Jennifer Jones has produced a brief, helpful tutorial, How to Build a Social Media Campaign, to guide markers considering swimming in the social media pond. She offers the names of tools marketers can use to track existing conversations about their brands. She suggests brands identify or create interesting stories surrounding the brand that will be of interest to the target audience and then provide a means for those stories to be shared.
In terms of things to avoid, Jones is adamant that marketers be transparent in their efforts and identify their involvement with any effort. The tutorial doesn't answer every question marketers will have about social media but it will provide an initial frame work from which to begin.
Hollywood-based Image Metrics which has done special effects and animation for several Harry Potter Films and Grand Theft Auto released a demo illustrating the realistic quality of their animation technology. The person in this video from the company is not a real person. Her face is an animation.
It's very lifelike. And who needs a whining, demanding actor when you can just program one instead? Everyone says geeks will inherit the earth. With this technology, it seems they just might. Right from their keyboards.
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- Advergirl's Leigh Householder made an appearance on a local NBC affiliate to comment on Obama's Vice Presidential mobile promotion. Go Leigh!
- Stock photography house Masterfile has launched City Forum, a chat room-style meeting place for designers, art buyers and creatives to mix, mingle and do business.
- Writing in Advertising Age, Pete Blackshaw weighs in on the divide between marketers trumpeting of conversation and their actual practice of it.
- Animal's Bucky Turco doesn't like Mountain Dew's Green Label art "Limited Edition Artist Series" which offers bottles designed by artists. Hey, it's more exciting than your usual product design but the pint is taken; how much can art be commercialized before it is no longer art?
- Enfatico's woes simply will not cease. Now it seems pink slips are being handed out and the Australian division of Dell wants out of the WPP deal.
- Jolie O'Dell unleashes her wrath upon Twitterphone wannabe Earfl with five reasons why it's a Fail Whale on arrival.
- PROOF-it-ONLINE's inMotion is a new tool creators of video and animation can use to better collaborate and manage the approval process.
- American Copywriter thinks AMC's Mad Men will influence Madison Avenue agency fashion in a pendulum swing away from casual Friday's everyday.
- Is Anheuser Busch marketing to kids at Seaworld? With branded faucets and hospitality center bars, one person thinks so.
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In either a desperate move to build buzz for a medium no one's talking about any more or a confidant move in support of its belief in word of mouth marketing, BzzAgent is offering advertisers a refund if their campaign with BzzAgent outperforms other media by 20 percent. To participate, brands must spend $300,000 across WOM and other media.
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No advertisement for a (human-powered) translation service could possibly do a better job than this image of a sign in China that was produced even though, apparently, the automated translation service used failed epically. For those in China who do not speak English, making an error like this is entirely feasible. After all, if the tables were turned, would an\ English speaking person with no knowledge of Chinese language be able to discern the difference between one hieroglyphic-like Chinese symbol over another?
- John McCain souped up his logo. Bystanders are skeptical. UPDATE: McCain did not change his logo. The new one comes from a third-party vendor. The Under Consideration blog apologizes for the confusion.
- For its 50th anniversary, The Marketing Society launched 50 Golden Brands, which will celebrate 50 "hero brands" for the past 50 years. Contenders include eBay, Virgin, Perrier and some weird thing called Fairy Liquid.
- George Parker taught me a new word: Adverati. He also handpicked the ugliest pictures out of Advertising Age's Cannes party post and put the subjects in a more engaging light. And by "engaging," I mean "fluorescent."
- Rocawear and Boost Mobile launched a mobile campaign. Amobee is serving the ads. The campaign is about overcoming adversity. It's also about scoring discounts and disseminating unique and motivating Jay-Z lines like "I will not lose."
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- Technorati has launched its blog ad network.
- In April, Facebook caught up to MySpace and is now reaching 115 million people each month according to Comscore. It's not like we didn't see this coming years ago. Though MySpace still beats Facebook in the U.S. with 72 million monthly uniques as compared to Facebook's 36 million.
- Ew...just ew.
- Cyber Lions and Design Lions Cannes shortlists have been announced.
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Photrade, a free photography website, has launched in beta. With a host of features, Photrade, adds a level of commerce to what sites like Flickr provide. All the Flickr-like features are in abundance on Photrade but layered on top are tools which allow photographers to "share, protect and make money" from their uploaded photography.
Like a mashup between a social photography site and a stock photography site, Photrade helps photographers and those in need of photography do business together. On top of that, an advertising system allows photographers to make money anytime their photos are viewed.
Perhaps it's the Web 2.0 version of a stock photography house.
MarketingSherpa has released its 5th Annual Business Technology Marketing Guide, a survey of 934 marketing professionals and data from 10,000 business technology buyers. The report promises a look inside the possible ill effects of the supposed current economic downturn, it's effect on marketing budgets and how public relations, SEM and telemarketing play a role in the segment.
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