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What can your CEO learn from the Obama White House?

Check out my recent post in Social Media Today for "Five Ways Obama Is More Social Than Your CEO."

--Alex Nicholson, Director of New Media, @Alex20001

As communicators, there is obvious fascination with the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement – so much so, that it became the focus of several discussion, among many other topics, during last week’s annual PRWeek NEXT Conference. Below are some themes and thoughts that emerged.

Overstock.com CEO and founder Patrick Byrne observed that the OWS movement is leaderless and suffers from a “message vacuum. It needs to get back on message. Right now it is just becoming a pool of discontent.” Janet Rolle, EVP & CMO at CNN, and Terrence Samuel, deputy national political editor from The Washington Post, concur. Rolle pointed out that “[OWS] has no clear definition of the antagonist and no clear message of what they are trying to enact or change.” Samuel observed that the initial story was a “rag-tag gathering of intense grievances but now the story is that it’s not going away.” He posited that it was “better that it wasn’t covered by mainstream media [initially] because that allowed it to become a huge social media frenzy.”

When the topic shifted to information and influence, much discussion naturally centered around online communication. Peter Rojas, co-founder of Gizmodo and gdgt, noted that the Internet has really brought a “democratization of authority and a fragmentation of influence.” This has allowed anyone to access the “collective wisdom of this community.” So, as he explained, even if your friends are not into whatever subject you are, you still have the ability to “tap into actual user experts.” No longer is communication just about reporting, but the online community is “helping people figure out what to buy and how to use it. It is a very positive community, not just fighting it out on news stories.” Yet, Bill Holstein, president of the Overseas Press Club remarked, “the advent of online has brought about a decline in quality and standards.” This is likely central to the fact that consumers now need to see a story four, five or more times before they believe it.

The topic of democratization of information and news was central to the speech by Dan Abrams, legal analyst for ABC News. “Mainstream media no longer dictates what the public gets to see. Consumers have more of a say in the brand now – brands are a democracy, not a dictatorship.” And, CNN’s Rolle agreed. “Brand is the most overused word in the English language. A brand is a tribute that is paid to you by consumers. The emotional relationship between you and consumers is the brand.”

When the future of tablets took over discussions, Gizmodo’s Rojas felt that the tablet’s “place” is still settling out. “While smartphones are ‘out and about’ and laptops are about work, the tablet can be just anywhere. It has people engaging in different ways. For example, tweeting reactions while watching TV, shopping in real time as something is viewed elsewhere.” The long-term challenge as marketers figure out how to capitalize on the tablet is to see where it lands – is it a personal device, like a smartphone, or a shared device, like a PC? Is it more in-home or equally out-of-home? In a similar vein, Duane Bray, a partner at IDEO, observed, “the distinction between online and offline is really going away, consumers don’t think that way anymore.” The tablet will likely contribute greatly to that, as the smartphone already has, allowing simultaneous online and offline interaction. Witness folks tweeting about conferences while attending and following others' comments and threads – online interaction supporting offline activities.

How consumers are being communicated to by brands, and the distinctions between owned, earned and paid media, comprised a good portion of the event. Simon Lowden, CMO of Pepsi Beverages Co., declared to the room of PR professionals that “The 30-second ad is here to stay, but US consumers don’t trust it anymore.” This has contributed to Pepsi looking at its marketing not as TV-centric, but as idea-centric – and not as control, but as collaboration. Sean Cochrane, senior analyst at Forrester Research, reported that “in 2009, 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions were made by people to other people. WOM is now a trackable earned media.” But with the advent of online communication and networks like Twitter, “six percent of adults create 80 percent of conversations; so short-term data needs to be balanced with long-term measurement.” We need to be careful not to rush to judgment when relying solely on very short-term topics and trends.

Where is this all headed? Forrester tells us that mobile is the next big battleground for agencies. But, as yet another form of communication in this increasingly blurred world of online and offline, it only makes sense that public relations and communications professionals take the lead. Carry on!

--Cici Gordon, Senior Brand Strategist

I had the pleasure of attending last week’s Council of PR Firms Critical Issues Forum. The focus of the forum was on the world of social media. The event featured an excellent keynote speech by Obama’s former press secretary, Robert Gibbs, followed by a panel discussion with some leading practitioners and thinkers in this space, all cap-stoned by a moderated interview with Mashable founder Pete Cashmore.

Below are the most interesting insights from the day:

Observations

• The power of the Internet is not in its infinite nature, but rather in its ability to connect micro-communities.
• Social networking is not a new concept. Maryam Banikarim, CMO of Gannett, recalls the Iranian revolution of her youth, where folks were making cassette tapes and passing them out at mosques to help mobilize support and drive change. Same underlying logic, same desire, just different tools that existed.

Challenges

• Gibbs raised a concern that the “Amazon Model” of feeding you information based on past choices can actually be very polarizing – people will only be seeing and reading things like those they’ve seen before. He cautioned that we all need to be at least aware of both points of view to breed greater tolerance and acceptance.
• The massive volume of communication that goes on today means that we all have to work much harder just to keep up. There are many more implications for every communication today because of all the places and ways it can show up. There is no such thing as an “internal memo” anymore. People are becoming overwhelmed with worry about being left behind.
• Gary Hoenig, general manager of ESPN publishing, lamented that it’s very difficult with the immediacy of communication today to discern if consumer dissatisfaction is a “mosquito attack” or “nuclear attack.” The concern is how you determine how much energy or emphasis to place on these events when they are unfolding so quickly.
  

Predictions

• Cashmore’s optimism about the future of social media stems from the speed at which they have impacted the world. He is excited to see how embedded it will be a decade from now. In fact, in his vernacular, Twitter will become just like plumbing, it will be there as another regular communication tool that is used all the time and serves its purpose.
• When asked to comment on wikileaks and whether it’s good or bad, Cashmore’s viewpoint was that transparency is here to stay and we must adapt to it. In essence, that genie cannot go back in the bottle.
• When asked what Mashable will be writing about 36 months from now, Cashmore responded that he doesn’t know and that’s what’s so exciting. For example, is voice (as appearing on the new iPhone 4S) a fad or a trend? Who knows?
• If starting any company today or attempting to be the most successful PR firm in 2020, Cashmore’s answer was the same – be on the cutting edge doing something that is totally new. It’s easiest to grab the space and the most defensible position. Today, he would go to mobile first; that’s really the “new place,” whereas when Mashable launched in 2005 the Web was the “new place” to be.
• And finally, always embrace the next trend.
  

–Cici Gordon, Senior Brand Strategist

One of the most interesting new media trends at this year’s SXSW was the evolution of the mobile 2-D tag. It’s grown up from a clunky, relatively unattractive tool, into something more sophisticated that marketers can customize and use to go deeper with their consumers.

Mobile 2-D tags are scan-able barcodes that can be printed on anything from products to advertisements to promotional materials. Consumers use smartphone apps to scan the barcode and are often rewarded with incentives, exclusive content or automatic status updates.

Infographic courtesy of Microsoft Tag

As you start thinking of ways to leverage new media technologies to help your clients, think about mobile 2-D tagging as a way to extend the conversation, educate consumers and drive new forms of online traffic. Below are some quick ideas on how mobile tagging can work for you:

• Tell consumers more about where your product came from and its environmental footprint
• Create menu-pairing options for a food or beverage
• Use mobile tags in a sweepstakes or as a contest-entry tool
• Tease a product, as Blake Mycoskie of TOMS Shoes did at his keynote
• Drive donations
• Create a gaming experience
• Provide schedules
• Leverage tags as a rewards vehicle, for couponing or driving retail engagement

--Alex Nicholson, New Media Director, @Alex20001

“Generation Z,” or children born between the years of 1994 and 2004, have likely never known life without the Internet, cell phones or YouTube. That makes them the most digitally connected generation ever. Although children aren’t permitted to register for an account on social networking sites such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook until the age of 13, that’s not stopping them from embracing the digital age.

Social Media
Teens ages 13-17 make up 10 percent of total Facebook users, but let’s not discount those younger than 13 who are using social networking sites. Togetherville, also known as “Facebook for kids,” allows children 10 years and younger to play games, acquire virtual gifts and watch YouTube videos with their friends. The site requires parents to sign up their kids and even allows them to monitor their children’s use in real-time. A separate social network called Scuttlepad, or “Twitter for kids,” asserts that it lets children “tell your friends what you're doing (...just like the older kids do!).”

Brands seem to be taking notice of Generation Z’s online interests. Mattel recently launched the Barbie Video Girl, a toy that makes it easy for girls to create and edit their own video and post it on YouTube. They’re also asking consumers to follow them on Foursquare and Twitter as Barbie travels the US for a chance to win a Video Girl doll. Other YouTube channels, such as Sesame Street and Fred, have racked up thousands of views and prove that even pre-schoolers are familiar with social media.

Gaming & Web
Children are spending about 17 minutes per day playing online games – that includes even the tiniest of tykes. To meet the growing demand, toy company Fischer-Price offers a collection of educational games for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers, while PBS’s Sid the Science Kid game teaches children all about antibodies, weather and vocabulary.

Going Mobile
In 2009, the average child was given his own cell phone at 9.7 years old; that’s actually down from 10.1 years in 2008. Children are spending this time sending thousands of text messages a month, playing pre-installed games, taking pictures and listening to music. And although Leapfrog’s “baby Blackberry” isn’t actually a phone, it certainly teaches tiny tots how to type on a Qwerty keyboard at a surprisingly young age.

Parents are Adapting, Too
It seems that parents are becoming more and more comfortable with their children being active in the digital space and are especially comfortable with it being used as an educational tool. In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only three-in-10 children have restrictions on media use, and Retrevo.com reports that 31 percent of parents think children under nine are ready to own their first computer.

At this point, it seems there’s no turning back for Generation Z. Whether kids are addicted or just more social, it’s clear that they’re spending more and more time consuming digital media.

-- Christa Keizer, New Media Intern

Mobile is hot right now.

It’s not exactly breaking news, we know. But just in case you haven’t considered integrating mobile into your communications strategies, here’s some recent facts and figures that might make you stop and think.

It’s everywhere you want to be: Apologies to Visa, but thanks to GPS technology, consumers’ favorite brands are literally everywhere they want to be. Mobile apps with geo-targeting technology allow consumers to interact with their favorite brands from anywhere in the world, whether it’s finding the nearest store or checking in at a local hot spot. In fact, companies will spend close to $4 billion on location-based mobile technologies by 2015.

It’s one-stop shopping: It’s not all ringtones and horoscopes. Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with using their mobile phones to make non phone-related purchases, too. Ten percent of Americans use their phones to receive coupons and discounts or buy goods and services. The numbers go up for smartphone users. Half of iPhone and BlackBerry owners use their phones for mobile commerce.

It’s better than sex: Is that text message really that important? Apparently it is. According to the Retrevo Gadgetology study, one-in-10 Internet users under the age of 25 claims he or she would answer a text message during sex. One-in-four would even do so while using the restroom. When you gotta text, you gotta text.

It’s memorable: Mobile may be the third screen, but it certainly doesn’t finish last when it comes to advertising recall. Research firm Insight Express found mobile ads to be more effective than online ads in consumer ad awareness and message association. And, not only did consumers remember mobile ads, it turns out mobile ads are more likely than online ads to lead to greater purchase intent and brand favorability.

It’s a nonprofit money-maker: In the wake of January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, the American Red Cross raised $32 million through its text-to-give campaign – the most successful mobile philanthropy effort of all time. If there is anything good that can come out of the disaster, it’s that Americans have found a new means of donating to important causes. Almost one-in-five are more likely to text donations to their favorite nonprofits after hearing about Haiti's mobile fundraising success and 19 percent would prefer texting to alternative donation methods.

Brands would be wise to redirect some of their ad spend this holiday season – if the results of the latest Retail Advertising and Marketing Association research mean anything. According to the survey, a mere 17 percent of consumers said their favorite holiday TV commercial motivated them to shop at that retailer. This bleak statistic must be leaving retailers quaking in their boots because, despite expectations that holiday sales in 2009 will beat those of 2008, consumers are sure to be more selective with their money.

When it comes to deciding where to shop, TV commercials just don’t have the oomph they used to. To get customers through the door, the answer isn’t a 30-second spot…it’s money-saving coupons. Nearly half of respondents said coupons were the top media influencer when it came to deciding which retailers to shop. Meaning, a consumer may forego his favorite store if it means saving a little cash.

And it’s not just TV commercials losing out to coupons. Retailers saw a 15 percent decline in visits to their Web sites during Black Friday 2009 versus 2008, but searches for “printable coupons” jumped 50 percent. Few retailers seem to be getting the hint, however, as most are in a stand-off with thrifty customers waiting until the last minute to get the best deals.

JCPenney is one company on top of the trend. It began offering mobile coupons, which let cashiers scan coupons on customers’ mobile phones, back in September. American Greetings is getting on board, too, as it just upgraded its iPhone app to offer coupons, and Gap and Banana Republic are testing mobile coupons at outlet and factory stores in certain markets. The moves should pay off, too. A Deloitte study (client) showed 20 percent of consumers plan to use their mobile phones to assist in holiday shopping.

With only eight shopping days left until Christmas, perhaps now we’ll start to see retailers put a little more marketing muscle – mobile or otherwise – behind stretching customers’ wallets.

A recent blog post from cell phone analytics start-up Flurry suggested young consumers of Apple’s iPod touch would be future consumers of its iPhone later in life. “Apple is using the iPod touch to build loyalty with pre-teens and teens, even before they have their own phones (think: McDonalds' Happy Meal marketing strategy).” I didn’t get my first cell phone until my seventeenth birthday, and I considered myself to be on the cusp of the technological track. But if the assumptions are true, within the next five years, we will see a lot more tweens and teens using Apple’s high-tech mobile device.

Following in Apple’s footsteps, many companies are starting to realize teens are technologically savvier than older consumers. Sites like Mattel’s Everythinggirl.com and MyePets.com have created virtual online worlds that invite younger consumers to participate in interactive environments. And, in 2008, Disney Records, the online home for everything Hannah Montana and Jonas Brothers, led the list of Web video sites, with kids compromising more than 49 percent of its unique visitors.

But what does this increase in tech-literacy among American youth mean for marketers?

Teens are becoming a stronger force in online shopping and purchasing decisions and are extremely desirable marketing targets. In fact, the 2008 Global Habbo Youth Survey found 24 percent of teens are spending more than 15 hours a week online, and of those surveyed, 58 percent have made an online purchase and on average spend $46 per month – 26 percent spend $50 or more per month. Want more good news? Despite clothing, shoes, accessories and music ranking at the top of the list of online purchases, brand familiarity remains the driving force behind nearly 74 percent of all purchasing decisions among teens.

Maybe Flurry’s prediction is right. If younger consumers have purchasing control and if brand loyalty is achieved early in life, as in the case with Apple, perhaps we will begin seeing kids grabbing their lunch, kissing their parents goodbye and checking their Facebook app, all before catching the morning bus to school.

-- Emily Koruda, Fall 2009 Marketing Intern

There’s good news for businesses online!

New media users are increasingly interacting with companies and brand in this environment. In fact, interactions are up 32 percent from 2008 with almost 80 percent (78%) of new media users engaging with businesses through traditional online or social media channels. This is according to our latest research, the 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study.

The2nd annual new media study, an update of the 2008 Business in Social Media Study, is a three-part survey which explored new media users’ interactions with brands, their support of social and environmental issues and their engagement with corporate responsibility practices. The research also reveals new media users:

• Feel a stronger connection to (72%) and better served by (68%) companies they can interact with via new media
• Believe companies should market to them through traditional online advertising (43%, up from 25% in 2008)
• Believe they can influence corporate responsibility decisions by voicing opinions via new media channels (62%)
• Believe companies and nonprofits should use new media to raise money and awareness for causes (79%)

For additional findings, please visit www.coneinc.com/consumernewmediastudy to download the research fact sheets.

Your weekly glimpse into the world of new media

Social: Just because your company uses social media, doesn’t mean people are talking about it. Well, burger chain Red Robin and Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati are doing something about that. After taking a post-meal survey in-restaurant, Red Robin invites diners who opt-in to post recommendations on their Facebook pages, which Red Robin then posts on its own page. In a similar call-to-action, Ducati rewards fans who disseminate a branded quiz, found on its new social networking site, with points that can be redeemed at Amazon.com.

Video: Rather than rely on consumer-generated videos to promote its new Fresh Ideas pre-sliced deli meat, food brand Sara Lee went out and hired actresses and comediennes posing as over-worked moms who manage to fit the sandwich meats into their busy days. The three video spots, available on YouTube and Facebook, feature mini, day-in-the-life vignettes of crazed working moms.

Research: Looking to jump on the iPhone app bandwagon? A recent survey from Compete Smartphone Intelligence reports smartphone owners’ favorite types of apps are entertainment, games, music, social networking and weather. Want more good news? Nearly a third (30%) of all smartphone owners are comfortable receiving targeted marketing on their phones.

Mobile: Speaking of apps, Finnish cellphone maker Nokia is promoting its latest customizable phone, the N97, by allowing consumers to create their own apps. Creators of the top 10 apps will win a free phone pre-installed with their creation.

Misstep: New media are rapidly gaining in popularity, but it seems they’re missing the boat when it comes to being a source of daily news. According to the First Amendment Center, Americans still consider traditional media the top source for news. A VERY distant second are the Internet, Twitter and social networks.

Our favorite: Red Robin and Ducati. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Driving fans to your social network is only half the battle. So engage your consumers and put them to work as brand ambassadors.

We all know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but for marketers, it’s more a question of getting to his wallet. And, the answer? Apparently, it’s a good laugh at his friend’s expense. At least that’s what these brands targeting the 18- to 34-year-old male are hoping for:

• Captain Morgan is literally “Calling All Captains" after launching an online tool that that lets users send prank voicemails to their friends. The messages range from angry bartenders and boyfriends to the “hottie” from the bar last night. Messages can be personalized by adding the recipient’s name and even references to clothing worn the previous evening.
• Those who’d rather place live phone calls should download SpoofApp to their phone. SpoofApp lets users change the Caller ID display of the person they're calling and can even alter the caller’s voice to sound like a man or a woman. Every call can be recorded and played back later, just in case it wasn’t funny enough the first time. (iPhone users, however, are out of luck. SpoofApp was rejected by the iPhone App Store.)
  

As recent research demonstrates, there’s a definite ROI for humor marketing. According to a Canadian study, 67 percent of Canadians say humor is the secret ingredient that makes an advertisement most persuasive, more than overt sexuality and celebrity endorsement. (That’s too bad for Australian beer Skinny Blonde, whose temperature-activated bottle label features a curvy blonde who loses her bikini top as the bottle gets colder.) And, a 2009 behavioral study published in Psychology and Marketing found humor can indeed increase ad and brand recall when it’s unexpected and related to the product.

Using humor in marketing certainly isn’t innovative, but Captain Morgan and SpoofApp have taken an innovative approach to a tried and true tact. By allowing users to continuously interact with their brands, they’ve extended the humorous moment beyond an advertisement and turned it into a memorable (and lasting?) experience.