Westfield Facebook Competition Doubles Page Likes

Westfield recently ran a competition on their Facebook page to give away $10,000 worth of shopping vouchers. What caught my eye was it's spin on the regular giveaway format. The "Show us the likes, we'll show you the money" competition was pretty self-explanatory. Every new like added $1 to the prize pool and entered the visitor to win the total amount. The normal concept of a competition actually discourages organic sharing - afterall you want to win - the less people entered the greater your personal chance. In this case, the more of your friends that enter the greater the prize value.

Enviable Elements
The current number of likes appeared in the clothing so you could see what you could win, no cap was mentioned so their was a feeling that this go keep rising. Unfortunately the competition just closed at 10,000 likes. When I first saw this yesterday the page had around 5k likes - so they have at least doubled their previous likes very quickly through this promotion.

The competition is really simple - no entry form to be completed - just click "like". This did make me wonder though, even though this is housed on an app does the "like to enter" model breach Facebook's compeititon rules? [Update: unfortunately yes this model does break Facebook's competition rules]  

So what do you think - is $1 a good price for a "like"?
A quick look at online information available estimates the cost of one like from $1 (The Next Web) up to $3.50 (Panorama) meaning this actually might be a cost effective approach - but will this engagement last past this giveaway?

Social Media NZ: Best Use of Social Media Award

There's always a lot of talk about social media and what it can do for brands but it's hard to separate the facts from the hype. I was the guest judge for Social Media NZ's Best Use of Social Media Award for June and decided this honour should go to Whitaker's for their Chocolate Lover's Facebook page. I sat down with Jasmine Griffin, Brand Manager at Whittaker's to learn about what they are doing and what results they are achieving. From sell out product launches to having over 129,000 fans these guys are a shining example of how social media should be done. It was a fascinating discussion with valuable lessons for anyone using Facebook to promote a business or a brand. You can read the full article here.  

I would love to hear your feedback - please leave a comment here or on the Social Media NZ site with your thoughts. 

Shout an Olympian a Moa

The Olympics is now just a couple of months away and hoping to gain some of the associated glory of the games sponsors are launching their campaigns. Cadbury, Coca-Cola and Sky so far released TV campaigns but brands with slightly smaller budgets need to find other ways to leverage their involvement. Moa, the official beer of the NZ Olympic team have launched a Facebook competition allowing you to shout an Olympian a Moa.

Seeing is believing - Panasonic "Pro v Am"

Panasonic believes in their Lumix cameras, and are willing to let consumers discover its strengths themselves. But how do you let consumers try a camera? Well by putting two amateurs up against a professional photographer and letting the public judge the results!  

Say no to wine, yes to great advertising

The Export Dry campaign "Say No To Wine" is definitely one of my favourites so far in 2012. And now the hilarious TV ads have been supplemented with these cheeky print ads. With statements like "the problem with wine, is that it's not wine" these ads have some of the best copywriting I've read (kudos to copywriter Simon Vicars). While campaign is entertaining more importantly it's selling. Russell Browne, marketing manager for DB Export told Stop Press NZ that the newly designed Export boxes sold to shortly after the campaign launched. 

“The best campaigns aren’t only the ones that happen to be funny. This campaign resonates with our consumer target perfectly due to the humour being based on their actual experiences.” ~ Russell Browne, DB

I'm not the only one loving this campaign - it's received high praise from Ad Week who said it is "a beer ad worthy of Super Bowl airtime" and was awarded the NAB (Newspaper Advertising Bureau) Ad of the Month.

(Click on images to enlarge, for more versions click "Read More" below)

NZTA Personalised Advertising Wins International DM Award

This creative NZTA piece won agency Clemenger BBDO a gold award at the John Caples International Awards for direct marketing. Targeting ferry passengers with cars it makes clever use of the fact the drivers leave their cars during the sailing. A photo was taken as cars boarded the ferry and as the unsuspecting passengers enjoyed the journey, their cars were inserted into personalised flyers. These were then placed onto the windscreen of each car. When the driver returned, likely to be about to embark on a long drive to their final destination, they were reminded about the dangers of driver fatigue.   

I had earlier blogged about this concept in it's billboard format so was particularly interested in seeing this applied in this personally targeted approach. It's the type of advertising I love - incredibly targeted, guaranteed to get the audience's attention and crafted to effectively and memorably deliver the message. 

Envied on http://www.caples.org/sneak-ads

Sephora & Pantone's Colour Collaboration

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to visit the Big Apple for a work trip. The iconic Times Square with its myriad of neon billboards was an advertising geek's dream and advertising inspiration seemed to be everywhere in NYC. This pop up concept store particularly caught my eye... 

Sephora & Pantone Universe: NYC Pop Up Store 

I happened to be in town the one week that this collaboration between Sephora and Pantone was alive in the meatpacking district of NYC. The pop-up celebrates the colour of the year for 2012 which is apparently "Tangerine Tango". This left me with all sorts of questions on how one chooses a colour of the year - cue mental images of pantone colour chips with sashes performing a Miss America pagent parade! But the idea is quite clever, Pantone is positioning themselves as the authority on all things colour. Most importantly this means they have the (self appointed) power to inform fashion trends and partnering with brands like Sephora is key to this influence. 

Enviable Elements

• Friendly experts: Sephora makeup artists were on hand to give free makeovers and offer advice - given that the new season colour is orange/tangerine it's a clever move to make consumers feel comfortable with the products and show the less confident how to work an orange lippy into their makeup collection 
• Cohesive partnership: a pet peeve of mine is illogical brand partnerships and celebrity endorsements, when two brands combine forces but fail to create more value as a whole than separately. The Sephora and Pantone collaboration makes sense and is not only superficial - everything from the pop-up store design (modeled as a giant Pantone colour book) to the product packaging reflects the partnership. 
• Integration of technology: There was plenty to see and do while waiting for a makeover at the pop store, on the ends of the store were giant touch screens that you could browse products on and behind each make up station was an iPad so you could share your new look or get friends to come along. 

Pop up stores seem to be in vogue at the moment - do you like the allure of a temporary store or prefer a more permanent shopping experience? 


Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below this post!

For more images click "read more" below!