“Alternative Media”
It’s an alternative to what?
November 5, 2009

Agenda
• Introductions
• Guidelines
• Case Studies
• Reviewing the Foundation
• Defining a Strategy
• Q&A

Who’s this guy presenting?

sean williams marketing group
• I’m the company
• It is a ‘consulting’ company with a focus on
marketing and communications
• Client’s all across North America
• Almost three years old
• Work with a long list of ‘partners’ to support
offering and client needs
• My past experience:
– Locally at Bristol Group
– Toronto at Leo Burnet and Dentsu to name a few
– Marketing/sales roles at Molson and Nikon

Session Guidelines

Guidelines
• I don’t want to do all the talking
• Questions, questions, questions
• Discussions, discussions, discussions
• Respect the discussion
• The floor is wide open
• I’ll answer what I can
• I’m not a Social Media guru… nor do I
want to be one

What do you want from
today’s session?

The Power of this
“Alternative” World

Tools of this World

What’s Worked?

One pissed off fellow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

Results without a mandate
• Carrol flew United Airlines with his band and his
guitar ended up broken at the hand of employees
• Airline offered no compensation
• He responded by creating a music video about the
experience (with two more to come)
• United is feeling the wrath of citizen journalism, the
social web, and the millions of airline travelers who can
identify with Carroll’s experience
• In 10 days there were more than 30 unique placements
accruing, a total of 3.2 million views, and 14,000
comments

No more “big bank”?

‘Speak’ to your audience
• Bank sponsored fan page - “Money Lounge”
• Youth targeted in very relevant space
• Offers audience direct access to banking
channel
• Users can interact with bank through facebook
interactions or valued tools
• While “sponsored” by TD Canada Trust,
ownership now placed on fans
• Over 19,000 fans

Viral with sex appeal

Again, know your audience
• Virtual Bartender interactive game
• 10 emails sent to friends of beer.com – 9:00 p.m.
and Midnight (July 4)
• No other form of marketing was used
• 75 sessions later that night
• 15,000 the following day
• 10,000,000 user sessions in 28 days – 7 minutes
per session on average
• Beer.com became the most popular website in
the world for the month of November 2004

Don’t always look online
• Irving – Cruise in 2 win
• Dell – Design your own notebook
cover
• Sears – Scratch & Save
• Milk – “moo” campaign
• Jones Soda – Design your own label

Foundation of “Alternative
Marketing”

Know and understand
your audience

Respect who
they are and
what’s going
on in their
lives

Engage them in their space

Ensure the offering or contact is engaging, “real” or
“personal” and valued
* Word bubble compliments of wordle.net

Stay true to “the brand”

Going Forward

Define the Framework
• What are your objectives?
• Who do you want to reach?
• What do you want to say?
• What do you want to have happen?

Keep the Strategy Simple
Generate and facilitate organic dialogue that
leads to meaningful engagement and action

Q&A