On my part, after reading about the campaign on Joe Pulizzi’s blog, I eagerly sought out the videos, rewatched both commercials, and scoured the blogosphere for more coverage. By the end of the day I had not only further publicized the campaign via facebook and twitter; I had physically told at least three people about it. That’s right, actual word of mouth!

But while the blogosphere, twitterverse, and facebookalaxy (too much?) were all buzzing about Old Spice, one burning question plagued every marketer. Will this actually translate to sales? Well, ladies and gentleman, the numbers are in.

Since the campaign launched in February, Old Spice sales have been on the rise. Brandweek reported that Old Spice sales rose 55% over the past three months, and 107% in the last month alone (stats published by Nielsen). Though it can only officially be called a correlation, I think it’s safe to consider this campaign a triumph in social media marketing. Mashable’s Stan Schroeder went as far as calling it “the archetype of a successful social media campaign,” and that was before any sales figures were released.

Will anyone be able to replicate this lightning-in-a-bottle campaign? Probably not.  There is a huge novelty element to this strategy that can’t be undervalued.  Old Spice was the first brand to tap into its social network in such a direct and, let’s face it, hilarious way. How then, can Old Spice’s success apply to you and your company? How can you translate it into your own content marketing efforts? First of all: don’t copy it. A lot of people are going to try and copy this campaign, and the public will know exactly what you’re up to.

Old Spice Guy is just one man, albeit an incredibly handsome one. He couldn’t possibly address more than a small fraction of Old Spice’s ever-increasing followers on twitter. But the mere possibility that he might led thousands of web users to jump on board and tweet their little hearts out.  In the same vein as the Creators Project, which continues to draw in hundreds of facebook fans daily, Old Spice offered the mere possibility of something great. In this case, being personally addressed before millions of online viewers… by an incredibly handsome man in a bath towel.

That is a tactic you can use. Provide the possibility of something incredible, but keep it limited. Make a demand for it. If you don’t know where to start in terms of devising that inspired must-have reward, why not ask your customers? What do THEY want? Tap into them as a resource, and then implement their ideas so they know they’re being listened to. Whatever plan of action you take, it should single out customers/readers/etc as individuals that are uniquely valued. It can be done at random, or maybe as a reward for loyal followers.

And if you can think of an angle that is really appropriate for your customers, why not create something that they will actually enjoy? Your marketing content should provide useful information for your clients, but you can also have a bit of fun with it. If you’re not sure you can pull it off,  consider hiring writers to create the kind of smart, punchy content that just might get your social network buzzing. After all, who doesn’t need a bit of light, funny, engaging fluff now and again?

Nicola Fairhead is an ideaLaunch editorial intern with a ferocious appetite for writing, editing, and consuming content.  She has quickly become a content marketing evangelist.

Image courtesy of http://www.shoppingblog.com/blog/3291015

Google Hackey Sack

The sun was bright and the morning air crisp for last Friday’s presentation, “The Future of Search: Google’s Perspective,” at the Cambridge Google office. Presented by SEMPO Boston Working Group and Google’s Lisa Greene, the 200-plus people in attendance were perky and inquisitive despite the early 7 a.m. hour. Why such high energy? We’re talking about the mythological office of Google, the number-one rated company to work for by Fortune, the place where employees allegedly receive “a $1,500 monthly stipend for mandatory lava lamp purchases.”

Totally Radical Lava Lamp

Greene had a lot of exciting news to share with SEM industry insiders, even if a lot of it was centered on search functions that won’t be available for months, years or maybe never. The general theme was the “device revolution”—how our search for information has gone from using the devices (aka mediums) of encyclopedias to desktop computers to smart phones. Each step in this progression has made the quest for information easier and a more integral part of our lives. Google is adapting their search engine to be more compatible with smart phones, helping to turn these hand-held devices into something more and more akin to a human being—something that can hear, see, feel, tell us directions and sometimes has skin, too.

Here’s a recap of news from Google:

• Real-World Digitalization: Google is fusing digital with the real world. For example, Google Sky Map for mobile devices. You can hold up your phone to the sky and it tells you what constellations you’re looking at using its internal global positioning device. (Men, earn points with your lady gazing at a clear Valentine’s night sky!)
• Location-Personalized Searches: Now, no matter where you are, you can type in “sushi restaurant” into your smart phone and get the phone numbers and locations of sushi joints right around the corner; no need to type city or neighborhood into your query.
• Social Circle Presentation: Google Social will augment search results based on what our friends have recommended via social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook and on their blogs. I’ll be able to get recommendations and reviews on sites, products, movies and restaurants from my friends before advertisers can reach me.
• Modes: Wouldn’t it be cool to ask your mobile phone a question and have it respond back with the answer? Voice-search is in its infancy. First the search engine has to learn how to understand your accent, voice, language, pitch, etc.
• Media Search: If your content goals are focused solely on text, get with the program! Google is incorporating many more forms of content in its search results, from images to videos, podcasts and songs.
• Image Recognition: Speaking of images, with Google Goggles, you’ll be able to take a picture with your device and have the search engine tell you what you’re looking at—whether it’s a landmark, a specific person or skyline. You’ll even be able to get search results based on the data it finds in images. In addition, the algorithm is starting to understand what color looks like. So, if you search on “red roses,” you’ll get crimson blossoms in your image results.
• Similar Image Searches: Have you seen the Google Wonder Wheel? This is a helpful tool in finding root keyword terms to target in SEO and PPC campaigns. Well, the Wonder Wheel v2 for images is going to give you similar results for images.
• Language: Search all content in the world and have your results presented in your language. The only caveat? Once you click on the page, it’s still in Swahili.

So that’s the future. But what can content marketers do right now to get top search results?

• Continue optimizing for long-tail keywords. Search results are getting more and more specific, and users are learning that the more specific keywords they search on, the better results they get. Google is constantly making improvements to the algorithm in favor of long-tail keywords to weed out low-quality sites.
• Keep up with your company blog and social media initiatives. Real-time results are showing more and more tweets and blog posts in search results. Make sure your company is a part of these results.

Filed under “it’s funny because it’s true” is this classic exchange between a website designer and a potential client. You can replace “website designer” with graphic designer, freelance writer, photographer … pretty much anyone who works in the creative field. We all get approached with these “opportunities.” With exception of the use of the ‘c’ word (no, not that one!) at the very end, this video is G-rated:

If you’re thinking of hiring a freelancer writer, redoing your website or considering marketing your content online, we have a bunch of free content marketing tips that might be helpful – and they aren’t nearly as snarky as this video is!

They were doing all the right things a marketer should do on YouTube: they had links to their online store and blog; utilized strong keywords in their video’s text description and tags; ensured the video itself referenced websites and pointed out the sidebar links; and they engaged their audience in the comments section.

However, according to someone they were doing something wrong. When I went to find their channel, I discovered it had been suspended. Some light stalking revealed that YouTube had decided the content violated “Community Guidelines” and the account was effectively deleted. No warning – just gone.

Account – gone.

Library of videos – gone.

Evidence they ever existed – gone.

Based on their blog post about the situation, YouTube gave them no information regarding which video or which specific guideline had been breached and simply told them they were banned from YouTube. Their attempts to talk to a real person at the site (they received a canned message when they inquired) haven’t been successful yet.

Can you imagine if that happened to you and your business? All that work, all those videos and a dependable stream of content marketing – ripped away? Ugh. It’s a good thing these folks were into healthy living – otherwise I’m guessing they’d be having a heart attack right now.

As mentioned on ideaLaunch’s blog before, online videos can be instrumental in your content marketing efforts. There’s a huge demand for online videos: ComScore just announced that in the month of November alone, 31 billion web videos were viewed by 170 million U.S. internet users.  The lion’s share of eyeballs were through Google Sites – which includes direct and indirect YouTube visits and searches on Google using the “video” filter (which draws from videos all over the net).

Clearly, online video websites are a content marketing tool you should be using – however, as evidenced by the health food folks I had been following – you need to protect yourself and your interests by not relying too heavily on them.

Using or plan to use online videos for marketing content? Want to prevent a complete meltdown should you get banned or your videos suspended? Here are five tips for using online videos and hosting sites:

1. Read the fine print. Carefully review the terms of the online video hosting websites you hope to use. Some of the major offenders are copyright offences (using music, TV, movie, media clips you don’t own), sexually explicit content, graphic violence, hate speech and spamming. Remember, there are no slaps on the wrist with YouTube. It’s one unexplained strike and you’re out.
2. Brand your videos. You can do this by including a still, animation, or even an original theme song at the beginning (and possibly end) of your videos that introduce your / your business’s name and website. Do this consistently and people will remember who you are should they need to go looking for you outside of the video hosting site.
3. Keep a copy of all your videos. It may be tempting to clear up some memory from the old computer after you’ve loaded a new video on YouTube, but if your video somehow gets removed by the site, you have no way to retrieve it. If need be, get a back-up drive and load them all onto there.
4. Host your own videos. If you have a website or blog, consider hosting the videos there first. If your blog or site only features embedded videos that are hosted elsewhere, all those links and videos won’t work if they’ve been removed. You’ll have a site full of sad, black boxes that will frustrate both you and your audience.
5. Use more than one online video hosting site. While we recommend hosting on your site first – using online video hosting sites still makes a lot of sense for gaining exposure – use them! But don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Besides getting a YouTube account, look for other popular sites like Metacafe, Vimeo, Blip.tv and DailyMotion and place your videos there too. Remember, most people are using Google to find videos – so even if you get banned from YouTube and your videos are on other sites, they will still come up (from other sites) in a search. Be sure to optimize your content and think about SEO: use the best keywords in your video’s filename, title, tags and description.

You too can YouTube!

Content marketing isn’t simply about blathering your latest corporate news online. Good content marketing is  about what the audience is interested in and delivering that to them in digital ways that are relevant to your products and services. To boil things down to a very basic level, people are looking for:

1. Helpful information, tips and tools
2. Entertainment
3. Free stuff (via contests, samples, downloads and so on)

The genius of content marketing is that through it, potential clients also learn about you and gain confidence in working with you. By demonstrating your abilities, quality of product and even corporate culture (because customers like working with nice / funny / pleasant people – go figure!), you end up giving a soft sell on yourself. It’s win-win!

With the popularity of YouTube, videos are wonderful tools for content marketing. The trick, no matter what industry you’re in, is to focus on delivering one or more of the three things people are looking for (and not simply develop a commercial) and to ensure you’ve optimized your video so it’s as search-friendly as possible.

“But my business doesn’t seem video-worthy.”

If you think that, you might be suffering from am all-too common condition: a lack of imagination (in which case, a content marketing agency can definitely be of service). Any business can utilize YouTube to create interesting and worthwhile content. Don’t believe me? Here are three random videos we found on YouTube from businesses you might not expect to be involved in content marketing:

Company: Bensons For Beds,  a mattress and bed company
Feature: Employees become part of the world’s largest human-mattress domino
Content Marketing Category: Entertainment
Reach: In less than five months, the video has nearly 750,000 views:

Company: TiffanyD,  a makeup artist
Feature: Tiffany is announcing a contest, sponsored by a make-up brush company, that calls for her fans to create their own “Old Hollywood” make-up looks
Content Marketing Category: Free Stuff
Reach: The contest received 132,000 views and received 242 tagged video responses (which themselves received hundreds and even thousands of views):

Company: Performance Bicycle,  a bicycle and accessories shop
Feature: Performance Bicycle’s “Spin Doctor” delivers tips cyclists can use to ensure their road bike is fit for them properly
Content Marketing Category: Informational
Reach: Posted over a year ago, this video currently has 90,300 views

SuperNews! on Current TV

On Thursday, a new season of Current TV’s SuperNews! will air. While not always suitable for work, SuperNews! has a knack for tackling the mundane things about the Interwebs and finding the hilarity in them. They mercilessly mock and parody Facebook habits, Twitter fans and even emoticon use. No social media is safe!

Watching SuperNews! probably won’t directly help you with your content marketing, but it can help you lighten up a little if you’ve been taking your Internet activity oh-so seriously. It can also be a source of inspiration if you’re hoping to add humor to your web content, even when the subject isn’t always the most obvious muse for comedy.

You may have already seen this SuperNews! clip, The Trouble With Twitters, but it is still a fun watch (and it is suitable for work, so go on ahead and take a little break):

Image from Esquire Magazine

We mentioned recently that many magazines, like Gourmet, have folded because of ad revenue and readership going down – something that many believe is a result of competition from the Internet. So, what’s a magazine to do?

This month, if you’re Strategy or Esquire, you play with augmented reality (AR).

Augmented reality is a term used to describe the merging of a physical item with a virtual one for both in-hand and on-screen interaction. In the case of magazines, it’s when the pages you’re holding can act as a trigger or key to accessing online content.

This month’s cover issue of Esquire, for the example, features Robert Downey Jr. sitting on a box with a block code. Once you have the software downloaded, you need to hold the magazine cover up to a web cam. The block code acts like a secret password that activates your screen to come to life with online content (in this case, 3D video footage of Robert Downey Jr.). There are other AR codes in the magazine – some on ads, some on additional features – all designed to give the reader bonus material not otherwise accessible by website searching or reading the magazine alone. Since we’re a curious species, we’re betting people will be buying this issue just to check out what the fuss is about. Here’s a sneak peak:

So, how does this apply to you, presuming you’re not a magazine owner? The same technology can be used for brochures, flyers, business cards and books. Can you imagine people being actually eager to take your ad home in order to reveal the online content you have developed for it? As AR is still fairly novel, it’s a cool and definitely outside-the-box tool for content marketing that has real potential for early adapters. Of course, the content you develop will need to be very well done to live up to some of the hype. Video, animation and entertainment value need to be packed in … just the kind of thing a certain content marketing company knows a little something about.

Brutal, eh?

Just one week later, Hyundai Canada posted this video on YouTube:

Admittedly, the video quality isn’t the greatest, but in this case, it was more important to be fast than polished. Hyundai did what all businesses that want to do well in content marketing should do:

1. Monitor: Stay on top of trends, especially if they’re even just remotely related to your industry.
2. React quickly: Our attentions are fleeting. If you want to connect to something trending on the Internet, you need to pull the trigger right away – otherwise you’re old news before you’re new news.
3. Use the medium: The bad parking job was a YouTube sensation – it only makes sense that Hyundai engages the same crowd using the same medium.
4. Promote: The team behind Hyundai’s video undoubtedly found out what media and top bloggers covered the original video and used social media-focused public relations tactics to promote Hyundai’s response. Through the PR lift from sites like The Globe and Mail and Mashable, the Hyundai response video now has well over 100,000 views is just four days.

They also did one more thing we hope companies aim for: Being the good guy.

If your web content marketing efforts have been drab, inconsistent or nonexistent – even when you *know* you should be doing a better job at it – maybe it’s time to add a bit of whimsy to the task at hand.

• Watch a recent episode of a work-situated TV show (The Office, 30 Rock, Hung, Mad Men) and draw comparisons between it and your own office (maybe even create your own parody of it!). If it proves to be well-received, consider doing weekly installments.
• Hand video cameras to staff and challenge them to create something for your website. It could be an over-the-top infomercial style video about your company’s services, an entertaining explanation of a question your customers ask, a short clip of the team mocking an industry habit – keep it light, have fun!
• Have a quick wit on staff? Ask if they’re interested in penning a weekly comic strip about life in your company or industry.
• Reward the individuals who create your great blog posts, videos and other web content with something simple but amusing: temporary ownership of a life-size cut-out of David Hasselhoff for a week, a 15-minute break to play Wii in the boardroom, a Kinder Surprise, their own Bobblehead at the end of the year … there’s bound to be a few easy and motivational treats you can think of that suit your corporate culture.
• Leave the legal department out of it. We know plenty of lovely lawyers, but if they have a significant say on the verbiage of your blog posts, videos or any other web content, they’re going to suck the life of out.
• Hire or outsource the work to people who really do enjoy writing and content marketing. They already think  this stuff is fun!

Image from the IIHS

Since we just chatted about how web content and social media has changed the game for public relations practitioners, it only makes sense to give an example of that with a recent case study.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) – a.k.a. the people who do independent crash dummy tests on cars – is celebrating its 50^th anniversary. Anniversaries are always nice excuses to highlight your company, even if you don’t have any “real news” to share. So the IIHS could have just sent out a press release talking about its accomplishments in the last half century (yawn), but instead, it made the wise decision to just show you.

Perhaps the phrase “they don’t build ‘em like they used to” should be said with gratefulness. See what happens when the IIHS decides to plow a 1959 Chevrolet Bel Air head-on into a 2009 Chevrolet Malibu:

Blammo!

While the likes Jay Leno and other car enthusiasts are undoubtedly weeping over the demise of such a nice vintage car, the rest of us get a clear message: car safety has come a long way, baby.

This is web content, for the purpose of PR, done beautifully. The video is highly visual (this may seem like a weird point to make, but we’ve seen lots of vids online that are anything but visually stimulating), effective, well-produced and well-branded. It’s on YouTube – the second most popular search engine – a few times over, is shareable and has also been sent through to PR channels, as evidenced by the terrific media pick-up.

At the time of writing this post, this version of the video (there are many on YouTube) has received over half a million views in under a week. That’s word of mouth at work, and that’s what makes this a viral and PR success for the IIHS.

Did you know that as a content marketing company, ideaLaunch also deals with making videos? If you want to learn more about the art of going viral, give our web content experts a ring!