Buzz Canuck

What a Motrin Mom Mess - Could It Have Been Avoided?

By now, many of you will have heard of THE social media flameout of 2008 "Motrin Moms". An initial tribe of Twitter moms initially flexed their anger and many of the social media pundits have jumped on the pile, chimed in and suggested that Motrin should have known better and that all this could have been avoided. I'm not as sure.

The summary version is Motrin produced an ad about baby wearing carriers and the pain they may cause and the opportunity for Motrin to provide relief. Whether it was the smart-alecky tone of voice of the spot or the misguided insight that baby carriers might be the issue, the ad caught a group of well-connected women very raw and they have now shouted back in the thousands. Witness comments here: 

Unlike previous social media infernos, Motrin neither lied (Sony), deceived about their identity (Wal-Mart), endangered/inconvenienced a city (Aqua Teen Hunger Force) or provided dubious insider tips (Whole Foods). It was simply an ad. As ads go, it was more intriguing than most...perhaps with the same ad executed poorly, we might have never noticed it.

Furthermore, Motrin - a division of J&J, actually had an ad with interesting insight, it was colourfully and creatively executed, it was trying to target an audience that was influential to its business and one can assume had noble intent for creating a conversation and dialogue with that audience. Doesn't sound like bad credentials? Most creative we see on TV doesn't come close to having these merits.

So they messed up and executed poorly and yes, perhaps they didn't show it to enough people beforehand and maybe they would have been better served by engaging a community of thousands of women to evaluate the ad in advance and come to their defence if required. All good points some self-servingly raised by the social media -vested.

But to use Allen Iversen's repeated tirade "we're talking about an ad, I mean we're talking about an ad. This is what I'm talking about an ad." They didn't dump oil in the oceans, insider trade or hired underage workers overseas. They produced an ad, that resonated poorly. 

Some people in social media, particularly those on Twitter are championing this as the power of the human voice and are pointing to social media's defining moment of influence. They may be right but this is not a corporate-sized Obama. This is the type of change we don't need - nobody wins - moms are offended, Motrin takes it on the chin and other companies who were fence sitting now avoid social media like the plague.

If companies can't participate in this medium, then who is going to pay the freight. Are you going to pay for social media content? Didn't think so.

Let's be clear -the ad was wrong, Motrin is now doing the right thing, apologizing and perhaps regrettably somebody will take the fall. Potentially they can generate good debate and make something out of a clear PR disaster. But please don't anybody celebrate this. Don't anybody gloat over Motrin's mistake - this one was not as avoidable as the previous social media debacles. 

This is bad for the progress of marketing to become more open. This is bad for open source, web 2.0 developments in business and this is bad for social media in the long run. Motrin - I feel your pain.

Word of Mouth - The Bigger Umbrella and Its 14 Types

Have you seen what's going on with social media? Are you joining the conversation in social media? Have you built the latest application in social media? Have you seen what Scoble just said on social media?

Ahhh...a portion of our marketing industry has been infected with Social Media fever. It's quite virulent.

As shown by some of our latest research, it is the type of new media tool that is being used the most by our marketing and communications industry. Good times right - the notion of the social media dream finally coming true.

I'm here to be contrarian. Don't get me worng - social media is a very appetizing tool with continuing potential but for a company who wants to wade into the world of 2.0, it is not remotely close to the whole game.

Some of this argument is semantics and some of this is a real need to expand the universe of what organizations can do to get noticed, talked about and collaborated with in the new marketplace.

Let's deal with the semantics - social media tends to get served up in a majority of conversations as a media, tactic or technology. It may be all those things but at the end of the day, it is a tool, a conduit not the end objective for a company who wants to participate. Although companies may state "we need to get some social media", what they really are looking for is a different strategy and outcome. 

I would serve up that most smart companies are trying to use the tool of social media amongst a number of other tactics to build their grassroots following and word of mouth. And before you immediately go down the road of word of mouth = buzz, I have a much bigger umbrella for what word of mouth should mean (see bottom of message).

The challenge of any marketer in this attention and trust-starved world with a customer base taking a more activist role is "how do I get my customer's talking positively (with each other, with me, with prospects, online, offline)." Word of mouth is all of that, it truly is the bigger umbrella that leverages four things from the peer to peer grapevine:

• word of mouth advocacy
• word of mouth engagement/support
• word of mouth insight
• word of mouth content

And guess what - social media, albeit dominant and in vogue, exists as only one of 14 tools on which word of mouth can be orchestrated. I'll admit there is a fascination  with it - stoked by PR agencies who believe it is a breakout strategy for them with their clients and web startups who believe their knowledge of it can provide them millions in V.C.. Make no mistake though - when clients say they want social media, what they really want is word of mouth.

So to broaden the view of the world and downgrade your Social Media fever to mere Social media common cold,  here is a definition of social media and the other 13 types of word of mouth tools and tactics that get chins wagging, grapevines moving and people acting.   

It's tough hill to climb to change people's perceptions here. My evidence using Google search:

Word of Mouth - 5.6 million pages

Social Media - 49.4 million pages

I guess on some occasions, the crowd is misguided.

Harnessing Blogs - Not Exactly Your Most Trusted Friend, but Certainly a Helpful Guide

Some stats on blogs and blogs readers from a study conducted by Jupiter and BuzzLogic called "Harnessing The Power of Blogs"

- The number of those who read blogs at least once a month has grown 300% in the past four years

- Frequent blog readers (those who read blogs more than once per month) - constitute 20% of blog readers and say they trust relevant blog content for purchase decisions than content from social networking sites

- One half (50%) of blog readers say they find blogs useful for purchase information

- 31% of readers say blogs are useful for technology purchases, other key categories include media and entertainment (15%); games/toys and/or sporting goods (14%); travel (12%); automotive (11%); and health (10%)

- For those who have found blog content useful for product decisions, more than half (56%) say blogs with a niche focus and topical expertise were key sources

-  Among respondents who say they have trusted blog content for purchase decisions, over half (52%) say blogs played a role in the critical moment they decided to move forward with a purchase:

• Decide on a product or service: 21%
• Refine choices: 19%
• Get support and answers: 19%
• Discover products and services: 17%
• Assure: 14%
• Inspire a purchase: 13%
• Execute a purchase: 7%

- Fully 25% of frequent readers say they trust ads on a blog they read; paid search links also account for 25% of their responses; and 19% say they trust ads on social networking sites

- 40% of blog readers have taken action as a result of viewing an ad on a blog; 50% of frequent blog readers say so

- Top activities include the following: read product reviews online (17%); sought out more info on a product or service (16%); visited a manufacturer or retailer website (16%)

- 38% of frequent readers said blog links were the top tool for discovering new blog content.

- 34% cited web search, and 11% said blog search engines were the top tool for discovering new blog content.

- for frequent readers, blog links appear to have similar impact as a trusted recommendation from a person (a response from 39% of survey participants).

- 20% of general blog readers (defined as consumers who have read a blog in the past 12 months) use blog links to discover new blogs.

-  6% of general readers say they use blog search engines to discover new blogs

- Nearly half (49%) of blog readers and 71% of frequent readers read more than one blog per session

The 20 Most Contagious Things In Life

Humans are herd animals, we never like to experience anything alone and perish the thought of doing something else while others are going in a different direction.

See if you agree with me on the top 20 human things that spread like wildfire below...I know I'm missing a few gems. 

1) Colds/Flus - the average human gets 2-5 colds a year and are frequently affected two-to-four days after others are first exposed 

2) Applause - nothing like a few well-placed plants to get a crowd clapping in synch

3) Opinions - the foundation of viral marketing rests on this assumption

4) Fashion - I'm not too sure why there isn't an Amazon for fashion but they could clean up based on influencer-led movements in style

5) Measles  - one of the most communicable viruses in the world - 90% of household members who are not immune but are exposed to it end up contracting it

6) Fear -one only need to see our global economic meltdown, to see this piece of human psychology play out 

7) Gossip/Scandal - Sarah Palin/Tina Fey, American Idol, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Oscar Night, Gawker - I rest my case  

8) Stress - 78% belived Bush's State of the Union in 2007 was going in the right direction; now less than 2 years later,  83% believe the country is heading in the wrong direction

9) Negative Energy & Enthusiasm -misery loves company and everybody loves a party

10) Obesity - there is a 171% increased chance if a good friend increases weight, so will you..be forewarned

11) Yawning - 40-60% of people who hear talk about yawning, do it themsleves

12) Laughter - has more to do with social setting vs. humour, you are 30 times more likely to laugh socially than solitarily, in cross gender conversations, females laugh 126% more than males

13) Smiling - it only takes 14 muscles, is free and is good for you...why not?

14) Trends - the thesis behind the Tipping Point - small things make a big difference- some intriguing examples of air conditioners and faxes

15) Rhythm/Music Beat - who hasn't been toe-tapping and realize the person next to them is doing the same things

16) Goodwill - it's interesting when things go bad, humans capacity for pulling together

17) Referrals - an average person will tell 5 people after a good experience and 8 people after a bad one, the web allows an online savvy person to tell 13 friends and an influencer to tell 40

18) Violence/Litter - it's the Broken Windows theory - allow something to be degraded or debased around you and more of it will happen

19) Depression/Suicide - bridge jumping, subway jumping and other forms of reported suicide have a contagious effect on the socially displaced, the young and people with a close association to the victims

20) Memes/Idioms - Where's the Beef?, Budweiser's Whassssssssup, Dove Evolution, Got Milk, Mastercard's Priceless, Apple's Think Different and Intel's mnemonic  

The Marketer's Report Card - A Test To Predict Your Readiness for Marketing's New Frontier

Over the years, I have probably interacted with over 2,000 fellow marketeers in some way , shape or form (my LinkedIn contact list tells me so). Some I would go through a brick wall for because of their smarts, ballsiness or track record of success; others couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag. Don't ask me for names but I'm sure the range of the marketing industry's performance graphs like a bell curve.

One thing I can tell you, a lot has changed in the 17 years since I took a Brand Assistant role at Procter & Gamble. The attributes of what made for clear CMO potential back then are starkly different now. Back in 1991, you might hear "strategic quarterback", "communications genius", "politically savvy", "manages up well", "looks the part" or "great manager" as can't miss labels. I'm sure vestiges of these skills remain but they're relevance has faded in deference to a different set of skills.

Take our 20 question test to see if your skills pass the mustard for the marketing's new frontier and plot yourself on the scorecard below:

1) Collaboration Skills  - can you excel in groups by asking the right questions and stimulating the right environment as opposed to forcing the right answers? (+4 pts - if categorically yes) do you include people outside salaried employees or agencies in discussions (+2 pts), do you have a platform wiki, intranet, forum or social net to easily work together (+2 pts), do you reward your employees ability to collaborate (+2 pts) and do you ask people questions before you have the answers (+ 2 pts)

2) Recertifying - have you in the last 6 months - read a marketing book (+1 pt), a non-marketing relevant book (+1 pt), took a marketing course (+1 pt), read 10 new blogs (+1 pt), championed a new process that got you out of your comfort zone (+1 pt), hosted an innovation day (+ 1pt), brought in a keynote speaker to challenge your entrenched ideas ( 1 pt)

3) Brand Ambassador - do internal people look at you as one of the most passionate cheerleaders behind your brand (+2 pts), are you slavishly devoted and passionate about your brand (+2 pts), do you respect, track and understand who works at your rival companies (+2 pts), do you prefer using brand culture and not competitive activity as the reason for pursuing a direction (+2 pts) and do external people say you are borderline fanatical about its best interests (+2 pts)

4) New Technology - are you at least 12 months ahead of where the mass market is going from the application of new technology to their business? (+4 pts) are you good at thinking laterally about new applications (+2 pts) and are you an early adopter yourself of tech/web solutions (+2 pts)

5) SEO/SMO Savviness - could you tell the 3 ways to get better SEO rankings (+2 pts) or be found specifically within social media (+2 pts) and have you looked at optimizing both for your brands (+2 pts)

6) Design Orientation - do you feel the impending need to incorporate design into your product/communications offerings (+2 pts), do you have a good eye for it (+2 pts), does your website look horrible (+1 pt), your packaging (+1 pt), your business cards (+1 pt) and does somebody on your team have a non-business, artistic background (+2 pts)

7) CEO Friend - do you have the CEO's respect and trust to deflect the requests from other departments that might subordinate the marketing function (+2 pts), are you in the the first three people he turns to for company advice (+3 pts) and does he know what your department and its impact on the company line (+2 pts) and distinct reason for being (+2 pts)

8) Story Telling - do you appreciate and understand the art of good storytelling (2 pts.), do your customers tell stories about your brand all the time (+1 pt.) and are you a good storyteller yourself for external (+2 pts) and internal audiences (+2 pts)

9) Authenticity - are you perceived/seen as being real and genuine (+ 2 pts), do you speak the truth even when unpopular (2 pts) and are you authentic to the core - in motive and practice (+4 pts)

10) Net Generation Seal of Approval - do you respect the views of anybody under 30 (+1 pt), do you understand their different motivations (+1 pt),  do you leverage them as a company asset (+1 pt) and would they agree on all counts (+2 pts)

11) Innovation - do you have an appetite for taking risks (+2 pt), are you motivated by your company being noticed and talked about for their new stuff (+1 pt), do you have a deep cycle of innovation initiatives (+2 pt) and do you see innovation initiative not as a milestone but as an ongoing thing/always in beta (+2 pts)
 
12) Connectedness - are you actively on Linked In? (+2 pts), Plaxo (+1 pt), Facebook (+1pt), some other social network (+1 pt) or relevant committee/club (+1 pt), do you regularly meet 5 new people /week (+3 pts), do you seek out opportunities to network with industry peers when available (+2 pts)

13) Customer-focused - do you see customers every week in your role (+2 pts), do you have a close working relationship with your front line sales/customer service staff (+3 pts) and do you have direct customer contact  as a top 3 touchpoint in your marketing spends (+ 3 pts)

14) HR Genius - do you hire people with complementary skills to you (+1 pt), complementary backgrounds (+1 pt), do you establish a common sense of purpose easily (+ 2 pts), do your workers believe they merely have a job or something more (+2 pts), do your plans galvanize employees to participate (+3 pts) and do you meet with your HR manager about department/company needs each week  (+2 pts)

15) Intellectual Curiosity - do you accept meetings with new suppliers (+ 1pt), do you have more than 2 projects that have no objectives but learning right now (+2 pts), do you ask the most junior person in meetings what they think (+1 pt), do you read non-marketing magazines to broaden your professional footprint (+2 pts), do you regularly shop your category (+1 pt), your competition (+1 pt)

16) ROI- Focus - do you formally recap projects at their conclusion (+2 pts), do you have a marketing dashboard of metrics (+2 pts), are they at least somewhat predictive (+2 pts), and tied to business strategy/results (+2 pts), does everybody knows about them(+2 pts) are they accountable for them (+2 pts) and do you have at least two metrics that are unconventional in natures (+2 pts)

17) Leadership - do you have the ability to sway your department by force of pull not push  (+2 pts), are you seen as outfront "leading the parade" (+2 pts), does your leadership believe you go beyond the call (+2 pts), have you introduced a major new groundbreaking innovation to your industry in the last year (+4 pts), has your name appeared in a major industry publication in the last 3 months (+2 pts) or major blog (+ 2pts)

18) Conscience of the Consumer - do you know more about your customer than anybody else in the company (+ 4 pts), do you have avenues where you can get insight from your best customers (+2 pts), influencers (+1 pts) or critics (+1 pts), do you know what you customer will be doing 2 years from now (+2 pts)

19) Culture Mavens - do you know what is current/trend-shifting in fashion (+ 1pt), media (+1 pt), tech (+1 pt), entertainment (+ 1pt), food & drink (+ 1 pt), public affairs (+ 1pt), art & design (+ 1pt), literature (+1 pt), architecture (+1 pt) and social media (+1 pt),

20)  Communications - do you have personal contacts yourself within industry media/journalists (+2 pts), do you have more than 2 agencies you work with (+2 pts), is online at least 20% of your spend (+2 pts), are you testing out a new media (+2 pts), are you dabbling with mobile technologies (+1 pt), do you have a media demographic (i.e. 18-35) on your creative briefs (minus 2 pts), do you have any target niche audience programs (+1 pt), do you profile for influence among your customers (+1 pt), is your positioning repeatable by most of the employees in your company (+3 pts) and for strategic input, are you asking more than one agency partner to legitimately input (+2 pts)

THE SCORECARD:

150-200 pts - Marketing Rock Star - you combine a Madonna-esque ability to reinvent yourself, an Obama-esque ability to collaborate and communicate and a Spielberg-esque ability to produce and incubate great marketing performance

100-149 pts. - Marketing Genius in Waiting - great expectations follow you - you have the raw components of an expert level marketer with skills minted for the new economy, something - perhaps one or two missing pieces ares holding you back from Mensa level - work at it and you'll get there

50-99 pts. - Marketing Pretender - the likely largest camp of marketeers, there is some retooling involved to get you remotely close to positive ROI. In some companies - you may be able to float around on past success or previous reputation - but without an attitude change and a serious professional resurfacing, you are destined for mediocrity or worse.

0-49 Pts. - Marketing NASCAR Accident - you are seriously impacting your company's bottom line, please take your hands off the wheel and let someone else drive. I won't say hopeless but if you survive the next 2 years one of three things is in order: 1) you had a Robert Downey type of intervention and changed your dangerous ways, 2) your dad owns the company and since you failed at acting ....or 3) your brand stinks, nobody talks about it, notices it, brag about it and no competitor has found the energy to knock you off the block.

So take the survey and let me know where you stand....our operators are waiting.

The Ultimate Slacker Comedian Cause - Couchathon

Video clips at Ustream"Four hours ago feels like a day ago"....these were the first words I heard from the livestream of 4 comedians called The Imponderables who have forced themselves to sit on a couch in a closed in area of Now Lounge Toronto for ...an indefinite period of time based on you and your charity.

It is quite a Nascar accident on screen as after 8 hours - you can tell they are getting a litle squirrelly. Much like Howard Stern as well - you have to sift through a lot of dialogue to get to the funny stuff. One of neat things they've done is create a talk show format of bringing new people in as guests (our down the hallway neighbour John Dore made an early appearance).

It's a neat concept and cause - give more to charity for Sick Kids and they'll just keep on sitting there.  So in the Subservient Chicken tradition - challenge them to do something watch them here now.

Now Here is How You Raise a Brand Community....

It Takes a Community to Raise a Brand - by Sean Moffitt

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: agentwildfire buzzcanuck)

As an early sendout in advance of our newsletter November Buzz Report, here is our best thinking on how to build a brand community, what a brand community is (and how it differs from other definitions put out there), the 18 steps involved and 51 great examples.

Our company has been among a very few in Canada experienced enough to advocate, passionate enough to proseltyze and resourced enough to build healthy brand communities on behalf of brands that deserev them. We're proud to be working on a new white paper on this area and should be able to share results from it sometime next year.

To quote a recent Gartner number on communities (courtesy Jen Evans), 60% of Fortune 1000 organizations will build customer communities by the year 2010 and half will fail at them.

Let's be clear - this is the stuff of major competitive advantage and is sneaking up on the talent gaps and poor policies and processes of many organizations.

If you are at all thinking of building or studying communities of fans, influencers or advocates for your organization, this one is for you...

Honk 3 Times for Obama

Spotted this one on Rahaf Harfoush's site. A tale of an intriguing Canadian farmer getting involved in the U.S. election.

If an eclectic guy out in the country can understand how creating buzz and collaboration works, gives me some hope marketers can too.

The 25 Words and Phrases That Shaped This Election

After what seems like a 2 year odyssey, it comes down to today. Like planning a bad wedding, there has been so much angst and hubris over what turns out to be a one day event, in the end - there will be a party for one side of the family and a vigil for another.

With that in mind, attached are our picks for the words and phrases that shaped this election:

1) You betcha
2) Joe the Plumber
3) Change We Can Believe In
4) Boneheaded
5) Hockey Mom
6) Main Street/Wall Street
7) Bailout
8) Lipstick on a pig
9) That One
10) 90% of the time
11) Warshington
12) Spreading the wealth
13) Elite
14) My Friends
15) Yes We Can
!6) Beanbag
17) Pal around
18) Maverick
19) Fundamental
20) Energizing the Base
21) Drill (baby, Drill)
22) Preconditions
23) Arugula
24) Preconditions
25) Country first

Now lets retire them to the lexicon rafters after today and move on. Enjoy the vote today America.

Marketing Week - Succeeding in Social Media

I'm just about to head downtown to moderate a panel of some of the best social media talent North America has to offer as part of Canada's Marketing Week.

Here is my list of distinguished colleagues who will be participating in a session called "Succeeding in Social Media":

Maggie Fox, Founder and CEO, Social Media Group
Steve Wright, Director of Strategic Planning, Radar DDB
Katie Delahaye Paine, Founder and CEO, KD Paine and Partners LLC 
Dave Stevens, GM, MySpace Canada
Jennifer Evans, President, Sequentia Communications
Dave Balter, Founder, President & CEO, BzzAgent

With the USA election trail winding down, hopefully this will provide ample fodder for those people still looking forward to a good debate, donnybrook, clash of ideas and perhaps, egads is it possible, consensus.