Sunday is the day where fans are most likely to engage with a brand on social media, research by Socialbakers has found.

Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and telecoms particularly fit this, with telecoms up from an average of 7% engagement during the week to 11% engagement.

Jan Rezab, CEO of Socialbaker, said: “To maximise fan engagement, brands need to tailor social media updates according to their audiences browsing habits. Whilst they must maintain engagement throughout the week, they should consider posting their most compelling content at times of peak engagement to ensure the greatest online brand buzz.”

More at: http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/04/04/sunday-most-engaging-day-brands-social-media

Kellogg’s is celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with limited edition, 1950’s cereal packaging, thought up by the firm’s Trafford-based marketing department. They will feature the first Coco the monkey illustration and the original Snap, Crackle and Pop character, with a view to helping retailers capitalise on the Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The company has commissioned collectables before, but only to mark significant years in Kellogg’s history.

More at: http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-marketing-services/retro-cornflakes-as-kellogg’s-creates-limited-edition-diamond-jubilee-packag

List of company name etymologies - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 

More at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_company_name_etymologies

Many brands have spent the past several years getting consumers to ‘like’ them on the world’s most popular social network, Facebook. And for a seemingly good reason: when it comes to location, location, location in social, you can’t beat Facebook, which may surpass the 1bn registered user mark this year.

But after a recent lavish event Facebook held for brands in New York, brands may be asking whether Facebook is working for them, or they’re working for Facebook.

As AdAge details, Facebook used the event to remind brands that only 16% of their Facebook fans actually see the content they post organically on the social network. That’s because, in an effort to protect the user experience, Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm filters out content that may not be relevant.

But in the run up to the social network’s IPO, Facebook is willing to give brands a greater ability to ensure that their marketing messages reach a much larger audience. For a price of course.

AdAge explains:

Facebook unveiled a tool, Reach Generator, that will let marketers buy all the reach they want. Priced according to the size of a brand’s fan base, the tool is designed to take a piece of content and amplify its reach by resurfacing it as an ad.

The pitch is that just 16% of fans currently see organic content posted by brands: Most of it is weeded out by Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm, designed to enhance users’ experience by putting only the most relevant content in their news feeds. Using the paid ad tool could increase a brand’s exposure percentage to as high as 75%.

As PHD USA’s chief digital officer, Craig Atkinson, told AdAge, “Many [clients] have spent significant sums to generate these fan bases, and many of them thought of those people as though they’re an owned asset, almost like an email list … but now it looks like rented media.” Rented media indeed.

Brands really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, this has been Facebook’s modus operandi for some time. From the numerous privacy changes it has foisted upon its users to the promises it has made to developers and then broken,

Facebook rarely does favors for others. Now that it’s going public and needs to put the pedal to the metal in the drive for revenue, brands are being taken on a ride many of them didn’t see coming, or didn’t want to see coming.

More at: http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/9211-with-ipo-looming-facebook-reminds-brands-all-your-fans-belong-to-us?

1. Identify your target consumer. According to Minkoff, before launching something new, a company must ask itself the following questions: Who is this customer? What is he/she doing? Where are they going? In doing so, the ideal demographic can be realized.

2. The difference between an individual’s voice and a brand’s online is the authenticity. Consumers tend to respond best to honest dialogue and story-based content.

3. Recognition is a privilege, not a right. Because social media is a conversation, companies should think about what they think would want to be read if they want to gain attention.

4. Intention converts into action. Make sure your messaging is as simple, clean, and tangible as possible. Ifeveryone can understand the purpose of your program, then it is guaranteed to attract attention.

5. “You don’t need to intimidate to rule,” voiced Licht. Known across the Internet as the voice of Donna Karan International, she knows better than any brand—particularly in the luxury sphere—the importance of approachability and accessibility.

6.  Find out the source of a trend. Who or what makes something go viral? Depending on the craze, the location of its birth can range from street style photography and bloggers, magazine editorials, or even a popular celebrity.

7. Follower count is not the ‘be all, end all.’ Darren Herman, chief digital media officer of media planning agency MediaKitchen, wants brands to know that “you don’t need to understand the numbers, you need to understand the insights.” What does this mean? That engagement and response from an online-based project is just as important, if not more important, than the number of followers an account has obtained.

8. Promotions offer limited social engagement. According to the ‘State of Style’ report, only 20 percent of online followers are driven by a promotion like competitions or discounts. In order to increase engagement, brands must be to-the-point about the purpose and usefulness of new campaigns.

9. M-commerce and apps drive both traffic and revenue. Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, founder and chief marketing officer of Gilt Groupe, reported that her company makes over 30 percent of its total revenue from mobile purchases.

10. Don’t exclude f-commerce from your social media plan. The Doneger Group’s Catherine Moellering revealed that there will be an estimated 786 percent increase in e-commerce campaigns based on the Facebook platform from 2011 to 2015.

11.  Have a hacker mentality. Don’t be afraid to put something out there, fail, experiment, and experiment again.

More at:  http://fashionablymarketing.me/2012/02/digital-marketing-strategy-insights/

Tweets sent by Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price promoting Snickers are to be formally investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Following complaints, the ASA will look into whether the tweets were in breach of advertising rules by failing to adequately inform the public they were part of a marketing campaign.

Ferdinand and Price, along with Ian Botham, Amir Khan and X Factor’s Cher Lloyd have all been paid to promote the chocolate bar.

When Sky News contacted Snickers earlier this week, a spokesperson said a series of “teaser tweets” had been sent out to “comply with social media regulations” to “ensure Twitter users knew they were enjoying promotional tweets”.

But the ASA will investigate whether it was clear the celebrity was getting paid to advertise the product.

Katie Price also tweeted a picture with a Snickers bar

In a statement the regulator said: “The ASA has launched a formal investigation into tweets by Katie Price and Rio Ferdinand to establish whether Mars’ @SnickersUK#hungry#spon campaign is in breach of the Advertising Codes.

“We are investigating two points: (a) whether it should have been stated in the ‘teaser’ tweets that they were marketing communications and (b) whether the hashtag “#spon” in the final ‘reveal’ tweet made it clear enough that that tweet was a marketing communication.”

More at: http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16157569

In what may be a first, Cadbury UK has used Google+ to introduce a new product.

“Remember this moment: the first time Cadbury revealed a new product on Google+,” the brand wrote on its Google+ Page Wednesday afternoon. “The delicious new Dairy Milk Bubbly, available with milk or white bubbles [pictured], will be the first of many we hope!”

About 2,200 people have the brand in their circles.

Cadbury didn’t use Google+ exclusively. The brand also tweeted about it. There is currently no mention of the product introduction on Cadbury UK’s Facebook Page, which has about 77,000 fans.

More at: http://mashable.com/2012/01/11/cadbury-uk-uses-google-for-product-launch/

Pepsi recently announced that it will release a new vending machine that utilizes technology such as a full touch screen for beverage selection, and will allow consumers to use cash or credit. But the more notable addition to this high-tech vending machine is its use of social networking among Pepsi drinkers. 

In addition to simply selecting a soda for oneself to drink, the new vending machine also allows consumers to send soda to each other. Let’s say a person wants to send a Pepsi to someone in another building that has the same vending machine, or even to someone that does not have the same vending machine. The consumer can enter the recipient’s name, mobile phone number and a personal message into the vending machine, and it will send a text message to the recipient.

The consumer can even record a video to be sent to the recipient. In the received text message, the location where the Pepsi can be redeemed will be noted along with the personalized message or video. 

Consumers can also send a Pepsi product to a complete stranger through the “Random Acts of Refreshment” option. This allows a consumer to send a Pepsi product to any other social vending machine. 

“Our vision is to use innovative technology to empower consumers and create new ways for them to engage with our brands, their social networks and each other at the point of purchase,” said Mikel Durham, chief innovative officer at PepsiCo Foodservice. “Social vending extends our consumers’ social networks beyond the confines of their own devices and transforms a static, transaction-oriented experience into something fun and exciting they’ll want to return to again and again.”