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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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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I have a first cousin who recently turned 18. As modern times dictate, I not only sent him a birthday card and present but sent him a message through Facebook asking how he was and how his birthday was going. His reply was:

“im great thx m8 thx agen 4 the ipod.”

My cousin is fully literate and typed this on his computer with access to a full QWERY keyboard. Obviously the shorthand he used has come from the text messaging medium. I’m sure it’s crossed all our minds at some juncture that this ‘lol-speak’ is somehow debasing the literacy of future generations. However, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence for this and we are not the first witnesses to people using different language forms for work, friends and family. Humans after all are pretty adaptable mammals.

Thus it seems odd that such (similar) hyperbole is raised about Twitter: now not just the diction, spelling or grammar, but for heaven’s sake the bite-size nature of the information feed. After all, won’t this subvert our concentration spans entirely? Will we stop reading books in favor of receiving bullet points of introduction-plot-conclusion via our iPhones? In fact, aren’t smartphones just making us all a lot more stupid?

Clearly those who still need to (i.e. the workforce) won’t be abandoning Webster’s in favor of Newspeak, nor are we showing signs of reading fewer books. In fact, our more entrepreneurial companies are creating value around new devices for discovering and reading them. And we are definitely not becoming more stupid, we have just chosen to be bombarded with more information than at times we can reasonably cope with. Thus the social norm has moved beyond a required social etiquette.

Twitter falls into the last point and the cycle as I see it is like this:

• You sign up
• You add friends
• You play around with it
• You read all the tweets coming in
• You get your cellphone bill and seriously regret having the tweets forwarded to your phone
• You get bored and cheesed-off reading all the tweets
• You stop reading the tweets
• You discover Stephen Fry’s feed
• You find other feeds that are interesting over time

The key perception problem of Twitter and other social media is that it’s not a Raison d’être in itself. Rather it is a transport for snippets of information that I have given permission to receive. Tied to location awareness and maturation of personal preferences Twitter could become an incredibly powerful medium for information exchange.

But seriously, does anyone really think it’s going to change our language?

Published on Marketing Daily here.

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In conjunction with Canon USA and Dentsu America, we recently launched the My Story Facebook application.

The app allows you to quickly and easily prepare a graphical slideshow that tells a story about you, your friends and the great times you share.

You can import photos, either from your desktop or from your or your friends’ Facebook albums (yes you can really do that!), edit them and add text and graphics.  You can then add up to another 5 slides to tell your story, post to your Facebook wall and share your story with your friends.

Enjoy the app and don’t forget to become a fan.

Canon My Story Facebook Application .

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Recent AOL acquisition, BEBO ($850 million), launched a major site redesign this week. Yahoo’s Tech Ticker ran this brief interview. The big question, was it worth it considering that Facebook has really stolen the show?

Bebo claims 50 million subscrobers currently, so my guess is that this (considerable) user-base will find it worth while. What’s not covered in this interview is the unique proposition Bebo might have over Facebook. Most importantly of all is our constant need to have competition. We all know how quickly things go south if there aren’t a few players in the game, aye?

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Last Exit has just (soft) launched a new campaign for our clients MOLI. The campaign is based around a series of 5 short films about a character called Marcus – an insufferable control freak – who runs a young ad agency. Though he’s rather hateful, the aim was for us, the creative class, to see something of ourselves in this insidious person. The question is, whether we rejoice in this or bow our heads in shame. Well, the site goes some way into celebrating control freaks. Yes, it’s something we have to learn to let go of and ultimately chill out as our companies grow but in the early days it may be seen as essential.

So, the site is hosted by the good doctor, Dr. Zizberg – the foremost authority on control freakism. He has developed an elaborate brain scan test which reverse engineers your computer monitor to scan your cranium when pressed against the screen. Amazing!!

The site was a lot of fun to work on and a lot fun to use. And, MOLI are giving away 25 iPod touches as part of a sweepstakes competition. So go in, create a profile, take the test and GOOD LUCK!!!

http://www.controlfreaktv.com/

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