GOOD CONTENT IS SPREADABLE CONTENT: Volkswagen’s ‘Fun Theory’ series of videos never talks about cars. Instead, VW put its name behind a series of real world experiments exploring whether fun can change human behaviour. Does it help sell cars? The jury is out. Does it help build the brand? 20 million views on youtube say ‘yes’.
ISNACK: It started well enough, with a crowdsourcing effort to name a new Vegemite product. But with 48,000 submissions to choose from, the final name selection left a lot to be desired and it all went downhill from there.
…having consumers actively
seeking out your brand is perhaps
the biggest shift in marketing thinking that has emerged over the past decade…
LESS TALK MORE ACTION PT 2: Coca-Cola brings a small dose of joy into a college campus by installing their ‘happiness machine’. Youtube presents the perfect way to show that action to a broader audience.
PEOPLE POWER: Skittles’ ongoing “Mob the Rainbow” initiative uses the democratic power of their 5 million strong Facebook fanbase to ‘do cool stuff’.
REMIX CULTURE: When West Australian DJ Pogo chose to remix Pixar’s ‘Toy Story’, the lawyers weren’t called in. In fact, Disney loved the work so much they added it to their own Youtube channel. Embracing and celebrating remixed work is a key way to build engaged fans.
LESS TALK MORE ACTION: In a world where brand slogans talk loud but say nothing, it’s real-world activity that cuts through the noise. Pepsi moved their traditional advertising spend put aside for the Superbowl into a grass-roots effort to bring real change to as many communities as possible.
ANTI ISNACK: When Marmite looked to launch a brand new, extra strong version of Marmite, their biggest fans were intrinsic in building excitement and a successful product launch.
It’s clear why this matters to brands and
should matter to you: your biggest fans are
your most valuable and authentic social marketing vehicle. If you invest in a true relationship with them, you’ll be able to move and react quickly to their ever-changing needs, and even ask them for help.
It doesn’t take much to keep them happy – just creating a special and honored place and engaging in honest dialogue. When you invite them in, you unleash their willingness and desire to recruit other fans that will gush and rave online with them.
SONG STUDY: Devo takes crowd-sourcing to an extreme. Their fans picked which songs would appear on their new album - and which wouldn’t make the cut.
GREENPEACE, UK:
A few years ago, BP rebranded themselves as ‘beyond petroleum’. And yet BP is pursuing ‘unconventional oil’ - the Canadian tar sands and deepwater drilling, despite the massive environmental damage that’s being caused by their business.
That’s why we want you to rebrand them. Your brief is to create a logo for BP which shows that the company is not ‘beyond petroleum’ - they’re up to their necks in tar sands and deepwater drilling.
CUSTOMER IS KING: NikeID lets you make your shoe, your way.
