Ugo Orlando
November 2011
2
ESPEME
IS A SCHOOL WITHIN THE
ACCREDITED BY
EQUIS, AAACSB
EDHEC GROUP, FRENCH STATE.
AND THE
MANAGING A BRAND STRATEGY THROUGH THE DIGITAL MEDIUM, IS IT BETTER DONE IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCED TO A COMMUNICATION AGENCY? A REFLEXION ON THE CURRENT STATE AND THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FROM EXPERIENCES IN NEW MEDIA COMMUNICATION AGENCIES AND IN THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT OF A SOCIAL GAMING COMPANY
UGO ORLANDO
YEAR-GROUP
GRADUATING IN
2011
THESIS ADVISOR: MR. DENNIS DAVY
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the EDHEC-ESPEME degree 2011
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The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of their author.
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A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to: • D e n n i s D a v y , Thesis Advisor, for his time and his precious pieces of advice. • F a r i d H u m b l o t , Student at Edhec/Espeme, for the discussion we have had. • L . J . , Digital Planner in a large digital company, for the interview we have had. • O l i M a d g e t t , co-Founder of We R Interactive, for the discussions we have had. • J é r ô m e R é m i n i a c , ex-Head of New Media at TBWA\Auditoire, for the interview we have had. • F r a n c e s c o T o s a t o , Game Designer at wooga, for the discussions we have had. • C é l i n e V e r l e u r e , Founder at Olfactive Studio, for the interview we have had. • T h o r b j ö r n W a r i n , ex-Head of Marketing at wooga, for the interview we have had.
And also:
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“THE
BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT.”
PETER DRUCKER (1909-2005)
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I NTRODUCTION
W global
e
are
all
digital
brand
strategists. While searching for a flat, a job or love, we do this on the Internet: not expecting a direct response, but managing a
brand
image,
involving
contacts,
building relationships and showing in different spheres who we are. Beyond promoting ourselves, we will see here how to do this with a real brand: an emotional relationship between a product and its customer. A brand should be recognizable and meaningful. Some might think the digital medium is just another tool to communicate the brand to the customer. However, the digital medium itself opens a wide range of opportunities. In a few years, no brand will be communicating to consumers anymore, but with the customer instead. This shift has been happening for a few years and is turning advertising into a bidirectional communication-relationship. 8
Customers already communicate through brands. If someone checks-in a Starbucks, s/he is communicating another message compared to someone who is posing with a McDonalds hamburger. The whole issue is then to communicate through the customer or the potential customer, trying to drive
dialogues and to enhance talkability , constantly giving him/her the opportunity to be exposed to the brand image, to enjoy a meaningful brand experience and eventually to share brand content. Even though the brand can orchestrate the customer, it will never own him/her.
Throughout this thesis, we will try to ascertain whether a company can manage its digital brand strategy in-house or should call in a specialized communication agency, and which kind of agency. First,
we
will
analyze
the
working
atmosphere,
comparing the methods, the processes and the people at the agency with those at the advertiser. The next part will acknowledge that the digital medium is much more complex than the other main forms of advertising (film, radio, print, event, street). Therefore,
a
communication
campaign
using
a
complete set of different digital tools would deserve the label “360° Digital”, just like one involving film, radio, print, event, street and digital is currently called “360°”.
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We will then focus on the future of gaming mechanics in the advertising world, as well as in the world in general. This thesis explores the present and the attempts of brands
in
the
digital
medium,
which
open
opportunities for talented people to shape them.
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T ABLE O F C ONTENTS A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 I N T R O D U C T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 FOREWORD ................................................................................... 14
P A R T 1 . H O W D O T H E Y W O R K ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 1 . 1 . T H E P E O P L E I N T H E R E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 1.1.1. Working Atmosphere ...................................................................................................... 20 1.1.2. Strategy Mindset ............................................................................................................... 23 1.1.3. Product Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 27
1 . 2 . T H E C R E A T I V I T Y P A T H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 1.2.1. Who Is The More Creative? ......................................................................................... 31 1.2.2. The Decision-Making Process ..................................................................................... 35 1.2.3. Relationship With ROI ................................................................................................... 38
WHO IS WHO? ............................................................................. 42
P A R T 2 . 3 6 0 ° D I G I T A L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 2 . 1 . T H E C O N T E N T I S I N T H E H O U S E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7 2.1.1. The Corporate Website ................................................................................................. 47 2.1.2. Who Should Be The Community Manager? .......................................................... 48 2.1.3. Pushing & Pulling .............................................................................................................. 51
2 . 2 . M A S T E R T H E T O O L S F I R S T ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 2.2.1. Community Management: Let The Conversations Start .................................. 56
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2.2.2. Social Media Advertising: Facebook Ads ............................................................... 58 2.2.3. Dedicated Websites: A Personal Experience ....................................................... 60 2.2.4. Viral Films ........................................................................................................................... 60 2.2.5. Mobile Apps: Brand Content At Your Fingertips ................................................ 65 2.2.6. Flashcodes: Connect To Real Life ............................................................................. 67 2.2.7. Captchas: To Transform The Existing Tools ........................................................ 69
WHO IS THE MORE 360° .............................................................. 71
PART 3. THE GAME LAYER ON THE TOP OF THE A D V E R T I S I N G W O R L D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 3 . 1 . I N - G A M E A D V E R T I S I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 8 3.1.1. The Old Schools ................................................................................................................ 78 3.1.2. The Social Era ................................................................................................................... 80 3.1.3. Which Structure? .............................................................................................................. 83
3 . 2 . A D V E R G A M I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5 3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: The Perfect Match ................................................................................ 85 3.2.2. “If You’re Going To Crash The Party, Bring Some Champagne” ................ 89 3.2.3. This Is Real Life ................................................................................................................ 91
3 . 3 . T H E G A M I F I C A T I O N O F T H E W H O L E B U S I N E S S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 3.3.1. Great Gaming Mechanics ............................................................................................. 94 3.3.2. Under Construction ........................................................................................................ 96
WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? ................................................... 99
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS .................. 103 T A B L E O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 9 L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 9 APPENDICES ................................................................................. 118 12
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F OREWORD This section provides a short introduction of the writer’s working experiences, which will explain the reason for choosing to write this thesis.
These three internships provide an almost complete profile: • D i x x i t , an editorial web agency near Paris, France. This involved a lot of web writing and being in touch with corporate communication issues. 3 months. • T B W A \ A u d i t o i r e , an event ad agency in Paris, France. This was about working in the new media department as a mobile project manager and assisting the new media consultant. 4 months. • w o o g a , social games developer (2 nd worldwide) in Berlin, Germany. The initial position was as a Social Media Marketer but developed finally into having a lead on the Community Management strategy. 6 months.
These three experiences were very instructive. Dealing with Digital Communication issues, both within an agency and directly at the advertiser made it possible to think from different perspectives, which is necessary to succeed in this job.
These three internships were followed by internship reports, which are provided in Appendix 2 (in French). This includes the writer’s very first EDHEC-ESPEME internship at Adecco (temporary work agency, 2 months, in Nice, France). Although this contributed to building a solid professional profile, this experience will not
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be referred to any more in this thesis, the reason being that this was not related to Digital Communication.
Methodology The research question chosen for this thesis is the following: Managing a brand strategy through the digital medium, is it better done inhouse or outsourced to a communication agency?
This topic deserves serious analysis, as it includes a lot of other pertinent questions, such as: • Can brand managers think about their business objectives and their communication messages at the same time? • How can relationships between advertisers and advertising agencies be better? • Could certain advertisers teach some agencies how to communicate? • When are digital publishers able to advise advertisers on their brand strategy? • Are advertising agencies indispensable stakeholders for advertising projects? • If “the medium is the message”, do media shape brands? • What if an agency invents a product? As whenever someone feels special about anything, there is a room for innovation and every attempt has been made in this thesis to bring new ideas in the digital communication field, via different sources of inspiration: • Personal
experiences:
The
above-mentioned
EDHEC-ESPEME
internships made it possible to adopt different perspectives in the digital communication field. So, digital communication topics, both at the agency and at the advertiser, will be analyzed.
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• Courses: At EDHEC-ESPEME as well as in Karlstad University (Sweden), especially Marketing and Communication-related courses provided a great inspiration. • Talks,
blogs,
white
books:
Of
course,
every
consumed
and
appropriated content becomes part of oneself. Those added a little something to this thesis. • Interviews with professionals: Either from advertisers, agencies or publishers. Always key players and very well-informed people. Either face-to-face, via email, via twitter or during informal discussions. • Introspection: Of course, introspection let every piece of information interact and fall into place, to finally give birth to the following…
Nota bene All photographs, illustrations and text in this document are personal creations - except when specified otherwise. For
any
further
piece
of
information,
please
feel
free
to
contact:
mailto:ugo.orlando@toutattache.com
This thesis can be downloaded by visiting http://tiny.cc/ugosthesis
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Agency-people have different mindsets than their clients. Let us compare the atmosphere at the advertiser with that at the agency and see which process is the best fit for which communication issue. Who are the people in there? What is creativity going through? How are decisions made?
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1.1. THE PEOPLE IN THERE Let us compare the workforce and methods of the agency with those of the client (=advertiser). Pragmatism versus imagination? Fun versus formality? Jeans versus ties? Some statements given are just clichés, other ones are quite true, but are agency and advertiser people so different?
1.1.1. W ORKING A TMOSPHERE What is a good working atmosphere? Digital-communication-wise, a company offering a welcoming working environment would be: • All-ears to best practices • Open to new ideas • Not stuck in old-fashioned corporate offline communication • Ambitious about its brand equity • Stable enough to build a long-term strategy • More into PowerPoint than Word • More into Instant Messaging than Emails • Understanding of the product and the communication tools. Do we have more fun in the agency?
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Of course, it depends on which advertiser we are comparing our experience to. The market greatly influences the open-mindedness we can have at work. In addition, a large communication agency with an aging management (and mindset) is less likely to provide an enjoyable working atmosphere for an out-of-the-box digital planner, for instance. However, if it really is aging, it precisely needs out-of-the-box people to help bring added value to the advertiser.
Is Facebook bad? It is common knowledge, that Facebook 1 is currently: • the biggest social network and content-sharing platform in the world 2 • the best opportunity to monitor conversations • the finest targeting solution available. Except for the last point above, letting employees access and enjoy Facebook at work is an opportunity for them to come up with efficient communication ideas and, more importantly, it educates them to use Facebook for professional purposes, which is never a bad thing. Keeping them away from Facebook blinkers them partly to what is happening in their surroundings. Although communication departments usually do have access to Facebook and other social networks, too many advertisers still block Facebook for the rest of their workforce, arguing that it is killing productivity: management by objective should definitely remedy this.
Conversations 1
Mashable (2011): http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/
2
Current status of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
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Topics such as inspiration, design, technical tips, innovation, strategic insights, beliefs about targets are more present at the agency’s lunch breaks - as well as any other marketing or creation-related conversation. There also tends to be a lot of pretentiousness at the agency. Being creative and knowing about the latest campaigns are true strengths in this environment. Therefore, this competition might lead to aimless conversations, but when it comes down to it, everyone knows more about the surrounding world and their competitors’ creations and strategies, which makes the whole agency more innovative and cutting-edge.
This is one of the reasons why agencies are still needed by advertisers: they are more aware and creative, because the conversations between and among their employees are driven this way.
At the advertiser’s, on the other hand, the conversations usually remain about the core business of the company. The expertise is then efficiently shared
and
has
the
best
place
in
communication
materials,
but
communication tools (such as creativity, Twitter scheduling solutions or target drivers 3) are not mastered the way they are in agencies, unless the communication department is big enough for the people there to get to share with each other. In some companies (e.g. big worldwide retailers or companies from the new economy), we can find a digital marketing department big enough for it to be dynamic and to share knowledge. However, in most cases, the in-house communication department is not large enough, so only a couple of employees share vague tips.
3
A "driver", in advertising jargon, is the feeling a campaign creates within a target, for it to
adopt a given behavior (buying a product, for instance). The driver could be "nostalgia" or "selfrespect" for instance.
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1.1.2. S TRATEGY M INDSET What
does
“strategy”
involve
from
the
advertiser’s
perspective? • Events: Product launches • Growth techniques • ROI objectives • Analyzing pieces of data • Quantitative KPIs 4 • Hard skills And from the agency’s? • Events: Campaign projects • Target insights • Brand image objectives • Gathering best practices • Qualitative KPIs 5 • Soft skills Different definitions? Thus, the single word “strategy” involves very different notions and drivers in both of these working environments.
The mindset is therefore quite different whether we are in an agency or with its client. Advertiser-people are usually better at “marketing with numbers” while agency-people will prefer “marketing with letters”. Each of
4
KPI = Key Performance Indicator. In this case, quantitative KPIs could integrate gross sales,
number of clients or market share. 5
In this case, qualitative could mean brand awareness, user satisfaction or the press coverage.
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them often has a whole background within this specific side: numbers or letters. So when one says “marketing”, “communication” and “campaign”, this will most likely mean “numbers” to the advertiser and “letters” for the agency.
Different strategists? At the advertiser, a strategist is someone who will study and report on the market, in terms of purchasing power. This person will for instance define a day when a product will become profitable.
At the agency, a “strategist” is someone who will successively analyze and come up with a work plan as follows: • Background: market facts gathered from research and knowledge in fields such as sociology, economics, neurology or demography. • Target: who is the customer, potential customer, who is the one who will not be the customer, what are their needs, beliefs or aspirations? • Driver:
the
strategic
insight
driving
the
target’s
behavior:
“Innovation”, “Beauty” or “Power”, for instance. • Best practices: how competitors or other advertisers managed to solve similar communication issues. • Current versus Desired perception: what the target thinks about the brand before vs. after being exposed to the campaign. This whole process will lead to a so-called “Strategy” which is the message to be delivered to the audience – most of the time linked to a benefit. The Media-people and the Creative-people are not fully involved in this stage of the process.
Even though there will always be different perspectives on the same advertising projects, “the people in there” need to coordinate their
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strategies as much as possible. Because different stakeholders can have dramatically different perspectives on a project, requirements have to be clearly defined during the briefing phase.
Self-promotion In addition, the agency will have a secondary objective: self-promotion, for PR, HR and new business purposes. As most of the communication agencies need to grow, because the majority of outsourcing advertisers choose agencies according to their portfolio, the self-promotional strategy is not to be forgotten when hiring an agency.
Trial and Error Digital planners from advertising agencies use data from the market (including surveys, known figures or studies) and knowledge from their background in areas such as neurology, sociology or economics. They also often rely on their intuition: this is where their added value lies, as digital planners, but this is also a leftover from the old way to market a brand.
A short example from the e-business industry: the A/B tests 6. These involve separating several buckets of users, giving them two different experiences and comparing the KPIs. On an e-business website for example, 50% of users would have a “BUY� button on the left-hand side. The rest of them would have it on the right-hand side. Running a few other A/B tests and comparing revenues after a few weeks should design the perfect datadriven user funnel. This is very easy to do in IT industries, as you can give two different users a completely different version of your product, which can hardly be done for 6
First actor was Amazon. More explanation on Clickz, 2004:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1704390/a-b-testing-mathematically-disinclined
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a brick-and-mortar retailer. Amazon is commonly known as the inventor of the A/B tests.
“We don’t mind testing a lot of weird ideas. At the end of the day, numbers tell you how good your idea was.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
Coming from Sweden, Thorbjörn Warin was hired at wooga as the Head of Marketing. He then moved moved onto a new startup in Berlin: Hitfox.
More and more companies do not try to understand facts any more, they just run tests and figure out what to do next. This is the case of wooga, on the startup landscape, but some advertisers from the old economy are finding out the benefits of the “trial and error” method. A/B tests are a very common thing to do in the IT industry. According to Tim Harford, a British economist, this is spreading out to the whole of society 7.
In these situations, the advertiser does not need a bunch of surveys before creating a campaign: one less field to take care of for the agency - one less reason to be needed.
7
Watch Tim Harford’s TED Talk, 2011: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html
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1.1.3. P RODUCT K NOWLEDGE We know what we are doing The advertiser’s marketing people work, have lunch and attend meetings with their co-workers - the ones who make the products. They know about every aspect of them, they know about improvements, potential new products, they know about the strategy and the most valuable sectors to target. They can see the product growing and often suggest improvements to it.
“In some gaming companies, we really feel the influence of the marketing department on the products. Working close to each other is very precious. The agency, on the other hand, doesn’t usually come up with very relevant ideas of improvement. But they come in with completely fresh eyes!” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
Advertisers know exactly what they are selling and whom they are selling it to. They are not bothered by other accounts from other industries. At the same time, they are less experienced at selling different kinds of products. They know their market extremely well but are less in touch with trends on the global market. Nowadays, almost any kind of product needs to be new! Every product launched needs to be innovative and every old product needs to receive a new image once in a while. Sometimes these products are sold by old industries, and in this specific case, the company needs to hire people who are more up-to-date with the current trends - but not too much.
Over-trendy people in the agency? 27
Agencies
tend
to
apply
a
“winning”
and
“trendy”
communication
recommendation to any kind of advertiser. This sometimes works, but people from the agency sometimes become too comfortable with this and think a magic recipe can work all the time. They want to be first to share a set of photographs, possibly a day or two before the usual trendy blogs which their co-workers check daily - do. This unfortunately does not make them efficient ad-men & ad-women. In reality, light painting + Facebook connect + street art + blog activation does not result in an “epic advertising win” all the time.
This is good for an agency to keep a constant eye on trends. It is a threat for them to be too focused on “what’s hot” – for egocentric purposes - and to forget about marketing basics: linking the product and the customer. Agencies need both people with egocentric drivers (often juniors) and other people with ROI and customer satisfaction drivers (often seniors).
This way, juniors will tend to be innovative and follow trends - for the heck of it - and seniors will put this into the customer’s perspective - for the good of the business. Agencies need to balance their workforce this way. A lot of them do. Those who do not, do not stay alive for long, as advertisers can not see any added value in asking them for digital communication strategies.
Different People, Different Areas of Expertise It is also essential for a campaign to involve both product-oriented people as well as consumer-oriented people. If an advertiser feels close enough to its market to conduct a campaign on its own, then it does not need to outsource its strategy to an agency.
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In most cases, the product-people still mix fairly well with the agencypeople. However, relationships are not always so easy, resulting in frustration in both sides. For best results, both parties need to understand and work extremely close to each other. What is more, hiring in-housepeople at agencies and agency-people in-house is always worthwhile when it comes to optimizing skills.
Do advertiser-people change jobs just as much as agencypeople? Agencies are known for their young, thus volatile workforce, but as a matter of fact, marketers also move quite often 8. This would not be so much of an issue if they sold the same product in another company, but they very seldom move to a competitor and most of the time move to a completely different industry. Moreover, a new Head of Marketing wants to change things quickly to be well seen by his/her management. It is not rare then that s/he calls a new pitch with different agencies, even though sales have been doing well with the current agency. A recent example of this behavior is IKEA France, which allegedly ended a very long relationship with the agency “la chose�, and clearly discouraged it from taking part in the pitch 9.
Beyond this occurrence, workforce turnover at the advertiser does not help marketers to know their product better and does not improve relationships between agencies and their clients.
8
According to Steve Harrison : http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/491875/Why-clients-buy-so-
bad-work
9
Source will remain confidential, but was involved in the process (2011).
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in Campaign : "Marketing directors are often hired in the context of a publicized crisis and the demand is for a quick fix. They need to be given time to invest in a big idea, but shareholders want immediate results." Malcolm Earnshaw (Managing Director of ISBA) 10
10
Source Campaign UK, 2005: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/491875/Why-clients-buy-so-
bad-work
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1.2. THE CREATIVITY PATH Agencies are known to hire more creative minds, which constitute their main added value. Creativity is still within reach of clients, but ROI pressure, process and culture most of the time suffocate disruptive 11 ideas. Saying something unexpected at a meeting involves less risk if you are a copywriter than a brand manager.
1.2.1. W HO I S T HE M ORE C REATIVE ? Creativity Required in the Agency Creativity should be everywhere in an advertising agency. This is the point of it, as clients call agencies because of their lack of fresh ideas and flexibility. For this reason, during a job interview at an agency, for pretty much any position, one would be asked about ideas, advertising taste, innovation, thoughts. Even those who may never be involved in the creativity process, such as front desk or accounts people, are usually expected to have a creative mind. ust for them to represent the agency in the best possible way in front 11
"Disruptive" in advertising jargon: qualifies a communication strategy as being purposely
original, innovative and astonishing. A disruptive campaign breaks codes to rise up above competitors, but is still in line with the brand strategy and the message to be delivered. In advertising, being called “disruptive� is positive.
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of clients. Below is a scene from AMC’s Mad Men, where an account executive at the fictional agency Sterling Cooper – says “I have ideas”.
Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007) More and More Mandatory at the Advertiser To efficiently deal with the digital shift of their audience, companies hire communication staff who are able think out of the box, precisely because the digital medium is new and best practices are yet to be invented. Creativity is needed in connection with these topics: • Strategy: Obtaining a vision of how a brand should position itself, be seen and be managed. • Customer Care: Getting close to the customers and being very reactive. • PR: Putting magic into press releases and relationships with the press and diverse stakeholders (such as potential clients, influencers, potential hires, other agencies or providers).
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• Advertising: Having someone in-house still validating disruptive ideas from agencies, even though they sometimes are not perfectly respectful of the history. Below is a 60’’-long film from the agency
Men at Work for the grocery retailer Auchan (2011) saying “Discounts on what you like, and even what you don’t”. These ideas are often seen as disrespectful and are thus hard to sell.
Source: http://vimeo.com/17594933
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No advertiser would have had this idea by itself, but in-house creative people are still necessary to let it happen.
UGC, for User Generated Creativity Bloggers and hard-core fans are often even more tied to a brand than a brand manager, a product manager or a community manager. One good thing that both advertisers and agencies tend to do is integrate the community in the creative path, not only managing communities and getting some feedback from them, but really embedding key opinion leaders in the communication strategy.
This is at a very early stage. La Redoute – a French apparel retailer as well as a pioneer in online communication and especially social media – is doing this a lot 12. For instance, a bus tour lead by bloggers was held all over France: customers could try on dresses and get advice from rather famous fashion-bloggers.
This was run in-house and would have been less comfortable to organize with an agency: • Important bloggers would rather get in touch with a person who is working closer to the product. • The organizational process has to be very fast and flexible, as an agency will not wait too long for a client validation on this kind of topic.
12
Watch the interview (French) of Gwenola Toulemonde, Social Media & Brand Content
manager at La Redoute, by Grégory Pouy (2011) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al6zPejELhg
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On the other hand, agencies typically know better how to identify and efficiently reach out to key opinion leaders. Warner Bros (France) also held an even more remarkable blogger experience set-up. They gathered together and shot a movie of a bank hold-up. Bloggers are then intended to make the buzz happen 13. The campaign has not been totally revealed at the time of writing this thesis, but it is known that this event was run by an agency.
A more basic way to get User Generated Creativity is pulling ideas from a Facebook fanpage for the name of a product, or a forthcoming feature. This is more about engaging customers than getting really good ideas from them.
1.2.2. T HE D ECISION - M AKING P ROCESS The In-House Poor Path Often, in small busineses, everyone is part of the creative process. In startups, this means the CEO is a visionary, and has an eye on everyone’s innovative ideas. Sometimes, it is not the best creativity ever, as this depends totally on the CEO’s profile and is not balanced by different perspectives.
In general, developing a whole advertising strategy in-house is motivated by very specific reasons. It is “quite rare” for big companies, according to this key player in the industry.
13
More information about the « Pour un avenir moins sûr » influence set-up (2011):
http://www.viedegeek.fr/article/event-batman-arkham-city-ou-comment-braquer-une-banque/
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“The only client that I can think of that does that is Innocent Smoothies in the UK. One of the founders is an ex-ad man, so it's not surprising that their brand
strategy
is
so
closely
managed
and
maintained by them.” Interview with L.J.
L.J. has experience both at the advertiser and at the agency. She now works as a planner for different brands, within one of the largest digital companies in the world.
Who is Involved at the Agency? In the agency, this means that almost everyone can attend brainstorming sessions and share ideas. Then, creative teams take this, to give birth to a sharper core idea. This step is very precious. It lets people with different areas of expertise share their perspectives. Some clichés for instance: • A youngster is more likely to have disruptive ideas involving the digital medium. • Someone who is really concerned about the environment may be more motivated to find cutting-edge techniques to sell a clean car. • Someone who had cancer feels good with anti-smoking accounts. • Someone who is/has been a parent knows more about the insights involving babies or kids.
36
• A woman is more likely to find benefits in lipsticks. In the illustration below, secretaries from the fictional agency Sterling Cooper were asked for inputs, as the Creative department was only run by men.
Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007) In addition, everyone feels very useful to the company and involved in a final creation. In the end, feeling creative , even if one is not part of the creative department, is very important, from an HR perspective.
…And at the Big Agency? Bigger agencies tend to be less flexible and to involve only the most relevant people in the process. Reasons are simple: • As there are more accounts, someone who would like to attend every brainstorming would not have time for his/her regular job. • As there are more employees, brainstormings would be very messy. However, if you have heard about a project, nothing prevents you from sharing an idea with the relevant people. This process is partly the reason why Jérôme Réminiac believes what follows…
37
“Some agencies with aging management are giving very
valuable
communication
advice,
but
are
bringing no added value on digital topics. Smaller agencies are usually more dynamic and more relevant to get involved with digital topics: their consultants being digital natives.” Inteview with Jérôme R.
Jérôme
Réminiac
founder
of
the
was New
the Media
department at TBWA\Auditoire. He
has
now
moved
to
freelancing projects.
1.2.3. R ELATIONSHIP W ITH ROI 14 Pragmeativity at some advertisers In ROI-oriented companies which do not need advertising agencies, creativity is only a nice-to-have bonus: pragmatism being a more valuable competence.
“In our field of advertising, creativity is important, but if it comes down to a creative person or an analytic person, I would rather hire an analytical person. It is fun making assumptions, but in the end, data will always tell you where to go. So it’s good
14
ROI = Return On Investment
38
to be creative, but totally mandatory to be good at analytics.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
However, this is a lot about the marketing technique that is required. For very simple calls-to-action, data is always more valuable than intuition and originality. “The vaguer the action, the more creativity is required in its marketing. We at wooga only require a simple action.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
As a matter of fact, Marketing with letters desperately needs creative minds, whereas Marketing with numbers only involves efficient data. Bigger advertisers than wooga are moved by brand equity KPIs, for which reason, in-house creative folks are absolutely essential.
Pressure at the Advertiser In communication, and especially in digital communication, efficient ideas are the ones that make conversations happen. If they make conversations happen, they are very surprising and unusual. Unfortunately, these bizarre ideas do not arise by themselves, they need a whole atmosphere for this 15. Big companies with aging management (not related to the biological age of the board members, but to their mindset) sometimes are closed to new structures of thinking.
15
Watch "where good ideas come from", by Steven Johnson (Writer and Speaker, 2010):
http://vimeo.com/21694892 and his talk (2010): http://www.ted.com/talks/steven_johnson_where_good_ideas_come_from.html
39
Furthermore, a traditional advertising agency that is part of a big group carries a heavy structure and will be centered on tools, instead of ideas, which often does retain out-of-the-box minds, which is a pity for the agency’s work quality.
Flexible and Young Businesses On the other hand, a small new agency will give birth to ideas first, and will then ask about which media to use for this purpose. On the same track, a startup will have storytelling posters all around their offices, saying “Dare if you dare”, “Stay hungry, stay foolish”, “Failure is key to success”, “Go fast and break things”, “Be fast, be bold”, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”, “Rule n°1: there is no other rule”, “If at first you don’t succeed, call it 1.0” and so on.
This whole risk-taking and open-mindedness culture incubates all sorts of ideas, which meet and sometimes collapse into a great innovative thing. wooga even makes its employees sign a simple paper more or less acknowledging they should share any idea they have.
Out of Sight, Out of Wallet “Are agencies wasting my money?” clients often wonder. Briefs sometimes remain unclear on one key point: is the advertiser pursuing ROI or Brand Image? Even agencies that are working very closely with their clients are not quite their employees. The consequence of failing to fulfill a goal would only be the loss of an account, not being fired as a person. This makes agencypeople slightly more free to try things out. This is often a good thing for “above the fold” Brand Image, but sometimes remains a failure in terms of
40
short-term ROI – depending on the type of campaign, the industry, the type of agency and so forth.
Still, in general, short-term ROI is often better taken care of by a few marketers in-house. A brand image is better designed by agency-people, partly because they are not working at the advertiser, which removes a brake to creativity.
41
WHO IS WHO? Advertisers may have the knowledge - agencies have to know how. At this point, a few things are obvious: • Old-fashioned companies need small and dynamic digital agencies or independent consultants to carry out their digital strategies. • Modern companies can either hire an agency or build a whole digital communication department with disruptive people, who are getting the right budget (as La Redoute did). • Old-fashioned agencies need to hire persons who understand the digital landscape. • Startups do not need (and can not afford) anyone. It all is a matter of culture and flexibility. Would this mean that entrepreneurs and small companies are better able to do business?
Here is a comparative SWOT chart summing up this first part. This shows Strength and Weaknesses of In-house employees in carrying out a digital
42
brand strategy. The second part shows Opportunities and Threats in outsourcing to advertising agencies.
43
44
45
The digital medium is so rich and important that no brand can possibly do without it. Let us announce it: a communication campaign can be called “360°�, even though it is 100% digital. In fact, the digital media are plural.
46
2.1. THE CONTENT IS IN THE HOUSE A brand has to be present on every relevant digital medium and to deliver its message in a specific way, but it is not about focusing on the tool. From the in-house perspective, the corporate culture is the most important, as it helps to bring brand content.
2.1.1. T HE C ORPORATE W EBSITE Content is King In a corporate website, a user-friendly interface and some well-written content are very important, but it is not only about a campaign or a smooth shopping experience. A corporate website’s main strength is its opportunity of giving valuable information. The content is king and the advertiser knows this better than anyone else.
The Old-fashioned Ones are Not So Demanding Old-school advertisers will believe they absolutely do not need advertising agencies to write content for them. They know their company better than anyone else and they disagree with the saying “ It’s not what you say, it’s
how you say it ”.
47
Either not asking professionals or buying very bad work from one, led until a few years ago to really bad websites, precisely for brands that are worth a lot more, and deserve a lot better.
The New Cool Kids Know How To Do It SEO 16, Inverted Pyramid 17, fast-browsing, user funnel, social features, ‌ some people know these words, some do not. Hiring people who do and are used to making good corporate websites is always useful, even in the B2B area. Yet, these competences do not have to be at the agency, as creativity is really limited on these kinds of jobs. Internalizing web designers and content writers is totally fine: their decisions would not lose much of their meaning going though validation processes - while creative insights might. The main reason why editorial agencies exist and have work is mainly because of the lack of dedicated workforce at the advertiser’s.
2.1.2. W HO S HOULD B E T HE C OMMUNITY M ANAGER ? At the Agency: a Professional New jobs such as community management evolve within agencies, as conversations are about innovative tools.
Digital agencies are specialized and the community manager has been present for a few years already. Over time, agencies have tended to offer more and more permanent contracts.
16
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
17
Inverted Pyramid = Web writing technique enabling efficient user-catching and an enhanced
user-experience
48
At the Advertiser: an Intern? There is still some time left until advertisers from the old economy give enough importance to a community manager and figure out they should have done so earlier. In too many companies, a poor Facebook fanpage and Twitter account management is given to a poor intern who has no impact on the company at all.
Somehow, in this “new job” field, it seems as if the companies representing biggest
brands
are
always
catching
up
with
agency
or
startup
organizations. This is the reason why they need agencies, otherwise, quality digital communication would never reach the mainstream.
At the Advertiser: Not Always! Other companies have already made this shift happen and a community manager is a senior web project manager: being a brand-spokesperson towards the consumers and a consumers-spokesperson towards the brand. Just the way La Redoute is doing.
“Facebook is central in our communication process. […] We show making-ofs to the fans before those new TV spots are shown on TV” Hughes de Pietrini (2011) 18
Another “just in time” best practices creator is LOFT, a clothes brand which has carried out a couple of innovations with Community Management,
18
Watch the interview with Hughes de Pietrini - Orangina-Schweppes (France)’s CEO - during a
digital communication press conference (French): http://vimeo.com/26013840
49
listening and reacting a lot to users’ requests 19. These companies are still rare on the mainstream market such as retailing. Then, they are known as being innovative, which is an unintended bonus to their communication!
In Startups: Business-Savvy People Startups understood before everyone the need for Community-ninjas or
Users-go-to-guys being also Business-savvy – to use their vocabulary. Small organizations need solid Marketing and Business Skills to oversee the economic landscape and suggest suitable digital solutions. Olfactive Studio 20 has made Community Management the core of their Business, as products are co-created after the community’s ideas.
“Small brands could do what we achieved with Olfactive Studio. But mythical brands such as Chanel or Dior would have no interest in doing it” Inteview with Céline V.
Céline
Verleure
(an
EDHEC
Business
School
alumna) is the Founder of Olfactive Studio. She understood the essential role of Community Management and is performing this function herself.
Community Manager job advertisements often cover a very wide range of topics. Especially in startups (see below with Amen, a Berlin-based startup
19 20
See explainatory article : http://mashable.com/2010/06/18/ann-taylor-Facebook/ A startup which used Facebook to build its product (fragrances), creating a best practice in
the industry : http://facebook.com/LeBlogDuParfumQuiNExistePasEncore
50
on the cutting-edge) but also in some companies who understood the strengths of quality community management.
Source: amenhq.com, 2011
2.1.3. P USHING & P ULLING Knowing the Product Of course, in today’s digital landscape, users own the brand more than the company that has created it. For this reason, it is very important for brands, both big and small, to be aware of their online reputation, and to operate in the areas where key trend makers are. To act efficiently, community managers or web project managers need to be very close to the product managers, or to the product itself.
51
The Closer, the Better Knowing the company to interact optimally with the community is one thing, but doing it the other way around is also very important. One key case study for this – getting input from the community to change something within the company – is LOFT, an American fashion retailer. At first, the brand posted their new pants on Facebook, worn by a professional model. The most surprising thing was the reaction of fans: ” While many Fans acknowledged that the pants looked good on the model,
they complained that the pants were “ not universally flattering ” and would “ look great [only] if you’re 5’10″ and a stick like the model in the photo .” The post led several women to request — politely, of course — that LOFT show the pants on “ real women .” “, according to Mashable 21. The day after, LOFT managed to publish pictures of the same pants on real
women , getting fans behind the scenes, as they were LOFT employees (see pictures below).
21
Full article on Mashable, 2010: http://mashable.com/2010/06/18/ann-taylor-Facebook/
52
Before - Source: LOFT (2010)
After - Source: LOFT (2010) This is in-house content, and would not have been possible if run through an agency – or at least not that fast. Feeling really close to your user-base makes them feel really close to your brand, which is very precious!
53
Lack of Advertising Mindset A counter-example is scheduled posts: no Community Manager is behind a screen while posting, but scheduled a post earlier. This is used for posting at weekends and often leads to disengaged fans, and sometimes to community management failures. Here is a case study from the same brand as before, LOFT. Below is a scheduled post assuming New York would be sunny on a particular Sunday:
Source: LOFT (2011) Not very engaging for fans. Lots of other Community Managers from advertisers actually make beginner’s mistakes, such as not languagetargeting posts (how often have you seen something in a language you could not understand on your newsfeed?), not geo-targeting (publishing at night in particular parts of the world), publishing links without pictures to 54
appeal to the eye, never ever asking questions to raise levels of involvement.
In addition, there is a lack of advertising background at the advertiser. Practically no one talks about “drivers” or “insights” in a meeting about how to manage a fanpage, at the advertiser’s.
It is absolutely necessary for companies to either master the tools better (even in a startup) or to hire a communication agency to take care of this. It is also essential for an agency to be very reactive, as in the future best practices such as this of LOFT (2010) will be asked for by advertisers. At this point, agencies that will not have very good relationships and very efficient processes with their clients will not be needed any more.
55
2.2. MASTER THE TOOLS FIRST! The content is king, and the king of content is in-house, but what would great content be without the right tools to wrap it, diffuse it and even sell it? If advertisers can usually deal themselves with content, agencies remain the kings of the tools. Let us analyze what a 360° digital approach could involve.
2.2.1. C OMMUNITY M ANAGEMENT : L ET THE C ONVERSATIONS S TART Virality Virality is not just a buzzword for qualifying YouTube lolcats 22 or a lot of senseless
retweets.
Virality
can
be
orchestrated
for
communication
purposes; you only have to add a secret ingredient called talkability 23 to your master recipe!
22
A portmanteau from "lol" (laughing out loud) and "cats". This defines a YouTube trend,
because the most watched and shared videos involve cats in funny situations. 23
Ability for a story, film, campaign or brand to be shared and talked about. This factor is
essential in today’s advertising landscape.
56
Below are the key performance indicators for one campaign managed by the agency Buzzman for Tipp-Ex 24 “a hunter shoots a bear” (2010). These KPIs are all about sharing, the creative key being talkability. Source: Buzzman’s case study (2011)
Almost any product can be sold and benefit from a great digital advertisement. Buzzman did it for Tipp-Ex, apparently rather boring products (correction fluids, pens or tapes). Another KPI – the ROI – was also very positive, as sales increased considerably a few weeks after the launch of the ad: 30% up, compared to the previous back-to-school period.
24
Tipp-Ex is a brand from the Société Bic (France). The « a hunter shoots a bear » campaign
will remain an innovative best practice and still earns awards (in fall 2011).
57
Talkability can also be sustained from the offline side 25, but will always take place online.
Influence This is also a key competence at advertising agencies. Relationships with influencers are very valuable, and agencies often have to organize fairly expensive events or clever set-ups to perhaps obtain a blog post about a product launch, for instance. This is called, activation or influence. As advertisers typically do not have enough ideas, do not have contacts, did not identify best practices and do not have time for influence purposes; an agency is therefore totally indispensable.
2.2.2. S OCIAL M EDIA A DVERTISING : F ACEBOOK A DS The Place to Be? Facebook Ads are known to be the most valuable and best targetable advertising solution, in almost any industry, not exclusively online, but in the whole physical world. In the other hand, Facebook ads constitute with flash banners the not-sonoble and not-so-creative side of digital communication. Consequently, if one wants to bring traffic to a website from a dedicated audience, Social Media Advertising is the right thing to use, but activities which require more commitment, and a less direct call-to-action probably will not always opt for Facebook ads. 25
This operation from BMW China was very unexpected, but a bit awkward. The media
coverage was negative as the culture is not used to very disruptive advertising techniques, the audience did not appreciate being orchestrated: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/31/bmwscrop-circle-marketing-campaign-confuses-chinese-media/
58
“The vaguer the action, the more creativity is required in its marketing. We only require simple action.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
This quote appears in this thesis for the second time - but it is worth being highlighted twice.
The End of Demographics Targeting an audience according to their beliefs, behavior, connections, likes and interests is totally new in the advertising landscape and goes far beyond typical demographics. According to Johanna Blakley 26, “ shared
interests and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings than demographic categories. I’d much rather know whether you like Buffy
Source: Johanna Blakley on TED (2010)
26
The Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center (California, USA).
59
the Vampire Slayer rather than how old you are. That would tell me something more substantial about you ” (2010) 27.
2.2.3. D EDICATED W EBSITES : A P ERSONAL E XPERIENCE Another tool of the 360° digital landscape, and probably the oldest one, is the dedicated website, but these are not only corporate websites, as described earlier in this thesis 28. They can be corporate websites, and agencies can bring editorial added value, but when run through an agency, these websites are often much more entertaining, consistently embedded into a campaign planning. This is a good thing, since for a few years only dedicated websites with a unique user experience have been rising from the crowd. This is great news for the quality of advertising – showing care and respect towards the consumer.
Dedicated websites are the easiest digital set to sell to advertisers – the most classical form of digital advertising – but are not necessarily the most efficient ones. They should be supported by a more embeddable support, such as the viral film.
2.2.4. V IRAL F ILMS “Making the buzz happen” is an overused expression. These words actually are buzzwords, which sometimes, are not totally empty. Within a relevant 27
Cf. Johanna Blakley’s TED talk – ”Social media and the end of gender” (2010):
http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html 28
Cf. The article written in early 2008, trying to define digital brand strategy as it was being
born: http://findsubstance.com/2008/02/21/digital-brand-strategy-whats-that/
60
strategy, viral films can be a huge gate for brand content and a power brand exposure tool. Yet, a couple of mistakes are to be avoided.
Too Much Awesomeness! Be surprising, be disruptive, be cool, be viral, be very fun. Do not be too much like this. Do not stay stuck to the brand image. Always remain respectful about it and in-line with the previous advertising tone.
Too Much Brand Content A viral film is to be shared. Even though a certain category of people likes to share good commercials, thinking this is mainstream is a typical adperson’s distortion, as this is actually a niche.
Source: Pear-Drop’s viral film (2011) http://vimeo.com/28056336
Mainstream people share videos because they are fun, short and make them feel smart for having found the video. The sharer should not feel like an advertising medium. Above is an example of a well-balanced ( Awesomeness versus Brand Content) film.
61
Also, soft-branded content may suppress barriers in the target’s mind. If you think you are watching a funny video, you will be more likely to buy, taste, like the product than if you are aware that you are watching a commercial. Or at least, you will keep the product/brand in mind.
Mix Pre-roll with Viral Films If the advertiser buys pre-roll space to be played before a YouTube video or a VOD (Video On Demand) program, this should not be the place for a viral film. Again, social network users do not like to feel as if they are being orchestrated like sandwich-men/women - even though the aim is precisely to make users share this soft-branded content.
Not Enough Brand Content On the other hand, brands are sometimes barely present in their own films. This might be too bad as they are expensive to produce for almost no outcome because logos are barely noticeable.
Below
is
a
“not
enough
branded
film”.
Source:
http://www.imheremovie.com/ (2010). Who is able to notice the “Absolut Vodka” typography in there? This brand content might be too soft to be spotted, but is probably intended to be closer to a piece of art than to a commercial.
62
The product not being present at all in the movie, only the advertising world noticed that Absolut produced it. Specialized blogs talked about it, but the video was then shared just like any other beautiful and wellproduced short movie. Of course, outcomes in terms of sales will not be worthwhile – but is not a KPI for this kind of campaign. However, the results in terms of brand image are not even guaranteed.
Just Like the Other Ones Commercials that are alike are not new in advertising industry. However, to a certain extent, brands blend into the trend and lose their identity: consumers forget about a strong brand image and just see the same trendy films. A poem, catchy and fast-paced pictures showing youth and energy, products all through the movie without them being really noticeable, a “duty” tagline and a pure logo in the end. It seems that Nike 29 and Levi’s 30
29
Cf. Nike’s commercial “Vive le football libre” (January 2011): http://vimeo.com/18911762
(French) & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH06ltXfhvA (English) 30
Cf. Levi’s commercial “Go forth“ (June 2011): http://vimeo.com/27525961
63
have found a winning technique there: it indeed guarantees them a lot of exposure.
However, their respective agencies (Leg Agency, W+K) were of course aware of the power of these short films, but they were probably not afraid of losing some brand uniqueness in the long run. Adidas Originals 31 somehow played on the same field, which has been confirmed by Magic Garden Agency , on its own fanpage.
Source: Magic Garden Agency’s fanpage
This mindset can be held for a while, but will most likely lose effect over time. Worse still, it may make the brand equity weaker, because of troubles for the target to recognize the brand amongst all the other ones
31
Cf.
Adidas
commercial
"all
originals�
(September
2011):
http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B5-fFNMXiLU
64
communicating via the same strategic insights, with the same kind of art direction. Copying other brands is typical agency-behavior.
Web-Series A long-term form of a viral film is the web-series. BNP Paribas created a very relevant planning strategy (2010)32: • Time 1: the web-series “mes collocs” was launched on Facebook • Time 2: once lots of viewers are addicted to the series, BNP Paribas shows its sponsorship • Time 3: 360° communication set-up (tv, cinema, print, event) A 360° campaign can actually start from the digital medium and be an offline success. The web is not always used as a relay. It is more and more a central place for advertising ideas to happen. This is also an ideal media for the first phases (teasing) and last phases (PR and activation) of multi-media campaigns.
2.2.5. M OBILE A PPS : B RAND C ONTENT A T Y OUR F INGERTIPS Anti-Discontinuance In the past, advertising had no other form than disturbing its viewers, such as a TV spot for instance. Right now, these mainstream commercials still exist, but a lot of advertising is now interactive and sneaks its way inside its target’s free time. Users open an app while waiting for someone or when they are in the subway. They basically do it instead of grabbing their pack of cigarettes. They come of their own accord and get exposed to a brand, which makes the message much stronger.
32
More details about “Mes colocs” can be found in the case study: http://vimeo.com/26115580.
65
Counter-examples of advertising material that tends to be more about interaction than about disturbance are pop-up pre-roll videos (those short promotional messages preventing you from watching a video on YouTube or Dailymotion).
Adver-useful-tainment The biggest application store – the Appstore, by Apple – has a policy stating that any application should definitely not be 100% promotional and should guarantee a minimum amount of usefulness and/or entertainment. This is very good, as it pushes advertising agencies to be more creative to deliver quality content that users are going to be happy with and use for a long time, instead of promotional websites which often show high bounce rates 33. As shown below, the vitaminwater France iPhone app (created by \Auditoire in 2009) integrates some packshots, but had to offer a game and a geolocation service to make sure it would pass the Appstore barrier. In this application, brand exposure is melted into useful features and minigames. This app participated in setting standards in advertainment - ahead of its time - and it was one of the first campaigns that would deserve the tag “adver-useful-tainment”.
Nowadays, some mobile campaigns go even further, with City quests 34 including giveaways. Some of these remind creatives to connect the street with the digital.
33
Bounce rate: typical web traffic metric showing how many users visit a website and leave it
immediately (within 10 seconds), rather than keep being exposed to its content. 34
See
the
MINI
operation
in
Stockholm
(Jung
Von
Matt,
2010):
http://creativity-
online.com/work/mini-mini-getaway-stockholm/21622
66
Source: Ugo Orlando’s portfolio (2009)
2.2.6. F LASHCODES : C ONNECT T O R EAL L IFE Another tool for 360° digital campaigns is the flashcode. Admen can be very creative with flashcodes (see original uses of flashcodes below). Userengagement,
City
quests,
Curiosity 35,
Advergame,
User
acquisition,
Networking 36: a single flash code can do a lot. It is a simple 2D printable image with a connection to the digital world, which can be powerful.
35
See the Coolway operation in Berlin (managed in-house, 2011): http://toutattache.over-
blog.com/article-berlin-street-cool-marketing-78861752.html 36
See personal job-seeking in the IT field in Berlin (personal, 2011): http://toutattache.over-
blog.com/article-f-code-me-i-want-a-job-79714688.html
67
Being embeddable into an actual 360째 campaign, flashcodes usually get more online coverage than 100% online operations. Funnily enough, one should sometimes go out in the street, for the sole purpose of getting back to the digital! Campaigns containing flashcodes often involve gaming mechanics, such as badges, level-ups and competition.
68
2.2.7. C APTCHAS : T O T RANSFORM T HE E XISTING T OOLS A captcha is a little box that asks users to type what they can see in an image in order to verify there are not robots. See a typical example below.
Examples of captchas - Source: Public Domain
Over time, some other forms of captchas have been seen. Sometimes, you had to answer a very easy question or solve a very simple operation, which actually made it interactive. Users had to pay attention to this “2+3” operation – mixed into random curves and rings in order to confuse robots – and finally type 5 into the text field. This might soon be taken over by advertising 37 – it was crazy leaving this attention and engagement unused for so long – here as well with some gaming mechanics, to put a minimum amount of fun into it.
As shown below 38, the user has to interact with a brand in order to enter the website, either by just typing a slogan (engaging and memorizable), or by playing a mini-mini-game interacting with an image.
37
Source:
http://www.techi.com/2010/04/captcha-advertising-coming-soon-to-a-website-near-
you/ 38
Examples from the provider http://www.adscaptcha.com/ (based in New York) for the
advertiser Philips.
69
Source: Adscaptcha.com (2011)
Adcaptcha’s business development seems oriented to agencies, as they may want big brands to advertise, they want their agency to pitch this idea first. Agencies are a great intermediary when it comes to canvassing something innovative for the company.
70
WHO IS THE MORE 360°? The right content without the right tools will not reach the right audience. However, the best tools with no content are just empty Twitter accounts.
Of course, both have to evolve hand-in-hand: clients have to surround themselves with social-media-aware people. Agencies and consultants need to understand communication issues beyond the scope of the tools.
“The social networks do not have a good image with advertisers. I would say small agencies and freelancers are the best ones at understanding the marketing impact of a great Facebook strategy. This has to be explained to the advertisers.” Interview with Jérôme R.
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Lots of banks 39 have now made it possible to open an account via Twitter. They were most likely advised by a consultant or an agency to make it possible and known. However, if community managers are needed for debugging or customer care issues, changes have to be followed up quickly by product managers, and community managers need to have a deep understanding of how products are made. Therefore, gaming companies or e-business websites need to hire in-house community managers. No matter how large they are, it matters how large their userbase is – and it often is indeed large.
The advertiser had better use an autonomous agency but must be willing to communicate with the people in there on a daily basis, delivering information, validating their communication choices but also reacting quickly to their feedback from the community feeling. If the advertiser plans on communicating via the digital medium over the long term, then they might consider hiring a creative, autonomous and experienced person to carry out 360° projects. This person should then be able to have an influence on the company’s product. The top management indeed tends to trust agencies rather than in-house people, and in-house people tend to pitch fewer out-of-the-box ideas than an external workforce.
“Clients have become much more aware of the importance of digital marketing, even more so in the last few years - as we can see in the shift in how marketing budgets are allocated.
39
At least Bnp Paribas or La Caisse d’Epargne in France, many more all over the world.
72
“But
most
of
the
big
clients
-
with
aging
management - still need to be advised on the best way for them to use digital and that knowledge comes from agencies. “The agency expertise can vary a lot as well: the traditional agencies may not know enough about digital to come up with the best social media strategy, and some digital agencies do not have inhouse technical knowledge to make a good mobile app, for example. “However, it is not rare to have 3 or 4 creative agencies working for the same client: 1 main ATL 40 agency which is responsible for the main brand strategy, a digital agency, a direct agency and possibly a small keen start-up mobile specialist added in if the digital agency is too expensive.” Interview with L.J.
The following comparative SWOT chart aims to sum up this second part, showing how helpful and harmful can in-house or outsourcing solutions be, in the scope of how they use the whole set of digital communication tools.
40
ATL for Above The Line: an advertising strategy targeting mass media to deliver messages to
a large and mainstream audience - typically an offline TV + Radio campaign - while BTL (Below The Line) investments are usually less expensive and their ROI is much more accurately mesurable - typically a 100% digital campaign.
73
74
75
76
Games and gaming mechanics are playing a bigger and bigger role in advertising campaigns. Beyond this, a whole “gamification” of the business is happening. Will advertisers need agencies to make this “mutation” happen?
Seth Prietsbach’s TED talk (which will be introduced in this 3 rd part) called “The game layer on the top of the world” has to be given credit for the title of this part.
77
3.1. IN- GAME ADVERTISING Engagement and experience are key factors in today’s brand issues. Advertising inside games, which users are hooked on, exposed to, and live positive experiences with.
3.1.1. T HE O LD S CHOOLS FIFA & PES When conducted correctly, in-game advertising offers a lot of key advertising space: • Connected to a positive user-experience • Present all the time but not ignored • With potential interaction, or at least possible screenshots to be shared. Most of the time, this is not done correctly, and the most present brand is the game publisher’s brand. It is fine doing self-promotion, but too many “EA sports” 41 banners in FIFA turns out looking like an empty outdoor billboard in the street saying “call this number to advertise in this space”. Although, even if it looks ridiculous, this is part of a whole strategy, but these advertising present a lot of drawbacks:
41
EA Sports is FIFA’s developer, while Konami is the company behind PES games.
78
• Limited reach • Not updatable • Not behavior-sensitive • No interaction: tendency to ad-blindness, just like on an actual football pitch. In addition, the whole business model is old-school: users buy the game once and then track is lost. EA and Konami cannot find out how many times their clients’ logo is viewed, and cannot bill them in consequence.
Source: Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 – via IGN
Above is a screenshot with a lot of different brands. These images remain quite seldom. Even though the user is exposed to brands such as Nike, laCaixa or Turkish Airlines, this is pure brand image: nothing more than watching a football game. And most of all, no specific targeting is used, which is a thing of the past. Now, here is to the next generation of in-game advertising…
79
3.1.2. T HE S OCIAL E RA Social games are usually played on Facebook and some other social networks, recently on Google+ for instance. That social games are a society phenomenon is not to be argued about anymore, as “ 3 billion hours
per week gaming online, and there are 500 million global gamers now who spend at least an hour per day playing. ” 42. These pieces of data are evolving every day. Social game companies know their users better than classical gaming companies. Before playing, a Facebook user usually has to authorize the developer to know about their demographic data, if not about more information. Moreover, it is part of social gaming companies’ job to measure and cluster user behaviors, so they can offer the most relevant message. For instance, a user known as being volatile may be offered more items to be kept in the game a few more minutes a day. Every adperson would say the same: the more data, the better. The future of a digital brand strategy is about social games. Below are a few examples, which are far from being optimized. Z y n g a & D r e a m w o r k s 43 Zynga is the social games leader by far 44, both in terms of users and of revenues – the 2 main KPIs in the industry. This operation was more into brand image than into call-to-action.
42
Data provided by Amy Jacques (2011):
http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/9053/1027/Play_on_player_A_look_inside_ the_social_gaming_phe 43
About the partnership: http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/20/zynga-and-dreamworks-partner-for-
kung-fu-panda-2-marketing-deal-in-cityville/ 44
See the Facebook developers’ updated leaderboard:
http://www.appdata.com/leaderboard/developers?show_na=1
80
A loading screen including visuals of the Kung-Fu Panda movie and a buildable drive-in theater showing Kung-Fu Panda within the game offered a huge visual exposure to the mainstream movie: Zynga’s game CityVille was played by about 75,000,000 people every month, and about 15,000,000 every day 45 during the advertising period.
Source: CityVille on Facebook (2011)
Just like any alternative communication set, in addition to this exposure, Zynga, Dreamworks, CityVille and Kung-Fu Panda got further exposure on the PR side, as this was quite an innovation for a large audience.
45
Monthly Active Users (MAU), data from Appdata™ Independent, Accurate Application Metrics
and Trends from Inside Network: http://www.appdata.com/apps/Facebook/291549705119-cityville
81
Source: CityVille on Facebook (2011) wooga & Interflora It was made possible, right from the Farming Game “Monster World” to offer flowers from the real world and to have them delivered to whoever users like. They had to pay for it, Interflora paid wooga for each purchase, but not for each click or each view. 46 This partnership for Valentine’s Day (2011) was about brand image of course, but also call-to-action and revenues.
Here as well, the step forward is to use data much better, offering a specific service for different targets. Below are the missing features to make it actual new media buying : • Showing the best-known brand for every geographic market • Offering males and females different call-to-action copies • Selling concert tickets instead for those who “Facebook-Like” the artist who will hold a concert in a 10-mile radial-zone on Valentine’s day evening, or similar artists
46
Other similar partnerships can be checked out on intermediary companies’ references, for
instance: http://www.trialpay.com/game-developers/
82
• Suggesting a voucher in a restaurant instead to those who are known as having above-average incomes and whose lover is living in the same city.
3.1.3. W HICH S TRUCTURE ? Facebook offers very fine targeting, probably the best one ever since the beginning of advertising. And Social Games offer a huge amount of available time for brands to sneak into users’ minds.
“Online marketing completely rules because the more data you can have about people, the better your ROI is.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
This space has remained unused for too long. Even though Zynga’s and wooga’s operations are far from perfect, they have been quite valuable, and most of all innovative. Game developers and intermediary companies usually get stuck to call-to-action, but there is much more to do, notably in terms of brand image and brand experience.
Advertisers usually deal directly with publishers. In cases when this involves special technology, third parties can be involved, but they cannot be compared to advertising or communication agencies. This kind of advertising looks either like pure customer acquisition or like sponsorship. In both cases, brands usually do not need detailed advice as to whether or not to get involved. In addition, publishers come from the new economy and adopt a very pragmatic approach, billing their clients either by view or by acquisition. The process is so quick and simple that most of
83
the time, there is no reason to call an agency: publishers can then enjoy a full margin out of the advertiser’s spending.
Some slightly different sorts of social games – developed deliberately in order to offer space for brands – belong to another sort of advertising: advergames.
84
3.2. ADVERGAMING Any advertising operation that aims to fool the consumer will be a serious failure in the long run, if not also in the short run. Lots of advergames are in the form of a Facebook application, gathering personal data and trying to “ make the buzz happen ”, but simply moving a canvas from a website to Facebook does not make a game “social”. Some other developers or agencies advocate respectful gaming mechanics and end up offering a quality brand experience.
3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: T HE P ERFECT M ATCH I AM PLAYR is a game on Facebook which is about living a footballer’s life, literally through his own eyes, as it mixes game sequences, with POV 47 film sequences.
An Innovation What the British developer We R Interactive has done with I AM PLAYR 48 (2011) is to make it fun to play, and moreover to make it fun to play with brands. 47 48
POV for Point Of View. Movie technique showing what the character is looking at. Know more about the game: http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/11/i_am_playr.php
Play the game: http://Facebook.com/iamplayr
85
This game is definitely fun, disruptive and innovative. Even though it does not look like any other social game, several characteristics definitely make it a social game: • It is more fun to play with friends • You can purchase virtual items with real money • It has daily rewards • It is evolving and has an undefined lifetime • Users evolve along with their avatar.
86
As the above Venn diagram 49 shows the I AM PLAYR model, is at the crossroads of: • Product placement: like in movies, the users have an experience and brands are shown • Social games: as explained, it really is a social game with rich content, game mechanics which make it – above all – fun • Advergames: users have to interact with different brands, not only one, which prevents the game from becoming boring. A model that is respectful to the consumer and efficient for the advertiser. Going further, this model could be called “sustainable advergaming” as it combines different perspectives of advertising and gaming. What is already
Source: I AM PLAYR on Facebook (2011) certain is that it is an ethical model: both advertisers and users are respected and have fun.
49
Personal work, brought to the attention of We R Interactive’s main Community Manage, who
validated it as being on track with their projects.
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A New Genre of Advertising Space At first, I AM PLAYR’s sole sponsor was known to be Nike and the news was spread about a game perhaps made especially for Nike 50. However, there is also a lot of Redbull to be seen in the game. And little by little brands started to join I AM PLAYR as advertisers: an Alfa Romeo is now to be won if the player scores enough goals in a defined number of games.
Nike is very present within the game, but not only: the user has to see the brand throughout a very long interactive movie, but one also has to become involved very deeply in the product experience. Source: I AM PLAYR on Facebook (2011)
50
See full article, before the launch of the game, probably from a teasing press release (French):
http://www.influencia.net/fr/archives/check-in/nouveau-jeu-nike-social-gaming-footcinema,70,1127.html
88
Without losing any fun at all, the player visits Nike stores with his girlfriend, and he has to struggle to get a sponsorship contract with Nike – his agent puts pressure on him to score in key games and become famous. To make the user interact a lot with the Alfa Romeo brand, for instance, one has to select one by one the desired options for the car, as shown above.
All this brand content is put into a very high quality game, with customized film sequences. The product placements are not annoying any more, because the consumer is respected, with expensive design.
3.2.2. “I F Y OU ’ RE G OING T O C RASH T HE P ARTY , B RING S OME C HAMPAGNE ” Respect the Consumer This is a very popular saying amongst agency people. The French agency Buzzman has made it one of its mottos, acknowledging anyone a brand tries to interact with, should enjoy a high-quality experience. This was originally a quote from Bob Thacker, senior VP – Marketing & Advertising at OfficeMax: “The secret is respecting the consumer. You are interrupting their life. All advertising is unwanted, so if you’re going to crash the party, bring some champagne with you”.
The right moment, the right medium and the right message are not enough: a very good production and the right moment is necessary to “borrow” some attention from the target.
Respecting users by building quality gaming mechanics into a brand message is starting to be a standard for the industry as it shows great involvement behaviors. However, this mindset currently is only wide-spread 89
within agencies. The “a hunter shoots a bear” Tipp-Ex campaign (mentioned earlier) is an excellent example of this 51.
This philosophy goes against all the traditional above-the-line agencies selling mainstream products by interrupting the consumers during their… • TV program: film • Radio program: audio • Way to work / Way home: billboards • Information gathering: press • Internet browsing: banners, pre-rolls, pop-ups. Here, the consumer chooses to consume the product, which makes the message considerably stronger, and the brand much more memorizable. Hopefully, advertising will not be seen as an annoyance again, in the next few years.
The Role of the Agency Advertising agencies can certainly reach out to game developers, like publishers, to get their client’s brand into a game mechanic. However, as this does not require being embedded in any further communication set-up, the client can just skip the agency step and go ask the publisher directly.
There are only two prerequisites: • Knowing about these new advertising spaces and being able to identify the right support for the desired digital brand strategy • “Bringing the champagne” instead of being stuck to a short-term ROI objective.
51
More details in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Community Management > Virality
90
Of course, the agency is able to fulfill those requirements, but if a company is aware of these objectives, has sufficient skills in-house and has regular needs, it is perfectly imaginable that it will skip the cost of an agency.
3.2.3. T HIS I S R EAL L IFE Get the Target to Play, Then Sell Authenticity The following talk by Jesse Schell - a very influential Game Designer (2010) is about how brands manage to get their target into the virtual world, for the “real” world to feel even better. The strategic insight is actually about reality , according to this talk (from 10’30’’): in other words, this is an authenticity driver.
This also gives a short overview of how important the gaming industry is. In addition, there is a hypothesis about gaming and competition dynamics becoming closer and closer to our lives, at least in the Western world.
Part of Life Good games bring an actual service to their players. It is thus only a matter of time until they get a brand to enjoy it – and pay the developers, as did
91
the British clothes retailer Topshop with a game from SCVNGR 52 (2011), and earlier with Instagram 53. This operation combined location data with gaming mechanics and real life giveaways, as clothes were then gifted to the winners 54.
52
We will deal with this company again in The game layer on the top of the advertising world >
Gamification of the whole business > Under construction 53
A very successful photo app for smartphone.
54
Source: http://www.techdigest.tv/2011/08/topshop_scvngr.html
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3.3. THE GAMIFICATION OF THE WHOLE BUSINESS Not only do advergames integrate gaming mechanics. Being loyal, sharing brand content or reading a newsletter is sometimes rewarded. Even some business-people from the retailing industry should make it fun to interact with their brands. “In the digital economy you are rewarded at each next level you reach. As nowadays, online and offline lives are so well connected, the real economy will be more and more inspired by that.� Interview with Farid H.
Farid Humblot (an EDHEC ESPEME alumnus) is a professional
in
the
Community
Management field, he is notably interested
in
young
companies,
brand content and gaming mechanics.
93
3.3.1. G REAT G AMING M ECHANICS The Daily Appointment In social games, this takes the form of a daily reward: every consecutive day you log into the game gets you a better gift, so you do not want to miss a day, otherwise you will get back to a small gift. This daily appointment makes the game (brand) part of users’ (consumers’) lives. For business, it can be used in pop-up stores for instance. Showing up at a certain time, between certain dates, allows you to either meet a star, receive free samples, get to know exclusive brand content or find help for your current issues 55.
Geolocation This has been used since geolocation was made possible, starting for instance with Geocaching, back in 2000 56. In communication, this takes the form of city quests, war games, exclusive retailing 57 or Coupons: several startups indeed offer deals via geolocation.
T h e U n c e r t a i n R e w a r d 58 The uncertain reward is known for being enlightening. Studies have shown that being unclear about the aim of an action produces greater results than when it is about a known reward. 55
« Mes colocs »’s pop-up store in the heart of Paris, helping future flatmates to meet and deal
with paperwork. See in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Viral films > Web-series 56
For more information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
57
See vitaminwater France’s iPhone App (by \Auditoire, 2009)
58
See Marketing Science/Vol.22, No.4, Fall 2003 > The Effects of Effort and Intrinsic Motivation
on Risky Choice > Intrinsic Motivation as a Moderator of the Impact of Effort on Preferred Rewards
>
The
Role
of
Intrinsic
Motivation:
http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/centers/mks/articles/51d0762ea0_article.pdf
Discussion as
well
(p.487): as
Tom
Chatfield’s (Gaming theorist) TED talk (2010): http://tiny.cc/tom-chatfiled-ted-talk
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This is used a lot in community management: when a brand is organizing a mini-contest, users become more involved when it does not say specifically what is to be won.
The binary call-to-action Source: Tipp-Ex Experience on YouTube (2010) Using the same uncertain reward mechanic, the same way, the opposite campaign shows a binary choice at the end of a teaser video. This involves an uncertain end, which
is
much
more
appealing than one simple “continue the experience” call-to-action button. This minimum amount of gaming dynamics still participates a lot in making a promotional message both successful and respectful to its users.
“Level Up!” In
business,
badges
were widely used by Foursquare
first
(2009), and a lot of other
actors
been
following
have this
trend, which makes it die by itself – or will have done so by the time this document is
95
read (see the above slide 59). However, a visionary person will probably make a badge-rebirth occur.
Below is the text that is too small to be read above (Sebastian Deterding):
“ An infectious disease is currently spreading across the Internet: the badge measles. It all started innocently with badges on Foursquare and other location-based services like Gowalla and foodspotting. Then it jumped online: Yelp! gave badges for adding reviews, as did TrustedOpinion. DevHub considered badges “so 2009” and provided cute monsters for being a good blogger instead. ”
Comparing yourself to your friend is then a strong motivation for becoming further involved with a brand. This is used a lot in loyalty programs, in which you compare yourself with an imaginary picture of your-ideal-self who can afford greater gifts than you with loyalty points. The point system is not so new but the gaming mechanics make it deeper. Extended to real life, it could really change our social behavior.
3.3.2. U NDER C ONSTRUCTION Know Your Users Too many gaming mechanics are broken, unbalanced and thus inefficient. The gaming layer is still under construction and brands need to have the mechanics tested. In there, communication agencies specialized in games, perhaps developers themselves, are still the best suited ones to deal with this question.
59
Taken
from
an
insightful
presentation
by
Sebastian
Deterding
(2010):
http://www.slideshare.net/dings/pawned-gamification-and-its-discontents
96
For instance, females play games because they are bored, males play because they are competitive 60. This is indeed a strong statement, involving very different mechanics to get both targets interested in the brand. However, gender segmentation is one of the most basic ones, targets are now divided into tiny breadcrumbs: this is a whole job to identify clusters and address messages specifically to them: a communication agency’s job.
An ex-planner at the British agency DARE confirms the above statement: “ Competition is not for everyone. A
generalization
but women
tend
to
prefer
non-
competitive and cooperative play. Know your users, and playtest with them. “ 61. Seth Priebatsch at TED
60
Source, Saatchi & Saatchi - from the agency side then! (2011) :
http://www.slideshare.net/Saatchi_S/gamification-study 61
Full article: http://thesmileexperiment.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/stuff-with-gamey-bits/
97
SCVNGR and LevelUp!’s founder, Seth Priebatsch, gave a TED talk (2010) 62. This is a remarkably visionary presentation about game mechanics, with a lot of examples, which according to him “ just suck, they are not very well
designed ”. This is the reason why the gaming layer is under construction.
62
Watch Seth Priebatsch’s TED talk (2010):
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_top_of_the_world.html
98
WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? The Target Shift A typical social games paying player is a 43-year-old woman, not a 15-yearold boy 63. The usage of the web has shifted in the last few of years from consuming content to creating and sharing content. On a medium where self-esteem within a semi-private audience is a more important driver than ever, sharing positive results – in any game – is a strong motivation to spread brand content.
Brands should acknowledge this shift, as users have already done. Agencies are communication professionals, experienced in target definition, who seem to be more able to drive the change. However, very pragmatic and
63
Commonly
known
fact
in
the
gaming
industry.
Read
more
about
it
(2011):
http://www.slideshare.net/ctrottier1/designing-games-for-the-43yearold-woman/
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disruptive advertisers such as small companies in a new market can totally surprise everyone and innovate in this area.
Advertiser + Agencies + Gaming Company In addition to their dynamics, game designers should really be watched by the whole economy as their business models usually are very valuable and their marketing techniques are most of the time very efficient and innovative. Gaming companies are therefore the first ones to efficiently build on this game layer. It is very strategic for marketing people to observe gamingpeople and perhaps to do business with them.
Just like almost every new trending topic, agency-people are typically more aware of it and keener to make unusual partnerships than in-house people. Here as well, startups or flexible companies can easily do it efficiently if they want to. The future of advertising-people depends on what the gamingpeople are currently inventing. Let us get into the game.
The following comparative SWOT highlights that both advertisers and traditional advertising agencies surprisingly do not know a lot about gaming yet.
Just like TV in the 60’s, the web in the 90’s, the social media in the 00’s, the advertising will most likely take a while before integrating this trend of the decade to come. Its reactivity is exemplary within the whole economy, though. What is for sure is that first 360° to integrate gaming layers in their campaign recommendations will soon master the game, alongside their clients.
100
This chart shows that agencies need to integrate gaming mechanics – not only a minimum amount of it – in order to keep providing an added value to their clients.
101
102
103
C ONCLUSION & Recommendations
M
ost
brand
managers
calling
on
advertising agencies to act on the digital medium, do not do it for direct sales but for a brand image
p u r p o s e 64 . I f i t i s n o t f o r r e p u t a t i o n , i n house
traffic
managers,
for
instance,
monitor ROI data more efficiently.
“No agency can do user acquisition as well as we do it. But my department would not be good at building a brand.â€? Interview with ThorbjĂśrn W.
Partly for the reason described above, 50% of brands employ social-media dedicated people 65. This does not mean they do not ask agencies to work with them, but it still implies that brands give a growing credit to their digital strategy. 64
Source: Marketing Magazine UK (2011): http://marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1098242/Brands-
social-media-long-term-investment-finds-study/ 65
Source: New Media Age (2011): http://www.nma.co.uk/news/half-of-brands-employ-dedicated-
social-media-staff/3030935.article
104
There is work to do for these people, as they currently are not present enough for members of their communities on social networks. Too few complaints and questions are solved (29% on Twitter 66, 5% on Facebook 67). It is the agency’s job to advise their clients on reaching out to their customers. But, once this educational work is over, it is the advertiser’s job to interact with its communities.
Below is a summary of strengths, weaknesses of advertisers in managing their own digital brand strategy, and of the opportunities and threats of outsourcing it to an advertising agency.
66
The Drum (2011): http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/10/13/71-companies-ignore-consumer-
complaints-twitter 67
Source: Social Bakers (2011): http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8149-companies-respond-to-just-
5-of-questions-on-facebook
105
106
Of course, the final advice on whether one should outsource
one’s
strategy
depends
on
the
advertiser’s size, budget and objectives, but it also depends on the agency’s evolution. In a digital world in which everyone has control over everything, agencies need to progress by integrating competences from the startups’ universe, the gaming universe and the high-tech business universe. Advertisers also need to evolve and hire more managers with advertising backgrounds, which is helpful when keeping smooth process and good relationships with agencies.
This shift is exciting. Not everyone will be part of it.
107
“IT
IS NOT THE STRONGEST OF THE SPECIES THAT SURVIVES, NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT THAT SURVIVES.
IT
IS THE ONE THAT IS THE MOST ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE.”
CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882)
108
109
L IST OF I LLUSTRATIONS Page 1 – Thesis Cover Personal Work – Photography: Matthias Heiderich, Berlin (2011) Page 18 – Part 1 Cover Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Berlin (2011) Page 32 – Account Man saying “I have ideas” Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007) Page 33 – Party in the supermarket Source: DocNews (2011) Page 37 – Secretary being consulted Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007) Page 43 – Part 1 SWOT Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Berlin (2011) Page 45 – Part 2 Cover Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Berlin (2011) Page 51 – Amen’s Community Manager Job Advertisement Source: amenhq.com/jobs (2011) Page 53 – Loft, before Source: Loft (2010) Page 53 – Loft, after Source: Loft (2010) Page 54 – Loft, Facebook Thread Source: Loft (2011) Page 57 – “A hunter shoots a bear” campaign results Source: Buzzman’s case study (2011) Page 59 – “Taste Communities” Source: Johanna Blakley’s talk at TED Page 61 – Pear Drop – The Date Source: DocNews (2011) Page 63 – Absolut - I’m here Source: Fubiz (2009) Page 64 – Adidas - all originals Source: Magic Garden Agency (2011)
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Page 67 – vitaminwater iPhone app Professional Work at TBWA\Auditoire (2009) Page 68 – Coolway guerilla campaign Personal work, Berlin (2011) Page 68 – Original use of flashcodes Personal work, Berlin (2011) Page 69 – Examples of Captchas Source: Public Domain Page 70 – Examples of Captchas used in Advertising Source: Adscaptcha Page 74 – Part 2 SWOT Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Berlin (2011) Page 76 – Part 3 Cover Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Oostende (2010) Page 79 – Leo Messi in Pro Evolution Soccer Source: Konami’s Pro Evolution Soccer via IGN (2011) Page 81 – Kung Fu Panda loading screen Source: CityVille on Facebook (2011) Page 82 – Kung Fu Panda game view Source: CityVille on Facebook (2011) Page 86 – I Am Playr Venn Diagram Source: Personal Work (2011) Page 87 – I Am Playr - Nike Source: I Am Playr on Facebook (2011) Page 88 – I Am Playr – Alfa Romeo view Source: I Am Playr on Facebook (2011) Page 91 – Jesse Schell talking Source: Jesse Schell’s talk via G4TV (2010) Page 95 – Shoot the Bear // Don’t Shoot the Bear Source: Tipp-Ex on YouTube (2010) Page 95 – Badges slide Source: Sebastian Deterding on Slideshare (2010) Page 97 – Seth Priebatsch talking Source: Seth Priebatsch’s talk at TED (2010)
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Page 101 – Part 3 SWOT Personal Work – Photography: Personal Work, Oostende (2010) Page 103 – Conclusion Cover Personal Work – Photography: Matthias Heiderich, Berlin (2011) Page 106 – Conclusion SWOT Personal Work – Photography: Matthias Heiderich, Berlin (2011)
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L ITERATURE R EVIEW This thesis, like most of the thesis bringing new content and new topics to think about, got its inspiration from really different sources. All kinds of content collapsed, sometimes after an incubation period and then gave birth to some ideas and theories about the future of digital brand strategies. As well as long casual chats and lonely swimming sessions, the following sources were involved in the making of this thesis, directly or indirectly.
Most of the below occurrences were recommended by curators interested in either advertising, either gaming, sometimes in both.
White Books The Social Super Ego http://www.socialsuperego.com/pdf/SOCIAL_SUPER_EGO.pdf Proximity BBDO, 2011 The 2011 state of Community Management http://www.slideshare.net/rhappe/the-2011-state-of-community-management The Community Roundtable, 2011 The Effects of Effort and Intrinsic Motivation on Risky Choice http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/centers/mks/articles/51d0762ea0_article.pdf Ran Kivetz, 2003 Le Social est l’Avenir de la Communication http://www.slideshare.net/up2social/up-2-social-le-social-est-lavenir-de-lacommunication-8712085 Up2Social, 2011 Du Brand Content à la Brand Culture http://enquete.testconso.net/docs/brandculture/DuBrandContentALaBrandCulture.pdf QualiQuanti, 2011 Tendances, Défis et Enjeux de la Publicité Online http://www.sri-france.org/actualites/sri/142.html SRI, 2011
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Talks Gaming to re-engage boys in learning http://www.ted.com/talks/ali_carr_chellman_gaming_to_re_engage_boys_in_learning.html
Ali Carr-Chellman, 2011 Face Time http://www.g4tv.com/videos/51619/face-time-zyngas-brian-reynolds/ Brian Reynolds, 2011 When Games Invade Real Life http://www.g4tv.com/videos/44277/dice-2010-design-outside-the-box-presentation/ Jesse Schell, 2010 The Game Layer on the Top of the World http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_top_of_the_world.html Seth Priebatsch, 2010 Gaming Can Make a Better World http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html Jane McGonigal, 2010 Social Media and the End of Gender http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html Joahanna Blakley, 2010 7 Ways Games Reward the Brain http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_chatfield_7_ways_games_reward_the_brain.html Tom Chatfield, 2010 What Physics Taught me About Marketing http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_cobley_what_physics_taught_me_about_marketing.html Dan Cobley, 2010 How to Start a Movement http://www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html Derek Sivers, 2010 Life Lesson from an Ad Man http://www.ted.com/talks/rory_sutherland_life_lessons_from_an_ad_man.html Rory Sutherland, 2009 The Tribes We Lead http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html Seth Godin, 2009 Spaghetti Sauce http://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_on_spaghetti_sauce.html Malcolm Gladwell, 2004
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Interviews Comprendre les médias Sociaux par l’Exemple: La Redoute http://gregorypouy.blogs.com/marketing/2011/08/comprendre-les-m%C3%A9dias-sociaux-parlexemple-interview-de-la-redoute.html
Grégory Pouy, 2011 Hugues Pietrini: : « On est dans une logique de défrichage et d’expérimentation » http://vimeo.com/26013840 INfluencia, 2011 L’intimité est-elle possible sur Internet http://www.influencia.net/fr/actualites1/intimite-est-elle-possible-sur-internet,65,1219.html We Agency & INfluencia, 2010
Articles Can the Next Instagram/Hipstamatic/Klout/Angry Birds Be Born Within an Agency? http://www.mobileinc.co.uk/2011/08/can-the-next-instagramhipstamatickloutangry-birdsbe-born-within-a-agency/ Mobile Inc, 2011 Brands See Social Media as Long Term Investment, finds Study http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1098242/Brands-social-media-long-terminvestment-finds-study/ Marketing Magazine (UK), 2011 A Look Inside the Social Gaming Phenomenon http://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/Tactics/Articles/view/9053/1027/Play_on_player_A_look _inside_the_social_gaming_phe Amy Jacques, 2011 Mini Getaway in Stockholm http://creativity-online.com/work/mini-mini-getaway-stockholm/21622 Creativity Online, 2011 Companies Respond to Just 5% of Questions on Facebook http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8149-companies-respond-to-just-5-of-questions-on-facebook
Econsultancy, 2011 Companies Ignore 71% of Consumer Complaints on Twitter http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/10/13/71-companies-ignore-consumer-complaints-twitter
The Drum, 2011 Berlin: Street, Cool & Marketing http://toutattache.over-blog.com/article-berlin-street-cool-marketing-78861752.html Toutattaché.com, 2011 BMW’s Crop Circle Marketing Campaign Confuses Chinese Media http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/31/bmws-crop-circle-marketing-campaign-confuses-chinese-media/
Horatiu Boeriu, 2011
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Obsessed with Facebook Infographics http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/obsessed-with-facebook-infographic/ Mashable, 2011 Captcha Advertising Coming Soon to a Website Near You http://www.techi.com/2010/04/captcha-advertising-coming-soon-to-a-website-near-you/ Techi, 2011 I Am Playr, Immersive Football Game http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/11/i_am_playr.php Contagious Magazine, 2010 Stuff with Gamey Bits http://thesmileexperiment.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/stuff-with-gamey-bits/ The Smile Experiment, 2010 How to Make your Advertising Five Times as Effective http://wklondon.typepad.com/welcome_to_optimism/2010/01/how-to-make-your-advertising-fivetimes-as-effective.html
Welcome to Optimism, 2010 Digital Brand Strategy? What’s that? http://findsubstance.com/2008/02/21/digital-brand-strategy-whats-that/ Stephen Landau, 2008 Why clients but so much bad work? http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/news/491875/Why-clients-buy-so-bad-work/?DCMP=ILC-SEARCH
Campaign, 2005 A/B Testing Mathematically Disinclined http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/1704390/a-b-testing-mathematically-disinclined Brian Eisenberg, ClickZ, 2004 Social Gaming, quel intérêt pour les marques? http://www.kiiwiigames.com/interet-marques-social-gaming Kiiwii Games, 2011 Olfactive Studio, Première Marque de Parfum Participative http://www.influencia.net/fr/actualites1/olfactive-studio-premiere-marque-parfumsparticipative,67,1856.html INfluencia, 2011 Consumer Enpowerment http://www.docnews.fr/actualites/consumer-empowerment-revolution-marche,10532.html Marine Catalan, DocNews, 2011 Les Marques à l’Assaut du Social Gaming http://www.marketing-alternatif.com/2011/10/24/les-marques-a-lassaut-du-social-gaming/ Joëlle, Marketing Alternatif, 2011
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APPENDICES
A PPENDIX 1: U PDATED CV A PPENDIX 2: F ORMER I NTERNSHIP REPORTS
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A PPENDIX 3: U PDATED CV This is my current CV, including all my experiences until fall 2011.
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A PPENDIX 4: P REVIOUS I NTERNSHIP REPORTS Here you can find my previous internship reports (French). Those may contain confidential information. Please use them only to appreciate this thesis and do not share them.
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