Community Mobilization

Digital Non Conference – Post 4 Thursday Breakouts and Closing

I decided to go to the ‘Digital Trends’ Impacting Real Time Web session being put on by Christopher Barcelona at research. The major trends that Christopher pointed out were the rise and continued permeation of real time mobile web interface, Integration to your social nexus (Facebook or other core social network), and influence marketing through friends. What Christopher focused in on was a building approach where the mobile access and increased computing capacity enabled other trends. The concentration of social capital in my opinion is going to lead to an echo-chamber effect where we begin to buy only what our 1st circle buys because of latent peer pressure. Barcelona admitted that when you log onto do e-shopping, and it imports your friends shoping experiences so you can see what they like and they can see what you like things can get a bit muddled.

The next session I sat in on was done by Pete Blackshaw. Already I a ma fan before the conference and hearing him in a small setting solidified the respect. Pete asked the really big question –“Do You Still Need A Website”. This was the article he wrote for Ad Age and re reiterated the findings and points of view. The website has changed. The purpose. The content,. The design. The website has to be flexible and deliver to the consumer an experience that informs and delivers value – not fluff and sales pitch. The site should be dynamic, interactive and serve as a feedback loop for consumer – both positive and negative. The website should integrate social content from outside sources as well as serve service not sales. Inform, educate, and help not hard sell. Most important be flexible and be able to change with the environment.

The third breakout of the afternoon was about the value of the online advertising and the measurable impacts that it had. The presenter was good but I think his message got a bit lost in the details. What I really latched onto was that there were a few key points that really hit home for me. That looking at the body of work that he had research on 68% of the online campaigns had positive returns. There was also a distinction between market penetration and traffic volume building. 33% of the campaigns drove market penetration (new customers) and 66% drove traffic increases from existing customer bases. Another neat point was that there were disparities in effectiveness when slicing campaigns by new vs. existing products. His presented research shows that existing brands yielded 164% return while line extensions yielded 135% return. In addition promotional campaigns drove 2X the returns over equity building campaigns. To boil it all down do promotions on exiting well established brands to your existing core customer base. Nice.

The final presentation was from the DEO of Get Satisfaction Wendy Lea. I loved her speech. Because of the business that get Satisfaction is in, Wend took the time to really challenge us to concentrate on getting things right. That the quality of the relationships are more important than the quantity of the relationships. She urged us as brand people to get involved in conversations that impact out brand and especially take the opportunities to learn from the dissatisfaction of our consumers. She pushed us to look at how social our brand is and how we can leverage the conversations from all over the web to just get it right. Use an outside in flow and bring the conversation to our front door and pay attention to them.

Digital Non Conference - Post 3 Thursday Lunch.

Yes I realize I am essentially going backwards through the conference but that is fine by me. I found the Thursday lunch general session to be interesting, but not uplifting. The panel featured the always spot-on Pete Blackshaw and al two folks from Hollywood – America Ferrera and Drew Buckley Electus. My big take away was that America and Drew are collaborating on a very new kind of television experience that integrates user input into the television show. Using polling, direct messaging and other input channel users will have a minor role in shaping the script and the show. I like the idea and hope that people who submit ideas that are not incorporated are not offended and loose interest in the concept. Everyone like to be a winner.

 America as an individual came back to her desire to maintain authenticity in their social media communication. As a brand ambassador of her own brad she felt it critical to keep the fan base in touch with her authentic self and not retain outside help. Pete Blackshaw talked about the larger trends that he sees from his work at Nielsen in the digital spaces. The overarching theme Pete brought was the speed of development and the way that it is bringing authentic conversations forward is what is most important. Platform and technologies will evolve so concentrate on good quality content.

Cincinanti Digtial Non Conference - Post 2 Friday breakouts

Friday breakouts were really interesting. I think that they were some of the best I have been in in a while.  I'm a bit bummed that I was only able to sit in on the first 1/2 of the Mix Methods break out because of a pending real world work issue. But what I did hear was fascinating - the fact that market research is moving forward with digital channel research. The cost, the value, the speed are what are driving profitability to the research firms and value to the companies. Broad audience and fast results. Nice.

The second session was on creating a social media ecosystem around the website. I liked the way that the presenter helped to explain the inherent value of the website - the new inherent value of the website- as an information aggregator and director. The new website delivers needed information and redirects people to videos, tweets, recommendations - whatever drives the best user experience. The website is also the ultimate destination so that you can finally convert a sale.

I loved Troy Hitch's story telling presentation about how to create a very engaging series of compelling videos that drive brand messaging and awareness. His creative direction and craft are very clear in the sense that theatrical plot is a key component in building a compelling and fantastic story for people to latch on to. I enjoyed how he described the importance of Compelling characters, a great environment, solid platform and viewer contributions. There were three ways he described integrating brands - Brand as a sponsoring supporter - "The Guild", Brand as the sat - Easy to Assemble, and brand as a silent element that is revealed later - TIBCO computers.

I am excited to end the day with Krista Neher talking about the brand online and best practice for being a great brand builder in the online ecosystem. Although I know a lot of what she is saying it is so refreshing to hear it again to keep me honest. SHe is emphasizing the importance of direct engagement, and know when to disengage with trouble makers. Own the message, monitor the environment, engage the consumer, respond to the public, and monetize the sentiments. I always enjoy the way she approaches SM and respect the overarching points that she drives home.

Cincy Digital Non Conference - Post 1 - Friday Keynotes

This is the second day of the Digital Non Conference and so far so good. i have sat in on a number of breakout sessions that have been very interesting and the keynotes were exceptional today. The morning keynote was from the Huffington Post and they key message was the best approach was the authenticity of the conversation. Without that authenticity what ever you put out is nothing but shill dribble.

The lunch keynote was from the CEO of Pandora. What he really focused in on was that passion and transparency can get you very very far. The way that Pandora approaches their user experience is with  tons of transparency and no apology for keeping within their publicly expressed commitments to their consumers. What was of particular interest was that they are seeing an amazing opportunity within the mobile device field. There are opportunity abound if you actively look for them.