Going Social

Obviously a major topic of discussion at the Chicago ad:tech conference was social media. We all want to use it, but we don't fully understand the scope of what it is, and some of us are honestly scared of it. It is, however, a very real element in the future of advertising.

No matter how you look at it, the growth of social media cannot be ignored. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, television took 13 years, the Internet took 4, and the iPod only 3 years. What about social media? Facebook added 100 million users in less then 9 months and China’s QZone has over 300 million users! These staggering numbers prompt many clients to say ”we need a Facebook strategy” or a Twitter strategy or whatever, but the key is to focus on a social media strategy. Moreover, remember while social media is an important component of advertising, it should not be the primary focus (only 5% of total online advertising spend is in social media) rather a supporting and enabling tool. In the end, the world and computers are digital, but consumers are analog; If you choose to use social media, it is essential to emotionally connect with the consumer.

Consumer uses for social media are generally grouped in 4 categories: information, product referrals, socializing, and entertainment. As a company you need solid understanding of not only what value you bring to these categories, but also how can you efficiently integrate them for maximum effect. That said, there is no end to how social media can be used to promote your brands, from offering fast, interactive customer services like the Best Buy “Twelp Force,” to offering exclusive promotions like United Airline’s “Twares,” to building an engaging brand experience like Threadless. Even small companies like the Liquor Depot in Alberta are using Twitter to offer exclusive promotions. First year social media budgets have trended as low as $2,000 (excluding manpower) meaning anyone can get involved at any time, it simply requires a commitment to dive in.

When the decision is made to venture into social media, think about what it is that you are trying to drive, what is your objective? What are you trying to communicate? Then be prepared to listen and interact with the answers, remember to think of social media as not something you can buy, but rather something you can earn and own. There are numerous sources claiming to have the keys to a successful social media strategy, and all are different in some way, but the following four elements remain constant:

1. Look, Listen, Lounge, & Learn: It is amazing how much you can learn about consumer interests, intentions, and problems by listening to what they say on social media sites (and it’s not even that hard!)

2. Join the Conversation: Response breeds authenticity in the eyes of the consumer. Find relevant communities and contribute (read as: add value) regularly.

3. Target the Coveted Influentials: Start with the conversation starters and they will reach the conversation spreaders.

4. Curate Passion: Place the passionate community at the centre and become a curator of that passion.

Right now platforms like Twitter and Facebook are social media’s next big thing, but only 11% of Internet users are active “tweeters” and only 20% of online ad spend is on Facebook and MySpace. What direction do you take? The answer is easy, get involved where your passionate consumers are involved (listen to learn where that is; see above). Twitter may just be a current fad, but online social interaction is not, it is a fundamental shift in the way we, as a society, communicate; And it matters. A recent study found that 25% of search results of the worlds top 20 brands are links to user-generated content and 34% of bloggers actively comment on their experiences. As a result it is essential to determine who these people are and how they can be positively engaged. We tend to think of social media as a massive global medium, but we forget there are many smaller, localized networks, such as Calgary 2.0 (calgary20.com) that are often driven by the very people our clients want to reach. A successful manager or planner will be able to determine which networks contain relevant consumers (remember the importance of data) and understand how people in those networks can be reached. With 40% of marketers already using social networking sites, it is easy to see the benefits; increased relationship building, increased brand love and loyalty, and increased trust (through transparency).

A reoccurring issue agencies face in social media is justifying the ad spend to the client. While everyone wants to be involved, they still demand to see a positive ROI. That is the current problem with social media, it is often hard to prove any ROI, let alone a positive one, as there is no established, definitive method or metric to evaluate the successes or failures of a social media venture. While you can track “click-throughs” on a banner ad, social influence is much more difficult to measure. As a result, successful companies will be those who view social media as a long-term strategy tool to gain insights and uncover unmet needs rather than for short-term ROI. If you must measure the return on a social media project, set your own objectives (followers, engagement, etc.) and tie goals to them.

Want to continue to engage and learn social media? I highly recommend heading over to Socialnomics and check out what the team there has to say!

[BecomeMaverick]

Trends in Advertising's Golden Age

As I previously mentioned, I was lucky enough to attend the ad:tech conference in Chicago at the beginning of the month. I have put together a brief summary presentation for some people and thought I would share it with all of you. The first section is essentially a repeat of "The New Buzz Word in Advertising" (posted September 3rd) so I will skip that and hit you with part 2 on industry trends (part 3 on social media will be posted midweek). Enjoy

The largest obvious trend is towards digital and social media. Though search marketing currently receives almost two-thirds of digital ad spend, it is forecasted that by 2014 that number will drop to 15% and social media will take the stage at 34% followed closely by mobile advertising at just over a quarter of ad spend. Still, only 6-10% of ad budgets are for online, but that number is forecasted to grow to 20% in the next half-decade. This shift to social media is starting the age of collaboration and a return to true marketing where the customer is the focus and understanding and meeting customer requirements is paramount. For years companies tried to down-play negative word-of-mouth, but in this new age being transparent with shortcomings makes the company more authentic and trustworthy. Southwest Airlines did not try to hide the fact that a hole was discovered in one of their airplanes, rather they used Twitter to broadcast an announcement that all planes would be thoroughly checked for potential problems, increasing consumer trust. For success, companies need to be prepared for the instant feedback that comes with the two-way conversation and be ready to act on it. Far too often people try to advise on something they haven’t actually used and thus cannot fully comprehend. It will become essential for account managers and planners to not only understand social media, but actively embrace the potential it has. By fully committing yourself to exploring such a rich medium (being on Facebook, using Twitter, etc.), the potential to generate new ideas for a client is endless.

Many companies (including advertising agencies) are beginning to reorganize themselves to stay aligned with the growth of the digital segment, as they deem it essential to their future success. This reorganization is taking on various looks across the industry, some companies are creating a separate division or acquiring a digital arm while others are making it an extension of public relations, or creating “community managers.” The key point is that all are developing integrated departments that are a strong part of the team, but also a strong part of the community, listening and engaging on a regular basis.

Data is the new creative. This comment leaves many in the industry scratching their heads in confusion or in down-right anger (especially among creative departments). What this means is that in the past consumers could easily be attracted or seduced by extraordinary creative, but the sheer quantity of advertisements a person is exposed to on a given day has numbed that attraction. The new key to attracting and developing new customers is to understand the customer at even the most basic level. Account managers need to develop a more well-rounded skill set that focuses on both the logic side and the creative side of the job. We will soon learn that advertisements in the digital space will only be successful if they are effectively targeted and relevant to the consumer. Thus, we need data to increase our understanding of the consumer and to communicate what they want to hear, in a way they want to hear it. This data does not need to come from large-scale research projects, rather it can be generated by observing, listening, and communicating with consumers. Once you have found the people who will listen, close the deal with excellent creative work.

Perhaps one of the biggest trends that cannot be ignored is the adoption of the Internet and social media by mothers across North America. In 2006, only 1 in every 10 moms used a type of social media like Facebook. That number has now skyrocketed to 63% and young mothers are 123% more likely to have 3 or more social networks then the rest of the population. Even though less then 2 in every 10 cell phones are “smart phones,” 91% of moms don’t leave their home without them and nearly three-quarters use their phones regularly to stay in touch with family and friends. This trend is allowing proactive agencies to better connect with a crucial demographic by taking advantage of social media. Unilever was able to successfully leverage digital media for their Suave product line by creating “webisodes” called In the Motherhood based on real-life submissions from moms about challenges around being a mother (the idea was later picked up by ABC and turned into a television series).

[BecomeMaverick]

Perfecting the Presentation

How many presentations have you seen in your life? Chances are quite a few, especially if you went through a business school like I did (where every class came complete with group presentations, one after another). Now ask yourself how many of those presentations were in PowerPoint with slide after slide of text and bullet points and the odd graphic thrown in? Finally ask yourself how much you remember from those presentations... Nothing?!? That is one of the key points in Garr Reynolds book Presentation Zen

I had originally planned on writing this post about Social Media, but then on Friday my Dad handed me a copy of Presentation Zen and said "I need this back next week." Well I spent all weekend reading a was hit with a great realization: Garr Reynolds is right! Our presentations are out-of-sync with our reality and desperately need to be overhauled. While I will try to highlight a few key points from Presentation Zen, I highly recommend buying it (for $30 on Amazon) or at the very least visit Garr's blog at www.presentationzen.com.

The core message of this book is easy, presentations need to be simply, engaging, and beautifully creative. In a word, they need to be zen. As humans, the majority of use find it very difficult, if not impossible to follow what a person is saying while reading a mass of information, so clutter on the screen detracts from the effectiveness of the presentation. Many of use learned the "matrix approach" to creating presentation slides, 7 lines (or bullet points) with 7 words each. Presentation Zen challenges this, demonstrating that bullet points should either be limited or better yet not used at all and text should be used in minimal quantities (marketing guru Seth Godin advocates 6 words a slide). The reason? Slides should enhance the Speaker, not detract from him or her. Use the slides the help create the story around the core message by displaying images reinforcing the point. Many people, including myself, have an initial reaction of "but I hand out my slides, they need to contain the information!" Reynolds chides us for this, saying the slides should have very little meaning when separated from the presenter. Instead of cramming information into the slides, a detailed handout should be created and distributed after the presentation (NEVER use the slides as a handout again!).

Another key that Presentation Zen focuses on is preparation, not just rehearsing the presentation, but preparing before the presentation is even created. For this, Garr suggests "going analog," that's right, turn off the computer and create an outline or storyboard with a pen and paper. This allows you to craft the story the way you want it to be heard. The old approach of putting down title headings on a slide and then filling in the information does not create a story or engage the audience, it's simply boring. Without preparation, we tend to error on providing too much information, to show that we've really done our homework, but most of that information is non-essential clutter leading to a sub-par presentation. To deliver a great presentation, preparation is key.

Finally, when designing your slides, remember the notion of simplicity. Removing the non-essential items (yes, even the 3D element of the graph) increases the signal vs. noise ratio and makes it exponentially easier to connect with the audience. Presentation Zen suggests simplicity, naturalness, and elegance based design principles like contrast, repetition, alignment, empty space, and proximity. For great examples check out the presentations at TED.

Seriously think about how you give your presentations and what your audience is getting out of them. Chances are you will benefit from a little Presentation Zen. Personally, I completely threw-out and reworked a presentation on Social Media I have been working on in an effort to apply some of approaches suggested in this book. Remember, a true Maverick is a wild card who stands apart from everyone else, don't you think it is time to differentiate yourself?

[BecomeMaverick]

The New Buzz Word in Advertising

I was fortunate enough to attend the ad:tech conference in Chicago this week with many of the top players in the industry, from both the agency and the client side. Many people arrived expecting a huge push for the future of social media, what we learned was a little different. My next few posts will highlight some of the key learnings I took out of ad:tech.

Let's drop the bomb to start things off: no matter what you have seen or read (especially on Twitter), traditional advertising is by no means "dead," it is merely evolving. For starters, a Nielsen Online survey  of 25,000 people found that consumers still have significantly high trust levels for newspaper and television advertisements (61%) compared to lower trust levels for opt-in emails at 55% (and remember, consumers are CHOOSING to receive these) and mobile text ads at 24%. Moreover, only 45% of Internet users frequent social media/networking sites and only 1 in every 10 is active on Twitter. 

Even if you argue that social media may not be the future, but other forms of digital advertising (such as search, which accounts for 60% of online ad spend) are, another Nielsen survey shows that the average adult spends half of his or her daily "media time" (the hours during the day a person spends interacting with media) watching television compared to just 21% of time on the Internet. An even more staggering statistic is that 8 in every 10 Generation Y consumers don't notice or ignore advertisements on social media websites, suggesting that at best social network advertisements need to be very targeted and contextually relevant. 

At this point, I feel it is important to mention that digital advertising (especially social media and mobile marketing) is growing at exponential rates, but the future is not now and the consumer lives in the now. So, what does this mean for the typical agency? To borrow a sports analogy, advertisers don't need to throw out the entire offense, they simply need to add some new play to the playbook, starting with a digital strategy to prepare for the future. Agencies need to challenge themselves to proactively create new, fresh ideas and insights to increase the value proposition for a client.

What all this leads me to is the new buzz word for advertisers: Integration. How is your agency integrating all the elements of a campaign across various platforms to engage the consumer and prompt action? A great example of this is Sears back to school campaign in the United States: "Don't Go Back, Arrive," playing on the fact that going back to school is essential the fashion runway for the tween generation. The focal point of the campaign (originally launched in 2008 and modified again for 2009) was television spots shot with a music video feel featuring an air band led by a tween celebrity. In 2008 it was High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens and this year it was Disney start Selena Gomez. Use of these well known figures draws in the target consumer. 

Sears then integrated (Buzz word!) the campaign by launching www.arrivelounge.com when consumers could go and view the spots, connect with others, play games, get fashion tips, and most importantly engage that brand by submitting an entry for the air band's name, their logo, or a video clip showing why they should be the bands 5th member (the winner of each was determined by nation-wide online voting). What this engagement item did was prompt viral action, as tweens who submitted an entry communicated this with friends to spread the word and get more votes. Furthermore, it created a desire to frequently return to the website to see how their submission was doing. The 2008 result for Sears was the reversal of a downward market share trend and an image that once again, Sears is a cool place to shop for back to school fashion.

[BecomeMaverick]

New Beginnings...

I think it is time to rethink and recreate what I envision this blog to be. When I first started, I planned on focusing on business leadership and the characteristics that help an individual reach their potential as a Maverick leader. As I started writing, I realized two things: 1. I simply do not know enough about business leadership to continually provide insights and 2. I lack the passion to really dive into the subject of business leadership.

So with that in mind, it is time to relaunch [Mavericks] as [BecomeMaverick], a blog designed to promote and discuss key insights that centre on the elements of business where I am passionate. As I sit here planning, I believe a great deal of my work will focus on advertising and marketing, but I won't hesitate to talk about sports, politics, leadership, or whatever else you, as a reader, may suggest. My plan is to post 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), so stay tuned... 24 hours until the first [BecomeMaverick] post is live.

It is time to engage and build the future.