McCain to Obama: Search This!

The power of AdWords isn't lost on the GOP. Amazing to think that a party who have selected a dinosaur as their Presidential Candidate have managed to latch on to a relatively successful way to reach potential undecideds. Search terms "Joe Biden," "Biden and Obama," "Housing Crisis," and "U.S. Economy" have been purchased by the McCain camp in an attempt to inject their version of information into the query results of curious Americans.

The Wall Street Journal reports that many marketing professionals (including me) see this as a missed opportunity for the Obama campaign, who currently have no AdWords leading the conversation.

Many potential voters who identify as undecided demographically skew towards the Obama audience, and are definitely of the age to be considered internet savvy. It seems this AdWords push is directly targeted at trying to sway them to the McCain side. I'd kill to see the click stats on this campaign.

Mr. Samsung learns to fish where the fish are

Every now and then, a company will create a plan of attack for social media that manages to actually address the strengths of that medium. Mr. Samsung has learned to fish where the fish are!

Let me fill in some backstory: Samsung and CNET have partnered up to provide assistance and troubleshooting for anyone on the CNET forums who have questions about Samsung’s high def products. They’ve introduced Mr. Samsung, an employee who had been at the forums in an unofficial capacity for about a year before going public, as the official resource for support and comments.

Most companies participating in a market space like Samsung like to pride themselves on their support, often providing 24 hour assitance. But Mr. Samsung takes his services to the venues his customers are already accustomed to hanging out in. This is a key differentiator, and is part of the ‘fish where the fish are’ strategy.

In addition to CNET, Samsung have also been moving forward with other social media strategies; incorporating Facebook, MySpace, and Bebo accessibility into their mobile devices, and developing promotions that incorporate Social Networking in their directives.

It’s becoming increasingly evident that successful marketing campaigns are no longer geared at driving traffic to the brand site, but must live almost entirely as platform agnostic entities. Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, YouTube, CNET et al, are not only the new media entities, but also the new town squares. Samsung have been quick to realize (and capitalize off) this.

LGN On Facebook

We have been tinkering away on building games on facebook for the past few months. We are getting pretty close to launching a small beta. We have been leveraging our LiveGamesNetwork Platform and experience.

There will be lots more information coming and if you would like to be a part of the beta email us at info@reindeercompany.com

facebook Puts Out Content

facebook is a self proclaimed utility. But it was interesting to see the below today congratulating Michael Phelps.

They got a mention on the Bob Costas interview on NBC after the race - so they are pouncing on that - but it led me to think what else facebook could be used for.

Was thinking what about in a time of emergency in a certain region or network ?

Specifically, in a time of a college based tragedies - which I hope we do not see again - but unfortunately may. In times where there is mass panic, facebook could be a way to contact a lot of people in that particular network because most everyone enters what school they go to and whether they are a current student.

By entering this Michael Phelps congrats, they kind of open themselves up to "well, if you did it for phelps, would do it for an emergency?" Comment away.

Google Insights For Search

Definitely worth checking this out.

http://google.com/insights/search/

Google have a new tool that allows you to peak into what people are
searching for and when.

Comment on what you think the impact might be...

The Digital World Is About Them... not us (brands).

Sites like Facebook, MySpace work to protect you from "brandspeak" and only let in stuff you truly want to see or hear about. They know you ignore banners, so they let brands buy them.. They never share that knowledge with the brands though.

More and more people are going to less and less sites.

Options ? Make stuff that is about them. That looks good to them. Not to you and the people at head office. Actually, rule should be... if you all the people in the corporate head office love it and are comfortable with it... start again.

Face it. You cannot interrupt people anymore. It does not matter how pretty or good looking you make the brand. Dont you get it ? It is not how pretty you look.

You have to create things they sincerely like. That they really want to stay connected with.

What is the real reason a lot of people will really stay connected to you ?

Kevin Roberts: "A Lovemark is owned by the people. Not by the brand."

"Unfinished Releases" Versus "Big Product Launch"

Might just be me, but apart from cult releases like iPhone and Halo etc, I feel like product launches are more exciting for the company launching it, than the people they are targeting.Perhaps it is time to take the Google Labs approach. They release products well before they are "finished" and ask people to participate in making it better. The reality is, only a certain percentage of people seek out or go to these sites. Guess what kind of people they are...

Perhaps it is more exciting to let people look under the hood a little or see things before they are usually "scheduled" to. I say "involvement breeds commitment" somewhere between 15 and 20 times a week. I really believe in it.

I think that the people who really like seeing things before they come out, are the same people who like talking about these things with their friends. They want to be the first to know and the first to tell. Once it is out there for everyone to see, there is no real prize or motivation to tell everyone.

It is not conventional. But is conventional really where you want to be these days ?