I'm a Fan of Fan Cultures

I love fan cultures.  I love to be part of them, I love to swim in them, I love to market to them.  Fans are passionate, engaged, curious, interested, interesting.

MTV's idea of allowing their fan culture REMIX content (for example, the VMA awards) is nothing short of BRILLIANT.  Fans can create Directors Cuts (with commentary), music-only versions or whatever programming style suits their particular passion.

Every media brand should be doing this.  How do we save network news?  How do we increase newspaper readership?  Put all of the unedited content (full interviews) available online and let the audience dive in and play with the news - understand it without the guardrails and limitations of one minute story slots.  Provide more expert commentary (of high quality, like Nicholas Kristoff, Thomas Friedman or Paul Krugman) to help provide perspective.  We are a nation of fans -give us the tools to work with!

Okay, so this is easy for an entertainment brand with a strong fan culture.  But think of it as an analog for your brand.  How can you invite your audience in to become more engaged?  How can you offer "one experience across many screens"?  How can you give your customers the opportunity to tinker, tweak and hack?

And, just for those who want the recap, here are Christina Norman's 4 Burning Truths:

•    It’s not the medium, but the content that matters most
•    Build an emotional connection with audience on foundation of creative content
•    Give audience the means to find each other
•    Let your audience help you shape your brand

Thanks Christina!  (And thanks for the butt cheek chuckle)

Talk, learn, listen

Keynote - Josh Bernoff, Forrester

• He's terrified of crowds - That ties closely into most company's fears of dealing with consumer power as opposed to traditional models.
   
• You can turn a groudswell, even a negative one, to your advantage.
   
• Objectives, not technology, should drive strategy - too many people get that backwards.
   
• Tapping into the groundswell enables consumers to talk to each other instead of just consuming marketing
• Five objectives: 1) Research = Listening, 2) Marketing = Talking, 3) Sales = Energizing, 4) Support = Supporting, 5) Development = Embracing
• LISTENING - Allows people to not only talk to each other but also to experts. It also allows experts to find out who they need to be talking to in order to cement their reputation within the community. It also can involve just straight brand monitoring, which allows you to see what the discussion is and figure out who to respond to and how.
• TALKING - Giving the consumer something - the example is given of MySpace skins/widgets - increases usage and has a trickle-down effect on sales and subsequent buzz. Blogs are another outlet for disseminating the corporate message.
   
• ENERGIZING - Involving the consumer in the product design, marketing and other strategy thinking turns ordinary customers into evangelists who are passionate.
   
• SUPPORTING - Support doesn't have to come from the company itself - it can come from people who enjoy being helpful and who are excited about your brand.
   
• EMBRACING - Salesforce.com has a feature that allows for customer suggestions, which can then be voted on by the rest of the online community. A good number of those suggestions for new features have been implemented in subsequent releases.
   
• ROI of executive blog: $285K in costs for $353K in value. Interesting numbers. Most of that is time, but
   
• ROI of support forum: $700K in costs for $1M in value (assuming some people switch to forum from call-based support, reducing operating costs.)
   

The thing that is lurking at the back of Josh's presentation, and something I've talked about quite a bit here and there, is that customers become involved and passionate when they feel like they now have a stake in the success of a product or service they are a fan of. Whether it's movies, laptop bags or anything else that might be sold, there are people who feel like they want to help something they're excited about become successful.

Take John Campea of The Movie Blog for example. He was so incredibly excited about the big screen adaptation of Transformers. He wanted it to be a great movie and he wanted it to be successful. So it was absolutely essential that Paramount embrace him by talking to him and listening to what he was saying. He became, because of that two-way conversation between himself and the studio, an advocate for the brand and a stake-holder in its success.

Was the movie a hit because of this dialogue? The actual impact is hard to measure from the outside but it certainly didn't hurt. People trust John and are influenced by what he writes. So there are likely a ton of people who were energized by his enthusiasm.

But, as Josh is reiterating, it's not enough to just say "well we need to generate buzz." It needs to have an objective. And, I think, having an objective means deciding how to establish long-term relationships. These can't be hit-and-run efforts.

Getting involved can take any form, but a good place to start is to just dive in and try things to see what feels right. Whether it's commenting on a post, emailing a blogger to say hello or editing a Wikipedia entry, give something - anything - a try. There are going to be things you try and which don't work out, but you'll never know what works until you know what doesn't.

Get to Know the Groundswell

Josh Bernoff is a great presenter.  I certainly hope that everyone here understands the importance of listening, talking, energizing, supporting and  embracing the groundswell... We should all understand it by now.

The case studies and examples were terrific. 

I'm pleased that so many presenters are talking about the importance of leading with people and objectives, not technology.  So often, we (and by we, I mean the grand "we" - agencies and clients) get caught up in the coolness factor and miss out on the bigger picture.  If there's one big theme I'm hearing consistently at the Forum, it's that the more things change, the more things stay the same.  Technology is a vehicle.  It needs to drive from strategy.

Microsoft's doing something right

Microsoft is sounding very smart about the world of connected entertainment.  The attributes that "kids" are looking for in their entertainment look a lot like the attributes the Net Generation is looking for in all of their experiences:  Make them personal, Make them interactive, Make them Social.

"The Experience is more important than the Technology."  Amen.  This is the theme of the conference (apologies to Forrester which believes that the theme is "people build great brands and products".)  It's so easy to work in this space and get caught up by the next Bright Shiny Object and forget that we're simply trying to create Experiences for People.  Connections for People.

It's human nature to want to create relationships with others (so we feel connected and not so alone in the world), to seek intelligence (to satisfy our desire for knowledge) and to search for meaning.  Our job as digital marketers is to enable these fundamental drives through technology.  That's what we do.

Delta's flight into blogging

Laura Hunnicutt, General Manager Delta.com & self-service said it best, when she said "You come to a point where you decide what you've got to do, and press through those fears" regarding Delta's entrance into corporate blogging.

On the company's journey to figure out how to get consumers to reconsider the brand, Delta decided they needed to be modern and more importantly, relevant today. From a brand strategy standpoint, "Every moment matters" meant more than just time-saving, but time-enhancing.

The realization Delta had that "they can't do it alone" and needs its customer to understand what he needs directly is a great reason and objective for using specific social media. Discussion forums, blogs, and public/private communities are all great ways to directly communicate with your customers.

One of the many takeaways for today: You have to evolve with the times.    

Know what people are saying about you

One of the first thing that I noted on this panel on social media brand monitoring was from Karl Long. He said that the reports he gets are largely confirmation to him of what he and his team suspected. That's because when designing programs he tries to put himself in their shoes. How many marketing people do that? Or are too many of us concerned with what fits nicely in a spreadsheet?

David says there was some concern the people producing content would be mad they were being monitoring but that the reality was that they were thrilled. I think that's true - most self-publishers are happy to hear they're being listened to.

Overall, and while lots of good points were made, the main thing is that there's a conversation going on online, something most of us online already know but which is good for everyone to hear again. Companies need to be ahead of the curve when it comes to a crisis or the wave will have washed their reputation away.

Suzanne said the Fiskars brand had very low brand excitement, prompting them to do more online and eventually launch their "ambassador" campaign. That sort of thing, something that let fans know the company was enthusiastic, eventually led to more enthusiasm in the general population. They also launched a new initiative that involves people who are already active on message boards and other outlets, inviting them to a special event. That's a great way to embrace and activate the group.

Yep. What they said.

Do the Real People Really Care?

comScore is sharing a smorgasbord of data on social networking.  I'm having a hard time finding the forest for the trees.  Lots of people are spending lots of time on social networks.  Different social networks are hot in different countries, so do your homework before selecting your network. 

MySpace is (currently) beating Facebook at the monetization game - 6x as high, with more display ads per page, pages per visitor and total unique visitors.  Hmmm...why do I think that will change over the next year or so?  Also, newsflash - mySpace aesthetic (if you can call it that) is cluttered.

Another comScore recommendation:  Know your audience.  18-34 year olds on social networking sites aren't receptive to financial services or pharm advertising and don't like mainstream retailers ads.

David Armano Is My Hero

Author's note:  I'm a friend and fan of David Armano.  He is also a graduate of my agency, Digitas. 

I love the Dell speaker's definition of Innovation:  Escaping Corporate Terminal Velocity, or the fastest speed at which the corporation can move.

I love that someone from P&G (which lives in the world of CPG or Consumer Packaged Goods) is talking about the need to innovate beyond the physical product.  For so many CPG companies, the vision starts and ends at the product level (rather than the process level or at the media level or at the infrastructure level).  More companies need to understand that consumer relationships with brands are not about products at all.  They are about the surround, the emotional connection, the excitement, the new, the news.  The product is merely the vehicle.

Manish Mehta of Dell says that Michael Dell is less concerned with the ROI of emerging media and more concerned with learning.   Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  We're living in an inflection point.  Learning  - through small scale tests and experimentation - is a part of the process.  Jump in, get dirty and learn.  It's the only way to understand the real potential of the platforms in front of us.

Stan Joosten says successful innovation is proving or disproving a hypothesis.  Keep the size of the experiment small so that you have the freedom to explore it.  (Again, yes, yes, yes, and yes!)

P.S.  David, nice job moderating!

D-zine 4 GenY

Bruce Temkin and Ross Popoff-Walker in their presentation, "Designing for Young Consumers" featured a Top 10 list to keep in mind in designing experiences for Gen Y, those adults ages 18-27 by Forrester's definition. Now, a member of this special group myself, I was curious to see what their findings were. These young consumers:

1. Are continually connected - Text messaging, IM and social networking sites are key communications tactics for these tech-saavy consumers.
2. Speak their own language - They use abbreviations, emoticons, and slang.
3. Are skeptical of authority
4. Are influenced by peers - The rely on recommendations from friends and family when making purchases, and are peer reliant overall.
5. Seek recognition and fame
6. Enjoy absurdity and odd humor
7. Embrace a variety of subcultures
8. Skim text and information quickly - These young eyes process information 5x faster than adults, according to Resource Interactive.
9. Easily bored
10. Expressive and digitally creative - Whateverlife.com, created by a 17-year-old CEO, features the tools that allow people to personalize their MySpace page. Double trouble for this point; a young CEO features products for what is usually a younger demographic.

The most interesting point I think will eventually unfold from this is how to speak to this audience using their own language. It's not just using emoticons and LOLs in your messaging language to engage these young consumers. The integration of technology, message and involvement (research, both qualitative and quantative) will be key to capture the gold-fish like attention span of this young group. Expectation and experience matching is key.

What successful tactics has your company used to captivate Gen Y?

Blogger convergence

I'm sitting right now waiting for Critical Mass' Always in Beta session to start. Armano is presenting, Karl Long is here, Jeremiah Owyang and Julie Fleischer are also sitting here. If this rooms erupts in a massive fire half the blogosphere will have gone done in flames.