Mediaboss Marketing

By Chris Reidy, Globe Staff

Think of it as an elevator-pitch competition for social media marketing ideas, only with some of the pitches submitted by video.

That seems to be the idea behind a Friday announcement from Dunkin Donuts and its ad agency, Hill Holliday of Boston. In a press release, the two said they are sponsoring a competition --- dubbed the Dunkin Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot --- that asks start-ups from across the country to devise a plan that will help make Dunkin the most social brand in America.

The event will pit start-up companies against one other to pitch Dunkin Donuts their idea for addressing a specific marketing challenge, Dunkin and Hill Holliday said. The winner will get $5,000, access to and advice from senior Hill Holliday and Dunkin Donuts team members, and also have the chance at a paid assignment to execute the idea.

Based in Canton, Dunkin Donuts is a restaurant change specializing in coffee and baked goods. On the chains behalf, Hill Holliday devised the America runs on Dunkin ad campaign. (Other Hill Holliday clients include Verizon Wireless, Bank of America, Liberty Mutual, John Hancock, the Chilis restaurant chain, and the drug maker Novartis.)

The Dunkin Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot competition will be part of FutureM, a marketing event scheduled for next month at the John B. Hynes Veterans Memorial Convention Center in Boston. The organizer of FutureM is the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange.

Entrants in the turbo competition are asked to submit a three-minute video that explains how the start-up can help make Dunkin Donuts the most social brand in America. Pitch videos will be accepted through Oct. 10, and the finalists announced a few days later. On Oct. 23, the finalists will make pitches to a panel of judges at FutureM. Dunkin said it will announce the winner on the spot.

In a statement, Scott Hudler, a Dunkin vice president, said: Were always looking for new and unique ways to celebrate our passionate Dunkin Donuts fans through innovative social media campaigns and initiatives. As our community of fans and followers continues to grow, were excited about the opportunity to offer one start-up a chance to add value to our social media program.

Hill Holliday, meanwhile, is linking the Turbo Shot event to its Project Beacon program, which is designed to deepen the ad agencys relationship with start-up companies. The program launched last year, and its first class was made up of 12 start-ups, Hill Holliday said.

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Have a black belt in social media marketing? You may want to sign up for the ‘Dunkin’ Donuts Start-up Turbo Shot ...

Sara Holland

Jordan Bitterman, Digitas' SVP and social marketing practice lead, spoke with Direct Marketing News about the increasing number of social media request for proposals (RFPs) that agencies are receiving.

Q: What elements do social media RFPs usually entail for agencies?

A: The chronology of social marketing starts with listening, evolves to strategy, and leads to community engagement. Therefore, RFPs align to where the marketer resides. As a result, we see a lot of requests for work in listening and analytics.

Q: To what extent is a social media RFP different from a traditional RFP?

A: They're different but they shouldn't be. Brands are searching for social-specific solutions, but they need holistic marketing solutions of which social plays a driving role. Our preferred RFPs include integrated marketing relationships where our social work becomes the driver of a broader marketing plan. In both social media and traditional RFP cases, we must showcase our problem-solving capabilities and the partners we work with to solve them.

Q: What are some challenges that you face when responding to a social media RFP?

A: There's no one social-specific challenge for RFPs; no matter what the subject area, each RFP comes with its own set of unique requirements and considerations. We're always looking for the best way to show our depth of experience and what that could accomplish for the prospective client.

Q: Do clients have unrealistic requests due to a lack of understanding of social media?

A: Nothing we've seen in an RFP has been misinformed. However, the social category, much like digital, is moving so fast that certain elements of RFPs might not be as relevant once the business moves forward. For instance, an agency's opinion on a specific partner might demonstrate their knowledge and relationships in the space, but may not be the solution that the agency or client wants to work with a few months later.

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Agencies see uptick in social RFPs

Woobox, a two-year old social marketing platform, recently added support for Apples Passbook in its coupons app. The integration lets businesses create Passbook coupons using its system, and can even require customers to perform some sort of social action before gaining access to the coupon. For example, they may have to like the brand on Facebook or follow them on Twitter. But the company has also just added another feature which could really spur Passbook adoption at the small business level: support for Passbook coupons over SMS.

This feature is an option within the current Passbook coupon creation process Woobox just introduced last week. It means that businesses can advertise to customers to text a particular number in order to immediately receive a mobile coupon thats then stored directly in their Apple Passbook app. And most importantly, it means that businesses of all sizes can get onboard with Passbook, even if they dont have point-of-sale equipment capable of scanning QR codes, like the big-brand Passbook early adopters (Walgreens, Target, airlines, etc.) do.

I was able to test the system this morning, and it was incredibly easy to use. To those who say Passbook still has its kinks to work out, this is a drop-dead simple solution. In my test, I simply texted the word crunch to the phone number provided and immediately received a text back with a link to the coupon. All that I had to do was tap the link and the Passbook coupon appeared.

From there, you can tap the blue Add button to save the coupon to your Passbook app, if you choose. Of course, if a customer was planning to use the coupon immediately, that step isnt necessary they could just launch the coupon and show it to the cashier at point-of-sale without storing it for later use (as would be appropriate for one-time use coupons, for example).

Whats really clever about the Passbook couponing system that Woobox has created are the various configuration options that let businesses optionally create restrictions and other steps users must perform before theyre allowed access to the coupon. In this case, instead of the SMS-sentlink directly opening the Passbook coupon on the iPhones screen, it would direct the customer to an offer web page where they might have to take some other action, like become a Facebook fan of the business, follow them on Twitter, or tweet the offer to their Twitter followers, for example.

The businesses can also restrict the coupons to one per customer, configure them for one-time use, limit the total number of coupons that can be generated, and set expiration dates during the coupon creation process. The system supports the use of coupon codes as an alternative to scanning the QR code. QR code scanning is supported the business can use any scanning app to do so but its not integrated with point-of-sale systems. Instead, the scan will display whether a coupon has been redeemed. According to Woobox founder George DeCarlo, businesses are more likely to have a system that supports coupon codes in place already, which is why this method makes more sense.

The demand just isnt there [for POS integration using QR codes], because theres very low-tech simple solutions that they can use, he says. With Woobox, businesses can either download a list of coupon codes that Woobox generates for them, or they can upload a list of their own coupon codes to print on the vouchers. Weve had some big brand restaurant chainsexport out a list of codes from their point-of-sale system because they may not be set up to scan a QR code on a pass. But they can use the code thats on the front of the pass and type that into the POS and validate that coupon as legitimate, he says.

Woobox, for those unfamiliar, works with over a million brands that use its apps, primarily on Facebook. It has worked with Starbucks, Sams Club, Nordstrom, Warner Bros., Wendys, A&P, Quiznos, Jiffy Lube, Cold Stone Creamery, and many others, including small, mom-and-pop businesses. It offers coupon apps, sweepstakes apps, static HTML tab apps for Facebook, Pinterest apps (including a new Pin to Win app), and more. The company now sees over a quarter of a billion Facebook page app visits per month, to give you an idea of scale.

In other words, Woobox has the reach to begin making something like SMS to Apple Passbook a thing.

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Social Marketing Platform Woobox Lets Businesses Send Apple Passbook Coupons Via SMS

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

uberVU, a proven social monitoring and engagement system for the enterprise, today announced Version 2.0 of its social marketing platform, with unprecedented insights that enable social marketers to work smarter not harder. The uberVU platform now provides a complete and intelligent loop for multitasking social marketers going beyond staid practices of simple listening, mention captures and spike identification. With over 100 new features and enhancements, uberVU changes the face of social media engagement and monitoring with a fresh new way of interpreting data and actionable information.

Social media monitoring has reached a tipping point: marketers need better solutions not solely just to capture brand mentions, field customer service complaints or leverage company kudos they need a lightning-speed process to identify which of the thousands of detected social updates is most crucial, needs immediate action or affects a brands holistic marketing strategy. Early social monitoring solutions were tactically focused, and usually clunky and challenging for the user. They may have helped marketers capture mentions and create lists, but lacked a synergistic flow that provided a dynamic information highway toward meaning and the priority of insightful data. uberVU eliminates archaic manual practices that once solely involved filtering key words and deciphering meaning to create or modify strategy; its sophisticated technology is now a trilogy: filtering, deciphering meaning, and executing strategy on a constant, actionable loop provided by a socially friendly interface thats intuitive, fun to use and fast.

Zach Hofer-Shall, Senior Analyst with Forrester Research, Inc. writes in his June 2012 report, How To Make Social Media Data Actionable, "Although many professionals understand the value of social media data, far fewer are able to transform it into customer insight that drives better marketing strategy.

uberVU is making that process faster and much simpler. Businesses no longer doubt that social media is a crucial mix in their marketing, but they are still searching for the validity of allocating time and resources as part of an effective brand strategy. uberVU makes it easier than ever to integrate social into what should be an everyday conversation, and to ensure that strategy returns value to the organization, said Mark Pascarella, CEO of uberVU.

uberVUs new features include:

1. Immediate Insights provides a complete picture in seconds rather than hours or days. Many providers claim real time data delivery; uberVU is one of the few that actually does it.

2. Ease of Use a robust solution delivering enterprise-class functionality but designed from a consumer point of view.

3. Context suggests appropriate actions based on whether a social media event is about your company, competitors, market, etc.

4. Actionability enhanced uberVU SignalsTM - with spikes, influencers, stories and mentions delivered automatically.

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uberVU Expands Insightful Monitoring for #SmarterSocial; Helps Marketers Work Smarter, Not Harder

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 24, 2012

Social media agency Maximize Social Media LLC announced its social media marketing program today, providing online marketing support to retail businesses nationwide. The agency will offer strategy development and complete day-to-day strategy execution on the top social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.

Retailers have historically generated business by traditional advertising such as Yellow Pages, newspapers and direct mail. Retailers now have an opportunity to get in front of customers where they spend the most time social media. And sites like Facebook give customers a platform to spread the word about retailers to dozens, hundreds and even thousands of friends, said Craig Collins, Sr. Vice President of Maximize Social Media LLC.

The firm will also manage and optimize the Google Plus Local listings for retail businesses. By optimizing this listing, businesses have an opportunity to secure a position on the top of Google page one search results where consumers are actively seeking their services.

Maximize Social Media provides full social media management services in over 50 different verticals. The agency will fully integrate all aspects of social media for businesses that will find it more affordable to outsource the management rather than hire additional staff. Maximize provides both ad management, which will allow the businesses to target specific demographics, as well as daily engagement by a dedicated social media manager.

Retailers as well as their advertising agencies are invited to contact Maximize Social Media for a no obligation consultation at:

http://maximizesocialmedia.com/strategysession

About Maximize Social Media LLC

Maximize Social Media (http://maximizesocialmedia.com) is a leading provider of social media management services for clients in over 50 different verticals. With offices in Florida and Los Angeles, Maximize provides social media consulting and Facebook advertising management for clients in English speaking countries such as the US, Canada, and Australia. The company also features social media management outsourcing for busy social media mangers looking for additional assistance on a white label basis.

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Retailer Social Media Marketing Program Offered by Social Media Agency Maximize Social Media LLC