Branded Entertainment Done Right With Denny's

by Mike Reiber

Branded entertainment -- particularly comedy -- can be a dart board experience. Sometimes it hits the bull's eye. Sometimes not.

One you should be sure to check out is Denny's "Always Open" webisode campaign produced by the digital content group owned by actors Will Arnett and Jason Bateman. The campaign is a series of provactive 3-4 minute interviews posted on Collegehumor.com. Saturday Night Live alumnus Dave Koecher interviews celebs while they share a booth at Denny's. Celebs included in the series include Jessica Biehl, Conan O'Brien's pal Andy Richter and others. Last year's interviews included Jason Bateman and Will Arnett and nabbed more than 6 million views. Links to the videos were tweeted by a variety of celebrities.

The interviews underscore the fact that Denny's is always open and represents a welcoming place. The webisodes remind me of a modern day Seinfeld for millenials.

Clearly, Denny's has hit the mark.

LinkedIn Targeted Updates

by Natalie Bell
@nebell90

LinkedIn has been available to professional individuals for nearly a decade.  Initially, the site began very small and grew slowly.  As other social media outlets gained popularity LinkedIn worked to improve.  The site opened up to students in addition to working professionals.  Companies are now able to have pages.  People and companies can post status updates.  One feature that Facebook and Google+ had over LinkedIn was the ability to  post updates to specific audiences.  Google+ has it's circles, Facebook has it's lists, and now LinkedIn has Targeted Updates.

So what are the benefits of Targeted Updates?  As a marketer overseeing our company page, I find this very exciting.  We are working to update our page and add new features -- perfect timing for a new feature to be introduced!  Targeted Updates allows you to send updates to specific subgroups of your followers.  The post will show on the news feeds of those you choose, but be visible to everyone who visits your page.  This means that the people who see the update are the ones most likely to be interested and engage with your company.

Targeted Updates gives you the availability to post to very specific groups based on their page information.  Followers can be broken down through five categories: industry, job function, company size, geography and including/excluding company employees.  Before posting you can sift through your followers to get a narrowed audience and create a higher chance of engagement.

The video below gives a quick explanation and tutorial for using LinkedIn Targeted Updates.

Facebook Buys Instagram: Smart Move

The Dish on Google Consumer Surveys

by Ashley Haugen
@AshleyKaia

As marketers we wouldn't be able to function without consumer research (and maybe a little caffeine). We rely on feedback from target markets to give energy and motion to our projects. Which logo is best? Which slogan do people remember? What changes should I make to my product for it to be a hit? We all rely on these types of questions to get the answers needed to steer us in a clear direction that can otherwise be murky.

So what happens when you need research that is fast and reliable-but won't blow the company budget?  Google has an answer for you. The company recently released Google Consumer Surveys, a low-cost way to perform market research in a "fast, accurate, and affordable" manner.

This is how it works:

1. Businesses create quick micro-surveys about their product, which is then embedded on publisher sites. Google pays publishers a percentage of what they charge businesses for the survey. The charge is $.10 per response for the general US population or $.50 per response for custom audiences. 
2. Readers are presented with the survey when trying to access certain content, such as articles, photos or video, serving as a "soft" paywall.  It looks something like this: 

Early adopters include Adweek, the Star Tribune and The Texas Tribune.

Google Consumer Surveys has filled a void for both publishers and marketers. Publishers get paid for hosting the survey, businesses get valuable market research, and Google gets a check from the business. The surveys are short enough and incentivized, so they won't be as much of a deterrent to access premium content like traditional paywalls or "register" requirements are. Google does it again, however I'm not yet sure about those glasses...

For more information, check out Google's video:

Spring Cleaning, Office Edition: What Will YOU Find?

by Dave Sniadak

@davesniadak

This post is a little off topic, but certainly worthy of discussion. While doing a little spring cleaning in our offices, we discovered a few unusual finds tucked away in our desk drawers. The items ranged from old business cards to condiments, hard hats to handcuffs. My favorite happened to be an old Axiom polo shirt, complete with what appears to be small blood or ketchup stains (let's go with ketchup). Strange, right?

Needless to say, it was time to purge some of these items from our desk.

So, the question remains, when you open your desk drawers, what unusual items will you uncover this spring? Share some of your favorites with us here, or post your pics at our Axiom Social Hour Facebook page. The best entry may just receive some of our junk.