Sketch Events

Tuesday 27 March 2012

Why we are LOVING Pinterest...




We live in an increasingly visual age where every second millions of people are documenting their lives through photos and uploading them to social networking sites. We seem obsessed with not only sharing pictures and videos from yesterdays BBQ in the park and Mia’s 1st Birthday Party, but capturing every bit of life we love from the ‘cute’ T-shirt we just saw at the market, to the tasty cakes that have just been delivered to the office.  So with this visual sharing explosion, is Pinterest the answer when communicating our lives in videos and pictures? Is Pinterest the latest fad or will it become the latest must have online marketing tool for your brand?


The low down. So what is Pinterest and how does it work?
Pinterest is a pin board style, social photo sharing website which allows its users to ‘pin’ images of ‘interest’ to the site using videos, photos or discussions. These ‘pins’ can then be organised into individual boards much like a virtual scrap book. Anything can be found from ‘design I love’ to ‘stunning holiday destinations’.  It’s simple to use as ‘pins’ can be uploaded by the individual or 'pinned' directly from websites and blogs using a handy ‘pin it’ plug in. Linked with Facebook and twitter, users can like a ‘pin’, or, much like a re-tweet, ‘repin’ a ‘pin’ to their pinboard thus continuing the image sharing journey.


So how can Pinterest work for my brand?
They say that a picture paints and thousand words and what better way to shout about your new product or latest experiential advertising campaign then with an image that says it all. With the ‘pin it’ plug in, an image can be pinned in a matter of seconds with a witty or cliff hanger style caption if desired. 
It’s not just us that agrees that Pinterest is the way forward. Several brands have lead the with Pinterest digital campaigns. Kotex’s ‘Woman’s Inspiration Day’ campaign featured personalised gifts that were sent out to 50 inspiring women whom they located on Pinterest. These gifts were created from inspiration from their Pinterest boards and sent them a personalised gift (with Kotex included). All the women had to do to receive their exclusive gift was to repin their gift. Nearly 100% of women posted about their gift on Facebook, Pinteret and Twitter. From the 50 gifts sent out, the Brand achieved 2,284 interactions and 694,853 total impressions. 




Fashion brand Guess has also jumped on the bandwagon with their “Guess my colour Inspiration” by challenging its fans to create boards based on one of  four spring denim colours: “Noir Teal,” “Hot House Orange,” “Red Hot Overdue” and “New Plum Light.” Participants were told to title their boards “Guess My Color Inspiration” and re-pin their colour ambassador image with at least five more colour images. The four winners were selected by style bloggers. 
Guess 'Colour Me Inspired' campaign


Even 'Mad Men' is reaching out to its audience through a retro 60’s styled Pinterest board promoting the release of the hotly anticipated fifth season of the show.
The Mad Men Pinterest board


Pinterest seems to be on it's way to becoming a huge hit with the number of unique visitors to the site growing by 886% in just 6 months, with over 16.23 million users (via Branding Magazine).


What better way to shout about your brand or product then letting your consumer do it for you? Linking with Facebook and Twitter its makes it incredibly easy to share about the things you like with countless others to. Go on, try it- we're sure you'll become just as addicted as we are! 
Follow us at http://pinterest.com/sketchevents/


http://www.flowtown.com/blog/why-is-pinterest-so-addictive


Wednesday 14 March 2012

Brand Advocacy (or look how jolly nice we are!)



One of our Account Execs, Charlotte battled through the busy crowds in our local Starbucks this morning to get her hands on her free Latte. The Latte give-away has been the centre of a massive campaign for Starbucks aiming to make the brand more friendly. You give them your name in exchange for the freebie making the morning coffee run a lot more personal. Starbucks’ promise ‘to make your coffee just the way you like it’ because ‘after all, it’s personal’ got us all thinking about how easy it is to create brand advocacy. 




It’s all about human brands and random acts of kindness...
With Social Media connecting people and brands all over the world, it has become apparent that brands need to engage with their consumers on a deeper personal level.  In a time where Facebook has taken to viewing ‘brands as people’ by allowing them to post directly onto user’s newsfeeds (Marketing Week) it is not simply enough to be a faceless corporate brand. As trendwatching.com points out, it is all about creating a human interface with character and personality and therefore experiential activities are only truly successful when they manage to create a deeper emotional connection. 

The human brand with character and personality, according to trendwatching.com, embodies traits that include random acts of kindness and activities based around generosity and giving suggesting that Starbucks was on the right track with this morning’s latte give-away.
Here are some other brands that have recently caught our attention with their acts of kindness:
  • We love Kinder Bueno’s ‘Try Me Free’ Campaign which offers you the money back for your Bueno purchase and suggests ‘It's the perfect excuse to treat yourself to another!’ – We Agree!
  • Mr Kipling has created an exceedingly good experiential activity (come on now- we couldn’t resist!) which will make waiting for the bus an experience you will never forget. Bus shelters in locations such as London, Nottingham and Glasgow will not only emit the smell of an Angel Slice, it will give you one too - surely sampling at its best! (via the DRUM )

When talking about brands that have individual character and personality it seems hard not to mention Ben & Jerry’s who are known for their strong social mission as well as their yummy ice cream. In the last few days it was announced that they have joined ranks with gay rights organisation Stonewall and renamed their Apple Pie flavour ice cream, Apple-y Ever After, in support of equal rights to marriage for same sex couples. Read the full story here: http://www.benjerry.co.uk/our-values/appleyeverafter


Humans have flaws and so do brands...
Easily accessible online reviews and comments are quick to point out the flaws in brands marketing strategies but, as trendwatching.com points out, this adds to breaking down the corporate façade. Nobody is perfect and neither are brands.

And so back to Starbucks- Their personalised coffee cups don’t always go down well elsewhere as you can see here... http://thatsnotmynamestarbucks.tumblr.com/ but we are staying open minded for now (and most definitely going back to load up a new Starbucks card and receive our next free coffee!)