A DIFFERENT TYPE OF AGENCY

As a collective, The Factory Interactive is fueled by a passion for developing enduring messages conceived through a marriage of design and technology. At the core, we are explorers of possibility and architects of memory. We create rich immersive experiences that increase message retention and reward the audience. Our mission: give personality to products, resulting in a stronger, more effective brand.

_{September 17, 2009}
Anheuser-Busch- Getting it in the Can _{By jason}

It looks like more traditional shops are getting into the viral video game. I came across this online online ad from DDB this morning. The spot with it’s thinly veiled innuendo of anal sex will surely be a hit with the YouTube, college crowd and make it’s way into your inbox soon (sorry..that pun was just way to easy).

However with 80% of the US beer drinking population dominated by males…is this really the best association for the beer? Shouting out “Hey bud, give me one in the can” is sure to turn more than a few heads in a crowded bar.

Filed under: Agency News,Marketing,Media News — Tags: advertising, agency, Anheuser-Busch, social media, viral campaign — @ 11:08 am

_{May 27, 2009}
Baby Boomers dropping from Facebook?? _{By Ashley}

But wait???? In the beginning of the year, wasn’t the big news the fact that Baby Boomers were joining Facebook in masses (yes, my Mother joined)??? Ah, the fickle and ever-changing world of 2.0. Side note: (And not a joke) For Mother’s Day my Mom asked my younger “soon-to-be-a-doctor” brother to accept her friend request as her gift. He opted for a humorous card instead.

As much as a lot of our parents love this social media phenom, new reports from Facebook insiders report that Baby Boomers are dropping from the beloved site as quickly as they  joined. According to data that Facebook supplies to its advertisers, the 55-to-65-year-old age group’s activity has drastically declined over the past couple months (by 651,080, to be exact), making it the only demographic to experience an overall drop in numbers.

The big question is why? Is it that all the parents are getting upset their children won’t add them as “friends”? Or is it the new real-time interface is too confusing for them?

I have one guess: TIME. Most Baby Boomers do not sit at a computer all day long for work like the younger generation. Nor do they see the value, or necessity, in checking their facebook multiple times a day. And let’s face it, it takes a lot of time to stay on top of things on Facebook! So instead of getting emails notifying them that they’ve had a gummy bear thrown at them (because they probably don’t know how to turn off notifications), they opted to delete the account.

What do you think the reasoning is?

Filed under: Media News — Tags: baby boomers, facebook, mothers, parents, social media — @ 4:20 pm

_{May 12, 2009}
F.T.Disaster _{By Ashley}

This Mother’s Day, thousands of people placed their orders for flowers online through F.T.D or 1-800-FLOWERS.  And hundreds of people received their flowers late and/or not at all. Something new? Nope. So why the big deal now? One word: Twitter.

The complaints were through the roof on Sunday via Twitter. According to Twendz, (a program which  pulls Tweets and measures the sentiments expressed about a brand or topic and measures how positive, neutral or negative the tweets are) 63% of recent tweets about FTD are negative. And 83% of tweets that include “FTD” and “Mom” are negative. There were also complaints for 1-800-FLOWERS but one difference is Flowers is doing something about it… a customer service Twitter page. This small act has reduced the negative Tweets to 33%.

The point of all of this is, you ask? Complaints are not new, in fact, the same thing probably happens every single year but this year, we have the cultural phenom known as Twitter. This just goes to prove how important it is for companies to get involved with social media and squash the negative feedback ASAP. By a seemingly simple act of creating a Twitter page, 1-800-FLOWERS has won the Mother’s Day flower-off this year. (And I say seemingly simple because it is absolutely a full-time job to monitor the social media buzz for your business)

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: 1800flowers, feedback, ftd, mothers day, social media, tweets, twendz, twitter — @ 9:45 pm

_{May 8, 2009}
All The World’s A Twitter – How’s Your Business Twitt’etiquette. _{By jason}

With the explosive growth of Twitter over the last few months (worldwide visitors to Twitter.com increased 95 % in the month of March to 19.1 million) many companies are standing on the sidelines wondering how to get started and are plagued with questions.  What’s a tweet;  do I need to follow everyone; will @Oprah show me some love; what the heck is #followfriday ?  Are you riding the 140 character wave or being swept out by a sea of change. Here are a few tips to help you make some sense of the Twitterverse and Tweet with confidence.

1. Complete your Bio.
Most new Twitter users do not fill out the small but important section that says a bit about who they are.  Other users hover over your icon to get a glimpse into your Twitter profile & this bio is a great way to entice them into checking you out.  If you have a website or blog include it as this is a great way to increase traffic to it and it can help with SEO.

2. The secret is in the sauce: Be valuable.

Don’t broadcast – engage.  Twitter is great for two way communication, so remember that fact when you Tweet. No one wants to hear just your sales pitch over & over. Be cognizant of that fact & share useful information via your Tweets. Don’t be schizophrenic. If you are trying to be an expert on a subject, then stick to it as much as possible. A few personal bits of info are good but should not overpower the expertise you want to be known for.  users may also Retweet your posts so make sure you are being presented in a favorable light (save the vegas story for another platform). In other words limit your signal to Noise ratio and you will quickly amass new followers.

3. Don’t forget to use #hashtags/
Hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and metadata to your tweets.  You create a hashtag simply by prefixing a word with a hash symbol: #hashtag. Hashtags were developed as a means to create “groupings” on Twitter, without having to change the basic service.  Hashtags.org provides real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Opt-in by following @hashtags to have your hashtags tracked.  (source: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Hashtags).

4.  You don’t need to follow everyone.
Be strategic and follow those people that are likely to follow you back or share similar interests. This way you are communicating  to an eager audience of like minded individuals.  Exceptions to the rule: these 237 Twitter users that will follow you back http://tinyurl.com/cm68vr.

5.  No thank you Mr. Roboto.
Avoid applications that auto respond when people follow you. They can feel fake & you’ll miss opportunities to engage in conversation with new followers. There are many Twitter users that will block you for sending auto-responders, so be wary of this fact and use at your own risk.

6.  Learn the Twitt’etiquette.
There are a number of unspoken rules on Twitter.  Learn about them before you make newbie mistakes. For example, give credit to users when you ReTweet, (RT) don’t hijack someone else’s message as your own, use Direct messages (DM) for personal conversations instead of posting to the user’s publicly viewable account.  Here is a list of Twitter terms to get you started (http://twictionary.pbwiki.com/)

7. Make your messages easy to Retweet.
A Retweet is when someone takes your Twitter message and tweets that same message to all followers in their own Twitter network. Retweeting allows your message to spread throughout the Twittersphere. This is great for blogs, articles etc. so keep your tweets short & invite users to retweet your post (a simple “please retweet” works well).  If you use WordPress for your blog, add the TweetThis WordPress plugin. It places a “Tweet this” link at the end of your articles so readers can post to their network of followers.

Our next two posts will continue the Twitter theme;  we will show you 10 tools that help you make the most of Twitter discuss the best ways to build brand credibility via social media, see you soon.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: advice, business, digital strategy, guides, SEO, social media, twitter, Viral Marketing — @ 11:22 am

_{April 29, 2009}
Social Media still growing… can you handle it? _{By Ashley}

In my last blog post, “Social Media is growing…and it’s growing fast”, I mentioned the fast pace social media campaigns are growing at, and how it’s pertinent to have an agency manage that campaign for you. I want to back that statement up with a few points on why and how it can be so difficult to manage on your own.

I wish I could say it’s as easy as creating a Twitter account, sending out a few tweets and you move on with your life… but, sorry folks, its not that simple.

Time – I write this post as I think to myself, “Holy bananas!! It is already 5pm! Where did the day go?” Is there ever enough of time? (I can write an entire blog post on that itself) It’s important to remember that marketing is a 24/7 job. Sure you can allot a time slot every day for it but will it ever be enough? Or will it overtake the rest of your day?

Negativity – Let’s face it, not everyone is a happy customer. You may have upset someone (unintentionally, of course) on the wrong day. These days, the first thing they do is take to the web to rant and rave about it. (I know I do!!) This is where it takes a professional to diffuse the situation as quickly as possible.

Personality – You must balance personality and professionalism. An agency can help you come up with the right “fit” of a personality for your social media campaign. Take Jet Blue for example. They have the right amount of playfulness mixed with professionalism; and it remains consistent across all marketing platforms.

Measurement - Social Media is still difficult to gauge the successfulness of, but each day we are getting wiser and smarter in the ways we can find the value in a social campaign. Everything from analytics tools, to response rates, and retweets can help an expert calculate the real effectiveness.

The social media campaign is becoming more complex by the day. A real strategy must go behind it, and execution must be spot on. But if done correctly, it can be not only extremely cost effective but all-around-effective.

One last quick note: I participated in a webinar today which stated, there will be a 63% increase in digital/interactive campaign spending. And a 59% decrease in traditional media spending. That equivilates to a lot of competition for your customers attention.

Filed under: Marketing — Tags: blogs, facebook, Marketing, myspace, social media, twitter, YouTube — @ 4:14 pm

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