Let’s Get Social With Song

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Snapchat Encourages Imaginative Content

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Snapchat’s features provide a lot of room for creativity. The platform’s text, drawing and video features go beyond just the quotidien photo and filter choice. The fact that each message self destructs after viiewing also means you ought to create something memorable. It takes a lot of foresight and planning to make something worth watching.

Shaun McBride is something of an expert Snapchat doodler when he’s not a sales representaitve for snowboard companies. The 26 year old has just upped the ante for Snapchats everywhere. To follow McBride on Snapchat is like entering an alternate universe.

“Snapchat is such an incredible concept, it gives you the ability to take everyday situations and turn them into something hilarious by just adding some text or a drawing,” said McBride in a recent interview with Digiday. “I like being able to interrupt someone’s busy day with 10 seconds to open my snap and smile or laugh.”

McBride sees Snapchat as a way to go beyond just engaging with a brand’s customers– by befriending them.

“I have seen some brands use it effectively; others aren’t understanding the concept of having a personality and keeping things random and fresh. Snapchat is not about planned campaigns; it is about having a creative mind dropping hilarious content and interacting with its followers on the regular.”

Take a look-see at the sort of mind dropping content McBride creates below.

 

 

 

 

Source: Digiday

A Cheesy Live Action Trailer

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Klondike Kandy Bars Get It On

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Ayzenberg Nabs Webby Nomination

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The Ayzenberg Group, the full-service advertising agency known for its creative and savvy work for a variety of brands, has been nominated for a Webby award in the Consumer Electronics category. The nomination is for Ayzenberg’s creation of the web site for the Plantronics RIG Headset & Mixer from Plantronics Gaming.

The RIG web site uses video creatively to showcase the benefits of the RIG headset and mixer. The presentation is creative, artistic and flawlessly executed despite the technical difficulties involved. It’s worth checking out {link no longer active}, and if you’re impressed don’t forgot to head over to the Webby Awards web site and vote for Ayzenberg {link no longer active}.

Amazon Preps 3D Smartphone

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Amazon is continuing to push ahead with new hardware, according to a Wall Street Journal report published on Friday. Amazon will introduce its very own smartphone. With the unique feature of a 3D display that works without special glasses.

The phone will utilize four front-facing cameras to track your retinas, enabling the display to adjust perspective depending on your viewing angle. The result is an apparent 3D image without any need to use special glasses, or the usual problems with diminished light output that standard 3D suffers.

Amazon has reportedly been showing this smartphone to developers already to build interest, heading towards a September launch. Given the company’s commitment to games on previous hardware, Amazon will likely look for a strong game presence on this new device. Look for more info this summer if the rumor really is coming true. Interestingly, HTC had previously been rumored to be the manufacturer, which could mean Amazon’s smartphone might be a very high-quality product.

Source: GigaOm

Marketing Keys To ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’

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Just as Wes Anderson’s films are not exactly standard cinematic fare, the marketing strategies for his latest film Grand Budapest Hotel are out of the ordinary. “Budapest allows you to immerse yourself in a completely different world,” Fox Searchlight’s Nancy Utley tells Variety, describing five elements of the market plan.

The movie features a collection on eBay, a partnership driven by actor Waris Ahluwalia, with items including bow ties, moustache wax, and promotional items from the film – and some are already selling out. Fox Searchlight also created eight videos showing how to create baked goods inspried by the film, and these are going viral. Another hit has been a large-scale model of the hotel, which is being sent from theaters from Hollywood to Berlin.

The marketing has been helped by the success of Anderson’s film Moonrise Kingdom, which has attracted a significantly younger audience. And Grand Budapest Hotel has been well reviewed, with a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Game marketers might do well to try variants of some of these strategies, which would translate well to the complex, visual and engaging worlds created for many games.

Source: Variety

SOE User Makes $100,000

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User-generated content can be a great way to encourage participation and engagement with a game – and it can also be lucrative, with one user earning more that $100,000. The player was participating in Sony Online Entertainment’s player-generated content initiative, Player Studio, which provides tools and templates for users to create items to sell in the SOE marketplace.

At present, only EverQuest, EverQuest II and PlanetSide 2 support Play Studio items but, if approved by SOE, the user receives 40 per cent of each item’s net sales. The player, that SOE’s John Smedley declined to name, reached that $100K milestone in little more than 18 months after the Player Studio debuted. So far, Player Studio is only available in the U.S., but is expanding to the UK, Germany and France in May.

Source: GamesIndustry International

Buzzfeed Pushes TV Shows Online

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The lines between media sites and TV continue to blur, as Buzzfeed launches its ‘Social Tune In’ program to help TV networks promote their shows. “Telling your friends about a show you like is one thing, but sharing a post or video about why that show is so great is another level of engagement — one that we specialize in at BuzzFeed,” Ashley McCollum, vice president, business development at Buzzfeed, said. “Social-enabled, word-of-mouth content marketing is the driver for these conversations.”

Buzzfeed is working with Bravo and IFC as official launch partners, and is providing listicles to promote shows. The media site’s partners receive early access to new ad products developed by Buzzfeed.

Source: Social Media Daily

Facebook Announces News Feed Cleanup

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Facebook, in its continuing efforts to police the News Feed and make it more relevant to people, announced a change last week that may have some publishers scrambling. Facebook is attempting to curb “like-baiting,” where users are encouraged to respond to a message with a Like or a share. Facebook said its research showed such posts are 15 percent less effective than other page posts.

Facbeook also changed its algorithm to remove content that’s frequently uploaded to Facebook, and posts that contain “spammy” links to shady websites. The results, Facebook believes, won’t be seen by most sites, but those “who are frequently and intentionally creating feed spam will see their distribution decrease over the next few months.”

Source: GigaOm