Mindblossom has won first place in the ‘09 Aegis Media North America 3C Awards for its work for Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head Vodka.  Winners in Aegis’ internal competition were announced last month, and we thought it to be about time to share the strategy and creative that put us at the head of the class. Please take a look at the storyboard below, then head over to http://crystalheadvodka.com to get the lowdown from Dan Aykroyd himself.

One last thing: We must apologize in advance for any moments of ‘blast!’ caused by a difficulty in getting your hands on a bottle of the crystal-distilled spirit for yourself. ‘Seems a thoughtful mix of strategy, execution, and good old fashioned word of mouth can really do a number on the supply of a finely crafted vodka such as Crystal Head.

Mindblossom has teamed up with Reebok and Footlocker for the launch of the Reebok Classic Remix Collection. Reebok has recruited emerging Hip Hop artists to create exclusive music and video content that’s available for download once you  purchase a pair of the shoes.

People who buy the shoes at a participating US Footlocker store will receive a scratch card with a pin number. The pin number unlocks video footage and an exclusive MP3 download. Users are also able to peruse the shoe collection and compare the new Remix Shoes with their 80’s counterparts.

They certainly didn’t have technology like this in the 80’s. The underlying system is a Grails content management system that manages all user data and application content. The user experience was developed using Adobe Flash and ActionScript 2. The two tiers are integrated using a series of web services.

New artists and new content will be released monthly for the next six months, so be sure to check back regularly.

I am in the midst of providing indepth training for a client on Twitter. This is a “Get Started Version”. I’ve spent the last 4 hours researching blogs and document sites to provide me with this information. Credits go to Ogilvy for providing the Do’s and Don’ts, plus Socialblog for the tool information. Here’s what I’ve come up with. If you have more info that’s relevant to newbies, please let me know and I’ll add it to this blog post.

Strategic Approach to Using Twitter

Getting Started:

1) Remember to create your profile in Settings:
• Make sure your profile is complete. People decide to follow you based on the richness of your profile.
• Make sure you upload a picture. It’s always nice to know who you’re connecting with.
• Add a website URL or better yet a blog or destination where you can invite conversation.

2) Who to follow:
• Use http://Twellow.com to target the users. This will depend on the account you created and the objective for the account. If it is to sell your product, then target people talking about your company, or products that your company offers.
• Follow your friends first. Then look at their string of followers to determine whom you should follow.
• Use http://grader.twitter.com to determine the top tweeps to follow — these are the influential voices in the twittersphere.

3) What do I tweet?
• Listen first: figure out what people are saying. Is there anything of value you can add? If so chime in.
• Always provide value: is there information that you have first hand that you think would benefit others? Provide the link and let others know.
• Emphasize another person’s tweet: if you think it’s important, then RT (retweet). This not only makes the other person appreciate that you’ve recognized their contribution, it also opens you up to further followers.
• Promote your programs ONLY once you’ve created credibility: This is OK to do once in a while. If others see you have contributed valuable content, then the more likely they will come to your site.

4) Tweeting long URLS: Since you’re constrained to only 140 characters, many times you need to use tinyURLS or similar functions to truncate your destination URL. You can use your client Tweetdeck to shorten URLs before you post. It gives you more room to add some commentary to your post. (more…)