How’s everyone today? (and other examples of Social Air Freshener at Parties)
You’re at a party and someone approaches you “Hey, I’ve not seen you for ages!”, you think ‘awesome, I remember this person, we used to hang out and chat, we had things in common, but I’ve not seen them for ages, I wonder what they’re up to’. So you start to talk and very quickly you realise, whether it’s that you’ve not talked for ages, they just don’t know how to approach you after so long or they just plainly don’t have anything to say. This doesn’t always happen, but when it does, the conversation turns to “what you doing this weekend?”, “um” (and you don’t say this, but it’s on your mind) “nothing with you, and if you suggest it so out of the blue, you’re a little creepy”.
Today’s article on TechCrunch gives some great examples of brands doing just this on social networks: here and some better ways to make the party a little less socially awkward. Let’s apply this to the Social Media Party as a brand. I use a party example as people are getting together for a reason and the point is to not be guarded, false and only there to be seen, because after that, what next? On to another silo of social awkwardness.
Where have you been? Ask yourself that as a brand, see if it’s something the person you’re talking to wants to know, many people love heritage or retro conversations, even about nothing, but there’s an emotional connection.
Where are you going? Surely there’s something worth telling (people that are interested) if you’re about to do something, acting like somethings up, but the person you’re talking to is not invited really sucks.
Who am I talking to? This is the main point, maybe the problem at the party is not them, they may be dull, but that’s probably just as much your fault because you’ve assumed you’ve changed and that means you have nothing to talk about, but they may be doing something really interesting.
Ah, allow them to talk! The number one way to get engagement is to give people the chance to actually say something useful that affects you. How do they relate to a product? Well they don’t if you just ask ‘What are you up to this weekend?’. A conversation worth having is one that creates an emotion, even if it’s courtesy - so asking people to be part of the brand is like understanding the person you’ve not seen for ages, and maybe being interested in their life.
We’re interested in a common thing. As a brand, if you have nothing in common with your audience, why would they want your products?
Social Placement approaches this by placing brands within productions that their audiences are interested in, that are part of their lifestyle. It goes further though, it finds the content that brands are interested in and like a friend at a party says “oh you have to meet brand X, they love production Y. It also does the polite thing, it allows people to find the brand and make their own decision, perhaps they love the lead character and identify with them. It makes it a lot easier to just walk up and have a chat at the party because you know something about the person instantly by association.
The best part is, with something to talk about and not just one production but many spread across so many interest areas, there’s a lot of parties to attend and a lot of points of view to consider. There’s nothing better than a conversation at a party that feels like 10 minutes, but sees the sun rise. You remember these and the person you shared it with.
So how does this relate to Air Freshener? It sits in the corner and wafts a nice smell around, but brings very little else to the party.
The Brian Solis Tweetup by Kred
Zeebox Boom - Coming to a Second Screen Near You
Zeebox recently reported 15,000 downloads per hour following its TV advertising campaign (January saw it hit the 1/4 million mark), a proof of the power of second screen as a control test. Tell someone something on the screen, on-mass, and drive them to a new community. The example shows that TV content producers cannot be worried about Social TV, but embrace it. The majority of studies show that Social TV gathers the largest benefit to users and second screen app providers alike when it’s live. It’s the event that draws people and Zeebox feeds off of where the crowd is. Zeebox have ensured that they are capturing a huge new community - the first second screeners.
Whilst many Social TV apps are focused on the US and organic growth, this push will benefit from A) capturing the curious and converted, and B) the UK production-audience. UK productions are highly exported globally and a strategic move to grow the home-market will make a robust app for a future global launch. This, seeded by the discussion and interaction of the UK audience, is a win for UK productions as Zeebox is not insular. As productions air live, audiences and celebrities discuss them, Tweet out and share on wider social networks. This acts as a trailer for UK productions, which promotes them internationally: the ‘I want that’ factor creates intrigue for future audiences. If Zeebox innovates and promotes itself, it will become a huge international hub for the promotion of the UK visual arts. This and a roll out to international territories will place it at the center of the Second Screen revolution.
Less a challenge, more an opportunity is monetisation. Whilst in-app advertising is an obvious option, it will detract from the experience. The future is commercial tie-ins with content, around launches (as is currently being seen trialled with the Aliens prequel Prometheus), but also competitions that enhance the already-existing commercial relationships in UK TV. From a Social Placement position, the enhancement of product placement deals is a no-brainer. From the outset you know when the content will air and which products will be placed. You will also know that the brand wants to get the maximum return on investment (ROI) and engagement (ROE). The more authentically you place, the more responsive people are to placements, but also the more beneficial to competitions they are.
A scenario would be: a spread of placements across multiple audience-connected productions (i.e. multiple shows that the same people watch), inviting people to ‘spot the brand’. Tweeting with a hashtag (as seen with Prometheus), or deeper interaction, such as capturing a picture of it, or Shazzam tagging the content adds more effort and enjoyment to the competition, but also creates a richer and more spreadable advertising vehicle. The options for campaign creativity are infinite.
The growth and development of Zeebox is a test for second screens, but also an opportunity for the UK production industry to embrace. Recent appointments (such as Jason Forbes to head US operations) show that the ambition is to export Zeebox quickly, but with this is the ambition to take second-screen interaction to the next level (in terms of audience size rather than complexity). Again, it will not be a case of ‘having to monetise’ (in the tech world this leads to disaster and the same negative sentiment as a brutal product placement), but naturally spotting the chances to grow an industry of second-screen ads, placements, and campaigns which are as natural and innovative as the discussions that will be caused by Social TV.
The Avengers Acura 2013 Car Placement
Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, Marvel’s The Avengers is a great example of doing one thing right: product placement. In the UK, we don’t quite get the joke, movies need money to happen, especially huge, graphically lush blockbuster fantasies, in the US it’s an opportunity. It’s also going to set the model for product placement and movie funding for the future.
Acura, Honda’s luxury car division, have done this one right, not only have they placed the car in-context - i.e. there’s a point to it, rather than it being an unwanted prop. Acura have gone further and scored a double win - by placing the ‘2013 Acura’ concept car, specifically coloured and designed for the movie, they have both ensured it fits in to the colour-rich fictional world of the movie but at the same time positioned the brand as a futuristic and high-tech car manufacturer.
It’s a luxury brand, so those that want the car and can afford it, are likely to want the one from the movie, but even for those that can’t afford it, it’s aspirational and brand-building, I may not be able to get the 2013 Acura, but I now know about it and will visit their site, see what’s there. The constant use of Google Maps for navigation also builds the brand, both as a technology rich car, but also transcending the model-range - even if you get their most bog-standard looking luxury saloon (which is likely to sell higher volumes), you can get the features.
The beauty of the Acura Avengers placement however is their remixing and trailing of their placement. A bespoke ‘Acura’ edit of the movie serves as a trailer for the movie, but created by Acura and showcasing the car at the heart of the action. From this point, even if the Avengers had not been a box office hit (it’s already on par with Avatar and Harry Potter), Acura have a video ad online with nearly half a million YouTube views, it’s hard to get those types of figures outside of Superbowl teasers.
What can Social TV do?
Nowadays, millions of people are engaging in a ‘second screen’ experience. As people watch TV they are using a tablet or smartphone to share their thoughts (primarily on Twitter or Facebook) with friends about what they are watching, or they ‘check-in’ to shows on GetGlue or Viggle.
So what does social TV do? For one thing it can boost ratings. Nielson has been researching social-TV-to-ratings for the past year. The results showed a 5% increase in buzz ratings, depending upon where a show was in the season. Noting that social influence for season premieres and finales were generally higher.
TV can also become more entertaining for viewers. Viggle has a second screen app that can be used as you watch TV. By ‘checking in’ or answering trivia questions, points can be earned, which can later be redeemed for gift cards such as Starbucks or Best Buy.
Social TV also allows consumers to engage with shows beyond the broadcast. No body cares about ‘clicks’ any more, they are dead, what marketers really want is engagement: seeing that people viewed our vehicle for x amount of time. An example of further engagement is USA’s Burn Notice, which produced a digital graphic novel to strengthen the engagement of their viewers by deepening the story pre- and post-broadcast.
Marketers are provided with new opportunities to reach their audience. Watchwith has developed a ‘time based media platform’ for social TV apps. The database knows everything about the show being watched. For instance, when a character comes on screen, it will feed information about the exact brand products they are wearing into the social TV app.
By understanding the capabilities of social TV, we can begin to see where this phenomenon and social engagement is going.
Source: adage.com
Social Media: Keeping up with the Audience
The power and influence of Social Media is becoming ever present across all levels of business, from marketing, to analysis, to public relations. Its form and practice is changing on a daily basis. Breaking news is starting to come through first on social networking sites and when journalists, celebrities and high-profile individuals use these channels to engage directly with their audiences, the change is even more profound.
Tonight an event is being held in the very centre of London to examine the effects that social media is having on industries such as the news and PR businesses. Hosted by The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the event will examine the impact of social technology in the PR world and all areas that the discipline interacts with.
The event will see leading digital commentators, with the likes of Andrew Walker; co-founder of Tweetminster and Social Placement and Fergus Bell, Digital Newsgatherer and Senior Producer at The Associated Press, amongst them, presenting their main thoughts, ideas and theories within a panel. There will also be the chance for the audience to ask their own questions in a Q&A session which will follow.
Click here for the full line up of guest speakers on the official website.
Social Media Summit
Social Placement’s Andrew Walker is attending the Social Media Summit on the 28th March. This all day event is part of the Social Media Academy.
The Social Media Academy organises workshop seminars and conferences which look at a wide selection of specific social media topics, across a variety of sectors. The Social Media Summit 2012 is bringing both PR and Marketing professionals together to look at the changes that have occurred in social media in the past year and what the outcomes of those changes might be this year, posing the question – what does this mean for communications plans?
The event is packed with leading names from the industry, amongst them Andrew Walker, who will be speaking on behalf of Tweetminster. He will be providing an overview of how Twitter has developed as a communications tool in the past year and how it is continuing to change in order to maintain and grow an audience as well as develop a commercial model.
Here’s Andrew’s preview of what to expect from his presentation:
“Twitter has evolved into more than a mere marketing or PR channel; it is a free global news feed and a data mine. It’s also a great way to generate free SEO by being popular and engaging. We’ll be showing how data collected from Twitter can give insight into more effective content strategies and managing your reputation online, which is why creating the right kind of content and winning in social search is changing marketing and PR.”
For more information on the other speakers who will be appearing and to register for tickets, go to the official website here.
Andrew Walker is the Co-Founder of Tweetminster and Social Placement.
New Social TV startup: iBubblr
There is a new startup Social TV company coming in under the radar. Jeff Schroer, formerly of mtvU, has created iBubblr to ”change the way you talk about TV.” Schroer plans to introduce this into the social TV space with more focused TV conversations. The goal is to allow users to be more engaged with their favourite shows by hosting, organizing, and elevating conversations around them. If you want to get an early look, you can request a private beta invite here: http://ibubblr.com/
Source: lostremote.com
Twitter stats for 2012
The History of Social Media
Grammy Awards are a hit across social, digital, and broadcast platforms
On Sunday, 39.9 million viewers tuned into the 54th annual Grammy awards, making it the second-largest Grammy audience with the best ratings since 1984. Even though there was a tape delay that prevented real-time social conversations from taking place, they still broke social TV records. Grammy live, a second screen experience available on iPhone and iPad, brought in one million viewers alone.
Source: Mashable
Flingo raises $7 million investment funding
Flingo, a smart TV app publisher, has raised $7 million in the first round of funding from an investment firm called August Capital. This money will make its TV software available on multiple new devices as well as help to expand the automatic content recognition system (ACR).
Flingo has TV apps, which display relevant content on second screen devices, such as tablets, smart phones, or laptops, allowing the viewers to share with their friends what they are watching on Facebook or Twitter.
The social TV scene is continuing to intensify with competitors such as GetGlue in the US acquiring $12 million funding last month and UK rival, Zeebox, gaining $15 million investment..
Source: c21media.net
People in the UK prefer social media over TV
Opinion Matters polled 1300 people across the UK for digital marketing agency Click Connect. The survey revealed that 65% of 16-24 year-olds rate social media as their favourite hobby—ahead of reading, watching TV, and playing video games. One-third of this group spend over three hours at a time, in various locations, on multiple social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook, and 6% admitted to spending over eight hours a day using social media. 37% of 16-24 year-olds also claimed that they use social media as they watch TV. Matt Bullas, managing director of Click Connect, says that they imagine more multimedia opportunities being developed to coincide with TV, encouraging cyber conversations since 40% of young people are on social media at the same time of watching TV.
Source: mediabistro.com
