Alex and Luke - A social media road trip

I love this idea:

Alex and Luke set out from Toronto to see what would happen if they used the power of social media to explore North America.

Without a route or any predetermined idea of what they will see or do, they call on the communities behind the most popular social media websites to tell them where to go and what to see.

Their goal is to travel through every state, province and territory while documenting and sharing the experience through web videos and other Internet content available on their website.

They explore the gap between real-time relationships and online relationships. It is a true modern day road trip that collects and shares the travel experience with others.

To connect with online communities, regular polls are held on their home page. People connect in the following ways:

- Twitter: Where people vote and make suggestions (1,304 followers at my last visit);
- YouTube: Where people can vote and watch videos (2,241 channel views at my last visit);
- Gowalla: Where people can check in on destinations visited (383 stamps, 21 pins, 85 friends at my last visit); and
- Facebook Fan Page: Where people can interact with Alex and Luke and other followers (1,782 fans at my last visit).

YouTube and Twitter is loving Old Spice

Thanks @MattMcNama for sharing the recent frenzy on Twitter and YouTube about Old Spice....

I’m sure you’ve seen the Old Spice commercials that aired during last year’s Super Bowl, but I thought I would send you some of last week’s viral videos. They are a fantastic example of branded entertainment extending beyond the TV and onto the Internet.

http://realbusiness.co.uk/sales_and_marketing/old_spice_smashes_socialmedia_records
People on Twitter sent tweets to the Old Spice man, and the Old Spice man responded almost immediately with YouTube videos. It was a huge success and has made the character the most recognizable “branded entertainment character.”

Super Bowl commercial:


One of the many Twitter/YouTube videos posted within a few day period in response to tweeted questions:

Marketing Through Events

I was at a great fundraiser last week put on by the Credit Valley Hospital Foundation's Young Ambassadors. At this hip event in an art gallery in Mississauga, guests were invited to an all you can eat, drink and dance party.

I could go on about all the wonderful components of this truly great event, but as a marketer the Barefoot Wine table caught my eye. Staffed by two energetic young people I was introduced to a great Pinot Grigio (there were many other wines but this was my choice)that sells in the LCBO for only $10 and a great new marketing concept!

They explained that Barefoot Wine spends its money on making their wine rather than its marketing. Thus the tagline, Great wine without the attitude. Their foremost way of getting the word out about their products is through charity events were people can come and taste their wine.

I tried to find a Canadian website and only found a sparse Facebook group and an U.S. website that is designed as a community with an emphasis on people committed to beach clean up.

I wish them luck with their grassroots marketing initiative and look forward to seeing them at more charity events.

Jesus Christ: A marketing mentor

Being Jewish, I never really gave much thought to Jesus Christ other than in an historical sense. Reading Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Church: Growth Without Compromising Your Message & Mission, I am now of the belief that we can add Jesus as one of history's first marketing specialists (or marketing evangelists!).

Warren's book, which talks about how to grow a church through marketing and grassroots programs, is applicable to any organization looking to develop their identity (purpose) and expand within a defined community.

Warren uses examples from the New Testament throughout the book to make many of his points. While Warren alludes to Jesus as a great marketer, it is not the main focus of his book but one which is of great appeal. Here are just a few points to consider on Jesus' techniques:

- Mass marketing to targeted groups: Jesus attracted large crowds by sharing good news (the Gospel) and using it as an attractive power. The original version of a press conference or town hall meeting?

- Message development: His messaging was brought down to the level of the common people making sure he was understood. He did not "dumb down" his message, he respected his audience's intelligence taking time to understand the group and speak to them accordingly.

- Spokesperson training: Jesus was careful to stay on message even in crowds. Staying on point is important in safeguarding the truth.

- Clear & measurable objectives: The New Testament is full of references about Jesus' uncompromising request for 'fruitfulness' and examples of judgement for being 'unfruitful'. Growth equals fruitfulness. Failure to grow through complacency or self-absorption was no excuse and came with consequence.

- Employee engagement: How far will employees go beyond their job description is a very general way to measure employee engagement. Jesus got this. Matthew was just one example of a "good faithful servant". Faithful servants take on risk for the cause and usually are successful as a result. This was recognized and referred to as "faithful" versus "lazy" as passive, fearful, non-fruit baring servants were called.


These are just a few examples but they give food for thought and perhaps a good idea for a research paper for a marketing student looking for a juicy topic.....

Statistics Businesses Should Consider Before they Plan their PR Strategy

Thank you Adam Singer from The Future Buzz for this information. Note: the original post, Architecting a Social Web Marketing and PR Strategy, includes much more information, helpful case studies as well all the sources for the statistics below.


The social areas of the web are growing fast. Consider just a few stats:

- 400 million active Facebook users
- 50 million Tweets per day
- 133 million blogs (creating 900,000 blog posts every 24 hours)
- around 77% of Internet users read blogs

While the above numbers show the scale of the consumer driven web – B2B influence also lives here. According to a Forrester Research report of business buyers:

- 91% read blogs, watch user generated video, participate in other social media
- 55% of decision-makers are in social networks
- 43% are creating media (blogs, uploading videos or articles, etc.)

Consumers and prospects are already here. Marketing dollars care catching up, fast:
- $55 billion - number of dollars marketers will spend on interactive (display, mobile, email, social, search) channels by 2014 - representing a compound annual growth rate of 34%.

Media influence, too:

- 89% of reporters use blogs,
- 65% use social networking sites,
- 52% use microblogging sites according to a national study by GW University.

Nestle suffers Facebook backlash

The following is an excerpt from March 19, 2010 story by Emily Bryson York and Kunur Patel for Advertising Age with files from Marketing.

Nestlé is enduring a hard lesson in social media marketing this week thanks to Greenpeace.

The company has been embroiled in a debate over its use of palm oil, among other things. The issue arose again this week when Greenpeace produced a graphic commercial spoof that went viral. Greenpeace claims Nestlé is sourcing palm oil from an Indonesian company guilty of deforestation practices that are endangering orangutan. The video showed a man opening a Kit Kat wrapper but instead of biting into the chocolate bar he sinks his teeth into the finger of an orangutan that bleeds down the man's chin.

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Building Hype Before a Big Annoucement

It's working. Adam Giambrone's I'm Ready video alerting the public to his upcoming announcement to run for Mayor has gone viral. Comments are positive and negative but what's most important is that everyone's talking- Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and the media....

Well Done Acura 2000!

We were in the boardroom having an internal staff meeting when a courier arrives with an enormous fruit and flower basket. It was for Kim Cohen, our CEO. Kim had recently bought a new car and this was her dealership saying thank you. Wouldn't you tell a friend about this?