Digital Shift Among Some Big Brands

Below and article published on marketingmagazine.co.uk showing how major global brands are looking at digital:

Bacardi rethinks drinks brands' online strategy

Bacardi is set to scale back its brand websites and refocus its marketing efforts on social-media platforms that host its branded content.

The drinks company, which owns the Bacardi, Bombay Sapphire, Dewar's and Grey Goose brands, will pare back its sites because they are expensive to run and are experiencing a fall in visitors, according to sources.

Over the next one to two years, it is believed that Bacardi will shift up to "90%" of its digital spend to Facebook as it no longer deems dotcom sites relevant.

A source said: "With dotcoms you are not getting a great return on investment if you are not getting the hits."

The company will bolster its social-media presence, where it will be looking to place branded content that can be shared more easily with online communities. It is believed that the activity will be aimed at consumers in their 20s.

The Bacardi UK site cur-rently offers visitors a range of products and information, including branded apps, music downloads and cocktail tips.

Rival Diageo recently centred a campaign for Smirnoff on a branded Facebook page, using the site as a hub for its Nightlife Exchange Project.

The page is updated with realtime news and includes live streaming of global events. Diageo claimed the campaign has helped it recruit 312,000 Smirnoff "fans" in the UK and two million globally.

Diageo plans to build on its success by increasing its year-on-year digital spend for Smirnoff by 115%.

Heineken is also raising its investment in social media-related marketing, with the upcoming launch of a Facebook store that sells branded merchandise. This is part of a wider strategy by the brewer to use the web to develop its global presence.

Digital Metrics in Real Time :)

Video below shows how brand equity is measured nowadays. During the SuperBowl brands pay crazy money to appear for a few seconds on the screens of consumers. Mullens & Radian6 have developed real time social tracking app to score the biggest ad campaigns during the 2011 Super Bowl.Have a look at the video to understand.

Unique Store Window Installation

Saw this posted on the Digital Buzz Blog. Apparently it was developed by a group of students from Hyper Island. It's a digital installation that replaces a shop window and by employing motion sensors plays, rewinds or stops a preprogrammed video. Quite interesting in the implications it has for development of such campaigns. Great work!

Interactive Display Window Concept from Gustaf Engström on Vimeo.

Digital In-Store Experience

Digital is becoming a lot more integrated. Companies have started to unite in-store marketing with digital signage and motion sensory equipment. One of the best results to date is Adidas's new interactive inventory in several of their stores.

As the video shows the "wall" is a highly customized experience using facial recognition to assess the gender of approaching consumes. It then guides them through a specific or full range of Adidas shoes and gives them highly specific and detailed information on each model including product videos, visual explanation of the design of the shoe and immediate purchase options allowing for great speed and selection of the perfect model for each consumer.

Applied Digital to Practice

An interesting campaign developed by Gol Airlines to make navigating through their website more interactive and interesting for consumers. A mini-game integrated with a promotional campaign - watch the video to learn how it works.

Gol Airlines - Mobile Check in from AlmapBBDO Internet on Vimeo.