21st Century Media / Social Media | Hard Knox Life: A Brand Manager Blog by Dave Knox

Will Yahoo and Intel finally deliver on the promise of Internet-enabled TV in our Living Room?

December 29, 2008

Yahoo's Widget Channel software for TVs shows a link to Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing site, stock prices, and an advertisement. (Credit: Yahoo)

At CES 2009, Intel and Yahoo will reveal the latest in their Connected TV initiative, a program they hope will “mark the beginning of their Internet-fueled expansion to the world of TV.” According to CNET, the companies have different goals with the Connected TV initiative.

For Yahoo, it’s establishment of the Widget Channel, a software foundation that can house programs for browsing photos, using the Internet’s abundant socially connected services, watching YouTube videos, or digging deeper into TV shows–and through which Yahoo will be able to show advertisements. For Intel, it’s a foothold in an industry whose microprocessors have typically been cheaper, less powerful, and less power-hungry.

Internet-enabled TV (also called IPTV) has been a buzzword for years now, but it has also been filled with lots of empty promises for consumers. With that in mind, the Connected TV initiative has taken a consumer view, instead of a technology view, to figure out the future looks like. Thanks to the help of several of Intel-employed anthropologists, they concluded that:

Unlike the PC, TVs are social. People watch it together, and what they watch turns into what they talk about. Another difference from PCs: it must be simple and reliable. When bringing the Internet to the TV, You couldn’t just turn it into a PC.

Probing further, the anthropologists asked people what they thought the future of TV would look like. CNET reports that the answers fit into several key buckets:

Something that would provide relevant information in real time, such as the weather right before heading to a sporting event.
Something that would connect them to other people they care about, a variation of social networking.
Something that would let them participate more with what they’re watching, for example by figuring out where a show’s cast members already had acted, or finding, rating, and sorting content.
Not a full-on Web browser, nor a keyboard to clutter up the room.

Additionally,when Connected TV initiative showed consumers initial concepts, they learned that:

People didn’t like the Widget Channel controls appearing on the left edge of the screen. Instead, people prefer the bottom, where they’re accustomed to seeing text already.
People expressed a powerful desire for a big button to make the software go away in one fell swoop–no menus or arrow keys or complication–so they could get back to watching TV when they wanted. That big button is also used to activate the Widget Channel.
Nobody wanted yet another remote control.

All of this research has led to the latest iteration of Internet-enabled TV that Yahoo and Intel will unveil at CES 2009. While I may be an optimist, I really think they have potential of pulling this off and bringing the promise of IPTV to life. Here’s why:

An industry alliance can drive simplicity: The struggle for IPTV has always been the number of players involved. You need a solution that works for the TV manufacturers, cable companies, Internet media players, etc. The Connected TV initiative shows promise because it brings together Yahoo, Intel and multiple TV manufacturers. If IPTV is ever going to live up to the promise, it will take an alliance like this to pull off.
Connected Consumers want information at their fingertips: When I mentioned this article on Twitter, Jon Burg asked if web-enabled TV is something consumers will care about in 2009. I think they will but only if it is information they care about and want in real-time. For instance, every Fall I sit with my laptop open on Sundays, tracking my Fantasy Football teams. I’d much rather have that info streaming through widgets on the TV while I watch the games. Same goes for customized CNN news feed or stock tracker running across the bottom of the screen.
Advertisers want a replacement to interruption marketing: Lots of people have been forecasting the death of TV advertising. But let’s face it…that industry isn’t going away anytime soon as long as TV is central to people’s lives. However, marketers do want a replacement to the ever-increasingly DVR skipped :30 second TV ad. If marketers can join in the Connected TV initiative, they might just be able to help shape the future of TV advertising to one that is consumer-friendly…and dare I say, even beneficial to the consumer.

Whether or not the Connected TV initiative finally delivers on the high hopes of IPTV is anyone’s guess. But I’m hopeful they pull it off and equally intrigued by the opportunities it will open up for Brand Managers and marketers worldwide.

4 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media | Tagged: consumer, Digital, Intel, IPTV, Marketing, Yahoo | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

Mashable says brands don’t belong on Twitter

December 15, 2008

Mashable sparked an interesting debate on Friday when Dr Mark Drapeau made the bold statement that Twitter should ban brands from the site. In the post “Do Brands Belong on Twitter”, Drapeau stated that:

Thinking about what might be best for people, in my opinion Twitter should not only not charge brands for membership, but also ban them altogether. Not unlike Facebook and other sites, every account would represent a person using a real name, location, and picture.

Drapeau explains his stance by arguing that a brand must have a person behind it:

Twitter is about people sharing information with other people. So how do one-dimensional organizational brands fit into this mix? When you really think about it, they don’t. As an analogy, when you call customer service, a human answers the phone (eventually) and tells you their name – and you’re not talking to “Sprint” or “Dell” but rather “Steve” or “Danny.”

Now while I completely disagree with that statement that Twitter should “ban brands altogether”, I do see the rationale that Twitter is about sharing information with other people. I actually think the brands doing Social Media right are the ones that base their strategy off of this simple point. If you just throw up your brand logo on Twitter (or any Social Media platform) and expect to have a conversation with consumers, you are doing it all wrong. You are just trying to act the easy way out with one-way communication.

Brands belong in Social Media, but you need to humanize the brand

On the same day that Mashable said brands should be banned, the folks at iMedia highlighted “How to be a Twitter All-Star.” Focused on brands like Flying Dog Brewery, Zappos and Southwest Airlines, the article proves the point that brands can enjoy great success on Twitter or any other Social Media platform. But doing so requires them to humanize the brand by putting a person behind the logo. And requires them to work with a different set of rules.

Christi Day, the Social Media face for Southwest Airlines, explained their approach as follows:

“Twitter empowers us to be authentic. Getting real means being empowered, engaged and prepared. It is necessary to have the person in the Twitter role equipped to handle news management, customer communications, to be able to write compelling tweets and be willing to be engaged at all times.”

Let’s face it, this isn’t the type of marketing approach that most Brand Managers are use to. But Twitter is just the latest technology to force us to think about change in our jobs. If you haven’t sat down and thought about the impact of Social Media on your brand (and your career), maybe it is time you did.

NOTE: Michael Brito from Intel joined in on the discussion with a great post on why brands do belong on Twitter.

6 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media | Tagged: customer service, Online Communities, Social Media, social network, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

How should Brand Managers approach the Social Graphs of Facebook Connect and OpenID?

December 7, 2008

Over the past week, it would be hard not to notice the debate around social graphs and in particular, Facebook Connect versus OpenID. The folks over at ReadWriteWeb summed it up best when they wrote:

This battle isn’t about “single sign-on” – it’s about the payload that comes with it (friend networks, personal data, maybe more), it’s about the developer communities, usability and ownership. It’s very important to the future of our user experience online and it’s a fascinating study in contrasts.

The importance was further embedded in my mind after I finished a stellar presentation from the folks at Razorfish where they envision the potential for social graphs for brands. As they put it:

We believe that portable social graphs coming from Facebook, MySpace, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are going to transform how consumers interact with digital technology and each other. Marketers and web product managers must take notice today.

So what does this mean for Brand Managers?

In my eyes, Social Graphs have the potential to be one of the biggest influences on our Digital Strategies for years to come.

But don’t just take my word for it. Consider what Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang outlined as key takeaways from the Razorfish presentation.

The social graph, when linked with traditional websites will radically change how we find, research, purchase, and support products.
Reviews, ratings, and critiques about products will become more relevant as you can start to get information from your own network.
Soon, social technologies will be pervasive and will impact every website –even if they choose not to participate
Brands, and their interactive marketing agencies, are starting to include social elements in all aspects of their marketing efforts.

Consider these opportunities for brands that Razorfish outlined:

Key influencer identification: Brands make a lot of guesses today to determine influencers. But imagine the potential if you could easily see the number of Twitter followers a person has, the number of Facebook groups they belong to and the number of posts they do on their blog.
Product suggestions through profile scraping: Amazon gets a lot of praise for their product recommendations. But consider how much more powerful these reco’s would be if they could also use all the information listed in your online profiles.
See reviews from people you know: Pretty self explanatory. I’d much rather see reviews from my circle of friends & co-workers than wade through hundreds of reviews from strangers.
Consult your friends at the point of purchase: If your Social Graph is connected to an eCommerce engine, you could instantly ask your friends for advice on a purchase without leaving the buying process.

Obviously the potential of Social Graphs should not be debated. Instead, the debate should be on which format offers the biggest opportunity for Brand Managers. Should we side with one format? Or should we offer consumers both sign-ins as part of our digital brand experiences? Or should we sit on the sidelines and see what consumers decide? Or should we use our influence as brands (and holders of marketing budgets) to force the companies to work together to create a common Social Graph for the entire web?

What do you think?

NOTE: For another interesting take on social graphs, you should read the thoughts of Louis Gray of Google Friend Connect.

4 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media | Tagged: Facebook, Facebook Connect, Google Friend Connect, Jeremiah Owyang, MySpace, OpenID, social network | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

Congratulations Motrin. You just proved why every brand needs to understand Social Media

November 16, 2008

Are you still trying to convince your management why your brand should be monitoring Social Media? Well if you are a Consumer Packaged Good brand (or any brand really), just look at what happened to Motrin over the past couple of days and the reaction of Motrin Moms.

A simple search on Twitter of #motrinmoms will show you that they pissed off a lot of people with their latest ad around “babywearing.” Mommy Bloggers are not people you want to mess with and you sure better understand the sandbox you are playing in if you do them wrong. For instance, just look at this Consumer Generated Media that has already popped up in response. Not exactly brand content you want at the top of search results.

The Lesson for Brand Managers:

Motrin screwed up. It happens. But in today’s world of Social Media, the place they really screwed up was in not monitoring what people were saying about the brand. This PR disaster is happening underneath their nose and no one on the brand is responding. Not their advertising agency, not their Public Relations group and not the brand itself. The unfortunate fact is that company’s haven’t trained Brand Managers to respond quickly to situations like this. That needs to change….and it needs to change fast.

People are going to be talking about your brand, with or without the Brand Manager‘s permission. This simple fact is reason enough that you should be monitoring the conversations around your brand. Motrin is just the latest brand to learn this lesson the hard way.

UPDATE – Well it looks like Motrin is trying to respond. If you commented on their website, it looks like their VP of Marketing has a response that is being sent out (Thanks to Amy Gates for the lead). And the Motrin.com site has been taken down for now, but thanks to the power of YouTube, you can still see the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmykFKjNpdY (Thanks Bill Seaver)

22 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media, Brand Marketing | Tagged: Babywearing, brand, brand management, Consumer Generated Media, Marketing, Motrin, Social Media, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

Why I’m Loving the new LinkedIn Applications

November 3, 2008

I have been a big fan of LinkedIn for a long time. But its never been one of those social networking sites that I visit every day or spend much time on. Instead, I would bounce onto the site when I needed to add a new business connection or update my profile.

But that might just change thanks to the new LinkedIn Applications that were launched last week. While they only have a handful of applications right now, I am already finding them tremendously useful for tapping into information about my business network. While they have similarities to what you might find on Facebook, the real difference is the type of network you are tapping into. Each and every application on LinkedIn is extremely relevent to my business network. Take for instance the following:

SlideShare: If you are regular reader of Hard Knox Life, you know I love presentations. Now, thanks to the LinkedIn App, I can see when my network posts a new presentation. Why is this so important? Despite my heavy use of SlideShare, I don’t follow many people on the site, which means I miss new presentations from friends. That’s all going to change now.

Reading List by Amazon: I’m a big reader and I’m always looking for recommendations from friends. But I’ve found most of the recommendations happen face to face, which means I end up reading what every P&G’er is reading. Now I can get the opinion of all my friends to see if that new Seth Godin book is worth the time.

My Travel by TripIt: I started using Upcoming a few months ago to track my business travel. So I was a little disappointed to see TripIt as the travel app on LinkedIn. But I still see a huge value of being able to see who else might be where I’m traveling, especially since the new job means my travel will be increasing quite a bit. We’ll see if TripIt wins me over.

2 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media, Presentation | Tagged: Business networking, Facebook, LinkedIn, LinkedIn Applications, seth godin, social network | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

Paul Gillin unveils the Secrets of Social Media Marketing

October 13, 2008

Via Amazon

Recently Paul Gillin, the author of The New Influencers, offered up 250 free galley copies of his latest book Secrets of Social Media Marketing. The book arrived right before we left Arkansas and it turned out to be a great read for the road. What I loved most was the honesty from Gillin upfront. As he wrote in the beginning:

This book isn’t intended for the 10% of marketers who are on the leading edge. It’s for the 90% who are still figuring out how to start.

Along these lines, Paul bluntly calls out the book as a “How To” guide for marketers to get into Social Media. I think this step by step approach is exactly what most Brand Managers need and it is something that has been missing from most social media books out there.

Now with that in mind, here are my favorite quotes and facts from Secrets of Social Media Marketing:

“Embracing change is the only sure success strategy in a business world that is evolving faster than we have ever known.”

“[Marketers] spent decades refining tactics built around messages…they are now being told messages don’t matter. They need to become Chief Conversation Officers.”

“It took 40 years for the TV to reach 2/3 of homes in the US. The Internet did it less than 15 years.”

“47% of marketers cited ‘fear of loss of control’ as an impediment to social media adoption”

“Jupiter Research estimates that $12 billion dollars worth of TV advertising is blown away by TiVo and similar devices in 2007”

“Many marketers measure their importance and influence by the size of their budgets. Social media campaigns are so cost-efficient that marketers may actually see their budgets – and their status – fall over time. While this doesn’t make much sense, it is a fact of corporate life.”

And finally, I love this quote from my good friend and fellow P&G’er, Ted McConnell:

“How much control do you give up? That’s like asking the person holding you up at gunpoint how much money to give them.” @ ad:tech 2006

Needless to say, this book has quickly gone to the top of my must read list for Brand Managers.

5 Comments | 21st Century Media / Social Media, Book Review, Brand Marketing | Tagged: Book Review, business, Influencer, Marketing, New Influencers, Paul Gillin, Social Media | Permalink
Posted by Dave Knox

A Brand Manager’s Take on MySpace Music

September 25, 2008

If you haven’t heard by now, the much-anticipated MySpace Music is officially live after getting EMI to come onboard as the final major label on the site. Though they still don’t have a CEO in place, they do have a rumored $2 billion valuation and some serious buzz at launch. All the usual tech bloggers like ReadWriteWeb and Techcrunch have great summaries of the site so I won’t go into a rundown here. Instead, I want to provide the perspective of a Brand Manager looking at this as a way to digitally connect with consumers.

First a little background since I have a pretty long history with MySpace.

For starters, when I was working as an Assistant Brand Manager on Secret, we did one of the first-ever CPG campaigns on the site, which included co-branded music page with a then unknown artist named Rihanna.
Second, I have some very good friends who work at MySpace, thanks in part to the above campaign
Finally, I actually met my girlfriend on MySpace, a surprising fact that has been pretty useful in games of “two truths and a lie.”

So what all this means is that I have a soft spot for MySpace and I’m usually pulling for them with new initiatives. Thankfully on this latest program, they gave me plenty of ammunition to cheer about.

Here are my thoughts:

MySpace’s key to success will be capitalizing on their brand equity of “discovery”: When I hear about a new band, MySpace is always the first place I go. No matter if the band is signed to a major or a complete undiscovered, I know there is a 99% chance they have a MySpace where I will be able to hear a few of their songs. Theoretically I could do the same with iTunes but it has always been hit or miss if they have new bands. In the short-term, MySpace won’t be able to win by just promoting big, new releases. Instead, they neeed to focus on their equity of discovery and promote the up and coming bands like crazy.

MySpace Music won’t win over marketers if it is just another “banner ad” media buy: There has been a lot of debate about the CPM’s MySpace will need to charge in order to make this ad-supported format work. At the heart of the debate is the fact that current social networking media buy CPM’s are extremely low. The fact is that if MySpace treats this program like more banner ad media inventory, then they have already lost. What they need to do is create truly compelling, holistic campaigns that tie bands to brands. The first appeal of MySpace to me 4 years ago as a markter was that MySpace gave me access to artists I couldn’t afford to sign individual deals with. They were the gateway for me associating with some amazing music. MySpace needs to leverage that strength to create some really compelling marketing campaigns that in the end make CPM’s irrelevent. The type of advertising that Pandora offers on their site is a start, but MySpace needs to go much, much further than that. Create marketing programs that exist on and off the web.

Amazon.com made a brilliant move partnering with MySpace and providing DRM-Free Music: Honestly until I read about the deal with MySpace Music, I didn’t even know that Amazon offered music downloads. Now they are going to be a click away whenever I listen to new music. However, the key to this deal working out for them as well, will be point #1 above. If Amazon can become the place to buy new, up and coming music, then they can put a serious dent into iTunes market share. When I hear about a band like Benjamin Del Shreve, I want to be able to go straight to their MySpace page, listen to their songs and buy them if I want. I want to stop having to flip a coin in the hopes that iTunes might carry the band.

MySpace Music needs to bring the social back to music: In order for MySpace Music to truly be revolutionary, I think they need to bring the social back to music. Fred Wilson over at A VC has talked at length about his love of mix tapes and MySpace seems to be listening. But they need to avoid having MySpace Music be a walled garden where how I listen to and share music is limited. Don’t make me go to MySpace to use your service. Let me download an Adobe Air player for my desktop. Also make it easy for me to share my favorite music with my friends. Give me a widget on my blog showing my playlist. Hell, find a way to let that same widget live on Facebook since to me Facebook and MySpace aren’t competitors. MySpace needs to not make the horrible mistake of acting like a portal and forgetting that the future of the web is social media…not isolation.

Treat MySpace Music like a brand and hire accordingly: As a huge music fan, I see a lot of potential in MySpace Music. But I also see them making a couple of mistakes that could have major negative impacts on the site being as revolutionary as they want. In my opinion, the best thing they could do is hire a CEO who gets not only the Social Web, but also Brand Marketing. MySpace Music needs to act like a brand, not an Internet Portal. Don’t just hire a web guy…and please don’t hire a media/music person. Get someone that can build this into the brand that it has the potential to be.