Social Graphing

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The best definition I’ve heard for social graph or social graphing is “mapping the online relationships between consumers.”  Ad Age reports this week that evidence is emerging that one can predict purchase behavior among people who are linked together online. In other words, someone on Facebook who likes Ludacris is likely to “friend” someone who likes Ludacris or who may have a predisposition toward Ludacris.

 

Social graphing uses online degrees of separation to predict purchase likelihood whereas old school researchers study demographics, psychographics and media consumption as predictors.   If you Wikipedia “social graph” you get “social networking,” so it’s clearly still an emerging practice. That said, with a little leadership, social graphing will be a huge business driver in the next 3 years. 

 

Does anyone want to buy the URL socialgraph.com? You’ll never guess who owns it. Peace!

 

 

Change at Yahoo and Pepsi?

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Jerry Yang is stepping down at Yahoo (without a named successor) and PepsiCo has removed long-time ad agency BBDO in favor of white hot TBWA/Chiat Day.  Change is in the wind.  Yahoo needed to do something, though I’m not sure removing Yang does anything. The number 1 website in terms of traffic, they still do not know what they want to be. The next CEO had better have a focused strategic vision beyond “I wouldn’t have f’ed up the Microsoft deal.”

 

As for TBWA/Chiat Day picking up PepsiCo, it is the second black eye they have given BBDO in the last couple of years; taking Visa was the first.  Both these agencies are on a par if you ask me with the slight edge going to TBWA thanks to good leadership (Tom Carroll and Lee Clow) and the ability to do striking, simple work.  But “Life Takes Visa,” though a fine line, hasn’t yet been actualized.  

 

These two changes are incremental, certainly not seismic. And so are they changes at all? Nah.

 

But ladies and gentlemen, change is in the wind and it is to those who take advantage of it – with tight strategic understanding – that the spoils will fall.   

What’s the idea with IBM.

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I blasted Enfatico and Dell yesterday for a campaign idea that isn’t…and today I see one that is. It’s from IBM. Both campaigns operate in a similar space. Dell is teaching us that individuals can make a difference in business by “taking their own path.” IBM, with its new campaign, teaches us that people can make a difference on the planet by assembling and using data in smart ways, under the rubric "think."  The Dell approach uses borrowed interest while IBM’s uses core brand values. The way technology insinuates itself into these stories will impact the companies respective bottom lines.

 

 IBM highlights global problems like healthcare, drinking water, traffic, congestion – all fixable with smart data analysis and machines. Dell uses warm and fuzzyish people stories outlining personal and professional change, which even in India where the campaign is breaking, is just not right for the times.

 
I wonder if IBM regrets selling the ThinkPad brand? When this campaign works and if IBM steps up, Lenovo might just be back in the fold before you know it. Think.

 

 

 

Take Your Own Path???

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Enfatico, the new Ogilvy comms agency set up to handle Dell Computer, has launched what appears to be its first global campaign.  Not global in terms of multinational offices – nooo – global in terms of integrated communication and offices.   I read in the comments on jaffejuice that Enfatico’s blog has a paltry two posts as of today, so I took a look. Ouch, he’s right. And that’s where I learned of the new Dell campaignAnd that’s where I watched some of the most inane communications ever witnessed. 
 

This is like 8th grade marketing stuff. “Take your own path” as an idea is so old an Altzheimer’s patient would remember it.  Apple’s “Think Different” was the same idea, but done by an ad agency. This effort, highlighting business people from India and their shining paths, feels like it was produced in the basement of strip mall by two kids with a boom mike and a Commodore computer.

 

T. Boone, wake up sir!

 

 

McDonald’s Sales Up, but Ads Trending Down.

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Sitting around the big screen with a bunch of guys watching football the other night, one remarked how McDonald’s didn’t advertise like it used to.  “Remember how they used to be all over the place?  Their business isn’t good,” said this gentleman.  Marketing student that I am, in a very non-confrontational way (burger politics) I offered that McDonalds’s is actually doing quite well, thanks to the dollar menu and the softening economy.  Something in my memory telling me that quarterly sales have continued up since the introduction of salads and the “I’m lovin’ it” idea.

But this one consumer is not seeing the advertising. And though I know he really is seeing and hearing it, he doesn’t remember.  Something is missing lately from McDonald’s advertising. They still have that wonderful ba-tah-bah-bah-bah mnemonic.  The brand proposition is still somewhat tight (family and fun.)  New products (Southern Chicken sandie) are on target.  But the ads are too diffuse.  What’s the idea?  

Remember SNL’s “more cowbell.”  McDonald’s needs more red and yellow.  They need to better understand the “it” in “I’m lovin’ it.” And they need to find relevance beyond value.  Peace!  

 

 

NJ Nets Promote Jobs

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The New Jersey Nets have a brilliant promotion whereby their out-of-work fans can attend a Nets game for free and have their resume distributed to Nets sponsors. Being out of work is a kick in the pants and one that impacts discretionary spending. The Nets have turned this negative into a sales positive. It creates trial for new fans who may never have been to a Nets game. It suggests empathy for the fans, creating loyalty. And it’s newsworthy – I just heard about the promotion on the radio. Good free PR.

 

It’s what the marko-babblists call a “win, win.” And if the Nets actually win, it could be a three point play (sorry.) Peace!

 

 

 
 

Best Buy and Social Something

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What’s the idea with @15

 

You’ve got to give Best Buy credit for trying to do something in social networking. And Cause Marketing. And Market Research. And Customer Relationship Management (CRM.) And Youth Marketing. But this effort is going to be a million dollar dud. As my drunken mentor Dick Kerr once said though, “The idea to have an idea is often more important than the idea itself.” (I told you he was a tippler.)

 

Best Buy may indeed extract its million back thanks to some unforeseen consumer insight, but targeting 15 year olds with a “what’s important to you” social net, is not the way. It doesn’t support a viable branding idea.

 

I know Walmart and the big box stores like Costco are dinging Best Buy and (RIP) Circuit City, but slapping a social net together isn’t going to win the youth market. And yes, kids aren’t exactly price shoppers and they do care about brand, but there are other ways for Best Buy to earn brand points than positioning itself a generic one-stop entertainment and technology shop. They need to dig deeper and not go all tactical. Peace!

 

 

A letter to Martin A. Nisenholz, The New York Times

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Dear Mr. Nisenholtz,

 

Do you realize you are at the reins of what should be the world’s largest media property, an online property poised to be the world’s news source — with circulation dwarfing that of the paper?  Newspapers are not going away, paper is. The New York Times is a news reporting organization. Yet one, I submit, whose officers are sitting around a conference table wondering about paper vs. video vs. podcast vs. mobile vs. HiDef. 

 

You are thinking medium not news. Here a social media idea that might help: How about paying people around the world to report stories as they happen in a Twitter-like application, supported by a news algorithm that culls for accuracy. Now there’s a meeting.

 

Mr. Nisenholtz, I think you’ve dropped the ball. According to Alexa, CNN.com is ranked #50 and you are #90.  You need to be in the top 5. Globally, 300 million uniques a day is within reach. Please don’t think that’s out of the question.  Web penetration is planet ubiquitous.

 

The world’s most famous brands are Jesus, Coke, Mohammad Ali, U2, and The New York Times.  You can do this. Peace!

 

New York Times, Martin A. Nisenholz, Alexa, CNN, NYTimes.com, whatstheidea, whats the idea, marketing blogs, Jesus, Coke, Mohammad Ali, U2, twitter

Hayden Panettiere Next Season.

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What’s the idea with Heroes?  One of NBC’s biggest revenue generators, Heroes has been losing audience for two years now. The rub, supposedly, is that the plotlines are getting too complex and the growing number of show characters is making the program harder to follow.  Add to that all the science fiction twists and the program becomes hard to watch for first-timers and less loyal viewers. Plus the sci-fi genre on TV is getting nauseatingly crowded.

 

I don’t watch a lot of Heroes and don’t know too much about the talent and their respective Q scores (popularity scores,) but I’m going to borrow a page from the program and jump to the future to say there will soon be a spin-off about the life and times of Claire Bennet. Claire, portrayed by Hayden Panettiere, one of TV’s hottest properties, is the feisty cheerleader and commands lots of attention.  NBC knows it and viewers know it. With story lines closely tied to her character and her own show, think Jack Bauer meets Gossip Girl, Claire will generate some seriously strong numbers for NBC in 2009-2010.

 

NBC, Heroes, Claire Bennet, Hayden Panettiere, Jack Bauer, whatstheidea, whats the idea, marketing blogs. Gossip Girl