Start a conversation

In the past writers wrote traditional ads for a collective broadcast, as people viewed ads together gathered around the TV or radio. Now we’re an audience of one; we surf the web in solitude, so the experience must be more of a one on one conversation. That’s why it’s important to talk in the voice of the brand and sound like a real person. Whether the personality of the brand is funny, absurd, or inspiring – it should be authentic. A good tip is to “write the way you talk.” Use a voice that’s familiar, relatable and casual as opposed to being formal and preaching to the user. If the tone is right, the user should feel as if they’re having a chat with a trusted friend. Good writing is one of the most important ways to establish a brand’s voice and identity. The Mini is well known for it’s innovative advertising and has a defined fun and cheeky voice. The Mini blog extends the brand’s personality and starts a conversation promoting urban culture, art, fashion and Mini competitions and events.

Allow users to respond

With the Internet, advertisers can easily involve the user in a conversation or solicit a response with a click of the mouse. They can take advantage by calling out offers and creating response mechanisms for immediate gratification. Social media allows users to speak their mind and even participate in campaigns to help build brand identity.

Listen and adapt

Once a conversation has been established it’s important to consider customer feedback. Whether it’s monitoring social media or analyzing “click throughs,” it’s helpful to listen to the user, especially within customer service channels. People are usually satisfied if they know their opinions are being taken into account. Over time, a company can implement change, evolve and represent the common interest and voice of their consumers. Starbucks uses crowdsourcing to boost public image on the site My Starbucks Idea. Customers and employees can converse and post ideas about products, services and community involvement. This is an example of how great brands establish a conversation and allow for effective communication. An authentic voice that resonates with the public is more likely to build loyalty and trust among consumers.

TV: passive to active?

Have our attention spans become so short that we cannot simply watch a TV show without posting our thoughts or looking up info on our phones? It’s clear that advertisers and producers recognize this, as they’ve begun to weave digital campaigns and social media into TV programming. It’s possible that as TV and the digital world become more integrated, content will seamlessly be shared across platforms, and watching TV could become a more active participatory experience. A few brands such as Honda and AXA auto insurance have recently created commercials and implemented the use of mobile apps. The spots are well executed technically as content is transferred via QR code and sound-syncing technology. Despite the innovative approach, the importance of these types of ads is to take the user from viewing to product purchase.

In terms of TV programming, the UFC has begun streaming pay-per-view while simultaneously allowing users to interact on multiple platforms by tweeting, chatting and judging the fights. The service is quality programming and might be a look into what the future holds for TV and the Internet. This appears to work better than regular programming trying to incorporate social media, such as a live twitter stream during events and award shows. It seems that social networks are becoming a legitimate resource. The Stream, a news talk show is actually using social media as a basis; producers will script the broadcast using tweets, Facebook posts, and YouTube videos. Furthermore, major events have called for the use of specialized apps that offer complementary information. For instance, the Oscar Backstage Pass app this season gave an exclusive behind the scenes look into the awards show. The problem is that without proper integration of these apps and social media, viewing all the different screens becomes a challenge. It’s hard to tell if this activity will soon become normalized, or if people will always prefer to relax and enjoy TV.

Rewards can make an impression. Inspiration can ignite a movement.

A great way to make a lasting impression is to deliver immediate gratification or offer some type of tangible reward. For example, GranetaPets, a premium dog food in Germany, had key insight to stop dogs and owners when walking by their billboard. The company concealed actual dog food within the billboard; dogs were therefore attracted to it, as they have a heightened sense of smell. Owners that took notice were encouraged to check-in via Foursquare and once they did, a free bowl of dog food was dispensed.

Many great ideas involve the user and depend on them to participate in the making of a campaign. Coca Cola’s latest crowdsourcing campaign got rock band Maroon 5 on board to create an original song in 24 hours with fans contributing to the song via Twitter. Fans were able to tweet lyrics and ideas as inspiration for the band. Once the track gets 100k downloads, Coke will make a donation on their fan’s behalf to the RAIN Foundation (Replenish Africa Initiative). This is not just a campaign, it’s a part of a bigger movement to help make the world a better place, with the ultimate goal of providing at least 2 million Africans with clean water by 2015. Many companies have made similar moves such as Pepsi with their Refresh the World project, and Maxwell House’s Brew some good initiative. A successful campaign can usually create a movement when it’s inspiring, for the common good, and has a unique idea that is cohesive with the brand.

Useful campaigns

Campaigns and apps that are inherently useful make a more impactful UX. Many campaigns have used augmented reality in their approach, but the World Lens app, is one of the most useful implementations that we’ve seen. The app for the iPhone and iPod Touch offers real time translation of text. You simply point your device’s video camera at a sign and the program translates and superimposes the translated text onto the video.

Another useful print ad for Carlsberg, gives a step-by-step process for turning the ad into an actual bottle opener. Although, you might have missed its intention when flipping through a magazine.

Retail marketing

Shopping retail is becoming an increasingly more immersive and interactive experience. Puma has recently implemented iPads for in-store use, and Adidas is using large LCD touch screens to help explore inventory and allow the user to build their own shoes and even checkout.

Kraft has been experimenting with facial recognition technology to hone in on targeted users. They put a kiosk in a grocery store that asked, “what’s for dinner?” The kiosk zooms in on the users face and instantly determines gender and age group to suggest products that might be appealing. It even goes one step further dispensing product samples like a vending machine. This type of marketing is great for point of purchase sales and is highly personalized. On the other hand, it’s possible the kiosk could identify the wrong gender or age altogether; hopefully, it won’t offend and mistake your Justin Bieber hairstyle for a little girl and suggest Teddy Grahams.

Social media

Many social media campaigns have encouraged themes of kindness and generosity, and have elements of planned spontaneity and tangible rewards.

A Dutch airline, KLM Airlines has used Foursquare as a platform and employed a ‘Surprise Team’ to give passengers personal, unexpected gifts at the airport. As soon as someone checked-in at a KLM Foursquare location, the Surprise Team went online to find out personal information about the person, and delivered a unique gift before they traveled. For instance, one traveler tweeted he would miss a PSV soccer game while he was in New York. The Surprise Team gave him a Lonely Planet guidebook of NYC with all the sports bars highlighted in blue.

Similarly, Interflora, a flower delivery service launched a campaign to brighten up the lives of Twitter users. They monitored Twitter looking for users that they believed need cheering up. Once found, the users were sent a bouquet of flowers. Privacy had to be a big concern during the course of these campaigns, since they are largely focused on social monitoring. Hopefully all of the recipients were pleasantly surprised and didn’t become paranoid that Big Brother is always watching.

Converging devices

The most significant trend that we see evolving in the future is the convergence of mobile devices, computers and TV screens. The key is to understand how devices will interact, and how to seamlessly integrate the entire experience from one screen to another.

Through the use of a banner ad, Gol Airlines has turned the mobile phone into a remote control. Users input their mobile number into the banner, and they immediately get a call connecting them to the desktop. The banner then becomes a flying game controlled by the mobile device. The ad comes together in the end, reminding customers that they can conveniently check-in via mobile phone when they fly.

The Shazam app is evolving, as the logo will be ‘embedded’ into programs ready for users to tag TV shows. This entails using a mobile device to listen and recognize the TV episode in question. Shazam will then provide complementary info; links to exclusive video and previews of upcoming episodes, access to playlists from the series and downloads. This will completely integrate the web browsing and TV watching experience.

Check out other notable ideas:

• E-paper
• Twitter, Secret Santa
• Heineken, The Entrance
• Yahoo, Multiplayer Gaming

As we look to the new year, we’ve collected some inspiring digital marketing pieces and analyzed trends within the industry over the course of 2010.

We believe that for a campaign to be successful it should have certain elements to capture a user’s attention and involve the user in an active UX. Many great ideas are social, personal, emotional, challenging, surprising, addictive and deliver a clear benefit as opposed to talking about one.

The following campaigns are forward thinking and include elements that determine success:

We have noticed a trend towards using 3D and light projection technologies. For example, Greentomatocars, a Hybrid Taxi service, used laser-powered graffiti in London, England. Magic laser-wands connected to computers projected interactive digital “paint” onto building surfaces in real-time. This stunt appealed to the scruffy nature of the brand.

The new Penki app for the iPhone and iPad, allows you to paint 3D messages and images that are revealed in long exposure photographs. These are not necessarily examples of practical UX, but they are certainly captivating and it will be interesting to see how this technology can be used in the future.

Many campaigns are connecting UX online with physical reality through gaming, demos, check-ins, webcams, QR codes or simply by entering personal credentials. The lines of digital media and reality are being blurred.

The collaboration between Arcade Fire and Google on their single ‘We Used to Wait’ has pushed both music video and product demo into new territory by combining sound, memory, emotion, and mesmerizing effect within a web browser.

Qrapping paper, Interactive-wrapping paper, debuted during the holidays. It’s filled with QR codes you can scan with your mobile device to play videos. This paper is entertaining and encourages addictive exploratory behaviour with more than 50 videos to watch.

Even elements of Facebook have been drawn into reality. Earlier in the year, Coca-Cola Israel brought the “Like” app to life at a three-day festival where teens wore wristbands embedded with RFID chips. RFID Readers were placed all around the village within “Like” signs. Each time a visitor touched their wristband to the signs an update was posted to their Facebook profile page telling everyone what a great time they were having in the village.

Many campaigns depend on real-time executions, responses, and interactions via social media. Real-time campaigns show the user immediate results and who’s being influenced.

Burger King’s Whopper Face video is a great example. This campaign involved creating personalized packaging for Burger King customers. A hidden camera was used to photograph customers who made a personal request on their burgers. A picture of their face was then printed directly onto the burger packaging. The message ‘have it your way’ was delivered in real-time. This stunt on it’s own was just as important as the campaigns ability to be passed on through social channels to get people to really notice.

Check out other notable campaigns from over the past year:

• Google Chrome FastBall
• Halo 3:ODST Launch
• The Conan Blimp
• BMW Cinema Commercial
• Tron Lightcycle Experience
• Xbox- Kinect Launch
• Mitsubishi Online Test Drive