Viral Ad Network

I’ve blogged before about marketers over-valuing twitter – but I just spotted that mashable are reporting twitter usage is flat-lining.

Here are the stats from quantcast…

So, twitter traffic appears down 20% in 4 months. Note, however, that Twitter has a famously low retention rate – 60% of users decide that twitter isn’t for them within the first month of using it – so that doesn’t necessarily mean that Twitter’s core user base of internet marketing professionals has quit – it could simply mean that new users have stopped signing up to the service.

(found via Rob Scoble)

Interesting use of YouTube – not the most elegant, but fun for a quick rendition of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”

Rubber Republic’s creative director Matt just sent me this, it’s quick and interesting: 10 predictions for advertising in 2010 | Creativity_Unbound.

They’re only predictions, but these two chime nicely with VAN:

1. Consumers will play an even greater role as critics, commentators and content creators

5. Quality will be defined by instant, accessible, portable (less about polish, finish, and big production)

9. Creativity will matter more than ever (the opt in power of consumers will demand that when they do lean back even sales messages better be entertaining)

We massively advocate that the best ads are sharable and portable and entertaining. Good ads produce a viral effect – that’s the defining principle of the Viral Ad Network.

Consumers should also be able to comment, criticise and curate ads. Many brands and agencies will have a natural aversion to criticism. We understand this.

But every day we see more and more savvy brand managers and agencies encouraging comment and criticism. They know how to use it to engage with loyal customers and develop better products and services. That’s a clear win for consumers, and brands win when consumers win.

How to do this? In short: make great content, use social media platforms, and track what people think of ads. Who can do that? We can.

Opinions? Add your comments below…I love a good debate Or get in touch – we like to help and share.

There has been a growing chatter surrounding the idea of people as brands. Be it ‘Brand Tiger’ and his recent form of brand deception (see Jim Prior’s Mad Comments), or people selling themselves to get ‘the best job in the world‘.

I think that this is an interesting notion. Platforms such as facebook open us up to reconnaissance research into each other: be it for job interviews, university places, or even just to ‘Link In’, we now need to be aware of our public facing persona.

This makes me wonder about the recent appearance of http://niccageaseveryone.blogspot.com/

This site is (possibly) a clever new Viral Campaign promoting Nic Cage: the Brand! It shows his diversity in the roles that he would have been perfect for, and his versatility.

It’s also a good way of losing 10 minutes. Fair play to Nic though, it does seem to be picking up momentum – there have already been 98 new additions this year!

thanks to Eric Verkamp for his Nic Cage as Hurley

Well Bristol was hit by some kind of overnight snow sensation. Being a pretty hip city, I’m pretty sure that we’re one of the first places in the to be doing it, and probably doing it in the best way possible too.

Predictably, the entire city has been halted to a bit of a standstill and the majority haven’t been able to get into the office today. Nonetheless, the internet has carried on regardless, and with the power of broadband, us at VAN have been able to power on as if nothing has happened. This does mean that you won’t be able to get in touch with us via telephone, but we are on email and ready to help as usual.

Here’s pictorial proof of me working and carrying on inspite of the white chaos that is unfolding around me:

In other snowy, Team Rubber (our parent company) related news, some of our tougher colleagues made it into the office today and managed to squeeze in the time to build a ‘Snowzilla’ in the nearby park. Check out the video that was made:

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had good festivities… This is not the newest clip, but could be a good way of losing a bit of the christmas belly!