This article was found on Digital Buzz and they did a great job describing the importance of this presentation:
If you are interested in Digital & Social Strategy you’ll want to bookmark 25mins to watch this video (or flip through the Slideshare pres below), it’s the keynote presentation by Alexandra Wheeler (Digital Director of Starbucks) that opened the recent Social Media Influence 2010 conference in London. And for those of you who don’t know, Starbucks was the first consumer brand to reach 10 Million fans on Facebook… you thought it was coke right?
Here is the video presentation and the slideshare:
I wanted to add upon the point that she high lighted on slide 12 about Attention in today's society. I am currently reading a wonderful book by Sally Hogshead called Facinate and I wanted to quote her if I may:
Our attention spans are shrinking at a rate inverse to the growing number of distractions. A hundred years ago, our attention span averaged twenty minutes: one minute for each year of age, up until age twenty. Things were slower on the farm, with fewer distractions.
But today, in adaption to our environment, our attention spans are shorter. (And shorter and shorter). According to BBC News, "The addictive nature of web browsing can leave you with an attention span of nine seconds - the same as a goldfish." Nine seconds! That's all we get before people's brains make a decision whether to stay focused, or relocate to a new topic?
Sally goes on to make a case that attention is currency in society today. The type of Storytelling that Mel describes in her presentation has a special quality of holding my attention longer than other forms of marketing. If you would like a recent example of great storytelling by Campfire, check out The Colony Experiment that they created using Facebook connect for an upcoming show on Discovery. The story uses people you know to narrate the events of an apocalypse.
I was really encouraged to read about Involver Audience Management System (AMP) in Mashable today. The system looks like an excellent dashboard that can monitor and manage multiple channels and platforms around a clients brand.
I also liked how Mashable included some other companies who are playing in this space. See below:
Over the last eight or nine months, we’ve seen a lot of uptake in more enterprise level tools at social media management. This is because social media is becoming a more legitimate and, in many cases, important part of brand awareness campaigns.
Seeing higher level tools like AMP, as well as systems from companies like SocialTALK, Vitrue and Objective Marketer can help push the entire industry forward.
Tools like this help Propagation Planning become a stronger discipline in agencies. This also helps drive the transformation from brand management to community management around brands.
I'm really excited to share the Chrome Fastball idea with everyone. The team here at BBH and the team at Google worked really hard to create a challenging game that showcases the importance of a fast browser.
The team used YouTube in a completely new way with some amazing integrated partnerships. I love these types of creative assets that are used as the thing that is propagated.
