SEO Werkt!

A post this weekend by the eBay Partner Network ruminated on whether you should be using Google+ to help your online strategy. This is the type of question that’s been floating around the web (and passed along in impromptu games of conference telephone) since the Google network’s inception. The naysayers usually wonder about the point of putting effort into a social network with minimal activity, while the supporter lions advocate the fact that using Google+ can improve your placement on Google search.

Add eBay to the list of supporters.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., has had an enormous success with "Best Job," its Procter & Gamble commercial saluting moms ahead of this summer's Olympic Games. The ad has been causing misty eyes and lumpy throats since its TV debut in April; it has more than 5 million views online; and it won five Lions at Cannes last month, including golds in Film and Film Craft. Now, that masterful two-minute spot has a 60-second companion piece, posted below. It's another lovely production. This time, we see children preparing for Olympic competition—with an end line that nicely pay off the setup. Alejandro González Iñárritu of Anonymous Content directed "Best Job." (Last month in Cannes, John Hegarty praised Iñárritu's work on the spot, saying it offset the plot's inhererently high "vomit factor.") For "Kids," W+K got another top-notch director: Daniel Kleinman of Epoch Films.

Coke’s CMO Joseph Tripodi recently spoke on Facebook and the value of brand advocates at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.  Here’s a quote from Mr. Tripodi:

“When you think of the continuum of a business, you go from local, to multi-country, to international, to global, but the highest order is network and network advantage is about having brand advocates telling stories for us.”

In other words, the scope of Coke’s vision when it comes to placing a value on their fans is that they can be walking billboards for the brand.  

Unbelievable.  And to be fair, almost every brand thinks this same way, Coke is hardly alone in this line of thinking.  The ‘have our customers tell our stories for us’ line is a rallying cry for marketers everywhere to explore the potential of connecting with their brand advocates.

Question:  When is the last time you heard Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga or Coldplay say that they love connecting with their fans because it gives their fans a chance to tell the rock star’s story for them?  Why aren’t the world’s most successful rock stars talking about how awesome it is to use their biggest fans as marketing vehicles?

Because most rock stars have an emotional relationship with their fans, while most brands have a transactional relationship with their customers.

The first thing that pops into most brand’s minds when it comes to their advocates is ‘How can we leverage this connection to result in a sale?’  The first thing that pops into most rock stars’ minds when it comes to their fans is ‘How can I show them that I appreciate them?’  And shockingly, rock stars cultivate fans with ease, fans that ironically go out and promote their favorite rock star and literally do become walking billboards for these artists.  While brands struggle to find customers that are willing to be their fans and promote them to their friends.

Rock stars cultivate an emotional relationship with their fans.  Ones where the rock star typically goes out of their way to communicate to the fan how much they appreciate and even love them.  As a result, this encourages the fan to appreciate the rock star even more, and to go out of their way to promote their favorite rock star to other fans.

So brands, if you truly want to cultivate fans of your brand, stop thinking about ways to leverage those connections into a sale.  Start thinking about ways you can reward and thank your fans for their support.  Treat them not as a new potential marketing channel for your brand, but as the special people that they are.

That’s how you win and cultivate fans for your brand.

PS:  Want more tips for creating fans of your brand?  Check out my new post at Paper.Li’s blog.

Het belang van een goede (of liever: uitmuntende!) casefilm bij het inzenden voor een award behoeft geen uitleg. De vijf beste casefilms van Cannes Lions 2012 op een rij.

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When The Book of Gossage was first released in the mid-90′s, I was a student in ad school. I’d never heard of Howard Gossage or seen his work, but his philosophy about advertising and his work clearly had an influence on many ad professionals. Still, he remained a bit of an enigma, a sort-of cult favorite among ad people.

Thankfully, British author and veteran adman Steve Harrison has written a wonderful new biography of Gossage entitled Changing the World is the Only Fit Work for a Grown Man that takes a closer look at the man, his business, and his work.

Harrison talked at length with Gossage’s business parters and other people who were frequent guests at his agency, famously located in a old San Francisco firehouse. Sadly, Howard Gossage died in 1969. But much of his work (reprinted in the book) features reader engagement ideas and some very innovative calls to action. So you can definitely connect his print-based, copy-heavy work with a lot of the interactive and multi-faceted ideas we see today.

I spoke with Harrison about his new book, and the legacy of Howard Gossage:

Q. Why did you decide to write a book about Howard Gossage?

A. He was a hero and, my goodness, we need one or two of those at the moment. By that I mean he’s a role model not just to advertising people but for everyone who feels the individual is nowadays powerless in face of forces beyond their control. When he saw a problem, he didn’t complain about it. He’d say, “You can’t stop dogs pissing on fire hydrants” (a more elegant form of the current: “shit happens”) and set about putting things right. If this meant taking on forces stronger than himself, then he welcomed the fight … spending his own money, then he stuck his hand in his pocket … courting controversy, then he relished the spotlight.

This made him the kind of old fashioned “can do” paragon who is so rare in today’s dependency culture. Whereas we’re only too willing to defer to the state, the government, the corporation or whatever big institution we see as controlling our destiny, Gossage would have rejected this as another pernicious form of consumerism. I think his is a very uplifting and inspirational story. If Frank Capra was around today, he’d have made a film about Gossage.

Q. You mention that you first read Howard’s book “Is there any hope for advertising?” when you came across it in the Ogilvy & Mather NYC office library. As someone who was a Creative Director and later, agency owner, did you ever try to apply Howard’s philosophy to your own work?

A. Gossage was the first adman to see PR as an integral part of his campaigns. So, if it’s possible to be an “early adopter” thirty years after the event, I’d say our agency was one of the first to emulate him. And we were emulating him. I made everyone at HTW read The Book of Gossage and from that came a style of work that got noticed by the media. And then by awards judges – I think we won more Cannes Direct Lions than any agency in the world. Some of those Cannes Lions were for the press and posters we did for M&G Investments. That campaign was our six year long homage to Howard Gossage.

Q. What’s the one (or two) biggest misconceptions people who are familiar with Howard have about him?

Many people believe he hated advertising. He just hated the thoughtless crap that predominated (and still does). As the personal letters that he wrote to his friends Barrows and Dagmar Mussey show, he had a lot of respect for Bill Bernbach’s work, and he admired David Ogilvy to the extent that, on occasion, he even showed him his ads before sending them to print.

The other misconception is that he was an idealist who spurned the opportunity to make money. Yes, he was an idealist but, again as his personal letters indicate, he was pretty shrewd with the money. For example, in 1957, Gossage was charging clients a minimum of $50,000 a project (that’s $420,000 in today’s money). The agency was never more than 12 strong, so that’s quite a lot of profit coming in (and Gossage knew how to spend it).

Moreover, on the occasion when he famously resigned Paul Masson Wines “because I don’t like the advertising I’m doing”, he’d anticipated that he was going to be fired and got his resignation in first. Even smarter was his manoeuvring to hold on to the bits of the account that were making money and recommending that the labor-intensive advertising go to DDB.

Q. If Howard were alive today and still working in advertising, what type of work would he be doing? How would he be using today’s technology for his clients?

I know that Gossage invented interactive in the 1950s and I everyone says, “Oh Howard would be having a ball with social media”. But I think Facebook has proven to be most useful in customer service and the hygiene aspects of brand relationships – which were exactly the bits of the job that bored Gossage rigid. He much preferred the big galvanising ideas that got everyone talking. Which means he’d have been the master of the PR Ad events that now lie at the core of every big award winning campaign you care to mention.

As to the type of work; someone recently said Howard would be writing coruscating copy about the bankers. He probably would. But he was also a great believer in personal volition and honesty and I suspect he’d also be pointing out the unpalatable truth that individuals have a responsibility for managing debt.

Having said all that, it amuses me when people tell me what Gossage would be doing and thinking now. He was such a contrarian that he’d probably be appalled to discover that his interactive style and PR Ad events are now the orthodox approach. And he was such an original thinker that it’s dumb to shoe-horn him into out our own ideological positions.

Q. How important is it for today’s young creatives to learn and appreciate Howard’s story?

A. Back to question 1. He was a “can do” hero and I think that’s what our respective countries need now if we’re going to get ourselves out of the economic – and moral – mire.

On a slightly more prosaic level, young creatives (and old) must understand his most important message about advertising; that thing about “People read what interests them, and sometimes it’s an ad.” What he meant by that was: don’t try to write a better ad than anyone else; that’s easy. What you’ve got to do is write something that is more interesting than everything else surrounding the ad. So, for example, in the press, you’ve got to write something more interesting than the editorial. That’s what he strove to do. And that’s why, as Jeff Goodby says, “the best of Gossage is the best advertising ever done.”

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Iedereen die aanwezig is geweest bij het Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, weet dat er veel geweldige content voorbij komt, maar de echte uitdaging is eigenlijk om te beaplen welke sessies je…

De dinsdag op Molblog is vaste Inhaakdinsdag. Samen met blogger en inhaakspecialist Gonnie Spijkstra bespreken we de leukste en opmerkelijkste inhakers van de afgelopen tijd. Maar nu even niet, want het EK heeft er behoorlijk ingehakt… Gonnie is er eventjes klaar mee. Maar gelukkig was er vorige week Cannes Lions.
Lees Meer over: [Inhaakdinsdag] Cannes Lions quotes op Pinterest.

I missed my chance to be at Cannes this year. Family matters kept me away and that was the right decision. Advertising awards used to be a bit of a closed loop with the same people congratulating themselves. At least that’s how I remember them. Not so anymore. 

The judging rigor is there (see Thomas Crampton’s video with Barney Loehnis). The digital pros now find themselves as judges. The discipline categories keep expanding. The quality of the entrants are strong.

Check out the winners here. It will be eye-opening. As I reviewed the winners three ideas and three cases stuck out.

Should Curators of Sweden have won the Cyber Lions?

The Twitter handle-relay where different Swedes earn the responsibility of publishing out via @Sweden twitter handle is owned by the Visit Sweden and Swedish Institute. (see case video here)  It’s a neat concept for meeting the people of Sweden. Here’s how they put it: 

“Every week, someone in Sweden is @Sweden: sole ruler of the world’s most democratic Twitter account. For seven days, he or she recommends things to do and places to see, sharing diverse opinions, and ideas along the way. After that, someone else does the same—but differently. Follow all nine million of us. Welcome to Sweden.”

They have grown to 66K followers (from 5K) and have a 500%+ rate of “conversation” (replies and retweets). What’s not to like?

They’re tweeting an awful lot and most is the banter between the host and others which has little to do with Sweden. The concept is cool. Righteous even. But I am not certain that the value of the Twitter stream is delivering beyond the “get to know some Swedish citizens.” 

Then, of course, came @sweden/Sonja who kept people guessing with her inflammatory and maybe a bit naïve comments about Jews, gays and so forth. But the real issue isn’t whether this expression of democracy leads to a few extremist/borderline-offensive hosts but whether it raises interest in visiting Sweden. 

Back-seat judging is no fun. Should it have won? It did. I think it is a compelling concept that likely is raising awareness for Sweden and in its own quirky way driving people to now consider a trip. It’s a great case, and I love that a purely earned/owned effort shared the Cyber Lion. It’s a creative idea brought to life in a very different way than the Cannes Lions are used to. Big ideas that don’t end up as luscious images or videos can win at Cannes. That’s great. 

There is another model for using Twitter for tourism and country branding that I find compelling. Wizard of Istanbul aims to answer tweets from visitors with questions immediately and to build a cadre of Istanbul enthusiasts to offer their suggestions for the best place for lunch up the coast or the most authentic whirling dervish ceremony. It’s a bit more spot-on for  the traveler and since it is run by regular folks supported by other Istanbul enthusiasts, it retains a personal nature.

Is Honda’s Connecting Lifelines the Wave of Future Winners?

Getting creative with data and technology is the next great wave. The Connecting Lifelines ‘experience’ does just that by mining traffic data from all of the Honda’s on the road in Japan during the earthquake and visualizing the status of roads.  Were they passable? How bad was traffic? Were new roads getting opened up post-crisis?

Beyond the social good role of the effort, it demonstrates how to be smart and creative with the web of connectivity and sensors around us. Digital is no longer a media choice but an infrastructure that is leading to very interesting innovations that can also serve a communications or marketing purpose.

We had a program for Dove that used technology in a great creative way. The Dove Ad Makeover continued the signature self-esteem territory by figuring out how to manipulate the Facebook ad-serving marketplace and let consumers replace shaming diet ads targeted to women with positive messages.

How are we, as agencies, going to stimulate this type of creativity? Have we done enough to change the perception of just what is creative in our own ranks?

How do you repeat/rinse/scale the greatest B2B campaign?

American Express’ program Small Business Saturday is more than a simple awareness program driving people to buy from local and small business on November 26th. (see the case video here) It’s a program that has tapped into the unique qualities of social networks to spread a cause while enabling the beneficiaries (small businesses) and the proponents (consumers) to do what they really want to do.

The case is great. Just the quotes from small business owners raving about 20% and greater increases in sales are worth their weight in gold. Will it win next year? Where can the Shop Small program go from here?

Well, American Express has been developing its role as partner to small business for years. They won’t stop here but rather expand what small businesses can do for themselves via resources supplied by Amex (check out their Facebook tab that collects a bunch of social assets for small business people including grants for Twitter advertising.)

They have created an annual ‘tent pole’ with the public and government support earned and now just need to expand with a diligent eye towards what actually delivers more and more value to their small business customers/merchants.  

Programs that build enduring bonds with customers are the true gems of the work we all do. I hope we see more programs like this honored in prestigious award events once reserved for he who hath the biggest….TV commercial.

(thanks to Creative Social Blog for pic)

Bringing in an estimated $139.5 million in advertising revenue in 2011 and employing a model made for mobile, Twitter’s greatest obstacle in ramping up revenue is the limited availability of its Promoted Products, which are currently available in the U.S., UK, Japan, and Canada.

Expect that to change — and soon. In the second half of 2012, the information network will expand the number of countries where Promoted Products are available to nearly 50, Twitter’s president of global revenue Adam Bain said today at a press conference at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Specifically, Twitter has its eyes on Europe. The information network will next make its Promoted Products, the suite of tools that offer advertisers additional exposure to Twitter users on web and mobile, available in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and the Netherlands, a Twitter spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat. Latin American and Caribbean countries are also on the immediate roadmap.

The massive international expansion has giant implications for Twitter’s business. Today, 90 percent of Twitter’s revenue comes from the U.S., with other countries contributing just $26 million to its ad revenue this year, according to estimates from eMarketer. In 2012, the company’s ad revenue is expected to grow 86.3 percent to $259.9 million.

Photo credit: @TroyHolden/Twitter

Filed under: social

We halen voor de eerste keer het net op bij Cannes Lions 2012: Drie keer Goud, twee keer Zilver en één keer Brons.

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