The Birth Factor

Earlier this week, I heard about a website, www.birthornot.com

The site was set up by Pete and Alisha, a couple from the U.S.A. to determine, by way of an open poll whether they should abort Alisha's pregnancy or go through with it and have the baby.

Pete is pro-life, and Alisha believes that it is the woman's decision to make as it is her body that has to go through with the procedure. 

By having a site that has clearly attracted a lot of media attention, Alisha believes that she has higlighted the importance of the woman's right to decide, and demonstrated her right to free speech; both causes that she feels strongly about.

Interestingly, both partners keep seperate blogs on the site, voicing their very different opinions on the matter, responding to media untruths and fraudulent voters (after various publications reported the story, virtual "mobs" descended on the site voting abort, which saw a huge shift in direction). 

Although I can appreciate the attention the site has brought to the debate, I find it somewhat difficult to believe that the couple really ever had any intention of aborting if the true vote came in as such - the husband is pro-life, and the wife's timeline of pregnancies and developments in their relationship published on the site shows 2 previous, recent planned pregnancies which both ended in miscarriage...why would they risk of losing the child they clearly want? Alisha would argue that she's unsure of her mental stability after the miscarriages, but again, why plan a conception if you're unsure that you want a baby?

We'll have to wait until the 9th December to find out what happens; that's the last day they can legally have an abortion, but whatever the result, despite the apparently trivial presentation, it's good to see people being proactive about issues that matter to them, and interesting to watch the public reaction (quite mixed it would appear).

Go have a look at the site, vote. It'd be good to hear your views on the matter.

Birdsong is the new way for humans to interact

All social networking sites are good for something, but all social networking sites also have a lot of filler, whether it be in the form of severely underused applications, or just pure fodder content being generated by its users.

All social networking sites, except for Twitter. The age old mantra of "keep it simple" occurs to me as a logical explanation to explain its success...it's a streamlined service, simple to use and relatively simple to understand once you're familiar with the Twitter-specific lingo., it keeps content specific and to the point, and its quirky nature encourages quirky, innovative and revolutionary interaction. The 140 character limit effectively doesn't allow for any filler content, and so the filtered final tweets generally make for interesting reading, at the very least. This guarantee of quality (and interestingly, by the same restrictions, quantity) has ensured that Twitter's user base has grown rapidly in recent years, and continues to grow by an estimated 5-10K people per day*.

Now established as the digital midground between brand and consumer, client and agency, celebrity and civilian, companies can link to press releases and provide teasers, publicise any page, picture, video, song, blog or other, as well as express themselves in a new way; communicate in a different voice.

Although the function to re-tweet or RT means that your material potentially has further to reach than just your immediate followers, the bigger your following, the more opportunity and the better the possibility that it will get passed on to a greater number of people. According to Hubspot's "State of the Twittersphere" report,  

"There is a strong correlation between a user's number of followers and the number of people they follow."

Signalling that those who follow a larger number of people have more to RT and talk about and so are more interesting to follow, hence their own relative large number of followers. 

In his book, "The Tipping Point", Malcolm Gladwell examines that some products (i.e. Hush Puppies) became popular simply because the group of early adopters who first started wearing them were the sorts of influential people who would tell all their friends about their new purchase, and how great it was. Twitter culture affords every user the opportunity to become that influential person, as long as they play ball and form part of the cyclical follow/be followed scheme. This versatility and scope to reach a huge audience is considered invaluable by many companies, so much so that many advertise the fact they're on Twitter. This can be done by having affiliate buttons on their websites/other social networking profiles, or by including the information on press/television/radio adverts. Recently French agency Publicis Groupe went one step further by creating this viral "We're on Twitter" ad:

***

So effective, Twitter is an integral part of many brand's communication strategy, being followed on Twitter is seen as the equivalent to having Facebook friends, or a number of subscribers to a newsletter, but with a far wider range of appeal.

Due to the easy integration of Twitter with other websites/programs, users have found unique ways of utilising Twitter, not least for self promotion.

www.twitter.com/tweetmeabrief promotes the creators as the creative team they are, resulting in a fun and entertaining way to add to their portfolio, building themselves a networking web in the process. Not only this, but has started to form a creative hub of people enthralled by the concept and reading/interacting with the team and other followers.

Amanda Palmer of self-proclaimed Brechtian punk cabaret duo, The Dresden Dolls recently drew great attention to her marketing savvy as she utilised Twitter to invite fans to secret, last minute gigs whilst touring, and to make $19,000 in 10 hours as she held a webchat which gained momentum and grew into a t-shirt conception, design and sale, and an auction of Dresden Dolls and personal memorabilia; the monetary figure demonstrating the power of a quirky website named after birdsong.



References: * - Hubspot "State of the Twittersphere" report published on www.marketingcharts.com on the page http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/twitters-new-users-drive-600-growth-7324/


** - Hubspot "State of the Twittersphere" report published on www.marketingcharts.com on the page http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/twitters-new-users-drive-600-growth-7324/

*** - "Publicis staff show mastery of tweet nothings" article on www.brandrepublic.com on the page http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1041167/publicis-staff-show-mastery-tweet-nothings/

Swipe!

Browsing through this year's Campaign Big Awards winners, I came across a really great ad. One that caught my eye, made me laugh and then lust after the product. Here it is, for dixons.co.uk, a gold winner at the awards, and one of the best still ads you'll see all year:

 Going back to what I said in my previous blog post about speaking in colloquial terms to your target audience,  this really ticks all the boxes - it's dry, and yet so visually unsubtle about the reference to John Lewis.

The words "middle" and "awfully well brought up young man" make a mockery of the stereotypical John Lewis customer, implying that all the extras you get by shopping there are somewhat uneccesary, and that you can get the product (for cheaper you're led to believe) easier at dixons.co.uk.

I love how bold the advert is, speaking to the masses in a time of economic downturn, satirising the in-store experience, making it sound opulent, and then directing the audience to a place where everything is streamlined, easier, and cheaper (or so the implications would lead you to believe).

Great to see a bit of competitive spirit.