Modern Marketing - Blog by Collaborate PR & Marketing

MyCessPit

Good lordy, the way MySpace is sometimes portrayed you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was hell on earth - sucking in the world's bogeymen like a black hole.  This week's Economist reports that it's where paedophiles spend their lives grooming the underage, al-Qaeda communicate plans about world domination, Playboy recruit topless models and - prepare yourself - teenagers are rude about their teachers!  Luckily, the advertising community are making themselves available to steer brands through this quagmire of filth.  David Cohen, a grand fromage at Universal McCann says he, "wouldn't be caught dead in that kind of environment".  Mystifyingly, he goes onto say that when he does recommend it, he tells clients to stick to the bits that News Corporation have built and not to go anywhere near the, "unpredictable, user-generated, content".  (Presumably because that's where the terrorists, paedophiles and Hugh Hefner hang out). Furthermore, Cohen says...

Old General Speaks Up

Commenting on the post below, Mike "The General" Smock speaks up for the school of command-and-control:  "As a proud practioner of "traditional" command and control marketing I am damn delighted to see the trends on the "General's" chart heading up. If you new marketing pukes would stop partying and start competing you might see results like this too.  In all serious, I'm still waiting for you to provide some solid case studies of how your new marketing "partying" leads to genuine competitive advantage."  I admire Mike's strident style but I think it's increasingly difficult to see how command and control can work in a world where consumers (aka people) hold all the cards.  And that's not just the view of new marketing pukes, but also some super senior players.  But you know what they say about the old guard.  UPDATE:  The General and his soldiers are NOT happy.
 

Weinberger Masterclass

Here's another masterclass from Mr Cluetrain himself.  One point he makes is that companies should realise that the blogopshere is not about them.  Even when blogs are talking about a company's products, they aren't talking about the company's products themselves, they are talking about what those products mean to them in their lives.  It's a slightly tricky distinction to make but one that is very clear when we prepare our blog reports.  We sometimes call it the 'ownership experience' -  a very, rounded practical report of what it's like to live with a product everyday.  There are always some surprises.  As an example we recently did a report for a frozen food company and found that whilst people like the products, they sometimes don't buy them because they are so heavy to carry home.  There's also a great section about another subject dear to our heart at Collaborate - risk.  Better that you just go and listen to it (near the end) but suffice to say it includes this line: "There is a huge risk in not taking risks".  Sublime.

The MySpace Tidal Wave

Such is the tidal like nature of MySpace that a political campaign in the online community protesting about immigration law led to thousands of teens all over the US walking out of school - 36,000 in LA alone.  Subsequently, MySpace leader Tom Anderson alerted the vast community to a report about the campaign on NPR and that one link brought the organisations' website to its knees. How long before Tom Anderson is being courted by Washington I wonder?  (Via the supersonic Danah Boyd).

Rusbridger On Craigs List

Alan Rusbridger, Editor of The Guardian, spoke last week at the RSA about the implications of the latest wave of web technology for newspapers.  He's a great speaker, casting across the newspaper industry and spinning all the trends together in an effortless style.  It's well worth a listen.  It must have chilled the audience to hear such a high-profile individual compare the newspaper industry to antique book shops.  I particularly enjoyed the way in which he draws a comparison between the business models of Craig's List and the New York Times - by looking at the buildings they operate from.  One a 'shack' with eighteen people in it, the other a 'megalithic, grand piano' housing more than 10,000 newsfolk.  Yet the latter is terrified of the former.  Mike Butcher writes it up here complete with juicy quotes:  "There's a revolution as big as Gutenberg and Caxton going on."

Official : PVR Ads Are More Effective

Johnnie and I spoke at the Market Research Society's annual bash yesterday, at The Barbican in London.  We did an overview of the user-generated world to an audience of about 200 before handing over to Dr Alastair Goode of Duckfoot and Julian Dobinson who heads up Sky Media's research.  Alastair presented the findings of research which shows that ads are more effective when viewed at PVR speed (30 x faster than normal) - if and it's a big if - people have already seen the advert.  The reason is all to do with the efficiency of the subconscious - 'Blink' style.  There is no doubting Alastair's credentials or methodology but it's a difficult one for the industry to digest.  For instance, one member of the audience asked if it meant Sky were about to launch ad breaks with 1 second long slots?  The proceedings were all chaired by Richard Huntingdon, Head Planner at United London (previously HHCL) who has developed a nasty blogging habit here ;-).

Participation Rules

In the traditional command-and-control school of marketing, references to war are widespread.  Campaigning, targeting, collateral and shots are all part of marketeers' efforts to bombard groups of consumers until a few of them are 'acquired'.  Another battlefield term is 'engagement' which sounds friendly but has more to do with Rules of Engagement than wedding rings.  But while many old generals cling to their empires, modern marketeers know that everything has changed.  Consumers (aka people) are hiding behind the impregnable defences of PVRs, adblockers, subscriptions and their own media.  So these days its the Rules of Participation that are critical.  The difference...

Open Source TV

FanLib in the US descibes itself as People Powered Entertainment which basically means it helps media brands interact with online communities in very clever ways.  Their latest project is to let fans of cult Showtime programme The L Word write an episode or a fanisode.  The 'rules of participation' have been carefully set with people being given a scenario that they can start from and some tasty prizes on offer.  The activity is being sponsored by Saks and W Hotels who are happy for the chance to reach out to The L Word audience - Showtime is nomally 100 per cent ad free. The producers are happy too as the show's viewing figures are up 50 per cent.  It's a great example of bringing brands into an existing self-organised community (this time the massive world of FanFic) in a sensitive way.  Super-modern marketing.

Nike's Own Mega Community

Nike are probably the original modern marketeers, always staying just ahead of the curve and then commiting in a big way.  So it's no surprise to hear of plans for Joga, an attempt to kick start a massive, global social network based around soccer - in conjunction with Google.  The timing is great just ahead of the World Cup and judging from the way Trevor Edwards, a Nike marketing dude, talks they have the tone just right: "We have to make sure we stay in their (customers) world, stay connected, stay relevant, and, more importantly, we allow them to do what they want. It's their world, their lives. We give them the tools." Invite only too - super smart.

10 Modern Marketing Facts

I've refreshed the 10 Modern Marketing Facts that I use as an introduction to meetings, workshops and talks.  It's an attempt to capture the main aspects of today's marketing environment, complete with quote from a marketing grand fromage.  You can see them here.