Unbound Edition

Define Your Brand's Purpose, Not Just Its Promise

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:24:18 -0500

Every brand makes a promise. But in a marketplace in which consumer confidence is low and budgetary vigilance is high, it's not just making a promise that separates one brand from another, but having a defining purpose. This point and its implications were made clear to me at the recent Association of National Advertisers conference in Phoenix where CMOs from some of the smartest organizations explained why purpose-driven branding is essential to success in this "new normal" environment. While it may sound a bit like Philosophy 101, a company whose employees can answer the question, "Why are we here?" will be the company that makes stronger connections with consumers in search of solutions to life's new normal issues.

Find, Follow, Feed: YouTube’s Social Strategy And Solving The Curation Problem

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:19:09 -0500

You may not have noticed it, but YouTube is evolving. Unlike sites like Facebook, where even a subtle change in a header’s rounding gets noticed, YouTube has so much going on that it’s often easy to miss one of the site’s new features. But they’re there, and more are coming soon. Earlier this week the YouTube team invited me over to talk about how the video portal is approaching its role as an inherently social site, and what it’s doing to help surface videos that users will find interesting from the oceans of content that’s uploaded every day. YouTube PM Brian Glick describes YouTube’s social trends with three F’s: Find, Follow, and Feed.

Nikon Kick Starts Campaign via Twitter

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:59:15 -0500

Nikon is taking a cue from the popularity of Twitter by using the microblogging service as a launchpad for a new promotion. Yesterday, actor Ashton Kutcher kicked off the campaign by tweeting his involvement in the Nikon Film Festival, a user-generated content contest for people to submit "a day through your lens" video for the chance to win $100,000. Kutcher, who has 3.9 million followers on the service, posted a link to his own submission, a short film documenting a day he spent in Africa with his actress-wife Demi Moore.

The Future of Business is in Ecosystems

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:49:44 -0500

Last week, I said that the future of news is entrepreneurial (not institutional). Today, a sequel: The future of business is in ecosystems (not conglomerates or industries). At the Foursquare conference last week, I was struck by the miss-by-a-mile worldviews held by the chiefs of big, old conglomerates and the entrepreneurs starting new, nimble companies. The conference is off the record, so I won’t quote anyone by name. And in truth, these are the same conversations I hear often elsewhere. Having these different tribes conveniently in the same room merely focused the contrast for me.

Visa Olympics Effort Goes Global

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:14:43 -0500

Visa took its “Go World” campaign, celebrating the Olympic spirit, global this week, with spots running in the U.S., Canada, China, Russia and Japan. [Agencies TBWA\Chiat\Day, AKQA and GMR collaborated on the effort.] It's a continuation of last year’s U.S.-only campaign—which promoted the 2008 Beijing Olympics—but this time around, Visa is taking a more ambitious approach. The credit card company is using a bigger line-up of Olympic athletes and hopefuls, digital and mobile media to get the word out, and it’s also teamed up with various merchants and business partners to promote the Visa brand. The company also had a successful fourth quarter, with profits up $514 million, compared to $356 million for the same period last year. Kevin Burke, who oversees Visa's global consumer marketing, said he hopes the campaign will increase the usage of Visa cards even more. Burke spoke with Brandweek about why Visa took its campaign global, and what outcome the company is expecting.

Culturematic, New Media, and Marketing

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:13:01 -0500

Monday, I reported my recent culturematic experiment, the tweeting of my train ride from Chicago and Detroit. Today, I thought I'd look at the marketing implications. Specifically, can a culturematic help a marketer help a client? Can it help build the brand? Can it help the brand participate in culture? I think the reply is emphatically "yes."

The Über-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:23:20 -0500

Think about your organization and ask yourself these two questions: Are external social media sites restricted or blocked while at work? Is the use of social media in the workplace inhibited or frowned upon? If you answered yes, then your organization is one of the majority of firms with over 100 employees that have yet to embrace the use of social media in the workplace for the average worker. In a study conducted by Robert Half Technology entitled "Whistle But Don't Tweet At Work," many organizations are struggling with how to integrate social media into the workplace.

Apple Emerges as Nintendo's Game Rival

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:21:33 -0500

Satoru Iwata, the president of Nintendo Co., is a self-proclaimed Apple Inc. fan. He carries an iPhone and uses a Mac laptop. So when Mr. Iwata says Nintendo and Apple aren't competitors, he should know what he's talking about. Nintendo, whose gadgets and software dominate the portable-videogame market, faces the greatest risk from the emergence of Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch as gaming platforms. But Mr. Iwata says attempts to create a rivalry between the two companies make him "uncomfortable," because he says it isn't true. He argues the companies appeal to different consumers.

Marriott Launches an Upscale Franchise

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:20:05 -0500

Hospitality giant Marriott International is launching a new brand called the Autograph Collection, aimed at tapping customers who prefer independent, high-end hotels over brands such as Marriott, Hilton and Four Seasons. The Autograph Collection will allow independent hotels, many of whom have lost business in the recession, to maintain their character while using Marriott's massive reach to bring in more customers and save on costs.

Storied Brand Will Return At Renault

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:18:39 -0500

Renault SA is bringing back the legendary Gordini badge that adorned sporty versions of the French car maker's small sedans in the 1960s. The move will aim to rejuvenate the brand's image—and lower the average age of its buyers by appealing to younger motorists—at a time when automobile manufacturers are having to make small cars that are environmentally friendly, but tend to be rather dull. It is also aimed at eating into sales of brands such as BMW AG's Mini, whose image gets a lift from the higher-performance Cooper and Cooper S versions. Similarly, Italy's Fiat SpA has benefited from being able to hitch a ride on the Abarth brand and its association with a legendary Italian racing team.

Why 2010 Is the Year to Rethink Discounts, Pricing Strategy

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:59:01 -0500

General business strategy dictates that there are two ways a business responds to a dramatic downturn in consumer spending. They cut costs and/or discount heavily to drive traffic and lure beaten consumers out of their malaise. Both approaches are easy levers to pull because they have a salient short-term impact. The rub lies in not knowing what the long-term impact of these short-term decisions will be. While the long-term implications of cost-cutting is an article in itself, today many retailers find that their most immediate issue is working their way back out of discount-driven brand-price erosion.

What IF We Redefined Influence? The Evolution of the Influence Factor in Social Media

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:46 -0500

The role of influence is changing and diversifying and with it, the rules and responsibilities of engagement are also reshaping. While PR, analyst, and investor relations were clear yesterday, the rise of new influencers, tastemakers and authoritative users and customers becomes both pervasive and uncertain. As such, new opportunities for engagement emerge; creating new opportunities for cultivating distributed relationships. However, each new connection requires management, a support infrastructure, including a dedicated host.

Brands Run After Female Social Gamers

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:31 -0500

By now, most marketers have a social network presence. But those looking to capture the attention (and even wallets) of women may want to dig a little deeper to make sure they have a presence in social gaming. "It's grown so fast and so rapidly that brands are struggling to keep up with it," Matt Wise, CEO of Q Interactive, tells Marketing Daily. "If you're looking to find consumers online, it would be hard to find a better opportunity than social games."

User Stories: A Strategic Design Tool

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:18 -0500

Collaborative design methods play a key role in aligning team members towards a shared and strategic project vision. In this article we describe how user stories stimulate and facilitate discussion and decision making with clients in the development of a User Experience Strategy. In our context (the development of online projects) the User Experience Strategy becomes an ‘in principle agreement’ on the shape of the project (what), its purpose (why), and provides potential implementation strategies (how). It takes into account all perspectives (e.g business, technical, marketing, brand) but privileges the intended user experience.

Long-tail User Experience: How to Cultivate (or Dissolve) a Community

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:58:08 -0500

Websites are social creatures. Or rather, their users are. In turn, the websites you visit are tempered by the users that interact with them. Your experience with a website, say facebook.com, is directly linked to the people with which you interact on that website. But this introduces an interesting challenge for a user experience designer: do you design for the intial experience or the resulting experience?

What Social Search Means To Your Business

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:57:48 -0500

Bing and Google recently announced partnerships with Twitter and Facebook to provide elements of real-time and social search to their respective search engine results. On the surface, this probably blew past most business owners and marketers as not much in the way of being important. If the information is online, aren’t Bing and Google supposed to find it? And, frankly, the partnership has some interesting implications, but isn’t phenomenally noteworthy … yet.

Why Google's Acquisition Of AdMob Isn't Just About Advertising

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:57:40 -0500

There is a lot of speculation on why Google is buying AdMob, but the obvious reason is that Google wants more direct access to what they are betting heavily on--that mobile is the next great advertising medium. They've made a huge bet on mobile with Android--which is an obvious move to own the mobile search ad market, but now they've got their hooks into the mobile display ad market as well. But what many might be missing could be the biggest reason Google ( GOOG - news - people ) bought AdMob: the data.

2010 Brings Brands 10 Golden Digital Opportunities

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:57:11 -0500

Looking ahead to 2010, marketers will be facing Olympic hurdles that will require steadfast agility just to stay in the game, much less to hit the finish line ahead of the competition. Here are 10 ideas, wrapped in Olympic glory that should deliver the gold.

Online Ads Are Booming, if They’re Attached to a Video

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:56:07 -0500

News Web sites are starting to look a lot less like newspapers and a lot more like television. CNN.com and ESPN.com are featuring video much more prominently on their home pages, often prompting visitors to press play before they begin to read. Even The Wall Street Journal has moved its video player front and center with a twice-a-day live newscast on WSJ.com. A major reason is commercial. At a time when other categories of advertising dollars are shrinking, video ads are booming. News sites are adding more video inventory to keep pace with the demands of advertisers, and benefiting from the higher cost-per-thousands, or C.P.M.’s, that ads on those videos command.

How Social Media is Taking the News Local

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:55:54 -0500

Any news organization’s web site can get a story picked up by popular sites such as Drudge Report, Huffington Post, Digg, or even Fark, resulting in a bump in page views. But that’s a traffic anomaly. A key metric media companies want to grow is their local audience, because local traffic is where the money is. “Local advertising pays the bills in most cases and local advertisers want to reach people who can actually come to their stores,” said Serra Media CEO Mark Briggs, author of “Journalism 2.0,” and the upcoming book “Journalism Next,” in an e-mail interview. “And, as national news has become a commodity, local news is the differentiating factor most local news operations are emphasizing these days. Or, at least they should be.”

Reinventing the MBA: 4 Reasons to Mix Business With Design Thinking

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:22:27 -0500

We've all heard the news that the traditional MBA framework is broken, but adding courses on business ethics and financial crises won't solve the problem. And although Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, and the rest are all considering bringing new ways of thinking into their hallowed halls, a relatively small school in Canada is actually transforming the meaning of an MBA right before our eyes. The Rotman School of Management, helmed by Roger Martin, proposes a radical idea: to develop business leaders who are well-grounded in multiple disciplines. The Rotman faculty aim to mold managers who are equally comfortable and adept at using tools and frameworks from business, popular culture, and design to solve the most urgent challenges of the day--what Rotman calls integrative thinkers and what I call hybrid thinkers. He's a bit of a kindred spirit.

Social Media Challenges Social Rules

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:39:43 -0500

Today our social rules seem to have been overloaded by our always on, always connected culture. Behaviours developed for the industrial age simply cannot cope with the new possibilities for information sharing.

The Rapid Evolution of Search

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:04:52 -0500

Over the past several weeks, leaders in the search industry launched an aggressive, very public series of campaigns designed to capture the elusive future of search mind and market share. The accelerated evolution of “real-time” search, introduced to us mostly through the adoption of Summize, which was eventually acquired to now serve as Twitter search, inspired both Google and Bing to release new iterations of its search engine to now include live Twitter results. Bing also announced a deal with Facebook to include status updates and shared content that were intentionally earmarked for public consumption – although this is expected to go into effect at a later date. Each announcement was strategically timed to release during the prestigious Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco while the technology world focused on tomorrow’s trends discussed during the show. With the great deal of attention thrust upon these two industry giants, Yahoo is now rumored to also have a real-time strategy in the works. Unlike Bing and Google however, Yahoo is potentially seeking to either partner with or acquire a current real-time search player.

The Future of Media? Bet on Events

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:47:27 -0500

What if the magazine article of the future, the album of the future, and the novel of the future are all the same thing? And what if they’re all events? Start here: TED is one of the surprise media successes of the last few years, but not by chance. Their insight was that a conference can be a machine for making media—media that can build a big audience on the web. They invested in media production, and it paid off. But TED is just a starting point. They’ve done a remarkable job, but—this always happens—it’s almost too big at this point. Too homogenizing. You could squint your eyes and recognize a TED talk by its red-blue glow. And—snark aside—it has a real weakness.

Implementing a B2B Content Strategy: Consider How

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:42:04 -0500

Businesses are made of people, many of them in the middle. While everyone loves to talk to the C-level, the shift in the way people at all levels work, select and recommend service providers, and get things done is more notable in the thick of things, so to speak. Technology has made it even easier for people to connect with peers, collaborate, and get and give direct and indirect (through search) feedback. There's a reason why social media has put a spotlight on being human - brands forgot how to tell stories. Along with a "me, too" characteristic of many B2Bs always in search of benchmarking and way to validate their value props, companies forgot (more likely stopped funding) media integration. This first set of considerations presents some difficulties in the connected world we live in.