Kudos to Doodle 4 Google

One of my favorite examples of Internet marketing is "Doodle 4 Google". This fun Google campaign gets points for keeping their brand image naturally fresh by giving away brand ownership to the consumer and supporting the great cause of education and the creative self expression of children.

Doodles are known as the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists. Whether it is the beginning of Spring, Albert Einstein's birthday, or the 50th anniversary of understanding DNA, doodles on the Google homepage have made searching on Google more fun and enjoyable for its users worldwide. Many users excitedly anticipate the release of each new doodle and collect them!

This year Google is inviting U.S. kids to exercise their creative imaginations around the theme, "What I’d like to do someday…" One lucky student artist will take home a $15,000 college scholarship and $25,000 technology grant for their school. The judges for this years contest include actress Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Davis, Creator, "Garfield" Comic Strip. This year’s contest partners are the Whitney Museum of American Art, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Girl Scouts of the USA.

As Google puts it, "Having a little bit of fun with the corporate logo by redesigning it from time to time is unheard of at many companies but at Google, it is a part of the brand. While the doodle is primarily a fun way for the company to recognize events and notable people, it also illustrates the creative and innovative personality of the company itself."

Revolutioning the Music Scene?

So one thing I have noticed has been a huge trend, is the way the music industry has used internet marketing heavily to promote artists. And in the spirit of advertising, I will make a plug for a friends band, Ivan and Alyosha. Not just to give them a shameless plug, but because its through their increased marketing efforts that I realized how incredibly powerful and useful their advertising had become.
They used to just send out emails to whoever signed up for their email lists notifying them of upcoming shows. But then I started getting hit from all directions. Twitter updates, facebook messages and events, email blasts that had actual formated graphics, youtube videos, websites promoting tours and raising travel funds.
The following is true of indie music in general, but in Seattle specifically, people love to have 'their bands'. Bands that are not neccessarily mainstream yet, so they feel like they are one of the rare people discovering them, they almost have a personal investment in the band. And with the use of word of mouth marketing and advertising on things like facebook, twitter, and email campaigns for their CD releases and upcoming shows, people are exetremely willing, and actually excited to tell people about 'their bands'. So internet marketing and all digital media has really given a huge job to indie music.

http://ivanandalyosha.com/media

http://www.facebook.com/ivanandalyosha?ref=ts

Ignighter

Fast growing dating site business model is decided by internet. Ignighter is a unique dating site for twentysomethings that are interested in going on large group dates. They allow you to forget the traditional awkward and uncomforable blind dates and focus on doing fun activities with friends. Ignighters inital target market was the US and they actively promoted at universities and by hosting parties. Business seemed okay but a few years in the business owners started seeing a trend amoung new customers in Southeast Asia and India. After some time they realized the reasoning. Many cultures have different dating habits and when it comes to people in these regions one often sees restrictions put on men and women interacting with the opposite sex without supervision. Ignighter quickly changed their internet marketing approach and has seen as many new users sign up in one week in India as an entire year in the US. Most of their promoting is now through facebook with 2M users.

www.ignighter.com

Constantly Connected

E-mailing marketing is not an easy task for the average Joe Marketing Director with no graphic designing background. With the help of this effective tool, Constantcontact.com, sending out mass e-mails to previous and future customers has become something that shouldn't scare people anymore. A free 30 day trial had me hooked and coming back for the paid subscribtion, attending seminars to better my skills, and creating some beautiful (and rather helpful) marketing pieces that have been emailed out to any address I can get my hands on. With templates, pictures, and a tracking page, it has literally changed my e-mails from looking tacky and unprofessional to masterpieces that I print to keep in a porfolio. It can show who opens the email, if they subscribe or click onto other links on the page, as well as allowing people to remove themselves from my mailing list if they wish. I can send out information about all the promotions happening around the restaraunt, as well as informing people about the happening around the neighborhood. The team that works behind the scenes is exceptionally helpful, and at anytime I have a question, they are available nearly around the clock to help me though. If anyone is in need of an outstanding e-mail marketing took, I hightly recomment Constantcontact.com for any of your promotional needs.

Toddlers

At this moment for me there are two web sites that I really love and they have just the right info for me.

1. Baby Center: since I was pregnant they send me every Thursday news about the development of my baby. Even now I search for any topic related with my LO and have the comments from other moms that have the same situation. I share this information with my hubby so we can learn more about the new milestones of our son. Other great thing about BC are the coupons for baby stuff that they send me for diapers, wipes, etc.

www.babycenter.com


2. Red Tricycle Seattle: with my toddler running all over the place and rainy days I need extra help to find some indoor activities that are safe and fun for him. I love their contest via Facebook and they also have the "Happy Mom Monday Tip" with great info.

www.redtri.com/seattle

Groupon madness!

Groupon! www.groupon.com I don’t know anyone who haven't heard of Groupon. It’s become viral! It’s a great marketing opportunity for businesses and way to increase their future foot traffic. People really respond to deals that are over 50% discount, who wouldn’t? However, for a business’s standpoint, (especially smaller to medium size) there is no cap on how much would be sold to help protect the business from too much loss – Groupon wouldn’t want it any other way – according to a small café in Portland (Possie’s café) who agreed to get advertised on Groupon which was featured on March 9^th 2010. Although they met new customers, the business lost nearly $8,000 with their Groupon campaign (http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2010/09/groupon-gone-wrong-one-customers-sad-tale.html) Groupon CEO Andrew Mason had stated that the companies do have caps. Perhaps, Possie’s café didn’t fight or negotiated enough on the uptake, or perhaps the Groupon advertising deal (%loss vs gain) wasn’t quite clear enough.

So, if Groupon approaches your business to be part of their network, make sure you understand what you’re getting into and learned from Possie’s cafés story. Though this Groupon retrospect almost put me on borderline boycotting Groupon, I’ve learned something and that is, like the sad tale link above, stated in the end, fight for everything!

Suffice it to say, I am not boycotting Groupon, in fact I like Groupon, it’s effective and have bought many of their featured groupons in the past. It is a service mail advertising, I’m religious about opening up my email from Groupon to check out everyday deals – sadly enough it’s sometimes exciting!

Two Million Feet and Climbing EH!!!

A couple of years ago a friend forwarded a youtube link of a Canadian backcountry skier named Greg Hill based in Revelstoke British Columbia, which is in the heart of the Selkirk Mountains and IMHO some of the most epic backcountry skiing in the world. 

I was hooked and have been following his exploits for several years.  Last year he climbed and skied 2 million vertical feet in one year traveling to South America during the summer to chase the endless winter, an amazing accomplishment. 

During his quest for 2 million feet, one of his equipment sponsors, backcountry.com came up with a great contest to guess his total vertical feet climbed each week as he approached his goal with the chance to win great backcountry ski gear.  Needless to say I was hooked, it was a great lifestyle related marketing campaign using web based video and pictures to connect all of us desk chair jockey's wishing we were out there!

http://www.greghill.ca/  I recommend watching the video clip titled Mt. Steele at bottom of the home page.

IHOP- free pancakes today! :)

I was browsing through some Facebook pages for this homework and I came across IHOP. I found out that it's National Pancake Day today, so you get free pancakes!

They promote their food and events on their Facebook page, just like other restaurants. But, what caught my attention is the store locator application on their facebook page. I always see store locator tabs on websites, but never on a social media site. That alone made me think this is a good example of internet marketing. They're not just advertising their deals; they're also giving their customers a call to action. It's a good strategy since after seeing their promotions, people would want to eat at IHOP. The store locator application makes it easier and more convenient for customers.

http://www.facebook.com/IHOP

Gilt Groupe!

Check out Gilt.com. It's a designer discount website for women, men...recently they added Jetsetter, which gives great deals on travel and its a personal recommendation from the employees at Gilt. Great deals, very smart concept, and everyone is crazy for it.

http://www.gilt.com/sale/women

Local deal sites rock!

• Dozen artisan cupcakes? yes
• One month fitness studio membership? yes
• Wine tasting? yes
• Amazon gift certificate? yes
• Trapeze lessons? yes

From the practical to the whimsical, I have bought it all on sites like groupon, living social and tippr. It’s soooo nice when I open my morning’s email & start the daily grind, a little email will pop up offering an escape. I am open to the idea of anything at 7:30 am. Why not? It gives me 5 minutes of diversion before starting my day. It’s like window shopping black Friday deals every morning.

I think it’s very smart these sites email their deals early in the day (usually between 7-9 AM), because that is generally when many working professionals start their days. Marketers who send their messages super early (4-6 AM), presumably with the idea they’ll be first in my inbox, get their messages buried. Between 7-9 AM I’m not in my full swing yet & distracted and sometimes I’m even sleepy enough to buy something without thinking on it.

One area these sites might want to explore is partnering with local grocery & drug stores, offering $20 off purchases of $65, that type of thing. With these sites, I’ve tried many retailers I would not have otherwise, and have become a repeat customer. It might be a good way for stores like Metropolitan Market or Pharmaca, that are perceived as pricier than other retailers but offer very good quality, to attract a new market segment.

Big, Strong Amazon

I despaired of coming up with a single winner until it occurred to me that I almost always buy more than I anticipated shopping with Amazon. They have offers like free shipping if you just purchase one more little thing. They suggest loads of products similar to the one I just put in my cart. They dangle tempting books to add to my list. Honestly, I can't think of a single additional spot on line, Facebook included (although they try their hardest to target me with wrinkle cream) that succeeds in making me buy.

Sports and Food Anyone...

Some friends of mine recently started their own collective blog which started out as a group of passionate writers doing what they do best, writing about what they know...Sports and Food.
They started out spreading the news about their new endeavor by reaching out to friends and family through Facebook and Twitter highlighting the hot spots to watch local sports and enjoy some tasty treats and beverages while doing so.

The stories then evolved into personal interviews with pro athletes and local business owners. The site SportsandFood.com gained quite a following over a short period of time. Because of all the interest and chatter they've struck a loose partnership with ESPN. While they are not getting any revenue from this partnership presently they are getting national exposure which is helping their appeal to potential advertisers. They've also been linked to Yahoo, the Washington Post and the Today Show.

Over the next few months SportsandFood.com will be re-launching their site with sponsorships and advertisements. What started as some information between friends talking about sports, local hot spots, and dives where groups can meet up to watch the big game has blossomed into the next site that everyone will be discussing over beers at your local watering hole.

I guess this goes to show that the power of social media can truly empower any idea and turn it into a money maker.

http://www.sportsandfood.com/
http://espn.go.com/espn/page2/index?id=6167117

Conexion Marketing is a local Hispanic marketing business run by Lauri Jordana, a well-known business owner in the local Hispanic community, that has nicely carved out a niche for herself and seen it grow, in many ways thanks to her personal efforts.


I had known Lauri Jordana for some time now, because of my own links to the Hispanic community and because of my personal interest in marketing to Hispanics. Lauri has done a fantastic job by helping gather research on Hispanic consumers in the Seattle area. I had seen her ability to continue expanding her network via her more recent efforts on Twitter and via her personal blog.


She is not only a frequent Twitter contributor, but has used this tool to spread the word about local events, Latino issues, and Hispanic marketing to a large audience who follows her because of the consistency of her message.


www.twitter.com/LauriJordana

http://noesmuytipico.blogspot.com

Toyota Auto-Biography

On the Toyota USA Facebook page they created Auto-biography. This allows Toyota car owners to go on and share their story about their car, create their own Auto-biography. It could be about a road trip, how long they've had the car, the name you gave it etc. They even encourage you to include a few animations/illustrations and it might be picked to be featured on the Facebook page. They currently have 16 featured and some of the auto-biographies have been featured in Toyota TV commercials.

Toyota has done a great job with this marketing campaign. It has the customer do the marketing for them. It has created a community for the Toyota owner and allows them to share their story with the world, they are "bringing auto-biographies to life." It makes it personal and fun but also provides lots of consumer reviews on their Facebook page . It has made it easy and given customers a reason to talk about their cars and experiences.

http://www.facebook.com/toyota?v=app_134501369897299

Blogging can be good for business

One company that I follow the blog for is Seattle Boudoir Photography (more because they are a client and I happen to love the photographer). However, after re-doing their website, and really learning what social media can do for them, they are starting to really blog about what is going on. Recently they posted the following: Seattle Boudoir Photography

As far as marketing goes, it's a great collaboration between them and 2 other companies, targeting women in an area that women actually care about. Not only did SBP blog about it, they also posted it on their facebook page with links to the other companies involved, as well as the other two companies linking back to SBP.

Facebook got me to create a little art

Once upon a time I was an artist. But these days I use all the usual excuses to explain why I'm not being creative - time, money and space (charcoal really is messy).

But one day last fall, the Art House Co-op asked their current artists to post on FB that they were participating in the Sketchbook Project. I saw the post, clicked on the link, and within 5 minutes had paid the $20 to participate. The Co-op had found a project that appealed to professional arts and soccer moms: Fill out a small, inexpensive sketchbook with any medium within 5 months and mail it in.

The project had the write amount of direction and free-reign, the price and audience was right and the price was affordable, but high enough that I would follow through since I had invested money in this thing. I have seen no other ads for this company or the project, aside from that one FB post.

http://arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject