Simon's Blog

Guest interview: Sean Rad, CEO of ad.ly on in-stream advertising, analytics and the future

Do ad agencies have a future? The what, how and why.

Social media has done more than connect consumers in ways never imagined before. It has done more than challenge brands that traditionally communicate with consumers by dictating behavior in a “push” rather than “pull” strategy. Social media has also redefined the short and long-term roles of advertising agencies. Here’s why.

Traditionally brands have broadcast their messaging to consumers with the help of their strategic and creative partners, advertising agencies. This relationship operated on the long-standing premise that brands and consumers were already in dialogue when, in fact, brands played a dictatorial role.

When the Internet gave consumers access to an almost unlimited amount of information, it created transparency like never before. Rather than simply following the dictates of brands, consumers could satisfy themselves as to what they thought about a brand’s products or behavior and share their thoughts with each other. As a result, the dynamics between brands and consumers have fundamentally changed.

On purpose: Why some brands have already failed in 2010

I’ve written often about the need for a brand to define who it is and what its core values are. I wanted to take that further by saying that it is equally critical to define the goals of a brand in terms of purpose for the year. Without doing so a brand is likely to slip backwards within a marketplace that is moving so fast. You only need to look at the leadership positions Nike, Pepsi, Starbucks and Coke are taking in the social space to see major brands that are tracking with the marketplace.

To be fair brands are often so overwhelmed by the need to survive, meet their next quarterly projections or turn themselves inside out in the face of social media, that they don’t get time to sit down and articulate how the next year can contribute to what the brand wants to be. Yet there is time if a brand puts it first at the beginning of the year.

One good idea deserves another: Book giveaway

As my way of saying thank you for all the incredible feedback and support I’ve received in the past year, I’ve decided to launch a book giveaway.

These are all books that I have read or am reading as research and think are worthwhile. (Your book will be new of course!) It’s a great way to keep good ideas flowing among us and a small way to say thanks for sharing your time and thinking.

So here’s how it works. Each week I will profile a book and the next week I will give a copy away to a random person who has commented on a blog post during that week. Then you email or DM a work address to me and I’ll send it to you. Simple, no?

The books will be in the areas of marketing, branding, advertising, social media, philanthropy and non-profit work from authors like Jim Collins, Shel Israel, Chris Brogan, Seth Godin and more. Plus I’ll stay up to date with the latest books and give away the best ones.

The point is not to get more comments or promote the books. The authors don’t even know I’m doing it. I just had the idea because I’m so absent-minded I kept ordering the same books twice from Amazon as part of my research and this seemed like a good way to give back. (Now you know the real me!)

So look out next week for the first book with a short synopsis and thanks for your continued interest and support.

http://simonmainwaring.com/blog

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Nike Just Does It Again: New Local/Social ‘True City’ AR App

Nike released a new iPhone app last week that demonstrates why they continue to be a marketing leader. Called True City, it provides unique insight into six European cities by detailing information that only people who live in that city would know. Basically, an insider’s guidebook to London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Milan, Paris and Barcelona.

What’s unique about the app is that it combines premium, geo-tagged content, the latest iPhone technologies, and social media integration that is constantly updated by real people in real time.

Consumers say “Catch us if you can”. Pepsi and Coke give chase

I really appreciated the fantastic feedback on this week’s post about The Death of Corporate Websites. Lo and behold, last night I spy a quote (thanks, Frank Reed) from Anne Carelli, Digital Marketing Manager for Coke saying:

“Several years ago, Coke realized that Coke.com is not their home page – it is Google.com, digg.com and YouTube. Take the time to keep abreast of what is showing up for your brand in these new social sites and search engines.”

What’s more New Media Age now tells us Coke will no longer be creating one-off-campaign-websites in favor of building out its existing social media presence on YouTube and Facebook.

If brand managers need evidence of the need to leap out of their corporate site nests, they need only look at Coke and Pepsi.

Celebrity to go: Personal-ilty apps that take us all to market

Image credit: Brian Solis on iTunes

Just before the holiday break, Brian Solis, the highly respected PR strategist moved the blogosphere one step forward yet again. By launching his own app, he not only gave himself a powerful tool through which to interact with his community, but he also kicked off a trend that is likely to grow exponentially in popularity. (Here’s another app launched by Deepak Chopra the day after.)

The death of corporate websites: Top ten ways they will change

Cartoon Credit: Dave Coverly @ Creators.com

In the not too distant future static corporate websites will be replaced by their social equivalents.

This will happen because more and more consumers are engaged in daily conversations, often involving brands, across multiple applications, platforms and networks, wholly independent of these sites.

As these conversations become increasingly independent of these sites, falling traffic will render them ineffective in their current form. Instead, the online presence of each brand will necessarily expand out into the social space to stay in touch with their audience.

As a result, the online presence of a brand will increasingly become the sum of its social exchanges across the web and not the website that many currently call home.

Corporate sites will change in many ways:

1. They will be forced to constantly reconstitute themselves as a function of ever-shifting dialogue with consumers. (Have you ever noticed how every time you re-do your website, as soon as you’re done, you have to re-do it again because technology and conversations have moved on? It’s just like that and isn’t going to change).

2. The compass for a brand in this shifting marketplace will be it’s core values and purpose. The strict definition, execution and adherence to values allows for a brand to move and morph without cannibalizing itself.

Top ten digital trends for 2010

It feels SO good to be in 2010. 2009 was full of upheaval for many reasons, not the least of which was changes in digital marketing. So let’s kick start the New Year will a look at some powerful trends that will shape the coming year.

1. WHERE YOU ARE IS WHO YOU ARE
In the past year we have seen a powerful increase in the mainstream adoption of social media. With the increase in popularity of veteran sites like facebook and twitter, along with location-based newcomers like Foursquare and Postabon, digital marketers will be forced to rethink their advertising strategies to incorporate this new location-based variable.

2. THE CUSTOMER AS ADVERTISER
As social networking, real-time and geo trends are integrated with mobile devices that enable consumers to effortlessly produce, publish and advocate for brands, consumers will move towards a unique position where they become the de facto advertiser for much brand messaging.

Retrenchment and the power of re-

Re-cession. We’re in the middle of it and people are talking about their jobs, livelihood and future. According to the Huffington Post, jobless claims rose in 46 states last week, with California posting it’s highest jobless rate in three decades (11.2%). What’s more, while the economy tanks technology continues to change industries and the way we do business under our feet. As a result many people will not be absorbed back into those industries once the economy recovers because they will have moved on. As Jeff Jarvis, media columnist for The Guardian and author of What Would Google Do?, rightly noted:

Media – music, newspapers, TV, magazines, books – may be lucky to be among the first to undergo this radical restructuring. Other industries and institutions – advertising, manufacturing, government – are next and they, like their predecessors, don’t see what’s coming, especially if they think all they’re undergoing is a crisis. The change is bigger, more fundamental, and more permanent than that.

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