This quarter Strategy + Business spotlights the restructuring of media and marketing industries in their Field Guide for the New Marketer cover package (registration required). Booze Allen Hamilton consultants focus on “engagement media” as the core disruptive change to upend the marketing world as we know it. The guide also carries a primer on the anatomy of the 21^st century marketing professional that’s a worthy read. If you don’t sense the extreme changes occuring in our business consider this anonymous quote from an US auto company CMO: “Two years ago 10 percent of my advertising budget had an online component. Today it’s 30 percent. Two years from now it will be 50.”

Technorati Tags: social media, marketing, media, public relations, advertising

Newsweek’s looks into the revival of the tech scene thanks to the rise of peer-to-peer poster companies like MySpace and Flickr. While Steven Levy and Brand Stone primarily cover both in the article, their lead-in captures the current state of affairs in a compelling and apocalyptic way for those not with the program:

“What makes the Web alive is, quite simply, us. Our presence, most often conducted at the speed of broadband, is constant and mandatory. Thanks to our activity, the Web has replaced phone books, and is in the process of replacing phones. It’s the place that answers our questions in four tenths of a second and ships us funny clips that mix the “Back to the Future” guys with the “Brokeback Mountain” soundtrack. It’s the main news source for the non-arthritic population, and a megaphone for those who make their own media. As we keep offloading our activities to the Web and adding previously unmanageable or unthinkable new pursuits, it’s fair to say that our everyday exist-ence is a network effect. That has made some splendid opportunities for smart, nimble new companies, and threatened the existence of old ones now afloat in the mainstream.”

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Consumer Generated Content, Web 2.0

That’s the bottom line from this Age Age piece (registration required) on BzzAgent’s new game plan. It’s surprising more people haven’t weighed in on this development. In what could be a big-time advance for the word-of-mouth movement, the company is shifting its model to become a media company versus a conversational marketing firm. According to Ad Age:

Turning WOM into a medium — as opposed to just a marketing discipline or tactic — could do wonders for its stature, allowing agencies to buy buzz alongside traditional media buys. There’s even a rate card forthcoming this week. BzzAgent will look to join up as many as six additional agencies as partners this year.

A semantic change can make all the difference in the world, especially when dealing with new concepts that challenge convention. This represents such a shift and could have major ripple effects on the marketing movement in progress. Why?

1. By making personal networks synonymous with media networks (at least from a investment perspective), it further legitimizes the word-of-mouth as an established medium.

2. It changes the word-of-mouth business model to focus more on the development of personal networks at the expense of creative programming (which remains an agency domain). Look for others to quickly follow suit in developing similar broad-based as well as niche networks.

3. Putting the creative power within agencies that embrace conversational marketing could result in really interesting offers to consumers to pimp products. It will be interesting to see how creative word-of-mouth can get and how ethical standards will evolve with more $$ behind these programs.

4. The conversational marketing movement seems to be tracking towards a secure place, at least in the near term, within media and ad agencies versus PR firms. Ironic, considering PR has always riled on people-to-people communication to get the job done.

If you want to hear more about their plans you can go right to the source. BzzAgent’s brought on a full time blogger to document the inner workings of the company for 90 days.

Technorati Tags: Buzz, word-of-mouth, BzzAgent, Marketing, PR2.0

The Sunday New York Times’ prolific feature on Bob Greenberg is just that not only for its length – it a huge piece — but for the commentary that reinforces the content of this blog and others following the movement. As head of IPG shop R/GA, Greenberg is viewed as the lead visionary trumpeting a new, technology-driven era for the branding business. Whether you’re sitting in a corporation, ad agency, PR firm or integrated shop, you should listen closely to what he and his clients have to say. Some quotes and attributions you can find in the piece.

“All of the corporations, agencies and marketing professionals who jointly hone and fire off a fusillade of messages across the commercial landscape each day need to overhaul both their organizational structures and how they relate to consumers — particularly the 20-something buyers called “millennials.”

“The Web is not a one-trick pony. The Internet is a new language because it’s not linear. The novel is linear, film is linear, but the Web is not.”

“I think technology is going to wreak havoc on the agency business. Because of advances in technology and communication, we’re surrounded by information we see and hear. Overload is a huge issue.”

“It’s not just that the interactivity and creativity is about commercials, TV and advertising. The development that comes out of it all is about how people interact and communicate. It’s about how they learn.”

“I think things are going to get infinitely more complex. The challenge is about taking things that are infinitely complex and making them simpler and more understandable.”

“Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether.” (From Verizon Wireless CMO John Stratton, an R/GA client)

“It’s all about one thing: creative problem-solving sponsored by corporations to get the story out.”

Not much else to say…

(But if the Times piece isn’t enough you can read more in a December Business Week feature located here).

Technorati Tags: new media, social marketing, PR 2.0, R/GA

I’ve been talking a lot about intangibles tied to our evolving communications business with Chris Terry, a colleague here at the agency. More specifically, we’ve gotten into how risk fits into the equation.

You know the concept behind investor profiles – where you determine how risk averse or risk tolerant you are that leads to decisions that keep you in your comfort zone. Financial analysts take the concept a step further. They discuss the relative price volatility of stocks in terms of its “beta”, or how much share price moves in the market relative to the market overall. The concept is just as simple: the greater the beta, the greater the risk and potential reward. What does this have to do with the communications business? These days, everything. Embracing calculated risk is a centerpiece of our industry’s “2.0” evolution.

Risk is a discussion point in heavy rotation these days, especially in marketing and media circles. That we’re entering an unprecedented time of change is well understood. But understanding change is one thing; acting is a different story. Acting requires the need to step out of comfort zones, challenge conventional wisdom and approach assignments with a very open mind.

If we want to succeed in delivering big ideas and meaningful programs to clients looking to break past the herd, forget the status quo. We’re needed, even if not always expected, to deliver a higher level of creativity than ever before – and do so without roadmaps, compasses or even the moss on the trees that pointed true North to the best practices of yesteryear.

Technorati Tags: creativity, new media; PR 2.0

There is a growing consensus among marketing prognosticators that companies must to think more like media companies to effectively reach consumers and key constituents. While it hasn’t reach a critical mass, the rise of blogs, podcasts and other branded content, coupled with the ability to offer this content easily, inexpensively and directly to consumers, makes this movement inevitable. Steve Rubel has a couple posts on the topic to check out – one that debates how soon “created media” will trump “earned media” and another today which suggests iTunes will put broadcast media bureaus out of business. Two good write-ups on the need to think like a broadcaster come include Mike Manuel’s PR 2.0 post as well as Randall Rothenberg’s New Year’s resolution.

Look for Ad Age’s selection of its 2005 Marketer of the Year (P&G) to trigger a wave of coverage, and hopefully action, around the need for marketers and communicators to embrace social marketing and personal media. Randall Rothenberg’s column captures the opportunity and necessity for marketers to think more like media companies. No matter their core field, he claims all companies will have to have expertise in two businesses: their own and the media business. His take for CMO’s in 2006: experiment or else. The good news, it can be an inexpensive proposition to get in the game. The bad, it will require radically different thinking from those entrenched in existing ways of doing business. Old habits die hard.

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Social Marketing

Back in October Budget launched the first entirely blog-based viral contest campaign, called Up Your Budget, where stickers were placed in 16 cities over the course of four weeks. Stickers found in the treasure hunt earned players $10,000. On top of $160K in prizes, $20,000 was paid for ads on 177 blogs. The contest is completed and Spunker.com reports the four-week drive generated over 1,000,000 clickthroughs and 19.9 million impressions on 125 different blogs. Very cool idea that generated great buzz and significant consumer involvement in a branded Budget program. The campaign was pulled together by B.L. Ochman, blogger strategist and author of the What’s Next blog.

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Social Marketing

Cyber Monday a myth? Random Culture and Fast Company’s blog comment on the myth and marketing of Cyber Monday, a creation of Shop.org to create some excitement beyond Black Friday.

Flash mobs makes a comeback on Black Friday. PFSK links to the blog documenting the “freaks” who turned Wal-Mart, and later Target, into a dance hall.

Million Dollar home page becoming just that. The creator, Alex Tew, sells advertising by the pixel. He divides a computer display screen in 10,000 squares selling advertising by the pixel at $1 per pixel (100 pixel minimum). Brand Autopsy highlights current results – $ $712,000+ in advertising and 600,000 to 700,000 hits per month.

Colleges promoting anti-social behavior. Dan Pink writes about a NY Times piece on the emergence, and significance, of video game majors at Carnegie Mellon and Georgia Tech.

Banned X-Box Ad Making the Rounds. Screenhead links to a recent Xbox 360 Ad, called entitled Stand Off, now circulating online.

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Technorati Tags: Blogs, Social Media, Public Relations, Contagious Media, Video Games, Flash Mobs, Marketing

Steve Rubel has a quicky on Nokia’s efforts to engage the blog community as part of its N90 launch in the US .  The site is intended to give bloggers core background and content needed to easily post on the product launch. The content available includes:

• A standard press release
• Links to positive posts
• Magazine reviews
• User experiences
• Podcasts
• Application reviews
• Media coverage for the site itself
• Direct questions to the blogger relations team

Technorati Tags: Blogs, Social Media, Public Relations