Mint Ripple Establishes a Creative Collective of Strategists and Execution Specialists
WILLIAMSBURG, MA (January 2, 2014) – Mint Ripple Integrated Marketing Communication announces that the planets have aligned for principals, team members and networked partners: a new agency is born today.
Click here to view an online presentation, or read on:
IMAGE CREDIT: blackberry.com
Blackberry’s new Z10 phone sales have set records in Canada and the UK – two of the biggest markets for Research in Motion (now re-branded as simply Blackberry). It still remains to be seen whether next week’s U.S. release will make any kind of splash. The biggest problem for Blackberry is that many of its former enterprise users have switched to other smartphone platforms. Many companies have instituted bring your own device (BYOD) plans, in which fewer restrictions are placed on mobile devices that are used by employees. Workers want to choose how, where and when they work in order to balance personal and professional commitments – and IT departments have agreed to support them. Most of them brought their own iPhones, Droids and Galaxies, but not Blackberries.
Since Blackberry’s traditional fan base, the business user, is no longer locked in, the company is pivoting towards a different market segment: creative, collaborative multi-taskers. Let’s ignore the company’s universally derided Superbowl ad, which showed us a montage of nonsensical problems that are supposedly solved by the Blackberry, and then tells us that these are all the things the phone can’t do. Instead, let’s consider the brand’s Keep Moving campaign, an exercise in crowdsourced consumer engagement. Blackberry tapped three artists – a musician, a writer and a film maker – with strong fan followings, prominent social media profiles, and/or new projects to promote this year.
Blackberry taps three artists to influence their fanbase
Alicia Keys, the brand’s “Global Creative Director,” is a former Blackberry user who has been lured back, a fact that the company has made sure to emphasize. Unfortunately, she has been suspected of continuing to Tweet from her iPhone and was photographed with several iPhones, in addition to her Blackberry, on her dressing table. Oops.
She’s also promoting a world tour. Keys has previously used crowdsourced Instagram photos as part of her music videos. Despite the unavailability of this popular app on the new Blackberry phone, Keys’ project, called Your City Your Video, is asking for fan photos – some of which will probably be taken with an iPhone and altered with Instagram filters. She will include these in videos, unique to each city, used on her current tour.
Neil Gaiman, a popular fantasy author and screenwriter from the UK, has a large following on his active Twitter account, and prior experience with crowdsourcing projects. In 2009, he worked with BBC Audiobooks America to provide the seed for a Twitter-based story using only Tweets submitted by Gaiman’s followers. He’s also married to Amanda Palmer, who has considerable experience with crowdsourcing and crowdfunding. His new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, will be released in June.
Gaiman’s project is A Calendar of Tales, in which he gave to the Twitterverse a series of story prompts based on the months of the year, for example: “Why is January so dangerous?” Gaiman wrote one story for each month, posted the stories for download on Blackberry’s site and asked fans to illustrate them. The illustrations are currently featured on Blackberry’s website and will be published in a calendar and an e-book. Gaiman also recorded himself reading the stories and made the audio files available for free, hoping to attract film makers.
The last Keep Moving project will involve a professional film maker, Robert Rodriguez, who jumps between producing cult favorites like El Mariachi to making children’s movies like the popular Spy Kids franchise. He is also known for a series of short documentaries about film making and has recently created a new cable channel on Comcast called El Rey. His project launches March 18, and reportedly will ask fans to describe a weapon, draw a monster and play a small part in a new film. Rodriguez also has some experience with crowdsourcing, having asked for fan contributions for character ideas and plotlines for Heavy Metal, an animated film still in production. He is currently rolling out promotion for a sequel to Machete, due to be released in September.
Will Gen X come back to Crackberry?
Blackberry 6710, circa 2002. IMAGE CREDIT: engadget.com
The celebrities that Blackberry chose for this campaign are more Gen X than cutting edge. Robert Rodriguez, along with Quentin Tarantino, was first making violent movies with cynical antiheroes back in the 1990s. Neil Gaiman earned a legion of fans with the Sandman comics back in the 80s and 90s. Alicia Keys has been making mainstream hip hop music since 2001. Do you see a trend? All of these artists gained popularity when Gen Xers were in their twenties and early thirties – which is also when they fell in love with the first smartphone on the market, the Blackberry, in 2002.
Generation X is a small cohort, wedged between Boomers and Millennials. I’m not sure they’ll be enough to put Blackberry on top again, but perhaps it will get them to third place, which is their goal for now. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.
Today’s the day we turn the clocks forward, which means you lost an hour of sleep – or an hour of productivity, depending on your viewpoint. Either way, it’s just what you didn’t need, right?
Consumers are already time-starved and sleep-deprived, and grocery shopping can be a dreaded chore. Millennial consumers, many of whom are just setting up independent households and starting families, have been a disruptive element, also, with limited loyalty as well as limited budgets.
IMAGE CREDIT: Anthony Munoz
Online grocery shopping, home delivery service and digital tools for pantry management may provide relief to both shoppers and marketers.
Schwan’s has been making home deliveries of frozen foods since the 1950’s, and they’ve become a major e-tailer of frozen foods. Peapod was one of the first online home-delivery companies, and they now offer curbside pickup and have placed coded transit ads that act as virtual stores.
IMAGE CREDIT: FastCoDesign.com
Other companies have sprung up to service metro areas like New York (FreshDirect) or Los Angeles (Spud). National retailers are in on the action, too, as shoppers turn to WalMart, Target, Walgreen’s, and Amazon for non-perishable groceries, paper goods and pet supplies.
Although online shopping tends to curb in-store impulse buying, basket sizes are larger because there is a greater mix of pack sizes and categories available. Marketers can attract online grocery shoppers with easily navigable sites, improved search, and shared shopping lists – and all of these can be delivered at desktop, or, even better, via mobile.
Apps from stores like Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart use geo-fencing to help direct consumers around the retail environment, offer coupons and refill prescriptions. Ahold, which owns Stop & Shop and Peapod, has begun rolling out an app that combines loyalty rewards and mobile checkout. Once the consumer launches the app, it presents offers based on her purchase history and allows her to skip the checkout counter by scanning items with her mobile phone.
Consumers also use mobile apps for couponing and grocery list generation/pantry management. GroceryIQ, Out of Milk and Grocery Gadget include features like integrated couponing, list sharing, and the ability to scan barcodes in your pantry so you can keep track of what you need to – or like to – buy.
IMAGE CREDIT: Overlapps.com
Appliance manufacturers are rolling out more and more “smart” appliances, like Samsung’s (admittedly overpriced) smart fridge. The internet of things is already here. Think about it: if we were to combine a smart fridge that could communicate with printed electronics on intelligent packaging to send you a mobile message when the milk is about to expire, or could understand when we’re out of apples, or was integrated with a database of favorite recipes…
IMAGE CREDIT: Ashley Legg
Has technology helped in your pantry? Let me know in the comments.
What do CSA farms, Minecraft, and punk cabaret artist Amanda Palmer have in common? They’re all looking at a more direct way to connect with their supporters instead of just selling things to them.
Community supported agriculture (CSA) farms ask consumers to pay up front for weekly shares of the harvest, so that they can buy seed, feed and fertilizer without taking on crippling debt. In return, shareholders pick up a bag of locally grown vegetables, eggs, herbs, and even meat from someone they know and trust.
The developers of Minecraft asked gamers to play their game before it was even finished, and used that money to finish programming it. In the meantime, it became a phenomenon of word of mouth marketing and shared, user-generated content.
Performance artist Amanda Palmer became the poster girl for Kickstarter last year, when her campaign to raise $100,000 for a self-published music CD, art book and tour netted a $1.2 million return. And that’s when the trouble started. After literally making a career of asking others for help and collaboration, Palmer faced the wrath of the internet when she blogged for local musicians to beef up her band onstage – for free – during her tour. Many were incensed that she would have the nerve to ask for free labor after receiving a nice juicy windfall only months earlier. Palmer later retracted her offer to pay musicians in beer, hugs and free merch, and announced that she would pay in cash instead. The controversy spawned debates about ownership, accountability, and the differences between collaboration and exploitation.
Last month, Amanda Palmer gave an incredible, inspiring talk at TED, in which she explains why we should let people pay for things instead of making them do so:
Wait! This is our job, as marketers, to make people buy our ideas, services and products. Or is it? Everything we have learned in the past few weeks keeps pointing to the consumer as the one who has all the cookies. She is less persuadable, harder to find through broadcast media, and better informed than ever before. She wants what she wants, when she wants it, and, if possible, it should come with her name on it, please.
On the other hand, if she likes what you’re offering… that’s when the magic happens. She’ll tell everyone about it, via phone, text, email, tweet and online review. She’ll fund your Kickstarter campaign, buy your unfinished game, and give her personal information to your social network – and smart marketers will provide opportunities to let her do these things.
And when the consumer doesn’t like it… same thing. Everyone hears about that, too. This is the tricky part of a gift economy, where transactions are based on social currencies and relationship building. These supposedly come with no strings attached, and all is gratefully received.
Unfortunately, sometimes people are unhappy about the gift they’ve been given, because it isn’t really what they wanted. Or they feel under-appreciated when the thank you is not as sincere or as fast as they feel it should be. As Amanda Palmer found out, when your business model is based on making connections instead of just making money, things can get messy. But does that mean we shouldn’t bother?
IMAGE CREDIT: Tom Fishburne / Marketoonist.com
If you’re a small business owner who sells to other businesses, you may wonder if social media is worth the effort. It takes time to manage social media accounts. Only 40% of small business owners in a recent Wall Street Journal poll have dedicated social media staffers. It takes even more time to generate content so that you can start some kind of conversation with your networks. Other research indicates that social media has become the number one content marketing strategy for B2B companies, but 29% of them are crunched for time when it comes to content development.
So, does it make sense to outsource your social media management? Maybe. Conventional wisdom states that that no one else is as passionate and knowledgeable about your brand as you are – both of which are true. Many small B2B companies are just starting out in social media. If you are one of these fledgling social sellers, it may make sense to look at hiring a part-time social media director or a small consulting firm to get started. An outsider who can work side by side with your people will be a better brand advocate and a great resource for training inside employees as the program gets off the ground.
Chris Abraham makes a great point – several of them, in fact – about the disadvantages of insourcing social media: not everyone within your organization is going to be a phenomenal brand ambassador. And those staffers who are initially committed to providing social media content may find that it becomes a “do last” task as other projects take over their work life.
How about content creation – should you look for outside help here, too? This issue seems to be only slightly less contentious than the idea of outsourcing social media management, but the same logic applies. Businesses need to balance the availability of internal expertise against the efficiencies gained from outsourcing. Here are some great guidelines from PR2020:
IMAGE CREDIT: Sandie Young at PR2020
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below, or take the easy way out with this poll:
Have you ever seen something new and wondered where you could get one for yourself? Of course you have. Up til recently, you’ve had two options: ask the owner about it right then and there, or troll the internet with your best guess as to appropriate keywords so you can find it. In 2011, Google introduced Search by Image, which allows users to drag an drop an image into Search. Google uses image recognition technology to find best matches to your photo. Internet retailers like ebay are exploring this technology to make mobile shopping experiences easier. Do you like that car, those shoes, that watch? Point, snap, search, buy!
Image recognition works both, ways, however. Not only can shoppers use it to search for similar products online, but retailers in Japan can use facial recognition to identify repeat customers and tailor shop windows to their preferences. Some stores already use security cameras to record shopper traffic, and could use similar cameras use these to track individual consumers. Other stores, mainly in Europe, are using “spy mannequins” equipped with cameras to provide similar tracking data. This technology has allowed stores to make store displays more relevant, but it can make shoppers uncomfortable. In the U.S., the FTC has issued opt-in guidelines for facial recognition. For the truly paranoid among us, there’s always camera-confounding makeup.
IMAGE CREDIT: yourpopfilter.com
IMAGE CREDIT: Wired.com
On your way to meet a friend in the city, your smartphone starts notifying you of local points of interest. At a museum, you skip the old-school audio tour for a pair of Google Glass specs, which display pertinent information as you look at each part of the exhibit. As you shop online, you can “try on” clothes and jewelry, and view yourself in the computer monitor. And most important of all, you can share these experiences with your friends and family.
All of these experiences are possible through augmented reality, or AR, technology. AR adds a layer of computer-generated data, images and sound (and someday, touch and smell!) to our experience of the real world. This all sounds like sci-fi, but AR is already here. My smartphone already has a few AR apps – and yours probably does, too. Yelp’s Monocle function made it one of the first apps to use geo-location data to overlay reviews on top of data from an iPhone camera lens – this was back in 2009.
I’ve also got Skyview, which uses my phone’s camera, compass, gyroscope and geolocation data to present me with information about the night sky. My son and I find this to be way more fun than his telescope.
How Yelp sees my back yard. All the fun stuff is a long walk from here.
My world, through Skyview’s lens.
Marketers are using AR all over the place. Last year, IKEA’s 2013 print catalog debuted an interactive component. Smartphone users can download an app which unlocks video, 3D content, additional photos and more, when pointed at catalog pages with a tag by Metaio.
Goldrun is another AR mobile platform, successfully combining AR engagement with social sharing and consumer rewards. Last year they partnered with the NFL to let fans try on the Giants’ virtual Super Bowl ring and share photos of them wearing it.
Giants fans show off virtual Super Bowl 2012 rings via Goldrun. IMAGE CREDIT: Goldrungo.com
AR is a great way to create an emotional connection with a brand, but right now there’s no killer app for it. Like the clunky ol’ QR code, AR requires the user to download a variety of apps for different uses, and there are multiple tech developers. Until this functionality is somewhat standardized and baked in to smartphones, glasses, auto windshields, or clothing, it will be less than transparent and immediate. One also wonders how the content will be monetized, once it is all “baked in.” Could our AR experience someday look like this spoof of the Google Glass promo video? (The real version from Google is here.)
Last week I went to lunch at UNO’s with a few co-workers. None of us had been in awhile, and we all immediately noticed the new touchscreen on the tabletop. The hostess explained that this device, called a Ziosk, would allow us to order drinks, appetizers and desserts, and pay our bill. It has a few free apps, and access to games for a dollar. We saw a family at the next table take advantage of this feature – crayons and coloring menus are so over.
Customers can buy access to apps, order drinks, and pay their bills.
My own dining companions hoped that the server had wiped down the touchscreen (flu season, you know), but also observed that we take the same risk by opening a menu. So, moving on: I noticed that drinks were ordered more quickly via Ziosk, but not necessarily delivered any faster.
Other chain restaurants like Applebee’s, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, P.F. Chang’s, and Chevy’s FreshMex are also using or testing tabletop mobile devices. From the restaurant’s perspective, benefits include more ways to upsell and feature relevant menu items, faster table turns, increased guest satisfaction, and an opportunity to gather data about consumers who join loyalty programs. From the guest view, devices like the Ziosk and the e-Tab offer convenience and entertainment. Win-win?
Maybe. Some parents dislike seeing their kids glued to a screen during mealtimes, and have pointed out that a single screen is less than ideal with more than one child at the table. It’s just one more thing to squabble over. Other fast-casual restaurant patrons are sighing about yet another technological distraction that keeps us from having an actual conversation.
IMAGE CREDIT: Luci Gutiérrez for The Wall Street Journal (click image to enlarge)
Touchscreen devices seem to be appropriate for fast-casual restaurants, where the emphasis is often on novelty as well as convenience. Will they replace personal service? Probably not. Wayne Vandewater, VP of learning and development for Applebee’s, told the Wall Street Journal, “Food is easy to copy, a building is easy to copy.” And, judging from the proliferation of tabletop touchscreens, so is technology.
Vandewater notes, however, “…it’s not easy to copy our people.” Even as fast-casual chains invest in high-tech solutions, they are re-training servers in the art of “situational selling” and table reading. Consumer research from twenty years ago is valid today: food service employees are still the most important marketing touchpoint.
Have you used a touchscreen at your restaurant table? Tell us about it in the comments.
Digital marketing is being freshly minted and recreated every day, via trends that start small, but spread quickly. So, Mint and Ripple.
People who don’t consider themselves to be tech-savvy are still affected by digital marketing whether they realize it or not. Have you played a game on your smartphone or tablet? Signed up for coupons via email? Visited a brand’s YouTube channel to figure how to build a bookshelf? Posted a gripe or a compliment about a product on Facebook? Bought something through a mobile app, while standing in front of the same product on a store shelf? If so, like millions of other Americans, you’re part of an ongoing evolution in the way that consumers interact with brands.
There are challenges and opportunities for both marketers and consumers. We have privacy concerns, technological limitations, and growing online ad clutter. On the other hand, we have consumers intensifying our marketing efforts because they seem to have a deeper connection with the brand. We see this with brands like Apple, Starbucks, Zappos, and Harley-Davidson. In the coming weeks we’ll explore these and other issues, so stay tuned. Actually, what I mean is: keep connected.
Mint Ripple 
