LouisJvR

Louis is the Johannesburg manager of web marketing firm World Wide Creative. Louis is also known as the ‘Case Study Guy’ with an encyclopaedic knowledge of research resources to support the strategic initiatives he is involved in. In between organising Heavy Chef Sessions in the Gauteng region, Louis happens to have a mean sidestep on the rugby field. With his silky skills, dashing good looks, Colgate smile and cunning wit, Louis is the high school quarterback of the World Wide Creative marketing team.

Top Social Media Sites: Age Breakdown Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR January 7, 2010 No comments

The Nielsen Company recently released research results on the age breakdown of members on 3 of the largest social networks around: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

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5 Ways South African Consumers will use the Internet in 2010 Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR December 4, 2009 2 comments

It’s that time of the year again where every digital marketing expert/guru/genius/yoda/messiah will shout from the hilltops on what they think the digital marketing trends for 2010 will be.

(do a search on 2010 digital marketing trends and you’ll get the picture)

A lot of noise indeed and often lacking context I believe… Read Further

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My formula for creating online community Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR November 16, 2009 No comments

(*reposted from my personal blog http://www.louisjvr.com)

The term online community is something that’s thrown around a lot these days… and legitimately so.

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Golf Case Study: Integrating Twitter & other social media tools with your value offerings Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR September 26, 2009 No comments

(this is a re-post from my Posterous blog)

A month or two ago www.pga.com showed the world just how effectively social media can be integrated with your value offerings.

First some context, at the recent PGA Championship, people were on the edge of their seats as they watched Tiger Woods and Y.E. Yang battle it out for the coveted trophy (surprisingly, Yang won eventually!) – however a huge contingent was following the action online.

Where PGA.com came to the party, the provided their visitors with:

Live online video streaming (not just ‘highlight’ clips, LIVE streaming of the entire play-off)

Shot for shot commentary and related news updates relevant to event

However where PGA.com really came to the party was giving users the ability to chat live, as event were unfolding, on PGA.com via their favourite social networking tools – Twitter, Facebook and MySpace (MySpace? This still relevant? ).

So, how it worked, basically you logged in through PGA.com using your preferred social networking profile and then posted your status updates or tweets on an aggregated page. Simple and easy to use (screenshot below).

From a user’s point of view, you can imagine the appeal – you’re into what’s happening between Tiger and Yang and can now interact with the event in any number of ways – watch on TV, watch online, connect with other fans, share your thoughts with your friends/followers. Just many touch points, all adding to your golfing experience.

But, the real kick of it, the ROI for PGA.com:

Online advertising – needless to say, the streaming and live chat platforms had its own sponsors and advertising on its pages

TV commercials – live streaming didn’t cut commercials, so if you were watching, commercials were no different then watching it on TV

Database – you had to be part of PGA.com’s community, this provided them with loads of demographical info on its viewers

Viral – User updates were pollinated across their specific social networking profile i.e. if you tweeted on PGA.com, your Twitter followers was able to see it

Measurable – what duration a person was logged on to PGA.com, how many updates they posted, how much was viewed, how many clicks etc etc

In the not too distant future, I imagine PGA.com or any other socially integrated site out there would be able to profile you (based on your social networking information) and then show advertising/promotions that is most suited to your profile.

For example, in a previous status update you mentioned you and the wife are house hunting and you both are sooo excited. So, you’ve used your social networking profile to login to a specific site and presto!, you see an advertisement: ‘Properties for Sale in (insert your region)”… talk about targeted advertising.

This is where the world is heading.

All very exciting and well done to PGA.com for adding to golf fans golfing experience.

As a side note, getting users to log in to your site via their social networking profiles is a trend that uber-analyst, Jeremiah Owyang, refers to as The Era of Social Colonization – as Jeremiah puts it:

“Gone are the days of isolated websites – all becoming part of a greater, integrated social web; web technologies will focus on making web users online identities central and portable i.e. visitors to your site will bring their identities with them”

I did a more detailed write-up of Jeremiah’s analysis on my blog LouisJvR.com if you’re interested > The Future of the Social Web – Take it Seriously

(thanks to http://socialnomics.net for inspiring this post (here)!)

A month or two ago www.pga.com showed the world just how effectively social media can be integrated with your value offerings.

First some context, at the recent PGA Championship, people were on the edge of their seats as they watched Tiger Woods and Y.E. Yang battle it out for the coveted trophy (surprisingly, Yang won eventually!) – however a huge contingent was following the action online. Read Further

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Thinking about Silver Surfers Online Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR September 11, 2009 No comments

In a recent chat with a client of ours at World Wide Creative, we got into an interesting discussion around ’seniors’ (that is those people +-60 years and older) and their level of activity on the web and their value to marketers.

So, I did a bit of digging around and found some interesting learnings…. in fact over the last 3 years or so this market, dubbed the “Silver Surfers“*, has become quite a hot topic of discussion… Read Further

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Creating New Worlds: Comcast Town Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR August 25, 2009 No comments

At one of our previous Heavy Chef events in Cape Town, Justin Gomes (FoxP2 Ad Agency) in his talk on “Creativity And Its Power To Transform Business”, told the story of George Lucas and Star Wars, and the importance of creating new worlds…

So, when I stumbled across Comcast Town, I was reminded of Justin’s words of wisdom.

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Kevin Spacey Explains Twitter to David Letterman Posted in Hot Stuff, Concocted by LouisJvR August 24, 2009 2 comments

Classic.

Kevin Spacey (yes, THE Kevin Spacey) being very practical in educating David Letterman on Twitter. Sending a tweet (via @KevinSpacey) while live on The Late Show with David Letterman:

Clip below (04:23)…

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Twitter in South Africa: Investigating the Hype Posted in Hot Stuff, Recipes for Success, Web Marketing Fare, Concocted by LouisJvR August 19, 2009 3 comments
The hype is there, no doubt.

But I think it’s time to put a stake in the ground and do some research into Twitter’s pervasiveness in South Africa… this is what I could find:
1. According to research company, Sysomos, South African Twitter users make up 0.85% of total Twitter users (that is the 10th largest usership in the world!)
2. According to Nielsen Wire Twitter receives an estimate 55 million visits per month (7 mil unique visits)
Based on this, I can make an assumption that SA Twitter users generate 467,500 visits per month (59,500 unique visits).

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Weather.com’s mobi site shows potential in mobile web Posted in Mobile Take Away, Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR August 17, 2009 No comments

Always a hot topic: ‘Mobi-sites’

We know just about every person in this world owns a handset. We know the majority of mobile devices can access the web. But the question still comes up over-and-over again, how many people actually use their handsets to access the web?

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Have you seen the new FNB.co.za? Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR July 20, 2009 No comments

As banking websites go, they aren’t really built to excite.

In fact I often wonder if they’re built to transact. It doesn’t seem as much, considering their failure (in my opinion) to find even a swift of balance between creative design and the user-experience.

That being said, FNB has changed my perception. Read Further

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Mayo Clinic – A Practical Case Study on Using Social Media Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR June 24, 2009 No comments

An excellent case study for using social media as a marketing and communications tool for non-sexy brands – like Mayo Clinic, a leading medical/surgical clinic based in the US.

This interview by Guy Kawasaki with Lee Aase, social media manager at Mayo Clinic, shows how they make in-depth health and medical news content available directly to patients and interested consumers in order to encourage feedback, dialog, and sharing of information. Read Further

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Facebook Facts on a Platter Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR June 10, 2009 No comments

If you’re a facts-junky like me, you’ll just love this site – www.allfacebook.com

Loads and loads of resources on (yep, you guessed it) all things Facebook, including stats on most popular FB Fan Pages*, Apps & FB Connect usage (size + growth). Read Further

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Create Unusually Simple & Surprisingly Powerful Products Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR June 4, 2009 1 comment

At World Wide Creative we promise 2 things when creating digital strategies for our clients – Profitability and Creativity.

I’m wondering if we should add ‘Elegance’ to that pledge?

Guy Kawasaki recently interviewed Matt May, author of In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing, about tips to pursue elegance. Read Further

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The Future of the Social Web – Take it Seriously Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR May 28, 2009 No comments

**Article republished from World Wide Creative’s Johannesburg Manager, Louis J v Rensburg’s Ka-Pow! blog.

soial web

Yesterday I wet your appetite with this excerpt from Forrester Research’s latest analyst report on The Future of the Social Web…

“…not just social networks, but every brand site will become social — whether you include these features, or visitors bring them along.” Read Further

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Net Prophet 2009: All the Talks, Slides & Pretty Faces Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR May 26, 2009 No comments

Ok, so I heard that the Net Prophet 2009 conference at the beginning of this month rocked. Brilliant!

So, what about our not-so-lucky folk (like me) who weren’t able to attend? Read Further

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Forrester Research Says Social Media Sucks Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR May 12, 2009 No comments

Yesterday, I tweeted the following: “When @jbernoff says you better stop thinking of the Social Web as ‘media’ – you better listen!”

This tweet referred to Josh Bernoff (one of Forrester Research’s bigwig-cum-analysts)’s post: “Why Social Media Sucks” on Ad Age Digital Next’s blog. Read Further

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The Web: Visualized in Funky 3D Posted in Hot Stuff, Concocted by LouisJvR April 17, 2009 No comments

visual web

Need to visualize the world wide web? Read Further

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Tip’d Gives Us Some Advice on Growing Your Community Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR April 9, 2009 No comments

A recommended read courtesy of RWW’s recent post on “Community Building 101 for the Bootstrapped Startup“.

RWW follows the stellar growth of Tip’d – a four month old financial news site – and what they’ve done to cultivate their web community. Read Further

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4.5 Million – A Relevant Number Posted in Hot Stuff, Concocted by LouisJvR March 31, 2009 2 comments

Fred & I recently attended 27Dinner at Capello Sandton, where Mr. Mike “The Iron” Stopforth tasked attendees to do a 270 second talk on, well, just about anything really… “a gem of information, a nifty little discovery, some new app you’ve been playing with, a funny story, a piece of advice or even an inspiring speech”.

Without thinking about it, I wanted to give a bit of insight into the relevance of the number: 4.5 million. Read Further

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Time Inc’s Boss Says Tech Is The Way To Go Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR March 31, 2009 No comments

In an interview with The Economist, Ann Moore Chief Executive at Time Inc, gave some insights into the whole “Print is Dying”-debate.

“A self-described “magazine optimist” who thinks that holding a glossy magazine beats looking at a screen”, Ann realizes that technology needs to be the solution, not the problem. Read Further

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Keep your blog momentum Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR March 23, 2009 1 comment
It is so vital to build momentum through your blog.

So, if you need to up the ante on content for your blog, here are some points to remember:
- Every post need not be an essay
- Every post need not be original
- A post can be a relevant link and a sentence to expand on it Read Further
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Prioritizing Community-Driven Social Media Campaigns Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR March 13, 2009 No comments

I was reading a post from a well-known analyst firm, Gartner, and their 7 characteristics of a well defined social application “purpose” (courtesy: Communityserver.com).

In short, these characteristics – which you can view –>HERE – highlights having a solid purpose and focus when launching a social media campaign. Read Further

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Latest in Crowdsourcing: Help Choose a Poster for the Latest Blockbuster Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR March 10, 2009 No comments

How awesome is this !?

Now I can help Fox Searchlight pictures to choose the best poster for their latest movie release (500) Days of Summer.

Talk about generating buzz and building a community around a brand; now I’ll definitely make sure to watch this movie and bragging about it with my friends (if my poster gets chosen that is ) Read Further

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Spiderman throws his weight behind Obama! Posted in Hot Stuff, Concocted by LouisJvR March 6, 2009 No comments

Spiderbama

You know you’ve made it when you appear in a Spiderman-comic…
(Courtesy: Breitbart.com)

The story line:

The comic starts with Spider-Man’s alter-ego Peter Parker taking photographs at the inauguration, before spotting two identical Obamas. Parker decides “the future president’s gonna need Spider-Man,” and springs into action, using basketball to determine the real Obama and punching out the impostor. Read Further

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Why do you attract visitors to your website? Intel doesn’t… Posted in Recipes for Success, Concocted by LouisJvR March 2, 2009 2 comments

I stumbled accross this great piece of insight provided by David Veneski, a marketing manager at Intel, who said that one of the requirements of his marketing efforts was to NOT link to Intel.com.

Wham! Thank you David. Exactly what I was preaching to a client the other day.

Well-known web analyst, Jeremiah Owyang adds that rather than try to join a community then pull them away, the marketing efforts of Intel was focused on to join communities and staying there – likely where the trust is highest. Read Further

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Top Social Media Sites: Age Breakdown

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