Monthly Archives: August 2009
You sir, are not my friend.
I picked up my voicemail messages on Sunday evening to find a call from a nice sounding man trying to sell me some sort of holiday package. He stated that he got my information from one of my Facebook friends. This angered me. I quickly deleted said “friend”. I have to admit that I had a quick moment of nostalgia when I received the message, but I quickly checked the irritated box once I heard why and how the silver voiced man had reached me. Needless to say, my experience was not a positive one and I lost a “friend” in the mix.
Experiences – we all have them. Hundreds of them. They define our likes, our loves and our lives. Some experiences are good, some bad, some are even questionable, but what we care about are the valuable ones because they happen on OUR terms. We (consumers) have come to expect the instant provision of service, information and entertainment on our terms and not on the marketer’s terms.
What’s a marketer to do?
Listen to your audience. Get to know what they really feel about your brand. No, what they REALLY feel. You may be surprised what you hear – good and bad. There are some free social monitoring tools that can help with this process, but if you only listen for a small amount of time you will find yourself back at square one sooner than you can tweet about the experience. Build a solid foundation for the future. Take the time and invest in a tool that will help you get ahead.
Mr. Silver Voice may have irritated me no matter what, but what if he changed up his approach and spoke to me in a different channel using a different message? I just got back from a wedding in Oklahoma and tweeted about it. If he was listening and approached me in a different manner, I may not have had the same emotional reaction. Being equipped with the right messaging in the right place when the consumer chooses to engage is being ON DEMAND.
The creation of an On Demand Framework is essential
Without a framework, most marketers tend to start with the tactics, focusing on the hottest new channel, tool or gadget, without thought into how, who and why they are there. So where should you start? We here at Critical Mass have outlined seven principles for being an On Demand brand to get you started.
Be…
1. Insightful – Know your audience. What do they like? What is their online behavior?
2. Remarkable – Stand out from the crowd. Use emotion to connect with your audience. Let them know you understand them and can make their lives easier and/or more enjoyable.
3. Valuable – Getting someone to engage with your content is the first hurdle, but how do you get them to return or engage with you again? Give them something of value. Make it about them, not you.
4. Dynamic – “2.83 million pieces of new content are posted every day.” (Nielsen BuzzMetrics) Don’t be part of the clutter; create a path that is uniquely yours.
5. Portable – Engage with the consumer wherever they are, at any time. Consumers are looking for you – be there to greet them.
6. Conversational – Online media has transformed into a social and interactive experience. Brands must participate in the conversation. Consumers now expect it.
7. Everywhere* – Consumers don’t see the difference between channels. They do not care nor do they want to understand your online strategy. They just want to find what they are looking for when they want it. Simple. Be where your consumers are. Use insights to make these decisions.
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As Infiniti’s global Digital Agency of Record, we’re thrilled to share the news that we just launched a new global brand site for Infiniti (www.infiniti.com). To support Infiniti’s expansion into new geographic markets, the site projects a consistent brand image globally while at the same time driving visitors to Infinti’s regional sites.
Embodying the Infiniti brand promise of “inspired performance,” infiniti.com delivers an immersive online experience that draws the consumer into stories around each of Infiniti’s brand pillars and showcases the product through a slick 3D brand lens. Papervision was utilized as a key technology to bring the experience to life through a tactile navigation. Beyond ensuring the brand’s visibility within existing, new and seed markets, the new site serves the essential function of delivering users to the right regional site at the right time.
Critical Mass also redesigned Infiniti’s Middle East site (www.infiniti-me.com) to bolster Infiniti brand’s presence in the region.
We’re fortunate to have a great partnership with Infiniti and will continue to keep you posted as new intiatives launch!
This afternoon CM is hosting a webinar entitled, “Distributing Brand Experiences: How to Reach Customers Who Wont Sit Still.”
Please join us for a lively conversation that starts from our fragmented digital landscape and journeys through the demanding online behaviors of your consumers. Scott Shamberg, SVP, and Allyson Hohman, Director of our Experience Distribution group will share some of CM’s unique thinking to help navigate that landscape and reach your targeted consumers on their own terms.
Join this Webinar from 2-3pm CST this afternoon. RSVP Here
Details:
Join the WebEx HERE
Follow the Prompts and Enter Password: Welcome1
Telephone Dial In: (866) 234-0247
ID: 695532
*If you aren’t able to join… follow #sitstill (or @criticalmass) on Twitter for key insights and memorable takeaways.
Among the technologies that benefit parenting, webcams are gaining increasingly more ground and not necessarily for the obvious reason of monitoring the kids remotely. With a service like Skype, technology is used in ways that have strong emotional implications, and can create more meaningful experiences for families that have to spend time apart.
Curious recently asked moms in the ShopTalk research community about their use of technology in parenting, and here are some of the things we found out. Stay-at-home moms say that Skype has allowed them to feel less isolated at home and enabled their partners to be more involved in parenting.
“I always have my computer nearby, so I can stay in touch with my husband. My son (6 months) and I chat with him on the webcam via Skype almost every day. It is amazing how easy it is to see him when he is halfway around the world. The webcam has allowed my son to still see his daddy regularly and not forget who he is.” (Megan, 29)
Working moms love this technology because it alleviates some of the tensions arising from the struggle between motherhood and career. Many said they used to feel guilty for not spending enough time with their young children. But being able to connect with them from work through Skype has allowed moms to be more present in their kids’ lives and experience their growth.
“When I was working full time, I was unable to see and bond with my son during the day and it drove me nuts not being able to check in from time to time. Taking time off work or constant calling was sort of disruptive and annoyed everyone around me. After getting a wireless camera I was able to check online whenever I wanted and see how he was doing. When the technology got better, rather than just a one way feed, where I was the only one able to hear and see, both of us could see and interact with each other.” (Jen, 26) (more…)
I’m inspired by all of the industry chatter about the impact of social on search. Last week, I read Jasmine May’s post on OneUpWeb’s study about how consumer generated content is influencing search behaviors. While the news is definitely insightful, it’s important to understand each social media tool as a separate beast, each having its own unique impact on your brand’s “findability” online.
Let’s start with twitter. Although this tool was designed to create and build relationships, it does have an SEO value. I recently sat down with Allyson Hohman (CM’s super-smart Search Director) and got her perspective: “The real time feedback from Twitter is slowly, but surely changing how people conduct a search and, ultimately, what results they will find.” In addition, twitter is optimized as its own destination, as distributed content becomes increasingly important to branded messaging and community relationships.
Together, we came up with the following 15-point twitter SEO checklist:
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Handle. Is it something people search for?
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Brand Name. May or may not be the same as handle. Is this displayed as searchable content? (tip: no abbreviations or brand acronyms)
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Bio. Is it relevant? Does it say why your brand is there? Does it include influencer buzz words?
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URL. Is your brand linking to your twitter URL in company blogs and sites? (and vice versa?)
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Tweet Copy: First Words. The start of each tweet (40-45 characters) is factored into each tweet’s title tag, including the account name, and however many characters are left go to the beginning of the actual tweet. (tip: pack the punch in the first 20 characters if possible (more…)
By Johnathan Bonnell and Jason Theodore
In our last post, we discussed how technology has closed the gap between consumer needs and product creation. The result is the ability for consumers to be more deeply involved in the product ideation and creation process than ever before. But why does co-creation matter?
Why care about co-creation: ideas, free, and market leaders
1. There’s no shortage of ideas: co-creating provides a new avenue for consumers to share their ideas, and a new “idea stream” for producers to tap into. It can also serve as a live testing ground for ideas that come from within a company’s walls. Dell’s Idea Storm has received nearly 12,000 posted ideas and implemented 350, while P&G’s connect & develop program has influenced over 35% of their new products in market.
2. It’s in the “free”: People are using their personal time to interact with a brand, to have discussions with like-minded consumers about a brand, and the companies are only paying for the venue. In addition to the tremendous volume of ideas being submitted, the amount of discussion taking place within idea streams is just as large. In both of these scenarios, consumers are choosing to spend their own personal time interacting with a brand, and companies don’t have to spend millions on advertising to distract someone for (hopefully) 30 seconds of their attention. Some My Starbucks Ideas have received over 1000 comments and their site has had over 2 million visitors since November 2008.
3. Co-creation could lead to market leaders: Johann Fueller and Eric Von Hippel, from the MIT Sloan School of Management, recently put out a report titled Costless Creation of Strong Brands by User Communities: Implications for Producer-Owned Brands. Their focus was to understand the emergence of community brands (a group of people who share similar passions and form a group identity, logo and brand name to symbolize this common bond) and their impact on traditional commercial brands. Near the tail end of their study they posed a very important question “Are community brands and commercial brands antagonists or complements?” and then showed us the results from a hypothetical choice experiment: 78.2% of respondents preferred a co-developed and co-branded product. This blew any singularly produced manufacturer brand (15% preference) or community brand (1.9%) out of the water. The study showed that a community brand contributed authenticity, identity and high-use expertise which was complemented well by a commercial brand’s strong product development and production capabilities. Consumers and brands could potentially co-produce and co-brand a product that has significant market potential.
