Deborah Schultz

Just when I thought it might be safe....

I see this.  Satchi's new campaign entitled: One Word Equity.

Now I pride myself on being a bridge builder and translator, so I am usual empathetic.  Heck, I am out there trying to educate how the new world operates, but I had just one reaction to this (probably emboldened by spending the weekend with  folks who "get-it").  I do indeed believe that branding is more important than ever [iphone anyone!], But, I mean---

Are you people nuts?!! THIS is what you come up with?

WARNING: short burst of RANT ahead [to be followed by rational thinking when I cool down}

• Have you learned nothing over the past few years about how HUMANS function in the REAL world? And the impact of technology in enabling this behavior?
  

• Is this your response to the growing wrenching bile & acid in your stomach that gets worse with the daily realization that you are becoming IRRELEVANT?!!

• Are you SO arrogant that you think you can OWN a word - OWN anything you have not PAID for? 

• Do you think it is OK to OWN a word? And then make a stupid Flash movie about it.

I am still fuming and must tear myself away from keyboard to do some work.  Read Brian and Umair's detailed observations &  rational thoughts till I return. I pity anyone on the highway driving slow in front of me in the fast lane today.

Aaaaah.

Measurement and vulnerability

Two words I never thought I would string together and yet that is exactly what seems to keep cropping up lately.

Chis Carfi has some great liveblogging posts from the Economics of Social Media conference today, [wish i could be there but alas I am networked out].

The topics and posts highlight  that although marketers are trying to 'get' the new landscape they are struggling.  Once again Rishad calls it like it is.

Three important points that I never get tired of reiterating:

• Control is an illusion
• Being vulnerable is essential
• New metrics & measurement are still elusive
  

There ARE alternatives to Banner ads - look around

Not a very surprising newsflash that I am huge fan of flickr and the flickr team.  Not only am I a long time passionate user  but I also often use the site as an example of how to 'get it right' from a customer experience and marketing perspective.  With flickr, the customer always comes first. No banner ads cluttering the flickr site, instead they are looking for more innovative approaches to monetizing the site.

Last week flickr launched their camera finder - and not a moment too soon - as I just happen to be in the market for a new digital SLR.  Seeing which camera my flickr buddies use makes a lot of sense to me.  It is not my only decision lever - but it is a great trusted starting point.  As for future sponsorship opportunities, I can  think of a ton [ping me Stewart..;] that surround the world of photography and are customer driven.  Smartly - flickr is putting a toe in the water.  I hope they test community response and set up some additional useful efforts.

I have always been surprised that there have not been more companies who have realized that the passionate community of flickr users is a great place to connect authentically with customers. There are rules to this connection - but it is such low hanging fruit - for the right company with the right attitude who plays by the community rules.

Thanks to Pete for the link.

Advertising is dead...long live advertising

Jeff Hicks, CEO of Crispin Porter + Bogusky on DMA News

“We think the future of advertising is great products that have marketing embedded in them"

This is hopeful.  Slowly uncrossing my fingers.

Then I read this paragraph and my excitement completely deflates (unclear if Hicks or the reporter is saying this):

"The role of advertising is to push consumers toward products. At the center is the product. Advertising is at the periphery, with packaging and customer relationship management and distribution as the layers between it and the product."

Shudder. This is just so wrong on so many levels.

At the center is the CUSTOMER and I don't want things PUSHED to me and I don't want to be MANAGED.   This strongly demonstrates the dramatic need to create new attitudes and language around how to interact with the customer.  This means redefining the traditional silo-ed roles of marketer, advertiser, pr, customer experience, product design.

It also raises a few serious questions:

• Is Crispin Porter now in the product design business?
• Are the Agency's and traditional marketers ready to shift their budgets and resources?
• Are they ready to bring in the talent necessary to shake things up and do it right?
• What is the best way to educate and bring along the 'old guard' or is it just a lost cause?
• When will people stop talking about subservient chicken as the answer to an advertisers prayers?

I am excited about all this fuzziness of roles, but many will be very very threatened.  Mark Hurst has as a great little example of how this will be impacted internally at client and agency.

You can also check out Chris Carfi posts directly from the Forrester Conference at which Hicks spoke. 

[thanks Mark and Scott]

The big guys join the party?

So while the blogosphere was speculating on the now confirmed Google/YouTube deal over the weekend, the annual ANA Masters of Marketing conference took place in Florida.  As reported in the NY Times today as well as on various marketing blogs, it seems that the big advertisers and marketers are waking up to the fact that the consumer is indeed in control. This probably has a lot to do with visions of dollar signs dancing in their heads.   

So, the big guys now know the buzzwords and are 'talking the talk'.  My fingers are crossed that they can indeed 'walk the walk'.

Page Views and Banner Ads alone will not cut it in the new marketing universe and there really are no shortcuts.  New metrics and a new cultural shift is needed. As per Pete Blackshaw's recent posts here, here and here (yes, I love Pete's stuff) and Steve Rubel's column in Adage discuss - engagement is more than 'asking your customer's to create content for you.

Until the INTENT of the customer is addressed (i.e. engaging with me when and how I want and need you to) I fear we will just be creating ever more Dove real beauty ads and derivative Mastercard Priceless commercials.  Hey, I am happy the big guys are taking note, but true change will only happen when CRM changes to VRM (I remain and am always a Doc protege).  As Kim Cameron eloquently put it:

The way I read Doc’s ideas, he’s talking about a real inversion of what advertising is and means.  Instead of suppliers advertising what they want us to buy (by spamming our attention), we’ll advertise what WE want to buy, and suppliers will make us offers.  Sounds a lot more efficient to me.  What am I missing?  Why doesn’t everyone want to do this?

Maybe because a lot of what advertising is about is getting us to want things we don’t know we want.  But even that can be done in other better ways too.  Like by producing cool things and having them explode into discussion.  Doc said this too, didn’t he:  Markets are conversations.

Let's see if the big guys have the patience required to 'get it'.  I remain hopeful yet skeptical. 

It sounds to me like the timing is right to get the geeks and the marketers together for an old fashioned "throwdown" on getting past jargon and discussing how to get this done to the benefit of BOTH sides..  Stay tuned!

Technorati Tags: advertising, marketing, usergeneratedcontent, intent, newmarketing, communitymarketing, engagement

Another Pew report.."What is Web 2.0"?

Wouldn't we all like to know.  Sometimes I think the definition simply means an internet company founded in the last two years.

For a real study check out the latest Pew Internet study - "Riding the waves of web 2.0".  [Full disclosure - I downloaded it - but have not read it, so cannot yet vouch for it]

Web 2.0” has become a catch-all buzzword that people use to describe a wide range of online activities and applications, some of which the Pew Internet & American Life Project has been tracking for years. As researchers, we instinctively reach for our spreadsheets to see if there is evidence to inform the hype about any online trend. This article provides a short history of the phrase, along with new traffic data from Hitwise to help frame the discussion.

You can also check out their other reports here.

Thanks to Steve for the heads-up.

Technorati Tags: PewInternet, reports & studies, web2.0

Marketing is like sex..not syphilis

"Everybody thinks they are good at it and wants to do it"  No kidding.

And now that I have your attention, credit for the headline grabbing line goes to Lance Weatherby (Enfuse Group) from his comment on David Hornik's recent post -"VC's are marketing geniuses" [ok, stop smirking...some of them actually are].

If you know David, you know he is being a bit self-effacing (what I love about him).  One important, often overlooked point that he writes about is that;

"The best marketing often springs out of the characteristics of the product or service being promoted. In some instances, those viral characteristics have been designed into the product itself."

Yes, yes, yes.

I have spoken about the importance of integrating marketing into product design in the past and the more I work with companies on "social media marketing" the more relevant this issue becomes. Christine Herron has a great summary post on his FOO Camp talk that compares marketing to syphilis. [Can we please stop referring to the important role of communicating the value of your company and products as an infectious disease]

No company today can afford to lob products over to marketing, pr, bizdev, or customer service.  Even if you are smart enough to iterate product development, marketing should be baked into every fiber of your organization.  And by marketing I mean - thinking of the customer first and how to ensure your are creating something viral and vital, not tacking it on later.  This is not a new concept. Seth Godin and others have been talking about "sneezing" and "viral marketing" for years.

So, what is new in the buzz, viral, sneezing universe? On the surface it may appear not a heck of a lot. Looks can be deceiving. Time to market is shorter and the viral tools available to you and your customers are multiplying every day. Amplifying all of this is that your customers have more control and power than ever and they are uniting - with or without you.

This is an important reminder to organizations of all sizes not to think in silos.  The basic ingredients (definitions and dividing lines) of marketing, product and bizdev need to be shaken up and stirred and combined in new ways to ensure the final product bakes up right!

Addendum:

I just noticed that Pete Blackshaw has a related post on the  increasingly blurred role between marketing & pr and how in the not too distant future;

"we'll see a host of brand spanking new titles emerge across the corporate brandscape that attempt to straddle (embrace, integrate, capture..however you see it) the tension, among them:

• Chief Communication Officer
• Chief Message Officer
• VP, Brand Equity
• VP, Stakeholder Relations
• Chief Marketing & Influencer Relations Officer

I could not agree more and I would add that another blurring area is between Marketing & Business Development. 

For anyone with customers...

Two great posts on the changing nature of your relationship with your customers and the need for new tools and new means of measurement:

Let me have your distraction by Doc Searls (which links to his other must-read post) "The Intention Economy". [yes, Doc - we need tools to address these issues or I fear we will be stuck in the old ways]

and

Pageviews are obsolete by Ev Williams.

What I absolutely LOVE about both of these posts is that they point to specific reasons and instances of why the old paradigms (yeah, sometimes buzzwords are a necessary evil)  just don't fit in today's economy.

SoaP..missing the point..again

I wasn't going to weigh in on the entire SoaP movie online marketing phenomenon because I think others have done a great job posting on this already.  However, over the weekend as the mainstream press started to label the same phenomenon they admired a few weeks earlier  as a failure, I started to get angry.  Even some of my more enlightened friends (Seth - c'mon not you too!),  are MISSING THE POINT. So here is my  $.02 to add into the mix.

It is not about the box office numbers. 

It is not about the plot or storyline or the end product.

It is about the audience (and it's key star) participating in the movie during the creative process.

There was enthusiasm and energy.  All you have to do is watch Samuel Jackson on Jon Stewart to know this is only the beginning of something very interesting.  In Web 2.0 geek marketing terms - Samuel Jackson was the Community Marketing guy. He loved the project, he was passionate, the producers were open minded and got the online world involved. 

If I was a movie producer (something I have always wanted to be when I grow up), I would learn from this.  Just imagine what you could do with a more mainstream movie and a really good plot!

The $10,000 question...answered

Andy started -- or rather restarted -- the great PR retainer debate.  I have always had trouble with the PR model as it currently stands. In today's environment - why get second hand "press coverage" when you can get the goods right from the horses mouth!   Plus, a lot of press get their stories and research from existing online communities these days. There is nothing more REAL or AUTHENTIC than enthusiastic customer. 

TRUST is currently a scarce commodity.  JP and  Chris  have recently discussed the trust issue. 

Chris sums it up:

In other words, the organizations that will win are the ones that most easily enable customers to build relationships and communities with people they trust."

I have argued that RESPECT must exist before you can gain trust.  Hiring a third-party as a mouth piece for anything just does not lend itself to trust.

So, my answer to the 10,000 questions is clear cut. If you are a start-up with limited funds [or even a larger company] HIRE a PERSON (or two) whose sole responsibility is to be a CUSTOMER ADVOCATE and reach out and engage and enable other stakeholder's online and offline - wherever they may be.

I don't care if you call this person a community manager, evangelist, relationship manager, rabble rouser, customer support, or an intern.  The key is finding the person with the right ATTITUDE for this role. 

Stay tuned for a follow-up post on the skills required in this role.  Attitude is just one. Jackie & Ben's story about Moleskin serves as a great example of the kind of relationship and interaction this person will have.

[Caveat to above: hiring a person and developing trusted relationships takes time - if you want quick hits, by all means focus ALL your energy on getting the attention of the FEW 'press and bloggers so you can get some ink.  Just remember, those same alpha bloggers and lead columnists will be the first to pull you off your pedestal if your customer's start complaining about you!]