Blog

May 24

“There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand”: Netflix Markets Arrested Development

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Patrick

Need a topical example of the power of social/digital marketing?

Even if you’re one of the few sentient beings on the planet who doesn’t subscribe to Netflix, read pop culture blogs, or maintain a Facebook profile, chances are still quite good that you are aware of Arrested Development’s return this Memorial Day weekend.

How did the kings of streaming video turn fifteen episodes of a long-dead sitcom into a media coup (especially when the show in question was never all that popular in the first place)?

Good question! The answer is an excellent case study in “slow-drip” multimedia marketing: Netflix understood its product, its audience, and the need to build expectations gradually until they reached fever pitch—and its team used every tool in the media kit to do so. In fact, the only place where the company didn’t promote this revival was on television, the very format that rejected AD in the first place.

The campaign evolved in (roughly) three phases:

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May 22

Yahoo! Goes All In On Tumblr Deal

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Patrick
Tumblr

Observe the Tumblr user in his natural environment...

Here’s the story: Yahoo! buys an Internet startup driven by user-generated content while insisting that its team will turn the site profitable without diluting its spirit or alienating its passionate core users. A great move in principle, but the property lacks a clear revenue model, and it may not be a natural fit for Yahoo’s primary product: display ads.

Sound familiar?

The company had grand plans when it bought Geocities in 1999, but the site disappeared a decade later with little fanfare and even less money. The primary concern voiced by tech journalists and observers this week is that the Geocities deal was remarkably similar—at least on paper—to Yahoo’s recent acquisition of “microblogging” platform Tumblr. In both cases, the company’s primary goal was to expand and diversify its audience.

Sounds bad, but the outcome may well be different this time.

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May 20

J.C. Penney to America: “It’s Not You, It’s Me. (Now Please Come Back.)”

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Patrick

Old-school retailer J.C. Penney faces several challenges moving forward—but executing social media marketing strategy isn’t one of them.

The company fired CEO/former Apple man Ron Johnson in April after a big sales dive and followed his exit with an all-media campaign designed to address the backlash over controversial changes adopted during his tenure. It all started with this apologetic TV spot:

JCP continued the campaign by turning its social media forums into customer service complaint lines, promoting the #jcpListens tag and asking for feedback on Facebook and Twitter in order to absorb frustrated shoppers’ many suggestions on how to improve the business.

The chain didn’t just ask for ideas; it got specific.

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May 14

Garment Industry Opts for Makeover After Bangladesh Disaster

Posted on May 14, 2013 by Patrick

The factory collapse that killed more than 1,100 people in Bangladesh this April is by no means the first tragedy to strike the garment industry in recent years—but it does look like the culmination of an ongoing PR challenge that could reshape the way major clothing brands market their products. The earliest evidence of this change comes on social media, where companies that had operations in the factory have already begun responding to the demands of consumers and labor activists.

The New York Times reports that many businesses and industry groups now plan to follow the food industry’s example by offering the public more detailed information about how and where their clothes are made. H&M and Zara have agreed to sign a new “factory safety accord,” and major names like Disney, Nike, and Walmart may follow with campaigns designed to appropriate the “green,” “organic,” and “fair trade” themes favored by food and household goods marketers in recent years. The purpose of this material, of course, will be to highlight the brands’ corporate social responsibility efforts and distance them from horrific accidents like the one in Bangladesh.

It’s nothing new for fashion: upstarts like American Apparel began using their own “fair trade” practices as key selling points some time ago. Yet, despite AA’s success, retailers like Maggie’s Organics and Everlane (tagline “Luxury Basics. Radical Transparency.”) remain few and far between.

Not for long.

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May 7

Has the New Digital Ad Model Arrived Yet?

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Patrick

 

Producer Michael Tollin addresses AOL's Digital Content Event

Photo courtesy of Rob Kim/Getty Images North America

A group of advertisers attending the second annual Digital Content “NewFronts” conference in New York this April received a blunt message: the battle between the cable box and the modem is already over, and the web won.

Yet, despite the fact that “more 18- to 34-year-olds [now] watch YouTube than any cable network,” the brands paying those ad men’s salaries aren’t so sure.

Much of this year’s conference concerned the rise of exclusive web-only content like the original series hyped by Hulu, AOL, and Netflix. But it also served as a symposium on an ad/marketing game that still operates according to the old-school, pre-digital playbook.

How quickly are things changing?

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Apr 23

Twitter’s Vine App As a Marketing Platform

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Patrick

In case you haven’t heard, Vine is the latest, hottest social media toy. It’s a Twitter property that allows users to create looping videos up to six seconds long with their smartphones—and while it looks and sounds like a short-lived gimmick at first glance, it shot to the top of the iTunes app store charts only four months after its debut.

Why should marketers care? Because a wide variety of brands have adopted Vine as a promotional tool, creating themed clips that appear on both company Twitter feeds and individual Vine accounts. With the recent introduction of hashtags, related marketing strategies now closely resemble those used in Twitter campaigns.

Comedy Central, for example, will build on recent trends in interactive TV/social media marketing by hosting a comedy festival entirely on Twitter, and part of the event will focus on comedians using Vine as a storytelling device.

Brands that are doing it right:

Many brands use Vine to make creative reference to their own products and services. General Electric, for example, regularly releases science and engineering-themed loops that suggest the company’s focus on innovation, like this one:

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Apr 18

Tenthwave Top 5 – April 2013

Posted on April 18, 2013 by Jaime Hoerbelt

The Top 5

We scan the blogs, online news sources and digital magazines (so you don’t have to) and gather our five must-read picks.

1 The Secrets of What Makes a Product Go Viral

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/226114 

Ten years ago, had you ever heard of the hand sanitizer Purell? It existed, but nobody really used it. Then one day, it was everywhere. Grocery stores placed dispensers at the door, nail salons gave it to clients, and people started carrying travel size bottles in their bags. With little advertising, how did Purell catch on?

 

Read the full article >>
2 3 Reasons Why Responsive Web Design Is the Best Option for Your Mobile SEO Strategy

http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2253965/3-Reasons-Why-Responsive-Web-Design-is-the-Best-Option-For-Your-Mobile-SEO-Strategy 


As smartphone and tablet adoption rapidly increases, so does the importance of mobile-friendly websites. If SEO is a core component of your digital marketing strategy, having a mobile-friendly website is becoming essential.

 

Read the full article >>
3 Finding the Right Mix of Conversion and Conversation Content

http://soshable.com/finding-the-right-mix-of-conversion-and-conversation-content/ 


The rise of content marketing and more importantly the focus that Google and Bing have put on website content engagement have changed the way we view the types of content we put on our websites… In other words, your websites have to be interesting to a wider range of people, not just those specifically looking for your products and services.

 

Read the full article >>
4 26 Ways to Use Visuals in Your Social Media Marketing

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-tips-visual-social-media-marketing-strategy/ 



Have you noticed more photos on social networks? Do you have a visual component as part of your social media marketing strategy? Do you need some help in getting started or maintaining momentum in sharing more visual content and in creating a visual conversation with your audience? 26 tips, an A-Z guide, for getting started with a visual strategy.

 

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5 6 Simple Ways To De-Suck Your Office, Whether You’re A Grunt Or CEO

http://www.fastcompany.com/3006809/6-simple-ways-de-suck-your-office-whether-youre-grunt-or-ceo 



No matter what level you’re at, you can make your working life better. (And your colleagues will love you for it.)

 

Read the full article >>
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Dec 7

How Brands Can Spread Holiday Cheer on Facebook

Posted on December 7, 2012 by Jaime Hoerbelt

Full article originally posted on ChiefMarketer.com on December 04, 2012.

The most wonderful time of the year presents both challenges and opportunities for Facebook content. More competition for attention coupled with an increased urgency to communicate your marketing message makes it tempting to overload your editorial calendar with marketing-speak. The holiday season also presents an enormous opportunity to be creative and upbeat. Content that gets shared, and therefore seen, will end up being more effective than blatant self-promotion.

To take advantage of the occasion and produce something share-worthy, we came up with a few idea-starters:

1. Virtual Greeting Cards

Create an album of branded photos that feature different holiday messages your fans can share with friends and family. This works especially well if consumers regularly demonstrate affinity for, or loyalty to, the brand. Not only do virtual greeting cards promote positive engagement with the brand, it leverages the virality of sharing to spread the brand’s content beyond fans.

Kate Spade leveraged a similar idea for Valentine’s Day and encouraged fans to share photos as e-valentines. One of the photos was shared more than 400 times. Collectively, the album generated over 1,700 shares.

 

2. Donations to Charity

Brands can increase engagement and do good at the same time by donating to a charity based on shares of a post or likes of a Facebook page. Not only does this demonstrate corporate social responsibility to your fans and others, but it also garners a lot of positive engagement and attention for the brand and the charity. Both options adhere to Facebook’s page guidelines regarding incentivizing native actions.

Kraft Fight Hunger leveraged this technique to donate more than 1 million meals to Feeding America last Thanksgiving. Their post that promised 200,000 donated meals for every 1,000 shares received a whooping 63,513 shares within a week!

 

3. Gift Guides

Who doesn’t want to give the perfect gift? And what marketer doesn’t want to remind its fans exactly where to look? (Hint, hint.) There are a number of ways to create a gift guide on Facebook that’s share-worthy. Design photo albums that feature the perfect presents for each family member, re-create the gift guide that already exists on the brand’s website in a Facebook tab with more seamless sharing functionality, develop a series of posts that link to different gift guides on the web, or craft a promotion that encourages users to make their own gift guides and reward the most creative. The possibilities are endless and not many companies are taking advantage of the engagement potential a Facebook-optimized gift guide can offer.

While these ideas highlight some ways to get noticed on Facebook during the busiest shopping season, brands should feel empowered and compelled to come up with even more innovative content. What brands have you seen do a great job at getting noticed during the holidays?

 

 

 

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Nov 29

Tenthwave Holiday Wish List

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Jessica

The employees of Tenthwave are an ambitious crew. They set world records for running thousand-mile relays. They compete to see who can identify (and spell correctly) the names of the world’s 196 capital cities. They distill homemade whiskey in their second bathrooms. They are featured on tech blogs that celebrate how digitally savvy young people are these days. And that’s all in the past three months.

Armed with an impressive list of accomplishments in both work and play, one would naturally expect such a worldly group to have sophisticated wants. So when setting out to buy holiday gifts for the Renaissance man or woman who seems to “have it all,” where does one begin?

We asked Tenthwavers to share the techy toy they covet most this holiday season. You know, the gadget they pine for when perusing tech blogs. The gizmo they dream about at night. And, were it a culturally acceptable option for a grown person to write Santa a letter, the number one ask on their North Pole-bound wish lists.

Low and behold, the 2012 Tenthwave Holiday Wish List…

Stay nice!

 

1. Bodelin ProScope HR2 CSI Advanced Microscope

“Plug it into your USB port, point the hand-held microscope anywhere you want, and BOOM—high resolution images streamed on your monitor.”

-Seth Fowler, Emerging Media and Digital Strategist

 

2. Martin Jet Pack

“After enduring two weeks of commuting nightmares [post Hurricane Sandy], and a 2.5 hour bus-surfing commute…what I covet most is this.”

-Jen Graeff, Senior Front End Developer

 

3. The Lytro Camera

The Lytro camera lets you create living pictures that you can endlessly refocus after you take them.

“It’s unique, and it’s ushering a new way to explore photography (post-click) that’s both cool and useful.”

-Mike Mazar, Partner & Creative Director

 

4. Denon AH-D700 Ultra Reference Over-Ear Headphones

“I believe everyone should splurge on one thing that gives them pleasure. For me, nothing beats the best headphones in the world…I’ve been salivating over them for a couple months now.”

-Gunny Scarfo, Strategy Director

 

5. iPad with Retina display

“I have massive iPad envy. Not the new Mini. Not the iPad 2. But the latest and greatest  Retina-flavored iPad with both Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity. If Santa gave me one, I’d be his elf forever.”

-Reuben Radding, QA Director

 

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