The Terrible Pond’s Newspaper Ad

This image has been improved (??) in Photoshop. My phone camera is terrible. Anyone wanna gift me a new iPhone 4S?

I picked-up the newspaper today morning after what seems like ages and what did I immediately see? An advertisement from Pond’s. While looking at the ad, am thinking to myself, “hmm.. not bad. A half page ad about some Facebook contest”.

Then, horror strikes. I read the Call-to-Action line that says, ‘To know more follow us on Pond’s India (Facebook & twitter icons)’. If you interact with me online, you might already know how much I hate these social media call-to-action scripts.

There are few things that are wrong with this line:

  • I still don’t know what the Facebook & Twitter URLs are. There is a lot of guess-work involved.
  • This line works online where the Facebook and Twitter icons are hyperlinked.
  • The term ‘follow us’ in the print platform is almost a negative connotation. ‘Join us’ or ‘Talk to us’ could be better.

You know which brand does this brilliantly on electronic media and in print?

Star World Social Media ad - doing it right!

The Pond’s ad however, does not tell me anything about the contest, or its results to interest me. Also, if I do happen to get interested, it does not tell me where exactly to go, leaving all the guesswork to me!

All in all, its a terrible ad. Why O&M, why?

j j j

I Control Almost 50 Twitter Brand Accounts!

Every time I create social media properties, for my clients, I make it a point to disable all email notifications. However, there are times when the platform HAS TO email all of its users about some changes. These are the times I get spammed.

Most of the Twitter brand accounts below are old and abandoned. I wish I didn’t have to do this, but clients didn’t pay me to keep these running for life.

Life of a Social Media Marketer!

Turns out, I have directly managed close to 50 twitter accounts so far! Not bad, me thinks.

j j j