Date: 03/11/10
Since we are mid-stream with a few Facebook Fan Page apps for 2010, we have been jamming on a few recurring riffs here at Welikesmall. To ring in the first quarter of 2010, we have seen an increased interest from our agency clients, looking to build and expand their clients' Facebook environments. This falls in line with a whole herd of reports that indicate big advertisers are redirecting spending to social to better connect with target audiences. A February 17, 2010 eMarketer article indicated 56% of U.S. Online Shoppers visit Facebook regularly, with 61% of those interacting with 1-5 brands, and 21% of them interacting with 6-10 brands. So what does this mean? Jumping to conclusions, one might be inclined to think that a minisite that lives in a Fan Page tab is the new Flash microsite. We're not saying that. A "fish where the fish are" mentality is a pretty safe bet for many brand marketers, until Seussian Marketing evolves to the point when someone finds a way to spin an effective marketing parable out of McElligot's Pool.
But look again at the eMarketer numbers above. People are interacting with brands on Facebook, but they don't have a lot of patience or reason to return if the brands don't give something back. I would think just about every brand that doesn't have their head in the sand about this whole social media thing probably has secured their Fan Page and has started building content with Wall posts, maybe some photos, and trying to accumulate fans. But that's probably not enough to keep someone coming back. Here is a good article from Mashable on some different way brands like Dell, Gap, Walgreens, Adidas, and Home Depot are using different approaches to building Fan Page content through tab apps.
Creating outposts of content for Fan Pages is another way to think about how brands can build out their Fan Pages, and fish where the fish are. Not instead of, as in, "do we spend our dough on a microsite or a Facebook app", but also, or in addition to. A good simple example of this is some work we recently did for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, and their partner Foster Farms. In the summer of 2009, we built a Flash microsite to help support their Say No To Plumping public awareness campaign. On this site, they have a Get Involved page. On this page, visitors can sign an online petition to support legislation that mandates the USDA better regulate the labeling on poultry products. At Welikesmall, we helped them create a Fan Page tab application that ties into the same online form. The application lives in the "Get Involved" tab on the Foster Farms Facebook Fan Page. Check it out. It's a real simple, cost effective outpost to allow Facebook Fans to sign the same petition that is on their site.
A friend at another digital agency was blown away when I told him that it seemed like a high percentage of project inquiries coming our way has been for a Facebook app. Do people still do those, he asked? We're not seeing it. My guess: he was thinking about apps only in terms of things like Farmville. I think the demand for applications to live in a brand's Facebook Fan Page will continue to rise as long as Facebook's user number keep climbing, 430 million strong and counting. Fish where the fish are indeed.
Date: 03/02/10
February is over and suddenly we get a slight increase in temperature around the Wasatch front and what does this mean for me?... My coworkers show up at work in spandex and biker cleats. A new season in Utah demands a new sport. And everyone at Welikesmall enjoys the outdoor adventures that Utah so graciously provides.
As we enjoy spring skiing during this season, we'll also be taking the bikes out around lunch time and taking advantage of the warmer weather as it comes.
Date: 02/26/10
Last night's Utah Addys event was on the heels of a fairly epic powder day coming after more than a few weeks of a dry spell here in the Wasatch. Some serious pent-up demand for a ski day, and more than half our office was out playing in the powder yesterday. Some of us were up at the crack of dawn to take advantage of early Tram rides at the Bird, others getting first tracks in Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude. Nobody looked at the weather forecast on Wednesday night and said I better not go skiing tomorrow because I might be too tired to go to the Addys show. You deal. Early morning pow turns, full shift at the office, then off to rub shoulders with the suits at the museum. I for one knew I was going to feel like a zombie when I got there.
Before the event, they (the Addys folks) send you a letter telling you if you won anything for submitted work, but they don't tell you whether you won Gold or Silver. I guess they need a reason to get you to come to the event. What's the difference between Gold and Silver besides the obvious? For Gold awards, you get a nice little medal, and your work gets forwarded on to the Regional competition, and if you are lucky and do well there, then on to the National awards. Last year we won a National Addy Gold for our Hyundai work, so it does happen to small shops in local markets, to go all the way to the top through the tiers and layers of judging. But you have to get Gold in the local show first.
Here we go, another judged sport. Not as clear cut as say, ski jumping, where the skier who goes the farthest wins. Or ski racing, where the skier who crosses the line first wins. Makes me think about a friend and acquaintance, Billy Demong, who on the same day had just won USA's first-ever Olympic Gold medal in the sport of Nordic Combined. If you don't know what it is, or how significant Billy's medal is, read this article.
As I pulled into the parking lot outside the museum, I saw Paul Tuft from Cosmic Pictures & Universal Post. Paul did a lot of the editing work on the awards show video segment where all the winners are revealed. He said man, you guys cleaned up. Ok, maybe this video thing was going to be worth sitting through. A, because Paul did it. And B, because I was starting to wonder which pieces of our work were going on to the next level. I was thinking about how lucky we are to work and play in this market, being so close to the mountains, and having clients that let us bring their big ideas to life.
At the end of the night, we took home 8 Gold Awards for our clients, as well as a special Judges Choice Award for saynotoplumping.com, a site we built for our clients Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and their client Foster Farms. Even though we launched this site back in August of 2009, the work goes on with this client, and we are currently building some Facebook Applications to integrate with their Fan Page. Maybe we'll enter that stuff next year if they have a category for it. Doubt it. You can enter as many posters, billboards, and newsprint ads as you want, but this digital stuff, let's just lump it into 1 category and call it Interactive.
For our client Venables, Bell & Partners and their client PG&E, we took home 3 Golds: 1 for wecandothis.com in the "Websites-Consumer-Flash" category, 1 for the Solar Pinball game in the "Online Games" category, and 1 Gold for the entire campaign in the "Websites/Online Campaign" category. How many shops in Utah can say they do work for a client who made Fast Company's top 50 list of the most innovative companies? Yup. PG&E is right up there at #7.
There were 2 Gold awards for our iPhone Apps, Snowbird and Coke Magic Coke Bottle, oddly enough, in the "Mobile Marketing (Text Messaging)" category. For next year they might want to think about having an iPhone or Mobile App category. I'm sure there will be more entries both on local and national levels. Getting the Gold for the Snowbird App kind of brings this blog post full circle. It started with an epic day skiing with Clients & Friends at the Bird. An unspoken policy about being invited up for pre-dawn early Tram rides before the mountain opens to the public: you neither ask for it nor turn it down. I had my doubts about whether or not I could muster up the enthusiasm for the Addys show. Not being cynical here, I was just tired. Nonetheless, it was gratifying to see the Snowbird App take home Gold and now move on to the next level.
Congratulations to all of our team members here in Utah, our many creative partners in other places, and most of all, congrats to our clients. Unlike the Olympics, we don't have to wait another 4 years. Game on for 2010!
Date: 02/18/10
Ok , well maybe a few frills. Yes, our office has modern lighting, plush wool rugs, and trendy couches all in a sleek studio setting but when the guys in the office are going out for food, fancy is not what they are looking for. Meat, cheese, fries, and more cheese. And why not ...more meat too.
Today we went on a mission to find a no frills dive for authentic cheesesteak sandwiches. Where do the guys working in manual labor jobs go for lunch? Where do the people from Philly who now reside in Salt Lake go to get a decent cheesesteak sandwich?
We found just the place, complete with dirty floors, XL portions of fry sauce and sandwiches wrapped in several sheets of brown sack paper, Grinders 13. They have a few locations but we visited their State Street location and we're honored to be in the presence of their original owner.
In 1972, Maurice (Moe) and Sylvia Girouard moved from New Hampshire to Salt Lake City and soon started Grinders 13. Much like the guys of Welikesmall, they moved to Utah to be near some of the greatest skiing on earth. They've now owned and managed Grinders for over 37 years and they don't plan on retiring any time soon.
Overall, we were happy with our selected sandwiches and were definitely full and maybe even in need of a little nap on our plush rug back at the office. Our most critical eater said on a scale of 1-10 it was about a 7. 7 is high for Mike, (our anonymous critical eater).
Will Grinders be one of our routine spots? Still considering but we'll see.
