Wednesday, May 23, 2012

7:30am – 4:40pm, followed by VISION after party

Westin Bayshore Hotel, 1601 Bayshore Drive, Vancouver

Register at www.bcama.com or call: 604-983-6AMA

HMV closed some months ago and now sits vacant waiting new tenants willing to pay high rent for a prime location. HMV was a victim in the end of changing technologies and distribution of its product. The fact that that the iPod was the product that introduced music digitization and sharing, and was ultimately the downfall of music sellers like HMV was poignant. Even more poignant since the iPod sign was the only thing left hanging in the store.

The iPad has recently disrupted another industry as well.

I was lamenting the closure of one of my favourite bookstores, Book Warehouse, in Vancouver recently. Although not encumbered by debt, overexpansion or an invisible cash flow, the owner was selling off the stock from multiple locations, and calling it quits. It would seem that the forces of increased online competition, a squeeze on margins, the emergence of e-books and readers, and a publishing industry reeling with the forces of technology and trying to redefine itself had taken its toll. That and the fact that the founders, all ready to retire were looking to sell their business at a time of great turmoil in the publishing and book industry.

But as the owner, an accomplished professional musician, said with a smile on his face the day I talked to him moving fixtures out of the Lonsdale location and packing up what was left of inventory to be donated to a first nations library, “The book business fed my music habit for over 30 years. I’m, happy!” Admittedly, it was a pretty positive spin on what could only be lamented as a huge shame in the face of changing technologies. A shame because there will be 5 less bookstores to browse in Vancouver. And a shame because, along with all the people who those stores have employed, the owners will not realize any equity from pouring over 30 years of time into the business.

Book Warehouse fended off the onslaught of big box bookstores in the 90’s when many independents failed. It withstood the ongoing price competition from online retailers such as Amazon. They had carved out a niche based on selling books bought back from publishers at huge discounts and then selling at bargain prices, while still achieving higher margins than their competitors. They were able to sell best sellers at huge discounts and still make money, unlike most competitors because their entire business model was based on low costs and no leverage. It worked for many years because it was not easily copied.

The lesson learned through these two examples? While you can have a defined market niche, a great product or service, and be at the top of your game, the external forces of technology and changing consumer habits can put it all into question. In the end every business must monitor and adapt to change.

Perhaps on a subliminal level I was reflecting on the BCAMA Vision Conference theme (http://www.bcama.com/events/vision-conference/vision-overview) this year being “liquid content,” highlighting the concept of stories being told between web, mobile, TV, radio, print, outdoor and more. Essentially winning campaigns now strive to use cross-platform storytelling, rather than creating content for a particular medium.

Back to chemistry for a moment.

We know solids are rigid, containing particles with little free space, which are locked in place. Solids are like traditional media. We can buy, measure and control them, refining a combination of vehicles to target a defined segment of the market.

Liquids can move, containing particles that slide past one another, with little free space between them. They spread and assume the shape of the container they occupy. Liquids are that state of transition, where campaign messages flow into storytelling across a variety of media, both traditional as well as electronic.

Gases contain particles that move and slide with lots of free space between them. They are compressible, but ultimately prefer to be free. Gases are that final stage of transition where having moved through solid and liquid phases, the air born message has gone viral and moves about freely, uninhibited by word of mouth.

Perhaps this is why we can say that great campaigns start with good chemistry. They utilize the seamless transition between solid traditional, liquid electronic and social and ultimately become gaseous word of mouth to effectively combine multiple media platforms into rich storytelling.

Okanagan Springs Brewery was a regional brand with a limited budget. They decided to sponsor small private events such as “Jeff’s weekend fishing trip” rather than large corporate events like most national beer brands. The campaign started with traditional newspaper and radio ads driving people to the sponsormespring.ca website where they could submit a video requesting sponsorship of their event. Visitors to the site were encouraged to vote for the events that they felt deserved sponsorship. Of course social media efforts by hopeful applicants further fueled the word of mouth on the campaign. Sponsorships were handed out monthly to the events with the most votes and those deemed worthy of free beer and supplies. The events themselves then became the ad campaign with photos being used on billboards and print ads, and recorded audio became radio spots. While there was a fluid mixed use of traditional, electronic and social media, arguably the unique storytelling element is what gave the campaign legs to achieve word of mouth viral success. http://creativity-online.com/work/okanagan-spring-brewery-sponsor-me-spring-case-study/17049

Challenged with telling people about the upcoming “Treasures Exhibit”, Science World affixed 2 oz of real 22k gold on the surface of a single billboard in downtown Vancouver and stamped it with a message about the show. While the value of the gold hammered micro thin was estimated at $11,000 – and the price of media placement for 4 weeks added significantly to that, as well as the work involved to actually create the billboard, the value it achieved in traditional newspaper, TV and radio publicity coverage as well as social media and viral storytelling was priceless. One simple idea combined with one traditional media billboard, spawned an irresistible story that was shared across multiple fluid platforms and ultimately went viral. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKhf-tH6PdI

On some level all companies are telling a story. Consumers live and move seamlessly through different media environments in their day-to-day lives. Having your story follow and interact in different modes along the way makes it more compelling and a natural fit in their lives. And ultimately when you do that, it becomes more shareable. In the end, it really is all about the “chemistry of good storytelling.”

Want more fresh insights? Subscribe to this blog and/or follow posts at www.facebook.com/fiveminutemarketing. If you prefer a monthly newsletter summary, sign up at www.charleson.ca

1. The top question marketers still want answered: How do I measure the effect of social media on my business?

2. The top benefits of using social media: 85% use it to increase exposure (the #1 benefit), 69% said it increased traffic, 65% use it to provide marketplace insights.

3. The top 5 social media tools being used: Facebook, Twitter, LindedIn, blogs, Youtube (in that order).

4. The amount of time being spent on social media: 59% said they use social media 6 or more hours per week. 33% said they invest 11 or more hours per week.

5. The social media tool marketers want to learn more about: Google +, introduced in late 2011, and currently used by 40% of marketers was a significant insight here with 70% saying they want to learn more about how to use Google + in their marketing efforts.

There’s tons more insights, including correlations of time spent and benefits realized, as well as drill down information for businesses using social media specifically in a B2B or B2C application. Download the entire report for yourself here. http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2012/

It’s available for FREE until April 19, 2012.

1. Pinning your posts:

How it works: Pinned posts are page posts that you have chosen to display prominently at the top of your page. Pinned posts will remain there for 7 days, and after that they will return to the date they were posted in your timeline. Here’s a quick video on how to pin a post:

http://socialmediatravelers.com/how-to-pin-a-post-to-the-top-of-your-facebook-page

Why you should care: Now you can ensure content that positions you or your business is always what a visitor will see first. Although you might see all your posts as invaluable, you can now ensure the more trivial will not burry your gems.

2. Public post capability

How it works: Previously all Facebook posts were made to your “friends.” Now you have the option of posting to different groups such as friends, close friends, other groups you may create, or to the public. When you post to the public, you content becomes viewable to anyone on the internet and it is searchable. Managed well, this represents an opportunity for some. Here’s a video on how to change who views your posts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDyVCGC_vvk

Why you should care: Posting publically presents an opportunity to position yourself as an expert or authority. Public posts become content that Google and other search engines catalogue and rank. This is an invaluable tool for branding and increasing awareness.

3. Timeline

How it works: All posts from the past and going forward will now be indexed by year and month. Timeline also allows you to go back to old posts and highlight or hide them.

Why you should care: Timeline presents a marketing opportunity for you or your brand to tell your story. You can “go back in time” and post milestones that help give your brand a distinct identity.

4. Customized profile and cover banner photo

How it works: Previously Facebook users had a single profile photo. Now you will have both a profile photo and a cover banner photo that spans the entire top visual space of the page just like a website.

Why you should care: The cover banner image presents a branding and positioning opportunity. It can demonstrate your area of expertise, highlight what you care about, and in general create a more personal connection.

You should also note the changes to your privacy settings after the April 4 update. By default your past posts will have gone to timeline and they will be public, unless you change the settings. The good news is you can do a blanket change to make them all viewable to only friends again if you wish, make that your default going forward, or you can selectively decide which ones to delete or keep private. You can also preview what information is public versus viewable by friends. Here is a good video link to show you how to do all that:

http://ansonalex.com/tutorials/how-to-prepare-your-facebook-profile-for-the-timeline-update/

Bottom line? The changes that Facebook has made are significant. Managed well, they represent a significant opportunity.

Enter a series of reality TV style produced segments, each 6 minutes long, featuring four Australian’s, selected no doubt for their stereotypes, who get tricked into going to New Zealand. Martin, a true blue Aussie bloke who thinks he’s going to Vegas, is particularly memorable. But so is the hipster who thinks he’s going to Berlin, the shopping princess who thinks she’s off to Bali, or the sophisticated culture critic who thinks she’s going to Europe. A film crew and a cheeky Aussie narrator chronicle their travels as they are exposed to a good time, courtesy of their Kiwi companion, while challenging the previously held notions of their neighbouring country. View the segments here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V32jyVFuHRk&feature=relmfu

Why does this campaign work, and what can we learn from it?

1. The audience is in on the trick, which draws the viewer in.
2. The Aussie stereotypes are characters the target group can identify with.
3. Although the movies are no doubt highly edited and somewhat scripted, they appear like reality TV.
4. The content is entertaining and highly shareable in social media.
5. It has great publicity value, further increasing free coverage through traditional media channels as well as online.

I look forward to watching how this campaign will play out over other media platforms, and in particular how it will no doubt boost sales for Air New Zealand. Nicely done!

The AR.Drone is a helicopter that allows owners to use their iPhone as the remote control. To simulate the experience, and to help drive sales, they came up with a banner ad containing a QR code. When viewers scan the QR code on their computer with their iPhone, they get a hook up that syncs the computer with the iPhone. The iPhone then becomes a remote control for the toy displayed in the banner, essentially bringing it to life. The helicopter can then be flown around the site, dropping bombs and blasting things. While this feature is more apt to appeal to my son or husband, that is absolutely the point. It presents an intriguing way to engage the target market by making the ad into an actual product experience. In linking the devices, users grant the company access to send them additional information and offers. Beacon claims to have had three times the click through for the campaign compared to standard web banners.

Watch the video to see how it works here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=88aWyz3Gijk

Beyond toys, I can certainly see broader applications for this. Audience engagement and involvement has always been key to advertising success. This example helps push those limits a little further!

 1.     Connect and amplify: Social media gives customers the ability to connect with others who are sharing similar problems, and to then amplify their concerns online. It would seem that airlines have fallen from grace repeatedly here, but any company in the business of providing a service to large numbers of customers should be wary. JetBlue Airlines created their own hostage crisis (never a good word in the airline industry) on Feb 14, 2007 (Valentines Day, not a good day to say “we don’t love you”), when passengers were stranded for 11 hours in a plane on the tarmac. Several filmed their experience. One started a blog. It went viral. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/business/17air.html What ensued were groups of passengers who started sharing their experiences with delays and poor treatment. Here’s the Youtube video courtesy of a cell phone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZkQYjciGzc In the end JetBlue issued a public apology via social media.

In February 2010, Southwest Airlines removed a customer from a flight because he was taking up more space than the one seat he had paid for. Admittedly large, Kevin Smith the offender was outraged. He took to blogging and tweeting his experience. Perhaps Southwest should have checked his “online influence” before hastily removing him, since Kevin was a US filmmaker with considerable followers and media ties. Couple that with an empathetic US population where many are overweight, and the potential to connect and amplify was immense – to pardon the pun. http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/feb/15/overweight-filmmaker-banned-southwest-airlines

When United Airlines trashed Dave Carroll’s guitar through mishandling it, he tried for close to a year to get compensated and finally turned his frustration into a song and video that became a Youtube sensation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo His experience united numerous others who chimed in with similar stories of mishandled and damaged luggage.

2.     Highlight hidden problems: Beware the security camera. Especially when they are in the hands of every single one of your customers poised to instantly share your company indiscretions online with millions. That’s the lesson learned by FedX when a video of an employee tossing a package over a fence rather than delivering it to the door, went viral on Youtube. Can we assume the employee couldn’t read that the package was a computer monitor? Both the video and the customer’s plight of having the damaged product replaced haunted FedX online for months afterwards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUDTPbDhnA Not to be left in the delivery dust, UPS was also captured handling parcels less than delicately. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGCdOmykOOg&feature=player_embedded These viral hits have spawned a plethora of ‘me too’ videos with countless customers sharing similar experiences.

3.     Creative misfires: Sometimes social media can be a big think tank to correct ill thought out creative platforms. Consider these attempts to offend Mom’s and Dad’s in two different efforts. When Motrin launched their commercial for pain relief, targeted at new Mom’s during national baby carrying week, they didn’t anticipate a backlash against the creative theme that poked fun at them feeling “tired and crazy.” But offend it did. Boycotts were arranged and ad parodies posted. It wasn’t until the story of how Johnson & Johnson had missed the mark, and apparently were not monitoring the social media comments, hit mainstream media that the ad was pulled. Just yesterday, Kimberly-Clark, the makers of Huggies Diapers, met the wrath of Dads, tired of being portrayed as incompetent dumb fathers, with a commercial to show a diaper meant to rise to the ultimate challenge of not being changed for hours, in the “Huggies Dad test.”  https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=3019575761858 While women may well find the commercial funny, arguably the growing number of Dad’s engaged in parenting should have lead the company to consider the shifts that have taken place in their target market, and to consider the creative accordingly.

There are really three lessons to be learned here.

1.     If you fail to understand your target market, social media will let you know. Do your research.

2.     If you have core business service problems they need to be solved. If you don’t they will blow up online.

3.     Don’t play in social media unless you are going to monitor and manage feedback. Dedicate resources and do it well.

Since “resistance is futile” (for you Trek fans), with a default migration date of March 30 for all accounts, I think it’s prudent to consider the opportunities that the new design presents, rather than just allowing a blanket switch to be tripped on your behalf.

The first obvious change is the opportunity to tell your story chronologically with an emphasis on visuals. Storytelling is powerful. Attention needs to be paid to structure, highlights, headlines, and images. Done well Timeline could present a powerful social narrative that creates an emotional connection for brands or individuals. You can now create milestones to emphasize important events, or hide old content to control how it appears. You can also go back and insert content and change your history (if that feels like a time warp, it is!) But again, if you are narrating the evolution of a brand or showing an illustrious history, this is powerful stuff.  This is not something to leave to a default migrating tool to select highlights for your story.

Pinned posts are another opportunity. You can now “pin a post” and place it at the top of your feed for a week, as a highlight to your followers. This presents an incredible opportunity for businesses that feed their multimedia social media content such as videos and blog posts, regularly via Facebook. This feature definitely favours those who publish content regularly. I suspect that is at the heart of this, since Facebook benefits by encouraging active use of the platform, and by default they will further enrich their database on you as a user. That will translate to sellable user profiling for advertising.

The new Reach Generator tool is also at the heart of these changes, and is closely tied to the pinned post concept. Businesses will be able to use it to help promote posts to existing fans via newsfeeds and the mobile web. Of course the monetization of this tool presents increased revenue for Facebook. Link here for more background on the Reach Generator tool: http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/04/facebook-marketing-conference/

Starbucks has done a nice job migrating to the new look, while utilizing the Timeline tool to feature company milestones and product launches sine 1971. The retro look of old photos really adds to the style and presentation. http://www.facebook.com/#!/Starbucks The New York Times has also created an interesting historical perspective on not only their company, but on newsworthy historical events. http://www.facebook.com/nytimes?ref=ts

Sprott-Shaw College has also made the switch, although the content between 1903 and current day is sparse. Seems like a missed opportunity to position their private school brand uniquely amidst their competitors, since they actually have history that pre-dates UBC. http://www.facebook.com/#!/sprottshaw Those are a couple examples of what I found, but curiously, a lot of top brands haven’t switched over. I will be monitoring them closely for creative approaches in the coming months.

As with good writing and storytelling, you need to consider your audience when addressing these changes. How will you “frame” your story through photos, tags and highlight milestones? This is where I am still perplexed as to how best to utilize Timeline. While Facebook has enabled easier “groups” to share your posts with, they haven’t considered this wrinkle when designing Timeline. The story I would choose to tell friends and family might be quite different than the one I would highlight to clients and business colleagues. This is where having a personal Facebook identity as well as a business page, might finally make the most sense.

One last thought on all this. As a parent I would encourage you to help your kids understand how Timeline is now part of their personal branding and identity. The implications are profound, when you consider how colleges, universities and future employers may use the tool to screen candidates. Most are writing for their current “audience of buddies and friends,” and the content they highlight on their Timeline may not serve them well in the future. By engaging Facebook, we now have no choice but to also play the personal branding game.

So take a tour and become familiar with the new tools. Then consider how best to utilize them to your advantage. Map out a plan for your business or personal brand, then log in and tell your story. And finally, consider how in the future you will use the new tools to position yourself favourably.

If you are looking for a basic overview of these changes, here is a good video tutorial that might be useful: http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/ui.html

Along with that move to partnership it is said will come demands for ROI (return on investment), and in particular a more sophisticated approach to measuring engagement and ultimately sales conversion. Sounds like it’s all about the money honey. But should it be?

Is it really time to assess this partner only on the nuts and bolts results that it can deliver to the cash register? Sort of feels like assessing that prospective partner for their ability to be a stable provider only, rather than considering all other facets of the relationship. Surely in the era of engagement and consumer brand influence, there is more at stake. Building brand equity takes time. It can be hard to measure. It’s kind of like trying to attach a value to a conversation. You can’t do it. You can’t buy a conversation, but you can surely provoke, engage or respond to one online. Arguably that conversation over time adds value to your brand. But does it generate immediate sales? Not necessarily, and that’s the point.

ROI and celebrating sales figures is an activity done quarterly and annually. Brand equity, share of mind and share of heart are not so tidily and timely delivered. But where there is share of heart, share of pocket book is bound to follow.