T'Ng Off

So I was checking out lists of some of the top marketing blogs out there and I discovered PSFK. I don’t know much about them but it appears PSFK is a well-respected marketing/consulting firm that uses the blog to promote itself and of it’s services.

Anyway, one of the posts I was reading – Why Social Media Campaigns Fail was pretty interesting. *Note: the research was actually done by the Brand Science Institute and not PSFK
Some of their findings (bolded parts taken directly from the article)

81% of companies surveyed lacked a clear social media strategy
-I guess it’s not surprising many companies are trying to dive into using social media since there are so many users across Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, but it’ seems like there aren’t many models or frameworks (something like CDSTEP) that helps describe social media campaigns specifically

73% of social media projects had to demonstrate their financial return after 12 months
-Again, not surprising, everything has an ROI, and every company that jumped into social media are looking for returns before this platform gets saturated, dominated, or obsolete.

72% thought social media must be viral
-To be honest, if you asked me a few days ago, I would have sided with the 72%, I did think social media must be viral. (eg. the Old Spice Youtube videos)

68% had never heard of the 90-9-1 principle, which states that most people online are viewers, vs. participants: 1% of people create content, 9% edit or modify that content, and 90% view the content without contributing
-I’ve never heard of it either, but it seems realistic. I guess I do fall in the 9%, but while I’m not blogging or uploading my piano covers on Youtube, I’m pretty much always part of the “view the content without contributing” group.

So to wrap it up, I know I won’t enjoy having ads spammed on my various social media accounts (I mean, how often do people enjoy the idea of TV commercials? With a few exceptions of course). The only thing that may be advantageous to social media campaigns versus a TV commercial is how the user may have some degree of meaningful interaction. Some examples would probably include designing your own shoe on Nike, or how Youtube comments may get responded by the Old Spice guy.

Have you ever wondered when cars will replace the internal combustion engine, a technology that’s been around for over 100 years? Aren’t there alternatives that avoid using fossil fuels such as electricity or fuel cells? but how long will it take to have these technologies commercialized?

If you’re into cars or into protecting the environment, I’d recommend a documentary from 2006 called Who Killed the Electric Car?

But I know a couple sentences will typically not be enough to persuade the average reader to sit through an hour and a half for a documentary. I’ll nicely summarize the gist of it for you.

Basically, the technology for an electric car has been available since the 90’s. It is clearly sustainable (especially today compared to back in mid 90’s) but has been pressured by a mix of oil companies, car manufacturers and the government (they caved in) to halt production of it. So back in 1996, because of a mandate passed in the state of California, there were minimum standards for car manufacturers to make a % of their production be electric vehicles, and that was when the EV1 was born. Car companies were hesitant and you could argue they even tried to sabotage it’s own product by having eerie commercials

As you can see, it’s creepy, its very grey, and we don’t see people (only their shadows), not the typical car commercials where we see models or have the vehicle be part of some manly activity.

But just recently, I saw a new Nissan commercial promoting their electric car, the Leaf, in a much more positive light

Hopefully having Japanese car manufacturers be willing to invest in electric cars will create pressure for the rest of the manufacturers to do the same.

Lastly, if you think all electric cars or hybrids look lame or has an “economy”-look, check this out

Tesla Motors’ Roadster, an electric car