Nicolas Sarkozy turns to Twitter to boost his Presidential Race

Nicolas Sarkozy did something clever: he is boosting his online presence on Twitter, the popular microblogging. The official account of M. Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic, is being fed in part by M. Nicolas Sarkozy himself as a private citizen.

During an interview on Europe 1, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the French Minister of Ecology, stated that she is all in favor. Not surprisingly, she is slated as becoming the official spokesperson of the future candidate. "This offers direct means of communication. I find it fun. I understand that it is based on the concept that NS (=Nicolas Sarkozy) will write and tweet the message himself."

The first tweet appeared on February 15, 2012 was signed NS. The message said: "I accepted the invitation of TF1 to appear in the news segment at 8pm tonight and I'll meet you all there." All that was missing: XOXO!

Two hours after the tweet hit cyberspace, the NS Twitter account already boasted 15,593 followers. To compare: main rival François Hollande has 147,186 followers.

Even in traditional France, politicians are harnessing the power of social media!

Tweeting all the way to be bank

Celebrities used to tweet about their day-to-day life. “I must have pinched a nerve in my neck, I can hardly look to my left. I will pass on my workout today. I need a massage.”

But now, celebs have found out that tweeting-for-money is worth while. Top earner is socialite Kim Kardashian, who commands $10,000 per tweet. Her tweets include a Nestle commercial, and the background on her Twitter page features the fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. The number of followers (KK boasts a formidable 2.7 million), is the key to profitability.

Dr. Drew Pinsky (more than 1.8 million followers) promo-tweets include endorsements for Sonos music systems and Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi. Greg Grunberg (of Heroes fame, nearly 1.5 million followers) tweets about the Yowza iPhone application multiple times a day – for an estimated $ 7,000 and $ 10,000 per tweet. (In all fairness, he donates his twitter bounty to charity).

The deal broker between celebs and companies is ad.ly. According to Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly, the likes of Britney Spears or P. Diddy could earn up to $20,000 per tweet, should they ever go for Ad.ly’s pay-per-tweet model.

By law, celebs have to disclose if they are tweeting for money or just for fun/adoration/kicks. The FTC regulation applies to all bloggers, so cave bloggerati!

An FTC-compliant tweet looks like this:
U guys have to watch [http://bit.ly/] Dancing w Stars champ @ShawneyJ backflips over speeding bobsled! Pretty cool! (Ad) 10:59 AM Dec 29th, 2009 from Ad.ly Network

Violation comes with a steep price tag: up to $ 11,000 in fines. The FTC is on the lookout, stating: "celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media”. As it looks now, we might see a juicy Twittergate scandal in 2010….

Games maker EA is at it again – another PR stunt gone wrong

This, time Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) unleashed a media storm over its Dante’s Inferno.

At San Diego Comic-Con event, EA came up with a promotion that went sadly wrong. It consisted of a contest, where show visitors were invited to "commit acts of lust" with models working at the convention –no matter in which booth. They had to submit proof by posting photos on various social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The idea was to create a viral media storm. The winner (or ultimate sinner?) would enjoy "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty." The consolation prize for the five runners- up consisted of a copy of the game, a $240 gift card and assorted game merchandise.

In the disclaimer, EA stated on the official rules page that "...judges reserve the right, in their sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any Submissions that are inappropriate for any reason, including without limitation, for depicting or mentioning sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and/or inappropriate language." In other words, keep your "acts of lust" clean!

The gaming community was not a bit charmed, to say the least. Th campaign was labeled as tasteless, immature and sexist. The company tried to explain (or to justify) by pointing out that lust is one of the nine sins/Circles of Hell and that participants were invited to take pictures with costumed reps.

"'Commit acts of lust' is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps," EA’s danteteam tweets. "Also, a ‘Night of Lust’ means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes."

The game community was not impressed and tweeting back with viral force.
addtwist tweeted on July 27, 2009: "You should've just gone with Gluttony. Take a picture of the fattest ass at Comicon and get a prize. Or is that too easy?"

It's not the first time a marketing stunt of EA goes awry.

In April 2009, the company was criticized for sending a number of media outlets a Godfather II press kit that included a very real set of brass knuckles, to promote their game based on The Godfather II. The snag: it’s illegal to own brass knuckles in a number of states.

At the E3 trade show in June 2009, EA angered Christian groups and confused journalists covering the event with the use of fake Christian protesters for promotion of its Dante's Inferno.

What are the main marketing mistakes EA made this time?

1. They only targeted male gamers
   
2. They made the incorrect assumption that everyone would understand the “tongue in cheek” and “good fun” spirit of the promotion
   
3. They did not properly addressing criticism from their fan base
   
4. They did not learn from past mistakes

It seems that EA is writing its own La Divina Commedia - Dante Alighieri would have been amused…..

Marketing to the Twitterati - companies that tweet

It seems that global warming doesn’t endanger a new breed of animals: the Twitterati.

These are frequent Twitter users, whose life seems to consist of sending as much tweets and retweets as possible. When running out of tweet content (“still stuck in traffic”, “cannot find my left contact lens”), they retweet other people’s tweets. The “me” factor is so high on Twitter, that Sprint Nextel included a flock of blue twitter birds in one of its cell phone commercials (see illustration).

For those of you, who are not familiar with Twitter, think of a micro-blog. Instead of ample space to write your story (peppered with links and images) you have on Twitter.com a limited character length of 140. As one of my friends puts it: “it’s like writing text messages on your phone, only this time online in a blog."

Companies have also fallen in love with Twitter – big time. Just check out some corporate websites, and you will find “follow us on Twitter” at the bottom of the webpage. Companies embrace Web 2.0 with a passion, also since it makes them look good. But what exactly is Web 2.0?

Web 1.0 was a one-way communication from a company to the www-surfers using a static website. Web 2.0 is bi-directional; website visitors can send info to the company. At first mainly Web 2.0 websites were mainly online shopping sites. The next 2.0 wave consisted of web forms and blogs, followed by social networking communities. LinkedIn is one of the oldest, followed by MySpace and Facebook.

Enter Twitter, where you can express your feelings (or frustrations) in 140 characters or less. Is it a Good Thing for companies, or should Twitterati stick to “who-murdered-Michael-Jackson?”
Individuals can "Me!"-tweet about “going on vacation” or “don’t like my new sweater”. Companies however need to provide value. That’s the crux of the matter - any serious company must tweet about a product proposition. Many are too lazy and just put shortened URLs to their press releases in their tweets. If you are too much “Me!” as a company, you will be ignored by the Twitterati and not be retweeted.

What excites Twitterati and makes them to read a corporate tweet?

1. Lead for new jobs


2. Cool (free!) downloads


3. Hot news about the company linked to a current event


4. Great articles about an industry or area of interest (target your Twitterati!)


5. Links to interesting newsletters or magazine articles


6. Information about network/media events


7. Links to funny cartoons or clips


8. Links to great blog postings

To leverage Twitter, companies must be smart. They need to define their target group, offer tailored tweet content with a value proposition, and keep up the effort to maintain a Twitter presence.

A grasshopper’s marketing leap

Grasshopper, an 800 phone number provider for small businesses in the US, rebranded itself.

To advertise the new name (they were previously known as GotVMail) and brand, they grafted a clever marketing strategy.

They started with compiling a list of the 5,000 most influential people in the US. It included influential bloggers, journalists, celebrities, TV anchors, and CEOs (Pete Cashmore, Adam Ostrow, and Tamar Weinberg).

Then they created a package to be sent by snail mail consisting of real chocolate covered grasshoppers ( a wink to their new name) with a simple message and video URL. The URL linked to an inspirational YouTube video about how entrepreneurs can change the world.

The packages were shipped out by FedEx last May. Some of the recipients (Josh Lohensohn of CNET) posted videos online of themselves eating the grasshopper. The campaign created a lot of buzz, especially on blogs and Twitter.

Some data (source: mashable.com):

• 4,911% traffic increase from April to May 2009
• 144,843 video views with 162 comments
• 1,500 tweets
• 120 blog posts in one month
• Tweets from Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, and Jason Calacanis
• 7 national TV mentions, including FOX

What are the success factors?

A sound concept
This was not just a renaming/rebranding, but a repositioning of the company. Needham-based GotVMail Communications LLC is a maker of communication systems for small businesses. They wanted to relaunch their company targeting entrepreneurship – a shift from being a telecommunications company to a company that helped entrepreneurs.

A theme that makes sense
The company chose the grasshopper to communicate the idea of jumping forward. Since grasshoppers can jump 20 times their own size, they nicely symbolize small businesses (their potential customers) that want to leap forward.

Flawless execution
The grasshoppers were farm-raised insects and dipped in chocolate. They were very professional packaged and clearly stated what was inside.

The front of the envelope said:
“Yes, these are real grasshoppers. Approved by the FDA of Thailand”.

On the back was written:
“You’re a risk-taker, a dream-realizer. What’s left to do that you haven’t already done? Eat a grasshopper. They’re farm raised, covered in chocolate and rich in protein. So, not only will you be breaking boundaries, but you’ll be eating healthy, too.”

The call to action was on the attached tag:
Entrepreneurs can change the world.Join the movement now!http://grasshopper.com/idea
Perfect marketing mix
This campaign combines a snail mail FedEx package with word of mouth (WOM) and social media. The landing page of the video URL made it easy for postings on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites using an AddThis widget.

Attainable goals
The Grasshopper campaign was able to achieve its main goals with a small budget:

• To get attention
• To hold interest
• To get people talking
• To be considered as a supplier

No word if PETA was among the 5,000…..