A deep dive into digital marketing

Mad Men leaves TV

Posted by Chris under Advertising, I wish I'd thought of that, Social Networking, Twitter

Well not really but they did jump on Twitter. A few days ago, when I was slightly checked out on vacation; yes I was hitting the tables in Vegas and yes did leave with more then I arrived with. Something happened in the twitter space.

Man Men characters, no not the actors, the characters started twittering. I noted it the other day, and thought wow what a great campaign by AMC. Plenty of people tweeted that it not only wasn’t AMC but it was passionate fans that were then shut down by AMC.

But then smartly brought back.

I’m in a brainstorm right now and we’re talking about how to create, tap into and use word of mouth marketing and fan passion. But can we really, as marketer, create this?

David Armano blogged about how this is creating new rules. I’ll build on this it’s not just rule changing and another nod to the power of consumers; it can not just be created, as in let’s create word of mouth marketing.

The people behind, part of, and living wearesterlingcooper.com are not only fans, they are spot on writers, characters and create an interaction the brings to show to life.

Now I’m an ad guy, have been since I sold sweet corn to local grocery stores when I was 11 and there are times that I can be pretty darn cynical about the business. But I love Mad Men. The writing, the sets, the cinematography and even the pacing, it almost feels like a guilty pleasure to watch. And it’s even more a guilty pleasure to take the time out to tweet with the characters. And I have to admit it’s been quite fun to tweet with Betty Draper.   What started as a coffee stained shirt turned into Betty giving me advice on how to clean it with alcohol and later comments on my new cufflinks, which my wife echoed when I got home.

And you know, I love the show even more now. I’m part of the feedback loop and have told at least a dozen people this morning alone about the show and the twittering. A few haven’t seen the show, but they are interested now.

So one person told ten people who told…

If only we could “make” passionate fans but we can’t. But we can create a great experience and one in which we can hope to ignite and then fan the flames our our passionate audience.

Because when you have a fan base who writes a manifesto (below) like the folks at wearesteerlingcooper you truly have created something beautiful

Fan fiction. Brand hijacking. Copyright misuse. Sheer devotion. Call it what you will, but we call it the blurred line between content creators and content consumers, and it’s not going away. We’re your biggest fans, your die-hard proponents, and when your show gets cancelled we’ll be among the first to pass around the petition. Talk to us. Befriend us. Engage us. But please, don’t treat us like criminals.

This site exists to catalogue the conversation around AMC’s Mad Men and its fanbase across the social web. But it’s just the beginning. ‘We are Sterling Cooper’ is a rallying cry to brands and fans alike to come together and create together.

Are you in the Tribe

Posted by Chris under Advertising, I wish I'd thought of that, Social Networking, Technology, trends

Call it smart marketing or eating your own dog food but Seth Godin is pushing his new book building community in a pretty interesting new way. First you have to buy pre-order his book then you may be admitted into his”tribe for marketers” after you jump through a few small hoops.

An invitation only, spots are limited, membership has it’s privileges kind of site which I of course could not resist signing up for.

Are you in the tribe?

As a note I got my auto response back, I like that they are using Ning for the community, that’s really eating your own dog food!

note per Seth’s request I took the email down, I’d posted the email response I’d gotten from them. (you’ll see his reply below) Happy to do so!

on Facebook

Posted by Chris under Facebook, Social Networking

Posted by a friend of mine (a great copywriter) on another friends wall

To be a guy on facebook:

The first rule of facebook is, you do not admit you’re on facebook. The second rule of facebook is, you do not admit you’re on facebook. The third rule of facebook, someone pokes someone, sends a cupcake, maybe even a growing flower, the chat session is over. The fourth rule: only two guys to a funwall. The fifth rule: only one super wall post at a time fellas. The sixth rule: take part with no pride, no abundance of testosterone. The seventh rule: status updates will go on as long as they have to – or until the character count is maxed out. And the eighth and final rule: If this is your first day on facebook, you have to edit your profile.

We Think - The Power of Mass Creativity

Posted by Chris under Books, Research, Social Networking

Thanks Lance Hill for turning me on to this one a few months back.

There are things that are good the first time and great the second. And that’s the case with We-think: The Power of Mass Creativity, from Charles Leadbeater. At my second reading and review this book really stood out, probably because I stopped speed reading and took the time to stop and think, which this book almost compels you to do

This fantastic book is also paired with this great video as well as Charles’ talk at TED (ed. note, why the heck did I stop going to TED, note to self get booked for 2010 since ‘09 is already sold out, but more on TED in another post).

What makes it so great. Well any author that starts a chapter with:”Viewed through the lens of traditional industrial era organisations, it seems improbably that skilled people, with busy lives, would give their time for free to mass collaborative efforts, only to give way the fruits of their labour” gets my vote.

But watch the video on you tube and then order the book, I got it from Amazon.co.uk but it is available (as of this writing) from 3rd party sellers on Amazon.com

We work in an environment that both promotes sharing, heck I just came from a meeting trying to come up with an idea that our audience (consumers) will not only engage in but will want to get others engaged with. Luckily no one spoke the words, “let’s make it viral.” So while we act to control our ideas we ask others to give freely sometimes without much quid pro quo. Right thing to do, I’m not sure but Charles got me thinking a bit differently on the subject

Friends of Friends, or who the hell are you?

Posted by Chris under Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized

So you are a bit of a pioneer and you’ve been there done that with Pownce, Twitter and like me are trying to like Plurk but aren’t having much success.

Well this is less about which platform you use and more about the friending phenominom. Now Forrester has their ladder of social networking users and a great profile tool at that. No what I’m talking about is pure and simple friending. And while I’m a great advocate, participator and even strategist for social networking their are a couple of friending profiles that annoy me.

First are the collectors. Now these ae not the Scoble and Calacanis of the world, whom people seek out, no these’s Collectors actively search out their prey Come on how can you possibly know 500 people and whether it’s LinkedIn or Facebook how come every day I see you’ve added another five people to your circle of trust.

Next are the twitter spam friends. You know who you are. Are you following me with your single post: promising love, free ipod, or cash in my attic. Wake up I’ll never see your post unless I follow you or maybe one of my friends will choose to follow you and tap into that free…

But I guess that’s todays wild world of social networking. Meanwhile may i suggest trying out WhoShouldIFollow to find suggested Twitter friends. Make sure your Twitter profile is set to public and then try this out.

Now you can find those 500 friends but I bet they’ll be more relevant.