Nokia takes on Apple

It seems that when every brand wants to launch a new mobile product, be it either a phone or a tablet, a comparison has to be made to Apple and its followers.

Apple enthusiasts are usually portrayed as mindless zombies all following the same command 'Buy Apple' but considering the majority of the people to own an iPhone or iPad and the target customers for other brands how would they react to being called as such?

Basically what every other brand such as Samsung or Nokia are doing are referring to their own target market as mindless, un-thinking individuals who just follow the masses, so are they meant to listen to the ad and switch allegiances?

The concept of comparing to Apple does nothing to the individual brand, as rather than bringing out the benefits it just puts the competitive brand down, as well as the concept is being over-used.

Here's hoping for more originality. Have a look at Nokia's ad for the launch of Lumia:

Which social media site drives the most traffic and has the highest conversions?

Which social media site drives the most traffic for retailers online? And which one makes the most money?
These are both important questions any social media manager would like to know while deciding company social strategy.

RichRelevance conducted a comparison study and benchmarked performance of Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest of traffic and retail sales from nearly 700 million shopping sessions an found the following results:

• Facebook dominates in driving the most traffic
• Pintrest drives more revenue per session

Other key insights:

• Pintrest (11%) had a much larger session share than Twitter (3%), images work much better to drive traffic than text
• Facebook had the largest page views per session and the highest same session conversion

Therefore while both channels are important, their strategic relevance depends on overall social strategy and how these channels fit within it.

The full article can be found here: 'Facebook drives more traffic to Retail, but Pintrest users spend more' by Shiela Shanyon at BrandChannel.

The full infograph can be be viewed here 'Who's driving shopping traffic for retail sales?'

Angry Birds: How far can you stretch a brand?

How far can you stretch a brand?

Angry Birds is set to release its latest installment 'Angry Birds: Star Wars' the 5th special edition after the success of the original game. But how far can it be stretched out? While the game itself is quite popular, by trying to re-create the success of the original is the brand name at risk?

Most of the special editions, while moderately successful, have not been able to re-create the same bang as the original, therefore resulting in rather creative extensions such as Angry Birds Rio, which is based around the popular movie Rio. This combination works rather well as the both protagonists are of the feathery kind, however the latest launch of Angry Birds Star Wars is rather perplexing. Is it just related to Angry Birds Space, or are Rovio getting a bit desperate and employing the bigger names in Hollywood (with a significant following may I add) to revive the game? There may be a lot in common between those who play Angry Birds and those who are Star Wars fans but how far and many movies and extensions will be employed before the brand is allowed to rest?

The danger of employing too many releases too soon, fragments the angry birds experience and the overall brand, cluttering what was once a clean experience. Let's hope Rovio don't loose the brand essence with too many editions. Let's see how long Rovio can keep this up for. Here's a look at the trailer for Angry Birds: Star Wars, I can't wait to see what the gameplay will be like.

Social Metrics - Quality vs Quantity in the Cola Wars

The effectiveness of social conversation usually revolves one key topic Quality vs. Quantity of followers and which is more important to measure social success.
There are many arguments for and against both, but this can be illustrated using a classic example of the Coke wars.
Coca Cola and Pepsi have been battling it out since time immemorial , and now with the advent of digital this has just moved to a different sphere, the social world.
Crisp Social put together a nifty infograph on the 'Epic Battle of the Bubbles', where it compared the performance of both brands in key areas (winners in bold):

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 25% vs Pepsi 48%
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 0.8% vs Pepsi 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 35% vs Pepsi 52%

So from an overall perspective Pepsi is the clear winner, with having a more active and socially engaged fan base even with a much smaller fan count, so therefore it is quality which matters.

However while it's all fun to look at percentages, it is the actual numbers which make a difference so here is my take on it:

• Total Fans - Coca Cola 51 million vs Pepsi 8 million
• Engagement Days - Coca Cola 51 days vs Pepsi 73 days
• Engaged more than once - Coca Cola 12.75m (25%) vs Pepsi 3.84m (48%)
• Engaged with Page - Coca Cola 4m (0.8% ) vs Pepsi (4.24m) 5.3%
• Mobile Engagement - Coca Cola 17.85m (35%)  vs Pepsi (4.16m) 52m

By looking at the actual numbers, it levels the playing field where Coca-Cola scored better than Pepsi on fans who engaged more than once and who are more digitally savvy. So therefore it is quantity which also matters.

It is next to impossible to say which metric is better, as they both work together. A large of quantity of followers is essential but as long as they are of high quality. This will certain affect the overall quality of engagement with the brand.