FRANKthoughts

Isn’t it funny the reason people criticize because deep down, they really care. If they didn’t care, why would they bother?

The same applies to your Brand.

There will always be customers who complain that the service is too slow, staff are not friendly, it’s over priced, etc. They criticize because they believe your brand can be better.  They want you to succeed. They want you to be a better brand so they can engage with you.  Perhaps fostering a positive relationship.

So don’t dismiss critics and complainers. If you can listen to them and address their concerns, you may be able to switch them to powerful advocates for your brand. A great story for them to tell their friends.

 A thought of the day:

Influencers broadcast and advocate a brand or product to their friends and peers. It happens at home, it happens at work, and it happens online. They have an active role in influencing your customers in purchasing your product.

Influencers are typically hungry for information… more so than your average joe. They seek the latest news, to be first in the know, and consume information continuously. They also enjoy sharing this information… proudly in social gatherings, emails, blogs, among peers…. they are great story tellers of your brand or product.

So, there must be a need to feed the influencer’s hunger. Why not give them a story to tell through content (eg. blog or video) and experiences (eg. online and in-store). Help them share their stories with utilities and tools (eg. social media and mobile).

Real estate agents top the list of sleep-deprived professionals.

Property dealers manage to sleep just five hours and 50 minutes a night, according to a survey of 4000 workers commissioned by the budget hotel chain Travelodge.

Truck and taxi drivers, hit by soaring fuel prices, sleep just six hours and 16 minutes a night, ahead of bankers, who average six hours and 23 minutes of shut eye.

The poll found media professionals get the most sleep - seven hours and 12 minutes.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23948663-5012749,00.html

We had a recent debate internally about the role of Web2.0 (such as communities, social networks, blogs, etc) for clients. Who is doing it? Who is leading clients to do this? The media agency? The creative agency? The PR agency? The comms strategy agency? Each in itself is limited to effectively review, recommend, implement, and most importantly, maintain a Web2.0 strategy. A constant Beta evolving creature, it is often neglected because of it’s complexity. A well implemented Web2.0 strategy does not have an “end campaign life” and sometimes have slow initial build up (communities) which makes it tough to integrate into a standard campaign brief with traditional media.

A quick review of the 2007 Top 50 advertisers in Australia (a very rough snapshot and does not include all advertisers), we can see Interruption vs Web2.0 strategies at work. Adapting S&P’s Brand Presence Matrix, the Vertical is Traditional “Interruption” SOV and the Horizontal is Web2.0 “Conversational”.

About 90% of the Top 50 advertisers in Australia still play in creating large SOV through traditional interruption model. TVs, Radio, Outdoor, Banners, Press, etc. Jostling for the best spot approach. We called the top left quadrant Visible Brands. There also exist Invisible Brands such as Caltex and Toshiba who we are familiar with but are quiet in the advertising space. Perhaps the most desirable place to exist is in the Magnetic Brands space. Where big ad $$ are still being spent but they are also heavily active in the Conversational space. In Australia, we have seen limited use with more “novelty” approach of temporary communities that dissipate at the end of a campaign.

The most intriguing are Remarkable brands who spend little or no ad $$ but are active in communities. They command great brand advocates and hear of positive WOM from their users. Admittedly, I struggled to come up with local brands in Australia that play in this space… which is a pity and also demonstrates the market’s lack of ability to develop Web2.0 strategies. I believe the greatest reason is the lack of an acceptable model by agencies and marketers to adapt into existing ad “interruption” models. The increasing fragmentation, rising cost, and the trend of decreasing returns of traditional media will force a greater reliance on Web2.0 strategies.

Create your own game using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology in Popfly…

What do you think?

REAL or FAKE

More in this article here >>

And if it’s a viral, to who’s benefit? Or just a bit of fun?

We first posted this back in March on the Future of Advertising.

Uwe Gutschow and Don Longfellow have picked up the “What’s Next In Marketing & Advertising” presentation and evolved it to Moving from Advertising to Marketing. Again, it’s a fantastic presentation on the need to shift focus on marketing than advertising as a solution.

“Dave Balter, a friend and CEO of BzzAgent, one of the leading Word of Mouth Marketing Platform in the USA, is about to publish his new book “”The Word of Mouth Manual”. But contrary to traditional publishing, Dave has launched an interesting WOM marketing experience. 20 top marketing websites have been selected to offer their readers to download for free the pdf version of the book.”

by Buzz News 

…or you can purchase the book for $45 at Amazon.

Download here >>

While sorting through my emails, I opened an email from my Coolhunter subscription.

I saw something cool… clicked on the image link to find out more info. Assuming it will take me to Coolhunter’s article, it brought me to:

The Victorian Tourism site! WTF?!

The average user will immediately close this window because:

a) its not what i’m after

b) I’ve been misled… which also says something about TheCoolHunter’s operations (which they’ve lost me as a subscriber)

c) and it’s not even contextually relevant!

With eMitch (the digital arm of Mitchell’s media buying group for the Vic Gov account) responsible for all things digital for Vic Gov media, I say a big bad slap on the hand for being LAZY and DODGEY media buying. Thou forgive me if eMitch was not responsible for this…. but this cannot be excused for who ever is responsible. Clients will undoubtedly be misguided that “Yep, I’ve hit my objective to deliver 10,000 people to my Lost & Found campaign”… though at closer look at figures such as engagement through time spent on site and page views per visitor will uncover this mask of deceit!!

And who’s offering these deals? Zookoda.com (*Incorrect)

A look at their click tracking url also reveals that the campaign manager is aware of this deal:

http://www.visitvictoria.com/displayobject.cfm/objectid.B4CF9147-8584-48C2-B85D1A20ED4DAB3C/
?utm_source=thecoolhunter&utm_medium=email_enewsletter&utm_content=top_leaderboard
&utm_campaign=lost_and_found_2008

In 2008, we’ve been expecting the long tail of social networks beginning to appear. To give you an idea, check out this link to see the companies that are offering whitelabel social sites. 40+ social sites plus linkedin, facebook, bebo, myspace, etc… There are social networks and community sites beyond MySpace/FB for Youth, even for Mums, Dads, GrandPas, GrandMas, and freakily the Departed..

Youth
I’m primarily seeking communties that are under 18, beyond just MySpace.

Club Penguin, Disney
8-12, Virtual World

Stardolls
Young Girls 10-17, Social Network, virtual dolls

Barbie Girls
6-16, Virtual World

WeeWorld
Youth, Avatar based Social network

Zookazoo
6-10 year olds, Virtual World

Club Penguin, Disney
8-12, Social network, virtual dolls

Gaia
Teens, Virtual World

Habbo Hotel
European Youth, Virtual World

Cyworld
South Korean youth, (and now global), virtual/social network

Neopets
Youth, Virtual Pets

Pixie Hollow, Disney
Young Girls, Virtual Pet

Teen Second Life
Teen, Virtual World

Webkinz
Youth, Virtual World

Piczo
Teens, Social Network

Shining Stars, by Russ
Youth, ‘name a star’

Puzzle Pirates
Youth, Gaming, Virtual World

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50+
Now of course, boomers and retired are also going to be on lifestyle social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, but I’m seeking examples that are focused in on reaching these folks.

Eons
50+, Social NetworkBOOMj
50+, Social Network

Tee Bee Dee
Boomers, Social Network

There’s a larger list of Boomer sites, many I’ve not heard from.

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Departed
Someone suggests this in the comments in Friendfeed, makes sense.
Legacy
Respectance
Tributes.com
SweetMemoriesSite
ChristianMemorials
PreciousMemoriesAndMore*Thanks to Jeremy for putting this list together.

The incremental increase niche social sites are a natural progression of the marketing environment… carving your own market.

So currently who owns your network? Who essential owns your friends? I wouldn’t be surprised that part of the T&Cs while registering into MySpace/Facebook forfeits your ownership (thou I haven’t actually read it… who does?!).

This brings rise to Data Portability of your social network. One point where all sites like Facebook and Footbo.com can pull my social network from. All my friends stored in a single point so I can fluidly move across different social networks based on my interests. This is an iniative Google has taken on with OpenSocial. Now Google owns my email, my searches, my maps, my computer, my addresses, and my friends.