@PepsiCanada joins in the spirit by recommending @cocacola with a #followfriday retweet from @LauraRmz who recommended ALL the cola brands in her tweet. Meanwhile @Linux and @Microsoft get in on the action (below).
Whilst certain onlookers remain cynical there is no doubt that this ‘Twitterhugging’ between rival brands is demonstrating new types of interactions that would certainly never have occurred without social media. All up, it’s got to be a good thing, don’t you think?
From a genuinely random and spontaneous twitter experiment (here) that led to Coke and Pepsi becoming ‘friends’ on Twitter there’s been a fair bit of press coverage. Maybe Twitter Hugs are something waiting to happen. Posting links below as they come in:
However it wasn’t all bad. The original Walkman did have two sockets so you could share your listening experience with a friend. You have to buy an adapter with today’s iPods. Who said brands have only just started being social.
UPDATE: An historic moment in branding? As a result of the twitter experiment below Coke said HELLO to Pepsi via Twitter (and started following them too). [Update] Pepsi responds in kind. All within 18 hours. http://twitter.com/CocaCola/statuses/2413906945
And just like that, the world feels like a slightly better place. Ahh maybe Twitter really is more than just “what I ate for breakfast.”
Thank you Coke and Pepsi for being good sports
What happened: - We started the experiment at about 9.42am July 1 in Twitter (Original Tweet here)
- There were a significant number of RTs - Coca-Cola responded less than 3 hours later with the tweet above.
Currently Pepsi have not replied or followed back… but we’re watching
The Original Experiment/Post: Oh we all know Coke and Pepsi are age old bitter rivals but this is a new age of SOCIAL and we want to see something change between these arch enemies – even if it is just courtesy. Currently they are both on Twitter but at time of writing neither follows the other (http://www.doesfollow.com/cocacola/pepsi) or (http://www.doesfollow.com/pepsi/cocacola).
Join the fun: Let Coke and Pepsi know what you want: ReTweet this now!
Coke and Pespi Twitter accounts… why not end the cola wars and follow each other? It would be like a public hug. (…Then you can go back to being rivals). So who’s first?
Up to now this is only a concept, but if they ever get this to work I am so going to dig out my old records and get me one of these.
This is how it should work:
The record player uses a carrier and dock outfitted with a magnetic and auto-calibrating control system which carries the LP into thin air as it is playing music. A self-running record player shaped in the form of a red sphere, contains a needle, amplifier and speaker, spins around the record, bringing the music to life.
It was inspired by the Vinyl Killer which you can see here in action:
If they ever get this on the market, I will so get one.
Apparently, Chris Anderson thinks everything should be free. Footnotes citing large portions of quotes were culled from the Wired editor’s new book, Free, and even though attribution for other sources were included throughout the book, those from Wikipedia were not.
Obviously, Anderson is maintaining his plagiarism was completely unintentional and has issued an apology alongside his publisher, and has promised to amend this situation (albeit online). It’s a little bit unfortunate, given the topic he’s ultimately discussing in this book.
Dr. Rankin, professor of History at UT Dallas, wanted to know how to reach more students and involve more people in class discussions both in and out of the classroom. She had heard of Twitter…
This interactive video clip for Children Collide’s “Chosen Armies” is seriously cool.
It allows you to control the angle you view using your mouse, giving you individual control of content.
The clip, possibly “the worlds first 360 degree interactive panoramic music video”, was directed by Toby Angwin of Soup Kitchen Films (@soupkitchen), and was filmed with a vertically mounted Red One Camera with special panoramic lens.
Check it out and immerse yourself in a unique music experience.
Welcome to aspiration Tuesday. Here’s some over the top-ness to make you green with envy. I was going to write some witty stuff to go with this post but really, you just want to look at the pictures and the numbers – I know that.
What ever happened to VR games? I liked the idea of being in the game and do what I had to do to get the job done.
Anyway – this guy below called his invention the PC VR Game Gun. Its a toy gun with an LCD screen attached to it, a Gyration Air Mouse mounted on top, which allows for some full, seemingly responsive motion-tracking in any PC game. He also ripped apart a gamepad and wired it up to the trigger in the gun.
There is also a wireless option of the gun as you can see in the 2nd video.
V Energy Drink is a brand that has got the social media thing right. Well, almost.
VRaw is a branded site that has found a relevant way to communicate with consumers, namely, through offering value.
Essentially, it’s a branded blog that gives people the chance to find where they fit in the most creative companies in Australia, offering internships with the very best in Fashion, Graphic Design, Music, TV, Advertising and Gaming, as well as access to unique content like music videos and artist remixes.
The thing that I like is that there is no ’sell’, with barely any information about the drink itself. Instead, people engage with the brand through following their exclusive offers and original content uploads. As such, VRaw provide value to consumers (including me) in a creative way, and in turn, become socially relevant – my friend, not a company.
Or so I thought.
Having been a fan of this site from early on, I was quite disappointed to discover their latest video post of interviews with the “VRaw head honchos” explaining the campaign. From the company babble about the ‘essence of the brand’ and ‘being a catalyst for energy’, to the the fake ‘behind the scenes’-type footage, the whole thing reeks of corporate PR.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel they’ve lost their friendly credibility. I can only hope new content uploads will dilute this post and I can continue being ‘mates with the brand’.
What do you think of corporate messages in social media? Do they pop the bubble of friendliness?
I don’t mean social as in social and media. I mean Robin Burkinshaw, a game design student from the UK is using Sims 3 to play a homeless family. Alice and Kev – The Story of being Homeless in Sims 3, documents the life and times of a Father and Daughter who live in an abandoned park. Aside from the fact that Robin is using this game to see how close to real life it actually is and even raise money for charities that help the homeless people, it’s fascinating to see how people are adding to the story and giving some insight into real life.
For example here’s a thread where people are commenting on the fact that Alice has a mobile phone
Gentleman Jim: Where did she get that phone from?
Joel: Hah, it comes with every sim in the game. Let just say for the stories sake she found it on the ground? hah
Elaine: Having a cellphone is also actually pretty true-to-life. I work at a shelter, which means our families are functionally homeless, if not actually right off the street.
Unlike six or seven years ago, these days, almost all our clients have cells; that means it’s 100% easier for them to stay safe, keep in contact with family, make appointments, get job calls, and generally rebuild their lives.
MED: I also work at a shelter and I can attest to cell-phones being true to life for functionally homeless people. With companies selling a monthly non contractual service for $30.00 bucks and better yet, pay as you go phones for $15.00 with ten minutes of service built in, it’s easy for anyone with a candy selling or windshield wiping business to keep a phone.
There are some people who think that this is part of a campaign although I don’t see it myself. Genius if it is, but very dumb if someone is pretending it isn’t. It’s getting some good traction and well worth following to see whether it really takes off.
Start from the beginning here and follow the life and times of Alice and Kev.
An email chain going around Razorfish employees this morning revealed a huge number of companies using Twitter to promote special deals. Whether it is creating a new sales channel (eg Dell), giving a little back to your fans (eg Zappos) or building brand awareness (eg Squarespace), it seems that Twitter is being used more and more for tactical promotions not just long term brand strategies.
Here are a few we’re aware of. I’m sure there are plenty more, so feel free to add yours to the comments and we’ll update the list.
http://twitter.com/iSpyLevis (724 followers) – find the @iSpyLevis Twitterer in a public place to win a pair of jean. Clues released in the form of location Twitpics
http://twitter.com/jetstarairways (1,516 followers) – an eDM sale for 5 cent fares for members only went wrong when Jetstar members tried to access the website in the 2 hour window and couldn’t. They expressed their unhappiness via Twitter and blog posts. The result was a more active Twitter account (they started following people back) and a special Twitter only sale – 1,000 flights for 1c.
http://twitter.com/Squarespace (29,291 followers): a web publishing firm giving away vouchers towards an iPhone randomly to people who tweet #squarespace.
http://twitter.com/Zappos (747,937 followers): Tony Hsieh of Zappos gives a free pair of shoes to a random follower every so often.
http://www.twitter.com/JetBlue: gave 10% off all flights between 7 and 31 March to Twitter followers and reached their goal of 100,000 followers
And a whole lot of other examples thanks to our Razorfish colleagues
Last week Dragon Search released the first social media ROI calculator – well, the first we’ve seen anyway. What you do is plug in all the values of your social campaign and the calculator does the rest.
A snapshot of the calculator in question
The problem with this of course is that it misses some pretty crucial elements like sentiment shift and the number of fans or followers accrued (lead generation/CRM), which will be hard to capture in a format like this.
I also have to say that some of the criteria had me stumped eg ‘value of posts’, because a) how do you put a dollar value on a comment posted about your brand online? and b) should you?
While it is good to see someone adding a little formula to the madness that is social media, it makes me wonder: is this a step in the right direction or is it missing the point of social media altogether?
Vivid Sydney, developed by Events NSW in partnership with the City Of Sydney, will be the biggest international music and light festival in the Southern Hemisphere. It will showcase the city as a major creative hub in the Asia-Pacific region, celebrating the diversity of Sydney’s creative industries. Vivid Sydney features four exciting new events: - Luminous - Smart Light Sydney - Creative Sydney - Fire Water
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Apparently, Chris Anderson thinks everything should be free. Footnotes citing large portions of quotes were culled from the Wired editor’s new book, 
