SocialNext

Interview: Ford Fiesta Movement Agent Dartanion London

Ford’s new social media campaign for the upcoming 2011 Ford Fiesta is pretty darn impressive. Via an online contest, they selected 100 “agents” to drive the car and complete different “missions”. All the while the agents use social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to share their experiences and adventures.

It’s a great way to virally spread Ford’s message and showcase the car online. Imagine my surprise when I found out that one of my friends, up and coming comedian Dartanion London, was selected as an agent by Ford!

It seemed like a great opportunity to ask him about his experiences with the project, dubbed the Fiesta Movement, and the car itself.

John Boyle: Tell me about how you discovered the Fiesta Movement contest and why you entered.

Dartanion London: Someone told me about it on Twitter, which is this new network you may have heard of. The door handle of my current car had just broken off in my hand, and I needed insurance, so I figured why not enter a contest that could take care of both of those things through a miraculous longshot win?

John: You’ll be going on “Missions” with the car. Your first one is to Mt. St. Helens. Do you get to choose your missions or do they choose them for you?

Dart: We get to pick them from a selection of pre-approved missions or we can try submitting our own ideas in advance.

John: You’ll be sharing your experiences with the Fiesta on various social networks. What’s your favorite one?

Dart: Twitter's the one I'm using the most now because it's so quick and easy to update. Of course, it can't provide the rich media of Facebook, so that's next on the list. Still, I wish I could integrate these networks into one unified interface. And I'm hoping that's what Google Wave or someone else wants to let me do too.

John: Have you met the three other Fiesta Movement Agents in Washington State?

Dart: Yes, I even pranked one of them. We all met at our orientation meeting where we got the cars. The nice thing about this program is that all the other winners are cool, creative people I might not have otherwise gotten to know.

John: Pranked? What was the prank?

Dart: Well, fellow Fiesta Agents Steve & Cherry Ouch were up from Portland, and I met up with them and Seattle Agent Bridget O'Neill. I had tracked down where the other Seattle Agent Kristina Horner was parking her car, and we decided to decorate it for her.

You can see her initial reaction on her blog here and the video I released to reveal the prank.

I wish more things like this happened in the world all the time.

John: What are you most looking forward to doing with the car now that you have it?

Dart: It's what I'm not going to do that's the most exciting: break down on the side of the road.
Other than that, I'm planning on driving across the whole durn country!

John: Have you had any comments from people about the Fiesta?

Dart: Yeah, a couple in my neighborhood left me a note saying how excited they were to see it and they couldn't wait 'till it was available to buy. I did the same thing to the guy in my neighborhood who drives a DeLorean. So, it's 1-1 Fiesta-DeLorean so far.

John: And here’s the big one: How do you like your swanky Fiesta?

Dart: It's kind of stupid how much I like it. It's such a zippy, light little car that it's practically begging to be thrown around curves. I'm already sad that I'll have to give it back.

Special thanks to Dart for taking the time to answer my questions. You can follow Dart's Fiesta missions on his Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Channel as well as his fellow agents at the Fiesta Movement site.

Late Night’s Jimmy Fallon Fusing TV and the Social Web

SNL alum Jimmy Fallon has been the host of Late Night for just two weeks or so and he’s already done more to fuse television and the internet than anyone before him.

Last week he had a segment about books aimed at guys called "Bromance Novels". At the end of the sketch he let viewers know about the online parts of the gag: a “making of” video about the Bromance Novel cover photoshoot and the ability to send your friends Bromance e-cards. It’s a great way to encourage your audience to interact with the show and with their friends.

The big win however is Fallon and Late Night’s use of Twitter. Fallon, the hosts of DiggNation and comedian Russell Brand all logged onto Twitter during the show and asked their followers to follow an audience member named Bryan Brinkman. Before the show Bryan had just seven followers. After the show he has 29,427. (I'm just behind with 9 *wink*)

These segments and others (like the Facebook Status sketch) do an amazing job of interacting with viewers in a new way all the while building online momentum and publicity for the new show.

Geico, Mysto & Pizzi Score a Viral Hit with “Somebody’s Watching Me”

Hats off to Geico for their viral strategy surrounding the song featured in their new ad campaign about people being watched by “the money they could be saving with Geico”.

The song is a remix of Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” by Mysto & Pizzi and Geico has done a fantastic job putting the pieces in place to allow fans of the song to spread it virally.

First, it’s just a killer remix.

Secondly, the song is available for download for free at Geico.com along with a bio on Mysto & Pizzi. The song isn’t in a proprietary format either which means users can freely spread it around and it will work on all players. A good example of this is me. I sent it over to my friend who is a professional DJ and he’s played it at gigs. This is a fantastic example of subtle marketing. Imagine being on dance floor and hearing this cool song and thinking of Geico...and not minding that. The song is available at Mysto & Pizzi's website as well (along with other great remixes).

Their use of YouTube is impressive as well. They have a making of video on Mysto & Pizzi’s YouTube Channel...along with a big Geico ad next to it. There’s even a link to the download page in the description. (See below)

They also have a music video for the song itself and encourage others to make response videos to it.

All in all they've done a great job in anticipating consumers looking for more information about this song and giving them the tools to spread it around. Have you noticed any other ways Geico has used this song in their online marketing efforts? Could they have done something else too?

Pepsi Hosting Online Super Bowl Party; Will Anyone Show?

Pepsi is hosting a multi-platform, interactive online Super Bowl Party hosted by Will Arnett (Arrested Development, 30 Rock) and Andy Rickter (Late Night with Conan O’Brien) for people who “have nothing to do on the Super Bowl”.

It’s certainly an interesting concept. The site features an intro video from Will Arnett (Nicely embedded in HD by the way) inviting people to the event.  It also allows users to interact with each other by uploading their own videos to Pepsi’s YouTube Channel. There will be guest appearances by YouTube’s “most famous celebs” and there’s even a link to add people to the Pepsi’s event page on Facebook.

While this is a very cool idea it doesn’t seem to be gaining traction. As of this post Will’s intro video only has 44,181 views and the follow up video has only 216 views (yikes!). The Facebook Event page reinforces this perception with only 213 RSVPs. That’s not a lot for a party that goes from 7 AM to Midnight. (Really? That long?)

I believe this missed the mark because it focuses on people who don’t participate in Super Bowl Sunday. Will also brands these people “losers” which doesn’t help. Plus I think YouTube assumed their YouTube celebrities would promote their appearance. That doesn't appear to be the case. I searched around YouTube and couldn't find anything.

It seems this would be a bigger hit if Pepsi fused it into the Super Bowl as opposed to playing against it. Perhaps it could be part of an alternate Half Time event or part of the pre-game coverage. This would allow you to market to the vast majority of Americans who watch the Super Bowl and would allow Pepsi to showcase the best content they have as opposed to trying to fill 16 hours of time.

Monty Python Scores Big on YouTube

 Several months ago legendary sketch comedy group Monty Python launched an official YouTube channel featuring their sketches plus interviews and other unreleased material with links to where to buy their work on Amazon in the video description. 

The result? According to Fast Company sales of Monty Python DVD on Amazon.com rose a staggering 23,000% percent.

That is pretty darn impressive and I think the key here isn’t that their material is online…it’s that their material is on YouTube.

YouTube has the largest user base of any video site and everyone knows how to embed and send YouTube links. By harnessing the capabilities of the site and directly interacting with their fans they’ve achieved an unheard of sales increase. Plus, how many new people have been exposed to their work as a result of this initiative? Probably a lot.

Too many times companies are concerned with the advertising that would play next to their content. The Python example shows that they should be more concerned with how the internet can grow DVD sales and expand and motivate a fan base. A motived fan base will impact the bottom line a lot more than trying to sell ring tone ads next to content.

I hope my other favorite sketch comedy group, The Kids in the Hall, is listening.

YouTube Testing Hulu Features

YouTube has copied one of my favorite features on Hulu.com – the site they so infamously referred to as Clown Co.

Above the video on YouTube there is a light bulb button which will “Turn Down the Lights” and darken the rest of the screen. [screen shot at left]

It doesn’t seem to be on all of YouTube’s videos yet so it must still be in testing.

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Britney Spears Taking the Web, Her Fans, Seriously

According to TechCrunch Britney Spears’ team has posted a “Web 2.0 Media Manager” job on a Harvard-only private job board.

It’s a smart move to have someone manage these 2.0 networks (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) full time and build relationships with fans. I know the most growth my comedy group’s MySpace saw was when I was commenting on people's MySpaces randomly and leaving comments with Friend Requests. The only problem is that it's a real full time job and I already have one! It just became too much but that’s the commitment you have to make if you’re going to grow your online presence.

The internet is an information vacuum and giving her fans more photos, stories, videos and news will only pay off in the long run. Plus, it will hopefully create a place for her fans to go and learn what’s really going on with Britney as opposed to relying on the popular gossip blogs like TMZ or Perez Hilton that have treated her pretty poorly in the past few years.

Can YouTube’s Favorite Content Creators Survive without Constant Promotion by YouTube?

Google-owned YouTube has been hitting the PR circuit proving to everyone that content creators can make a significant amount of money on YouTube and advertisers can be successful advertising on this platform.

But the dirty little secret I wonder about is how often does YouTube feature these “Top Earners” on their front page?

I don’t need to tell you that being featured on the front page of YouTube will bring massive amounts of views…to sell advertising off of. I wonder if YouTube is doing everything they can to promote these “Top Earners” to perpetuate their PR spin of people being able to make money off content creation.

It helps encourage people to start accounts and, most importantly, gives YouTube the advertising success stories they badly need.