Who's your Daddy now??

It has been said that content is the king of all media, that is a way of getting into people. Today, thanks to Web 2.0 (that enables a greater interaction between consumer and brands), "Consumer Generated Media" is your Daddy Now.
Most of consumers trust recommendations way more than normal advertising. Then, content generated by users has become very valuable. Some of these generated media would be: blogs forums, replies, comments, videos, pictures, podcasts, wikis, etc.
An example of this might be book, CD, or movie reviews. For example, if you visit Amazon you'll find that after you look for a book, you are able to find some book reviews written by users that even get the chance to "star" their book with how much they liked it. This comments are more valued than the one the Book Company or Amazon might put, because people can identify themselves with the one that's behind the computer writing whether they thought their book was good or not. And that happens in lots of websites where people need recommendations for shopping decision making like MixUp Music Store in Mexico or Ticketmaster, Ebay, or even hotel reviews.
This helps consumers to make a better decision about buying or not the thing they are thinking about. This is becoming a value-trust relationship is growing faster everyday.

3 rules for E-Marketing

Some things that I've learned after studying some stuff about E-Marketing is that it can be a really good marketing tool if you know how to use it. It can transform website visitors into buyers, if you just follow the correct path.B
But some things are important to take in consideration:
1. You always have to try things out - it is important to make a sample trial before realising the it to the e-marketing world. This can be a good preview of how your progress will be going.
2. Always focus on a budget - there might be some limitations, and taking them into consideration can help you decide which things are more important to reach objectives and how can budget be used in a more efficient way, and at the same time, know how to manage expectations.
3. It's all about daring to do things and not limiting yourself - as it happened with our Google Adwords Challenge Campaign, we were making some ads for Cupcakes in Vancouver. Ok, we did some mistakes, but we learned from them. The Internet world is dynamic and it's changing faster than you could ever imagine. So, keep on changing with it and innovating with it too.

Facebook pages Boom

Yesterday, I had a meeting with one of the clients we are working for in one of our Marketing courses, FundRazr. It is a Facebook based start-up company so we had the task of finding out the best ranked Facebook pages and checking out what was in there that actually made them qualify for that list. I could say it was very interesting because I had the chance of discovering Facebook pages, and to be honest, I didn't know about their existance. I even found out that some of them are controlled by the companies. That shows how big companies as Starbucks or Victoria's Secret have found the space where people are meeting with their friends. 90 of all the 100 world's biggest brands have Facebook Fan Pages.
Only 2 branded products are between the Top 10 facebook pages, but there are some other that are between the top 50.

Pages are becoming effective marketing tools because it enables companies to address people who are really linked to their brand and make them feel special and unique and at the same time, give them non branders of getting to know your companies.
Barack Obama has even become a brand, his webpage is the largest Facebook page and it grew very quickly, having more than 4.5 fans, and at the same time, creating a new way of making political marketing and addressing the young people he was trying to reach.
As a brand: be professional and create a proffesional Facebook webpage that allows members to stay in there after they become fans, that's the hardest point. If you use it correctly, it is a great way of obtaining different comments, feedback and discussions from people that truly know about your brand, offer them some videos also.

http://www.radicaltrust.ca/2008/04/23/top-10-facebook-pages/

Facebook = people's lifes

Even a year ago, the impact that Facebook was having on users was none comparing to the one that is happening today, as a Fortune article I read some days ago posted. There were so facts that put me to think on some interesting stuff:
If Facebook were a country, its population would be nearly as big as the one in Brazil. If it were a TV Show, the audience would be even larger than the SuperBowl 43.
I remember that some weeks ago my parents were both freaked out about me having a Facebook account and putting in there some of my info and even some pictures of the last party I went to. But, now I would say that the users are just not young or children that are into technology. It has also reached a target that is even beyond the one the creators were initially thinking about (who were college and post-college people). Today, the newest members are mature people that some months ago were totally out of the web.
This, for us marketers, is becoming a great opportunity and some important value. It is a way of addressing the right person at the right person and making them feel they are individually spoken to, and forget about the fact of just being "consumer X" and going on to be "Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. whateveryournamemightbe".
In the article, the way that Facebook works out for marketers is compared to having the ability and opportunity to listen and take special care on each and every phone conversation that costumers might have. Their profiles are becoming a portrait of all their behaviours, likes, dislikes and what are they really into. Just take a look at some wall posts, status updates, etc... everything is so valuable!
Two months ago I was so amazed... It had been a day since I changed my relationship status from "In a relationship with" to "single" and I was soon recieving some ads offering me the chance of meeting "the cutest guys in Vancouver" as it literarily said! Wow... so it got me to think: now not just my friends now I'm single now, but another companies that might be dedicated to making people meet and fall with each other. If this is possible, what else couldn't be? Oh, and also, as soon as a I arrived to Vancouver some ads were being posted at my Facebook offering some "really good deals" for making phone calls to Mexico saying: "Are you in Canada and your family is in Mexico?". Whoaaa! What did they do to find out about my life? I felt I was infront of a Tarot reader or something. But it's cool though, because at the same time, I am feeling I'm not bombarded with lots of information in there. Just a few sutile ads.
Ok, this is a chance for marketers and advertisings to share a room with all the people that are interested on you and might share something special with the things you are caring about. But the point is knowing how to address them and take care of them without making them feel you are being super pushy and just invading their privacy! The doors for stopping whispering to the customers and have a direct personal communication with them are now opened, the decision of whether deciding to enter or not is up to business... but they need to know how, otherwise they'll just be kicked out of the room.

Give a look at the article, it's really worth it:

"What Will You Celebrate?"

Disney thinks that each day of your life is worth celebrating, wheather it's a birthday, wedding, valentine's day... whatever you want to choose. "What Will You Celebrate?" is the question Disney is asking everyone in this 2009 as their Disney Parks campaign.
As part of their promotion, they have created a chain-letter style e-mail video. There, people send an e-mail to some friends and they post a link to a link to a Disney Webpage that opens a video of the Magic Kingdom park. There, a fake TV news report is giving out some information that is taking place at the Walt Disney World Park. Everything the park has (from food to parade cars) are decorated to celebrate a special person: the name of the sender. There, they are saying that the theme park is dedicating their whole effort to celebrate that one person.
After the video is made, it can be sent to some more people so they can watch it and maybe create their own.And the e-mail can even be customized so it can be dedicated for a special event, functioning as something similar as as e-card, for congratulation someone for a birhday.
The fact is that even though some people might get annoyed, most of the ones that are recieving them are actually forwarding it to some other friends and this is becoming more and more viral everyday. So, at the same time Disney is passing out their "What Will You Celebrate?" campaing to every recipient they are being forwarded to, users are feeling special because they are individually addressed by Disney and maybe make a dream come true...even if it's just online. They are all keeping the Disney Magic in their campaigns with each and every Guest.
For me, I would say that now I've become part of this viral campaign by sending it out to some of my friends. Disney has let me keep in touch with them and feel special at a time.. I mean, not everyday I will see my last name posted in "It's a Small World".



Become a Disney Celebration http://www.sun7news.com/spread.php

Disney: "Are you 23?"

Ok yesterday I heard one of the happiest news for me since Disney is one of my favorite brands in the world and I've realized that I'm becoming a more frequent Internet user every day.
Not so long ago, on December 21, 2008, Disney was posting a campaign that got to be viral by asking everyone: "Are you 23?". The online poster appeared on a popular Disney blogger place called laughingplace.com. It was sent by a blogger saying that this poster was all around the Disney Studios and that nobody knew what it meant. There was no further information, but that didn't keep people from visiting the D23 teaser site, having more than 20 thousand visitors within a week, asking for more info. It just caused some speculation within fans that were posting different suggestions and some thoughts or blogs or even sending them to Disney mails. Some of them were like:
"Michael Jordan! A new, interactive screen technology so guests can pretend they are Michael Jordan."
Wanna give a look to some more???
http://d23.disney.go.com/articles/031009_NF_FS_WhatsAlltheBuzz.html
Last March 10, after 85 years of history, Disney has announced the release of D23, an official community for fans that will offer their members a registration to the quearterly magazine, a surprise special edition gift and an entrance to D23 Expo, that will take place in Anaheim next September.
This membership can be bought online trought the website www.disney.com/D23. And the coolest thing is that that may give people access to special information and members will be able to meet people who have similar interests to them...
The coolest thing of this campaign is how it got to pass amongst Disney fans and how they were even dedicating time and effort online to deliberate what might the 23 might mean? If you want to know the answer, it was named 23 in honor of 1923, the year when Walt Disney headed for Hollywood and founded the Disney Studios and left Kansas City behind.

If you want to take a look at the page: www.disney.com/d23

In Internet... impossible is nothing

Adidas has made their slogan "Impossible is nothing" almost as famous as their 3 striped logo. They've understood that for them, impossible is nothing, and for that they have been looking for some other ways to address their target market and offer them something extra they can find. This is why it has created a site that develops their own online campaign and leeps in touch with the customers that are into web surfing and are looking for more opportunities online.
It is a webpage that links all of their brand representatives athletes and the different products the brand has. It presents the stories of different athletes and at the same time, enables people to have fun and connect more and more with Adidas, creating a special bond between the brand and them.
Some of the athletes that are presented in there are: All Blacks, David Beckham, Yelena Isinbayeva, Gilbert Arenas, Jeremy Wariner, Johan Lomu, Lionel Messi, St. Margaret's, Allyson Felix, Everest Boys, Sachin Tendulkar, and Tyson Gay. At the game zone, people can create their own games and play their favorite athlete's game.
For me, this is an example of how a brand that might seem just a brand that sells sport clothing and wear is looking to communicate a message to their audience and consumers: nothing is immposible, just give it a try. Even creating a webpage specially for this is worthwile.

http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/iin/content/brand.asp?adidas_cc=com

Succes vs. Destruction

Campaigns or ads that are on YouTube are not always made specifically for the Web, they are normal commercials that could have been succesful on TV and someones just posts it out in the Internet. They can even get more views online than the ones they had while the TV campaign lasted.
A famous Cadbury ad can be an example of this. It was presented in England and had a gorilla playing the drums. It was made for TV but actually thought for the Internet because it generated a big virality and has been seen throughout the whole planet.

A different example would be a Mexican ad made for a mobile company called Movistar. On TV, it was very succesful, but online it was just a mess: people critized it because they were saying the song was not original (based on the Ting Ting song), because the idea was stolen... It got lots of negative comments. This wouldn't have happened on TV.

My favorite TV ad that arrived to me by e-mail

Some days ago I recieved a mail from a friend asking me to see a Coca Cola TV ad that was posted on YouTube, he said it was totally worth it. Well, now I get to understand how viral online marketing is working out and how each one of us is being affected by it.
This ad was made by Coca Cola for the market they have in Spain. But what really amazed me about that is the fact that even though it was created for a market that is at the other side of the world, it has arrived to people that lives in America and has been seen by more than half a million people.
I'm sure Coca Cola has spent lots of millions of dollars to play this ad on TV but their effects have gone beyond this media, getting to meet people that, some years ago, could not have even heard about it.
The ad is about the oldest man in the world, Josep Mascaro who is 102 years old, who is getting ready to meet the youngest baby in the world who is a girl to be born. You get to see how he gets ready to meet baby Aitana as soon as she is born. He is the only one who speaks throughout the whole ad. And by the way, it is a real story.
But for me, I would say that this 1:31 min ad did address the point it wanted.
Here's the script of the whole ad:
"Hi Aitana, my name is Josep Mascaro and I'm 102 years. I'm a very lucky man: lucky for being born as you, for being able to hug my wife, for having met my friends, for having the chance of saying goodbye to them, for still being here.
You might ask yourself why is the main reason for coming here today to meet you. It's just that lots of people will tell you that who might think to come to this world during this time: when there is a big crisis that is surrounding us. Huh, this will make you stronger. I lived worst moments than this one, but at the end, the only thing you'll remember are the good things.
Don't lose time spending your life in stupid things and go ahead and look for what makes you happy that times goes by really fast. I've lived a 102 years and I can assure you that the only thing you are not going to like about life is that it will seem too short. You're here to be happy".
Simple but true. Got me to share some tears. An ad that gives us some hope during these hard times.
And Coca Cola still reaches more and more people everyday.

A shift in Marketing

There's a new reality on communication that is taking part of our lives without really noticing it. It has become a network for sharing and a meeting point. It's the media that puts every other media together: THE INTERNET.
How have consumers changed in the way they recieve advertising? Some years ago we had a little access to media, like few TV channels. This allowed the announcer to decide when or how to speak to their customers because there was nobody who was going to challenge or threaten them. Consumers and viewers were just passive, they just didn't have another place to go and they had to sit down and wait for ads to go through while they were waiting for their favorite TV show.
Internet is democratic: everyone can speak. It allows you to say whatever you want when you want. This, gave the companies the to change their strategies: they cannot lie anymore because they can be discovered to the world by people, users can tell the truth about you.
A new, fun, interesting, and honest dialogue has to be created so that people want to share with companies. Before, ads entered to people's life without them. This new kind of advertising, online, is friendlier and is inviting. Users are the ones with the power: can decide how long when and how.
Advertising has got a new role besides trying to sell: they now have to offer something extra to consumer (entertain, inform, educate, etc). Online advertising has transformed companies from advertisers to sponsors of communications and important information for people. So then, companies have to look for great communication to "sponsor".

Friends or Whopper... tough decision??

Some weeks ago, Burger King got some Facebook users inside a tough decision: choosing between getting rid or "sacrificing" 10 of their friends at their Facebook lists or losing an opportunity of having a Whopper for free... yeah.. FREE!!
Well, it looks like a lot of people actually think a Whopper is worth more than 10 friends. Maybe I can get it haha... we are in a crisis so people rather eat their Whopper than keeping contact with their friends. Since BK introduced the "Sacrifice a friend" campaing, almost 250 thousand (233,906 to be accurate) people that were dropped actually found out that maybe they were not as friends as they thought they were with the Facebook user that sacrificed them.
Facebook now suspended the application because they said it was violating some privacy terms and maybe they were not very satisfied with the fact of having people lose part of their networks.
How much will people be willing to sacrifice next?? Will it be for a hamburger again???

http://www.macworld.com/article/138264/2009/01/facebook.html?lsrc=rss_main

A mistake = online marketing

It's amazing how a mistake can now become a viral marketing strategy without intending to do so. This is how fast communication is growing everyday. I remember once I was sent out a YouTube link that I could now exemplify as some viral marketing.
Some months ago, a mexican TV show was making a mayonnaise ad inside the program. They were supposed to be speaking about Hellmann's mayo, but while he was describing how good it could be to share some food by adding the mayonnaise, he made a mistake and said McCormick Mayonnaise instead.
Ok, some years ago this might just have been a simple blooper that would just be forgotten some minutes after it was made. But the point here is that internet has grown in a fast way that this mistake went through and they are actually offering free advertising to McCormick everytime someone watches their video at YouTube.
This is an example of how viral marketing could be a destroyer or a helper, in different cases. For McCormick it just helped them to recall their brand on people's minds, but for Hellman's it just made them paid for something they were not expecting at all and at the same time have their target market interpret how "believable" their marketing can be.

Just take a look

Men and deodorant stripes

If you ever enter to www.detectivestripes.com or think about a man called Detective Stripes you may think everything except a campaign for Rexona deodorant for men in Mexico, as it happened to me. It wants to introduce a new product, a new antitranspirant that does not affect your clothing by leaving some white stripes. Men usually don't care about this spots left by deodorant at clothing, but the page tries to create an insight on how people make fun of them or will speak about them.
It is a story of an afroamerican funky detective from the seventies, a very cool man. His only problem is that he's always has some whites stains and that causes him lots of problems in his life. It is all told as a story.This guy could be really cool but he's just mocked by everybody because of the stains in his shirt. This makes him feel so depressed.
It is a page where you can actually interact with each of the characters. There are some sections where you can see different scenes and rewind or fastforward them, get some ringtones, some screensavers, or some stuff to decorate your computer desktop.
The most amazing thing in here is that deodorant is not the key point of the story, but that it is just part of it.

Whopper... virgins???

Burger King created a campaign in the US: a documentary where the brand took some brand's hamburgers and McDonald's to remote parts of the world where people haven't actually seen or eaten a hamburger. They asked them to choose the ones they liked the most: McDonald's Big Mac or Burger King's Whopper.
The success of this campaign is based on the fact that it was an 8 min documentary that could not live in TV or movies but it can be a perfect part of the Internet: fun and entertaining... but it's still an ad. They claim: "If you want a real opinion about a burger, ask someone who doesn't even have a word for burger".
But as most of the things, it also had a negative side since people were complaining that Burger King was actually forgetting that the people they were interviewing suffer hunger.

Visit the page http://www.whoppervirgins.com/

JESUS SHOT ... Sony's Playstation answers back

Ok... today I saw one of the most amazing things in E-marketing that could ever happen. By searching different videos on YouTube I got to face a famous story about the Tiger Woods PGA Playstation videogame. There was a YouTube user (Levinator25) who posted a video complaining about the quality of the game: having Tiger Woods giving a golf shot standing on the water. He was claiming that this was a proof that the game didn't have as much quality as it might be expected... because no man on Earth could actually stand on water even for some seconds.
Well, at the beginning this might seem as a big threat to Sony since the Internet viral is growing everyday and bad messages about some brands spread even faster than the positive ones. But Sony knew how to face it: They actually posted a video as a reply to the one that the man had posted saying that having Tiger Woods standing on water wasn't a mistake. In fact, it was just a way of making a metaphor of this player's greatness:
"Levinator 25,
You seem to think your Jesus Shot video was a glitch in the game"
Mistake or not?? We'll never know!! But what we just know is that this YouTube user was really happy for having a reply and seeing that Sony did care about what he, as a consumer, might be thinking of products. He could also feel "important" because Tiger Woods did something specially for him. In fact, the video is addressed to him.
It was a great strategy because it changed the perspective of someone who might have been standing on the edge of changing or choosing another brand, to actually feel a bond with Playstation and what they make.
Take a look at the video... simple but great!!... "It's not a glitch, he's just that good".