Is real world ‘sociability’ the key to social media success?

In a week when the brilliant That Is Not An Insight Tumblr reigned supreme for most of us, RPM’s James Poletti attempted to swerve buzzword bingo and bring together some of the most creative people working at the intersection of digital and real world experiences to discuss a social landscape beyond your desktop.

Tom Roope from The Rumpus Room, Pascal Auberson from Specialmoves and Tim Manning of Swarm brought a complementary set of perspectives and experience to the topic.

We started from the view that to activate participatory ideas and drive earned media, it’s simply not enough to pour owned media on the fire and expect it to take. Instead, we discussed the role of real world experiences either as the initiator of audience participation – capturing audience content in the moment - or as an outcome for content gathered and then brought to life in an experience.

Concrete examples come in the form of a couple of Rumpus Room case studies discussed by Tom: their X-Box: Lilly Allen campaign in which fans were recorded signing the song in-booth and their footage then translated into a video mosaic of user content. To the Google Gallery: For Everyone project in which user content was projected in a big media takeover of Times Square, with the big reveal being – when  your image showed in the square – which was then captured and shared back to you via social networks:

Talk Talk's X Factor campaign show's how it's done.

Much debate centred on what constituted the elusive and crucial quality of ‘give-a-shitability’ that would encourage audiences to participate and hit that share button, feeling good about the content they were broadcasting under their own personal brand.

Specialmoves showed a number of projects and R&D work in which audiences used smart phones and gesture control to control outdoor digital interfaces, such as their DIY City project:

DIY City - Empowering people to redesign their urban spaces

And Swarm gave us an insight into how content and, by extension, social media interactions could be brought to life in-store:

adiVerse - Making digital physical

The panellists also talked about the best ways to execute content and sharing interactions in the real world, agreeing a number of simple do’s and don’ts.

All of that and only one appearance on That Is Not An Insight (a fairly charming one, at that):

To find out more about the session or request content relating to it, just drop a line to rebecca.collins@rpmltd.com

The team in action

Milka try a little tenderness... chocolate rewards for your affection

Milka recently encouraged the Argentinian public to try a little tenderness to get free chocolate. Its latest campaign involved a vending machine placed a short distance away from a Milka cow statue. As it lacked coin slots, passers-by had to figure out how to obtain the chocolate. By joining hands with one another to form a “chain of tenderness,” sensors on the vending machine and the cow were activated simultaneously, prompting the machine to release bars of chocolate. After each delivery, the cow statue moved further away from the machine, so that more hands were needed to connect the sensors.

‘Smell-vertising’ or as it’s formally known sensory-marketing

We’re all familiar with the good old fashioned scratch and sniff concept and it’s a well-known fact that smell sells. From local stores that infuse their aisles with the smell of baking bread, shopping malls that emit alluring coffee aromas as you walk through the entrance, drawing shoppers cafes like moths to a flame to children’s stores that subtly soothe parents with lavender scents in order to create a relaxing shopping environment and increase dwell time in aisles.  

Smells are scientifically proven to subconsciously influence the human mind and subsequently consumer behaviour.  A study conducted by Washington State University into cognitive behaviour found that shoppers who were exposed to one simple scent spent 20% more than shoppers who were exposed to a similar scent made from two ingredients.  Mental processing for the simple scent was minimal and therefore freed up the shopper’s cognitive capacity, allowing them to focus on shopping and spend more. 

Whilst this theory is by no means a new development, it is only in recent years that brands have started to wake up to 360-degree sensory marketing.   Recent successful campaigns from McCain, Premier Foods and Mr Wagg have been based around smell,  but excitingly McCain have decided to build on the  success of their 2012 campaign outdoor campaign that targeted commuters with mouth-watering smells at bus stops, and with it innovate the shopper marketing category.

Their latest shopper marketing campaign sees the smell of a freshly cooked baked potato being wafted along the aisles of supermarkets from special end of aisle barkers; meaning going to the supermarket on an empty stomach could become even riskier than before.

With this campaign McCain seek to shift their marketing focus from predominantly visual to an olfactory shopper experience, achieving cut through in-store and side stepping the fight for visual differentiation in a heavily congested shopper environment, what’s more shoppers are unable to easily filter out the sensory cues of a sweet smelling campaign in the same way that they can turn away from visual stimulation, unless they hold their breathe that is.

So whether you consider this campaign to be a nasty taunt to those who make the mistake of visiting the supermarket on an empty stomach or an exciting advance in shopper marketing I think sensory marketing is here to stay.

MINI Roller Coaster

For the adrenaline junkies among us the mere thought of a roller coaster induces a feeling of excitement and delight. With a new video advert that is expected to go viral, MINI Canada are hoping to get your heart racing. Production company Asymetric, transformed three MINI cooper 5 models into MINI Roller Coasters, by removing the rear seats and roof, then adding custom built roller coaster frames as well as carts, speakers and wind blowers, to create the optimum visual experience.

The cars were driven around the streets of Toronto where actors screamed as if travelling at gut turning speeds, when in reality they were cruising slowly along the urban streets of Toronto.

 

This video is MINI’s newest execution as part of the brands ‘Not Normal’ platform that started back in May. The campaign accentuates MINI’s uniqueness in comparison with other motor brands opting to highlight excitement over comfort and style or reliability. Not that MINI compromises any of those factors; it just heroes USP's that are not traditionally a focus for motoring brands. MINI is known not only for the classically British cars that they produce but the effortlessly cool brand identity that they have created.   This campaign manages to bring to life their brand and derive attention and emotion from both loyal and new customers.

 

Their video content captures the disruptive and effective nature of the campaign –stopping passers-byin their tracks, encouraging them to capture their own #MININOTNORMAL moment and share it with their social networks, subsequently increasing the reach of the campaign in an organic, credible manor.

 

Dave Douglas Partner/ECD at Anomaly was right when he said 'The stunt was truly unconventional and not the normal way to communicate the brand core of excitement'

 

We certainly get a taste of what it’s like to be Not Normal from this campaign and in the words of MINI who wants to be average anyway?

 

 

Read more about the '#MININOTNORMAL' campaign here