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)

Mashup: Historypin v Google Maps

Historypin, created by the social movement We Are What We Do, who are partners with Google, is a virtual time machine that allows users to take a peek at what the world looked like way back when. The website, which launched in London in June 2010 uses Google Maps and Street View tech and hopes to become the largest user-generated archive of historical images.

Related articles

• Historypin Overlays Google Street View with Historical Images (neatorama.com)
• Mapping stories and historical images on Google Street View (blogs.journalism.co.uk)
• Historypin records the past on Google Street View (computeractive.co.uk)

Gareth Kay gets a Real Job (Title)

Goodby Promotes Gareth Kay to Director of Brand Strategy
The inexorable rise of Gareth Kay. Always great to see one of the good guys getting to the top. And he’s rid himself of that perplexing title of “director of *digital* strategy” to boot. (Is digital strategy different? That’s a mindset rather than a different discipline, surely?)

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.

Top 10s

10 Rules for Increasing Community Engagement

Getting people to interact with others and upload content to a community-driven site enough may sound easy, but engagement doesn’t happen automatically. It takes time and work, and much of the right formula is deduced through trial and error. Here are 10 tips for increasing user engagement that work for news community web sites, but can apply to all types of online user-engagement communities.

YouTube Top 10 Lists

For the first time YouTube are sharing theri official Most Watched lists and some of the fastest-rising search terms on YouTube. “Some moments were big (President Obama’s inauguration), some small (a Minnesota wedding party erupts into dance), some expected (“New Moon”), some surprising (Susan Boyle) — but all of them inspired, entertained and connected millions of people around the world via YouTube.”

Beyond Facebook: Seppukoo, Architizer

Seppukoo: Is There Life After Facebook?

Seppukoo.com is a social website which “liberates the digital body” by deactivating one’s Facebook profile and shaping a social experience out of it. It is meant to reflect seppuku, an ancient practice in Japan in which a samurai warrior kills himself to restore their honor. It was created by ”Linking the Invisible“, a group of European media artists (Guy McMusker, Clemente Pestelli and Gionatan Quintini), who explore the invisible relationships between the “infosphere, neural synapsis, and real life.”

Architizer: The Facebook for Architects

One such digital pioneer is brand-new social networking site Architizer, which is being promoted as a “Facebook for Architects” and will allow “architects, architecture curators, clients, critics and fans, to interact”. The site, which is free to use, allows members to link their personal, firm, and project profiles where they can display a new building, share photos of interesting projects, and have their work pinpointed on a global interactive map.

Possibly related:

Seppukoo ” About (healthmgmtrx.blogspot.com)

Kill Off Your Facebook Identity With Seppukoo (mashable.com)

Books: Stephen King’s Treasure Hunt, Publishers’ Digital Aspirations

Stephen King’s Treasure Hunt
Stephen King’s latest epic is not due to be released until 10 November, but his UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton working with Unity London has launched what it describes as the biggest ever game of literary hide-and-seek. This enables hardcore horror fans to get their hands on it early… as long as they don’t mind a bit of interweb and real world treasure hunting. The 335,114 word novel has been broken down into 5,196 pieces, and, using clues given on the homepage participants are encouraged to hunt them down and deliver them back to the site. These extracts have been scattered across hundreds of websites and locations throughout the UK, including fan, horror, thriller and lifestyle websites. As pieces are found they will appear on http://www.stephenking.co.uk enabling fans to move them around and link them together, gradually forming bigger sections of the book.

Off the Page

The Kindle may not necessarily be the e-reader to bring the technology into the mainstream. That said, publishers seem increasingly certain that the print medium may be in jeopardy, and so many are already experimenting with new multimedia technological enhancements, including FLIPS and Vooks

Stephen King’s New E-Book To Cost $35 (huffingtonpost.com)

Alcohol: Kraken Rum Gets Integrated, Absolut Goes Logoless, puts you in the Band

The Kraken Rum

The integrated campaign for rum brand Kraken from Brooklyn-based agency Dead As We Know It includes these web films that bring viewers face to beak with the rum’s legendary namesake. The campaign also includes a web site, book and print components.

ABSOLUT Vodka Goes Logoless for a New Campaign
ABSOLUT is going with the ever popular brandless branding for a new limited edition series of bottles. The Swedish vodka maker is going nearly labelless for new campaign against sexual prejudice. The bottles maintain their signature shape, with only a tiny removable sticker at the bottom to identifying alcohol content and volume.

Absolut: You’re with the band

Absolut is one of the brands that some people think better understands the concept of branded content, and this new site for their “Rock edition” vodka bottle, called “You’re with the band”, is another proof of that: a documentary made by Danny Clinch on how’s the life of a rock band such as Wolfmother (site by Great Works)

Twitter: Court Orders, Movies

Twitter Fair Game for Serving UK Court Orders

The British High Court is permitting an injunction to be served to an anonymous user on microblogging site Twitter. The user, who has been posing as right-wing political blogger Donal Blaney of website Blaney’s Blarney, is accused to breaching Blaney’s copyright. Blaney, who felt the content appearing on Twitter under his name was “mildly objectionable,” approached the courts to find out whether an injunction could be served via the social network — as opposed to contacting Twitter headquarters in California and entrusting them with managing the issue.

Social Media: How Twitter Makes or Breaks Movie Marketing
Can the so-called Twitter effect boost a movie’s box-office performance faster than any traditional form of word-of-mouth? Not yet, say many top movie marketers and researchers, but the social networking platform’s impact on a studio’s media mix and campaign management has already taken shape.

Court order served over Twitter Court order served over Twitter (innovationtoronto.com)

UK Court order served over Twitter (textually.org)

UK Court Order Served Over Twitter, To Anonymous User Posing As Another (yro.slashdot.org)

British court okays serving injunction over Twitter (cbc.ca)

Court Order Served Over TWITTER: Blaney’s Blarney Impersonator In Breach Of Copyright (huffingtonpost.com)

UK High Court Allows Injunction To Be Delivered Via Twitter (techdirt.com)

Crispin goes Beta.

Crispin Porter + Bogusky “Beta Site”

I just came across Crispin’s aggregator site via a visit logged on my own modest blog. The perplexingly-bewigged Bogusky refers to the new site as a “giant fishing net”.  Interestingly one of the blogs aggregated was entitled “Why I Fucking Hate Crispin So Much”. (He didn’t really, as it turned out)