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. ;)

Where the hell is Matt?

In today's Social Media Marketing class we spoke about individuals who are considered 'Creators'. Those who are socially active and passionately write blogs, create videos, and have a large public following. One person that came to mind was Matt Harding. 

You may recall Matt from a Visa card advertisement, in which he travels the world and dances in front of iconic landscapes. His videos later evolved to include other people joining in and dancing with him. He speaks at a conference at Gnomedex in Seattle on August 22, 2008, to discuss how to got people involved in his video. Its a short video that explains the use of email and google map to communicate and gather people.

Dancing in front of a video camera is such a simple concept, but the message that it portrays really breaks all language barriers. I think what he has done is truly amazing and he's definitely what I consider a great 'creator'. 

Note: He also has a website called Where the Hell is Matt?, where you can follow his adventures around the world. 

Obama is FaceBook-friendly

There was so much hype back in 2008, when Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama were both campaigning for the Democratic party president primaries. It was either first female president or first African-American president, but all in all, it brought a fresh breath of air to American politics.

The Clintons are no stranger to politics; they had the biggest name in the Democratic party. Throughout her campaign, she created an all-star team of consultants, and she raised the most amount money than anyone else in democratic politics. However, her campaigning model was very traditional. On the other hand, Obama found financial success through the use of social networking, and he had Chris Hughes (the co-founder of Facebook) to thank for it. 

The maximum legal amount of any individual donations is $2,300, but Obama wanted to appeal to the younger generation through the use of online social networking and use $200 as a point of entry. Thats one-tenth of the original amount!

By using social media, specifically FaceBook, it gave him the viral effect that traditional campaigning models would not have provided. In Feburary 2008, he raised up to $45-55 million, most of which were contributions over the internet of sums of $200 or less. Turns out, a million little donations was the key to a big donation! Obama not only had their email addresses to thank them for their generous contributions, but he also had a huge list of names to ask for more.

In April this year, Obama visited FaceBook at their headquarters, where he held a town hall meeting to discuss hot-topic political issues. FaceBook benefited from Obama's appearance, when thousands of people flocked to FaceBook's video channel to watch the streaming of the live interview.  

Big points for Obama for using the internet and social media as a platform for addressing political and economic concerns, and submerging himself in social networking to appeal to the younger audience. Obama sums it up quite nicely that "what FaceBook allows us to do is make sure that this is not just a one-way conversation. Not only am I speaking to you, you are also speaking back".

Feels free to watch Obama's town hall meeting at FaceBook's headquarters. Its quite long. 

You might just win a kick-ass car

Cars are definitely a man's best friend. Period.

So what if I said that you could win a Midnight black Skyline with Bendix street road and track brake pads, Kazei black and red wheel rims, and a Top Secret body kit with wing? The catch is, you just need to follow up on web-based competition.

Just Car is a car insurance company that specialize in insurance for young motorists, modified cars, high performance cars and imported cars. They found a brilliant way to attract motor enthusiasts through the use of social media.

In July, they introduced an online challenge called Canvas 2 Kick Ass, in which viewers could create their ideal car by turning a standard built car into "the hottest, most kick-ass street ride on Australian roads". Who decides on how the car is modified? You.

Each week, viewers are given several choices as to which base model is chosen, the color, body kit, wheels, interior, suspension, bolt ons, and graphics. They simply must sign onto the website to be given a voting right, and by the end of each week the team assembles the car and posts a video 'webisode' on the progress of the car's transformation. In the end, one lucky follower will get to keep the car (which most likely comes with Just Car Insurance). Unfortunately, no one will be winning this kick-ass car because the competition has already closed. Ughhhhhhh, annoying isn't it?

Have a surf around the website and you'll notice a tab that links you directly to their Just Car homepage, where you can get an insurance policy quote and information on their new iPhone app. While you're on the Canvas 2 Kick Ass page, also find that facebook and twitter have also been integrated to spread the word on their online competition.

Perhaps no Skyline this time, but maybe in the future you'd like to follow up on the competition in case you win a brand new car :) Brilliant formula isn't it? Car insurance plus build your own car... all at the tip your fingers.