Digital Influence Mapping Project

PR Wiki

Thanks to Steve Rubel we are undertaking a new 'conversation' at the PR Wiki. I commend him for staking out a discussion about what the PR industry needs to do to get sharper on the rise of social computing and personal media. By this time, most of the big agencies and many of the smaller ones have some claim to a 'practice' or similar initiative in response to the popularity of blogs and podcasting.

Some are more authentic than others. Of course, I believe in our approach at Ogilvy PR. But beyond the competitive posturing, I am looking forward to an open discussion about what's working and what needs work as our industry embraces changes in whom we have considered influencers historically.

Post Mashups

As discoved through Random Culture, the Washington post has jumped on the mashup bandwagon. They have "opened up" their RSS feeds to users who want to integrate them into new applications. One that i particularly like is the "Ripped from the Headlines" quiz which ports the Post headlines into a quiz format. This is a great app that would be ideal for schools.

Another is a true old-school "mash up" that plots the stories on a Google Map. Click on the continent and get the stories relevant to that part of the globe.

All of this can be found on the Posts Remix "blog". Check it out.

Burger King Perv

There 's a story in AdAge this am about a viral video on Heavy.com that is picking up lots of downloads - 4.1 million (and one, after me). What i find interesting is not the hijacking of the ugly plastic Burger King "King" mask but the cool and calm response from the agency - VML. Here are the points:

• BK is advertising elsewhere on Heavy
• Heavy is a site targeting young male adults with the usual sexy, game-focused, funny videos and other content (lots and lots of movie and game ads, oh yeah and Target and BK)
• VML gave heavy the masks
• Someone in the Heavy "community" created a bawdy, suggestive video featuring a guy in the mask
• Agency (VML) tells trade pub (AdAge) essentially, "it's no big deal." Basically, they feel the King is in the popular vernacular and open to this type of interpretation.

Look for a story later on when the client gets involved and pulls its ads from BK.

Digital Political Campaigns

Here is a great post - a post mortem on a campaign in NY run by Micah Sifry (sibling to David, founder of Technorati, I'm guessing) for Andrew Rasiej running for Public Advocate. They only recieved 5% of the vote but his story is a compelling blow-by-blow of what went right and what didn't work so well. Here is how he states their campaign priorities:

"We had three over-arching goals for this campaign:
1) that we could push into the public debate some big new ideas about reinventing municipal government, fostering civic engagement, and the value of getting everyone an affordable highspeed Internet connection;
2) that the right way to run for office is to be as open, transparent, people-centered, small-donor-based and network-driven as possible (building on the experiences of various 2004 campaigns); and
3) that reform-minded individuals, groups, writers, editorialists, bloggers, and institutions, along with locally-focused civic activists, would find all of this refreshing and inspiring and they would rally to our banner and help amplify our message."

How did they do (I mean besides the resounding defeat at the polls)? Here are two quotes which reveal what they discovered:

"...and we overestimated how much the Internet could compensate for our weaknesses, in terms of spreading our message and assisting with fundraising"

"Low name recognition plus low voter attention meant that network effects (such as a message spreading virally, or friends of the campaign being able to convince their friends to donate money) were almost impossible to produce."

A fascinating read.
 

Blip.tv School

I love this! Blip.tv is teaching a class in videoblogging at the Learning Annex in NYC (classes on everything).

Blip.tv

I hadn't planned on finding and remarking on so much video on the Web. But I keep discovering new ways that people are using it. Today's Wasington Post has the inevitable story of how pornographers will jump on the smaller platforms (cell phones, iPod). Of course.

But what I find is remarkable is the democratization of the video producer. Check out Blip.tv. Essentially it is a platform for video blogs. Everything from "produced" videos about pets to the essential coffin boy video with effects. Not everything someone commits to digivid is worth watching (regardless of the copyrighted soundtrack they apply to it). But these clever glimpses of personality, humor and, yes, real emotion are just as compelling as the lastest epsiode of CSI. Why even compare them to traditional television? Because the peronal media video shows will displace regular TV ("displace" not "kill").

We are working on an advocacy program that will invite young adults to create media around a cause. Everyone keeps asking 'why would they do that?' Because they already are. 

How to make Current TV

I love CurrentTV's guide to making programming they will air. They offer a flash-based instructional than almost anyone can follow. It helps to have 'sponsorship' from Sony.  Check it out.

VP of Demand Generation

Brad Feld, an experienced VC with lots of interesting companies in the personal media space, has a particular POV on marketing especially when discussing with tech start-ups. Here's how he puts it:

"Several years ago, I suggested to my portfolio companies that they fire their VP of Marketing and hire a VP of Demand Generation (it could be the same person if the VP of Marketing was willing to accept a quota and meaningful, measurable variable compensation.)  Hopefully, this VP of Demand Generation understands the incredible power of having your customers so happy with your product that they’ll talk about it online."

A lot of companies would be better off setting aside a traditional notion of a marketing mix full of tried and often true techniques to develop a strategy around powering customer word-of-mouth. And building and empowering brand/product enthusiasts. A lot of "marketing" pros are doing that. So, I think Brad's sense that marketing consultants are only to ready to take money to then throw away on traditional marketing for these companies is a bit one-sided.

I have built word-of-marketing into many client programs over the year. Its probably less of a stretch coming from a public relations company. One of our core strategies is to garner 'third-parties' endorsement to build credibility and trust. Peer recommendations are just that. And since trust in media and traditional authorities (like corporations) continues to spiral down, we had better get smart about engaging these new digital influencers.

The Big Interconnect: Sprint vs. Yahoo

Two recent stories point out new overlap in mediums. In the Yahoo.Tivo story,the bridge here is between the home entertainment system anchored by the Tivo box and the anywhere Internet interface of tv.yahoo.com (better be part of My Yahoo 'cause this is just a deeper, personalized approach that they have already done a great job with).

Today Yahoo and Tivo announced working together to allow Yahoo users to program their Tivos from a Yahoo interface, retrieve listings from Yahoo, and generally share the love between two enthusiast brands. I know we will be seeing more cross-platform exploration from the Yahoo Connected Life division.

The other story was from a few days ago and announces Sprint's venture with the cable companies to bring video content to the next wave of cell phones. here's what they say:

"The deal envisions a launch by mid-2006 of cell phones with advanced capabilities such as wireless access live cable channels and programs stored on digital video recorder at home, as well as the ability to program a DVR remotely. The mobile phones would also feature single-screen access to e-mail and voice mail from a customer's home and wireless numbers."

And then also today, we see Yahoo partnering with SBC to establish a stronger presence on their next generations phones. The intent is to have Yahoo user's accounts more seamlessly tied to phone functions (e.g. pictures taken are one-clieck sent to Yahoo 360 galleries).

What's the connection between these Web/Mobile/TV plays? Yahoo becomes the concierge for many of my needs - a position they have long claimed (remember "Life Engine"?). I can use my phone to connect with these concierge services supplied or facilitated by trusted Yahoo. (Compare your level of trust for the mobile company you use). But I can also use any Web-enabled interface including the old-school My Yahoo Web page. And my concierge will help me manage how I consume content like video - where I want when I want. It is not a new vision but it is coming to life.

More video on the Web

I have been collecting information about how folks are using/distributing different types of video on the Web. Here's a summary of some of the phenomena being reported out there:

• Verizon Broadband: student films on the transformative power of Broadband
• VW Passat: 120 "Films" about features
• Motherload from Comedy Central: new braodband "network"