Lip-Sticking

Meet me in Chicago for Game Changers: The Rules are Being Rewritten. Are You Being Left Behind?

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

I’ll be heading back again to Chicago next month to attend the PMA's Annual Marketing Conference taking place March 14-15 at the Westin Hotel. They've picked up the theme from last year's conference, Game Changers, with a new twist, "The Rules are being rewritten. Don't be left behind".

I say this theme statement is right on today. All of us have to deal with marketing in some respect and it's hard to keep up with the latest technologies, let alone understand how to use them effectively. I was just watching the Today Show yesterday morning and they were interviewing Kate Upton, this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model. She's 19 years old, virtually unknown and was discovered by the videos she has posted of herself on YouTube. She said she has now fulfilled her dream and looks forward to what this opportunity will bring her. I guess you could say she's a Game Changer!

Who, other than the Giants or Patriots, will come out winners from Super Bowl XLVI?

 By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

This Sunday I will be one of the millions watching Super Bowl XLV1 and hoping for a good game, which it should be. As I've stated in my posts over the past couple of weeks, I'm behind the New York Giants all the way and would love to see Eli Manning get another super bowl win, especially while in his brother Peyton's home stadium. I'm sure Peyton will be there also, just not on the field this year.

I'm also hoping to see some real social media integration with the advertising campaigns that we see. If the advertisers are paying an average of $3.5 million for a spot, you would think they would try and get the most bang for their bucks. Last year I called it the "Social Super Bowl" and was disappointed with the overall advertising experience. Other than posting ads on social media, the brands did very little to really engage people and integrate social media into their strategies.

Other than the Giants beating the Patriots, who else is going to come out a winner? Last year the Volkswagen Darth Vader ad scored the highest in the USA Ad Meter for best liked ad. (What was not to like?) Volkswagen utilized social media to post the ad on their blog, on YouTube and their Facebook page five days before the game and it had 13 million views before kickoff. Sine then the ad as gotten numerous awards and nearly 50 million views on YouTube.

This year Volkswagen has already launched The Bark Side, a teaser video featuring a chorus of dogs barking The Imperial March. If you haven't seen it yet, here it is. I love it and think it's brilliant (especially since I'm a sucker for doggies!). It currently has over 10 million views on YouTube. If you click through to YouTube you will also be given the opportunity to view their new game time ad called "The Dog Strikes Back".

Chevy's got a Super Bowl App and a big Game Time Sweepstakes

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

For anyone that is a true football fan, last Sunday was by far one of the most exciting NFL conference championship game days you can have. Yes, it will take a while for Raven fans to get over the missed chip-shot field goal and the 49er's to wonder what if they didn't turn over the ball in overtime. We're now moving on to Super Bowl XLVI with a big rematch between the Patriots and the Giants. As I said in my last post, I'm betting on Eli Manning and the New York Giants to be this year's champions.

The Super Bowl has now become the most active topic of the millions of us who write blogs posts and updates on Facebook, Twitter and now, Google+. In 2011, the only Facebook status update topic in the world, amongst 800 million users at the time that beat out the Packers winning Super Bowl 45 was the death of Osama bin Laden. Since many of these tweets and Facebook updates come via a mobile phone, this year General Motors and Chevrolet is adding mobile to their mix to capitalize off this.

Getting Ready for Super Bowl XLVI and those silly Doritos Contest Ads

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

It's that time of year again to be writing about one of the biggest marketing events of the year. Super Bowl XLVI will be played on February 5 in Indianapolis at Lucas Oil Stadium. Now that the Green Bay Packers and the New Orleans Saints have been eliminated, what teams do you think will win? I'm going with Eli Manning and the Giants. Here's a great article I read yesterday from the WSJ titled "Why Giants Really Could Win It All".

So the next question will be what marketing and advertising campaign will come out a winner? The team at Doritos is at it again with their sixth "Crash The Super Bowl" contest. This contest has become the grandfather of all user-generated contests. The contest finalists have now been posted and last week their submissions surged to the top of the viral video chart after generating over 1.7 million views. This year's contest received more than 6,100 entries from people hoping their video will become one of two Super Bowl ads to be televised during the game, with a possible $1 million prize if viewers rate their ad highly enough.

Social, Mobile and Presidential Campaigns to Dominate 2012

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Happy New Year! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and had some time to relax. For my last blog post of 2011 I did a review of the year and featured a post from every month. It is a tradition I have done for the past few years and its a way for me, and I hope you as well, to reflect back on the year dominate

As always with a new year we read about what many predictions and forecasts. With today being just the fourth day of the new year, and the morning after the Iowa Caucus, we already know that it is going to be a heavy political season which has just begun.

This MediaPost article is interesting which states that if we take a look at some of the recent engagement on social media we may be able to predict who will be our next President. Similar to search engine stats which have predicted what items were going to be the big holiday sellers, social media can give us a glimpse into the future as well. This company called Socialbakers has created metrics based on Facebook Likes, sentiments in comments, and interactions to identify the candidates most likely to win at the polls.

A 2011 Year in Review - a blog post from each month

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Where did 2011 go? Today is my 50th and last post of 2011 on the Lip-sticking blog. I'm planning to continue throughout 2012 and keep my Wednesday morning spot.

At the end of 2010 I wrote this 2010 Year In Review post that included what I felt were my top posts that helped to define 2010. I decided to continue the tradition so I went back and read through some of the posts that I wrote during this year. Here are my 12 top picks, one per month, that I felt reflected the pop culture of the month or that defined a major milestone or shift in marketing.

January - Social Media Monitoring tool helps businesses track who's winning on Facebook in 2011

I started off 2011 with my first post about Facebook and it's continued to be one of my most popular topics all year. I state here that 2010 was definitely the year of Facebook. The social network dominated the media towards the end of the year and this has continued throughout 2011. If you recall, Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg was named Time Magazine's 2010 Person of the Year. We were speculating a year ago on when Facebook would file for their IPO and now it's apparent that will happen sometime in second quarter of 2012. So if you haven't yet, check out this Social Media Monitor that was developed by Wildfire. It continues to be one on the resources I turn to when assisting my clients with their Facebook marketing.

Decorate Grand Marnier's Holiday Tree and they'll Donate to Charities

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

The countdown to Christmas Day is now only four days and so is the time I have left to write about the holiday promotions of 2011. So have you finished your shopping yet? From the sounds of it we have all been helping out the economy quite a bit this year, both online and in the stores. I just have one small thing left to get!

Here's another one of my favorite brands, Grand Marnier, that launched an interesting holiday promotion on their Facebook page. In the spirit of giving, Grand Marnier will be donating up to $10,000 to a deserving charity this holiday season. The "Grand Giving Tree" holiday promotion not only benefits charities, but it also giving participants a chance to win $1,000.

Users can decorate a tree by selecting a holiday ornament that represents one of three charities: the World Wildlife Fund, WaterAid America (dedicated to improving access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene in the world's poorest countries), or Cool Earth (helps indigenous communities halt deforestation one village at a time).

Home for the Holidays T-Mobile Campaign goes Viral

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

There's no Place Like Home for the Holidays. You know the saying and the song, right?  T-Mobile hired 100 women who joined their corporate spokeswoman, Carly Foulkes, back on December 1 and staged a surprise performance of this song in the Woodfield Mall outside of Chicago. We all know Carly, that striking brunette that appears in T-Mobile ads wearing that signature color, magenta dress. T-Mobile selected 100 women from different races and ethnic background, shapes and sizes, who all got to wear that same magenta dress and surprise shoppers by prancing around the mall singing that song and encouraging all to join in.

The performance was filmed by director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, who has directed several episodes of Glee. It was then edited down into a three-minute video that has now been going viral on YouTube and on the T-Mobile Facebook page. You just can't help but smile when you watch this video which is the same feeling for those that are hooked on Glee.

Advent Calendars help Facebook Pages get Fans into the Holiday Spirit

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

Many brands are turning to Facebook this holiday season to promote their marketing campaigns while trying to grow and engage their fan base. Utilizing applications to run a sweepstakes or contest, give away coupons, administer a brief survey, or to promote a charitable cause are all great ways to get people involved beyond just clicking the "Like" button.

ShortStack is one of the newer applications that I have been trying out this past year. They recently announced their new Holiday Reveal Calendar template which enables you to run a campaign where users can unlock new content on your tab each day. It's idea for a 12 days of Christmas countdown type campaign.

Once a user has opened a day they will be able to see the prize, deal, gift, or whatever that has been placed within! If the day is still locked, the user will be served a message asking them to come back later to see the hidden content. The Calendar template is completely customizable, so you can use whatever graphics and photos you wish. Here's a video you can view that gives a quick review..

iVillage uses Social Media to determine prizes in their Holidaily Sweepstakes and helps Toyota drive "Holiday Traffic"

By Guest Blogger, Donna DeClemente, Donna's Promo Talk

As this holiday season is now fully under way, I continue on with my review of some of this year's holiday promotions. While the majority of the campaigns are from retailers who are hoping to drive consumers into their stores or to their websites, this promotion from NBCUniversal’s iVillage is simply to get women to drive cars. iVillage has partnered with Toyota who is the exclusive sponsor of their "Holidaily” Sweepstakes that is giving away a prize each day up until December 22.

All the prizes being offered were determined by social media input from iVillage users’ who were asked what their most desired holiday season gifts are. iVillage invited followers on their Twitter page to use a special hashtag:  #yourwishisourcommand to tell them what gifts they want. Day one was an Amazon Kindle Fire. Today's prize that I can enter for a chance to win is this Chicco Red Bullet Bike. You have to come back each day to see what the next prize will be. If you peak at the Official Rules you can find out what all the prizes are, however, it doesn't tell you what day the prize will be offered.

The promotion is a good example of marekting to women since it also features a variety of content to assist women with their holiday shopping, including tips, and “can-do” advice, along with insights from celebrities ranging from Salma Hayek to Justin Timberlake.