digital branding Archives

September 16, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

5 Things You Might Have Missed!

For the best, brightest and most bizarre social media marketing, viral marketing and digital branding stories, you only need one thing: our weekly list of Five Things You Might Have Missed.

American Apparel’s big, fat backfire: We knew American Apparel was sleazy, but who knew the company had no sense of humor? The company was not laughing when Nancy Upton entered the brand’s sexist plus-sized model competition with hilarious photos which mocked the entire contest. And they really weren’t laughing when Upton won the contest with a landslide of online votes. In a grouchy statement, the AA-holes said they would be giving the prize to someone else. Upton emerges from this mess an online star and American Apparel looks old and out of fashion.
Winklevoss Watch 2011: Those beefy twins made famous for crying about how Mark Zuckerberg stole the Facebook idea from them are back! Los Winklevosses joined the ranks of fellow Z-listers like Snookie and Keyboard Cat when they appeared in a Get Crackin’ pistachio commercial. While the ad, which gently jabs Zuckerberg, is not funny, the existence of these social media celebrities continues to amuse.
Lego’s perfect puzzle: In a series of new print ads, Lego has created word searches that use Lego pieces to make things like spaceships and tractors. The result is a series of ads that ignite the imagination just like Lego’s products.
Candy Corn comeback: Let’s be honest here, nobody really loves candy corn. But the folks at Brach’s have done the impossible and made the seasonal treat seem cool, homey and essential to the season with this adorable online commercial.
Speaking of comebacks: Chrysler continues to roar back; the company cemented its status as an online branding giant with the launch of the new Fiat. Sure, we’re kind of over the J-lo thing, too, but her music and presence in the campaign signal that both the car company and the singer are doing everything just right.

August 12, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

5 Things You Might Have Missed

Need a little spring in your step? Dying to name drop the latest, hippest stories in social media marketing, blogging and digital branding? Then our 5 Things You Might Have Missed list is just for you! And if not, you can’t blame for us trying, right?

1.) 5 Google+ Hangouts You Might Have Missed: Google’s serious social media contender has a standout feature you might be missing: Hangouts. Hangouts are cool virtual spaces where you and your Google+ homies can do things like learn to cook, start a book club or have a family reunion. You heard it from us first: Hangouts have serious branding and marketing possibilities, meaning we’ve only seen the tip of this social media iceberg.

2.) Creepy German Bowling Balls: This spooky ad for a German horror network has been getting serious YouTube play for doing the impossible: turning bowling into something terrifying. It’s cool, scary fun that reminds us fall is right around the corner.

3.) And Speaking of Spooky: Rob Lowe plus Butterfinger shouldn’t equal a truly scary ad campaign. But it does — and it achieves a whole lot more too. Butterfinger the 13th isn’t just scary, it’s funny, tongue-in-cheek goodness from a Facebook and viral candy campaign we can’t wait to see more of.

4.) A Little Bit More: Bit Rebels is straight up a geeky, gorgeous and great-to-read blog that inspires us to be better bloggers (while simultaneously teaching us how to make Pac-Man toast or show us brightly-colored photos of evil people holding Jell-O). In other words, it’s awesome.

5.) Going for a Digital Jog: Nike’s visual digital visualization project through Nike+run allows New York runners to make art while showing where they’ve been in incredible graphics. It’s a visual feast from a brand who continues to run ahead of the digital pack.

July 15, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

5 Things You Might Have Missed!

If you’ve already been swept up by Harry Potter mania (and subsequently haven’t been near your desk in days), don’t worry — we’ve got you covered. We rustled up 5 things you might have missed from the world of digital branding and social media marketing that even the squarest Muggle could love.

1. Art, Inside Out: JR’s global participatory and TED-winning art project, Inside Out, was kicked into full gear this week when the YouTube channel devoted to the project was launched. The project, which inspires people from around the world to transform urban landscapes with their portraits, is equal parts inspiring endeavor and punk rock art.

2. Kenny Powers, MFCEO: The loveable d-bag athlete from Eastbound & Down, Kenny Powers, has returned to HBO for another season — but he’s also shown up in a series of hilarious viral videos for K-Swiss. You don’t want to miss this ridiculous online promo magic, which should sell shoes and a few DVD sets of the show’s hilarious first two seasons, as well.

3. Hooray for Spotify: The blockbuster European online music service Spotify arrived stateside this week to rescue Pandora listeners from hearing Shakira’s She Wolf for the 12 billionth time. The site is sure to be a hit and makes our list for shaking up our online radio doldrums.

4. Let the Toddler Drive: ToyToyota, the series of smartphone apps from the car company, recently released Backseat Driver ,which is sure to enchant the little ones on long road trips. The app turns your phone into Junior’s own virtual car. Toyota has wisely developed mobile marketing apps with the whole family in mind — and this one is sure to be a hit.

5. The Netflix Backlash: Okay, we’re pretty sure you couldn’t have missed this one… but just in case you did, here’s a great Click Z News blog about why the beloved brand suddenly became a target for online consumer hate. An email marketing message from the movie delivery company informed its users that the prices were going to be hiked. Now watch as all hell breaks loose.

June 23, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Marketers Have a Ball at Wimbledon

Modern sporting events are product placement and marketing hell. Especially the big ones. Call it Super Bowl Syndrome or the Olympic Effect or whatever you wish, but sports are now big fat advertisements with the occasional sweating from an athlete. Nevertheless, we still tune in for the spectacle, the drama and, let’s be honest, the ads. So when Wimbledon kicked off a few days ago we were curious to see what big brands were going to be lobbing over the net.

Sony’s “Balls” video is far less lurid and more charming than the title would suggest. In fact, the minute and nearly twenty-second ad is a spin-off of Sony’s original 2005 spot — except this time Sony is hawking 3D home technology. So appropriately the tennis balls are bouncing along the streets of San Francisco and into your living room! Sony put big bucks behind this ad and the multimedia campaign that bounces alongside it. It’s one of the first big campaigns of the 3D at-home era and will be remembered long after Wimbledon is over. This ad also marks the beginning of Sony’s 20-year commitment to sponsor the event.

Yet for big-time branding on the tennis court, nobody beats IBM. More than any shoe company or soft drink, Wimbledon belongs to IBM. The tech giant not only powers and sponsors the event’s site, but it also supplies the fancy gadgets to capture all of the court side happenings, statisticians to record the numbers and a “Green Data Center” which serves as environmentally friendly hub for all things Wimbledon. And no sporting event would be complete without an app, so naturally IBM has whipped up a Wimbledon app which spits out all of the numbers, stories and victories right onto your smartphone.

Wimbledon has always been an ace for advertisers. Now, thanks to digital branding, everyone can get a piece of the action.

June 14, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Pure Imagination: Canon’s YouTube Campaign Clicks with Aspiring Filmmakers

A picture, we’ve been told, is worth a thousand words. Yet for the thousands entering Canon’s “Project Imagin8ion” contest, a good picture could be the beginning of a career in filmmaking. The camera-maker has set up a Project Imagin8ion channel on YouTube and two lucky (and talented) finalists could have their pictures play a major role in the production of an upcoming Ron Howard film production.

Today is the last day in a month-long submission process wherein photography star hopefuls submitted pictures on the channel which inspire 8 movie themes for the short film to be directed by Howard’s daughter, actress/director Bryce Dallas Howard. Photos of the themes — setting, relationship, goal, obstacle, time, character, mood and the unknown — will then be judged by YouTube members.

Ron Howard was intrigued by the contest’s imaginative implications.

“It struck me as a really creative exercise,” he said in an interview with CNN. “A couple of decades ago I began to use still photographs in thinking about scenes to try to prod my own imagination and push it towards a more visual approach to scenes and stories because having grown up as an actor, my instinct is to always think first of the performance.”

The 8 winners in each category will be flown to New York for the film’s premier and get a bunch of goodies from Canon. But the real winner here is Canon. By using digital branding, social media marketing and viral video, the company is encouraging budding photographers to get involved and take artistic risks while promoting their line of products. It is inspiring to see companies like Canon tap into the creativity that is happening everyday on the internet.

“I think people are discovering their creativity all of the time and the Internet has facilitated and accelerated that,” Howard says.

Amen to that, Opie, and we can’t wait to see where our imaginations continue to take us.

June 13, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Is Article Marketing Evolving or Evaporating?

As we watched article marketing roll along on a never-ending conveyor belt, filling up thousands of websites, we never thought for one minute the whole machine would come to a screeching halt. Yet here we are in 2011, and while article marketing hasn’t stopped, it sure ain’t what it used to be… that’s for sure. Google’s “Farmer” update pretty much squashed the easy breezy way of article marketing. According to SearchEngineLand.com, big content farms have been left scratching their heads as many have lost their rankings, forcing them to up the quality ante and implementing no-followed links. So is article marketing about to be extinct? Or might it be reinvented?

While ringing the death knell for article marketing may be premature, the platform is certainly going through some changes. And as content creators, we think this is a good thing. Google’s update has pretty much put an end to the crappily-written and reorganized articles. Instead, SEO experts are (finally!) saying that article marketing should be done with only well-written and -researched pieces — you know, the ones people would actually want to read. Uploading articles on your personal website and using social media to spread the word is what these same SEO geniuses are recommending in today’s new article marketing atmosphere. For lower-quality content, marketers will undoubtedly rely on farming techniques — but with more caution. With the growing community of talented writers online, lame articles and the spam-ish marketing that go with it have no more reason to exist.

The biggest change here is that the old Internet-polluting article marketing is done. Good riddance. Of course, it means you’re now responsible for producing great articles that increase your web visibility and fit with your well-crafted brand. This is all part of the story of online marketing and digital branding, and how many of the channels we use will continue to grow and change while others will simply fade away.

April 27, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

Did Digital Kill the Movie Marketing Star?

I trotted off to the multiplex with my family over the weekend to catch one of the animated holiday films currently dominating the box office. As we settled in, I couldn’t help feeling like the ceremony of watching movie trailers had totally lost its luster. No, it wasn’t just because the movies looked bad (which they did), but because I had seen all of the trailers before. Trailers, to many film lovers like myself, have always been a crucial part of the moviegoing experience. Yet thanks to digital branding and viral campaigns, there is nary a trailer in the theaters that you can’t watch online first. I will mercifully forgo the “when I was a kid, you used to have to wait until you went to the movie theaters to see a trailer” hurrang; online trailers have dominated for years and studios design entire campaigns around their release.

Look at the current crop of summer films. Most of them have had digital campaigns for at least six months. Whether it’s The Hangover 2, The Smurfs or Transformers, studios are pushing these films early thus inspiring the age-old complaint that you feel like you have seen the film in its entirety before it reaches the theaters. Warner Bros’ film version of The Green Lantern has been feeling the digital pinch; almost daily, there are new trailers, sneak previews of posters and new photos of the movie. Yahoo has partnered with the film to offer even more exclusive peeks into the film. The Green Lantern also has big-time dominance on Facebook with 90,000-plus likes. By the time Green Lantern opens on June 17, audiences will either eat it up or pass on it because they’ve already OD’d on the lime-colored hero.

You can’t blame Hollywood for cranking up summer movie marketing, though. The box office has been in the dumps for months. The video-on-demand category looks to sink movie theaters as we know them. So times are tough. Still, you can’t help but wonder if digital desperation is the best way to sell movie magic.

April 11, 2011 By Brandsplat Leave a Comment

What’s Your Story?

Media attention and total Google domination are usually at the top of any business owners’ list when asked what they hope to accomplish from online marketing, social media marketing and digital branding. These are admirable goals and ones that can be achieved with hard work, brilliant marketing and persistence. Yet your highly-paid SEO expert and your PR guru know that fabulous media coverage and great search engine ranking can be unlocked by one thing: a fantastic story.

How many times in the digital age have we witnessed a nobody, small-time-brand hit the jackpot after getting picked up by a news outlet or blog? And how many times did the previously hard to find product or person or place suddenly become easier to find thanks to a good story? About a billion times. Unlike the days of press releases, our good stories can now get carried off to the right person with less effort and in a faster time frame.

A non-profit arts organization that I do social media and PR for recently discovered the power of good story potential. After being picked by the local paper for not one but two different and unique stories, the organization found itself on the top of the Google ranking. Pushed up with constant social media updates, the organization had a legitimate top Google ranking — not because of some crazy promises made by snake oil salesmen, but because of good stories published on well-read sites. Likewise, I’ve seen miracles happen for businesses who reached out to well-read blogs which in turn ran a story about the business; suddenly, people started talking and the rankings improved. Food blogs are so powerful and well-read that restaurants and food companies should pitch to blogs first to see fast results.

But what makes a good story? In short, you make a good story. Whether it’s your cutting edge product, your somewhat wacky yet loveable staff or your crazy low prices, there’s a story in there. In fact, there are tons of stories in there. So the question I pose for you this week, dear readers, is simple: What’s your story?

Marketers Have a Ball at Wimbledon

Follow Us

Is Article Marketing Evolving or Evaporating?

Follow Us

Did Digital Kill the Movie Marketing Star?

Follow Us