Tuesday, July 08, 2008

New WOM Concept: Shhh!

I don't know if it's a trend or if it's a clever way of handling a word-of-mouth (WOM) campaign, but I thought it deserved at least a passing mention.

There have been a couple of outreach efforts lately that have encouraged the comments of online influencers, but have requested the influencers to avoid mentioning the product being promoted.

When I was at crayon, this is the approach that we used when we encouraged 25 influential bloggers, podcasters and authors to use ooVoo. We wanted the technology to simply enable their conversations, rather than to be the focus of it, so we told them there was no requirement to talk about ooVoo, but instead, they should avoid it. The hero was conversation, not the client or the product.

I recently learned of Lenovo's sponsorship of the Summer Olympics that incorporates 100 athletes blogging about their experiences under the title "Voices of the Olympic Games." Ogilvy's Digital Influence group recruited 100 athletes from more than 30 sports and 25 countries, gave them all a Lenovo laptop and Flip camera and helped them to all start a blog or continue their existing blog, chronicling their experience at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Ogilvy/Lenovo let the athletes know that there is no requirement to post positive opinions about Lenovo. The aim of this outreach, according to Rohit Bhargava, SVP of Digital Strategy at Ogily, is "to offer our technology to help them share their voices just as Lenovo is providing the technology to power the Athlete's Village at the actual games in Beijing."

As long as the influencers disclose any relationship with sponsors, I think this is a solid and unobtrusive way to execute some WOM campaigns.

Photo credit: caitlinburke

Labels: ooVoo, outreach, Rohit Bhargava, social media, WOM

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:50 PM

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008

I'm No Edward R. Murrow, but...

Evidently I was good enough for Rohit Bhargava to select my interview as one of his top 12 interviews for the Personality Not Included book release project.

Out of the nearly 60 interviews, he selected the top 12 based on the following qualities: creativity, originality, depth and relevance. If you haven't had the time to read my interview with Rohit, here are the questions that I asked him:

Why a book? Why now? After all, the lightning speed with which our industry is evolving would seem to preclude anything with a 8-month lead time.
What would you say to someone who requested, "Teach me to be authentic." (That's not a joke. Someone asked me that once.)
Who designed the dust jacket, and why is the one on your blog & Facebook group different from the one on Amazon? Which is the "real" version?
When you think about yourself, what do you consider yourself first: author? speaker? marketer? guru? blogger? something else? Why?
American Idol: which are you - Simon, Randy or Paula?

And if you'd like to see how he responded, the entire interview is here.

Now, here's where I could use your help: if you could vote for my interview (or, in all fairness for the one you really like the most), I'd really appreciate it. You can vote here AND here (if you go to both links, you can vote for me twice!).

Labels: books, innovation, Rohit Bhargava

Posted by Scott Monty at 1:36 PM

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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Launching a Book via Social Media

Book launches are commonplace. At least that's the thinking of Rohit Bhargava, author of the new book Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back.

Rohit opined that the usual tactics - PR releases, Facebook groups, live events, online mob flashes - while effective, are not necessarily the best at creating a conversation, which is his ultimate aim. Over the next few weeks and months he plans to discuss on his blog why personality matters.

So, in an effort to be innovative and conversational, Rohit reached out to a number of bloggers and asked each to submit five questions about the book or personality and he would answer them, providing a customized interview. All of the interviews that he does will be linked on his site and you can vote on the best one on Monday, March 31.

So here's my exclusive interview with Rohit Bhargava:

Scott Monty: Why a book? Why now? After all, the lightning speed with which our industry is evolving would seem to preclude anything with a 8-month lead time.

Rohit Bhargava: Great question, especially coming from a fellow blogger. Two reasons. First, because I felt that I had a big idea with the concept of the book and writing a book is still the best way to get an idea like that out there. I also believe that the concepts in the book will have a shelf life of longer than 8 months because I don't focus on one particular microtrend or technology that is likely to get outdated. The premise of the book is a strategic idea, instead of a tactical one, and that tends to have a longer relevance.
The second reason is that when it comes to building a career, there is no credential quite like being an author. I would never do an MBA as I don't feel its worth the time away from work or the expense. Writing a book essentially gives you an even more powerful credential ... and even better you don't have to pay someone else $50,000 for that privilege.

SM: What would you say to someone who requested, "Teach me to be authentic." (That's not a joke. Someone asked me that once.)

RB: It's not that difficult. Mean what you say and say what you mean. At the very basic level, that's all that authenticity is about.

SM: Who designed the dust jacket, and why is the one on your blog & Facebook group different from the one on Amazon? Which is the "real" version?

RB: Good question, the difference is actually due to the lag time between Amazon putting the new cover on the product page and us sending it. Apparently, they don't update that often. The one on my blog and the Facebook group is definitely the real version. I worked directly with the designers at McGraw-Hill (my publisher) to design it. We worked on concepting together, and then they designed and executed it.

SM: When you think about yourself, what do you consider yourself first: author? speaker? marketer? guru? blogger? something else? Why?

RB: Great question - that one makes me think for a while as they all apply. Let me go with one not on your list ... father. I've got two little boys (age 3 and 4 months) and I'd love to say that the first way I define myself will be as their father. Second to that, when it comes to business ... before the book I would always have said marketer. Now that I'm published, I might have to go with author (especially since I shared that was one of the reasons for writing the book in the first place!)

SM: American Idol: which are you - Simon, Randy or Paula?

RB: Definitely Simon, because he's authentic. Authenticity to me means not blowing smoke up people's behinds when you think they are stupid. I don't give false compliments to people, so when I offer a compliment, praise or feedback - I always mean it. Otherwise I usually don't say anything.

If you're intrigued by what you've read here and by what you see on Rohit's site, get on over to Amazon and order a copy of his book. I've been reading Rohit's blog since I started mine, and he's definitely got a personality that you should get to know more.

Labels: books, conversation, innovation, Rohit Bhargava

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:11 PM

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Life After Life After the 30-Second Spot

A couple of weeks ago, I was in New York to participate in a press conference for Firebrand, one of our clients at crayon.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking about the features of Firebrand, as they've been covered by Joe and Greg, among others. Before I tell you about the event, here's a thumbnail sketch of Firebrand. Essentially, Firebrand offers Web, TV and mobile viewing of top-notch television commercials, but with a twist that sets it apart from other online video properties: they're all-commercials, all the time; and the site allows you to actually participate in contests, giveaways and offers from the very brands that you're watching.

While it may seem counterintuitive that crayon, the company whose founder bemoans the tired old 30-second spot, was involved, there was a method to our madness. You see, in this case, the ads are not interruptions of the feature program: they are the feature program. Commercials as content. And we can support entertainment and engagement.

Now let me tell you a little bit about the event itself.

Firebrand planned a press conference for September 25, during Advertising Week - perfect timing, as lots of industry people would be in town and journalists would be in the mood to talk about marketing & advertising. Held at the Paley Center for Media (formerly the Museum of Television and Radio), it was the perfect spot for debuting a brand that is multimedia in nature.

In addition to a nod to the past and present, Firebrand also looked to the future, by virtue of the invitation list. There were probably about 75 people in attendance in the hall - mostly traditional journalists - and I was impressed with the turnout. But here's the interesting part: I was one of a handful of bloggers who were there as well (many more were invited, but unable to attend). When you consider that Firebrand's target audience is Millennials, having the news break on blogs is a natural move.

The bloggers - who were treated the same as the traditional press - were given press kits, including glossies and a traditional press release, as well as links to the social media news release for the event. The SMNR had links to pages on YouTube, Flickr and del.icio.us and even a Facebook group. Based on what I've seen from some prominent bloggers, the SMNR was widely used, as video links and quotes continue to pop up everywhere. And the Facebook group has already garnered over 500 members.

All this, and the site doesn't even go live until October 22! Not bad. Stay tuned for the beta release...

Labels: Advertising, blogging, crayon, facebook, Greg Verdino, Joseph Jaffe, Karl Long, outreach, Rohit Bhargava, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:29 PM

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Psst! Want the Secret to Viral Marketing?

Viral marketing is like the weather: everyone's talking about it, but no one is doing anything about it.

You know why? Because you can't. That's right. You can't simply manufacture viral marketing. But don't tell that to some marketers. They're out there, practicing something akin to alchemy.

Think there's a science behind viral marketing? Or perhaps a secret formula? I think there's a bit of each, but they follow that famous saying by Louis Pasteur, "Chance favors the prepared mind."

While so many marketing efforts are more measurable than ever before, there are aspects to the practice that are still a combination of art and science. Good research trumps everything, but then again, so does common sense.

When it comes to "viral marketing" I think the secret sauce is simple: make it entertaining. If you know your audience, what they like and what will grab their attention, adding an entertainment angle to it (plus the ability to easily pass along the content) will make it viral. That's it. You may recall a mathematical formula I've used here before:

Research + Entertainment = Wildly Successful Campaign

That's not to say it's going to work. Odds are, it won't. But this is the formula that has to be followed, in my opinion, if you want any shot at success. You don't just upload some half-ass video to YouTube and claim you've got a viral video. The 42 people who view it may think so, but I doubt your client or manager will.

Bottom line: you need to exercise good judgment, gut instinct, have some smart research insights, and know your audience. Come to think of it, this doesn't sound that different from traditional marketing, does it?

Thanks to Rohit Bhargava for issuing the challenge on this one. I hope I can bring these and other insights to Ad:Tech.

Labels: Marketing, Rohit Bhargava, social media, strategy, Viral

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:58 PM

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