Monthly Archives: June 2010
Emily Bontje | Critical Mass Calgary
Two weeks ago, I received an awesome opportunity to attend The Art of Marketing Conference in Calgary, compliments of Critical Mass. I was actually so excited that I canceled a trip to B.C. with my mom! I had read about this conference in Marketing Magazine, and I knew that one of the speakers was Mitch Joel, whose social media blog I subscribe to on a daily basis. Nicole Armstrong blogged last week about her takeaways on brand promises and customer engagement (read her post). However, the message that resonated most with me came not from the social media experts or the young technology wizards, but from a man who’s been in the business longer than I’ve been alive.
Sir Ken Robinson is a 60-year-old British man with a dry sense of humour and a passion for passion. He didn’t come on to the stage with props and pizzazz, but with a limp and a story about his flight being delayed. And I instantly liked him. After five wonderful speakers of the day talking about “what’s next” and the future of marketing and Web 2.0 and why you “must be on Twitter”, Sir Ken got back to the core themes of creativity and finding your passion.
Sir Ken talks about “The Element” as “the point at which natural talent meets personal passion.” When you are in your element, you will feel the most inspired and achieve at your highest levels, unleashing your imagination and creativity to excel in your field. Now sure, we’ve all heard this before, but it’s just not feasible for us to all be rock stars and World Cup soccer players. We grow out of those dreams about the same time we stop shopping in the kid’s department. But this is where Sir Ken has something new to say.
If we’re talking about dreams… Personally, if I could have any job in the world, I would be on Broadway. I’ve been singing and dancing since I could walk, and nothing excites me like being center stage in full costume with bright lights shining and an audience hanging on my every word. So, when I started university four years ago, I had a choice: I could take the practical, safe road with a Business degree, or I could chase my dreams and pursue a music or performance degree. Although I was fortunate enough to have parents who would have supported me in any path, I chose business. Does this make me a sell out? I think not. And Sir Ken agrees.
I purchased a copy of his book The Element, and as Sir Ken was signing it I briefly explained my situation. His simple response, “But music is always going to be part of your life, isn’t it?” This is very true. I still sing in choirs, audition for every community theatre musical I can, and I recently returned from a 2-week trip to New York to study music, where I saw 10 Broadway musicals and visited 5 famous jazz clubs. By finding a career in marketing–which I love–I am allowed the opportunity to pursue music on the side, without the added stress of relying on it for my next paycheck. If I had chosen music as my career, I most likely would not have the opportunity to learn about the world of marketing. Not to mention CM is every bit as creative as any theatre group (minus the costumes and group choreography). Now, I seem to have found the best of both worlds. As Sir Ken would say, I have found my Element!
Now my question for you: Have you found your Element?
Emily is an Account Management intern in the CM Calgary office, working on Nissan and Infiniti accounts.
DJ Francis | Critical Mass Chicago
“Content strategy is brand new and we’ve been doing it for 15 years.”
This was the seminal quote from†the Web Content 2010 conference held a few weeks ago here in Chicago. People (read: clients and bosses) are giving our work credence, despite an ever-evolving struggle to plan for, create, monitor, and evaluate online content.
This sentiment gives voice to both a frustration and excitement surrounding content strategy.†And thus practitioners of library sciences, taxonomies, copywriting, sociology, psychology, and content strategy, itself, came together – to learn, commiserate, and plot a way forward for our burgeoning profession.
Smart Folks, Smart Lessons
Learning was central as it should be, with insightful presentations by content strategy notables like Kristina Halvorson, Rachel Lovinger, and Jeff MacIntyre. A few of the lessons that impacted me and the work we do at Critical Mass included:
- A content strategy methodology is beginning to firm up. Whether you call it “Plan, Create, Govern” or “Audit, Plan, Build, Grow” or another variation, the building blocks of content strategy are starting to become almost universal (pointing to the maturation of the practice).
- Content governance is a huge missing piece, especially for agencies. While it’s getting easier to sell the planning and creation elements, content maintenance seems to still be getting short shrift.
- There is a great opportunity to bring in younger content strategists. Spending my 32nd birthday at the first day of the conference, I was one of the youngest attendees and most certainly the youngest full-time content strategist. It will be interesting to watch an influx of Millennials†during the next few years who come naturally to social media channels and distributed content, but perhaps lack the “publishing” experience brought by the Boomers (and the potential sweet-spot offered to Gen Xers).
Despite those learnings and many more (I will be referencing the materials shared at this conference for a long time to come), I was struck by the perfect blend of vexation and opportunity, to get back to Pulizzi’s quote.
A Time of Huge Opportunity (And What To Do With It)
We are at an amazing cross-roads where our audience is receptive to our message. Now is the time to be selling.
Conferences like this offer the opportunity to commiserate, but I thought speakers and participants at Web Content 2010 were wise to acknowledge this sentiment, but quickly get back to the business at hand (namely: growing our businesses).
In his recent blog post, CM Executive Scott Shamberg answered some of the top questions he fielded at a recent forum. One of which revolved around making social media relevant for smaller-scale, local efforts. He defined the makings of a successful local-focused social media campaign as relevance. Specifically, “any offer or service that is relevant to me in my geographic world.” I absolutely agree with Scott. When localizing social media, relevance to the user’s life is above all the most important feature of strategy.
Considering what other guidelines are necessary, I’ve developed the SHARE framework to help you shape your future local efforts. By grouping relevance with these five strategic considerations (that just so happen to spell the word SHARE—one of the central drivers behind consumers desire to localize), a brand can create content that will be of value to its consumer at various important and specific geographic points throughout his day.
Save Time: Time is one of the most valuable resources we have and consumers have an insatiable appetite for time saving tools. Share content with your users that will help them accomplish their goals or manage their time better. A great example of this within my city is the Chicago Transit Authority’s Bus Tracker. I seldom give props to the CTA, however this tool allows users to answers the great unknowns of public transit including “will it be faster for me to wait for the express bus that stops where I’m standing?” In creating this simple tool, it’s obvious that the CTA asked the following necessary questions: 1. What will make my demographics goals more achievable when we know their location? 2. Where will I put content so that it is easy to find or access on the go?
Help: Localized and location-based social media content, when done well, will allow a brand to share almost altruistically within a branded strategy, while maintaining a human and helpful voice. This ideally fosters Online sharing without requesting it of consumers. Charmin’s Sit or Squat, is a very specific example of this. The location-based network is filled with information to help its users find a public toilet based on their location. This network is a natural fit for Charmin and gives seriously useful information for any civilized human looking to meet basic hygienic needs.
Apply Insights: When a brand builds its location-based campaign on what’s unique about its target, it can successfully foster a community of repeated users that will interact with and share relevant information. One local social program by Purina leverages the brand’s learnings on its community of pet lovers. Purina uses the Petcentric Places app to put its Petcentric community in touch with locations and resources to make their dogs’ lives better. Offering tips on everything from dog sitters and walkers to bars, restaurants and lodging that allow for four-legged visitors, this app has the potential to really deliver for its target. Based on iTunes ratings, there are a few complaints on the amount content and usability, but if time is invested by Purina and its community to develop a more robust set of tips this app will be perfect for the pet-minded.
Cindy Nelson | Critical Mass Executive
Last Thursday I attended the WWD Forum on Mastering Mobile Marketing, part three of WWD’s series on digital media http://www.wwd.com/wwd-summits/wwd-series-on-digital-media-2443804/. Over the course of the day, I listened to marketers from across the retail sector share how mobile fits into their marketing strategies, and how they’re integrating mobile into their overall marketing mix. The key takeaways for me were: 1) Mobile is truly changing the way that brands interact with consumers, and this change is largely being driven from the bottom up (consumers are challenging brands to evolve, not the other way around), and 2) The success of any mobile brand initiative can often be boiled down to a single, simple (yet all too frequently overlooked) principle: “know thy customer”.
Consumers are challenging brands to evolve
Consumers are using their phone as a device to gain confirmation from peers prior to purchase. I recently learned that today’s “second opinion” involves taking pictures in the dressing room, sending the photos to a friend, and if the response from that “trusted personal stylist” is positive, then (and only then) the credit card comes out. Smart brands are recognizing this trend towards buddy-shopping and co-browsing, and building parts of the shopping experience (both in-store, and online) around this new set of digitally-enabled social behaviors; they’re using their mobile initiatives to connect prospects and customers with their brands and with each other. But are they doing enough?
Ever heard of GotryIton.com? http://www.gotryiton.com/ An Accelerator Finalist at this year’s SXSW, Gotryiton is an online community that allows users to upload digital photos of themselves wearing outfits they’re thinking about buying. So the next time you buy an expensive pair of jeans, you have someone to blame!
Panelists agreed that as consumer needs evolve, so too must brand experiences. This is especially true of mobile. And especially now. At Critical Mass, we’ve become adept at recognizing the types of bottom-up changes that force evolution, and turning observations into insights that lead to extraordinary work for our clients.
Know thy customer
Deep knowledge of the customer was a consistent theme throughout the day. These marketers understand their customers! They understand the purchase process their customer segments go through and they’re using this knowledge to find unique opportunities for engagement. They’re monitoring usage of their mobile sites to understand changing behaviors. They’re building apps and developing content, and watching where and when the content is consumed.
Lindsay Renwick | Critical Mass Toronto
With Quit Facebook Day nearly a month behind us, I think it’s fairly safe to conclude that the 400 million-strong social network will likely live to see the end of the summer. Some users are still grumbling, but very few of them are actually leaving.
Oh Facebook, what happened to us? We used to be so happy together.
Something changed this year, of that there can be no doubt. Something besides the shifting privacy policies that angered the public and politicians alike. As Facebook’s users moved more of our daily communication onto the platform, our attitudes seemed to change toward it. It was no longer cool and new. It became simply a part of our lives, an expected convenience and a service provider, like the phone company.
Does anyone remember back in 2007, when the little juggernaut that could was still on the cutting edge? Entire cities vied to add the largest number of users in the shortest time. I clearly recall the brief, shining moment when Canada was Facebook’s fastest growing market. How we congratulated ourselves, how we supported the brand and gave our friends and families the ultimatum – join now, or forever lose access to my vacation pictures.
I suppose nothing lasts forever, and social media properties have tended in the past to have the lifespan of fruitflies. It makes sense that with the public’s ardor cooled and after weathering a few controversies, pundits should be anticipating Facebook’s pending demise.
Remember when the mythical issue of high-schooler flight was going to take Facebook down? Fickle youth, disenchanted by friend requests from their grandparents, were slated to disappear in droves and take their cred and the network’s raison d’être with them. Look at MySpace, we were urged, if you want to see what happens to a social network that loses touch with the kids.
Well, MySpace only ever really had the kids, so naturally when most of their 43 million-strong base flocked elsewhere it had little choice but to become “the abandoned amusement park of the internet.” Not so Facebook, whose multigenerational user base skews to the Head of Household segment so beloved by advertisers, and whose massive volume of users can easily handle shifts in the tens of thousands without significantly destabilizing the system.
Also, when the kids fled MySpace, guess where they went? Between September 2008 and September 2009, MySpace’s social network share dropped by 55% while Facebook’s grew by 194%*.
Nicole Armstrong | Critical Mass Calgary
Last week I had the pleasure of attending The Art of Marketing Conference with a few colleagues from Critical Mass. It was a great day for inspiration with an amazing line up of Guest Speakers:
- Chip Heath – author of Made to Stick
- Gary Vaynerchuck – author of Crush It and creator of Wine Library TV (http://tv.winelibrary.com/)
- Sir Ken Robinson – author The Element and internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources
- Mitch Joel – digital marketing expert and author of Six Pixels of Separation
- Sally Hogshead – author of Fascinate
- Max Lenderman – Director of OuterActive at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky and author of Brand New World
The key takeaway I took from this conference was how important it is to have a strong, unique & motivating force guiding the organization forward in an open, honest and caring manner, because the digital environment has revolutionized the way consumers & brands interact.
As I’ve written in the past, consumers are more in control of an organization’s brand promise than ever before, since word of mouth (WOM) is on steroids thanks to social media. I think Gary Vaynerchuck described how brands must adapt to this digital environment brilliantly when he said that businesses have to go back to small town business values – where customers are people you interact with directly and shouldn’t be treated like faceless numbers. Under this principle, if you don’t deliver on your promise, consumers won’t give you their business and they will make sure to tell everyone in their community about your shortcomings. However, if you do deliver on your promise and care for your customers, they will be proud to recommend your brand to everyone they come across.
To reap the benefits of creating strong brand advocates with extensive reach, brands must change their perspective on interacting with customers in this highly engaging digital world and focus on their purpose to become open, honest & caring. An organization’s purpose stimulates the brand promise. This promise must be captivating & relevant to customers as the market becomes more competitive to give reasons to select/buy your brand over another-especially as brands become more global increasing the competitive set. Sally Hogshead described this as the need to fascinate in order to captivate & win your customer’s attention. This unique point of fascination & intrigue not only attracts customers who appreciate what the brand is all about, but it also attracts talent to the organization who feel they can contribute & help the organization deliver and even overachieve on its brand promise.
