I’ve been to quite a few blogger events; I also work in social media for a living, so that means we run events where we get bloggers/tweeters etc along to experience what we are trying to sell. What we talk about, a lot, is value exchange. How are we going to get people, who are not paid media, to write about the product…what value can we give them that is a valid exchange for a post/tweet/video etc that we are after. We spend a lot of time thinking about the best way to do this, so maybe I’m a little bit more critical than the average attendee?

The attendee was partly self-selecting; before Christmas, the various Virgin social media properties sent out a tease to sign up for a mysterious event in January. One of the people I connect with on Twitter brought it to my attention. My curiosity was piqued, as this seemed to be a different way to get people to blogger events.

• they asked for details of Twitter accounts, blogs, Google+ and Facebook etc. It was a very easy process and was seemless on the mobile version. So far, so good
• The self-selecting thing is a good idea, if you are after people who are going to be enthusiastic about writing about the event

The proposed attendees received an email last week confirming the time, date, location and the product. Now we knew it was for Virgin Money and that Branson would be present. They emphasised that we needed to confirm we were going, as we would not get in without our name on the list. They also confirmed we’d be able to get something warm to drink, as the event was going to be taking place outside. They appeared to have a great response, as there was talk about 200 or so people.

• There was no list. There was not even a general check to see if you were supposed to be at the event. Just a wave into the room
• I could have had soup, tea or coffee, but no water or soft drink, nothing else if you did not want caffeine or liked tomato soup. A jug of water would have been good – on asking, the staff did find a tap. You don’t have to provide the social lubricant that is alcohol, as many events do, but at least make sure there are alternatives

When I arrived, Branson was being photographed whilst the guests milled around the room. At some point there was a general wander to where the shoot was taking place and out came the cameras, then a surge outside to where the event was taking place.

• There was no announcements or information about what was going on, it was just follow my leader. There could have been some expectation setting, maybe a welcome with an indication of what was available. Could we interview Branson? Could we chat with anyone about the product? How could we recognise who to speak to?

Outside, there was some posing for photos and a short speech ab out how this would disrupt banking, before the show started, an animation projected against the building

• the animation and the projection mapping was suberb. It really used the UL Senate building to great advantage. It was so good, they played it twice. As the main atraction, it worked

One more round of thank yous and that was it. A quick wander round to see if there was anything else going on and home I went. The show would be replayed a couple of times, but there seemed to be nothing else happening.

• there was nothing available that I could see as information. Every blogger event I’ve ever been at has information available so that you can write about it, either on paper, more commonly now on USB sticks with data and images/video or at least an email. There was nothing at the event and nothing arrived yet. So all I’m writing about is the poor organisation.
• There was no real experience. It was standing round a courtyard, with no idea what was going on. There was no welcome, no-one to feel that our presence there was welcome, or that they wanted to help us. They just wanted people to tweet, video and post later.
• I really, really hope that the people who had spent money to travel to the event (it was said there were people from Cornwall, Manchester etc) got something out of being in the same room as Richard Branson. As that seems to be the only story they can tell.

Looking at Twitter, there was some ‘wow’ going on as well as some other stuff

@kmb2009 wonder if the social media crowd was just there as a ‘rent a mob’ to give the unveil of graphics & video a guaranteed audience #virginmoney

@mioomiuk Well that was epic! The whole University of London building just “blew up” thanks to #virginmoney! Video coming shortly!

@woggledog @jasonbetts You missed a great experience at @virginmoney event this PM. The video was inspiring. Not much else to the event though

So I’m left with the following. Branson is very smiley. Whoever produced the projection is very, very good. And Virgin Money may be trying to change the way banking happens but my impression is there’s no change, they’re terrible at understanding how to treat people.

Update: Got an email with a link to the video (as I said, the creative is quite nice). Apparently what we saw was the TV ad…they could have mentioned this! Plus the following:

We’ve seen lots of the video’s and pictures you’ve posted already and they look great!

Yep, single way value, no exchange!

Haven’t we all wanted the vending machine to do just that little bit more, happy when it makes a mistake and accidently gives you 2 chocolate bars, or whatever you were after. Here’s a surprise machine that gives you more, an extra can, some popcorn and cupcakes galore (mmm, cupcakes )

It’s a simple idea, taking the digital into the physical and spreading a little bit of happiness to a few directly and delivering a smile to a lot more through the video. I wonder if it’s going to turn up somewhere else. (I’m also wondering how they managed to concince the college to put a hole in the wall, or was it in front of a door!)

To promote the launch of their mobile broadband in the Netherlands, they’ve conceived a race between the dongle download speed and Lewis Hamilton in a F1 car (from 2 years ago). they’re looking for 28,800 people to join in and connect with the Vodafone vs Hamilton Facebook app. At an average of 10kb per profile picture, they’ll attempt to download all of the images quicker than the car can race 2.7km. Now obviously, the distances and numbers have been calculated so that I’m pretty sure the download will win, but it’s certainly a great idea to promote the speed of the new service.

They have a cool visualisation of all the profile pics, with a 3D rotating car made up of the pictures and it’s incentivised, at least for Dutch members, with prizes of computer and free Mobile broadband service. (Although personally, I think I’d rather attend the race!)

• It’s a great idea perfectly expressing speed and leveraging the sponsorship
• Although it’s a Dutch promotion, it’s open to anyone to contribute to the race, so having a wider branding reach than just the new product launch. Vodafone have mobile broadband in many countries, so it works just as well for them
• There’s a risk if they don’t reach the numbers required. As of now, they have 4.7k participants, only 16% of the required and it’s 11 days to go. I’m sure they’re promoting through social ads and in-market collateral, as well as the auto-posts to Facebook Wall. The latter is a minor annoyance, as they are posting without informing specifically what they will say

Updated 13 Sept

I watched this today. or at least tried to. Here’s what happened:

• The McLaren twitter feed, @thefifthdriver was giving news about the race happening before it was due to start on Facebook.
• When it eventually started, we were subjected to 25 mins of images of Hamilton sitting in his car, with a commentary bascially telling us that we were waiting for clearances etc (I think, My Dutch isn’t brilliant).
• There was a very quick sequence of the car racing the digital version, before switching back to the ‘live’ feed.
• The Facebook app then stopped broadcasting and declared the results. Facebook 0, Hamilton 2, although with copy that states that Facebook won. (result later changed to 1-2) and the copy changed to reflect the result that Hamilton won

So, great idea, badly executed with the stream. I’ve no idea what happened. I’ll get the edited highlights later, but it was supposed to be live!

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This is the new Sony Ad for their 3dTV, the obligatory football ad. I’d love to know if it actually works if the ad works in 3D if you have the glassesm meanwhile it just gives me a headache. There’s going to be up to 25 matches from the World Cup broadcast in 3d this year and Sony are going to be busy providing venues for you to watch the games, according to their Facebook page. They’re definitely going for the early adopters…the glasses themselves cost £99

As far as I can see, there’s no other digital marketing around the product, just the TV ad and mentions on the Facebook page, plus content promotion on the main site, although with a distinct lack of prices. Looks like they’ll be available just in time for the football though.

Make something fun, make a game of it and more people will do it. No surprises there then. What is a surprise is that this video and The Fun Theory (the site is in Swedish) is done by Volkswagen

Definitely non-typical car marketing, but I love it. The sense of whimsey surrounding the activities is great; a brand that shows it can have fun is one I’m far more likely to interact with

The Viral Factory have produced a video are helping to promote this contest,; it’s definitely a unique video, mildly amusing I’m guessing mainly men were involved in the creative process, as it definitely seems to be focused on a particular male challenge. The video was produced by 1861United,Italy.

It’s shown on the front of the site as well. However, I really wish they wouldn’t do this – calling something viral when it’s not really racked up the views (around 4k at the moment) is a little flase advertising.

But I was sold on the gameplay description and the trailers, not the actual experiential elements. They’re a little less successful in my case, but I’ve seen they are definitely catching the eye of many.

The experience is a variation on uploading your photos and appearing as part of the trailer/video. The difference here is that you don”t choose which photos to upload but that it grabs them from Facebook. To take part, you have to link your Facebook profile to the game page, using Facebook Connect, a variation on OAuth where you don’t have to give out your password to anyone.

It then runs a trailer for the game, pulling your photos in from the service and interspersing them throughout the action. they also include all your details, the personal information. As I only have 1 image on Facebook, I thought they wouldn’t have much luck but what it does it goes and trawls your connection and brings in their photos as well. You can’t share the video or embed it anywhere as far as I can see, so I think they’re mainly avoiding the copyright and privacy issues that this ‘borrowing’ of images and use of personal details entails, but I was surprised that the system would do this.

After watching the personalised trailer, you get to answer some questions to win a game copy and an XBox360 and then you’re then asked to spread the word, using your choice of network – Facebook or Twitter. This seems to be a requirement of the competition entry, but as I can’t see any terms and conditions, I’m not sure

This is the second campaign I’ve seen this week that has built in the ability to autopost to your status stream, so it’s looking like it’s this quarter’s hot trend. It’s a savvy call to action, although if too many in your network do it, I can see it not quite having the desired impact. Making it compulsary is problematic; the experience should be good enough to get people to want to share it, not making them do it because you don’t trust your stuff is good enough for sharing.

Elsewhere on the site, you can get a story overivew, see some trailers and get some great artworks to download. Most importantly, you can pre-order, but only from specific retailers (Smartoys which is French, fnac, Game Mania, both Belgium.Dutch). So despite being able to see the site in English and it being big in English blogs, you can’t actually by in the UK. The site has been done in Belgium by Sponge and 1MD, so it looks like it is for that market only, although there’s no indication until you’re deep into that it does not apply to you, but again, no T&Cs so I’m not sure if I can enter or not.

First, we have Jerusalem by William Blake, turned into the strange quotes from a footballer. Although I’m not sure you’d have all these people watching a press conference, the strangeness definitely fits.

We’ve also got The King Blues, quoting Byron, a moment of stillness and contemplation in the midst of a rock gig. (you can also find the video on their MySpace)

As well as the two above, the BBC YouTube channel has a whole bunch of interviews with various celebrities, talking about how poetry has influenced them.

On the BBC site, you can vote for your favourite poet (my vote went to Yeats), find out about the many programmes they are doing on the subject or the live events. According to the email I received, there’s also supposed to be a widget I can embed, but that seems to have failed to arrive at the moment.

What I think

The email pitch was nicely done, polite, all the information required, from someone I’d previously met. Definitely not a mass emailing there. The videos are lovely, then again it’s the BBC, so you’d expect that.

The site itself acts as a hub to all the other content that is being offered, an information hub. At the moment, the only interactivity is the voting. I’ll take a look at the promised widget when it arrives. A solid site, nothing spectacular, but supporting the season well.