We’ve been taking appointments over the past few weeks from those in need of some social care and attention and today, the patients arrive for their sesssions.
Keep an eye on the @1000heads twitter stream throughout today for a running commentary on who we’re talking to and about what and please, feel free to fire over any questions you may have.
If you didn’t manage to book yourself in the surgery today then no fear, you can still catch up with one of us ‘heads throughout the week at any of the many events that we’ll be attending -
The venues in bold indicate where we are panellists…
Fri Feb 10th -
SMW: Tuttle Club @ The Centre for Creative Collaboration
On top of that, a large number of our team can be found at various events around the world supporting Nokia’s random acts of kindness push… aka – ‘NokiaConnects‘
If you’re attending any Social Media Week event anywhere across the main participating cities across the globe, then please ensure to check in using the hashtag #NokiaConnects and you might just bump into one of them yourself…
If you’ve not heard about it yet, it’s pretty big (with events being held all over the world) and it’sonly going toget bigger.
Globally, we’re going to be keeping ourselves busy supporting different activities on behalf of the headline sponsor (who also happens to be one of our clients) while locally, here in London, we’ll be doing our bit in the office with our very own:
“What the hell is that then?” – I hear you cry…
Allow me to explain:
To kick Social Media Week off with a bang, we’ve decided to setup the official#smwlondon / 1000heads Social Media Surgery.
With resident ‘Doctors’ Molly Flatt (WOM Evangelist), James Whatley (Marketing Director) and Tim Denyer (Group Development Director) each giving up their day to help all and sundry with their social media ailments, why not make an appointment now?
Tim’s your man if you want to talk integration, performance and measurement
Molls specialises in ethics, training and social business
And James (that’s me) will bring you the low-down on engagement, tools and presences
One-on-one private sessions are available (as are larger group sessions for up to eight people) throughout the day, and coffee and biscuits (quite nice ones) will be provided. While we can’t guarantee all problems will be solved immediately, we can promise to bring a little TLC to those in need.
We’ve been talking with the DMA Social Media Council for a while about how word of mouth fits into the direct marketing mix (see my recent workshop on direct mail and WOM for the Royal Mail.)
One outcome of the working group is this new survey which asks the industry right across the UK - not just London – about The Value of Social Media.
So if you’re involved in social, go fill it in now – the more of us participate, the more useful the results will be. And you might even win a Kindle, which according to Digital Trends outstrips the mighty iPad for e-reading joy.
I’ll be on the rather excellent panel that will also include Stephen Groom (Head of Marketing & Privacy Law, Osborne Clarke Solicitors), Justin Pearse (Editor, New Media Age), Adam Paulisick (Senior Director, The Nielsen Company’s Online Division) and Geoff Hughes (Biz Dev Manager, Syncapse & Facebook Developer Garage), all chaired by Roger Warner from C&M.
There will be free booze, lively conversation, and maybe even some reckless dancing – what more could man or beast desire? Sign up now before space runs out and I look forward to seeing you there.
We’ll also be involved in SMW in a bunch of other ways, including a drop-in WOM surgery here at 1000heads, so keep an eye on this here blog and our delightful Twitter feed for more info imminently…
Word of mouth and social media events remain vibrant in Paris on the run up to Christmas. Recently I had the pleasure of participating in one of two panels organized by L’Atelier (@AtelierNetwork, a BNP Paribas subsidiary). The aim was to stay aware of disruptive innovations in business and technology and how to stimulate conversation around them – a perfect fit for 1000heads.
In the first panel, the speakers included myself; Antoine Sire, Global Head of Communications at BNP Paribas; Nicolas Bordas, President at TBWA France and author of “L’idée qui tue” (a book on disruptive ideas); Philippe Gérard, Inter-Enterprise Training Product Manager at Cegos; and Pierre Chappaz, Founder at Wikio & Kelkoo
Me with the contributors on the first panel – photo credit @Fadhi’Live
The place (and the use) of social media within business was, predictably, heavily discussed. Most of the largest French companies still block access to social networks, highlighting the importance of getting focused on a cultural and behavioral acceptance first. At the end of the day, when done well, spending time on social networks is a long term investment in gaining knowledge and competitive advantage, building connections, and even shifting sales.
Two main concerns emerged for the companies attending : the issue of brands ‘losing control’ of their reputation and image, and the need to put an authentic (and human) touch on each interaction.
A few obvious lessions have been learned when it comes to guiding employees in their social interactions without limiting them. Once it has set clear goals, a company need to have have flexible and evolving guidelines. Although there needs to be a strong ethical consensus, employees need to be empowered to learn, adapt and yes, even make mistakes as they progress.
Unscripted messages, spontaneity in communication style and trust are important components to succeed.
This test and learn approach was widely agreed to be the best. Iterating and feeding collective knowledge capital is vital for an active learning organization, so everyone must share their discoveries of what works and what doesn’t on an ongoing basis.
Nicolas Bordas of TBWA shared the story of a company splitting their employees into two content-creating teams : proactive and reactive. This is in fact an approach we have used for years at 1000heads – not by splitting teams but by helping clients clearly define their social content and engagement as proactive or reactive to ensure an even mix of the two.
Another important point is that personal branding shouldn’t exclude the less visible employees, if they have the inclination to participate. The challenge is to be both inclusive and strategic; to create an internal consensus about external engagement.
It’s hard to believe it’s a week since I was in Vegas at the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) Summit, which brought together over 600 marketers, agencies, brands, academics and researchers over three days to share thought leadership, case studies, best practice and provocative debate. Over the next few weeks running up to Christmas I’ll be showcasing some of the best keynotes and insights from the event, and I thought I’d kick off with a personal perspective.
As President of WOMMA UK, this year I was heading up aninternational panel examining the global differences in word of mouth.
via WOMMA@Flickr; L-R: me, Barak, Craig, Jo, Shige
The idea for the session came from my experiences last year - I saw several excellent case studies from the likes of Tropicana and Mom Central but also realised that the very ‘American’ approach just would not wash with many European consumers.
1000heads creates pan-global campaigns for clients such as Nokia, Canon and SKINS and we have offices in London, New York, Sydney, Berlin and Paris, so we’re particularly sensitive to international WOM variations. Particularly in the UK, there is fierce protection of individual independence, reluctance to be allied officially with a brand, and suspicion of over-partisanship, so gung-ho, brand-heavy strategies would not be as welcome, or as influential, as they are in the States.
So this year, I assembled an eclectic team – Global Head of Digital for Nokia Craig Hepburn, dynamite Australian social media consultant Jo Jacobs, WOM Japan member Shige Ota and consumer psychologist and WOM economics specialist Professor Barak Libai from Tel Aviv University – to consider such questions as:
How willing is your region/culture to evangelise about brands?
How does the economic and technical infrastructure of the region shape WOM opportunities?
How and how extensively is social media used in your region?
What are some of the conversational triggers and taboos that affect brand engagement in your region?
To be honest, it’s amazing that these questions aren’t tackled more often, and the energy of the debate reflected the audience’s interest.
Among other insights, Barak explained the differing communication patterns of countries as determined by their collectivism or individualism; Shige emphasised how the anonymity of Japanese social media culture impacts on their brand conversation; Jo noted that Australians as a nation rebel against vulgar or overt brand association; and Craig described the challenges of promoting Nokia in its native country Finland, where sisu – the concept of strong, uncomplaining silence – is a cultural ideal.
One point that emerged was how important the basic challenges of differing infrastructures, governments and languages can be. In much of Australia broadband is so expensive that sophisticated augmented experiences just wouldn’t work. The censorship in the far East leads to more specialised social communities with localised spheres of influence. The fact is that if you want to transfer a US campaign globally, it takes people on the ground in each country dedicated to adapting and updating engagement in a way that works for their region.
An interesting question from the floor highlighted the different attitudes towards alcohol that affect marketing from drinks brands; but we also discovered that, similarly, brands using seasonal hooks to stimulate WOM such as Halloween or Thanksgiving ignore the subtle commonalities and contrasts these celebrations have across the world.
There was an overall conclusion that this debate needed to be continued in a much more visible way in the industry, with more shared learnings and challenges; we could have stayed in that room all day! As attendees pointed out, companies love toolkits or guidelines they can roll out across markets, but although some degree of consistent narrative is important, this simply won’t work with word of mouth.
On a positive note, there are real opportunities for marketers willing to explore and work with the differences. I for one find them one of the most fascinating and rewarding challenges of working with WOM.
So share your own stories, case studies and questions below, and let’s continue the debate!
Before we get share all the great case studies, keynotes and insight we gleaned from the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) Summit 2010, we have to simply celebrate and say thank you to our team by highlighting the WOMMYResearch Award we won for our #NokiaNav campaign.
Collecting the award alongside Craig Hepburn, Global Head of Digital for Nokia
The WOMMYs are the most prestigious and rigorous awards in the word of mouth industry, and we are delighted that we’ve been acknowledged for “Best strategic thinking to measure the impact/success of WOM”. With #NokiaNav,we focused on understanding, measuring and shifting the sentiment of conversation around Nokia’s accessories and navigation tools. We believe that this approach, which moves beyond reach to the context and meaning of word of mouth, is essential in creating truly effective campaigns.
Here are a few of the guys who really deserve the credit: our Nokia Account and Community team Katie, Simon, Frank and Joel. They share billing equally with the Analyst Team of Joe, Allan and Marzena – who weren’t around for this photo but who did all the incredible data and insight work that made #NokiaNav possible – an awesomely talented bunch.
You can buy WOMMA’s Word of Mouth Works book to see full case studies of all winners; in the meantime get in touch if you’d like to know more about what we did!
The days are shortening, the air is cooling, and we think we can hear the faint sound of sleigh bells in the distance. This can only mean one thing…
No, not the fact that we’re hungover and hallucinating on a Monday morning. It’s nearly Christmas! Yay. (OK, so lots of you are probably complaining about the whole Christmas-starts-too-early thing, but we say: any excuse for more eating, drinking and general fun-having is fine by us).
In fact, we tend to get generally over-excited and childish around the festive season. So we thought we would kick things off early with a good old-fashioned Christmas pub quiz.
Therefore, we would like to cordially invite our friends and readers to join us on the evening of Thursday2nd December at our offices in Soho (not a pub exactly, but there’ll be plenty of booze) to meet some lovely people, eat some mince pies, and battle it out in teams for some prizes.
If you would like to join us, please email me lauren.severin@1000heads.com, and I’ll send you the details (and a little email nugget of festive cheer).
Direct mail and word of mouth might seem to be at opposite ends of the marketing spectrum: old versus new, broadcast versus conversational, individual versus social, personalised versus personal.
But the workshop I ran yesterday for WOMMA UK on ‘Plugging WOM into DM’ at the Royal Mail’s Mail Media Centre (with Neoco‘s lovely Benn Achilleas), proved just what a hunger there is for marketing disciplines to work together to share insight and develop learnings, rather than stay defensively within their own boundaries.
We worked through the ideas in the above deck with a packed room of direct mail specialists, charities and above the line marketers to investigate how the strengths of direct mail (such as physicality and sensuality; personal focus; nostalgia; design; takeaways) could combine with those of word of mouth (such as social visibility; longevity; authority; ownership; on/offline integration) to improve both disciplines.
Great case studies of campaigns that combined WOM with DM such as Frenzied Waters, #NokiaNav and the Royal British Legion Remembrance Cross appeal reinforced the idea that good conversational strategy is a good conversational strategy, whether the medium is direct mail, digital, experiential or traditional marketing.
Happy Friday everyone! Are you dressing down? Buying everyone breakfast? Sloping off early for some beers?
We all have Friday rituals, and social media is no exception – take FollowFriday (#ff), the weekly name drop / thank you that has become a popular way to recommend Twitter friends and discover new people to follow.
But if doing a bit of hashtagging doesn’t seem personal enough on this most social of days, why not come along to a MeetFriday (#mf)? We’re big fans of taking the conversation out of the digital world and into face to face (and hand to pint glass), so I and my friend Vincent Rostaing have set up Friday media meet-ups in both Nantes (#mfnantes) and Lyon (#mflyon).
I headed up the Lyon event last week. It was intended to be a relaxed first gathering to discover people’s needs, projects and goals and how to develop the MeetFriday, although we also set two themes to stimulate discussion, one specific (how to put Lyon forward within the web/startup sphere) and one more general (how to collaborate).
More than anything, I was amazed by the hunger for real world connection: 90% of RSVPs came back within 48 hours and we had a really diverse range of attendees, from investors and marketers to executive directors and entrepreneurs.
MeetFriday is proving a great way to build hyperlocal engagement, and the aim is to now grow nationally and get connected with the other hyperlocal communities in France. They are also starting to spread to the UK, and there are mutterings of further global spread.
So come along and join me if you’re in Lyon tonight, and keep an eye out for MeetFridays in your area, or even think about setting one up. Do you think there’s a hunger for a Friday tweetup where you live?
If you’re a regular reader here at 1000heads you’ll know that LikeMinds has become one of our favourite things ever since our first attendance back in February of this year. I’m pleased to say that last week’s event – based around the themes of ‘Creativity + Curation’ – was no disappointment.
Unlike February’s event, where the one key takeaway (for me at least) was the audience-wide understanding of the importance of listening, this time around the lessons were much more broad; touching upon various different subjects, specialisms and industries including; Music, Film, Publishing (traditional and new) as well as other, more thought-provoking pieces along the lines of the impact of social technologies and the much-discussed ‘Big Society‘.
For me personally, the highlights came in varying forms. First, the opening Publishing ‘immersive’ session hosted by Andrew Davies of Idio was rammed to the rafters as everyone came together to discuss the impact of the social web upon the traditional publishing industry. For such a packed event, Andrew facilitated well as the rest of the group swiftly leapt from one area to another covering off not only the real value of brand/consumer relationships (throwing in some real world examples to boot) but also whether or not true curation is just filtering other people’s content.
Second, Chris Carey from the PRS, yes really – the PRS. Chris is an in-house economist for the music industry and he used the patterns that he is paid to spot day-in and day-out, to illustrate the pitfalls in any market of relying on what you think you know. His example of NBC’s mistake of turning off the Gossip Girl stream on their website was a lesson to us all.
And the third and final one (again, that spoke to me personally) was that of Benjamin Ellis. Who, with one phrase, captured the whole audience:
“A fish would be last to discover water”
– and to give that context, I’d spend some time looking over his rather awesome presentation -
And the official #SMWLDN/1000heads official Social Media Surgery is open!
