The New Year is quickly approaching and it seems fitting to take some time to look at a few of the key learnings from the past year. What better way to do that than to highlight some of the key take aways from some of 2009’s most successful social media marketing efforts. While we all may have different definitions of what “success” is, my look back on 2009 will focus on those social media campaigns that opened our eyes to the opportunities in social media or taught us new things about marketing.

Microsoft – I’m a PC:
After taking a beating from Apple, Microsoft finally responded with an innovative TV and multi-channel participatory marketing program that ended with two simple words – “Upload Yourself.” The campaign demonstrates that all media can be social/participatory and the importance of involving customers or the community in defining and defending your brand.

Ford - Fiesta Movement:
Ford invites 100 Gen Y’s to drive a Ford Fiesta (not available in the U.S. until next year) for six months and report their experience on various social media sites and blogs. The program demonstrates how social media and “Buzz” is the fifth ”P” --People-- in the classic four “P”s of marketing (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). It also demonstrates the continued acceleration of product launch cycles and that “pre-launch” is the new product launch with today’s social web. Special congratulations to Courtney Force who was recently awarded the Favorite Fiesta Agent title.

Nike – What Do You Play For?:
Nike calls on teens to share their sports stories. Participants are encouraged to upload photos of them playing the sport they love and to share their inspirational stories. Visitors then voted on their favorites and winners received prizes. While Nike is a brand that was built on showcasing the talents of unattainable superstars like Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods (who are not without their faults), this effort demonstrates the company’s evolution by leveraging the power of participation and real people to inspire other. . In today’s social web, advertising and promotion needs to be relevant, personal, identifiable, authentic and trusted. I believe this is the start of a major shift in advertising – bottom line: celebrities are out – real people like you and I are In. 

Starbucks - I'm In:
Starbucks encourages vistors to Starbucks.com and over 11,000 Starbucks locations to pledge 5 hours of community service.  In exchange Starbucks is giving those that pledge a free cup of coffee.  Participants also receive a pledge card and an "I'm In" badge that can be embedded on their websites to help spread the word.  What's so great about the Starbucks program is how it demonstrates the power of participation, and how organizations can be a catalyst for doing good.  The program has recieved national recognition and over 2.3 million hours have been donated between consumers and Starbucks employees.  Just goes to show you how marketers who think out of the box and add a little participation sweetener to their marketing efforts can not only build their brand and sales, but change the world.  

1-800-Flowers.com Mother’s Day:
Using an innovative outreach program, 1-800-Flowers targeted 24 “Mommy Bloggers” filling eight archetypes (On-the-Go, etc.) of motherhood to help spur Mother’s Day sales. Chosen bloggers received a bouquet of flowers and discount codes to share with their readers. Additionally, they were recognized by 1-800-Flowers’s blogger, encouraged to write their own blogs and attended a cocktail party in their honor with CEO Jim McCann. The program was significant for several reasons – first it highlights the importance of transparency and trust on the social web. In October, the FTC published its final guidelines requiring bloggers to disclose freebies or payments. Next, the innovative program incorporated unique tracking codes allowing 1-800-Flowers to measure success of the program including redemptions by blogger/site. For the 53% of you still struggling with measuring the ROI of your social media efforts this is a start.

Westin – Want to go for a Run:
Westin’s want to go for a run is an innovative participatory marketing and social program. Within minutes of checking into my room I received a voicemail from Westin’s running concierge inviting me to join him and fellow guests to refresh my mind and body with a 3 mile running tour of the city. Not only did the program reinforce Westin’s brand positioning and messaging (relax, renew, refresh), but the program showcases the fact that the best participatory marketing programs involve your employees and are operationalized to create unique differentiated experiences.

American Express – Shine A Light:
At a time when we could all use a little inspiration, Amex hit a home run with a program that shines a light on small business and serves as a powerful and positive reminder that the American Dream is still alive and well. While the program, which invited the public to nominate, “spotlight”, and vote on the small business that most inspired them, leveraged social media the real story is in the success of the small businesses themselves. More specifically the story is about what they teach us about the importance of customer relationships management (CRM). While social media may be in the spotlight right now, we all need to remember the importance of understanding our customer’s needs and interests and mastering the marketing basics like building great products and providing exceptional service and value before we jump on the social media bandwagon.

Lots of great lessons and congratulations to all the brands who pushed the envelope and built innovative marketing programs that got us all thinking – you’ve made us all better marketers for it. For more case studies visit our case study page. Looking forward to showcasing more great stories in 2010.

‘Til Next Time.

It’s planning season again and social media is not only top of mind but dominating the conversation. After a series of strategic discussions around social media with some of my top clients I’ve decided to take another look at the PMN case studies with a key question in mind – what can these programs teach us about marketing and the future of marketing? The findings were very enlightening -- so much so that I’ve written a feature in this month’s eM+C Magazine highlighting some of big take aha’s. While the article showcased four big brands, there is a ton more. That’s why I’ll be showcasing some of those additional insights here as well as at future webinars and speaking engagements. In the meantime I invite you to check out eM+C Magazine. Here is a quick summary along with the key learnings:

Ford’s Fiesta Movement shows us the growing importance of creating “pre-launch” buzz and may forever changes the way marketers introduce new products.

Nike’s What Do You Play For campaign teaches us the importance of building marketing programs that are not only inspirational but identifiable – celebrities no longer need apply.

1-800-Flowers’ Happy Mothers Days demonstrates the importance of transparency and tracking and

Starbucks’ I’m In proves cause marketing is not only good for the world but can be very good for your brand and sales.

Let me know what you think and be sure to check out the more than twenty PMN case studies on our website.

‘Til Next Time

After 3 years and 50,000 entries Netflix is ready to announce the winner of its movie recommendation challenge – or are they? While the contest ended on Sunday, two teams are reportedly in a dead heat for the million dollar prize. In fact, Netflix has delayed officially announcing the winner to validate the results – yes it was that close between the top 2 teams (BellKor's Pragmatic Chaos, The Ensemble). So what was the challenge and -- more importantly -- the key lessons learned? The challenge was to improve Netflix’s movie recommendation engine by 10% - a task requiring deep expertise in predictive modeling and statistical scoring, which makes the 50,000 entries all the more impressive. However, one of the more interesting phenomena’s that resulted was the participation and collaboration among team members and eventually across teams in the later stage of the contest. Once the benchmark of 10% was passed, it set off a 30 day race that allowed other teams some time to surpass it. What actually occurred was fascinating – teams and rivals merged, consortiums were built and passions were ignited. So much so that one team, started their own company to develop recommendation systems for e-commerce players.

So what was THE key lesson learned?

• Participation & collaboration and teamwork leads to innovation and invention: When you engage a community great things can happen. There are countless examples of communities generating great ideas – My Starbucks Idea, Dell’s IdeaStorm and others. However, when you get the community to collaborate and you build teams comprised of different yet complementary skills sets truly amazing things can happen. This is why the Netflix participatory marketing program will be one that will be studied for many years to come. Not only did Netflix receive some great ideas on how to solve the problem, but they got a diverse group of people from around the global to focus on building a solution that they could not otherwise buy or build themselves.

For me the Netflix program reminds me a little bit of what 3M is so famous for – that is their ability to assemble small teams to collaborate and innovate new products. But while 3M pulls its talent from within the company, Netflix tapped into the social web to reach and engage the best minds in the world to solve their problem – amazing. So the next time your company faces what seems like an insurmountable challenge – ask yourself how would the “community” solve this?

‘Till Next Time

In a new report, social media guru Charlene Li, in partnership with wetpaint, reviews and charts Interbrand’s top 100 brands based on their social media presence and the level of engagement they have with their customers. It’s an innovative and important report for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the report attempts to actually measure the depth of engagement and provides additional insights on trends by industry and the number of social media channels used by each brand. Next, the report goes on to correlate financial performance of these brands with level of engagement.

Not surprisingly, “Mavens,” (those brands engaged in seven or more social media channels with an above-average engagement score), enjoyed double-digit revenue and margin growth (as a category) in spite of the current economy compared to “Walflowers” (those engaged in six or fewer channels and had a below-average engagement score) who had negative financial performance on those same metrics.

Additional insights from the report include:

• Being there is important: having a presence on social networks and micro-blogging outlets is important. The report goes on to say “social media reach alone may have a positive impact” as the more touchpoints used can cause a “ripple effect”, by increasing or “boosting” brand recognition and driving sales volume.”
• Depth is critical: In some respects focusing on depth over breadth may be an effective strategy as depth gives brands the opportunity to understand customer needs and to react quickly – “which in turn generates pricing power” and drives success.
• Scalability is key: Make the customer and a commitment to social media a part of the culture. “A few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touchpoints.”
• Doing nothing is not an option – but doing it all may not be appropriate: Building a social media strategy depends on many factors including who your target is (remember Forrester’s POST methodology), your industry, etc. However, being where your customers are and a part of their online experience is critical.
• Find your sweet spot: Understand what resonates with your customers and engage with them in the channels they use and prefer. If resources are an issue – start small, lobby for more assets and engage fully.

The report goes on to highlight some very compelling case studies including profiles on Starbucks (ranked #1), Dell (#2), SAP (#9), Toyota (#21) and also includes a complementary website that allows brands to engage further and even complete their own brand’s profile. Another great report from Charlene! However, with the focus being so heavily placed on measurement these days it would be great to better understand the “engagement attributes” used to rank these brands (but I guess that is the secret sauce). Furthermore, I would have liked to see how much of a lift these brands experienced on a series of other metrics. Specifically, in a world where people are turning to other people for a things they need rather than the brands themselves, it would have been great to see if these brands experienced any lift in metrics like satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, likelihood to purchase.

To download the report click here.

‘Til Next Time

It is that time of year again – Back to School and the ads are everywhere. However, the one thing I noticed this year that was very different is that some of the big brands have added a bit more participatory marketing into their existing promotional efforts. One of the more innovative on that front has been Bed Bath & Beyond. In a series of print ads placed across several magazines Bed Bath & Beyond is mixing it up by including its standard 20% off coupons along with a participatory marketing twist. For the ad placed in People Magazine that twist includes a “Student of Invention” participatory marketing promotion that encourages readers to submit a great dorm room product idea. Similar to the My Starbucks idea effort, the ad calls for readers to submit ideas.  Ideas in this case are “to help students conquer the challenges of dorm room living: space, organization, storage, cleaning, lighting, comfort and decorating.” Done in partnership with Edison Nation, the ad goes on to say the winning invention may be sold in the more than 900 Bed, Bath and Beyond stores across the nation. For more information on the program and to enter your idea visit the Bed Bath & Beyond website.

In a related effort, a Bed Bath & Beyond ad found in Real Simple the same week, offers readers the possibility to win $55,000 for college and a $10,000 donation to the college of their choice if they user their MasterCard at Bed Bath & Beyond between July 1 – September 8, 2009. The ad looks and feels very similar to the ad found in People magazine with three fourths of the ad devoted to the promotion and remaing portion to the coupon, but obviously the message is very different. So what is so intriguing about Bed Bath and Beyond’s effort here? Lots.

1. A mix of old & new approaches. The 20% coupon is a Bed Bath & Beyond staple. While Bed Bath & Beyond may not be completely comfortable messing with success the latest effort demonstrates the company is willing to try or at least test something new and embraces customer participation as a key component of the effort. I suspect coupon redemption tracking and impact on sales will yield some great learnings.
2. Media/offer targeting and the social web. It is very interesting to look at the placement and demographics of each ad. As an example, People Magazine’s demographics index very high among 18-24 year olds and those under 44. One look at Forrester’s social technographics and you can see that the audience comprises a segment of the population that is very active on the social internet and includes a high number of joiners (maintain social networking profiles) and creators (publish blogs, upload video, write articles/stories and post them), which is very aligned to the promotion activity required. On the other side we have the ad in Real Simple whose average reader skews older at 44.  In fact, about 52% of Real Simple readers are between 35-54, according to the media kit. Here again, a look at Forrester’s social technographics data provides some interesting insights - this segment is much less active on the social internet. Therefore it seems fitting that the promotional element showcased in the ad in Real Simple requires no participation outside of a purchase at Bed Bath & Beyond in order to be automatically entered into the sweepstakes. Coincidence? I think not. To me it looks like Bed Bath & Beyond took the time to think about its target audience segments and built relevant offers that would best appeal to each.
3. Tracking. This is a company that has, in many respects, has taken a mass marketing approach to the market. Each and every month one thing was certain in our household – that 20% off coupon from Bed Bath & Beyond could be found in the mailbox. This latest effort demonstrates that Bed Bath & Beyond is willing to mix it up a bit and it looks like they are doing it intelligently with a targeted approach that most likely includes sophisticated tracking that can not only measure lift in sales and redemptions but participation as well.

Congratulations to Bed Bath & Beyond for demonstrating the importance of understanding your audience and building a corresponding offer and media strategy that encourage participation.

‘Til Next Time.

A wonderful thing is happening – the election of Barack Obama has instilled a sense of service of which has not been seen in decades.  Furthermore, it didn’t take long for companies to realize, this was one bandwagon worthy of jumping on.  The notion of service is really rooted in one’s willingness and interest to participate in a cause greater than one’s own self-interest.  It goes without saying, this philosophy applies to marketers as well and it is, in essence, why we’ve started the Participatory Marketing Network.  By embracing participation and adopting customer advocacy, marketers are actually taking marketing to a new level and the examples are becoming more plentiful by the day.  Since we started this blog, I’ve cataloged numerous examples (Audi, CNN, Amazon, Revision3, The Limited, Microsoft and Google) and there are dozens if not hundreds more.  One that struck me recently was Starbuck’s “I’m In” program.  While the “I’m In” program received a recent plug by perhaps the world’s most influential influencer, Oprah Winfrey (along with Demi Moore and Aston Kutcher), it is worth taking a closer look because of it’s integrated approach.  In addition to the endorsements mentioned above the campaign is being aggressively promoted online, in-store and via TV and email.   

 

The “I’m In” program encourages visitors to www.starbucks.com and any of  Starbuck’s 11,000 plus locations to pledge 5 hours of community service.  Visitors to Starbucks online can select from a list of worthy causes in their zip code.  One thing that Starbucks might want to consider is making the listings live links to complete the hand-off.  In exchange for taking the pledge, Starbucks is giving away a free cup of coffee and creating a lot of buzz and store traffic.  Participators also receive a pledge card and an “I’m In” badge that can be embedded on their website to help spread the word.  Hello social internet. Visitors to www.starbucks.com are also encouraged to sign up for email updates (there is that email again) to watch what “we” do.  The goal of the program is to donate over 1,000,000 hours and Starbuck employees are matching that goal with 1,000,000 hours of their own.  To date over 1,000,000 visitors to www.starbucks.com have viewed the video and, as of this writing, more than 1,250,000 hours have been pledged – mission accomplished, but not over.

 

“I’m In” is an example of how marketers who think out of the box and add a little participation sweetener to their marketing efforts can not only build their brand, but change the world.  Are you in?  Let us know.

'Til Next Time