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Dolls Kill and Olapic Bridge the Gap between Social Consumer Content and E-Commerce

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:36:00 -0500

Online Fashion Retailer and Social Marketing Firm Leverage User-Generated Content To Build Brand Community and Drive Sales

NEW YORK – Feb. 13 2013 – Edgy online fashion boutique, Dolls Kill, today announced that it has teamed with Olapic, an innovative social content marketing leader, to enable Dolls Kill customers to use social media to share their experience with Dolls Kill’s products. Using Olapic’s social photo-sharing platform, Dolls Kill can now provide a showcase for their customers to share themselves wearing Dolls Kill clothing in every day settings not only with their own social networks, but also with other Dolls Kill customers on the official Dolls Kill site. Pulling from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more, Olapic embraces User-Generated Content (UGC) to enable Dolls Kill to inspire its customers with new looks and build their brand’s online community. Interested parties can find out more about Olapic here – http://www.olapic.com - and see Dolls Kill’s community here - http://gallery.dollskill.com

Dolls Kill’s Shoddy Lynn said, “Just like its customers, Dolls Kill has built its look from street style and hard-to-find underground labels. As a result, the ability to share these new looks with each other is a big part of our culture and the culture of our customers. We knew from the start that we needed to implement some kind of social media sharing tool base on visual content to inspire our customers and build a community, but until we found Olapic, there was no solution for online retailers capable of doing so. Olapic has enabled us to create a real connection between our customers and our brand.”

Olapic’s technology helps online retailers increase sales and improve customer retention by opening new forms of communication between the brand and customer through the fastest-growing content on the Internet - social photo sharing. Tools like Instagram are processing millions of photos per day. During the holiday buying season, the company was processing hundreds of photos every second! Olapic gives brands the most effective means to collect, curate and display this visual content, enabling retailers to build enduring communities with their customers. Instead of a flat, boring e-commerce experience, online retailers like Dolls Kill now have the means to engage and reward passionate and vocal customers.

“UGC is, without a doubt, the most critical element for successful online retail strategy,” said Pau Sabria, Olapic’s CEO. “Only UGC leverages a company’s most valuable brand ambassadors – its own customers – to build communities and drive sales. However, in order to be truly successful, retailers need to build a bridge between their UGC and their e-commerce infrastructure. That is the key problem that Olapic solves.”

About Olapic
Founded in 2010, Olapic helps enhance the flat and limited e-commerce experience by integrating and utilizing the readily available visual user generated content (UGC). By enabling any site to collect, curate, and display UGC, Olapic leverages real customers to build brands’ communities and drive sales. Already the facilitating technology behind some of the most innovative retailers and brands in the world, including Lululemon, Design Within Reach, Free People, People Magazine, The New York Giants, Olapic strives to help companies of all kinds increase sales and improve customer retention by opening up new forms of visual communication between the brand and customer.

Official Website | Facebook | @Olapic

About Dolls Kill
Dolls Kill was born not long ago in 2010 as a rebellious movement in response to a general lack in the proper fulfillment of online shopping sites. Tired of the same old clothing brands and rigid stern-faced models, Dolls Kill’s founders created an online clothing outlet to subvert the established shopping etiquette. Always emphasizing change and experimentation in fashion is the key to the Dolls Kill movement. That means encouraging personal freedom from a defined style, and the balls to stand out from a crowd. Dolls Kill has launched its full fashion e-commerce site and carries a huge variety of international brands, such as UNIF, Wildfox, Chaser LA, One Teaspoon, Stylestalker, Zoe Karssen, Quontum, Minkpink, Evil Twin and Insight.
Official Website | Facebook | @dollskill

Media Contact

Jay Nichols for TriplePoint

M: 408-772-1551

E: jnichols@triplepointpr.com

Join us for Wear Red Day!

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 18:03:00 -0500

Did you know that Heart disease is still the No. 1 killer of women, causing 1 in 3 deaths each year?

The American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women^® movement works every day to fund research and fight this killer so more women can be saved. But they need our help. Please celebrate National Wear Red Day^® on Friday, February 1st, to raise awareness about heart disease among women and to raise funds to ensure the research that could save a woman’s life won’t have to be denied.

It is the mission and belief of Go Red For Women that together we can make a difference. Today, we have joined their mission helping them collect photos to raise awareness, join us!

How to promote a movie using social media: Gangster Squad

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:38:24 -0500

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past two months, you already know that gansters are cool again thanks to Gangster Squad, a new Warner Bros movie.

The fill tells the events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses, the ruthless mob king Mickey Cohen. The film starts Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, Ryan Goslin, Nick Nolte and Emma Stone.

Warner Bros used this opportunity to launch a very creative campaign using Olapic, where they asked their followers to upload their own photos inspired in the Gangster aesthetic:

Fedoras, 1940s cars, retro fashion, vintage architecture, old-fashioned cocktails… you can still upload yours directly from the site or from any social network using #gangsterpics.

The campaign is getting some great pictures, for example, check out these fedoras!

Time Magazine and their wireless issue

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 13:31:13 -0500

A few months ago, we worked with Time Magazine to create the cover of their wireless issue. They got thousands of photos and the result is really impressive. Check it out!

timemagazine:

For this week’s cover on how Wireless technology has changed the world, we asked readers to take pictures with their phones and post them on Instagram with the tag #TIMEwireless. We received 31,429 submissions in just a few weeks, from more than 120 countries and all seven continents (including a few from Antarctica’s McMurdo Station).
The cover concept was to create an image that was geographically diverse, as well as varied in its subject matter. In the end, the cover features 288 images – at least one from each of the countries and all 50 states. In order to accomplish this, we worked with OlaPic – a social photo crowdsourcing service – to develop a tool that enabled us to sift through the tens of thousands of images.

It’s not the first time we’ve turned to social media companies for inspiration. In 2008, we worked with Flickr to help illustrate our Person of the Year package on Barack Obama. Over 14 pages, we presented some of the more than 100,000 Obama-related postings. In 2010, we turned to the Facebook community for our cover, which featured more than 1,200 profile pictures.

Stay tuned for future social-media partnering as you too could be featured in an issue of TIME magazine.

— D.W. Pine and Skye Gurney

Beyoncé Wants YOU To Join Her during 2013 PEPSI Super Bowl Halftime Show!

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 09:48:59 -0500

We’re thrilled to start the year working with Beyoncé and Pepsi to help them crowdsource photos from all their fans!

Beyoncé is rounding up fans to become a part of her half-time show big performance.

In the first ever crowd sourced Halftime introduction, fans will welcome Beyoncé to the stage, and you can be one of them!

Pepsi and Beyoncé are inviting fans to help make this year’s Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show the most memorable and compelling Super Bowl performance ever. Since December 29th, fans are encouraged to submit photos of specific poses for a chance to be part of a crowd sourced Halftime introduction spot and welcome Beyoncé to the stage on February 3, 2013.

In addition, people who submit their photos will be entered into a drawing for a chance to be one of 50 lucky fans selected to cheer on the diva at the Superdome from the sidelines as Beyoncé and her dance team take the stage during her Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show.

In order to enter, fans just need to go to www.pepsi.com/halftime and enter photos for specific poses, such as head bops, toe taps, jumping, and more.

You may have seen the billboards on Times Square, the ads on TV or Beyoncé talking about it, and we at Olapic are proud of being the technology behind the whole process, so fans can just focus on taking great photos!

6 Simple Steps For Marketing Your Brand Like A Pro

Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:53:00 -0500

This article originally appeared on Business Insider as an op-ed.

The visual web has taken over, with Instagram helping to lead the trend.

Now part of Facebook and with over 100 million users, the popular photo-sharing app has turned regular users into amateur photographers.

But within the thousands of doughnuts snapped under Brannan or painted nails shot under Hefe, lies a marketing tool many brands are ignoring.

The content that Instagram users are generating and consuming allows innovative brands and e-commerce sites a way to harness the power of photo sharing to increase customer relations and enhance the feedback loop.

These six simple tips are a starting point for brand success on Instagram.

1) Create your account and set up an editorial calendar.

Images are a great way to communicate with your clients, and that makes Instagram a great distribution channel for your most visually appealing content. Whenever you’re releasing a new product line or hosting an event, a single photo can communicate more effectively than the longest press release.

But like with other forms of content marketing, you shouldn’t limit it to these events. Set up an editorial calendar (posting at least a couple of photos per week could be a good start) and define what type of content you’ll create. A good example is Nike, a company that regularly displays a mix of their own products, events, sports team gear or customers wearing their product.

If you still need some ideas to get started, here are some themes you can use to define your initial content strategy.

   •   Shots of your current products
   •   Sneak peeks of upcoming products
   •   Creative uses of your products
   •   Shots of your brand ambassadors and representatives
   •   Behind the scenes shots
   •   Shots of your products in the wild
   •   Sneak peeks of future marketing campaigns/ads
   •   Photos that relate to the lifestyle your brand represents

Whatever you decide to use, just remember that in the same way that your editorial content has a voice or tone, your phone content should have a distinct personality.

2) Pick a series of hashtags and focus on these.

Hashtags are the best way to categorize your content on Instagram, but also the easiest way to build a brand on the service. Instead of using a spray-and-pray strategy for your hashtag, you should define a few hashtags and stick to them. This will help your followers to remember and identify them with your brand.

Apart from the obvious ones, such as the name of your brand or your best-selling products, it is a great practice to create campaign-specific hashtags that resonate with your brand. For example Footlocker promoted #approvedwithlove for a campaign with Kevin Love to request photos from the NBA player’s fans. Another good example is Tiffany, who have been promoting the hashtag #truelovepictures to collect photos from their customers.

3) Interact/comment on your customers’ photos about you.

Whether you are actively engaging or not, your clients are already talking about your products on Instagram, so there is no better place to start the conversation than there! A great example is how the Greek Yogurt manufacturer Chobani features photos from their customers and uses the comments feature to answer questions they may have.

4) Merge offline/online.

The mobile nature of Instagram enables a level of interaction that simply isn’t possible on other platforms. This gives you the opportunity to engage with your users around specific locations or events, which is a great opportunity to blend your offline brand building efforts with your digital presence.

Take as an example the “Shoes About Town” campaign from Bergdorf Goodman. The luxury retailer created an interactive map using #BGShoes where they aggregated all the photos that their customers were taking around Manhattan. Additionally, they displayed some of the photos on their blog and their store.

5) Display photos from your customers on your products.

A few years ago, Google Vice President Jim Lecinsky, wrote a book called “The Zero Moment of Truth” where he explains in detail how the Internet has changed consumer behavior. In this book, Jim shows that since consumers now research online about your brand before buying, you should embrace product reviews and comments about your product as a new marketing opportunity.

The same concept can be applied to Instagram. As the web is becoming more visual, what better way to help your potential customers research your product than showing other happy customers using it?

Brands like Free People have already started working on this concept, integrating Instagram photos onto their product page.

This type of integration brings several benefits. Your prospective customers can now see how your products look on a regular person, which will help sales conversions. Additionally, featuring your existing clients on your product page is a way to increase their loyalty and therefore repeated sales.

6) Combine.

Finally, you can combine all the initiatives above to create a more comprehensive experience, like lululemon is doing with their #thesweatlife initiative, which enables customers to browse products using instagram photos and display the same photos on their product pages too.

As you can see in all the previous examples, Instagram can be a great way to increase brand awareness, user engagement and even drive more sales to your ecommerce store, so get started now!

A day in the life of Olapic

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 11:22:00 -0500

Wondering what a day in the life of Olapic looks like? Want a sneak peek of our offices? Then check out this timelapse video we took last summer in our offices in NYC!

Music: “Quiet Ok” by Gablé (http://www.gableboulga.com/)
Photography: Eugenio Berzal
Video Editing: Eugenio Berzal
Location: Olapic Inc HQ, Projective Space LES, NYC
27.07.2012

Very clever use of photos: The Instagram Menu

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:48:20 -0400

Comodo, a new restaurant in New York City has just launched what the’ve called the Instagram Menu. As we all know, Instagram is full of great food pictures, so the restaurant started promoting #ComodoMenu in their menus, asking their guests to share the food photos they take at the restaurant.

So, now when a guests is hesitating about what to order, they can just check the #ComodoMenu stream on Instagram and get some inspiration.

Check out their cool video:

Olapic Raises $1 Million to put your photos where they belong

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 04:22:07 -0400

When we started our trip a few months ago, our vision was to allow publishers and brands a way to collect photos from their fans for use on their own websites. Since then, clients like Condé Nast, Nikon Pepsi, NY Daily News, The Baltimore Sun and sports teams like the Mavs, Grizzles, Giants, Ravens, FC Barcelona are now communicating with customers and fans in the way that everyone does it these days: with photos.

Today, we’re happy to announce that we have raised $1M from Great Oaks Venture Capital, Brad Harrison Ventures, Columbia University’s Lang Fund, and several other angel investors to continue growing.

The money will go to continue developing our existing platform and our new tool for e-commerce, that has launched this week with Free People as launch partner . On their page, items are tagged with a link that says “share your style,” which directs shoppers to post their hashtagged photos on Instagram or Twitter for inclusion on the website.

Thanks all for your continuous support and let’s keep doing great thinks together!

The Olapic Team

Newsletter #22: Mountain Jam

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 16:41:21 -0400

Hi There,

Stay calm, your eyes are seeing the image above correctly. Yep, it’s a DOUBLE RAINBOW!!! Okay now you can freak out ! We’ve been busy launching a more photo-intensive gallery view across all Olapic accounts (with more surprises, features, and info soon to come!). In photo-sharing news, Facebook has just announced a new “Like” button that prompts users to accept or decline publishing permission to an app. And businesses are now using Instagram to interact with their followers some excitingly clever new ways.

Enjoy & have an awesome weekend!

-The Olapic Team

Olapic of the Week: I'll Have Another...and Another!

Mon, 21 May 2012 12:18:58 -0400

Bringing Beautiful Back

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:51:00 -0400

Hi There,

With the release of the Olapic Instagram Collector we’ve seen an incredible amount of outstanding new photos! The take-away: Instagram photos from your community are simply fresher, higher quality, and look more beautiful on your site. At Olapic, we want to help you use photos to engage your community in a way that’s both authentic and deeply personal. Thanks for your constant ideas, feedback, and unwavering support! :)

Sincerely,
The Olapic Team

Newsletter #13: A Picture's Worth 1 Billion Dollars

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:34:43 -0400

A Picture’s Worth 1 Billion Dollars

Hello again,

It’s official. Even the people that live under rocks (do these people actually exist?) have heard about Facebook acquiring Instagram for $1 Billion. With all of this added buzz from the deal, it seems that everyone and their grandma are now snapping and sharing pics in Lomo-fi. Last week we included Youtube, Flickr, and Instagram into our list of upload options. This week we’re excited to introduce the arrival of the Olapic Instagram Collector! This handy new tool allows you to pull photos from the entire Instagram network and display them in all of their filtered glory on your site. What’s more, you can collect photos with specific hashtags that relate to your organization. What better way to tap into a network of people that are already talking about you!

Enjoy!

-The Olapic Team

Newsletter #12: It's Game Time!

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 17:15:50 -0400

Hello,

Real fans live, breathe, and eat every breaking news story, stat, and announcement made by their favorite team - from the moment they wake up, to the moment they go to bed in their blue-and-gold-themed bedroom. At Olapic, we want every team to have an online space where fans, players, and team officials can interact on a minute-to-minute basis. Here are just a few of the ways fans and players are using Olapic to start conversations.

Baltimore Ravens pets show their support!
NY Giants fans showcase their gear.
Gameday pics from the Dallas Maverick.

We can’t wait to see what you do next!

-The Olapic Team

Are You Hangry!?!?

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:39:04 -0400

Yes, you read that right. The supergenius cupcake-creating masterminds over at BakedByMelissa are throwing a finger-licking monthly photo-contest. Winner get’s 100 free cupcakes! That’s right, 100 mouthwateringly scrumptious miniature cakes that fit in the palm of your hand! I think you know where we’re going to get our cupcake fix this afternoon! We’ve been drooling over today’s early submissions all morning. So much so that one of our founders, Jose, is getting “hangry” (hangry = angry because you’re hungry). Here are some of our favorites! Enjoy!

Hashtagerrific!

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:33:41 -0400

Hi,

There are zillions of photos being shared on Twitter everyday. Wouldn’t it be super-mega-awesome if you could tap into that network and reach out to potential new fans? With the new Olapic Twitter Collector you can do just that! Here’s a refresher on how it works. Need help launching a photo campaign? We’ve gotcha covered! In other news, the MIT Media Lab guys have developed a camera that can see around corners. Prepare to have your mind blown, in 2 picoseconds!

Go get ‘em Tiger!

-The Olapic Team

Introducing The New Olapic!

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 16:00:44 -0400

Hello!

With the arrival of spring, we’re thrilled to announce the newly redesigned Olapic! Our dedicated team of developers have been working around the clock to build a faster, more efficient Olapic from the ground up. What this means for you:

A more powerful, stable Olapic platform
A more beautiful, seamless photo-browsing experience
A more rubust moderation queue for bulk editing
A new Twitter #hastag collector that can collect w/o @mentions

Thank you for your constant support and valuable feedback. We’re excited for what the future holds and look forward to providing you with a top quality Olapic experience.

Sincerely,
The Olapic Team

How To: Use Olapic at an Event

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 13:35:00 -0400

Austin is not only the capital of America’s proudest state, but home to the annual SXSW festival that brings in bands, brands, and quality craft brews from around the country. Mashable, the social media news site, hosted an event at a downtown venue and used Olapic to gather photos from party goers who snapped pics on their mobile phones. Read on to learn how to use Olapic at your next event!

Step 1. Write an article about the event (before it happens)

Step 2. Promote your event #hashtag across your social media accounts

Step 3. GAMECHANGER: Promote the event #hashtag AT THE EVENT!!!

Step 4. Enjoy yourself and have a awesome time!

Newsletter 7: Photoception!

Tue, 13 Mar 2012 10:40:00 -0400

Top O’ the Mornin’ to Ya,

Have you ever wanted to revisit your past or become your favorite artist? If you answered yes to one or both of those questions then you should create your very own Metaphoto Gallery! And while we’re on the subject of self-reference, have you been keeping up with your users lately? (wag-of-the-finger) If you happen to be in Austin for SXSW over the weekend we hope that you’re taking advantage of all the mobile-photo-hungry-shutterbugs stalking the streets! Next week’s calender is looking rather, well, Green! March 15th is “The Ides of March” marking the 1st day of Spring! And Saturday March 17th is Saint Patricks Day! If that doesn’t get your engines going for jumpstarting your Olapic galleries, then I don’t know what will! Well, maybe apart from this insanely inspirational video!

Thumbs Up for Rock n’ Roll!

-The Olapic Team

How to Feature Your Users!

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:48:56 -0500

It’s incredibly important to reach out, reward, and congratulate your fans and/or readers in order to foster meaningful long term relationships with them. You can highlight a specific user (or of group users) by displaying their high quality, featured content in…

1. In an article/post on your website

2. In a separate gallery on your website

3. In the print edition of your publication