Alberta Business Marketing

Zuckerburg has taken it just one tab too far.

I was okay with the privacy setting concerns. I was okay with the liberal usage of my personal info for the sake of advertising. I was even okay with their attempt to create a near universal currency – Facebook Credits – that aimed to totally eradicate modern consumerism as we know it.

But this? This is too much.

The recently launched Timeline layout takes your entire Facebook history and organizes it into a neat, easy-to-creep chronological history. With just a couple clicks, visitors to your profile can now time warp back to your earliest days online. If you’re a Gen Y’er like myself, that probably means your old back & fourths with high school sweethearts and bickering acquaintances are now instantly viewable by people like, say, your roommates, family members, or perhaps even your boss.

In other words, the apocalypse is here.

It’s one of the biggest in-your-face changes that’s ever been made to the service, and one that will prompt many users to re-evaluate their relationship with the platform. In my case, it led to a drastic social media cleanse, which I documented in a post titled The Night I Deleted 83% Of The People From My Life. I was not alone. Countless friends and readers responded to the piece, telling me that they felt the same way; the social network experience was just becoming too big a beast to responsibly maintain.

Timeline has the potential to distort both how we think and the way we’re observed. Let us examine 3 areas of concern in increasing order of severity:

1. Old Wounds (emotional nuisance)

Whereas previous generations were forced to rewind old mixtapes or visit kitschy ice cream parlors to pay emotional homage to their old beaus of yesteryear, we can now revisit and over-examine our past relationships in about the same amount of time as it takes to check the weather.

It’s not just romantic ghosts – think of all the dated social affiliations and connections you’ve accumulated throughout the years. Digging up gossip fuel and incriminating dirt on one of your friends has never been easier. A new browser tab here, a clickity click there, and presto! You’re now free to sift through each and every interaction you had with the people you once held true to your heart. It’s like pouring salt on old wounds. Or perhaps, more accurately, browser cookies on weakened firewalls.

God I hate the Internet.

Perhaps a stronger and more emotionally evolved person would be able to treasure this newfound opportunity to revisit past relationships. I’d rather saw off my left thumb with a sea urchin. To each their own, I suppose.

2. Judgment of Character (professional liability)

I started using Facebook when I was 16. You remember being 16, right? No? Let me refresh your memory. You sucked. Like myself, you probably said a lot of dumb things trying to impress people or be funny. Perhaps you even discussed Wham! That’s expected of you. After all, you were a kid. Never fear - assuming you were born before the 90s, those silly notions are but distant memories, safely nestled away exactly where they belong: in the past.

My generation is less fortunate.

Our entire dopey adolescence is documented online in great detail. And since many of us – having grown into adults and young professionals - now have Friend Lists that include coworkers and even bosses, the availability of said conversations/photos/thoughts is alarming. Would you really want your supervisor or director leafing through a personal journal you kept in the tenth grade?

This is particularly distressing when you consider the increasing popularity of social media background checks as potential employers begin to sift through your online profiles with an increasing degree of attention and scrutiny. After all, they don’t want your social misdemeanors to shine poorly on their company. One can only imagine how difficult it would be to find a suitable candidate for prime minister had today’s politicians been tweeting since prepubescence.

The pixilated skeletons in your digital closet have never been easier to uncover. Perhaps it’s time to change the locks.

3. The Ability to Forget (psychological cancer)

In his book Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger looks at the cumbersome mental effects that archival tech mediums have wrought upon us. Thanks to the digital revolution, our capacity to remember is as strong as our nearest internet connection. The distant past has become no further than a few clicks away, making our personal histories inescapable and clouding our ability to make unbiased contemporary decisions.

In other words, it’s difficult to focus on the present when it’s so easy to look back on what’s happened in the past.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for preserving memories. Matter of fact, it’s something I wish I could do a better job of. I wish I took more pictures or recorded a daily journal. The ability to continually revisit and learn from the past is one of the greatest blessings modern technology has provided us with. But I think recollection is far better when it happens on a macro-level. I much rather reminisce via the collective feelings and memories that have permanently burned themselves into my mind, as opposed to referencing an old wall-to-wall my friend and I had about 2 Fast 2 Furious five years ago. There’s a reason you remember certain things, right?

Analyzing your past will become a far more daunting experience when you can instantly wade through thousands of pristinely preserved conversations and exchanges. It’s sensory overload and it could hurt us. Wouldn’t it all be so much more genuine if we focused on what we remember vs. what we have archived? If we began to spend more time looking forward and less time curating what’s behind us? I have a feeling it just might make things a lot more enjoyable.

Then again, maybe I’m just petrified of my past.

Brook Johnston is a copywriter for FUSE Marketing Group in Toronto.

Tags: Digital, social media
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In a recent new business pitch, I was asked the dreaded question. The ONE question that every agency person has been up against. The crystal ball. The fortune teller. The winning numbers on a lottery ticket. THAT type of question. Here goes…I was asked:

What is the future of digital marketing?

Not exactly the easiest question to answer. But with a deadline looming, here were some of my thoughts:

1. Explosion of smartphone penetration and increasing importance of mobile integration

Can you spell ‘OBVIOUSLY’? Felt I would be remiss not to mention this. Smartphone penetration in North America is often reported as high as 40%. This number is expected to climb significantly over the next few years. Understanding how to motivate consumers via this device and encourage interaction and brand advocacy will become more important than ever before.

2. In-bound vs out-bound marketing

The marketing/communication landscape continues to change - daily. In this business, the only constant IS change. One thing we can be sure of though is the evolution from out-bound marketing (where brands pushed out their message) to the increasingly omnipresent in-bound marketing. In-bound marketing includes:

• Interactive and two-way communication
• Customers seeking out brands via a multitude of channels and experiences
• Need for marketers to provide value exchange

The shift has happened. And the pressure to provide value and utility will only increase.

Check out this related infographic which I used as a source.

3. Heightened sensitivity around consumer privacy

With the explosion of social networks and related marketing applications that delve into consumer settings and preferences, we as a society are more cautious than ever before about protecting our privacy.

While consumers are hungry for laws that protect their information and private data, marketers are concerned with over zealous regulations that threaten to derail marketing and communication freedom (CASL anyone?). Striving for balance will be a key issue for marketers across North America.

One only needs to look to recent claims and action taken against Facebook to understand the depth and complexity of the issue. Giving consumers clear access to control their privacy while allowing marketers to build permission based programs will become a bigger challenge over the next few years.

4. “Phygital” marketing

Let me be clear on one thing. I detest the word ‘phygital’. But this isn’t about me. So let’s move on…. Phygital Marketing is often described as “ideas that extend brand engagement with consumers through the interplay of experiences in both the physical and digital spaces – in the Phygital space.”.

With increasing budgets in the digital space (from media to production to innovation in technology), blending our physical world with the online environment is now the cost of entry. Consumers no longer decipher between online sites and physical store locations. The brand persona – and brand experience – is one. Agencies will need to understand how to connect and deliver engaging and useful interactions.

5. Monetizing social engagement

It is no surprise that brands are clamoring to get on social networks such as Facebook (if they haven’t already arrived). Those who joined the party some time ago are constantly struggling with how to engage their fanbase while monetizing their ROMI. Herein lies the challenge….how to determine return on investment and furthermore, how to leverage the social sphere into a revenue generating channel. As social inevitably continues to evolve, we predict that the value will be less about ‘status’ and size of network and more about crowd sourced solutions and daily interaction.

Social media in the B2C space is not only about helping brands connect with consumers but also influencing awareness, interest and desire. Some brands have been able to directly monetize their social media efforts and are well on their way to turning this dynamic channel into another example of ‘phygital’ well done.

Robin Whalen

Tags: Digital
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As long as I can remember, brands have organized their marketing initiatives into distinct campaigns. Each season or product launch or celebrity endorsement was treated as their own separate campaign. Brand managers developed the strategy, creative teams made beautiful ads, media teams spread it across appropriate channels, and finally everyone measured its success. After all was said and done, the key findings were used to improve the next campaign and the whole cycle started again.

This process made sense in a world of mass media, but it is quickly becoming obsolete. With the rise of digital marketing, each step along the lifecycle of a campaign was changed as knowledge of the consumer increased and targeting options multiplied. Yet the concept of the campaigns still persists, though is now executed at a more granular level.

The start of the move to digital proved effective because it allowed marketing messages to be much more relevant to the individual consumer. Marketers didn’t have to think of their consumers in broad groups based on demographics, but could instead use far more detailed information to reach the right person with the right message.

I believe that the next iteration in this development will bring about the end of the campaign.

Marketing will become more fluid taking the shape of an ongoing relationship between brands and their consumers instead of distinct campaigns. Ad targeting and optimization technology will improve so that each consumer will receive their own message customized based on a multitude of factors.

Many direct marketers are already doing versions of this. The emails I get from Amazon are based on books that I have said that I like - things like my age, gender, and occupation don’t matter. This makes their marketing message more relevant to me than any TV commercial I have ever seen.

How do you prepare for a post-campaign marketing world?

The skills required from marketers will change. Data mining and optimization will become more important. Technology will drive more marketing dollars. Creative will always be important, but will have to become more flexible.

And the way you think about your brand will change too. Brands will become more conversational and rely more on earned media than paid media. Instead of thinking in campaigns, brands will think in terms of relationships.

Yet the fundamentals of your brand - the promise you make to your consumers - should stay the same. The end of the campaign should be an opportunity to make that more promise more meaningful to your consumers as you can customize its execution. It will be hard, but it will benefit consumers and brands alike it if is done properly.

Ben Wise

Tags: Branding, Digital, Direct Marketing
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I've never before written a post after someone has passed away.

Perhaps it's because I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro. Perhaps it's because we have over a half dozen Apple devices in our home. Perhaps it's the way I see my 3 year old daughter effortlessly using an iPad and technology without a second thought. Or perhaps I still remember when I first used a computer (Apple IIE) and how it was a moment of 'child-like wonder'.

I'm sure you have heard, Steve Jobs the founder of Apple and until recently its CEO, passed away yesterday due to the scourge of cancer. He left behind a wife and young family. He also left behind a legacy as an innovator and someone who demanded excellence. Someone who never contented himself or his company with the status quo.

Indeed I had the privilege to work at Apple but I only saw him once from a distance when I travelled to headquarters in Cupertino, California. But let me tell you that you felt his presence throughout the Apple and it was firmly ingrained within the company DNA.

Words that come to mind as it relates to Steve Jobs and Apple as a former employee? Excellence. Drive. Innovation. Marketing. Simplicity. Financial Performance. Ruthlessness. Secrecy. Vision.

Now I'm not about to suggest that Steve Jobs was perfect. But really who amongst is? He was no deity but one would be naive to deny the tremendous impact Steve Jobs had on marketing, technology and perhaps our society at large especially in the past decade.

Whether it was the founding of Apple. Being later unceremoniously removed from the very company he founded. Returning back to Apple to help it rise like a phoenix from the ashes and the precipice of bankruptcy. Taking Pixar Studios to the next level and making it a blockbuster company in terms of computer animation. Steve Jobs consistently made his mark.

Steve Jobs took an almost bankrupt company (with financial help from Microsoft) and made it one of the largest companies in terms of market capitalization on the planet. He did so by launching innovative and revolutionary products such as the MacBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad. Each of which significantly raised the bar in terms of the quality of products that companies in the consumer electronics industry produced. Each also severely disrupting other established industries such as music and entertainment.

So here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The trouble-makers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. Like Steve.

Sulemaan Ahmed
Twitter @sulemaan

Tags: Branding, Customer Experience, Digital, Get it off your chest, technology, This and That
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Video is now easy to add to any marketing campaign.

The most common learning style is visual. And most people prefer video to any other media. It requires less thought and can be done "lazily". As a marketer, it makes sense to cater to the audience.

Video is increasingly placing well in Google search results.

There was a time when creating a video meant thousands of dollars of equipment to shoot and thousands more to edit. Now video equipment is "included" free on such things as a Blackberry, iPhone and a normal cell phone. And editing software is pervasive and easy to use.

One side effect of cheap video cost is it can often be bad video. Just because anyone can do it, does not mean anyone should do it. As marketers we know we need quality.

The goal in video production is acceptably good. The cost to get perfect near TV quality video can be much more than acceptably good but the difference for the audience is small. Many people will watch your video on a small screen (perhaps even a device like a Blackberry). The smaller the screen and lower the resolution, the more forgiving the user will be to the quality. Blow it up to theatre size and imperfections are blatant.

8 Tips that can make video marketing easier:

1 - Spend a bit on a real video camera. A few hundred dollars does the trick. Buy a tripod as well. It is impossible to hold a camera still without one.

2 - Shorter is better. Most people will not even click on a video that says 10 minutes. Optimal length in our time starved, ADD society is 2 minutes. Of course this has the advantage to you. It takes less time to produce a short video.

3 - There is a reason why professionals use expensive lights. Video that is well lit looks better. It can be as simple as turning on all the lights to using cheap construction lights.

4 - Plan the story line. No video will be watched if the story line is poor. Video copy is like any other copy. Make it punchy, active, funny, and interesting to keep people's attention. Remember people always have their finger on their mouse waiting to click off your video. Videos that "go viral" always have a great story. The quality of the story beats the quality of the video any day.

5 - Consider adding music. Music adds to the interest and can add to the flow. Think of most TV and news shows. They all have intro/exit music.

6 - Consider doing a music video. I liked the one Organic Meadow produced. I do not know their production equipment or cost but the outcome was great.

7 - Promote your video in your other marketing. Producing the video is easy. But distribution is key. So cross reference it in your blogs, twitter, print, radio, business cards, signage, email it etc. It is the old story - distribution of marketing is key.

8 - Consider doing educational videos. American Health Journal does a great job of medical videos for example. By naming videos by the educational topic like "back pain", they will get good natural search traffic when people search for that term.

Video is easy and economical and deserves to be a part of any marketing program.

Jim Estill

Tags: Digital, Strategy, Viral
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