Brands on Flickr

You don’t see nearly as many brands on Flickr as you do on YouTube or Facebook. But they do exist, and after a few conversations recently about what the opportunities for brands were on Flickr I thought I’d have a look. Having trawled through pages of Google and Flickr searches, I’ve grouped the results into three categories:

- Brand communities and extensions
- Branded resources
- Branded contests

And at the end of the review of what’s out there already, I’ve distilled a few learnings, a few things to watch out for, and a conclusion around the opportunities for brands on Flickr. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A great post from Geoff Northcott of AKQA London on how brands are using Flickr to connect, communicate and join communities. Unlike MySpace, YouTube and Facebook, which seem to be littered with brands, Geoff highlights why the few brands that are utilizing Flickr to begin a social conversation are benefiting from the lack of competitive social marketing.

The post provides case studies and examples from a variety of companies using Flickr as well as tips on how to begin you social presence on the photo-sharing site. And, if you listened to us last week, you should have your Flickr social URL in hand.

While Flickr might not the right fit for certain brands or industries, fields such as travel could benefit from the already built-in passion of travelers taking photos. A stretch, I know. Beyond building a community and increasing you social reputation among Flickr users (like AOT is doing with our Arizona Passages campaign), gaining a fan-base on Flickr can help greatly with UGC photo contests, sourcing new (and cheap, if not free!) images (just be sure to ask!) and adding content to your site via the Flickr API.

In fact, I even know of a few organizations who are currently using Flickr to house their entire photo library or catalog. Not a huge company mind you, but at $25 a year for unlimited file storage, it might be worth a look.

Even if you don't want to share those photos socially just yet.

Marketers, Don't Just Blindly Follow Latest Media Trends

One of the first messages ever posted to my profile on Facebook was from my 16-year-old niece in Nebraska. It said: "What are you doing here?" In a media environment that is increasingly defined by the trendiness that afflicts a whole bunch of other categories, brands run the risk of looking like I must have looked to my niece when I joined Facebook and sent her a friend invite: an outsider trying to seem with it, unsure of why we're there or what we're supposed to do to become a valuable member of the community. Pizza Hut has a page on Facebook. Why? I mean, who wants to be friends with a pizza? Yeah, I'll "poke" you -- right in the eye. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A funny article and good reinforcement of a point that Troy and I seem to make fairly often here. As we stated in the two part series: Why Facebook Will and Will Not Work For the Travel Industry (See Part 1 & Part 2), simply following trends and doing "cool stuff" for the sake of being on the cutting edge simply makes no sense...and is a waste of resources. If you are really itching to "get social" here are three simple rules to live by:

1. Just because someone else is doing it, does not mean you should; only engage in social media if a) your audience is ready for it; b) you have something meaningful to say.

2. Fish where the fish are; Troy's recent post on Heineken photo-share contest is a perfect example; why create a photo sharing site when people are already using Flickr or Photobucket?

3. Listen more, talk less; Don't jump in and start hawking your products - listen to the conversations already happening within the community and respond or contribute to it when you have something meaningful to add to the conversation.
   

Travel Trends - Upload Your Photos Here!!, Adobe, Weekend Web

Upload Your Photos HERE!! - An amusing post from the daily (ad) biz makes note of a recent Heineken campaign, to....wait for it....upload your favorite photos of the product! I don't know about you, but several people touching a Heineken bottle spells brand loyalty for me. Anyway, the team over at the daily (ad) biz reiterates what we have said a couple of times on the Travel 2.0 blog, which is that consumers (beer or travel) will not just show up at your website to upload anything! The old, 'if you build it they will come' theory does not work online. Flickr, Facebook and Photobucket (and a few others) are the only photo-sharing websites (or websites where photos are shared in the case of Facebook) that matter. Embrace these sites, run your campaign with them...instead of against them...and stop trying to move mountains.
http://dailybiz.wordpress.com/

Adobe Goes Further Online - For all of you techs and (even) non-techs out there, take note that Adobe just launched it's next round of webtop (runs online, not on your desktop) software acrobat.com and Acrobat 9. If you use or interact with Acrobat (.pdfs) on a daily basis, I would recommend you catch up on the news via the post at TechCrunch. The programs offered via acrobat.com are very useful and the integration of Flash into Acrobat 9 means that you will now start seeing video (YouTube) embedded into .pdf documents.
http://www.techcrunch.com/

The Weekend Web - Shocker, users surf different websites at work during the week versus the weekend! While this article is not exactly a revelation, it does include some interesting insight into consumer behaviors on the mobile web and weekday vs. weekend. For example: 'During weekends, we fire up our smartphones for fun. The fastest-growing mobile-Web categories relate to weather, entertainment, games, and music, according to comScore.' I know I am in that group...weather and movies are all I check on the weekends...plus this blog, of course.
http://www.businessweek.com/

Case Study: How The Georgia Aquarium Leveraged Flickr

John Hallet from Hyku (we saw him speak at ESTO) recently wrote an interesting case study blog about how a destination can harness the power of existing social networks. In an effort to showcase the stories and photos of its visitors, the The Georgia Aquarium recently e-mailed select Flickr users (those with awesome photos already on Flickr) and invited them to join the aquarium's Flickr group. These "evangelists" were then asked to submit their favorite photos for inclusion in an interactive map that showcases visitor photos along with stories. >>Full Story

Thoughts// I love this story because of the sheer brilliance of the idea and the simplicity of its execution. Amateur photographers and everyday photo lovers are already congregating and "showing off" their photos on Flickr; so why create an elaborate closed system only available to the small percentage of folks who visit your website versus tapping into the amorphous social media landscape? The aquarium cleverly decided to tap into existing resources on Flickr and leverage both the content and Flickr's public API to create a very compelling piece of content that will no doubt boost their brand cache for months, maybe years to come.

Whether it's photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube or personalities on Facebook, consumers are already hanging out in social networks and talking to one another. A brand that is willing to "let go" and jump into the right conversation, at the right time, and for the right reason, will no doubt earn the most trust in the eyes of the consumer.

Travel Trends - Flickrvision, Millennials

Flickrvision - A mashup in the truest since of the word, Flickrvision lets you watch in real-time as users upload images to Flickr, all set against a Google Map. An interesting look into what other people around the world are uploading to Flickr. As it turns out, most of the world appears to have pretty similar interests when it comes to photos.
http://flickrvision.com/

Millennials - A good report from Deloitte's study on Media & Entertainment, courtesy of the Center for Media Research. Findings include:

• 51% of all consumers are watching/reading personal content created by others; the number jumps to 71% for Millennials
• 55% of Millennials and 42% of Xers read blogs
• 62% of Millennials and 41% of Xers watch YouTube or other video streaming sites
• 40% of all consumers are creating their own entertainment, such as editing movies, music and photos.
• 56% Millennials are creating their own entertainment
• 25% of Matures report creating their own entertainment

http://www.centerformediaresearch.com/

Virgin Mobile Causing A Stir With Flickr Photos

Virgin Mobile has been accused of breaching people's "moral rights" after it took images from a popular photo-sharing website without asking permission and used them in a national advertising campaign.

People around the world who posted their photos on the Yahoo-owned Flickr website have objected to their images being used in hundreds of Australian billboard ads, accompanied by provocative captions. >>Full Story | Flickr Posts | Virgin Mobile Campaign

Thoughts// An intriguing story from Australia that appears to be one of the first situations to test the Creative Commons (see Word of the Week post about Creative Commons) licensing agreement. In short, Virgin Mobile Australia is using Flickr-posted photos in a current ad campaign. These photos were posted on Flickr under the Creative Commons license, which (under this particular license) allows anyone to use them for any purpose. Virgin Mobile did not contact each of the photo owners to let them know about the campaign, which, was not technically necessary. However, considering the amount of negative posts in response to the campaign, Virgin Mobile might have been better served to at least notify the photographers prior to the campaign launch.

The real sticky part of this whole debate deals with the photos that show people. Virgin Mobile did not receive a photo release for the talent, but the Creative Commons license does not fully address the issue of talent. What becomes especially tough for Virgin Mobile is that not only have they used a photo without the 'blessing' of the photographer or the talent, but that some of the talent in the photos are underage.

The lesson for Virgin Mobile or anyone else using publicly-hosted photos is to notify the photographers prior to using their photos, especially if they are for a commercial advertisement. A quick email from Virgin Mobile to these photographers would have created a group of Virgin brand evangelists, instead of a rash of bad publicity.