Reality mining

Here is yet another piece of technology that listens in to its surrounding environment to produce “minute-by-minute, fine-grained data on whether you are talking, whom you prefer to talk with, what your tone is, and if you interrupt” which can be used to improve your communication skills and change your tactics, including those that lead to unproductive workplace dynamics... It could be an interesting training /diagnostic tool for corporates - but i question weather it would really lead people to change the way they are?

You May Soon Know if You’re Hogging the Discussion

PEOPLE who want to improve their communication skills may one day have an unusual helper: software programs that analyze the tone, turn-taking behavior and other qualities of a conversation. The programs would then tell the speakers whether they tend to interrupt others, for example, or whether they dominate meetings with monologues, or appear inattentive when others are talking.

The inventor of this technology is Alex Pentland of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who has developed cellphone-like gadgets to listen to people as they chat, and computer programs that sift through these conversational cadences, studying communication signals that lie beneath the words.

If commercialized, such tools could help users better handle many subtleties of face-to-face and group interactions — or at least stop hogging the show at committee meetings.

Thanks to NY Times. The full article can be read here.

Some thoughts on the 'integrated ad agency vs specalist digital shop' arguement

This question keeps coming up again and again and I don’t think it will ever be definitively answered… or more to the point, I’m doubting the point of asking it.

I’ve worked on both sides of the agency divide (specialist digital shop and integrated ad agency), and have to say that both models are equally capable of delivering involving, integrated and entertaining communications platforms, as they are of churning out streams of non-engaging garbage.

What it comes down to is the people. Just as we talk to our clients about enhancing demographic/media spreadsheet-based views of customers with more human understanding and interaction (via technology), shouldn’t we also realise that the ‘agencographic’ approach is never going to provide the answer?

For me it’s all about finding people who understand the space and can grasp the big picture vision of “why we’re doing this” (they could be agency or client side), and have them lead the work on the overall plan of platforms, channels, inputs, outputs, metrics, etc. Once this is in place it’s just about accessing what capabilities you currently have (current agencies, internal tech, etc), how you get the ones you don’t (specialist shops, outsource, etc) and getting good planning, production and data people to pull the bits together and keep it on track. Who cares if they’re at a specialist shop, an ad agency, or internal?

As the space expands and becomes more human in every possible way, I think to be successful we’re going to have to spend more time on the humans we work with to ensure we’re all acting like the same ‘brand person’.

If I was a client, I wouldn’t ask what ‘sort’ of agency I had (until it came to how my execution/production $ was going to be spent), I’d be asking to see people with understanding and passion for the space who can play really well with anyone else, including me.

Follow the path of the unsafe

Here's some inspiration and a relevant quote for our times, for those thinking about the future, about where to invest their energy and time in the coming months ahead:

"Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of crackpot than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you, stand up and be counted at any cost."

Thomas J Watson

Thanks FurtureLab. Original Post: http://scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/follow-the-path-of-the-unsafe.html

Newsflash! Marketers Want Knowledgeable Agencies!

Although somewhat obvious and nothing unpredictable, its good to be reminded of the basics. Here is a top ten list for agencies of the future thanks to Sapient and AdRants, including some sarcastic commentary from our friends at Adrants:

1. Greater knowledge of the digital space. (Seriously? That's a stunner!)
2. More use of "pull interactions." (Oh yes they did. They created a new buzzword for social media)
3. Leverage virtual communities. (Apparently, none of the surveyed CMO lived through the Second Life debacle)
4. Agency executives using the technology they are recommending. (It would certainly be nice but, in most cases, it's never gonna happen. By definition, most senior management is disconnected from reality.)
5. Chief Digital Officers make agencies more appealing. (CDO? Seriously? Did they just create yet another CxO title?)
6. Web 2.0 and social media savvy. (See number five.)
7. Agencies that understand consumer behavior. (Um, yea. Like this is a new one. Not that all agencies deliver on this but this is supposed to be some new quality for agencies of the future?)
8. Demonstrate strategic thinking. ( A survey was needed to determine this finding?)
9. Branding and creative capabilities. (See number eight.)
10. Ability to measure success. (Well, duh! Of course, it's well known most agencies do not deliver will on this one.)

For the full article:
http://www.adrants.com/2008/09/newsflash-marketers-want-knowledgeable.php

Employees can be brand builders too!

Thanks to Pete Blackshaw and AdAge - this is an interesting article about motivating employees as brand/company ambassadors. Some great thoughts for BMF and their clients... I wonder what a BMF culture book would entail?

Zappos Shows How Employees Can Be Brand-Builders
Is This 'Overlooked Resource' as Important as Paid Ads?

Every year Zappos.com, one of the fastest-growing e-commerce sites, publishes a "culture book." Three hundred pages in length, the book includes written -- and often gushy -- testimonials from employees about what it means to work at Zappos.com.

"Our Zappos culture is truly the best work experience I have ever encountered," writes Chris V. "As a new employee of the company, I was blown away by how amazing the company really was. When I started I felt so unreal," notes David J. And on and on and on -- you get the idea.

Not by accident
If you talk to Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh or his marketing chief Brian Kalma, you'll find a plan and a strategy, not to mention powerful, validating numbers to boot behind all this group love. Indeed, the vast majority of trial and repeat at Zappos.com is driven by word of mouth, and employees -- their motivation, their attentiveness to customers, their handling of feedback -- are foundational to that approach.

Mr. Kalma, director of creative services and brand marketing, employs the term "people planning," arguing that each employee needs to be a great point of contact with customers. "We invest the time and money into hiring and nurturing the right people, as many other companies do in their media planning," he said.

It's worth asking, Are employees a de facto ad channel? It might be a crude way to frame the question, but if in fact there's a tangible, measurable relationship between employee behavior and buzz, we can't ignore that free, high-impact employee-generated media -- EGM, if you will -- affects the broader media mix.

Hidden power
"I do think that a well-trained, highly motivated workforce that understands the brand, their role in making it successful and who feels empowered to do just that, is any company's most powerful and most underutilized asset," says Rick Murray, CEO of Edelman Digital and board member of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).

Leslie Forde of Communispace, a firm that builds and manages online communities for brands, emphatically agrees, noting that employees are the "overlooked resource." She asks, "How many times have we extended forgiveness or patience to a brand that 'messes up' in a customer service interaction, because the individual employee that we've dealt with is impressive and professional?"

If Murray and Forde -- and countless others -- are right, shouldn't all of us in marketing be dialing this up in importance? Of course, getting this right is easier said than done. You can't just increase employee loyalty and advocacy overnight the way you can with media spend, and not everyone will want to go the full distance of Zappos.com.

To be sure, this is a long-term proposition. "ROI metrics for employee loyalty and education are more complex and require a long-term view," warns Forde. Moreover, employee training isn't necessarily within the scope of the CMO, and the HR department isn't necessarily incentivized to think about employees as brand-building billboards.

Then we have the risk factors. One downside of the employee-as-relationship-builder model, notes professor Tim Heath of Miami University in Ohio, "is employees leaving the company and taking 'their' customers with them, a threat that can be mitigated to some degree with non-compete clauses in contracts."

Worth a try
It's a reasonable concern, but hardly a good excuse to sit idle. Indeed, there's a growing list of excellent reasons why we can start connecting dots to at least establish a beachhead to a new model:

Measurements: Let there be no doubt, but today we can quantify the conversation in such a way that we can pinpoint specific "talk drivers" around all aspects of employee behavior. Thanks to consumer-generated media analysis, we can now determine with high statistical significance why employee behavior at, say, Burger King or Taco Bell creates positive or negative conversation. We can even assign "reach" value to the conversation. We can determine just about every nuance related to customer service, which in the vast majority of cases implicated (or rewards) employee training or behavior. Smart listening always sets the foundation for better business processes.

Social-Media Experiments: Social-media tools provide brands with a broader spectrum of "test and measure" tools to pinpoint opportunities to better understand the impact of employee loyalty and advocacy. These tools also provide powerful windows into the character and personality of the employees. Just think about Frank Eliason and Richard Binhammer, the guys who Twitter for Comcast and Dell, respectively. (Disclosure: Comcast is a client.) There's a spirit and enthusiasm in their posts and commentary that reflects both their character and their employee advocacy. Corporate blogs are bringing the same opportunity and value to the table.

Online Video: The rock we've yet to truly uncover around online video is how it can enable brands to bring the character and authenticity of employees to the forefront. The "sight, sound and motion" benefits of employees talking across the video airwaves may well open up a powerful range of opportunities for companies to reap the full benefits of employee advocacy. Just think about Microsoft's four-year-old experiment with Channel9, the video-based employee blog. High authenticity, high impact.

The "New" Customer Service: As Zappos.com would readily tell us, the customer-service channel is perhaps the most critical brand-building arena, and employees are clearly central to this area. Brands should be conducting large and small experiments in this area to understand how a little extra "touch" can impact the game. Social-media tools can clearly help get brands started, but the learning might also start with the good old-fashioned phone scripts.

Rewards and Incentives: If the conversation is so measurable, and the outcomes of employee advocacy are more tangible, perhaps now is the time to create more data-grounded incentive and reward models. If, for example, only buzz directly calls out an exceptional contribution by an employee, perhaps this should be rewarded. Online consumers constantly call out Southwest or Nordstrom employees for going the extra distance. If it's measurable, it's rewardable, right?

I'm not suggesting that every company adopt the Zappos.com culture book. But if conversation is the new gold standard, and employees are consistently at the heart of the conversation, we have a big compelling reason -- and tons of upside -- in rethinking the importance of employee advocacy.

Full article at: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=130646#correct

AdAge's Digital A list for 2008

Digital A-List 2008: No.1, Unilever

Digital Marketer of the Year Scores by Making Web Tactics Part of Its Mainstream Marketing Plans

Here's the funny thing about Unilever being Digital Marketer of the Year: It doesn't really do digital campaigns.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 2, AKQA

Ad Age's Digital Agency of the Year Is Actually in the Business of Product Innovation

Fourteen years after it started as a boutique in London, AKQA has become a global powerhouse. In 2007, the San Francisco-based agency reached nearly 700 employees; revenue was up about 40% to $99 million; and new-client wins included Kraft Foods, Unilever, Cadbury Schweppes and Motorola, adding to a roster that already included Nike, Visa, McDonald's Corp., Microsoft Corp. and Coca-Cola Co.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 3, Google

Search Giant Strikes Deal With Publicis, and Doesn't Lose Share Upgrading Rivals

Convincing ad agencies that it was friend, not foe, was imperative for Google if it wanted to start snagging the big-brand budgets major agencies control, and the barely 10-year-old company was effective enough in that campaign that it struck a deal with Publicis Groupe to share ideas, co-develop products and exchange employees.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 4, NYTimes.com

Ending an Unpopular Experiment to Capture Circ Revenue Has Paid Off

When The New York Times' website demolished the pay walls that had separated its columns and other premium content from the freeloading hoi polloi, it sealed a spot on the Digital A-List.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 5, Apple's iPhone

Changed Consumers' Perception of the Mobile Phone

No doubt Apple's sleek touch-screen iPhone is changing the look and feel of mobile phones. But more important, Apple CEO Steve Jobs has given mobile marketing a major boost with his iPhone.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 6, Digitas

Agency's Acquisition by Publicis Has Helped Shop Think Big Picture

Digitas continues to move beyond its roots as a direct-marketing agency to becoming a strong full-service digital partner that engages marketers building brands and businesses.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 7, J&J's BabyCenter

E-commerce Site Is Dominating Digital Mommyhood

Johnson & Johnson's BabyCenter is aiming for global domination and to follow moms beyond the confines of its website.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 8, Baidu

The 'Google of China' Is Moving Past Text-Based Search to Video, IM

Baidu.com is known as the "Google of China," the world's second-largest online market. Baidu has a dominant 62% share of China's search-engine market, according to China IntelliConsulting Corp. Google is the No. 2 player, with a 22.7% share, followed by Yahoo at 10.8%.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 9, ESPN

Its First-Round Knockdown at the Hands of Mobile Led to a Surprising Comeback

Keeping ahead of the game has been ESPN's signature play through the evolution of media, from its traditional TV base to print to its newer digital efforts.

Digital A-List 2008: No. 10, 'Cloverfield'

A Chancy Experiment Created an Immersive Online Marketing Experience

The J.J. Abrams-produced horror movie "Cloverfield" played hard to get through the late summer and fall of 2007. A mysterious online movement was a key ingredient in the run-up to the movie.

Digital A-List 2008: Next in Line

From Rising Star Tribal DDb to ... 'Whopper Freakout'?

In the end, we chose 10. But there was plenty of debate over who should make this year's A-List. Maybe it's no surprise that a burgeoning global power like Tribal DDB would come close, but a purveyor of flame-broiled burgers? These players' remarkable forays in the digital realm show new media's not just for tech companies.

Digital A-List 2008 Executive of the Year: Brian McAndrews

As Microsoft's Ad-Solutions VP, He Is Helping Map the Giant's Online Future

While many industry watchers have proclaimed the wisdom of Microsoft's Brian McAndrews, it's less his willingness to tackle the unproven path ahead and more the foresight in his past at aQuantive -- and that whopping exit strategy -- that makes him Ad Age's Digital Executive of the Year.

Web building made easy!

The agency web design tool dashboard!

How to create a culture of high performance

Thanks to Rob for finding this article from Accenture. Some thoughts include:

1. Maintaining the right balance between market-making and disciplined execution

2. Obsessively identifying and multiplying talent

3. Using a selective scorecard to measure business performance

4. Recognising technology as a strategic asset

5. Emphasizing continuous renewal

For the full article visit:

http://www.accenture.com/NR/rdonlyres/3F0FC8D5-0029-4AA9-A0B3-5F5508F97ECE/0/OutlookPDF_Jan07_Leadership_02.pdf

5 ways to ruin your industry reputation

Sean Cheyney from iMedia Connection discusses the top 5 ways to flush your industry reputation down the toilet:

1. Bash your competition regularly
2. Consistently over-promise and under-deliver
3. Be sneaky
4. Be a stalker
5. Too much information

Visit http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19697.asp for the full article.

Mini iPhone Projector - genius!

By Dan Gould - Thanks to PSFK Conference San Francisco for letting us in on this technology. Could this be the future saving grace in BMF meeting rooms?

Time for the daily iPhone post. This is a cool gadget that’s unfortunately only a concept design - at the moment. Honlai, the producers of a tiny LED projector have come up with a docking station projector for the first-gen iPhone. I could see this little device being very useful for presentations on the fly (or impromptu movies anywhere). Hopefully someone will get this into production right away.

http://www.psfk.com/2008/06/mini-iphone-projector.html

Making people pay for Digital Creative

Must We Give away Digital Creative Works?
by: John Caddell. Cheers to FutureLab for this post.

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, spurred on by the recent Fran Ten podcast, this David Pogue post, and most recently a thoughtful post by Scott Goodson based on this column by economist Paul Krugman.
The upshot of Krugman's argument, referencing Esther Dyson's prediction from the early '90's, is that digital creative works will become free, and creative artists will have to make their money from "ancillary" projects, such as touring, personal appearances, licensing, etc.

If this turns out to be true (and the music industry is approaching this state right now), then it has a lot of negative ramifications for the future of creativity.

First off is the fairness question. Here is a simplified digital media value chain:

Digital distributors (i.e., ISPs like Comcast) make money through subscriptions
Directories and aggregators (like Google) make money through advertising
Creators make... nothing?

While the structure of technology allows this to happen, it's hard to look at this picture and see it as fair. I agree that DRM sucks, but is the solution "pay what you want"--a virtual tip jar?

Furthermore, if creating a work of art cannot in itself make money, it will then be difficult to invest much in that creation. While that may allow bloggers to continue (though I wouldn't turn down a few bucks for my work if that were possible), it doesn't bode well for musicians or moviemakers, and, soon, book authors.

If I can make money in personal appearances but not by writing, I will have to limit my writing time in order to, you know, pay the mortgage.

If a band can make money touring but not through selling CDs, they will be unlikely to spend much time in the recording studio, or to spend money on studio effects or gear. Perhaps they will instead simply tape their concerts and compile albums from the live sessions.

If a moviemaker cannot make money from her films because they are freely available on the web, she will have difficulty using any approach other than Dogme 95 in order to reduce costs. And do we want to see Dogme 95-style movies all the time?

The irony is that time put into making money takes away from time to create. Therefore, the output from our best artists is less. Is that progress?

Perhaps this is offset somewhat by the "long tail" of creators enabled by new technology. But I would trade 1000 bad "Nude" remixes for one new album by an artist I really like.

(Photo: pro-copying logo from piratbyran.org)

Original Post: http://shoptalkmarketing.blogspot.com/2008/06/must-we-give-away-digital-creative.html

Business trends to look out for in 2008

Thanks to FutureLab for this post:

Endless Innovation Business Trends: June 2008
by: Dominic Basulto

Largely as an outgrowth of client work over the past quarter, I've put together a brief overview of four business trends that are worth keeping an eye on over the remainder of 2008:

(1) Social Data
(2) Micro-Payments for Online Social Experiences
(3) Content Mashups
(4) "Live" experiences (that really aren't "live")

For the full article and corresponding powerpoint slides, visit: http://blog.futurelab.net/2008/06/endless_innovation_business_tr.html
OR// http://www.slideshare.net/basulto/endless-innovation-online-trends?src=embed

Google rates ad quality

Thanks to PinkAir for exposing this nugget in the below post.

The rate card that rates you

Not many companies are as interesting as Google. From their basic technology to how they make money, they repeatedly make you think "Okay, so that means..." and a bunch of new implications come spilling out.

Today's NYT outlines the workings of Google's "ad quality" team. Because the creative and placement variables of Google ads are relatively few and are controlled by Google, they can experiment with them and directly measure the results. This helps them determine how to price ads which makes them more money.

Even more interesting, one of the variables they incorporate into their pricing and placement model is the quality of the consumer's experience after they click on the ad:

Over time, the company also looked beyond click-through rates to rank ads. Google now takes into account the “landing page” that the ad links to, and, for example, gives low grades to pages whose sole purpose is to show more ads. Soon, the loading speed of a landing page will also be considered.

These factors contribute to an ad’s “quality score.” The higher that score, the less the advertiser has to bid to secure top billing. For example, an advertiser who offers to pay $1 per click to attract those searching for “vacation rentals in Colorado” may receive more prominent placement than another who bids $1.50 for the same query but has a lower quality score. An advertiser with a very low quality score may have to bid so much for placement as to make it uneconomical.

Quality scores work as an incentive to advertisers to improve their ads, which benefits users and, in turn, benefits Google.

Yikes! Better service (and can better products be far behind?) leading to lower ad rates? Some advertisers are confused and angry ("many advertisers complain that the company was, in essence, deciding who can and cannot advertise on its system") but Google seems to believe that the overall health/value of their ad system is increased when consumers believe that Google ads represent relevant and high-quality suggestions.

Most media discriminate among advertisers in some way. You're not going to see a Hooters ad in Vanity Fair anytime soon. But I've never heard of a media company digging so deeply into the post-ad consumer experience and using it to directly affect rates. I can feel the possible implications radiating outwards...

http://www.pinkair.com/2008/06/the-rate-card-t.html

Comparing BMF

This post was on the 'Welcome to Optimism' weblog from wieden + kennedy London.
How does BMF compare? Are we a Fallon perhaps?  

How agencies position themselves

There was a piece in Monday's Independent about how agencies sell themselves to clients. It rounded up the slogans and claims of a few agencies and presented them without much in the way of comment. It's easy to poke fun at these things (I will try to resist the temptation) but interesting to see how a few of these statements of intent compare.

JWT
Slogan: 'Time is the new currency'
They say: "The power of brands can be measured in their ability to attract people's time. Time is what's most valuable to people all around the world, and the way they spend it is predictive of the way they spend their money. Our role is to ensure that more people spend more time with our clients' brands, in the knowledge that their money will follow."

Well, maybe. (Unless your service is partly about convenience, like say, Google or Amazon. In which case, you might want your customers to spend less time with your brand.)

DDB
Slogan: 'Co-creation'
They say: "Co-creativity is a process that puts consumers at the heart of the solution. It's agnostic about where the best idea comes from – online, branded content, advertising, an event – in fact, it is increasingly likely that it is through combining all of these and more that the most creative and influential ideas will be gained."

This feels like an observation rather than a brand positioning.

M&CSAATCHI
Slogan: 'Brutal simplicity of thought'
They say: "The slogan comes from the idea that it's easier to complicate than simplify. Simple messages enter the brain quicker and stay there longer, so brutal simplicity of thought is therefore a painful necessity."

Well, true to their beliefs, this is at least simple and easy to understand. All that pain and brutality sounds a bit nasty, though. I'm a bit scared of M&C Saatchi now. I worry that they're going to pin me down and forcibly penetrate me with their brutally blunt tools.

Saatchi &Saatchi
Slogan: 'Nothing is impossible'
They say: "From the outset the Saatchi brothers broke the rules, challenged industry norms and created work that was groundbreaking in every respect. Brands are faced with the danger of becoming commodities that lack differentiation, but we believe that bold and infectious creativity can drive loyalty beyond reason for brands."

Surprising to see that Saatchi & Saatchi still talk about the long-departed brothers. Living in the past? I thought S&S was all about Lovemarks these days but no mention of that from The Indie.

BBH
Slogan: 'When the world zigs, zag'
They say: "Our first ad was a poster for Levi's black denim: a flock of white sheep heading one way, with one black sheep going the other way. The message captures our approach to life."

TBWA\London
Slogan: 'The disruption agency'
They say: "All brands have ambitions to outpace the competition, but too many go through life copying their competitors. We aim to uncover the clichés, assumptions and conventional wisdom that hold a category back, then look for opportunities for brands to grow by disrupting those conventions."

Well, the two above are just exactly the same, differently expressed, aren't they?

Ogilvy Group UK
Slogan: 'To be most valued by those who most value brands'
They say: "The slogan was coined in 1993, but its roots go deeper, to David Ogilvy's belief in the power of brands, as long as they stay relevant and continually refresh their appeal. Our view is that branding is a genuinely useful concept that helps good companies defeat bad ones, so the clients we most want are those who share this belief. We don't apologise for this idealism, since the most successful brands tend to have longstanding ideals at their core, which can be dramatised in myriad ways over time."

This is a mission, not a slogan. Can't really focus on this one as I have a problem with the use of the word 'myriad' in any context other than fairy tales.

Wieden + Kennedy
Slogan: 'Creating strong, provocative relationships between good companies and their customers'
They say: "We believe that great brands lead from the front. They provoke, inspire and change the cultural landscape. The most successful brands have fans, not customers, and the relationship between a brand and its fans is based on dialogue, not monologue."

Arrant nonsense.

Euro RSCG London
Slogan: 'Contagious ideas'
They say: "We live in a world where consumers can more judiciously edit what they consume, [and can] mould and reconfigure ideas relatively easily and be far more expressive to their friends, family and colleagues about what they like and don't like. Contagious ideas live beyond the space in which they first appeared by creating word of mouth, word of keyboard or media interest."

Well, Euro's Woolite campaign could certainly be categorised as some species of virulent virus, so they're practicing what they preach.

Fallon
Slogan: none
They say: "We choose not to have a fixed positioning point. In an increasingly open media and creative environment, where more is possible every day, we feel that it doesn't make sense to pre-pack what we do. What we do, and how we do it, is fundamentally bespoke and about building the confidence to do something different."

A very cunning justification for having no positioning at all. And it seems to be working for them. Maybe this shows that agencies don't really need a coherent or differentiating proposition. All they need to be successful is some smart people, some great clients and a shed-load of brilliant work. Simple.

http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2008/02/how-agencies-po.html

William Morris, Media Execs Create 'Agency 3.0'

Thanks to Ad Age - Madison+Vine for this post


Partnership Reflects Drastic Changes in Hollywood, Advertising and Technology

By Claude Brodesser-Akner

Published: May 21, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) -- About all they have in common is the word "agency" -- but that appears to be enough for now.

Hollywood's oldest talent shop, the 110-year-old William Morris Agency, is partnering with a triumvirate of digital media, wireless and advertising executives to create a joint venture called Agency 3.0, a digital-marketing-services company seeking to marry digital technology to strategically developed content.

Greg Johnson, a partner in Agency 3.0, told Ad Age that TV advertising 'is becoming less effective,' in part because 'it's highly disconnected from the creative process.'


Power players
That trio of executives includes Peter Adderton, founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile; Greg Johnson, a former chief creative officer at McCann Worldgroup and Digitas; and Steve Stanford, who created rival talent agency ICM's digital media group and who had more recently served as general manager of HBO and AOL's broadband comedy joint venture.

In an interview with Ad Age, Mr. Johnson said TV advertising "is becoming less effective," in part because "it's highly disconnected from the creative process."

His partners' new venture aims to "bring the ad dollars that much closer to the creative process," Mr. Johnson said.

Time for a new approach
"There's a whole new world in the marketing, distribution and monetization of digital media, with unique demands for new approaches to both design and implementation," said Jim Wiatt, William Morris' CEO. "We recently announced a digital-media venture fund, and now with Agency 3.0, we'll be providing services as well as making investments in this sector."

Peter Adderton is the founder of both Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile.


Mr. Stanford, who also founded and served as CEO of Voce premium wireless, noted that thanks to the protracted Writers Guild of America strike (which hinged, aptly enough, on digital distribution of content), the recent upfront advertising presentations made by broadcast TV networks reveal a business that has been totally reshaped by digital. NBC Universal's upfront ad presentation, for example, touted all of the NBC Universal properties, including various cable networks, web operations and amusement parks -- not just its 52-week network-TV schedule.

"People would spend millions on pilots and have no idea if anybody would watch them," Mr. Stanford said. "Today, things have changed; a show that has sponsors already in place has a much better chance of airing."

The new advertising joint venture's chief creative officer will be Scott Anderson, the former creative head and co-founder with Mr. Adderton of Boost Mobile and Amp'd Mobile. Like the rest of the team, he will be based at William Morris' Beverly Hills headquarters.

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=127229

Helping an Agency (and Clients) Branch Out Into Content Space

Thanks to Ad Age - Madison+Vine for this post.

Entertainment-Industry Vet Brian Murphy Brings a Different Perspective to TBA Global

By Jonathan Lemonnier

Published: May 20, 2008
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- TBA Global recently announced the creation of a new branded-entertainment division, TBA Deep, to be headed by Brian J. Murphy, exec VP-branded entertainment (Deep stands for "digital, entertainment, engagement and programming"). A veteran of the entertainment industry, Mr. Murphy spent a decade as exec VP of Warner Music Group, and was responsible for the joint venture of Warner/Avalon (which would later become Warner/TBA).


Brian J. Murphy


During his time at Warner, he also helped create the first joint divisional strategic marketing programs between General Motors and Warner Bros. Films/ Warner Music Group, one of the original branded-entertainment initiatives. He later founded Fearless Entertainment, a branded-entertainment specialist firm, and led it as CEO for seven years until it was picked up by TBA last March.

Madison & Vine spoke with Mr. Murphy to get a quick sense of Deep's purpose, the branded-entertainment industry and the advertising industry's current obsession with content ownership.

M&V: Why create a new division for branded entertainment?

Mr. Murphy: It's what's we've always been doing. Fearless was in the branded-entertainment space for seven years and was acquired by TBA Global last March so it could develop on branded entertainment. TBA's core business is a combination of marketing and communication, with particular success in business-to-business initiatives. ... We created Deep in order to clarify to the market where these capacities of TBA reside. It's a way of branding our division, and giving it visibility. TBA aren't an advertising agency, they're not PR and they're not a sales promotion company. TBA is from the consumer marketing side. The brand thing is new.

M&V: How did Deep come about?

Mr. Murphy: Well, our co-chairman Irving Azoff's background is in the entertainment industry. Mr. Azoff heads the Frontline Management talent company, one of the best in the world. ... PQ Media recently mentioned that branded entertainment is due to become a $25 billion market this year. That's where the marketing community is going. That's part of the reason [TBA] acquired Fearless.

M&V: There's a lot of talk about agencies trying to monetize content they create for branded entertainment as a bulwark against diminishing revenue from traditional sources. What is your take on that?

Mr. Murphy: We started out as entertainment professionals who got involved in marketing, so we are approaching this issue differently. The traditional agency model looks at the declining revenues from traditional sources, and uses content creation and ownership as a new revenue stream. We flip that model over. We start out from an entertainment model. We create entertainment exclusively for brands, and we also create properties that we then own and license. Most brands are not interested in owning [intellectual property], they are interested in achieving marketing objectives. TBA's business is healthy. This isn't just a margin play.

M&V: What kind of assets does Deep have?

Mr. Murphy: We have groups of strategists and architects bred on consumer/entertainment/digital thinking. We also have dedicated groups of sales people from TBA. The value in being in TBA is that the production services, creative, etc., are all integrated and accessible when we need them.

Our acronym begins with "digital" because we live in a digital ecology. One of our premises is knowing that and manipulating it. TV has been mandated to become fully digital and interactive by 2009, but even now live events and concerts are experienced as much digitally on huge screens as they are live. New York cabs have interactive screens in the back for passengers. It's not just cellphones and computers.

M&V: What is your impression of branded entertainment today?

Mr. Murphy: If you are marketing your brand through any kind of entertainment, then you are in branded entertainment. Clients are demanding more and more from branded entertainment, because that's how people are living.

From a brand standpoint, what is important is being able to control their destiny in the world of entertainment, which wasn't always possible before. If branded entertainment doesn't do that for them, there is no point. They're the ones who are putting the money down.

Brands need to think about how they fit organically in what they are trying to do. You have a sophisticated consumer population out there. If you are transparent and organic, they will welcome you. If not, they will tear you apart. In some cases, the product may not be in the entertainment content created at all.

The key questions are: Is this the best way to get things done? What is that brand doing in essence?

M&V: Does it bring back the expected return on investment?

Mr. Murphy: When people spoke of impressions back in the day, what was that? Is that ROI? Engagement that turns to sale, or word of mouth, that's real ROI. A lot of companies have all the brand awareness in the world. What they need is to convert that into sales and lifetime consumers. The typical lifespan of a 30-second spot is about three months. Typical lifespan for content can be one to two years, depending on the approach. It's a strategic standpoint rather than a tactical standpoint.

How effective something is depends on your objectives going in. We like to stress to our clients the importance of having clarity on the objectives you are trying to accomplish. Metrics are only a piece of the entertainment branding result. What are you trying to do?

http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=127201

Agency websites

Thanks Wendy!

http://www.akqa.com/

http://www.aa-rf.co.uk

http://www.tbglondon.com

http://www.daredigital.com/

http://www.globalbeach.com/

http://www.craikjones.co.uk

http://www.thegrandunion.com/

http://www.digitalanddirect.com

http://www.togetheragency.co.uk/

http://www.work-club.com/

Some nice new agency sites

Stole this exert from Adage and their belated coverage of the new Hal Riney site. I personally love Modernista's appraoch. The Hal Riney stuff is smart and new, but kinds of sucks as a working interface

San Francisco ad agency Publicis & Hal Riney has redesigned its website to enable a mouse-free experience. The effort is one of a wave of newfangled agency websites launched in recent months, which include Modernista's Web 2.0 format and Barbarian Group's bloglike revamp. "We wanted to make the website as interesting as the work that was presented on it," said Rikesh Lal, Publicis & Hal Riney's interactive creative director and an AKQA veteran.

Cooooooooooooooooool webcam driven interface

Found on Contagious - Mouse No More - 22/04/2008

The bizarre technologies of Minority Report are becoming increasingly likely every time we look up. Microsoft’s Surface technology was followed quickly by its miniature parallel the iPhone and now even musical loon Björk is touring with a reacTable. This kind of advanced interactivity is now coming to websites, thanks to UK design agency Clusta who have developed what they claim is the first ever commercial website to be navigated and controlled by movement, picked up via webcam.

The technology has been developed for Publicis and Hal Riney (www.hrp.com) with a demo hosted at http://hrp.clusta.com. The site is controlled by waving your hands to virtually touch or swipe the screen, connecting with ‘hotspots’ to navigate through different areas of the site.

Matthew Clugston, creative director at Clusta told Contagious: ‘Clusta is trying to create a more immersive and engaging experience for users - this is obviously something very valuable to both brands and businesses. Hal Riney were brave enough to utilise a technology ordinarily only seen in the games community - but the publicity and the immersiveness we managed to create for the user has paid off for them.’

Clusta hopes that the site could put an end to Repetitive Strain Injury or even lead the way for a computer interface based entirely around gestures and movements. The next step for the technology is to recognise speed of movement and then develop the grabbing and dropping of objects around the screen.

Clugston continues: ‘From there, we’re moving into the realms of virtual shopping where consumers will conceivably be able to virtually walk around a fully functioning digitally created music store to pick up their latest 3D movies. Such technology is closer than many people think and we’re working hard to make that day a not-too-distant reality.’

Philip K. Dick would approve.

10 Things to know about social networking

From: akispicer & Fallon Brainfood, 1 week ago

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Nice presentation delivering a top line on what marketers need to think about before entering the social space now, and where it might be going. My personal view is that both sides of the marketing industry is badly lagging here in Australia. We as creative agencies really need to start understanding, and driving the use of social approaches as opposed to advertising ones.
To make this happen do we need to begin working with site creators to bring their services to our market and getting clients involved, rather than trying to get client's to engage with something the can't see the local significance of? Do we need to start acting more like media houses and take create ideas directly to social sites so we can help our brands offer direct, relevant 'social currency', rather than just piggy backing. I think we do.

Fallon strategic planner Aki Spicer, explores 10 Trends Marketers Should Know About Social Networking.

Brainfood is a monthly all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands.

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