Have your smoothie and eat it too? A smart, new marketing campaign is hitting back at the ever-expanding menus of fast food chains. Apparently, Jamba Juice has had enough.

The smoothie giant recently launched a cheeky new “commercial” for the ‘Cheeseburger Chill’ smoothie. As soon as the video hit social networks–a play on the super-positive, hyper-wholesome image of McDonald’s commercials (complete with rapping employees)–people took notice.

And were a little disgusted.

Bewildered customers rushed to the site only to learn Jamba Juice was, in fact, not blending up delicious meaty-cheesy-smoothie goodness. Instead, they were challenging their fast food counterparts, saying their attempts to make high-quality smoothies was as ridiculous as Jamba blending up burgers.

This campaign accomplished what it set out to do–it got people’s attention. Jamba hooked people into the farce (“No way!”), drove them to the website to learn more (“That can’t possibly be true… can it?”), then delivered their central message (“Oooh, I get it. Funny!”). Added bonus: visitors to the site received a $1 off coupon for a smoothie of their choice (“Sweet!”).

Of course, there were also many who missed the joke by not doing their research–at least one appalled foodie blogger reported the video as truth and several Facebook commenters and re-tweeters bought into the ruse without first checking the site. Fortunately, Jamba Juice’s campaign was well-executed, clearly explained and offered an added value to loyal fans. A few misunderstandings didn’t ultimately cause the campaign to backfire.

What do you think of these April Fools-style marketing campaigns? Do they work or are they too risky for a brand if too many people don’t get the joke?

In honor of what is consistently the most beloved annual media event on television (in my humble opinion)…happy Shark Week!

And, in celebration, here’s an awesome video homage to some of the great sharks who’ve entertained us (the only time when jumping the shark is a good thing)!

Who uses web and mobile devices most? And, for what? A new report surveying 2,252 adults aged 18 and older, published by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Center, has some interesting findings.

In general, Americans are accessing the Internet through mobile devices in increasing numbers, with 59% of those surveyed saying they accessed the mobile web, compared with 51% a year earlier. Also, nearly half of all adults (47%, up from 39% in 2009) go online with a laptop using a Wi-Fi connection or mobile broadband card and 40% (up from 32% in 2009) of adults use the internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone. Rates of laptop ownership among African-Americans have risen to 51% from 34% in 2009.

African-Americans and English-speaking Latinos were the most active users of the mobile web. Cell phone ownership is higher among African-Americans and Latinos than among whites (87% vs. 80%) and minority cell phone owners take advantage of a much greater range of their phones’ features compared with white mobile phone users. In fact, 18 percent of African-Americans use a cellphone as their only form of Internet access, compared with 10 percent of whites

Younger people and people living in households making less than $30,000 a year are increasing their mobile web use at particularly fast rates and were more likely to access the Internet solely through their cellphones. Cell phone owners ages 30-49 are significantly more likely to use their mobile device to send text messages, access the internet, take pictures, record videos, use email or instant messaging, and play music.

According to the report, compared with a similar point in 2009, cell phone owners are now more likely to use their mobile phones to:

• Take pictures—76% now do this, up from 66%
• Send or receive text messages—72%, up from 65%
• Access the internet—38%, up from 25%
• Play games—34%, up from 27%
• Send or receive email—34%, up from 25%
• Record a video—34%, up from 19%
• Play music—33%, up from 21%
• Send or receive instant messages—30%, up from 20%

One major fact revealed by the report is mobile – device or just on the move by laptop – is not a trend. It’s also not limited by age, race, or income status, which opens up exciting opportunities for marketers looking to expand their campaigns to mobile.

So, Facebook has hit 500 million users. Impressive.

But is the number good for the social site…or detrimental?

As more people join, the numbers also show Facebook activity is on the decline. In fact, the blog Inside Facebook recently reported a decline in the number of 18- to 44-year-old active users in the U.S. in June — particularly 26 to 34 year olds. And it doesn’t look like a fluke. The blog’s guess for the decline: privacy. For sure an issue Facebook has gotten battered by of late, and one the declining age groups care about. But is it really the driving factor?

As a member of Facebook’s biggest declining age group, and someone who has significantly downed my Facebook usage of late, privacy is absolutely a factor. But, at least for me, it’s not nearly as influential as a loss of having good old fashioned fun on the site.

Facebook is a job now. Updating is an effort, keeping in touch with friends’ updates is more difficult, and my streams are choked with ads, games, and information that has veered from Facebook’s original charm: enjoying the happenings in friends’ and family members’ lives.

With the flood of apps and fan pages joining the community – looking to connect where their users are of course – Facebook has become more commercial than conversation. And this is a dilemma for marketers.

An audience of 500 million people is impossible to ignore, but as more and more brands enter the arena, the conversation becomes less and less relevant to personal users. In fact, the latest annual ACSI e-business report gave Facebook a score of 64 out of 100, one of the lowest levels of customer satisfaction among all businesses measured and on par with airlines and cable companies.

People want a Facebook that no longer exists — a pure, simple way of keeping up with friends. Marketers want Facebook to help them connect with people in more meaningful ways. Can the two find common ground? They have to if Facebook is to survive.

The first step is for brands using the site to learn to respect the idea of Facebook from a user’s perspective. It’s a whole new ballgame for marketing strategy, because the old rules don’t apply in this social setting. It’s time to come up with some new ideas…which, unlike Facebook of late, can be quite fun!

3fold, in general, was a little bit obsessed with the World Cup.

And those of us who tried to be (but were thwarted by a Midwestern upbringing that may have been a teensy bit ungracious to the sport of soccer) could at the very least get excited about what the World Cup did for new media and its legitimacy.

World Cup coverage by the numbers (ESPN’s at least):

• ESPN reported nearly 110,000 people per minute used its online and mobile services to access World Cup content.
• ESPN’s 2010 FIFA World Cup App was downloaded 2.5 million times to date.
• About 1.1 million devices on average accessed the app each day during the tournament.
• ESPN’s mobile properties have generated 499 million page views for ESPN World Cup content.
• ESPN3.com has attracted an average of 6.9 million unique visitors to its game broadcasts.
• The Germany-Spain semifinal game on average had about 355,000 people watching it live at any given minute—making it the most viewed live event ever on the site (no numbers yet on the final game between Spain and the Netherlands, but with 700 million viewers worldwide, I’d guess the mobile numbers are fairly impressive).
• Traffic wise, Yahoo! had 22.7 million unique visitors between June 7th and June 13th, with 7.9 million visitors directly to the World Cup Soccer site at Yahoo! ESPN reported 16.5 million unique visitors total, with a guesstimate of over 3 million for the World Cup.
• Thanks to the often office-hour timing of the games, American broadband users apparently crashed many an office server…no real numbers on this, I just mostly find it amusing (USA! USA!).

If it wasn’t clear before, it sure is clear now-new media is relevant media. What started in large part during the 2010 Winter Olympics (see our post here) has now become mainstream.

Whether it’s online, in-app, radio, or TV, people want media where they are when they are there. I can only hope the media companies desperately clinging to the old school broadcasting formulas (looking at you NFL) take note. While some, like MLB.tv, have at least made inroads, it’s not quite what it could be…as a service to the fans or as a new revenue stream…yet.

What do you think? Anyone watch the World Cup online? Follow it on an app?

Source: PaidContent.org