There seems to be a growing tension in the world of social media!

Almost every client brief now asks how we would place brands within the social environment. And I find myself questioning if there really is a place for every, or even any brand, within our personal pages online?

Aren’t the likes of Facebook and Twitter the realm of mates rather than marketing, of chat instead of commerce, of sharing, not shopping?

Perhaps it is for these very reasons that brands are so keen to be part of the social sphere? Marketing managers doubtless recognise this ‘emotional’ environment as very different from the “rational” destinations they create for their own brands online. They no doubt also note their own changed state of mind, when looking at their Facebook pages or writing their latest Tweet? These are times when we are all off-duty, open-minded, less cynical and potentially more receptive.

As an agency, we DO believe there is a place for brands within the social sphere, but only if a certain mindset and approach is applied:

• social media is a personal, emotional space – standard advertising and promotion isn’t appropriate
• context and personalisation are key, relating to users, their likes and dislikes, preferably on an individual basis, are likely to engage and, therefore, succeed
• considering and involving friends and groups is a powerful way to achieve relevant and timely interest
• overall, this is a pretty intolerant space – ‘road-blocking’ or ’spamming’ is guaranteed to create a negative brand reaction

In summary, our belief is that there is no problem combining brand messages with our personal spaces, as long as sensitivity and care are used.

Playing devil’s advocate now, allowing advertiser access to our beloved social media sites may be a necessity anyway! Facebook, Twitter and other social spaces operate under generally unsustainable revenue models today. Inviting brands to get more involved may be the only way we can hold on to these sites we have become so attached to.

Indeed, it would appear that Facebook’s recent news about imminent profitability is heavily driven by The Gift Shop, Facebook Connect, and other ways brands can engage on a deeper, better informed level with consumers, as opposed to monetisation of display advertising alone.

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“Above all else, getting serious about digital means getting serious about creative, whether you’re talking about a simple banner ad or a cutting-edge viral campaign. After all, big ideas move successful campaigns in any medium, and the web is no exception.

But as larger agencies struggle to redefine themselves in the lean-and-mean digital ecosystem, a grassroots army of smaller, specialty shops is raising eyebrows. Some work on assignment from larger agencies, but others have begun taking ownership of the client relationship for themselves. While this is by no means an exhaustive list, these are some of the independent agencies that made us stand up and take notice with campaigns and ideas that push web creative forward.”

Full article on iMedia Connection.

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Considering the sophistication of humans as mammals, it is still interesting how we are doomed to repeat the same behavioral patterns as our primate ancestors, even when is comes to social media.

Full story published on Marketing Daily here.

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It had to happen sooner or later; with Adobe’s Flash engine ‘coming soon’ to the Palm Pre and now doing a deal with major set top box manufacturers, it would seem that we are seeing the company truly heralding in a new era for integrated development known as the Open Screen project.

This is obviously an important step for developers but also represents a huge opportunity for advertisers looking to exploit multi-channel communications. Initially, it sounds like the experience will offer fairly simple and, perhaps, long overdue, features such as web browsing and widgets on your TV, but going deeper with interactive advertising and branded content is surely the next step. Where Open failed in the US some 10 years ago, Adobe seems to have the potential to succeed and do so in a HUGE way.

I don’t mention our past to often, but as a team back at Deepend, we built some of the first interactive televition (iTV) assets including games, commercials and branded content. We’re rather hoping it puts us in good stead for the (near) future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7823095.stm

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Last Exit is very proud to announce the launch of a brand, spanking new website for Inlet Technologies. Inlet develops cutting edge video encoding technologies and methodologies and needed a digital strategy partner to lead their online asset planning and development.

Video encoding has moved from a darkened-room, heavily technological function to something that now touches many different types of businesses.

Our initial insight was that the buyer of Inlet’s services is no longer purely technical, but may hold commercial or marketing responsibility within an organization.   This presented a challenge insofar as we couldn’t find a common language to adequately satisfy the purchasers’ completely different need for how the products’ benefits should be described.   Compromising between the two languages would seriously compromise the site’s main purposes — to inform the audiences and generate qualified leads.  Thus all product information is presented in the guise of ‘real talk’ for those uninitiated in the bits and bytes of video encoding, and ‘tech talk’ for those how want the precise technical details.

The secondary effect of this is SEO.  The product disambiguation leads to more relevant content which again is practically impossible to achieve through a compromise of natural language, therefore increasing the chances of the real or tech talk matching the prospective purchasers’ search term.

Easy job done! Now we’ll be using analytics tools to track user behavior and continue to refine the persuasion/conversion process of the site to ensure we meet, and hopefully exceed, our brief.

Click the above image to go to the site or the following URL: http://www.inlethd.com/

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I really believe Ford has an opportunity to clean up here in the US. First, it’s more than likely that (at least) one of the other BIG 3 will go out of business and second, Ford has had this amazing, innovation base in it’s European franchizes. BEtween the two major development centers in Spain and the UK, Ford Europe has been pumping out fantastic cars and is, subsequently, seen as a quality brand. No, not as high as BMW, Audi, etc. but taking a step down, you would be looking at Ford. Boasting an amazing range to suit every need and budget, and with world beaters such as Focus RS, one of the meanest hot hatches around, Ford have an arsenal that none of the other Detroit manufacturers can truly compete with. And now it seems, they’re also rethinking their advertising and marketing philosophy. Maybe having financial hardship is a good thing for Ford!

Tameka Kee reported a campaign they’re running which is test to test the limits of social media branding:

“Later this month, it will hand over the branding and promotion duties for the car to 100 twenty-somethings who have no advertising experience.

Ford is giving each of them a Fiesta to drive around; recipients range from award-winning indie filmmakers, to single moms, to aspiring dancers, and even avid gamers, and they’ll document their experiences with the car through YouTube vignettes, blog posts and other social media updates for six months. The kicker is that Ford will have no control over what they post, meaning the effort could ultimately end up tarnishing the brand almost a year before it hits U.S. dealerships.”

But it’s a risk Ford has to take—since it’s in a fight (to the death?) to attract young, tech-savvy consumers that may have never thought about buying a domestic car before. The company believes that traditional marketing won’t sway this demographic.”

I really  think it’s a risk worth taken and definitely, highly calculated. The Fiesta platform has always tested well in Europe and often won “Best Small Car” awards, so the only thing to get over is the US perception that bigger is better – something that, again, is changing rapidly. The success of Mini and the surprising uptake of the Smart car is proof that attitudes are changing and it’s time for brands to experiement and discover the reall challenges and opportunites with online engagements. Time to move away from just doing funky, promotion-based micro sites and start considering the long tail of web marketing.

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Last Exit is very proud to announce the launch of the new Piaggio USA website.

Following the framework of the Vespa USA website launch in November ‘08, the site’s design has been custom tailored to suit quite a different proposition. Where the Vespa range follows a common style, the Piaggio range of scooters is far more diverse; from the small, light zippy Fly 50 through to the intensely innovative MP3 series Piaggio seemingly has something for everyone whilst avoiding any canabilization of the Vespa brand itself. The site has been steered in the same direction and will continue to develop the independant characteristics of each model.

http://www.piaggiousa.com/

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Towards the end of 2008 I actively avoided reading any of the many predictions for 2009, most of them spelling out apocalyptic doom for the economy, for New York, the US and in deed the entire world. OK, OK – it is bad and is going to be bad but I believe that much of what we will experience will be the transformation of life as we know it. I’ll not get all existentialist, so I’ll focus on advertising/marketing shall I?

Knee jerk reactions tend to do the worst damage and every sensible person/company out there will realize that we still need to sell. That the vast majority of people still need products and services, albeit more effective, efficient and now more ‘green’, and the way we need to speak to this more demanding audience must also be lean and mean. Ten years ago we were enjoying life in the dot.com bubble as digital marketing began to enter the paradigm but it’s only been since the last bust and really, I believe, during 2008 that it has begun to take shape. In our industry we live among a an audience (our clients) relentlessly fixated on accountability. And so they should be and so can we provide and satisfy. Vague, illusionistic formulas for calculating ROI from traditional media will not cut the mustard during a troubled economy and, I believe, will not do so when we return to a stronger fiscal situation. Times are certainly changing. Whilst many companies are being forced into making redundancies, there seems to be many who are slashing head-count whilst reporting (still growing) profits – this might wreak of (traditional media) companies taking advantage of a convenient smoke-screen to shed weight in favor of people with more digital savvy.

The numbers for the close of the year point to good, not stellar, but decent months for all who can truly take advantage of the shift in the marketing mix and offer their clients something undeniably of value – real accountability. Media consultant and futurist, Jack Myers says it perfectly: “The best we can do is deal with reality…and not put our heads in the sand and just do what we have in the past. We need to see what is driving the most return-on-investment and identify where we think the communications business is going.”

Reports showing growth in display ads, search marketing, online video (which shows massive growth) and email, with all or a mix displaying value in both direct ROI to brand building, suggest that companies such as Last Exit, should have a good year and more importantly, that we guide our clients to plan, invest and deploy their marketing communications more (cost) effectively and establish new strategies for a new era.

So, with the digital fad finally over and the internet coming of age, it’s time get on with business in a new, new (media) world.

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If only it was 1999 again!  They were the days for digital innovation and creativity!

Back in the early days of digital media you could describe the times something like this:

• It was a frontier time for digital
• Client and agency focus was on creating innovation and firsts
• Clients were growing in confidence, but more importantly felt brave
• All efforts were focussed on creating user experience and impact
• There were high levels of creativity and opportunity within the medium
• There was a wide variety seen across final websites, making brand activity distinctive and memorable
• Agency teams were very young, wild-eyed and full of unbridled enthusiasm
• Dot-com finance was in full flow, helping to build digital exposure and adoption

Given all of this, things must really be fantastic ten years on then right?

Well maybe they are and maybe they aren’t?

Taking each of the points above one by one and comparing them with things as we approach 2009 you might describe things like this:

• Digital media is an established and key part of the marketing mix
• The focus is now on effectiveness and workman-like delivery within projects
• Client belief and confidence is high, but many fear ‘breaking any moulds’
• Most efforts are now focussed on DDA compliance, Search Engine Optimisation and Content Management
• Subsequently there are limited levels of creativity and innovation
• There is now quite limited variation across sites making branding more about the logo than about functional innovation or distinctiveness
• Agency teams are now older and far less wide-eyed, particularly at management level
• Dot-com is now a dirty word as opposed to an investment opportunity

Perhaps these things are not just true within the digital arena? Perhaps the same could be said for TV advertising and other types of media? The proliferation of digital channels and global or pan-European advertising  campaigns certainly seems to have had an effect on the creativity and sensitivity used when making TV spots.

All this sounds very negative but the reality is that there is as much opportunity, creativity and enthusiasm as there ever was, if not more, as long as you know where to look for it!

There may be some limitations to the amount of creativity on offer in the business to consumer area but in the business to business arena creative opportunities have never been better. In addition, whilst advertising on TV may be being dummed-down they field of online advertising still offers great opportunities to experiment, innovate and differentiate.

Google Analytics and other web statistics packages have greatly increased client interest, understanding and enthusiasm for the details of any digital activity – the ‘black art’ has finally seem some light and the ‘new’ has eventually been taken away from new media. Even the huge focus now directed towards Search Engine Optimisation has its benefits. Online content used to be largely inappropriate having often been ’stolen’ from elsewhere in the marketing department, as opposed to being created from scratch, but the importance of SEO now means far more attention is paid to the creation of online content, particularly in the written word.

Although the huge sums of money invested, even ‘thrown at’, any dot-com idea ten years back, certainly helped to grow consumer awareness of digital media, the checks and balances in place today mean that the days of ‘www.buy-pet-food-online.com’ are thankfully gone.  Projects in new online-only industries today, such as social networking, are with serious, diligent, experienced and committed clients as opposed to the ‘three mates from college’ teams so often ‘in charge’ of things back in the late 1990s!

Even within the core area of website design itself, there is exciting news. Developments in technology like PaperVision3D are once again encouraging clients and agencies alike to create online experiences, as opposed to just online services. In addition, the open-source roots of PaperVision, and other browser extensions, is creating as vibrant and innovative a space ‘behind the scenes’ as it is on the ‘main stage’.

There is no doubt that times have changed over the last 10 years or so, but surely the reality is that they have changed for the better, when one considers the details? Sure the late 1990’s were exciting, gold-rush, frontier-land times, but the mine is now built and it is time to start getting some of that gold out onto the open market!

I have been ‘lucky’ enough to experience both of these ‘digital decades’, and on balance I prefer the one we are in now!

Am I right, or am I just getting old?

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We’re very happy to announce the launch of the Vespa USA website. It’s been a thrilling ride to get to this point and we’ve worked with some amazing people at Piaggio Group USA. Our team has been exemplary throughout the process and the results reflect the skill and commitment from the Last Exit team. Congrats to all.

Be sure to check out the scooters as well as the Community Rides section.

VespaUSA.com

A few of the first press articles:

AdWeek

Creativity Online

ClickZ

Media Post

How Magazine

Speed TV

Alternative Consumer

Tree Nation

Motorcycle.com

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