Keith Bilous

Ever wonder what your ‘viralocity’ score is?

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:37:00 -0500

Doritos wants to tap into the viral effect that the Internet can produce with the right hook and allow fans to develop some of their own Doritos Viralocity for the newest unidentified Doritos flavour II tortilla chip. While the World Wide Web may be good for many things, the popular chip brand is quick to acknowledge it’s the “daily joy of ridiculous wedding dance entrances, cuddly kittens, giggling babies, post-dentist dopiness, and the always popular person falling down” that keep the audience coming back for more. Interested participants should create a video that feature the new unidentified flavour II tortilla chip, including an original name. Submissions can only be 60 seconds long and must stay within the brands definition of generally accepted realm of safety, morality, decency and legality - all of which can be found in the contest rules. Once your video has been created it is up to you to spread it to everyone you know and attract the biggest following. Participants can use all forms of social networking and are encouraged to link fans back to your own personal DoritosViralocity.ca page using the built-in sharing buttons for added points. Every night, right before midnight the Doritos Viralocity computers will begin to pull and compile data from online sources to calculate your score based on things like views, shares, feedback and bonuses - for example the most exotic referring countries will get you 100 points each. Final Doritos Viralocity scores will be totaled as of March 31, 2010 where 344 prizes will be available to be won. Participants can tune in to the Doritos “V” Award Gala on Much Music and Musique Plus for the announcement. The grand prize winner of the Doritos Viralocity contest with the highest score calculated during the contest period will receive $100,000 cash and a trip for two to Toronto, Ontario for the big announcement to air on Much Music.

Red River College students making snoo.ws

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:23:00 -0500

NOTE: This article was written by guest blogger Melanie Lee Lockhart, a PR consultant and instructor at Red River College; she blogs about public relations at Lockstep on PR. This week, a long-standing tradition in the Red River College of Applied Arts, Science and Technology (”RRC”) Creative Communications program, the Independent Professional Project Presentations (”IPPP”), will offer a new twist: a Tweet Pit. At the annual IPPP event, graduating Creative Communications students present their work on a year-long independent project. The variety of projects is wide, the range of skills on display is impressive; but until this year, few outside the program knew much about it, because such publicity relied heavily on the cooperation of gatekeepers in the traditional media. Gatekeepers no more! Well, no. But this year’s IPPPs will reflect a major shift that’s taking place across the program: students are employing social media alongside traditional publicity and advertising techniques to get the word out.   The Tweet Pit will host five first-year Creative Communications students, @jeffaward, @glendaollero, @aggiesemms, @jasmineamellie, and @jerwook, who will live-tweet the three-day event using the hashtag #ipp10. Curriculum changing with the times The Tweet Pit isn’t the only place social media shows up in the Creative Communications curriculum. Every first-year student, every Advertising Major and every Public Relations Major is required to have a blog and update it at least weekly; check them out on the CreComm Blog Network. In class, the students learn how to appeal to and retain online audiences – combining an understanding of the tools and culture of social media with traditional audience targeting and principles of persuasion. In public relations and advertising, Creative Communications students learn

how different audiences use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and a host of other new media platforms to share information with people who matter to them

how to analyze their audiences’ online preferences and behaviour to help target communication programs

how to employ social media to gain publicity, nurture customer relationships, and manage issues and crises online

about content moderation, and how it can be vital in helping maintain a healthy UGC community associated with a brand.

Journalism students, in addition to learning the importance of content moderation for journalistic websites, learn to leverage social media to find and develop sources, and to write for online media; they also live-stream an evening newscast to the web, and Media production students create podcasts along with traditional television and radio programming. Because the Creative Communications program is hands-on, students learn how to use social media effectively by integrating them into their own campaigns. At this week’s IPPPs, we’ll see lots of evidence of that: publicity achieved through Facebook groups and fan pages, Twitter feeds (and strategic use of partners’ Twitter feeds), MySpace pages, YouTube videos and sites. There are even a couple of original books being marketed for the Kindle. The IPPPs will run from 9:00 to 4:30 this Wednesday and Thursday, and 9:00 to 12:30 this Friday, at the Park Theatre, 698 Osborne Street in Winnipeg. They’re open to the public, but if you can’t make it in person, follow the Tweet Pit at #ipp10.

What can you do in 1 hour to help the planet?

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:36:00 -0500

Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. marks the official start of Earth Hour. In 2009 millions of people turned out their lights for one hour to show leadership and support and take responsibility for the future of our earth. Earth Hour suggests that participants show their support in one of several ways. Not only can people turn off their lights for one hour but they can visit the Earth Hour website to add themselves to the world map. Fans can also add widgets, logos and banners to their blogs or websites and use their social networks to raise awareness among their community. This year Earth Hour is hosting an international user-generated video competition organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and media portal Cyberbrothers. The contest runs from March 1-20 and asks participants to create a 30 second video that depicts the tagline “What can be done in 1 hour to help our planet”. Participants can upload an unlimited number of works in either English or Russian to the cyberbrothers.tv. Judges are looking for videos that display originality of ideas, quality of execution and value for the planet. All videos will be pre-moderated for content subject to the contest rules and regulations. Winners of the Earth Hour user-generated video competition will receive prizes, gifts and diplomas from Cyberbrothers and WWF. The grand prize winner will take home $500 USD. The best videos will be displayed on advertising screens in Moscow from 22 to 27 March 2010 and posted on WWF and Cyberbrothers websites. Videos could be used by WWF for non-profit and educational purposes.

Dustin2TO’s silence has ended

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 08:43:00 -0500

This article has been re-posted from http://www.dustin2TO.com. Sorry for the radio silence the last few days. Life after surgery was a little rougher than I expected. But now with the day of departure finalized and the countdown on expect the traffic to be quiet busy. I have secured a road trip companion for the drive out to Toronto and have been in contact with a few different landlords and other plans such as what to pack and what to leave are taking shape. Expect updates and expect news! I’m excited and I hope I can somehow infuse you with some of that excitement. Have a great night, I’ll be in touch soon!! Before I go… I just got a text from a friend here in Winnipeg. It reads, “I’m going have to find 3 new friends to make for you once you leave.” I text back, “why 3?” He responds, “A serious man, a really funny man, and a dude willing to drive for 20 hours straight. I’m screwed.” That just made my day! Dustin2TO is the life-changing journey of a young business development manager’s adventure to the hub of Canadian business. Follow Dustin as he navigates his way from Winnipeg to Toronto and help introduce him to new friends and experiences while opening up a new office for ICUC Moderation Services, the global leaders in content and community moderation services.