IKEA cats
What’s the first thing that you’d associate with good value Swedish home wears? Is your answer cats?
Because that’s the first thing that jumped to my mind, and apparently, Ikea’s as well.
The furniture giant has just released a viral ad, depicting the scene at its Wembley store one evening, where 100 feisty felines were set loose in an attempt to capture some furry fun on video.
The ad itself is a video spanning one minute, showing the cats interacting with the Ikea range. The effects are nice, but what’s the point?
http://www.youtube.com/user/IKEAcats#p/u/1/Z7vXP3tHzhA
It seems like either Ikea is making an attempt to appeal specifically to cat owners or lolcats fans; or it just needed something to cut through whatever clutter exists in the value-for-money throw-it-together-yourself furniture adspace.
Either way, who cares right? It’s a piece of viral that will keep people looking for and replaying it. But does it encourage the unique dialogue social media promotes?
FYI, the ad has been viewed times, and the ‘making of’ video 1.86 million times. It seems that pussy, regardless of the form, attracts online attention.
What are the implications for Ikea though? The youtube clip has a high amount of views, and undoubtedly, people are talking about it: referring it to friends, mentioning it in passing, etc. etc. However, if the facebook page tells us anything, it’s that the video itself isn’t converting views into the opening of meaningful dialogues, or exchanges of information between the brand and its consumers.
To see what I mean, let’s do some basic arithmetic.
Here, we can see that the conversion of video watches to facebook likes is less than 0.3%. This probably suggests that there has not been a massive increase in positive attitude as a result of the campaign. In fact, it could indicate a decrease in positive attitude towards the brand, considering the high following of the flagship Ikea fan page, which has 110,565 fans.
Without losing sight of the fact that facebook ‘likes’ aren’t as tangible a measure of ROI as sales, is Ikeacats a clever strategy that will drag new customers into action with a viral video? Or a shortsighted attempt at creating a superficial buzz, which, in the long-run will have no effect on procuring potential customers and what is possibly a negative effect on discerning brand loyals?
Discuss.
Twitter, shake that money maker.
Earlier this year, Twitter adopted an e-business model - sponsorship. You may have noticed ‘promoted’ hashtags popping up in the Trending: list on you home pages:
Or tweets sporting the same ‘promoted’ logo:
Hopefully, work-a-day users like you and I won’t feel that this strategy is overly intrusive, and find it necessary to rebel from the service. At the same time, the marketing implications, on the face of it, seem, well, limited. While the obvious implication allows brands to easily connect to their ambassadors, it’s just a little yellow bar that tells everyone that a brand is paying money for Twitter to list their trend.
Is this platform going to prove itself versatile enough to compete with facebook ads?
I guess we’ll see.
Other places to look: Mashable, Mashable, Mashable, Twitter’s Business Pages, and Frank Eliason.
Video blog: Marketing Using Foursquare
Marketing Using Foursquare video
For more information on this technology, have a look at my post on Location Based Social Networks. And please, feel free to comment!
[Flash 10 is required to watch video]
Another blooper (featuring Tom) from the video blog - to be released tomorrow morning!
Shooting for a video blog!
Stay tuned, it will be up by the end of the week.
James
A LBSN told me you’re STI free. Let’s mingle.
More people are updating, tweeting and checking in than ever before. But what’s the limit? Updating your Facebook status to inform the world that your lecturer is particularly attractive, Tweeting about the culinary awesomeness of last night’s Thai dinner and checking in to uni in a futile attempt to become the mayor of Monash Caulfield are nothing to get up in arms about. But what about letting everyone know when and for how long you’re out of the house? Tagging your not-so-single mate when you checked in at the strippers last week? Letting the world know when and where you got your last sexual health check? Perhaps not? Let’s have a look at what’s pushing this trend of social networking reaching into the real world, a trend known as mass mingling.
According to Facebook in December 2009, the average member receives three ‘event invitations’ to real life gatherings every month, and 3.5 million events are created every month. Personally, I am invited to at least one event a day, due to my following of several bands, clubs and promoters. Added to this, I’ve recently been invited to several film screenings by the Tomorrow When The War Began film page, and gigs of local bands, including The Box Rockets and The Complimentary Headsets, about whom I have blogged before.
‘Events’ provides a great way of getting customers to interact with your brand - on a face-to-face level, which, if executed well, is always more beneficial than interacting over an internet connection.
Facebook has also recently announced what will be the gradual roll-out of its Location Based Social Network (LBSN - pronounced “lebsian”), ‘Places’.
“Ever gone to a show, only to find out afterward that your friends were there too?”
Places, says Facebook, is designed to share your favourite spots with your friends and connect with them in the real world. Head to Bruce or Sheila for the lowdown on Places.
It’s this phenomenon of technology driving people to connect and meet up en-masse with others in the real world that is fueling the new trend of Mass Mingling.
Popular LBSN Foursquare has proven the marketing capabilities of this platform. Examples:
- Gap has offered Foursquare users 25% off if they checked into the store’s location.
- Women’s clothing retailer Ann Taylor offered 25% off to Foursquare mayors and 15 % to customers after their fifth check-in.
For more info on Mayor-ships and other Foursquare idiosyncrasies, have a look here, here, here or here or watch this video:
Other LBSNs include Brightkite, Loopt, Meetup, Gowalla and Shopkick.
- Meetup allows people to find, join and meet-up with groups whose members are unified by a common interest. Who says that a common interest can’t be a brand? What exists here is customers organically mass mingling to talk about brands, it’s just a matter of harnessing and controlling the interaction to lead to successful brand building.
- Gowalla takes this one step further, offering customers location specific digital souvenir, positively reinforcing physical custom - something that regular social networks are unable to do.
- Shopkick gives users credits, called ‘Kickbucks’ which work in a similar way to points in a loyalty program - only, instead of being only rewarded for purchases, customers are rewarded for presence. While some may criticise this approach for reinforcing a behaviour which doesn’t translate 100% into sales, it allows a more in-depth look at consumer behaviour, such as shopping time, length and specific location. US-based retailers who have adopted Shopkick include Best Buy, American Eagle Outfitters, Macy’s and Sports Authority.
Perhaps the most intriguing campaign to date has been the Foursquare/MTV “Get Yourself Tested” campaign, whereby Foursquare promotes its first cause-related badge. How do you get it? Simply go to a sexual health clinic, have yourself tested, and check-in! The promotion is in collaboration with MTV, which is offering entry into prize-draws for those who achieve the badge to win a trip for two to New York City, as well as backstage passes to MTV’s 10 on Top.
The reaction to the campaign has been mixed, have a look at mashable’s post for more info and check out the comments for people’s reactions
Although Foursquare has just tipped 3 million users, it’s estimated that only 4% of people are members of a LBSN, and only 1% check-in/update regularly. Of this, 80% of users are said to be male, with 70% being between the ages of 19 and 35, a recent Forrester report reveals. Business, however, is tipping this to be the next big thing; New York Times reports that US$115 million had been poured into LBSN start-ups between January and August this year.
So what do you think of this emerging trend of Mass Mingling? The encouragement and enabling of real world meet-ups by social networks is putting to rest the old belief that computers would be the death of socialising.
There has been recent controversy over the privacy issues with LBSNs. Where do you stand? Would you be willing to advertise your whereabouts to your friends? Sam Altman, chief executive of Loopt, says that “The magic age is people born after 1981, That’s the cut-off for us where we see a big change in privacy settings and user acceptance.”
Added to these issues, the implications for business extend beyond simply offering loyalty points and prizes; purely on-line businesses are going to need to establish a physical, real-world presence in order to compete effectively.
Extra pickles please….
McDonalds has recently opened a store at 100 Waverley Rd, Malvern East. Which happens to be about a 5 minute walk from where I sit at uni writing this post.
To help launch their new restaurant, McDonald’s is targeting the local tertiary student body with really cheap deals via their “Pickle Club” facebook group. The group provides a way for McDonald’s to advertise their daily Pickle Club deals, and associated “code words” with their consumers. It also provides a two-way communication forum. Customers have been using the page to make suggestions for the changing specials, as well as engaging in discussion with other consumers and the store itself.
In the few weeks since it was established, the page has attracted just over 600 fans. The page is updated regularly via status updates, advertising the daily deal or just engaging in lightly humourous dialogue with fans.
The campaign itself seems like a great idea. What uni student would turn down a chance for a $2 meal? It beats the hell out of the staple of a bowl of MiGoreng or a box of Barbecue Shapes for dinner/lunch.
The page is, however, a little light-on. The content is limited, and the Facebook business page capabilities haven’t been used to their full potential. A fun little campaign to keep an eye on!
