Asda has emerged this year as a real pioneer in the use of video, blogging and social media to transform the way a business engages with its customers – and we’re helping them to do it.

Back in May we sat up and took notice when Asda’s chief executive Andy Bond gave a keynote speech talking about the need for radical transparency and openness if businesses are to build trust with customers and employees in the future.

Since then we’ve been working with Asda to start down this path by replacing their old-style corporate website with a completely new site, Your Asda, which uses raw video and a much more open, conversational blog-style approach to interact with customers and seek their feedback and involvement.

Andy Bond himself is a fan of the way video blogging can give you a much more personal, honest view of of the people within an organisation and its culture. We followed Andy on a 1200-mile charity bike ride from Land’s End to John O’Groats, helping him and his colleagues capture the epic journey in a live video blog and bring to life the objectives of the Pedal Power campaign.

Now Asda has rolled out a new blog, Aisle Spy, where 14 people around the business take Flip video-cameras wherever they go, capturing what goes on behind the scenes and lifting the lid on how things are done.

Our work with Asda also covers communication among the company’s 167,000 staff through The Green Room – and some of Asda’s wider online activity in areas such as Twitter and YouTube. Here’s another recent example of how Asda’s people really “get” social media.

Posted by TC on 15 October 2009, 08:33

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When Orange asked us to help develop their new film service for web and mobile the brief was to provide top-quality trailers, clips, behind-the-scenes video and supporting material for every movie out now or coming soon – but to take a different approach from other movie sites.

Instead of focusing on the views of professional film critics or appealing to out-and-out movie buffs, Orange Film is all about the reactions of “real” movie-goers – and in particular the huge numbers of Orange customers who make use of their 2 for 1 tickets on a Wednesday. The aim is to help you decide what to go and see with your friends or family, so as well as providing listings, showing times and trailers the service uses people’s snap reactions to answer the question “Has anyone seen this movie? What’s it like?”

We gather reactions on the Orange Film website, mobile site (left), by text and through social networks like Twitter. And we also get instant reactions in the foyer when the Orange Film crew goes out to speak to audiences as they leave screenings on a Wednesday.

The Orange Wednesdays 2 for 1 promotion has been a phenomenal success over the past five years. Wednesday is now the most popular day for going to the cinema outside the weekend when it used to be the quietest. Back in 2004 in the first week of Orange Wednesdays 12,000 people texted FILM to 241 to take up the offer. Now up to 300,000 people go on an Orange Wednesdays outing together every week.

We’re regularly among the audience ourselves as working on the film service at IMP means every day we’re seeing loads of new clips and trailers, as well as moderating all the comments coming in … and it really whets your appetite for movies you’d otherwise miss.

We’ve got a fun new audience-based application coming soon on the Orange Film service so we’ll tell you all about it when it launches.

Posted by Paul on 13 October 2009, 16:29

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