A book, a blog, two awards and the creation of the world
Nov 4, 2008 
Digital Vinyl Blog (Denmark) | By Jakob
A new book, social media, awards and great case studies are on today’s menu. Let’s go back to the beginning...
Well, not so far back, let’s skip a couple of years:
Since 2004, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, two analysts on social media from the international research company Forrester, have been bus. Since 2004 the’ve been posting about social media and technology from a marketing perspective on the blog Groundswell. This year they’ve written a book, which I have just ordered on amazon today.
Charlene and Josh are also handing out seven Groundswell Awards, rewarding excellent and effective use of social technologies to advance an organizational or corporate goal...
... As marketing professionals we often try to come up with brilliant and engaging ways of spreading the message about our company and product, moving towards greater emphasis on below the line promotion.
A month ago I wrote a blog post about the challenges of promoting generic low-involvement products such as personal banking. The winner of the TALKING award is The Common Wealth Credit Union. A bank deeply rooted in Northern Alberta. Click at the picture below and take a look at this brilliant video. It’s 8 minutes long but it gives a genuine insight into the case, portraying how they suceeded in growing the number of new account openings by 960% among 19-25 year olds compared to the same period a year prior:
This is social media marketing at its best. Really. Most importantly, it’s created extensive positive media coverage. I wonder if it would work in the banking industry in Denmark. Could we communicate this way to 19-25 year-olds about banking?
I, for one, would like to congratulate The Common Wealth Credit Union on their alternative yet solid work. Larissa, last year’s winner, got a nine-month contract. Now, Young & Free Alberta have just found next years spokesperson. Congratulation, Myles!
