News, ideas, and a few recommendations too!

This was a recent update we shared with clients– posted here in case you missed it.

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The Viewpoints team recently celebrated its three year anniversary and in light of this milestone, we wanted to take a minute to share a few updates since we've touched base.   

First, we're excited to share some new site and community developments:  

• Launch of the Viewpoints Network - advertisers can now extend the reach of their Viewpoints marketing campaigns by running on the Viewpoints network of online community sites, which now includes www.MySears.com and www.MyKmart.com.  These sites are all community driven, review centric websites that attract in-market consumers.  We offer full transparency in the network and you can customize targeting among network sites.
• Growth in the Community - our unique user count has grown to 2.3 million users and we have registered more than 450,000 consumers who are actively creating profiles, writing reviews, participating in discussions and sharing shopping experiences.
• We're more social than ever - users can now log into any Viewpoints community site with their Facebook, Google, Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, Twitter, Windows Live and Open ID accounts.  Take a look here and feel free to give it a whirl.

Secondly, we've been busily deploying campaigns to help top brands engage our social influencers and reach in-market consumers.  We put together a few ideas that might be helpful conversation starters with your clients. 

• Big brands do Social Every day we hear from agencies who are trying to help their clients participate in social media and often the stumbling block isn't budget or strategy, it's legal.  We've successfully navigated these waters and have been able to launch Social Influencer programs for clients like Kraft, SC Johnson and P&G.  We'd love to talk about how following WOM best practices in regard to disclosure and providing very structured campaigns within the openness of the social web have allowed our agency partners to successfully navigate legal hurdles.

                   A recent Kraft sampling program tapped Viewpoints reviewers to generate 800+ reviews and
                    extensive word of mouth about two new flavors.

• Negative Reviews - Are your clients still scared at the thought of negative reviews?  Share this Forbes article on the UPSIDE of bad reviews - it contains some excellent lessons learned from eBags founder Peter Cobb. 
• Credible alternatives to micro sites?  When clients don't have resources to build enticing micro sites for their brands or products, it limits media campaigns for those brands.  Consider driving traffic to an enhanced Brand or Product page on Viewpoints.  We surround consumer written reviews with extensive product details, Where To Buy links, video and road-blocked brand advertising.  These pages contain a wealth of credible information about products and are ideal landing pages.  At a fraction of the cost of typical site development, these search optimized pages provide long term benefit for your clients by attracting free ongoing organic traffic.

And finally, in keeping with our mission of helping consumers make smarter decisions, we've included a few recommendations of our own.  Ladies, check out Kim's recent review of the Butter by Nadia wrap dress - a dress that just might change your life…or at least your closet!  Or, read about Ashley's new favorite Oil of Olay Night Cream. And last but not least, anyone feeling overworked and in need of a getaway might want to check out everything Mark has to say about the Sonoma Chalet Bed and Breakfast! 

We hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and please reach out to us if any of your clients are looking to a) reach in-market buyers, b) create positive word of mouth and find hard to reach social influencers, and c) build online communities that drive business results, and provide customer insight and loyalty.

Best regards,

Kim, Ashley, & Mark

Viewpoints Advertising Team

   

Contact Kim - p: 312-447-6119, e: kim[@]viewpoints.com

Contact Ashley - p: 312.447.6103, e: ashley[@]viewpoints.com

Contact Mark - p: 312.447.3914; e: mark[@]viewpoints.com