Thursday, June 18, 2009

In Defense of Distraction

I’ll be brief because the article is not. About a month ago New York Magazine ran a remarkable article entitled In Defense of Distraction.

It is a remarkable piece because it addresses a lot of the issues that we here at SISU face when discussing digital media and social media with our clients: “Who has time for all this stuff?“

The answer is, we all do. We are all training ourselves every day to multitask. If you think about it, it’s overwhelming. But if you don’t think about it, it’s automatic.

Read it. Actually, you might have to print it out and keep it by the toilet so that you can absorb it in peace and quiet…

Monday, June 01, 2009

Data Visualization - How To Really Make The Web Work

An excellent blog about web design, “Webdesignerdepot.com” delivers a killer primer on siites that excel at data visualization.

Why do we care? Because if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a picture that describes 1,000 data points must be worth 1,000,000 words.

OK, not buying that? How about this: data is all about ferreting out relationships, and relationships are most efficiently grasped visually.

As we move into a more “semantic web” users will come to expect faster, more accurate expression of ideas; cheesy nachos are different than a cheesy pick-up line, but Google doesn’t really know the difference yet. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself!

Friday, May 08, 2009

Whoo!! Whoo!! Who’s Talking About You?

Is there no such thing as bad publicity? Are you ready for a time (like, how about now!) when you are not in strict control of how your brand is regarded? (You are in control, actually…read this when you’re done here if you haven’t already)

Revolution magazine recently posted the “100 most influential brands on Twitter.“ What we found most interesting across the list is the spread in number of mentions, the variances in number of followers (a true sign of the internal strategy toward this channel) and whether they even bother with a corporate Twitter account.

What was even more interesting: Revolution is a UK-based publication…and the list leans heavily with UK and European brands, or at least brands with strong presences in those places. Is Twitter becoming more localized on the sly?

Twitter is squarely in the hype spotlight right now. Do we think that everyone must be on Twitter? No. Should it be disregarded as a legitimate channel of communications? Definitely not. Is it manageable? Of course…and we’d love to show you how!

Friday, April 24, 2009

What? Teenagers are just like the rest of us…on a budget.

Have you ever heard mom-friendly and teenager in the same sentence? I doubt it.
But, times are changing. Tenenagers are in fact just like the rest of us–even Moms (gasp!). It seems teenagers are no longer sold on the designer label and are now looking for the deals.
See Losing Its Cool at the Mall for the latest trend in teenager spending.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Why Web 2.0 & Social Media Matter For Brands

Many consumer brands have Facebook pages, they are on Twitter, they lurk on MySpace…but why? Do these channels actually “work?“ Except for very few exceptions the answer is probably anything from “No” to “maybe a little,“ but that’s not a reason to leave. The problem lies in the strategies behind these digital forays. Put simply, digital technologies should be used to engage with a customer’s analog life. It’s not the medium that matters, it is the message. The way for brands to make these technologies work is to do digital, but think analog.

The growing number of consumers that have fully embraced the digital lifestyle has been a boon for digital agencies, but not necessarily for brands that were coaxed into social networking without any real strategy. (Some even paid big money to be in forgotten cul-de-sacs like SecondLife.) Regular folks use social networks because they’re free, and they can keep using them amidst the disintegrating economy, skyrocketing job losses and stock market free-falls.

Meanwhile, in the department store, supermarket and elsewhere, consumers have stopped spending. This lower consumer spending has resulted in brands pulling promotion and advertising dollars. Print and broadcast media have been suffering mightily from falling ad revenues. Consumers don’t need Time magazine anymore, they can get that content (or similar) online for free without committing to the Time brand. Brands previously relied on the perceived strength of the commitment made between a subscriber and an outlet (like a magazine or newspaper) to balance their advertising spending. The digital realm has all but removed that commitment; a mere banner ad is no replacement.

What’s a brand to do? How does a brand continue to be present in the lives of consumers? And, most importantly, what kind of effort and money are we talking about?

Brands should endeavor to replace the commitment that a subscriber used to make to an outlet with a commitment from the brand to its audience. The concept of commitment is a very analog concept; it’s not on or off, it is a fluctuating continuum that requires and rewards constant attention. A brand should target its message and go for fewer but higher quality relationships instead of broad-stroke blanketing. Use the technology to give back to your desired audience, to be a partner with your customers. Recast your customer relationships to be a peer and a resource instead of just a provider of some gizmo. This approach was almost not possible before, but digital technologies make it not only possible but very cost-effective, stretching your budget far beyond what you might have ever imagined.

Want specifics? Here are 4 ideas, just for starters:
1. Brands develop products. One collateral benefit of product development is knowledge development on a given topic. Give some of this knowledge away through all these digital channels, it will help reinforce your position with your customers and it gives you something to talk about without being to “me-me-me” all the time.

2. Start offering select specific financial incentives exclusively through your web site. Tweet the program, and reward those who tell all their Facebook friends. Customers are hurting and products are moving more slowly, so couponing makes sense. Your CFO will scream about profit margin, but a quick trip to the warehouse or through the inventory report will provide a strong enough argument for moving product at lower margin. Plus, why pay to be part of somebody else’s circular? These are exceptional times that call for exceptional measures…

3. Network on behalf of your customers by creating a network they can use. Employ the bully pulpit of your web site or Twitter account to help out of work customers spread the word about their skills and availability. Allow your customers to find each other (they have at least one thing in common…you!) and help each other. The PR bump from this generous act will lift your brand…and it is the right thing to do.

4. Be funny, be useful. Release an iPhone or Blackberry app that brings a smile or a sense of utility. Give it away. Stay on your brand’s central message, but make the app a secondary reason for the world to see your brand. Done properly it’s something that long outlives the normal duration of contact with your audience. If a brand’s lifelong ambition is to become a meme, this is the first step toward getting there in the digital world.

But what about the money? To put it one way, your $2MM brand building ambitions can now be meaningfully executed for around $200,000. Put another way, a properly applied $2MM budget is now worth $20MM in benefit. The rules HAVE changed, and these rules are better for brands if they do digital but think analog.

ADDENDUM: Check out this article on the Chief Marketer magazine blog about a recent Dominos promotion and keep in mind this metric: 11,000 medium pizzas x about $3 = about $33,000 for 50 million impressions - who says you need a big budget?