Monthly Archives: March 2011

Austin Powers – SXSWi Launchpad l #SocialEdition

March 23, 2011

South By Southwest Interactive 2011 consisted of five days and dozens of panels, along with 10 official sponsors, countless startups, blogs, apps and random marketers eagerly ambushing for attendees attention.  Not even mentioning dozen of parties, tweet-ups, and demos, it looked like twice as many people attended this year…we’re talking to near 30,000 attendees for the interactive portion. Back in 2007, 2008, & 2009, Twitter dominated SXSWi as the hot new app that everyone was using. Its rise to prominence gave notice to other startups wanting to jump on the fame bandwagon. 2010 was the breakout year of Foursquare, so what would hold for this year?

Once CF arrived in Austin, we witnessed how these young startups work the scene to dominate over the competition. Getting noticed during SXSW is a huge accomplishment already. When you have larger companies (AOL, PepsiCo, and Chevy) claiming such a limited area in a short period of time, it’s crucial for startups to market themselves and grab the attention of the audience as an innovative product.

In our social experiment, we tracked five companies (through social mentions and twitter follower growth) who competed in the SXSWi Accelerator Finals (Storify, Neighborgoods, Nimble, Tango.me, and Hipmunk) and compared them to five companies we identified as starting the festivities with a lot of pre-conference buzz (GroupMe, Hashable, Memolane, Lemonade Stand, and Chomp). We were interested to monitor the timing of your launch announcement really matters and how important it is to launch during SXSWi. Which group would stand out the most?

As we observed these startups from March 1 – 16, 2011, we noticed a total average of nine percent increase in Twitter follower growth. For blog posts and mentions, the biggest increase occurred on the 15th & 16th of March, at the end of the interactive conference. Not surprisingly, majority of the startups did not have huge jumps in social mentions, which begs the question, how can you really get noticed at SXSWi? Two of the companies did surpass the average growth increase, Lemonade Stand and GroupMe.

What we really took note of was not the big companies overexposing with way too impressive stands and billboards, but the intimate and lively small spots that get visitors really experiencing and enjoying the scene.  For example, Lemonade Stand, a neighborly commerce platform, was exactly that.  Get some free ice-cold lemonade and some shade, learn about their app, which simply enables people to buy and sell goods or services within a community. We’re human, we like to interact. From that experience, I will always remember the name, the nice Austin weather, and that I should sell something on the app.

By partaking in the majorly hyped Startup Bus, where teams of hackers build and launch their projects over the course of a bus ride to South by Southwest, GroupMe was able to grow brand visibility.  GroupMe, one of the top group messaging apps featured in SXSWi, decided to strategically place a “GroupMe Grill” across the street from the Austin Convention Center and handed out free beer and grilled cheese with the company’s logo branded right on. Not only did they create a centralized meeting place, they kept attendees happy and fed. “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

In conclusion, if the big question is, “who won?”, it was the pre-buzz contenders. The chatter from the conference will continue in the upcoming months and the CF team will be watching these brands closely. We noticed that if you want to launch a new product or brand, it definitely does not hurt to participate in SXSWi because of the media exposure, but brands should not rely entirely on it.  Nor should they bank on the fact that they’re new. It takes more than appearing at the biggest conference and a couple of billboards to impress us. It also takes vital marketing to create visibility before, during, and after the conference. Stay tuned for the next couple of months while we monitor and reveal if these brand newbies have launching momentum.

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Raj Advani | UpNext

March 17, 2011

 
Could UpNext be the future of mobile 3-D navigation and mapping? We think so.

UpNext is an iPhone app that offers a complete 3-D representation of several cities, down to every single building. You can pan and zoom, and click on any building to get a list of the businesses inside. Type in an address and the map flies right to it. If you want to see nearby restaurants, bars, stores, hotels, museums, or sports facilities, you can set a filter to light those things up on the map.

At SXSWi, we sat down with co-founder of UpNext, and chatted about his NYC based startup and what’s next.
 

 

Raj Advani, UpNext co-founder

 
What’s your company called and what do you do?
My company is called UpNext, and we’re creating a next generation mapping software so you can take any location and make it come alive on your phone.

What’s an example of something that you guys did?
We made the official NFL Super Bowl app where we built The Cowboys stadium in 3-D for your iPhone. And we also built all of downtown Dallas so that people who went to the Super Bowl can find out what was going on while they were there, to find their seat, and generally see what’s going on.

Who do you see as potential partners and competitors at SXSW?
There are a lot of companies that I want to work with – namely those companies producing real time data. As far as competition, there aren’t a lot of companies working in the mapping visualization area other than Google and Microsoft.

What are you looking forward to during SXSW?
I’m excited about all the startups that are producing real time data. We take all that data and try to integrate it into our maps to create a better visual of the experience, so you can see what’s happening.

How do you see your company working with big brands that aren’t as social as they should be?
For us, our goal is to take the social information and display it. We’ll display it in a way thats a flip forward for local information.

What’s your favorite kind of ice-cream?
Vanilla, straight.

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Lina Lee | Groupon

March 17, 2011

 
Initially, you would attend SXSWi to discover new startups and meet who’s launching what. This past weekend we met with Lina Lee, who currently works on social/online media for daily deal site Groupon. In case you haven’t heard of them, Groupon launched in November 2008 (just getting out of their terrible two’s) and features deals on the best stuff to do, see, eat, and buy. We sat down with Lee to discuss the next steps for Groupon.
 

 

Lina Lee, Groupon Social Media Manager

 
What are you looking forward to during interactive?
Basically coming out here, spreading more brand awareness, keeping people updated on how our brand is evolving. I think that when we started, people look at us as a day-to-day site, but we’re developing more and more for our merchants that we work with, our subscribers/consumers, and basically delivering as great of a service as we can on both ends.

How many subscribers do you have?
Worldwide 60 million? 70 million subscribers I believe? We just launched in China and we’re in about 30 countries. In New York, we have 1.5 million subscribers, that’s just New York and the boroughs. We’re really great in the fact that we’ve been able to be hyper local but on a national and international level. In Chicago, we have just over 2 million subscribers, our largest city. On a daily basis we have an average of 4,000 new subscribers.

Who do you see as Groupon’s competition?
You know, there’s isn’t any competition, we’ve been very lucky in the fact that we have a bunch of sites that copy what we do, but we have 80% of the market share. We’re constantly working to develop and evolve so we’re not really comfortable in our market share. We’re trying not necessarily do things in reaction to the competition, but to achieve that goal of being better and better.

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Adam Leibsohn | voyurl

March 16, 2011

 
As one site put it, “Voyurl is climbing in your browser window, snatching your web history up“. The recent beta launch of voyurl has gained quite the online buzz, with speculations about the potential of “social voyeurism”.

So, we sat with the founder, Adam Leibsohn, and asked him a couple of questions about his new platform, and what it means to the user experience, social media and brands.

 

Adam Leibsohn, voyurl Founder

 
What’s going with voyurl right now?
We just launched the beta a month ago. Essentially, what we’ve been trying to do is gather a lot of new data to reveal trends of how people us the web. These are things that a lot of companies have made some guesses about, but we’re providing hard real-time data. Like what time people use the web, how the weather effects the web user and we’re starting to release those studies.

How do you see voyurl helping other companies that want to go social?
We share every link that gets clicked on, so one of the things I’m fascinated with is being able to tell businesses the gap between consideration and purchase. We can track what sites customers went to when they saw an ad of yours, and all the way down to when they made a purchase. We can give you the data to help close that gap, and drive conversions faster.

What other startups are you excited about?
I’m excited about GroupMe. I didn’t really understand the use of it at first, but then once we all got here and started using it, it made a lot more sense.

Zaarly is also great. They formulated “I will pay BLANK for BLANK”. It’s essentially open form where someone will say, “I will pay $10 to anyone that brings me a Vente Latte in 10 minutes”. It’s wide open, so anyone can ask and anyone can answer.

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INTERACT – A CreativeFeed SXSW Project

March 11, 2011

 

This year, we’re celebrating SXSW’s 25th anniversary with a project called ‘INTERACT’ – a physical reflection of social networks.

 

During the event, we’ll be passing out 25 blank moleskine sketchbooks for attendees to draw/sketch/write in and pass on to others. The author of last page then sends the book back to CF via pre-paid postage.
Each sketchbook has a screen print design on the cover but once they are reunited, they create one large design.

What will happen to these books? What will their pages look like after they get passed around? Will people use them for doodles (or sell them on eBay)?

 

We’re interested to see what content the INTERACT books will acquire through the journey. Once we get them back, we’ll scan, upload and publish them online to serve as a diary of the event.

 

Who knows what we’ll learn from the content or the individual journeys these books will travel – but we’re excited to find out.

 
Interested in getting a book? Send us a Tweet!

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CreativeFeed Strengthens Sweet Bordeaux‘s Brand in the US

March 10, 2011

 
CreativeFeed is generating buzz and building brand awareness for Sweet Bordeaux among young American wine drinkers. Their goal is to change traditional perceptions of Sweet Bordeaux wine by engaging a younger, more cosmopolitan audience of wine enthusiasts, with social media being the primary vehicle for effecting this change.

“Sweet Bordeaux are traditionally known as ‘dessert wine’, and they are usually served at the end of a meal. Through a social media strategy, we want to introduce our wines to a younger audience open to a new ‘sweet’ wine experience,” explained Michael Garat, Marketing President of Sweet Bordeaux.

This new partnership, between the boutique New York agency and the makers of sweet Bordeaux wine, follows a banner year in CreativeFeeds’s ongoing relationship with the Bordeaux Wines Council (CIVB). “We are honored that the work we have been doing with the Bordeaux Wine Council (CIVB) made Sweet Bordeaux choose us. We are helping the business of Sweet Bordeaux through a social media strategy that is going to be very impactful,” said Arthur Ceria, founder and CEO of CreativeFeed.
 

 
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY AND BRANDING
The new voice of Sweet Bordeaux stands for good times, indulgence and style among the nightlife set. The first step toward establishing this voice in the US is to engage the target audience in online venues where it’s already congregating. For now, that means Facebook, Twitter and a Tumblr blog. The Facebook page provides a place where fans can interact with Sweet Bordeaux as an integrated part of their daily social networking experience. Twitter gives them a steady stream of valuable social links and content, while the Tumblr blog provides a richer content experience. By providing a genuine two-way exchange of content and ideas, Sweet Bordeaux’s social presence will continue to grow, reaching a new generation of sweet wine enthusiasts.
 
ABOUT SWEET BORDEAUX
Sweet Bordeaux is a federation of Bordeaux’s sweet wine producers. Sweet Bordeaux’s wines are characterized by their sweetness and the mellowness of their palates. There are11 AOC appellations in the South of Bordeaux, where soil and climate give each Sweet Bordeaux wine its own specificity.

Since 2009, Sweet Bordeaux has defined a strategy to reach a new target audience: young people and women. Sweet Bordeaux launched the “Sweet Attitude,” where enjoying Sweet Bordeaux is like being part of a club, an ease-of-mind, a moment shared with friends.

Sweet Bordeaux has started implementing its new strategy in France, both offline and online. Their website, www.sweetbordeaux.com, launched in 2009, and Sweet Bordeaux is reaching out to its new audience through innovative networks such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

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F-Commerce You! | #SocialEdition

March 2, 2011

 
Over the past year, we’ve seen more and more brands going beyond Facebook fan pages to drive engagement with consumers – and it makes sense. The growing population of 600 million Facebook users provides opportunities for companies to explore.

Your Facebook fan is looking beyond expressing their brand preferences through just ‘likes’ and comments. According to the Cone 2010 Consumer New Media Study, when Facebook users were asked what type of interaction they’re looking for when engaging with brands, 77% of respondents said they were looking for deals and promotions.

Thus, the appearance of f-commerce, or Facebook commerce. It’s a socially integrated shopping platform that is shifting business models and opening new doors for online retailers. With this movement, there is potential for the biggest social network to grow into the biggest social mall. If companies play the game right, they will score big.

So we’re briefing you on where f-commerce is today, the changing landscape of e-commerce and what’s next in the online social shopping space.
 

 
1/ IS FACEBOOK BECOMING AN ONLINE MALL?
Current e-commerce Facebook tabs and fan pages show that there is a lot of room for improvement.

Slow and cumbersome interfaces limit the shopping experience, and users are often redirected from Facebook to satellite e-commerce sites.

However, f-commerce platforms are quickly improving the online shopping process. Page designs are becoming more fluid and better integrated, making the shopping experience more convenient and better equipped for social utility. Companies like Payvment and Big Commerce are already offering packages to create your own f-commerce store at low cost.

JCPenny, Petco, Pampers and Delta are good examples of companies implementing f-commerce in their online retail strategy. ASOS, Europe’s first integrated Facebook store, is one to note as well. The clothing brand has extended the f-commerce experience into a sophisticated interface where one can view, like, comment, share and purchase items along with seeing which items their friends have liked within the f-commerce platform.

Read about common issues for selling on Facebook
 
2/ WILL F-COMMERCE REPLACE E-COMMERCE?
F-Commerce is one of the fastest growing applications of social commerce, and it may just become bigger than your webstore. Facebook controls more than half of the US traffic to social media sites with active users who spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the site, making it convenient for consumers since they’re already there.

Why not launch your storefront in Facebook? One great is example is P&G who opened its Pampers f-store in February 2010, and within the hour, they sold 1,000 Cruiser diaper packs at a dash sale of $9.99 each.

Forrester recently released the US online retail forecast for the next five years. Retail sales are expected to reach $278.9 billion in 2015.  With new e-commerce models popping up such as flash sales and daily deals (Gilt Groupe and Groupon as examples), how do you keep your online growth increasing? Just remember that first and foremost, Facebook is a social networking site, not a shopping site. F-commerce may not be overtaking e-commerce just yet, but the partnership can result in higher online sales opportunity with little or no extra cost.

Read more about f-commerce first success stories
 
3/ WHAT’S NEXT?
In our crystal ball, we see f-commerce intensify with the probable arrival of social group-buying on Facebook, as the company is currently testing a new feature “Buy with friends” for social games and virtual goods. Think about it: let your customer share a purchase on his/her newsfeed and give his/her friends the opportunity to buy and get a discount directly in their newsfeed. The next trend might be f-groupon!

But Facebook is not the only social platform where e-commerce could extend its roots. Second to Facebook views, YouTube users still spend 5 hours and 50 minutes every month. Why not take advantage of it? Fashion retail chain French Connection understood the opportunity, and launched its first “YouTique” in September 2010. It could be a good idea for your business especially when you know that videos might help increase your conversion rate (i.e. Zappos). What will your social e-commerce platform be?

Read more about social group-buying on Facebook.
 
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