Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Data is a powerful thing when combined with innovative, altruistic minds. The Triangle Gives Back project launched “How the Triangle Gives Back: A Report to the Region” on Thursday morning at a breakfast attended by more than 400 influencers.
 
The report provides insight on what the Triangle gives, how it gives, where it gives and how it compares to peer markets. You can find the report on the soft launch site Capstrat created, trianglegivesback.org.
 
I’ve worked as a member of the TGB Steering Committee for the past year, and what began as a desire to gauge the state of giving in the Triangle evolved as we realized the power of the data being assembled. A void would remain if we didn’t empower our citizens, both corporate and individual, and our non-profits to act on the data.
 
A new, larger vision was realized – philanthropy needed to be re-defined for modern times. Starting with the term itself, we re-defined philanthropy as the giving of time, talent and treasure. But bringing a new form of philanthropy to life would require more.
 
Facebook, meet Match.com.
The next phase of the TGB initiative is building out the social network on the site. For non-profits, corporations, individuals, religious organizations and social organizations, the site will be a marketplace where profiles are created, friends are found, news and events are reported, and matches are made between those offering time, talent and treasure and those in need.
 
This is slated for launch in early 2009 (go to the site now and submit your email so you’ll be notified when it goes live). The real work begins thereafter. Driving adoption and connections within our community will work to make it stronger. But as always, we’ll need everyone’s help to make it a success.

We decided to celebrate the opening of the Olympics with international food at Capstrat. 

4:00 pm Opening ceremony begins:

• Olympics theme song from YouTube
• Kevin Craig speaks a few words in Mandarin (he lived in China for a couple of years and is fluent).

4:02 pm Veggie Corn Dog Eating contest (to celebrate America):

• Gold: Chris Haslup
• Silver: Milton Irizarry
• Bronze: Virginia Ingram

4:02:05 International Snacking Begins:

• Little Debbie Cosmic Brownies (Amsterdam, Holland)
• Lays Ranch Dressing Dip (Redneck Country)
• UTZ Pretzels (Bavarian region in Germany)
• UTZ Tortilla Chips (Mexico)
• LaChoy Chow Mein Noodles (China)
• Grey Poupon Mustard (France)
• Inglehoffer Mustard (Germany)
• Swiss Cheese (Swittzerland)
• HT Traders Italian Soda (Italy)
• Manischewitz Soup Crackers (Israel)
• Snapple Earl Grey Tea (England)
• Canada Dry Ginger Ale (Canada)
• Moosehead Beer (Canada)
  
• Coronitas (little Coronas) (Mexico)
• Pabst Blue Ribbon (USA)
• Bavaria Beer (Holland)
• Japanese Rice crackers mix (Japan)
  

Of course, our snacking standards would not pass the real Olympic standards. It wasn't really PC, a couple of countries are over represented (Holland, Mexico and Canada) and there are many unrepresented countries.

It was a great way to start the Olympics.

 

Capstrat recently hosted Triangle Tweetup 2.0, a gathering of Triangle residents who use the popular social networking service, Twitter.  Twitter is a service that allows users to stay in contact with one another by sending short answers to the question, "What are you doing?"

Nearly seventy people attended the event and highlights included a demo of the video conversation network, Seesmic (http://www.seesmic.com ), a demo of Twitter Movie Reviews (http://jazzychad.com/twitter/movies ), and a happy hour at Capstrat's media bar.

Here's a photo of the assembly, but there's many more available on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/triangletweetup).

The Olympic Torch is probably feeling burned out right now.  A jaunt around the globe sounds romantic, but not with thousands of protesters dogging you.  Plus, it's hard to get 'fired up' with folks checking your carbon.  Here, Slate.com analyzes the Torch's green credentials ... http://www.slate.com/id/2188876/

Reading the report, it dawned on me: this isn't a Torch issue, this is a call-to-action for the entire marketing industry. For a long time, we've made hay with the grand goodwill gesture.  Often this involves sending some special something-or-other and attendant VIPs traveling around a state, a country, the world.  That's understandable; tours and events can be effective ways to get out a message.  

Four years ago, I played a big role in launching a p.r. tour that helped a lot of people.  I'm still proud of that, but today I know that any message, any gesture will be measured against its environmental impact.   Four years ago, I didn't give that a second thought, unfortunately.  Today, I'd look at buying carbon credits to off-set the impact of my p.r. barnstorm or at going completely virtual with it.

There are lots of viable options, but ignoring the dilemmas and trade-offs isn't one of them.   And the grand goodwill tour is just one of the classic tactics we marketing folks need to wrestle with.  Just check out all the paper that goes into an annual report!   

 

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a copyright nerd. As a creative guy I see that legal protection as a way to ensure our profession continues to grow, challenge and remain fairly compensated. Don’t get me wrong, there are vast gray areas and litigation shenanigans that drag to sludgy lows. But on the whole I respect that an artist has clear rights.

Case in point. Peace-friendly American Apparel was recently slapped with a $10 million lawsuit from director Woody Allen. The suit claims Allen’s reputation has been damaged by billboards using his image (the famous photo dressed as a Hasidic Jew from Annie Hall) without his permission.

According to the report, the suit alleges that the billboard falsely implied Allen sponsored, endorsed or was associated with American Apparel, and accuses the company of “blatant misappropriation and commercial use of Allen’s image.” The company, known for “provocative photography,” claims it was used as “strictly social parody.”

Fair enough. Parody is one of the ways a copyrighted work may be used legally without permission. Problem is American Apparel SELLS stuff. Their use of parody is clearly for commercial gain. If not, there wouldn’t be a logo on the billboards. I believe American Apparel is a great company. Unfortunately, this is a misstep that strikes at their socially-conscious image.

What level of parody do you think is legal for commercial use?

Below you will find notes from a session attended. This will be interesting for anyone that needs to sell social media to a CXO. It lightly touches on metrics (which is what I was interested in learning more about).

• Why are CMO's afraid of social media and social networking?
  
• How can they leverage social media for marketing success?

This panel will be a combination of forward vision and practical advice from vendors and enterprises that are successfully leveraging social media today for business results. We'll discuss the pros and cons of growing a social media effort from within or hire a "ringer" to be part of the team. This is a new area for marketing manegement so the panelist will give their best advice on how to work with a manager who has no social media experience.

Other questions to discuss will be:

• How do you deal with the essential truth that in social media sometimes everyone won't love you and say positive stuff about you?
• What is the best metric to focus on to gauge success of a social media effort?
• Does social media contribute to lead and revenue generation directly or indirectly?

• Tom Parish CEO, Tom Parish Inc
• Brian Magierski Chief Dev Officer, BSG Alliance Corporation
• Michael Smith Exec Dir, USAA
• Ynema Mangum Exec Producer, BMC Software Inc
• Rohit Bhargava SVP, Digital Marketing, Ogilvy

Getting approval from the C-level people. Why are they afraid of social marketing - how do you approach them on metrics - knowing there is not a clear answer on it?

Focus:

1. Loss of control (CXO question) how do you deal with it and still control it (you can't)
   
2. Measurement impressions versus engagement. Time spent, commenting, etc. Getting the right 10,000 people has a much higher lift.

CXO types: each one has a different perspective and observes different risks.

• CMO looking at brand control.
• Senior Leadership for HR is worried about losing people. You are putting people in a social context and he has to retain talent.
• PR guy - knows exposure can be the biggest friend or largest nightmare - damage control
• Chief Sales guy - only cares if it brings in sales
• CEO - if I dont do anything is it going to hurt me. They are looking at it from the company standpoint. Dont get to talking about metrics. Is it in the company or share holders best interest.

Seth Godin - metrics - gives you a lot of good stuff to think about.

Most companies don't know how to deliver a good customer experience.

People driving social media from the bottom up and the top-down. Excited manager does not mean action. Peer pressure as a last resort will work.

Use a phased approach to determine readiness:

1. start listening
2. start participating and continue listening
3. start leading

Demonstrate metrics internally before demonstrating externally. Show productivity gains. (you can do this through corporate intranets, etc)

If you have problems with your products, fix the product and then dive into conversation marketing.

METRICS - without the right strategy, you don't have anything.

• looking at news articles
  
• community participation metrics
  
• blog metrics
  
• metrics for executive staff that show the value that is being communicated.
  
• evaluate the number of bad comments to good comments

Multiple opens and forwards are better than clicks and opens, but everyone looks at clicks and opens. Clicks and opens don't measure the viral aspect of it. It is not that we have the wrong metrics - it is that we are looking at the wrong thing

Focus on sentiment marketing; pro, negative or neutral. Aim these tools at the watering holes to see if the message gets accross.

Start with traditional metrics and then move on. Traffic to blogs generally supercede traffic to the regular site. How many people are visiting a blog? A blog can easily have a listening audience of 15,000 people because new messages are broadcast every day.

Of note: This panel ended up opening the session up to the twitter crowd because everyone was complaining (on twitter) so much that the session was not focusing on what they wanted it to focus.

The rise of social media, user-generated content, instant pop culture icons and hefty licensing deals are blurring the lines of intellectual property and public domain issues. Understanding copyright laws and their intention is becoming increasing difficult to navigate.

Copyright issues are complex and exhausting but I admit I really dig it. At Capstrat we don’t attempt to know all the details. We seek legal advice. There are pounds and pounds of material written on copyrights. Even the brief from the patent web site is 277 pages! That’s impossible to reference on a daily basis. Below are a few frequently asked questions that assist us in making the right decisions.

What’s the benefit of using copyright-protected work? It often adds instant value or credibility to the message. These references are often the golden threads that tie cultures together. Companies spend millions to develop their property by creating awareness and affinity.

What options do I have for using others’ material in my work? If copyright-protected, you must gain permission from the owner. That often involves compensation. Obviously the more popular the material, the heftier the fee. If in the public domain, the work is available for use.

What happens if I do not gain permission? You risk lawsuit. Companies (and courts) place a high value on intellectual property. Infringement means loss of revenue to these companies. They protect against infringement vigilantly.

It’s only for internal use, isn’t that okay? No. When you infringe on someone’s copyright you break the law. The risk may be lowered with a limited audience, but there is still risk.

Imagine speeding through a stoplight at 85 mph. You’re breaking the law whether an officer is there to catch you or not.  In addition, today’s instant message world means nothing truly stays exclusively internal. Fact is, some of the recent lawsuits were initiated by an internal whistle blower. Large, deep-pocketed companies are increasingly sensitive to this.

What about if I buy the movie or CD, can I use it then? No. The price you pay does not mean you own the rights any more than buying a copy of “Bonfire of the Vanities” makes you Tom Wolfe.

Can’t I simply change it a little, so it is not exact? The purpose of using valuable copyright-protected materials means utilizing the equity in that material. To be safe from infringement your work would need to change so it is not recognizable by the average person.

If your work is still recognizable, then it’s infringement. Confusion comes from parodies happening before 1982 law changes. We’ve all seen fake products that rip off well-known brands (like Beerwiser). Big brand names believe this causes marketplace confusion resulting in lost revenue.

How about just a snippet, like a sample? Again, without permission and recognizable, it is risky. Obviously, the more recognizable the more the risk of infringement.

So, how do rappers get away with it? They either gain permission from the owner, are forgiven because of their artistic merit or pay huge settlements. Two words: Vanilla Ice.

Are there legal ways to use protected material without permission? Yes. Certain uses of copyrighted materials are protected under law. Artistic expression, including satire and parody, editorial, critique or educational purposes are common. The important distinction is that although businesses educate their employees or produce editorial content, their mission is primarily to make money. That is not protected by copyright law.

So, if I shoot a photo of Madonna then it’s mine to use, right? Yes and no. You own the copyright to the photograph. However, due to the “Right of Celebrity” clause, you do not have the right to use a celebrity’s likeness without permission. It’s important to realize that “likeness” covers not just image but also name, nickname, voice characterization, catch phrases and identifying elements such clothing or hairstyle. Basically anything that can be related to a particular celebrity is protected. Bette Midler was awarded $400,000 from Ford Motor Company because they used a look alike.

How do TV shows, like SNL get away with parody? A Saturday Night Live parody is theatre and considered artistic expression. The network buys episodes from the production company. The network then sells airtime to advertisers to help fund its shows.

Some of my favorite copyright stories:

Basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman filed for copyright protection for his tattoos.

Carlos Santana and George Benson filed to protect their guitar “sound.”

Johnny Carson once filed suit against a company called “Here’s Johnny Portable Toilets.”

Harley-Davidson filed to trademark their distinctive sound. Nine competitors filed opposition arguing their engines sound similar. After six years of litigation, Harley-Davidson withdrew the application.

‘Tis that time of year. Every holiday season, companies send out messages of peace and goodwill to their clients and customers. As a newbie at Capstrat, I was pleased to discover that we don’t just spout warm fuzzy wishes about holiday cheer. We back our warm fuzzies with cold hard cash.

This year Capstrat clients will receive a “give certificate” worth a monetary donation to a charity of their choice. We selected our six nonprofit groups from local, national and international organizations as well as different categories (i.e., children, poverty, disaster relief, animals, etc.). In this way, people can personalize their giving. Capstrat is donating the cash but our clients and friends decide who will receive it.  

When I joined Capstrat six months ago, I found out very quickly that mine was a generous company. Welcoming me on my first day of work was a 1lb. bag of peanut butter M&Ms (my favorite) sitting in the middle of my desk. A small thoughtful gesture that was only an introduction to the spirit of giving that lives here.

Employees aren’t the only beneficiaries of Capstrat’s generous nature.  From clients to causes to our community, Capstrat heeds the old proverb, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”  

But there is another wise saying that applies to the Capstrat principle of giving: “You reap what you sow.” It just makes good business sense to invest time and resources into our employees, our community and our society at large. Being a responsible corporate citizen means fostering growth, advancement and prosperity. And generosity is a proven way to achieve those goals. Plus, it just feels good.

The headline to a recent Adweek article reads “old media still resonate,” but the research shows that the way people consume content continues to change. Over half of all Internet users are consuming user generated content. And, the days of people using only one medium at a time are gone. The television is always on, but the viewer is doing something else. Television is becoming a passive ambient medium, not unlike radio.

So, when marketers test spots in focus groups, it might be wise to have people online or listening to the radio while the moderator is sharing the spot.
There’s no silver bullet strategy for marketers. We think it’s wise to deploy a mix of off-line and on-line channels to build reach. Consumer engagement, whether that’s through participatory tv or other tactics is increasingly important to build brand affinity. Communications goals also need to allow for greater frequency because the sad truth is that a significant portion of our exposures will be missed while the prospect is doing something else.

Media costs – traditional and new are not declining in the face of this marketplace transformation. The net result is that marketing ROI will be under more pressure than ever. We see clients counteracting this trend with results-oriented online campaigns and tighter alignment with sales programs.

Contempt for the traditional corporate Web site?

I read a great article by a Web strategist I have grown to like and trust named Jeremiah Owyang , who is foretelling the end of the Web site as we know it.

I have to agree on some points and disagree on others.

I agree the corporate Web site as a marketing institution will erode and its relevance will slowly give way to a more conversational mode but having been in the corporate Web site development biz for 14 years, I believe the change will go as slowly as everything else has. 

Recall how blogging's maintream entrance was celebrated? Then lagged and lagged and now, with RSS being understood and adopted, blogging is the light and the new way. 

Jeremiah makes the point that the corporate Web site is irrelevant today. I know what he is saying and I too am on the futurist side of the argument but I have a few dozen corporate clients with highly engaged customers who are no where near ready for this shift. In fact they just started to get the corporate Web site thing in that last year or so. At the risk of sounding like a slow-adopter or a curmudgeon, my bet is that the corporate Web site will continue to thrive while  more conversational or "social" approaches to corporate marketing begin to succeed. I believe this will take at least 3 years if not longer.