Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

Book Review : 'Ignore Everybody'

I first met Hugh 'Gapingvoid' MacLeod at Reboot 7.0 in 2005 (my all time favourite nethead do) and have got to know him a little since.  Initially, over a couple of great conversations related to his English Cut and Stormhoek projects; then at a fun evening watching the film he helped out with; on a very entertaining trip to a Microsoft bashola in Paris where we both got to quiz MS' Grandest Fromages; and at a fine dinner with the Edelman crew last year.  And like millions of others I’ve followed his blog forever and have always admired his ability to be one step ahead of the game with concepts like the 'Global Microbrand' and 'Personal Sovereignty'.  Both notions I have taken to heart in my own professional life.  So I was very happy to receive an advance copy of his new book, Ignore Everybody.  However, I thought it might all be too familiar to really enjoy.  But enjoy it I did.  It’s based on Hugh’s fantastic ‘How To Be Creative’ manifesto but could also be described as – ‘Gapingvoid’s Greatest Hits’.  It’s a very unusual mixture of business book for the networked age, observations about life and practical tips on becoming a creative professional.  All genuinely inspiring stuff with the trademark GV dark twists thrown in for good measure.  I’ve already mentioned the book to a few people in passing and have almost given them my advance copy to read.  But I’ve decided to hold onto it.  I think one day it might be a bit of a collectors' item.  So go and buy your own!

I Am An Outbound Spam Filter

A few weeks ago a client generously told me that they valued my contribution because I was trying to, ‘do good stuff’.  'In fact', his colleague added lightheartedly, 'you are our outbound spam filter'.  The remark was clearly intended as a compliment but initially I was confused.  The client's company was not to my knowledge a great user of low-down spamming techniques.  However, I soon realised that the comment didn't refer to unwanted email but more generally to traditional ‘push’ marketing.  I really liked this fun description and it also set me thinking.  Traditional marketing isn't really like spam - is it?  Clearly spam, the underground practice of harvesting emails from the web and launching bulk campaigns pushing largely illegal goods, is a long way from the activities of the mainstream marketing industry.  However, it's fair to say that both involve dispatching commercial messages to large audiences in the hope that one or two individuals will be interested.  That aside, traditional marketing, in its defence, exists around a positive exchange where people accept some promotion in exchange for free or subsidised media and entertainment.  But there's no doubt that this exchange has been abused to the point that people now use filtering technology beyond their email box.  Sky+ and Freeview allows viewers to ‘avoid’ television advertising.  Adblockers let people remove banners and pop-ups from their surfing.  Direct mail can be stopped through the Mailing Preference Service.  So, increasingly, traditional marketing and spam, while different entities, do share some characteristics.  Which, considering that spammers are thought of as semi-criminal pondlife, can hardly be positive.  But what's the alternative?  If you can’t buy attention for your messages through paid media, what can you do?  A while back I suggested that that as media becomes increasingly networked and socially driven, brands will need to ‘earn the right’ to operate through positive participation.  Only this mindset will allow them to build the goodwill that is the lifeblood of the modern social web.  The web that the majority of their customers probably now use in some shape or form.  I noticed this week that Fred Wilson has picked up on a similar notion that he describes as Paid Media vs Earned Media and suggests it's just good business.  The practicalities of this earn-it approach are creating something of value that people genuinely want, seek out and recommend.  And committing to that over the long-term.  Or as my client put it - ‘do good stuff’.  So there it is.  After years of trying to describe my job to my family, friends and professional associates, it turns out that I am an, ‘outbound spam filter’.  Not the most graceful job title in the world.  But at least there’s a future in it.

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...

The Share-And-Compare Economy

The web has evolved into a billion soap boxes where people can gather and discuss, rant, plot or chat about their passions and problems.  Naturally, some of the chit-chat is about companies and their products and services - positive or otherwise.  The question is how do companies best react to this mass online critique?  In many ways, there’s nothing new here.  Marketing folk have always kept an ear to the ground and taken the views of their customers seriously.  Focus groups are now so prevalent that almost nothing escapes the confines of MegaCorp without going through a few rounds of such scrutiny.  So what’s the big fuss?  People used to chat away to each other and are now they are doing the same thing on blogs and online communities.  The difference, of course, is that today we also have Google.  And a million other aggregation tools and review sites, such as Trip Advisor. It’s not that we can talk to each other, it’s that we can find out what everyone else thinks.  The social web has created a share-and-compare economy - where traded opinion affects purchase decisions.  And unlike the wider economy this one is growing.  In fact, a McKinsey report this summer noted that : “25 per cent of Western Europe’s Internet users now post comments and reviews about consumer products of all kinds.  User generated media sites are growing in numbers of visitors and participants by 100 per cent a year, traditional sites by perhaps 20 to 30 per cent.”  One area that has become more popular as a result of this new environment is Co-Creation – the idea that innovation and ideas can be discovered by...

Ten Blogging Tips

MediaTrust is a great organisation which helps charities and voluntary groups by teaming them up with media and communications professionals to extend their fundraising and profile-building.  It's also a client of mine.  They recently asked me to add to their excellent marketing guides with some thoughts about blogging, which I've done as Ten Blogging Tips.  Here's the first one: "Do You Need A Blog At All? : Blog is a widely used word and its definition has become a little vague.  It means a website that is designed to foster two-way dialogue among a community of people interested in each other or a specific subject.  Does that sound like something that you might find useful? Then great.  If not there are plenty of other ways to become involved in social media.  A blog can be useful but only if it's going to be used in the right way."  The rest are here.  What's your top blogging tip?

Compared With What?

I always like it when someone poses the ROI question in discussions about the social web - 'What's the return?'.  Recently, I have found myself responding by asking, 'Compared with what?'.  This may sound like a clever-clever response but it isn't meant to be.  There has long been a sense of what different aspects of the marketing mix are good for.  PR is good at explaining complicated messages but its value is really difficult to quantify.  TV is the big blunderbuss that gets across the banner headline but the metrics look increasingly creaky when justifying its price.  DM is a good way to build data and customer profiles that can drive action but it has a junk problem, especially in the recycling age.  Sponsorship builds good long-term recognition but can be a very expensive tactic.  Print can be targeted and deliver wonderful visuals but isn't terribly interactive.  Search is great value but doesn't build brands.  Radio is relatively cheap but (obviously) isn't visual.  But social media hasn't found its place in that intuitive ranking system because it's new and in flux.  And my question is intended to define the role of blogs, video sharing, communities and social networks in that broader context.  One obvious but very big difference is that most marketing tools have an established metrics system based on media effectiveness.  However, social or networked media doesn't have such a system because it's not about measuring media.  It's about measuring the interaction between people.  The irony here is that measuring social media is very easy to do in practice, but very difficult to do in theory.  On the modern web you can see if people are interacting with you through analytical tools that interpret what is happening in real-time, or just by counting how many people are talking to you and seeing what they are saying.  For instance, it's really easy to see if a blog or online community is popular or not - and with who - by looking at the comments or seeing who is linking to it.  However, this approach doesn't really fit in a theoretical conversation such as, 'If we invest in this media plan we will reach x percentage of the demographic over this period of time which means a unit cost of y'.  Which is what most mainstream media does.  We all know blogs, communities, forums, social nets and other networked media are very real in practice. But they're invisible in theory.  Which makes people's heads hurt.  I'm sure the area will develop its own place in the intuitive marketing armoury over time.  But only if people continue to ask that ROI question.

Blog School - Getting Down To Business

John Gapper, the FT's Chief Business commentator no less, says that business blogging has reached a tipping point (via his own blog of course).  Gapper points to a stable of heavyweights including Joe Nocera of the New York Times, Justin Fox of Time/Fortune, Daniel Gross of Newsweek and, natch, Robert Peston of the BBC.  It seems that the blogopshere's transformation from, "sad, joyless people in their underwear who sit in front of their computers all day," to influential market-makers is complete.  A good deal of my professional work is blog training in one form or another.  My aim, as ever, is to bring the subject alive and create blogging plans that people find engaging and sustainable.  I also spend time exploring how writing for the web is different from writing for other media.  Earlier this year a journalist client of mine christened the sessions Blog School - a name which has stuck.  If you fancy joining the new breed of business bloggers but aren't too sure where to start, you can find out more here.

Guest Post : Where's The Ad Cycle Going?

Regular commenter Rory MacDonald has kindly written this timely guest post.  After the traders, it is the Trad-Ad’ers who will be the next to go. I was chatting online nearly a year ago about the fact that spend around the Beijing Olympics was the only thing holding up the Big Ad agencies. In an economic downturn, marketing and advertising agencies are always the cat that gets kicked twice as hard by their downtrodden clients. And yes, doom and gloom mongering is just so easy to do at the moment that it is already very tedious. However, as traditional advertising takes its cyclical beating, this time there is someone new on the sidelines watching with a sense of schadenfreude, knowing that the market is actually turning to their advantage and that it may never fully turn back.  It's not just that the big advertising firms don’t get online (James posted that they do when he got back from Cannes).  But I think it is that they don’t want to. Real, Open Source, online marketing brings the same free culture market dynamics to a stagnant, over-monopolised market that Open Source has done to the software world.  We are unlikely to see Sir Martin Sorrell selling the Big Issue any time soon. The Microsoft equivalents of the media and advertising world will we be around for a long time and run alongside the free culture upstarts.  But these monoliths will be faced with the same dilemmas as Microsoft, in that the only way they can collaborate with the new world is to cannibalise significant chunks of their bloated businesses.  And further down the chain there is a whole ecosystem of smaller traditional marketing, PR and advertising businesses that now really do have to evolve to survive, rather than just paying lip service to the online world.  As this recession bites, it will spark off a vicious circle in traditional advertising. Not only is it tougher to find clients, but the clients that persist are increasingly boring to a vast majority of the audience. Magazine pages filled with irrelevant ads for cars and other un-affordables and TV commercial breaks that are the sole preserve of price comparison sites, Unilever and Nestle. So the media itself gets qualitatively worse and in turn becomes less attractive.  As this happens, talent is downsized from the traditional industry and left looking for something more inspiring to do. So real online marketing based on free culture just sits there quietly in the wings, waiting for the inevitable.

Paul Graham : Let's Fix Advertising

Paul Graham, Mr Y Combinator, has posted 30 big areas that he thinks need improvement and has challenged the world's engineers and entrepreneurs to come up with the answers.  One is simply entitled 'Fix Advertising'.  Graham is super-smart and a serious innovator so his take on the issue is well worth a read: "Advertising could be made much better if it tried to please its audience, instead of treating them like victims who deserve x amount of abuse in return for whatever free site they're getting.  It doesn't work anyway; audiences learn to tune out boring ads, no matter how loud they shout.  What we have now is basically print and TV advertising translated to the web.  The right answer will probably look very different. It might not even seem like advertising, by current standards.  So the way to approach this problem is probably to start over from scratch: to think what the goal of advertising is, and ask how to do that using the new ingredients technology gives us.  Probably the new answers exist already, in some early form that will only later be recognized as the replacement for traditional advertising.  Bonus points if you can invent new forms of advertising whose effects are measurable, above all in sales."  Any ideas...?  This might be a starting point.

Dear Mr Livin De Past

From Rory responding to Mr Livin De Past: "I believe that this is what Mr De Past was referring to. It would be worrying if the companies and authorities weren't such a bunch of utter muppets. Free Culture is too fast to be held back. Put in place a regulation, there will be a work around in days. Look at the 'unhackable' DRM on the HD formats, that one took about 2 weeks as I remember. You can make DRM stronger but the result is ever more resource hungry operating systems which burn up 10x as many processor cycles as necessary (Hmmmm - Vista is popular isn't it). So you get to destroy the environment and cost your customers unnecessary amounts of cash on hardware and power bills, in order that the behemoths can protect their precious IP."