Ciroc vodka saw strong engagement results from videos with integrated interactive capabilities across social media and mobile platforms shown during this year’s Super Bowl and following days, according to Ciroc’s in-house agency and the media solutions provider involved. Sean Combs, a/k/a Diddy or P. Diddy, who is in a multi-year agreement with the Diageo PLC brand wherein he gets a performance-based share of Ciroc’s profits, starred in four 15-second “Ciroc Bowl” videos released during the game. (Ciroc did not advertise during the Super Bowl itself.) Early on Super Bowl day, a Diddy intro video was released, in which he encouraged fans to watch the videos that would be posted during the game and accessible through his Twitter and Facebook accounts, vote on which was their favorite, and interact with him via social media. The videos featured Diddy engaging in novel activities like salsa dancing, jumping over a bull and curling (as well as safeguarding his Ciroc drink during a turbulent private-plane trip). Ciroc’s in-house agency, Blue Flame, timed the release of the first, Diddy-salsa-dancing video to follow the first touchdown by New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, known for doing his own salsa dance each time he scores a touchdown. At that point, rich-media banners simultaneously went live on sports-focused segments of the Say Media network --accessible both through social media and mobile. Those ads connected users to a microsite showing all four of the Diddy videos, along with the abilities to vote or comment on them, tweet to Combs (who responded to some tweets and sent out his own tweets throughout the game), or share the videos on Facebook and Twitter, without leaving the microsite. Prior to the Super Bowl, only the “Bull Jumping” video had been available online and used as a TV spot, according to Aubrey Flynn, Blue Flame’s brand content director. “Ciroc challenged us to innovate to get passive watchers of the Super Bowl to engage with the brand during the game” and build awareness of the brand’s “Perfectly Smooth” tagline, he says. Results: In three days, the ads generated 1.3 million impressions, more than 24,000 video views, and a mobile-clicks-to-Web site rate of 11% (site clicks averaged 5.7% across display and mobile). Average time spent with the ads was 25.5 seconds, versus a 20-seconds-or-fewer average rate across similar ad formats, according to Say Media president Troy Young. The ads also generated more than 4,000 social-media conversations during game day and the following two days. Ciroc also used social operating platform provider Unified to drive YouTube video views from Facebook, Twitter and other social ecosystems. Of course, Diddy’s existing social media followings didn’t hurt. As of March 6, his Facebook page shows over 1.1 million “likes,” and his Twitter account shows more than 4.97 million followers.
With everyone from Ogilvy & Mather to Aegis Group going big in social, the category can no longer be considering niche. Yet, social’s institutionalization hasn’t slowed startups and independent shops from flooding the space. Take BlogFrog, which earned a name for itself in 2009 by hatching a healthy network of female bloggers. Domestically, the network eventually grew to over 70,000 women and mom publishers -- or “mommy bloggers” -- according to BlogFrog. Now, it is pushing a social activation platform, which helps brands from Lego to Random House engage “social influencers” among niche audiences. “You might say we have automated influencer marketing through our platform,” said BlogFrog CEO and co-founder Rustin Banks. What’s more -- if betraying its name -- BlogFrog can span a variety of social channels including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. “We understand that not all influencers are bloggers,” Banks said. “For example, you can have a large YouTube or Pinterest following without ever having a blog.” That said, the company focuses on the largest influencers or "professional influencers" who still typically maintain a blog as their home base, according to Banks, adding: “Thus we are staying with the name BlogFrog for now.” To help it expand, the company just raised $3.2 million series A financing led by Grotech Ventures, along with participation from existing investors including David Cohen, founder of TechStars. To date, additional clients have included Procter & Gamble, Oreo, Tyson Foods, and Horizon Organic, according to BlogFrog. Along with encouraging advocate-driven content and conversations, the company takes the business of measuring performance metrics very seriously. As Rustin explains, BlogFrog is also investing in its automated influencer database, which crawls the Web and constantly gathers data on the comings, goings and “followings” of social media influencers. More broadly, social is literally reshaping agencies. For example, Ogilvy & Mather recently realigned its social assets into a single practice dubbed Social@Ogilvy, which aims to connect over 550 dedicated social media experts around the world, as well as strengthen ties with another 4,000 digital experts.
Ciroc vodka saw strong engagement results from videos with integrated interactive capabilities across social media and mobile platforms shown during this year’s Super Bowl and following days, according to Ciroc’s in-house agency and the media solutions provider involved. Sean Combs, a/k/a Diddy or P. Diddy, who is in a multi-year agreement with the Diageo PLC brand wherein he gets a performance-based share of Ciroc’s profits, starred in four 15-second “Ciroc Bowl” videos released during the game. (Ciroc did not advertise during the Super Bowl itself.) Early on Super Bowl day, a Diddy intro video was released, in which he encouraged fans to watch the videos that would be posted during the game and accessible through his Twitter and Facebook accounts, vote on which was their favorite, and interact with him via social media. The videos featured Diddy engaging in novel activities like salsa dancing, jumping over a bull and curling (as well as safeguarding his Ciroc drink during a turbulent private-plane trip). Ciroc’s in-house agency, Blue Flame, timed the release of the first, Diddy-salsa-dancing video to follow the first touchdown by New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, known for doing his own salsa dance each time he scores a touchdown. At that point, rich-media banners simultaneously went live on sports-focused segments of the Say Media network --accessible both through social media and mobile. Those ads connected users to a microsite showing all four of the Diddy videos, along with the abilities to vote or comment on them, tweet to Combs (who responded to some tweets and sent out his own tweets throughout the game), or share the videos on Facebook and Twitter, without leaving the microsite. Prior to the Super Bowl, only the “Bull Jumping” video had been available online and used as a TV spot, according to Aubrey Flynn, Blue Flame’s brand content director. “Ciroc challenged us to innovate to get passive watchers of the Super Bowl to engage with the brand during the game” and build awareness of the brand’s “Perfectly Smooth” tagline, he says. Results: In three days, the ads generated 1.3 million impressions, more than 24,000 video views, and a mobile-clicks-to-Web site rate of 11% (site clicks averaged 5.7% across display and mobile). Average time spent with the ads was 25.5 seconds, versus a 20-seconds-or-fewer average rate across similar ad formats, according to Say Media president Troy Young. The ads also generated more than 4,000 social-media conversations during game day and the following two days. Ciroc also used social operating platform provider Unified to drive YouTube video views from Facebook, Twitter and other social ecosystems. Of course, Diddy’s existing social media followings didn’t hurt. As of March 6, his Facebook page shows over 1.1 million “likes,” and his Twitter account shows more than 4.97 million followers.
With everyone from Ogilvy & Mather to Aegis Group going big in social, the category can no longer be considering niche. Yet, social’s institutionalization hasn’t slowed startups and independent shops from flooding the space. Take BlogFrog, which earned a name for itself in 2009 by hatching a healthy network of female bloggers. Domestically, the network eventually grew to over 70,000 women and mom publishers -- or “mommy bloggers” -- according to BlogFrog. Now, it is pushing a social activation platform, which helps brands from Lego to Random House engage “social influencers” among niche audiences. “You might say we have automated influencer marketing through our platform,” said BlogFrog CEO and co-founder Rustin Banks. What’s more -- if betraying its name -- BlogFrog can span a variety of social channels including blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest. “We understand that not all influencers are bloggers,” Banks said. “For example, you can have a large YouTube or Pinterest following without ever having a blog.” That said, the company focuses on the largest influencers or "professional influencers" who still typically maintain a blog as their home base, according to Banks, adding: “Thus we are staying with the name BlogFrog for now.” To help it expand, the company just raised $3.2 million series A financing led by Grotech Ventures, along with participation from existing investors including David Cohen, founder of TechStars. To date, additional clients have included Procter & Gamble, Oreo, Tyson Foods, and Horizon Organic, according to BlogFrog. Along with encouraging advocate-driven content and conversations, the company takes the business of measuring performance metrics very seriously. As Rustin explains, BlogFrog is also investing in its automated influencer database, which crawls the Web and constantly gathers data on the comings, goings and “followings” of social media influencers. More broadly, social is literally reshaping agencies. For example, Ogilvy & Mather recently realigned its social assets into a single practice dubbed Social@Ogilvy, which aims to connect over 550 dedicated social media experts around the world, as well as strengthen ties with another 4,000 digital experts.
More and more, we are reading articles and blog posts about the changing roles of fathers in today’s family. Recently, an Engage:Momsblog post focused on dads. Everyone seems to agree that today’s fathers are more involved and active in their role as parent and caregiver. Last month, in cooperation with the Marketing to Moms Coalition, we fielded a survey of 100 social media-savvy dads to get a sense of how technology played a part in daily fatherhood. Here are some of the results. Smartphones Rule Close to 70% of Dads indicate that they own a smartphone and use it for shopping, with the most popular use listed as “looking up store locations and hours.” Guess this dispels the myth that men don’t ask for directions. Other popular smartphone uses include keeping family and work schedules (48%) and managing grocery lists and using online coupons (37%). Social Media in the Spotlight More Dads than ever are using online tools and social media to get information, communicate with others and save money.