Our Thoughts

This Week In Digital Marketing 16-20 Jan: 7 Mistakes On Your Business Blog, Gamification Livens Your Commute & Web Giants Fight SOPA

January 19, 2012 by Sean Lewis

This week in digital marketing Mashable makes a few predictions of whats to come for Community Managers in 2012, HubSpot review 7 common mistakes that businesses make on their blog, 3 ways to overcome the dull commute with Gamification and web giants band together to fight SOPA & PIPA.

Community Management Predictions In 2012

7 Common Mistakes Your Business’ Blog May Be Making

3 Ways To Overcome The Commuter Blues With Gamification

Wikipedia to Join Web Giants – Taking Action Against SOPA & PIPA

On A Lighter Note…

Idea Snapshot: Couple Up to Buckle Up

January 17, 2012 by Marian Schembari

Scandinavian Airlines has managed to bust through the block that all travel companies face with their recent campaign, Couple Up to Buckle Up.

The Idea

Scandinavian Airlines created an offer that required couples to be together to actually redeem. The offer was a 2 for 1 deal on a European getaway (a great offer, we’d like to mention) that they sent out to 100,000 selected members via email. The message contained two QR codes that, once scanned on two phones, played two videos that only made sense when played together. The video(s) provided the couple with a combined voucher code to use when booking their trip.

To be honest, the whole thing makes more sense if you watch the video below.

Pretty neat, huh?

Why it works

For almost everyone in the travel industry, the biggest barrier to entry has always been the need to check with one’s partner. This campaign (care of CP+B) makes this a nonissue.

The beauty in this campaign was its requirement for the couple to actually be together, putting theme in the prime position to buy the tickets then and there. No faffing about, no phone calls, text messaging and email back-and-forths you inevitably make when planning a trip to get in the way of purchase.

Plus, everyone knows by now that video works better than almost any medium when it comes to digital so incorporating a sort of romantic, inspiring video of a couple on holiday is just a really easy way for customers to say, “Yup, I want that now.”

This Week In Digital Marketing 9-13 Jan: Increased Integration of Google+ in Search Results, 10 Well Executed Social Media Contests and the Top Brands On Twitter

January 12, 2012 by Sean Lewis

This week in digital marketing Google has increased integration with Google+ in the search results, Mashable reviews 10 great social media contests, Hootsuite has released an infographic of the top brands on Twitter in 2011 and the masses are flocking to Pinterest; the fastest growing social network.

10 Well Executed Social Media Based Contests

A well executed, social-media based contest can be difficult to pull off. Mashable has provided a list of 10 successful contests that have exceeded expectations. An example of this is Bing’s Jingle campaign, which asked followers of their social media channels to create a Jingle for the chance to win US$500 American Express gift cheque. This worked well for Bing because it created content on Youtube and blogs. Leading to increased social engagement in social media channels. See the rest of the contests here.

Google’s Integration Of Google+ Into Search Results

Google has increased integration of Google+ in the search results, attempting to make Google+ more relevant and providing social signals for the user. Google is launching three new features; Personal Results, Profiles in Search and People and Pages. Personal Results show information that you have shared to the internet, such as pictures you may have uploaded or websites you have shared that pertain to your search query. Profiles in Search are somewhat self-explanatory, they put Google+ profiles in the SERPs. The key thing here is that they appear first in the rankings, which means having a well optimised Google+ profile page is important for SEO. The final change is People and Pages. This adds a column down the right-hand side of the search results which contains Google+ profiles and brand pages relevant to your search term. Read the article in it’s entirety here.

Top Brands On Twitter In 2011

An Introduction To Pinterest

Pinterest is an interesting social image sharing site, that takes features from Facebook, Reddit and 4chan to create a visual sharing experience. The site allows users to share a photos of whatever they like, but at this stage the front page of the site is dominated by pictures of food, cheesy romantic photos, quotes, interior design and fashion. Pinterest has seen traffic increase 40 times, in only 6 months, remarkable growth in a short time. Read the rest of the article here.

On A Lighter Note…

This video, made by Jesse Rosten, is a lighthearted parody of a revolutionary beauty product with such high production value it could almost be mistaken for the real thing.