Yesterday, social media people from around the Danish kingdom gathered in our capital to get a taste of how the big guys from the land that gave us facebook and twitter brew their social media coffee. For two solid hours Matthew Guiste, Director of Global Social Media, Starbucks (US), showed us how you go from dating to having an actual relationship with your customers. With “My Starbucks Idea”, (http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/), the company has taken user engagement to a new level and proven that asking your customers can lead to great product innovation, proud employees and most importantly devoted customers.

This particular case is only one of several great initiatives from the coffeemaker who also had brand lovers from 156 countries singing all time Beatles favorite “All You Need Is Love” simultaneously online – check out the noticeably weird Danish contribution 2 min. into the video, which apparently the most views of all the countries:

However, the big question yesterday was obviously how they’d managed to actually do this. Why do these initiatives become a success? How do you attract and keep 13.928.404 users on your facebook page? What is that secret recipe to actually making social media a brand success? We have books, blogs and newsletters full of pointers and checklists but everybody knows that it’s not enough. What I got from the seminar yesterday was this: A great idea is a good start, almost vital, however the real reason that Starbuck is a success on these platforms is because the entire organization wants this and that this desire to succeed is reflected in the resources allocated to every project. One example is the 40 employees from across the organization that spends 2 hours each week answering suggestions from users on “My Starbucks ideas”. Even more impressing, if it’s decided that an idea is good enough to carry out, the organization is actually able to get things rolling.

Most Danish marketers would immediately dismiss integrating a similar concept, due to lack of resources, i.e. money. This is a shame for two reasons: firstly, the monetary benefit of having loyal and active users is never really discussed or compared to the amount of money spent on paid online advertising. Secondly, companies often fail to accept that “resources” is also about getting management and employees involved and engaged, so that the voice of the company on either facebook or other platforms really is the lady in the counter or that guy in production, which makes the job very hard for marketing to carry out all on their own. So summing up, social media is mainly about two things: getting a great idea and  all round internal commitment!

/Katrine

Absolutely fantastic interactive brand and Youtube integration. TRY IT.

Thanks to Kapster for the heads-up.

/Baek

Really cool interactive video for the track “We used to wait” from Arcade Fire / ad for html5 / Google Stret view/earth.

This is where I grew up – Trapholtparken in Kolding. Well one of the places:-) Check out the video and make your own.

http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/#Trapholtparken,+6000+Kolding,+Denmark

/Baek

This is hillarious and actually rather smart. It a small digital utility from Old Navy. It reads your ass and recommends what type of jeans you should go for – down to the label of Old Navy of course. Very cool. My booty sign is Posteriourious, which means jeans with stretch for that ass. Thanks to Martin from Plant for the heads up. Try it out.

Old Navy Booty Reader

/Baek

Just saw this – scary stuff. Cool commercial integration of message and a social media platform. Thanks to Herm @Marketear.

/Baek

So Sparklehorse and Dangermouse made an album… which is excellent… and they launched this interactive website, where you can also stream the album. Its is extremely cool. David Lynch did some of the photos for the album artwork – not sure if he was involved in this, but it rocks. The release was naturally scarred by the suicide by the great Mark Linkous in March. Nonetheless a great effort on all counts.

www.dnots.com

/Baek

In the future more and more important services/sites will be aggregations of content such as Huffington Post. Services, based on the user’s own preferences either because the user seeks them out herself or based on bespoke content tailored to each person’s taste.

Now, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake has developed a new site called Hunch which provides customized recommendations. Hunch proposes a concrete and customized recommendation for all kind of topics and refines its results by asking you questions about both the topic itself and who you are.

LIKE HAVING A FRIEND
Increasingly, the Hunch technology will  learn the individual user’s personality and preferences like a friend who over time will get to know your taste, so she can provide trusted advice.

/ iben

Just read on business.dk that Playboy will launch a 3D version of the magazine for the June issue.

This makes perfect sense. Nothing needs the 3D experience more than porn or whatever you call Playboy. The first 3D model will be Hope Dworaczyk. This is she:

I wonder how they will make the 3D experience come alive – with augmented reality on the mobile phone or with the funny glasses or maybe the old plastic holograms – all solid solutions. I kinda hope they go for the plastic. I just found an old magazine from 2001 with one of those glued in with Helena Christensen – I had to keep that for sentimental purposes:-) Does anyone know how they’ll doit?

/Baek

Motion controls for Playstation that looks like Wii – coincidence? They call it Arc…

Read more at techtree

/Baek

So it was the Apple Table or iPad as they chose to call it. I must admit it looks pretty cool. Its supposed to be the holder of apps, videos, photos and books. I predict that it will at least revolutionize the book market 500%. Fuck Kindle and all the other crappy digi-book readers. This is the ticket. Its supposed to be excellent for surfing the net and reading and writing emails also… We’ll see. I have few reservations or doubts when it comes to Apple living up to expectations these days. Good to see Steve back in good health too.

Watch the full product presentation here: http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video

/Baek