Admittedly I rarely listen to the radio. Perhaps the only time I do is when I’m getting ready in the morning, and on my drive to and from work. However, the last few weeks, my wife and I have been glued to our local radio station, C95, to listen to their rendition of the Bachelor contest. Mostly, our addiction has been fueled by an obsession with ‘reality TV’. But, also, I think C95 has woven together a really tight little marketing campaign with all of the elements that a modern campaign should include.

I won’t spend a lot on the mechanics of the contest itself. Essentially it revolved around the idea that one relationship-challenged guy (Chris in this case) needed to go on dates with a bevy of bodacious beauties (five to be exact). At the end of the contest his goal was to choose one of the women to go on a final, more extravagant date. The benefit to the Bachelor is that he gets to go on a bunch of dates with five different women, and the women get to compete for the man and a host of prizes.

From an implementation standpoint the radio station broadcasted a series of episodes which included pre- and post-date analysis and commentary, which was also recorded and posted on Youtube.  A microsite was created to host photos and bios of the contestants as well as highlight the videos and information on sponsors. And their Facebook page was used to upload photos and spark discussion on the activities. Finally, one of the radio hosts kept a blog of the whole ordeal and the entire time they were Tweeting and allowing comments via text message.

Provided below are three reasons why I liked this campaign:

1. Integrated output/input

Taking an integrated approach to any marketing campaign is just a smart move. It’s the realization that your audience’s attention is fragmented, and to stay in front of them you need to be present in a number of touch points. This campaign had radio (in my car), Facebook (at work or on my couch), Youtube (on my iPad laying in bed)…you get the point.

But, in addition to broadcasting in a number of mediums it also allowed the audience to participate by sending in comments, ‘likes’, tweets, call-ins and txts. It truly was a conversation in the mesh.

2. Network access

One of the really interesting facets about this campaign is that it was hyper local – all of the contestants lived in Saskatoon. And, generally speaking people are most interested in what’s happening in their immediate environment with their network of friends. Interestingly, this network of just six contestants is quite large.

Let’s do some approximate math on this network. Six contestants, each with a conservative estimate of 150 friends (they probably have many more than 150). For each contestant we estimate the value of their network is N^2 (roughly speaking) which equal a network over 22,000 people each. Multiply this by six people and the size of the network connections amongst the contestants equals over 135,000 people.

Combine this with the existing C95 audience and you can really see how this campaign finds it’s way deep into the local network.

3. Entertainment value of ‘reality’

For some reason we are drawn to ‘reality’. Whether it’s Intervention or Hoarders, or even the pseudo reality shows like Jersey Shore, the human condition seems to thrive on looking in on other people’s lives. We like to identify with the characters and choose to cheer them on throughout their journey. Social media is the perfect channel for both the broadcasting and interacting of this type of adventure. In this campaign both Tina and I had our favorite contestants and our picks for who we wanted to lose.

The only recommendation that I would suggest for future campaigns is that they should have provided a way for the contestants to really participate on their own within social media. They could have all had special Facebook and Twitter accounts for each contestant from which they could have broadcasted out parts of the dates or behind-the-scenes thoughts. They should have also had a way to capture a runny tally of the audience votes for each contestant. But, despite these few short-comings the campaign was well done overall.

Do you have something to add to the discussion? Leave a comment and let’s battle it out.

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Your website is a critical communications and operations tool. It’s a high-value strategic asset that is often the primary and first point of contact with your audiences. Yet, the vast majority of websites are developed, maintained and resourced in an ad hoc manner.

The reality is that designing a large website can be a long, complex, expensive and often daunting task where the odds of failure are high. But, failed results are usually the result of flawed strategy and ill-defined process, as opposed to failed implementation.

Here are three tips to improve any website.

Tip 1: Make one person responsible for the site. Give them uber ‘dictator-like’ powers.

The most common mistake of website management is to leave the management of the website completely distributed across a number of different people. Doing this results in websites that lack consistency in design, navigation and content. Fix it by making one person responsible. But, be sure to choose that person carefully.

2. Recognize that every website has a small set of tasks that deliver almost all of the value to your users

Another common mistake in developing websites is to be organizationally focused as opposed to user-focused. This is often reflected in poorly developed site maps and navigation, where the website merely becomes a reflection of the organization’s structure using language that is not intuitive to the users. This causes confusion in users and leads to decreased satisfaction.

90% of most websites offer very little value to the website users and all of that extra content makes it more difficult for users to find the small percentage of content that they are actually seeking. Focus on presenting the top tasks using language that is used by your users and you will solve 99% of their problems with your website.

3. Don’t treat your website as  a ‘one off’ effort. Adopt a process of continuous improvement.

Finally, another major mistake is to treat the website as a one-time project that is to be completed once every few years. Simply put, the amount of time required to redesign a website grows with the amount of time elapsed since your last redesign. The amount of problems with the site continues to grow over time until redesigning seems like an impossible task.

Don’t seek to try to fix everything at once perfectly. Instead, work very quickly to make small improvements and seek to refine those improvements over time. This will ensure that your project maintains momentum while help your users at the same time. It will also help you manage your resources more effectively as you can focus on fixing priority features sooner, leaving the less important work until you have more resources.

Do you have other tips? Leave them in the comments.

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I’ve been following the Mercedes Benz Tweet Race, partially out of interest in the idea but mostly because my Twitter feed has been filled with tweets supporting fellow higher ed blogger and driver @tsand and co-driver @ijohnpederson (congrats on winning guys).

The idea behind the contest was that four teams competed in a three-day, multi-leg, road race to the Superbowl in Dallas Texas from predetermined starting points scattered across America.  To keep the cars (Mercedes vehicles of course) moving the contestants needed to generate ‘tweet fuel’ by having either the team hashtag used in a tweet, the driver’s handle used in a tweet or a retweet including either/or (If all three requirements are met the team would get three points per).

Over the course of the race teams earned points by completing challenges or having extra ‘tweet fuel’ in their tank when they arrived at check-in locations.  The team with the most amount of points at the final check-in (Superbowl) wins. Oh, and the teams were paired with celebrities and money raised went to charity.

In what seems like a high tech scavenger hunt the teams were challenges to a number of on-going and daily challenges. For example, teams could earn points by taking and tweeting photos of local sports stadiums, city limit signs, signs from supports, fan photos,  Mercedes cars and, of course, dealerships. Other specific challenges had the teams developing user-generated content such as creating fun commercials.

The entire journey was chronicled on the mbtweetrace site on an interactive Google map along with a running points tally.  Finally the entire campaign was supported with a very slick looking Facebook page.

By far this is one of the most creative uses of social media I’ve seen since the Old Spice campaign. It really has a lot going for it:

1. Adventure

If Survivor has taught us anything it’s that people love to live vicariously through others, and we all crave a little adventure. Following along with this campaign allowed us to live out our Cannon Ball Run (or Thelma and Louise) footloose and fancy free fantasies. No doubt this adventure quality fits really well with the Mercedes brand.

2. Real-time, behind-the scenes, voyeurism

Let’s face it we are all a little voyeuristic. We love to look in on people’s lives; even better if it’s in real-time. This campaign allowed us to get behind-the-scenes. Unfiltered. Uncut. Anything could (and did) happen.

3. Network access

The key to good social marketing is understanding that you must figure out a way to get access to your networks’ networks. In this case the contestants called upon their existing networks to support them and then built community along the way. The winners of the race were ultimately selected by the supporting communities and the contestants earned the community’s love by being creative in the challenges. This wasn’t just an ‘add on’ to an offline strategy, the entire campaign was built upon the concept of community support.

4. User-generated content

This campaign is hands-down one of the best uses/integrations of user-generated content that I have seen. The photos, videos, commercials and tweets not only made the journey entertaining it served as the glue to keep the community engaged; all without hiring fake bloggers or sponsored tweeters.

5. Hysteria

The limited time frame of this campaign, combined with being real-time, multiplied by the fact that it was associated with America’s biggest sporting event, was a recipe for a perfect-social media storm. Once the wave was rolling it became an unstoppable force.

The only downside of this campaign is I wonder how replicable it would be in the future by other companies? Certainly Mercedes could do it as an annual event, but simply put you’ll look like the ’50 year old dad telling not jokes’ if you’re another car company that tries to do this. The Old Spice campaign belongs to Old Spice. Is the Tweet Race now owned by Mercedes?

Do you have something to add to the discussion? Leave a comment and let’s battle it out.

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There are three sides to every story. What he said, what she said and what really happened.

Simply put, the way in which we all observe the world  is completely different from one person to the next. This is based upon the fact that we all see the world through our own unique senses which are then interpreted by our individual brains. What I may see or hear, could be different from what you see or hear, and our interpretations may be different as well.

Coming to terms with the idea of the existence of multiple realities is mind twisting. But, it’s an important concept to understand in relation to marketing.

I recently finished reading The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, and in the book they explore this concept by using the analogy of a goldfish in a bowl looking out at the world.

The goldfish could observe the world around him, and as a result of those observations, the fish may start to develop a model of how the world works (assuming goldfish think of such things). The goldfish may observe that objects always move  in a curved line as a result of the curvature of the glass bowl. The goldfish may observe that humans are distorted creatures with enormous bulbous heads.

Of course reality to the human on the other side of the bowl is much different.

Because marketing may be interpreted and observed differently from person to person,  it’s important to remember to analyze and test those differences to develop a campaign that is more likely to be interpreted as intended. Note: there is no way that it will hit the mark 100% of the time.

A funny example came from a headline in our campus paper that read “Beagles used in nutritional study research”. Most people would read and interpret this to mean that the dogs were fed different foods to understand the nutritional value of those foods. However, internationally, in countries where dog is on the menu, this headline might mean the dogs were eaten to see if they were nutritious.

For a good read on this subject I recommend Seth Godin’s All Marketers are Storytellers. Seth really explores this concept in more detail and provides some great tips on how to frame stories around our individual ‘lens’.

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Most people don’t understand the value of Twitter. They often wrongly believe that Twitter is just a place where people send out Tweets on what they had for lunch and question why anybody would care. Truthfully it’s easy to understand this belief. There is a fair amount of useless updating going on. However, hidden in the endless stream of updates there are some real gems of activity.

Provided below are three examples of organizations/individuals adding value through Twitter without letting everyone know what they had for lunch:

1. Canadian Light Source @clsfc

The Canadian Light Source is one of Canada’s largest science installations and is the only synchrotron in Canada. Understanding the complexities of the science that they do is far beyond my puny brain, but their use of Twitter is really interesting.

Apparently one of the big questions that researchers who work at the synchrotron have is knowing the status of the beam line and their experiments. To help update the researchers the CLS has established a Twitter account which from which they simply update the status of the facility. It’s a highly targeted use of Twitter, but for those researchers I’m guessing it is immensely valuable.

Also very cool is their Star Trek-esque machine status webpage.

2. Cupcake Conspiracy @theccconspiracy

The Cupcake Conspiracy is a local #yxe shop that makes delicious cupcakes.  They have embraced social media to help in their marketing efforts and one their tactics simply involves tweeting out the ‘cupcake of the day’. It’s a simple but effective use of Twitter. They also post photos of the cupcakes on Facebook. I’m not a big cupcake eater (violates my diet) but if I was I would be all over this.

3. Liam Richards Photography @photoliam

Liam Richards is a local Saskatoon photographer who is headed big places. If you’re from Saskatoon you may recognize his work from the Sheaf or the Star Phoenix. He’s the shooter for the Huskies and does a pile of CFL work as well. You often see him with multiple cameras hanging from his neck or contorted on the field to capture that unique angle on the play. He’s also a friend who I’ve had the pleasure of working with on multiple occasions.

In the last year I’ve noticed that Liam has really embraced social media. And, for a photographer it’s an ultra smart move. Everyday he is generating a constant stream of content that shows off his work. And, often he is doing that work in really interesting settings (ie. The Grey Cup). It’s a recipe for social media success. On his Twitter stream you can read about his adventures and often view behind the scenes action at some of Canada’s most exciting events in real-time.

I also noticed that Liam has been blogging, and by doing so he has been connecting with other photographers, trading tips and tricks etc. By doing so he is helping the photography community and learning from others while establishing himself as a thought-leader. I don’t know about you, but from a hiring perspective I know I am far more likely to hire somebody who is a thought leader.

Know of somebody doing some great work on Twitter or other social media? Share the story here.

Here is a really cool post on ‘Things that Tweet’.

PS – Sorry for two posts in the same day. I had a bunch of ideas kicking around in my head when I woke up.

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