MORE THAN ADVERTISING

COMCAST is the largest US cable provider and they really has some major problems with their customer service. The company was ranked at the very bottom of the most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index and angry consumers even launched their own site called ComcastMustDie.com to complain about them.

But now they start to do something about it and trying to reach out to customers online. COMCAST has set up a online unit that uses tools to monitor public comments on blogs, message boards and social networks for any mention of Comcast.

If Frank Eliason, digital care manager at Comcast sees a complaint, he contacts the source to try to defuse the problem.

“When you’re having a two-way conversation, you really get to clear the air,” Mr. Eliason said.

In just about five months they have reached out to well over 1,000 customers online.

It´s really interesting to see how social media becomes more and more relevant for any company to serve their customers needs. For example Southwest Airlines answers customer questions about ticket prices and flight by using Twitter.

I hope to see more companies that try to have a real dialog with their customers. And let´s see perhaps COMCAST also leaves a comment on my blog.

Read the full NY Times article here: Griping Online? Comcast Hears and Talks Back

According to the Pew Internet, American Life Project and YouTube 7 million people search for some form of help online every day.

A format that is really good to explain things and help to solve the users problems, is video. There are millions of these instructional how-to videos on Youtube and other sites like VideoJug and they are dealing with nearly every problem you can imagine from how to kiss to how to install wordpress. (which I used to install this blog here…)

Most of these videos are created by the users themselves but now brands are realizing the huge potential for their products. Because if someone searches for “how to make a birthday cake” and your brand is producing for example the needed ingredients, you can reach your consumers straight away and 100% targeted with your branded how-to content.

The first Start-Ups are already on the market. For example Howdini. A web destination for women searching for how-to videos. Produced by two former ABC executives, the site’s content is delivered in a morning-show format, with brands positioned as experts. Or Howcast, another startup – this one launched by former YouTube and Google executives.

“When it comes to searching, people are looking for information more than entertainment,” Alison Provost, CEO of Power Pact

So perhaps its better to take the money and produce some good How-To content instead of an TV or  Image-Spot. I`m sure that most creative won´t like this idea but that´s the way you can reach the people and otherwise the clients will take our budgets and give them to start ups like Howdini and Howcast.

VIA AdAge

Just read this article “Optimizing Search Engine Optimization” at the Barbarian Blog and found this great qoute about SEO strategy:

“My suggestions? Write good content. Develop an audience that cares about what you’re doing. Do something that’s relevant to people in your field.” – ANIL DASH

Here is the link to his 2007 post on Anil Dash´s Blog.

Just watched Marcy Shinder´s CMS Summit presentation about American Express OPEN and I´m really impressed by this project.
AMEX OPEN is a specialized team that is dedicated to serve the needs of small business owners to support them with knowledge and new insights to succeed in their businesses.

“Their growth is our growth.” says Marcy Shinder, Vice President of Brand Strategy and Marketing, and that`s why AMEX is putting a lot of efforts and marketing dollars (that probably would be spent otherwise on classical media) into this venture.
They´re hosting business conferences, like the Inc 500 or “Speed Networking Sessions” to provide small business owners a platform to exchange their ideas and business cards.

They even created a new product, the American Express Plum Card . This card is especially designed for small businesses and offers a lot new features.

Together with Federated Media and the mindset of gathering a conversation in a sponsored area, they launched OPEN FORUM, a content network that aggregates interesting business knowledge.

“Our goal was to bring together leading experts in an engaging experience at the OPEN platform itself. Thus, any of the authors work that was picked up on other blogs, social media engines like Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., would all give credit back to OPEN as being the keeper/facilitator of the conversation. In the new world of media, these trackbacks and links provide a new form of Brand Equity for OPEN. This again drives home the point behind the OPEN brand that they are here for Small Businesses to make their life better and grow their business.”

says James Gross Federated Media

Furthermore AMEX OPEN is part of “Make Mine a Million $ Business”. A project for Women’s Economic Independence. They offer a combination of money, mentoring, marketing and technology tools that women entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses.

AMEX is doing a really good job here. They are inviting influencer’s to participate and scale the conversations online. That´s the way you pull in new customers, build up relationships and turn them into Brand Evangelists.

Be relevant, listen to them and serve their needs – it´s that simple.

Find more videos like this on Plannersphere

Carling has launched a great new ad campaign. But instead of a 30 sec. spot, they created a free application that you can download to your IPhone. (Agency: Beattie McGuinness Bungay )

And it works: the Carling IPint is currently the most downloaded free application on the App Store and it’s even top ten in the USA. (and you can´t buy Carling Beer there)

This ad creates a lot of buzz because it´s really fun to show it around. For me the best example to date of mobile advertising!

CP+B’s “Rooftop Racer” is a good way to start the day. A nice little advergame for Coke Zero that is fun to play & a great example for a branded online game.

Via  Creativity! & Bewegungsmelder

Together with the Barbarian Group, an interactive advertising shop, CNN.com launched a promotional campaign for the Web site’s videos.

All video headlines in the middle of the CNN.com home page get a T-shirt icon and the users can buy the headlines-shirts online at the CNN´s shop.

Unfortunately their web editors censor inappropriate headlines and remove the icon. That’s why “Grizzly victim: ‘He’s eating my brain!’ or “Book slamming Bush puzzles White House” are not available.

But for all headlines that are not on the T-shirt list some users set up a Blog that records those that its authors feel were unjustly removed.

CNN.com’s shirt store, opened in April. Since they have recorded more than one million page views, suggesting a lot of curiosity.

A great buzz marketing tool for CNN.com video and for CNN as a brand.

Via Jaffe Juice

To succeed with your brand in social media it needs more than just a microsite, you have to be prepared to participate. Recording to Jeremiah Owyang’s Forrester Report: Best And Worst Of Social Network Marketing, 2008 there are only a few campaigns this year that managed it.

To measure the success, they set up a scorecard which amplifies the real opportunities of social network and reviewed 16 firms from four industries. Sadly, out of this 16 only the BMW Series 1 received a passing grade.

The BMW Series 1 “What Drives You?”- campaign.

Facebook users were invited to choose from a library of outlines and color them in.

The success: more than 2700 entries and 2.554 Fans so far…

and if you take part, your friends hear about it in their News Feeds.

One good example how you can engage with your audience within a social network. Hope to see more campaigns like that. Let´s see what the rest of 2008 is up for.

(thx for the screens)

UPDATE:

Just watched “Engagement Inside Social Networks Mark Kantor, Co-founder, Graffiti” – keynote at the CMS Summit – New York. He announced new results:

- 9000 + contest submissions

- 600,000 votes

and PR in NY Times, Cars.com, Adweek & Bloomberg

Not bad for a small Facebook campaign.

“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.” says Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management.

That are bad news for traditional media companies. In 2006, Nike spent just 33 percent of its $678 million United States advertising budget on ads with television networks and other traditional media companies. That’s down from 55 percent 10 years ago, according to the trade publication Advertising Age.

And instead of airing tv or print ads Nike and other large marketers are taking their money out of their budgets for traditional media and invest it in new innovative projects – not only on the Internet, but also through in-person events.

Projects like Nike+.

or “The Jordan Breakfast Club”

And it works:

Recording to Wundermans case study on their website, the Jordan Breakfast Club generated hundreds of thousand unique visitors in the first 3 months after launching and tens of thousands of elite athletes participated.

“It’s a very different way to connect with consumers,” Mr. Edwards tells many media executives.“People are coming into it on average three times a week. So we’re not having to go to them.”

So the solution seems to be very simple: if your marketing provides good content or is a great service that consumers want, they will come to you. And you don´t have to waste all your money on media, trying to grab a person´s attention while they doing something else.

Let´s try to use these budgets to make ideas like that. Ideas that are relevant to the people again.

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And for everybody that want´s to dig a little bit deeper: “The Social Media Manifesto” by Brian Solis.