John Raymond

Learn from Progressive’s Flo and think about SEO

Everyone has commercials they love and hate.  A series of commercials that drove me nuts were the ones for Progressive’s Flo.  It felt like they were on all the time.   In June of last year,  I decided to do some keyword research on Progressive’s spokesperson.  I discovered that there were very high monthly keyword volumes for the phrases “Progressive Flo” and “Progressives Flo.”

After further research I discovered that despite investing time and money into the commercials for Flo, Progressive was not at the top of the Search Engines for those terms.  Neither Progressive’s web site nor the youtube videos were optimized for the most popular terms.  I thought this was odd considering that the natural step for me was to google Flo and find out more about her.  What was even more surprising was that www.progressivesflo.com was available.

As a little SEO experiment, I decided to buy the domain name and set up “the unofficial fan site” of Flo.  What was I going to write about?  I went to the Progressive youtube channel and wrote a blog post about each of the commercials.  I made sure to optimize the posts for search engines.  Since launching in July of 2009, the site has gotten over 4,000 visits and 7,500 page views.  In the last thirty days it’s received over 800 visits.  I haven’t promoted it beyond tweeting it (at launch).

That’s about 500 potential leads a month that are hitting my site all because of search engine optimization.  The next time you plan a marketing campaign you may want to think about how people will search for your campaign on the web.   Will they google the slogan, the character’s name, the celebrity you have starring in the commercial?  These are all opportunities to get visits to your web site.

Recently, Progressive has done a better job in ranking for the high volume terms related to Flo.  They now have two listings on the front page for “Progressive Flo.”   However, with the SEO value of their web site, they could easily dominate the google rankings for these terms if they optimized their web site and social media campaigns for them.

Whoa! – an internet experiment

I was browsing status’ on facebook yesterday and saw a really funny response to a status. The status said “I’ll have to take down my Rocky Horror pics because my dad is now on facebook.” The response was simply a link to http://www.sadtrombone.com.   Upon clicking on the link and playing the trumpet sound, I erupted in laughter.  My dog was a bit frightened and disturbed at my outrageous laugh but I was inspired.

Back in the day there was a show on NBC called Blossom.  One of the character’s played by Joey Lawrence had this trademark saying “WHOA!”  I immediately wanted this packaged and at my disposal like sad trumpet.  After a few hours of research, photoshop design, flash work, and html coding I created http://www.joeywhoa.com.  I didn’t want to spend too much time on the design but I wanted to have a little 90’s flare to it.  So I used some old Saved by the Bell promo materials to inspire the logo and background.  I also threw up an old school hit counter for fun.  Check it out and make sure to follow up a outrageous, moronic, or ordinary tweet or fb status with a Joey Whoa.

FlashForward TV Show Application

Today insidefacebook.com had an article about a new flash web site that promotes a new ABC TV show called FlashFoward.  Upon visiting the web site, you are asked to use Facebook Connect.  The application then pulls your data (images, current status, relationship)  and your friend data from facebook and compiles a unique movie with your content.

It’s a very cool interactive application.  The techology itself has all kinds of potential.  I got really excited because I’ve build interactive flash applications that plug in user information and make it completely unique.  I would highly encourage you to check it out.  This combined with learning how to build custom facebook pages leaves all kinds of potential for interactive and customizable contests and trailers even more viral.   In the meantime, check out http://www.flashforwardexperience.com.

Tags: Flashforward facebook application, flashforward interactive movie, flashfoward facebook page

Custom Facebook Fan Pages

Facebook seems to change every single day. Lately I’ve turned my attention to the relatively new facebook fan pages. The facebook fan page is definitely the way to go if you have a business and need a presence on facebook for several reasons. Lately I’ve been experimenting with designing custom facebook fan pages. My inspiration was the Gap Facebook Fan page. I saw that they had all kinds of flash video and a nicely designed custom page. I took to the task of designing one for my uncle’s business Bruening Glass Works.

I just tried to use whatever was on his homepage.  The result is pretty cool.  If you look at the design I’ve added to the post, you can see that I have incorporated his contact us form and also his youtube video.  So if you find him on facebook or just by googling him, you can contact him from facebook. I think the youtube video (which I shot and edited) helps bring out his personality and allows him to demonstrate his expertise.  After all, if you are going to ship him your priceless glass item, you would want to trust him.

A custom facebook fan page can help you stand out among your competitors and impress your customers.  If you would like to know more about the process, please leave a comment or contact me.  In the meantime, I’m looking forward to more expermenting with facebook fan pages.  Please check out the Bruening Glass Facebook Page.

Tags: columbus ohio facebook fan page design, custom facebook fan pages, custom ohio facebook fan page, designing facebook fan pages, facebook fan page design

Does the Youtube Wedding Dance Video help Chris Brown?

Yesterday I saw a tweet about this awesome youtube wedding dance video (watch it below). Yesterday afternoon it had about 300,000 views; today and it had over a million and the couple was on the Today Show. It’s amazing the power of the internet and the viral video. Ironically enough, I think the person who could benefit the most out of this is Chris Brown. Most of you know about the horrible and disturbing encounter between Chris and Rihanna last year that sent Rihanna to the hospital. I was so sickened that I couldn’t bare to listen to Brown’s hit song “Forever.”

However, because of the youtube wedding dance video, the song makes me think of this great dance and the amazing things that come with marriage and love. It makes me wonder if the millions of other people who have viewed the video feel the same way. In a time where Brown has attempted to rebuild his career by publicly apologizing, this could potentially help him out tremendously.

Given that, will we see this tactic used by marketers in the future trying to rebuild a client’s reputation? Do you think this helps or hurts Chris Brown?

UPDATE:
As of the last few days, the song “Forever” has been in the 10 ten on the itunes top songs. Before the video came out, it was nowhere to be found in the top 100. You now wonder if it becomes a staple song at weddings going forward along with the Electric Slide, YMCA, and Shout.

Tags: Chris Brown wedding Youtube video, Chris brown youtube dance video, wedding video dance youtube, youtube dance video wedding, youtube wedding dance video, youtube wedding intro dance