It’s the end of a busy mini-roadshow week of previewing our self-service social media promotions platform at  DEMO and BoulderBeta. Here’s a quick recap:

DEMO was a high-energy two-day event centered on great pitches from a huge group start-ups. They ran the gamut from web and mobile apps for consumers to new ecommerce and search technologies to robotics. Votigo was a proud sponsor of the event.

Some of our favorite pitchers: OLogic, LUMOback, Gust , Aurasma, and Unrabble, and for solo presentation dynamics, GumHoo. Other highlights included Aaron Levie, Box.net founder, on stage with a typically high energy level on day 2.

You can read the Twitter stream of the show here. Here are TheNextWeb’s @Chikodi’s 10 Favorite Startups From DEMO. And of course, a ton of VentureBeat coverage (DemoBeat) by Matt Marshall, Jolie O’Dell and the crew that hosted the event.

Also check out the Startup America HD Social Lounge video of Votigo co-CEO Jim Risner talking about Votigo’s full-service business and our newly-launched platform for self-service users.

If you want to request an invitation to the private beta of our self-service promotions platform- where you can launch promotions apps for Facebook for exactly $.02 through mid-October- please click here.

Back in Boulder last night, part of the Votigo team previewed the Votigo Platform at the latest Boulder Beta.  It was our 2nd year attending, first time showing off a beta offering.  A very high energy crowd was highlighted by 8 great start-ups, including our neighbors on the Beta floor, mobile commerce provider MShopper and the very recently launched community-powered news platform CrowdSpoke.

The start-up energy was contagious and we were able to gather some feedback for the Votigo Platform beta. A huge thanks to Tim Falls from Sendgrid, and Christian Perry, the maestros behind the Beta series, whose next stop is the Boston Beta Launch on Oct. 25 in Beantown.

For some serious design inspiration - in terms of both hand-drawn artistry and tech-driven social promotions - check out Sharpie’s visually stunning new US homepage. The redesigned site anchors a campaign challenging users to Start Something With Sharpie and showcases their artistic inspiration, allowing viewers to rate and share an incredible array of art (on a variety of surfaces- from paper and canvas to forearms and surfboards).

Also check out Laurie’s Sullivan’s MediaPost story yesterday on the campaign, highlighting Sharpie’s wildly successful YouTube takeover in August. The centerpiece: an expanding interactive ad unit that was a mosaic of submissions. The DraftFCB-designed campaign garnered 62M impressions, drove 7x the normal traffic to Sharpie.com, and inspired hundreds more pieces of art for the mosaic, also propelling the brand’s Facebook page passed the 2M fans mark, according to Sullivan.

Votigo’s Developer API, powering the mosaic and homepage gallery, is a complete back-end solution for brands with design resources and a promotions strategy that involves launching powerful, secure promotions on websites, social channels and mobile. Please contact us if you would like to hear more about Votigo’s Developer API.

Team Detroit is no stranger to accolades for its Ford Motor Company work, so it isn’t merely to sing praises that we highlight The Global Ford Ranger Challenge. The latest Ford social media promotion also illustrates some important mobile functionality and user experience queues- not to mention that it’s visually striking with great alignment of brand and call-to-action, and powered by Votigo.


The just-launched Global Ranger Challenge asks users to submit photos, videos or essays of how they would put Ranger’s Dynamic Stability Control to the test, in competition for a chance to attempt and film their challenges and ultimately win a new Ranger. One entrant promised to relive a long-ago family road trip; another would head straight to Ayers Rock for some off-roadin’ in the Outback. A quick browse of the Challenges already submitted is enough to inspire a dream holiday to the home of Uluru.


Viewers can see featured entries and share them via Facebook, Twitter or email, but must register and log-in to submit, comment or vote. Sharing drives traffic back to the microsite-FordRangerChallenge.com.au- which then links to the Australian home page for the truck.


To accommodate the campaign’s incredible geographic reach- it launched first in Australia as homage to the truck’s design and engineering heritage but will ultimately extend to 11 countries, from South Africa to Thailand- entries can be submitted from any mobile device, including smart phones but also feature phones and basic handsets. A must for any brand launching an international promotion with a critical mobile component is to extend access to the broadest range of devices possible, not to mention to get expert guidance on the local regulations in every jurisdiction where the contest or sweeps is open.

Every brand stands for something.  The highest quality.  The cheapest. The most luxurious. The happiest. The toughest. The quirkiest. The one with the most unique/innovative/irreplaceable characteristic that no competitor has ever offered.


One of the most powerful ways to communicate your brand’s meaning to customers in a competitive market is to let them do the talking.  That’s where a powerful User-Generated Content campaign comes in.  With UGC, you empower your customers to tell the story of your brand.


Digital media is the most open forum in the history of commerce for giving customers a voice.  Some of the most dynamic destinations on the web- from YouTube to CNN iReport to Wikipedia- are built on a foundation of users contributing content.  For your UGC promotion, a microsite dedicated to the campaign, plus social venues like Facebook, are the ideal places to host a campaign featuring your fans’ creative work.


Ask Votigo’s Account Services team about the keys to a great UGC promotion, and you’ll get fundamental advice from savvy marketers:  Accessible entry requirements that don’t require entrants to climb a mountain or do anything outside of the typical person’s reach.  A great theme; kids and animals are always a draw, but the contest should be authentically tied to the brand.  And great incentives.


Great brands from every industry are asking their users to create content that is authentically tied to their products.   Check out three Votigo-powered UGC contests in different stages:

• Yahoo Messenger capped off its one-month UGC promotion Faceoff: Which Emoticon Are You? on Facebook by crowning a winner whose photo submission of acting out a new emoticon (facial expression symbols that are shorthand for emotion in chat sessions) that won the most user votes.  The winning emoticon: “Whatever!”

• Folgers is set to announce the finalists in its second annual Best Part of Wakin’ Up Jingle Contest. Entrants produced their own renditions of the iconic Folgers jingle to enter via microsite or mobile. The final quintet will go to New York for the Grand Prize Audition in front of celebrity judge Kara DioGuardi- and a chance at $25,000.

• And Febreeze Carpet Care just launched the It’s a Dance Video Contest, motivating the audience to submit videos of themselves dancing to the tune of six downloadable music tracks while cleaning their floors.  The promotions spans the rest of 2011 and will award monthly winners and one grand prize. And every entrant walks away with coupons for the Procter & Gamble cleaning products.

These UGC promotions ask the audience for photos and videos that directly connect the contestants to the brand: facial contortions fit for an emotional chat, memorable covers of a coffee-sipping classic, and rhythmic dances that convey floor-cleaning fun.  All three encourage their audiences to spread the word about the contest- and the brand- and provide incentives with great prizes and experiences.  And all three put the customer in charge of telling the story.

These days we see the word Engagement so often- even on our own site- that it may begin to lose meaning. Don’t let it. Engaging an audience means something.


Put yourself in the mindset of a potential lifetime customer who just bought something from your website, visited your store, or saw your ad for the first time. Somewhere near the end of her maiden experience with your company- your brand- she saw Facebook.com/yourpage. So she took a few seconds and visited.


Now what? If you’ve got a static brand page, she reads the About, looks at a picture you uploaded months ago, and leaves. That’s just a visit. Unless you engage her.


A well-choreographed engagement- be it a photo contest, sweepstakes or some other interaction- does a few important things. It collects a little bit of information about them- and their permission for you to stay in touch. It reinforces what your brand means by asking them to think about it in visual or written terms. It shows them how other people perceive your brand. It asks them to think about who else they should tell. And it gives them a reason to check back in with you.


Case in point: American Express Canada. Amex – which maintains an aspirational luxury brand in the staid realm of personal or small business finance – doesn’t stop at a static Facebook brand page that funnels visitors to their website. They offer additional engagement- like their Votigo-powered Gold Rewards Card Dream Travel Contest, which asks visitors to upload photos of cherished travel and vote on each others’ dream getaways - that reinforces the image of their brand as the one that makes such experiences happen. From there, it’s not a huge leap for customers to pull their cards from their wallets and book that travel, or for newcomers to click through and apply for an account. See Sara Inés Calderón’s coverage of the campaign at Inside Facebook.


Engagement. It’s not just fancy marketing slang. It means something. For American Express Canada, it means nearly 500 submissions and counting, a trove of priceless photos and travel blurbs, and a lot of buzz, and likely, new lifetime customers.