Category: General

Chicken or the Egg - a love story!

When Carla, our SEO guru, sent out this out we all loved it … so only fair to share the ‘chicken or the egg’ love!

Great work from Christine Kim and Elaine Wu from the Ringling College of Art and Design.

 

HOW TO: Facebook comps

Facebook are notorious for changing their rules with little or no notice.  As a user (especially a business Facebook Page user) it’s up to you to keep abreast of all any new regulations, and make sure you’re following them.

Unfortunately, ignorance is not a defence: if you don’t toe the Facebook line, you could find your page deleted, and all your hard-earned ‘Likes’ absorbed back into the ether.

Despite the rules on competitions being changed nearly two years ago (May 2011) we regularly see promotions that blatantly breach them so we’ve pulled together a brief ‘how to’ guide to help keep you on the straight and narrow …

Basically, Facebook want nothing to do with your competition; in fact, they want to distance themselves as much as possible!

So, things to remember: 

You cannot run a competition anywhere on the timeline of your Page. Instead, it must be done via a third-party app  (essentially an independent page within a Facebook page) and the terms and conditions must very clearly state ‘that the promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook’.

There are only three Facebook functions or features you’re allowed to utilise in the running of your competition: you can require people to Like your page, check in to a Place, or connect to the third-party app that will then direct them to your competition page.

However, none of these actions are allowed to grant automatic entry into the competition.  Instead, they are a stepping-stone that leads to your main means of entry: whether that be a multi-choice question, a task, or whatever you decide.

All other Facebook functions are off limits.  What that means is, you can’t ask people to Like or comment on a specific post on your timeline, and ‘a winner will be chosen at random from everyone who replies’.  Nor can you ask them to ‘upload your photos, and the funniest one will win’.

Similarly, you can’t use Facebook functions as voting mechanisms, ie: ‘Like your favourite photo, and the one with the most votes wins’.

You can’t even notify competition winners on your Facebook page, or via messages, or chat, or personal profiles.  It’s up to you to make sure you collect a means of contacting the eventual winner (an email address, phone number or Twitter handle), and you must make it clear it is you collecting the data, and not Facebook.

So, there it is: the basics of how to run a competition on your Facebook Page.

You can read the full rules and regulations here

If you’ve any questions or would like help in setting up your Facebook Page for future competitions then give us a shout!

 

Infinite Possibilities

I think my stomach’s stopped lurching now… I was among the millions of  people who watched Felix Baumgartner step off the edge of space and free-fall to the earth this week – not something I’d have envisaged watching if you’d told me 20 years ago.

Not only did the daredevil Austrian make history after jumping from 128,000 feet, he also broke the sound barrier and the world record on the number of viewers watching a live stream via YouTube – with an audience of 8 million watching live.

Hats off to Felix, but also, kudos to Red Bull, who backed the stunt and watched its brand exposure go into orbit as fast as Felix fell out of it.

Hands up, how many marketers have you known who’ve come up with a zany, out-there idea that’s made everyone in the room smile, before looking at the logistics and the cost and dismissing it with an ‘it’s a nice idea, but we simply don’t have the resource’? How many of those marketers knew perfectly well it wasn’t a feasible option but suggested it all the same to prove their creativity?

Well, Red Bull has thrown down the gauntlet. Never again will a marketer be able to say ‘never’.

This feat must have taken YEARS to orchestrate. It would need an epic team of experts from a whole raft of fields; not just one man prepared to risk his life. Red Bull has been a big name in bringing extreme sports into the public eye for years, but they’ve taken it to a completely new level now, and they’ve really set a new standard.

This week, Forbes declared that Red Bull’s sponsorship of the live jump was equal to ‘tens of millions of dollars of brand exposure’, and while we have no idea how much time, and money was ploughed into bringing this stunt off, it’s certainly proved its worth for the brand.

So there’s a strong message here – if you have a fantastic idea, one that can stop the world for a couple of hours, then have the guts to help see it through. Yes it takes money, time, resource and God knows it takes energy and dedication, but you might just have a success on this scale on your hands. And if you’re struggling, I can recommend a well-known energy drink to help you get through the pain…

 

 

the trouble with social media ...

As an agency it’s our job to come up with great new innovative ways to engage with consumers/customers.  We always try our hardest to look at every campaign from every angle to ensure that there are no potential pitfalls, issues or indeed negative connotations that could be associated with our plans.

But stuff goes wrong sometimes.  All good intentions get slightly battered and someone has to pick up the pieces.

The latest ‘social media bashing’ award goes to Waitrose. (I know this links to a Daily Mail article … don’t judge me! – here’s another link to Marketing Magazine’s article as well)

I really feel for the PR agency, as on paper, the campaign sounds great.  In practice, especially in Twitterverse, you’re always open to those that will jump on a #hashtag and have their merry way with it.

Hats off to Waitrose though for their gracious handling of what could, and probably is perceived by some, as a PR disaster…

I’ve read through some of the tweets and to be honest more than most were actually humourous rather than scathingly attacking the brand.

What do you think?