How 9 Brands Used Twitter's Sign Bunny Meme to Make Little Billboards

Watching brands fail at Twitter has become cliché at this point. And just when you think they’ve gotten the idea, it’s fail whale all over again.

Still, they keep trying.

Earlier this week, a fun meme spread through Twitter starring a cute ASCII bunny holding a sign. If you were on Twitter that day, you couldn’t miss it. If not, few explainers will bring you up to speed.

Amber Gordon, a creative strategist at Tumblr and former community manager at Denny’s, is credited with starting the meme and has since seen it go viral.

Of course, brands—ever vigilant to real-time trends online nowadays, quickly noticed. And many of them whipped up little corporate bunnies of their own, brandishing pithy little branded signs.

We spoke with Gordon about the phenomenon and what it was like watching big brands attach themselves to a meme in real-time. And she also has some advice to the community managers of the big brands, too.

How does it feel to see big brands joining in the fun?
Seeing brands use these types of silly Internet trends is so exciting. Using a native language that’s become relevant to your audience is exactly what more brands should be doing, but in an authentic way. Meaning, research it before you post! (knowyourmeme.com is a great resource.)

Will it break the Internet if @Energizer does one?
If Energizer does one, I might cry tears of joy.

Does it feel weird that the bunny signs have now basically become little billboards for corporations?
I love them. Twitter itself is just words, and ASCII art makes them visually interesting. Honestly I think a message has a stronger impact (for me personally) when you can associate an image with it.

Below, check out nine brands that have given the sign bunny meme a shot:



DiGiorno Is Really, Really Sorry About Its Tweet Accidentally Making Light of Domestic Violence

DiGiorno Pizza has become one of the top brands on Twitter thanks to its quick wit and good ear for real-time conversations, but one careless tweet last night put that reputation at risk.

After a video of Ray Rice punching his then-fiancee Janay Palmer led to his termination from the Baltimore Ravens on Monday, thousands of women took to Twitter to discuss their physically and emotionally tortuous experiences in abusive relationships. They used the #WhyIStayed hashtag to fight the victim-blaming attitude of Palmer’s critics, who had questioned why she would marry a man who knocked her unconscious.

Jumping onto the popular hashtag, DiGiorno clearly didn’t look into its context before tweeting, “#whyistayed You had pizza.”

The backlash was swift, and within minutes the tweet had been deleted. The brand then posted the apology above, noting: “A million apologies. Did not read what the hashtag was about before posting.”

It was a boneheaded mistake, to be sure, similar to snack brand Entenmann’s famously regrettable decision to tweet on the hashtag #notguilty, failing to realize it was trending because Casey Anthony had been aquitted of murdering her daughter.

But in Entenmann’s case, the brand responded by simply abandoning Twitter for years, leaving their account as a scorched-earth monument to poor decisions.

DiGiorno has, so far, taken the more mature and difficult approach. Since last night’s #whyistayed tweet, the brand has been responding to dozens of Twitter users offended by the post. Each response has been personalized and is clearly sincere, which is a nice reprieve from the usual copy-and-paste approach to dealing with bad PR in social.

So while DiGiorno is sure to take more heat today for a truly dumb tweet, it’s good to see the brand’s social team didn’t just close down the account, smash their phones on the ground and hop the first plane to the tropics.

Via Mic.



Meet the Hero Designer Who Publicly Shamed Showtime for Asking Him to Work for Free

When Showtime invited Dan Cassaro to join a design “contest” he felt amounted to milking professionals for free work, he let the network—and the world—know how he felt about it.

The offer, made to a number of designers, involved promoting the Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana boxing match on Sept. 13. Those who submitted designs for Showtime’s use “could be eligible for a chance to win a trip to Las Vegas and have your artwork displayed in the MGM Grand during fight week!,” the network told Cassaro in an email.

After sending an email response slathered in sarcasm (“I know that boxing matches in Las Vegas are extremely low-budget affairs”), Cassaro then posted the exchange to Twitter.

Here’s the screenshot of the conversation (click to expand):

In the week since, Cassaro’s tweet has become a viral rallying cry for creatives who feel besieged by expectations of free work. It has more than 5,000 retweets and 5,600 favorites, and has become one of the topic’s most electrifying moments since Mike Monteiro’s “Fuck You Pay Me” speech in 2011. 

Showtime issued a response to BuzzFeed, saying the network is “a strong supporter of artists around the world. This contest, like many others, is entirely optional.”

We caught up with Cassaro to ask what it’s been like seeing his frustration go global.

AdFreak: Your tweet just keeps blowing up. A week later, it’s still being retweeted. What’s it been like watching it all unfold?
Dan Cassaro: It’s been pretty unreal. I would have double-checked my grammar if I knew this many people would see it.

Why did you go public with it? Clearly, you were frustrated. But after responding to Showtime, what made you say, “Screw it, I’m going to post this on Twitter”?
Partially I just wanted to do it as a joke. But I also wanted to let people know that while it’s good to say no to this kind of work, it’s even better to explain to everyone why this business model is unacceptable.

Why do you think it struck such a chord with designers and other creatives?
Because they all get these emails. And it’s not just designers. I received a ton of responses from writers, cartoonists, architects and people in other professions who get asked to work for free. I don’t know what it is. Maybe people think that if you went to art school you don’t understand money?

Were you concerned about calling out a brand like Showtime by posting the email? I’m guessing they won’t become a paying client anytime soon.
Who knows? Maybe they admire my pluck? Honestly, people valuing themselves and their work enough to say no to this kind of thing has more long-term value than any one job or one client.

Has Showtime responded directly to you?
They wrote me a short and very polite email. Honestly, it’s less about Showtime and more about these hack crowdsourcing campaigns that certain agencies are selling to them. There are lots of folks doing very cool things with user-generated content, but to ask professionals to compete against each other for potential “exposure” is completely different. It’s demeaning, and it lowers the value of everyone’s work.

Among your peers, clearly a vast majority of the response has been positive. Have any designers criticized you for how you handled it?
The response from designers has pretty much been all positive. Some guy on a boxing enthusiast forum called me a “slimy hipster,” though.

Do you think anything constructive will come out of this, for yourself or the industry?
I hope so. If nothing else, it’s good to get people talking about it.



Reggie Watts Has Created Truly Odd Greenpeace Ads Aimed at the Tech Industry

Reggie Watts yodels, raps, hangs with woodland fauna, floats on a giant leaf and generally goofs around in a quartet of new videos from Greenpeace.

The environmental group is sending a message to certain tech giants about using sustainable energy sources. “Some of the Internet’s biggest and most innovative companies, such as Apple, Facebook and Google, are powering with modern, renewable energy,” Greenpeace rep Dave Pomerantz told BusinessGreen. “The #ClickClean movement expects the rest of the companies behind our online world, like Amazon and Twitter, to join them.”

No firms are named in the ads, which were created by The VIA Agency.

“We set out to develop a campaign that had humor at its core and that people would rally behind and share,” said Via executive producer Mary Hanifin. “Reggie’s unique brand of comedy, devoted following and ability to convey complex themes through humor made him a perfect fit.”

The comedian and musician has some experience with the clean-power issue, having contributed to a Climate Reality Project spot last year. For Greenpeace—fresh off its gorgeous ad attacking Lego for partnering with Shell—Watts sustains a tone that gives the material an offbeat, non-judgmental spark. He uses improvisation to amp up the scripts, and his silly, slightly subversive comic energy feels just right.

Via Fast Company.



Charmin Proudly Tweets That It Will 'Take Care of Uranus'

Oh, Charmin. Don’t ever change.

The toilet paper brand, which previously chickened out and deleted its Thor-related joke about being the original “Asgardian,” has apparently come around on potty puns. Charmin’s newest tweet to cherish is a loose tie-in to summer sci-fi flick Guardians of the Galaxy.

“While they’re out guarding the galaxy, we’ll take care of Uranus,” the twitter image notes. 

My favorite part? It’s hashtagged #astronomy. Because if there’s one crowd that loves Your Anus jokes, it’s astronomers. 

That wasn’t the brand’s only space-themed Twitter shenanigans. Check out its mildly uncomfortable repartee with Star Trek legend and social media superstar George Takei below.

Hat tip to Marc Graser on Twitter.



We Asked Agencies to Share Their Oddest Decorations, and They Did Not Disappoint

Not every marketing agency can be an architectural marvel, but they do all tend to have at least one oddly compelling bit of decor that reminds you you’re not in a law office.

Just for fun, we decided to ask our Twitter followers to share some of their favorite pieces of office decoration, and they did not disappoint. Below you’ll find a recap of our favorites.



Twitter’s New CTA: Buy Now, Tweet Later!

We discussed it until we exhausted every clever headline copywriters would send us for a nominal fee — social media advertising is here to stay. Despite our opinions on its alleged effectiveness, clients are going to take advantage of sponsored tweets and boosted posts because it’s the thing to do.

And so, Twitter has a new thing to do — the “Buy Now” button is coming to a timeline near you, as seen in this picture from TechSpot.com. Twitter and e-Commerce: what a fabulous marriage this should be.

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

WPP Will Double Its Spending Budget on Twitter in 2014

In another headline from Cannes-Lions, WPP Grand Poobah Sir Martin Sorrell told the world that he will double ad spending on “The Twitter” (as he may have called it) from $50 million to $100 million.

The news was announced when Sorrell moderated a discussion between Twitter’s Dick Costolo and Viacom’s Philippe Dauman. Of course he took a jab at rivals Omnicom and Publicis for their recent ill-fated “merger of equals,” but he focused mainly on the differences and commonalities between digital-first and the legacy media giants.

After citing the impressive market valuations and financial stats associated with Twitter’s recent IPO, Sorrell noted that WPP’s GroupM will double its spending with the microblogging platform, boosting its ad spending from $50 million last year to $100 million this year. Based on Sorrell’s figures, that means GroupM contributes nearly a fifth of all of Twitter’s advertising revenues.

Now what would you do with that kind of budget? Maybe not spend it all on Twitter?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

McDonald's New Happy Meal 'Ambassador' Just Might Eat Your Children

On the heels of a refresh that brought Ronnie McDonald some sweet new threads, McDonald’s has just introduced a new crazy-eyed mascot—er, “ambassador”—named “Happy.” (Presumably because “Nightmare Fuel” was already trademarked.)

Created to coincide with the addition of Go-Gurt treats as part of a healthier Happy Meal, this guy looks instead like he’s trying to lure a stoned teen to spend his allowance on delicious fast-food treats at the Golden Arches. 

“At McDonald’s, we’re always looking to bring fun and happiness to families and listening to our customers’ asks to have more variety and wholesome options for kids to enjoy in their Happy Meals,” said Julie Wenger, senior director of U.S. marketing, in a statement from the House of Ronald.

This is the perfect super-size rhetoric to set up your child’s future decision to drunkenly eat both Big Macs during a 2 for $2 deal. I’m lovin’ it. 

As you can imagine, the announcement sparked some entertaining responses on Twitter:

 



Source

This Real-Time Game from Adventure Time's Creator Is the Best Thing on Twitter in Years

Just as the doubters were writing Twitter’s obituary, animator and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward had to go and show that the network can still have a few fun surprises after all.

On Tuesday, Ward tweeted a rough sketch of a prison cell, with this comment: “You wake up in a dungeon cell. What do you do?”

Fans who played along were rewarded with fun and laughably literal results to their suggested actions, such as “talk to the guard” or “kiss rat.” Ward found time to keep the game going today, changing the name on his account to Quest Attack.

For children of the ’80s, it’s a fun flashback to early adventure games like Zork and its graphical successors like King’s Quest, all of which required you to carefully type out each command.

Check out the first two days of Quest Attack below, then be sure to follow Ward on Twitter to stay up to date. 

 

What will happen next in this epic adventure? Tune in to Twitter for the next exciting installment of QUEST ATTACK!

Via Joystiq.



Source

Memorial Day Indecision? Try Travelocity's 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Tweets

Stumped for a last-minute Memorial Day getaway destination? Travelocity created a fun Twitter game that might be able to help.

Starting at this tweet, you can interact with the @RoamingGnome by clicking your answer to a series of choose-your-own adventure questions that ultimately generate a recommendation for one of 10 destinations.

Ever the lazy, cheap contrarian, I initially chose “Stay Home” and found myself staring into the gnome’s “disappointed face.” Those sad, presumably ceramic eyes will haunt my dreams. 

When I selected West, but nixed a Vegas gambling spree, the gnome grew a tad impatient and asked, “What WOULD make you squeal with joy?” Eventually my ideal #MemorialDayRoam was found to be Dallas, where I’m told “giant steaks await.”

Wherever you end up roaming this weekend, hopefully you won’t suffer the fate outlined in this week’s other entertaining Twitter game and wake up in a rat-infested prison cell.

Via Adrants.



Source

Ride The Big Benzos To Rainmaking Glory, Says @MBUSA

When you have a big pitch ahead, how you arrive at the meeting determines, in part, your ability to perform at peak condition.

Are you harried from a long flight?

Was your night in the Holiday Inn Express less than billed?

Does your rental car smell of tobacco or worse?

Here’s a better idea, buy or lease a Mercedes-Benz GL63 AMG and arrive with the cool confidence you need to land a big fish:

The vehicle sells for $118,160. So, failure to land the big fish in not an option.

The post Ride The Big Benzos To Rainmaking Glory, Says @MBUSA appeared first on AdPulp.

Source

Memorial Day Indecision? Try Travelocity’s ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ Tweets

Stumped for a last-minute Memorial Day getaway destination? Travelocity created a fun Twitter game that might be able to help.

Starting at this tweet, you can interact with the @RoamingGnome by clicking your answer to a series of choose-your-own adventure questions that ultimately generate a recommendation for one of 10 destinations.

Ever the lazy, cheap contrarian, I initially chose "Stay Home" and found myself staring into the gnome's "disappointed face." Those sad, presumably ceramic eyes will haunt my dreams. 

When I selected West, but nixed a Vegas gambling spree, the gnome grew a tad impatient and asked, "What WOULD make you squeal with joy?" Eventually my ideal #MemorialDayRoam was found to be Dallas, where I'm told "giant steaks await."

Wherever you end up roaming this weekend, hopefully you won't suffer the fate outlined in this week's other entertaining Twitter game and wake up in a rat-infested prison cell.

Via Adrants.




This Real-Time Game from Adventure Time’s Creator Is the Best Thing on Twitter in Years

Just as the doubters were writing Twitter's obituary, animator and Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward had to go and show that the network can still have a few fun surprises after all.

On Tuesday, Ward tweeted a rough sketch of a prison cell, with this comment: "You wake up in a dungeon cell. What do you do?"

Fans who played along were rewarded with fun and laughably literal results to their suggested actions, such as "talk to the guard" or "kiss rat." Ward found time to keep the game going today, changing the name on his account to Quest Attack.

For children of the '80s, it's a fun flashback to early adventure games like Zork and its graphical successors like King's Quest, all of which required you to carefully type out each command.

Check out the first two days of Quest Attack below, then be sure to follow Ward on Twitter to stay up to date. 

 

What will happen next in this epic adventure? Tune in to Twitter for the next exciting installment of QUEST ATTACK!

Via Joystiq.




Vellum, uma ferramenta do NYT para te ajudar a ler os links do seu Twitter

Os feeds RSS ainda são meu jeito favorito de conferir as notícias, mas muita gente acompanha novidades através de redes sociais como o Twitter. O complicado, no entanto, é evitar a repetição e conseguir conferir os bons links que circulam pela timeline.

Para ajudar nessa tarefa, o setor de P&D do New York Times desenvolveu o Vellum, uma ferramenta que varre os links compartilhados pelas pessoas que você segue no Twitter e agrupa-as por frequência. Com isso, o Vellum ‘inverte’ o modelo do Twitter – ao invés do comentário (tuíte) ser o mais importante, o link compartilhado ganha relevância e é mostrado como se fosse uma manchete, e os perfis que compartilharam aquela informação se tornam comentários associados ao material, explica Alexis Lloyd, diretor criativo do setor de P&D do NYT.

O mais bacana é que, após um período de testes dentro da redação do jornal, o Vellum agora está disponível para o público. Basta acessar o site com o seu login do Twitter para ver os últimos links compartilhados pelas pessoas e perfis que você segue (e ainda funciona de dedo-duro para quem faz reposts programados, repare na imagem).

vellum-nyt

 

 

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McDonald’s New Happy Meal ‘Ambassador’ Just Might Eat Your Children

On the heels of a refresh that brought Ronnie McDonald some sweet new threads, McDonald's has just introduced a new crazy-eyed mascot—er, "ambassador"—named "Happy." (Presumably because "Nightmare Fuel" was already trademarked.)

Created to coincide with the addition of Go-Gurt treats as part of a healthier Happy Meal, this guy looks instead like he's trying to lure a stoned teen to spend his allowance on delicious fast-food treats at the Golden Arches. 

“At McDonald’s, we’re always looking to bring fun and happiness to families and listening to our customers’ asks to have more variety and wholesome options for kids to enjoy in their Happy Meals,” said Julie Wenger, senior director of U.S. marketing, in a statement from the House of Ronald.

This is the perfect super-size rhetoric to set up your child's future decision to drunkenly eat both Big Macs during a 2 for $2 deal. I'm lovin' it. 

As you can imagine, the announcement sparked some entertaining responses on Twitter:

 




Shutterfly Congratulates Thousands of Women for Babies They Didn’t Have

This morning, Shutterfly, a photo/card printing website, sent out a mass email congratulating tons of people on their newborn babies. Which would be incredibly thoughtful, had many of the recipients actually given birth.

The error blew up on Twitter, as well as on Shutterfly's Facebook page. For many recipients, it was just a humorous gaffe. But for people who have struggled with miscarriage, infertility or the loss of a child, Shutterfly's email seemed particularly cruel.

Via Facebook: "I lost a baby in November who would have been due this week. It was like hitting a wall all over again."

Shutterfly issued an apology within a few hours of the emails going out:

But there was also talk of a second batch that got sent out this afternoon:

Pouring one out for Shutterfly's PR team right now.




Eleições já causam bate-boca nas redes sociais

Pode considerar aberta a temporada de discussões políticas com personalidades tuiteiras. Nesta segunda-feira, o Twitter foi palco de um bate-boca entre o perfil da Dilma Bolada, uma paródia da presidente do país, e um autoproclamado perfil oficial de Aécio Neves, candidato à presidência nas próximas eleições.

A discussão começou com uma interação proposta por uma seguidora da @dilmabr (a paródia), que provocava @aeciodigital e @eduardocampos40 sobre a quantidade de engajamento alcançado pelo perfil gerenciado por Jeferson Monteiro e as contas mais ‘automatizadas’ dos outros candidatos.

dilmabolada_aecio_briga_1
dilmabolada_aecio_briga_2

Entre um reply e outro, as contas trocaram farpas e provocações acerca da política de cada partido. Em análise no youPIX, Bia Granja destaca que essa discussão pode ser apenas a ponta do iceberg das eleições desse ano. “Estejam preparados para todo tipo de informação e desinformação nas redes sociais durante as eleições de 2014! Nada quer dizer nada, ninguém é de ninguém e perfis de campanha de candidatos à presidência não pensarão duas vezes antes de se meter em brigas com paródias de inimigos e seus fãs/seguidores nas redes sociais”, alertou.

Depois do embate, Aécio Neves declarou ao Diário do Poder que quer retirar o perfil @aeciodigital do ar, por ter postado um comentário agressivo contra a presidente da República. “Não é esse o debate que eu quero fazer”, teria dito o candidato.

É importante destacar que Jeferson Monteiro, responsável pelo perfil da Dilma Bolada, não está envolvido em nenhuma campanha política. “Chegaram a aparecer alguns convites, mas as conversas não prosseguiram”, explicou ele em entrevista ao Brainstorm#9.

Em outra ocasião, o Diário do Poder chegou a questionar o Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) sobre a paródia da presidente. O órgão esclareceu que “mesmo enaltecendo ações da presidente Dilma Rousseff, a página não configura propaganda antecipada porque não reúne as pessoas que querem Dilma concorrendo a presidente do Brasil em 2014”.

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Wise Approaches To Employ Social websites and Marketing

Activities in recent years certainly shows a trend toward the benefits of focusing on social networking and marketing. The numbers of both offline and online businesses getting involved with Facebook only continues to grow each day. But the great news is you can do this, as well, and work to create your own place there. If you really want to take advantage of this, then there is really no justification to wait any longer. Social marketing, at other sites apart from Facebook, contains a number of diverse methods which is fantastic for business. You should try to find the ways that can be used the best for your company.

If you want to do something that can certainly help your business, then just think along the lines of increasing your brand. Depending on your distinct business, you can brand yourself or your business. As you can easily envision, how each business is branded will vary depending on where your income takes place. You probably already know that Twitter, Youtube and Facebook are actually the three heavyweights in social media and marketing. Of course, each one must be approached differently and with different media, such as video at Youtube. You can capitalize on allowing your market have some fun and that can work wonderfully with all of them. Entertainment and the principle of fun at these sites can be tremendously effective, plus there is an higher chance of something becoming viral.

When you think about speaking to your customers, then that means social marketing and networking. Making the most through your marketing with that method is one of the most effective things you can do. Take the time to be there among those in your market, and you can acquire all kinds of useful information. One thing that ought to come to mind is market research and a new way of doing it. Then there are customer service potentials which can change into good things for your business. While you’re there you can let them know you are generally there, and then simply make yourself accessible if there are any problems. That is a level of customer support and assistance that does not exist very much, anymore.

Market research is vital for any business, and you can tap into a new way of doing that. The main way this happens is because people chat at these sites. The persons in your market will be interested in real discussions about what is important. So then just think about if they are talking about their various experiences with buying something. You will have the ability to eavesdrop about challenges in your market, or solutions that you may want to find out about. All you really want to do is show-up, and next be in a great position to pick up what is going on. It can make a tremendous difference when you are able to understand their language and the words they use. Your marketing and advertising messages and copy will convert much better when it speaks the same language as your market.

Twitter anuncia parceria com Ibope e segmentação por idioma para anúncios

Se esforçando em agradar os anunciantes, seja com métricas ou novas opções de segmentação, o Twitter fez dois comunicados importantes nesta semana: em parceria com o Ibope, vai medir a audiência da TV na plataforma, e também permitirá que os anunciantes segmentem a audiência de seus tuítes patrocinados através do idioma falado pelos usuários.

A medição de dados relacionados à repercussão da programação televisiva no Twitter, chamada de ITTR (Ibope Twitter TV Ratings), contará com um algoritmo que vai identificar palavras-chave e hashtags, e oferecerá os dados em tempo real para as emissoras interessadas. “Vamos poder dizer, minuto a minuto, o que está acontecendo com o total de pessoas que estão assistindo àquele programa e o nível de engajamento que eles estão tendo no Twitter”, explica o presidente-executivo do Ibope Media, Orlando Lopes, em entrevista à Folha.

Esse tipo de métrica já existe em outros países, como os EUA (lá a parceria é com a Nielsen), mas a oferta de tais dados no Brasil vai ajudar tanto TVs quanto agências a definirem melhor suas estratégias de conteúdo e de marketing.

Quase simultaneamente, o Twitter também passou a oferecer aos anunciantes a opção de selecionar a audiência a ser impactada também por idioma falado. A plataforma vai identificar diferentes ‘pistas’ da língua usada pelos usuários em seus tuítes (e não apenas aquela que os usuários avisam ser o seu idioma principal), o que pode ajudar na hora de escolher que público deve ser impactado por um determinado tuíte promovido.

lang_targeting_v2-600

Segundo o comunicado da empresa, a segmentação será oferecida para até 20 idiomas, entre eles o espanhol e o inglês. Combinada com outras opções como interesses, palavras chave, gênero, localização, entre outras, as ações no Twitter poderão ficar ainda melhor direcionadas.

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