I was definitely surprised by the way social media has been taken up by the Mexican mainstream given that we don’t have a great history of technology adoption ahead of the curve.
I mean, when local medical creams and condoms advertise their YouTube channels in their TV ads and even city bus lines promote their Twitter accounts you know it’s definitely been picked up by the public.
If your business is international, and we want to make it local, we should know how to spell our local associates’ names correctly. It’s Rodrígues or Rodríguez, not Rodriques. FFS!
I had visited Argentina before in 2004-05 (during their summer) and had a chance to do so again recently. This time I didn’t have the opportunity to stay in Buenos Aires, beautiful city as it is, but was in the province of Córdoba for work. The people have always treated me well (even if someone did remark I speak like somebody from TV due to my accent :P), the food is wonderful and the landscapes of such a varied country are very beautiful.
Pictures are more eloquent than words, so some below (more here).
Mate is an institution.Villa Carlos Paz is the main holiday destination in Córdoba. No wonder why.The Falklands (Malvinas) war is still a sore point.The amount and quality of the beef on offer is not for the faint of heart. I can't imagine there being many vegetarians around.Not your standard grill.One of the mythical stages of WRC, El Cóndor. We even saw condors there (no kidding).
Rally has a huge tradition (and traction) in Córdoba as you can gather from the ads below (1, 2).
I attended #n2hub last week and was originally planning to post my notes, but noticed the full presentations are now available online for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy:
Finally finished reading the book-long document (also a summary here). In short it recommends that to enhance the country brand of Finland, its people should focus on 3 strengths based around the idea of sharing Finnish practicality and problem-solving worldwide:
The most functional country in the world. Functionality: Finland to be developed into a Silicon Valley of social innovations
Drink Finland. Nature: Let’s make the lakes drinkable and serve organic food
Teachers without borders. Education: Finnish teaching protection force in peace work
One of the most interesting and exciting aspects about the whole report for me was, to be frank, how action-oriented it is. While it does have a significant current state analysis study behind it, most of its recommendations are actionable now, and they encourage public discussion of their findings and recommendations at their website.
Would definitely love to see this approach taken up by more countries. I can think of at least a couple that need a little bit of polish.
One of the best aspects of attending industry events is the opportunity to exchange points of view with other participants. This was brought home during the last panel I watched at SIME, where some of us in the audience didn’t necessarily agree with the panelists in one small point.
Don’t get me wrong: great creative is fundamental to a well-run campaign. However, as a former sales guy I’m a little tired of the intense focus we have as marketeers on the creative and winning awards. Cannes Lions are a beautiful thing and definitely don’t do you any harm as a brand or an agency, but when evaluating a marketing activity I’m more interested in understanding four aspects:
Will the activity live after the first or second push (is it built to live, or built to die?), or are we just thinking about separate, ephemeral campaigns?
Are we measuring impact, and what were the results? Are we focused enough on ROI instead of bells and whistles?
How is this communication adding value to our audience? Why should they care other than because it’s really cool?
As mentioned, I was not the only attendee thinking about these topics after hearing the panel, and we had an interesting chat later on. Funnily enough I found a very relevant presentation of his on this topic below:
Warning: this is quite a long post about marketing. If you’re interested, get a big cup of coffee and a comfortable seat
I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Scandinavian Interactive Media Event, SIME Helsinki for short. You can follow the real-time notes of the attendees in Twitter.While there was no streaming of it, I did take quite a few notes I’ll share with you below.
Introduction – Business as unusual (Ola Ahlvarsson)
Evolution of digital from Windows 98 & Wolfenstein 3D to MacOS & blogs to… the Matrix 😉
Facebook is the big opium of the people, growing faster than any web service ver.
Google branching its business into physical, mobile
Rise of apps
Traditional media mixing with new platforms: BBC on the PS3
Listening is more important than ever
Vision-based augmented reality emerging as a trend
Cloud computing
Cheap iteration
Easier access to international markets
Internet of things: robotic internet
Old industries (books, records) totally disrupted, but content is more alive than ever in the digital world
Games going social (sharing gameplay clips an emerging activity)
Branding is dead, or isn’t it? Originality more appreciated than ever.
Owned, bought, earned media model intro.
B2B going B2C
Measurement panel
What to measure, what not to measure, how they combine: good discussion but inconclusive.
70% of teenagers would rather go without sex than music.
Bring together music & lovers.
New bands sign in, get listeners and fans.
Social media workshop
Social media is a diffuse, container term
Engaging with as many people as possible… really?
Mass communication coming to an end.
Quality, not quantity communications
Number of communication messages everyday increasing times 10.
Internalise social media practices in your organisation.
Keep on developing, things never get out of beta.
Participate, don’t just enable if possible.
Sociology know-how important.
Aggregate & summarize (widgets, RSS, etc)
Package but allow unpackaging.
Data is owned by users, make it portable.
Absolute clarity for licenses and permissions is vital.
Monetisation is possible & can be planned for: make it free first, charge for additional services later. Made me think of the growth of SMS in the Philippines.
Segment product on different layers: Spotify basic vs. premium
Presence / status update important, becomes social currency.
The combination of social media and mobile has the potential of becoming very powerful, especially with its links to location (& even more, proximity).
Recommendations for companies getting started:
Start with content calendar.
Basic listening tools (Tweetdeck, Google Alerts).
Authenticity crucial: you have to be close to the essence of your brand/service proposition.
Customer care can be a great way of getting started if you do a good job. Look at it as cost vs. opportunity.
Don’t do external-facing communications if too stiff, but internal blogging/comms are also a great opportunity.
Don’t experiment, commit to do it well.
Marketing communications workshop: From one-night stands to meaningful relationships in marketing
The full talk from Hasan & Partners. Please make sure to check it first before reading the rest.
Heineken Milan Champions League case: One night stand using earned & paid media
Gatorade replay: Huge ROI, much more than a one night stand. Concept can be scaled up or down, and continue even if the brand is no longer behind it.
Livestrong, Nike Chalkbout: Post-digital executions. It’s all about you (reminds me of that Time cover)
Wrap-up and Conclusions
Change is not a choice, it’s a necessity.
All marketing is performance based.
Social media must be entertaining, useful and/or relevant.
Finns can make world-beating services if their vision is big enough.
E-health will be close to your heart 😉 .
Innovation is definitely accelerating.
Creativity in communication is more important than ever.
