Archive - Branding

Hindsight – The 20/20 Experience: The Re-branding of Justin Timberlake

Leave a reply

Justin Timberlake The 20/20 Experience

 

It has been 7 years since Justin Timberlake released his last album FutureSex/LoveSounds and fans have been dying to hear something new from the crooner. In January of 2013, Justin gave his fans exactly what they have been asking for with the release of Suit & Tie the debut single from his third album. This was just the tip of the iceberg when Justin gave fans a taste of The 20/20 Experience bringing sophistication and reviving the R&B genre something that we all have been yearning for. Unfortunately when the single dropped many individuals were not a fan of the single and were skeptical about Justin being able to make a come back. Raise your hand if you were one of those people? Now raise your hand if you are completely in love with this new album after Justin Timberlake’s media blitz and marketing strategy. Justin Timberlake seems to have restored everyone’s faith that good music is still being produced and people are still consuming. Justin’s sophomore album almost went platinum in its first week of release selling 986,000 copies. Let’s break down the components that went into the success of Justin Timberlake’s The 20/20 Experience.

Social Media
Justin began his engagement via social networks announcing his comeback to music with a personalized video message to his fans which he posted on YouTube and Myspace and spread the word to his fans via twitter. The teaser entitled ‘I’m Ready’ gave fans an inside look into Justin’s feelings about music and how much he truly loves his craft.  He then let the cat out of the bag that he would be dropping a new single with no other than Jay-z as a featured guest. Justin was also actively involved with his fans via social media outlets giving a personal and authentic experience to his fans.

Brand Partnerships Justin also solidified strategic brand partnerships with Budweiser and Target where his music as well as himself were featured. The Target partnership presented a unique proposition that really resonated with fans. Justin and Target drafted twenty of his biggest fans to come sing his songs in a commercial and Justin surprised them by coming out to sing with them in a commercial entitled Target Superfans. Justin also fostered a partnership with Budweiser as the new face and ‘creative director’ of Budweiser Platinum. The commercial has an old school feel, captured in black and white a couple is shown

Television After Justin left music he decided to focus on building a career in film and has been quite successful.  Justin joined SNL’s Five Timers Club and graced the stage with other iconic host of the comedy sketch such as Chevy Chase, Steve Martin, Tom Hanks and more. Appearing on the show a week before his album dropped performing two hits from his upcoming album. Justin also appeared on his SNL friend, Jimmy Fallon’s Late Night for entire week entitled ‘Timberweek’ and of course Jimmy and Justin couldn’t go without doing a rendition of “The History of Rap.”

Music Streaming/Sharing

Last but not least Justin tackled music pirating head on by streaming his album for FREE an entire week before it’s release date. Justin Timberlake offered a free listen via iTunes, Rdio, Spotify and other streaming service websites but ironically the album was not available on Myspace. Individuals shared the links to the album with their friends and soon Justin Timberlake’s album was “viral” before it was even released which translated into high first week sales.

At the end of it all no one had a choice in the matter, individuals had to tune in to hear exactly what Justin had to offer and it proved to be a winning combination. And that is how Justin Timberlake re-branded himself and reclaimed his throne within the music industry.

Justin Timberlake – Target Superfan Commercial


Justin Timberlake – Bud Light Platinum Commercial

Justin Timberlake on Jimmy Fallon – Timberweek

Netflix Goes Mainstream with Launch of House of Cards

Leave a reply

What if I told you that your viewing experience has changed forever? Well, I’m not that far off from the truth. The fact is that every day our use of technology is making that statement a concrete fact. Not many of us can say we set a schedule to make sure we are sitting in front of our television for our favorite show. Why should we when we can just catch up online or at any odd hour with the wonderful tool – the DVR? And if that isn’t already awesome, our life as a viewer may have just gotten a bit easier with the creation of web based series.

Netflix, the leader in on-demand Internet streaming media, now with over 26 Million subscribers, has stepped into the world of original programming. On February 1st,Netflix launched “House of Cards”, an adaptation of a 1990 BBC mini-series which in this version take place in Washington DC. All 13 episodes are made available at once, allowing users to watch in marathon sessions compared to waiting a week as in prime-time television. Currently, about 10% of subscribers and those with access to Netflix viewed at least one episode of House Of Cards in the first 12 days after it became available.

More individuals are moving from traditional ways of watching television and consuming media, some going as far as cutting cable all together. Netflix, a true media innovator has a real understanding of the market and the constant change that is occurring among the individuals who subscribe to their service. Moving towards creating and maintaining their own original content is not only a smart move but a strategic one, giving individuals a chance to feel like they are truly watching television programming but also have the option to watch an entire season marathon style. Releasing an entire season of a television show will change how future series may be produced. There is no opportunity for last minute changes to ensure the audience is held into the show. They have to get it just right the first time around. Which leads us to a few other questions; will the next awards how season have a new category – Best Original Web series? How will this impact those other shows in the running?

Or just imagine if they picked up shows like “How to Make It in America” and “Boss”, everyone would tune in for the price. Right now, competitors like Amazon and Hulu are within the same price range; Hulu also produces original content but seems to have less interest. But it does make you wonder how deals from already produced and successful shows will transfer to the world of on-demand viewing. In my fantasy world, this could lead to the possibility of dropped or cancelled shows making a comeback.

If a simple game change from weekly airings to straight marathon watching creates waves on how shows are produced and exclusivity rights are signed, this will most definitely mark a new era in how marketers and advertisers forge ahead to grab the interest of their audience; from how sponsorship is presented to the ever so notable product placement spots within the shows. How do they target and claim this new type of viewer? I’ll tell you one thing, it will without a doubt lead to how viewership is going to be measured/ monitored and rated. If that happens, your favorite show may still face the chance of being cancelled. Of course, this is just the beginning,we’ll just have to watch and see how it all plays out.

Olapic Proves a Picture is Worth More Than a Thousand Words

Leave a reply

Join us for our latest installment of Behind the Seen featuring Olapic, the premier photo crowdsourcing platform that provides tools to collect, curate and publish photo content from around the web for brands, publishers, e-commerce, sports teams and more. Olapic works with a variety of fashion brands and publications, all of whom have been coming up with really cool ways to promote their products and services through crowdsourced content. They recently partnered with the Urban Outfitter brand, Free People and created an awesome campaign allowing customers to upload pictures of themselves in their favorite Free People Denim utilizing Instagram and have them featured on the Free People website by pulling photos in from consumers who utilized the hashtag #myfpdenim.

We had an opportunity to speak to Campbell Kliefoth, the VP of Awesomeness & Business Development over at Olapic to learn more about how Olapic is proving to brands that a picture is worth more than a thousand words.

Africa: Most new businesses come into fruition because there is a gap in the industry that they are delving in, You seem to have found a market that has yet to be tapped within the photo and video sharing/crowdsourcing world. What was that gap and how is Olapic filling it?

Campbell: When we started working with our first client, the New York Daily News, we discovered that the platform they were using to collect user photos was extremely antiquated – it required uploading a single photo from the desktop, then filling out a very long page of user info to be even allowed to submit it. The bounce rate was enormous. So we began developing tools to collect photos from the services that hundreds of millions of people were already using – Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. I will admit when we first started trying to acquire clients, people didn’t quite get the concept, and it was a hard sell. It seems the market has caught up now, and we are hiring new employees every week to keep up with demand.

Africa: Everyone is familiar with Instagram, YouTube and other digital photo and video sharing companies, and they have been more than fairly successful, I hate to ask the typical questions but people are going to want to know what sets Olapic apart from other platforms? What are you all doing to remain competitive in the space? What is the motivation behind your whole movement?

Campbell: There is an extraordinary amount of photosharing going on these days – over 10% of all of the photos ever taken in the history of the camera were taken in the last year. Obviously the advent of the smartphone and accompanying photo-sharing services (like Instagram) are the primary reason for this – but the majority of the value coming from this sharing is unrealized. Someone might take a photo and post it to Twitter that could be extremely valuable to a particular brand, but that value is lost if they can’t find the photo. We are constantly developing new ways to overcome this problem, always looking for new APIs, trends, and tools to “bubble up” the truly best content.

Africa: How is the Internet changing what you do?

Campbell: We follow the trends in mobile photosharing very closely. Whenever a service pops up as popular, we try to find all the ways to collect great content from it. We actually were around to see the rise of Instagram, and immediately found ways to collect based on #hashtag, @handle, and even geo-location. We are always on the lookout for the newest thing.

Africa: So Fashion week is upon us, any big plans for partnering with any brands?

Campbell: We work with a lot of fashion brands and fashion publications, all of whom have been coming up with really cool ways to promote their initiatives through crowdsourced content. Free People (an Urban Outfitters brand) is doing a really beautifully designed street-style contest that got all of us excited.

Africa: Who are some brands you would love to partner with in the future?

Campbell: The interest in our fashion e-commerce “shop-able Instagram” product has been overwhelming, and we could not be happier for it. Because the interest is so high, we are trying to put together a small group of early-adopters who we think will really be able to run with the product, so to speak. The Urban Outfitter brands have been awesome, because they have such an engaged, fashionable, and social media savvy fanbase. We are looking for brands who will be able to replicate their success.

Africa: Could you talk about any long-term goals you have in mind?

Campbell: We want to revolutionize the connection between user generated content and e-commerce. Amazon grew their conversion rate by double-digits when they introduced the ability for users to upload photos to product pages, and we want to empower any brand to have that functionality.

It was awesome speaking to Campbell about Olapic and their growth, we look forward to their advancement in fashion eCommerce and the possibility of a “shopable Instagram” How cool would that be? To learn more about the Olapic team visit them at Olapic.com, follow them on twitter at @Olapic and liking them on Facebook at Facebook.com/olapic and take a look at their latest campaign with Free People

 

Sean “Diddy” Combs Announces REVOLT TV Network

Leave a reply

(Source) This morning Sean “Diddy” Combs announced that he will be partnering with Comcast to bring a multi-platform network that reinvents the way artists and fans connect live around Music, News, and Pop Culture Programming to the masses.

REVOLT was selected as one of four new minority-owned independent networks to be broadly distributed on Comcast Cable systems between July 2012 and January 2014. After a thorough evaluation of more than 100 proposals, Comcast selected Combs’ proposal. Comcast will be the first cable operator to broadly carry REVOLT at the time of launch.

The REVOLT platform will exist as an authority in dynamic music content and a destination for conversations around music, artists, and their creations backed by the innovative leadership of Combs. It will be the first music network to truly leverage the power of social media communication tools to fuel the live music dialog and influence music culture and content in real time for the video-centric generation.

Comcast and Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group have entered into an agreement to launch in 2013. For the latest information about REVOLT, please follow Sean “Diddy” Combs at www.twitter.com/iamdiddy  or www.facebook.com/diddy.

Watch Diddy’s Special Announcement on the launch of Revolt:

Key to Viano: Mercedes Interactive Ad Campaign

Leave a reply

Interactive Display Advertising is really taking off this year, last week we saw the new video by Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s interactive video Look Around. Now we have the latest from Mercedes the Key to Viano, an interactive campaign in which Mercedes Benz owners could activate digital campaigns with their car keys.

Inside Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse underground subway station, German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz launched one of the more clever advertising campaigns to date. Dubbed “Key to Viano”, commuters are able to use their own vehicle keys to control the digital advertising displays.

By recognizing car key signals through a radio receiver, a new film clip starts each time a signal is received. To set everything up for the interactive campaign, 12 digital advertising displays were installed and the underground station went through an extensive overhaul that was accomplished in collaboration with WallDecaux Berlin.

Watch as customers interact with their Key to Viano:

Only It In It for The Perks! Should We Take Klout Scores Seriously?

2 Replies

Social Media has proven itself to be a great business tool over the past year. The emergence of new tools allows businesses to monitor and track interactions between them and their customers. However, some businesses are still quite skeptical and wonder “what exactly is social media and how the hell can it help me grow my business?” To put it simply: “Social Media is what happens when an idea and its audience collaborate on a shared experience in real-time;” a great definition eloquently tweeted by @TheOnenOnlySAH. These collaborations are real-time interactions that are happening right now as you are reading this. The question has always been, well, how does one go about measuring social media interactions? After it is collected, what do we do with the data?

Klout has found a way to answer this question by measuring an individuals social interactions and influence online. They have created a great platform not only for measuring the data and interactions that are happening in real time but have also found a way to help brands utilize the data to increase their awareness. The way we interact socially has changed substantially over the last decade. Our friendships and professional connections have moved online, making influence measurable for the first time in history. When you recommend, share, and create content you impact others, and Klout assigns you a score to measures that influence on a scale of 1 to 100. The key component here is influence. Klout has taken data gathering to the next level by identifying influential individuals and rewarding them with “Perks”. Perks are gifts and giveaways from various brands in hopes that it will spark conversation and increase their visibility. Are influencers, those with higher Klout scores, only in it for the Perks? Or is Klout really turning tweeters and other social gurus into brand ambassadors?

For the most part when I polled friends, colleagues, business owners and other avid users of social networks about Klout most were not sure or confident about its rankings or exclaimed they did not pay much attention to it. However, a few weeks ago when Klout made changes to their algorithm and individuals scores dropped downwards of 20 points there was a big uproar on twitter. Business owners, professionals and experts who have been working hard to build rapport with consumers, colleagues and followers were at a loss and infuriated at the change because they thought they were finally making some headway with understanding how to increase their score even if many were never quite sure about the algorithm. According to Klout they have made the Klout score more transparent giving users more insight into how they effect/affect their audience. These recent changes made me wonder was Klout really turning users into brand ambassadors or were they just reaping the benefits of the perks but not returning the favor.

Whether the perk of utilizing Klout is building credibility, being labeled an influencer or simply a tool to see what your followers feel are the topics you are the expert on I think Klout has to do more than just provide a more transparent scoring system which is still very ambiguous. In order for Klout to ensure that a brands perk reaches it’s target audience, Klout needs to take into account social factors that may not occur online such as their expertise, fame and the amount of targeted individuals they can reach via other followers in order to increase awareness for a perspective brand. Other then Television I have not seen individuals collaborate on their shared experiences on a social network and increase awareness of a particular brand.  User’s on both Twitter and Facebook seem to watch their favorite television shows as a collective online and have collaborated on a large scale about their experiences, enjoyment or distaste in regards to a specific show, many share similar view points but they have not all shared them with each other.

One way to focus a conversation online is the use of Hashtags. Hashtags serve as a marker used to highlight keywords or topics in a Tweet so tweeters can follow a conversation on a specific topic. Conversations about brands we love happen organically, we update our status with information about our favorite brands daily such as tweeting about what we had breakfast meals, check-ins to Starbucks, pastimes, etc. The same needs to happen for the brands participating in Klout Perks. Klout needs to connect all redeemer’s of perks and facilitate the conversation around the brands in order to influence their following. Since a tangible product cannot be shared socially, Klout needs to ensure that experience is felt and shared among all Perk recipients as well as the people they influence. There is a certain level of abandonment once the perks are received where individuals use them and they are never spoken of again. Once Klout implements a system to keep the brand conversation going it will be a perfect tool for measuring social media influece.

Would you be more inclined to discuss brands if you were aware of the conversations surrounding Klout perks that you have received or are you just in it for the perks?

Google Me: How to Brand Yourself Online & Managing Your Reputation

Leave a reply

Chances are that if you’re reading this, you’re either an entrepreneur, freelancer or a professional interested in learning how to present yourself as an expert in your perspective field. Recently I had the opportunity to speak on a social media panel in Connecticut for a young professional organization entitled M.O.D Success and one of the main questions posed was how do I brand myself to get recognition as an expert in my field. Many professionals don’t realize the potential Search Engine Marketing and Social Media have as a branding tool for marketing yourself online and to manage your online reputation. They also do not know how to leverage the many tools to help maximize their online visibility amongst the experts.

The process of branding oneself is much easier than many may think, it takes some strategic effort and planning but once in place is a great asset to you and your brand. Whether you are looking for a new job, starting your own business or consulting one of the first things people do is research you online.   Below are key steps on how to get started.

 

  1. Blogging/Podcast – Having a blog or podcast is essential and is one of the best ways to control and manage the content you would like to convey to future employers, colleagues, future customers and others. First step would to be to write a compelling bio stating what your expertise is, your experience as well as where you see yourself in the future. Make sure the content reflects your expertise in your field and your interests.
  2. Join Professional Networks – Linkedin is currently one of the most powerful professional business networks that you can utilize to build yourself as a brand and network with other like minded professionals. LinkedIn allows you to have an online resume displaying your expertise, as well as accomplishments, and Colleagues and Business partners can also write reviews giving testament to your great work. It also has great forums allowing you to answer questions directly correlated to your area of expertise and become known as an expert. But don’t limit yourself to just LinkedIn there are many networks both on and offline that can help you grow your brand.
  3. Branded Pages on Social Networks – Join social networking sites like FaceBook, Twitter, Google Plus, Meetup.com and others to stand out among colleagues, experts, and those looking for valuable information that you offer pertaining to your expertise. Using FaceBook and Twitter, you can gain followers and fans. By feeding information via status updates and providing links to your blog you can spread the word about your brand. Utilize Meetup.com to meet with other professionals and colleagues in your field or create your own meetup group that meets regularly.
  4. Emails – Something as simple as an email signature with your title and a link to your social networks and blogs can catch the attention of those that you interact with frequently. Also send out some of your recent blog posts to friends, family and colleagues that you think would be interested in the content and ask them to pass it along to individuals they think would be interested as well. This is an easy way to get referrals and new traffic to your site.
  5. Be Yourself – The most important advice when branding yourself is to be authentic. What differentiates you from others is yourself, no one can bring what you have to the table better than you can. Your uniqueness is what will set you apart from the world. So say what you feel, hold on to your convictions, but at the same time be smart about what you put out there. If you are not sure how a statement will come across to your audience think about another way it can be said or don’t say it all. Not everything you think of needs to be said.

Keepin’ it 100: Authenticity in Urban Influence and Engagement

Leave a reply

On March 29th, thanks to @DREPowersBrands I was able to attend a wonderful event that highlighted the importance of engaging the Urban demographic that are interacting with Brands via online mediums. The Urban Works: Influencer 360 Panel Series: Social Media Installment gathered leading influencers in the social media and digital space to lend their insights on the emerging trends among urban consumers. The panelist included:

Rev Run, Media Personality (@RevRunWisdom)
Demetria Lucas, Author, Founder of abelleinbrooklyn.com, Relationship Editor, Essence (@abelleinbk)
Mike Presson, SVP Digital Media, Northeast for @MSL_Group (@MikePresson)
Corvida Raven, Creator of SheGeeks.net (@Corvida)
Reggie Osse (@CombatJack)
Mike Street, Senior Digital Strategist, Syndicate Media Group and Creator of Influential1s.com (@StreetForce1)
Troy Brown Founder of One50One.com (@MrOne50One)

Each panelist brought up great points on how brands can connect and engage individuals online but what stuck out the most was the reiteration of the word Authenticity. Corvida made a statement that resonated she stated “I am not an expert at this but I am passionate about it” and that is what garnered brands attention to SheGeeks. When speaking to clients on the best strategy to gain followers on twitter or to get likes on Facebook my first response is just be you, talk to them like you would speak to anyone else  they will appreciate that more than being sold on a product or service.

The consensus was that you must be authentic and true to yourself for the individuals you interact with to believe YOU, but is “Keepin’ it 100″ causing brands to misinterpret our authenticity thus labeling our interactions and placing them into the “Black Twitter” box. Over the past couple of months there has been a heightened fascination with the so called “Black Twitter” that is starting to garner mainstream attention on blogs, newspapers and other publications. Now this topic was not discussed in detail during the conference and this could be due to the fact that many of us probably had never entertained the idea of being a part of “Black Twitter.” When it comes to influence especially in certain demographics it is well known that we are the trendsetters, we decide whether or not something is quote on quote cool. Now I think this is more of an “Urban” quality more so than a “Black” one but we will discus that at another time.

Most recently Virginia Heffernan released an op-ed entitled Making a Hashtag of It where she dissected the origins of trending topics and hashtag usage on Twitter and even refers to some of the topics as “blacktags” as Farhad dubbed them last year in his Slate article How Black People Use Twitter. What I find funny is that I think these people are totally missing the point of why “WE” use twitter. I feel like I am being racially profiled, I didn’t realize I had to worry about Tweeting While Black. My interactions on social networks depending on the outlet can range from topics of social responsibility, business, music, art, fashion, personal views, random musings and so on but is just representative of me as an individual. The reason why I preferred twitter over other networks is because I felt that it was the only site that didn’t stifle my creativity.

But with the dissection of how “We” tweet I am now second guessing how freely I express myself via twitter which in turn has effected how I influence others as well as how I will be influenced.  I always thought Twitter was the perfect medium for focus groups that were organically present and would help brands learn more about how individuals are interacting with their product and/or service in an unbiased environment, and I use the word unbiased loosely. The dynamic of the interactions on Twitter always reminded me of those that may happen on the back of the bus, in the beauty salon or barbershop or those that just arise while hanging out with friends in an intimate setting. Those who grew up in this atmosphere know that some of the most intelligent conversations can arise in these venues as well as some not so favorable but they encompassed the things that were on our mind at that time whether political or for comedy. Not every person who tweets has that same passion Corvida expressed, some are on twitter for pure entertainment or other reasons and people need to differentiate between the various personas displayed on twitter from the authentic.

Do you find yourself editing tweets or making them “politically correct” or do you tweet freely?

Guerilla Marketing: T-Mobile Creates Live Angry Birds Game

Leave a reply
In the video you’ll see below, T-Mobile created a life size, live action
Angry Birds environment, where users could walk up to the booth at the
front (seen above) grab a T-Mobile device (looks like a Samsung Galaxy
S) and interact with the game. The game on the Android smartphone when
played actually causes the live action elements to play out in the
background for all to watch, exploding pigs and all!