2009 July | Web Jungle

Archive for July 2009

Fiat on the Web. Just another social aggregator site?

July 30, 2009 | Author Roland Hachmann

We’ve seen quite a few examples of corporate sites mashing up social media content and presenting it on a single page. Jeep is one of the earliest examples I can remember (they seem to have some special right now, called “urban ranger”).

Now, since June there is Fiat on the web. A wordpress powered site – actually a blog – with all the ingredients: a facebook widget, a youtube gallery, same with flickr, friendfeed is integrated, delicious links accessible, latest twitter updates: every “mandatory” item seems to be present.

I am not mentioning that because it appears so fantastically special. Instead, I am slowly getting the perception that these kind of social brand presence aggregator sites are become “business as usual”. Or rather: should be considered by brand marketers as a mandatory online marketing component. Yet: how many of those sites have we really seen? How many brands actually have sufficient social media presences in order to justify such a site?

Posted in Communities, Digital Marketing, Interactive News, Social Media, User Generated Content, Web 2.0 | Tags: Aggregator, Delicious, Facebook, Fiat, Flickr, friendfeed, Jeep, Social Media, YouTube | No Comments »

Sixt car rental is quick to respond to national news.

July 28, 2009 | Author Roland Hachmann

German Minister Ulla Schmidt decided to take her government limousine (including chauffeur) on vacation to Spain, where it got stolen during her stay. The whole incident raised a lot of questions in Germany about the costs incured and whether or not she should have taken it to Spain in the first place. No – says Sixt car rental, that would not have been necessary. Here is a screenshot of their website these days. (Click on the image to get a larger view). Nice and very timely response by Sixt.

The copy says: “on vacation with your staff car? There is a Sixt even in Alicante”

And the sticker mentions the theft-insurance included in the rental rate.

Posted in Ad News, Ideas | 1 Comment »

Samsung “Superfast Stunt”

July 22, 2009 | Author Roland Hachmann

How about this viral idea of bungee jumping elephants in the middle of London?
(Doesn’t it look like it really happened…)

For whatever reason, Samsung is putting out one viral after the other lately, quite a few of them get good mentions throughout the social web. Does anyone know the creative and the seeding agencies behind this whole bundle of virals?

[Update: I just received the info that Samsung’s viral Agency is Viral Factory, see here.)

Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media, Videos, Viral Marketing | Tags: Elephants, London, Samsung, Superfast Stunt, Viral | No Comments »

Copy whatever works, the Germans seem to think.

July 17, 2009 | Author Roland Hachmann

There were endless discussions in Germany about the successful social media tactics employed during the presidential election campaign in the US. Of course these discussions also included thoughts and recommendations about how politics in Germany should make use of social media during this years election period.

I agree to the general thought, however I was mildly surprised by the blunt and uninspiring German copy of a well known video from the US. Whoever made this copy, did not even try to add their own thoughts. The only difference: this time they’re German Celebrities. The rest is the same. Here it is:

Does that look familiar? It is just like this one, isn’t it?

If this is the way forward during this year’s election, we will probably see a lot more stupid copies of the stuff in the US. I’ll keep you posted.

Posted in Digital Marketing, Social Media, Videos | Tags: Election, Germany, Marketing, Obama, Video | 1 Comment »