Socialsama

One of the more interesting stories coming out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup (my favorite sporting event) is the story of a small Dutch brewing company, called (confusingly) Bavaria, who pulled a fast on on beer giant Anheuser-Busch. Basically, Bavaria recruited a group of young South African women to go to a match between The Netherlands and Denmark hiding bright orange mini dresses under their coats. At a certain point in the game, the ladies removed their coats, drawing attention to themselves simply by the fact that they were all wearing the same thing. Somehow or other, everyone who saw this was supposed to know that Bavaria was behind the stunt and buy their beer. However, FIFA and Anheuser-Busch were unhappy because of the millions paid to FIFA to secure exclusive beer promotion rights the the soccer tournament. Reuters provides a good summary of the event.

Ambush Marketing

The stunt is classic example of something called “ambush marketing.” The Wall Street Journal provides a very good definition and description of ambush marketing, but basically one brand will garner recognition at an event without paying, while another brand has paid for the rights to sponsor the event. There has been a long tradition of ambush marketing taking place at major sporting events. Abram Sauer provides a good history on www.brandchannel.com, saying, “As would be expected, along with increasing viewership and increasingly prohibitory sponsorship costs, ambush marketing has developed into an art form. FIFA says such tactics “lack decency and creativity.” Indecent? Maybe. Uncreative? Anything but. Highlights in ambush marketing history include:

• 1984 Olympics: Kodak sponsors TV broadcasts of the games as well as the US track team despite Fuji being the official sponsor. Fuji returns the favor in kind during the Seoul 1988 games of which Kodak is the official sponsor.
• At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics Nike sponsors press conferences with the US basketball team despite Reebok being the games’ official sponsor.
• In the greatest ambush marketing feat of all time Nike’s man Michael Jordan, Air Sponsorship himself, accepts the gold medal for basketball and covers up the Reebok logo on his kit.
• 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway: In response to official-sponsor Visa’s claims that American Express is not accepted at the Olympic Village, AmEx creates an ad campaign claiming (correctly) that Americans do not need “visas” to travel to Norway. The 1994 Visa-AmEx affair was a continuation of a scrap featuring the exact same campaigns from the 1992 Winter Olympics.
• 1998 World Cup, France: Nike again.
• 2000 Sydney Olympics: Qantas Airlines’ slogan “The Spirit of Australia” sounds strikingly similar to the games’ slogan “Share the Spirit.” Qantas claims it’s just a coincidence to the sound of official-sponsor Ansett Air helplessly banging its fists on the conference room table.
• 2002 Boston Marathon: Nike strikes again. As adidas-sponsored runners come off the course they are treated to spray-painted ‘swooshes’ honoring the day of the race, but not the race itself.

And where does the law stand in such cases of ambush marketing? Usually somewhere out of view.”

Wikipedia offers an even more current list, including the stunt by our Dutch friends.

Social Marketing or Simply Cheating?

Ambush Marketing strikes me as a beast that could be very similar to some social marketing practices. After all, social marketing often:

• Utilizes more public and and open events
• Leverages unofficial spokespeople
• Operates as less than official, at least at the beginning
• Has an element of the rogue to it

Consider the flash mob, which Wikipedia notes is considered to be something that is only really organized via social media, as version of ambush marketing light. Watch this video of a flash mob organized around a T-Mobile campaign.

Isn’t this really the same thing? Granted, no one else was paying for the rights to get people dancing in the Liverpool station, but that feels like the only difference to me.

As companies and organizations build more unofficial brand ambassadors via personal engagement, and drive the passion those people have for the brand or the mission to new heights, and as we are all more connected via social tools and mobile devices, who is to say that a tweet-up of iPhone lovers at an Android conference is or isn’t ambush marketing? Am I breaking the law by wearing my Dr. Pepper t-shirt to a restaurant that only serves Coke products? Can I wear my Adidas shoes into a Puma store?

No Answers

I don’t claim to have the answers. I’d like to hear your opinions and your ambush marketing stories. I do think that the world should prepare for more activity of this kind and the ownership and promotion of brands and missions moves out of the control of the marketing department in into the hands of passionate people.

Photo credit to TimS

Michael Stelzner interviews Jesse Stay to great effect.  Essentially, I agree with Jesse about the benefits of FB connect.  An important point that often is hidden is the impact FB connect can have on existing web sites – it can really obviate the need for adding tools for social networking to a corporate site.  I can see an argument for them, but I think it really threatens the business of say Kick Apps or Leverage Software.

More at the link – check it out!

Sorry for the light posting.  Been busy.  But anyway – found this on techcrunch.  Important – and big – problem facing twitter and social media marketers.  Could have real downstream effects iff twitter doesn’t get a handle on it.  Course twitter is having other problems this morning…

My wife is from Turkey and there is a Turkish saying, usually used in reference to raising children, that goes, “It’s like digging a well with a needle.” Put more directly, it’s a long, slow process. I think this saying applies to building a community out of the wilds of today’s social media world.

I was thinking about this today because, at times, I get exasperated that I can’t grow my Spredfast (in case you didn’t know, the social media management system we built) community at a faster pace. I always have to remind myself that gradual is not a bad word. Like raising good children, you can’t do it overnight. You have to be patient, recognize the teaching moments as they present themselves, and take advantage of them when they do arrive.

Quality instead of Quantity

Sure, I’d like to have a million people “like” my Spredfast Facebook Page and have tens of thousands of followers on Twitter, but then I remember that I’d rather have 1,000 super advocates for Spredfast than 500,000 people who don’t ever talk about my product, engage with the content I produce, or give me frequent and meaningful feedback.

There are strategies to gain fans and followers fast, but I question the long term benefits of those strategies. I believe that a connection made in a personal, one on one way will have greater, more enduring benefits. I believe that someone who seeks me out to learn about Spredfast will benefit more then the person who follows me just because I followed them.

Signal instead of Noise

A lot of people struggle with the amount of information coming their way. Companies are no different, because behind the logo just a group of humans. Starting with a smaller feedback channel allows us to really take it in, make the necessary improvements to grow, and as we earn a larger feedback channel we are also better able to accept it and do something with it.

Now, I’m in the business of building tools that make it easier to take a larger feedback channel and make sense of it with fewer resources. But like the chicken and the egg, I have to be able to receive the feedback about how to make the tools better.

Cherish instead of Acknowledge

By growing slowly and surely, I have an advantage. I am able to really get to know the clients I do have. Now, nobody is perfect all of the time. Do I know every Spredfast client as well as I would like? No, but I’ll bet I know them better than Apple knows Social Agency, even though we are loyal customers.

I believe I have a shot of getting to know my clients really well. I can spend more time talking with them and getting to know their business and their needs. If I can instill that desire in every now employee Social Agency brings on, then we can scale that ability to cherish, and avoid simply acknowledging our clients.

Embrace the Long Road

So, I’ve convinced myself to keep digging with my needle. For Social Agency and Spredfast, the well gets a little deeper each day. If you’re facing the same feelings each day, feelings of wanting to suddenly find yourself under a giant pyramid of fans/followers, just remember that to build meaningful relationships, you have to be there in person, making quality connections based on real understanding and empathy.

In the full spirit of this post, I’d like feedback from those really interested in a dialogue:

• How are Social Agency and Spredfast doing in developing a relationship with you?
• Where can we improve?
• What are we doing well?
• What are your experiences in building a community?
• How have you succeeded/struggled with scaling?

Fair warning, if you answer these questions, we’re probably going to get to know each other.

Hope to talk to you soon,

James

P.S. Image is from AntonioVI

Well, Facebook, it’s about time.  ‘Course this is the usual type of action with Facebook. Introduce some poor interface along with a major change(s), receive massive dissatisfaction from the user base, probably sell some stuff to advertisers, then roll back a fraction of the major changes with some new functionality.

Amazing to me that Facebook keeps getting away with this.  Do they ever stop?

Not sure this method of monetizing ads is going to work.  The idea, it seems, is to syndicate comments about a specific question; these comments come attached with an ad.  I guess the greater aggregation should lead to a liverlier conversation and perhaps some greater $$ for the bloggers, but like Erick below, I think folks will tune out the ads.  Far better to employ bloggers directly, make it clear that they are on the payroll, then give them relatively free reign to express themselves.

Check out the link for the entire post.

Congrats to the Scout Labs folks for their sale to Lithium.  I have virtually met a few of the people over there, and I thought they were terrific.  Very happy for them; they certainly put in the time and effort to make it all happen. For those of you unaware of what went down, here’s the article from Techcrunch:

So awhile back we were building facebook and myspace apps…And we got a little traction.  However, Facebook changes and MySpace decrepitude drove us out of the biz.  Now Buddy Media and Context Optional and obviously Watercooler (below) still do custom FB apps, and I think there is a market for them, it is just more like building a website than dropping widgets around (as we had hoped).  That said, this effort by Sports Illustrated is promising; they are going where the fans are and tying it back to their web site.  I look forward to the final version.

Just thought some of y’all might be interested in this article on Mashable.  I have copied 3 of the tips.  Click on the article for all 10.

Who the hell does Arrington think he is?  Did he put a bunch of money and time to start a risky company?  I don’t know how Techcrunch started, but he is way out of line here.  If Foursquare gets a good offer from Yahoo, they should take it.

Don’t Sell Out, Foursquare. Not Now. Not To Yahoo.