Have you seen this squirrel?

The "crasher squirrel" as he's known is one of the biggest news stories around the world this week. The squirrel, who hails from my home country Canada, became an internet sensation after he curiously jumped into a photo with a couple of tourists at the Banff resort in Calgary, Alberta.



After the photo was posted on National Geographic photoshopped images began circulating of the squirrel at famous world events or posing with celebrities. Check out the gallery on the Daily Telegraph.

The Banff Tourism Board took notice and created a Twitter and Facebook account for their unofficial mascot and have launched a campaign asking people to send in other photos of squirrels seen at Banff.

Smart marketing move for Banff to jump on the free publicity. Their strategy reminds me of the Chicken of the Sea campaign with Jessica Simpson, only the cost of using the squirrel is much less expensive!

So the question is, have you seen the squirrel? Why do you think this is newsworthy anyways?

Starbucks burned by Twitter

Here's an example of good social media gone bad - a few months ago Starbucks launched a new ad campaign that promoted the quality of Starbucks coffee in an effort to take back sales from the "cheaper" coffee chains. To increase awareness of the campaign, Starbucks created a contest asking the public to find their ad posters and post a photo on Twitter.


The New York Times wrote a story about the Starbucks campaign which caught the attention of filmmaker, Robert Greenwald, who had been shooting an anti-Starbucks film about their labor practices and union busting.


On the website Stop Starbucks, Robert Greenwald put out a call asking people to enter the contest and post pictures on Twitter with messages about Starbucks' labor practices. Faster than you can order a Venti-double long-extra hot-skinny-latte the Starbucks campaign was hijacked by anti-Starbucks tweets like "Wake up and smell the union abuse."


The question is, could Starbucks have done anything to prevent the misuse of their campaign? Or does this mean that large high profile (and often controversial) organisations should shy away from using social media to promote themselves? What do you think?

VW: Bloggers wanted?

As a follow up to my class presentation last week, I wanted to look at how another car company was using social media as a strategic communications tool.

Volkswagen has always used a non-traditional approach in their advertising to sell their cars. VW’s ads have helped to create a strong brand image that promotes innovation, intelligence and style which is something that I think could translate well to a social media campaign.



What I found is that while VW is using social media, I don’t think that their strategy is effective to reach the right audiences and sell more cars.

VW’s social media campaign is narrowly-focused on the diesel engine line which is promoted through a blog called TDI Truth and Dare. On the blog, viewers can watch TDI videos, compete in a driving competition and follow an online racing series. While these tactics might appeal to a TDI enthusiast, I don’t think this campaign would draw or hold the attention of the average VW customer or a new car buyer.

For example, VW’s 2009 Rabbit was named Top 10 Coolest New Cars Under $18,000 by Kelley Blue Book. VW should have used this opportunity to create a social media campaign targeted at young drivers buying their first car who are looking for something inexpensive but also sporty and fun to drive.

The 2010 Mazda 3 campaign, which we viewed in class, is a much better example of a social media campaign that was highly successful in promoting Mazda’s brand to a mass audience.

VW should use their strength of a strong brand image, reputable for quality, style and substance, to create a social media strategy that reinforces this message to engage their publics.

My first blog

Welcome to my blog! The name says it all, this is a blog about social media. Every week, I will be looking at new examples of how organisations are using social media as a new communications tool to engage their audiences. Is social media a fad? Or is it the way of the future? What's effective? And what's not? These are the questions I will be asking, and hopefully you will help me answer :)

For now, happy blogging and look forward to chatting with you soon!