Oreo versus Lil' Wayne

When Oreo's decided they wanted to break the Guinness World record for the most Likes in a 24 hour period, Rapper Lil Wayne decided to beat them to it!!

What seemed like a great way to grab the attention of social media users on Facebook to "Like" the Oreo brand, seemed to become overshadow's by Lil Wayne's attempt to beat them. Whether it was done as a prank to compete against Oreo's or not, this marketing campaign simply flopped for  Oreo.

And I think they didn't win...

Reveal you're pregnant, on FaceBook

FaceBook has found a (temporary) solution to what they think can solve the problem of adults creating accounts for their babies. As we know, the age requirement for setting up a FaceBook account is 13 years old. They have annouced that you can now tell your friends that you are expecting a child, and when the due date of that child is.

But will this really solve the problem? What about the children themselves who are under 13 years of age who are creating Facebook accounts?

The Unhappy Customer

When an unhappy customer meets an unapologetic retailer, things can go badddddd... and with the help of social media, it goes from bad to worse. Recently, I watched an A Current Affair footage of a dissatisfied customer who went to shop at the retailer GASP. She filed a complaint with the customer care service about her unpleasant encounter with the floor manager, and after several heated exchanges, the customers thought she should voice her concerns on a larger platform where it is likely that the message will go viral. According to the unhappy customer, she quotes "the internet is a very powerful tool and one in which a customer like myself would be silly not to utilise".

But how far should someone go to say bad things about a retailer, or any company for that matter? Are social media sites such as FaceBook, Twitter, etc., the appropriate platform to discuss your dissatisfaction? Are there no rules when using the internet? Or are there 'unwritten' rules of how people should behave or speak within the social media sphere? 

You may follow the short ACA footage here, http://aca.ninemsn.com.au/article/8353708/retail-rudeness-leads-to-viral-email.

The Power of Ashton

Now that Two and A Half Men has moved onwards with Ashton Kutcher as their new leading man, they have also incorporated a new social media marketing strategy to entice the audience to engage in conversation with the producers (or their representatives) of the show.

If you have been following the latest episodes featuring Ashton, take note that on the bottom left hand corner of your screen, a Twitter code will occasionally appear that will lead you to the  Two and A Half Men Twitter account. Although Ashton is no longer the most followed person on Twitter, he does have a large following of up to 7.7 million followers, putting him at a respectable 10th place. The power of Ashton may potentially mean that producers of the show will be able to advertise the following episodes and encourage audiences to discuss and predict what may happen in future scenes. In addition, the 7.7 million followers of Ashton could tune in to watch the show, which could lead to further conversation on Two and A Half Men Twitter page.

What do you think of the Two and A Half Men Twitter account? So far it has 31,264 followers and 252 tweets, but from first glance it does seem more of a one way conversation. How do you propose they try to utilise Twitter in a more effective manner?

NY love story... and other things.

In my Social Media Marketing class, we were discussing how corporations were taking advantage of youtube stories or simply youtube itself, to deliver messages across to a larger audience. Take for example the case of a group of guys jumping into their jeans, which Levi took as a great opportunity to promote their product. I don't know whether the egg came before the chicken, or the chicken came before the egg.. either way it worked for them.

So then I recalled the story of a young man who rode the NY subway from Manhattan to Brooklyn and caught the eye of a beautiful Australian intern working at the magazine firm, Blackbook. Along his journey he loses sight of her, which leads him to set up a website called "New York Girl of My Dreams" to find her. He draws a picture of her, adds his mobile number, email address, in hopes of finding her.

Lucky for this lad, a friend of the girl recognises the drawing and contacts this young Romeo. The pair finally catch up together and Romeo posts an update on his website indicating that he has found his Juliet.

What happens from there onwards? Well, unfortunately the two split up in 2008, but Blackbook magazine decided to run along with the story and introduced a campaign called "Win a date with the next Blackbook Dream Girl". That unfortunate young lady was Carly, the marketing intern.

So was it a success? God knows. But at least there was a happy part to the entire story. The prince did find his princess, and well... Carly may have found a nice date.

Tweet tweet!

Yes, I admit I am a big follower of Hollywood news and gossip, but don't get me wrong... it can be useful! Despite my love for 'hollywood knowledge', I haven't quite gotten used to the concept of Twitter. The highly used social media platform has allowed the typical person to keep up-to-date with their most-loved hollywood celebrity. For this reason, MTV found an interactive and entertaining way for audiences to know what exactly is going on with their favourite star. 

MTV recently held their MTV Video Music Award (VMA) at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. What interests me was how they incorporated Twitter to keep audiences in touch with real time activity of the VMA and what their celebrities were up to. Stamen, a design firm in the US, used Twitter to identify which celebrity was creating the biggest buzz in the Twitter-sphere, allowed audiences to retweet their favourite VMA picture, and view which star was tweeting from their VMA seats. 

Beyonce topped the chart after she was announced at the MTV VMA pre-show that she was pregnant with baby number one!! You can bet it caused a media frenzy.

Even newly wed Kim Kardashian was spotted tweeting more often than her fellow celeb friends at the VMAs. 

The green circles identifies which seats were currently tweeting, and who are responsible for those tweets!

Excellent way to spread the celeb news? It certainly didn't take long before the whole world knew Beyonce is preggers. ;) 

Catch the tweets of the MTV VMA 2011 on their Twitter Tracker. 

Everything moves.

With today's advancement in technology, you could just about create anything. For example, a virtual aquarium against a concrete wall or a field of dandelions moving to the motion of the wind. All of this can by done via interactive wall and floor technology. A sophisticated recognition software that engages the audiences interaction and converts it into high resolution events on a wall or floor display, it gives consumers a new way to experience entertainment or advertising content in a more memorable way. 

The Carnival Aquarium embedded an interactive aquarium, in which audiences could create their own school of fish by sending an instant message via their mobile devices to an external number. Not only were they able to advertise the aquarium as a 'fun' place to go to, but they made money for every SMS people sent. 

Other big brands such as Apple, has also used interactive walls for advertising purposes. When they came out with the promotional material for their iPods, which features dancing silhouettes against a colourful background, the Apple store in Berlin displayed an interactive wall that moved when people walked pass the display. 

Its amusing to see how this lady reacts when she sees the display moves. Do you think you would respond similarly? I guess we all can't help but be a little curious. ;)