An Unintended Viral Campaign: The Story of Cumbio from Argentina

Agustina Vivero, aka Cumbio, is a 17 year old teenager from Argentina, who became the nation's Internet and television celebrity through turning Argentina's most popular social networking site into a marketing medium. Cumbio's fotolog site is among the most viewed Internet sites in Argentina, tallying 36 million visits over the past year. 

But how did it all start? Last year, she started to invite some friends over to her family's house in the poorer part of the city. They hung out and took photos of themselves with their trademarks: big tousled hair, bright V-neck t-shirts and sneakers.

As numbers increased, they decided to move the meetings somewhere else. Local kids gathering outside got the attention of the media. She was the one to make the explanation for the new movement: "People don't understand what this is about. People are used to fame coming from television or from sports but not from the Internet, where people are posting photos and bringing together and having fun".

Floggers do not want to change the world, they want to survive and have the best possible time they can.

Cumbio was soon featured in Nike commercials, TV shows, has signed modeling contracts, and has even written a book about her life.

This is the power of online social media. This is something that shows how a blog that started through friends getting together and taking pictures can influence other people in so many other ways. Cumbio, who is openly gay and comfortable with not being model-thin is giving out a message that was only deliverable with the support of the online social media. 

Facebook ads: Marketer's paradise, user's hell?

Scanning through some articles about latest Facebook news, I came across something (yet again!) brand new. The recent news is that now Facebook can have ads that target you by language and location. According to the article I read on New York Times, ads targeting languages were not surprising now that Facebook can be used in many languages. However, targeting users with location-specific ads is the more interesting one among two of the updates. With this feature, the advertisers can tap into detailed demographics of the users (if they have provided them) and even have the possibility to introduce hyperlocal ads.  Wouldn't that be marketer's paradise? Would that also be user's paradise? Or not? 

It really depends on how much the user is willing to share. With these new features, it gets harder to maintain your privacy online. Even though there is still the option of opting out, some people will just not bother with it. The ultimate level of interactivity and individualization! Will that add to our Facebook experience as we warmly welcome ads about near-by restaurants, gyms, theaters or cause some people withdraw usage as these ads get too nosy about our lives? Some people really do not want to know or be known about...

There is no way of telling now since the feature can only work in the USA, the UK and Canada.  As Facebook exploits all interactive features of Web 2.0, we can only sit back and see what it will do next.

Interactive Fashion from StyleShake

StyleShake is one of a kind! It is a website that allows you to become your own fashion designer: In this website, you can design a dress, decide on the fabric, color, shape, tailor it to fit your body and get it shipped to your house in 10 business days. From the very start, they have been trying to provide the highest quality, in addition to selling the garment at an affordable price. 

Could this be the revolution that saves so much time for millions of women that spend days looking for their dream look? Trying on hundreds on dresses, and still not finding what they are looking for? Most likely yes! For those women that know what they want, but are not able to obtain it in the desired color, size, texture, price etc. this is the greatest opportunity! Letting their users interact online with ultimate customization has shown some impressive statistics: 95% of the visitors at StyleShake design their own dresses and spend an average of 14 minutes perusing the site. The website also has a blog that brings the fashionistas together to discuss topics such as star style Oscars, style makeovers, sales and designers. Through creating an online community and coupling it up with creativity, interaction and individualization around a common interest, this website has successfully created a girls only fashion club!

Even if you are somewhat like me, with no creative skills, and more likely to fall in love with that Alberta Ferretti dress, this site is still amazing for experimenting with new styles and for trying to animate that latent creativity in you! 

Facebook Complaints

Every morning, we wake up to some Facebook news or a change that has been implemented on the site. The recent talk was about the right of the company over the uploaded material on the site. Who does it belong to? To the user or Facebook? Protests have caused Mark Zuckerberg to invite users to share their opinions about the terms of use. As its creator, Zuckerberg is aware of the power that a social networking site can have over owners, because the users see themselves as the owners. I wonder if he's thinking: "Oh no, I've created a monster!"
The monster that emerges from unification of voices is in fact pretty strong. This monster usually complains of the changes, is hardly satisfied and always wants to go back to the 'old way of things'. I remember how everyone was protesting the news feed, the new layout. What happened? The users got used to the new features, and now use them very frequently. Of course, it is important for a social networking site to listen to its customers, but it is sometimes good to stick to your guns. Being afraid of change prevents you from experimenting. And without experimenting, there is no way to keep this monster coming back to check its inbox and wall every 10 minutes. The truth is no one really knows what a good networking site should have. So this is a thin line we are talking about here. Yes, the users should complain. The site should listen. But not always! So maybe knowing when to respond to the complaints is what has made Facebook successful so far.

The Top 10 Viral Ad Campaigns

Surfing online I came across a Times article  that reports the top 10 viral ad campaigns of the web as presented by Mr.Maymann, GoViral's chairman. Unfortunately some of them were removed from Youtube.com by the companies that have created them. Nevertheless, the examples (that I have picked) below best illustrate the crucial components of a online viral campaign: making people feel something and doing something unexpected.

The Nike clip featuring famous football star Ronaldinho

Quicksilver Dynamite Surfing: How to go in a country without waves, Denmark

Dove Evolution: "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted"

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Berlitz: "What are you zinking about?"

Pink MySpace Has Gone A Long Way

General Mill's most recent social viral campaign, Pink for the Cure,  has just been listed among the Viral Hall of Fame 2008. The campaign aims to spread "simple stories of hope" on its dedicated MySpace page. It targets those women between the ages of 25 and 50, whose lives have been touched by breast cancer. General Mills, being more than a trendy "pink-marketeer" has invested in the long term social networking movement and has proved to be very successful! As I read through some of the strategies they have employed, the Groundswell objectives were already echoing in my mind:

1) Go where people are: MySpace (listening, check!)

2) Walk the walk: create personal connections 

3) Empower the impassioned: let them become evangelists (energizing, check!)

And no wonder they have been so successful. Partnering up with a networking site that has allowed them to reach their desired audience through understanding their need for moral and emotional support and they have just provided this without further complications. 

Missing TURKCELL

While talking about LISTENING this week, the company that immediately popped into my mind was TURKCELL- a Turkish telecommunications company that was founded about 15 years ago (or so, I just remember when my dad got his first cell phone, he was among the first). After having to deal with Fido in Canada, Turkcell has even started to seem even more divine to me, not only because of its (way) superior service in terms of EVERYTHING, but also of that fact that they actually listen to their customers. The anecdote that I am going to tell happened about 6 years ago, when most companies in Turkey would not even dream of a website like Turkcell had, let alone the online services they had been providing. Anyways, I had just gotten my bill, stating that I had been charged for something that I thought I was not supposed to. Of course, being my dad's daughter (you got to fight all the injustice in this world, especially economical ones!!!), I went online in the hopes of finding some kind of feedback form that I could fill in instead of calling customer service (Not really my dad's daughter here, he would have called). Anyhow, I wrote them a polite message stating my complaint. To tell you the truth, that was actually it for me. I didn't really expect anything out of it, I wasn't even sure if I was supposed to be charged or not. Who is going to deal with a 10 TL extra charge (about $CAD 7) on some teenager's telephone bill? To my surprise, they actually called me back and explained to me the situation. Well, they were too surprised, for my over expression of gratitude since realistically thinking I did not believe a company would exist 1) in Turkey 2) that actually cared what their customers said. 

Of course, it is deadly important that the company is aware of what the customers really think about it. You could do so much with showing yourself as a hip, creative cooperation when the customers think the right opposite. Though, this is very difficult to achieve since it is hard to predict where to start the listening. Is website the best place for it? How about those users that don't really utilize the website, wouldn't they be left out? And even if you actually got some feedback, how would you interpret it? Aaah the mystifying world of e-marketing!

So briefly, the moral of the story: If Turkcell was a man, I'd marry him. 

www.turkcell.com