When you think of Facebook, the scale can be confronting:
But who really uses Facebook? What do they look like? How would you characterize them?
The clever folks from Soap Creative have done us all a service by providing this neat snapshot of the 36 Faces of Facebook. See which one you are. And see if you can see your grandmother too.
Almost every day we are reminded of the constant onslaught of change. Our customers are outflanking our businesses – challenging us to be more connected, transparent in our dealings and impact not only shareholder value but the world at large. These expectations have permeated our employee cultures, partner ecosystems and business networks. Taken together, they represent a complex problem that many organisations are unable to address.
What we need is to re-invent the organisation. And to do this, we need creative innovation.
The Creative Innovation Asia Pacific conference runs from 28 to 30 November in Melbourne, Australia. It brings together over 40 innovators, thinkers and business leaders who will present strategies, stories and insights to help you address “wicked problems”. Take a look at the full program here.
When you register for the event – use the code wicked to receive a 10% discount. It may be the best investment you make in your business’ future.
For decades, Australian retailers have under-invested in technology and online innovation. After all there was no “burning platform.” People still bought goods – especially appliances and larger items in stores, and “online” was considered risky, unreliable, and difficult to navigate when it came to returns, warranties and customer service.
But then consumers connected. Reviews helped identify quality products. Reputation management allowed online merchants to demonstrate their credibility. And web experiences improved. Prices were better.
People talked.
And kept talking.
Those conversations shifted from sites to platforms. They happened in places far away from the brand police and customer service teams. They proliferated on sites like Twitter, Get Satisfaction and Facebook.
But just as the connected consumer shifts digital channels in the blink of an eye, taking the conversation with them, so too can brands follow this consumer lead. Those with a considered and well executed strategy can connect the dots and drive retail from digital to destination.
Marketers should develop three practices to drive retail from digital to destination:
Now, take a moment to view this (now finished) campaign from Adidas NEO. What’s the customer experience? What’s the journey? And what’s the engagement strategy at play?
Now, how would you play this out with your brand? Be creative.
We are now deep into the last quarter for 2012. Marketers are pre-occupied by two challenges – planning for 2013 and preparing to launch Q4 campaigns designed to close out the year on a sales high.
Innovation in the customer buying journey has, however, changed the game. We are all retailers now and the ground has already shifted from beneath our feet. Google Retail’s recent report on consumer shopping confirms what we have known for some time:
Marketers have failed to keep pace with consumer led innovation
While there has been some investment in digital technologies, and campaign experimentation over the last nine months, there has been precious little innovation where it counts – in marketing practice.
Six principles to transform your marketing efforts
Our recent big idea report on recasting the marketing funnel for consumer engagement identified six principles that must be addressed:
Marketers must prepare for the most social holiday retail season now
The 2012 holiday season is primed to be the most social ever. And in terms of “social”, read “mobile”. The Deloitte Dawn of Mobile Influence report on mobile retail reveals that mobile already influences significant in-store purchases and this is predicted to accelerate through 2016. This shift is a global phenomenon as our upcoming report 5 Lessons from Digital Asia Pacific’s Digital Trajectory shows, with mobile innovation efforts garnering 100 million+ audiences across the region.
To outcompete in your markets, retailers must move quickly to identify and fill gaps in the customer experience journey. To counteract this mobile disruption, retailers should:
Your POV
Are your retail efforts up-to-speed? Are you ready for the social holiday season? Add your comments or send us an email.
Please let us know if you need help with your digital strategy efforts. Here’s how we can assist:
I must admit to being a reluctant cyclist. Sure, I like the benefits and I even like getting out in the weather – but it can be hard to overcome the initial inertia. There is one thing, however, that fascinates me about cycling – and that is the way that your mind begins to make the most wonderful connections as your body starts to get “into the zone”.
As I start to feel my body warm up and my heart rate hit a comfortable cadence, there is always a collision of thought and experience. Here are five things that I learned as a cyclist that I value in social media:
We all want our communications to “cut through” – to reach the people who matter and have an impact (no matter how small) in their lives. But in our push to make this happen, we often contribute to the noise rather than strengthening the signal. This is where strategy and tactics combine. But which comes first? Last week’s articles provide some suggestions. Enjoy!
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs today launched the 2013 edition of their B2B marketing benchmarks and trends report.
Based on a survey of over 1400 marketers in North America, the report reveals the trends impacting corporate marketers across the full spectrum of business size:
While the trends are good news for content marketers, there are TWO revealing insights based on this report:
It is often said that companies only have two functions – marketing and innovation. Despite this, most corporate marketing practices are based on century old theories and frameworks that no longer adequately accommodate the complexities faced by today's CMO. Rather than the inside-out view offered by the traditional marketing funnel, marketers need to develop a view of the customer journey that takes into account the challenges and opportunities presented by digital and social technologies.
To be released tomorrow this "big picture" report provides an outside-in view of the “connected customer” and key stages in next generation customer experience. The report provides a vital framework for marketing leaders seeking to move from a transactional relationship with their customers to one based on what I am calling the “5 Ds of Customer Engagement”.
But wait! There’s more!
You can go beyond the report and join me for a webinar on this topic to understand:
1. Six trends driving change in digital marketing
2. How the 5 Ds of customer engagement reflect the new realities in customer engagement and marketing
3. Key recommendations for marketers seeking strategic approaches rather than simply digitizing "business as usual"
And the best thing to remember about a webinar is that they are recorded. If you can’t join live, register and watch in your own time and tweet me with any questions.
We don’t have to look far to see that we are living in a digital world. On my desk sits half a dozen connected devices, wifi enabled, flashing, beeping, spewing updates from sites, friends and acquaintances thousands of miles away. But for me, this is a world that I have chosen to participate. For many in the Gen X and Baby Boomer demographics, adoption of technology has been a conscious choice. We grapple with this changing world for work or for pleasure – sometimes for both … but always with the knowledge that the off button is only a short distance away.
But for succeeding generations – the always connected Gen Y and Gen Z groups, there has never been a time of “non-connection”. A battery or wifi failure is not just a technical issue. It’s an existential crisis.
In May 2012, when young Chinese student, Xiao Zheng, sold his kidney in order to buy an iPad2, the headlines around the world amplified the outrage. From the outside it’s easy to point a finger and call out the insatiable materialistic desires of a morally bankrupt generation. But surely there is something deeper going on.
Graham Brown’s new book The Mobile Youth
The rise of technology isn’t undermining the social fabric of society. Technology’s rise is a response to our loss of a meaningful social world.
As a reader of a lot of business communication (books, blogs, papers, presentations), I am often disappointed that the power of the writing doesn’t match the power of the ideas. This book is the opposite. It’s a business book written in the style of a page-turning blockbuster. For anyone interested in the changes taking place in our society and the collision of generations, culture and communication, it makes for compelling reading.
But most importantly, it provides an insight into the seemingly disconnected nature of our ever-more connected lives. Download your copy of The Mobile Youth
The profusion of digital media – not just in terms of technology but also in terms of content – can be overwhelming. Brands, businesses and bloggers are all working to create a toehold in your imagination – creating content aimed to attract, entice and engage. But sometimes we don’t need something new, we just need a guide to what is already available. Here are five posts from last week that might just do the trick for you.