Brands play a role in our lives by helping us to express our values to the people we interact and encounter, for example driving a Prius, immediately communicates that your an environmentalist and democrat. But how brands fullfill this same need online is what makes it difficult for brands to crossover into the digital realm.
Forrester sheds light on this topic with a new report called, "Online Community Best Practices". Forrester categorizes the different reasons brands form online communities into: Listening (an online standing focus group), Talking (get across a brand message), Energizing (nurturing brand enthusiasts), Support (allow brand users to support each other) and Embracing (involve brand faithful in developing the brand).
Via Third Way Blog
"Target Women is a recurring segment on Current TV's weekly television show, infoMania. In each episode of Target Women, Sarah Haskins takes a look at the often-ridiculous way the media reaches out to women." In a nutshell Sarah Haskins delivers common sense critiques to ads targeting women; S.N.L. style.
Wonderbra launched a new collection of bras called the D+G collection. Aimed at women with larger cup sizes, it showcases a line of everyday" bras and a line of glamour bras. The user generated campaign calls for,"as many girls as we could to create the biggest collection of boobs ever seen," to appear in a billboard in Central London. The Chuck Close technique works well with the interactive counterpart of this campaign letting users get a closer look at all those who participated.
An Asian restaurant chain Wagamama in the UK has launched its first online campaign using a brand utilitarian approach. Via geo targeted technology, when a user searches a specific area that is located near a Wagamama, a message on the screen calling for people to "Click here for noodles in this area". When the user clicks on the call to action, all Wagamama restaurants in the area are revealed on the map.
