Experiential or engagement marketing attempts to connect more strongly consumers with brands by “engaging” them in a dialogue and two-way, cooperative interaction. In today’s world CMOs are focused more than ever on returns on investment. This is putting pressure on Event & Exhibition organisers to deliver more value.

Golf Live (the worlds leading interactive Golf Event) & Ipsos pushed the boundaries of mobile technology, experimenting with key exhibitors and sponsors. What we found could be revolutionary…. Read More »

Since the internet boom was followed quickly by the rise of social media, we have become used to a way of life played out openly on a global stage. As individuals increasingly choose to tell Facebook rather than a therapist, businesses have been falling over themselves to demonstrate personality and in turn to take advantage of this new open forum, by and large for financial gain. Customer interaction is invaluable for building brand awareness and loyalty. But openness brings inevitable risk and companies need to adapt to survive in this new and unforgiving landscape. Read More »

There is no helping some people. It is being reporting this morning that a 17-year-old has been arrested in Weymouth after malicious tweets were sent to Olympic diver Tom Daley following his disappointment yesterday in the Olympic synchronous diving competition.

Dorset Police said that a teenager was held at a guesthouse after 18-year-old Daley received the messages on social networking site Twitter. Read More »

Twitter has suspended the account of the Independent’s Los Angeles correspondent, Guy Adams, after a tweet criticising NBC’s wobbly Olympics’ coverage, which has been trending on Twitter under the hashtag #NBCfail.

Well over 300 Team GB athletes are active on Twitter for the 2012 Olympics. The most popular athlete on Twitter, before the games was Andy Murray followed by ‘household names’ including Chris Hoy, Mo Farah and Tom Daley. Since the start of the games, all the athletes have seen a growth in the number of Twitter followers and it seems winning a medal can also seriously boost your Twitter followers.

Read More »

With the London 2012 Games off to a flying start, it is Team USA at the head of the leader board in the Twitter stakes with over 190,000 Tweets made over the weekend and counting.

Team GB is currently in second place with more than 180,000 Tweets sent in support of the host nation’s athletes. Jamaica is hot on the heels of Team GB. China, Canada and Brazil just miss out on the weekend’s Twitter medals. Read More »

After just one weekend, the Olympics is dominating conversations on social media. People  have been tweeting commentary on the opening ceremony and various sports, posting pictures from their visits to Olympic events, and watching streams of events.

However, some athletes have been using social media to express frustration at some of the rules imposed on them.

Members of Team USA have complained about rule 40, which seeks to prevent “ambush marketing”. Breaking this rule can lead to athletes being disqualified, losing their accreditation, or being fined. Read More »

The Stone Roses reunion should never have happened – as far as I’m concerned if you weren’t there the first time, make your own history. We spend too much time looking back. What’s interesting though is that the warm glow of nostalgia can fundamentally affect our view of what actually happened.

The Stone Roses show at Spike Island back in 1990 was generally considered a failure at the time due to hooky sound and shoddy organisation. Now we remember it as pretty much Woodstock. The point is that for most of the time since then it’s been nigh on impossible to separate fact from fiction – unless you were there. Read More »

The world’s CEOs believe that in the next five years social media will push past websites, call centres and channel partners to become the No. 2 way to engage customers (after face-to-face communications), according to IBM’s latest Global CEO study.

This opinion varied widely across industries with over 70 per cent of CEOs in education, telecommunications and retail expecting social media to be a key channel for customer engagement but only 34 per cent of CEOs in industrial products thinking likewise.

“We’re approaching the stage when almost everyone will have to figure out how to use it to conduct business successfully,” a US CEO from the financial markets told IBM. Read More »

Really interesting mini documentary here from US public service broadcaster PBS looking at the phenomenon of “Viral Video.

While ten years ago it took ten months for a video to go viral today with social networks that can happen in a day.

Whether it its babies, dancing or otherwise, cats, schadenfreude humour or terrible songs this looks at how the YouTube the viral video has developed and where it is going next.

Read More »