Some Easter Fun…

I am wishing you all a great Easter! Today, we just want to share some fun. And as you will have some time to think about life, here is something to think about…

Think about the new ROI metrics in the future. And we better rethink if we don’t spend more time with our real friends over Easter…

Why spend time with your real friends? To tell them the true story of the Easter rabbit

…or to remember how nice love could be (if you are not the husband)…

News Update – Best of the Day

Some day sago, I have written about the changing atmosphere since social media monitoring companies are moving into the CRM sector. Andrew Hunt discusses the issue if “Sales is killing Social Media?” and explains how B2B sales is changing from both sides: Customer are at least “spectators” according to a Forrester study. The question is when companies are changing their sales process to a “listen and engage” model for the old “speak and push” format, where he refers to an interesting insight from OgilvyOne about the future of selling.

A recent Penn State research claims that updates on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other real-time content sites could be worth more than 30 million USD a day, or nearly 10.9 billion dollars a year, to advertisers. The study was based on separating duplicate searches from unique search terms. Then, the research determined the value of the real-time search terms by using Google Adwords Traffic Estimator.

Start the day with a smile and don’t invest in the wrong portfolio… Nice commercial from Invesco.

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News Update – Best of the Day

A good explanation why Apple often wins against competitors. Just see how they behave. Sure, no one of their competitors will comment here…

A nice copy of the Facebook referential advertising idea? Google +1 comes in late but follows the line of an old guest post I wrote a while ago on Mediamind blog (formerly Eyeblaster)…

A great commercial idea from Mercedes. The Sprinter applies for a job…

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News Update – Best of the Day

In the US, almost 80% of children between the ages of 0 and 5 use the Internet on (at least) a weekly basis. This is the results from a report by Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop. The report, assembling data of seven studies, also illustrates the increasing parallel consumption of different formats of media at the same time. Some key findings: 60% of kids under the age three watch video online, 47% is the amount television accounts for those using all formats of media and 36% of kids between 2 and 11 use internet and TV simultaneously. It is also interesting to see how the use of mobile phones is on the rise in the young age target group. Of children ages 6 to 11, 20% own cell phones,
compared with less than 12% five years ago.

Stop talking to your mobile, talk to me! This could be the message that arises from a post that Rohit Bargava posted under the title “Overtweeting: Are We Becoming Socially Antisocial?”. And I think this is a valid question to ask ourselves these days: Is social media becoming a conversation killer and going against the odds of the Cluetrain Manifesto? I would say: No! It will just take some time to find the right balance. Let the hype period move on. Let people understand that the world is changing. Then we are becoming Socially Social. It is just a matter of accepting that the world is changing, that technology will become our bred and butter, and that we see how much more we could participate in information around people we know. Agree?

Old school versus new school. This was the motto when Mike Ferry met Matthew Ferrara at the Coldwell Banker Generation Blue Conference where they had an intense debate if “social media is stupid”…

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News Update – Best of the Day

Wait or step ahead? It is a question of long-term strategy versus short-term tactics and planless activities most often in companies. Corporate sustainability is it’s new term. That difficult management question was put in front of 3000 executives who gave feedback. The results now can be seen in the study called “Sustainability: The ‘Embracers’ Seize Advantage”.

Some of the key findings…
– General benefit: 70% of the ‘Embracers’ see their sustainability initiative helps outperform competitors, compared to the 53% of the cautious adopters who thought the same way
– Revenue benefit: 66% of the ‘Embracers’ indicate that sustainability has added to their profit, compared to 23% of cautious adopters
– Management guideline: 52% of respondents say sustainability is a “permanent” part of their corporate management agenda
The message of the study is: move early, communicate sustainability, let everyone make it happen, measure it and communicate expectations.

Chris Brogan shares some interesting insights in the future of the marketplace. He sees them distributed, mobile, integrated, subscription-based, weblocal, and “global for the little guy”.

It is funny to see how companies use “speed” as a unique selling point… Coke & Mentos guys have harnessed the explosive power of these geysers: What happens when you combine 108 bottles of Coke Zero and 648 Mentos mints can be viewed in this video…

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News Update – Best of the Day

The latest market outlook by Deloitte predicts that in 2011 social networks are likely to surpass one billion unique members and may deliver over 2 trillion advertisements. Although this sounds impressive, it is modest compared to other media, the CPM remains low and the market share remains at only 1% of the global online ad spend. The per member annual advertising revenue is approximately $4 which implies total 2011 advertising revenues of about $5 billion.

Will the publishing industry see a revival of print again? Everybody says social media is challening the print publishing industry. All of a sudden, the Content Marketing Institute has launched a media that is in some way a spin-off of the modern social web development, Chief Content Officer. The circulation is 20,000 marketers, with additional digital distribution. Yes, obviously there is a “digital spin” off as well…

Nike signed a big sponsoring agreement with the national football association of France (FFF). After years with Adidas, France signed a contract with Nike for their national football dress. And then they did this fantastic commercial with reference to my most admired work and poem from “Cyrano de Bergerac”, ending with the famous words “J’ai touche!”. Let’s wait and see what the French team will touch us in EURO 2012

PS: At Starbucks mobile payment becomes reality. At least in the US where you can swipe your phone in front of a scanner that is checking your Starbucks account.

News Update – Best of the Day

Do bank customers want ads in their checking accounts? Whether or not we like it, banks think about ways for new monetization opportunities but also try to strengthen loyalty programs of other companies. The big alignment of the industry and the end of the plastic loyalty card? Banks just ad links to the last transaction and you get the voucher for some benefit at the next check-in.

Apple released some numbers that every iPhone user has approximately 60 apps on their device which sums up in 10 Billion app downloads from their store. It took Apple 31 month compared to 67 month to sell the same amount of iTunes songs.

In their latest commercial, MINI battles vs. five-ton monster truck. Can a monster truck jump really clear the whole MINI family becomes the question? And just watch the feelings and what happens to those who watch the challenge. Can love be described better?

Funny Case Study: "David on Demand"

This social media case study by Leo Burnett Worldwide called “David on Demand” is really something to be shared with my readers. It is outlining the success of an unprecedented social media experiment. Users were able to control the actions of a man through Twitter and then view the experiment live via 24/7 video streaming through a webcam installed on his head. Great and funny idea – although I would not let my followers do that with me… 😉

News Update – Best of the Day

Although Facebook is seen as a danger from a user’s perspective in terms of data capture, it offers great opportunities for businesses. Companies better see “the Facebook opportunity, get their site and grab their buttons” suggests David Carr.

What are the targets for companies engaging in Social Media in 2011? The “2010 Social Media Benchmarking Study” from Ketchum and FedEx shows us what 62 researched companies are aiming at…
– Increase awareness and interaction with brand: 94.1%
– Create community for customers/fans: 76.1%
– Increase traffic to website: 55.1%
– Identify and react to customer needs: 50.3%
– Identify new business opportunities or leads: 49.0%
And the reason for all this? As Facebook and Twitter are the new normal. At least their co-founders Chris Hughes and Biz Stone make us believe that

If this commerial won’t remind you of “Jaws” (1975), then none will. Y&R created a funny video ad for LG Electronics latest vacuum cleaner…

News Update – Best of the Day

The Social Web has it good sites and also some parts where human kind should be thinking about the communication development – especially if the language suffers from extensive and fast use of user generated content production. This brings the English Spelling Society to think about it and do some research. The result… Among the 18- to 24-year-olds the majority believed that unconventional spellings (in chats and social newsrooms) are used on the internet because it is faster and has become the norm. 22% said they would not be confident in writing an important email without referring to a dictionary or spell checker, says the research. Are self-regulation mechanisms or a change of culture the future is the question? Though “variant” spelling exists there, 31% said that alternative non-standard spellings were “unacceptable”. 66% believe that dictionaries should contain variant spellings, says the study.

I have to say that I am not a big fan of How To’s. The way Yannis Marcou wrote his tips on the use of LinkedIn for new business is worth sharing.

And finally, let’s not forget it is Thanksgiving days. Spend time with the family, real friends – switch your computer off (at least for some hours). No matter if there are funny commercials you might have not seen… Laugh in real-time!