It feels like only yesterday when there was frenzy of blogging over Second Life. It seemed like an unstoppable hype machine. Bloggers, journalists, and marketers were painting a future with Second Life concerts, classrooms, and real-life brands selling virtual wares. Every adventurous brand willing to take a chance, from Coke to IBM to Toyota, hopped on the bandwagon. And then it all went silent.
Second Life today, post-hype-apocalypse, contains scattered groupings of people in a whole sea of empty space, containing a number of eerily abandoned brand islands. When recently digging through every press release I could find about a brand launching a new Facebook App, I started to wonder if this was the new brand wasteland. At the front of the Facebook list are a myriad of highly social applications with hundreds of thousands, even millions of active users. But to the back are all of the big names (Coke, Honda, Adidas, Verizon) with applications drawing in... 12 active users?
Are branded apps a lost cause or an untapped goldmine? And if not applications, how exactly are brands succeeding on Facebook?
What doesn't seem to be working is just hopping on the bandwagon, applications for applications sake. Maybe the field is too crowded to penetrate. Maybe brands just aren't approaching it right.
App Do's
Why not follow Sony's example and sponsor an already popular app? Possibly the only impressive case study I have run across in the realm of branded apps, Sony decided rebrand the popular Vampires application for the launch of the movie 30 Days of Night. The page trafficked over 11 million visits and the connected sweepstakes received six times the amount of projected entrants.
Jeremiah Owyang, a Forrester Analyst, gives insight into what made the program a success:
"Fishing where the fish are: Sony figured out where the already existing community was (remember to fish where the fish are) and rather than trying to rebuild something completely by scratch, they leveraged an existing successful application.
Rely on specialists for new arenas: In my many briefings with vendors and clients, specialized firms often provide something a general interactive firm or corporate web marketing team can't. They have experience, know their area, and in this case, they knew to rely on someone that already knew Facebook.
Compliment the existing user experience: Sony didn't beat the 3 million existing users with heavy advertising (and I'm sure RockYou wouldn't have let them) over the head, instead offered value by giving away prizes, and tied in a movie that already existed."
Another great thing about integrating with an already successful application is that often times you can find one that is actually built by your brand enthusiasts. Talk about fishing where the fish are!!
App Dont's
1. Don't start a new version of something that is already popular.
2. Don't overcomplicate the concept or interface.
3. Don't extend a campaign without thinking about the social context.
4. Don't separate your fans, reach them where they already exist.
Other Facebook Opportunities
Just because there are few App success stories, doesn't mean that brands have not been successful on Facebook. To the contrary, there are a vast array of brands doing interesting things with Facebook sponsored groups. Brands that resonate with the young college crowd especially seem to be having success. Many of these groups pages act as brand mini-sites, a universe where users can flip through product, discuss their enthusiasm, download wallpapers and icons, and sign up for contests.
It seems that users have no problem interacting with brands on their own Facebook turf. it's when brands start invading theirs that they have a problem.
Marta Strickland
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Comments (9)
Great article Marta! I completely agree with your insights, and I'm surprised you didn't mention MySpace as the ultimate brand wasteland given how much brands are still willing to spend on a skin for their promotions.
Posted by mark | April 2, 2008 11:50 AM
Posted on April 2, 2008 11:50
Thank you for reading and giving feedback. While I can agree that MySpace probably has a greater deal of "fails" than "successes", the fact remains that there have been success stories. While not technically a brand, the X-Men 3 MySpace has collected over 1.8 million friends since its launch (disclosure: Organic worked on this project). Disney's "Step Up 2" gained more awareness opening weekend than the previous film due to it's MySpace campaign. And the straight up branded MySpace pages tend to get at least numbers in the tens of thousands of friends, which would be seen as highly successful in comparison to Facebook applications. I think the true MySpace test will come when the MySpace apps program moves out of beta. I would predict to see similar disappointing results from branded MySpace applications.
Posted by Marta Strickland
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April 2, 2008 12:14 PM
Posted on April 2, 2008 12:14
Hi Marta
Great post. I think you hit the nail on the head. You need to go where the people are and join the party and not invade it. Most of the brands trying to get on Facebook are looking to invade their way into the party. Sony tried joining the party and just become another person and not some loud mouth who screams for attention.
Lot of brands tried that same tactic in Second Life and failed pretty badly at it. If you want to succeed, you need to join the party on the users terms and not act like you are some big deal.
Posted by Duane Brown | April 2, 2008 4:00 PM
Posted on April 2, 2008 16:00
I agree completely. Brand wasteland :)
Posted by Apps-R-Us - Buy Turnkey Facebook Apps | April 2, 2008 4:30 PM
Posted on April 2, 2008 16:30
Hi Marta:
Great post. I can't tell you how much time I spend talking to companies about this issue of fishing where the fish are!
It there is already a large and vibrant community - why would you try to build a new one? Connect to the existing community in a relevant and helpful way.
If a large vibrant community doesn't exist - you might think about why that is before trying to launch one!
TO'B
MotiveQuest LLC
Posted by Tom O'Brien | April 3, 2008 7:09 AM
Posted on April 3, 2008 07:09
Hi Marta,
Good question. I think Facebook apps are a very different proposition than Second Life branded spaces, and there's a more apparent opportunity for brands to provide utility and value. There's also a much bigger audience compared to Second Life.
That said, there is one clear commonality between Facebook and Second Life, and you hit the nail on the head when you said "What doesn't seem to be working is just hopping on the bandwagon".
The big problem is often not with these new platform or channels themselves, it's with how the brands are approaching them.
Just as last year we heard many a brand manager or creative director saying "We need to be in Second Life", we are hearing "we need a Facebook branded app" a lot now. This is driven more by the fear of being left out rather than the question of whether there's a real marketing opportunity.
We should be starting by asking the questions "is this where my audience is" and "is there an opportunity to add something valuable or useful to their experience, to give them a reason to connect with me".
Posted by Geoff | April 4, 2008 4:32 PM
Posted on April 4, 2008 16:32
Great article - thanks for posting your thoughts. I'm ready for Facebook app developers to wake up and realize that - like any good branded utility - should find ways of bringing value to their users.
Posted by Ryan | April 7, 2008 5:19 AM
Posted on April 7, 2008 05:19
Marta,
I think you're scratching the surface of something really interesting but perhaps neglecting some interesting and significant points.
It's rarely pointed out that Second Life's makers Linden Lab make almost no revenue from advertising -related corporate initiatives. Hence they've made very few efforts to improve the results of brands. What makes this interesting is that it parallels Facebook apps. In other words, in both scenarios, a developer or company can create a campaign and retain nearly 100% of the experimental budget associated with it . The problem is that in both cases, there isn't a good free solution for promoting awareness within the social community. Hence, what you'll find in Second Life is that corporate initiatives will overperform in the area of Engagement (hours per user) and underperform in Reach (thousands of users). I'm sure the same is true in Facebook.
In fact, I'd argue, the same is true in all media -- when was the last time Organic launched a website without a promotion plan? What does this tell us? That we need to reset expectations and concentrate on BOTH smart application development strategies and intelligent promotional plans. And I think we'll find that in some environments like Facebook, you can buy your way to visibility with things like Rockyou and in places like Second Life, you can't. Yet.
R
Posted by reuben steiger | April 7, 2008 9:25 AM
Posted on April 7, 2008 09:25
One has to wonder, have Facebook apps have completely run their course. Due to proliferation of bad apps, branded apps no longer have a voice. What I'd want is an app on Facebook that doesn't need to be 'installed', does more than hide in deep array of apps already slumbering on my page, and has nothing to do with a commodity as dull as floor cleaner. I say it's time to "Zag" on this one.
Oh wait, one more, how about a Facebook app that "Tells a Friend".
Posted by joemdesign
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April 16, 2008 4:22 AM
Posted on April 16, 2008 04:22