There was a major advertisement battle last year in India. It was about the “Mystery Shampoo” and if it was the number 1 shampoo.

Around July 23rd, P&G Pantene came up with the idea of Mystery Shampoo. It was on TV, web, blogs and print but nobody really knew what it was. The idea was to build buzz about the “mystery” theme, finally ending with a big reveal that it was Pantene.

There was just one hitch with their plan: their biggest competitor. There had been hints of the Mystery Shampoo campaign before it launched, and just a few days later on July 28th, Dove came out with a counter advertisement “There is no mystery. Dove is the No. 1 Shampoo.” Any buzz that Pantene was trying to build was ruined and Dove reaped all of the rewards from this campaign. This is a classic example of smart entrapping of a competitor in marketing.

So what went wrong with Mystery Shampoo?

• Gave hints about campaign even before launch
• Too much time between tease and reveal
• Gave enough time for smart competitor to cash-in on the opportunity

Cautions and Some Tips

• Teasers extended to long durations can be put brand at risk
• Don’t give hints to your competitors
• Don’t use incorrect statistics (you can and will be sued by competitors!)
• Guard yourself for defence before you go out to attack a competitor
• Create good memory about brand by using strong visual effects. Build a story. Build curiosity.
• Your product should be available in market when you launch/reveal the campaign. A teaser is all about building curiosity and expectation which ultimately leads to purchase
• When you create expectations, make sure that your delivery meets those expectations
• Use different mediums to maximize your exposure. Make the best use of social circles
• It is worth making big noise when you are ending your campaign

With research claims under it’s belt as the most important social network platform, LinkedIn just keeps getting better. The more recent feature announced earlier this month includes being able to post company status updates directly from your LinkedIn Company Page. It was the next logical step after LinkedIn News, really. In fact, I’m quite surprised that it’s taken this long for LinkedIn to add this functionality.

Previously, the only way that a Company Page could be “updated” with fresh content was either via the company blog RSS feed or opting in to the news module. Neither very personal nor very engaging. According to LinkedIn, status updates from Company Pages now lets brands engage with their followers on a deeper level within the professional yet social environment that they trust. Similar to your professional profile, status updates look something like this on a Company Page:

The advantage of a status update as opposed to a blog RSS feed is that professionals who follow a Company Page can ‘like’, comment or share the update with their own professional networks, as seen above. This will also subsequently appear as network updates on follower homepages:

I was just testing the waters with that update. But how can businesses start using this feature to its full potential?

Not just another Facebook Page

Sharing, commenting, and ‘liking’ status updates… this sounds exactly like Facebook! While LinkedIn Company Pages may have engagement qualities similar to that of FB Pages, don’t treat it like one. Your LinkedIn followers have different expectations from your brand compared to your Facebook fans. You can afford to be a bit cheeky and laid back on Facebook if it fits within the character of your brand. But on LinkedIn, I believe it’s important to maintain a level of professionalism to establish your business as a company that people can trust and work with, especially if you are B2B.

Getting Buzz through LinkedIn News

I think the real potential with Company status updates lies in the possibility of your update surfacing as a featured headline in your vertical on LinkedIn News to generate buzz. Hence creating valuable, timely content for your followers is essential.

In hindsight, I suspect the amount of time taken to launch this feature was purely intentional by LinkedIn. They probably don’t want companies randomly spamming their followers with any old random update. They want to keep the level of quality and trust that professionals all over the world have come to recognise in LinkedIn.

Looking forward, it will also be interesting to see how search engines take this into account alongside other social signals. Here’s a quick video on how to update your status:

Did you like this post? Follow the Outrider Australia page on LinkedIn for more updates like this!

Couldn’t resist snatching a look at what the two major parties are doing in the digital realm for this election. This election was supposed to be the big digital one taking cues from Obamas election in ‘08 but so far both parties are doing just ‘enough’ with the Libs marginally ahead. A classic example was the morning after the PM’s solo appearance on ABC’s Q&A show when Google searches for the Labor party and the PM were expected to spike. On this day however, the ruling party was conspicuous by its absence allowing its competitor to easily capture all those searches of Labor followers or potential fence-sitters.  Searches conducted on Tuesday for  ‘labor party’ and ‘julia gillard’ brought up paid ads instead by the Liberal Party attacking Labor failures. The Liberal party has obviously cleverly included in its list, Labor party brand terms and the names of Labors leaders ensuring users typing those terms see a Liberal Party paid ad instead. The ads also use the recently launched Sitelinks format which offers users multiple links to click on to enable voters to explore different facets of the Liberal Party’s campaign.

Paid search (PPC) can be effectively used in an election as messages can be updated and put live within hours in response to trending election themes or breaking news. PPC formats allow Election Campaign managers a low cost environment to test and run multiple messages which can serve as a far more credible means of testing concepts than traditional focus groups. Enhanced formats like Sitelinks allow Campaign Managers to integrate their offline and social media components into the Search strategy. Tailored messages can also be used focusing on the most relevant issues for different geographies eg states and cities in contrast to traditional advertising’s one message must fit all. With only a handful of major parties buying search terms in Australia, the costs of setting up running an effective search campaign would be far less expensive than buying primetime radio or television spots.

Google has set up its own page covering the Australian Federal Election which tracks election search trends on the major parties, leaders and issues along with links to a Google Map mashup to find polling booths and Electoral bases in your surburb.

Google announced today their trademark protection policy in many countries will be updated to be in line with the policy in place in the US and UK.  In this instance, Google will only investigate trademark protection if a company feels a competitor is being misleading.  So in practice competitors are able to bid on one another’s brand names, but can not include competitive brand names in their ads, or try to ‘trick’ consumers into clicking on their ad instead.

Advertisers have until the 14^th September 2010 to lodge their complaints under the existing policy, after which time the new policy will apply.

Australia, New Zealand and most Asian countries are not affected, although each country can have a unique policy.  Click here for a full list of affected countries.

We continue to urge all advertisers to ensure they have applied for proactive trademark protection in their relevant country.

Finally, on June the 13th at 12.01 EDT, we will have the option of choosing our own vanity URL for our Facebook name. This will affect both personal profiles, so I’ll be able to change mine from:

http://www.facebook.com/id=654612384

to something like:

http://www.facebook.com/kate.reuvers

So the random sequence of numbers which was my URL, can now be changed to easily recognisable words. This will apparently make it easier for friends and family to find me. Excellent.

The good news for brands is that this change is not going to be limited to profiles, so pages will also be able to be named. From a branding perspective this is an opportunity that should be actioned immediately, as it will not only make your brand easier to find, but will also stop spammers from taking and trying to use your brand.

How to Name Your Page:

Naming your page is easy. Simply go to the Facebook Username page and select the username you want. According to the Facebook blog this name has to be longer than 5 alphanumberic characters in length, and the only character allowed is a full stop.

So I would personally choose either:

http://www.facebook.com/kate.reuvers or

http://www.facebook.com/katereuvers

depending on which was available. They are on a first come first serve basis so it’s important to get in quick and grab the name you’re after.

There are a few important factors to keep in mind when selecting the name for your page:

1) Choose your profile/page name carefully as this cannot be changed later down the track. 
2) Is your brand global? If so, from a usability perspective, it may be better to regionalise the names. So if I was the brand Coke, I would potentially use either http://www.facebook.com/coca.cola.australia or http://www.facebook.com/coke.australia
3) You can protect your name if it’s trademarked by visiting this page

4) If you only have a new Facebook account (as of the 31st of May) you may not be able to register your name immediately as Facebook is attempting to prevent squatters.

So set that alarm clock for June the 13th and be ready to grab your name! And if you have any questions about the Facebook Username changes check out their FAQ’s.