We have been talking about building brand engagement a lot over the past few weeks and one of the key things about social media is that it builds engagement by allowing people to form their own positive associations by allowing individuals to participate in activities, as opposed to simply being bombarded with messaging. So I’ve been looking around for other examples of activities and campaigns that require (and get better with) user participation. Crowdsourcing, User Generated Content, Collaborative Marketing: take your pick. They are all here today.

Oh, and while you’re reading, you might enjoy playing this (beware, its hideously addictive)

Enjoy

The SMS slingshot
We recently got very excited about the advances in Out of Home advertising and our illustrious creative director recently wrote quite a nice Friday mail about projections. I came across this video the other day, which combines urban/Guerrilla advertising and digital projection and takes it to another level. I love the fact that viewers get to participate in the activity and thought it would be a lovely idea for Events…

Billabong  runs competition with user generated content
I’ve just picked up a canoe from Oscar, so have been looking for some new beachwear and in doing so, came across this competition from Billabong. Users submit photos or videos of themselves surfing and complete a statement starting with the catchphrase  “I surf because…” Prizes are awarded on a weekly and monthly basis.

The idea isn’t new, but as a low cost brand raising initiative it is nicely executed. All I need is the bleach blonde hair…

Collaborative playlists
At a recent session with Staples, we talked about using sites like Spotify to allow employees to create their own music playlists for internal events. It’s a simple idea and is easy to do and music has the power to cross linguistic and cultural divides in a way that not many other things can. As is the way with these things, some bright spark has already beaten us to it and songvote is the result. SongVote’s purpose is to provide a place online where users can take their varying musical tastes and collaborate with others to create a unified playlist. They call it “collaborative playlisting.” I call it a playlist.

Prepare for Olympic victory. Eat chocolate.
I’m getting quite excited about 2012, especially with our recent performance at the European Championships. As a result, I’ve been looking around to see how licensed suppliers are starting to leverage their sponsorship. One such sponsor is Cadbury (Official Treat Provider to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games). In an attempt to “rekindle the spirit of playing games”, Cadbury created a challenge to develop the next pocketgame. Lots of ideas were shortlisted and the esteemed judging panel have now selected a shortlist of 10 entries. Judge for yourself.

Crowdsourcing for social and political causes
As user interaction becomes mainstream, we are going to see a lot more crowdsourced-led initiatives. I came across one such initiative the other day: Avaaz, a global online advocacy community that “brings people-powered politics to global decision-making.”

Named for the word meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages, Avaaz has actually been working since 2007 on a simple democratic mission: organize citizens everywhere to help close the gap “between the world that exists and the world most people want.” Toward that end, it uses online and offline advocacy to empower its members to take action on pressing issues of international concern, from global poverty to the crises in the Middle East to climate change. In the past three years, Avaaz has grown to include 5.5 million members from every country on Earth, becoming what it says is the largest global web movement in history.

Achievements to date include more than 20 million actions taken online and off, including messages sent, phone calls and petition signatures, with more than 70 million friends told; raising more than USD 10 million online, including millions in funding and high-tech support for human rights and democracy advocates in Burma, Zimbabwe, Tibet, Iran and Haiti; and organizing nearly 10,000 rallies, flashmobs, vigils, marches and other online events for the climate change movement. Just recently, Avaaz used a petition with more than 2 million signatures, 500,000 online actions and tens of thousands of phone calls to score a major anti-corruption initiative in Brazil.