Global Scanning Global Scanning

Digital Trends Digital Trends

Researched and compiled by

Joanne Allison, GDR Creative Intelligence

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Mapping social media

Social media is an effective marketing tool that brands
simply cannot ignore. Forward-thinking brands have been
using social media for several years to boost sales and
consumer engagement – for instance Starbucks, whose
crowdsourced suggestions website My Starbucks Idea has
received over 100,000 ideas (with the brand putting 100 of
them into action since 2008), and British Telecom, which
introduced its BTCare customer service Twitter feed in
2009 – a service that now has 9,323 followers and 1 2 4 6

responds to 4,000 customers a month. CHINA / Jiepang (1 & 2) EGYPT / Muslim Brotherhood (4) SINGAPORE / Youth Olympics (6)
Launched in May 2010, Jiepang is the leading Foursquare-type In August 2010, Egypt’s largest Islamic political group, the The WhyOhGee Community, a social networking platform geared
Facebook has the monopoly among social media sites,
initiative in China. Users can ‘check in’ at locations in China, earn Muslim Brotherhood, launched its own social media network towards youth around the world launched in June 2010 to celebrate
with its 500+ million users worldwide, and Foursquare badges, become ‘Dizhu’ (Chinese for landlord or mayor), and at Ikhwanbook.com. The new service has similar features to the Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG). The Community
has become the leading location-based network, with benefit from discounts from partnered brands and locations. Facebook, but the purpose of the site is to promote moderate Islam – which accrued 14,000 registered users from 215 countries – ran
3+ million members. Real-time micro-blogging site Twitter Jiepang has partnered with mobile device HTC and brands such as as well as being a social network. Ikhwanbook.com has trialled alongside the WhyOhGee microsite, which featured multimedia
is also extremely popular, with over 175 million users. Nike, Dell, Dairy Queen and Vidal Sassoon. A promotion with six 5,000 users and is designed for Muslims who are uncomfortable content produced by young people. WhyOhGee allowed users to
Dell retail stores in Beijing resulted in a large increase in store visits with the more liberal content rules on non-Islamic social networks. connect via Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or YouTube, so friends could
Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter were established in the and over 500 social network messages. Jiepang has 200,000 It has a more reserved use of photographs and claims to intrude see updates on a single platform. If users did not speak the same
US and have their strongest markets in western countries. members and is rapidly expanding, with the goal of securing a less into members’ personal lives. Ikhwantube.org, the group’s language, a chat function translated messages. A section of the site
Across Asia and in developing nations, smaller social million users by 2011 and spreading across Taiwan and Hong Kong. video-sharing site, allows its users to view and share videos that featured athletes, and users could follow what the YOG hopefuls
networks are thriving alongside the big players. Orkut is the Website: http://jiepang.com are in keeping with traditional Islamic values. were doing and send messages of support.
Website: www.ikhwanbook.com Website: www.singapore2010.sg
most popular social network in Brazil and India – 79% of
social network users in Brazil are Orkut members – and
Vkontakte is the most popular in Russia with 75 million
members. These and other lesser-known networks operating
in these regions provide a fascinating social commentary,
and can be fertile platforms for advertising campaigns.
This quarter’s Digital Trends maps out some of the most
innovative social networks from around the globe, and
explores successful social media campaigns that
demonstrate how using the right network will help brands
and retailers to produce the optimal results.

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INDIA / GoJiyo (3) VIETNAM / Zing Me (5) Africa / Asanja (7)

Indian consortium Godrej – whose business interests range from
real estate to FMCG – has created India’s first online virtual world,
GoJiyo.com. The site combines online gaming, virtual reality and
social networking. Members interact via personalised avatars and
undertake virtual activities such as skydiving, bungee jumping and
treasure hunts within the setting of six virtual worlds. They can also
earn virtual currency, called Mios, by winning events and coupons
called Jios. These give them access to real-world rewards from the
Godrej brand. In a partnership with Sony Music, subscribers could
listen to a bespoke FIFA World Cup album on the virtual beach, and
a FIFA party was held with 800 GoJiyo members taking part.
GoJiyo.com has 240,000 users and 110,000 Facebook fans.
Website: www.gojiyo.com
Zing Me is the first online social network created for the Vietnamese
population and was conceived as a platform for all entertainment
website Zing’s products, such as Zing Play (a collection of flash
games), Zing MP3 (a music library), Zing Chat (an instant messaging
service) and Zing Pay (an e-wallet system). Two months after launch,
Zing Me became number one in the Vietnamese social network
market, outperforming competitors Facebook, Zooz and Tamtay.
Figures provided by Google Ad Planner showed more than 4 million
active users and 410 million hits in February 2010. Zing Me allows
users to find and make friends, share photos and play games.
Website: http://login.me.zing.vn
Asanja.com, launched January 2010, is an independently owned
African social network with 250,000 members from Senegal, Nigeria,
Ghana, Cameroon, South Africa and France. Marketed as a mix of
Twitter and Facebook, it allows members to share messages,
images, music and videos, and chat online. The site is a semi-open
platform which members can use as a hub to discuss topics such
as ‘a greater Nigeria’ and ‘African Arts and Culture’. Asanja.com also
allows members to earn revenue by posting sponsored messages;
members earned a total $25,000 in the site’s first two months.
Website: www.asanja.com

Issue 39_2011 © GDR Creative Intelligence Issue 39_2011 © GDR Creative Intelligence
 Global Scanning
Digital Trends
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Creative campaigns
Social networks can be a suitable medium for
brands to use as part of their marketing strategy.
Through these platforms, specific consumer
groups can be reached and brand ambassadors
won. However, selecting the appropriate network
for a product is critical and a misguided approach
may negatively impact brands and retailers. The
following examples demonstrate how brands have
used various social networks to create effective
and entertaining campaigns, with impressive ROI.
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INDIA / Hungry Hippos (1)
Indian food and beverage company Parle Agro launched a social
media campaign to improve sales and distribution of its baked
snacks, Hippo, through a crowdsourcing technique. The company
asked consumers and retailers to Tweet about the snack’s
availability in stores to a specified Twitter web address, staffed by
sales and distribution teams in Mumbai. Stock-related tweets were
received from 45 towns and cities and sales jumped by 76%. The
brand replenished shelves within 48 hours and Hippo sent out
personalised anti-hunger hampers to the most active tweeters, with
a ‘handwritten’ note from the Hippo mascot. The Hippo snack has
amassed 1,185 Twitter followers.
Website: http://twitter.com/hellomehippo
Design: Creativeland Asia (http://creativelandasia.com)
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CHINA / dENiZEN 10 (2)
Denizen – officially dENiZEN – is a new denim brand owned by
Levis created for its Asian market. For the launch, Levi’s recruited
ten unpaid bloggers – known as the Denizen 10 – to ‘speak’ online
about the brand over 100 days. The bloggers were aged 18 to 28
– the product’s target market – and were selected from across the
region. They included photographer Brad Lau from Singapore and
fashion blogger Ditto Ding from Shanghai. Bloggers were not paid,
but received Denizen outfits for their contributions. The ten
individuals continue to participate in brand activities, and 3,340
tweets have been generated using the brand’s hashtag.
Website: www.denizen.com
MALI / Village called Dioro (3)
Only The Brave (OTB) Foundation – the charitable arm of OTB,
the holding company for brands such as Diesel, Maison Martin
Margiela and Viktor & Rolf – has partnered with development
organisation Millennium Promise to launch an online virtual
world to engage young people in the charity’s African Millennium
Village project. The virtual world replicates the Mali village of Dioro,
which has a population of 20,000. Via Facebook Connect, players
can adopt an avatar, explore the town, watch videos of the real-life
inhabitants and donate to the project. Users can target their
donations, which so far have included seeds, fertilisers and bed
nets. A health clinic, primary school and community centre have
been built or renovated thanks to the campaign.
Website: www.otbfoundation.org
BRAZIL / Paris fashion (4)
Brazilian social games developer Mentez and Virtual Greats, which
sells and distributes virtual goods, announced in October 2010 that
virtual products from celebrity Paris Hilton would be sold on
Brazil’s popular social networking site Orkut within the social
network game ‘Vida nas Passarelas’ (life is a catwalk). The online
store has 30 dresses, 30 pairs of shoes and 27 accessories, all
endorsed by Paris Hilton; tops and skirts cost R$3.60 ($2.12) and
dresses are around R$7 ($4.13). The game enables users to create
an avatar and buy clothes and accessories for the character. ‘Vida
nas Passarelas’ has 1.3 million registered users and within two
weeks of launch, 7,000 items were purchased.
Website: www.mentez.com
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ISRAEL / Get some Nutz (5)
In April 2010, to promote the launch of a new peanut-filled
chocolate snack, Taami Nutz, Israeli confectionery company Elite
created a marketing campaign around the launch of new peanut
crops on popular Facebook game, FarmVille. Internet and
Facebook banners counted the days untill the crop arrived, and a
minisite was launched on the brand’s Facebook fan page with a
design-your-own Taami Nutz farm competition, engaging 16,270
users. In only eight weeks, Elite Taami Nutz chocolate achieved its
sale goal for half a year. The peanuts cost 20 credits to buy, sell for
78 credits and can be harvested in 16 hours.
Design: Saatchi & Saatchi Tel Aviv (www.saatchi.com)
Technology: Zynga (www.zynga.com)
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Digital Trends
39
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NORWAY / Social beasts (6)
To decide on a new flavour of milk for Norwegian dairy brand TINE’s
Litago milk range, a social media campaign involving a farm and ten
cows was created. TINE divided a field into 25 squares, with each
square representing a flavour, and consumers could vote on different
live activities to lure the cows into a square. Each cow had its own
Twitter account and Facebook page. Surveillance technology
tracked the cows’ movement – and after five days the winning flavour
was rice pudding. The campaign resulted in a 71% increase in sales
of existing flavours and over 50,000 fans on Facebook.
Website: www.litago.no
Design: DIST Creative (www.distcreative.com) &
Jimmy Royal (http://jimmyroyal.no)
GRAN CANARIA / World’s Largest Beach Towel (7)
In an attempt to break the Guinness world record for creating the
largest-ever beach towel (while raising awareness of locally brewed
Tropical beer), the Tropical beer brand created a Facebook
application that invited fans to a Gran Canaria beach to be part of
the attempt. Users could choose exactly where they wanted to be
on the towel and share their location with Facebook contacts. The
2,000 spaces were reserved via Facebook within 48 hours and
more than 5,000 people attended the event and were given
branded t-shirts and free Tropical beer. Around 3,000 new
Facebook fans were added and after the event the 2,195sqm of
towel was made into blankets and clothing for charities.
Website: www.tropical.es
Design: Leo Burnett (www.leoburnett.com)
Issue 39_2011 © GDR Creative Intelligence