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Social media train: McDonald’s Germany, jumps on the crowdsourcing waggon and engages one in four Germans!

gmg — Tue, 15 May 2012 08:14:35 +0000

The universally-recognised McDonald’s is tapping into social crowdsourcing success, with its Germany-centric ‘Mein Burger’ (My Burger) campaign.
Users built their own burger using a smart online application, choosing every detail from bread and sauces to meats and cheese. “We gave them the tools, they created the buzz,” says McDonald’s, and make a buzz they did. After creating their dream burgers, users were encouraged to use the application’s poster, video and banner tools to generate noise about their tasty inventions and get votes from the German public. By the fifth week of the campaign, a burger was being created every 26 seconds (yep, even after five weeks), and 1.5 million people had voted for the burger they deemed worthy of the title of ‘McDonald’s First Crowdsourced Burger’.
The winning burger – the Pretzelnator – is topped with ham, American and Italian cheese and comes in a pretzel-like bun, and is now being served in McDonald’s restaurants around Germany for a limited time.
According to the video, the campaign not only reached one in four German online users, but one in four Germans overall, thanks to the hype generated within the traditional media, too. This led to an impressive seven million page impressions, heralding the campaign as the brand’s ‘most successful ever’. And the best part? The whole thing cost McDonald’s nothing; its fans did all the hard work.
“Never before has a campaign at McDonald’s brought so many additional customers, served more promotional burgers or, for that matter, earned more total revenue,” the video announces. Indeed, if campaigns across the board continue in this vein, many marketers may very well find themselves out of a job.

Rachel England May 14

Fundraisers Face Street Ban

gmg — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:18:11 +0000

Some charities have recently been criticised for employing agency reps who allegedly deploy aggressive tactics.
But organisations have hit back, saying they provide much needed funds in difficult times.
Sky News tested one area where there had been a large number of complaints.
Our undercover reporter was approached by reps working for Amnesty International outside Angel station in Islington, north London.
He told the fundraiser six times that he did not have much money and would like to “think about it” before committing to a donation.
The rep repeatedly criticised his decision to take time considering, saying: “What is there to think about?
“I mean imagine you were in a situation like that.
“You went to another country and you said, ‘I think there should be democracy here’ and they lived under a dictatorship and you got put in prison for saying that and nobody knew where you were.
“How soon would you want somebody to help you?”
For eight minutes he persisted. “Are you going to go ‘I’d like to help you but I want to think about it?’,” he went on.
“Imagine if I get everybody on this street today to give 20p a day to this charity. We’d be able to save so many people, but you know not everybody is that generous.”
Islington Council has been considering banning face-to-face fundraisers.
Christine Lovett, director of the Angel Business Improvement District, told Sky News there had been numerous complaints from the public and that it had affected business on the high street.
She said residents liked giving to charity but “the nature of the complaints are the harassment and the intimidation that some people feel happens from some of the street fundraisers.
“My concern is that some of those charities, if they knew how they were being sold would also have concerns around their behaviour.”
Amnesty International declined an offer to look at our recording but in a statement said: “While face-to-face fundraising is only one of several different methods of recruiting new supporters it provides a terrific way of meeting members of the public and explaining our work, as well as providing income for vital human rights work.
“Of course, it is essential that fundraisers behave appropriately and at Amnesty International we have a dedicated training manager and closely follow the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association’s code of conduct.”
Other charities agree that this method of fundraising is crucial to achieving their goals.
Action Aid’s fundraising director, Peter Reynolds, said: “They are important to us financially.
“We need to find 20,000 new supporters this year in order to maintain and increase the work we do with the world’s poorest people, and they provide an important contribution in finding those supporters for us.”
Fundraisers should abide by an Institute of Fundraising code, which prohibits sellers from blocking people or following them down the street, but we spoke to one former “chugger” who explained that not all reps stuck to the code.
Nigel Wilson said: “More successful chuggers would follow people down the street, sometimes walk alongside them for maybe 10, 20 paces.
“One tactic was to tell people ‘you’ve dropped something’, stop them, get their attention and then you’re in.”
Recently, Aldeburgh & District Macmillan Cancer Support Committee in Suffolk closed down in protest at the use of pushy agency fundraisers.
The move was agreed unanimously by the 15 committee members after they received complaints of “high pressure” tactics during door-to-door sales pitches.
The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association estimates that £130m of charities’ annual revenue comes from street and door gifts, £45m of which is raised on the street.
The association has helped 42 councils across the country draw up agreements with charities to restrict street selling, reducing numbers on the street and limiting the locations and the number of days they can operate.
Jason Farrell, Sky News Investigations

Celebrity redheads raise money for Sumatran Orangutan Society

gmg — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:01:30 +0000

FAMOUS redheads including Nicole Kidman and Chris Evans are putting their flame-coloured heads together to raise money for Oxford charity the Sumatran Orangutan Society (SOS). Other stars taking part include Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts, comedian Tim Minchin, queen of cakes Jane Asher and a little local flavour is added by Oxford band Radiohead.
They have each donated items to be auctioned off in the Jungle ViP Auction which opens online tomorrow.
Sumatran orangutans are seriously endangered and could be the first great ape species to become extinct
Comedian Tim Minchin, radio presenter Chris Evans and celebrity chef Jane Asher have also been photographed wearing t-shirts to coincide with the auction. They can be purchased via junglevip.org.
Others taking part include singer Geri Halliwell, TV presenter Anne Robinson, snooker player Steve Davis and pop star Mick Hucknall. Auction lots include celebrity fashion, iconic memorabilia, and handwritten lyrics.
SOS works with local communities living alongside orangutan habitats, helping them work towards a more sustainable future for their forests.
Orangutans share 96.4 per cent of human DNA.
To find out more visit www.ebay.co.uk/JungleVIP

Address

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:38:21 +0000

Map

admin — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:09:44 +0000

ANO

admin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:16:54 +0000

Graffiti artist David Choe set for Facebook windfall

gmg — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:24:39 +0000

A US graffiti artist who painted Facebook’s offices is set to become a multi-millionaire when the social network begins trading as a public company.

David Choe, who first spray-painted the walls of Facebook HQ in 2005, accepted shares in payment for his work.

Now the site is planning to float on the stock market, its thought his share could be worth around $200m (£126m).

Writing on his blog, Choe said he was the “highest paid decorator alive”.

Although he had initially thought the idea of the social network was “ridiculous and pointless”, the artist decided to take the stock option instead of cash “in the thousands of dollars” according to the New York Times.

Choe’s payout could be worth more money than auction house Sotheby’s attracted for its record-breaking $200.7m (£127m) sale in 2008 for a collection of work by Damien Hirst.

The Korean-American artist, 35, was first asked to paint erotic murals for Facebook’s first office in Palo Alto, California, by the site’s then-president, Sean Parker.

The site’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, later asked Choe to paint “tamer” art for its second office in 2007.

However art from the original headquarters was cut out from the walls and is on display at other Facebook offices around the world.

Choe – whose work can now be seen in galleries all over the world – is currently painting the site’s new offices in Menlo Park, California.

The artist, who began spray-painting in his teens, created the cover art for Jay-Z and Linkin Park’s multi-platinum album Collision Course in 2004.

In 2008, he also painted a portrait of the then-Senator Barack Obama – a picture that now hangs in the White House.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-16871764

Week 20 Don’t miss the ‘doing data’ graffiti t-shirt competition!

gmg — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:54:49 +0000

Review of the year: a testing time for the charity sector

gmg — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:47:14 +0000

For many charities, the year has been shaped by difficult economic conditions and controversial government policies. David Ainsworth rounds up the key events and memorable stories
SHRINKING PUBLIC FUNDS
After the comprehensive spending review in October 2010, the cuts began in earnest in 2011. The sector quangos Capacitybuilders and the Commission for the Compact closed in March and the Office for Civil Society’s strategic partners programme was pruned from £12.2m last year to £4m this year and will cease in 2014. A Third Sector survey suggested that councils were chopping a fifth from voluntary sector budgets.
There was a 5 per cent drop in the size of the workforce in the year to the end of June, ending more than a decade of continuous growth, according to the NCVO. It also estimated that charities would lose £2.8bn in public sector income over the next five years (from a total of £12.8bn in 2007/08). The Budget brought the end of transitional relief on Gift Aid donations, which – coupled with the rise in VAT to 20 per cent in January – was predicted to cost the sector an extra £250m a year.
Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, launched various funds to help charities, including the £107m Transition Fund, the Community First match fund and Transforming Local Infrastructure. But OCS spending on the sector is due to fall by 61 per cent to £74m over the next three years.
The Work Programme, run by the Department for Work and Pensions, was billed as a way for the sector to increase its share of government contracts. But it did less well than expected, criticism is rife and political arguments continue.
http://www.thirdsector.co.uk/Communications/article/1108596/review-year-testing-time-sector/