Sometimes I just chuckle and just shake my head when I see tweets or hear complaints and rants about how QR Codes suck, or don’t use QR Codes for this or that and my personal favorite, NFC is better than QR Codes, especially when it comes from “thought leaders” or a super savvy “social media guys/gals”. I chuckle because there’s a huge educational curve for QR Codes to go main stream in the USA but they have taken off and proven valuable as when have seen over the years in Japan/China with all of their smart technology. Personally I think the biggest problem for some marketers is that no one person can claim to “own” the QR Code space and you can’t put QR Codes in a box to say, QR Codes are only good for one thing because QR Codes have various use cases. See 101 Ideas for Using QR Codes.

Also using QR Codes for marketing/promotion in any type of campaign requires more than just thinking of tweets and things to say to make you sound cool. Using QR Codes requires thinking about the time and location of where a QR Code may be seen offline. It requires working with various teams about creating smart, fast, valuable mobile content. It requires thinking about mobile users, social users and offline users along with existing marketing efforts. It requires thinking about in-dept /instant mobile analytics. Thus is one of the reasons I think we have seen a lot of bad QR Code examples so far.

Read the rest of this article at SocialWayne

Buick has taken the forefront with social media in the automotive industry, being one of the first to effectively reach consumers using several new media tools that are popular today. Buick’s social media manager, George Jones talks with Black Web 2.0 about some of the social media tools the company uses, interactive advertising, and what Buick plans to do in the future to remain a leader in this new digital age.

Keep up with latest trends at Buick at  www.twitter.com/buick and www.facebook.com/Buick

Not to sound too cliche, but HE’S BAAAACK! Isiah Mustafa, star of the Old Spice “Smell Like A Man, Man” Campaign is back hawking the body wash that catapulted him to branding stardom. If you recall, last year, Mustafa and Old Spice took the Super Bowl by storm using his trademark baritone, and some clever camera tricks made it the most viewed ad of 2010. However if you’re waiting for another grandiose Super Bowl smackdown, think again. The new Old Spice ad will be shown to one lucky person.

Instead of spending millions of dollars on seconds of ad space on the Super Bowl, the marketing team is employing the innovation we’ve come to know and love and sending the new ad to one superfan. According to Mashable, the fan will be chosen by his or her social media support. Once the winner is chosen, they will receive the video February 7, the day after the Super Bowl to disseminate via their social media channels.

The current ad has already received 363,285 (at the time of this writing) views, but can the new ad, only distributed to one person make as big a splash as the previous campaigns? Signs point to yes. The company continued capitalizing on Mustafa’s popularity last July, when they had him create a series of personalized messages for lucky Twitter member. The Internet was abuzz with the new take on ad brand, especially when Mustafa helped one user propose and sent shout outs to popular media properties. If the team at Old Spice can identify that superuser that is hooked into all the right social marketing channels, the potential to go viral is enormous.

In the meantime, check out the latest ad below and try not to get lost in Mustafa’s “striking brown eyes.”

For a long time, Facebook was one of the only effective ways to promote a brand through social media. But for the past eight months, Twitter has made a splash with their promoted accounts and tweets. Twitter has also announced that they will soon be opening their advertising options up to smaller business, which is good news for social media marketers.

But who should use Facebook to market and who should use Twitter? What is the difference in user numbers? Below, I’ve provided a breakdown of Twitter vs. Facebook advertising options.

Twitter Advertising

Ad Types: Promoted Tweet, Promoted Account and Promoted Trend

Fast Facts:

• 175 Million users
• 7% are in high school
• 26-34 average age
• Alexa Rank: 10

Promoted Tweets

Promoted Tweets “are a new form of advertising that enable you to speak to users that don’t currently follow your account.” They appear in a follower’s timeline as a search result and can be interacted with just like a regular tweet. When users search for a keyword, your tweet will appear. Currently, promoted tweets appear in search on Twitter and Hootsuite.

Promoted Accounts

Promoted accounts were Twitter’s first form of advertising and are used for large brands like McDonalds and Starbucks who are looking to expand their userbase. Promoted Accounts appear in Twitter’s Who to Follow section on a user’s homepage. Twitter “looks at your account and followers to identify similar accounts and similar followers” when deciding to place a Promoted Account ad in their follow box.

Promoted Trends

Trending topics are  keywords or phrases that sometimes include hashtags. Twitter users attach hashtags to their tweets so that users who are writing about similar topics can find them. Promoted Trends get placed on the top of the trending topics list. When a user clicks on the hashtag to see the conversation related to it, the Promoted Trend will appear at the top of the conversation.

Facebook Advertising

Types: 2–page promotion or regular ad promotion

Fast Facts:

• 550 Million Users
• 21% in High School
• 18-34 average age
• Alexas rank: 2

Facebook Ads (non pages): One of the biggest advantages to Facebook ads is that they allow anyone to target an audience in a few words with a flexible budget. The ads appear non-intrusively in a user’s right sidebar alongside 3 or four other ads. Because Facebook is very adamant about homogeneity, every ad can only have a certain number of words and a simple picture. Business are then charged every time someone clicks on their ad, however the charges will never exceed their pre-selected daily budget.

Facebook Ad (for pages): Facebook ads for pages use the same ad format that regular Facebook ads do. But instead of prompting users to visit a business or website, the purpose of a Facebook ad is to get a user to “like” the page. By clicking the “like” button, users can get messages from a page in their inbox. Status updates and posts from that page also appears in their feed.

The conclusion: Facebook ads will continue t0 be the primary option for small business for some time. Although Twitter is planning to open up to small business, I doubt that their pricing model will be as competitive. However, it is still possible to advertise on Twitter by purchasing the background ad space of sites with really big followings. This will probably be the most cost-effective solution until Twitter can get something else figured out.

Do you use social media ads? If so what kinds and what has been the end result? Share your experiences in the comments section.

Next week signals the start of Advertising Week in New York, one of the biggest events in the advertising industry. The week is dedicated to “galvaniz[ing] the industry by creating an entertaining, enlightening and engaging platform for disparate parts of the business.” Another Ad Week goal is to encourage diversity, to that end there will be a number of forums, networking events and panels to discuss how the advertising agencies can better appeal to multicultural audiences.

One such panel will be hosted by UniWorld Group, the “longest-standing full-service” multicultural marketing agency in the United States. The panel titled,“Inside Men: Content Pros and the Multicultural Consumer,” will focus on how brands can use interactive content to engage a multicultural audience. According to the press release, the multicultural consumers’ internet usage is “now nearly indistinguishable from that of the general population, at 80 percent.” In addition, studies show that the minority audience is increasingly adopting mobile devices so it’s becoming increasing important for ad agencies to create campaigns that create brand awareness.

Actor, director and president of V Studio, Robert Townsend; the host of Entertainment Tonight and contributor to hiphollywood.com, Kevin Frazier; and Alvin Bowles, senior vice president, Brand Solutions for BET Networks will be leading the discussion in creating a successful interactive campaign. The panel will be moderated by Monique L. Nelson, UniWorld Group’s vice president of Brand Integration.

Slick idea – Just a slight “oops” that has caused Coca-Cola to consider dropping the ad agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine after posting a pornographic movie reference on a 14yr. old’s Facebook status.

The ad campaign worked like this: Users allowed the Dr. Pepper Facebook app to take over the user’s status updates to post “embarrassing” updates like “Did the guy in the car next to me catch me digging in my nose?” (I just made that one up) in order to win money. It seemed to be popular too as approximately 160,000 users signed up to have their FB status boxes taken over by Dr. Pepper and seen by ALL their friends and so on. That equals a ton of exposure for the Dr. Pepper Brand from THE social networking site.

Well, it all went downhill for the campaign, and seemingly the ad agency behind it after a parent just happened to be checking their daughter’s Facebook status and saw a reference to a popular and totally disgusting pornographic movie put there by Dr. Pepper (I’ll give you ONE guess which one it was). The parent proceeded to run it up the Coca-Cola flagpole and initially all she got in terms of an “our bad” from the company was some theater tickets and a overnight stay at fancy hotel. As you can imagine that wasn’t enough for the parent, so she took to a UK parent’s social networking site to air her grievances.

As a result, Coca-Cola has apologized, pulled the status takeover campaign, and is now discussing its relationship with the agency behind the campaign. That same ad agency recently landed a digital ad account for Coca-Cola’s Coke Zero brand. Now we can only imagine how much money Coca-Cola spends on advertising all over the world (Don’t bother, its in the neighborhood of $2.7 billion annually) Now imagine as an ad agency just getting a piece of that pie, only to possibly have the rug pulled out from under it over just one Facebook status update. To make matters worse, if they are dropped by Coca-Cola, the ad agency will have to do some serious reputation repair in order to get any meaningful clients with deep pockets like Coca-Cola.

Just goes to show how powerful social media advertising can be and potentially how much can be gained…or lost as the result of a successful, or catastrophic ad campaign.

There are just some things that there should never be an app for. Skin lightening is one of them, but apparently the folks over at Vaseline disagree. Much to the chagrin of people of color worldwide, Vaseline has launched a skin whitening app exclusively for Facebook users in India. Titled “Transform Your Face On Facebook,” the app allows users to remove blemishes and lighten the skin which has sparked a massive wave of controversy on the web. The app targets Indian men specifically as the product they’re promoting is a whitening cream for men.

While analysts chalk it up to a preference in India for fairer skin, it opens old wounds on an ongoing discussion of how people of color are portrayed in the media. According to NDTV Profit, Nielsen numbers show that skin lightening is big business over in India generating approximately $500 millions dollars annually.

With the firestorm in full force, Vaseline representatives issued a statement as seen on CNN:

“Much like self-tanning products in North America and Europe, skin lightening products are culturally relevant in India,” the company said.

“In India, men use these products to lighten and even out their natural skin tone and to reduce the appearance of spots while protecting their skin from the sun.

However opponents insist that the app is only perpetuating hurtful body image and stereotypes.

“The adverts play with the minds of men,” Radhakrishnan Nair, the editor of Indian men’s magazine MW told AFP. “The message they send is: ‘If you have fair skin, you will get a good job, a promotion and a beautiful and faithful wife’.”

This isn’t the first racially insensitive app to go to market. Apps like GhettoTweets and LuckyFortune made headlines last year for their bad attempts to make racism funny. So when is it racism? The “Transform” app was designed by Pankaj Parihar, who one could hazard a guess is of Indian descent. Is it okay because he’s a member of that ethnic community and can create apps like this with racial immunity?

When does something become more than an ad or an app? Please share your thoughts here.

He stole the show during the Superbowl. He’s loved by women and respected by men. Heck, he’s even been on Oprah! So who is this mystery man that’s been taking the airwaves by storm? Why, it’s no other than Isaiah Mustafa. You might not know know the name, but you definitely know his work. Since January Mustafa has been turning heads as the incredibly good-looking, shirtless, baritone Old Spice Man.

Realizing they had a hit on their hands, the marketing department at Old Spice has brought the former football player’s smooth voice and unbelievable hijinxs to the web. The original Superbowl commercial for the “Smell like a man, man” campaign grabbed over 13 million views on YouTube. The video about the making of the clever commercial which used minimal digital effects is a hit as well with well over a million views. To say Old Spice Man has gone viral is pretty much an understatment.

In his latest commercial, Mustafa is up to his usual tricks transitioning from the bathroom, to a log, to a kitchen holding a cake, to a swan dive into a hot tub, culminating with Mustafa in jeans idling on a motorcycle. Whew! To fan the flames of marketing fury even further, the Old Spice marking team has Old Spice Man making digital house calls. Fans of the good smelling Old Spice Man can now go to the Old Spice Twitter account and type in a request and you’ll get a personalized response from Mustafa in his iconic bathroom scene on YouTube.

To date, Old Spice has posted 65 videos to YouTube. According to the New York Times, one Twitter user successfully enlisted Old Spice Man to propose to his girlfriend. About four hours later, the excited user responded on Twitter that his girlfriend was now his fiancee. Not surprisingly, Old Spice’s Twitter following has grown like wildfire. Not to mention body wash sales which grew to $755 million in 2009 up from $500 million back in 2004.

Old Spice’s emergence on the web and reemergence on the bodies of male friends and relatives is a powerful lesson in brand repositioning. It wasn’t that long ago that the brand was associated with old, waspy sailors rocking cardigans while sailing their yachts. It was something our granddads and uncles wore. Now thanks to the power of a clever script, inventive filming, and the undeniable appeal of the leading man, Old Spice has made a total 180 and is raking in the dough.

What are you thoughts on Old Spice’s bold move. Share your thoughts in the comments section.

Last week, we covered Twitter’s big announcement that they were putting the kibosh on paid tweet services like Magpie and Ad.ly. The move was in response to the upcoming launch of the social networking  site’s Promoted Tweets service. The feature is Twitter’s answer to the $100,000 question, “How and when are you going to monetize?” The service will deliver targeted ads at the top of users search results.

That’s all well and good for Twitter, but what about Sponsored Tweets and the rest, whom according to the new Terms of Service (TOS) were facing imminent doom? For now, my fellow writer Rahsheen and the other folks that bring in a little side revenue from these sites can rest easy and keep collecting their dough. Each of the paid tweet services have sent out a press release stating that they are unaffected by the new TOS and it’s business as usual.

According to ReadWriteWeb, Twitter’s Director of Platform, Ryan Sarver clarified the situation in a mailing list discussion.

“I want to make sure this part is clear — this policy change isn’t meant to say that we are going to start policing if the content of something a user tweets is an ad or not. The policy change affects 3rd party services that were putting ads in the middle of a timeline. So if Liz is paid by Reebok to tweet about how much she loves their new shoes, we are not going to be policing that any more than we were on Friday. This policy also *does not prohibit* services like Ad.ly that help facilitate those relationships or even help her post the ads to her timeline on her behalf.”

So who was Twitter addressing with that vaguely worded change that set tongues a-wagging and wallets running for cover? According to Twitter’s TOS, you should probably watch your back if your ads have been masquerading as regular old tweets. You should also be worried if you’re tweeting ads and using Twitter’s API. An example of this would be those third-party spammers that are always trying to share the secret to getting more followers or the bots trying to lure us away to some seedy webcam show.

So right now the ad networks are safe, but with Promoted Tweets on the horizon, there’s no guarantee that Twitter won’t have a change of heart. While they say they are willing to working with third-party services that push their ads through Promoted Tweets, giving a 50/50 split to the developer, TOS like the wind direction are fickle and subject to change at a moment’s notice.

A funny thing happened while I was perusing my Facebook page. Well, it wasn’t actually funny, I just always wanted to use that line. But seriously folks, I was engaging in my favorite digital ego stroke when my eyes wandered over to the ad section of the page. Usually my eyes just glaze over at this point, but today was different.

Imagine my surprise when I saw an ad offering a dental exam, cleaning and polishing, and laser cleaning for $1. I was ready to write it off as a scam and keep it moving until I read a little closer. The deal was specifically being offered to A Tribe Called Quest fans.You also had to have a PPO Insurance Plan, but that wasn’t really the focus.  Attention thoroughly piqued, I clicked through to Marquis Dental Spa’s page and sure enough, there it was. A deal with the old school Hip-Hop aficionado in mind. Valid until June 11, the NYC-based office is making sure that folks with great taste in music have a great set of chompers as well.

So why am I writing about this? Besides the fact that the offer is incredible, it’s an awesome example of how targeted marketing is supposed to work. I am an avid Hip-Hop fan and if you’re friends with me in real life or on Facebook you know I smile A LOT in my photos. If I was in need of a new dentist, I would definitely pay these folks a visit.

When I went to check out their Facebook Fan page, I immediately clicked on the video pertaining to the $1 special. The video did what it was supposed to. Ryan discussed the unbelievable deal and declared that his teeth were now a whopping seven shades lighter than before. Overall, I am impressed with the ad and how it’s been packaged. When I contacted the office to find out the motivation behind such a clever ad, I was hoping to speak with the mastermind behind the it. Unfortunately I was given a runaround. The receptionist that I spoke with didn’t seem to even know that there the ad existed even though it’s displayed pretty prominently on Marquis’ website in fire engine red. I was ultimately informed that an outside marketer had come up with the idea and they were not at liberty to discuss the specifics — not even the name of the firm they were working with.

The lesson here is that while we run across flashes of genius in social media they are ultimately dimmed by secretive practices. This was an opportunity for not only Marquis Dental Spa to get some attention, but for the marketer as well. What could have been an article celebrating a social media success became one of frustration and confusion. If I had to rate this as a prop or a plop, I’d have to give this a 50/50 deal. The execution of the advertising was excellent, the offline follow through left much to be desired.

I’ve reached out to Marquis Dental Spa via their Facebook Fan Page in hopes of a better result. Stay tuned.