After relaunching their Chaos website with great success last year, Riaan and the team decided to do something extraordinary to rewards its passionate community of fans.

Lotusphere is a conference held annually by IBM for its customers. It provides an opportunity for the attendees to listen to speakers about how the newest technology can benefit business. The main focus is on the people who use Lotus software, therefore the people who are being targeted are viewed as tech savvy. The Lotus software helps with productivity within the work environment so the Lotusphere site spoke to the target market which would appreciate a site where all the information is available and they would be able to know what kind of conversations where happening around Lotusphere 2011 without having to go to each different site. Clever!

Lotusphere ran from 30 January to 3 February 2011. Mid-way through the event, there were more than 20 000 tweets with the #ls11 hashtag. IMB claims that the campaign managed to get over 41 million impressions on Twitter. This is impressive given the way this campaign was run. The landing site provided an interactive aspect with the videos and the pictures which the public could also upload of their experiences. Having such a site makes it easier for someone to see and be part of the conversation.

With the success of Lotusphere, I would like to know if this kind of campaign is possible in emerging markets. I feel like there are certain events that could get more publicity if they could use such an approach. One of the nice things about this example is that the conversation is still continuing well after the event.

Ace Hardware – USA

Ace Hardware is a traditional American local maintenance and hardware store. During the holiday season of 2009 Ace decided to take advantage of mobile marketing to differentiate themselves from their competitors and drive their holiday season promotions.

Objectives

Their media and creative strategy had 4 clear offerings:

• 20% Off Bag Sales – Consumers received 20% off every item in their shopping bag
• Tis The Season – Holiday ramp up for decorations, ladders, etc.
• After Thanksgiving Sale – Storewide sale after Thanksgiving
• Your Holiday Helpful Place – In-store drive to position Ace as the Holiday place.

In addition, Ace drove users to a branded landing page that contained a range of content including in-store sale information, store locator, branded videos and an SMS sign-up page for users to learn more about their future promotions.

Implementation

To achieve these objectives Ace Hardware’s mobile advertising partner, Microsoft Mobile Advertising created a targeted media solution that targeted users through behavioral targeting and display media across mobile portals like Verizon Deck and Windows Live Mobile. In addition Ace hardware ran high impact media blitzes over two six-day time periods as well as behavioral targeted ads targeted at home improvement enthusiasts on the following websites:

• MSN Hotmail
• MSN Weather
• Verizon News
• Verizon Weather
• Windows Live mail targeted M35-54 and M25-54

All media drove users to the Ace Hardware mobile web site to drive further engagement.

Results

Brand Awareness – The mobile campaign developed by Microsoft Mobile Advertising drove a 60% lift in unaided brand awareness among A35-54 and reached 101% lift among A25-54.

Store Traffic – Ace Hardware experienced an 8% increase in-store traffic among the primary target audience A35-54 who have seen the mobile ads.

Click Through Rate – CTR rose as high as 11% in some of the campaign placements through the utilization of a broad reach and on-deck media strategy.

Insight

This campaign is very straightforward. I believe Ace hardware understands their target audience and were able to get through to them in a very straightforward manner with clear calls to action. Ace Hardware also understood the importance of targeting user behavior. Digital marketing tools have an advantage in this regard. It makes logical sense that a few targeted ads will be more efficient than 1000’s of randomly placed ads. When creating your mobile campaign, speak to your service provider about this, it is an effortless win.

Ace hardware also provided value to the customer through genuine deals and enhancing the customer experience by feeding them relevant information. The success of this campaign originated in Ace hardware’s outstanding understanding of their customer and was amplified by partnering with a competent service provider like Microsoft Mobile Advertising.

To read the full case study, click here

When we think of good examples of community management, our minds automatically wander off to brands such as Coca Cola and Lady Gaga, of which the public cannot help but sing their praises. There are however, quite a few companies that have stood on the sideline and slowly created a community that is engaging and responsive, whilst not being overly zealous with their brand approach.

One brand that is getting their community talking is Gillette. Unlike other brands that are all about the show, Gillette has the perfect combination of engagement – not too scarce and not too over-active. They have taken an activity that men dread doing on a daily basis and have created conversation around this chore.

We know that community management cannot simply focus on one area and Gillette spread their community activities across all their resources. On their Facebook page, they have created conversations around the “art” of shaving and recently got Daryl “Moose” Johnston to answer questions from Gillette Facebook fans. On the Facebook fanpage, they ask questions, post quirky did-you-know facts and generally interact with whoever is willing to talk. Their Twitter page sings the same tune as they encourage their followers to be creative and send in videos and pictures of their experiences. This approach gives a light hearted and creative feel to the fanpage and encourages the public to submit content and converse about content submitted – perfect for encouraging community.

Their website lets you choose the type of beard you have and then shows you the best way to shave with their razors. They have also created the Gillette Success Lab, where you create a profile that will give you additional advice on how to obtain a smooth shave and what products to use.

Even though Gillette’s Facebook might not compare to the number of likes of other big brands, with only 312,042 in comparison to Coca Cola’s 15 million and nearly 6 000 followers on Twitter, they are definitely doing something right and getting their target market (which are males aged 14 and up) to share their experiences and open the channels of communication between brand and customer.

You are a student. You are studying for Physics final exams.

You decided to switch on your PC/laptop and stand in front of your webcam.

You hold-up a piece of paper (provided to you by the teacher/downloaded and printed from the web) to the webcam and what you see in front of you is an interactive, 3-dimensional representation of a rollercoaster – explaining to you the laws of Newton…

I introduce to you LearnAR, a tearning tool for the future.

LearnAR combines the real world with online-multimedia-content, through using a web cam and a bit of software. At it’s core using the technology behind Augmented Reality.

Check out a demo of this tool:

LearnAR’s educational resource pack contains a set of interactive learning assignments across languages, math, physical education, biology and more.

(no doubt this was something I could’ve used back in the day!)

A huge opportunity for brands to latch on to an educational drive, get in front of the elusive, attention-starving and influential youth market, whilst providing real value in a wow-factor kinda way.

Alternatively, a tool like this can be something to invest in for internal staff learning, right?

Can you see the opportunities? Massive.

Takes online learning to a new level, doesn’t it!

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

Comcast Town is an online contest where creative minds can design a digital apartment via Comcast Town’s amazing, interactive portal.

Creating a totally new, cartoonish world, the portal provides users with a Sims-like navigation – allowing you to explore Comcast Town, interact with elements (including listening to guitar-playing squirrels!) and, ultimately, create your own little apartment.

Competition mechanics aside, this is a truely grand design of a marketing campaign. A creative masterpiece. The case study of all digital marketing case studies.

Pay Comcast Town a visit at ComcastTown.com.

I’ve embedded a brief intro video on Comcast Town below (0:59) – check it out:

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.

An excerpt from interview:

“With over 90 percent of Mayo Clinic patients reporting that they say “good things” to their friends after a visit, using social media tools to amplify their impressions seemed reasonable.”

“That said, we didn’t just immediately jump into blogging, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. It was a natural, gradual progression that incorporated what I [Lee Aase] like to call, “The MacGyver Mindset”…creating new solutions out of resources we already had on hand.”

Specifically, what I like about Mayo Clinic’s approach to social media is their mandate for being nimble, thinking on their feet and having an in-depth knowledge about Mayo Clinic’s strengths and values.

That they have key staff members like Lee Aase to represent these traits is a blessing.