Facebook Developers Conference. Social Networks - An Agency Perspective, by Saint

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Hi I’m Adam Graham, one of the founding partners of Saint. A digital agency that’s part of an above the line agency – Rainey Kelly Cambell Roalfe / Y&R.RKCR do the TV ads for big brands such as M&S, Lloyds, Boursin & Virgin Atlantic to mention but a few.others are:BBC,Danone,Visit LondonLearn DirectHome OfficeBTBabybellBacardiLand RoverOxfamVirgin MediaVolvic

Saint is a digital agency that is part of an above the line agency.We work on the main agency’s clients but also have our own distinct ones

Here’s some of the client we currently work withAnd some of the brands our core team have previously worked with

And here’s some of the things we do for themBrand planningWeb designDisplayDigital outdoor Mobile marketingAnd of course SOCIAL MEDIA

So we are big believers in the power of social currency.The idea that people voluntarily pass stuff about if it is entertaining or useful in some way.This is something that Facebook does very well.

So, the shouty broadcast days are over.No longer can a brand just carpet bomb us with messages and expect that to have a significant positive effect.

And no longer can a brand expect to dictate what we know about it.Online, you can get found out very quickly indeed. So, it’s no good telling everyone your product is the bestest and cheapest, if half the blogosphere are all saying how they tried it and it sucks!Brands are starting to realise that have have already lost control, so the sooner they stop trying to control conversations and the sooner they start embracing this democratisation, the sooner they reap the benefits.

The consumers control the brand now. Online communities like Facebook can effect massive change.Just look at the resurrection of the Whisper bar. The power of social networks really should not be underestimated

It’s not so much what brands say any moreIt’s what they DO

It’s no good promising the world and not following it though. Nowadays online, you will get found out very quickly indeed.It’s all about brand fulfillment.

So, the lines are blurring between marketing and products.Many of you here are Facebook application developers. How many apps you know of are “products” or revenue streams in the own right - and how many are some form of marketing? Probably quite a lot are considered marketing and quite a lot are pretty difficult to distinguish.

So, digital is a facilitator of brand promise and brand fulfillment. Both can happen together in real-time

Brand fulfillment is ultimately about creating value. This is one of the core tenets of our philosophy at Saint.As I touched on at the very beginning, we believe that if you create something of value – be that entertainment or utility – people will pass it on voluntarily.

This is an example of an augmented productYou have the product itself at the coreAround it you have the means of access, the convenience and management Around this you have the tools and utilities which enhance the experienceThen additional contentAnd finally Value added services - – extra goodies that are the icing on the cakepreviously, the core, alone, would be the product and the marketing activities would shout about this product’s benefits.Now, by adding these layers of value around the product, it creates its own “gravity’ and pulls people towards it.

Value travels across different devices and it crosses from the “online world” to the “real” world.This is where Facebook is really good and one of the reasons it is better than it’s competitorsFacebook works because it allows you to enhance and augment your offline experiences. You post photos of things you do with your friends; you write on each others’ walls regarding offline experiences.MySpace, however is more a portfolio. A place for bands to put their demos. MySpace has nothing to do with your offline life; it’s only related to your online life, and, thus, falls short. It’s more akin to the old skool broadcast days and does not truly connect people in the same meaningful way that Facebook does.So, it’s crucial to straddle the void between the online world and the offline world. This is something that facebook does elegantly in people’s personal lives. Businesses need to do the same thing.Clearly, it’s no good having mixed messages across media - being inconsistent with communications is a sin, but that’s not what we are talking about here. It’s not about ‘pushing’ messages or even about having conversations. It’s about truly integrating so that there’s a seemless connection between the business and the online world.

For example, and I love this, there’s the Facebook app that allows you to buy your friends a REAL drink. None of this virtual drinks nonsense, this is a token which is sent to your phone and can be redeemed in participating bars. Why this works so well is that the very people who are redeeming their vouchers at the bar are likely to take pictures of their experience and post photos online, thus publicising the offer and the bars that participate. So, the punters are doing the marketing for the bars! And all for the price of a beer!This particular offer was launched in America, Threshers have done something similar in the UK but I think it works so much better when it’s an actual bar that you redeem the drinks at. It brings a whole new (or old) meaning to the word “Social” It’s nice to see the circle completed and I think that is how maximum amplification occurs.None of this is particularly revolutionary. Many of the best online campaigns encourage or facilitate real world interaction. But what many may have failed to do was successfully straddle so that the real world changes are constantly updating the online world and feeding the cyclical refinement process.

It’s possible that any marketing activity will reach a plateau if we don’t employ social media and groundswell thinking. No matter how much money you spend on media, there is always a ceiling on the effect of this sort of campaign.Although it takes longer to make a social media strategy start to work, once it’s got momentum it powers itself.As opposed to a banner campaign, where the second you stop spending on media, the hits dry up.

many brands think that FB is better used as a channel So, they set up a groups page and enlist membersThis seems to be quite an old skool way of looking things.The other thing some brands are doing is picking a popular application and sponsoring it – like Sony VampiresOnce again, this is hardly pushing the envelope. However it does have benefits…

Sony rebranded the popular Vampires app with “30 days night” – a move release on Sony pictures - and launched a sweepstakes contest to generate registrations and glean intelligence. The grand prizes? 4 wheel drive jeeps and 1,500 bucks.The campaign was only live for 3 weeks, and there were 59,100 sweepstakes entries (success was deemed at 10k, this clearly moved beyond that). The visits (I don’t know if they were unique or repeated) were 11,642,051 for the bite page, and 17,652,567 for the stats page (I believe these are part of the interactive experience of the game). Sony was happy, it exceeded expectations, and users of the application weren’t over branded.PROs:They fished where the fish are: Sony figured out where the already existing community was and they leveraged an existing successful application.- They complimented the existing user experience: Sony didn’t bombard the 3 million existing users with heavy advertising over the head, instead they offered value by giving away prizes, and tied in a movie that already existed.What could have been better?The campaign could have lasted longer than 3 weeks.The application could have become more bespoke – for example sony could have sponsored elements from the movie and integrated them with the game – Vampires could fight in scenes from the movie, or characters from the movie could be included. A spin off game could have emerged where members could give virtual gifts to each relating to the movie, then cross-selling other sony products and merchandise.In reality – they probaby only had a limited window of time to launch the film and it was successful at doing this.The thing for brands to bear in mind is that there are very few applications in Facebook that are this popular, so these sort of results are not that easy to come by.

The Whopper Sacrifice application was a great use of the space and showed a real insight into people’s behavior on Facebook.By sacrificing 10 friends you could earn a free burgerI’m sure we all have a few “friends” we could sacrifice. And this gave people a justification for doing it – and in a humorous way.The app was so successful that FB took it down. I would be very surprised if they allow something along these lines again, so it will probably go down in history.When you take into account the PR that this generated and the reach that it achieved – isn’t this a much better use of Facebook than just a standard groups page?

Here’s a project that we are working on at the moment - due to launch in the next few weeks.It’s relevant because the only marketing activities that will be used to promote this are:-Facebook ApplicationBlog WidgetThere is a tiny amount of media spend on facebook to help launch the app and apart from that, no media is being bought at all.

It’s a sort of Getty / Flikr mashup.You can search the “Flikr Collection” on GettyGather images that you like based on any theme

And create clouds for public or private view

Here’s a public cloudThere’s the social aspect that allows you to rate people’s clouds and follow users who you are interested in.It should be pretty cool. Launching on the 1st June.

The Facebook Application – Picture Me - allows you to embed some of the core functionality of the Getty/Flikr application into your FB profile.This app is connected live to the image database and can display the clouds for public view.It also monitors your status. When you do a status update, it searches the database and retrieves an image cloud based upon the words in your status. This image is then displayed in your profile page.It’s quite simple but totally relevant to the brand and the product it’s promoting.

So,As I have laid out previously, we believe strongly in the power of social networks and applications. In fact we believe that we have only just touched the tip of the iceberg.Also, they are not as trendy as they once were. So it is now a lot easier to get a client to buy a facebook app idea. It’s still not easy though! Many clients just don’t want to take the “risk” they would rather blow a load of money on banners and guarantee some hits to their website. This is as much because this is the sort of metric that people deal in. So, the cost per impression and the click through ratio are things they understand and can evaluate the success of a campaign upon. The fact the people may have clicked on the banner but had no meaningful interaction with the brand is a much more difficult thing to measure. Until we provide clients with the sort of information and rules of thumb that allow them to justify to their bosses that the campaign has been a success, they will stick to what they know.

So, as I touched on just now – measurement is key. Especially in this economic climate. It’s what gives online marketing a distinct advantage over most other forms, yet despite the ability to measure pretty much anything online, we don’t provide enough easy to digest information in order to prove success on criteria other than just clicks.Things like:-Emotional valueShift in brand perception Need to be quantified in order to justify the money.Of course, if you can provide a revenue stream which helps fund the activity and give it even more longevity, then this will really help sell the idea in.

At Saint, we have a full compliment of in house skills. Some of the best Flash developers in London as well as PHP, Ajax etc.So, we have the skills to build these sorts of things in house. However we choose not to because although technically we can do it, we do not have our finger on the pulse of the ins and outs of this space.We don’t know how the latest update to the API is likely to affect the functionality. So, we choose to use specialists.The thing we have struggled to find so far is a balance between the more well known FB developer agencies who seem very expensive for what you get.Or the small company that gives you no confidence in their ability to deliver to a deadline. Sometimes it feels like you might be dealing with a teenager in their bedroom! There’s nothing wrong with small outfits and one man bands but what you guys need to do is work hard to prove to us you are dependable. We have big scary clients breathing down our necks if we miss any deadline. So, we would rather pay a bit more to make us feel like we are dealing with professionals.We need to be given confidence that you can handle the work and that you appreciate the importance of deadlines.Allow for at least 2 rounds of amends in your estimate. There will be at least one from the agency and at least one from the client. Cater for this so that it doesn’t become an issue later down the line.Documentation, process and sticking to what you say are the main things that will help reassure agencies you are worth working with. If you’re good, we will use you again. Because, essentially, we are lazy and don’t want to be looking around for a new company every time.And if you are really good, work will spread – we all use Facebook too you know!

So, the power of social networks is absolutely massiveAnd applications are the things that truly unlock this power.The opportunity is there to do some amazing things in the coming months and years and it looks like Facebook is going to be the market leader for some timeAs long as it can find a way to make money without further alienating its users with privacy invasion!

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Facebook Developers Conference. Social Networks - An Agency Perspective, by Saint - Presentation Transcript

Social networks - an agency perspective May 2009 Facebook Developer Garage
So, who are Saint then?
Who we’re working with right now: And the experience from (recent) previous lives:
What we’ve done for those clients Brand planning Web design Integrated services Display advertising Mobile marketing Strategic partnerships Gaming Strategy Social Media Digital Outdoor
In a nutshell, we think …
- The digital world isn’t just another place to put more messages
- If you don’t give people a reason to pay you some attention online, they just won’t
- If you make something they need, something they’ll love, something they just can’t live without, they’ll want it so bad they’ll come and find you
- Spend your time, effort, and money on that part of the equation, and you’ve already done the hard part
- We’d love to help
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwardell/202026590/ These days are over
- Protection
- The illusion of control
- Corporate Identity
- Broadcast
- Media and press releases
- Influence
- Embracing democratisation
- Brand culture
- Dialogue
- Connected consumers and employees
Brand guardians Brand shepherds
- Control of brands is shared between organisations, online communities, opinion formers, consumers
- More than ever, we need to find a relevant role in our audiences’ busy (online) lives
- This can be used to create opportunities for brands
- We make sure we always ask the right question…
The game is more complex
Advocacy
- “ In our million channel world, its is the brands whose customers tell the best stories, that win.”
- - Alain Thys, FutureLab
Communications are only half the story Brand promise Brand fulfilment Products Brand Experience
- ‘ Top down’ Communications
The lines are blurring between marketing and products
Brand experience Brand promise Brand fulfilment
- ‘ Top down’ Communications
- Peer to peer
- Products
- + Applications
- + Services
- + Content
Digital Brand Experience
Brand fulfilment is about creating value
Value creation around products
Value travels across devices and tactics applications permission marketing websites POS digital digital display advertising content offers services VALUE DEVICES TACTICS PC Mobile POS / Kiosk Digital outdoor
Brands running campaigns in social networks
Is social media the only way to guarantee longevity?
How brands currently use Facebook
Sony Vampires
The opportunity is there for brands to create bespoke applications that work a lot harder than their current activities.
Burger King
Getty Images - Flickr
Picture Me
Using social apps – an agency perspective
Things clients are looking for in this space
How we find working with 3 rd Party developers
Summary
Thank you SaintLondon.com