Friday July 22– Fortune Brainstorm Tech, @ The Aspen Institute
At the branding panel with Wes Nichols, (Marketshare Partners), Tom Bedecarre (AKQA), Brian McAndrews, (now a VC) Barry Saltzman (Google)
Room full of investors, agency CEOs, analysts all agreeing that social media will be the engine that finally moves big media dollars online.
It's so easy to love good companies, especially when they're applauded for their innovation and skill at solving all of the problems you didn't even know you had.
But as any political figure knows, for every lover there's a hater. Even Apple and Google, two companies with millions of screaming fans, have gotten some serious anger directed their way. Here's a sampling, as a reminder that you can't please all of the people, all of the time — or even ever.
– 10 Things We Hate About Apple – via PCWorld, circa 2007
– I Hate Apple website: http://www.ihateapple.com. Lame, though.
– 20 things Apple Haters already hate about the Apple Tablet. Oh, and there's more.
– Engadget, catering to the Apple-haters, has even created a custom version of their site where you can "read all the hot news happening in the tech world without the upsetting presence of Apple-related stories."
– Another rant, this one about the iPod touch.
– You know what I hate? Misuse of great domains. http://www.ihategoogle.org/
– 25 Things I Hate About Google (SearchEngineWatch) Again, outdated. Somebody please chime in this year!
– A good compilation of Google hatred.
To end on a positive note, let's remind ourselves that there are still plenty of lov-ahs out there: http://www.idrankthekoolaid.com/. Now that is a good use of a domain name.
Kraft Food has launched a "social media" campaign in the UK to promote their coffee brand, Mellow Bird's. It is part of a larger repositioning of the brand to reach a younger audience, according to Brand Republic.
Sounds like a good idea, right? But don't start patting Kraft on the back just yet, says John Bell in Social Media Today. The campaign is mediocre at best, in both strategy and execution. They want to "target students and give the campaign an anti-corporate feeling" — which he notes is a terrible language to use in a PR announcement — and the game itself on Facebook (where they only had 146 fans) is seeing how many times the user can hit the space bar within 10 seconds. And we wonder why kids brains are turning to mush.
Conclusion? It's nice that large consumer brands are seeing the value of social media and dedicating budgets towards it, but c'mon Kraft. Don't do things half-assed. A good social media campaign is not cheap. It needs to be thought out correctly, by the right people, and executed correctly, by the right people, or it's going to blow up and turn off CMOs forever. "Well, Bob, that didn't work, now did it. Back to search!"
Says Bell: "Social media
is not a channel. It is a fundamental shift in consumer behavior. It is
time for even 'first-timers' to adopt a true social media strategy."
Last year we saw a enormous amount of deals struck between search giants and real-time data providers, aka social networks and microblogging sites.
But real-time search is "not there yet," as proven by the magnitude 4.1 earthquake that took place in our ever-shifting city this week. At 10am on Thursday, a small earthquake shook the Bay Area, and within 6 minutes Google search was reflecting the event in the form of Twitter updates, according to Stephen Shankland
at CNET. (Google claims it was just 2 minutes, and Shankland attributes the lag to the fact that he was in Detroit at the time. And clearly, people in Detroit don't give a hoot about California.)
But while we can quibble over minutes, the takeaway here is that real-time search is certainly where it's at for the coming year, but it's going to be up to marketers to figure out how that can work for their brand. To be honest, it's a little scary that a real-time tweet about your company from some Joe in Minnesota can trump your hard-earned spot for your company website, blog, newsletter, video, or special deal — though it does introduce some exciting possibilities, like having access to top sellers and current sentiment data, and eventually, pairing real-time news with real-time ads.
What’s up with the weirdo-nasty TV spots, Microsoft? First you confused me with Jerry and Bill, now you’re telling me that “artists” can be PC users, too? I’m talking about the ads where the “picky” consumer is in the market for a new laptop and tries to find a Mac in their price range – and can’t. So they then proceed to find a PC that meets all of their criteria, for half the price – and Microsoft is so excited by their comparison shopping that they pay for it. (Read Apple’s response, via Roughly Drafted.)
Okay, fine. Try to convince me that a professional video editor is going to do just fine running software on Windows, I might believe you, because I don’t know better. But now try to convince me that the way I’m searching on the internet is totally wrong? What a bone to pick, guys. Too bad most people (65%) are pretty much satisfied with their search experience, or rather, with their Google experience. How do you tell someone that they’re going about it all wrong? How about with a costly ad campaign?
That’s right, I’m talking about Bing, MFST’s new search engine that is actually performing fairly well, according to early comScore data. And I’ll hand it to them, the ad where people are babbling search terms is pretty good – at some point we all find ourselves thinking down a completely different line than we’d planned, thanks to search. But isn’t that kind of fun, in a Tim Leary kind of way?
Here’s the latest ad, this one for Internet Explorer 8. But oh, isn’t that Dean Cain? My favorite alum, and of the Glenn Nelson volleyball era to boot. (Watch for the guy in the back with the tree. I like him best.)
The New York Times tells us today that Starbucks is launching a major social media blitz to tie in with their latest advertising campaign. Among other things, a contest to be the first to post a photo of new ad posters on Twitter.
They already have large followings on Facebook (1.5 million fans) and Twitter (183,000 followers) and this campaign is sure to get them more. So will social media get people to drink more coffee? Or buy more cars?
No one knows yet how to measure the ROI on social media, yet we all secretly believe it makes a difference. These grand experiments are laying the foundation for the future if nothing else.
Relationships are supposed to be the cornerstones to success on the social web. So what does this mean for brands? We find ourselves wondering how Starbucks (or any other brand) plans to have a personal relationship with millions of people. What's the point of social media if not to be social? Don't get us wrong, we are all for expanding into the social web. In fact, we think it is necessary and only a matter of time until all aspects of the web are social.
And yet, we find ourselves wondering where it's headed. Will social media continue to be part of advertising? Residing within the marketing department? Or is it something else, like, say, how a company does business everyday, up there with answering the phone. Because carrying on a conversation is what customer service representatives do. Not necessarily marketers.
As for Starbucks? We don't make friends with our coffee. We drink coffee with our friends. So we're going to grab a latte, sit down at the keyboard, and check in on Facebook. Maybe we'll tell our friends how great this coffee is.
Sure, they’re sweet, and colorful — and who doesn’t love that? (Though apparently that was the criteria for The Bachelor’s first choice, which he later rejected, big time.)
The Mars company scrapped its old website for a brand spankin’ new social media site, which as Andy Beal describes it, is basically an overlay of search.twitter.com
displaying results for the term “skittles,” plus a few other navigational tools to point visitors to Skittles presence on YouTube and Facebook. It’s a portal for social media freaks, who are also really into the little round candies. I would not be surprised to find a large number of people who fit that criteria.
Now the question is, will it work? And by work, I guess I mean increase sales, since after all Skittles is a company just like the rest of us (and the best of us?).
Sure, it provides them with a direct connection with their
customers, and gives the brand a steady stream of authentic user-created content, but it’s still an experiment — so we won’t know for a while what the actual results are. Many bloggers gave rave reviews, if for no other reason than to applaud them for keeping it fresh, putting social media content first, and getting people’s attention.
I personally did not get past the first overlay, which asked me my birthday, and I assume it’s not to put in a “happy birthday from skittles” email database. So, I went no further. Did you? What is your gut reaction to this gutsy move from a huge brand?
You'd think that with retail sales plummeting and the Donnie Darko economy rearing its ugly head that the retail sector would be the first to embrace search engine marketing – outside of paid search, that is.
But according to a study by Conductor (which is, however, an SEM company, so take some salt) the vast majority of retailers and consumer facing brands in the Fortune 500 have little to non-existent visibility in natural search results for their most advertised keywords.
I did a little search for "smartphone" and found the only mention of a retailer, or manufacturer for that matter – outside of Shopping results – on the first page was from Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Palm. What is wrong with this picture? I know it's complicated, and it takes a little bit more time to get your product in natural search, but really kids – Microsoft? Palm?
A few more tidbits that Retailer Daily picked up from Internet Retailer's coverage:
Which companies made social media work for them this year?
Forrester calls out the corporate projects that it says best used social applications to accomplish business goals.
Below, the winners of the 2008 Groundswell Awards, in the various categories:
You’re invited to check out any, all, or none of these projects.
Some words of wisdom – from the press release, where they are not often found. [Bold mine.]
“The reality is that consumers are in
control, and companies must be in tune with them in order to constantly
adjust to their needs and behaviors. Aligning with customers is the only
way to maintain loyalty and market advantage, particularly in a down
economy where fighting for every customer counts.”
– Carrie
Johnson, Forrester VP and Research Director
New York’s Hard Rock Cafe, I’m sure, has seen a few things in its (hey)day. But I’ll be it has never seen quite an Engagement Debate (Standing Room Only!) like the one last week. Source: Adweek
Here, in the spirit of the Oscars, are the awards.
Best Suggestion for Marketers to Create an Engaging Experience: to "build lots of little things constantly."
From: AKQA New York Executive Creative Director Lars Bastholm Why: sheer vagueness. "…maybe not every single thing we use will become a massive hit, but
certainly something will down the line." Thanks, Lars.
Most Elusive Goal: "to have a big idea that will engage the brand and consumers at a deeper level."
From: Ogilvy Chief Digital Officer J.P. Maheu
Example: Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty.
Sweetest Idea Since Sliced Ramen: Making compensation levels based on engagement with content, therefore making publishers more accountable. This would allow advertisers [to] … push risk back onto publishers."
How? "There will be a measurable component," said Videoegg CMO Troy Young.
What does this mean for us? As the debate rages on how best to define an engagement metric, and how to trade on that unit, the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) has it’s work cut out for it. And marketers are going to have fun arguing.
Next fun New York battle: Ziff Davis’s Digital Life, September 2008.
