When brands give back.. its cool :)

Hi guys, welcome back to Limitless Skylines! Being the last post on e-marketing, I would like to extend my gratitude for your follows and your never-ending support via comments !

Brands often ask their fans for likes, shares and follows on social media.

When B R A N D S give back, its C O O L ! Sometimes, to show their thanks, brands do cool and unexpected things! It’s these instances of brands turning online relationships into real-life experiences for their fans and followers that make brands seem more human.

Check out a couple of examples of brands that found ways to surprise and reward their fans in real life. It just shows that even small gestures from brands to their fans can create a large impact!!!

1. Virgin Atlantic

As part of its “Flying in the Face of Ordinary” campaign, in March Virgin Atlantic decided to send its marketing team and cabin crew members to cheer up people in Boston by making special deliveries and doing good deeds for people who weren’t having the best of days.

The company looked at its Twitter followers to find people in Boston tweeting about things like having to wait in the snow for a train or other everyday annoyances. The Virgin Atlantic team reached out to these people via Twitter direct messages to locate them and arrange things like delivering 100 cupcakes to a blogger and his coworkers and giving a women a ride to a business meeting and preparing her for the cold with a pair of gloves and a hat. Virgin Atlantic brought this effort to other cities too, like Washington and New York.

2. Samsung

Last August, Samsung customer Shane Bennett took to Facebook to ask the mobile phone brand for a free Galaxy S3. Bennett also included a cute drawing of a dinosaur going “Rawr!” you know, for brownie points. Samsung responded playfully explaining why it couldn’t give him a free phone and also included a drawing of a kangaroo on a unicycle to return the drawing favour.

The whole exchange obviously ended up on Reddit and created a lot of positive buzz for Samsung, so Samsung ended up actually giving Bennett a free Galaxy S3 with a custom design: Bennett’s dinosaur drawing. That’s a pretty awesome gift from a brand.

3. Taco Bell

Taco Bell recently created a set of eight custom Taco Bell rings to send to its influential Twitter followers. The ring set included two rings, one that says “Taco” and the other “Bell.” The recipients of the rings happily tweeted and Instagram-ed pictures of their new rings.

Cool eh?! Have you guys seen anything like this? Kindly share your moments!!

Thank you for following me all the while! Have a good one!

Till then goodbye- dan 🙂

Nokia – Tech Giant of the Past?

Hi guys! Welcome back to Limitless Skylines! Im sure that Nokia brings back nostalgic moments yeah? (p.s. Nokia 3310) 😛

Here’s a bit to Nokia’s background ! Microsoft recently announced a $7.2billion deal to buy over the entire Nokia operations. How will this affect Nokia & Microsoft as a consolidated entity, we won’t know till in due time.

Here’s a video reminding us of why customers still love Nokia!

“If there’s one thing we learned over the years, it’s this. You put your trust in our hands. What we put in yours, has to match!” – quotes Nokia.

Nokia has really stepped up its competition via social media! Here’s a couple of hilarious videos found in youtube!!

HINT: CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR THE VIDEOS 🙂

Nokia is also going down the path of sponsoring famous bloggers, vlogers and etc to spread the word about their gadget, sometimes even before the release of its product!!

Here are an interesting video Ive found which, basically summarises what we think of when we hear about Nokia! (basically INDESTRUCTIBLE !!)

ACTION STARTS AT 4.08!

For a better read, you can read it here: http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/04/26/the-nokia-lumia-920-space-mission-in-pictures/

Nokia is still far behind, only controlling 4-5% of the market! How and what would happen to it; only time can tell! However, Nokia has expanded into the online world to continue spreading its messages!

So, what do you think after watching these videos ? 😀 do leave your thoughts below 🙂

Signing out- dan!

 

Doodles :D

Wonder what this is about?

The Google Doodle is an artistic version of the Google logo. Google Doodles represent events like holidays, anniversaries, or current events. Some of the doodles were limited to Google’s country specific home pages while others appeared globally.

In its continued quest to make its homepage an interesting place to land, Google has been playing around with its doodle on numerous occasions.

As unveiling the latest doodle becomes an almost daily experience, here’s some of Google’s most colourful collection of interactive cartoons to bring you the famous faces and iconic moments to be etched into Google homepage history.

HINT: CLICK ON THE PICTURE to go to the doodle!! 😀

Les Paul

Google’s Les Paul doodle in June celebrated the founder of the electric guitar’s 96th birthday by letting anyone strum their own tune and save the recording for playback to others.

There’s no way official way to measure how “popular” a Google doodle is, but judging the immense positive reaction online, this was certainly one of the most popular for 2011 if not ever.

Within two days, over 40 million songs were recorded, Google notes on its page about the doodle, where you can still play the virtual guitar today.

Lunar Eclipse

The Google Lunar Eclipse logo plays a video illustrating how it would look, for those unable to see it.

Jim Henson

In September, the Google Jim Henson logo celebrated what would have been the Muppets creator’s 75th birthday with an interactive logo allowing you to control some muppets yourself.

Halloween

To end October, the Google Halloween Logo went real life, where 6,000 pounds of pumpkins were carved to produce a video that played in the doodle, ending in a glowing logo.

Earth Day

Yet another animated logo in April was Google Earth Day logo, where hovering your mouse over the image made various animals appear!

The Internet search giant steers so much of the internet’s traffic; it could potentially have many ramifications to any change it makes. The best Google Doodles of ever are a mash up of tear-jerkers, weird and down right hilarious logos; which subtly raises even more attraction to its search engine.

What’s your favourite doodle you have seen? Kindly share with us! 😀

Signing out! -dan

WE RUN AUS!

Hi guys! Here’s another post on something I’ve noticed on Instagram! It will be the last post on IG, I PROMISE 😀

As an avid runner, I really cannot further express how much I love running! Here’s a little something into what I was up to for the past few months!

Little did you know there was such a thing in Melbourne ? 😛 Here’s a regular event every Wednesday at Federation Square , a Run Club organised by Nike Melbourne Central. To my surprise, it is pretty common in other cities, around the world!!

 

It’s great what Nike is doing, even going hand-in-hand with their motto “JUST DO IT” as well as their coverage in other social media like Instagram and FB! There’s a look to Nike Running’s Instagram!

It’s great to see so many meaningful and inspirational posts from Nike Running! Its not only about the brand or the products, but personally, I’ve felt such a connection with the brand , after following them on Instagram. Not only that, but they also have a facebook page dedicated solely to running as well!! (Nike, you are really doing it right, for me!)

Do you think Nike is really playing their strenghts in their strategies in social media? What do you think other brands can do to keep up? 😀

 

Till then, goodbye! -dan

 

 

 

The Selfie Phenomenon!!

Hi guys! Welcome back to Limited Skylines! 😀

I did a little post on Instagram where there would be ads appearing on it soon! Based on the replies I’ve gotten, it seems as though most people were not too happy with it! It could go both ways but till then, I will cover something different!

T H E  S E L F I E  P H E N O M E N O N

I know the look on your faces when u first read the title of my post and decided to visit my blog to see what I have in-store! We (i guess most of us) are guilty of having taken selfies (the only difference is in how much we do it) 😛

Here’s a hilarious video before you continue on #asians at work (no insult meant :D)

With all seriousness, INSTAGRAM is the world’s most popular platform when it comes to people sharing selfies! #guiltyindulgence. I thought that this would be interesting to some, so here are some stats into the Selfie Phenomenon!

With such craze when it comes to Instagram , I believe that ads would not affect some of the users that much. Maybe if they actually did integrate ads slowly and ensuring that the overall user’s experience does not deteriorate, I reckon that Instagram is definitely a hit for e-marketers!

So, any guilty confessions of selfie moments here ? 😀

Signing out!! -dan
Credits to Shilpi Agarwal for the content , from http://socialmediatoday.com/shilpiagarwal01/1831151/selfie-phenomenon

Start Instagram(ming)…. what ?!

Hi guys! Welcome back to Limitless Skylines! Sorry for the long gap in between my posts! Have been busy! So today, I will be covering Instagram (which im pretty sure that everyone knows what it is!)

It is of no surprise that Instagram is the trending mobile social network of today! It provides a good opportunity for marketers to engage consumers with visual content marketing. Brands can be creative and connect with younger fans at a relatively low cost!

What’s more, the average Instagram user spent a beastly 257 minutes accessing the photo-sharing site via mobile device in August 2012 according to data. That’s a lot of potential there for emarketers!

Turning to MTV as an example, MTV is the #1 followed Instagram brand account. Rather than using photo filters on Instagram, the company posts photos of musicians and celebrities, often behind the scenes of popular MTV programs. The photos receive a high level of engagement, especially when fans recognize famous faces in the photos!

(here’s MTV official Instagram page)

It makes sense that MTV- which has a stake in reaching younger consumers—would make Instagram a social media priority. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, Instagram may resonate more with millennial consumers than other age groups.

As such, Instagram will start allowing ads to appear on its users’ news feed soon! How would you (as users) react to it? Kindly do drop a comment below! 😀

Till then, goodbye! – Dan

Related articles

• Instagram to start allowing ads in US photo streams (henrydove.wordpress.com)
• “Occasional” Photo & Video Ads Coming To Instagram In Next Couple Months (cultofmac.com)
• Instagram says ads are on the way (computerworld.co.nz)

Battle of the Sexes

Welcome again to Limitless Skylines! Sorry to my followers to whom I’ve been too busy to update in the past week! Here’s a little something that I was reading that I would like to share with you!

Are men from Google+ and women from Twitter? Are men from LinkedIn and women from Pinterest? It can definitely be agreed that there are many social media websites on the World Wide Web! However, there are social media trends that depends on gender!

“Which demographic are you actually targeting?”

– Andy Kinsey

It has become more challenging for social media marketeers to reach out to their audience! Here’s a little question for you guys to think about before reading the infographics below!

Which sites do you visit the most? LinkedIn? Google+? Twitter? Facebook? Youtube?

(Keep it in mind and take a look below to see if you would agree with it!)

So, men and women, do you find yourself tending more to those sites that were mentioned above? Kindly do share with us below! 😀

Till then, goodbye! – Dan

Credits to Andy Kinsey for the infographics used.

Minions Crazeeeeee

Have you guys seen this adorable commercial by McDonald’s!!

M I N I O N S ! I’m sure everyone has heard or seen these adorable yellow creatures from the Despicable Me franchise. Leading on from the movie, these Minions have taken the world by storm, and used by many large corporations such as McDonald’s to further connect with moviegoers, audiences and their customer base.

McDonald’s campaign includes 34,000 of its restaurants worldwide, featuring custom TV spots, premiums, in-store elements and roof inflatables in select key markets. The program also offers Despicable Me 2 Happy Meals in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Australia/New Zealand with premium items.

So was it successful?

Here’s a few pictures on the campaign for McDonald’s Malaysia:

Picture courtesy of Prangin Mall, Penang

The success of this campaign is built upon the emotional appeal of these Minions! Related to being cute and quirky, McDonald’s has been able to tap into this potential market, by enclosing little Minion figurines within their ‘Happy Meals’. Pictures and videos of people rushing to get these limited edition Minion figurines have gone viral (that is in Malaysia!).

Emotional-based advertising and marketing taps into the primal mind. It communicates through designs and colours, and taps in with our ‘gut feeling’. The rational mind would act upon logical relationships, however, the primal mind acts upon symbolic relationships.

Symbols are part and parcel of emotional-based marketing. Just as you feel that you can instinctively trust a person with a warm smile, we have confidence in the person whom we can relate to. The same goes with advertisements and marketing of such nature!

People buy on emotion then justify their decision with facts.

Claude Hopkins

As such, have you been in a situation where you faced the same? Im sure you have had! Kindly leave a comment down below on a time when you experienced emotional-based marketing and what you did!

Till then, goodbye! – Dan

Google + Plus = Google Plus?

____________________________________________________________

“Social media is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution.”

Erik Qualman, Socialnomics

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It is indeed the largest shift mankind has seen, with social media website such as Facebook growing from nothing into a 500 million user-base in around 6 years since its start! That’s mind-blowing! The following video airs very interesting statistics about social media marketing I think would be relevant.

Have you seen this little button around?

Lately, Google has brought upon something new which has caught on to the social media tide as well, called Google Plus or if you have seen it around , it appears as “Google +“.

Basically, Google has created a new social platform which seamlessly blends with its search function, where the likelihood of your page contents appearing on the search results are increased! Google has summarised its new innovation below in several pictures:

This innovation is disposable to every company’s social marketeers out there! The possibilities of reaching out to customers unlike before are limitless.

How well is Google+ working for brands you follow? Have you seen the brands you were looking for appearing on search results via a Google+ page? Do share with us the brands you follow and how effective it has been to you!

Till then, goodbye! – Danson

P.S. Here’s an example of Toyota’s Google+ page which I’ve found while looking for hybrid cars!

Source:

http://www.google.com/+/business/

Google – Behind it all

Did you know that what you search online, maybe while shopping and actually anything at all, will dictate the advertisements that appear while you browse the net? This is Google Adsense & AdWords; their largest advertising revenue-earner.

G o o g l e. It has become so prominent that it has become a verb; “Just google it!”. Sounds familiar to you? Google has been so successful in integrating itself with our daily lives. Here’s a short video explaining what Google is doing!

Electronic marketers have realised the potential niches that exists within the virtual world and are frantically tapping into the virtually unlimited customer base on the Internet.

Google, on the other hand, is riding along with the waves of marketing by offering all sorts of products, i.e. Google Adwords (keyword-based advertisements), Google Analytics (a statistical platform for marketers), and many more. Many companies nowadays would have invested in some form of digital marketing strategy to tune in with their customer base online; many of which would tie back to Google (even YouTube is owned by them now!)

Everything today is through or around Google! How much has Google changed your life? Show us what you know by leaving a comment below!! (click the ‘leave a reply’ button below :D)

Tune in soon for more! Till then, goodbye! – Danson.

P.S. Just for a little fun! A little trick for you pranksters, just Google name of fishes on your friend’s computer, I’ll provide you with some: Sea bass, salmon, tuna, red snapper for an hour or two, and most advertisements appearing would be for fishing gear and equipment 😉