Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Facebook (apparently) plans to drive brands away from its site and (back) to their own online platforms (this just in via @planoma and Silicon Alley Insider quoting WSJ Blogs and the Facebook Developers Wiki).

One of the new features Facebook is currently playing with exploring is the Open Graph API that will allow webmasters to deck out any website with the tools previously reserved for Facebook fan pages. The API will extend Facebook Connect while being easier to implement.

From Facebook’s perspective, this move will strengthen its position as your one-stop gateway to the internet as well as lay the groundworks for a potential advertising network. For the user, it may not change all that much (except add to the confusion of your average non-geek onliner who thinks of their GMX webmail interface as “my internet”).

For brands … well. Of course, if you believe in the branding power of custom URLs, having that AND Facebook’s full feature set would be nice. And if your business model is in web-based services, content or ecommerce, driving traffic to your own site(s) is vital. But do I see the likes of Coca-Cola or Pepsi doing the full-stop u-turn to reallocate social marketing budgets to build a plethora of branded microsites? Erm. And even then, I wonder which of Facebook’s features are really intersting for owned media. Probably not the kind of applications that allow custom designs, discussion boards or payment within the limits of a Facebook page. Maybe tracking and analysis features - if they integrate well with or fully substitute existing free or commercial solutions.

From a marketing point of view, I don’t think that as long as Facebook is a relevant medium, brands can do without their own page. A social marketing strategy is very much an embassy strategy. If you want to communicate with people, you can wait till they come to you, but it’s better to have a premanent representation wherever they are - and to make sure you welcome them in and make them feel at home. And this includes Facebook as well as Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, wer-kennt-wen and any other place where your people hang out.

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Check out these photographic records of the heroines of the burgeoning women’s movement on indicommons.

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As more pressure is put on marketers and their agencies to do more with less, some of the most interesting opportunities for connecting with people come not from creating marketing campaigns, but finding new ways of creating value for consumers outside of the delivery of marketing messages.  This situation is an exciting new charge we feel today in our agency, as we look to find creative ways to have Brands participate in society with our consumers.  It’s not just reinventing ourselves as an advertising agency, but actually reinventing this reinvention into our begin a whole new kind of partner for our clients and their business.

Razorfish recently grabbed such an opportunity in their participation of a venture with Citigroup and Microsoft - linking content (in Citi’s case consumer data), with computing power (in Microsoft’s case) to create Bundle.

Interesting and inspiring - and I can’t wait to see where they go with this!  It also raises some fascinating questions in terms of what an agency model should be when the output is not a creative asset, but a business strategy, or even a new company.  I have had the chance to work on some projects like this with our clients, and I can honestly say it is as challenging and eye-opening as it is rewarding.  Check out the Bundle beta here.

Read about the venture here.

Source: AdWeek

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Kind of related to the previous post about Peter Kruse, now Rishad Tobaccowala reminds everyone how the digital age has brought on the need to look for talent in a different way. It’s builder talent. I love this sentiment because it strikes at the core of how I would define the difference between traditional thinking in communications versus the new thinking. You don’t just need people who are talented at saying something, but rather building something that delivers experiences for people.

So-called creative agencies which are not emulating this strategy will be left with an aging workforce that will try to be good at saying things that no one is interested in listening to.

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Download  here

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Clever Tostidos ad does something unexpected!

via @missmoss

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A lovely example of an act that inspires through its simple, human appeal and relevance.

Read all about it here.

(Those crafty Canadians!  :)  )

Thanks Mylene!

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Here’s how Nokia placed its name on the map for navigation devices:

The World’s Biggest Signpost from adghost on Vimeo.

It’s an interactive signpost, and also an act, kind of like an ambient, real-time Qype or Yelp. The Good Things signpost was entertaining and useful for people, while at the same time integrating Nokia’s product (Nokia Maps, Ovi, and the handsets) in an unobtrusive way.

Via Björn, via fubiz

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We rarely post stuff that’s German, except when we find Peter Kruse Gems like this one: on the obsession of trying to manage something that isn’t here yet and trying to make intangibles tangible.

Must see for our German readers.

Via Christoph Riebling

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Via @ghensel via Thorsten Konrad: Casey Neistat’s brief video documentary on the latest online fad cultural phenomenon, Chatroulette.

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

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