Collaboration Cast

The number of social media companies keep growing.  H2O New Media is just another recent entrant.  H2O Media is based in Dubai and was launched 6 months ago.  To date they have 40 customers across different countries.  Some of these include:  Al Maya Group, Sian, Strawberry PR & Event, CMPI Exhibitions, CSM, Zaman, Euro RSG, the American Business Council to name just a few.

H2O plans to compete with other social media leaders such as Mzinga and Awarness.  Companies whose valuations excess US$300 million.

A main difference between H2O and their competitors is that H2O plans to open source it’s technology, while selling a SAAS based version of its application.

As demonstrated by H2O, the social media market is growing, while the competition is going to continue to get steep.

This success story is a little old, (June, 7, 2007) but I just ran across it and think it is a good example of how a microsite can be a great marketing tool.

In 2oo1, Bernard Weber, a Swiss-born Canadian, started a foundation to raise money to preserve human built and natural heritage, while fostering the respect for the cultural diversity.  The foundation started a project called New7Wonders and committed that 50% of the new revenue raised from this project would go to funding monument documentation and conservation efforts worldwide.

As part of the project, a website was created (www.new7wonders.com)  and users were asked to vote on what would be the new 7 world wonders of the world.  The response was overwhelming ,and Alexa research showed how this new website out ranked some top brand sites:

• un.org-the United Nations website
• fifa.com-the Federation Internationale de Football Association’s website;
• olympics.org-the website of the Olympic Games and the Olympic Movement
• coke.com-the Coca-Cola website
• adidas.com-the Adidas website;
• levis.com-the Levi’s website;
• bmw.com-the BMW website.

New7Wonders is a good example of how a microsite can be successful overnight.