Social Media

Advertising In A Recession: The Art Of A Sustained Social Marketing Campaign"
By Managing Director Brian Marr, along with creative directors/co-founders Ian Cohen and Cal McAllister - all of The Wexley School For Girls

So, how can you be considered a serious marketing company without creating a new catch phrase? You can't, so here it is Mr. or Mrs. High-level thinker: "Sustained social marketing" - it's a phrase we developed at Wexley School for Girls to describe our approach to answering today's marketing and advertising demands. Actually we generally don't sit around creating marketing phrases for ourselves, but we couldn't help ourselves this time. Based on the explosion of social media and the line disappearing between what people used to call "above the line" and "below the line," we've had to continually adapt to what integration means.

When we discuss sustained social marketing with our clients, we're talking about a combination of highly integrated traditional and new media tactics over a sustained amount of time. It involves a foundation of social engagement with your online core, independent of advertising campaigns. Waves of traditional media, PR, viral, interactive and grassroot/guerrilla efforts are fully integrated, architected together and rolled out over a predetermined period.

It's not rocket science. Or maybe it is, but in today's economic climate, it's even more important to make certain any investments are working together to achieve maximum return. With all the social marketing opportunities, it’s easy to get diluted. Though we never make mistakes ourselves, we have witnessed some and wanted to share some of the lessons that can be learned:

Lesson #1: Just doing a viral video as a less expensive and unexpected way to reach your customers was something that used to work. That was way back in the 2000's when they were novel and people weren't putting out the quantity we see on video sharing sites today. Now, what's it up to, 60,000 new videos a day? Give us a break. You're tossing a needle into a haystack. Viral still works, but it must be supported with an integrated campaign to be successful. That is, unless you're extremely lucky.

Lesson #2: Social media engagement can't be treated like a traditional campaign; it's one of the fundamentals of marketing. If you're a marketer, this means building social media into your day-to-day marketing strategy and potentially hiring someone, or a team, dedicated to running it. That's where the "sustained" comes from. A media buy used to do it with repetition. The landscape has changed.

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What Social Media Revolution?
By Gareth Kay is the Head Of Planning at Modernista!

Well, that headline might start a frenzy in the blogosphere and get some of those self-appointed social media experts tweeting away that here lies more proof that ad people don't get it. But there, I said it. There hasn't been, and I would argue won't be, a social media revolution.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely believe that communication needs to be a two-way conversation not a narcissistic monologue, and that people aren't passive consumers waiting to be penetrated by marketing messages. Social media has helped prove the power of human conversation, and our innate social nature for anyone who had forgotten or doubted it.

But all this talk of social media got me thinking that perhaps, yet again, we are looking at this from the wrong end of the telescope, focusing on the delivery mechanism not the underlying issue.

Rather than focusing on social media shouldn't we be focusing on social ideas? This may sound a little trite, but I think it's important. Rather than (again) using communications as a sticking plaster to cover real fundamental issues a business faces, it forces us to confront what it is that we need to do at a more fundamental level.

It means ideas that are inherently open, generous and want to include you. It means developing communication that lets you join the dots and complete the story rather than telling you what to do (in the same way at every point of contact). It means thinking about what it is that people like to do and working back from there to figure out what it is we can do as a brand to be useful, helpful or entertaining rather than starting from what we think first. It means listening. It means having many little conversations not one shouting match. It means thinking less about what we do (as a brand or its owners or advisors) and more about what it is that people do to what we do.

So, what are some examples of social ideas? Fallon London's Tate Tracks campaign for the Tate Modern in the UK that got a spectrum of musicians to write an original piece of music inspired by a piece of art in the gallery that was initially only able to be heard in the museum on a listening post next to the piece of art that inspired the music before being released online. It was an idea that got teenagers to visit the museum.

The new to New York fashion store Top Shop offers Style Advisor, a free style consultation that helps you try some different looks you may have previously thought simply weren't you. Nike's Run London and Nike+ turned the once individual pursuit of running into a community. And how about Google, the Guardian and others freely opening up their APIs for others to play with them?

Thinking about social ideas, not social media is important because it makes us think about a fundamentally different outcome, not simply a different media choice or tactic. And this may hopefully stop the industry slipping back in to some of its bad habits of the past. Maybe we can even get rid of some of the horrible language we use: 'talking to' 'consumers' who we have 'targeted' with a specific 'message' in this long running 'campaign'. It's pretty bizarre when you say it like that how we think brands and communication work.

So, let's stop obsessing about social media and worry instead about what's important. While social media channels fade in and out of social significance (was it only two or three years ago that Second Life was the channel we were all talking about), social ideas are timeless in their power. There's two types of ideas in the world - social ideas and anti-social ideas. And it's plain to me that those ideas that contribute positively culture are the ones that are going to help build business.

More: Op-Ed: Agency downsizing. The silent victims. By Steve Landsberg - a founding partner of Grok.

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David Armano, Critical Mass' VP of experience design, has left the shop for a position with The Dachis Corporation. Not sure what that is? Don't worry. As ex-Forrester Research analyst Peter Kim says on his personal blog, the company is " still operating in stealth mode and putting strategic pieces in place."

Daschis is the creation of Jeffrey Dachis who founded Razorfish in 1995 and Bond Art & Science in 2006. The goal of this new company is to help companies deal with the ever changing business that is social media. Armano told Adweek that: "We're not going to be doing viral-type things for sure," Armano said. "I like to solve problems and this is a big problem to solve."

More: Monetizing Twitter: David Armano & A Large Community Raise Money For One Woman

Bob Pearson, Former VP of Communications and Communities, has been named president of the Blog Council — a consortium of social media folk who see it as a discipline rather than a marketing or advertising tool.

The council consists of companies who want to be up on the latest disclosure and transparency techniques, legal and policy issues and best ROI practices. The member list includes the usual suspects; Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, Dell, GM, GE, J&J, Progressive, UPS, Wells Fargo and others.

Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the council, writes, "The trend is clear: Social media is no longer experimental. It is essential for every company. Bob's practical experience will help our members implement effective social media programs."

Asked why he joined the council, Pearson said in an interview on GasPedal.com, "I want to join because I believe very passionately that what we're all doing collectively — all the members of the Blog Council — is essential in creating this new discipline and how we use social media. When you're creating a new discipline, it's critical to share insights and learning on everything from online policies to how to deal with hurdles within a company."

The twittersphere is echoing with tweets of congratulations to Pearson from friends and colleagues, many of whom have handles like "DennisAtDell" and other apparent Dell employees. The company has been very active in social media from their blog outreach efforts to the @DellOutlet twitter feed which doles out coupons and the occasional news blip. Then there's @DellYourBlog for their blog headlines, @DellChannel, @Alienware — the list goes on.

More: "Dell Throws a Blogger at AgencySpy and Tribble, to Dispel Jones Rumor"

Joesph Jaffe, President and Chief Interruptor of crayon, has a lot of thoughts about who should be crafting social media campaigns for brands. His commentary is worth opening up to the floor considering it includes a few sticky-wickets. Jaffee thinks that it shouldn't be a digital agency nor a PR firm who crafts and maintains the social media campaign for an agency. Why? Read the entire piece here, but in short:

"Digital agencies today are stuck somewhere between scalability hell (tasked with automating and compartmentalizing the lowly impression) and storytelling schlock (replicating obtuse and detached hyperbole in an advertising-unfriendly environment). It's a world governed by performance-based pricing and ad networks on the one side and pre-roll advertising and clunky Web builds on the other. Exactly where and when did the digital space earn the stripes and credentials to tackle the high roads of authenticity, transparency or peer-to-peer collaboration (just to name a few of conversational marketing's core tenets)?"

Those are fightin' words, Mr. Jaffee. And why not a PR company?

"The PR business is really no better and no worse than the digital one when it comes to social credentials. With its claim of being champions of "earned media," it tacked the word "relations" onto blogger, lumped it together with "media relations" and "journalist relations," and somehow went unchallenged. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying PR shouldn't be at the table. I'm just questioning how "relations" between corporations and journalists equate with real people hanging out with other real people."

Wait, so what are you saying?

"Just to be clear, I'm not saying every digital and/or every PR agency is ill-equipped to deliver against "social." What I am suggesting, however, is there's an acute and fundamental flaw in equating "social" with "digital" or "social" with "earned media."

Right okay, so what's the solution?

In this scenario, there's a definite and defined role for an "integrator" - an independent third party (internal or external) that is the generalist to the physical, digital and virtual specialist verticals, with less interest in ensuring success in any one world than in simply ensuring your success, period. Having said this, it may also turn out that there is no such thing as a social AOR.

Hmmm.... anyone want to chime in on this theory of a social AOR? Of the Jaffee's idea that digital agencies can't hack social media? Again, please do read his entire editorial before letting it rip.

More: Social Media Expert Bites Own Ass

Scott Monty is Ford Motor Company's social media strategist, and lately his efforts to get the brand out there, when brand loyalty is needed most, have seemingly done more for Monty's rep. than his client's. It's all playing out over on Gawker Media's Jalopnik.com, a blog for those who love automobiles like you love advertising dirt.

The vast coverage Monty has gotten for recently helping Ford out of a bind via Twitter has garnered two response posts on Jalopnik in the last few days as well as a fury of comments from readers who wonder what's up with the Ford brand.

It started with a story in FastCompany, written by an "expert blogger" (who it was later revealed is just a subscriber to the site who used it to create her own blog), that extolled Monty's efforts in quelling a feud between Ford and a fan site. Apparently, Ford sued the fan site for allegedly selling gear with Ford's logo on it, which the site owner then wrote about on Ford forums and everything went to hell. Until Monty stepped in, and began tweeting away on his personal account to his (then) 5,600 followers about how he was working with the legal department to work it out. "Please retweet" he ended his tweets, and things calmed down.

So Monty did in a sense save the day, and he used social media to do it. But since then, Jalopnik contends, the "social media expert" has been fluffed by media outlets, including FastCompany, who should instead be focusing on the brand's entrance into social media rather than one man's efforts to get it there. Why do they consider it fluffery? Because finding Ford on Twitter isn't as easy as searching "Ford", and furthermore Ford's use of social media isn't any more significant than any other brand doing the same.

Ford company has a number of accounts for different portions of the brand, but Monty reached the masses via ScottMonty. As Jalopnik's Ray Wert writes, "... if Scott Monty wanted to show that he was really doing this for Ford, he'd open up a Ford Twitter account — an idea seconded by another social media site — to use daily for his work rather than his current ScottMonty twitter account. Because right now it seems like he's set up more for ScottMoCo promotion than for FoMoCo promotion."

This little feud is something of a hip-check to Monty, who may be overstepping the social media boundary — whatever that is. Because although we may look at the situation and say, "Monty did nothing wrong, per se" the same may not be true for Jalopnik readers — and other Web savvy Ford lovers. Right now, the automaker needs to focus on selling cars, not their social media guru.

More: "Ad Agency Layoffs: The Twitter Feed"

David Armano, a prominent blogger and twitterer in advertising, has used Twitter to raise money. That's right. It's happened. Twitter and it's attached 140 clipped, social network has generated actual dollars. Not for a brand, but for a good cause. Armano's friend, Daniela, left her husband after she was being abused. Armano took in the woman and her three children. Then, he reached out to his 8,000 Twitters followers, asked for donations and ended up raising over $12,000.

David just wrote an editorial in Businessweek all about the problem of ROI and rebranding that term, "Return on Insight" rather an investment. Oddly enough, he has actually ended up proving that Twitter can be monetized; that there is more than insight available through social media networks. This is a case study for the century.

Now, what is the larger lesson for brands? Armano has proved a few things:
1) the power of authenticity
2) the power of a community
3) the power of authority and the devotion that is engineered through online connections
4) that even in a tough climate, people are willing to give away their hard earned dollars for the right cause

Traditionally, brands have trouble with number 1. Many have also had trouble creating an active and devoted community, which is 2 and 3, which almost always comes back to problems tackling number 1.
And getting consumers to spend money? Again, lets go back to their issues with number 1.

If brands could actually get their head around the idea that they need to be more than shallow corporate logos, to have a mission beyond their articles of incorporation, perhaps their work in social media might actually pay off in real dollars. Social media experts from Alan Wolk to PSFK will tell you all these things. This blog, Adrants, Adfreak and you guys, too have been screaming the same thing. So now what? Will Armano's amazingly wonderful Twitter effort be enough to prove to brands that there is value in this whole social media thing? The truth is - only if agencies can coax brands into being authentic, to being open to a community that acts without borders and can create a campaign that actually makes sense to consumer concerns. That's a big task. We can't wait to see what agency can take this case study and turn it into an actionable, ROI generating campaign for a brand.

More: Introducing The Social Media Advertising Council!!!

McCann... every time there is news about you in the press, our blog gets loads of irate, almost nonsensical rants about the agency. And me? Personally, I turn on Andrew WK's, "I Get Wet."

"I Get Wet when the party is dying/
I Get Wet without even trying/
I Get Wet/
I Get Wet whenever you trying/
I Get Wet when I know that you're dying/
I Get Wet/"

Today's news comes from The New York Post:
"In pursuit of more revenue, McCann Worldgroup, a division of ad giant Interpublic, is considering teaming with private-equity firms to resurrect dead brands or, in other cases, create new ones."

Oh boy. First off all, McCann is always about ten steps behind everyone else on this "product revenue stream thing." Anomaly does this, as does BBH and those shops will tell you it ain't easy. Now, does this sound like a good idea for ol' Mister McCann? John Dooner, Chairman Chief Executive and his kids cranking out watered down products that nobody wants? Those poor creatives over there. Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

In another stunning example of McCann's slow ass move to grasp consumer culture, the media side, McCann Universal, has just released their social media report titled, "When Did We Start Trusting Strangers?" It's full of insightful, groundbreaking gems such as:

"The clear trend that emerged was that consumers were sharing opinions in unprecedented numbers."

And, "-the research clearly shows we now trust the opinions of strangers we read online as much as our closest friends and certainly more than advertising."

Oh and let us not forget: "Secondly, transparency is essential."

Dear gawd McCann! Why don't you spare us all a lot of trouble and just sit down, stop issuing press released and shut the hell up. These kind of things, where you prop yourself up trying to prove you understand consumers, just make you look very bad indeed. We are all laughing at you. Right now.

Here's an idea - why don't you let Matt Weiss, the shop's growth officer, be in charge for a little while? It could be fun. You might come out from the dark ages.

More: Another Agency That Should Just Sit Down

"Representatives from more than twenty-five agencies, brand advertisers, and social media companies are joining to form the Social Media Advertising Council."

I didn't make this up. They issued a press release and everything.
They want to set standards for buying and measuring social media activities. As well, as creating "a common vocabulary, standard buying units and uniform measurement methods for marketing within social media."

Participating agencies come from across PR and advertising: Edelman, Havas Digital, Enfactico, Mediavest, Universal McCann, W2, Digitas, Deep Focus and some other companies.

Can't wait to see how this works out. If you are interested in SMAC membership can contact: Christine Baptiste at cbaptiste at gatherinc dot com .

Brandweek has written an article this morning about how Baby Boomers are enjoying social networks. Ha!

"Social networking sites [SNS] used by teenagers and young adults are also being adopted by baby boomers (aged 44-61). The findings show that 41% of baby boomers have visited social networks, such as MySpace or Facebook, and 61% have been to sites with streaming or downloadable video."

This shouldn't surprise anyone. Boomers are texting, using social media and sending emails from their Blackberrys. However, I was recently working with a big death star media agency on a brand launch for Boomers. They told the client that Boomers weren't using the web; that targeting social networks was not worth it. They cited some old media studies and a new one that said that Boomers didn't even know what social media was.

I argued. True. Most Boomers couldn't define social media, but that doesn't mean they aren't using it. I showed thensome real world consumer studies that weren't created by abstract entities. I cited observational studies of of Boomer SNS such as BOOMj and Twitter and blogs. To top it off, I had to explain to the media company that social media is NOT just made up of social networking sites.

What kind of people or should I say, ostriches, are working at some of these media and traditional agencies? The more you know, the better you can serve your clients and increase your own bottom line. Simple.

More: Social Media And The Ad Biz