Creating your own virtual space for your own virtual self

This is a site by Google called Lively, that allows you to create an avatar and chat with your friends in rooms that you design yourself. You can then invite your friends into your room to chat or help you decorate it...

From initial browsing it seems like a bit more of a gimmick or a Habbo Hotel for grown ups, but perhaps it will catch on and allow groups of people to stylize cyberspace in an effortless and practical way???Thanks to Gareth for this post. The site can be found at: http://www.lively.com/html/landing.html

Wanted: larrikin social media marketers

I would like to draw your attention to this blog posted by Steven Noble from Forrester in the US; 1. because it features our ads and 2. because its a warm fuzzy 'pat on the back' to all of us here in Australia for just being us. Let's keep up the larrakinism.

If brands have personalities, then Australian brands often aspire to be larrikins.

Larrakins are much-loved figures in Australian society. In the 80s, we even elected one as Prime Minister. The larrikin is the one who knowns when to work and when to play, with an emphasis on the latter. The one who sees everyone as their equal — especially when it comes to humour. The centre of attention at every barbecue, flipping sausages and telling tall tales. The plain speaker with a big heart, a dry wit and a sore and sorry liver.

No surprises: Australian advertisers often use larrikin themes in their work. For example, BBDO Clemenger created the Four'N Twenty Magic Salad Plate, so larrikins can pretend their Aussie meat pies are surrounded by greenery. Likewise, ex-footballer Sam Kekovich plays the larrikin superbly in Meat & Livestock Australia's Eat Lamb campaign, poking fun at everyone from hippies to New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. (Of course, he's actually mocking the traditional Australian values that he pretends to spruik in the ads.)

But here's the thing: a true larrikin doesn't need the big budgets and great production values of traditional television advertising. The Paul Hogan Show proved that. The production values were low and the jokes could have been written by any larrikin in the country, but it was hysterically funny and an Australian television favourite for more than a decade.

With a camcorder, a supportive boss and some fun-loving staff, larrikin brands could do the same. They could be dry wits on Twitter, inspiring the rest of us to LOL. They could be YouTube superstars, and the Paul Hogans of tomorrow. They could say the things the rest of us love to hear, but never say ourselves. They could bring larrikin brands to life for their irreverent fun-loving customers.

http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2008/07/posted-by-steve.html

How to test if you're accidentally sending spam

Found a great little spam-testing tool at http://www.localnews.biz/SubjectLine/ValidateSubjectLine.asp which lets you enter any given subject line you intend to send out on your client's behalf and gives it a range of tests to see if the spam filters would pick it up and block your campaign.

Fontshop launches Fontstruct

Fontshop has just launched a new website, FontStruct, which enables users to create, download and share fonts for free.

FontStruct lets you quickly and easily create fonts constructed out of geometrical shapes, which are arranged in a grid pattern, like tiles or bricks.

You create ‘FontStructions’ using the ‘FontStructor’ font editor.

Once you're done building, FontStruct generates high-quality TrueType fonts, ready to use in any Mac or Windows application.

You can keep your creations to yourself, but users are encouraged to share their "FontStructions". Explore the gallery of fonts made by other FontStruct users and download them or even copy them and make your own variations.

You can also use the FontStruct widget to show your FontStructions on your own website or blog.

Check it out at http://fontstruct.fontshop.com/

Findings: Why Companies Should Talk to Customers

Thanks again Jeremiah for sharing yet more light in the role fo social approaches in business

ExpoTV recently ran a research study to determine how do consumers relate to each other. While this isn’t Forrester Research, so I will not defend, nor explain their methodology. It’s rare that analysts point to research other than their own, if I put your interests first, you’ll continue to come back to me.

Blog ExpoTV found that:

55% of customers in their survey want to have an ongoing discussion brands

Respondents were most anxious to talk to the product design (49%) department, followed by customer support (14%), marketing (14%) and pricing (13%)

89% said they felt more loyal if they knew the brand was listening through a feedback group (attention insight community vendors)

WOM: Sixty-one percent of survey respondents said that they told at least 10 people about the last brand they liked.

WOM: Eighty-one percent of respondents will tell at least five people.

Despite this evidence, it’s interesting to note that a recent WSJ Article that Most Corporate Blogs Are Unimaginative Failures featuring a Forrester report shows that many corporate blogs (a common way companies talk to customers) isn’t going that well. One common mis-step is that corporate blogs are focused on pushing their own agenda, not that of the readers/customers.

Every Print Ad Has Mobile Interactivity In New Issue of Men's Health

Thanks Branding Unbound, for this follow up on the launch of the first totally interactive print mag

It's finally here: The new issue of Men's Health is hitting newsstands and making history at the same time.

Back in April, I posted about how every ad in the July/August issue of Rodale's Men's Health title will enable readers to snap pics of the ads using their mobile phones and send to SnapTell to get instant promotional responses from marketers.

Now, the issue is hitting the street, and is being billed as the "first fully interactive advertising magazine" in American magazine history.

According to SnapTell, the technology is compatible with all camera phones, does not require special software for downloading advertiser images and is an opt-in solution for the reader.

“As technology continues to proliferate our everyday lives and devices become more advanced we are always looking for innovative ways to stay competitive in the industry,” says Jack Essig, VP/Publisher of Men’s Health in a statement. “[This approach seems] easy and appealing to our readers, yet compelling and novel to our customers.”

There's even a built-in mechanism for promoting reader/advertiser interaction. Each "Snap and Send" enters readers into a drawing to win a trip for two to the Wyndham Rio Mar Beach, Golf, Casino and Spa resort in Puerto Rico for 5 days and 4 nights plus round-trip airfare. And three runners up will win brand new iPhones.

Some of the nearly 100 advertisers participating in the July/August issue include AT&T, Anheuser-Busch, Honda Motors, Louis Vuitton, Quaker Oats, The Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble and Unilever USA.

As I write in BRANDING UNBOUND the book, this is the future of print magazine publications (with or without the "snap a photo and send it" model), and a view of how mobile marketing works best - as a interaction mechanism to commercial messages we experience in print, broadcast, outdoor, direct mail and more.

In this particular case, the initiative offers a great deal of flexibility for marketers to provide instant brand messaging, sales incentives such as product samples and discounts, sweepstakes information, and links to websites, photos and videos.

To be clear, this is hardly the first such initiative to bring this kind of interactivity to American publications.

Jane, for instance, is just one of the U.S. publications that long ago started enabling readers to interact with brands by snapping and sending ad images.

And just in the last few months, Wenner Media's Rolling Stone started offering similar mobile marketing solutions for groups of advertisers in an issue.

But this is perhaps the most expansive to date, in that it includes every ad in an issue, and is promoted throughout on behalf of every advertiser therein.

Kudos to Rodale and SnapTell for giving us a, er, snapshot of tomorrow's print pub, today.

Read more, here.

SMS mobile coupons

MCDONALD'S REVEALS RESULTS FROM MOBILE COUPON PROGRAM

Did somebody say McCoupons?

As I've posted here, McDonald's is running a number of sms-based mobile coupon solutions worldwide, including here in the US. Now, at least one of the programs is releasing results.

The MMA is reporting that 12Snap's SMS Lounge in McDonald's enables customers to send an SMS message to begin receiving embedded QR codes on their handsets that they could redeem in-restaurant.

According to 12Snap, since the program's launch last summer, more than 10.000 participants have used the service, and at least 29% of recipients redeemed at least one coupon.

I think in general, these kinds of offerings could be boosted by tying them to third party solutions like Mobo, which allow consumers to sign up for SMS ordering at several participating fast food chains, and enables them to opt-in for coupons.

That way consumers can deal with one entity instead of signing up for a separate solution at each restaurant they frequent - and even order food while they're en route, paid for by pre-set credit card. Now that's what you call fast food.

Thanks to Branding Unbound for this entry which can also be found at: http://maverix.typepad.com/brandingunbound/2008/06/mcdonalds-revea.html