Friday, September 28, 2012

The Absence of Social Media Case Studies


This week in the CIPR 'Friday Roundup' Andrew Bruce Smith bewails the the lack of good case studies and the significant use of anecdote in the realm of Social Media PR.

 Of course the top end of practice across Europe and leading academics in the field do have access to such knowledge.

He can be forgiven for not noticing The Digital Communication Awards run by the Quadriga University Berlin because it did not happen in London, but it is the sort of activity that our institutions are wont to let slip through their fingers.

This is a European wide event and is rigourous in its selection and judging of the best campaigns/programmes  across the continent.

All the DCA awards are selected by panels of leading experts, practitioners and academics (no less than 11 professors sit on the Juries).

All the contributions include both written details and vivas and the winning entries include a very wide range of communications techniques (this year I particularly liked the Red Cross First Aid app which now has a million downloads).

It is not that British best practice is not well represented. As well as the Red Cross, the BBC took home awards this year which deserves recognition from all communicators and notably, the contributors to best practice thinking in the CIPR.


2 comments:

  1. David, do you know when actual case studies of the 2012 winners will be available? I contributed a chapter with Ralph Tench to the 2011 Excellence in Online Communications book. There are some interesting winners in 2012 that I'd like to find out more about.

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  2. Hi Stuart,
    The list is here
    http://www.digital-awards.eu/files/2012/09/dca_winner_2012.pdf
    This year was even better than last year with some stunning work.

    SONAE MC - CONTINENTE with Chef Online iPhone & iPad App with EURO RSCG 4D LISBOA was one that caught my eye because it is everything from recipe to online shopping, to celebity chef to dietry control and all the things needed for managing home cooking and entertaining (even down to a clock to monitor how long you have cooked your cake.

    You can even invite friends while you are cooking the meal. Its an app on a tablet! This is serious communication for the future.

    How soon will it be before Tesco GIVE you a cooker with all this installed on the cooker using G4 comms. It would mean they can engage the consumer at the point of cooking every time and all the time. By having all the ingredients bought 'by your cooker', the cost of the £350 cooker is so small as to be of no consequnce compared to the sales oppotunity.

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