CardMarketing 2.0

Carol Vorderman, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure, is a C-, maybe even B-List British celebrity who made her name as an awkwardly dressed co-host on one of the nation's favourite weekday afternoon gameshows: Countdown. It's a word creation/number crunching show favoured by tea-swigging coffin-dodgers, although it's fair to say it also has a strong retro appeal with students, people off work ill or anyone else, as Les, a former boss of mine, used to say, on the ponce*. I was a huge fan, too, until the cult hero and main host, Richard 'Twice Nightly" Whiteley, threw a seven and someone else stepped in. It's never been the same since...

How Facebook has evolved. Launched from a modest dorm room in Harvard in February 2004, it quickly expanded to cover other universities, spread like a strawberry plant across college and high school networks during 2005, added work networks in May 2006 and then, in September last year, caved in to rampant demand and prostrated itself — all cherubic and virginal — before the altar of open registration. So, what happened next...?

The world is a crazy place. I'll rephrase that. People are crazy. In fact, I'll rephrase that, too. Cats are crazy. Wtf? Get to the point, man — spit it out. OK, here goes...

Firstly, I'd like to say that I'm not taking backhanders from Amex. In the Members Project, they have a great 2.0 marketing campaign, and talking 2.0, as far as I can gather, is what this blog is all about. It hasn't been suggested that I'm getting the rub, but I thought I'd just make it clear as this is about the third time I've shot them some ink in the past month. Of course, if they'd like to talk, then...

Isn't comScore great? These dudes just churn it out and provide us with no end of interesting and highly relevant stats and facts relating to the online marketing world. Here are a few snippets from June...

God, I nearly dropped off there. Now where was I? Oh yes, a recent survey by the New York-based Luxury Institute has revealed (for the greater benefit of mankind) that the credit card the very high net worth most like to carry around in their wallets is the American Express Centurion. Not content with first place, Amex took silver and bronze, too, with its Platinum and MasterCard World Elite cards.

On July 3, the Top 50 projects will be announced in Amex's ongoing 'The Members Project' campaign (we covered its launch, here). As I write, an advisory panel of independent experts, including Gabrielle Reece, the professional volleyball player, and Rosabeth Moss Kanter, a professor at Harvard Business School (how I'd like to be a fly on that wall), are busy reviewing the projects that have received the most Amex cardmember ratings.

The cleverest bit about the American Airlines/MasterCard/Universal Studios 'Sum It Up Sweepstakes', where people guess how many AAdvantage miles Jason Bourne racks up as he chases other forgettable characters around the world in "The Bourne Ultimatum", isn't the prizes (one million AAdvantage miles, trips to LA, a $6000 MasterCard gift card, DVDs of the movie, a naked mudwrestling session with Matt Damon — well, maybe not)...

London. Early June. A limpid Saturday morning. Just gone half eight. I've pulled up outside Caffè Nero in Crystal Palace to buy my usual beginning of the weekend double tall skinny cap/skinny blueberry muffin (for me), double tall skinny latte/raspberry and Belgian white chocolate muffin (for her), and croissant to share (for them). Outside, the sun is shining and I feel, for a split second, faintly optimistic about life. That second soon passes.

American Express, take a bow. They, or the agency they use, have come up with a real mean 2.0 campaign. It's the mutt's nuts and has got a bit of everything: conversation, participation, user-generated content/voting, an alluring timeline, engagement with its cardmembers and endless possibilities. It's about what matters to Amex cardmembers and how these members can make a positive impact on the world around them. It's called The Members Project.