Tag: social media marketing

Change 2.0

The world, or at least most of it, has been applauding the success of Obama’s social media strategy, stating it as one of the big pillars of his victory, and rightfully so. A look at his homepage would tell you that he is very well connected to the social media scene – ‘Obama Everywhere’. ‘Organise Locally’ (my.barackobama.com) and “Welcome Hillary supporters. Get involved” are two things that impressed me much, the signs of a man who knows wants to carry people along. StartUp Meme has a post on the Facebook stats of Obama’s activities. Obama has 4 times as many supporters as McCain on Facebook.

Meanwhile, in the case of blogs, 500 million blog posts for Obama vs 150 million for McCain. The ratio is almost 4:1 again. On MySpace, 844,927 friends for Obama compared to McCain’s 219,404. On Twitter, Obama 118,107, John McCain’s Twitter followers amount to 4942.(all data courtesy RWW, and Trendrr) On an aside, Trendrr seems to be a neat service, will use it more, and post.

And for those who thought that this brilliant use of social media was a campaign stunt (as many brands tend to), Obama has launched Change.gov. (via Mashable), where he is attempting to have conversations, right from asking people to share their election stories and their vision for America, to outlining his own agenda. The two properties of the social web I find most appealing – transparency, and the wisdom of crowds.

But social media, after all is a tool. Yes, a tool which can take the brand to great heights, but only if it has a strong product/brand at its foundation. And there lies the brilliance of brand Obama. Adage has a great article by Al Ries on the attributes that made Obama’s campaign a colossal hit – Simplicity (of the keyword – change), Consistency (create and maintain the positioning of ‘change’ agent, so that the word is associated with him more than others), Relevance (forcing the competitors to fight on your comfort ground). I was also very impressed with this article on afaqs by Vijay Sankaran, which gave 10 lessons that marketers could learn from Obama. Excellent lessons all, i especially liked the one about relinquishing control.

The brand was so strong that several of my friends became fans of Obama on Facebook. On election day, I saw a photo of college kids in bangalore wearing Obama tees, and carrying Obama placards.

As a person in India, the real benefits that Obama can get me are not much, but in addition to becoming America’s messiah, he might have also become social media’s messiah, and virtually, nothing could make me happier than a web 2.0 champion who happens to be the President of America. Yes, Obama, we can!!!!

until next time, i hope change is a constant

PS. For those reading this, make a start, join ‘Connected Indians‘. Hopefully we can change India too.

November 10, 2008
Social Advertising

A post on the WindChimes blog sparked off an interesting argument on whether banner advertising on Facebook is called Social Media Marketing. But before we step into that, a quick look at what Facebook has been upto recently.

Facebook recently announced that users had uploaded 10 billion photos on the network. Considering that Facebook’s not a flickr or picasa, this gives an indication of the quantity and quality of users’ relationship with the social networking service. Facebook also recently announced its Fb fund recipients. Read about this effort to help seed innovation here. For those who want to check out Facebook as a desktop app, check out Visual Sage. (via Startup meme) Facebook Connect has also been in the news recently. It is scheduled to launch on Nov 30. You can check out CNN’s Facebook Connect implementation – for the post presidential debate discussions, here. There are also links to the implementations of CBS, Red Bull etc. And the last ‘collateral’ links to a wonderful take on Facebook friendship, and this on social networks, revenues, and brands’ expectations from them. Meanwhile, Facebook can draw solace from the fact that it was the social network of choice of 1/3 of the US online retailers interviewed. (from a study by Internet Retailer and Vovici via WildBlueSkies)

As far as advertising goes, the inclusion of Microsoft Live Search into the social network is quite a significant development. Goes without saying that along with the search results, a few ads would also be thrown in. 🙂 Looks like win-win, for both Microsoft and Facebook. (with their revenue/cost concerns).

And now, whether Facebook Ads are social media. I’d say (technically)any advertising on a social network would automatically qualify for social media marketing, since advertising is a way of marketing. Now, with specific reference to Facebook, as part of its redesign earlier, Facebook had also categorised the different kinds of ads that can be purchased. Out of the 6 categories mentioned, #5 is akin to a first generation banner ad. I’d written about some unique features of Facebook Ads earlier. Like I’d mentioned in that post, this normal banner ad has been given a cool social twist by allowing users to give it a thumbs up/down and give their reasons for doing this. Let me go a step down and ignore the rating. Connecting my profile and actions to the kind of ads served, it gives the ads at least some contextual connection, and hence appeal. So, in practise too, I’d consider banner advertising on Facebook a part of social media marketing. On Magpie, over on Twitter, however, I’m still in two minds.

until next time, social soul searching

November 5, 2008
Pepsi – for social drinkers
So, after 5 months of work, pepsi has finally come out with its logo. The new logo is supposed to be a ‘quantum leap’ in positioning and defining Pepsi as a cultural leader. The intent, I feel, is right, if we can go by the following words from Frank Cooper, Pepsi’s VP-portfolio brands, “We felt like, as we move out of this traditional mass marketing and mass distribution era into today’s culture, there’s an opportunity to bring humanity back, both in terms of the design but also in the way we engage consumers.” (via Adage)

Its not difficult to imagine the costs involved in such an exercise, for a global brand. The design cost itself is rumoured to be above $1 million. This 11th logo, in a history of 110 years, comes after 6 years. (the last update was in 2002) The announcement campaign is expected to roll out in 2009. Experts have already started commenting about the new logo, we’ll come to that later.

Continuing on the lines of the strategic intent outlined by the Pepsi exec, Pepsi did a ‘DM’ exercise by sending 3 packages to 25 “digital and social media influencers”, in sequence, each package containing cans representing different logo designs. (via Adrants). They’ve also started a ‘Room’ on Friendfeed, called The Pepsi Cooler, where ‘room mates’ have conversations (moderated) about Pepsi. The last time I checked, there were 225 members, and some very interesting conversations. Again, the intent is just fine, and there are some interesting uses being made of Flickr and Wordle. Perhaps Pepsi is going about it right, to have branded water cooler conversations. 😀

Some India specific talk before we get to the logo. India has seen a plethora of logo changes in the past few months- Hutch to Vodafone, Canara Bank, Shopper’s Stop, India Post, Union Bank of India, among others. Out of these, I’d say that Vodafone’s task was the toughest, in terms of ensuring logo changes at the ground level, because of the multitude of vendors. Though i believe that Vodafone did a decent job, i still see Hutch in many places.

That should throw some light on the magnitude of the task ahead for Pepsi. I don’t know how this works in the US, but in India, I’ve seen most Pepsi Coolers (supplied to restaurants, kirana stores) store everything but Pepsi – that incudes competitors like Coke to Nestle Curd!! And that thought made me consider the vast ocean of cultural and experiential differences that lie between the average friendfeed user and the Tier 3 town citizen, in a country like india. It matters, because Pepsi is a global brand!!

To me, the logo is a symbol
- for the consumer, a symbol of trust and association with the brand
- for the marketer, a symbol of the attributes that he wants the brand to stand for
Yes, a good logo can do a lot of work for the brand, and create associations in the consumer’s mind, but (say, for an FMCG brand like Pepsi) how much can the cool new logo and the virtual rooms contribute to the experience of the real consumer, especially in India? Till I stopped consuming aerated drinks a couple of years back, I was a Pepsiholic, it had nothing to do with taste, and it had everything to do with the brand and its attitude. But i wonder how much the ‘brand’ matters in the Tier 3 town, where the concept of social networking, is the consumer walking to the ‘cool drinks’ shop, asking for a ‘thanda’ and the shopkeeper knowing which brand he is asking for, from experience.

I really don’t know if the ocean will ever be bridged, and whether the logo or the smart brand work happening digitally will ever make a difference to the vast majority of Indian consumers, many of whom have vaguely heard of the internet. With reference to the stated intent, I am intrigued, how will Pepsi become/create a social object in such a scenario, or will parts of the digital medium always be confined to a corner of the long tail?

until next time, non digital natives
November 3, 2008
Locally cold, globally cool

Like I commented here, my reaction to Coke’s latest TVC is one of its own iconic tag lines – Thanda Matlab Coca Cola. The ad, which tries to showcase that Coke, in the festive season of Diwali brings family, friends and even strangers together, left me absolutely cold. While the earlier Hrithik commercial was far from impressive, its tag line – Jashn Mana Le, I thought, would’ve been a great fit here, wonder why they didn’t continue the thought.

Coke has, in the past, done some great contextual stuff. I recently came across an old ad of theirs that used the premise of Grand Theft Auto, and did a neat twist to the character, who does good deeds instead of bad ones, and says that ‘Give a little Love and it all comes back to you in the Coke side of life!’ That seemed to be taking forward the theme of an older ad – “What goes around comes around”. I wonder why the ‘Coke side of life’ has not been utilised here. Actually, even this old Xmas ad of theirs was well worth aping.

Meanwhile, Coke’s on to a lot of good things otherwise. I recently read about its efforts to go green. This TVC, which aims to spread awareness of the fact that Coke is made without any artificial flavours. is a part of this effort. They recently launched a range of sustainable tees, made from its recycled PET bottles, and in the recently concluded Olympics, distributed it to athletes. They also partnered with the Olympics organising committee to make sure that all PET plastic bottles collected from all official venues were fully recycled into valuable reuses. Read about more efforts here.

Coke has also launched The Design Machine, which ensures that its image in markets, across all brands, around the world reflects the core strategy as far as POS materials go, but allows enough flexibility for localisation. This should allow them to get the perfect mix of glocalisation. You can read the details here.

And its not just the real world, but they seem to be doing some interesting stuff virtually too. Coketag is a widget that allows users to package and share links across the web. This can be a “blog, work, interests, team, band or whatever you like or care about”. Once the links are shared, you can also track its popularity. The widget can also be shared on Facebook. A good widget to facilitate connecting and sharing, another aspect of ‘the coke side of life’ (via Startup Meme)

All the above activities are in line with Coke’s position as a market leader. With the advances Coke is making in glocalisation, we can hopefully see the good work happening in other markets being adapted contextually in India. Or we could make better ads here 😐

until next time, the green side of life..

October 15, 2008
Creating Super Brands

Found an excellent article shared via Reader (thanks to @vimoh) which sought to mash marketing, and more specifically, social media into the life of Superman. Through this example, and three different scenarios, it shows the typical position of an older brand, presented with new competitors and having to cope with a changing media landscape. The article itself is an absolute laugh riot and brings to light the various kinds of social media ‘experts’ operating today, with their own prescriptions for social media triumph. It ends with the simple but (what i consider) correct lesson of staying true to yourself, and doing the best possible you can.

On a similar context, I found another article that talked about how

“Soleil-Media Metrics analyst Laura Martin cut her rating on Google to “Hold” from “Buy” and slashed her price target to $350 from $580…saying the company’s practice of giving 10 percent of profits to charity and giving employees one day a week to work on pet projects should end amid the current economic climate………she highlighted another company practice she believes should end – “the confusing myriad of non-revenue producing Google-products in the marketplace.””

The Google culture has had a tremendous influence on the awesome products that are must-have’s now. Would anyone with that understanding have made a statement like this? I shudder to think what this analyst would say about say, Twitter, if ever it got listed..hmmm

While I’m definitely not against a revenue model for social media, or an ROI concept for the brands/organisations that involve themselves in social media, I am against the typical Wall Street business analyst’s parameters of returns. Mashable has a good post on figuring out the ROI models in social media. Here is another good post on selling the social media concept in your organisation.

I absolutely subscribe to this line of thought (via Online Marketing Blog). Applying the regular ROI metrices to social media is going to take away from the essence of what social media is all about. What’s the next step – how do i monetise my relationship with my friend on Facebook?

Meanwhile, this is a contrarian view on listening to customers, and this is a very interesting read on the busting of Web 2.0. Coming from someone who’s seen it all right from Dotcom Bust 1.0, i think it pays to at least listen.

If the intent is wrong, social media cannot help. Social media can only help if you have a good product, willingness to involve the users, and accept their feedback to improve the product. If the idea is to simply use social media as just another platform to air commercials/messages, build in templates like ‘corporate blog’ and ‘user generated content’ and then apply typical ROI metrices to track and measure it, social media will disappoint, but a great intent and a great product will have the potential to create a super brand.

until next time, its a brand new social world…

October 13, 2008