We had an amazing experience at Belvedere Vodka’s pre-Grammys party at the Avalon in L.A., which celebrated its partnering with (RED)™ for the launch of BELVEDERE (PRODUCT)RED™. With the help of the Grammy winning celebrity ambassador, Usher, and the brilliant Belgian sculptor, Carsten Höller, (BELVEDERE)RED™ hit the ground running to raise funds for The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.

Höller’s ”Double Sphere Hanging”, a light installation created specially for the (Belvedere)RED initiative, will be auctioned at Art Basel Miami at the end of the year. Proceeds from its sale will also go to The Global Fund. The light sculpture featured red and white flashing bulbs and was created to evoke an emotional response that challenges cerebral intuition.

During the live performance, 700 attendees sipped event-exclusive cocktails, selected for them by the Belve Shaker iPad app we created. By weighing in taste, mood, and music factors, guests were given suggestions for their first drink of the night, which was aggregated into a constantly changing bar graph and projected onto screens. In addition, pictures were taken on the guest-only red carpet (celebrities and attendees alike) and uploaded both to Facebook and the projector screens. We built the buzz among Belvedere’s Facebook fans and twitter followers ahead of time with teasers, opportunities to ask Usher questions and a chance to help select one of the songs he performed. Then we kept them posted throughout the night via live tweeting and Facebook updates.

The invite-only event was attended by such celebrities as Chelsea Handler, Mark Ronson (who was the DJ for the after party), Paris & Nicky Hilton, Jamie Foxx, Estelle and many more. Many of them paused after red carpet photos to autograph a magnum sized model of the Special Edition (BELVEDERE)RED™ bottle. There were also live tweets for our global fans to follow the event happenings and celebrity spottings.

The after party was INSANE! Between the musical stylings of Mark Ronson, a surprise performance by Beth Ditto (of the group, GOSSIP) and all the chatter about a scuffle at the launch event involving a certain Oscar-winning boldfaced name, guests were plenty entertained. Perhaps the most entertained was music icon, Quincy Jones, who literally partied until the lights came on.

It was great to celebrate for a cause, and we’re glad we were able to help Belvedere Vodka execute a successful night of events.

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Our client, Belvedere Vodka is partnering with Project (RED) for a Special Edition, and to kick it off, they’re hosting a star-studded party tonight in Los Angeles featuring a live performance by Usher and an artistic installation by Carsten Höller .

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What was once known as the premier mecca of the newest music, MTV is trying to revamp their current stale and outdated image. Facing heated competition from players like Pandora and iTunes, MTV is pushing forward a new music ranking site called The Music Meter that aggregates bands and artists generating the most online buzz.

According to Mark Mezrich, who does product development for the digital group at MTV Networks Music Group, Music Meter is a “dynamic list based on collecting data on 1 million artists, [using] tweets, blog posts, streams, purchases etc.”

But before you get all bent out of shape from a seeming Hype Machine knock-off, the current beta site lists a top 100, which showcases relatively indie (though not as obscure as Hype) acts like Mike Posner, Waka Flocka Flame, Dev, and She & Him in the top 10. It allows you to listen to snippets, purchase the song, and find similar artists.

Furthermore, a partnership with music intelligence company, Echo Nest, allows MTV to profile each artist with a basic bio and photos, in addition to relevant tweets and news stories pulled from the Web in real time. We’re actually quite impressed that MTV is finally taking such an initiative to develop a “jumping off point for music discovery”.

The Music Meter launches formally in March, with mobile and tablet compatibility. It could be the big break that MTV has desperately been in need of.

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Theater as an art form continues to advance and amaze, in both its simplicities and complexities. Here, the Times’ take on Fourteen Actors Acting. We tried to guess the selection process of the 14 faces who defined the cinema of 2010, while analyzing the subject’s “input”  from his or her expression, music, styling, and order. There’s debate in the office of whose/which is the best, but it’s definitely open to personal interpretation. Isn’t that what art’s all about anyway?

Exquisitely shot by fashion photographer Solve Sundsbo and expertly scored by Owen Pallett (of Final Fantasy and sometimes The Arcade Fire), these black and white videos are a testament to the both the unbridled talent showcased over the past year and the exciting potential for future productions. We are especially excited for the new auteur-helmed films from James Franco (127 Hours), Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Tilda Swinton (I Am Love), and Javier Bardem (Biutiful).

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LAST EXIT and FLINT present “SPIKE EDNEY & FRIENDS”, an interactive, live-streamed music event, where viewers can interact with host and renown musical director Spike Edney and featured special musical guests.

Following the 2008 launch of the hugely successful Internet Week NY, on 8^th-12^th November, INTERNET WEEK EUROPE 2010 is being launched with a ground-breaking five day festival celebrating the very best of Europe’s digital industry and London as its digital hub.

London will play host to a series of web focused events including this long-awaited show at The Bathhouse, London on Wednesday 10^th November.  The featured event “SPIKE EDNEY & FRIENDS”, presented by digital agency Last Exit, and video communications agency Flint, is the brainchild of rock band Queen’s keyboardist and musical director Spike Edney and will allow people all over the world to share in the excitement of this inaugural event and Internet Week.

The event will be streamed live (details to follow). The 2 hour webcast will feature Spike in conversation with invited close musician friends and special celebrity guest artists and rising young stars – talking about their careers, musical influences, favorite songs, highs/lows and amusing stories from their years on the road; followed by live acoustic guest performances in an intimate setting with Spike and his all-star band. Each artist will be asked to perform one of their hits, followed by a favorite John Lennon song, chosen by the online audience.

Artists being featured will include legendary song writer

Graham Gouldman (10cc) www.grahamgouldman.com

Sensational jazz, soul, rock and pop singer Madeline Bell (Blue Mink, Stevie Wonder, Dusty Springfield, Elton John…) www.madelinebell.com

Iconic UK songwriter and BBC 6 Radio music presenter, Tom Robinson (Tom Robinson Band) www.tomrobinson.com

Emerging UK artist Coco (I Blame Coco) www.iblamecoco.co.uk, UK street band The Cash Cows www.myspace.com/cashcowsrock

Up and coming ACM (Academy of Contemporary Music) student, Rokhsan Heydari (imagine Lilly Allen dipped in Stevie Wonder’s Motown Soul…) www.myspace.com/rokhsanmusic.

The online audience will be invited to ask Spike and his guests questions and make their song requests via twitter.  The top requests will be displayed live, allowing people to add their votes and change the playlist in real-time.

“This event takes live music to the next level”, added Steven Blackman, Managing Director of Flint. “It allows the band to interact in real time with a global audience, who are sharing the experience.”

For further information and updates, please follow @SpikeLiveMusic on Twitter

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if you’re at ad:tec today, swing by the “marketing to moms” panel I’m presenting at. Please, no heckling!

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Trend Report from the Walpole Luxury eBusiness Forum

Royal Automobile Club London, October 2010

Stats and Insights (Brett Hurt, Bazaar Voice)
‘Is Social Commerce a Luxury?’

Importance of user reviews and encouraging interaction:

70% of today’s web is user generated
If a person writes a review or posts a comment, they would come back an average of 3 times to check to further comments
Every 5 star rating almost always has a negative review at its root. This causes the brand fans to act in defence of the brand.
Negative reviews provide an opportunity to improve product and service and almost always an invaluable insight on what customers really want.

Trend Forecast (Patti Freeman-Evans, Forrester Research)
‘Embracing the chaos: How luxury brands are adapting to a digital world’.

Patti emphasized the importance of disruptive events driving evolution throughout history. She pointed to the prehistoric ‘wheel’ as the first fundamental change in providing people the power of ‘Access’. Similarly, new technologies in our age are key to driving the change. Any innovation which improves ‘Access’ is bound to empower and ultimately become the method of choice for generations of people and more so consumers.

According to current forecasts, social commerce emerges at the top of the development trajectory for any brand online. Rather than stopping on online forums and company social networking pages, the growth in the e-commerce field is determined by the following path:

Employee networks – product sharing on social networks – recommendations of product (social media) – microblogs – customer reviews

47% of all consumers research online but would still buy offline. This vast figure indicates that ensuring a seamless experience and integrating the transition between offline and online is still a primary focus to ensure customer retention.

Trends: Mobile commerce, added value, enabling comments and seamless transition between online and offline

Insights into Strategy

Facebook’s ‘Like’ button should not be about generating traffic, but instead knowing more about the customer.

Whilst customer reviews have shown to be a powerful tool to generate uplift in sales and decrease in returns, the users will only be able to trust the reviews if they trust the reviewer. Providing profiles for reviewers or even a system to make it easier for consumer to identify the tastes and likes of the reviewer, will improve the social commerce capability even further.

Some companies have started including individual’s initials in their twets, hence providing an opportunity for consumers to relate to the tweets and develop a following.

Going forward, this model, propelled into the social media world by Hunch.com will see ever more followers, in a quest to find networks of people with similar tastes and interests.

Key Channels:

Search Engine Marketing is still viewed as the leader in generating Sales
E-mail Marketing has been chosen as the preferred route to driving customer loyalty and retention
Social Media marketing is still mostly about generating recommendations, reinforcing the value of the brand and providing testimonials.

Going Forward:

Mark Sebba, CEO of Net-a-Porter in  ‘A Conversation with the Pioneers’ nominates Controlling distribution as one of the most important objectives for retailers online. Being in charge of your distribution as well as Google results  makes a big impact to how well the business will grow and evolve

Mark’s reply to ‘Net-a-Porter’s best kept secret’ is fostering excitement amongst employees at all levels to create true passion.

This later point is something which has never been more true. Creating a transparent, passionate brand which is true to its goals not only from the outside, but from whithin, is something which will become one of the biggest differentiators for brands and companies alike going forward.

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The luxury sector was not among the early digital adopters and many luxury marketers still insist on staying away from the doom and gloom of the socio-digital reality. However there are others, in the meantime, who have been busy at creating the web’s most beautiful, engaging and useful experiences.

Here is our pick of the 3 Digital Luxury benchmarks:

Fashion.telegraph.co.uk

This site offers a great browsing experience with seamless integration of the key elements. The top area is a beautiful and intuitive mix of e-commerce, news, images and blog stories. This is the closest experience yet to the actual flicking of the magazine spreads.

Gucci digital flagship store

The new www.gucci.com, which has just been launched recently, is a benchmark of an optimised luxury shopping experience. Every detail of the site is dedicated to making an accent on the beauty, quality and craftsmanship of the Gucci collection. The products are also aligned and presented in a user intuitive way, encouraging engagement and purchase.

Hermes – I Love My Scarf

This beautiful site is an international marketing campaign by Hermes to promote its silk scarves to a younger, more trendy audience. The site is very social and provides a great visual experience. We would think that it will be of real inspiration to the younger market.

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The new research by Forrester (via mashable.com) has uncovered an interesting insight into the geolocation market share and its regular users. For a minute it does seem that there was more hype about geo-location services than the actual people using it. According to research only 4% of the adult, internet-using population has used any kind of location based service and just 1% of all adults check into locations once a week. In comparison with the established ‘Kings of Social Media’ such as Facebook and Twitter, these stats are miniscule.

However, whilst Facebook and Twitter represent multiple layers of global societies from all paths of life, Foresquare (one of the most famous LBS’s) has emerged to command a very lucrative share of the market:

19- to 35-year-old, college-educated males who are influential among their friends and family, generally do a lot of mobile-based web research when considering making a purchase, from a refrigerator or a car to a movie ticket or dinner at a restaurant.

This newly defined market share is a great test bed for any brand to involve and engage its users with targeted campaigns. Whilst Facebook and Twitter keep growing and weaving themselves into the core infrastructure of our lives and becoming our indespensable passports to browse the digital frontiers, companies like Foursquare will emerge to engage, entertain and connect us on a different level.

source: http://mashable.com/2010/07/27/foursquare-marketing-study/#

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“Social media is like teen sex. Everybody wants to do it. Nobody knows how. When it’s finally done there is surprise it’s not better”
Avinash Kaushik, Analytics Evangelist, Google

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