The Quisenblog

Ah, 2009. Yeah, for the most part it’s been a year you’d like to forget. But though they may have been few and far between, there were some stellar things worth cheering about in the world of marketing. Here is a very short list of some of my favorites, arranged in a bronze-silver-gold kinda way. If you have your own list of kudos you’d like to share, we’d love to hear from you.

Bronze: The Tourist Council of Queensland (Australia). This collection of tropical islands along the Great Barrier Reef is indeed a stunning destination. The “normal” way of promoting such a destination is to produce a stunning TV spot with great footage of all the cool stuff you can do there, then run the crap out of it on TV. The Council didn’t have a “TV budget” to work with, but it wasn’t about to let that get in their way. They created an online promotion inviting web site visitors to apply for the “Best Job in the World”—the position of “caretaker” of the islands.

In the words of their web site, “The Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef is a newly created position. There are a few minor tasks that need to be taken care of, but the most important duty is to report back to Tourism Queensland (and the world) and let us know what’s taking place on the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.”

This promotion was pretty much restricted to online and Social Media only, and generated more than 1.4 million application videos being uploaded to the Council’s site. Once the Caretaker was “hired,” fans were invited to follow his daily progress on his blog, creating year-round engagement. Most importantly, in a year when most destinations suffered double-digit declines, Queensland enjoyed its best tourist season ever.

Silver: The “smile” campaign from American Express. It’s been quite a while since I’ve seen a TV campaign with such a brilliantly simple concept, impeccable art direction and timeless music. Proof you don’t have to scream at someone to get his full attention.

Gold: All the contributors who made YouTube THE Social Media story of 2009. From Susan Boyle to the Evian Skating Babies to the Microsoft slip-n-slide to the lady who uploaded the home video of her sleep-walking dog (and to the creators of all the mash-ups that followed), the heroes of this emerging platform are many.

With broadband penetration now nearing 70%, and more than 88 million videos being upload just to YouTube every month, the computer and smart phone is becoming the “screen of choice” for many. Look for 2010 to be the “tipping point” in the video revolution, where video will play an important role across all Social Media platforms.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on who deserves to be named a “Marketing Hero of 2009.” Drop us a line.

And may you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Posted by Mickey

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Mickey Ramblings, Social Media American Express, Best Job in the World, Evian, island caretaker, Microsoft slip-n-slide, Rollerskating Babies, smart phone, smile campaign, social media platforms, Susan Boyle, Take Charge, The Tourist Council of Queensland, video revolution, YouTube

This week’s social media blog posts:
Monday: The Social Media Manifesto.
Tuesday: Social Media and business.
Wednesday: Your Social Media strategy: What are you hoping to achieve?
Thursday: Social Marketing turns the Media Funnel upside down.
Friday: Action steps for getting your business started in Social Media—today.

(This is the sixth in our series of Social Media posts for the month of October. We look forward to your feedback on this series.)

One of the arguments marketers have used against Social Media campaigns is that it requires too much work
for too little return. “Social Media operates on too small a scale,” they may say. “No way you can expect the number of eyeballs from an online campaign as you would get from a traditional mass media campaign,” the thinking goes.

True. But is the number of “eyeballs” the correct measurement? Shouldn’t we be concerning ourselves more
with “engagement?”

For decades, we in marketing have had little choice but to subscribe to the paradigm of “media attrition.” It goes something like this: “If we hit 1,000,000 people with the same message, we’re bound to influence the behavior
of 1%.”

That means we deliver the same message to 1,000,000 folks with the expectation that we may actually get 10,000 of them to take action.

With Social Media, however, it is possible to affect the behavior of the same 10,000 folks by starting with a far smaller number. Like, say 1,000. Or even 100.

Thanks to the Internet, social networking sites and other online tools and communities, the traditional “media funnel” as we know it gets turned on its head. It is literally flipped upside down. Instead of starting with a big number to get a small one, we start small with the expectation we can grow our community. What the Internet doesn’t deliver in numbers, it delivers in influence.

So whereas 1,000,000 used to equal 10,000, now 1,000 does.

And who, exactly, are these 1,000? They’re your best customers, the ones who already feel like you are part of their “personal brand.” The ones Malcom Gladwell would refer to as “sneezers.”

Finding them may take a little work, but once you identify them, and dialogue with them from the perspective of “what can I do for you?” rather than “here’s what I want you to know,” they’ll react positively and stick with you.

Nurturing a Social Media community takes a little more elbow grease than executing a media buy, but in the long run it’s worth it. Those initial 1,000 souls will become the “medium” of your message moving forward to friends, family and Facebook. Through the Magic Multiplier of social media, that initial 1,000 will soon balloon to 10,000 or even 100,000.

Right away you can see you don’t have to haul in huge numbers initially to be successful in Social Media. For conversation sake, take your engagement number and multiply it by 150 (the equivalent of a 0.75% conversion rate—pretty good by mass media standards). This will give you roughly an equivalent number of unique “eyeballs” you’d have to reach through mass media to achieve roughly the same results. If you engage 1,000, you’d have to reach 150,000, etc. Now ask, “what would I have had to spend to get those eyeballs?” There. You roughly have a working figure to show what that engagement is “worth” in traditional marketing dollars.

And with Social Media, your campaign doesn’t end when your ad budget does. Each member of your community has the opportunity to engage deeper and bring others in.

Looked at it in this respect, Social Media can be as competitive in scale as mass media.

Influencing behavior via Social Media may not work the same way as through conventional media, but the results can be just as effective (the Evian “Rollerskating Babies” video on YouTube for example, has attracted over 11.5 million views, in addition to the other free publicity it has generated. This could translate to a mass media value of more than $1 billion!)

With Social Media, you end up with customers who have chosen to engage with you on a deeper level. They have opted in. They came to you because someone in their personal circle recommended you. And if they have a good experience, you are “made” in Tony Soprano-speak, and won’t have to compete for them on a transaction-by-transaction basis, you’d likely have to do with a mass media campaign.

Just do the math.

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Mickey Social Media audience engagement, campaign success, mass media, media attrition, online communities, Rollerskating Babies

Evian’s rollerskating babies. The Kid From Brooklyn. The “Will It Blend” video series.

Viral videos. We’ve all seen them. Is there a formula to creating a viral video millions will want to see? With around 70,000 new videos a day being uploaded just to YouTube, the odds against your viral video catching on are slim to say the least. But is there a method for creating a viral video that has an edge in capturing viewers’ attention? What is the “secret sauce” behind some of the most successful viral video campaigns out there?

In this video, Martin Lindstrom tries to find the answers. In his interview with noted viral video creator Mads Holman, Lindstom hits on the three main characteristics of a successful viral video strategy:

• It must embody a “talking point” that people can easily share with one another.
• It must be outrageous or sensational—something that is somehow “too much” for TV. It is this outrageousness that makes us want to share it with others.
• It must be able to be “serialized”—the concept should be able to lead to a series of follow-up videos that build on the same audience. One-offs may gain some attention, but tend to fizzle quickly unless something’s there to keep the interest going.

Lindstrom’s report points out that while the idea of viral videos has long generated interest from marketers (whoa, million of viewers FOR FREE!), very few have been able to do it right. While more than 30% of major advertisers worldwide have attempted to launch a viral video program, fewer than 5% continue to have a viral media strategy.

The good news about launching a viral video program? It doesn’t take a big budget, a big staff or a big infrastructure. The key is to think outrageous. Relevently outrageous (so your product or service doesn’t come out of left field). Make it easy to share and respond to. And above all, fun.

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Mickey Media, New Media Evian, Mads Holman, Martin Lindstrom, Rollerskating Babies, viral media strategy, viral video campaigns, YouTube

For decades, we in marketing have had little choice but to subscribe to the paradigm of “media attrition.” It goes something like this: “If we hit 1,000,000 people with the same message, we’re bound to influence the behavior of 1%.”

That means we spend money to deliver the same message to 1,000,000 folks with the expectation that we may actually get 10,000 of them to take action.

The Internet turns this notion of scale on its head. What the Internet doesn’t deliver in numbers it delivers in impact and influence. The Internet is about whom, not about how many. You no longer have to intrude on 1,000,000 people to influence the behavior of 10,000. You only need to take really good care of 1,000.

Those 1,000 people you take care of just happen to be 1,000 of your best customers, the ones who relish hearing from you, who look forward to engagement with you, and who will (with a little coaxing on your part) be the medium of singing your praises within their spheres of influence and beyond. Before long, you’ll find their numbers swelling to a number of 10,000 or more.

So whereas 1,000,000 used to equal 10,000, now 1,000 does.

One of the arguments against social media and online campaigns is that they operate on too small a scale. It is unrealistic to expect the number of eyeballs from an online campaign that you would get from a traditional mass media campaign. But if you think of it in terms of “engagement,” it can be suddenly competitive in scale with mass media.

An excellent example is the “Rollerskating Babies” video produced by Evian. It garnered more than 3 million YouTube hits in the first week after launch. That’s 3 million opt-in views with no paid media (and that’s before the morning news shows got on board).

There are other variables, of course. But the point here is that social media and online campaigns shouldn’t be dismissed strictly on the basis of reach.

Do the math.

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Mickey Media, On Customers Evian, mass media, media attrition, online campaigns, Rollerskating Babies, Social Media