Freestyle Blog

This morning PRWeek ran a story suggesting they’d seen ‘secret plans’ from Britain’s largest bank – HSBC – to create a “new online platform catering for customers’ non-financial needs” (UPDATE: Which they have now denied). This comes a week after similar plans were supposedly leaked for a Manchester United social network – which was eventually [...]

This week we were proud to host a ‘Digital & Social Media’ workshop for several past, present and future British Olympic stars at our offices in Warwickshire. With a multitude of athletes (some record holders!) in our team and several key sports clients (Such as Rebecca Adlington and Keri-Anne Payne), we  were naturally delighted to provide our [...]

…is this really ‘Personalisation’ of the e-commerce customer experience?

M-commerce and the retailer…. My first task at Freestyle Interactive was to create a daily news bulletin for the content search and social (CSS) team in which I work. It goes without saying that keeping abreast of the latest advancements and news in a sector which moves at such a fast pace is important. As [...]

CEOs, CMOs, PRs & marketers across the globe are worried about sending their brands out into the uncertain world of social. They know they have to do it, & there are high expectations, with all eyes on fledgling social projects leaving little room to fail. So how do you prepare your brand for the adventures to come? How do you turn your social media activity into a useful way to expand your business & satisfy your stakeholders?

For a new brand launch social channels give us the chance to create instant connections with consumers. By offering quality content, like “exclusive behind the scenes access to the world of elite cooking” in the case of this particular client, we can give something of real value & interest to our target communities. We’re hopefully also giving people a real 360 degree experience of what the lifestyle brand is all about through this rich content. Add into the mix, relationships with the world of high fashion & high end design & we’ve got real opportunity to create content that gets shared among their own peer groups. We’re combining streaming video, blog & chat room technology to offer customers exclusive access to content in a way that’s most relevant & natural for them, through their established online social networks.

Microsoft & Blackberry search alliance. On the running theme of mobile, search, social & social shopping convergence, todays announcement from RIM (the makers of Blackberry) to add bing as the default install on all new Blackberry devices (including the Playbook tablet) is big.

Pepsi are set to release the Social Vending System™, a vending machine which allows the consumer to interact on a digital level whilst buying their favourite PepsiCo beverages. The Social Vending System™ was conceived by Pepsi’s fledgling Equipment Innovation group whose remit is to create new-fangled ways of connecting with consumers.

He’s a curious chap this Priebatsch. At 12 he set up his first web venture. At 19 he dropped out of Princeton to pursue his own business interests. By 20 he’d made his first million…

Following last weeks post about the future of Facebook Credits as a currency, yesterday Facebook made two significant announcements.