Ugh!!'s Greymatter Honeypot » marketing

Awesome Billboard Campaign – McDonalds Sweden

Owen — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:13:34 +0000

Here’s a great marketing campaign by McDonalds in Sweden. It’s an interactive game that can be played on a giant billboard with a user’s mobile phone. There are no apps to install, it works on pretty much any smartphone and promises a level of engagement that few billboard campaigns have managed to achieve.

Users pick a goodie that they would like to bin and have to manage to stay in the game for 30seconds to win. If they win, they’re presented with a digital token and directed to the neared McDonalds store to claim their reward.

Truly innovative. Hope we’ll see more of these in the future, and not just in Sweden

Twitter to start monitising?

Owen — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 23:59:21 +0000

I spotted something interesting on my Twitter page just then:

Twitter Advert

It looks like Twitter has identified an area on their page which can be used for advertisements and it currently being used to advertised their Search service. Is this the start of mini ads being shown on Twitter? Will Twitter try and flog this space to third -parties? Will the ads be context sensitive?

Lots of questions, does anyone have any answers? The truth is, at some point or other Twitter needs to start monitising it’s service and this would be a great spot to start. What do you think?

Update: Techcrunch have spotted them too

So long .. and thanks for all the Sprouts

Owen — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:50:47 +0000

I received an email today from Sprout, a website which lets you create interactive Flash widgets which you can share with others on the web, place on your website and distribute on any other medium that supports Flash. Here’s something I had created a while back:

The email advised me that Sprout had closed off the ability to produce free Sprouts and launched tiered pricing ranging from $140 a year to $3000 a year, depending on the number of projects, storage and support options people require. The Basic service lets you produce up to 3 Sprouts but is only available to current users.

Now, I’ll be the first to insist that a company has a pricing strategy which can guarantee growth and sustainability, especially in today’s harsh climate. However, it’s always worth bearing in mind that free advertising can be valuable, as it taps into hobbyists and people experimenting with the medium. I have a friend who’s heavily into sports attire and I’m sure he’s geeky enough to try and put together a Sprout about NFL jerseys if he had the time and knew about the service.

I believe Sprout are making a mistake but not allowing a free aspect to their service. Even if it’s time-bound, it allows people to play with their technology, evangelise about their services and draw in more paying customers.

What do you think?

My Twitter Mug is here – Merry Christmas to me!

Owen — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:03:05 +0000

I received my Christmas present the other day. Yes, every Christmas I make it a point to buy myself a Christmas present. After all, who better knows what I want? It’s usually something small and gadgety, but this year I opted for a mug. Not a normal mug though, but a mug with a difference: this mug had photos of my Twitter friends all over it. It was such a brilliant idea, that when I came across it, I bought myself one and bought two as Xmas presents for 2 friends who are also extremely passionate about social media (Sherrilynne and Ted)

The mug produced by the massively awsome guys down at CrowdedInk who have put together a simple process where all you need to do is supply your Twitter username. It makes use of the Twitter API to generate the image of the people your folow and the Zazzle API to generate the mug. What a brilliant idea!

If you click on the mug you can see a larger rendition of the mug and match the photos against my Twitter profile. If you’re one of my Twitter friends, check out if you can see yourself on it

Do you “get” Social Media Marketing?

Owen — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:05:24 +0000

Here’s a great video you might find interesting:

Don’t discount the first few minutes of the video, Perry talks through the basics of social media, then puts together a flow of how the Marketing side of it works. He compares social networking websites to a Party, your blog as your Home. When you go to a party you don’t ram what you do down people’s throats. Rather you are nice to people, you may even invite them to your home and possibly tell them what you do. The people you meet will remember you for this and recommend you to their friends, extending your reach way beyong the few social contacts you have made.

Moral of the story: Be Cool .. interesting concept.

Nice shirt Ted

Owen — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:11:26 +0000

I wore my new Izea T-shirt today, the one that Ted send me all the way from the US. It fits pretty nicely even though the size *should* be a bit small for me. (Good thing I lost some weight)

I must say, T-shirts are always a great way to advertise your business as people are usually quite happy to walk around with your advert on their back or chest. This one is particularly nice as it’s a bright colour and the logo is in an unusual place. And I’m happy enough with it to blog about it. How many of you can say you have an Izea T-shirt, huh?

Ok, I’m rambling now .. maybe it’s time for bed …

Azor: Here I come

Owen — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 19:20:09 +0000

I arrived home today and found a mystery package waiting for me. It was sent to me courtesy of the boys at FuelMyBlog as part of their new product testing campaign for bloggers. I opened it with trepidation and found inside:

A brand new Azor blade to try together with some King of Shaves Shave Gel to try! Woohoo .. I must say that I’m pretty picky when it comes to shaving and usually go for the best blade I can get my hands on, so I’m looking forward to giving the Azor a spin. Looking at the packaging it has been designed to last a really long time so I am pretty keen to see how long the blade will last.

No time to shave today, but I’ll be happy to let everyone know how it goes. In the meantime, I can use my pocket money on baby clothes for Arthur. It’s amazing how much blades cost nowadays. I guess the real test for the Azor is how long I can keep using it without giving up on the blade.

Looking for some binoculars?

Owen — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:11:48 +0000

If you were thinking of getting some binoculars for Christmas, now might be the time to buy them. I’ve just spotted that thanks to the Nikon ATB Promotion you can get $50 gift card (or $25) you can use to purchase other Nikon gadgets. It’s a mechanism called a “rebate” which is quite popular in the U.S. market (though not so much in the UK) which helps encourage shoppers to build a certain “relationship” with your brand.

Personally I like using binoculars but they are not my gadget of choice. It would be different if I went hunting or birdwatching, but they’re not one of my more usual hobbies (though I’m not averse to trying out something new)

IDEA conference in New York

Owen — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:11:09 +0000

If you’re based in NY, there’s a great conference there on the 30th October. The IDEA conference is organised by Advertising Age and seems to have some great speakers and some really interesting topics for discussion. They describe the conference as:

The IDEA Conference isnâ€™t just about innovators, entrepreneurs and successful people of various creative stripes and hues deconstructing the genesis of ideation or discussing how networking stimulates their own creativity, suggested routes to fortune and glory or the actual value of eye of newt. Thatâ€™s just some of it.

I’m not based in the US, so no chance to go there; but some of you out there might be interested. Ok, some of my readers will be more interested in gadgets or desktop management tools, but I have a growing segment of friends in marketing, social media and PR; so this could be interesting for them.

Technology that improves everything we do

Owen — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 21:46:31 +0000

Don’t you love the way technology has made our lives so much easier today? You can always find some aspect of our life that has changed from the way it was done 50, 40, even 20 years ago. And I’m not talking things like computers, MP3 players or mobile phones, but simple things like keeping kids entertained, choosing what to eat and push chairs.

It’s actually push chairs, prams and stollers that got me thinking. I was looking at an advert for a Bob stroller and actually followed the link as “Bob” wasn’t a brand I was aware of. Turns out it’s a “jogging stroller”, again a concept alien to me, but I suppose it may make sense to some people. I’m not a jogger, and if I was one, I don’t think I’d be pushing a pram. But it’s amazing how technology is developed to deal with the specific needs of a certain group of people; or in other words, if there is a market for a product, someone will develop it.