Social media success starts with asking the right question

For the last five years, I've done a lot of work with brands and clients in social media. From podcasts to blogs, Facebook to Foursquare, social platforms have been - and continue to be - the hot topic for brands across the globe.

About two years ago, many brands entered what I would call the test period - they took a small percentage of a campaign budget - say 5-10% - and asked their agency, media company or PR group to brainstorm a few 'extension ideas' to 'bring the campaign to life' on a site like Facebook. The agency thought a bit about it, pitched some ideas (usually a FB page and a few ads, an application and definitely a promotion) and for a moment - a few months - progressive brands were heralded as the ones who tried something new. The ones who connected with their target via these 'new' mediums and - we were told by countless social experts at the 200 conferences they attend every year - the results were amazing, fantastic and mind blowing!!!

So more brands entered the space. More brand pages were launched. More promotions that involved voting for something, uploading a photo or sharing with your friends. And for awhile, everyone was pretty happy. (if I had to put a year on it, I'd say this was during the back-half of 2008 in North America).

But then the test period ended. The results came in and beyond the number of fans, amount of photo's uploaded, page views and general metrics, few people really knew how to make sense of social. Was it working? Did it actually help the brand attributes? Did it move sales? There are plenty examples of brands that do this and each platform highlights a ton of them in their sales presentations (which, for some reason, tend to highlight Hollywood movie releases in almost every one, Adidias, Nike, Starbucks or Apple). Yet most clients (and to be honest, agencies) still felt that the whole picture wasn't there.

And most of us still feel this way.

That's where the questions start. Unlike in 2008 when the question was, 'should we be using a bit of our budget to test social?' the question is now 'who should be managing social among our agency partners?'

This - inevitably - leads to a more fundamental question that some (but not all) brands are asking themselves: 'Who should be managing social within my company?'

For brands that have a couple hundred people, are concentrated within one country or region and sell a specific set of products, this answer can come a bit easier. But for the ones with a global presence, ones with thousands of brand managers across multiple regions, languages and locations, it's a lot harder. This effort is made tougher by the fact that some brand managers may have embraced social during the 'test phase' but others are just getting started. Some have already seen success and failure while others are still asking what a 'ReTweet' is.

To often, it seems that brands look outward for the solution. Give social to the PR group because they manage our brand reputation. Or give it to the digital agency because they do our sites. Or give it to the media group because they buy media and have a 'social expert' who seemed smart.

But the real question starts from inside. And, in some organisations, simply asking it can lead to trouble.

The product team, marketing group, customer services, tech and everyone else within the organisation wants (and needs) a say. But they are mostly isolated form one another except for the Christmas parties and all-staff meetings. They've got their own objectives, bonus schemes and priorities. Success for one group in social means nothing to another.

And that's the challenge. Unlike the early days of the web where organisations could slice up digital based on their pre-existing structure (marketing makes the banners and campaign sites, customer services has a 'live web chat' on our corporate site, PR sends the press releases out over the web, and we all keep doing what we're doing), social is more ubiquitous and forces these groups to come together - even if they don't want to.

The brands that have internally come together and had conversations about structuring, social metrics that they all align towards and have set the goals that they want to use the space for are the ones who are succeeding. They can then look at their agency roster and divvy up the priorities to their specialists and set sub-targets based on their individual objectives and priorities.

But the brands who haven't continue to be fragmented. They might have a social hit but they have many failures and their social strategy doesn't go much further than 'we should run an ad on Facebook for that'. The result is hundreds of tests but few long term platforms. Dozens of community pages but no engagement strategies.

Before you think about which agency should 'run' social and the millions of different social tools and campaigns that you want to launch, ask the question about how your organization is structured for social success. If it's not, get help. There are groups, brands and (of course) agencies who can help educate your organisation on what structures they have seen currently working vs. the ones that don't.

The help is there. But in order to get it, you've got to ask the right question.

I Have An Idea Portfolio Night 8: Advertising is Calling

I remember doing sponsorship sales for Portfolio Night in Canada 2 when it was only in Toronto & Vancouver - now look at it. Well done Ignacio and team.

Oh the humour: Darth Vader for TomTom

"You should have seen his face when I told him I was his father"....priceless.

Great stuff from TomTom.

I love this guy...

Funniest American commercial actor? I think so. Playstation...keep up the good (hilarious work). Thanks to Jason via Facebook for the original link.

Lawtons Ad Experiment

Lawtons is a drug store in Atlantic Canada and they have partnered with Atlantic Business Magazine to offer the Great Ad Experiment. Simply put 6 agencies submitted creative, people are voting and the winning campaign is run.

Interesting approach as Lawtons is getting 2 campaigns out of 1 but unfortunately the campaigns are only being rated based on print ads, not a whole campaign or the strategy that brings all touchpoints together to deliver on the campaign objective. Honestly I thought we were well past the world of thinking a print ad alone can achieve brand success. Regardless that is how it is going down.

The agency I work at (Extreme Group) is ad #1. Click on the embedded viewer below (view fullscreen), then visit this link and vote for us :)

http://www.abmonline.ca/great-experiment/

I thought this was a joke

Watch this: No arms, no legs, no worries

Samsung: 3D LED TV

I thought you needed glasses to see this? Product over-promise in the ads? Or am I wrong?

Discussing the dynamics of regional advertising in the context of national campaigns

Next week in Toronto following The Canadian Newspaper Conference I will be participating in a discussion of sorts with a group of Publishers, Media Directors and Ad Agency types.

The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the dynamics of regional advertising in the context of national campaigns.

I'm interested to hear the view points of the group that includes a lot of VP's, Presidents and I expect a group from a much different demographic then I.

I don't think this will skew my viewpoint much on the discussion topic as I won't be thinking of a specific media, more the needs of my clients but it will impact my view as to how Newspapers can play a role in answering these needs. I'll let you know if it gets to that point.

In the meantime how about you share with me your thoughts on the dynamics of regional advertising within a national campaign from your experience (client or agency). If they are good you can count on me sharing them - and stating they came from my blog which will instantly make me hated as us bloggers have stolen so much money from Newspapers :)

I look forward to your comments.

John Lewis - 'Woman'

I'm really enjoying this spot from Adam & Eve for John Lewis. For those of you not reading from the UK, John Lewis is a traditional British retailer that has done some great work over the past few years.

I write a lot about great storytelling here on AdJoke and I think this is another prime example of how a simple idea, well executed can create work that you want to share with others. I didn't have any perception of John Lewis (other than passing them on the high street) but I can't help but know that the next time I walk by one, I'll consider stopping in.

Thanks to adliterate for the link.

G-Speak - Minority Report is now here...

I've been doing a bit of work lately with touch and Surface systems and really hope that we can start to see this Minority-report-style tech hit the market in an accessible way. When the first systems hit (think mall event instillations or conference centers), it's going to be very tough to ignore.

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.

One. Dramatic. 5 Year-old.

Cinestud 2010 Trailer from Chris Christodoulou on Vimeo.

Nice spot. Although I can see some groups and associations getting pretty upset with this in the coming weeks. Found via copyranter.

Stella Artois: Up There

Up There from Mekanism on Vimeo.

Found on The Curious Brain.

Creative Inspiration (5 Links)

It's been awhile since I've posted. I've really missed it but have been a bit slammed on the work front. But I do have good news. I've been checking out all the latest awards sites and have 5 links that you've got to check out (these are all from the Webby's but there are a ton of good repositories out there).

So here are my favorite five (in no particular order):

• Banners that actually are useful (vs. ones that you never see / wish were never there) - from VISA
• Lonely Planet and Surface come together to create one helluva book experience
• The Economist shows people where great ideas come from (from great people)
• Nike Japan uses some cool technology to launch their flagship store
• NFB Canada tells water stories in a way you've never seen (shout out to a former creative colleague)

Have you checked out any awards lately? What's your favorite?

No Challenge is too big

Some clients get it. They see the challenge and opportunity, then give their agency the time and money to make it happen.

Shower together: Axe

In the words of my colleague Mike B., "It's great. Purpose without leaving the realm of the brand."

I agree.



Thanks Martin for sharing.

Drambuie: The Greatest Golfer You've never heard of. Moe Norman

This is phenomenal. I love brands that understand how to tell an intriguing story and through telling that story they elevate their brand, capture consumer attention and in this case deliver a product focused message.

Why does this work for me? What do most bartenders do better than mix drinks? Tell stories. They could have taken some douchey metrosexual bartender at a Vegas club or high-end London bar and had him tell us all that we should try this drink because he thinks its cool. Instead they took a bartender we've all met at one point and gave us a reason to listen to him.

Well done. Drambuie has never caught my attention before but today they own my conversations.

Thanks to Brooksy at Design Axiom for sharing.

In case you missed it the sub is $2.99

Even price focused ads can be fun. Laser Knifes, Fireworks & Flames.

Old Spice continues to have fun

Loving the latest TV work from Old Spice. It's fun, over-the-top, ridiculous and hilarious all at the same time. Plus, Old Spice made a ton of different versions which will probably air on YouTube and in specific regions in the States. If you've got a PVR, you're not going to fast forward through this stuff (at least the first time). The re-watch factor is amazing.

Here is the first one I came across:



And my favorite:



You can check out more of the versions here and here. What do you think?

The King Steals McDonalds recipe

Now this ad is unique. They come right out and say we are basically copying our biggest competition. It instantly puts their product in the consideration set for any fans of the McDonalds product and adds some personality.




Thanks to Mr. Millett for sharing.

Nissan Toy Car

This ad is pure fun. Great stuff.

Tiger & Earl: The rebuilding begins

I don't know what will be more talked about this weekend - Tigers Play or this video. I can already see the arguments as to why it is good, bad or ugly. For me the question isn't about whether this is right or wrong but how did they get to this spot?

Was there someone sitting at W+K listening to audio, watching footage salivating every day about the opportunity to find this gem? Was this an outtake from one of my favourite TV spots of all time (Never)? Or did Tiger offer it up?

I have always been interested to find out how involved in his campaigns Tiger gets as the TV spots are in a lot of cases more about his brand than Nike. Nike benefits from being a part of the story, building the drama, the character and the legend that is Tiger.

We'll just have to wait and see what he does this weekend and what Nike's next move is.

BlendTec Continues its viral dominance

No surprise but this video is at 3.2 Million views in less than 2 days.

Absolut entertainment

I'm sure some of you have seen this already, but it's a new piece of branded entertainment directed by Spike Jonez. It's about 15 minutes but well worth it. Is this an ad? I don't think so...but it's entertaining, that's for sure.

Thoughts?

It's one thing to say that your brand is cool...

...and quite another to actually communicate it. No headlines, explanations or special offers. Just an attitude and a perspective. If you don't get it, Adidas doesn't really care...they're not for everyone...(the new work from London...)