Predictions for 2012

Tech Trends by Mashable’s Pete Cashmore (via CNN)

Social Media Trends by David Armano (via HBR)

Consumer Trends by Trendwatching

CES Trends (via IBT)

Cultural Trends by JWT

Cocktail Trends (via Fox Noise)

Related articles

• PR/Social Media Predictions: Who Got it Right? (forbes.com)
• Six Important Shifts for Social Media In 2012 (edelman.com.au)

Social Media: Uniqlo v Twitter, Heinz v Facebook, Tipp-Ex v YouTube

Uniqlo Boosts Brand Recognition in U.K. Via Twitter Campaign

Japanese clothes retailer Uniqlo has found a novel way of encouraging U.K. shoppers give the brand a big presence on Twitter — by reducing the price of clothing pieces every time someone sends a tweet about an item. The “Lucky Counter” promotion has been running ahead of the relaunch of Uniqlo’s U.K. e-commerce site this week, and has seen the brand’s name appear in Twitter’s trending topics list for the country. In a web page dedicated to “Lucky Counter,” users can choose from 10 pieces they would like to see discounted on the website when it relaunches on September 9.

Heinz Is Desperate To Be Your Facebook Friend

Consumerist points us to an interesting Heinz ketchup bottle that features an unusually prominent call to action, asking users to friend the brand on Facebook.

Tipp-Ex invites viewers to script ending in YouTube spot
An innovative use of YouTube by correction fluid brand Tipp-Ex offers viewers the chance to choose what happens next in a video clip after a reluctant hunter refuses to shoot a grizzly bear.

Related articles

When tactics aren’t enough: the Tipp-Ex viral (asourceofinspiration.com)
An Interactive YouTube Campaign By Tipp-Ex (mindjumpers.com)
Uniqlo’s U.K. Twitter Campaign Looks to Be a Perfect Fit for Retailer (adage.com)
Adventures in Advertising: Youtube + Tipp-Ex (tech.fortune.cnn.com)
Tipp-Ex Lets You Make A Hunter Hump A Bear In Interactive YouTube Campaign (socialtimes.com)
This Week’s Best YouTube Ad Campaign: Tipp-Ex Impresses With Custom Interactive YouTube Video (reelseo.com)
Interaction Video Key To Viral Success (viralblog.com)
Boring Product, Great Ad: Tipp-Ex Channels Subservient Chicken (clickz.com)
Amazing New Interactive Youtube Campaign By Tipp-Ex – Bear Included (marketingconversation.com)
Interactive YouTube Video Clips The Next Trend For Viral Videos? (elliottlemenager.com)

Alex Bogusky Tells All (x2)

Alex Bogusky Tells All: He Left the World’s Hottest Agency to Find His Soul

“Alex Bogusky, the Elvis of advertising,” writes FastCompany ” has left the business. Is this a New Age midlife crisis or his greatest rebranding campaign? The philosophy behind much advertising is based on the old observation that every man is really two men — the man he is and the man he wants to be. -- William Feather”

Filling in the blanks. Part 1

Alex gives his version of events on his blog …

Two Ad Students Make Cross-Country Pilgrimage to CPB
Meantimes, “two Miami Ad School students, Santiago Cosme and Vicor Javier Blanco, on September 3, plan to travel from New York to Boulder without spending a dime. The pair hope the kindness of strangers will feed, clothe, house and transport them to advertising nirvana.. Why? We have no idea. They aren’t even seeking a job at the agency as far as we can tell.  They’ve got a website, a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, a Twitter account and a Foursquare account. Whether or not the pair ever make it, we’ll know everything there is to know about their journey thanks to social media.”

Related articles

Alex Bogusky interview in Fast company: the narcissism, the rancor, the cruelty (adland.tv)
Is Alex Bogusky a Sociopath? [Redemption Song] (gawker.com)
Alex Bogusky’s whopper advertising freakout (blogs.ft.com)
Bogusky, Creative Ad Star, Is Leaving Advertising (mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com)
For Alex Bogusky, Money is Never an Issue (adrants.com)

Twitter: Inside Scoop, Public Mood, Debt Collectors

USA Network uses Twitter to give fans the inside scoop

Ted Linhart, vice president of program research for USA Network, is better known as @TedOnTV to his 2,900-plus Twitter followers. While USA has its own official Twitter feed — which it uses for more traditional promotion of its shows — Linhart uses @TedOnTV to give fans the “inside baseball” perspective on programming decisions, answer their questions, dole out scoops from upcoming episodes and comment on ratings. SmartBrief editor Liz DeHoff caught up with Linhart to talk about USA’s use of social media.

Using Twitter Data To Track Public Mood
Extracted words from Twitter streams were evaluated by a mood-rating system called Affective Norms for English Words (ANEW). ANEW determines the positive or negative tone of the word and assigns it a mood score. For example, positive words like “love” and “paradise” indicate happiness while “funeral” and “suicide” are negative. Through filtering the tweets by geographic location the scientists rendered a infographic-style video, where viewers can monitor each state’s hour-to-hour trend of moods.

Who Else is Reading Your Tweets?
Social media is becoming a treasure trove for the most unlikely of data hunters – divorce attorneys, health insurance companies and now debt collectors. Yes, debt collectors have begun using social networking sites to gather information about their targets.

Related articles

• How USA Network uses Twitter to give fans the inside scoop (smartblogs.com)
• Twitter Maps Emotional State of the USA (scienceroll.com)
• Pulse of the Nation: U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter (ccs.neu.edu)
• Twitter Study Reveals the Good Times and the Bad…By the Hour (socialtimes.com)
• U.S. Mood Measured Through Twitter, 2006-2009 (psychcentral.com)
• Shevonne: Twitter mood maps reveal emotional states of America (vida.posterous.com)
• Determining the Nation’s Happiness with Twitter (webpronews.com)
• Twitter mood maps reveal emotional states of America (newscientist.com)
• Twitter mood maps reveal emotional states of America (newscientist.com)

Social Media: Ben & Jerry’s vs eMail, Cascadian vs FarmVille

Ben & Jerry’s Abandons E-mail Marketing in Favor of Social Media

Ben & Jerry’s is abandoning its e-mail marketing initiatives to focus exclusively on social media advertising. It will be among the first large brands to make that leap, reports New Age Media. (via Mad Company). Its e-mail marketing initiatives consisted largely of a monthly newsletter – until feedback it received from customers suggested that the majority of them would prefer to be contacted on social media sites. Going forward, it will send one e-mail update each year to customers, and focus on using its Facebook and Twitter profiles to engage regularly.

Cascadian Farm Becomes First Branded Crop in FarmVille
Organic brand Cascadian Farm is becoming the first branded organic crop to be offered in Zynga‘s popular online game FarmVille. Beginning July 19 through July 26, Cascadian Farm will give FarmVille players such benefits as coupon offers, organic farming and green living tips and – per the game’s philosophy – the opportunity to enhance their farm. The campaign was developed with the support of Sterling-Rice Group. The brand has recreated the real Cascadian Farm – located in the Upper Skagit Valley of Washington’s North Cascade Mountains – virtually, with the online fruits and vegetables planted in similar fashion. There’s also an avatar farmer called “Farmer Joe Cascadian,” who’ll serve as the “virtual” tender to the brand’s own FarmVille farm. Users can request to be his neighbor by friend-ing him online on his Facebook page.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Introducing~Cascadian Farm’s Newest FarmVille Initiative & WIN! (theplussizemommy.com)
• Cascadian Farm Becomes First-Ever, Branded Crop in FarmVille (eon.businesswire.com)
• FarmVille and Cascadian Farm Upcoming Promotion: Grow Organic Blueberries! (games.com)
• Cascadian Farm Hoping to Cash in on Virtual Blueberry Crops (thedenveregotist.com)
• Cascadian Farm Giveaway! (lisacooking.com)
• FarmVille gets its first branded produce (inquisitr.com)
• Advertising: For FarmVille, a Crop From a Real Organic Farm (nytimes.com)
• FarmVille Cascadian Promotion Update: Organic Blueberries in the Market (games.com)
• Weird But True: Organic Produce Brand Plants In Virtual Soil (adpulp.com)
• FarmVille Adds First Branded Crop, Goes Organic (socialtimes.com)

Facebook

Facebook Fans worth $136 a piece.
A Facebook fan is worth about $136, according to a survey of the site’s users by Syncapse. A company’s fans spend more, are more likely to be loyal and will recommend the brand to their friends, according to the firm’s research.

How To Stand Out In The Facebook
There are nearly 500 million users on Facebook every month. And, according to Facebook, approximately 25 billion pieces of content are also shared on the site. That’s a lot of people and brands generating and sharing a lot of content.

“The Man” Online: China Shuts down Foursquare, BP’s SEM

Foursquare Shut Down in China

The U.K.’s Telegraph paper is reporting that “according to some sources” access to Foursquare has been shut down in mainland China. The reasons behind the censorship haven’t been explained, but it’s pretty typical behavior from a government that has regularly closed access to online services when they permit users to behave in unapproved manners–Twitter and Facebook have been targets, and the recent spat over Google‘s censorship is now the stuff of media legend.

BP buying “oil spill” and other terms on Google
As consumers turn online for information regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, BP is looking to do some damage control by buying search ads on relevant keywords, and by broadcasting its cleanup initiatives on a dedicated YouTube channel. BP is said to be putting between $600,000 and $1 million into its paid search ad effort and $50 million more on TV ads.

Related articles

• BP buying Google and Yahoo search results on oil spill (newstatesman.com)
• BP Buys Top Sponsor Links From Google and Yahoo To Improve Its Image (lockergnome.com)
• BP Wants To Friend You On YouTube For Gulf Oil Spill (techie-buzz.com)
• BP Buys Top Google Result for “Oil Spill” (mashable.com)
• BP’s Social Media Campaign Going About As Well As Capping That Well [Bp] (gizmodo.com)

Brand Utility

A Recap On Brand Utility

I am a big fan of seeking not merely to interrupt but add value in marketing communications. This deck on slideshare expresses some good points.

A useful guide to the brand utility

View more presentations from Ingmar de Lange.

Pringles says “Thanks for Oversharing”

Pringles lampoons social media addicts
Pringles is promoting its ‘sharing’ positioning with a light-hearted campaign that pokes fun at social media fanatics. The activity, created by Wunderman and called ‘The Oversharers’, appeals to consumers to name and shame their friends who share things online that are ‘totally ridiculous’. The push centres on the accusation that people who overuse Facebook and Twitter are boring their friends and urges them to share things ‘really worth sharing, like Pringles’. Central to the activity is a website with a Twitter feed showcasing the most banal tweets, such as: ‘Just eaten a sausage roll!!!’ Visitors to the site can download a Facebook ‘Overshare’ button, which adds to the existing options to ‘like’ and comment on friends’ status updates. When users click on ‘Overshare’, the author of the update will receive a message advising them to seek help at the Pringles website.

Social Media: Iceland Friends, BART AR, Absolut Drinkspiration, JetBlue Twitter

Iceland wants to be your friend
Iceland Wants to Be Your Friend is an initiative of the Icelandic Tourist Board, “which means that it’s a very, very, very serious thing indeed. It is loved and cared for by many good people for at Takk Takk, using brains and fancy machines.”

San Francisco’s BART Adds Augmented Reality

San Franciso’s subway system, the BART, is the latest entity to use augmented reality to grab customers’ – or in this case, riders’ – attention with a message. Developed by metaio, the application – called junaio – shows transit data such as station locations and estimated arrival times. Riders point the phone’s camera and find directions to the nearest BART station and a list of estimated arrivals for the next several trains via text or graphics that are overlaid on real objects.

Absolut Drinkspiration

Absolut is launching Drinkspiration, a drink application combining the latest mobile technology with GPS, Twitter, and Facebook. Drinkspiration is an interactive encyclopedia of recipes that helps you find and share personalized drink recommendations based on taste, weather, time of day, bar vibe, sound volume and real-time drink trends. Drinkspiration by Absolut for Android is available for free in the Android Market.

Jetblue Twitter promotion attracts huge crowds
Huge crowds gathered across New York this week after budget airline JetBlue announced via Twitter that it would give away airline tickets at undisclosed locations across the city. Hundreds of tickets were given away within minutes of each location’s being announced, with long lines forming and one taxi driver abandoning his vehicle (and his fare) to claim a free ticket.