Social Media

Do you care about your Klout score? Well, if you’re all hung on “your ability to drive action”, here’s a little ditty from Megan Wintersteen, strategic planner at Blacksburg, VA-based digital shop Modea, who discusses the art of “Klout bombing.”

The credibility of a Klout score has been a controversial topic for some time now. Regardless of whether or not you believe in it, one thing is for sure – Klout has spawned one of the most spectacular Internet pranks to date: Klout Bombing.

Klout is a tool that measures the influence of a social media user across a variety of topics. Beyond Klout-assigned topics of influence, users may also award +K’s to each other as a demonstration of expertise.  A Klout Bomb occurs when the awarded topic is something sarcastic, ironic or derogatory towards that person. In other words, something he or she typically would not want to be affiliated with.

I would know because I’ve been Klout Bombed.

One of my wise-guy coworkers decided it would be funny to +K me in “Prison” on Klout (for the record, I’ve never been anywhere near a prison). After expressing my dissatisfaction, other coworkers and friends found entertainment in increasing my influence in “Prison,” and it ultimately became a running joke around the office.

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To be honest, we’ve never heard of Replay, but what Stockholm-based studio Perfect Fools recently concocted for the clothing brand at its flagship store in Milan certainly caught our eye. Forget Laser Tag kids, here’s “Laserblast,” an installation that essentially encourages people to tweet what they please along with the hashtag #replaylaserblast, then watch as their profound messages get tweeted onto the jeans display.

Well, why we certainly wouldn’t buy any pair of jeans with tweets on them (though we can probably expect a Marc Jacobs collection at the next Fashion Week), we can politely applaud the effort. Perfect Fools is rolling out Laserblast, which it calls “a new denim treatment which is more eco-friendly and chemical-free than sandblasting,” in stores worldwide.

It’s rare we get the opportunity to post spec work for businesses that agencies have not yet won. So, when Santa Rosa, CA-based shop The Engine is Red sent us their RFP response for the Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative, we were quite surprised to hear that the pitching process had not yet been completed. In fact, our contact at The Engine is Red told us, “We are set to here back from the client later this week about the results.  There will be an additional round of pitching spec work if we make it past the first round.” Will sharing spec work with ad bloggers help The Engine is Red pass on through to round two, or is this just a way for the agency (who, judging by their somewhat incomplete website that SEO strategists will love, are brand new) to get what little work they have circulating online?

According to the above video, The Engine is Red decided to trek to Lake Tahoe in an attempt to show the potential client that they’re the right agency for the business. Set to “Young Blood” by The Naked and Famous, the agency’s employees visited as many of the Lake Tahoe area’s attractions as possible over the course of one day, including what must have been a frigid dip in the lake itself. The Engine is Red chronicled its adventure in real time on its Facebook Timeline, where you can see the bars, tattoo parlors, and fish statues that surround one of California’s famous vacation spots. View the entire RFP response here.

Spieltrieb “Real Music Comes From Real People” Teaser from Max Gebhardt on Vimeo.

Spieltrieb, a London house music band, is turning to social media and mobile recording for their next single, due for a digital release in a couple of weeks.

According to the band’s Vimeo page, the concept for the next single goes thusly: “With no budget and only our imagination and creativity as tools, we came up with an idea that costs nothing, requires no programming or website making and only uses a popular existing music platform in a completely new way.” For the next few weeks, the band is asking fans on Facebook to record various blips, dings and clangs via their mobile phones. The collective noise, er, ambiance will be uploaded to the band’s Soundcloud dropbox, where it will be infused into Spieltireb’s single. Those contributing get “official credits as a featured artist upon the song’s release with Baalsaal records.”

It’s easy to draw a parallel between this campaign and another UK band, The Vaccines, and their crowdsourced Instagram music video. Along with R/GA’s new “One Copy Song” project, it’s a invaluable time for artists looking for exposure over digital media channels. Sure, Spieltrieb’s new song probably won’t be the pinnacle of musical genius. But, as a PR move, this is a great one for a relatively unknown (at least to me) act to get the attention of a wide audience. Find Spieltrieb on Facebook here.

Throw some plastic over your keyboard, because this new campaign is bound to turn on the waterworks for many, even you heartless, jaded advertising professionals.

Kicking off what’s being declared P&G’s biggest campaign in the company’s 174-year history is the above two-minute spot, “Best Job.” Shot in London, Rio de Janeiro, Los Angeles and Beijing by award-winning director Alejandro González Iñárritu (21 Grams, Babel, Amores Perros, Nike “Write the Future”),“Best Job” launched today on TV and social media, coinciding with April 17 marking 100 days until the upcoming Olympic Summer Games in London. The “Thank You, Mom” campaign by W+K (with VFX by The MIll) also features a custom tab on P&G’s Facebook page, which allows visitors to send personal notes of gratitude to their mothers which are posted to a stream on the app and to users’ Walls.

So, if you mom is still alive, consider sending her a quick message of gratitude, via Facebook or other means. And, if you’re fortunate enough to be watching the Olympics this summer with her, give her a hug, a kiss, and a quick thanks. Even if you didn’t become a world class athlete (or avoided sports altogether), chances are you mom was always your biggest fan. Visit the “Thank You, Mom” Facebook page here.

From Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi LA comes a new YouTube campaign for the Prius c, a digital experience hailed by the agency as the “first and only YouTube-based car configurator to exist.”

Last month, Toyota debuted a TV spot comparing the game of life to, well, the board game LIFE, emphasizing how the Prius c’s fuel-efficiency helps young car buyers take their lives to the next level. Now, Toyota has debuted a new LIFE-themed YouTube channel, where celebs give young Gen Y-ers car-buying advice including how to balance one’s budget with a vehicle purchase, calculate MPG, and the tech advantages of the Prius. Making a cameo appearance in a video called “Wallet Wisdom” (above) is Danica McKeller, the limber mathematician best known for capturing the hearts of Gen Y with her role as “Winnie Cooper” on The Wonder Years.

Also appearing to talk about the Prius c’s “Touch Tracer Display” is a man known to the world as “Bill Nye the Science Guy,” who made learning an absolute kick-ass experience for 90s Saturday morning TV viewers. So, why all the celebs of yesteryear? Referring to the YouTube campaign, Saatchi LA says in a statement that “the core demographic for the Prius c is made up of city-dwelling professionals in their 20s and 30s who lead extremely busy lives. And although they don’t spend time checking into Foursquare to unlock deals or viewing long-format content from their phones, they are ‘social shoppers’; and often look for tools that help them easily share and collect opinions. Saatchi LA also found that the Gen-Y set, who are artistic and creative in nature, are turned off by the standard, clinical car configurations of today that feature stale drop-down menus, constant pricing per feature and standard 360 car spins.”

Aside from YouTube, the campaign will also be shared over “this generation’s favorites,” Google+, Twitter and Facebook. View the Prius c interactive YouTube page here.

Happy Friday the 13th, the second of three we’ll be enjoying during the last year of Earth’s existence! If you’ll recall, on Friday, January 13th, Minneapolis-based shop Campbell Mithun announced the 2012 edition of its “Lucky 13 Internship,” a contest where applicants from around the country to apply for an coveted summer internship using only 13 tweets.

From nearly 400 applicants from 33 states, 16 countries and 103 colleges/universities, Campbell Mithun has selected its winners/Twitter handles:

1. Dennis Bukowski (@DennisBukowski), art director, University of Nebraska
2. Laura Fitzpatrick (@_Lfitzpatrick_), account planning, University of Minnesota
3. Marlena Jordan-Childress (@LenaChild), media, University of Minnesota
4. Cody Levin (@CodyLevin), account planning, University of St. Thomas
5. Sofia Morales (@sofiml2), account management, University of North Carolina
6. Laura Romer (@rahrahromer), copywriter, University of Texas, Austin
7. Michael Santee (@MichaelSantee), media, Drake University
8. Amy Zhong, media, University of California – Berkeley (Amy joins the team via the 4A’s Multicultural Advertising Internship Program)

Congrats to the winners, and enjoy your Minneapolis experience. Congrats is also due to Cornerstone, a local non-profit that will be receiving pro bono work from the agency as the social media winner of a cause-marketing effort that was new to the Lucky 13 Intership this year. Hear from three of the internship winners on Campbell Mithun’s blog here.

Whatever you think of Facebook’s mandated Timeline, we can say Ronnie Allman, an art director intern at Goodby, has tried to capitalize and make the best of it with his  “Beard Grower” app. The Texas native has enticed yours truly, who has been rocking beardedness for the last couple of yours, to give it a go. At least it’s not as destructive as the Ugly Meter app.

To create buzz and some PR pickup for his new single, “Pass it On,” Swedish rapper Adam Tensta turned to R/GA for a viral lift. R/GA’s solution, “One Copy Song,” is a Facebook app that allows one person worldwide to hear Tensta’s new track at a time. Yes, if you want to hear Tensta’s new track as of this post’s publication, you have to wait in line behind at least 100 other people.

According to a statement from R/GA, “One Copy Song makes the release of a song an intimate experience, bringing you closer to the artist and the community. Moreover, it brings back the anticipation around the release of new music that’s been lost in the digital age.” And, for an extra social media push, users can actually “cut” the line, moving up in order to hear the aptly titled “Pass It On” by tweeting about it, watching Tensta’s music video for his track “Like a Punk” on YouTube or listening to his song “Before U Know It” on Spotify. Users can also access a world map on the Facebook app that tracks where in the world the song has been listened to. The app is set for a full launch for any artist’s use this summer.

Now, as this is a PR move/soft launch, I would highly doubt that Tensta’s results will be indicative of artists who try One Copy Song in the future. After all, we live in an era where we expect any intellectual property to be instantly accessed online at a moment’s notice. And, as a young artist trying to make a breakthrough into stardom, wouldn’t you want as many people to hear your songs as possible? Waiting in line, even with the opportunity to budge others, isn’t (and never has been) much of an incentive to do anything, besides looking for a hoppin’ bar.

Even for artists that are already big, wouldn’t following Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want model for In Rainbows or Jay-Z and Kayne West’s Watch the Throne iTunes launch be a much better way to restore the “anticipation” R/GA talks about? I could be wrong, but for an Internet-driven world where instant gratification is a means for valuing content, I don’t foresee One Copy Song as a sustainable model for music distribution.

By now, the whole media/tech world is abuzz following the announcement that Facebook has acquired photo-sharing service Instagram for a cool $1 billion in cash and stock. Since Instagram was initially unveiled in Apple’s App Store in the fall of 2010, we’ve covered a fair amount of ways that the agency world has co-opted the tool. Some of the most notable examples include the Instaprint device that was created by New York shop Breakfast, which is now looking to sell directly to consumers, the Barbarian Group’s Screenstagram software and Razorfish Atlanta’s Instagram feed that was launched well over a year ago.

Of course, it also seems seems that everyone on our Facebook feed seems to be using Instagram  so we’re thinking that having the social network as its parent seems fitting and will entice even more agencies and marketers to enter and join in on the fun. Anyhow, Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom says the song will remain the same with the service while Mark Zuckerberg noted on his Timeline that his company’s newest acquisition will continue operation as a separate platform. Our sister site Social Times has more on today’s big news including a statement from Facebook’s chief.