Influential Marketing Blog

SAJA Covering The Mumbai Tourist Attacks With Social Media Tonight

My good friend and colleague Sree Sreenivasan sent out a note earlier today to members of SAJA (the South Asian Journalist Association) about a live webcast that SAJA will be hosting with several thought leaders in response to today's tragic terrorist attacks in the heart of Mumbai. If you happen to be near a computer tonight between 10pm and 11:30pm EST (8:30am to 10am India time), please use the following links to listen in on the conversation. The guests on the call include Benjamin Piven, former Fulbright Scholar in Mumbai and Suketu Mehta, author, "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found." Mehta's book, in particular, was a stunning portrait of the city that I remember reading a few years ago and many of the things he talked about have stayed with me (both good and bad).

Regardless the call should not only be an illuminating discussion of the attacks and reactions from India and abroad, but also a significant example of how social media can be used to bring people together in a moment like this to learn and discuss. Combined with looking at the conversations tagged "#mumbai" on Twitter, it's amazing what sort of real time updates you can get. Here are the details:

Nov. 26, 10-11:30 pm NY time (8:30-10:00 am India time)
Listen via computer: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/11/27/Mumbai-attacks-webcast-2
or via phone: +1-347-324-5991 (join our conversation there or via the live chatroom)

Underwear Brand Gives Thanks For Great Butts

As much of the US gears up for an abbreviated day of work leading up to the Thanksgiving Weekend, I thought I'd share a great marketing idea from our cousins across the pond that never quite made it to the US. It's for an underwear brand called Sloggi - who decided to launch a Miss Universe style pageant search around the world (in the markets they sell, primarily) for the world's greatest butts called "Show me your Sloggis." Men and women sent in their photos from around the world (in Sloggi brand underwear, of course) and the brand had a vote online in every market.

The winners in each market travelled to Paris last week to compete in the live competition, where they crowned two winners (pictured on the left): a girl from Brazil and a guy from France. It's not the Olympics, but having the best butt surely must inspire some national pride, right? More importantly, it's a great way to get people talking (and blogging) about Sloggi underwear. Here are some more photos from the event:

UPDATE: Check out Steve's post over at Adrants on this campaign for more background on a few other promotions the brand has done and more context around this one.

3 Ways To Give Away Content Online (And Still Make Money)

There was a great billboard that the agency I used to work for in Sydney several years ago had created for the launch of Virgin Mobile in Australia. At the time, the other telcos were starting to charge for every feature, so the billboard promoted Virgin's new offering with the declaration - "Voicemail is like sex, you shouldn't have to pay for it." Today, that joke/truth could be equally applied to how people feel about online content. In the age of peer to peer music sharing and ease of cutting and pasting, getting people to actually pay for content is a tough challenge.

There are, however, three models that I've seen used on various sites that do work. To be clear, I'm not talking about monetizing content. There are lots of ways to fund content creation through selling advertising or capturing profile data for a sales cycle. This post is about getting some to pay directly for content that you're creating. In fact, having this arrangement means that you can be more selective about the advertising you accept, or choose to forego it altogether. So here they are:

1. Partial Access | Full Access. The simplest example of this is music download sites that let you get a 30 second sample of a song, but not the entire thing. I'm using a similar technique to market Personality Not Included by offering several sample excerpts in various spots online. Essentially, partial access can work if you have the type of content where someone can view a part of it and find enough value to be willing to pay for the rest.
2. Standard Version | High Def Version. A good example of this is last night's release of the television show 24 with Kiefer Sutherland, and how they will be offering a "Director's Cut" version on DVD this Tuesday. Aside from realizing the viral nature of the show, the DVD promises an inside look at the rest of the season. In other words, it's an enhanced version of the 2 hour premiere with bonus content. Again, offering a reason for people to want to purchase the expanded version even if they had already seen the whole episode for free.
3. Limited Time | Archive. The site that uses this technique to great effect is MarketingSherpa. All the new articles published on the site are free to read for the first 2 weeks, and then they become part of an archive that you need to pay to access. UPDATE: MarketingProfs uses this technique similarly by offering users free access for a limited time to their vast collection of case studies and resources. Many newspapers and other media properties are also starting to use this method, realizing that their archives are worth something to people who need a particular type of information.

Have you discovered any other techniques for giving away content online and still being able to make money on it?  Let me know and I'll update the list above with your example.

The Making Of Personality Not Included

I recently release two things that I have never before put online and wanted to share them with all of you who read my blog on this Friday post.  The first is a presentation on Slideshare that takes you inside the story of how I sold and wrote my book in a visual presentation inspired by some of the work by folks like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte.  The second is an exclusive link to download the entire Chapter 6 from Personality Not Included, which also has never before been available online.  Hopefully Chapter 6 gives you some nice train reading for your commute home this Friday evening in case you haven't already picked up a copy of PNI, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts/feedback on the presentation below. 

*Based on a comment I already have, I'm planning to release another version of this presentation solely focused on what the book is about instead of the "making of" and will likely share that on Sunday before getting back to my regular blogging schedule (which is thankfully unrelated to pushing the book) on Monday.

"Askvertising" And The Future Of Online Advertising

About a year ago when I was in the market for a new digital SLR camera, the first place I turned was a site I have often visited over the years for authoritative advice on cameras. The site, Digital Photography Review, or dpreview.com for short, features complete and exhaustive reviews of digital cameras on the Internet. It's not a magazine, but a free online labor of love from some hardcore photography enthusiasts.

The site features affiliate links that you can click on to purchase your new camera, and the commissions go back to dpreview. I ended up buying my Nikon D80 by clicking one of the site's links (and it's still the site that I visit to lust after the new D90). Unlike most online advertising, however, the links often come with the endorsement of the site, and the explicit request to click on them. In other words, the site ASKS you to click on their ads - a growing phenomena in online advertising that I call "askvertising." "Askvertising" is the situation when the content creators or owners of a website are actively requesting that users click on the ads to help support the site or to get useful information.

The question this raises is whether we are headed toward a future where sites will no longer simply sell banner ads or paste in code to display text links and hope to drive more and more traffic to push up the number of impressions that they can sell. The impression based model is a numbers and volume game that is slowly dying online. Affiliate marketing, content syndication and other endorsement based models of online advertising are taking its place as a way to make advertising more effective, by doing what seems to be unheard of in advertising ... making content creators CARE whether or not visitors to their site click on the ads. This is leading to three big things:

1. More contextual and topical ads are more relevant for users
2. Endorsed ads for products are more convincing and reduce consumer distrust of advertising.
3. Better ROI (click rates, cost per click, etc.) for advertisers.

On the other side, the argument against askvertising is the often discussed separation between advertising and editorial. How can you expect content creators to be impartial and unbiased when their livelihood depends on the ads? When a content creator approves an ad to be placed along with content (which is the case with affiliate marketing), or the ads are based on the context of the content (which is how most text advertising works), then the lines between advertising and editorial become grayer. Combine this with the necessity for many of these new sites to support themselves with pay for performance based ads, and generating clicks from the audience becomes a necessity. In this sense, askvertising is the digital equivalent of the donation box at a church or temple.

What does this mean for online advertisers? Simply that online media planning today needs to be about more than just buying impressions and placing banners. Making askvertising work for you means finding the right strategic sites to partner with, building out a robust affiliate marketing program, and stop focusing on volume of impressions and more on effectiveness of placements in driving action. It's time advertisers and sites alike start to figure out how to make the trend towards askvertising work for them.

Got Controversy? Why Your Brand Needs One Today

A recently released book that I contributed to asked the question with it's subtitle, "why don't they get it?" It's a fitting question today, as brands are often divided into those that understand the power of conversation and those that don't. Slowly, however, brands are adding their names to the ranks of those that get it. Dell and Comcast are often being praised as two shining examples due to their willingness to have a conversation with customers and actively use of social media tools.

There is one fact, however, that is often forgot. Both of those brands first entered into using social media out of necessity. More importantly, they started after major brand controversies. Dell had to reinvent their reputation after Dell Hell, and Comcast had to combat the incredibly damaging Technician Sleeping On The Couch video. Similar to the natural phenomenon of some forests needing fire so they can properly burn and new seeds can be released, evolving brand communications seems sometimes to adhere to a similar pattern.

Here are a few reasons why having a brand controversy may be your company's best hope to reinvent itself and start to embrace social media tools that initially seem new and scary:

1. Forces you to listen fast. Relying on daily or weekly media clips is no longer fast enough in a crisis. This means your team will need to start adopting social media tools to listen faster out of necessity. This skill will remain in the team, causing them to more actively monitor social media in the future.
2. Understand the real power of individual voices. Before seeing a crisis start from a single blogger or an errant tweet, it is difficult to describe the real power that a seemingly small time content creator can have. After a crisis breaks, it becomes easy to explain this point.
3. Demonstrate to managers why social media matters. This may be one of the biggest struggles marketers face, namely convincing their bosses that social media matters enough to dedicate time and budget to it. Having a crisis and using as well as showing the power of the tools offers a tangible example of why it is worth resourcing and budgeting.
4. Identify key influencers. Often in a crisis, the key influencers in a particular category that have the power to influence thousands if not hundreds of thousands will emerge. If marketers are paying attention, they can start to understand where the pockets of influence really are, and how to influence them.

As I write this post, there is another brand that is rapidly confronting its own brand crisis. Motrin released an ad that was immediately denounced by mom bloggers and social media types as offensive. The controversy really started through public reaction on social media and is now growing beyond those confines. I believe that this may well be the greatest opportunity ever to face the marketing team for Motrin. They now have the ear of everyone in their organization and the chance to do what few Over-the-Counter medications would ever have dared to do otherwise ... embrace using social media. The #motrinmoms controversy is a huge chance for the brand to reinvent its communications. The only question is whether they will take advantage of it or not.

4 Ways Social Media Could Save The Arts

Last week I had the fortune to be part of an event that we should all care about. It was a meeting of the National Arts Marketing Project, a conference sponsored by the Americans for the Arts and designed to help art based organizations around the country use marketing to drive more engagement, subscriptions, and attendance with patrons (a much better word than consumer, by the way). To understand the vibe of the event you need to look no further than a colllection of titles from some of the sessions put on during the three day conference:

• Are You An Urbanite? Attracting Young Ticket Buyers and Donors
• Hacking Copyright: Making "Free" Work In The Arts
• She Says Pithy, I Say Prissy. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off: How Marketing And Development Can Sing In Harmony
• I Can't Do That! How To Make The Big Ask For A Major Gift
• Release Your Organization's Inner Blogger
• Strategies For Countering The Reasons Patrons Resist Subscribing

My own session was called "Embracing Your Accidental Spokespeople: How Obama Let His Best Supporters Speak For Him, And Why You Should Too" and in the roundtable format, we talked about how to find the voices that are passionate about what you do, and unlocking them to share their experiences more widely online and through social media. Over the course of two round table discussions, I learned a lot about the unique challenges that many arts based organizations are facing, as well as discussed several engaging ideas for solutions. Here are a few of the creative solutions that we all came together and discussed as a group about how social media and interactive marketing techniques might help arts based organizations to better promote themselves:

1. Create a sonic brand. Though more specific to groups that create or promote music, one idea that we collectively talked about was what it might be like if every venue or group had a sonic brand. So, for example, like you might hear the Intel jingle at the end of an ad, you would hear a signature piece of music to signal the end of intermission. Something that offers a recognizable brand for a music based organization, while offering an apt extension of a brand based on something that is inherently a part of it.
2. Offer creative material openly for mashups. As more and more people create content online, they will need material like music, still images, and video clips to incorporate. One of the marketing tactics I am fond of at istockphoto.com (a site I use all the time to purchase images to use in my posts and presentations) is having an image for free download each day. What if an arts organization created their own collection of content and offered it for free reuse, dependent on giving credit back to the organization? It could be a great way to spread some brand awareness, as well as offer something viral and useful to content creators.
3. Invite social capital donations. Many people using social media tools are supporters of the arts, but not necessarily donors or people to go to art events. Though it may be difficult to convince them to open their wallets, it may be much more acceptable to have them donate their influence. One brilliant example was a campaign run across both parties during the recent election where you could "donate your Facebook status" to remind people to vote for your guy on election day. It's an example of letting people donate their social capital instead of real money.
4. Allow patrons to share their experience. This topic raised some concerns among the group for a variety of reasons. The two most vocal were that sometimes performers have union contracts that prevent any recording, and that sometimes the artists are afraid of negative criticism that may come with letting their work be freely shared. Still, there are other ways to let people share their experiences - perhaps through live Twittering, or making a cast available after a performance for flipcam interviews with video bloggers. The point is that every arts group needs to find a way of helping word of mouth about what they are doing to travel.

Trendspot: A Potential Influx of Expats

Regardless of how you feel about the way that the US presidential election turned out, there is one fact that seems fairly indisputable ... the world outside of America overwhelmingly supported Obama over McCain. One site in particular that crystallized this truth is called www.iftheworldcouldvote.com. The site invites people outside of the US to share their choice for president and nearly 1 million people from 213 countries shared their votes with the results about 87% in favor of Obama. Add this to the dozens of groups (many with thousands of members each) on Facebook all supporting Obama and you could point to a definitive pattern of support from outside the US for Obama.

So now that he has won the election, what is this likely to mean? Hopes were high even before the results of the election about the potential impact on America's reputation that Obama's election could have. Some media outlets are already reporting about widespread optimism and goodwill towards America that has not been seen since the days directly after 911.  In my own network of friends and colleagues living outside the US, there is one interesting development in particular that I think may shape this country in the next few months and years to come. Many people with ties to the US (or longstanding dreams of living here) who are currently living abroad are now actively considering moving back.

Of course, the economic climate means that they're not yet moving back in big hoardes, but as I speak to more and more of my international friends ... the common theme on many of their minds is that they are now seriously thinking of returning - and it is directly related to the results of the election. Is this big enough to warrant a trend or just a few early thoughts from a small circle of people? I get the sense it may turn into a trend, but I'm willing to admit that my network may not represent the situation in the real world. What do you think - is America more appealing today to those who left, and will they start to come back?

Something to Believe In

There's a singer named Israel Kamakawiwo from Hawaii that I first rediscovered during a good friend's wedding. You may not know who he is by name, but you have probably heard his often replayed rendition of "=Over The Rainbow" at some point in your life. It was the song that my friend came down the aisle to her wedding with and probably one that has made it into many other weddings as well.

He was a big man who created music that he loved and brought a region to life with his presence. In a time where people obsess over their looks and consider surgery to fix any perceived flaw, he was huge (nicknamed "The Gentle Giant") and from Hawaii (so he often performed shirtless). Not something you see every day, but if you watch the video below you can see how this overweight but talented man gave hope to an entire region. Israel was a local hero.

I love this video because it tells the tale of a man who gave the people of his city something to believe in ... and sent the message that a simple musician who didn't look like a rockstar could become something far greater than his circumstance. Though he's passed away now, I think he'd love to know that his voice is still heard. I've got a great lineup of marketing posts for next week after taking a few days off from blogging, but heading into the weekend, I think Israel's example is a great reminder for all of us of the importance doing something inspiring.

Inside BusinessWeek's Social Media Idea: Business Exchange

Several months ago I had the chance to see a beta version of a site that I was immediately pretty excited about. As with most private beta versions of sites, I wasn't able to talk about it at the time to share my impressions, but I knew that it was a site I would be using frequently. Since that time, I stayed in touch with the group behind it and a few weeks ago I finalized an arrangement to become a featured user on the site. For any consistent readers of this blog, you know I don't take any advertising or sponsor arrangements, so this is a rare thing for me, but I think the site is worth it and the arrangement is good (as you'll see in this post) The site, as you probably guessed, is BusinessWeek's new Business Exchange (BX). It is a combination of a social network and social bookmarking site where anyone can create a topic and the community helps to share relevant content around that topic.

It is a pretty simple idea, but offers an interesting cross between Digg and Delicious to provide a useful extension of the BusinessWeek format and content. Articles from the magazine are saved into topics alongside blog content and content from other sites. Just like Digg, the best content is voted higher or lower. So what does being a featured user mean? In full disclosure, I agreed to be an active participant on the site over the next six months, saving content and helping contribute articles to the site. My blog RSS feed is also being automatically integrated and you might have noticed that I now have their widget in my sidebar. Though I am not receiving any money from the arrangement, in return, they will be featuring my profile in a series of online ads they are running across BusinessWeek and other sites, and will also include me in one print ad in the magazine (along with other featured authors like John Battelle and John Jantsch) sometime in early 2009.

So aside from the advertising deal, why am I really excited about this site?  Here are a few reasons:

1. It doesn't compete with something else. Right now, I am not an active user of Digg and use delicious but often find it overwhelming and reliant on a taxonomy that some people understand and some abuse intentionally or unintentionally. The way BX is set up, however allows it to feel both familiar and unique at the same time. It's a smartly designed site that manages to carve its own utility in a very crowded space, while also leveraging the fact that it is part of the BusinessWeek brand in a way that is useful and not coincidental.
2. It reaches a different audience. Let's face it, when you Digg something or save it to del.icio.us, you are reaching a subset of the online population that chooses to visit those sites. BusinessWeek's appeal is broader and BX promises to reach a different and wider group of business people, including many who I would consider potential clients for Ogilvy (my day job)
3. It offers a simple experience that is all about the content. There are many other magazines or publications that have launched social networks around their print experience, and most of them have lots of duplication built in. You can publish your own blog, send people messages, and basically do everything you would want to do in a social network. The problem is, I already do all of that elsewhere. This has created a personal barrier of use for me on sites like Fast Company and Silicon India, to name just two. BX on the other hand, let's you start by importing your profile from LinkedIn and then you just start saving content. It is simple and targeted.
4. They are driving audience to it heavily. Not that this has anything to do with the usefulness of the site, but BusinessWeek is doing a lot to promote this new effort. It is all over the magazine, advertising heavily online, and lots of people will be talking about it. If there is anything I've learned in my career, its that it pays to associate yourself with rising stars.

Though I have committed to actively using the site for the next six months, I have found that it has been a great resource for me already as I conduct research to learn about various topics as well. There are a few things still missing on the site, like a more intuitive rating process that would help user contributed content appear ahead of automatically added content, or more metrics around pieces of content so I could see at a glance which pieces are generating the most conversation, but on the whole the site offers a unique and useful experience - and one that I highly recommend for you to check out.