like Paris.

This would've also helped to create further awareness of the campaign through people sharing it with friends on facebook and twitter.

Nike Mexico - Your sweat is your currency

Nike ran a great campaign in Mexico recently as part of their global #makeitcount campaign.

On their facebook page they opened a #makeitcount auction section. Cash was no good to you here though. The currency was sweat.

You could bid for new Nike trainers with the miles you recorded on your Nike+ FuelBand. So the more you ran, the more you had to bid.

If you were outbid during the 15 day auction period, you could run some more, clock up more miles and rebid.

LEGO mini figures as business cards

I have posted quite a bit about LEGO. I think they do some really clever stuff.

Recently I came across their employee business cards.

Reportedly LEGO even tries to match employee's features with their mini figure.

Brilliant.

Some more clever print ads by LEGO

I posted here about some clever press ads I came across for LEGO. Lately I came across a few more.

Created by German agency Jung Von Matt, this print campaign is called 'Imagine'.

The ads use LEGO blocks to create some well known cartoon characters.

You can see all the ads here.

Man City fan cam but with a difference

I posted here, here and here about different brands using fan cams. U2 was the first I came across to do it.

A fan cam is where a 360 degree photo of the crowd at a gig or match is taken. People who were there can then tag themselves and share this with friends on facebook, twitter or by email.

So when I came across the Man City fan cam, I didn't think it would be anything new. But they've taken the original idea and built on it.

As well as being able to tag yourself in the photo, you are also asked to find the four Man City players hidden in the crowd. If you find and click on them, a short video plays. The player tells you how to enter a draw to win his signed jersey.

The thing I have found with all fan cams I have come across is they're only really relevant to the people in the photo. With the Man City fan cam, the 'Win a jersey' competition is a very good way of opening this to all Man City fans. It's also a great way of getting extra email addresses.

Another new element Man City introduced is they used the Etihad Stadium itself. They put a video on the giant screen. When you click on it to watch, it's a behind the scenes video of players and fans saying why you should get behind the team and join the supporters club.

Overall it's good to see a brand take an original idea and build on it to make it better. For me the clever bit was introducing the competition. This means people are not excluded if they're not in the photo and for Man City, it helps them capture a lot more email addresses.

Clever press ads by LEGO

I came across a few LEGO press ads recently and thought they were very nice. Here's one of them.

They appeared one after the other on four consecutive pages. You can see them all here on Creative Criminals.

The fourth ad just has a yellow brick with a blank notepad and says, "Every LEGO brick tells a story. Build yours".

What do consumer want from brands in social media

Social brand experience

View more documents from ricardodepaula

I came across this report on We Are Social. It's called Variance in the Social Brand Experience by the CMO Council. The study involved 1,300 consumers and 132 senior marketers.

The main outtake is that there is a significant difference between what consumers want from brands in social media and what marketers think they want.

The report found that consumers want more experiences, more engagement and more rewards. While brands can see the benefit of connecting with consumers through social media, they're not tuning into this fully and are missing out.

If I look at my own reasons for 'liking' a brand on facebook, it's to hear first about new things they're doing and get exclusive content, as well as get the odd perk here and there like a voucher or discount. I also 'like' brands because I work in brand in marketing so I'm interested to see what others are doing in social.

When I actually think about it as a consumer though, there's not too many brands I follow that are actually doing many of the things I mention above.

Most Contagious 2011 is out

Most Contagious 2011 is out. Get your copy here.

As the Contagious team say themselves, it's been an extraordinary year; economies in turmoil, empires rising, falling and being torn down, the usual dizzying technological progress, the evolution of brands into venture capitalists, the evolution of a generation of young people into entrepreneurs.

In their round-up, they've looked at:

Movements, Projects, Marketing as Service Design, Social Business, Identity, Technology, Data, Money, Hacking, Music, Video, Retail, Gaming, Publishing and Design.

All of it fascinating, all of it important.

Find and tag yourself at Tinie Tempah at The O2

Tinie Tempah is giving fans who were at his recent gig at The O2 in London the chance to find and tag themselves.

Called "Tinie Tempah Class Photo", fans who were there on the 4th November can find themselves in the 360 degree photo taken on the night, tag themselves and their friends and then share this on facebook and twitter.

Shared experiences is something I have seen brands do more of this year.

With Tinie Tempah it helps continue the experience when the gig is over. It also gives fans the tools they need to share his music online. This can give great reach and scale when you consider the average person on facebook has 130 friends.

U2 did something similar here and so too did Wembley Stadium here.

HP shows how listening on twitter can turn a bad situation into a good one

It still surprises me how many brands use twitter and other social channels to talk and not listen. From what I can see, many brands just use them as broadcast channels.

I came across a good example lately on Brando's blog of HP listening on twitter.

The girlfriend of one of the guys who works there had her apartment broken into. Two laptops were stolen. One of the girls who lives in the apartment tweeted, "Just two laptops (including mine) taken. Could have been worse, I suppose".

A few days later, a package was delivered for her. In it was a laptop.

It turns out that HP had been monitoring twitter and saw the tweet about the break in. They replied with the tweet above and a few days later, delivered a laptop on loan for a couple of weeks.

Does your pillow have a best before date?

If you make pillows, how do you get more people to buy them, or how do you get your current customers to buy more often?

If you're Tontine, an Australian manufacturer and wholesaler of bedding accessories, you tell them about all the nasty things that develop on a pillow over time. Then you give them a solution.

You put a best before date on your pillows so people know when it's time to get a new one. Brilliant.

You can watch their ads here.

The Making of KLM's Tile and Inspire Campaign

I posted here about KLM's Tile and Inspire campaign.

This campaign gave people the chance the get their facebook profile picture turned into a delft blue tile and printed on an actual KLM Boeing 777.

4,000 people got their image on the plane and this video shows how KLM did it.

O2's rugby ad with extras

I worked on our (O2's) new rugby ad for the Rugby World Cup. You might have seen it on tv. If you haven't, here it is.

It includes extras which are all the stings we did with Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Johnny Sexton.

Kulula Air shows how to brand your comms mix

I came across Kulula Air recently on The Brandgym blog. Kulula are based in Johannesburg and are the leading low cost airline brand in South Africa.

This is the first time I have come across an airline using their planes and staff as communications channels. The personality of their brand is quirky and entertaining, and as you can see from the photo, they use their planes to get this across.

When it comes to staff, the crew on board each flight do the same, especially when it comes to announcements.

From the flights I have been on, lot's of people don't listen to these. So people might be a little surprised when they're looking for a seat, which is unassigned, to hear, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here. Find a seat and get in it".

Or how about, "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only four ways out of this plane".

So what are the benefits of this?

Word of mouth is one. Since I came across Kulula, I have told lots of people about them and reactions range from, "I'd love to fly with them" to "Wouldn't it be great if Ryanair did something like that".

That raises the question, "Would this benefit the business?"

I did a little test and asked ten people two questions.

1. If the cost of flying with Kulula was the same as flying with another South African airline, who would you fly with?

Ten said they would fly Kulula every time.

2. If the cost of flying with Kulula was €20 different than flying with another South African airline, who would you fly with?

Nine said they would fly Kulula.

So if doing something like this would make a small difference to business performance, it makes sense to do it.

Another advantage of this approach is free advertising in terms of using your planes and staff as communications channels. The best people to talk about a brand's products and services are staff, so again it makes sense to use them.

Ticketmaster connects with facebook to show you where friends are sitting at a gig

I've posted here about U2's tagging project. This is where you could find and tag yourself at one of U2's gigs and then share this on facebook.

Yesterday I came across something similar from Ticketmaster. When you're buying tickets, if you connect using facebook, you will be able to see which of your friends also bought the same tickets, and where they're sitting.

According to Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard, each time someone shared with their friends on facebook that they were going to an event, "this generated $5.30 in extra revenue". This stat was given before this next development in social sharing.

You can read more about Ticketmaster's plans here at Fast Company.

A look at facebook users in Ireland

I came across this really good facebook infographic from Edelman.

It looks at facebook in Ireland in terms of the number of users and the rate of growth, as well as the demographics of users and most popular brands.

You can find the original infographic here.

KLM give people the chance to get their photo printed on an actual plane

I posted here about a campaign KLM did through facebook called Tile Inspire.

Delft blue tiles are a big part of Dutch heritage. So through an app on their facebook page, KLM gave people the chance create a delft tile version of their profile photo. This photo could then be printed on an actual KLM plane.

Last week I came across this video that completes the story and shows how the photos were printed on the plane.

Video case study of Nike's 'Write the Future' facebook campaign

One thing I always ask of brands when they want me to like them on facebook is, "Give me a reason".

Think about this.

The average number of friends a person has on facebook is 150. If you want each person to take your message and share it with their friends, who they share their daily lives and photos with, you better give them a very good reason.

I have only seen a few brands do a good job at this. Porsche did here, U2 here, KLM here, Head Tennis here and of course Nike with their 'Write the Future' ad that launched on facebook first.

Ricky Engelberg (Director of Digital Sport at Nike) said, "We made this gorgeous masterpiece of a three minute film, and made sure the first people that could see it, were fans of Nike football on facebook".

Nike showed the ad to their fans two days before it broke on tv or anywhere else. That's a very strong reason for me to like them and share them with my friends.

When Nike says, "The like button is the most valuable thing on the entire internet", you can see just how much value they put on facebook and their fans.

Zappos takeover on Yahoo

I came across this very nice Zappos Yahoo takeover on Creativity Online. It's part of their 'More than Shoes' campaign.

Microsoft are next to show what happens when tweets go wrong

It really surprises me when I see something like this.

How many times have we come across a large brand or company tweeting and thought to ourselves, "Did they not actually think before doing that".

This time it was Microsoft.

On the back of this, Microsoft tweeted an apology but that didn't stop the complaints flooding in.

We've seen The Red Cross, Habitat and Chrysler do something similar over the last while.

The Red Cross recovered well from their rogue tweet. Habitat made an apology. The person from Chrysler though lost their job.

SunSmart sunscreen

I came across this outdoor ad on Creative Criminals for SunSmart in Australia. It's part of their skin cancer awareness campaign.

In an effort to get people to protect themselves against the sun, they built a sunscreen dispenser into the 6 sheet.

FedEx ad shows they're always first

I came across this ad again recently and thought I would post it.

It was created by two German design students who decided to take FedEx's "Always first" tagline a step further than this ad that FedEx created themselves.

I wonder will we ever see Ryanair do something like this considering they highlight that they're better than other airlines when it comes to being on time.

facebook insights guide

facebook popped in to the O2 office last week to do do a half day session with us. It's part of the digital sessions I'm running for the company.

Each quarter I arrange for a company to come in and run a session with us. They cover the basics like what they do, how they are impacting and changing marketing, what this means for O2 and what they see coming down the line.

My view is that in Dublin we're surrounded by some of the biggest digital companies in the world like Google, facebook, Microsoft and LinkedIn. I think it would be a pity not to tap into this and learn from these companies so that we can do things better.

Back in March we headed down to Google's offices on Barrow Street. For this latest session, facebook came to us.

One of the things we went through was facebook insights. They updated this guide not so long ago. If you look after facebook advertising, this is a very useful guide to help you understand how you're campaign is performing.

Get Closer to Andy Murray. See the messages fans put on his tennis bags

Following my post here about Head's 'Get Closer to Andy Murray' campaign, I thought I would post an image of one of the bags he brings on court with him.

If you go to Head's facebook page, you can see the different bags Andy has brought on court with him so far and the messages on each one.

Social Media Revolution 2011 by Socialnomics

Here is the latest video from Socialnomics.

Entertaining with some very interesting stats.

Interview with Frank Eliason, SVP of Social Media at Citi Bank

I posted here about Citi Bank and their use of social media to serve their customers. The man responsible for this is Frank Eliason.

Frank is SVP of Social Media at Citi. He previously worked at Comcast and was the man behind @comcastcares.

Frank recently did a five question interview for my blog and here's what he had to say.

If I can take you back to your Comcast days, at what point did you realise Comcast needed to start using social media to offer customers a groundswell level of support and service?
We started engaging customers my first week with the company. It started by identifying who they were and calling them. As we saw success, we started to find other ways to engage. I still prefer picking up the phone and calling someone over just writing on a post. This is how we did it at Comcast, sometimes even for tweets. It is always powerful to build that human connection.

From my own experience with banks here in Ireland, they tend not to be very open or social. They tend to treat customers like account numbers instead of people. Now that you're with Citi, was there any push back from senior management about using social media and if so, how did you get their buy in?
At Citi, senior management is highly supportive of our efforts. I have found at most companies, senior leaders are supporters, the middle layer is sometimes not as supportive because it changes a lot about the way you conduct business.

Of course the customer and employees are already doing that. In Citi's 2010 annual report, Vikram Pandit, CEO of Citi, gave his thoughts in his letter to shareholders.

From page 4:

Changes in consumer preferences: A new generation of globally minded and tech-savvy people is coming of age and entering the financial system. Globalisation has harmonised, to some extent, these consumer's tastes, spending habits and expectations in ways that make people who live in the world's largest and most sophisticated urban centres more like one another than ever before.

These consumers also have different, and higher, expectations from businesses than their parents. The demands on businesses that rely on information technology will be especially high: consumers have come to expect instant, fast, reliable, always-on access to a plethora of data. In addition, consumers in differing circumstances and markets increasingly demand products and services tailored to their specific needs.

Keeping up with and staying ahead of those expectations will require changes to the global retail banking business model that are every bit as significant as the changes being wrought by new regulation. Social networking and technology pose perhaps the greatest challenge. More than 750 million people around the world now use social networking sites, which are radically changing the way consumers communicate with each other and with businesses.

What used to be simple messages and now interactive and ongoing dialogues. Industries and businesses that succeed in the new environment are harnessing social network technology to offer highly personalised service and virtual online communities.

In short, consumers everywhere are becoming more knowledgeable and sophisticated. We must treat them accordingly.

From page 6:

Connect with our customers. Citi's global brand is a tremendous advantage. We are continually investing in our brand and finding the right and best ways to connect with customers. We've implemented a rigorous net promoter methodology around the world to measure customer satisfaction and detail specific client characteristics and needs. We are growing in digital and social media, channels that drive meaningful client connections and help us learn what they want from the bank.

You started off by training 100 Citi staff to use twitter. Were there specific guidelines put in place when it came to them using it, and are these guys going to upskill other Citi employees?
Actually many were already trained when I started. My team first created guidelines, and then from that process we continually refined. More recently we began a beta test of our click to chat and click to call functionality. This answers the big trouble for financial firms, where privacy is key.

If you watch most financial firms, including Citi, responses to customer queries usually ask for a DM with a phone number and no account information.

The reason for this is the servers on places like twitter ad facebook are not owned and operated by the financial firm. With click to chat and click to call, you could be having a conversation with a specific agent via @AskCiti and when the conversation shifts to private information, we will be able to take you to a secure environment with the same agent you were chatting with.

If we see you are on a mobile device, we can take you to click to call and if you are on a web twitter client, we can use click to chat.

We have also been growing our participation well beyond twitter and facebook. Today we are starting to interact with customers in a variety of spaces, and sometimes on some of the most difficult topics.

For example, we started this with those having difficulty with their mortgage. This is a topic that is very difficult, and does not always end in the best scenario. At the same time, these are people who have a very specialised need and we may be able to help.

What does the future look like for Citi when it comes to using social media?
I think you will see us coming out with more exciting ways for customers to interact with the bank, community learning and a spirit of greater transparency. I am also more excited by the potential internal social media tools have in reshaping the company and creating better experiences for our customers.

What can other companies/brands learn from Comcast and Citi's approach to social media?
Many companies want to focus on selling and marketing in this space. I have found focusing on the customer is the best approach to building brand advocates. Also as you listen to discussions in this space, taking that information to improve the company brings the greatest ROI

Get closer to Andy Murray through Head Tennis

I came across this video lately. It's by Andy Murray's racket sponsor Head as part of their facebook campaign.

The campaign is called 'Get Closer'. If you like Head's facebook page, you get access to exclusive Andy Murray content throughout Queens and Wimbledon, as well as exclusive competitions.

Here's the bit I like.

You can also send messages to Murray through the page and he'll pick his favourites. These will then be printed on the racket bag he brings on court at the tournaments.

This is a good example of a brand using facebook to add value to a campaign instead of simply tagging on a page at the end.

If you want me to like your page, give me a reason to. Here, Head is giving me access to content I can't get anywhere else. Plus they're giving me the chance to get my message on Andy Murray's tennis bag. If I'm a fan of his, this is pretty cool and something I'm going to want to do.

This is another example in a growing list of brands making people part of their campaigns and involving them.

I posted here about Porsche's great example, here about Coke, here about KLM and here about U2.

One of the reasons I think brands have moved to a more involving approach is to help them build scale in their publisher channels like facebook and twitter. Once they get people in, they then have a direct line to them.

The question I am waiting to see answered though is once brands have people involved, how are they going to keep the conversation going and keep me interested enough to stay around. There is a big difference between likes and engaged likes.

KLM spread a little happiness to their passengers

I posted here about Dutch airline KLM and their campaign that lets people get their photo on an actual KLM plane.

Today I came across another campaign by them that's really nice. It's called KLM Surprise.

One thing I don't like about flying is waiting around in the airport and trying to kill time. KLM saw their passengers fighting this boredom and wanted to help turn this boredom into happiness. And so the experiment began.

KLM looked up passengers that checked into their flight using one of KLM's foursquare locations or who posted on twitter.

Next, the airline searched these people's social media profiles to find out a little about them so they could find a suitable gift for them.

Finally, someone from the airline found these people in the airport and gave them their gift.

Such a great idea and a very nice campaign.

Wembley helps fans tag themselves at the FA Cup Final and share on facebook

I have posted quite a few examples of brands involving customers in their campaigns and sharing experiences with them through participation.

We saw U2 do it here. Porsche did a really nice job here. And here KLM gave people the chance to get their photo on an actual plane. The latest example of this is Wembley.

At last Saturday's FA Cup Final between Manchester City and Stoke, a 23 gigapixel 360 degree panoramic photo was taken of the stadium.

Fans who were at the match were then able to go to the Wembley 360 website, find themselves in the crowd and tag themselves. They could then share this with friends on facebook.

At the time of this post 20,713 people have tagged and shared their photo.

KLM is giving people the chance to get their photo printed on an actual plane

I came across a nice campaign today on we are social. It's for Dutch airline KLM.

Delft blue tiles are part of Dutch heritage. So on their facebook page, KLM is giving people the chance to create a delft tile using their facebook profile photo. This tile could then be printed on an actual KLM plane, along with a message.

You can check out the website here and see the people who have already had their photo printed on the plane.

This campaign is a continuation of what we're seeing more of this year. Brands are involving customers in their campaigns and building the number of people they can engage with in their social media channels.

Porsche did a really nice job of this here and you can see what U2 did here.

Once brands get people in though, the next part is keeping them interested enough to stay.

Busting the excuses brands give why they're not using facebook

I came across this infographic today on it's open.

The graphic comes from SmileSpread and looks at all the usual reasons brands give when it comes to not using facebook.

The graphic is a little small here so if you're having trouble reading it, you can find the original version here.

How digital tools can help you get noticed

I have posted a few times about people getting more creative when applying for jobs. The examples I have come across are by people who work in advertising, and it makes sense. Don't tell me how creative you are, show me.

I'm a big believer in using digital tools to help you stand out from the crowd and get noticed. Ed Hamilton used Google maps. Alec Brownstein used Adwords. Graeme Anthony used video. And last year Jameson used digital to help find their new graduates.

The ad above is the latest example I have come across.

This ad was created by a guy working in PR who was looking for a job at Ogilvy and Mather. It appeared on the facebook page of a person who previously worked at Ogilvys.

Using the ad targeting system in facebook, the guy who created the ad was able to target it to all the people that had Ogilvy in their profile as a place they work, or previously worked. When the ad was clicked, it brought you into his visual CV.

This ad was seen by a person who worked at Ogilvy. They gave him a call and put him in touch with Ogilvy's Head of Social Media. I don't know if he got a job, but the ad did what it was meant to do.

This is another great example of how you can use digital tools to be creative and help you get noticed. Just be careful your current employer doesn't see it.

Irish people's digital behaviour has changed

Here is a video I came across on Piaras Kelly's blog.

It's by Cybercom and it was presented by Jonathan Forrest at the Digital Media and Marketing Conference back in March.

The video looks at Irish consumer's online behaviour during 2010/2011. Some interesting stats include:

1. 48% of us have smartphones
2. 50% of us download an app every two weeks
3. 600,000 of us use facebook on our phones every day
4. 37% of us watch tv online every day or two. This was 7% a year ago

I gave this presentation on twitter to my marketing department

What brands are doing on twitter

View more presentations from Kevin Dunne

I gave this presentation to my marketing department yesterday. It looks at what brands are doing on twitter under four areas:

1. Listening
2. Helping (customer service)
3. Talking
4. Selling

I wanted to show examples of brands that are doing a good job in each of these areas, as well as those that are not.

Generally I don't post about work related stuff, but because I was giving this presentation to my marketing department, there are a few references to how O2 is using twitter.

A snapshot of social media in Ireland

I came across this great video by Edelman Digital through David Armano on twitter.

It's actually the first time I've come across proper stats looking at the use of the internet and social media in Ireland. Most of the reports I see are US or UK focused, and they nod in a very small way to Ireland.

Some interesting stats mentioned included:

1. 64% of 16-24 year olds use the web for social networking
2. facebook has 1,900,000 users in Ireland
3. YouTube gets 400 million views each month
4. 79% of people use facebook to stay in touch with people they don't see every day
5. 10% of people use LinkedIn to look for new staff
6. 700,000 people use the internet on their phone

Lynx Excite Angel Ambush at London Victoria Station

I'm a big fan of Lynx advertising. Every ad they do is true to the brand's creative idea - spray more, get more. Their current tv ad for Lynx Excite does exactly this.

I came across the above video lately. It was a virtual activation of the campaign using augmented reality at London's Victoria Station.

When a person stood on the halo markers on the ground, they appeared on a digital screen. An angel then fell from the sky and the person could interact with it.

This activity is part of a wider social campaign called Lynx Excite Fallen Angel. This challenges people on the Lynx facebook page to see if they are the one who can release archangel Kelly Brook.

Why do all toilet tissue brands look the same?

I took this photo in Tesco the other day. I can only imagine what people were thinking when they saw me. There was method in my madness though.

This is just a very small section of the toilet tissue isle. In this photo alone there are eleven different types, granted some just have different colour packaging.

I wonder what the Andrex or Velvet brand manager thinks when he/she wants people to buy their product over the next one.

From what I can see, the only thing that differentiates one from the other is the colour of the packaging and the claims made, ie softer, stronger, comfort, longer, etc.

This goes back to a book I read and reviewed here called Brand Sense by Martin Lindstrom. Martin argues that a lot of marketing today only focuses on two of our senses; sight and sound, and not enough on the remaining three; touch, smell and taste. This brings me to my point.

Why tell me your toilet tissue is soft but not let me feel it. Why tell me your toilet tissue is long but not let me see how long.

Imagine in the above photo if just brand had toilet tissue on display with a sign that said something like, "Squeeze me".

Or for a bit of fun, and if they could get the space, they did a promotion in store where people could roll the toilet tissue and see how long it actually is.

I think these two things are very simple examples that would help one toilet tissue brand stand out from the others.

It goes back to sensory branding. Why just tell me.

U2 tagging project. Find yourself and share

I came across this a while back and almost forgot to post about it.

U2 launched a tagging project where you could find yourself at a gig, tag yourself, and then share with your friends on facebook, twitter or email.

This highly social app does three things:

1. Grows U2's database of people so they can contact them again
2. Continues the U2 experience beyond a gig
3. Gives U2 fans the tools they need to spread the band's message online (keep in mind the average facebook user has 130 friends)

One thing I have noticed so far this year is that more and more brands are moving towards shared experiences with fans and customers.

We saw Porsche do it recently. Heineken has also done it. Corona, Coke, Guinness have all done it too. Now U2 has done it.

I think this is something we are going to see a lot more of this year as brands continue to build the number of people they can engage with in their social media channels.

To engage with them though, you need to have them first. To have them, you need to get them with something they will be very interested in.

So far, the brands I have mentioned above have done a great job in getting people in. Now it's about keeping them interested enough to stay and interact.

Porsche thanks their 1 million facebook fans - by making them part of a Porsche

Every so often I come across something that's just brilliant. Today was one of those days.

When Porsche hit the 1 million fans mark on their facebook page, it got there faster than any other car company. So they thought they would say thanks. But how?

They decided to make each fan part of what they're passionate about. A Porsche.

They took the names of each of their 1 million fans and made them part of the paintwork a Porsche 911 GT3.

They created a site where each fan can go, type in their name and see where their name is on the car.

The car is now on show in the Porsche museum in Germany.

Brilliant stuff.

Interview with the man behind Obama's digital campaign

With election campaign in full swing here, I thought I would repost an interview I did with Joe Rospars back in March 2009.

Joe is one of the founding partners of bluestatedigital and New Media Director of the Obama campaign.

1. What was the driving force behind the Obama campaign that made it so successful?

The driving force behind the campaign was you (the public). The Obama campaign was a grassroots movement, and we were lucky to have a candidate who trusted the American people with this responsibility.


2. What system did you have in place to keep the public updated on what was happening during the campaign. Who managed updating the different media and who responded to the public?

Our campaign was very good at creating additional channels and finding new ways to talk directly to our supporters. Our new media team put up dozens of posts on our blog every day. We emailed, texted and twittered with our supporters, and we uploaded thousands of videos onto our Barack Obama YouTube channel. YouTube in particular was great for us, because it gave momentary clips and videos life, and allowed supporters to watch the videos at whatever time was most convenient for them.


3. What determines if a company or brand should use social media?

Every company or brand should start to take advantage of the benefits of social media. In a year or two this probably won’t even be a question. Social media worked well to help Obama get elected, but there are multitudes of other reasons even politicians should be using social media on a daily basis.

Any brand that wants to create awareness and make it easy for supporters to directly interact with the brand should develop a well thought out online presence.


4. What can other companies and brands learn from the Obama campaign?

Every company and brand can learn from the authenticity of Barack Obama’s campaign. People felt a genuine connection with Barack—they knew him intimately, as a friend or a neighbor.
By allowing this campaign to be more authentic and transparent than ever before, supporters gained a sense of insider access, responsibility and ownership of the campaign. This feeling of ownership led millions of people (many of whom had never been involved in a political campaign before) to make phone calls, knock doors, and organize within their community to help get Obama elected.


5. What is the next step in this campaign and what are the challenges faced now that President Obama is in office?

The election ended on November 4th, but the relationships that were built during the campaign still exist. Our biggest challenge is actually an opportunity—to figure out how to take the passion and excitement from the campaign and use that movement to help build a better America.