Tag: Technology

YouView opens up it’s trial to the public

YouView, a joint venture between BBC, ITV, C4, C5, BT and TalkTalk, has today opened up its preliminary trial to the public. If you are interested, you can register via this special Trials web site: https://trials.youview.com/login

Here is some more information from the YouView site to better explain what YouView is:

A little while ago, some of the UK’s best-known Broadcasters and Broadband Internet companies got together to talk about TV and how they could make it better.

They agreed that while everyone loves great TV, it’s frustrating when you miss a great show – and it’s never quite the same on a computer. Wouldn’t it be great if you could combine the simplicity and value of Freeview with the choice and convenience of catch-up and on-demand services – all on your own TV?

So they decided to create YouView to do just that – all together in the same set top box with no fuss, no computer and, best of all, no TV contract.

You get all your favourite Freeview or Freesat channels, plus the last seven days’ catch-up TV, and for those who want even more, the choice of on demand and pay TV – like films, sports and US drama.

Our unique programme guide will go back in time, so you can watch shows from last night or last week today. You’ll also be able to search for things by title or even an actor’s name.

And that’s just the beginning.

Because YouView is open, developers can create apps that can make your TV do all sorts of things. And all kinds of providers will be able to put their content on YouView. As YouView develops there’ll be more and more content available from the Internet as well as lots of ways to personalise the way you watch.

All this with no monthly TV subscription. You’ll just need a YouView box and broadband Internet.

Brilliantly simple, and simply brilliant. YouView will be everything TV should be.

Using Twitter well?

I came across this post just now on Mashable: http://mashable.com/2011/06/09/brands-twitter-success/

In it, Dave Kerpen – the CEO of Likeable – highlights 9 US based companies that use Twitter really well and I have to agree with his observations.

He points out that tweets need to stand out and have a personality behind them.

JetBlue has 14 people tweeting on their official twitter account and use it as a customer service channel – answering questions, apologising for poor service or delays, sharing special deals and more. They have over 1.6m followers so this is no mean feat.

Vevo engages with both their own followers and followers of the musicians that they feature, often generating debate. By engaging with followers of other tweeters, you can really start to increase your followers and increase your brand awareness.

I believe that Twitter should be used in this way. Not simply as an RSS reader where web sites auto post their articles, but to probe, ask questions, get involved.

Twitter offers real-time one to one to many conversations and can have such a huge impact on a brand’s presence online. Those that get involved and use it to communicate will reap the rewards.

Driving engagement and sales using social media

Please note that these are notes from a seminar. Actual post to follow In the future.

Robin Grant – We are social

Unilever – Marmite XO – Social Media only launch of a product

They went out a found crazy Marmite lovers and designed an experience that would cater for these super fans

Rewarded for advocacy of the brand

Invited 40 of these super fans to an event and entered into the Marmerati. Marmerati = fake club with fake history of Marmite lovers

They then spread the word on blogs, twitter and facebook.

Then revealed a website. Asked those 40 people to recruit more people. Drive users to web site and used Facebook connect to log users in

Prize incentives of special jar of Marmite.

Once second wave was finished, they could vote on specific jarvthat would be used.

Those 200 second wave started to put more content up.

This cost a quarter of a normal product launch and they still got good product space

Tesco example – Clothing

Raise awareness of clothing at Tesco amongst fashion and money savvy audience

About the ecommerce site

Started a blog to be brand voice. Showed off the clothes. Found other bloggers to guest blog. They then had a long list of bloggers that wanted to post.

Created Tesco FB page and twitter account.

Used feedback from FB to get crowdsourcing information on what to focus on.

They then ran a series of micro campaigns.

Ran simple competition based on retweets. 400 new followers, 1333 retweets.

Key fashion bloggers invited to an event to preview new ranges. Reacted well to the event. 17 blog posts and high engagement on those posts.

Allowed bloggers to host competitions themselves.

FB page strategy was to grow the fan base through large campaign. All fans would get 50% off for an hour on a random day. Ended up with 40k friends in one day.

Generated over £1.1m in sales over period of the campaign.