Tim Whirldedge points out on his blog this campaign has created an interesting tone of voice for Dixons based on brutal honesty. Others like Ruth Mortimer at Marketing Week have been more sceptical of Dixons decision to undermine competitor brands. It’s a ballsy move, not every brand is prepared to sell itself on widely known values that haven’t always reflected positively.

I’ve written previously about how electrical retailers are embracing new forms of customer service. I admire this campaign for the distinct opportunity it has created for Dixons. Yes, in a recession hugely competitive price points are sustaining sales numbers but for how long will Dixons be able to ignore a customer service approach?

It’s no secret that Best Buy’s entrance in the UK is just around the corner. In the US they are renowned for their high levels of customer satisfaction and have built the brand around this. It will be interesting to see how consumers react to Dixons.

John Lewis have already publicly commented on this campaign. Rightly or wrongly this campaign has stimulated debate around the brands involved. Do you love or hate it? How does this make you feel about Dixons? Do you admire their pluckiness or are they making a mistake? Who makes the most of this and how they do it promises to be very interesting indeed.

Viral Video: ‘A video clip that gains widespread popularity through the process of Internet sharing, typically through email or Instant messaging, blogs and other media sharing websites.’ Source: Wikipedia

There was a time when viral video campaigns felt organic and about community and the best ones still work on the principle of getting the message out there. However, the latest crop, to my mind at least, seem to be little more than adverts better suited to a cinema audience than the internet.

The problem seems to be that Ad agencies have gotten involved and that means every increasing budgets and higher expectations. The latest two videos that seem to have taken this approach are both about laptops. I like both, for quite different reasons, but neither strike me as anything other than advertising.

The MSI ‘guy catches laptop in butt’ video has that ’share’ appeal vital to virals as it’s simply a corny joke executed really really well. Everyone finds toilet humour funny on some level and this hits that chord nicely – I’m just not sure how many people will remember which notebook, or brand, it is that’s being advertised. Conversely, the latest Sony S.M.A.A campaign leaves its pay-off until the end – it’s not until you’ve sat through this mini-drama that we get to see it’s for a Sony VAIO after all!

Now, I’m not going to tell anyone how to spend their budgets but as community and sharing information is what we do daily on NokNok, there are far more cost-effective and informative ways to get that message out there. However, if viral video is a key part of getting that message out then one of the more successful, in my mind, of late has been setting the Nokia 3720 Classic in jelly! It’s quick, to the point and really has that viral appeal.

Viral marketing can work and works really well but it shouldn’t be the only part of a marketing campaign, it should compliment the other work you’re carrying out online on a daily basis - that’s the true benefit of community sites.

Nokia 3720 Classic:

Liane Dietrich, managing director of LinkShare, the affiliate network which conducted the research, said:

“Less than 10 per cent of our respondents are interacting with adverts across social networking sites…Online users are information shoppers – they are looking for buyer reviews – so adverts need relay more information to cater for this need”.

This serves as a good reminder to all that at its heart the internet is a service led business. The most successful sites are those that are consistently providing useful information to their customers.

This obviously is easier said than done and even Google can sometimes get it wrong. Recently I’ve been exploring their Ad-sense channel via YouTube and came across this particularly illuminating comment.

“Hey Google instead of these ads for your Google products how about you give instruction instead. That’s what people search YouTube for, not to see an ad”.

Wouldn’t it be great if more people actually searched for ads. Perhaps a good lesson for us all, remember advertising needs to be useful!

Yup, I work off two machines. That’s not bragging, it’s just that I commute with a netbook and here at Republic Republishing we all use MacBook Pros for the day job! Now, I’ve been using Macs for years as a reviewer but this is the first one I’ve owned and used every day. I’m still in two minds as to whether I’d buy one with my own money.

This has a knock-on effect that I’ve been humming and erring about the upcoming Apple kit. One that I know I’d never buy is the Apple Tablet. I am sure the analysts predicting it’ll sell in its millions are on safe ground, it’s just that I’m not a big fan of tablets in general, so the news that Apple may get involved during 2010 leaves me feeling a little cold.

So, what am I looking forward to in my Mac? Well, it seems that iTunes 9 will be offering Blu-ray movies for download. A MacBook Pro with Blu-ray makes a good deal of sense. That in itself isn’t as big a shock as people would expect but it does have the knock-on effect that Apple will need to update their laptops to handle true HD definitions and even sport Blu-ray drives.

In its most basic essence it means we’re likely to see MacBook Pros move to 17.3-inch and 15.6-inch to deliver true 16:9 aspect ratios. While Steve Jobs previously voiced concerns about loading his machines up with HD and the effects it may have on performance, it seems even Mr Jobs can’t hold back technology creep forever.

It also means that if we are to see an Apple Netbook any time soon, then it’ll no doubt sport a 11.6-inch screen to keep in line with this across the board move. Then again, the latest rumours point to an even smaller 9.7-inch device, which no doubt will be seen more as a super-iPhone Touch rather than a netbook. If they can get the battery life, and more importantly the price, right, then I could well see myself moving solely to an Apple desk and wave the Windows behind… we’ll see!

Plurk is a social media site that allows you to send the now standard 140 characters and pass them on to others who are Plurking.

Plurk takes everything that Twitter has to offer and ramps up the game by bringing onboard video and pictures that you can share right from within the service. However, it’s the Plurk wall that hits you the hardest. For the first time user it can be a little daunting getting used to all your activities up in front of you (one colleague has fled the service as it’s a too much to handle).

Once you’ve come to terms with the UI Plurk does offer quite a lot - the couple of late nights recently spent playing with it are testament to that fact. Getting to grips with Plurk seems to be the aim of the game but I’ve not seen many people using it over Twitter yet.

People seem to have cottoned on to Plurk and are using it much as they do Twitter. So, the question is are they actively using it as a real alternative, or, like me, is everyone just seeing what’s coming down the pipe?

1. The Queen hits Twitter
That’s right HRH has joined the social networking revolution with her own Twitter page. Technically it’s actually the whole Royal family’s Twitter page, and none of them will actually be tweeting. That’s left up to two teams at Buckingham Palace and Clarence House. STill at least it shows the Monarchy aren’t as out of touch as some people seem to think.

2. Health officials spend £30 million on marketing
“Where’s the social media link?” you say. Well, health officials have set aside a budget of £30 million to spend over the next three years on a marketing campaign to raise awareness on healthy eating, obesity and the like, with Facebook and Twitter being the main focus. Naturally, this has come under fire, with critics suggesting the money would be better off spent elsewhere. But at a time when advertisers are attaching increasing importance to the amount of time people spend on a site, then why shouldn’t health officals adopt a similar stance? After all Facebook is one of the biggest sites in the world, and Twitter is growing at an unprecedented rate.

3. PrankNET gets probed
Think prank calls are funny? The FBI certainly doesn’t. They’re investigating increasingly violent ‘pranks’ done by PrankNET - an anonymous prank-calling internet group. The group have claimed responsibility for such “pranks” as convincing staff in a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant to douse the restaurant with fire-suppressing chemicals, evacuate the building and strip off their clothes in the freezing cold. Now, firstly that’s not a very funny prank. And secondly, who in their right mind would follow those instructions anyway?

4. Google Street View hits Stonehenge
The internet road-mapping service, Google Street View, has decided to extend its service from driving routes to popular off-road destinations, such as the Angel of the North, Loch Ness and Stonehenge. The service has had its issues with privacy laws in the past, but I doubt Nessie will be kicking up a fuss. The Druids on the other hand, might pose a different challenge…

5. iPhone rings pure
You can get all sorts of applications for the iPhone nowadays. Applications that turn it into a satnav. Apps that run your bath for you. And now you can even get a Purity Ring iPhone application. Basically you take a “purity pledge” and a spinning silver ring is displayed on your iPhone’s screen. Whether this will work is debatable. Unless your iPhone also gives you a shock when you’re about to get frisky, I can’t believe that a spinning ring will stop you. But then I am weak willed.

In response to declining footfall and sales BestBuy have adopted a interesting Twitter strategy to take their in-store expertise online. Quoted In a recent Bloomberg article, BestBuy CMO Brian Judge said,

“The old paradigm is you open your doors and hope someone comes in. In the new world, you can go out and find people that are talking about technology and what they’re interested in buying, and be generous with your knowledge”

The BestBuy answer to this problem is Twelpforce. So far 500 in store employees have signed up to participate in a scheme that asks employees to scan twitter for potential customers seeking information about technology products in their downtime.

Its clear that this is a learning process for BestBuy, If you have a look at John Bernier’s twitter feed (the BB Marketing Manager behind Twelpforce) you start to get an understanding as to just how seriously they are taking this project.

To my mind they have a clear challenge and that is making sure that Twelpforce remains a service to help consumers solve their problems and not simply a channel to promote their best offers. It is really encouraging though to see traditional retailers using social media platforms as tools to promote their existing strengths. I can’t imagine it will be long before we see similar ideas on this side of the pond.

Google’s share of the search space has fallen from 78.72 per cent in May to 78.48 per cent in June according to internet data firm StatCounter. That might not sound like a lot, but Microsoft’s share of the market, meanwhile, has grown to 8.23 per cent - that’s a rise of one per cent since Bing’s launch.

Those might seem like tiny fluctuations, but when you consider we’re talking percentages of the four billion pageloads a month that StatCounter analyses, those tiny percentages become massive figures. Yes Bing has a lot of catching up to do, but the underlying trend is positive. And that can only be a good thing for Microsoft considering the fact that it’s spent close to $100 million dollars rebranding its search engine.

Elsewhere in the world of social media this week, I read on The Telegraph’s website that the future of social networking and online companies trying to turn a profit (according to Kate Burns, vice-president of Bebo) rests on peer-to-peer recommendation rather than search.

Speaking at the Future of Broadcasting conference in London, Kate Burns, a former managing director at the aforementioned Google, said: “I know and understand the power of search. However, social recommendations are the future. They will not only open us up as individuals to the web, but to publishers and social networks, it will offer a relevant and open engagement we didn’t have before.” An interesting insight. Let’s see if her predictions come true. If they do, then that’s two bits of bad news for Google in a week.

When all’s said and done, though, Google’s still one of (if not the) largest companies in the world. And as long as it continues to develop (Google just introduced a website translation tool update that automatically translates the website you’re reading into one of 41 languages), then proclamations of a demise would be seriously misplaced. It’s the competition from little upstarts like, ahem, Microsoft, that pushes Google to bigger and better things. And if Search succumbs to social recommendation sites then you can bet Google won’t be resting on its laurels. So, here’s to the competition. May it continue to push the big boys to bigger and better things. And all the better if they remain free.

Odd as it might seem, I love virals. But before I tell you why, I need to clear up the definition of ‘viral’.

The majority are cynical cries for attention by desperate brands running low on ideas. They’re a last ditch attempt to ‘make some waves,’ ‘create some buzz,’ or otherwise justify their digital expenditure. And then there’s the worst viral crime of all: trying to PR a viral before it’s even born.

PR companies frequently pass viral campaigns to me before making them public. Clearly there’s some hope journalists like myself will feature it early on , garnering the client a few column (or web) inches to serve as proof it has ‘gone viral’ and effectively cancelling the need for all that pesky ‘viral’ stuff in the first place.

On the whole, it’s lazy and it stinks. But now and then there are true flashes of genius. Adobe Flashes of genius if you like, and this week I found my favourite yet.

Looking at it objectively, I should have been disgusted. It’s a mash-up of live Twitter posts, YouTube video and, well, international mourning. All the hallmarks of a company chasing the dragon of ‘marketing buzz.’

But this was a bit different: Created by web application firm 9Astronauts, Billie Tweets is a sort of automated sing-along to Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, with the words piped direct from the twitter feeds of social media mavens around the globe. Check it out here. You’ll love it, and I’ll tell you why.

As a creative, it’s very clever. From a technical viewpoint, it’s very clever. And the swift-fingered code ninjas who churned it out in two days flat, well, they’re very clever. But none of those things make this a great viral. That all stems from the shrewd idea behind it.

I’d bet folding money 9Astronauts knew Billie Tweets would perform well before they wrote a single line of code. Its masterminds have cottoned on to Twitter fans’ fondness for spreading news about Twitter, realising they love it almost as much as they love spreading news about a worldwide event or crisis.

This week saw tweeting about such an event on an unprecedented scale, with the death of Michael Jackson. So, neatly and with the speed of a Jacko moonwalk, 9Astronauts married the two.

As I said, it’s an ensemble piece. Great execution, a great idea, and perfect timing. 9Astronauts has the web buzzing over its creation already, and if I wanted a Twitter mashup of my own, I’d be hammering down their door. Not for the technical expertise you understand, but for the online understanding and ideas behind it.

And that’s what good viral marketing is all about: ideas. Not cheesy tie-ins or getting people to pass branded messages to their mates. Just pure, gleeful, undiluted ingenuity. The web seems to relish ideas more than radio or TV ever has. They become part of the collective online consciousness. They delight. They amuse. They engage. And yes, we share them too.

Rather than being an interruption, virals become a destination in their own right, and that’s why they’re the future of good online marketing. Still, think you’ve got a killer campaign? Twitter it. See who passes it on. We’ll soon see how good it really is.

Twitter

We may be some time away from finding out what actually killed Michael Jackson but in the meantime, we do know that when the news broke on Friday, the internet was the way the story broke and as a result, broke the internet.

People at the Glastonbury festival awoke to rain and the buzzing of their phones to the news that Michael Jackson had died in LA. Most people thought it was a hoax at first – no that was Jeff Goldblum – but reality soon dawned but getting the facts proved a little difficult.

TMZ who initially broke the story kept seeing usage drop outs due to the volume of traffic hitting the site. However, it seems that Twitter and Google were the biggest casualties, with the site seeing repeated drop outs all day. Then there was Google, which at its peak, Google Trends rated the Jackson story as “volcanic” forcing Google to simply just stopp working for short periods.

It wasn’t just Twitter and Google that suffered, CNN apparently had a 5x rise in traffic in little over an hour when 20 million page views were clocked up shortly after the story broke. Wikipedia also seemed to be hit, with nearly 500 edits made to MJ’s entry in less than 24 hours. At other times the site was reportedly shut for business due to the amount of traffic that hit it.

While the world seems to be busy letting everyone they know, or don’t, how they feel about the sad passing of MJ, it seems the Big Brother crowd will be left in ignorance - no change there then!

I’m not even going to go into the amount of public grieving that has been going on, that’s something between you and your conscience. What does all this frenzied sharing of information tell us? Well, clearly Social Networking is alive, well and thriving and when the big stories hit – and face it Jacko dying is a big big story – Social networking is now the way most people will get the news first.