Archive for May, 2009
Sprout Offering Customized Facebook Bundles in 2 Weeks
Friday, May 22nd, 2009Execs & Accounts: Michael Weaver, Revolution, Sprout
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
The Sprout Community, join us.
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Recently there have been some changes with Sprout’s online presence. We launched a payment system for Sprout Builder and removed the marketing information from Sproutbuilder.com. With that change, the forums and blog on Sproutbuilder.com went away. The blog was consolidated to Sproutinc.com with blog posts living in this blog you are reading now and the tips and tricks living in our new support section. The forums have also left Sproutbuilder.com and have been relocated to our Ning community.
What and where is the Sprout community?
Sprout Enables Online Creation of Demo Tapes and Widgets for “Rock the Space” Competition from MySpace and Toyota
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Participating Bands Can Create Demo Tape and Viral Widget Hosted by Sprout
San Francisco, May 21, 2009 – Sprout, the leader in social media strategy and campaigns, today announced that its technologies are being utilized in the Rock the Space competition on MySpace, in which unsigned bands and solo artists submit an original song for a chance to win a record deal with MySpace Records. Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), USA, Inc., MySpace and MySpace Records are bringing this once-in-a lifetime opportunity to the MySpace community.
Saatchi & Saatchi LA, Toyota’s agency of record, approached Sprout to provide the technology for a viral widget. The widget, which looks like a demo tape, allows bands and artists to promote their submissions within their online communities. The demo tape will include a band’s name, song and link to their MySpace band profile and image. Participants will have the option to customize the look and feel of their tape. Saatchi LA also brought on interactive agency Schematic to work with with Sprout and MySpace on the Toyota-sponsored campaign.
“We are excited to be working with Toyota and MySpace to develop the social media component of the Rock the Space competition,” said Carnet Williams, co-founder and CEO of Sprout. “This competition taps into the popular music culture built on MySpace and adds social media tools that bands can use to create their own online music campaign with the hopes of launching their career.”
“We came to Sprout both because of its background in creating engaging social media campaigns and portable content, and because we knew they could get us to market quickly,” said Matthew Pollock, Content and Interactive Producer for Saatchi LA. “With Sprout’s expertise we were able to create a fun campaign experience that we know bands will enjoy and share with their fans across MySpace.”
Once published, the demo tape will become a fully interactive viral widget that can be placed on a band’s MySpace page, website, blog or other social networking sites to promote the contest and solicit votes. The demo tapes will also reside on the Toyota Music MySpace home page in a thumbnail image gallery in which viewers can click on a demo tape image and be directed to an artist or band’s Toyota Music MySpace page or their MySpace profile page.
The Rock the Space winner will be announced in September and will receive a recording contract as well as a $10,000 prize package provided by Fender. The winner’s song will also be available for download on the MySpace Music Home Page. The four runners-up win a MySpace Records Development Deal friends package.
For more information or to submit for Rock the Space, please visit: www.myspace.com/toyotamusic.
About Sprout
Sprout helps brands develop and deploy engagement campaigns across diverse social networks. The Sprout platform solves a problem that has been plaguing new media marketers for years – How to quickly create brand experiences that are easily transportable across Facebook, MySpace and other social networks without having to find and hire expensive development resources. With Sprout, agencies and brands can create rich experiences that marry brand assets with UGC to capture social gestures and allow advocates to share their experiences with friends. Funded by Polaris Venture Partners, Sprout is based in Honolulu, HI and San Francisco, CA. To learn more, please visit http://sproutinc.com.
About Saatchi & Saatchi LA
Saatchi & Saatchi LA is a full-service agency with both traditional and non-traditional capabilities, including media, creative, strategic planning, 3D asset creation, design and event marketing. The agency was awarded a prestigious Gold Effie for its highly effective launch of the Toyota Tundra full-size truck. Saatchi LA is agency of record for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., and it also serves Toyota Dealer Associations and Toyota Financial Services. The LA office is the third largest in the global network of ideas company Saatchi & Saatchi, part of Publicis Groupe. For more information, go to www.saatchila.com.
Adding sprouts to your Facebook Fan Pages
Thursday, May 21st, 2009Facebook “pages” are a great way for brands, products, celebrities and more to connect with users on Facebook. With Facebook pages, users can become a fan of your page and then share that affinity with their friends.
So you have a Facebook page and you have a sprout. This blog post will show you how to get a sprout with a custom tab on your Facebook Fan Page.
Sprout Launches New Facebook Branding Service
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Sprout Gets Your Business Facebook-Ready … For $50K
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Roundup: Google calls out quitters, Craigslist’s feelings are hurt and more
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Sprout Announces New Customized Social Media Program for Integrated Facebook Applications
Monday, May 18th, 2009Package Helps Companies Launch Social Media Presence Within Two Weeks
New York, IAB Social Media Event – May 18, 2009 – Sprout, the leader in social media strategy and campaigns, today announced a new package for companies looking to quickly launch a presence on Facebook® with a customized social media package that can be created in less than two weeks for $50,000. The Sprout F3 bundle includes a Facebook Platform application, Facebook Connect integration and a Facebook Fan Page.
“With this bundle, we are offering the most aggressive pricing model available for building a robust social media program for Facebook,” said Carnet Williams, Co-founder and CEO of Sprout. “Nobody else offers the ability to create a completely customized and unique social media campaign from design to tracking in less than two weeks. The Sprout F3 bundle offers a tremendous value for companies that are ready to take the leap into social media and want to engage fans with a fun experience while enabling them to share personalized brand messages with their friends.”
The Sprout F3 bundle includes:
- A Facebook application that takes advantage of Facebook Platform features and distribution with hooks into the social graph and News Feed.
- A Facebook Connect application that can integrate with a company Web site to allow visitors to sign in with their Facebook account, interact with friends who are also on your site, and share actions back to Facebook. This integration ensures that your audience can access the core social features of Facebook, such as photos, status updates, and friends, in your campaign, whether it lives on or off of Facebook.com.
- A Facebook Fan Page that provides a unique experience connecting you with your brand advocates and offers an additional place for users to discover your application.
As part of this complete package, Sprout will work with the client to design an engaging social media campaign that leverages existing branding assets or user generated content (if desired), or new assets built specifically for the campaign.
Sprout will then integrate the application with Facebook Platform and develop a campaign in the amount of time it would take a traditional agency to deliver wireframes. In addition, Sprout provides comprehensive QA testing, campaign launch support and the Sprout Engagement Console, which provides 24 hour access to the tracking and analytics needed to measure success and optimize results.
“We are currently working with Sprout to provide one of our key clients, the Tony Award winning musical, ‘In the Heights’, with an integrated social media campaign using the Sprout F3 bundle,” said Sara Fitzpatrick, Director of Interactive at SpotCo, a leading entertainment advertising agency in New York. “Our selection of the Sprout offering was based on the speed in which they are able to design and deliver a customized, creative campaign that allows us to harness brand advocates both on the brand’s corporate site and across Facebook.”
For more information on the Sprout F3 bundle, please visit: http://sproutinc.com/f3/
About Sprout
Sprout helps brands develop and deploy engagement campaigns across diverse social networks. The Sprout platform solves a problem that has been plaguing new media marketers for years – How to quickly create brand experiences that are easily transportable across Facebook, MySpace and other social networks without having to find and hire expensive development resources. With Sprout, agencies and brands can create rich experiences that marry brand assets with UGC to capture social gestures and allow advocates to share their experiences with friends. Funded by Polaris Venture Partners, Sprout is based in Honolulu, HI and San Francisco, CA. To learn more, please visit http://sproutinc.com.
Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.
Make Social Campaigns Sizzle
Friday, May 15th, 2009It’s well established that traditional ad units simply don’t work in social media channels. The ever-enduring question is: what will work to engage the target audience? If your brand can live up to these three tenants, chances are you’ve got a winner.
