David Griner is a social media strategist for Luckie & Company. He's also a contributing editor to Adweek's blog, AdFreak.com.
Warm weather has arrived across most of the country, which means it’s time for the annual swimsuit season freakout! After months of loading carbs to stay warm during winter, it’s time to shed those heavy clothes — and pounds, too.
Many weight-loss methods, like gym memberships, can be pricey. We thought we'd look at a few cheaper (i.e., free) iPhone app options to get you healthy.
This past Sunday, I once again had the pleasure of being the "voice of AdFreak" on Twitter, as I live-tweeted about the Super Bowl ads for Adweek's blog. (I also made occasional contributions to the magazine's Super Bowl liveblog itself, which you can read a transcript of here.)
Amid the frenzy of tweeting about ads in real time, I became hyperaware of how the game and its celebrated commercials kept or lost my attention. When the game grew dull, I was able to cram in more online updates. When a great ad surfaced, I stopped typing and stayed glued to the screen.
I wasn't alone, as you can see in the chart above from analytics service Flurry, which tracks data from more than 160,00 iOS and Android apps. The graph shows how many mobile apps were being opened during every second of the game.
For example, during downtime, smartphone users would fire up the Twitter or Facebook apps to see what friends were saying. When the game got intense (or Madonna took the stage), phones went dark and the TV took hold.
Certain ads obviously drew in viewers. I was one of the millions who couldn't look away from the mysterious movie trailer that ended up being for the board game-inspired "Battleship." Coke's polar bears kept people away from their phones, as well.
There's so much insight to be gleaned from this data, though mostly it just illustrates two points:
• Major television events have become national social experiences, giving us all something specific to talk about. Short of major world events, what else these days brings together so many diverse voices into the same conversation? Whether it's the Grammys or big game, TV's biggest moments are unparallaled in their ability to get people talking in real time.
• Attention comes at the cost of discussion. This creates a tough challenge for the entertainment industry. You want your TV show to be a nationally trending topic on Twitter while it's airing, but you also want viewers paying attention, right? A viewer's natural inclination will be the chat during commercial breaks, which means there's never been more pressure on advertisers to keep eyeballs on the screen and off the phone for just a few more seconds.
Which leads us to another fascinating implication of this data: We might be witnessing a new metric for TV ad performance. Most advertisers simply look at a program's audience size and claim the impressions as their own. But this chart clearly shows that attention waxes and wanes, even if the audience never leaves the room.
Will your favorite brand's next TV ad be enough to keep people engaged, or will audiences find their eyes drifting down to the dreaded second screen?
David Griner is the Director of Digital Content for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.
Without a doubt, 2011 was defined by the ever-evolving digital landscape. With all the advances we saw last year, what's in store for 2012?
My colleague Chris Zobel, Luckie & Company's Director of Digital Strategy, runs down the top trends of 2012, all of which revolve around data and content. This year, tailoring content to consumers will be key, and savvy marketers are already heading in that direction.
To read more insights from Chris, follow him on Twitter and check out his updates on LuckieReThinkTank.com.
Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.
Photo credit: Matthew Petroff via Flickr
UPDATE: Since we posted this Friday, Reuters and other news outlets have clarified that it is Facebook's Daily Deals offering (a la Groupon) that is now being phased out, not the Check-in Deals (a la Foursquare). It remains a bit unclear how Check-in Deals will continue or evolve, but since much of the commentary below is still valid, I've decided to leave the original post up:
Well, Facebook's short-lived attempt to compete with Foursquare in the check-in space is officially over.
As you might have heard, Facebook dropped the "check-in" aspect of Facebook Places from the social network's mobile app this week. Now Reuters is reporting that Facebook will be shutting down its related Deals product "in the coming weeks."
It's easy for all this to sound like a public defeat for Facebook — and it is, in the sense that they tarnished their brand by launching a lackluster check-in tool to begin with. The site also lost some goodwill from socially savvy marketers who tried using Facebook's check-in Deals, which were riddled with glitches. (In a recent campaign run by my team featuring Deals at 300 locations, the check-in offer went unclaimed due to glitches a staggering 95% of the time.)
But Facebook isn't giving up on location-based marketing. In fact, the site's leadership deserves credit for admitting they had a flawed product, pulling it, and choosing to focus on the next iteration of how location can be folded into online activity.
Here's a nice summary of the change, via MediaPost:
"This is not a retreat in any way," said Michael Nicholas, chief strategy officer at Aegis Group's Isobar. Rather, the move is essentially an "embedded tag strategy that's about getting more people to put more location data into Facebook." Instead of a single mobile feature where users have to manually check-in, he added, "they're putting location into everything."
The real question, of course, is how Facebook will allow marketers to make the most of this location data. My hunch is that it will be tied directly to the one marketing tactic that has been noticeably missing: mobile versions of Facebook ads.
Given that more than 50% of smartphone owners are checking Facebook at least daily, you can bet that Facebook wants to make money off this massive audience. Using location data to serve up geotargeted ads could be the perfect solution.
David Griner is the Director of Digital Content for Luckie and Company and contributing editor for Adweek’s blog, AdFreak.com. You can reach him by e-mail or on Twitter.
Well, it's not the next Foursquare merger we suspected, but it's a big announcement, nonetheless.
Foursquare's handy "Explore" tab, which already helped you find nearby deals from five daily services such as Living Social, will now include offers from industry leader Groupon.
With Groupon Now deals going live in Chicago and eventually phasing in nationally, this has the potential to be a thriving relationship.
Foursquare now has more than 10 million users, but with only 3 million check-ins daily, there is clearly room for improvement when it comes to user engagement.
By adding several other deal providers to its (well made, but obviously under-used) smartphone application,Foursquare might just become the Valpak of the daily deals market.
This is also a decision that makes sense for Groupon. While still the leader for daily deals, there are plenty of threats to their business. The decision to add short-term, location-based deals through Groupon Now created a new obstacle for Groupon's growth: How would people find these limited-time deals? Putting their offers into the mix on Foursquare saves Groupon the trouble of having to rely on its own smartphone apps at a time when many are looking to use fewer apps each day, not more.
What do you think? Will this encourage you to check back in with Foursquare? Or at least start using the "Explore" tab more often? Or do you feel all these partnerships risk cluttering up the Foursquare experience?
Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.
Image via Groupon Now.
Facebook is venturing into the great unknown by launching an app called "Facebook for Every Phone." The app is compatible with any moblie phone that has Web access, whether smart or feature based.
Much of Facebook's growth over the past few years (now more that 750 million users, according to Zuckerburg) can be attributed to the boom in smart phone use, with sharing made easier by cameras and applications.
It seems like an odd time to launch this application, however. According to Nielsen research, the past three months are the first time in history that smart phone sales have outranked feature phones. So it would appear that it's a little late in the game for Facebook to be optimizing for feature phones but, truth be told, while smart phones are on the rise that climb has a ceiling.
Mobile researcher Joy Liuzzo said of the new application: “Facebook made a smart move by developing an app that could be used on any phone. The fact is, the majority of handsets are not smart phones and in order to extend their reach, Facebook had to go down this path. Why not ensure that consumers could engage more fully with Facebook outside the computer environment? It’s a win for Facebook in that they are able to create a deeper connection with their visitors.”
With Facebook growth having slowed in recent months, this could be just the pick-me-up the company needs to kick-start their drive toward 1 billion users. Although without opening the platform up in countries such as China, this goal is likely still a ways off, in my opinion.
You can read more about the application on the Facebook blog and then get busy downloading it, loyal Razr user!
Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.
Image via CR Artist on Flickr.
From business cards and TV spots to candy wrappers and T-shirts, QR codes have infiltrated marketing campaigns worldwide.
Welcome to the matrix.
Even though that small square contains an enormous amount of marketing prowess, it's useless if not properly utilized. Chris Zobel, Director of Digital Strategy at Luckie & Company, has crafted an excellent primer for marketers looking to effectively incorporate them into their strategies.
Chris explores the four key basics of QR code marketing, how home improvement retail giant Home Depot is using the codes to increase their mobile presence, and key demographic stats.
These and more great insights from Luckie are provided in pdf form here.
Chris can be reached by email and on Twitter.
Edward Bowser is Community Manager at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by email or follow him on Twitter.
Photo credit: scott_bl8ke on Flickr.
Over the past few years, easy-to-use group chatting has been often attempted but rarely achieved.
Google over-reached with its collaborative tool Wave, and Facebook recently made some headway by retooling its Groups into private chat rooms of a sort.
But creating mobile, group conversations has remained an elusive goal. Until now. Group chat was one of the big buzz areas of this year's South By Southwest, and one name seemed to surface the most: Beluga.
Founded by former Google staffers and recently aquired by Facebook, Beluga brings simple and addictive group chat to iPhones, Android devices and the Web.
You can begin by finding friends who already use the app, or invite them via e-mail or phone number. You must sign in using your Facebook profile, which might be a deterant for privacy-phobes and Facebook holdouts. Otherwise, it's really very sleek.
Groups are called "pods" and can be assigned names, like "Lunch Bunch" or "Party Planners." The application has push notification, making it easy to keep up with conversations. You can also share your location and images — ie, things you might not be inclined to share with the world.
Friends who haven't downloaded the application can still participate through text. I'd assume this means Blackberry and (gasp) non-smartphone users could chat through their text messaging platform, but I'm not sure because I don't know anyone who still lives in 2007.
As you can see in my screenshot, Luckie's Finest (yeah, we said it), are big fans. Beluga offers a simple, streamlined way to chat with specific groups of friends without the clunkiness of group texting or the public exposure of Twitter.
Have you tried Beluga, or competitors like FastSociety and GroupMe? Can you think of any features Beluga could improve/add to make it go mainstream? Let us know in the comments.
Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.
All while getting a plate of wings. Welcome to Super Bowl XLV, a marketer’s Shangri-La.
It has been happening for years now, but in the current marketing environment we are seeing an emphasis on digital media on behalf of advertisers. Examples like the scenario above are the reason marketers will be using their big-budget Super Bowl spots as a springboards to digital experiences in social, mobile and Web. Why? Because this will create an ongoing and transferrable relationship with the brands which will extend far past the game. Marketers know that in order to remain relevant, they need to create an experience that will include three screens - TV, mobile and PC.
So how will those watching the Super Bowl see evidence of this? It may be obvious to some but routine for others. When watching ads this Sunday, they will find themselves being driven to destinations outside the norm. They will be pausing their DVRs looking for hidden codes, texting numbers to enter sweepstakes, tweeting in order to effect the outcome of the next spot and telling their friends about it the whole time. Marketers are relying on consumer behavior and their use of digital technologies to help tell a story that is seamlessly intertwined into the game experience.
But with all the great emerging ways to reach consumers, the one true thing marketers need to keep in mind is to be relevant. Consumers are smarter than ever. Developing a marketing architecture that manages to convey the right message in the right medium is the challenge, but the reward is creating an immersive campaign experience that feels as natural to the consumers as getting up from the couch for that second plate of wings.
Chris Zobel is Director of Digital Strategy at Luckie & Company. You can contact him by e-mail.
Photo credit: CarrieA on Flickr
Over the summer, Facebook launched Places, a feature similar to Foursquare but with few advantages besides advertising your travels... until now. This week, Facebook finally let the other shoe drop by announcing that businesses can now offer "deals" through Places.
Brands already offering deals through Places, according to Facebook, include:
• American Eagle Outfitters: Offering 20 percent off
• Gap: Giving blue jeans to the first 10,000 customers to claim their deal
• H&M: Offering 20 percent off
• McDonald's: Giving $1 per customer to the Ronald McDonald House Charities
• REI: Donating $1 to a local conservation non-profit when you visit its stores
• Starbucks: Donating $1 per guest to Conservation International
• Texas Tech: Giving away 100 pairs of tickets
Using your smart phone, you can search for deals nearby or at specific businesses and then check-in to acquire the coupons. Very simple and very advantageous. As someone who only checked in out of curiosity a few times and lost interest, I'm certainly more interested now that Facebook has added actual benefits.
With more than 100 times as many users as Foursquare, Facebook is sure to see interest from businesses that might not have been won over by other location-based services.
Business owners must keep in mind that they first have to claim their business by contacting Facebook with proof of ownership before using the Deals feature. When we at Luckie tested the claiming process after the launch of Places, it took us more than a month to hear back on our request. So if you've put off claiming your location, you might want to get started now.
For more info, be sure to read our complete guide to using Facebook Places for business.
Kammie Avant is a social media planner for Luckie & Company. You can contact her by e-mail or follow @KammieAvant on Twitter.
