Branded Platforms

Branded platforms  have been the buzzword ever since the success of Nike+. Unfortunately, as is often the case with buzzwords, not many people understand how or why branded platforms work.

Here at Stonewall we’ve done research into these platforms to find the recipe for success and to distill the core essence of theoretic platform building.

Firstly, platforms are built around a brand truth. These brand truths are identified using the general brand positioning. The various brand truths (for example in the case of Nike+ the brand truth identified is that Nikes assist you in running) identified are listed as potential cores for the platform ideas.

The next step is to identify consumer truths out of these brand truths; as consumer truths are the natural extension of the brand truth showing the consumer perception and interest in the brand truth.

Thirdly, platform concepts are then discerned from the consumer truths. These are specifically fleshed out in relation to central universal touch points that can be used in various formats. The central platform concept needs to be standalone with either utility or long term entertainment value. The platform concept should also be of such a nature that it can run independently without any activation or force fed marketing.

Once the platform concept is up and running, it is always helpful to organise decentralized targeted activation points around it. These still need to tie back into the central platform concept but can have specific twists to allow for unique consumer segmented insights for further relevance. Secondary core insights or sub concepts can also be tied into the various activation elements. These are normally relating to CSI or other specific elements.

And there you have it, branded platforms in a few easy steps.

Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

Social Media is a hot topic at the moment and marketers worldwide are clambering to stake a claim in this new gold rush.

Unfortunately, just like in the original gold rush of the 1800’s, the processes used to get to the proverbial good stuff are often crude and primitive. Brands have the potential to do a lot of damage by not following best practices.

There are certain protocols that can make or break the impact this medium has on your brand:

Do’s:

• Be interesting: No one wants to engage with something that is boring. If you’re not offering something genuinely useful or entertaining in the social space, you’re simply polluting the stream.
• Add value: The simple question here is; will this work even if you don’t have a prize or incentive attached to it? Make sure that whatever your engagement is, it is adding value, even if only as entertainment.
• Be honest: Nothing beats honesty. Tell the truth, even when you make mistakes. If you are honest and prepared to take ownership of your mistakes, people will generally be more forgiving than you imagine.
• Be human: This may sound obvious, but in the social spaces, people like talking to people; so be a person and respond in a personal, contextual way.
• Listen first: Spend time observing your target market. See how they communicate, how they interact, how they share. When jumping in head first, more often than not your brand comes off as pushy or forced.

Don’ts:

• Exposure doesn’t equal impact: As tempting as it may be to simply get your brand out there as much as possible, ultimately you’re damaging a medium which could work for you instead of against you.
• Don’t broadcast: Social media is not another media channel for you to place your message on.
• Don’t buy traffic: Rather invest in brand building and creating an atmosphere which users will find and share organically with their peers. This includes RT and competitions, or any other tactic that isn’t implicitly adding value to the consumer and his or her social footprint.
• Don’t think in terms of campaigns: Build sustainable relationships. Campaigns suggest that you will disappear at the end of the campaign, terminating the relationship.
• Don’t expect consumers to be your biggest fan from day one: Just like normal relationships, building a rapport with your fans starts with the basics and takes time.

Social media can be a great extension for your brand. The trick is to ensure that you have researched the applications and implications of the different platforms and be sure you are engaging in a way which impresses and adds value to your customers and potential customers.

Words that ring true today – Bill Bernbach

One of the industry greats, Bill Bernbach (the B in DDB) wrote this letter to his  employers at Grey World Wide in 1947. This seems to be ringing true, even more so today then ever.

Dear ___________:

Our agency is getting big. That’s something to be happy about. But it’s something to worry about, too, and I don’t mind telling you I’m damned worried. I’m worried that we’re going to fall into the trap of bigness, that we’re going to worship techniques instead of substance, that we’re going to follow history instead of making it, that we’re going to be drowned by superficialities instead of buoyed up by solid fundamentals. I’m worried lest hardening of the creative arteries begin to set in.

There are a lot of great technicians in advertising. And unfortunately they talk the best game. They know all the rules. They can tell you that people in an ad will get you greater readership. They can tell you that a sentence should be this sort or that long. They can tell you that body copy should be broken up for easier reading. They can give you fact after fact after fact. They are the scientists of advertising. But there’s one little rub. Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art.

It’s that creative spark that I’m so jealous of for our agency and that I am so desperately fearful of losing. I don’t want academicians. I don’t want scientists. I don’t want people who do the right things. I want people who do inspiring things.

In the past year I must have interviewed about 80 people – writers and artists. Many of them were from the so-called giants of the agency field. It was appalling to see how few of these people were genuinely creative. Sure, they had advertising know-how. Yes, they were up on advertising technique.

But look beneath the technique and what did you find? A sameness, a mental weariness, a mediocrity of ideas. But they could defend every ad on the basis that it obeyed the rules of advertising. It was like worshiping a ritual instead of the God.

All this is not to say that technique is unimportant. Superior technical skill will make a good man better. But the danger is a preoccupation with technical skill or the mistaking of technical skill for creative ability.

The danger lies in the temptation to buy routinized men who have a formula for advertising.  The danger lies in the natural tendency to go after tried-and-true talent that will not make us stand out in competition but rather make us look like all the others.

If we are to advance we must emerge as a distinctive personality. We must develop our own philosophy and not have the advertising philosophy of others imposed on us.

Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.

Respectfully,
Bill Bernbach

Stonewall+ 2009 Trends: Were our predictions on target?

At the start of 2009, Stonewall Digital Marketing released its annual “Ten Digital Marketing Trends” paper. As a tough – but rewarding – year comes to a close, we evaluate our 2009 predictions… and we score ourselves seven out of ten.

2009 draws to a close with most businesses, local and international, heaving a sigh of relief. A difficult year is over and, in general, the storm of recession economics has been weathered. For the many thousands of South Africans who were directly affected by retrenchments or indirectly affected by slowed growth and halted plans, the impact of that storm was a full-frontal body blow. But the fact is that the world seems to have matured since the Great Depression, with more financial checks and balances in place, means there was greater understanding of the need for firm action to halt the economic slide. Fortunately, digital marketing was not as negatively affected as some other industries – in fact, our prediction that digital marketing spend would grow slightly was borne out.

2009 #1

We said:  – Overall marketing spend will decrease; digital spend will hold level – or grow slightly

We score: 1

We suggested at the start of the year that, “as businesses scrutinise their budgets, those that have dabbled in digital will be obliged by the weight of facts to consider it all the more seriously. Relatively low investment (compared, say, to conceptualising, filming and then flighting a television advertisement) yields good returns“. This was borne out in no uncertain terms, best highlighted by the increasing frequency with which traditional agencies approached digital marketers to contribute to campaigns, or with clients themselves insisting on the digital route.

Interestingly, mobile marketing business did not fare as well in 2009, which seems surprising at first glance. Like the internet, email and web channels, mobile is highly measurable, nimble in terms of response and tweaking and more cost-effective than traditional marketing. Why, then, did clients not shift more of their budgets into this powerful one-to-one communication space, especially with the massive penetration of cellphones across the South African spectrum, and with the ever increasing number of smartphones in the hands of consumers?

The answer lies in something which used to be a strong negative effect on digital marketing. It is powered by new technology and is seen (incorrectly, we would suggest) as an immature channel and industry. If the recession had hit the South African marketing space a few years ago, digital marketing would have suffered as nervous marketing managers pulled budgets from something they saw as “new” or “unproven” and focused on the traditional channels they felt comfortable with.

However, by the end of 2008, the web was generally viewed as part of the established and necessary marketing mix. Being evaluated on equal terms as a channel, the obvious cost and trackability benefits saw increased use of digital channels – even as the “newcomer” mobile channel was viewed with caution and some scepticism. This is not something we see continuing into 2010 – at least amongst savvy clients and marketing departments.

2009 #2

We said:  – Increased demand for ROI and measurability

We score: 0.5

Why don’t we award ourselves a full point here, especially since it’s clear that marketing departments made greater demands for return-on-investment on their marketers, and that measurability is a key component of this?

We noted that “Click Through Rates, Email Conversions and Unique Users are all simple to measure, and are relatively well reported“, but that “tracking true return on investment from, say, banner placement through to an actual sale of a product, is not as common“. While marketers have been increasingly insistent on these measures, the fact remains that there’s still a long way to go. Clients are asking for reports, but still not insisting on proper analysis of these reports – or are not willing to pay for the business intelligence resources such analysis requires.

Furthermore, we predicted “a renewed interest in Customer Relations Management and Data Mining” and suggested that the importance of Online Reputation Management would be both recognised and promoted. “The wiser businesses will start demanding this from their suppliers,” we said, but this has not been the case. Or, more correctly, has not been the case to the extent that was predicted.

We award ourselves as marketers, and our clients and their marketing departments, only 50% here. It’s a pass, but it’s not exactly something to be proud of and, very obviously, needs to be improved.

2009 #3

We said:  – Mobile that knows where it’s at

We score: 1

This was a two-fold trend prediction, and we’ll give ourselves a full mark on both counts. At the start of 2009, we highlighted the growth in handset numbers and the use of cellphones to access the internet, and the attendant increase of “brands using .mobi sites to engage with consumers and the growth in WAP-powered content services“. We also pointed out the rise in mobile-based internet access. Cue services like Snaptu, Viigo; cue the Blackberry and iPhone revolutions; cue the rise of mobile apps and widgets; cue the fact that “appstore” has become accepted as a legitimate word.

For the second part of the mobile prediction, we were more cautious. We said that “location based services are likely to be more prevalent in overseas markets“, but we were bullish for the local market around “competition between rival manufacturers to bundle GPS with their top-tier handsets and, on simpler devices, services like The Grid making use of the normal GSM cellphone network to enable positioning“.

At the end of 2008, did you use a GPS regularly, marvel at GoogleMaps on the iPhone and see grid co-ordinates on business cards? Geo-location is a two-pronged revolution. For individuals, it means never getting lost again; for businesses and brands, it means being able to use geo-tagging and location based services in your marketing. The revolution is well underway and will continue.

2009 #4

We said:  – Yes, we can. What now for Web2.0?

We score: 1

Well, whoopty-do – at the end of 2008, we predicted “social media is here to stay and it is time to stop talking about what it is, and start delivering value based on how it works“, and we were right. But that was pretty much a no-brainer since the “Citizen You” and peer-to-peer revolution was more than evident to anyone working in the space.

So, that’s not why we think we deserve full marks here, but rather around the finer nuances social media and web2.0 (please can we stop using the capital “W”, now?). “Things like blogging, Facebook, social bookmarking, video and picture sharing sites, social media and social networking… are components of the modern digital marketing mix,” we said, suggesting that 2009 would see them being understood to be “merely platforms or tools that can be used as avenues or vehicles for brand messages and customer interactions“.

For those brands ready to embrace the new world, that’s exactly what they proved to be, and we were pleased to see our in-house term of “Feedback3.0″ in action amongst some South African brands and companies. Last year we asked simply, “Is ‘listen to your customers’ really such a revolutionary thing to suggest?”

2009 #5

We said:  – More cause for causes

We score: 0

Despite superb campaigns like Hopenhagen around the climate change conference, local efforts at using Facebook to rally South Africans to question Eskom’s tariff hikes, and the superbly tongue-in-cheek “Retrench yourself” campaign for Savanna, our prediction that “as  companies consider cutting back on corporate social investment, they will interrogate where they want their spend to go and the truly meritworthy programmes and organisations stand to benefit” proved to be… over-enthusiastic.

Put it down wishful thinking, or daring to dream, but we have to award ourselves a solid zero on that score.

2009 #6

We said: – 2009 is the first part of the permanent change

We score: 1

It’s cheeky to give ourselves a point when “permanent change” can only be assessed in the future, but we’re confident enough to do so – especially given the changes we’ve seen during 2009. In the closing days of the year, we’re even seeing international digital agencies being appointed as lead agencies on major clients – over the traditional advertising agency incumbents.

We said, “2009 is a year that will see the media and marketing landscape changed in ways that are fundamental, and long-lasting“, and we’re sticking to that.

Invoking the metaphor of a Highveld storm that’s been threatening to break for ages, we also said that “when the lightning and the thunder are over, the world will be a different place – and one where digital marketing has more fully come into its own“. Nowhere was this more evident than at the 2009 Bookmark Awards. Here, not long after the usual grumbles about the Loerie awards been about mutual industry back-slapping, was the fledgling digital marketing industry toughing up and not awarding itself any gold Pixel awards. Why? Because we know we’ve come a long way, and that we’ve helped to change the world of marketing, but we know there’s heaps more work to be done. 2009 marked the change; 2010 will reinforce it.

2009 #7

We said: – “I, computer”: Is the semantic web here yet?

We score: 0.5

Scoring this one is tough, largely because it’s one of those under-the-bonnet components of the internet. We were cautious when we asked “will 2009 be the year that… the web finally [gets] “clever” enough that computers can start finding us the perfect book, or pair of shoes, or place to eat – without us having to put in the hard work?”

Quite clearly, that didn’t happen, despite the continued growth of the things we advised trend-watchers to keep their eyes on: “OpenSocial;  clever interface design [using] Ajax and XML; new content publishing system… linked to sophisticated data mining tools; complex search engines algorithms [and] developments in visual search interfaces“.

Also, although WolframAlpha (Google it to find out more, and that sentence is an in-house geek-joke, if there ever was one) earned the Grand Award for “Best of what’s new” in computing from “Popular Science”, amongst a host of industry plaudits, it still hasn’t made much difference to general civilian internet use. Also, Google got a lot cleverer in its search algorithms, albeit in a very behind-the-scenes and under-the-bonnet way.

So, as we said, the new generation of hypertextually-linked world wide web is happening, but not so you’d really know about it. Yet. We give ourselves just a half a point.

2009 #8

We said: – Email continues to die

We score: 1

We started that shrill prediction with the the caveat that our real hope was that 2009 would see the end of “the shrieking hyperbole of so many trend-spotting headlines in 2008“. Fortunately, buffoonery like every second piece of software being as billed “the Google killer” or advances in digital channel advertising being hailed as heralding “the death of print” do seem to have gone the way of the gutter they deserved.

More importantly, email continues to decline. As we noted, this is “probably not amongst anyone reading this forecast, but certainly amongst the generation raised on SMS, Instant Messaging, social networks, MXit and networked games“. Add to our prediction the slew of collaboration tools – GoogleWave got the most press, but also consider Salesforce’s Chatter and Microsoft’s Azure – and the future of email seemed even more under threat.

Also, late 2009 saw the increasingly shaky MXit platform facing a new threat in the form of the Microsoft-backed and Bafana Bafana aligned Mibli. It also saw the cellphone networks rewarding SMS-use and the continued growth of South African Facebook and Twitter communication.

Email will remain as an important corporate tool, but its dominance continues to diminish. We’ll take a full point on this one.

2009 #9

We said: – The return of content as king, almost…

We score: 1

We made clear the difference between the “pre-bubble-burst” era of “content being king” and the emphasis, in 2009, of “content [as] differentiation and brands adding real value to reward customer loyalty“. We saw this prediction in action, and saw the undeniable growth of Twitter as a channel for news both “hard” and “social/entertainment” related. So we feel a full point is warranted here – and all the more so given an even more exciting development regarding digital content in 2009.

New niched content sites saw the light of day, with sober and realistic revenue and growth models. It is with great interest that we see how these sites progress, and it’s a 2009 hats-off send-off to the likes of DailyMaverick.co.za, TechCentral.co.za, Mahala.co.za, of trend-setting list sites like 10and5.com and MoralFibre.co.za and, of course, the snoot-cocking enfant terrible of the blogosphere like 2OceansVibe.co.za. Hats off, too, to the relaunched TimesLive.co.za (a Silver Pixel winner at The Bookmark Awards) and to the subtle, but constant, revamping underway at the Mail & Guardian’s MG.co.za.

2009 #10

We said: – Last, but not least: A scandal that will rock 2009!

We score: 0

Look, we billed it as a “gutsy prediction“, so don’t hold the blemish of another round zero too harshly against us…

At the start of 2009, we coined a term. “‘Analytics-gate’,” we said, would not be an act of active deception (like 2008’s manipulation of magazine readership figures), but rather the consequence of more “good minds being paid to focus on analytics and measurement” leading to “some inconsistency [coming] to light“. But there was no “predicted mini-scandal” which is, of course, good. Although the second part of that prediction, that this would “raise awareness, tighten up practices and assist with setting standards… a good thing for the industry, for clients and consumers” has also not happened.

Will we be as bullish with a similar prediction for 2010? Probably not – but that’s only because, with just ten trends that we can suggest, we’re not going to rehash something from last year.

In conclusion

We rate ourselves as having scored 7 out of 10, which you may agree with or not. Most importantly, we said that “2009 will be a trying year, but also a year of consolidation that rewards vision, efficiency and strategic actions” and we’re pleased to see the rewards that have been reaped by our clients, and by the digital marketing industry in general. Our 2009 conclusion reiterated our main strongest prediction, that 2009 would “be the year that changes the relationship between digital and traditional marketing forever” – and it certainly did.

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Stay tuned for the Stonewall+ “Ten Digital Marketing Trends” for 2010 paper to be released in mid January.

How to run your brand in the Social Media space

Social Media Marketing is the latest buzzword… and one of the fastest growing segments of online marketing. The value of good social media marketing is immense – direct consumer interaction creates brand evangelists and advocates.

While there are many success stories out there, few South African brands truly understand the medium and how to interact with their consumers inside of social spaces.

Here’s a brief overview of how to run a social campaign:

1. Planning

Planning is crucial, but gets the least amount of attention when brands consider marketing in social spaces. You need to figure out what spaces you’re going to populate, what content you are going to distribute, and what resources you are going to allocate.

Another important part of planning is to work out your goals and measurement tools upfront. This will ensure that at the end of the campaign you actually have some data that can tell you something and prepare you for the next campaign.

Planning is not just about ticking the right boxes, it’s about having clear intent and direction around the programme.

2. Creative Execution

Once you have selected the social networks that you are moving into, find out how customisable they are. Create Myspace skins, upload your logo to your Fan Page or create a custom landing page, skin your blog or brand your Twitter background. There are various ways to customise each of the different social networks and it is important that your brand is integrated and correctly shown on all of them.

3. Talking To Consumers

One thing most brands get wrong is that they fail to realise that social network marketing is vastly different to television advertising or print advertising. Remember, Social Media is not a broadcast medium. Consumers expect you to talk and act like them. This means that you need to be relevant and always available. Having the right resources is critical. It’s also critical that these resources have the time to monitor the networks and the authority to answer questions.

4. Incentives and Promotions

A leading global agency, Razorfish, recently published their annual feed report. One of the findings was that promotions and discounts were primary drivers of “friending” a brand for over a third of social networking users, and 44% of Twitter users. Knowing this, brands should set aside budget to keep the consumers incentivised to talk about the brands. Promotions should be used to drive both talk-ability and awareness.

5. Exit Strategy

One thing I have seen quite a lot of is the lack of exit strategy. Once your campaign or programme has ended, have you thought about how you are going to close down your various properties? Leaving consumers in an online brand limbo creates a negative impression.  The nature of search and SEO also lends itself to the fact that your old social profiles will be easily found via Google or Bing, and potential consumers could think negatively of a brand should they come across a space that hasn’t been updated in months.

Your exit strategy should include ways to close down the space but also keep the consumers happy and entertained.

Conclusion

Social media is unavoidable as a marketing tactic today. Be sure that you have a strategy and a plan in place before you jump in headfirst.

For more information feel free to contact us.