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Archive for the ‘Sprout External’ Category

Case Study: Sprout Helps Intel Drive Sales on Facebook

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010
Sprout Engage App Case Study:
Intel Fan Plan

We’re thrilled to share a new case study based on our recent work with Intel. Intel is doing an outstanding job with their social media work on Facebook and we are proud to be part of their effort. For those interested in learning more about how Intel is leading the way, check out a recent panel discussion led by Ekaterina Walter, Social Media Strategist at Intel. The presentation shares some great tips on how to drive fan acquisition on Facebook, which also happens to be a key element of the case study below.

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Intel Reaches Out To Their Community On Facebook
Back in October, Intel challenged Sprout to create a new Facebook fan page and application, with the goal of building a significant Intel community on Facebook. Sprout knew Intel had to deliver immediate value, which worked well with Intel’s concept of linking laptop pricing to fan acquisition. The result: the wildly popular “Fan Plan” campaign, which empowered Intel’s Facebook community to incrementally lower the price on three laptops with every new fan added. It reached hundreds of thousands of people and landed Intel over 24,000 new fans—in just two weeks. (more…)

Recent Platform Updates

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

Engage-LogoThis is just a quick update about a couple of recent product enhancements we’ve made to our Engage Platform. For those of you who are using the platform to build applications, the first one will be of particular interest because it saves you the trouble of building your own color palette tools. And the second enhancement will be of use to anyone building applications or ads because it improves how our RSS component works. Here are the details: (more…)

Video of Sprout at Web 2.0

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

For those who missed the Web 2.0 conference, here is a video of the presentation that we participated in entitled Social Or Anti-Social? The Next Generation of Online Display Ads. The panelists included: Catherine “Cat” Spurway (PointRoll), Chris Jaffe (Yahoo! Inc.), Adam Taisch (Sprout) and it was moderated by Richard Jalichandra (Technorati).

Sprout is presenting at the Web 2.0 Expo

Thursday, April 22nd, 2010

Web 2.0We’re thrilled to announce that we’ll be participating on a panel at the Web 2.0 Expo this coming May 4th in San Francisco.  We hope you can join us for a great conversation entitled: Social Or Anti-Social? The Next Generation of Online Display Ads. You can also get a 25% discount on your registration with code websf10fos. Here’s more information about the event: (more…)

Sprout Announces HTML5 Beta Program

Friday, April 16th, 2010

html5Sprout is thrilled to announce that it’s now possible to export both HTML5 and Flash versions of the content created with the Sprout Engage Platform. This means, that it’s now possible to create rich-media Engage Ads that are interactive in both Flash based desktop browsers and non-Flash mobile browsers. We’re currently reviewing partners for our beta-release who are looking for a mobile ad solution that will combine their Flash and HTML5 production workflows. For more information about this program please visit our HTML5 beta program signup page or read our press release. (more…)

Sprout Summit Event Assets

Monday, April 12th, 2010

A big thanks to all that attended the Sprout Social Media & Advertising Summit in New York last week. In this post, we’ll share some of the content from that event including some of the slide decks and a video of the speakers.

Video from the event

The visuals on the video are not great but the sound is perfect. So the best thing to do is download the relevant deck below and follow along with the video.

Download the presentations decks below:

(more…)

Case Study: Sprout’s Platform Eases Pain Point of Flash Ad Creation for Geeknet

Monday, April 5th, 2010
Sprout Engage Ad Case Study: PEPSI – ThinkGeek / DoubleClick

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Sprout and DoubleClick Simplify Ad Building and Ad Serving saving time and money
Creating rich, engaging Flash ads quickly and cost-effectively is at the top of the priority list for most ad operations teams. But client revision rounds can slow time to market when each change requires more coding, and bringing interactive features into ad units—RSS feeds, polls, or the ability to share ad content on Facebook or Tweet about it on Twitter— can be complicated. In late 2009, Sprout began efforts to integrate their Engage Ad Platform, a web-based visual authoring studio that eliminates the need for Flash coding, with DoubleClick Studio. The goal was to enable advertisers, publishers, and agencies to quickly create Flash ads that could be served and tracked through DoubleClick Studio and DART.ThinkGeek3

Geeknet Ag rees to Beta Test Sprout’s Engage Ad Platform An existing DoubleClick customer, Geeknet, understood the challenge of rapid rich ad creation and agreed to beta test Sprout’s solution. Matt Wessel, as Flash Developer and Ad Product Technology Specialist for Geeknet, creates ads for the site, which sells products geared toward technology and gadget lovers.ThinkGeek1

Sprout’s Platform Eases Pain Point of Flash Ad Creation for Geeknet “The Sprout social advertising platform was really easy to work with. As a designer I loved the amount of creative control I had over the ad. I wasn’t forced into a template or hindered in any way,” said Matt. Matt’s first ad included an RSS feed that brought dynamic news content right into the ad. “I was really pleased with how easy it was to bring an RSS feed into the ad,” said Matt. “All I did was drag and drop the component onto the canvas and link it to the correct URL. Working with RSS in Flash is hard but with Sprout it was really simple. In fact, it only took me about 15 minutes to build the ad,” Matt added. Once the ad was created, Matt was able to share a fully functional demo— rather than a static mockup—with the customer for approval. “One benefit of working with Sprout is that I have a functional mock-up to show customers. If the customer wants something tweaked I can do it right in the Sprout in real time.” Upon receiving approval, Matt used Sprout to auto-generate a DoubleClick Studio-compliant zip file containing a SWF and backup image. He uploaded this zip file to DoubleClick Studio and QA’d it as normal.

Sprout Ad Served Seamless ly via DoubleClick with Above Average Performance
ThinkGeek2
The ad ran in mid-December and boasted an above-average click-through rate of 1%. Geeknet is currently creating a second ad unit using Sprout’s Engage Ad Platform; this time they’ll pull blog posts right into the unit to bring rich, meaningful content to their audience. They plan to keep working with Sprout and DoubleClick as these two companies continue to revolutionize display advertising. Sprout Engage Platform Benefits:

  • Quickly create rich, dynamic Flash ads with a web-based drag-and-drop visual authoring studio. No Flash experience necessary.
  • Create fully functional mockups to speed client reviews and ad deployment.
  • Drag and drop interactive features like Twitter and RSS feeds, polls and video components into your ad units in minutes.
  • Easily upload and track ads through DoubleClick Studio.

Two Sprout Events in NYC: April 5th and 6th

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

iabIf you’re in New York City today or tomorrow, come join Sprout at one of two events. On Monday, April 5th, Sprout will be part of the IAB Marketplace and will be presenting between 10 am  and 11:20 am. On Tuesday, April 6th, you can join us for Sprout’s  Social Media & Advertising Summit where we’ll be presenting along with Appssavvy, Mud Worldwide, and Social Times.

The latter event is a wonderful half day summit chock full of case studies, best practices, and insights from industry thought leaders. The event is taking place at Le Poisson Rouge and includes a light breakfast and a networking lunch. Registration is available and we hope you can make it.

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Sprout Product Enhancements V3.1

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

In our latest release of the Sprout platform, we’ve made some improvements and released new features that make creating rich media Engage Ads easier and more efficient. This latest release, known as 3.1, focused on our integration with FBML exporting, conditional content and expandable ad functionality. I will go into more depth on these three features and functionality below.

FBML Exporting

When you create a social campaign, the ability to add this content directly to your Facebook Fan Page or Application previously required a developer.  This is no longer the case.  With our direct-to-Facebook exporting functionality, you can embed your content using a simple snippet of FBML code.

FMBL_export

Conditional Content

As online display advertisements become smarter, they will show you content based on the interactions that you’ve already taken with that ad.  As part of the campaign we just launched with Disney for the movie, Alice in Wonderland, we developed an ad that will dynamically display your content after the first time you interact with it.  For example, if you “Mad Hatter” yourself once, then every additional time you see that ad, it will show your picture and give you access to an exclusive trailer.  Give it a try yourself:

(Tip: if you click the top right section of the ad, it will clear your image after you refresh the page)

Expandable Ads

As many of you have seen, advertisements have the ability to take over a section of your screen that is larger than the ad unit itself. This type of advertisement is called an, “expandable ad” and they are becoming more and more prevalent on popular web sites.  We now have the ability to create these using the Sprout platform.  See the example of an expandable ad for our upcoming event, below:

Social Media & Advertising Summit: New York on April 6th!

Thursday, February 25th, 2010

A Half Day Summit on Leveraging Social Media & The Next Generation Display Ads for Your Brand

Are you an Account Executive or Creative Director at a brand or agency? If so, this event is the perfect opportunity to learn what it takes to successfully build your brand and drive sales by combining the next generation of display advertising with applications that plug into social networking platforms. The event is produced by Sprout, one of only fourteen Facebook Preferred Developers.

Presentations will focus on unveiling the next generation of rich, interactive, and social display advertising, how social network platforms are evolving, what new opportunities are available, and how to work with creative agencies and technology providers to capitalize on these opportunities. Social media case studies will highlight campaign best practices and a panel discussion will address key topics such as moderation, metrics and reporting, social media strategy, and corporate policy around social media.

Lunch will be served after the presentations and participants will have an opportunity to network and socialize.

Join us for an exceptional event packed with valuable insight for your brand.

Agenda

8:30 – 8:45 Welcome & Breakfast
8:45 – 9:20 The Engagement Cycle – Roland Smart, Sprout
9:20 – 9:40 Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps: Julie Nielsen, appssavvy
9:40 – 10:00 The next generation of online display ads, Carnet William, Sprout
10:00 – 10:10 Break
10:10 – 10:45 The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking – Nick O’Neil, Founder All Facebook
10:45 – 11:15 Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program – John WIlliams, Mud Worldwide
11:15 – 12:00 Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion
12:00 – 1:00 Lunch

Events

SPEAKER SELECTION

Nick O'Niel

Nick O’Neil,

Founder, Social Times & All Facebook

The Next Year In Social Platforms: 10 Things Every Marketer Should Be Tracking

Nick O’Neill is the Founder of Social Times, Inc., a digital media company focused on covering the growing social web economy. He is the
the social media industry expert, providing no holds bar commentary and insightful analysis on social networking and social media. Nick also speaks at conferences nationwide and has been written about in multiple national publications. With the opening of the Facebook platform, Nick saw a huge opportunity and has become fully dedicated to covering the social networking phenomenon via AllFacebook.com eventually expanding beyond with SocialTimes.com.

In 2009, Nick successfully led
Social Times Inc. to an acquisition by WebMediaBrands. Nick continues
to serve as the Director of Social Times and oversees daily content production as well as hosting events around the country. Nick graduated
Cum Laude from American University in 2005 with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance. While Nick spends a lot of time writing content for sites, he
is a passionate coder, building tools to help readers track the rapid growth of the social networking space. Nick was also recently named one of the top 100 D.C. Tech Titans by Washingtonian Magazine.

Carnet Williams

Carnet Williams,
CEO, Sprout

The next generation of online display ads

Prior to Sprout, Carnet built and sold several Facebook applications, founded ChipIn (a widget-based fundraising service), was a professional snowboarder, and ran International Trade Policy for The Nature Conservancy. Carnet has over a decade of experience in the high-tech and Internet industries, having been the Director of Business Development at TurboLinux, a Linux OS and enterprise solutions startup, and the co-founder of NetCorps, a nonprofit technology assistance organization in Oregon. Carnet graduated from the University of Berkeley and has a law degree from the University of Oregon School of Law.

Julie Nielsen

Julie Nielsen,

Director of Product, appssavvy

Past to Present: Custom Apps to Engagement Apps

Julie Nielsen is director of product at appssavvy, a direct sales team for the social media space. She drives product strategies and integrated sponsorship programs between social media application developer and publisher partners, and the rapidly growing number of brands and agencies engaged in tackling the emerging opportunities involving social media applications.

Julie was the first employee outside of appssavvy’s two founders. Since joining the company, she has been instrumental in the more than 200 socially-based campaigns appssavvy has delivered for brands, including Kimberly-Clark, Sony Pictures, Oakley, Coca-Cola, Target and Purina, among others.

Previously, Julie was part of leading Freewebs’ widget initiative. She began her career at Unit 7, a DM agency under the Omnicom umbrella of marketing companies. At Unit 7, Julie was active in developing campaigns for Pfizer, Wyeth, AstraZeneca and P&G. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa.

JOhn Williams

John Williams,
President, Mud Worldwide

Trials and Tribulations of launching an Integrated Social Branding Program

As President of Mud Worldwide, a Social Branding and Marketing Agency based in Sausalito, California, John draws from a solid background in consumer packaged goods in addition to experience in a broad range of B2B product and services marketing. On the Agency side he has worked with Ted Bates Worldwide, Ketchum Communications and his earlier company The Sausalito group serving clients such as Colgate Palmolive, Warner Lambert, Bristol Meyers, Bank of America, E*Trade, McKesson, Chevron, Palm Computing and Motorola. On the client side he has held senior management positions at Manhattan Marine and Electric Company
and Semphonic a leading web analytics practice. From his native Australia he has worked in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US and brings new perspectives to issues surrounding best practices from strategic planning to execution of communications programs.

Roland Smart

Roland Smart,

Sr. Marketing Mgr., Sprout

Presenting on the social network engagement cycle, and Moderating the Building Brands on Social Networks Panel Discussion

Smart describes himself as “a marketer on a mission to evolve marketing away from the mess that traditional marketers have made. It’s time to stop broadcasting messages with megaphones and to start engaging the communities that form around brands. While companies understand what it takes to build products and services, it’s the community that understands how they actually work in the wild. Following this, I embrace the mission of Marketing 2.0, which recognizes that brands are built by communities, not just by companies. My work focuses on leveraging the fact that communities want to grow the brands that improve their lives. Thus, I’m interested in new social media tools, like Sprout, that empower communities to spread the word about the products and services they love. You can learn more about me and how I approach marketing on my blog at www.rolandsmart.com.”