LaughlinOutLoud

I am blessed to live in a house with a child who has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome (AS).  AS is a form of autism in which an individual can’t comprehend the social rules we all learn at an early age.  They can’t engage in the conversational give and take we all take for granted.  Their conversations with others often become monologues, and people quickly tune them out.  And the AS child is left wondering why no one is listening.

It dawned on me that many marketers are suffering from the same type of affliction.  They are holding on to the rules and norms of the past, and trying to reach their target audiences through one-way monologues.

The problem is, people’s expectations have changed.   People don’t want to be spoken to.  They want to be engaged in a dialogue with brands.  They want transparency and to be heard.

And it’s not just kids and Millennials that are engaging with brands.

In fact, according to a recent study of 354 top executives at large U.S. companies (those with sales of greater than $1 billion) by Forbes Insights in association with Google, more than half of executives under 40 say they use Twitter daily or several times a week.  86% of all executives said they occasionally or frequently click on linked words from web articles and content.

In other words, even in the corner offices of some of the country’s greatest companies, engagement and dialogues are occurring every day.

Is your brand engaged in conversations?  Or are people starting to tune you out?

Chat Roulette is another one of those things that I (a) can’t believe exist (b) can’t figure out the appeal of and (c) can’t seem to turn away from.

chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

The video provides a great summary of the newly-minted phenomena. For those who are new to the concept, it couldn’t be simpler. The website randomly connects you to a video chat partner. You chat until one of you moves on. (This act is called “nexting” and, at first, it’s hard not to take personally.)  You are then randomly connected with someone else.

The concept fascinates me. It’s the internet – anonymity + social networking + user-generated content + addictive behavior + sense of discovery – in a nutshell. More than that, it’s a real window into the global village. Real people. Real lives. Real grown men dressed in catsuits.

And, to me, it’s a great reminder. That people are not rational. They are not expected. And they are not stock images. Whether or not I’m ever able to carry on a real, live video chat with a randomly selected stranger (let’s just say I get “nexted” – a lot), it’s good to be reminded that they’re out there. And even when they have nothing better to do, most people have very little patience or attention for what you have to say.

I get asked all the time what’s going to happen to advertising in the future. Good question… I wonder about that a lot. It’s hard to know where to turn your head next. Truth is, advertising hinges on the future of media, just like a lot of businesses.

Mobile and social media are changing faster than you can keep up with. What’s interesting is that the focus has been on two discussions. 1.) The death of print media. and 2.) The convergence of on-line and broadcast, or TVs and computers. On top of that, everyone’s expecting mobile and social media to be game changers, if they aren’t already.

The great thing about the future is that it’s always different than what we think it’s going to be. Well, if you’re wondering how traditional print magazines ever hope to survive in the future, as soon as next year, check out this article about traditional content and the Apple tablet. It’s from a web-site that’s speculating about the new Apple tablet rumored for 2010 release and how Time, Inc. is creating content in anticipation. Is it print any more? Is it a computer anymore? Is it a TV? Is it the internet?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And then some. I can’t wait!

The great thing about the future is it’s always different than what we think it’s going to be. I’m not sure about the future, but I do know it’s great in demo form.

All data not sourced comes from Technorati's 2009 State of The Blogosphere

The Nielsen company recently reported that Americans spent 17% of their time on the internet on social media sites. Thatʼs nearly triple the time spent a year ago. And, while social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are driving forces for this trend, when was the last time you stopped to actually think about blogging trends?

Five years ago, plain-old everyday blogging probably seemed as foreign a concept to most internet users as Twitter did a few months ago. But, today, there are countless, free third-party platforms to give anyone (and everyone) a voice.

Technoratiʼs 2009 State Of The Blogosphere was released this week. The numbers, I think, are reflective of high-level – and evolving – social media concepts. Three points to make, for now:

Donʼt forget the conversation. I see a lot of brands just putting up deals or giveaways on Twitter and calling it a day.  Deals and contests are great. But real value comes from give and take. Bloggers know this. Itʼs why they invest the time in their craft. The number one reason given for blogging was in order to “speak my mind on areas of interest.” Of all the words they could use to describe their personal style, expert (54%), conversational (63%) and sincere (75%) were the clear leaders.

Pictures still tell 1,000 words. Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, a professor from Harvard Business School, recently completed a study on social network users. His biggest discovery? Pictures. He says, “Pictures are the killer app of all online social networks.” Bloggers embrace the power of the visual. 49% regularly use video for blog postings. 82% regularly use photos.

Theyʼre (still, really) talking about you. Iʼve talked a lot in this space about online reputation management and how if youʼre not managing your reputation online, someone else will manage it for you. 70% of bloggers report talking about products or brands on their blogs. 46% blog about brands that they love (or hate). 38% post product or brand reviews. 28% blog about some of their every day experiences in stores or with customer care. And among those who do talk about brands, almost one fifth are doing so weekly. (Note: These numbers rise significantly when you measure only corporate and self-employed bloggers.)

Earlier this year, I saw Daniel Levine speak. He used a phrase that has stuck with me since: The Tyranny of Transparency. The sharing of data and opinion is giving consumers insight that they’ve never had before. Right down to the street corner.

Consumers are more empowered than ever. This is a good thing. We can all embrace transparency by being better at what we do.

But that doesn’t mean transparency doesn’t have its irrational side. The latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey asked over 25,000 consumers in 50 countries if they trusted a number of forms of “advertising.” The most trusted source was “recommendations from people known” at 90%. No surprise there. But number two was a tie between “brand websites” and “consumer opinions posted online,” which both registered 70% of consumers reporting that they either completely or somewhat trusted these sources.

So 70% of Red Sox fans are at least somewhat trusting of the opinions of anonymous Yankee fans’ online? Would they say that face-to-face sitting in Section 312?

While this pendulum will likely swing back at some point, these numbers are actually all “up” from an identical study done in 2007.

Technorati’s 2008 State of the Blogosphere reports that 82% of bloggers post product or brand reviews and 89% post about brands that they love (or hate). As I mentioned here a few weeks ago, 62% of consumers go online to share opinions.

If 70% of consumers are trusting of these opinions, your brand has a new high-level priority on its hands. You need to manage your brand’s reputation online. Or, clearly, somebody else will.

Force of nature? 2.0 flavor of the month? Twitter is either the most important communications tool ever imagined or the predictable end of increasingly annoying presence-casting.

A post to gizmodo.com illustrates that only 5% of Twitterers have more than 100 followers. Quantcast.com reports that only 1% of Twitter users account for 35% of its visits. And an oft-cited study out this month from Pear Analytics, cites proprietary research that over 40% of tweets are “pointless babble.”

Try telling the airline industry that Twitter doesn’t matter. Or the makers of Bruno that Twitter isn’t “sticky.”

The numbers, though accurate and interesting, miss the point. And the story is in danger of getting lost.

Two things: First, a recent report from eMarketer shows that 62% of U.S. internet users go online to opine. (Full disclosure, I had to look that up. It means “to hold and state as one’s opinion.”) Twitter is one more tool your consumer can use to do that. And it is one more tool that is evolving and becoming more searchable and sharable by the day. Second, the way people consume media is changing. And Twitter allows for really specific, real time updates on content that matters to you. That’s value. My #followfriday? @kopps.

Will Twitter will be around next year or will we have moved on to the next big thing? I hope it’s the former, as I’m a huge fan of the service. But, for marketers, it matters less. Because the way it has fundamentally changed our behavior most definitely will be here to stay. So whether it’s Twitter – or something else – our approach can’t stay the same.

The Great Taste Challenge is in full swing for one of our major clients, Santa Margherita. Wine and food lovers finally have the opportunity to show off their culinary expertise and pairing skills.  Contestants can get creative by producing and starring in their homemade videos that promote their favorite original recipes complemented with one of the Santa Margherita varietals (Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, Chianti Classico).  The sky is the limit with where food fans take this and we have a feeling they’ll take it far, because the Grand Prize and Finalist Winners will receive a round-trip vacation and the chance to meet Top Chef fan favorite, restaurant owner, and cookbook author, Fabio Viviani.

Online video contests are increasing in popularity. This year alone, major category leaders, such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola, P&G, Sony, and Chipotle ran contests asking users to submit online content. Now, Terlato Wines International has been added to the ranks. Users love time in the spotlight and the ability to speak their mind! And the brands? Well they get a little something in return as well…

• Brands get the inside scoop straight from the consumer – Why do they love their product(s)? How do they use them?
• User-generated content encourages a viral reaction as a result of consumer interaction. Naturally, consumers want to show off their video, promote themselves, and get votes. This ultimately advertises the contest, promotes the brand, and increases traffic to the site.
• Brands can employ these user-generated videos as a brand-advocating vehicle.  After all, what is better than unpaid – and unsolicited – endorsement?

Want your chance in the spotlight? Visit www.SantaMargherita.us/Contest to enter the contest. Unfortunately, LC employees and close family members cannot enter, but you can still get in on the action by watching, voting, and commenting on the contestants’ videos!

The fate of newspapers has been reported on and debated ad nauseam. Time will tell, but itʼs safe to say that in its current form the newspaper model of today faces significant challenges.

And the newspaper industry is, no doubt, to blame. An article by Jack Shafer from earlier this year made a compelling case that newspapers shouldnʼt be surprised by any of this. As early as the 1970s, newspapers “considered themselves vulnerable to new entrants and were worrying aloud to anyone who would listen about falling readership.” That said, once technologies – like long forgotten videotex – were determined to pose no threat to the newsprint model, papers were happy to move on. Too much defense, not enough offense. But thatʼs another subject for another post.

Two interesting perspectives that have seen fewer headlines:

The first is a Malcolm Gladwell thought experiment: “What if we had started with everything online, and paper was only invented five years ago?” Weʼd no longer have to “lug our laptops to the breakfast table every morning.” The new solution would be lighter and more portable. Said another way, being first isnʼt always best.

The second is from a Bill Simmonsʼ podcast on espn.com. I realize that this is not the epicenter of leading business thought. But the observation is insightful. (Side note: Simmons is also responsible for one of my favorite, yet-to-be-established positions: The VP of Common Sense.) At the time that newspapers were trying to figure out how to
monetize the online experience, nobody (not you, not me, not anybody) was comfortable buying things online. If The New York Times was just going online today, the proposition of a daily paid subscription would be *much* more palatable than it was in 1995.

I get my news online. We donʼt subscribe to any papers at my household. So Iʼm no newspaper-apologist. But the easy answer (Newspapers are dumb! The internet is better!) rarely gives the full perspective.

In our ongoing pursuit of actionable insights, we track trends. Like the fact that in the last month, the 55+ crowd on Facebook increased by about 76%. That’s staggering for one month. It’s led to a tectonic shift. There are now more people over 35 on Facebook than under 24. Let’s hold on while all the college kids reading this immediately shut down their Facebook accounts. Okay, ready? Back to it.

Huge, big, cultural-shifting numbers are great. But the promise of tracking – particularly when it comes to social media – is that we can pinpoint… people.

So, headlines-be-damned, we can learn things like: There are 3,100 people in Portland, Maine who “like coffee” enough to make it a part of their Facebook profile. And that number jumps to 10,920 people for Portland, Oregon.

For a brand that understand where it’s going and how to get there, the possibilities – and opportunities – are endless.

This green movement is for real. It certainly can’t be argued that consumers’ green consciousness is growing rapidly. And, for many, the issue is reaching emergency status. It’s no longer about protecting the planet, it’s about saving it.

That growing consumer interest is just one more reason that it’s not so much if you have a green policy for your brand – it’s what that green policy is. But before we declare green the new black – at least as it relates to the bottom line – green isn’t a positioning strategy unless it makes sense for your brand’s story.

Look at Nike. They’re going green. For all the right reasons. But, according to a nice piece in Business Week, they’re keeping it quiet. I guess I don’t covet the Nike+ system due to it’s greenness.

Green is an equity you can own. Just like being durable. Or fast. Or bigger, faster, stronger, smarter. But is it authentic? Is it a point of differentiation or parody? Does it offer another “reason to believe?” Does your category reward it?

It’s not whether your brand should be greener. It should. It’s whether it makes sense to make it a part of your story. And, just like everything else, that depends.