I am quite sure that if you are like me, always monitoring what is going on with Social Media and new online marketing trends, then you have seen already the Old Spice Media Campaign that basically exploded some days ago and it is now considered as one of the most popular viral campaigns in history.

What is this campaign about?

Well, Old Spice and its marketing agency Wieden + Kennedy hired Isaiah Mustafa, an ex football player and actor, to be the “ridiculously handsome” Old Spice Guy.  He appeared in a Super Bowl ad this year and continued the campaign by appearing in around 180 online videos answering directly to the users that have been posting or commenting about him in many social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Reddit.  Within the persons he responds to, there are celebrities and reporters.

The Old Spice guy recorded his video responses in rapid succession. His answers were a key mix of coolness and the stuff Internet memes are made of.

How it was done?

A team of “creatives, tech geeks, marketers and writers” gathered in an undisclosed location in Portland, Oregon to produce the videos. Organized by Wieden + Kennedy, the group tracked the questions that came after Old Spice solicited them.

Iain Tait, Global Interactive Creative Director at Wieden credits the close work between the technical and social media specialists and the creative team. “In the room there are two social media guys and a tech guy who built a system pulling in comments from around the web all together in real time,” he told Read Write Web.

“The social media guys and script writers are collaborating to make that call in real time. We have people shooting and we’re editing it as it happens. Then the social media guys are looking at how to get that back out around the web…in real time.”

The numbers

According to Mashable, up to this Tuesday the numbers are:

* Number of videos made: 180+
* Number of video views: 5.9 million
* Number of comments: 22,500

Experts say that Wieden + Kennedy have set a standard marketing experts will admire and follow in the years to come. “This is the future of marketing”

More here:

http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/old-spice-social-media-campaign/
http://www.marketingvox.com/behind-the-scenes-of-the-old-spice-guy-campaign-047345
http://mashable.com/2010/07/15/old-spice-stats/

Some predictions for the Internet in 10 years.

Via Intac

A great thing happening around Social Media is that people can get with ease a lot of information about their interests.  In the Social Media era, people can -finally- get rid of all the Noise and grab the Signal.

One of the most interesting uses of social networks such as Facebook or Twitter is the approach given by the sector of Arts and Culture.  It is still quite impressive how many digital marketing or social media agencies have not realized this great opportunity, and are letting Museums or Galleries go by their own in the use of social networks.

Browsing across the Internet I found an interesting blog, called “Museum Marketing“, written by Jim Richardson, who posted an interesting article about how Museums can start working on Twitter.

Despite the specific objective of teaching Museums how to start using the social network, the tips might be useful for companies or organizations too.  So, if you are running a museum, or a company, who wants to start with Social Media, you should first read this.

If you have a Facebook fan page I am sure that you want to have some statistics and metrics about it.  To add Google Analytics to your fan page you just have to follow these steps:

1. Setup Google Analytics Account.
2. Create your custom img tag for each of your pages you like to track. For that purpose you can use this tool.
3. Add the custom image html tag to the bottom of each page that you need to track.

If you need additional information or want the solution for advanced users, then you should definitely read the WebDigi blog.

A recent study by Semiocast revealed that just 4% of all the messages on Twitter are in Spanish:

• English – 50%
• Japanese  – 14%
• Portuguese – 9%
• Malay – 6%
• Spanish – 4%
• Others – 17% (less than 2% each)

Read the full story at Online Media Gazzete

Is there something PR professionals can learn from dating sites? Sure! Those websites have been very successful because they commit to transparency and simplicity, in other words, users get what the site is offering, in a clear an expedited way.

This week Conversation Agent posted around this topic and highlighted 8 things PR people can learn from dating sites:

1. Clarity of intent – Dating sites are efficient and honest.
2. It is about people, not numbers – There is no “follower” count.
3. Simplicity rules – There are no complications, just easy steps.

For the rest, click here.

Earlier this week it was shared on Twitter the way Facebook measures happiness of its users, by analyzing the status updates and counting the positive words people use they got into some interesting conclusions:

• People who do not disclose their relationship status on FB are about 50% more negative than everyone else.
• People who are in a relationship or marriage do seem to be happier than everyone else.

If you are interested, you should read the rest.

Take a look at this great presentation by Shiv Singh from Razorfish about the importance of Social Media as part of the marketing mix. Explore how some companies have evolved from the Brand voice, to the Social voice and even to the Social Brand.  The point is that you’re never going to buy again anything alone, now you are influencing and been influenced by others, everyday.

Via Online Media Gazette

Trendstream published last November an interesting Infographic about Social Web Involvement to visualize in a map the number of active bloggers, social networkers, video sharers, photo uploaders and microbloggers in each of the most important markets in the World.

In the case of Mexico the numbers are:

• 52.9% upload photos online
• 40.2% manage a social network profile
• 25.6% write own blog
• 22.1% upload a video online
• 13.7% use a micro-blogging service

See the rest.

Few days ago Wired posted an article about the newest approach from Adidas on Augmented Reality as part of a campaign to be launched in February. Adidas shoes will come with codes in the tongue that allow you to hold it up to a web cam and launch a 3D world right in the palm of your hands.

Adidas plans to introduce three games into the virtual neighborhood. The sneakers will then serve not only as the key to get in, but also act as the controller for the games.

Augmented Reality has been said to be one of the trends for this year, but in fact it is not something new.  Four years ago, Latin American agencies such as Iconolab, were already working with that technology for digital marketing campaigns.

Read more | Via  DigitalBuzz

Just found these 10 Rules for augmenting the fun and beauty when designing interaction:

1. Don’t think products, think experiences.
2. Don’t think beauty in appearance, think beauty in interaction.
3. Don’t think ease of use, think enjoyment of the experience.
4. Don’t think buttons, think rich actions.
5. Don’t think labels, think expressiveness and identity.

These were taken from the Funology book: “Let’s Make things Engaging” by Overbeeke et. al.

Continue reading the list.

So you have done everything but your Social Media Marketing is still not working? Maybe:

1. You Chose the Wrong Channels
2. You Used the Wrong People
3. Your Content Sucked
4. Your Team Didn’t Believe in the Project

For knowing what else you might did wrong click here, you will even find how to fix it.

Ever wondered what people is tweeting about your presentation?
You can incorporate Twitter within your PowerPoint presentation both to be an active participant as well as to gather feedback from the audience.

See how it works in MakeUseof

Check these great videos introducing some of the features of Chrome.  Why is Google Chrome fast? How tabs work in Google Chrome? How Themes work in Chrome?

Via Digital Inspiration

Facebook released some statistics yesterday: 350 million users, 1.6 billion messages sent by day, 2000 photos are uploaded per second…  and btw, FarmVille (69 million) has more users than Twitter (18 million expected for 2009).

Via Download Squad