Dear google. google+ is getting a bit boring.

September 7th, 2011 • 1 comment Allgemein, Social, Tools
Tags: google, google plus, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools

Hi google.

I guess it wasn’t your intention. But I have to say google+ is rather boring right at the moment.

Yes, I know. When you sent out the first g+ invites everyone was extremely positive. It felt a bit like complimenting a rather slow kid for the nice picture it has sketched. And yes, a lot of people really, really wanted an invite.

Fast forward two months: I still really haven’t figured out why google Plus is meant to be a revolution. Interface-wise it is a good hybrid between Facebook and twitter. And yes: the Circles concept is a nice iteration to social networking as well as its likely future search relevance.

But a revolution looks different. Particularly as the most interesting stuff that’s happening on google Plus is exactly the same stuff that’s happening on all the other platforms.

Right now the google+ party…

• almost exclusively consists of Social Media Gurus, Personal Coaches, and bizarre Small Businesses who don’t want to be late adopters again (‘this time I won’t join it 5 years too late’)
• derives its right to party from the claim that it offers better functionalities than other platforms from which it has stolen its concepts – I still haven’t figured out how a Skype-like functionality should motivate me long term
• gets more and more intolerable due to its real name policy
• still has not communicated when it is likely going to be more exciting

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Social Media Hipsters. They probably exist.

September 4th, 2011 • 2 comments Allgemein
Tags: Fashion, Funny, hipsters, People, Social Media, Truth, World

Thanks to Tastefully offensive for the link.

This is Art. Miracle Whip creates User-Gen Gold.

August 16th, 2011 • 2 comments Brands, Social
Tags: Brands, Competition, Funny, Miracle Whip, Social Media, special, User gen, WTF, youtube

Imagine a Brainstorming session in this media agency that runs the Kraft Food’s Miracle Whip account. So the big idea is defined as ‘Not for every Relationship’. And that’s probably because the TVC has already been shot.
Next somebody yells for Social Media. And here we go with the mother of all social marketing concepts:

Yes, you read correctly: Miracle Whip asks you to upload your video that tells the story how Miracle Whip affected your relationship. And potentially you can win $25,000. I may have cursed about this study a couple of days ago but I have to agree with IBM – Marketer and Consumer cannot possibly be further away from each other than here.

As you can imagine, the videos that were uploaded belong to the finest in User-gen that the world has seen so far.
Check out the following masterpiece (and all the other channel videos as well) and think twice next time if a couple of banners and a microsite wouldn’t have burned the pile of money as well. Check out the videos here.

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Dear Consumer. Possibly you are quite a huge Dick.

August 5th, 2011 • People
Tags: Consumers, Diagram, Ethics, Funny, People, Social Media, Social Netiworks, Trends, Truth, World

So yesterday was an interesting but less than pleasant day. I cannot go too much into detail here. But generally, dear grown up, mature consumer think about one thing: You may interact with companies and some of them may make mistakes. But generally most companies in the 21st century who interact with you as players in the social web are pretty cool. Most of them have done their homework. And most of them care.

So think twice before you troll. It might be you who is the huge dick. Not the brand you ‘like’.

Thanks to Flowingdata

15 Years Later. A Conversation with my first Creative Director, Steffen Herbold.

Juli 24th, 2011 • Allgemein, Social, Social Business, Strategy
Tags: Agencies, Experimental, Germany, Interview, People, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Media, steffen herbold, Strategy, Trends, WOB

A couple of weeks ago I talked about first jobs with a friend.

WOB was/is the name of my first employer/agency. And before anyone asks: Yes, Werbung und Organisationsberatung sounds awfully German. But I still think this dedicated B2B agency from the south of Germany is one of the most professional agency brands I ever worked for. B2B is tough. B2B is rarely considered as cool. And even though marketing Supply Chain Management Software or Nanotech solutions is definitely not for everyone, I am still happy I took my first steps in the agency world as part of the team from Viernheim (yes, Viernheim). It was one of the best ‘schools’ for a young marketing guy like me.

Back in the days when I realized I am better in copywriting than in Project Management there was one guy who thought I might be right. Steffen Herbold is Creative Director at WOB (pretty much since God created the Earth). He is a great copywriter, a very, very smart man, and he is one of the people I definitely do not meet as often as I should.

I kind of rediscovered Steffen (sorry Steffen) two years ago. After not being in contact for a while, we connected on Facebook and hold a steady dialogue since then. I was really interested to find out about how a dedicated B2B agency like WOB perceives the challenges by the Digital revolution in general and the social web in particular. And Steffen was so nice to answer a couple of questions. I am sure if you leave a comment he will gladly answer your questions as well.

Hi Steffen. Which role does Social Media play for a B2B agency like WOB nowadays?
A big one.

How different are B2B and B2C in this regard?
Well, obviously buying a chocolate bar and a ERP software have absolutely nothing in common. Apart from one thing: There are emotions involved. But whereas the purchasing processes of FMCG’s are individual and impulsive by nature, the buying process in a btob context is collective and reflected – so it is no wonder that these differences become manifest in social media too. I would put it this way: In b2c social media are capable of creating something like a “virtual nearness” between a brand and its target group, in b2b they’re an adequate tool to truly deepen existing relationships. You might as well say: b2c is brilliant flirting, b2b is serious marriage.
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Convergence. Why talking about Social Media bores me to death.

Dezember 19th, 2010 • Allgemein
Tags: 2010, 2011, Advertising, Agencies, Future, Industry, Social Media, Trends

As 2010 ends it’s time for new year’s resolutions once again. I should stop smoking but it would be kind of dumb to initiate my new healthy lifestyle on new year’s eve. So my professional resolution is this – I try to avoid the use of the term ‘Social Media’ once and for all.

I feel kind of estranged nowadays when I stumble upon one of the many, many social media presentations that we keep on quoting over and over again. Or to put it more precise – I get sick of them. I cannot flip through these decks anymore that try to teach the industry about the ethics and mechanisms of Social. I simply think we’re past that point.

2010 has taught me that the focus on customer interactions and conversations simply must be part of any piece of marketing that you come up with. No matter if you are talking about e-retail, a Facebook page or a classic microsite – if you still don’t listen, if you still don’t enable users to share or talk about your brand you will soon have a problem. The crucial element here – to understand the distinction between earned and owned assets. Your client’s Facebook page is NOT earned media. Earned media is what this platform can initiate. But the platform can be a trigger, while brand-user interaction (hopefully) is the result. We simply cannot produce social interaction. But we can lower access barriers, invite and give reasons to interact on our behalf. This is our task. It is not our task to build platforms in the first place.

Doubtlessly the campaign of the year was Wieden’s Old Spice guy. And while I engaged in debates about whether this campaign was a Social Media campaign or not (and whether social media campaigns exist at all), I now have to admit that my position at that time was wrong. The strength of this campaign was that it added a conversational layer to a traditional advertising campaign. It built upon a traditional ad campaign and made it dynamic. But it turned a traditional piece of marketing into something relevant and real time. Something that turned a TV ad into something that was fun to talk about and to share. And that’s what made it both successful and trendsetting.

By now most agencies struggled with integrating traditional and digital marketing concepts. Wieden’s Old Spice campaign may not have been deep-digital. But it tried to bridge the gap between traditional advertising and customer conversations. My respect to the team around W+K’s Ian Tait to bring this risky concept to live.

In 2011 I hope, both digital and traditional agencies are intelligent enough to stop talking about isolated marketing concepts that almost always lack real sustainability. As a customer I want to print ads that makes me want to start a conversation with or about a brand. I want to get invited to an online store through a TV ad and I want to get a discount if I make my friends buy there as well. And here we are not talking about just driving to a campaign site – I think about integrated marketing models that truly deliver added value when it comes to interaction. Value exchange that is. And this is not just an agency challenge.

One of the best articles about this topic comes from my former colleague at Razorfish, Shiv Singh, who is now responsible for digital at Pepsi Co. In his article ‘From the other side‘ he has summarized his experiences as an ex agency guy who is now on the client side. Shiv’s advice to agencies is simple – stop telling your clients stories about how special you are, start understanding and managing the complexity of nowaday’s marketing.

In the digital space, digital agencies don’t like that the fact that they’re at a significant relationship disadvantage. Brands don’t like the fact that they’re sometimes kept at arms length from consumers (agencies and publishers are in the middle). Digital agencies feel traditional agencies don’t get it and traditional agencies can’t understand why brands don’t completely appreciate their digital chops. In a sense, everyone is unhappy. That’s not good. It has to change and probably only will when truly a new form of an agency rises (yes, I know there have been lots of false starts!).

It would be a blessing if the industry began to realize that concept convergence would help all of us – to make marketing more engaging, interesting and fun to interact with. If agencies found a way not just to promote themselves and their isolated view of the world and if marketers finally understood that it is not about communication but about integrated business models. Talking about social media simply bores me to death…

Great Tools. What the Fuck is my Social Media Strategy?

August 2nd, 2010 • Tools
Tags: Business, Buzzwords, Diy, Funny, Presentation, Social Media, Strategy, Tools, Truth, World

Thanks Sean. My colleague pointed me to the wonderful What-the-fuck-is-my-social-media-strategy-generator that generates pretty realistic buzzword creations ready to be used in your next deck. It’s like the web bullshit generator…only closer to what we call reality. I think I can go home now, can I?

Promoted Tweets. Finally explained in 140 Seconds.

Juli 8th, 2010 • Media, Tools, Twitter
Tags: Diy, Media, Promoted Tweets, Social Media, Tools, Twitter

Promoted Tweets are already live for about two months now. But I (as most of you) did not have the chance to take a deeper look at it by now. Check out this crisp little tour to our kind-of-favourite new social advertising vehicle…or whatever you make out of it. (via)

Social Activation. An Overview about U.S. Grocery Chains.

Juli 8th, 2010 • 1 comment Brands, Business, Social
Tags: Brands, Business, Diagram, Facebook, Groceries, Social Media, Twitter, US, USA, visual

First up, I hate info visual wallpapers. They just seem to pop up everywhere and there is nothing which has not yet been transferred into an info visual of some sort. But there also are the good ones.

The following diagram by Pace Communications gives a good, brief overview about fans and followers of U.S. grocery chains. No doubt, this is quite a specialized market. Nevertheless you can spot the relevance of Facebook and Twitter (in comparison to Youtube and Flickr) for these major companies – with Walmart and Wholefood being frontrunners here. At least as long as you accept fans and followers as indicators of social activation.

Update. The ‘Social Media Revolution’ Strikes Back.

Mai 9th, 2010 • Social, Social Business, Trends
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Diagram, diagrams, Figures, Funny, Future, Media, Prediction, Social, Social Influence Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Tools, Trends, visual, World

I love good info visualizations. But I hate social media info graphics. There are just too many of it. Nevertheless I like this little movie. It is called “Social Media Revolution 2″ and it is an update to its very successful predecessor which flooded twitter half a year ago. Now with updated statistics and images. Created by author Erik Qualman and based on the #1 Best Selling book Socialnomics. Enjoy.