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Transforming Pixels to Gold

Spending too much time looking at screens, a good digital strategy could be about getting everyone some fresh air. And there's some truth in that - because there's nothing appealing about the decomposition process that begins with long hours glued to a chair orchestrating some devious marketing plan to deceive a potential tribe of money throwing masses?

No?

David Wall - Friday, December 11, 2009

Yes

What's the exercise here? To write a short email with one purpose in mind: to introduce people to have conversations about subjects that just keep cropping up in this blog, rather slipping consistently through the cracks... (I gave myself 10 minutes)

Conversations about what?

What happens when how we normally do things and long-held beliefs no longer stands in an open market? What happens when traditional advertising no longer works? What's the alternative? When traditional business models can't be justified and are no longer effective in the market - what happens? Where is this all going?

The context

A general pessimism is even more apparent now than ever before with things like corporate-speak, political "promises" and traditional advertising veneers that say nothing really about what a business is really like. Not only economically but socially we are subject to trends in the "open market". The market is also subject to our attitudes and opinions because they influence how we chose to spend.  

So the market is always adapting - the speed of this adaption is also subject to our beliefs and  traditions. AND, although a lot of things appear to go on as they always have - things are changing dramatically beneath our feet. Again - what is happening and where is this all going?

Here goes (the revised version)...

Email subject: No subject

I don't want to challenge you to look at things differently. Why confront what we're grown to believe by exchanging ideas? Who cares if how our present situation affects lagging concepts from our past? These things just get in the way:

  • social media
  • the availability of information on the internet
  • a general pessimism of commercial-speak and traditional marketing
  • we can fill in the blanks....

It's all conclusive, no arguments, no variety of opinions and there's no clearing of the air needed. 

This is not for you?

Because ideas should fester, disappear and aggravate us like sharp stones trapped in our shoes... 

Do we need a catalyst  for change to occur? Why exchange of ideas with no particular agenda? 

Tell me
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Social Media Marketing - an Economy of Experience?

David Wall - Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Take the "media" out of social media and you're left with the word "social". It's easy to be tangled in metrics about what makes social media successful and overlook that simple point. Facebook and the like suit our present communication needs, so we use it. It works because connecting with people through social media is easy in a time starved and an otherwise disconnected daily existence.

How many of us find emailing someone next to us at work far easier (and quicker) than starting a conversation? It's often much simpler to say happy birthday to a close friend on a social network than sending a (paper) card - great for trees but not so good if you're trying to sell birthday cards…

Have a look at the huge growth rate of social media over the past few years - it takes about 10 seconds to watch the little blue dot representing Facebook.com bubble up and eclipse everything else in its path between 2006-2009. We'd expect a similar trend if the Interaction Consortium did a worldwide piece. The US, for example has internet users checking Facebook every 37 minutes, they post to Flickr 5 times a day, watch YouTube for 2.5 hrs a day and update Twitter every 3 hours… according to Razorfish.

But stats and technology aside, we're still in the realm of social significance. Whether a brand communicates outside or within social media, we need to question: does it provide value or hold any significance in our social exchanges? In other words, will anyone talk about it? Would anyone really care?

A Razorfish survey puts it bluntly: "Consumers don't want conversation with brands - they want deals". We can just as easily say "…they want value". And it's easy to offer value in terms of deals - a discount / a "free coke and fries…" but when a product offers value just with an association to its brand - that's an exchange we're more than willing to pay for.

Speeding down this technological highway we're leaving commodities and services for experiences posts Laurel Papworth. Deals are great but in an "Experiential Economy" they're only as good as the experience we want out of them. Who would go for a 50% or even a 99% discount from a product that has 0% value to us? An experience that no one wants, even for free would have next to no takers (apart from a few freebie hunters).

"The best job in the world" is a prime example of the value of experience. The experience of typing on a keyboard is just that much better from a tropical beach bungalow than a crammed office - even with walls decorated with snow peaked mountains, climbers scaling cliffs, sail boats etc. above words like "leadership", "direction", "motivation" and "Freedom"…

The point is "real" experiences are what makes social waves. If the service or product offered are the best vehicles to these, they'll be big waves!

And the experiences don't even need to be direct - most of the time they're not. It's even easier for a brand to offer experience by association. Like the teenage boy branding himself with his favorite band, absorbing more of the lifestyle and experiences the band promotes the more paraphernalia he buys.

Hear more at Sydney Social Media Marketing 2010 Bootcamp - The Era of Marketing
Learn more from Laurel Papworth,Tourism Queensland Marketing Manager, Robyn Quinn (The best job in the world campaign) and other industry leaders at Sydney Social Media Marketing 2010 Bootcamp – The Era of Marketing

And talking about deals deals deals…
All friends of Photolibrary can take advantage of this special offer: Delegates will be entitled to a 15% DISCOUNT... we all love a good deal!

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Do ads even need to make sense anymore?

David Wall - Wednesday, December 09, 2009
I don't think they do. Perhaps the more sense they make, the less potential disruption to what's expected occurs - rendering them less noticeable? I'm not actually that moved by the whole disruption strategy of traditional advertising but a disruption to normality - that's artistic. And lets face it advertising has always been tailing art (just to be controversial).

This is not art (by no means...or maybe), not anything grand and it probably makes some sense if you think about it. The great thing though is the idea came to me on the train this morning and with the help of a trusty ex-post production wiz Agus, in no time we whacked up something I'd much rather watch than a commercial...

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