Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

(Illustration via Wired article)

Your client has something great to share, and they want to prove that they're listening to consumers. So you set up Twitter and Facebook accounts, and then hope for as many followers as possible. Right?

Well, according to Clive Thomson's Wired article "In Praise of Obscurity," maybe not. He writes:

"When you go from having a few hundred Twitter followers to ten thousand, something unexpected happens: Social networking starts to break down."

This is certainly true on a personal level. Your Twitter page, or your Facebook news feed gets cluttered and you get overwhelmed so you clean house, only leaving the folks you want to hear from the most. The thing is, when you're a marketer and everyone's following you, that's not really an option.

So, how does this translate to social media as a marketing tool? That depends on your goal for, say, your Twitter account. Some brands just want to prove their existence, or send a one-way message. Others are there for "customer service," only looking for and responding to problems. And, some are truly there to have a conversation.

If you just want to make your presence known, or push your message, congratulations on your 50,000 followers. If you're only responding to issues with your brand, you could hire a contractor to monitor your "@ replies" and you might do OK.

But if you're there to hold a true ongoing conversation, I'm not so sure. Does one of our key bragging points about social media - the size of your network - eventually lead to a lull? How do we manage this?

Tell us what you think. We'll try and listen.

Nate Rogers

Editor's Note: You can hear what Threeminds has to say on twitter @threeminds and read about the latest happenings at Organic, including recent Threeminds blog posts @OrganicInc.

The President of the United States responded to questions from the public in a live YouTube interview at the White House on Monday, February 1st, at 1:45 p.m EST.
 
When all was said and done, it brought in almost 800,000 votes on 14,464 questions from 64,968 questions. Not bad, but I would have expected much more from somebody running the country.

I suspect because it was so poorly advertised. I heard about it from colleague Craig Ritchie the morning of the broadcast. Russ Hopkinson mentioned he saw it on Google's home page "in the same way they are advertising the results now... in a one liner below the search bar."

Citizen Tube reports that people "submitted over 11,000 questions and cast over 667,000 votes after the President's State of the Union address last week." When I viewed the live stream around 2 p.m. it had only received a handful more than 47,000 votes.

Bridget McKinley agrees about the lack of publicity. "I didn't hear about it until people were tweeting about the answers. And I'm a political and media junkie. Not well publicized/marketed at all..."

I'm perturbed at the reason for this. What makes Jason Derulo's "Whatcha Say" video more popular (at 31,970,491 views) than getting your own question asked by the President?

Has President Obama outdone his digital presence?

Sarah Jo Sautter

image credit: ninja999

Last Thursday, Organic hosted a panel discussion on how to fit the User Experience practice into an Agile project cycle. For more information on what Agile is, see the Agile Manifesto or check out the Wikipedia entry.

So, Why is This an Interesting Topic for User Experience Professionals?
With a trend to quick iterations it's hard for us to figure out where our discipline fits in. As is the nature of agile, the UX design can change and it becomes difficult to maintain a consistent experience. Add to this an ill-defined agile process (many want to say they're "agile", but in reality they're not), a UXer might feel a loss of control. So, what's the solution?

Advice From the Panel
The biggest takeaway for our team of Experience Architects was not to compromise user testing. Test early and test often. It's a great way to learn if the designs are usable, especially if you have a hunch that there are issues. Don't have a huge budget for testing? No problem ... there are some "guerilla" testing methods that can get you the information you need (see below). Some testing is better than no testing.

Another great piece of advice: your analytics department is your best friend. Chances are, they've analyzed something similar and can provide valuable metrics to support your hypotheses. Seek them out and ask for their help.  

Other Takeaways:
•    If your budgets don't allow for extensive research then find guerilla methods for testing. Round up users in your company or take advantage of services such as fivesecondtest.com.

•    Agile should be ... well ... agile. While there is technically a right and a wrong way to do agile, the process in itself should be adaptable. If it's not working for you, then use the elements that do make sense ... resolve to have more face to face interactions and stand up meetings. Whatever works for your environment.

•    In the spirit of the adaptable process, consider getting a head start on the typical agile development cycle. When incorporating User Experience into Agile, begin with Iteration 0 where the User Experience people lay out some design patterns and architecture. Turn this over to development and stay a week or so ahead. For more information, see Lynn Miller's case study.

Anthony Viviano

Check this out: Nutella's top three Facebook fan pages gather more than 5 million Nutella spooners or spreaders and the numbers are growing exponentially. The main page is No. 3 on Facebook, on the heels of Barack Obama (No. 1) and Coca Cola (No. 2), and boasts 3.5 million fans. How's that for social media success and what are they doing right?
 
To be perfectly honest, nobody really knows.

People Are Talking
In 2008 Jennifer Laycock reported about Nutella's popularity at a blogging convention and not even a year later, Nutella was already No. 4 in the Facebooksphere. Today, Nutella's FB page is the talk of the town with the  Los Angeles Times, Brandweek and Creative Match. It's even become a case study in social media workshops (see slide 33 of this slideshow). So ... what's the fuss about?

Possible Reasons
Social media buzz experts credit Nutella's Facebook popularity to these characteristics:
1. It's European and people think Nutella is cool.
2. It reminds people of memories/trips to Europe.
3. It has such a unique taste. And oh yeah, it's too good to be true.
 
The Fans Take the Reins
The unbelievable part? The Nutella FB page was started by a fan. Not Nutella. Nutella only spent $300,000 on marketing (not even social marketing) in 2008 so clearly, they're just happy when sales go up. Some see this as a shocking example of a brand ignoring its online community.

Sounds like the only online marketing effort of Nutella USA has been an online sweepstakes (that I shamelessly entered) to win a case of Nutella. All you need to do is answer 5 basic questions about your Nutella consumer habits. The survey has been online for 2 years. What are they getting out of it? I, for one, hope to get a case of Nutella.
 
Yes a case, and I'll eat it. I'm a die-hard Nutella lover. When I buy Nutella, it's actually by the case. I have the official Nutella cookbook on my bookshelves. I use an empty 10-lb jar of Nutella to store my sugar. My 4-year-old will only eat Nutella on toast for breakfast. And if I needed an excuse to spread the word, the Nutella World Day is today. Now, I should probably become a fan of Nutella's FB page too and do my share to contribute to Nutella's fan-fueled online popularity.

Are you a fan? Tell us why.

Laure Latham Guyot

I'm not much of a User Interface geek (that is, I enjoy a pointless but entertaining way of getting around a site as much as anyone), but as a web designer I'm always interested on how to convey maximum amounts of information/direction to users as simply and cleanly as possible.

So I thought this was a pretty cool blog post sent by colleague Craig Ritchie, about how icons become less effective as they become more "realistic." It's like as humans we have this sweet spot with symbols: too much detail, or too little, and they stop becoming useful to use as clues to their meaning. The challenge for us as visual communicators is finding that sweet spot.

Anyway, I liked that in itself. But then right below on the same blog was this demo (above) of a 3D style computer desktop. Unintentionally, it kind of proves the point of the article above it. Really, do I need a 3D representation of my desktop in order to use my computer better? It has some cool tools, I'll say that, but there's a point in the video where the guy has all these stacks of documents there, and I couldn't help thinking, "I don't need a computer to replicate the stacks of crap everywhere, that's what real life is for!"

Who knows, maybe it's the future and I'll have to adapt. After all, my father still puts up a spirited defense of the superiority of the Command Line Interface over these stupid "icons" all over his iMac screen.

Do you think 3D representations like this go too far?

Elliot Smith

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitterjug

Famed Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov once said, "There is no science without fancy and no art without fact."  This brilliant quote sums up the unique experience of developing predictive analytics models -- which involves equal parts art and science - and just a tiny bit of guess work.

Historical Data
Many brands have trouble getting to the first stage of building predictive analytics models.  But I repeat the old adage to them, "you don't know where you are going until you know where you have been." In order to predict future success in the marketing world, you need a window into the past combined with a large set of current behavioral data. And this window on the past, my friends, is realized through the availability of accurate historical data and the results of their marketing and media campaigns.

Acknowledge the Flaws
Unfortunately, many brands have difficulty gathering historical data and media metrics - largely because the multiple marketing agencies they work with don't take the time to organize the data appropriately or in a useful format. Therefore, many brands don't know how they've spent their marketing budgets over the years or how they have performed against granular objectives. Brand marketing teams need to make sure that they gather at least three years worth of their media metrics and performance data in order to build effective predictive models. And it will be important to break down the barriers that often exist between various agencies and the client to obtain a holistic data set from all parties. To be truthful, the data the team initially receives is not going to be perfect. It's completely okay to make assumptions or to take artistic liberties based on your current data when developing a predictive analytic system. Acknowledge the flaws in your data and work to improve data collection for the future. Don't let spotty data stop you from ever getting started.

Predicting Vs. Measuring
This seems to be a good time to emphasize how predictive analytics differs from measurement. Since both measurement models and predictive models rely on historic data, many people assume they are essentially the same thing. While they are definitely related, they are more siblings than clones. They may be composed of the same DNA, but their lives have different goals and different drives. It is important to understand these differences before setting up predictive analytics.

The first is that predictive analytics rely on timeliness. Measurement models, like media mix models for example, often present old data from marketing campaigns that were completed over a year ago. Predictive models should be launched before the campaign starts or one month into the annual campaign so marketers can take advantage of real-time digital behavioral data to interpret information and react before the campaign is over.

Second, predictive models should be straightforward. In measurement models complexity is key. When we examine the past we want to account for all of the nuances that occurred in order to have the cleanest read of what took place. We want to remove the impact of the bad press, the industry award, or any other event that may have influenced people's reception to the brand.  That way we get closer to the true impact of the marketing.  In predictive models we want to focus on things we can plan and forecast. It's important to realize that the assumptions you make in order to forecast could alter the accuracy of the predictive data. For instance, when you look at social media or anything that has the potential for a huge viral spike, you can learn a lot by looking backwards to see what contributed to success. But it is much more difficult to predict what will catch fire until it does. If you introduce variables into your model, like the tone of social media conversations, then you need to be able to forecast those variables. Overly complex forecasting models can result in the need to forecast scores of variables- even before you forecast the variable of interest.  

Preventing Inaccuracies
Consider, for instance, if you created a predictive sales forecast that assumed certain levels of myspace visits for your brand in 2009. Well, we now know that myspace visits decreased throughout 2009. In order for your model to provide reliable forecasts, you would have needed to have forecasted myspace's decline. While this wasn't an insurmountable task, it adds one more point of potential error in your forecast. In a measurement model that is not a problem, we know what happened. In predictive modeling we need to stop and ask ourselves, does the value of adding this additional term outweigh the potential for error?

The best way to prevent this type of inaccuracy is to look at the type of data used within the model. First, marketers would be well advised to not rely solely on survey data; instead, marketers should look to utilize digital behavioral data as that information is constantly available and provides an accurate representation of how customers are acting online without any assumptions or biases. These online behavioral data sets are very often a measure of the total demand that the marketing enterprise is generating. And this data greatly adds to the accuracy of predictive forecasting models. We will discuss some of the ways to incorporate this data in an upcoming post.

A Working Model
The last point I want you to consider today is that since change is the only constant, the predictive analytics models should be treated as living, breathing entities that need constant care and feeding. Without this care and attention they will simply be outpaced by the current marketplace and will lose their value. Since many brands are steeped in the measurement mindset, they don't want their numbers to change. If Q3 of 2009 brought in ten million in sales then that is THE number. The measurement doesn't change. However, if we predict that we will sell eleven million units in Q2 2011, but unemployment continues to rise in early 2010, contrary to our expectations, then the forecast changes. Eleven million is no longer the number, now 9 million is the number. In predictive modeling we no longer have THE number.  And that's ok. Actually it's better than ok, because our prediction is better than it was before.

Forecasts constantly change and will become more accurate as marketers refine their assumptions and become more comfortable with how predictive models work. Measurement without optimization is pointless so marketers will need to stay on their toes and ensure their data practices do not become stale. Forecasts for 2011 and 2012 will change based on data that is brought in throughout the year but that does not make them any less valuable.  It's good that your forecasts change. It means you are learning.  

Brands need to change their mindsets around shifting forecasts because marketing does not happen in a vacuum. Major economic changes could occur for any number of reasons including natural disasters, war and fluctuations in the trading markets. Just because numbers are not constant, does not make them any less accurate. Just remember this: you should continually optimize your brand's models, refine the assumptions used to forecast outcomes and trust in your data to boldly succeed in today's ever-changing marketing world.

Follow-Up Posts
Some people will tell you that predictive models are nothing more than a regression model. While that's true in one sense, it also true that War and Peace is just a book. Rather than brushing over the details of predictive modeling we will tackle issues including linearity, interaction, saturation points, media decay and observations in time which show how predictive models are more than 'just regression models'. I will show you [watch for upcoming posts from Steve on this topic] how predictive models can be an ever changing toolkit that adjust to your business and deliver the insights you care about most.   

You will also see that these various statistical treatments, while intimidating to the layperson, are quite manageable with the right team in place. Remember it takes a village to deliver on the promise of predictive modeling so don't get intimidated if things get 'quant geeky' for a while, it will all come back to the business insights in the end.

Steve Kerho

Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared on Fast Company's Expert Blog where Steve is a regular contributor.

Brand advocacy is a term that is thrown around a lot within the social media spectrum. Conversations usually center on finding brand advocates who will serve as a social media lightning rod and generate an avalanche of user-generated content from a community based on their actions. Marketers are just as likely to find these mythical advocates as they are to track down Big Foot riding a unicorn.

Igniting a social media avalanche does benefit greatly by finding exceptional advocates; however, marketers can't simply rely on finding the right catalysts to spark success. Here are five myths brands need to free themselves from before they can deploy a successful brand advocacy program:
   
1.  They aren't out there looking for you.

Guess what? People have been sharing tips and advice on products brands they use and love long before advertisers realized the power of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing. Consumers will continue to do so regardless of a brand's interaction, to help their friends, being acknowledged for their expertise, and sharing something they have found. It's the brands that need these people to help them authenticate and speak to potential customers they can't reach with ad dollars. However, marketers cannot expect these advocates to fall into their lap. If marketers don't have a CRM program, a strategy to reach out to bloggers and loyalists in niche forums, or any other venue for consumers to raise their voice, then you don't have a brand advocacy strategy.
   
2.  Some of your best advocates might not be your current customers.

What many brands fail to realize is that sometimes advocacy has nothing to do with a particular product and everything to do with a lifestyle. People who love Jeep, for example, may be fans of the brand in spirit as they associate with the car maker's branded outdoor adventure lifestyle long before, and even long after, they are owners of the vehicle. Some of your brand's biggest loyalists might not be talking about the company at all but talking about other products or activities that fit in with this lifestyle, including GPS devices, off-road trails and quality tires. While a truly great advocate will be able to speak about a product passionately and authentically, marketers shouldn't limit their search to current customers.
   
3.  It's not the size of your pool of fans, it's how you use them.

Coca-cola has 4 million fans. FAGE Greek Yogurt has 36K fans. Does that mean that Coca-cola is over 100 times more successful than FAGE in terms of brand advocacy? Well, that depends. What is the value of an advocate for Coca-cola versus FAGE or any other brand for that matter? I find myself asking, what does Coca-cola even need a Facebook fan page for? Coca-cola does not lack in awareness, but the purchase decision is largely made in the last steps at the grocery store as the result of a sale or coupon or is tied to beverage brand loyalty. But for FAGE, a small-time yogurt brand without much awareness, each one of their 36K fans could represent an opportunity for a new customer, coupon-pusher or a new voice piece to spread awareness to their circle of friends.
   
4.  A Facebook fan does not directly equate to a brand advocate.

For many people, becoming a "fan" of a brand on Facebook is as meaningful as acquiring a new bumper sticker or a patch on a heavily collaged backpack. It's a symbol of a lifestyle, it's a funny statement to their friends and is as temporarily interesting as the flow of the newsfeed that day. Ninety percent of the time a user spends on Facebook is in the newsfeed, so after they hit that "fan" button they likely will never return to your fan page. So while your fan page might say 10,000 "fans," that doesn't mean you have 10,000 "advocates." What it does mean, however, is that you have as many as 10,000 opportunities - but realistically probably much fewer - to create advocacy.
   
5.  Recognition, while always important, is not one-size-fits-all
.
Some advocates are altruistic, so in love with your brand and what it means to them that they aren't particularly looking for a reward. Others need to be motivated by the allure of something a little extra to come out of their shell. In either case, recognition can't hurt as it lets people know their participation is appreciated as they further the brand's awareness goals. However, approaches to recognition are not one-size-fits-all, as they have to be evaluated closely by audience and by industry. In other words, what does your audience want? The prize of "front page of YouTube" exposure that might appeal to the 18-year-old girl posting a video of herself singing about a new energy drink is likely going to terrify the middle-aged man or woman opening up about their use of incontinence products. Both should be rewarded, but not in the same way.

With the right mixture of targeting, motivation and recognition marketers can create the wave of user-generated content and goodwill that they crave from their social media strategies. There are many ways to do this but developing a stable of knowledgeable evangelists is a boon to marketers. Rather than simply locating brand advocates, marketers must also inspire evangelists within their community by delivering fun, engaging social media experiences to create a thriving online community. Once a community is effectively promoting members from within to carry the brand torch, marketers can claim victory in the social media space.

Marta Strickland

Editor's Note: This piece originally appeared in DM News.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beauteous/

Consumers Are Choosing Life
In advertising, campaigns - series of messages that share a single idea and theme - have for decades been the central concept for forming promotional activities.

The advertising industry has been rooted in the idea of the campaign - that is what agencies, by and large, do. And campaigns come and go, while a few overarching themes in them are constantly refreshed with new pieces of creative.

Now, even as ad agencies have been migrating into the digital space, most of them have continued to approach what they do through the idea of a campaign. And the idea of a campaign is the idea of ups and downs. When the campaign is running, there's media in the market, and the audience grows. But as soon as the media ceases or as soon as all the people have seen the campaign, the audience breaks up and drives off. And then the agency and the client are on to the next campaign. That's what the entire advertising business has largely been about.

But those who see the future of this business in the digital age are starting to see the rise of platforms. Platforms that are built to last. Platforms don't necessarily go into the market with a bang, with lots of media buy, but they grow over time. Platforms are rooted in utility, and they provide something that the customer, the audience, will feel like using, and using again and again. The best and most pervasive platforms become a part of the audience's lives. They're more like services and tools than a 30-second spot or a clever billboard ad.

And when the platform encourages the audience to create and distribute their own content and when it aggregates it from various sources, it then becomes a media engine for the advertiser. The content, the comments, and overall enthusiasm from the audience feeds back into the platform, which can then churn out the content back to the audience again. And that content is much more real, much more authentic than traditional advertising material, because it comes from the audience itself. That content is what is called earned media.

The most well-known example of this kind of platform is the Nike+ which Adweek awarded as the Digital Campaign of the Decade (noting the irony).

The problem with these platforms to many in the advertising and media buy+sell industry is that they don't match the idea that we've had for so long of what is advertising. To envision, design and develop these platforms, it takes a different kind of a team, a different set of talent than what's been used in traditional advertising. And it takes a different mindset. The way that people consume media, the way that they connect, is now driven much more by technology than it was before. To develop platforms, a new breed of creative technologists need to get a real seat at the creative ideation table. And, perhaps even more importantly, to make sense of all the different connections, links and experiences across different technologies and devices, agencies need Experience Leads to replace the old definition of Creative Directors. It's an opportunity, rather than a threat, for all of us, whether we're coming from the "digital" or the "traditional" side, to grow and explore new things.

Sure, old style campaigns will most likely still be made for a good while, as this giant industry slowly changes, just like VHS tapes were sold for a time after the coming of the DVD. But forward thinking individuals, agencies and clients have started to realize the change that is taking place. And this change is driven by the consumer, the audience, who, ultimately, is our real source of income. If we lose the attention of that group, we lose our business.

Change is often scary, but think about it: wouldn't it be nice to get away from the ups and downs of the campaign era, and enter a new era of sustainable growth?

Karri Ojanen

A few years ago, my father passed away.  Soon after, my mother became chronically ill.  As an only child, I was suddenly faced with having to gather information on a variety of health related topics I knew nothing about:  the symptoms of a stroke, Medicare, guardianships/conservatorships, traveling with a loved one in a wheelchair,  selecting a nursing home and assisted living facility, cleaning out and selling a home.... The list goes on and on.

For some time, my job here at Organic seemed far removed from the responsibilities that I faced outside of work.  By day I specialized in digital research and by night I was a caregiver.
To share information with other caregivers, a former coworker and I started a blog: www.SeniorHelpForum.com.    

In the recent past; however, I have seen the lines between my work life and that of a blogging caregiver grow closer and closer together. In the short amount of time that our blog has been live (a little over a year), I have seen incredible advancements in the tools that the healthcare industry is developing and offering to the general public. They are even embracing social media and mobile technology.

Three of my favorites are:
1.   The American Heart Association's iPhone Application:  This iPhone App provides users with illustrations, videos, information storage, recent information updates and American Heart Association guidelines.  Topics include: choking, CPR, bites, bruises, burns, seizures, diabetic emergencies.

The information is stored on your iPhone or iPod touch so that you will have access to the information even when you are out of cell phone range. During the recent earthquake in Haiti, a gentleman managed to save his own life with the use of this app. See a February 2, 2010, post on Senior Help Forum for links to articles about this heartwarming story.

2.   Tweeting in the Operating Room: In January of 2009, Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan became the first hospital to tweet a live surgery (@HenryFordNews).  
The lead surgeon, Dr. Craig Rogers, and his chief resident, Dr. Raj Laungani tweeted  updates throughout the surgery (CNN.com, February 17, 2009).  According to CNN.com, "at the end, Rogers had the last tweet. 'The robotic partial nephrectomy was a success. 'Thank you for joining us today.'" The entire Twitter stream was then uploaded to YouTube.  
(By the time I wrote this post, it was no longer available on YouTube.)

Throughout 2009, several other hospitals around the country embraced Twitter and began tweeting, as well.  On November 23, 2009, I followed a Hip resurfacing surgery on The Detroit Medical Center's Twitter and Facebook feeds. It was fascinating!   

3.   Care Pages:   I first heard about CarePages.com when a family friend became ill in September of 2009. This website allowed me to: log-in and leave the patient a message, see updates on her progress, invite others to visit her page(s), etc.  

The site's capabilities are much more robust than what I experienced. The site describes itself as, "an online community of millions of people coming together to share the challenges, hopes and triumphs of anyone facing a life changing health event. Through personalized websites, members relate their stories, post photos and update friends and family instantly. In turn, people who care send messages of love and encouragement. CarePages.com also offers a variety of resources and support tools for living a more compassionate life.  These include blogs, discussion forums and the ability for users to find others in similar situations. The mission is simple: to ensure that no one goes through a health challenge alone."

As digital marketers, we should be both thrilled and incredibly proud of the remarkable advancements our industry is tackling in the area of health and eldercare. What are your favorites?

Laura McGowan

Usually I'm railing against brands for not investing enough in content. But today, I'm railing against those who already have it...publishers. You've captured the audience with your content, but more and more, the key to profitability seems to be the offering of services for your readers.

The discussion over what services tie in with publications continues. As put forth in this article at PaidContent.org, many think hyper-local sites can offer advertisers a tighter link to their target customers through improved SEO presence and dissection of social communities. Sounds complicated.

But it's pretty simple. Content's value is fleeting, like the value of food at a party. If we all showed up because you had hot-off-the-grill spareribs and came away with a new job, friendship, a boat or a coupon for meat (especially if we were looking for these things), we're all more likely to come back next time -- even if you only have day-old meatloaf.

In fact, the services you provide are proving to be as critical to success as the content that brought the audience in. Want proof? Let's imagine some truly piping hot content.

Let's say on an old roll of film, I found a picture of Barack Obama at a party. He's younger and dressed like WWF superstar Hacksaw Jim Duggan. After hours of music and drink, our future president is mugging for the camera while beating up John Boehner (dressed as Nikolai Volkoff) and John Roberts (Iron Shiek).

So now I've got this of our President hammering the House minority leader and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court with a piece of lumber and Old Glory.

Truly, this is a hot piece of content -- perhaps the hottest ever in many ways. I could do pretty much anything with it -- $100k from CNN or simply pasting it to my mailbox -- and eventually everyone on Earth will likely see this photo.

Even in this exception case, I can't rely on the content for business sucess. Chances are, I don't have another great politicians as wrestler photo (Joe Biden as Ric Flair?). So my once hot audience-grabber is now just a footnote in the 2010 Year in Review.

If, however, my photo debuts as the focal piece of content for a new WWF-classic-wrestler fan community or the Tea Party -- this content becomes the fuel for an ongoing business, with an offering of related services. I can find others who love wrestling. I can sign a petition to get these wrestlers out of Washington. Some of that audience will come back time and time again.

Looking for a real-world model? Edmunds.com -- my former employer -- springs to mind. While many sites have auto reviews to attract users, Edmunds offers endless services -- True Market Value pricing tools, to accurately price your current vehicle; a community for car lovers; real-time incentives updates; get-a-quote tools to negotiate with dealers without being on the lot...just to name a few. Not to mention, as in the story linked above, advertisers can target very specific segments of the auto buying public at the moment they are considering a vehicle.

They lure you in with great content and keep you by offering you services you need. Not surprising that Edmunds has thrived even during this downturn in auto sales -- nearly completely online.

It's right there for the taking to any site with a large audience. You just need to figure out what the audience could truly use. And a picture of the President pinning a future political adversary and chief justice wouldn't hurt, either.

--Mike Hudson

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dilona/

When design criteria were initially established in 2000, Web designers and developers were limited by implementation and technology, modeling web experiences after the print medium. The relative newness of the medium shaped the way web sites were evaluated because consumers were acclimating themselves to a new way of interacting with content. Unfortunately, these standards never evolved, despite consumers' becoming more digital savvy. This is the equivalent of a cave man judging a Lamborghini based on his own design of the wheel.

Here's a look at some of the design criteria whose usefulness may have passed.

The Great Readability and Font Size Debate

Does the difference between 9pt and 10pt represent the difference between success and failure? In 2000 this may have been valid (maybe) but is a non-issue today. Sites are accessible in a wide set of mobile and stationary platforms so resolution, not font size, has a much bigger impact on a site's legibility.

Remember the Fold? 

The problem here is fundamental: we're applying a term from a print medium to a digital one (literally where you folded the broadsheet newspaper). Are we really worried about users not knowing how to scroll down a web page? This condescending view overlooks smart design systems that prompt users beyond the initial page view. Is it better to have one long, scrolling web page with clearly organized content, four navigable pages or keep the user focused on the "viewing frame" and trigger layers of content on their prompt? All of these methods have their contextual advantages and should not be evaluated in a vacuum.

Navigation

Today's user does not need one style of navigation system. Consumers are accustomed to navigating through a variety of mobile and digital mediums including phones, ATM screens and DVRs - all of which have a navigation system defined by the platform. One size no longer fits all. It is unrealistic to think designers are going to create new "navigation metaphors" that confuse consumers. We are creating new metaphors because new mediums and platforms demand it

Evaluation standards need to unchain marketers from the minutiae and focus on delivering ground-breaking online experiences. Here are some important questions brands should consider rather than font size and drop down menus:

• Do we want static content or content in motion?

• Do we want to enable browsing and searching together - determinative navigation?

• Should the site feature on-demand navigation or always-on navigation?

• Are we designing for a single or multi-platform experience? - what is the signature style?

In the early part of this decade, static web sites did not foreshadow the digital world's current endless possibilities. If you create an engaging online experience that is true to your brand's message, your successful metrics will be the ultimate evaluation of your strategy.
 
Conor Brady

Editor's Note: This post also appeared on the MediaPost Blog February 9, 2010.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/malkoff

There's a war going on in the ebook arena between Amazon and Apple. Now that Apple has forced the issue of price, by offering books at a higher price than Amazon and with the help of Macmillan temporarily withdrawing titles from Amazon, why are consumers going to choose a device with a singular focus as opposed to one that functions as a reader and groovy netbook?

In a post this week, blogger Bob Lefsetz argues that rights holders, particularly in music, are fighting against the inevitable - a business model which moves from a la carte pricing to subscription. He cites the example of two videogame makers, one of whom sells games through traditional channels, and another who offers games for free, then gets consumers to buy added features after. The former gamemaker is going out of business, while the latter is thriving.

Apple absolutely cares about the price of content. It simply takes different approaches to pricing depending on the competitive landscape. It was through its aggressive initial pricing of songs on (.99) that helped establish the iTunes music store as the dominant player, iTunes as the dominant software and, most importantly, the iPod as the preeminent device.



In the case of ebooks, which Steve Jobs initially dismissed as insignificant ("people don't read"), Apple recognized that it needed to unseat Amazon's "first mover" leadership position. Here, it knew that it couldn't simply undercut Amazon's price; the publishers wouldn't go for it, plus it would most likely require each sale resulting in a loss, potentially far greater than the profitability of the iTunes Store for music. Instead, it introduced the iPad with higher individual and variable book prices, which "coincidentally" happened at the same time of Macmillan's very public pullback. Amazon caved, and now other publishers are going to start insisting on raising the prices of books, particularly popular ones. (This actually could be good for the industry, as people will pay more for the hits, but catalog items will be value price. Yet, per the New York Times, many readers are complaining loudly.)



Ultimately, as Lefsetz notes, it is all about selling hardware, but Jobs must know how important it is to have a steady stream of content - whether music, movies, podcasts, games, apps, etc. - for people to use on their devices. I'm sure Apple hates the fact that it had to raise prices for iTunes Plus to $1.29 per track. It means less people will probably buy music there, because most consumers thought .99 was too expensive and will just steal the music.

Regardless, I wouldn't count Amazon out. With the addition of color, and some more interactivity, the Kindle could quickly become a pretty cool device to compete with the iPad.

Are ebooks just as valuable to you as your printed ones?

Jonathan Cohen

So I have gotten a chance to start playing with Google Buzz. It has a nice "low bar, high ceiling" design.  Your average American who is used to posting or reading status updates on Twitter or Facebook will find it familiar (very different the entirely weird GoogleWave). On the other end of the spectrum, shareaholics will find value in the ability to stream content from multiple properties through Google profile similar to social aggregators like FriendFeed or SocialThing! Where Buzz starts to get more interesting is the ability to post from Google Maps with attached location data. This video shows all the details.
 

 
While each of these features pose a threat to competing niche startups, looking across the breadth services crammed into one platform, the only real competitor is Facebook. 
 
If, like everyone in America, you already have a Facebook account... why would you use this?
 
I can think of four good reasons. If you...

1. Already use Gmail as your main email address and are connected to many friends through this, Buzz allows for one-stop-shopping communications.

2. Have a specific social group associated with your Gmail account, it makes even more sense. For example if you use Gmail as your work email Buzz becomes like Yammer only with much broader functionality built in. 

3. Would like to simplify and share your content from social sites (and do not already use a social aggregation platform). Buzz makes this easier than Facebook, but your friends have to be on Gmail too.

4. Use Google Maps and have a smart phone. This is definitely a platform to consider since you can right from this app - pictures, reviews, etc. If you have an Android platform phone it is a no brainer.

The exciting thing about Google Buzz are the integration possibilities with other Google tools. In the launch press conference, Google promised corporate support in the near future (look out Yammer). I imagine there will soon be deeper integration with Android platform phones. Youtube, Google Trends, Goggles and of course Search all have exciting new functionality when paired with Buzz.
 
The real potential to disrupt the current Facebook monopoly is the fact that Google has sworn to make this an open platform. That means all of the data will be open and free for everyone to play with. The decision to be an open platform was one of the smartest moves Twitter made early on and spawned many innovative services that dramatically increased the value of their product (Twitter clients, data visualization tools, etc.). 
 
User adoption will determine whether this will be an important marketing platform in the future. Are these reasons compelling enough for you to try it? 
 
Russ Hopkinson 

image credit:http://www.flickr.com/photos/lemonhead1632

The Olympics have yet to officially begin, but the first real "event" has certainly occurred. Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili has suffered a horrific crash in a training run, and the news, including video is being passed through the social web with exceptional virulence.
 
The IOC, notorious for brand control, is attempting to pull down video of the event, but many videos are slipping through, as YouTubers furiously click the Yellow upload button to spread the content.
 
The video... it may be tough to watch, for some... was here.

Update - 1 minute later... that video is down ["This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by International Olympic Committee."]... and seemingly there are now no videos for "luge crash" from today on YouTube. Then moments later, colleague Tyler King found this one, which came down within mintues, too.

Unfortunately the outcome is tragic for the athlete and his family, as he reportedly died from the incident. But it's also tragic for the IOC's control strategy. In this age, really no organization can expect to win this battle. This is proof that [brand content] control is long gone for brands and organizations.
 
Craig Ritchie

Pizza Will Always Be Pizza No Matter How You Toss It
I was talking with my wife this weekend about the whole Domino's rebranding. What strikes me is that even the whole idea that their pizza was not great was THEIR idea.

Here is what I mean. When they first marketed themselves it was about efficiency and value. Which is exactly what they delivered (no pun intended).

Now all of a sudden Domino's is saying that people don't like their pizza when last time I checked, no one expected to get a good tasting pizza for 4.99 from ANY pizza business. Delivery pizza has been and will always be OK tasting pizza... But nothing to tell everyone about.

So now Domino's goes out and finds a few people who don't like their product (which is easy for any company to find), couples that with a story around how heart broken they are about it and guess what folks???? We have us a new marketing campaign!

Now take their "new and improved" pizza to the front door of someone who said they didn't like their old pizza with lights, cameras, and most importantly a HUMAN face and ask their opinion... Of course the person will say it's good...they have to. People don't want to badmouth others to their face but have no problem doing it to a corporation. Most people would crush under the pressure of bad mouthing something in front of someone who has claimed to have made it better just for them. It's the whole human face in place of the corporate business racket (companies have been doing this for ages... Ford, GM, the list goes on).

Now as for the whole UX testing I get it... But I think there are so many other factors that need to be addressed as well as to why any campaign works or fails. It's the parts -- UX, marketing, strategy, research, design, and human UN-ITELLIGENCE, etc. -- that make the whole.

And, yes, their new pizza tastes just as crappy as their old pizza IMO.

Casey Riggleman

 

 

Quick thought here on something that wasn't a very big deal, but for what it's worth, Bob Costas lambasted his production crew at the end of the NBC Olympics telecast last night for a video error, breaking the character of the effortless/flawless anchor we've known and loved. He had little barbs like "that had nothing to do with what we're talking about" and "we'll try to get our act together tomorrow" without so much as a wry smile.  

Not a huge deal, but it occurred to me I've seen this many times in recent months where TV personalities feel like pointing out mistakes made in production on the show. Or making a big deal out of mispronunciations. Or whatever. We've certain come a long way from the day of anchors making a mistake and soldiering on, hoping the audience would just forget about it. Is this an effect of our more casual relationship with media these days? We see them make mistakes on YouTube, or misspell things on Twitter or cursing out a production assistant when the cameras aren't rolling.

It's still weird. Why dog your production crew? Any thoughts appreciated...

--Mike Hudson

Since January 26, Japanese Astronaut Soichi Noguchi has been on the International Space Station (ISS) Tweeting and sending pictures from his iPhone.   

Wonder who his provider is?

John Breton

Editor's Note: Nicholas Patrick, Jeff Williams and TJ Creamer are also Tweeting from space in two different spacecraft (ISS and Endeavor). While there is internet/computer access at the ISS, using a mobile device -- and Twitter -- signifies that NASA is not only keeping up with technology, but also with social trends.

image adapted from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jackol/

There's long been a war in the cola arena between Coca-Cola and Pepsi and the battle to win the heartiest social fan base will be the next interesting milestone to unfold between the two.

A UK blog reported that Coke is devoting more to their social marketing efforts this year. Specifically it's focusing on community platforms such as Facebook and YouTube. And Pepsi said no to Super Bowl ads this year in favor of a $20 million social media budget.

Pepsi's money is going towards a grassroots program they're calling Pepsi Refresh. It not only hopes to build a community online, the company plans to sponsor thousands of local efforts. Pepsi has six professional ambassadors that have already accomplished something significant in their category (health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, education). They write posts for the site to inspire readers to submit ideas and discuss. Pepsi's capping the idea submissions at 1000 each month -- maybe to encourage fair voting, maybe to help them manage the submissions?

Though this isn't PepsiCo's first attempt at social. They launched the DEWmocracy campaign in 2007 as a crowdsourcing effort to develop a new product. Now they're doing it again using 12seconds.tv, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Nike is moving more towards social media as well. To play off the current "Deny Destiny" TV spot,  Organic filmed exclusive interviews with players and redesigned the Canadian site to include Facebook, Twitter and YouTube components. Nike also enlisted Steve "Dangle" Glynn, a popular hockey blogger and YouTube personality, to blog and tweet about the World Juniors.

For the Olympics, NikeTraining rolled-out the Nike TwitterStream for each athlete for each event. On each athlete page -- while they compete -- there's relevant tweets for fans to follow while they watch the games. You can participate by using designated hashtags.   

Creative Director Elliott Smith says their redesigned Canadian site "is meant to be just one part of visitors' online experience, rather than the hub. Comments for the videos are duplicated on Facebook, because that's where the target market 'lives and breathes every day,'"

Colleague Karri Ojanen doesn't think brands should rely singly on social media to connect with their customers. "The clients and agencies who can think of their decisions in terms of not just the individual tools, but the whole toolkit, and put it together with their own unique situation are the ones who will win. Coke's Prinz Pinakatt and Unilever's Cheryl Calverley seem to both understand that. They're not completely doing away with sites, but recognize the need to emphasize connections instead of a fairly static campaign property."

Sandy Marsh struggles "with there being any division anymore. The whole of the internet is social. What would be revolutionary is a brand that obliterates the divide rather than chooses one side or the other. I'm not saying I know quite how that can be done, but..."

Craig Ritchie agrees that brands will "benefit from moving away from the old model of buying traffic for short-term experiences," but thinks these examples still seem "like channel-based thinking." Brands that continue to adapt to consumer behavior rather than trying to interrupt it with messaging will be the ones to attract and sustain the fans. Starbucks, LEGO, Toyota and Dell (just to name a few) are already looking at the digital experience holistically. And these -- so far -- are the strongest in social media.
 
So who will win the social cola war? It might not be a clear cut champion. One might reign on Facebook, while the other might top Twitter. But really, it's how they use those tools and what (besides fans) that they hope to gain. As Forrester puts it, Pepsi "is putting Social Media to work for a higher goal--making the world a better place and associating the brand with that vision." They are taking social media seriously and thinking about the bigger picture.

Do you think companies are smart to devote more dollars to social?

Sarah Jo Sautter
 

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gregtimm

Yes, consumers are still shopping in physical stores. And what do they typically have with them when they're shopping? Their phones. In January, we talked about How Businesses and Marketers Can Use Mobile for Better Results in 2010. And we only touched on the growth in adoption of mobile shopping applications.

Here are four ways that marketers could be enhancing that shopping experience.



1.  Price comparison.  Applications such as Shop Savvy, Snap Tell and Amazon's 'Amazon Mobile' app allow shoppers to compare prices at a given location against nearby competitors and online eComm properties. Through image recognition and barcode scanning, these apps make it very easy for users to know if an item can be had for less elsewhere. These apps are prime territory for marketers looking to inject a brand into a target audience's psyche at a critical juncture in their decision making process.



2.  Mobile Coupons.  Many of the drawbacks of printed coupons are mitigated by delivery and redemption on mobile platforms. Users don't have to cut them out and don't have trouble remembering them and perhaps most significantly, don't have the same negative associations with point-of-sale (POS) redemption. Zavers, mobiQpons, and Cellfire are actively signing-up small businesses and it's only a matter of time before big box stores get on board. Add increased consumer adoption, POS redemption infrastructure and a social dynamic and the appeal to marketers will be greater than ever.

3.  Real-Time Feedback.  Another trend that will increasingly impact purchase decisions this year is real-time feedback. Mostly from dressing rooms, but not exclusively. People will look to their social graph and vertical-interest communities for advice on what to buy.



4.  Loyalty Programs.  Mobile CRM has been a strategic objective of CPG brands for several years, but lacked the consumer comfort and behavior to support it. The three points above will provide inroads for more effective CRM. Consumers checking their phone just before they buy something will create opportunity to deliver more effective personalized messaging derived from prior purchase decisions.


Have you used your phone when shopping? How would you like to see stores you frequent using mobile?

Dan Neumann
@dneumann

Consumer Technologies, Ideas and Trends in Europe and What They Mean For Brands
The year 2010 is a date from science fiction.  By now we were supposed to have hover cars, paper clothes, android companions and be happily holidaying on the Moon while robot television cameras kept us safe and secure. 

CCTV may be live and well on most London streets.  But what is really happening in 2010 with regards to Internet technology?  Organic's team in London has been reviewing digital in Europe, looking at what the big themes are and thinking about what this means for brands at the start of this new decade.

Someone [Case-Mate] finally came out with a phone case I would be proud to carry around. They've taken some of the more current designers/artists and given users access to their color and design palette. You can get addicted pretty quick to creating some cool phone cases.

With that said, I do have to admit I like the site experience as well. I dig the animation transitions (slick, organic, and smart). The toolset is pretty user friendly too. Though I wish I could create an object and then grab and move it around on the phone case to get it more exact. Seemed to me this function would be step number one in building out the tools.

Enjoy! And let us know what you make.

Casey Riggleman

Source: Ohio State University


A piece in the March issue of Wired took on the issue of 'texting-while-driving', turning the issue on its head by suggesting that instead of banning texting, we should simply drive less.

Now, we're talking. I'm of the opinion that the Internet has done less to change the world than we give it credit for (See "The Internet: More or Less Revolutionary than a TV Dinner" here). To reach revolutionary status, the Web and/or mobile must fundamentally change the way we live. Will the basic inability to text our thumbs off push commute times down? If it does, then we're really seeing where the mobile/web era is taking our lives.

Do We Love Commuting?
Is it really possible? Americans and their cultural hangers-on love to drive. Our culture (and tax code) is heavily stacked toward home ownership. Big houses and plots of land are considered birth rights of the middle class here. And to meet that, we would have to keep building outward from the urban cores for decades to come.

Won't those 30-, 45-, 6-, 90-minute commutes keep things under control? Not hardly. Commuting times have soared consistently since the 1950s and show no signs of stopping soon. And considering even the most entry level cars in 2010 are mobile palaces of HVAC, auto everything, entertainment and comfort -- commuting has become more of a positive respite from the outside world than a negative waste of time.

But people in 2010 also love to text. There's no question. And texting while driving is ridiculously dangerous. Most people I know have a "eureka" story with the phenomenon...a time when they were so lost in texting they nearly killed themselves in traffic, leading to a personal ban on such behavior in the car. Yet at stop lights, they text. In bumper-to-bumper, they text. And if it's really, really important...they text no matter what (despite nearly dying previously -- now that's love).

"I Don't Want a License, Dad"?
Perhaps it won't be my generation that starts seeing driving as a net negative to life...we're probably already too far in the "loving to drive" corner to give it up. But for the text crazy teens coming up now, I'd bet many would actually choose texting over driving if put to the choice. So perhaps after college, they will be drawn toward a lifestyle with less miles on the road all so they can keep avoiding actual conversation via awkward tiny keyboards.

Hard to tell. Maybe texting will simply vanish in the near future, replaced by something new. But love makes people nuts, and the text craze really doesn't make much "logical" sense to begin with. One thing is for sure, texting and driving cannot coexist happily. And that will lead to some kind of cultural shift.

Mike Hudson