Filed under: apps, facebook, marketing — kevin @ August 29, 2008

Context just recently launched engaging applications for five major brands:

Kraft One Minute Mogul: Oscar Mayer has a new line of delicious sandwiches – so good that apparently once you try them you’re hooked!  So Kraft and Ogilvy worked with Context to build an social game on the Facebook platform that encourages trial through coupons.  It’s a very innovative approach to tying online viral marketing to offline store purchases, and we’re excited to see how it goes.

Travel Channel Kidnap!: Travel Channel wants to use a Facebook application to drive traffic to their site, which is always a challenge (people love Facebook, why ever leave?).  So Travel and Rapp Collins worked with Context to build a social game where users kidnap their friends to far off places – and in order to escape the hostage must answer a question (then answer for which can be found on Travel Channel).  The app includes sophisticated Flash and heavy graphics to meet Travel Channel’s branding guidelines and has seen significant growth since it launched a couple weeks ago.  Try to escape!

Absolut Top Bartender: Absolut launched its Facebook page for Absolut Top Bartender.  In partnership with NBC, Absolut is sponsoring a series of 5 events in 6 key US markets - New York, Chicago, LA, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas - in a search for the best bartender.  NBC will film and distribute the real world competition, and all online activity - bartender registration, event organization and promotion, and voting for the best bartender - will be managed by Context using Facebook applications we built for Absolut’s page.

Miller Today I’m Toasting: Miller was looking to engage young people online in an interactive and social way.  To meet their goals, Miller and Digitas worked with Context to design and build a toasting application that celebrates everyday with fun random holidays.  The application is one of the first branded alcohol apps to launch on Facebook that uses Facebook’s age-gating technology, limiting interactions with the app to those over 21.  Did you know that today is Less Salt Day?  I’ll toast to that!

Microsoft Got Pies: Microsoft launched its fourth Facebook app with Context, this one called Got Pies to promote IE8.  IE8 includes a new web slices feature, which allows users to monitor content on websites via the toolbar.  The app allows users to create ’slices’ (in this case slices of pie) and share them with friends, as well as see updates to their friends’ slices via a ‘virtual webslice,’ and for users of IE8, monitor the most popular user-created pies via an actual web slice.

Enjoy!

Filed under: apps, facebook, marketing, press — kevin @ July 7, 2008

Over the weekend the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article on brands moving onto Facebook - and started the article with reference to the Office Poke application we built for Microsoft:

Throw a stapler at a Facebook friend, courtesy of Microsoft Office. Become a fan of Victoria’s Secret Pink to discuss favorite bra colors…

The full article can be found on SFGate.com.

Filed under: facebook, marketing, press — kevin @

Context Optional was featured on this week’s Marketing Voices Podcast with Jennifer Jones. In the interview Jennifer asks about some of the successful social marketing projects we’ve done with Microsoft and Electronic Arts.

Take a listen!

Filed under: marketing — kevin @ June 21, 2008

Ogilvy, one of our clients, recently shot this interesting interview with Vinton Cerf, widely called the “Father of the Internet” and now Google’s Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, talking about how social media platforms such as OpenSocial can help brands find the right customers for their products.

Filed under: marketing — kevin @ June 15, 2008

Interestingly enough, BusinessWeek wrote a prescient article a few years ago called “Blogs Will Change Your Business.” They recently decided to revisit the topic, as even though it’s been just a few years, much has changed. For example, Friendster is no longer the top social network.

The newly updated article from earlier this month (now rightly retitled “Social Media Will Change Your Business” states:

“But blogs, it turns out, are just one of the do-it-yourself tools to emerge on the Internet. Vast social networks such as Facebook and MySpace offer people new ways to meet and exchange information. Sites like LinkedIn help millions forge important work relationships and alliances. New applications pop up every week. While only a small slice of the population wants to blog, a far larger swath of humanity is eager to make friends and contacts, to exchange pictures and music, to share activities and ideas.

These social connectors are changing the dynamics of companies around the world. Millions of us are now hanging out on the Internet with customers, befriending rivals, clicking through pictures of our boss at a barbecue, or seeing what she read at the beach. It’s as if the walls around our companies are vanishing and old org charts are lying on their sides.

This can be disturbing for top management, who are losing control, at least in the traditional sense. Workers can fritter away hours on YouTube. They can use social networks to pillory a colleague or leak secrets. That’s the downside, and companies that don’t adapt are sure to get lots of it.

But there’s an upside to the loss of control. Ambitious workers use these tools to land new deals and to assemble global teams for collaborative projects. The potential for both better and worse is huge, and it’s growing—and since 2005 the technologies involved extend far beyond blogs. So our first fix is to lose “blogs” from our headline. The revised title: “Social Media Will Change Your Business.”"

The article goes on to state that Dell’s service on Twitter has brought in half a million dollars of new orders in the last year.

Just one of the many ways companies could (and should) be using social networks for marketing and advertising.

Filed under: apps, marketing — kevin @

People often ask about the differences between widgets and applications. Widgets are typically stand-alone pieces of embeddable code. Widgets are great for viral marketing, as users can cut and paste code from a widget to embed on their own site or blog. Widgets were all the world had until May of 2007, when Facebook launched their Platform, and applications were born.

Applications tie into the social communication channels of the host social network, such as Facebook, MySpace, hi5, or Bebo. Typically applications can’t be cut and paste outside of the host social network, but within the network applications are very easy to share. Applications allow for more interactivity, as they operate as full websites within the host environment.

Some typical differences between widgets and applications-

WIDGETS	APPLICATIONS
Widgets are primary for self-expression	Applications are about being social and communicating
Widgets are stand-alone	Applications are integrated into social network platforms
Widgets live anywhere and work on any site	Applications are at their best when deeply integrated into the host site
Widgets are easy to grab and share via embed code	Applications are easy to share via communication channels inside the social network
Widgets leave brands exposed to user-generated content	Applications typically have control of the full-page where the application resides
Widgets are typically small bits of content that act as teasers to lead to other content	Applications are at their best engaging and all encompassing, not requiring a visit to another site for a full experience
Widgets spread when users grab code and post the widget on their own page	Applications spread through sharing within friend networks (typically 5-10x more viral than widgets)
Widgets are best when the focus is on photos, video, music	Applications are most successful when focused on friends, text, interactive games, and interesting content

Filed under: events, marketing — kevin @

Dave McClure was kind enough to invite me to speak at Graphing Social Patterns East earlier in the week. The workshop I lead was Viral Marketing Advertising Strategies for Social Networks, which was quite fun to lead, since that’s what Context Optional does. I’ve inserted the presentation below–

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Btw, this Slideshare thing is very cool. I posted the presentation 5 days ago, and it’s already been viewed 1500 times!