In a year where it almost seemed like a prerequisite for major brands to include some sort of Facebook component in campaigns, some of the best (besides the apps) were those that specifically used Facebook Connect to reach the audience. Here are a few that floated our boats…
CNN/Facebook “Social Inauguration”
CNN.com and Facebook capitalized on all the excitement surrounding President Obama’s inauguration on January 20th with this real-time effort that let users watch the event live on CNN’s site while using a sidebar to update and read Facebook statuses as the inauguration progressed. Mashable posted some results around 1:15 PM that day including:
-600,000 status updates posted through the CNN.com Live Facebook feed
-Facebook averaged 4,000 status updates per minute during the broadcast
-8,500 status updates were posted during the first minute of Obama’s speech
As of 3:30 PM, the site reported that CNN had generated more than 136 million pageviews and CNN.com served more than 21.3 million live video streams since 6am.
Discovery – Frenzied Waters Shark Week Promotion
Campfire devised and supervised this summer promotion for Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week” that lets you relive your own gruesome death from a shark attack. Pulling your Facebook profile data, the video gives you first-person perspective and lets your life flash before your eyes via images, an obit and a job listing asking someone to replace you as founder of Social Times Inc.
The campaign also included elements such as mysterious packages that were sent to bloggers, a YouTube video and 33 bottles which were randomly planted nationwide that you could find via GPS coordinates released on Discovery’s Facebook Page and via Twitter. You can check out one guy’s deathly experience via FB Connect here or watch YesButNoButYes‘s Johnny Wright sum up the effort below.
Fight Club Blu-Ray DVD Promotion
With the release of its 10th anniversary edition of cult classic Fight Club on Blu-Ray, 20th Century Fox rolled out this FB Connect campaign that bears some similarities to the Shark Week effort in that it culls your profile data to create a nifty customized video, which in this case is a trailer. Check out the site here.
So what sticks out for you this year?