Nike's 'Write the Future' commercial: a new viral ad record

With the FIFA World Cup rapidly approaching, Nike has made a superb new commercial. Famous football players such as Didier Drogba, Wayne Rooney and Christiano Ronaldo are joining the clip which is called 'Write the Future'. With its commercial, Nike responds to the craziness around the FIFA World Cup. The video shows the impact of decisions from soccer stars on the entire society, changing their own future and even influencing world events.

The Nike commercial set a new record for 'most views of a viral video advertisement in the first week of a campaign'. The "Write the Future" commercial reached 7.8 million views in its debut week and beat the previous record holder, another Nike advertisement called 'Earl and Tiger'. This clip, in which golfer Tiger Woods returned to sport after his heavily debated affairs, achieved 'only' 6.3 million views in its first week.

The Nike commercial is a nice example of a so-called 'viral video ad'. These are videos that become popular through the process of online sharing, often via video sharing websites (like YouTube) and e-mail. A viral video is often humoristic and typically passes electronically from person to person. It turns out that Youtube, which recently celebrated its 5th birthday, is a valuable platform to make viral advertisements like Nike's succesful.

You can find the Nike commercial below.



By the way, the soundtrack in the clip features the instrumental progressive rock song 'Hocus Pocus' by the Dutch band Focus, a personal favourite:)

Joining a TV commercial?

Your moment of fame on TV is closer than you think. Dutch manufacturer Duyvis has launched a campaign to bring a new taste of their traditional 'borrelnootjes' (nuts) to the attention. But this is not just a standard campaign, as Eric Wewerinke from Duyvis mentions:

"Because we combine social media with a TV commercial in our campaign, we offer all consumers the ultimate and unique opportunity to gain a role in our new commercial."

But how does it work?

Duyvis' marketing approach combines social media and TV commercials. The company is looking online for self-made actors who are willing to participate in their latest TV spot about the new taste: Red Pepper nuts. Fans and enthusiasts are able to upload their pictures 'in' the commercial via a special Hyves page, of which ultimately 200 unique versions actually will be broadcasted on TV. So contrary to other similar competitions in which there is often only one place available for the winner, the chance that you will appear on the TV screen is quite high. For the spots which will unfortunately not end up on TV, there is a special Duyvis YouTube channel in which they will be shown anyway.

It is a smart approach. Word of mouth marketing is almost insured, as those who are involved in the campaign will quickly share this with their fellows. Moreover, it is a nice example of reaching your target group through many different media, making use of the potential power of each of them.

The campaign will be explained in the following clip (in Dutch):

It's all about politics

The Dutch general elections will be held on June 9, 2010. So it's election time, and everybody should know it! It's generally known that the internet and social media have become very important in political campaigns, especially after the success of Barack Obama in his US campaign back in 2008. But the well-known phrase 'only in America' doesn't count here. This week it was announced that the the Dutch House of Representatives will participate in two different projects in which the internet and social media play a considerable role.

Missed debates

For everyone who unfortunately missed a debate: it will be possible to track them in your own time! Debates which are being held at the plenary hall of the Dutch House of Representatives will be presented on their own website.
Name of the project: 'Debat gemist' (in English: Debate missed). The format of this website will probably be comparable to the very popular website 'Uitzending gemist' (Broadcast missed).

Youtube channel

Dutch broadcaster NOS announced its cooperation with Youtube to create a Youtube channel, which they call 'Nederland kiest' (The Netherlands chooses). This channel makes it possible for Dutch citizens to ask questions to Dutch politicians through a video message. NOS editors will select the questions and then try to provide appropriate answers. The best questions will be answered by the political leaders themselves during the NOS debate, which will be broadcasted on June 8.

The Dutch House of Representatives as well as NOS editor in chief Hans Laroes and Youtube head of communications Alistair Verney stressed the importance to experiment with social media in politics. For citizens, it becomes more and more easy to create a direct 'question and answer dialogue' with politicians. As a result, citizens become more involved and politics becomes more accessible. Let's hope this remains the case, even after the elections...

Real-time speech translation for the mobile phone

Instant universal speech translation. Who doesn't know it from science-fiction series like Star Trek? But on the Mobile Voice Conference in San Francisco it appeared that this is already possible in particular situations. The company Novauris showed a software application on a mobile phone that is able to instantly translate generally used phrases. In addition, the company Fluential reviewed a system that is able to provide real-time interpretations in a hospital. These two applications are not fully developed yet, but both companies announced that they are technically ready to launch a related commercial product.

Over the past years it appeared that the complexity of different grammar and word forms made it hard to realize accurate universal translations. Novauris and Fluential didn't manage to translate all speech, but they created software which can translate quickly enough so that users are able to speak with each other at a relatively normal speed. As a result, the translation happens automatically when the user's meaning is clear enough. If it's less obvious, the application will show a standard phrase and ask the user for confirmation before it actually speaks it to the other person. This makes the conversation easier and more clear for both speakers. As a result, the software is especially useful in situations with language barriers where communication problems have to be overcome.

The software will be developed for all kinds of smartphones, like the iPhone, Windows Mobile and soon the Android OS. It is generally expected that the commercial product will be available in 2011. A comparable test with speech translating software is shown below:

Predict the future with Twitter

Predict the future with Twitter. Is this really possible? According to computer scientists it is!

For example, Twitter appears to be very suitable to predict the successfulness of new movies. Scientists developed a computer system that analyses the appearance pace of movie tweets, in order to map out the ticket sales. It turned out that looking at tweets on Twitter appears to be even more effective than using prediction sites like the Hollywood Stock Exchange. Lately, the system predicted that the movie 'The Crazies' in America would provide 16.8 million U.S. dollars in the first weekend. It turned out to be 16.1 U.S. dollars...

According to the computer scientists, this technique could also apply for any other commercial product. As a result, this might be especially interesting for businesses that doesn't make use of prediction markets yet. Moreover, it is possible to analyze trends, which can be extremely useful for marketing purposes or even to predict the results of the Dutch elections.

Twitter itself could also contribute to the commercial success of companies. Keeping the opportunities of the prediction service in mind, companies could influence the prediction results by tweeting about their own products. Fortunately, this is not so easy, because they have to maintain the balance between tweeting and spamming. However, this kind of manipulation of prediction results should not be underestimated. But for the time being, could anyone suggest who is going to be the new Dutch Prime Minister?

My enemy's enemy is my best friend

This week Google has announced its cooperation with Adobe. Google mentioned that it will integrate Adobe Flash in its web browser Chrome, and there are also plans to provide its operating system Chrome OS with Flash. This decision of Google shall not remain without consequences, since main competitor Apple has recently pointed out the approaching end of the Flash technology.

Apple

According to Apple, Flash is a technology which is too heavy and unstable for its iPhone and Ipad. As a result, Apple refuses to add the Flash plugin on its main devices. The company argues that new technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 offer the same possibilities, without these disadvantages.

Google

And now Google has made the remarkable step of integrating Flash into its web browser Chrome. The software is pre-installed, so it is not necessary for users to install the newest version themselves any more. According to Google, the main advantage is that users always have the newest version of Flash.

Rivalry

However, Google's decision can also be seen as a response to Apple's attitude towards Flash. Google's operating system Chrome OS is based on the similarly named browser. This means that devices with Chromes OS will be Flash integrated, while Apple devices like the Ipad do not support Flash. As a result, the cooperation with Adobe might help Google in its competition with Apple.

Adobe

During this rivalry between Google and Apple, Adobe benefits from the new opportunities. Together with Google it tries to integrate Flash successfully into the Chrome web browser. On the other hand, the relationship between Apple and Adobe now perhaps becomes critical. However, Adobe itself has its own striking view on the situation: My enemy's enemy is my best friend.

Online shopping using real-time information (part 2)

As promised, I will now present part 2 of the real time e-commerce story. Looking at trends on the internet, it is clear that social communities become more and more important. E-commerce and online shopping cannot escape from this phenomenon, which is particularly shown in the USA, where social shopping increases in popularity. Social shopping combines e-commerce with traditional shopping and can exist both online and in the real world. The idea behind it is to make use of the wisdom of the crowd: communicating with users and collect information about products and prices.

Online social shopping

For online social shopping, social network environments are often used. Users create shopping lists which they can share with their friends. Some websites reward their users for their participation, for instance when they share information with the community. The participants often receive reputations points or even real money. An example of a website with such policy is Wishabi. So at the one hand, this is beneficial for customers, because it is easier for them to find cheap products. On the other hand, the reach of companies increases dramatically because of these social communities and information sharing behavior.

Social shopping in the ‘real world’

Social shopping also exists in the real world, sharing your shopping stories with people you know. Imagine that you are in a clothes store and picks one item. The mirror reflects your image, but you also see celebrities wearing the same item. Meanwhile a webcam takes a picture of you and projects it on a website for your friends to see. They can advice you whether to buy the actual item or not. So real-world social shopping makes it possible to connect the customer inside the store with his social community outside the store.


Your item displayed in the clothes store

We’ve seen a few examples of online shopping using real-time information, which can be machine generated information but also information which comes directly from your friends. I hope I have made it clear that this field of study is rapidly developing and becomes more and more important in the marketing strategy of many companies.

Online shopping using real-time information (part 1)

While the internet offers more and more real-time information, the content on most webshops is particularly outdated. Yes, it is possible to see opinions of your fellow consumer, but these reviews are mainly from a month or even a year ago. These webshops doesn’t use the fundamental power of the internet: direct and real-time interaction.

Over the past years e-commerce have made it possible to buy and sell products or services via the internet. This online marketing develops more and more towards real-time e-commerce. Examples of these developments are live banners, which refresh real-time to show the current prices, and live campaigns, which stop automatically when all products are sold. Another example is live e-mail, in which content is composed only at the time of opening. Because the content in the e-mail is associated with the inventory system of the related company, it will always show the current situation. As a result, the consumer is always able to see what products already have been sold out.

Live e-mail, showing a product that already has been sold out

Live shopping

Live shopping is an alternative to traditional online shopping. Mostly a single product is temporary offered for a very favorable price, often the daily lowest on the internet. The price of this product is usually far below the recommended selling price. Because the offer is temperorary, consumer have to decide quickly whether to buy it or not, resulting in many impulsive purchases. The American company Woot was the first company to launch this idea of offering one product for 24 hours at a very low price.

Live shopping at Woot

These examples of real-time e-commerce are particularly from the Business to Consumer (B2C) point of view. Next time I will be back with another example of real-time e-commerce, in which social communities become more and more important. So keep following this blog!

Olympic Games and social media

The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. This old statement still applies to most athletes, but also more or less to the audience. Since the start of the Olympics last Friday, sports fanatics are trying hard to participate in their own way by keeping informed about news and results from Vancouver. To reach these fans, several organizations are reporting on the Games via various channels, mainly consisting of social media. But where can you find these channels? An overview is listed below.

Google

Using the slogan ‘Get Inside the Games with Google Maps’, Google offers several tools to get their visitors involved. They offer specific information about events, medals and even about the athletes themselves. Another nice option is the possibility to take a look at the Olympic Village and sporting venues via Street View, which almost gives people the feeling that they are in Vancouver themselves. The www.google.com/games10 website is available in 42 languages.

Twitter

The Twitter page of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (Vanoc) has recently passed the barrier of 10,000 followers. Their aim is to keep you informed with ‘timely tweets from the Vanoc Communications Team’. Because Twitter is a powerful medium to spread news fast, http://twitter.com/2010tweets will serve you to keep up-to-date.

Facebook

Not surprisingly, you can find many pages and groups which are related to the Olympic Games on Facebook. The biggest one at the moment, http://www.facebook.com/olympicgames, is very active and has more than 1.3 million fans. The page shares a lot of content on the Olympics, like information about events and a forum which can be used to discuss with other fans. You can also play Vancouver mini games and there’s a photo contest, inviting fans to submit their coolest photo of the Games.

Hyves

The Vancouver 2010 hyve works together with NOC*NSF, which is the official organization for sports in the Netherlands. The page, which can be found at http://olympischespelen.hyves.nl/, has more than 13,000 members. You can find the Olympic schedule as well as several blogs, gadgets and pictures on Vancouver. Last but not least, it is possible to pimp your Hyves profile into the Olympic style.

Using these social media, it is almost impossible to miss essential information about our Olympic heroes. Wish you lots of fun while following the Olympic Games!

Hello World!

Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a Tilburg University student following the course Media Use In Organizations. As the name says itself, interactivity is a major point in this course. It forces all of its students to use Twitter and write blogs about media in organizations. The word ‘forces’ sounds negative, I can almost hear you thinking, but no it isn’t that bad. It's the opposite. I think everyone should more or less be forced to get familiar with all kinds of social media, because it has a great potential.

But more on that later. This is my first blog and I was introducing myself. In my upcoming blogs, I will concentrate on the use of ICT in organizations, focusing on social media. Looking at myself, I have already used social media like Hyves, Facebook and LinkedIn for quite a long time. And since the start of this course I also find myself Twittering now and then. The more I use these social media, the more I realize the benefits it has for both individuals and organizations.

My aim for this blog is to gain attention for this topic and to reach as many people as possible. I will not only blog about social media, I will also use them. I made a sort of agreement with them like ‘I am going to blog about online media, so ok, at least you can help me to reach as many people as possible’. So now me and my social media have reached the point of mutual dependence. While writing this I realize I better blog nice about them, but on the other hand I promise I’ll always be objective. Let’s see what it will bring.

And now, let’s talk about you. You’re one of the, I assume (or hope), many visitors of this weblog. This means you are part of the ‘traffic’. And now it becomes interesting, because analyzing the traffic on this blog is another part of this course. Using Google Analytics, it is possible to analyze some characteristics of visitors. So this means that Big Brother is watching you! Well, no it’s not that scary, don’t be afraid. I am able to see the different types of visitors on my blog, their different countries and that kind of stuff. This is quite interesting because it also says something about the reach of my social media. The more powerful they are, the more potential visitors I gain. Keeping that in mind, I promise I also keep you informed about that.

After all, this means that you are also a quite important part for me during this course. I am going to inform you the best I can about Media Use in Organizations, developments in social media like Hyves, Facebook and Twitter, and so on. And on the other hand, you are my traffic on this blog. Is this another example of mutual dependence? I hope so.

Pleased to meet you! Hope to see you again on my next blog!

Sebastiaan