Peter Kerwood: Social media at its best

In last week's round-up, I included an award-winning campaign by American Express that helped small businesses in America. The hugely successful campaign used social media to brilliant effect. This included a social marketing digital tool kit; a YouTube video-maker so shopkeepers could make their own ads, a Facebook page builder and a way to launch online deals through Foursquare.

I would love to see something similar offered to exhibitors at trade shows and by venues and agencies to clients to help them promote their events. The campaign won gold at the Cannes Lions, the Oscars of the international advertising industry, last month. I’ve selected five more award-winning campaigns that have used digital technology in a powerful way.   

Using social technology to get others to tell the story

Village Voice website and newspaper was known for capturing the real, uncensored voice of New York. The challenge of the campaign was to reinvigorate the position of this brand as the go-to source of York arts and culture in the city. New York Writes Itself was created as a crowd-sourced answer to this problem. The brilliantly conceived idea by Leo Burnett won bronze at the Cannes Lions in the PR category. It was designed to be shared through social media and cultural influencers rather than using traditional channels.

‘New York Writes Itself’ is an ingenious series of vignettes observed and penned by the people of New York. These scribes post their observations of life on the city’s streets to the ever growing script on the campaign's website. The idea is a fantastic way of engaging the population of a city, creating buzz around a creative project that will secure huge interest in the final production of a stage show of the same name.

‘New York Writes Itself’ highlights the potential of social media not just in creating interest in events, but creating events from scratch. To date, the project has had over 24 million media impressions. Watch the video here. @NYWritesItself @LeoBurnett

Using social media to change the conversation


The Troy Library ‘Book Burning Party’ created by Leo Burnett is a fantastic example of the potential power of social media to completely change a conversation. It’s no wonder the campaign won gold at the Cannes Lions. A struggling library needed a small tax increase to continue to serve the local community, but national local politicians high-jacked the campaign, rallying people against a tax increase.

The campaign endeavoured to get the conversation ‘back to books’ by encouraging people to vote to close the library, and celebrate with a ‘book burning party’. People were quick to voice their disgust, effectively changing the conversation to one on the merits of literacy. At this point, the campaign’s true message was revealed – ‘a vote against the library is a vote to burn books’. The capacity of social media to not only engage, but transform and lead a conversation is an invaluable lesson for the events industry. Watch the campaign video here. It’s a thing of beauty! @BookBurninParty @LeoBurnett

The tale of the three little pigs retold with the help of social media 


The Guardian has been screening an advert in the UK, created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, which examines the way in which a story is covered in print, online and in the world of social media. The focus of the ‘Whole Picture’ campaign is the reimagining of the popular ‘Three Little Pigs’ nursery rhyme. It shows how social media brings the public into the discussion and encourages them to think about, and talk about, the role of journalism. 

The ad saw unusual questions being asked and theories being put forward that would never otherwise have been considered. The unexpected analysis of the case brings the advertisement to a close, as the audience learns the pigs’ killed the wolf and knocked down their own house down because they struggled to keep up with mortgage repayments. The humorous tone of the advertisement makes a serious point on the merits of balanced journalism in a light-hearted manner, effectively engaging the audience and sparking debate. This stunning advert won a silver Lion. Watch the ad here. @Guardian @bbhlondon

The perfectly targeted social media campaign


This powerful and expertly targeted video won gold in the Cyber category at Cannes Lions. Created by agency DDB Tribal in Germany, the Volkswagen sponsored campaign was created following a report by The Telegraph that half a million car crashes in the UK are caused by women applying make-up while driving. Nikkie, a Netherlands make-up artist, has a massive YouTube following for her make-up tutorials. Her fans were the perfect target market. The video begins with a simple make-up tutorial, but shocks the audience with a terrifying simulated car crash and a powerful message ‘Don’t make up and drive’. The idea is perfect in its targeting, getting the message to the exact desired audience. This advert was shared on blog posts Facebook and Twitter and just shows how a campaign is massively more powerful when it reaches the exact target market. I think there are some valuable lessons to be learnt. The ad can be viewed here. 
@NikkieTutorials @DDBTribal

How a 25 foot doll became the talk of New York fashion week 


Created by Mother New York this clever campaign was designed to highlight the new Missoni fashion collection in the US chain store Target during New York Fashion Week 2011 and won bronze at the Cannes Lions. The campaign featured Marina, a 25-foot animated doll (she also doubled as a free WIFI hub) who travelled around New York City recording her appreciation of fashion as she went on her iPhone, via her blog  and Twitter (@marinawithstyle).

The doll became a hugely talked about part of New York Fashion week with countless mentions in blogs and fashion magazines around the world. She had thousands of one-on-one conversations with fashions’ front row on Twitter and Facebook which meant she was being read by millions around the world. The Missoni for Target collection sold out across the US within hours. Watch the video about Marina here. @marinawithstyle @MotherNY

Ground-breaking interactive tables from Touchez 


Just like a giant iPads, the interactive tables from Touchez can be used as a table or mounted on a wall. The technology behind the product is PixelSense™ which allows users to view images and scroll through brochures and has the capacity to support more than 50 simultaneous inputs. Users can then email content direct from the table or simply print. Perfect if you are looking for a ground-breaking way of allowing your clients to engage with content, and the ideal solution for exhibitions or showcases. No more printed collateral. Hurrah! @touchezuk

A social media policy for the ‘first social media Olympics’


During the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, Facebook had 100 million users and Twitter six million. For the 2012 Summer Games in London Facebook has 900 million users and Twitter has 140 million. The growth of the social web means that the London games will be the most social ever, many experts are calling the 2012 summer games the ‘first social media Olympics’. The Olympic committee has produced a set of social media guidelines for anyone taking part in the games. It prompted me to think about my company’s social media guidelines. I found this definitive list of social media policies by Chris Boudreaux, author of Social Media Governance, very useful. It includes policies from companies that include the BBC, Fedex, Dell and Apple. @cboudreaux

Main image courtesy of www.newyorkwritesitself.com.