google Plus. Now for something completely different: Brands.

Juli 5th, 2011 • 1 comment Brands, Social, Tools
Tags: Brands, Business, Ford, google, google plus, Social, Social Networking, Starbucks, Strategy, Trends

High five Jeff Kwiatek. You asked the right question. But to be honest: Even though I want to be the first agency dude leveraging and embracing the hell out of g+ I still don’t know if it’s worth it. Well who knows?

My guess: Nice platform, it is not Facebook. But it’s a too little too late. And the worst thing: They don’t even offer the right tools to enable brands to give consumers the love that they need. Let me quote Jeff Huber, google’s VP of Local and Commerce (via Mike Blumenthal)

And pre-emptively answering a question — yes, we will have (smb) business profile pages on Google+. I can’t announce a launch date yet, but we want to make them *great*, and we’re coding as fast as we can.

Thanks god a couple of people are a bit more visionary. They know what the consumer wants and that is brands of course. Sean Percival has sketched a concept of how future brand pages might look like (exactly like Facebook but a bit uglier). And indeed one brand has already started to build a presence on google Plus: Ford and Ford Europe. Congratulations Scott Monty. First!

As most of us haven’t even got an invite to g+. And the rest of us still tries to figure out why they would need g+ it is highly speculative to talk about the future of brands there. I wonder what google will come up with to convince brands that building a presence there is a good alternative to Facebook other platforms.

Anyway, I am more than interested which brands are going to start experimenting with g+. If you know of some, please leave a comment.

Copycats. Intel and Deutsche Post celebrate Me, Me, Me.

Juni 1st, 2011 • 4 comments Brands, Ideas, Social, Trends
Tags: Bouygues Telecom, Brands, Campaign, Copycats, Creativity, DHL, Documentation, Facebook, Ideas, Intel, Life, People, Social Networking, Tools, Trends, visual, World

Sometimes you see a good digital marketing idea and you can bet your ass off that dozens of copycats will pop up a couple of months later. In November 2010 the (then) team around my friend (and new colleague) Branislav launched a (then) new idea for Bouygues Telecom in France: an app that turned your Facebook profile into a real book. 1,000 personalized books were gone within an hour of the promotion’s launch even though the campaign never really became as viral as Old Spice or Shoot the Bear.

Fast Forward 6 months. Deutsche Post DHL launches Social Memories, an application that turns your Facebook Profile into a (surprise, surprise) book. This is how it goes…

The app is here.

Read more »

Death? There is an App for that.

Mai 18th, 2011 • People
Tags: App, Apps, Creativity, death, Experimental, Facebook, Ideas, People, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networking, Social Networks, World

Imagine you get hit by this bus tomorrow on your way to work. Probably the last thing that comes to your mind is what happens to your social network connections. Anyway most platforms have clear rules on how to deal with your LOLCat pictures after you have deceased. And your Death 2.0 is alternatively very actively manageable through a bunch of other tools.

But now we have the one thing we very looking for for so long. If I Die is a Facebook application that allows afterlife Facebook status updates. You just leave behind your last message on Facebook, name three friends…and tell your loved ones what you really think of them.

via Digital Buzz Blog

Funny Crap? How things go Nuclear on the Web.

November 10th, 2010 • People
Tags: Funny, People, Philosophy, Social, Social Networking, Truth, Viral, World

The mysterious code how things go ‘viral’ is not going to be discovered…ever still uncracked. Amplifiers such as 4Chan, Reddit or Boing Boing may not really have a marketing value when it comes to viral effects but they promote a lot of funny crap. Do follow the story of how one piece of funny crap becomes even bigger funny crap. Presented by Tom Scott as part of Ignite London‘s Pechakucha-style presentations. Or isn’t it funny at all? Isn’t it actually pretty insane? The lines are blurry.

Chat Roulette. If you turn your head I win.

Februar 28th, 2010 • 2 comments Experimental
Tags: Chat Roulette, Cool, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Social Networking, World