As a car guy, I have on occasion fiddled with optioning out cars online which I never intend to buy.  Usually, this means that when you select different wheels, paint colours, and a sunroof, these are reflected on a 3D model of the car.  While that’s great, it’s also somewhat unsatisfying because I always want to see what my car would actually look like in the real world.

Mercedes has the answer with it’s new car configurator which takes users through a series of images on Instagram, eventually arriving at their perfect car.

First of all, because of the 3D nature of many other configurators, using them on mobile devices is a huge pain and often impossible.  No such worries here.  And suddenly Mercedes turns all those users, who normally would just make a car on their configurator then leave, into sources of earned media as they share and discuss their setups.  It’s a brilliant way to make a conversation out of a traditionally isolated activity.

However, unlike a regular configurator, this one does not show prices.  I believe it’s for the best though.  Most users are not looking to buy a car when they use the configurator.  It takes months for your bespoke vehicle to come off the assembly line anyways and MSRPs aren’t negotiable online like they are at a dealership.  Adding prices would just take the fun out of it.  Plus, the purpose of these configurators apps has always been to drum up interest, not create sales directly.  And what better way to do the former than to have people share their new dream Merc with their friends?

Over the last few years, as companies have looked for a competitive edge when it comes to their social media campaigns, the medium, and particularly social listening, has become more and more fast-paced.  Tweets which are well timed and relevant to followers have the ability to garner huge attention and go viral in minutes instead of hours or days.  The epitome of this is Oreo’s legendary “You Can Still Dunk in the Dark” tweet, which was made within a few moments of the power going out at the Superbowl.

But where does this race to become faster, more relevant, and to reach users in unusual circumstances end?  john st thinks it never will.  Or, they do think it will but they might

The moral of the story?  Content is king.  Trying to be faster is only useful if the message is particularly engaging and engaging content usually takes time to create.  And let’s be honest with ourselves, Oreo’s tweet was pretty great, but they are just a cookie brand.  Did the tweet really send people rushing to the shops for Oreos and milk?  Probably not.  More likely, it just made Oreos seem little bit cooler than they were before.  Which is great but how much of purchase behaviour for cookies is governed by the coolness of the brand?  I suspect very little.  I would rank “flavour” and “texture” far above “wittiness of social media campaign” for my purchases of baked treats.

I could be wrong of course but unless Oreo’s business is set up to register every time their cookies are scanned at a cash register, I doubt Oreo could prove otherwise.

In my last post, I introduced the SoDA report and commented on the criteria Forrester Research developed to summarize the qualities of successful branded apps.  However, I did not get to discuss the far more promising list proposed by Harvard Business Review:

1. Add convenience
2. Offer unique value
3. Provide social value
4. Offer incentives
5. Entertain

1, 4 and 5 are self-explanatory but 2 and 3 might require some details which are not evident from the name of the criteria alone.  Offering unique value entails providing clients with features in apps that aren’t available through a website and the most obvious way to do that is to use features that are specific to a smartphone or tablet rather than a desktop.  GPS, QR scanning, tilt sensors and many other device-specific features are some of the most obvious, and often the most compelling, ways to build unique features and value into apps.  Social value in this case generally ties into cause marketing and other initiatives which allow users to become part of something bigger than just the usual consumption-fest.

What I really applaud HBR for is that, rather than vaguely describing abstract qualities of successful apps in a cohort, it has actually provided useful, practical advice through it’s criteria.

Want people to adopt your branded app?  It can’t just be a re-skin of your website that’s been better optimized for mobile or tablet users.  It has to have a function that utilizes the device in a way that makes a particular task easier or specific information more readily accessible when needed.  Numerous consumer brands with their own retail locations have done extremely well by allowing their clients to scan barcodes or QR codes with their phones to see reviews on stock before buying, or providing complimentary items and enhancing the shopping experience.  A real-life Amazon recommendation service if you will.

And while these features are useful, to keep people using the app time and again, you need to keep them engaged.  Providing social value through initiatives, entertaining them and providing exclusive incentives are fantastic ways to do so and all 3 methods can be leveraged for maximum user acquisition and retention.

If I ever have to design an app, these 5 qualities will absolutely be part of the checklist that will guild me through the process.

This year’s eagerly-anticipated SoDA report was just released.  The 44 page document has some gems but are buried in anecdotal opinion pieces, as in previous editions, that can be a bit wishy washy.  Many readers, including myself, would rather they provide real discussions and comparisons of practical advice and differing approaches to social and digital advertising that have emerged over the year.  So I thought I would distill some of my favourite snippets of the report.

Of particular interest to me is the comparison between the criteria for a successful branded app developed by two highly-respected institutions: Harvard Business Review and Forrester Research.  The former recommends branded apps:

1. Add convenience
2. Offer unique value
3. Provide social value
4. Offer incentives
5. Entertain

While Forrester recommends apps are:

1. Useful
2. Usable
3. Desirable

I can’t help but think Forrester mailed it in on this one, and I don’t believe this is a new theme for them.  Many of their treatments of digital and social media have attempted to be the first on the scene, as they try to establish Forrester as the same definitive force online that it is in classic advertising media.  Unfortunately, they seem to rush their analysis like a company pushing it’s product to market for a first mover advantage, only to discover that that advantage is worth nothing if the product is poorly conceived.  Their criteria could be used for pretty much every consumer product that currently exists and Forrester’s explanation of these criteria does not reveal these to be overly simplistic labels.  They truly are saying “Well, it needs to not be hard to use, it needs to do something people want, and they need to want it for them to use it”.  Thanks guys.

Read the full SoDA report here: http://www.slideshare.net/sodaspeaks/the-soda-report-volume-2-2014

In remembrance of the fatal crash of the Malaysian Air flight, the Malaysian government has created a website, www.momentofsilence.com.my, which allows users to register a digital minute of silence in remembrance of those who lost their lives.  How do people digitally register this minute of silence?  Simple.  Just access the website and then turn on Airplane Mode on your device using the mobile site.  A countdown timer then locks your phone until a minute is elapsed, then reconnects and allows you to share your commitment on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.  To

Since Remembrance Day was not too long ago, I can’t help but wonder if this is a useful way to engage those who do not attend a formal ceremony on Nov 11.  If you’re stuck working on Nov 11, this could be an excellent way to show your support when crunched for time.  This Malaysian campaign also shows a total of the minutes of silence completed by users, but Remembrance Day could leverage it’s universal symbol of support by awarding users a digital poppy for their commitment.

Today it was announced that Rogers and Vice Media have created a $100 million partnership to build a Toronto studio, create a 24-hour Vice TV cable station and use the company’s vast social and web presence to boost Rogers’ prominence in the 19-34 age demographic. Vice, recently valued at $2.5 billion and founded by Canadian Shane Smith, has made it’s name by investigating and reporting on everything from global issues to fringe cultural trends, many of which are completely unmentioned by TV news and newspapers. Vice has traditionally created web-based content and Youtube videos but won and Emmy recently for it’s first season of Vice News.

Rogers Media has been pushing for years to better capture the business of younger viewers by offering free shows online to allow customers to keep up if they miss an episode. However the company has struggled to expand its presence beyond TV and actually engage customers online. Rogers hopes that by leveraging it’s experience with classic media, it can bring Vice’s traditionally online viewers into regular TV viewership offering relevant content complete with an added social and online dimension.

Getting current and potential customers to engage with your brand is always a daunting task.  While appropriately targeting your target market with relevant, interesting and frequent content is essential to increasing brand awareness and engagement, Ikea’s latest campaign illuminates the qualitative side of content generation.  Enter the Bookbook video, released in September 2014 by Ikea to promote their latest catalog.

With over 12 million views for a video which originated from Ikea’s Singapore Youtube channel, somewhere North Americans were never likely to look for content, it’s safe to say that Ikea’s video has gone viral.  Let’s break down the 3 main elements that make this video so appealing:

1. It’s Topical: with Apple’s new iPhone and Apple Watch releases looming, Ikea knew what sort of promotional videos Apple would be rolling out.  White background, clean shaven speaker, and claims of revolutionizing our lives with the latest release.  While many brands are trying to copy Apple, they end up coming off as Me-Too campaigns.  Instead, Ikea pokes fun at Apple with it’s Bookbook, playing on consumers’ feelings that Apple marketing has become fairly ubiquitous and expected.
2. It’s Self-Reflective: Where Ikea really capitalizes on this opportunity is by Incorporating a few jabs at their own brand, to show they understands how Ikea is perceived and that they know they’re a little weird, Swedish, and that’s just their thing.  The ability to show that the brand is keenly aware of how it’s viewed by the public makes the video far more endearing.
3. It’s Not Mean: Many campaigns that poke fun at another brand tend to fall into the trap of coming off a bit snobby, better than, or otherwise just disrespectful.  By balancing the above 2 points effectively, Ikea keeps the tone fun and innocent.  Ikea has a laugh, customers have a laugh, and crucially Apple does too.  This means Ikea reaps the rewards for it’s campaign through brand awareness and engagement, and avoids any backlash for doing so at Apple’s expense.

By incorporating these elements into their own campaigns, when the opportunity presents itself rather than just forcing the joke, brands can similarly create engaging content which goes viral, reaching their own customer as well as a much more general audience of potential customers.  Well done Ikea.

Social media has immense power to gather data about the entire purchasing process. From the first moments of consumer awareness to post-purchase customer care and everything in between, social media can record valuable data regarding user demographics and click-through rates. However this high level of powerful data collection is not being used to it’s fullest. The problem is a lack of robust analysis.

Social media analytics are an ever-shifting field with few best practices in place but one theme is common: each entrant wants to build out an all-encompassing platform that incorporates social listening, engagement and analytics reports to maximize revenues. Unfortunately, this protectionism has led to each platform only reporting the collected data in its own unique way. This leaves marketers who wish to do analysis of their efforts at the mercy of the reports programmed into the platform. The only alternative is to manually enter the data into programs like Excel which takes far too much time. This hinders the ability of marketers to find new correlations and gain an advantage in the field, furthering our understanding of how to best use these media.

I would argue that future succes of these platforms is to release their hold on the big data they collect. By adding functionality which exports to Excel or other robust, commonly-used software capable of enabling analysis of raw data (like the open source statistical software R), platforms will leave those with a handful of bespoke reports in the dust. This is particularly true for large multinational clients who have extremely large data sets. And as social media usage and data collection continues to increase, even mid-size organizations will soon feel the need for this same functionality.

Intel thinks that Jimmy is the future of robots.  I’m not so sure but I think their hearts are in the right place.  In the greater scheme of sharing of printable, consumer goods which can be printed they’re on the right track.  But JImmy has some very real design issues, like what I can only imagine is an inability to climb stairs.

Still, this trend of 3D printing extremely complex designs, which would be more expensive to manufacture piece by piece and assemble using traditional methods, is becoming ever more popular.  And while 3D printers are still expensive, companies that you can send designs to that will print based on volume are becoming extremely reasonable.

As a result websites are springing up to serve the sharing of designs, places like Thingiverse.  These sharing services of open-source designs are potentially a fantastic new channel of distribution for already established companies.  I believe Intel is extremely smart to get behind open-source design sharing by creating an easily customizable platform.  Monetization of “premium” designs seems like the next logical step, not unlike the freemium model many apps have followed.  This also has massive ,market research potential as well.  With a low up-front cost to test designs, customers can update their designs and companies can look to better incorporate the most successful designs into their future platforms.  This engagement with lead users can reduce the time between upgrade release times and give companies vital information in how consumers prefer to use their products.  This could well mean robots like Jimmy may not be that far away from entering our homes after all…

When we think about social media success, we tend to think of small companies who come out of nowhere with exceptional, viral campaigns.  It could be a single video that lights digital mediums on fire and after the hype has died down, the firm is catapulted into the public eye.

Conversely, when we think about large corporations are their social media strategies, incredibly dull Twitter feeds and Facebook sites jump to mind.  For example, Kraft recently asked their followers how they liked to eat Ritz.  Shockingly this discussion and innovative content did not go viral.  Since we know so much about these brands already, is there truly much more to be gained by having these companies present in social media?  And does it outweigh the risk of damage when these firms create lazy or hair-brained attempts to increase awareness?

Finally there is a definitive, quantitative methodology for valuing brands’ social value which has real value in predicting the success of these companies as a whole.  BrandZ is gaining recognition because of it’s methodology’s ability to successfully identify the world’s top brands in comparison to the S&P 500 index.  While the evaluation process is not explicitly demonstrated (since the company wants to make it’s money by providing companies with assessments using its bespoke valuation procedure) it’s results are noteworthy.

Social media and the financial world have had a massive wall between them but both fields have a lot to learn from each other about data collection and analysis.  I am massively excited to see what happens when data-driven marketing and finance become fully integrated functions, increasing the quality of valuations of qualitative aspects of organizations like brand power, and improving accountability of marketing efforts and spending.  The BrandZ 2014 report is summed up in this handy infographic:

For those who are interested in the details of this in-depth study, the full report can be viewed here.