In Australia, Snickers is teaming up with 7-Eleven to decrease the price of Snickers bars when people are in a bad mood. Using a tool that gauges the mood of the internet, they adjust the price of the candy bar in real time. It was created by Clemenger BBDO and analyzes 14,000 posts a day to determine when the general population is in a bad mood, and can drive a decrease of up to 82% off. The discount is updated 140+ times a day, depends on how bad of a mood everyone is.

Once the mood is low, you can access a coupon for the reduced Snickers on your phone, and find your nearest 7-Eleven.

Why it’s Hot:

This execution fits in perfectly with “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” and merges online and offline in a way that most brands are striving for.

Additionally, the mood targeting tool they’ve built is very robust and helps them be a bigger part of culture. They potentially turn a negative online conversation about a news event into a conversation about $.50 Snickers.

And did I mention, they’re hinting at expansion outside of Australia? It may help us deal with the election.

Source: AdWeek

Did anyone witness the NCAA Championship game this past Monday? And yes, I meant “witness.” History was made.

With 4 seconds left, UNC hit an improbable 3 point shot to tie the game, only to have their dreams shattered with a 3-point buzzer beater by Villanova to take the championship.

And what made the win even better was the historic role of memes. Yes, memes. Two memes destined to be together.

First, the Jordan cry face: 

and yes…it was

And then, there is the “Crying Piccolo Girl” who was caught on camera as Villanova’s Championship hopes were shattered last year when Villanova lost to NC State. 

Two memes, destined to meet in the final. A picture perfect ending only made better by the memes. 

Why It’s Hot:

This was a huge moment that was only made better by Twitter and the meme culture the internet has created. Everyone was able to share in the experience of not only a dramatic game ending, but a shared laguage around it.

We all love personalized experiences and both Kodak and IBM created activations to capitalize on this at SXSW. IBM had the Cognitive Studio located in the heart of downtown. Through a 5 minute check in and an RFID chip, IBM was able to deliver a personalized experience throughout the house to each guest. At the bar, checking in let the bartender know what drink you were in the mood for, and checking in with a computer, told you which Twitter influencer you were most like and what qualities you displayed; all powered by Watson. They included a nod from one of their earlier SXSW activations with Watson made tacos (previously they had a food truck for which Watson generated the recipes. The personalized content and immediate gratification (ie sharable content) made it worth waiting on line for and posting about.

Kodak offered a personalized experience as a way to launch their Moments app but it’s design only served one person at a time and required a 12 minute interview, those who didn’t have time to wait an hour for 5 people to experience it were left to observe a stranger’s experience; interesting, but not necessarily worth posting about. The experience made it unclear how the app works and how it would play a role in our lives. The videos of each persons experience was highly produced, and therefore not available to be shared immediately, meaning they missed out on some buzz. 

Why It’s Hot: Many brands can offer personalized experiences but it’s important to remember that scale is key, especially at SXSW. Additionally, the role of the product should be clear and simple. At the IBM house, how Watson was involved was clear every step of the way, with signage and many IBM representatives ready to share their knowledge with you. For Kodak, the role of the product was unclear, it seemed to be tied in to the general idea, but the value wasn’t clearly communicated.

Adweek recently reported on Foursquare’s new game-changing new tool that helps companies measure the effectiveness of their digital ads in driving foot traffic. They introduced a new tool Attribution Powered, which collects data from users who volunteered to have their location-sharing feature always on. With this, they were able to track people who had seen a digital ad and see if they then visited a brick and mortar store. They would them compare this information to a group of people who hadn’t seen the ad, as a control group. They would also like to expand into reporting the success of television advertising as well.

Why It’s Hot:

Foursquare seems to have found a new revenue stream that doesn’t focus on gaining users and operating as a social platform, as it originally had. This seems like a good decision by Foursquare since there haven’t been any significant product changes since Swarm, and it would appear usage is on the decline.

Twitter hasn’t been doing so hot (In case you missed it CNN Money reports it’s losing customers and stock value)

Since Black users over index on Twitter they may do well to take a look at what Blavity contributor, Esther Kuforiji, wrote in “3 Ways Twitter Can Make ‘Moments’ Matter”, outlined below.

1. Curate a more relevant experience. Kuforiji suggests more curated and relevant sections of “Moments” as a way to further the usage for a wider range of people. She points out many people use Twitter as a way to keep up on technology, or local politics, which aren’t currently available.
2. Tap into the creators. Like many other platforms, Twitter is driven by influencers and creators specific to their channel. She points out that there are handles that host Twitter chats on a regular basis, and Twitter Moments can be leveraged to provide a recap or summary.
3. Continue telling the story. Kuforiji praised Twitters use of Moments to recap the Democatic debate but critiqued the simple list format it often defaults to, claiming the Moments tab is best used as a recap of a particular event.

Why It’s Hot:

The tech industry as a whole is struggling to achieve diversity in it’s work force, but Twitter especially has had some high profile issues with it. The only black Engineer in a leadership position, Leslie Miley, left the company last fall due to the way the company approached diversity and inclusion, and in December, they hired a new head of Diversity and Inclusion, a white male.

The black community has over indexed in Twitter use and has even created it’s own community within the platform dubbed “Black Twitter”, but the growth within this community has evened out in more recent years, with 27% of Black adult internet users on Twitter as of last year, which is about the same as it was in 2013. Meanwhile, White and Hispanic usage has grown by 6-7% points.

Has Twitter missed an opportunity by not leaning into the black community and identifying leadership that would help them tap into one of their biggest user bases?

Chris Messina, the Developer Experience Lead at Uber, recently published a blog post on Medium titled “2016 Will Be the Year of Conversational Commerce”

What is conversational commerce you ask? Basically, this will be the year brands learn how to integrate with messaging apps, a space brands and services haven’t had a place in before. He used Uber’s recent integration with Facebook Messenger as a prime example:

He brings attention to the Business Intelligence study that found Messaging apps are now bigger than social networks. Meaning, brands need to be there.

Why It’s Hot:

The messenger space has been something brands have been slow to take on…and rightfully so, do consumers actually want us there? But with the growth in numbers and use, there will likely be a flood of brands rushing to be a part of the messaging platforms. How do we make sure brands are engaging in an authentic and valuable way?

It seems most appropriate for brands and services that have a large customer service component. Everlane, a clothing company in California, is using it to communicate delivery confirmations and tracking numbers, however it’s still obvious that you’re only speaking to a computer and customer service still goes through email, so there’s no apparent consumer benefit from the integration. It will be interesting to continue to see what brands come up with.