Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Pages gain over 1 million new fans in 3 days

There are hundreds of different venues with which internet users can interact with content online, but, whether by design or by default, internet users will tend to find a single destination that acts as a centre point / hub.

In the case of Michael Jackson, Facebook Fan Pages have become the central online point for fans to gather, interact and leave their messages. Michael Jackson's may music be selling in phenomenal amounts (see Neville Hobson's great review), but Facebook is the place that fans are turning to in order to share their thoughts with the world. A comment on my recent post the largest Facebook Fan Pages alerted me to the growing Facebook Fan base and both the Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Page and the RIP Michael Jackson (We Miss You) Fan Page are growing fast.

The Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Page (www.facebook.com/michaeljackson) has gained well over 1 million users since his untimely death at the end of last week. The Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Pages are now acting as virtual books of condolence with fans leaving hundreds and hundreds of messages on the Michael Jackson Fan Page walls.

Graph showing increase in Michael Jackson Facebook Fans by day - credit: Inside Facebook

As Neville writes: 'the [Michael Jackson] marketing machine hasn’t moved out of first gear yet' and as traditional media continue to pump out tribute shows / special edition magazines etc, the Michael Jackson Facebook Fan Page continues to grow - so can MJ top Vin Diesel's 5 million Fans or Barack Obama's 6 million+ supporters?

UPDATE 7/7/09 - Yes, Michael Jackson's Facebook Fan Page has become the most popular on Facebook! Mashable report here

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Search Engines show wrong Michael Jackson - the problem with algorithms / real time (and how Wikipedia can confuse everything)

Search Engines have been struggling with the concepts of semantic search (understanding the intention behind your search in order to give the most relevant results) and real time search (giving the most up to date relevant results.) Whilst Search Engines have made progress in these areas, they have been shown to struggle with results for the search 'Michael Jackson died.'

1) 'Michael Jackson Died' on Google

Sorted out now since the following results were highlighted, but for a long time after his death Google confused two different Michael Jackson's - highlighting the death of Michael Jackson the writer, rather than Michael Jackson the singer:

Google show Michael Jackson the writer in first position (credit: Search Engine Land)

2) 'Michael Jackson Died' on Yahoo!

Yahoo! results are predominantly for Michael Jackson the singer, but the first position in Yahoo! natural search listings is for 'top beer expert Michael Jackson' who died in 2007:

Yahoo! showing the other Michael Jackson in position one of natural search listings
(click for larger image)

3) 'Michael Jackson Died' on Bing

Bing is also struggling with Michael Jackson the singer vs Michael Jackson the writer / beer expert. The first two natural search results on Bing are for 'Michael Jackson The Beer Hunter' and results relating to him continue to occur on the Bing first page:

Michael Jackson The Beer Hunter referenced extensively on Bing results for 'Michael Jackson Died'
(click for larger image)

4) 'Michael Jackson Died' on Cuil.com

Cuil.com results are really struggling to contextualise the search for 'Michael Jackson Died.' Not one of the Cuil.com homepage results for 'Michael Jackson Died' reference the King Of Pop - see for yourself here.

Cuil.com - not one homepage result references the current Michael Jackson news
(click for larger image)

5) 'Michael Jackson Died' on Hakia

Hakia bills itself as a 'semantic search' engine that understands more about what the user is looking for. The Hakia results served up for 'Michael Jackson Died' are definitely more relevant than the other search engines referenced above. Hakia note the existence of Michael Jackson the writer, but seperate this off into a top section with the label 'would you consider this answer?' Impressive.

Hakia's relevant results for 'Michael Jackson Died' (click for larger image)

Wikipedia has contributed to the Search Engine confusion. A seperate article for Michael Jackson (the writer) meant that since 2007 Wikipedia had been holding a story involving the phrase 'Michael Jackson Died' - it is easy to see how the Search Engines latched onto this as the most relevant result against the search 'Michael Jackson Died', especially in the short term.

Indeed Wikirank shows that visits to the profile of Michael Jackson the writer increased by 31,995% on June 25th. This 'other Michael Jackson' Wikipedia profile was visited 83,134 times on 25th June - even though it has nothing to do with the King Of Pop.

Wikirank profile visit results for Michael Jackson the writer

'Michael Jackson Died' shows the difficulty in offering semantic / real time search - the explosion of searches for Michael Jackson in the hours after his death were clearly aimed at finding information around Michael Jackson the singer, but Search Engines struggled to ignore their archive information and focus on the breaking news. Real time vs relevance is a difficult balancing act, but one that Search Engines will have to solve sooner or later.

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Michael Jackson nearly breaks the internet - Total traffic, Searches, tweets etc all showing massive volumes

At one point last night it felt like the internet was going to fall over as the strain of Michael Jackson news made various sites wobble.

Twitter disabled Twitter Trends, Google News thought it was under attack from spyware, AIM went down for 40 minutes and TMZ actually did crash for a while after being widely credited as the source that broke the story - when you see the figures it's easy to understand why!

Akamai monitor internet traffic with their Net Usage Index and have reported that web use spiked at 4.2 million global users per minute, more than double the normal number.

Google saw a massive increase in traffic too and Google have published the following graph, showing how Michael Jackson searching exploded:

Michael Jackson Google Searches in the last 24 hours

Twist shows a similar pattern when looking at the increase in tweets that were referencing Michael Jackson (at one point over 20% of all tweets included the phrase 'Michael Jackson' yesterday):

Volume of tweets that mention Michael Jackson

Yahoo saw their front page story “Michael Jackson rushed to hospital” become the highest clicking story in their history generating 800,000 clicks within 10 minutes (!) and news of his death saw 560,000 clicks in 10 minutes. Furthermore Yahoo! News set an all-time record in unique visitors with 16.4 million people, surpassing the previous record of 15.1 million visitors on election day (MJ bigger than Obama?!)

Hitwise have also pointed out that www.michaeljackson.com was the 9th most visited website in the UK yesterday.

Truly remarkable figures - I'm not sure anything like this will be seen again?

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Michael Jackson RIP

Michael Jackson - musical genius - 1958-2009

UPDATE:

The Phillipino prisoners who re-created Thriller have now released a new tribute video after hearing the news of the death of Michael Jackson:

RIP Michael Jackson

Bruno - Facebook vs MySpace as the Austrian fashionista takes over the social web

The latest Sacha Baron-Cohen film, Bruno, is making a splash in social media. MySpace have created a Bruno version called MeinSpace.com, a Bruno Facebook Fan Page features lots of Bruno content, whilst the next Digg Dialogg will be with Bruno answering questions that have been submitted (and voted on) by the Digg community. There is also the obligatory Twitter account too.

Bruno's MeinSpace.com (a Bruno special area of MySpace)

Bruno Facebook Fan Page

Bruno Digg Dialogg

Furthermore, tonight's LA premiere of Bruno will be live-streamed with a 'Brunocast' on a tab of the Facebook Bruno Fan Page (Bruno will arrive at 18.45 PT / 21.45 ET). Stream is also available at www.brunocast.com

Brunocast live stream from the Bruno LA premiere

MySpace seemed to have scooped the other social networks with their Bruno sponsorship package (which includes MeinSpace, Bruno MySpace Home Page takeover and standard ads), however Facebook also seem to be agressively pushing Bruno. The number of Facebook Fans has leapt up very quickly (partly due to the volume of (new) sharing mechanics that have been included in the Bruno Facebook Page) and for me Facebook is now showing more Fans then Bruno has UK MySpace friends.

MySpace UK is showing 132,516 Bruno friends with 89 comments, Facebook is showing 161,359 Bruno Facebook Fans - with 477 comments and 2,890 likes on wall posts from just today. After all the effort that MySpace went to in order to promote their Bruno tie up, I guess they will be disappointed if their numbers are beaten by Facebook - especially with MySpace billing themselves as an 'entertainment portal' vs the Facebook 'utility'?

The intriguing MySpace vs Facebook Bruno battle is part of a massive pre-promotion of Bruno, I hope it can live up to the hype.........

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The Twittering Monkey! Follow Jimmy the Monkey and see if he can type your name

Jimmy the Monkey is the world's first Twittering monkey!

A group of Portuguese 'scientists' have connected Jimmy the Monkey to Twitter. Working on the principle that a monkey hitting keys at a typewriter for an infinite amount of time will 'almost certainly type a given text', the macacodasorte experiment has connected Jimmy the monkey to Twitter to test the theory.

The Monkey typing theory

Jimmy the Monkey tweets the things he types and the www.macacodasorte.com site has a webcam feed of Jimmy the monkey with a countdown predicting when he will next tweet.

There is also the opportunity to see the odds of Jimmy the Monkey tweeting your name - suggesting some sort of Portuguese lottery tie in?

Jimmy The First Monkey on Twitter

Follow Jimmy The Monkey on Twitter at @macacodasorte. Jimmy has only tweeted rubbish to date, but who knows!

Jimmy The Monkey's Tweeting so far

(Though there is no disclaimer (that I can see) stating that this is not causing suffering or upsetting Jimmy?)

Hat tip: Right Brain, Left Brain

Follow me on twitter @nickburcher

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30 Largest Facebook Fan Pages by number of fans (with user figures and page URLs)

Facebook Fan Pages have been around for approximately 18 months and they have been growing in popularity. In May 2008 I created a list of the largest Facebook Fan Pages and found that Barack Obama was the most popular Fan Page on Facebook with approaching 900,000 fans.

Update - Largest Facebook Fan Pages - October 2010 here

For the one year anniversary of Facebook Fan Pages (Nov 2008) I created a new list of the Top 50 Facebook Fan Pages and found that only Barack Obama and Michael Phelps had more than 1 million fans.

After the recent announcement of Facebook vanity URLs, and the possibility for personalised Facebook Fan Page addresses, I thought it would be interesting to create a new list of the most popular Facebook Fan Pages.

Here are the top 30 Facebook Fan Pages by number of fans (including URL):

Rank	Facebook Fan Page Name	Number of Facebook Fans	Facebook Fan Page URL
1	Barack Obama	6,403,120	www.facebook.com/barackobama
2	Vin Diesel	4,896,507	http://www.facebook.com/VinDiesel
3	I Love Sleep	4,513,144	http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-SLEEP/73330003836
4	Pizza	4,438,396	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pizza/44258313195
5	I need a vacation!!!	4,411,673	http://www.facebook.com/pages/I-need-a-vacation/72161599412
6	Dr. House	4,272,060	http://www.facebook.com/DrHouse
7	Facebook	3,656,863	http://www.facebook.com/facebook
8	Will Smith	3,482,480	http://www.facebook.com/WillSmith
9	Coca-Cola	3,469,069	http://www.facebook.com/coca-cola
10	Adam Sandler	3,267,567	http://www.facebook.com/Sandler
11	Nutella	3,209,214	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nutella/24932281961
12	The Beach	3,202,312	http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Beach/71457650100
13	Lady Gaga	3,186,934	http://www.facebook.com/ladygaga
14	Pizza	3,174,780	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pizza/27041826093
15	Starbucks Coffee Company	3,121,797	http://www.facebook.com/Starbucks
16	South Park	2,822,345	http://www.facebook.com/southpark
17	The Beach	2,786,970	http://www.facebook.com/beachgoer
18	Pringles	2,768,967	http://www.facebook.com/Pringles
19	sleeping	2,729,107	http://www.facebook.com/pages/sleeping/140262580443
20	Pizza	2,700,071	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pizza/38052678801
21	Jackie Chan	2,692,278	http://www.facebook.com/jackie
22	Rihanna	2,632,457	http://www.facebook.com/rihanna
23	Kinder Surprise	2,628,692	http://www.facebook.com/pages/kinder-surprise/21437643411
24	Linkin Park	2,587,919	http://www.facebook.com/linkinPark
25	YouTube	2,586,665	http://www.facebook.com/youtube
26	Summer!	2,565,983	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Summer/61006568944
27	Flipping the pillow over to get to the cold side	2,564,729	http://www.facebook.com/PillowFlipper
28	Twilight	2,543,088	http://www.facebook.com/TwilightMovie
29	I hate stupid people	2,520,504	http://www.facebook.com/pages/Baku-Azerbaijan/I-hate-stupid-people/50283271871
30	Live Messenger	2,504,068	http://www.facebook.com/LiveMessenger

Top 30 Facebook Fan Pages by number of fans (figures taken from Facebook)

Facebook Fan Pages are clearly growing in popularity and since their redesign they are (arguably) becoming more relevant / useful for Facebook users (though there are obviously some random pages in this list!)

At the same time a Facebook Fan Page can be a useful global brand platform (not only does it bring users closer, but it allows marketers to maintain a dialogue with people who have publicly expressed an interest in their brand.) It is therefore surprising to see that a number of Facebook Fan Pages have not claimed a Facebook vanity URL for their Facebook Fan Page.

Also I was not expecting Vin Diesel to be second to Barack Obama, were you?!

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Tango upside down cans - socially inspired product development and marketing

Last night I saw my first Tango can with an upside down logo:

Tango can with Bragster inspired upside down logo

This forms part of Tango's ongoing efforts to re-establish the Tango brand in the UK. Last year the 'Save Tango' campaign was launched, with a typically 'Tangoesque' voice - all captured in the website at www.savetango.co.uk.

Save Tango website - another brand saying 'Thank You'

The Save Tango campaign harnessed social areas such as YouTube, Facebook etc, but the upside down can derives from activity that followed on the Bragster.com website.

Bragster is a social site where members can dare other members to do things - with the resulting proof posted onto the Bragster site. Tango joined the Bragster community, posting various Tango related dares, but in return the Bragster community dared Tango to produce an upside down can with a Bragster name check.

Tango on Bragster

Tango have honoured this dare and have printed 2.5m cans with upside down logos and Bragster name check (as seen on my image at the top of this post.) The proof of the dare acceptance was posted as a video on Bragster with people visiting the Tango canning plant to see the upside down Tango cans being produced:

The Bragster community then embraced this initiative hitting the streets with Tango to promote upside down-ness. Men in orange swimming trunks and women in orange bikinis then posed upside down across London to promote Upside Down Tango - appearing at St.Pauls cathedral, the Tate Modern, Tower Bridge and a London tube train:

Tango / Bragster upside down stunt on London tube train

The full 'turning London upside down with TANGO' video:

This activity has gained 23,528 positive votes from Bragster members, but also appeared extensively in mainstream media, for example the Sun here. However, rather than just creating a stunt to fuel the social conversation (like Peugeot or Lotus), Tango have embraced the Bragster community throughout the process - thus rather than a random stunt, the whole concept of upside down Tango (from product design through to promotion) has involved social community throughout.

Tango upside down cans are a great example of Listening to social sites, reaching out to / participating in a receptive venue, engaging with influencers in that space and then using social insight / community activity through the marketing process.

More proof that to get the most out of social marketing it has to be integrated across the whole marketing mix rather than just added into the strategy as a media channel - social marketing is more than just a banner on MySpace or creating a Facebook Fan Page!

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Wimbledon marketing 2009 - Augmented reality, iPhone App, Facebook game, Elena and TV

Wimbledon 2009 is almost here and various advertisers are using the All England Tennis Championships as a platform for their brand. There are a number of new initiatives and here are 5 examples of Wimbledon 2009 advertising / marketing:

1) IBM's G1 mobile, Wimbledon Augmented Reality

IBM (long time Wimbledon technology partner) have created an Augmented Reality App for T-mobile G1 phones. Working off the Android platform, the IBM Seer Wimbledon Augmented Reality app allows users to point their handsets to a court and then see real time match information overlayed on the screen. Furthermore 'when users point their G1 at food courts they'll get information about what's on sale. The 'Seer Aggregator' will also let fans receive real-time Twitter feeds relevant to Wimbledon with players, commentators and a team from IBM all signed up to add content to the service.' (source: Brand Republic)

2) Evian 'Live Young' Wimbledon 2009

Evian are using Russian tennis star Elena Dementieva as the face of their Wimbledon 2009 campaign. A microsite www.evianatwimbledon.com has a range of interactive features and Evian are also tweeting @Evianinsiders - as well as featuring Wimbledon in their 'traditional' advertising.

The Evianinsider Wimbledon Twitter account

3) The official Wimbledon iPhone App

The official Wimbledon 2009 iPhone app is developed by IBM and is currently a featured app in the iPhone App store. The app offers users the chance to 'follow the action LIVE during the fortnight' and features News Updates, Live Scores, the daily schedule of play, the draws and On Demand video.

Screengrabs from the Wimbledon iPhone app

4) Robinsons Wimbledon 2009 TV ad

Not that Robinsons are trying to put any pressure on Andy Murray, but their TV ad for 2009 is based around Wimbledon having the first British champion for generations!




5) EA Grand Slam tennis (with Wii Motion Plus)

EA have a big advertising push around the new EA Grand Slam Tennis game and the release is timed to coincide with both the Wimbledon tournament and the availability of the new Wii Motion Plus system.

EA Grand Slam tennis advertising on the front page of Sport magazine

Not content with taking over Sport magazine, EA have also created a Facebook application to support Grand Slam tennis. The Facebook application allows users to 'Challenge your friends in QUICK CHALLENGE and become part of the ultimate quest to climb the global leaderboard and win the prized Grand Slam cup. Pick your shots wisely with your favorite tennis superstar, ace your friends, and publish your custom match movie to your news feed or blog for everyone to see. Experience the excitement of the ultimate tennis challenge on Facebook.'

Facebook EA Grand Slam tennis application screengrabs

Traditionally tennis games uses names and places that allude to the real people or the real places, but (as EPredator writes) it is nice to see that EA Games Grand Slam Tennis uses avatars based on real players coupled with actual Wimbledon logos and gaming environments that are based on the actual Wimbledon courts.

The intensity of the Wimbledon tournament, coupled with the prestige of the Championships, always sees brands experimenting with different ways of creating association and new technology - looks like this year will be no exception!

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Ronaldo Porsche for sale on Autotrader.co.uk

Cristiano Ronaldo is selling his cars as he prepares to move to Madrid, the latest for sale is his Porsche 911 convertible. However, rather than doing it quietly, the Carrera 2 Tiptronic S is being sold through the Autotrader website and is being advertised using his name and implied endorsement.

Ronaldo and the Porsche 911 currently for sale on Autotrader

The car has the usual specifications listed, but the ad starts with the phrase 'Here's your chance to get your hands on a Porsche 911 previously owned by Cristiano Ronaldo' and the buyer of the Ronaldo Porsche will also inherit a log book signed by Cristiano Ronaldo.

Cristiano Ronaldo Porsche 911 Autotrader listing (click for larger image)

Cristiano Ronaldo Porsche 911 Autotrader full listing (click for larger image)

See the Autotrader Ronaldo Porsche ad for yourself here.

The Ronaldo Porsche listing has been featured in national press today (see the Telegraph here) as well as highlighted on the Autotrader news section here - in turn this has created conversation and given free publicity to both the listing and the Autotrader site. The Ronaldo Porsche listing is another example of how a stunt or newsworthy event can be amplified (and given scale / additional attention) through social media.

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Facebook Real Time Search - with Google also experimenting and Twitter Search gaining traction - has social search finally arrived?

In September 2007 I wrote a letter to Media Week entitled 'Search is on to power a social search engine.' My conclusion being that, 'initiatives to date have not achieved sufficient scale to make them viable. If sites such as Facebook, Wikipedia’s Wikia and Yahoo! can factor human-powered recommendations into their offerings, there could yet be a genuine alternative to algorithmic, computer powered search - and so a challenger to the search hierarchy.'

My social search letter to Media Week (Sep 07) - click for larger image

The idea of social search has changed in emphasis since then with 'real time' / instant feedback being the key component, but as Facebook and Google experiment and Twitter Search gains audience, it looks like it is ready to change the face of search results and the way we find information.

Facebook have announced today that they are intending to explore new options around Search. Writing on the Facebook blog, Facebook Engineer Kari Lee writes: "you will be able to search your News Feed for the most recent status updates, photos, links, videos and notes being shared by your friends and the Facebook Pages of which you're a fan. You will also be able to search for status updates, posted links and notes in Search from people who have chosen to make their profile and content available to everyone."

She goes on to show how it is possible to search for opinions around the Iranian election:

Facebook Search for Iranian Election information

These results are made up of information from friends profiles, public profiles and Facebook Fan Page content. However, whilst Facebook now has a 200 million user base, the pool of information within which users can search would appear to be limited - not many people have public profiles and the privacy settings prevent anyone from doing a full scrape of Facebook user opinion. I don't think it will be a question of whether Facebook are too late on this, it will be more of a question about how Facebook scale Facebook Search against the walled-off / private areas of Facebook user accounts.

At the same time, Google are rumoured to be actively exploring the options around real time search, with Mashable claiming that a Google Real Time search engine is imminent. Mashable write "This new product will sort results by relevancy, will be integrated with standard Google search, and will appear based on frequently-used keywords or current events. It also looks like its main source of results will come from Twitter."

Usage of Twitter Search also continues to grow and it looks like Real Time / social search may have finally arrived. It is not just users who stand to gain from being able to find personalised recommendations and content though. This data is a goldmine for marketers and the ability to easily access Facebook user comment will further enhance the possibilities that Social Listening offers brands. Real time search of social content will be as important for advertisers as it is for consumers - further changing the way that brands approach everything from advertising to CRM to product development.

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Weird Al Yankovic 'Craigslist' - the king of parody is back with a lesson in how to go viral

Weird Al Yankovic has had a 25 year music career based around parodying well known songs - amongst others, Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' became 'Eat It', Madonnas 'Like A Virgin' became 'Like A Surgeon', 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' became 'Smells Like Nirvana.'

In recent years YouTube and the social web have proved to be the ideal distribution ground for Weird Al Yankovic material and the subject matter of his songs has been adapted accordingly. 3 years ago, Weird Al Yankovic's 'Ebay' became a viral success, racking up over 20 million views for an (unofficial) home made video set to the song:

But Weird Al Yankovic is now back with a new song called 'Craigslist':

Created in a Doors style, 'Craigslist' even features Ray Manzarek on keyboards and contains Craigslist related lyrics referencing car sales, dating, random sales and the perils of collection.

Weird Al Yankovic is not to everyones taste (and most of his official videos are not available to view on YouTube outside the US - copyright issues?), however Weird Al has consistently created content that is ripe for viral distribution.

The key factors - topicality, humour, surprise and polished execution are all vital ingredients for a viral hit and Weird Al seems to have always had an intuitive understanding of this - all from long before the internet was invented or anyone was talking about 'going viral.' Will 'Craigslist' be the next Weird Al Yankovic YouTube success?

Hat tip: Stan Schroeder

Related posts about viral marketing here

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Piers Morgan Burger King fragrance - 'Flame: The scent of seduction. With a hint of flame-grilled meat'

Burger King have launched their Burger King fragrance 'Flame' in the UK today. The Burger King fragrance ads feature a semi-naked Piers Morgan and use the strapline 'The scent of seduction. With a hint of flame-grilled meat' (!)

Piers Morgan promotes Burger King fragrance 'Flame'

Posters and cardboard cutouts featuring Piers Morgan will promote the Burger King fragrance and 'Flame' will be launched in Selfridges on Oxford Street (London) today. The Burger King fragrance will then be available for £4.99 in Selfridges, Red5 and selected branches of Burger King.

A 'making of' film has been posted to YouTube showing behind the scenes of the Burger King fragrance shoot with Piers Morgan getting ready to promote 'Flame':

Piers Morgan Burger King fragrance behind the scenes shoot film

Everything is then pulled together in a website at www.firemeetsdesire.com which allows you to virtually spray the fragrance - revealing various scenes featuring roses, moody saxophone playing, hearts and beach scenes. It also restates that 'FLAME is the world's first perfume to contain the irrestible, sizzling overtones of the Whopper - behold the scent of seduction with a hint of flame grilled beef.'

Burger King fragrance 'Flame' conjuring up a roaring fire on the Fire Meets Desire site

According to the Guardian, Flame sold out in 4 days when it launched in the US last year - I'll be heading to Selfridges today to try and get some - who knows?!

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Facebook Vanity URLs - 1 million claimed in the first hour - have you claimed yours?

The Facebook Vanity URL is now live. Facebook users have been waiting for the last week to claim their personalised Facebook address but at 05.01am today (UK time) the wait was over.

Facebook vanity URL countdown clock

This morning the Vanity URL countdown that people have been seeing all week (as shown above) was replaced with an interface that allowed people to choose their own 'Facebook Vanity URL'. Instead of having www.facebook.com/lots of random numbers, Facebook users have the chance to create a personalised profile address eg www.facebook.com/nickburcher. (More information can be found on the official Facebook blog here.)

To claim a vanity URL Facebook users need to go to www.facebook.com/username, login to Facebook and then choose a permanent personal vanity URL. (Note once a username has been chosen it cannot be changed and usernames are unique and on a first come first served basis.)

The Facebook Vanity URL has proved to be very popular with Facebook users (so far.) Even though the Vanity URL registration service opened at an unsocial time, there were 200,000 Facebook vanity URLs claimed in the first 3 minutes, 500,000 Facebook vanity URLs claimed in the first 15 minutes and 1 million Facebook vanity URLs claimed in the first hour - though Facebook have not 'officially' confirmed these numbers.

(Also interesting to read Hans Kullin note that the Facebook vanity URLs do not work on Facebook mobile yet.)

So have you claimed your Facebook vanity URL yet and if you have what did you choose?

I also feel I should take this opportunity to commiserate with the other Nick Burchers on Facebook (Nick Burcher in Birmingham, Nick Burcher in Russia and the Nick Burcher with the guns and the dead animal) - I hope you are able to get a suitable Facebook Vanity URL and that you are not too upset about me taking www.facebook.com/nickburcher........

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Win a £1m Grand Designs house on Twitter

We have seen the million dollar home page, Barack Obama harnessing micro-donations to fund his campaign, Tudor Ciara selling micro ads on his wedding tie and the millionaire businessman selling raffle tickets for someone to win his lifestyle.

Now we see PixaHome taking this idea one stage further and integrating Twitter - PixaHome are offering a Twitter user a chance to win a £1m Grand Designs house!

Win a Grand Designs house on Twitter!

Dubbed 'the Underground House' and located in Cheltenham in the UK, owners Tim and Zoe Bawtree say that 'because the Grand Designs house is such a special property, we wanted to find an innovative way for us to sell it.'

The current state of the UK property market means a traditional sale is not a viable option, so instead they are selling micro-ads on their home page at www.pixahome.com and if they manage to sell 90% of the 10,000 blocks on this page then they will be able to give away the house to a Twitter follower. (Blocks start at £200 each.)

The current PixaHome homepage

The winner of the £1m PixaHome house will be selected at random in October 2009 from the followers of the PixaHome Twitter account @pixahome. There will also be other prizes provided by advertisers and 10% of all proceeds will go to the Help4Heroes charity.

Follow me on Twitter @nickburcher

The Sun newspaper featuring RubberDuckzilla Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is getting a lot of coverage and in the last month there has been an explosion of Augmented Reality activity. There are now examples of people starting to take this further (and arguably making it more effective) by integrating Augmented Reality executions with 'real world' activity.

By holding up a graphic to a webcam, users can then get an 'Augmented Reality' experience. To date the majority of these experiences have involved printing out a code from a specific website, however these AR codes are now being used as standalone advertising.

Papa Johns pizza printed the AR graphic onto their pizza boxes, Mini Cabrio ran their German Augmented Reality campaign on the Outside Back Covers of motoring magazines and The Sun newspaper has now been used as an Augmented Reality platform for Oasis and RubberDuckzilla.

Oasis AR RubberDuckzilla promotional spread in The Sun newspaper - 11th June 2009
(click for larger image)

The Oasis RubberDuckZilla activity in the Sun featured an explanation on what Augmented Reality is, a coupon for an Oasis redemption in Tesco and the AR graphic needed to activate the Augmented Reality action - all featured around an Augmented Reality version of the Sun.

Rubberduckzilla Augmented Reality on the Sun Online
(click for larger image)

The Sun has a huge circulation and the Oasis feature brings Augmented Reality to a mass audience, arguably the first time this has happened. This follows the Sun 'bringing QR codes to the UK' (in 2007) and continues the tradition of the Sun taking new technology to their mass readership.

However, whilst this is nicely executed, Rubberduckzilla still feels like more of a gimmick than an extension of the value proposition. Contrast this with what GlassesDirect are doing, allowing customers to use Augmented Reality to model different glasses without having to visit a shop (via the ever excellent Digitology):

Augmented Reality executions are evolving very quickly and I really think that there is a lot more to come from this technology - especially as it becomes more and more integrated with the wider media plan.

Related posts
The 3D Sun newspaper
5 more examples of Augmented Reality Executions
5 examples of Augmented Reality Advertising
Magic Symbol - the basis for Augmented Reality advertising

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Nokia N95 - BBC TV and iPlayer now available!

The BBC have announced today that the BBC iPlayer catch up service is now available on Nokia N95 handsets in the UK. N95 owners are also able to watch any of the BBC channels live on their Nokia N95 or listen to BBC radio (live or catchup.)

BBC iPlayer Nokia N95 menu

The BBC don't allow embedding of video (please change this BBC) so if you want to see the overview announcement you'll have to click here for the video.

Watching BBC iPlayer content on the Nokia N95

Widespread unlimited data tariffs, coupled with the penetration of the N95, mean that this has the potential to revolutionise the mobile TV market, however the impact could be felt more widely and the people who should be most concerned are newspapers. The print vs web battle has been challenging, but how do you even start to address a value proposition for print vs live TV news, free on your mobile?

(also can anyone tell me how does this sits with the 'fair use clause' in the t's and c's of an unlimited internet tariff?)

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'Warning, Predators' - advertising to sharks to highlight the SaveOurSeas message

Ocean conservation has quickly risen up the agenda recently with the End of The Line film pushing businesses and consumers to re-appraise their choices around sea based produce (the Nobu Bluefin tuna debate, M&S / Pret A Manger etc are all examples of how attitudes are changing).

EndOfTheLine trailer:

At the same time the Save Our Seas Foundation has been working to highlight the issues faced by the marine environment and through Saatchi & Saatchi South Africa have recently highlighted the plight of sharks with some clever poster executions.

Posters entitled 'Warning - Predators Beyond this point' were displayed to sharks at the Two Oceans Aquarium, with a final message informing them that 'humans kill over 100 million sharks every year' (vistors therefore saw this message the wrong way round.)

Close up of the Warning Predators sign (seen backwards by humans, the message is for the sharks!)

The Warning Predators sign in situ

A display card was also added to the aquarium display informing visitors that humans are the most deadly predators. (Other images can be seen here).

This campaign has apparently had a good response from visitors and is set for international roll out. A good reminder that sometimes a good idea doesn't need complicated execution to be impactful - especially when an environment message is at the centre of it.

Hat tip Osocio

Related posts
Clever ambient ad in Amsterdam highlights climate change
David de Rothschild floods Second Life to highlight global warming
Mercedes-Benz dealership 'hijacked' by climate change poster

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