brands
Three unique brand page examples on Pinterest.
Last fall we mentioned the latest social craze – Pinterest – and how users are pinning anything and everything from food to fashion and beyond. Back then, the majority of user accounts were created by individuals looking to organize their thoughts and ideas in a visually appealing way where they were easily accessible at a later date. But, in the past six months, we’ve seen a shift and numerous brand pages have popped up on Pinterest, hoping to capitalize on this new social medium and engage with their brand advocates in a new and exciting space.
Right now, brand pages function in the same way as any other users’ page. There is no special functionality for brands. However, this does not mean that brands have not thought of innovative ways to set themselves apart on this new channel. In fact, I have seen many brands promoting unique contests and sweepstakes, creating innovative collaborative boards and utilizing their boards to tell the story of the brand. Below, I’ve selected a few brands that are good models for other brands to reference if they are hoping to join and become active on Pinterest.
This car company is hosting a creative Pinterest puzzle contest.
Users have to locate each of the puzzle pieces around the website and/or Facebook page and pin them to a board that they create on their individual Pinterest account. Once the board is completed and organized correctly, users must share the board with Peugeot. The first five people to complete each board win the contest.
Dunkin’ Donuts is a great example of a retail brand that’s utilizing the channel in a way that is interesting for the users. Their boards include photos of Dunkin’ Donuts and their products around the world, some history and what “keeps them running”. They also feature a cool collaboration board, called What are you Drinkin’, that features quotes from actual fans. This is a unique way to show brand advocates that they are listening and incorporating their thoughts into the brand image.
Peapod Delivers is a company that delivers groceries throughout the United States. They have created a very unique Pinterest page with numerous boards ranging from recipes, to healthy living tips, to holiday and event specific ideas, to causes they love (centered on food). Overall they do a great job of capturing the brand’s lifestyle and culture, giving users a reason to follow their boards without constantly pushing their service. One board that caught my eye was the Delivery Trucks board that tracks the delivery truck as it travels to different states. I thought this was a fun way to engage users so that they can follow along with where the truck has been.
What other brands have you seen on Pinterest? Have you seen brands with any unique boards or promotions? Stay tuned for more blog posts to come on Pinterest strategy and best practices.
Dads gain bragging rights – on and off Facebook.
Dad’s around the U.S. aren’t just stepping up to the plate when it comes to grocery shopping and diaper changing, they’re showing off their new family role on Facebook too. According to Mashable, 40% of U.S. dads with kids under age 2 write family statuses on a daily basis and 56% post family photos at least a few times a week. This social media finding is a huge indicator of how times are changing and how parents are now sharing the home responsibilities.
The article states that dads are no longer just providers; they’re now part of a household partnership with their wives. This is a trend that marketers need to take note of as they try to reach family men. As marketers, we need to consider this new father role and how these men are impacting household choices and purchases.
Dads want to feel like brands and their advertising understand this integrated work and family play lifestyle. They want marketers to recognize that there aren’t defined roles in the family unit anymore. Social media can be a great avenue for reaching these Facebook using dads. Mashable suggests using social media as a mosaic – a way to communicate that your brand enables this dad’s new lifestyle.
Do you think that the dad role is more family centered in most homes? What is the best way to connect with these family friendly fathers?
Online campaign influences Mattel to produce bald Barbie for cancer-stricken youth.
The evolution of the Barbie Doll has been drastic since it first hit the children’s toy scene in the late 1950s. Since its launch, Barbie has had to combat multiple lawsuits and negative press about the unrealistic body image the dolls could be inflicting on young girls. Even with these public relations issues, the doll is one of the most successfully marketed children’s toys in history with hugely successful campaigns like its 50th Birthday in New York Fashion Week and the viral Ken and Barbie break-up social media campaign that had the whole world waiting for them to be reunited. Barbie was even listed as one of Time Magazine’s 100 All-Time Greatest Toys.
Mattel and Barbie are now taking another step forward in strategic marketing and more importantly, in promoting a positive self-image for children who need it most. Mattel announced on March 27th on their Facebook page that in 2013 they will be producing a bald friend of Barbie. This announcement comes off the heels of a parent-organized campaign on Facebook and change.org to produce such a doll to help young girls cope with their loss of hair from cancer treatments or other diseases, which some doctors have said can be just as traumatic as the diagnosis itself.
With over 157,000 fans on Facebook this campaign caused quite the stir and eventually caught the attention of Mattel executives. An excerpt from their announcement states, “Play is vital for children, especially during difficult times. We are pleased to share with our community that next year we will be producing a fashion doll, that will be a friend of Barbie, which will include wigs, hats, scarves and other fashion accessories to provide girls with a traditional fashion play experience.”
These dolls will not be available in stores, but with Mattel’s partnership with the Children’s Hospital Association they will be given directly to those girls who are most effected by hair loss. Although Mattel will not be directly profiting from these dolls, as a marketer I can imagine the positive press Mattel will receive and the huge impact this will have on Barbie’s, sometimes debatable, image.
As a company who has been directly affected by cancer and works to raise money for cancer treatment efforts, we hope these iconic dolls can boost the confidence and brighten the attitudes of the brave young girls fighting this fight.
The future of User Interface (UI) Design: Part 1.
As one of the digital thought leaders at Brogan & Partners, I was excited to attend this year's SXSW conference and see where the future of digital design was heading. Often, I feel like the "usability police" and for years I have been making sure our web sites, rich media and social media designs where intuitive so the user knows where to click and what they'll get. But with Touch UI gaining momentum, it begs the question: Is Touch UI the Click UI killer? After all, video killed the radio star... During my week of Interactive sessions at SXSW, I realized that the focus of conventional Click UI was pretty much obsolete. If anything, it was only mentioned in passing. And I also didn't hear the word "usability" mentioned at all. It was all about the touch or gesture experience.
I joke that my kids don't know what a mouse is, but it's true. Their first experience and exposure to computers were a laptop, iPhone, and iPad. None of these devices uses a mouse or has to be clicked. We do have desktop computers around, but it's avoided because there's a feeling of entrapment compare to our mobile devices. Our expectations of how we experience the web has gone way beyond just the conventional and intuitive navigations.
Whether we believe conventional Click UI is a passing phase or not, it is paramount to consider the visual interface as part of the brand. As designers, we'll need to build an easy and memorable experience for our users. And to stay on top of our competitors, those experiences will need to be unique. This is what Nike Myers described in his "The Visual Interface Is Now Your Brand" session at SXSW. Where do you think the user interface is heading?
Here's a little taste of things to come when the visual is the interface.
Facebook fMC Conference – the new brand Pages.
Yesterday was Leap Day, but it will always be remembered as a revolutionary day in the world of social media. Facebook took a huge leap forward with the inaugural Facebook Marketing Conference. The six-hour, invitation-only event packed the American Museum of Natural History in New York, marking a day in history of its own. If you didn’t happen to make the conference, or your invitation somehow got lost in the mail, never fear. Here’s a recap of what you missed:
Mike Hoefflinger, Facebook’s Director of Marketing, announced some new features that are being incorporated with the introduction of timeline for brand Pages. (Side note for brand Pages: Timeline will launch for all brand Pages on March 30, 2012 but you can preview what your Page will look like before it launches and try the new features. We definitely suggest testing out all of the new features and familiarizing yourself with timeline before changing over your Page for good.)
Here are some key takeaways about the new brand Pages:
Cover Photo and Profile Picture – Your cover photo is your new visual status update. You should change this image as often as you’d like to set the tone for your Page. As for your profile picture: keep it simple and constant. Use your logo or and image that will be easily associated with your brand. Here’s a great example from Ben & Jerry’s, one of the brands that has been in beta for timeline.
Applications – These will now appear as rich applications just below and to the right of the cover photo. These applications will engage customers and encourage them to click more often. Starbucks has also been in beta for Timeline and has made great use of the new apps feature.
Pinned Posts, Starred Posts, Backdated Posts – You can “pin” posts (like Red Bull) that you’d like to feature as a “post of the week”. These will stay at the top of your timeline, appearing as the most recent post.
Star posts to make them double-wide on the timeline and/ or backdate posts to tell the story of how your brand evolved. Before launching your new brand Page, consider selecting 10 milestones to highlight on your Page timeline.
Friend Activity Filter – This appears at the top of the timeline on the brand Page. You can select this feature to see all of the stories about your friends that are connected to the brand (check-ins, likes, photos, etc.). You can also change the filter to see highlights, posts by the Page, or posts by others.
Admin Panel – There is a new admin panel front and center on the page. The admin panel will include notifications, insights, new Likes, page tips and messages. Now, admins will have the ability to reach out to people privately on behalf of the brand.
New Ads for Brand Pages:
Offers on Facebook-Now, brands can post offers on their pages that fans can click to immediately claim the deal. Once they click, the offer will be sent to the user’s email or to their mobile device and is immediately redeemable
Reach Generator – This feature will ensure that fans see your story, and it allows you to reach and engage 75% of fans with the content from your page. Basically, you post content on your page and then Facebook distributes it to your fans. Your sponsored post will appear on their homepage.
Premium on Facebook – This feature is the most impactful way to distribute content on Facebook. It begins similar to Reach Generator (posting to the brand page, where your post will be distributed to the right side of your fans’ homepages as sponsored stories). However, Premium on Facebook goes even further and makes your post eligible for distribution in the Facebook newsfeed (on both desktop and mobile). Premium will also give you the option for your story to appear in logout experience. This option, beginning in April, will be beneficial to brands that have a large reach campaign or an upcoming product launch.
Well, that’s the new timeline for brand Pages in a nutshell. So, what do you think? Are the new Pages going to be more beneficial to marketers?
Invest in yourself first - advice for brands
“Invest in yourself first.” While I’ve always know this to be great advice on retirement planning and savings, I’ve recently found myself using it to talk to clients about everything from brand building to new product launches.
So it was a great coincidence when a friend shared David Warschawski’s January 26, 2012 blog post about internal marketing programs as a path to success in the new year. I think we as marketers often forget that while a brand is the public face of a company or a product, it is the group of people behind the brand that can make or break your initiatives.
Brands should constantly communicate with employees. From the mundane (status meeting on Monday), to the revolutionary (new social media policy implemented) and especially to the inspirational (your hard work has lead to a 20% increase in sales) – the employees that create a product and inspire the brand must be the first to know.
What’s the point of all this? Before investing thousands upon thousands of dollars campaigning to external masses who may or may not have an interest in your message, why not campaign to the internal masses who DO have a stake in your success. Invest in yourself first – in your assets. Your employees. Then let them be the megaphones that that push your message forward.
Got an iconic internal campaign to brag about? Let us know!
Is Lego Friends' marketing friendly to women?
I was pleased to hear that Lego recently launched a new line for girls called Lego Friends. My two sons love Legos (love might actually be too weak a word for their Lego obsession) and as a parent, I like them, too. The stackable bricks encourage creativity, concentration, and even math skills.
You’d think it would be a no-brainer to build on the brand that parents love to love (except for those moments when you gouge your bare foot on a Lego piece left on the floor). But apparently, creating and marketing Legos for girls is very, very hard. A Friends cover story in Bloomberg Businessweek even included a “Lego Girl Graveyard” with a sizeable line-up of failed past attempts to reach the pink side of the playground.
Friends, Lego has vowed, will be different. The company fine-tuned the line so exhaustively, its market researchers have been compared to cultural anthropologists.
So, I checked out the Lego Friends marketing with eager curiosity and high expectations. When I clicked to the website, I was . . . a little perplexed. Lego Friends is character-driven because pretend play is just as important to girls as building with bricks. The plastic figures have names, personalities and interests and they look more detailed and pretty than the famous, boxy Lego minifigure. They also look quite young—just like the 7 or 8-year-old girls in the Lego Friends commercials.
So why are the animated characters on the website so adolescent? They have shapely, figures, sculpted cheekbones, and the wide, almond-shaped cat eyes do not happen without the help of mascara. They do a lot of giggling and hugging. They’re not yet Barbies, but they’re definitely sexier than their plastic counterparts.
I bet little girls love these cartoons. But as a mom—you know, the one who’s going to be viewing the website and buying the products?—I’m a little turned off. I accept that Lego made many of the Friends sets a little stereotypical, from the beauty salon to the fashion design studio. That’s what girls ask for in focus groups. (They obviously don’t know how cool women-led ad agencies are.)
I’ll even tolerate the fact that the building aspect of Lego Friends looks less intricate than that of many “boys’” Lego sets.
But when it comes to marketing, we all know grown women are the target. And I think Lego misfired with this website. That’s a shame, because the sweet, age-appropriate Lego figurines are a welcome change for those of us who are Barbied, Bratzed and Disney Princessed out.
I’ll be interested to see if women look past the mixed message of the Lego Friends website and buy the sets for their young daughters.
What do you think of the new Lego Friends line and its marketing?
Using Social Media to Just Give
A week ago, we all sat down to groaning Thanksgiving feasts. Then it was on to Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. I even found a site, moderntribe.com that invented Shop Jewish Sunday. It all culminated in the Visine-inducing Cyber Monday.
Now many of us, awash in beribboned packages, have a consumer hangover. That’s why the newspaper ad I spotted the other day came at the perfect time.
The ad urges us to “redefine Christmas” by giving to charities instead of giving stuff. I think that’s a great message. While sometimes a material gift is just the thing for a holiday or occasion, whenever I see a “no gifts” note on an invitation, I happily make a donation to my favorite charity—the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure--instead.
But what if you don’t have an automatic go-to charity.
That’s where social media comes in.
With a quick Google, I found some excellent charity clearinghouses, including:
- Just Give, which created the Redefine Christmas ad.
- Charity Navigator with lots of great functions including a complete rating on charities.
- Network for Good offers charity gift cards.
- Charity Watch helps you check out organizations and insure that your online donation is safe.
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Crowdrise, one of my personal favorites, just offered a 48 hour promotion where 1 out of every 3 donations were free. This allowed users of crowdrise an opportunity to give their favority charity a donation and get the money right back.
All of these sites are about giving back and sharing with your friends so they can give back too.
And if these sprawling databases are too much for you? Check out your friend's Facebook pages for their favorite charities. That’s how I found out about Kiva through which one can make microloans to business owners in need, as well as Heifer International which gives families in developing nations livestock and training to improve their health and finances.
Or go to a favorite business’s website. Subaru, for instance, is “Sharing the Love” through the holiday season by donating $250 to one of five charities for every new car sold.
Online networks are a great way to find cool stuff to buy. But they’re also the perfect medium for giving back. To me, that’s the essence of what social media is all about.
Building brands with Google Plus: new social media essential or just another Facebook?
To be completely honest, my initial reaction to the Google Plus unveiling was less than enthusiastic. Sigh, yet another platform to tell the world I am “at Starbucks, getting a latte.” (I try to convince myself on a daily basis that this is relevant information). Trust me, I’m not complaining. I like having options. But keeping up with the social media rat race can be a little exhausting, regardless of how heavily it impacts our daily lives (or for some of us, our jobs).
Facebook, Twitter and the like are a huge part of what I do Brogan & Partners. I have seen up close and personal how social media can single handedly build a brand, generate buzz and make or break the success of a business. So this forces the question…will Google Plus become as natural as breathing like updating a status on Facebook?
Let’s take a look at the stats. Thus far, Google Plus has about 40 million users, a drop in the bucket compared to its Facebook counterpart of 800 million. This also means that due to Plus’s lack of maturity, it is too soon to say for sure how effective the network will be for marketing and building brands. In terms of cosmetics, both formats appear to be pretty similar at first glance, even though Facebook will be introducing Timeline, their new “Face lift”, in the near future (stay tuned for more on that).
All uncertainties aside, however, Google Plus might have its advantages. Unlike Facebook, Plus users will have the capability to link directly to YouTube while sharing videos without having to shorten URL’s or be shackled by character limits. It will also have the benefit of donning the name “Google” and, of course, in the ultimate form of nepotism, Google Plus brand pages will be promoted to the top of the search engine powerhouses’ results.
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Another benefit to using Google Plus is its current lack of saturation. You may have heard whispers when the new social network debuted that you needed an invitation to join (a great PR ruse used by Facebook when it appeared on the scene, too). It is now open to all users, but because you can customize the circles you share with and vice versa, you won’t get the same mess of information on your home page that you certainly get on Facebook. For now.
Only time will tell how big this social giant will grow. I, of course, jumped on the band wagon and signed Brogan up for a Plus profile. Want to know how to get your brand started on Google Plus?
- Sign in with your Google account, then go the Google Plus Business Page and click “Create your Google + Page.”
- Choose what category your brand falls under (most likely, it will be “Product or Brand”, or if you are unsure you can pick “Company, Institution or Organization)
- Now, enter your page name (your brand name) and your website.
- This next step is where you need to get a little creative. You have to describe your brand/company in 10 words or less. Try to stick to a description that includes buzz words about your business’s core competencies or where you fit in the marketplace. Here are a few things to think about: What makes you unique? What do you really do? If someone is on a search engine, what words would help them find you the fastest?
- Tell your circles. If you are new to Google Plus, then you most likely do not have circles to tell of your new presence. So you can skip this step. If you are a Google Plus vet, then you can share your page with your current Plus contacts.
- Congrats! You have a Google Plus page. Start looking up other brands and add them to your circles, post pictures and beef up the information to your profile page. The more info on your page and posts about your brand, the better.
Created a page already? I gave you my thoughts on Plus...I’d love to hear yours.
Skinny Girl Cocktails: the power of marketing to women in a male dominated industry.
Like a lot of women, I used to keep my admiration for Bethenny Frankel to myself. This was back when she was catfighting her way through The Real Housewives of New York City on Bravo. I couldn’t help but be drawn to her smarts, her quips, and the fact that she actually seemed relatable.
Frankel’s moved on to her own show, Bethenny Ever After, and bigger and better things. She’s used her celebrity status and her keen understanding of what women want to establish her own brand which now includes bestselling self-help books, a shapewear line, skincare products, and exercise videos.
But her most brilliant endeavor is her cornerstone product, the Skinnygirl Margarita. Frankel understands that women want to have a good time and still stay skinny. She found a niche in a category typically dominated by men. Smart, considering women make up 65-70% of the alcohol purchasing decisions.
And it seems to be working well. With nearly 350,000 Facebook fans and over 33,000 Twitter followers, Skinny Girl cocktails are the hottest new drink. Clearly Fortune Brand’s Beam Global understands that too since they recently signed a nine-figure deal with Bethenny and they’ve since released a Skinnygirl Sangria and Skinnygirl White Cranberry Cosmo.
“If I’m going to form a brand, it has to solve a problem for women,” Frankel said recently on Forbes.com. “It has to be something I would actually do, say, eat, drink, live. And it has to be innovative, something that hasn’t been done before.”
Forget Bethenny’s brash personality, her fame, her hotness, and the fact that she regularly says, “Holy s#%&balls” on TV. As a businesswoman who took female consumers seriously and filled a niche that nobody else had thought to consider, I think Bethenny Frankel is a class act.
Can you think of any other traditionally male industries that should take heed and start producing for women?
