The Finch Post

Facebook Sharing Your Deepest Secrets with Marketers? Yes, Please!

 

So you’re on Facebook looking at someone’s baby pictures, and suddenly you notice an ad that’s actually relevant to you. Perhaps the ad is from a store where you shop all the time (and may have signed up for their loyalty card), but never got around to clicking their “Like” button.

Now – stay with us on this one – imagine that very same relevant ad, from a store where you shop all the time, went something like this:

“Hope you’re lovin’ that new shirt you bought last Tuesday! Click here to see some great pants we think would go well with it. And don’t forget, only $43 more to spend until you get your VIP 1-Day Savings Pass! So hurry back! You’re only 6 miles away, so what are you waiting for? Cashier Deb is looking forward to ringing you up again. Oh, and are Jenny and David ready for school tomorrow? We’re also having a sale on children’s shoes…even red ones, just like Jenny likes!”

The initial reaction would be to see who’s following you. Not on Twitter, but literally.  Well, Facebook announced that it will offer the capability for marketers to integrate customer data with Facebook’s user data in order to facilitate better ad delivery without revealing personal information.

Put the words ‘Facebook,’ ‘privacy,’ ‘ad’ and ‘corporation’ in the same press release and you have a simple recipe for a world class outrage-fest.  But hold the anger – we think this is actually going to be great for consumers. 

Many companies offer unique product, content and promotions to their Facebook users, so the better able they are to serve us with ads for brands/stores we actually like, the better for everyone, right? 

Consumers have the ultimate love/hate relationship with Facebook – without any seeming sense of irony, we complain about Facebook design changes and privacy issues on Facebook itself.  It is completely understandable to be vigilant about monitoring companies with whom we share personal information (even if it sometimes moves into tin foil hat conspiracy theories). 

Now, instead of laughing (or posting) about how mismatched the ads sometimes seem, we’ll be busy clicking on them and accessing great deals on products we may have purchased anyway. 

For marketers, this is a home run – many of our clients already have terrific results with Facebook advertising and now they can close the gap between social media and database marketing.  Instead of targeting people who like Sesame Street, Facebook is going to make it possible to reach a customer who bought an Elmo doll last Tuesday.  And that is something even Oscar the Grouch can smile about.

Monkee Business

Once upon a time, in a simpler age of rotary phones, Friday Night Videos, and Big Wheels—when speaking of “the cloud” meant the fluffy white things floating overhead—playground debates focused on the pressing issues of the day:

• which action figure was better, Luke Skywalker from Empire or from Jedi,
• which drink was more quenching, Tang or Hi-C, and
• which band was superior, The Beatles or The Monkees?

As for the last one, while opinions differed, the fact that a “manufactured” TV show band was being compared to The Beatles (favorably or unfavorably, it didn’t really matter) is a testament to their reach in the popular culture of the day. With Davy Jones passing yesterday (February 29, 2012), we’re reminded of the power and longevity behind the band’s brand.

Perhaps The Monkees are best known by today’s youth for Smash Mouth’s 2001 reboot of the song, “I’m a Believer,” which was featured in the animated film, Shrek. What’s most striking is that younger people would be familiar at all with anything Monkee-related. The television show only aired for two years (from 1966-1968), and though the group stayed together for a couple more years, they disbanded in 1970—42 years ago!

What accounts for their longevity? The same principles that guide all lasting brands:

1.   Build a strong foundation and stand for something

Wanting to capitalize on the success of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” NBC hired the very best songwriters and studio musicians to accompany The Monkees’ vocals on their first two albums, ensuring that the band stood for good music as well as for comedic, televised antics.

2.   Base it on the principles you live and breathe

Although only one of the four actors hired by NBC to portray The Monkees had any musical experience when the show premiered, the rest demonstrated their determination, dedication, and diligence by taking music lessons. Eventually the actors gained enough proficiency to evolve from mere actors into musicians who acted.

3.   Construct and fortify each subsequent layer of the business

While no one would deny The Beatles and The Rolling Stones mega musician status as “serious” bands (contrasted with The Monkees’ label as manufactured), The Monkees earned their fans from the top down, outselling both in 1967.

As clips of Davy Jones and The Monkees contribute this week to some of the most viral videos on the web, one thing is clear: The Monkees, like any iconic brand, will continue to live on in the hearts of its dedicated fans.

Brand New Rap

Last week two iconic couples from history went head to head in a fierce duel. Fathers of Flight, the Wright Brothers, took on Donkey Kong’s nemeses, the Mario Brothers in a truly epic rap battle.

Like any great viral video, this one grabs viewers’ attention, holds it, and then induces an emotional reaction. But it does much more than that. This video is an example of brilliant collaboration and cross-promotion.

A joint project of Rhett & Link, and Nice Peter & Epic Lloyd, this collaboration works because it follows the same principles that should guide all businesses when pursuing strategic partnerships:

1. The relationship increases the value of each participant
2. It helps all parties extend their reach

In this specific case, the comedians were able to get in front of each other’s fans in order to promote their own brand, and despite the laughs, that’s no joke.

 

The Art of the Product Demo

You must read this article and watch the video below. We are driven to share it, which is the entire point of the article. The writer tries to dissect the reasoning behind this video's “viralness” and to ascertain what brands can learn from it. For us, it makes us think about how to make the demonstration of any product as entertaining as possible. The product demonstrated in this video is a person – an impressionist to be precise; and the product demonstration couldn’t be more brilliantly conceived or executed.

 

 

 

The Amazing (but not all encompassing) Power of Facebook

In much of the social media buzz, it has been suggested that a presence on Facebook is replacing the need for a company website. But for a few rare cases; not from where we sit. For many businesses, the strengths of Facebook just don't jibe with a company's primary online objectives. For example, f-Commerce (sales transacted through Facebook) has yet to take hold; therefore, a Facebook page is not at all a replacement option for the traditional e-commerce website. Moreover, because the world of social media is so fluid, we would be hard pressed to recommend to anyone (regardless of industry or category) to link their entire digital presence to a platform that could become obsolete, like its predecessor (which was also unthinkable not too long before it happened). The emergence of Google+ at least serves as a warning that as ubiquitous as Facebook is, it's not free from threat.

Nevertheless, we remain enthusiastic advocates of Facebook and its role in a company's digital portfolio. Harnessed the right way, there remains no better mechanism for community aggregation and direct customer dialog. Here are two examples of clients we've helped incorporate Facebook into their suite of brand building activities.

Our relationship with Hydros Bottle began with packaging design and grew from there as they sought to create awareness of their revolutionary self-filtering water bottle.  We designed their website, and then applied the brand feel to Facebook, allowing both properties to do what each does best.  While f-Commerce hasn't taken off yet, we're betting that it one day will, as illustrated by the shopping tab we designed on their Facebook page. First things first, we are looking to give Hydros the exposure they deserve, beginning with the over 25,000 likers we've attracted to the page in the first three months.

 

Free Country,  a very successful wholesale manufacturer, wanted to use Facebook as a means to engage in direct dialog with consumers for the first time. In the process, the company has attracted countless non-aware customers thrilled by the quality and value of Free Country products, and  shocked that they hadn't  known of them prior. Two months in, Free Country has over 15,000 new fans.

 

McDonald’s Summer Vacation

During summer vacation, a time when some advertisers are relaxing, McDonald’s shines like that over-achieving first born.  One might wonder why McDonald’s has to be Valedictorian, class president, and prom queen!  There may even be those who wonder why  McDonald's bother to advertise much at all. The truth is – McDonald’s stays on top because they constantly work at it.  Not only refreshing their advertising to strengthen their brand, but re-inventing just how the message gets to their audience.

Check out this article on Adweek.com: Play a Giant Game of Pong on This McDonald's Billboard

DDB Stockholm and McDonald’s are challenging all comers to a giant game of McPong. Imagine table tennis meets Wii in Times Square using your smartphone. A huge interactive billboard allows you to play a McDonald’s version of ping pong, right from your smartphone in the public’s view.  The better you are at the game, the more rewards.  Last 30 seconds in a game and win McDonald’s coupons.

This idea may be expensive but the interaction is right and very possible for other advertisers.  Working outside of the box is free.  It means constantly working to be the best and working to remain the leader.  It’s about knowing your brand and taking bigger chances.  It’s about working through an idea and making it a reality.

The impact it has is impressive – creating a powerful interactive buzz, writ large in the public square and spreading virally via smart phone and social media. And while they’re at it – capturing participants’ mobile information. You see it, you interact, you play, you win, and you remember McDonald’s.

(No pressure at all to the “beach bums of advertising” out there, none at all.)

 

Much Ado About LinkedIn

Fast Company Article 

Recently, much has been made about LinkedIn’s returning us to the early part of the century with its IPO way back last week. The Fast Company link above does a nice job of framing what’s on the horizon for LinkedIn. We’re commenting here not about the company’s valuation – there are enough sources to evaluate the sense or non-sense of that. Rather, we are commenting on the connection this writer makes between the future performance of the stock and the company’s statement of vision, which reads as follows: “Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every professional in the world.” The section in the article entitled, “How to avoid fizzling out,” expounds upon the developments LinkedIn would need to undertake in its product and customer relationships to bring to bear the reality of that vision, concluding that the sky is the limit for investors if it does. This is surely the way we view business; though we are all too aware that the short term interests of the public markets can often hinder a company’s ability to create long-term value through acting as a visionary. It will be interesting to see how LinkedIn navigates these waters in the coming months and years. In the meantime, nice vision statement!  

Impress your neice.

Courtesy of Mashable.