Archive for the ‘social media’ Category

The dramatic rise in new media use by marketers has been captured by Junta 42 in new research that shows social media use up 500 percent since 2008, with blog and video use more than doubling.

Over the same period, use of email newsletters has declined slightly, along with that of whitepapers and cases studies.

The survey of 259 marketers also found that marketers expect to allocate a third of their budgets to creating content in 2010, up from 11% in 2009 and small businesses spend twice as much on content as large ones do.

IAB research, released yesterday shows that senior marketers believe PR is the first port of call when planning social media campaigns.

In their survey of 80 senior marketers, the IAB found that while social media falls under the marketing umbrella, 33% said that they thought social media to be primarily a PR discipline.

The three other disciplines marketers thought might be involved in social media were customer services (16%), research (12%) and IT (7%).

On the basis of this, the IAB recommends marketers set up social media teams made up of those disciplines they believe should be involved in social media, the make up of which will vary from sector to sector. Read the rest of this entry »

While the New Orleans Saints and Indianapolis Colts  will square up for Super Bowl XLIV on February 6th, Coke and Pepsi are already into a social media skirmish with the 100 million viewer event of the US advertising year as a backdrop.

Pepsi are not advertising for the first time in 23 years at Super Bowl, diverting activity into their Pepsi Refresh campaign, centered around a Facebook organised offline treasure hunt backed with poster and TV tie-ins, aiming to raise $20 million for local charities around the world.

Coke, who launch their social media campaign ‘Live Positively’ on Facebook today, is donating a dollar to Boys & Girls Clubs of America for every invite sent to a friend – up to a maximum of $250,000. Participants are rewarded with a 20 second sneak preview of their one off special ad, featuring the Simpsons, the full version to be played at the Super Bowl. Read the rest of this entry »

Marketers expect to allocate a third of their budgets to creating content in 2010, up from 11% in 2009, the annual survey from Junta 42 has revealed.

Social media, e-newsletters and blogs remain the top favoured content channels, with mobile the fastest growing segment.

The survey of 259 marketers also found that small businesses spend twice as much on content as large ones do.

Overall, 60% of marketers planned to increase spend on content in 2010.

Related research from Hubspot shows that small business blogging generates 55% more website visitors and 102% more Twitter followers.

Pope Benedict XVI has spoken about the importance of new digital channels in an address on the Vatican’s YouTube channel.

In a sixty second clip, he urges followers to make use of “the resources made available by the digital age in which we live”  describing it as “the urgent and unavoidable task” in the build up to The 44th World Day of Social Communications on May 16.

On his Pope2you website, the Pope’s Facebook, iphone application and YouTube channel, ‘The Vatican’ are evidence of his enthusiastic adoption of new media, though he is not yet on Twitter.

While Coca-Cola has issued guidelines for staff on how they should represent themselves and their company online, Manchester United has taken the Orwellian approach of removing its players from social media sites altogether.

In a post on its website on Friday, the club announced that none of its players maintain personal profiles on social networking sites.

“The club wishes to make it clear that no Manchester United players maintain personal profiles on social networking websites,” said the note posted on ManUtd.com. “Fans encountering any web pages purporting to be written by United players should treat them with extreme scepticism. Any official news relating to Manchester United or its players will be communicated via ManUtd.com.” Read the rest of this entry »

McDonald’s has revealed plans for its Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics marketing campaign which will include a Facebook and Twitter scavenger hunt to promote Chicken McNuggets which, according to McDonald’s, is typically the favourite food of athletes at each Olympics.

The online campaign will feature the theme ‘How do you McNugget?’ and other PR activities include a 300 strong all star McDonald’s team, specially selected to run two restaurants at the games, along with celebrity endorsements. Here’s one of their ads:

Coca-Cola has published a guide to engaging with social media for its 92,400 employees worldwide, recognising that its brand reputation is now in the hands of more than just a handful of marketing executives and pr representatives.

There are three tiers of spokespeople in the brand’s ‘Online Social Media Principles’ document; unofficial, official and a shadowy referral unit, known only by an email address, online.relations@na.ko.com.

The official spokespeople will be certified through a Coca-Cola social media certification program before being turned loose to represent the company online.

Unofficial spokespeople, i.e., any employee knocking about on social media sites  are urged to remember that anything they say online may reflect on the company and to remain true to the company’s core values. Read the rest of this entry »

Forget the sludgy single digit percentage growth of traditional PR as predicted by December’s Strongmail survey, how about a piece of the triple figure rocketship that is social media marketing spend?

eMarketer’s interpretation of US figures from the Jack Myers Media business report (left), suggests there is a place for PR at the new marketing high table as social media outreach providers:

eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson writes:

“In 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of marketers’ expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales. Paid advertising will not be the primary focus, but it will serve to drive traffic and engagement with the larger social network presence.”

I don’t like to have a pop, but material is thin this morning and like when a comedian turns on a member of the audience to distract from his own failings, I’m going to have a go at Ogilvy. On the day Lord Mandleson won The Plain English Campaign’s Foot in Mouth prize for this sentence:

”Perhaps we need not more people looking round more corners but the same people looking round more corners more thoroughly to avoid the small things detracting from the big things the Prime Minister is getting right.”

Ogilvy has come up with this about their new social media product (I think).

The snappy headline:

Ogilvy’s 360 Degree Global Digital Influence Group Launches Insider Circle(TM), a New Influencer Relationship Management Social Media Product Read the rest of this entry »