FRANKthoughts

Yesterday the press release went out about our revitalised business relationship with STA Travel and we just want to clarify any possible misunderstanding that may have been caused. Here’s B&T’s version…

STA Travel appoints FRANkVizeum
STA Travel has appointed FRANkVizeum to handle creative, online media buying and social business strategy duties.
The student travel company awarded the Melbourne-based agency the business following
a competitive pitch against the Sphere Agency. STA Travel, although previously using Lifelounge for
creative work, has traditionally handled creative, online buying and social media in-house. FRANkVizeum already oversees
the communications planning and offline media buying for STA. The agency has now effectively become STA’s fullservice
agency, handling its $3m media budget. “FRANkVizeum demonstrated that they really understand our business and we look forward to
a long and prosperous partnership working together to achieve outstanding results,” said Natalie Placko, marketing director of
STA Travel. Martyn Thomas, managing director of FRANkVizeum, added: “It’s a delight to be working with the new STA Travel management team and we have every confidence that together we can recapture and exceed the halcyon days of STA Travel.”

What the press release neglects to mention is that STA Travel has a very happy relationship with Media max who were appointed in October last year to manage their SEO, PPC and other online marketing. Additionally the Sphere Agency is currently scoping out potential brand activity.

We’d just like to aplogise  in this regard and look forward to collective success going forward.

This post is not about “social media”. It’s about media that is social. What’s the difference?

“Social Media” (Or earned media) is the collective term used for everything involving twitter/facebook/blog/youtube/flickr etc. It’s usually about listening, engaging and growing a community.

Media that is social is the sort of media that supports an idea by providing a community participatory solution. Here’s an example: Pavegen is the first commercial pavement that creates energy from people’s footsteps. The electricity produced is used to power signs, lights and information kiosks. The pavegens can be branded and will actually work nicely with a promotion leading people (literally) to a specific store.

It seems everyone is a winner: The brand gains publicity for the unique approach and saves on electricity bills. The consumer gets a better “experience” and the environment gets some help.

Here’s another example showing how The city of Denver is using parking meters to help raise money for homeless people in Denver.

It’s simple, Every time you put money in the meter you support food, shelter and care for the homeless people in your area. How many people will avoid paying for the meters now? How many people will feel better paying for their parking space? How good will the council look? Here’s from the Mayor: “This grassroots campaign is projected to raise roughly $100,000 per year giving the general public a constructive way to help Denver’s homeless. “The donation meter demonstrates yet another innovative way in which this community is responding to Denver’s Road Home and our commitment to ending homelessness” – Mayor Hickenlooper.

The real social media isn’t about twitter or youtube. It’s about people doing something together, a bigger idea and making things better.

Would love to hear about more examples of real social media. Got some?

“Social media” is all the buzz now and clients want to “get on it”, “use it” or “leverage it”. Many people think social media is just another media. It’s not. (Tip: if it’s not a dialogue between your company and users it’s not social media). Many people also believe that social media is just another part of their “Marketing”. It’s not. Being social starts from the inside. From your organisation. You cant start a conversation only to leave the room a month later. To fully understand what needs to be done to GET IT RIGHT lets take a step back.

David Armano’s latest presentation (from the SXSW2010 panel picker) about “social business strategy” (what we call immersion).
I like the term “social business strategy” – probably the biggest and toughest part of social media because it’s not about paid for/set and forget marketing solution. It’s about asking questions first, research and probing. It’s not about “Lets do it” it’s about “Lets think about it”. It’s about your organisation being ready for it. So, bringing this down to the essential ingredients, it is about 1. strategy 2. tactics 3. measure. I also love Armano mentioning the scale element of this approach.

Seth Godin’s post “when tactics drown out strategy” is highlighting the difference between strategy and tactics. “Building a permission asset so we can grow our influence with our best customers over time” is a strategy. Using email, twitter or RSS along with newsletters, contests and a human voice are all tactics. In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a strategy… and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the strategy that they never really embraced in the first place. Seth is right. Most brands want to go viral/facebook/youtube before they have a clear strategy. It’s like attempting to drive a truck before taking any driving lessons.

Matt Dickman summarize this nicely in his post: Want better digital strategy, ban seven dirty words. If you don’t have a strategy you shouldn’t talk about “what we’ll do with xyz tool”.

To end this up here’s Paul Isakson’s post that started my search (Thanks Paul).
If you don’t want to fail in “social media” don’t treat it as an add-on. Have someone in charge of it, have a plan and create a budget. But first, start with a strategy. Only then you can start talking about “that viral idea on youtube”.

This post has more to do with the ‘GFC’ than the 1980’s Prince album of the same name.  A recent NY Times article about the American outdoor advertising market sums up the state of their economy perfectly.

Taking advantage of abandoned retail spaces in urban areas, marketers are leasing them at cut-rate prices and filling them with ’shop window billboards’.  At first, advertisers saw storefront advertising as a poor man’s billboard — that is, a bad thing. Now, they see it as a poor man’s billboard — that is, brilliantly frugal.

Initially, I thought this was advertisers kicking property owners when they were already down. But landlords are apparently glad for any assistance they can get with ongoing commitments to building taxes, insurance and electricity bills.

Some sites are being booked at $500USD for three-month stints in prime locations.  An outdoor billboard in comparable spots would usually cost $50,000USD.  In some cases, landlords are even donating space because they liked the client (Conservation International have ran environmental campaigns), and also because it is more appealing to have something in the windows other than dust and grime.

In its most simple execution, a former high-end furniture store in Greenwich Village, Manhattan is now an ad for Snickers.   Specialists in this area, InWindow, took the concept a step further, developing a launch campaign for the quirky stop-animation film Coraline.   At 14 locations in 7 US cities, they used a combination of technologies to bring the streetscape to life, promoting the film to a curious urban market.  It allowed the advertiser to develop a much deeper connection with the audience than a traditional static billboard.

I am sure it boosted effectiveness measures and recall levels through the roof.  The trend of using these spaces also shows that innovation is a powerful force in marketing, especially when times are tough.