The project was run by by Grand Union, a full service international digital agency.

This fall it launched Sagres Preta Chocolate, a stout beer with a chocolate flavour. With a website 100% made out of chocolate?!

Help was offered by Maître Chocolatier Victor Nunes, renown in Portugal for his sculpture made out of chocolate. Looks like a passionate project that is earning attention…

Closing the loop in terms of See, Like, Buy, that is what I do miss a little bit here. This offered some extra opportunties to pull people gently through the Sagres funnel, one or two steps further; towards trial and advocacy.

But, 340 degrees is great as well, so we give two thumbs up for both brand and agency…

Source: KoiKoiKoi

Click here to view the embedded video.

44 second cinema version of the ad is not really that special although it connects the product with “Party People” which is the target segment of almost every alcoholic beverage in the market. But the campaign really hits the spot with the online in branded Desperados YouTube channel.

The campaign starts in front of  a noisy party’s entrance. Users are cleverly asked to give some profile information for age verification, location and gender of interest for customization of experience.

Imitation of  native YouTube design with a custom Flash widget has already been used in the past by famous Tipp-Ex campaign. However this campaign utilizes Facebook API to deliver a more social experience.

If users choose to connect their Facebook account with the campaign’s Facebook application, their friends’ photos are displayed inside the video. Although this procedure interrupts the user experience too early (9th second) and takes a long time (risking decrease in attention further sections of the video), it brings user engagement to a new level, by using YouTube’s interface elements for interactivity.

The campaign also leverages virality in an original way by embedding user’s Facebook profile photo to a “tattoo on a stranger in the party” and giving the option to share this photo with Facebook friends.

Congratulations to Heineken for investing in this social media campaign which is an excellent follow through to their TV commercial.

Beechies, South Africa’s loved chewing gum, launched a campaign called “Too Good Not to Share” developed around the question “Do you have a story that is simply too good not to share?”. The new campaign encourages the public to get involved in sharing ideas and stories.

Beechies created a platform that invites people to share their wildest stories, stories that can become the next Beechies’ advert:  “IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH, OR CRAZY ENOUGH, IT COULD BECOME OUR NEXT PRINT, BILLBOARD, OR EVEN TV AD”, it’s stated on their website.

The platform allows you to check other stories, the top ten stories, comment and vote, watch videos, upload photos and post your own stories that are too good to keep to yourself.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The campaign started with the above 2 commercials, based on real stories. They were launched on MTV on mid-November before going mainstream in February 2011. Commercials were directed by Kevin Fitzgerald and produced by Egg Films.

The campaign was developed and executed by the creative agency Hello World Agency.

ViralBlog read about Beechies – To Good Not to Share on Invisible Red.

Remarkable fact is that the sales of Google’s Android Mobiles grew faster than those of Apple and other competitors. We already showed you how social media is changing mobile, exactly where Samsung aims for with its new smartphone: the Galaxy Apollo.

The Samsung Galaxy Apollo is aimed at the connected lifestyles of younger people who want social networking tools at their fingertips.

So how to launch a new phone in The Netherlands that makes your social networking activities easy? Exactly! With the help of social media of course!

Make Amsterdam created a smart Facebook app for Samsung called Expand Your Social Universe and the first results are already promising: more than 40,000 users in the first 2 weeks who reached over 400,000 viewers in their network just by using the app.

Curious how it works? Check out a demo video below:

You can start using Expand Your Social Universe here. More information about the cmapign and app can be found here.

Source: SocialMediaConsultancy.nl

In the game you can explore various regions in the Paradise, where certain fruit types grow that CoolBest uses for their drinks. Exploring all the regions can earn you a visit by Bruce, the explorer. When he pops round it means that you have won a prize.

The game was developed by RedUrban in Amsterdam. The cool thing is that sharing is pretty easy, giving the game a good chance of viral spread. You can place your friends in the Paradise looking like indigenous or not so indigenous animal species. When you place one of your friends in the Paradise, he or she immediately gets notified and is invited to go and have a look at themselves. Of course they can also create a Paradise of their own and place their friends on it…etcetera. The only restriction (if you can call it that) is that the game is limited to the Hyves platform.

This online campaign is linked to the latest commercials by CoolBest where Bruce is looking for the best fruit,  and to the supermarkets where buying CoolBest gives you a head start in the game.

What do you reckon? Is this a good example of integrating online and offline marketing?

Click here to view the embedded video.

So before you start thinking about approaching your advertising agency asking them for the V-word you have got to ask yourself a couple of questions.

What are the objectives for the campaign? If it’s awareness you want, you’ve got to ask yourself, how will my brand name be incorporated in the video. If it’s interaction you want, the video has to be interactive otherwise it will be hard for the people to interact with the video . And if it’s website traffic you want, you need to end with a call to action which might affect the viral factor your video might have.

These are a lot, as well as very important, questions, but it is only the beginning. You need to ask yourself: “Who do I want to reach?”. The smaller your target audience is the harder it is to make a video which might go viral. You also need to know how willing your target audience is to watch videos online and if their willing or able to send the video to like minded people.

If you have answers for all the questions above and you are still convinced you want a video you can go to the next step. But, how far are you willing to go? A video that is supposed to go viral will not always tell the exact message you want to tell or show the images you want to show as a company. And to take it even one step further, the message or images might even be offensive to some people, companies, or organizations. You’ve got to ask yourself: “Are you willing to take that chance? “

With all these questions answered, you can go to your advertising agency and proudly say; The V-word. But don’t be surprised if they respond a bit awkward. They probably can produce a video for you and they (or their online media agency) can try/ help to make it go viral but you cannot produce or promise a viral.

In conclusion, The V-word should only be used in evaluations. In all the other cases I would advise to use the word video. And when you go to your agency I advice you to ask for a video which they believe can go viral and will contribute to your objectives for that specific campaign.

Unfortunately The V-word is most of the time used in this sentence: “Can you make a viral for our company?”

In July 2010, Facebook announced that it would be doubling the size of its 147,000 square foot data centre in Oregon. This announcement prompted the environmentalist pressure group to write an open letter to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In this letter, Greenpeace’s Executive Director, Kumi Naidoo, expressed his concern:

“No global business leader, particularly not one who reaches so many people daily, could deny that in this time it is both a threat to a company’s reputation and financial health risk to ignore their company’s environmental impacts.”

Facebook points out that the building has been designed with a natural cooling system designed for the climate in Prineville,  which is unusually dry and temperate. Greenpeace was not convinced and decided to step up its campaign with the following video:

Personally I think the video is nicely made, but I don’t agree with the fact Greenpeace is calling Mark Zuckerberg just being a “nerd” and who started Facebook just he could make some friends. I don’t see how that will help Greenpeace to make its argument? Or is attacking the person rather than the issue the right ingredient to get this cause out to the public? What do you think?

If you agree with Greenpeace, you can support this cause here, or on their Facebook page.

Source: SocialMediaConsultancy.nl

Nevertheless Stanislav was very successful, and perhaps inspired Swisscom to release a similar technical concept, using your Facebook profile and 9 of your preferred friends:

Lost in Val Sinestra

See the promotional video for the viral below

The viral is a great piece of technology, using the Facebook API. On this website, you can make a Facebook connection, the tool automatically connects to your profile and picks 9 random profiles from your friends. The result is a great trailer where information and pictures from the selected profiles are perfectly integrated.

My question is if this campaign will receive negative publicity again, especially as privacy is a hot topic around Facebook these days. What do you think?

A nice detail is that the hotel used in the viral, Val Sinestre, really exists, perhaps a great location for your seventieth birthday? Anyway, check out my version of the trailer here.

Some screenshots from the trailer:

Source: SocialMediaConsultancy.nl

Click here to view the embedded video.

But there are a lot of brands wandering around on the social media boat having no clue what they are doing and who are wondering what to do with the sea off people around them (claiming to be a friend). 

It especially gets weird when the sea of people start talking to them. They didn’t anticipate that. They thought social media was a nice new boat ride. Another place where they could tell people how great they are. It might even get worse, the brand aboard the social media boat might even underrate the force of the sea of people around the boat causing damage or even their brand to sink. Last but not least is the social seasick brand who jumped the boat and left all his followers stranded.

What I’m trying to say, having a plan and a goal before entering the social media boat might be a wise idea. First a brand has to figure out what he really wants to gain boarding the  social media boat, think of a destination and a route how to get there. If it’s just attention you want just; place a banner on the boat and stay in the harbor. If it is interaction you want and engagement, set sail and start your social journey.

Second you have to realize that people don’t become friends just to hear your commercial message.  They have been trying to block your message  for years and they are finally succeeding. You actually have to come up with content and/or services that actually interests them or helps them to get ahead in life (or wasting it because they are only spending time on Facebook ). This content has to be written, produced, created and distributed and that won’t happen by its self.

Third people might even start to interact with your content or your brand. You have to make clear what your new found friend can expect. Will you reply, will you interact, will you remove inappropriate comments. And since your new found friends are real people you have to behave as one to. listen and respond, speak as a real person, be authentic, take part in conversations, be relevant, accurate and up to date.

A friendship is giving and taking. So if you start a friendship you got to give and your target audience will give you something back. Their presents for you comes in many different forms:
- Valuable insight in your target audience
- Increase in product spending
- Increase in loyalty
- Increase in propensity to recommend your brand
- Increase in brand affinity
- Decrease in acquisition costs

But don’t forget; Social media is not a short term solution and it requires constant attention. But… in the end it’s worth it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The only thing is, it’s not getting a lot of attention so far. What does ViralTracker tell us?

The video has been uploaded on YouTube op April 28 with courtesy of the Condomerie in Amsterdam. In comparison to Evian or Will It Blend this video is not skyrocketing at all with 965 views. Although the video is getting more and more views everyday, in my opinion this really shows that you can’t always just send a video into the world and hope that it’s going to spread like wildfire. Sometimes you need to help out. And especially when it considers an important topic like HIV prevention.

The chance that you will actually encounter this informing lady on Chatroulette is about as small as the chance you will find that needle hidden in the haystack. In Google you only get two or three search results. This makes the campaign incredibly unfindable and consequently almost useless.

My advice to Condomerie would be to go through a bit more effort to get this message out there (especially considering the fact that ad agency 2010 is behind it). Get some blogging friends to write about it (or pay them to do it ) and embed the video on your website. Find help at the bigger HIV prevention organisations and get the attention of marketing sites. And of course: get your friends and customers to spread the message for you! I’m curious to see what this video will do in regards to views in the coming weeks. Soon ViralTracker will be able to tell us more.

Source: Amsterdam Ad Blog