Coca Cola PaperTweetos: Argentina’s National soccer team gets huge support from Twitter

Posted on March 11, 2012 by Stefano

coca cola twitter argentinaOgilvy Argentina helped Coca Cola leverage Twitter to enforce Argentina’s National Soccer Team support from fans by using a special hashtag to filter all supporters tweets.

Every time there is a soccer match where the Argentinean National Team plays, people cheer for their squad anytime, everywhere. At home tweeting and at the stadium throwing papers. For the Copa América 2011 we brougth all that encourage together.

We created Papertweetos.

All the fans’ twitted through a designated hashtag, each message was printed and launched by cannons just as the players entered the field.

This video tells the whole story:

In all, more than 2 million papertweetos were printed…
Nice idea, Soccer fans are soooo happy when they’re allowed to support directly their champions!

(I hope paper was recycled…)

Posted in Advertising, Coca Cola, Soccer, Social gaming, Social initiatives, Social Life, Social marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social news, Social survey, South America, Twitter, Twitter hashtag, User Engagement, User experience, User survey, Viral marketing, Viral video | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Apology video with some personal touch: O.B. tampons are back – and really/namely sorry with women

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Stefano

obtampons videoThis story has little to do with the underlying product (O.B. Tampons) and the fact that it has disappeared for some reasons from the shelves: it’s about nice marketing and customer satisfaction.
As a man I couldn’t care less, but some million women out there are caring a lot about this.

Product loyalty and clients dismay for the product unavailability has pushed so much Johnson & Johnson that they produced this very cool web app: a music video with your name…

Here’s a short version of the story

The diminutive tampons started disappearing from stores in fall of 2010 to the dismay-bordering-on-panic of women who were extremely loyal to the small, applicator-free product from Johnson & Johnson — especially its Ultra brand, a favorite among those with a heavy flow.

Shelves were emptied and the tampons were reportedly selling on eBay for more than $100 (a recent search found a 40-count box of Ultras on a Buy It Now for $79. Ouch).
As for the reason for the disappearance, that still remains unclear; the company said it had a supply interruption but some wondered whether there might be quality control or manufacturing issues.

The tampons started showing up in stores again in the spring, but the Ultras were still unavailable. Until now.

Since March 8th is approaching, start celebrating, Ladies: the company says they are coming back in 2012.
And they’re sorry — really, really sorry — that you had to wait so long.
Apparently they’re so sorry that a regular apology won’t do, so they made a music video featuring every cheesy cliche in the book: a young guy, a white piano on the bluffs, a live dove and rose petals [bleah].

The best part of the video is that’s interactive. Evidently the company wanted to thank everyone personally, so if you type in your name before the video plays you’ll get a special surprise (warning: if you have an unusual name, the video is slightly different).

A message on the company’s website says:

“In case you questioned it, we’re really, really, really sorry that you were not able to find our products earlier this year. You’ve also shown us how much you love o.b. Ultra and we’re sorry we discontinued it — we stand corrected! We’re working hard to bring o.b. Ultra back to store shelves by the second half of 2012 and we’ll keep you updated on our progress. In the meantime, we’d like to apologize with this video message and extend a special coupon offer. Again, we’re really, really, really sorry!”

[Via ObTampons]

Posted in Advertising, Brand, Business, Case Study, Creativity, Digital media, Digital video, Fashion, Ideas, Marketing, Mobile advertisement, Mobile marketing, Online advertisement, Women | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Windows 8 Public Preview under test

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Stefano

Windows 8 is here to stay so I decided to download the (free) Windows 8 Public Preview and give it a try.

windows 8 installing screen

You can too, just start from here http://preview.windows.com.

It will ask you for a valid e-mail where it will send a temporary product key.
Before installing, check all requirements, though:

  • a speedy processor,
  • a graphics card supporting DirectX 9 or more
  • 2 GB of RAM
  • 14 GB of hard disk available

My test setup PC is based on… my Mac under Virtualbox 😉

A full report will follow very soon…

Posted in Microsoft, Operating system, Windows 8 | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Video Games Live: a concert event with orchestral music – video-game-based!

Posted on March 4, 2012 by Stefano

video game live classical musicVideo Games Live quickly became the biggest and most popular game concert in the world.

The debut performance was launched on July 6th, 2005 at the world famous Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the LA Philharmonic.

Over 11,000 people attended making it the biggest video game concert in the world.

Most of the game music played (Halo, Sonic, Metal Gear Solid, Mario, Zelda, Warcraft, Tomb Raider, Myst, Kingdom Hearts, Tron, God of War, EverQuest II, Medal of Honor, Headhunter, Beyond Good & Evil, Advent Rising, etc.) had never been performed live.

Video Games Live is an immersive concert event featuring music from the most popular video games of all time.
Top orchestras & choirs perform along with exclusive video footage and music arrangements, synchronized lighting, solo performers, electronic percussionists, live action and unique interactive segments to create an explosive entertainment experience!

Check the official trailer:

This is a video promo of Video Games Live in Brazil. These shots were taken from our sold out show in Brasilia on September 30, 2007.

[Via VideoGamesLive]

Posted in Fun, Gaming, Geekery, Music, User experience, Video, Videogames, Youtube | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Social media influencers? According to Klout there are five trend-setters types

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Stefano

social media influenceI like Klout even though I’m still trying to fully understand its boundaries and features.
Anyway, it’s a good tool to measure social media influence these days.

But, Is there any emerging model for social media influencers too?

This is what Klout has come up with, a social media influencers matrix: no less than twelve types.

klout influencer social media

Lisa Barone, co-founder of the firm Outspoken Media (New York), in contrast, proposes a simpler list in Small Business Trends: The Five Types of Influencers On The Web.

A list which corresponds very well to the five main types of influencers that found on social media:

  • The networker (Social Butterfly): one who has the biggest contact list and found on all platforms. He or she who knows everybody and everybody knows him or her.
  • The opinion leader (Thought Leader): one who can become the best ambassador of a brand. He or she has built a strong authority in his or her field by based on credibility. Their messages are most often commented on and retweeted.
  • The discoverer (Trendsetter): one who is always the first to use a new platform. Constantly on the lookout for new trends, they become the “hub” in the sector.
  • The sharer (Reporter): one who distributes information to the bloggers to journalists through the specialized webzines. He or she usually amplify messages.
  • The user (Everyday Customer): one that represents the regular customer. He or she does not have a network as large as the networker, but his or her network remains equally important.

    • Who are you? Which type does fit your social media behaviour?

    [Via SocialmediaToday and SmallBizTrends]

    Posted in Marketing, News, Social initiatives, Social Life, Social marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social news, Social survey | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

    Facebook releases new advertising infrastructure

    Posted on February 29, 2012 by Stefano

    facebook advertisementNew life and tools for Facebook advertising?

    Along with Timeline for brands, Facebook also introduced Premium Offers and Ads, which function similarly to Promoted Tweets. Marketers can pay to get their ads or Sponsored Stories some better real estate on Facebook. You’ll notice that also includes mobile ad placement.

    E-marketers are given a guiding hand and new tools from Facebook to create a more natural advertising environment. But is it at the expense of the user experience?

    The social network also has a new tool called the Reach Generator.
    The Reach Generator allows advertisers to pay Facebook on an ongoing basis to sponser one page post a day – and Facebook guarantees a 75-percent reach of a brand’s page over the course of a month.

    facebook advertising

    What’s left?
    The biggest change to user experience might be logout ads.
    Now, when you logout of Facebook, you will see ads. Facebook calls this the “logout experience,” and it’s essentially a hit and run. You used to be directed to the sign-in page, and now you’ll be greeted by an ad below the login portal instead.
    37 million people log-out of Facebook every day, and now Facebook can leverage those exiting eyes.

    [Via DigitalTrends]

    Posted in Advertising, Business Intelligence, Business Model, Economy, Facebook, Facebook Advertising, Facebook Pages, Facebook Pages for Business, Facebook Timeline, Marketing, Media, Mobile advertisement, Social marketing, Social network, Social news, Social survey | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

    Academy Awards 2012: who won? Actors? Actresses? Movies? No, social media!

    Posted on February 27, 2012 by Stefano

    academy awards 2012 oscarOk, I do think Meryl Streep deserved her 2012 Oscar as well all the other folks on the red carpet… as I wrote yesterday there’s another big winner even though it’s not holding an Oscar.

    Actually, the real winner this year is Social Media.
    Never before has social buzz meant so much for Hollywood, media, news and movie fans altogether.

    Need a proof of this? Read these two posts from Forbes and Reuters.

    Forbes’ Michael Humphrey’s article is titled Oscar 2012: What IBM’s Watson Knows That Hollywood Doesn’t and tells us how IBM’s supercomputing power has been used to parse million of tweets and uncover the People’s Oscar and better understand movie fans opinions out of the tweet-jam.

    IBM is developing a new tool that leverages social media buzz to help journalists tell a new kind of story and Hollywood to better connect with its audience. The algorithm can’t predict Oscar outcomes, at least not yet, but it can help Hollywood understand earlier what will and won’t work when its movies come out. And it can demonstrate, with far greater reach, how disconnected the Oscars are from the average movie-lover.

    The end product for now is the Oscar Senti-meter, a collaboration of IBM, University of Southern California Annenberg Innovation Lab and the Los Angeles Times. The Senti-meter has been analyzing millions of tweets since the nominations were announced, creating an aggregated voice of the people about the nominees. It turns out the Hollywood bigwigs who vote don’t always see eye-t0-eye with the people who watch the movies.

    ibm oscar senti-meter tweet measurement

    On the other side, Lucas Shaw from the Warp writes that:

    the 84th Academy Awards will be taking place not just on your television, but on your iPads, Droids and Macbooks

    Research shows that the majority of people with smartphones or tablets use them while watching TV.
    I strongly believe that Social TV or coviewing is here to stay (and I’m working on this!), so here you’ve got the list of moviegoers’ best apps: Viggie, Intonow, Getglue, Miso, MediaFandom and UMaMi.

    Sunday night’s awards cap off a sequence of big events – from the Super Bowl to the Grammys – with which the likes of Shazam, Miso, GetGlue and others have tried to establish themselves as the go-to companion to your television experience.

    [Via Forbes and Reuters]

    Posted in Coviewing, Digital life, Digital media, Marketing, Media, Movie, News, Social initiatives, Social Life, Social marketing, Social Media, Social network, Social news, Social survey, Social TV, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Academy Awards 2012 and social media: do Oscars use Twitter?

    Posted on February 26, 2012 by Stefano

    It’s Oscar time again, but this is 2012 in the social-era, so nothing really happens without being social-ly leading!

    With the Academy Awards 2012 this weekend, there are a lot of buzz created in the social media about the best movies, best actor and best actress nominees. Who will take the golden statuette home this year? Social media users from across the world have spoken. No matter who wins the Academy Awards this year, these films, actors and actresses have already won millions of hearts with their performances. They are the real winners!

    With over 150K Facebook likes, The Help is the leading contented for the Best Picture this year.
    Though The Help did not top the list in terms of nominations, it has created the maximum buzz in Twitter and Facebook and Viola Davis also has also left Meryl Streep (for The Iron Lady) behind in the US conversation regarding the Best Actress award.
    However, Meryl Streep generated the most buzz worldwide.
    On the other hand, Brad Pitt generated the most interest in social media for his performance in Moneyball and is the number one contender for the Best Actor award this year.

    academy awards 2012

    [Via SocialBlog]

    Posted in Academy Award, Media, Music industry, Social Life, Social Media, Social network, Social news, Social survey, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Google’s sunglasses: Terminator look and Google’s augmented reality technology for the ultimate gadget

    Posted on February 26, 2012 by Stefano

    Google’s so-called “Terminator” glasses – they’re a pet project being developed at Google’s X laboratory, and will presumably place a computerized overlay on the real world.

    An exciting detail from the New York Times — the sunglasses will be ready for sale by the end of 2012.

    People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

    According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.

    The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.

    So, it’s: Google maps + Android + augmented reality + GPS + Terminator look + … what?

    They will also have a unique navigation system. “The navigation system currently used is a head tilting to scroll and click,” Mr. Weintraub wrote this month. “We are told it is very quick to learn and once the user is adept at navigation, it becomes second nature and almost indistinguishable to outside users.”

    The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.

    [Via NYTimes]

    Posted in Android, Augmented reality, Digital life, Electronics, Fun, Gadget, Geekery, Geotagging, Google, Hardware, Research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

    Technology Review – March/April 2012 issue: interview with Drew Houston – Dropbox founder – on cloud storage

    Posted on February 24, 2012 by Stefano

    technology review 4 2012The latest issue of Technology Review features an interview with Dropbox‘s founder Drew Houston about cloud storage and the future.

    I love Technology Review and I’m definitely addicted to Dropbox so I’m writing this to spread the (good) news about both.

    This is how Drew talks about his Dropbox’s founding tale:

    The breaking point for me was a bus ride. I went down to Boston’s South Station to ride the Chinatown bus to New York. I was thrilled to open my laptop and have four hours where I could finally get some work done. But I had that sinking feeling that something was wrong, and I started feeling in my back pocket for my thumb drive, and of course I could just see it sitting on my desk at home. So I sulked for about 10 or 15 minutes and then opened up the [text] editor and wrote some code that I thought would solve the problem. And I met up with Arash through a mutual friend at MIT, and he decided to drop out with a semester left, and we went to California and got to work.

    If you don’t know Technology Review…

    Technology Review is an independent media company owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). More than two million people around the globe read our publications, in five languages and on a variety of digital and print platforms. We publish Technology Review magazine, the world’s oldest technology magazine (established 1899); daily news, analysis, opinion, and video; and Business Impact, which explains how new technologies are transforming companies, disrupting markets, or creating entirely new industries. We also produce live events.

    If you don’t know Dropbox, go and get some 2 Gigabytes online cloud storage for free, as well as cross-platform client, iPad support and a lot more – and ditch those USB flash drives…

    [Via Technology Review]

    Posted in Case Study, Cloud, Cloud computing, Cluster, MIT, Online storage, Startup, Storage, Tech industry | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment