Hasta La Creative!

Microsoft is breaking out the big guns on CW’s Vampire Diaries tonight to promote Windows 7 OS, which will involve an adorable little girl and fuzzy baby animals. The software giant is capitalizing on the success of the spots it ran earlier this year featuring Kylie, the precocious preschooler. This time, Kylie makes her very own slide show, featuring pictures of animals along with reviews of the new operating system from magazines and bloggers. “More happy is coming,” Kylie promises, as the screen flashes the October release date.

I love all of this cuteness and optimism, but what has me scratching my head is the campaign’s strategy. Why would Microsoft launch this spot on a minor network on a night that’s been referred to as the “primetime graveyard,” as opposed to launching it during, say, Monday Night Football, when it has an audience with actual buying power? Stay tuned.

Sara Barton is a copywriter, social media strategist, and avid blogger who is in search of her next opportunity. Contact her via Twitter, LinkedIn, or her blog.

LONDON – Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, said he didn’t “any green shoots” for the ad industry, despite signs that the global economy is recovering.

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Revver, WordPress, Reddit, Digg, Ning, Xing, Squidoo, Tumblr and Flickr (overwhelmed yet? I can go on) are all social media. What is the hype? It’s the talk of the town and everybody is doing it. However, is it of any use as a tool for marketing? It is! And you aren’t using it yet?

As a follow up to my last post, 10 Reasons to Use Online Video for Your Business, and a non-related follow up to Megan Green’s post, I thought I’d keep the ball rolling with 5 reasons why you must use social media to advertise your business:

It’s FREE – Connecting with customers/clients through Facebook and LinkedIn, posting your deals on Twitter, and demonstrating your expertise through a blog or video can all be done at the cost of $0. What it will cost, however, is time and some DIY prowess because each social media platform requires its own variation of communication for optimal effectiveness. Some initial research is suggested to decide which platform may best suit your business. However, if you’re a strong believer of “time is money” and are too busy to teach yourself social media, there are companies that can help you and your business get started for as little as $299.

Location, Location, Location – You want your product/service seen by as many people as possible, and, without any statistics to back me up here, there are a lot of people on the internet using social media sites. A lot. We’re talking hundreds of millions. For you naysayers: as of July, Facebook alone had 250 million users. Can you afford to ignore these people? A better question: can you afford to have these people ignore you?

Sharable – Not only will your product/service be seen, you can also have it shared. If a person on Twitter sees your tweet promoting your business and knows people in his or her network that can use it, he or she may pass the promotion on with a retweet. If you write a great blog post on the benefits of your service and submit it to social bookmarking sites, people can discover and rate it moving it up the site’s ranks, which allows more people to discover it. If you made an entertaining video about your product, it could be passed around to hundreds, thousands, and possibly millions of people. Imagine that, a :60-second video about your product seen by millions. It’s FREE advertising.

Long Lasting – Once your business/product/service information makes it onto these social media sites, it can live on forever. That’s a long time (don’t worry, it’s a good thing). There it is, your info being seen and promoted long after you posted it and readily available when you want to put some extra muscle behind it.

Engagement – People who use your product/service will have an opinion about it, and more often than not, they will voice their opinions through social media, and you should know exactly what they are saying, good or bad. If someone sings your praises by writing an elaborate blog post, you can share that with your network or use it as a testimonial on your website. If someone tweets a complaint about your product/service, you can address it and ideally change their mind. No one likes to feel ignored, so if you can show your customers/clients you care and listen, that will definitely strengthen relationships.

There are easily more than five reasons to use social media for your business, so be sure to come back for updates. As usual, feel free to ask a question or drop a comment.

P.S. Once again, to redeem my cool points, here’s a video from my Creative Director poking fun at so called “social media experts,” because you can’t be an expert in something that is constantly changing with new platforms, bells & whistles.

Tommy Liu, the man, the legend (to be) wields his pen of creativity against the injustice of mediocrity plaguing the world as the Senior Account Executive at Supercool Creative & SpotZero where he also manages the blog. Click here to view some of his battles (he doesn’t always win).

This week's Trendrr chart takes a look at Twitter buzz surrounding the current epic battle of the video games: "Guitar Hero 5," released on Sept. 1, and "The Beatles: Rock Band," released this past Wednesday. And yes, Courtney Love gets into the mix too.

OK so if you’re bored with your life and you want a change, we think IKEA can help.

LONDON – The BBC has announced plans to open the iPlayer to third- party broadcasters.

LONDON – The Guardian and Observer have forged a tie-up with children’s publisher Egmont and DC Thomson on a seven-day promotion giving away classic comics with the newspapers.

In this sexy video Pamela Anderson and Steve-O are undressing all the leather… Cruelty doesn’t fly Advertiser: PETA

LONDON – Kindred has been appointed by the dairy industry to create a new ad campaign to encourage consumers to drink milk, worth £7.5 million over three years.

(TrendHunter.com) Andrey Yakovlev and Lili Aleeva’s ‘Nightlife’ photo shoot celebrates glorious excess by capturing glitzed-up models as they head out on the town. With an arsenal of fun lenses, trippy effects and other…