Check out ‘Getting a measure on social media metrics‘ now. And for an even more comprehensive review of specialist social media measurement tools, check out this presentation (hat tip Gavin Heaton).

The extremity of my anti-interruption sentiment occurred to me a few weeks ago on my daily commute to work. I work in Melbourne’s CBD, so am forced to take public transport along with tens of thousands of others. The madness of peak hour ensures the train station exits are a popular location. From pamphlets to free product samples, you can expect to see at least a handful of promotional staff trying to peddle something. This day was no different…

A lobby group had formed near the main exit of the train station. They were wearing t-shirts emblazoned with a ‘Sack Connex‘ slogan (Connex are the operator of Melbourne’s rail system). Now here’s a cause I could relate to. I hate Connex. Truly, I do! Their inept management of the rail system in Melbourne (along with the Victorian government) makes my daily commute a painful experience. If Connex were a person I’d kick them in the balls (presuming of course that one of their driver’s didn’t beat the crap out of me first).

Yet despite feeling great affinity to the ‘Sack Connex‘ cause, I veered off on a different path. My contempt for being interrupted overrode my disdain for Connex. Undoubtedly, it was a mental precondition to avoid promotional staff. A trained behaviour. Based upon the way other commuters veered away from the group, it was clear I wasn’t the only one with the precondition.

Finding a smarter way to market

Naturally, it didn’t take long for the marketer in me to kick in. Connex is without question one of the most hated brands in Melbourne. Recruiting people to the cause should be relatively easy. But the outdated interruption tactics simply weren’t effective. Commuters didn’t want to be interrupted. It’s clear that the lobby group’s interruption tactics were ineffective.

So how else could they market their cause? Rather than targeting users of the service en masse, the ‘Sack Connex‘ group needed to be targeting people with clear attitudinal dispositions against Connex. After all… there are plenty of them. And if we learned anything from President Obama in 2008, it’s the power of the web in rallying people around a given political cause.

The natural starting point for me would have been social media, because as everyone knows, most discussion in social networks comprises of bitching and moaning… Finding individuals with an anti-Connex prejudice should be as simple as fishing at a trout farm. Twitter seemed the obvious place to start the search, and not surprisingly is rife with anti-Connex sentiment. A sample of negative Tweets towards Connex in the last 24 hours can be seen below:

Next stop in the quest was Facebook. And sure enough, thousands of people had voluntarily branded themselves with the Connex hater status. A quick search of Facebook groups uncovered more than 10 anti-Connex groups. The largest group comprised of over 17,000 members:

And of course, the blogosphere presents perhaps the best place of all to locate the harshest of Connex critics. Because if someone takes the time to pen a blog post against a brand, they have a serious vendetta! Here’s a few anti-Connex posts I came across…

• Connex sucks

• Dear Connex
• Stupid Connex
• Connex Melbourne are liars

The future of interruption tactics

While lobbyists have relied on interruption techniques for decades to generate awareness, there’s now a smarter way to spread their cause. Of course, I’m not holding the ‘Sack Connex‘ group accountable because they aren’t professional marketers. I don’t expect them to know any better. I don’t expect them to be social media guns. But I do expects brands to make a better fist of it.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that brands have to adopt social media to connect with consumers. Email marketing and search engines provide equally unobtrusive marketing channels, both of which I use regularly as a consumer (I’m probably on hundreds of email marketing lists). Nor does it mean that interruption marketing tactics should be abandoned altogether. They still have a place within the broader marketing mix, particularly in creating an awareness of a new brand, product or cause.

What it does mean is that brands need to become smarter with their marketing tactics. Technologies have changed. So have consumer attitudes. Tolerance towards interruption tactics is diminishing. So you’d better not interrupt me unless you know you’ve got something I want to hear…

Image Source – Sir Millard Mulch

The Story

The story began with a group of university students with a similar obsession with AFL. In fact, so enthused were they with the game that they created their own blog called Contested Footy. The blog is humble in nature, providing commentary and analysis of the game. During an interview one of the founders claimed the blog receives up to a thousand visitors a day. However, in my opinion this is likely to be the absolute maximum capacity they have achieved. Based on external traffic indicators (Alexa ranking & user comments) I’d guess that their daily traffic is likely to be significantly lower, perhaps even below 50 a day.

In other words, Contested Footy is a small-time blog run by a group of die-hard fans. Hardly the type of publication to threaten a commercial enterprise such as the AFL. However… that didn’t prevent the AFL from gunning for them. On April 29, they sent a ‘cease and desist’ email to the creators of the blog, claiming the AFL owned all trademarks and intellectual property relating to the league, including club logos and images (even those taken at the game independently by the blog contributors).  They demanded that the blog remove all relevant material protected by their IP. The AFL was marking its territory. David vs Goliath in its truest form. And it stank…

Technically, the AFL has every right to protect its intellectual property. Media providers pay premium prices for exclusive coverage of the AFL. And it is these very broadcast agreements that have led to the league’s commercial prosperity within the country. However, these laws are in place to protect media suppliers from competitors and rivals. They exist to protect the integrity and value of the broadcast deal. They don’t exist to absolutely exclude any form of alternative commentary on the sport. The legal grounding of the AFL’s claims are extremely weak. The key issue is that the boys at Contested Footy are not competitors to the mass media empires. They’re little more than fans with a passion for the game. And that is where the true problem lies. The AFL is gunning for its’ fans.

The Reaction

Predictably, the move has been met with widespread hostility from the football community. A post on the Contested Footy blog explaining the situation received over 100 comments, most of which were scathing in their view of the situation:

• “Remember when it used to be about the footy? Tell ‘em to get nicked“
• “It amazes me that a commercial enterprise such as the AFL tries to engender loyalty to the code and the clubs on one hand, and tries to collectively smack a “non-official” site over the head with the other hand. Just another example of corporate greed gone too far“
• “The AFL is run by F***wits but we knew that already“
• “If they were smart they would engage with this blog (and the dozens of others) in a positive way, rather than sending out hysterical legal letters. Just makes them look like overly officious tools“
• “In my opinion, the AFL should be paying you, not threatening you. Oh well, sometimes dinosaurs should just left to die.”

To make matters worse, the story was picked up by a range of mass media outlets, most of which offered a negative commentary based upon quotes and interviews with the founders of Contested Footy:

• AFL contests fan blog site – The Age
• AFL cracks down on student-run footy blog – Herald Sun
• Footy geeks defy ban on AFL blog – The Age
• Interview on ABC Radio

In its defense, the AFL claimed it was protecting it’s brand. Patrick Keane, media manager for the AFL, offered the following comment:

“It’s something that we regularly follow with any area, such as websites, such as media outlets, selling AFL photographs attached to a commercial sponsor without the permission of the player concerned. For editorial use there is no issue, but for anything attached to commercial relationship, no. It’s exactly the same as any organisation would do to protect its commercial right.”

Ironically, a move aimed at “protecting” the brand has delivered the AFL a PR disaster. Karmic intervention some might say. For the record, the commercial relationship Keane refers to is the use of Google Adsense on the blog… an advertising stream that nets most bloggers less than $100 a month. And for the boys at Contested Footy, I’d bet my house that they’re raking in less than $20 via Adsense. Which means that in essence, the AFL created this mess for the sake of $20 a month. Smart! Chalk this one up as a win for the AFL’s lawyers…

Well played chaps!

Of course, the AFL’s attitude towards consumer generated media represents a massive missed opportunity. Few brands can engender the type of passion and interest that the AFL generates from its customers. Indeed, marketers across the globe are busily devising strategies to get their customer’s talking about their brand online. Yet in their wisdom, the AFL has chosen to stifle it on external sites, and ignore applications of it on its’ own site. So instead, punters flock towards consumer driven sites like Big Footy, which despite being run on a shoestring, wouldn’t trail the official AFL site in terms of traffic by a significant margin.

Again… well played chaps.

Do you think they’ll ever get it…?

Check out ‘A beginner’s guide to Twitter marketing‘ now

(Apologies for the lack of picture quality on my iPhone camera)

For my international friends the ad itself may require a little further explanation. The important thing to notice is the painted garage doors on the adjoining houses. The alternative colours patterns represent the jerseys worn by Essendon and Collingwood, arch rivals in the Australian Football League (Australia’s national sport). Both clubs have huge supporter bases and are amongst the most successful in the history of the game. Each year they contest the biggest game of the regular season, hosted on Australia’s version of Remembrance Day (called Anzac Day). The game draws 100,000 spectators to the ground and millions to their television. The only way to describe the clubs is as the most bitter of enemies.

Now… back to the ad itself. The message should be pretty clear with this context in mind. The ‘Time to move?’ message plays on the pure loathing felt between the two teams. Naturally, if you’re living next door to an opposition supporter moving house is the only option, thereby requiring the assistance of a real estate agent (in this case Rendina). Very, very clever! But aside from a little quirky humour, there’s a whole lot more to like about this awesome ad:

• Placement: There’s a good reason why you’ve never seen this ad before. And that’s because it’s been placed in a single strategic outdoor location… a block of flats opposite Windy Hill (Essendon’s home ground). The ad was created for this specific location. Now that’s targeted media!
• Relevance: The location of the ad alone ensures an extremely high degree of relevance to the audience. The ad would generate a giggle from any local citizen. But beyond that, it’s thinking outside of the box on how to deliver a key message that will capture the attention of the audience. If there’s one thing that the people of Melbourne relate to, it’s sport! And in a city obsessed with sport, AFL is a religion (especially in a town like Essendon). If you want to reach the people, you gotta speak their language.
• It’s not an agency: Although I can’t be sure, it’s highly unlikely this is the work of an advertising agency. Small real estate agents just don’t work in tandem with agencies. And the single placement of the ad would steer most agencies away from the work. I love the thought that a local real estate agent has come up with this idea and run with it. It shows that advertising ain’t rocket science, and you don’t need to be an industry wanker to come up with a good creative concept.

So there you have it folks… my nomination for the best outdoor ad of all time. And for those wanting to see a little bit more of this classic football rivalry, check out the video below from this year’s clash between the two teams. A truly classic moment in sport and one of the most exhilarating experiences of my life.

Dell has always been known for its innovative distribution. Since being founded, their web based direct selling model has been one of their major competitive differentials. Most of you will still remember the Dell Dude back in 2000. This advertising campaign popularised the phrase “Dude, you’re getting a Dell.” The commercials would usually feature an actor ( Ben Curtis – aka Dell dude) informing prospective buyers of all the perks of owning a Dell. When the party was sold on the idea he would close with the catchphrase “Dude, you’re getting a Dell”. The campaign was a huge success and not only helped bring prominence to Dell, but to Curtis as well.

To circumvent an eroding distribution advantage, Dell is once more innovating within its sales process. And this time they’ve found a solution in social media. Dell Swarm is the new service launched by the company in Singapore, which allows customers to shop online in cooperative style.

It works like this:

You go and select your product. Being the first buyer to join a “Swarm” Dell promises to give a price lower than their best discounted price.

After selecting your product you set up a community. For every new buyer that joins the swarm, Dell drops the price a touch further up until 15 users have joined (or 72 hours have passed).

Ultimately, everybody gets a very significant discount. To achieve the maximum discount, buyers are to use social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, vertical forums and Social Sharing tools to find new partners. The more people who sign up, the cheaper the product gets until it reaches a pre-determined lowest price.

The service aims to attract students and buyers sensitive to price. It is a very interesting scenario, although not necessarily a real business innovation. Many companies have organised similar buying dynamics for years. Wholesales companies, for example, have been banding together to buy from manufacturers at lower prices.

Small retailers, who come together to achieve better terms in negotiations, also indicate that “social strategies” have existed for a long time. There are countless examples.

However what changes is the fact that with the emergence of social media, the “social thinking” is more easily spread among the common people. Tools that facilitate widespread connections have emerged, breaking down restrictions relating to geographical barriers.

Consequently, consumers gain negotiation power and increase their bargaining muscle. Companies that understand this (and the Dell seems to have done) may see great opportunities ahead.

Apparently, the project has started well for Dell, with the term Dell Swarm generating some buzz on Twitter. It will be very interesting to follow the results and watch for expansion to other countries.

What’s your opinion? Can Dell Swarm work?

A “me too” post is almost guaranteed to produce mediocre results in terms of traffic and subscriber growth because we’ve seen it 100 times before. Indeed, it’s the widespread acceptance of the importance of publishing frequency that has created the dull drone of the social media echo chamber today. So many contributors… but how many contribute original thoughts? I suspect that’s why my musings are becoming more topical around current issues such as Twitter spam and the state of the local industry. At least they haven’t been done to death.

So this post is about nothing… because it’s better to say nothing than to become a sheep.

First, a little bit of background to give some context to my rant. I started playing with social media towards the end of 2007 as a tactic to support an agency blog I was managing. I increased my efforts further in 2008 upon creating my own personal blog. I’ve been a regular ever since. From the beginning, I gravitated towards global networks. My blog didn’t have geographic boundaries, so why should my social networking? In particular I spent a lot of time within a network called Sphinn.

The international experience

Sphinn is a social news network dedicated solely to the Internet marketing industry. Think of a niche version of Digg where search and social media marketers congregate. Sphinn is predominantly a network of North American marketers, with a smattering of Europeans for good measure. I was one of just a handful of Australians participating regularly. Sphinn attracted some of the highest profile participants in the industry, including:

• Matt Cutts from Google
• Danny Sullivan & Matt McGee from Search Engine Land
• Maki from Dosh Dosh
• Lee Odden from Top Rank
• Rand Fishkin from SEO Moz

The thing that immediately struck me about the community was the general rapport amongst members. From a practical perspective, everyone within the network was a competitor. Yet they were sharing tips and intellectual property freely. And while lively debate often ensued around topics of discussion, interaction was almost always conducted with a healthy dose of mutual respect and maturity. Of course, conflict did occur from time to time, but it was the exception rather than the rule. The same sadly cannot be said of the Australian social media industry…

The local experience

Over the past 4 months I have spent an increasing amount of time reading and engaging within Australian marketing communities such as Mumbrella. It’s fair to say the experience has been markedly different. If I had to use a couple of terms to describe the general style of behaviour within Australian marketing communities it would be arrogant, snarky, uncollaborative and petty. Unlike our international counterparts, many participants within Australian marketing communities seem to be unable to put competitive considerations aside to discuss industry issues in a constructive and unbiased manner. Conversations consistently turn into slanging matches:

• Social media happy families
• Spiral Media & Gaytime utilsing social media
• Naked boss rubbishes Papworth
• Cadbury’s gorilla remix gets the thumbs down

The irony of the situation is that the arrogance we Australians display in critiquing each others social media initiatives is largely misplaced. Because despite the level of noise, the number of corporate social media success stories is severely limited. Sure… we’re heading in the right direction. More and more brands are testing the waters with social tools and technologies. But how many local initiatives are roaring success stories? In 2009, we’ve probably only had Tourism Queensland’s ‘Best job in the world’ campaign, which was more viral than social. So where does the arrogance come from…?

Undoubtedly it’s because we all use social tools in our personal lives. But so what? We all use email as well. Does that make us email marketing experts? Knowing how to use the tools for personal reasons is far different to utilising them to achieve defined business objectives. I use social technologies to support this blog. I also recommend social initiatives to corporate clients as part of my agency role. Many of the tactics I employ for this blog are simply unfeasible for a business environment based on issues such as time frames, ROI, resourcing, legalities and management hesitancy. But alas, many of our casual armchair users have annointed themselves as ‘experts’.

Which means that agencies that attempt to lead clients down the social path are left open to public ridicule by our army of ‘experts’. Amnesia’s recent campaign with Aussie Home Loans is a case in point. By all accounts the results of the campaign seem to be modest. However, ridicule does little to help the industry. Australia needs agencies like Amnesia to lead high profile clients (such as Aussie Home Loans) down the social media highway. Ultimately, their success will make our job of convincing clients of the benefits of social media far easier. Most Australian businesses are inherently conservative and it is only once we see some high profile success stories that mindsets will begin to shift.

Where are the real experts?

Or perhaps the real question should be is there such thing as a social media expert? And if so, what are the relevant criteria to qualify? This post is not meant to undermine the quality of talented individuals within the Australian community, but rather the general nature of interaction. Indeed, I’ve met some fantastically smart and savvy individuals in the industry such as Jonathon Crossfields, Ian Lyons & Nathan Bush. According to my good friend Lucio Ribeiro, Melbourne’s chapter of the Social Media Club is teeming with talented individuals. And others such as Mark Pollard are certainly embracing a colloborative approach by offering free educational session on Twitter. So the professionals are out there. Interestingly though, I can’t remember seeing any of them engaging in industry slanging matches.

As perhaps Australia’s most recognised expert within the social industry, I think it’s appropriate to close the discussion with the words of Gavin Heaton on the topic.

“Social media is not about you. It’s about your clients and their customers. It’s about finding win-win outcomes for products and services and the people who use and consume them.”

Touche. It’s time to forget the egos Australia. Forget the competitive pissing contests. If you have to criticise a campaign, why not make it constructive? Use your ‘expertise’ to open a real discussion about how it could have been improved. Share your knowledge in a manner that is constructive rather than destructive.

Many of us are out there preaching the virtues of participating within social communities in a responsible and respectful manner. Many of us talk about using social tools for effective collaboration. Isn’t it time we actually started practicing what we preach…?

* Special thanks to my good mate Lucio Ribeiro for contributing his detailed thoughts that helped to shape the post prior to publishing

Check out ‘Carving out instant niche rankings‘ at SEO Scoop