Vote for NMS in PR Newswire’s Earnies!
The NMS team is proud to announce that several of our campaigns have been selected as finalists in PR Newswire’s Earnie Awards. Please vote for NMS’ Jeep campaign as “Best Use of Video in Social Media.”
Authored by Joe Gizzi
Why This Year’s Super Bowl Will Be A Shazamable Moment
You may have used Shazam in a restaurant or a mall to identify a catchy tune that left you humming along or dancing in a dressing room. But after this weekend (and a $32 million push into the TV and movie industry), Shazam may become the go-to app for second screen digital rewards.
2012 Social Media Trends to Watch
The future of social media marketing is in digital storytelling; the ability to humanize a brand in ways with which people identify and are closely engaged, thus feeling invested in its future. The brand becomes an extension of the fan and they are its most compelling ambassador. Social media is more than water cooler chat and exceeds the benefits of traditional word of mouth marketing. While it provides immensely useful data about our habits in real-time, the new frontier of social media is chronicling lifestyle. When viewed not at the scale of minute by minute updates, social media provides a holistic picture of who we are and how we live. It begins to speak to customers as whole people.
Eye on Innovation: A Mid-Year Update
The NMS team has been on tour the past several weeks, visiting clients to brief them on spanking new social media developments – from the smallest emerging platforms to the elephants throwing their weight around. And while everyone is curious about what’s up with Google+, a multitude of movers and shakers warrant an update to our social media watch list.
Are Fans Open to Surprise and Delight?
NMS recently hosted a seminar for 19 precocious George Washington University interns spending the summer studying communications in DC. It was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate social media’s power to surprise and delight customers while solidifying brand loyalty. Turns out those of us who live and breathe marketing strategy were the ones who left a bit surprised. We began with a case study: Last fall, KLM Airlines rewarded its customers by delivering “small doses of happiness” in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. Over three weeks, KLM surprised 28 passengers with gifts based on preferences indicated in their social graphs, generating more than 1 million impressions in 88 countries on Twitter alone. The premise: “Creating a real smile on somebody’s face is much cooler than attaching a smiley face.”
Social Media in the Classroom
Social media as we know it today grew out of the college experience. Facebook was initially a platform for students to connect with other classmates through courses they were taking. The way those classes are using social now would make any digiphile graduating before the turn of the century envious. Today’s students can connect with professors on Twitter before they even enroll. They can preview classes through hashtags. And once they arrive on campus, there’s a virtual quad waiting for them.
Vids or It Didn’t Happen: Grabbing Attention on the Now or Never Web
The entertainment industry was one of the first to truly sprout legs during the dawn of social media. A decade ago, some of NMS’ first campaigns promoted Pokemon and Tomb Raider. So it’s no surprise today’s network execs take social seriously – from both a developmental and promotional viewpoint. But while social data has done wonders to support the industry, in many ways it has also forced artists out of an overproduced, glitzy shell. Direct-to-fan engagement, pushing day-in-the-life content, coupled with the viral video bug it seems every brand has caught, has made YouTube the platform motivating entertainers to think outside the box.
What We’re Watching in 2011 and Why It’s A Whole New Game
2010 was an astounding year for New Media Strategies, kicking off a second decade dominating the social sphere. Whether launching the first automotive brand profile on Foursquare or helping our public affairs clients gain critical support, expanding our Hispanic outreach or breaking box office records, the buzz about NMS this year showed nothing short of record growth, not to mention a brand new office space.
‘Tis the season for trend tracking, and as we look forward to another great year, here’s what we expect in social media trends in 2011.
Myspace Bets on the Best of the Web—But Will it Be Enough?
Amid reports that New Corp. has given Myspace “a deadline to reverse its traffic declines and achieve profitability… in quarters, not in years," the Myspace team unveiled a completely new product which reimagines the network as an entertainment hub for Gen Y. Aiming to capture the attention of the 13-35 year old demographic, the new Myspace pulls in real time data on music, movies, TV, entertainers, games and fashion from across the web and will soon operate on a new mobile app for smartphones and tablets.