A little more than a year ago I wrote one of my most-visited posts about the power of engaging product demonstrations. If you haven’t read it, take a look. The purpose of this post is to revisit demonstrations with two killer examples that I saw just yesterday morning.
First, there’s the video above of the new Dyson Air Multiplier fan, above. The next chapter in Dyson’s re-think of age-old contraptions, this time we see a playful series of balloons sent through Dyson fans. The result is clever and interesting, and perfectly highlights the reason for shelling out a few hundred dollars for a new fan: It’s simply gorgeous. This two-minute film has been viewed by more than 725,000 people since late May.
The lesson here is that new products can be incredibly interesting. We like seeing what’s new, and continue to spend money on innovative items that can make our lives better. It’s the same reason that people spend billions of dollars a year on products sold in TV infomercials; in fact, I recall TiVo reporting that some of the least-skipped ads are two-minute infomercials.
The second example was forwarded to me from a friend. Instead of a new innovation, this is a series of videos for a brand in one of the oldest commodity product categories on the market: the DieHard battery. You might remember the old DieHard commercials from the ’70s and ’80s that put car batteries in torture tests; for example, this ad in which a car on a frozen lake starts after sitting on the ice all winter.
Now DieHard is back in the demo business in a much more updated way, showing that even an existing brand and category has the ability to amaze. The dramatic movie-announcer-like voiceover is back, but just about everything else is different. Check it out:
There are some other examples of the ads that I love. For example, this one of innovative musician Reggie Watts. It’s pretty easy to measure success of these demos based on the number of views. Reggie Watts is getting up toward 900,000 views, and the Gary Numan example above is at 75,000 in less than a week.
While these companies are polar opposites in many ways, their viral product demos have a few things in common:
Presented in video form, which allows for a full sight, sound, and motion experience as well as easy sharing
Brought to life in very creative ways, not just a side-by-side demo with blue liquid and before-and-after shots
Go beyond the 30-second interruption, allowing space for a story to develop and for content to be enjoyed, on the consumer’s terms
As we get closer to our Burning Question seminar on Friday I’ve had less time than usual to relay my thoughts and discussions here in this space. I’m forced to combine topics from Wednesday and Thursday (today) here in Cannes, and in fact I only wanted to touch on one takeaway today—but it’s a good one.
Content Creators Are Waiting for Brands
Lots of people have written or spoken about how brands are becoming media properties and how they can spawn the stars of tomorrow, but this idea never truly crystallized for me until viewing relevant, related seminars over the past two days.
On Wednesday, master director Spike Jonze spoke about his work on everything from short films to television commercials to major motion pictures such as the recent Where the Wild Things Are. He spoke about how he loves to work with brands when they come to him with an idea that excites him. It can be a music video for Bjork or a commercial for the Gap in which he got to destroy a store. Jonze talked about how he often works with agencies to re-imagine the ideas that they bring him—usually tearing up all of the “junk” that got added to the brief or after dozens of client meetings.
His biggest advice for the hundreds of creatives in the room: “The most powerful weapon you have is ‘No.’” Jonze said he took his fair share of bad projects, but he eventually learned that only work that excited him would result in a positive result. It’s a lesson that I believe more brands (personal and corporate) must learn.
Thursday’s highlight for me was the annual Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase. For 90 minutes we saw a series of short films from some of the most talented rising film directors in the world. Examples ranged from the comedic (Drunk History) to delightful (Tone of Every Day) to animated (I Lived on the Moon).
The usual purpose of this 20-year-old event is to expose agencies to talent who might be great at filming their commercials someday. But after seeing dozens of examples of great branded content—rather than a raft of 30-second ads—I came to see the new model falling into place before my eyes. Whether it’s big name directors such as Spike Jonze or up-and-comers such as those in the Saatchi showcase, clients and agencies of all types were looking not for commercial directors, but rather for partners who could help bring ideas to life.
These directors have the stories, the passion, and the ability to capture people’s imagination—but they often lack the resources or opportunities to put their ideas in front of a large audience. Brands have the money and desire to connect with consumers, but most are not in the business of creating entertainment. So putting them together could make magic.
But it’s no longer about hiring a young director to film your commercial. It’s about crafting content and giving up control to the artist. It’s Gatorade filming a replay of a high school football game. It’s Red Bull sponsoring a rising fashion designer. If you get this right, the result just might be Marketing with Meaning.
On Deck for Tomorrow…
I don’t want to give away all of the special things we have planned for our Burning Question seminar Friday at 5:15 p.m. Cannes time (or 11:15 a.m. for those back in the ET). But I will share one secret for readers of this blog. We’re going to be opening up our seminar tomorrow with a live lead-in by a group of “parkours” who we flew over from California. Parkouring or “free running” is a new type of sport in which athletes turn everyday signposts, buildings, and other street-side objects into a jungle gym. We’ve been filming them jumping and leaping all week in Cannes, and they will come from the streets into our seminar tomorrow. Our goal is to shake people up with some entertainment to close out a huge day of seminars and it should be a fun way to start. If you’re reading this in Cannes, you don’t want to miss it. And if you don’t happen to be in the South of France tomorrow we will be sure to capture everything on video at burningquestion.com.
Well, here we are in the South of France once again for the annual Cannes Lions Advertising Festival. I was last here two years ago for the yearly meeting of the world’s marketing leaders. (You can see some of my previous posts starting here.) Now, it’s one year after the economic crisis that impacted the advertising industry particularly hard. Attendance here at Cannes went down from a high of around 10,000 people to a mere 6,000. But things are looking up! Supposedly attendance is up to 8,000 or more and there is a positive spirit in the air here. Things are also looking up, of course, because we’re here preparing to answer The Burning Question on Friday this week. Preparation for our big event is going very well and I really wish we were on the stage presenting already. But while waiting for our big moment I’ve had the chance to listen and learn from others’ sessions and conversations over drinks. I will blog daily here to share a few things from each day. Read on for my takeaways from yesterday (Monday), the first major day at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival.
JWT Presents “Ideas People Want to Spend Time With”
Bob Jeffery, CEO, and Fernando Vega Olmos, Creative Chairman, of our sister agency JWT presented some examples of their best work around the world, which represents an entirely new direction for one of the largest and oldest advertising agencies. Jeffery started by making the point that, “Time is the new currency… so we must create ideas that people want to spend time with.” It’s a concept that is perfectly consistent with Marketing with Meaning.
The pair proceeded to share examples of some killer work that is completely consistent with our concept of Marketing with Meaning. Examples included things that you’ve probably seen me tweet about over the past few weeks, including the Heineken classical music concert prank and hilarious videos for Kotex that poke fun of decades of tampon ads. But I was most impressed by two cause-related ideas that the company launched over the past year. First, a campaign for UNICEF in which vending machines were placed with the opportunity for people to donate their change to provide fresh water in Haiti. The campaign created a new way to donate and most users had never donated before. A second campaign for the Red Cross in Mexico created children’s rides (like the ones that used to be outside of supermarkets) in which all donations went to the Red Cross and kids got the chance to “play” hero. The campaign resulted in a +20% increase in donations during the horrible economy last year.
Schematic and Bridge Worldwide Show the Possibilities of a New Meaning Medium
One of our WPP sister digital agencies, Schematic, was back at Cannes with its revolutionary “touchwall” technology. Think of it as a giant iPad on steroids that reads an RFID tag in your conference badge and helps you get more out the event. You can find people, arrange for places to meet, get descriptions of the day’s sessions, and check out nearby restaurants.
This year our agency, Bridge Worldwide, was invited to join the Schematic demo to show how this new “medium” could be used for a variety of brands. We developed two ideas based on brands that we work on. We showed how Charmin could create an entertaining interactive game with mysterious people behind bathroom-stall doors, and we showed a concept for the Bounty brand in which people around the world could collaborate to make a work of art using the device. We’re a long way from having touchwalls installed worldwide, but the unit was a great chance to explore how new technology can become meaningful from the beginning.
Another Question…
One of my favorite things about coming to an event such as this is that you start hearing some common threads of thought as people have time to experience, reflect, and discuss. While we’ve been asking The Burning Question, a new question came to me when I did an interview with the Cannes Eye team here: “Should the word ‘advertising’ be dropped from the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival?” I had not really thought of that before, but the question came up a few hours later over drinks with my friend Rick Boyko, Director of the VCU Brandcenter (which I wrote about previously here). Rick talked about how we should evolve our craft away from “advertising” and all of its negative connotations and move toward something that is more relevant for our present evolution of marketing—around creating experiences and telling stories.
I’m not sure what the answer is yet, but a move away from “advertising” in Cannes and in our industry might be the “reset button” that we all need to elevate our game.
Last week I had the chance to attend and speak at the annual Cause Marketing Forum in Chicago. Conferences that cover specific topics such as this are a real joy to visit. It’s a chance to peer a little into an “ecosystem” of individuals and companies that are united around a common interest and goal. In this case, it’s a very noble one—cause marketing and corporate social responsibility. I got to speak at a marketers-only dinner during the evening, both introducing Marketing with Meaning as a higher-level paradigm for marketing, and then sharing how Cause and CSR fit in—along with some tips and learnings we’ve seen in this fast-developing space. Instead of rehashing my presentation here I wanted to take this space to share what I learned during the event from some of the biggest marketers in the world. (But do take a look at the video above where I was interviewed at the conference.)
Nike/Livestrong
By now everyone has seen the yellow bracelets and admired the very innovative way that Nike has supported Lance Armstrong and his drive to cure cancer. But few have gotten the inside scoop on how the program came about and the results it has seen. Tom Kelley, brand marketer for Nike, shared some terrific insights. He began by setting up Nike’s mission: “To achieve human potential… and bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” He talked about when one of its prize athletes, Lance Armstrong, contracted cancer it became Nike’s first significant cause marketing effort. As Tom said, “We didn’t choose cancer; cancer chose us.” Nike, a brand that sticks very close to its roots in driving athletic performance, saw Lance fight back in the hospital, on the bike, and in the public eye. And when the brand got into the cause, it did so in a very unique way—by creating the yellow band campaign and raising millions of dollars for research.
Nike has also smartly continued its involvement in Livestrong as Lance, too, continues to ride to challenge himself and raise funds to fight the disease. Kelly spoke about the most recent innovation in the cause, the Nike Chalkbot, which debuted in the Tour de France last year. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out this great video:
What’s brilliant about the Chalkbot is that it hits on so many levels. It fits Nike’s drive for innovation and it inspires athletes to perform their best. It also builds off a tradition of this tradition-rich sport. It gives people around the world the chance to participate in a live event. And it’s all for a very good cause. I expect to see Chalkbot win a Cannes Lion when I go there in a few weeks.
The results from this one idea have been incredible: 36,000 cheers were submitted, there were 139 major PR stories, membership of Livestrong’s Facebook page rose 77%, and Nike’s Livestrong line saw the largest month ever for both product sales and donations. This year the Chalkbot will be back on the Tour with a few improvements—including a better eraser.
A final point on Nike: I later heard a presentation on Macy’s cause efforts which are vast and impressive. For its programs, Macy’s executives talked about how they closely look toward the causes that its consumers care about. This seems smart and is clearly what most marketers are trained to do. But this was not at all how Nike approached cancer. It didn’t survey its buyers and ask what they believe in; rather, the brand worked according to what it as a brand cares about. Maybe this is the way we are headed in the future: brands as true personalities (powered by social, of course), which attract fans who aspire to know and be like them. Something to think about…
Pepsi Refresh
Everyone wants to know how the Pepsi Refresh is going—mainly because it represents such a big step in a new direction by a major marketer that has done advertising the traditional way for so long. Bonin Bough, Director of Digital and Social Media at Pepsi, took the stage to update an eager audience. He started by grounding the effort on a bigger change, “Refresh is a small part of a transformation going on across PepsiCo… it’s part of our belief in ‘Performance with Purpose.’” (For more on that, check out my blog post a few weeks ago). The idea behind Refresh came from studying a survey of Pepsi drinkers. Thinking beyond just providing liquid refreshment, the brand uncovered the insight that “Optimism is a catalyst for ideas that change society.” Pepsi chose to embrace and encourage optimism, but not through just a logo change and raft of new TV ads—rather, they had to DO something. The marketing team knew they had to “create a movement, not a moment.” So Super Bowl ads were out, and Pepsi Refresh was in.
Best Buy
Tim Showalter-Loch spoke at an intimate breakout group at the forum with the title of “Teen Cause Marketing.” The room fit about 12 people, but somehow 24 people squeezed in to hear how this leading, growing group of Blue Shirts is tackling teen+cause marketing. Best Buy has begun to edge into cause marketing for a few reasons: First, the company is maturing and needs to better differentiate itself in a crowded marketplace. Second, research shows that the rising generation of young people expects brands to have a higher-level purpose. In fact, their research shows that teens see big companies as authority figures—and this generation expects authority figures to step up and solve problems (a variation on the helicopter parenting that they have experienced).
Tim talked about how the brand discovered a big opportunity to embrace “teens’ positive development.” Teens are obviously important because they purchase a lot of Best Buy products and influence their parents to buy a lot more. In fact, today’s teen is the household Chief Technology Officer. Tim made a great analogy to the first generation of immigrant children who grow up speaking the new language and have to translate to their parents. Technology is that new language now.
The company saw an opportunity to do something in “positive development” because the teen years are a time when little decisions and experiences can have a large impact on the personalities and paths of young people. And teens need something more than the “negative” campaigns against smoking, drinking, drugs, and texting while driving.
Best Buy’s focus here has just begun, but it has done some nice, smart work at a site called @15 where it is encouraging kids to learn and innovate. It already has more than 200,000 members thanks to partners such as DoSomething.org.
Tim talked about how this small start is getting Best Buy’s leaders to think about how they can do more. Perhaps enrolling teens to help design the company’s products and business models. Tim spoke about his evolving belief that “The future is about creating a business that works for social change… don’t just fix your reputation by giving money; do something.” We talked about how Walmart recently closed the gap in Medicare drug prices because of its enormous purchasing power.
Pedigree
John Anton, Marketing Director for Pedigree, spoke about the history of the brand’s embrace of cause marketing around pets. I first wrote about Pedigree well over a year ago here, so I was excited to get more firsthand info on its very successful program. Anton spoke about how Pedigree has a Brand Purpose both around providing high-quality food and a belief that “every dog deserves a loving home.”
Pedigree’s first major efforts in its cause to drive shelter dog adoption came in February 2007 when it aired a commercial twice during the broadcast of the annual Westminster Kennel Club dog show. The ad brought light to the tragedy of unadopted dogs and said that the brand would match donations during the event. This small effort raised more than $1.7 million and showed the brand they were onto something.
Anton provided some great background on the brand’s decision to create its own foundation rather than partnering with other, existing nonprofits in this space. The biggest reason came to light when a national nonprofit that it partnered with supported legislation that was seen as negative to pure-breed owners. Because of its association with the nonprofit, Pedigree received many negative responses and threats to stop buying its food.
So the Pedigree Foundation was set up as its own 501(c)3 organization apart from Mars, the owner of Pedigree. It has its own staff and annual report. Aside from funds from Pedigree marketing, the foundation receives about $1 million per year in donations from individuals. Anton admitted that it was new ground to figure out how to do this, but by creating its own foundation Pedigree is benefiting from added credibility, control, employee pride, and a positive long-term legacy.
Interestingly, this idea of companies setting up their own foundations is fairly controversial, as it creates some competition in the cause market. I’m sure this will continue to be a hot topic in the future.
JetBlue
One small new learning came from a conversation with an executive from JetBlue at dinner. In my presentation I talked about the Marketing with Meaning example of how Hyundai brilliantly grew sales in a down year by introducing the Assurance program—a program so good that brands as diverse as Pfizer and the Toronto Raptors followed with similar programs. She mentioned that JetBlue, too, had offered to fly you free if you lost your job. This program returned immediate results and virtually no tickets were returned.
Many thanks to David Hessekiel and his staff at the Cause Marketing Forum for putting on a great show and inviting me to both teach and learn. It’s clearly a pocket of Marketing with Meaning that is leading the way.
Yesterday I returned from the first Ad:Tech event of the year in San Francisco. As usual, it was a great opportunity to reconnect with friends in the industry and pick up a few new nuggets of what’s new in digital marketing. I also had the chance to give back some knowledge to the event participants during a session that I joined Tuesday afternoon. Here in this post I will share what I shared, as well as some of the highlights from the Tuesday sessions.
A New World of Word of Mouth: Using Influence to Re-invent the Impression
This was the session that I had a chance to present in, along with three other brilliant digital marketers: Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis, Jim Price, President of Empower MediaMarketing, and Joel Lunenfeld, CEO of Moxie Interactive.
I moderated the session and kicked things off with a marketer’s perspective on what’s new in digital marketing—and I promptly shocked (shocked!) the crowd by declaring that marketers have lost their perspective on what makes digital marketing great. I launched into the slides above, in which I attempted to make the point that if we dumb down digital marketing to being measured by the same, basic “impression” that traditional media has used forever we will kill the innovation that makes new media great. I love starting with a provocative note and I think the audience reacted very well according to the smiles, nods, and Twitter feedback I saw during my short segment.
Following me, Tim shared some excellent research on how people share content, and why we need to remember the right “word” in word of mouth. Jim shared a case study on how his firm used a killer new media model developed by ShareThis in which the Mederma scar creme was able to target advertisements to people who had shared relevant content with others. And Joel wrapped things up with a story about how marketers need to move toward looking at creating digital content that mirrors the video game industry—starting with the joystick that is the mobile phone. I will share their decks here when they are available.
Jamie Cohen Szulc—CMO of the Levi’s Brand
Jamie kicked off the Tuesday session with a keynote speech about how his brand has hit the recent button in recent months to become more meaningful to consumers’ lives. While only six months into his job, Jamie is pushing a revolution through this legendary brand that has fallen off the tracks in recent years. I could barely keep up with the gems that rolled off his tongue, but some of the quotes and insights he shared included:
“Marketers want more, global control at a time when the market is fragmenting more than ever.”
“The Internet taps into core human values.”
Levi’s has to become “original, real, and relevant to ME.”
The brief for the new campaign was simple: “Make people fall in love with Levi’s again.”
Although the new marketing work started with a TV commercial “to signify a new approach,” the brand is taking it to much more digital and meaningful work from here on out.
“We must move from Marketing ROI to creating Business Models.”
“Change must start from within—you’ve got to change the organizational culture first.”
Change is great and needed, but “you can’t disrupt a market in a day… it’s a long-term investment.”
But the highlight of his talk was a case study of how Levi’s created a T-shirt brand from scratch in South Africa. I can’t summarize it any better than the video below:
Overall, it was great to see a big brand CMO take the stage and talk openly and honestly about a meaningful marketing transformation in progress.
Chris Anderson Talks About the iPad
This was another treat—to see the Wired magazine leader and author of books such as The Long Tail and FREE give us his take on Apple’s latest game changer. While I think I would pay to see Chris talk about anything, it was particularly interesting to hear him share his thoughts on how he looks at the iPad from a magazine’s perspective.
Carrying a silver iPad onto the stage (I kept worrying that he would drop it), Chris started off by claiming, yes, this is the next big computing platform after the PC and mobile phone. He claimed that despite misses on tablet computing in the past, the time was ripe today because of three things:
The success of the iPhone showed the power of a rich media application platform.
The success of the Kindle showed how a flexible, convenient media and distribution channel brings a better experience.
The rise of cloud computing means tablets need a less powerful chip, less bloatware, and less hard drive space—which frees up companies such as Apple to build a lovely device.
Chris tied together magazine insider insights with topics that he explored in his books. His main point was that he was excited that the iPad will offer a much better experience for Wired readers. He and his team have been working on the platform for a while already, and they promise to launch a magazine that will combine the best of print and digital. Chris talked about how the killer platform of the iPad might allow for scarcity again, and create a better business model. His point is that “scarcity power” for print magazines was based on the cost-of-entry barriers of printing and distributing physical magazines. But the free information of the Internet is destroying these entry barriers, making scarcity a thing of the past, and killing the magazines’ business model.
He thinks that it will take high-end designers to make the most of the iPad’s platform—meaning that Joe Blogger won’t be able to offer a free experience that matches what Wired is working on. So quality of the experience could be a barrier to entry and driver of scarcity that leads to new profits. While I’m doubtful that this will happen, it would be a “good” kind of scarcity that is based on reader enjoyment rather than means of production.
Chris lost me completely, however, when he delved into the case for how advertising could be revolutionized on the iPad. He talked about how it could allow for engagement, move beyond measuring CPM, and be more creative. But everything he said is already possible today with Web-based marketing. A relative handful of people using iPads will not cause a revolution. Rather, organizations have to take the first step to embrace these features and possibilities that already exist on the Web. He also was in awe that people would now have to page through full-page ads again with the new iPad magazine experience. This, to me, is a step backward in the consumer experience. It just seemed like a lot of wishful thinking for a business that just cannot survive without the mass marketing model.
So thanks to my friends at Ad:Tech (especially Brad Berens) for inviting me to speak at and learn from this great conference once again. I hope to see you in the next events in Chicago or New York!
On Monday I had the chance to speak at the IAB’s annual social-media event in New York City. I led a panel that included Adam Fell, VP of Quincy Jones Productions, and Jory Des Jardins, Co-founder and President of BlogHer. The topic of the session was “Social Media, World Events and the New Face of Cause Marketing.” It was a chance to explore some new territory in cause marketing and Marketing with Meaning, and I hope to continue the conversation with you in the weeks and months to come.
Our session came from a discussion I had a few months ago with Lisa Milgram, who runs programming for the IAB. She had taken notice of the number of brands that had jumped in with investments of money, time, and supplies after the earthquake in Haiti, and called me to talk about whether this was a topic we could explore further at the IAB social-media event. After some thinking and discussion, we fleshed out what I think is a fairly new concept in cause marketing, itself a concept that only really began in the 1970s and 1980s. We realized that while most cause-marketing efforts are begun with careful consideration and long-term planning by brands, events such as Haiti were compelling brands to move internal mountains and respond at the “speed of need.” Thus a conference panel topic was born.
My role in the session was to introduce the concept of cause-related marketing, show how it is an example of Marketing with Meaning, and then explore the growing number of brands that are evolving their approach to become much more instinctual and speedy in their cause responses. I spoke about two examples over the past few years: (1) the Tide brand’s response to Hurricane Katrina; and (2) the Haagen-Dazs response to honeybee disease. Both efforts brought meaningful attention and dollars to worthy causes in quick time. And both efforts built the business: Tide achieved its highest copy scores in history for its promotion of Tide Loads of Hope, and Haagen-Dazs saw sales grow 16% through its honeybee campaign and promotional flavor. The slides above show what I covered, and this article in Tuesday’s SmartBrief on Social Media captures the session nicely.
I was happy to turn things over to my fellow panelists after this short thought-starter. Adam Fell came first to tell the story of how he helped pull together many musicians in rapid time for the “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” song. He started by showing the audience camera footage from his trip to the battered country—proving that when marketers actually directly experience the cause they are involved in, much better work results. Adam spoke about how social media amplified the need—and even helped spread the word back to Haiti that millions of people around the world were praying for and contributing to their recovery.
Adam also shared an interesting story about the Visa brand’s participation in the event. Visa had planned for some time to be a sponsor of the 25th anniversary of “We Are the World” when it was planned to be in support of Africa. But when Haiti hit and Quincy Jones and others chose to throw their support behind aid for this country, the Visa brand team was thrown a bit off. But the brand team eventually agreed that the need here was great, and adjusted to stay onboard this effort.
After hearing from Adam I turned things over to Jory Des Jardins to give us some perspective of bloggers—who are marketing savvy, yet anchored in the real consumer world. She talked about how bloggers also reacted quickly to Haiti and gave both money and attention to the issue. But she had a few warnings for the audience as well: First, she reported that bloggers—who I believe are the vanguard of changing consumer opinion—are growing wary of cause-marketing efforts that seem too small or self-serving. Second, she suggested that cause-marketing efforts often need some influencers (such as bloggers) to start the word of mouth behind a new initiative. In other words, just putting up a Facebook page and waiting for traffic won’t cut it.
My only regret about the session was that we didn’t have much time for questions and discussion about this rising trend of “speed of need” cause marketing. I am personally unsure about whether most brands have the core purpose and speedy systems to allow them to give when the gut-level need arises. I would also like to explore more about our consumers’ perspective, and whether “promoting” that your brand has given can actually backfire—after all, who among us tells all of our friends how much we gave to causes in our lives…
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about how our society is becoming more “social” thanks to digital tools that are bringing us closer together. Blogs, online communities, Twitter, Facebook, and Foursquare are helping people help each other more than ever since we broke out of small clans thousands of years ago. For a while I have believed that these social-media tools are taking off because they match the way the human race has evolved to survive and advance by sharing. At the SXSW Interactive conference, I had the chance to see professor and author Clay Shirky connect more dots for me in his talk, titled “Monkeys with Internet Access: Sharing, Human Nature, and Digital Data.”
Shirky retold several stories from his excellent book, Here Comes Everybody, but focused on describing some fundamental insights around what and why peopleshare. His first point was that people are programmed to share based on millions of years of evolution in which we lived in small groups and traded favors and resources to survive. Remembering favors and managing personal relationships takes up a large part of our advanced brains, and studies show that there is even a limit to how many relationships our powerful processors can manage at one time (Dunbar’s number, which is said to be 150 for humans). The act of sharing releases a pleasant-feeling dopamine reward and positive memories that last for some time.
But all sharing is not created equal. While all forms of sharing can bring positive feelings, different types come at different costs. Shirky painted the picture of an old woman walking toward you on the sidewalk. She is trying to get your attention and can ask for one of three kinds of favors:
Goods: She might ask for money. This causes us to tense up and feel most negative, because sharing a “good” like this comes at a one-for-one cost. If you give her your money, then you cannot benefit from it any more.
Services: She might ask you to help her cross the street. This comes at some cost, as you must stop what you are doing and spend your time backtracking with her. But this favor does not take much from you.
Information: She might ask for directions to a nearby store. This favor is essentially free because it takes very little time and nothing is lost. Interestingly, because information is given at no cost, our society generally looks down on people who fail to share this. We have evolved to punish people who fail to share alike.
Shirky used this model to describe how online music swapping arose so quickly with Napster despite claims that it was socially unacceptable—like stealing. In the days of records, people did not share music very often because you would literally have to give up your record album to a friend. It was a good people did not want to part with. With the rise of cassettes and CDs, people shared more often by making a mix tape or burning a copy. This was a service that took some time to do for each person, so it was still fairly difficult. But the ability to rip and share music online turned music into information that people easily shared among friends. In fact, we became compelled to share this information at risk of being perceived as a hoarder.
Technology that allows for greater sharing, say turning goods into information, or making information much easier to share broadly, has led to some of the largest societal changes in history. The adoption of the printing press in medieval Europe brought religion to the masses and sparked revolutions in faith and science. According to Shirky, “abundance brings more change than scarcity.” He described how already digital sharing is “turning small, private, expensive good acts into big, public, cheap ones.”
I believe marketing is one of those models that will change dramatically because of the power of sharing. Today, digital tools have turned us all into consummate sharers. With five seconds on Facebook or TripAdvisor, we can benefit from the positive feelings of sharing tips and reviews with friends and strangers. Such information is more trusted and useful than anything advertisers can say, and Google places much heavier weight on what society says when individuals search for answers online. Advertisers, grocery stores, maitre d’s, and travel and real estate agents no longer have the power of information scarcity in a society in which people are rewarded, encouraged, and compelled to share with each other.
In a presentation after Shirky’s, renowned speaker Tim Sandersshared his experiences and secrets on how to make a living from the speaking circuit as he does. That’s right, Sanders gave away extremely rare and powerful information to people who might end up competing against him for speaker fees in the future. But Sanders enjoys helping others, and he believes that he is better off sharing with others who will drive the personal connections and positive word of mouth that will him get more, higher-paying speaking gigs down the road.
Interesting, Sanders was asked by someone in the audience about whether “transparency” was the defining word of our new age of digital social sharing. He actually disagreed, saying:
“Anyone can be transparent. I believe the history books will say that social media was about ‘being helpful.’”
My many thanks to both Shirky and Sanders for sharing information that will help me be more successful in guiding marketing strategy and winning speaking opportunities. And through this blog post, I hope you benefit from their knowledge as well.
I recently got to sit in on the first presentation of results from a joint research program between Google and my holding company, WPP. At the Google office in NYC on November 3, a handful of people got the chance to see what a group of professors from around the world were able to do thanks to receiving data from the Google vaults. It was a great time-out from the day-to-day, and I hope the first of many more experiments and presentations in the years ahead as we all try to figure out how to best deploy digital marketing.
The Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program was first announced last fall as a way for these two advertising giants to crack the code with the help of university professors. A group of more than 100 professors, corporate marketers, and agency strategists applied for 25 grants in the range of $50,000 to $80,000 each. The key topic areas for the research focused on understanding online advertising and the link between offline and online.
Let me first say that I think this is a very meaningful partnership between Google and WPP. The two companies coexist as what WPP’s leader, Sir Martin Sorrell, calls “frenemies.” That’s a combination of “friend” and “enemy” in case you missed it, and it shows how in business today—and especially in new ground such as digital marketing—the rules are undefined, and your customers are often your competitors as well. The idea to sponsor a joint research program came out of friendly discussions aimed at helping build a stronger understanding, if not a trusting relationship, between the two heavyweights.
I learned a few interesting nuggets from the research presentations that are worth sharing here in summary. But stay on the lookout for the full research reports, which both companies promised to share publicly soon:
It can be more effective to give users of Google Maps fewer options (i.e., for resizing, zooming, sorting), suggesting that they will spend too much time “fiddling with the knobs” and missing their core goal.
Chinese consumers who are exposed to more display ads for brands shift their search habits toward more brand search over category search.
Display advertising can be much more effective if you are able to learn about the reason/motivation behind individual users’ website visits (but the challenge lies in understanding their motivation).
Brain scanning suggests that written copy can be more emotionally engaging than photos and video, as people likely internalize the written word more.
Aside from this specific research, I also learned a little about how Google is constantly experimenting on its own search platform. During his opening keynote, Google Chief Economist Hal Varian mentioned that the staff at the company is constantly tinkering with the user experience of the site to improve results. He said, “Every time you use Google there are six to 10 experiments that you are participating in.” That adds up to about 11,000 experiments a year. This attitude of constant improvement is something pretty typical of strong e-commerce sites, where you can actually see the cash register ring instantly when you test something new, and have a strong incentive to roll out the improvement quickly. But the scale of Google’s experiments was staggering. This philosophy of constant improvement suggests that any challenger will not only have to do something different initially, but keep upgrading continuously to make a difference. I doubt that Yahoo! and Microsoft’s Bing are even close in this regard.
Applications for the 2nd annual round of research are coming in now, and there are already more applications than last year. In fact, my Analytics & Measurement team here at Bridge Worldwide just applied with a client of ours. We hope to receive funding so that we can run a test of the ROI on social sharing from a brand website. Fingers are crossed that we make the cut.
On a final note, I just found out that I have been invited to forge another WPP/Google bond—albeit a more modest one—by speaking at Google’s office on December 8 as part of its Authors@Google program. I’ve always wanted to catch a glimpse of the company’s West Coast HQ and it will be an honor to follow in the footsteps of some amazing speakers who have come through the program. Stay tuned for more on this in a month.
(Today I’m turning over the keys to guest writer Marty Boyer, one of our top technology leaders here at Bridge Worldwide. Marty had some great thinking about a new campaign for Verizon that is meant to steal share from the iPhone, and I asked him to add his thinking to this space. Please also check out Marty’s blog over at Famine City.)
If you are going to call out the iPhone for its shortcomings, you better bring a great product and the marketing cavalry. Unfortunately, I have to say that while the technology might deliver on the brand promise for Android, the “Droid Does” campaign is not delivering on meaningful marketing quite yet.
As a technologist, I was very excited to see Verizon’s Droid Does campaign surface on television a couple weeks ago. Finally, competition that is so confident about its product that it is directly taking on the iPhone. Though I own an iPhone, I also own a G1—the first release of the Android phone. The first release of the Android phone wasn’t exactly a consumer-ready device. However, with the release of the Droid Does campaign and Android 2.0, I was anticipating some strong competition for Apple, which needs a strong competitor to hasten upgrades to the iPhone. I was assured through the bold statements and the nature of the commercial that this device is ready to deliver.
Then I visited droiddoes.com, the call to action on the television spot. Verizon piqued my interest, I came to its website, and I was fully engaged. I’m the exactly the visitor Verizon wants blogging about the next release of the Android platform. I was hoping for something meaningful. But…
Verizon did not deliver anything meaningful. When I visited the site, there was an email sign-up box, circa 2000, to get updates on availability. DroidDoes.com missed the opportunity to send me wistfully into their purchasing funnel. I committed my time to visiting their site and even signed up for the newsletter, but was underwhelmed from the marketing experience. I wanted to be sold. I wanted something meaningful. To be competitive in this space, brands must remember that they are trying to attract converts and early adopters. So what might a meaningful effort have looked like in this space?
Provide the opportunity to join a revolution.
The iPhone isn’t simply a phone; it’s a cultural icon. From the headphones on down, it is an absolute status symbol. There are many buyers who want another option—a better option for their specific needs. Help us believe, Verizon. We want to be part of an early-adoption revolution. Allow us to take a blog badge, join a Facebook group, or leave a comment about what I want by joining the Android revolution. As I am writing this post, a tweet came across from Adam Kmiec, “So want a Palm Pre or Pixi. Wish Palm had a program for people to trade in their iphones for a pre/pixi.” We all want options and an alternative to the iPhone; capitalize on it.
Use all of the energy and comments in the social-media space to share features about the Android.
Alternatively, allow iPhone users to download an iPhone app that posts what they want from the Android. Solicit feedback about what people are really looking forward to from the Google product to help build buzz and then share this content out to social networks. The people who are visiting Droid Does are early adopters and converts, but there is not a method to harness their energy to build Android momentum.
Show the anatomy of a “Droid.”
I can easily Google “Android phone” and find video, features, functions, and more content than is delivered on the website. Verizon has an opportunity to show us the latest, greatest, and best of its product offering, yet it has given the responsibility over to other consumers. If we have to rely on other consumers more than the brand itself for product information, then there’s work to do. Again, the company has not delivered a meaningful experience or even (simply) information. At this same time I might recommend that Verizon use the opportunity to clear up why its service is different than T-Mobile’s G-Phone product. Consumers in the United States (unless you are an iPhone user) tend to shop by carrier first, and phone second. This is more FAQ content and does not even really engage the user, but is a step toward being useful, if not meaningful.
To quote Jim Croce, “You don’t step on Superman’s cape.” You are calling Apple into the fight. You are telling the world you are better. If you are better, you have to deliver. Every phase of your plan must be on point, meaningful, and executed to take on a market leader. At some point, the Google phone will make inroads into the Apple iPhone’s world. At minimum, I am expecting some of the market forces to hasten upgrades to the iPhone itself. If you are going to compete with Apple, your products better deliver on the brand promise and start with meaningful marketing experiences.
Marty Boyer is an Associate Director of Technology at Bridge Worldwide. He leads interactive solutions for his P&G brand efforts. Outside of work you will find him engaged in the social-media space, blogging, and in the Twitter-verse.
Many brands offer products that can ladder up to a higher-level benefit. A good online banking service can make people feel more confident about their financial choices. A reliable, comfortable diaper for babies helps new mothers feel that they are doing the right thing for their newborns. Really good food and service at a fine restaurant can kindle romance (and maybe another newborn). These are the “higher-level benefits” that many of our brands aspire to reach, and we can only hope to reach them by understanding how our products and marketing fit into the overall experience of people’s lives.
One of the best illustrations of this comes from my team on the Fixodent brand, which just launched an impressive new meaningful marketing program. I know, I know: The denture-adhesive category probably doesn’t seem like it would offer the richest source of new insights, but it is a great example of how by starting from scratch and really getting inside our consumer’s mind (and life), we were able to uncover now-obvious insights that inspired a new, meaningful marketing approach.
Most of you probably picture denture wearers as a fit, smiling, well-dressed, gray-haired couple roaming a beach with a golden Labrador retriever; after all, that’s the message we’ve been served by advertisers for decades. Because our business objective was to win over new buyers, and, by helping them early in the process, win their loyalty for life, wefelt we needed to test this cliché and make sure that’s who we were really talking to—and revisit what more we might do for denture wearers.
We began by conducting new research that focused on people who had recently gone through the process of being fitted for their first pair of dentures. From our first consumer interview, we were stunned to learn that the dental surgery and denture-fitting process are, in fact, very frightening, and that our target audience was quite different from whom we had imagined. Despite improvements in cleaning products and dentistry, and fluoride in water, some people are losing the majority of their teeth by age 35; they are often completely unprepared to deal with the reality of dentures and—whether age 35 or 65—feel a great deal of embarrassment about it. Many, in fact, suffer in silence with tooth pain for some time, lacking the funds to undergo measures that can correct problems before it is too late. When lower-income people are eventually forced to visit a dentist, often due to excruciating pain, many are sent to a “chop shop” where their full set of teeth is pulled and dentures are fitted in a matter of hours (a process that really should happen over a few weeks for the least amount of suffering and the best fit). Unfortunately, some dentists at the bottom of the market see the denture wearer as “the end of the line”—a customer who will never return—so the level of education and service tends to be basic, at best.
Even after people are fitted with dentures, they frequently feel ongoing shame and embarrassment. One woman in our research said that she had never let her husband of 40 years see her without her dentures on. Another sad fact that we learned from denture wearers is that they often stop smiling in photographs. This struck a personal chord with me, as I remembered that my grandfather, who wore dentures, always spurned the camera for this reason.
Through our research process, we narrowed our focus to a single, invaluable insight: Denture wearers feel like they have nowhere to turn for help and advice in this embarrassing and painful experience. We saw opportunities to be a reliable source of information that could be accessed without embarrassment, a place where they could learn about everything from preparing for oral surgery to handling the discomfort afterward. And we saw a crystal-clear opportunity for the Fixodent brand to present this solution—to add value through its marketing.
The result of this insight is Denture Living, an online resource for new denture wearers that provides specific information for visitors depending on where they are in the denture-wearing process (pre-wearers, new wearers, and experienced wearers). Helpful features include a guide to prepare visitors for discussions with their dentists, and a calendar that annotates just what new wearers might experience during their first month.
Denture Living also includes real stories from real people who have gone through the process, and offers a message board where visitors can ask questions, including ones that they are too ashamed to ask elsewhere. After only a few weeks, we are already seeing some intensely personal stories being shared in these boards. Information for friends and family is also provided, so that they can be informed and lend their support.
The site puts a priority on information and solutions, while clearly presenting Fixodent as the trusted source of the guidance. In addition to making a positive brand association for the new denture wearer, the site provides a platform for product news and promotions. Instead of simple beach scenes of smiling 60-somethings, the Fixodent brand is bringing real solutions to people who need the help the most. And let’s face it: If a denture-adhesive brand can uncover applicable insights, any brand can.
I am extremely proud of this work by our agency and client team. Congrats on a very meaningful marketing program, gang!
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