Foursquare = Money, Games, Dennis Crowley + Advertisers

Tags

Advertisers, advertising, Chicago Tribune, Dennis Crowley, Facebook, Farmville, Foursquare, games, Gowalla, Michael J Lis, money, Social Media, users

Last week I was asked by the Chicago Tribune to provide my thoughts on the Foursquare the social media channel / website that allows users to explore different locations and share them with friends. My comments and the full article here.

As I mentioned in the article – I believe that Foursquare along with its counterpart Gowalla, have an opportunity to cash in on social media more than any other social media site to date (ie. Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin). There are a few reasons for this, one of which being that Foursquare has blended social networking with gaming. Everyone loves a game and what better way to do it than to compete with your online friends (I’m not going to go into detail on how the gaming process works on Foursquare – read the article).

This gaming element is key – it’s something that plays a vital role on Facebook (example Farmville) – which is by far the number one application on Facebook, a virtual game that you can play with your friends. Facebook stumbles to find a way to monetize this gaming element and Foursquare is already on the threshold just waiting for users (and I stress the word users) to keep joining their site. Trust me on this one, when Foursquare has half as many users as Facebook – advertisers will start taking it seriously for marketing opportunities and that is when Foursquare will cash in. Users are key because Fortune 500 companies still believe in stats, visitors, unique visitors blah, blah, blah. Just to debunk how messed up this theory is, below is a chart listing the top social media sites based on traffic. Foursquare isn’t even on here! Do you see the truck before you get hit by it? Not likely.

I can envision a few inventive money-making ways to advertise on Foursquare (when the user base is at its peak) but I’m sure Dennis Crowley founder of Foursquare already has this in his back pocket. Great video and presentation

Good luck to Foursquare! I will be watching your career with great interest.

 

Getting bored of Facebook?

Tags

advertising, Facebook, Social Media

Ah the boredom of Facebook, I was originally going to make this post just a tweet on Twitter but I felt like there was little more to say. Why has Facebook become boring? To me, two reasons. First – there’s only so much information that your friends can supply you with. News feeds like: I’m hungry or just watched Dancing with the Stars get a little old after a while. Sure there are new friends out there, but Facebook has sort of contained friend gathering to a few social circles (which means, will it even surpass MySpece for users – not sure). The second reason it’s become boring is the new redesign which is somewhat clunky and has reorganized information in favor of advertisers instead of friends.

I’m wondering if the Facebook executives have realized that the ship is stalled in the water and they still haven’t cashed in yet.

It’s really not Facebooks fault – social media deems socially things will change, people will move on and find a new social site or even a new way of communicating with each other. Mark Z. can say whatever he wants, but Facebook has become scared of Twitter or anyone new on the block.

Grey Goose ad – part deux

Tags

advertising, Grey Goose, Life, random thoughts

The amount of views, and feedback I received on the my entry about the Grey Goose ad was crazy so I decided to write another commentary on this ad campaign for Grey Goose Vodka. Once again, I was reading the new GQ this month and there it was looming around page 23 of the magazine – a new Grey Goose ad with another take on American life. I have to say that this ad was a lot more believable than the first.

This new ad has the bottle of Grey Goose and a full martini glass sitting a white line table cloth. The ad says “Late Night Dinning… there’s something wonderful about a late night dinner…” it goes on to say how enjoyable late night dinners are with your true friends.

I like the ad, it’s sort of true… so my cudos to Grey Goose for putting an ad out there that is a little more down to earth.

Tropicana – pure people, real social juice

Tags

advertising, Social Media, social networking, Tropicana, users

This story is probably going to be on every marketing blog and news site this morning so if you don’t want to read what I have to say about it I totally understand. Hopefully I can give everyone a different take on the story.

So if you haven’t heard by now – Tropicana is pulling it’s new packaging (of OJ containers) and switching back to the old. This move is because the general public has spoken and there is so much dislike for the new packaging. One particular quote was that it looked “cheap and generic”.

My take on all this is….

1- I applaud the move by Tropicana, it means they are listening to consumers, which is always a good thing. Obviously they must be monitoring social media channels.

2 – I question why they ever made the change (I really wish they would put out a press release why). Usually when a company makes a change in anything especially marketing it’s because they have performed a ton of user research and focus group tested the hell out of everything. Was Tropicana’s research wrong? I doubt it. I think that there was a cost savings in the new packaging and this inspired the change.

3 – My last thought on all this is that maybe this was planned. Maybe the marketing team at Tropicana is smarter than we thought. Maybe the thinking was to create an uproar – create a buzz about something and it would spur sales. Hmm.

Needles to say – here’s a link to the story: http://www.brandcurve.com/tropicana-goes-generic-with-new-packaging/

some advertisers in a bad economy

Tags

advertising, recession

I’m fascinated by commercials or any advertising right now – this is when you really see who is serious about branding. With the economy on it’s knees or (should I say – ass) these advertisers not only have the money to advertise but totally understand the need for it right now. When the economy is this bad it’s easy to stop advertising (and most everyone does it), but it’s so important to maintain your brand during these times and the companies that I’ve seen doing it are…

Progressive, Gieco and State Farm

Weight Watchers

Harris Bank

Pepsi

Do brand Names get more attention on blogs?

Tags

advertising, blogs, branding, Social Media

I’m really curious if the mention of a brand name like Coke or Nike attracts more attention on bloggs. Has any other bloggers found this to be true? If so, please share.

The Grey Goose Ad

Tags

advertising, Grey Goose, Marketing

I’ve been flipping through GQ Magazine the last couple of days and each time I flip by the same Grey Goode Vodka ad. It’s a father and his son on a huge sailboat drinking shots of Grey Goose with oysters. It’s a great ad and a great layout. Something struck me the third time I looked at this… Who’s life is this?Seriously…

I’ve been working for 12 years, have risen to the top of my profession. But I don’t own a massive sailboat. Neither do any of my friends. It’s not that this is unattainable I still have about 20 some odd years to get to this but on my current path I don’t see it happening.

So what’s the takeaway?
1. Advertising is sometimes way out of perspective (this might be why a generation of 27 year olds drink GG at nightclubs) Grey Goode is doing an excellent job of promoting a lifestyle to them.

2. I need to refocus my job efforts.