Top 100 social brands of 2009

Social marketing agency Vitrue has published a list over what they call the most social brands of 2009. By most social they mean the brands that get talked about the most on social media sites. To determine this they have created a tool called Social Media Index which counts the times a brand is shared through social networks, images or videos. The list doesn't say anything about the quality or success of social media campaigns. Or about whether the social buzz is positive or negative for that matter, but I still think it's interesting to see what people are talking about out there on the social web.

Top 10:

1. iPhone

2. Disney

3. CNN

4. MTV

5. MBA

6. iTunes

7. Wii

8. apple

9. Xbox

10. Nike

Check out the rest at The Vitrue 100

Banksy comments on global warming

Via Woostercollective

Augmented reality - technology hype of 2009

Augmented reality was one of those things that just seemed to pop up everywhere in 2009. Most of the time the AR based concepts were nothing more than marketing gimmicks that didn't seem to use the technology to improve on things. It was merely a case of let's-do-it-because-we-can" syndrome.

like this Tokyo store front where you can get the latest shopping information by looking at the building through your iPhone. But why would you have to download a special iPhone app, that only works when you stand in front of the building, to get that information?

Or this Mini print ad that shows the new model when viewed through a web cam. Again, I just can't see why people have to go through all this trouble to access information. There doesn't seem to be much in it for the user.

But there has also been examples of really helpful and interesting AR ideas. Like the Nearest Tube iPhone app by acrossair that will guide you to the nearest tube station.

Or the Invizimals game for Sony PSP where you can use the portable device to detect and catch monsters in your surroundings.

There's clearly potential to apply the AR technology to popular culture in useful and exciting ways. Let's hope we see more of that and less of the gimmicky stuff in 2010.

G-Star is entering into social media territory in their New York Fashion Week Competition

In a previous post I wrote about how crowd sourcing seems to be gaining popularity in advertising, but in this online competition by G-Star the crowd sourcing idea has had a social media layer added to it. People are simply encouraged to sign up for the competition by using the log in from their favorite social networking site. Then it's up to the individual Facebook, Twitter, Youtube or Flicr user to impress the G-Star judges by uploading video, images and writing tweets showcasing their passion for fashion and denim. The most convincing social networking effort in each category is rewarded with a trip to New York Fashion Week where they get to cover the G-Star runway show, and get their reports streamed live on G-Star.com.

The aim is of course to get people to participate and engage with the brand in a more active fashion. But the way the competition is set up also allows G-Star to get a valuable presence in people's social networks and online conversations. Definitely a good attempt at integrating social media and advertising. It will be interesting to see what the development will be like in this area in 2010.

Spotted at Viralblog