John Winsor

Do Influentials Really Influence Anybody?

Francois posts about a couple of new research reports that point to the fact that influenctials might not have as much influence as we believe.

My hunch is that the world of influencing is much more complicated than we think it is. Case in point. I've been watching the company Lululemon and the rise of yoga clothing with interest as an emerging trend. Yet, I thought they only made women's clothing. Recently, two friends, both designers, showed up with very interesting, but different, jackets. I asked both where they had gotten their jackets. They both had discovered Lululemon from their wives and really liked the men's clothing and the brands story. Well, I had to check it out. And, indeed, they were right.

No matter how much advertising Lululemon did I would have never walked in the store without being inspired by my friends.

Influence does work.

It's Not All About You

I've thinking a lot lately about the celebration of "You." It is wonderful to see the power of the people rising. Yet, I wonder if many marketers aren't running from one side of the boat, full control of the their marketing, to the other, consumer generated marketing. It feels like giving full control of a brand's marketing to the people is an abdication of responsibility.

The future lies in the middle way of co-creation built on two-way dialogue and consumer generated insights that drive real marketing innovation and deepen a conversation.

Dog Generated Media

In a very fun spin on comsumer generated content, Purina's Secondnature House Training Solutions has been running a contest entitled, The Poop Confession Contest. Here's what they have to say:

Every dog has his or her day—especially the courageous canines that have shared their darkest, dirtiest secrets with us. Thanks to secondnature®, they don’t have to hold it in any longer! Watch their videos and vote on your favorite Poop Confession Contest entry now.

The contest is now down to Busta, Gericho and Lulu so be sure to vote before the 25th. 

It goes to show that getting customers involved can be fun and easy for any brand.

Google and Eepybird's Deal is a Tipping Point

The Google and Eepybird.com deal should usher in a new era of consumer generated content giving consumer's access to revenue from advertisers like Coke and Mentos. This deal only adds another nail in the coffin of the traditional content production model.

Feeling Left Out?

It seems everyone from Proctor & Gamble to J.P. Morgan Chase is playing in the social media space. Are you?

To catch up with what's happening, The Times did a nice overview of what's happening in the wild west of social media marketing.

Joanne K. Bradford, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for advertising sales, put it this way:

"When blogs and Spaces first came out, people said no one would be willing to advertise on them. Consumers have voted. They said this is where I’m spending my time, and if you want to find me here, you have to get used to the fact that everything is not pretty and rosy here.”

Welcome to the world of Co-creation!

Current.TV's VCAM

If you're a marketer and not familiar with Current.TV's VCAM, you should be. VCAM stands for Viewer Created Ad Message. The program is all about unleashing the power of the people to produce ads for companies.

People can go to the VCAM section of Current's site and get ad assignments, then go shoot their ads. Once shot, the ads are uploaded to the site and then voted on by other viewers.The best videos will then be shown to Current.TV's 28 million cable viewers. The producers also have the ability to win money.

The current assignments are for Mountain Dew and Pop Secret popcorn.

Current's model seems like a good way for brands to experiment in the world of Consumer Generated Media, in a controlled way.

YouTube Underground Contest

YouTube and Cingular have connected to introduce The YouTube Underground Contest. Ad Age says:

In what is perhaps YouTube's biggest sponsorship deal to date, Cingular Wireless has agreed to back a search for the site's most talented unsigned bands. The promotion strikes at the core of rival MySpace, which was founded on the premise of exposing unsigned artists to large audiences online.

The promo video, above, has been viewed over 390,000 times in a day and a half.

How could you connect with YouTube?

Bud.TV

After getting 700,000 downloads of this year's Super Bowl ads from Anheuser-Busch's own sites and adding another 22 million people watching the commercials on video.google.com and video.yahoo.com the folks at AB decided to get in the content creation game with Bud.TV.

Anthony T. Ponturo, vice president for global media and sports marketing at Anheuser-Busch told the New York Times today, “the Internet will be equal to or better than television.” 

Those words have media execs shaking tonight with the prospect of one the biggest advertisers (AB spent $919 million across all media in 2005) going into the content business.

Intriguingly, Bud.TV will also let consumers mash-up their own commercials on one channel appropriately named, Bud Tube. Other content from Bud.TV will  also have the ability to be repurposed on other sites like You Tube.

When advertisers and consumers can get together to have their own creative dialogue the very nature of advertising and media will change. Talk about moving beyond the brand!

A friend reminded me today that we can no longer concern ourselves with the evolution of marketing and product innovation. In this age of co-creation, we all must focus on enabling the transformation of marketing and innovation.

World of Warcraft

I'm the first to admit, I'm not a gamer. Maybe that's why Seth Schiesel's article in The New York Times today about World of Warcraft blew me away. Here's a tidbit for those of you, like me that have a hard time understanding the power of gaming:

Less than two years after its introduction, World of Warcraft, made by Blizzard Entertainment, based in Irvine, Calif., is on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year with almost seven million paying subscribers, who can log into the game and interact with other players. That makes it one of the most lucrative entertainment media properties of any kind.

and

One of the players was Jason Pinsky, 33, the chief technology officer for an apparel company in Manhattan. Mr. Pinsky is not unusual among serious players in that he has logged more than 125 days (3,000 hours) on his main character, a hunter.

“I play this game six nights a week from 8 p.m. to midnight,” he said in a telephone interview. “When I say that to people, sometimes they look at me a little funny. But then I point out that most people watch TV at least that much, and television is a totally mindless experience.

“Instead of watching ‘The Lord of the Rings’ as a three-hour experience, I am now participating in the epic adventure.”

I don't care what it is, 3000 hours of anything is a lot!

Give people the ability to create a community and interact and they will, on a massive level. What are you doing to your customers build communities for your brands?

Consumers Report

John Moore points to this wonderful quote from Ad Age:

”Product reviews written by real people are perhaps the most underappreciated slice of the consumer-generated-media universe, the explosion of which has captivated the advertising and media worlds. But as marketers fixate on getting their virals on YouTube and making friends on MySpace, these relatively unsexy product write-ups have quietly become the most common form of consumer content -- Forrester [Research] puts it as the most-used form of peer-generated content -- not to mention the one with the most direct impact on purchase decisions."