New ‘free, hopeful’ Twitter logo takes flight

by Marketing ON 7 June 2012

After six years the old bird has been given the sack and a new bird is set to take flight, from today. Twitter has announced a redesigned logo, introducing a new, more dynamic depiction of its famous bird logo, designed to be the embodiment of “freedom, hope and limitless possibility”.

Announcing the new logo on its blog, Twitter writes that the bird was chosen not just because it makes a tweeting sound, “Whether soaring high above the earth to take in a broad view, or flocking with other birds to achieve a common purpose, a bird in flight is the ultimate representation of freedom, hope and limitless possibility.”

The Twitter logo has become so universally associated with the social network that the need for text, bubbled typefaces, or a lowercase “t” to represent the brand is no longer required, Twitter says.

Elaborating on the design, the blog post adds, “Our new bird grows out of love for ornithology, design within creative constraints and simple geometry. This bird is crafted purely from three sets of overlapping circles — similar to how your networks, interests and ideas connect and intersect with peers and friends.”

Twitter has a brand resource page where users can find out more about the new trademark, guidelines and new image downloads.

TV vs Social Media stats for Hey Hey

by Marketing ON 1 October 2009

The battle between channel nine’s Hey Hey It’s Saturday reunion and Ten’s Celebrity MasterChef attracted a dual analysis: ratings and ‘twatings’.

OzTam recorded a significant audience nearing 2.2 million tuning in to the Hey Hey reunion, while Celebrity MasterChef attracted just shy of 1.4 million. The Twitter analysis reveals an even greater disparity.

Conducted by Dialogix, the company claims there were 22,000 “Hey Hey It’s Saturday” and hashtagged #HeyHey tweets during the show’s airtime. The conversation peaked at 7,000 tweets per hour, juxtaposed with MasterChef’s 1,600. This pushed Hey Hey to Twitter’s number one trending topic.

“Traditional TV ratings give you the number of people who watched a program, but if you measure people who spoke about a show on Twitter you get a better analysis of who actually engaged with the show,” said Matt Granfield, Dialogix director. “The show had more than 200,000 Facebook fans on the day it went to air
and messages were posted on that network alerting people to the fact
that host Daryl Somers had just joined Twitter. Within 24 hours Daryl
had 1,383 followers.”

Punters suggest Vegefail

by Marketing ON 28 September 2009

The unveiling of the new Vegemite’s name almost eclipsed the AFL Grand Final over the weekend and polarised Australians.

Kraft launched a campaign calling for Australians to name their new product, which received more than 40,000 entries. The winner, ‘iSnack 2.0’, was chosen, it has been claimed, to align the new product with a younger market and tap into the credentials of Apple’s iPod. The move aligns historically with the brand, as the original spread was named through a public contest held in the 1920s.

Dean Robbins, a West Australian web designer, won the contest, saying:

Its been difficult to contain my excitement; I actually leapt out of my chair when I heard the news. To think that I could go down in Australias history is overwhelming.

The online backlash was overwhelming, with #Vegefail rising to one of the most discussed topics worldwide on Twitter. One popular retweet mocked the name’s incohesiveness with Australian national culture:

“I said do you speak-a my language?/She just smiled and gave me an iSnack 2.0 sandwich”.

Academics have also joined the dissent.

“The name doesn’t actually capture the new product or say anything particularly meaningful about it,” said, RMIT professor of marketing, Con Stavros. “Putting an ‘i’ in front of a word is somewhat unoriginal, while adding ‘2.0’ is possibly confusing.”

“Credit should go to Kraft for generating such a high level of interest in their new product. But considering they apparently had tens of thousands of suggestions for a name for this new type of Vegemite, I’m surprised this is the one idea that came out on top,” continued Stavros.

Tweeting good for brands

by Marketing ON 17 September 2009

A Pennsylvania State University research team has released data suggesting that one in five tweets are effectively free brand advertising.

According to Jim Jansen, associate professor of information science and technology in the College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST), people are using tweets to express their reaction, both positive and negative, as they engage with these products and services.

Jansen, along with IST doctoral student Mimi Zhang, undergraduate student Kate Sobel and Twitter chief scientist Abdur Chowdhury, investigated micro-communicating as an electronic word-of-mouth medium, using Twitter as the platform.

The researchers examined half a million tweets during the study, looking for tweets mentioning a brand and why the brand was mentioned. The study found that people were using tweets to connect with products.

Results from the study found that many users employ Twitter to inquire about product information. Approximately 20% of the tweets contained product information in the
form of asking and providing, thus giving companies a rich source of
information concerning issues and questions that customers have
regarding their products.

There is a trend when it comes to micro-communication and what it is used for, according to Jansen:

“Businesses use micro-communication for brand awareness, brand knowledge and customer relationship, Personal use is all over the board.”

Even though Twitter is still in its early stages of adoption, Jansen stressed that it’s likely to be around for a while. This is mainly because people and businesses are starting to make profits from it, using it as a creative way to market their products.

“A lot of the brand comments were positive. There are some good products out there, or at least products that people are happy with,” exclaimed Jansen.

V Australia uses Twitter to push LA short trips

by Marketing ON 8 July 2009

V Australia has launched a campaign via Twitter with the promise of a flight for three people to Los Angeles to promote the city as Australia’s newest short-break destination.

The international airline of Virgin Blue has also indicated that if the three competition winners successfully send 4,320 tweets in 72 hours – one tweet per minute from the moment they land in LA to the moment they depart – they could set a Twittering World Record and win round-the-world tickets.

The campaign, created by Sydney agency Droga5 (which picked up a Silver Cyber Lion for its ‘Right Music Wrongs’ campaign starring Vanilla Ice), is primarily being conducted via its Twitter profile @4320LA.

A film crew will follow the winners, with their Twitter feeds, photos and video being made available to users to access throughout their trip.

V Australia maintains that the initiative marks the first time an Australian airline has positioned LA as a viable short-break.

Dell turns tweets into $3 million

by Marketing ON 16 June 2009

Since 2007 @DellOutlet, Dell’s Twitter presence, has generated USD $3 million in revenue for the PC giant.

Using the platform as a way of offering customers coupons, deals and refurbished products, Dell has generated USD $2 million revenue as a direct result of @DellOutlet activity. However, a further USD $1 million resulted from users visiting @DellOutlet and subsequently buying a new Dell system from elsewhere on the site.

Dell Twitter manager, Stefanie Nelson elaborated:

Deal-hunters are especially attracted to Dells Twitter presence. Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at great prices, but inventories fluctuate, making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale. Dell Outlet uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price.

Having maintained a Twitter presence for two years, at the time of writing @DellOutlet’s followers were nearing 650,000.

The announcement is of particular interest, as the platform, Twitter, describes its business model as still in the
esearch phase. Twitter co-founder Biz Stone has revealed the model will likely focus on generating revenue through add-on tools aimed at businesses. Traditional web advertising is unlikely to penetrate Twitter.

Despite the figures, the revenue is relatively small juxtaposed with Dell’s total revenue, USD $12.3 billion.

Charity auction for worlds highest Tweet

by Marketing ON 14 May 2009

First its American astronaut Mike Massimino posting the first Twitter message from space, now it’s a race to the world’s highest tweet.

A fundraising mission to the summit of Mount Everest is auctioning off the bragging rights for the world’s highest tweet to raise money for charity.

Mountaineer and philanthropist Gavin Bate, who is raising money for his charity Moving Mountains, has set up an eBay bidding page to auction off the chance to write the world’s highest tweet to be sent from 29,000 feet above sea level.

Using a satellite phone, Bate has been detailing his ascent to the Mount Everest summit on microblogging website.

The auction offers one tweet of the winner’s choice sent by Gavin Bate via satellite from the top of Mount Everest.

Bate is calling for marketers and PR firms to get involved in the bidding to promote their brands, with money raised going towards helping street children in Nepal and Kenya.

Vodafone signs UK free-tweet service with Twitter

by Marketing ON 30 March 2009

Micro-blogging site Twitter has signed a contract with Vodafone in the UK, to allow customers to send and receive tweets across the mobile phone network – the first commercial deal of its type in the UK between Twitter and a mobile phone network.

Receiving tweets on mobile phones had previously been restricted to North America, but now the service will mean that Vodafone UK customers will be able to receive SMS updates from Twitter free of charge, according to a report from UKs Media Week.

A Twitter spokesman has indicated sending tweets from mobiles will be part of customers’ normal text messaging bundle with the telco, with no extra fees attached.

The news comes as Twitter looks to cash in on its recent popularity and other companies look to exploits its popularity.

Microsoft and online marketing company Federated Media have recently launched ExecTweets, an online offering that allows users to monitor Twitter messages from business executives.

Magpie & Friends out for brands on Twitter

by Marketing ON 17 March 2009

Magpie & Friends has been launched intending to generate a conversation for brands within Twitter, the hot-topic micro-blogging site.

It says that it is currently Twitter’s largest growing ad network, with more than two-million reachable followers.

The company aims to enable brands to deliver controlled, relevant and targeted messages into this area and a recent performance report says Magpie & Friends average click-though rate sits at 9.95%.

Magpie & Friends also announced the introduction of its additional compensation models and will be introducing pay per click, pay per lead and pay per sale in addition to the pay per view model it has already been using.

“To be honest, we have been blown away by the uptake by tweeters. This growth has enabled us to introduce further compensation models that will provide additional options for our clients and greater earning opportunities for our tweeters,” explains co-founder, Jan Schulz-Hofen.

“Despite initial negative response to the pending launch of the company, these results clearly indicate that both tweeters and advertisers have been able to establish relationship that is proving to be mutually rewarding.”

More info: http://be-a-magpie.com/customer

TechTips: What is Twitter anyway, and why the hell should I give a damn?

by Marketing ON 16 May 2008

Tweets? A Twitterer? The Twitterverse?

WTF!?

It’s enough to confuse anyone, and considering how little time I have already, do I really need another way to communicate? Well, I guess that depends on what you want to say, and how you want to say it.

Twitter is often called a micro-blogging service, but that doesn’t really clarify anything for most people, so with the help of those talented paper manipulators over at Common Craft, I’ll try and make it easier for you.

I have a quick disclaimer though: @MarketingMag has a twitter feed, and has been using it already to send his loyal subscribers the latest information from the site. This seems to be working (NB names have been changed to protect the innocent):

barryyoung @MarketingMag I think that is fine Twitter practice. If people dont want to know about Marketing Mag articles, they need not follow!

bryntaylor @MarketingMag One of the reasons I follow you guys on twitter is so I can be updated with new site content, so I dont see it as spam!!

If you want to join the Twitterverse (!) and receive short messages (either to your mobile phone or to your online Twitter account) when new juicy content hits the site, head on over to Twitter, register, and then start following @MarketingMag.

I’ve also included a bunch of great Twitter links below to help you learn more about the service and how you can best use it as a marketer.

Enjoy, and I look forward to hearing from some of you in the Twitterverse soon.