Holler Sydney decided to put their main agency site on Pinterest.
View their clients, peer around the office, and see some of their work – as this site within a site gives keeps you solely browsing on Pinterest.
Check it our at http://pinterest.com/weareholler/
Calling all FIT, Parsons and SVA students: here's the latest way to get involved in President Obama's 2012 campaign. Runway to Win, fashion designers' effort for Obama's reelection campaign, is holding a Design Challenge in which any designer can submit their designs to the current collection of Runway to Win gear.
If your design is selected, it will be sold in the Runway to Win collection, right alongside the likes of Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler, Jason Wu, Diane Von Furstenberg and more. As cool as that sounds, that's not the best part. The best part comes when the winning designers each receive a fully produced version of their item autographed by Anna Wintour. Common That's hot! (Have you seen the September Issue?)
Go to RunwayToWin.com to submit your Hope, Change or "Yes, we can!" themed design.
The marketers and agency at Eurostar just got it right with a simple idea. The launch of Eurostar’s new platform, Eurostar Live brings social media commentary by the public about Eurostar’s destinations to 363 public display screens across London.
The campaign highlights hidden gems in Eurostar’s destinations, starting with Amsterdam. I love that they tie in to existing social behaviors we all do when traveling. Engage at: http://europe.eurostar.com/eurostarlive/
The last 6 months have been huge for Pinterest. Every client I talk to has asked to get in on the Beta.
Their growth has inspired over 100 brands to begin pinning. So is it right for your brand?
Retailers & Brands looking for Woman: Yes
Brands that are really blowing up on Pinterest are retailers. Right now, Etsy dominates - a natural choice considering how visually focused they have always been. Sucessful eCommerce has always been a visual experience. Now retailers have an opportunity to have their wares pinned all over the internet in non-ad form.
Select Retailers on Pintrest:
All other marketers: Maybe
In social media, there are a lot of bandwagons to jump on right now. Smart brands don't want to invest time and resources into social media that is just a flash in the pan or too niche for their customer base. It must be able to show an ROI. Yes, Pinterest is driving lots of traffic and very popular with woman. But unless Pinterest provides a real solution to a problem that already exists, hold back.
A Key Takeaway: Pinterest, like other social media, is a utiltiy with lots of eyeballs that might help your brand. However, it might not. Keep your goals and KPIs close.
Other opinions & sources
Did you know that there is a revolution going on in the streets of America? What started rally cry to 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals has turned into a thundering movement that is sweeping across the country. #OCCUPYWALLSTREET has morphed into a full-fledged peaceful movement.
In June, as our elected leaders played a game of chicken with our unstable economy by manufacturing a debt crisis that would lead to the downgrade of America’s credit rating, the anti-consumerism magazine Adbusters registered the domain occupywallstreet.org. While the majority of American’s watched in disgust as elected official left for summer vacations instead of solving the problems they were elected to fix, an independent affinity group registered occupywallst.org. This is where the movement’s official site is now hosted. Not long after the registration of the sites, Anonymous, a hacker activist group, encouraged it's members to flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months.
For those of you unfamiliar with Anonymous, they were involved in the protests in Tunisia and Egypt. During the 2011 Egyptian revolution, Egyptian government web sites, along with the website of the ruling National Democratic Party, were hacked into and taken offline by Anonymous. The sites remained offline until President Hosni Mubarak stepped down. Anonymous also has ties to Wikileaks, further explaining the sighting of the Wikileaks truck at the protest sites.
One of the most consistent complaints from the protesters has been the lack of un-biased reporting of the real issues by the mainstream, corporate-owned press. No one knows if Anonymous plans to hack any U.S. news organizations, but based on past activities, it seems its a real possibility. Given the recent ridiculing and dismissive nature of Time Warner’s / CNN’s recent coverage by Erin Burnett or even interviews like the ones conducted by the Business Insider, I would not be surprised if Anonymous was already working on a plan.
Corporate-owned media outlets claim that the movement lacks a focus, however if you’ve have watched the content they have distributed or taken part in a rally you would hear three things:
The movement’s core message, which is often lost in AdBusters anti-consumerism message, is that 1% of the population has profited wildly from the last 20 years and the other 99% have seen zero. Special interest money has corrupted our system. That's not sustainable. It's not fair. And it's not the America that 99% of Americans want. If this is a democracy, those numbers should matter.
The Art & Symbols Of The Movement
There is a ton of art that has begun to emerge and define the movement. You can visit http://www.occupytogether.org/downloadable-posters/ to view the latest in protest art.
You may have also seen images of protestors wearing Masks. Those are Guy Falkes masks. This is a disguise used by members of Anonymous to protect their identities and brand their activities. Guy Fawkes was part of a plot to overthrow the king of England in the early 1600s and his character was made popular in the comic book V for Vendetta.
A Growing National Movement
As protesters and citizen journalists share their stories in Zuccotti Park (near Wall Street), Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago and other cities across the country, we have recorded a groundswell of conversations and interactions taking place online. There are daily additions to the URLs who are covering and enabling this revolution. You can visit http://www.occupytogether.org/ to get in on the local action in your area.
We are people of Substance.
We are supportive and sympathetic to the protesters. They are showing enormous courage in the face of seemingly all-powerful institutions. They are being arrested, maced and harassed without the protection of a free-press. They are mocked, laughed at and even toasted with champagne from high-price balconies and yet they remain peaceful.
I encourage you to visit a few of the movement sites I have listed below. Judge the movement and its message for yourself. You may find that you are part of The 99%.
Additional Information Sources:
If you have not seen me in the social media high school halls its because I have a new drug. Me and my peeps are sharing music on Spotify. This is a service I had drooled over when I saw two of my brit friends with it about a year ago. If you are a music lover, it's kinda like when the beatles just arrived. Yes - Spotify has come to the US!
Right now it's in an invite-only beta phase. They are offering three great services - from absolutely free to paid subscriptions. Here is how it breaks down:
Right now my favorite part of this is being able to subscribe to my friends lists. I have almost abandoned my iTunes Library.
The part that makes this super interesting is that they are launching in partnership with some of the biggest brands. Coca-Cola and Sprite, Chevrolet, Motorola, Reebok, Sonos and The Daily are the few I know about. These brands will be launching innovative campaigns in partnership with Spotify in the coming weeks and months. Imagine the possibilites!
If your looking for an invite I have a few left. Send me your email via this blog!
20 Million and growing and it's only been a month. This is a meteoric rise for Google+ [G+] when you compare it to their past social endevours or Facebook and Twitter’s early growth as illustrated by the graph below [via Leon Håland]:
It’s only fair to consider and note that Facebook and Twitter were startups when they launched – conversely, Google is a global company with an enormous user base. [ we already use google for search and email ]
Now that G+ has its iPhone app now live, the option to bring in address books from other services seems like an easy way for G+ to expand past the early adopters. That feature combined with the ‘celebrity acquisition plan’ designed to entice global influencers in music and movies will continue to lead to more users.
As it's audience grows businesses, marketers in particular, want to know how use Google+. G+ has continued to push out updates about their plans for businesses within the service. They have ended up back-tracking on their offer to let brands test the service, but to be fair to them, they’ve been completely transparent, with regular updates about what’s going on.
In spite of a few hiccups, this is monumental growth from a service only a month old.
I think real sign of success is when you are able to inspire champions to publish independent videos touting the quality of the service. That is something we should all applaud. [thanks tom anderson for sharing this on g+]
For those new to G+, there are a number of hacks to get started. People are creating videos by the hudreds on how to use the platform. My favorite recent use is the Hangout feature. I think this feature could be used in some fun ways by brands. What's your fav. part of G+?
Champion Videos:
Like many of us who have had our hands on Google+ for the last few weeks - I have begun to wonder how I could take some of the brands I am working on and extend their function and audience to the now 10MM People on Google +.
In about a week, Google+ will gratify a few hundred brands by launching their test brands pages. Brands like Ford will be the first of thousands to have a shot at advertising via Google+. Although the set-up shares striking similarity to Facebook brand groups, Google+ is nothing to snuff at. These pages are open doors to a fresh consumer circle and a new social media marketing target.
Keep an eye open
It will be interesting to see how brands make their debut on Google+. Be sure to pencil in some time to look around and learn from the first-comers. Take a look at this concept for a Starbucks page done by Sean Percival.
Are you working on a brand's Google+ page? If so what are you doing? Why Google+ instead of FB?
[sources: womma & ad age]
Ever since the TOMS Shoes event at WOMMA Summit 2010, I have had a soft spot for the brand. TOMS donates one pair of shoes for each one sold. The donations go to people in areas where shoes are a luxury and often necessary to obtain education and maintain health.
Their one for one mission has inspired millions of devout and creative followers. They've shared photos, videos and more to propel the brand. Their latest campaign, Next Chapter, is a great example of how to inspire your followers about a movement.
On their Facebook page, fans are encouraged to think of what the world needs beyond shoes. They can show their idea by making a very simple craft - a small box made of a paper towel role and a cut out of a silhouette filled with an image of a world need.
Check out the Tom's campaign on Facebook and their website
Read more at Dot WOM
[Via WOMMA]
