Good morning Friday Linkers, let's get to work!
Captain Morgan's grassroots advertising
http://www.captainmorgan.com/en-us/PosewoodHome/
DIAGEO'S CAPTAIN MORGAN ORIGINAL SPICED Rum is launching a grassroots phase of its new campaign, "Got a Little Captain in You." The summer grassroots campaign asks consumers to pose in the rakish manner of the brand icon The campaign centers on nationwide "Ultimate Pose Off" competitions in bars, wherein competitors will vie against each other to be "Ultimate Captain Morgan Poser." Contestants, says Diageo, will be judged on originality, creativity, technical merit.
Much like rock/paper/scissors championships sponsored by Bud Light and the Little Penguin's display competitions, beverage alcohol producers are getting inot the viral act by including their consumers in creative and recreational activities. (I know our bocce league is looking for sponsors -- grin)
News in metricsland
Nielsen/NetRatings will rank sites based on how much time users spend at them, rather than how many page views they garner. The move comes as Web publishers have upped their use of video; Ajax, which updates information on page without requiring users to reload; and streaming video, which also doesn't require people to navigate to separate pages. With the new time-based rankings, Nielsen joins the camp of those who've said for months that the new site designs require a ratings system based on something other than page views.
What does this mean for you now?
Not much, but for the future, know that page views may not be the end all be all of the metrics world.
Check out Live Earth? (The rest of the world did)
http://www.liveearth.org"July 7, 2007 was the greatest day in the history of MSN," declared Joanne Bradford, corporate vice president and chief media officer, MSN. That jibed with Live Earth Partner and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's separate statement that "Live Earth is officially the largest global entertainment event in history."
With blog mentions and sponsors and traffic driving everything, internet events like Live Earth can be a great way to capture that elusive millenial audience.
Bonus! Check out your carbon footprint, you energy lovin' American you...
Mitchum's Armpit Orchestra
Okay, so maybe we're in wine and this approach might not work for all our brands, but entertaining creative nonetheless.
Keep an eye on Coke
http://tinyurl.com/ywf78r
(they're going mobile in a big way)
Coca-Cola's mobile initiative is expected to drive interest and awareness from other brands to invest in mobile. But there are still challenges to overcome.
But it's worth keeping an eye on them so you don't make the same mistakes -- I already have a social network, (on Pownce, Vox, Twitter, Flickr or Facebook) what would make it compelling enough for me to join the Sprite Yard?
Some facts about viral marketing
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1005131&src=article1_newsltr
Marvelous, fascinating facts:
eMarketer Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson says, "Word-of-mouth is bigger than it used to be, and it is also becoming even more effective. The number of people who have influence — because of their expertise, their passion and their connections — is likely to grow, as the Web offers more user-generated content opportunities and as more companies make word-of-mouth a priority."
How are you making word-of-mouth a priority? How are you capitalizing on existing WOM?
Hope your weekend is grand and your web surfing is even grander.
Thanks,
HJ