In the interest of your own safety

In the interest of your own safety: "

It's a striking street graphic for sure. But at the expense of provocation, its message about the erosion of civil liberties doesn't quite add up...

The image, created by the Creative Orchestra for citizen-control.tv, forms part of a poster campaign and YouTube film based on the line 'It all starts with 'in the interest of your own safety...''.

Playing on the notion of the authoritarian voice defending CCTV as being in the interests of individuals, when it's more in the interests of the state, the idea seems to be that if we don't wise up to the increased erosion of civil liberties, well, don't say we didn't warn you.

The danger here, however, is that on the way to coming up with a simple, powerful design, the final message gets confused. So we have Hitler = bad and CCTV = bad as well. Both together = very bad i.e. we're on the way to living in a Nazi state.

Except we're not. While it's staggering that the UK does currently have more CCTV cameras on our streets per citizen than any other country, isn't it rather an insensitive jump to relate this aspect of civil rights concern with Hitler's Germany?

But then, it's just an image, right? Or wrong?

Creative Orchestra has also created this accompanying ad:

Imagery from the campaign can also be viewed and downloaded from citizen-control.tv.

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what brands can learn from improv comedy

what brands can learn from improv comedy: "

I gave a talk/class in Madrid on Friday. Thanks to Luis for inviting me (he’s pictured below looking confused at the lunch that’s arriving for us)

One of the things I talked about was brands finding the right balance between producing polished things vs letting customers shape/influence them. I showed this clip from Whose Line Is It Anyway as a lesson in doing things right:

Here’s what I think it teaches us:

1. Open endings can be exciting

We love the idea that this could go anywhere and we’re along for the ride. Yes, all that juicy ‘beta’ stuff.

2. Audiences love to feel a part of things

The two women from the audience are absolutely loving this; more so than anyone else in the building. And co-creation is an important brand/comms consideration.

3. But you can’t ask much of them

If the women had been given any more control, it could have been disastrous. It was just the right level of involvement, simply asking them to make noises.

4. You need pros to keep things awesome

Ryan Stiles and Colin Mochrie are the experts. It’s their job to turn any eventuality into comedy. Without this expertise it could go horribly wrong.

5. Mortal-proof formats help to control things

Although the story was undefined, the framework is tight. The scene is a set duration. The two women are only able to do one thing; make sfx. Sfx were chosen because they can’t go wrong (bad sfx simply open up amusing new narratives). As long as the two comedians perform, the thing will work.

I plan to share some more of what I spoke about too, but I need to make some tweaks. You might even see some Slideshare action. Oh yeah.

"

The Psychology of Foursquare

The Psychology of Foursquare: "        Since Foursquare Day is taking the world by veritable storm, I've decided to put a few posts out detailing some research and thoughts I have on the service. We're doing some really cool stuff with data aggregation & visualization from geo-location, but as that isn't ready to go, I thought I would write today about how I think Foursquare utilizes some interesting psychological principles "

Blog Planning: Using Content Trending and Social Analytics to Overcome Writer’s Block

Blog Planning: Using Content Trending and Social Analytics to Overcome Writer’s Block: "

As someone who blogs regularly both for work and pleasure, I am all too familiar with the issue of writer’s block. Finding sufficient inspiration to fuel a daily, weekly or even monthly post can prove a struggle – and knowing what to write about and when is something our clients often quiz us about when embarking on a new corporate blog. Choosing a subject that will also attract traffic is an even tougher call – after all, what’s the point of a putting all your efforts into a blog post that noone will read?

IBM have tackled this issue in an innovative way with their Blog Muse tool, described recently on Gigaom as:

“…a kind of social recommendation system for blog posts in which users say what they want to read about, other users then vote on those suggestions, and the most popular topics get distributed to those most likely to want to write about them…”

Sadly this tool is currently only available to IBM bloggers via an internal system, but with the wealth of analytics and trending tools available, there’s nothing to stop any company or individual blogger putting a similar process in place to inform their blogging schedule.

If you read Roger’s recent post on Informed Creativity, you’ll have seen our Social Media Planning slidedeck, which outlines C&M’s approach to content planning. And as far as blogging is concerned, it’s not a million miles away from IBM’s technique.

From my point of view, as the person who drives the creative side of content planning, it helps to pinpoint more general content themes for each client, around which to write specific blog posts. This not only gives a focus for the analytics that drive topic ideas and keywords, but helps to ensure a good balance of content on an ongoing basis.

These themes are obviously different for every client and industry, but here are some of the recurring ones as a guide:

• PRACTICAL: Deconstruct industry practices, offer advice/recommendations
• EVENTS: Identify and write about key industry events/conferences. Live tweeting from events can also be made into post-event blog posts
• CASE STUDIES: Interviews with key customers/clients – this could be via an embedded video or podcast, or a plain old-fashioned written piece
• CHALLENGES: Respond to common industry problems, encourage customers/potential customers to interact
• NEWS: Staying on the pulse of related online content and commenting on high profile news pieces/articles, adding your own thoughts on a subject via blog posts/tweets
• SURVEYS: Encourage customers and general public to participate in area/event/topic focused online surveys and use the results to create blog posts and stimulate conversation
• STAFF: Individual blog posts by employees with more personality (i.e. ‘The team recommends’, opinion pieces, fun stuff)

There are plenty more I could include, but you get the picture. Once this content framework is in place, we use our analytics and trending tools to identify the best subjects to blog about at any given time and the best keywords to focus on within those broad themes.

Our blogging guide tells you more about this content planning process, as well as lots of other useful tips on blogging in general – including what to write about and how to get your blog noticed once it’s up and running.

Blog Planning: Using Content Trending And Social Analytics To Overcome Corporate Writers Block

View more presentations from Content and Motion.

Remember that a good post doesn’t have to equal a long blog post, in fact short and sweet is often the best way to ensure that the whole post gets read and isn’t dismissed as ‘TLDR’ (thanks, @Jake_Doran, for that gem). Many blog posts these days simply consist of a Social embed (Flickr slideshow, YouTube video) with a little bit of an intro – and there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as it’s useful, relevant and interesting to your readership.

And whether you decide to blog daily, weekly or monthly – stick to a consistent publishing schedule so that your regular readers will know what to expect and you will know exactly how much content you need to be producing in your planning cycle.

If you follow these simple principles, you should never find yourself asking “what shall I blog about today?” or plucking random subjects out of the air.

The thumbnail that accompanies this post was adapted from a photograph by FarleyJ on Flickr.

"

Auto-smiley is ace

Auto-smiley is ace: "

I’m loving this very much

Auto Smiley - Computer vision smiley generator from Theo Watson on Vimeo.

via the awesomely newly found F.A.T

Share This

"

Matrix: How To Choose Social Media Programs by Brand, Lifestyle, Product or Location

Matrix: How To Choose Social Media Programs by Brand, Lifestyle, Product or Location: "

Brands confused by choices on how to deploy social media programs I recently spoke to the global marketing team at a large technology company, and one of the questions being wrestled with was deciding if social media efforts should be setup by brand, vs product teams wanting to create their own unique pages and experiences. A specific question emerged “Should we setup our efforts by product type or by brand?” There are drawbacks and upsides to each of these, and I wanted to layout the ramifications.

[Whether companies setup their social programs by 'Brand, Lifestyle, Product, or Location' they must choose wisely. Each deployment has a different benefit and drawback --the savvy will use in combination.]

Brands who choose poorly risk community backlash -those that do not choose risk worse Companies that choose poorly will have wasted internal efforts and resources, set up false expectations for customers and may struggle with trying to redact a program in public where customers are already assembling. In particular, social failures like Wal-Mart’s branded community ‘The Hub’ have now become a case study of doing it wrong. Yet having no strategy means that product teams, regional teams, and individual regions will do whatever they want –causing clean up for corporate late.

Matrix: How To Choose Social Media Programs by Brand, Lifestyle, Product or Location

	What it is:	Benefits:	Drawbacks:	What no one tells you:
Brand	Companies often created their own Facebook/Twitter/Blog site focused on the company logo, brand, and corporate news. See early pioneer Direct2Dell, Sony Electronics Twitter, GM’s Fastlane Blog	On brand. One stop shop for all things related to the brand. Easy place to find company news, product announcements. Often, corporate teams can support an ongoing program	Less trusted. Will often lack engagement, personality, and as a result decreased trust. If brand doesn’t allow customers to talk to each other or self-express, it’s odd talking to a logo.	It’s important to set expectations on the type of communications that will happen, be sure to have a community policy in order to enforce. See Nestle’ case example
Lifestyle	Brands created lifestyle communities such as communities for Wells Fargo’s teen, Amex’s small business owners, or even by cultures like Asian Avenue or BlackPlanet	Staying power. By joining customers in the way they already self-organize you’re matching their existing needs –beyond your product push	Off message. Less control over the conversation which may extend beyond your brand and products and talk about what matters in their life. Product focused teams may not have right mindset ‘customer-first’ mindset.	First, find where they may already exist and consider joining. Create your own lifestyle deployment only to meet an unmet need. Often this is at the mouth of the marketing funnel.
Product	Building a Facebook, Blog or Twitter feed for a specific product or product line. See the Playstation blog, Doritos Facebook page,	Specific info. Meets the needs of the Product Marketing Manager to give tight information about a product	Granular and insular. Lack of customer focus and risk of investing in a community that could become irrelevant if the product reaches end of life. Lack of solution sell to lifestyle as consumer may want to purchase several products.	If your product has staying power and a thriving community around it (like Xbox, PS3) with sub products around it it may make sense. Consider this towards the bottom of the marketing funnel, or even customer support.
Location	Restaurants, hotels, and retail stores may want to create their own Facebook, MySpace, Yelp experience. Or specific regions may have different product sets and create their own communities to meet a unique culture. See Four Seasons Twitter index	Hyper targeted. Local markets may benefit from geo location marketing as location based social networks like GoWalla, FourSquare, MyTown, and Yelp grow. Provide unique local experience.	Lack of control. These individual pages may be setup by the managers daughter and lack true long term resources or ability to fend of sophisticated situations. Danger in these sites becoming abandoned over time, with no clear way to retire them without community backlash.	Likely, this is already happening. Get ahead of it and provide the right training, processes, and hotlines for these disparate groups to have autonomy –but within clear set of guardrails protecting your brand.

How to Choose The Right Mix:

• First, be customer focused. Companies should first identify the social graphics of their customer base to understand where they are online. Secondly, they should understand their social behaviors, who influences them, and how they influence others. In most cases, customers have already assembled their own communities and analysis should be done on how to join them where they already are.
• For best results, use in combinations. Rarely is the world an ‘or’ but an ‘and’. Companies should know when to use these in an orchestrated combinations. Sophisticated social strategists are mapping all of their programs against marketing funnels to know which tool should be used during what customer phase.
• Think long term –not just by campaign. Don’t launch short term social efforts unless it’s just around a single event and the expectations are clearly set up front. Grown fans, followers, or subscribers is an investment that will cost you, so plan on doing this for the long term –not a short one-off campaign. Remember, in most cases, customer communities have been here before your brand was on the social web, and likely they will be here after your brand.

"

Immediate and holy theatre in PR

Immediate and holy theatre in PR: "

When you spend most of your career working on big brand PR you are forced to constantly question your ideas and those of your clients. The “So what?” factor applied to everything.

When you are surrounded by great, uncompromising and creative minds – the “So what?” question becomes an unforgiving tool that carves away at the “average”.

When really great brand-spanking-bowl-you-over ideas are generated, they make even asking the question “So what?” sound suddenly irrelevant. For example, with Cake’s unique screening of Titanic for Sky, re-naming of the fish Pollock to Colin for Sainsbury’s or Cold Beer Amnesty for Carling – a really great idea transcends the need to keep testing it with “So what?”.

The solution PR activity can provide brands, which differentiates it from other media routes, is that it can generate spine tingling human moments that will make individuals feel an immediate and then longer lasting affection for a brand. The feelings generated towards a brand through these moments can be comparable to what someone feels for their pet, car, family, bed, football team, favourite sporting event, most-loved film.

PR creates moments of connection – what Peter Brook calls “immediate or holy theatre“. Or should I say PR can do this. The truly creative agencies can generate these moments time and again, others may stumble upon them, others more often simply produce “deadly theatre”- in other words same old, same old.

PRs should ask themselves who they want to be, people who “answer the brief” or people who can create and envision moments that when they look back on their career they can say “some people will NEVER forget that moment” (and therefore also the brand elements at the heart of its generation).

Heineken have created a moment that simply from watching it on film I shall not forget. As for the people attending I’m sure they will be Heineken advocates for a long time to come. Wise and inventive use of Social Media can also make sure the long-tail effect of this activity is immense.

Heineken hats off to you.

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