There are among the ‘heads a few connoisseurs of design and this is partly for them, it has typography and they love that stuff – Go Helvetica!
Redesigned and reloaded film/videogame posters aren’t that unusual, a quick search will bring up the great minimalist work of Jamie Bolton for example. So why feature the work of designer Jerod Gibson?
Well, because it’s conversational, in a way that has smarts. He’s taken things we know – the films. And combined them with other things we know – the quotes. The result is something new, interesting, desirable and worth talking about (well, it’s a thing I like anyway
If indeed the work of Jerod (@jerodgibson) is your kind of desirable, you can find out more here. And not just in poster form, it’s also available on tees, jackets and as skins for laptops and phones. Right, I’m off to suggest we design a campaign around the Pinchers of Peril…
However, what with #NewTwitter on the scene, all that hard work and stunning imagery we advised back in January is going to waste; it’s now suddenly hidden behind Twitter’s brand new, super-slick and super-fast web interface.
Damn.
This means change. But do not fear, change is GOOD!
We’re off to tell our friends and clients to make use of this window ASAP and to get to work on changing their Twitter background sharpish.
Perhaps you should too
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EDIT 1:
If you want to create your own, then we recommend graphic that has a 20pixel gap at the top and a 48pixel width for the side. We’d also recommend, for now at least, that you create something that works on both #newtwitter and old.
EDIT 2:
If you’ve updated your background because of this post, then please do leave a comment with a link. We’d love to know who’s not only benefited from this blog but also – more importantly – exactly how creative our readers can get with such limited space!
This video tells the story of a nice little advocacy project we ran over in the US for the launch of the Nokia E73 Mode.
It pretty much speaks for itself, although when you watch it you should spot the elements we believe to be essential to effective word of mouth: careful profiling, personalised engagement, long-term relationship building, putting the product at the heart of the campaign, and above all, a glorious experience that brings social media advocacy into the real world.
Also, it’s nice to remember the beaches of L.A. from our rain-bound London office on a Monday afternoon.
A new Keller Fay study has just corroborated one of the most obvious insights in WOM: the majority of word of mouth still happens offline.
The study found that 93% of the general public use face-to-face communication as their primary mode of WOM, and that even 85% of social media-obsessed teens spread most of their opinions and recommendations offline.
Wow. Who’d have thought it? Um, pretty much anyone who’s a human being?
1000heads’ Robin and Katie stimulate some offline WOM in Soho via our tenth birthday cupcakes
Now, we’ve posted about this a few times before: here and here and here, for example. Or check out our dedicated offline/online blog category, which has lots of examples of how to spread real world conversation. It’s a no-brainer to us: social media is a wonderful amplifier and accelerator of WOM, but most conversation stems from physical, emotional experiences away from the keyboard (or touchpad).
Another interesting outcome of the research is the top-twenty of most talked about brands. For teens these are (in order) Coca-Cola, Apple, Verizon, iPod, Ford, Pepsi, McDonald’s, AT&T, Sony, Nike, Dell, Chevrolet, Microsoft, Sprite, Toyota, Walmart, Sprint, Samsung, T-Mobile and Hollister. For the general public they are: Coca-Cola, Verizon, Walmart, AT&T, Pepsi, Ford, Apple, McDonald’s, Sony, Dell, Chevrolet, Toyota, Target, Sprint, HP, iPod, Nike, Microsoft, Honda and T-Mobile.
They’re startlingly similar lists. Keller Fay CEO Ed Keller believes this isn’t just a result of inherently great products or reputation, but stems from the frequency of visual cues about these brands in the real world, from promotions to point of sale to watching others using their products – something we like to call observational learning, and which I’ve written a whole article on in this month’s AdMap.
So what does this mean? It means that marketers need to stop erecting false barriers between the digital and the real, and start integrating multisensory, physical triggers and experiences into everything they do. Have a look at how we did it for The V&A, for Nokia and for Sainsburys.
Just think about it as you go about your exciting life this weekend. What visual cues do you see? How often do you talk about brands offline as opposed to on your online social presences? Does Twitter really compare to having an earnest slightly-drunk pub chat?
That’s what the super-smart bods over at New Media Age have said we are anyway -
Each year, NMA release their ‘Top 100 Interactive Agencies’ league table and, although we’re not in the overall rankings, we have been given the rather prestigious nod in the ‘Ones to Watch’ section.
As they say themselves -
“‘This section in the guide lists agencies the publication believes has done some exciting work over the past 12 months and has really tried to be innovative in their approach to digital.”
Thank you very much New Media Age, we’re honoured to be included.
Is your company still playing the ‘number of Facebook fans’ game? Do you still measure success by how many Twitter followers you’ve gained that month?
I know – let’s send our product sample to Ashton Kutcher!
Well, if your colleagues haven’t got the message that participation, emotional resonance, change in behaviour and depth of brand advocacy are far more valuable indications that consumers are developing loyalty and driving sales, maybe this nice whitepaper will help.
In ‘Influence and Passivity in Social Media’, HP’s Social Computing Lab created an algorithm for Twitter influence that improves on the volume-focused PageRank and H-index by examining not just the size and structure of a user’s network but the diffusion behaviour within it. And what did they find?
“An important conclusion from the results is that the correlation between popularity and influence is quite weak, with the most influential users not necessarily the ones with the highest popularity.”
That’s right. It doesn’t matter if an individual has a theoretically massive ‘reach’ – if their network is not full of active and engaged users with an emotional connection to the content, it simply won’t spread.
Looking at behaviour rather than numbers is the way to ensure word of mouth – we’re talking about human beings here, after all.
As with the offline world, the most influential guy isn’t the one who shouts the loudest. He’s the one who knows how to whisper in the right ears.
With London Fashion Week in full swing, I thought it was the perfect time to look at how word of mouth is being harnessed to drive passion – and revenue – for fashion brands big and small.
For our part, a few of the better-dressed 1000heads crew are heading down to the Jasper Garvida show this evening along with some top social media fashionistas on behalf of Miele. It’s the third time we’ve helped the brand collaborate with the community and our success is very real proof that WOM and style go together like black and navy (seriously, it’s the hot A/W 2010 colourway).
In fact, Reuters recently reported on the increasing influence of online trendsetters at the couture shows; apparently 40% of the 3,600 presshounds at New York Fashion Week were involved in online media.
Some brands are getting involved in the conversational personally. Oscar de la Renta’s director of communications Erika Bearman, aka @OscarPRGirl, is a great example of a label that has put time and effort into getting its social voice just right. But most eyes are on the consumer champions seated alongside the professionals, such as 14-year-old Tavi Gevinson and Londonder Susanna Lau, who are being increasingly courted by designers who know that it’s their opinion that counts. For the first time this year, bloggers were among the judges of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) awards.
However, brands are also getting creative outside the runway. Earlier this year Jimmy Choo’s Foursquare giveaway was the talk of the town, but initiatives are increasingly focusing combining word of mouth directly with retail and sales.
A while ago we wrote about how Hugo Boss was using AR on store windows, and last week’s post on social commerce highlighted the efforts of Levi’s and Diesel to combine social networking at the point of sale. In the UK, Uniqlo has taken a Groupon-like approach to encourage word of mouth, reducing the price of items the more they are tweeted about.
And behind the scenes, it’s interesting to see that designers are starting to use consumer feedback to determine what they do – Marc Jacobs CEO Robert Duffy recently responded to a torrent of tweets by agreeing that “we gotta do bigger sizes”, promising over 26,000 followers “I’m with you. As soon as I get back to NY I’m on it”.
Fashion has always been an industry that works from the street up; have a look at Henrik Vejlgaard’s Anatomy of a Trend for an examination of how popular trends evolve long before the retailers get wind of the zeitgeist. It’s why word of mouth is such a perfect fit. But it also shows that with fashion, marketers need to go far beyond the wooing-bloggers model.
Brands should be looking at observational learning, multisensory influences and visually-optimised mingling, mixing offline and online to harness the way style actually spreads. It’s something I’ve been talking about a lot recently.
Last week I hosted an event with the social psychologist, digital marketer and editor of SocialCommerceToday.com Dr Paul Marsden for WOMMA UK. His presentation on social commerce, below, is well worth a look.
As Marsden puts it, social commerce involves either bringing the water cooler to the cash register, or the cash register to the water cooler: either way, locating peer to peer socialising, sharing and reviewing at the places where we actually buy. Groupon, Diesel and Levi’s are all companies that have shown how successful this can be.
He gave a rousing call to arms for word of mouth practitioners to take ownership of the social commerce space and apply their creativity to this relationship, and I completely agree. Looking at how WOM can drive and optimise every element of a business – retail, product development, marketing, HR, outdoor, billing and so on – is at the heart of our approach.
Social commerce is simply WOM applied to retail and point of sale.
It’s one great way of using WOM to optimise business, and one of the easiest to prove ROI. It’s not the only element. It works best when combined with a WOM approach to the other consumer touchpoints. But it is often overlooked in favour of focusing on how social affects marketing or customer service.
It recalls one of my favourite 1000heads visuals: WOM is about social interfaces, not social media.
A couple of months ago we shared the story of Quentin, who was riding the entire course of the Tour de France supported by SKINS. Well, he did it and he’s back in one piece and we’ve pulled together highlights from his own Tour de Velo.
Check out the video below for our wrap up and let us know what you think!
Well, if you chow down at Giraffe and love what you eat, you’d be able to tell all your friends. The popular restaurant chain has always used social media well: their Facebook page is crammed with regularly updated news, photos and demographic-relevant chat, their Twitter feed is both relevant and gorgeoulsy engaging (with a healthy 6,000 followers), and they’ve got 200 photos from around the UK on Flickr.
But I’ve also noticed a very nice, simple extra touch: every one of their online menu items includes a Facebook like button, and shows you other friends who like the same dish.
Oh, sure, it’s not rocket science. But this attention to detail reminds us that creativity doesn’t just lie in big engagement campaigns, but in making every tiny detail of your consumer touchpoints as conversational as possible.
In a similar vein, I also love The Breakfast Club, not just for their scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, but for the clever way they use their Twitter feed: replying quickly with personal responses, suggesting collaborations and creative ideas, and seeding in little challenges and activities to win kudos and freebies.
What brands have you noticed who really pay attention to the little elements that provide a personal or conversational experience?
