Visit Sweden have reacted to the phenomenon of the British recession 'Staycation' by highlighting the proximity and relative benefits of going to Southern Sweden.
They've created a series of virals, all housed on the Visit Sweden website and the Visit Sweden You Tube Channel, featuring a typical Brit called Dave and his foul-mouthed reaction to the wonders of Skane. The idea is Dave is your classic obnoxious British holidaymaker, and you can avoid him by shunning Cornwall for Sweden.
But the campaign doesn't stop at the creative - it's all really well joined up using all your Social Media friends.
There's a Facebook page, showing Dave's a fan of West Ham and Andy McNab.
There's a Twitter profile, @DavegoestoSkane, which reveals he's Dave Smith, a taxi driver from Hackney (I think I know him), and rants about being in Sweden. It's funny, and he's engaging people as well. This is also the first example I've seen where Twitpic is being used to good effect as well. Brilliant.
There's even a Flickr page, which photos of Sweden featuring Dave, like the one below:
The ads themselves are pretty varied and pretty funny.
There's a video of Stenshuvud beach:
The Swedish countryside, in which Dave gives his opinion on the beguiling ancient stones at Ales Stenar:
An appreciation of the lines between Art and Architecture:
And finally Malmo, a captivating city of contrasts:
A great way to get Social Media types to talk about and share something is to lampoon their own ways, so they can share it and be all postmodern and ironic. I say they, I should say we.
This idea from Sony Vaio is a great one, even more so because they've followed it through.
Are you one of the millions of people whose lives have been ruined by a never-ending torrent of tweets, friend requests and ‘Which kind of pasta are you?' quizzes? Then it's time you joined the Social Media Addicts Association.
SMAA is run by reformed social media addicts who all had the courage to stand up and admit to their problem. Will you stop poking people you haven't seen since college, and join us?
On the You Tube Channel, there's an appeal from Jerry, the founder:
An appeal from Frank, a Social Media Addict:
I have also found Frank, I think, on Twitter as @frankSMAA. I'm his first non-spam follower.
There's also Gemma:
And this goon:
These are in the Confessions section, which encourages you to upload your own confession. I can't wait to see some of those. A great idea again.
The whole Sony Vaio thing is very subtly pushed. There's an ad on the site promoting the use of the Vaio for Social Media, and it is the laptop used in the main ad for covert use of Social Media.
The whole thing is very slick, and hopefully this is just the start. Having all the characters on Twitter makes sense, a Facebook group would be a great idea (I can't find one) and, if they could get away with it, profiles of the characters on Facebook (I suspect Facebook would take these down if alerted to them), and a whole joined-up approach for the addicts with things like Blogs and maybe even Linked In profiles, particularly for Frank, who seems to be the star. The only issue is that Frank is also the anti-drugs campaign, 'Talk to Frank', which could get confusing.
I don't know who's responsible for the campaign but, so far, well done them.
UPDATE: The agency responsible is Nascom in Belgium, and the campaign is produced by Caviar Brussels, and directed by Frank Devos, which would explain why the guy is called Frank!
Not content with being quoted by everyone from Davina McCall and Ant and Dec to the Arsenal squad, Aleksandr the Meerkat is campaigning to get the word 'Simples' into the Oxford English Dictionary.
The campaign is on Facebook and has a few signees already, but is sure to gain momentum. It's also exactly the kind of publicity that new editions of dictionaries like, knowing that when they ad words like 'ming' it will generate publicity.
Uptake is sure to be huge given Aleks' tweet to his over 22,000 Twitter followers about the campaign. The petition was prompted by Aleksandr's dispute with Sergei the IT meerkat over a game of Scrabble, another Facebook staple.
A great idea, and I'm off to sign the petition. Simples.
Daim Bar are apparently looking for a 90s Pop Act to revive for their new campaign. But the onus is on the retro acts to submit themselves for consideration. A wicked idea.
I only just read about this on Digital Spy, but it turns our I'm a bit late on in the proceedings. I say proceedings, this has not taken off as it could.
How Cleopatra would sell you Daim bars
For reasons I won't go into, I feel qualified to pull this apart. I'm not doing this maliciously, like I say I think it's a great idea, but largely out of professional curiosity. I have no axe to grind with the agency that seems to be behind it, Golin Harris, and can only dream of achieving what they have as an agency. I am also highly conscious that this appears to be a campaign with zero media budget.
The campaign has had exposure on The Sun's website, on Digital Spy today and Daim has over 50,000 fans in various guises on Facebook, so it has the chance to gain traction. It hasn't. If you aren't in control of your brand's pages on sites like Facebook, you're missing a valuable communication tool.
The fans exist on Facebook - they need to be tapped into
The Second Daim Around Facebook fan page consequently has just 507 fans. They did, at least, get the vanity url. Admittedly a second page encouraging people to vote for Kavanagh has 106 fans. I suspect there's a degree of crossover.
There is no presence for the campaign on Twitter. Three people have mentioned 'Second Daim Around' on Twitter. They are: a lady who works for Golin Harris; a gentleman who works for Golin Harris; and a member of Cleopatra.
Second Daim Around is not trending
It's easy to get a bit of a following on Twitter for a brand. Everyone has a quick look when they get a new follower, and wonders why that follower might have chosen them. If you follow people who have tweeted about, for example, Daim/Dime bars, appalling 90s acts like MN8, Ultimate Kaos and the like (from my rudimentary research, Dr Alban AND Haddaway are recording a track together right now. They'd have been up for it, and people are talking about them), they'll look into what you're promoting. Start a conversation, a natural one, and draw them in. They'll tell their friends. It's more interesting than what they had for lunch.
The You Tube channel is not a Daim channel, it's the agency's, Golin Harris. It costs nothing to set up a You Tube channel and change the background. I know for I have done this for a client who had no budget for this aspect of the campaign.
The agency's You Tube channel
Again, You Tube is an easy way to give your brand an identity, another home, and another means of actually communicating with the audience who want to know. Whack a few comments on videos of the bands you're targeting, and start the chain.
As a consequence of this lack of networking, there has not been much of an uptake from the acts that have been targeted. Cleopatra and Kavanagh were the subjects of the Digital Spy and Sun stories respectively, but aside from that the agency have been publicly scratching around for other names, including trying to solicit Mr Motivator's involvement via Twitter. Mr Motivator has already enjoyed a retro renaissance on GMTV.
Lacking Motivation
I will give you the names, and backgrounds, of the acts.
Ray Pohill. From 2 Point 4 Children. I literally have never seen this guy before in my life. And I watched the show. It absolutely honks of desperation, and looks suspiciously like it was filmed in someone's swanky office.
Sicknote from London's Burning. Seriously. I remember the character's name, I would not know him if I fell over him.
Kavanagh, who is the sort of name I bring out when I think of this kind of thing, so fair play. He is literally all over it. He is still gigging.
Rowetta, who was on X Factor a couple of years back despite the fact that she had already had a career as a member of the Happy Mondays, has an audition on the Facebook page but not on You Tube. It's a shame because it was filmed outside a pub, edited on a camcorder and features a dog eating loads of Daim bars. It gets my vote.
Last, but by no means least, Cleopatra. They could have conducted the campaign on their own. They have posted mock-ups of how they'd look in an ad (see above), videos of other acts endorsing their candidacy (including S Club, Lil' Chris and Big Brovaz), and been active on Twitter and Facebook stirring up support. It's a shame nobody knows what for.
'Vote for Cleopatra' the video involves them apparently showing their backsides to the audience in a provincial club, possibly Pulse in Cardiff. It has had 50 views. I was probably 3 of them. Kavanagh is knocking on the 350 mark, but it was linked to by The Sun, so that is not a good total.
One of the reasons I'm so disappointed, apart from the chance to see a load of 90s acts revived, is that this has been proved to be achievable. Take Vanilla Ice.
Virgin Mobile in Australia took it upon themselves to apologise for past indiscretions in music, starting with Vanilla Ice. Right Music Wrongs was the campaign and, although it had media spend attached, the viral and PR element was where the real value was achieved, culminating in an actual new tour for Vanilla Ice off the back of his renewed popularity, and Australia's most viewed viral film ever.
iDaft by Najle.com is a simple recreation of the console used by Daftpunk and Kanye West and allows you to create your own 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' type mix using your computer keyboard.
According to the iDaft Facebook Group, the iDaft Application is coming soon for the iPhone. Sweet.
Insurance and insurance price comparison websites are not the most exciting of things, and to the consumer seem much of a muchness. Something about markets, comparing, that'll do. Loyalty even when consumers search for specific brand terms goes out of the window once the plethora of search results, with various claims to 'save you this much' and 'compare this many prices' fighting for your attention.
Confused.com tried to play on this with their very name, but are stuck with it now and it's not ideal in this sort of fickle market, but how do Go Compare, Money Supermarket and CompareTheMarket differentiate themselves in real terms and show the ultimate value of the copious amounts they spend on TV advertising?
Go completely left field seems to be the answer, and CompareTheMarket have done just that. VCCP have created a superb idea, fleshed out across channels by the media planning and buying of Zed Media, based on confusion over the brand name that, to coin a phrase, really jumps the shark.
Here's Compare The Meerkat's Aleksandr Orlov, a meerkat, naturally, to explain.
Confused? Of course you aren't, it is, as the meerkat says, 'Simples'. It doesn't just stop at a clever idea, either. Comparethemeerkat.com carries the theme on, with the home page mirroring the comparethemarket.com homepage but, obviously, comparing meerkats rather than helping you save money on your car insurance.
The Compare the Meerkat site actually allows you to compare meerkats, obviously, which is as random as it sounds. I found a small helicopter enthusiast in London, of course.
It's all voiced over by the Borat-a-like Aleksandr, who seems, if social media sites are anything to go by, to have captured the imagination already.
I suppose the ultimate success won't be in terms of favourable Facebook posts, but increased brand distinction and share of voice, but the indications are that it's making the right first impressions.
Kathy Griffin, who often features in shows like Family Guy and Seinfeld and strikes me as a fairly odious individual, features in this clip from CNN's New Year coverage.
This clip is remarkable, to me, for two things. The more cerebral part is that there are Facebook messages running across the bottom of the screen throughout CNN's coverage. Thi is way ahead of the 'text in' equivalent on the UK news networks like Sky News and BBC News.
If you think about it, increasing use of, as I am now, a laptop in front of the TV means that using a (moderated) Facebook group or Twitter thread makes much more sense. Making viewers pay to give their opinions will surely become outdated in 2009, particularly in light of the scandals surrounding phone-in votes.
I'll be keeping an eye out for early innovations of this type on British TV. I'm mildly optimistic that Celebrity Big Brother, which starts tomorrow night, could experiment with a couple of social media angles. Even I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was on Twitter, for Pete's sake!
The second, and more obvious, thing about this clip is the absolutely stonking insult Kathy Griffin throws out to a heckler when she clearly thinks her mike has gone dead. I know it probably counts as a quote of 2008, but if I hear a better insult from a ginger woman in 2009 than "I don't come to your work and knock the dicks out of your mouth.", it will have been a good year.
While watching I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here last night and researching yesterday's Dani Behr watch, I accidentally downloaded the Facebook application that is intended to show your support for your favourite celeb.
It's a good idea and allows you to show how much you want your fave to win by reading up on them and watching videos on the official I'm a Celebrity site.
On the subject of fairly pointless but extremely boastworthy applications for the iPhone, the Carling iPint has been the single most overused tool on my iPhone.
I'm not the only one either as, along with the obligatory Facebook application, now greatly improved, the iPint is consistently near the top of the download chart.
It's a great piece of viral marketing and both the simple game and the simulated pint showcase the accelerometer technology perfectly.
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and there are already a number of simulate iPhone apps featuring different tipples. There is a more advanced iBeer app but, as this is a paid-for app, it's difficult to see why anyone would choose this over the free version, unless they had a particular aversion to Carling.
