Right it's time for a rare serious discussion.
Obviously in the digital age it’s more important than ever
for brands to be seen as engaging and interactive, to be ‘down with kids’. With
all the social media flying around it’s even easier for brands to engage with
their customers as witnessed by facebook’s new brand pages. Social media is
undoubtedly important as it allows brands to effectively monitor and respond to
their customers, but I can’t help but feel that too many brands are using it
unnecessarily. After all, really great brands have been around longer than the
internet.
Yes it’s important to be up to date on the latest technology
but many brands are using social media just because it’s what everyone else is
doing not because it’s effective. For example, one of my biggest peeves is tv
ad characters on twitter. I get the idea, but they’re trying to emulate the
success of such massive twitter characters as The Queen or Feral Pigeon; but with
brand engagement. They’re not funny, they’re not organic and they’re not
effective.
Tries to be entertaining with his cute
little ‘baby waves’, however is
ultimately creepy. Now it may just be me, but a baby commenting on current
affairs is not my idea of hilarity.
-
Desire
to have kids = dramatically reduced
-
Desire
to buy nappies = none whatsoever
2 2)
Compare the Market – Aleksander Orlov: 52,604
Followers
This is slightly more entertaining with his
humorous use of poor English and a little but cuter than Alfie. However this:
‘Today I bring Sergei beetle juice, I squeeze the beetles myself. I hope he
enjoy.’ just doesn’t do it for me.
-
Need to correct poor English = Mild
-
Need to change my car insurance = Non-existent.
3)
Vision Express – Bud the Monkey: 73 Followers
Again I get this what it’s trying to do,
but it’s just trying too hard.
‘Just cooked the most amazing Sunday lunch.
Really looking forward to eating it.’ With a link to a picture of a banana. I
just did not see that coming. My sides...
-
Urge to have a banana = abnormally high
-
Urge to buy spectacles = nil
What worries me is that they are actually PAYING someone to
do this. Can I be paid to do this? As apparently monkeys, or indeed meerkats
can do it.
Now before you accuse me of being a negatron, I’m not. There
are some truly great examples of brand social media interaction, my current
favourite being Boobstagram.
Boobstagram is a french movement (cunningly) devised by two
men to raise awareness for breast cancer. Simply email or hashtag boobstagram with a pic of your bra covered boobs and watch said breasts be uploaded to their website, twitter and facebook, along with MANY others.
Based around the strapline ‘Showing your breasts on the internet is good,
showing them to your doctor is better’, it’s going to have a certain appeal to
women (and more than likely a higher proportion of men) but it’s a truly
effective campaign. For one thing it’s organic – it’s not just some guy on twitter
pretending to be a monkey – it’s almost completely user-created. It’s also entertaining,
memorable and therefore effective.
-
Desire to upload a pictures of my breasts =
unlikely.
-
Desire to show my breasts to my doctor = high.
