Universal Records has been on the look out for “monks, men of the cloth and sacred singers” for quite a while and now they found them- thanks to YouTube!. They placed adverts in religious publications hoping to find Gregarian singers, who they could offer a record deal.
They were sent hundreds of demo tapes, but the Youtube video they got from the monks from the Monestary the Holy Cross impressed them most. Tom Lewis, an Universal A&R executive told the BBC Website the following of his latest addition:
“These guys found about the competition through a friend of theirs in London and they sent a link of their monastery and of them singing on YouTube,” he said.
“It was beautiful, beautiful music and they’re using the very latest in terms of communication devices available to them to get their music heard.
The recording will start in April, with the launch of the album scheduled for the end of this year. All profits will be used to train new monks. Presumably to teach them how to leverage social media for the benefit of his monestary.
At Virgin Money they’ve launched a new campaign to promote the Virgin Climate Change Fund. This is an investment fund which invests into high performing shares, and filters out those with a poor carbon footprint. So people that invest money, can do a bit for the environment too.
Investment funds aren’t really the most exciting thing in the world, so Virgin asked digital agency Glue London to produce a campaign that would stand out amongst the dull crowd, and get across the message of high performance with a green edge.
The result was stop frame animation origami models of money turning into animals. They’re currently playing out on finance sites and Yahoo in the UK, and they have created a YouTube channel to host the ads, a making of video to show how the ads were produced, and some rough edits and a page at Flickr.
How to use UGC and social networks to boost website traffic? Just look at the smart social media strategy of online eyeglass retailer EyeBuyDirect.
Traffic at EyeBuyDirect.com has increased between 10% and 15% since the online discount eyeglass retailer added a social networking hub to its website about five months ago. The new feature is now the main engine driving traffic to the site, ranking above search and other marketing efforts, says EyeBuyDirect CEO Ron Hessel.
About 20,000 consumers have added pictures of themselves sporting nearly 500 different styles of eyewear to EyeBuyDirect.com’s Wall of Frame social network. Here, friends, family and strangers can offer feedback on photos.“We’re finding that people love monumenting their activity on the site or their purchase with a photo that others can see,” Hessel says.
EyeBuyDirect.com, launched in March 2006, allows visitors to upload photos of themselves and virtually “try on” different frames before making a purchase. Hessel says the social network was added after visitors asked for a way to share photos.
Reflecting the growing influence of Web2.0 on b-to-b markets, Variety last week launched The Biz, a social network that lets entertainment and media professionals network, pitch products, exchange ideas and search for jobs.
The Biz also provides a venue for employers to recruit talent and target candidates by specific interests and skills. Users will soon be able to upload video to the site. “The entertainment industry is rooted in social networking, and The Biz is our attempt to make the process easier,” said Brian Gott, associate publisher of Variety.
Variety is published by Reed Business Information, which last week was put on the block by its parent company, Reed Elsevier. Variety.com attracts 3 million unique monthly visitors, according to comScore. Gott said the Web site’s traffic more than doubled in January from a year earlier, generating about 11 million page views.
Clients are placing more emphasis on mastering social media but find their agencies ill equipped to help them succeed in that space, according to a new survey.
A study in which WOMMA member TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony polled more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. to gauge how they are faring navigating the world of social media. It asked them for feedback on their agencies’ abilities to help. TNS found, in its words, “Agencies don’t get it.”
Clients complained that their agencies — creative, media, public relations, design and others — typically treat social channels like blogs as traditional media. In other cases, their ideas are not backed up by practical skills in the area. What’s more, one client pointed out that his agencies have little of their own experience using social networks or video-sharing sites for themselves.
The increase in social media has led other analysts to highlight the dearth of skills at agencies to help clients navigate the social landscape. Forrester Research, for instance, published a report last month that found agencies are poorly structured to help clients leverage opportunities with communities of shared interests.
We know that many marketers and media agencies act like reaching consumers is the most important mean in the marketing value chain. Why I disagree it’s all about reach?
I know that reaching consumers is important too, but it’s a mean to an end. Reach is a term introduced by media agencies many years ago, but in my opinion reach is definately not always the holey grail!
I think massive reach can be powerful. But I also feel that reaching a targeted (niche) group consumers can be very interesting. I’ve also learned that reaching a small group of social influentials can be even more interesting to a brand.
Maybe we could even assume that the people reached by ads, do not always move into any direction at all? So creativity in ads is important to create emotion. And emotion is the next step towards engagement. And from many cases I have seen that engaging consumers drives purchase intent much more than just reaching people.
According to The New York Times, coming Tuesday (March 4) Yahoo! will announce it’s plans to introduce a new service called Buzz. Buzz will rely on users to help it compile the most popular articles from around the Web.
Yahoo! plans to include some of those on its front page, hoping to attract more users and turn it into a hub for driving traffic to other publishers.
Yahoo! will also announce coming Tuesday (March 4, says New York Times that it will allow fuller previews of online publishers’ sites in search results. A search result displaying a user of the social network LinkedIn, for instance, could include links to that person’s connections and full profile, and a result displaying a restaurant may include direct links to a reservations page or reviews.
In AutoMotiveJeep has coined it’s smart social media and community strategy.
In Banking social lending company Zopa was a smart and social first mover. In Broking social trading community Zecco was refreshing.
So what will The Wisdom Of Crowds principal bring us next? Let’s take a closer look at the beta concept of Quizzle, powered by Quicken Loans. Quizzle is the only place that gives you a simple understanding of your home and your money, all in one spot.
Quizzle gives a free evaluation of your credit, home value, mortgage, budget and more, then get important tips on how to make the most of them (minus the confusing financial jargon). Just enter your zip code to get the simple home know-how you can’t get anywhere else.
Virgin Mobile USA, the US wireless unit of Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, has launched on February 4, 2007, a website to help people learn the fine art of sexy texting and to promote their Wild Card cell phone and text messaging plans.
At Letshavetxt.com, developed by advertising agency McKinney out of Durham (North Carolina), visitors can work with a number of “trained professionals” to practice and hone their promiscuous adult texting in a safe, playful, but very live environment. It has been found a satisfying alternative to the real thing and it takes consumer engagement to a whole new level.
Do I believe that brands still need a traditional PR and Media agency? Yes Sir! But I am even more convinced that in this digital era, brands also need a Social Media Agency; with brand engagement architects, strategic social media planners, viral, social media optimization specialists and seeders. Why do I feel this is so crucial to brands?
Because we all now understand it’s important that your website is ranked very well in Google. Most brands have embraced SEO + SEA. And the brands that did not yet, will probably be in a musuem near you soon?!
But do brand marketers really understand that it’s also very important to engage their target groups in blogs, forums, communities, social networks, photo and video portals? Do they understand that SMO (social media optimization) and SMA (social media advertising) are the next needed step to take after SEO and SEA?
I looked closer at Jeep last few months. And I am impressed by Jeep’s community marketing and social media skills. Jeep has really coined many social media opportunities in full! Check the Jeep Community or read more at MarketingProfs.
