Filed under: 1 | Tags: brand rankings, branding, Cisco, IBM, intel, Interbrand, Marlboro, McDonalds, Nokia, Samsung, social media, Sysomos, Toyota
Agencies are always making up rankings to try and get noticed. So when I saw the Sysomos ‘Top Brands by Social Media Presence’ I thought hey, anyone could’ve counted up the number of social media mentions brands get, what’s so special?
But wait…here’s something a bit more interesting.
- The top-scoring brands for positive reactions are in green, negative reactions in red. (See the Sysomos page for actual rankings.)
They’ve done an additional ranking using their ’sentiment engine’ (an accurate name but odd image) which analyses whether the mentions are positive or negative from their context.
It’s interesting to note that all of the highest scoring positive mentions are related to electronics – due to review sites perhaps? More surprising then that Apple and Google, the top two from the mentions rankings and general favourites, don’t feature in the sentiment top 5.
It’s also unclear whether positive and negative mentions could cancel each other out or whether they were separate scales.
Do you think it’s accurate?
Discovered Nokia’s viNe service the other day and it’s tripping me out.
Even if we’ve gone on in our lives to flatter and shinier things, I think my generation will always have a bit of a soft spot for Nokia because their basic phones were pretty much THE thing to have as your first phone back in the day.
We’ve also seen huge developments in the internet and mobile technology. So when I saw this on Nokia’s website:
…I just had to click.
Here’s the official vid:
This is taking blogging and sharing your life to the next level (and almost asking to be stalked, really).
My question is…do people really want that?
Already there’s a facebook backlash where people are discovering that having your entire life accessible on the internet can cause big problems. Social norms are still trying to catch up to the new political dramas of what you can write on other people’s walls, not to mention a tale of group membership being used for a character reference in court.
Nike did have some success with GPS-assisted trackers when they collaborated with Apple, but at least there it was for a purpose – helping the niche market of hardcore runners to track their personal progress or participate in races.
However, viNe seems to be aimed at the masses (as much as the number of people who can afford the N series can be called the masses).
What purpose does it achieve for them? Sharing their life?
viNe is a little more like being electronically stalked.
I can only think of a few uses…
a) You’re on holiday.
b) You want to be stalked.
c) You’re really, really bored.
None of these occurs every day (maybe with the exception of b) which means very few people will get into the habit of using it – which is why nearly a year after it was announced it seems to have joined the rapidly growing pile of internet junk.
It disappoints me because I do have that soft spot for Nokia and it’s a cool concept, but I can’t see a lot of benefit – for consumers or the company.
…and I wish this ad wasn’t.
“Be confident! But not too confident because your online friends don’t really like you.”
Clearasil seems to be struggling with mixed messages. On their ‘be yourself for real’ website they’re challenging image distortion on online networks by teenagers.
The premise is that you should ‘keep it real’ because making yourself look better online doesn’t improve you as a person. To correspond with keeping it real, three teenagers are used as role models to talk about how they deal with image problems and online friendship.
Interestingly, none of Clearasil’s ‘real voices’ have any acne problems at all.
The point about your Facebook friends not necessarily being your ‘real’ friends seems moot. Most of Clearasil’s respondents seem to acknowledge that online friendship is a different level anyway – according to ‘The Pulse’.
But there’s a whole other can of worms. They seem to be talking about looking cooler in terms of touching up your profile pictures on Facebook. (Makes sense – don’t use Photoshop, buy Clearasil.) This is only a small part of the image control that goes on; try quizzes, friend hoarding, camerawhoring, status updates, detagging, events, groups… Risky pool to dip your toes into.
Still so far the dialogue has managed to stay in safer territory, through control of the ’shout box’ – questions asked by the ‘real voices’ and then answered by users.
To give you an idea of how much ‘dialogue’ is actually going on, as it currently stands their Alexa ranking is around the 2,000,000 mark and average time spent on the pages is 2.3 min per day.
They’ve tried to compromise between open dialogue and directed conversation. But you just can’t compromise on authenticity.
Though it might be an interesting resource for understanding how teenagers really feel about online networks.
Clearasil, if someone liked me just because I had clear skin, would they really be my friend? I’m worried about it. Like, srsly omg. Txt me bk.
Filed under: 1 | Tags: social media, supermodelme, Refinery Media, Hyperspot
So as reported earlier, this crazy new concept debuted today. The verdict so far…
- Login problems; uh oh! Had to sign up a second time to get access, I think anyone who registered before a certain time couldn’t get in. Big turnoff. Also couldn’t seem to load the first episode on the home page – either that or it wasn’t there. Okay, you’re in Beta, but so is Gmail…if you’re launched you should be fully functional.
- Having said that, content so far is decent.
Singaporean productions and reality TV are not my usual viewing, but this was slick and sure to appeal to the target. Was expecting more introduction of the contestants given the personality-based marketing, but the website profiles have done a pretty good job.
Finished the episode wanting to see the next one – it’s not Gossip Girl dying-for-the-next-one but they do leave you in suspense.
There’s also a slew of other videos which should keep even facebook stalker types occupied for a while. - On to the big kicker; is the Hyperspot technology as good as they say it is?
This is pretty nifty stuff. You click and one second later the person or item appears in the right pane as an icon you can click on later.
The problem is, fashion footage usually involves a lot of movement; zooming, panning, and of course models strutting their stuff. I’m not sure if the camera crew were briefed on the technology, because trying to click on a 2 second shot of Louboutins on a moving pair of feet required more mouse technique than a duck shooter game.
The clicking works well for people, but more gratuitous product shot would be required to really make use of the technology.
Overall: iron out some smaller problems and there’s real potential.
And is it a success so far?
The Facebook group has hit 1500, the views on the first episode as at the time of posting are about 80. Not huge numbers, but keeping in mind that it’s the first few hours of release and this genre tends to pick up viewers closer to the finish it’s not a bad start.
Agree with me? Disagree with me? Check it out and let me know!
Filed under: 1 | Tags: facebook, twitter, social media, supermodelme, singapore
…or both?
Look carefully, boys. These girls don’t just want to be the next supermodels, they’re also your next ’social media experts’.
When I received an invite to the launch party for SUPERMODELME I was about to dismiss it as another Singaporean fashion event I couldn’t go to, but it turns out this is no ordinary reality TV show.
Sure, it’s another cliche concept; put 10 hot girls together in a house with the shared dream of being a supermodel and watch the inevitable catfights and gratuitous fashion shoots. But here’s what’s different…
For one thing, it’s not on TV. The show will air online twice a week (starting June 16), with a constant interactive platform for viewers to talk to contestants and each other. Each of the models already has a Youtube video and a Twitter account, with rumours that the girls will be compared on how many followers they can attract. I think my vote goes with @fiona_smm – she seems to be ruling Twitter tactics so far.
++ no fights with broadcasting producers or competing for prime spots
++ the best models need to be good at interacting with people and doing promotions
** just waiting for them to figure out twitpic and photoblogging…
The much-hyped development is the use of ‘Hyperspot’, which will allow viewers to click on the videos to find out everything from who did the models’ hair to the price of their shoes.
+- another nail in the coffin for TV advertising?
++ extra value for advertisers in finding out the products with the most clicks as well as resulting sales (it’s like having pay per view AND pay per click!)
Of course, another bonus is that an online show is accessible to everyone, and with contestants coming from across the world it looks like they’re hoping to pick up a global audience. The winner is touted to become Asia’s ‘next hottest face’ and with Singapore being a popular testing ground for models it wouldn’t be surprising to see them go beyond that.
It also goes without saying that they’re on Facebook and Twitter.
Combine this withVIP access levels on their website and exclusive parties (which will most likely be covered online shortly after) and you have a very luxe, slick social media model.
Then again, this isn’t the first super-concept by Refinery Media’s Karen Seah…another of her brainchilds (brainchildren??) supperclub ‘Trybe’ at Mimolette uses Facebook groups to determine their guestlist. The catch? It’s secret, and you can only get an invite once you have friended their doorbitch account.
++ why refuse people at the door when you can check out their fb profile first?
SUPERMODELME might just fill the hole in my procrastination left by the Gossip Girl break.
– hello failing exams…
Filed under: 1 | Tags: advertising, branding, brands, Braun, Duracell, FMCG, Gillette, marketing, P&G, Pringles, social media, Tide, Vicks
P&G has made big waves in the social media community with their first foray – after letting everybody else test the water they’ve waded into the fray by inviting the best and brightest to their offices with the task of selling as many Tide tshirts as they can.
Plenty of buzz, rounded off nicely by donating proceeds of the exercise to charity.
My question is…why did they choose Tide?
…it can’t be just so they could use the phrase ‘Loads of Hope’. Or I hope not.
(You will find quite a few books about Tide and the way it changed P&G history, most of which have exploited the wealth of phrases included the word ‘tide’. You’ve been warned.)
Now I’m not saying it was a bad choice but for a company with such a wide array of brands and evidently a strategic outlook you have to wonder…why did they choose this one?
After all, P&G isn’t exactly short of brands to work with. I’ve even heard P&G speakers claim that the company invented branding as we know it. There’s big – and highly marketable – names like these:
A couple of thoughts on why they might have chosen Tide…
- Laundry powder has a wide appeal, is suitable to all markets and unoffensive - it’s not like it’s Tampax.
- The product doesn’t generate its own hype – so it’s neutral ground to test the effectiveness of social media.
- Youth, the demographic most associated with social media, is less picky about their laundry powder. (If they buy it at all.)
- Tide has been a key brand in P&G’s history – they might want to use it to open a new chapter.
- Let’s face it…a Tide pun lifts up even the worst news.
- It’s not a bad logo for the face of a charity campaign. Not unlike Obama’s campaign logo.
- The tees are apparently ‘cool/hip/retro‘ – is this the next ‘make poverty history’ band?
But surely they considered using other brands? I mean…
- For the same reasons as above, Tide is a key brand in the portfolio and there’s a lot to lose.
- Buzz around laundry powder? Laundry powder? It’s a tough sell. Are you going to get a good feel for what social media can do by limiting yourself?
- When your proceeds go to disaster relief, ‘Tide’ might not be what they want to hear…
- There have been other Tide tshirts already on sale (for much cheaper) and the style it evokes has a niche appeal.
- Surely another brand like Pringles would be just as effective – if not more.
All of these could affect the effectiveness of the exercise, given the aims of investigating social media and figuring out who’s best at it.
So why did they pick Tide?
[I guess, more simply...the Tide brand manager could have been the one to come up with the project.]
