Everyone is talking about it – the successful Twitter Party! But what the fuss is all about?

The so called Twitter Parties are innovative, highly influential and fun virtual parties, using the Twitter platform. A recent Social Media trend the Twitter conversation is grouped around a topic hashtag, sponsored or led by a brand. It discusses a selected topic, providing the audience an opportunity to interact with the brand in real time, ask questions, share tips and potentially win a prize.

Usually it has a party host as well as expert panellists and / or brand representative. As an option, the #hashtag conversation could be run by an influential blogger within the target audience, where the brand partners with the blogger, sponsoring the online event. Small prizes are usually used as additional stimuli for online interaction.

Twitter users tweet with a specified hashtag (#) for the party in order to discuss the selected and pre-announced a topic of choice. The rest of the twitter users use the hashtag in order to search and join the conversation

We are now planning another exiting Twitter Party #back2schooltips engaging with mums to share their tips about making the Back to School euphoria less stressful and more enjoyable – for both parents and kids. The party is planned for end of August and will be hosted by @GreenKiddie. So if you are an eco-friendly brand with products or services suitable to the topic, and are interested in taking part in the Twitter Party, please get in touch not later than 14^th August. There are various way to take part – from just supplying a prize to sponsoring/ owning the Twitter Party.

What it means for the brands

So far many Twitter parties have been trending on Twitter, making their way to the top trends and increasing significantly the brand online visibility. At >incite we’ve run successful Twitter Parties for brands like BornFree (#colic-free) and Graco Baby (#kidstravelsafe).

The key benefits for a brand are:

-       Minimal investment/ maximum impact

-       Twitter parties are an excellent way to drive awareness to your products or introduce new ones, start a conversation about your niche, or get better acquainted with an enthusiastic group of people

-       When hosted by an influential mummy blogger within the target community, such as greenkiddie, you will benefit from a “mum-to-mum” approach, already built and established online community members and message credibility (i.e. word-of-mouth)

To discuss your involvement as a brand, please email Nataliya at nataliya (at) incite-marketing(.)co(.)uk

From 1 March 2011 the ASA’s online remit now extends to cover companies’ own marketing claims on their own websites and in other non-paid for space they control. This landmark development brings enhanced consumer protection, particularly for children.

We already regulate internet ads in paid-for space, like banner ads, pop-ups and paid search results, but our new responsibilities mean that we now apply the same high standards to marketing communications on companies own websites and in other non-paid space they control, like Facebook and Twitter.

The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, which includes rules to make sure advertisements do not mislead, harm or offend, will be applied to all UK based company websites regardless of the sector or size of business or organisation.

Since 2008, we have received over 4,500 complaints that we couldn’t deal with, but now anyone who has a concern about an online marketing communication will be able to turn to us. Not only is this good news for consumers, it is also good for business – marketing communications that are trusted are more likely to work and deliver value.

The extension to the ASA’s remit was in response to a recommendation from the UK ad industry, which has a long history of being committed to ensuring ads across media are legal, decent, honest and truthful. By extending the ASA’s remit, industry has responded to consumers’ demands.

Advertising self-regulation has been successful in keeping advertising standards high for almost 50 years. Our new online remit shows that we are continuing to keep pace with changes in technology for the benefit of consumers, business and society.

Source: http://www.asa.org.uk/

Coca-Cola and Unilever are shifting their digital focus away from traditional campaign sites and towards community platforms, such as Facebook and YouTube, as social media begins to dictate their marketing activity in 2010, announced NMA magazine today.

The FMCG giants are moving away from sites created on a campaign-by-campaign basis in favour of investment in existing communities. While both companies will continue to create campaign sites for certain brands in the immediate future, they have said the long-term future lies with social media on platforms populated by their target consumers.

According to the magazine, Coca-Cola will position its official Facebook and YouTube pages as the lead online channels for upcoming international activity for its Coke Zero and Fanta brands, new media age understands.

Prinz Pinakatt, the Coca-Cola Company’s interactive marketing manager for Europe, said, “In some cases some of our campaigns won’t need a coke.com-hosted site. In most cases these will still exist as it’s the most obvious destination for a consumer, but it might only be a page linking to YouTube encouraging people to join the community there. “We would like to place our activities and brands where people are, rather than dragging them to our platform,” Pinakatt added.

Unilever is also abandoning campaign sites in favour of long-term community engagement platforms. Cheryl Calverley, Unilever UK’s senior global manager for Axe Skin, said “It’s natural online to go to the place where people are already consuming media. It’s less effort to ask people to leave an environment they’re already in.”

So the question for us as digital marketing specialists is whether developing a site for every campaign is cost-effective and worth-doing it. Community-based platforms prove more engaging and long-term beneficial for the brand visibility and consumer loyalty. Online brand experience will now become even more important part of the marketing mix and proper digital strategy planning focusing on consumer journey will be necessary more than ever before. Sounds challenging, but it’s rewarding.