Monday, October 27, 2008

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples

Thanks Peter Kim for this list of examples of social networking being used in business... awesome stuff! Wonder how long before it's totally out of date...?

I've been thinking about how social media works. For example, applying game mechanics to understand participation, thinking about users vs. customers, and deconstructing ego traps in PR campaigns. This analysis makes me wonder if social media marketing matters and if so, does it scale.

I thought you might benefit from some of my background research on these topics. And I'd appreciate your help in curating this list by providing more details and submitting additional cases.

[update 10.17.08] Thanks for your input and additions - the list has more than doubled from community contributions. For easier storing and sharing, you can stumble, bookmark, or diggcomments feed to get suggested updates. this page. You can also subscribe to the page's comments feed to get suggested updates.

>> Last update: 24 October 2008
>> Total brands: 277

Examples of companies using and being used by social media marketing:

[Notice anything missing? Leave a link and description in the comments below. I'll add to the main list on a periodic basis.]
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Youth no longer defined by age

Youth No Longer Defined by Chronological Age; Consumers Stay ‘Younger’ Longer

Thanks to Marketing Charts for this post. You can checkout the original article here.

The traditional demographic definition of “youth” is no longer applicable in today’s society, and marketers should target consumers based upon their engagement and participation in youth culture rather than on their chronological age, according to the “Golden Age of Youth” study from Viacom Brand Solutions International (VBSI).

As people worldwide delay the onset of adult responsibilities and stay emotionally and physically younger for longer, it is becoming more acceptable for older people to participate in youthful pursuits. To support this trend, marketers should routinely consider the often-overlooked 25-34 age group a part of the youth market, VBSI said.
“Contemporary youth should now be defined as ‘the absence of functional and/or emotional maturity,’ reflecting the fact that accepting traditional responsibilities such as mortgages, children and developing a strong sense of self-identity/perspective is occurring later and later in life,” the study said.

Indeed, 52% of all 25-34 year-olds agree they still have “a lot of growing up to do,” and this sentiment is highest in Asian (78%) and Latin American (66%) markets.

“Even in these financially challenging times, people are trying to stay younger for longer,” said Kevin Razvi, EVP and managing director of VBSI. “25-to-34 year-olds are continuing to consume music, gaming and the internet and are enjoying the pursuits of their younger years while benefiting from a greater level of personal and financial freedom. We therefore need to rethink what ‘youth’ actually means and how we and our partners can approach this constantly evolving group of people.”


Three Stages of Youth

Though those between 25 and 34 remain youthful, there are some important differences among them and their younger and older counterparts. The study identified three distinct stages of youth: “Discovery” (16-19 years old), “Experimentation” (20-24 years old) and “Golden” (25-34 years old), and found that the youth market has grown to include all three as the differentiation between traditional demographic groups has become blurred through lifestyle choice and spending power.

Key findings:
25-34 year-olds do not respond to the same marketing as teens and those who assume they do are seeing a “youth mirage.” Though they may look similar and access many of the same brands, only 9% of those 25-34 globally said that they would actually like to be a teenager in 2008. Agreement with this statement was lowest in developed markets: Japan (4%), Europe (5%) and the US (9%).

“Golden” Youth are happier, and more confident/secure and gravitate toward premium, understated and often luxurious brands and experiences to affirm their identity. In contrast, teenagers are highly focused on material gain and employ brands to define their identity.
25-34-year-olds are most likely to agree that they are happy or content with their personal life, and are 24% more likely than teens to agree that they “love life.”

More than 80% of the global respondents say that that the 20s should be about exploring life and having fun.

Teens feel under pressure to figure out who they are and where they are going and are 23% more likely than those 25-34 to agree that their life is more stressful. This is particularly true in Europe and in the US.

17% of the global sample who said they’d “made some major decisions in life too early” were the most unhappy and stressed group of 25-34 year olds among all the respondents.

“Traditional adult brands need to adopt a more youthful tone to avoid being seen as irrelevant,” the study said. To support this, 23% of the 25-to-34-year-old global sample feels that financial institutions are aimed at those older than they are; while youthful brands have a new market beyond the core teenage target. In the traditionally young area of technology, one-third of 25-34 year olds agree they’re really interested in new technology, and 66% say that they take the time to learn how things work to get the most out of them.Other regional differences:

Respondents age 25-34 who are married are significantly more likely to be happy (66%) vs. singles (30%).

Only 36% of Europeans and 39% of Asians 25-34 feel like they’re struggling with their current financial situation vs. 55% in Latin America and 51% in America.

71% of 25-34-year-olds agree they feel comfortable with who they are. Those who feel most settled with their identity live in Mexico (84%), India (83%) and Saudi Arabia (82%). Those who are least comfortable are the Japanese (26%).

35% of Europeans would find it strange if someone got married in their early 20s vs. only 20% of Americans and 18% of Japanese.

In general, 78% are optimistic about their future. This is highest in Latin America (85%), lowest in Asia (67%) and the US (72%).

62% of Latin Americans felt they made life decisions too early vs. only 24% Japanese, 37% of Europeans and 50% of Americans.

The study also found that from a global perspective, 25 is the “ideal” age overall. Additional findings and regional differences:

27 is the ideal age to buy a house (25 in the UK, 33 in Japan).
22 is the ideal age to buy a car (20 in the US and UK, and 29 in China).
26 is the ideal age for love (25 in Saudi Arabia and 28 in Mexico).
23 is the ideal age to get a credit card (20 in the US)
19 is the ideal age to travel without parents (25 in Saudi Arabia).
27 is the ideal age to be a parent.
20 is the ideal age to lose your virginity (no differences by region).
22 is the ideal age to move out on your own.
26 is the ideal age to start saving for retirement (23 in US and 25 in Europe and Latin America)

About the survey: VBSI used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies to survey more than 25,000 respondents between age 16-46 in 18 countries. These included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, UK and the US. The survey was carried out between January and August 2008.
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Musical roads - the new media space?

When we run out of space for billboards on our roads' sides, we'll embed jingles into the pavement.

For those of you wondering, Honda tried to turn this into a promotion in Lancaster Ca by producing the William Tell Overture, only for it to be covered over a few days later to residents complaining it 'drove' them mad. Perhaps it was the choice of tune - maybe "Drive my car" would have been a more fitting song?

Read more about Honda's efforts here and here thanks to Wired. Or learn where it all began below:

Road as Medium

"A Japanese engineer by the name of Shizuo Shinoda was the first to come up with the brilliant idea of transforming roads into a playback medium. The system works by cutting thousands of little grooves in the asphalt that produce a sound when a vehicle drives over them. The grooves are a few millimeters deep and 6 to 12 millimeters wide, and the closer you bring them together the higher the pitch will be when driven over. Production cost is about $20 000. Mr Shinoda got the idea by driving his car over markings a bulldozer had previously scraped off a street and realized he was generating a series a tones."

Check out the Youtube demonstration below:



Thanks to FutureLab. The original post can be found here.
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Reality mining

Here is yet another piece of technology that listens in to its surrounding environment to produce “minute-by-minute, fine-grained data on whether you are talking, whom you prefer to talk with, what your tone is, and if you interrupt” which can be used to improve your communication skills and change your tactics, including those that lead to unproductive workplace dynamics... It could be an interesting training /diagnostic tool for corporates - but i question weather it would really lead people to change the way they are?

You May Soon Know if You’re Hogging the Discussion

PEOPLE who want to improve their communication skills may one day have an unusual helper: software programs that analyze the tone, turn-taking behavior and other qualities of a conversation. The programs would then tell the speakers whether they tend to interrupt others, for example, or whether they dominate meetings with monologues, or appear inattentive when others are talking.

The inventor of this technology is Alex Pentland of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has developed cellphone-like gadgets to listen to people as they chat, and computer programs that sift through these conversational cadences, studying communication signals that lie beneath the words.

If commercialized, such tools could help users better handle many subtleties of face-to-face and group interactions — or at least stop hogging the show at committee meetings.

Thanks to NY Times. The full article can be read here.
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