Tweet For Marc Jacobs

An innovative pop-up shop will launch later today where shoppers can buy designer goods using “social media currency”.

Marc Jacobs is the label behind the madness, which will open the doors to its Manhattan store to coincide nicely with New York Fashion Week. All shoppers have to do to get their mitts on some Marc Jacobs goodies is post using the hashtag #MJDaisyChain to Twitter, Instagram or Facebook.

Branded gifts at the SoHo shop are reported to include perfume, necklaces and purses. The best Instagram of the day will receive a Marc Jacobs handbag as part of the stunt, which is one of the first of its kind.

Lori Singer, the Vice President of Marketing at Marc Jacobs, told Mashable: “Over the years, the Daisy brand has built a considerable following in social media, and to us, the whole undertaking is a way to say a big thank you…Marc Jacobs is really active on social media and Daisy is one of the fragrance brands that triggers the highest engagement among fans.”

All posts featuring the #MJDaisyChain hashtag will be relayed into the shop every 30 seconds via a large projection. Shoppers can take advantage of a selfie photo booth and also free manicures in the pop-up, which will run until Sunday.

A brilliantly simple campaign was devised by the Daisy marketing team, which saw them take to the streets and hand out daisies to passers by. Each daisy had a tag attached, which included information on the shops location and hinted at the premise behind the ploy.

Marc Jacobs is a brand that I’ve long admired for their creative marketing approach. They’re recognised as serious players in the social media arena and Facebook recently identified Daisy as one of the top fragrances engaged with their followers on the site.

Social media remains a relatively untapped resource to marketers and every day there’s a new-fangled way for brands to promote their product or events.

My question is: When can we expect a pop-up Tweet shop to reach British shores?!

Take a look at all the posts already coming in on Instagram here.

The Perils of Twitter Advertising

As marketers continue to get to grips with the ever-changing world of social media marketing, there continues to be a number of black holes appearing that remain sealed in bureaucracy.

It’s all too easy to be blindsided by the benefits of social media advertising and forget to insure your best interests. Therefore I’ve invested some time this week in researching some of the perils that Twitter advertising could present to brands both big and small.

Promoted Tweets are certainly straightforward solutions to your Twitter marketing needs. As with Facebook advertising, you’re in control of your message and who sees it. But it’s worth remembering that social media marketing is still within the grasp of your man in the street.

Just last week Chicago-based business owner, Hasan Syed, bought a promoted Tweet for little more than $1,000 to slam British Airways following particularly poor customer service. It simply read: “Don’t fly with @British_Airways. They can’t keep track of your luggage”.

The Tweet was not only seen by Syed’s 400 followers, but also 50,000 other Twitter users that were specifically “targeted” during the campaign. By tagging @British_Airways in the content too, Syed potentially exposed the Tweet via search fields to many of BA’s own 303,000+ followers too.

Marty St. George, a marketing executive at JetBlue, Tweeted soon after: “Interesting; a disgruntled customer is buying a promoted tweet slamming a brand where they had a bad experience. That’s a new trend itself!”

He warned that the use of promoted tweets as a form of consumer complaint could be the start of an emerging trend. This acts as a stark reminder that gone are the days where the brand itself is the powerhouse; in this day in age, the consumer is in the driving seat. Social media has proven to be a powerful weapon for disgruntled consumers who are able to act on their freedom of speech to effectively slate the offending brand.

It is proven that people “listen” on social media. When using the likes of Facebook or Twitter, people are typically engaged for long periods of time. So much so that they may often find themselves interacting with the stories of complete strangers.

It only takes a few hours for a post to go viral and in those few hours some serious damage can be done to even the toughest brands.

Another way of reaching your audience, which is growing in popularity particularly in the US, is celebrity endorsement. Stars such as Khloe Kardashian are reported to earn as much as £5,000 per Tweet, thus exposing the product or service to millions of users in one swift go. However, one UK campaign that went awry (but arguably boosted the brand in question nonetheless) goes back to early 2012, when Twitter advertising was still in its infancy.

Katie Price and Rio Ferdinand were amongst various famous faces that took part in a Snickers campaign, which led to a probe by the Advertising Standards Agency.

‘You’re Not You When You’re Hungry’ was at risk of breaching 2008 consumer protection regulations simply by not clearly stating that the Tweets in question were adverts.

Of course, with Twitter advertising you run a major risk of being “spammy” too. Despite the good intentions of your campaign, it’s likely that your message will find its way onto the news feeds of some of the most irrelevant users on the network. Yes, this counts towards the exposure you’re aiming for, but clogging up news feeds with bumf can sometimes do more damage than good – it’s important to get the balance right.

With so many unexplored risks to advertising on Twitter, it’s definitely worthwhile doing your research.

As the popularity of this marketing tool grows, I’m sure legislation will do its best to keep up. The future of digital relies heavily on social media for both pleasure and commercial uses – however much you may still be trying to avoid admitting it.

If you’d like a chat on how Twitter could help your business, please do get in touch. Why not follow me on Twitter @DanielleDunn_CA to stay in the loop too?

Providing Great CRM

Time and time again I come across global brands who appear to neglect their online customer relations. As the retail sector continues to see a huge shift of consumer loyalty to the Internet, it is more important than ever that brands are engaging with their consumers on popular platforms.

It is one thing to have a presence on social media, but actually interacting with users is a whole other ball game. Many large companies have made great examples of online communication and turned Tweets and Facebook posts into PR stories in their own right.

Recently, one of the DDCA team engaged in one such example of great CRM. Simon received a free gift from O2 in recognition of 5 years loyalty to the mobile service provider. Simon tweeted @O2 to thank them and what ensued was nothing short of flirting. I love nothing better than some casual schmoozing of a Tuesday evening:

On Hash Tag Indiscretions

 

I am certainly not one to revel in the death of another, but I cannot help but smirk at the recent Twitter faux pas of #nowthatchersdead. Statements had to be released to reassure worried fans that the 66-year-old pop diva was indeed still alive after the trending topic remained unclear to many.

Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time that the humble hash tag has gone awry: one of my favourite Twitter bungles was that of Waitrose whom opted for #WaitroseReasons.

Just last year the supermarket opened themselves up to ridicule as they invited customers to Tweet their own reasons for shopping at the upmarket supermarket. #WaitroseReasons drew in responses such as “I shop at Waitrose because I think food must automatically be better if it costs three times as much”, and “I shop at Waitrose because it makes me feel important and I absolutely detest being surrounded by poor people”.

In 2012, hash tag blunders reached whole new levels as #Aurora began trending globally following fatal shootings at a US screening of Batman’s ‘the Dark Knight Rises’. Fashion retailer @celebboutique fatally misinterpreted this (or played ignorant) and tweeted to their 62,000 followers: “#Aurora is trending, clearly about our Kim K inspired #Aurora dress”.  Naturally, this caused outrage online and the UK based outlet was forced to apologise: “we didn’t check what the trend was about hence the confusion”.

Clarity is important when publishing 140 characters for the whole world to see. #nowthatchersdead is not a trend that I particularly enjoy, however to avoid the confusion I would have simply recommended using camel case – what could be misinterpreted as #NowThatChersDead becomes #NowThatchersDead as was intended.

Tweet me @DanielleDunn_CA if you’ve ever made a Twitter gaffe of your own!