February 8, 2010

Celebrity Doppleganger Week Becomes A Hit, Followed By Urban Dictionary Names

As posted on AllFacebook.com, celebrity Doppelganger’s were all the rage over the past week on Facebook. It was just as big as the Facebook Bra Colour campaign that happened back in early Jan. With a large number of Facebook users changing their profile photos to images of their celebrity look-a-likes, Facebook users appeared to start a new trend: weekly viral games. As such, users attempted to spark a new trend last week: Facebook Urban Dictionary week. While not everybody participated in the game, a large number of people flocked to the Urban Dictionary website to find out what their name meant.


What makes the Urban Dictionary viral campaign exceptionally interesting is that Urban Dictionary had nothing to do with it, yet they’re enjoying the love from the community and the spike in traffic. According to Urlesque.com who got in touch the founders of Urban Dictionary, the viral campaign came as a complete surprise to them.
“Many thanks to whoever started it! We've been working hard the past few days to make the site perform well, now that so many people are visiting. It will be interesting to see what happens next!”

Interesting to see how such a simple little idea can turn viral without even planning on it. Seeing that these ideas drive huge levels of traffic to websites/fan pages, I wonder at what extent does it have the strength to convert sales. Although I couldn't find the stats myself, it would be interesting to find out whether they had an increase in sales, sign-ups and fans.

November 7, 2009

Google Wave: A Clever Example Of What's Possible

Pulp Wave Fiction


Good Wave Hunting


To see the original post about Google Wave click here.

September 23, 2009

O2 launches Giffgaff - a new SIM only mobile network


The new network, named Giffgaff, has positioned itself as a ‘people-powered’ mobile network, using online recommendation activity and product innovation to reward customers with money off their mobile bills.

Similarly to Virgin Mobile, Woolworths, DoDo and TPG here in Australia, Giffgaff will work off the back of O2’s network but will not highlight the O2 brand.

Giffgaff, which is an olde worlde word that means ‘mutual giving’, will operate on a low cost base and offers fixed rate SIM only tarrifs and a range of online tools to allow members to suggest answers to each other’s questions in online user groups. To join, customers need to simply purchase a SIM card at an initial top-up fee of 10 pounds.



Members will then be rewarded for things like referring Giffgaff to a friend, creating user-generated marketing, or voting on business decisions. The more that members get involved, the more money they will get off top ups.

The basic idea behind this new network is to keep telecommunications as simple as possible while adding a social element into the mix to generate interest and to promote the new offering.

Here’s Giffgaff’s explanation as to why consumers should give them a go:
One simple tariff for voice, text and data.
• We’re online only, which saves us money, which means we can offer you brilliant prices.
• Your calls become cheaper the more you get involved.
• There's no long-term contracts and you can use any existing ‘unlocked’ handset.
• The option to donate your rebate to a charity or cause you care about.
• Play a role in deciding what services we offer.

Giffgaff launches before Christmas 2009 with the pricing model and other unannounced features and benefits to be revealed. Customers can’t preregister at this time, but can leave their email address to receive updates.

Interesting idea and certainly one to watch.

Brand Republic.
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