infographics courtesy of CSA
Showing posts with label social shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social shopping. Show all posts
The Year in Digital And The Brands Using It Most Wisely According to the L2 Think Tank.
A look at The Year In Digital (social media, online commerce, mobile, content sharing) as well as the 2011 luxury brand digital "geniuses" from a year's worth of L2's Digital IQ Index® research.
L2, a think tank for Digital Innovation, has selected what they are referring to as the Eight Most Innovative Digital Programs in Prestige/Luxury and 2011′s Geniuses. Brands that understand how Americans interact and engage with social media, spending more time on social sites than they do on portal sites (with 95% of that social networking time spent now spent on Facebook)
These brands have figured out how to make meaning in the fire hose of daily tweets and video uploads. They understand the implications of a world where e-commerce volume will reach $197 billion by year end (Amazon is 1/3 of that number), 85 percent of the population is blanketed with a commercial wireless signal, and Facebook hosts tens times more photos than the Library of Congress.
L2 states that "The taste for luxury goods will always endure, but the digital world moves quickly. Today’s giants have created tremendous opportunity for themselves in the marketplace, but on the web there’s always room for the rise of the unexpected, the meme, and the new, next, next thing."
And here are their picks for the The Eight Most Innovative Digital Programs in Prestige:
#1 Burberry
#2 Lancome
#3 Oscar de la Renta
#4 Estee Lauder
#5 Dior
#6 Sephora
#7 Benefit Cosmetics
#8 Kate Spade
Consumers are hungry and today digital represents the greatest opportunity for brands to punch above their weight class. As their benchmarking tracks into 2012 it looks like there are quite a few brands bulking up and throwing punches.
Here are their picks for the 2011 Digital Geniuses
Fashion: Burberry, Kate Spade, Coach, Gucci
Watches & Jewelry: Tiffany & Co.
Beauty: MAC, Clinique
China: Audi, BMW, Burberry
Specialty Retail: Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom, Macy’s
Magazines: Time
Facebook: BMW, Audi, Belvedere Vodka, Bare Escentuals, Infiniti, Clinique, Ferrari, Bobbi Brown, Lexus, Tory Burch, Lancome, Johnny Walker
Travel: Airlines – Southwest, Delta, Continental Airlines, American Airlines; Hotels – Westin, W Hotels, Hilton
L2 looks at the state of digital (social media, online commerce, mobile, content sharing) as well as luxury and prestige brand digital "geniuses" from a year's worth of our Digital IQ Index® research.
Be sure to check out their informative library of individual videos of the ways brands are using digital here on Vimeo.
Follow them on twitter
Visit them at L2 Think Tank
Sweet! The Tweet Towel Dries With 140 Custom Characters.
The other day I received a great little gift in the mail. A Tweet Towel from We Are What We Do, a global movement that inspires people to use their everyday behavior to affect big environmental and social issues.
The woven white dish towel had a personal embroidered Tweet to me from the folks at the London-based We Are What We Do, which showed through the clear window of the mailer:
When unboxed, I saw that the 42 X 60 cm absorbent white woven cotton towel had a diagonal hanging hook on reverse corner and embroidered detailing along with the personalized or custom "tweet".
I cannot deny it. It is hip, fun and functional. And a brilliant idea for marketing and branding a company or product. Not to mention that the proceeds from the affordable and clever gift go to fund a worthy cause.
The idea came from mashing up traditional crafts and digital communication. For those less tech-savvy, a "tweet" is a 140 character message that you can send via the website Twitter. And a tea towel is... well you probably know what they are.
All profits go to the We Are What We Do Charitable Foundation, funding their digital inclusion projects to get different generations talking more, sharing more and spending more time together.
Tea towel details:
* 42 X 60 cm
* Absorbent white woven cotton
* Diagonal hanging hook on reverse corner
* Satin taffeta label
* Packaged in an A4 gift box with clear panel to view personal messages
Machine wash at 40 degrees max. Do not tumble dry. The tea towel is shipped from their responsible suppliers in Turkey and is embroidered in the UK. All the packaging 100% recyclable and they ask that you recycle it as well :)
Get your own Tweet Towel (and one for a friend) here.
Learn about We Are What We Do here.
Shop for their other products here
Like Your Facebook Friends Enough To Hang Them On Your Wall?
Like your FB friends enough to immortalize them on a large printed poster? That's the idea behind grad student Benjamin Lotan's 'Printing Facebook', a custom printed Friend Poster. For $20, you can choose from your own friends, your favorite groups or fan pages and have each of the profile pics ganged on one photographic print.
Paper stock: Benjamin uses Fuji Crystal Archive photo paper, a high-quality professional grade paper with real weight that will not rip or fold easily. Your poster is exposed onto this paper and developed with traditional photo chemicals so it will have a richer image quality than any ink-jet printer process.
above left: the 5,000 pic poster is the largest Benjamin has printed to date and just about reaches the limit.
How many friends? The size of your friends' photos are optimized to fill out the full space, so the dimensions will depend upoon the total number of friends. The code is optimized such that your poster will look fantastic whether you have 200 friends, or up to 2,200 friends.
Custom options: You can decide how much space you want between your friends' pictures. If you want to maximize on the size of your friends photos you can even decide to print a poster with no margins at all.
For the background color, there are 4 options: black, white, and two shades of facebook blue. You can preview each color as you go through the ordering process.
*please note that your poster may print a few inches shorter than 40"
• Large 20"x40" print
• Customizable Options
• High Resolution Print
• Quality Photo Paper
• Print Groups & Fan Pages
• $20
Order yours here.
My 15 Minutes of Fame
Above: the photo by Jay Clendening, accompanying the article in the LA Times
In todays' Los Angeles Times, reporter Alana Semuels did a story on social shopping networks for which I was interviewed. Imagine my pleasant surprise at the color 5" x 7" photo of myself (and my dog, Indie) accompanying the article, smack on the back page of the business section!
Here is the article:
Laura Sweet may be the Internet's Oprah Winfrey -- for objects shaped like guns, that is.
Just as millions look to the billionaire talk show host for tips on books, health and beauty, hundreds turn to Sweet's "gun-shaped stuff" page on www.thisnext.com for hair dryers, television remotes and vases with the contours of firearms.
Sweet, who trolls the Internet every day for cool and wacky things that might be worth acquiring, has recommended 1,590 products on the Los Angeles-based website. "It has kind of pointed me out as a design maven," the 42-year-old Beverly Hills resident said as the holiday gift-buying season entered its final days.
So-called social shopping websites like ThisNext are uniting people the world over through their love of conspicuous consumption. By mentioning a product, a self-appointed authority can convert it from unknown junk to a must-have in moments. That's made superstars like Sweet popular with manufacturers trying to spread the word about their products.
So far, ThisNext has recorded more than 155,000 clicks on items based on Sweet's recommendations alone.
On Kaboodle, another social shopping site, members can check out recommendations from "featured Kaboodlers," who have lists of things they want, including "things for my cat" and "accessories and jewelry." The site had 4 million unique visitors in November, up from 1 million in June, and has sold ad space to major brands such as Crest and Visa.
"We're drawing on the wisdom of the crowds," said Manish Chandra, Kaboodle's founder and chief executive.
The crowds have eclectic tastes. Among the products made popular by online advocates: Walkie Bits, which are little turtles that move across tabletops; a faucet that changes colors based on the temperature of the water coming out of it; and a $50 watch that says NOW on its face instead of giving the time.
Morgan Bennett, creator of the watch, said sales spiked after the public relations director of ThisNext persuaded him to post the watch on the site. It hadn't been advertised anywhere else.
"One guy picked it, and then boom, some guy from Norway was looking at it," Bennett said. "Now they're pretty much sold out."
Although the sites provide links to places online where shoppers can buy the products listed, many members use them for getting ideas rather than shopping. When they intend to buy something, nearly 70% of U.S. consumers start their online shopping at a specific merchant's website, and only 0.08% start at Kaboodle, according to research firm EMarketer Inc.
For those who post on such sites, the lure of being known by peers as a person of impeccable taste is irresistible. Emily Boss, a member of ThisNext, said it's an ego boost when people e-mail you to compliment you on your fashion sense or mark your review as funny. She's part of the new ThisNext Maven program, selected by the company's staff as one of the site's more prominent tastemakers.
"There's definitely a feeling of being influential in a community that has a celebrity aspect to it," she said.
The sites have even made shopping celebrities out of fictional characters. Lizzie Nichols, a character in a series of novels by Meg Cabot, has a ThisNext fashion-and-beauty-favorites list, which includes underwear and fake eyelashes. (Fake shoppers, apparently, need fake eyelashes.)
Cabot's own list doesn't tell people to buy her book, but she is one of many people on the sites who have products for sale. Boss, the ThisNext Maven, works for an e-commerce company and sometimes recommends things her company sells.
Indeed, it can be difficult to tell whether an expert who suggests a purchase has a special interest in promoting it. Most of the websites try to block companies from posting -- rather than advertising -- their products.
But such companies as L.A.-based Marketingworks, which sells word-of-mouth marketing services, sends its "brand ambassadors" to various websites, including social shopping sites, where they set up profiles and talk about products the company is promoting.
Brand ambassadors "don't just go in there and converse," said Marketingworks Chief Executive Chas Salmore, "they have a loose, structured script to use to talk about the value of a particular promotion."
For Classic Media's "The Original Christmas Classics DVD Box Set," for instance, brand ambassadors were told it might be effective to say something along the lines of: "What's your favorite Christmas Classic? A lot of people really love 'The Little Drummer Boy.' 7 Christmas Classics are together in one DVD Set called 'The Original Christmas Classics.' I have the inside scoop because I work for them."
Salmore said the company wasn't spamming, but rather providing useful tips and inside information about things like upcoming sales and sweepstakes.
Many members and recommenders on social shopping sites say they don't care if someone has a vested interest in a product as long as he or she is honest about ties with the company.
As a popular recommender on ThisNext, Sweet gets lots of offers of swag and has accepted a free gift from a company she later reviewed. But she said her word-of-mouth couldn't be bought.
"I'm very particular about what I post," she said. "I'm not shilling for anyone. I'm just talking about things I like and admire."
alana.semuels@latimes.com
And congrats to Matt Condron, David Buckingham and Thisnext!!!Just as millions look to the billionaire talk show host for tips on books, health and beauty, hundreds turn to Sweet's "gun-shaped stuff" page on www.thisnext.com for hair dryers, television remotes and vases with the contours of firearms.
Sweet, who trolls the Internet every day for cool and wacky things that might be worth acquiring, has recommended 1,590 products on the Los Angeles-based website. "It has kind of pointed me out as a design maven," the 42-year-old Beverly Hills resident said as the holiday gift-buying season entered its final days.
So-called social shopping websites like ThisNext are uniting people the world over through their love of conspicuous consumption. By mentioning a product, a self-appointed authority can convert it from unknown junk to a must-have in moments. That's made superstars like Sweet popular with manufacturers trying to spread the word about their products.
So far, ThisNext has recorded more than 155,000 clicks on items based on Sweet's recommendations alone.
On Kaboodle, another social shopping site, members can check out recommendations from "featured Kaboodlers," who have lists of things they want, including "things for my cat" and "accessories and jewelry." The site had 4 million unique visitors in November, up from 1 million in June, and has sold ad space to major brands such as Crest and Visa.
"We're drawing on the wisdom of the crowds," said Manish Chandra, Kaboodle's founder and chief executive.
The crowds have eclectic tastes. Among the products made popular by online advocates: Walkie Bits, which are little turtles that move across tabletops; a faucet that changes colors based on the temperature of the water coming out of it; and a $50 watch that says NOW on its face instead of giving the time.
Morgan Bennett, creator of the watch, said sales spiked after the public relations director of ThisNext persuaded him to post the watch on the site. It hadn't been advertised anywhere else.
"One guy picked it, and then boom, some guy from Norway was looking at it," Bennett said. "Now they're pretty much sold out."
Although the sites provide links to places online where shoppers can buy the products listed, many members use them for getting ideas rather than shopping. When they intend to buy something, nearly 70% of U.S. consumers start their online shopping at a specific merchant's website, and only 0.08% start at Kaboodle, according to research firm EMarketer Inc.
For those who post on such sites, the lure of being known by peers as a person of impeccable taste is irresistible. Emily Boss, a member of ThisNext, said it's an ego boost when people e-mail you to compliment you on your fashion sense or mark your review as funny. She's part of the new ThisNext Maven program, selected by the company's staff as one of the site's more prominent tastemakers.
"There's definitely a feeling of being influential in a community that has a celebrity aspect to it," she said.
The sites have even made shopping celebrities out of fictional characters. Lizzie Nichols, a character in a series of novels by Meg Cabot, has a ThisNext fashion-and-beauty-favorites list, which includes underwear and fake eyelashes. (Fake shoppers, apparently, need fake eyelashes.)
Cabot's own list doesn't tell people to buy her book, but she is one of many people on the sites who have products for sale. Boss, the ThisNext Maven, works for an e-commerce company and sometimes recommends things her company sells.
Indeed, it can be difficult to tell whether an expert who suggests a purchase has a special interest in promoting it. Most of the websites try to block companies from posting -- rather than advertising -- their products.
But such companies as L.A.-based Marketingworks, which sells word-of-mouth marketing services, sends its "brand ambassadors" to various websites, including social shopping sites, where they set up profiles and talk about products the company is promoting.
Brand ambassadors "don't just go in there and converse," said Marketingworks Chief Executive Chas Salmore, "they have a loose, structured script to use to talk about the value of a particular promotion."
For Classic Media's "The Original Christmas Classics DVD Box Set," for instance, brand ambassadors were told it might be effective to say something along the lines of: "What's your favorite Christmas Classic? A lot of people really love 'The Little Drummer Boy.' 7 Christmas Classics are together in one DVD Set called 'The Original Christmas Classics.' I have the inside scoop because I work for them."
Salmore said the company wasn't spamming, but rather providing useful tips and inside information about things like upcoming sales and sweepstakes.
Many members and recommenders on social shopping sites say they don't care if someone has a vested interest in a product as long as he or she is honest about ties with the company.
As a popular recommender on ThisNext, Sweet gets lots of offers of swag and has accepted a free gift from a company she later reviewed. But she said her word-of-mouth couldn't be bought.
"I'm very particular about what I post," she said. "I'm not shilling for anyone. I'm just talking about things I like and admire."
alana.semuels@latimes.com
Since this nice little bit of press, I've been fortunate enough to receive some more wonderful mentions. For more recent press or an If It's Hip, It's Here press kit, please contact me.
Thanks so much!
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