Swiss Minds

February 10th, 2009

What is going on in Swiss minds this week. Looking at the rising searches this week.

-Ski Worldcup.  (ski wm, and Lara gut)

-Google latitude (see where your friends are)

-Floricienta (see also picture)

- and of course Valentinstag.

floricienta

Twitter goes Mainstream

October 31st, 2008

Twitter goes mainstream says an article in The Wall Street Journal and I think it is.

Last week I noticed a few new starters and besides that you see more and more companies using and tracking twitter.

I mentioned earlier the respond on my complaints about netvibes on twitter and their active reply. You see this happening more often. Lately I had the same thing with skype while complaining about the quality.

One thing to be careful for as a company on twitter is again that you deliver value. There are a bunch of companies which just publish their rss feeds to twitter. That is not so bad. But the thing is they never respond if you send them a message. So no interaction.

About this going meanstream this seems more the case in the US. Counting Swiss Tweets look at swisstweets.chor follow swisstweet on twitter. The amount of twitter users in Switzerland is not much, but think also about the quality of its visitors.

  

How does your Brand rank in Social Media?

August 4th, 2008

Check out how top brands are doing in social media. Read The top Brand in Social media report 2008.

As expected: It is increasingly clear that the level of a brand’s engagement with the ever growing online community is beginning to have a direct correlation with that brand’s reputation.

And the balance of power has shifted - with control passing from the brands themselves to the consumers.
(source marketingfacts.nl)

Want to check your Brand yourself?

Looking at the report’s Methodology: You can start by measuring the number of times your brand is mentioned on Youtube, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Digg, Twitter Del.icio.us and Board Reader. And you can do a search on Google blog search and Technorati.com. After measuring the quantity you have to start looking for the tone of voice as well…

-Want to learn more about using Social Networks.

-BTW Interbrand has an office in Nyon.

IAB Switzerland coming soon

May 20th, 2008

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) can be found in most European countries and in various other countries of the world, even in South America. There are now attempts to launch the first Asian IAB in china.

Strange though that there still is no Swiss IAB.

Asking IAB Europe about it, they confirm that IAB Europe is in conversation with a group of people about opening an IAB here. They hope to make a formal announcement about it before June. That is in about 10 days!

Mission of IAB is accelerating the growth of e-commerce, interactive advertising and online marketing.

10 examples of Innovation Labs

May 16th, 2008

When you look at the structure of digital companies you often see something like a ‘labs’. Nice thing about these labs is that you create a platform for innovation and that you share this process with the outside world. If done properly it is a great tool in product development and it also has growing involvement as a side effect.

A good ‘lab’ is more than just asking people to send in ideas. It is about sharing information and asking for feedback from experts or consumers.

10 examples of labs:

  1. TBWA has a Media Arts Lab, you can find it on TheBigWhatAdventure.com. Besides that the website is a sleep (last update from 24 January 2007) I do not really consider this a Lab. It seems more a ’send in an idea’-thing like openad.net. Unfortunately it has nothing to do with product/advertising innovation. Sharing the process of innovation in advertising could give TBWA (or any other traditional agency) some valuable feedback and involvement from digital experts.
  2. The famous Google labs now has a sister called Google creative lab. It is all about Google trying to serve the Branding market. And, as you can read, it is looking for collaboration with advertising agencies. Interesting project, curious when we get more insights.
  3. Msn adlab. I like the Coming soon! parts. The video hyperlink tool looks similar to videoclix.tv . I don’t see really experimental stuff though.
  4. Advertising Lab. More like a blog about The future of advertising. But the blogger is working for an ad agency which gives it a lab function.
  5. American express is doing nice things within their Labs. They are even transparent in their discontinued experiments.
  6. Nokia Trends Lab. Typically a consumer lab. Inspiring project. Urges creative thinkers to use mobile technology.
  7. BBC Innovation labs. Series of creative workshops for interdisciplinary teams of professional creative technologists, application designers, software developers and interactive media designers, working across both Future Media & Vision platforms.
  8. Swiss mobile labs. (I mentioned this one before)
  9. Innovationlab.dk
  10. and of course Liftlab.com

If you know more, feel free to mention.

CH Social Search

May 13th, 2008

I have just created a Google custom search for Switzerland, CH Social Search. Searching within major social networks and websites used by Swiss people. If you need it, use it.

CH Social Search

This custom search is open for contribution. So if you have any suggestions to make it better just send it in.

Custom search is vertical search made easy for everybody. I suggest companies should make their own custom searches serving or exploring their target audiences.

From Content to Context

May 5th, 2008

Mobile marketing is getting serious. Admobs.com launches a Google Adwords-like service for easy mobile banner advertising. Including a mobile landing page, if you need one. Google offers Mobile image ads since April 23.

This is just a first step. Bannering on mobile is nice but not really intelligent and engaging, unless you target very well. And also then you tend to forget about the specific value of a mobile device for the consumer.

More on this in the following presentation from Mobile Monday Amsterdam

By rob

local info:

Innovative advertising awards

April 25th, 2008

shirt

April 18th there was the Innovative advertising awards 2008 gala in New York City. Formerly known as the Interactive and New Media Awards.

In their own worlds:

New York Festivals was the first to create an international competition recognizing the importance and marketing value of innovative media.

Some of the categories in this competition include: Advergames and Viral Advertising for products or services; Online Advertising, including integrated campaigns that include online elements; a wide selection of categories for Guerrilla Marketing and Alternative Media, such as ambient, event and mobile marketing, blogs, short message systems, and street teams; and CD-ROM applications.

To be honest the New York Festivals website is a bit user unfriendly with all the winners info in pdf-format. But I understand that Stella Artois is the big winner.

There where three Swiss winners. DRAFTFCB got a Silver Worldmedal for their viral campaign (see picture above).

About

April 9th, 2008

This blog is about Digital Branding.

-How to connect with the prosumer-

Where possible with a link to CH.

For any suggestions, advise and the like.
Please contact info[at]n98.ch