What a beautiful example of a great customer appreciation campaign.  This simple little holiday video e-card has customers raving, cheering, and crying.  Check it out.

I’ve always said that Google is going to rule the world one day.  The company began only 13 years ago and it is the top search engine in the world. 
Google AdWords is an effective form of advertising and one of their most popular services.  I’ve been using AdWords for a few years now and it’s kind of addictive.  Choosing the right keywords, copy or bid amount – so your ad has top placement.  Addictive!
Well, Google now has mobile ads.  It’s set up the same way as AdWords, however you can have display ads (unlike AdWords).  It’s pretty cool, as consumers become increasingly attached to their SmartPhones for tasks they traditionally use their computers.  It’s a great addition/compliment to your traditional campaign.

Over the years, the WWF has done some brilliant advertising.  The message is usually a variation of “save the planet” but the executions are all different and each inspiring. The speckyboy blog has done an admirable job collecting some of the different campaigns. There was a lot of controversy recently over an ad that used the tragedy of 911 to demonstrate how many more people were killed by the tsunami. The WWF has denounced the ad but the print and TV live on in cyberspace. One of my favorite WWF ad is the one below (despite the fact that superheroes are generally overused) because it’s photographic execution is so natural and human. I hope the lights never go off on the creativity of this work and I applaud the WWF for setting the standard so high.

This blog post is #19 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.

In the remake of “Red Dawn”, I played a Chinese soldier invading the United States, but the only invasion I was really thinking about was how Hollywood is invading Michigan. Recently on the set of “Red Dawn” in downtown Detroit, as I was filming a scene with multiple explosions, cast and crews of other movies being filmed here were passing through and saying hello. I thought to myself, Detroit and I could get use to this. I had never been to Hollywood, but thought that this is how it could be. There were 3 movies being filmed blocks away from each other on the same day, “Red Dawn”, “Game of Death”, and “Vanishing”. I also drove pass another set on Woodward shooting “Breneta”. This doesn’t even include other movies being filmed around the area like “Cedar Rapids”, “Something in the Dark”, “Stone”, etc. And there are lots more coming.

My experience in “Red Dawn” has literally been a blast. It has been 3 long months of action packed explosions, crashing, gun firing and laughter, and I’ve enjoyed every moment of it. I met so many nice people on the crew and cast, and made many new friends.

Thanks to the film incentives, Michigan has been attracting Hollywood to an area that has the diversity in people, landscape, lifestyle and weather to accommodate any imagination. Although all of this may never fill in all the pockets of the automotive workers who lost their jobs, it is definitely filling in the morals of hope in the state.

Here’s a cool idea for a hospital or health plan to think about. It’s actually through an initiative by Volkswagon called the fun theory  but I think it would be an innovative healthcare marketing strategy that could really create some buzz.  Why? Because rather than just saying they’re all about wellness, they’d really be creating it. Take a look at what the musical steps make people do. Use them! A hospital or healthcare organization could sponsor this in a local mall.  And really get people talking… and walking up those stairs!

Wouldn’t you take the stairs instead of the escalator or elevator?

These days coupon redemption is relatively high - with the way the economy is it isn’t all that surprising.  Compared to a decade ago, there are so many different ways you can find coupons, from the circulars in newspapers to even as direct as in your own personal email box.  But one of the more surprising ways coupons are coming to us is through the world of mobile advertising.  Picture this, you are in the mall and you walk past your favorite store, Macy’s, and then your phone starts buzzing.  You just received a coupon for 15% off your next purchase good for that day only.  How genius is this idea?  These coupons are at the point of purchase and are relevant to the user making the case for a better ROI.  And who doesn’t enjoy the feeling you get when you save using a coupon?  Personally, I just love em’.

This seemed appropriate for the holiday season, because as we all know, online scams become much more prevalent this time of year. 

We’ve all received bogus emails that lead to fake websites, where thieves try to phish for your credit card number, social security number, or log-in information to other websites.  Well this year you could be scammed just by searching for a reputable company in your favorite search engine.

A recent experiment by a security researcher proved that he could fool the search engines into believing that his bogus bank website was legit and was even able to outrank the real banks website.  His fake website was creditunionofsc.org, and the real bank’s url is cusocal.org.  Within a year and a half, his website ranked #1 in Bing, #2 in Yahoo, and while Google wasn’t as easily deceived they still ranked it on page 6.  His fake website is no longer live and now redirects to the official bank’s website.

While this was done to prove a point, it raises some interesting issues:

1. First of all, make sure that you are visiting the correct website.  Especially when it requires you to log in, make an online purchase, enter your social security number or other personal information.  If you are not sure, you can visit http://www.whois.com to verify the owner of the domain name.
2. It’s possible that any website that uses proper SEO techniques can top the search engine rankings.
3. If I were a customer of this bank, I would feel safer if they had considered a more strategic response.  They vowed to purchase more domain names similar to their own to protect themselves. Shouldn’t they instead be monitoring search engines and implementing safeguards to prevent this from happening again?  Or perhaps working to improve the search engine ranking of their own website?

   They could learn lessons from eBay and PayPal, who have been plagued by this problem for years.  Reporting mechanisms have been added to their own sites to identify deceptive websites.  Email campaigns have been launched to raise awareness of the issue, in addition to information put online to educate customers. 

Have a safe and happy holiday!

We all did a double-take last week when the formerly-infallible Tiger Woods was involved in a somewhat mysterious car accident outside of his Florida home, followed by seemingly daily allegations of infedility. The notoriously private superstar golfer became fodder for gossip for what is likely the first time in his public life. And speculation ensued - would he lose his sponsorships with Nike, Gilette, TAG Heuer, and others. To date, his sponsors are standing behind him. Based on the popularity surge that many celebrities experience following embarrassing public announcements, that’s probably a good call (fiscally speaking). But I wonder what our reader’s think - should Tiger’s sponsors reconsider, or do they continue to quietly support him through the malstrom?

I ran by this spot while I was reading one of my favorite marketing blogs, written by Keith Jennings.

Not only is it hilarious, but it serves as a  healthy reminder to anyone or any company trying to build a brand or a meaningful customer relationship.  Reminder - you don’t want to be the guy looking at your own reflection.    Bottom line, your marketing efforts won’t work if you don’t know what your consumer wants, needs, feels, desires.  How do you figure that out?  Do your research.  The more you know, the better your outcomes are going to be.  Don’t have the budget in this tough economy?  Do your own mini focus groups.  Just don’t go in blind.

Have you seen any advertising recently that you feel just hit the nail on the head?  That just proved the company was really listening and understood what their target was saying?  Share it with us.

What is it with miniature and oversized objects that fascinate us?  Mini bottles of Coca-Cola, mini cars, mini dogs, the pieces in a game of Monopoly (I always want to be the hat), mini tacos, oh and mini m&ms.  Just tiny enough for us to say, “How cute.”  On the flip side are oversized objects.  They aren’t necessarily ”cute”.  But they are unexpected.  So, they grab our immediate attention and create a much different connection – such as, “Wow!”  Check out how some of the photos below where companies used non-traditional, oversized objects as a form of advertising.

Okay, I cannot do a blog series on creative social marketing without giving some props to our client, the Michigan Department of Community Health. For over 20 years, we’ve been partners in creating some of the most memorable ad campaigns in the state. One of our agency favorites, is “I smoke when I’m coloring.” Research showed the best way to get adults to quit smoking was to do it through their kids. This campaign swept award shows, lit up the quit line call center and was so successful other states were calling in for it.  We even heard that the commercial inspired Whoopi Goldberg to quit smoking. Leo Burnett once said, “There is no such thing as a great advertising agency. There are, however, a few great clients.”  MDCH is a great one (thanks for being great partners, guys), and we’re not blowing smoke.

This blog post is #18 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.

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