What a Google Hangout can do for the New York Giants. And your Brand…

Who doesn’t love Sports and Social Media?

We like Facebook pages, follow athletes on Twitter, watch their videos on YouTube, and create all sorts of websites, clubs, wikis, younameit in their honor.  But can they be really, really social? Can they bring an athlete into your living room for a one-on-one conversation with them? Or better yet, bring 5 passionate fans from around the country, before the biggest media, sports spectacle in North America, to have a 15 minute chat?

If you’re the New York Giants, Linebacker Mark Herzlich, and five lucky fans chosen through social media alone, why yes you can..

This quick blog post will be:
- A brief recap of what the New York Giants did right, and a couple suggestions on how to improve the experience
- How this Hangout could apply to you and your brand.
- A brief look at the video of the actual Google Hangout for the thousands of Giants fans out there, and the few hearty Giants fans in our office that are surrounded by Patriots fans…

Feedback on the Experience
- Obviously, terrific use of Social Media to galvanize sports fan, for a specific team, from all corners of  the globe.
- Google made it a social, within a social, experience. A nice by-product of this Google Hangout is that the five of us on the Hangout are now connected, and will stay connected for a long time to come. Before, during and after the Hangout, we shared stories, goofy ideas, tech tips, and life stories and memories. Sounds hokey, but it’s not. That’s what social media is. Sharing a collective passion for a brand, product or service with other people, using platforms like Twitter, PATH, LinkedIn and Facebook. Remember the platform is just the tool….
- If I were the NY GIANTS, and had the resources, I would immediately publish this content right away.  Yes, the Hangout was “private” but Mark said nothing personal that he wouldn’t say to reporters in the locker room. Imagine all the Giants fans and  Boston College grads and teammates who would have loved to seen this. So, I’ve rolled the dice here a bit and pushed it up to YouTube. If they ask me to take it down, I will, but not without a little push back from me…(this is just the first 5 minutes with introductions and first round of questions)

Advice for your agency or brand
-If you are a college or university, haven’t you already considered a Google Hangout for “open-houses” or interviews for far-away candidates?
-If you are in real estate, financial services, or sales, why not use this this platform for collaboration, or information sessions (with content that is pre-approved for highly regulated industries)
-Consumer Products- Can you say Focus Groups?

So, I’m probably forgetting plenty of people, but thank you to everyone who made this possible. Pat Hanlon, Nilay Shah, The Giants, the NFL, the tech guy in the hotel room who set it up, Google, everyone.

Oh, and GO GIANTS….

P.S. My new Google Hangout Friend, Jeremy, will soon be posting the entire video in much better quality, in a few days, stay tuned.  Follow @acsys or @goodridge on Twitter and we’ll ket you know when it is up.

BrandBowl 2012

Let’s talk about what the BrandBowl concept means for us as digital marketers, and how and why it’s changed-and is changing-the way brands do business around the Super Bowl.

• A Clever Intro to Social. When Boches started BrandBowl three years ago, it wasn’t to tout the platform or technology, it was to get his colleagues in the advertising space to understand and embrace Twitter. Everyone always talks about the Super Bowl Ads, why not use Twitter and the hashtag #brandbowl? So, for all of you in-house digital marketers still trying to sell-in social to your company, have your colleagues hop on Twitter and participate this week. It’s an easy way to “get” social.
• Instant Feedback. Remember 10 years ago when you waited for AdAge to tell you what the most popular advertisements were? Well now you don’t. It happens in real-time.  And the brand better be listening too. So, if I’m Groupon and my ad with Timothy Hutton and Tibet backfires, I’m going to start back-pedaling quickly and call in my PR team for a little damage control.
• A Real-Time Focus Group. During the Super Bowl, you’ve got a captive audience of a billion or so people, so why not use Twitter as a real-time focus group? Millions of people are tweeting about your brand, so dive deep into the tweets, uncover some trends/data points and go from there. (For the third consecutive year, Radian6 has teamed up with #BrandBowl to analyze and monitor the incoming tweets-a perfect partnership)
• The Game as a Hook. Forget watching the game, why not interact with your favorite brand? The savvy digital and social brands aren’t using the Super Bowl to pitch their products, they are using social to have some fun with their fans. Take a quick look at what Coca-Cola is doing. Their storied Polar Bears are taking over the @cocacola Twitter handle that day, and will be live-streaming “themselves” from the Artic during the entire game. The live stream will showcase the animated polar bears’ reactions to all the plays on the field, the halftime show and highly anticipated commercials. Clever, right?
• Not just 30 seconds of fame. Forget the speculation/secrecy of the ads leading up to the Super Bowl. Why not tease your audience beforehand?  Volkswagen has mastered this in the last two years, with the Star Wars-themed ads generating a great amount of buzz before kickoff on Sunday. And this year, Honda has done a nice job with Ferris Bueller/Matthew Broderick.

So, marketers take note, and take a few minutes to check out #Brandbowl this year and note two interesting additions:

• Boches and his team have added location-based statistics so you can now see  where all of the tweets are coming from.
• Billboard has also asked #brandbowl to cover this year’s half-time show, and you know Billboard loves it’s rankings. (we’ll know pretty quickly if Madonna blows it)

NOTE *BrandBowl2012 is hosted again this year over on Boston.com. Thanks to our friends over at Boston.com

The Explosion of Mobile, and why I agree with the NTSB.

(I bet you she's not the last person to do this....)

We’ve heard about the National Transportation Safety Board recommending a ban of  any use of a cellphone behind the wheel, including phone calls.  And I agree. Here’s why….

We’ve all done it. You’ve called, texted or done something on your mobile device while you’re driving. If you haven’t, you’re over 70 years old, under 17, or you live in Pennsylvania and a horse pulls your buggy. And whether you know it or not, you’ve had a close call with something or someone. And, you social media types are probably saying “just texting?!” You’ve probably tweeted, checked facebook, done a drive-by foursquare check-in (I’m talking about you @schneidermike @edwardboches and @aaronstrout) or on your Vespa> (@jeffcutler). I’m 100% guilty of this and worse. I’ve done this with my two boys in the car.

The facts back it up. According to the GHSA (Governors Highway Safety Association) more than 25% of automobile accidents can be tracked back to use of smartphones while driving. There are plenty of more additional stats out there but this one is pretty compelling.

The seatbelt factor. I think we had the same uproar with seatbelts and that mandatory law was just passed  just 28 years ago. My parents still roll their eyes when I break out the booster seat and order my kids to buckle up. “We didn’t have to do that in our day- you kids were just fine”.  And lucky….

Technology will help us get over it.. Given the pace of technology, I think we won’t need a traditional mobile device to make a phone call from our car. Here’s when I think of the technology that Ford uses, Apple’s Siri voice assistant, Skype, and Onstar. EVERYTHING will be voice activated and automatically synced with your mobile device or carrier. Hopefully, your phone will lock when it senses you are moving in your car and simply connect with your onboard/hands free/non-distracting phone “system”.

The NTSB recognizes the explosion of mobile. Ok, this one is a little far-fetched, but their decision is a great catalyst  for discussing the impact of mobile use in 2012 and beyond. If we’re going to be doing even more on our phones in 2012- why not stop it’s use (and distraction) while we’re driving? Here are some quick numbers for you..

• In 2011, 34% of Facebook use was through their mobile app. In 2012, it will be 50%. (Facebook)
• US adults now spend more time with their mobile phones than with print magazines and newspapers combined (emarketer)
• By 2013, there will be more mobile phones (1.82 billion) than PCs (1.78 billion) (Gartner)
• Gartner predicts that the location-based services user base will grow globally from 96 million in 2009 to more than 526 million in 2012.

Get it?

Mobile use is going to be so pervasive in our life, it’s going to seep into every crevice of our behavior, so get used to it. And, while Congress wrestles over this subject and your state considers this, at least get yourself a wireless headset and focus on that road.

Because, in the words of NTSB Chairman, Deborah Hersman, “No call, no text, no update, (and check-in, tweet, instagram, or angry bird) is worth a human life.”