I Am Not Kanye West

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Hot news from our Box Network of independent Social Media agencies. We’ve just added Fortress (Netherlands), Tinkle (Spain) and ambuzzador (Austria) into the mix. You can read more about it over here on The Box blog.

In short, we’ve extended our reach across a variety of new European regions and given ourselves and our clients a range of additional language coverage options and important new local Social Media execution and development resources …to sit alongide UK, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Here’s the bird’s eye view:

Exciting stuff.

Need help cracking an international social brief? Then please do drop us a line…

Malbec, Messi, Maradona, Mendoza! Argento Wine’s ‘The Real Argentina‘

Argento Wine / The Real Argentina Social Media Case Study

We started work with Argento a couple of years ago.  Our brief: raise brand awareness via web and Social Media (i.e. fill more shopping baskets with Argento Wine at Waitrose) and align the brand with all that’s brilliant about Argentina.

Our response: The Real Argentina.  A labour of real love (and one of our all time favourite programs here at C&M*) – a site (and supporting Social Media) that brings you everything from the magic of Argentinian wine to the latest urban buzz of the Buenos Aires scene, the thrill of fiery football rivalries and a perfectly grilled Argentine steak.

Good combo, huh?

Check it out.  In short, a trans-Atlantic blogger, content, social and advocacy program.  We work with the best, most interesting, urban superstars in Argentina to bring the wine and the country to the small screens – across every Social channel.

You can read about the guts of the program in the case study above.  On a modest budget – and working super close with the Argento in-house team – we’re building waves and loving every minute of it.

You can get more of The Real Argentina via Twitter and Facebook.  Give them a follow – you’ll love the content and the wine.

Majestic Wine Going Major on Social Media

And whilst we’re in the mood for great wine, here’s a few snippets to give you a flavour of what our client Majestic Wine is up to right now.

They’re winning awards (Innovation in Multi-Channel Marketing / Econsultancy).

They’re also explaining the science behind it all. Click below for a smashing interview with Richard Weaver, Ecommerce Director.

They’re also on the big small screen with a cracking set of ads to encourage the UK to ‘come and explore’ more wine. (“DON’T SAY CHARDONNAY!!” – a new integrated campaign that we’ll be helping them to develop further on Social Media in the summer season and beyond.)

To get a greater feel of Majestic’s commitment to Social, click below and have a play around. It’s impressive. All channels, all local stores, and bags of attitude to boot. Watch this space – much more from them and us to follow soon…

We’re mighty happy to say that we’ve been appointed by the RSPCA to deliver a bunch of new brand-building social media campaigns. The brief will see us helping the animal charity to activate its social followings across all channels – from Facebook to Twitter and beyond, as the RSPCA moves to toughen its stance on key animal welfare issues.

We’re already working hand-in-hand with the charity’s internal digital communication and PR teams to deliver new campaigns for the ‘RSPCA Live’ weekend – an all new virtual event taking place over the 28th and 29th April which will enable RSPCA fans and followers to better engage with the charity.

RSPCA Live will then lead into RSPCA Week – a key period in the charity’s annual calendar, designed to raise awareness and drive contributions to the charity’s much needed funds. During this period, C&M* will deliver brand new campaign activity designed to recruit fans from key new demographics and increase charitable donations.

In short, we’re over the moon to be working with the RSPCA. It’s great news for both parties in terms of creativity and ambition. We want to give the brand more bite in revenue generation, engagement and the acquisition of new, non-traditional audiences. It’s ambitious, but our plans are sound and we’re working with a great client team.

This win follows a storming start to our year. A few weeks ago the strength of our social strategy for Majestic Wine was recognised at the Econsultancy Awards when they won the Innovation In Multichannel Marketing Award. We’ve also enjoyed a number of other key account wins such as EMC. All of which builds upon a great end to 2011 and our DMA gong for Best Use of Social Media for our work with TomTom.

Keep your eyes on the RSPCA’s Facebook page and Twitter profile for more action very soon.

What can Facebook learn from Mad Men?

In my book, quite a lot.

Here’s why. From a talk given to the London Facebook Developer Garage this evening.

A reflection on the value of ideas, the will of the people and the need for better creative(s).

Are you a Barley or Draper? Thoughts? I’d love to hear…

Hot on the heels of our recent global consumer survey into Social Media usage patterns, we bring you this snapshot of global Pinterest usage in March 2012.

I think you’ll agree the findings are currently AMAZING.

Happy #SXSW everybody.

Very jelly not to be there. Have fun!

Here’s a case study report on our international (x9 country) Christmas campaign that we ran with TomTom in December last year.

The brief – in line with our broader brand awareness directive – was to extend TomTom’s ‘connected journeys’ mission to the masses and have a little fun.

We took this as a great opportunity to connect people with their friends at Xmas time on Facebook, and to introduce the brand into proceedings. Our mantra for every great Social PR vehicle – put the people in the comms product and let the caring and sharing unfold.

This meant helping folks to share their Xmas wishes with their friends at home and abroad – and encouraging those friends to share and comment in return. Kind of like a public Facebook letter to Santa’s grotto that other people could react to and comment on.

In return, (very) random prizes were awarded by Santa to participants in different parts of the world for their most fun-some and innovative wishes. For instance, people in the UK who wished to win the lottery jackpot were given a hundred pounds worth of lottery tickets, some nice TomTom swag …and all of Santa’s best wishes.

Santa’s virtual globe trotting route was plotted on a map as he made his way around, with his trusty Xmas edition TomTom SantaNav to guide him of course. In effect, people could ‘put a shout out’ to Santa to persuade him to travel to their town and bestow them with gifts – something that generated a healthy sense of rivalry between regions (‘Hey Santa, stop HERE!’).

Check the deck for more of the ins and outs…

In terms of campaign effectiveness, here are the top line numbers:

• 34% increase in Facebook fan base
• 43 million campaign reach
• 200k+ reach via Facebook referrals (word of mouth)
• 25k direct campaign interactions
• A mass of spot on media and influencer coverage and reactions – Twitter, blogs, Facebook, more
• And an enormous increase in brand mentions across all social/online channels

We used Brandwatch for all aspects of Social Media monitoring, reporting and campaign planning – e.g. identifying content trends around Xmas, pin pointing influencer hubs, and for calculating relative successes throughout. (We use Brandwatch 24×7 for much of our brand awareness work.)

And we worked with PageHub to design and deliver the Facebook application platform for the campaign.

Big thanks to those guys – they are both world class.

Thanks also to the PR and Marcoms team at TomTom. A fab program to work on and fun, fun, fun – as ever. We salute you!

Here are the slides from my talk on planning and measurement at last week’s DMA Data Conference (with big, big thanks to @Mediaczar and @Beyond for their data inputs).

I took my lead from the fact that there are really only five people in the UK that use Pinterest – and that all of them are social media consultants with the exception of one fashion blogger.

When it comes to numbers, planning and measurement of campaign effectiveness, amazing insights like this are useful. There are some things we really should avoid doing, such as getting too excited about every new platform/app phenomenon.

Have a flick through – you’ll find a few more tips on stuff to steer clear of, plus a couple of helpful ideas on how to create a campaign measurement framework for social media. Oh, and you’ll also learn the ROI of a horse.

In addition, here’s the research on consumer trends and usage patterns that we published last week. In it you’ll see such nuggets as:

• People still love TV
• People don’t love brands’ funky eight-times-a-day status update habits as much as you might think
• People’s main motivation for using social is – shock horror – to talk to one another and not to brands
• People really do love tuning into brands, but on their terms

Have a read. It’s an ‘A, B, C (and D)’ back to basics primer. I promise it’ll help to improve your next creative plan for social…

Here’s some new research into (real) people’s social media habits that we released today in association with our consumer polling friends at TolunaQuick.

It’s called ‘What We Like and Dislike.’

It’s drawn from an international panel of around 3,000 people and it delivers a bunch of interesting findings and tips to help you plan and execute your social media PR campaigns more effectively.

Some snapshot findings:

• 50% of people feel overwhelmed by brand messages on social media

• 75% of folks feel 1-2 brand messages a day is too much

But there’s also plenty to cheer about if you’re a brand marketing manager. For instance…

• 45% of people choose to interact with brands on social media channels

• …of those folks 60% are happy to share brand messages and 27% like to share info about brand purchases

Summary conclusions:

• Traditional media isn’t dead
• People are overwhelmed by too much brand activity at times
• But they’re very much on board with brands being part of their social media life
• Success lies in smart, creative execution – and an understanding of why folks use social media in the first place
• Sensible planning and expectation setting is key to delivering successful campaigns
• A lack of sanity and charisma can and will be fatal

See the report for more information and best practice guidance on effective social PR program delivery.

We’ve coined it an ‘InfoToon‘ – mainly because it’s not an infographic (we feel the world could do with less of them).

It’s been covered by Econsultancy here. Would love to hear your thoughts on the findings…

Here’s a few snippets from me on the current state of Social Media and PR – and where I think we should be focusing our efforts today.

First off an interview for Salesforce.com’s very excellent State of Social Media feature.

Quote: “The next big thing is for every brand to appreciate why people use Social in the first place, and to start to build its marketing programs around these principles. People don’t use Facebook to engage with brands. They use it to connect with people. Most marketers think about and use Facebook solely to connect people to brands. Their interests (and expectations) are wildly at odds with their audiences. Thinking like a real person is the next big thing. Sorry, I know that’s not that radical, but it’s the single biggest change a brand can make today to enjoy more success via Social.“

Full article here.

(See also C&M client Richard Weaver of Majestic Wine, Econsultancy’s Ashley Friedlein, and other good people.)

Secondly, a rant come-interview for Figaro Digital ahead of its Social Media conference on April 5th (where I’ll also be speaking, on behalf of the DMA).

Quote: “There’s a trap in creating lots of grand schemes and then launching them like the Titanic – the Titanic sunk because nobody tested it first. A better way is to start small and pick off pilot areas where you can congregate smaller teams around a definite set of work that might come together over between six weeks and three months. You can build skills, capabilities and get momentum going from there. Spec the right project, the right sized team, the timeframe, and build momentum that way.“

Full article here.

Finally a talking heads spot for the Direct Marketing Association discussing near term trends and what we at C&M and the DMA will be focused on this year. (I’m currently chair of the Social Media Council at the DMA.)

Hoping there’s some sense in there. Feel free to agree or tell me otherwise : )

Next week is Social Media week.

There’s stacks of good things happening in London town – take your pick.

On Wednesday 15th, I’ll be chairing a breakfast panel discussion at the DMA with a bunch of smart people. We’ll be asking the following question: does social media really need its own set of metrics or are good old fashioned frameworks the things we should still care for?

Having turned 40 last year and developed a like for cardigans (woollen, not skinny rib), you can hazard a guess to which side I lean on.

Shock of the old. Will we talk about acquisition, loyalty, share of voice and other old chestnuts? Or will the chatter be about new fangled engagement levels?

Come along and join in. It’d be great to see you there. You can also take the survey here.

(Image by New York Public Library on Flickr.)

(NB: not actually a pitcure of me. But nice cardy, huh?)

I’ve been meaning to get this one down for a while – mainly for my team. So, here goes: an Ad Contrarian Almanac. A list of all my favourite quote snippets from the most wonderful 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising – a compilation of the best of Bob Hoffman’s blog. Read it, print it, pin it to your wall and go buy the book – paperback or Kindle. It’ll keep you honest.

The Power of Specificity

My favorite recording isn’t of the best song I ever heard, or have best vocal I ever heard, but it does have my favorite sax solo.

The point is — like most people — when I have a preference, it is usually for a very specific reason.

And yet, throughout my career one of toughest things I have had to do is to convince my clients to be more specific.

Many have a hard time understanding that “we answer on the first ring” is a more powerful statement than “world class service.”

They don’t believe that “50 dollars off” is a stronger motivator than “we’ll make your dreams come true.”

Many have thought that the bigger and more ambiguous the promise, the bigger the payoff.

It is usually the opposite.

Gravity and the Internet

Driving through Berkeley, it’s not unusual to see a beat-up old VW bus with a bumper sticker that says “Think Globally, Act Locally.”

Unfortunately, if there’s one thing we humans are not good at, it’s thinking globally. We have a tendency to think very locally.  I see it every July in San Francisco — people from New Jersey, dressed in t-shirts and shorts, freezing their asses off because they think it’s summer, like at home.

Alan Wolk calls it “NASCAR blindness.” It’s our inclination to think that things everywhere are like they are where we are.

Conversation with a Web Maniac

[Just read this one in full : )]

Why Can’t Marketers Talk Straight?

Spend time at a conference, read a trade publication, listen to a presentation and it soon becomes obvious that speaking plainly and clearly has become anathema to most marketing practitioners.

Instead, we have developed an appalling lexicon of contrived phrases and dreadful gibberish meant to confuse rather than elucidate.

Our most popular words have vague meanings and fuzzy definitions — branding, engagement, conversation…

It’s my belief that a sure sign of a deteriorating discipline is that the participants have agreed on a system of imprecise discourse to replace clear thoughts and exact meanings.

On the value of speaking plainly, Einstein once said, “It should be possible to describe the laws of physics to a barmaid.”

The Age of the Complicator, Part 4

We want to engage consumers. We want to have conversations with consumers. We want to have relationships with consumers. And in the process, we have forgotten the essential purpose of advertising — to persuade consumers.

Is Bill Gates Still Stunned?

As we have said many times, marketers always overestimate the appeal of new things and always underestimate the power of traditional consumer behavior.

Why We Need to Kill Them All

“We must create content that changes the world.”

How about creating content that sells some shit. Wanna change the world? Join the f***ing U.N.

I’m Tired of Strategists

Can you please send me some people who can do shit, not talk about it.

Da Vinci didn’t need a strategist. Neither did Newton. Or Einstein. Or Gershwin. Or Hitchcock. Or Riney, for that matter.

They just did brilliant things. They didn’t need people chattering at them about what they should do or how they should do it. They just did it.

I’m tired of business strategists.
And marketing strategists.
And advertising strategists.
And media strategists
And web strategists.
And social media strategists.
And editorial strategists.
And content strategists.
And copy strategists.

It’s a Wonderful World

These new humans want a direct relationship with their peanut butter maker and their muffler manufacturer. They want a relationship with the company that makes their socks and their chairs. And their pickles, and their half-and-half, and their mayonnaise, and their cookies, and their tires, and their chewing gum, and their toothbrush, and their umbrella, and their dishwasher, and their napkins, and their toaster, and their gasoline, and their horseradish, and their dental floss, and their paper towels, and their golf balls, and their shoes, and their pillows, and their pencils, and their deodorant, and their books, and their nail clippers, and their furniture polish, and their frozen chicken strips, and their lamps, and their potting soil, and their bathing suits, and their glasses, and their clocks, and their fungicide, and their dishes, and their cat food, and their sun block, and their cookie dough, and their motor oil, and their light bulbs, and their burglar alarm, and their ironing board, and their fire insurance, and their coffee filters, and their pillow cases, and their allergy pills, and their mouthwash, and their vacuum cleaner bags, and their shower curtains…

So you needn’t bother telling them that your product works better, or is cheaper, or looks nicer. That’s just a sign of failure. It’s just a sign that your relationship is failing.

These new humans live in a wonderful world. It’s a world in which their minds are free to evaluate the relationships they have with all these companies. They don’t have to worry about their jobs, or their children, or how they’re going to pay the mortgage.

They don’t need to wash their bath tubs, or have mammograms, or go to work, or apply for loans, or bail their kids out of juvenile hall, or fold the laundry, or take their parents to the doctor, or vacuum the carpet, or make dinner.

They have all the time in the world to develop relationships with brands. And then, when they’re finished building these relationships, they go on line to social media sites and have conversations about them.

The Crisis of Advertising, Part 5

There just isn’t enough value anymore in big, slow, expensive ad agencies. Smart, industrious clients can cobble together small groups to get the work done at lesser cost and with superior creativity. They just don’t know it yet.

The most important client-side marketing job currently does not exist: Someone to coordinate the activities of a variety of small, nimble marketing and advertising resource providers.

The idea that global agencies can provide global marketing solutions is an idiotic fraud that anyone with the intelligence of a gnat can see through. You can’t find a single agency to get done everything you need done in Houston, how the hell are they supposed to do it worldwide? That global agencies even exist is a testament to the laziness of global marketers.

The Crisis of Advertising, Part 5

Every agency is trying to convince clients that they can do it all. Instead, be an agency that does only one thing really well. Specialize in retail, or become expert in marketing to Mid-Westerners, or only work on luxury brands, or only do creative work. Find something you can be famous for.

I hadn’t checked this out for a while, but I’d say it’s worth a review before starting any kind of social plan. (Or, print it out and stick it on your wall.)

Ruder Finn’s Intent Index is a quarterly census of 500 people which – very simply – asks people ‘why do you go online?’.

Check the weighting – right side to left side.  How geared are you to helping people to learn, have fun or socialise (with one another)?

Interesting little study here from AllFacebook and the chaps at EdgeRank Checker. They churned data for 4k average Facebook pages to figure out the average reach and impressions of any given Facebook post.

Here are the charts:

NB: legend – for the purpose of this study, impressions equals the number of people who view a post.

NB: legend – for the purpose of this study, reach equals the number of people who see a post (visibility).

Side note: one man’s reach is another’s impressions – don’t get lost in the labels, Allfacebook’s piece is a little bit garbled but if you stick to the top line conclusions you’ll follow the plot. Read the original post for more.

As I’ve said elsewhere, whatever you make of the above, it’s clear that over time Facebook is successfully Google-ising it’s interface so that certain types of content are harder to see and advertising becomes a more attractive route to some brands and organisations.

So, we all need to up our game. Engagement and creative needs to be better researched, more innovative, useful and entertaining. Otherwise it will sink. Every brand needs to have its finger on reach, extended reach, impressions, interactions and – most importantly – end of the funnel actions. These things need to be clearly tracked with a coherent method behind them. They need to guide the plan. (We have our own approach to this – most sensible social comms managers and agencies will too.)

Meantime, if you are sinking, lower impressions over time within the main news stream creates a greater case to focus resources on paid for content promotions (sponsored stories, etc).

But a word of warning on this point. Facebook is not Google. It’s a content and communications platform, not a library index that routes people to other parts of the web.

An ad-biased strategy on Facebook is flawed. Facebook needs content. People want content. More importantly they want to talk to one another, and our job is to figure out ways to help them do this – and put brands in amongst these interactions using the mechanics of the platform.

Ads can help this to happen, but as yet the formats available aren’t designed to insert brands into conversations – and my guess is that they will never be… too invasive. Smart brands win because they carry friend to friend interactions forward in organic and interesting ways …they gain love, adoration and action in the process.

Here’s a great overview of a launch campaign we delivered for long-standing client Toluna last year.

The brand introduced its Toluna Quick survey product as a bit of a disruptive force in the world of online surveys and community polls.

The tool enables brands (large and small), agencies and individuals to ask questions about anything, get fast answers from a global consumer marketplace and get easy to read (and share) results and graphs…and to not pay a fortune for the privilege.

Unlike other survey tools on the market, Toluna Quick has a few interesting advantages: it’s free; it’s highly integrated with Social Media (results and polls are very, very sharable); and it delivers the survey community (and their responses) as part of the package… Meaning anyone can get a survey up and running within minutes, and results are delivered within hours. (ie, No more painful survey recruitment!)

So, here’s what we did for the launch.

In a nutshell – we delivered a different style of partnership online PR program to embed the brand within key media content. In turn, we delivered the new product to all of its target audiences in a very effective way – lot’s of value for all, and definitely not a smile and dial ‘would you like to feature my new product’ pitch exercise.

Would love to hear what you make of it all.

Great ‘Year Ahead…’ roundup from Campaign last week, featuring thoughts from a host of sensible movers and shakers from the near-future.

You can check it out here. (Subscription only. Go buy one.)

Refreshingly, most of the opinions are grounded (unlike mine, Jetpacks did not feature). Here are the best snippets – essential ideas in bold.

Year Ahead in Creative

Brands that succeed will be those that are social from the start, not as an afterthought.

There has only ever been one magic ingredient for truly compelling online interactions: other people. The more brands can help people connect with one another, rather than simply project messages to them, the more successful they will become. Entertainment, predominantly through advertising, has traditionally been the Trojan horse that brands smuggle themselves inside to bypass consumer cynicism and gain an invitation into people’s lives. However, branded utility is an alternative social currency based on the principle of giving people something useful that is worthy of being shared.

In an age where people are increasingly able to filter and block ad messages, there is a significant imperative for brands to shift from merely telling people that they make their lives better to actually making their lives better by providing value-added content, services and utilities that people will want to own, use and share. See Nike+…

@AlisonHoad, joint chief executive at Rainer Kelly Campbell Roalfe / Y&R

Year Ahead in Digital

Good things really do come in small packages. Small is fast. Small is easier to do. Small is easier to buy. Small gets done. Small can be tested quickly. Small can punch above well above its weight. Small is not insignificant. Small is beautifully simple, not simplistic. Small is innovation too. Small is less wasteful. Small is specific. In fact, small done well many times over can become ‘the big idea’.

‘critical non-essentials’ is a phrase used in business and sport that describes the small advantages in many areas that, when added together, give an organisation or team the edge over its competition. I predict a transition to this philosophy for brands and their agencies, as small but ambitious, innovative and convention-challenging ideas will define the ambition they set out to claim as their own.

@3onner, CEO at Razorfish.

Year Ahead in Data

…the use of data remains largely an ‘end of campaign’ thing, delivered by smart econometricians in a specialist department: ‘Did it work? How many people did we reach? Did people like it? Did it shift the dial? Did we sell something?’

The real opportunity is for data to become the input as well as the output.

It’s a sobering thought for any agency that Google, Facebook and Adobe already know more about some of our clients’ businesses and their audiences than we do. Why? Because they have the data.

…we will need to evolve our processes within our agencies so that we weave data, in all its many forms, into the way we work, from start to finish.

Ben Wood, Managing Director @iProspect

Take Aways

As stated elsewhere on this blog, brands need to facilitate communication on Social. This is why people use and value it. (We don’t use Faceborg to ‘talk to brands’.) This is the near end game, and it means we have to start thinking of ourselves as vehicles for talking, sharing, recommending, etc, and not the destination.

The creative ideas and assets that work best are consequently small, not big.

And they are data-driven and iterative.

See my post of last week for more. Coca Cola has got this down in a very, very strategic way. Now follow suit…

I’m sure you’ve seen the news out of Google this week ref social search and new functionality and interfaces.

If you haven’t, then watch this:

Here’s some reactions from search agency people, via @NewMediaAge.

See this piece from SearchEngineLand for a view of what’s really going on under the covers.

And, so what…?

Well, it’s very, very neat. The near-end game for G+, no?

But Google SERPs will only be ‘socially’ relevant (and thus of more value to regular search results) if they are displaying your Google+ friend’s content (or other people’s Google+ content) in relation to your query.

If a ‘personal’ search only shows brand content, then what you have is x2 views of non-personal SERPs.

It only really gets interesting if lots of your friends / people are using Google + to post interesting content. (Think: people / content aligned with your own world view, locality, age, gender, etc, etc.)

Which currently they don’t.

But I can see why brands should care, a lot – for now, this is a radically different opportunity to appear in a parallel SERP view. And this view will be given increasing prominence on a SERP as Google tries to convince the world to jump on G+ (probably by pushing aside other content from other social networks in its results – see above from SearchEngineLand.)

Which, short term, will probably lead us to spammy, keyword-driven updates from brands (and their SEO agencies) in their G+ stream.

Which, short term, would likely have an adverse effect on anybody wanting to use this new SERP view and – further – to get on board with G+.

So does this really does align Google search more closely to pure play social communication / engagement work?

Yes and no.

Your thoughts?

The following two videos describe Coca Cola’s new strategy for brand communications and content.

Watch them both from front to back. I promise it’s a great use of 20 minutes.

In short, they capture brilliantly the creative, process and R&D changes that are necessary to rewire a brand’s presence for the social age.

There are ten chapters in all, across the two videos.

I’ve written up what I feel are the essential learnings below – Coca Cola’s core content concepts, cases for change, evolution of communications, and methods for research and development:

Chapter #1: Liquid and Linked Content (0:22)

• Liquid creative assets and ideas are (as the label suggests) fluid and not fixed – and will evolve once in the marketplace. They are the endgame. (i.e. Viral, fixed, 30 second video spots that are viewed and shared are not the ultimate goal.)

• Linked content and communication is tightly linked to an external public agenda – which ought to form the basis for all creative briefs and planning.

Chapter #2: The Case For Change (01:20)

• The volume of consumer generated stories now far outnumber the volume of stories generated by The Coca Cola Company. And the majority of these stories are not prompted by the brand (and will never be).

• New social technologies provide a wealth of opportunity for different levels of engagement – making brand communications more useful, valuable, fun, etc (think: creative communications as a service, not a message). Technologists should thus become part and parcel of every progressive marketing team.

Chapter #3: The Evolution of Storytelling (02:46)

• Beyond the static video spot, we need to create a spread of different kinds of stories and communications:
  • Serial stories
  • Multi-Faceted Stories
  • Spreadable Stories
  • Immersion and Discovery Stories
  • Engagement Through Stories

• NB #1: I’d like some more detail on these ideas please Coca Cola! This is the guts of the new. Watch this space – I’ll post on these ideas soon.

• NB #2: Minor gripe. Not so keen on the idea of ‘stories’ being the focus – per point above, most brand content will not be ‘told’ by the brand – and this is the endgame …low friction, minimal direct involvement, lots of activity, lots of scale, highly cost effective. ‘Stories’ doesn’t sit well within this.

Chapter #8: Researching Liquid Content (04:33)

• Don’t bake (or freeze, whatever) the creative idea prior to launch – the goal is fluidity (again, 30 second virals are all good, but a simple ‘share’ doesn’t exploit the full potential of social).

• Ideas should be drawn from consumer research and analysis – data is the ‘soil’ from which creative should grow.

• Avoid qualitative testing – use quantitative methods (there are enough sources available!).

• Don’t move on too early. If the creative is right, the program should evolve, providing opportunities to further engage, tweak and adapt. Get out of serial campaign mode. Focus on the creation of ideas that are built for this journey.

• Hence, think liquidity.

Key Ideas as ScreenGrabs (Download / Cut Out and Keeps)

Coca Cola Content Research

Coca Cola Content Development

Coca Cola Dynamic Storytelling

We love a good playbook here at C&M*. Not the Blackberry kind – they’re not very good. I mean the kind that provides a stack of best practice advice in a series of bite sized nuggets.

This is what we try to provide week in, week out on the C&M blog. The goal is to give our clients, partners, internal teams and prospective clients a stream of hands-on, practical Social PR guidance that they can put to work immediately.

So I thought it’d be useful to create a compendium of some of our best of 2011.  Here it is, broken down into the following categories:  event planning, content planning, social search planning, Social Media engagement and PR planning,  campaign platform planning, and research planning.

Hope you find them useful.  

Happy new year.  Here’s to some great work in 2012.  Wish you the best of luck.

Social PR Event Planning

Kim on how to bake Social PR into your offline promotional events.

Dave on how to become a broadcasting beacon of Social Media event activity.

Content Planning

Liam on content topic modelling, LDA and how common sense will deliver you the best audience.

Yulee on what makes a great video viral.

Jake shows you how to weave a little EdgeRank magic into your Facebook thinking.

Yulee on getting the best from a common household Infographic.

Social Search Planning

In an epic Mike special, our Google Jedi shows you how to develop a progressive Search program.

Hollie on how PR best practices will improve your Google visibility and acquisition work.

Digby on the hot new bag of goodies you can find in Google Realtime Analytics – and how it can help real time campaign execution.

Social Media Engagement Planning

Me on what Social can learn from Mad Men – NB: think like a real person / ideas are important.

Ben on the best ways to run Facebook promos.

Ben gives some smart tips on growing a Facebook community.

Me on creating simple planning frameworks for the development of your engagement strategy.

Another think piece from me – this time a primer on behavioural economics, and why it needs to become the basis for all engagement planning.

Emma on the engagement tricks we can learn from the best Facebook apps in the market.

Kim on how to work more effectively with bloggers.

Campaign Platform Planning

Sam on the virtues of building your own Social Network (or sticking to Facebook).

Dave on the fundamental choices in developing a mobile app or a mobile site.

Toby walks us through Facebook’s latest platform changes (a handy recap for those just adjusting to the Timeline).

Me and a friend on how Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm determines your content visibility.

Yulee on YouTube vs Vimeo.

Research Planning

Hollie on how advanced Google Analytics wizardry can help you improve workflow and get under the skin of your campaigns.

Toby on the best blog research tools.

Toby on the best research tools for PR.

Hollie on the best research tools for identifying your Twitter targets.

Drop us a comment if you have any posts of your own that you’d like to add to the list.  And tune in next week for more of the same.

‘Tis the season to be jolly and, if you’re a Social Media consultant, make a long list of fascinating predictions for the new year.

Truth be told, I’m not a great fan of these lists. They’re diverting, but not a lot of use in the long run.

You don’t need an Phd in Facebook to know that the world’s biggest Social Network will continue to grow, add a bunch of new services and make a handful of acquisitions next year. You can also be sure that 99% of new year predictions will be forgotten by February 1st when real life takes over – at greater speed than previously imagined.

But I do like a good list. So, here I go…

2012 will be THE YEAR OF MY SISTER.

She’s on Facebook. She dislikes marketers. (Sometimes we argue – she has no interest in what I do for a living.) She doesn’t ‘engage’ with any old brand in her spare time. And she’s a one-woman focus group for some of the work that I do. (I like to ask ‘would Sally go for that?’ …and the answer is often ‘no’.)

I think the next year in Social PR belongs to her and people like her (i.e. the vast majority of people), because brands and agencies are, through trial and error, finally beginning to respect her position in the wonderful world of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and beyond.

Hence, 2012 will be the year that Social PR strategies will be driven by people, not brands. Exciting new happenings will include:

• We abide by an old chestnut: successful marketing is not about brands talking to people, but people talking about brands.  We finally accept the former as bad, expensive marketing which doesn’t scale (driven by a lust for Likes), and embrace the latter as the object of all great marketing – measurable by meaningful brand-building metrics like actions, reactions, shares, sentiment, distribution and reach. (Sidenote: some folks figured this out in 2009 – look to them to get a handle on ‘best practise’.)

• Creative assets get smarter.  In 2012 we will stop obsessing about static set pieces that divert attention and start delivering progressive programs that channel attention by encouraging people to care, share and continue the conversation elsewhere.  This work will be almost exclusively ideas based (and ephemeral). Winners will be those who get out of the ghetto and invest in understanding the behaviours and psychology of people like my sister and what makes them tick.  This will also help brands to understand that not everyone wants to talk to them on Facebook – and this will be a positive step.

• Brands will rethink their communications mechanics (it’s not about them, it’s about them) – and, as this dynamic changes, my sister will be rewarded with better, more useful and more entertaining marketing from the brands that she loves.

• And finally, the value of an agency in this space will become determined by its creative output. In 2011 we got comfortable with the tools of the trade. Better skills and capacity are now allowing marketing teams to take day-to-day ‘management’ of Social Media in-house. These teams will now look to partner with those who are capable of generating great brand-based ideas that inspire my sister to talk to her friends.

Other predictions:

• Infographics will die and burn in hell and pie charts will make a comeback

• Jetpacks will be big

• Hollywood will do a 3rd remake of The Hulk and get it wrong again

• Roger Warner will open the batting for England in the first test against India

I’ll leave you with a quote from my favourite book of 2011: Hegarty (of BBH fame) on Advertising.

“The key to great marketing is never to stop thinking like your audience… Understanding the role your brand plays in people’s lives and knowing how to make it more relevant is crucial…”

Agree? Disagree? Want my sister’s number? Tell me what you think…