It's a tenet of improvisational comedy that participants should to be ready to say "yes" to just about any suggestion. Including one from Nissan that they do a 12-hour, essentially real-time improvisation about a new SUV, with an online audience offering ideas for the troupe to riff on. For the 2013 version of the Pathfinder, which rolls into dealerships this fall, Nissan will have the famed Chicago-based Second City spend a full day creating ad hoc music videos about the crossover. The 12-hour “Improv-tastic Road Trip,” starting at 8 a.m. on Aug. 20, involves the performers taking online suggestions, then immediately writing and performing personalized videos as fast as they can turn them around. In addition to going to the person who inspired the idea, the videos will also be on Nissan's new Pathfinder tab on Facebook and YouTube channel. And submitting suggestions enters participants for a chance to win one of two trips for two to see The Second City in Chicago or Toronto. Erich Marx, who does Nissan's digital media, tells Marketing Daily that the program came from one of Nissan's agencies, Chicago-based social media firm Zócalo Group, which has done work on the Nissan Leaf as well. "They connected with Second City." He says the initial idea had been to do something scripted, but that when Nissan and Zócalo met with Second City and had them do on-the-spot improvs with the Pathfinder after a walk-around of the vehicle, "we were in tears, cracking up watching their song improvs. We talked about how we could capture what they were doing." He says the troupe came back a few days later with the idea: they would do 50 or 60 songs made up on the spot with crowdsourced ideas. "They said: 'Give us a favorite color, city, and feature of new Pathfinder and we will write, record and video improv songs on the spot using those suggestions.'" Marx says the effort involves eight actors working in shifts all day. He says it may start slow in terms of consumer engagement -- but that social media being what it is, it should have a big audience by hour three. "We are promoting it; so is Second City, but it's really a big experiment for both of us; Second City has never done anything like it. If they can capture even half of the comedy we saw live, we think it will catch on." Marx will be in New York in mid-September because the automaker and its agency of record, Los Angeles-based TBWA/Chiat Day, are up for several Digiday Sammy social media awards. The company is nominated for a crowdsourcing campaign supporting the Nissan 370Z. Nissan asked fans to make modification suggestions for the 370Z, and then built a version of the car based on the suggestions. The team is a finalist in “Best Social Creative,” “Best Branded Social Community” and “Best Facebook Branding Campaign.”
The International Rescue Committee, a global top-five NGO that serves refugees and those fleeing disaster, conflict and oppression, is launching a crowdsourced program called "The Domestic Violence Think-In.” The program, the largest to date for the 80-year-old organization, brings 450 students to the Stockholm-based training facility Hyper Island to receive a four-day assignment: come up with a campaign that will raise awareness, support and donations for the IRC’s work stopping domestic violence in developing countries. Students will be required to crowdsource thoughts and opinions, all to start a digital conversation about the topic. After four days, the students will create a video explaining their ideas, which the IRC will consider using for future efforts. Below are all of the details. During the session, which will be led by Gyro, a global creative agency that works with the IRC and a long-time collaborator with Hyper Island, the students will crowdsource ideas at Ircthinkin.com. They will be using Twitter (hashtag #ircthinkin), Facebook.com/ircthinkin and the video-sharing application Viddy.com to share what they learned and solicit feedback. At the culmination of the project, the students will give the 70 strongest ideas to IRC and Gyro leadership. The consequent video will also go live at Ircthinkin.com. The IRC says the best ideas will be considered for the IRC’s next campaign. The organization says it will also give the compilation video to presidents and ministers of developing countries. The goal, per the IRC, is to urge leaders to enact laws against domestic violence where no laws currently exist or to enforce the laws in the countries that already have protection laws. Domestic abuse is epidemic, with one-third of women worldwide physically, sexually or otherwise abused during their lifetimes, according to a recent report from the IRC. Carrie Ross Welch, SVP of external relations at the IRC, tells Marketing Daily that the IRC has run successful traditional and social media campaigns around its core mission and tagline "From Harm to Home." She says the organization has also done campaigns around prevention of violence against women ("Wake Up"), and for many recent emergencies, including drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The IRC is also running a large campaign called "New Roots" in traditional and social media, around refugee community programs, per Ross Welch. The IRC also has a celebrity spokesperson in actress Rashida Jones of the TV program "Parks and Recreation" and the film "Celeste and Jesse Forever," whose New York premiere benefited the IRC. Ross Welch says the Hyper Island program presented a great opportunity for the IRC. "As a highly efficient NGO that puts 93 cents of every dollar toward programs, we simply don’t have the resources to engage creative in every important issue we address or for the work we do," she says. "Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to have 450 young creatives focus on a neglected issue and how best to raise awareness around it? Our first goal for any campaign would be to raise public awareness, to get people talking, and thinking and wanting to learn more. Activism and advocacy follow." She adds that the IRC has never before done anything on the scale of the Hyper Island program. "The IRC is known in the U.S., but we have only just started promoting ourselves and our work," says Ross Welch. "We have a long way to go before we are a household name. In the countries and U.S. cities where we have programs -- and of course, in the humanitarian community -- we have great brand recognition and are universally admired for our work."
It's a tenet of improvisational comedy that participants should to be ready to say "yes" to just about any suggestion. Including one from Nissan that they do a 12-hour, essentially real-time improvisation about a new SUV, with an online audience offering ideas for the troupe to riff on. For the 2013 version of the Pathfinder, which rolls into dealerships this fall, Nissan will have the famed Chicago-based Second City spend a full day creating ad hoc music videos about the crossover. The 12-hour “Improv-tastic Road Trip,” starting at 8 a.m. on Aug. 20, involves the performers taking online suggestions, then immediately writing and performing personalized videos as fast as they can turn them around. In addition to going to the person who inspired the idea, the videos will also be on Nissan's new Pathfinder tab on Facebook and YouTube channel. And submitting suggestions enters participants for a chance to win one of two trips for two to see The Second City in Chicago or Toronto. Erich Marx, who does Nissan's digital media, tells Marketing Daily that the program came from one of Nissan's agencies, Chicago-based social media firm Zócalo Group, which has done work on the Nissan Leaf as well. "They connected with Second City." He says the initial idea had been to do something scripted, but that when Nissan and Zócalo met with Second City and had them do on-the-spot improvs with the Pathfinder after a walk-around of the vehicle, "we were in tears, cracking up watching their song improvs. We talked about how we could capture what they were doing." He says the troupe came back a few days later with the idea: they would do 50 or 60 songs made up on the spot with crowdsourced ideas. "They said: 'Give us a favorite color, city, and feature of new Pathfinder and we will write, record and video improv songs on the spot using those suggestions.'" Marx says the effort involves eight actors working in shifts all day. He says it may start slow in terms of consumer engagement -- but that social media being what it is, it should have a big audience by hour three. "We are promoting it; so is Second City, but it's really a big experiment for both of us; Second City has never done anything like it. If they can capture even half of the comedy we saw live, we think it will catch on." Marx will be in New York in mid-September because the automaker and its agency of record, Los Angeles-based TBWA/Chiat Day, are up for several Digiday Sammy social media awards. The company is nominated for a crowdsourcing campaign supporting the Nissan 370Z. Nissan asked fans to make modification suggestions for the 370Z, and then built a version of the car based on the suggestions. The team is a finalist in “Best Social Creative,” “Best Branded Social Community” and “Best Facebook Branding Campaign.”
The International Rescue Committee, a global top-five NGO that serves refugees and those fleeing disaster, conflict and oppression, is launching a crowdsourced program called "The Domestic Violence Think-In.” The program, the largest to date for the 80-year-old organization, brings 450 students to the Stockholm-based training facility Hyper Island to receive a four-day assignment: come up with a campaign that will raise awareness, support and donations for the IRC’s work stopping domestic violence in developing countries. Students will be required to crowdsource thoughts and opinions, all to start a digital conversation about the topic. After four days, the students will create a video explaining their ideas, which the IRC will consider using for future efforts. Below are all of the details. During the session, which will be led by Gyro, a global creative agency that works with the IRC and a long-time collaborator with Hyper Island, the students will crowdsource ideas at Ircthinkin.com. They will be using Twitter (hashtag #ircthinkin), Facebook.com/ircthinkin and the video-sharing application Viddy.com to share what they learned and solicit feedback. At the culmination of the project, the students will give the 70 strongest ideas to IRC and Gyro leadership. The consequent video will also go live at Ircthinkin.com. The IRC says the best ideas will be considered for the IRC’s next campaign. The organization says it will also give the compilation video to presidents and ministers of developing countries. The goal, per the IRC, is to urge leaders to enact laws against domestic violence where no laws currently exist or to enforce the laws in the countries that already have protection laws. Domestic abuse is epidemic, with one-third of women worldwide physically, sexually or otherwise abused during their lifetimes, according to a recent report from the IRC. Carrie Ross Welch, SVP of external relations at the IRC, tells Marketing Daily that the IRC has run successful traditional and social media campaigns around its core mission and tagline "From Harm to Home." She says the organization has also done campaigns around prevention of violence against women ("Wake Up"), and for many recent emergencies, including drought and famine in the Horn of Africa. The IRC is also running a large campaign called "New Roots" in traditional and social media, around refugee community programs, per Ross Welch. The IRC also has a celebrity spokesperson in actress Rashida Jones of the TV program "Parks and Recreation" and the film "Celeste and Jesse Forever," whose New York premiere benefited the IRC. Ross Welch says the Hyper Island program presented a great opportunity for the IRC. "As a highly efficient NGO that puts 93 cents of every dollar toward programs, we simply don’t have the resources to engage creative in every important issue we address or for the work we do," she says. "Who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to have 450 young creatives focus on a neglected issue and how best to raise awareness around it? Our first goal for any campaign would be to raise public awareness, to get people talking, and thinking and wanting to learn more. Activism and advocacy follow." She adds that the IRC has never before done anything on the scale of the Hyper Island program. "The IRC is known in the U.S., but we have only just started promoting ourselves and our work," says Ross Welch. "We have a long way to go before we are a household name. In the countries and U.S. cities where we have programs -- and of course, in the humanitarian community -- we have great brand recognition and are universally admired for our work."
Demographic profiles have long been used by marketers to segment their audience and enable them to target offers to people who are more likely to be receptive than the general population. For example, a marketer for Forever 21 might target the single, female, middle-class, age 18 to 24, college-educated demographic. Critics of demographic profiling argue that broad-brush generalizations can only offer limited insight, and that their practical usefulness is debatable. That’s why with the mountains of data being collected about us as we surf the internet and engage with social media, some new ways of looking at targeted populations have emerged that may soon replace the tried-and-true notion of a general demographic. But while much has been written about the “social graph” – the data from your social connections that allow you to create aggregate profiles based on who you’re friends with – we believe the real opportunity for shift lied with the “interest graph.” Unlike the social graph – which allows marketers to understand who you like – the interest graph leverages data that actually give us a better idea of what you like. The interest graph is a better indication of your preferences than the social graph, because who you like isn’t necessarily an indication of what you like. Interest graph data include publicly available information such as what people volunteer (e.g., Facebook interests); what people share (e.g., photos from a biking trip); who people follow; and what people say online, what they retweet and what they post. They also include “feedback loop” information from what people actually respond to, such as receptiveness to a particular campaign, which then feeds back into the database. So how can you use interest graph data to target social ads? 1. Target followers of relevant Twitter handles. To reach a targeted Gen Y audience, design your paid social campaign to target followers of relevant Twitter handles … and if you’re running TV ads during shows that are popular with your audience, consider augmenting these with social ads in real-time, as many viewers keep one eye on their Twitter feed and one eye on the TV screen. For example, a clothing retailer might launch a paid social campaign targeting @GleeOnFox, @Gleeks, and @GossipGirl to supplement their commercial buy during those programs. 2. Develop “personas.” Think about how you can aggregate this handful of handles into “personas” - these represent a specific set of interests for your particular product, such as “sports car fans” or “Gleeks,” that are derived based on whom people follow, keywords used in their social streams and other publicly available keys from their social graph. To build a persona, start by identifying influencers and then add a few highly relevant keywords. For example, to use the interest graph to reach Millennials for an Emmys-related campaign, choose influencers from relevant media properties: the stars of Emmy-nominated shows like “30 Rock,” “So You Think You Can Dance,” “The Voice,” and “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” And use keywords like "Oscars" or "Olympics" to identify millennials who historically tweet about televised events. The interest graph allows advertisers to target their campaigns based on these personas for higher relevance and better campaign performance. 3. Test and Iterate. Testing interest graph-based campaigns can not only improve overall campaign performance but also help brands learn more about what interests their audiences. Plan at least one round of optimizations and prepare to learn something about your millennial customer in the process. Adjust creative to suit them as well as to keep the ad creative fresh for the real-time environment of social. Interest graphics and personas are infinitely more valuable than demographics, because these enable marketers to better match their offers and ads to people who are actually interested. This means less wasted effort, less spammy ads and better matching … and, ultimately, better ROI.
There are times when I’m sure we’ve gotten this Facebook thing -- and maybe this social media thing -- all wrong. When it comes to the Facebook IPO, yesterday was a day like any other day. Well, perhaps it was even more of a day like any other, because there was a clear, mathematical reason the stock dropped: the first lockup expired. This, of course, means that the Interwebs are full of almost gleeful headlines about Facebook’s crash-and-burn: “Zuckerberg admits Facebook stock ‘painful’ to watch, report says, notes The Washington Post, illustrating its story with the photo of CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg ringing the opening bell only three months ago. First flight out: FB hits new low as lockup expires,” crows The New York Post. “Facebook stock slump cuts Zuckerberg's worth by $600M,” intimates The Chicago Tribune. But what none of these headlines can get at is the powerful flip side of Facebook, the part that has incalculable value, but, as its revenue models are structured now, is unmonetizable. What is it? The power of being able to connect with people who mean something to you. It’s the way users derive value from the site, but, while a brand may piggyback on this interest, by overtly buying into the News Feed, or by harnessing data from Facebook interactions, those things have nothing to do with the value that people derive from it. Once again, I’ll return to two examples from my personal life to illustrate what I mean: Last night, I spent time scrolling through MOPS, the acronym the locals use for the Moms of Pelham Facebook group. (Yes, rocket scientists, that’s where I live.) Here are the topics covered in the five most recent posts: 1. The time of the high school football parents’ meeting last night. 2. The sorry state of a local vegetable garden. 3. A request for mason recommendations to repair a slate walkway. 4. A reachout from a newcomer about the local elementary school. 5. A recommendation for a new pediatrician. What kind of value do you put you on a group capable of doling out advice and information on gardening, the school system, and local masons, all at your fingertips? Of course, these groups have existed online since we were all using dial-up modems to experience the wonders of America Online. But what separates the Facebook experience from its precursors is critical mass. Pelham is a town of 12,000 people, and 680 of them are members of MOPS. Engagement levels are incredibly high. Almost every post gets at least one comment. In fact, it’s far more common that a post will have comments than “Likes.” But, while there’s plenty of discussion about goods and services, there is virtually no local advertising, except for a righthand column ad from our ubiquitous State Assemblywoman. And I’m really not sure how well advertising would go down, unless it was part of the kind of well-thought-out social media content strategy that most advertisers, let alone Mom-and-Pop stores, haven’t yet engineered. As powerful as MOPS is though, it only scrapes the surface of how deep Facebook connections can go at their best. And, so, now, for my other example: For years now, my family and I have wondered whatever happened to the family that used to live down the hill from us, especially their youngest son, who moved from my hometown when I was seven, and was one of the closest playmates I ever had. You know how this story ends, because you’ve probably experienced it. He was wondering about us all these years too. And now, we’re reunited, on Facebook. It’s impossible to put a price on that. A CPM? A market cap? Are you kidding me? So, let me close by asking you something: How does Facebook derive value from this power, if advertising doesn’t end up being the answer?
It's one thing to win a race. It's quite another to do so in successive Olympics like Usain Bolt -- or greater still, Michael Phelps, who managed the even more remarkable feat of three-peating this year in London. Pinterest, a dazzling social media darling that is akin to first-time medal winners Gabby Douglas and Missy Franklin, may or may not even be in the social media game four years from now. Time will indeed tell. But since speculating on the future of Pinterest has become a sport in and of itself, and since we no longer have the London Olympics to distract us, this seems like the appropriate moment to wrestle the topic to the ground. And perhaps more to the point, this piece gives me a chance to get my 5 best guesses together for the upcoming Social Media Insider Summit, where “what's next for Pinterest” will be a subject of great debate. Guess #1: Pinterest will be bought before the Games get to Rio Vegas odds-makers probably would not even offer even money on this bet, given the fact that Pinterest is already the third-most-popular social network in the world and continues to attract users at a record-setting pace. And if user growth is not enough to attract a buyer, there's also the fact that Pinterest is already one of the top “organic” traffic referrers -- and its referrals also seem to generate higher-than-average ecommerce sales. Clearly, a biggie like Google could monetize Pinterest seven ways to payday! Guess #2: Pinterest will find more ways to generate revenue than Michael Phelps If anyone could cash in on the Olympics, it would be Phelps, the all-time most decorated Olympian with 12 years of epic accomplishments. Yet the potential revenue pool for the freshly minted Pinterest is truly unlimited and goes well beyond ad dollars and paid affiliate links. Sponsored pins, a la Twitter, and promoted profiles like Facebook, are both strong options assuming they don't meet user resistance. Pinterest could also start licensing their API for money and setting up their own stores, splashing their way to the big dough. Guess #3: Pinterest will spawn an ecosystem even the IOC could love Notorious for its "you can't post that" decrees to athletes, the International Olympic Committee hoped to control the uncontrollable through its social media guidelines. Pinterest -- so far, at least -- seems much more open to letting a social ecosystem grow around it, although it may move in directions it can't completely control. Pinerly, a new Pinterest analytic platform currently in Beta, is already helping brands manage “campaigns,” while Pinreach and Pinpuff are battling it out to measure "pinner" influence. And there's even a blog called Pintology that pans bad pins and promotes the real deals. Guess #4: Pinterest will be on more platforms than the Chinese divers While David Boudia did the U.S. proud by winning the 10-meter platform, the Chinese otherwise dominated the boards, leaving London with 6 diving Golds! During the same two-week period, SlideShare announced its integration with Pinterest -- a move that will introduce Pinterest to millions in the B2B world and further extend its reach through recent plug-ins for platforms like Facebook, Flickr, WordPress (WP Pinner) and Tumblr. Surely it won't be long before iPhoto dives into the Pinterest party? Guess #5: Marketers will go for the gold with something other than "Pin it to win it" As the Olympic torch moves out of London, we should get a respite from “golden opportunities” and other clichés that clog the airwaves. Hopefully, marketers will take a similarly fresh look at the language they use on Pinterest, which is currently dominated by no fewer than twenty contests called "Pin It to Win It" and the shorter, but equally overused, "Pin to Win." Better yet, they might pin their hopes on more “pinteresting” boards with "pintillating" comments, a combo that's already winning for the likes of GE and Kate Spade. Final note: While Pinterest is currently running rings around emerging competitors like DartItUp and Manteresting, the social media arena is far too fluid for any brand to declare victory or, worse yet, rest on their laurels. Undoubtedly Pinterest will continue to evolve and perhaps even “gamify” the experience -- a prospect that could transform this endearing sprinter into an enduring winner.