The MoPR Blog

When viral goes…viral. We’re always fascinated by a great marketing campaign – and here’s a good one. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently launched a viral campaign to help defeat a viral disease, the flu.

The CDC has launched a multifaceted public awareness campaign to encourage flu vaccination. A sampling of the agency’s methods include a YouTube film, web ads, eCards and “older” media such as posters, print ads and PSAs. The CDC also recently held a webinar with popular “mommy bloggers” (or as we like to call them, the mamarazzi) to enlist them to help spread the word on the importance of vaccinations. It’s working. We’ve definitely seen an uptick in flu shot messaging.

Metrics killed the video star. Imagine if you could gauge the exact moment viewers of your YouTube video lost interest and clicked away. Now you can. YouTube has unveiled YouTube Insight that lets marketers, filmmakers, and amateurs alike analyze viewer habits. The free tool lets anyone with a YouTube account view detailed statistics about the videos that they upload to the site. According to YouTube, uploaders can see how often their videos are viewed in different geographic regions, as well as how popular they are relative to all videos in that market over a given period of time. Users can also delve deeper into the lifecycle of their videos, like how long it takes for a video to become popular, and what happens to video views as popularity peaks.

YouTube says using these metrics can help people posting videos to increase a video’s view counts and improve popularity on the site by finding their audience then concentrating on creating compelling new content that appeals to their target audiences, and finally posting these videos to YouTube on days they know these viewers are on the site.

Does this mean Obama is a Mac? Remember when the Obama campaign turned to text messaging to announce the vice president? Now they’re delving deeper into tech waters by unveiling an iPhone application. Developed by a team in Portland, Ore. (gotta have some hometown pride!) the official application from the campaign will give users the following:

• Call Friends: A great volunteering tool that lets users talk to people they already know – with contacts prioritized by key battleground states. Users can make calls and organize results all in one place.
• Call Stats: Users can see nationwide Obama ‘08 Call Friends totals and find out how their call totals compare to leading callers.
• Receive Updates: Receive the latest news and announcements via text messages or email.
• Local Events: Find local events, share by email and get maps and directions.

If you’re in the Portland area, be sure to stop by the Mission Theater and Pub next Tuesday to celebrate the launch of the official Obama ‘08 iPhone application. Drink some beer, watch the debate and download the app.

And speaking of presidential campaigns and uncharted use of technology…mobile will play a key part. As both presidential campaigns aim to get out the vote using multi-channel marketing like never before, Nielsen Mobile has unveiled some context on how mobile phones may play a role in this election season.

In addition to the text message campaign and iPhone apps, the Obama campaign has a full mobile website containing news, videos and ringtone and wallpaper downloads. Meanwhile, says Nielsen, the McCain campaign “has not been as active in mobile media, but that may make sense.”
Perhaps the McCain campaign “knows that, in 2008, mobile is a more effective channel for reaching Democrats than Republicans.”

Nielsen Mobile reports that, as of Q2 2008, mobile media was slightly more popular with Democrats than Republicans. Here are the stats:

• Overall, 62% of Democrats are mobile data users who use one or more data service on their mobile phone (compared to 55% of Republicans)
• Democrats are more likely than Republicans to use text messaging (53 percent compared to 46 percent)
• Democrats are more likely to use picture messaging and MMS (27 percent compared to 21 percent)
• Democrats are more likely to use mobile Internet, as well (17 percent compared to 13 percent)

These variations, however small, indicate that advertising across mobile channels tends to be more efficient at reaching Democrats than Republicans.

That’s not to say that conservative voters are without a place in mobile media. According to Nielsen, The Drudge Report, a “news site many consider to be conservative-leaning, attracted a mobile Internet audience of 567,000 unique users per month, as of July 2008.”

How important is social media to businesses? Very, say customers. If you thought that social media was some trendy, hip teen trend, you’re wrong. New research from Cone claims that an overwhelming majority (93%) of online Americans say companies should have a social-media presence, and 85% believe these companies also should be interacting with consumers through social media.

Asked about specific types of interactions, respondents said:

• Companies should use social networks to solve their problems (43%).
• Companies should solicit feedback on their products and services (41%) via social media.
• Companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand (37%) through social media.
• Companies should market to consumers (25%) using social media.
• One-third of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (age 18-34) believe that companies should actively market to them via social networks.

Interesting to us is that the wealthiest households (household income of $75K+) believe that companies should seek to reach them via social media.

We have [yet another] winner! Remember that scene in It’s a Wonderful Life when it’s explained that every time a bell rings an angel earns their wings? Well, at MoPR, every time one of our clients wins an award, we update our email signatures. And lately, we’ve been doing a lot of updating!

Congratulations are in order for Mobility PR client Hovr, the first place winner for “Mobile Infotainment & Community” at the Mobile Content 2008 awards. And three of our Canadian clients, Cascada Mobile, Talkster and Viigo all won Red Herring’s Top 50 award that celebrates the most innovative and promising private technology companies in Canada. Congratulations to our wonderful clients.

Tags: Cascada Mobile, cone, drudge report, hovr, it's a wonderful, nielsen mobile, obama iphone, red herring, Talkster, viigo, youtube insight

This entry was posted on Friday, October 3rd, 2008 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Mobility Public Relations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.