iPhone on the Look Out for Alien Invaders

The iPhone has been the number one mobile phone sold in the US for quite some time now. Those who use the iPhone have grown to have the same sort of affection as the love between a MAC-user and his Macbook. However, since its launch in Dec. 2009, the Android has significantly taken the lead in gaining the most shares in sales as well as ad requests. Prior to its launch, most mobile phone apps were created based on the iPhone OS, leaving out all other mobile consumers. However, now with the success of the Droid, I believe it is only a matter of time before we start to see the advent of mobile apps spread to all phones. Perhaps there will be a universalization of mobile OS one day—one can only imagine. Until then, advertisers can work with the majority and provide even more exposure and reach to their consumers.

Iron Man 2

It’s hard to not be aware of the fact that Iron Man 2 will hit the theatres in about 2 weeks. From Dr.Pepper can wraps and 7-11 slushie cups to Burger King and Reeses candy packaging. Marketing efforts of Iron Man 2 can even be found on the latest version Norton Anti-virus and the Audi automotive campaign. The most impressive marketing tactic created by the company is a flashy digital campaign including a HD interactive trailer for the movie itself. A slew of brands have attempted, and many successfully, to create a fully engaging experience with their fans. The Iron Man 2 campaign allows users to explore the world of the main characters Tony Stark and Iron Man through the movie’s interactive trailer. As users watch the trailer places are “lit up” allowing them to click and explore more. Iron Man 2 is definitely leaving a presence in the mind of consumers and their online interactive campaign is something to take note of.

New Army Recruitment Video

Even for the troops in Iraq, sometimes you just need to dance it out. I came across this video of a group of US Army troops who seem to be having a really great time ‘dancing it out’ to Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s song “Telephone.” In about a month the video has already receives almost 4 million unique impressions. Could this be a better marketing piece for the US Army? It’s definitely a win for the military as we get to see a group of bad-ass soldiers dance it out (in the appropriate outfits of course!) and attempting to lip sing.

This is clear consumer generated content (I highly doubt they were under any kind of orders to create such a video) and with so many unique views in the matter for 30 days and a slew of comments and postings, it easy to see the benefits of this sort of unintentional marketing effort. It is simple, organic, entertaining and more importantly believable. As a consumer, we are more inclined to buy into what our fellow consumers are telling us than an ad. Is it inspiration for a 2011 military campaign? We shall wait and see…

Quantcast.com, I love you.

After hours of emailing and searching online, trying to find demographic research and usage data of online sites, I was just about ready to give up. Then, I met my new love: quantcast.com. This is such a great media resource tool! Instead of having to email each site to get statistical data on number of page views or unique impressions, this site does it all for you in pretty chart and pie graph form. It provides media minded people with information based on country, age, income, education, other websites users visit, DMA, traffic, etc. Though it does not give you prices, it will give you the size/type of ads each site have the ability to run. Love it!

#TwitterProfitable?

Many say Twitter has become Facebook’s biggest competitor. However, Facebook has always had a leg up by making themselves a sustainable and more importantly, profitable business. Facebook has created a place for advertisers to build brand awareness and target consumers in a highly effective way. Will Twitter be able to do the same? Twitter’s new launch of promoted tweets will start off slow and provide companies with real time results of their efforts. It’s risky. By creating a platform of advertising, Twitter risks diluting their user’s experience who don’t expect to be bombarded with tweets from huge corporations. In order to maintain their reputation, Twitter will need to find a way to protect the integrity of the service they provide as a social network—if not, well we can be sure that someone will definitely tweet about it.

If Marlon Brando Drank Beer, I Bet He’d Drink Stella

Stellaa! Stellaaa!! Okay, it’s not Marlon Brando or A Street Car Named Desire, but it is definitely a movie to be seen. Belgium beer company, Stella Artois launched an online campaign that is catching the attention of beer, and even non-beer, enthusiasts. The interactive marketing effort connects users’ Facebook profiles with the website and careful scripts them into the short film. Through the use of Facebook photos, the campaign turns each user’s experience into life.

The film’s storyline takes place Miami-like city after the death of Jacques de’Azur. During the reading of his will, it becomes apparent that his weekend at the Cannes film festival is up for dibs. The wealthy, prestigious family is now on a hunt to find who should represent Jacques de’Azur at such an event. The storyline goes on to incorporate photos of Facebook friends as well as the users’ own albums. At the end, the movie asks if you’d like to continue the story of the de’Azur family’s effort in finding who gets to receive the weekend at Cannes. Ultimately, users are given the opportunity to enter in a contest to win the all inclusive weekend. This high quality video and level of engagement definitely sets the bar high in providing a meaningful user experience, which can be rare in this industry.

See the story yourself: http://www.stellaartois.com/age_check/display

I'd Go With Diesel

A brand’s website—especially in the consumer product world, is vital to ecommerce. If your site isn’t user freindly or engaging, consumers won’t want to use it. This could mean huge potential profit lost from online shoppers. Diesel’s current website, featuring their spring and summer collection brings together entertainment and functionality. They provide a great balance between the music-video like on their homepage and the user’s ability to scroll over the outfits during the video to view them. This transition, which I’m aware sounds complicated, is in fact really easy to use. The video itself adds to the brand experience, taking it away from the sense of “selling a product” (which essentially that’s all they are doing) to “an engaging experience.” In this case, Diesel does little to promote the name “Diesel” but instead highlights the clothing.

Watch the video, you’ll get it: http://www.diesel.com/ahundredlovers/

Does Facebook Offer a Refund?

What an absolute marketing fail. Facebook, the community-oriented site (primarily used by marketers looking to advertise on social networking sites) definitely missed the target with me. Recently when I was on Facebook the following ads popped up in my side bar:

So, according to Facebook I have recently been dumped and am current stalking my ex-lover hoping to reconnect with him one day. I also recently had a baby (congratulations to me!) and diapers along with other baby-essentials can be found on my grocery list. And finally, and probably most fitting, I am in the market for a makeover—decomposing, zombie-girl style. I guess they got me right on the mark. NOT! I’m not sure what keywords from my profile helped them pick out these three ads, but I hope these companies didn’t intend to target a happily single, childless college student, with no desire to throw a ton of make up on her face. Though, I will say, this is a bit refreshing compared to the usual ads I get looking for an Indian college student willing to sell her reproductive eggs. So, thank you Facebook.

I'm Here

Absolut and Spike Jonze joined forces to integrate a brand into cinematic art. They created a movie called I’m Here. This 30-minute film tells the story of two robots who live in L.A. and the romantic relationship they form. The film is only available at certain times of the day and limited to a certain number of views (kind of like buying a ticket to a movie theater). This was a smart move on the advertisers part, not only are they able to increase buzz by limiting the movie to a select few who can then later brag about it, they are creating the sense of demand/urgency to view the movie. This will ultimately drive people to the site constantly to find a way to be a part of the community of viewers. By mirroring the offline cinema experience they are creating such a hype that resulted in 230,000 views in just the first weekend.

To view the movie click here: http://www.imheremovie.com/

Domino’s New Taste Yields Success

Last year Domino’s announced its big change: a completely new, revamped pizza that included fresher ingredients, better ingredients and most notable (in my opinion) a seasoned crust. In the message for this campaign, Domino’s were blunt with their consumers. They went to consumers and listened to their responses about the pizza. They came back with insight about their pizza tasting like cardboard and weren’t afraid to let everyone know. They told the world that their pizza had been “real bad” and that it was time for a change. They made this change and soon followed an ad blitz, everywhere you went, Domino’s was. Their efforts resulted in much free press in the form of print, news shows and blogs that were taste testing the product. Today their stores have averages a 14% increase in sales. This is huge! This is a great example of how one key insight led to the creation of a better tasting product, a revamped ad campaign and increased sales.