Archive for the 'viral' Category

Miami Dolphins Draft

Published on May 1, 2008 in blogpulse, buzz, digital, marketing, social media, social networks, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

Saturday was the NFL draft and my favorite team the Miami Dolphins had the top pick. I was naturally curious about the level of discussion in the blogosphere and then something interesting happen. The Dolphins announced early that they had signed Jake Long as the top pick ending months of speculation.

This buzz chart identically follows the way the story broke. His name is first mentioned very sparingly and then on April 10 we see a small spike due to speculation about negotiations beginning. And on April 22 you see the announcement that they had signed him four days ahead of the draft. Then Miami Dolphins buzz spikes again on the actual day of the draft.

Actionable Data for the Miami Dolphins

The Miami Dolphins could use this chart for marketing in a variety of ways. Qualitative and quantitative analysis lies within this study. The Miami Dolphins could make operational decisions such as whether a Jake Long jersey would be a viable choice for the coming year and how many to order. Marketing decisions like promotions and which brands may be interested in using Jake Long are also a viable options.

Deeper qualitative drill downs are also available via clicking through to the points on the chart. For instance, scoring some of the listings from draft day yields valuable PR insights that could overt misinformation. Below is one of the quotes:

  • “Now that the Dolphins have signed their #1 pick, Jake Long, it’s now time for the organization (and the trifecta, to be specific) to move on to other things….And as CBS Sports’ Clark Judge writes, the Dolphins are already working hard on moving Jason Taylor” http://www.thephinsider.com/2008/4/22/2155/03979

Social Media Speeds Up Reaction Times

In the old world sports model a reporter would find out about negotiations and write about it to be published for the next day. Then the team’s official PR department would issue its statement regarding the draft pick. Relationships have changed and the world has become much more social. Media has cut down on its delivery times and PR departments are scrambling to keep up. Measuring social media and listening to your fans is crucial to keep up with changing relationships in an increasingly social world.

How will the Dolphins react to this buzz-touchdown and help further their PR strategy for next year?

My guess is they may have a small team devoted to “listening.” I have not seen many sports teams actively using social media as a viable means of listening and reacting. The Colts (mycolts.net) have a social network but I have not seen much feedback to its success for the team. I would suspect that they have an amazing amount of data and hope they are using it gather valuable insights. Insights that could be quickly gathered and analyzed to facilitate on the fly changes to the marketing and PR strategy.

The Future

Social media is predicted to evolve into a vertical driven space (ie. mycolts.net). Leaving little room for brand invasions to drive consumers to trust them less. Mining your base for crucial insights to help evolve your marketing plan can become social overnight. Will you take advantage?

Pope Benedict & Recession

Published on April 21, 2008 in analytics, blogpulse, buzz, marketing, social media, tools, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

Yesterday I watched the Papal Mass on television and I started to wonder how much buzz the trip received. Here is a Blogpulse chart, comparing the Pope’s visit to the US, with American Recession.

Here is a link to the actual query.

Pope Benedict

Key People in the Blogosphere

Published on April 3, 2008 in blogpulse, buzz, digital, marketing, reputation, viral and websites. 1 Comment

Key People

This interesting chart from Blogpulse, shows key people being buzzed about in the blogosphere. It culls the data from over 70 million blogs and outputs the chart daily with most citations at the top. You can also dive further into the actual citations or the amount of spots they climb or descend daily.

An interesting takeaway for me, is that Obama is in 20th place. Does that put some merit into Hillary (who ranks 1st) supposedly saying Obama cannot win? Anything seem alarming to you? Perhaps Dolly Parton’s high ranking? Or, Britney Spears still hanging around?

Ancillary Insights in the Blogosphere

Published on March 24, 2008 in analytics, blogpulse, branding, buzz, digital, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

A whitepaper my company put out last year states that CPG (Consumer Product Goods) product launches can increase buzz by leveraging media spend. That buzz is significantly multiplied by a variety of factors surrounding a product launch. And major public announcements can be amongst the biggest drivers. The above chart shows how Led Zeppelin’s announcement of a charity performance gig sparked major ancillary insights. These secondary branches off of original announcements provide valuable insights, via CGM (Consumer-Generated Media), into your current brand.

What can you mine about your brand from the chatter around the internet?

Project Runway and Flight of the Conchords Buzz is FIERCE…

Published on March 10, 2008 in blogpulse, buzz, engagement, viral, websites and word-of-mouth. 0 Comments

Project Runway had its big season finale last week. The three finalist were Christian Siriano, Jillian Lewis and Rami Kashou. It was great season full of excitement with extraordinary talent this year. Week in and week out, these folks put great clothes down the runway, so congratulations to them for all their hard work.

Now onto the buzz, I pulled two Blogpulse charts today to see if any themes surfaced in the data. The first chart queries the three finalists names. Nothing super exciting here, but we do see that the colorful Christian was the most talked about all season long and he had a huge spike for his winning designs. To quote Christian, he was “fierce” on the runway and also in the blogs.

The next chart shows some recent HBO shows compared with Project Runway. Its interesting to me for a couple reasons. First the season finale’s of each show seem to drive quite a bit of buzz represented in the major spikes on the chart.

The second reason is Project Runway and HBO’s runway hit Flight of the Conchords both shows that have amassed cult type followings in a very short period. One interesting fact, Flight of the Conchords buzz seems to be comparable to both The Wire and Project Runway even though it has not aired a new episode since early September of last year. (FYI - Flight of the Conchord’s season finale aired before this chart’s data)

What leads to the success of Flight of the Conchords and Project Runway in the engagement arena? In a time when strategist are stressing the benefits of social media and diversifying your marketing program, we see that both of these shows have integrated strategies encompassing social media and emerging trends. On the HBO site, you will find a vlog (video blog) and all sorts of social media features. Project Runway similarly has all the bells and whistles of a social media site with mobile fan clubs, widgets and many more interactive features.
Does all this social media drive active engagement in a television show? For now, it definitely seems to be working.

Twitter me crazy - but I like what I see

Published on February 8, 2008 in consumer insight, engagement, social media, viral and websites. 2 Comments

Twitter

I have for awhile now been hearing various comments about the Twitter craze. Friends say its great and others say “pointless.” Love it or hate it, Twitter is here to stay. I have been using it for about 8 months now to varying degrees of success. Recently it has become much more than a microblog informing me of news and events in real-time.

A colleague unfamiliar with Twitter asked me what I thought about the platform as a vehicle for brand insight. The question was mind-blowing. The amount of valuable content available for spidering is beyond explanation. I directed him to run a search for any brand’s name and discover himself.

Distribution of content and reputation are important factors of Web 2.0 communities. Twitter incorporates both of these factors brilliantly. It can deliver you information to multiple touchpoints including mobile phones. Furthermore you can choose to follow people or have their information delivered to your stream.

The picture above shows Jeremiah Owyang’s highly creative and innovative way use of Twitter to rate Super Bowl ads. The ability to rate these ads in real-time with a mobile phone (RE: versatility) leaving short blurbs (RE: qualitative) is fascinating. If Twitter were to set this up so they could quickly compile data like this and make it available to brands the opportunities are endless.

One thing is for sure Twitter is definitely helping to redefine marketing tools.

Facebook Notification Spam & The Emergence of a Model

Published on January 14, 2008 in digital, engagement, reputation, social media, social networks, viral and websites. 0 Comments

Why are my so-called friends spamming me? I open my notifications in Facebook to find this monstrosity and it is only a portion of the tower! The really amazing thing is that most of these notifications come from the same 2 or 3 people. As I think conscientiously about my social connections managing them will become ever more important as I seek to filter the best data from this spam.

Which part of the importance filter are you? Our reputation economy is eroding quickly and I suggest you stay on the side of value. Needless notifications will only serve to invalidate your reputation and further erode your social networks trust. Its the essential “boy who cried wolf” model.

Think about the content you choose to disperse and make it useful to your network. We are all dealing with so much information and your reputation will be the defining factor of whether you wind up being a digital loudmouth or important addition to a network.

Video Engagement

Published on December 21, 2007 in engagement, video and viral. 0 Comments

As the holidays approach, I wanted to talk about holiday cards. Most companies send out the obligatory card with holiday well wishes without using the opportunity to touch base (or whatever). I am definitely not saying you should be a pushy salesman with your holiday card, but by putting a little strategy and thought into your card you can give it a little virality. And a little virality goes a long way towards your bottom line and the company’s overall brand perception.

This video posted to YouTube shows a great example of thinking outside the box to extend a company’s visibility in a cluttered marketplace. Admittedly, this company was completely unknown to me until I saw this video. It was simply a great way to engage viewers, leave a positive impression, and stir up interest in their other work. Because of the video, I visited the website and browsed case studies and portfolio pieces. Standing out in this market is extremely important.

With the consumer B2B or otherwise being constantly bombarded with advertisements, a little positive mojo and creative thinking drastically increases a company’s chances of standing out.

Grody to the Maxx Marketing

Published on December 7, 2007 in digital, marketing and viral. 0 Comments

As Adverblog pointed out , this is an interestingly grotesque advergame for an Italian website promoting the show Dexter. (you can find the link here) I navigated to the site and enjoyed trying to play the game but my italian is lacking so I ended up without any fingers pretty quickly. The interesting thing here, is that Showtime, has taken an jovial approach to a rather taboo subject - serial killing.

(Full disclosure: I am hooked on the show and find it to be really unique and funny)

Advergame’s to me normally are somewhat boring and full of the usual monotony like the hero figure trouncing a dragon or generic versions of a classic. This advergame, however, is particularly fun because it makes light of losing your digits in a somewhat engaging way that makes you want to talk about it. As the advertising paradigm continues to shift its this type of attention to engagement that will thrive while the interrupt method will “sleep with the fishes.”