Unlock the 007 in you - Coke Zero

Amazing Coke Zero marketing, challenging unsuspecting train passengers to unlock the 007 in them for their chance to win exclusive tickets for the new James Bond movie SKYFALL.

However, the exclusive tickets weren't free. People had to go the extra mile and unlock their inner 007 in less than 70 seconds to win.

 

Would you be up for it if it was you?

Innovation - from the eyes of Tim Cook, CEO of Apple

I recently read a Bloomsberg Businessweek article featuring an interview with Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, that basically sums up my thoughts about digital innovation.



 Image from LA Times

Quality over quantity
Many companies get lost in keeping up with new platforms like Pinterest or Instagram, but the fact is that platforms will continue to be invented everyday. It's important to keep up with what's going on in your industry and be timely with everything you do, but to "keep up" by building products and services around the the new and coolest is the easiest way to digress your company culture.

How Tim Cook sees it:

"Apple has changed every day since I have been here. But the DNA of the company, the thing that makes our heart beat, is a maniacal focus on making the best products in the world. Not good products, or a lot of products, but the absolute best products in the world."

This is why Apple is one of the greatest companies -  it reinforces its persistence in company philosophy from top to bottom. Apple ensures that it takes into account new popular apps and user behaviors when building new user interfaces, but refuses to release a new product until it's at its perfection at the time. While other companies continue to push out new products and services every quarter, Apple releases ONE new product every year or two.

Focus on how to make people's lives better, profits are just byproducts
When you're blinded by how your product is going to make money, you're likely to lose focus on how to make the best product so it'll actually sell. I heard about the Convenience Quotient at a mobile conference recently, and it states that any time you build a new platform or product, the benefits provided for the user has to be much larger than the barriers to adoption. In other words, it's great to provide innovation, but keep in mind your user habits, and how difficult it would be to adopt your new product.

How Tim Cook sees it:

"In creating these great products, we focus on enriching people's lives - a higher cause for the product. These are the macro things that drive the company. They haven't changed. They're not changing. I will not witness or permit those changes because that's what makes the company so special.

We want to really enrich people's lives at the end of the day, not just make money. Making money might be a byproduct, but it's not our North Star."

Creativity is not a process, it comes from everywhere and everything

The key to the best innovation is simplicity.

How Tim Cook sees it:

"Creativity is not a process, right? It's people who care enough to keep thinking about something until they find the simplest way to do it... A lot of companies have innovation departments, and this is always a sign that something is wrong when you have a VP of innovation of something... Everybody in our company is responsible to be innovative, whether they're doing operational work or product work, or customer service work."

Viggle for Couch Potatoes - Initial Pros and Cons

Hooray! Here comes the first ever television loyalty program on social for all you couch potatoes out there.

What is it?

It is a social app that allows you to check-in to your favorite television shows to receive points for gift cards to CVS, Burger King, Starbucks, Banana Republic and many more.

What can you do on it?
-Check-in to shows (obviously).
-Watch short trailers or ads for points.
-Keep up-to-date and post on Facebook and Twitter about the show in real time.
-"Like" shows.
-Set reminders/alarms for when your shows are aired.
-Keep track of your check-in and rewards history.
-Invite your friends to Viggle for 200 points.
-Look up more info on shows listed via IMDB, Wiki, iTunes, Amazon, Bing, and Facebook.

How does it work?

It works like Shazam, it "listens" to part of the show to identify which show you're watching.

Here are my initial thoughts of the app:

Pros

1. Users are awarded for something they already love to do. 

This is like if I got paid for sleeping my normal hours. TV-lovers are now rewarded with food, clothing, music and more just by doing their things, and perhaps encouraged to be a little more social.

2. Yes, do remind me when my shows are AND give me free stuff. 

So Viggle will be my alarm clock for shows and give me things too... can't complain.

3. Yay! I'm not the only Castle fan out there admiring how pretty Becket is! 

The "Latest Chatter" feature pulls up a real-time feed from Facebook and Twitter on the chatter about your show. It allows you to post real-time to share/complain/admire with fellow TV-ers during your show.

Cons

1. Wait, how many hours do I have to watch for a coffee? 

So let's say a $5 gift card for Starbucks is 7,500 points (as currently listed on Viggle), and one check-in is around 100 points... if my Asian math does not fail me, that equates to 75 check-ins. That's about 19 shows per week for a month, less than 3 shows a day... I don'w know about you, but that's a lot of TV watching.

2. Oh dear god my muffin top is not going away. 

Not judging all the TV-watchers, but I eat when I watch TV... this increased in TV viewing doesn't seem very healthy for me. Just think what happened when Facebook was born and how many hours people spend Facebooking.

3. EVERYONE SHUSH, I'm trying to check-in. 

For those of you who use Shazam, you'd understand my frustration. Since it requires "listening," if the parts of the show aren't properly recorded (of which I assume you could be with friends, cooking, or drying your hair,) you can't check-in! "Sorry, no match" is one of the most irritating messages.

4. Why don't I have Viggle friends =[.

Yes it allows me to read/post on Facebook and Twitter, but what if I just want to see what my friends watched/ are watching? Or if I wanted to recommend shows to my friends? Foursquare lets me have friends, can I have friends on Viggle please?

EDIT:
5. I can't invite my friends.
So one of my friends asked me to invite him so I can get the 200+ points. It turns out I can only invite by email, and ONLY emails that are existing in my iPhone address book. Inserting a new email address is not possible.

What can brands do with this?

• Well ad exposure of course. When you check-in, a full-iPhone-page spread of advertising pops-up.
• Learn more about what their audience like to watch, then join TV campaigns with social ones!
• Encourage conversation DURING shows!
• Contests! Woot! Imagine Coca Cola running a contest for users to find product placement within an episode for prizes!

So there goes my initial thoughts of Viggle. In general, I think it's a pretty cool idea. The app has only been launched for less than 2 weeks. I will come back to this when it is in full throttle!

What are some of your thoughts on this? Do comment or tweet at me @Mayzyap :).

5 Reasons Why Klout Perks Is a Great Marketing Tool

For those of you who've been here before, you'd recall my doubts and bashing (just a little) of this new social media metric system. But now I am reassured and actually finding myself quite happy with Klout.

Everyone loves to know how well they're doing quantified; whether it be a grade on an exam, business revenue reports, and more, people like to see the results and changes from their efforts. Many may not agree that social media, due to its "social" aspect, should be quantified, as it can never be properly quantified; however, just as psychology or sociology can be quantified through both qualitative and quantitative data, so can social media! You may say that there are a thousand variables and aspects to be taken account of and still it wouldn't be accurate... that's the same as psychology or psychiatry! (Or natural sciences for that matter... but we will not dive into the philosophy of "how we know what we know" right now.)

PERKS!
One of the super cool things happen to be Klout Perks. It is so far the most innovative and effective marketing tool I've seen this year. Here's why:

1. It puts the list of specific target audience straight in your palms
- Since it ranks users in terms of influential scores, topics of influence, social style and etc., Klout can pull up the very specific audience your company wants to target. It gives you how influential an individual is, the topics they are influential about, where they live, and many more. Whether it be mommy bloggers in the field of Food who are influential about #restaurants or #vegan, or students studying in the Boston area influential about #basketball, you name it, they can pull up a list for you.

2. Free Stuff
- Who doesn't like free stuff? Enough said.

3. Not only free, but COOL free stuff.

The Klout perks give out a variety of free things (and events!) ranging from free movie premiers, HP laptops, popchips and a bunch of cool things people would want to get for free!

4. They help cultivate EVANGELISTS!
- Since they help companies give free stuff out to the RIGHT people who are interested, they help companies empower evangelists. For example, a mommy blogger who has been given a free premier to KungFu Panda 2 would be ecstatic! She would bring her family, perhaps her friends' families, enjoy her time here, and tweet about it!

5. Brings themselves business
- Because it has cool free stuff, it helps attract more users = more companies to partner with = more free stuff = the awesome self-sustaining vicious cycle!


Any other reasons why you think Klout Perks are super cool? Do let me know :).