blog till you drop!
A cocktail of advertising, social media, and technology
Cobra Twindaloo
Nov 21st
Cobra recently created this Twitter micro-site to celebrate National Curry Week, whereby Twitter users can enter their @names and Tweet their curry type.
The activity aims to reinforce Cobra’s positioning as the beer of choice when eating a curry.
There are however a number of fails in their approach:
- I would have liked to see a big ‘Tweet your curry type’ button on the Twitter micro-site. Their share this button isn’t particularly user-friendly. In addition, no Twitter hashtag was included in the Tweets.
- The Twitter micro site doesn’t link back to their main corporate website and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when clicking on the icons at the bottom of the screen; I ended up Googling ‘Cobra Beer’ to find their main website
- This is when I found out about ‘Facebook Group’, which is in fact a Fan Page (only 61 fans at time of writing). I am pretty sure the numbers would have been much higher had a big fat ‘Join our Facebook Fan Page’ button been included on the Twitter micro-site.
It is a nice campaign and Cobra are adding value to beer and curry lovers; saying that would strongly recommend they hire a new social media strategist who knows the difference between a Facebook Group and a Fan Page!
It’s a real shame as this campaign had a lot of potential…
UPDATE: I have just found out that my former employer Shiny Red, as well as a number of other agencies are behind this campaign. Apologies to Shiny Red about the rant; I genuinely didn’t know you were behind this!
Starbucks UK news
Sep 3rd
Love them or loathe them, Starbucks are an iconic brand. Nothing beats the Starbucks experience whilst blogging away on a Saturday afternoon.
Anyhow, the bottom line is that Starbucks sponsored last month’s London Blogger’s meet up, and I just thought I would drop a quick line about their latest UK initiatives.
Starbucks recently launched an instant coffee product called VIA Ready Brew (VIA = road in Italian in case you were wondering). Being French and all, I am not a big fan of instant coffee (hmmm Italian espresso anyone?;) but I have to say that VIA Ready brew tasted quite nice and a lovely alternative to ‘a proper’ cup of coffee if you’re on the road.
The Starbucks team also gave us a Starbucks Card which can be used to pay for your coffee, get small freebies (free refills, wi-fi etc), and the card can also be used in Starbucks stores around the world – very convenient indeed.
Finally, Starbucks have started serving Fairtrade coffee in all of their espresso-based drinks and created a shiny microsite to commemorate the occasion – follow the Fairtrade Journey for more info.
The fair-trade coffee campaign is understood to be the biggest the US coffee giant has run in the UK and Ireland since it opened its first stores here in 1998.
Starbucks are clearly trying to differentiate themselves from the competition, and I hope to see more social-media related initiatives from these guys very soon.
Play Me I’m Yours – when Art meets Social Media
Jul 14th
‘Play Me I’m Yours’ is an artwork by artist Luke Jerram, presented for Sing London and the City of London Festival.
30 street pianos were installed on the streets of London for members of the public to play and engage with. Decorated to suit their location and marked ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’, each piano had its own songbook attached to encourage communal involvement.
This picture was taken at Liverpool Street station during rush hour yesterday, and surprisingly, Londonners stopped to enjoy the sweet sound of music before heading home.
I totally fell in love with this idea when I first read about it; the Play Me I’m Yours project combines my two passions: music (I’m a classically trained pianist) and social media. Members of the public were able to take pictures, videos and upload them onto the Street Pianos website and tell their story.
This is (arguably) the first ever social media piece of art ever created, and I felt it didn’t get the coverage it deserved, hence this blog post.
I’d like to invite you all to check out the pictures, videos and stories uploaded onto the dedicated website. Enjoy!
Music and Social Media – Amandine hits the right notes
Jun 21st
Six million broadband users are estimated to download files illegally every year in the UK in a practice that music and film companies claim is costing them billions of pounds in lost revenue annually.
So what can music companies do to tackle music piracy? Two things spring to mind:
a) Fine illegal music downloaders (virtually impossible)
2) Be creative
I recently (legally) downloaded French singer Amandine Bourgeois’ first album and was pleasantly surprised to be given access to a VIP space on her website that includes an exclusive video diary, acoustic songs, photos and a fan forum where you can ask her questions.
Amandine also has a mandatory MySpace page, YouTube channel, Facebook profile, and interestingly a Netvibes page where all her content (including her Twitter feed) is aggregated.
By letting her fans know what’s going on behind the scenes, engaging in online conversations, and giving them exclusive freebies, Amandine is building herself a dedicated tribe of brand advocates who want to buy her music.
My only criticism is that her website is not social media friendly; I would like to see buttons redirecting to her various online profiles on the site’s homepage, d potentially a Twitter badge (assuming Amandine keeps up with the Twittering 
I personally love her album and I’ll be following her footsteps through her online presences.
What other bands have stood out from the crowd online lately?
Join T-Mobile’s next flashmob
Apr 28th
It looks like T-Mobile are planning another flashmob later on this week and this time we’re invited 
I am planning on going popping over to Trafalgar Square after work on Thursday, and it’s also the perfect excuse to grab a drink or two afterwards. Who’s in? (don’t forget your camera)