Creating a “buzz” around products, services, businesses or events is a requirement from all clients. There is no social media marketing wand that someone will wave and target audience will automatically start coming to your site. And what works for one brand may not work for another.

The process of creating buzz doesn’t start from creating a Blog or creating a video, it’s a social media strategy that encompasses social media and word-of-mouth marketing. We have compiled a list of social media tools that companies use to build their social media marketing mixes. Continue reading →

(ADWEEK) Advertisers that bought spots in this year’s Super Bowl saw a sharp spike in online references relating directly to their brands, according to research conducted by Prophesee, a unit of Interpublic’s Initiative that monitors and analyzes consumer conversations, blogs and other online social-media activity.

Of the 38 brands that ran ads during the game, 75 percent saw the number of blog posts about them double, compared with the average for Sunday evenings over the past six months. And about one-third of those brands realized a threefold rise in the number of blog posts about them, per the Prophesee survey. Continue reading →

Clients take a dim view despite agencies’ investment in talent and services

(ADWEEK) Traditional agencies are continuing to invest in digital talent and services but, based on a new survey from RSW/US, clients aren’t that impressed with the results.

Ask to rate their traditional agency’s digital skills on a scale of 1 to 10 — with 1 equating to “poor” and 10 meaning “excellent” — only 3 percent of the 277 client executives polled chose excellent, and almost half – 47 percent — ranked their shops between 1 and 5. Continue reading →

Working with AMV/BBDO London, Transistor created a journey through the mind of a child for Sing Up. Their imagination runs wild, passing a myriad of weird and wonderful characters and scenarios. A song introduces the idea of math, and the numbers fill the child’s mind. The design reflects the various reference points of childhood. Real objects interact with the imagined, and the line between each constantly evolves. The hundreds of characters, built in CG to create the necessary depth, were all designed in house using various visual techniques.

See the project here.

Digitas Boston approached Trace Pictures to create a new kid crafted animated campaign to promote the GMC Terrain that will live as as online spots. Trace pulled together a demo treatment with their proposed style and won over the creatives. Justin Stephenson, Sr. Creative Director of Trace Pictures, describes how the project came together :

The design of the project started by inviting a group of young kids to draw up images from their favorite road trips. We received the most adorable pictures that could only come from a child’s imagination. Our designers then worked with the kid-crafted elements to create a multitude of fun scens, that we strung together to create one colorful and exciting road trip. From cityscape, to beach, to zoo to grandma’s house.. and so on. We purposefuly used very simple stop motion and 2D animation techniques to make the piece feel like it lived in a child’s world. The process was a blast and it’s not everyday you get pre-schoolers to do your initial designs!

Check out the animated GMC spot.

As their first dip into the Super Bowl advertising market, Boost Mobile is bringing back the “Super Bowl Shuffle.” The campaign lives across digital and broadcast, with a 30 second spot and banner campaign all pushing to BoostMobile/Shuffle to check out the video, discover downloads and watch behind-the-scenes footage of the original video. Templar supported the team over at 180 LA in creating the countdown and headband style of ad units that went live last week. The banners feature McMahon, one of the original members of the Bears Shuffle team members from 1985.

Be Sure to Check out the site that launches Super Bowl Sunday.

Oh hey, we got a Microsoft Surface Table. And we’re already building out a lot of awesome ideas.

From hotels to retail stores, Surface tables are popping up to create new interactive experiences for consumers. Beyond simple brand interaction and exploration, Surface tables work best when a “visual explanation” of process or data is the most powerful form of communication. We see wide implementations coming in the industries of Health Care, Finance and Government.

Check out the site to see a quick video and links to our favorite surface apps.

Welikesmall launched a new site for the 2010 Dodge Charger called “The Charger Experience.”We asked the crew over at Welikesmall a few questions about the project and their strategy for pulling off the build.
We asked the crew over at Welikesmall a few questions about the project and their strategy for pulling off the build.

Who did you partner with on the project?
The Organic Detroit office.

How did the two teams collaborate?
The original concept and design was brought to us by the crew over at Organic. Our initial thought when we saw the boards was “live action shoot replete with helicopters, vintage muscle cars, expensive talent, burnouts.” But no, they’d already shot some great footage and this was going to be the home to show off the Charger as “not your father’s Charger.” Our role was the development of the site to include special features such as a car color visualizer and multimedia gallery.We took the Organic treatment to the next level, adding in our thoughts on textures, motion and ambient sound design. You can see this well in the gallery section. We were able to expand upon the creative and bring the wall to life adding in our thoughts on interaction, rollover and general motion.

To read the rest of our Q&A with Welikesmall,click here.

The Muppets!?!? Yes, The Muppets! We’re really excited to show off this work from Honest , who was able to lend a hand in this new campaign for Disney and The Muppets. Working with agency, Vanksen and director Michael Sugarman, the team at Honest got the opportunity to build this promotional website for the Disney Give a Day, Get a Disney Day new campaign.

Up to their normal scheming, the Muppets spread the message about volunteering, while they COMPLETELY DESTROY the site! Getting to work on-set with the Muppets, The Honest team came back to pull together the experience, doing all of the animation ( pre and post production ) , flash development and personalization tool to let the muppets speak to you about volunteering.

Debuts new tagline, strategic approach for restaurant chain

Pizza Hut’s first campaign from The Martin Agency centers on customer choice and a $10 promotion available only at “Your Pizza Hut.”

Three commercials breaking this Sunday on the CBS Super Bowl pre-game show feature customers talking about their pizza favorites and the great deals they get with “any pizza, any size, any crust and any topping” for $10. Continue reading →