Marketing Tom - Internet Marketing

Viral Marketing At Its Best

In a small, rural village near Malaga a huge viral marketing success came about. Jesús Rodríguez is the lead singer of a "Rustic Rock Band" called El Koala and who's mainly being doing gigs in and around Malaga (much of it for the past 20 years). He tried, without success, to get one of the record labels in Madrid to sign him up but they weren't really interested in a guy whose music and lyrics is firmly routed in the country.

Well, it looks like he's going to have the last laugh as his song, 'Opá, yo viacé un corrá' (literally Dad, I'm going to build a farm), is in all the record shops, is likely to be the hit of summer and he is the new rock celebrity, being invited onto all the major TV shows. What's also interesting is that the song is not song even in Castellano but in the dialect of his region.

And all this success can be attributed to a simple video clip that he made over 3 afternoons at his friends' farm. The clip was uploaded to the Internet (you can find it on You Tube and Google Video)  and traffic was generated through emails and people blogging about it.

The current number of downloads for the song is over 3 million and people are even starting to make their own video versions of it. And what's more - this song is likely to run and run for the next few months as we head into summer. I have even come across a website where the lyrics are tranlsated into Shakespearean and Rap English and a version of it with George Bush puppits (and telling his dad he's going to invade Iraq!).

Take Part In an Online Survey and $25 Will Go To Charity

Last week I wrote an article about how the Business Development Institute was conducting an online survey on behalf of the City of Amsterdam. In return for taking part in the survey, the City of Amsterdam would donate $25 to a charity called A Little Hope. Here's what the charity does:

A Little HOPE is a 501(c)(3) charitable foundation which grants funds in order to provide grief counseling and bereavement support services to children and teens who have experienced the loss of a parent or loved one, regardless of the circumstances of the death.

Well, after an email follow-up from Steve Etzler of BDI, I would like to invite readers to participate in the survey - don't forget that for filling out the 2-minute (or less) survey, $25 will be donated to charity.

And one more thing, please provide a link to the survey from your own websites.

How to Get People to Complete Online Surveys

Boy! The number of times that I get asked to fill in an online survey every week. Well, today I got an email from the Business Development Institute inviting me to take part in an online survey for the City of Amsterdam but with a difference. This time I was told that for taking part in the Online Survey $25 would be donated by the City of Amsterdam to a charity called A Little Hope which:

provide grief counseling and bereavement support services to children and teens who have experienced the loss of a parent or loved one

How could I refuse?

This is the script they used to hook me:

Business Development Institute is conducting a brief online survey on behalf of The City of Amsterdam . The objective of the survey is to determine your interest level in global expansion opportunities. This can range from expanding your company's operations to lower cost locations, to growing your revenues by tapping into overseas markets. As a way to say thank you for your time, the City of Amsterdam will donate $25 to A Little Hope charity upon completion of the survey.

This is a great idea - it's a win win prospect for all. The City of Amsterdam gets higher participation from a targeted audience, the City of Hope gets more funds, BDI generates revenue for its business and people like me just feel good!

Technorati Tags: Surveys, Amsterdam

Don't Burn the Flag, Throw Tomatoes At It!

If you're a little upset at the Danish (well, 2 or 3 of them!), don't burn the flag. Throw tomatoes at it instead!!

Launch your Tomato Thrower here!!

Technorati Tags: jyllands posten | denmark

Some Pearls of Wisdom from Guy Kawasaki

Guy Kawasaki's blog has some very sound advice on the Art of Branding. I particularly like this one, which John Winsor also quotes:

Focus on PR, not advertising. Many companies waste away millions of dollars trying to establish brands with advertising. When it comes to branding, too much money is worse than too little because when you have a lot of money, you spend a lot of money on stupid things like Super Bowl commercials. Brands are built on what people are saying about you, not what you're saying about yourself. People say good things about you when (a) you have a great product and (b) you get people to spread the word about it.

I think he's spot on here and so many companies are missing the opportunity, especially with the advent of the latest technology - blogs, RSS, podcasts, etc - to engage their clients. Co-creation, the partnership of customer and marketer, will certainly gain momentum over the coming year and marketers had better pay attention.

I like the way that Hugh Macleod puts it:

Whatever business you're in, your product's success or failure is going to become more and more dependant on "sneezers" like me. We are not going away. We are getting more viral by the day, while other ways of spreading ideas- TV, newspapers etc- are becoming less effective by the day.

Madrid Tapas Parade - a Good Example of Online PR and Viral Marketing

If you don't already know, I have another weblog which is focused on offering useful advice and infromation for people visiting Madrid - it is called Mad About Madrid. Just before Christmas I received an invitation from a business in Madrid asking for help in promoting their new "Tapas Parade" service:

"My name is Andrés and I am one of the guys who run La Taperia de la Abuela a great restaurant situated in my favorite spot in Old Madrid. We are launching a new product - Madrid Tapas Parade and we want to spend the promotional money in having people talking about us instead of the usual advertisement thing. I think it would be great to throw one of our Tapas Parade parties for the people who run blogs about Madrid/Spain (for free of course and friends welcomed too). I think it would be a great chance for you to know each other (if you don´t yet), for us to meet you and for the Tapas Parade to take its first step into the web world."

Simple! Yet a very neat way to get their message out to a wide audience. Considering that typical costs of the Madrid Tapas Parade range from 19-24 Euros, this is a very cost effective way of advertising their service. Mad About Madrid receives around 450-500 visitors a day with some links getting upwards of 150 clicks per month. When you factor in all other Madrid-related blogs that may well write about the Madrid Tapas Parade experience, it certainly looks like blog promotion could be a very efficient tool, indeed.

Given that the website hasn't been picked up by Google yet, you also have the added value of relevant links (from Madrid-related sites) coming in from sites which have good PR's on Google. This should result in the site in the site being indexed a bit more quickly by the search engines.

I just can't wait now to meet up with the guys at Madrid Tapas Parade; sample their culinary delights and blog about it.   

 

Open Source Marketing is Coming to a Brand Near You

Open Source Marketing has gathered quite a momentum over the past year. Open Source Marketing, in essence, means allowing your customers to interact much more with your products/services. It means freeflow of dialogue with customers and far more openness - often with customers involved in the creation of PR, Marketing and WOm activities. Here are some interesting examples of Open Source Marketing that I have come across:

• Customer-created Advert for Google Maps (YouTube)

• Spread Firefox does it brilliantly through their Firefox Flicks. Interestingly, you will see that some Advertising Agencies are contributing, too.

• Seth Godin has recently invited people to submit their own ads for his latest book (100% of the royalties will go to charity) which will feature on MSN's homepage for free. The winner will have their ad displayed and will be credited as the designer.

On a similar tack, John Moore over at Brand Autopsy, writes about the devoted Trekkies who have created their own episodes of Star Trek.

Technorati Tags: firefox | open source | google

More on Open Source Marketing
Open Source Marketing is the Future - Pass It On (Micropersausion)
Firefox Flicks: Open Source Marketing? (Firefox)
Open Source Marketing (Johnnie Moore)
Open Source Marketing (Clickz)
What Is Open Source Marketing?

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah from Virgin Mobile

Here's some festive Christmas fun from Virgin Mobile.

Technorati Tags: virgin mobile

The High Cost of War in Iraq

This is a picture which was doing the rounds in April of last year (somehow I missed it), but remains as sad now (probably sadder!) as it did then. If you can't see, the image is made up 700 photographs (each used twice) of dead US personnel from the Iraq war. Over a year and a half later that figure, according to Michael Moore's website, stands at 2128 - much the same as the Anti-War site (2127).

The original images come from American Leftist.

Source: Photomatt

The Rise and Rise of the Million Dollar Homepage Guy

How often do you think, wow! I wish I'd thought of that one? The Million Dollar Homepage is just one such example and it started like this:

I had this little idea the other day. I was trying to think of interesting ways to make some cash before going to Uni (which is in about a month's time) and somehow this crazy thought entered my head: I'll try and make a million dollars, by selling 1,000,000 pixels, for $1 each.

And so 'The Million Dollar Homepage' is born...

The website was launched back in August when Alex Tew decided that he would try to make a few bucks before he went to University (Nottingham). Here's a brief breakdown of the past few months:

Friday 26th Aug 2005

Site Launches

Monday 29th Aug 2005

"Wow! Today I sold my first pixels: 400 of them. That's $400." 

Thursday 8th Sep

"Today things really moved up a gear. I've absolutely, definitely got enough for some swanky new socks: $2500 in the bank today."

Wednesday, 14th Sept

"At last count, I've sold over 10,000 pixels today and yesterday alone. The stats are going through the roof, I've got hundreds of e-mails to answer, and for the first time ever in my life, last night I fell asleep AT MY DESK!!"

Cult of the Mac website

If you're a Mac fan, you may want to head over to Cult of Mac - a blog packed with Mac and iPod news and culture. A couple of the articles which caught my eye were the one about Apple's iPod Nano Advertising campaign in Tokyo:

You can apparently pick up these iPod Nano cutouts from the wall of the Tokyo underground. Each one has an image of the iPod Nano on the front and URL details on the back. With each wave of passengers the staff have to constantly replenish the walls.

The other article which caught my attention was about a product called iBelieve. Designed by Scott Wilson it will allow you to convert your iPod Shuffle into a crucifix. It costs $13, $2 goes to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and various Children's charities.

How to Win Clients the FedEx Way

The Church of the Customer have an interesting write up about a FedEx client who appears to have incurred the wrath of the mighty corporate company. It would seem that José Avila decided to use his FedEx cardboard packaging boxes as furniture in his new house - he apparently didn't have the cash to buy new furniture having moved from one part of the US to another - and then posted some of the pictures on the web. This is the story according to Joe Jaffe, who seems to have generated a lot of buzz surrounding the story:

* Jose moves from California to Arizona

* Doesn't really have the cash to go to IKEA, so in the spirit of creativity and armed with the tagline, "it's ok to be ghetto", he decks out his apartment with Fedex boxes

* Sticks a few pictures on his website and before he knows it, the web lights up with activity and interest...

* Word gets out to Fedex who find Jose's efforts to be a distraction from the development of their next Superbowl spot or a raging debate about the recommended Pantone colors from their next branding logo styleguide.

* Fedex issues a Cease 'n Desist, citing everything from the Digital Millennium Copywriter's Act to Box Theft. Site taken down.

* Jose connects with Jennifer Granick over at Stanford who fights Fedex's imbecilic behavior all the way to the blog. Site back up.

* Avila maintains his position that it's ok to be ghetto and soaks up publicity from Countdown to the Today Show.

He believes that José Avila:

"a pink-haired, unassuming software engineer who could quite possibly be the marketer of the year (or at least the hour)"

When you read something like this you can't help but wonder at how incompetent some of these large corporate giants can really be. Instead of promoting the story and using viral marketing to push the brand for them, they wheel out the big legal guns and try to beat the poor customer into sumbissions.

Stupid buggers!

Related Articles
Furniture Causes FedEx Fits

Technorati Tags: fedex

British Squaddies Show Viral Marketers the Way to Amarillo

Probably the biggest viral marketing success of the year has come not from an advertising agency but from the Royal Dragoon Guards, based at their Al Faw base in Iraq. The squaddies decided to make a  spoof video of the Tony Christie song 'Is this the Way to Amarillo', which recently went back to the top of the UK charts as a result of the excellent charity video by Peter Kay. The video clip, which features members of the Royal Dragoon Guards mimicking the Peter Kay video, was sent to friends in the UK but so many people tried to downlad it that the MoD server could not cope.

If you'd like to see a short news clip about the video, take a look at the BBC website - 'Amarillo' video crashes MoD PCs; though for the full version I'd recommend you go to The Sun newspaper and download it from there (you pay £0.50 but all proceeds go to the Armed Forces Memorial Appeal)

Spoof is barrel of laughs (The Sun)

Tiger Woods Putt goes Open Source

If you loved THAT Tiger Woods golf putt at the Masters, then you´ll surely love the video clip that Joseph Jaff has put together on his site. Though many claim that he only made some simple edits - "Just Do It" - he did get out there before the rest of the field and now everyone is trackbacking him. I wonder how long before the Nike Golf team start using this or whether they'll develop their own. Open Source Marketing? Viral Marketing? Co-Creation?

Just Enjoy It!

Related Links

Tiger Woods Putt and the Long Tail (2008)
Tiger Woods Official Website
Woods Captures Fourth Masters
PGA Tour
Callaway Golf
Nike Golf

ChangeThis - Writing Manifestos for Change

There are some sites which really do have that WOW! factor and make you say, "wish I'd thought of this first". ChangeThis is just such a site. In a nutshell the site works like this: people (anyone) submit manifesto proposal on any subject; the editorial board identifies what might be of interest and, once selected, the general public then vote on which one should be written up into a full manifesto (proposals are made up of 300 words). Once your proposal is selected, you write it up and ChangeThis will create a smart pdf document ready for site visitors to download -  for FREE!.

So, as a visitor, you could be getting great pdf downloads from some of the most important business, political or 'green' thinkers, for FREE and as a manifesto writer you are getting your thoughts out to a huge global audience.

The inspiration for the site came from Seth Godin and was developed by Amit Gupta, Catherine Hickey, Noah Weiss, Phoebe Espiritu and Michelle Sriwongtong in the summer of 2004.

The following have all had their manifestos printed on the site:

• Tom Peters
• Amnesty International
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Seth Godin
• Al Gore

and here are some of the latest manifestos:

• The Hughtrain Hugh MacLeod | You've read the Cluetrain, now HUGH MACLEOD brings you The Hughtrain.
• Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging Debbie Weil | *** FREE For 15 Days Only! *** The what, why, and how of business blogging, by business blog expert, Debbie Weil.
• Two Tomatoes SectionZ | Ever wonder if locally-grown produce is actually better?

It's quite a 'democratic' way of spreading knowledge, in that anyone can write a proposal, which can be voted on (only once) by visitors to the site and this, in turn, can be read and forwarded to anyone on the web. Simply Brilliant!

Firefox - a viral marketing phenomena

In an article entitled Crazy like a Firefox, Rebecca Lieb says that the Firefox web browser realy is, "a kick-ass browser. It's light, stable, and almost infinitely customizable." Incidentally, it's free and its beta was only launched on Tuesday (9th November). Firefox also appears to be the most successful viral marketing campaign ever on the Internet, generating since Tuesday 1 million downloads per day!!; got 100,000 websites to display banners and buttons and, through the Firefox community raised $250,000 to get an full-page advert in the New York Times.

Looking on the Spread Firefox website I saw some of the tools that they are using to generate such publicity:

Email Signature
Get Firefox!

Buttons

Ad Banners

In order to build community with college students, Firefox decided to "put out a call for a volunteer to lead a massive grassroots marketing effort targeted at college students." After an overwhelming amount of applications they decided to appoint 6 people.

How PR companies use the Web to generate impressive returns

According to MarketingSherpa.com 80% of reporters check search engines for news to write about. However, the focus of one of their articles - How Southwest Airlines Sold $1.5 Million in Tickets by Posting Four Press Releases Online - is how these news engines can be used to drive 'end-consumers' to purchase products and services. In brief, here are the top 5 tips that Southwest Airlines used to generate huge revenues:
Step 1. Research keywords so you know what people are looking for.
Step 2. Copywrite press releases to match search terms.
Step 3. Have special hotlinks on hand, and use them wisely.
Step 4. Distribute via a wire service that hits the Web.
Step 5. Test a variety of releases

Here's an interesting observation that SouthWest Airlines found out, through use of tools like WordTracker and Overture's suggestion tool: "while 12,000 searches were conducted for "cheap airline tickets" on an average day, more than 51,000 searches were conducted for the term "cheap airfare.""

How Madrid 2012 uses viral marketing to help its Olympic Candidacy bid

Whilst looking at Madrid's 2012 Olympic Candidacy website I came across a neat way of spreading the city's candidacy bid using viral marketing. The site invites people to download some software which, when clicked on, automatically places an email signature on your outgoing messages (I have tried on Outlook and Yahoo! and both seem to work fine).

Those who receive the messages can click on a link and leave their messages of support in a visitor's book.

"The Meatrix" - Viral Marketing at its best.

I must recommend that you go and take a look at this Flash Animation, called "the Meatrix". It is certainly thought-provoking and may well prompt you to email the URL to friends or colleagues - the exact purpose of Viral Marketing. Some people may not agree with the style or message but I'm sure most will be able to think of how applications along these lines could be used for their businesses. May I also suggest that you take a look at what the people at Marketing Profs, in their article "Enter the Marketing Meatrix", thought of this form of viral marketing - it certainly makes good reading.

What is Viral Marketing?

Here's a definition from David Chaffey, of the Chartered Insitute of Marketing:

"Like most buzz words ‘viral marketing’ means different things to different people. A viral marketing execution certainly needs to create a buzz to be successful. The two main forms of viral marketing are best known as ‘word-of-mouth’ and ‘word-of-mouse’. Both rely on networks of people to spread the word."

This quote comes from an article by Mr Chaffey, Is there life in viral marketing?, in which he discusses what viral marketing is, how it works and the legal implications of the new EU Privacy Directive. It is worth reading for the brief overview of the implications of the Act on on-line marketing within Europe.

Bristol tap water - for only £137!!

The other day I heard that someone in Bristol, England was auctioning a bucket of water on eBay and that the bidding had already reached £12. As a matter of interest I took a look on eBay and found that the bidding price was now £137.50!! One of the conditions of the purchase was that you had to go to agreed place to pick it up.

However, there is a serious side to this story and that is that all the money is going to OXFAM in Southern Sudan who are drilling wells for local people who have no water. So, go to this page and bid. If you do go there, you will have participated in a little viral marketing!