We have a great Digital Influence team in Singapore. Smart people working with some of the best brands in the world. The team launched a blog a couple of months back and they also launched an idea called the Open Room. It's a meeting place for those neck deep in social media and marketers. Not too much structure - just enough to have a conversation or a meet up.
They have posted a terrific video with sound bites from noteworthy digital leaders from SG:
Disney surprised me at the Media Relations Summit 2008. Duncan Wardle, VP of Global PR Disney Parks, talked openly about having some challenges launching social media-based programs inside the company. The legal department was mentioned several times with a knowing tone in his voice.
They have several social media-based programs going: Virtual Magic Kingdom (think Habbo Hotel meets NeoPets) Dream Jobs (would you like to be a Pirate at the park for a day? Who wouldn't?), a Mom's panel and others. He introduced each by commenting on how challenging it was to get these "uncontrollable" programs through legal.
But the insight came during his description of some of these programs and when he answered the question about where social media responsibility should reside in the marcom world within an organization like Disney.
More Complex Integration
Duncan described having all players of the marcom mix at the table - the brand managers, the advertising folks, the Public Relations team, the CRM folks, etc... That is how we are working more and more. Who "owns" social media or it's more mature outcome, word of mouth marketing, is a trick question. He described how they strike more complex deals now with entities like the big portals (e.g. Yahoo) which weave the communication goals and business objectives of all of the discip0lines to get the most out of the portal. So, it's not just an ad buy to drive traffic to an initiative, it's editorial integration, an even a bigger commitment on selling rooms via the travel channel within the portal, and so on.
Campaigns meant to generate customer or employee involvement and word of mouth work better when complemented and integrated with PR and advertising. They need to work together to get the best effect. And social media? Social media is a set of tools, techniques and methods used to reach a marketing or communications goal - usually in the form of word of mouth marketing. I added this last distinction. I think it was implicit in Duncan's talk.
Somewhere between 300-500 people are on hand this morning for the Ogilvy Verge conference at the Times Center in NYC. A collection of marketers from client brands, friends of the family and Ogilvy marketeers mill about the atrium waiting for the auditorium to open.
Lobby Highlight:
There is a great touch screen table from TacTable. About 4x6 feet, the table was designed and created for use in the Sprint stores to tantalize customers regarding content options for their phone. It works brilliantly. I love having such a big work surface. I wonder if I would leave it cluttered like my real desk or my current desktop....
Introduction:
Before we get to Carla's intro, we have a very funky/artsy quartet jamming to a sound sensitive projector. they look up from time to time to see the impact of the their music.
Carla Hendra, Co-CEO of Ogilvy kicked off the event by introducing the essence of "perpetual beta" - following that spark of inspiration, trying something, getting it out there, asking for feedback (or getting it anyhow) and tweaking. That's a far cry from my days producing TV commercials back in the day when we would agonize for 2 hours on the placement of a "sweat" on a can of refreshing Coke.
Dada, Data, Alpha, Beta - that's the theme this year. I could tell you what it means but then I'd have to kill you.
George Bodenheimer - President ESPN & ABC Sports
Their mission is to serve fans - I love that.
"You have to be prepared to fail" - luv that, too.
At the WeMedia08 Conference, I had the chance to hear about two different yet very complimentary initiaves to jumpstart community journalism in the face of traditional journalism "shrinkage."
Representative Journalism
The first came from Leonard Witt, Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication Department of Communication Kennesaw State University (third largest university in Georgia!). I shared a cab over to the University of Miami this morning with him and heard about a great program they are piloting (small grant) in Minnesota. It is all about creating journalists for hire by communities - any kind of community or affinity group. He calls it representative journalism. It might be a local, region-defined community who feels that there should be more coverage of education issues. It might be a group who share an interest in the fate of manatees (his example) and feel it deserves the coverage of a journalist. Would a 100 people in a community pay $100 a year for the efforts and output of said journalist? How much different is that then parents coming together to fund programs at their local public school?
The James L. Knight Foundation
The second came from Alberto Ibarguen, President, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with anew $3m grant to Ashoka, an organization dedicated to activating and supporting social entrepeneurship. Bill Drayton started Ashoka 25 years ago on the belief that social change can happen via single entrepeneurs.
Alberto Ibarguen saw an opportunity to engage a community organization (vs. a journalism organization) to help define a new form of journalism to help communities get and distribute information that is "hyperlocal" in the sense of hyper-relevant.
I am not sure this is their conscious intent, but it seems that the Knight Foundation is smartly using their philanthropic strength to explore possibilities for how the local news business (i.e. newspaper) can be razed and rebuilt. Think about what is happening in the music business. The old music business model is being rebuilt from the ground up on thousands of MySpace pages and millions of iTunes downloads. The new model won't support the existing infrastucture. Same-same with newspapers. That "business" (actually a collection of businesses - news, marketplace, local information) can't support the established infrastructure (leading to painful, serial, drawn out downsizings of newsrooms et al).
Mr. Ibarguen did outright say that he is seeking to fulfill on the role newspapers played in the 60's and 70's in terms of social bonding. While I absolutely believe in his conviction, it is clear that the Knight Foundation is practicing outside innovation to apply to their businesses. One more way smart people brought together by WeMedia are re-inventing "media."
Online magazines are an anachronism. I remember when Launch was a CD-ROM "digizine." In fact, we did one of the first interactive advertisiments for Sony which still seems pretty cool. But the whole digizine concept seemed to me to have nowhere to go in teh age of blogs et al.
Luv it. Typed in the bands I listen to most starting with Nick Cave and Social Distortion. And in a few moments I had a custom, daily digizine with text and motion media "published" and ready for a read. The interface has that chunky Web 2.0 simplicity which I love so well. And if I am not into the whole magazine metaphor, I can subscribe via RSS.
Some of the magic is in the format. Some in the simple promise of content that like my Pandora account will focus on artists I like and those that are related. If they can pay off on the relation- thing like Pandora does, then this will be spectacular.
Now the challenge is that I have yet to recieve an update (requested one week updates). I am going to chalk that off to beta-status.
No matter how "elegant" can a content service that must go beyond RSS delivery to pay-off on its value?
Social media amplifies everyones' voice. In many cases, it has broken the dominance of traditional media and corporate communicators by empowering "citizen journalists" to break stories and challenge the traditional headlines. Moms can connect with each other and get advice versus relying on the "experts" annointed by publishing houses and media companies.
But health is one of those areas where we may bemoan the tyranny of traditional medicine and the special interest influence of pharmaceutical and insurance providers, but I still can't diagnose a major illness never mind treat it. I rely on a doctor. (regretably as mine is such an old-school, "stop-your-whining"- kind of doctor).
iMedix just won the Crunchies for Best New Startup 2007. This is annointed them by the social media tech community from the Valley (I am guessing here as there were 0ver 122K votes cast to determine the winners) where the emphasis is on "tech" and venture capital. It is not a hotbed of medical innovation.
At it's heart, iMedix is a social network for people who want to talk with other people about common conditions and health interests. If I have thyroid cancer (I don't but do have a related thyroid thingee), I can type it into their super-simple interface and recieve simple web search results from prefered, brand name sources (are they "scraping?") and a number of people who have tagged themselves as interested in 'thyroid' or 'thyroid cancer.'
Now, I will admit that I am a bit curious about what the crowd makes of this weird phenomena of thyroid malfunction. I am suspicious of some environmental condition that will reveal itself someday (my wife, myself and our cat all suffer from a related condition). Still, why would I reach out to these people?
The iMedix social network has a lot of things going for it and most of those are in the simplicity of the interface, the function and the overall ease of use. It stands as a strong testament to the strengths of a Web 2.0 mindset. Still many services are trying a social network model for healthcare issues. Some, like Revolution Health mix community content and features with professional information from trusted brands like Cleaveland Clinic, Mayoclinic.com and others. There are even "doctor bloggers'. Inspire, formerly Clinicahealth, goes a different direction by offering a social network platform to those that share a condition and want to connect with each other. It might be the Preemie social network or the Diet and Fitness community at Discovery Health.
iMedix is a broader social network driven by a front-end search interface that drives you to people who have tagged a common interest. We don't know much about each other. The service is new and most profiles are half-baked or not baked at all. Mine included. I am just not sure how much of my health interests I want to put on my profile beyond the one I have shared in this post.
Problems with iMedix:
I like the technical and user experience. But that's not a good enough reason to give it the best startup award (the awards were user-voted). We'll see if they get past the weaknesses mentioned above to unlock a truly powerful health social network. To do, they will have to probably partner with some of the more trusted information providers. It's not likely enough to aggregate their search results.
Will they change? Or does iMedix just want to flip the company? Or worse, are they struck by tech hubris that won't let them see through to these weaknesses enough to fix them?
Take a look at our buddies, Podtech's, Mogulus implementation for CES. As per previous years, they are running an "off-campus" house for all of the bloggers at CES. Our guys will be out there with Intel. It's fun watching the live feed.
I read a great post by Fred Wilson over at A VC. He reflected on his kids (3) media behaviors as an imperfect yet still insightful barometer of trends. Sure it's not a great sample but his observations are still quite meaningful.
I look at my own tribe and what they do everyday. They are 10 and 13 so, they haven't advanced to too much independent consumption (buying DVDs, CDs, indpendent movie-going). Still, I look at the average week and find some interesting habits. But before I catalogue their consumption, here's what I make of it:
Digital Trends: The Bell Report
Personal devices - phones and portable game players - will grow in importance. My kids want their tech with them wherever and whenever. They will prefer these smaller devices over the larger user experiences available to them. I am guessing they feel a more intimate ownership of these devices. I may laugh at all the add-on services that Sprint tries to jam into our phones but I think mobile devices will be big. And not just phones.
TV shows are "filler" for them (this is different than what Fred finds with his children - who are older). They like movies equally well on the TV or in the theater. The drama of movies really does it for them. So there is probably a good future in great writing.
Music remains a passion. Whether on CD or downloaded MP3 files - it just doesn't matter. The appetite for music will not go away. How it's sold doesn't really matter to this next generation.
They consume books like they grew on trees (which they sorta do). Both read a tremendous amount. Boy also like comic books like Judge Dredd (a classic). Girl has not really discovered magazines yet. Newspapers and magazines are on the ropes.
Tweens are not diving into social networks as vigorously as teens. Now, this might just be my kids as I am sure others are hip deep in MySpace. I am guessing that in a couple of years this will change and they will both have a sophisticated online presence.
The data is in the details:
Each are given 1.5 hours of digital or screen time a day. That includes TV, computer and Wii (we have become a Nintendo-loyal house). Boy (13) does about 1/2 Computer, 1/4 Wii, 1/4 TV. He routinely sneaks in some TV later at night with us but rarely pushes for any particular programming. Girl (10) splits it between TV and Computer.
Computer Games
Boy is a big PC Gamer and can spend hours with his friends either in the room or online playing multiplayer games - e.g. Rome Total War and Star Wars Empire At War (not necessarily MMORPG, although he's begging for WOW). Online he browses YouTube and game sites like Next Level.
Girl spends most of her computer time in various online sites like TY Girls (think WebKinz for dolls), Miniclip (games), and an occaisional friend-recommended site.
Surprisingly, neither is deeply committed to email. Boy uses his everyday in a fairly utliitarian way. Girl has all but abandoned hers. I expect this to change.
Mobile
Only boy has a phone. He uses it routinely as his buddies have phones. He relies on the phone for most communications. We get charged for texting so we had to strangle that at the beginning. Otherwise, he would text all the time.
TV, Movies & Video
Girl watches Disney shows - the live action ones and re-runs of Full House. She also likes Project Runway, American Idol and America's Next Top Model. Boy would like to watch Family Guy and the Simpsons. He has a serious thing for MythBusters and Hell's Kitchen. Both still watch movies (DVD and pay-per-view). Both go to movies several times a month. I don't see much difference in their going to see movies at theaters vs. on teh TV at home. They seem equally interested in both.
Game Platforms
We have had a Wii for about a year and it remains Boy's favorite platform...alongside the DS, that is. He actually seems just as interested in the DS. Girl now has DS but steers clear of the Wii (that's HIS).
Books
Boy reads 1-2 books a week. He re-reads The Zombie Survival Guide all the time. Girl reads 2-3 books simultaneously and has a thing for Nancy Drew.
Magazines & Newspapers
Both read the comics but otherwise the newspaper is useless to them. Boy will read Nintendo Power. Girl has not tuned into magazines yet.
Thanks to NewTeeVee, I saw this wonderfully produced video from the Church of Blow and laughed. Somebody should absolutely hire this man (not presuming that he is looking for a job or anything but he is a sharp talent....)
Take a look:
Samsung Mobile is running a promotion via YouTube that is a crazy collection of some of the right ideas that just don't go together in a recognizable and tasty dish. (Thanks to Orli whose Go2Web2.0 blog is terrific)It's as if they looked at the recipe list for video-based engagement but forgot the idea or concept to hold it all together.
Essentially, they are soliciting users to create videos - against 4 categories - plant their video "pin" on a Google Maps mash-up alongside videos from "select" Warner Brothers music artists while colecting customer ideas on product innovations and, oh, by the way, your video may be featured on the Times Square Samsung Billboard. Whew, that's a mouthful.
Here's the recipe where each ingredient is finger-lickin' good:
What aren't they doing?
Just about the only thing they left off the list of potential incentives is a "social good" element where they make a donation triggered by site activity. There's no reason why they should do this other than that they seem to have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink so far.
They do not have a real contest strategy either. There is no clear "winner" nor prizes beyond the vague suggestion that your video may end up on the Jumbotron. Usually incentives break down as follows:
a. the activity is organically relevant
b. there is a chance to win something of value
c. you get a spotlight and/or credit
d. there is a social good outcome
They have played a little loose with a and c.
I do not know what their outreach strategy is. There is no way to know. Whenever we run a program along these lines we have a whole outreach and activation plan to help the experience grow and be discovered.
There is no binding idea here. The headline is: Ringing in 2008 with Samsung Mobile. Not a lot of definition to the idea there.
It is a collection of some of the right things but not all of them should be thrown together like this. For instance, the 4th video submission category is "Tell us what type of mobile phone Samsung should develop for you." If they are really interested in soliciting customer ideas and driving innovation from the outside in, they would make this the cornerstone of their activity. (Lest they get the videos of the telepathic man who needs a phone to go with his special "abilities")
The Warner tie-in is a bit of a head-scratcher, too. Usually you do this to really leverage the fan base of the talent. The talent is all but invisible here.
We shall see how it goes.
There may be enough engagement that enough users will find something they want to do here. So far the promo video has been viewed 215K times since Dec 5th (I played it 6 times during the writing of this post to get the facts of the promotion correct). They have 75 subscribers and 9,269 channel views. They accept video until January 14. A stronger idea with half the recipe items might have served them (and their customers) better.
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