Day 4: Imagination Work Experience, London

Thursday 13th August

Day 4 at Imagination involved a lot of research looking for independent blogs in the UK that are based around 3 categories; Lifestyle, Cars and the Environment. No journalists allowed, sorry. This work is for a new social media activation campaign for Ford of Europe.

After spending a frustrating hour probing around the Internet for websites allowing me to filter out blogs from outside the UK, I finally came across www.blogcatalog.com. If anybody knows of any other that could aid me with this please let me know!

From this website I was able to scroll through and pick out relevant blogs that may be perfect for the campaign. I based their suitability to whether they fitted in well with the 3 characteristics and then if the blogs carried any authority on technorati. I found this to be quite problematic as a lot of the blogs I found carried little to no authority and some authors had been inactive for months.

I managed to come up with around 6 or 7 suitable so far, some way short of the target of 15.
I will continue to try of course but I feel perhaps technorati and co. could perhaps have introduced a search filter that allows filtration based on country to make this a lot easier.

Day 3: Imagination Work Experience, London

Wednesday 12th August

Day 3 has been a very busy and tiring day but I feel like I am learning something new everyday. Today I began structuring my ideas for the Holcim social media project onto PowerPoint and making them presentable for the deadline this Friday.

At different times during the day Katie assigned a few more tasks for me to work on

• Finding key bloggers to target for their new Ford campaign
• Coming up with innovative interactive ideas for a new BBC project 'BBC Canvas'

I think this extra work is certainly helping me build upon my time management skills getting all the projects done on time.

'BBC Canvas' is an exciting new project that will bring together content from some of the UK's biggest channels, including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Viewers will be able to watch on-demand content through their television via a special set top box, expected to cost between £100-£200. The BBC's director general Mark Thompson called it "potentially the holy grail of future public service broadcasting provision in the UK".

Sitting within the small 'brainstorming' session it was really exciting to learn about how experienced professionals think, and how well they can think 'outside the box'. Ideas were floating around about how the audience can use the IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) and create interactive content becoming more involved within televised programmes and improving the overall experience.

Day 2: Imagination Work Experience, London

Tuesday 11th August 2009

Day 2 at Imagination has just finished and has been another good day. The morning consisted of research and note taking around the Holcim social media recruitment project.
I looked at:

• Competitor Analysis
• Content
• How recruitment agencies & other large businesses are using social media to attract applicants
• Successful case studies
  
• Target Audiences/Demographics
• Aspects of social media that have proven effective in raising interest in brands/businesses
  

In the afternoon, because Holcim isn't a household name I thought about ways Holcim can raise public awareness whilst informing the public about what they do, who they are etc, etc.

I then began coming up with ideas about how Holcim can effectively engage with prospective recruits once they have gained their interest, which social media platforms would be most suitable and how I could make Holcim different, memorable and appealing to potential graduate and professional recruits whilst still staying true to the brands identity.


This is certainly a challenging task but I'm feeling confident about my ideas so far. I'd say I need another few ideas so a later day in the office is on the cards. I have a deadline on Friday that I am on course to see but I have to make sure my work is looking professional and presentable.

Day 1: Imagination Work Experience, London

Monday 10th August 2009

Today was the day I would finally begin my 2 week internship with Imagination (http://www.imagination.com/), an integrated communications agency based in Camden, London. I was lucky enough to gain this opportunity after a brief yet interesting coffee meeting with Katie Streten (Head of Insight and Content within the Digital department) where I expressed my passion for digital marketing and my desire to work within an established agency one day like Imagination.

Day 1, like at most companies was an introductory day where I got tour of the building, the digital team and was given my brief for the projects I would be immersed in for the next 2 weeks.

Project 1 (Week 1) : A Social Media recruitment and activation project for global brand Holcim who supply cement, aggregate (gravel and sand), concrete and construction led services to 70 countries on all continents.
Basically I have to deliver a report and recommendations for Holcim on the best ways to use social media for
- Recruitment of graduates
- Recruitment of professionals
- Promotion of the company in an HR context

I am really excited about this challenge because it is the first piece of work that has required me to use my knowledge of marketing using social media since my dissertation dedicated to the topic.
It would of course be a lot easier if it wasn't about encouraging conversations about a brand that wasn't based around cement and concrete, but that's the challenge!


Project 2 (Week 2) : I haven't been given my official brief on project 2 but the information I have received suggests it will be based around the Imperial War Museum in London and the different content and marketing projects Imagination could do for them. It looks at how the IWM could potentially attract different audiences through these campaigns.




Later on in the day Tom, a member of the digital team, took me through a campaign that Imagination carried out with the NMOLP (National Museums Online Project) called 'Creative Spaces' (http://vna.nmolp.org/creativespaces/).

Creative Spaces is a community that allows the public to view artifacts, statues and other objects situated within the 9 UK museums and galleries. The community allows members to create groups, comment on collections and upload their own content - a place many artistic people might go to seek and share inspiration.
Tom also showed me how they incorporated Twitter into the campaign with daily updates of inspiration that increased traffic and interest to the website. I found this particularly interesting because I always wondered how Twitter could be used effectively within a campaign.


Day 1 has gone very well, the people I have met have been very welcoming, helpful and really down to earth. The building itself is very interesting also, made up of two separate buildings linked with metal staircases and bridges, it looks very cool!
I feel I have settled in quickly and can focus all my efforts on doing the best possible work for Imagination on both projects.

Spotify edges towards U.S launch

Spotify is moving closer towards launching itself in the worlds largest music market, America. A Techcrunch has said that all big four record companies currently own shares in Spotify. Spotify now has a big enough backing to satify copyright holders and open the New York ad sales office it is planning.
With this much financial support founder Daniel Ek believes that a release at the end of this year is on the cards.

According to investors the music streaming service is now worth an estimated $250 million.

Daniel Ek had previously said that he would not sell Spotify for $200 million and with it being valued at $250 million before release in America his stance seems to have been a very smart one.

Spotify to add video content soon

Spotify has taken a major step to adding video to its music content database as it launches a video advertising service. The music streaming company has teamed up with Sony Pictures to launch a video player which will give space on the website dedicated to video advertising.

The Flash player will allow users to play, pause, rewind and adjust volume during adverts. A seperate audio message announces the movie release date and drives users to click on a banner to view the trailer.

For £9.99 a month users can stream music for free with one advert played every half an hour. A free version is also available with more ads played during playlists.

The Swedish founder Daniel Ek believes that eventually movies and television shows could be added in the future.

- Spotify is a peer-to-peer music streaming service that allows instant listening to specific tracks with almost no buffering delay. Spotify is funded by advertisments and paid subscriptions -

Social media misunderstood

Social media websites have been getting a lot of negative critiscm for not doing enough to help youths from cyber-bullying. There have been a number of tragic suicides from bullying, recently in Macclesfield a 15 year old committed suicide over bullying from teenagers on social network site Bebo.

In America negativity around social media is increasing. Novelist Mark Helprin accuses social media of everything from wrecking the physical economy of culture to destroying literacy and human conversation.

I believe that looking at the purpose of social media which is to connect with people, share content and information with others within the community. Social networks (where all the cyber-bullying is taking place) are more designed to connect with 'friends' online. Speaking for myself I only engage with people I know or have met and had good experiences with. People need to be more responsible with the type of content they share and allow people to view. This means not passing on private messages to untrustworthy people or adding and interacting with people you don't know or get along with.

With regards to Mark Helprin I believe that social media is actually improving our culture and is benefiting human interaction and conversation by making us all better connected. That is why it is so popular, people enjoy sharing pictures/stories/videos with others building on and improving existing relationships.

Tragic as it is, these terrible incidents are extremely rare and can be avoided if people seek necessary help whether it be from family or friends to combat bullies online. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem.