At Facebook's F8 Developer Conference yesterday, it seems like they buried the lede. Several announcements were made at the conference and some anticipated changes went live on the 400-million-strong social network. Like Goes Live Initially seen as semantics, changing "Become a Fan" to "Like" is designed to make it easier for Facebook users to participate on the network. Facebook notes users like twice as often as they fan on any given day. This also translates into more acquisitions for brands. But there are other, more significant, changes afoot that everyone needs to fully understand.
Facebook Plugins Enable Social Distribution A set of plugins were unveiled to make it easier to integrate Facebook features with other websites. They include a “Like” functionality, Activity Feed and Recommendation widget that bring friends, social activity and relevant interactions to any site. Brands can enhance the level of engagement on their websites, offering a more personalized experience. Levi's and CNN are already using some of the plugins. Users are expected to increase their time spent on brand sites based on potential interaction with their Facebook friends. Levi's Social Shopping Levi's home page feel's like a Facebook co-branded microsite. According to Levi's, it integrates "the 'Like' functionality on its e-commerce site. In addition, Levi’s is building a Friend Store in which consumers who are logged into Facebook can see a list of their friends’ favorite Levi’s products and seamlessly shop with their friends." CNN's Use of Instant Personalization WILL Cause Privacy Concerns Anyone checking into CNN via their Facebook account can see what stories their friends are recommending and sharing. Users that do not want their friends to know their CNN consumption habits will take issue with this. It's done by default and it shares your information with third party sites. However users can edit their settings. Microsoft Leaps into the Cloud Microsoft announced the most unexpected news with the launch of
Docs.com. The site allows Facebook users to create, edit, and share Microsoft Office documents with Facebook friends. Will user expectations be met? The expectations of a paid Microsoft Office experience vs. a free Google Docs experience are quite different. It will be interesting to experience what's launched. The Mountain Comes to Mohammed The f8 news allows Facebook to compete with Google while becoming truly social. Facebook will face some issues with its users. But this is nothing new and something they've ultimately navigated in the past. The plugins will embed the social network more thoroughly across the web and more seamlessly connect content, people and brands. The distributed model eliminates the concerns of many brands and their agencies -- from giving up too much control and morphing to the constraints of Facebook tabs to making the issue of commerce on Facebook somewhat moot. The mountain seems to be coming to Mohammed. The only question? Is Facebook the mountain or Mohammed? Stay tuned.
Today was a great day at ad:tech San Francisco (ad:tech is a client of my company Boot Camp Digital). With so many smart marketing people in one place there was a ton of great content. I wanted to share the highlights of Day 1.
Digital Marketers are Like 5 Year Olds Playing Soccer – In the opening Keynote Jaime Cohen Szult, CMO of Levi used this analogy. Marketers act like kids – they want to run to where the ball is, but we know that a successful soccer strategy is to play your position and be strategic. That is what marketers need to do. Play your position and avoid chasing the ball.
Tablets (like the ipad) are HAWT and can Create new Opportunities for Business Models – Everyone seems to agree that Tablets like the ipad will significantly change the way we consume content. The key question is how and when. A number of companies (like Wired magazine) have super-secret iPad apps under development. I think that until we see some really robust game-changing apps this might be tough to grasp. Two of the keynotes today – Geoff Ramsey of eMarketer and Chris Anderson of Wired – both see the Tablets as a transformational technology. I have an iPad mini, also known as my iphone.
The Impression Model of Marketing is Dead – Bob Gilbreath, CEO of Bridge WorldWide talked about measuring success in digital through influence in 2 key ways – Engagement and Sharing. An impression in social media is more powerful vs. traditional media because the consumer is chosing to interact with your content vs being forced to. Geoff Ramsey also mentioned in his keynote that the old model of disruption and interruption marketing will continue to erode.
All Sharing is NOT Created Equal – Tim Schigel, CEO of ShareThis talked about sharing as a key concept in tracking influence. Influence is a function of Sharing (how is the content shared and by which mediums) x Clicks (how many people are clicking on the content) x Engagement (how much time do they spend with the content) x Spread (are they inspired to further spread and share the content). This is definitely a more comprehensive way of looking at influencers.
Getting to the Sharers (influencers) gets Results – A case study shared by Jim Price of Empower Media Marketing showed that targeting ads specifically at influencers (defined as sharers) leads to higher engagement and ultimately results and ROI. Sharers had a 55% intent to redeem a coupon on contextually relevant content vs. 30% for search and 8% for display. More details can be found in this article on Media Post.
Measurement – Stop Focusing on ClickThrough and think ViewThrough – This isn’t really “new” to many in the digital space, but it highlights the importance of taking a holistic approach to measurement. An impression is still an impression – even if there is no click. Invest in measurement early so you can track and improve.
78% of all Statistics are Made Up – In the closing keynote with Geoff Ramsey from emarketer he highlighted a number of times that there are MANY different statistics out there for almost anything that you want to measure. “There is no sense in being precise when you have no idea what you are talking about“.
The Bar is Higher for Marketers – Consumers Have to Choose your Marketing – This isn’t really news, but it is a concept that is picking up momentum. All of the keynotes mentioned it – consumers are getting better at ignoring ads and successful marketers are creating ads that consumers want to engage with. This is a concept that Bob Gilbreath talks about in Marketing With Meaning and one that Seth Godin brought up years ago in his discussion of interruption marketing vs. permission marketing.
Marketers Need to Think Like Game Creators vs. Reality Show Hosts – Joel from Moxie shared some great thoughts on how marketers can benefit by building gaming mechanics into their marketing. Foursquare is a great example – a lot of the excitement of Foursquare is collecting badges, completing tasks, competing on the leaderboard, and earning Mayorships. Three ways to build gaming into your marketing: 1) Customize content with public achievements among friends, 2) Recognize leaders and promote their stats, 3) Create missions, not campaigns.
Affiliate Marketers make the Coolest TShirts – I’ll share more photos to support this theory tomorrow, but affiliate marketers seem to have a gift for creating T-shirts that actually look cool (I am actually wearing an Affiliate.com t-shirt pictured below right now and I would TOTALLY wear it out in public). Looking around the exhibit hall the affiliate marketing companies had the coolest shirts (although some looked a little too Affliction-like for my tastes) – probably because they are cooler than other marketers.
Great presentation by Gareth Kay, Director of Digital Strategy at Goodby, Silverstein & Partners that was given at Boulder Digital Works (an event I really wish I could have attended).
Direct marketing is a three-legged stool: Audience, Offer, and Content. But context still matters, maybe more than any of the other three.In a previous post, I mentioned an old gig I had at Cornerstone Brands, a direct marketing company/retailer. Their flagship brand is Frontgate, which offers high-quality functional items for affluent homeowners. The tagline for Frontgate is Outfitting America’s
Direct marketing is a three-legged stool: Audience, Offer, and Content. But context still matters, maybe more than any of the other three.In a previous post, I mentioned an old gig I had at Cornerstone Brands, a direct marketing company/retailer. Their flagship brand is Frontgate, which offers high-quality functional items for affluent homeowners. The tagline for Frontgate is Outfitting America’s
Direct marketing is a three-legged stool: Audience, Offer, and Content. But context still matters, maybe more than any of the other three.In a previous post, I mentioned an old gig I had at Cornerstone Brands, a direct marketing company/retailer. Their flagship brand is Frontgate, which offers high-quality functional items for affluent homeowners. The tagline for Frontgate is Outfitting America’s
Young people are spending more time per day consuming media on a cell phone (49 minutes) than talking on a cell phone (33 minutes)
Young people are “watching 38 more minutes per day of TV content in 2009 versus 2004, but 25 minutes less (per day) of it is live on an actual TV.”
In addition to these two stats, a few other things really jumped out to me including:
Over the past decade, the total amount of media an 8-to-18 year-old consumes in a day has jumped 3 hours and 15 minutes to over 10 hours and 45 minutes a day.
3 out of 4 young people own an iPod/MP3 Player and 2 out of 3 own a cell phone
More TV Content is consumed by DVD (12%), Mobile (12%) and Online (9%) than by DVR (8%). All totaled, only 59% of TV Content is consumed live.
Time spent playing video games is up 50% in the past 5 years to 1 hour and 13 minutes per day.
7 out of 10 young people have a TV in their bedroom.
I point these stats out because in 10 years, today’s young people will be tomorrow’s general market. These are amazing shifts in the media landscape and something brands need to pay attention to today…whether or not you currently target younger consumers.
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] This. Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit. Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?" Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out. -- Source---------Ed Nicholson draws a bright line between cause marketing and what he calls cause branding. As director of
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] This. Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit. Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?" Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out. -- Source---------Ed Nicholson draws a bright line between cause marketing and what he calls cause branding. As director of
Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [holds up one finger] This. Mitch: Your finger? Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don't mean shit. Mitch: But, what is the "one thing?" Curly: [smiles] That's what *you* have to find out. -- Source---------Ed Nicholson draws a bright line between cause marketing and what he calls cause branding. As director of
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