Getting started in Social Media

On Saturday, I gave a speech to a group of accomplished young advertising and marketing professionals. The emphasis of my talk was my career of 26 years and how advertising/marketing has changed and forced me to reinvent my career to be successful. And the driving force behind all this, social media, and my agency's perspective on it and what we are doing to be competitive in this crazy new environment.

Afterward, I left a pile of business cards and welcomed anyone with questions to contact me. Here is one question I received and my answer follows. (I share this because the purpose of this blog is to record the trials and tribulations of an old dog learning new tricks, others might have helpful additions or suggestions and are welcome to add their thoughts)

"Thank you so much for coming to speak to Ad 2 today. I really learned a lot from your presentation.

I'm the one who works for a very traditional advertising agency and I'd like to help them move forward into doing social media work. They are all scared of new media/social media right now so I need to start educating them so they warm them up to this idea. The catch is I'm not educated enough on my own and don't have any personal experience to draw from. Any ideas on how to learn enough about this myself with out actually doing this kid of work to be able to start convincing them this is something we should pursue?

Any ideas would be helpful. Thank you again!"

Thanks for the kind words. First, I applaud you for recognizing the status quo will not help your career or company you work for. My advice is pretty simple and falls into two buckets.

Start small—it’s easy to get overwhelmed with what you don’t know. Start with Seth Godin’s Meatball Sunday and Tribes books. They both quick reads but chock full of references that will take you further. Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody is an important read as well from the psychographic vs. Sociographic marketing perspective. Wall Street Journal and New York Times and Business Week all have interesting articles written from a business perspective that are great sources of knowledge—always look at the world from the client perspective.

Find kindred spirits—people you work with, friends, etc. Start sharing and asking questions. You’ll find there are a lot of people out there like you and the power of this group will change your life because either you will feel empowered to change your company or find a new one to work for that fits your career vision.

Study your industry, your client’s industries, and the consumer. Your industry—try to understand who is doing what and why. How are marketing firms adjusting? What happens to those who do nothing--can be powerful arguments for you with your management. Client’s—look for examples where their competition is doing something differently—again gives you the excuse to at least bring it up. The consumer—they are the one driving this bus...watch and try to predict where they are going.

Last but not least, try little things first and then build. Momentum will follow.

Allen and Pete: A Snapshot.

I was reading some emails today between Pete and Allen regarding social media and marketing and it occurred to me that this makes a really good example of how we work, all the time, everyday. I thought I would share...

Allen sent this out about a piece of research he had found.

“Social media is an important shift, as it summarizes the importance of interaction, the consumer and the community. The term emphasizes the idea that as a collective it can have as much impact as any traditional media platform.

In truth, to claim social media as “new” is slightly misleading. From the beginning, the Internet was founded on message boards, chat rooms and peer to peer communication. What has changed is the mass involvement that modern social platforms inspire.

Contributing to the Internet has never been as accessible and less technical. Innovations in web development, computing technology and the proliferation of broadband have come together (to) drive monumental consumer take up. This is why the phenomenon of social media is important now – it has the potential to impact on all our media consumption therefore shifting the emphasis from professional content producers to the consumer.”

-Universal McCann study

Pete's response.

Absolutely no question: what’s changed is the ease of distribution, not the behavioral drivers behind it. This is why WOM has existed as long as human beings have been able to communicate. The trap we fall into now, with all the shiny objects of the last 5-10 years, is in looking at it too narrowly—ie, only in terms of the online experience (and sometimes even forgetting newer mobile technologies)—thereby adding one more stupid silo to the brand marketing mix. (That’s also why marketers who obsess about “digital digital digital” conjure up images in my mind of marketers in the 1950s who might have similarly obsessed about vacuum tubes or the size of a TV antenna: that ain’t the point!)

The very important corollary to all of this is that we can’t talk about “social media and marketing” while staying stuck in the idea that we each develop attachments to brands merely as atomistic individuals (“Brand X satisfies my needs and desires”) with little or no thought to the social dimensions of brand meaning. In my opinion, this is probably the most powerful and profound part of the work we’ve been doing over the last 4-5 months, and that I look forward to developing further for our clients and WG. –Pete

It is exciting to be around people like this because they do this all day long. What will tomorrow bring?

Our new baby is born!

WonderGroup Grows Social Media & Marketing Services

WonderGroup, the Cincinnati-based advertising agency widely known for its work in marketing strategies to youth and families, has announced new and specialized services in social media strategy development, execution and measurement.

With the aim of helping its regional, national and international clients strengthen brand engagement and advocacy with millions of consumers, WonderGroup will infuse new social media and marketing strategies into traditional advertising, promotions and interactive media. The new capabilities will help clients accelerate brand awareness, increase trial and strengthen brand volume initiatives.

Spearheading the new offering at the agency are two new senior managers:

Pete Healy, V.P. Social Media and Marketing. Healy was formerly a WonderGroup client as the VP of Marketing at Perfetti Van Melle USA, where he directed marketing for the Mentos and Airheads brands. While there, he was integrally involved in the “Mentos Geyser craze” of 2006 and the subsequent “Trevor the Mentos Intern” online campaign, both of which attracted worldwide attention as social marketing successes. Prior to joining Perfetti Van Melle, Healy was VP of Marketing at Jelly Belly Candy Company in California, where he developed and directed high-engagement strategies for the Jelly Belly brand in the U.S. and internationally.

Allen McCormick, V.P. Marketing. McCormick, also a former WonderGroup client as the Marketing Director at US Playing Card Company, has been heavily engaged in the development, execution and measurability of social media campaigns. McCormick also worked for Procter and Gamble as a Client Director, with the social marketing word-of-mouth venture known as Tremor. While there, he spearheaded many efforts with packaged goods, entertainment and the auto industry. McCormick previously worked in marketing roles at Revlon and led the marketing strategy development, evolution of direct marketing, and CRM efforts for both Sony PlayStation and SeaWorld.

McCormick and Healy are supported by a WonderGroup team of experienced social, interactive and account professionals. The agency’s clients include ConAgra Foods, Kellogg’s, Cincinnati Bell Communications, Topps, Perfetti Van Melle, SunnyD Beverages, Evenflo and other well-known consumer brands.

For additional information on WonderGroup services, including social media and marketing strategies, please contact:

Greg Livingston
President
WonderGroup
513.357.2950
glivingston@wondergroup.com

What a waste.

It's a shame. Think about all the money spent this election year on campaign ads designed to impugn and destroy the character and reputation of their opponents. There's no creativity here, just savage bare knuckle blows delivered again and again without mercy. Without truth. Without grace. Make it stop.

What could that money have done to change our world for the positive?

We'll never know.

Vision or Experience?

One of the things I've noticed, and one of our biggest challenges as an agency, is the difference between vision and experience. A lot of client cultures look to validate strategic and creative decisions with experience. Have you done that before or do you have any case studies that demonstrates what you propose? It's easy to understand the desire to minimize risk. But it also punishes forward thinking agencies.

Yes, we have plenty of great case studies for great clients but our frustration is that because we push to think new and differently, we're often ahead of the execution and the resulting case studies. Patience is a virtue...but not while waiting for validation. The consumer world is changing and moving rapidly and so are we. We're adapting by creating or changing our creative processes for greater efficiencies and to take advantage of what is new in the world of consumer marketing. And there's something new every second.

The challenge is to identify clients who will choose to work with us for our vision and leadership and not worry about the potential clients out there who require validation through experience. Not that either is bad, we've just chosen the vision path and have become comfortable that it will work differently than traditional agency models. We want the early adopters and the future casters who relish being first.

I prefer the model where vision gives you new and different experience.

Agency Cultures: How do we define them?

Cultures like agencies evolve. It's taken me awhile to put my finger on WonderGroup's, but like all good things it's borne from truth. Some people mistake a slogan for culture, "home of kick ass creative" (actually suggested to me), "smash mouth creativity" (also suggested...I promised to protect the identity of the suggestor). Or they go to guardrails like "respect each other" and "Listen" as cultural badges. But when I tell people what I think defines our agency I point to three things.

1. Entrepreneurial: It's a get it done spirit that inspires everyone to take ownership. If we don't know something, we figure it out. Entrepreneurs are not afraid to work hard, take risk or even fail in stretching to do something different. For our clients, it means we are always working to help them find an advantage. I respect people who get their hands dirty.
   
2. Curious: We really push awareness and learning throughout the entire staff everyday. What did you learn today? How does it change your thinking or approach? A rapidly changing world dictates that we foster and reward curiosity and sharing. It's exciting for me to see folks who were not digitally savvy 4 months ago become Twitter machines overnight. I respect people who ask how and why.
3. Underdog: Nothing like having a little chip on your shoulder to make you more competitive. WonderGroup often finds itself competing against bigger more established New York, Chicago and LA agencies for new business. We relish being the little guys from Cincinnati because the competition almost always undersestimates us. When you start anything as an underdog you, by definition, have to work harder to be smarter and more creative in order to win. When we win, and we do much more than not, it's very gratifying to me, since I'm a recovering New Yorker (did I mention I like competition?). Underdogs never take anything for granted and they don't leave anything on the playing field.

So that's it. Pretty simple and straightforward. And that's the point.

Why creatives are leading agencies today?

In the old agency model, account people (the business people) were always in charge. Back then the ad business acted like a predictable and stable business. The creatives were considered a necessary evil. Flaky, temperamental, easily distracted and dismissed...as in not taken seriously.

Today is different. At some agencies the inmates are now running the asylum. And why not? The "creatives" are most attuned to the changes in consumer behavior effecting today's marketing landscape because they ARE those consumers themselves. It's in their DNA to listen, learn and communicate what's important. The good ones identify emerging trends early and weave them into their work.

Creatives who lead agencies don't fear failure. They are not married to the past. They are eager learners willing to change, reinvent and experiment. They recognize that you cannot take today's social media creative platforms and force them into traditional agency structures and expect to grow or make a profit. There is nothing wrong with really good strategic account people who are creative as well-we need more of them. It's just nice to know creative people can do something other than just be the entertainment.

I like today. Finally, my mom will think I have a real job!