360DigitalInfluence

This week, Ogilvy is launching a new initiative to publish Red Papers of our thought leadership. Red Papers are Ogilvy-ized white papers meet books. I mean with the emergence of the iPad and even the iPhone as reading formats, I am having a hard time understanding what is a “paper” and what constitutes a “book.”  This one is a bit long - almost 8000 words - not there is valor in length.  I wanted to share some of my experiences in a practical way and therefore I get into some nuts and bolts for planning really effective social media.

What is it about?

For the past few years, we have been helping established and emerging brands apply social media in the most impactful way possible. That means getting beyond tactical and often token gestures at applying social media-based approaches. We work with enterprise to help them not just realize marcom programs but also change they way they interact with customers and organize themselves. While every brand is different, there are common experiences. My Red Paper outlines these and offers a foundation - practical and high-minded - that brands can apply to ensure their own approach is as strategic or as impactful to the business as possible.

Get it now

The Red paper is available for download now. It sits alongside another excellet read in Dimitri Maex’s Red Paper Learning to Read the River which is all about understanding the flood of data and metrics available to us as marketing experts.

When I first started at Ogilvy, our Digital Influence team was an average-sized practice scattered across a few time zones. Now, as the sun sets on the second quarter of 2010, Ogilvy Digital Influence is a large network of experts from around the globe. An all-hands-on-deck staff meeting requires a NASA-powered satellite up-link.

All of this global growth comes with, well, global opportunities. For me this means closing up shop here in Washington and heading half way around the globe to Ogilvy, Hong Kong. In just a few days, I’ll be saying goodbye to the nation’s capital and moving to Hong Kong in an effort to help grow Ogilvy’s digital practice in Asia.

continue reading

The 2010 FIFA World Cup kicks off this afternoon, but you don’t have to be in South Africa to be a part of the crowd.

Emirates, a sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2010 started the Twexican Waveto get rabid football (soccer) fans amped for their favorite teams within the context of the Emirates brand. Users go to www.twexicanwave.com and register their “wave” profile picture (a pic of themselves with their arms in the air) then tweet using #twexicanwave. If #twexicanwave is tweeted without a registered picture, the wave breaks and a new one begins. So why participate? If you are part of the longest wave you’ll be entered for a chance to win Emirates FIFA World Cup packages…so it might just be worth uploading a ridiculous picture of yourself to your Twitter profile, and getting all of your followers to to join the wave.  

As of today, the longest wave is 125 people. We’ll be watching this one closely to see if the virtual wave makes it around the digital stadium.

Besides its relevance to World Cup kick off we like this initiative because it reminds us to think about simple ways to build brand awareness by connecting fun and familiar behaviors with established social media platforms.

* Special thanks to my colleague Annabel Brown in Sydney for bring this fresh thought to the table.

We are very excited to announce that we are a proud sponsor and participant of an upcoming virtual conference brought to you by our friends at PRWeek next week. With new applications and social media tools emerging every day, staying up to date on the latest trends in social media innovation is critical to our business as PR professionals.

The PRWeek Lab will take place Wednesday, June 2 and Thursday, June 3, 2010 and will provide an online resource for PR professionals on the most recent social media trends, tools, and strategies, thought leadership, and case studies- all without leaving one’s office. The online platform includes live webcast sessions, keynote speakers (such as Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and Ben Edwards, VP of Digital Strategy and Development, IBM), as well as exhibitor booth environments for follow-up questions, live chats, and material downloads. PRWeek Lab will be a fully interactive experience, with Q&A throughout, as well as polling of all participants on the quality of the content and the future of social media. No other PR event will bring you closer to the action that is driving today’s social media innovation.  Please visit here for additional details.

continue reading

Getting jazzed for the WOMMA School of WOM confab in Chicago (my hometown) on May 24-26.  A few thoughts and tips …

Sessions

The conference is packed with great sessions.  I’m seriously impressed.  A few I’m personally keen to catch …

• Jeffrey Hayzlett of Kodak speaks on Monday from 2pm-3pm.  You might know that Hayzlett recently announced he’s leaving Kodak, which could make for a very candid session.
• Also on Monday (4:30pm-5:15pm) , Pete Blackshaw and John Stieger lead a session on P&G’s customer relations efforts as a spark for WOM.  I’ve never met Blackshaw, and am looking forward to doing so.
• On Tuesday morning, Sarah Hofstetter and Roberto Mastracola deliver a case study on Coke Zero.  When Coke speaks, I listen.
• The Tuesday keynote is from Andrew Mason, CEO of Groupon.  These guys are darlings of the Chicago scene.  Very eager to hear what he has to say.
• Ogilvy’s very own Kaitlyn Wilkins will join Ford’s Marisa Bradley on Tuesday to talk about building a more social Ford Motor Company.  This is a topic near and dear to my heart; and knowing how passionate Kaitlyn is about her Ford work, I’m sure it’ll be a great discussion.
• Jason Anello of Yahoo will lead a session called “How 20 Purple Bikes Generated 20 Million Impressions.”  I’m a big Y! fan, and I’m really looking forward to hearing Jason deliver an overview of this program.

continue reading

Want to earn a three month fellowship at Ogilvy and go to the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in France? Well, then, simply sell us a brick.

That’s the pitch from our colleagues over at OglivyOne. They’ve recently launched a search for the World Greatest Salesperson. The call for entries is simple: send in a video selling a brick and you’re entered to win. Head over to Ogilvy’s Youtube Channel to submit. “If you can sell a red brick, maybe you can sell anything,” said Mat Zucker, of OgilvyOne in a recent interview about the contest with the New York Times.

The contest is in response to what many perceive as the industry’s wandering away from the discipline of sales. Sure, social media has brought about major changes in the way that businesses communicate with consumers. But, for many of our clients, the way they make money has not. Selling is still critical to success. Our founder and former door to door salesman, David Ogilvy, is often quoted as saying “we sell, or else.”

The spirit of this contest is akin to renewing your wedding vows; many years have passed and the environment is radically different, but the commitment remains the same: we sell, or else. So check out the video, and sell us your brick. You could find yourself working at Ogilvy.

Check out our Facebook page or head over to the Ogilvy Youtube Channel to enter.

We’ve all heard the messages…exercise…eat healthy…quit smoking…talk to your doctor about your heart health. But what does it take to foster real behavior change? Empowerment efforts like the First Lady’s Let’s Move campaign? Engagement initiatives like the truth campaign? Does it take a change in social norms?

Today, I’m happy to announce the newest addition to the Ogilvy blog network…Social Marketing exCHANGE. Authored by members of the Ogilvy’s Social Marketing team, the exCHANGE will focus on any and all topics related to the application of social marketing and behavior change communications to address public health and social issues.

What is Social Marketing? How do you promote behavior change? How can social media support awareness for social issues? Does it require a change in policy to real make a change in public health and safety? These are some of the issues we will be discussing on the exCHANGE.

Our work has addressed some of the most important issues of our time, ranging from health, safety, and risk communications to environmental stewardship and community development. Specific areas of focus have included HIV/AIDS, heart disease and stroke, pandemic influenza, global health, nutrition, cancer prevention and treatment, homeland security, emergency preparedness, driving and transportation safety, dating and youth violence, and community conservation.

Here are a couple of our first posts…

Let the dialogue begin! – What we hope to accomplish with Social Marketing exCHANGE
An Identity Crisis for Social Marketing – Distinguishing Social Marketing from Social Media
Getting Smart on Gov2.0…Fast! – A Collection of useful sites to stay sharp on Gov2.0

So stop by the exCHANGE. Wonder out loud.  Take issue.  Raise questions.  Advance ideas. Share experiences and perspective.  Voice your opinions. We look forward to creating a space where all of these important issues can be discussed.

Please join us at an 8 am - 12 noon “unconference” on Friday, August 21st, in Atlanta - PR Camp Atlanta - organized by Dan Greenfield of Bernaise Source Media.

This event will be a fast-paced interactive learning experience free of panels and Powerpoint.   Learn and exchange ideas about social media relevance to senior executives, new approaches to measurement and effective sharing of knowledge.

We”ll be co-leading a session on measurement.  Here’s the full list of who’s helping guide the sessions:

- James Andrews, Managing Partner, Everywhere
- Melanie Babcock, SVP, Digital Strategy & Services, Manning Selvage & Lee
- Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager, UPS
- Bert Dumars, VP, E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
- Peter Fasano, Principal/Lead Catalyst, mass+logic
- Carol Flammer, Managing Partner, mRELEVANCE, LLC
- Christopher Jones, Digital Strategist, Ketchum PR
- Irfan Kamal, Vice President, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence
- Katie Mingo, Senior Marketing Associate, Delta Airlines
- Marilynn Mobley, SVP, Strategic Counsel, Edelman PR
- Shirley Powell, SVP, Corporate Communications, Turner Broadcasting System
- Jenny Schmitt, President and Director of Client Strategy, CloudSpark

Register here.

Along with a group of 11 diverse consumer tech influencers, Ogilvy PR worked with our client Intel recently to host a day-long visit to the company’s Santa Clara headquarters that included conversations about the digital divide, the latest in mobile technology, eco-computing, and more. The “Upgrade Your Life” event participants, who are prolific gadget and performance content creators, talked with Intel’s executive leadership about ways that technology is improving the lives of women and girls globally.

Photo by Intel’s Ken Kaplan.

continue reading

As a follow up to our recent webinar, Facebook Bootcamp for PR, you’ll see five blog posts in the coming weeks exploring the five trends set out in our presentation.

There are two distinct forms of currency set to expand on Facebook: Facebook credits and cold, hard cash. Months after Facebook playing around with gift credits and launching a candy coated beta test, Facebook announced last week that it will be rolling out more gift monetization options. And just on Wednesday, Facebook posted a Payment Terms of Service Agreement on their developers’ site showing that this option is not far off. In this post I’ll touch on both and what each trend means for brands. continue reading