Create Content and Watch It Fly!


One of the beauties of social media is its ease of use. Video and audio editing techniques are now in the hands of practically anyone with an internet connection. And this is good news for marketers.

By putting your own content out there, you’re offering it up to the endless creativity of the millions. And with the aid of Twitter, Facebook and Youtube, your original content can be mashed up, chewed up and spat out for millions to see. New versions of your video content might be paid in tribute, remixes of your track might be something of a sideways swipe but either way, it puts new sets of eyes and ears on your original message.

Radiohead are a band who know how to harness the power of the Internet, with every fresh announcement from the band provoking wild online scenes. The five day gap between announcing and releasing their new album was one pretty special technique that left music fans and aficionados open-mouthed and had journalists chomping at the bit to be the first to review it. However, it was this video which caught my attention in a bigger way:

In typical style, the band released a video to go with the song Lotus Flowers, featuring some bad-ass dancing from frontman Thom Yorke. Take away the original music, add in Beyonce’s Single Ladies and what do you get? A viral hit! It might not be what Radiohead had in mind when they did it, but the unpredictable nature and limitless possibilities of social media means that stuff like this happens all the time. And this morning, it made me think ‘ah, the internet’s great, isn’t it.’ Brilliant.

About The Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about the things he does here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media Case Study, Social Media News


Walker’s Crisps Prove The Joy Of A Simple Social Media Idea, Well Executed


In the spirit of fairness after yesterday’s blog, today’s post is a congratulatory one to Walker’s Crisps’ social media campaign.

Earlier this summer, the crisp brand launched 15 World Cup flavours (in stereotypical country meets food flavours, ie, England = Roast Beef, Germany = Bratwurst etc.), which featured a competition on the side of the packet encouraging so-called Superfans to make photographs and/or 30 second videos proving their love for one of the flavours. They were then directed to the Walker’s website where they could upload their efforts.

OK, it’s not a mind-blowing idea, but what it does do is capitalise on the original marketing idea of having 15 World Cup flavours really well. By featuring flavours from countries around the world, the video/photo idea works brilliantly because it gives a wide scope for entrants to use creativity and humour in their submissions. The flavours, being typical dishes associated with the country, encourage a certain level of stereotyping, which many of the winning videos play upon, to great effect. The proof really is in the pudding.

Also, a quick look at their Facebook page reveals how well they’ve been using Facebook to promote the campaign and talk to their fans. It features constant mentions of the promotion and almost every wall post is responded to by Walker’s Facebook guy, Sam. Good work, all round!

Here’s one of our favourite clips, by a local Hackney-based duo:

About the Author

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett

Paul Barnett is a Social Media Analyst for Social Media Library, responsible for developing the content within Social Media Library. Paul lives in a world of blogs, blogs and more blogs, scouring the web and plucking out the juiciest information he finds. Previous to this, he worked as a Music Press Officer. He is also a freelance writer, an organiser of Scrabble Sunday and blogs about stuff that he does here.


Paul Barnett, Social Media Case Study


PlayStation To The Power of BOOM™


This is Kevin Butler, VP of Sony’s PlayStation brand. He has received international acclaim as a brand spokesperson, has nearly 22,000 followers on his personal Twitter account, and his YouTube channel has received 67,000 views. His many roles within the company have included Director of Game Accuracy, Director of Rumor Confirmation, VP of Epic Footage and VP PS3 Softball team, and since joining Sony in 2009 Butler has presided over a massive increase in PlayStation sales.

Butler’s secret identity is Jerry Lambert, an actor with over 50 roles listed on IMDb and several commercials under his belt; Butler is the creation of Los Angeles based PR agency Deutsch, Inc. The campaign headlined by the character is set to last at least throughout 2010, a good move by Sony, whose brand has lacked a definitive mascot since its creation in 1994. Butler debuted in the run up to a massive rebranding of the PlayStation3; a price drop and new SKU was to place the brand in a prime position to grab the ‘casual’ consumer, with the new ad campaign being the proverbial cherry on top.

Gaming is a subject heavily featured in online discussion and huge forums and well frequented blogs on the subject are easy to stumble across in a browsing session; yet aside from developer forums, often centred on one game, the marketing of videogames often used social media simply as a mouthpiece to present press releases and trailers to the masses. The Butler campaign was the dawn of a new era in videogame marketing; a social era.

One of Butler’s earliest appearances, ‘Rumor Monger,’ saw the character directly engaging with, fittingly, an internet rumour monger over the subject of the long-rumoured price drop. Butler slyly avoided questions about the price drop (while surrounded by promotional materials confirming it) in a send-up of the way executives often dance around questions of rumours.

This style of commercial has become a staple of the campaign, with Butler acting as an agony uncle to consumers (with their PS3 conveniently running in shot) apparently teleconferencing with him while relentlessly (and humorously) pushing the attractive qualities of the product. This was Sony making fun of itself, but more importantly, this was Sony interacting with avatars of its target consumers.

Bear in mind however, that while these commercials feature hints of social media (how else does a VP of Topical Subjects end up in a debate about the digital recreation of a baseball player?), they are made primarily for US television audiences. Fortunately for Sony YouTube knows no borders; a fact hammered home when Butler advised a consumer that “You can’t believe everything you read on the internet. Otherwise, I’d be a Nigerian millionaire by now.” The Nigerian Ministry of Information demanded “an unconditional apology from Sony Corporation for this deliberate negative campaign against the country’s image and reputation.” The Nigerian government had seen the clip, just one slice of an international audience that had viewed the widely disseminated video on YouTube and other video sharing sites. Butler had gone viral.

Even as the campaign had one foot firmly entrenched in social media, it is only since March 2010 that the character has been given his own Twitter and YouTube accounts. In true KB style, he came out of the gate running; the aforementioned 22,000 Twitter followers and counting and 67,000 YouTube views are impressive considering the time span, but it’s the KB hospitality that sets the social media campaign above any other effort in the gaming industry. Upon deciding to follow @TheKevinButler, I was greeted with this direct message:

The character’s humour, translated into a 140 character message and sent directly to the consumer. What better way to use social media to further a television ad campaign for an international product?

This campaign’s success is based purely on this concept; Kevin Butler is the approachable public avatar of a massive multinational conglomerate. He humanises the brand with self referential humour, readily mocks the competition and engages his audience. To paraphrase KB himself; well played Sony, well played.

About The Author

David Shawcross is an Intern for Social Media Library. He has a Degree in History and Politics from the University of Reading.


David Shawcross, Social Media News