Many thanks to Mireira Fontbernat from Qik who has uploaded video of the three speakers this morning (and a little bit of me doing introductions).
Bloggers reactions: FreshNetworks' Helen Trim
Charlie Robertson of Red Spider
Quentin Boyes of Honeycomb Software
Sadly the one of Andrew Howells of Zype didn't come out…. darn phone reception.
Nice story fron the BBC with a suggestion that readers get involved in desiging the 'mascot' for the Olymnpics.
Including how to avoid gaffes like Atlanta and the london logo….
Great idea.
Not really social media but definitely community participation….
But I HATE mascots. Why else would people buy a souvenir if there wasnt a cuddly mascot image on it?
The marvelous British Olympic Association has launched its Beijing website….. and boy oh boy, it has ALL the features that were cool in 2006 and NONE of the community uptake.
A list of handy functionality and features:
* Home page with latest news - very up to date but every 'news' item is published by the BOA's press office
* Podcasts - 10 uploaded. THe most recent being 30th April (Taekwondo). Also present - beach volleyball, diving, BMX, modern pentathlon, hockey, sailing, cycling. Three uploaded from 29 - 30 April and then the previous ones all date from 2007
* Videos - Leon Taylor form the synchronised diving team is pretty active having uploaded 6 videos since 29th April and Barry Middleton (hockey) has done one.
* Athlete Diaries - grand list of 3 athletes: Euan Burton, Amy Terriere, and Denise Johns. Who manage 4 entries between them.
* Messages of support (5 displayed - but probably huge numbers in archive!)
Then there's the background info: racing schedule, qualification, currently selected athletes, stuff about the Games, about the sports (accurate, short and scraped from another website I've previously seen), a Gallery of photos by Getty Images from past Olympiads - there are five rowing photos displayed.
And so what is the opportunity that has been lost / missed?
Well, there could be
* A link to a twitter feed (if No10 manages it, surely the BOA can???)
* Upload your own photos from flickr while at the Games
* links to athletes' own sites
* Share travel plans with others
* Desktop viewer for instant updates customised to your sporting interests
* News feeds from other sources for your sports
* Plan your viewing schedule tool linking to the TV guides for the UK terrestrial and satellite broadcasters
* Live video streaming athlete interviews
* Forum for real discussions
And what are they doing to promote the site? I got an email about the 'launch' because I'm on a journalist list. Has anyone else seen it advertised, linked to from ANYWHERE? e.g. ARA website or FISA or your local newspaper….
How on earth do they expect the general public to build the excitement behind the team (and of course get taxpayers ready to buy lottery tickets to fund the next Olympics) if they can't promote the HELL out of this event. We want to become a world showcase in four years time.
Who is advising these monkeys and can they please get an informed digital strategist/planner onto the team, fast.
Oh, did I forget to mention the handy "countdown" tool on the header bar which says how long we have to wait until the Games open? Neat, but old technology!
I have been reading about the Australia Tourism pitch that's going on right now. It's a knotty one because there is one dominant, hugely successful campaign that lurks in the background (Paul Hogan's shrimp-on-the-barbie) which is now 25 years old but well-remembered.
The Economist quotes Geoff Buckley, MD of Tourism Australia "The Hogan ad was brilliant but it was never taken globally. Nowadays we need a unique and motivating message that resonates in 23 different markets." Tough.
The contrast with the 100% Pure New Zealand ads that are mostly photographic (one was so beautiful I cut it out) is stark. Which country would you rather visit.
But that's not the point of this post. Later in the article Christopher Brown of TTF Australia an industry lobby group, wants to form a brand council bringing together representatives from not just travel but wine, food, film, and fashion industries too. "We need some heavy-lifting from other sectors to add depth and richness to the Australian story. No country can afford to sell itself with a 30-=second tourism ad."
Too true. And for biz dev folk, the challenge is this:
Which other skills / companies / individuals can you bring onto your "brand council" in order to give a fuller view of your offering?
As an example, I host events for my clients and prospective clients with other professionals who have a message that creative biz dev folk might be interested in. See here and here The key is for both parties to invite their own contacts and (there will be overlap) you end up with a wider audience who can both network with each other and also get exposed to both organisations' skills.
PS am planning another event of this kind for mid-June. Watch this space….
What a disappointment. I was driven to the O2 website by an advert for their new Bluebook service.
Curious, I watched the demo and so I signed up. Seemed a nice idea to keep all you sms updates, photos and phone numbers backed up.
and then having gone through all the registration process, received a text with a unique code I got the immortal message
You must be an O2 customer to use this service.
Thanks for your interest in Bluebook. The service is exclusive to O2
customers. The easiest way to become an O2 customer is to visit an O2
shop or click here to shop with O2 on line. (link to http://shop.o2.co.uk/shop/)You may also try the following options:
- Go back to the previous page
- Go to the O2 Homepage http://www.o2.co.uk/
- Go to the O2 Sitemap http://www.o2.co.uk/sitemap
How blooming irritating is that? you do the whole registration - they could have told me before that it was only for O2 customers.
I reckon that opening the service up for non-O2 customers would draw a much wider 'net' around potential customers who then might be persuaded to swap carriers because of the fantastic add-on services like Bluebook offered.
Why is this good?
Oh goodness, when will big brands realise that offering something online / digital for free to a wider audience than your own customers gives you an unique opportunity. But they threw it away.
And so if you are in a competitive marketplace, can you set up a service to attract new customers who might be persuaded to defect from the competition because of the excellent service you offer (particularly if the net cost to you is low) this could be a winning strategy.
Go for it.
Following my meeting with Adriana a couple of weeks ago, I have started to see VRM coming up in others’ blogs. JP has some fantastic points here.
and I wrote a comment to follow
Matteo, you are right that the advertising industry faces a huge challenge and will splinter off, in my view, so that this ‘new world’ of positive, permission-based communication runs parallel with the old world of mass advertising.
What is curious and doesn’t seem to have bene mentioned yet, is the fact that brands *should* only want to advertise to people with money.
This will be the main discriminating factor. The old-style advertising and direct marketing will increasingly have money-less audiences and those with money will protect themselves digitally and start to strike the sort of ‘bargains’ that you and JP describe.
Roll on the new future!
PS I used to work for Don Peppers, the man who coined the phrase 1to1 marketing. His first book was the 1tot Future. I think it’s here. Now. Finally!
At a meeting yesterday, I was told about an exciting interview that in-house has done with Don. It’ll be released as a series of 3 minute videos on their site shortly. What I want to see is whether his views have moved on since 2000. And whether he has actually *done* any of the smart things he talks about. I note that he doesn’t seem to have joined in the blogging conversation, and surely, Cluetrain should have been part of the development of the 1to1 business model….. but I fear it hasn’t / isn’t.
An interesting report from Immediate Future on brand profiles online and particularly in the social media space.
Most of the stats do little for me except to prove that online and offline brands are ranked differently…. yes, you do have to work the online space to get the profile there (doh!).
some nice insights.
LG, Kraft, Amazon and Reuters, who performed well across all social
media, have done poorly in the selected social networks. These brands
are currently not inspiring the creation of groups and therefore
conversations are minimal.
I like this…. the idea that you need to do your own promotion (I can’t really call it online PR becase the methods and media are so different) and that you brand presence needs to be driven.
Companies wanting to understand the conversation around their own brand
must go further than measure share of voice and sentiment. They must
delve deeper and isolate the buzz compared to influence. Influence not
only plays an important role as a way of converting buzz to impact, it
is also crucial to get a correct impression of the sentiment
surrounding a topic or brand.Social media conversation is not only about the numbers. Social media in itself has influence.
not sure what this last sentence means…. it isn’t amplified in the report.
Agency.com’s recent research (June 2007) shows that while only 8% of internet users in the UK (approximately 2.3 million people) actively upload content and reviews regularly, these 8% are hugely important for brands. This
is because their ability to influence other internet users is immense.
In essence, they are affecting the behaviour of millions and changing
how audiences inform opinions about brands, products and services.It is this group that brands need to identify and influence. Brands
will need to charm advocates and inspire positive debate. Companies
that put strategies in place to rebut negative comment will need to
consider not just relevant communications, but customer service,
product value and business performance.The influence of social media on a brand is relative to topic. In each
subject area for each brand, there will be different influencers,
different detractors and advocates. Determining the most influential blogger, forum member or network takes time and can, and does, frequently change.Brands must pay attention because audiences instinctively turn to the
web for information. Search engines drive people straight to comment
and conversation, often bypassing a brand’s website and its marketing.
The influence of social media is crucial if brands are to survive their
ownership by audiences.
Great summary, Katy and you team have done us proud. What was sad for me was that I have corresponded with you in the past and yet you didnt’ send me a link to this great work.
I got it from another blogger… Joined up marketing is still needed online as well as offline!
Forrester surveyed US agencies and clients and found divergent views of influence and success.
1. Agency executives 93 percent thought their efforts "drive their clients’ marketing success," while just 63 percent of the marketing executives contacted agreed
2. About 95 percent of agencies thought that they were well positioned to adapt to changes in Internet advertising while only 45 percent of clients agreed.
3. Of the survey participants, only 15 percent said their agency compensation was tied to business results. When those who did not have such an arrangement were asked why, 43 percent said they never considered it while 36 percent reported it would be too difficult to truly measure the results.
Yikes. If we are hired because of the results we drive for our clients - this sort of perception mismatch has only one ending. It would be interesting to know how long the agency:client relationship had been in existence at the point of the survey. Do these things tire after a couple of years "familiarity breeding contempt"?
Thanks to Mike Butcher for this summary of a conference I couldn’t get to.
But I just loved this part of his write-up - especially the bit at the end about brands.
• The session on “brand engagement in the digital age”
was full of the usual marketing platitudes, with one of the few quotes
being lifted from Jeff Bezos, who said the ratio of spending 70% of
your budget on marketing and 30% in creating a good service will
reverse over the next 20 years. Over in the “Radio in the multiplatform
era: how are listeners consuming?” session Suw twittered:
“Radio panel seems to be a bit of a stats-fight. Who cares who was
first to podcast? Question is, are they any good?” And possibly some
conference controversy as Antony Mayfield
was asked to ’stop typing’ by a delegate who appears not to
understanding someone might be blogging a conference about changing
media… Perhaps she didn’t get the memo.The brands panel heated up later on during Q&A, when people
started to mention - almost in passing - that monitoring blogs and
online discussion about your brands was important. Sue Elms of Sue
elms, executive vice president, global media practice, Millward Brown
said that despite all this talk about brands losing control to social
media, brands must not lose confidence and should “continue in a
leadership role.” She quoted a a survey in the States which said 7% of
people go onto blogs and online community to find out about brands.
Only 25% of people trust blogs about brands. “That’s quite small.” 55%
of people ask friends and relatives about a brand “in the pub. That’s
always gone on and will continue to go on.” [Stop me if I’m wrong, but
isn;t that the point here. A few years ago, that 25% figure was zero,
so the trend is upwards and smart tech firms are making all this stuff
easier to aggregate and track for the ‘ordinary people’. I mean maybe
Google, for instance? How many of us just Google to get the low-down on
a brand. The panel didn;t seem to touch on this much, perhaps because
SEO and PPC is too geeky a topic].
Too bl**dy right, Mike!
Here’s what I have done recently with clients. (tip: if you haven’t done this for yourself yet… do it!)
1. Get a PR agency to use Google News to track their client mentions online (blogs and news)
2. Demonstrated how the SEO on a site determines relevancy to search terms and how important it is to be at the top of the list.
3. Discussed what to do when someone writes something nasty about you or your client (shock horror)
4. Reviewed the options open to a company when a similarly-named organisation chooses a domain name which is the same as theirs but with a different dot extension.
As an aside. I do check myself out regularly via the main search engines. Don’t you?
