Brief
Photogether, an online store for the serious and professional photographer, commissioned Purple Frog to develop an activity that would reach out to photographers encouraging regular visits to a social destination site. With less than 50% of photographers using Facebook either personally or as part of their business, the activity required 100% accessibility whether via Facebook or other routes.

Solution
Research revealed that professional and amateur photographers are high social content authors and contributors with a desire to showcase their creative and technical ability verging on a visual hedonism. Purple Frog developed the idea of an online competition with content upload functionality the centre of the entry process for users to demonstrate their most creative works of art. Once uploaded and visible within public galleries, other users can browse and vote for their favourite entries.

Creating a Facebook application that fully embraces the Facebook API for share functionality is standard fare for social activities. But using the application within Facebook and non Facebook environments simultaneously, stretches the boundaries well beyond ‘standard’.

Outcome
Win With Photogether was launched mid January as an application accessible via the Photogether website www.winwithphotogether.co.uk and on the Facebook page www.facebook.com/photogether

On Facebook the app breaks out of the standard three column grid, making use of the new canvas app introduced recently by the social network. Within 2 weeks, the competition has received over 300 entries adding over 100 new likes to the Photogether Facebook community, but more significantly is attracting a huge number of visitors through the website AND Facebook far exceeding original KPIs.

With every action within the application linked to Google Analytics, Purple Frog will be providing insight to user trends to Photogether, and advising on campaign and activity adjustment so that long term objectives are realised.

Purple Frog is delighted to announce that it has been commissioned to steer The Appointment Group and all its lines of business into a social media programme designed to improve online visibility and group awareness.

The social media activity will focus on giving voices to each of their communities and encourage the spread of content through extended networks. LinkedIn and Twitter will spearhead this initiative with each performing specific functions directing traffic to content and opening-up discussion. At the heart of the activity for one of the Group’s lines of business, Travel By Appointment, will be the introduction of online self-booking tools giving users the ability to reserve and book tickets from domestic and international flights to connecting transport all over the world.

Following the launch of the new website earlier this year, social media is the next stage in The Appointment Group’s 3-year growth strategy.

On 9th November after three months of planning, Purple Frog also took on the Tube Challenge, but this time with a difference. Using a combination of PR, email, social media, interactive apps and conventional marketing, Purple Frog embarked on achieving all 270 stations in 1 day for Sue Ryder Care, with the primary goal of generating exposure of the challenge and creating awareness for the charity. Unlike Marc’s glorious individual effort, Purple Frog used 10 teams to cover the entire network requiring to exit each station and photograph sponsored banners outside the stations as proof of visit. Throw in a couple of secret sponsor challenges per team and an inter-team cash bucket collecting competition and the challenge suddenly became a massive undertaking.

The whole day was recorded through photo uploads and Twitter feeds into The Tube Challenge Facebook app http://www.facebook.com/purplefroguk giving users, donators and sponsors the opportunity to see the progress of the challenge as it happened. We are delighted to announce that Purple Frog completed the challenge with a little time left over in the evening to enjoy a celebratory drink at the All Bar One in Leicester Square. All teams images can be viewed here

The total achieved through these fundraising efforts has already exceeded £7K, but this isn’t the end of the line. This Tube Challenge is Purple Frog’s main initiative for Sue Ryder’s annual Big Wigs Business Challenge where individuals and businesses look to raise as much money as possible within 4 months from a £50 start up pack. With over two months left to achieve the target of 15K, there are further activity and initiatives planned around the theme of ‘tube’.

To make a donation, please visit the Just Giving page at http://www.justgiving.com/purplefrog-tube-challenge

BigWigs Tube ChallengeNov 14, 2011Photos: 25	Team AcademiaNov 14, 2011Photos: 43	Team BDANov 14, 2011Photos: 33	Team Build.co.ukNov 14, 2011Photos: 62
Team EFMNov 14, 2011Photos: 38	Team gener8 financeNov 14, 2011Photos: 34	Team Motts TravelNov 14, 2011Photos: 19	Team Seymour ValentineNov 14, 2011Photos: 38
Team T King Associates LtdNov 14, 2011Photos: 46	Team WPPMNov 14, 2011Photos: 44	Team YuasaNov 14, 2011Photos: 21

The BDA have announced their support of the Purple Frog Tube Challenge to be held on 9th November in aid of Sue Ryder Nettlebed Hospice. Their sponsorship of one of the teams trying to visit 270 stations in 1 day neatly brings together modern day fundraising challenges and Victorian underground brick architecture.

During the day, 10 teams will travel through the entire London Underground network exiting each and every station to take photos of the entrance as proof of check in. The Brick Development Agency will also be setting a secret challenge for their team to complete during the day. Let’s all hope it isn’t to count how many bricks were used in the entire tunnel network!

To see the progress of the teams on the day visit the challenge page

The story of the London Underground began with Charles Pearson, the first in a succession of underground visionaries. It was he who first proposed the notion of ‘trains in drains’ in 1845, when the railway was a relatively new invention and his persistence helped persuade the House of Commons to approve a bill in 1853 to build a subterranean railway between Paddington and Farringdon. Excavation began in 1860, with a shallow trench dug and brick walls built beneath Euston Road and then covered over.

This became the inital route for the Metropolitan line and was instantly hailed a success, with 11.8 million passengers (the population of London was about 3.2 million) braving the foul, smoke-filled conditions in its first year. As the Metropolitan expanded westwards, it opened up new areas for Londoners to move to, and the overcrowded city slowly started to expand.

The success of the Metropolitan led to the building of the District Line along the Victoria Embankment, and then the creation of a Circle Line to link the two. The completion of the Circle Line marked the last of the sub-surface lines, built by the simple, cut-and-cover method. Advances in tunneling and the use of electrified rails now allowed for the building of deep-level lines that gave birth to the phrase ‘tube’ and allowed London’s network to really connect the dots beneath the capital.

If you wish to support the challenge you can donate by mobile : Text TUBE50 £2 to 70070.

You can also donate via JustGiving at www.justgiving.com/purplefrog-tube-challenge

The world and our behaviours are changing, and it’s happening at its fastest rate ever.  I’m not talking about global warming, alternative energy sources, the rise of China as a super power, nor the political landscape across North Africa and the Middle East.  The change is far closer to home and part of our everyday life whether we like it or not, and it is infiltrating and affecting every walk of life across our planet.

The ongoing change I refer to is the result of creative minds, our basic instinct to communicate and the phenomenon that is… social media.

Social media has now become a standard element in the marketing mix of major consumer brands.  And with good reason, because never before has such a creative landscape existed for people and the brands they love to interact, share stories and build relationships.

While traditional media is shrinking and digital media continues to experience growth, huge opportunities are afforded to companies embracing the direct to consumer model for their communications. But, if the opportunities in B2C social media are both lip-smacking and jaw dropping, they are dwarfed by the possibilities that can be effected within B2B social media.

Where does Google fit into this?

There aren’t many brands that have become so successful they have become a verb in the International English language.  Hoover achieved it in the last century, and probably the most used today is the world’s largest search engine, Google. (To Google it). With over 34,000 searches every second, it is reasonable to assume that a brand as successful as Google will have exploited tenfold every marketing, digital marketing and social marketing opportunity. Or maybe not.

Social media discussions between Purple Frog and Google are forthcoming, with an emphasis on B2B and how to improve their conversion of business services via social media marketing. We have no doubt that the majority of businesses have either used or considered the idea of Google Adwords to increase web traffic or lead generation. Although Google execute effective marketing strategies and provided highly effective tools for an Adwords campaign, have their other business services had the same penetration?

Over 3 million businesses have gone Google and now use Google Apps in their business to help them and their employees work smarter. Google Apps includes business email for your domain (i.e. name@yourcompany.com), calendar, documents, spreadsheets, presentations, sites and more. As part of our activity for Google we are looking to establish how effective Google has been in promoting the features and benefits of its business services. Once we have established this, a social media strategy can be developed to communicate all services alongside existing marketing channels to other businesses.

We have the tools to listen to what is being said about Google’s business solutions, but we also have other ways of collecting data to help provide the insight needed. One of these is the use of a survey directed at all types of businesses.

Take part in the survey

To be part of the survey and help Purple Frog and Google gain further insight into their business solutions, click the link below. (The survey will take an average of 3 minutes to complete).

Google must embrace and even lead the changes that are taking place around us if they are to retain their strong position as an integral solution for millions of businesses. Large, small, successful or startup, other B2B brands and businesses should also consider social media within their marketing strategies, because like never before there is an opportunity to get very, very close to the customer.

The Brief

Following a success debut sponsorship season with Honda Racing getting good TV and press exposure alongside highly successful drivers and a winning team, Yuasa asked Purple Frog to promote the brand further using social media. Yuasa was predominantly a manufacturing business with its core activity in the UK focused on B2B solutions within its industrial division. With a strategic change of direction for its automotive division from OEM to aftermarket, new brand awareness opportunities became available with consumers, and the sponsorship deal became the focus to maximise exposure as well as continue the increase in aftermarket market share.

The Solution

The decision to renew the sponsorship deal was made weeks before the start of this current season, creating the need for a quick response as well as a successful solution. The big idea was to be the Team’ biggest fan, making the partnership between Yuasa and the Team as close as possible.

The main core of activity was developed at www.yuasabtcc.co.uk away from the corporate website and be the destination for race and driver blogs linking in with Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.  Facebook was the ideal arena to nurture and engage with a growing community. Twitter was used to whip up excitement about the divers, the cars and the Team before, during and after races.

The Outcome

Half way through the season it is already apparent that the association with Honda Racing has blurred the boundaries between Team and Sponsor, with fans, press and other teams making reference to Yuasa as part of the team.  Writing articles for each race weekend and being the first in the country to publish content has been well received with fans and BTCC supporters. Page views over the first 5 races have already exceeded 1600, with Facebook and Twitter significantly contributing visitor traffic to the content.

One of the goals at the start of the activity was to create a social community made up of motor racing / BTCC fans with engagement with Yuasa a top priority.  Twitter is on course to achieve 1000 followers by the end of the first season, with direct links and engagement with the drivers Matt Neal, Gorden Shedden and with Honda Racing helping to whip up excitement. On course tweeting and image Twit pic feeds from within the Honda Racing Team garage have created an immediacy to the content, encouraging dialogue from armchair ITV4 viewers and fans at the course hungry for the inside stories.

Purple Frog have also encouraged fan suggestions and initiatives to help increase brand awareness and an maximise the association with a winning team.  Most notable to date has been the development of social network backgrounds for the drivers (see Matt Neal) and for the fans, available for desktop and mobile accounts.

The season-long campaign is being supported by national press advertising, banner advertising from the corporate site, PR and POS.

My Fantasy Stapler for Rexel Europe – a pan European brand awareness campaign aimed at office stationery buyers. This is the third in a set of 3 videos within a social media strategy to direct traffic to an online activity at www.rexeleurope.com/fantasy

My Fantasy Stapler is an engaging activity for users to create their own ‘fantasy’ stapler or punch. The competition is open to anyone who can either be creative or can share their entry, with 2 Samsung Galaxy Tabs up for grabs each month until the end of 2011.

The explosion in social media has become the most exciting opportunity for marketers, analysts and business. For me, this is an opportunity to demonstrate my digital strategy skills in planning and executing brand and campaign initiatives for B2B and B2C businesses. These strategies are not exclusive to digital; more an integration of traditional and new marketing channels applied to work best for the client’s objectives.

With over 22 years in design, creative, advertising and marketing, the last 18 months have been the most rewarding with digital campaigns strategically planned, built, launched, monitored and analysed to successful conclusions.

The challenges ahead are just as exciting with greater emphasis on listening, measuring and adjusting according to users and consumers comment and sentiment for the betterment of the project objectives. Gone are the days of writing a national press ad and waiting three months for approximate metrics, we are able to adjust and steer a project with real time analytics and metrics. The future for our clients will be success with measurement.

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