Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Check out this Awareness Networks Article about General Mills and their blogger outreach efforts.

It’s a good read, but I was struck by just how good a job GM has done in acting ‘like a blogger’ with the blogging community -

1. Ensuring that they offer value. Kudos to them for recognizing that not everyone is interested in just having their voice ‘bought’, but making them feel special, by treating them in a special way.

2. Being fans of the bloggers, and giving props to them when appropriate.  Bloggers love FEEDBACK.

3. Staying involved, and creating opportunities to lengthen the conversation and relationship.  Once again, showing that the tools and learning from doing CRM can come in mighty handy in our wired world.  Connections matter.

Well done!

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In a recent post on Retail Customer Experience.com, Jeff Weidauer speaks about how mobile couponing is heading in the wrong direction.  He references the fact that marketers trying to replicate a coupon bar code on mobile devices can be compared to Henry Ford’s famous comment that if he had asked the public what he should build they would have told him - “A faster horse.”

While I agree with his well-thought-out points on the dire situation of mobile coupon display technology, I think the revolution is almost here - where the mobile channel becomes a serious contender in the value chain.  And it all comes down to customer behavior (just like it always does).

Couponing has never been ideal for marketers or the public - with most coupons distributed willy-nilly in broadcast print media, and the vast majority of them never used.  And people hate having to remember to clip and carry - not even willing in most cases to print at home with the slew of online coupon outfits.

Marketers also have to do a careful dance with couponing - realizing that they will unwillingly subsidize a portion of purchases that their loyal consumers would have already planned to make.  And the higher the value, the more possible that they will shift the ideal price point in the consumer’s head for the product or service.

But when couponing is thought of differently, and more personally, we can get to a place where it starts making sense for everyone.  For marketers the only realistic position is personalization - if they can’t customize the coupon value for the individual, then they don’t have any way to assist in developing any real relationship with the person.  Once you are committed to personalization, the mobile channel starts to look more and more like the right place to be, and if you maintain focus on ease of use for the user, you’ll avoid the replication of real-world ‘Faster Horse’ mentality that the article takes issue with.  For retailers, they will continue to push for solutions like Kroger has, that tie manufacturer value-off deals to their existing loyalty cards - creating frictionless experiences for the big chain shoppers.

Via: RetailCustomerExperience

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I’m loving the video responses from the Old Spice guy.  You can take a look at the commercials here but the one below is actually a response to a tweeted request -  a guy asked the brand icon to help him propose to his girlfriend.

The Old Spice Guy answers tweets to the Brand’s Twitter account with custom videos - a nice use of engaging media for entertaining and extending your brand.  And it helps that media outlets are LOVING this campaign.

Check out all his custom videos here.

Via Mashable

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Great addition of in-context interactivity from Uniqlo - very inspiring.

UNIQLO LUCKY SWITCH from HN on Vimeo. via Stephen Riley

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We are often asked whether or not a Global Brand should have just one presence on Global social media platforms. For instance, should there just be one Facebook page for your company?

Facebook prefers to have global brands only have one presence, and says that multiple presences fracture brands, and there are clear benefits to having one central presence -

• Larger numbers of fan/followers and comments – which can showcase the popularity, breadth and power of global brands
• Brand Temperature - a place where the ‘Global Pulse’ of the brand can be felt
• Consistent messaging – which is more easily centrally managed
• Efficiency and scale – in that fewer, more central teams are required for development and management of assets – which can allow smaller markets to get cheaper access to better content than if they had to create it just for their market.

And bear in mind that local promotions and communications can still be done, using market-based status updates and custom tabs that allow for users to select their market and get local content – making the page “Glocal”.

Many brands, however do not choose to implement a global page, but instead (or IN ADDITION TO) use local or market-restricted pages due to complexities like

• Operations - the challenge of planning and executing across markets can be one of the biggest hurdles companies face in creation and management of global platforms, due to the organization needed to corral Brand managers across markets into a unified strategy and editorial calendar.  Along with a strong central agency, some specialist partners can help with planning and implementation.
• Moderation – who will remove offensive posts and users who abuse the page or page visitors?  Moderation guidelines must be set centrally, but we recommend use of local or regionalized community management to ensure that fluent language speakers can catch nuance and hidden needs.
• Escalation – the community management action is generally well equipped to handle escalation, but many markets do not have a Consumer Affairs group ready to be the recipients of complaints or issues from this new channel.
• Legal/policy restrictions – legal variances exist for how companies must treat User Generated Content, and these policies and restrictions are still an emerging area for legal – standards are not fixed yet.
• Product availability – users may be upset when made aware of variances in products by market.  If you have starkly differentiated product lines (Diet Coke versus Coke) or consumer segments (your product fans versus your F1 team fans, moms versus kids), a unified presence may not make sense.
• Relevant content - Good old-fashioned local relevance can be a big factor.  Including language concerns, and if local promotions are a large focus of the page, you may still have some markets not served by global promotions, which can create unhappy users.  Again, a custom tab can help in this case.

Starbucks, for example, has a global site, but offers redirects to international local sites for increased relevance.  Adidas offers a local customization page on their global page, but you can also find Adidas Running, Basketball, and other specialty sites as well.  The oft-discussed Coke maintains one main, fan-powered site, and local market sites do not appear to take advantage of any centrally built applications.

Twitter also presents challenges since localization depends on users turning on location settings or a full profile - a rarity on that platform.  But that will be covered in another post!

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Interesting 3-minute video from Kraft Lunchables:

I think it’s a good use of online video (the length is just right for a nice solid snack, even though it was apparently designed as a cinema commercial), and an interesting way to drive to their Field Trips For All promotion.  But should they have lied to those kids? 

Via: Omar Khan Via BrandFreak

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OK, some people may call it tech-porn, but it’s really really cool.

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Stretching the idea that your average person is gunning for an endorsement deal from their products and services - Shortbord launches today!

It has good integration with Twitter and Facebook (but who doesn’t?) but I’m not sure that the people who do these kinds of things for money are really the right people to represent brands.  How many times would you read the status updates of someone who was more interested in getting paid for their endorsement than connecting with you?  For how long would they remain your friend?

For Cause Marketing, I think it has potential, simply because the updates are less annoying and interruptive, but Brands should remember that in order to get good ‘friends’ online you have to _act_ like a good friend.

via Thrillist

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A new article from TechCrunch outlines the current fight between Zygna and Facebook on the Credit System that they prefer (require) payments to go through.

The fight is interesting in that Facebook clearly would like to benefit from some of the amazing spend that some loyal users are throwing at the Zygna platforms, but also in regards to Brands who may wish to get in on the action.  When the payment platform that Facebook prefers/requires includes a cut for the ‘house’ then Brands have to think twice about playing.

We’ve spoken about the cost of participation on social platforms before, but this discussion also raises a few new questions about how to measure actions taken on the platform.  We can imagine some of the possible benefits for Brands working with Facebook to utilize, offer and redeem credits - whether or not those credits are bought, or earned through engagement on the platform.  After all, if the value of the experience that we are offering is great enough, why would some virtual currency not change hands? Rewards for positive behaviors may extend to offering these virtual benefits, which will then require more scrutiny as to their ROI than some current offerings/rewards schemes.

Via: TechCrunch

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I just read an interesting article from Augustine Fou over at ClickZ about Digital being at the root of modern advertising, and it seemed to resonate with some discussions we had been having in the Frankfurt office over the last few years.

The point is not that everything begins and ends with a website/banner/facebook page, but rather the cultural impact made by the rise of all our digital options for living.  And it’s not that people live their lives online, but rather that people use digital ‘properties’ to do so much STUFF in their lives, even when they don’t think they’re ‘online’.  You use digital technology when you pay for gas with a card.  You use digital when you check the movie times on your phone.  You use digital when you Google the actors in a TV program you’re watching. You use digital when you watch a screen in a store while you wait to check out.  Your TV is as digital as most computers are.  It’s kind of everywhere, and you relate to it and use it, even if you’re not actively searching for information about a product or service.  Ultimately, there is more and more human behavior that is linked, or tracked, or enabled by digital properties. And due to the Request/Receive nature of digital properties, this behavior can be leveraged to understand needs and desires.

The value of this information about behavior (digital breadcrumbs left in our modern world) can’t be overemphasized.  Integrating digital at the core of marketing activities allows for unprecedented analysis of data related to how people interact with digital properties, making the case for more efficient and effective work, especially when it is designed from the beginning to take advantage of human insights and behavior.

I’m not sure I buy that Digital is the center, but I prefer to think of it as a key element of the modern human landscape, rather than a channel, for sure.

Via: Stephane Grunenwald @sgrunenwald on Twitter

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