Digital Connections – 360i Blog, Digital Marketing Agency

Yesterday, Twitter launched an interface redesign with enhanced Brand Pages. The update provides a more dynamic environment in which brands can form meaningful connections with their audience and emphasize unique brand identity within the platform.

Enhanced Brand Pages are now available to brands that are spending the required $25,000 a month on Twitter media. Brands who meet the spend threshold can enjoy a streamlined interface focused on follower acquisition, engagement and two-way communication. The update provides a more visual sorting of brand tweets, creating a cleaner, more efficient line of brand-to-fan communication. The redesign also brings improved analytics to the platform, allowing for more accurate and powerful media buys while providing greater user insights.

With this redesign comes great potential for brands to enhance their presence on the platform and engage followers in conversation. Brands can get creative with the new rich media capabilities and paid media opportunities. Marketers should consider revised content strategies that aligned with the more user focused design. In this report (available to read and download below), we provide an overview of Brand Pages, take a deeper look at their implications and provide recommended next steps for marketers.

Twitter’s Enhanced Brand Pages

Social Media Week 2012 is fast approaching and will present social media inspired events in 12 different cities from Feb.13-17. We’re thrilled to be participating once again, and have crafted a stellar line up of events for social media professionals and enthusiasts. Join us!

The Mobile-Social Living Room: How Emerging Media is Reviving the Live Television Experience

We kick off #SMW12 with a panel discussion entitled, “The Mobile-Social Living Room: How Emerging Media is Reviving the Live Television Experience.” This session will uncover how networks are using social to breathe new life into the live television experience, capitalizing on shifting media consumption habits and creating a model of the future when it comes to TV content creation and promotion. Moderated by David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media at 360i, the panel includes speakers from USA Network, BRAVO, Get Glue and Shazam.

Location: Art & Culture Content Hub at Hearst Magazines
Date: Monday, February 13 at 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Register for this event here!  

How Oreo is Using Social to Celebrate 100 Years of Brand Love

Next, we’re celebrate the World’s Favorite and Most ‘Liked’ Cookie leading up to Oreo’s 100^th Birthday in spring 2012. Beth Reilly, Digital & Social Marketing Lead at Kraft Foods and Sarah Hofstetter, President of 360i, will lead our session on “How Oreo is Using Social to Celebrate 100 Years of Brand Love.” We will outline how the iconic brand is connecting with people via social, building and spreading brand love within a loyal community of fans and followers in online spaces. This event is currently sold out, but the session will be viewable via Livestream (details to come).

Location: 360i HQ
Date: Tuesday, February 14 at 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM
For more information on this event, click here!

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We are honored to announce that 360i has been named in Ad Age’s Agency A-List Issue as No. 1 on its roster of “10 Standout Shops”. The annual A-List issue highlights the top agencies in Ad Land, with this particular distinction citing our near-perfect client retention, track record for innovation, responsible growth and  thought leadership program that provides regular insights across nearly every facet of digital.

Watch the video below to learn more about our agency philosophy:

This honor follows recent accolades which including spots on both Ad Age and Crain’s “Best Places to Work” lists and a nod from Fast Company as one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies.” In 2010, we landed the number six position on Ad Age’s Agency A-List, making 360i the only digital agency to be honored in the A-List issue two years in row.

Congratulations to our entire team – clients, employees and partners – for their contributions to our recent distinctions. We look forward to continuing to move the needle for our clients’ businesses through breakthrough digital programs and fostering a unique culture that values collaboration and innovation every step of the way.

Today, we’re launching the first in a series of reports exploring the role social media plays in the lives of Hispanics living in the United States. Reaching and engaging this population has become increasingly important to marketers over the past decade. The growth of this population presents both the promise of reaching a dynamic and engaged audience – armed with ever-increasing purchasing power – and the challenge of understanding the cultural nuances of a demographic with unique digital behaviors.

» Download 360i’s Report on Hispanic Digital Influencers

Why a POV series?

According to the 2010 US Census, the Hispanic population rose by 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010, , accounting for more than half of the nation’s population increase. Furthermore, in sheer dollar power, Hispanics’ economic influence rose from $212 billion in 1990 to $489 billion in 2000, to $978 billion in 2009, and is estimated to rise to roughly $1.3 trillion in 2014 (Selig Center for Economic Growth, Dec. 2010).

Read the full article »

As a television network, how do you plan to succeed in making TV social?

With recent studies pointing to buzz from social networks to be a possible driving force behind television ratings, networks are now looking to capitalize on this fact by creating social TV experiences designed to keep fans talking longer, consuming more content and providing valuable show insight.

Second-screen apps are no longer the “future” of TV; they’re becoming an integrated part of the entertainment experience right now. These apps offer fans a place to not only converse about their favorite TV shows, but connect with talent, get access to behind-the-scenes content, participate in games and more. We expect to see more and more networks creating apps for their shows, which will provide marketers with a new way to serve advertising content, gather consumer data and utilize instant feedback from conversations within the app.

IFC Sync second-screen experience for the cult show “Portlandia” (via Mashable)

New technology seems destined to make 2012 the year of the second-screen app. Here are six tips for networks and marketers to keep in mind when creating a second-screen experience.

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The Consumer Electronics Show is a massive labyrinth. As soon as you enter Las Vegas for the event, and especially by the time you reach the Convention Center, you may feel like you’ll never escape.

The good news is that once you get free, it’s possible to put down your 3D glasses and reflect on what happened. If you weren’t there, then it’s all the more important to mute the hype (“Ryan Seacrest joined Steve Ballmer for Microsoft’s keynote!”) and get a sense of what matters.

The presentation is a guide for doing that. Based on that, here are some top highlights for marketers.

5 Things That Didn’t Matter

1. Ultrabooks: This was one of the big buzzwords. That’s all it is – a buzzword for a thin laptop the likes of which has been on the market for years. Yes, it took four years for PC makers to release a MacBook Air.
2. OLED: David Pogue said it best: “What’s so silly? Even if you bought one of these screens, you’d have nothing to watch. Nobody broadcasts or sells movies in 4K or 8K resolution.”
3. 3D TV: The televisions there were gorgeous, and I wish I could watch the Summer Olympics on one of those floor models (or all of them), but they’re impractical and won’t be a big seller. A huge drawback is that while wearing the glasses, one can’t interact with their digital devices — or other people in the room.
4. Nokia’s Windows Phone: It looks great, but marketers should be screaming, “Show me the market share!”
5. Social cars: Ford and Mercedes were among the automakers showing off cars with built-in social network access. That’s great that these cars are social by design, but that’s keeping up rather than changing consumer behavior.

5 Things That Mattered

1. Connected TVs: Sony, Samsung, Microsoft, Nuance, and many others showcased how TVs will better connect with other devices and add voice controls. This has the potential to make TV advertising far more interactive – and accountable.
2. Interactive gaming: WowWee, Discovery Bay, and Parrot all showed off toys and games where the software runs on a consumer’s phone or tablet, and the hardware seamlessly interacts with it.
3. Dressing room 3.0Microsoft, Bodymetrics and others are trying to crack 3D body mapping so that shoppers can comfortably find clothes that fit perfectly whenever they shop digitally.
4. Samsung’s AdHub: Samsung promoted its AdHub ad network to run on Android and its proprietary Bada system, competing directly with Google and potentially benefiting developers with more competition.
5. Google Indoor Maps: This launched for Vegas at CES, and there may be no better city in the world for this. Expect a ton of competition this year mapping malls, department stores, grocery stores, and other locations.

See the presentation for even more, and share your thoughts with us on what mattered most to you.

Since hitting the 2 million user mark, GetGlue is looking to move beyond its reputation as a “check-in” social network to a full-fledged recommendation platform. Best known for its integration within the media and entertainment industries, GetGlue utilizes real-time check-ins to rewards members with virtual stickers, personalized content recommendations and a platform to showcase value and taste.

GetGlue has recently revamped the user interface and data analytics offerings for both its site and mobile app to create a better user experience and secure a bigger foothold in the second screen movement. You can expect even more enhancements to come, as the platform has just scored another round of venture funding to the tune of $12 million.

GetGlue makes it easy to share check-ins across myriad social properties including Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. This kind of exposure has proven successful for television networks and film companies looking to preview content before premieres and target early adopters to support programming in new ways.

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