Influential Marketing Blog

8 Interesting Facts About Sweden And Social Media

As the US continues to struggle with how the healthcare system needs to be reformed, it was interesting to spend a week focused on Sweden in my Global Communications class this week as it presents an interesting opposite. The country has a high degree of nationalized services, which citizens of Sweden pay handsomely for with a tax rate that hovers between 50% and 70% - but for this amount everything from healthcare to long maternity leaves are covered. Coupled with a relatively isolated location in relation to Europe, beautiful geography and a national obsession with the environment, it is no surprise that the country routinely ranks at the top of the list for global quality of life surveys.

Online, the country has made big news recently for being the unauthorized home of illegal file downloads through a site called Pirate Bay. The site has been in legal trouble of late, being found guilty in Swedish courts of copyright infringement. The debate continues in the country, regardless, where there is even a political party dedicated to furthering the ideology of the site in terms of open copyright free access to content.

From our class blog this week and discussions in class, the team shared several more interesting learnings and topics about Sweden. Here are some highlights:

1. Social media is not about ego. It is easy to get the sense by looking at the rise of social media in the US and many other countries that it is all about ego. People publishing content in order to get their moments of "internet fame" and focused on getting others to link to their content or retweet their best sayings. In Sweden, most reports point to the central emotion in the culture being more reserved and less about promoting the self. This manifests itself through social media in subtle ways, from limiting the active use of review and ratings sites to reducing the number of individual Swedes who create a large profile and personal brand for themselves through social media.
2. Language is not much of a barrier. The language of choice for many Swedish resources was English, and in those cases where there were Swedish language sites, the translations were usually one click away and quite strong. The other implication of this is that unlike some other cultures, global sites such as Facebook also have a strong and growing local appeal here.
3. The country of Sweden is well branded online. The first thing you are likely to find when researching Sweden online is the extremely useful official government portal site - www.sweden.se. The site features everything you would ever want to know about the country, includes frequently updated content from blogs and social media, has a easy to use interface and presents what may be one of the strongest country branded official portals any nation has put online.
4. Environmental friendliness is a way of life. Everywhere you turn, you can see evidence of Sweden's progressive attitudes toward the environment. Their Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released 16 ambitious objectives that are meant to guide the country toward a sustainable environment within one generation.
5. Fashion is a hot topic in social media. There are several blogs devoted to covering fashion in Sweden, driven by a few big events such as Fashion Week in Stockholm in late January and early February. 
6. Children are protected from marketers. Sweden has a reputation as one of the most aggressive countries when it comes to banning advertising to children under the age of 12. TV ads during prime time are banned to this age group and the country has been active in encouraging other European countries to follow their example. This first gained attention in 2001 when Sweden had ascended to the European Union Presidency for their 6 month rotating term. They are due to begin their next term on July 1st of this year, just a few days from now ... so this may come up again as a core issue.
7. Texting is for amateurs. The sophistication of how many Swedes are using their mobile phones is vastly beyond what many in the US may consider active mobile phone usage. Texting is only one small element of what you can do with a mobile phone in Sweden. More interesting is that you can pay for your groceries, submit your taxes and stream broadband content effortlessly - without losing a signal.
8. Research, innovation, technology and creativity drive the economy. The country has a long history of research and innovation, including a status as the #1 biotech industry in Europe per capita and a focus on mobile technology and design innovation. This combination recently propelled the country onto the Entrepreneur magazine list of top 5 "Global Tech Hot Spots" along with Singapore, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Switzerland. Anyone else spot a pattern?

Reading List Of Sources:

• The Official Gateway To Sweden (useful government sponsored site) - http://www.sweden.se
• Ruling against file sharing's impact on Swedish Internet usage - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/apr/04/sweden-pirate-bay-filesharing-internet  
• Interesting list of Swedish facts from an American perspective - http://cva.stanford.edu/people/davidbbs/swedish_facts.html
• Good blog about all things Swedish - http://www.thelocal.se/blog/ 
• On Swedish Business Blog - http://www.thelocal.se/blogs/onswedishbusiness/
• Web pioneer to be

  Sweden

  's next

  US

  Ambassador - http://www.thelocal.se/20176/20090620/
• Swedish Pirate Party - http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25602990-5014239,00.html
• Article on

  Sweden

  's Culture of Creativity - http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/79254314.html

• Sweden

  Sustainability Blog - http://sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Sustainability/blog-about-sustainability/
• Why

  Sweden

  Is One of the Top 5 Tech Countries - http://www.entrepreneur.com/technology/newsandtrends/article180678.html
• Perceptions of political marketing in

  Sweden

  - http://eprints.otago.ac.nz/263/
• Interesting stats on kids and internet usage in

  Sweden

  - http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Work-live/Facts/CHILDREN-IN-SWEDEN-Growing-up-in-Sweden/

• Sweden

  's 16 environmental objectives - http://www.naturvardsverket.se/sv/Nedre-meny/Webbokhandeln/ISBN/1200/978-91-620-1266-3
• SymbioCity: Environmentally friendly development in

  Sweden

  - http://symbiocity.se/?pageId=1
• Swedish Delegation for Sustainable Cities - http://www.hallbarastader.gov.se/Bazment/hallbarastader/sv/in-english.aspx

8 Interesting Things About Marketing & Social Media In Russia

This week is the first of six straight weeks where a class I am teaching on Global Communications at Georgetown University will be focused on a particular region of the world. This week's region is Russia and they have just completed one blog post each about what they learned on the region. As part of the course, I will be producing a summary of some of their insights each Sunday, as well as share what our class was reading throughout the week. Below is a list of some of the most intriguing social media insights about Russia that the class uncovered this week:

1. Russian social networks are huge, but insular. There are two large social networks in Russia that the vast majority of Internet users belong to - Odnoklassniki.ru and Facebook-clone Vkontakte.ru. These networks are almost wholly in Russian and present an important, but insular, form of social networking between Russian speakers - but also prevent the rise of more global players like Facebook or MySpace who are each setting their sites on expansion in Russia.
2. Yandex is a Google-killer (so far). Russia is one of the few countries besides China (with Baidu) that has a dominant local search engine that trounces Google, and given the Russian sense of pride in this achievement, it shows few signs of changing anytime soon ... even despite Google co-founder Sergeiy Brin's Russian background.
3. Moscow area accounts for over 70% of Internet usage in Russia. The majority of Russia is largely rural and sparsely located, particularly when it comes to Internet usage. The implications of this for social media marketing programs is that it may be reasonable to have a real life element to a program if the majority of people are in relatively close proximity to one another.
4. Twitter isn't redefining social media in Russia. Social networking is still the king of social media in Russia, followed by blogging. When it comes to Twitter, the site has been hampered in its growth due to difficulty users have with the comparatively long Russian alphabet and fitting meaningful dialogue into 140 characters. Come to think of it, we have that problem in English too ...
5. Mobile adoption is huge ... and mobile marketing is on the rise. Though mobile penetration by some accounts is even more than one per person (a strangely confusing stat), there is no doubt that mobile messaging is the communication of choice for the country's youth. Marketing through this channel, though, is growing but has not yet reached full maturity.
6. Russia is much more than one market. Several sources of marketing reading looking at the entire country pointed out that what works in Moscow won't in Siberia. From ethnicities, to languages, to cultures, the nuances of Russia create a challenging communications environment.
7. Russia's President has a video blog. Currently on LiveJournal (interesting platform choice), the leader of Russia does have a video blog and tends to keep it relatively up to date. It's an interesting irony as the government is still notoriously sensitive to criticism, yet it does signal an acceptance from the Kremlin that these tools are important and can have a global impact.
8. Rise of aspirational Russian advertising. For many years, advertising in Russia was of necessity and simply relayed information to people on where to buy something. In recent times, this has shifted to advertising that actively sells and promotes - and is mostly aspirational.

RESOURCES & LINKS:

• Overview Of Russia Industry/Marketing - http://www.repiev.ru/articles/glimps_en.htm
• Overview of social media in Russia - http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2009/03/russia-the-fourth-largest-social-networking-market-in-europe/
• Good Marketing Blog with Russian Examples - http://www.dlutskiy.com/eblog/eblog.html
• Top consumer trends in Russia: http://www.euromonitor.com/Top_10_consumer_trends_in_Russia
• Useful list of social media resources in Russia - http://hem-social-media.blogspot.com/2007/08/social-networks-blogging-platforms-in.html
• Global Voices page for Russian focused blogs - http://globalvoicesonline.org/-/world/eastern-central-europe/russia/
• Wired Article on Russian President's Video Blog - http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/04/kremlin-20-russian-prez-discovers-social-media/
• Interview with Andrew Paulson on Russian Social Media - http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2008/09/interview-with.html
• Gmail Russian Launch Case Study - http://www.culture-buzz.com/blog/Google-Russia-Learn-how-Gmail-Works-1574.html
• Russian President's Video Blog - http://community.livejournal.com/blog_medvedev
• Overview of Wireless Broadband in Russia - http://www.slideshare.net/eldaniz/market-overview-for-wireless-broadband-access
• Overview of Mobile Marketing in Russia - http://www.mmaglobal.com/articles/mobile-marketing-russia
• Case Study of Ben & Jerry's Russia Launch - http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=30376
• CNN Video Report on Russia - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/05/19/eor.barnett.rising.internet.cnn?iref=videosearch
• Techcrunch Article on Russia - http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/27/russia-rising-in-internet-population/
• CNN iReport on Russia - http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/ireports/2009/05/19/irpt.for.cnn.b.5.16.cnn?iref=videosearch (starts at 3:50)

6 Ways Ford Is Finding Its Own Voice

Yesterday evening I co-hosted a tweetup in New York City where Ford was unveiling the new Ford Fiesta and a brilliantly conceived social media program to get 100 influencers to take the car on an extended test drive for 6 months as part of the Ford Fiesta Movement. The event was a gathering designed to help put a more human face on Ford and talk about a new Ford car that many of the 20 and 30 somethings who showed up (and are the target market for the Fiesta) may not have known about.

The effort is just one example of a greater shift that has been taking place at Ford over the past year as the company has worked to not only reshape its image in the eyes of the American public, but also to change the way that they tell the story of Ford. It is a rich story to tell, one that is linked to the history of America in a way that few companies can authentically claim. And despite being in the maligned automotive industry that seems a permanent fixture in the negative news cycle, things are changing at Ford. How are they managing to do it? Here are six elements to consider:

1. Having a strong story to tell. In the midst of all the scrutiny, Ford is (and has been) shifting their image from stodgy truck maker to a more forward thinking company making cars that the American public actually want to drive. The relaunched Taurus was a hit, winning top safety ratings - the Flex has had rave reviews, and other cars like the Fusion and Focus are winning many fans.
2. Tapping the passion of employees. Ford has always described itself as a family, and employees often demonstrate a stunning loyalty to the company ... even describing themselves in terms of the cars they have always driven. The old mode of communications would be to keep all these voices silent, and instead only authorize a small group of people to speak on behalf of Ford. Today many of these voices are being encouraged to speak and share their thoughts and experiences online.
3. Making a commitment to social media. Social media has played a big part in this evolution to using the voices of "accidental spokespeople." Scott Monty was hired nearly a year ago as the Head of Social Media for Ford and has actively been offering a voice to the brand and adding social media as a core element of all their communications.
4. Getting out of Detroit. One of the most powerful effects of this shift has been a willingness for even the most senior members of the management team at Ford to get out of Detroit and meet customers. Ford's President of the Americas, Mark Fields and Ray Day (the VP of Communications) even came to the Tweetup last night. Alan Mullaly, CEO of Ford showed up to a blogger event during the Consumer Electronics Show (in a sweatshirt instead of a suit and tie!) and stayed graciously for nearly an hour answering questions and doing podcast interviews.
5. Capitalizing on being Ford. There are not many companies that are as visibly at the epicenter of the American economy as Ford is. Like it or not, the success or failure of Ford is seen by many as a symbol of the success or failure of America. From a communications point of view, this is a major positive ... for the simple reason that the fate of Ford matters to people in a way that AIG or Enron just don't (unless you're a shareholder, of course)
6. Overcoming the American ego. One of the most interesting things for me has been Ford's recent willingness to take cars that have been huge commercial successes overseas and introduce them to the United States market (like the Fiesta and the Transit Connect). For many years, most of Detroit would never have considered taking these foreign cars and allowing them to be revised and sold in America. Finally ego and turf wars are taking a back seat to solid business decisions and introducing cars best suited to succeed.

Any other lessons you think Ford has learned which are contributing to their growing reputation?  Or if you think one (or all) of my points are completely off base, leave a comment and share that point of view too.

Disclaimer: I currently work for Ogilvy and Ford is a client of our team. The Ford Fiesta Tweetup was an official party organized as part of our efforts with Ford and I was on the team that helped organize these events. I have NOT been paid or compensated by Ford to write this blog post, though - and the opinions I share in this post are my personal views only and don't represent what Ogilvy, WPP or Team Detroit thinks about Ford.

SAJA Covering The Mumbai Tourist Attacks With Social Media Tonight

My good friend and colleague Sree Sreenivasan sent out a note earlier today to members of SAJA (the South Asian Journalist Association) about a live webcast that SAJA will be hosting with several thought leaders in response to today's tragic terrorist attacks in the heart of Mumbai. If you happen to be near a computer tonight between 10pm and 11:30pm EST (8:30am to 10am India time), please use the following links to listen in on the conversation. The guests on the call include Benjamin Piven, former Fulbright Scholar in Mumbai and Suketu Mehta, author, "Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found." Mehta's book, in particular, was a stunning portrait of the city that I remember reading a few years ago and many of the things he talked about have stayed with me (both good and bad).

Regardless the call should not only be an illuminating discussion of the attacks and reactions from India and abroad, but also a significant example of how social media can be used to bring people together in a moment like this to learn and discuss. Combined with looking at the conversations tagged "#mumbai" on Twitter, it's amazing what sort of real time updates you can get. Here are the details:

Nov. 26, 10-11:30 pm NY time (8:30-10:00 am India time)
Listen via computer: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/saja/2008/11/27/Mumbai-attacks-webcast-2
or via phone: +1-347-324-5991 (join our conversation there or via the live chatroom)

An Inside Look At Beijing During The Olympics

I have officially been in Beijing for 4 days now. I start this post with that admission, because before you read this I want you to know that I'm no expert on Beijing or China. Before this current trip, I have been here once before. Aside from a few useful phrases, I don't really speak any Mandarin ... and any experience benefit I might have from having been to Beijing before has surely been erased from more than ten years of development and more recent construction and preparation for the Olympics.

Still, I travel often and like to think I can adapt to new places relatively fast. So when I thought about sharing a few of my experiences from Beijing over the past few days, and getting ready for a week of blogging about the Games here for Lenovo, my first thought was to share a few things I have learned so far about getting around and perhaps challenge a few perceptions that people have had about Beijing from media.

1. The Pollution - This was one of the hottest topics in the media about Beijing, that the pollution would create a huge problem for athletes of all sorts. The truth is, the pollution on the ground has been much less of a concern than another simple fact ... Beijing is a hot and humid city. Pollution or not, it is actually the heat and humidity that cause the biggest concern for athletes. I have been to many polluted cities across Asia, and Beijing is certainly nowhere near the worst. In fact, the place I had the toughest time breathing was not related to pollution at all. It was in Lima, Peru thanks to the altitude of the city.
2. The Language Barrier - This is a very real concern about Beijing and means that you need to learn to travel a bit differently. Whereas in many other cities, you can learn to speak more slowly or use a few well chosen words (airport, hotel, bathroom, etc.) and people will understand you, native Mandarin speakers have no such frame of reference. As a result, you need to rely much more on written directions and images. The most useful thing you can always carry with you are a bunch of cards with destinations pictured and written in English. Always get your to and from destinations written down by your hotel concierge, and get used to asking a few people to piece together your destination based on multiple directions (crowd sourcing directions works here).
3. The Olympic Venue Security - Getting into and out of Olympic venues has its own learning curve that are particular to Beijing's games. These are my third Olympics and so I do have a frame of reference, however the security at these Games out of necessity needs to be far beyond what it has been in any previous Games. Most Olympic venues have a single gate of entry, which may require you to walk 1 or 2 kilometers all the way around a venue. The positive aspect of this is that because entry is consolidated, BOCOG can place all their resources in this location, so getting through security and into a venue is a very fast process once you find the correct entrance.
4. The Nightlife - One of the persistent themes in the media you may have seen is that many journalists are calling this the "no fun Olympics." I was speaking to Jim, the blogger behind www.beijingboyce.com, about this and his point of view was that the main problem is that they don't really know where to go. Beijing Boyce is a leading blog in helping people to find the truly fun food, drink and nightlife destinations in Beijing not to be missed, and I have already started using it as a brilliant resource and guide to the city. I wished I had more time to spend with Jim to get more insight, but if you are ever in Beijing, this is a blog you will want to bookmark.
5. The Transportation - Like many other travellers here, I have had my moment of standing around for more than an hour on a street corner competing to catch a taxi with a dozen other people in the same situation. For me, this situation ended positively because it gave me the motivation to try using Beijing's Subway system and I was pleasantly surprised. As opposed to the stifling hot stations in Washington DC (my hometown), the station I used here was air conditioned, brand new and trains ran frequently. The signs were useful and in English and the fare was quite cheap (2 Yuan - about 35 cents) per journey. Taxis are cheap as well to go from one side of the city to another and the measures the government has taken to curb traffic (alternating days you can drive your car based on your number plate ending in an odd or even number) and essentially removing trucks from the roads has been helping to avoid gridlock. I suspect that the weeks of the Olympics may be the easiest time to travel in Beijing.

If there is another area of travel or the city that you have heard about and are interested in knowing more about, leave a comment here and I'll do my best to share some thoughts about it.

The Great #080808 Beijing Olympic Twitter Campaign Catches Fire

Anyone who has been to enough events with social media creators knows that it is inevitable that people will find a way to connect and find one another. To a degree, Twitter first caught on from this need a year and a half ago at SXSW in 2007. I have witnessed it over and over, through examples like attendees of four conferences finding one another to share an evening of Korean BBQ in NYC a few months ago, or finding someone to hang out with as you are travelling to a foreign city for business. Social media creators are not just creating content, they are becoming experts at connecting with one another.

So I wasn't surprised to see that the tag 080808 is catching on as a way for all of us in Beijing at the Olympics to find and connect with one another. Started by three Chinese bloggers (Flypig, Webleon and Babechloe) and described on http://tag080808.com/, this campaign is already bringing together not just everyone here in Beijing who is creating social media content, but is also becoming a brilliant way to follow all these live voices of the Games in a real time stream. As the Olympics kicks off tonight, this tag and the resulting conversations on Twitter will accelerate dramatically. For my part, I have already started tagging my content with this and will soon revise my Twitter icon to use the 080808 template created for the campaign (the image below is a compilation of current icons from a post about the campaign on Read Write Web).

In addition, I just sent out a Tweet about a blogger meetup that will be sponsored by Ogilvy and Lenovo where we can try to get some of the many diverse bloggers here in Beijing together for a drink and chat. If you happen to be here, send me a message at @rohitbhargava and let me know if you can make it to The Bookworm in downtown Beijing on Sunday, August 10th at 7pm. And even if you're not in Beijing, you'll want to start using this tag to find the best content and impressions from social media creators here at the Games. This is a case study in the making ...

Official Image from the Tag080808 Site:

Bin Laden And Unintended Brand Evolution

Bin Laden Stencil
Originally uploaded by Nathan Longfield

This may be a controversial post for some, but it is a topic I have been meaning to write about for some time. In fact, ever since I got an advance copy of an article by John Cook called "Branding Bin Laden" which was published in the April 2008 issue of Radar Magazine.  It is an insightful analysis introducing the idea that perhaps the real war the US is fighting (and losing) is a branding war instead of a physical one. In the piece, Cook points to the growing use of Bin Laden's image in the Arab world (and beyond) as a symbol of anti-American sentiment, but not necessarily terrorism. To a degree, it has moved beyond Bin Laden as a person or even what he represents. His symbol is becoming a brand, similar to how the face of Che Guevarra that can still be seen around the world (though ironically it is often in support of global brands and exactly the kind of capitalism he once fought). It's not the people agree with the politics, necessarily (though certainly many do). They are taking an image and assigning a different meaning to it. Brand Bin Laden, Cook argues, has started to stand for defiance of America in any form.

This reshaping of brands is not a new phenomenon in countries outside the US. When I was travelling through India, I found a rickshaw driver who was wearing a Washington Redskins jacket. Was it because he was a Redskins fan? Definitely not. I asked him and he had never seen an American football game. To him, the jacket was a symbol of America - akin to wearing an "I Love NY" shirt. The broader meaning of the Redskins was that they were something uniquely American and his wearing the jacket didn't indicate any support for the team, but rather a desire to associate with a brand that represents America. As Cook describes in his article:

"It may seem naive or offensive to describe a terrorist organization that has killed thousands of civilians on four continents as a brand. But just as Coca-Cola is both a sugary, brown liquid and something you'd "like to buy the world," Al Qaeda is at once a murderous gang of zealots and an increasingly potent symbol of resistance to US power."

The article goes on to reason that if the real war America is fighting is one of PR and branding, then perhaps the solution also needs to come from this world. There are relatively few pieces of journalism that can really make you think about the role and importance of branding in the broader context of the world. This is bigger than much of the internally focused ideas we are often guilty of focusing on (and what you may often find on this blog, I admit). For any marketer interested in how branding relates to our culture and the world, as well as how it may in fact be one of the most powerful forces shaping the world as we see it today, you need to read Cook's article.*

* The article is currently only available through Radar's archives, however I have requested from their PR team to repost the entire PDF here on my blog.

How To Get Your Event Marketing To Go Viral

Over the last several weeks I have found myself working on answers to the same question for both client work as well as some personal efforts around Personality Not Included. The question is a simple one that most marketers will deal with at some point in their career: how to get your product or service to stand out at an event that you are sponsoring or participating in? Despite the much exaggerated death of conferences and real life events at the hands of the virtual world and social networks, in most industries these events are still alive and well. In many cases, they offer the best opportunity to get your product or service in front of the right decision makers in an efficient and big way.

So how can you be sure you are getting the best value out of the events that you are participating in and even get your efforts to be talked about by conference attendees? Here are a few steps to consider:

1. Decide to sponsor or not to sponsor. The surest way to have a presence is to actually pay for a sponsorship. In most cases, having some kind of sponsorship is a good idea as it gives you a specific platform to build from and a guaranteed way in. This doesn't mean you can't engage in guerilla activities around it, but it makes it much less likely that you will be barred from the event or that your efforts will be shut down. The exception is if you are trying to market to an event where sponsorship is either unavailable, or far outside your price range.
2. Think around your sponsorship. Once you finalize a sponsorship, you will have a list of things that you get. This may mean "inclusion" in the brochure and on the website. It might also offer a table at the venue for the event. This list of elements is your starting point to brainstorm. If you are allowed 4 free passes, what could you do to give those away and generate interest? What can you do to go beyond just the few pieces you are offered and make your sponsorship work harder?
3. Distribute seeds instead of planting them. One of the keys to standing out at an event is not just reaching people individually and telling them what you do. That's the hard way to do it and you will be fighting an uphill battle to stand out among all the other brands doing the same thing. Instead, think of each person you interact with as someone who can carry the seed of your idea to someone else. Your goal isn't just to convince them, it's to give them some way, large or small to carry your message forward.
4. Follow up by networking. The classic mistake many marketers make when planning their event marketing strategy is simply thinking in terms of "staffing." The most successful event marketing you can do is building on your sponsorship by networking with event participants. Instead of just sending the 4 junior people to man the booths, think about sending a few people to roam and attend the event. Get to know the speakers and get others interested in what you do.

Taking my own advice, I decided to sponsor the MashMeet San Francisco event tonight (as well as the Mashmeet LA event on Friday). I have a table where I will be selling and signing copies of Personality Not Included (that's the sponsorship). The challenge for me was bringing the book more relevance to the Web 2.0 savvy crowd that will be at the party and breaking out of just having a single table that people may or may not visit. Any ideas on what I might do? Since it's meant to be a surprise, I'll share details on what I decided in a timed post later today (check back at 6pm PST, 9pm EST)!

Lenovo Extends The Olympic Experience With 100 Athlete Blogs

For any die-hard Olympic enthusiasts like me, you already know that today is a special day. It's exactly one month from the beginning of the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing (on 08/08/08) and media attention is already starting to turn towards these Games in a more frenzied way. For several months now, I have been part of the team here in Ogilvy's 360 Digital Influence group working on what I believe will be one of the most unique Olympic sponsorships of the coming games. Of course, I'm biased since I work on the campaign, but yesterday we started to spread the word about a new campaign that I have mentioned already once before on this blog.

The campaign is called The Voices of the Olympic Games and over the past several months we have recruited 100 athletes from more than 25 countries and more than 30 sports to all blog about their experiences leading up to the games. Our campaign strategy, in a sentence is:

Use Lenovo products to power athletes sharing their real experiences leading up to and during the Olympic Games directly with fans around the world.

There are several reasons why I'm really excited about this campaign. The most obvious is that as part of it, I will be heading to Beijing to offer a live voice - something I can't wait to do. More than that, however, the scale of this project and bringing this many real voices together from so many different cultures and sports is a much needed view of the Games that will be unique in its lack of melodrama.  None of our blog posts will be set to sappy overture-style music, and the stories we have are all an unfiltered view directly from the athletes that are competing. 

Along with our site aggregating all these voices at http://summergames.lenovo.com, we are also going to be using a live Twitter feed (@lenovo2008), Flickr, del.ici.ous, and there is a Facebook application created in partnership with Citizen Sports that has already topped 60,000 downloads. I'll be blogging lots more about the Olympics, but for now please check out our site and let me know what you think. We've got another month to put the finishing touches on it before Opening Ceremonies!

Campaign Mentions & Buzz (leave a comment if you'd like to be added to this list):

• Kevin Dugan: http://prblog.typepad.com/strategic_public_relation/2008/07/social-media-br.html
• Adrants: http://www.adrants.com/2008/07/ogilvy-er-lenovo-blogs-and-tweets.php
• MarketingVox: http://www.marketingvox.com/39699-039699/
• Kyle Flaherty: http://www.engageinpr.com/2008/07/08/olympics-and-social-media/

Inside Lenovo's Olympic Blogging Program

This past week in the string of posts about the book coming out, I've been stockpiling ideas for "real" blog posts and wanting to write about them more and more. Thankfully now that I launched the Personality Matters blog, I will post most of the updates about the book there and refocus on marketing strategy and insights here. I can't promise I won't share the occasional post about the book ... but I know that you're giving me your time to read this blog because you want marketing ideas and you want lots of them. So this post is about one I'm particularly excited about.

The Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence team recently finalized the details to take the lead on what I would have to call my dream project. Those who know me know that I am what you might call a full on Olympic enthusiast. I went to college in Atlanta and was there for the 1996 Olympics. I moved to Sydney in 1998 and lived there during the Sydney Olympics, and my first son was born right in the middle of the Athens Olympics (during the women's marathon, ironically). So I've been there and seen it, and more importantly, I think it is a world stage that nothing else even comes close to.

Which brings me to this very ambitious project that we are helping Lenovo with. David Churbuck, our main client, posted about the idea behind the project on his blog and it is a brilliant summary of a big vision that Lenovo and David himself has for this project. Here it is in a nutshell:

The Problem: Media coverage of the Olympics has become about melodrama that is broadcasted as "real" stories. But those producers only choose the athletes who have overcome quadruple knee surgery and the lack of a college degree to become a world champion ... in other words, the extreme stories.

The Insight: What about the real athletes who spend every day training and working hard just to get to the Olympics whether they have a shot of winning or not?  Their voices could be the most powerful and this Olympics more than any other promises to offer the chance for them to do that.

The Project: We are seeking 100 potential Olympic athletes from around the world to all start and maintain a blog all about their experience leading up to and during the Games. In return, Lenovo is offering all participants the chance to use a new IdeaPad laptop for their blogging and help from our team to set up and maintain their blogs. 

This is a big project on a scale that is completely global, multi-lingual and very ambitious. Lenovo, to their credit, are not content to sit back with their sponsorship of the Olympic Torch Relay and Olympic Village (already considerable efforts) and call it a job well done.  If this is the year for Olympics 2.0, this program should be one of the best examples of it. Our main goal right now is finding Olympic athletes, so if you know any (or you happen to be one), please get in touch with myself rohit [dot] bhargava [at] ogilvypr.com or David.