ZEITGEIST

Quotes and phrases from the past few weeks that made me stop and think.

“Anything you say, can and will be uploaded, screen- grabbed and re-published. Get used to it.” David Armano, Logic + Emotion

“The premise is that if you tap a designer, or a designer’s problem solving approach, to tackle standard business problems, you will get game-changing results.” Todd Wasserman, Brandweek

“Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head. Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.” Rick Burnes, HubSpot

“”I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory, he said.Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.” Ted McConnell, general manager-interactive marketing and innovation at Procter & Gamble Co

“The thing we’re learning is that clients are not really organized to evaluate and approve digital programs that integrate ecommerce and customer service. “It’s easy to figure out who makes the decisions on mobile, on web design and on search programs. But if you’re taking all of those things together for a new way of doing business, it’s difficult to find one person to make that decision.” Clark Kokich, CEO Razorfish

 ”The traditional demographic definition of “youth” is no longer applicable in today’s society, and marketers should target consumers based upon their engagement and participation in youth culture rather than on their chronological age” Viacom Brand Solutions International “Golden Age of Youth” study

You down with all of this? Maybe u need a new viewzi.

 - Keith Gerr

The intrepid W+K team journeyed this week to Kammi in Lapland for a two day planning session with Nokia where we experienced the very finest in Finnish hospitality. This involved an exhilarating snowmobile safari through the snowy forest, a trip across the Russian border and an evening at Zone bar in Ruka, a place where handrails like the ones you find for the use of standing passengers on a bus have been fixed to the ceiling to give the exuberant young patrons something to hang onto for support while dancing on the tables...

 ...which they did pretty much continuously. Except when we were hogging the karaoke.

The snowmobiling was totally brilliant.

"So, if in the forest you are set upon by wolves..."

We were warned not to shut off our engines if we went off the track on our snowmobiles as there had been packs of wolves in the area recently killing reindeer. Our guide claimed to have fought off a wolf recently with his knife. He seemed serious but it can be hard to tell…

Chesters and Davidson not paying proper attention to snowmobile safety briefing.

W+K founder Dan Wieden looked a little apprehensive about the snowmobiling expedition.

But we achieved our target of zero fatalities.

We also got naked (yes, yes, completely naked) in the smoke sauna and lashed our sweating selves with twigs and leaves (Tony was particularly enthusiastic about thoroughly scourging himself) before running out into the snow for a plunge in the frozen lake, a hole having been broken in the surface of the ice to admit our quivering bodies. The quite excruciating coldness of the snow on your bare feet on the run/slip/hop between sauna and lake made the freezing black lake water seem almost not so bad. Someone described the immersion as feeling like ‘having your skin pierced by a thousand tiny needles’. Which didn’t necessarily sound like something to look forward to. But it was certainly an invigorating experience that left us all feeling much refreshed.

We stayed in beautiful log cabins, constructed from massive tree trunks and extremely cosy inside.

Planning Director Kevin Chesters kept us entertained throughout the trip and particularly when he took over the mic and performed a "comedy" monologue that lasted the entire duration of a half hour bus ride.

He was assisted by prompts from Nic Owen: ‘Tell us about your granny and the Germans! Tell us about your geography teacher! Tell us about you first date with Mrs Chesters!’ (For the record, this last anecdote involved a romantic dinner at Subway. Knowing that she was French, Kev though a baguette would be just the thing. Kev being tall and Mrs C being not, the rumour is that she doesn’t yet know of his baldness.)

Apart from the sauna, the snowmobiles, the karaoke, the comedy and the evil liquorice-flavoured liqueurs, it was all just work, work, work.

Finnish festive greetings from Nic and Ben:

...and also from Matt:

Gooden, Chesters, Davidson, Owen: big beers all round.

Welcome to Optimism comes to you this week from Finland, with its traditional, er, bier kellers.

“Our members are excited about the potential of social media, but most have not yet fully integrated social media practices into their traditional marketing efforts,” says Richard Guha, Chairman of the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). “While many marketers are worried they’re missing the boat, in reality even the Fortune 500 companies don’t feel they’ve mastered social media just yet.” 

As reported in a recent MarketingVOX article, MENG has released some data from a survey of it’s members. The big headline and opportunity for agencies is that “80% have not yet fully integrated the core elements of web 2.0 into their marketing efforts.” The survey’s release was very timely for me - as over the past few weeks I was reflecting on the challenges fellow marketers have told me they face in executing in the social web and remedies that help them overcome. In no particular order, here are some thoughts:

• Educate the organization - Chances are, it’s not just your client who needs convincing, it’s probably their boss and various other departments who have a hand in their companies digital marketing (i.e. IT, Customer Service etc.). When putting together a fancy ppt with the latest social web data, keep those other folks in mind. Don’t just include general data on Facebook and MySpace, add data/ideas that’s specific to the 2.0 trends of your clients industry and operations. Talk about the technology, set-up, man-power etc. (i.e. is it a hosted app? what kind of maintenence will be needed? will the call center suddenly be flooded with inquiries?). Just like a candidate running for public office, prepare to stump in front of the clients company many times.
• Partner with your client - All agencies claim to be partners. But with web 2.0, you’re really going to have to step up to the plate. One of the prime barriers to clients opening blogs, Vimeo pages and Second Life real-estate is that they do not have anyone on staff who has the time to moniter audience response and track social metrics. Clients don’t want their brand batted around without being able to respond on their behalf - rightly so I may add. So step-up, offer to recruit, hire and manage that position - a Social Brand Activist. Oh and by the way - offer to share in the costs of the position. If assuring your client is that pivatol, it’s probably worth the investment. Make up the margin on the programming.
• Think small - Trying to convince your client to hand-over the entire paid media budget is not going to work. Like all emerging media, budgeting is an artful evolution. As the social web begins to provide ROI so will the dollars follow. So study the conversational landscape and pitch a test program. Jointly decide on the success metrics and stay disciplined in analyzing the data, optimizing the experience and reporting the good, bad and ugly. Success and failure go hand-in-hand (remember PointCast?)
• Measure new stuff - There’s not many case studies out there demonstrating how social media positively increased sales. It’s a difficult measure - the indirect nature of the media people consume on a way to a sale is difficult to track. There are however, plenty of studies linking the impact blogs and word-of-mouth are having on on/offline sales. So before you go telling your client how they’re going to be the next Zappos, have a sit-down about some metrics that also matter: engagement, referrals, blog mentions, inbound/outbound links, influencers etc.
• Self-service - Introduce your client to free social tracking tools and techniques like BlogPulse, Compete, Google Alerts and TweetBeeps . Not only will these free tools provide insightful data, you’ll get a “Wow!, these are free - Thanks” comment from your client.
• Show and Tell - Do some basic research on Google, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr and various other social sites and keep track of how your client’s brand is being trafficked. How are people expressing their like or dislike of your clients brand - through words, audio, video, pictures, grafiti? Is your client aware that their brand is being mashed-up? Dig this stuff up and present it to them. They need to know the positive, neutral and negative.
• Be practical - Suggest that they add a social-bookmarking widget to each page (i.e. sharethis.com)

So that’s what I got for you now. Please share others. As 3.0 is right around the corner :)

 - Keith Gerr

The fourth Stairwell Exhibiton is up.

'Lido' - A Reportage Series by Ophelia Wynne

In the dark, wet weather what better to brighten up your day than enjoying photographs of a sun-drenched Saltdean Lido. This series of documentary photographs, some of which were featured last year in The Sunday Times Magazine, capture the absurd and overlooked beauty of British life. 

 Ophelia began her photography career working for The Face magazine documenting the club/youth scene and although known more for her portrait work some of her clients include British Vogue, Teen Vogue, W Magazine and various weekend supplements.

 More info to be found here: http://www.opheliawynne.com/

 Let the sunshine in people.