360PR Blog

You may remember 360 Social’s round-up of 2009 social media moments from last year. Well, in 2010, we turned the proverbial mic over to Lindsay Durr and Skye McIntyre. In this video, Lindsay and Skye recap some of the top moments from this year including everything from the Old Spice campaign and the surge in group deal sites, to the trend of “underage and online” and TIME’s “Person of the Year,” Mark Zuckerberg. Check it out!

Did we miss anything? Share in the comments…

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, FaceBook, Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, YouTube by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

And I don’t mean the chocolate candy (although a Snickers sounds pretty good right about now)! The other SNCR (aka The Society of New Communications Research) held its 5^th Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala recently in Palo Alto. John and I both were thrilled to attend and honored to accept two  “2010 Excellence in New Communications Awards” for 360PR!

Each year SNCR honors various individuals and organizations who are pioneering the use of social media. 360 was recognized for our work with Dorel Juvenile Group USA and their Safety 1^st brand (Multiple Platforms/Integrated initiatives category), as well as our work on behalf of You CAN Do the Rubik’s Cube (Online Publishing/ Facebook category). We are pumped to be among this group of 2010 winners, which included Old Spice, the 2010 SNCR Brand of the Year.

Actually, in addition to the awards ceremony, the highlight of the symposium was when Old Spice brand manager James Moorhead, presented the “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign case study. The campaign, which Cindy blogged about this summer, has led to almost 2 billion impressions to date! A truly unbelievable viral success!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 3 Comments →

I just spent a couple of days surrounded by leaders in the PR industry, at the Council of PR Firms annual Critical Issues Forum.  One clear take-away for me is that this is an industry that’s more than bouncing back.  It’s invigorated – with ideas, new technologies and new ways to help brands fuel conversation, particularly in social media.

Another key take-away: PR’s value has grown tremendously in the new communications economy.  This was articulated by CMOs and senior communications officers from P&G, Heineken, IKEA, AT&T, American Express and Monster Worldwide.

The “huge shift” in how marketers advance their brands is peer-to-peer recommendations, said Heineken USA CMO Christian McMahan, who cited Trip Advisor as a shining example of a brand benefiting from peer-to-peer communications.

“The only way we’re going to get there is not paid media – it’s by earning the trust of consumers through peer recommendations,” added Leontyne Green, CMO for IKEA USA.

Building trust by listening to customers and through transparent, authentic conversation have always been core PR competencies.  That’s one of the reasons PR is driving the hottest area of brand communications – social media.

“PR is the most authentic form of marketing,” said P&G CMO Marc Pritchard, fresh off successful campaigns for P&G’s Old Spice, Head & Shoulders and Olympic Games campaigns.  “PR is the megaphone that amplifies the campaign,” Pritchard explained.

PR can also spark the conversation.  A successful campaign today can start with just 10 of the right influencers if the platform and the delivery are compelling, with social media as the thread that keeps the conversation going.

A third and final take-away: Big ideas can come from anywhere – advertising, PR, research, customer service – and what makes the big idea bigger is integration.  The fact is there are a lot of big ideas and your brand and your idea are in the most competitive communications environment marketers have known.  “From a PR perspective, you need to bring in people who understand [broader] marketing.  There’s no way you cannot be integrated,” said Monster Worldwide CMO Ted Gilvar.

For more, read Advertising Age’s coverage of Marc Pritchard’s remarks to the Council of PR Firms, and check out the Council’s Twitter stream.

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - 2 Comments →

Some say that email is dead, but while email may be considered an “older” form of communication in the context of the “social media revolution”, it is still integral to direct-to-consumer communication. And, the two mediums are actually complimentary.

Email is alive and well. In the simplest sense, social networks still rely heavily on email systems to trigger consumers’ interactions online – i.e. an email telling you that Johnny has just sent you a message on Facebook or Sally has requested to be your friend.

Studies have found that consumers are using both email and social media to keep tabs on their favorite brands. Check out this graph, a result of ExactTarget’s “Subscribers, Fans and Followers” study from earlier this year:

Clearly, there is an overlap – consumers are not just using one medium or the other. The majority are still using email, and complimenting it with a profile on other networks.

In a blog post from Nielsen about their examination of the relationship between email consumption and social media use, it was found that very often the people who are highly engaged in social media are also those that consume the most email. Social media was found to make people consume email even more, not less, and in particular for the highest social media users.

Further, in a separate report from GetResponse about the integration of social media and email marketing, it was found that emails that included options like “Share on Facebook or Twitter” generated a 30% higher click-through rate than emails without these options. Reason to start integrating social media and emails? Yes.

With all of that said, email marketing is most definately still relevant and, in fact, is complimentary to the “relationship building” aspect that is now so key in most PR/ Marketing campaigns.

What do you think?

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Email Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 1 Comment →

A dress made of meat, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, and a DJ spinning the hottest records of the year while wearing a giant, glowing head resembling Mickey Mouse’s noggin.  Only at the MTV Video Music Awards.

The annual awards ceremony isn’t just a celebration of the most notable music videos of the year prior, but a cultural phenomenon buzzed about as much for the night’s star-studded appearances and often outrageous performances as it is for the music. 

According to CNN.com’s The Marquee Blog and an MTV press release, Sunday night’s live airing of the awards pulled in the largest audience of any telecast on MTV since 2002.  Whether to see Lady Gaga’s sure-to-be outlandish wardrobe choices, or Kanye’s apology (if you can call it that) to Taylor Swift after last year’s infamous spotlight-stealing incident, a reported 11.4 million people tuned in to watch the drama unfold.  In addition to watching the show, people were also tweeting about it.  LOTS of people.  TechCrunch reported that over 1.5 million tweets referring to the show had been sent in the three hours after the broadcast began.  MTV helped drive the Twitter frenzy, implementing their own Twitter tracker (image above) into the show’s broadcast, aiming to make the awards a trending topic.

We can’t wait to see what next year’s awards hold.  If Ellen Degeneres has anything to do with it, it might include veggie bikinis.

Filed under: Digital PR, Internet, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking by SkyeMcIntyre - 1 Comment →

Bloggers felt the embrace of brands who planned out involving and playful interactions for them at BlogHer10. There was every manner of entertainment at the show, from happy mascots and hi-energy dance floors, to coloring stations and full-on hair salons!

At this year’s event in particular, I was struck by how many bloggers were turned into brand “spokespeople” right in front of my very eyes through highly creative and video-worthy stunts and campaigns.

In a nutshell, putting bloggers on camera talking passionately about a particular topic led to a whole lot of third-party endorsements for brands. On the flip side, bloggers didn’t seem to mind their starring role in the brand videos; in fact they seemed to welcome the opportunity to be on camera, bringing to mind the possibility of a future BlogHer Reality TV series?

Please read my short letters to the brands to learn why they were the video stand-outs, extending their brand through video in the most distinctive ways.

Dear Walmart,

You are very bright.

I applaud your focus on selling products that sustain people and the environment, and I admire that you knew it would be the perfect theme for BlogHer. I like how you took a page from the Grammy’s playbook by inviting bloggers who are passionate about the quality of life on our planet to tweet their “bright” ideas for creating a sustainable future, and then feeding their tweets in real time on the giant video screen at your booth for everyone to see.

You were also genius to offer a professional video booth for bloggers to record their ideas and share them on your YouTube page and sustainability site. Having dozens of female bloggers raving about sustainability on your website is an endorsement that means way more than any paid advertising. But you already knew that. It also didn’t hurt that you had super knowledgeable folks staffing your exhibit – they were all brilliant.

Sincerely,

Cindy

Hello Jimmy Dean,

You brought a lot of sunshine to BlogHer.

Apart from the fact that I love sausage breakfast sandwiches, who wouldn’t love meeting the “hot” celebrity from your famous Jimmy Dean commercials? As if that weren’t enough, having the chance to star in a video with the “Sun” was a marketing move that really made me melt.

In the other part of your booth galaxy, I enjoyed talking to the friendly Hillshire Farms Chef who happily took the time to make me a custom, savory sandwich. She also gave me the 411 on the “Fresh Taste Challenge Sandwich Showdown” hosted by Padma Lakshmi that had 16 bloggers competing Top Chef-style to become the champion. The really great twist in my opinion was inviting three elementary school kids to judge the goods and decide the winners (they loved the sandwich ka-bob!). Talk about great content for the Hillshire Farms YouTube site, not to mention that the 16 bloggers have most likely already streamed the video on their own blogs.

All the best,

Cindy

Dearest Yahoo! Shine,

You inspire me.

It’s really good news that you are dedicated to offering online advice and information to women, and you were very clever to extend your “You. Reinvented” brand campaign to BlogHer10. After all, what’s more inspiring than stories of women who are reinventing their lives?

I was spell-bound by your fashion news-room set-up where you invited bloggers to share their “reinvention” stories on camera. I was so enamored with the idea, that I decided that I must reinvent myself in time to participate in your video show at BlogHer11.

Good for you for not only curating the blogger videos on Yahoo!, you also smartly gave embeddable videos to each of the participating bloggers so they could easily share on their blogs too. The idea that one woman’s voice on one lone blog may not change the world–but together, they wield quite a bit of power with other women is very classy.

As ever,

Cindy

P.S. I would be remiss to not offer a shout-out to the Tempur-Pedic folks for being cheeky and dressing up in pajamas, and also for jumping on the video content bandwagon with their “Ask Me” professional photography booth.

That’s a wrap.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Green Marketing, Internet, Marketing to Moms, Social Marketing, Social Media, YouTube by Admin - 2 Comments →

What girl doesn’t love to flaunt her latest outfit from a shopping spree? How about creating an online video dedicated to reviewing and showing off her new wardrobe and posting it to YouTube for all to see? Welcome to the world of Haul videos, which have taken the web by storm.

What’s the big deal? These videos are the ultimate form of word-of-mouth, with trend-setters sharing their thoughts about specific products and dishing on the latest sales & discounts at stores. It’s no surprise that major retailers such as JCPenney and Forever 21 want a piece of the action.

Some retailers have even sponsored videos by sending gift cards to Haulers, for example. Urban Outfitters took it a step further with a UO HAUL: SHOP & TELL contest for the chance to win gift cards to the store.

There are even blogs dedicated solely to finding the best Haul videos, such as HaulVideos.net.

This Haul video, which was sponsored by Forever 21, has received over 1.2 million views alone!

Do you think Haul videos have more of an influence over young women than fashion magazines and television?

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Internet, Retail, Social Marketing, Social Media by Admin - 1 Comment →

I am positively giddy with excitement about the implications of the command social media performance this week by the super-suave Isaiah Mustafa and the Old Spice digital and creative team. They produced 160 personalized videos in 48 hours as the viral online extension of their award-winning manmercials. As a result, Old Spice’s Twitter account acquired tens of thousands of new followers and The Old Spice YouTube channels have been viewed over 58 million times. Without a doubt, the Old Spice social media invasion was not only brave, but has seriously raised the bar on what it now means to create buzz and human-time engagement on the web.

What came off as an easy and breezy, dare I say organic execution on social media was undoubtedly a vast and deliberate production, orchestrated by dozens of Wieden + Kennedy writers, art directors, producers, editors and social media strategists, not to mention the camera and lighting crew, teleprompter worker person, etc. I can imagine the studio in Portland might have resembled Cape Canaveral when NASA readies to launch a shuttle into space.

The team averaged around 7 minutes to make each video, and released several videos per hour, responding in what felt like real-time to fans, stars and internet celebrities from Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, blogs and more. Check out the top 10 hottest videos here. Beyond the sheer creative talent at Weiden + Kennedy, there also had to be a sizeable creative and digital budget to support the production of so many well-lit commercials, not including Mustafa’s compensation (he is so handsome and clever he should ask for a raise anyway).

In an interview, the head of Digital for Weiden + Kennedy said that the digital push began with the notion of the character responding to people about the TV commercials. He said, “We knew there was a massive love for this guy and what people wanted was to be in the shower with him. So that’s where we started from.” The agency decided to really center the push around YouTube and Twitter. YouTube hosted the videos, while Twitter provided the bulk of the distribution.

The team made savvy moves. They activated influencers by pre-producing videos for people such as Perez Hilton, 4chan, and AdFreak, posting them on their blogs and @replying to them on Twitter. They also activated communities such as DIGG and Reddit. For example, they knew that Digg Founder Kevin Rose was sick so they made a get-well video for him and posted it on Digg with the title “Get Well, Kevin Rose! The video became the top content on Digg with over 5,000 Diggs. They even created a call for comments on Reddit and posted a time-stamped picture of Isaiah saying Hi to Reddit. And they bought a Twitter ad campaign to feature the push as a trending topic.

All of these tactics combined helped the Old Spice brand activate large communities and drum up buzz before they had even rolled out 10 videos. The social media team then scoured the Web for comments related to the campaign and fed the ones that were either funny or from interesting sources to the creatives, who determined which would make good fodder for the videos. It was clearly all a big commercial, but kudos to the creatives for being tongue-in-cheek and for talking about the use of Old Spice in a way that felt light hearted and fun. Mustafa’s baritone voice and convoluted wordplay made for such entertaining delivery. He even made us laugh and cry with this video to his daughter who posed a question to him on Twitter.

I don’t know if this campaign will help sell more Old Spice, but I do know that I no longer think of Old Spice as a Fuddy-Duddy brand. Smells like success to me!

Thank you, Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy, for spicing up the viral marketing landscape.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Internet, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, advertising by Admin - 2 Comments →