Leo Burnett - Cultural Fuel

Image taken from: http://www.knowyourcell.com/features/568563/when_it_comes_to_checkins_ive_checked_out.html

It looks like there’s a new player in the game in the world of mobile location-based services, Uberlife. ‘Great, so what?’ is the first thing that might pop into your mind. These types of services have now been around for years and amidst the jungle of existing applications such as Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places, or SCVNGR, why should this one suddenly be worth talking about?

The truth is, the ever-evolving fleet of location-based services have been largely constrained by the simple fact that most only let you share where you currently are, which is of limited value to users. Think about it, once you’ve checked in to a place, there is often no longer any opportunity for others to come and meet you, all that’s left to do is for them to ‘like’ it or add a comment. For being a form of social media, the often obnoxious element of ‘hey, look where I am, and you’re not’ has a decidedly anti-social touch to it.

This is exactly where the London-based startup Uberlife comes into play, by offering a refreshing twist. Whilst their iPhone and Web app is built on a similar real-life, location-based framework as existing services, it’s more than just the basic check-in. The key differentiating factor is that you’re now broadcasting where you intend to be in the future, creating new events on the go and inviting your friends to ‘hang out’ in advance. These ‘hangouts’, which can be a quick beer after work, a spontaneous cinema trip, a last-minute coffee run or simply chilling in the park, can be followed on the network by your friends. They are able to check-in, add comments, and share images of the meet-up to create a nice little memorabilia of the event.

One might argue that there are of course existing mechanisms already in place that facilitate getting together, such as over Twitter and Facebook, but more often than not these go under in the fast paced way of life or are quite simply far too formal. Uberlife recognizes that meeting up with friends these days involves a great degree of pre-organization and frustrating messaging back and forth until a plan eventually comes together. In comparison, the app presents us with a spontaneous, simple and mobile means to bring people together that taps into and integrates seamlessly in today’s ‘on-the-go’ lifestyle.

Critically, this manages to address a fundamental need. After all, what use is a check-in if it can’t be spent and shared with friends? As opposed to sharing where you’ve checked in to, you’re now sharing plans about where you and your friends can check-in together. It aims to bridge the gap between the often remote nature of supposedly ‘social’ media platforms and actual real life socializing.

This clearly is far more relevant and interesting to not only users but also businesses and brands who may be willing to experiment with location-based campaigns and programs focusing on check-in rewards. From a business perspective, wouldn’t it make far more sense to send out offers to those intending to be at a certain place at a certain time, rather than once they’ve announced that they’re there? If businesses are aware of what you are intending to do and where you’ll be, relevant offers and promotions can be generated and implemented far more strategically.

Keeping in mind what Starbucks cleverly did with Foursquare and its Mayor specials, the future check-in could offer exciting opportunities for experimenting with novel ways of communicating with consumers. After all, surely businesses would be much more interested in the prospect of a group of people intending to show up, rather than simply knocking $1 off a Frappuccino to the single person that ends up being the Foursquare Mayor.

The real question remaining of course is whether or not these apps are actually able to generate business value, where one of the biggest hurdles to establishing themselves as valuable tools for businesses in the past, has been encouraging people to actually opt-in to geolocation. What is of foremost importance to avoid being another unclicked icon on the iPhone, is how engaging a service is and what value it provides users with. So far, in lacking a fundamental social element and raising the question of ‘so how do these services actually help you?’, the basic ‘check-in’ has failed deliver what can be seen as genuine ‘value’ or reward for users sharing their locations.

Another app that is looking to inject a more social element into the field is last years’ start-up We&Co, that has aimed to leverage the power of a simple ‘thank-you’. The iPhone app is designed to allow users to thank service professionals, like their favourite barista, hair stylist or bartender at places they visit. The focus is therefore no longer on solely the place through the check-in, but on the people, adding a distinctive human element to the service. Employees can respond to the thank you and encourage you to drop by again, where businesses can choose to offer discounts or freebies as incentives to regular and the most gracious thank-you’ers, creating further ways of connecting meaningfully with their customers.

When a quantifiable metric can be attached to positive encounters between a brand and its customers, this acts as direct reinforcement for employees to provide an even better service and for consumers to continue to proactively share their appreciation. In today’s cynical consumer environment, a positive reinforcement cycle that is built around enjoyable exchanges beyond simply places or prices, allows deeper connections and enduring relationships to be formed between businesses and their customers.

The overarching theme that is therefore becoming clear for the successful evolution of location-based services is the crucial need for them to incorporate a genuinely social component into the mix. It is only once you start looking beyond the limitations of the standard ‘check-in’ that these services could really play an intriguing and influential role in creating compelling and relevant consumer engagements through and with the smart phone. More crucially, it opens up the unique opportunity for technology to enable us to actually be truly social again.

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Remember the Tipp-Ex Bear? A campaign that was lauded for its ability to garner millions of views of Youtube, allowed people to interact with the brand and created awareness for the Tipp-Ex and rejuvenated the brand. Effectively, the attempt was to reposition the brand from a routine category to an entertainment category brand. Watch their case study, if you don’t know it.

If the idea was to entertain millions of people for a few weeks, it certainly worked. According to the agency’s case study film, sales went up 30%. Assuming this is true, it was a stunning sales success. However, the question remains: did it solve the business problem in a sustainable manner?

In a world that is more and more digital, correction fluid simply has a more fundamental business issue: no one needs it anymore. And, while the campaign did create awareness, it did not credibly claim a new territory for the brand in which its new role in a digital world became apparent to people. Even after this case study, would you look to office supply companies for entertainment? Probably not. As a result, people still do not know why they need the Tipp-Ex brand.

Along comes Edding, another German brand with pretty much the same problem. Highlight markers, too, suffer from the same business issue as our working lives become more and more digital.

Edding, however, choose a different route. Highlighting text with highlight markers, just like correcting type with correction fluid, is a routine office behavior, not a fun entertainment behavior. Instead of trying to reach awareness through entertainment, it focused on a competency the brand credibly had in analog times and brought it online. In other words, the brand is trying to solve the problems people have at the office and make their lives easier, just as decades before.

With their digital highlighter you can highlight text on website, save articles as PDF, share them on twitter or facebook. The website still calls it a “release candidate” and I hope Edding will include Dropbox, Evernote, delicious and other existing services, if they want people to actually use it. However, strategically, this direction tries to credibly solve for their business in the business they are in, instead of pretending to be something they are not.

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It seems like every company nowadays has taken use of a social media platform where they can connect with their customers. Even the local dentist around the corner from where I live has a Facebook page you can like! And it is fully understandable if you think about the opportunities related to this type of marketing; it’s minimal of costs involved (compared to traditional media), you can build and support your business’ image through the way you communicate, it’s an opportunity to create a dialogue with your customers compared to the traditional you-listen-to-me-now-monologue. Even if the dentist so far has only gotten 20 likes, it’s a start and for small businesses it’s important to be visible in order to generate new customers, and to even keep the old ones.

But if we look at the other end of the scale, the companies topping the Fortune Global 500; why should they bother with all this social media stuff when in reality the people they reach out to in this way is only a per mille of their whole customer base. Take McDonald’s for example, they have 64 million customers in their stores everyday, and when multiplied into customers per year… Well, with that secure flow of people buying their burgers why should they even care about their 10 million+ fans on Facebook?

And then we have Walmart; the ruler of the corporate world in terms of generated revenue, landing the top spot of the Fortune Global 500 for the second year in a row. When talking about such extraterrestrial numbers as Walmart’s revenue, can it therefore be that the resources they put into maintaining their social media channels in fact equals what they potentially will earn on the additional sales coming from their marketing efforts in these channels? When you think about it, they are already getting their (piece of the) pie in the areas where they’re in, so percentage-wise it can’t really be significant can it?

I read an article the other day and one of the comments left from one of the readers shared this point of view. The article was about Walmart’s Foursquare check-ins showing that they had a total of 149,000 check-ins in the Thanksgiving week and approximately 35,000 of those came from the US’ busiest shopping day the Black Friday. In the comment the guy stated that

“If every single one of the ~35,000 people who checked in at Walmart on Black Friday spent an extra $10 because of this check-in. (…) That would equate to an extra $350,000 of revenue for Walmart. For comparison, Walmart’s total annual sales number is over $400 BILLION. The impact of Foursquare would boost its sales by a whopping .0001%.”

I guess he has a point, and it almost seems like the big ones can even save money on cutting back on their social media involvement, so why shouldn’t they?

I would say a definite no, they should not. It’s not all about the money (yes, of course in the end it is, but bear with me) it’s also about securing the future sales. Having a platform where you can communicate, for better or for worse, is crucial. The communication will take place, you being a part of it or not. And no company would like to live through the scenario of BP’s Gulf of Mexico nightmare or the release of the two Domino’s Pizza workers’ Youtube video, not at any rate, but at least not without having a megaphone to use for damage control! So if you are my local dentist, McDonald’s, Walmart or anyone in between I see without a doubt more pros than cons for keeping that social media activity up.

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Apparently, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is doing some PR for itself. The age of social media has led to a blurring of the lines between marketing and corporate communications. In fact, so many things brands need to do nowadays puts even creative agencies in the territory of PR or vice versa.

The change agent being social media empowered consumers, the effort to redefine PR is quite aptly also a social media crowd-sourced effort in which people can submit their definitions on the PRSA website. A new definition (last updated 1982) may be overdue, but even so, the NYT speculates it may also be an effort to disassociate the industry from the notorious PR Eff-ups of the last couple years:

Among the more notorious examples are BP’s mishandling of the aftermath of its accident in the Gulf of Mexico; Facebook’s hiring of a public relations agency to try generating articles that would criticize the privacy practices of its rival, Google; how ChapStick increased complaints about a new campaign, which asked consumers to “Be heard at facebook.com/ChapStick,” by repeatedly deleting negative comments about the ads from the Facebook page; and how Netflix lost hundreds of thousands of members with a plan, later rescinded, to divide into separate businesses.

Nevertheless, I wonder how an official redefinition can help. In the de facto world of the communication business, PR is no longer the top-down message manager of yesteryear. Just like ad agencies cannot be the top-down message creators of yesteryear any longer.

Making this fact official may help in giving the industry a bit of common purpose and feel-good. Something, that ad people have, frankly, been kind of struggling with for their profession as well. How fitting then that its the PR folks taking the lead on this, staying true to the old PR mantra: If you don’t like the conversation, change it.

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My dear ex-colleague Gerald Hensel has made some smart observations about lifestyle blogging having become such a normal part of brand activation strategies that its use has become somewhat, well, meh. While a few years ago, we would have pushed brands to embrace blogger-vetting of their lifestyle brands for credibility, it has become more and more a questionable practice at this point. Says Mr. Hensel

What was once a crazy and very different (very earned media) way to interact with this strange new world of social media has changed. Lifestyle bloggers have successfully become preferred members of the royal household of major car, fashion, and entertainment brands.

Mr Hensel cautions that this development is just a gradual improvement of our definition of paid media. And, for sure, the “paid media” part of this assessment seems like a correct assessment. After all, bloggers receive goods and services for their voice and reach.

However, I wonder if we should call this an improvement at all? If more and more earned media becomes just slightly improved paid media, we are, in some sense, back to square one, and people will unmask this development, and brands will once again risk their opportunity to create credible content experiences.

Hensel finishes his opinion piece by saying

We have a new class of bloggers. And this new class enjoys the industry’s growing interest in their services and knows what it has to ask for to stay happy.

True. And let’s just remember that these bloggers are where they are not because of the industry’s interest but because of people like you an me. And it is easier and quicker to squander this trust than you think. This fact isn’t helped by the tendency of Brand Management or Digital Marketing folks still inadvertently focusing on blog reach as main strategic metric instead of blog credibility or other grassroots soft metrics. So, when you do you blogger outreach, be sure of how well vetted your blogger outreach actually is with actual customers.

Read the whole thing here.

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Glee celebrates it.  Austin wants to stay that way.  Apple embraces it.  But what can marketers learn from being different or even a little weird?

In this brief TED talk, Derek Sivers explores how weird can just be the existence of the opposite of what you’re expecting, given your past experience and circumstance.

I left this talk wanting more, more, MORE!

There are in fact several lessons to be learned from being outside the mainstream, and being willing to embrace the weirdness within and without you.

1. There is Purpose. There is a fearlessness in being exactly who you are when there seems to be no one else even remotely similar.  There’s a reason why ‘blue oceans’ exist, and it has to do with the pack mentality that most business unfortunately operates under.  Where most see a ‘blank space’ as no opportunity, some see no competition.  But knowing that a specific uncharted territory is your destiny requires a deep-rooted knowledge and belief in what your purpose is, and a comittment to seeing that purpose through.  It’s a kind of belief in yourself, your co-workers and your product/service that can guide all that you do - your North Star.  Because Weird knows where it’s going.  Weird doesn’t look over its shoulder.  Weird looks straight ahead.
2. There is Differentiation.  Nothing sets you apart like a viewpoint or look or functionality that shows that you have a completely different approach to solving a problem.  This is an important place where retro parts ways with weird - because a retro feel is also ‘against the grain’, but it tends to stay in line with pre-established aesthetics, which can allow lots of different brands to try to tap into its energy.  But Weird can never be mistaken for another Brand.  It makes its own sauce, and always has distinctive flavor.  Copycats have no power over Weird.
3. There is Freshness.  A viewpoint that is not apparent to everyone at first glance that can break through established patterns.  You may have to come at a problem or customer or shopper situation from an angle that you haven’t thought of before.  You may even have to dismiss some established beliefs about what types of solutions may exist.  In the end, you may need to explain a bit just why you chose to make some decisions that you did.  And those decisions may make the final product or experience something that makes you stop and think, because it’s not using the same old same old shorthand for looking at the world that everyone else is using.  And that’s a good thing for Weird.  Because Weird wants you to listen - to try to understand.  Weird wants to bring you along for its strange ride and come to embrace it.  Because Weird is not following a trend - it’s creating one.  Do you want to join?
4. There is Vision.  In order to showcase your weirdness, you must convince others that you have the right idea and perspective.  And this persuasion only comes with a vision of the world or market that you can share with others in a way that they can come to embrace.  This is where it gets tricky for most creatives and marketers, as they think all they need is a bizarre approach or tagline, but they neglect to discover and preach the strange logic that makes your weird approach the right one.  Weird isn’t doing anything the wrong way.  It’s doing it the right way in a wrong world.

What weirdness can you bring to bear to change your perspective on your market, product, service or customer experience?

I’m thinking of having a Weird Summit.  Anybody interested in speaking at it?

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Interesting quick conversation among creative leaders about the merits of campaigns in this day and age. Luckily, the group quickly settled on the fact that it isn’t about the word campaign, but about doing something to change how brands tell their story.

My favorite was Jimmy Smith in this video who just said it like it is without reading too much into a useless discussion about terminology. However, it is quite understandable or even useful to make things into adversaries, as in this case campaigns. Sometimes it helps getting to new ways of doing things.

Via Tim Büsing’s personal viewing suggestion. Thanks Tim!

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I know it’s late, but after all the emotional buhaha and candle-lighting I finally just came across a refreshing take on Steve Job’s legacy from October 6th on SF Weekly. Says Dan Mitchell:

What’s more astonishing still is that Jobs can evoke such feelings despite the fact that he could be, well … kind of a prick. That’s another of his legacies. In recent decades, we’ve finally come to fully realize that even pricks can do great things, because we are all, to one degree or another, pricks.
It all comes down to why we are pricks. If it’s for the right reasons, it can be excused, even applauded.

As a proof, the author uses the fact that those people who support the anti-capitalist “Occupy Wall Street” Movement are the same ones who are dear fans of Steve Jobs, one of the most Insanely Rich Capitalists ever. True, and usually true of geniuses. Pablo Picasso, Miles Davis, and - come to think of it - pretty much all the geniuses in Steve’s “Think Different” campaign were pricks (I dunno about Ghandi, to be honest). But they all cared enough that the world allows them to get away with it, because the return of having these pricks is bigger than not having them.

Congrats to Dan Mitchell on finding the guts to say it like it is in a moment when some Apple Fanboys get all teary-eyed building altars of remembrance.

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The interwebs have been full of eulogies and tributes to Steve Jobs - but some of my favorite articles have been the ones that talk about what people learned from the man behind the Apple.  Because you don’t have to like or own his products to see and respect the many lessons he learned and principles he lived by.

My favorite (and I realize that this might look like an odd choice) was this: 10 Lessons The Restaurant Industry Can Learn From Steve Jobs.

Ok - I know - I’m not in the restaurant industry, and probably never will be, but you can’t tell me that these don’t apply to your everyday work and couldn’t make things better for everyone.

The customer-user experience trumps everything else

Keep the brand simple and contemporary

Get inspired by the small things

No man or woman is an island

And list goes on and on…

It’s sad to have such an innovative leader pass away young, but it may be a comfort to some that he leaves a legacy of powerful business practices we can all learn from.

Photo: Zimbio

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Recently Netflix in the US changed how their business model works, and in the aftermath they have experienced a steady stream of abuse in the media (here, here, here, and you get the idea), and significant losses in share price. The noise is mainly the sucking sound made by tribes of angry subscribers leaving after price hikes and planned changes to the service (including splitting the service into two separate companies).

What’s interesting about all the hullabaloo, is that some very real principles about what customer service has become are starting to be codified, using the company’s missteps as object lessons of what not to do.

1. Get inside your customer’s heads when it comes to value. You have to do your homework to understand how the price-value equation works for your customers.  Just because there is a way for your planned changes to drop the price for one element of your service, doesn’t mean that your customers view your service that way. It’s like the opposite of how bundling works - you can charge more for bundled services as long as the customer sees a discount hiding in there.  By unbundling their products, NF gave their customers the reverse stress of seeing a full-price paid for each service, rather than a deal.

2. Realize that your best customers don’t care about your business model. It may be obvious to you why you’re making changes to your service or structure, but keep in mind that users see you (hopefully) as a solution to a problem that they have, not an enterprise with a long-range plan.  If you simply have to make a change, then be prepared to show the users how it benefits them directly, not just why it’s good for you.

3. Don’t underestimate the need for continuity amongst your users. Understand that if you’ve done your job right, then your customers feel that THEY own your brand, not the other way around.  There are so many great examples of how angry people can get in this regard: Gap’s logo gaffe, recent Facebook changes, and the list goes on and on.  It’s not that you can’t ever change things successfully, but you have to be sensitive to how it impacts your user community.

4. If (or more likely, _when_) you have to apologize, make sure that you sound humble. It can be grating to read an apology that reads defensive and seems to imply that the reader doesn’t ‘get it’.  Try to sound more like you’ve learned something, rather than you’ve been misunderstood.

Have you learned any other painful nuggets of wisdom regarding customer service for your product or service?

Photo: David Armano, on Flickr

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