For brands, consistently generating interesting and engaging content can often be difficult. Recently, however, we have seen some creative marketing by brands on social media, but what are some of the best?

Disney takes on Twitter’s 140 characters

It’s well known that pictures often receive a better response than the standard text tweet or post. To capitalise on this and announce a special event, Disney took Twitter’s 140 character limit literally by assembling 140 of its characters to be photographed in the shape of a hashtag. This simple, creative content was received well by followers, gaining over 2,000 retweets and numerous enthusiastic interactions.

#ThrowBackThursday

How many times have you ‘liked’ a friend’s #tbt post of them in a rather embarrassing photo from when they were little? It’s not only individuals who can reminisce on social media, brands can share interesting content and look back at the company history or an interesting story. These build relationships between brands and consumers and keep them engaged.

Brand banter

Late last year, Jaffa Cakes, Yorkshire Tea, Tesco Mobile and Walkers Crisps decided to banter back and forth on Twitter, making hilarious reading for followers. The retweets and mentions would attract new followers and potentially new fans of the brands.

Consumer banter

And it’s not just bantering with brands that can attract new fans. Replying to tweets from consumers can show a lighter side of the company. A Sainsbury’s fan recently tweeted the supermarket: “I tried to buy some battered fish from @sainsburys but it didn’t have a bar cod!” In a witty response, Sainsbury’s said: “Were there no other packs in the plaice, or was that the sole one on the shelf? Floundering for an explanation!”

#FindFaith

There have been a number of feel-good posts and campaigns from big brands following consumer interactions. One such campaign that took over our newsfeeds and timelines was #FindFaith. Five year-old Faith sent a letter to John Lewis after she accidentally broke a Christmas bauble in-store. She apologised for the accident and enclosed £2 to cover the cost. This prompted a campaign from John Lewis to find the little girl and reward her honestly with a gift from the store.

These are just a few examples of successful interactions and interesting content that can help boost engagement on social media. Reflecting your brand, even on social media, is important. With some planned and reactive campaigns, your brand can boost fans and followers and, in turn, attract new customers.

Image: disneyparks.disney.go.com

There seems to be more start-up businesses than ever before and start-up accelerators are giving many of them the help they need to grow.

Even Disney is getting in on the action! The Disney Accelerator, run in conjunction with Techstars, will give a unique opportunity to businesses in Los Angeles to receive funding and mentoring from Disney and its subsidiaries, including Pixar, Marvel, ESPN, Lucasfilm and Walt Disney Imagineering.

Kevin Mayer, Disney’s executive vice president for corporate strategy and business development, said the Disney Accelerator “offers a unique collaboration between some of the best creative minds in the entertainment industry and the modern-day visionaries who are starting businesses on the strength of exciting new ideas.”

The accelerator will not only give start-ups the support they need but they will give Disney greater insight into innovation and creativity.

Each accelerator has advantages and disadvantages – the Disney Accelerator lasts for just three months and Disney and Techstars take 6% equity in each business in return for funding and mentoring. For this reason, and to gain the most from the experience, it is important to find the best suited accelerator for your business.

In the UK, there are just as many to choose from. Seedcamp, Springboard and Oxygen Accelerator are popular ones – and, of course, there’s Entrepreneurial Spark, which we’ve been lucky enough to be supported by and which doesn’t take equity.

Many of these include boot camp-style training programmes to prepare entrepreneurs for business life and help them develop skills such as pitching. The chance to work with fellow entrepreneurs can also bring new contacts and opportunities that otherwise would have been missed.

The number of accelerators giving valuable experience, contacts, training and inspiration is continuing to grow – could it help your business?

Image: startups.co.uk

Nathalie contributed an article to Econsultancy this week rounding up Valentine’s Day stunts.

The full piece can be read here

With so many exciting start-ups trying to get off the ground, many entrepreneurs look to crowdfunding platforms to help realise the potential of their businesses.

There are some great examples of successful crowdfunded products and services. The 3Doodler tapped in to the growing popularity of 3D printing by producing a 3D pen, making it possible to draw and write 3D objects and lettering; creating one-off art pieces. After setting an original target of $30,000, 3Doodler raised an incredible $2.3 million, making it one of the most popular Kickstarter campaigns.

Investor rewards offer a great incentive and a little ‘thank you’ to contributors. Varying in price, these rewards alone can attract media coverage to help get your product into the spotlight and gain media coverage.

Fauna & Flora International set out to raise money to help save the mountain gorilla and enlisted Sir David Attenborough to help promote the cause via indiegogo.com. The wildlife broadcaster provided them with signed merchandise to act as investor rewards.

Craft beer subscription service Beer52.com reached its target ahead of schedule by offering some great rewards including free beer for life and the opportunity to brew your own beer with your name on it for a £100,000 donation. The exciting reward was featured in the likes of The Daily Telegraph, The Herald and Huffington Post – welcome additional coverage for the start-up.

The pitch video for your campaign can be central to gaining the interest of potential investors and lets you tell them why you are passionate about making the project a reality. Short, informative videos that tell the story of the product or service and what problem it is solving are best. Take a look at the video for peanut butter company Good Spread (https://bit.ly/1bOU6Wi), for example. Its video is engaging, interesting and funny and details what the team need the money for and how it’s giving back by donating the product to children suffering from malnutrition.

PR campaigns prior to launching on a crowdfunding website is another consideration. Engaging an audience of potential investors before the launch can make the difference between struggling to reach your goal and smashing your target. Social media campaigns focussed on sharing interesting and engaging content can help boost ‘likes’ and followers; facilitating conversations between entrepreneur and investors. Getting your product and details of its crowdfunding launch into media can propel the start-up into the spotlight – targeting influential bloggers, crowdfunding websites read by people keen to invest as well as national and regional press and lifestyle magazines, for example, can only help extend your reach.

Crowdfunding offers an exciting prospect to budding entrepreneurs – the opportunity to realise the potential of the business and propel it into the spotlight. Communicate clearly what your product aims to do, why you need funding and what you will deliver to fully engage the audience with the project.

Image: www.theverge.com

Ten years ago today, thefacebook.com, as it was then known, started its journey to becoming one of the biggest social networks in the world. Today, Facebook has grown to have 1.23 billion active monthly users, 945,000,000 mobile users and 50,000,000 pages, according to The Drum (https://bit.ly/1aoklas).

Facebook, and other social media channels, have become major parts of marketing campaigns for brands across the globe – and today’s savvy consumer expects a social media presence to stay connected to their favourite brands.

When asked why they are fans of a brand on Facebook, 49% of consumers said it was to support the brand they like and 41% said it was to receive updates from them (https://on.mash.to/1fLkWCx). With Facebook, brands have a unique opportunity to build a connection with consumers, so how can they continue this connection in the next ten years of the social network?

Facebook’s focus on mobile has seen an increase in the number of brands choosing mobile advertising over the desktop equivalent. Tailoring advertising to cater for this and ensuring brand websites are mobile optimised will only enhance the experience.

Choosing appropriate images and copy for Facebook advertising is also important. These should be in-line with the brand message and promote something interesting – badly thought-out posts will just waste time and money.

Facebook Paper is the latest addition to the social network. iTunes’ description of Paper says: “Explore and share stories from friends and the world in immersive designs and fullscreen, distraction-free layouts. Paper includes your Facebook News Feed and sections about your favourite topics.”

The app seems to be an early hit since its release on the 3^rd of February. Stories, photos and videos from Facebook newsfeeds are pulled into a customisable grid and users can also read content from partner publications. Could the app make the original Facebook app redundant?

In whatever format, Facebook will continue to innovate in the future. No doubt, in months or years to come, Facebook will be able to target advertising even further, connecting with people in time for wedding anniversaries, when it’s sunny outside or before they go on holiday, for example. It has also been said that the increased use of smart TVs will soon be linked to your other devices, meaning that what you have ‘liked’, shared or clicked will influence the adverts you see on your TV.

With these developments come new opportunities for brands to reach consumers – what will your brand do?

Image: theguardian.com

Creative PR and marketing agency, Muckle Media, has been nominated for Small Agency of the Year at this year’s PRmoment.com Golden Hedgehog Awards.

The national awards, which take place in Manchester on the 13th March, celebrate excellence and recognise and reward outstanding campaigns and exceptional talent in the PR and communications industry in two regions across the UK – North of England, Northern Ireland and Scotland and Midlands, Wales and South of England.

After an incredibly successful 2013, which saw client wins and awards, including CIPR Pride Award for Outstanding Small Consultancy of the Year, Muckle Media is the only Scottish agency nominated in this category and is up against some tough competition.

Nathalie Agnew, director of Muckle Media said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been nominated for this prestigious award. We had a great year in 2013 and this has been a fantastic way to start 2014.

“There are some great campaigns from both in-house communications teams and agencies nominated including campaigns from Wood Group, Citypress & Bank of Scotland, Prostate Cancer UK and Manchester Airports Group. We are really looking forward to the awards and hope that the rest of 2014 is just as successful for us!”

With more people deciding to take the plunge and launch their own business, it’s important that it stands out among the competition. When you are ready to let the world know about your start-up, PR stunts can help propel you into the spotlight.

Even with limited budget there are a number of ways to draw attention to your brand. It is important, however, that everything reflects the identity and values of your brand.

For example, remember Red Bull Stratos and Felix Baumgartner’s freefall from 24 miles above the earth? Of course, Red Bull invested large amounts of money and time into the project but it fitted perfectly with Red Bull’s image and tagline – ‘Red Bull gives you wings’. Before it had become popular and profitable, Red Bull could have promoted how its drinks make anything possible with any kind of extreme sport, without the massive budget. Red Bull’s campaigns work as they are in-line with its brand values and messages.

Creating a successful PR stunt can take some creativity and often, it’s the most bizarre that stand out. Sweemo, a website that lists activities for consumers to bid for, offered users the chance to whack its CEO in the face with a salmon! The campaign received a large amount of coverage and around 200,000 views of the salmon slapping on YouTube!

Depending on the type of business, simple ideas like renaming job titles can be successful – Chief Executive Officer could become Chief Entertainment Officer for example to show a more light-hearted side to a business. Or if that’s not enough, you could follow the lead of airline, Lufthansa. It held a competition for anyone named Klaus-Heidi to win German lessons, a one-way ticket to Berlin, and a year’s rent for an apartment there to promote its Stockholm to Berlin flights. A number of people legally changed their name to Klaus-Heidi to be in with the chance of winning and the campaign received large amounts of coverage in its aim to lure young travellers from budget airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.

For fledgling businesses, teaming up with better-established organisations or media outlets can help boost your reach too. Pitching exclusive partnerships to media for competitions or informative guides for example, can help you reach new audiences and form relationships with journalists.

With the help of a little creativity, there can be endless ways for new businesses to attract attention. Ensure any stunts relate to the business and match its brand and values. Most of all think about what would make journalists want to write about the stunt and your business. Your stunt needs to be unusual and interesting, and to capitilise, it should tie in with other aspects of your launch such as social media or future events you might have planned.

With the help of simple yet creative ideas, start-ups can attract the attention they need to get the business off the ground. Whether you use simple techniques or big campaigns, PR stunts are a great way to grab media attention and attract consumers to your brand.

The technology start-ups making us sit up and listen

With CES recently taking place in Las Vegas, it seems 2014 could be the year of new technology. As well as numerous developments in wearable tech, highlights of CES came in the form of Toyota’s hydrogen powered car prototype, Samsung’s ultra-high-definition curved TV, a newly developed anti-microbial glass by Corning and the PrioVR game controller suit. However, these incredible advances are being challenged by some equally incredible start-up businesses.

Quorate Technology

Founded in 2012, having been developed by researchers from the Centre of Speech Technology Research at Edinburgh University, Quorate Technology produces software to make audio searchable using technology that converts speech into text.

Quorate Technology’s co-founder Nick Rankin describes how important the software will be for police, defence, aerospace, troops on patrol and air traffic control: “Our system automatically generates a transcript of what has been said in a conversation and makes the audio searchable by key words. So for example, we can automatically generate the transcript of a police interview and so if you wanted to find out the bit in the interview that talked about a white shirt, say, you can type in white shirt and find all the chunks in the conversation where it was mentioned.”

Moment.Us

Moment.Us is a music app that was founded in Manchester in 2013. The app establishes your location, your mood, the weather, and a number of other factors, and picks songs to suit from 25 million tracks. By skipping or favouriting songs, the app learns your listening behaviour and adapts to your tastes.

Brewbot

Belfast has also come into its own for start-ups in recent years. Its harbour, formally known as Queen’s Island, has been regenerated as the Titanic Quarter and is now home to the Northern Ireland Science Park where 110 companies including many innovative start-ups are based.

One of these companies is Brewbot – a robot that brews beer! The brewer connects to the machine via the Brewbot mobile app, chooses or creates a recipe, starts the machine and adds the ingredients when prompted. The project was launched on crowdfunding website Kickstarter and exceeded its target, achieving funding of over £114,000.

Taggled

Fashion-focussed video tagging platform Taggled was created by Ian Scott who was inspired by the complaints of his friend who had searched unsuccessfully for a jacket he’d seen on TV.

Taggled’s community manager Catherine Morris says: “Video bloggers or brands coming to our platform can tag the content very easily through drag-and-drop.  Then, whether on a blog or social network, they can access the info by clicking on the tag. If the viewer clicks through to a retail site and buys the product, we get a commission from the retailer and share the profit with the blogger.”
 

With so many exciting and innovative tech start-ups, and growing ways of funding them such as crowdfunding platforms, we can’t wait to see what impact they will have in 2014.

Image: startups.co.uk

It’s clear how important social media has become for brands wishing to reach consumers. In fact, the number of internet users on social media has jumped from 9% in 2005 to a massive 89% in 2013 according to masters-in-marketing.org (https://bit.ly/1a0RtTq).

With more and more social networking sites being used, it’s important for brands to utilise platforms that will help connect with its target audience. With countless brands competing for attention, how does your product or service stand out among the ever growing crowd?

The most popular social network continues to be Facebook, with 62% of internet users actively logging in. A report by IDC found that smartphone users login to Facebook an incredible 14 times a day (https://bit.ly/1cBdsAh).  51% of internet users are on Twitter, whereas 44% are on Google+. And there are the up-and-coming networks – Pinterest had the highest growth rate of 88% from Q2 2012 to Q2 2013, followed by blogging site Tumblr with 74%, also according to masters-in-marketing.org.

Most Facebook users access the site via smartphones so having your website optimised for mobile use is a good way to ensure browsers stay there longer. Building a community of loyal fans by posting relevant content, links to blog posts and appealing imagery is important and sponsored ads can help boost your reach to their friends.

Got the hang of Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Tumblr? Then you could expand to the newer social networking sites Snapchat, Vine, Instagram or WhatsApp. These are popular with teenagers, so if your target market is the younger generation, these could be useful tools. In October 2013, photo messaging app Snapchat was handling 350 million posts per day, steadily making its way towards the likes of Twitter which was handling 500 million per day.

Vine has also been making its way up the ranks. Brands can create interesting videos of product teasers or showcases which can then be shared on other social media platforms.

Easily accessible social media platforms can provide your brand with great opportunities for exposure and ensuring your brand is present across a number of platforms, as well as delivering engaging and relevant content, will increase the chances of being seen by potential customers.

Image: www.thedrum.com