About the Nominees
Dell has been hailed as one of the top Social Media brands by Mashable. Dell has it all including an integrated community with blogs, forums, and wikis, as well as, the crowdsourcing genius of IdeaStorm. In addition, the company is focused on unleashing topic specific communities including Digital Nomads, Regeneration.org, Small Business, Partner Channels, Education and Enterprise. On top of all of this, there are many company representatives on Twitter offering support, special deals through the Dell Outlet, and just genuine conversation on topics of interest with the community. And from Dell's perspective, this is just the beginning!
Working with Civic Entertainment Group (NY), HBO innovated its marketing plan for the John Adams mini-series by "going analog" and partnering with the US Postal Service. For two months, quotes from Adams were on all USPS register receipts and on the cancellation mark of all stamped mail. And to merge analog with digital, they created a website where the public could send messages printed on physical postcards to their friends and family. Most importantly, these tactics matched the brand—Adams was renowned for his letter writing. The premier episode (it was a 5-part miniseries) received the highest Nielsen ratings of any HBO mini-series or movie premier since 2004.
Finally you can watch TV on your laptop and it looks great. The web poses a big threat to broadcast, but NBC and Fox were smart enough to team up and hire Jason Kilar to build a terrific web platform for their content. No more grainy SNL clips on YouTube. Extra genius: making Hulu content embeddable on user's blogs and sites. Now, if only Hulu can get permission to work with Boxee again!
For all the hype about the launch of the 2G iPhone, Apple's real breakthrough in 2008 was the App Store. This storefront for third party applications turned an "MP3 player plus 2nd-tier Blackberry" into a lifestyle-altering mobile computing device. Open source developers added games, maps, productivity tools, books, RSS feeds… but also applications that never existed before, because they'd make no sense for a large computer (identify that song on the radio, get food advice while shopping in the grocery). The Google phone and Blackberry are both rushing to emulate, with their own app stores. The mobile computing revolution has begun.
President Obama's use of social networking and online engagement with his supporters is already being hailed as a historic turning point in electoral campaigning. He took the existing political grassroots ethic and ramped it up with the growing connective power of online communities. At this year's ANA meeting, he was already voted Advertising Age's 2008 Marketer of the Year. Should he be excluded as a near consensus no. 1, and should we look to vote for no. 2?
This microblogging service has quickly become the instant message tool for the smartphone era. Twitter's open format (you can follow anyone's messages) turn texting into a broadcast medium, allowing users to listen in on the streams of thousands. Twitter hit big in 2008, surpassing 5 million users, and becoming the go-to source on breaking news like the Mumbai attacks. With just 140 characters per post, Twitter is already changing the face of news, customer service, and public opinion.
Zappos appeared regularly in the headlines this year for both its high quality e-service and its uniquely creative and supportive culture, culminating in #23 ranking in Fortune's "Top 100 Best Companies to Work For." To assure the right fit with its new employees Zappos gives them "The Offer," a chance to quit with their earned salary plus a $1,000 bonus. As a spin-off derived from all this attention, they finished the year by creating a line-extension into a new business: management consulting.
We've been waiting years for an e-book with a good enough interface to attract readers. Amazon focused on the reading experience, and has tapped its powerful publisher relationships to create a portable device that lets carry thousands of books, papers, mag's, and blogs with you to read. Half million sold, last year's must-have for Xmas (sold out), the Kindle could position Amazon as the iTunes for the next generation of bookworms.
Hot new products and services, breakthrough marketing campaigns, or bold business
strategies -- 2007 featured a lot of Big Thinking by companies, agencies,
non-profits, and social entrepreneurs. What brands do you think were the
boldest? Vote for one of the list below, or add your own nominee.
