Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

The Unthinkable Marketing Industry

Clay Shirky’s latest essay, that encourages us to 'think the unthinkable', set me wondering about what the marketing industry could be like.  The part of Shirky’s ‘unthinkable scenario’ that leapt out for me was the suggestion that, ‘people would resist being educated to act against their own desires’.  Shirky is, of course, saying that one effect of a networked world is that people have less faith in the lessons being handed out on Madison Avenue.  Now it’s quite clear that media is still the dominant force in the brand and marketing business, which despite tough times, remains a trillion dollar global industry.  Indeed, the idea of building brands through massive investment in this industry is the reason most marketing folk get up in the morning.  And media metrics such as reach and frequency have been a reliable way to fill marketing directors’ pension funds for a long while.  But that’s not the point of Shirky’s challenge.  His suggestion is to think the unthinkable by, ‘simply looking out of the window’.  So, if people are resisting the Mad Men's tutorials and the stranglehold of media is loosening, what’s next?  After all, people still want to find good stuff to buy and use, right? The end of media doesn’t mean the end of consumption or indeed of brands.  All of which requires markets.  But if those markets aren’t going to be media-driven, what will keep them moving along? What will make people act upon ‘their own desires’, and in doing so, keep the shekels flowing into our factories, showrooms and shops?  Where do we begin?  How about if we follow the advice of...

No One Is In Control - But That's OK

David Weinberger has a great habit of throwing light on thorny issues that arise on the modern web and does so again in this Supernova interview with observations such as: "Explicit governance is a second resort online."  It may  sound like a grand statement but it's quite the opposite.  He's simply saying that if it's not fairly clear what's going on in an online group or community after a few minutes - a rulebook probably won't help.  I think we all know the feeling.  You wonder into any social situation and instead of being given time to check out the surroundings and the people there, to see what they are saying and wearing, you are given some directions about how to enjoy yourself.  Certainly a good host to show you the ropes and explain what's happening can be very welcome, but being asked to spell your name, postcode and exact purpose upon arrival feels like Organised Fun.  In fact, encouraging people's willingness to participate in some way, even if that's just an invite to hang around, is better than handing out leaflets about preferred objectives.  "That's why lurking is so important," says Weinberger.  However, no one is saying you can't do anything to help an online network or community develop and grow.  It just requires putting your efforts into the right places.  If your community is flat and you want to encourage participation, more direction probably isn't the answer.  But a greater focus on visitors' behaviour, clear invites and permission to join in may do the trick.  And this all goes for design and coding too.  Focusing on an intuitive space is better than creating a chrome and glass box with extreme signage.  In short, Weinberger suggests, if your online social network is refusing to go social don't reach for the rulebook.  Take a deep breath, drop the clipboard and let The Ooomph Factor grow...

So, Is Google Bigger Than TV?

"Let's not kid ourselves, Google is the most impressive and important development in the history of marketing since the invention of television. And I'm not overstating it," said John Battelle last week.  Now he may not be completely impartial but he's got a point.  Which is amazing not least because TV is an industry whereas Google is a single company.  A few figures make the point.  In the UK, it looks like more will be spent on web advertising than on TV ads next year.  And a good chunk of that will be Search revenues of which Google will trouser the lion's share - £1.75bn this year alone.  Or look at the the four main ad groups plying their TV trade.  IPG, WPP, Omnicom and Publicis are together are worth about $40bn currently - by market caps.  Whereas Google is worth more than four times that amount at $180bn.  And Google's revenues continue to grow at 40 per cent while the Big Four Agencies are happy with single figure growth.  Innovation wise ITV brings back Sir Trevor McDonald while Google tries to rewire the industry's business model by sucking it into the AdWords programme.  The only company with anything like the firepower to compete is Microsoft with a market cap that dwarfs even that of Brin & Page Inc - at $282bn.  However, in recent weeks we have seen that even Ballmer & Co has struggled to get to grips with the online media market that Google currently rules.

Why Supply Chains Need P2P Plumbing

Supply chain management is not a term to get the blood rushing but it is a vital corporate function that describes taking raw materials from the field to the shelf.  I spent a few years at a large consultancy and saw first hand quite how complex the planning of such supply chains can become.  Armies of smart consultants would spend months mapping out the passage of exotic supplies through global megacorps, before turning the whole process into bits and bytes.  To date, supply chains have been just like company plumbing.  When blockages appeared they were quickly flushed out to keep the pipes to retailers and customers flowing freely.  However, these days, there are some new pipes that are changing the nature of markets - and supply chains.  They are the P2P pipes that customers have set up themselves. And these P2P and networked media environments have created blockages that can't just be flushed out with a corporate enema.  Think of the effect that Shawn Fanning's Napster had on the music industry.  By linking together all the customers in the market he stuck a spanner in the companies' supply chains and they've never recovered.  But all he did was recognise that the marketplace was demanding something different and used the tools at hand to meet it.  What if the music industry had extended their supply chains to include some of these new P2P pipes?  By focusing on rebuilding the marketplace, rather than protecting their industry, they could have trousered the revenues that their customers wanted to give them - rather than suing them for the ones that they didn't.  Instead they despatched a million writs, let Apple hijack the entire marketplace and joined the DRM-free party when it was too late and their reputations were dirt.  But that's all hindsight right?  Well yes, but it's also a warning for companies who still that think their supply chains stop at the corporate walls.  Compare the experience of the music labels to Lego who have extended their own supply chains into the 'grey' market where their customers are busy innovating - and plumbed them right back into the business. The company's vision in this area has transformed its fortunes.  So where do you start?  The first step is to understand which P2P pipes are relevant - and remember they may 'just' be small discussions about problems or innovations.  There are many ways to do this.  Dell's IdeaStorm and MyStarBucksIdea should help both companies stay on top of any new plumbing appearing beyond their firewalls and allow them to act.  Alternatively, you can ignore the whole thing and hope that the next Shawn Fanning isn't doing some P2P plumbing on your supply chains as we speak.

Do You Bond Or Bridge?

Networked media (eg the blogopshere) at its best is an incredibly varied mixture of expert, passionate voices from around the world throwing their respective types of mud at the wall to see how they mix.  At its worst it's Techmeme.  People who all work in a narrow field trying to incrementally raise the debating bar on a small range of niche opinions.  That's not to say that single issue communities are bad.  Far from it.  However, with the addition of too much caffeine and not enough fresh air they can quickly fester.  One of my favourite ideas from Clay Shirky's new book is there are two types of 'capital' in social networks - that which bonds and that which bridges.  It's a pretty straightforward notion and all the better for it.  The most successful networks have people who are very good at making that network tick and others who remember to open the window from time to time.  Last year I tried a little experiment with a member of the plannersphere (fyi: a distributed blogging community of people who work in the planning departments of advertising agencies).  The aim was to try a little bridging between the advertising and networked media worlds by writing posts for each other's blogs.  Interestingly, it didn't quite come off.  Mainly, I think because we were both too busy.  However, it made me realise that while it's fairly easy to bond in an area that you are naturally interested in - it can be quite difficult to bridge between two disparate groups.  Quoting from Ronald Burt's 'The Social Origin of Good Ideas', Shirky suggests that: "People connected to groups beyond their own can expect to find themselves delivering valuable ideas, seeming to be gifted with creativity.  This is not creativity born of deep intellectual ability.  It is creativity as an import-export business.  An idea mundane in one group can be a valuable insight in another."  I think there are ways to develop bridging skills.  For instance, I try to not read too many RSS feeds from people I know and to refresh them regualrly.  But it's very easy to stagnate and sink back into the Techmeme pool....

All The World's A Platform

Just when you think the web world is going to settle down, get out its pipe and slippers and kick back, someone rips up the blueprint and we have to start all over again.  When Facebook decided to create a platform that other people (ie software developers) could come and use as a shop window for their stuff it catapulted the social network from a preppy hang-out straight into the big-dog-o-sphere.  The reason simply being that new stuff attracts people which makes it a better place to launch new stuff.  (Think restaurants).  It wasn't obvious that this move would work but 6,000 widgets later and following one of the most astute deals ever done on this or any other planet, we can safely say...good job.  However, even more tellingly, is the speed at which the other grand fromages have jumped on the bandwagon.  First, Murdoch's Myspace followed suit, then the open platform became a major strand of Jerry Yang's uber-strategy for Yahoo, then Microsoft stumped up everything-for-nothing just to get a foothold, and now Google lines up an alliance to try and out-Facebook Facebook - in the shape of OpenSocial.  In a very Google-like way, this new standard is huge, ambitious and spread out all over the web.  In a very un-Google like way, they are playing catch-up.  For marketing folk it means that the world of widgets, which can be used to create little (or big) branding tools, just got a whole lot bigger.

More TV Morphing

It always surprises me how little attention the advertising industry gives to the changing nature of the business model on British TV.  Any debate is normally restricted to a defensive, nostalgic view about audience size and share, rather than embracing innovation and the possibilities for a medium that many people still engage with.  Subsequently, when possible solutions to the funding gap created by a shifting landscape appear (eg audience participation) they are overlooked and managed very poorly.  Yesterday's Observer dug a little deeper into TV's latest crisis and offered several insights into its roots: "As broadcasters look to diversify revenues, they are starting to get into consumer businesses.  They are not making profits by selling advertising time to a handful of agencies any more; they are taking money from customers in the same way Tesco or Amazon does."  The Great TV Morph continues.

Packing Up The Big Top

These days brands are much better viewed as instruments of intelligence to draw information into a company, not as Big Tops to promote the business' latest acts and curiosities.  As information and data accumulates in petabyte-size chunks in online public forums, the insights and ideas of small marketing teams within corporations increasingly sound like distant voices in the wind.  What hope does a brand team have of getting its acrobatics noticed above the ear-bleeding roar of vast online markets trading in gossip, innuendo and scandal?  Not to mention any tasty bones left lying around in corporate cupboards.  The message is now so familiar it's boring.  When people want to know about something they go online and see what everyone else thinks.  They don't rush to the corporate website to check out what gems the guys in marketing have come up with.  Or to see if the new jingle is going to pique their aspirations.  They jump in the bazaar.  Trip Advisor.  Amazon.  Blogs....

The Deep Waters Of Second Life

Deep End is a phrase Johnnie and I use when helping brands understand how modern web technology and cultures can quickly take them out of their comfort zones and into powerful currents.  Likewise, there's plenty of warm, shallow pools where they can splash around safely to their heart's content.  The problem is judging the depth of the water from the sidelines.  Some very inviting streams actually run quite deep and diving in without checking the tides can mean losing touch with shore.  Second Life is a case in point and Wired has a great article about brands that have dived into the metaverse, only to find it less than refreshing.  At first sight SL looks like a fun, albeit fantastic, manifestation of the modern web and a perfect place to splash around.  However, as I've mentioned before,  it's really an alpha-geek paradise run by a hardcore of freedom-loving hackers - not exactly mainstream retailing heaven.  Furthermore, they come tooled up in the shape of the Second Life Liberation Army, which undertakes disruptive action, including hiring mercenaries  to carry out L$1000 (virtual) hits on content developers bringing brands into SL.  "I felt like I was in The Shining," Wired reports a marketeer from Coke as saying after a recce of the metaverse.  The modern web is a wonderful, diverse environment.  But before diving into the next bright and shiny waters, make sure you know where the bottom is...

Brain Fuel Part 4

Supernova has a video of a debate between David 'Miscellaneous' Weinberger and Andrew 'Cult' Keen. Weinberger hits his normal brilliant heights whilst managing to use phrases like, "messiness is a good thing"  and, "the joy of our complexity is overwhelming the simplicity that has been foisted on us by the broadcast media."  God love him.  Keen needs to be given credit for taking the unpopular Simon Cowell role, complete with black T-shirt.  Better still, the debate at the end gets quite tasty.  Warning - don't try and listen to this whilst doing something else.  More a focused cup of tea experience.