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.

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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YouTube Features Inaugural Addresses; Except Carter

To celebrate the inauguration of President Barack Obama YouTube is featuring the Inaugural Addresses of former presidents on the front page.

It’s a great look at history and the different speeches these men gave: FDR in 1933, Truman in 1949, Eisenhower in 1953, JFK in 1961, Johnson in 1965, Nixon in 1969, Reagan in 1981, H.W. Bush in 1989, Clinton in 1993 and George W. Bush in 2001.

The only president that seems to be missing Jimmy Carter. I found it here doing a search. All the featured videos are on CSPAN's YouTube Channel so perhaps it was a deal for CSPAN rather than an attempt to feature all the former presidents with a recorded inauguration.

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YouTube Now Recommending Subscriptions

 YouTube now has a new recommendation feature.  When users subscribe to a channel YouTube will recommend “related channels” for the user to check out. [picture at left]

In this example when I subscribed to DrunkHistory YouTube recommended two other channels: clarkduke and maplestreet.

It appears the recommendation engine is based around the video descriptions as opposed to the type of channel it is.

For example, clarkduke and maplestreet are Director Channels while DrunkHistory is a Comedian Channel. However, since all three channels feature Michael Cera YouTube considers them relevant to each other.

It’s a great way for users to find new content they might not have otherwise found and another way to increase page views for YouTube.

YouTube Ruining User Experience; Opens Door for Competition

YouTube as always had a tough time dealing with users uploading copyrighted material. They’ve tried deleting it, offering free music to replace the copyrighted audio with and other measures.

Now they’re just muting the videos. That’s right. NO SOUND.

I’ve read lots about it from multiple sources but no one has mentioned the fact that this will ruin the YouTube user experience!

The average user doesn’t know, or care, about copyright issues – they just want to see (and hear!) a video. Perhaps after finding a few of these they’ll wonder what the heck is wrong and check out another site like Veoh.

It may not be that dramatic but if you take away loads of content people want and add a creepy element to the user experience what else could you expect?