Propagation Planning

BBH Bound

I have some exciting news to announce. I have accepted a Strategy Director position at Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York. In this position I'll have the opportunity to work on different facets of planning including Engagement and Propagation Planning. BBH is an agency that is rich in account planning tradition and has been a staple at account planning conferences for years. It is not uncommon for BBH to showcase multiple winning case studies every year and I'm honored and humbled to be a part of that team.

That said, I can't thank the team at 22squared enough for helping me grow into this position. The last three years in Tampa Bay have been amazing. Over that time we performed some innovative research techniques on multiple clients, we shocked the industry with an open Live Streaming new business brainstorm and we became a 2010 Effie finalist in the Retail category. My personal life changed during this time when I was married and had two beautiful children. On top of that, our bowling team wasn't half bad either.

I thought I would share a few examples of BBH work if you were not familiar with the agency: 

Anyone who grew up with me knows that I have a soft spot for the LEGO brand. This is an ad that BBH recently made for LEGO that highlighted a powerful insight as LEGO architects have different points of view.

This Google Chrome commercial is interactive and looks completely different than any other technology piece.

Finally I love the idea of leaking four songs to street performers and then engaging Oasis fans to seek these street performers out to learn about the new songs on the upcoming album. A brillant execution that I use as a case study in Propagation Planning.

Facebook Connect in 3 Hours

Facebook Connect in 3 Hours

View more presentations from Ryan Merket.

Developing a Social Media Strategy

Developing A Social Strategy Webinar

View more presentations from Charlene Li.

Augmented Reality for Moms

This 3D Hallmark and Disney experience is a wonderful addition to greeting cards targeting Moms and kids. I also like the fact that they reached out to Mommy Bloggers in their propagation planning.

Here are 5 examples of brands using AR that Moms are sure to love (via Big Fuel)

1. AR Greeting Cards:
New Hallmark Augmented Reality Cards that you use with your webcam. You just have to watch the video for the full effect. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, they have ten different cards available which will bring your greeting alive.

They are retailing for about $2.99. Some greetings come with a sound clip that plays when the recipient opens the card. The cards with the sound clip go for $5.99.

2. The Car App Finder:
This app helps you find you car in a crowded parking lot such as a mall. Once you’ve parked, it marks your spot allowing you to find it with ease once you’re done shopping. No more wandering around in search of you vehicle.

3. The cyclopedia-iphone-app:
Through geotagging, Cyclopedia shows you information about nearby landmarks and historic locations in your iPhone’s viewfinder. It can overlay the Wikipedia entry for over 65,000 entries.

4. The cheap-gas-iphone-app:
Want to find nearby gas stations with the best price. The Cheap Gas iPhone app shows you icons of nearby gas stations and prices in the direction wherever you point your iPhone’s camera.

5. Augmented reality mirror makeup selector:
Moms love experimenting with makeup. Shiseido has finally created Digital Cosmetic Mirrors in Tokyo malls. The machine is recommends products for the your skin type, while letting you to see how it would look on you via an augmented reality. It even prints out a shopping list, before and after photos.

Starbucks Tweeter in Chief

 
 
This is a great article by Ad Age about social media efforts that Starbucks is using. I've always said that planners have one of the best backgrounds for social media because of our moderating experience. This article helps provide support for that thinking. 

I wanted to include a short snipit from the article here:

Unlike many marketers, Starbucks doesn't run its Twitter feed out of its PR department. The chain's voice on Twitter is Brad Nelson, 28, a former barista who rose through its IT ranks.

When the company was looking for ideas to re-engage with its core customer in 2008, Mr. Brad Nelson suggested that he begin a Twitter handle for the brand, and it now has 775,000 followers. The brand relies on the 28-year old to translate the Starbucks experience for the online community, search out confused or disgruntled consumers, chat about store offerings and even crack jokes.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online, said that Starbucks was beginning to institute its turnaround plan in early 2008 when Mr. Nelson announced he was ready for something new and wanted to get involved in the chain's online efforts.

"I sent him away and said 'Fine, sure,'" Mr. Bruzzo said. But about two weeks later, Mr. Nelson gave him a presentation about Twitter and the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers as questions arise. Mr. Nelson sweetened his pitch by adding, "It's a lot like being a barista on the internet." Mr. Bruzzo recalls greenlighting the project, and after a period of working with Mr. Nelson, let him loose on Twitter. 

How To Write Creative Briefs

This is a decent workshop on How to Write Good Creative Briefs and even highlighted how many planners try to get social media into their briefs:

Creative Brief Workshop

View more presentations from Nick Emmel.

Chris Barger, Social Media Director of GM

This is an interview by Nicole D’Alonzo (@NikisNotes) of CharityMoxie.com who talked with Chris Barger (@cbarger), Social Media Director of GM, on the orange carpet at Social Fresh Tampa.

The Psychology of Influence

Ogilvy Public Relations has been re-examining Robert Cialdini's drivers of influence and persuasion in relation to social media. These six drivers could help validate your next Propagation Planning strategy. 

Below is a graph of Cialdini's concepts that align with a social media context.  

 

My One Issue with Foursquare

I think Foursquare has tremendous capabilities of aligning relevant local content with a greater social network. I particularly think that it will be best used to reward your number one customers.

However, as I mentioned at the Social Fresh conference I spoke at a few weeks ago, Foursquare needs two paths to rank each location. They need a path where customer advocates can become 'Mayors' and a path where socially networked employees can become 'Governors' or another title that rewards them.

For example, let us imagine that a casual dining restaurant wants to reward the Mayor of Foursquare at their location with free food. The manager of the restaurant realizes that the bartender who works every night of the week except Tuesday is the Mayor of the location. The manager can take two options [1] ban employees from using Foursquare at work (banning employees on any social networking site is never the best way to retain advocates that you employ) or [2] not participate in the rewards program because no consumer would be able to oust the bartender as Mayor. 

For a strategist like myself to recommend an integrated Foursquare program I would like to see a feature where participants included the location of their employment so they could not become Mayors at those locations and allow Foursquare to fulfill its promise as the 'best loyalty' program for customers to date.

Wiffiti

I love the idea of back channels and Wiffiti is a great one that can run on any screen that is connected to WiFi and can display a browser. Below is a video of the product but you can imagine the impact it can have with brining social media to individual locations and promoting the efforts that social media strategists are engaging in.