Tweet
It was 1907 - chew on that for a second. Look at everything else that was done, even up till 1920 and compare it to this. The quality is quite good, and yes, the color was hand painted.
5.28.2009
H&M Fashion Against Aids
Tweet
Estelle, Katy Perry, Dita von Tees and Roisín Murphy are some of the artists participating in this year's Fashion Against AIDS. The campaign is to raise awareness and collect money and based on a collaboration between H&M and the charitable organization Designers Against AIDS.
The collection will be available for sale from May 28. For the second year in a row, the Fashion Against AIDS to send out a positive message of safe sex to young men and women through the range of T-shirts, dresses, linens and body, which all carry celebrity design. It is a message that works: last year H&M sold 90% of the Fashion Against AIDS collection in one month, which gave 15 million Swedish kronor (1,4 million €) to the project against HIV / AIDS. 25% of the selling price of each garment is going to projects throughout the world by members of the DAA, Youth AIDS, UNFPA and MTV's Staying Alive Foundation.
Estelle, Katy Perry, Dita von Tees and Roisín Murphy are some of the artists participating in this year's Fashion Against AIDS. The campaign is to raise awareness and collect money and based on a collaboration between H&M and the charitable organization Designers Against AIDS.
The collection will be available for sale from May 28. For the second year in a row, the Fashion Against AIDS to send out a positive message of safe sex to young men and women through the range of T-shirts, dresses, linens and body, which all carry celebrity design. It is a message that works: last year H&M sold 90% of the Fashion Against AIDS collection in one month, which gave 15 million Swedish kronor (1,4 million €) to the project against HIV / AIDS. 25% of the selling price of each garment is going to projects throughout the world by members of the DAA, Youth AIDS, UNFPA and MTV's Staying Alive Foundation.
5.26.2009
Thoughts on Social Media
Tweet
"After listening to all (well) authority in social media I come to a rather uncomfortable insight. Nobody knows a damn thing about it."
- kontaktmannen.wordpress.com
"Stop talking about Twitter. Stop talking about Facebook. Stop talking about the blogosphere, user-generated content and future payment models. [...] Think instead of the content. Is there something you want to tell? "
- Mattias Göransson, Magasinetfilter.se
"The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C’s. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution. These are the five fundamentals that companies and marketers must understand to be able to successfully market on the social web."
- Michaelfruchter.com
- kontaktmannen.wordpress.com
"Stop talking about Twitter. Stop talking about Facebook. Stop talking about the blogosphere, user-generated content and future payment models. [...] Think instead of the content. Is there something you want to tell? "
- Mattias Göransson, Magasinetfilter.se
"The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C’s. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution. These are the five fundamentals that companies and marketers must understand to be able to successfully market on the social web."
- Michaelfruchter.com
5.25.2009
Daichi for Beatbox Battle Wildcard
Tweet
Daichi is 18 years old and not that good in english. But trust me....he can beatbox! Daichis sound is freakin awesome... Over 1million views on youtube.
Alien vulgarus
Tweet
Pink blob was founded by two japanees near the sea. Their experiement with carbonated water was fatal for this strange creature. I don't speak japanees so I don't know what they are talking about. But I know what I see, holy %€#"#.
10 Most Unfortunate Product Names
Tweet
No 10. Shitto is an allegedly delicious Ghanaian sauce with a name that makes Americans laugh, while everyone in Ghana seems to love it.
No 9. Sars. This drink from New Zealand shares its name with SARS: Severe acute respiratory syndrome.
No 8. Australian repellent "used by the armed forces." They surely need it.
No 7. Golden Gaytime is an iconic ice-cream in Australia, its name survived intact despite the homosexual connotations in modern decades. The company just decided to play up the camp name with the boxes, holding the words "4 chances to have a gay time."
Here's a classic Golden Gaytime TV ad from the 80s, "Let the Gaytimes roll!"
No 6. Vergina (beer)
No 5. Pee Cola, a soft drink from Ghana.
No 4. Jussipussi. So that's how finnish bread taste like.
No 3. Megapussi (potato chips). Priceless.
No 2. Cock flavoured mix (soup). Mmmmm spicy!
No 1. Ayds (diet candy). Ayds (pronounced "AIDS") was a diet candy from the 1980s. Years later, the name would have its current meaning.
Source
No 9. Sars. This drink from New Zealand shares its name with SARS: Severe acute respiratory syndrome.
No 8. Australian repellent "used by the armed forces." They surely need it.
No 7. Golden Gaytime is an iconic ice-cream in Australia, its name survived intact despite the homosexual connotations in modern decades. The company just decided to play up the camp name with the boxes, holding the words "4 chances to have a gay time."
Here's a classic Golden Gaytime TV ad from the 80s, "Let the Gaytimes roll!"
No 6. Vergina (beer)
No 5. Pee Cola, a soft drink from Ghana.
No 4. Jussipussi. So that's how finnish bread taste like.
No 3. Megapussi (potato chips). Priceless.
No 2. Cock flavoured mix (soup). Mmmmm spicy!
No 1. Ayds (diet candy). Ayds (pronounced "AIDS") was a diet candy from the 1980s. Years later, the name would have its current meaning.
Source
Pedigree: Adoption Refuge
Tweet
Client: Pedigree. Agency: TBWA/Frederick, Chile. Executive Creative Director: Pablo Leiva. Creative Director: Cristian Lopez. Art Director: Gonzalo Arevalo. Producer: Gonzalo Orellana.
Client: Pedigree. Agency: TBWA/Frederick, Chile. Executive Creative Director: Pablo Leiva. Creative Director: Cristian Lopez. Art Director: Gonzalo Arevalo. Producer: Gonzalo Orellana.
5.22.2009
Samsung Claymation Holographs
Tweet
Samsung UK’s latest online advertisign campaign features two trendy laptops at a trade fair. The Samsung Mini Notebook N310 appears in blue and red, with a crazy hologram thing set up, supporting two competitive and hostile claymation characters. The cute blue woman and the tap dancing tie-wearing red guy appear at first to get along. But the trade show table turns into a battle of wills, with the blue woman retaining the upper hand.
Viral Comments: T-Shirt Amazon top seller
Tweet
There is a T-Shirt on amazon which sales have grown 2300% to become one of their top sellers. This is one of those random viral events that would certainly be difficult to plan. The T-shirt got a reasonably humourous first review and from then on seems to have picked a little cult following of people leaving further comments. The first review gave the shirt five stars, saying it “Fits my girth frame, has wolves on it, attracts women” but “cannot see wolves with arms crossed”.
Since then comments such as “the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt gave me a +10 resistance to energy attacks, +8 Strength… and I have successfully solved 7 crimes in my city”.
The T-shirt is currently the top selling item in Amazon’s clothing store. You can check it out here.
This is not the first time comedy reviews on Amazon have gone viral. In 2006, there were more than a thousand reviews for Tuscan Whole Milk.
Source: Theviralmarketingblog.com
There is a T-Shirt on amazon which sales have grown 2300% to become one of their top sellers. This is one of those random viral events that would certainly be difficult to plan. The T-shirt got a reasonably humourous first review and from then on seems to have picked a little cult following of people leaving further comments. The first review gave the shirt five stars, saying it “Fits my girth frame, has wolves on it, attracts women” but “cannot see wolves with arms crossed”.
Since then comments such as “the Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt gave me a +10 resistance to energy attacks, +8 Strength… and I have successfully solved 7 crimes in my city”.
The T-shirt is currently the top selling item in Amazon’s clothing store. You can check it out here.
This is not the first time comedy reviews on Amazon have gone viral. In 2006, there were more than a thousand reviews for Tuscan Whole Milk.
Source: Theviralmarketingblog.com
Greenpeace: Lives in dirt, will disappear soon
Tweet
Greenpeace Poland has just launched a very interesting guerrilla marketing campaign. In order to attract the attention of passers-by, the environmental protection organization has used the omnipresent dust and dirt in big cities to promote a message of ecological preservation: "Żyją w brudzie, znikną wkrótce." ("Lives in dirt, will disappear soon").
Advertising Agency: McCann-Erickson, Warsaw, Poland
Creative Director: Teresa Biernacka. Art Director: Wojtek Szpor. Copywriter: Darek Samul. Other additional credits: Bartek Buttitta, Tomasz Rownicki. Released: February 2009
Advertising Agency: McCann-Erickson, Warsaw, Poland
Creative Director: Teresa Biernacka. Art Director: Wojtek Szpor. Copywriter: Darek Samul. Other additional credits: Bartek Buttitta, Tomasz Rownicki. Released: February 2009
5.20.2009
Five Essential Social Media Tips For Non-Profits
Tweet
Non-profit organizations have a big benefit when it comes to engaging their audience with social media. Non-profits serve a large group of loyal people who all aim for the same goal and like to work together to achieve that goal. These people love to show their affinity with this goal. An every social marketeers dream, right? However, a lot of non-profits still don’t use the power of social media.
Read the article here: Viralblog, Five essential Social Media Tips
Non-profit organizations have a big benefit when it comes to engaging their audience with social media. Non-profits serve a large group of loyal people who all aim for the same goal and like to work together to achieve that goal. These people love to show their affinity with this goal. An every social marketeers dream, right? However, a lot of non-profits still don’t use the power of social media.
Read the article here: Viralblog, Five essential Social Media Tips
5.19.2009
5.15.2009
5.12.2009
5.10.2009
Free Hugs Prank: $2 Deluxe Hugs
Tweet
Mediocrefilm’s Greg Benson, who produces The Retarded Policeman, gives us a hilarious candid-camera style parody of the “Free Hugs” campaign (which has been seen more than 40 million times!!).
Source:Willvideoforfood
Source:Willvideoforfood
5.08.2009
Mexican Beauty - Doritos
Tweet
The Mexicans don't have it easy these days. They have bad beer and swine flue. But one thing the are good at is Tequila and great tv-spots. You remember Kevin Spacey from American Beauty? Well, here is Mexican Beaty...
The original:
The original:
5.06.2009
Face Equalizer Art Stunt
Tweet
Every time a note is pressed an electrical signal is transmitted to a muscle, which twitches. I love the guy on the top right who is trying not to laugh.
Source: Jansson Fredrik
Source: Jansson Fredrik
5.05.2009
Gisele Bündchen SKY HD Flash Mob
Tweet
The best Flash Mob ever? I not shure if this made in front of a live audience or if audience are actors as well. But holy crapamoni if this is real. Flash Mob taken one step further. And yes, it's HD.
5.04.2009
Ignore Twitter? Major brands learn they'd better respond - and quick!
Tweet
Separate incidents involving CNN, Amazon and Domino's Pizza reveal that fluency in the evolving language of digital public relations comes easier to some companies than others. Amazon.com Inc. shut like a book. Domino's Pizza Inc. was late but eventually delivered. And CNN focused on the good news. When the three major brands engaged with their Web-savvy fans and critics in separate incidents last week, their responses demonstrated how corporations are still learning how to control their messages -- and reputations -- in a fast-twitch online world. The mixed track record so far shows that fluency in the evolving language of digital public relations comes easier to some companies than others.
1. Last week, Domino's was handed a PR nightmare when a video showed up online showing two employees laughing as they prepared food in a deliberately unsanitary way. The video quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Domino's initial instinct was to try to dispose of the situation quietly by responding only to concerned consumers who had already seen the video, rather than risk broadening its exposure by making a public statement. But chatter about the problem spilled over into Twitter, whose expansive micro-messaging network is becoming an online circulatory system for news, pumping information between media organs, consumers and businesses themselves.
The Ann Arbor, Mich., company posted a YouTube response of its own and even established a Twitter account to answer direct questions from customers. "What we've learned is if something happens in this medium, it's going to automatically jump to the next," Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre said. "So we might as well talk to everybody at the same time."
2. CNN: As Ashton Kutcher edged out the cable TV network last week to become the first to attract 1 million followers to his Twitter account, an odd quirk of the much-hyped race was overshadowed: CNN hadn't actually owned its account until a few days earlier. For more than two years, the CNNBrk account (for breaking news) had been created, maintained and run by a 25-year-old British Web developer who just wanted a way to beam short news alerts to his cellphone. But when CNN found out that James Cox had appropriated its name and content, it took a direction that might seem a bit surprising for a major media company. Instead of suing Cox or trying to shut down the account, CNN quietly hired him to run it -- and then acquired it last week when Cox was visiting the company's Atlanta headquarters.
"We've been managing the feed through him," said KC Estenson, the head of CNN's online operation, noting the huge increase in the number of Twitter followers since the November election. "As Twitter took off and became more prominent, we decided it was time to take our engagement and make it a marriage." Other companies may find that unexpected uses of their brand have a less than fairy-tale quality.
3. When Amazon was faced with its own consumer outcry last week, it decided to forgo the social media route. Without warning, many gay- and lesbian-themed books began disappearing from the site's search results and sales rankings. The Twittersphere instantly saw red, accusing the Seattle company of discrimination and censorship and demanding a response. But Amazon stayed mostly mum. It waited most of a day only to cite an unspecified "glitch," and when that vagueness only fomented the outrage, it released a second clipped statement blaming a "cataloging error." But Twitter abhors a vacuum, and commenters rapidly filled Amazon's silence with boycott threats, petitions and caustic accusations -- an outcome that suggests that the growth of social media may be driving up the cost of inaction.
Yet engaging with consumers can be dangerous too. Skittles learned that last month when it invited users to post Twitter-like comments on a page that prominently displayed its logo. Among the positive comments were a variety of colorful ones as well. By giving users the freedom to post their own messages alongside its advertising, Skittles had opened itself up to a kind of online vandalism that seems hard to get away from. "There's a mob mentality to social tools where people quickly try to put fuel on the fire, really encouraging brand damage and damage to individuals," said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. Every brand misstep can spur social-media denizens these days, he said, which affects even those companies that don't actively participate.
To stay safe in the social media minefield, he said, brands need to make sure to secure their own domain names in the various online environments -- before any squatters do -- and then start to build a community there. Then when a crisis happens, online or off, brands can then use that community to their advantage. That's the opposite of how Hasbro Inc. reacted last year when it sued the India-based creators of Scrabulous -- the popular Scrabble-like game on Facebook -- and forced them to shut it down. Fans of the game formed "Save Scrabulous" pages on Facebook and posted angry messages about Hasbro. When a company-sanctioned version of the game appeared sometime later, fewer returned to play.
Sending in the legal posse is an old-fashioned response in the new media age, Owyang said. "It creates so much more buzz -- people wonder why you would beat up your most passionate customers," he said. That's why Coca-Cola Co. decided to let its users dominate discussion about the soft drink on Facebook. The popular Coke fan page on the social networking site wasn't created by the company, but rather by Los Angeles actor Dusty Sorg and writer Michael Jedrzejewski. It had more than a million fans when Facebook called Coca-Cola to alert them that the page violated the social network's terms of service because it wasn't operated by the trademark owner. Take over the site, Facebook told Coke, or we'll take it down.
Instead, the beverage maker flew the pair to its Atlanta headquarters in January, took them to a hockey game, gave them a VIP tour of the Coke museum and let them play Eric Clapton's guitar, then proposed that they officially run the page for the company. The two agreed. It now has more than 3 million users. "Our social media marketing approach is that we want to be everywhere our consumers are," said Michael Donnelly, Coke's director of global interactive marketing. "There's significant risk in being perceived the wrong way."
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-twitter20-2009apr20,0,2701874.story
1. Last week, Domino's was handed a PR nightmare when a video showed up online showing two employees laughing as they prepared food in a deliberately unsanitary way. The video quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Domino's initial instinct was to try to dispose of the situation quietly by responding only to concerned consumers who had already seen the video, rather than risk broadening its exposure by making a public statement. But chatter about the problem spilled over into Twitter, whose expansive micro-messaging network is becoming an online circulatory system for news, pumping information between media organs, consumers and businesses themselves.
The Ann Arbor, Mich., company posted a YouTube response of its own and even established a Twitter account to answer direct questions from customers. "What we've learned is if something happens in this medium, it's going to automatically jump to the next," Domino's spokesman Tim McIntyre said. "So we might as well talk to everybody at the same time."
2. CNN: As Ashton Kutcher edged out the cable TV network last week to become the first to attract 1 million followers to his Twitter account, an odd quirk of the much-hyped race was overshadowed: CNN hadn't actually owned its account until a few days earlier. For more than two years, the CNNBrk account (for breaking news) had been created, maintained and run by a 25-year-old British Web developer who just wanted a way to beam short news alerts to his cellphone. But when CNN found out that James Cox had appropriated its name and content, it took a direction that might seem a bit surprising for a major media company. Instead of suing Cox or trying to shut down the account, CNN quietly hired him to run it -- and then acquired it last week when Cox was visiting the company's Atlanta headquarters.
"We've been managing the feed through him," said KC Estenson, the head of CNN's online operation, noting the huge increase in the number of Twitter followers since the November election. "As Twitter took off and became more prominent, we decided it was time to take our engagement and make it a marriage." Other companies may find that unexpected uses of their brand have a less than fairy-tale quality.
3. When Amazon was faced with its own consumer outcry last week, it decided to forgo the social media route. Without warning, many gay- and lesbian-themed books began disappearing from the site's search results and sales rankings. The Twittersphere instantly saw red, accusing the Seattle company of discrimination and censorship and demanding a response. But Amazon stayed mostly mum. It waited most of a day only to cite an unspecified "glitch," and when that vagueness only fomented the outrage, it released a second clipped statement blaming a "cataloging error." But Twitter abhors a vacuum, and commenters rapidly filled Amazon's silence with boycott threats, petitions and caustic accusations -- an outcome that suggests that the growth of social media may be driving up the cost of inaction.
Yet engaging with consumers can be dangerous too. Skittles learned that last month when it invited users to post Twitter-like comments on a page that prominently displayed its logo. Among the positive comments were a variety of colorful ones as well. By giving users the freedom to post their own messages alongside its advertising, Skittles had opened itself up to a kind of online vandalism that seems hard to get away from. "There's a mob mentality to social tools where people quickly try to put fuel on the fire, really encouraging brand damage and damage to individuals," said Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. Every brand misstep can spur social-media denizens these days, he said, which affects even those companies that don't actively participate.
To stay safe in the social media minefield, he said, brands need to make sure to secure their own domain names in the various online environments -- before any squatters do -- and then start to build a community there. Then when a crisis happens, online or off, brands can then use that community to their advantage. That's the opposite of how Hasbro Inc. reacted last year when it sued the India-based creators of Scrabulous -- the popular Scrabble-like game on Facebook -- and forced them to shut it down. Fans of the game formed "Save Scrabulous" pages on Facebook and posted angry messages about Hasbro. When a company-sanctioned version of the game appeared sometime later, fewer returned to play.
Sending in the legal posse is an old-fashioned response in the new media age, Owyang said. "It creates so much more buzz -- people wonder why you would beat up your most passionate customers," he said. That's why Coca-Cola Co. decided to let its users dominate discussion about the soft drink on Facebook. The popular Coke fan page on the social networking site wasn't created by the company, but rather by Los Angeles actor Dusty Sorg and writer Michael Jedrzejewski. It had more than a million fans when Facebook called Coca-Cola to alert them that the page violated the social network's terms of service because it wasn't operated by the trademark owner. Take over the site, Facebook told Coke, or we'll take it down.
Instead, the beverage maker flew the pair to its Atlanta headquarters in January, took them to a hockey game, gave them a VIP tour of the Coke museum and let them play Eric Clapton's guitar, then proposed that they officially run the page for the company. The two agreed. It now has more than 3 million users. "Our social media marketing approach is that we want to be everywhere our consumers are," said Michael Donnelly, Coke's director of global interactive marketing. "There's significant risk in being perceived the wrong way."
Source: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-twitter20-2009apr20,0,2701874.story
Rayban Neverhide - Big yarn ball SF
Tweet
Cutwater's latest release from the "Never hide" series for Ray-Ban. It features a ball rolling and bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. A yarn ball with a twist. There's also a Flickr set of photos showing the ball hanging out and partying. Source: Adfreak
Cutwater's latest release from the "Never hide" series for Ray-Ban. It features a ball rolling and bouncing down the streets of San Francisco. A yarn ball with a twist. There's also a Flickr set of photos showing the ball hanging out and partying. Source: Adfreak
The WTF viral factor
Tweet
It's been mentioned before but it needs some highlighting. There are many factors that will increase your ads chances of going viral. One of the best is the WTF factor, (what the f**k)
It’s a really simple concept. Simply give your viral something that is either shocking or strange enough to make the viewer question what it is he is actually watching. This has a double effect
1. It increases your chance of the viral being passed on. By making the viewer question what the viral is you have forced me to engage with the viral. I am a good deal more likely once I understand what I am viewing to then pass it on to my peers who might also benefit from the entertainment, challenge etc
2. Multiple viewings. If the viral is done well enough and the WTF factor is strong enough I am likely to re-watch your viral a number of times.
Her is a nice example:
Source: http://www.theviralmarketingblog.com/2009/05/the-wtf-viral-factor/
It’s a really simple concept. Simply give your viral something that is either shocking or strange enough to make the viewer question what it is he is actually watching. This has a double effect
1. It increases your chance of the viral being passed on. By making the viewer question what the viral is you have forced me to engage with the viral. I am a good deal more likely once I understand what I am viewing to then pass it on to my peers who might also benefit from the entertainment, challenge etc
2. Multiple viewings. If the viral is done well enough and the WTF factor is strong enough I am likely to re-watch your viral a number of times.
Her is a nice example:
Source: http://www.theviralmarketingblog.com/2009/05/the-wtf-viral-factor/
Unborn Baby Kicks Its First Tweet On Twitter!
Tweet
It's never too early to twitter. Thanks to a new device, babies who aren't even born can let the world know they're alive and kicking.
Called the Kickbee, the device is strapped over a pregnant woman's belly and within seconds of a baby's kick, a message, or "tweet" is posted on Twitter. It was created by New York University (N.Y.U.) student Corey Menscher.
[Corey Menscher, Inventor of Kickbee]:
"It's an elastic band that the mother wears and it contains a couple of vibration sensors. The vibration sensors detect a kick and they send it to a microcontroller, which does some further processing to filter out kicks from movement and then it sends it to a java application that I wrote over a wireless network, which then updates twitter."
Source: Youtube.com and viralblog.com
Called the Kickbee, the device is strapped over a pregnant woman's belly and within seconds of a baby's kick, a message, or "tweet" is posted on Twitter. It was created by New York University (N.Y.U.) student Corey Menscher.
[Corey Menscher, Inventor of Kickbee]:
"It's an elastic band that the mother wears and it contains a couple of vibration sensors. The vibration sensors detect a kick and they send it to a microcontroller, which does some further processing to filter out kicks from movement and then it sends it to a java application that I wrote over a wireless network, which then updates twitter."
Source: Youtube.com and viralblog.com
Puppy Pulling Power
Tweet
The quest to find man's very best friend. With a bunch of puppies and a phone that automatically takes a photo when a girl smiles at it, one man is going to do a test to find out, once and for all, which breed will give a guy the most puppy pulling power!
Smart and loveable viral signed Sony Ericsson. To see the blogg and the rest of the videos check out Puppy Pulling Power. And don't forget to check out the "Smiles/hour" graph here ;).
Cudos to Christian Lindberg for the tip.
Smart and loveable viral signed Sony Ericsson. To see the blogg and the rest of the videos check out Puppy Pulling Power. And don't forget to check out the "Smiles/hour" graph here ;).
Cudos to Christian Lindberg for the tip.
McDonald's Piccadilly Circus
Tweet
McDonald's has recently launched a new interactive sign where passers-by can interact with images displayed on McDonald's giant LED screen, and visitors can take an interactive role at one of London's most photographed locations.
Sunchips living billboard
Tweet
Use the surrounding. Use the power of the sun. SunChips, live green for a healthier planet. See more at www.sunchips.com
5.03.2009
5.02.2009
Jenga World record disaster
Tweet
Guy goes for a world record using Jenga blocks. One week from the Guinness World Record he's being interviewed and this happens. It's so sad it's almost funny. And with 1,7 million views (and counting) on youtube, I'm guessing the poor fellow kinda got his fame anyway.
Guy goes for a world record using Jenga blocks. One week from the Guinness World Record he's being interviewed and this happens. It's so sad it's almost funny. And with 1,7 million views (and counting) on youtube, I'm guessing the poor fellow kinda got his fame anyway.
T-Mobile get's 13,500 people to sing Hey Jude "Flash Mob"
Tweet
The exclusive 4 minute extended version of the moment 13,500 people sang Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square, 30th of April 2009. In a 'current' climate of economic iproblems topped with pig based flu it is great to see this many people having fun and sharing in the unassumed fun of singing in and out of tune.
Here is T-mobiles first flashmob, the better one of the two if you ask me.
The exclusive 4 minute extended version of the moment 13,500 people sang Hey Jude together in Trafalgar Square, 30th of April 2009. In a 'current' climate of economic iproblems topped with pig based flu it is great to see this many people having fun and sharing in the unassumed fun of singing in and out of tune.
Here is T-mobiles first flashmob, the better one of the two if you ask me.
7 Viral Marketing Lessons Learned from The Swine Flu Virus
Tweet
The name viral marketing stems from the theory that ideas spread like viruses, making epidemiological metaphors and models useful when attempting to understand the spread of memes. Since the goal of any viral marketer is to create a pandemic with their campaign, we can learn a lot from the early spread of Swine Flu. Here are 7 valuable lessons to take away from this virus.
1 Seed Selection
First emerging near the very densely populated Mexico City, Swine Flu seemed to travel to half a dozen other countries around the world over night. Many of the first confirmed cases were among children in schools who had taken trips to the popular Mexican vacation destination.
Children, due to their gregarious nature and low levels of hygiene awareness, are called the “super spreaders” of this outbreak, prompting many schools to close. Children are often blamed for a host of illnesses, but perhaps the most famous super spreader was Typhoid Mary, a cook who was responsible for 2 outbreaks of typhoid fever in the early part of the 1900s.
When planning to seed a viral marketing campaign it is important to take into account which members of the target audience have the most potential to be contagious. Typically, savvy social media users, including bloggers, Twitter users, Diggers and Facebook fanatics, are the best seeds.
2 Knowledge Gaps
A phenomenon I first noticed when reading a World War II era research paper by the CIA-precursor, the OSS, discusses the spreading of information when knowledge about a particular topic is scarce.
The OSS paper says that good rumors are “provoked by” and provide interpretation or elaboration on a current event, filling a “knowledge gap.” If the locals heard a big boom earlier in the day, a rumor could easily be constructed to explain it if the authorities did not.
In the absence of official or authoritative information, rumors proliferate. The CDC has actually been pretty good at communicating authoritative information about Swine Flu, but in those pockets where people are unaware of it, lots of “theories” and “facts” have emerged. For example, some countries have banned imports of pork products, despite the fact that meat cannot carry the Swine Flu virus, h2N1.
3 Addition vs Replacement
Because the common name “Swine Flu” misrepresents the origin and dangers of the virus (and does not conform to historic convention of naming influenza outbreaks for the geographic region they first emerged from), several organizations have tried to “rename” it, but none have taken hold in the public discourse.
Each of us has a mental framework of ideas built on each other that we use to view and understand the world around us. When we are exposed to a new meme that contradicts an existing portion of our framework, it is very difficult for the new idea to replace the old idea. It is much easier for us to assimilate new ideas that either agree with or expand on our existing mental frameworks. Think of an under-construction brick house: it takes much more effort to replace a previously laid brick with a new one than it does to begin building an addition onto the house with the new bricks.
4 Novelty
One of the factors that makes this version of the swine flu so dangerous is that it is a novel combination of several genetic sources for which humans have built up no natural immunity and for which no vaccines exist. The 2009 version of the h2N1 virus is essentially a remix of previously existing strains and may form the bridge by which the most virulent forms of human, bird and swine flus can merge and co-evolve.
In the study of applied memetics, we learn that one of the requirements for a successful meme is that it possess some form of novelty. It is often easiest to achieve easily understood novelty by putting new content in an old structure, or putting old content in a new structure.
5 Communal Recreation
Viruses evolve like a giant game of “telephone,” as each host that becomes infected with a particular strain offers the pathogen a chance to evolve into a new variety. This means that the Swine Flu is rapidly morphing and multiple strains probably already exist. The higher mortality rate in Mexico may be due to a more deadly version having evolved there that hasn’t yet spread abroad.
In urban legends, rumors, slang and many other forms of social communication, each person who is exposed to a particular meme creates their own version of it before passing it on, often fitting it to their personal and societal frameworks, thereby making it more adept at spreading in their community. Therefore, successful campaigns must allow and encourage remixing by their target audiences.
6 Infectious Period Length
The period of time from infection to non-contagiousness of a pathogen is known as it’s “infectious period.” This is when the person is a potential seed for the virus. The CDC has defined Swine Flu’s infection period as:
Infectious period for a confirmed case of swine influenza A (h2N1) virus infection is defined as 1 day prior to the case’s illness onset to 7 days after onset.
The longer the infectious period lasts, the more secondary cases may result from an un-quarantined primary case.
In the case of most viral and social marketing campaigns, the infectious period exists as an event rather than a period of time. An “infected” person will blog or Tweet about something. The goal for viral marketers looking to exploit the infectious period should then be to increase the number of infectious events each individual will undertake.
7 Endemic vs Epidemic
In mathematical models of epidemiology, there are 2 concepts of the “state” of the spread of a “successful” pathogen: endemic steady state and epidemic. Assuming a population with zero immunity (because this outbreak is a novel h2N1 strain, no one has any natural immunity to it yet), an endemic state indicates that each infected person infects exactly 1 other person; an epidemic state indicates that each case will cause multiple cases. The steady state means that the outbreak will continue to spread without external influences. Viruses that enter the epidemic state will eventually either die out due to exponential growth or reach the endemic steady state.
In viral marketing, we must strive to understand and improve the reproduction rate of our campaigns. We can assume zero immunity because, except in certain rare cases, people aren’t immune to most ideas. With social marketing, however, we tend to see a reproduction rate of far under 1, that is each “infected” person will infect less than 1 person on average. This has lead to research into extending the total reach of a meme through “big seeding,” but when you model total campaign spread as a function of seed size and reproduction rate, it is much more effective to increase the reproduction rate. As marketers, it is crucial to encourage each user to spread the campaign to as many other users as possible, rather than try to “seed” it with huge numbers of initial users.
True Copy and Paste from Source: http://danzarrella.com/swine-flu.html
UPDATE: Evidence of how the Swine Flu started:
UPDATE 2: Here's a self test to see if you have the swine flu http://doihaveswineflu.org/
1 Seed Selection
First emerging near the very densely populated Mexico City, Swine Flu seemed to travel to half a dozen other countries around the world over night. Many of the first confirmed cases were among children in schools who had taken trips to the popular Mexican vacation destination.
Children, due to their gregarious nature and low levels of hygiene awareness, are called the “super spreaders” of this outbreak, prompting many schools to close. Children are often blamed for a host of illnesses, but perhaps the most famous super spreader was Typhoid Mary, a cook who was responsible for 2 outbreaks of typhoid fever in the early part of the 1900s.
When planning to seed a viral marketing campaign it is important to take into account which members of the target audience have the most potential to be contagious. Typically, savvy social media users, including bloggers, Twitter users, Diggers and Facebook fanatics, are the best seeds.
2 Knowledge Gaps
A phenomenon I first noticed when reading a World War II era research paper by the CIA-precursor, the OSS, discusses the spreading of information when knowledge about a particular topic is scarce.
The OSS paper says that good rumors are “provoked by” and provide interpretation or elaboration on a current event, filling a “knowledge gap.” If the locals heard a big boom earlier in the day, a rumor could easily be constructed to explain it if the authorities did not.
In the absence of official or authoritative information, rumors proliferate. The CDC has actually been pretty good at communicating authoritative information about Swine Flu, but in those pockets where people are unaware of it, lots of “theories” and “facts” have emerged. For example, some countries have banned imports of pork products, despite the fact that meat cannot carry the Swine Flu virus, h2N1.
3 Addition vs Replacement
Because the common name “Swine Flu” misrepresents the origin and dangers of the virus (and does not conform to historic convention of naming influenza outbreaks for the geographic region they first emerged from), several organizations have tried to “rename” it, but none have taken hold in the public discourse.
Each of us has a mental framework of ideas built on each other that we use to view and understand the world around us. When we are exposed to a new meme that contradicts an existing portion of our framework, it is very difficult for the new idea to replace the old idea. It is much easier for us to assimilate new ideas that either agree with or expand on our existing mental frameworks. Think of an under-construction brick house: it takes much more effort to replace a previously laid brick with a new one than it does to begin building an addition onto the house with the new bricks.
4 Novelty
One of the factors that makes this version of the swine flu so dangerous is that it is a novel combination of several genetic sources for which humans have built up no natural immunity and for which no vaccines exist. The 2009 version of the h2N1 virus is essentially a remix of previously existing strains and may form the bridge by which the most virulent forms of human, bird and swine flus can merge and co-evolve.
In the study of applied memetics, we learn that one of the requirements for a successful meme is that it possess some form of novelty. It is often easiest to achieve easily understood novelty by putting new content in an old structure, or putting old content in a new structure.
5 Communal Recreation
Viruses evolve like a giant game of “telephone,” as each host that becomes infected with a particular strain offers the pathogen a chance to evolve into a new variety. This means that the Swine Flu is rapidly morphing and multiple strains probably already exist. The higher mortality rate in Mexico may be due to a more deadly version having evolved there that hasn’t yet spread abroad.
In urban legends, rumors, slang and many other forms of social communication, each person who is exposed to a particular meme creates their own version of it before passing it on, often fitting it to their personal and societal frameworks, thereby making it more adept at spreading in their community. Therefore, successful campaigns must allow and encourage remixing by their target audiences.
6 Infectious Period Length
The period of time from infection to non-contagiousness of a pathogen is known as it’s “infectious period.” This is when the person is a potential seed for the virus. The CDC has defined Swine Flu’s infection period as:
Infectious period for a confirmed case of swine influenza A (h2N1) virus infection is defined as 1 day prior to the case’s illness onset to 7 days after onset.
The longer the infectious period lasts, the more secondary cases may result from an un-quarantined primary case.
In the case of most viral and social marketing campaigns, the infectious period exists as an event rather than a period of time. An “infected” person will blog or Tweet about something. The goal for viral marketers looking to exploit the infectious period should then be to increase the number of infectious events each individual will undertake.
7 Endemic vs Epidemic
In mathematical models of epidemiology, there are 2 concepts of the “state” of the spread of a “successful” pathogen: endemic steady state and epidemic. Assuming a population with zero immunity (because this outbreak is a novel h2N1 strain, no one has any natural immunity to it yet), an endemic state indicates that each infected person infects exactly 1 other person; an epidemic state indicates that each case will cause multiple cases. The steady state means that the outbreak will continue to spread without external influences. Viruses that enter the epidemic state will eventually either die out due to exponential growth or reach the endemic steady state.
In viral marketing, we must strive to understand and improve the reproduction rate of our campaigns. We can assume zero immunity because, except in certain rare cases, people aren’t immune to most ideas. With social marketing, however, we tend to see a reproduction rate of far under 1, that is each “infected” person will infect less than 1 person on average. This has lead to research into extending the total reach of a meme through “big seeding,” but when you model total campaign spread as a function of seed size and reproduction rate, it is much more effective to increase the reproduction rate. As marketers, it is crucial to encourage each user to spread the campaign to as many other users as possible, rather than try to “seed” it with huge numbers of initial users.
True Copy and Paste from Source: http://danzarrella.com/swine-flu.html
UPDATE: Evidence of how the Swine Flu started:
UPDATE 2: Here's a self test to see if you have the swine flu http://doihaveswineflu.org/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
