Social Networking

2009 was not a banner year for the media industry, but there were a few bright spots.  Social media was a major story and became a key player almost overnight.  There is not a marketer alive who is not thinking about social media in some manner for their brand. Social media provides some important tools such as interactivity and the ability to broadcast a message for free to a community of people.  However, the more significant trend of 2009 is the continued growth of content marketing and how it is eating into traditional advertising. 

The reason why is not really surprising.  Content marketing takes advantage of permission based marketing to build relationships with customers and prospects while advertising depends on interrupting people while they are consuming unrelated content.   Thanks to advances in technology, brands are able to create and distribute branded content at a higher level than ever before.  The Custom Publishing Council and ContentWise recently released a study of major US companies to quantify this phenomenon.  Here are some of the highlights:

• Total spending on branded content was over $1.8 million per company, with 51% spent on print publications, 27% on Internet media and 22% on categories such as video or audio.
• 78% of respondents said that branded content initiatives are more effective than other leading forms of advertising and marketing. Seventy percent said it was more effective than television advertising; 61% said it was more effective than direct mail and 57% said more effective than public relations.
• According to 54% of the companies surveyed, the primary reason for branded content initiatives was to educate customers. This was followed by customer retention (25%) and brand loyalty (21%). Up-selling was at the bottom of the list, indicating that corporate marketers are looking for long-term returns rather than a stimulus for short-term transactions.
• The use of external agency services (custom publisher, design firm or video production company, for example) to handle some aspect of branded content initiatives matched an all-time high from 2005, with 54% of companies reporting that they outsourced some portion of their branded content.
• Among companies that outsource, the average spend on branded content was a whopping $886,000. The previous record high was $316,000 in 2006. When extracting nontraditional forms of branded content from this equation, the total outsourcing spend was $650,000, 105% higher than previous records.
• The survey showed that 24% expected spending to increase in 2010; 20% expect it to decrease and 56% say it will stay the same.  Print publishing is expecting to decline, while other forms such as digital are expected to increase.

Another study conducted by Junta42 states that 60% of marketers will increase their spending on content initiatives.  The study also shows that social media and mobile apps with be important channels for branded content.  It all ties back to measurability and ROI.  When you create your own content and environment you increase the ability to measure and get positive results.  And, as we slowly come out of a recession, all that matters are results and profitability.  Branding initiatives are fun and nice to have, but unless they can demonstrate a clear return they won’t help your company’s bottom line or valuation. 
 

This is an article I wrote that appeared recently on Marketing Profs. 

The hottest trend in brand marketing right now is the very thing that has fueled traditional advertising’s ongoing evolution: Brands are bypassing traditional media outlets in favor of creating their own private media platforms. That’s right, brands are becoming the media.

Savvy marketers have realized that for the same price they once paid for a glossy ad or 30-second TV spot, they can now own their fully branded publication, video series, or interactive online platform.

Moreover, they’re providing the same high-quality and engaging content found in those third-party publications and broadcast outlets, offering it to mainstream audiences for free and, in essence, competing with those very outlets that used to serve their advertising needs.

Of course, as new media channels continue to emerge, audiences become more dispersed, creating an urgent need for brands to spread their efforts across channels to capture the attention of their target audiences.

That fact alone negates the logic once used to rationalize huge ad spends on single outlets or mediums. Knowing that marketers must find revolutionary methods of enticing customers and prospects to engage with their brands, what better method is there than for brands to simply become the media?

Cases in Point

That’s the theory, but exactly which brands are becoming the media? I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!, U.S. Wellness Meats, Nike, Gillette, Kikkoman, and hundreds of others.

Consider Unilever. Its new-media initiative for I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! features Spraychel—the brand’s animated mascot—and her adventures in the fridge.

Looking for a new way to generate buzz for the brand, Unilever created an innovative, entertaining brand experience that compelled consumers to spread the word through viral-marketing efforts.

Weekly webisodes and a “celebrity-esque” blog allow consumers to follow the storylines and deliver the latest gossip in the fridge. Moreover, viewers chime in to decide the outcome of upcoming webisodes. Unilever’s most-recent campaign is at VoteSpraychel.com.

When U.S. Wellness Meats—a producer and distributor of grass-fed animal meat—realized that current educational materials on grass-fed meats were not only diffuse but often inconsistent, unclear, and untrue, it took on the challenge of becoming a dependable educational source for those seeking reliable information on grass-fed meat.

Its audience comprises athletes, parents, doctors, and others concerned about the nutritional value of the food they consume. Thus, U.S. Wellness Meats overhauled USWellnessMeats.com, which was once a traditional e-commerce site, and turned it into a regularly updated destination site for those looking for facts on sustainable eating, the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed meats, and the health benefits of the company’s products.

Inspired by its customers’ passion for health and cooking, and the many communications it has received over the years, U.S. Wellness Meats uses its new platform to feature professional and home chefs, a Wellness blog, and Wellness Kids, among other features. Instead of relying on outside media to educate its consumers, U.S. Wellness Meats can do that on its own, knowing that the information is accurate.

Another consumer brand that understands content marketing is Kikkoman, famous for its soy sauce. To familiarize more consumers with the versatility of soy sauce, Kikkoman’s website has a Food Forum that has original recipes and serves as a resource center on Japanese cooking and culture.

Kikkoman has been running an innovative campaign around umami, or the fifth taste (the discovery of which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary).

The brand launched a commercial campaign on the Food Network and YouTube that introduces viewers to umami and presents various foods—including Kikkoman Soy Sauce—that evoke the fifth-taste sensation.

The commercial directs viewers to a micro-site www.DiscoverUmami.com to popularize the idea with customers by providing appealing and educational information, as well as more ways to use the product. The sell is subtle as the viewer gets deeper into the world of Kikkoman and Japanese-flavored recipes.

The New Rationale

People are more comfortable getting their news from multiple sources—a perfect environment for any business thinking about stepping in and becoming a trusted source of information.

And that’s the general logic: When your company educates its current and prospective clients on its field of expertise instead of pitching them products or services, it effectively becomes a reliable source of information and entertainment.

In other words, your company (or brand) becomes the media and is in a position to provide thought leadership and build customer affinity.

You’ve established your company as a trusted resource; as a result, your customer feels more confident buying from you, and you have increased your ability to measure results in terms of generating leads and creating incremental sales.

Though traditional advertising will always serve as a means of general awareness, private media channels encourage brand loyalty and affinity,   allowing companies to speak directly to their customers and prospects in a controlled environment.

Add a bit of good research to the equation and brands are able to create content that resonates specifically with the needs of various audiences and current customers, as well as content that supports permission-based marketing tactics that will woo their prospects.

Here’s the bottom line: When a company or brand becomes the media, it effectively creates a direct dialogue with customers that leads to a predetermined behavior and increased sales. Creating your own media channel also increases accountability and measurability, which is critical in today’s economic environment.

Here in Massachusetts we had a front row seat to one of the biggest upsets in political history.  In the Bay State, politics is both an art form and a contact sport.  Though it is a small state, we have had our share of national figures – JFK, Tip O’Neil, Barney Frank, Mike Dukakis, John Kerry, Mitt Romney and now Scott Brown replacing Ted Kennedy. 

Many of the pundits and spinners around the country are blaming Martha Coakley and the campaign she ran, but that is not the real story.  Many are comparing her to Bill Buckner of the 86 Red Sox, who let the World Series go through his in legs to let the Mets win.  Actually, I’d compare her to Grady Little, the Sox manager who left Pedro Martinez too long against the Yanks in 03.  Martha made some bad decision, but the players really blew the game.  In this case the players are Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ben Nelson etc.  Voters, particularly independents were voting against healthcare, government spending and the perceived leftward direction of the President and Congress.  Exit polling shows Brown cleaned up among independents – and middle class/working class voters by huge margins

How did a State Senator with an unremarkable record who was unknown 4 months ago topple the Democratic establishment and win a seat that belonged to the Kennedy family since 1953?  With very good content marketing and the knowledge of how to own his media channel.  Here is how he did it and the lessons to be learned:

1. Have a brand that resonates with your audience and communicate it clearly.  Brown understood his audience and what they cared about: Economics, healthcare and terrorism while staying away from divisive social issues.  This translated to jobs and spending, the healthcare bill and the administration’s decision to treat terror suspects as criminals and not enemy combatants.  He didn’t dance around it, instead he was blunt and clear – even about water boarding.  He signed “41” after his name to make it clear he was going to be the vote that kills the health care bill.  His line about the “people’s seat” was brilliant in its brevity and power.  In an age when politicians don’t sound like real people, he sold it straight.  Brown’s use of content was far superior to his opponent.  Coakley was hampered by having to take positions to the left of Obama in a tough primary battle so she appeared out of touch by the majority of independent voters. 

2. Use powerful visuals as messages and storytelling.  Sometimes images and design can tell a story as well or better than words.  Brown’s ads were excellent – from JFK morphing into Brown, to the iconography around his old GMC truck and ever present barn coat.  He let his fellow suburbanites know he was one of them and he knows how they are feeling - frustrated.  It was telling that elitists like Martha Coakley and Pres. Obama were making fun of his truck – the definition of tone deaf.  I found it comical that the guy who ultimately runs GM would rip on a candidate who was proud of his reliable GMC truck.  Coakley made it clear that she’d rather spend time with other politicians and union leaders rather than shaking hands with ordinary people – not exactly a recipe for popularity. 
 

3. Scott Brown created his own media channel.  Brown didn’t get big contribution money until the last two weeks, so had to make do with “free” media.  His team owned face book – his fan page grew from 17K fans when I started tracking it to over 130K by Election Day.  Many were members from around the country who also contributed funds.  He was on Twitter and had a YouTube Channel that was viral.  Having these social media channels are not exactly state of the art, but the way he combined the content, passion and messaging with the communities were powerful.  There is little doubt he swamped Coakley who never had more than 20K fans.  He also used the free media a.k.a PR. Brown made himself available for a myriad of radio shows and reporters while Coakley stayed under wraps.  He gained a lot of good will from the media by being friendly and accessible.

4. He stayed mostly positive while Coakley ran hundreds of negative ads.  The DNC and other PACs supporting the Democrat poured millions into a carpet-bombing of nasty attack ads against Brown.  And they worked – driving up Martha Coakley’s negative ratings. It backfired badly.  Brown’s ads were great – showing him in his infamous truck interacting with people and his family.  Her ads featured her as a talking head in a conference room.  The contrast was striking.  While Brown created an integrated media channel, Coakley took the old school approach and relied heavily on broadcast advertising.  Brown owned his media channel while Coakley rented hers. In the end she wound up with what renters usually end up with - nothing but an empty bank account.

The marketing team behind Scott Brown was successful by knowing the needs of their audience. This knowledge helped them craft a simple and positive benefit oriented message. They created compelling content while utilizing all media platforms for their strengths.  You can expect to see this model a bit in November and that may not be a bad thing.  My advice to politicians running in 2010 – keep it simple and benefit oriented, stay positive, create a community and tell a compelling story across all media channels.  Good luck Senator Brown.

Here are this year’s media predictions.  Last week, I took a look back at 2009’s to see how we did, click here to see the scorecard.  Here are a few other places to check out where we participated.

Junta42 - Over 100 predictions from 70 of the top content marketing minds in the world.

Folio Magazine - 115 (give or take) magazine and media predictions for 2010.

eMedia Vitals – Media Blogs We Love (includes the King Fish ThinkTank) and Nine Bold Predictions for 2010

Here are a few thoughts for next year:

2010 will be the year that content goes mobile in a big way.  Having a mobile strategy will no longer be a “nice to have”, but a requirement for media brands and custom content.  The success of the iPhone and Kindle has shown that there is an appetite for content to be read in a “third place” away from both home and office.

More and more pure play online companies will discover multi-channel marketing paired with content drives customer engagement.  Look for more online retailers to create “magalogs” pairing content and offers in an appealing environment using both print and digital formats.

Broadcasters (network and cable) will create more integrated online content and advertising programs for the so called “second screen”.  According to Reuters, Nielsen’s research shows that “57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers.”

This opens the door to creative ties-ins for deeper content, social media connections and games/contests to extend a marketing campaign.

Consumers will slowly begin to accept that they will have to pay for some premium online content.  The decline of print advertising means that online content can no longer be subsidized.  It will only be successful with unique, relevant content such as hyper local news or brands such as the New York Times or Variety.  Basic news and opinion found in places such as Newsweek and Business Week stand little chance of collecting a fee for content because there are so many other sources for that information.

Twitter is leveling off as many people quit or abandon after a short time.  I see that trend continuing, though the idea of micro blogging is here to stay. It’s too effective a communications tools not to have a purpose.  It makes more sense integrated into something else rather than a stand-alone; and it is still a mystery how Twitter will make a profit.  I am losing some interest –a lot of tweets are just of the “look at me, I’m clever” variety or other self promotional nonsense.  The whole “social media” frenzy will slow down considerably as it becomes just another marketing tactic and media channel. The cottage industry of social media experts, consultants and dedicated agencies will wane.  It’s like when “e” was finally dropped from e-commerce and it became just another commerce channel.  We can now drop the “Social” and recognize it’s just another media channel.

Tiger Woods is done as a mainstream pitchman for at least the next 3-5 years, probably forever.  There was a level of recklessness to his behavior as he was done in by the new media avalanche (texts, tweets, face book postings, TMZ, You Tube) of evidence.  The speed of these viral networks is blinding and can end careers in a matter of a week.  It is possible Nike and golf equipment vendors could continue to use him, but I can’t imagine current sponsors such as Gillette, AT&T, Tag Heuer continuing to feature him in ads.  I think they will follow Accenture and start dropping him in January. For a good long while, when people see his image they will either snicker or think about porn.  Not good for selling razors, watches and consulting services. 

As of today President Obama has slipped beneath the 50% benchmark for job approval in almost every poll.  The common refrain among his supporters is that it is “all about the economy, and the same thing happened to Reagan, so nothing to see here”.  I think that analysis misses the mark and don’t think he will go past 52% or 53% approval anytime during 2010.  In fact it is likely he will stay below 50%.  Why?  Classic marketing mistake – the White House does not understand its audience (a center right country) and never moved from campaign mode (lead acquisition) to governing (customer retention).  The 2010 mid term elections are going to be a nasty battle with much media money spent.  The net result will be narrow but unsteady majorities for the Democrats in the House and Senate.   This will take the President down one of two roads.  Does he turn to the center like Clinton and get reelected, or stay left and get nothing done?

Last year, I took a shot at 2009 media predictions.  Here is a summary of how they turned out – boths hits and misses.  Look here for 2010 predictions next week.

Prediction - The continued growth of web casting, virtual trade shows and online video will take a significant chunk of revenue from trade shows and live events during 2009.

Result – As reported by B2B, digital is flat while trade show and print revenue is way down. Print revenue fell 25.7% in the first three quarters of this year compared with the same period last year. Trade show revenue declined 19.2%, and digital revenue dipped 3.0%. Virtual trade shows remain hot – the combination of measureable ROI and lack of travel costs make them very attractive.

Prediction - The decline of the US auto industry will result in huge cut backs in print advertising from the big three, and several magazines will close as a result.  Local TV stations and newspapers will see big decreases in ad revenue as car dealerships close after GM kills Buick, Pontiac and Saturn and Ford also pares brands as part of a government bailout.

Result - The US Government actually bailed out GM and Chrysler, not Ford.  GM is killing Saturn, Pontiac, Saab and sold Hummer while keeping Buick.   Ad spending is way down and according to one count 383 magazines did close including Gourmet, Portfolio, Domino and Country Home.

Prediction - Several IT publications will follow the lead of PC Magazine and abandon their print issue to reposition themselves as online and events brands.  They will thrive once all the print overhead is removed.

Result - Not as many as I would have thought, but the print versions of these publications don’t carry very much weight any more.  The IT media companies are totally focused on online media and lead generation.  One brand I used to work on, VARBusiness did go to the great BPA Audit in the sky.

Prediction - Face book will explode and become a “must have” for professionals in 34-54 age group who will continue to blur the lines between personal and business life.

Result - This was a layup.  Face book started 2009 with 150 million users and could be at 350 million by the end of this year.  Just about everyone I know is currently on the site.  Except my wife, thank goodness.

Prediction - The big television networks will continue to become less relevant in the lives of Americans as they spend more time on niche cable networks and social media sites.  The 2009 fall season will produce zero new hits.  The continued penetration of DVR’s will further erode their advertising base and they will have to make major cutbacks.

Result - I was somewhat off base.  According to Variety, the new season was not bad and contained one buzz worthy/water cooler hit in ABC’s Modern Family – a laugh riot.  On the other hand the great Jay Leno at 10pm experiment doesn’t seem to be working out.  Shocker.  Not only is viewership down at 10pm on NBC, but research shows that DVR usage is up as people catch up on other recorded shows during that time slot.
 
Prediction - A major US daily newspaper will fold its print edition and go digital only.

Result – A few bit the dust including the Rocky Mountain Times and the Seattle Post Intelligencer went online only.  The big story was the New York Times Company playing chicken with the Boston Globe’s unions.  The Times essentially told the union to take their demanded cuts or they would close the paper which was on track to lose $50 million this year.  The union blinked and it is still publishing.  The NYT Company took the Globe off the market after bids came in around $35 million for the media property they purchased for a cool billion in 1993.

Prediction - Sarah Palin will write a book about her experiences during the 2008 campaign.  She will get a giant advance and it will go to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list much to the dismay of New York Times.

Result – Home Run!!!  Her book hit the #1 in November and sold a million copies.  Huge crowds turned out for book signing and she did the usual media blitz round robin.  As expected, there was a cottage industry of Palin haters and endless opinion columns and blogs about “what her popularity means” and if she is running in 2012.  Interesting contrast to how President Obama is ending the year – the lowest approval rating for any President 10 months into his term and under 50% in both Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls.
 
Prediction - American Idol will see a strong decline in ratings - over commercialization and bland contestants killed the golden goose.

Result – The ratings did continue to decline for the season and the finale, but it is still the number one show on TV and a cash machine.  Once again AI had somewhat bland contestants with one very notable exception – Adam Lambert.  The jury is out on the long term success of the last two winners – David Cook and Kris Allen – two nondescript, moderately talented young men.  I don’t see either becoming a big star the way Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson did before them.  The more interesting question is about Adam Lambert.  Is America ready to embrace an openly gay male rock star?  I say yes, but as the cliché says – time will tell.

Check in next week for 2010 predictions.  If you have any of your own, send them my way and I’ll post them with a link back to your site.

Do you have a mobile content strategy?  If not, it’s time to start thinking about it.  While social media has grabbed many of the recent headlines, the iPhone/smart phone phenomenon is picking up steam.   Apple is selling roughly five to six million handsets per quarter and it is estimated there are 20 million iPhones now in use, and it’s not hard to see that doubling in a year.  The App Store has delivered over 1 billions apps (paid and free) among the 25K-35K apps that have been released.  How many professionals do you know who don’t have an iPhone, Trio/Pre or Blackberry?  I am guessing not many.

I am an avid iPhone user and believe it is a transformational technology for media and content.  The speed, versatility and readability are amazing compared to where smart phones were in the pre-Apple era.  It has become a critical delivery platform for your “third place”.  This is anywhere that is not your office or home where you are likely to be sitting in front of a computer or TV screen.  Your third place could be a hotel, train, airport, coffee shop, waiting room etc.  No need to lug around a laptop or even a netbook because the iPhone can do it all, including hold all your games, music, pictures, videos and act as a GPS system.

If you are creating content you have to think about a mobile strategy.  For some that can mean optimizing your site for mobile browsing, but you need to take it a step further.  Leading brands such as the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have created popular apps to push content.  A recent survey by the Audit Bureau of Circulation shows that media companies across the board are experimenting and planning apps of their own.  It is a great way to build a closer relationship with readers and gives you more interactive advertising opportunities to sell.

However, it is not just for traditional media.  You should also consider an app reader for your custom publications and original content you are creating for your web site, white paper/ebooks and blog.  It’s time to consider smart phones part of your private media channel along with social networking sites and traditional platforms of print, interactive and email marketing. 

In fact, any companies who rely on affinity/trust relationships with customers (i.e. online retailers for consumers and order tracking /supply chain for B2B) need to have a customer facing app.  Amazon has one that I have used and it extends my relationship with the retailer away from my desk. 

The strength of a private custom media channel is the ability to serve relevant content to customers on a platform they prefer so they are receptive to your message.  It is becoming clear that the smart phone platform is gaining favor at a rapid pace.  For many companies, a mobile content strategy can be a powerful customer retention tool.

We at the beginning of a radical change in the way television is perceived and used by both consumers and marketers. The end result will be the eventual merger of television and the internet.  It has already started with technological advances driving new consumer behavior.  A new study from the Pew Internet Project sheds light on some developments:

62% of adult Internet users have watched video on an online video sharing site.  This number jumps to 89% among 18-29 year old consumers.  Watching online video activity out ranks the use of social networking sites, podcasts and Twitter. 

35% of adult Internet users have watched TV shows and movies online on sites such as hulu.com.  For the 18-29 set the number jumps to 61%.  Among those adults who watch TV and movies online, 23% have connected their TV to their computer.

The lines between TV and online video are blurring, especially in the eyes of the younger generation.  Broadband is now in nearly two-thirds of all homes and 90% of all homes will have a flat panel TV by 2012.  With the infrastructure in place, the merging of platforms will happen quickly.  This opens the door for the proliferation of interactivity and user generated video content to flood the web.  The amount of content choices available to consumers will grow exponentially.

There is another less known but equally important technological development that will give consumers more choice, and more challenges for marketers.  The growth of remote video storage will have far reaching effects by increasing the ability to serve video on demand.  Companies like Netflix and On Demand are quickly adding content to their libraries to offer streaming on demand video to consumers.  Much like iTunes did in the music business it will take a chunk out of the DVD business.  I never really understood the desire to “own” a movie or TV series on a DVD, but the need may evaporate when you can get it on demand for a few dollars with a mouse click.

The other application enabled by remote video storage is network DVR service currently being offered by Cablevision.  This would enable any viewer to use the basic time shifting and commercial skipping power of the DVR without having the box in home.  The DVR services would be remote and handled in a central storage facility.  Currently DVR penetration is 28% in the US and it could grow dramatically with the roll out of network DVR service.

These trends are all crushing blows to the traditional revenue streams of the content providers.  DVD sales are very important to the movie studios and television lives on the traditional commercial.  Technology will enable to consumers to have limitless choices and the ability to skip by commercials.  On the flip side, video content providers now have the opportunity to put their material online and give marketers an actual measurable marketing venue.  The big question- will they fight the reality of the future like the music and newspaper business or will they embrace it? 

King Fish Media, in partnership with HubSpot, Junta42 and the Upshot Institute, is conducting a short survey among marketing executives—both on the brand and agency sides—to gauge the ever-changing opinions and activity regarding new media, advertising, marketing and measurement.

While I’m sure you receive a fair share of invitations to participate in various studies, I hope you will give special consideration to this one. In return for your time, we will offer participants exclusive access to the survey for one week prior to making it available to the general public and media. The results will be compiled into an e-book format and will be supplemented by an in-depth analysis. Our hope is that this research will help marketers better craft their new business pitches and offer brand marketers a better sense of the continually evolving trends they should be paying attention to and preparing for.

Please take just a few minutes to fill out this online survey to help us understand the needs and plans of senior marketers.  Click here to take the survey

You will be asked for your email address at the end of the survey, but your answers will be kept completely anonymous. This is purely so we can send you the research in advance of its official release.  Otherwise, the results will be available for free download at kingfishmedia.com no later than Sept. 15th. 

Thank you very much for your participation.  Got to the Survey Here

I used to be one of those people who would read articles in major news outlets and be shocked at certain statistics. “50% of people in Oklahoma City don’t have high school diplomas!” “Eating strawberries reduces your chance of developing eye cancer by 67%!” “80% of married men cheat!” I’d scurry off to my friends and repeat what I’d read, devising how I’d need to change my lifestyle to ensure I didn’t end up with a bad case of psoriasis from eating cole slaw.

Little did I know what a mistake I was making. It’s fascinating how easily statistics and research data can be manipulated to present a very biased picture of what’s actually going on. As marketers, we need to champion the use of good market research as the base upon which all marketing programs are built, and be certain we’re building our research methods as effectively as possible.

Here are some tips to help you avoid falling into these all-too-common research data traps:

1. Be a skeptic. 

People tend to use statistics carelessly, and the actual research study that was performed is rarely linked to the article. A writer might not disclose whether a corporate sponsor paid for the research and is skewing the results. Before you run off implementing some new social networking strategy after reading an article claiming 67% of American households use Facebook and/or Twitter, do YOUR research. Dig out the research study and read it. With the Internet, we have the power to find these things. I hate to say, “Don’t believe anything you read,” but it’s often true.

2. Understand what could constitute bad research. 

Experiments are set up differently for many reasons. For example, you can’t force someone to start smoking, or drive without a seatbelt. This means that inferences have to be drawn based on an observational study of smokers, and—yes, you got it—that pool of subjects is already biased. The results from that group would not yield results applicable to a non-biased population. A randomized study usually provides less biased data. Observational studies should always have a control group, and sometimes they don’t. Worse, some studies completely falsify their data. Be aware!

3. Pay attention to sample size.

This is a very common trap. Studies often exaggerate the feedback from a very small data set as being representative of an entire population. If 10 people are giving you positive feedback about your new HR policies, be sure to be thorough in finding out if the other 500 employees feel the same. You often find wild swings in variation in small sets of data. Leave your ego out of it—collect enough data to be sure you’re your sample represents the entire population within a reasonable margin of error.

4. Everything regresses toward the mean.

Disappointing, I know. If you changed nothing, those outstanding click-through rates you got two months in a row after months of steady results are probably just chance. In time, all swings even out.

As marketers, we know how easy it is to design campaigns to manipulate people’s minds and habits. However, we have a responsibility to the consumer and to ourselves to use data correctly. Back up your claims. Use credible research. Collect enough data to make sure your conclusions are correct. Data doesn’t lie, and neither should we.

Forrester just released their five year forecast for US Interactive Marketing and it is an interesting read.  Five year forecasts are always dicey in today’s new media world. How many people in 2004 predicted the most talked about politicians in 2009 would be Barack Obama and Sarah Palin?  Zero.  About the same amount of people in 2004 who predicted the country would come to a standstill to watch and follow Michael Jackson’s memorial on Face book and Twitter. 

However, the numbers confirm and quantify what most of us already know – the amount of dollars to be spent on interactive marketing are growing fast and taking share from traditional media.  Overall, search marketing will be the biggest component, and Mobile (27% CAGR) and Social Media (34% CAGR) will grow the fastest.  All of these media/technologies are game changers in terms of information/content consumption and marketing.  Anyone who has taken a spin around an iPhone can see just how radically our content consuming habits will change.  And, marketers must follow suit.

Here is a quote from Forrester’s Shar VanBoskrik’s blog:

But to me, the most interesting takeaway from the research is that overall advertising budgets will decline.  Yep.  With dollars moving out of traditional media toward less expensive and more efficient interactive tools, marketers will actually need less money to accomplish their current advertising goals.   But reasonable marketers won’t relinquish budget because their programs are running too efficiently. Instead, marketers will allocate unused advertising dollars into investments like innovation, research, customer service, customer experiences, and marketing-specific technology and IT staff, in order to further marketing’s strategic influence within their companies.

If I may add my two cents – this gives marketers and brands the opportunity to become the media.  By creating their own original content, brands can build trust and affinity with customers and prospects.  The budget and technology now exists for marketers to totally bypass traditional media and ad agencies and talk directly to customers.  Content is what will fuel search and social media, so the opportunity for companies to engage in content marketing has never been greater.  I may not be bold enough to predict what the marketing world will look like in 2014, but I do know one thing.  I would not invest in any traditional ad agencies any time soon.

Everybody is talking about social media but we hear less about measurement and analytics.  All good marketing must be measurable and provide tangible results for the sponsoring organization.  I recently contributed an article to the June/July issue of Chief Marketer where I explore the topic.  Below is the text of the article.  Let me know your thoughts and how you are measuring social media.

Measuring the Value of Online Fan Communities

The tangible — and intangible — results of participating in online communities

Sure, it makes sense for most businesses to follow their customers into the world of social media. But before doing so, they must have a firm grasp on how to measure the ROI of those ventures.

The first step is to create a strategy that dovetails with existing marketing plans and messaging. A company wants to be where its audience is living online, and that will often mean social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn, and services like Twitter. Social media also means a corporate blog: If a firm does not have one, it is already behind the times.

For organizations, social media can serve as a private media channel that allows corporate control of the messaging. Social networks provide an excellent vehicle for pushing out content that supports marketers’ objectives, while social sites are great for spreading viral campaigns and word-of-mouth programs. Many companies are using social networks to recruit and invite prospects to Webcasts and live events, both of which are easily tracked by assigning unique URLs and codes.

There is little out-of-pocket cost associated with social media, aside from personnel costs. Even small firms can start a blog with shareware, and there is no cost to post a page or group on Facebook or LinkedIn.

But while the setup costs are low, a marketer needs to assign dedicated resources to manage the process and create and maintain the content. Someone in the organization needs to own the social media function for it to work successfully.

Work in progress

Initially, social media should be treated as both an experiment and a work in progress. Some trial and error is necessary to discover what works for each company and industry. One size does not fit all.

What constitutes the success of a social media campaign? Marketers are able to track relationships that were either created or enhanced by social sites or blogs. However, even before a prospect becomes a lead, there are ways to measure traffic and interaction with content.

To measure the ROI of new media, the media must in fact be measurable. Fortunately, the various social media are. The majority of social media platforms offer:
 

Quantitative data

Marketers can gauge success by the number of page views received, responses/comments, content downloaded/embedded, number of shares, RSS feed subscriptions, sign-ups and much more. These numbers offer indications of how well strategies are driving traffic and facilitating interaction with prospects.

Qualitative measurements

Hard data doesn’t do justice to measuring abstract returns such as an improved corporate reputation, reducing the ratio of negative/positive relationships in the online world, customer retention, strengthening of B-to-B or B-to-C relationships, increased direct dialogue with target audiences, and so forth. While it is hard to put a number on these measures, they are important outcomes of social media strategies.

Business value

In a down economy, dwindling budgets make low-cost social media campaigns a popular choice. According to an Online Marketing Summit presentation by Michael Weisfeld, senior Web strategist at BusinessOnLine, “Only 14% of people trust ads, whereas 32% trust bloggers’ opinions on products and services.” Social media offer a great way to get a direct connection with marketers’ audiences. Best of all, a single well-crafted effort can expand exponentially.

Can social media really lead to sales? Yes, according to research conducted among IT decision makers by IDG Connect. IDG found that social content is a significant decision-making factor within the IT investment process. According to their research, buying teams are using social content for educational purposes more than transactional content.

The big finding is that when a vendor is presented in a positive light in the social space, the likelihood of its offerings being purchased increase. Conversely, negative social exposure makes sales more difficult.

While that’s all true, one critical element of social media cannot be easily quantified: the quality of interaction between people. The blending of business and personal on social sites gives marketers an opportunity to get to know business partners in a different light and deepen personal bonds.

So while metrics are important, never discount the intangible, positive factor of human interaction. Social media allow us to get personally closer to our prospects and customers than ever before. 
 
 

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Question: Has your sales and marketing tactics changed radically over the past five years?  Not to over hype it, but the second half of this decade has brought changes in media consumption that rivals the introduction of the printing press and television.  You need to keep your customer’s behavior in mind when deciding which marketing and sales tactics to use in light of the dramatic changes.

Five years ago no one had yet heard of YouTube, Hulu, Face book or Twitter.  Reality TV now dominates the ratings as Andy Warhol’s prediction of instant fame actually came true.  Public Wi Fi is everywhere and Google is now a verb.  The new generation of smart phones would amaze James Bond.  DVRs  and IPODs have completely changed the concept of consuming and buying entertainment.  When it comes to content, the influence of bloggers in politics, sports and entertainment often drive the media narrative with the mainstream media chasing. 

Major newspapers like the Boston Globe are a dying business model.  Network TV viewership is at an all time low and the level of creativity is even lower – how many crime shows do we need?  Magazine are shrinking and trying to reinvent themselves like Newsweek, Playboy and Reader’s Digest.  The B2B trade press is migrating from print to online content, web casts and virtual trade shows.

Thanks to advances in technology, the balance of power has shifted from media to consumer and that changes everything for marketers.  Have you adjusted your marketing plans to take advantage of these changes or are you maintaining the status quo?

Here are ten burning questions you need to ask yourself now:

1. Are you conducting or finding research to understand how your customers are consuming media? 

2. Does this research tell you the information needs of your customers and prospects?

3. Are you still renting expensive ad space in print and TV with the majority your budget? 

4. Are your producing original content and owning your own media channel to create an interactive dialog with your customers?

5. Is your company using original content to become a trusted media brand?

6. Are you creating passion and communities among your customers?

7. Do you make an effort to balance your retention and acquisition efforts, or are you over investing in lead generation?

8. Do you have a defined social media strategy to engage with customers and prospects where they are spending more and more time?

9. Are you personally engaged with Linked In, Face Book and Twitter to find prospects and talk to your customers?

10. Do you have measurement metrics in place for all of your marketing and sales tactics?

Think about your honest answers to these questions and take stock of where you are with both your company and career.  It is easy for mid career professionals to write these changes off as a passing fad or “for kids”.  That is probably what they there thinking at the Boston Globe and Newsweek just a few years ago.  We are in the midst of big time changes across the spectrum of politics, economics and media consumption.  The companies that adopt swiftly will thrive over the next decade. 

In 2000, Al Gore received a half million more votes than George W. Bush for President, but it was not to be.  Talk about Karma - fast forward to today and W. is in his living room with the lowest approval rating in modern times and is still a punching bag for the media and comedians.  Meanwhile, Al Gore has added a Nobel Peace Prize, Oscar, Grammy and Emmy to his environmentally correct trophy case.  In case you didn’t know, Gore is also one of the founders of Current TV.  Description below:

Since its inception in 2005, Current TV has been the world’s leading peer-to-peer news and information network. Current is the only 24/7 cable and satellite television network and Internet site produced and programmed in collaboration with its audience. Current connects young adults with what is going on in their world, from their perspective, in their own voices.

Current pioneered the television industry’s leading model of interactive viewer created content (VC2). Comprising roughly one-third of Current’s on-air broadcast, this content is submitted via short-form, non-fiction video “pods”. Viewer Created Ad Messages (VCAMs) are also open to viewer’s participation.
 

Current TV is a creature of the new media landscape and takes advantage of the fact many people want to create content, connect with peers and be famous. The technology to live this dream is now in the hands of the masses.  You can see this theme throughout media and popular culture.  Who received more “buzz” this year?  Was it Adam Lambert, Susan Boyle and the Housewives of NY/NJ or the scripted dramas on network television?  Clearly it was the reality stars because they feed into the concept of democratized content and aspirations of fame and fortune.

This trend has implications for marketers and advertisers trying to reach an ever more fragmented audience.  The 30 second spot and print ads are dying art forms.  One of the cool things about Current TV is they allow viewers to create ads for major brands such as HP and T-Mobile based on some creative assets and a brief.  Their research shows that viewers prefer user generated ads by a ratio of 9 to 1.  This trend does not bode well for traditional ad agencies, and doesn’t big Al know it.  Read a few quotes from a keynote he recently gave at marketing event as reported by Adweek:

He described the end of the industrial-revolution-like era of advertising, which produced ads that are “big, blunt expensive and very intrusive. . Audiences have begun to resist that old model.”   Going forward, advertising needs to become more nuanced, authentic and peer-to-peer, said Gore. “People want a different kind of feeling toward brands to which they give their money.”
 
That means being more upfront about ad messaging, rather than attempting to squeeze marketing messages into content through branded entertainment, he said. According to Gore, one of the reasons that Current viewers like VCAM ads is that they are straightforward in their intent. “People are interested in what someone like them is going to do and they’re not going to have something slipped by them,” Gore said. With ads that have been disguised as entertainment, “there is some resistance to those models. . . . We believe that intelligent empowerment of the audience is the key.”

Al Gore will likely never be President but he is now at the forefront of private custom media channels and content marketing.  In the parlance of marketing speak, Al Gore “gets it”.  Do you? 

The job of a marketer has probably never been more complicated with all the choices and options we have to communicate our messages for lead generation and customer retention.  The advent of new web tools and social media has made keeping up a full time job.  Our friend Joe Pulizzi at Junta42 has done a great job of compiling all the tools you need to know about in the areas of custom media, social networking, interactive conversations, Facebook and Twitter tools, content sharing, blogging, back end operation and of course, measurement.

Take a look at the list and let us know if you have any gems to add.   Personally, I have found the ability to share information with peers one of the best benefits of social media. Later this week I’ll let you know who I follow via Twitter to keep up with the daily changes in our world.  Happy reading.

Two sets of numbers recently came across my screen that illustrates the wrenching changes in media and marketing.  MIN Online has released 2009 first half numbers for monthly magazines and it is ugly.  Yes, we are in a tough recession, but these steep drops are more about the decline and fall of print advertising supported media.  Here is a snippet of the carnage as reported by MediaPost News:

The losses were widespread, with only eight out of the 118 titles tracked by MIN showing an increase in ad pages.  Among women’s lifestyle titles, Allure, Lucky, Vogue and W are all down over 30%. Auto and enthusiast titles (mostly targeting men) are sharply down, with drops of over 30% at Power & Motoryacht, Boating, Automobile, Motor Trend and Road & Track, Details, Maxim and GQ are also down over 30%, as are music monthlies Spin and Vibe and food titles Gourmet and Bon Appetit.

The brands mentioned above were formally profit generating powerhouses in lucrative categories.  The bulk of these pages are not coming back after the recession nor are closed newspapers going to spring back to life.  The ad market is undergoing a structural change.  Print is caught is a vise – readers have moved on to online media (more about that soon) and marketers are looking for measurable results that drive sales.  It is hard to make that case with a $50,000 branding ad in a monthly glossy magazine.

At the same time social media is on fire.  Facebook is now getting 300 million unique visitors per month, a 160% increase from a year ago.  This April, Twitter received 32 million world wide uniques, up 70% in a month!  MySpace has been flat at 123 million uniques per month while Facebook and Twitter grow unabated.  MySpace is going to end up the Netscape Navigator of its time. 

Since there are still only 24 hours in a day, something must be suffering with people spending all that time with social media.  Spring 2009 MRI readership shows a significant decline in magazine readership in the past year.

This has huge implications for marketers as they decide on their strategies for coming out of this economic downturn.  Reaching customers and prospects the old fashion way, is well, old fashion.  More than ever, it is imperative for marketers to turn to content market, storytelling and private media channels for measurable results.  And, now is the time to harness the power of social media.   Tweet now or forever hold your peace.

In my post a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about entering the Jim Beam Remake contest, where users submitted their original parodies and remakes of the new Jim Beam commercials.  

A few days ago, as I arrived home in the evening, I noticed a large envelope poking out of my mailbox. It didn’t have a return address. My boyfriend and I were so curious as to its contents, we ripped it open before we even got inside.

Inside were a Jim Beam t-shirt and a letter from the director of whiskeys, thanking the participants for sending in their videos. I was sincerely impressed by how classy and sincere the letter was. It seemed this person and her team had truly enjoyed watching the hundreds of video entries. She even stated she would do it all again, and hopes we would too.

In my post a year ago about Anton’s Cleaners , I talked about how customer retention works when companies let their customers know they care. It doesn’t need to be big, it doesn’t need to be expensive, but it needs to be personal.

To be honest, I’ve never had an ounce of whiskey or bourbon. But after having such intense brand interaction with Jim Beam, there is no way the Jim Beam brand won’t be at the forefront of my mind the next time I go into a liquor store to stock up for a party or to buy a bottle of liquor for a friend. And the next-best thing to going to bed with a bottle of liquor cradled in your arms is going to bed with a nightgown-sized 2XL t-shirt from Jim Beam. 

Twitter is turning into a full fledged cultural phenomenon.  Former underwear model and cougar lover Ashton Kutcher is now over 1 million followers and Oprah and Howard Stern have joined the fray.  The New England Patriots tweeted their NFL draft picks this past weekend.  There are no shortage of so called social media experts and consultants publishing lists and posts on how to use Twitter, how to make money with Twitter, Twitter etiquette, etc.  The hype is reaching a fever pitch and a lot of it seems to be marketing people talking to each other.

Here is the fundamental thing we all need to keep in mind about Twitter – it is a media channel to talk to people directly without the filter or expense of a media brand or company.  That’s it folks, nothing more, nothing less.  That being said, we are big fans of owning your own media channel, so Twitter can and should become another aspect of your private media strategy for customers and prospects.

Twitter is a great vehicle for pushing out content to a specialized list of people, and I will distribute this blog to my “followers”.  Please go here if you want to follow me.  Whether you are a B2C or B2B company Twitter is an effective way to engage in an interactive dialog with your customers.  I follow lot of journalists and research companies to keep tabs on them without having to go to their sites directly.   It is smart for your executives to have a presence and be able to get feedback from customers and create a relationship with them.  Stronger personal bonds mean stronger sales for your company. Twitter is a no brainer when thinking about customer retention.  Smart and judicious use of this media channel can be a low cost way to drive sales from existing customers and give your content a broader audience.  For a great example, check out what Dell Outlet is doing to engage customers.

On the flip side, given the 140 character limit, it is much harder to mix business and personal as you can with Facebook.  Many keep Twitter mostly business, and that seems to be the general milieu.   Some people link their Facebook status update and Tweets so they are in sync.  I don’t like this because you should customize your message to your audience and environment, but it seems to be a growing trend.  Additionally, you can wear people out with over posting and will no doubt lose followers.

Twitter has reached the critical mass where it can’t be ignored by marketers, so embrace it as a free private media channel while it lasts.  Give it a shot, talking to your customers is always a good thing, especially when they can talk or tweet back.  Or better yet, buy something.

The big media news here in New England is the fate of the Boston Globe.  The situation now looks even more urgent in light of the dreadful earnings report and cash burn situation the NY Times Company reported this week.  The Times bought the Globe for $1.1 billion back in 1993 before the dawn the web.  They had a couple of very profitable years until the bottom fell out of the newspaper business.  In retrospect, newspapers did what many trade publishers did for a long time – resist the web because selling print ads was so damn profitable.  And, they gave their content away free online to build traffic.  This combination worked out poorly.  Newspapers across the country are closing or in financial peril. 

In 2008, the Globe lost roughly $50 million on an estimated $450 million in revenue (down a few hundred million in the past three years).  That is not easy to do unless your costs are way out of whack, especially labor costs.  The NYT is asking the unions for concessions or they will close down the paper, and I would assume and keep the very successful Boston.com. There has been a lot of finger pointing and looking to place blame. Hundred of comments have appeared in online forums raving about how the Globe’s liberal editorial slant has hurt them with subscribers and advertisers.  I am sure it has cost them some, but does not nearly account for their revenue and profit freefall.

The truth is actually pretty simple, but the solution is not.  In the not so distant past the Boston Globe was a money machine because it had a stranglehold on classified advertising in New England – help wanted, real estate, cars –huge money makers raking in over $100 million annually with high margins.   This cash flow allowed the cost structure to get fat and happy during the good times.  Most of that revenue is now gone to cars.com, monster.com, realtor.com and craigslist to name a few.  Although Boston.com generates high traffic numbers, the CPMs for online ads are a fraction of what they were in print thanks to all the competition and low barrier to entry.  Factor in declining subscription and single copy revenue due to changing consumer behavior and the fact they are giving away all the content for free online. 

To survive the Globe and other newspapers are going to have to start charging for online content – there is just no way around it anymore.  Something has to give, or they will go out of business. Our communities and democracy will suffer without a functioning free press.  Bloggers, pontificating from their cube or basement, are no substitute for real reporters who are digging for stories and holding government and business to task.  It has been conventional wisdom that people won’t pay for content online, but they have never been confronted with a situation where if they don’t pay for it they will have no other option, at least locally. 

If push comes to shove will people refuse to pay $10-$20 per month for an online local newspaper and let it fold?  Or will they realize there is no real difference between paying for a pile a paper and ink dropped at your door and online content.  Many consumers have an emotional attachment to newsprint, but the web version of a newspaper is far superior with up-to-the minute news, video, talk back forums, interactive charts and archives.  Additionally, younger people are just not subscribing to print versions of newspapers, nor will they anytime soon. One issue not easily resolved is access for people without internet access. Perhaps a newsstand only version can be provided that is subsidized by ads. 

The bottom line is the newspaper business needs to start monetizing online content and quickly.  Consumers would rather read online because there is more functionality and marketers are running less and less print ads because they are not measurable.  The writing is on the wall, but is anyone reading?  In this case, living in the past is a fast road to extinction.

I was on vacation in Arizona when my friend Sara, a comedy writer and fellow comedian, sent me an email.

“DO THIS WITH ME,” it read, with a link to the Jim Beam website.

Jim Beam’s recent advertising campaign, shown ad nauseum on TBS during Celtics games, flashed through my head. They wanted users to create and submit their own videos, either inspired by or a parody of, the commercials. Sara was going to write a script in which I would get to parody the gorgeous girl who says she likes her man “a little bit hairy.”
I slammed back the remainder of my ice tea and replied, “Hell yes!” 

For comedians and humor appreciators of all persuasions, sites like Funnyordie.com and CollegeHumor.com are becoming an increasingly popular place to watch video creativity in action. It’s like an oasis of laughter in a web crowded with depressing political commentary sites and stay-at-home mom blogs. Besides being a great way to get exposure, it’s also a way to connect people across the country. And lately, corporate America has been starting to use user generated media to their advantage, too.

From Ragu’s “Great American Family” contest to the Brooks running shoe contest, companies are saying to their customers, “Hey! We value you! Come be a part of this with us! It’s fun!” On our commercial parody production team, we studied the original commercials, talked about effective ways to represent the Jim Beam brand, and forced our friends and families to watch the submissions as they rolled in. What better way for a company to build community, engender brand loyalty and market virally, all at one time? Customer retention happens when you make your customers feel like a part of your brand. And if you listen close enough, what your customers are saying can probably help you move in the right direction in the future.

It’s working for Jim Beam. They had hundreds upon hundreds of video submissions, ranging from brilliant to disturbed. (To the man whose cat inexplicably ate his wig during the video—I just want you to know your lingerie was really classy.) One guy even built a Facebook Fan page to advertise that he had entered the contest. Talk about word-of-mouth and social media in action! 

And as for our submission…well, we didn’t make it to the finals. Maybe it was because my character barfed into her purse. Maybe it was the mature lady mud wrestling. We’ll never know. But I do know that next time I throw a party, I’m buying some Jim Beam.

I recently participated in an interesting project as one of 100 marketing authors to contribute to a book called Project 100: Marketing in the Social Media Era.  This is a topic that is relevant to anyone in the marketing profession today.  Social media is about two way conversations, interaction, story telling and authenticity.  It is having your own private media channel to talk to your customers and prospects without the filter of traditional media. 

The project was the idea of Jeff Caswell who recruited the authors and produced the books.  One of the best aspects of this project is that all profits will go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, global leader of the breast cancer movement, with a goal of raising at least $5,000. 

Please check out the site and consider purchasing a book for only $19.95 to get 100 unique opinions on social media marketing and make a donation to an important cause at the same time.

GM and Chrysler have presented business plans to the government in return for more bailout cash.  I don’t know if a new ad/marketing strategy is in the mix, but here is a take on what they are doing wrong and how to fix it.  Click here to read part I.

1. The auto makers over use rented media channels with interruption style advertising, and the basic auto ad has not changed in 50 years. The ads show the car being used by one of their stock cliché characters – the executive, the harried mom, the twenty something on the go, the tough guy truck owner, the hapless suburban dad, etc.  The ads are slices of life showing our heroes using the product.  This is ineffective because there is much waste; and the creative is boring and unmemorable. The auto companies are big at buying sponsorships that just slaps their name on anything and everything.  Chevrolet spends big bucks to sponsor the “player of the game” during televised college footballs games.  Why do they do this?  Awareness?  How many men watching football have not heard of Chevy?  I am sure it makes the Chevy execs happy, but has it ever sold a single car or truck?  In fact, has anyone ever bought a car based on a TV ad?

2. American car companies sell with price, price and price.  The ads always stress the price cut or financing incentive.  If you train consumers to wait for the deal you will never get full price.  That is a problem when your union contracts give you a $2000/per car disadvantage against the Japanese automakers.  They need to stop the addiction to price selling and sell value.  They are two different marketing messages.

3. All the auto companies are out of balance when it comes to customer acquisition and retention marketing efforts.  The majority of the marketing budgets are aimed at convincing new customers to buy their cars while they give lip service to customer retention.  Some of the manufacturers have custom magazines for their owners but they seem half-hearted.  I used to get a magazine from Acura and it was full of underwhelming content.  This year I leased a Mercedes and bought a Honda Accord and the follow up communication from both brands and been almost non-existent.  I have received a few weak emails that are selling me accessories and their overpriced service.

It would be more efficient to create long term customers rather than trying to sell new customers over and over.  This is an area where I would suggest the biggest changes for the auto companies.  They should peel off some the budget they are shoveling at TV to create private media channels to talk directly to their current customers to create a long term relationship.  This private media channel needs to have high quality original content from subject matter experts and great writers.  They need to create a real relationship based on affinity and trust with their customers, not just send them a magazine with travel articles and offers to buy floor mats, mugs and logoed junk.  In addition, try working in some new media – interactive webcasts for owners to get more from their car, and social media to connect owners and build community.

4. I would suggest more live test drive events where people can get inside a car and try it out.  It is a better experience without a sales guy breathing down your neck asking “how much do you want to pay per month”.   I went to a Mercedes test drive event about six years ago and decided on that day I would someday own a fine German auto.  In the time since that event Mercedes has probably hit me with a few millions dollars worth of rented media ads via magazines, newspapers, television, radio and billboards.  All those ads combined didn’t have a fraction of impact of the afternoon I spent getting to touch and feel the product and have a direct educational dialog the company.  On that day they built a level of trust and affinity with me that no traditional ad could ever duplicate. 

The bottom line:  They need to stop renting media and own their own media channel.

GM is back in the news asking for more loans and giving the government its plan.  President Obama doesn’t seem like he has much sympathy for their history of bumbling and mismanagement.  Neither does the public, Gallup just released new data that says 72% of Americans are against giving GM and Chrysler additional bailout money.  The sentiment is broad based across all demo groups. If the economy was good, I could see Obama saying no to more taxpayer money.  However, given the delicate state of the economy, the President is giving them a shot at redemption.  You could fill a book shelf with the collective mistakes of both management and the UAW, but I’ll focus on marketing and illustrate how the US auto companies, particularly GM is stuck deep the world of old media.

One of the most memorable experiences of my career was an attempt to sell auto advertising into PC Magazine in the late 90’s.  I was PC Magazine’s marketing director, and King Fish President Cam Brown was then the Associate Publisher.  We made it our personal mission to break the category so off to Detroit we went.  PC Mag had great demos of high income male gadget/tech geeks who loved the magazine and spent two hours reading each issue.  This was the perfect audience for Detroit and back then we had nearly 7 million readers and a circ of 1.2 million.  However, we were lucky to get 15 minute meetings with young and clueless media planners who only cared about two things. The pubs ranking in syndicated research and how much merchandising they could squeeze out of your book.  And, they made it clear that it was very hard to get on a plan if you were not already getting space. 

It is hard to do justice to what a bizarre world it was, not to mention that the depressing city revolved around keeping things exactly the same.  The media planners couldn’t get over the “environment” of PC Magazine.  They were running ads in every special interest pub measured in the JD Power study but they could not wrap their heads around the idea of their unimaginative ads appearing next to a technology review.  We could almost never get by that hurdle.  We did sell a few programs (Jeep, Ford) but more often than not, no one was interested in even exploring a new idea.

When driving around the Troy/Detroit metro area you could sense that one day the jig would be up and the whole system would come crashing down.  They were spending hand over fist for print and TV advertising to promote uninspired cars that people didn’t want to buy.  While at the same time they were overpaying everyone involved and locking themselves into insane union contracts that make GM more of a healthcare provider than car manufacturer.

Take a look at the latest research I could find on eMarketer from this summer.  We are in the new media age and GM has barely changed their spending mix.  Interactive spending is up, but still a fraction of TV. The vast majority goes to the rented media channels of broadcast and print.  It is common knowledge that most people start their auto shopping online, yet the overwhelming majority of their spending is on television.  The government is going to ask them to change some of their business practices in return for bailout money.  Maybe Mr. Obama will come across this blog on his BlackBerry so in part II I’ll have the audacity to tell GM what they are doing wrong and to fix it.

I am stating the obvious, but 2009 will be a rough year for the Face to Face events business – from trade shows to custom events to conferences.  I have been hearing about cut backs and cancelations from colleagues for months, and then saw this cover story in the New York Times on Vegas.  Business is way down in Las Vegas, arguably the convention and conference capital of the US.  Over 30,000 hotel rooms canceled last month as many shows have postponed or decided to cancel.  At last month’s Super Bowl the famous Playboy party was canceled.  They said a lavish party seemed inappropriate given the economy but I would wager that the only thing that was inappropriate was the lack of sponsor dollars to fund it.

The costs associated with live events makes them easy to cancel during a recession and that is really too bad.  Live events are one of the best lead generation tools available and they do an equally great job with customer retention.  The powers of events are enhanced when they are paired with original and compelling content created for the target audience.  However, event’s benefits come with a high cost per lead due to the fixed costs of running a first class event.   While there is no substitute for personal contact with a prospect or customer, there is another way.

Webcasting has been around for over ten years and is an established lead gen tool being used widely in the B2B world.  The Virtual Show or Virtual Trade Show is really picking up steam this year.  They have been around for a while now, but seem to be reaching a critical mass especially in the technology and life sciences markets.  If you are not familiar with them here is a definition from Wikipedia:

The structure of a typical virtual tradeshow often includes a virtual exhibit hall which users enter with specific permissions and capabilities, to either attend and view virtual trade show displays in the exhibit hall or build virtual booths to exhibit information related to products or services on offer, just as they would at a trade fair in a convention center. The virtual tradeshow may have other components such as a virtual web conference, or a web seminar or a webinar, or other educational presentations. The virtual show thus results in live interaction between all the users on many levels (one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many) and simultaneously. Detailed tracking mechanisms allow organizers to determine the flow of traffic in the virtual tradeshow.

Because this is online you get incredible data on the visitors and the actions they take during the show.  This allows you to segment and score your leads before you feed them into your lead nurturing programs.  And, your sales people can interact with prospects online during the show.  ON24 (King Fish is an authorized reseller) is one of several companies that provide a virtual show platform and they did some interesting research on the growth of virtual shows.  They surveyed 10,000 enterprise executive who reported that 53% of their companies have begun using virtual events and 23% plan to start using them this year.  The majority of these companies are also reporting that they will be decreasing their use of trade shows and physical sales meetings and training events.

If your company is struggling with your live events strategy it is worth exploring a virtual event.  Be aware, it is a large undertaking with project management, selection of a platform, content creation and audience development all playing a big role in your plans.  However, the rewards will be worth it when you start filling your sales pipeline with warm leads at a lower cost per lead (CPL) than a live event.

One of the consequences of the new media landscape is the marketing discipline of online reputation management.  This has always been an issue, but with the popularity of social media it has reached critical mass.  I recently came across a story that illustrates how ordinary people can harness the power of web 2.0 tools and make life very difficult for a company or individual.  Last month while flipping channels my wife came across a show we have never watched – Wife Swap.  The premise is wives from diverse backgrounds are switched for the purpose of mining entertainment from differences in attitudes towards housework, child rearing etc.  They’re generally from opposing social and political strata to create conflict and comedy, and this one was off the charts. 

One family was from Missouri and Middle America.  Their dream is seeing their oldest boy win a paintball scholarship, though I can’t believe it actually exists.  The “snobby” family was a pair of insufferable cultural elites from San Francisco who reveled in being environmentally correct and having a “World View” whatever that means.  The husband, Stephen Fowler, is possibly the vilest person ever to grace American TV.  He is a Brit who lives in the US of A to help us see the errors of our way.  Stephen (wearing a shirt that says “Sustainability”) was mean and cruel to the wife from the Midwest to a level that was almost unwatchable.  For more background check out this news video from San Francisco’s ABC affiliate. 

I watched to the end because I wanted to see this loathsome man get his comeuppance, and I sorely disappointed. It just ended with him and his wife (who said she was not proud to be American) being their usual smug and condescending selves.  I forgot all about the Fowlers until I read about the furor that this story caused in the Bay area and across the country.  Outraged people took to the web/social media networks and started making life difficult for the Fowlers.  This web site (stephenfowlersucks.com) became the hub and you can read about how their business and personal lives took a hit.  Stephen tried to apologize but it was too late, even though he was “deeply” sorry.  He had to resign from boards and his wife’s business, which they were promoting, was damaged.  It’s a reminder that things live forever on the web and once something goes viral, it is out of anyone’s control.  The internet is still the Wild West when it comes to digital rights and reputation management. 

All you need to do is flip through the comments section of any news, political or entertainment site to see public people being bashed by anonymous posters.  It is a real issue for companies who are seeing complaints about them rise in Google searches.  When people are angry today they take to the web and create a permanent record of their grievance than can be found by any customer or prospect.  I have had my challenges with Comcast cable so I typed “I hate Comcast” into Google and found almost 11 thousand exact matches.  And came across the charming site named comcastsucks.org.  That can’t put a smile on the face on their CMO. 

Monitoring your online reputation is something all marketers need to take seriously and it should be part of someone’s job responsibility.  That person needs to keep checking search engines, blogs, Facebook, twitter etc.  If possible you should reach out to the aggrieved person and try to resolve the conflict or at least try and show that there are people behind your logo.  Angry consumers often strike out against companies because they feel powerless and that no one cares about them.  It seems simple, but show you are listening and start an interactive dialog with your own blog or Facebook/Twitter account.  If there is something nasty being said about your company on the web, you want to know about it before your CEO’s son or daughter tells him about it. 

The current growth rate of Facebook continues apace, passing 100 million world wide users.  The growth is being fueled by both non-US users and the stampede of people between the ages of 25-55 who are jumping into the mix in huge and fast growing numbers.  Much of it is driven by professional needs, but the social needs are just as strong.  As the job market softens, it becomes imperative to network and keep in touch with past colleagues.  Also, to promote yourself and let people in your industry know what you have been up to for the past few years.  Having a Facebook account is a “must have” for those of us toiling in the media and marketing business.

We are firmly in a new world where our personal and business lives are combined, intersected and merged.  Even our young President has a Blackberry, and I heard him refer to the White House as a home office in jest.  Think of the Seinfeld episode where George does not want his girlfriend and friends to spend time together, because World’s Collide.  I feel like that on Facebook when “bawdy” Gordon exchanges ribald jokes with High School and gym friends in the same place where I dialog with clients, vendors and co-workers.  I try to be mindful of it, but others let it fly.  If you are going to wade into Facebook you have be tolerant of the torrent of trivial status updates (Fran is baking cookies, Leon is heading to Home Depot, Calvin needs coffee before writing a report) and ones that are there to self promote and sell. 

I have learned that given the ideological bent of the media world, it is best to leave politics off line, lest you want to receive a diatribe on the evils of George Bush or climate change (what global warming is called in the winter).  Like any platform or forum there will be those who abuse it and become serial “frienders”, just looking to pad their total in some odd ego affirming exercise.  Another form of abuse are over-posters who constantly regale their friends with political views, favorite articles and songs and generally clog up the works by assuming that there are hundreds of people who care about their every thought.  Take my advice – de-friend them.  I have done it a couple of times, it is cleansing

Now that everyone is here the question is – how best to use this powerful tool.  At this point no one has any firm answers but I do think it is valuable venue for marketing.  We’ll explore your company on Facebook in the next posting, but it is certainly worthwhile for individuals.  Facebook creates your own private media channel to the world.  You can chose to communicate one on one, to a specialized group or in mass.  It is a method to get the word out about events in your personal or professional life.   It also allows you to grow closer to people you don’t see or speak with on a regular basis.  I have found the ability to post links an effective way to get out the message about some interesting things we are doing as a company.  Facebook also gives us a targeted distribution channel for our blog and other content we create.  One of the main tenants of private custom media channels is the ability to speak to your permission based target audience with content in an environment where they will be receptive.  Facebook enables you to have an interactive dialog with your audience.  Social media has great promise as a marketing tool and right now we are all pioneers.

Over the past few weeks I have had the pleasure of appearing on a few radio shows to talk about the new media landscape.  It is important to look at these changes from the point of view of media consumers and how it affects marketers.  A common theme is how technology has empowered consumers to be in control of their media choices in terms of timing, format and platform.  This dynamic has changed the business model for traditional media companies especially in print and broadcast.  An equally important theme is the drive for measurability and accountability from marketers.  In a down economy, marketers are even more obsessed with return on investment and making every cent count.  These are themes we will be exploring in depth in 2009.

Please click the links to listen to the clips

December 22 – Indianapolis morning show with Pete the Planner, a well known financial planner from Green Candy.

January 16 – Houston National Public Radio

January 27 – KFUO morning show in St. Louis

January 30  - The Small Business Advocate with Jim Blasingame, small business expert

Cam Brown, President
King Fish Media

2009 will feature the greatest redirect in marketing approach that the media industry has seen since the explosive growth of cable television (and its subsequent usage opportunities that caused planning confusion in the 1980s and early 90s) . Looking forward, savvy marketers will broker deals with media companies not for reduced page rates or air time, but for their subscriber list – the more selects available, the better. Media companies will re-structure their sales teams, reducing the workforce of 30 and 40-something reps and elevating the most insightful marketers.

This new staff will gain immediate credibility with advertising partners who will not view them as yet another new face pitching the same old story, but as a strategic marketer identifying the most targeted database possible from their circ files, and guiding the best practices for usage of that file. The story of targeted efficiency over reach, and reduced top line advertising revenue in exchange for a smarter, more collaborative client relationship, is the story of 2009 and beyond.

Gordon Plutsky, Director of Marketing
King Fish Media

Custom Media, across all platforms, will be one of the few areas that will grow in revenue in 2009 thanks to two important trends:

    -  Companies becoming publishers and producing their own content to talk directly to customers and prospects.

   -   The need for more measurable media and high ROI during a recession.

The continued growth of web casting, virtual trade shows and online video will take a significant chunk of revenue from trade shows and live events during 2009.

The decline of the US auto industry will result in huge cut backs in print advertising from the big three, and several magazines will close as a result.  Local TV stations and newspapers will see big decreases in ad revenue as car dealerships close after GM kills Buick, Pontiac and Saturn and Ford also pares brands as part of a government bailout.

Several IT publications will follow the lead of PC Magazine and abandon their print issue to reposition themselves as online and events brands.  They will thrive once all the print overhead is removed.

Facebook will explode and become a “must have” for professionals in 34-54 age group who will continue to blur the lines between personal and business life.

The big television networks will continue to become less relevant in the lives of Americans as they spend more time on niche cable networks and social media sites.  The 2009 fall season will produce zero new hits.  The continued penetration of DVR’s will further erode their advertising base and they will have to make major cutbacks.

A major US daily newspaper will fold its print edition and go digital only.

Sarah Palin will write a book about her experiences during the 2008 campaign.  She will get a giant advance and it will go to #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list much to the dismay of New York Times.

American Idol will see a strong decline in ratings - over commercialization and bland contestants killed the golden goose.

Kathleen Martin
RocketComm

The markets will continue to ride the roller coaster through the third quarter. Big business will continue to contract but there will be explosive growth in small service firms and mid size companies. Contracting will be the norm versus traditional company employment.

Social media will continue to grow and the challenge in 2009 will be how to manage the scale and depth of your social networks and leverage the various media options for maximum return. As customers accept the flashing boxes on the sidebar and scrolling headers the media agencies will be looking for new ways to gain not only mind share but retention in a non-retentive environment.

I also think Elvis and Marilyn Monroe have a pretty good chance of being invited to the inauguration and we will see another Kennedy in the senate.

Joe Pulizzi
Junta42

More and more media companies will shed unprofitable titles in certain verticals to stay profitable and solvent. This will open up opportunities for corporate brands to become the content providers for those industries.  I wouldn’t be surprised if you started seeing corporate brands with some cash in the bank buy out small, niche media properties as they work to build out their content strategies.

Traditional media spend will continue to drop as corporate marketers will lean on web statistics for ROI. Marketers will take half of what they are pulling out of traditional and spend on content-driven activities, social media, and other more “experimental” media. Some “forward-looking” brands will see an opportunity to go back to targeted print activities, such as custom magazines and customer newsletters, to differentiate themselves from the barrage of email marketers. 

 What are your predictions?  Send them to gplutsky@kingfishmedia.com and we will post them or leave a comment. 
 

I just came across some data that shows for the first time in seven years, B2B trade show revenues declined, by 3.7% in the first three quarters of 2008 (source: ABM).  Of course, most people point to the recession as the reason – cut backs in both marketing expenditures and travel restrictions.  Surely, these are a factor, but not really telling the whole story.  It is more than coincidence that webcasting and virtual trade shows are a hot commodity and growing.  According to Frost and Sullivan the webcasting industry was worth $83.3 million in 2007 and is set to grow more than 28.2%. By 2014, they predict it to be a $3.4 billion market.

It is easy to see how cutbacks in travel can help webcasting, but that is just a small part of why it is growing.  Webcasting is one of the best lead generation mechanisms, if not the best, available today in the B2B world.  When someone attends your webcast they are raising their hand and self selecting themselves to view your content and message.  They are committing nearly an hour of their time to your message – the ultimate in content based permission marketing.  Additionally, you get incredible reporting data to know specifically who the prospects are and what actions they took during the webcast which often lets you know where they are within the buying process.  And, if you choose a live Q&A session, you can interact with dozens of potential customers in a personal dialog.  All of this comes at a pretty modest cost compared to traditional in person tradeshows. 

As someone who has once had the pleasure of managing their company’s trade show presence, I can tell you it is a very expensive operation.  The whole operation is designed to separate you from your budget – the space, the booth itself, power, T1 line, staffing, carpeting, plants, shipping and dealing with unions and their rules and rates.  All for the pleasure of standing in a tacky booth waiting for people to come by looking for free stuff and engage you with small talk.  The quality of leads of people who happen to amble by your booth can not compare with someone registering and attending your webcast – and engaging with your content. 

In many industries trade shows have an important role, but at what cost.  Buyers prefer to get content at their desks and marketers want a high return on their lead gen efforts.  Both of those trends point to the reason why webcasting is one of the fastest growing B2B marketing vehicles and it should prosper during tough economic times.

Are you a subject matter expert?  A subject matter expert is the “go-to” person for their customers and social network contacts.  These experts are seasoned professionals with references and a portfolio of proven success.  Subject matter experts get the customers, win the bids and are answering the phone rather than cold calling.

Interested in being an expert?  Then begin thinking like one.  An expert by definition is “having, involving, or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.”  In other words if you can demonstrate that you know more than most and are recognized as a leader within a community you are an expert.

In the 1980’s it could take you years to establish yourself as an expert.  With today’s social networking communities you can be recognized almost overnight.  Let’s look at two communities and how to position you and your business as leaders.

LinkedIn:

LinkedIn is established to be a business networking community.  You have the opportunity to ask questions, answer questions and participate in discussions.  The more time you dedicate to positioning yourself the more you will differentiate yourself.  Include links to your sites (blogs included) and where possible share your books or white papers on the subject.  References also speak volumes.  Anytime you can say “don’t take my word for it, read what my customers think” the more credible your opinions and suggestions become.

You can also join “like-minded” experts on LinkedIn.  These are small groups inside of the larger community that often focus on a discipline (e.g. marketing, sales, recruiting, human resources, or accounting) or on a specific interest (e.g. events, public relations, consulting).  Groups are reflected on your profile and allow people to see your affiliations and interests.

Facebook:

Facebook is different as it was set up as a social site.  Both business and personal intersect here.  You can establish multiple Facebook pages that focus on your business and on you as an individual.  You can choose to combine it all into one page.  Post notes that include article leads with links as well as highlights from your latest activities.  Changing your status to include information on where you are speaking or a presentation you may have posted will drive others to review your work.  You can cross link both Facebook and LinkedIn driving your audience from one site to the other.

There are many other sites that work much like these two (Plaxo, Namyz, MySpace).  It is possible to stretch yourself too thin with social networks.  I recommend you pick two and really focus your efforts in developing your message through your profile, references and participation (e.g. status updates, Q&A). 

The path to being an expert is clear: a well developed profile, references from your customers, participation in online discussions and building a following of contacts who are looking to drive business with you and for you.

I am sure that by now you have perfected your “about me” and “profile” pages on all of your social networks.  You have opened yourself to networking outside of your known circle and you are sending personal notes when you extend or accept invitation.  Your network of contacts has grown from hundreds to thousands of business professionals.

During this process you may have noticed that a large number of both corporate and private recruiters are looking to connect.  Recruiters are by nature active networkers.  They understand that they may meet the next great hire directly or indirectly through their network. Recruiters are experts at turning their contacts in leads.

So how do you do this?  I recommend three easy steps:

1.  Open a conversation with each of your contacts.  As I previously mentioned I respond to each invitation with a personal message.  I do have a form message that I personalize based on the profile of the individual.  I do the same with invitations.  I share what I do and what I am looking for.  I always ask for the business.  I am networking to grown my business.

2. Have “free” items available.  White papers, links to your blogs or anything that will share your expertise with the potential lead.  This is a validation process for them.

3. Set telephone calls to follow up individually.  I may spend 4-5 hours a week networking on line, but I spend an additional 8-9 hours in follow up calls and sending out information to prospective clients.

LinkedIn has added discussion functions to each of its groups.  You can send out a question or even a specific job request to the group.  This is also an excellent place for you to answer questions and position yourself as the expert in a specific area.  If in responding to a question you see an opportunity to ask for the business I often choose a “private reply” versus and open posting.  This allows me to contact the individual directly and share with them the benefits of my company and how I can assist them with their specific question or need.

Ready to jump offline and add an in person social networking option?  I recommend BNI . BNI offers everyone an opportunity to grow their business through referrals.  I use BNI to supplement by Facebook and LinkedIn communities and increase my local area leads.

Careful feeding, watering and farming of your contacts can turn your social network contacts in leads and revenue for your business. 

I’d like to introduce a new contributor to the King Fish Think Tank  - Kathleen Martin, CEO, RocketComm.  Kathleen is speaker, presenter and marketing professional with a track record for producing programs that generate revenue and exceed goals.  I have known her for several years going back to when I was running a marketing department for a traditional media company and she was a customer in her role as a communications manager for a Fortune 500 technology manufacturer.  Kathleen was one of my favorite clients because she is a master at using both new and traditional media to create ROI driven integrated solutions.  Now as CEO of her own company she is spreading her knowledge and experience with the world. – Gordon Plutsky, King Fish Media.

Driving Business Through Your Social Networks

I love to network.  I think I have been networking since I was in the third grade and introducing people to other people and looking for who had what in their lunch and who was looking to trade.  I am a bit older and I rarely find people looking to trade lunches, but I do find leads for my business and others through social network sites.   Networking online allows me to work a much larger lunch room and I make money versus Hostess cakes.

I have about 2400 contacts in my LinkedIn community and there is a fair amount of discussion on how to use LinkedIn or any social networking site to drive leads and increase your business.  I recommend that all users following five simple steps:

Understand the rules.
Social networks come with their own rules.  Be sure you understand what is acceptable in your communities.  On LinkedIn if you send an invitation to someone and they list you as “do not know” you will be unable to openly network without emails of the people you are trying to contact.  On Facebook not all of your discussions should be posted to walls, some require contact to contact messages.  You can often look at discussions posted online or in the FAQ section.

Build your profile as if you are building your website.
On LinkedIn your profile is not only a personal resume, but a resume for your business.  On Facebook you are walking a thin line of family, friends and business.  You can choose to have a personal page and a page for your business.  Keep an eye on what pictures you post on Facebook.  I cannot tell you how many small business owners loose business based on a picture they posted on Facebook (the holiday Christmas party should not be an open posting).

Start with the network you know. 
On LinkedIn you will need to just type in names in the search bar and request connections, on Facebook you can import your contacts from most webmail applications.  Add a personal note to each invitation.   Your note should include a short introduction from you, why you want to add this person to your network and why they should link to you.

Grow your contacts through open networking.
Move to the community that is available to you through your contacts.  On LinkedIn you can join the open networker groups (there are at least three) and you will receive invitations each time the new “invite me” list is shared.  On Facebook you can request anyone to be a friend, but the best way to grow quickly is to ask your friends to suggest contacts for you. 

Always ask for the business.
Anytime someone accepts your invitation or you accept theirs, follow up with a thank you note.  I suggest that you include not only your thanks, but what you are looking for business wise and ask what you can assist them with.

Wondering if it works?  I have driven more business in the last month through my LinkedIn contacts than I did on my last two direct mail campaigns.  By communicating in a personal manner both at the time of the invitation and when an invitation is accepted you create an active network.  Active networkers are open to growing business and will share leads with you if forward leads back out.   Next time we will discuss how to turn these conversations into active business.

Dear Steve Schmidt, Chief Strategist McCain Campaign,

After watching Sarah Palin light it up against Biden and draw huge crowds this weekend, I feel compelled to give some you marketing and media advice.  Love how you energized McCain and pulled ahead after the convention, but it has been all down hill since then.  The bail out timing was a bad break, and no matter what happens now it is Bush’s fault and by association McCain’s.  That may have been a tipping point in a year that should be a Democratic layup equivalent to Carter’s post-Nixon/Watergate win.  The RCP poll average has you down six, but the numbers have been volatile and may not be that accurate.  You still have a chance, time to take the gloves off and hand the ball to your point guard – Sarah Barracuda Palin. 

Your media missteps nearly killed your hottest brand, but it is not too late to salvage it with a new custom media approach.  What you have pulled off so far is impressive. As Alaska’s Governor she had no reason to be expert on issues such as internal Iranian politics, nuclear proliferation and Wall Street regulation.  You had five weeks to prepare her to debate a guy in who has been in the Senate since 1973 in front of 70 million people and you did a decent job.  However, you messed up the press relations and almost sunk her (and your campaign) by feeding her to the mainstream media on their terms.

What were you thinking?  I admit I may have given the interview to Charlie Gibson, who knew he would be a condescending ass? However, feeding her to Katie Couric was criminal.  The entire concept of network evening news is old school and a relic.  It has not been relevant or important since the 80’s.  In today’s media landscape, the consumer is in control and news is a commodity that is available on demand, 24/7 on any platform. The idea of influential people sitting down to watch 22 minutes of news at 6:30 every night has gone the way of parachute pants and knit ties.

Let’s face it, the mainstream media (MSM) is in the tank for Obama and has shown a willingness to do his dirty work by attacking McCain and Palin.  What possessed you to give into them and send Governor Palin to be interviewed by a woman who is floundering with horrible ratings and is on the verge of being fired?   Couric’s back is up against the wall and you gave her a chance to matter again – and you gave her complete control over content, camera work and editing.  You made people talk about Saturday Night Live again for the first time since the days of Eddie Murphy playing Gumby, damn it. 

Did you cave from the pressure of the MSM?  Did you actually take them seriously when they said it was the role of the media to vet candidates?  I don’t recall reading that in the Constitution.  The coastal liberal elite think that people in flyover land are too dumb to decide for their own, so it is their responsibility to decide for them.  They decided this one back in January, ask Hillary.

Here at King Fish, we have a philosophy called Private Media.  You need to own your own private media channel, not rent the old one from the MSM.  I suggest you create the Sarah Palin channel, to talk directly only to the voters that matter – swing voters in the key swing states.  Forget the traditional media of the networks and print media; you don’t need them – not a bit. They are losing significance and influence in the lives of Americans.  It is not coincidence that the networks and newspapers are the ones whose business models are most under attack.  You can get better marketing ROI handing out flyers in front of Penn Station than advertising during NBC’s new shows (hey, let’s remake Knight Rider).  The New York Times and its junior varsity team The Boston Globe have turned themselves into daily Obama campaign bulletins.  Is it any wonder their profits and stock price are declining?  The Times is cutting costs, sections and staff while losing what was left of their objectivity.

It is time to keep Palin away from these faltering outlets and have her talk directly to voters.  You will take heat for this strategy.  A hue and cry will come from people in NY, Boston, and LA who mock and hate her.  Who cares, let the NPR crowd stew over their soy lattes; you have already lost those states.  Focus on your target market – swing voters in swing states who identify with her and feel she is “one of them”.   Let the voters decide on Nov. 4th and let the chips fall where they may.

You are sitting on a pile a of cash, so buy up half hour time slots in critical local market to run infomercials and promote the hell out of them.  Create the shows as town halls where people can see Palin speak directly to voters with no media filter.  Embrace social networking to a much greater extent than you have – go viral with web video in a big way.  Enlist word of mouth marketing with PTO groups and churches in Middle America. Try some live streaming video web casts with Sarah where she can answers question directly from voters, and not from agenda driven members of the media. 

The game is well into the 4th quarter, put the ball in her hands and have her attack and bust the zone.  You can’t wait for Obama to make a mistake; he won’t, he is too good a politician.  Have her hit him hard on Ayers, taxes, and “the white flag of surrender” in Iraq.  Sarah Palin needs to take her message directly to the right voters and forget about traditional media.  The web, live events, you tube, email and word of mouth will be your media vehicles.

It still may not be enough since it seems that a slim majority of American are ready to cast their lot with Obama because he is a blank canvas to where they can project their hopes, dreams and fears.  Look on the bright side; if you and Gov Palin (or Gov. Jindal or Gov. Pawlenty) takes him on in 2012 you will have an actual Obama record to run against instead of slogans and promises.  No matter what happens over the next four years, good or bad, you can hang it on him.  It may be fun to take the easy route, it has been for Obama.

I feel like the guy at the gym with a giant walkman instead of an IPOD.  Or the weird co-worker who doesn’t have cable TV.  Yes, until this week I was not on Facebook. I am not a total stooge, and am quite active on Linked In and really enjoy it.  I was under the mistaken impression that Facebook was not for business.  I was pretty wrong – just about everyone on my Linked In list has their own page.  At the urging of several marketing colleagues and my super terrific PR agency I took the plunge.  I have spent the last few nights at home reaching out to friends and business associates and fooling around with the site.  It is a world onto itself.  Linked In is a somewhat spartan, no frills all business site.   I spoke with someone recently who told me it is one of her best sources for leads.  It does the job but kind of dull – like a Toyota Camry.

Facebook is a strange mix of your personal and business life.  I am not totally sure I like that, but everyone else seems to be having a grand old time.   There are two ways that personal and business mix.  First, I have business contacts mixed in with people from my personal life – in my case from my gym (North Shore Cross Fit has it own group page) and some friends and family.  Secondly, the site gives you the ability to express yourself in all kinds of ways – music, movies, relationships, pictures and politics.  And, everything can be commented on – lots of witty banter.  I have already engaged in some fun back and forth with some radical leftist commie friends over politics.  It is all in good fun, but does everyone else who can read it know that? 

The other strange feature is the twitter like stream of consciousness that you can post on a regular basis.  So far it has been amusing because I know some very amusing people, but what is the purpose?  Like most social networking sites, it is a freaky intersection of narcissism and voyeurism.

However, I do like being in contact with past co-workers whom I really like but never have a real reason to talk to during a busy day.  I am going to jump in and hope that King Fish gets some business benefit out of the whole thing.  I will be watching it closely, and will report on its success as a business and marketing tool.  Hey, if you come by, friend me. 

Do you remember when you were a kid and you picked your cereal based upon the toy in the box?  Remember deliberating as you walked down the very small aisle which had a reasonable amount of cereals from which to choose? Remember getting home and sticking your hand in a brand new full box of some sugary crunchies to fish out a plastic item that your mom always hoped you didn’t eat accidentally?  The toy wasn’t usually that interesting in the end game but it still persuaded you to make a brand decision. 

Things have changed in the cereal aisle and elsewhere when it comes to marketing to our kids.  First of all the cereal aisle is twice as long and has infinitely more choices.  Secondly the stakes are higher:  it’s no longer a toy, it’s an online game. Moreover, it’s not just the cereal aisle that has fun incentives and those toys are not just for kids anymore!

Welcome to Advergaming! According to Wikipedia: 

“Advergaming is the practice of using video games to advertise a product, organization or viewpoint. The term “advergames” was coined in January 2000 by Anthony Giallourakis who purchased the domain names Advergames.com along with Adverplay.com. The term Advergames was later mentioned by Wired’s “Jargon Watch” column in 2001, and has been applied to various free online games commissioned by major companies.”

I won’t blog about the whole history of the concept, suffice to say it’s been here since the beginning of this century and even if you haven’t been exposed it is likely that your kids have.  My kids love Webkinz.  “Webkinz are stuffed animals that were originally released by the Ganz company on April 29, 2005. The toys are similar to many other small plush toys. However, each Webkinz toy has an attached tag with a unique “Secret Code” printed on it that allows access to the “Webkinz World” website. On Webkinz World, the Secret Code allows the user to own a virtual version of the pet for virtual interaction.”  Webkinz are the perfect example of brand interaction but not necessarily designed to be “advertising”, more the point of the pet is to experience the virtual reality of the pet.  But whatever you call it, my kids are playing with a brand for hours if I would let them.  (Please don’t let Webkinz come out with a cereal!)

Similarly many marketers from Pepsi to McDonalds, Fruit Loops to Chips Ahoy have developed fun online games that are a true band “experience”.  The gaming world has been growing at warp speed since Pong hit the screen in the 1972.  According to a new survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, “97 percent of children and teenagers ages 12 to 17 claim to have played some kind of video game, with 99 percent of boys and 94 percent of girls saying they play games.”  Given the ability of kids, and those even the younger than tweens and teens, to navigate a variety of interfaces, it is no surprise that advertisers would jump at the chance to make branding fun.

It’s virtually impossible to find a brand who doesn’t have virtual fun associated with its products.  And don’t be deceived that play time is just for kids anymore.  Adidas, Fidelity, Toyota, Volkswagen, Stride Gum have all developed advergames.  Even Pfizer is promoting Viagra via it’s own targeted advergame.  Begging the question, are you really serious?  Grown men interacting with little blue pills on line.  What will they think of next? 
There is no doubt that advergaming is attractive to many consumers out there.  It makes sense because the goal of many advertisers is to get the target audience to spend more time with the brand, increase preference and loyalty.  This online fun allows marketers to develop their own private custom media channel and continue to restate their unique brand proposition but in a subtle and subliminal sort of way.  Imagine, finding a way to have your target market watch a channel that only ran your marketing messages and nothing else.  What would you pay for that kind of play time?

To say we’re heating up for another testy presidential election would be an understatement. This burner’s been on for months and we’re all overcooked. I loved the primaries, but by April, I was exhausted by the Democratic Party’s inability to choose a candidate, and by Mitt Romney’s embarrassing quest to purchase the White House. When it became clear that my pantsuited hero was out, I licked my wounds and placed myself defiantly in the undecided camp.

I am exactly the person both Obama and McCain want to sway to their side. Obama wants me to understand just how mentally unstable McCain is. How could he possibly not remember how many houses he owns?! McCain wants me to know how Obama himself said, in 2004, how he would not be ready to be president in 2008. How could you possibly elect such a celebrity 2008?!

But this year, something is different. Both political parties are making their pleas to me via the web, which is the information and entertainment tool I, and every single one of my peers, use more than any other medium. In past election years, I’d be lucky to catch an attack ad or two on television on the weekends. Now, it seems like I’m seeing new web videos released every few days. I’m watching as McCain compares Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and as Obama warns us that McCain will send more troops to Iraq. I can watch them multiple times (I said can, not want to) and send them along to my friends – something that was impossible with television ads.

Of course we can’t lose sight of the fact that this is still all politics as usual. McCain might not get my vote because he keeps coming out with better videos of key Democrats sounding off about Obama’s lack of experience. The point is that they’re reaching me and I’m watching them. And on November 4, I have to make a decision.

Word of Mouth (WOM) marketing is certainly not a new sensation; in fact it’s not even a hot buzzword anymore.  The reality is that much of what began under the banner of WOM is now being spoken of in the lexicon of social media.  Blogs, Wikis, User Generated Content (UGC) and the whole social media world are really built upon many of the principles started years ago with WOM. 

No matter what you call it, there’s now an environment capable of propagating the reality of your products quality and comparative value into the marketplace at blinding speed.  All these channels of communication and exchange make information available to a larger group of people at a faster rate than at any time in history.   

Even in this world of radical transparency and information exchange, I continue to be amazed at how much energy goes into messaging and marketing that attempts to gloss over product deficiencies rather than directing more focus and resources on fixing the underlying issues.  Often the result is marketing that dooms a product to fall short of expectations and to subsequently be raked over the coals of public opinion.   This kind of thinking completely misses the opportunity to tap the exponential power of social medial and WOM and fuels those folks who love to expose faulty products and the companies who make them.

Addressing core product issues isn’t always possible for a variety of reasons.  Lack of funding, short timelines to get a product to market or a host of other factors create the need for compromises.   No product, even fantastic ones, will likely go to market without their creators secretly wishing they could have slipped in a couple extra cool features.  

In the end, it comes down to the truth of your product.  Despite great marketing, huge media buys and all the other traditional marketing trimmings, a less-than product is destined for a very short half-life these days.  In contrast, high-quality offerings taken to market with savvy use of social media/WOM channels are likely to enjoy a longer run and do so with smaller marketing budgets. 

Next time you’re planning a go-to-market strategy, don’t underestimate the marketing value of a great product.  Waiting for, or pushing for, that next feature could be the best marketing decision you’ve ever made.    
 

Of all the things that fascinate me about the web there is a special place in my heart for Wikipedia.  I am a trivia nut, so I love trolling the listings, and I get a kick out of the earnestness of the people who contribute and patrol the site (more about that later).  It is now standard practice for marketers to create a Wikipedia page for their company.  And, it has become an art form to put up a page that does not veer too much in a sales pitch to prevent being smote down by the Wikipedia gods.  I have heard from many of my marketing peers who have done battle with the self appointed defenders of truth.

Because Wikipedia is very well indexed by Google having a company page helps your SEO efforts. When you Google King Fish Media, our Wiki page comes up in the third listing after our site URL and the Think Tank blog - and it is driven over 100 visitors to our site.  If you have not ventured into these waters as a marketer, you must try it.  These types of sites are quickly replacing more traditional sorts of reference materials. 

There have been a lot of debates to the validity of the information presented, and you do need to take the facts and information presented with a grain of salt.  The dispersed and anonymous nature of the policing opens the door for people with an agenda to set the tone. 

I am fascinated by those who have taken on the duty to police the site for factual accuracy.  What is their motivation?  What drives them to do what they do?  It’s not money since they are volunteers.  Valid questions as we move into the age of user generated content – or UGC as the cool marketers are calling it.  Over on Channel V Media’s blog they wrote about a game called wikiracing where participants add information to obscure pages and see how fast they are corrected or edited.

In the name of science I inserted myself as notable resident of my hometown of Beverly, Massachusetts – as an author. I write this blog and have had a bunch of marketing articles published so I thought author was my best bet.  And, my new found fame would give my mom something to talk about at the Boynton Beach JCC.  It seemed easy enough since the current list of 26 people is pretty weak expect for some 300 year old historical figures and a few modern exceptions – Kevin O’Connor who hosts This Old House on PBS, alternative rocker Mary Lou Lord (check her out on iTunes if you don’t know her, she is great) and world famous author John Updike.  The rest were a collection of people no one has heard of unless you were related to them. 

I put myself in there alphabetically between actor Howard Petrie and television sports commentator Derek Rae - under the radar flanked by a B movie actor who has been dead for 40 years and a Scottish soccer commentator.  My fame lasted exactly 27 hours before being struck down by a wiki police person with the user name of Adj.  Adj is a serial editor who seems to specialize in trivial information about Massachusetts towns – talk about a niche.  I was of one of 13 edits Adj made that day, and one of over 500 since April.  You can visualize Adj at a desk in a cramped basement home office surrounded by reference books, cats and stacks of old newspapers - sipping a cup of tea and staring at the screen over drug store reading glasses while stamping out informational miscreants such as myself.  There must be immeasurable pleasure and satisfaction in telling the world that I am a seemingly nonnotable resident of Beverly.  However, I would wager that more people read this blog in 2008 than watched the collective works of Howard Petrie, but I’ll let it go.

Maybe the information on Wikipedia is good and can be trusted if there is any validity to the wisdom of crowds.  I am not totally sure what to make of it as a marketing tool other than you better not cross the line or the Adjs of cyberspace will be there to put you in your place – the digital dustbin of history.

A few weeks ago my Think Tank colleague Gordon blogged about the Proposition 2 ½ over ride which was soundly rejected by his city, Beverly MA.  His observations on local politics and the impact of social networking on these heated topics are characteristic of many towns who are facing tough budgetary decisions in economically diverse communities.  And my town, an upscale fishing/sailing town north of Boston, is included on that list.

I will admit it right now: I am an SUV driving, latte drinking, work-out mom with 3 kids and at least 3 jobs, only one for which I get an actual pay check.  Most of the time managing my off-springs agenda’s is a full time job.  Sometimes it’s the PTO, or church school, or the Children’s Hospital fundraisers that fill my day. Other times it’s helping my clients reach the ever-more-valuable Mom-target more effectively.  It was the years of training in media arena that prepared me best and most for my most recent 90 day job: Chief Override Mom.

Having never worked on a political campaign, nor really knowing anyone who has made it uncharted water.  But much like bringing a new product to market, there was a familiarity to our strategy. We organized ourselves by putting together a troop of talented, business savvy Mommas who brought energy and creativity to this challenge.  We had communications specialists, attorneys, web designers, teachers, real estate marketers, ad agency types, you name it.  We had representation from all kids of hard working Moms, oh yes and one dad with a great sense of humor!  Once our team was drafted we set about answering the following: How were we going to persuade a town full of real old line New Englanders (read: frugal), who are insanely proud of the “lowest” tax rate around, to approve almost $22 million to REPAIR AND UPDATE our middle school facilities?  Not even to build a new school?

This was not going to be “my mothers over ride” as we embraced new media.  What once was an old fashion effort of neighborhood signs and leaflets in your neighbor’s door evolved into a multi-platform marketing strategy.  We laid out a 90 day time plan for our communications and out reach.  We built a web site and utilized Constant Contact email newsletters to reach out to our database of supporters. We set up phone networks of parents to use word of mouth to get out the vote. We had traditional direct mail to the 45-60 year old voters who could no longer (or never could) be reached by the back pack brigade.  We created emails that were organically viral: you send it to your address book and ask those people to pass along in kind.  We added a face to face component and invited the community to events, including tours of the school itself.  Taking word of mouth marketing one step further we identified town/thought leaders and brought them literally into the boiler rooms of the school that many of them had attended in their own youth, pointing out of course that nothing had really changed in 50 years… ergo the $22 million. 

It was important to keep our eye on the opposition daily, reading of course the angry and bitter words on local town blogs and forums, which of course are attributed to no one.  As Gordon pointed out, it is much easier to be rude when you don’t have to sign your name to your rants.  We didn’t spend much time or energy trying to change the hearts and minds of the intensely opposed, it would have been futile.  We preferred to focus on educating those voters who would be impacted one way or another by this enormous decision. 

After 90 days and lots of hard work and some strategic sign holding later, we prevailed.  A real grass roots effort with some high tech twists helped us to get out enough voters to pass our over ride by a 2 to 1 margin.  What had worked was creating a private media channel to reach our target through many vehicles:  a combination of print and on-line distribution of information that helped to educate our community.  It was face to face meetings and tours that gave real urgency to our cause.  It was virtual tours online that brought the situation to life.  It was the friendly email reminders to the overwhelmed to make sure we made their daily “to do list”.  It was inviting the senior community to witness the decay of the school facilities.  It was reminding the town in local papers about the impact of a healthy school system on their property values.  All in all, it was a classic private media channel where we used compelling content to tell our story to a highly targeted audience.

I know this small town effort to fix a single school is no match for what is coming in November.  We are still low tech in our efforts compared to Obama and McCain but we sure have come along way from the bake sales and flyers of my youth.  I have witnessed organic-mom-networking 2.0.  So far I’d say it’s a powerful force of nature and one to be watched with a careful marketer’s eye.

Last week my city, Beverly, MA held an election that may offer a small preview of this November’s election.  Here in the Massachusetts we have a wonderful law to reign in government called Proposition 2 ½ passed by referendum during a tax revolt in 1981.  Here in the bluest of blue states we have a segment of people who love their taxes.  It basically states that property tax can’t increase by more than 2.5% per year, except if the people in the town vote to over ride the law for a specific reason.  In our case it was to help fund the school system that is running at a deficit due to the usual suspects – increasing teacher healthcare and pension costs, unfunded state and federal mandates and exploding special education needs.  If it passed, the average homeowner would pay roughly $190 more a year in property tax and one of the six elementary schools in town would be saved from closing. 

It was quite a battle, a real steel cage street fight.  What struck me was the anti-government venom.  It was aimed at the Mayor, School Committee, City Council, Teachers Union and anyone who even walks by city hall.  There was also a generous helping of class warfare as the working class and seniors resented the upscale moms who led the fight for the over ride.  One of the leaders of the over ride movement made the classic marketing mistake of saying it would only cost “a latte a week” to fund the tax increase.  Oh boy! Talk about not knowing your audience.  That statement became a rallying cry from the working class people who wouldn’t go inside a Starbucks on a bet.  The moms (and some dads) were dubbed the Latte Divas by the anti-tax people who fought it out on the Salem News web site message boards.  I would read the forums and the anger was palpable.  The parents were advocating raising taxes “for the children” or our property values would plummet and the city would become a slum overnight.  Opponents ranted back about how unions, the government and entitled parents were ruining America, and how they can’t afford another cent is this bad economy.  Over rides for schools usually pass in small affluent bedroom communities, but in economically diverse Beverly (pop. 40,000) it was crushed 63% to 37%.  And, a real class division opened up in once cohesive community.

It was a fascinating look at how social networking and web 2.0 tactics shaped the debate.  The pro over ride parents (Yes! For Beverly) had their own blog, Facebook page and email distributions; and the forums on the local newspaper sites became ground zero for battles pitched by people from both sides using anonymous screen names.  Some of the postings were pretty mean, and would never be said if a real name had to be attached or it was face to face.  It is much easier to work up some real anger when hiding behind a made up name that can’t be tracked.  It got me thinking about the nature of these anonymous posts which are found all over the web on all types of sites.  Does the anonymity produce true and honest feelings that are hidden by social convention, or is it an excuse to be rude.  There is something freeing about putting the usual political correctness aside, but debates can escalate quickly.  It is an interesting situation for companies who host these types of forums, especially when someone can be slandered on your site.  Monitoring your site is a must to protect your brand.

In addition, I could tell that there were some “PR plants” in there spouting the talking points from each side.  I don’t think many “average citizens” know the intimate details of municipal finance, collectively bargained teacher’s contracts and academic studies on the benefits of lower class size.  There were more than a few people with not so hidden agenda’s passing themselves off as John and Jane Q. Public.

This local battle may be a microcosm of the upcoming Presidential election. We will hear some of the same issues and charges from both sides.  Elitism and class division, education, taxation and the economy will be issues out front and center.  2008 will be the first web 2.0/social networking presidential election.  The ground war is going to move from mainstream media ads and direct mail to the web in a big way.  The blogs, video sharing sites, forums and online fundraising are going to be humming.  This may help Obama and his more youthful supporters, but the same tools can also make any scandal viral or misstep magnified.  We are in somewhat uncharted media waters, and as the cable news talking heads like to say “only time will tell”

This year’s Digital Hollywood conference in Los Angeles has been shedding light on the significant challenges marketers face as they try to lasso prospects online. By and large, the panelists have been candid about the immaturity of this medium, but have been unified in their belief that traditional advertising is waning, and providing prospects with meaningful online experiences is the cost of entry.

The panelists, most of which carried senior executive titles, provided sound bites that had me in complete agreement. Here is a sample.

During a session entitled: The Web, Social Media and Advertising: Transforming and Disassembling the World of Traditional Media and Communications, Matt Rosenberg, Group Director, Organic said that to be successful, “Brands are immersing themselves in the content experience…you need to let your brand take a backseat.” I absolutely agree, and that is a core strategy at King Fish Media, where our job is to help clients engage with prospects and clients on a far more meaningful level than brand advertising offers.

Recommended contacts who spoke at this panel:

Raquel Krouse, VP Social Media, Interpublic Emerging Media Lab
Matt Rosenberg, Group Director, Organic
Mark Lewis, Strategic Planning Director, DDB San Francisco

The next session, Bridging TV and Broadband: Strategic Relationships – Advertising, Technology and Content, took the full customer immersion concept to a different level. A senior executive from the Home Shopping Network candidly evaluated her brand, and said that the universal knowledge of her brand allowed for movement into new media platforms (Interactive TV and .TV), saying, “People at the company worried about these platforms, but with the huge brand loyalty, they go wherever the brand goes and build communities there.” We, at King Fish, describe this phenomenon as owning, not renting your own media channel – Private Media.

Recommended contacts from this panel:

Jeff Miller, President and CEO, ICTV
Fred McIntyre, SVP, AOL Video

On a separate note, I hope to never again hear these words as much as I have during the last three days: “paradigm” (thought we were done with that), “frictionless”, “zero sum game”, “net loser” and “value proposition”.

During each of these sessions, I heard frequent confirmation that intent-based vs. interruption-based communications is the most effective means for clients to communicate with their prospects and customers; custom media provides the single strongest venue to effectively achieve success with this effort.

While watching the Today Show this week it was announced that Mothers Day is officially 100 years young. In honor of this blessed event, Matt Lauer along with Donny and Marie Osmond shared that the newest reality search involved the hunt for “Americas Favorite Mother”. They explained that there were many categories to be won including: Single Mom, Military Mom, Working Mom, etc.—you get the drift. They were narrowing it down by communities and common characteristics. I was impressed at the categories they came up with. I started thinking just how many types of moms there are out there. While the whole effort was a little saccharin sweet for me initially, I warmed up when I realized that NBC was recognizing different communities of Moms and praising their unique qualities.

My essential disappointment with most communications aimed at Mothers is that we are lumped together in spite of our cultural, personal, educational and financial differences. “Mother” just casts too broad of a net. The act of giving birth defines us all, but once the pod has separated from the Mother-ship our differences begin. We have various and sometimes opposing opinions on feeding, care and nurturing of our offspring; we have diverse interests in hobbies, books, sports and life in general. And like other communities we tend to flock together by our common interests, characteristics and beliefs.

Check out CafeMom if you really want to see the blended complexion of our community. In the 33 pages of sub communities on CaféMom, there was something for everyone! There are groups based on demographics, psychographics, social activism, body type, job-related concerns, media preferences and of course, sexual interests.

Some of my personal creative and slightly strange favorites are: Anarchy Moms, Mothers Against Pedophiles (is there a group that was defined as Mothers FOR Pedophiles?), Nestlé Free Zone Moms (they don’t like Quik?), Poetic activist Moms, and my personal favorite, Pistol Packin’ Mommas. And these moms are ready and able to share tips, insights, secrets, fears and accomplishments as they related to their own sorority. Whether it was pro-breast feeding, tackling teenage depression or fitness fiends over fifty, these women communicated with each other eagerly and often. There is camaraderie among the women whose husbands don’t pay their child support. There is empathy for parents with autistic children. The social networking is fun but also therapeutic and often liberating.

Of course CaféMom is only one of thousands of sites designed for moms to meet and mingle; and it just happens to be one of my favorites. It’s the micro-networks and communities within the bigger picture that makes it rich. It’s not just a place for Moms, which it is. It’s that there is a home for all types of Moms. It’s about the specific content delivered to the participant who is passionate about a topic. The compelling mix of targeted community and content is the reason that CaféMom has experienced 507% growth from January to June of 2007. The customized experience builds affinity with the site so the average session time is almost 22 minutes. The net result is an ideal environment for targeted marketing messages.

So Pistol Packin’ Mommas rejoice! It’s Mothers Day and there is something out there for all of you! I hope that all your Hallmark wishes are NRA compliant and that you get the ammo of your dreams. For me, I am going back to the “Steals and Deals” - for Mommas who love to shop. I may not be America’s Most Favorite Mom, but I am a retailer’s perfect dream!

Starbucks has been getting beaten up this year and faces tough competition from Dunkin Donuts. Even McDonalds is taking a run at them.  One of the ways they chose to respond is a great lesson in listening to your customer and embracing a private custom media channel.  For many companies the knee jerk, old school reaction would have been to launch a “branding” campaign or hire a celebrity pitch person.  Instead Starbucks did something very cool – they launched My Starbucks Idea web site.  The purpose of the site is to ask their loyal customers what they could do to improve the product and service.  I would encourage you to go to the site and read the both the volume and passion of the responses.  The site is powered by salesforce.com and they did a similar site for Dell.  Interesting, Dell and Starbucks have a lot in common – both were innovative companies who used to be the fresh up-and-comers, and once they got too big; they lost touch with what made them great.

I commend both companies for creating a private media channel to have a two way dialog with their customers.  This kind of forum gives customers a place to vent, and make suggestion.  Read through some of them – they are not only thoughtful, but smart.  A lot of companies give lip service to listening to their customer, but how many actually do and act on it?  More than ever, people in the executive suite are isolated from their customers, where they are a long way from their middle class American customers and prospects.  Also, since they only talk to other execs, they get caught in an infinite loop of their own B.S.  How many meetings have you been in where sales and marketing people sit around pitching each other and not taking in outside information?  Happens all the time and the result: the ads we see on TV and in magazines are completely off target.

What I really like about the site is the “Ideas in Action” section where Starbuck employees respond in their own words and tell customers what action they will take based on customer suggestions.  This is powerful because many times when you write to a web site, you get an automated response which is sometimes worse than getting none at all.  I have to admit I have never been a big Starbucks fan – the coffee is too harsh and I can’t stand the ordering process.  It was fun to see that many others feel the way I do.  As a result, they are introducing a “smoother” coffee and talking about an express line for impatient people like me who just want a regular coffee; and don’t want to stand behind a line of people ordering complicated permutations of coffee beans, milk (cow or soy) and odd flavors.

Now, let’s see if they take this process one step further.  They have collected scores of contact names and been given the “permission” to talk to them about Starbucks.  I would suggest starting a real Starbucks private custom media channel to their customers using content marketing to further strengthen the bond between them and their customers.  This approach could get Starbucks back on track and make the brand fresh again.  Meanwhile, I can’t wait for the first express line open. 

Read the January 11th WSJ article entitled “The Car That Got Away” and you’ll get a sense of what my wife puts up with fairly regularly. The timing of this article was perfect: after 60 days of online hunting on enthusiast Web sites and associations for one of my favorite cars from my youth (a 1979 Toyota Land Cruiser), I found it, about 2,600 miles away from my garage in Boston. But I found it, and it’s on a truck heading east as we speak.

What was truly interesting about this process were the people I spoke with along the way. No fewer than 45, either on the phone or through email. And every one of them was as excited as I was to talk about their cars. One of them sent a pound of gourmet coffee from Seattle as a thank you for considering his ride. Many poured over our company’s Web site, and asked me very insightful questions about our business. My favorite was a couple who sent voice-over samples of some of their client work, inviting me to learn more about their studio business – and I did. That was completely cool. Others sent videos of their cars in action off road, and made sure to customize them with brief cameos, saying, “Hey Cam, hope you liked the tape – we had fun making it for you.”

Our community was quickly built, private in scope and incorporated the following media channels:
Web sites – enthusiast sites with classified advertising that sold hard

Web-based Original Video – the product in action

Email to send photos and mechanical reviews

Telephone for one-to-one Q&A

Magazines and Newsletters which invigorated the category, and brought all of us together

A customized communication approach to a unique community – at King Fish, we call that creating a Private Media channel – where buyers and sellers create dialogue with one another in trusted environments. It is efficient, it is highly measurable, and it helped me bring home an old family friend.

We often talk about Private Media in terms of for-profit corporations directly talking to customers and prospects by owning their media channel rather than renting time and space from large media companies. One of the many benefits of the private media approach is that the owner of the media channel gets to control the message – both the content and distribution.

We now see a rapidly growing movement where individuals are also creating private media channels – pretty easy with today’s Web 2.0 technologies. Between social networking sites and video sharing, anyone can create a private media channel with minimal effort.  All of the Presidential candidates are well down this road, and almost every rock star, actor and athlete worth their salt has their own Web site, myspace page, and has posted videos on YouTube for an interactive dialog with fans. While the primary motivation is promotion, it can also be used to communicate directly with fans, enabling the personality to control the message and environment while getting their message out there as fast as possible. One of the key rules of crisis management is getting the word out quickly and framing the conversation.

How many times on TV have we seen someone yell at their lackeys in anger, saying: “the press will have a field day”. (By the way, a field day is an opportunity for unrestrained activity, not a day of sports competition at school – thanks Encarta.) In the past, celebrities and companies were dependent on their PR machines pitching and spinning stories to the press and having no input as the press edits and positions the story. Once a negative story gets into the 24/7 news cycle it is well out of your hands, and indeed a field day ensues.

We are now seeing famous people taking their message directly to the people. When Rosie O’Donnell was battling ABC and Barbra Walters over her job on the View, she posted video blogs on her site for her fans and the media to pick up and replay. Rosie’s private media channel told her side of the story quicker than the Disney/ABC PR team could tell theirs. Baseball’s Roger Clemens did the same thing when responding to reports he used steroids. After a few days of silence he posted a video on his site and on YouTube to deny the allegations. He will appear on 60 Minutes this weekend, but he has already gotten his message directly to the public bypassing the 60 Minutes film editing room.

The newest private media channel took me by surprise – The British Royal Family has premiered their own royal channel on YouTube. This is where they posted the Queen’s annual Christmas message and other clips and archive footage. When one of the oldest and most traditional intuitions in the world embraces private media, it is clearly an idea whose time has come.

Consumers of media and information need to watch these videos with an attitude of buyer beware. This is an unfiltered message, which does not have the benefit of a journalistic screen – no fact checking or follow up questions.  On the other hand, there also no agenda or bias from the journalist or media company. This is especially attractive to polarizing and controversial figures such as Queen Elizabeth II and Roger Clemens. It bears watching how this trend will develop – as we can assume that more and more notable people and companies create their own private media channels.

How will the traditional media companies adapt? Will consumers put as much faith in messages directly from the sources, rather than through journalists? My guess is that we will come to expect the direct message from our actors, singers, athletes, politicians and corporations. It will be incumbent on corporations and others using private media to keep the content benefit-oriented and information rich when speaking to their customers and prospects rather than a sales pitch. With the right content, a private media channel can be more powerful than any ad or PR effort will ever be.
 

There was a report out of Gartner late last month that estimated between 46 percent and 83 percent of Internet browsers/visitors/whatever-you-want-to-call them now engage with “consumer-generated content” at least once per month.

Gartner’s definition of this content includes blogs, podcasts and wikis as well as all manner of rating systems, recommendations and user reviews.

Not surprisingly, teenagers were more likely to engage with these sorts of media. Moreover, the percentage of U.S. adults who engage in this type of content at least once a week was lower than their counterparts in either France or the United Kingdom. Gartner suggests that this may be due to the novelty factor abroad.

Separate, but similar, research from In-Stat earlier this year likewise points to an impending explosion of worldwide revenue from what it calls “user-generated content,” most notably videos you’d find on YouTube. Last year, it figures $80 million in revenue was attributable to this stuff. By 2011, however, it predicts sales of around $1.6 billion.

For creative types like myself, the sorts of people that the business side increasingly consider as just so much overhead, these numbers are both scary and scintillating.

I don’t know of any journalist, no matter whether their work takes the form of a lengthy feature article, a video dispatch, an opinion column or a review, who doesn’t love hearing from someone who is reading or watching what they have to say.

I’ve had people walk up to me in airports to take issue with something I wrote, which is a little scary from a privacy standpoint. But from a professional level, it’s a thrill. “Hey,” I think, “THEY READ ME. They care.” Because, after all, most journalists get into the profession in order to touch people, in order to share information. In the world of print, our words mostly went into this void. Lots of guesswork went on. Focus groups were conducted.

Online, of course, everything has changed. I receive daily statistics for the green technology blog (“GreenTech Pastures”) I write on ZDNet. In an instant, I can see how many people are reading about certain topics; which strike a chord and which fall flat. The rating and comment system, meanwhile, tells me if I’m doing my job thoroughly enough. Often, I will think of an entirely new subject to write about as a result of a post. Or, I’ll kick myself to do a little more research if I’m missed an angle.

In my past life as the editor of channel news publication CRN, I made more contacts as a result of my editorial columns and video Webcasts than any other activity during my close to 18 years of covering the high-tech distribution channel. Because I had opened myself up in some way, readers felt like they could approach me.

Which brings me back to the real point of this column and the question that publishers love to ask themselves when staring at spreadsheets that detail declining print advertising sales: Is this shift toward user-generated content a long-term phenomenon? Can the voice of our users/readers/visitors replace editorial resources? Can this movement be “monetized” in some way?

The answer to all of these questions, in my opinion, is a qualified “Yes.” But before you go firing all your writers and content creation folks, here are some simple realities.

As Gartner notes, many folks (especially adults) participating in the user-generated media movement aren’t actually creating what we’ve come to accept as “content.” That is, a story, or a video dispatch or a photographic montage. It’s important to remember that “content” in the user-generated media movement can be many things. It can be ratings on stories, feedback dialogues about a product or services, or about the most popular searches on a Web site. The fact is, though, people come to sites for a reason. And SOMEONE needs to be giving them that reason. We currently call those someones “editors” but they’re increasingly taking on the role of community “moderators”—monitoring feedback, analyzing trends and creating more reasons for the dialogue to continue.

Then there’s the whole matter of time. I don’t know about you, but keeping up with my Facebook profile and my LinkedIn Network contacts is very time-consuming. I visit both horribly infrequently, mainly because I have a real-life husband and a real-life hobby (a cappella singing) that takes up plenty of my non-work time. I haven’t even dreamed of setting up a MySpace page yet and my blogs (yes, plural) are challenging to update on a regular basis. Personally, I believe there is bound to be an adjustment.

Full disclosure. I LOVE magazines. I love touching them, looking through them, curling up with them on the couch. That will never change. But I also find the ongoing transition exhilarating. I feel like what I write is a better reflection of the community I’m interacting with; that, in turn, generates more feedback.

I believe that what most people look for in their media experience—an honest voice. And honesty, I believe, is what user-generated content is all about.

I confess that for me, presidential political races are right up there with American League pennant races. After 175 games or so this season with the Sox ultimately victorious over the Rockies, I can switch gears to the race for out next President.

In 1999, I worked on the John McCain campaign for the Republican nomination in Massachusetts. It was wildly interesting to be a small part of the election process, and one of my top experiences was meeting and speaking with the Senator for several minutes as he prepared to give a speech in rural New Hampshire to about 100 local citizens.

Fast forward to 2007 and an election where campaigns are increasingly fought through video and other electronic means. Some videos are professionally produced by the campaign staff and worthy of Cannes consideration and others are clips from cable TV that rely on humor to help us remember what ought to matter in a candidate - service to our country and strength of character.

 The great thing about video is that there is always another side to the candidate they hope you don’t see, but the video camera is always on and can capture awkward moments. In this example, while I like to think he was in fact reading notes, however, that may be a tough sell.

Or you could see his humor being lost on an audience of students asking about age.  On the other hand, voters are getting a raw glimpse of John McCain that they would not see on the Sunday talk shows. .

The Senator likes to talk straight, “warts and all.” And our media’s there to capture every word, every slip, every sound bite. The new web video culture gives candidates the opportunity you speak directly to the people without the filter of traditional media. It also gives campaigns the ability to post positive clips of their guy, and negative clips of their opposition. But while watching the quick-hits and sound bites, don’t forget to peel back the onion a bit, and look at the qualities of character, integrity and service in all of the candidates.

Missing old friends? Want invites to parties? How about offers to join dozens of new online social networks (all of which are stories in themselves)? Start blogging. Can’t say that we’ve been offered a custom media gig for The Who yet, but given the volume of contacts surfacing in the last 45 days, I’m holding-out hope.

At Think Tank, our staff and some interesting opinioned-types have been offering their thoughts on media and its many current offerings and applications. We’re in the business, and we live to challenge the status quo of media you can rent versus owning your own media channel. We call that Private Media, but what’s in a name? What Private Media does for marketers says it all, and the next 125 words is for those people who’ve checked in and want to hear about what’s new at the shop in Salem.

• Our events group just wrapped the Appreciative Inquiry conference where 500 attendees spent 3 ½ days in keynotes and workshops designed to spur positive change in the workplace. Fascinating subject, and powerful speakers. Click here to read what my fellow blogger Gordon Plutsky has to say about the event.

• Webcasts have evolved beyond straight-forward audio and video platforms; the duration is shortening, content is punchier, and other platforms are deployed that include interactive PDFs, virtual tradeshows and even more engaging uses of video. Cool and smart stuff.

• We’re currently conducting a phone and interactive survey for 100 customers of a King Fish client for a comprehensive market research project. This formidable media company has outsourced this significant custom media program to us to determine who makes the cut for an important performance-based award ceremony next quarter. Brilliant use of Private Media to maximize employee retention.

Recent King Fish acknowledgements by Entrepreneur and Inc. magazines confirm that our approach is working, and that our clients are benefiting from this fresh method of assessing business challenges. There’s the update – and onto a request: for any old contacts stopping by Think Tank, please feel free to invite me to any of the following social networks from my past:

• The guys who get 69 GTO convertibles
• Small bars/clubs where the best music still lives
• My sailing friends from PLP (1976-1979)
• A place I can lose myself laughing again with Gardner, Rich, Jamie, Jon, Woozie,  Spike and JB
• An online community for all of us tortured by my 1st grade swimming teacher.
 

There I was, in my local toy store, with my son who was in the process of potty training. Can I tell you how much I have spent in that toy store? I have shopped in this store over and over again, not only for my three children, but for the countless number of friends who have invited us to equally numerous birthday parties. If shoppers were frequent flyers, I was a platinum purchaser.

After walking around for the obligatory pace lap, my son announced to the entire store that he had to “go potty”. Of course I said to the woman behind the counter, with my hands full of Polly Pockets, baby dolls, a t-ball set and a model sailboat, “Can my son please use your bathroom?”

“No, I am sorry, we don’t have one” she replied.

“You don’t have a bathroom?” I said just loud enough for all the other mothers to hear, slightly sarcastically?

“Well… um. Er. Actually we only have a bathroom for employees, not customers.” 

My son was by now whining, creating quite a scene, and with the same frustration that I have experienced with slow or unresponsive online stores, I abandoned my shopping cart. I left it full and unpurchased. I left it and never went back. I called every mom I knew and told them about the injustice and in solidarity we all agreed to not shop there again. I ran into a mom at the playground later that week, who unbeknownst to me, had also been in the store at the time of the scene. She too abandoned her arm-cart in sympathy, but not without giving the woman a piece of her mind.

Moral to the story for smart marketers: Don’t make us mad. Maybe it’s not your bathroom, maybe it is your return policy. Maybe it is your message. Maybe it is the challenge of finding what we want with facility. Maybe it is just your customer service or your tone of voice. But don’t make us mad. Our sisterhood is extensive and we know how to use it to help us and to punish you for your bad behavior.

By the way, it works both ways: we are quick to embrace and reward the vendors and service providers who speak to us with respect; help us save time and money; make it easy to do business with; and of course, let our little guys use their potties.

Last March, my family was skiing with a large group in Vermont. My thirteen year old son (who spends his time pursuing either speed or jumps of some nature) broke his wrist on our last afternoon. We made it to the local hospital about 7:00pm, and he was in a cast and home by 9:00. I had noticed he was unusually anxious about the time, and about getting out of the hospital, so naturally I presumed he was in pain, and that he needed to get back to the security of his home and family. Wrong.

Walking in the door, he went straight to YouTube, where he searched for and quickly found video taken that afternoon of him and his friends on Sugarbush. It had been about five hours since the accident, and there it was: 5:45 minutes, edited with audio by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and complete with opening and closing graphics. And the director/editor (also 13) had to drive three hours to get home. The most amazing part of this—there were already 350 views of the video.

User-generated content is a reality of all age groups. Kids rely on it for entertainment value, adults rely on peer groups for advice, and businesses rely on their own customers for testimonials to prospective new customers. Virtually no other form of content has been so universally adopted in such a short timeframe.

Of course, there are risks when you let content be posted with minimal screening, and you know what they are. But does it also enhance a brand’s perceived confidence by not over-editing or censoring content generated on their site? Are prospective customers more likely to purchase a particular item of clothing or energy drink because it was featured on a free video spoof and was viewed 3mm times? Looks like the shift is on and yes, that is exactly what’s happening.

Take YouTube phenomenon Tay Zonday, whose song “Chocolate Rain” has generated 7,600,000+ views in four months and is available for download?. Then, look at how many others are already parodying this song (although the beat is excruciating, watch “Vanilla Snow” right after “Chocolate Rain” for an excellent laugh; currently, Vanilla Snow has received about 1mm views), and you get a feel for the power of user generated content. It’s a quirky approach to custom media, but with significant views daily, you can be confident it’s rattling the sensibilities of traditional media companies too stubborn to feel the new wind blowing.

When 13 year-olds are living for free, user-generated content, it’s time to pay attention to the new face of media that has arrived. And marketers in the world of custom media have got to harness the platform and drive their clients to make smart deployment of the medium to remain relevant.

The 2008 race to replace President Bush is well underway, and it bears watching how the candidates will be using media to get their message to voters.  I think we will start to see them move further away from the traditional ads of the past and start to embrace Private Media—taking directly to the voters using their own media channel. Traditional political advertising on TV and radio is dreadful. There are basically two types of ads—the “pro” ad where the candidate stands in front of a flag on a factory floor or farm and proclaims he is for all that is good and holy, especially lower taxes. The ad usually ends with a posed shot with his Stepford wife and 2.5 perfect kids. Then we have the “negative” ad, where a candidate is beaten up for some past vote or comment (usually twisted from the real facts) and is shown is the most unflattering picture they can find—usually in a grimace. They are all the same no matter which side runs them, and I would guess people tune them out and don’t pay attention anymore.

I think we will see the major candidates bypassing traditional media and speaking directly to potential voters. The Sopranos parody Hillary Clinton put on her site is just one of many ways the candidates are using blogs, social networking sites, You Tube, email and meetups to talk directly to the people and not going through the filter of traditional media. I am sure they will still spend obscene amounts of money on the public airways, but the tide may be changing.

It will be interesting to watch who will use Private Media more effectively. For the past 20+ years, the Republicans have been much better marketers than the Democrats.  Modern campaigning is no different than the latest marketing campaign to sell a car, new movie or fashion. The GOP has been just flat out better at TV ads, direct mail, database mining, and they own talk radio, which is just another form of ad driven entertainment.  Laura Ingraham and Bill O’Reilly may want Hollywood to shut up and sing, but they are in the same business as Susan Sarandon and Alec Baldwin—show business. (more about that in a future posting)

Just a hunch here, the Democrats will do a better job of exploiting private media and web 2.0 technologies. Those talents and technologies skew younger and to a more diverse generation. Will Private Media propel the Democrats to the White House; or will they find a way to blow an election that is their’s to win? We will be keeping our eye on this over the next 18 months- right now it is anyone’s to win.

Social Networking may be one of the hottest Web business models today. MySpace and Facebook have attracted tens of millions of young people, and increasingly, professionals. Many media companies are now making plans to enter the market for social networking for professionals or professional networking as I would call it.  

Recently I began using the LinkedIn site. My first connection was sent to me by a colleague who is working for a struggling company that is laying off people by the truckload. I signed up and soon received many more LinkedIn requests from colleagues who were recently cut loose from that company; and are looking for jobs or going the freelance/consultant route. In today’s world of rapid change and “no loyalty” everyone needs to keep an ear out for new opportunities. You never know when the bell tolls for you. The base need of money, career growth and survival drives LinkedIn the way hormones drives the social networking sites of the young.  

A more proactive aspect of LinkedIn is to seek out sales prospects and partners who can help drive your business, which is how I am using it. Within the space of a few weeks I have collected roughly 155 contacts in my network. (That makes me small time compared to the people Portfolio found in this recent article – one guy has 50,000+ contacts)  

A third of my list is current co-workers; partners and clients whom I talk to on a daily basis, but nearly two-thirds are past colleagues. While it is fun to re-connect with old friends, I do believe business will come from these renewed connections. I have a current colleague who was skeptical that online social networking would catch on among us “serious” professionals.  Once he saw my growing list he jumped in and is hooked. After getting in touch with some high powered business contacts, his skepticism is fading away.  

I think online professional networking is about to take off in a big way. This movement represents a new opportunity for media and advertising. These sites are sticky, and have great upscale demographics. Currently on LinkedIn, I see ads from Microsoft, BlackBerry, Equifax and Google Ad Words being served. Are social networking sites on your media buy?  Let me know what you think.