All aboard!

Virgin Trains asked people for ideas on ways to improve their service, and Richard Branson is picking the best (and most voted?) idea to take forward and develop.

Nice idea, nice microsite, not bad all round.

Turn the heater on....

Nice bit of co-branded CSR interactive gubbins over here. I'll write something once I've had a play around.

Yard sale

Lots of talk amongst people over how social networks can be incorporated into the marketing mix. Two decent clips coming up.

The Hub - Comment on the dynamics of online social communities , and the most appropriate way to approach a brief that declares "I want something web 2.0". Kind of a guide to etiquette (and this is the trick) than a set of instructions.

Reveries - This is mentioned in the article above and refers to an idea for referral marketing using your Facebook profile. It's something Google have been doing for a while now, offering bloggers and the like the opportunity to profit from traffic to their site (see Squidoo as well), but this gives Facebook participants a revenue, and brands some insight.

Who knows. I met a guy once who told me that if he stood on the corner of Camden High Street and asked every woman who walked past if they would go out for a drink with him, the odds were that eventually one of them would. He's now a very rich man. The lesson? Saying something to someone (friend or stranger) is one thing. Being tenacious with it is another thing altogether.

Dont tell me, bell me

Have heard of this sort of thing being tried before, albeit with barcode readers being distributed to the masses so they could scan a code in their favourite magazine and have their web browser go straight to the appropriate site on the internet. This is much cleaner and simpler, and has apparantly worked well in Japan. Point your mobile phone at a poster and get access to more content. Lovely.

Now, where's my jetpack?

(Web) 2.0 + 2.0 = 4.0

Smart video piece from Seth Godin looking at marketing appropriacy, and how existing ATL "broadcast" models of advertising (basically, it's a numbers game) have been challenged by the need for clever and insightful ways of not only communicating with potential customers, but getting them to want to tell their friends about you. Makes some simple points about the value of marketing being aware of the context in which its used. Throwing paint over a building to show how much you get the importance of colour when buying a TV is one thing on a commercial, and probably get you a fair few "oohs" and "aahs" into the bargain. Trying to do it all over someones online social space will probably get you a thick ear (if you're lucky).