UNLOCKED - Ri Ri 'Talks That Talk' So Socially

I am really liking Rihanna's new album launch mechanic - an interactive Facebook app 'UNLOCKED' that lets her 'Rihanna Navy' fans uncover exclusives from a new album little by little.  Brilliant social engagement that I'm sure will keep her fans coming back for more.  How does it work?  Fans basically 'Like' the page and go on 'mission's' to unlock new content that is released.  Some of the content made available so far includes Rihanna’s 'R' logo, her new website and single 'We Found Love'. 

The app has helped boost her following online (with over 45 million people liking the Facebook page and more than 8.5million twitter followers to date) - and there is clearly a tremendous amount of interaction with her fans on a number of social media platforms. The app has obviously boosted awareness and ticks the loyalty box but will be really interested to see how RiRi's digital team integrate this with traditional promo tactics as well as how they keep engagement and momentum going, particularly with newly garnered audiences.  There must be so much data to crunch/digest - oh to be a fly on the wall in one of their planning meetings :)

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Today the world woke up to the news that Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder and CEO  had passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 56.  'Sad news' is a massive understatement and there has been a phenomenal public outpour of grief shared globally through a range of social channels. The online tributes and mini eulogies have been phenomenal to this awe-inspiring man but I'm not sure that even the most talented of wordsmiths could articulate the true impact that Steve Jobs has had on the world.


Truly inspiring speech below by the man himself,  if you haven't seen it already take some time out and listen.  Life is too short - 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish'

Charities getting social

In the current economic climate where many businesses are struggling to stay afloat it is no surprise that donations for many worthwhile charities are at an all time low.  

So, in a tough environment where brands, including charities, are having to compete even harder for market share as well as a share of consumers’ attention and hard earned cash, it is more important than ever for them to think outside the box when it comes to engaging with their audience.

And with the advent of social platforms, many already have - as the Charity Social 100 Index reveals.  Charities are increasingly harnessing online opportunities to engage with their audiences with a range of social platforms so readily at their fingertips.  By shifting from a one-way to a two-way dialogue with a more emotive,  personal approach, forward-thinking brands are really starting to reap the rewards of 'getting social'.

UNICEF and Dulux invite you to own a colour and help save a child's life

There is some great work out there and one of the most recent campaigns that I think is brilliant is the partnership between Unicef and Dulux. They have come together to sell off the naming rights for the 16.7 million colours that the average monitor, laptop, tablet and smartphone screen can display.  The money goes to Unicef for bringing clean water, education, medical assistance and other aid to children across the world.

You can buy your own colour for a donation of at least £1 and get to choose what the colour will be called as well as explaining why you chose it.  This genius campaign also allows you to gift a colour which I think is a lovely idea for those difficult to buy for or in memory of a loved one.

To pick your colour you like you can type in a hex code or RGB values or simply use a colour dropper. Celebrities have started showing their support with Duncan Bannatyne choosing Saltire Blue in honour of his Scottish roots.

The donation mechanic allows you to give by SMS or by credit card. 

With so many colours to choose from at the moment I feel spoilt for choice - better get my skates on before my shade of turquoise gets snapped up!  What will your colour be?

KLM - A 'helpful' brand in the social space

Loving the social work by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Great stunt to help illustrate their 'helpful' social media service by replacing normal Facebook and Twitter typed responses with a living alphabet made up of 140 KLM employees. Check out video below:

Past campaigns have included:

• Putting fans faces on a plane
• 'Surprising' passengers and giving them gifts
• Hosting the world’s first in-flight dance party because of a tweet

Great ideas, innovation and connectivity

Very inspirational video - where do creative ideas come from by Steve Johnson. Time well spent watching this.

Magnum – for your pleasure

Have to say that I was thoroughly impressed this week with the launch of Magnum’s new digital advertising campaign. It certainly had the WOW factor for me and dare I say it’s one of the most engaging digital campaigns I have seen this year. The team at Lowe Brindfors, based in Stockholm have done a brilliant job exploiting all the best aspects of the social web to create an extremely original and engaging campaign in flash.

The campaign which is a game called Pleasure Hunt revolves around a stunning young woman who undertakes an adventure through the interweb, passing through iconic websites such as YouTube, Dove, Samsung and Spotify as well as many more on the way to her final destination. What a great way to involve other brands to and appeal to a much wider audience.

Players control her movements along the way, by using the left and right keys and the space bar which allows her to jump. The aim is to collect as many chocolate bon bons as you can by manoeuvring her across the web pages. My attention span isn’t the greatest and I saw the game through to the very end. Not only do you make the lovely lady jump across the screen but you also get to drive a chevvy and a plane to collect the bon bons accompanied by a rage of musical accompaniments when you move onto different sites.

Take a look for yourself; I’m sure the campaign will impress – what’s your best score?

LinkedIn enters social networks big leagues

Professionals everywhere have revived the once-ailing LinkedIn. Users once referred to the career-oriented social network as boring and lacking any real innovation. It seems however, that 2011 is LinkedIn’s year to shine. On Tuesday the site announced it had hit 100-million members, more than half of whom live outside the US.

Read more at memburn

No Jelly & Blamanche for Twitter

Despite a raft of cynicism as to whether or not the social network would 'make it' so to speak, Twitter turned five today. The platform which provides a social networking and microblogging service has proved that it is here to stay and is very much a part of a profound change in the way we communicate.

The first ever tweet was sent by co-founder Jack Dorsey on the fledgling social networking service, telling fellow founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone that he was 'just setting up my twttr'.

To mark it's 5th birthday Twitter launched a new website discover.twitter.com and video (below) featuring some of its most prominent users:

Twitter first launched in 2006 and started out as a niche way for a group of blogging and technology geeks to keep in touch. It wasn't until 2007 that it really took off at the SxSW Interactive festival in Austin, Texas where it was enthusiastically adopted by an influential tech crowd - and word started slowly spreading. Since then, the site has been hailed as helping pro-democracy movements around the world and given the world celebrity gossip straight from the horse’s mouth.

Now:

There are now 1 billion tweets a week

460,000 people join twitter every week to share their thoughts in 140 characters or less

Twitter is thought to be worth around $10billion

But what next?

Halo Boys - Kelly Brook fronts Lynx Excite's new campaign

Absolutely love the new Lynx Excite Fallen Angel campaign. The brand has enlisted Kelly Brook, taking a brilliant integrated approach including TV ads and a Facebook app in which players attempt to lure the last remaining angel (Kelly) down from heaven by completing a series of tasks. At various stages players receive personal messages from Kelly and the overall winner gets the chance to party with Kelly herself.

TV Ad

What I really love is the augmented reality experiential activation of the campaign which took place last week at Victoria station. Extremely engaging!

Social Lovin For Valentines Day

There have been a lot of fun social media campaigns recently that tied in with valentines day including:

• asos' most-loved campaign where consumers could win their most loved asos item every hour on valentines day
• Anchor's 'every flirt deserves a squirt' campaign - a Facebook game in which fans are challenged to lick cream off a model of their choice in return for vouchers

I however particularly Loved this - a digital/social media campaign to reunite one of American’s most famous couples — Barbie and Ken.

Since their controversial split on Valentine’s Day seven years ago, the two plastic celebs led separate, but successful, doll lives.

The campaign, which marked Ken’s 50th anniversary came just in time for the release of 'Sweet Talkin’ Ken' which is described as the ultimate boyfriend because he says whatever you want him to say!

Like the campaign's solid engagement strategy which centred around barbieandken.com where users voted on whether Barbie should “take Ken back” or not and was seeded through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube to get the message out.

asos to launch Facebook shop

As a big fan of asos.com I am pleased to see it embracing the world of social media and capitalising on it. This week the team at asos announced that it will launch a Facebook shop later this month, allowing its 390,000 fans to shop within the social platform.

Although Facebook shops have really taken off in the US, they haven’t quite haven’t quite caught on in the UK yet – this will be one of the first Facebook e-commerce shops to launch in Europe. Customers will be able to search all products available on asos.com, buy and share products with Facebook friends as well as write reviews.

The online clothing retailer has grown quickly over the past few years and its creative marketing, which has relied heavily on the use of social media, has given it an edge over other more traditional retailers in the same market.

I’m sure Facebook shops will be quite the trend for the retail sector in 2011 and that we’ll see a fair few retailers follow suit this year. And why not? It makes complete sense to engage with consumers where they ‘live’, making their online retail experience all the easier.