We moved! It was excruciatingly difficult to say goodbye to Wendy, Collin, Liz, and the rest of our friends at Atlanta Intown Paper - but alas, it was inevitable. Thankfully, we have many friends working on advertising here in Atlanta! Since our launch, we have been talking to a cool group of marketers from a downtown shop called HotHouse (whatever you do, do NOT go to HotHouse.com – consider that your one warning).
We needed some space, they needed some new media brain-power so viola! We setup shop as of 5/17…
The HotHouse space is quite sexy if we do say so ourselves… Great location right in the heart of the Fairlie-Poplar historic district includes walkability to local spots like Slice, Sidebar, Tin Drum, and Rosa’s (the best pizza in ATL). Not to mention we may shed our single-passenger automobiles in exchange for stellar access to MARTA (stay tuned). Inside houses a loft-style feel with tall-windowed offices, roomy cubes, and 100% more natural sunlight than our former windowless digs. Oh, and there is a shower in the men’s room…
All quirky comments aside, we are truly excited about this new move. It will provide us with a more vibrant working atmosphere and the opportunity to collaborate with one of the most talented and fun shops in Atlanta. If you want to come check it out, shoot us an e-mail… We are dying for an excuse to reserve the conference room so we can use the flat panel monitor!
Cheers!-Kevin Planovsky
@kplanovsky
As Winter comes to a close and Spring approaches, it is not all too soon to begin thinking about Spring cleaning. Here at Vert, we jumped the gun and partnered with one of the cleanest companies in North America (literally). Established in 1979, Maid Brigade remains at the forefront of the house cleaning industry, commanding a healthy and growing market share every year since its inception. Maid Brigade’s customers include busy professionals, married with children, young singles, and empty-nesters. The sweet spot of these customers fall between the ages of 35-54, which just happens to be the fastest growing segment on Facebook. With the growth of established social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, Maid Brigade saw the opportunity to use social media to spread the word about their maid services focused on green cleaning and the health of its customers.
According to Cloud Conrad, Maid Brigade’s VP of Brand Strategies, “the goal with social media has been to find and engage our audience in new ways, use the medium to reinforce our leadership and expertise with green cleaning and to implement our strategies so as to best our competitors. We started putting the basics in place but soon realized we didn’t want to invest any significant resources (human or financial) without the guidance of experts since achieving our goals means we can’t afford to get it right the second time.”
Maid Brigade tapped Vert in January 2010 to provide a complete refresh of their Facebook presence as well as develop the overall social strategy for the business.
Several elements were added to the Facebook Fan Page including:
- Ability to request a free home cleaning estimate
- Embedded “Green TV” video module
- Shareable “Customer of the Month” testimonial
Vert was also able to recover the @MaidBrigade Twitter handle due to Trademark infringement by a “social squatter” and will be incorporating the micro-blog into the overall 2010 strategic social communications plan later this year. To continue driving fan growth, boosting engagement, and generating estimate inquiries on Facebook, Maid Brigade & Vert will also leverage hyper-targeted Facebook media during the first quarter of this year.
For more information visit http://www.facebook.com/MaidBrigade or http://www.maidbrigade.com.
- ML
You are reading our blog. Why? Because you know someone at Vert? Maybe you work in the digital marketing space, perhaps even here in Atlanta? Or maybe you just ran across one of our random, pithy and/or insightful comments across many of the other media properties across the web and decided to see what else we could crank out. Point being, right now you are consuming micro-media.
This isn’t micro-media because we are a smaller, startup agency or because we work in the mobile space – it’s micro because it is such a defined, niche piece of content for a defined niche audience. Congratulations, you are a very important part of our micro-audience!
I’ll give you another example… Recently Bravo (and several other media companies) struck a deal with FourSquare, the mobile + social media augmented reality game. When the news broke my gut reaction was ‘Why the hell would Bravo throw away good marketing dollars on such a small, new and unproven channel?’… Truth is – they are genius! (I think.) They did not strike the @FourSquare deal for mass notoriety (although the PR coverage is a perk) – Bravo created a partnership that speaks volumes to a very niche audience. A younger, tech-savvy, and urban audience that resonates perfectly with its media content and business plan. Brilliant!
Barriers, strongholds, and fortresses built by the Czars of old “macro-media” are being torn down everyday. New, vibrant villages of crowd-sourced connections built on creative technology solutions are taking their place – essentially leveling the playing field. The days of massive marketers shelling out millions to reach massive audiences are quickly fading. The good news is the massive marketers are still spending millions (or will be again soon…) – except now it is being fragmented and optimized down through many specific channels.
It is a very exciting time to be in the media and communications space… well, unless you are Rupert Murdoch. Here’s to the future of micro-media, and the hundreds of entrepreneurs, startups, and innovators that will power us into a new era of communications, media, and advertising.
- Kevin Planovsky
@kplanovsky
On Friday September 25, 2009 Vert attended the New Media Atlanta conference held in Atlanta, Georgia. The New Media Atlanta conference focused on social media opportunities for businesses. Vert sponsored the event, building a mobile event hub that participants could use to access updated schedules, speaker and sponsor info and even a live twitter feed.
Overall the event was very successful with a wide range of speakers presenting about their expertise. During these presentations, other than social media, Facebook and Twitter, one theme proliferated itself throughout the conference, Backnoise. Backnoise is a simple online tool that streams live anonymous tweets about a particular #hashtag. As guessed, with a few hundred social media professionals in the room that love tweeting, Backnoise quickly became the most popular topic of the day.
Jeff Turner led the speakers with a powerful presentation, which he noted was changed only a few moments before he walked on stage due to the conversations on Backnoise that morning. He focused his presentation on listening and how important it was to social media. That idea is why he chose to restructure his presentation on the fly that morning, because he was listening to the audience and they were effectively choosing what he spoke about.
Later in the day Seth Miller and Mike Mullineaux, from Turner Broadcasting System and Nokia Network respectively, both gave very interesting presentations covering how each of their companies were using and influencing social media. It was very interesting to see such a large traditional media company like TBS using strong social media tactics, like twitter to better their brand. Seth mentioned many times that Twitter was a great place to get instant feedback about a show on TBS. Mike took a more network approach and spoke about how Nokia networks was preparing tomorrow’s world to be a social one…even if there were no computers. Nokia Networks is already hard at work building devices and infrastructure that will support a “Service-centered Social Network of One.” They look to provide carriers with the ability to serve customers a socially enhanced experience on their mobile device that’s fast and personalized.
The culmination of the day and true highlight speaker was Chris Brogan. Chris, being the final speaker, got a lengthy chance to follow the audience’s thoughts on Backnoise. A number of the comments coming across Backnoise were creative, interesting and useful, and others…many others, were not quite as constructive. Chris stepped on stage, lead his presentation with lyrics from Jay-Z, and then said you have to face your fears head on. He then proceeded to load up the live Backnoise feed on the projector screen behind him and use that as his presentation background rather than any slides. This obliviously provided some interesting conversation between Chris and the anonymous audience. As impressive and interesting the back and forth between Chris and the Backnoise crowd was, he also presented some of the most noteworthy ideas all day. Below is a short list of ideas Vert took away from Chris’s presentation:
- The 5 words that describe how businesses should use social media are:
o Listen
o Ask
o Reciprocate
o Comment
o Comment Back
- How outrageous can you be when using social media? Be a creative and professional innovator and it will pay off.
- Keep your blog posts brief…people might actually read them. Additionally, when blogging make sure you’re self-aware not self-absorbed.
- Be patient with social media. Focus your efforts on quality not quantity. 1,000 followers that listen to you are much more important than 100,000 that do not.
When you are in the business of marketing and communications through mobile and social platforms, Apple is your best friend. Steve Jobs and his gaggle of geniuses have perfected the art of simplifying the complex. Which is why we have them to thank for the enormous market adoption of so many advanced technologies in the wider market. Here is a quick recap of yesterday’s recent works of magic, and how they will affect the worlds of social and mobile media marketing:
iPod Nanos that shoot video!?
While the ipod is best known for revolutionizing the music industry (along with a little help from iTunes), it just might be the next big player in digital pictures and video too… Everything has a camera these days – which is going to continue to revolutionize the way we view, experience and perceive the world. It is constantly getting smaller. Not to mention the new FM tuner you can pause in live stream (think TiVo for radio) – tell me that isn’t going to skew some Neilsen radio advertising figures… bottom line being that all media is now a product of the user, not of the producer – get used to it…
iTunes 9 + Social Media
Who knew that once what was primarily known as your regular run-of-the-mill desktop MP3 player would become one of the most robust tools enabling a generation to collaborate in the new spheres of social and mobile media. Honestly, iTunes is iTunes – but this latest iteration just makes your digital life that much easier by adding social sharing features for Facebook and Twitter as well as a more feature-rich interface for managing your media and apps on iPhones and iPod touches. All in all, nothing too earth-shattering, but a universal step in the right direction from Apple on all fronts in their commitment to making things seamless…
iPhone 3.1 Upgrades
Is it just me or does it only seem like a few days ago that we just upgraded to 3.0?!?? Alas, iPhone/iPod Touch OS 3.1 is up and running with a few new features that make us at Vert quite giddy. Ok, really just two that we are jumping in delight for. First and foremost is the new MMS capability – which means no more ridiculous external browser-based image downloading sites, now you can share digital media right in the chat feed. Second are the basic but continued improvements in the Safari browser.
Both of these upgrades are much needed as we move toward a more “open source” mobile web experience relying heavily on standards and universal device capabilities. We here at Vert firmly believe in the longevity of text messaging as an efficient messaging platform as well as the importance of fast, usable and stable mobile browsers to ensure a vibrant and rich ecosystem that thrives on digital media, communications, and networking anytime, anywhere…
So as you can see, Vert has every reason to love the heck out of Apple… and we don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. If you share in our pro-social & pro-mobile Apple sentiments let us know your thoughts in the comments below or by responding to us on Twitter (@vertmobile) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/vertmobile).
Cheers!
-Kevin (@kplanovsky)
Freshens contacted Vert wanting to learn more about social media and how it could help their yogurt and smoothie business, and what we gave them is a world-class strategy, kicking off the start of the new school year on Facebook.
The college market is an integral target for the Freshens brand given their presence on-campus at roughly 400 schools nationwide, making Facebook the perfect place to start. The test campaign Vert put together, which kicked off this past Monday, August 24th, leverages highly-targeted Facebook ads (customized per school) driving to a fully-branded and shareable new fan page redesign.
“Freshens understands the increasing importance of focusing our marketing efforts at the various and evolving forms of social media. We have challenged the Vert Team to create innovative strategies for building brand loyalty and sales while keeping Freshens on the leading edge of this medium,” says Ed Redmond, Freshens Senior Vice President. Freshens already had a fan page presence, so it was up to Vert to outfit it with custom branded elements to boost engagement and ultimately drive fan adoption. Two main elements were added: Smoothie & Yogurt of the Month sidebar callouts highlighting a specific menu items that drive to their respective Smoothie & Yogurt Menu Tabs that include the full listing of Freshens products.
The shareable menu allows fans and users of the Freshens fan page to post the menu to their profile. This ultimately shows up in the news-feed of all of their Facebook friends, alerting them of their love of smoothies & yogurt!
Ultimately Freshens wanted a Facebook presence that blew away the competition, and by the looks of it – we delivered. In addition, the test campaign is assessing the value of highly targeted Facebook ads with campus-specific messaging to some of the top schools in the Freshens network. “With this two-pronged strategy we hope to grow and activate the Freshens fanbase quickly by leveraging high targetebility, and opt-in marketing tactics”, says Vert Principal Kevin Planovsky. Be sure to check it out for yourself and become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/freshens!
-The Vert Team
I think it is safe to say that the last 15 days have been by far the most active and interesting in the world of social media – at least since Iran took it over a few weeks ago… We have seen redesigns, major outages and digital attacks, buyouts, and proposed new upgrades. While many of the industry dailies, weeklies and even big shots like CNN & FOX have been covering this stuff – here is a nice little snapshot to boil it all down from a marketer’s perspective:
- Twitter Homepage Redesign (7/28):
Twitter officially revamped its homepage to focus on what it is known for – search. It appears they have finally realized that they own what is happening NOW on the web, the next step is finding a way to turn that into a viable monetization strategy. The rest of the site’s pages still retain the original design (which doesn’t quite match) – but I am sure that will change soon as well. Ultimately, they just need to buy HootSuite (@HootSuite) and be done with it, IMO.
- Google Launches Facebook Page (7/31): This is HUGE! This is like Zeus coming to Cupid for dating advice… the crowned king of Web 2.0 bows down and sets up a fan page on the Prince’s social network. Aside from the fun analogies – their fan page and newsfeed are quite interesting and keep you up to date with the inner-workings of Google on a daily basis.
- Attacks on Social Media (8/6-8/10): If this is the first time hearing about the massive attack and outage that Twitter, Facebook and LiveJournal experienced last week, please keep your day job. The attack allegedly originated overseas as an attempt to take down a Georgian blogger’s website and supposedly spilled over onto his social media accounts and subsequently shut the whole thing down for hours with after-effects still being felt. This speaks volumes to the inter-connectivity of all these sites and the security and integrity concerns it poses… I predict this will not be the last time something like this happens…
- New Facebook Policies & TOS: Over the last couple weeks Facebook has been cracking down – With the uber-success of the new fan pages, they are doing their best to find ways to be a place for all brands, but not cannibalize their own potential revenue streams. If you manage ay branded pages make sure you do not manage multiple ad campaigns from one personal account, do not run contests without Facebook approval, and no sponsored status updates – you have to earn your endorsements the old fashioned way…
- FaceFeed – The Acquisition (8/10):
Earlier this week Facebook nabbed up the more Twitter-like FriendFeed for an estimated $50 Million in cash and stock. Founders of FriendFeed said that discussions had been going on since they launched, but it took over 2 years to get the nice pay-day. Meanwhile FriendFeed users are a bit peeved, concerned that their social network of choice will simply be absorbed into Facebook, which is likely. Either way, this is a testament to the sheer influence and competition in the social space – it’s not going anywhere, get used to it.
- New Facebook Tools and Plans: In addition to the policy updates, Facebook has launched (or teased about launching) a number of new platform features. As of late, developers can now tap into the Open Stream API which enables developers to pull out their status updates in real time (very Twitterish) as well as the Inbox API with which you can pull messages out from your fB mailbox (albeit one-way, so no outgoing spam blasts). There is also talk of a Live Search product coming out soon, as well as the most recent news of the Facebook Lite testing going on as we speak. Again, very Twitterish…
- LinkedIn hits 45 Million Users (8/12): You think social media is just about friends, pictures, videos and FarmVille? Guess again – Linked in just hit 45,000,000 users. That combined with their recent self-serve advertising and polling features makes this a gigantic, yet still niche platform. Look for much more opportunity coming from these guys soon…
The fact of the matter is that this is a testament to the modern world of digital media… We always tell our clients – if we give you this presentation again in 30-days it is likely going to be completely different! Social media changes by-the-minute and if you aren’t investing some time or money into it at this point – you are going to spend a lot more of both in the coming months or years trying to catch-up. Hopefully, this post took care of the last 15-days – the next 15 are up to you.
Cheers!
-Kevin Planovsky
twitter.com/kplanovsky
facebook.com/kplanovsky
Next time someone asks you why everyone is freaking out over social media – don’t tell them about the Iran crisis, clue them in on The Hangover…the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time. How did they achieve this feat? I would argue that social media (particularly the Facebook platform) had a little something to do with it. As you can see in the numbers below, the beginning of June started off typical with a little over 1,000 fan interactions per post, and ultimately sky-rocketed to over 40,000 fan interactions in a matter of 15 days! If that isn’t ROI, I don’t know what is…
This explosive growth can be directly attributed to two things: 1) The enormous media budget this movie had behind it, and 2) The exponential networking power of social media – specifically Facebook’s news feed. I guarantee you people were not seeing TV commercials for this movie and then rushing to their computers to hurry up and become fans of this movie… no, it was much more organic than that…
These fans (now approaching 2 million) were prompted by their friends, co-workers, family members, neighbors, and old high school friends. The Facebook Fan page for The Hangover did right what over fan pages do wrong – they enabled users to post their actions to their news feed… subsequently alerting their entire network of their actions. It is safe to argue that with this tactic alone The Hangover probably received well over 10,000,000 “free” digital impressions (or $10-20k in free digital media @ $1-2 CPMs) – and that is a safe guesstimate…
The moral of the story: Anyone can make a fan page – but is your brand man enough to leave the power of exponential sharing and growth in the hands of your humble fans? Only you can answer that…
-Kevin Planovsky
Approximately 4 out of 5 African American men suffer from razor burn or bumps after shaving (otherwise known as pseudofolliculitis barbae). Bump Patrol provides a shave system complete with gels and aftershave treatments to heal and prevent these razor bumps and burn. When the team at M&M Products approached us about social media, we knew we had a great fit. Not only is Bump Patrol a perfect match for social media with their target audience of males, 21-35 – but the problem their product solves is one that needs to be shared. Bump Patrol’s product lineup, combined with shaving industry best-practices and education are what this social media program is all about – when you are equipped with both, you can be as smooth as you want…
Along with Bump Patrol’s marketing team, Vert partnered with The Visualab, who assisted with the graphic design and photography. The Bump Patrol Twitter presence has been outfitted with the look and feel of the brand – clean, smooth, and confident. Similarly, tweets from Bump Patrol are full of tips, news, and ideas on how to stay informed and get the closest and smoothest shave possible. Some of our favorite followers include: @ShaveReview, @ComplexMag, and @MasterBarberWms.
Facebook is the cornerstone of the campaign, serving both as a forum for interaction as well as a medium to reach out and find new fans and customers. Vert built a branded Facebook fan page effectively educating visitors and fans, while also giving them the ability to share and interact.
To bolster fan adoption and early growth – Vert created the “Shave Kit Contest” to incentivize Facebook users to become a fan on Bump Patrol and learn more about the products. In addition, Vert provided daily monitoring, posts, and fan interaction for the page – effectively boosting engagement and brand impact. A highly targeted Facebook display media campaign accompanied the page, focused on finding brand advocates and existing customers and users of Bump Patrol products. Future plans will work to leverage this initial fan base to effectively grow brand awareness of Bump Patrol nationwide.
For more information on the Bump Patrol social media campaign, Vert Mobile, or any of our partners – please email agency@vertmob.com.
-Kevin Planovsky
Mike and I just got done moving into our new offices in the Inman Alley loft complex in Inman Park, just east of downtown… We are sharing some space with Atlanta INtown Paper and will be partnering on a number of new projects with them moving forward – be on the lookout! For now, here are some snazzy shots of our space:
Cheers!
-Kevin
