Who doesn't like a good social media campaign? Here are are few campaigns that ran this January, that we loved. 

VW: Fan the Flame

This past month at the Brussels Auto Show, VW set the fire under its Facebook Fans to bring attention to their MINI Countryman. Outside the show they set up a ramp that placed the MINI on a slope and held it in place with a thick rope. Under the rope they placed a torch that blasts fire that was triggered by a live streaming app connected to their Facebook Fan Page. Every "Like" triggers a burst of flame from the fire torch which scorches the rope in real time. The lucky pyromaniac who chars the rope to release the car wins the vehicle. Very clever.

There is another level of social added to this campaign. Contestants received points for answering skill testing questions and for sharing a link to the contest with friends, both of which gave them another shot at firing the MINI.

Why it’s awesome:

This campaign bridges together interactions that occur face-to-face which creates strong connections that only happen at these types of “trade show” style events. It takes the  conversation online, where it can continue to flourish. Usually powerful social media relationships START online, and gain momentum when ignited in real life – this campaign was the opposite. With a unique opportunity to connect with uber-fans, VW was able to spread the message to passionate car enthusiasts through Facebook and to their social networks. Also, this campaign is pretty sexy – fire, cars & Facebook. 

Agency: Agency.com\TBWA

Air China: Facebook Check In

Sometimes the simplest campaigns are the best – and this is a testament to that. Air China wanted to get more Swedes on their flights, so they created awareness for their airline by teaming up with a number of popular Asian restaurants in Sweden and incited patrons to check-in with Facebook as they took down some Asian eats. Those who checked-in the most and received the most votes at the end of the campaign won a pair of free tickets to Asia. The campaign reached over a million people.

Why it’s awesome: 

Using Asian restaurants as ambassadors allows Air China to tap in to a pool of people that are relatively qualified leads: they are already fans of the food culture. With the allure of an extravagant prize; those participating are more likely to talk about their Asia adventures  to entice their friends to vote for them. 

Agency: Rodolfo

HUGO BOSS hits Berlin Fashion Week

Capturing the attention of the young, hip and fashion forward crowd that follows HUGO BOSS, the fashion brand recently sponsored Berlin’s hottest spots during fashion week.   They created a Foursquare list and a YouTube video to highlight destinations that complimented and reflected their taste. The list included trendy bars, restaurants and even stores (GASP!). Those listed also offered free appetizers or drink deals for those who checked in. List followers were also gifted an exclusive HUGO BOSS bracelet for their check-in.

Why it’s awesome:

HUGO BOSS piggy backed on the concentration of stylish Germans being in the same city and targeted the likeliness that they were interested in not only dressing stylishly but also living stylishly. This campaign puts the spotlight on HUGO BOSS as a “taste maker”. They were able to brand Berlin’s hot spots as uniquely HUGO BOSS. The underlying greatness of this campaign is the ability to track their success through social media. Metrics from Foursquare are robust, including extensive demographic information HUGO BOSS could gather from those following their list.

Burton Snowboards: “Now Boarding”

Hosted on the Burton Snowboard Facebook Fan Page, the “Now Boarding” campaign appeals to snow adventurers. By Liking Burton, you have a chance of winning a travel bag full of Burton goodies, as well as a chance to win a mystery boarding trip. Participants are asked to “pack a bag” with three items that they would bring on their trip, as well as identify two buddies that they would like to tag along – if they were to win the mystery vacation.

Why it’s awesome:

Appealing to the adventurer, this Facebook driven campaign taps into the psyche of snow worshippers perfectly – the thrill of adventure. Social media fans are able to interact directly with Burton’s product by picking a top three wish list, as well as pin-point friends that have likeminded travel and sport values. 

So we added a new menu option ("All pod names and URLs") to our data download dropdown, on the Data tab:

And here's what you get:

Enjoy!

We thought we'd share the pics of our lucky winner, Chris Taggart sporting his new watch.

Looking at the report from Campaign Manager- Twitter obviously came in on top in terms of highest referring sites, which was our goal. What else we can gather from the data is that although our blog was second highest refer- emails had the lowest click rate but a higher conversion rate then other medias. Email marketing is one of the best way to speak to your customers, clients or subscribers often because you have an "opt-in relationship" with them. They are more likely to have an open ear to what you're writing to them about. It's fair to say, that perhaps we should email information to our clients on a more regular basis- perhaps it is a channel that could developed further- a newsletter perhaps?

Overall, with little lead up to our launch we were happy with the results of the contest. The more contests a brand does like this- the more opportunity you have in order to make the entire process better; design, rules, execution, promotion etc. The first step in improving your strategy is having a plan to measure your success.

We're getting into the holiday spirit here at SWIX. Merry Christmas to all those social marketers out there- we’re gifting Mentionbox, our newest free service that helps you discover mentions of your brand in social media. In order to celebrate the release we are also running a "SWIXmas" themed contest. The prize is a Deckster watch that’s locked and loaded with a 8GB iPod nano. Want to know how you can enter? Check out the contest HERE.

Happy Holidays!

The team at SWIX
 

So what is MentionBox?

MentionBox is a real time social search engine that helps social marketers find conversations about their brand online and help them make actionable decisions based on their social media activities.

What to expect:
-Search in real time for any key term and MentionBox will return results over 7 main social platforms
-Access the conversation from MentionBox with one click
-Set up daily alerts to your inbox for mentions of your term for free

Here's a three step tutorial on how to get started. It's pretty easy.

YouTube Video "Likes" for Videos

The "Likes" metric on YouTube is joining "Favourites"  and "Rating" in the YouTube pod. SWIX will track the total likes a video receives over time. This feature will be useful when launching a marketing campaign that involves a video element . Make sure to overlay events to see if there is a correlation between likes, views and the start and end of your campaign.

Facebook Wall Posts for Fan Pages

If you're tracking analytics for a Facebook Fan Page you are now able to track the daily count of Wall Posts. To be able to receive this metric your pod MUST be authenticated with Facebook with an account that is an administrator of that Fan Page. This metric will help social marketers find out which days received the most Wall Activity and help one understand which content causes the most engagement from your community. It will be another great metric that will be well paired with events, allowing you to track which social media campaigns or pushes work best.

Do you have any metrics you wished SWIX tracked? We are always adding new metrics, let us know what you would like to see next.

The process is as follows:

Copy your Facebook Page URL into the pod.

Click the "Connect with Facebook" button:

Then go ahead and click "Save" on the pod and you should start seeing a pod with metrics.