Snapchat Discover

Snapchat Discover is one of the best things around these days that actually challenges other social networks, particularly Facebook. ‘Content’ is at the heart of this new initiative by Snapchat, giving storytelling a new meaning and way for people to consume content on-the-move.

The best part about ‘Snapchat Discover’ is it forces brands to keep the content and stories fresh, content being refreshed every 24 hours. The feature is extremely simple to use and discover and stories are restricted to a fairly small number, therefore, not stressing the viewers and acknowledging the nature of the user behavior, respect for their time and giving them even more a reason to revisit the app.

While it is all fun for the user, the real challenge lies for the companies who need to package content in a way never done before – as top social networks like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter require a totally different approach that we’ve accustomed to over the last years.

To stay relevant and get the user to revisit, one has to ensure the stories are relevant, short, crisp and limited to 5 for best engagement. Companies posting up to 10-15 stories can do so as long as there is enough content to share that very day and I have seen a few like that and admit that after 6-7 stories I couldn’t be really bothered. It became more like a chore than ‘discovering’

Also, the fact that there are no call-to-actions, click here, there, share etc. gives the companies a solid opportunity to ‘build the brand’ rather than make it another channel to generate traffic to xyz paltform.

Currently, there are top publishers which cater to a variety of audience on Snapchat. Such a diverse collection definitely helps attract users as most of these are common interests.

With launching Discover, Snapchat has definitely challenged many social networks out there and the more I engage with Snapchat, the more I find the other networks like Facebook and Twitter slowly becoming outdated. It seems to be the same drill on many channels and Facebook really needs to step up and reinvent content distribution as players like Snapchat are gaining a solid ground and giving brands an opportunity to ‘build’ the brand and ignite social conversations, WOM etc.

Meanwhile….Happy Discovering!!

Honda and Mori Inc. – 3D Designs Archive, Uni-Cub and Beautiful Engines

Honda and Mori Inc., a Japan based creative agency, has been working together on interesting projects since the past few years. I’ve already blogged about one of their interesting projects ‘Honda 3D Design Archives’, a microsite where Honda is shared their 3D design data/models online under Creative Commons 4.0 for personal printing. This was launched when the subject of 3D printing had become quite popular among the marketing teams of various industries and we began seeing more 3D printed work than ever before. Unlike any other automotive brand, Honda was the first one to offer such an archive.

Mori Inc.’s last two initiatives with Honda have also been equally interesting.

OK Go: “I Won’t Let You Down” Music Video

Not a car, but a Honda product, the UNI-CUB is a compact personal mobility device that was featured in OK Go’s song “I Won’t Let You Down” and Morihiro Harano, the founder of Mori Inc. worked with the band to produce this super cool video with over 17 million views on YouTube. The video was shot with drones and there is also a microsite http://iwontletyoudown.com/ where visitors can watch the video, the interview with the band and also create and submit their own visualizations.

The video was all done in a single take that involved hours of complicated off-camera preparation. A special unit was responsible for the drone: one person to fly it like a remote-controlled plane, another to program GPS sequences and complicated moves, someone to manually operate those sequences, plus someone else to control the drone’s camera, which is able to spin a full 360 degrees. (Japan Times)

Honda: Beautiful Engines

Honda also launched another project ‘Beautiful Engines’ with Mori Inc., Dentsu, Kappuku, Yama and Kaibutsu – a short-film and microsite talking about engines in pop-art theme visualizations. The short film was shown at the Sao Paolo Motor Show in Nov.’14 and also available online on Honda’s social networks.

The key message behind the project is ‘At Honda, our engines don’t just move people and cargo. They move society and history, too. They are engines of change in a very real sense.’

The microsite shares the look and feel of the video and gives the user quick information in form of short paragraphs, animations and images designed in a pop-art theme. The scrolling effect keep the user engaged and adds to the curiosity of the upcoming content and how the whole journey ends. Even though the mechanic and visuals are great, the content lacks depth and could have a richer timeline with some insider and testimonial stories that add to the ‘visually entertaining’ factor here. The social sharing on each piece of content is quite modern where social media icons are not used but initials of the networks like FTPT – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr encourage the user to click and discover what it actually means – certainly more easily guessed by digital and social experts than the average online user.

To sum it up, Mori Inc. and Honda are collaborating for some beautiful work and we will hopefully see even more interesting work moving forward – time for some wearable technology campaign perhaps? 😉

To view more interesting projects by Mori Inc. visit http://mori-inc.jp/

Mazda Canada loves Instagram!

Mazda Canada and JWT are just killing it on Instagram, first with their “Long Drive Home” campaign and now with the MX-5 Roadster campaign.

“Long Drive Home”

Mazda Canada took fans on a 4-month virtual road trip on their Instagram channel – telling the story of the brand and featured models in a one-to-one fan interaction, pop culture, events likes Mardi Gras and the Super Bowl, and car performance & capabilities.

The campaign ended with a big surprise for one particular fan – the keys to a new Mazda! Three posts were added at a time every week from Dec. 17 until March 28.

“MX-5 Roadster”

After the success of the “Long Drive Home” campaign, Mazda Canada changed from a virtual trip to a virtual magazine cover-like look showing a whole image of the Roadster line supported with facts told in form of short videos which cover the history of design, functional features etc.

The MX-5 Roadster isn’t available for purchase until 2015 and this Insta-collage campaign acts as an initial step in staring a dialogue with the audience before the full campaign kicks off.

Such innovative campaigns are key to engaging the younger audience and who knows what platform will be popular when the car actually launches, so for now Mazda Canada seem to understand what are the trends and how they can leverage it for their marketing. Experience it here http://instagram.com/mazdacanada

Honda uses Twitter Cards for 2015 CR-V

After Acura, now Honda is using the Twitter Cards to allow their followers to customize the 2015 CR-V.

Customize your 2015 CR-V on Twitter to start your journey. http://t.co/FsYrhr2VwT

— Honda (@Honda) November 21, 2014

The user is engaged with top-line configuration within the tweet – allowing the brand to create more value in making the user aware of the different trims and options available rather than just sharing a link out to the configurator with an image.

The user begins with selecting a trim, then the drive train and finally the colors. The end result shows the ‘front’ and ‘back’ shot of the car and allowing the user to tweet their configuration and share with their followers. After sharing, serious buyers can proceed with ‘Continue Buying’ where it takes the user to the brand website.

The interesting part of the user journey is that the user doesn’t need to re-start the configuration and lands on the last step i.e. color selection. One can always go back and change, but those who are confident with their selection can move forward to complete the entire configuration with accessories etc.

For serious buyers and auto enthusiasts, this is a good way to engage them and help them learn more about the CR-V.

Here is how it all began with Acura.

Here's something you haven't seen before. Configure your dream 2015 Acura TLX below without ever leaving Twitter. http://t.co/mvfblJ0ZiA

— Acura (@Acura) August 20, 2014

Skoda Museum: Virtual Visit with Google Street View

Skoda is using the Google Street View to provide a virtual tour of the ‘Skoda Museum’ in Czech Republic. The museum was reopened two years ago after extensive modernization and Skoda wants to make the exhibition available anytime, anywhere – making it the first automobile virtual museum.

With the Google Street View, viewers can discover the vehicle collection, the exhibition halls, the shop and surroundings of the museum.

 

Skoda Museum shows some historic models like L & K-Škoda 110, Škoda 860, Škoda Superb 4000, 1101 convertible ŠKODA Tudor ‘, ŠKODA Popular Sport ‘Monte Carlo‘ and ŠKODA 1000 MB. There are also concept cars like ŠKODA Vision D.

Google Street View also allows online visitors to visit the online customer center located at ŠKODA Mladá Boleslav, near the Museum. Online visitors can also discover all angles the current range of cars, bikes and origin of the brand accessories.

View the experience here.

Ted Baker’s Instagram Winter Wonderland #TedsElfie

Ted Baker and agency POKE have launched a hyper interactive social media campaign to engage with shoppers over the festive season.

Why I call it hyper interactive is because your are bound to get lost if you are a newbie at Instagramming and even if you are not, you better take the term ‘Winter Wonderland’ seriously as it is one campaign that you need time to enjoy. Yes Hyde Park Winter Wonderland is not the only place to be this Christmas season 🙂

Santa’s elves go missing and the only evidence is the Elfie taken by Santa. Instagram users have to help find the missing elves by visiting @TedsElfie on Instagram and taking part in the ‘choose your own adventure’ style game. The user is led by the tags on images to find the seven missing elves and win prizes along the way.
Whether you win or not, this campaign is worth interacting with thanks to the beautiful illustrations and the clear user path. Enjoy!

Source: http://tedbakerblog.com/2014/12/christmas-arrived-ted-baker/ – Totally love the hashtag snowfall haha! EPIC!

Paper Toys – by Audi and BMW

Besides gaming, automotive brands are using their magazines and social media to engage their owners kids as well.

Audi Magazine

Audi USA provides a special ‘Audi kids’ space’ on their official website where visitors can download the A3 Cut-outs and also shop Audi collection. The cutouts can be downloaded as PDFs and also torn from the last page of the Audi Magazine delivered to the owners.

Besides Audi A3 Cut-out, there is also a cut-out to appeal to the racing fans and engage kids by providing them with assets to tell their own story.

BMW – Personalized Paper Toy

BMW Brasil has an improved version to that of the Audi, where the car can be personalized in terms of the name, colors and wheels. All the user has to do is add a name and make the selection to generate an instantly downloadable PDF.

Even though BMW Brasil provides a personalized cut-out version, it does not clearly specify which model it is. That is a missed opportunity to create some familiarity with the kids at a young age and already capture their minds.

BMW Germany however adds additional value targeting probably 10 years and older with printable board games, student plans and coloring books.

However, both the examples are interesting and simple providing the time-poor parents a quick take out. BMW also acts responsible here by not promoting their products only in gaming, to which many parents are opposed and add strict time tables to play video games, but also creating loyalty and expressing ‘Family Care’ in a very subtle way. This also helps them to tap into audience who will probably never play video games and not get enough screen time on TV, iPods and Tablets until after a certain age.

Ford Explorer – Interactive Print Ads

Ford Explorer and BBR Saatchi & Saatchi, Israel just made it easy to interact with print ads i.e. without an app!

For the new SUV, they created a series of 3 interactive print ads which give visual demonstrations of the main features in sync with the creative look and feel.

Ford definitely recognizes the need to innovate and use new methods to reach out to the prospects. Considering how fast the technology is growing and being adapted by the users, it is about time that we start seeing more of such ads.

Trick-or-Treat – Target creates Halloween buzz on Instagram

Target and New York-based agency Carrot Creative have launched a virtual trick-or-treat experience on Instagram inspiring viewers to indulge in DIY spirit this Halloween.

The theme is ‘Halloween Hills’ which shows two homes on a hill – one is a trick and the other is a treat. The two houses are tagged to ‘trick’ and ‘treat’ profiles, the user can tap on the their preferred tag and move on to reveal what is the ‘trick’ or ‘treat’.

The “treats” link to Halloween-themed recipes like spider brownies, while the “tricks” go to do-it-yourself projects like a spooky, night-light.

The campaign involved 15 images with two profiles each showing 30 tutorials and 300 photos for the campaign.

The items used in the DIY profiles can be found in Target stores. To see all the items/creatives search for the campaign hashtag #HalloweenHills. The surprise element is in Trick-or-Treat number 6, where the ‘Bullseye’ mascot is tagged. On clicking the user is taken to the ‘Bullseye’s Closet’ Instagram account where the profile links to the eCommerce enabled site in partnership with Like2Buy.

With the Bullseye Clost account, Target is reaching out to users who are looking for pet costumes for Halloween, a rage in times of Halloween nowadays.

This is yet another clever way to leverage the available functionality of Instagram’s tagging feature and driving the engaged users within that moment to push sales online. It not only engages the user with this creative execution but also gives them ideas around Halloween that are enjoyable with little efforts in both time and money.

With this out already we hope to see more fun and interesting executions for Xmas in the US, since they are the first market to champion and release bold ideas.

Check out the virtual experience on Target’s Instagram account here http://instagram.com/target

 

Mercedes-Benz – Interactive Instagram Configurator for GLA

To promote the GLA 250 to the millennials, Mercedes-Benz USA and their agency Razorfish launched a social configurator on Instagram.

The Instagram account called ‘Build Your Own GLA’ lets users create their own custom versions of the car. The experience begins from an account where the user is shown only the car and asked to tap along to begin the configuration. The call-to-action (CTA) begins with asking the user to ‘Tap the photo’ to reveal the tags – which are essentially the other Instagram accounts that contain sun information like colors, wheels, etc.

The first step ‘Choose your color’ shows an account full of various shots of the GLA in the available colors. User can simply select the image of their preferred color and continue the experience.

The second step involves selecting a wheel which gives a good close-up of the alloys available.

After choosing the wheel, the user has to select the roof – where again the shots have a great visibility and concentrate only on that aspect of the feature, without forcing the user to look at the whole car over and over again.

The fourth and last step involves selecting the preferred grill. After the grill is selected, the user is moved to a fresh account containing the summary of their configured GLA.

By summary, we mean the image now shows their preferred color, wheel, roof and grills. On tapping the image, the user is congratulated and given the specs first hand eg. the name of the color, the package (e.g. Sports), roof name, etc. with a starting price tag. Furthermore, the user is also asked to take the picture to their nearest dealer. There is a disclaimer in the end listing what is not included and prompting users to contact their MBUSA Instagram account directly for queries, questions etc.

Conclusion

Razorfish can still pull it off. Good to know! Mercedes-Benz is in love with Instagram, as we can see so many executions in different countries using Instagram. It is no wonder that they have championed Instagram in the automotive industry at least. I was honestly expecting Audi to come up with something like this and could have never thought that Mercedes-Benz would end up doing this.

Even though the whole social configurator thing works, there is one small area for improvement. In the last leg of the account, where the user is shown the car – we could have filled up the account with more details e.g. 15 seconds clips showing the car in motion and also each and every image that has been selected could have been shown below the main image as a summary of the end product.

If we don’t want to promote what the user has already selected, this dead space could have been used to promote ‘Accessories’. I bet the after-sales guys would have loved it 😉

There is always room for improvement, but we must not forget that even today in over 90% of digital agencies there would have been enough people on both agency and client side, who would have killed the idea assuming the user won’t go through the long journey and the pain of creating so many accounts and assets. Mercedes-Benz US has overcome doubts as such and once again challenged the creatives in the auto industry. It is always great to see such inspiring work.

Audi – your move! 😉

View the GLA250 Instagram account here http://instagram.com/gla_build_your_own