LaughlinOutLoud

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.

The most predictable thing about the economy right now is its unpredictability. The only growth area is the noise level of speculation about when it will start growing again.

The majority of my friends who make a living predicting these sorts of things feel things will get worse before they get better. Most believe 2009 will be worse than 2008. From what I can tell, the people who use numbers to divine the future see darkness.

My world is less well defined by statistics. Brands are about how people feel. Perception is reality here. Our chicken or egg economic questions are: Do economic conditions drive human behavior? Or, does human behavior drive economics?

The answer to both questions has to be yes, but if consumer spending is the sign of a healthy economy, perceptions will lead reality. In that regard, I believe the economy will get better before the numbers say it will. In all likelihood, things might be better already.

How can I say that? Well, we have a new president. That fact in and of itself produces optimism. On top of that, we’re just weeks removed from a process that saw our candidates for president spend $300,000,000 in advertising that reminded every voter how bad things are and how important it is to elect the only person who could possibly make things better. The election itself took a lot of air out of the bad news balloon. As far as new bad news, we’re becoming inured to it. So we’re now at a point where good news has more potential to create more good news than bad news can generate bad.

We can also look at human nature. We’re essentially optimistic by nature. We have a constitutional right to “pursue happiness.” We play slots and buy lottery tickets in the belief that we’ll win in spite of the odds.

Maybe that’s why busts don’t last as long as booms. This once-in-a-lifetime bust may have some life left in it, but there’s no doubt in this professional optimist’s mind that 2009 will end much more optimistically than 2008 did.

A little vibration on my thigh signals the arrival of a text message.  The billboard up ahead is digital, sending out a different message every 8 seconds.  The elevator pitches me lunch options on the way to the lobby.  News, weather and sports are on 24/7. Whatever it is I may become interested in next, there’s a magazine, cable channel and three thousand blogs about it.

Despite the endless flow of information we are presented with everyday, it seems as if no one’s got the time to read.  Thank you for taking an exception here.  Item: Publishers are decrying the fact that young men simply don’t read.  Item:  More and more we’re becoming a multi-lingual nation where we no longer read the same language, and when we do, it is difficult for everyone to understand the same idioms.  The result: Clever headlines aimed at catching people’s attention are not getting the reaction they are looking for.

So I better choose my words carefully, here.  We all should.

We’re spewing more words to less effect than any time in our history.  An art director friend of mine suggested we should respond by simply spewing more pictures.  I think he’s right.

The successful marketers are emphasizing design throughout their brands.  Simplicity has become the essence of cool.

Martin Luther said, “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.”  Apparently, not a lot of people got the message.  The cathedrals of Europe sit empty.

Marketers better listen or their pews could sit empty too. That white noise you’re hearing out there is saying, “Keep it simple.”