Jamie Olivers Food Revolution

With the child obesity epidemic at its worst, what is the world doing to combat this huge problem? Most would say VERY LITTLE!!
Lets have a look at a recent concept launched by one of our best known chefs Jamie Oliver. The celebrity chef has brought his campaign online, encouraging users to rate the school cafeteria food as 'hot or not'.  The campaign is called 'Food Revolution' and globally, over 700,000 people have joined the revolution!

Its as simple as taking  photo of the lunch at your local school, posting it online and allowing others to rate it. Whilst the concept is simple, it is also exposing what people actually think is 'healthy food', which can be used to infer why society is in the position it is in, in terms of 'healthy living' or lack there of.

Users can also post their school and/or location on the image... which could lead to some serious ramifications for the schools.

The website also hosts an array of other features that encourage 'healthy living'; recipes, videos, information about  the celebrity chef Jamie, Food blogs and heroes and professionals supporting the Food Revolution.

One main objective of this campaign is to raise money so as to ensure our children grow up with an understanding of healthy living, how to cook and how to eat both at home and at school to combat the effects that processed junk food have on their lives.

Over and above the website, Food Revolution has a substantial Twitter following with 1.5 million followers and 99,000 Facebook fans! Both social media tools further communicate and reinforce the importance of healthy eating and ways in which you can live a healthy, nutritious life.

Being a fitness fanatic myself, I think this concept is just amazing!! It is something we should all get behind, support and engage in so as to ensure the longevity of a future generations. What do you think? What other initiatives can you think of that aim at reducing childhood obesity and promote healthy living? Both within and outside the world of social media.

iPhone 5!

AMAZING!!! So who's upgrading and at what cost?? Love to hear what lengths you would go to to get the new iPhone 5!

Google Wallet

Whilst still in its infancy, Google recently rolled out its mobile wallet payment system. At present, it is only linked with Citi-Mastercards and Google prepaid card. 
This means that when you are in a taxi or at certain retail outlets, you can simply tap or wave your phone to make a payment. 
The most incredible part of this feature is what Google is calling SingleTap. This feature means that users can combine their coupons, loyalty cards and payment method all within one 'tap'. The user merely needs to save coupons and/or loyalty cards to the App for future use. 

Some of the current merchants partnered with Google Wallet are:

Macy's, Bloomingdales,Guess, Subway and quit a few others are also in the pipeline and locked in to get on 

board with Google wallets. What a shift! From coins, to paper money, to plastic cards... and now virtual payment 

facilities. Do you think this is a smart move in the right direction? Or a hackers dream and a security risk for all its users?

Apple Vs Samsung

The war between Apple and Samsung in relation to patent rights continues... and it is getting nastier despite the two organisations sharing quite a close working relationship over the years. Online reports claim the whole allegation may not be far from merely fizzling away!
Apple says Samsung 'blatantly imitated' their iPhone and iPad appearance. The Galaxy Tab 10 and recent Tab 7.1 and the two devices Apple claims too closely resemble the iPad, and the Samsung Galaxy S with the iPhone.

Apple has recently altered their complaint, now alleging copyright infringement. Lawsuits have been slapped onto Samsung Australia, Korea, United States and Europe.
Samsung has fired back claiming an infringements of their own, but rather on the technical side of the products.

Do you think Apple is taking this too far and possibly only threatened by Samsung's potentially 'better' products? Or does Apple have sufficient grounds to stand on?

How did we ever live without phones?

How did we live without phones? More to the point, how did we live without iphone and android phones and their quirky widgets or applications? Apps have become part of life and very much taken for granted!

Whilst some Apps are lucky to have made it to the App store, many are making entrepreneurs millionaires and changing the ways that businesses operate. The App economy has only been apparent for about 2 years but yet there are hundreds of thousands of active apps on the market.

Just to put things into perspective, Google didnt profit for its first three years of operation. Zynga (tech start-up specialising in games) already turns over in excess of $100K since opening two years ago. Analysts infer that the App market is worth about $1 billion today, forecasted to hit $4 billion by 2012.

Whilst there are thousands of incredible Apps out there (mine is going to be up there when I finish the development of the Hairhouse Warehouse App!!) the Dominos App really caught my attention. Not only for its uniqueness and extensive functionality, but its customer engagement really can be held responsible for its success!

• Flick through the extensive menu pages
• Shopping cart - enabling you to view all selected items, view balance of items and make cash or credit card payment
• More than 1 billion pizza options!
• View current offers 
• Set-up your own account so you can save all orders and reorder more efficiently next time
• Order tracking system so you can see where your order is!

• View all premium ingredients to prompt you to making your own pizza - What a function!! Everyone loves to select all their own ingredients but doesnt like the hassle of shopping, cooking and cleaning!

Who has an online food ordering App? What has your experience been with previously placed orders?

Its one thing to have all these apps on your phone but its certainly another to actually use them!!

Compare the Meerkat!

What a campaign! Im sure you have all heard of Aleksandr Orlov the Meerkat? His name brings me to hysterics almost every time so in terms of recognition, he certainly has done his job and captured the hearts and minds of the public
Car insurance certainly isnt something that is easy to market in an engaging way... well at least previously I didnt think it was. This campaign sure has changed my thoughts on the matter!
The key with this campaign is not only the humour behind it, but the intergration of various marketing channels.
Here is the very first ad that was broadcast on British TV

The video has over 400,000 views on YouTube alone, not to mention the views from the TV broadcast.
The little character has a unique personality that I find extremely luring. He has a profound ability to engage with his audience which is followed through on his Facebook page where he has in excess of 700,000 followers! These fans contributed to a 400% increase in traffic to the website in one year.
Whilst the facebook page is quite simple, the level of engagement is quite amazing! There is little to no comments written on his wall but when Aleksandr posts comments, his fans follow suit and comment back!
The campaign is further reinforced via Twitter where his following is substantially smaller than Facebook but engagement is still high. This medium is still being used as a primary medium, with over 800 posts in total. Not surprisngly, young Aleksandr is in the top results of the iTune commedy podcasts.
Now lets look at the success of the campaign... the monthly targets had been achieved just 3 days after the campaign was launched and year on year, quotes were up by 90%!
So its clear that the little meerkat has his face in a number of different channels that has effectively drived traffic to 'Compare the market' and build brand awareness.
What do you all think of this campaign? There are mixed reports (mostly from competitors) about the success of this campaign and profit generated from the venture...

Social Coupon Sites

I am sure you have all heard of Scoupon, Groupon, deals.com.au, Living Social, Cudo and so the list goes on! These are the latest craze in online shopping and have some astounding offers available!
With a minimum of a 50% discount on all offers, these sites really offer customers value for money that is almost unheard of in the retail sector. Some deals offer an astounding 90% discount!

So it is clear that customers obtain great value from this online medium, so too do businesses. Businesses get exposure to hundreds of thousands of potential customers/clients by providing a door-busting offer that is sent out to the sites database. Some databases are in excess of 500,000 here in Australia. However, there are some basic conditions these sites govern themselves by:

• Minimum number of offers must be purchased for the deal to be validated.
• Coupon site generally takes 50% of profit. Depending on the offer, this can sometimes be bargained down to 30%. 
• Business is given 50% of sales generated at the end of the offer and the remainder upon redemption. Thus if a customer doesn't redeem the voucher, the site keeps the money paid and not the business itself.

On paper, this sounds great!! Lets have a look at some of the major problems that have become apparent:

• Customers are losing trust in these websites as expiry dates are not clearly stipulated (This was also mentioned in Saturdays Herald Sun, querying whether this could lead to the end of these sites).
• Businesses are going broke! Small businesses are selling too many vouchers, putting them at a loss.
• Scheduling and customer overload: businesses are unable to sustain and cater for all the vouchers sold, infuriating customers and tarnishing the businesses reputation. This has a negative effect on customer loyalty. A recent study at Rice University looked into 150 businesses that had used Groupon in the past. Whilst 66% said it was a profitable venture, 32% found in unprofitable and 40% said they would never consider using it again!
• One-time customers - the wrong customers are attracted to these Social-Coupon sites that are in for a bargain and unlikely to return.

Whilst these Social-Coupon sites can really leverage a business and increase awareness, they can also do a lot of damage and potentially run a business into the ground. What are your thoughts? Have you purchased a coupon online and been unsatisfied with the offer or found it to be misleading?

This poses many questions on the future of these sites. Their ongoing existence really is up to us as consumers to determine. If they continue to send the smaller businesses into financial deficit and mislead customers, I can't imagine they will persist for much longer.

'Create Next Donut'

So we already know Social Media is an extremely powerful tool that can really drive a business substantially. Lets take a look at one MAJOR success story from the large chain 'Dunkin Donuts'.
Dunkin Donuts not only increased their sales, but increased their online presence by hosting a competition whereby participants were invited to create their own menu item. The key source of motivation came from the grand prize pool of $12,000 as well as the designed donut being created as a 'limited edition' menu item. 12 runners up entrants also won $1,200, one years worth of donuts (not sure if this is a good thing or bad?), flip HD camcorder and a trip for two to the Donut Bake-off at the Dunkin Donuts University of Braintree, WA.
The competition runs via the website and is interactive, requiring high participant involvement. Its like a kids game really ;)
The competition attracted a huge 130,000 submissions and 174,000 voters to assist in the winner selection process. This HUGE success can be attributed to the various Social Media platforms selected.

I know how succesful running competitions can be for businesses. The question is, how do organisations ensure that the benefit attributed to the competition is sustainable? What can organisations do to maintain the participants level of engagement and turn them into brand advocates or loyal customers? I think a social media initiative like this is only really succesful if it has a long-term benefit.

Social Media building an Identity

So who out there has heard of Zyzz? For those who are fans of his, I would suggest you dont read on. For those who have never heard of it, I apologise in advance for informing you of this human beings presence in society but personally, I find him hilarious! I also apologise for some of the foul language used in this. If bad language offends you, please STOP READING :)
So Zyzz is just another Sydneysider who LOVES himself more than humanly possible.  He was not known in a public forum until his appearance on the fitness athlete website Simply Shredded. On this website, athletes from all over the globe are interviewed. They share with likeminded people how their passion for fitness started, discuss their training styles, diet regime, plans for the future and much much more. In his initial interview, he seemed like just another gym junkie!

Thats when his 'fame' started. Along with his following, Zyzz proceeded to create videos of himself, his muscles, his workouts, him 'mirin his aesthetics' (aka. 'admiring the way he looks') and thats pretty much it. But he didnt create one video, he created hundreds. He started off with his own following, which grew, and grew, and grew. For some reason, his videos capute the likes of thousands and thousands of viewers. Now,  he is known throughout Australia, all through building his own identity via Social Media.

Imagine making your own YouTube video of nothing but trash and copping 659,054 views... 2,917 likes, 539 dislikes which really isnt such a bad result considering the egotistical, self-obsessed and self absorbed way Zyzz presents himself!

It is important to look at what happens when such controvertial videos are uploaded to Social Media Forums. Despite Zyzz having a HUGE number of admirers and people who aspire to being just like him, it is apparent that many people despise him!

So Zyzz has succeeded in two ways at establishing himself amongst the Sydney scene and the bodybuilder scene, and developing his own language that people are actually using! As I flick through my Facebook updates after a long day in the office, I see people using his 'lingo' like its normal English.
'Your Mirin Brah?' ''Yeah, brah, I'm jelly.'' Wanna ride a bicycle tonight? ''Yeah, brah.'' Yes, I know you are all thinking what an absolute joke... but unfortuantely this is real... Zyzz is real! I am just hoping for everyones sake that the recent publicity on this 'wannabe' g-d brings young Zyzz back to reality before any more Gen Y and Z's follow in his foot steps!

I would love to get everyones feedback on this... but I know right now you will all be speechless as to what society has become! Sorry for bringing Zyzz into your vocabulary ;)

Social networking via 'check-ins'

The functionality of 'Check-ins' as a means of social networking I believe deserves some in-depth discussion. My first impression of it was not a positive one. Seeing the average Joe check-in on a daily basis to his local gym and then proceed to boast about how many PB's he achieved in his workout and how big his biceps are getting just downright annoyed me!
However, as I delve further into our Social Media Strategy as a business, I can see how we can really leverage our brand via this application. It can be used to promote offers/promotions only to those who check-in. The beauty of this is that their check-in is really free advertising for us. All their friends become aware of were they are and it is them promoting our brand for us. As you all know 86% trust peer recommendation over Advertisement so this is a WIN-WIN for businesses!
Foursquare is something I am yet to look into but has been proposed to us for use within our company. Its an application whereby users can check-in to their current location, surface relevant suggestions about nearby venues/places and generally increase brand awareness all to their peers. Check out these amazing stats on Foursquared which is just one of the many social networking sites of this kind:

Users: Over 10 million worldwide

Check-ins per day: Over 3 million, with over 750 million check-ins total

Businesses: Over 500,000 using the Merchant Platform 

What do you all think about this mediums and do you think it is something businesses will be able to use more and more to leverage their brand? If so, would love to hear some suggestions as to how!!

The History of Social Media!

For those who think Social Media is a very new revolution... think again! It really has been in the making for over 30 years now!
Although the growth experienced over the past decade really is astronomical! Check out these facts... and tell me how anyone can afford to not be receptive to social media:

• 78.6% of consumers have joined a company’s community to get more information on the company
• By 2012, half of the world’s Internet users, 1 billion people, will have a Facebook account
• 46% of Internet users worldwide interact with social media on a daily basis
• Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
• % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%
• 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, only 14% trust advertisements!

My case rests! Get on board my fellow followers if you're not already... or at least enjoy following my blog :)