Another Facebook suicide, brought to you by Gap

Within a month Gap managed to upset the majority of its customers twice, how?

Last month, as some of you probably know, Gap launched its new logo as an update to its 20-year old predecessor.

New logo

Customers did not like it at all and some of them stormed social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to tell friends and the company just how they feel about the new logo.

More than 2,000 comments were posted on the company's Facebook page on the issue, with many demanding the return of the traditional logo. Some of the customers said: "This is the worst idea Gap has ever had. I will be sad to see this change take place", or "If this logo is brought into the clothing [store] I will no long[er] be shopping with the Gap. Really a bummer because 90% of my clothing has been purchased there in the last 15+ years."

What Gap did then was to post a message on its FB page that said they were planning to ask people to share their designs with them for the new logo. The result of all this, so far, is that Gap returned to its classic logo, this one:

Old logo

Not happy about this logo switcharoo that set the internet ablaze Gap, on November 5^th, caused a commotion in the location-based marketing world with a campaign to give away 10,000 free pairs of jeans at U.S. Gap locations.

The idea was actually good but the execution very poor. The Gap Free Jeans Giveaway Event was fairly simple on the surface. A public Facebook Event (I suggest you look at it as some comments are hilarious) invited customers to “check-in” at any U.S. Gap location using Facebook Places. Customers were instructed to show their “check-ins” on their mobile devices to any Gap employee to receive a free pair of jeans.

Ten thousand jeans might seem a big number but not that big if you think how many stores Gap has (i think about 2500 in US) so jeans went quickly and lots of people were only given a 40% discount voucher instead as the policy was first-come first-serve basis. All disappointed customers ended up complaining on Facebook of course but mainly because they had no clue about what “check-in” means and most of them just wrote the word “check-in” on the FB page wall.

Though this comes as no surprise.  According to the Pew Research Center, only 4% of Americans use location-based applications like Places, Foursquare, and Gowalla, and only 1% of Internet users are using these services.

This will go down as another example of how NOT to use social media but hopefully Gap learnt the lesson. They have started a new campaign recently which aims to donate $1 for every “like”. Let’s keep an eye on it…;)

Digital advertising

Digital advertising refers to any advertising that is created and displayed using computer technology primarily based around the world wide web, such as digital radio, digital video and advertising online, which could involve branded computer games, sponsored or advertising on websites in a number of ways, and branded or targeted communication (email).

This industry is developing at a very fast pace and advertisers nowadays are clearly exceeding consumers’ expectations by creating sophisticated ads (not in Oman…yet) that provide a rich experience. The trend in digital advertising is to give us smarter, more interactive and engaging ads that sometimes are so smart that I have difficulties understanding them!

One of the most prestigious events in digital advertising, the MediaMind Rich Media Awards showcases and celebrates the most engaging, innovative and effective advertising campaigns from around the world.

More than 75 creative and media agencies submitted their most innovative campaigns of the year where they showed how with the right content and concept, they created engaging, fun content that ensures the users' experience lasts for much longer.

The 2010 Judges' Award Winners are:

North America - GamesRadar Rabbids Go Home, Future US

International - Nissan Qashqai – 3D Homepage Takeover, Digitas, OMD

The 2010 People’s Choice Awards Winners are:

North America – Avatar DVD Release, ThinkJam UK/Moxie Interactive/Avatar Labs, Vizeum/ Twentieth Century Fox

International - Despicable Me – YouTube Takeover, Feref UK, Mediacom UK

To see more about the 2010 MediaMind Rich Media Awards winners and nominees click here, or have a look a the video below.

 

Evian's cool babies!

On July 6, 2009 Evian unveiled a new entertaining global advertising campaign and a new signature message, “Live Young”, the ultimate expression of Evian brand values, including origin, health and youth.

The worldwide kick off began with a viral pre-launch and online infiltration via YouTube in the U.S., France, UK, Germany, Canada and Japan.

For the ads 96 lively, happy babies were filmed and featured roller break-dancing routines set to a Rapper’s Delight remix by Dan the Automator.

Evian said it was appropriate that the brand’s new ad campaign should depict babies, a universal symbol of what is precious and pure, and embody the unique attributes of Evian Natural Spring Water.

I think it's hilarious…check it out.

 

Social Media Myths....busted!

This is the last part of a broader social media presentation i gave the other day to a potential client.

Some of the questions, despite being already answered many times everywhere on the internet, are still current so i thought of posting them here.

View more presentations from MPiRe.

If you know any other please feel free to add.

For Monopoly fans

Monopoly, the famous board game published by Parker Brothers, a subsidiary of Hasbro, is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single entity.

Since the game was created, more than one billion people have played it, making it the most played (commercial) board game in the world.

In 2008, Electronic Arts and iTunes released a Monopoly game for iPod, iPod Nano and iPod Classic as well as releasing a version of Monopoly Here and Now into the iTunes App Store for play on iPhone and iPod touch.

Over the years, Monopoly has been re-imagined in a plethora of different ways such as Star Wars, Disney, Wizard of Oz, The Beatles, GI Joe, Transformers, and many more.

Crystal Gibson, Social Media Manager for Bite TV and Aux TV, has created a new version of the world's most popular game, which she calls Social Media Monopoly.

It's an unofficial version but it's already giving online gamers something new to talk about. The game is an elaborate version of the classic Monopoly that includes direct and indirect references to our favorite, and not-so-favorite, social media entities. The game even comes with a complete set of Chance and Community Chest cards that play upon Technorati’s and Mashable’s themes.

In this edition of Monopoly, the traditional jail is replaced with a “Just Visiting” MySpace holding cell, and a cross-board Cyperpolice space which instructs players to, “Go to Myspace. Go Directly to Myspace. Do not pass Wi-Fi. Do not collect $200.”

It’s Monopoly for the digital age and the savvy social media user will recognize both popular and niche sites highlighted in spaces across the board. Facebook and Twitter are the priciest social properties, comprising the spaces generally known as Boardwalk and Park Place. YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe and Foursquare also come with hefty price tags, but LinkedIn, Digg and Reddit are priced a bit more economically.

Social Media - Cool Facts

 Here follow some cool facts about the main social networks:

• The average Facebook user has 130 friends  
• Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
• There are more than 100 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
• People spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook

• Twitter started as a simple SMS-text service
• Twitter gets more than 300,000 new users every day
• There are more than 600 million searches on Twitter every day
• Over 60% of Twitter use is outside the U.S.
• More than a third of users access Twitter via their mobile phone

• LinkedIn is the oldest of the four sites in this post, having been created on May 5 2003
• There are more than 70 million users worldwide
• Members of LinkedIn come from more than 200 countries from every continent
• LinkedIn is available in six native languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish
• 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool
• A new member joins LinkedIn every second
• LinkedIn receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day

 

•  The very first video uploaded was called “Me at the Zoo”, on 23rd April 2005
• YouTube receives more than 2 billion viewers per day
• Over half of YouTube’s users are under 20 years old
• You would need to live for around 1,000 years to watch all the videos currently on YouTube
• YouTube is available in 19 countries and 12 languages
• Music videos account for 20% of uploads

• 77% of Internet users read blogs
• There are currently 133 million blogs listed on leading blog directory Technorati
• 60% of bloggers are between the ages 18-44
• Two thirds of bloggers are male
• Corporate blogging accounts for 14% of blogs
• Bloggers use an average of five different social sites to drive traffic to their blog

Statistics from Facebook press office, Twitter and the Chirp Conference, LinkedIn press centre and SysComm International, YouTube press centre, Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2009.

Twitter in Oman - why do we use it?

There is tons of info on the internet about how to use Twitter to productively market, promote, converse, or network. I read a lot about how to get followers, or provide value to followers, or be interesting there.

As I’m not a Twitter expert I asked the “Tweeps of Oman” why the like/use Twitter as well as its potential. Twitter in Oman is not big (yet) and my estimate is that there are probably not more than 350 active users; if someone has a more accurate number please let me know.

 

So what is the value of Twitter? What role does it play? I have asked 3 questions to the following friends and Twitter users in Oman: @lasiaf, @SangitaSri, @0merKhan, @MariaOcean, @sbtm77, @arun4 (recently left Oman), @Ab_mal, @mrsythe, @KishorCariappa and @SewChicnUnique.

Is Twitter your preferred way of communicating online? If yes, why?

For @MariaOcean, @sbtm77 and @arun4 Twitter is the N. 1 way to stay in touch with the online world as it allows them to reach people faster as well as getting instant replies from them. Most of the others see and use Twitter as one of the several communication tools but their primary tool still remains emailing.

What’s so special about Twitter for you?

@lasiaf prefers reading 140 characters rather than going to someone’s blog or news site and reading the whole story. @SangitaSri  said that mobile client makes it easy to read just few lines as the decision to read or not to read is equally quick. @Ab_mal, who only recently joined Twitter, finds it very useful, especially the Twitter search, as it gives all kind information, and public views.  @mrsythe gets useful quick answers about local issues;  Twitter can also be a distraction from work, or a boring meeting and the beauty of it is that it can all be done from the phone. All the others stated that because of Twitter’ fast and simultaneous communication they learn what is happening even before media outlets spread the news or that it is a cool tool to communicate with people with similar bandwidth as @KishorCariappa said.

Do you / would you use it for work? If yes, why?

Some of the Tweeps see Twitter as an opportunity; @SewChicnUnique uses twitter to promote her blog and is planning on using it to promote her online handmade business which is due to launch early next year (good luck to her!). Also @MariaOcean was presented with some project offers so for her Twitter opened a new channel for online business. @arun4, being a digital/social media professional, said that Twitter is also helping in his personal and professional growth. Also @sbtm77 and @Ab_mal see the potential benefits Twitter can offer at work and @SangitaSri said that if executed appropriately Twitter can do magic for your brand.

The others think it would still look unprofessional to use it for work as @0merKhan said or that 140 characters would not be enough to explain a work situation as @lasiaf mentioned.

Thanks again for your support Tweeps of Oman; you have all been very quick and helpful; feel free to add anything else you’d like.

1 year of Oman Collective Intelligence

I realised the other day that it has been a little more than a year since I started Oman Collective Intelligence. When I wrote my first post I could have never ever thought the rich rewards blogging has brought me.

• In 1 year…I shared my passion and knowledge with others and others shared it with me
• In 1 year…I was lucky to know, but not meet yet, some great people
• In 1 year…I wrote 106 posts
• In 1 year…the blog has been visited by 162 different countries plus another 5 “unknown” countries
• In 1 year…the number of followers is 610
• In 1 year…I had 504 comments; the first comment was from kishor Cariappa
• In 1 year…I learnt how internet makes the world so small
• In 1 year…I discovered how big the world is; I had visitors from countries I never heard of… Kiribati and Northern Mariana Islands
• In 1 year…the blog had almost 40,000 hits
• In 1 year…the daily average of visits is 109
• In 1 year…“Young Arab women using Facebook” has been the most read post, 1458 times
• In 1 year…the country that visited the blog the most is United States with 4,980 hits, Oman comes second with 3,876
• In 1 year…“(Don't) Be Stupid!” has had the most comments, 15
• In 1 year…the month of August was the one with most page views, 8109
• In 1 year...Amjad Al Hinai won the logo contest
• In 1 year…I am glad that there are so many new bloggers in Oman
• In 1 year…and for the next ones to come, I want to thank you all for making this possible…:)

Sharing the love for marketing in the Middle East

Some of you probably heard of Bayt Communities (part of Bayt.com, a site offering a complete range of end-to-end employment solutions and career planning tools); BC is a series of professional, industry-specific communities that introduces a whole new way to empower professionals in the Middle East to build, enhance, and advance their careers.

Bayt communities recently launched MarketingHub.me which is a network where people in the Middle East who share a love for marketing go to learn, network, and evolve their careers.

On MarketingHub.me you will find plenty of industry related articles, lots of tools as well as a helpful career assessment section. And of course you will also be able to find people to share ideas with, discuss the daily doings of yours and their professions, and even swap services!

Here are a couple of comments by some of the users…..

As a social media geek, I am very happy to have a specialized Middle Eastern website where I can share my experience in this new field of ours.

Rani Dababneh, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Geek, Jordan.

I love MarketingHub.me! The user-interface is very easy to use and there's so much to do with it. Just look at all the cool articles!

Yasmeen A., designer. Lebanon

I'm not a marketer, but I need to deal with a lot of creatives in my job in the IT industry. MarketingHub.me makes it easier for me to better understand the marketing industry, and thus do my own job better.

Rosanna P., Operations Manager. Jordan.

It sounds all good, doesn't it? You may think MarketingHub.me is some sort of Linkedin or Facebook; while in a way it is true as it is a social network on the other hand the team at MarketingHub.me is focusing on creating key unique content that could really help people in their professional lives.

In a few words we could say that MarketingHub.me provides the opportunity to increase knowledge base, to deeply understand the relevant workplace ecosystem in our region, as well as to become familiar with the leaders.

Check it out and let me know what you think; there’ an interesting article about the top 10 Middle East marketing trends, or if you want to test your social media knowledge try this quiz…I didn’t do to well…:(