Happy Christmas!
Hearty Season's Greetings from all at Rubber Republic. Before we look forward to a fortnight of over-indulgence and a new year full of exciting projects, have a gander at our viral news and favourite things from the last 6 weeks.
Quick Links
News Round-up:
10,000 Facebook Apps
More and more enquiries we get concern creating a facebook App, one to beat all the others, a killer viral app that everyone wants and will have.
This report from Read/WriteWeb not only tells us that there are now over 10,000 apps to choose from but also, guess what? People don't really use them.
A quick look through the user rate of apps confirms the report's statistic that there are less than 20 apps that are used daily by more than a quarter of users who have that app installed.
So what can we take from this? We advise caution before allocating that budget wholly to Facebook- lots of eggs, just one basket, etc...
New Boy Arrives at Rubber Republic
Stacked with work and developing our network and seeding further, we've taken on some fresh blood in the shape of Ian Ochiltree to spearhead our seeding team. Ian will work with our publishers to coordinate campaigns and extend the reach of our Viral Ad Network.
He makes a mean cup of tea and once gave some cider to a horse.
Sustrans Success
Back in October we were approached by Sustrans to help them put together some films to help the online part of their bid to win the People's 50 Million lottery fund.
The Films went up in early November and we were chuffed to hear this week that Sustrans won the public vote convincingly- congratulations to the Connect 2 team!
Newspaper readers call the shots
A study by the American Newspaper national Network (pdf) has found that Newspaper Website users are potent influencers and opinion leaders on new products and issues. When you consider how many forwards people send that are news stories with an interesting point or funny angle, this doesn't seem so surprising. Some of their other statistics are more startling:
-Adults who use Newspaper Websites and read printed newspapers are 82%
more likely to be early adopters of new products and the latest technology as
compared to Newspaper Website Non-Users
-Newspaper Website Users are more apt to believe their newspaper websites
have credible advertising as compared with users of other non-newspaper
websites
37% Newspaper Website Users
17% Social Network Website Users
25% Search Engine Users
26% Special Interest Users
Sure, it's not the most impartial study commissioned, but it does emphasise the need for campaigns to find their way onto Newspaper sites- and not just by buying banners!
Viral Business
A while back we worked on a project for Fortis with the guys from Naked Amsterdam. Chatting to them it was interesting to hear that the success of Naked's amazingly successful campaign for the Number (more famously known as 118 118) was not routed in the creation of their famed wacky moustached 118 118 characters, but instead in a more fundamental piece of business advice - the advice to invest in buying the number 118 118.
This advice helped shape their business in a way that millions of marketing pounds couldn't have done - it was advice that made their business truly viral. Naked had turned the Number into a viral business.
Creating a truly viral business is every marketing manager and MDs dream. Owning a business with a product so unique or a name so catchy that it virtually markets itself is worth millions of marketing pounds.
Unfortunately most businesses don't have this, and so have to employ people like ourselves to try to cook up the viral magic for them. Which we do willingly (and well!).
Although interestingly we've been cooking up viral business ideas behind the scenes at Rubber Towers, and practicing what we preach. The first B2C business proposition we've been testing out is a sock subscription company called SocksforSir.com. We're still tinkering with the idea at the mo, however if you're looking for a present this Christmas look no further than our wonderful sock collection!
More on viral business ideas soon . . .
5 of the best
Slightly self indulgent, but we've worked on some cracking campaigns over the last few weeks... so our 5 of the best brings you the quality stuff we've been working on (at the exclusion of many others!) The last 2 are not ours, but Christmas is a time for giving, so have a go and do some good!
JVC Euroball
Slick, fun, great design. Our latest game is surely the most fun way to win tickets to UEFA Euro 2008 (even though British teams are a bit thin on the ground for that tournament!) Lots of features- including a mini version for your blog too!
Greenpeace Sunshine
Great little film about energy saving by Park Village for Greenpeace that we seeded in late November. This one really hit the spot with people and has had a lot of buzz and blog coverage
McCain Potato Parade
Design by Aardman, execution by Glue London and seeding by Rubber Republic. This personalised message viral has done great things since it's launch a month ago. A real spark of fun that has ignited lots of forum activity.
Free Rice
How thick are you? Or clever? Put yourself to the test and big organizations will give grains of rice to hungry people for every correct answer you get. What could be...er...easier?
Lamb Chop Drop
A nice game, but it's not the game that gets this one in- it's just a nice thing that invites you to make a charitable donation for the Make-a-Wish foundation- play a game and do something good: win-win!
