just dance 2

Just Dance 2 was launched with a bang as we all got down and got groovy in Soho with the team from Ubisoft. With support from both the 47,000+ loyal fans grooving together on Facebook and the veritable chorus line of bloggers we choreographed into action, Neoco helped the Wii game debut at #1 in the Wii chart (beating Wii Party and it’s Xfactor advertisng!) and #3 in the all-platform game charts over its first weekend.

Prior to the launch Neoco had been keeping the Facebook fans engaged using bespoke Facebook apps, a “Fan of the Week” loyalty program and regular content updates, including information about new songs for the game. Top fans were given free games and goodies to keep them dancing and Ubisoft have also taken the game on the road with the Just Dance Disco Bus student tour, visiting London, Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham.

Our blogger outreach program has been working overtime to get in touch not only with gamers and music lovers but also parents and fitness fans as we get the message out. Everyone loves the game when they get their hands on it, so we’ve giving out plenty of review copies to make sure everyone gets to play.

Join the Facebook fun here

Topman Denim shot

Our activity included an ongoing social CRM strategy implemented across social channels and relevant blogs, and a micro site for the Denim section of the Topman website, which would become the final repository for all the Topman Denim content.

Beyond the core films we created further video content, including a trailer, behind the scenes clips and an interview with Laurence himself. These would be used to extend the campaign beyond launch. We also ran competitions, tying into Topman’s monthly Fashion Friday events at their flagship Oxford Street store. The key factor was to ensure that we would be able to add new weekly content in order to keep people engaged.

Measuring the campaign has been straightforward, as Topman’s main KPIs were measurable. Six weeks into the campaign and we are at almost 200% of the target KPI for engagement, with another three weeks still to go. This makes it Topman’s most successful online video content based campaign to date. We are also measuring response to the competitions and general feedback across blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Overall feedback to the campaign has revealed the extent to which Topman has now become a global brand, with a very strong following in Asia and the US.

Don't be part of the 'headless chicken' social media movement!

When you first engage through sites such as Facebook or Twitter it’s very easy to be fooled into thinking that a million online followers is an end to itself, but if you haven’t at the very least considered a future strategy for turning your new online friends (followers and fans) into *real* customers, it’s highly unlikely to happen on its own.

Just as with any other marketing campaign, clear objectives should be set right from the start that can be clearly measured and analysed in order to tell you exactly how successful your activities have been.
Thankfully the tools for monitoring and tracking the results of Social CRM campaigns do exist, so once your strategy is in place it should be easy to follow its success if you have the right skills or partners.

In some cases this success can be measured in real-time actual physical purchases. Working with Ubisoft in the UK for the launch of the game “Just Dance 2″, Neoco has developed an online home for fans of the existing Just Dance game to renew fan engagement, identify and encourage brand advocates, build up word of mouth and ultimately drive advance and launch sales of the new Just Dance 2 game.

This campaign has some typical elements of an effective Social CRM strategy:
1) Identify the target audience (in this case fans of the existing game) and engage them through social platforms like Facebook.
2) Create unique propositions with competitive elements to drive recruitment amongst their own networks – for Just Dance we developed “Fan of the Week” awards and a “Strike a Pose” app (offering regular weekly prizes to the most active followers).
3) Build on the community with outreach to non-traditional influencers, telling them about the new game in advance, drip-feeding them with information as the launch neared to keep them engaged and to help them to keep promoting the launch.
4) Encouraged fans to sign-up their friends and contacts by promising (and delivering) new content once membership milestones have been passed – building a critical mass.
5) Implemented trackable affiliate links through the Facebook group that enables sales from the campaign to be followed directly, in addition to other data capture that can be used for future (launch) marketing.

This strategy has the advantage of both targeting and supporting the leading supporters of the game and also driving trackable product sales.

This is a relatively simplified example, and not every product, brand or launch can or should follow this model. However, if you’ve gone into social media marketing without thinking about where you want to end up or what your end goals are, how are you going to know if you’ve succeeded?

Presenting the iPad. Coming soon... keyboard, additional screen, mouse and desktop unit.

As the iPad nears it’s launch date, coverage is starting to focus on the content, or lack thereof. It seems that several apps are missing for reasons that seem obvious to professional app producers (like us) and perplexing to others.

The simple reason is space. The iPad can run iPhone apps in a scaled up version. The issue is that (forgetting the pixelation if there is not a HD version of the app) the original apps were designed for a screen substantially smaller. Increasing this proportionally will disporportionally increase white/ negative space in the app. And that is just going to look bad. Real bad. This is one of the reasosn why we are working with clients right now in parallel development of their iPhone and iPad apps.

So let’s put aside personal views on what the iPad means for consumers, Apple and web developers and focus on the facts that it will sell. As a branded app content owner, you (the client) need to make an informed decision regarding the ROI value (even if just PR) of developing an iPad specific version of the app because it is not going to be a straight copy of the iPhone app, though unfortunately, that’s what we can happening right now as people look to save money on a quick port.

Why not also read our developers viewpoint on the iPad.

EDIT***

John Gruber has touched on this same point on his blog.

Living Sasquatch enables you toa cool animated bigfoot monster on your webcam – which can be a lot of fun. Check out the user gallery.

what would you do with a living bigfoot?

Then there is the We Choose The Moon website, which celebrates the moon landing mission 40 years ago. This is just a bloody great website with a sweet buzz campaign that built up to ‘launch’ date.

"fly me to the moon"

This one’s not pretty but so useful… GetHuman is a directory website that lists direct numbers or tricks to get around corporate automated systems and speak to a real person.

There were loads of online tributes to Jacko when he popped his white socks, but this has to be by far (and we mean country miles) the best of lot. It’s called the Eternal Moonwalk and it’s for fans to upload a quick video of them moonwalking from one side of screen to other. All the videos are then linked to each other to create one monstrously long moonwalk for MJ. It’s a simple idea that looks awesome and is very viral.

MJ will live forever on this site

Godsboard is a message board of all things relating to God… from a different viewpoint. People submit the messages and then vote on them. Our disclaimer here is that we know the person who set it up but it’s still a nice idea and picking up a lot of messages, from the obvious to the thoughtful to the seriously funny.

Finally, here’s a blog to celebrate what the internet is all about – seriously weird people and embarrassing personal photos. Dont Judge My Hair is one of those blogs you just keep going deeper in to.

a place for everyone to judge other people's hair... and there is some seriously bad hair out there.

Well, that’s it for this month. Remember to follow our Twitter for the full selection. I’m off to get my hair cut…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzzef5RE0Sw&feature=related]

The clips are being seeded in a 2 part campaign across key gaming, teen, student and video communities. Neoco have also secured a deal for high exposure across teen social network Refresh, with homepage takeover including MPUs, an integrated quiz section and email campaign.

Cursed Mountain is a terrifying survival horror game for Wii set in the rich and atmospheric world of mystical Tibet, backlit by the desolate icy peaks of the Himalayas. Cursed Mountain features a rich and comprehensive story while using the tools of fear and scare to immerse the player into the gameplay experience complete with unprecedented high quality graphics that push the Wii to it’s limits.

We’re super excited to be working with Koch on this and can’t wait to sit down and spend some serious time with this quality title.

You can also check out the website here.

I’ve got to say I love Google Maps and am constantly using it to find my way to different places – being new to London it saves me a lot of time and effort trying to map read (which definitely isn’t a skill of mine!). So when I heard about Google Street View, which is soon to be launched in the UK, I was immediately sold – come the spring of 2009 not only will I be able to get a map to show me how to get to my destination, but I will also be able to visualise it thanks to the added benefit of 3D video images. Google is obtaining millions of these images and stitching them together to create a virtual replica of city streets. Having first launched in the USA in May 2007, the service is now available in Australia, Japan, France, Spain and Italy.

I think it is a great idea – not only can I familiarise myself with unknown destinations ahead of going there, it also gives me the opportunity to find an excuse not to go if I don’t like the look of it! I can also take a virtual tour of a dream destination – be it walking through Times Square, strolling along the Champs Elysees or passing over San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge!

But despite its potential advantages, Google Street View has courted a certain amount of controversy; particularly as critics believe it breaches personal privacy laws. For months now, Google have had cars and vans touring the country snapping photos with specially mounted cameras, which inevitably include people in their shots.

As a consequence of introducing Google Street View in other countries, there have been lots of amusing, wacky and also disturbing sights captured on camera! For example, in Australia a man who passed out drunk on his front lawn was horrified and embarrassed to find his picture subsequently posted on the internet. As he slept in a drunken stupor, a camera car drove by to take pictures of the street for Google’s Street View website!

In the USA, Google’s roving panoramic cameras have picked up pictures of street fights and even suspected burglaries.

Despite the reservations of some groups, such as Privacy international, to the idea of a commercial organisation taking pictures of people without their consent, Google have had the go ahead to launch the service from the UK’s privacy watchdog, provided that they put certain safeguards in place. These measures include blurring out people’s faces and vehicle registration plates. Also, if you think that you feature in any of their images, Google provides a facility for you to report your concerns to them.

Google’s Street View is a fun-to-use application that most Brits will find a use for – we’ll all just have to remember to spend a little bit longer getting ready to go out, in case any of those pesky cameras are roaming around!

It’s only been available for one weekend but already 1 million new iPhone’s have been sold. And, although the queues were not as long as those of the original release, figures show that despite this, the sales of iPhones were much quicker this time round (it took 74 days to sell the first 1 million original iPhones).

So, what a great start for the iPhone 3G. Especially considering that the new iPhone owners have already downloaded 10 million iPhone applications – which is even more impressive when you consider that there were only around 500 applications available at launch. These figures once again reinforce the belief that users don’t see the iPhone as just another phone – it is another whole platform.

What do you think of the iPhone 3G and the available apps? Let us know…

As you can see, the countdown is finally over and our new website is now live! This is just the beta version, so there will be a lot more content and some really cool features coming soon!

Have a look at our new portfolio section, which shows you a selection of the projects that we have worked on – we now have client quotes and pulled out stats for all of our case studies. We also have API’s, social bookmarking and much more, so have a look around.

The most important thing for us though is the site’s new visual design and our new neoco branding. It’s very different, but its very ‘us’

Let us know what you think…

Borders has gone solo, after its 7 year web sales tie in with Amazon. David Runk of the AP announced that Borders has returned to being an independent online bookstore, with a major facelift designed to increase interest in its brand.

I’ve had a look around the site, borders.com, and think its a really cool and easy to use site. The storefront has rich visuals, with ‘The Magic Shelf’ centrepiece – a browser window that users can interact with to view highlighted books, music, and movies. Users can operate this menu several ways. If you choose on option from the lefthand menu, it will take you to your desired shelf. You can then toggle the arrows at the edges of the window to see all new and/or recommended picks. Or you can simply grab the window and drag your way about the shelves. Whichever way, its great to be given the choice of how you want to browse.
Borders claim that it is refreshing its online storefront not just to compete combating with the likes of Amazon and Barnes & Noble, but also to create a more interactive experience for its customers, with author-contributed shortlists, interviews, and other content. Borders also states that, even with the launch of its new website, it remains open to a sale of the business. According to the AP, Borders announced some two months ago that it might put itself up for sale, and that Barnes & Noble very recently “confirmed it put together a team to study the feasibility of a deal.”