SEO Werkt!

Steve Mann says he’s the world’s first cyborg — and that you’ll join him as one pretty soon.

“It’s kind of obvious that everyone is moving along that trajectory,” Mann told The New York Times in an interview published on Tuesday.

According to Mann, it won’t be long until the likes of Apple and RIM follow Google’s lead and introduce their own head-mounted displays. This battle, he says, will eventually eclipse the smartphone one that the companies are waging right now.

This rise won’t be without its complications, of course — and Mann would know. In what was called the world’s first cybernetic hate crime, last month staffers at a Paris McDonald’s attempted to tear Mann’s EyeTap glasses from his face, which they said weren’t allowed in the restaurant.

While the employes denied the claims, Mann, a cyborg with a camera in his eye, had what he claimed was photographic proof of the incident.

The events raised some big questions about the imminent emergence of cyborgs, many of which Mann talks about in his interview with The Times. One of these concerns was over the question of privacy in a world where everyone has cameras on their heads.

“If you and I were to meet in a coffee shop and you had an audio recorder in your pocket, what’s the difference than if you had a photographic memory and could remember the entire conversation?” he said.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Filed under: mobile, VentureBeat

The American flyweight boxer Marlen Esparza is doing well at the London Olympics, having assured herself of at least a bronze medal. Her biggest challenge leading up to the Games, though, may have been summoning the willpower not to punch her co-star while filming this McDonald's spot from DDB in Chicago. Leaving aside the bigger issue of whether fast-food companies should be sponsoring the Olympics at all, the ad is pretty annoying across the board. Esparza, 23, who also models for CoverGirl, is accosted by a "trainer"—actually a chicken-sandwich-clutching McDonald's customer—who cynically wants her to do well at the Games so she (the customer) can win McDonald's prizes as part of the "Win When USA Wins Gold" promotion. "Chop chop," she tells Esparza after offering tips on her stance and ridiculing the Olympian's general level of effort. A lame joke about Ukranian boxers caps things off. If by some chance you're a fan of this character—who's been given the name Tara Wert, which is the real name of a DDB producer—check out a companion interview piece after the jump.

We’re knee deep in 2012 Summer Olympics coverage, and billions of eyes from around the world are watching athletes attempt to break records and bring home the gold.

Hmmm … seems like a perfect opportunity for marketers, no? Some companies have already jumped on the Olympics bandwagon, leveraging its popularity for their own campaigns. And then there are the elite. The brands that create campaigns that are inspiring to viewers and marketers alike — whether for the emotion they elicit, or for the reminder of exactly how to execute a remarkable ad or marketing campaign.

So we rounded up the ones that tugged at our heart strings as viewers, or inspired us to be better marketers (sometimes both), and have broken them down here for you. Enjoy!

P&G’s “Thank You, Mom” Campaign

Proctor & Gamble created a campaign called “Thank You, Mom” that showed flashbacks of Olympic athletes from all over the world growing up and practicing their sport with support from their mothers. Whether that meant waking up before the sun rose or traveling around the world for their competitions, you saw the athletes’ mothers cheering them along, helping them through injuries, and supporting them. Take a look. And maybe grab a tissue.

The campaign launched on Mother’s Day (I know, go ahead and grab another tissue) and has since had 5.7 million views on YouTube and 727,068 likes on Facebook. It’s a heart warming campaign that every mother can relate to, even if their child isn’t an Olympic athlete. 

Marketers can learn a lot from this campaign. Proctor & Gamble, a company that doesn’t directly relate to sports or the Olympics, came up with an angle for this campaign that everyone can relate to. That, my friends, is a prime example of newsjacking! I mean, it’s a bit easier to come up with a campaign that relates just to your home country, but it’s more difficult to be able to touch people all across the globe. By creating a campaign that every mother can relate to and appreciate, Proctor & Gamble reached the entire Olympic audience … and probable sold more tissues while they were at it.

Mini’s “Win Small” Campaign

You know that adorable little car, the Mini Cooper? They created a campaign with the tag line “Dream Big. No Matter What Your Size.” How appropriate!

They showed images of smaller people all over the world — even from different time periods — winning against taller or larger people even if the odds weren’t in their favor. As one of the less-than-hefty cars advertising at the 2012 Olympics, this was a relevant and effective way to stand out against other manufacturers.

This campaign already has 289,146 likes on Facebook and 101,116 views on YouTube. Like P&G, Mini Cooper figured out a way to leverage a common human emotion — feeling small, in stature or otherwise. The key with this campaign, however, is that feeling of inferiority isn’t what’s harped on. Instead, Mini made it about best the best despite your handicap. And they did it all while aligning their car with that emotion, and demonstrating the features of their car to boot!

What can marketers learn from the Mini Cooper campaign? They were able to find an Olympics tie-in despite not being naturally aligned with the games. In their campaign, the tie-in is a common human emotion with which we’re able to identify. It’s that emotion — triumph in the face of adversity — that’s featured in the Olympics, that’s featured in people’s everyday lives, and that’s features in this campaign that got the attention of people around the world. That common feeling makes viewers feel a connection with not just the car, but with Olympic athletes, too. Because, you know, we could totally train enough in the next four years to qualify to relay with Phelps.

What? It could happen.

McDonald’s “Win When USA Wins Gold” Contest

At McDonald’s, when you purchase items that have under 400 calories, you can win prizes, some as big as $25K and a trip to London. The way it works? An American athlete’s name appears on all food items that are under 400 calories, and if your Olympic athlete wins a gold medal, you win a prize.

In terms of product offerings, most of us probably think of McDonald’s as the farthest thing from a logical Olympics sponsor. After all, most of the food isn’t exactly suitable for training athletes. Knowing this, McDonald’s leveraged the recent trend toward healthy eating combined with the excitement over the Olympics, and is rewarding people who eat healthier while supporting Olympic athletes!

McDonald’s best target audience isn’t necessarily athletes, but they were able to create an Olympics campaign that caters to their customer base nonetheless — not to mention who their customer base wants to be. And isn’t that what marketing is about? Making your audience feel like with your product or service, they can be exactly who want to be?

Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” Campaign

With Adidas as the official sportswear sponsor of the Olympics, Nike needed to think of another way to stand out. They created an ad that showed people from all over the world participating in sports in cities that happened to have London in their name, including London, Ohio, London, Norway, and East London, South Africa. The tagline for the campaign was, “Greatness isn’t reserved for the chosen few in one special city; it can also be found in London, Ohio, and London, Norway, and East London, South Africa, and Little London, Jamaica, and Small London, Nigeria and the London Hotel and London Road.”

With over 4 million video views on YouTube, Nike has truly created a remarkable campaign. Instead of spending millions of dollars to be the official sportswear sponsor, they created a campaign that’s getting their names in the headlines with the Olympics just as much as their competitor … if not more.

This is a great lesson for marketers that want to be affiliated with big, expensive events, but without spending the bug bucks. Nike didn’t spend billions of dollars in sponsorship (though I’m sure they could have), but they still created a remarkable campaign that received a lot of media attention and resonated with a wide audience. When figuring out what to do for a marketing or advertising campaign, consider other things besides the weight of being the “official sponsor” to create a memorable impression.

Coca-Cola’s “Move to the Beat” Campaign

Coca-Cola’s Olympics campaign combines people’s passions for music and, well, sports (obviously). First, they hired musicians to create songs for five different Olympic sports with sounds from the Olympic athletes training. Second, they recorded a documentary that follows musician Mark Ronson across four continents to meet five Olympic athletes and hear about their journeys. Finally, they created a Facebook app, Track the Beat, to let young people connect with the campaign, listen, and share the music with their friends.

Coca-Cola’s campaign is brilliant because they tapped into something that drives young athletes (and most people, really) — music. When these athletes wake up, they’re listening to music. When they train, they’re listening to music. When they’re performing or playing their sport, they’re listening to music. By combining young people’s love of music with sports, Coca-Cola came up with a fantastic campaign. Their video already has 655,878 views on YouTube. Marketers should follow Coca-Cola’s example by identifying the things in their target personas day-to-day lives that motivate them, and using those things in campaigns to motivate leads and customers to take action.

Cadillac’s “Cadillac ATS vs. The World” Campaign

Cadillac launched their campaign during the 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony, and followed up with 30-second spots throughout the weekend. The commercials were nothing extraordinary; they showed the Cadillac driving through different parts of the world to show that it can drive on different terrains. But the execution of the campaign is what makes it inspiring to marketers — especially ones who have ever tried to execute a coordinated campaign. If you haven’t, well, managing all them moving parts sure ain’t easy.

The commercial shown at the Opening Ceremonies was a smashing hit. It has already received 1,243,877 views on YouTube, and Cadillac saw an increase in shopping by 474% over the weekend. By launching at the Opening Ceremonies and then sprinkling additional, shorter commercials throughout the weekend, the new car was embedded in the minds of the viewers.

Marketers struggle to come up with new and creative campaigns every time they want to launch something new. And while that’s important, it’s even more important to execute the campaign in a strategic way that actually helps your overall business goals. Consider things like your audience’s attention span, and what other companies are simultaneously trying to get attention to ensure your creative efforts aren’t diminished or lost entirely to issues with executing.

Samsung’s “Take Part” Campaign

The Samsung “Take Part” campaign uses different technologies to stay up to date on everything that’s happening during the Olympics. First, they offer apps that give you updates on the Olympics including schedules, winners, and locations. They also have a Facebook app that lets you see what others are saying about the Olympics on social media. There’s even a blogger that posts consistent updates on the app.

It’s not always easy to integrate mobile marketing into your campaigns, but if you have an opportunity to do it, it will attract so many more people. This year, many are watching the Olympics from their mobile phones or iPads — even simultaneously as they watch on their television — which gives companies a perfect opportunity to show that they’re relevant through the mobile landscape. As a mobile provider, it’s even more critical that Samsung shows its leadership and expertise in the mobile marketing space.

In fact, we should all be taking note from Samsung and integrating mobile into our campaigns. Whether it means creating an app for events or our business, hosting contests that leverage mobile capabilities, or simply maintaining a mobile optimized website, doing so shows your audience that you’re a forward-thinking company … and it’ll get you there faster than your competitors. As the world moves closer and closer towards mobile ubiquity, don’t you want to be one of the first ones there with your marketing?

What other Olympics campaigns have inspired you, in 2012 or from previous Olympics?

Image credit: Dave Catchpole

Sprout Social, a social management and publishing tool suite, released Sprout Queue and ViralPost today, estimating that the new features will help brands increase engagement with social content by 30-40%.

Sprout, founded in 2010, offers users tools for social media monitoring and engagement, a “smart inbox” that combines social feeds, collaborative tools and analytics, among other features. CEO Justyn Howard tells me the company, which counts Nike, McDonald’s and Yahoo among its more high-profile clients, is known for its simple user interface and collaborative style.

Sprout Queue allows users to add content to a queue for automated future publication. Howard says the company original worked on Queue with ViralPost as an embedded feature, before realizing ViralPost would be better on its own.

ViralPost analyzes the users’ audience and gives the user the optimal times to deliver content based on “usage and engagement patterns, content velocity and other factors.” Similar to Queue, ViralPost automatically delivers content at the optimal time. Sprout Social says the models have improved engagement by 30% for the average user and up to 300% in some cases.

“We’re trying to solve the problem of when’s the right time to reach your audience,” Howard explains, saying Sprout Social is taking the guesswork out of reaching your target audience.

While many similar services offer free and premium versions, Sprout Social only offers a monthly subscription (although they do have a 30-day free trial).

Howard tells me they are working on an iPad app, which will be released in the coming months, and are building more tools to allow teams to collaborate on publishing.

I’m very excited for the London 2012 Olympics and, judging by this very touching and wonderfully produced spot, so is McDonald’s New Zealand!

I won’t have to stay up late but appreciated both the consumer insight and the business’ role in this moment nonetheless.

Share via Amir Kassaei

Disclosure – McDonald’s is a local and global client for DDB.

Image by David King, via Flickr.

Will London 2012 be remembered as the first social media Olympics or for the great dictatorchip overthrow (The Gaurdian’s pun, not ours)?

Last week news went viral that McDonald’s had secured the right to be the exclusive hawker of fried potato products at the Games.

There is one exception, however: the iconic British duo of fish and chips. Replace the halibut with a burger or sausage and you’ll be booted from London’s infamous’ brand exclusion zones.

The Guardian reports that LOCOG had to gain special permission for its caterers to serve fries to those working on the grounds after the ban caused massive uproar among the employees preparing the site. The rule, however, will stay in place for spectators (who will also be prevented from bringing “excessive” amounts of food and bottled water to the games).

Heineken is the official beer of London Olympics.

And in case spectators were hoping to wash down those fish and chips with a refreshing Newcastle or Carling, they’ll have to think again.

Dutch brewer Heineken is the Games’ official beer, putting LOCOG at odds with Liberal Democrat Greg Mulholland, who raised the issue in Parliament. His website says, ”by choosing a mass-produced, bland foreign lager, the committee has ignored all the wonderful, traditional beers that the UK has to offer and instead gone for the company with the biggest [chequebook].”

LOCOG has been stirring up plenty of controversy for its aggressive approach to enforcing sponsorship and Olympic trademark protections, which can be traced back to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act of 2006, formulated specifically to protect the value of Olympic sponsorships.

Trademarks like “London 2012” and the tagline “Higher, Faster, Stronger” cannot be used by businesses operating around the Olympic park, but other less direct words will also be prohibited. “London,” “Summer,” “Gold,” Silver” and “Bronze,” cannot be used, for example, if their intended meaning references the Games, reports the Independent.

In a now-famous case, one proprietor was forced to change the name of his establishment from Olympic Café to ‘Lympic Café. In another case, local florists were given a warning by officials because of their window display, which featured the Olympic rings made out of tissue paper.

Bristol-based graffiti artist Criminal Chalklist's artistic protest.

The East London district where the Games are being held is famous for its thriving artistic community, and some artists, such as Bristol street artist Criminal Chalklist, have taken to the streets in protest of the law.

There’s still plenty of time to place bets on London 2012’s legacy. Right now the brand politics surrounding the games seems like a pretty good wager. But, then again, that might change once the torch is lit and the athletes take their rightful place in the spotlight.

According to my LinkedIn wordpress plugin, its been 252 days since my last blog post. Trying to find a balance between work, family, ed and the blog has meant that I’ve rather neglected this blog but have kept myself busy by participating in and writing for the Radar DDB 10am One Thing email we send to clients, by presenting at some really great conferences (DX3 Canada and SXSWi), by judging the inaugural Strategy Digital Agency of the Year awards (congratulations to my Omnicom colleagues at proximity) and by talking to the media about twitter…pinterest…and whatever else a journalist needs an uninformed opinion on!

Its been a whirlwind year as Tribal DDB Toronto has undergone extreme and transformative growth. We’ve won assignments on Lipton (US), Johnson & Johnson (and a mystery client to be declared later) while also winning two of the biggest Digital AOR RFPs in the Canadian market last year – McDonald’s Canada and Canadian Tire. As I recently tweeted, we’ve produced work in almost every marketing discipline and media channel in the past year.

PR, TVCs, digital execution, out of home, experiential – @tribalddb_tor has done it all in the last 12 months bit.ly/OypvzO—
Ed Lee (@edlee) July 15, 2012

In lieu of posting here for the last 252 days, I wanted to share some examples and cases of what the team has been working on, on behalf of our brave clients who approve and fund everything we do.

Here’s one of the first pieces for Canadian Tire that you have hopefully seen – a Christmas Tree powered by Canadian Christmas Spirit as determined by social sentiment. Its certainly one of the best and most intriguing uses of social media that I’ve seen. Enjoy our copywriter Ryan’s hard work in producing a case study in the style of a Christmas carol:

For McDonald’s Canada we’ve been hard at work on a campaign called “Our Food. Your Questions” which seeks to answer Canadians’ questions about McDonald’s food quality. Its been a huge undertaking as we’ve answered consumer questions in close to real time using a voice and tone that is very human and, where appropriate, very funny. We’ve also been creating image answers for frequently asked questions and for those huge myths that we wanted to dispel, have produced quite a few video answers, two of which (below) have been smash hits with 6.7mm and 1.7mm views respectively…with no media support.

This is an oldie but one of the pieces I’m proudest to have worked on at DDB is the 2011 Subaru WRX launch which contributed to a lift in sales of an incredible 126%, year over year. Not only did the social media team work on the campaign insight and strategy, we also got to concept and produce this awesome video. We strapped four HD cams to Pat Richard’s WRX in the Rally of the Tall Pines and then spliced the footage together. Not content with that, we painstakingly hacked YouTube’s annotations to provide the consumer with the ability to switch camera angles, in real time. This little trick maxed out the number of possible YouTube annotations (448 seconds x 3 links per second = 1,344 links) which was interesting to find out.

I’ve also been working very closely with our friends at Manulife Financial to help build their comfort level around social media. As a financial institution there’s a lot they can and can’t say but we’ve worked extremely collaboratively to define both a visual style and tone for them on Facebook that is really resonating with their target audiences – I’m looking forward to this relationship continuing.

You can take a look at all the work we’re most proud of on our newish website – Tribal DDB Toronto.

The plot thickens! Dr. Steve Mann, the human cyborg made famous by an incident in a Parisian McDonald’s, just released a new picture (above) of his altercation with a McD’s staffer. The picture clearly shows a McDonald’s employee touching Dr. Mann’s permanently installed augmented reality eye piece. This invalidates McDonald’s statement, which claims “interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation.”

Dr. Mann stated the man struck the EyeTap, but like a side-swipe, grabbing motion rather than a direct punch to the face. Apparently, the man touching (or striking) the eye piece is the same person who eventually pushed Dr. Mann on to the street. The person in the background of the new picture later tears up (below) the letter from Mann’s doctor, explaining the device’s need and removal process.

Again, like I stated yesterday, without a video of the incident, it’s hard to say which party is in the wrong but Dr. Mann’s still images tell a chilling story all by themselves.

McDonald’s released a statement yesterday regarding the incident,

“We share the concern regarding Dr. Mann’s account of his July 1 visit to a McDonald’s in Paris. McDonald’s France was made aware of Dr. Mann’s complaints on July 16, and immediately launched a thorough investigation. The McDonald’s France team has contacted Dr. Mann and is awaiting further information from him.

In addition, several staff members involved have been interviewed individually, and all independently and consistently expressed that their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation. Our crew members and restaurant security staff have informed us that they did not damage any of Mr. Mann’s personal possessions.

While we continue to learn more about the situation, we are hearing from customers who have questions about what happened. We urge everyone not to speculate or jump to conclusions before all the facts are known. Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment and stellar service to McDonald’s customers around the world.”

- McDonald’s

By now you probably heard of Dr. Steve Mann and his altercations in a Parisian McDonald’s. He alleges that a several McDonald’s staffers forcibly tried to remove the augmented reality eyepiece that’s essentially permanently installed into his skull. Well, McDonald’s just released a statement denying the Dr. Mann’s claims. While McDonald’s acknowledges staff inquired about the device, the company insists “their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation.”

McDonald’s statement via KurzweilAl,

“We share the concern regarding Dr. Mann’s account of his July 1 visit to a McDonald’s in Paris. McDonald’s France was made aware of Dr. Mann’s complaints on July 16, and immediately launched a thorough investigation. The McDonald’s France team has contacted Dr. Mann and is awaiting further information from him.

In addition, several staff members involved have been interviewed individually, and all independently and consistently expressed that their interaction with Dr. Mann was polite and did not involve a physical altercation. Our crew members and restaurant security staff have informed us that they did not damage any of Mr. Mann’s personal possessions.

While we continue to learn more about the situation, we are hearing from customers who have questions about what happened. We urge everyone not to speculate or jump to conclusions before all the facts are known. Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment and stellar service to McDonald’s customers around the world.”

- McDonald’s

At this point it’s rather hard to say which party is in the wrong here. There isn’t any video of the incident. That said, Dr. Mann’s EyeTap head-mounted display happened to catch and store several telling images of staffers getting up close and personal.

This isn’t the first time a McDonald’s defended wrongdoing in a Parisian location. Last August a McD’s staffer allegedly assaulted a US traveler for taking a picture of the menu board and, incidentally, the employee as well. At the time McDonald’s denied the physical confrontation and later told CBS it was “unfortunate misunderstanding” made worse because of a languagebarrier.

This incident does raise concerns about the future of wearable displays, though. The rights of others is equally important as the rights of the wearer. Google Glass and its eventual clones will make video recording trivial and almost invisible. Some people simply do not want to be part of a random life blog.

Get ready: The London Olympics are coming in a few weeks. To be honest, I’m not much into the Olympics as a whole, although it was quite cool to be living in Atlanta in the Summer of 1996 when the games were there.

But it’s no secret that brands and marketers leap at the chance to be an official sponsor. So what’s in it for them? Prestige? Visibility?

One of the brands that has been criticized for sponsoring the Olympics is McDonald’s. An article on McDonald’s sponsorship of the Olympics points out that McDonald’s is the only restaurant that can sell fries (chips) at Olympic venues. Anyone else can only do it as a “Fish n’ chips” combo.

Regardless of what you think about McDonald’s food, they’ll likely be tying their brand to Olympic excellence. That’s generally the strategy for most marketers. Over the next few weeks, we’ll see more spots like this one, for Visa:

Does it make you feel better about Visa? Or are all the sponsor brands simply glomming onto a big event and enjoying the ride?