for and from the curious - web 2.0, social media and cause marketing explored

Nokia N97 - “Killer launch” for a killer product?

I came across a pre launch party for the Nokia N97 in Cologne. It was one of only 4 locations in Germany where the device was being introduced. Since I am currently visiting our German office and was in town we decided to swing by.

We are heading toward the Nokia store and noticed a decent crowd outside. At least half of them were promoters wearing t-shirts and holding banners or signs. Most of them looked rather bored, sat on the sidewalk or smoked cigarettes. None of them approached me.

We were there at 5:30 PM and you could imagine that these guys were tired. But the event only started at 5PM. Hard to believe that 30 minutes could have been so exhausting. It also wasn’t just a bad moment or another mandatory break for them. We walked by the store again an hour later the chill out party was still going on.

Here or some images to further illustrate a little bit:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Guerilla Marketing, Hot at the Bakery | 388Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/06/19/nokia-n97-killer-launch-for-a-killer-product/Nokia+N97+-+%22Killer+launch%22+for+a+killer+product%3F2009-06-19+10%3A30%3A35Klaus+Holzapfel

Popgasm - Sunrise Avenue using web videos to support album launch

Shrinking marketing budgets in the record industry require creative solutions. Records label EMI took the step and asked moviebakery to produce some web videos to support the launch of “Popgasm” by the Finish pop band Sunrise Avenue.

The album name left a lot of room for creativity for our video producers. There was certainly no shortfall of great storylines.

Things did get a little challenging during the production process: One of our producers is located in Mexico City and shooting was supposed to happen in the midst of the swine flu outbreak. The city was in dead lock. On top of that a sequence with lead singer Samu Haber and guitarist Riku Rajamaa was shot in Cologne and had to be embedded into the video.

We took the unique step to have the same video produced twice since the situation in Mexico was very unstable.

Time to take a look at the videos - check out the comments and the ratings - apparently EMI and conceptbakery were not the only ones that are happy with the results:

This video is close to the Popgasm story line. You can see that the band is taking a very scientific approach.

We were long playing with ideas that involved an actual car wash. One of our star producers finally pulled it off.

Posted in Hot at the Bakery, Web Videos | 377Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/06/02/popgasm-sunrise-avenue-using-web-videos-to-support-album-launch/Popgasm+-+Sunrise+Avenue+using+web+videos+to+support+album+launch2009-06-02+14%3A14%3A41Klaus+Holzapfel

What’s your marketing strategy right now?

Not a day passes by with more horrendous economic news. As a former financial expert I understand the long term implications of this meltdown to some extend.

Businesses shut down or get rid of parts of their operations - without any intensions of bringing them back.

Everyone seems to hedge their bets, tries to keep a low profile and somehow make it through the crisis.

I think it is about time to realize that this crisis will not end soon and we see an economic book looming on the horizon anytime soon.

Of course there are few of businesses that are benefitting from the economic collapse - mostly at the cost of others. Netflix is one of the few success stories that comes to mind.

Assuming that you are still in business, what should your marketing strategy be for the short and the medium term? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Digital Marketing, Guerilla Marketing | 371Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/03/11/whats-your-marketing-strategy-right-now/What%27s+your+marketing+strategy+right+now%3F2009-03-11+16%3A38%3A42Klaus+Holzapfel

20 no-brainer commandments of social media

1. Thou shalt not get sucked in by others to disclose too much private information
2. Thou shalt have at least one face to face and one phone conversation per week
3. Thou shalt not use performance enhancing drugs (alcohol, viagra, pot…) before engaging with others online
4. Thou shalt limit the number of their social media accounts to 10,000
5. Thou shalt abstain from expressive language and offer the use of private channels to resolve conflict
6. Thou shalt not use more than 3 digital devices at a time while talking to someone face to face
7. Thou shalt practice to talk without any secret lingo or acronyms for 10 minutes each day
8. Thou shalt come up with at least one original thought per day
9. Thou shalt keep some minimum body hygiene while engaging in 36 hour online marathons
10. Thou shalt not threaten you service provider with anthrax during an Internet service interruption
11. Thou shalt not pretend to be guru when rather being a fool on the hill
12. Thou shalt not be afraid of speaking of being in jail - if thou is serving a lifetime sentence without parole
13. Thou shalt not use your dog’s or child’s name as password
14. Thou shalt not pretend to be someone else - unless thou absolutely must spy in their kids
15. Thou with a thick accent shalt not turn into a podcaster
16. Thou shalt not get a Second Life before a first one
17. Thou shalt not speak up unless thou knows the language and conventions of the community though joined
18. Thou shalt not send every single email from their iPhone or Blackberry
19. Thou shalt be prepared to answer questions about those online pictures of thou downing shots in your underwear during your next job interview
20. Thou shalt not live completely in the cloud

Bonus commandment:
Thou shalt realize that when being an online pedophile all other commandments are off and thou shalt rot in a dark non-digital hellhole. No confessions accepted.

Let’s hope you haven’t broken to many of them yet.

Confessions will be heard at your next local Tweetup.

Posted in Hot at the Bakery, This n That | 359Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/02/20/20-no-brainer-commandments-of-social-media/20+no-brainer+commandments+of+social+media2009-02-20+20%3A58%3A55Klaus+Holzapfel

How long to do you whine when you accidentally erased your work?

Yesterday I lost an entire blog post that was finished and good to go. This one was entirely on me. No one else to blame. That option is pretty much gone since I switched to a Mac

Many times I just type in TextEdit, the basic Mac editor. I simply open up a new window and type away. My post was done but then I pasted something off lesser importance above it. A bit later closed the window without ever saving it -  without realizing my article was sitting underneath in the same document.

This is the fast & easy way to REALLY lose what you created before.
So please save your file first before you close the window - otherwise it won’t even show in your trash bin.

But that’s not why I am writing this.

What do you do when you lose a file? Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in This n That | 354Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/02/10/how-long-to-do-you-whine-when-you-accidentally-erased-your-work/How+long+to+do+you+whine+when+you+accidentally+erased+your+work%3F2009-02-10+14%3A59%3A35Klaus+Holzapfel

Where do you get your news from?

Blogs and micro-blogs have greatly enhanced my communication: I can reach out, I can share, comment, learn etc.

Here is what they can’t do:

They will not replace papers and magazines as my #1 resource of information.

Why?
Comparing a leading paper and news blog might explain where I am coming from:

Look and feel
The Huffington post and NYT and they simple don’t match up. One is a blog (and looks like a blog) - the other is an online paper (at least for me) with social media features. But it still resembles the look and feel of a paper. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in This n That | 350Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/02/09/where-do-you-get-your-news-from/Where+do+you+get+your+news+from%3F2009-02-09+19%3A02%3A39Klaus+Holzapfel

Brainstorming for a better Twitter

Twitter could use a little makeover. The objective of this post is to initiate a discussion and come up with a list of suggestions for Twitter on how to improve. I  met Twitter co-founder Biz Stone personally. He appeared to be very humble and is a good listener. Why not give it a shot?

Brief History
Twitter has changed its order of displaying followers a few months ago. The latest followers are now shown on top. This makes it very easy to follow a person who aggressively adds new (auto) followers and build a big number of followers for themselves. Many people have issues with this and call it spamming.

Instead of complaining about the status quo I’d much rather look ahead and address some things that could easily be improved - without making Twitter too complex and all of us ending up with the almost permanent “fail whale” again:

1. Freeze Twitter names once a user is past 500 followers
It is easy to change a Twitter username and keep your followers. You essentially hire some kids in India and build an account with 100,000 followers in a month or two. You could then sell this account to someone else who can stick their own name on it. I am surprised this service isn’t available yet - maybe it already is? Please do NOT run to the USPTO with this. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in This n That | 344Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/01/28/brainstorming-for-a-better-twitter/Brainstorming+for+a+better+Twitter2009-01-28+17%3A03%3A50Klaus+Holzapfel

The beginning of a new era for marketers?

President Obama called on Americans to confront “our collective failure to make hard choices.”

How does this apply to us?
This country could change quite fundamentally with the new administration. The President called the Americans to action. Many people that enthusiastically supported his election took on a liability and won’t pull back now from their end of the deal.

His election came with a little homework for all of us: Increased focus on the common good.

We went through a phase of selfishness unlike anything we have seen in recent history. Many of us (Investors, CEO’s, government + plenty others), chose to ignore the signs at the wall and rather took our piece from a poisoned cake.

The big underlying theme was to serve your own interests first.

The new administration tells us (and will tell us again and again) to shift focus on the common good. As a consequence, some of us will begin to look out for each other in new ways. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in This n That | 337Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/01/21/the-beginning-of-a-new-era-for-marketers/The+beginning+of+a+new+era+for+marketers%3F2009-01-21+13%3A49%3A22Klaus+Holzapfel

TÜV Rheinland - using social media to reach out to car tuners

I’d like to share some background information on a social media project we  are currently working on.

The purpose is not so much to toot our own horn but to give you something you might be able to take to your clients or even implement yourself.

It might be worth reading on unless you constantly run social media campaigns yourself that are leaving your customer and their clients 100% satisfied.

BACKGROUND
One of our long-standing clients is the TÜV Rheinland. They provide technical certifications for a vast array of technical devices and operate in over 60 countries.

They are also responsible for the technical inspections for cars in Germany. Germany has very demanding security standards for cars. Cars are being inspected thoroughly every 1 or 2 years. Any modifications to a car in Germany can very quickly render it illegal to drive.

Therefore the car tuning freaks and the TÜV traditionally have a rather “challenging” relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Digital Marketing, Hot at the Bakery | 311Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/01/16/introducing-tuv-rheinland-on-facebook-twitter-youtube-and-flickr/T%C3%9CV+Rheinland+-+using+social+media+to+reach+out+to+car+tuners2009-01-16+13%3A18%3A57Klaus+Holzapfel

You really don’t need my new years resolutions

I won’t spill my new years resolutions over you but I’ll share this much with you:

I was (and am) very passionate about our political and economical debate. Due to a lack of self discipline that spilled over into this blog. That will stop in 2009 and I will stay closer to the roots and the purpose of this blog - to inform you about current developments in my core fields of expertise: Non-traditional marketing, trends to reach out to a target audience, web video developments including production and distribution. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Hot at the Bakery | 303Commentshttp://www.conceptbakery.com/blog/2009/01/04/you-really-dont-need-my-new-years-resolutions/You+really+don%27t+need+my+new+years+resolutions2009-01-04+16%3A25%3A03Klaus+Holzapfel