Tintin Premier Live

We recently saw Sky tapping into Twitter’s new geotargeted products to promote the new season of Glee and yesterday it was Paramount Pictures’ turn with the premiere of Tintin. Paramount UK went a step beyond the Promoted Products and streamed live the actual event with a link only accessible through their Twitter feed. With the hashtag #tintinpremierelive followers could link to the live stream of the London premiere event on Sunday evening. You can still watch the video here: http://bit.ly/tjcTYC. This idea captures the essence of what makes social work. It’s great tactics for entertainment companies but not limited to them. Exclusive events are one of the most engaging as we saw with Burberry and their catwalk premiere for the London Fashion Week.

Google Music and Google+

Google is reportedly working on the launch of a new music store that would work closely with Google+. The launch could happen in the next two weeks if they manage to secure the rights to sell music from the major label groups. The music service would allowing users to recommend tracks in their online music library to their Google+ contacts, who would be able to listen to the track and pay for the MP3 download – although the song-recommendation feature would work only for music released by record labels with Google agreements in place. Google’s inclusion of social features would compete directly with Facebook for social music who partnered with Spotify, but it’s not looking like a strong offering yet and once again Google is following Facebook’s steps. Will Google ever release a feature ahead of Facebook?

The VW Art Heist for the Jetta

VW Canada have created this arty ambient meets social campaign for the new Volkswagen Jetta GLI launch. They created a series of pop-up art galleries that feature “Light Paintings” made by the movement of the car, then framed and installed them across several cities for the public to find and take home. The paintings are limited edition and hand numbered and could be found via clues posted on Facebook and Twitter. It is a brilliant idea that combines limited edition items and a fun element of discovery through social channels.

Toyota Social Network Racer on Facebook

The Social Network Racer is the new Facebook game from Toyota, launched to promote their new FT-86. The 3D game is hosted on the Facebook platform and lets users virtually race the new car around a track made out of the letters of their own names. Similar to Intel’s Museum of Me, the app pulls in info from the Facebook profile like photos and friend updates which create the race environment. It’s a good and engaging execution, unfortunately the user experience is diluted by the slow loading time before and during the game which could have been avoided by hosting the game elsewhere.

The new campaign from Chevrolet - Life Firsts

This big idea from Chevrolet is our favourite this week. It brings to life the principle of social and resonates with the audience through great execution, showing that social activation isn’t just a Facebook page. Chevrolet are promoting the new Sonic car with an integrated approach combining mobile, social and promotions. The core idea is about celebrating 'first times' and being rewarded for doing so. Players record their ‘first times’ with the app in order to earn points and badges and can share their actions to earn points and increase the chances of winning a Chevrolet Sonic every week. The principle is very simple: have fun and win stuff. It’s easy to see how the idea itself will drive entries and the prize it’s just the icing on the cake . Hats off to Chevrolet for embracing social within the business!