Archive | Social Media RSS feed for this section

I Scream for Ice Cream #LecIceCream

By Sabrina on August 29, 2012 in Competition, Social Media

What an awful pun of a title. But I couldn’t think of anything else.

I got a long awaited filling last week and my dentist asked me if I’d been partaking in the eating of sweets and not flossing. I said “Maybe.” Sometimes, I forget to floss. It happens. Sometimes I’m not even sure how I get dressed in the morning. Which reminds me, I need to eat breakfast.

I am a sucker for ice cream, and I also have in my possession the recipe book from The Icecreamists - you know the place that did the breast milk, Baby Gaga ice cream. They also have an ice cream called Smack, Crack and Pop which is toffee popcorn slathered with… sugar and milk and fat and everything that is bad. God I love it so much. I had some last week just before my dental appointment. No wonder he was angry. He also charged me the best part of £100 for my appointment and subsequent metal in my mouth so you know, I think he should say less and just take my money and not use latex gloves which gave me a rash on my face.

Hello arteriosclerosis!

We’ve established I like ice cream. I came across this nifty little competition from Lec (they make fridges) and they’re celebrating 70 years of fridge making by … crowdsourcing a new ice cream flavour via Pinterest. The idea is you pick 4 flavours they’ve got on their pinboard (out of 70 of the nation’s favourite flavours) to make a birthday ice cream, and the winner gets their ice cream made, foisted onto an unsuspecting public at the BBC Good Food Show Winter 2012 (they’re probably not unsuspecting although ice cream in winter seems a bit… odd), a year’s supply of your creation and a fridge/freezer to keep it in. I’ve always wondered, how do companies calculate a year’s supply? 365 tubs? 52 tubs? 104 tubs? Are they litre tubs? Half litres? Have they gone postal and gone for pints? Is there enough space in your new fridge/freezer for all that ice cream?

Answers on a postcard please.

To enter, choose four ingredients from the flavour gallery that you think would make an interesting flavour, pin all four to a new board on Pinterest (you can also re-pin them directly from the Lec Pinterest page) and then tweet a link to your creation using #LecIceCream.

I like the use of the word interesting. I’m hoping there are enough pranksters to create a really vile flavour and get it voted to win. But then you have egg on your face, because you (the winner) gets a year’s supply of your nonsense.

We will pick our favourites to go forward to a public Facebook vote. The winning ice cream flavour as chosen by our Facebook fans will be made by Simply Ice Cream and given out to 20,000 people at the BBC Good Food Show this Winter.

Ok, so it’s unlikely my vom inducing creation would make it through. *reassesses what to pin*

That’s not all, the winner will also get to go to the factory to see their ice cream being made and win a Lec fridge freezer of their choice, a year’s supply of ice cream and tickets to BBC Good Food Show Winter 2012.

Apparently Turkish Delight and Spam are two of the nation’s favourite flavours. Britain, you disgust me.

Here’s my board, could I BE anymore boring?

Next thing you know, I’ll be the proud owner of Talbot twinsets in varying shades of beige and drive a hybrid car

I get where Lec is coming from upping their social media ante, I think it’s a rather novel idea as they only have about 57 followers so it will be interesting to see how many people get involved. I’m a big Pinterest fan and I love seeing how brands use it for competitions and raising their awareness. However, my gut says there’s may be a step too many in the entry process.

Perhaps they should curate a board called Lady Boners as well. Hell, I’ve got a photo of Ryan Gosling that’s been repinned over 2000+ times!

Image via Mo Farah Running Away From Things

You can follow me on Pinterest here. The #LecIceCream Pinterest Competition runs until 5pm on Friday 7th September.

Comments { 0 }

I Had A Sleepover in IKEA

By Sabrina on December 4, 2011 in Events, Press Trips, Social Media

A sitcom staple is the “locked in room/locked in mall” trope. A group or a couple get locked in a shopping mall, room or a store and hi jinx are ensured, including an emotional realisation, odd bonding activity, some sort of character development, a chase scene, doing some competitive sport, and a dressing up portion set to an appropriate rock ‘n’ roll jam. Since my whole life is about closing the gap between TV and real life – sleeping overnight in a store was definitely on my bucket list.

When Katie who was covering IKEA’s The Big Sleepover for her blog Art of Sleep invited me to come sleep overnight with in her IKEA Lakeside, I was on it like a tramp on chips.

Thankfully I am not in this video as I was hiding from the cameras.

The competition was run on Facebook by IKEA through the Sweepstakes app to win the chance to have a sleepover in IKEA for you and a friend. When I mentioned it on Twitter and Facebook, EVERYONE was jealous. Even more jealous then when I went to the EMAs and was in the same room as Justin Bieber. It’s the little things isn’t it?

Being press, we were picked up and taken there and upon arrival got a goody bag of stuff, including an eye mask, wind up torch, biscuits for midnight snacky times, toothbrush and toothpaste, and towels that we would need for sleepy times and then told to get into our pyjamas (not provided) and slippers which were provided. I wanted to rebel, but Katie told me to behave myself. I was really hoping someone would be wearing a silky inappropriate negligee, but alas, I was disappointed.

Hey guys, you’re missing out waking up next to this in the morning! (I’m talking about myself Katie)

Heading up to the restaurant to be pumped full of bullar (Swedish buns), biscuits, and cocoa – we then picked bedlinen (to keep) to go make our beds.

Myself and Katie made a plan to leg it to get the best bed, but it turns out we didn’t have to. Being press, we got an actual room suite. Ok, the ‘rooms’ in IKEA only have three walls and people kept wandering in, but and we had a modicum of privacy and we didn’t have to make our beds which I flaunted a lot. To everyone. I’m a dick, I know. Ah schaudenfraude.

Haha plebs. I also picked this bedlinen to take home.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t use our own bathroom. But we had our own Christmas tree!

IKEA laid on some very nice treats, which are things you would usually do on a sleepover, such as nails, a film, massages, but also a sleep expert whom we unfortunately didn’t get to regale with our sleeping issues, and um, a “celebrity” reading a bedtime story as well as cheerful IKEA staff bringing around cocoa and non- alcoholic mulled wine (in case anyone got lairy). I started chatting to some other people who had won the competition, but I ran into a Twihard when I was getting my nails done, who was really offended when I started laughing really hard about when she found out she would be her friend’s +1 at the cinema during “Breaking Dawn”. Whoops.

We got our nails did, chilled in our boudoir, kept bringing random stuffed toys into our adobe, and hissed at people coming in (I didn’t hiss, but close enough). Lewis from IKEA told us that we had inadvertently picked the nicest bedroom suite (and most expensive). Score! We kept drinking tea, watching episodes of Community on my BlackBerry PlayBook, and eating biscuits. A bad idea, I found. Not really the best idea for a narcoleptic and someone who suffers from frequent insomnia.

Lights out was at 11, and I was completely exhausted so I fell asleep straightaway, and then woke up at 1.30am. Bit odd to wake up surrounded by price tags. I then stayed awake until 5.30am. No wonder I had issues sleeping, I was hopped up on sugar.

We had to be out of bed at 6.30am. So I went on a little wander, as much of a wander you can have, because there was security and IKEA people around, taking us to a la bathroom, while I asked strange questions to the night watchman, including if anyone had ever died in IKEA (they hadn’t), and if he ever caught anyone in flagrante which he admitted he did. I didn’t see anyone indulging in sexy times in IKEA beds that weren’t theirs, but there was a lot of cuddly sleeping going on.

After telling me quite firmly that we wouldn’t be spooning, Katie kept inching closer and closer to me in the night. She says it was because I was hogging the quilt. Lies and mistruths. Katie was much impressed by the memory foam mattress, since my mum has one, I’m used to the fact it moulds to your butt.

After a ‘gentle’ awakening at 6.30am (read: “soothing” sounds over the loudspeaker) we dressed, had brekkie and then was taken back to civilisation, and I gifted my parents with all my IKEA treats. My mum asked if I had fun and was careful, and I responded to her that I did.

Thanks to IKEA and The Cake Group for inviting me to IKEA’s The Big Sleepover.

Photos taken on a BlackBerry Bold 9900 courtesy of FRANK PR.

Comments { 2 }

Pinterest: My Favourite Social Network

By Sabrina on October 9, 2011 in Fashion, Social Media

Hullo chaps, I do apologise for my absence, have been very very busy. I’m in the process of redoing my blog, so I’ve been mucking around with a test server I built cos I am a geek and proud. Also slicing off part of my thumb on conditioner bottles but that’s a different story.

Since I am a geek, and adore the internet (because it is my friend) I feel I should display that. Look forward to a new round of posts on my favourite topic (not bread) but social media.

Techcrunch announced that social pinboard site, Pinterest has just received $27 million worth of funding. Pinterest has a very simple concept, you “pin” images from around the web to your own curated pinboards, via the Pin It button, a simple Java applet you drag into your toolbar or through logging into the site and posting the link. Pretty straightforward huh? It’s definitely simple but it’s not boring. You can now pin videos as well. A nice little collaborative feature is opening your board for others to pin, which I imagine would be very helpful on collabs.

It’s in semi private beta at the moment, but I’ve been on it for about four months, as I received an invite from Kit and I’ve been happily pinning away for a while. As a stylist, it’s great to pin all sorts of images I see for inspiration, or looks I like. As a hoarder, it’s my wet dream. And it has continuous scrolling, which is a definite plus with this kind of site.

You can follow other user’s pinboards, and re-pin their images and search via categories.

There are also a few brands on it already, including kitsch jewellery brand Tatty Devine. What’s extra useful is that you use Pinterest to sell items – by pinning items for sale with a price, users will click through to the actual merchant’s site, which avoids Pinterest’s need to implement a checkout and gets rid of an additional headache. It only works with merchants who have implemented a “Pin It” button on their products.

However according to Pinterest Ettiquette is that your pinboard must be not be used for shameless self promotion. Which by all means is great. For a brand, you can curate existing content as well as adding items of interest, letting consumers know what’s behind the brand, as well as having a selection of your products to drive traffic to your site.

I obviously like to promote memes and image macros.

The only issue at the moment, is that the servers tend to go down (not as much as Tumblr though.) However, with more funding, I look forward to when Pinterest is a lot more stable.

Does Pinterest sound like something that’d interest you? I have invites if you’re interested in joining. Drop me a comment with your email address and you could also be pinning away like a boss.

And you can by clicking on the button.

Comments { 1 }

Ride a 1920s Train in September in NYC – Boardwalk Empire style

By Sabrina on September 4, 2011 in Advertising Campaigns, Social Media

OH.
EM.
GEE.

FUCK. YES.

As part of the “Compliments of Nucky” campaign promoting the September 25 return of period drama Boardwalk Empire, HBO is putting a vintage 1920s train back on the track on New York’s 2 / 3 line (Nucky refers to the show’s central character, played by Steve Buscemi). The train, a real transit museum piece, originally appeared in 1917 operated by the Interborough Rapid Transit system.

And guess who will be in New York. Me. As someone who has Sky Atlantic (HBO for my American readers) but never gets to watch it (because I can never get near the TV in my house – ergo never get to watch Game of Thrones OR Boardwalk Empire on TV) this my friend, this is my moment. Also I really like vintage things, and social media campaigns, which is what this is. And I really still want to watch Boardwalk Empire

On weekends during the month of September, MTA customers can ride the train at the 42nd, 72nd and 96th Street stops. According to HBO, the train features authentic period details like rattan seats, ceiling fans and drop sash windows. Non-period elements include Boardwalk Empire- themed artwork that directs straphangers to the campaign’s Facebook page, where they can get access to Nuck-related perks. On the final weekend, “brand ambassadors” will be outside of the 42nd and 72nd St. stops giving away free metrocards (and, we hope, jugs of hooch with XX on the label).

I doubt about the hooch (it’s not England) but I’m down for a free Metrocard. Especially if it has Steve Buscemi on it.

The campaign will include further deals and content via partnerships with other brands. A Living Social tie-up will allow fans to book prohibition-themed packages for the reduced rate of $19.21 (get it?). On September 24 and 25, “Nucky” will pick up all eastbound Pleasantville tolls into Atlantic City from the AC Expressway. The campaign’s Facebook app will include daily instant win prizes; those who share the app with three friends can gain access to “Nucky’s Suite,” where they will get access to original content from the show and get the chance to win trips to Caesars Las Vegas and Atlantic City.

Noicen. I’m looking forward to seeing this all in action.

via: Fast Company

Comments { 0 }