Posts Tagged ‘PR’

Social Media Remembers – How Online Campaigns are Keeping the Memory Alive

Friday, November 11th, 2011

PoppiesSocial media has once again been at the forefront of this year’s remembrance campaign with the Royal British Legion leading a wide range of remembrance initiatives across Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in a bid to appeal to the ‘Afghanistan generation’.

Fronted by Poppy, the virtual face of the Royal British Legion, the campaign has more than 10,000 Facebook and 11,000 Twitter followers and its own Legion Live portal hosting videos, blogs and images.

As well as being used as a platform to host content, the British Legion once again led the campaign for Twitter to fall silent for two minutes at 11am (#2minutesilence) this morning as a mark of respect for Remembrance Day.

Last year the British Legion saw its Remembrance Day iTunes single bring two minutes of silence to the charts. And in 2009 a mobile poppy app was launched featuring a virtual poppy which grows every day.

A number of other social media campaigns to honour veterans and communicate the First and Second World Wars have also been launched this year.

Faces of the First World WarThis week, The Imperial War Museum launched its Faces of the First World War campaign which today saw 100 previously unseen portraits of those who served in the First World War made public for the very first time via Flickr.

Photographs will continue to be uploaded every week day until the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War in August 2014.

Elsewhere a Twitter account (@RealTimeWWII) is reporting the events of world war two as it happened, minute by minute, for the next six years. Being led by Oxford graduate, Alwyn Collinson (24), the account has more than 73,000 followers and is being translated into Russian, Portuguese and Spanish.

Finally, this year’s PR Week Digital and Social Media Award went to the RAF Benevolent Fund for a social media campaign chronicling the events of the Battle of Britain. Set up as an online newspaper featuring daily news, pictures and video footage, blogs and Twitter feeds were also created for a number of fictional characters.

The campaign amassed 2,000 Twitter followers, 16,000 Facebook fans and the 1940 Chronicle has been chosen to become part of the British Library’s digital archive of British documentary heritage.

Chevrolet, Meerkats and Manchester – PR Campaigns We’ve Loved

Friday, November 11th, 2011

Here is a roundup of some of our favourite PR campaigns and stories from October ….

Chevrolet Sonic BungeeChevrolet Sonic bungee jump – Chevrolet used a stunt last month to launch its new Sonic car to younger buyers.

People were invited to bungee a brand new car off a tower in LA by visiting a website and clicking on a button, with every click taking the car one step closer to the edge.

After nine hours and 2.5 million clicks the car took off. The launch was streamed online so people around the world could watch as it nose-dived towards a paddling pool before being bungeed back up into the air.

The campaign gave the term car launch a whole new meaning!

When I Were a MeerkatWhen I Were a Meerkat – The UK is mad on meerkats – fact. So much so that the Daily Mail devoted a whole double page spread to the launch of a new book, When I Were a Meerkat, by Andrew Davies.

A take-off of Davies’ original book, When I Were a Lad, the meerkat version super imposes pictures of meerkats on to old black and white photos in a fairly amusing manner.

Even though we originally thought it was, the book has nothing to do with Compare the Market, although there is a cursory ‘seemples’ in the intro of the article.  Proof that the Compare the Market campaign is now so ingrained into day-to-day life that the media can’t reference meerkats without mentioning it.

Tevez SkipUnited vs. City – two great Manchester derby stunts

Making the most of the fact that everyone in Manchester now hates Carlos Tevez, Betfair used last month’s Manchester derby to give fans of both sides the chance to bin their Tevez shirts in exchange for new ones.

Skips were placed outside Old Trafford to collect the shirts which were then shipped to Argentina to be given to local charities  – everyone’s a winner!

Tesco cakeAnother cheeky stunt came from Tesco after this picture emerged – apparently the work of a ‘rogue employee’ and not the global supermarket. We have seen a few ‘pricing error’ stories from Tesco make the news in in recent weeks – smell a rat anyone?



Lakeside Living Christmas FairyOne from the archives – Lakeside’s Living Christmas Fairy

The annual PR Week Awards took place last month and 2011’s campaign of the year went to …. Lakeside’s Living Christmas Fairy by Clarion Communications.

Simple yet highly effective, the campaign saw Chantelle Houghton placed on top of a 50ft Christmas tree as a living Christmas fairy.

A masterclass in the perfect picture story, the stunt combined newsworthy celeb, clever branding (the tree was positioned outside the store’s main entrance) and eye catching image and resulted in a whole raft of national coverage. Beats Matt Cardle turning on the Christmas lights any day!

Other notable mentions ….

There have been two notable PR hoaxes this year – the ‘Momzilla’ mother-in-law from hell email and last month’s giant slipper.

Giant slipperA mistake with an overlooked decimal point lead to a Chinese slipper manufacturer sending baffled Tom Boddingham a gigantic slipper. The company behind the product, Monster Slippers, blogged about the mix up and promised to send Tom a replacement in the correct size straight away. Then it transpired that the unwitting Tom, splashed across the world’s media, actually bore a startling resemblance to Monster Slippers’ website manager Joe Jennings. All of a sudden Monster Slippers were unavailable for comment.

Was it a good idea? Well, we’re still talking about it a month or so on making it a cert to go down in PR hoax history. And, many of us in the office did comment on how nice it would be to snuggle down and have a little nap in that giant slipper.

Barlotelli fire safetyMario Balotelli firework saga

Mario Balotelli made the news last month after allegedly setting his bathroom on fire when he and a group of friends decided to let off fireworks out of a window.

No sooner had the fire brigade left the premises had Mario been snapped up to front a Manchester firework safety campaign. Apparently the media had misreported the story and this was his way of putting things right.

Whether it was a quick thinking publicist or a clever approach from the firework safety organisation, it generated tones of national coverage, for what was a regional fire safety campaign, and gave Mario the chance to correct the negative press.

Groupon: a PR fail?

Monday, October 31st, 2011

There’s been a lot of media coverage surrounding Groupon and other online discount sites recently and the majority of it has been bad. It’s amazing how a company has gone from being a global leader in local deals to what one might call a PR disaster.

I’ve sat in on brainstorms before where the idea of using Groupon for a client has been brought up, this was before all the bad publicity and at the time it was seen as a great tool to get your business in front of hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise would be none the wiser to the services you offer.

The thing with Groupon is it wasn’t very well thought out. Yes it’s a discount site and recession or not, we consumers love a good bargain. However, retailers only like to give away a bargain of the Groupon kind during tough times, making the business immediately unsustainable.

Once the recession passes, companies won’t want to use sites such as Groupon. With the site taking 50% of sales revenue the profit margin is so low, if not non-existent, that there’s no point.

There’s also the perception that going on Groupon can damage your brand. If you scour the deals, 95% of the time you won’t have heard of the salons offering ultrasonic-liposuction or the beauticians offering teeth whitening or the restaurants offering £30 of food for £7.

These small businesses will most likely be thinking that an online discount site sending out a mailer to the masses is a brilliant marketing tool for attracting hundreds of new customers who will hopefully turn into repeat customers.

What they don’t see is that as soon as you associate yourself with any type of discount scheme, to most people that says ‘we’re in trouble’, which can be extremely damaging to a business or brand.

If you’re not in trouble then why do you need to offer a heavy discount to get people through the door? And if your business is in trouble, why? Is quality of what you offer not very good?

Also, how will your usual, loyal customers feel when they see that they’re paying full price for a service that a new customer is only paying a fraction of the full price for? Its risky business managing the perception of the value of what you offer whilst also keeping your loyal customers happy and satisfied.

Small businesses need to recognise that there are a number of free tools that are already out there which could help build your brand without having to resort to mass mailer sites such as Groupon to try and get people talking about their business.

A good social media strategy can help you educate and excite the general public. You can also optimise loyal customers and brand ambassadors using tools such as Twitter, spreading the word and building your reputation far and wide.

Hopefully small businesses will wise up as discount website – related horror stories spread. It seems that as Groupon’s head of PR quit after just two months, so is everyone else.

Social Media Campaigns – Hall of Fame II

Tuesday, September 20th, 2011

Last year we published our Social Media Hall of Fame, which many of you will have seen, retweeted or read in sheer amazement at the creative abilities of some of the most savvy social media experts the world over.

It has been a really busy 12 months, which has seen social media continue to dominate the news agenda and become a bona fide source of news in its own right. Our files are literally full to bursting with great campaigns and stunts that have happened since last Autumn and we’re excited to share our latest hall of fame with you.

Whether you’re one of the world’s superbrands or a small, local supplier, clever social media campaigns can help raise product awareness, increase sales, drive footfall, add fans, improve SEO and online visibility, or just make people think ‘cool, I like that company’.

Some of the world’s best social media campaigns from the past 12 months are highlighted below. They are case studies that, for one reason or another, have made us think ‘great campaign’. In deciding what is/is not a relevant case study, our social media litmus test has been to ask if they involve either online social interaction, user participation or user-generated content.

The Social Media Campaign Hall of Fame is in no particular order and, as is the case with lists like this, there’ll be great campaigns you love that are not yet listed, and others you feel should not be included. This is not a list of the campaigns that have the most followers/biggest fan base/most views. It’s about doing creative, interesting campaigns. And, of course, that’s subjective.

If you have a suggestion for inclusion, email it to social@umpf.co.uk. And please do share your comments at the foot of the page.

Umpf



Definitely not the ‘Wurst’ Facebook App – Reinert Privat-Fleischerei

Reinert Privat-Fleischerei, the catchily-named German sausage manufacturer, decided to turn people’s Facebook profile photos into sausage. The company said; “In Germany, everyone knows the happy “Wurst-Face”. It’s the one extra piece of sausage children get for free at the butcher…We developed a generator, which turns the Facebook profile picture into a happy “Wurst-Face“.Wurst Face

Far from being viewed as a load of Baloney, people used the clever app and turned their faces to sausage in seconds, spreading the brand and its campaign virally over Facebook as friends quickly saw the meat-effect take hold.


Blink and you’ll miss yourself – Blink182 and AT&T

To celebrate their first new single in eight years, Blink 182 created a video sourced from fan-made YouTube videos that were made without crediting the band. Called “Blink-182 Film Festival You Didn’t Know You Entered”, it formed part of a new advertising campaign for AT&T. Blink 182 and AT&T scoured YouTube for videos in which the band’s music was used without credit and used the clips to create the ad hoc video for “Up All Night,” (their new single).

The video shows good humour in addressing what is essentially piracy and instead of punishing fans for celebrating Blink 182?s music, they took the amateur footage and used it for their own devices, while simultaneously rewarding die-hard fans.


Turkish Delight for Tweeters – Turkcell Turkcell

Turkcell, a Turkish telecom company, showed innovation in this campaign, using some of the most common Twitter features. The campaign revolved around a series of games that were all run through Twitter, with post-it notes being removed from the outside of a box, at each stage for people to try and win the phone. Users had to try and get a celebrity to Retweet them as the very last clue to win the phone. The campaign generated nearly 60,000 Tweets in just three days of activity. We think that’s a great reception (and we’re not talking about Turkcell’s network).


Rapid-fire Response – Grand Rapids

Grand RapidsWhen Newsweek posted an article that outlined ten US cities that were dying, Grand Rapids in Michigan responded with a world record LipDup video featuring 5,000 of its residents. The outraged group of residents, business groups and tourism bosses created the following video, miming to Don McLean’s American Pie, which was produced using $40,000 worth of donations from 29 local sponsors.

Uploaded to YouTube on 26 May 2011, almost 800,000 people viewed the video in just a few days. There were 100,000+ Facebook ‘likes’ and it was the 9th most watched clip on YouTube anywhere in the world on 28 May, coupled with 12,000 YouTube ‘likes’.


A Heavenly Lynx Effect – Lynx

Lynx, the saviour of many a sweaty-pitted youth, rolled out an experiential campaign featuring the Lynx Excite Angels, which used an augmented reality twist that saw people interacting directly with the angels via a digital video billboard.

As passers-by at London Victoria Station walked onto the Lynx “Markers”, the Excite Angels literally fell to earth in the digital billboard above and interacted with the lucky person on said marker. Lynx Angel

This AR stunt featured as part of a social campaign called the “Lynx Excite Fallen Angel” which challenged users to visit Facebook and see if they are the one person on earth that could release an archangel.


VW Test Drive looked good on Paper

Volkswagen in Norway offered what it claimed was the world’s first test drive inside a print ad. The ad, placed in several Norwegian magazines, showed a long stretch of road, with both summer and winter versions. Readers were asked to download an app developed by Mobiento which meant you could ‘drive’ the car by hovering your iPhone over the printed road.

Where this idea really excelled was offering users the chance to test three different features of the vehicle (lane assist, adaptive lights and cruise control). Pretty smart idea and great execution, we think.


Beer-faced Cheek – Corona Light

Corona LightCorona Light launched this campaign, targeted at young adults aged 21 to 29, working on the basis that when consumers ‘liked’ the Corona Light Page on Facebook, their photo would be included on a 150-foot digital billboard display at Times Square.

The billboard ran for a month with images from across the square posted to Facebook so participants can share photographic evidence of themselves in an ad at Times Square – and help spread the Corona Light brand message at the same time.

Within a few days of the campaign going live, 600 people had already taken part, with Corona Light’s Facebook page collecting a lot of Facebook ‘likes’ in the process; all handy for future marketing campaigns.





FCUKing Great YouTique – French Connection

French Connection opened what was arguably the world’s first YouTube store called the YouTique by French Connection last year. Capitalising on the trend around video-based fashion tips, the Youtique uses YouTube’s annotation feature to great effect.

Stylist Louise Roe hands out tips and tricks in a brand channel, before showing you how each outfit looks on a model, along with annotations on each item that take you seamlessly to product pages on the French Connection Online Store. Slick, well-designed but a pain for your bank balance.


Choo’s Treasure Hunt is a Shoe-in – Jimmy Choo

Jimmy Choo, world-renowned footwear brand, organised a real-time treasure hunt around London via Foursquare, courtesy of Fresh Networks. One pair of Jimmy Choo trainers checked in at various locations and those who followed the campaign, and were lucky enough to arrive at a venue before the trainers left, got to pick up a pair in the style and size of their choosing.Foursquare logo

The sneakers checked in to uber-fashionable locations such as Lounge Lover and the Hummingbird Bakery. A great campaign, considering this was Jimmy Choo’s first foray into social media marketing. A marketing rep for the company said the campaign probably represented “the first time Foursquare has been used to check in an object (rather than a person) at locations.”

You can read more about the campaign here, courtesy of Fresh Network’s case study.


Tippex’s Campaign is a Whitewash

The clever people at Tippex devised a campaign on YouTube that went truly viral. Using a simple annotation function on a recorded video of a bear and a man in the woods, viewers could choose what happened next. With a number of pre-recorded endings and the novelty of being able to ‘change’ a YouTube video, the campaign was an instant hit and to this day, has had more than 17 million views. That’s equivalent to the entire population of The Netherlands (just in case you were wondering).


Sweet Tweets for Sweet Treats – BellingBelling Tweetpie midres LW

When cooker manufacturer Belling decided to create the world’s shortest recipe book, they did it in an innovative way; using recipes crowdsourced over Twitter. The 50 shortlisted recipes were then compiled into a book, complete with illustrations from a variety of artists, which were themselves crowdsourced and voted for on Belilng’s Facebook page.

Belling printed and sold the book, with all proceeds going towards food charity Foodcycle, which collects surplus produce locally and prepares nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces to distribute to those in need.


‘Sounds’ like a Great Campaign – British Library

The British Library came up with an innovative way of capturing life in the UK in 2010; by building the UK’s first ‘Soundmap’. Users were encouraged to record the sounds of their neighbourhood, using Audioboo and then upload them to the BM’s interactive Google map. The result is an ever-growing repository of sound data, showing generations to come what the UK sounded like in 2010-2011, all with specific geographical references.

Soundmap


Smiles Better – Unilever

Unilever worked with SapientNitro in London to create a smile-activated vending machine to spread some extra joy at Cannes in 2010. Globally, the Anglo-Dutch giant owns ice cream brands including Wall’s, Ben & Jerry’s and Klondike. Using facial recognition technology and AR, the machine tracked a customer’s smile and rated it on a ’smile-o-meter’. The user could then directly post their image to Facebook and select the ice-cream of their choice.


Levi’s Water Tank

On March 22, the planet celebrated World Water Day, and Levi’s used this to remind consumers about its commitment to save water and engage them in a new online activity, which raises awareness about vital drinking water issues. The WaterTank game, launched on Facebook, encourages users to ‘unlock’ clean water by taking up various challenges ranging from tweeting to answering water-related questions.

Levi Water Tank

The key element of the interactive project is Levi’s Water<Less jeans, a collection of denim made using less water during the finishing process. Launched in January 2011, it is helping to save millions of litres of water. Through WaterTank, Levi’s is going to donate $250,000 to water.org to support its programs, which will fund at least 200 million litres of water to people in needy areas.


Every Dog has its Day – Pedigree

The 2010 Pedigree Adoption Drive focused on a hard-hitting message: one dog is put down every hour in the UK. Central to the campaign was a four-part film ‘Charlie’s story’; for every 25,000 views, a new chapter of the story was unlocked. For every view received, Pedigree donated £1. People rallied behind the idea and helped drive up viewing figures and spread the message. Successful re-homing stories were also celebrated on YouTube in the form of ‘Dogumentaries’ (we like this!).Pedigree Adoption Drive 2010

The agency behind the campaign, Hypernaked, distributed branded refuse skips and ghost dog leads in five cities nationwide as a powerful reminder of the 107,000 dogs abandoned every year in the UK. The campaign received over 145,000 views on YouTube, and over 31,000 Likes on Facebook.


Toyota Swagger Wagon

One of the world’s largest car manufacturers decided to add some ‘West Coast’ to their social media presence by producing a YouTube video with more than a hint of irony. Toyota’s Sienna is a mini-van perfect for the middle class suburbs of America but the company put its tongue firmly in its cheek when it produced ‘Swagger Wagon’; a spoof rap video that has been viewed over 9 million times since it was uploaded last May. It is a full length rap video, performed by ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ of the Sienna Family, is full of great one-liners and will have you asking “Where my kids at?” for weeks to come. The Sienna Family raps about the joys of parenting, pretend tea parties, baking cupcakes, and the perks of owning a Toyota Sienna, AKA a Swagger Wagon, while their little daughter busts a move.


We’re Loving It – McDonald’s does FourquareMacdonalds Foursqaure

McDonald’s increased foot traffic to stores by 33% in one day with a little Foursquare campaign that cost a mere $1,000. The fast food giant used Foursquare Day (April 16) as a hook to bring in more business. The company used 100 randomly awarded $5 and $10 giftcards as check-in bait to lure in potential diners.

The campaign worked in both digital and real world capacities. Patrons flocked to McDonald’s restaurants for the chance to win giftcards in exchange for checkins, and 600,000 follows and fans were generated for the brand on social media sites. More than 50 articles covering McDonald’s Foursquare special also appeared in the press.


Fiat Crowdsourced Car

Car manufacturer Fiat Brazil took crowdsourcing to the next level when it launched a campaign for people to create their next car. Using the online hub at www.fiatmio.cc, people were invited to submit design ideas for the car, whose name translates as My Fiat. The best were trialled by the Fiat design team, along with its own engineers’ ideas. More than 11,000 ideas were submitted by a registered community of almost 17,000 members. The design has now been released and can be viewed here.


Feeling Lucky? Try Uniqlo Uniqlo

Clothes retailer Uniqlo launched this unique campaign which saw its prices determined by customers themselves. Consumers were encouraged to Tweet about featured items they had seen on the Uniqlo website and in turn, the price of the product was reduced. The promotional site featured about 10 items, along with the price and by how much it had been discounted thus far. A special price was announced on September 9th for redemption and purchase on Uniqlo’s UK website. A neat campaign and one that helped to spread Uniqlo’s audience far wider than a traditional sale.


MTV’s Campaign is Music to our Ears

Working much like a conventional music chart, MTV Music Meter is a service that scans social networks for bands generating an increasing number of comments and is available for devices using Google Inc.’s Android software and Apple Inc.’s iPad and iPhone. Bands and songs are then placed in a chart depending on their relative popularity.

Dermot McCormack, who oversees digital operations at MTV Networks, said “Music Meter provides music videos and 30-second samples of tracks. Full songs can be purchased at the site and MTV is working with Rhapsody International Inc. to provide full tracks in the near future.”


Ken and Barbie reunited – Mattel

Mattel began its foray in the social media world with a campaign to try to reunite plastic power couple Ken and Barbie after the toymaker famously broke the dolls up in 2004. Ken attempted to woo back blonde-haired Barbie through campaigns on Facebook and on his Twitter profile. A video on Barbie’s YouTube channel showed Ken signing up for Match.com, only to find that Barbie is already listed there.
Ken and Barbie

Through Foursquare Ken checked-in at locations including the famous Magnolia Bakery in Manhattan, where he customized a cupcake for Barbie. Fans voted on Barbie’s Facebook page as to whether she should take him back and in February the news we all hoped for came true; they were reunited.


BART BART system

Commuters on the BART rapid transit system in San Francisco saw images of oil rig platforms, Lake Tahoe, and the little furry endangered pika at train stations last summer and using Foursquare helped to support these environmental causes. The ads were part of a new set of public service announcements by Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit, which aims to attract new supporters using Foursquare’s ‘check-in’ function.

Realizing that the San Francisco Bay Area boasted the largest number of Foursquare users in the US, Earthjustice approached one of its younger major donors in the Bay Area with the proposal of donating $10 each time a commuter checked in at an Earthjustice poster on BART. They agreed and the rest is a piece of Foursquare history.


Fine Young Cannibals – Vegetarian Foundation

This guerrilla marketing campaign by Serviceplan for the Vegetarian Foundation in Germany centred on a mock cannibal restaurant that was preparing to open its doors in Berlin. First they advertised for various staff, including surgeons with an open mind, to start generating some buzz. When the restaurant called for people to donate body parts, the campaign went global, featuring on hundreds of news sites, Facebook, Twitter and even opinion videos on YouTube.

Most worrying of all is that within 24 hours, the 63 seats in the restaurant were booked with people willing to donate body parts. Just five days later the website had 120,000 visits and huge media interest. They seized the moment and called a press conference to tell the world about their views on vegetarianism. With a budget of just 5,000 euros it is said to have one thousand times that in media exposure and 50 million impressions worldwide.


No ‘Mickey Mouse’ campaign – DisneyDisney

Walt Disney Parks and Resorts used user-generated content at the centrepiece of its “Let the Memories Begin” campaign last September. Using photos and videos from families both visiting the park and children finding out they are going, the campaign gave the global brand a very personal feel.

Disney asked users to submit their own memories online using YouTube, Facebook, MySpace and DisneyParks.com/Memories. Beyond the advertising campaign, Disney incorporated family memories into its theme parks with its “Let the Memories Begin” nighttime experiences. At Disney World in Orlando, for example, guest photos were projected against the spires of Cinderella’s Castle.


Ouch Map – Health365.com

Health insurance is often viewed as a dry subject so to target a younger demographic, online health insurance provider Health365.com launched the world’s first ‘Ouch Map’; a way to map the minor injuries Brits were experiencing on a day to day basis.Ouch Map - screengrab

Created by Umpf and programmed by UKSNowMap supremo Ben Marsh, the glowing skeleton lit up from green through to amber and red, based on the level of pain experienced, with live tweets containing the hashtag #ouch365 being scraped from Twitter to populated the site. The monthly sales average for Health365.com policies doubled when the map went live, with site traffic trebling over the same period. Who says insurance needs to be boring?


A crisp and clean campaign – Pringles

‘Crisp’ (note the inverted commas) manufacturer Pringles went to war against the ‘oversharers’; the people who tweet at least 300 times a day, update their Facebook profile when they’re on the loo and generally report the minutiae of their lives.Oversharer Pringle

Using a dedicated microsite, Pringle encouraged users to download an ‘overshare’ button for their Facebook and Twitter profiles that enabled them to report friends and family who shared that little bit too much. The campaign took off with users being able to download the updates of their ‘oversharer’ friends into a spoof YouTube video that would then be emailed to them to shame them into changing.

What this has to do with crisps, aside from the brand association, remains to be seen, but it was a neat campaign that dealt humorously with an annoying habit.


Motoring Campaign – Local Motors

Local Motors has taken the concept of crowdsourcing and really developed it (and cars in the process). The company, which operates through using a collective of designers and engineers, offers the public the chance to have a truly bespoke car. Elements of the car are decided by the commissioner and the community, with final designs (which are copyrighted under the ‘Creative Commons’ protocol) then turned into reality in the company’s micro-factories which are located across the US. Watch out big manufacturers – car crowdsourcing could be the future of motoring.

Local Motors


If I ruled the world – Radio Shack

90-year-old business Radio Shack wanted its rebrand to go with a bang and so it ran the #ifihadsuperpowers campaign during December 2010. It was announced via a promoted tweet on its account. To be in with a chance to win one of several prizes, users had to follow @radioshack and upload a photo of themselves with their hand outstretched like the thumbnail above.

They were then asked to tweet this photo on Twitpic, along with what they would do if they had super powers, using the #ifihadsuperpowers hashtag. Radio Shack then spent time responding to each and every tweet with the hashtag, adding a mask and cape and transforming the Twitpic photos into Holiday Superheroes. They also randomly selected a handful of winners that would receive a prize. Some of the prizes included an e-reader, a Samsung Galaxy Tab, an AUVIO Portable Digital TV, aGarmin GPS and Radio Shack gift certificates.


12 days of sharing – Starbucks Starbucks

Starbucks helped fans get into the Christmas spirit by launching its 12 Days of Sharing program. One offer each day from December 1 – December 12, 2010 was made available, with people signing up by sending a text message containing the text, “12Days” to 29943.

Following on from its 2009 program called “12 days of Wishing”, a variety of items were offered including mugs, VIA coffee and a bunch of tumblers. Whilst it used an old-school device of text, the response was positive. Perhaps this year they’ll use Foursquare or Gowalla to greater effect.


Hypermiling for Toyota

iCrossing UK ran a programme of social media activity for Toyota GB to help raise awareness of its iQ city car, based on a core blog (http://blog.toyota.co.uk) and a series of activities designed to create word-of-mouth referrals that drove traffic to the blog and generated interest in the car itself.

Simon and Mark set off on their Toyota iQ Hypermile attempt from Toyota_UK on Vimeo.

One of these activities was a bold experiment to drive the car to as many cities in the UK as possible on one tank of fuel. Two members of iCrossing’s Content & Media team undertook a ‘Hypermiling’ road trip in the iQ that was covered on social media. The hypermiling attempt reached over 105 million people worldwide, including 3.7 million people in the UK, as a result of coverage on high profile blogs, including Wired magazine, and led to a 200% uplift in traffic to the iQ blog.


Read Ayn Rand

Nick Newcomen went a little further than most literary fans when he spent a month driving more than 12,000 miles to inscribe his message “Read Ayn Rand” on a vast swathe of US land. Ayn Rand

Using a GPS tracking device as a “pen”, Newcomen took about 10 days to complete each word, turning on his GPS logger when he wanted to write and turning it off between letters, videoing himself at landmarks along the route for documentation. He drove 12,328 miles in total, across 30 American states, inputting the data once he was finished into Google Earth to create the world’s largest book advertisement.


A Golden Radio Voice

This one has feel-good factor written all over it. Picture the scene; a down and out called Ted Williams has a ‘golden voice’ for radio and one day he is filmed (see clip below). Said clip is placed on YouTube and Ted goes ‘viral’ in the truest sense of the word. Following years of drug abuse and hardship, Ted is inundated with job offers and it looks like he might have turned his life around, thanks to a little help from a commuter and YouTube.



Moby Destroyed Moby

Musician Moby took the album stream to a whole new level when he launched a microsite to premiere his new album, Destroyed, that ties in Soundcloud and Instagram. The site merges music and images into one interactive experience. Upon visiting the site, tracks from the disc begin playing.

The site also contained a map of the world littered with pins. When a visitor clicked on a pin Moby’s photos from around the world were displayed. Fans also added their own images to the map by snapping pictures on Instagram and adding the tag “#destroyed.”


V&A Decode

To mark its ‘Decode’ exhibition, the V&A commissioned Karsten Schmidt to design a digital identity using open source code. The museum then gave the general public the opportunity to recode Karsten’s work and create original artwork. Selected works were displayed on the London Underground. A great example of a museum using open source code and encouraging creativity through programming.


Expedia hands over Facebook pageExpedia Aus

Expedia Australia devised a new way of winning Facebook fans in February this year: offering a $10,000 (£6,200) cash prize to the person who did the best job of administrating the brand’s new Facebook page.

Inevitably, people wanting to enter started by ‘liking’ the page then competition entrants were asked what experience they have running online communities and what ideas they have for the page. The shortlisted candidates were judged, in part, by how many more likes they were able to generate for the page.


Save BBC 6 Music

In response to the BBC’s plans to shut BBC Radio 6 Music, a Facebook campaign was set up to try to save the station. The group managed to attract 180,000 members and pressure from this loyal following forced the corporation to change its mind and save the station, to much public rejoicing.Save BBC 6


A ‘classic’ from Heineken

Heineken pulled out all the stops for this stunt which saw over 1,000 die-hard AC Milan fans sacrifice seeing the match for the sake of their partners’ or editors requests to go to a classical music and poetry recital. Willingly the men obliged, but picture the surprise when the orchestra struck up to begin playing the Champions League music and the curtains opened to reveal a cinema screen with the game playing.

A great way for Heineken to underline their affiliation with football and certainly some brownie-points earned for both the men and women. Viewers of Sky watched in their millions as the joke unfolded and 10 million saw coverage of the event the following day.


Sphere of Influence for Nokia

Global phone and telecommunications giant Nokia was having trouble making sure people were collaborating on a level playing field with its 50,000 employees across the world. Its solution was simple – create the ‘sphere’ – a social media platform that would enable any employee to interact with other employees for ideas generation and to make sure work wasn’t being replicated. The results – clearer thinking and better ideas.

Nokia Sphere


Playboy Campaign

Most people know what the Playboy brand stands for and this latest campaign from Germany really caught certain people’s attention. An interactive video was personalized to include someone’s photo and name and included various scenes featuring the famous Playboy bunnies which was personalized to show the bunnies fighting over the recipient. At the end the recipient is sent their own personalized Playboy magazine (online version).

The campaign really took off, with 13 million people watching it and it is getting widespread media attention. Whilst we’ve not tried it ourselves, our ‘friend’ tells us the videos look very slick and not mass produced.


A campaign that won’t be forgotten – Post-It

This simple but heart-warming campaign comes from 3M, makers of Post-it notes. ‘Things we Forget’ shows what happens when Post-its are left to their fate in public places – each day, the ‘Post-it guy’ left an annotated Post-it note somewhere in Singapore with a proverb, wise saying or encouraging message somewhere in Singapore.post-its

Soon, people were clamouring to see the next Post-it note and the campaign gained global prominence. Such was the appeal that its Facebook group counted nearly 38,000 fans and the Twitter stream had nearly 5,000 followers. Posters featuring some of the more popular notes are now available to buy via the blog.


The Heidies Take Over – Diesel

The Heidies hijacked Diesel.com on a quest to become famous and get their 15 MB of Fame, courtesy of agency Farfar from Sweden. Not only did they hijack the retailer’s website, they also stole the new and unreleased Diesel Intimate collection, kidnapped a Diesel employee named Juan, and held him captive in an undisclosed hotel room until their demands were met.

With six cameras in the hotel room and 24/7 live coverage viewers were able to watch the ridiculous, and sometimes scandalous, things that the Heidies did with Juan. The Heidies used MySpace to spread the word about their hijacking and shared videos on their YouTube channel and photographs on Flickr. Five days later after the hijacking, Diesel agreed to the Heidies demands for a professional fashion photographer.


Ink your colours the mast – The Social Tattoo Project

Nailing your colours to the mast is one thing, but this clever campaign from Social Tattoo Project saw people inking theirs to their backs. The project, based in New York, is tackling the issue of empathy and finding ways of making it more lasting by giving people tattoos of trending topics from Twitter.

However, the twist is that people don’t get to pick which trending topic they get. Followers of the Social Tattoo Project vote for their favourite, for example #poverty or #haiti, and the volunteer has the hashtag etched onto their skin. Permanently. A campaign with real longevity, we’d say.


Coke drink app

Coca-Cola rolled out a Facebook app in August 2011 that lets consumers mix their own Coke drink. The app is no online-only experiment, though: Real Coke vending machines that do the same thing are rolling out across the US to coincide with this campaign.

The Coca-Cola Freestyle app, created by digital marketing agency 360i, lets you mix a drink using 125 Coke beverages, including Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta and Powerade. After choosing each, you hold down a “push” button to fill a cup of your choosing. When you fill your cup, you can name it. There’s also a game designed for the iPhone and Android formats.


Boxing Clever for Help for Heroes – Lbi

Staff at LBi London were challenged to a charity boxing match at the Emirates Stadium by Execution Nobel, the agency’s local rivals. Following a few months of training they wanted to raise funds for Help For Heroes. Instead of spamming friends and colleagues with donation requests, they decided to do something a little more engaging and interactive.LBI Help for Heroes

In short, they sold ad space on the sweaty flesh of one of their boxers via bespoke Facebook landing page. The boxer’s body was divided into 69 ad sections. People could buy one of these ad spaces by tagging themselves in a body part/ad section, then posting a design to the wall and then donating at justgiving.com

On the eve of the fight using special body transfer printer paper, a team tattooed the Brawling Billboard’s body. During the fight they captured pictures and videos of the Billboard’s every move and immediately after the fight staff tagged each investor in the pictures and videos featuring their ads in action. Results were impressive, with £1600+ raised by Brawling Billboard in only 2 week and 500+ in attendance at The Brick Lane Brawl.


Rock on – Bury

Bury’s Rockstars from Democracy PR on Vimeo.

To mark the launch of Bury’s new shopping centre, The Rock, PR agency Democracy scattered 2,500 rocks featuring individual Facebook codes within a 15 minute drive time of Bury. Each rock was geo-tagged and redeeming a rock populated the news feed on the Rock’s Facebook page.

To support the opening, the people of Bury were filmed on a green screen, singing along to Nickelback’s song ‘Rock Star’ which was then superimposed on an ever-changing background of Bury landmarks.

Over the opening day and weekend, the Democracy PR team took hundreds of photos of people at the launch event and posted them to the Facebook photo gallery with a simple call to action – tag yourself to be in with a chance of winning. Nearly 10,000 people became fans of the Facebook page, with over 530 Twitter followers to boot.


Starbucks CardJonathan Stark Starbucks card

Mobile application consultant Jonathan Stark purchased a Starbucks Card and registered it via the Starbucks Mobile App for iPhone which allows coffee lovers to pay for coffee and baked goods with their mobile device. He then took a screenshot of the barcode and let anyone on the web download it for their own use, also prompting them to donate to the card.

Over $4,000 was donated to the card for coffee lovers and almost 15,000 people followed the card on Twitter, as well as over 7,000 on Facebook. Unsurprisingly, Starbucks shut down the card, tating that it violated the “no sharing” clause in their TOS.

It was an interesting experiment as some added money to the card without even purchasing anything from Starbucks, whilst some simply used the card without giving back, but most took a drink or two and donated some money for others to enjoy. Some people even thanked Stark for renewing their faith in humanity.


Milky milkyMake Mine Milk

Agency Kindred was tasked with encouraging more people to drink milk, following a 20-year-long decline in milk sales. Using the slogan ‘Make Mine Milk’ and a host of celebs (including Gordon Ramsey and Tess Daly sporting ‘milk tashes’), the campaign kicked off, with a Facebook group launched where people could pledge their allegiance to the white stuff.

Results included more than 48,000 fans on the Facebook page, with PR coverage exceeding 50 million and 500,000 views of the video content on YouTube.


Cordial Campaign is Berry Good – Ribena

During the summer of 2010, Brass Agency took Ribena into the world of social media with Tales from Ribena Farm: a campaign that exhibited how Ribena squash really is made from blackcurrants grown on British farms.Ribena

Social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr were used, along with a Ribena blog, a consumer database and an exclusive partnership with Mumsnet; the latter was used to recruit 12 families to win an exclusive weekend at a Ribena blackcurrant farm.

The whole day was filmed and four shorts were released, The Farmer’s Tale, The Robin’s Tale, The Berry’s Tale and A Kitchen Tale, across all social media platforms and within a dedicated hub on Mumsnet. A cute campaign and one that underlines the family values of the brand.


Sticks and Stones – Five Boroughs NHS Partnership

This campaign, called ‘Sticks and Stones’, is aimed at reducing stigma towards people with mental ill-health and learning disabilities in the five boroughs NHS partnership area (near Manchester and Liverpool). The partnership wanted to change perceptions by educating the public about the realities of mental ill-health and learning disabilities, and asking them to make a pledge not to use derogatory words and phrases to describe people with mental ill-health or learning disabilities.

So far, the target of 100K pledges has already been exceeded and the campaign continues to gain following both on and offline.

Pop-Up PR: Four Great Pop-Up Publicity Stunts

Friday, September 16th, 2011

The ‘pop-up [insert object]‘ is the latest tool de jour of the PR pro.

It’s difficult to read a paper, mag, website or blog without seeing a pop-up restaurant/bar/cafe/shop/you name it.  There’s even been a pop-up ad agency (more below).

And with good reason.  The pop-up concept:

1. Offers great photo opportunities (see our recent post on how great photography can elevate your PR campaign)

2. Gives an experiential opportunity for sampling your product/service to customers you may not typically reach

3. Creates a ready-made story – pop-ups are, by their nature, unusual in design and location and around for a limited period ie great news fodder

4. Can quickly drive change in the public’s perception of your brand

That said, with so many pop-up concepts out there, how soon before it becomes a tired concept and joins the list of most over-used PR ideas?

Until then, here’s four great examples of pop-ups, including: XXXX Gold’s pop-up bar (from way back in 2008); Illy’s Adam Kalkin-designed fully-furnished pop-up cafe; Smirnoff’s Nightlife Exchange pop-up nightclub; and the pop-up ad agency from Ogilvy.

Now that’s a pop-up bar

Hat-tip to Stephen Armstrong at Pondkeeper for sending through the XXXX Gold slides

Umpf Pop-Up PR Adam Kalkin's Illy cafe New York

Umpf Pop-Up PR Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange
Umpf Pop-up PR Ogilvy pop ip agency Idea Shop

How can great photography help PR? Five Fantastic PR Photos

Thursday, September 8th, 2011

Engage Mutual Umpf Body Painting PR shot

[Click image for full size]

Since way back in 1880 newspapers have been full of colour pictures alongside the obligatory headline and necessary paragraphs of copy to tell the story.

In fact, it would be pretty hard to ever imagine a newspaper without pictures to illustrate or accompany the news.

Press photography innovatively showcases stories with as little as a caption beneath, whether it’s the latest celeb getting ‘papped’ or a current affairs event like conflict being documented; each story is brought to life by a supplementary photo.
So, with that comes the importance of photography within a PR remit. Photographs have been used to enhance PR techniques for years.

There’s not been a day in most PR careers where any sort of event or announcement hasn’t been accompanied by an image. Not only does the photo add another dimension to the story but it also gives the story a wider appeal.

Whilst the news desk might pick the story up, getting the picture desk to choose an image is twice as good – twice the coverage and the chance for added branding.

Similarly, a story can be make or break depending on the strength of a photograph so it’s increasingly important for PRs to ensure a good photographer captures press shots that exceed expectations and help to give your story that extra injection to help it hit the headlines.

Client: Enagage Mutual - Umpf body-painting PR shotTypically us PRs aren’t experts in taking photographs (just take a look at our Facebook profile uploads), so that’s why we’d always recommend to a client that a professional snapper attends any events or launches that we manage.
That said, we do pride ourselves on knowing what makes a good press picture. PRs see several pictures, some great, others not so great, but all in all we understand that just like any other newspaper or magazine editor, that a picture is always what grabs attention on a page.

A picture always intrigues the reader in the first place and then helps them digest the story.

At Umpf, we recently executed a campaign for one of our clients, Engage Mutual, who sponsor the Super League. Working alongside Leeds Rhinos player, Ryan Hall, we hired a world champion body painter to illustrate the top five injuries sustained in rugby league across five areas of Ryan’s body. Naturally the piece had picture story potential as the body painting element was a great way of showing how the injuries looked ‘inside out’.

Initially we were faced with a dull changing room facility where the photos itself weren’t doing the story justice. Having access to a rugby field and the Leeds Rhinos stadium as a backdrop our photographer, from Guzelian, managed to set up a shot that we thought had picture desk appeal as well as news value.

The story secured coverage as an exclusive in The Sun as well as full page three picture story leads in The Yorkshire Post and The Yorkshire Evening Post. Of course it was covered in all the rugby league media, too.

It was certainly a picture that exceeded our expectations and one that in future campaigns another photograph will have to live up to.

Four more examples, below, of fantastic PR photos.

To launch Eden, a new natural history Taylor Herring Launch Eden programme, Taylor Herring set up this stunt -with great PR photography to match- which saw a Polar bear floating down the River Thames.

Rain Communications- Horseback Fashion Show Rain Communications staged a horseback fashion show to capture an image that demonstrated excellent fashion in conjunction with the Badminton Horse Trials for client McArthurGlen in Swindon. It bagged some great national coverage as a result.

Docto Who Experience- Photo credit: Matt Crossick/PA Wire

To raise awareness of the Doctor Who experience at Olympia, four Daleks were staged crossing Westminster Bridge. An image with a Big Ben backdrop has got be be a sure fire way of securing the attention of the national press.

Balfour Beatty - Forth Rail BridgeThe engineering firm, Balfour Beatty were behind the PR pictures that graced most nationals throughout this week. The pictures told the story of the Forth Rail Bridge which after a long 10 years has now been successfully repainted.

Social Media Round-up of the Week – 26 August

Friday, August 26th, 2011

Welcome back to our weekly instalment of what’s hot in the world of social media. In case you missed what happened over the past week, here’s a run-down of our top five:

1. For our client, cooker manufacturer Belling, we have created the world’s shortest recipe book (see video below), using recipes crowdsourced over Twitter. The 50 shortlisted recipes have been compiled into a book, complete with illustrations from a variety of artists, which were themselves crowdsourced and voted for on Belling’s Facebook page. All proceeds  from the sale of the book will go to food charity Foodcycle, which collects surplus produce locally and prepares nutritious meals in unused professional kitchen spaces to distribute to those in need. You can buy your copy here.

2. Facebook has denied that it is phasing out the controversial Places feature on its mobile app due to fears over privacy. The social networking giant has announced a swathe of updates to give users tighter controls over who can view their profiles and photos. Places was previously a separate feature on the mobile app that allowed users to publish details of their exact location. This will now disappear, although Facebook told The Drum that it was not because the feature posed a security risk to users.

3. Not everyone gets to stay in the Big Brother house but you can, possibly, stay in an authentic replica of Del and Rodney Trotter’s Nelson Mandela House residence, in promotional celebration of the 30th anniversary of Only Fools & Horses. Those who want a chance of winning need Nelson Mandela House residencto become members of TV channel Gold’s Facebook page and try their luck. A nice campaign and with a stay only costing the 1981 price of £18, we’re sure people will be queueing up to say ‘Rodney, you plonker’

4. Some information about the next venture by Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams have emerged, and although detail is scant, it is very intriguing. Dubbed ‘Lift’ at the moment we hear that it is a prototype relating to how ‘technology can help unlock human potential, especially through the use of positive reinforcement’. At the moment, Lift is asking people to leave their email addresses if they’re interested, but warns ‘we’re a long way from opening the doors’.

5. Channel 4 is inviting web users to take part in what it claims is the world’s first interactive rap beatbox choir on YouTube. The broadcaster commissioned TV production company Fresh One and Leeds digital agency Numiko to create the online app as part of its Street Summer season. Visitors to the YouTube channel will find the track ‘We are the People’, which has been made completely by the human voice and comprises rapping, singing and beatboxing. They are then encouraged to pick one of the song’s 13 parts to learn and record. The best auditions will appear in a final film to be broadcast on Channel 4, thus bringing together the world’s first beatbox choir.

Top PR & Social Media Agency Players: Yorkshire

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

The Top PR & Social Media Agency Players: Yorkshire is a table – ranked independently by PeerIndex – of the main players in the PR and social media industry in the Yorkshire and Humber region.

Top PR & Social Media Agency Players YorkshireIt is designed to show a snapshot of the key figures working within PR and social media agencies (not including in-house professionals) and is ranked according to influence by PeerIndex.

PeerIndex helps you understand your online reputation, rating your ‘social capital’ through “topic-based authority rankings”.

The service analyses publicly available data (your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and, now, Quora public profiles) to create a picture of your authority and activity on a given subject.

We have tried to include everyone in the region in the list; if you’re not in the table and you’d like to be added @reply @adrian_johnson.  Please note the criteria for entry, below.

This table was inspired by Andrew Smith’s original PRWeek Power List.

Entry criteria
*First and foremost it is for staff working in PR and/or social media agencies who are based in Yorkshire. Notable exclusions: if you’re from Yorkshire, or one of your agency’s offices are in Yorkshire, but you yourself are based in the London office.

*One of the things the table may be used for is suppliers looking for PR/social media professionals, so in-house PR/social media staff are not included.

*It does not include agencies outside PR/social media eg marketing, advertising, sales promotion, branding, SEO/PPC, etc etc. Notable inclusions: if your agency offers PR/social media services to external businesses (ie not in-house PR/social media to promote your own agency), staff who fulfil those roles for clients will be included.

*Networked PR/social media agencies with multiple offices will only be listed by their Yorkshire office. So @National_PR_Agency_Co would not be listed, but, for example, @GraylingNorth is.

Live stream from PeerIndex of the Top PR & Social Media Agency Players: Yorkshire

Social Media Round Up of The Week – 4 March

Friday, March 4th, 2011

Here’s the top stories in social media that have got us talking this past week.Like button

1. Facebook says goodbye to the ‘Share’ button in favour of the ‘Like’ button

2. Malaysian airlines launches Facebook check-in and booking service

3. Foursquare gives Manchester the ‘World’s rudest city’ title

4. Facebook for dog lovers.  Yes, really.

chinadog_1836315b5. Lucozade targets social media users via Spotify

6. Charlie Sheen sets new Twitter Guinness World Record

You can see our separate social media campaign video round-up on the Umpf YouTube channel.

Be sure to share any stories you think should be in next week’s round up by emailing social@umpf.co.uk