Tag Archive for: social media

Let’s be honest, not everyone enjoys having ads flood their social media spaces. Instagram’s new Carousel feature, however, may be a tolerable alternative to traditional social advertising.

As a social media platform deeply rooted in visual authentic experiences, Instagram knows far too well that if there is going to be an advertising feature added to its interface, it needs to be mutually beneficial for both the business and the user. So with Carousel (which is essentially “Instagram for Businesses”), ads mimic designs of multi-print campaigns, making them less interruptive to a user’s overall experience.

This new Carousel format provides users with the ability to donate, learn a recipe, or scan a look book, all within one post. As Instagram’s advertisers learn to breathe better stories into each of their posts, users’ experiences with each ad will become more meaningful. Talk about a win-win.

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Simple. Beautiful. And ad-free?

Ever feel like your social media feeds are completely overrun with advertisements for products that, eeriliy, you have recently searched for? It happens to the best of us – and it is no coincidence.

Ello wants to change that. The new platform was originally created by a group of seven artists and programmers as a private social media network, but when word got out (as it typically does in our fast-moving digital world) they decided to release it to the public. As of right now, Ello is invite only, and playing “hard to get” seems to be working for it – Ello is now one of the web’s most exclusive social networking sites.

Luckily, Ello has promised to never change its mission. It is a USA Public Benefit Corporation, which makes it impossible to ever sell ads or its users’ data. The best part of it all? Ello is completely free to use! It exhibits a more artistic, raw side of social networking that other channels don’t have, explaining in its manifesto that the creators believe in “beauty, simplicity, and transparency.”

It’s difficult to say this early on whether or not Ello will succeed as a social networking site without interplaying with advertisers. But let’s say Ello takes off, skyrockets into popularity, surpasses Facebook and Instagram, perhaps… Where does this leave the future of social advertising? What happens to social media marketing if our target audience is part of a club where no brands are allowed?

To see what the site is all about, request an invite by visiting the Ello Home Page. And then, tell us what you think!

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Image courtesy of Ello’s home page

Boston Advertising & PR Firm One as Six “Honorable Mentions from 800 Submissions for “America’s Least Wasteful Cities” Campaign for Bottle-Maker Nalgene

Blending social media marketing, interactive design, and press relations has become a hallmark of Boston advertising and PR firm Cercone Brown & Co., helping brands such as GMAC Insurance, adidas, Quiksilver and others build campaigns that drive awareness, sales leads and ROI.

On October 21st, the firm was honored for Best Online Campaign for 2009 for the prestigious Platinum PR Awards for its “America’s Least Wasteful Cities” work for reusable bottle icon Nalgene. Cercone Brown & Co. was among the top eight companies with the Best Online Campaign out of a total pool of 800 submissions.

With thrift and conservation on the minds of many Americans, the campaign put the spotlight on wasteful behavior in our nation’s top cities. “The Nalgene Least Wasteful City Study” ranked 23 waste-focused habits of urban Americans, from recycling, to using public transportation, to shutting off lights. When the results were tallied, San Francisco earned the title of America’s Least Wasteful City, while Atlanta ranked last.

Launched just prior to Earth Day, the program leveraged social media networks including Twitter and Facebook as primary channels.

“From a simple strategy of creating usable, compelling content, the effort quickly caught fire and extended beyond our hopes,” said Caroline Budney, director, social responsibility, Cercone Brown & Co.  “Almost immediately the ‘Net reacted with Twitter the clear epicenter of activity, as our frequent tweets were fueled by the tweets of columnists and bloggers.”

In total, the campaign reached more than 1 million on Twitter alone, and was extended by numerous television and print new stories. The campaign allowed Nalgene to strengthen its online community, adding fans to Facebook and followers to Twitter, making direct conversations with important alpha consumers easier and stronger.

The Platinum PR Awards

Del Monte Foods, GE, Time Warner Cable and American Express are among the organizations competing for honors in the 2009 Platinum PR Awards. Presented by PR News, the leading information resource among communicators, this highly competitive program honors the best PR campaigns and initiatives of the year.

The finalists in this year’s awards program included corporations, nonprofits and agencies large and small. The award winners were announced at an October 21, 2009 awards luncheon at the Grand Hyatt in New York City and in PR News’ Platinum PR Awards special issue in October.

The awards were judged by a blue-chip panel that includes PR executives from corporations, agencies, nonprofits and associations, and leading educators and industry consultants.

“It is remarkable how far the PR discipline has come in the past few years in terms of impacting an organization’s bottom line and reputation,” says Diane Schwartz, vice president and group publisher of PR News. “This year’s finalists in the Platinum PR Awards reinforce how powerful public relations is in moving the needle.”

PR News’ Oct. 26 Platinum PR Issue profiles the top PR campaigns of the year and will serve as a users guide to PR departments of all sizes and missions. Coverage will include profiles of the top innovative campaigns, the smartest communications initiatives and the people behind them.