Heineken Serenades This Valentine’s Day

Written by guest blogger: Victoria Salvatoriello 

 

Definition of a Valentine:

1: a sweetheart chosen or complimented on Valentine’s Day

2a : a gift or greeting sent or given especially to a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day; a greeting card sent on this day b : something (as a movie or piece of writing) expressing uncritical praise or affection: a tribute

We all remember the days of coloring handmade valentine’s or purchasing a box of My Little Pony’s or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards to hand out in class. When we get older sometimes we forget just how special those little notes made us feel.

This year, Heineken, that’s right. These guys, will be turning to social media to bring a smile to your sweetheart’s face. (Beer..brings on smiles? I can see it.)

Facebook is launching a fun application based on Heineken’s second global film “The Date” where you can actually serenade your sweetie. Advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam has co-developed this app where customers can create a personalized song in just a few clicks of your mouse. In similarity to the old days of writing a check “Yes” or “No” note for a date, the waiting game will be much in the same. After creating your song it’s all about the waiting game. You will submit your song to their Facebook wall and wait to see if your crush has said yes or no to your date offer.

Senior Director Cyril Charzat of Global Heineken Brand stated, “‘The Serenade’ is designed to take some of the stress out of asking a partner to go on a date. It’s fun, interactive and guaranteed to make an impression” – This application is part of the brand’s ‘Open your World’ global campaign which celebrates aspirational behaviors among adult consumers.

February 9th tune in to “Serenade Live,” an 8-hour YouTube event where individuals all over the world will get a chance to serenade there sweethearts live in the internet.

With Social Media constantly evolving, is this really the way of the future? Or are you still a sucker for a phone call or a face-to-face request?

To learn more check out the app http://www.Facebook.com/Heineken or follow the serenades on Twitter @Heineken #Serenade, #SerenadeLive

For more information on the author you can follow her on Twitter at @_vikster or on her blog at victoriasalv.wordpress.com.

The “Social” Bowl

As a die-hard Ravens fan I swore that I would not watch this year’s Super Bowl next Sunday February 4^th. However, as a media buyer I can’t help but be excited to see the new creative elements being used in the commercials, specifically social media.

Over the past few years companies have slowly started to integrate social media into their marketing campaigns but in 2012 the advertisers in Super Bowl have taken it to a new level. While investing millions of dollars to create the most entertaining commercials, advertisers are taking time to invest in the two way communication with their consumers.

Volkswagen for instance has already begun their Super Bowl commercial buzz by creating a teaser for “The Bark Side”. With the success of last year’s “Small Darth Vader” commercial dubbed to be one of the best of 2011, VW had a challenge of competing with their own commercial. One way they succeeded was by building off last year’s theme.

Not only has the advertiser given their customer a preview of their multi-million dollar commercial spot, they have received over 7 million hits on YouTube and started a buzz that they hope to continue through next week’s game.

Advertisers more than ever are incorporating their Facebook and Twitter accounts by including hashtags (#) in hopes of becoming a Twitter trend topic during the game and posting previews of their spot on profile pages to engage customers and increase overall awareness.

By using these social media platforms, advertisers are building a familiarity with their brands, concepts, and products. Companies are looking to create an interest and form a loyal customer before the commercial even airs.

Since reaching the consumers has become so fragmented, marketers are getting creative by reaching their audience on a more personal level. The 2012 Super Bowl commercials will be just the beginning of a new wave of advertising campaigns that are not so traditional.

Tebowing

There has been a lot of NFL talk the past few weeks, and the majority of it has revolved around one person: Tim Tebow.  Tebow has been a sports icon to the Gainesville community for years, but it wasn’t until the Broncos game on Oct. 23 when Tebow’s fame went viral. By viral, we mean record breaking tweeting, “tebowing”, and more fame then any athlete yet.

According to Adage, Tim Tebow is also considered the most talked-about player in the NFL. He currently has endorsement deals with Jockey, Nike and EA Sports and could possibly become a $10 million a year endorser of the NFL.

When Tebow ended the Steelers season on January 8^th (and we love him for that), he set two new sports records; he did this while playing in the highest-rated first-round NFL playoff game in 4 years, according to Nielsen. The first record he broke was the yards-per-completion record with 31.6 and threw for 316 passing yards. He also set a new social media record which was the sports Tweets per second record.  Twitters reaction to Tebow’s 80-yard overtime touchdown reached 9,420 tweets per second, including one Tweet from Lady Gaga!  This surpasses the amount of tweets from the announcement of Beyoncé’s pregnancy (8,868 TPS), the passing of Steve Jobs (6,039 TPS) as well as the East Coast Earthquake (5,106 TPS) – imagine that!

Not only has Tebow made his way through the twitter-verse, according to Mashable.com, Tebowing is now an official part of the English language. Tebowing.com defines this word as a verb and the definition is “To get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone around you is doing something completely different.” This website has over 15,000 people/animals/objects Tebowing all over the world.

Although the rest of the world is talking about Tebow and his fame, those of us at Media Works wish Tebow and the Broncos pulled through last weekend and beat the Patriots so we could cheer on the Ravens at home this weekend. Unfortunately for us, we will be cheering on the Ravens in Foxborough and we sure hope they “tebow” before the game!

http://mashable.com/2012/01/09/tim-tebow-twitter-record/

http://adage.com/article/news/broncos-tim-tebow-worth-10-million-endorsements/232000/

The Power of Social Media on the News

At 1:51 pm on Tuesday, I along with most of the residents from North Carolina all the way up to Canada felt the ground beneath me shaking uncontrollably. I immediately ran out of the building, and of course took my iPhone with me. When we were trying to figure out what in the world happened, I turned to Twitter. The first tweet I saw was from HuffPost Hill which is The Huffington Post’s politics newsletter.

It read: @HuffPostHill EARTHHHHQUAKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Following that tweet, I saw tweets from newspapers, magazines, celebrities and friends tweeting about the Earthquake. Media Life Magazine said that there were more than 40,000 earthquake-related tweets posted on Twitter within 1 minute of the earthquake (www.medialifemagazine.com). From Twitter alone, by 1:55pm I knew that a 5.8 magnitude earthquake touched down 87 miles away from Washington DC – this was all known before CNN was even turned on in the Media Works conference room.

Not only has social media become the new phenomenon to report breaking news, it also helps to spread important news in a viral way. On June 4^th, I saw a tweet from a friend saying “If anyone has seen Lauren Spierer please contact Bloomington Police 812 339 4477”. Within a few days, unfortunately, “Lauren Spierer” and “#findLauren” became trending topics on Twitter. There was a twitter account created named @NewsOnLaurenS and to date there are over 29,000 followers. This Twitter account posts breaking news about Laurens disappearance as well as where people can help to search for Lauren.

In the days following Laurens disappearance, family, friends and supporters helping to find Lauren had gotten Kim Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, Nicholas Sparks and many other celebrities to help get the word out about this 20 year old missing girl on Twitter. This story has gone international with the help of Social Media, and although the search for Lauren is still going on, Twitter and Facebook have helped tremendously to continue to keep this story relevant, and to help find Lauren.

People say “What did we ever do without cell phones and the internet.” I think it is safe to say, what did we do without social media? It is a powerful tool that can be used by people like you and me. Acquiring and dispersing news is not dependent on major news outlets any longer. The news of an earthquake was first reported through this medium and Lauren’s sad story was only covered after her family and friends shared on Twitter and Facebook. Like it or not, these giants are shaping our generation.

Rethinking How We Get Our News

It’s no secret that the internet has drastically changed the way many Americans get their news. Many newspapers have online editions, while television stations allow viewers to watch newscasts online and update headlines on their websites in real time.

One of the most interesting developments to me, however, has been the way Twitter – and, to a lesser extent, Facebook – have become the primary source of local and national news for millions of people. While the two sites promote themselves as “social networking” sites, both are in a sense hosting thousands of watercooler conversations simultaneously, and word spreads quickly.

Looking back to 2001, I can recall that on September 11th, a plane struck the first of the Twin Towers at 8:46 a.m. When my middle school finally decided to make an announcement at almost noon, each student in my 25-person algebra class was shocked. It’s hard to remember a world without Twitter and smart phones, but I guarantee you that nowadays, no news story of that magnitude would be possible to shield from a group of eighth graders for longer than a few minutes.

And journalists are catching on.  A recent New York Times article explains how a senior strategist at NPR transformed his personal Twitter account into a minute-by-minute stream of events gathered from various sources, which together created a sort of live feed centered solely on the recent developments in Egypt and Tunisia. One of the advantages the article points to is the author’s questioning of his sources; he challenges followers to tweet back with confirmations and fact-checks.

But what are the disadvantages? Obviously, anyone can write anything, and not everything will be correct. Many a rumor both true and false has gotten its start on Facebook, Twitter, or a similar site. Furthermore, 142-character “reader’s digests” of news stories can lead to limited and/or biased interpretations of stories and events.

I’m very curious to see how over the next few years, various media channels react to the social-media-as-news-outlet phenomenon. I can’t really see it ever taking over, say, the evening news or a credible newspaper as a widely accepted source, but it is certainly a trend worth keeping an eye on.

LifeBridge Health Tweets a Hip Surgery

For those that don’t know, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows people to communicate through the exchange of quick and frequent updates known as “tweets”. Tweets are text postings (limited to 140 characters) which are displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to those who are known as followers. Anyone can set up a Twitter profile in hopes that people will be interested in what they have to say and ultimately subscribe to become their follower.

What better way for a company to market itself and its services than by creating interest on Twitter? Our client, LifeBridge Health Systems in Baltimore, set up their Twitter account in January of this year. As of this writing, they have 1,147 followers. They tweet everyday to keep their followers updated on the latest health issues and news.

Daily updates are great but why can’t a hospital tweet about a specific surgery, essentially as a play-by-play? The marketing specialists at LifeBridge thought the same thing so on Thursday, May 14^th they tweeted their first surgery – a Hip Resurfacing performed by the doctors of Sinai’s Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics.