Author Archives: Len Kendall
Let’s assume that one of the UK’s largest broadcast networks like iTV decided to stop all advertising efforts for Britain’s Got Talent. Would they cross their fingers and hope people talked about the shows around the water cooler at work? Would they hope that enough people added the show to their DVR list while it was being promoted heavily? Or maybe, they would wish for a 47 year old woman who would sing a song that was heard by millions?
Reports from Mashable show that Susan Boyle’s video is on track to reach 100 million views (not counting replays on talk/new shows, news shows, etc). What’s the implication here? Britain’s Got Talent received the equivalent of a super bowl sized audience because they were lucky enough to host a venue with the potential for amazing content. The show didn’t even have to create it. It simply established and promoted the venue. The formula we witnessed in this situation is:
Companies are much like people. They like to talk about themselves. Also like people, they sometimes forget to praise the brilliance of others. There are two observations that the Critical Mass twitter profile receives quite a bit: 1) A lot of great links are shared. 2) Most of those links are to other people’s work. Those two comments prompted a thought which resulted in a sizable response:
This concept doesn’t just apply to Twitter, it easily translates to various content-producing social networks, but for the sake of this short case study, let’s keep it to just one.
Participation: Twitter requires a certain frequency of communication to be considered an “active member.” Even if it’s 4-5 a day, you’re hitting enough people to make your presence known. A single entity (outside of media outlets) generally doesn’t produce enough content everyday in order to have 4-5 things worth mentioning to promote itself. The subsequent reality? If you want to tweet, you need to tweet something created by someone else.
Reciprocation: People who share content with others, generally want those others to also share that content with another set of people. It can come in the form of a “retweet” or a link to a blog post. Whatever the method, when we distribute information, we want that information to snowball among the rest of a given audience. In order for that to take place you need a community of people who are willing to share your content. That community of sharers grows exponentially if you are also actively sharing their content in reciprocation. If you’re not, then you need to be an absolute leader in your field to blindly receive praise and pass-along.
Modesty: Stemming from the above, even if you ARE the absolute leader in your field, by not sharing the thoughts of others you are indirectly making the implication that your thoughts/products/services are better than everyone else’s. That could very well be true, but arrogance can cost you the attention of those who genuinely would want to hear what you have to say. Share information. It sends the message that you value other’s time as much as they should value yours.
Originality: After you’ve established yourself as an entity that contributes to the community you’re having a conversation in, remember to balance goodwill with originality. Sharing other’s links too much can be detrimental to a twitter brand as well since it may lead some to think you lack originality. Make sure that your reciprocation always has a nice share of your own original thoughts.
Thanks to @jasondrohn @Stuartcfoster @jamiecalder @KWhite16131 @louiebaur @sarahkatharine@PaigeCalvert @mthinker @mattDavidson @NicoledeB @TimMoore for passing along this thought.
Preface: This article is written by and addressed to marketers. While it certainly addresses very serious questions in the publishing industry, many pieces of this puzzle are left out as they pertain less to the advertising industry.
The concept of “Separation of Church and State” has long been the model of publishers who generate the majority of their revenue from advertising. They have been two separate departments that have had little influence on each other. But given the current economy, bankruptcy of publishers, and the now prevalent move to online-only editions, should (or rather, is it necessary for) professional content producers and their promotional counterparts to start working a lot more closely? If so, how does this effect advertiser? Consumers?
Progressive marketers are far beyond the point of realizing their foothold in the space of consumer communication is slipping. Every day, the role of creating, distributing, and learning falls more under the control of the consumer, which also means the tools for which they choose to take these actions are being created to cater to them, and not to us (marketers). Because of this reality, the task that marketers are now facing is finding the root of consumer behavior. A task which is very necessary in order to be able to reintegrate themselves into forums which not only were they not intended to be in, but in many cases, purposely pushed out of.
“Reverse engineering is the process of discovering the technological principles of a device, object or system through analysis of its structure, function and operation. It often involves taking apart and analyzing its workings in detail to be used in maintenance or to try to make a new device or program that does the same thing without copying anything from the original. (Wikipedia)”
In other words, when an engineer is asked to dissect a new technology in order to rebuild it (without any instructions) they are doing so because the end goal is to be able to recreate a product or experience that they were not originally intended to be a part of.
Applying this to the current digital landscape, we are seeing the same needs from marketers. Most of those tools were never built with the role of the advertiser in mind and this presents a great challenge to that group. How does a brand balance the original function of a communication tool while trying to become an active member of it? This is where the concept of “reverse engineering” can come into play.
Dissect a group of people’s core need for participating in a certain experience (digital or otherwise) and you’ll have a clearer understanding of (and yes, sometimes IF) you can become a part of it.
The tag line of the 2010 Mercedes-Benz GLK is “Great engineering is great engineering at any size.” With the goal of capturing this concept and providing the audience with information relevant to their lifestyle, the “GLK Live-Well Dashboard” was born.
Critical Mass partnered with Conde Nast Digital to create an experience that leveraged the power of 18 trusted magazine properties and fused then with the matching attributes of the 2010 GLK. The Dashboard, a first of its kind roll-over rich-media unit within Conde Nast, mashes-up Video, Editorial, Voting, Sharing, and of course, Mercedes-Benz content into one centralized location that follows Conde Nast readers across their network. Every week for the next 10 weeks, new content will be added to the unit to keep each of the lifestyle pillars (Personal Style, Wellness, etc) fresh for readers who frequent the various Conde Nast properties. For those interested in returning to the GLK experience, the banner can be bookmarked and reopened as a standalone page.
