Hello, hello. So, if anyone knows me, they would know that I recently started up a social media consultancy helping recruitment agencies and small businesses find their voice online, communicate with their audience and increase traffic to their website and business.
Just to get the intro’s going, I thought what better way than pinging this across a little more about what my social media consultancy is and how it may in fact help you.
Social Comoonnity is a social media consultancy based in West London and is the brain child of award-winning social media community manager Danielle Moon. Danielle noticed a gap in the market where companies didn’t know how to brand themselves online and helps them find their voice.
Social Comoonnity covers all core functional disciplines within Employer Branding, Community Management, Social Media and Digital Marketing.
How do we do this?
We listen to you and your audience
We find your voice
We identify key influencers
We develop the best creative campaigns that work across all platforms
If you’re looking to expand your online presence, feel like a penny lost in a big well or not hitting your target market like you think you should, contact me now on 07880 364 781 or email me at danielle@socialcomoonnity.com
What’s with Apple’s latest adverts? If you’re a follower of Apple and the Olympic games like myself, you may have seen the latest string of commercials called ‘Genius.’ Steve Jobs would be turning in his grave at the atrocious shite that the computer giant’s agency has produced. Without a doubt the ‘Genius’ adverts are the worst they’ve ever made, personally I’d love to give a high-five slap in whoever’s face, so-called account manager who came up with this monstrosity.
The ads by TBWA\Media Arts Lab feature stand-up comedian Josh Rabinowitz as an Apple store genius who is always available for Apple’s customers come rain or shine. The ad’s first featured in the opening ceremony for the London Olympics (broadcast in the US) shows Rabinowitz being the on-hand genius for Apple customers at all moments of time including on a place, an expectant father and a shopper. All situations are just ridiculous and don’t show Apple for who they really are.
‘Basically’
A rather-chuffed customer buys basically a Mac that’s not really a Mac but is kind of like a Mac but not. Confused? Me too. The customer buys the ‘basically a Mac’ from a crafty retailer who promises the product has all the similar features and apps to the Apple Mac.
‘Mayday’
On a flight that as 20 minutes till it lands, an air hostess makes an emergency announcement for an Apple Genius to help a passenger who has forgotten his anniversary and wants to create a video for his wife using iMovie. As much as ‘forgetting’ your anniversary with your other half is a bad thing, wouldn’t it be even worse having it stuck on your Mac when you presumably meet your wife at the airport (should she be meeting him there).
‘Labour Day’
As much as technology may be your life and you need to use it at all times (like I am with my mobile), if your wife has gone into labour would you really give two craps if your Mac is working? An Apple Genius is not going to be able to help you. An ambulance and suitable breathing techniques will help monitorize your wife’s pregnancy contractions.
These ad’s make Apple’s customers appear to be thick idiots who can’t tell the difference between what’s good and bad. If you’re going to do an ad, Apple stick to your guns and follow in your old footsteps with campaigns similar to the brilliant ‘Think Different‘ and ‘1984.‘ For a company that makes it very important to give the world a clearer view into the world of Apple and their products, they’ve always given off the simply clear message that their products are easy to use and you don’t have to be a ‘Genius’ to use one.
Google‘s creative lab has brought out some brilliant adverts this year to showcase the wonders of Google Chrome browser. The campaign, which is themed “the web is what you make of it,” showcases Chrome working in conjunction with other well-known Google products like Gmail and YouTube. The adverts are brilliant showing a more personal and emotional touch. The first to hit screens was “Dear Sophie” which previewed during one of the commercial breaks of the American sitcom One Tree Hill.
‘Dear Sophie’ details how a father uses the web to share memories with his daughter as she grows up. Daniel Lee, father of Sophie show’s how technology can change the way we communicate with someone. It’s a touching video that lets us see the life of Sophie from a young age to child through the eyes of the online world.
The UK Google team produced a similar video that’s called “Dear Hollie.” Using the same technologies and the web, the video is very similar to the original ‘Dear Sophie.’
The ‘Dear Hollie’ video aired the advert as its first primetime UK TV advert during the UEFA Champions League Final earlier this year. Google has been advertising on television in America for several years, but UK adverts have been largely restricted to print and billboard sites. Its new version is a clear attempt to reach beyond its traditional technology enthusiast audience while tapping in to a new type of more emotional advertising. Since the release of all the videos from Google Chrome, many have been spoofed. Here’s my top adverts by the leading search engine (in no particular order)…
Johnny Cash, Immortal
Johnny Cash is mostly remembered as a country music artist, his songs and sound spanned many other genres including rockabilly and rock and roll—especially early in his career—as well as blues, folk, and gospel. This crossover appeal led to Cash being inducted in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, andGospel Music Hall of Fame. Late in his career, Cash covered songs by several rock artists. In the clip by Google fans of Johnny Cash from around the world use the web to join together and create a music video memorializing his last recording.
The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project where the Man in Black lives on through his fans rather than just through his musical legacy. Everyone who joins in The Johnny Cash Project are invited to share their vision of Johnny Cash, as he lives on in their mind’s eye. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, each fan can illustrate their own frame of the video. As people all over the world contribute, the project continues to evolve and grow, one frame at a time.
Dan Savage, Messenger
Dan Savage started the It Gets Better Project last September in light of the suicide of 15-year-old Billy Lucas, who was bullied for his perceived sexual orientation. The project encourages adults, both LGBT and otherwise, to submit videos assuring gay teenagers that life can improve after bullying in early life. Columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better. Since last year, the It Gets Better Project has turned into a worldwide movement, inspiring more that 25,000 user-created videos viewed more than 40 million times. This has also been turned into an advert by Google Chrome showing inspiring people of all ages that it does in fact get better.
To date submissions from celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities including Adam Lambert, Anne Hathaway, President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Colin Farrell, Matthew Morrison of “Glee”, Joe Jonas, Joel Madden, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, the staffs of The Gap, Google, Facebook, Pixar, the Broadway community, and many more. For us, every video changes a life. Life can be amazing, you’ll be fine, it will get better. A great message inspired by thousands.
Lady Gaga, Mother Monster
For all you who don’t know who Lady Gaga is, where the bloody hell have you been? She’s the mother of all monsters, probably the world’s biggest and craziest pop star that really gives Madonna a run for her money. Her fashion look book is a crazy feast for the eyes with some, if not all being rather questionable but hey, she’s individual and a style icon to some.
The 90 seconds ad showed Lady Gaga posting her message to her fans through social media and her fans singing and dancing her songs. Ad shows how Gaga uses Google services like YouTube, Chrome Web Store, Google Search Engine etc to reach out to her fans. Lady Gaga ad by Google, which ends with the title line “The web is what you make of it,” describes the power of the web and its creative new modes of interaction. This new ad helps Google to reach out its various services to millions of Gaga fans.
Jamal Edwards, Founder & CEO
Jamal Edwards is the founder of SBTV – the UK’s largest youth media channel, which he started at the age of just 16. He has been tipped as one of the UK’s top young entrepreneurs by Richard Branson, has signed a label deal with Sony RCA, announced as the face of New Era’s first European campaign and is one of the latest faces to appear on the Google Chrome’s adverts.
Jamal Edwards aka Smokey Barz recognised the impact of music and began to host an online Media Channel through YouTube. SB.TV creates a platform for many uprising U.K. artists. At first, the aim was to create a strong platform for grime artist, this became successful as we are now aware of Tiny Temper, Chipmunk, Tinchy Strider etc. SB.TV has continued to grow, eventually evolving into other music genres such as RnB, pop and hip hop. SB.TV has since reached over 70 million viewers on YouTube becoming one of the most subscribed channels on YouTube attracting people from all over the world. Without a doubt there are a few things that can determine whether or not you’ve “made it” in the music industry – a massive following, a music label and your own company, sure. But a TV commercial based on your success story? Edwards’ success was documented by the number 1 search engine where other more well-known acts have included Lady Gaga and Justin Beiber. In my eyes, that’s pretty darn amazing.
This infographic posted up by Lauren Drell, an assisted editor of supported content at Mashable posted this interesting look at The History of Advertising on YouTube. YouTube being the most popular and worldwide known video-sharing platform sees a staggering 2 billion hits a day. Thanks to their 10,000 brand partners and masses of promoted videos, YouTube has become an important part of Google’s portfolio of products. YouTube is so darn awesome they see an average of 2 billion video views per week with 70% of their traffic coming from outside the US. More video content is uploaded to the site in a 60 day period than 3 major US TV networks created in 60 years. Double whammy of awesomeness! Now that mobile is kicking up a gear, YouTube Mobile is the most-trafficked video-viewing mobile website, gamering 7.1 million, yes, million unique visitors each month.
Take a look at the infographic below to see how the site — and its advertising strategy — have evolved since its founding in 2005.
Me, myself & I 