Fresh ID » Brand Experience

The @CamryEffect: Toyota’s Twitter Spam Campaign for Superbowl Fans

Kristi — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:42:21 +0000

Today I witnessed something really annoying. I mean, it got under my skin particularly. My friend Scott Stratten, @unmarketing, posted on Facebook that it was pathetic that there were 10 Verified (by Twitter) accounts, all spamming people who were talking about the Superbowl:

https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect1
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect2
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect3
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect4
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect5
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect6
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect7
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect8
https://twitter.com/#!/CamryEffect9

You can try looking at the accounts, but within a few hours and lot of griping online about it by some of us, they seem to be unverified (no more logo next to the name) and they are now protected so you can’t see the tweets they’ve been sending. Note: protected, not taken offline, which is standard Twitter protocol in response to enough spam/block reports.

I believe these accounts and the verification were paid for and Twitter was aware of the campaign in advance. Why? Check this tweet out:

That’s one of the Directors of Sales for Twitter, praising how CamryEffect was going to be using Twitter, and then they had 10 accounts sending non-stop spam messages to people who mentioned Superbowl-related keywords (from what I could tell by clicking on lots of their tweets before they closed their accounts off.

So what’s the big fuss, anyway, you may be asking? I’ve had several conversations about this today. There is a fundamental difference in advertising, and partaking in events that result in ad delivery, such as a Google search, watching TV, going to a movie, using a free platform, listening to the radio or reading a magazine, vs. SPAM, which is a direct and personal solicitation to you, using an account of some type that you have (your phone, your social network account, your email.) There is also the concept of “cold” solicitation, which hovers somewhere between the two. If I say I need a dry cleaner (for example) and someone who doesn’t know me – a person, or a dry cleaner – says “Hey, we do that, if you want to check us out we are here” that is a little more appealing to me personally than spam, which is often the result of an automated delivery, and therefore impersonal and meaningless.

What Toyota’s CamryEffect campaign was doing was pure and total Twitter spam. Set up bots (someone on Facebook said this was done using http://localresponse.com/#brand which delivers advertising real-time. Their ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi LA has been tweeting repeatedly to watch the ad they created for the campaign, so we might assume they had something to do with this Twitter campaign also. So really, all the culpable players are Toyota who approved it, Twitter who helped enable it by making accounts look Verified and Official, and the ad agency who boneheadly decided that what Superbowl football fans REALLY wanted tomorrow is a big old can of SPAM, otherwise known as the CamryEffect.

I feel sorry for the car. It really had nothing to do with this short-sighted money-grab and textbook worthy negative social media case study. And, as always, my concern is for the end users. One tweet about a car today, because you mention watching an event on Twitter, could well be 50 unwanted tweets about everything from zit cream to make impotence products based on watching The Mentalist. Or whatever it is you watch and people think you will buy.

And THAT is the single thing that really could be the death of Twitter. People will stay for ads, they’ll stay if you charge them… but if you suck them in and then sign them up against their wishes for canned SPAM, they’ll go elsewhere.

This didn’t happen when Ev and Biz were running the show. I knew something bad was going to happen when they left. If you care about this stuff, don’t just tweet or Facebook it. Put it in a blog post. Send it to Twitter. Say you don’t mind promotion but you expect them to promote responsibly. Yes, the site is free, but you create the content that keeps this crazy rat wheel turning. Don’t sell yourselves short as the end user. You DO matter! And maybe the Camry is even a good car, I have no idea. Ask your friends if they have one and if they’d recommend it. That’s a good way to find out.

Wake up big ad agencies. This is NOT your oyster. Our accounts are not your free-for-all. You’ll get it eventually because if you keep acting like this, you’ll have to come up with yet more ways to do push marketing because we’ll abandon in droves the sites where you abuse us.

Should You Try Using Different Words to Tell Your Story?

Kristi — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:35:44 +0000

This simple, but poignant video might help you think of new things to try and do for your business if you’ll sit back and think about where you could say things another way, or give your customers the unexpected.

What words are you using to tell your story?

Thanks for sharing this with us, Jake! (Our client, owner of Pandolfi’s Deli.)

(REPEAT!) Dear JC Penney: A Logo Change is Not Rebranding

Kristi — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:42:23 +0000

HOLD THE PRESSES!!

JCP, or JC Penney, or whatever we are supposed to call them this week, has changed their logo again. Sadly, it still looks like something done in Powerpoint. How do they keep doing this???? Behold…

The logo links to an article about it with a video they’ve also done to promote this new… rebranding? Attention-getter? Pointless exercise demonstrating another bold lack of creativity by a creative team who ought to know better? What is a red empty box supposed to mean, anyway? (Insert your own lack-0f-creativity and brand soul jokes here.)

This concludes the update of this post – the text below is from the last rebranding less than a year ago. Geeeez. I worked for them as a visual merchandiser, you know? It used to be about selling clothes and linens and things.

JC Penney announced last week, in press releases that they had crowdsourced a logo redesign, are changing it to all lower cap letters inside a little square and debuting it at the Oscars, where they are the sole retail sponsor. My immediate reaction was the thought, “oh lovely, the Gap square is back!” BrandChannel’s opening line about this ground-breaking news is worth repeating:

JCPenney has thrown in with all the other brands suffering sluggish performance in the belief that a logo change will make a difference.

This is the crux of my problem with this logo change, and subsequent press release about it. Changing a logo will never fix a brand’s problems. Are you listening? I will say it louder – memorize this if you work for clients or a company on branding:

Changing a logo will never fix a brand’s problems.

Why on earth major brands, some of whom have been around since the 1800′s or early 1900′s, think they can slap a new logo up and people will magically start coming into their store or restaurant or grocery or whatever again is baffling. It takes so much more to rebrand oneself, and changes have to come from the top down and within, and an entire company has to get aligned around a new spirit, new messaging, new changes in product line or services, etc. Yet, as we have seen repeatedly and with unfortunate hilarity online lately, companies are changing brands like underwear.

One element of ridiculousness in all of this minor hype, is that JC Penney repeatedly referred to themselves as jcpenney in their news release… which does not work to set their name apart as an entity inside paragraphs of text, and just looks plain wrong – like an editor fell down on the job. It also makes it seem like a third-year design student is actually running this rebranding initiative inside the company, as opposed to simply having won branding rights in an upscale crowdsourcing contest – JCP used design schools and ad agencies to do the free concepts for this logo change.

Brand New has a compelling argument against this change: “The biggest problem I have with this whole thing is the perception that this is a “bold new logo”. It’s not. It’s rearranging the chairs on the Titanic, reupholstering them if you want to be generous. But bold or new? No way. Looking at the result… as a type exercise it’s actually very decent, it’s well spaced and nicely positioned, can’t argue with that but it is also a confusing visual and verbal nomenclature.” Please read the whole article – it targets many of the problems with this logo change.

I will add to that, it’s a box. And Target owns red and white, minimalistic type, bold TV advertising – are they willing to risk being confused with a discount retailer???

Despite JCP’s “red gift box” at Christmas and the “it’s all inside” campaign, the box has negative connotations for me. JC Penney is inside a box of their own making, and has been, for a long, long time. I worked for JCP in my early 20′s as a visual merchandiser (which is why I call them JCP, not because of the new logo – it’s a shortcut I am used to using.) I have wrapped thousands upon thousands of those boxes… not my favorite thing to do as a window dresser! I will forever associate them with blue more than red – maybe that was the prevailing color when I worked there. I ran the risk of becoming a “lifetime employee” when they offered to train me to be a visual merchandising manager, something I thought I wanted at the time. But I looked around and realized that if I did that I might never leave the company. So I quit my job, became a waitress and went back to college, still in search of what I wanted to be when I grew up. It wasn’t until I became a Marketing Director at Whole Foods Market and used a Mac in my daily chores that a plan began to form. To this day, when I go into a JC Penney store, it feels exceedingly familiar – it feels like home. Because there have been no great shifts in their merchandise, no strides forward in the world of merchandising, no great shakeups in the brands they sell or the types of items they carry… all of which would signify an actual and genuine rebranding!

To contrast this grand announcement via press release of a logo change that so many companies are doing in a desperate plea for attention, I think of Apple. Apple has changed their logo several times over the past years since Steve Jobs returned to the company. But a new logo has NEVER been the primary driver for announcements – it’s been a smaller, perfectionist detail of major, never-before-done innovation in the product line. When Apple refines the logo, it’s because they actually have ALREADY changed the brand! Their changes come to the public from the inside out – they create amazing products in R&D, refine them in the manufacturing process, test them to death for quality, and then release them, often with accompanying changes to packaging or logos or advertising. But the brand evolution is around what Apple is actually tangibly selling, NOT what a logo looks like on signs, bags or storefront.

JC Penney is guilty of a software industry mantra that I’ve often mentioned: “leave no customer behind.” They want to be seen as youthful, hip and modern. But their customers are people like my deceased mother-in-law, who often purchased from their catalog, and who used to work for them years ago when they were here in Garnett, a town of 3500 people. Rural women and families in small-to-midsized towns are who JCP should have kept finding ways to serve, despite economic hardships in these towns and less spending. Closing catalog storefronts was one hindrance to good customer service, but the recent change to cancel all print catalogs could very well hurt them more than help them. For people who aren’t near a larger city where there is a store, and who don’t shop on the internet, they’ve now killed a customer from their database… many of them loyal, long-time customers. And why? To attempt to attract younger people who frankly want hipper, cooler merchandise than JC Penney carries? By brands and designers not in stock in their stores?? Rather than kill all print catalogs and do “Look Books” that force people to buy online, they could have done a purge and possibly saved some customers or at least not alienated them. I would have sent out a postcard saying if you still wanted to receive a print catalog, they had to send it back with an opt-in address (giving people a chance to blow it off, or to make sure they had an updated address.) That would have saved print costs, and if they tied the catalog products to the existing online store inventory it’s just a matter of designing and printing what is online anyway – but making it available to those who are still living and spending, but not doing it online because they don’t want to. Offering people a look book with no pricing or helpful info is an extravagant, wasteful expenditure – I get them all the time, look at the pretty pictures once, and toss into the trash. From the MultiChannel Merchant article, “JC Penney admitted that ceasing the big catalog book hurt total sales more than they expected it would in the second quarter of 2010.” I’m surprised they were surprised! They should frankly be more savvy than this, after years upon years in the retail business.

As people get involved with technology, they become superior to those who don’t use it as much but that is so short-sighted. A loyal customer should never be left behind unless you absolutely can’t help it. I fear that this logo change won’t help at all, and the cancellation of services that helped JC Penney grow as large as they have will continue to hurt, and what we are looking at is yet another retailer on a downward slope to inevitable closure. I hope they will do more than just focus on slapping the logo up everywhere and make some other changes that will save the company from being yet another vacated storefront in semi-empty malls.

Some great articles on this subject:

The best PR is often incidental

Kristi — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:43:27 +0000

A lot of our site visitors know about my love and admiration for CJ Sapong, rookie forward for Sporting Kansas City. I call him my #lilrookie on Twitter and love to make threats against those who threaten to injure him or even give him a bad time during a game. He did something completely unique and unexpected yesterday – with the women’s national team in town to play a game at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, he decided to serenade Hope Solo, goalkeeper with a rap-style poem he had penned the night before. Watch the video and then let’s discuss the outcome…

You will see folks with cameras and video recorders there – there are always photographers at training sessions at Swope Park, where the team trains, so when one of our guys comes onto the field with a mission, headed toward a member of the women’s team, it’s going to get the attention of the area photogs and reporters. Plus someone may have had to arrange for Hope to hang around and meet him. Some of the guys on the right, Kevin Ellis, Michael Harrington, Korede Aiyegbusi, and Jon Kempin, are teammates of CJ’s so they’re snapping phone pics while he sings of his love for Miss Solo. Now, CJ gets some press in his own right, for his soccer-playing skills. He was recently named #15 out of 24 players under the age of 24 in all of MLS. He is likely a candidate for MLS Rookie of the Year, which I am personally hoping he’ll have earned when the season is over. But yesterday’s serenade resulted in wide press coverage, within hours, for many reasons:

It was spontaneous
It was heartfelt (genuine)
It was quirky and imperfect (he started over when he messed up his lines)
It was humorous (and wasn’t Hope a great sport, despite the blushing)
It resulted in a WIN, a hug and kiss from the one he admired
It was gutsy (I mean, seriously… how many guys could pull this off?)
We saw the real personalities of both CJ & Hope
The reactions from others there were genuine
It was precious – who doesn’t relate to being smitten?
It was a bit of fun in an otherwise routine day!

You just can’t buy or manufacture this kind of PR. I mean, a lot of people try, but it comes off as staged or processed or inauthentic (like those wretched non-real “reality” tv shows.) What’s interesting is in the aftermath, it’s been covered by (to name a few):

Yahoo Sports
Washington Post
Huffington Post
Kansas City Star (some interesting backstory here)
… plus dozens of Soccer-specific blogs around the country

YouTube statistics as of this morning show over 100,500 views – since yesterday afternoon. It’s the #42 most discussed, #5 favorited and #23 top rated video in the sports category as of this writing. I teased his publicist last night, Ari Washington of Double Coverage PR, who knew he was thinking about doing something but didn’t know if he would actually go through with it, about all the awesome coverage this is getting. I would imagine this is a publicist’s dream, but still… if they had planned this together and it didn’t come from CJ’s brain, personality and genuine interest, I doubt it would have been as well-received or as interesting. So how do we take any lessons from this for our businesses? I’m not quite sure. One thing I have observed is that many people prefer a loosened up approach. I talk a lot about various client activities or things we are doing, but when I am genuinely enthusiastic about it people don’t seem to mind, but if I promoted our activities like a lot of companies do I think the messages would just fall flat and be ignored. I ignore most obvious marketing messages myself… they’re boring. I think a lot of promotions, especially in the social media space, are contrived and so they feel contrived. They aren’t as likely to be shared or talked about if they are so obvious. That is really hard to get around – marketing is about putting awareness on something so that people might consider it for themselves, so campaigns are part of the reach/awareness factor. But this is why I SO want businesses to fully embrace socializing their business so that all employees are welcome to use social media in and out of the course of doing business, talking about their daily activities naturally with indirect self/company promotion. What CJ did here (whether he knew or not beforehand) was indirectly market himself. A lot of people who don’t know who he is, might be curious after seeing this video and take a course of action to find out more. They might follow him on Twitter, look for him on Facebook, look him up at the Sporting Kansas City site, Google him to see who he is, and read and learn about him when they knew nothing about him previously. He is on their radar now, and they will recognize the name when they hear it. So the moral of this story I guess is, you’ve got to be out there doing something, if you need awareness and reach. Hopefully what you’re doing is interesting and unique or memorable. Because push, push, pushing your marketing is not going to win the day, though it may be semi-effective. Show your delightful personalities (for people and brands), with all the quirks and flaws. That has long been my motto and continues to be for both myself, and for Fresh ID. We are a small, but growing business and far from perfect. But if we tell you we’re interested in helping your business grow, and here are the problems we see, and here are some ideas, we mean what we’re saying, be it right or wrong. We try things and discard them if they fail, and try something else. When we say something about a client in public, we mean it, we don’t fake babble just to score points or try to get people to do something. We would lose interest, not gain it, if we did, and I think people would know we were being fake. Good luck with your own promotion and PR efforts – it’s a jungle out there! When something fascinating and different like “the rookie serenading the rockstar goalie” comes along, it grabs our attention. Here’s hoping we all are so lucky someday to borrow a few minutes of the public awareness (if needed.) Have a great weekend!

Wrapping Up the Week in Tech

freshid — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:28:34 +0000

There’s been a lot of buzz and happenings this week in the technology world, so I thought I’d update you on some of the newest and latest stories! This week Google+ quietly rolled out that you can now start a Google+ Hangout with a YouTube video right from YouTube. No flashy announcement from them on this, but this cool feature does allow you to watch those crazy videos together! I see a family Google+ hangout in my future, we can’t get enough of those funny videos…. Rest in peace HP’s TouchPad. This is the first victim of the IPad. HP made the announcement Thursday that they are discontinuing the manufacturing of their webOS devices meaning goodbye the HP TouchPad. “HP Killing Phone Tablet Business” article from Hufffington Post The big news that came out on Monday was that technology powerhouse Google bought Motorla Mobility (for $12.5 billion, or as Google calls it “Lunch Money”). This deal sets up Google to take on Apple in the mobile and home battle. “I think there’s an opportunity to accelerate innovation in the home business by working together with the cable and telco industry,” Google CEO Larry Page said in announcing the deal early Monday. Speaking more about Google, they announced that they are adding another layer to their Google Maps, allowing you to instantly see current temperatures! I love this because as a traveler, my number 1 stress is what to wear and pack, so this new ability is right up my alley…. To prove that the dictionary is still “relevant” it’s added a few new words that have seemed to creeped into the human language. “ReTweet”, “Cyber-Bullying”, “Sexting” , “Mankini” and “Jeggings” are now officially words with definitions. What has the human language evolved into…. Here is the Story: Oxford-English Dictionary From “Tom’s Guide” Hope these 5 stories help you feel up to date with all that’s gone on this week!

Google+ 10 articles to help you figure it out

freshid — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:37:07 +0000

There has been a lot of buzz about the “new” social network in town, Google+, and there has been even more articles, blog posts, Twitter talk and chatter about all the features, what it means to the social networking future space and how people are utilizing it. So over the past 2 weeks or so, I’ve been collecting some online articles and posts about Google+ to get a better understanding and wanted to share them with you! So here are FRESH ID’s 10 articles we’ve found helpful about Google+….Enjoy! 1. 25 Google Plus Resources Here are 25 easily found articles that are great resources when it comes to figuring out Google+ and all it’s glory! 2. Which Social Networks Are You? This is a fun blog post that can help you decide which social network you should be on, complete with a funny graphic. Feel free to send on to friends for a laugh. 3. 28 Tips to Enhance your Google+ Experience This site gives great tips that will help you understand how to use Google+ to it’s max. With 28 tips and hints, you will gain more knowledge about using Google+ 4. 5 Google Privacy Settings You Need To Know Privacy is always important when it comes to social networking. We always recommend to friends, family and clients to check in on your privacy settings, no matter which social network you are using, at least once a month because they do change! This article helps you navigate the privacy settings for Google+ so you can customize it to your liking. 5. The Beginning This is an article I read from start to end because it took you through the early stages of Google. I love learning history of organizations, especially big ones like Google. Seeing where a company has come from and where it’s going is very captivating, which is why I liked this article. 6. What Google+ Means for Your Social Media Policy This offers great insight for how another social networking site will affect office policy. 7. 7 Reasons Why Google+ Drive Hyperactive Engagement Jeff Bullas does a great job at breaking down the key elements that are driving it’s success 8. Google+ Growth Spent Spikes, Young Demons Dominate ClickZ offers insight and numbers about Google+’s 10million users in ways that number and statistic people like to see. It’s great for making a presentation and trying to understand their users. 9. Google+ Business Profiles As of now, Google+ does not allow businesses to have their own pages, it’s for “people” only. But word is, that won’t be the case for long. This posting also gives a video for businesses to watch and see how they are fielding the business profile request. 10. Google+ Brand Page Concepts Another great post about what brands can do with Google+. Good for people who have businesses and who will eventually use Google+ to know the tips and advice given here. Hope some of these articles offer some insight and clarity about Google+!

Freshen Up: OneKC for Women

freshid — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:00:03 +0000

We decided to take time and shine the spotlight on some of the great business resources we have here in Kansas City with our new blog series - “Freshen Up”: A chance to freshen up your skills, knowledge and know what resources you have to become a better person, professional or help your company achieve greater success.

So, for our very first “Freshen Up” series, we introduce to you: OneKC For Women!

As a Kansas City woman looking for help with employment, small business needs and general questions about where to go in your career, you are lucky because we have a great resource in our back yard that is dedicated to all of that and more! OneKC for Women combines three amazing resources for women, Women’s Employment Network, Women’s Business Center and Women’s Capital Connection. With over 38 combined years of experience and connections, OneKC for Women is where women can look for employment, enhance their job skills, interview skills, asses what the next step in their professional life is and even get help to start a small business. Sherry Turner, President of Women’s Employment Network (which recently celebrated its 25^th year), has been working with an army of dedicated women, to combine all these great resources that exist in KC into one place for women to capitalize on what exists and find the help and assistance they need to tackle the work force. “About a year and a half ago we looked at all three organizations mission statements and realized that we had similar mission’s and should combine our efforts for the greater good” –Turner. So out of this, OneKC for Women was built as a platform for women to find experts to help in all stages of their career. “There has been a societal shift in the workplace, more women are working and need to sustain a family or themselves. We’ve created a place for them to gain knowledge to craft their skills, whether it’s to write a resume, how to interview, how to look for jobs online with social networking or to find an investor to invest in their own small business, we are there to provide the material to make them successful.” –Turner. OneKC for Women is a great resource to utilize and keep up to date on. They are currently inviting people to “Join in the Conversation” online, and be guest bloggers for their site, so if you are interested, submit your writing to Webpostings@onekcforwomen.com for review.

Why Having a Facebook & Twitter Page is Not Enough.

freshid — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:47:07 +0000

So you decided to jump into social networking and set up a Facebook and Twitter page for your business. So what? More and more companies are getting into social media so their customers can “find them”, but if you are not using it correctly you may be doing more harm than good. Having “35 fans” on Facebook, or only having tweeted a couple of times, does your business no favor. I mean, who really cares if you’re on social networking sites? Why should they? You must engage with others – customers, prospects, former clients, partners, vendors, and employees for example – outside your profile to find out what they want from your presence online. Which reminds me… Why are you on Facebook and Twitter? Do you want to be seen as an “expert” in your field? Do you want to offer good insights about your business? Are you giving your customers a place to talk about you and ask questions? Determining why you have put yourself on Facebook or Twitter or any social networking outlet is the first step and should be done BEFORE you even sign up for an account. You don’t jump into a pool of sharks without having a life jacket, and you don’t invest in social media without a plan. Social media should not be an either/or business plan, it needs to be incorporated into what you already have, and you need to have an established web presence of your own design first. That’s the foundation of your brand presence online. Adding Facebook and Twitter allows more reach and rendezvous with your customers and gives your company a face to the public that’s sociable. Social networking allows you to network… socially (Duh). Utilizing these sites enhances how you talk, who you talk to and what is being said by you and your customers. It’s all social, it’s all about communication and it’s all about engaging. So, now you know why you want be on a social networking site, how are you going to maximize your potential and reach? A good rule to follow is the 60-30-10 rule. 60% of the time you are listening, 30% you are engaging and 10% you are promoting yourself. In order to be seen as an expert, you must experience. And to gain experience online, you must listen, ask questions, answer questions, and start conversations. Taking time to communicate with influencers is an important step to expanding who is listening to you, and should be listening to you. Are you a non-profit? Are you communicating with other non-profits or organizations that support your goals and have good insights to the cause you are promoting? If you are not starting conversations with them, you are missing out on an important piece of the social networking puzzle. You can’t just set up a profile and leave it, expecting people to come! You have to go out there, show them what you can do and prove to the public why “following” you, “friending” you or becoming your “fan’ is worth their time. Are you a local business? Are you talking with other local businesses that can help you grow your customer base? Are you a restaurant that is offering your customers specials, talking to them about your menu and starting conversations? Don’t let others do it for you, take the bull by the horns and create the talk. You can’t just create a profile, give minimal information and expect people to care. You have to take steps and put yourself out there and show that as a business, organization or person, you are willing to listen, talk and be social. Becoming social on sites like Facebook and Twitter is becoming a “must” if you plan on being successful. But if you are not engaging and making it worth people’s time they aren’t going to care, and you are not going to win. Taking time to establish your presence, determine why you are there and making the effort to listen, communicate and promote will ultimately lead to accomplishing the social networking scene, and let’s face it, you can’t afford not to.

The Urgency of Differentiation

Kristi — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 17:49:03 +0000

This is more of a “food for thought” post than one containing a solution… My hospitality expert and friend Jeffrey Summers tossed out a phrase the other day regarding the “urgency of differentiation” – he was going to be discussing that topic on his restaurant podcast. I noticed it because we have been discussing this for a while here in the office… Lisa is always pushing us on “what makes us different?” and after having it roll around in my head without a full articulation, I randomly spit out some things that make us different on a phone call with her one day:

We are not an “ad agency” because many of them are not strong in regard to social media culture (though they may be using social media push tactics) and they do traditional ad buys (we do not)
We are not a “PR firm” because many of them don’t understand the social space and they do traditional PR whereas we do online-focused releases in relation to a specific campaign or event – we like to work with PR specialists, ideally, for larger reach
We are not an “interactive agency” because they tend to do more motion-based design (we outsource what we can’t do in-house) and often don’t do marketing (which we do)
We are not a “usability firm” as we are not singularly focused on product/web design or information architecture, though it is what we do when working on various types of projects and we have usability testing and lab-building experience
We are not a product development company although we develop products – we would prefer to help design them, develop them ourselves or work with your in-house devs, create help systems, do user testing, PLUS work on the overall brand identity and marketing collateral in addition to helping lay a social foundation and do staff training on using social channels for customer service, and then do graphic design for presentations, tradeshows, etc. in a holistic, comprehensive effort to sell a new or redesigned product
We are not a “marketing firm” exactly as we do design and development in-house and lean toward product design or enhancing sites with features/functionality
We are definitely not a “social media agency” as we do design and development and have a long history of product and traditional marketing (and many social media agencies are brand, spanking new in this industry – in fact, frighteningly new)

We also have done business development, product line planning, visual merchandising, online events, ecommerce design and dev, research & analysis, copywriting, tech writing, user experience planning and testing, project management, tradeshow event design, speaking, and more as professional services since 1994. So today, we call ourselves as a “creative services” company for lack of a better short description. But clearly that doesn’t really explain what sets us apart. Now that we see what we are not, determining how to explain what we are in a way that includes the differentiator will be something we will actively work on over the next month or two, because we do feel it’s important to define, and it is a needed facet of our overall brand experience and positioning. How do you explain what makes your business different? And do you agree that there is an urgency of differentiation in today’s competitive, yet economically challenging climate?

How Not to do a Social Media Promotion

Kristi — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 16:01:42 +0000

I was excited, then disgusted last night, in fairly short order. I learned that there is something called SocialCam coming from Justin.tv, the video site. SocialCam is a mobile app that lets iPhone and Android users take some video, upload it, tag people in it and share it swiftly with their social pals. Sounds awesome, right? So I marched over to the little site and put in my email address for “early access” which I liken in my mind to be Beta testing, although I realize that may not be accurate – maybe they have already done Beta and this is a pure marketing play. If this is their beta testing process, it is WAY off base, so I will assume for the sake of argument it is not. I got this little gem of an email almost immediately: They can’t wait to get the new app into my hands, IF I pimp the ever-loving crap outta their unproven, unseen warez, is the stark reality of this “offer.” I don’t like it. I don’t like the approach. I don’t like the marketing philosophy that says this is okay. I don’t like the subtle extortion, I don’t like the encouragement to blast your social networks with this referral link – especially for a SIGHT UNSEEN product. Maybe this thing royally sucks! Maybe it’s hard to use, unstable and unreliable. Your social friends should be able to know you believe in what you’re sharing with them, and your mention of it is either:

news you find interesting or compelling or important (or know they will)
something that delights you so much you want to share it with others
something that offends you so much, you feel compelled to take a stand against it, and are therefore sharing it
something you have personal experience with, and you are sharing your honest opinion about
something noteworthy that people might be interested in (which I am sure Socialcam is counting on you thinking it is)

But at the end of the day, this is a play for free ole’ marketing, done by you, on behalf of them, for the “carrot” that is POSSIBLE inclusion on this wonderful early access list. Forced or coerced sharing in return for something you consider of value is NOT a good marketing practice. When it comes to social and the ever elusive Holy Grail of “Viral Marketing”, don’t be an ass. Stop thinking users with social network accounts are stupid. We don’t all buy Snookie’s book and sit around waiting to promote your company for free, for nothing. Be respectful of others, be intelligent, offer something of value, make a good product, have good support and any social media sharing, blog kudos or mentions will happen organically, naturally and deservedly. This should be your #1 “Social Media Best Practice” if you are USING it to market your company, products or services.