Earlier this week, the USPS created an engaging tool on their site called the "Virtual Box Simulator." It is relatively simple to use - you print out an icon and when you visit their site and launch their tool, the icon is recognized through your webcam and what seems like a holographic version of a shipping box appears. Since the webcam is pointed at you, the box appears in your hands as you hold the piece of paper, and lets you move it around in any direction as if it were real.
Several months ago, a similarly engaging effort was launched by GE to promote their wind powered energy solutions. That site allowed you to also hold up a piece of paper to unlock a virtual simulation of their wind power and interact with it. What both of these efforts point to is the potential rise of HoloCam Marketing, a new form of interactive marketing using the ubiquitous webcam and a clever piece of programming to create the appearance of a three dimensional hologram that you can interact with.
DEFINITION -HoloCam Marketing could be defined as the process of using a webcam, programming and a printed image together to create the impression of a hologram on a user's computer screen.
What makes this new form of marketing work so well?
It is inherently talkable. Once you experience this, you can't help but share it with someone else. It is like finding a hidden component in your computer that you never knew about.
It uses technology you already have. With a regular computer with a short install and a webcam, anyone can see this image. There is no big technical barrier, which takes it out of the "geek" realm and into the world of real people.
It is experiential. Rather than relaying a message through printed words or even just imagery, this technique lets you actually see and experience something, which brings the message to life.
It peaks your curiosity. To some degree, you may get a user likely to do this simply to see what kind of holographic interactivity is hidden behind the printed page that you ask them to print out. It is a mystery and we can't help but solve it.
One sunny afternoon just over ten years ago, I was backpacking through Ireland and met a fellow traveller on the steps of one of the bridges that cross the River Liffey. We had both just graduated from college a few weeks earlier and spoke for hours about life after college. Then we exchanged addresses and parted ways - never likely to meet or speak again.
Thanks to social networking, lost friendships like this may be a thing of the past. When you connect with someone today, you may very well be connected with them for life (unless you choose not to be, of course). The same goes for content that you post online, and even your relationship with a brand or product that you buy. This is not about short term or long term. This is about forever. Several weeks ago I wrote a post about the Forever stamp and what the US Postal Service can teach us about marketing longevity.
This month, forever is vastly expanded and explored as the topic of a great trend report from one of my favorite sources of information online - Trendwatching.com. In this month's report, their consistently smart research team identifies the trend of "foreverism" and defines it as "the many ways that consumers and businesses are embracing conversations, relationships, and products that are never done."
Here are just a few of the ideas I took from the report:
Forever Findable. Referring to the concept of always being able to connect with someone or something online, I found this to be an interesting way of summing up the fact that with the Internet, there is no knowledge that is out of reach. This findability has broad implications for our future relationships, learning, and even history itself.
Twitter As The Last Straw. Despite having the technology for many years now, it is only with the rise of Twitter that big brands have begun to really jump into using these tools as a core part of their marketing activity. With the recent announcement from Twitter that they will start to verify accounts, this may lead to even more brands using the tool to connect more directly and consistently with customers.
Campaign Forever. Many businesses promote their wares through a series of campaigns. One starts just as another finishes. There are some, however, which may have enough power and popularity to remain for as long as you can afford to keep them. Crackerjacks has had a free prize inside for nearly 100 years. The point the Trendwatching report makes is that in your business it pays to start thinking less in terms of just campaigns and more about which short term messages your customers may want to see for much longer.
There are generally three kinds of ideas. The most popular two are the ones that you act on right away and those that you never do anything about. Those are the majority. Most of us love the third kind. Those are the ideas that are too big or complex or important to do quickly, but that you simply cannot let die because of how you feel about them. Today I finally launched that kind of idea. Since Personality Not Included came out about a year ago - I have been getting emails from people sharing their experience with the book and how they felt about it's main premise that businesses (like people) need to have a strong and authentic personality.
Soon after the book launched, I noticed that many of these emails were coming from women working in professional roles and those that had started their own businesses. These female entrepreneurs were responding to the message of personality in a way that I didn't expect. So since that moment I started thinking about bringing those voices together. Of course, part of the reason would be to promote my book ... but like most authors the important thing for me was for my idea to find a home and actually help people change their careers or make their business more successful.
So today, you can download a free ebook called "The Personality Project: Women of Personality." It is an extension of a site that I launched some time ago with a similar mission - to get visionary people in many industries to talk about why personality matters. This ebook features 20 business women that I respect and admire who each agreed to share their story as part of the ebook. These include founders and CEOs, best selling authors, popular bloggers and online personalities and even the first woman to ever row solo across the Atlantic Ocean (and she's now making her way across the Pacific).
See the ebook embedded below and click on it to download a free PDF copy:
Once you get a chance to read it, please visit each of the contributors sites and blogs, buy their books and support their efforts. The best thing you can do is to validate their ideas and use their examples to improve your own business and your career. And then let them know they made a difference.
PS - If you mention this ebook on your blog or twitter or facebook or anywhere else online, use the tag #wop (on Twitter) or "WOP" (anywhere else) as this is the one that all the contributors will be watching and responding to.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
Tired of 2009 predictions yet? I've had no less than a dozen requests to contribute to compilations of predictions for the next year and have participated in a few. So, clearly I'm part of the problem if you're up to your ears in predictions from bloggers about what the next year will hold. Sometimes in the frenzy for all of us to put together our own predictions, we can lose sight of the fact that there are people who's entire jobs it is to pay attention to the trends happening around us and to put them in context. There are several sites devoted to this, and PSFK (one of my favourites) just released a book well worth picking up.
Your first reaction will probably include sticker shock (the softcover version is $50) - but once you delve into the ideas there, you'll likely consider it a bargain when priced against much longer reports from industry analysts about what trends to pay attention to in the future. Not only will the 9 "good ideas" shared in the book get you thinking, but you'll also get introduced to lots of sites you've never even heard of, including:
Just about the only complaint I had about the preview copy that the good folks at PSFK sent over was that the printing execution done through Blurb clearly must have driven their art directors crazy as it cut off words and images in several places and lacked the sort of high quality design experience overall that anyone familiar with PSFK will have come to expect. Still, despite the print version shortcomings, the ideas in this book will inspire your thinking into the new year in a way that no blog posts (no matter how well written) will do. For that alone, it's worth a look.
It started with a simple email from Peter. An invitation to contribute some thoughts to a collaborative blog post talking about the future. It's a good topic on this 15th day of the last month of the year, a mere two weeks until we welcome 2009. Which may explain why when Peter Kim from Forrester Research sent his email, 13 other highly popular bloggers and (dare I say) social media "personalities" took him up on his offer and each contributed a some thoughts to a single collaborative post.
Thankfully, you won't have to wait until 2009 to see all those thoughts - just a few minutes ago, Peter published the full post on his blog and you can download the PDF as well. Now I'm keenly aware that much of the social media world is collaborative back scratching (or "blog scratching" as some bloggers call it - but this is where the beauty of numbers comes in. Me publishing my own post on my thoughts for 2009 would be a much more self indulgent effort ... though, of course, that has certainly not stopped me in the past.
But as the list of contributors in Peter's post should prove, if you can get enough smart people together to talk about the same issue, you're bound to end up with more useful ideas and thinking. So download the PDF or visit any of the contributing blogger's sites and introduce yourself to their content and ideas. I'll bet you find at least one thought that helps you plan for 2009 amongst these contributions.
A recently released book that I contributed to asked the question with it's subtitle, "why don't they get it?" It's a fitting question today, as brands are often divided into those that understand the power of conversation and those that don't. Slowly, however, brands are adding their names to the ranks of those that get it. Dell and Comcast are often being praised as two shining examples due to their willingness to have a conversation with customers and actively use of social media tools.
There is one fact, however, that is often forgot. Both of those brands first entered into using social media out of necessity. More importantly, they started after major brand controversies. Dell had to reinvent their reputation after Dell Hell, and Comcast had to combat the incredibly damaging Technician Sleeping On The Couch video. Similar to the natural phenomenon of some forests needing fire so they can properly burn and new seeds can be released, evolving brand communications seems sometimes to adhere to a similar pattern.
Here are a few reasons why having a brand controversy may be your company's best hope to reinvent itself and start to embrace social media tools that initially seem new and scary:
Forces you to listen fast. Relying on daily or weekly media clips is no longer fast enough in a crisis. This means your team will need to start adopting social media tools to listen faster out of necessity. This skill will remain in the team, causing them to more actively monitor social media in the future.
Understand the real power of individual voices. Before seeing a crisis start from a single blogger or an errant tweet, it is difficult to describe the real power that a seemingly small time content creator can have. After a crisis breaks, it becomes easy to explain this point.
Demonstrate to managers why social media matters. This may be one of the biggest struggles marketers face, namely convincing their bosses that social media matters enough to dedicate time and budget to it. Having a crisis and using as well as showing the power of the tools offers a tangible example of why it is worth resourcing and budgeting.
Identify key influencers. Often in a crisis, the key influencers in a particular category that have the power to influence thousands if not hundreds of thousands will emerge. If marketers are paying attention, they can start to understand where the pockets of influence really are, and how to influence them.
As I write this post, there is another brand that is rapidly confronting its own brand crisis. Motrin released an ad that was immediately denounced by mom bloggers and social media types as offensive. The controversy really started through public reaction on social media and is now growing beyond those confines. I believe that this may well be the greatest opportunity ever to face the marketing team for Motrin. They now have the ear of everyone in their organization and the chance to do what few Over-the-Counter medications would ever have dared to do otherwise ... embrace using social media. The #motrinmoms controversy is a huge chance for the brand to reinvent its communications. The only question is whether they will take advantage of it or not.
Last week I had the fortune to be part of an event that we should all care about. It was a meeting of the National Arts Marketing Project, a conference sponsored by the Americans for the Arts and designed to help art based organizations around the country use marketing to drive more engagement, subscriptions, and attendance with patrons (a much better word than consumer, by the way). To understand the vibe of the event you need to look no further than a colllection of titles from some of the sessions put on during the three day conference:
Are You An Urbanite? Attracting Young Ticket Buyers and Donors
Hacking Copyright: Making "Free" Work In The Arts
She Says Pithy, I Say Prissy. Let's Call The Whole Thing Off: How Marketing And Development Can Sing In Harmony
I Can't Do That! How To Make The Big Ask For A Major Gift
Release Your Organization's Inner Blogger
Strategies For Countering The Reasons Patrons Resist Subscribing
My own session was called "Embracing Your Accidental Spokespeople: How Obama Let His Best Supporters Speak For Him, And Why You Should Too" and in the roundtable format, we talked about how to find the voices that are passionate about what you do, and unlocking them to share their experiences more widely online and through social media. Over the course of two round table discussions, I learned a lot about the unique challenges that many arts based organizations are facing, as well as discussed several engaging ideas for solutions. Here are a few of the creative solutions that we all came together and discussed as a group about how social media and interactive marketing techniques might help arts based organizations to better promote themselves:
Create a sonic brand. Though more specific to groups that create or promote music, one idea that we collectively talked about was what it might be like if every venue or group had a sonic brand. So, for example, like you might hear the Intel jingle at the end of an ad, you would hear a signature piece of music to signal the end of intermission. Something that offers a recognizable brand for a music based organization, while offering an apt extension of a brand based on something that is inherently a part of it.
Offer creative material openly for mashups. As more and more people create content online, they will need material like music, still images, and video clips to incorporate. One of the marketing tactics I am fond of at istockphoto.com (a site I use all the time to purchase images to use in my posts and presentations) is having an image for free download each day. What if an arts organization created their own collection of content and offered it for free reuse, dependent on giving credit back to the organization? It could be a great way to spread some brand awareness, as well as offer something viral and useful to content creators.
Invite social capital donations. Many people using social media tools are supporters of the arts, but not necessarily donors or people to go to art events. Though it may be difficult to convince them to open their wallets, it may be much more acceptable to have them donate their influence. One brilliant example was a campaign run across both parties during the recent election where you could "donate your Facebook status" to remind people to vote for your guy on election day. It's an example of letting people donate their social capital instead of real money.
Allow patrons to share their experience. This topic raised some concerns among the group for a variety of reasons. The two most vocal were that sometimes performers have union contracts that prevent any recording, and that sometimes the artists are afraid of negative criticism that may come with letting their work be freely shared. Still, there are other ways to let people share their experiences - perhaps through live Twittering, or making a cast available after a performance for flipcam interviews with video bloggers. The point is that every arts group needs to find a way of helping word of mouth about what they are doing to travel.
Regardless of how you feel about the way that the US presidential election turned out, there is one fact that seems fairly indisputable ... the world outside of America overwhelmingly supported Obama over McCain. One site in particular that crystallized this truth is called www.iftheworldcouldvote.com. The site invites people outside of the US to share their choice for president and nearly 1 million people from 213 countries shared their votes with the results about 87% in favor of Obama. Add this to the dozens of groups (many with thousands of members each) on Facebook all supporting Obama and you could point to a definitive pattern of support from outside the US for Obama.
So now that he has won the election, what is this likely to mean? Hopes were high even before the results of the election about the potential impact on America's reputation that Obama's election could have. Some media outlets are already reporting about widespread optimism and goodwill towards America that has not been seen since the days directly after 911. In my own network of friends and colleagues living outside the US, there is one interesting development in particular that I think may shape this country in the next few months and years to come. Many people with ties to the US (or longstanding dreams of living here) who are currently living abroad are now actively considering moving back.
Of course, the economic climate means that they're not yet moving back in big hoardes, but as I speak to more and more of my international friends ... the common theme on many of their minds is that they are now seriously thinking of returning - and it is directly related to the results of the election. Is this big enough to warrant a trend or just a few early thoughts from a small circle of people? I get the sense it may turn into a trend, but I'm willing to admit that my network may not represent the situation in the real world. What do you think - is America more appealing today to those who left, and will they start to come back?
The rise of Web2.0 success stories has created an interesting phenomenon in the world of business. Today, far more than 5 years ago, you could easily point to a list of entrepreneurs who have built successful businesses without having a graduate business degree. The same MBA degree that was once considered the "green fees" to success in the business world seems to be rapidly becoming an optional asset on the road to success. The tradition of taking time off of work to complete a degree, for example, is rapidly giving way to more hybrid options such as part-time programs and Executive MBAs (targeted at professionals later in their careers).
You could easily argue that perhaps this effect so far has been contained to the world of the web and perhaps even mostly in the technology sector, and that fields like investment banking or executive management are as focused on candidates with MBAs as they ever were. Still, the question that has been on my mind for several months now is whether we are seeing a shift where some of the core benefits and skills that people expect to recieve from an MBA are now readily available through social media. In particular, I'm thinking of four areas:
Collaboration. Learning how to work in groups and with others in a team has long been a hallmark of the format of most MBA programs. Today with BarCamp style events like StartUp weekend, crowdsourcing sites, and blogs there are plenty of opportunities to virtually collaborate with others to solve problems. For those taking advantage, they may be learning a very similar skill to what they may get from a business program.
Network. Long heralded as one of the major benefits of doing an MBA, the network of your fellow graduates would be sure to help you in your future career - perhaps to get your next job, or at least to close new deals and be more successful in your current job. Now my social graph is on networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Every day I get a dozen or more new invitations to connect with people and this graph is rapidly expanding. If I needed help finding a new job or identifying a vendor, I would first turn to this network.
Education. Of course, let's not forget the most important reason (in theory) to get an MBA ... to get better educated about the world of business and to increase your success in your career. Again, there are thousands of business professionals who are often some of the best minds in their fields, blogging or sharing stories of their success and what you can learn from them. Simply focusing your attention on reading (or listening or watching) these, and combining it with an initiative to learn from those experiences and put them to work in your career could be the most educational thing you can do.
Money. The last point here is often the most important for those considering an MBA: that they can make more money. While this is certainly true in terms of starting salary in a managerial position out of school, I wonder if the numbers are skewed by the fact that it is often the most ambitious people in business who are pursuing an MBA. Of course, they are the ones that achieve the fastest salary growth, but is it due to their MBA or the fact that they were inherently ambitious? I realize that this question may depend heavily on the industry within which you work as well.
Personally, I did get a BBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory in Atlanta - and I feel that experience was well worth it. But my question is whether social media today may be replacing some of the traditionally perceived benefits of doing an MBA? And if so, I believe what it means is that the best MBA programs will need to continue to innovate and offer candidates more than they can already get for free through social media and the Internet.
Rohit works at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, part of WPP - a world leader in advertising and marketing services. The views expressed on this blog are his personal opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or its clients.
