Harmonic Aftershock

“Blatant” Instinct

In one day, the Samsung Instinct is primed to be everywhere, including in your face – at least that’s what Sprint hopes as they get ready to launch their YouTube “Sell Out” contest on June 30th. Sprint will give $20 bucks to the first one thousand people who upload home movies containing a blatant product placement of the Instinct mobile phone.

I’ve always been interested in the practice of branded entertainment and recall a presentation I did for a class in the early 90s on product placement in motion pictures.  There are elegant executions where brands can harmonize within the context of the programming. As a kid, I wanted a Pontiac Trans Am so badly because of the show Knight Rider – I grew a genuine affection towards the car in what felt like a natural and organic way…so much so that when I turned 16, I wanted to buy one.

Sprint is taking the opposite approach to product placement and has even called themselves out on it by naming their instinct YouTube campaign “Sell Out”. Their intent, obviously, is to generate buzz in a short amount of time – but does “in your face” promotion foster brand loyalty? How many of you feel good when a pop-up ad interrupts your web browsing experience? For me, product placement done badly is almost as disruptive.

The Apple iPone has become so popular because it's simply a damn good product -- Its success did not come from over-the-top fabricated blatant promotion but by a much more genuine connection with its, now, immense following and loyalists.

If short term buzz is what Sprint wants then they’re well on their way: As I was reading Kristen Nicole’s Mashable post about the Instinct contest, a Sprint ad about the same contest came up on my TV (and, truthfully, freaked me out for a second) – now when TV programming can start to read minds, that’s convergence at its best!

George Weston Bakeries (Arnold Breads) Gets It!

I just received this email from the PR Agency that represents Arnold Breads in response to my June 19th blog post.

-----Original Message-----
From: Samara Finn
To: mcproulx@aol.com
Sent: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 3:37 pm
Subject: Arnold Double Protein Bread

Hi Mike,

My name is Samara and I work at the public relations agency that represents George Weston Bakeries, including Arnold Breads.  We saw your recent post regarding Double Protein and wanted to let you know that Arnold is committed to nutrition and is currently in the process of removing high fructose corn syrup from all of its premium breads (including Double Protein).  This transition is underway now and should be complete by the end of the month.

If you are still interested in trying the bread, we would be more than happy to send you a loaf (reformulated) to try.  We appreciate your feedback. 

Thanks,
Samara

I'm assuming that Marina Maher Communications' social media "listening strategy" for George Weston Bakeries produced a Google Alert after I posted to my blog.

I have to admit, I'm impressed -- Not only did Samara engage me, but she did it in a way that was very timely, set the facts straight, and wasn't defensive but embracing. Although I would have liked to have seen your response come through as a blog comment, you guys, obviously, get social media as a means to create relationships with consumers -- For that I accept your offer to try your newly formulated bread (sans the high-fructose corn syrup).

You've just made me a big fan. Great job!

Why Social Media Marketing?

In preparing a client presentation on Social Media Marketing, I wanted to, first, collect my thoughts and give context to the changing marketing landscape and why it’s so important that companies engage. I decided to turn the preface into a blog post and share it as I’d love to hear your comments and feedback. You’ll note that I’ve linked to various sources, in context, that have been a big influence on how I practice interactive marketing.

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Preface

Because we’re all wired with basic human emotion, we have the uncontrollable ability to feel -- and feelings drive our individual preferences leading to opinions that fuel the desire for self-expression and the need to be heard.

Historically, our assertions of affinity and aversion towards particular brands were severely overpowered by contrived and tightly controlled marketing messages in print and broadcast mediums – Companies talked at us, not with us.

Then came the Web. Suddenly, we were given a platform that, by connecting us all to one another, exponentially amplified our voices and enabled the sharing of our opinions to create the start of a giant conversation comprised of myriad discussions – many of which were about companies and their brands.

Today, the advent of social networks and other social computing technologies (i.e blogs and wikis) has helped to frame, organize, manage, highlight, and distribute our opinions and facilitate our desire to connect and form relationships.

Your brand is being discussed and opinions are being heard, formed, and shared by endless networks of interconnected trusted relationships and, thus, tipping the scale of influence over the impact of your traditional marketing tactics. Consumers are much more apt to listen to each other before they will listen to (let alone trust) you.

Because these discussions are happening online, they’ve become a permanent written and searchable record of how your brand is perceived -- A search engine results page tells a powerful story about your company whose brand you simply no longer control.

New channels of content distribution (i.e. YouTube, iTunes, onDemand, TiVo, etc.) have severely impacted the way in which we consume media and have fundamentally altered the course of future media consumption. Since marketing and media/content are so tightly coupled, your traditional broadcast and print “marketing comfort zone” is steadily losing its effectiveness.

But all of this is good news for you and your brand because just as we as consumers are now able to talk with one another, you also have the opportunity to join our discussions, start your own conversation, and partner with us. Companies that “get it” will first listen to what’s being said about their brands and by whom and then (and only then) engage and foster their “community”. And the tactics you’ll use are specific/situational to your brand and target audience. There is no “one-size fits all” Social Media Marketing Strategy. Be leery of rushing to tactical applications of social media just to tell your boss that your company is doing it.

In the end, your strategy will only work if your business practices and operations are as open, genuine, and transparent as the conversations you’re now helping to foster and if your product/service is absolutely compelling and in sync with your internal systems. If you try to fake it, your community will hold you accountable by making it known.

And so your role, now, as a marketing professional must also change to become one that nurtures connections, creates experiences that draw people together, and facilitates conversation.

Your first step is a listening strategy.

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“Traditional” Ads that Worked on Me…Almost

I have to hand it to Zoom Media for their backlit billboards in various visible spots around my gym. Inevitably, while working out, at the back of my mind are constant considerations for refueling my body with high-protein. The billboards featured a simple ad for Arnold’s new Double Protein Hearty Multigrain bread. After one my workouts last week, I immediately headed around the corner to the local grocery store and found the bread and was all ready to buy it. But then saw that the ingredients contained high fructose corn syrup. Sorry Arnold (and Foodies), I ended up buying something else from Whole Foods.

Similarly, I’ve been having major unresolved issues with my two Comcast TiVo cable boxes (and apparently, I’m not the only one as I've heard from multiple of their frustrated technicians). At the same time, I've been getting blasted with ads for Verizon FiOS. The other night I had people over to watch TV and were planning to hang out in my main living room, but I had forgotten that the show we planned to watch was set up and recording on the other TV/Cable Box in my smaller media room. I considered switching the cable boxes but didn’t want to go through the hassle. Coincidentally, just as I was shutting off my living room TV, I saw this FiOS ad:

Given my issues with Comcast and the fact that Verizon somehow read my mind with their Multi-Room DVR, the next day I went online to contact Verizon to see if I could get set up with FiOS. Unfortunately, I learned that it’s not available (yet) in my area.

So while neither Foodies/Arnold nor Verizon got a sale out of me, their ads weren’t a failure -- They did, indeed, get me to take action and moved me along the consideration cycle. Why did they work? The reason is simple: They were highly contextual and non-intrusive – the ads got me at the right time, in the right way, and in the right mindset.

While this blog focuses on the impact of media convergence and marketing, it’s not to say that more traditional advertising isn’t effective if executed well.

Tim Russert: This isn’t goodbye but, instead, good memories

While at Digital Influence Group, I wrote this blog post about CNN’s high-tech coverage of the presidential primaries which epitomized the convergence of media with best-in-class interactivity. I’d often compare what CNN has been doing with that of NBC with Tim Russert and his, now renown, whiteboard:

Tim Russert died suddenly today and it hit me hard. He managed to do in the media, naturally, what so many others try to do -- foster a genuine connection with his constituency.  I would always look forward to seeing him featured on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and, of course, hosting Meet The Press. His kind passion and energizing charisma made me and so many others feel a sense of integrity, security, and morality.

Tim Russert proved that even in the age of “new media” that sometimes that which is analog and simple is the most elegant solution.

I already miss you, Tim...My heart goes out to your family.

“FITH” Apology: Why Content Matters

You may have heard about the two teenagers from Florida who posted a series of videos, “Fire In The Hole” on YouTube featuring the duo ordering soda through various fast-food drive-thrus and then hucking the soda back at the pick-up counter attendant. Well, after getting turned into police, the juveniles, as part of their sentence, had to produce this apology video and post it to YouTube.

I applaud the judge who ordered the sentence for understanding the demographic that was consuming these videos and then using YouTube, once again, as a media distribution channel to reach that same audience so that they’d see the apology. The only problem is that the original videos received well over 1 million views while the apology video (which has been available for just over a month) has received only about  3,400. Why? Because it’s not good.

I would have liked to have seen the judge take the sentence one step further and require the kids to produce a series of creative and compelling apology videos and then campaign to have their audience rate and vote on the best one. This would have raised the bar on the quality of the content, promoted the videos, and better exposed their target audience to their apology for doing something really stupid.

I’ll be curious to see how much the FITH apology video views go up after this morning’s spot on the Today Show:

Music and Metrics

With Coldplay now streaming, for free, their new album (which gets released for sale on June 17^th) it begs the question, what music is hot and how do you measure it? All I know is that I’m hearing less and less about “record sales” and much more about artists that have the most number of downloads.

This further underscores the fundamental change in the way in which media is being (and will be) distributed as more and more people turn to their computers and iPods/MP3 Players to consume music. Physical media like CDs will soon be a thing of the past and companies like Billboard, who rely on Nielsen Soundscan, for their metrics will find that digital downloads will comprise the largest share of their data.

“Band” Democratization

Journey’s new CD Revelation is released tomorrow. Outside of the fact that the album features 11 new songs, this CD marks the debut of lead singer, Arnel Pineda who was discovered by original band member and guitarist Neal Schon on YouTube.

From their December 5^th 2007 official press release: “I was frustrated about not having a singer,” explains guitarist Neal Schon, “so I went on YouTube for a couple of days and just sat on it for hours. I was starting to think I was never going to find anybody. But then I found THE ZOO and I watched a bunch of different video clips that they had posted. After watching the videos over and over again, I had to walk away from the computer and let what I heard sink in because it sounded too good to be true.”

This is yet another example of how technology (the web) has leveled the playing field by offering a platform for anybody to be seen and heard around the world – in this case a guy from the Philippeans whose cover band posted videos of themselves on YouTube. And as we can see from this video’s 1.7 million views, if your content (message) is compelling, then people will notice and listen (Marketers take note).

And check out Arnel’s big TV debut on Ellen last week as the newest member of Journey:

I hear they’ll be coming to the Boston area in August & September for a concert with Heart (Thanks Alex) – And I can’t wait. In the mean time, it looks like I'll be checking out Walmart to dowload their new album, tomorrow.