How do you feel about the intersection of friendship and marketing? I know that a lot people weren’t happy when Facebook Beacon started telling their friends what they were buying from other sites, and I also know that nobody wants their friends to go salesman on them (like with Cutco knives); however, word of mouth marketing remains one of the most effective vehicles to reach people with a message. That’s because we still seem to trust our friends the most when it comes to making purchasing decisions. But can brands become our friends? According to 22squared, a marketing agency based out of Atlanta, GA and Tampa, FL, “consumers want brands that act more like helpful friends than persuasive marketers.” I think that’s right, but it still sounds a little weird to me. Maybe we should look at Facebook again for the answer. Plenty of people are “Fans” of brands (like ours), which is very much like being Facebook Friends with them.
I don’t know where they got the name 22squared, but Google tells me that 22 squared = 484. I’m not sure what to make of that, so let’s get back to talking about how 22squared thinks that “the consumer is your friend.” They’ve actually developed a metric to judge how friendly brands are. You can calculate it like this:
Strength of Relationship + Number of Advocates + Maturity of Relationship = Friendship Factor %
I’m not sure where you get the inputs from, but if you click “The Work” link on 22squared’s Home page (I can’t link because it’s in Flash) and click through the pages, you’ll see the scores of many well recognized brands. Usually you need to divide by something to get a percentage, so I don’t know what this is all about, but I’d love to hear the science behind it. I wonder what One Day, One Internship’s Friendship Factor % is. I’d like to think that we’re a pretty friendly brand.
Anyway, if I want to keep your friendship, I need to get to the internships. Unlike 22squared’s entry level jobs which are posted on their Jobs page, 22squared’s internships are posted on their blog. These are unpaid (yuck!) positions in both Tampa and Atlanta, and you can focus on a variety of areas including Account Management, Media, Creative, Brand Planning, Digital/Interactive (Creative and Media), Broadcast Production, Studio, Information Technology, and Human Resources. You can apply by sending a cover letter and resume to HR@22squared.com with INTERNSHIP/ATL for Atlanta or INTERNSHIP/TPA for Tampa in the subject line. You can find all of the details about the internships here, so be sure to give it a good read before you apply.
Links to Help You Begin Your Research
How do you feel about brands as friends?
Do I Know Anyone at 22squared? - Check LinkedIn | Check Facebook
Tags: account management, design, Florida, Georgia, human resources, information technology, interactive media, Internships, marketing, media, production, unpaid
Willy,
At some point in time there was a study done (not by 22squared) that reviled the average friendships a person would have in their lifetime is 484. Regarding our intern program, unfortunately you are correct about them being unpaid positions (damn economy) however all hours will count towards school credit.
::D