If you do any kind of interactive design work you know the importance of visualization and prototyping tools. This set of tools covers everything from wireframes to visualization, and there are a ton of choices. Lucky for us, some people over at usertesting.com designed a huge infographic that lays out all the tools of the trade, the platforms they work on, and the platforms they develop for. They also include price comparisons which is important for everyone because ROI impacts everyone in the business of making money from design.
IKEA has always developed smart, successful advertising for their stores, but the “BERÖRA”, sewing kit for IKEA Norway was a smash success for the company.
To promote the launch of the IKEA iPad catalog for the Norwegian market, IKEA developed a new product called “BERÖRA”; which was a simple sewing kit that allowed people to sew conductive thread into the finger tip of gloves and mittens. The kit allows you to use your gloved hand with the new iPad catalog. Something that is pretty important to people who live in colder climates.
12,000 kits were distributed over a two-week period for free in Norway. This generated a massive amount of online buzz, which pushed the IKEA app to number 1 in the AppStore, and which made the Norwegian IKEA catalog the most IKEA catalog downloaded per-capita in the world.
Not bad for a simple idea, with little overhead. This is a perfect example of ROI.
For better or for worse, credit cards are a necessary evil in most people lives. Plastic money is used more often than real cash anymore, and for most credit card companies, positive brand image is rather hard to maintain. People have to use plastic, but they loath fees, high interest, penalties etc. And while most credit card companies are constantly trying to improve their brand image, and win new customers, most don’t do it in a very clever way. One company, and campaign that might change all of that is American Express with it’s new “Sync Tweet Save” campaign that launched at SXSW 2012 this week.
“Sync. Tweet. Save.” lets US card members turn customised Twitter hashtags into savings. When an AmEx customer syncs their card with Twitter, they have are given exclusive offers which are loaded directly onto the card, much like a re-loadable gift card.
American Express is showcasing the “Sync. Tweet. Save” campaign at SXSW 2012 over the next two weeks, where all eligible AmEx customers in Austin will receive $10 when they sync their card, tweet the special offer #AmexAustin10 and use their synced card to spend in Austin during SXSW.
This is a great initiative form American Express in the social media space. It demonstrates forward thinking and a smart use of social media to build brand loyalty through customer rewards. What a great way to demonstrate a tweet’s return on investment.
Here is a great little infographic from MGD Advertising talking about ROI, and Social Media. One interesting fact that I saw was an 80% increase in the use of Social Media to recruit new talent. I was also surprised that MySpace is still being included in the stats.
If you were wondering whether or not your Social Media marketing strategy was going to pay off, this might shed some light on your investment.
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