September 16, 2007Reflections from the iMedia Brand Summit
Filed Under: New Marketing
|
|
I just came back from the iMedia Brand Summit in San Diego, where I sat on a panel, moderated by Real Branding's Susan MacDermid, with IMC^2's Alan Schulman, Colgate-Palmolive's Jack Haber and Mediasmith's, Dave Smith.
The full write-up is here
On a personal note, it was so great to be back at an iMedia after about 2 years in the wilderness. When I left TBWA\Chiat\Day in June of 2002, iMedia's Rick Parkhill quickly approached me to be a part of his quarterly executive summits and over the next 3+ years, I performed a host of functions at these summits, including M.C.'ing, singing to the crowd, presenting creative showcases, delivering custom research and moderating various panels. It was also through iMedia that I began writing a weekly column, called none other than...Jaffe Juice!
Many old friends with new name tags (i.e. new companies) were there. Most have turned over 2-3 times...but all in an upward direction.
I also witnessed the dawning of a new era, where my once-colleagues i.e. fellow Media Directors are now Keynoting at iMedia. When I met Sean Finnegan, he was Interactive Media Director at OMD Chicago and now he runs all of OMD Digital...in fact he oversees a totally new unit called OMG Digital.
All in all, it was an inspiring trip and I thought I'd share a few reflections and learning with you:
- The community (both dedicated interactive and "traditional" or "integrated" folk) is largely focused on online as a core/media channel, as opposed to a larger, more inclusive umbrella covering the full spectrum of emerging and non-traditional approaches. Whilst the entire crowd cheered at Second Life being the most "overhyped" component of marketing today, when pressed (by me), it become apparent that almost all of these folk have never actually been in SL, let alone piloted any programs in-world
- Interactive is still looked at by many as a full blown "acquisition" medium. That's positive insofar that it is ROI driven, but negative insofar that this is still the tip of the iceberg in terms of representing the medium's full value. I think there's been progress on the whole branding versus DR debate, however I'm still not convinced that we're looking at the new marketing spectrum through a "new marketing" lens i.e. marketing versus communication versus media versus advertising. We need to be factoring in relationship marketing, data, analytics, customer service, research, partnership...the list goes on
- On a different front, the whole concept of "failure" still holds us back from venturing too far from our comfort zones. We move one step forward...with such low tolerance for "failure", such that when we don't hit it out the park, we end up radically recoiling and taking 2 steps backwards for every forward step. Pursuant to my post about Vince Lombardi, when failure is looked at as an end unto itself, then perhaps it is failure...but when it is a means to an end, then it becomes a journey or path towards learnings/insight
- As Tim Mapes, CMO of Delta, said, "Innovation = bold ideas that work; Mistakes = bold ideas that fail" - I guess we need to decide whether we're in the bold ideas business or not...irrespective of the outcome.
- I don't have the research yet, but apparently Yahoo! and Comscore issued some research recently that stated something to the effect that 90% of all comments are in fact good. On the surface, this is reassuring that only 1 in 10 comments are in fact, bad or negative. However, the more I think about this, the more it concerns me. It's always been true that the active minority of critics drown out the silent majority of satisfied customers/consumers. Today however, there's a complete this ratio might be 90:10 in favor of positive:negative, but it feels like 10:90. We absolutely need some kind of "levelator" to smooth out the full spectrum of noise.
That's about it for now...more soon.
SPONSORSHIPJaffe Juice – brings a fresh new marketing perspective and commentary from industry thought leader and author Joseph Jaffe. Click here to find out more about sponsorship opportunities. Jaffe Juice continues below... |
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/307546/21642133
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Reflections from the iMedia Brand Summit:
Comments
The importance of you're 10:90 negativity:positivity assessment cannot be emphasized enough. Take a look at this article (http://www.sciammind.com/article.cfm?&articleID=1DBD7502-E7F2-99DF-3E23D3B7BDD8BE02) over at Scientific American: Mind. The power of negativity is extreme, and while this article doesn't quantify the power of negativity versus positive sentiments, I would guess that when weighted for actual impact, the 10:90 scale would become something more along the lines of 35:65.
This is not to say that 90 percent positivity isn't great, but I believe that the 10 percent negativity impacts consumer sentiment approximately three to four fold.
As an example: when I'm reading reviews for a product online, if one out of ten reviews is negative I will generally disregard much if what they say. However, if all 10 percent have the same complaint or issue with the product then I will probably not purchase that product.
So %10 negativity isn't a deal breaker, but if the negativity is uniform in it's content - it amplifies to something significantly greater than %10. Anyone out there agree/disagree with me?
Posted by: Jon Burg
On the notion of Second Life hype... I'm really not surprised to see the response from the participants on this. I've been noting for the last few months that in many ways the evolution of metaverse platforms (specifically Second Life) has really been mirroring the evolution of the Web.
If you've been around long enough you might remember from 93-95 the spikes every fall that then peaked by Christmas and then had a sudden drop in the Spring... and every Spring the doomsayers would announce "the web fad is dead, see traffic is dropping, people are board and moving on". Not factoring in that with most internet early adoptors are college and high-school aged users who... wait for it... go on vacation during the summer and spend less time online.
Online adoption of SL within the US has been slower than other countries as well because of the poor availability of true high-speed internet outside of the college campuses or work place environments, and SL is if nothing else, very demanding of your network speed for a satisfactory experience.
As it stands, I spent a good bit of time logging into every metaverse platform I could find to see which one could provide the level of deliverability on the project I was looking to build for my employer (the Avnet Technology Museum - http://slurl.com/secondlife/Avnet/150/154/39?title=The%20Avnet%20Technology%20Musuem -- also photos on flickr- http://www.flickr.com/photos/7546612@N08/sets/72157601740559783/) and Second Life hands down met all of my requirements. In fact the final deliverable went well beyond anyone's expectations going into the project.
Personally, I think the real test will be to watch the trends over the next four months and see what happens with Second Life before making any long term assessments. Let's see how it does over the new school year, and see if Linden Labs can seriously address concurrency to allow for a greater number of simultaneous users. I also think the other leverage will be if more compelling material can be found within Second Life to encourage people to explore it.
Bryan Carter
Director, Multimedia Services
Avnet, Inc.
Posted by: Bryan C.
I would venture to say it's difficult to estimate just what kind of ratio there is when it comes to positive vs. negative feedback. It is much easier to post a fake comment than create a flog.
Looking at my own blog, one of my most popular posts has been how radio shack sucks. It's literally got essays of actual constructive criticism. But the ratio on that post is 5:11 (positive:negative). Granted the sample size is 1 compared to whatever size comscore has. I still find a 90:10 ratio a bit hard to believe.
I suppose it's an advantageous statistic, though. Get the companies that aren't already on board for tracking conversations by letting them hear how much their customers love them 90% of the time. Then move to the 10%.
Posted by: Nathan
Excellent article and comments about high speed internet! T1 internet Service is the future of broadband communications.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com/T1-Internet-Service.html
Posted by: T1 Internet Service
