Earth Quakes VS Kittens

Interesting insights from Bit.ly - the URL shortening company.

The question : Do links posted on Facebook last longer than they do on twitter?

To do this Bit.y performed analysis of over 1,000 URL links to determine their half life - " the amount of time at which this link will receive half of the clicks it will ever receive after it’s reached its peak " - in effect, it's shelf life.

The analysis encompassed the following Online channels - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Email/Instant messenger. They showed that linked published via YouTube had almost double the "shelf life" than via other channels, with Facebook/Twitter and Email all having similar dynamics for published links.

Initially I assumed this was due to the time on site for users being higher for YouTube VS Facebook, with this increased time on site translating to links posted on the site being "live" for longer. However a quick check on Alexa showed this not to be the case.

Is this down to engagement levels on the sites, with YouTube having a more lean back audience and therefore more open to the suggestion of a click through or engagement opportunity, or due to Facebook with it's more immediate interactivity and higher volumes of change resulting in links becoming redundant faster?

Disasters VS Kittens

Certain content types showed high initial click-through volume with steep 'tail off' - news articles.

Other content types while having lower volumes, had a longer 'shelf life' with clicks being registered over a longer time period - Kitten's and furry animals. Regardless of the channel where they were posted.

In summary

Content type rather than channel seems to determine the lifespan of the link

Content types that have an immediacy and a relevance that is dependent on time, decay faster than those which could be deemed as 'general'

That YouTube offers and interesting challenge to the channel question, why should YouTube keep links 'live' for twice as long as the other, higher time on site / higer engagement channels.

original post here : link

Fan on Facebook, what are you worth.......

$136 according to recent research

Trying to place a monetary value on the effectiveness of any advertising is difficult, with social media being no different.

There has been a lot of press recently around the Facebook like button and the effects this has on the peer groups who are part of your online community, but what £ value does being a fan actually mean to brands?

A survey conducted by Syncapse attempts to shed some light onto this areas with some interesting assumptions and findings.

20 top brands analysed

Fans and non fans were compared to measure their previous, current and future behaviours towards these brands.

Being a fan for MacDonald’s – your likely to spend more than $159 more than a non fan.

Fans are nearly 30% more likely to continue being loyal to a brand. Being loyal is not an indication of your spend with that brand, however all of the metrics indicated a higher spend for fans than non fans across all brands.

Brand advocates and WOM

A huge part of social networking is the recommendation network, you telling your peers and friends about your preferences and recommendations. This is the oldest form of advertising, is the basis for viral and is deemed as ‘earned’ media by marketers – see bought owned and earned.

Being far from free ( your initial outlay and marketing to drive brand awareness ) it most certainly is a benefit for any brand to have working for it.

Fan

Facebook fans are 68% more likely to recommend a product or brand, with people more likely to buy if recommended by friend, with this onward recommendation resulting in over a third of these people actually trying the product.

The closeness of the recommender has an impact on this percentage, with family members scoring higher than those with loose social connections. To support this in a previous post I outlined how product types and the advocates peer standing and expert levels effect the onward performance of these recommendations– i.e they are regarded as an expert in the field of music, onwards recommendations have a more likely effect to influence than areas they are not.

It is important to remember that these fan basis exist already without Facebook, however the ability to monitor and articulate ‘numbers’ from the site gives an ability (albeit still open to conjecture) as to what these could be worth.

Full report here : http://www.syncapse.com/media/syncapse-value-of-a-facebook-fan.pdf

When your friends become spammers : http://onehandshake.blogspot.com/2007/02/when-your-friends-become-spammers.html

Foursquare freebie

Domino's pizza has teamed up with Foursquare - the location based social networking application to offer free pizza's to the 'mayor's' and discounts to others who check in to the physical outlets.

Similar promotions have recently launched with big name brands such as Starbucks offering tangible rewards, rather than the previous gift of special 'badges' offered by other brands.

Show me the money

The move to actual rewards is key, currently there is sufficient 'buzz' and novelty around the application to allow for virtual gifts to hold some value in the users mind - however long term loyalty to both the tool and brands will require actual rewards that can be exchanged for goods or services.

Stick in onto social media - sure to work

However careful consideration must be given to these rewards in order to drive success, as the recent failure of a UK premiership football promotion by Umbro demonstrated - 48,000 people in one location, the offer of a signed football shirt translating into no more than 200 'check in's.

Maybe the offer of a pint or a pie would have been more 'relevant' for the fans......

Penny for your thoughts.....

Survey's are a necessary evil

They offer the insight and intelligence that, when combined with other metrics such as sales data give organisations insight on how best to target, talk and engage with current, potential and existing customers.

Organisations such as Dynamic logic offer online survey technologies, gleaning these insights with an immediacy far greater than that offered by existing methods post, face to face, telephone interviews.

However in the day and age of hype cycles that last days rather than weeks and the ability for advertising campaigns to be launched and changed with increased immediacy through social media sites, things need to happen faster and have increased relevance.

Nielsens Brandlift, a partnership with Facebook last year in the US signalled a more immediate and intimate method for measuring the impact of advertising through the site.

This service has now launched in the UK.

The idea

• User group one are exposed to Facebook adverts
• The Facebook ad systems create a small control group whose profile matches that of your target audience, however these users will not be exposed to the advertisement
• A Poll is then show to both sets of user groups in a simple short format
• Results are processed and compared.

Success

The use of the inbuilt tools within Facebook ( the poll ) giving familiarity to the users and the short form nature of the questions has resulted in higher than average responses to the surveys.
marketing technology
Couple this with the segmentation offered by the site through your user profile information ( thus to remove unnecessary questions which in turn increases response rates and one would guess, honesty in response. ) adds to the success of this method and gives advertisers a quick method to test and review their campaign effectiveness

Earn $10,000 for one idea - the power of the crowd

Some great examples of using the power of the crowd to perform a task that cannot be automated, to harness the creative inclinations many of us have but until now did not have a commercial outlet to monetize these talents and an example how the world of business multinationals are continuing to use these crowds to commercial effect - are these efforts a viable alternative or a PR novelty?

First up - how about $10,000 for your ideas on how to sell a small 'feisty' sausage.

Pepperami sales totals for the UK alone of over £25 million per year and a top 10 ranking in the chilled convience brands for supermarket sales in 2008 demonstrates1 this is no fringe product or brand for Unilever.

marketing technology

For the past 16 years Unilever has used established AD agency Lowe Lintas to provide it with creative ideas for the brand, indeed they (Lowe) came up with the ' Animal ' strapline and character which has been so successful over the years.

marketing technology

Recently though Unilver has followed in Pepsi Co's footsteps (Dorritos competition) to turn to the crowd for ideas for promotion of the brand, however rather than just looking for 'additional' ideas to compliment there advertising agencies efforts, they have dropped Lowe altogether .

Second - MP's expenses, how to sift through over 400,000 pages of expense claims in a timely fashion?

The Guardian newspaper at the beginning of the year did some sterling work in identifying some key ' anomalies ' with some of our less honest UK MP's - finding expense claims for cleaning moats, second homes that were not lived in ( and subsequently sold for huge profits ) and generally being less than honest in claiming for expenses incurred while serving the public. However with the sheer scale of information the Guardian faced an impossible task at fully scrutinising all the information in their possession to bring any further suspicious claims to light - there answer, turn to the community and put online all the information to people to review and submit where they think there may be ' interesting information '

To date over 240,000 documents have been reviewed by over 23,000 volunteers over the past 2 months.

marketing technology

And finally, no in house designers for your t-shirt company? Easy, ask your own customers to send in their design, offer a prize and ask the community to vote on the winner - then sell the winning entry back to those folks who are submitting designs! A great business model from Threadless tees.

Threadless - the community based t-shirt company

1souce : http://www.marketresearch.com

Are you really watching

It is interesting to see again the key advertisers and media agencies from WPP and Publics are challenging not only the monopoly that Nielsen has on providing data and informationon who, what and for how long we are listening and watching content, but also the accuracy and the methods they use.
marketing technology
From an online perspective it is interesting Nielsen's still pursues the ' user active ' model for measurement (measuring activity and clicks within the window).

Many more applications and online tools are either passive (in the case of music streaming sites and TV) or open secondary windows in which the users are engaged with content, tools and application however not in the ' host site ' - however Nielsen's chooses discount the time spent after 30 minutes, which will in these circumstances result in under estimation of consumer exposure.

second life - online time down over 40%?

A recent example of the content owner and Nielsen data being at odds with each other was the recent dramatic reported fall in Second Life online time from high’s of 22 hours down to 9 – a fall that the Linden Labs contradicts pointing to a rise of just over 7% , from 35.5 hours per month to 38.6 hours per month.

So who is right?

Linden being the source would have a deeper insight ( albeit it possibly biased ) than a 3rd party organisation such as Nielsen as to their users activity. This combined with the very fact the advertisers are willing to drive there need directly for more analytical and representational data (above), goes to prove that these advertisers want to know how big a bang they are getting for their buck, but Nielsen must find a middle ground that there clients and trade bodies is happy with.

sources
Technology in Marketing
The Register

Look whose talking.....

Measurement is a good thing

As the saying goes, how can you manage something if you cannot measure it in the first place ?

Measuring the buzz around your brand can be a tough, with multiple media channels to manage it is no longer a simple case of scouring over the newspapers, performing customer surveys and watching the news to find out what people are saying about your brand.

Internet measurement has traditionally been a case of using web metrics such as page impressions to gauge a relative popularity, but this in most cases is showing you the past – you are seeing the effects rather than the cause.

Identifying , listening , understanding and engaging in these conversations is now part of the marketing mix – Blair Witch with its huge online following before the films release proves that this is a space where must all now operate and understand.

Here and Now – Are your key and emerging markets where you think they are ?

What you need is the now, the present, where and what are people talking about.

You are a chocolate sauce manufacturer and your sales are soaring without any significant change to your traditional marketing strategy – what is the cause of this ?

In the online space wisdom would point you to the cookery blogs to find out what people are saying, but are your key influencers actually there?

You may have a large pocket of ‘ chatter ‘ in one place but are these people the real brand advocates or those who have already been influenced and while valuable, may not be the right people you need to engage for further product launches.

You also find that upon investigation, this group of people are indeed fans of your product but not responsible for the increase in sales or interest on your site.

Yes directly engaging all customers in some form of market research will eventually glean this information – but how fast and nimble is this process?

Companies participation in forums and blogs is an essential part of managing this relationship – but without some help you may be missing advocates and influencers by focusing in the wrong place.

Lets also not forget this is a big task and not always top of the marketers priorities.

marketing technology

Help is at hand

Marketing technology tools are now coming to the market which in essence scour the internet for conversations about your brand and it’s competitors.

Buy using such technology companies are now able to build maps measuring and reporting these conversations looking for key phrases and associated words - for example the number of times I use your brand name and other favorable words, thus identifying me as an advocate ( or not ).

These maps can identify the flow of these conversations ( key ) along with the most active and influential by seeing the connections in and out of these people.

marketing technology

The horse has bolted.

By coupling this with my relationships or ‘ connections ‘ marketers are able to build visual relationships between users, groups and forums allowing them to engage and monitor these conversations.

Just one example of its application is the ability to be able to respond to possible PR disasters from this chatter.

Sony were able to issue a PR statement highlighting their care in response to ‘ chatter ‘ that was emerging on the net surrounding there paint adverts, moving themselves into a proactive rather than a reactive position – it allowed Sony to see the shape of the crash and respond accordingly.

The human element

Now you may be thinking that using technology solves the issue, that large data centers will now be chugging away sucking in data and spitting out hit lists of users for the marketing department to bombard; not quiet.

Fortunately for us ( the consumer ) all of this data does need interpretation to give context and meaning.

Just like any other form of market research these maps showing the flow of sentiment and conversations require the human touch to gauge it’s importance and also ensure that our brilliant ability for sarcasm does not suddenly mean efforts are wrongly targeted.

technology marketing

links :

marketing technology

Sonar - Trampoline systems

Seer - VML

Truview - Visible technologies

Spam goes social

facebook spam

Message labs November report makes for grim reading, spam is still on the rise.

marketing technology

Amazingly 1 in 32 mails which passes through its global systems it classes as spam, this number is of course higher as it is impossible to capture all spam.

While this problem is a long way from every being controlled within email, social networks are now increasingly coming under attack from applications and general ' junk ' notifications within groups and personal messages. An example above from one of my Facebook groups which has come under siege from spammers.

How then do marketing departments use technology to not only over come the challenges of connecting to customers, but also differentiate themselves from the communication clutter which is spam.

Is it really viral ?

virtual bartender - a truly successful viral campaign

marketing technology

Viral now seems to form the part of most youth culture marketing campaigns. Does using the power of Word Of Mouth and giving tools for passing content on to others mean huge audiences and exposure?

No

It seems very little is actually very ‘ viral ‘ and many still require traditional methods of ‘ mass ‘ to achieve the desired goals.

Very little is actually viral

In the viral marketing world the success of a campaign is measured by it’s reproduction rate or ‘R’ rating.

An ‘R’ rating of 1 implies that a person who receives the message, will pass this onto more than one person.

With an R rating of 1 and above the pass on rate reaches a tipping point, it exponentially grows creating an epidemic – a virus effect.

An R rating of less than 1 means they eventually die out as the pass on rate becomes less and less each time.

There are a number of factors that can affect your R rating

Why

Why should I pass on this pretty crappy commercial to my friends is the first hurdle, a hurdle that can be jumped with the use of good quality and engaging content.

Relevance’s role is key in the final outcome – the purchase, it also plays a part in the success of pass on. However there are other considerations above this.

Incentives using donation schemes for publicly supported causes can also assist in the pass on rate of the content – although this should be complimentary and not the key driver.

An example of this was seen in a campaign run by Oxygen Network which used Katrina donations – achieving a ‘ R ‘ rating of 0.769 . While one of the highest pass on ratings recorded it still meant the campaign eventually would die out .

Who you are

Another big factor in driving the ‘ R ‘ rating can also depend on the peer standing and influence of those involved. Identifying key influencers in the outset will only improve the seeding.

Stories

Alternate reality games ( ARG ) while not having the reach that TV / radio engage people for long periods of time.

A recent ARG which supported the release of the film A.I attracted around three million participants over a twelve week period, 50% of the new participants were female.
Using techniques such as rabbit holes which are in effect the first website or entrance to a larger more complex ‘ warren ‘ has been a successful way of leading users into a more complex engagement.

It seems people are willing to accept all the events to be authentic within these stories, to actually park preconceptions and bias until the ending.

This parking gives rise to opportunities for marketers, however be warned this should not be abused. This large investment of time and effort these people undertake, it would be unwise to totally cheat these groups with some form of shallow ultimate message.


In summary

• Engage
• Identify key people and peer groups
• Quality of content
• Tell a story
• Provide tools to assist pass-on
• Reward

On R Ratings

For a campaign exhibited a reproduction rate of 0.5, meaning that each generation is half the size of the previous one, then an initial seed of 10,000 people would pass it to 5,000 new recipients, and those 5,000 would pass it to a further 2,500, and so on, eventually reaching a total of 20,000 people— twice the number that would have been reached by the traditional campaign.

Sources :

Alternate Reality: The New Frontier
Viral Marketing for the Real World – Harvard Business review

Radio gets impersonal

radio adds companionship ?

I've covered on several occasions music serving providers such as Pandora and more recently Dizzler but with Last.fm's recent sale to CBS has put these services firmly in the spot light.

Apart from how to monetize these offerings is the fact that all content selection is driven by technology and users, not DJ's.

This personalized targeted approach is exactly what we all want right ? - maybe not.

The future

In the future we will have at our finger tips our own personalized music and TV channels.

These will be built from combinations of our existing habits from viewing, subscriptions and recordings and be delivered with some form of advertising ( still debate how this will work ) but one important element is missing, people.

Will our lives be then just one single stream of entertainment with absolutely no human element ?

Inject

You can Partner with social networking sites to increased the social element but you still need to have the timely injection of the DJ and TV presenter.

We have to remember that people listen and watch TV not just for the specific content, but also for companionship.

Madonna to play concert in Casper, Wyoming.....

pull content to your hometown

For most big acts it is quiet simple, book a massive venue such as Wembly Stadium or Madison Square Garden, promote the event through traditional media channels such as radio and you will have a sell out crowd.

What if you are on the periphery, have a reasonable sized but dislocated fan base. Or those who have a strong popularity based on some geographical factor, the question for these people is how to identify where you are in demand.

The answer - a website called ‘ Eventful ‘

Founded in 2004 it enables it’s members to ‘ request ‘ performers / acts to come and perform in their local districts. By influencing performers to come to their local districts it not only helps take the risk from choosing where to venue but is also a brilliant example of marketing technology allowing consumers to pull content , although in this case physical people.

marketing technology

Other features include

• Ability to link your ITunes and Last.fm to the site to be alerted when these performers are in town or on the road.
• Community forums around sharing and creating events with communication tools such as widgets and email.

The future of books

Recent survey from Penguin books

• Three in four teenagers get their information on books from the Internet and wished there was more information on books available to them on the Internet.
• Nearly 44% of surveyed teens never or rarely visit a chain bookshop and 68% never or rarely visit an independent bookshop.
• 69% of teens think they will be doing more reading online in the future.
  
• Teens who rate reading as cool are the most frequent visitors to social networking sites.

The last point you would think is an obvious one, so why is there so little supplemental information available on the Internet to accompany books ?

Consider this : There must be an awful lot of additional content that gets cut before publication of books, why not have a promotional code in the back of the books which gives you access to all this additional content.

Once someone has purchased your book you have no clue to who they are in the retail world.

This would be a great way for marketing to use technology to engage people and build a long term, relevant relationship.

Radio gets personal

X-fm, a UK based radio station is taking listening participation to a new level. Via there websites they are allowing listeners to construct playlists which will then voted on by both the shows producers and listeners, the winning playlists are then aired over their traditional broadcast.

This fundamental shift for it's listeners adds a new level of participation and engagement, which has traditionally been a lean back medium.

Personal music services on the web are nothing new. Pandora has for the past two years been successfully serving personalized music channels to listeners through their dedicated website.

But there is a change with the entry of Dizzler, a search enabled music and video player.

Nothing new in this concept, their method of promotion is though. Dizzler hands over control of the application and where it resides to users. Simple MySpace exports allows simple creation of their favorite play lists for both video and music to then embed them and the actual player within their personal pages.

Relevance

Vistiors are then able not only able to listen to these, but enter and search for their own favorites leading I am sure to enhanced propagation of the player through the community.

Sales opportunities for both the records that are being listened to for download and relevant targeted marketing promotions, both on screen and through other methods make this a great route to the youth market through the use of internet marketing.


There are many content search and control websites available today with similar functions and technology, the key now is their positioning and associations.

Mine

By allowing user control in both the content played and then also allowing this to enhance personal sites and pages Dizzler and sites such as MyWaves recognize it is no longer good enough to offer these services in standalone webfront ends, the social aspect plays a key role in their success and acceptance. They are using the power of the crowd to market their technology.

Why virtual TV will be a success , but for different reasons

Eletronic Arts and Endemol announced a interesting partnership which will expand traditional TV programming to the virtual world, with the release next month of their Virtual Me platform

EA the company behind such classic hits such as the SIMS, Endemol is the company responsible for bring the ‘ reality ‘ TV show Big Brother which now has local variations in over 70 countries.

Taking the concept from MySpace participants are able to create virtual selves ( or aviatars as they are commonly known on the internet ) to compete and take part in variations of these hit TV shows – not in person, but with virtual representations of themselves.

I have to say it is interesting Endemols decision to partner with EA rather than leverage and already established community that is second life, however it shows an interesting transition of thought by expanding the tradional position of TV programming onto the Web.

Money

Big Brother’s revenue comes from advertising ( not product placement ) and also mainly from the SMS voting that takes place to evict or keep the contestants ( know as housemates – ironically by the are at the end , they are anything but ).

But how would this work in the online space when this will not be an audience lead activity.

As yet there are no successful examples of pre-role ( the short advert placed before content of value / interaction ) on the web. Most is ignored through the ability to close or skip, the remainder is mostly irrelevant in either context or content, this therefore leaves :

Sponsorship

Pure and simple association to raise awareness, but without engaging in dialogue with these participants is there any real value in what will be in the short term at least, a niche market ( in both volume and type of player )

In game – virtual brands, signage and clothing.

Levi’s is apparently doing a roaring trade in 501’s online, how long will this last ?

In this lean forward world where people are participating rather than sitting back and observing using traditional signage such as posters cannot prove to be effective, the ability to clutter this restricted space is also a threat and could all but trash this opportunity.

Also, while engrossed how much awareness does this bring ? Ask a professional footballer what adverts were around the side of the pitch while he was playing.

Payment upfront

This seems the more likely , in order to win / participate you pay. Pure and simple gambling , all be it wrapped up in a different wrapper.

Exclusive

On the internet there could be 1,000 big brother virtual shows happening at any one time - nothing is exclusive on the internet , it needs to work the numbers.
Combine this and the fact no matter how advanced the technology, people have a wonderful ability to express and behave in subtle ways which at the moment cannot be replicated online – I challenge anyone to be entertained for any length of time sitting watching Second Life.

The one thing the TV has over the internet is exclusivity and to a degree, authenticity.


Know your enemy

Generally game shows are run with a degree of ethics, although not perfect as Who wants to be a millionaire cheat Major Charles Ingram will contest, they do through the ability of “ seeing is believing “ remove some of the trust barriers the internet cannot break down .

Virtual icons

Above is a virtual concert with star performers U2, although the virtual Bono has some fancy dance moves I would not pay to watch these unanimated objects for any length of time.

Would you pay to watch a virtual game of soccer, would these virtual avitars be the next location for marketing and promotion deals, will we ever have a ( god forbid ) virtual David Beckham?

By making the barriers to entry too easy, by leveling the playing field, it removes the draw and passion along with the appreciation of the attributes that make these people great and thus the desire for us to watch and appreciate – this will therefore never be an audience led medium no matter how much the technology fools us visually, therefore the revenue generation models should reflect this.

As Buddy ( aka Syndrome ) said in the incredibles ‘ I'll sell my inventions so that *everyone* can have powers. *Everyone* can be Super!

And when everyone's Super... No one will be.

Spider Man 3 - Sony pictures new release has embraced the power of WOM.



When Honda released the power of dreams, showing the heritage and values that were deep within Honda but little recognised to the outside world it built a story. A story which upon reflection made us all think, ‘ Wow, these guys and girls stand for something ‘ whether it be the environment or the dedication to engineering excellence – they used the past in order to sell their future.

Today most film releases concentrate on the here and now, they hype and tease. Sure they build stories that may use the past ( how many times have we seen terror of the house many years ago , only now today to reek revenge on some unsuspecting teenagers who take the wrong turn ) but none really have the heritage of story of many classic characters such as Spider Man.

Sony has in most part done a great job of embracing the very beginnings of Spidey, delivering it all using the most modern parts of social networking.

Social Networking

Above and beyond screen savers which do very little in terms of Word of Mouth and the standard mobile content, they have pushed into the realms of MySpace and Blogging with Widgets and templates.

Knowing there connecting market will be more than happily switch all of their previous hard work in designing there own portals to take a piece of the Spidey brand wagon for the next two months is brilliant - this is an example of marketing technology at it's best.

They have not made the mistake of just providing just another blogging area on a branded site, but provided a place where people can find tools to takeaway and use which will promote and encourage the all powerful word of mouth – word of mouth that is not generated by the corporation, but Word of Mouth that is generated by people.

Memories

By embracing the very roots of Spider man and not neglecting the past ( the site covers all the previous Spider Man films ) and by using engaging interactive location maps of New York to good effect , they remind you why you enjoyed the old films so much. This also serves the purpose of reinforcing the new story line, reminding you of characters from the first film and also connecting you with the original Marvel comics, ensuring all fans are catered for.

This connection is a recognition that there is an ardent following out there going back many years.

Yes they have provided a blogging area on the site, but they have also given enough takeaway items for people to seed , share and talk about in there own social networks to ensure this is a very talked about film.

Sony pictures has used technology to recognise the past, while embraced the future

One to one marketing - embrace WOM to succeed

Oscar wild wrote : Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone elses opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

An example of this ( fashion by it's very nature thrives because of this ) on the web with a website web site devoted to tattoos - an art form which each of the people in the pictures will tell you is part of their identity , their uniqueness - looking through the pages and pages of pictures I would disagree !

One to one marketing does not take into account my status within peer groups, it does not maximise my ability to influence others - as Oscar so rightly points out , we all copy in some form or another.

Companies who use relationship marketing need to stop focusing on the biased rationale of their relationship with the customer and focus on the relationships these people have with others. If we do not widen our focus , changing my behaviour is ( if we take into consideration the above ) going to very difficult.

Focusing on me directly without giving me the tools or great product to talk about with my social circle does not maximise my influence group. My conversation could be the tipping point many of us need to make that purchase.

“In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes”

Following on from recent article I managed to catch up with Sammy "Flea Market " Montgomery, the Youtube and national TV appearing store owner from Alabama to talk about the effect of the commercial seen now by over 1million people across the globe.

The story

Sammy has been producing adverts for local TV for around 4 years to promote his store. In addition to this around 200 DVD’s have been given to friends and shoppers as everyone commented on the ‘ Happy ‘ upbeat nature of the adverts “ People loved my flow “

It was from one of these DVD’s the full two minute version ( the usual 30 second spots for TV are edits from this master ) was loaded onto YouTube.

A short time after The Ellen Degeneres show asked people to send in their favourite local advert – the reel got sent in and the rest as they say , is history.

According to Sammy there are around 600 websites now linking to the commercial with YouTube still registering over 10,0000 views each day.

“My ideas are Fresh and catchy – the tune gets in your head. There’s a war going on , people are too depressed, people like the way I dance , bug my eyes – it is happy and sincere”
The commercial is global “ I have had contact from all over the World including China , Germany, France , the people from the Bravo Channel it is amazing the response I have had“.

Combine all of this with the infamous Ellen Degeneres appearance, Sammy is well on the way to a true global reach.

Opportunity

Trouble is people cannot purchase furniture online via Sammy – his business is not suited to the distribution model the web requires – it is pure and simple retail outlet – he openly admits sales in the store for existing goods and services have not gone intergalactic.

With now Sammy as his own brand with international exposure, promoting a store which a good proportion of the globe cannot ( or want to ) reach, with products that are not readily transportable ( i.e furniture ) does this all result in no dollars through the door?

In this case not – merchandise

“Many people come to the store now to buy merchandise.” His strategy is nothing ground breaking , but opportunistic it is

• New website will allow for merchandise sales online
• Ring-tones – can’t wait
• Extended dance version for distribution
• T-shirts , posters pens mugs - you get the idea.

Sammy is looking for a brand or product – he is a larger than life character – is he the new face of Coke – maybe not , a cutting edge brand spokesman in the mobile arena , maybe.


On traditional advertising

Commenting on Automotive adverts he outlines that none of the adverts “ make the car your own “ citing the adverts are all too similar and not relevant to people. “ They should focus on features such as the Stereo and the leather. They need to make you think you are driving the car, tell you about the product is all about – my adverts are successful because they are true and believable”

He has a point – with addressable media now a real possibility this showman and salesman from Alabama is citing what all marketers are trying to achieve – addressability and context.

Before speaking with Sammy I had already received details via email of when the next advert is due to be shown , taking a real interest in the personal relationship side of business.


As Andy Warhol said everyone has 15 minutes of fame - the internet this is allowing this 15 minutes to linger, spread and develop.

When companies have their 15 minutes of fame, how will they react ?

Those who are less enterprising and flexible could see an awful lot of exposure resulting in a awful lot of lost opportunity.

Dell IdeaStorm - connecting with customers

Did you know that most Dell customers would like a ' clean ' software install, without Google or AOL being installed.

Or that a large proportion of their users / advocates would like to have web cams as standard on their laptops ?

Normally this information comes from focus groups ( which by their very nature are expensive and not able to fully embrace the reach of the web ) or through online surveys - which once marketing lay their hands upon tend to request too much information - hence devaluing the information integrity.

In this case the above are real world examples of what customers, potential customers are saying about Dell products , not in a technology forum divorced from their context of the brand and products , but directly on Dell’s IdeaStorm online community.

Dell’s position has always been to cut out the middle man and work directly with it’s clients – IdeaStorm brings a much needed closeness that the outsourcing of call centres and order processing of past has damaged, this openness to adopting blog’s has in effect made every Dell employee a customer facing employee.

The trick now is to ensure is follows through and executes on the valuable feedback it receives – not by just building a faster horse but by hopefully tipping the balance on decisions that can give it the valuable jump on it’s competition it so desperately needs.

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The thin slice

You say fragmented and divided, I say organised and concentrated.

Marketers’ can no longer thin slice, they need to enter into a meaningful dialogue in order to capture both peoples attention and imagination.

Take a look at http://www.pandora.com for the future of how our personal media consumption can deliver both specific relevant content, while interjecting ‘ something new and surprising ‘ through a little thought and technology.

“Relationship management “ – Google to start the dating game ?

Social networking phenomenon continues to grown – MySpace with a unique audience of 36 million people ( Nielsen netrating March 2006 ) , Youtube with over 19 and dating sites such as Match.com has over 15 million members with profiles posted.

Dating is ‘ dated ‘

The trouble with all dating websites / contact websites is the very fact they are static.

The medium has moved on very little from the days of the newspaper advert of ‘ tall dark handsome male ‘ seeking ‘ slim attractive female ‘ to only now including pictures of the suitor or female to be wooed.

This , considering the primary function of the dating website is to promote ‘ engagement ‘ ( literally ) the present format is lacking.

Sites such as Friends Reunited have within their portal added instant messaging function to expand the usefulness of the site from being just a conduit, to being the tool for nurturing those all important first exchanged words in a real time fashion.

Match.com part way went the route all portals should take , allowing video content to be uploaded, which fits nicely into a new purchase Google has just made with Youtube.

Extending the YouTube service to include profiles of its users , joining up their content to their profile and that of the person they are looking for will act as a far more engaging user experience – it is a winning solution.

Visual representation portrays an honest insight into people psyche and personalities beyond that of a series of tem plated questions and answers being displayed. I am sure that the % success rate for matching people would increase. For those sites such as Myspace, which inadvertently promote relationships ( that are just beyond a shag ) this could be just the potion to build a revenue stream beyond that of advertising.

ITV’s purchase of friends-reunited makes for a mouth watering possibility, with an audience that is still used to using the TV as it’s primary source for information and entertainment, to engage in some visual interviewing an selection ( the red button ) of my next wife.

How technology helps to find and show, your love

Bluetooth - Your perfect match through perimeter based systems – your profile is stored and sent to other devices in range , allowing for you to target , or be targeted by your perfect suitor ( I would add that maybe a breath testing kit be integrated into this to ensure the ‘ beer goggles ‘ are not affecting judgement

SMS – informal way of flirting – with millions of texts sent on valentines, this is still the most popular method of non verbal communication
Email – the classic method for those interoffice communications , with the advent of Sarbanes Oxley though , I am sure this auditable method is on the way out

Websites – Social sites, Myspace, Match.com

The digital Camera – no more Polaroid’s means your bits are now ‘ bytes ‘ to be sent along the digital airwaves



Additional cross promotional opportunities

Dating sites should engage lastminute to allow potential lovers the opportunity to book restaurants, flights and gift items.