Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

Welcome to Social Media Playground, a place to discuss all things related to word of mouth (WOM) and social media marketing. Brought to you by Affinitive, a word of mouth and social media marketing, technology and strategic solutions firm located in New York City and San Francisco.

Affinitive’s Social Media Playground

Generating WOM for a New Product or Service that Doesn’t Yet Exist

March 8th, 2009 · View Comments

How do you get people excited (and talking) about your great new product or service while it’s still in development? Here are five tips that have proven successful: Tip #1: Motivation If you are truly starting “from scratch,” with no existing customers (let alone an existing CRM system or even an email list), you’ll need [...]

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Tags: Marketing · Social Media

Lord of the Rings Fans Strut Their Stuff for Ultimate Fan Contest!

January 16th, 2009 · View Comments

Talk about passionate fans! For the past several months Affinitive has been running “Battle For the Ring”, an enthusiast community/advocacy program we developed for the new video game The Lord of The Rings: Conquest for one of our great clients, Electronic Arts. The game hit stores this week, and to celebrate the illustrious history of [...]

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Tags: Marketing · Self-Promotion · Social Media

Microsoft’s New “Retail” Gamble

January 15th, 2009 · View Comments

Following hot on the heels of Apple’s retail store success, Microsoft announced today that they are opening their first “Retail Experience Center”, a brick and mortar home for consumers to  “build connected shopping experiences and consumer loyalty, improve business insights and decision making, create operational efficiencies,” and ultimately, “address rising consumer expectation and competitive pressures [...]

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Tags: Industry News · Technology

WOM in the Workplace

July 15th, 2008 · View Comments

The water cooler just got a lot sexier for marketers. A recent survey conducted by WorkPlace Media and reported by MarketingCharts indicates that 96% of workplace consumers give coworkers advice about products and services. Additionally, 93% also seek advice before making purchases. “The American workplace is replacing the American neighborhood as the most lucrative marketing [...]

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Tags: Industry News · Research

Giving Consumers a Say in Product Packaging

July 10th, 2008 · View Comments

Recently, video game publisher (and Affinitive client) NAMCO BANDAI Games sought help in choosing the official box art for the upcoming PlayStation 3 release of NARUTO: Ultimate Ninja Storm. Tapping into their 20,000+ member Hokage’s Room enthusiast community, members were invited to complete a survey and provide feedback on 6 designs as well as how [...]

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Tags: Case Studies · Marketing · Research · Self-Promotion

Product Placement versus Consumer Engagement

July 7th, 2008 · View Comments

The idea of “product placement” is one that many entertainment industry veterans are so familiar with, it is likely a part of their daily vocab. There are many memorable examples of product placement throughout the years, including the origin of the “Soap Opera” which comes from the show’s original sponsors, a list that included Proctor [...]

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Tags: Marketing · Social Media · Technology