Most marketers these days have mandates to invest more in digital and move away from a 98% TV spend. Which is great, but why? Because someone said “this is where we need to be” or “the future is digital”? This split thinking trickles down from client, to agency, to creatives, turning campaign ideation into TV or Digital ideation. We really should be looking at these media channels in terms of what they do, and our campaign ideation should strictly be based on what we are setting out to do. For example if our goal is top of mind awareness then we need to be thinking about ways to create awareness and considering those channels that drive awareness. Awareness of course is the easiest nut to crack, but it is a simple way of explaining my proposal.

Let’s think about our goals and create work, and deliver that work on channels that help us meet those goals. Let’s move away from budget conversations that delegate 20% to digital, but assign budgets based on ideas that drive our goals. If the idea delivers on our goals and that idea is best executed through a certain channel, then that’s what we should be doing. Not doing it because corporate mandates dictate where we should be doing it.

1. Eating This:

2. My new gig at TAXI. I’ve been here almost three months and I’m really enjoying it. What really has me pumped is our new planning department space. A real open concept collaborative room that will get our big brains bouncing off each other.

3. The iPhone 4s. Blah Blah iPhone, Blah Siri. I just want the improved camera, that is all.

4. Going back to here with Her.  The tropical sun is calling me and the first flake of snow has yet to drop. I can’t wait until my lovely wife and I are back in the Caribbean. It’s our happy place.

5. NFC! Near field hurry up and get here and put the QR code out of its misery. (I just read an article on why QR codes suck on my way in to the office)

So that’s it, that’s what I’m excited about RIGHT NOW. I’m sure 5 minutes from now this could all change, except the fun and sun escape with my dearest or course.

Just some quick thoughts on this one. Many of my friends are Blackberry users, I am not. I never have been, I’m an iPhone user. When I ask my friends why they still love their Blackberry most of them reply with something about the email being the best or they can’t type on touch screens. What all of them have in common is their love for BBM. Yes that mystical Blackberry App that all of us iPhone users hear about and let’s face it we’re a tad bit envious of.

Along comes the Facebook Messenger app. Could this be our answer? A cross-platform messaging app that let’s all mobile users quickly message each other, praise dog! We’ve seen a few attempts at this sprout up. Kik Messenger started out well until Blackberry booted them from the platform. And the others simply have failed to gain the adoption needed.  But this time it’s different. It’s Facebook at the table. They’ve already got the user base to draw from and I’m sure iPhone and Android users will be all over it. But what about Blackberry users, will they convert? I think it will all come down to the user experience and influencers in social groups. I’ll be keeping an eye on this, in the meantime I would love to hear your thoughts. Will Facebook Messenger convert BBM users to other platforms? Or are they too attached to BBM? Let me know either through or comment or connect with me on Twitter – @mrbrain 

Within the hour, the brand was inundated with complaints and insults calling them crass and classless, and I completely agree. This type of action is akin to showing up outside someone’s funeral and declaring “You know Larry really loved ice cream. How about you buy a few cones from me in his honour”. This situation is completely unimaginable, but just try and imagine if you actually did this. Larry’s older brother would probably give you five across the eye and you’d be lynched in short order. Furthermore, no brand or advertiser with any scruples would ever do this in traditional advertising either. Imagine Goodyear doing a double page spread on the tires Princess Diana should have had on her limousine? Insane, right? Well what Xbox did is no different. Well actually there is a difference, social media isn’t really media. It’s a communications channel complete with direct response. But why? Why would they partake in such a tasteless and weak product push? Especially when we’ve seen things like this backfire so badly for other brands (See Kenneth Cole). It’s either they don’t understand the channel or they simply don’t respect the user base.

Amy Jo Martin of the social media agency Digital Royalty nailed it on the head in her recent article published in The Harvard Business Review, about humanizing social media. Although Amy Jo may have an easier go of “humanizing” social media since most of her brands are actual humans, her principles should be adopted by all brands and advertisers. Amy Jo compares social media channels to a telephone, and not advertising, and in my opinion this is bang on. It really is a communications channel where traditional means of measuring ROI really don’t apply and they really shouldn’t. They should be looked at in the same way call centers or customer services departments are. They are a two way dialogue between a brand and its consumers. And this is where advertising agencies need to step up and push clients to treat the channel as a channel and not a medium. Of course, we all expect brands to use the channel as a marketing and advertising vehicle and incorporate it into their overall marketing mix, but how it’s done is where the issue lies. Too many brands and agencies focus on ROI and not the value of the channel. Trust me, there is gold in them there hills, just not the kind we’re used to. Customer and market insight, brand affinity and advocacy, customer service, consumer feedback are all readily available in social media as long as we don’t abuse it and act accordingly. But if you’re looking for direct sales to attribute to the bottom line, good luck.

And this is the fatal flaw of so many brands and advertising agencies who venture into social media. Hard sells, bombarding customers with offers and trying to capitalize on events and cultural movements in search of ROI are not acceptable practices in social media. I’ve said this so many times in so many boardrooms over the last few years, it’s almost sickening. If you can’t add value to a community you don’t belong there, period. However, if you play nice and don’t count the nickels, I’m positive you’ll get the returns your’re after. Not right away, and not where you’d expect to find them, but they will come. And don’t make me say it again.

So what’s the problem? None, except if you’re the social media champion in your organization and all of a sudden I show up wearing the social media guy badge. Its your badge, not mine. You’ve worked hard for months, even years building your base, implementing internal policies, creating playbooks, and building teams. You’ve earned adoption across the board inside your organization and now you’re introduced to me. The guy from the Agency, the social media guy. This situation sucks, and I never realized it until recently.

Lets be honest, the first thought from me would be; “Who the hell is this guy?  This is my house. I’ve built it and now you’re coming in and telling me how to paint the walls”. This creates tension, animosity and is downright insulting to the in-house champion.  The environment will inevitably become rife with resentment and great ideas and collaborative efforts will get shot to hell. All over a simple introduction, that on the surface seemed cordial but in reality was more of a back hand then a handshake.

So I’ve decided anytime I’m introduced or brought in as “The Social Media Guy”, I will swiftly and politely correct this to “Adam, and I’m here to help you”. I’m here to help period. I’m not here to invade, to impress, to cut your grass in any way. I’m here to help, to build, and to succeed.

And if you are too, awesome. Let’s do epic shit.

Originally posted on dashboard.ca

Tired of your bulky, receipt-filled George Costanza wallet? Last week Google announced the answer to your prayers with Google Wallet. Neatly packed into the next Google Nexus phone, this NFC-enabled app will release you from your back-end woes. From the outset, you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is currently accepted.

The rumours about NFC implementation on mobile devices already had me pretty excited. But what really has me revved up about hardware-based NFC is the advertising potential. The idea of a universally adopted technology to bridge the gap between digital and the physical world is what we in Digital Marketing have been dreaming about. I know we all had (have?) high hopes for QR codes but for me there are just too many barriers for adoption. Third party app downloads, opposing technologies and some really terrible executions (QR codes in subways – REALLY?) have really hindered adoption in North America. And this is exactly where NFC will change the game.

So how can advertisers take advantage of this? Well the most obvious is how Google already plans to use it in their Places program, scrapping the printed poster for NFC-enabled smart posters. Consumers can simply tap their NFC-enabled smart phone to the smart poster and boom, you get the additional Places information formerly served up via QR code. The extensions into print media are only limited to your creativity. In-store shelf talkers could serve up user product reviews, recipes, or a simple coupon to help make that next purchase decision. Same goes for automotive… NFC-enabled window stickers could provide a host of relevant info. There are so many integrations I could rhyme off here but I’ll stop, because alas I gots to get paid, yo!

Here’s the reality of it all… All forms of print media could essentially be made digital with a tiny little NFC tag, save for billboards, which could be the right place for that giant QR code the client asked for. We don’t really want anyone climbing up scaffolding to tap a billboard anyway, do we?

I wrote about it before, so I wont go into the full details (but you can here). For me this was a really fun a fulfilling day. We made a lot of people smile and it felt great.