The application takes a light hearted approach to the serious subject by allowing users to pick the body they would like to ‘work on’ (titter titter) from a gallery of torso’s.
You are then walked through the two steps of Hands-Only CPR: calling 9-1-1 and pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest until professional help arrives.

New York ad agency Gotham created the application for the American Heart Association and Ad Council.
“We took a novel approach with the execution to increase the likelihood of viewer engagement and pass on — with the intention to help save lives,”
said Peter McGuinness, chairman and CEO of Gotham.

Nearly 300,000 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrests occur annually in America – 80 percent at home, according to the American Heart Association. A recent survey revealed that 70 percent of Americans feel ‘helpless to act during a cardiac emergency’ because they don’t know how to correctly administer CPR. Performing Hands-OnlyTM CPR on adults who suddenly collapse can more than double their chances of survival.

The campaign is accompanied by a television advert featuring Comedian and actor Ken Jeong (of Hangover fame) who holds a medical degree from the Universities of North Carolina (now there’s a Friday fact for you).

A fantastic digital campaign that engages viewers and can in just a few minutes teach them a lifesaving skill.”
To learn more about Hands-Only CPR and to have a go yourself, visit the Hands Only website.

Have a great weekend folks!

credits

We’d like you, just for a moment, to think about the Christmas gifts you bought this year. Did you trawl through the ‘aisles’ of Amazon, did you rifle through the rails at ASOS? Or did you endlessly flounder in the sea of search engine results?

The snowy weather increased the amount of Christmas shopping carried out online as people struggled to get to the shops. Casting your mind back to your festive shopping experience – was it a success or did it all end in disaster?

The joys and perils of Christmas shopping are plentiful and can either ruin or make a Christmas. We would like to hear about your experiences so if you have a couple of minutes to spare, we’d love you to fill out a quick survey – it’ll take just two minutes to fill out.

Click here to take part in the survey

The survey will stay open until the 31st December 2010 at 10am.

Thank you for taking part, and I hope you’re having a fabulous holiday!

1. Engagement – In an age where knowledge is free and consumers are more likely to be acquainted with the products that are relevant to them, Punch say that engagement is a key element when it comes to influencing brand perception online, leading to positive conversation.

2. Conversation – As social media has the potential to be like a fan to the flames of a relevant and interesting story, they say by highlighting news and articles to relevant consumers is a great way of expanding brand reach, whilst also creating online chatter around a subject.

3. Targeting – Reaching out to specific individuals via social networks is a way of influencing industry leaders and initiating interaction with them, resulting in positive relationships emerging.  In general, responding to specific consumers directly will serve to assure users that there is a human behind the brand, not an automated robot, and in the long term can help in the development of a group of brand advocates, says Punch.

4. Addressing Issues – One of the best uses of social media is to address any issues that consumers may have with a brand, regardless of whether it is positive or negative. Punch say that positive feedback should be met in a positive way, whilst also negative sentiments should be listened too and tended too.

5. Crisis – Crisis communications exercises are difficult at the best of times, but as Punch reveal, social media can play a bit role in measuring how much a crisis has affected users online, whilst also social networks are a great medium for keeping people updated, ensuring a measured process of the dissemination of information.

6. Search Engine Optimisation – Punch are aware that the promotion of content through social networks is a great way of generating backlinks to a brand website. With Google having recently implemented social networking conversation into search results, and the value of links from social networks being high, brands can benefit from significantly increased website traffic from social networks.

Needless to say, by outlining the tools and the subsequent benefits of social media this in turn highlights the value and need for digitally enabled public relations consultancy.

This comes at a busy time for SCC, who has said that companies face a key strategic decision at the moment that they must either get right or face missing out on the potential benefits of virtualisation projects.

The statement follows reports that many server and desktop virtualisation projects are failing to meet their objectives. Responding to claims that only four per cent of UK customers are achieving the expected ROI from virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) installations, Europe’s largest independent technology solutions provider believes that IT departments must proceed carefully to avoid making similar mistakes.

“Companies across the UK are facing one of the biggest decisions of the decade as they consider the long overdue upgrade to Windows 7. If they take the right path they’ll get the desktop of the future, but if they get it wrong they will be on the verge of making a hugely expensive mistake,” said Rhys Sharp, Chief Technology Officer at SCC.

Leading the debate through powerful digital pr, SCC demonstrates the critical need for getting virtualisation right for the future of desktop environments.

Whilst social networking sites were designed initially for peer-to-peer interaction, and will most likely continue to be the primary objective of users on Facebook and MySpace, this does not remove the possible opportunities for brands in the form of digitally enabled public relations.

Through an astute approach, understanding consumer behaviour and acting upon it, brands have free reign to become part of the digital consumer conversation within social networks.  As I see it, a 30% share of 300 million-plus users is a healthy enough audience, wouldn’t you say?