Open The Dialogue

Posted by Tom Biro at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interesting piece from Mediaweek on the continued resistance of the big media companies to dropping their resistance to YouTube. Companies like Viacom and others still linger behind their entrenched position that YouTube is a bad actor and that it's going to violate some part of their core business to allow film clips to appear there.

Ad buyer hesitation I can see to some extent. If your creative process hasn't undergone the necessary evolution to grow beyond pre-roll 30-second spots then YouTube's policy against such ads is going to be as confusing to you as a "courtroom" or "cell phone" are going to be to Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer. "No pre-roll" ads is just going to give them a headache, so best just to go elsewhere and leave well enough alone.

But media producers should, as I've continually said, be looking for just about any piece of online real estate that might be available to use as a distribution platform. Here are their two options:

#1 - Insist that everyone consume content on your terms, a policy that limits audience exposure because of technology, time, established behavior or other factors.

OR

#2 - Allow your content to grow online like a sea monkey through viewer forwarding, embedding and a variety of other tools. I'm not talking about outright piracy of the entire film. That's wrong. I'm talking about someone pulling their favorite four-minute scene from a movie and use it in a blog post.

I would rather my content get seen - as long as it's not in the context of theft of the whole thing and with appropriate attribution - than effectively hide it to anyone I didn't deem cool enough. But I'm kooky like that.

At some point Viacom and others are going to have to look beyond their noses and embrace YouTube and other players, even if it means slackening the control they try to maintain.

I'm really hoping they don't clamp down on YouTube versions of the Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer that's set to debut on Thursday. That would be a tremendous mistake since that's likely to be so popular it could even give Dramatic Chipmunk a run for its money. Saying people can't share the video in that manner is going to cut off a powerful, passionate chunk of the word of mouth that's going to be generated about the trailer and the movie as a whole.

If online buzz is supposed to be this Holy Grail of marketing then media companies need to facilitate and not interrupt that buzz when it happens, even if it falls outside their comfort zone.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Relevancy" is a word that's thrown around a lot these days. Ads online are "contextually relevant" to the content they appear next to. Brands strive to remain relevant to customers who have many (a plethora?) of choices in whatever category that brand operates in.

Relevance to the mind of the consumer is, like trust, something that needs to be earned. And like trust it needs to be earned time and time again, at every touchpoint through which the brand interacts with its audience.

All of that is especially true when we're talking about media choices. Established players need to work harder than ever to remain relevant to an audience that sees more of what they're looking for in blogs and other outlets created by people who they feel a connection to.

So what is a media company to do?

1. Start your own blog: Seems like every media outlet is going bloggy. Inc. just launched four new ones to add to their existing roster of blogs that cover a variety of business niches. The Chicago Tribune, like other papers, has a ton that roughly replicate parts of the paper. Creating journalist-produced blogs is great since it can add depth and personality to news coverage. But it's also important for these writers to join the larger community writing about their beat (whatever it is there will be one). That's the kind of practice that brings about more readership, more engagement and ultimately leads to trust and relevance. Blogs do not exist in a vacuum and so their writers need to be commenting elsewhere, linking out generously and otherwise acting like a part of a village.
   
2. Pay attention to what others are doing: Entertainment news brands like Entertainment Tonight have found themselves flanked online by TMZ and others and are only now looking for ways to catch up. I'm sorry to say but it's probably too late. The online audience is now turning to sites like TMZ and others for their celebrity gossip and not ET. Established players have a finite window of opportunity to mimic developments by upstarts before the audience decides those established brands apparently aren't interested in servicing this particular need and move their attention elsewhere. They've essentially broken the trust and it's harder to earn BACK then it is to earn in the first place.
   
3. Recognize that online is its own entity: If you're looking at your website simply as a way to gain print subscribers (or TV viewers or anything else) then the online strategy you have is probably not going to work out. There's no halfway here. If you're faking it and don't seem to be fully committed to being an online outlet the audience will be able to sense that a mile away. That sort of thinking also likely means you're not interested in playing in the larger sandbox, resulting in no one sending traffic your way, no one interacting on the site (what's the point?) and just getting little to no traction in general. The web needs to be more than simply a means to an end, it needs to be the end itself.
4. Don't mess with the trust of others: Whether you're CBS looking to utilize Digg to expand online content, a newspaper who adds Sphere links to stories or anyone else, don't mess with the success of an existing brand in order to bend it to your control. If you're really interested in harnessing the power of something the audience is using and trusting then the best approach to meshing it into your business is to do so in a hands-off manner. Don't try to game the system, don't try to utilize control over how its used and don't - and this is the most important part - honk off the existing user base. That's a good way to make sure that powerful tool you're integrating loses almost all its power, defeating the purpose of the purchase or partnership.
   
5. Go where people already are: You can hope and pray and strategize all you want, but the simple truth is that the Internet is now simply too big for one outlet to try and become the sole outlet for whatever content it might be we're talking about. That's why networks are sending their shows to Fancast, Joost, Hulu, Veoh and a multitude of other sites. The old network model simply doesn't hold water any longer and so, if you want to reach eyeballs, you need to go where those eyeballs are. Everyone has their own favorite online video site so there's little to be gained by signing "exclusive" deals or deciding your homepage MUST be where video is viewed.
   
6. Make it easy for people to take it with them: The distribution of content is not restricted to officially partnered with sites. Make it easy for people to grab video widgets, graphics or any other materials they want so they can put it on their own blogs, Facebook pages or any other site they wish. They've just increased the reach of your content and you didn't have to sit in 50 hours of meetings with lawyers to make it happen. They're site is better and your stuff reaches more eyeballs. Isn't that the very definition of a win/win?
   
7. Let people play: We live in a creative society online. People are either creating their own stuff or mashing up existing works and you know what? That's really OK. Seriously, settle down and realize that someone likes your TV show clip, movie trailer (natch) or other video enough to mess around with it a bit. Even if they're poking fun at it a little bit, that's simply because they're trying to add a bit of humanity to content they considered too self-important or stuffy to be relevant to them. They've adjusted the content and adjusted the relevance. That's a good thing - you should be thanking them for that, not filing C&Ds.
   

Posted by Chris Thilk at 07:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Everywhere I look this week, it's all about the social ads. Chris was discussing MySpace's "targeting" abilities and how that was utilized for ads focused on Amanda Bynes fans, Brian Solis is all over Facebook's efforts to get you, the user, to essentially identify the companies / brands / products you identify with, and integrate that in various fashions into how your friends and contacts see you in the social network.

But while we have something that might be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the online version of people walking around with your t-shirt on, and influencing their friends to want one, too, we're also greeted with stuff like this, an "ad" in your Facebook feed featuring Odd Thomas (whose page, amusingly, only contains links to his MySpace profile, not the one on Facebook. OOPS!), made to "look" MUCH more like something that is, as Dave suggests, "more like friend news." Is that any better than the typical "sponsored" items in your friend news? I guess that's up to the whole eye, beholder thing, but I tend to lean with Dave on this one.

Sometimes I really feel like we take some great steps forward when it comes to companies "getting it," and then, when turning around, I want to kick the wall in frustration for the marketing guy in me. So while Jeremy makes some awesome points when he says that advertising as an industry will "win" the business of social media from its clients, these are just some of the examples that make me feel like they, just as PRfolk say "Ohhh, yeah!" entirely too much, need to step out of their own little world for two seconds before getting people to drop tens of thousands of dollars on technology that no one has nailed down just yet.

[ed: I apologize for the reference to Disney's "Gummi Bears" in the title. But since I've already gotten it into your head, go check out the theme song. You know you want to.]

Posted by Tom Biro at 06:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Catherine Holahan at BusinessWeek has a good story up about how the online experiences of everyday users could potentially change if a Do Not Track list is put into place. For those who may not have been following it, privacy groups have proposed a Do Not Track list that would halt advertisers and publishers from using visitor data to customize ads for them.

The problem, of course, is that so much of the Internet is now dependent on advertising. And that advertising has risen in value for publishers as they've increasingly been able to show ad buyers data on what sorts of people are visiting their sites. Higher value for targeted ads means publishers have been able to cut back on sheer volume and the combination creates, by most measures, a much better user experience.

So if vast swaths of the audience then opt not to have their behavior tracked and data collected the result will likely be more ads that are less relevant to the users.

As Holahan's article states, the creation of such a list depends greatly on whether consumers actually care as much about the issue as privacy groups do. But this idea seems to be much more likely to collapse the Web 2.0 world much more than just about any other threat.

All these online services that launch with ad-support as a business model. All the ad networks that are built around various forms of targeted ad delivery (including those owned and operated by Google, AOL and Yahoo!). These are all in danger of having the rug pulled out from under them if they can't pinpoint the advertising they buy, sell or otherwise depend on. And if you thought newspaper publishers were insufferable before, wait until their not-yet-substantive online ad revenue dries up.

I'm all for consumer privacy, and if this discussion creates an environment where those doing the tracking make adjustments in how they collect and protect identifiable data, then it's an undeniable good thing.

But everyone needs to be aware of just what a Do Not Track list means.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a new study from the Advertising Research Foundation and American Association of Advertising Agencies that shows the most effective TV commercials are the ones that tell stories.

This really shouldn't be surprising to anyone who's around my age (32), especially the guys. After all, we grew up in the Golden Age of long-form entertainment-as-advertising. G.I. Joe and Transformers, along with Thundercats, He-Man and a host of others were cartoons second and commercials for the respective toy lines first.

But they told interesting (at least they were at the time) stories and sucked us in. We needed the Cobra Hydrofoil because it played such an important part in that new episode and we absolutely-please-won't-you-just-understand-mom needed to recreate that scene in our living rooms. We...wait for it...created content. And yes, I realize that by actually typing that I'm in danger of having my keys to the Internet revoked.

But as we got older we realized we were being spun and marketing's effectiveness, to some extent, wore off. Our enthusiasm for (wince) creating content (/wince) didn't diminish, though, since we're now online creating blogs, participating in forums, building our social networks and starring in online sex tapes.

More than that, a good story in the marketing still hooks us. The problem for many companies is that they're no longer in the position of instigating those stories. Instead the inspiration is coming from our friends and contacts. That's why social media is such an effective marketing tool, because when you weave together the points of view of three or four people who are discussing a particular topic you come up with a really good story.

Some people are good storytellers and some aren't. Some companies are good storytellers and some aren't. The trick is to know which one you are and make sure you either use that talent to its fullest advantage or get out of the way so those who can.

If you're a marketer and you just can't adequately tell your brand's story in a compelling way, the best thing you can do is step into the pitch and let the community do it for you. But then it's up to you to provide them the best possible tools to do just that - high quality photos, videos, product information, etc. That's what getting out of the way looks like in that case.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In their book Citizen Marketers, Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba told the familiar story of an ordinary, non-marketing guy who was so in love with the iPod that he created his own commercial and posted it online. That user-generated spot created a tremendous amount of recognition and press coverage, despite - or maybe because of - being officially disowned by Cupertino.

So check out this story in the New York Times. Apple has taken a commercial created by 18 year-old Mac enthusiast Nick Haley and will remake it with the help of their agency TBWA/Chiat/Day. The spot he created, reportedly in just one day last month, has so far garnered over 2,000 views on YouTube. Some of those viewers were Apple employees, who then tasked T/C/D with getting in touch with Haley about reworking his video for official use. The agency apparently has futzed only limitedly with the actual content, wanting to maintain the originals spirit while making it just a bit more professional looking.

The spot will debut this Sunday during football telecasts, "Desperate Housewives" on ABC and during Game 4 of the World Series.

Everyone wants their spots to become viral sensations on YouTube, all the while people are creating their own videos that are achieving that goal with little to no effort on their part. It's great to see someone like Apple - who could use the good PR right now - embracing their passionate users in a way like this. It actually makes me want to make sure to tune in and check out this spot on TV to see how it's turned out.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a really interesting story in Editor & Publisher about the lack of recognition given to online news reporting. While that point alone has probably spawned a dozen panel sessions it was one line later in Pauline Millard's piece that caught my eye:

"By nature, they (newspaper people) are not shameless self-promoters."

Compare that attitude to the Internet, where almost all of us are promoters, looking for new and exciting ways to extend our personal brand. The reason there's a discussion over whether Robert Scoble's videos are too long and boring is because he's out there pimping them. There's nothing wrong with that - that's just the way it is. Look at Twitter, which some days is lousy with updates that begin with "New Blog Post:..." We're not just engaging in a conversation, we're largely engaging in a conversation about ourselves.

So here's what I'm going to do, beginning next week: No talking about myself. No linking to myself. No saying "When I said this back in June..." or anything that promotes myself. Oh I'll still blog and all that, but will try to do so in a way that highlights the best of what's going on elsewhere, not just the best of what I'm doing.

I've actually tried to do this to some extent already. I've been making an effort to leave more comments on people's blogs. I love getting comments, maybe even a little more than if someone links to something I've written. It means they've decided to talk to me, not talk to their audience about me. So it's a little more personal, and I like to think others have the same reaction I do when I see someone has dropped by and left a comment, which is to feel a little pick-me-up about what I'm writing.

Back to the story, the best of online newspaper efforts are deserving of recognition, and not just in a special "Best of the Web" category that automatically diminishes, in some people's minds, the item being lauded.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you're a Cubs fan like myself than you (hopefully) accepted the fact that all the Tommy John surgeries in the world (not a reference to how many he could have, but actually did have) would not bring Kerry Wood's arm back to what we all hoped it would be. I don't even say "what it was" because it wasn't healthy long enough for us to see what it was. We collectively had this belief until about 2005 that just one more trip into the operating room would bring back the pitcher we saw in 1998 striking out 20 Astros. But now we've largely given that up. It's just easier and, frankly, more realistic.

But the corporate advertising world still seems to be stuck in the "It'll all work out" phase familiar to Cubs fans, survivors huddled in the basement after nuclear wars and people who think J.J. Abrams has a plan for "Lost." Advertisers still see a situation wherein a company or retailer faces the challenge of gaining market share or stemming sales declines and think that celebrities are the answer. Macy's picked Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, meaning they can cash in both their "place" and "show" tickets "The Apprentice" window. Ben McConnell dissects this effort nicely. HP has tapped rocker Gwen Stefani for a new campaign, since she had that big hit "Color Cartridge #22" and so is known as a printing industry guru. And don't get me started on The Gap, which launches celebrity-driven campaigns with the same regularity Sisyphus pushes the boulder of the hill, and with about the same effect.

Wouldn't it be better for companies to spend a fraction of what they are on lining up celebrities - celebrities that will endorse their competitors at the drop of a larger check - on seeing how they can build up their existing customers and empower them to spread their own word-of-mouth? They could create online communities where people talk about the brand, share their own stories and meet other like-minded people. And all this could probably done for a fraction of what Trump asked to utter a couple lines and pose for a handful of pictures.

People want to connect with each other - it's a natural human instinct. The myth of the celebrity has been almost shattered by tabloids - both print and online - and that has taken much of their endorsement credibility with it.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 08:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Dear writers and editors for mainstream news publications,

Please do not label something as "viral" simply because it mentioned on a couple blogs. "Viral" should be a term we use sparingly for those instances when something gets passed around with little to no help from the marketing department. Very few of the examples in this article that are actual ad campaigns would get that designation. Things like Will it Blend? and the "Flagpole Sitta" agency video? Yes. Brawny Academy? No.

Regards,
--Chris Thilk

Posted by Chris Thilk at 02:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It's kind of interesting to me that there's a story in Brandweek today about how advertisers are slowly building momentum on Facebook. It's interesting because it comes one day after I noticed, while writing up a post for my personal blog, that Sony Pictures had indeed discovered Facebook as a marketing tool.

A button on the official website for their new flick Across the Universe allows you to add the movie's trailer to your profile with just a couple simply clicks. It's really the first time I've seen Facebook integrated in such a way into a movie's campaign.

MySpace, on the other hand, has become lousy with profiles related to new movies, most of which don't add any value to the user. They're mostly made up of content that's just been repurposed from the official site.

I really hope that Facebook learns the lessons of MySpace and - at the very least - makes new mistakes as they progress. Right now I'm seeing value in Facebook that I never really saw in MySpace, even if I still don't use it very much. Yes, there will be eventual burnout, but it can still be something that works with the community there instead of working against it.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm sure we've all been CC'd on at least 100 emails in the last year that include "viral" website/video/other as a bullet point for something that's being planned. Everyone's trying to replicate the success of The Blair Witch Project or Subservient Chicken or any of a number of other efforts that really worked and have subsequently become case studies.

So it's important, I think, that we all bookmark/print out/include in our email signature this post by Mike Manuel. Mike correctly points out that things like YouTube are tools, that's it's the content that will ultimately decide whether the video/site/game/whatever will "go viral." If we want something to be passed around from user to user then it's our responsibility to guide the creation of compelling content. That needs to be followed up by work on making it findable through search or tags or other tactics.

After that it's up to the audience.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There have been a slew of studies and news stories coming out in recent weeks about teens and their spending habits. From their increasing ignoring of mall-based retail outlets built specifically for them to their desire to turn dorm rooms into statements of personal expression, teens are increasingly looking for ways to spend money that are unique to themselves.

The "marketing to avatars" meme has run through the online world several times. The gist of the topic was that since teens, the favorite demographic of marketers because of their highly social nature and vast disposable income, are spending so much time in virtual worlds such as Second Life that that's where those marketers needed to be. This was epitomized by so many brands rushing into Second Life and building stores, kiosks or islands that it was getting a bit ridiculous. Actually it was more than a bit ridiculous, as proven by the fact that now so many stores, kiosks and islands are unmanned by store personnel, unvisited by members and are gathering virtual dust. it turns out that, despite the breathless hype, people didn't want their virtual existence to be subjected to marketing.

But the mindset of people who create Second Life avatars, MySpace and Facebook profiles and Miis that they share with their friends is emerging in those real-life habits mentioned at the outset.

It's becoming clear that teens, with so many outlets for self-expression, are seeking that same sort of goal with their buying. Their preference to create customized environments, customized outfits and other products. But mass marketing can't do that, and doesn't. Instead the world expectation of teenagers is being formed by targeted online advertising, avatar creation, inputs and recommendations from friends in their Facebook network and other personalized inputs. So it should be no surprise that what they're creating/buying is more personalized.

And can you imagine these people, who have spent so much time making sure their environment is a reflection of themselves, entering the housing market? How popular do you think cookie-cutter sub-divisions where all the houses look the same are going to be?

There needs to be a massive shift in marketing, retail and other consumer-focused thinking that addresses the minds of people who are creating their own experiences. Without that there's going to be a lot more trouble in the overall economic pictures.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 01:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I was lucky enough to be asked if I'd like to get a review copy of a new marketing book by Lois Kelly titled “Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word-of-Mouth Marketing. I'll admit to being a tad skeptical about the book, despite my definite interest in reading it and seeing what Kelly had to say. The skepticism came simply from wondering if Kelly would really find something new to add to the conversation. I'd read some pretty decent WOMM books before and I was interested in seeing if this would be a retreading of familiar ground or if there was a fresh take that could be offered on the subject.

Fortunately it was the latter. “Beyond Buzz” focuses not on word-of-mouth marketing and indeed, as the title promises, does go beyond simply outlining how to generate buzz. What Kelly focuses on is how to begin, nurture and act on conversations both within a company and among a consumer base. From the CEO to the sales rep and everyone in-between, Kelly makes a strong case for conversations as the most effective marketing tool a company could use to connect with potential customers at all levels.

As part of her point on how to create authentic conversations Kelly often comes back to her advice that we, as communications professionals of all stripes, “write to be said” instead of writing “to be read.” The two are, of course, very different tactics. If you've met me in person you likely know that how I write is very much how I speak and that's what Kelly encourages all marketing professionals to do when trying to connect with a community of any sort. Using “I” (which I generously do in help for marketers my writing) helps people see the writer as a person and creates a deeper connection between the two parties. That can be of tremendous use to marketers who are trying to win over customers and influence behavior. After all, who would you trust more, someone you feel some level of connection with or some really bland and darn-near unreadable marketing copy. Yeah, me too.

“Beyond Buzz” is written with that same sort of personal take. Kelly's passion for the topic comes through loud and clear. Other books I've read I “hear” in my mind like someone who's speaking frantically and passionately about something that they're desperately trying to convince me of. And that passion is great. This one has the same sort of passion but it's much more focused. It's kind of like someone who is incredibly passionate about the topic but funneled that passion through a formal presentation to help me fully understand why they think what they think and so I can find ways to incite my own passion.

That's probably the biggest take away I have from “Beyond Buzz.” This isn't a book that will convince a CEO in clear, uncluttered language that I need to have a new style of marketing approach. But it is a book that I could use as a marketer to find ways to change the culture of the sales and marketing departments slowly and surely, bringing everyone around to my way of thinking with some clearly delineated steps.

It's a good book and a good read and, if you're looking for ways to invigorate your own thinking as well as the thinking of the people around you, it's something you should definitely check out. I'd like to thank Kelly and her publicity firm for hooking me up with a copy.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This blog is called "Open the Dialogue." The title (and I'm speaking for Tom here since I wasn't around when he started it) is meant to illustrate the point that so much of what we talk about online is about encouraging communications. Brands are obsessed with harnessing the power of the consumer, be it through social networks, CGC ad contests or some other way to generate a conversation about their brand. All these Web 2.0 tools we use are very cool and very useful for doing just that - online. Too often, though, we lose track of the fact that there's an offline world as well.

Last Thursday, as I was preparing to get off the train on the way home, I saw that the guy sitting in front of me packing up his laptop. On said laptop was a Feedburner sticker. You know the one. So I said to him, "I'm sorry - I couldn't help but notice you have a Feedburner sticker on your laptop...You an online guy?" That's how I met Evan Brown, Aurora resident, attorney and blogger. We talked for a few minutes about blogging and how we both knew FB's Rick Klau - another guy who lives out in our neck of the Chicago suburbs.

Feedburner - however indirectly - facilitated this conversation. It started us talking. It opened the dialogue. With a sticker. Not a wiki, not a social network, not a widget. A sticker. I love that.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As I exited Union Station this morning a few people were standing outside handing out coasters for today's "Coffee Break" promotion from Starbucks. On one side of the coaster is a funny graphic of coffee ring stains with timestamps showing the progression of your coffee consumption. On the other are the details of the giveaway, including time and what exactly being given away.

Far from being some flimsy piece of paper stock, though, this coaster is thick and durable and is a real coaster. Just yesterday I was thinking I needed a good coaster for my desk as I slid a napkin under the water bottle which sweating and dripping all over the place. Starbucks has filled that need. I'm going to use that coaster from here on out, essentially choosing to expose myself to their brand each time I look to put my drink down.

I don't think enough of us who practice marketing think about what sort of value our efforts can add to the lives of the audience. Maybe it's not something as utilitarian as a coaster, but the idea of added-value is one that should be every bit as prominent in discussions as such ephemeral topics as engagement and such. How is what you're doing going to impact the audience in a real and lasting way?

Not only will this coaster act as a reminder of the Starbucks brand, but its placement on my desk will also act as a reminder to me to always question whether what I'm doing is going to have a lasting impact on the audience. If the answer to that is "no" then there's work yet to be done.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 12:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I know that I'm supposed to be falling all over myself to shower Steve Jobs with praise over his recent open letter to the music industry on the future of DRMed music. It's extremely tempting to read it as the modern version of Martin Luther's 95 Theses. Some have called it Jobs' "first blog post" but let's get serious. Jobs actually blogging in a real, honest to goodness manner is about as likely as Rex Grossman winning a Grammy. Anyway, I don't actually think Jobs is acting in any sort of altruistic manner. Yes, he wants the user experience to be better and wants music interoperability to be open for all. But that's all an effort to increase Apple's marketshare of both the online music and digital music player markets.

If the music labels were to drop their DRM requirements in not only the iTunes Store but others as well, more people will buy iPods since they won't be locked into competing players that only work with competing stores. And by putting up this letter, Jobs has made himself look like the hero of the working man, a position that it's hoped will bring more shoppers to iTunes.

I applaud Jobs calling the record labels out like this but wish that more people would apply the same natural skepticism toward his big pronouncement and announcements that they would if, say, Bill Gates had said all this.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

If you're a new media fanatic (and who here isn't) then the page Target has setup for its upcoming 2-day sale will probably be of interest to you. The page is setup to promote not only the store's sale but also the latest stunt from magician/performance artist David Blaine. Blaine appears in an ad for the store that Tom seems to love but which I'm lukewarm toward. That may be because I'm lukewarm on Blaine in general but we'll leave that issue for another day.

The site features RSS, a downloadable widget for you to track Blaine's stunt and code for you to put the promotion on your own website. Those are really nice tools to give people that let them spread the word organically, a favorite topic of mine. And it's all wrapped up in a pretty nifty mobile-device looking format that makes the page a lot of fun to play around with.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fast Company has a post up on the topic of "post-modern marketing." Their definition of that is marketing in a world where not only is the audience hip to the marketing communities moves but the marketing community knows that the audience is hip to it. It's all very meta. The point is that marketers must continue to find new and innovative ways to not just hard sell people but get them to care about the marketing efforts.

That's why, if you ask me (and I know you did), companies need to embrace consumer-generated-content, but in its authentic and pure form. Don't just give people a couple of video clips and sound effects that they can play with and arrange. That's a corporately sanitized version of CGC. No, they need to really get down and dirty and engage with the bloggers talking about their products, the video makers creating their own commercials and others like this.

To my mind "post-modern marketing" means doing something that's extraordinarily scary to most companies: letting go of complete control. Companies can no longer hope to control the conversation that's going on regarding their brands, products and corporate entities. They can participate in that conversation in meaningful ways, sure. But control? Forget it. Those corporately-endorsed CGC sites can be fun and be a valuable way to spur the conversation along, but that can't be the extent of the entry into it. It just can't be. If it is, or if the company decides to sit out the conversation entirely, they're going to find themselves behind the eight-ball in a very real way.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 02:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The viral online campaign for The Blair Witch Project was both an outstanding success as well as the worst thing to ever happen to the marketing profession. The good was that it created a popular groundswell of interest in a movie that no one had heard of on a then nascient medium, the internet. The bad is that ever since then everyone has tried to replicate it, with very few of these repeats going well. Most simply involve company-paid trolls who post glowing reviews on message boards or sites that are supposed to be "fan created" but, unless that fan as a $50,000 marketing budget, just doesn't pass the smell test.

So too, now the saga of LonelyGirl15 has salted the once-fertile earth of consumer generated content. If the reports are true - and they seem to be - that the teenaged cutie who's the embodiment of every teenaged guy's fantasies (which should have been a tipoff right there) and she is someone's viral marketing project - then marketers everywhere are screwed. Moreso than merely paying bloggers for covertly mentioning brands and products, the abuse of legitimate consumer-generated content is something that simply can't be recovered from. This isn't just the killing of your own reputation, as is the case with accepting money for blog mentions. This is casting consumer suspicion over an entire media format. Whenever a video blogger now mentions a product or becomes a grassroots sensation the way LonelyGirl15 did the audience will now be wondering if it's real or part of a corporate strategy.

You can never unring a bell and it's hard to earn back trust once it's broken. While the people who created LonelyGirl15 should be commended for doing such a fantastic job of reaching such a large audience and waiting so long before tipping their hand, we also need to hold them responsible for changing the climate for the rest of us. It's yet another thing the rest of the online marketing community will need to overcome when trying to bring authentic messages to the audience there.

Posted by Chris Thilk at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

This afternoon, I caught this article that the Arizona Republic had picked up from the WSJ about online wine purchases. The point of the article was more to let people know about what some random online purchase experiences were like than it was to help people figure out how to buy wine online. That being said, I think there are a few things that are on the cusp of being super helpful for people who not only need some help doing that "online shopping for things I'd like to see in person" thing, one of them being Cork'd, the other being Bottlenotes. Maybe they aren't the coup de grâce that will herald yet another big change in how business is done, but I'd say if 5-10% of the wine marketplace is going to be online (and probably more, quickly) then how people go about their business when it comes to finding wines they enjoy and wineries that cater to the online shopper is going to be just as big of a business.

While Bottlenotes is aspiring to be the "Netflix of wine," as BusinessWeek Online's Justin Hibbard had to say recently, Cork'd is taking the review wines, invite your friends, and conquer approach. They're both very different, with a much more ingrained winery sales listing in the former, and a bigger "Web 2.0" approach for the latter. One is big on getting you involved in order ing through a wine club, something many offliners are familiar with, the other is looking to get people to use tagging, reviews, and linking up to "Drinking Buddies" (I'm tombiro on the system if you're interested) in order to get recommendations for users.

As someone who appreciates wine and enjoys trying things recommended by friends and others, I think that both of these services have something to offer. Bottlenotes has a bit more commercial appeal, and therefore has much more of a direct sales model in order to make money, while Cork'd is working with two inaugural sponsors, Uncrate and A List Apart, to get the business going. While not direct competitors, both are attempting to fill a gap that wineries might not be savvy enough to do on their own. Their usership won't be totally mutually exclusive, as both have advantages that people may want to take part in, but I'm banking that both will definitely play a major role in how online wine shopping grows in the next few years.

Posted by Tom Biro at 05:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On Sunday, the Baltimore Sun's Tricia Bishop writes about how some people have taken to using Craigslist for no good, including pranks on friends and acquaintances, and to spam other types of sites not related to the topic at hand. While all of this is true, it's not as if people haven't been able to place fake classifieds for cars for sale and apartments for rent in the newspaper forever and ever. The only difference now is that, depending on which marketplace you're using, it's free. Or probably cheaper than it was in the paper. Just sayin'.

Posted by Tom Biro at 07:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

About a week ago, PR Week's Keith O'Brien published the first entry in a new column, "What goes online," for the publication. Keith focused his initial effort on how public relations firms have reached out to bloggers and have not always gotten the responses they expected. This new column will cover, in the magazine's words, "how technology is changing how companies interact with – and position their wares to – consumers." And it's about damn time, if you ask me.

We've heard tons of things from the market, PR pros who know (and don't know) what they're talking about, bloggers, and others involved in this equation, but this marks one of the first solid efforts I've seen from a dead tree publication (sorry, force of habit) to put two and two together on a regular basis, and not have the random column or op-ed here and there from someone who's handling the merger between tech and PR on a regular basis. If anything, this item and its follow up to come should probably be part of the welcome package to all new PR firm staffers - even if just to show the pitfalls in not paying attention to what you're doing when pitching blogs. We should all hope that we're not becoming so reliant on media lists that we think we can just pitch people without developing any sort of relationship when it's warranted - because that's most certainly happening in the blog world. Firms are finding out about the Technoratis, Instapundits, and Google Blogsearches of the world and going to town, thinking they have now harnessed the blogosphere. Hear that bell ringing in the background? It's your wakeup call - go address it, and don't hit the snooze button. If you do, it's going to affect your firm - and your clients (see: KFC / Gawker - here and here) - and recovering won't be as easy as you'd like.

Tip of the day: Individual blog pages are called permalinks because of one thing - they're permanent.

Posted by Tom Biro at 12:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tara Rogue says she's sick of two things - one being assumptions related to people who live in East Youdon'tknowwhereyouare, and the second being the "some people will never use xyz" excuse for the creation of things. I'll second both of those - the first on an editorial level, the second because it's the same issue I have right now with people who say "But blog abc only gets 500 visitors. How is that a good thing compared to so-and-so magazine?" It's not about volume, it's about targeting and quality. Just because half the Internet isn't going to use a particular application today (or ever) doesn't mean you shouldn't create it. Trying to be all things to all people is what has buried some really fantastic projects, don'tchaknow.

Posted by Tom Biro at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Over at the Bacon's Blog this morning, Chris Thilk wrote up how we were both involved in a pretty nifty move by the folks at GoDaddy.com on Thursday. I won't steal too much of Chris' thunder, but the gist is like this - we both write at an advertising blog, AdJab, and were both interested in the company's plans for advertising during this year's Super Bowl on ABC. Turns out the company was set to have a press conference yesterday, but there wasn't a way to participate virtually. So after a phone call to Dan Siegel, GoDaddy PR guy, we heard back that a conference bridge was set up that we could call in and listen in on the conference. We got the news up shortly thereafter, and it is, as far as I can tell, the first pickup of what went down in the presser - at least through Google News it seems so.

This isn't to say that every single blog or outlet should (or can) be extended this level of extra effort in every single instance, and we don't know for sure that GoDaddy didn't end up giving the bridge number out to others who were interested in participating. But what Chris and I wanted to highlight is that without even batting an eye, Dan Siegel took it upon himself to figure out a way to accommodate us here, and hopefully our post was worth his efforts in extending the reach of his story - and that was pretty cool.

Posted by Tom Biro at 12:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)