1. Audience, technology and the path to engagement.

    AKQA showed this morning their way to get audience. The (advertising) crowd rumored that they didn’t presented any innovative media campaign idea, just apps and “editechnical” stuff.

    But when they said that their Heineken application generated 90 minutes of brand engagement per user, this can’t make us think.

    What media communication piece gets 90 minutes of attention?

    Where was the budget taken to pay the application and its campaign?

    The answer is none, and from the communication budget.

    Are we going to give up earning that part of the budget? Let’s concentrate on media campaigns. But we have to care a lot to ensure that our share is growing, not shrinking. Are we sure of it?

    One can object that Heineken app is for geeks, and nobody is going to really spend 90 minutes on an app. Fantastic. We have an advantage. These agencies dont’ work on real life events, they do tech stuff.

    But please, don’t keep on doing print ads as an answer. People is turning their heads somewhere else, and their attention is going that way.

  2. Social Media: ipotesi di complotto?

    Sono sempre stato un sostenitore dell’open source philosophy, dalla collaborazione, della circolazione delle idee con attribuzioni “liquide” dei diritti.

    Ma proprio per questo, dopo l’adesione ai social network nella fase “comportamentale” (fornitori di un servizio alla persona in base a loro necessità) mi sento di riflettere sui social network attuali, più “pubblicitari” (fornitori di contatti alle marche per le attività di vendita).

    Oggi tutte le marche stanno correndo al brand channel, alla facebook page, alla presenza “là dove il pubblico si trova”. E sono d’accordo, errore grave era stato agli albori di Internet (per quei pochi che non erano riusciti nell’intento, almeno) cercare di produrre ognuno il suo proprio “portale” che aggregasse il pubblico, spendendo in molti casi cifre eccessivamente alte, per poi vedere le persone concentrarsi su un pugno di indirizzi web.

    Ma (è il secondo periodo che inizio con il “ma”, e allora???) alla necessaria riflessione su come entrare in contatto con il pubblico nella quota di tempo che essi trascorrono su Internet, con la consapevolezza che percentualmente il loro tempo lo passeranno su siti di cui non abbiamo il controllo, la risposta dovrebbe partire dal contenuto, non dal contenitore.

    Ho l’impressione che stiamo aprendo vetrine, come già accaduto su Second Life, senza pensare a cosa mettere sugli scaffali.

    Il consiglio è: pensiamo alla nostra marca e a come connetterla con il pubblico, a tutte le cose che possiamo fare, ma soprattutto a quelle che già facciamo, che costituiscono un valore nei confronti della persona. I punti di contatto verranno da soli, un come naturale percorso che porta il fiume al mare, una volta che abbiamo il controllo del nostro contenuto, della personalità della nostra marca, del tono di voce di una promozione o di una attivazione, di un comunicato stampa o di una campagna di lancio.

    Ho l’impressione che Facebook e YouTube stiano gongolando nel vederci cadere nella loro rete, pagando cifre che una volta venivano destinate alla gestione della propria identità digitale (il “sito”), per essere invece presenti sui loro scaffali, come dei Carrefour o delle Esselunghe che ben presto ci ricatteranno, e già ora vendono i nostri stessi prodotti, ma con “private label” al nostro stesso pubblico (le aziende).

    Non è che promuovendo il social web stiamo agendo da salesmen di Facebook e YouTube, senza provvigione però?

  3. The End Of Twitter

    We all wish Twitter eternal life; but… what if Twitter should meet his final destiny the way other web services and applications did?

    Here I present some possibilities. Chose the one you prefer.

    Too many users.

    Twitter dies for users overflow.

    Evolution.

    Another application with enhanced features takes Twitter’s place.

    Sponsored Tweets.

    The spread of sponsored tweets causes death by pointlessness.

    Sold to China.

    Twitter is nationalized by PRC.

    Acquired.

    Twitter doesn’t survive after acquisition by Google,

    Yahoo,

    or Microsoft.

    I’m sure Twitter won’t meet any of these epilogues. If they have read my post. Long life Twitter!

  4. Paice vs Bonham. And a hint for creatives.

    Why (in my opinion) Ian Paice, a drummer I really like, has not the same relevance in classic rock musicology than John Bonham, whom I consider the ultimate rock drummer? And why is it relevant for Agency creatives?
    (Compare here)

    Paice has technique, more than Bonham in my opinion, even if Bonham is a terrific drummer. Paice is surgically precise.

    Paice has fantasy, he repeats himself less than Bonham does along the years.

    Paice has speed, even if it’s a champions race, I think Paice is faster.

    What makes Bonham better?

    Bonham has “that” thing between innovation and inspiration, the same thing that Led Zeppelin has and Deep Purple is lacking; he has what tells a “classic” from something else.

    What’s the lesson for creatives?

    1. Focus on that “thing”. The rest will be secondary. If you focus on the idea, maybe you won’t gain the top judgement in advertising awards, but people will like it. Plant and Page have out-of-pitch notes on their tracks, but this doesn’t make their records less a classic.
    2. Try to be the one that the others would copy in the future, not the one who compares himself with the others in the present.
    3. Don’t be satisfied of the work until the idea is outstanding, not the execution.
    4. Don’t look for techniques, look for stories.

  5. Social Network Relationship Formula

    Social Network Relationship Formula

  6. Digitally exposed

    The news that Facebook is creating “vanity URLs”, that is, your Facebook personal page, made someone wonder if this could be the wrong step that will de-Face the Book and make it tumble down.
    Personally I think it’s just a step further towards our (and next generations’) total digital exposition, when every single word you say, photo you post, song you listen to, will be public, unless you filter it for some target only.
    Facebook personal pages are not “letting the mob into your private party” (unless you don’t know how to choose the guests) but maybe giving you the opportunity to show to the world some features of the party that you want to share.

    Imagine you start the party drinking a beer, then at the second beer you afford to dance with the queen of the party, the girl everybody is trying to dance with, but unfortunately you end up with your head in the toilet at the 45th beer. You firmly don’t want your ma and your boss to see the end and the beginning, but what about having the whole-freaking-world-seeing-you-dancing-with-that-beauty?

    My colourful example is to tell that maybe Facebook is giving us an opportunity; well-used, the Facebook personal page could be another piece of the mosaic of our enriched, and growing, digital personality.

  7. MyLastTweet - fantasy app #3

    This year I’m turnin’ 42. If I were Elvis, I would be months away from being found dead in one of my mansion’s bathrooms.

    Since I don’t live in Graceland but in a stinky 65-square-meters flat in a Milanese suburbia with just one bathroom, in which is impossible to stay longer than your physiological needs, I have some chances to meet a different fate.

    But when I think of dying, some questions worry me (in order):

    • What is going to happen to my SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES???
    • What is going to happen to my wife?
    • What is going to happen to my sons?

    OBVIOUSLY I’m joking, but the question is true.
    When someone dies, does his facebook profile stay alive, with friends poking a corpse, people inviting to discover who has the biggest brain someone who no longer has a brain, etc?

    Since the solution: MyLastTweet is a (fantasy) application designed to store your authorized instructions about what to do when you are no longer alive, for example:

    • Post your epitaph on Twitter;
    • Say goodbye to all your facebook friends;
    • Say your boss everything you think about him through LinkedIn;
    • Send instructions to close your accounts to all social services.

    You can activate it through a SMS or a phone call, but maybe you will not have the time to do it, for instance in case of car accident; so @stefanomaggi suggested a timer set up.

    If you don’t tweet or have social media activities for a defined time frame, the app will tweet something like

    “Goodbye. Either I am no longer interested in Twitter, or I’m dead.”

    Do you think the world will have this service in the future through funeral homes (maybe Digital Agencies can offer it as a service for them), or, when you pass away, you have to face another kind of problems?