Author Archives: Kaitlyn White

A Look Into Facebook Deals

24th March 2011

Facebook deals made a quiet launch a few weeks ago with a lot of buzz surrounding how the largest social network would break into the group coupon model.

While the actual tool has not launched, we have uncovered a few more details around how it will work. The program will launch first in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco, you can sign up for deals today and Facebook will alert you once they go live.

Deals will go beyond the mobile phone. Currently Facebook users can claim a deal through Facebook Places. With the different options for check-in deals, it will be interesting to see how Facebook expands upon this feature.

Deals will work with friends. Given the social nature of Facebook, this definitely doesn’t come as a surprise, but it does come as an added extra. Other deal sites like livingsocial allow users to forward a deal to friends in order to receive perks of their own. Since this can be tough, it will be interesting to see how Facebook taps into the social networking nature to create meaningful rewards.

Facebook deals will aslo be activated through a tab on a brand’s Facebook page. Apart from check-in deals alone, Facebook has created a dedicated tab to all deals so that a user can easily see offers for local businesses. Although the future enhancements of this are not clear, it is clear Facebook is ready to make this action easy and functional for users.

What are you thoughts on Facebook deals? Have you signed up? What will you expect to see when they finally go live?

Chick-fil-A’s Approach to a Multifaceted Campaign

23rd March 2011

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak on a panel for AiMA’s monthly social SIG luncheon about one of our clients at Engauge, Chick-fil-A, and their recent Spicy Chicken Biscuit launch. Rather than speak directly about a social media case study, our team decided it would be interesting to present how Engauge, along with our agency partners at Chick-fil-A, BrightWave Marketing and Foundry approached the campaign from social media, email marketing and website design respectively.

When tackling the prospect of a campaign or in this case a product launch, it’s important to take a holistic view of the goals, objectives and desired outcomes, rather than just see the project through our eyes as the social component.

The success of this particular product for Chick-fil-A did not lie in awareness across many mediums, but cohesive engagement throughout many mediums.

As an agency partner it can sometimes be difficult to separate your work from another’s, but integrating aspects of social across channels is crucial to campaign success.  For example, a call to action to participate in a poll on Facebook within an email gave our fans a reason to react and a directive to react to, not just multiple visuals to consume from each medium.

As marketers continue to build multiple communities across the web, it’s important to not only think about the success of an individual channel, but also how each channel can build upon and create an unforgettable experience for each and every subscriber, fan and future customer as well.

Disclaimer: I serve as the social strategist on the Chick-fil-A account at Engauge and helped to develop and execute this particular campaign. However, it is also true that I love the Spicy Chicken Biscuit just as much as the next raving fan, even when I’m away from my desk.

SXSW: Lessons Learned

17th March 2011

To say SXSW was a whirlwind would be an understatement. On the plane, my colleagues and I met someone who told us the weekend would be very similar to Inception. As soon as we stepped off the plane, picked up our badges, headed to 6th St., and so on, we would enter a level further down into what would be a non-stop weekend.

He couldn’t have been more correct. By day two I had lost track of day, time and even seemed to have forgotten how bad my feet hurt from all of the walking we had done.

However, I don’t think I’ve ever had a more rewarding experience in such a short period of time. From the moment we arrived in Austin until we landed in Atlanta Tuesday night, we absorbed information, met amazing people and experienced some of the best Austin had to offer.

In retrospect, below are a few of the lessons learned from this great city.

More than a conference. There are a lot of REALLY smart people speaking at SXSW. The trouble is, there are a LOT of really smart people speaking at SXSW. Making decisions on which panel to see and getting there far enough in advance to get in was tough. I didn’t get to see nearly as many as I would have wished, but I did get to hear from some really great people as well such a Dennis Crowley, Jason Calacanis and Andrew Bosworth to name a few.

Digital reality. There were more great digital activations from brands that I could count, everywhere we looked someone was doing something cool, insightful or just plain fun. Photo and video booths seemed to be a big trend this year, but a few really set themselves apart in simple ways. SoBe for instance, hosted an outdoor bar with a virtual photo booth where you could dress yourself up on screen and send a video message. Once it was complete, it revealed a QR code to scan and send your video to friends. Easy.

Who needs sleep. We went non-stop for at least 17 hours each day. No hotel stops, no naps, not even sitting for lunch sometimes (but with so many delicious food trucks, who would want to?). It was exhausting, but with so much going on around us, it was exactly how we wanted to experience SXSW.

Party school. There are no shortage of sponsored parties at SXSW. However, that didn’t mean our nights out weren’t informative. I learned more from seeing what other brands and agencies had put together and spending my nights meeting new and interesting people than I often did at any daytime panel.

Looking to the future. Perhaps the best part of SXSW had to be the general excitement and buzz about everything new and groundbreaking happening in the interactive space. From activations like the GE Solar Powered Carousel to new apps like Hashable and GroupMe, the momentum was endless.

In all, Austin was far more than a few days in a new city, but refreshing and a reminder as to why I love what I do. I cannot wait to see how this week transforms how we all interact with technology in 2011.