Case Study: Dosh Wallets – Blogger Outreach

Problemo: Dosh Wallets were releasing their second range of wallets but no one knew about it. Online had worked great in the past to build awareness.

Strategy: Get the top male fashion and design sites to write about the new product.

Implementation:
Step 1: Identifying Bloggers
We used Google Blog Search to identify bloggers who had already talked about Modern Designed Wallets (Dosh & competitors). We then used Technorati to find bloggers who were writing on the topic of design and male fashion.

We took this list of thirty potential bloggers and ranked them in terms of importance using Alexa and Technorati. This helped us to clarify who we would offer product to for a review and who we would just inform about the launch.

Step 2: Creating the outreach
We tried to keep the first email to one paragraph. More than a paragraph and the respondent would lose interest. Once we received a response we told them about the product. We also set up an Easter Egg/30% Discount for all the bloggers to tell their readers about. It was hidden in the ‘O’ of Dosh on the website (still live).

Result:
Sales: For the eight weeks that we were involved with the blogger outreach we were able to double the number of online sales of the product.

Traffic: We brought in over 4,000 interested punters from 30+ external linking sites. Including the top International style blogs of Kanye West, Yanko Design, Like Cool and Australian blogs Lost at E Minor and Gizmodo.

SEO: We were also able to get their site to number one in the search results from the strength of all the in-links that we provided through these sites.

Learnings:
Just go for the big boys
When we hit the big blogs we noticed that about four or five other blogs would follow suit and write about the wallets. Which suggests you only need to target the ones at the top to have the biggest effect.

Straight to the point
Our initial email started out with three paragraphs of copy we ended up writing just one paragraph. You also need a direct call to action in the subject header.

The Facebook Tattoo story

February - Mardi Gras
In 2050, I will sit my grandchildren down and I will tell them the following story of how I had the chance to join Corey Delaney and ChkChkBoom girl in the ranks of Australia’s biggest online idiots… and I blew it!

So this whole idea started with Zoe Scaman. She is a colleague who works as a Digital Strategist for The Population but she is also the only one with Media Trading experience in our team.

Unfortunately, she is now tasked with the labourious job of trafficking all the media we book - one of the most boring tasks going around. Being the nice co-worker I am, I have reveled in her disdain for this task and poked fun at her at every chance I have got.

So when Cate came back from a client meeting and re-told the story of how she told the client that ‘Julian loves Facebook so much that he has a tattoo of it on his bum.’ This was Zoe time to strike ‘That is a great idea, Can we start a Facebook Page to get 500 fans and then will you get one?’

My fateful words ‘Yeah, whatever and then when it gets to a 1,000 I will get a tattoo on my face.’

With those words she was off creating a Facebook Page. Her media skills would come back to haunt me, as she got in touch with Carat, MediaCom, Allure Media, Fairfax Media, Media Smart, Tongue, Ninemsn, Facebook Sales Team (Australia and International) Mumbrella, B&T and pleaded that they send it around as a group email to their workforces of around 2,000+ people. It was pretty much sealed on Thursday when Mumbrella wrote a post on it.

I could tell the 500 fans were like a pack of starving wolves they wanted to see blood/ink so seeing as though I am not completely immune to the idiot strain, I decided to get a 2 month semi permanent tattoo.

Thanks to the awesome photographer/art directing combo of Jye Smith and Michelle Carter, I now have a full calendar worth of photos.
May - Mothers Day

It will be the perfect Christmas present for your Facebook addicted friends. I will write a personalised message in every calendar so that your friend will never look at Facebook the same way again. It will probably cost around $20 and I will donate all the profits to Bowel Cancer Research. More details and photos to come.

With the request for photos of the tattoo, I thought I would give people more than they can handle. I decided to make a calendar to help Facebook Addicts.

So the moral of this story don’t piss off english people or you may get stuck with a Facebook tattoo on your bum for the whole of summer.

If you are disappointed or angry and wish to protest simply unfan the Page.

January - Summer

Social Media Advertising - SM integration.

I really like this new campaign from Soap for the Lynx Superfresh range – Party across the Internet. I think it shows the evolution of where social media can sit within digital advertising.

Soap have created an amazing interactive banners on the QuicksilverPro, Ralph Magazine, Myspace and Heavy sites which then all link through to the Lynx Facebook Page.

They have Facebook acting as a net to catch all the fans of the banners. Facebook currently offers the best direct marketing recruitment vehicle online.

Is the Digital Strategist/Producer team, the new Art Director/Copywriter?

In the future, I could quite easily see myself being set up in a Digital Strategist/Producer team similar to the dynamic of an Art Director/Copywriter team of a traditional Ad Agency.

Media is the creative in so many circumstances in Digital and without a gun Producer being able to work out the feasibility of your ideas, you’re really nothing.

I was lucky enough to be paired up with Cate Mathers for a number of projects over the last six months. She was in a producers role at The Population even know she was clearly more of a strategist. I found as a team we were able to produce some great strategies that we were then able to translate into ideas and turn around and implement.

Unfortunately, Cate is onto bigger and better things moving over to OMD as a Integrations Strategist. However, I am looking forward to the future of the Strategist/Producer team. It comes as no surprise that there is currently a high demand in Sydney for good digital producers.

Case Study: Running a branded Facebook Page on small to no budget (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of a guest blog post from Kevin Lippy who has successfully run a branded Facebook Page aimed at Backpackers travelling through Australia. He has used the great analogy of the Big Lebowski to show the lesson learnt from this.

5. “I don't roll on Shabbos!” – Walter Sobchak
Actually, with your company’s name at stake and by giving our fans free reign to post links, pictures and videos on our wall, you kind of have to roll (or at least check on it) always. Yes even Saturdays. Also, we knew that by opening ourselves up in this way, meant it was inevitable that other third parties would use the page to promote themselves. Like ‘El Duderino’ himself, we have taken the pacifist approach, and have decided to do absolutely nothing about this (so far), because:
a. While their content hasn’t been cool, so far it has been harmless
b. They have never been our direct competitors
c. It would be hypocritical - as we had seeded info on other pages
And...

6. “This is what happens….” – Walter Sobchak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCcKBcZzGdA - (censorship on purpose)

7. “Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o'clock this afternoon, with nail polish. Those…. amateurs!” – Walter Sobchak
In order to meet our objectives we had to generate interest. We went about this by opening up to other people in the industry by grouping together a prize that included 15 Nights accommodation, a 2000km bus pass, a Skydive and a Surf Camp. Being inclusive, also made our Page sexier as all of a sudden we had hip content to post like skydives, surf safaris and nightclubs. To enter we couldn’t have made it simpler. All someone had to do was:
1. Become our fan
2. Write on our wall “The best thing about backpacking Oz is…”

We promoted the Page in 3 main ways:
1. A Launch party - we co-hosted a night at a Backpacker Bar and had a door prize draw for anyone who became a fan on the night.
2. We created some signage and asked Hostel managers to promote it.
3. We created in Facebook ads. These are the shizzle! One of my core objectives is to get to my customers before they have even left their country! Please tell me another way I could do this for the price I have with Facebook ads?

8. “Where’s the F***ing money Lebowski?” – The Dude
Laugh if you will… but I believe that I have evidence that this campaign has been monetized in some ways.

Exhibit A:

This was a question, posted on a spin off ‘group’ created by one of our fans, with the purpose of asking other fans whether they were going to be staying at one of our Hostels this New Years Eve. From this I see two good news stories:
1. A random fan created a Facebook “group”, unprompted by us, positively talking about our brand.
2. By the time I had even seen this, Carolyn’s question had been answered by another fan, the situation had been resolved, and as a consequence she was able to book with us (= revenue $). This had all occurred on the Group’s wall!

My all time favourite part of Facebook pages is “Interactions.”
I find it strangely exciting to know that exactly 39% of my Fans are Females between the ages 18-24. More importantly, I can monitor the amount of page views, fans, user-generated content uploaded, fan interactions and even how many photos have been looked at.

We launched www.facebook.com/backpackingmate just over 3 weeks ago (oh yeah... make sure you get a vanity URL… you just need 100 fans). After all is said and done we are a bed… not a band, and are not something that many people already have an existing emotional connection to. I am stoked with the amount of fans we have, and even more with how they have interacted with the page. I am still deciding whether it is something that should be evaluated within the context of a brief campaign, or something that will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.

Case Study: Running a branded Facebook Page on small to no budget (Part 1)

This is a guest blog post from Kevin Lippy who has successfully ran a branded Facebook Page (Backpacking Mate) aimed at backpackers travelling through Australia. He has used the great analogy of The Big Lebowski to describe the lessons learnt.


“Smokey, this is not 'Nam…. There are rules” – Walter Sobchak

With a budget of "as close to zero as possible" and with the experience in running a Facebook campaign to match, it was pretty obvious that I was never going to create “The Dude” of Pages. I needed to shoot from the hip… like a ‘gun-toting Jewish-convert with post traumatic Stress Disorder’ such as Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) in ‘The Big Lebowski.’ But before I could roll… I needed to learn the rules.

1. “Donny you’re out of your element” – Walter Sobchak
I was naive, impressionable and amped to do a campaign exclusively on Twitter because I thought it would be a great way of reaching my core market, 18-34 yr old international backpackers. In my defence this was at a time where I was attending Tweet breakfasts, helping Ashton to his1,000,000 followers and refusing to speak to people unless it involved less than 140 characters! It was the future after all and pretty much a no brainer ! Then one day whilst asking myself “What are you doing now?” I had an epiphany: “@KevLippy Do some #Analysis 4 the campaign!”

Incredibly, what I found was that only 50% of my target market even knew what Twitter was at the time… and only 14% were on it, let alone the ones that were actually ‘active’ users. My own intuition told me that 99% were more likely to have a box of goon in their hand than a mobile device, which is pretty much required to handle the immediacy of Tweets. Conversely, 83% are on Facebook, and not just passively. For example 70% of backpackers use Facebook to upload their photos. I also quickly learned that Facebook ‘Pages’ were the way forward, and that Facebook groups were dead. while I created a Facebook page campaign, I did end up incorporating Twitter, primarily to facilitate messages to others in the travel industry.

2: “The Dude abides” – The Dude
In building my page I scoped out my favourite pages and tried to model my page on theirs. This proved difficult as ‘The Dude(s)’ of Pages, such as Discovery Channel and Red Bull often had purpose built apps. This was out of the question for my budget. So I specialised in finding the coolest free apps (there were plenty!). My favourite is “FBML” which is essentially a box that you can have HTML on your side-wall.

3. “I’m not Mr Lebowski. You’re Mr Lebowski. I’m The Dude” – The Dude
The average backpacker probably perceives us as just ‘a bed.’ It’s not like many people would actively look to become a fan of our brand ‘just because.’ So I decided to create the campaign based around a character called “Backpacking Mate” which;
a. Humanised us – this opened the door to us joining the conversation. It allows us to talk with (not to) our fans. We try not to push-market but are still able to get key messages across subtly.

b. Allowed us to be everywhere - We can send Backpacking Mate from Broome - Byron - Belgrade in a matter of minutes, being that he is an animated fictional character, and that his preferred mode of transport is Photoshop. This also keeps him interesting.


4. “Nobody F***s with The Jesus” – Jesus Quintana
In this regard I consider “The Jesus” to be our “Fans”. Whenever I post anything I ask myself “If I was a backpacker would I want to see this?” I try my best to only speak when I have a significant deal, discount, or a valuable piece of information that I believe will benefit them. Company agendas, inevitably get in the way… but I do try.

Part 2 will be delivered on Wednesday

Advertising's Young Minds: The top 27 blogs of people under 27 (September Update)

As promised here is the update of the Advertising Young Minds list: The Top 27 (53) blogs of advertising bloggers under 27. I will do the next update in December, if you are eligible for the list, drop me your URL, country and age in the comments.

Blog Name		Country	Google Reader	Tech Authority Score	Tech Reactions 10	Total
1	Jack Cheng (25)	US	1021	167	209	1397
2	Noah Brier (27)	US	729	309	87	1125
3	Young PR (25)	AUS	751	174	63	988
4	Digital Buzz (24)	AUS	612	111	63	786
5	Adspace Pioneers (24)	AUS	244	337	82	663
6	The Lost Jacket	USA	237	55	144	436
7	Jye Smith (23)	AUS	56	260	27	343
8	Heron Preston (26)	US	238	51	13	302
9	Selective Amnesia (27)	IND	222	33	11	266
10	Yaybia (22-24)	USA	179	58	19	256
11	Ryan Stephens Marketing	USA	146	92	0	238
12	Cellar Door (27)	US	122	63	28	213
13	The-Ad-Pit (27)	UK	120	53	21	194
14	Confessions of a Wannabe Adman (25)	UK	112	61	17	190
15	Creative in London (26)	UK	140	13	28	181
16	Pigs Don’t Fly (20)	AUS	52	95	24	171
17	The Spinks Blog(21)	USA	80	64	21	165
18	Adgrads (25)	UK	103	14	20	137
19	Way Cool Jnr (25)	AUS	86	50	0	136
20	Everything's Better With Brentter	USA	60	48	17	125
21	Nicola Davies (25)	UK	73	36	13	122
22	Advertising Pawn (26)	FRA	29	19	48	96
23	Trend Planner (24)	UK	46	16	9	71
24	Nil Desperandum (27)	HK	19	34	7	60
25	Don´t go dizzy (?)	ROM	42	7	9	58
26	More Stupid than the others (20)	UK	50	5	2	57
27	Lexy Klain (25)	AUS	33	14	6	53
28	Michael Karnjanaprakorn (27)	US	32	11	5	48
29	OMG With Emily (?)	AUS	26	13	4	43
30	CIIMS (25)	AUS	27	8	5	40
31	Who is in control of your brand (25)	AUS	5	8	25	38
32	Quintessentially Digital (25)	AUS	22	9	2	33
33	Lauren Fernandez (?)	USA	23	9	0	32
34	Stuff That Is Relevant	?	31	1	0	32
35	Joely Righteous (23)	AUS	11	11	8	30
36	I hate Ads	AUS	22	5	1	28
37	Refined Geek (24)	AUS	15	7	1	23
38	Digestion (?)	US	10	8	4	22
39	Gruen Transfer (21)	AUS	11	6	1	18
40	Who put the devil in you? (?)	AUS	12	4	0	16
41	Love number two (	AUS	9	5	0	14
42	Maloney on marketing (26)	AUS	6	4	4	14
43	Post Modern PR	UK	4	5	4	13
44	Kruppy Rants (27)	AUS	9	3	0	12
45	Michael Allison	CAN	9	3	0	12
46	Simon Says (20)	AUS	3	4	4	11
47	Accidental Thinking (26)	US	9	0	0	9
48	The Bottom Rung (22)	CAN	2	4	2	8
49	Frank, Hayley and the circus (22)	AUS	4	3	1	8
50	Another Advertising Wanker (26)	AUS	2	3	0	5
51	Chris Kamen (26)	?	4	0	1	5
52	Think Chimp	AUS	2	0	0	2
53	AMC Guy (21)	USA	0	0	0	0
54	Sidere (26)	SPA	0	0	0	0

Requirements to be on the list
1. Your blog must be written in english

2. Your blog must have been active for the past 3 months

3. Your blog must show some original thinking, it´s not enough to have a blog with ads to be in this list.

4. You must be 27 years old or under

5. You must work or want to work in advertising or any other marketing communications specialty, it doesn´t matter if you´re a planner, copywriter, art director, account executive or else.

6. You can only have one blog in the rank.