Harmonic Aftershock

Beyond The Check-In: Foursquare Is A City Guide

There was something that Dennis Crowley, Co-Founder & CEO of Foursquare said at an AdClub event I attend in April of 2010. “We wanted to design a way to make cities, in general, easier to use.”

I liked that vision, but at the time I didn’t necessarily see it manifesting itself into the Foursquare app. For better or for worse, Foursquare was a bit typecast as more of a check-in/specials/loyalty sort-of-thing.

But then 9 months ago, Foursquare launched its explore tab, making it super easy for people to find specific kinds of places filtered by several dimensions of relevancy. As I’ve been traveling more a bit lately, this feature has become my best friend and companion.

When I got hungry yesterday, while in Paris, I clicked the explore --> Food button to reveal a bunch of places near my hotel.  I wanted something fast and not a sit-down kind-of-venue. I quickly found there was a “Cosi” (and wondered if it was connected to the U.S. chain).

The note that “this venue is popular on Foursquare” gave me assurance that it was a reputable spot. I also appreciated all of the tips that people left as it helped me to see some of the recommendations on the menu (and saw that it was, indeed, different from the U.S. chain).

Foursquare’s integration with Google Maps is a Godsend as with a mere click, I was able to plot my course to find Cosi through the streets of Paris.

And, upon arrival, checking-in was a breeze since I had the app already open.

I learned when I got there that this Cosi was, indeed, the inspiration used for the, now popular, Cosi franchise in the United States. There was something very warm, unique, vintage, and authentic about this place.

I used Foursquare similarly to find a good gym nearby and the tips in this case really made my decision for me – Which is yet another reason for brands (especially small businesses) to leverage Forusquare and their loyalists to, in effect, endorse the venue by providing helpful information to those yet to discover it – all thanks to Foursquare’s explore tab and its (well over) 10 million users.

 

The (Domino’s) Pizza Turnaround – Is it working?

We all remember the Domino’s Pizza YouTube incident last April that affected the restaurant chain’s sales according to the company’s Q2 earnings report, “Unfortunately we experienced a short term hit to sales primarily in the weeks following the incident that we estimate cost us between 1% and 2% in domestic same store sales for the quarter.”

There were many who noted that this was a big social media lesson learned for Domino’s and that brands need to ensure they’re actively monitoring and listening on the social web.

And (seemingly) listened they did. Last week Domino’s released a short documentary-style video demonstrating how consumer feedback led to a complete overhaul of their pizza recipe.

Yesterday the brand bought YouTube’s homepage mast head featuring “The Pizza Turnaround” video trailer which linked to the Domino’s YouTube Channel housing the full 4 minute 21 second documentary complete with a Facebook feature and Twitter Channel (using a #newpizza hashtag).

As of December 29th, their video has a little over 31,000 views*.

[So is their campaign working so far?]

Google searches for Dominos are trending higher than the April incident.

Mentions of dominos  as of yesterday’s launch are actually quite a bit lower than normal, could this be because of the holidays? UPDATE: See most recent chart on Hill Holliday's blog.

Source: Radian6

Comments on their YouTube video skew negative with some calling it a marketing/PR stunt while mentions on Twitter are generally positive praising the brand for listening. 

Not surprisingly, on Facebook (and YouTube) there are those who are asking for the old pizza back but that's also balanced with others who really like the new recipe.

According to their Facebook Page, their broadcast just started running yesterday and it doesn’t seem to be available online to watch. I’m hoping that they’ve integrated their social properties into their spots (i.e. send people to YouTube or Facebook for more info) to create a cross-media experience.

[It's too early to tell.]

We don't yet know how this campaign (and Domino’s reengineered product) will ultimately affect sales – and, as the media and awareness begin to take hold, what the true reaction will be from the general public. But they seem to be off to a decent start.

[Kudos to one key ingredient.]

In the end, what’s great about what Domino’s is doing, so far, is the feel of authenticity behind their actions. The video does a great job humanizing the brand and showing what seem like real emotion and passion for their product – and that is one very key “ingredient” to creating brand loyalty.

*UPDATE: As of 9:30pm, the Domino's video on YouTube now has 117,892 views. I'll also be posting an updated Radian6 chart tomorrow once today's stats are aggregated.

UPDATE #2 (12/30 - 2pm): I cross-posted on Hill Holliday's blog with updated charts and a few extras.

The apparent power of Word-of-Mouth: Vita Coco

About 4 months ago, I stopped by Whole Foods while biking around the city (Boston) and the words “hydrate naturally” jumped out at me on a container of Vita Coco. I’d never heard of it but I’m always a sucker for trying healthy stuff. And as I read the label, I quickly understood the benefits of 100% coconut water and, in this case, the added passion fruit puree was an awesome match for my taste buds.

I’m now hooked on the stuff (drinking one now actually) and get it all the time at Whole Foods, but lately I’m seeing it everywhere including this past Saturday morning as I picked up an egg sandwich at the local corner cafe, Blunch. Since I’ve never seen it advertised, I decided to check into the company a bit this weekend and was thrilled at their backstory.

It seems Vita Coco’s success ($20 million in sales last year according to Forbes) has been primarily based on word-of-mouth, pounding the pavement with beverage distributors, and getting a big name (Whole Foods) behind them.

A search on Twitter shows it certainly has its brand advocates and given the company’s target market (“young hipsters”), I would love to see them much more actively engaged within the social web.  They have a very basic presence on Facebook (I stress basic) and @vitacoco is not yet taken on Twitter. Since the company seems like they’re into soliciting feedback from their customers via their website (i.e. new flavor ideas), they are well positioned to energize their loyal base by connecting with them in real time and turbo charging the word-of-mouth that’s already naturally occurring.

All the marketing in the world cannot sell crappy products. But just watch how great products spread like wildfire: Kudus to Vita Coco – I have a feeling this is just the beginning for them.

Exclusivity + Twitter = Business

In Los Angeles, Kogi is all the rage. Mix Korean and Mexican cuisine together into a taco and you get something pretty special -- So much so that people are willing to hunt, chase, and wait in line for (sometimes up to two hours a pop).

Two trucks hit the city streets and post updates to Twitter letting their followers know where they’ll be showing up next. People gather at the disclosed location awaiting their coveted prize: Their $2 fusion taco.

Is it the food, the exclusivity, or both? What we do know is that the demand is high and the creators of Kogi are on to something. Converge traditional mobile fast food (as in transportation) with social media to yield a self-fueling business model. One that is doing so well, the company is adding a couple more trucks and is considering expanding to NYC.

Next time I’m in L.A., I hope to see if the payoff is worth it. But in the mean time, I’ll continue to be intrigued by their far reaching (amplified) marketing for such a local offering.

Social Media: The Best Focus Group.

Everyone’s got an opinion. And with the exception of paid blog posts or paid tweets (which you already know my thoughts on), I LOVE the real-time, unaided consumer reactions/intelligence one can get on pretty much anything by just doing a simple Twitter search.

One of the great things about working in Advertising/Marketing these days is having the ability to hear raw, near real-time feedback as to what people think about your execution as they experience it – especially broadcast spots (TV Commercials). People are a lot more uninhibited in the comfort of their own home hidden behind the security of their computer.

Let’s take “Pepsi Throwback” as an example. The company at their very moment has instant access to the very latest consumer sentiment about the product – and without paying a cent for the intelligence. Some of the reactions are very positive and some are negative. But in general there seems to be an overall positive vibe to the new (or, more accurately, old) Pepsi product and some people want it to stick around beyond its limited 8-week lifespan.

The big question, as a colleague pointed out to me, is how much weight should Twitter or the greater social web hold in terms of making business decisions? To what degree should companies/brands rely more on social media intelligence versus the comfort of more traditional consumer research & testing methods?

I think both have their place in the marketing world but if brands/agencies are only employing traditional methods to produce consumer insights, they’re missing out big time on a goldmine of useful data.

Social Networks: How many friends are too many?

Burger King has a campaign on Facebook, Whopper Sacrifice, where if you “de-friend” 10 people from your social network you get a coupon for a free Whopper.

Since the power of social networks lie in the amplification of world-of-mouth, my first reaction to the prospect of anyone removing 10 people out of their network was a bit negative as I felt this was severing channels of potentially powerful communication.

But then I started thinking about the whole notion of signal-to-noise ratio. There comes a tipping point where it’s difficult to keep up with our increasing number of virtual friends or followers.  This tweet from Mitch Joel says it all: “Just realizing how many people I follow whose tweets I never See. Welcome to Twitter overload.”

Is there a risk that the power of social media will become a bit more like mass media? Until we’re all friends with each other, I don’t think that will be the case, but it is a good time to look at quality over quantity in order to have richer conversations with fewer people and therefore a much higher amplification potential of your conversation.

As I learned yesterday, Facebook seems to understand this. Apparently your newsfeed items are only broadcast to a small percentage of your friends – those with whom Facebook deems you have the closest relationships based on your interactions with them over time.

It’s certainly one way to help manage “info flood” and I guess addresses my original concern around deleting Facebook friends. Now who knew this was all possible because of a Whopper?

The Holy Grail: Web/TV Convergence - Domino’s Pizza

Thanks to @stevebags for sending this my way: Today’s Media Post reports on TiVo’s deal with Domino’s Pizza that enables you, while watching a domino’s ad on TV, to select and click to order pizza. And so it's begun...

For those who have been reading my blog, you know that, for me, this is like the holy grail of “harmonic” media convergence. It’s the first step at making broadcast TV ads not only interactive, but actionable towards a purchase.

As Steve mentioned to me, “Next you will be able to fill your prescriptions and buy a car – imagine infomercials?  I am in trouble, because those damn Time Life music collections always get me.”

He’s right. 1-click purchase power right from your remote.  Love it.