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Well Played: Ikea Facebook Campaign

March 16th, 2010

I recently saw this video of a Facebook campaign created around the launch of a new store Ikea in Malmo, Sweden in late 2009.  What Ikea did was very simple, easy, and smart. They created a Facebook photo album with 12 showroom pictures. Whoever tagged the product first got to keep it. The campaign quickly went viral as the online enthusiasm spread to users’ facebook profiles and newsfeeds.

Watch them explain the campaign in their own words:

Why I love this campaign:

1) Use what you have:

There was no need to develop a fancy application or create a complicated web presence. They used two existing features that most users were already familiar with: tagging pictures and the sharing functionality.

2) Clear strategic objectives:

They knew what they wanted to accomplish: get people talking about the launch of the store and spread the news to their online network. The entry barrier to participate was very low. Anyone could easily and quickly be a part of the campaign.

3) A realistic campaign life cycle:

They set a clear deadline (12 days) and the end point for the campaign was clearly communicated to all  members. As more organizations execute social media strategies our attention spans will continue to shrink. I think many organizations have a misguided notion that they have to build a long lasting community of people who will remain engaged with the brand for months.

I can see where this perspective comes from considering building an online community of active members takes a lot of time and effort and companies want to see some bang for their buck. However, Ikea proves you can have an effective campaign with a shorter life cycle that is just as effective at getting the job done. I do want to point out that I am referring to specifically branded campaigns and not Ikea’s overall web presence.

4) They incented the right actions:

It really makes me laugh. People love getting things for free. Whatever it is, if it’s free someone will happily take it. AND they’ll tell their friends about it. Ikea was able to move the online discussion beyond the boundaries of one photo album and into the digital common space by counting on the fact that people will gloat about their free loot. And it worked like a charm.Whether it was announcing that they won something, or encouraging their friends to take part it made sense for people to talk about the campaign.

Well done Ikea!!

Many thanks to my friend Kimmo Kuortti, Director of International Relations at the University of Oulu in Finland for sharing this wonderful video with me!

Posted in Blog, Well Played | 2 Comments »

Well Played! Viral Track – Funny Barack Obama Impression

January 22nd, 2009

Quick post today folks, I’m on my way to Switzerland but I wanted to say that I’m loving the new wave of Barack Obama impressions that are popping up. I find them hilarious. Here are three of my favorites:

First up, I love this series of videos of Barack Obama’s uncanny voice speaking the lyrics of “Bringing Sexy Back” and “Izzo” by Jay-Z.

This one also cracked me up, it’s a spoof of Obama preparing for the debate trying out things that he could say. “What is the straight talk express, a short bus? No, I can’t say that. Too Unprofessional.”  LOL.

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Well Played! Harper the dictator? New Viral Video Hits the Web

December 4th, 2008

Funny how only a few weeks ago we were complaining at how boring Canadian elections were. We longed for the drama and pizazz of the US, and it looks like we got our wish. Thanks to an unprecedented and extremely disappointing ruling by the Governor General to suspend parliament until Jan 26, PM Harper gets a reprieve from the no confidence voice that has been brewing over the last few months. Anyway, I am NOT a fan of Harper or his closed minded policies, and I really resent the GG swooping in in her role as the Queen’s representative (hello, outdated!) and interfering.

This video has started to make the rounds, it’s a clip of a German movie where Hitler has just received some very bad news from the troops. He doesn’t take it well. This has been a favorite viral video as many people have added their own subtitles and several versions have been circulating.  We can now add Harper to the list of video spinoffs. This is actually pretty funny, especially the part where he talks about Jack Layton cycling to work.

Hopefully, this will be the first of many creative ways to engage Canadians in the political process. Let’s hope more Canadians come out and start expressing their opinions.

If you found that video enjoyable, you’ll want to check out some of the other Hitler Spoofs:

Hitler Loses his Bike

Hitler rides a Honda

Hitler Gets Banned from World of Warcraft

Posted in Tech & New Media, Well Played | 3 Comments »

Well Played: Free and Easy iPhone Ring Tunes by Audiko.net

December 1st, 2008

Audiko. Just cut & shareI was trying to download some iPhone ringtones off of iTunes the other day without much luck. None of the songs that I wanted were available, and the Canadian store selection is pretty limited to begin with, so I was just about certain that this was going to be yet another case where Canadians got the technological shaft (aka the Kindle, TiVO, and every other cool gadget.)

So you can imagine my delight when I came across Audiko.net , a site that not only has an extensive iPhone ringtone collection, but that also lets you turn any mp3 into a ringtone as well. Oh, and did I mention that it’s free??

Create a custom tone, or choose from a wide selection:

You can either upload your favorite tune from your computer, or enter a URL and Audiko will download it for you. They even have the option of converting ringtones from youtube. My favorite feature is that you get to choose the fragment that you want, so if you love the chorus, then you can create a ringtone that only has that part of the song. You can also browse the ringtones that other people have uploaded, so you usually find that someone else had the same bright idea as you and has already done all the hard work!

Laziness + Free= Awesome

Easy and Painless Downloading:

Once you have selected your ringtone, just click on the “download ringtone for iPhone.” Once the download is complete, clicking on it will send it straight to your ringtone folder in iTunes. The next time you sync, it will transfer everythign over and voila: a brand new library of songs for your enjoyment.

Enjoy!!

Posted in Well Played | 3 Comments »