It is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities.

When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense of being strategic. With campaigns that seem to change almost monthly and taglines that rarely last for more than a football season, it is easy to dismiss beer marketing as irresponsible spending to promote a high margin product. Is there more to beer advertising than 30 second eye candy and girls in bikinis? Here are a few popular marketing campaigns for beer - along with their corresponding marketing strategy that may yield some surprising lessons ...

1. Be Unique (Red Stripe Beer)

If you have ever had a Red Stripe beer from Jamaica, you know that it has a very unique bottle shape, shorter and stubbier than most others. The bottle sets the beer apart more than anything else, and this fact is brilliantly parodied in this ad featuring their central spokesperson - the Jamaican guy who loves nothing more than celebrating what beer can do with his trademark expression of Jamaican joy: "Hooray Beer!"

 

2. Demonstrate Loyalty (Bud Light)

The ad for Bud Light below follows the model this beer company has focused on for nearly every Super Bowl and football season - forget about your product features and focus on the simple message that guys will do almost anything for your beer. The strategy which seems buried in most of their ads is the unwavering loyalty that the guys in their ads have for Bud Light. They will build houses out of it, jump out of planes, and even walk around naked for a day just to get more of it. It is easy to argue that the name of the beer involved is entirely forgettable, but the ads stand out for being entertaining.

3. Create Associations (Estrella Damm)

A popular ad for European beer Estrella Damm - this campaign features a few ads which tell the story where the beer plays a supporting role and one of the tagline reads "Good times never end when you have something to remind you of them." Another ad features a growing relationship between two fellow travellers. While the taglines don't exactly roll off the tongue, the entire campaign creates stories that associate the beer with the common memory of moments like a short term romance on a backpacking trip through Europe that many of their target audience will remember nostalgically, and one that many people won't be able to help sharing.

4. Foster Aspirations (Dos Equis)

Probably the most popular campaign of the list, this inspired marketing from Dos Equis creates a persona for the Most Interesting Man In The World who, by his own admission, "doesn't always drink beer, but when he does he prefers Dos Equis." The image of this man is who every guy wants to grow up to be, and works because it places Dos Equis in a typically uncontested space as the choice for a more mature and refined guy versus an infantile male trying to relive lost days of keg stands and beer pong from college. That and irresistible lines like "he lives vicariously through himself" help position Dos Equis as the more aspirational choice in beers.

5. Reinforce Perceptions (Heineken)

The thing that European beers have always used to promote themselves against other brands is the sense that they are a more upscale and respectable choice when you go to a bar or similarly public place. Heineken's recent campaign takes this message and replays it with the powerful tagline - "give yourself a good name." The ads feature guys making bold decisions (like drinking with the scary bosses' daughter) and congratulating them on their choice. It helps reinforce the message that what beer you choose says something important about who you are, so choose well.

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Family reunions and quick getaways have become a Labor Day tradition for most people, but which apps work best for taking holiday trips? Grip’d.com spent several months testing various apps on each platform to see which ones make Gripd.com’s top five travel apps. If you have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android phone, here’s a quick rundown of the best 5 travel apps:

Weatherbug – The simplicity of Apple’s Weather app, but with a few extras for your phone. It’s the largest network of professional weather stations in the US and is the only source for truly live, local weather (as taken from their site).

BePut - enables users to share their whereabouts with people they want to find them. Users simply use the application to locate their exact position and with a touch of a button, have the opportunity to send an email or text message to the desired recipient with their exact location. The recipient gets a special FindMe Key which is secure. The only guaranteed way to not get lost.

Car Care & Roadside Emergencies - I don’t know about you, but I absolutely hate it when things don’t go according to the plan. You have this important presentation, and you end up with a flat tire in an express way. Or maybe you are trying to get home from a concert, and your car doesn’t start up. These situations happen all the time, and they usually tend to happen when you expect them the least. Now some of us have a knack for breaking and fixing things as far as cars are concerned.

Waze - Waze is a social mobile application that enables drivers to build and use real-time road intelligence. The service includes constantly-updated road maps, alerts on traffic and accidents, and data providing users with the fastest route to get to wherever they need to go. Map and traffic updates are automatically collected and generated as users drive with Waze activated, but drivers can also actively report and update other users with what's happening on the road.

Shazam – In the car for hours and can’t figure out the song playing on the radio? When you hear a song and wonder what it is, Shazam is there with the answer. Hold your iPhone to the music and within seconds Shazam will tell you the artist and track name. You can even download the song through iTunes on your iPhone.

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Facebook has announced that effective August 23, there are new sizing requirements for Fan Pages (and they are removing the Boxes tab – to which I say yay!!).

The new width for custom pages is 520 pixels wide.

Facebook is offering a preview now so you can see what your page will look like (go to your Fan Page while logged into the account that “owns” the page and you will see the preview).

You have until August 23 to resize your pages.  The resizing of the pages will happen automatically during the week of August 23 and if you don’t make the changes in advance – your page will truncate.

Here is a  screenshot of what my page is going to look like after it truncates (I circled the truncated areas to better show you where it cuts off):

My truncated Fan Page

Another screenshot that shows the truncation

Obviously that won’t do!

Many people are not going to be happy about this change because it will mean extra work or incurring extra costs to have the pages redesigned.

Facebook says the changes are a result of feedback from developers.

I can’t imagine people will ditch their custom tabs (and they shouldn’t!!), so I imagine a lot of people are going to be scrambling to get their page redesigned.

It’ll be interesting to see the reaction.  Most Facebook changes are met with initial grumbling and complaints.

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‘I dropped it from a hot air balloon’ and ‘my dog mistook it for his favourite toy and chewed it to bits’ are among the bizarre insurance claims made for lost and damaged iPhones over the last 12 months, it emerged yesterday.

Other unusual claims include ‘I lost it while skydiving’, ‘I dropped it in a blender’ and ‘It fell into the kettle’.

The weird and wonderful claims came to light in a study by gadget insurers www.protectyourbubble.com.

It also emerged one in five iPhone users have made an insurance claim during the past 12 months.

Most common claims include cracked screens, lost or stolen iPhones and iPhones dropped in the toilet or bath.

A spokesman for Protect your bubble said: “With so many people carrying an iPhone with them wherever they go, it’s no surprise that they are being lost or damaged in a host of unusual ways.”

“Most of us know someone who has managed to drop their iPhone in a pint of beer or down the toilet – but these bizarre claims we have uncovered must be one-offs.’’

The study also found 45 per cent of claims have been for accidental damage to iPhones.

One unlucky customer lost his iPhone after leaning over the side of a boat in Cyprus, to see it fall out of the rucksack and plop into the sea.

And one owner reckons he was happily sitting in the local pub, when a friend spilled his pint of beer all over his phone.

Another unlucky male drove sharply round a corner, to witness his beloved iPhone sliding across the dashboard and straight out of his open window.

Other iPhone insurance claims include losing the phone under the wheels of a bus after it flew out of a pocket, and a teenager being forced to hand over his phone to thugs after they threatened him with a machete.

And one coffee shop assistant was busy making an espresso for a customer, only to turn around and find he had walked off with his phone which was sitting on the side.

The spokesman for Protect your bubble added: “The amazing ways people manage to be separated from their iPhone goes to show that you never know what’s around the corner – and it pays to get your iPhone insured.’’

Other more usual claims include losing internet connection, screen freeze, pets knocking the phone off a work surface and the fact the phone doesn’t charge.

TOP 10 MOST BIZARRE IPHONE CLAIMS

1. I dropped it from a hot air balloon
2. I lost it while sky diving
3. It broke when my son used it as a table tennis racket
4. I lost it while building a sand castle for the kids
5. I accidentally buried it in the garden
6. It fell into the kettle
7. I dropped it in a food blender
8. My dog chewed it to pieces
9. Juice from a defrosting piece of meat leaked into it
10. It flew out of the car window

TOP 10 MOST COMMON IPHONE CLAIMS

1. Cracked screen
2. Stolen while texting
3. Couldn’t hear the other person when making a call
4. Leaving phone on the car roof so it falls off when driving
5. Pet knocked the phone off the surface
6. Stolen from handbag
7. Internet connection completely broken
8. iPhone doesn’t charge
9. Dropped in the bath / toilet
10. Screen freezes

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It’s no longer a matter of answering the micro riddle, “to tweet or not to tweet.” Twitter helps you simply Tweet everything that moves you. While this capability has existed through third-party services over the years, Twitter is rolling out a dedicated function to harness the power of the “interest graphs” that you weave.

Not only can you share links with those who follow you, Twitter is extending its “Suggestions for You” feature to assist in the curation of your social nicheworks. After a link is shared, relevant individuals who share your affinity for topics and themes will appear. This allows you to expand your social graph and slowly shape it into a series of interest-related graphs or contextual nicheworks.

For content publishers, from casual bloggers to influencers to the media elite, Twitter only requires the installation of a few lines of code to set the stage for broader distribution within an ecosystyem where the appetite for “what’s happening” is insatiable.

Here, I’ve used the TweetMeme to provide sharing functionality. TweetMeme is partnering with Twitter to ensure that this functionality run seamlessly. The company is also expanding its services to fine tune the social web and shape the future of content curation.

DataSift provides developers with the capacity to to build precise streams of data from 60+ million tweets sent every day.

- Tune tweets through a graphical interface or our bespoke programming language
- Streams consumable through our API and real-time HTTP
- Comment upon and rank streams created by the community
- Extend one or more existing streams to create super streams

Find out more on the new DataSift blog or follow @datasift

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comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) has just released a report on Twitter’s explosive growth worldwide. The comScore study found that in June 2010, about 93 million Internet users visited Twitter.com. This is an overall increase of 109 percent over last year. Indonesia reported the highest number of users, with 20.8 percent of Internet users in Indonesia visiting Twitter.com in June of 2010, followed by Brazil and Venezuela. Venezuela’s growth fueled in large part by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s decision to join Twitter in late April 2010. This just goes to show that if you do not have a Twitter social media account for you or your business, then you need to set one up right away.

In June 2010, about 93 million unique global users age 15 and older visited Twitter from a home or work location. This is an increase of 109 percent from last year of June 2010. Keep in mind that this data excludes usage of Twitter-based applications such as TweetDeck and Hoot Suite.

An analysis by comScore of the five major global regions revealed that Latin America experienced the strongest audience growth, surging 305 percent to 15.4 million users. Asia Pacific ranked as the second-fastest growing region, climbing 243 percent to 25.1 million visitors. The Middle-East Africa jumped 142 percent to 5 million visitors, while Europe soared 106 percent to 22.5 million visitors. North America, where Twitter has reached a higher maturity level than other regions, saw a growth of 22 percent to nearly 25 million visitors in June.

Here are the numbers from comScore:

  Visitation to Twitter.com by Global Regions
  -------------------------------------------
  June 2010 vs. June  2009
  ------------------------
  Total Audience, Age 15+ -Home & Work
   Locations*
  ------------------------------------
  Source: comScore Media Metrix
  -----------------------------
                        Unique Visitors (000)
                        ---------------------
                     Jun-09      Jun-10    % Change
                     ------      ------    --------
  Worldwide            44,520      92,874       109
  ---------            ------      ------       ---
  Latin America         3,792      15,377       305
  -------------         -----      ------       ---
  Asia Pacific          7,324      25,121       243
  ------------          -----      ------       ---
  Middle East -
   Africa               2,058       4,987       142
  -------------         -----       -----       ---
  Europe               10,956      22,519       106
  ------               ------      ------       ---
  North America        20,390      24,870        22
  -------------        ------      ------       ---

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Across the 41 individual countries currently reported by comScore, Indonesia at 20.8 percent had the highest proportion of its home and work Internet audience visiting Twitter.com. Brazil ranked second with 20.5 percent penetration, followed by Venezuela at 19.0 percent. With Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez joining Twitter in late April, Twitter.com penetration in the country spiked 4.8 percentage points in a few short months. The Netherlands (17.7 percent) and Japan (16.8 percent) rounded out the top five, while countries in Latin America and Asia Pacific represented many of the remaining top markets, including the Philippines (14.8 percent), Mexico (13.4 percent) and Singapore (13.3 percent).

  Top 20 Markets by Twitter Penetration
  -------------------------------------
  June 2010
  ---------
  Total Audience, Age 15+ -Home & Work
   Locations*
  ------------------------------------
  Source: comScore Media Metrix
  -----------------------------
  Location                     % Reach
  --------                     -------
  Worldwide                             7.4
  ---------                             ---
  Indonesia                            20.8
  ---------                            ----
  Brazil                               20.5
  ------                               ----
  Venezuela                            19.0
  ---------                            ----
  Netherlands                          17.7
  -----------                          ----
  Japan                                16.8
  -----                                ----
  Philippines                          14.8
  -----------                          ----
  Canada                               13.5
  ------                               ----
  Mexico                               13.4
  ------                               ----
  Singapore                            13.3
  ---------                            ----
  Chile                                13.2
  -----                                ----
  United States                        11.9
  -------------                        ----
  Turkey                               11.0
  ------                               ----
  United Kingdom                       10.9
  --------------                       ----
  Argentina                            10.5
  ---------                            ----
  Colombia                              9.6
  --------                              ---
  South Korea                           9.3
  -----------                           ---
  Ireland                               8.4
  -------                               ---
  India                                 8.0
  -----                                 ---
  Malaysia                              7.7
  --------                              ---
  New Zealand                           7.5
  -----------                           ---

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

What’s interesting is that an analysis of Twitter usage via mobile for the six mobile markets currently reported by comScore (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Spain and Italy) revealed that Twitter is gaining adoption among smartphone users. In the U.S., 8.3 percent of smartphone users (4.2 million people) accessed Twitter.com in a month via the browser on their mobile devices, outpacing each of the European markets. In Europe, 2.8 percent of smartphone users overall accessed Twitter.com (1.7 million users), with the U.K. experiencing the strongest penetration in the region at 5.8 percent, followed by Germany with 3.1 percent and France with 2.1 percent.

  Twitter Penetration Among Mobile
   Smartphone Users*
  3 Month Avg. Ending June 2010
  Total Audience Age 13+
  Source: comScore MobiLens
  -------------------------
                  Twitter    % Reach of
                  Audience   Smartphone
                     (000)      Users
                 --------   -----------
  United States      4,246          8.3
  -------------      -----          ---
  Europe             1,681          2.8
  ------             -----          ---
  United
   Kingdom             793          5.8
  --------             ---          ---
  Germany              322          3.1
  -------              ---          ---
  France               173          2.1
  ------               ---          ---
  Spain                165          1.5
  -----                ---          ---
  Italy                227          1.4
  -----                ---          ---

*Includes only mobile browser access to Twitter and does not include other Twitter-based mobile applications.

comScore says that “For applications such as Twitter that function as an instantaneous broadcast medium, the mobile device represents the ideal platform to engage with this content anytime and anyplace,” added Mr. Mudd. “The advanced web browsing features of smartphones enable this behavior, making it likely to accelerate as these devices gain continued adoption. While desktop-based Internet usage is still king, mobile web usage is surging on a global scale placing applications like Twitter at the forefront of that paradigm shift.”

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One of the greatest aspects of social media is how it’s been adapted to helping charitable causes and non-profits.

From reacting to the Haiti disaster to raising funds for a kids school in Tanzania, social media continues to show just how much we can make a change where before we may have thought there was nothing we could do.

A perfect example of this is the CitizenGulf project, which my friend  Geoff is a part of.

Organized by a mix of business owners, cause marketers and social good causes, the CitizenGulf project aims to help fishing families affected by the recent BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf Coast.

As the clean-up for the mess continues and red tape and legal issues hold up some of the aid packages, CitizenGulf wants to help make a difference now. The great thing about the project is that it takes very little from us to get involved, yet it can make a huge difference to those affected.

This includes the fishing families whose livelihoods have been destroyed; locals affected by how the economy has been hit by the spill; and wildlife left to fend for themselves without our aid.

And with hurricane season fast approaching this area, the need for our help is clear.

So how can you help?

There are a ton of events planned around the U.S. to benefit the area, and you can find these locations here. If your city isn’t on there yet but you want to help, you can contact the CitizenGulf team to organize your own event.

You can also donate to organizations recommended by CitizenGulf, if you prefer that.

The oil spill in the Gulf is one of the biggest ecological and corporate disasters in the U.S in recent times. CitizenGulf wants to give us an easy way we can help the locals and the landscape.

Seems a pretty straightforward decision, no?

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The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) wants your help to develop a best-practice set of guidelines on using social media in PR practice.

According to the CIPR’s Social Media Panel, the open consultation is designed to help ensure that the guidelines reflect best practice, capture expert thinking and reflect new technologies, tools and ways of working, as they develop.

If you have a constructive point of view about social media in UK public relations practice, you can add your voice, whether or not you’re in PR or even a CIPR member.

[...] We welcome input from practitioners, industry bodies and any other groups keen to develop social media thinking and best practice. This is and should be a collaborative effort for the public relations profession.

The existing CIPR social media guidelines – first developed in early 2007 and last updated in 2009 – have been posted to a CIPR wiki to enable collaborative reviewing and editing. You can find it here:

http://ciprsm.wikispaces.com/guidelines-review

A quick review of some of the content posted there shows just how fast things have changed in PR practice, what comprises social media these days and how it’s used from the PR perspective. Good timing to update this material.

The open consultation period runs until the end of September and the CIPR’s goal is to publish updated guidelines in October.

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Next week, European search engine and news portal Wikio will be publishing the rankings for August 2010 of their lists of the top blogs in the many categories under which they’re classified.

For the past 18 months, I’ve been posting an advance look each month at the top 20 or 30 technology blogs in the UK from the data my friends at Wikio have let me see. Last month, that advance look also included the top 30 online marketing blogs in the UK.

I’ve just received the latest details for both categories:

Top 30 Tech Blogs in the UK: August 2010

1. TechCrunch Europe
2. Geeky Gadgets
3. Electricpig.co.uk
4. Econsultancy blog
5. Coolest Gadgets
6. dot.Rory
7. Gadget Venue dot com
8. The Red Ferret Journal
9. All About Symbian
10. Speckyboy – WordPress and Design
11. The Next Web UK
12. Gaj-It.com – UK Gadget News
13. Photography Blog
14. currybetdotnet
15. Carsonified!
16. Zath
17. Telegraph Blogs – Technology
18. andrewallen/blog
19. Mark Shuttleworth
20. TechDigest
21. Wonderland
22. GadgetLite Blog
23. We Are Social
24. Blog.Spoon Graphics
25. eWEEKeurope
26. Boagworld
27. jonobacon@home
28. Dial-a-Phone
29. NevilleHobson.com
30. The Ed Techie

Full list at Wikio: Top 100 Technology Blogs in the UK

Top 30 Online Marketing Blogs in the UK: August 2010

1. Econsultancy blog
2. We Are Social
3. SEOptimise Blog
4. iCrossing
5. SEOgadget
6. Distilled
7. BlogStorm
8. David Naylor a UK SEO
9. FeverBee
10. Hobo
11. FreshNetworks Blog
12. Murray Newlands
13. Chris Garrett on New Media
14. SEO Chicks
15. Blending The Mix
16. UK Offer Media Affiliate Blog
17. SEO Consult
18. No Man’s Blog
19. that canadian girl
20. 360innovate blog
21. Vertical Leap Blog
22. SEOidiot
23. Feeding the Puppy
24. How To Make My Blog
25. Tim Nash UK SEO Blog
26. furtherandfaster
27. Smart Insights Digital Marketing
28. SEO Blog
29. SEO News from Just Search
30. SEO Positive Blog: SEO Blog Updated Daily

Full list at Wikio: Top 100 Online Marketing Blogs in the UK

If you want to suggest others blogs for inclusion in Wikio’s tech or online marketing lists that aren’t there already, either let me know or apply on the Wikio website.

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This story caught my eye today. It’s about a little 8-year old boy who’s dying from muscular dystrophy.

As part of his dying wishes, Tanner traveled to New York to take a tour through Central Park. He flew with Air Canada. In Canada, the name Air Canada is synonymous with “Who Cares Canada” instead. Simply put, they’re pretty much the crappest airline around.

Yesterday, however, they outdid themselves. They broke Tanner’s $15,000 wheelchair.

This is an 8-year old boy who can’t get around without his wheelchair. His needs mean that the chair is almost like an extra body part for him.

As an example, think of yourself trying to breathe on only one lung – that’s how important Tanner’s chair is.

So, bit of a problem would be an understatement.

No problem, you’d think. Air Canada broke it, they’ll replace it, right? Wrong.

They told Tanner’s family that they can’t do anything until this coming Monday – five days later. Five days for Tanner to be bed-ridden because Air Canada screwed up. Bad move, Air Canada – we live in the age of social media and instant backlash.

You might recall the outcry when U.S. air carrier United Airlines broke a passenger’s guitar, and the protracted period he went through to get a replacement. Eventually he made a  YouTube video that saw United Airline take a negative PR hit they were never prepared for.

You would have thought airlines would have learned from that escapade, especially when you have some great uses of social media from the industry by the likes of  JetBlue and  Southwest Airlines.

But then again, this is Air Canada we’re talking about.

Despite an  outcry on Twitter; despite the news story that leads this post; despite the family pleading their case about how crucial it is for Tanner to have a wheelchair, so far there’s been nothing from the company apart from a “loaner” that Tanner can’t use.

Instead, it’s taken a  company in New York called Mobility Solutions to come to Tanner’s rescue. All through Twitter. All through helping a little boy out. All through goodwill; not through responsibility of breaking an item and replacing it.

Nice job, Air Canada.

Now I know times are tough, since you announced your second quarter results and showed a loss of $203 million. But then again, you made an operating income of $75 million, compared to a loss of $113 million last year. So you have some spare change.

But not enough to replace a dying kid’s $15,000 wheelchair that you broke?

Maybe there’s a reason. Maybe there’s red tape you have to sign off. Maybe you have to investigate what happened. Fair enough – that’s business.

But there’s business and there’s good business. You screwed up. You replace. Then you find out what happened.

It’s not so hard, is it?

And while you’re thinking about that, you might want to look at sorting out  your Twitter profile, or updating your Facebook page. That’s where the  questions are happening. If you had these up-to-date, some things you could have done:

• Addressed the concerns of Twitter users that are calling you out.
• Used your Facebook wall to keep folks updated on what’s happening.
• Used the  #TutusForTanner hashtag on Twitter to offer apologies and advise what went wrong/how it’s being fixed.
• Connected with the news outlets social feeds and updated via there as well.

The great thing about social media is that any mistakes made on it can be rectified on it as well. You have that chance.

Or is it still “Who Cares Canada”?

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