Points of view

In most fields of human endevour, the chances of uncovering the truth are increased as more perspectives are taken into account. - Jon Steel

Seeing things through a different lens is 101, but in reality most of us are guilty of not seeing anything through any lens other than that which gets us to 'good enough' easiest or fastest in our jobs. And 9 times out of 10 that's from an ergonomically correct position staring at a Mac.

With most briefs I tend to go digging through social media. This is cool, and there are some awesome listening and visualisation tools that add some sexiness to presos and get clients buying into the thinking - but it still doesn't get you away from the desk. I love this video. John Jay talks about how we need to come down from the ivory tower and get back on street-level - hang out with real people, not just decks of strategy. So I'm taking inspiration from real people I know [that don't work in advertising].

A mate of mine Dean is a writer, and a very deep guy. He's said a lot of crazy stuff to me over the years. But something that's stuck with me was how when he was 7, he [so the story goes] burst out crying, saying to his mum "I won't ever see the world through anyone's eyes but my own." Very creepy for a little kid to say that, but also ultra profound...but mostly straight up creepy. In all seriousness though, little Dean made a solid point there - how can we possibly be satisfied with seeing a whole lifetime pass by from just one point of view?! It actually makes me feel a little upset too to be honest. So how can we step outside and see more?

My girlfriend April is an illustrator, and often says interesting stuff that I can relate to planning. The other day she told me how when something she's working on doesn't look quite right, she'll take a photo of it, or turn it upside down - seeing it from another perspective lets her step back out of what she's doing, and identify what's wrong as observer rather than artist. Cool.

Another mate, Rob Graham aka SpinFX has taught me heaps of cool life stuff - lots of it pissed in nightclubs or at some afterparty. Rob's the kind of guy who's never seemed focussed on getting better at stuff through incremental improvement. He takes giant leaps into new places, where it's infinitely different and more interesting. In the 10 years I've known him, he's kept pushing this agenda [especially as a DJ] with no sign of ever letting up.

In Truth, Lies and Advertising, Jon Steel talks about the value of being 'out of it' - getting the balance right as a planner between having your head sufficiently 'in' the business of advertising so as to make informed judgements, while at the same time being sufficiently 'out' or detached from the game to see things clearly for what they really are.

Rob showed me this at 6am in his bedroom on a boozy Thursday morning. It's a personal project he worked on this year. I really like it. I like it because he uses outside elements like sound + edits + repetition to help the viewer really step 'out of it'. To me, this video is about unearthing a frightening perspective on something we seem to have accepted over time through continued exposure and desensitisation. Very cool.


Spring Cleaning from Rob Graham on Vimeo.

So I realise I haven't offered a silver bullet so much as bang on about shit. But, I think my take away from this thought is to spend more time looking for gold outside the agency. The more you really listen to people around you [even your girlfriend or your crazy DJ mate], the more ammo you have to bring to each brief.

In the Satorialist, Scott Schuman reminds us that "one of the basic needs of people is to be understood". Nuff said.

How can we grow?

Your content is most powerful when it's not entirely yours anymore. When you move from publisher to participant. When technically you still own the table, but you no longer sit at its head. The hardest bit is getting clients to think less about reach and more on social reputation: to shift from aggregating their own noise to mobilising the wider web to syndicate contagious conversations.

Super that's simple, human and real.

Just launched a new webisode in Tasplan's Super - straight up branded content campaign. This one's about seeing the big picture.

The line "Not sweating the small stuff today is easier when there's a bigger plan for tomorrow." takes the campaign into a more emotional territory - it'll be interesting to see how it does in market.

There's a heap of campaign activity in superannuation right now, but even among the big players (with big budgets) the bar is low. The key challenges I see are:

• Making super real and tangible (something that's in part being solved by IB / mobile banking integration) 
• Creating a compelling event to overcome inertia associated with getting your super sorted
• Making super relevant by speaking in the context of what matters in peoples' real worlds right now

Fair to say that BT's probably done better than most - but I think there's still a big opportunity to seriously disrupt the category conventions. 



Follow the campaign

• Facebook - facebook.com/superstraightup
• YouTube - youtube.com/superstraightup
• Web - tasplan.com.au/superstraightup

Measuring Facebook impact

Here's a couple of neat ways to get a better understanding on what kind of impact you and your competitors are having on Facebook.

links.getStats

links.getStats is a simple console that uses FB's developer API to give you an indication of how many times a particular domain or URL has been shared / liked / engaged with on Facebook.

Not sure how much I trust these as absolute numbers - but a great relative indication of where things are at.

likebutton

likebutton is powered by the Facebook Like Button and Social Plugins - an easy way to see what's trending (socially or globally) on Facebook right now.

Create your own dashboards to monitor anything you're interested in - and drill down to the page-level. Awesome competitive and consumer intelligence tool.

Introvert / extrovert? Shit yes it matters!

The douches on X-Factor may have dissed him, but the reality is 18 y/o Luke O'Dell has shined more attention on their crappy show than they could ever hope to generate on their own.

The dude's song "Introvert, Extrovert Doesn't Matter" is trending like it's going out of fashion all over the web.

Why? Because whatever it was that he did last night, it hit a nerve. It actually made people feel stuff they didn't expect to feel.

Check it out (below) - 'head' is among his song titles' top associated keywords. I know what you're thinking, not because people are calling the guy a 'dick head', but because his performance is 'stuck in their heads' (I checked it out).

Big ups mate. This is the kind of badass attitude that we as marketers can learn from.

You can't polish a turd

I met a guy today who seeds video content. Fork out $0.20 - $0.50 per view,  and he'll reach out to a database of bazillions and push targeted traffic/UGC/thumbs up/pick-any-KPI at your content.

Being naive and Tasmanian, I won't lie, this service amazes me. Hedging your bets on a strategy you're not sure of. Guaranteeing the client minimum reach. Giving an already shit-hot campaign a big kickstart. How good is that?!!

Well, only as good as your content. Chucking cash at crap video might give the old view counter a headstart (provided viewers can tolerate your audiovisual nonsense for 80% of its duration), but will it start a groundswell? Will it make a point? Will it turn shit on its head? Will it be remembered?

You may as well piss your client's budget (and business) up the wall on TV.

Know a good idea when you see one (bullshit filter)

Sam, a designer mate of mine comes up with simple ideas that always seem to work. His MO is based in common sense, and he has a low tolerance for marketing bullshit - and you've gotta respect that.

Take the instance where you've created more than one idea for a job. Sometimes it's difficult to know which one is best. Sam would just apply his 'bullshit filter' - and no question, common sense should usually take you in the right direction. But raw instinct probably won't work in the boardroom, so here's some ideas on putting a rational, 'strategic' process around what you most likely already know.

Seek a bigger idea

Often, if you look closely at seemingly disparate ideas, you can unearth something more fundamental that connects them. Dig a little and you may discover that your different strategic routes could in fact just be different campaign ideas for a much deeper brand idea. So first try looking not at what the best idea is out of the bunch, but at what connects them. 

Curate the idea

Sometimes through, there's no connection to be made, and you do in fact have genuinely different ideas. In this case, here are some qualifiers to help make the right decision:

• Is the problem we're solving something that enough people care about / could care about? 
• Is it provocative? Is it something your audience could not only agree with, but talk about, debate or get involved in?
• Is it something your brand could do credibly? This idea doesn't necessarily have to be something no other brand could do - you just have to own it in a marketing sense - but it does need to be believable for your brand.
• And perhaps most importantly - as Sam would no doubt push - which idea is the simplest? Which can you explain in a sentence. But further, when succinctly articulated in one sentence, which one evokes deeper thought or gives the feeling that there's a shitload of meaning sitting behind it? 

Get the right idea across the line

I'm seeing clients often wanting agencies to present a couple of ideas - and the danger here is that they pick the one you don't want them to. Here, a smart play is giving people a choice if you want them to buy something - offering two similar things where the one you want them to buy just happens to be a little bit better.

Extending on this idea is this bit from Paul Arden's 'It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be":

"If you show him (the client) what you want and not what he wants, he'll say that's not what he asked for. If, however, you show him what he wants first, he is then relaxed and is prepared to look at what you want to sell him. Give him what he wants and he may well give you what you want. There is also the possibility that he may be right."

Finding a marketing career that's the tits

Tomorrow I start a new gig at Tequila - and I'm feeling like its going to be a great move. Coming from companies that might seem worlds apart - In-tellinc and The Necessary Group - they've actually both been awesome for the exact same reason I wanted to work at Tequila - the people, and in particular the boss.

Rob Campbell and Paul Isakson wrote great posts a while back on finding the right agency. Rob says:

"...as much as working for one of the ‘cool agencies’ might sound great, it’s never as good as having a boss who will take you to places you didn’t even know existed."

This is so on point. My past bosses gave me a platform to learn and develop - not just a shitload of work. So in many ways I feel like its been an advantage NOT coming from a big brand agency.  

So, joining a smart new team with a great philosophy, beneath a planning boss who I already look up to (all of which just happens to exist inside an agency that's cool as shit), and having already locked in a Monday 10am with one hell of a client, I think this must surely be the next step towards a career that is indeed 'the tits'.

Why marketers need to be more like DJs

Andy C aka "The Executioner" is arguably the best drum and bass DJ ever. Aside from the fact that he destroys dancefloors, I think there are some other qualities that marketers can respect in the guy.  

"There was something different about him that people noticed." - GQ MC

Andy is a unique talent - and you feel it as soon as he steps up. I think its more important than ever to be brave and truthful in what we do. Check out this short interview with John Jay, ECD at W&K. He talks about the value of never letting others define who we are by their terms. Very cool video.

"It's quite remarkable what he can do with 2 or 3 pieces of vinyl and a set of decks...it's unbelievable." - Red One

While the world is scrambling for new ways that technology can make them better at what they do, Andy C continues to find new levels in himself - with 3 turntables and a mixer - shit that was invented in 1877.

"He can touch all genres of drum and bass, and it works." - Ed Rush

Andy is a complete DJ - he doesn't exist in the silos that lots of DJs - and marketers - tend to confine themselves to. I don't believe you can really be taken seriously as a planner if you're just a 'digital guy'. This is the hole I'm trying to dig out of now.

"He's the first person to really take it out there to the world...he opened the doors..." - Optical

Leadership brands aren't held back by convention, and Andy has been a true leader for over a decade - for the heads and the DJs. Drum and bass may be an acquired taste, but Andy's career doesn't reflect that of an artist who's ever been constrained by underground stereotypes.

"He always wants to keep the energy level there...take it to the next level." - Red One

Being voted 'Best DJ' 10 years in a row doesn't happen by accident. Andy's sets are smart. Every drop, double drop, triple drop - all precisely executed touchpoints along the raver journey. And Andy's right there with them every step of the way. Watching and making it better - right until the last drop.

"The fact that he can make any room work is a talent." - Ed Rush

Andy doesn't just impose his style on the dancefloor - he listens. Each new record that hits the platter is a stepping stone towards a shared vision - blended in perfect context.

"I wanna have fun. I find mixing today is as much fun as it always was...it's such a privilege to be up there mixing tunes." - Andy C

We all face the challenge of staying in touch with what's happening at street level - through the eyes of our audiences. Despite years at the top, Andy is still in it for the right reasons. And is probably loved by the ravers more than ever. Big ups Andy C.

SocialPoll.tv gets a workout at Oxford Uni

SocialPoll.tv got a massive workout at last month’s Hows My Feedback Conference at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. According to the How’s My Feedback Blog, there were five talks, each offering different perspectives on the phenomenon of online reviews, ratings and rankings.

The SocialPoll.tv experiment - ‘evaluating the evaluators’

Brave presenter and social scientist Andy Balmer agreed to participate in a real-time SocialPoll, where members of the audience could vote ‘like’ or ‘dislike’ throughout his talk.

Apparently Andy’s experiment raised all kinds of ethical concerns and discussions. Brilliant. Thanks Andy - very cool.

It was definitely cool watching the live worm happening in Oxford from my loungeroom in Tasmania. Can’t wait to see the videos guys - big props.

Convention hunting 2

'The ladder' is a disruption theory tool for identifying a category's communication / advertising conventions - and is helpful in the construction of the convention planets - another convention ID tool used in disruption.

The ladder
Helps to identify and disrupt communications conventions and explore brand visions along 6 areas of focus.


How the ladder works

In a given category, there is often one focus for communication which dominates. In doing a competitive review, going through competitors' TVCs (for example) and just marking a place on the ladder for each one will start to unearth the category's conventions.

Then ask 'why'? What is the assumption that explains why everyone is focussing on this? The answer to this will help fill in the convention planets and to identify assumptions that are being made about what the consumer thinks or wants.

Ladder elements or 'registers' in detail

• Top of mind - What is the one word that you would want consumers to keep in their mind about you to best understand the vision? This is the first and most immediate association with the brand.
• Attribute - What specific attribute does your product need in order to give you reason to believe in it? Ingredients, promotions, packaging, services etc.
• Benefit - What benefits do these specific product attributes bring the consumer? Emotional as well as material.
• Territory - The objective is to construct a real or imaginary territory surrounding your brand. This is a description of the territory or world that the consumers enter thanks to our products.
• Value - If we sell products that bring our customers these benefits, what are the values that we might stand for? A value which can be shared between the brand and the consumer.
• Role - If we as a brand, stand for these values, what role do we play in the wider spectrum? It can be a role in consumers' lives. It can be a role in society as a whole.

Convention hunting

The starting point for disruption in marketing is looking at where the brand is today and identifying the basic assumptions and common wisdom that maintain the status quo and inhibit imagination. 

Disruption theory offers a bunch of tools for doing this, but at the core of these is 'convention planets'.

Convention planets
For a defined competitive set, this tool reveals the underlying assumptions that currently bind the marketplace.

How convention planets works

This tool's derived from asking "why?". Why do we see things the way we see them? Why do people hate banks so much? What keeps this brand where it is? What we're looking for here is where the norm is open to challenge, or where there is an untapped truth or opportunity to build on.

Consider the conventions that dominate the marketplace along four key areas or 'planets':

• Corporate - i.e. a company's culture, branding, staffing structures, mission, values etc
• Marketing - maybe pricing strategies, or a way something's always been packaged
• Communication - assumptions on the best media or executional cliches 
• Consumer - consumer perceptions, habits, attitudes, prejudices 

You need to stand back and put your finger on what's really going on in the minds of they key players in a given space - find our just how conventional it really is.

Once you have a good list of conventions across all four planets, search for connections - a root cause or convention that influences all others and defines the worldview of the organisation (most likely found on the corporate planet). This is what we're looking for.

Here's an example of a corporate convention influencing consumer attitudes towards a brand of cognac.

It's not all about the customer

Breakthroughs aren't created through conventional frameworks and repetition. I've done my best to forget university textbooks and change up the way I do stuff. But the reality is that in some way, we're all stifled by conventional thought.

Something that's immediately pointed out in Beyond Disruption is the importance of consciously disrupting convention. If we don't, we inevitably find ourselves "trapped, unthinkingly within the existing framework of conventional thought." So true.

Convention #1: Everything starts with the consumer   

The customer is always right. The customer should be at the heart of business strategy. The customer is the hero. Everything starts with the customer. This is the kind of thing marketers say all the time. It's so fundamental to conventional wisdom that I've never really questioned it - and never identified it as being strategically limiting. But it is.

"The disruptive notion here is simply that the idea is the hero, not the customer." 

Killer ideas rarely come from letting the customer call all the shots. Most people don't really know what they want. And suggestions are usually lame and based on stuff that's already familiar to them. Of course, lets respect our customers and value their input. But don't confuse consumer input with marketing output.

Great companies generate original ideas that they truly believe in - positioning themselves as heros in the customer's eyes, not the other way around. Listening is good, but becoming a leadership brand means doing things that customers would never even think to ask for. You can't delight someone by just giving them exactly what they expect.

I've just started working with a client who's floundering in customer feedback - trying to be exactly what their customers ask for. They're basically their customers' bitch. And there's no respect in that kind of relationship.

Apple is a great example of a leadership company with the ability to generate surprising and original ideas that transform markets. More recently, Old Spice is also a pretty good example. Customers just can't come up with that kind of gold.

So the whole point of this: Be customer-informed but idea-led. It's not all about the customer - really, it's all about great ideas.   

Convention/Disruption/Vision

Just picked up Jean-Marie Dru's Beyond Disruption - Changing the Rules in the Marketplace. First time I've been excited about a book in ages.

Thought I might blog some of the book's best bits, just to get them in my head. Here's a safe place to start:

 "Start by identifying the Conventions that restrict the thought process, then you challenge them through a Disruption, a radically new and unexpected idea. This is all done with a very definite sense of Vision - of where you are going, of the ground you want to cover from today to tomorrow."

Stuff I'm working on

Just launched another ep in Tasplan's Super - straight up series. This one's about smashing debt.



Make pov your brov

• Facebook - facebook.com/superstraightup
• YouTube - youtube.com/superstraightup
• Web - tasplan.com.au/superstraightup

This...

Easily the best content I've seen all day. Marketers would do well to take inspiration from Nyan Cat.

SocialPoll.tv

Been working with Jake, Matt and Ian at Insight4 Labs on SocialPoll.tv - a new service that lets you create, share and get reports on live polls.

SocialPoll.tv gives real time feedback on anything as it’s happening - at an event, among your friends or around the world.

If you’re into stuff that happens live - conferences, events, marketing, advertising, TV, politics etc - SocialPoll.tv's a way to get new kinds of real time feedback and engagement.

First test run

We gave it a little test run on ABC show Q&A today. Here’s a taster of what happened.



Follow SocialPoll.tv

• Web - beta.socialpoll.tv
• Twitter - @social_poll
• Email - socialpoll@insight4.com
• Blog - blog.socialpoll.tv

Jobs: 2 digital peeps @ RedJelly

A mate from Hobart agency Red Jelly just sent this through - they're looking for a Digital Account Manager and a Front-End Web Developer.

Great people. Great clients. Great work. I'd get your app in asap if you're into it.

#ashcloud

5 people in my house have been screwed round by volcanic ash this week - yes I live with a lot of people (who all seem desperate to get out of Tasmania).

Two of my housemates were meant to go to Thailand today and I expected them to be devvo. But they seem to be handling it pretty well. Same goes with Australians at large - guess we're pretty easy going folk (though sentiment is no doubt being swayed by heavy social media efforts from airlines).

@jetstarnews are all over it - which is kinda cool to see. Right now #refund, #resume, #cancelled, #ashcloud etc are big trending topics. I guess that's how you hold it down on the edge of a PR crisis.

Who's holding it down?

Based on a quick social search on 'brand + ash', Jetstar and Qantas appear to be going pretty hard - and on the surface, it seems to be paying off... Easy to see who's using social media for the right reasons, and who isn't.

Sentiment 4:1

Strength 24%

Reach 23%

Sentiment 3:1

Strength 32%

Reach 25%

Sentiment 2:1

Strength 4%

Reach 10%

Look at this fucking influencer

Look at this fucking hipster has got to be one of my favourite blogs ever. Not sure about these knob-ends, but true influencers are golden. And every marketer is after them on the web. So what's the best way to measure influence? As a planner, finding out this kind of stuff is getting really important - though sometimes we already know the answer, but feel pressured to reverse engineer it through decks of data... David Armando wrote a nice little article on this, and I think his points make a sweet pt 1 for this unplanned trip into unearthing and measuring online influence.

Twitter influence

I see a lot of marketers farming as many followers as they can, and going after others with lots of followers - assuming that they're 'influencers'. But just like a FB like, a follower count is a pretty flawed indicator. Plus it can pretty easily be gamed. So, as a starting point, here's a more complete view:

• Lists - This is good indicator for a couple of things a) visibility and b) what kind of 'topical influence' you have, based on list categories
• Retweets - A RT says "this is good enough for me to spread"
• @Replies - This says: a) how much people want to engage with you and b) how conversational vs broadcast-focused you are
• Follower ratio - Common rules of thumb: a) a 50/50 ratio suggests someone who follows back anyone that follows them (including spammers and crackheads) and b) users with significantly more followers than they follow signals a selection process - and maybe quality
• Tweet volume - Consider this: a) high volume users with healthy engagement, list counts, retweets etc are likely to be offering value, while b) high volume users with low scores are just making noise
• Favourites - This is a good indicator of something...but Twitter users use this feature for lots of different reasons, so it's difficult to discern exactly what that is
• Quality and relevance of followers - While being the most difficult to quantify, this has got to be where it's at - targeting the right audience and earning their trust

More on quality and relevance

'Influence' is meaningless unless its attached to a category. Tools like Klout and Sulia attempt to do this kind of analysis - and this is where I think I'll take the next installment. 

How do you measure Twitter influence?

Like is not a KPI

I get the feeling lots of people haven't realised this yet, so at the risk of living in the past, here goes...collecting 'likes' on your Facebook page doesn't mean you're doing your job.

In an attempt to serve up stuff that's relevant in users' newsfeeds, Facebook uses an algorithm called 'EdgeRank'. Basically, every item that shows up in your newsfeed is considered an Object. Whenever a user interacts with that Object they’re creating what Facebook calls an Edge - examples being likes, tags, comments etc.

An object's EdgeRank (and hence its rank in a user's newsfeed) is the product of the factors Affinity, Weight and Time (see explanation above).

The net result for marketers: if you want your content to show up in the newsfeed, think about EdgeRank - and this means posting stuff that people will actually want to interact with.

AMI Smart Marketer thingo

Thanks everyone that turned up for my strategy thing at the Hobart Convention Centre last night - was good fun. If you're interested, here's the deck.

Strategy Plus Execution - AMI Smart Marketer Series, 16/6/2011

View more presentations from scottywoodhouse

Get out of your comfort zone...culturally.

Profound advice from John Jay, ECD at W&K. Understand your client's soul, and make that relevant to a greater number of people. Very cool video.

Stuff I'm working on

Just launched another ep in Tasplan's Super - straight up series.



Follow the campaign

• Facebook - facebook.com/superstraightup
• YouTube - youtube.com/superstraightup
• Web - tasplan.com.au/superstraightup

Stuff I'm working on

Just launched new ep in Tasplan's Super - straight up series. Take a look. Feedback most welcome.



Follow the campaign

• Facebook - facebook.com/superstraightup
• YouTube - youtube.com/superstraightup
• Web - tasplan.com.au/superstraightup

Eaon Pritchard @ Henry Jones Art Hotel

'Big ideas that work small' was the title for Friday's AMI breakfast gig, and Clemenger BBDO's Eaon Pritchard nailed it. Was excellent to hear someone talk on the tech / social tip without spruking rhetoric shite about how awesome Facebook is.

Gangsta

Eaon had a bunch of solid ideas that pulled nods of agreement from even the most unlikely of digital enthusiasts, so I reckon it's worth having a crack at summing his most golden of nuggets - here's my best attempt...

Flip it.
Social tech empowers people to talk about what they want - not what you want them to. Don't ask "how can we build a community around a brand?" - ask instead "how can we build a brand around a community?". 

Pick a fight. Have a purpose. Tell a story. Create value.

Social media isn't about Facebook, Twitter and iPhone apps. Without a big idea that moves your customers, you've basically got nothing. 

Do experiments not research.

Ditch focus groups. The best way to get insights is give people something to play with. Make something small, then see what happens - 'nail it then scale it'. Totes.

Ditch broken ideas.
Marketing theory: just because it's been round for decades, doesn't mean it's right. Liking this remix of the oldschool awareness > interest > desire > action pipeline below (Props to Eaon - this is my butchered version of his model. I thought it might look cooler in pink, but not sure it does).

80% of marketing budgets are spent trying to create awareness, before the consideration stage. But 80% of influence is in other stages of the cycle - particularly in post-purchase and loyalty loop stages.

People want faith. Not more information.

90% of digital budgets go into websites. But less than 10% of customers visit a brand's website for info. And they'll go to other websites for troubleshooting - not yours.

Like?
The value of a FB 'like', is zero if its not acted on. And, 70% of consumers dont think a 'like' equates to opting-in to marketing.

Channels vs story elements
Eaon made a nice distinction between integrated marketing and what he called 'transmedia' marketing. Instead of creating content and pushing it out via a bunch of channels, with a transmedia approach, different channels communicate distinct elements of a narrative - people pull different parts of the story together themselves. Nice.

Commitment is the new campaign

Eaon pointed out the critical difference in campaigns - which generate short cycles of impact with darkness in between - vs programs, which also generate spikes, but focus on retaining and developing customers. 

Slippy is the new sticky.
It's not all about the website. People will connect with a brand via lots of touchpoints, so build an ecosystem that allows people to slip from one property to the next throughout their journey. Love it.

Gotta wrap this post up as it's getting ridiculous (and maybe a little weird that I paid so much attention), so big ups to Eaon and the AMI for a quality event.

Follow Eaon
Tune in - he's got a lot going on:

• Twitter: @eaonp
• Blog: Never get out of the boat

Stuff I'm working on: Tasplan campaign

Here's the trailer for series two of Super - straight up - a campaign designed to build conversation around superannuation and money with a younger audience. See what you think. Feedback would be excellent.



Follow the campaign

• Facebook - facebook.com/superstraightup
• YouTube - youtube.com/superstraightup
• Web - tasplan.com.au/superstraightup

Squeezing ROI out of Facebook's Page changes

On March 10, the changes announced for Facebook Pages are enforced. So now's a smart time to rework your strategy - cause there are new opportunities on the table.

New functionality brings Pages much more into alignment with normal Facebook user profiles. Obvious bits include a featured images strip, resized profile pics, user-controlled wall post filtering and expanded functionality for admins like advanced email notifications and spam / moderation settings. But is this going to make you money? Unlikely.

Interact as a Page
The real game-changer is the addition of 'use Facebook as your page'. Basically, Facebook has given Pages a bunch more posting priviligies, and the ability for admins to interact with other areas of Facebook as a Page.



The best parts

• 'Like' Pages - Pages can now 'like' and feature other pages
• Page newsfeed - See activity from liked Pages in your Page's own newsfeed 
• Mutual friends and interests - A widget shows users what 'likes' they have in common with a Page
• Newsfeed algorithm changes - Page posts by friends rank higher than generic posts, leveraging healthy relationships between fans and their friend networks
• Post as a Page - Post as your page on other Pages you like (so long as they don't block you)
• Post as a user - Conversely, admins can strategically select the right persona when posting on their own Page - as user or Page

Why is this good?

Being able to interact as a Page and having contol over those interactions opens new doors for aligning and engaging with the right communities, Pages and influencers. Good job FB.

What might go wrong?
The obvious drawback is spam from other Pages. No doubt Facebook will implement mitigation strategies eventually, but for now the onus is on admins to carefully monitor their own walls.

Social QR codes vid

Some pretty sweet campaign ideas brewing here...