It’s nice to know that I am still thinking in the same direction of the industry at large, this is a really great article about the Susan Boyle video and why it spread so quickly on the internet. The author talks about social networks accelerating the pass along nature of this amazing video and the reason why people feel compelled to share content like this.

The article is quite short and deserves a full read (URL at the bottom of this post).

The role of Twitter in all of this is most interesting. Twitter Twits did what Twitter Twits do best — they tweeted alerts about an interesting bit of content and were able to embed micro-links so their followers could quickly access the content. I think of Twitter as like a swarm of bees that spread out in all directions, searching for interesting materials to share. When someone finds it, they come back to the hive, do a little honey dance, and send the swarm scampering behind them. This is how collective intelligence outsmarts the broadcast decision-makers: The Twitter Tribes can figure out what content the audience wants to see because the Twitter Tribes are the audience, making decisions in real time.

Equally important is that we had the agency to decide which content we wanted to pass along — out of all of the possible video clips posted on YouTube last week or indeed, out of all of the many segments of media content which are circulating around us.

We believe that we can only understand what happened here by identify the choices which consumers made as they decided to pass along this content and not that content. The USA Today on Monday sought to identify a range of different motives which shaped the decisions to pass along this particular content: “Vindication . . . Surprise . . . Guilt . . . Shame . . . Psychology . . . Hope . . . Distraction . . . Empowerment . . . Authenticity . . . Spiritual Solace.”

How Susan Spread and What It Means. Via Bigspaceship Twitter

At McCannSF we have used these platforms to spread and broadcast our client’s messages and to support their messaging pillars (yeah I can talk account person speak). But I feel like we have only just scratched the surface.

As I look at my twitter application TweetDeck I see so many of the people I follow sharing interesting links and articles. My perception is that our use of these social platforms has been evolving.

Our understanding of how we use the social web to manage our personal brand has matured for example; Leslie (one of my Art Directors) only uses twitter in a purely professional and only shares work based content – and I so have no idea what she had for dinner last night.

I am on a tangent again, so coming back to the question I posed in my headline.

Is it time to re-visit the viral video?

Viral video was the first stage of using the social web, Viral 1.0 if you may. It was always “Let’s produce a video” it will have all the messaging tied up into it, we’ll release it on YouTube and people will watch it and if they like they might share it.

Please don’t misunderstand me, it still works, look at the LED sheep herding video that made the rounds last month (yes I twittered it).

Maybe viral video is wrong. Maybe we should look at producing work that is designed to provoke a conversation? This includes video but I think the ‘conversation starter’ can be many different content types: images, written prose, user ratings etc.

1. Just seeding content is first stage.
2. Next we should engineer an easier way to share and interact with the content, let users/viewers sign in with their Facebook or twitter accounts to take advantage of their networks.
3. Finally we should join the conversation as an official brand spokesperson and to move beyond the first hello and be part of the little micro community that will develop around that conversation.

This is going to be hard because we are often not allowed to become the official brand spokesperson due to legal reasons and the clients often don’t want to take on the responsibility of more work. This is something we need to solve beyond Creative and UX level and maybe beyond the client level to the legal teams that scrub our work before it is published. And that should be a whole new post: publishing or conversation?

Lets produce content that is designed to start and join the conversation, tools that aid debate and reason and opinions that fuel flame wars across the social web.

This is another way to look at how can we provide value and service to users and at the same time balancing the needs of our clients and their messaging pillars.

Via today and tomorrow

At the beginning of my career I once asked my creative director what defines great digital creativity. Without hesitation, he said it was the same principle as any good work – respect for people’s time and attention. In other words, a good message, well delivered, that offers something useful to the consumer.

As I progressed in my career, I have always held this to be true, this basic idea that is completely in keeping with the great traditional advertising of the past – and the present.

When you are watching TV and a great spot airs, it often entertains or connects emotionally with you. In essence, the advertiser is respecting your time and is conducting a simple, empathic value exchange, one that is understood by the modern consumer.

When you are speeding down the interstate and glance at a billboard, the best message is one that is easy to read, and easily communicates for the brand at 70 mph.

I could go on, but that would be disrespectful of your time as a reader.

This principle, of course, goes beyond traditional advertising and marketing and can be applied to all sorts of digital expressions. Just look at the search engines we have now in comparison to the early, cluttered Web directories. A good search engine allows users to find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently. It’s a super-useful tool that leaves out the superfluous and respects the user’s intentions. Like anything, the search experience can be improved, which is something that Live Search achieves. It brings results to you without your having to leave the search engine. That’s very useful – and therefore, great creative.

A search result for the Canon G10

Digital advertising is a really broad term. We have units that replicate the more traditional placements – streaming and video units that can entertain and banner units that can communicate at the speed of a glance.

But we can go further and be more useful. It’s all about being closer to the user and their point of interaction. Imagine a banner that expands and allows a user to experience a new product or service, watch a case study, and create a custom PowerPoint presentation for his or her boss, all without leaving the original page.

To borrow an analogy from soft drinks (and from Internet veteran Tim Smith), why travel to Atlanta for a Coke when you can use a vending machine? When appropriate, we need to look at cutting down the distance that the user has to travel to get the content that is useful and interests them.

The Zune myspace MP3 player

To see this principle applied in our partnership with Microsoft, look at the myspace.com/zune page. We had a significant amount of traffic at the Zune community page; MySpace tells us we have nine times the engagement metrics of the average consumer electronics category. This is partly because of the smart media placement (MySpace can be considered the number one music destination on the Web) but also because the content benefits the user. The star performer of the program is the customized Zune MP3 player that users can display on their profile page to play their music for their friends – useful to the individual and the brand at the same time.

Some of our other work at McCannSF can also qualify as great examples of useful creativity the i’m Initiative from Microsoft and the Student Experience site. The i’m Initiative allows the user to express his or her support for an important social cause to the peer group, and the Student Experience site engages the audience with relevant tutorials, templates, and stories from students like themselves, which they can use every day.

In paying respect to the time and attention of consumers, some other brands have been very successful in social media, because they appear to be more human than their competitors. One such example is JetBlue (twitter.com/JetBlue), which has shown extreme foresight in their use of Twitter as a gentle communication channel.

They alert me to weather conditions, fare specials, and new routes, all with a careful eye to the frequency of communications. It never feels like they invade my personal space too much, which is important. Think of it like a real conversation with a friend. It’s extremely useful and has led to me to book a flight or two.

Digital is an ever-expanding landscape. We have social networks and applications, lifecasting and microblogging, mobile Internet, banners that are Web sites in disguise, consumers who will watch video content that is entertaining and informative. Every month there seems to be a new fragmentation of the space. Perhaps being useful is the best way for brands to stand out.

Now I am big fan of AMC’s MadMen (it’s a TV show for my non US readers) it’s a great series about an advertising firm set in 60’s New York.

During the second series that just aired, Don Draper, the main character appeared on Twitter and started to extend the story line into the online world. After a couple of weeks AMC announced that it was not an official sanctioned story/brand extension and demanded that the persons responsible cease and desist, luckily someone high up at AMC realized that was a fan based activity and let it continue.

Trying to stop would have been a PR nightmare and brings in sharp focus a question that’s been troubling professional content makers for quite a while. Who owns an idea? Or more importantly now that the cost of mass publishing has ceased to by prohibitive who owns the creation and distribution of an idea?

Hollywood and the TV industry have been encouraging the fan base to get involved with marketing activities almost since the rise of the internet an communication platform. But it’s usually revolves around trying to seed and spread pre-made content not making content themselves. Now obviously there are exceptions the rabid fan bases of Sci-Fi have indulged in fan based narratives (video and prose) for quite a while, just search for Star Wars on youtube.com to see for yourself.

But when it comes to the more interesting and new communication channels that seem to spring from Silicon Valley every month the older media empires (and advertising industry) seem to lag behind what consumers are already experimenting with. Maybe that’s a lesson that we can learn and one that I try to encourage my clients to take: Experiment.

Here at McCann/PopulistSF we try and sell many ideas that include what we have named “a digital landscape” a robust digital ecosystem on interconnected sites and services that are designed to let the consumer/user interact with the idea/brand in which ever way they seem fit.

Us advertisers need to give up control because that control was just an illusion in the first place. There’s a great David Ogilvy quote that goes something like this (I need my Ogilvy book at work): Consumers build brands like birds build nests from sticks and twigs that they find around. Which means that we never truly owned the brand we just tried to direct the thinking of the consumer with ads and interactions (twigs and sticks) and with more interactions coming from consumer controlled channels we need to be more careful and create stronger ideas that can be passed from consumer to consumer.

In the case of Don Draper Twitter stream it was an advertising industry professional: Paul Isakson from Minneapolis who has just owned up being the man behind the tweets and claimed it as a great experiment. Read his full admission here: [ paul isakson ]: Confessions Of A Fake Mad Man

Via DonDraper on Twitter.

Internet start-ups out to crack the problem of advertising on social networks are developing ad technology that can analyze which people are most influential to their friends on social networks so that they can target those people with pass-it-on messages about Apple’s latest iPhone or The Incredible Hulk movie.

I have meet with Seth from SocialMedia networks and their technology was pretty interesting. I needs to be applied in the correct way with due respect to the individual user, but I guess that’s the down to the skill of the dadvertiser.

SocialMedia to unveil ‘friendship ranks’ | News Blog – CNET News. Via Yasmin’s email.