Category: Case Study

Categories: Case Study, Social Media, Social Media Management Systems Posted on

Open Research: How Complex Companies Scale Social Business

Altimeter’s latest Open Research Report (download at will, share with attribution) is embedded below. This report features how large companies have scaled social business across their enterprise. Specific case studies include: Whole Foods puts local social engagement into the hands of store managers. General Motors organizes for social business internally, then supports regions. Amway empowers distributors yet maintains brand consistency PUMA scales limited headcount for worldwide engagement I co-authored this report with my colleague Senior Researcher, Andrew Jones, who’s been involved in several reports with me and knows the market which we cover in a detailed way, and provides unique insights. His deep understanding of the space, tireless research, and pattern analysis was key to this report being published. Please … Continue readingOpen Research: How Complex Companies Scale Social Business

Categories: Case Study, Community Marketing, Social Media Posted on

Intel’s Community Marketing: Fishing Where The Fish Are

Intel is known for trying out a variety of social media efforts, for better or for worse. They experiment, and continue to learn and iterate, I give them continual credit and reference them in presentations. One particular activity of note is what I learned from David Veneski, he tackled the join vs build question and made the call to join. Earlier this year, I visited Intel up in Seattle (correction: Portland) and spoke to David Veneski, a marketing manager, and spoke to his group about social computing strategies. He had deployed some successful marketing efforts, and reached communities where they existed, he had efforts to reach early tech adopters in Digg, as well as Slashdot. Both of these communities are … Continue readingIntel’s Community Marketing: Fishing Where The Fish Are

Categories: Case Study, MicroMedia, Web Marketing Posted on

How “Janet” Fooled the Twittersphere (and me) She’s the Voice of Exxon Mobil

The game is up, “Janet” is not an official Exxon representative A few days ago, the Twittersphere was curious, interested, and excited to see a member of Exxon Mobil’s employee ranks to join the twitter conversation and engage in conversation…sadly, she’s not a real employee. You can see the fake Twitter account called ExxonMobilCorp The mystery unraveled –in 3 days Shel Holtz was one of the first to discover this (update: he’s posted this thoughts), as he commended Exxon for their efforts, their response was “It’s not us”. The mystery continued to unravel as I received an email from the Houston Chronicle Press wanting to talk to me about what I knew (Update: The Chronicle’s story is now live) –the … Continue readingHow “Janet” Fooled the Twittersphere (and me) She’s the Voice of Exxon Mobil

Categories: Case Study, Community Marketing, Web Marketing Posted on

Cadence Puts Community in the Forefront

One of my most popular diatribes is my rant on the irrelevant corporate website, in summary, I suggest a gap between the reality of the public conversation and the biased marketese on company websites. Today, I’m starting to see more websites evolve, from Sun’s aggregation of public blog posts, to many companies launching social network features for their site. Two of my former colleagues, Carlos Soares, and my former manager Peter Simonsen (Update: other team members include Jim Price, project leader, and Suzie Im, web designer extraordanaire) are now spearheading the web efforts at Cadence, and have launched a new website that puts the community front and center right on the homepage. You’ll find headline aggregation of corporate bloggers on … Continue readingCadence Puts Community in the Forefront

Categories: Case Study, Web Advertising, Web Marketing, Widget Strategy Posted on

Letting your Community Create your Advertisements

A few months ago, I covered Dell’s Green campaign called “Regeneration” which allowed community members to create their own art themed “green” and they were then given the opportunity to vote on which one was best. They turned over much of the marketing control to the community, while they become more of an enablement platform, rather than ‘forcing’ a message down their throat. They’ve taken the next step by assembling some of the winning drawings and created an emebeddable flash player that shows the art work being created in time-lapse style. Yes, you can see how the engaged community of artists hand drew each of these ads. As I understand it, they are not paid, this is voluntary, in hopes … Continue readingLetting your Community Create your Advertisements

Categories: Case Study, Podcasts, Podtech, Social Media Posted on

Audio: How Nike’s Jordan team leans on Social Media

Your browser does not support JavaScript. This media can be viewed at http://www.podtech.net/home/5091/nikes-jordan-brand-uses-social-marketing-strategies-to-build-consumer-loyalty Jennifer Jones, who hosts one of the top ongoing social media marketing podcasts, interviews Emmanuel Brown of Nike Jordan. I saw Emmanuel at the last Marketing Forum in L.A. he told us that employees are encouraged to work out a couple of hours every day. Actually, it’s more than encouraged, it’s mandatory. He discusses their Breakfast Club interactive program, which helps customers track and improve their daily sports routine, and recently won a Groundswell award for their efforts. They aren’t the only sports brand leaning on social media to reach customers. New Balance has a ‘studio’ type site, and Nike has launched an online community platform. Update: … Continue readingAudio: How Nike’s Jordan team leans on Social Media

Categories: Case Study, Groundswell, Social Media, Web Marketing Posted on

Louis Vuitton gets Brand-Jacked, Collateral Damage in Anti-Genocide Campaign

Left Image: An impoverished Darfur child is shown holding an LV-like purse, image sold as a T-shirt from artist, now being sued, see Hi-Res version. Thanks to Søren Storm Hansen for bringing this to my attention. It could have been your brand It could have been Rolex, Lexus, Gucci, or even your brand, sadly for LV, it was theirs. A 26 year old artist named Nadia Plesner has been sued by Louis Vuitton for brand jacking their famous purses in a anti-genocide campaign. The artist was trying to make a point that the media cares more for Paris Hilton extravaganza’s more than the genocide in the nation of Darfur. Nadia states her intentions for the grass roots campaign: “My illustration … Continue readingLouis Vuitton gets Brand-Jacked, Collateral Damage in Anti-Genocide Campaign

Categories: Case Study, Social Media Measurement, Video Posted on

Video: Sea World’s Social Media Program and Measurement (7:10)

If you’re in need of a vacation, take this roller coaster ride with Shel Israel, who’s on a mission to explore social media when it comes to companies, a topic I’m focused on as a researcher. Sea World worked with Kami Huyse to “move the needle” to reach out to an influence community called “American Coaster Enthusiasts” to reach them using social media tools. They used YouTube, Flickr to publish their media and encouraged the community to use the videos (creative commons rights) and were encouraging content to be created. You’ll learn that this six week campaign reaches specific downloads and activity, some were downloaded 100,000 times. What about this makes a good strategy? Sea World found their passion community … Continue readingVideo: Sea World’s Social Media Program and Measurement (7:10)

Categories: Case Study, Facebook Strategy, Social Networking, Widget Strategy Posted on

Case Study: Dissecting the Dell Regeneration Graffiti Facebook Campaign

Situation The market pressure to create technology products that protect or at least damage their impact to the environment continues to grow. Sustainability and green-tech campaigns are coming from nearly every tech company –esp hardware manufactures. Dell is no exception and launches this Regeneration campaign. [Dell Leaned on an Active Artist Community In Facebook to Create, Vote, Self-Regulate what it “Means to be Green” Regeneration Campaign] Goals I’ve not spoken with the Dell marketing team, but it’s pretty obvious this is a campaign helps to help improve Dell products to be more eco-friendly, and of course, spur affinity torwards the brand from green leaning consumers, the ReGeneration site has more details. Strategy Dell Computers, along with Federated Media (A social … Continue readingCase Study: Dissecting the Dell Regeneration Graffiti Facebook Campaign

Categories: Analyst, Case Study Posted on

Stand Out From Your Competitors: How To Effectively Present a Case Study

As a vendor, part of your job is to represent yourself well in front of prospects, customers, partners, media, investors and analysts. In nearly all of those cases, you’ll be expected to tell a case study. In the space that I cover there are over 70 vendors, and you really will need to stand out of the crowd, telling an effective, memorable case study can really help. How To Tell An Effective Case Study First of all, think of a case study as telling a story: start with a start, end with the end, there is a plot, characters, opposition and an ending with a resolution. Use diagrams or slides or screenshots to supplement the discussion. 1) Define the Objective … Continue readingStand Out From Your Competitors: How To Effectively Present a Case Study