Category: web randomness

Audi’s Superbowl Ad

The Story: Audi means progress and they believe in giving back to the “world around us.” Lesser part of the message, but still there, Audi is luxury, new and exciting.

Medium: Television
The commercial during the Superbowl depicted the progress part of the story by saying the old guy whose dad had a mercedes-benz is old school. To be progressive choose the Audi and be set free. The commercial also contained features to be used in two different online programs.

Medium: Youtube
The youtube video is used in the Facebook competition. It also furthers the reach of Audi on this social media website. It has over 1.5 million views and almost two thousand likes and only 70 dislikes (probably mercedes-benz die hards and employees).

Medium: Twitter (http://commercials.audiusa.com/audiprogressis)
At the end of the commercial they quickly showed a twitter hash tag to be used in an online competition. Twitter users must submit what progress means to them along with a link to the contest page on audi’s website. Other twitter users who re-tweet that user’s post/hash tag are voting for that user. The user with the most mentions will be able to give $25,000 to the charity of their choice. Thus, proving that Audi is about giving back to the world, while of course raising awareness of the brand Audi.

Medium: Facebook (http://apps.facebook.com/estatesale-tm/)
On Facebook, Audio has launched another program called “The Real Estate Sale.” In which, users are invited to watch the ad and click on luxury items. Each item represents a certain cash value. At the end of the video, your total is figured and and you can submit your score. Everyone who participates in the challenge will be entered to win an Audi sports car experience.

Each medium works for the different part of the story. This campaign was well thought out and takes advantage of all three major players in the social media space: Youtube, Twitter and Facebook. Youtube plays the video on Facebook and youtube.com. The Twitter program utilizes the hash tag feature of Twitter to spread the word. The Facebook program utilizes the social game play/competition addiction that has already been leveraged by the likes of Zynga games like Farmville, Cityville and Mafia Wars.

This narrative did not depend upon audience participation. When the audience participates it drives the reach of the companies name online. The narrative would survive with out audience participation. This campaign was all narrative based. They wanted to get across two core beliefs of Audi: Progress and giving back/charity.

Ken and Barbie Transmedia Storytelling Campaign

UPDATE:  Saw the below at Toys’rUs with my daughter yesterday.

You all know that Ken and Barbie, “Were made for each other” as Ken says in Toy Story 3. Their story actually goes back to 1961 when they first met. They met doing a commercial. The story starts to build from there for the next 43 years their relationship blossomed. But on Valentine’s Day 2004, Barbie dumped Ken for Blain®. Poor Ken, what was he to do? But Ken was okay, he was back on the prowl as American’s more eligible bachelor. He hit social media like a storm with new profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Now Ken will fight to win the heart of his one true love. You can follow the excitement on Twitter:  @BarbieStyle and @OfficialKen

By the way, stop by and help a guy out poor Ken only has 32,562 followers, and Barbie has over 1.7 million.

Mattel is using all the elements of storytelling. The message is hey remember Ken, yeah that guy in Toy Story, they are reminding consumers of the great American love story that is Ken and Barbie. The plot is the story of Barbie and Ken and will they get back together again. The conflict is that Barbie dumped Ken and may turn his advances down. The characters we know: Barbie and Ken. The narrative is very successful it is one that all Americans know. It includes consumers in the narrative as consumers get to vote for whether or not Barbie should accept Ken back into her life. Consumers can vote by texting thumbs up or thumbs down to 51684 or they can vote at http://barbieandken.com/, then post about it on Twitter or Facebook.

I think this campaign is doing well, it has already increased the number of Twitter followers for Barbie and Ken. Hopefully, Mashable or someone else will follow up and let us know if the sales of Barbie and Ken dolls (or action-figure in Ken’s case) went up, revenue being the only silver bullet. By next week, we should know if Barbie took Ken back or not. If you haven’t already read the article on Mashable I encourage you to do so.

Transmedia Case Study: Dexter

I’m taking this really cool class at UCI, called Transmedia Marketing Through Storytelling.  This is the case study that I found and wrote about for the class. Here is a great youtube video that goes over the whole campaign:

Modernista! a Boston-based creative and communications agency was hired to create an alternative reality game (ARG) for the Showtime television program Dexter. The goal was to increase excitement leading up the the premiere of a new season of Dexter.

It started with mock murder scene at 2010 Comic-Con in San Diego. Then it moved online. Two characters engaged players across two main sites (sleepsuperbly.com and serialhuntress.com), as well as countless microsites, social media profiles, mobile components, and real-world locations. The outcome of the game was actually determined by player participation, and elements from the ARG appeared in the new season of DEXTER.

The primary medium was two websites that players could become members of. The platforms used consisted of fake websites, blogs, twitter accounts, ustream, audio, youtube videos, flash, foursquare, and even an ebay listing. Modernista! used any media that was appropriate to move the story along, to hide clues, to create suspense, and to entertain.

I put together a timeline to show the extent of the campaign:

Hunterprey is a blog that goes over the whole campaign. Modernista! has the case study on their website.

Social Media: PBS is listening! Is your company?

This is so cool!  Noah (5 year old) wrote to PBS (with a $1 donation) and asked for a new show.  The image of the letter (below) went viral.

PBS responded online!  Sweet!

Dear Noah: Thank you for your dollar. We are glad you love PBS KIDS so much! The good news is we have two super hero to the rescue shows that we think you will enjoy, Super Why! and WordGirl. Love, PBS KIDS

How to Cancel Your Cable

About 3 or 4 months ago we cancelled our cable. Not because we are hippy luddites, but because we spend all our time playing with Samantha when we are home. We couldn’t justify paying $70 for cable anymore. So we canceled it. I still watch all the TV shows I did before: Eureka, Family Guy, Flash Forward, Fringe, Heros, Lost, Sanctuary, The Simpsons, SG-U, and Warehouse 13.  Even the NHL has some games on Hulu and sometimes they are on Yahoo Sports.  When we watch Hulu content, we hook up our Apple laptop to our TV via a cable I got from monoprice.  To make everything even easier we use a free program called Plex.  Plex can also be used to view Netflix, YouTube and pretty much anything online or any video you already have on your computer.  Its a great application.


Recently, my wife and I have been talking about getting cable again so we can watch the Olympics.  Paying $70 a month so we can watch maybe 5 hours of Olympics a week did not sit well with me though.  Then I saw a great deal on a DTV antenna at monoprice.  So I picked it up.  It was only $15 shipped so I figured any channels that it got would be a big plus.  Its back to its regular price now.  Had I not been a fan of monoprice.com on Facebook I would have missed the sale.

47282

After installing the antenna literally like 2 minutes!  We got 66 channels.  Mostly foreign language channels.  But we do get CBS, NBC, KTLA and like all the PBS stations.  Including HD channels.  So now we don’t have to order cable just to watch the Olympics.  We save $70 plus on cable every month now!  Anyone who wants to save a little cash, should really consider doing this.  If anyone has any questions please feel free to post them in the comments and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

Cool Stuff I Found Online…and wanted to share with you

10 Celebs Who Worked at Disney:
1. Steve Martin
2. Teri Garr
3. John McEuen
4. Michelle Pfeiffer
5. Alyson Reed

Read the whole thing at mental_floss.

Facebook!

  • More than 8 billion minutes are spent on Facebook every day, Facebook executive Mike Schroepfer said.
  • Some 2 billion pieces of content are shared every week
  • 2 billion photos are uploaded each month–1.2 million served per second on a “peak day,” he said
  • Five billion calls to Facebook’s application program interface (API) were made on Tuesday
  • more than 300 million active users it has today

Read the whole c|net article on Facebook.

Continue reading Cool Stuff I Found Online…and wanted to share with you

An Experiment in Social Media [updated!]

Tonight when I came home from work there was a helicopter flying over our neighborhood.  So I went online and searched the usual places for news:  OC Register and Google News.  When they turned up blank I went to Twitter.  I found that my local police department had a twitter account so I sent them a message.

my first tweet

As of this post I have yet to receive a response.  I then did a search in twitter with the keyword “irvine”.  This turned up a lot of tweets on the concert tonight.  But weeding through that mess I found some people were actually talking about all the police activity in Irvine.

behind house

I checked the radio, nothing.  Saw the ABC 7 chopper in the air, so I asked them what’s going on and they still have not replied either.  Back to my search:

ocreggieThis twitter user actually was notifying the OC Register, to what was going on.  Still nothing on their twitter account yet.

armored rescuePossibly the most exciting tweet of the ones I saw tonight about the action.  But still no answers.  Things get even more interesting with this next tweet:

swat

This was the apex of the action this evening.  Later I saw:

under attackThat seems to be the end of it.  As of this posting I have not seen anything more about the police activity in Irvine.  I did call the Irvine police department’s non-emergency line.  They said they have detained someone, and everything is ok now.  Then the operator said she had 80,000 other calls and had to go.

The experiments outcome?  Twitter provided more information to me than any other medium when the action was actually happening.  Nothing was on TV, or the major networks websites.  The twitter accounts like the Irvine Police, OC Register, etc, did not have anything about the events that were unfolding in my city.  The lesson I learned tonight?  Twitter is great for instant information, but the whole story cannot be told in 140 characters.  I look forward to reading about whatever it is that happened tomorrow morning.

This has been a great experiment for me, especially since I begin my Social Media class next week at UCI.  Of course, the class is online!

UPDATE:  Irvine Police Tweet and post press release.  This was VERY close to our house.  I’m glad everything was resolved and no one was hurt.  I think it is very cool that the IPD tweeted this!

press release