Number 4

State Farm Chaos in Your Town  (PER, LBS)

Tapping into our love of blockbuster movies is a great place to start for any company, but could easily be a stretch for an insurance company like State Farm. However, their microsite, Chaos in Your Town,  allows you to create a customized movie once you enter your name and address that's a real smash hit. Integrating with Google Maps, the app displays a huge scary monster stomping down your street and destroying your home before your eyes. And since State Farm provides home insurance, what a innovative and engaging way to send the message about their protection services. You'll love the surprise ending!

Number 3

KLM Flight to Miami  (RWA)

For a second time on this list, I am highlighting a KLM promotion.  They just keep getting it right. When they announced a new route from Amsterdam to Miami in March, one of their twitter followers asked if they would change the inaugural flight date to coincide with a music festival there. KLM said yes if the flight filled up with enough folks going to the festival. Within 2 hours, the flight was filled! And not only did KLM change the date of the first flight, they hosted a dance party on the plane for all the festival goers. A party on a plane…that's certainly a first! They were even awarded a Guinness World Record for hosting the highest altitude dance party ever! KLM's responsiveness to their customers is quite unique and undoubtedly goes a long way towards cultivating a very loyal cadre of flying fans.  Congrats KLM!

Number 6

 Mad Men Ad Facebook App   (PER, RWA)

If you love great tv, you probably love MadMen and can't get enough of their incisive wit and '60's styling. Greenberry, an agency in the Netherlands, came up with a brilliant Facebook app that allows users to create a Mad Men-themed ad that incorporates their personal data after completing a creative brief and choosing one of the cool templated designs. And what's even better, the best ads appeared in the Dutch print magazine, BLVD Men, and on billboards in Amsterdam. It's perfectly on brand, yet still allows users to personalize the content. How cool is that? 

<p>MAD MEN AD 

No 5

El Norte Beer: The Best Excuse Ever  (RWA, LBS)

There's just so many reasons to love this campaign because it solves one of the age old issues between Men and Women with first world problems. Men like to go out and drink with the guys, especially after they're married or settled down, women ..not so much.  So Norte Beer takes the guilt out of going out drinking..not that I condone it, but it's perfect for a beer company.  Every time they had a beer, the guys would put the bottle cap into the collection jar, and it would count towards a minute of good deeds sponsored by El Norte. In all 50,000 minutes were donated to restore schools, improve parks, clean up lakes and plant trees. What girl would complain about their guy contributing to those lofty goals? The perfect excuse. 

Click here to see Part 1 and Part 2 of My Top Ten Digital Campaigns for 2011

The Kings' Game

Chess is one of the oldest games in the world, and Kings and Emperors were the first players since it originated in Persia around 600AD. 

But there is truly a parallel today in the match between the Kings of the Internet, Google and Facebook. Many of us live on the internet. Mary Meeker pointed this  out in her speech at the Web 2.0 conference last week, where she defined our hierarchy of needs as food, shelter and the Internet. Whether that's right or not, I doubt a day goes by that most of us are not using one or either of these sites once, if not multiple times, a day, and probably for hours on end. 

Clearly, they are the behemoths in this space. In fact, Google's share of internet traffic is so dominant, they were forced to appear on Capitol Hill in September to defend against charges of monopolization. No one has yet laid similar charges against Facebook, but with over 850MM users, it certainly dwarfs any other social network,  and that certainly could happen in the foreseeable future. 

Brinkmanship

Without doubt, they are watching each other's moves very closely. 

In late June, Google launched Google+  which has been deemed very successful by all accounts, They reached 50MM users in three short months, and even though stats now point to a decided drop off, it's historic in terms of the adoption curve and it's still early. Google seemed to steal Facebook's thunder for a time.

Then towards the end of September, Facebook released its latest improvements to their interface with the new Timeline, Updated NewsFeed, Smart Lists and the Ticker. These enhancements--although not yet fully rolled out--were greeted with almost universal praise by the highly influential early adopters, and there is keen interest for it to be fully launched as soon as possible. This new update has created a check mate situation for Google.  And they must make the next move.

The Next Phase: Brand Pages 

And very likely the future battleground for these giants will be brand pages. 

In a recent conversation with Facebook, they said there are no plans to launch brand pages in this new format any time soon, but that may be due to their legal problems with the general roll out. There's no doubt that brands want this new look and feel.  The day the new look was announced, agencies were tripping over themselves to show their clients what their pages would look like with this new design, and it likely would be a major improvement, as I mention in my post from October 12. 

In the meantime, Mashable just published a story saying G+ will launch their brand pages soon. 

So if Google goes first, will they see a a rush of new activity as brands look to leverage their unique platform?  I should think so. G+ benefits are clear; it allows greater content and user segmentation, plus threaded conversations without all those pesky ads cluttering their interface. And as Google integrates more of their products with G+, there will be seamless proprietary cross platform communication.

And then the pressure will be on Facebook to one up them with their brand pages. It's just a question of when. 

One thing's for sure, the game continues and it's going to be fun to watch. 

Image courtesy of Fantasy Interactive/Mashable

http://mashable.com/2011/10/22/what-google-brand-pages-could-look-like-pics/

Best practices for fan growth demand consistent long-term initiatives, not short term quick fixes, as success will, in the end, be measured by fan retention over time not just a one time fan increase.  Often times, a meteoric rise is quickly followed by a precipitous decline.

The best performance is seen when a company launches an on-brand, compelling creative campaign that is consistent across all media platforms including paid, earned and owned. Combined with a Like-Gate, this scenario can drive the largest increase in growth-especially in conjunction with engaging promotional opportunities, such as contests or sweepstakes.

But these kinds of promotions can be expensive and require a team of consultants and experts to help facilitate.

Instead, here are 5 simple solutions that can drive healthy fan growth the right way:

1. Publish Facebook-exclusive offers and content to your existing fans and they will spread the word

2. Use Open Graph and add a Like button to your product pages allowing that product to be published to your fans' NewsFeeds for their friends to see

3. Create a compelling welcome page-a fun video never hurts either

4. Add a Facebook link to your signature on all collateral

5. Get fans to tag your brand in photos

And as with any marketing plan, use all tools at your disposal to gauge what works and what doesn't. Facebook Insights will be very helpful in this regard.

And it goes without saying, in this world of social media, these tactics will only be successful if you know your audience very well and are confident you are offering them the content, product and/or services they are looking for. WIth all these tactics aligned, there's no doubt you will see your fan base increase, and then you'll engage with a cadre of brand loyalists who will gladly share their positive sentiment about your company.