Earlier today, MillerCoorsannounced a partnership with EA Sports and the legendary Madden NFL video game franchise, two brands that millions of American consumers have come to love over the years.
The partnership includes a national promotion and sweepstakes that kicks off on September 1, which will feature a number of exclusive prizes, including the opportunity to be featured as a character in next year’s game, tickets to the Madden Bowl XVII party in Dallas during Super Bowl week, and other prizing from EA Sports. On a local level, Coors will engage local accounts (a.k.a. bars) to organize Madden tournaments for consumers to play each other and NFL alums. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?
Unfortunately, there is no information on the Coors or Madden websites (the link in the press release doesn’t work) and there are no tie-ins on the Facebook pages of Coors or Madden. According to the release, there will be a texting component to the sweepstakes, but details are unclear.
The great John Madden once said, “The only yardstick for success our society has is being a champion. No one remembers anything else.” Would Madden consider this partnership champion-worthy? It seems like it has the potential to be great, but the opportunity to engage their audience is being missed by not engaging via social media.
Last night, Jimmy Fallon hosted the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. Despite consuming lots of online and traditional media each day, the only reason I remembered this was because of Twitter (UberTwitter, to be exact). Normally, I’m not one for award shows of any kind. But after seeing that my entire Twitter feed was Emmy-related, I thought I’d turn it on for a few minutes. And I literally mean a few minutes.
Despite not liking award shows, I still like to be in-the-know about the winners, who wore what and any awkward happenings like the special “moment” that Taylor Swift and Kanye West shared at the 2009 VMAs. So thanks to social media, I was able to check my Twitter feed throughout the night to see who won. Twitter was the only reason I felt ready to discuss the winners this morning, when in fact my television was on for less than five minutes.
En route to work today, someone commented on how glad they were that Modern Family won and I was quick to agree, since I enjoyed reading numerous tweets about their big win last night. (Important note: If you do not watch Modern Family, I’m not sure if we can be friends. It is by far the funniest show on TV and quickly knocked The Office out of my favorite TV show slot. Sorry Michael Scott!)
NBC wisely played up social media by encouraging people to check out the live-stream behind the scenes videos and tweet to the host, who announced some of the presenters via viewer’s tweets. Since I missed pre-event coverage (the one part of award shows that I sometimes watch), Yfrog also came in very handy. They had a page dedicated to photos from the Emmys, so I still got to see some dapper suits and designer dresses, though I never actually saw celebrities stroll down the red carpet.
Social media was a good fit for the show last night, since the host himself is no stranger to it – Jimmy Fallon sometimes uses Twitter during his show to engage audience members and viewers at home.The Hollywood Reporterhas said that the early numbers are too close to call but regardless of the official ratings, I think NBC can call the Emmy Awards a success.
Did you watch last night or follow along through social media? And now that we’ve chatted about social media, can we please discuss the dress on January Jones?
Reverse Branding:Jersey Shore’s Snooki was always seen toting around a Coach bag on season one - but on the second season and recently while out on the town, she’s been photographed carrying various designers. According to the New York Observer, many designers are sending her free swag - but not their own brands. The fashion houses think the reality TV star(?) disgusts fans and anything she touches won’t sell, so by sending her competitor’s products, their product will do better.
Picture Poll: When trying to take a group picture in front of a landmark, you always face two difficult options: 1) One person has to take the picture and therefore is left out or 2) Ask a stranger to take the picture with the possibility of him running away with your new Canon SLR. Enter fotopol - a camera mount in tourist spots, one freestanding, and one made for balconies, so everyone can be in the pic.
Cloudy With a Chance of Music Video: Upon entering singer/songwriter Lissie’s website, you’ll be prompted to enter your ZIP code. Then, the first thing you’ll see, will be her music video for her song “Cuckoo” and the weather in the video is determined by the weather at your current location. You can also zoom in on any part of the world and the video’s weather will change accordingly.
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Talk Dirty (Laundry) to Me: Kenmore released a series of washer/dryers that come equipped with pretty fresh technology – when you have a service issue, you press some buttons on the machine, then hold your cell phone up to the unit (the service number will have already been dialed) and the machine will transmit data through the phone to the company and pinpoint exactly what is wrong.
What Would You Do For a Cool Mil?: Yesterday, we saw some pretty bizarre offerings – British billionaire Alki David will give a million dollars to the first person to flash President Obama – the one condition: “Battlecam” must be written across that person’s chest. Check out the explanation for that one here. The second – Anderson Cooper was offered a sweet mil by a company promoting Go Away Gray – a pill that will apparently turn gray hair back to it’s original color. Don’t do it, Andy!
A Dollar Is What I Need: The Dollar ReDe$ign Project hopes by rebranding US bills, we can rebuild our economy, and their latest entry by graphic design firm Dowling Duncan is making waves.
Save the English Language: In an attempt to take back the English language from our LOL-laden society, the Oxford University Press developed a new website, Save The Words. Along with simply browsing words that are almost extinct (most don’t even come up on Dictionary.com, gasp!), the site gives you humorous tips on how to revitalize these words, extends a “word-a-day” email offering (not to be confused with yours truly, “word. daily.”) and allows you to “adopt a word.” My foster word is “traboccant” – meaning SUPER abundant. Used in a sentence: I have a traboccant yearning for a Red Robin Whiskey River BBQ Burger.
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On Friday, I read an article on PCMag.com about how Facebook launched Facebook Live, a video streaming channel that was created to keep Facebook enthusiasts up to speed on what’s happening behind the scenes at the social networking site headquarters. The new feature was not created as a platform for Facebook users to upload and share their own videos. Instead of it being a 2-way street like YouTube – where you can upload your own videos and watch other people’s videos – Facebook Live is simply a 1-way street.
Personally, I was as excited to read this announcement as I was to see Farmville and Mafia Wars all over my newsfeed (hint: not very excited). Seeing what goes on behind the scenes in Palo Alto is not how I want to spend my time online. If I find a few free minutes during the day where I can sign into Facebook, I’d rather go on a friending spree or look at the photos of someone I haven’t spoken to in over a year (don’t judge, you know you do it too!).
My initial judgments aside, I’m sure there are plenty of curious people among the 500+ million users on the site who would be interested to know what happens at the Facebook offices.Facebook Live is an extension of the Facebook blog, which is another avenue for the company to highlight new offerings and showcase its strong presence in the social media landscape. Example: America Ferrera was the first celebrity to be featured on Facebook Live when she swung by to chat about her new movie, which is being promoted through social media channels. Facebook – 1.Traditional Media – 0.
Will Facebook Live be a success?Will other social media sites take notice and start document behind the scene videos?You’ll have to tune in to find out.
No matter what you say to a client about the value of social media for their brand, the bottom line is that unless there are metrics attached, your supplications might fall on deaf ears.
Enter Looxii. This new service can help you make the case for brand engagement on social media channels. Humongo tested this tool by running a report for…drum roll please…’80s MTV VJ Pauly Shore. If you’re interested in what is being said about Pauly, visit the sample traffic report.
Looxii offers three tiers, which can be accessed on a free trial basis. Best of all, this service won’t cut into your campaign budget, because the fees are capped at $20 per month. Personally, I might have run a search for DJ Pauly D, but hey, I’m all about the Shore!
Huluand YouTube are popular for keeping up with TV shows if you don’t have cable or if you miss an episode of your favorite series and can’t wait for a rerun, but according to The New York Times, there is a rise in the popularity of original shows that live on the web. Actress Illeana Douglas started her own Internet show, Easy to Assemble, in which she plays an Ikea employee and even got the furniture company to sponsor it. The show gets 1.5 million views per month, which is pretty impressive.
Might the soaring popularity of online shows ever replace television? I doubt it; however, original online entertainment could be worth an investment. Douglas is looking for another sponsor for the third season…any takers?
What’s Your Flavor?: University of Tokyo researchers have brought their augmented reality “A” game with the “meta cookie” – they created a plain, tasteless cookie that can flavor-shift thanks to a headset that modifies perception by using image overlays and scents.
Liquid Ink: Seen as one of the coolest inventions of all time, Sharpie will be introducing the Liquid Pencil this fall. The pencil/pen combo will have graphite “ink” that allows young Dickenses to erase at will for a three day period; after that, anything written will be permanent.
Follow Me: Michael Krivicka, @whoisthebaldguy, really wants Jimmy Fallon to follow him on Twitter – the NYC resident posted a videofull of reasons why Fallon should follow him, one being that he tweets about The Naked Cowboy (and who doesn’t want to miss those TwitPics?).
Textile Taxidermy: Take a look at this hunting jacket that can be transformed into a lined coat, a lighter-weight quilted jacket, a fitted city windbreaker, and a ram’s head to mount on your wall. Yup, bet you didn’t see that coming!
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I Am Vampire: Gearing up for the season three premiere of HBO’s True Blood, a website was launched for fans to create vampire personas. Much to their blood-sucking delight, their vampire bios were turned into an ad featured in the birth/death notice section of the NZ Herald.
Vanity Fair Lounge: In attempts to capitalize on their brands, Condé Nast is opening up a restaurant division. For right now, this will only be implemented internationally and they are said to be focusing on the Vogue and GQ brands. There is already a Vogue Cafe in Moscow and Chairman Jonathan Newhouse said it’s been highly successful in enhancing the image of Condé Nast magazines in Russia.
Dot Coms: In the hopes that Speidi will reconcile their differences, eBay user cazual714 (he has 100% positive feedback, btw) is auctioning off HeidiAndSpencer.com for $21 million. And we feel it’s worth a mention that he’s willing to let go of GuidosAndGuidettes.com for $6,000 and 3DSantaClaus.com for $2,500 (and that it actually has one bid). Hurry up, only three days left!
Nothing Is What It Seems: A finalist in Levi’s “Care to Air” Design Challenge is industrial design student, Caleb Hill, who put an interesting spin on the drying rack. He created what looks like a mounted picture – but – it folds off the wall to reveal itself as a drying rack.
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What is the first thing you think of when you hear the brand K-Swiss? For me, it is the traditional all-white sneaker worn by tennis players in the ’80s, but yesterday, K-Swiss took a step in the right direction by turning a brand with an old-fashioned personality into something that appeals to a pop culture audience.
They did this for a new branding campaign for their Tubes line of shoes, using Danny McBride of HBO’s Eastbound & Down (a brainchild of Will Ferrell) as the lead spokesperson. McBride plays his Kenny Powers character in all of the online, TV and print spots, and that is what makes the ads appealing and spreadable to the young male audience that they are targeting with the campaign. With the upcoming second season of Eastbound & Down set to begin in September, the timing is impeccable in terms of advertising for the show and new K-Swiss line of products.
We first caught wind of the campaign after receiving the Funny or Die (another brainchild of the Will Ferrell franchise) weekly e-mail blast yesterday, which included an intro to the campaign from Kenny Powers in full force, vulgarity and all.
The idea of using a popular fictional TV character as the lead spokesperson for a campaign may have drawbacks, but when trying to reach a hyper-targeted audience, sometimes using pop culture and a fictional character can be a great option. In essence, a TV character is coming to life with this campaign, and there isn’t a fan of Eastbound & Down who wouldn’t want to meet Kenny Powers. In fact, the above video already has over 65,000 views on YouTube, which is the most views of any video on the K-Swiss page to date.
For more on the campaign from an advertising perspective, be sure to check out this article from MediaPost’s Tanya Irwin.
#Itsaprocess: Kayne West joined Twitter last week – and his tweets are actually somewhat entertaining (“I jog in Lanvin,” and “Don’t you hate when girls send you a picture of … anything other themselves!!!” are favorites). Other people think so too, and decided to illustrate Mr. Ye’s tweets as New Yorker cartoons – take a look here.
Here Comes the Sun: If you’re crossing Abbey Road, you’re most likely mimicking the Beatles. And now, the Abbey Road webcam is there to capture it all – check out the live feed here.
Oh, The Possibilities: The folks over at Macworld are too cool for school – they have shot their most recent magazine cover with the iPhone 4 and only edited it using apps.
Look at Me: Taking publicity into her own hands, novelist Jennifer Belle hired actresses to read her newest book, The Seven Year Bitch, on the subway and at famous NYC landmarks. The ladies infectiously laughed while turning each page, garnering attention of passersby.
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Okay, okay, so that isn’t the point of this story…just a brief takeaway that I find absolutely fascinating.
The point is that love them or hate them, Starbucks has proven more than successful in utilizing social media to keep the brand continuously talked about through ongoing engagement. While it’s obviously a mega-brand able to keep fans engaged, the Starbucks Facebook page is never stale. There is always content, always an incentive to go into a shop and, most importantly, always a reason to check back in.
Congrats, Starbucks, on your 10 millionth follower…you’ll get Vin Diesel soon enough!
-Sally
P.S. You can send my free latte voucher to my office address.
“Some have questioned why Facebook and its story was worthy of a film, let alone a film from A-level writers and directors. Well, think about just how much Facebook dominates the online communication space today. Think about how much bigger it is than it was even a year ago. Now consider that it was started only six years ago. Its overwhelming success and the fact that it has become important enough to drive ongoing discussions regarding privacy and data ownership is indicative that it is a force.”
If you had to pick someone to cast as Mark Zuckerberg, who would it be? I know I would most likely choose a young Joe Pesci. I think it would add to the intrigue.
Best Dressed: Remember this dress that Best Actress front-runner Sandra Bullock wore to the Golden Globes? Well, it’s a Bottega Veneta gown made with a Japanese chiffon so heavenly it can only be cut out using the tip of an angel wing (okay, it’s cut by lasers, which is cooler). The fabric is actually so light that it is impossible to wrinkle it, no matter how hard you try…so if Sandy ever finds herself on a bus that will explode if it goes less than 50 MPH, she should wear this so she has one less thing to worry about.
Best Picture: Designer Tavis Coburn created retro re-imaginations of the five films nominated for the BAFTA – the UK equivalent of the Academy Awards. Check out his throw-back work that actually looks quite modern. (via Shelly Silver)
Best Actor / Worst Spokesperson: Great news, a few years ago Hyundai signed down-on-his-luck Jeff Bridges to do the voice over work in their commercials. Now, he’s a lock to win an Oscar. So Hyundai bought advertising space during the show to run their spot with Bridges! The Dude, that’s awesome for Hyundai! Oh, except that The Academy rejected the commercials because it doesn’t allow nominees or presenters to participate in commercials that air during the ceremony. Getting around that, Hyundai is replacing Bridges’ voice for the evening with a rotating cast including: Kim Basinger, David Duchovny and Catherine Keener.
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