Social Video 101

We've tagged social video as "one of the important drivers for the next major growth in brand advertising." But where's the magic? Why are so many carefully targeted, big-money entries in the genre DOA, while shiny bits of DIY genius signifying not much of anything barge into our social consciousness and take up residence?

LA-based Feed Company answers these and other troubling questions of our time in Social Video 101, A Primer. A must-read for viral aspirants with paychecks. 

Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Check out this fascinating encapsulation of the World Wide Web. It's a fast-paced, thought-provoking, poignant video essay about the way communications and relationships have evolved as a result of the Internet. Best yet, it was produced by Michael Wesch, a hip anthropology professor at KSU who practices "anti-teaching."

Time Magazine Person of the Year: You

I recently posted to this blog a presentation on Web 2.0. The basic message for companies wading into the WWW was that they need to acknowledge audience control in order to participate in the online conversation.

I'm certain some wondered if I was overstating matters. But, while watching This Week with George Stephanopoulos I found a powerful ally for my thesis: Time. While watching the show I discovered that the Time person of the year for 2006 is you...and me and the 50 million people who have posted online content (according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project).

We earned the nod for taking advantage of the Web 2.0 tools to generate our own content online. In the cover story, Lev Grossman wrote: for seizing the reins of the global media, for founding and framing the new digital democracy, for working for nothing and beating the pros at their own game, TIME's Person of the Year for 2006 is you.

Why does all of this really matter? Should we still care what the mainstream media thinks of social media? Here's why it matters: in the quoted sentence, Time (the pros) are acknowledging that consumers (the amateurs) are beating them at their own game.

The blogosphere is abuzz with the news and the response is (inevitably) varied. Jeff Jarvis says It's always been us. Dan Gillmor thinks it should have been "us" rather than "you." What do you think?

The Christmas issue of Time includes several articles supporting their choice for Person of the Year. If you're still questioning whether or not this social media revolution is wroth paying attention to, you would do well to read it all.

Web 2.0 and the online conversation

Last week, I gave an internal presentation to my agency on Web 2.0 and how it should influence the web sites that we create for our clients. I thought I'd post it here for two reasons: 1) I'm interested in the feedback of Fresh Glue readers, and 2) I benefited from a lot of other bloggers posting similar information and I wanted to return the favor.

After going through the presentation, please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. Also, if you're interested in having me present this to your group, drop me an email and we'll work something out.

Puffin' Pusher Penance

Back in August I wrote a post about those client relationships that force advertisers to walk a thin ethical line. It was inspired by a series of vintage pharmaceutical ads that by today's standards are one part quaint, one part creepy, as in what were they thinking???

Todd Anthony, who writes the Bullshit Observer, came clean this week with a "Mini Memoir" on his days working for Big Tobacco clients both here in the UK. As penance, he offers a link (via Ad Candy) to a cool anti-tobacco site aimed at kids called "ownyourc.com," short for 'own your choice." It's a project of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

The "host" admonsihes, "remember, every choice you make has consequences."

I'll be sending my eight-year-old son to this site for its straight talk, no-preach (no bullshit?) approach to smoking specifically and dealing with consequences in general.

Hats off to Todd for publicly dealing with consequences of his own "choices" in the biz.

His post and Own Your Choice give an intriguing example of how to fight fire — with fire. And, in this case, with new media.  In the age of interactive media and virtual worlds, how better to teach what it means to make choices, and how they effect you? As a bonus, the site connects users to bulletin board forums to connect kids with their most credible source of information. Other kids.

Edelman is a Media Company

Actually, they're a public relations agency. But it turns out that their employees have a lot to say. So much so that they decided to aggregate all of their employee blogs and podcasts on a new portal (hat tip to The Social Customer Manifesto...who liked the news trough). Like most other PR bloggers, I already read Steve Rubel and Richard Edelman, and look forward to trying a few more if I can find the time.

Not surprisingly, the reception online hasn't all been positive. Rubel's post on Micro Persuasion has drawn some criticism (some helpful, some not) and David Armano has weighed in saying that the execution can be better.

Regardless, there's a lot of good content here. If you're in PR, you'd do well to eat from the trough once in a while.

Every company is a media company

A few weeks ago, Shel Holtz of For Immediate Release posted a fascinating interview with Podshow CEO Ron Bloom. About 9 minutes into this 22 minute interview, Bloom revealed his elevator pitch to corporations on why they should be podcasting:

...the company of today--every single company in the world in some way, shape or form--is a media company. By this we mean that there's a world of media out there negotiable through cell phones, the Internet, DVRs that commentary about those companies is occurring and if they don't get out there in those channels then somebody else is going to control that dialog. We try to say that podcasting for a corp is not a matter of an mp3 file from the CEO reading a letter that he read at the shareholder meeting, nor is it a prefabricated, produced thing about a certain product. It is rather the beginning of the mediafication of their communication enterprise and they need to look much deeper into the podcasting 2.0 where they become WCORP; where the corporation has it's own messaging and voice.

Although Bloom said this in reference to podcasting, it can really apply to any media channel. Conversations about your company are taking place all the time, in all kinds of places, in all kinds of media, both online and off. You can't stop these conversations from happening. The only thing left for you to decide is if you want to take part in the conversation.

One company that apparently got that memo is Anheuser-Busch. According to the New York Times, the brewer is getting set to launch "Bud TV" after Super Bowl XLI in February. The online entertainment network will offer computer users six channels of comedy, reality, sports and talk programming created for and by Anheuser-Busch. The tentative names for the channels include Comedy, Happy Hour and Reality.

In another interview, this one with Joseph Jaffe on Across the Sound, Bloom reiterated his 5/50 prediction, which is that by 2009, over 50 percent of all content consumed will be created by other consumers. Bud's got that one covered, too. A seventh planned channel on Bud TV will be modeled after YouTube, allowing users to “generate their own Anheuser-Busch ads, comedic in nature," which can be shared with other computer users.

Our agency is a media company. We publish this blog. What does your company have to say? What media channel are you going to create to say it?

BKG Sponsors Across the Sound

As we mentioned in a recent post, we need more people. Our agency has more work than we can handle (that's why the blogging has been a little light lately). Sure, we've tried the traditional outlets...Monster, Talent Zoo, Career Builder, etc. and we've been getting some results (hired four new people this month). The problem is, most of the people who respond are looking for a job.

We're not looking for people who are looking for a job. We want people who are looking for a new lifestyle. People who realize that it's not about titles or winning the One Show or selling Bacardi to people who don't need it. We're looking for people who have reached the point in their life where they realize that none of that really matters and they want a place where they can raise a family. A place where they can own a house with some grass in the front yard. But they also want to be able to do work that doesn't suck. Are there people out there like that? We know there are, because that's what people who have recently come to our agency from Portland and Minneapolis have told us.

So we're sponsoring Across the Sound: The New Marketing Podcast (subscribe via iTunes). Why would an advertising agency in Sioux Falls, S.D. sponsor a marketing podcast? Because we want thought leaders to work at our agency. Oh yeah, we should probably tell you which agency we are: BKG. We don't like to talk about ourselves much, but I guess we have to if we want people to come here.

We started the sponsorship of Across the Sound in episode 51, where you can hear an interview with Tim, one of the founders of BKG. We'll be contributing a little information to each episode of ATS in September so stay tuned. We'll also be updating this blog and our web site with information about BKG. For now, If you're interested, read this post and drop us an email at jobs (at) b-k-g.com. More to come...

Lessons Learned: Viral 201

Agency.com: in with a bang, out with a whimper, and a permanent record of it chiseled in the halls of marketing academia.

Now, maybe just in time — or even thanks to it all — comes a far better primer on viral video than what those nutty a-commer's tried. It deserves a permanent place in the marketing lit, too, and a bookmark from you:

"The Seven Deadly Sins of Advertising Via Viral Video,"  via a pretty sharp goofball named Kevin Nalty. On his site, WIll Video for Food, he describes his "day job is marketing pharmaceutical products to patients and health-care professionals." But the dude has clearly got a resume in viral video, which is just the proof to the pudding.

An excellent read with spot-on examples to prove each "sin.' Even the high-profile adrants.com picked it up. You can bet we'll be talking about it around here for some time.

Agriblogging with the Zimmermans

Every once in a while when I'm discussing what new media can do for a company, I'll hear something like the following: 'Sure blogging worked for Microsoft or Sun Microsystems, they're new, cutting edge technology companies. My company is in an old industry where the customers aren't very tech-savvy. Blogs wouldn't work for me."

How about agriculture? As an industry, does it get any older than that? Well, if the above refrain is to be believed, then we couldn't expect to find any successful agri-blogs, right?

Well, Chuck and Cindy Zimmerman at ZimmComm New Media might have something to say about that. The new media in their portfolio include four blogs; AgWired about agri-business, Domestic Fuel covering ethanol and other alternative fuels, World Dairy Diary and their corporate blog ZimmComm; an ag news release distribution service called AgNewsWire; and (my favorite) the ZimmCast, a podcast on the latest in agricultural marketing.

Recent excellent episodes of the ZimmCast include interviews with the ED of the Ethanol Promotion & Information Council and BASF Communications Manager Joy Watson. If you're in agricultural marketing, you need to be listening to this podcast. It's in my iTunes subscriptions.

But, if you're not in agricultural marketing and you're thinking 'podcasting will never work in my industry.' You should take a listen to the ZimmCast. It may make you think twice.