It is one thing to talk about telling your brand story, but quite another to roll this out comprehensively within a business. It is even more surprising when a business encourages and empowers their employees to creatively engage with the brand AS a story. But this is exactly what Australian broadcaster, SBS, has done.
SBS focus their broadcasting as well as their messaging and brand advertising around the tag line “six billion stories and counting …”.
Last night, after the NSW Knowledge Management Forum on Online Communities, I met Aisha Hillary. (BTW both Jye Smith and Niina Talikka share their excellent notes and insight from the forum.) We got talking about her business card and how its creation became a personal challenge to every employee. You see, rather than placing contact details directly under her name and position, Aisha’s business card also shares her own, personal story:
Aisha means LIFE and that is why I make the most of everyday and believe you miss 100% of the opportunities you never take.
Apparently, some people focus their short sentence-long story on their job and the outcomes they hope to achieve – like a personal mission statement. Others reflect their collaborative nature. But, as we learned with The Age of Conversation, committing text in a printed format is far more daunting than blogging. After all, with a blog you can always delete or edit your work – but once it is printed, your ideas, thoughts and words are released into the world without recourse to change.
I wonder, if you had to commit it to writing, what would be the one sentence that defines you? In my recent contribution to Sean Howard’s Passion Economy eBook, I was able to whittle this down to a single magical word. Can you?
UPDATE: But imagine if your business card was like the one shown on John V Willshire's post?
Here in Australia, there has been a noticeable change in the velocity of conversation around digital and social media in the last six to twelve months. I no longer have the explain “blogging” to every person that I meet. When I speak or do guest lectures, the majority of the audience acknowledge their use of “Web 2.0” in the shape of Flickr, YouTube or even Delicious accounts. And Twitter – well, even the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd (or his minders) tweet from time to time.
Late last year I suggested that social media was showing signs of “mainstreaming”, but there was little to show by way of corporate marketing adoption. Certainly, the folks at Telstra were leading the way, but there were few others following in their wake.
But in the last 24 hours we have seen some interesting announcements that will impact the local agency space quite considerably. During the Sydney Twestival –a global charity event promoted exclusively via Twitter networks (and organised in Sydney by the good folks at CommunityEngine.com.au) – Amnesia Razorfish announced that Ian Lyons had been appointed Social Media Director. This announcement brings additional depth to an already impressive social media team.
But the good news doesn’t end there. This morning, another of our coffee morning crew, Jye Smith, unveiled his new direction. On Monday, Jye takes on social media for Switched On Media. Again, this announcement was made via Twitter.
It is great to see agencies selecting some top line talent to lead their social media efforts. Now, it’s over to the corporates. Wonder who will be first. Oh, and in case you had not realised – the revolution will not be televised, but it will be tweeted. Get your shirt from Mark Hancock.
When we are looking to plan and execute a digital campaign, increasingly there is a need to look at not just WHERE we place our campaigns, but the context into which we place them. This is not just being driven by the rise of the “social web”, but by a transformation in the way that we view the relationships between agencies, clients and consumers.
In this interesting presentation by Don Epperson from Havas, he looks at the way in which their agency is transforming. In effect, they are following the model that has worked so well for Google.
By working from a single source of analytical data, Havas is able to aggregate a a whole lot of data based on actual behaviour. The trick is, rather than collecting data on a campaign level, the data warehouse captures information at a cookie level; meaning that the micro-transactions can be measured, tracked and aggregated. Then, by using an online advertising marketplace, the individual preferences of the people interacting with the system (banners/placements etc) can be auctioned to advertisers in a very granular way. This is what Don claims, is the agency of the future:
The agency of the future is going to act very much like the large ad networks today … we have to have scale in terms of reach, we have to be able to turn … data into knowledge …
All this, in turn (I am sure), feeds into their planning process – meaning that campaigns and activations become more targeted, more valuable to the consumer, and more meaningful to the client. It’s much like the potential on offer with Pure Profile.
As Matthew Mantey explains in this excellent post, Banners – Do They Work?, there is a mountain of data and insight to be found in even the simplest digital advertising campaign – so imagine what happens when you magnify this by a factor of 10, or 100, or 100,000:
Run one with even cursory tracking and analytics and you can find a mountain of insights. Obviously click-based conversions is the unrealistic grail you'll see, but if you set a cookie window, you'll see all of the view-based actions as well. You'll know the optimal exposure frequency level. You'll see the search patterns, branded and unbranded. You'll see format and message trends. You'll see geographic detail. And you'll probably find out that who you were targeting aren't the same demo that are interested in your stuff and coming to your site.
Is this the agency model of the future? Using technology to combine insight and targeted content within a permissible context sounds like the holy grail. The challenge would be putting the right pieces and partnerships together.
However, as I delve more into the concept of social judgement, I have a feeling that this sort of opportunity is just the tip of the iceberg. After all, taking this insight and opening it up to a social component during campaign activation could be where the REAL opportunity lies.
From a single creative impulse, a legion of additions, modifications and transmutations can spread in minutes, hours, days and weeks … What this means is that our ideas are constantly in a process of reinvention.
So when it comes to creating great marketing content that will be talked about, shared and spread across the networks of our lives, the challenge is to isolate the promiscuous idea – and then to set it free. This is where insight and clever planning can help. But it must also be build into the EXECUTION of your projects.
That’s why I love this interactive YouTube game. It may not be fancy … but imagine the possibilities for marketing your products or services. Imagine how, with some tweaking, that this concept could tell the story of your brand. As Wisey explains, it is both addictive and the potential is huge. I think my friend Todd Andrlik with his penchant for video will really get a kick out of it.
Over the past few weeks I have noticed a spate of demands for social media proponents to share their case studies. Michael Watkins asked whether anyone is doing anything with social media other than just talk, and Laurel Papworth responds by listing her favourite Australian social media projects. But the issue runs deeper.
On the one hand, as Mike Zeederberg of Profero explains, “… one of the key strengths of the social media space – if you're not part of the target audience, you'd never even know a campaign was running … no wastage, no mess, no fuss”. But many agencies (and the clients they work for) are often restricted from publishing details of their campaigns – competitive advantage being what it is. At best, such details are disclosed during conference presentations or worst, during closed one-on-one pitches for new work. All this leaves most of us guessing at the effectiveness and ROI.
So what’s an agency to do?
In this interview with Michael Kordahi, Heather Snodgrass, Greg Brine and Iain McDonald explain how an idea was transformed by a Twitter conversation and spawned a great online competition. In the process, the competition demonstrated the way that SEO and social media (in all its guises) can quickly and convincingly produce measurable results for an brand/product/service – or even an imaginary dinosaur – the Velociroflcoptersaurus.
As it turns out, the competition was fanned by Happener’s Markus Hafner and ultimately won by Nick Homes a Court (click here to hear how Nick’s strategy was developed and executed). A quick Google search yields almost 7,000 search results for a word that previously did not exist. Not bad going for a competition that started at the beginning of January 2009 and ended two weeks later.
It goes to show just what can be done (and demonstrated) when you approach it creatively. Nice.
Mark Pollard shares this excellent presentation given to the IgniteSydney crowd recently. In it, Mark talks about his experience of running a large, interesting, and influential website, Stealth Magazine … well, it started out as a magazine, but is really a meeting place – a community – for hip hop. Since 2002 there have been 128,000 posts, 11,000 topics and almost 2000 members. Clearly this is a vibrant (and viable) website – and in this presentation, he shares his Seven Things to be Learned from Hip Hop. You can read through the background notes here.
What was particularly interesting to me was Mark’s conception of community – and his point that “anonymity is the antithesis of community”. This,in turn, generated some debate with Julian Cole and Matt Moore driving alternative points of view. Of course, like any definition, “community” is also hard to pin down.
My interest in community is mostly around the way that communities move (and can be moved) in relation to human behaviour. Whether we know it or not, almost every interaction we have with another person leaves a trace of our identity. Think Gattaca on a physical level and think language/nuance on an emotional level. Think style in terms of our visual footprint. The thing is, we are pre-programmed to be social – so we betray ourselves even with our best attempts at subterfuge. And for all the chaos and noise of our daily lives, it is remarkably easy to find the holes in “fake identities” only because it is incredibly difficult to be consistently somebody else. And this was made abundantly clear to me recently when I was the subject of an experiment in chaos, courtesy of Marcus Brown.
Taking a lead from this speech by Heath Ledger as the Joker, flipped a coin and decided to unleash a little chaos. On me/my site. It appeared that he had learned of some flaw in Feedburner that opened a door … or so he claimed, and I was being singled out as “Mr Age of Conversation” – yet another . But he paused before moving ahead. He published a poll asking whether chaos should be directed at me, or at his own site. He gave us a choice. By coincidence, this all happened during a week when I was disconnected – on holiday and with very limited Internet access … so I did not really know what would happen and what the outcome would be.
I waited for the votes to come in. I checked my email each couple of days, but could not see much action. I visited Marcus’ site a couple of times but the voting looked pretty close. Eventually, the votes were counted. I had received an enormous number of votes – and I thank everyone who supported me. As Marcus explains:
People will do anything to save Gavin Heaton. What surprised me most was how devious they were about doing it. I know for a fact that most of the people (there were about 700 of them) came into vote off the back of an email. It was brilliant to watch because they were keeping so quiet. There were only a couple of tweets about it and the volume was very low. It was fascinating to watch.
What Marcus was watching via voting patterns combined with web analytics, was the activation of a community. But more interestingly, it was a swift and directed course of action set in train by a single request (as Marcus explains, most voting was triggered off the back of a single email – sent not by me). And this is where community comes into play. While the “network” could have been used – such as Twitter or a blog post – that sort of open dynamic can also invite additional chaos and randomness into the mix. That means, that for every positive response (on my behalf), there could well have been additional random responses which could go either way.
In my view, community is about belonging. It is about the actions and interactions over time which build a web of mutually reinforcing reputations. These repeated patterns of micro interactions allow us to create a “social judgement” about the people with whom we interact – even if we don’t know their names, we know them by the traces left in the consistency of their actions, in-actions and communications. I was “saved” from chaos by the orchestrated mobilising of a community to which I belonged – by the people in whom I had established a bond. And at the heart of this, at the very centre, was trust. As Valdis Krebs explains:
… people are loyal to what they are connected to and what provides them benefits. People stick with established ties they trust. Interacting with those we know and trust brings a sense of warmth and belonging to the virtual communities we visit via our computer screens.
By activating a community (rather than a network), response could be directed.
As I have said before, Marcus is one of the foremost practitioners of social media creation. He inhabits and creates a storyline like no one else I know, and activates it with an intensity that turns our gaze around on ourselves – making us ask the question – will he do it … or will I? That is, he forces us into a state where non-participation is also an act of engagement.
When I read the lead-up posts on Marcus’ blog, I was wondering who he was targeting. But by the end of the first post, I had an inkling that he was talking about me. There were clues scattered throughout that were pointing in my direction. And yet, even when he did announce that I was the target, it still sent a shiver down my spine. My intuition had read the signs, but I had not yet comprehended this – I was caught by the story, and had not yet brought it into my real world. But I was reading superficially. I was reading what was SAID, not what was MEANT. I was ignoring the mind reader’s toolkit.
What does this all mean?
Clearly “authenticity” is hard to fake – but we ARE easily swayed by a compelling story. It’s why headlines work so well – they set the parameters for the narrative that follows. For in the story – and in this case - a live unfolding of events, we are in-effect practising SOCIAL JUDGEMENT. And while, in real life, we are able to use a variety of cues to determine the trustworthiness of certain situations and/or individuals, in an online environment, we are still finding our way. As David Armano asks, do you know who you are talking to?
The thing to remember, however, is that trust trumps story.
On reflection, I realise that over the last few years I had followed, almost to the letter, each of Mark Pollard’s seven steps … but it was the last THREE steps (pass the mic, let the community self-regulate, get off the computer) that were the catalysts for action. And this is important – because my interest is in driving behaviour and creating the conditions for participation.
And as we move into the meat of 2009, and your marketing plans firm (or shrink), I want you to consider this. Think about how “social” your media plans will be. Think about the directions you want to move and how you want to get there. Determine the conditions through which you can create social judgement. And most importantly, ask yourself – who do you trust – and who trusts you?
Steve Woodruff entertains the marketing blogosphere with a 5am shot of good reading each and every day. Today, to give him a sleep-in, I have volunteered to deliver a 5-shot steaming good blogosphere reading. Enjoy!
1. I care and I think you do too. By Bretienbach and Brown. Social media commentators talk a lot about community. I know I do. But what happens when real life community fails us? What happens when we feel isolated, alone, broken? And can a simple act of caring – a blog post, a picture – change one person’s outlook on life? This is YOUR chance to find out.
2. Trend Blend 2009+.By Jen Stumbles. In case you haven’t seen Richard Watson’s excellent trend map, Jen reminds us where to find it.
3. So Easy, A 7-Year-Old Can Do It. By Mike Wagner. Want to think about your customers in a new way? Mike takes a lesson in customer experience from his seven-year-old grandson.
4. How to be an Exciting Brand without Offending Anyone. By Mike Arauz. Think it’s possible? Mike (another Mike), sets us all straight. Damn straight.
5. My Biggest Fear in Life. By Mark Pollard. Mark shares. Now go back to shot 1 and start again! Thanks for reading.
When I first began blogging over three years ago, it was completely new to me. There was etiquette to learn, tools to master and people to reach out and connect with.
To be honest, I was sceptical about blogging. I had tracked it as a type of communication for years – reading and being inspired by Seth Godin and the group of expert bloggers at Fast Company – but I could not quite see how it would work, say, at a corporate level.
On a personal level, however, the WordPress and Typepad blogging platforms provided a simple way of publishing regular material on the web – and they were a perfect fit for my objectives – to build a discipline around writing every day.
And so it began.
I started with poetry, but within days, had shifted my focus to websites and storytelling. It was not intentional. My subject matter simply overwhelmed me. I would begin to write creative work and find, instead, that there was something else on my mind. After a month of blogging I asked, Does Anyone Read a Blog. If I remember rightly, I would have had about FIVE readers – and like many bloggers, I became obsessed with web analytics. However, I was already thinking about the nature of blogging and influence, suggesting that not all audiences are created equal:
It reminds me of a quote by Howard Barker (the great British playwright) – "Because you cannot address everybody, you may as well address the impatient" (49 Asides for a Tragic Theatre). This is what sets the web apart from other revolutionary communications platforms – it is both a catalyst for change and the method of transformation.
The idea of transformation is important in social media … and it is something that we easily forget. What I have learned over the last few years is that I must resist the easy options with blogging. It is easy to fall into the trap of thinking of blogging as publishing … of seeking readers rather than conversation – dreaming of reach over influence. It is important to stimulate, engage and challenge myself and my readers … after all, there is PLENTY of great content available on the web.
So while measurement is great, reader figures are gratifying and even humbling, the real opportunity is impact. How does YOUR blog change or inspire the people who read it? What do they take away into their worlds as a consequence? As Richard Huntington eloquently explained:
So long as the digital community clings to its obsession with accountability over effectiveness it will remain in the unedifying position of creating engaging brand fluff on the one hand and highly measurable but largely pointless direct response advertising on the other.
It’s important to “get started” with social media – but remember, we are always in a process of getting started – there is always something new to learn. And as this great list of social media case studies shows – while there is some fantastic work being done, there are also plenty of social media mistakes. If in doubt, remember, “change” and “transform”.
Failure is a fascinating concept. Not only does it attract our attention (think of the term "like watching a train wreck"), keep us in thrall and keep us awake at night, it can also be a source of great creativity. Indeed, the Age of Conversation 2: Why Don't They Get It? devotes a whole section to marketers brave enough to own up to their own "marketing tragedies" – and how these have transformed the work that they do.
It is in this vein, that Adrian Ho has pulled together an outstanding presentation on the benefits of failure. Not only does he recount the painful truths that come from doing good work and having it lead to an unexpected outcome, he also neatly wraps this up into a discussion on the future of agencies and of advertising. Makes me think that my perfectionist streak needs some tampering with.
There are some great people working in the advertising and marketing industry. Many of them are super smart, more talented than a hatfull of Ogilvies and, my-oh-my they are prettier than a zebra on a prairie. Some don’t even have blogs to link to! But I am lucky enough to call these people “friends” (you know, the REAL kind).
However, there is this one chap that I have known for a while now who really defies classification. He has boy band good looks. He is generous with his time and his intellect. He is friends with more people than Robin Dunbar could possibly imagine. And it’s his birthday today. Have a good one, Ian Lyons!
(Thanks to Pablo Jeffress for the great "ianovation" picture.)
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