Monday 31 May 2010

Where to for advertising?

Thanks to social media, consumers increasingly trust social networks versus traditional advertising.

As a consequence we're now seeing agencies radically re-think their campaign creation process to suit this new context. In this excellent video Nick Law from R/GA paints a compelling picture about how campaign creation must move from telling stories to designing systems with multiple touch points across many different mediums. Within this model agencies must spend more time building and nurturing an online community based on trust, relevance and authenticity. Traditional story telling and push advertising programmes have a complementary role in the new model.

This opens up new possibilities that reshape the traditional role of agencies. Through managing the relationship with a brands online community, agencies become the custodian of a brands reputation. In this position, advertising agencies are better positioned to respond to briefs typically given to PR agencies — historically where the biggest money has always been.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Campfire

Advertising and Media Planners could benefit from integrating ideas from social media.

Powerful new tools such as social network analysis enable you to understand, identify and engage lead users and influencers.

New York agency Campfire (creators of the Blair Witch Project) have produced a series of groundbreaking campaigns for Audi and HBO that seduce the audience into entering rich, multi-leveled stories, driving value through peer-to-peer referral.

Personally, I love their work. It would be fascinating to explore how Social Network Analysis could enhance this approach by creating deep, actionable insights about the true needs and values of lead users, influencers and target audiences for their clients.

How could you apply this thinking to your practice?


Content as Advertising

Starworks initially built their business around matching premium brands to their roster of celebrities. They even brokered Karl Lagerfield's cameo in Grand Theft Auto! They're now introducing a range of additional services including new media content creation and event management allowing them to create integrated marketing campaigns.


Starworks were instrumental in launcing the career of NY band The Virgins. Their "Rich Girls" video was the catalyst for them to turn into an overnight internet sensation. The most interesting thing the video was how they placed Burberry and Agent Provocateur products in the video, then subsequently leveraged the attention by linking it to an eCommerce experience enabling people to buy clothing 'as seen' in the video.


I assume Starworks is driving Burberry's successful explorations into Social Media which also includes their Art of the Trench Campaign in collaboration with The Satorialist.


We all know it's 'advertising' but when it's authentic we leave our cynicism at the door.

Tuesday 25 May 2010

About this blog

Welcome to an ongoing blog about the convergence of four key industries — Branding, Public Relations, Advertising and Social Media — into something altogether more interesting, exciting and valuable.

Social Network Analysis

The key to growing communities is leveraging influencers; they’re the 10% of your audience that connect, inform and excite everyone else. By building deep, collaborative relationships with this small group of influencers, you can leverage their position to engage and convert groups of people who look to them for answers.

Traditionally identifying and leveraging influencers owed more to luck than planning, through social media analysis it’s now possible to accurately identify and engage these people. New marketing companies are using these tools to identify key influencers that drive word of mouth. It enables strategic marketing decisions to be built on deep, fact based insights not intuition or fashion. 

What's social network analysis? Well from my perspective it studies online consumer behavior, exploring data collected from people as they from move link to link. Analyzing this data unveils deep insights into your audience, untapped communities, competitors, influencers and how ideas spread.

Companies like Linkfluence and Double Loop Marketing are pioneering this field — they're evidence of how the internet is shaping the way we do things and exposing the frailties of our old ways. One of my favorite new marketing companies is R/GA. They're a great example of staying ahead of the curve and offering an integrated solution.