The Social Practice

Welcome to The Social Practice, a full service social media agency formed by exciting influences between creativity, strategy, data insight, search engine optimisation and community management.

Sealed with a Kiss

With only their trademark trench and some lipstick, Burberry is spreading love across the globe in their own unique style  – allowing personalised kisses to be sent across the globe in this creative collaboration with Google. No more generic images of lips, just visit Burberry Kisses and pucker up to create a digital imprint of your lips, which can be shared by email and social channels. The project follows each unique journey animating the trip with Google street views, tying into Google’s ‘Art, Copy and Code’ initiative. We feel that this is a fantastic emotion fuelled campaign from Burberry encouraging branded User Generated Content, raising their profile across social.

Roll up, roll up!

Welcome to the world’s first Twitter raffle – Twombolr. The concept is Tweeting as payment for a raffle ticket for a chance to win. It’s so painfully simple, we’re actually surprised it’s not been done before. As the brain child of digital creative Tom Cleeland, this project has the potential to deepen the relationships between brands and consumers on Twitter. The platform has been launched in partnership with Bestival and has built momentum gradually over the past week. As an alternative to the RT and Follow sweepstake mechanic, this is a refreshing development.

A Video’s Worth More

According to Twitter-certified analytics partner Topsy, the six second video clips from Vine (which launched early this year), are shared more on Twitter than posts from Instagram (which is now two years old). Considering Vine has a smaller user base than Instagram, with 13 million registered users compared to 100 million, this is an interesting trend.  We predict this growth may be down to its integration with Twitter and the user-friendly auto-expand feature, with Instagram linking users through to their own site. Is it also a coincidence that this statistical jump came a week after Vine was introduced on Android? With this in mind, it should be a platform that brands consider as part of their social strategy.

Internet and Adverts

We’ve seen it before, but we still think it’s clever – the Internet is having an effect on traditional TV advertising and McDonalds US has produced some Internet culture gold-dust. Not put off by their epic Twitter campaign fail, McDonalds have created a series of TV ads that speak directly to the Internet that are now appearing as sponsored posts on Internet culture sites such as ICanHasCheezburger. Rather than adverts, these could be described as art and their shareability is undeniable. Our personal favourite is “Mouth Soiree” with its Daft Punk influence.

Rich Pins for Brands

Apparently Pinterest just got better for brands, or so they claim, with its latest update of “Rich Pins”. Take a look at this Whole Foods Pin pulling in recipe details and this product from Overstock.com which pulls in current price and availability. With this new functionality surfacing more information from a Pin’s source, we agree that it increases content possibilities on the platform but question its use as a traffic driver for a brand’s site – which for many clients is a KPI for Pinterest. What do you think?

Our Work: The 7 Wonders of Summer

The Social Practice has recently launched a multi-platform campaign, The 7 Wonders of Summer for Jack Wills and Jack Wills USA. Each week explore the 7 Wonders of Summer – from brilliant BBQs to stunning sunsets with in store discounts of 20-50% via Twitter and a chance to win your favourite Jack Wills looks on Facebook. Jack Wills are supporting the activity with a selection of in store events over the course 7 weeks.

Sing-a-long with Barclaycard

Everybody likes to feel a little bit special, and to promote their Bespoke Offers, Barclaycard launched multi platform campaign #bespokeballads. Barclaycard asked people to send tweets using @bespokeoffers or the #bespokeballads hashtag and then published a series of personalised 1 minute musical videos from May 20-24. A ‘Response’ campaign like this is tricky to scale – if you remember The Old Spice Guy, it took comedy genius and celebrity support to achieve.  Currently views are running in the hundreds rather than thousands but it’s still a creative way to engage with your audience and generate content.

Social Fuel

Students from the ‘Minddrive Programme’ in Kansas are planning on driving to Washington in a Vintage Volkswagen they converted into an interactive car that runs on social fuel. Specific engagement on social media, such as use of the #minddrive hastag, is processed to power the vehicle which can cut out at any time if there aren’t enough shares or posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Being used to promote the effects of a more hands-on education, this is a good example of the extent to which social media can stretch if you’re creative enough – taking the online offline and on the road.

Fun My Life

#FML is a common acronym used on social channels that, politely put, means, “Gee, what an unfortunate place I’ve come to at this particular point in my life.”  Using Twitter, Jell-O has taken to change this meaning to “Fun My Life”.  They’ve asked people to tweet @Jello what kind of fun they need – with selected winners receiving a “fun filled” goody bag. The tweets are also hosted on the ‘Fmylife site’ for others to see. As well as  #MCDstories and #WaitroseReasons, this campaign has received mixed reviews and shows that playing with hashtags is a risky business. It will be interesting to see how Jell-O attempt to turn this negative into a positive.

 

Dress for Social

Sharing purchases on social is now second nature and friends’ opinions on purchases are invaluable. So, how about sharing before you purchase – but sharing them with the designer himself? Karl Lagerfeld has commissioned a pop up concept store in Amsterdam, equipped with his collections and social media dressing rooms. Here, you can capture your own look, apply Karl Lagerfeld filters to it, share the result through social media to your friends, and even leave a comment for Karl himself to see what he thinks. Now that’s what we call audience involvement.

The Tweeting Record

With a study revealing that more Twitter chatter correlates to higher television ratings, Sky noticed that more customers were using Twitter as their source for TV show information. Introducing #SKYREC, where Sky TV tweets highlights of their programmes every day. If customers want to record a show that was tweeted, all they need to do is to retweet with the hashtag #SKYREC. This not only helps Sky customers but it also turns Sky’s social media profile into a unique service that brings the operator’s brand closer to customers.

Vine ‘On the Go’

Weetabix launched their new campaign to promote their ‘On The Go’ Breakfast Biscuits by using Vine and asking their Twitter followers to decide how one person’s morning would go. Weetabix released a Vine video series and asked their followers to decide the next step, whether to #getup or #hitsnooze, or #getbreakfast or #getout – with each video shot live depending on the responses of their Twitter followers. With more brands taking on Vine, is consumer interaction the best way to utilise the platform?

SuggestMe Traveller’s Guide

New platform SuggestMe allows people to create their own shareable custom travellers guide by what’s popular on real-time social media. Most tourist guides based on customer reviews are quickly outdated as opinions and reputations are constantly changing. Suggestme keeps on top of these opinions by analysing information from millions of social media mentions to determine the best places to highlight at the moment customers are browsing the site. Visitors can also search venues based on keywords such as ‘live music’ to find places to suit their mood. It’s great to see the real-time feature, and seems a step in the right direction for the growing dependency of customer reviews.

Stop the Spoilers

Unveiled at the TVnext Hack event in Boston, and winning Best in Show is the Google Chrome extension that allows users to block tweets based on chosen keywords and time period. Twivo has been created by a 17-year-old who was tired of getting the plot to her favourite TV shows ruined before she got the chance to watch them. With the popularity of second screen TV growing, and more and more people watching TV on catch-up or from recording, this is certainly software that will attract an eager audience. No more Game of Thrones spoilers!

SeeItShopIt on Facebook

To launch their new swimwear range, Littlewoods have claimed themselves as the first retailer to monetise Facebook by using SeeItShopIt – a new e-commerce Facebook tool. Retailers can monetise through Facebook by showcasing collections of products within a single post, where users can browse through collections, share items and click directly through to purchase. Littlewoods plan to expand this throughout May and June. This functionality delivers an interactive shopping experience straight into the newsfeed, creating a seemless shopping experience exactly where their customers are.

 

 

A Facebook Toast

Budweiser in Brazil has launched The Buddy Cup – a new way for alcohol to grow your Facebook friends. By containing a chip integrated with the social network, people can become Facebook friends simply by clinking their glasses. Being used at events that are sponsored by Budweiser, the cups are designed to increase the interaction between Budweiser consumers. Not to mention the ‘never been done before’ novelty effect drawing in more fans and raising brand awareness.

 

Go Back and Retwact

After receiving 1,500 requests for it to be built, a software developer has built the web’s first Twitter correction service. Retract Retweet (Retwact) gives you the functionality to correct one of your last 5 tweets. You can either send out a retraction tweet, or a tweet via Retwacts own Twitter account to those who retweeted your original message – highlighting the correction. This is potentially a useful service – but a terrible name.

 

Photo Donation

Johnson & Johnson has utilized the influential campaign mechanic of donating to charity in return for interactions. Their “Donate a Photo” campaign lets users upload a photo to a curated list of good causes to which the brand donates $1. In 5 days, 5,000 photos have been uploaded, raising $5,000. Integrating with Twitter, and Facebook where 350 million photos are uploaded each day, this campaign taps into a popular daily activity. However, perhaps the ability to upload to Instagram with its 100 million users would have also been a smart move.

 

Tate Twitter Guide

The Tate Modern is bringing a gallery tour to Twitter in a modern guided exploration. They are giving a tweet and image based tour of its Roy Lichtenstein exhibit for art enthusiasts who aren’t able to make the gallery. A museum curator will be managing the Twitter feed for 30 minutes, followed by a Q&A segment. Perhaps taking inspiration from the fashion world tweeting live catwalks, the art world is catching up.

 

The Social Comedy Festival

TV channel Comedy Central are to hold a five day comedy festival almost entirely on Twitter. Comedians will be tweeting Vines and jokes along with the #ComedyFest hashtag, including a “Vine Dining” party of six-second videos. With more and more people splitting their attention between TV and online, it’s only fitting that Comedy Central should follow their audience and also seek a wider one. Performers and distributors have to go where their audience is, and in this case, that’s online.

 

The Great Cycle Trade-In

Evans, the bicycle retailer is using Olympic gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy for a rewarding social media campaign as part of their “Great Evans Cycle Trade-In”. The cyclist has hidden three gold bikes in three UK cities and is tweeting out clues to their location. Whoever finds one can then trade it in for a bike worth £1,000. This is a good example of an effective celebrity partnership, and will be sure to raise brand awareness for Evans.

Steer the Audi Story

Audi USA has partnered with Marvel Entertainment LLC for its latest campaign. The car company is using Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to create a crowd-sourced digital Iron Man graphic novel. It allows fans to submit sketches for the final panel of the comic book, determining how the story ends, with the winning entry being published. In the book, the superhero undertakes his adventures in an Audi R8,  an example of a powerful partnership. This is a great chance for Audi to provide consumers and fans with the chance to showcase their creativity and designs, not only of Iron Man, but their vision of the latest Audi innovations.

Name for a Beer

Belgian beer brand Maes wanted to drive new custom organically through Facebook. They produced a campaign that rewarded people with beer when they liked the page and had the same name as them (Maes is one of the most common surnames in Belgium). To not elimate everyone else, they also gave people the opportunity to change their surname on Facebook to enter. In one day, Maes’s fans had tripled in size and made it into Facebook’s top 6% most active pages worldwide. This is a successful campaign that took an inexpensive approach to raising brand awareness, and we feel it was a cheeky tip of the hat to the legendary Whopper Sacrifice.

Twitter Wants You

In light of today’s ‘Twitter for Brands’ event, Twitter has announced a step forward for Promoted Tweets. Usually following the interest graph, Promoted Tweets targeted individual users on their following, but now it will target keywords in timelines. This enables advertisers to reach users based on recent tweets as well as tweets they’ve engaged with. This new feature enables you to reach users who are already talking about you. The question is, how will reducing reach but hitting a highly targeted audience affect Twitter KPIs for brands?

Girls Can, Can you?

Plan Finland, use “social peer pressure” to gain donations to help improve the lives of girls in developing countries. A website and app, allows virtual cans to be created and passed between Facebook friends. The process is trackable with the site showing a timeline of the contributions and a map of where each can has travelled. It’s just launched but has already raised €29,977 and adds a social angle to the standard “Donate Now” message. It’s Facebook tie-in encourages a younger audience to help the cause, knowing that it’s easier to ignore fundraisers on the street, rather than your friends.

Are you Social Media Self Aware?

If not, you should be. Recently we’ve seen two high profile cases of people parting ways with their company due to inappropriate tweets. Plonking ‘opinions are my own’ in your profile and expressing yourself freely to the world is no longer acceptable. The public launch of Paris Brown as Youth Crime Commissioner matched her equally public demise after inappropriate tweets. Soon after, showing how even the high and mighty can fall, Microsoft’s Creative Director Adam Orth suffered the consequences when he tweeted his thoughts on “always on” gaming – a very sensitive subject within the gaming community. So how have you prepared for the social media magnifying glass?

Google+: The New TV?

New UK programme, The Fox Problem, is streamed through Google+ Hangouts rather than TV and encourages deep social interaction. The show’s social footprint also includes Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr, and the audience is encouraged to use these platforms to influence the script. For example, each week viewers can tweet to save their favourite presenter from completing a humiliating dare. Overall the show seems more about raising the profile of Google+. Having promoted the show on their own Google+ account it seems evident that some form of Google production is in play, and may be their way to endorse the Hangouts feature.

Tweet on Wheels

To showcase their new GPS tracking system, the stolen vehicle recovery system LoJack launched TweetCar, the first car with the ability to tweet. Capitalising on their intelligent tracking software, they have created a system that monitors activity and uploads it to Twitter. This car will drive around for a month interacting with followers with unique content and challenges for prizes. This is a powerful product that, rather than confusing consumers with its technical software, has used it to interact with them on a platform which they are familiar with. A good example of how functional meets creativity.

Regent Street 24/7

Using social platforms, (eg Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram) London’s Regent Street has launched 24/7, a customised social hub where consumers can interact in real-time with over 100 brands. Brands have the opportunity to engage with consumers who have signed in with their social accounts, whilst using the #regentstreet hastag. The one omission is the lack of purchasing ability; the platform is merely creating awareness and promoting loyalty rather than generating revenue. There is huge potential here for a social focused online shopping community as the community is already there, so brands would do well to push for such development, and in turn invest more into their social media channels.

Let’s Mix It Up

Launched at SXSW, Mixhibit is the new web app from Smirnoff that helps turn social feeds into personalised video compilations. The app scrapes content from Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to turn users’ shared content into a video with the soundtrack of their choosing. Smirnoff has positioned Mixhibit as a tool that transforms social media activity into a one-of-a-kind, shareable experience. They have tapped into their target demographic, who will use more than one social platform, and have tied it back into their strong ‘Nightlife’ association. Also, by using social media channels, it means the content produced will be of interest to each users’ friends,   making it even more shareable.