BT paid owned and earned for the second biggest wedding of the year

I quite enjoyed the 1min 34 second BT advert at the weekend showing the wedding of Jane and Adam.  I especially admire the fact that BT have told a consistent story that more recently had the input of their fans along the way.  They have once again modernised the BT family communication to connect better with todays consumer. Whether you like the ads or not is somewhat irrelevant, I think BT have put themselves out there much more than usual and have been innovative in their approach to capture some emotion and engagement from UK consumers.  480k votes were cast over what dress she should wear, what car they would travel in and what song would be their first dance.  As far as I can see they seem to have done things in the right way and showed the finished ads and extra behind the scenes content to facebook fans first as a reward for their input and fans even got the chance to be extras at the wedding.  Last year 1.6 million people voted on Jane’s pregnancy, based on numbers alone the wedding doesn’t seem as quite as successful but it certainly grew the facebook following.
BT have successfully used a long standing owned content asset to generate conversation and positive sentiment from consumers as well as delivering impact through traditional paid media channels.  This integrated campaign is a good example for other advertisers to see how a story can be told simply across multiple channels which encourages sharing and contribution along the way.

Social networks will get bigger but more curated

Over the last few weeks I have been using Path to share aspects of my life with smaller groups of friends within my Facebook network.  The iPhone Path app is very simple to use and allows you to capture images/video/comment about where you are and what you are doing.  Path refer to these posts as ‘moments’ which is a lovely idea for sharing little bits of life with friends.  The concept of being able to curate what you share with each individual in your social network allows us to make more sense of these giant ‘friends’ groups that we have all been building over the last few years.  Our walls are overloaded with updates from people and brands that we probably don’t care that much about and amongst all the irrelevant diatribe we might be missing more important words from people we do care about.  Whilst I can see a role for global social network platforms like Facebook for years to come, I do think we will see more curation and control being taken by consumers over what they share and to whom they share it with and technology solutions like Path will enable us to do this. www.path.com

Where is hot in May? Branded utility from BA

When I plan a holiday I either know where I want to go or I know when I want to go.  The first is ok but when you only have a time slot it can he hard to know where to start.  This month BA launched Tripseeker, an interactive planning tool that allows you to find a destination based on time, price and temperature.  You can play with the variables and see on a map what your options are (uses Google Earth).  This tool is built with BA destinations in mind so might not cover everything but it is a good start.  Imagine if you could also add recommendation data to this tool as well.  So once you have identified your ideal destination you could then get pull in recommendations and reviews for hotels, restaurants and sights.  Feel like getting away?  Try out Tripseeker http://www.britishairways.com/travel/TRIPSEEKER/public/en_gb?refevent=HomeBannerBlue&openxzoneid=301&openxcampaign=Tripseeker-A&openxbanner=7310&openxtype=click

Uniform trumps female charm

A friend of mine wanted to buy an iPad 2 last week and tried to do so at the airport.  She went into the store at the airport and spoke to the manager.  They had sold out for that day but said they were getting some in tomorrow, so she fluttered her eyelids and asked if there was any chance they could save her one.  The manager said ‘under no circumstances can we do that, it is first come first served’.  So she went away disappointed.  5 minutes later her husband went in to the same store wearing his Pilot Uniform.  He spoke to the manager and made the same request, and this time the manager said no problem and that he would put one aside the next day.  Obviously my friend was delighted and also slightly bemused about the power his uniform appeared to have.  I have shared this story because it made me think about the power of influence and the importance of context for getting results.  Who is saying it has more value that what is being said and when we build social marketing programmes this has to be at the centre of our thinking.  Quality over quantity will always be more powerful when it comes to influencing people to act.