StartUp Watch: 3 Startups For Events

1. Planana
Planana is a ticketing and promotion dashboard for your event.There are so many ticketing sites out there, and this is not one that stands out for that. It is their promotion service that peaked my interest. Planana helps you set up your own event dashboard, and a reward system for your attendees. The system doles out discounts, VIP Access etc. in exchange for social sharing. An attendee shares the event on twitter or facebook, and they are guaranteed 40% off their ticket. All the rules are set by you, and you not only get additional publicity, but an easy ticketing platform.


2. Instagram Booth
BYO Booth is a photo booth platform based on Instagram. All you need to do is set up an Instagram hashtag for your event and the software will look for attendees pictures. You can then decide to stream them on a slideshow, create your own living wall at your event, post them to Facebook or print them. Pretty simple, yet extremely interactive and helpful for picture collection at events.

3. Refynr
The Refynr platform provides the technology for event producers to display live tweets on large screens during events. Producers can also create an interface for attendees to check or send tweets directly via a Twitter login. Great for conferences that require live tweet walls as well as other events where you want to capture the buzz. Just remember, live tweet walls means un-curated discussion...you can't control what is being said about your event, product etc.

Sources: eventmanager blog

Viral Video Friday

Happy Friday! As always here are the hottest videos on the web this week!

Besides that, I thought everyone could use a laugh...here is 3 Idiots 1 Car for what not to do when your car is stalled on a hill!

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Tip For Conferences

This app will definitely help take conferences to the next level. I can’t wait for the day that you can get rid of printed agendas and schedules. No longer to have to worry about last minute scheduling changes, misprints and spelling mistakes. All can be taken care of in a few seconds when you use a mobile and interactive app like DoubleDutch Flock.

The app is an award-winning interactive mobile app that engages attendees and provides them with event content. Attendees can read the sessions, check in and publish comments and participate in engaging and topical conversations with their peers at the conference. The Flock app is social and attendees can link the app to their Twitter and Facebook Accounts for more interactivity.

The app helps conference producers too. You can forget the printed materials, hardware, scanners etc. Most attendees come in using smart phones and/or tablets so downloading the Flock app either before the conference or during registration shouldn’t be a problem at all. And don’t forget the app will allow for branding pre, during and post event. So you can make sure your message is carried around with each and every attendee.

Happy Viral Video Friday!

Happy Friday BENG!Buzzers.  Check out this weeks hottest viral videos HERE While you are at it, check out some fun pages on our site:

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Customer Experience Rules

In my research for this past week's posts I came across two great blogs: Stage Two and 3rdIdea. Both of them had postings based on Dustin Curtis and the Twitter storm he started with a letter and a site re-design of AA.com. If you aren't familiar with the Dustin Curtis AA.com story here is a short synopsis:

Dustin Curtis (interface designer by trade) became so infuriated with the poorly designed and confusing AA.com site that he not only decided never to fly with them again, but also to write them a letter describing his experience on the site.  His Dear American Airlines Letter can be read here. He also took the time to give them a quick re-design. After David posted his letter, an American Airlines employee (one of the site architects) contacted him and stated: "You are right. Our site is a mess." Of course Dustin posted this, and low and behold, AA.com fired the employee - even though Dustin never mentioned him by name, AA figured out who it was and fired them. The story ended up going viral, picked up by mass media. American Airlines didn't do a great job at reaching out to customers, or handling the press firestorm. Eventually it blew over.

The major piece to take from this story? Customer experience/engagement is key. In the world we live in, one voice can make a difference, because one voice can become thousands depending on who is listening. Dustin Curtis said it best:

Customer experience is the new brand.
I’m not referring to a brand as a logo and a typeface. I’m referring to the new kind of brand, the one is formed by the entire experience of a customer’s interaction. That experience gets branded into his or her memory and leaks into the buzz of modern culture. If you can’t make a good customer experience from start to finish, you’ve failed to generate brand value that will attract customers to come back for repeat business and tell their friends to come back, too. That’s how good customer experience directly affects the bottom line.

This rings true for customer service, customer experience and experience marketing. Everything needs to fit properly. Everything needs to be brand appropriate, fall in line with target audience and customer behavior, engage and ultimately work in order to make sense. You can build a beautiful marketing campaign, fill it with  quirky gimmicks, buffer it with stellar PR and advertising, but if at the core the customer experience isn't up to par, it won't work. And in the case of Dustin's customer experience example, you lose the customer.  As I said in my FLAWSOME post last week; you have to engage your customer correctly. You have to be authentic. You have to be transparent. You have to be willing to receive bad reviews and even publish them and then own up to them and show how you are changing - or why you made the decision to stay the course. Dustin is right. Customer Experience is the new brand, and Customers can make or break your brand in as little as 140 characters.


[image via 3rd idea & sylvainpaillard.com]

Experiential Marketing & Customer Engagement

In yesterday's post I discussed the most simple definition of Experience Marketing. The underlying necessity for knowing your customer and using that knowledge to create an experience that will be worthy to them and ultimately provide you with the engagement you are seeking for your brand or product.

Here are some examples of great experiential pieces. They were successful because at their core they spoke to customers on a behavioral level, and the experience was deeply rooted in what the brand and product had to offer.


The Mercedes Benz Tweet Fleet
Mercedes Benz wanted to promote their park assist feature in their cars. The app helps you find parking spaces in your area, and navigates you to the spot. Knowing people's frustration with finding a parking spot in an urban environment, especially around the holiday's was the main impetus for this great campaign. Mecedes Benz created the Tweet Fleet, and their experiential campaign was born. The company had cars driving around Stuttgart, Germany tweeting empty spaces with geo-tags so that followers were alerted to the space and it's location via the navigation system.

Not only was Mercedes Benz one of the most popular brands through out all platforms of Social Media in Germany for the duration of the campaign, it was in the Top 3 of talked about brands. A win-win for customers, who considered the Tweet Fleet Park Assist campaign a game, but for the brand who received accolades, and a lot of unsolicited press. Great buzz always works!

Also check out my Four Fun Interactive Campaigns post from last week. The T-Mobile Live Angry Birds promotion was a clear success and a personal favorite. T-Mobile, wanting to promote themselves in Barcelona, created a live Angry Birds game in a public space. It's not a far stretch to associate T-Mobile with virtual and gaming fun. They capitalized on the incredibly fun and popular game, and customers who engaged had fun. Fun they will associate not only with the game, but with T-Mobile. Check out the video and see the looks on everyone's faces. There is a community feel that just made this campaign perfect!

Have your own example of a great Experiential piece? Share it with me and let's talk about it!

Related Topics:

Check out the Experiential Marketing Forum for more on Experience Marketing.

[Cover image courtesy of sylvainpaillard.com]

Fun Valentine's Day Promotions

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! There are so many online Valentine's Day promotions, Social Media is lavishing in the day and if you haven't seen Google's homepage today...you should! Make sure you have your volume up. Heineken is also on target with their Serenade on Facebook. Here are two other cute Valentine's Day promotions:

Dove Displays V-Day Tweets on Screen in London Subway
Dove, a Unilever brand, is continuing the theme to their "Campaign for Beauty." On Monday asked consumers, What makes you feel beautiful? Users were able to respond via Twitter, and their responses were displayed on the big screen in Victoria Station. Today, for Valentine's Day, Dove is asking its consumers What do you love about your Valentine? Approximately 350,000 people pass through Victoria Station per day which gives Dove an amazing target audience for their campaign. In addition to the Twitter board, Dove ambassadors will be in the station handing out white tulips to commuters to share with their Valentine.

Innocent Smoothies Prints Personalized Valentines On Their Labels
Innocent always has great promotions. The last one we posted was back in 2011 for the Holidays - The Innocent Wooly Hats promotion. The brand's newest campaign is for Valentine's Day. Consumers can go on to the specially designed Innocent V-Day Microsite and personalize an Innocent bottle label with their own message and graphics. The label can be printed out and glued onto a smoothie bottle. The label can also be shared on Facebook and Twitter.

Any other promotions that you love out there? Share them with us. We would love to know why you love them.

Happy #Viral Friday!

It's beautiful outside today...enjoy your #Viral Friday New Yorkers because we are getting some snow tomorrow! Click HERE for your fun #Viral Friday videos and the funniest vids on the web this week.

Have a great weekend!

P.S. If you are on Pinterest - follow our fun and fabulous finds here. Don't forget to like BENG! on Facebook and follow us on Twitter too!

#Viral Friday!

Happy Friday everyone! I can't wait for the weekend to start. So many last minute gifts still to buy, plus those wonderful Holiday windows to check out on 5th Avenue. Tonight I will be at Radio City Music Hall for the Christmas Spectacular - a NYC staple during the holiday season. Can't wait!

So, let's get this weekend started! Here are the top viral videos on the web this week. Enjoy!

 Want more fun? Check us out on Facebook and on Twitter @BENGNY

25 Social Media Articles You Must Read

Simply Zesty - my new favorite weekly read - has compiled 25 Unmissable Social Media Articles from the last week. Might be a great idea to save them and read them over the holidays when you are nice and comfy on the couch preparing yourself for the new year!

The TechCrunch blogger talks about becoming a venture capitalist at the CrunchFund

Is the Internet the “Paris” of the new millennium?

Answers to 31 Social Media Questions You’re Too Shy to Ask

How Ideas Spread With Social Media

Tweets cause US death row conviction to be overturned

Sean Parker: There are Too Many Startups and VCs

The New Twitter (R.I.P. Tweetie)

A Twitter for My Sister

The new, new Twitter: 10 big takeaways

Sarah Lacy And Mike Arrington Are Starting TechCrunch 2.0

Flipboard launches sleek iPhone app with new ‘Cover Stories’ section

Spotify Radio gets a big makeover, goes truly unlimited

Mark It Down: June 6, 2012

Sorry, Folks, Bill Gates Is Not Coming Back to Microsoft

Exclusive: Facebook Does A Major Reorg Around Key Products

Marissa Mayer at LeWeb: Google+ Was a Pleasant Surprise

Teaching Ventures Catch the Programming Wave

Apple job openings hinting at Siri API, prettier interface and additional languages

Sean Parker Invests In Music Startup StageIt

It’s a start: Facebook begins Timeline rollout in New Zealand

Library of Congress says Twitter archive will build “unique record of our time”

Gowalla Founders v. Gowalla Investors

Yahoo News is seeing huge returns from Facebook’s Open Graph, is this the future of Flickr?

Why business execs shouldn’t read the Steve Jobs biography

Google Chairman, Eric Schmidt, speaks at Le Web:

inShar

The World of Social Media 2011

The Dutch company Video Infographs has created a short video infographic on the major stats for all Social Media Sites for 2011. The video, which includes stats on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram, Youtube, LinkedIn and Google+, was compiled to help promote the services of Video Infographs, actually has some solid usable stats. The video gives you a good idea on how the platforms were used during 2011. Although some stats are a little silly - hint - 60% of people surveyed admit to using their smartphones while going to the bathroom.