Ad campaigns spawn from tweets

Samsung's latest TV ad that mocks Apple's new iPhone was partly crafted by mining consumer comments on Twitter and incorporating them into its pitch. 

The spot shows people talking about different features of the new iPhone as they wait in line for an Apple store to open. One of the customers says: "I heard that you have to have an adapter to use the dock on the new one." Another young man chimes in: "Yeah, yeah but they make the coolest adapters."

According to Samsung, those lines and other parts of the ad's script were based on Tweets complaining or poking fun of specific features of the iPhone 5 such as the need for an adapter if a person wants to use the phone with older speakers, chargers or other accessories in the house.

The other advantage of using this for ad campaigns is the "On Demand" style of the process. Advertisers can change the content in the ad in real time based on feedback from Twitter.

The Samsung commercial, which drew more than 32 million views in two weeks, is just one example of how social media are helping marketers shape their ad campaigns. Essentially this process is going directly to the consumer to source creative ideas than the traditional Madison Avenue which  compromises creativity.

Social media audiences can offer more than the traditional focus group of about a dozen people that marketers typically use to guide their thinking. Social media mining could be the new "focus group" in the near future.