Post-it Advergame

The advergaming website that really got me hooked was the Post-it site. Post-it has this site to advertise their products while keeping their potential customers entertained. The game is like Pictionary where the users can play against other users logged in to the site. Each player is given a turn to draw a specific item given only to that user in 60 seconds. Using mouse or mouse pad, the items can be drawn in different colors. While the selected user is drawing, all other users can type in their guesses within the 60 seconds. Each guess is actually posted with an index flag post while the selected user is drawing. Every ten games, the winners with the highest points are announced. While users are playing the game, specials for post it brands are shown on the bottom right of the screen, for example, post-it organizers or post-it index flags for a reduced price. It was highly addictive! I stayed for about two rounds. My words were helicopter and lazy. Nobody guessed my words. I am not a good artist but I still had a good time!

YOUTUBE MARKETING CAMPAIGN - REVISTED

T Mobile Dance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM

This YouTube video that I have selected to write about has been the T Mobile Dance. I actually saw it last night in my Media Planning class and it was quite the riot. This You Tube video was taped at the Liverpool Street Station on January 15th 2009. T Mobile had choreographed a dance in the middle of the day. It was made to look like a few people started dancing to the music in the center of the station and a few more would join as the songs progressed. It was all staged by T Mobile to look like regular passersby were joining in to the dance and it caused a great commotion. The video shows random people texting, taking pictures, and even filming with their cell phones throughout the dance. By the last couple of songs, practically the whole station is dancing together. At the end of the dance, the music and all the dancers stop. Everyone parts ways as if nothing had happened. All the non-dancers are shown texting and calling on their cells to tell all their friends about what they had just experienced. After, there is a message shown that reads "Life is for Sharing" and after another message with the T Mobile Logo and ringtone.

It was such a fantastic way of creating a buzz for T Mobile that almost 9 million people have tuned in to YouTube to see it! Even though this video was created in England, people all over the world were grooving to the T Mobile dance.

FACEBOOK vs. SECOND LIFE

I thought it would be very interested to compare Facebook with Second Life because it seems that they attract two different types of people. Many people that have a Facebook also have Second Life and are also members of other Social Networking Sites. I have had Facebook for about three months and I was so in to it when I first got it! Now it seems that I either don't have the time to even check it or I am just tired of it. Second Life is something completely new to me that I had just heard about in this class when the professor brought it up. I have mentioned Second Life to people in passing and the majority of people are not really familiar with it. Facebook is a Social Networking Site that allows a person to connect with friends. People can post recent photos of themselves, suggest friends to other friends, and even become fans of actors, such as Javier Bardem which I am a fan of on my Facebook Page. When I look at Facebook, it looks like a popularity contest of who could have the most friends. Sometimes I look at the quotes of my friends like "... is boiling pasta, yum!" OK. That's very sweet but WHO CARES? The professor also mentioned something in class about Facebook having a voyeuristic feel to it. I completely agree because I am friends with some of my ex's and I must admit I occasionally take a peep at their pictures with their new girlfriends.
Second Life is completely different. I feel like it is for more technologically advanced users. Whereas Facebook users post their fanciest pictures on their profile, on Second Life, users get to become a whole new animated person. Users also get to be people on line that they may not necessarily have the guts to be in person. A person has to dedicate more time to Second Life because there is much more to explore. Facebook is really just about accepting friends, posting quotes, and uploading pictures. Another part of Second Life that really fascinated me was how a person can make so much money through virtual real estate and even designing sneakers or clothing for sale. There is no real cost to using Facebook. With Second Life, the possibilities for a user to blow money are endless.
As I previously mentioned, Facebook is becoming a little monotonous to me so I may soon be exploring Second Life!

Money Tracker: Diageo Profit Growth Slows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XLTm9aYNYo

This is a video on Bloomberg Money Tracker with an interview with Paul Walsh, Diageo's CEO, in regards to spirits prices going up 3-4%. Diageo has a portfolio of some of the world's leading premium spirits brands such as Johnnie Walker, Ciroc, and Tanqueray 10. Paul Walsh discusses how Diageo is present in 118 countries where he is seeing a specific trend in many of them. This trend is that people are trading up to premium beverages and that is how he can justify charging more for those brands. People are not necessarily drinking more today. He also states that the brewers are seeing more pressure in these economic times than the spirits are. Another very interesting point that he makes is that people are not trading down on the quality of their alcoholic beverage of choice but are changing from being in the on premise to the off premise. What this means is that instead of drinking spirits while going out to dinner, bars, or nightclubs, consumers are opting to go to the liquor store instead and entertain at home. Paul Walsh also talks about an even larger trend which is that consumers are nowing choosing Ultra Premium brands like Johnnie Walker Blue and Ciroc. The sales of brands such as these have gone up 27% in the last year.

MICROBLOGGING

Twitter for Business: Four Ways Companies Use Microblogging
http://www.cio.com/article/448464/Twitter_for_Business_Four_Ways_Companies_Use_Microblogging?page=1
This was a very interesting article about how companies can best utilize microblogging . The first note was that companies should be careful about product pushing. Customer are subscribing to the company's twitter feed so they are interested in product information but it should be done with some finesse. Jet Blue talks about how they are trying out something new which is auctioning on ebay without telling customers, "Go book a flight." It can be annoying to a customer if they are constantly given sales pitches and prompts to go and buy. The second way is by offering community outreach messages. When there are emergencies, companies can show their concern by posting relevant messages to help their communities. The article discusses how when Hurricane Gustav hit, Whole Foods posted messages about special store hours in specific cities and store closings where the hurricane was nearing. This shows how companies are genuinely concerned about the safety off their customers, and how they want to notify them of important news. The third way was how companies can send messages about general service and how-to's. While most companies have a customer service function on their website, companies who have twitter can help customers at that very moment. If customers have to send an e-mail and wait some time for a response, it may deter customers who need an immediate assistance. The fourth way that companies can use microblogging is to "humanize the head honcho." There are several CEO's that have twitter and they have many followers. One mentioned in the article is Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com's Chief Executive. He sends messages about getting a haircut and even seeing a coyote a couple of blocks from his home. He doesn't really send out messages about Zappos because just the fact that he is sending random notes about himself is enough to drive business.

Virtual Worlds

http://www.moove.com/
It was all Chinese when the teacher mentioned something about second life and avatars the other day in class. I looked to the student next to me with the most confused look on my face. If thought to myself, "I'm really going to have to get to the bottom of these foreign topics!" During my research, I found many virtual worlds and also their reviews through a specific website, www.virtualworldsreview.com. It had a list of the most popular virtual worlds, their annual fee, and a brief summary of what users would find when entering. I stumbled across an interesting one called moove.com. What was so interesting about it was that it was more like a dating website. Avatars, user-designed virtual characters can meet special friends. Users can register with limited access for free or gold membership for $59 a month. I decided to register to see how this whole thing worked. When I registered, I had to download software so that I could design a virtual house and also my virtual persona. On the homepage, there is just tons of hyperlinks which can be so confusing. It took me about ten minutes to find how to pick a character for myself before I gave up. While browsing through the website, I found many stores with different character outfits, hairstyles, and even furniture for your house. All these items cost money but it is in a currency call "community money." Users are automatically given $1100 in community money when joining. I looked through a couple of profiles which appeared to be a mix between a facebook page and a my space page. Some of the information that I found, which was all animated, were pictures of fairies, sorcerers, mystical looking flowers, their friends, and all types of virtual gifts they have received from their friends. It happened to be that two of the profiles that I found were from a husband and wife. What I wondered was if they were married in this virtual world or if it was in real life. A concern that I have is that how can the age of the users be monitored because I could have faked my age very easily when registering. This is not a very cute website for minors. Although they look animated, some of the themes are quite adult.

www.foodbuzz.com & www.epicurious.com
This website is for anyone who wants to search for recipes, organize them, rate the restaurants in their areas, and also connect with other foodies. Upon entering the website, there are huge pictures of feature plates that are changing every few seconds. On the bottom of the page, which is very visible, are all the options that the user has. This website has quite an appeal because the pictures that are shown seem “real.” They are not fancy which makes it more user friendly. The user can search for different recipes based on their interest and then file each recipe that seems to work well for them. Each user can post their own recipes and as each user views the recipe, the website captures each view to show the recipe’s popularity. Users can also rate restaurants in their area. Based on the user ratings, foodbuzz gives each restaurant an average rating along with general information about each one, including website, street address, and how expensive it is. Epicurious.com is another social networking website that links foodies as well. Their tagline is “…for those who love to eat.” Epicurious has a fancier feel to it. Epicurious has a recipe of the day as well as Food News that is posted. A post that caught my eye was one about a book that recently came out called 1001 Foods You Must Taste Before You Die. The post also included the author's three top foods which I thought was pretty interesting. Epicurious also has ratings for each recipe where users can state what worked well or what they would add or delete to make recipes better. I noticed that epicurious.com also had a place where users can enter their mobile numbers and get daily recipe ideas.

I LOVE MIAMI SPICE

www.ilovemiamispice.com

The reason why I chose this website is because it happened to be a surprise for many foodies and restaurant-goers. Every summer, some of the most fabulous restaurants in Miami offer a Miami Spice menu that is $36 for a 3-course dinner or $26 for a 3-course lunch. To stimulate the economy, the Winter Miami Spice menu is being offered at a limited amount of restaurants from January 12th to February 12th so people are flocking to this website for after-holiday steals!
This website was not posted all over the place but it was more of a word-of-mouth operative that local foodies had the pleasure of announcing to each other. I happened to get an e-mail on January 7th from Thrillist.com - http://www.thrillist.com/winter/miami-spice-winter-edition with a link to the website.
Upon entering the website, there is a welcome message with a baby blue background and snowflakes representing the winter element of Miami Spice. There is also a video that can be clicked on to get a visual representation of the restaurants, some of the feature plates, and even the head chef of Azul at the Mandarin Hotel speaking about his menu. The viewer can click on the "participating restaurants" button and is taken to a list of restaurant hyperlinks that are divided by South Beach/Miami Beach, Mainland-North, Mainland-South, and North Beaches. This makes it easier for the viewer to select a restaurant based on their geographical area. Once a restaurant is clicked on, a new window is opened with the restaurant's logo, a picture of the restaurant or feature chef, and a schedule of when the restaurant is offering the Miami Spice menu. In addition, there are hyperlinks that take you to the actual Miami Spice menu so that the viewer can see if they are interested. There is also an option to print the page, another hyperlink that will take the person to the restaurant's website, and a map to show exactly where the restaurant is.
The only criticism that I have about the website is the use of opentable.com. Opentable.com is a website that offers the service of making an on-line reservation without having to call the restaurant. It is at the very bottom of the page on the Miami Spice Website on the participating restaurants page. It should at the very top of the page because most people will not see it. It should also be on the page where the viewer can see the actaul menu because if the person likes the menu, then they can make the reservation right then and there.

For mobile marketing, there are many ways of measuring the efficacy of a particular program. First, the actual marketing vehicle needs to be at a place where the target audience will be captured. This will increase the chances of number of specific users exposed. The marketing vehicle needs to be at the destination at a specific time if they are trying to get a specific kind of person. For example, if the mobile marketing program came to our school and they wanted to target students who may have gone straight to college after high school who probably don't work, it may be best for the vehicle to run the program morning and afternoon versus evening. The reason being is that many students who have full time jobs attend school at night.
If the program is utilizing sign up sheets, success can be measured by the number of sign up sheets completed. If the goal is to be able to send additional information to the subscriber, a measure would be e-mails received on the sign up sheets. Success can also be measured by the amount of people who approached the vehicle or were approached by representatives because those people were still exposed to the branded message. The number of time that the person spends in the vehicle gathering information should also be timed to assess the amount of time spent viewing the branded message. If the company wants the people who subscribed to bring more people, then word of mouth could be measured based on the amount of people who approached the vehicle based on a referral of a specific person.