Propagation Planning

TV of Tomorrow, a cartoon made in 1953

The second Futures of Entertainment conference opened up with this video and I thought I would share it here. In 1953 Television had reached a nice critical mass, 4 out of every 5 households had a television. By 2010, trend forecasters think that 4 out of every 5 households will enjoy broadband internet speed (if the price is right in this economy). We are a point where many of us realize the power of broadband speed but we don't know how to always use the relationship to it's potential.

Watch this video and think of advertising during the 1950's, the problems with the technology and the issues that we have with online advertising. Even in the 1960's many creative directors didn't want to give up print advertising for television sponsorships... I think we have many clients and creative directors today with that problem as other mediums are now the source of 'strained eyes' from playing World of Warcraft, texting on the phone or fast forwarding the DVR from previously recorded programing so they don't have to watch the commercials.

The Ideal Consumer for Propagation Planning

I'm very excited about a book that my Sister-in-Law purchased for me called Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins. This was also the book that helped Faris formulate his early ideas around Propagation Planning. If this type of thinking was a religion, this book would be the bible and Henry Jenkins would be the prophet.

Over the next few weeks I hope to share some passages that I learn from this book and my own interpretation of these theories for the advertising industry. One of the first things I would like to share is the Ideal Consumer for Propagation Planning.

Early Adopters today are mostly white, male, middle class and college educated. This will change with access to broadband technologies and producer equipment, but right now this represents the 3% of the market that are considered Prosumers (Source: This comes from YouTube usage data that indicates 3% of people produce content, 7% actually comment on it and the other 90% just watch it).

Henry Jenkins writes this passage about this ideal consumer in his book:

According to the logic of affective economics, the ideal consumer is active, emotionally engaged, and socially networked. Watching the advert or consuming the product is no longer enough; the company invites the audience inside the brand community. Yet, if such affiliations encourage more active consumption, these same communities can also become protectors of brand integrity and thus critics of the companies that seek to court their allegiance.

We cannot court these consumers like we court the press with a passive press release. We have to spend months gaining their trust by participating with their content and craft, being transparent about who we are and build trust that their efforts will be appreciated and welcomed.

Give people a piece of the story to tell

I found this story on Campfire's Blog, and I thought the post was a perfect way to describe how a storyteller or brand can use a brand experience to propagate the story further to other audiences:

In 1959, William Castle produced The Tingler, a B-movie horror film staring Vincent Price. Castle had every third seat in the theater wired with buzzers to give the audience a shock. He turned the audience into participants. If you went to see The Tingler, you walked in to see William Castle’s story, but you walked out with your own story to tell, because Castle turned you into a (minor) character in the Tingler myth. “The Tingler went into my theater and I felt it in my spine!”

This is a powerful way to think about constructing narratives online. Instead of thinking about how you will tell your story, think about how you can give people a piece of the story to tell.

This requires the storyteller to put the audience at the center, to give them an active role. It’s not something that comes naturally to traditional storytellers, because it requires ceding some control over how the story is told, but when done right it can be very effective on many levels.

Matching Luggage is a Fading Brand Strategy

My former planning director and CMO, Karen Evans, had the best metaphor for media neutral idea strategies as just being “Matching Luggage.” When I started studying brand strategy in the mid to late 90’s, a marketer was revered as a grand brand strategist if they were able to have a big idea and stamp that idea onto every single contact point that a consumer interacted with and observed. When I worked on brand consulting for GAP Inc. I saw this strategy come to life on a global scale.

Now as I study the strategies of creative advertising campaigns like Geico and Burger King, I see the strategy of matching luggage fading away. Both of these campaigns have multiple characters and storylines to sell their services and products. These campaigns have proved that consumers are savvy enough to handle and recognize various narratives and storylines that ladder up to an overall brand idea or “take away” without looking or acting like matching luggage.

Anne Benvenuto, EVP of strategic services at R/GA talked about “Embracing Complexity” at an APG Conference, which is the opposite of simple matching luggage. She has given us a hint to what makes her interactive agency so good. Brand strategists have worked to simplify communication plans and messaging strategies for years now and we can all find hundreds of books explaining how to do this. This has started to backfire on marketers because trend forward consumers are getting bored with this strategy. They are ignoring you and want more interesting expressions of your brand.

As marketers start to use Propagation Planning techniques that spread through new media channels we’ll need to remind them that the Innovator and Early Adopter will ‘most likely’ need a different expressions of the brand. It must be different and interesting enough for them to notice and share with others. This is a target audience that will allow creative teams to take traditional brands and twist them into interactive and interesting storylines that may be contrary to the brand image and tone that the mass majority views.

Is Fantasy Football the largest ARG?

In the last few weeks I've been doing some research on Fantasy Football and it occurred to me that Fantasy Football can easily be classified as an Alternate Reality Game (ARG). Rarely do I hear about Fantasy Football being associated with ARG's, particularly as a marketing tactic for the networks that have signed huge contracts with the NFL to broadcast the games. These networks have found that Fantasy Football players watch 55 percent more football because they now have a vested interest in games that in the past they would not care to watch.

This is a passage from the Fantasy Football Wiki, "The explosive popularity of fantasy sports, coupled with the availability of venues showcasing numerous live football games via satellite, has had significant effects on football viewing and rooting habits among participants. Fantasy sports players watch more game telecasts, buy more tickets and spend money at stadiums at a much higher rate than general sports fans. For example, 55 percent of fantasy sports players report watching more sports on television since they started playing fantasy sports."

Imagine you worked for one of the NFL networks like ESPN, CBS Sports, Fox Sports, or the NFL Network itself. When you saw that you could increase your viewership by 55 percent just by offering free Fantasy Football, it seems like a "no duh" to get involved. They use Fantasy Football as a Propagation Tool, marketing to potential viewers of NFL Football season to get them excited about the draft and forming their alternate reality leagues when they become the owners of teams populated with real NFL players. When the season starts these viewers are hungry to watch whatever the networks serve up if it showcases the greatness of the players in their alternate reality teams.

I want to see more ARG's used as successful marketing campaigns and this is a great example of one.

Fan Relationships (It's Complicated) by Mike Arauz

Mike Arauz is a strategist at Undercurrent who I had the pleasure to meet at the Futures of Entertainment  conference. Mike has written a great post on his Blog that I wanted to steal and share with my readers...

Mike writes, "Since I left, I've been thinking a lot about fans. Not just the average viewer, reader, or customer; but, the devoted people who on some level see their affection for something someone else has created as part of their own identity. When we think about how the internet has changed the communications landscape, it seems that fans have taken on an increasingly important and central role in the making or breaking of brands and entertainment properties.

Fandom has a long and storied history (and there are plenty of people who are much more qualified than I am to talk about it), and in the past couple years I think we've started a new chapter. The most obvious example of this change is Comic-Con, the huge conference for sci-fi disciples and super hero devotees of every persuasion that has turned into the must-attend super-showcase for every aspiring new movie, TV show, or video game. I've also seen fan culture creep into the marketing world. In my own work I often use the word fan in place of consumer, when I talk about reaching a core audience of people who care most about a product or service.

I think that the reason why we're seeing this interest in fans, is that we're recognizing how powerful a mobilized fan community can be. If they love you, they will make you a hit. If they hate you, they will prevent you from ever having a chance."

If you want to dig in deeper to this topic read the rest of the post on Mike's Blog. It's pretty interesting!

Social Media Marketing Framework

I've been asked to concept a social media marketing framework for 22squared, at least from a Brand Planning and Communications Planning perspective. During my research I've been thinking about what I heard at the Futures of Entertainment conference and what I've seen from other social media strategists. One of the strategists that I read is Julian Cole from The Population in Australia and I like the priciples of his framework although I might switch around some things. Here is a video that he did explaining the first verision of his framework:

Izea as a Propagation Tool is endorsed

Izea (and social spark), is launching a campaign offering influential bloggers gift cards to go shopping, and then share the wealth with their community via a contest. Jeremiah Owyang, a Senior Analyst for Forrester writes about why paid for blogging might be more successful this time around.

Let’s examine why Izea campaigns are likely to be successful by Jeremiah Owyang

Recent research shows that corporate blogs are not trusted, but we know that consumers trust their peers, so savvy brands will want to benefit from word of mouth.

The economy is sinking, consumers, bloggers, well everyone, can use extra cash in the hand.

Pay Per Post did not require disclosure, Izea requires up front disclosure –this is ethical.

It’s doubly attractive as each of the bloggers can hold a contest, offering additional prizes to their readers, this spread like wildfire in Twitter –reaching a large audience.

I learned from Ted that the bloggers that would participate would receive traffic, as the advertising network within Izea would point to the blogs that are sponsored.

It’s inexpensive for the brand, while I hear of many soical media campaigns for Fortune companies being 50-100k, the payout to bloggers and community is a mere 5k, although I’m sure there’s many service fees going to the marketing team at Izea.

You can quickly see why this will continue to be popular

It seems that if Bloggers can keep a level of transparency and trust with their audiences that they can participate in rewarding their audiences with gifts and prizes. That's a good thing! If this is successful Izea will be a tool for propagation planning in the near future.

Propagation Planning Model

Propagation Planning works best when you can identify a core group of Prosumers and get them energized and interested in the idea you have to tell others about it. That way when your paid media starts (like the TV that was designed to reach the majority of your consumers), the media will hit half way through the adoption process - not at the beginning of it.

Brandon Murphy designed this chart and posted it on his blog, ReasonsToTalk.com where he describes the history of the adoption curve and how other strong planners and thinkers have used it in their theories.

Social Media in Plain English

Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.