Diary of a transition: 5 new things i've learned

I've been in my new role at The Population for 6 weeks now and I'm certainly learning alot...

It's very different to anything I've encountered before and it's challenging me in new ways, which is exactly what I needed and wanted.

Essentially I'm reviewing many of my thought processes that I've had ingrained in me for the past 6 years and I'm now trying to shift them in a different direction which is far more difficult than it sounds!

Un-learning and re-learning can be a demanding and sometimes uncomfortable experience, but I would encourage anyone to do it if you get the chance to expand upon what you know because, no matter where you are in your chosen career, you never know everything there is to know.

So, without further ado, here are 5 new things I've learned in the last few weeks:

1). A 'Big Idea' is a product in itself

Coming from big-agency-land, my experience was that strategy was something they did as part of the package when it came to media planning & buying.
It was covered by a retainer or percentage of media spend contracts, it certainly wasn't something that clients paid for as a separate product or service.

But The Population's product IS strategy, it's not media buying powers, creative or production, it's intellectual property in the form of ideas...

In my first few weeks I've been getting used to selling ideas which is always something I've believed in but never something I've done and believe it or not, clients are willing to pay for a strategy!

They are happy to invest in the 'big idea' which will dictate their media planning, creative development and the success of their marketing.
Creating a media plan or creative message in silos without a uniting idea subsequently delivers a disconnected result which, if it fails, results in a blame game between creative and media as to whose fault it was, but still, so many agencies are guilty of this...

They get briefed and then go off and do their own thing, only uniting in the 'response' meeting and seeing each others ideas for the first time which is just ridiculous.

LESSON 1: A 'big idea' is essential, don't plan, buy or create anything until you have one, no matter if the budget is $10k or $100k.....and yes, clients will pay for a big idea as a product/service above and beyond media and creative.

2). Social media is just a word

Social media is not a strategy, it's not a campaign and it's certainly not a word anyone should continue to use...

What many people call 'social media' is really just the next evolution of the digital landscape, it's the web but socialised.
Nowadays, everything online has the ability to be social. When you run a banner ad or a homepage takeover, are you considering the conversations that will start as a result of that advertisement?

The next era of digital strategy is about being hyper-connected.
It's about being cognizant and aware that every action you take may cause a reaction in the online space.

You can no longer plan and buy a bog-standard display schedule and expect that to be sufficient in getting your brand in front of people, for them to take notice and subsequently to take action. Display is a small part of the digital planning equation and should only be used for awareness purposes if really required, not sales or customer relations or insights.

LESSON 2: If you're still planning display in isolation and treating 'social media' as separate animal to be used or ignored on a shopping list of 'strategic options' then you're doing it wrong. The internet is inherently social.....so too should be your planning.

3). Facebook/Blogger/Wordpress is your new brand website

Flashturbation is coming to an end, the microsites days are numbered and 'brand' websites are holding pages and nothing more.

So what now? Where do you direct people to talk about your brand, to feed them content and to talk to them?

Easy. Use one of the many platforms available to you for free: Facebook, Blogger or Wordpress.

I've recently run a campaign for an independent film who had already outlayed thousands to build a flashy website which showed their trailer, cast intros and had some wallpapers but there was nowhere for people to interact or talk and share...

Independent films suffer hugely at the box office where the winner is whoever shouts the loudest. The only way to guarantee that people would buy tickets for this film over the big US blockbusters was to create a connection with them prior to the cinema release...

We couldn't do that on the flash site so we built a fanpage. We could share interviews, exclusive video, deleted scenes and generally have a chat with them. We built a real connection with people which resulted in loyal cinema goers who chose us over blockbusters...and it was simply because we made a hub where we could talk to them and be accessible.

This strategy would benefit any brand, not just a small film. Imagine being able to ask a question to 25,000 fans and get immediate responses....no more expensive market research, forget retro-fitting white papers to your consumers, you could have customised insights in minutes.

You also have a ready-to-go database of buyers at your fingertips whenever a new product release is coming up, millions of people already use FB daily so you're not asking too much of them to move to another area within the same site, and, everytime you post to your fan page wall it goes straight into their newsfeed and can get passed to their extended friends network...it's a no-brainer.

This too goes for using Wordpress and Blogger templates which are slightly richer media versions of the fan page. You can creatively customise them to your hearts content, they're free to use and they allow for interaction with readers...we've recently done some other client work where we've built the 'brand site' in a Wordpress template - and it worked a treat!

Lesson 3: Don't spend thousands on a microsite when you could develop richer relationships using a free site template or fan page.

4). Content is currency

Having a fan page or blogger template is fine but it cannot guarantee an audience.
What get's people fanning, reading, sharing and discussing is content.

Everyone knows content is king but what they don't realise is that you need to give them something decent to talk about, they don't care about your latest press ad or a wallpaper.

You need to create a unique content schedule of interesting, entertaining things which should ideally be exclusive to your fans on your fan page or readers on your blog and you need to keep it regular.

On days when I've uploaded video content to a fan page, the fans have gone crazy...
They've commented, passed it to friends (which results in more fans), written wallposts etc..

If you don't have content every single day, don't ignore your page. Even a one sentence status update should be part of your content strategy to keep you accessible and to keep your fans or readers engaged...

Lesson 4: It's all about content, fans won't fan a page which is empty, quiet or boring and people won't read blogs with nothing decent to watch or learn...

5). Social sites are more effective than banner ads

I have been truly amazed by the power of social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicous and Stumble Upon and their ability to drive massive traffic volumes to a chosen destination.

My previous learning was that the only was to achieve critical mass and generate awareness was through buying media....oh how wrong I have been.

The numbers you can reach via these bookmarking sites are astounding, and they drive more engaged more qualified traffic than you could ever hope for via media buying.

However, one key thing to remember is that to achieve the numbers of these sites you have to have the right content which goes back to the previous point. To reach the honourboards on these sites it needs to be entertaining and funny or informative and interesting and you won't always get the formula right.

The real way to win in these environments to to have contact with 'influencers' who have trusted accounts and who have large followings....luckily we have great relationships with them which definitely helps.

Lesson 5: Social bookmarking sites are not to be ignored or underestimated. Try them as an alternative to budget-gobbling display buys.


That's it for now but my brain is expanding with new knowledge day by day so i'll be back with more soon!

Digital Ministry: Digital People Profile

Earlier on this week, Denise Shrivell from Digital Ministry was kind enough to profile me for her 'Digital People' segment.

Some of the key elements i wanted to discuss were around where i saw the digital media industry heading in the next 12 months and what the main trends will be...

I wanted to reiterate them here because i really do think they are key areas to watch:

Question 5. What trends do you think the digital media industry will see in the next 12 months?

Open API & Connections between multiple platforms

There are two key benefits to open API solutions, which I think have been evident so far this year...

The first is probably best explained using Twitter as the example. Twitter's open API has been the catalyst for it's rapid growth due almost entirely to the developer built applications.

These apps have unlocked Twitters massive potential with amazing tools such as a little mobile application which acts as an SMS timer that allows you to set a reminder over SMS to call your mum, to more elaborate visual recreations of Twitter like twittervision.com, which shows an animated map of the world and what everyone is doing around the world.

As a result of expanding the uses, possibilities and appeal of Twitter, the API now receives 10x the traffic that the website itself does.

As more companies start to realise that open systems lead to a more creativity, more reach and ultimately more of a competitive advantage, it's obvious that this trend will grow and grow (just this week Tesco in the UK announced they are opening their website API to third party developers).

The second benefit is the ability to allow open connections between multiple websites such as Google's Open Social or Open ID. Eventually we should have one single digital identity that allows us to connect with any website without having to log-out and login each time.

This can increase the fluidity of online ‘surfing' and also aid greatly with information management from a consumer perspective (i.e. not having to fill-out credit card details each time you want to purchase something).

From an advertising perspective, Open Access also releases a myriad of possibilities when it comes to behavioral and preference targeting...

The end of flash and the rise search engine friendly platforms

I think ‘Flashturbation' is frowned upon more and more these days especially with advertising budgets on the decline and the growing need for consumer feedback and commentary to be enabled on-site...

We've been using templates such as Wordpress for our clients when it comes to creating content hubs. It's cheaper, easier and allows for more of an organic build up of interest and engagement rather than just dumping someone onto a flash microsite. Of course the other obvious advantage to doing this is that search engines can easily pick up a feed-based site...

Augmented Reality

I'm still slightly on the fence with this because I have a feeling it could still fall into the ‘gimmick' bucket, however, I've seen some fantastic non-gimmicky uses of this technology recently.

The IBM Wimbledon application which allowed users to point their handsets to a court and then see real time match information overlaid on the screen, furthermore when users point their phone the at food courts they also got information about what's on sale.

Then there's the new ‘Nearest Tube' iPhone application, which uses both your location information along with the iPhone's compass and video camera to show you an augmented reality picture of where and in which directions around you the nearest London Tube Stations are.

These kinds of applications show the real capacity for augmented reality and the versatile practicalities it can lend itself to, above and beyond novel gaming and visual experiences.

See a Youtube clip on IBM's Wimbledon 'Seer' augmented reality application here - and the London Tube example here

You can read more of the Digital Ministry profile here:

http://digitalministry.com/AU/articles/812/DIGITAL+PEOPLE+ZOE+SCAMAN/1

GUEST POST: Digital/Physical by Marek Wolski

This week I have a fantastic Guest Post by Marek Wolski.

Marek currently works as a Project Manager for experiential agency The Taboo Group in Melbourne.

He describes himself as very curious marketeer and has been digging around in the digital arena for a while now...

With a Commerce marketing degree under his belt and a Law degree hanging (incomplete) overhead, he has unleashed a passsion for problem solving and idea generation on all projects he can get his hands on.

He has recently started his blog aptly named 'The Forest Through The Trees' which you can find here: http://throughthetrees.tumblr.com/

His post talks us through the combination of digital with the physical/real world (aka experiential)...Take it away Marek:

Zoe kindly let me enter the fray of blogging with a post here.

As an amateur blogger (oxymoron perhaps?) I thought I should try to keep it short.

I want to share my thoughts on integrating experiential campaigns with seamless offline real world experiences and digital interactions, which enhance each other. I was inspired by some consumer psychology and Playground (a recent Swedish campaign).

Working at an experiential agency and writing on a digital blog may seem counter intuitive. Therein lies a problem. Experiential campaigns like all others need to integrate digital elements, as digital needs to integrate offline take-away components.

“Integration – wow, what a innovative concept you speak of”. Yes I know, I learnt about it once at uni. Today, integration seems to be about creating consequential campaigns. Go to the launch party, see the TVC, get the sample at the train station, go home and online, see the banner, remember all that other stuff, click the website and voila, you’ve arrived….What? Did you miss a step? Do you suddenly not understand the online interaction because you skipped the launch experience to go to the pub to watch Le Tour?

As someone in our office says daily (which is way too often) “marketing fail”.

Consumer psychology and behaviour show how simultaneous messages reinforce learning. Experiential learning theory has 4 states, which, when translated into basic language boil down to: feeling, watching, thinking, doing. These can happen simultaneously in an instant or consequentially (usually but not always in the above order).

The problem with many current campaigns is that they cannot teach the consumer about the brand if, as in the above example, they miss a step in the learning process. They will have missed a critical piece of information diluting the information into meaninglessness. Campaigns that are able to address all four states simultaneously with offline/online experiences enhance the message cognition and thus the brand preference.

Technology is a factor in creating deliverable solutions to clients. Today we have mobile, AR, social media etc to help deliver simultaneous digital real world experience. The caveat to all this was explained by Wunderman’s (@wunderman) tweet last week “Misconception: That the fundamentals are no longer required because everything is digital. So wrong”. The way in which the interaction flows between off- and online needs to be a focus on the consumer psychology rather than the technology. A consumer behaviour orientation (rather than technology orientation) means each medium can reach the full potential of itself and of the partnership with the other.

An additional challenge is enticing people from the online back to the real world, which would neatly tie-off the learning process (if it started offline). This is not just the case in experiential but in many direct-response digital campaigns.

An example of how to do all this comes from Sweden. The home of conceptual learning and experiential marketing – just think of Ikea or H&M. Agency Åkestam Holst in Stockholm created an experiential campaign which ran live for 3 days and included simultaneous offline/online experiences and participation and despite its heavy use of technology, created an effective sales driver and rather simple (from a consumer perspective) experience.

The campaign’s results include lasting positive brand preference, new customer acquisition and sales…

Hmm. It seems this post has turned into a rehashed version of digital shops’ mantra: digital is not an add-on. But nothing should be an add-on, it should all happen and work simultaneously.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AjGpMwc1YQ

Agency Website: (some English bits)

http://fabriken.akestamholst.se/

Defining Influence

Recently i've been trying to get my head around 'influence', what it means, how it works, how to identify it and how to harness it.


Influence is defined as the power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone; the ability to change things such as conduct, thoughts or decisions; An action exerted by a person or thing with such power on another to cause change.

To have influence or to be influential is envied by many and possessed by few.

To harness influence and to utilise it for the benefit of marketing and selling brands is the latest craze within the advertising world. Promises of brand advocates, highly connected networks of people, viral effects and 'sell to a few to reach a mass' are being bounced around meeting rooms and agency offices worldwide.

It's a great concept. A fantastic new, exciting approach and, if done correctly, it's an even better achievement.

It's something that i desperately want to understand more about so that i too can utilise is for my clients.

So i've been doing some research and have uncovered a confusing disconnect between agencies, clients, softwares and systems as to what they understand influence to be.

There are several schools of thought all of which are wildly different.

Definition 1: Influence can be identified via the volume and credibility of links. Endorsers: Google, VML SEER

This approach is most famously used by Google. Their spider technology uses links to help them ascertain the order of their search results in response to a query. The top results are usually determined using a mixture of content (keywords, meta tags etc) and the number of 'credible' websites that link to that content.

For social media monitoring tool, VML SEER, they define an influential piece of content, blogpost or comment based on how many websites (credible or not) link to that content.

From my perspective this is a very limited approach.
Links don't equal readers, links don't equal credibility and links don't equal consequence.

Definition 2: Influence can be identified via the volume and velocity of content

Endorsers: Nielsen Buzzmetrics

Buzzmetrics is one in particular that i found difficult to get my head around.

They measure influence based on the volume and velocity of content.

Therefore if a blogger writes a new post everyday they would judge them as being more influential than a blogger who writes once a week.

This method doesn't take into account whether or not there is actually anyone reading the blogposts, how much traffic, site dwell time etc.

You could have a blogger (lets call him Ted) who writes a new post every half hour. He's been blogging for 2 years but as yet, no one has visited his blog or read his content, poor Ted. But does that really make Ted influential? I think not.

Of course Nielsen do offer a site measurement service so you can cross reference traffick, dwell time and links with volume and velocity of content - the only problem is that it's not part of the buzzmetrics package and you'll be paying a hefty retainer on top to get access to it!

Definition 3: Influence can be identified via number of friends or followers

Endorsers: Most Agencies i know of....

Influence, in many cases, is mistaken for quantity rather than quality.

An influential person may be incorrectly defined by the number of followers they have on Twitter or the number of friends they have on Facebook.

But to sense-check this let's get realistic.

I am following circa 400-500 people on Twitter. I don't read every single tweet. In fact, i have a group set up on Tweetdeck called 'favourites', in this group i have placed the people whom i am most interested in and whose tweets, links and questions i will check out or respond to.

Not everyone has a specific group set up but they do have those who they are following for the sake of following and those who they actually pay attention to.

You will most likely respond to or read the tweets of a core group of people. Therefore this de-bunks the quantity versus quality myth.

Now for Facebook, we've all got friends who we keep in touch with on a regular basis and those who we last saw at nursery school when we were 3 and they were busy blowing milk out of their noses. Again quantity doesn't equal quality of relationships which impacts the attention people pay to us and the attention we give to others.

Definition 4: Influence can be identified via a mixture of links, volume & quantity

Endorsers: Radian 6, Systems plus human analysis

Some switched on clever people have woken up to the fact that systems and automated processes don't work quite as well as human intervention They define influence based on a number of different elements such as links, readership, page traffick, followers, friends, blog comments, re-tweets etc combined with human analysis.

This system is not 100% automated but it does utilise tools to get the base data which is then evaluated by a real person who uses a bit of common sense to translate the information into something slightly more intelligent and useful.

Again it's not perfect because it's subject to individual perception and what they see as being influential which could be different from one agency to another...

Definition 5: Influence can be identified via self classification

Endorsers: Contagious Communications

This bizarre methodology relies on influencers to identify themselves!

Essentially Contagious ask participants to identify themselves as 'influential' in the online world and then offers them incentives such as points, coupons or mini-prizes to take part in a campaign to promote one brand or another to their online friends (think Pure Profile but for the social media landscape).

There are so many things wrong with this approach i don't know where to start..

I actually signed up and identified myself as influential and gave them my age, interests and location..

Now i get a few emails a week asking me if i'd like to help promote this product or film which are completely outside of my areas of interest and just annoying.

Plus i don't see how the same person can be influential in so many different areas such as film, FMCG, service sector....it's just odd.

If you don't believe me check it out here: http://www.contagiousnetwork.com.au/

So that concludes my research for now and i'm still no clearer as to what the best course of action is.

My next project is going to be uncovering the possibility and take-up of psychometric testing online to identify influencers. After all, what makes you influential in the real world makes you influential in the virtual world no?