Innovation Archives - Page 12 of 19

Top 10 viral marketing campaigns ever

Posted on January 12, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

The factors we’ve considered:

There needs to be an actual business or brand behind it

Not just something funny

The idea or product was primarily spread by others.

Not ‘driven’ by paid media.

Based on effectiveness only, (ignores insensitivities / political / religious views)

A little explanation is next to each

In order.

The story of Jesus Christ (before digital technology or even the printing press, this ‘story’ crossed borders and oceans)
911 ‘Al Queda’ launch (3 weeks free media coverage on every media channel in every country)
Polaroid Instamatic Cameras (product usage = product demonstration)
Hotmail (the first viral product of the internet age)
In Rainbows album by Radiohead. (true brand handover to passionate users, fan chooses price – even free, resulting in massive free media & blogosphere coverage, then goes to number 1 on US charts on physical album release)
Google (usability & effectiveness which led to absolute domination)
Youtube (was the ultimate user experience and so won the game. There were 240 other video sharing sites when it launched!)
OK Go – Ok Here it goes film clip. (first to leverage youtube commercially. 27 million views and counting. No 2 on the charts to boot)
Blair Witch Project (set a new paradigm for movie promotion & brand hijacking)
Mini Cooper S Campaign (first ‘real’ personalized campaign message)

Add to, agree, disagree, complain and disdain in comments below!

Ideas are free

Posted on January 8, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

An excerpt from the blog of Seth Godin today. I had to post it:

“This isn’t about having a great idea (it almost never is). The great ideas are out there, for free, on your neighbourhood blog. Nope, this is about taking initiative and making things happen.”

Why retro works

Posted on January 5, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

I’ll admit it I’m a sucker for retro ideas and visuals – who isn’t? I think retro works because we already have formed memories and events both positive or negative which are brought to the surface when we see, feel or taste something that is old school or slightly retro.

It’s nearly a form of ‘cheating’ to gain am emotional link quicker, or even instantly. This is something new and innovative design and positioning can’t achieve – just because it’s new.

To me retro is really powerful when a brand or business ‘deserves’ to go there. Especially when it has a history worth reminiscing about. Battler brand Atari did this successfully with the Flashback console which was launched 25 years after the 2600 seen below.

Obviously this is much harder for a start up, although we can use it in graphics, design or attitude, especially if our brand or market segment lends itself to a retro play. Feel free to add examples to the comments.

Get retro!

Newton’s Laws & marketing 3.0

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Steve Sammartino

Action / Reaction:

In physics:

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

In business:

For every market there is an equal and opposite market.

Searching for new business ideas?

Chances are there’s a market waiting at the opposite end of the spectrum of an existing product or market.

Being real

Posted on December 29, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

Taking the lessons from neighborhoodies.com we’ve upgraded our response to a question on the contact page of rentoid.com

We think it shows we’re real, and says something about us and our values at rentoid.

You can try it here.

1977 – The coolest year in hell

Posted on December 23, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

I just saw a great documentary on New York called: 1977 – the coolest year in hell. It covers the music scene, politcal upheavels and social problems which spawned in that year. No – it’s about a the pop culture revolution which happened! Which ironically include a diversity as wide as Disco, Hip hop, Punk, and New wave.

The interesting thing about the documentary was how creative people made stuff happen with limited resources as a response the decline of a city. Like all revolutions the change evolves bottom up.

In one scene the hip hop crew talk about taking electricity from a street lamp to get the power needed for their DJ. Awesome.

It has the wicked bonus of an inspiring retro graphics overlay throughtout the doco. Not to mention cool music and generally stimulating visuals.

Like all revolutions there’s some ugliness in this one too. You can decide which bits fit this description. But it emphasizes the infallible truth that environment shapes behaviour.

It’s all about unleashing energy, feeding on the creativity and energy of others, bootrapping, creating change, viral marketing and theatre. Doing stuff because it’s cool stuff to do.

Here’s a link about it form the VH1 website. I couldn’t find it on youtube(?) So if anyone has a link to it or some grabs, please add to comments.

All entrepreneurs should check it out.

Sticky yet slippery

Posted on December 20, 2007 by Steve Sammartino

The two most important things we need on our web interface are direct opposites.

We need to be sticky & slippery – simultaneously.

Sticky – we need to keep our audience interested engaged and curious. We’ve got about one second to convince them of this when they arrive.

Slippery – we only grow when our audience feels confident enough to ‘pass it on’ and it’s easy to do.

What makes something do both of the above is different for every on line proposition and the principals change everyday.

[We found this out quickly with our facebook app for Rentoid.com which was blogged about here. It kind of sucks – it’s too boring, so it’s not slippery. We got it wrong and we’ll fix it quick. If we don’t we’ll miss out on the holiday season web surfing period!]

For all web sites and apps our challenge is not to let the technology to lead us to do something, just because we can. We should lead the technology to do something only because it makes us more ‘sticky or slippery’.