It was this post that finally exhorted me to go and watch them in their entirety. And while not earth shattering, they are significant, both for their content and their source: Coke’s Jonathan Mildenhall.*

It’s still very broadcast; “Brand stories create liquid and linked ideas” starts with the brand story rather than the audience or user interests or needs. Nonetheless  the consumer gets wrapped in along the way, its just that the Coke model is about reacting to the audience response once the brand has started the conversation.

And to be fair, Coke is talking about Storytelling, not conversation. So its not surprising that the language is still very much around broadcast modalities; “The development of incremental ideas that get dispersed systematically across multiple channels of conversation for the proposes of creating a unified and coordinated brand experience.” Does that sound a little but like a media plan to anyone else?

Where it gets more interesting for me is in the identification of the skill sets and processes the brand needs to get its head around in order to be a multi-platform, culturally disruptive story teller. Mildenhall identifies 5 skillsets

1. Serial story telling
2. Multi faceted storytelling
3. Spreadable storytelling
4. Immersion and discovery storytelling
5. Engagement through storytelling

I think this rightly lays down a number of challenges;

1. Really properly integrated: If you think about what this means for the agency model that’s required to support this its either incredibly small, tight and nimble or if its big, it’s hyper-integrated. But it’s certainly not  like a lot of what we see around us at the moment where integrated means the image still from the ad shoot is used on the in-store, the bus side and the display banners.

2. Understanding the explicit and implicit consumer voice: Like lots of people at  the moment, Mildenhall is very enthusiastic about data (although…’data whisperers’…?) which is the implicit voice of the consumer, and about the literal or explicit voice of the consumer, at minute 6:47, where the consumer is flagged as one of the collaborators who will enable big fat fertile spaces for ideas to be developed.

In video Two ‘Content’ is actually defined as ‘The Creation of Stories that are to be expressed through EVERY possible connection”. To my mind the last three words imply functionality as well as the more reductive view of content as images / text / video. This also sets up challenges for the agency world to be able to assemble a team that can tell a story not without regard for the channels, but rather with the deep knowledge of those channels that enables finesse and élan.

The way that Coke is acheiving this expression is through collaborative, adaptive and continuous models of development. And while we may have heard these kinds of claims before Mildenhall then rolls out the ways they are doing it;

• Working directly with creative talent
• Working with Brand Fans
• New Creative Industry Collaborators (although I’m not quite sure what this means, it clearly doesn’t mean a large WPP /Omnicom agency)
• And a single Rock Star agency

So challenge 3: what’s the non-rock-star agency role in all of this? Booking flights?

Challenge 4 (and possibly the role of the agency redefined as tutor, mentor sensei and guide) is to embrace these 5 principles of co-creation which Milden hall reckons applies to each of the development models;

1. Inspire participation amongst the very best
2. Connect these creative minds
3. Share the results of our efforts
4. Continue development
5. Measure success

And the same could be said for what he defines as the requirements of managing the development of a Liquid Idea

1. Govern its flow: define the North Star: how will this (idea) make a significant impact on popular culture
2. Encourage behaviours; Bravery, creativity, play, clear thinking, risk taking
3. Incubate creative ideas and create a culture of creativity
4. Use conflict constructively

{As a planner, that (optimistically?) sounds to me very much like the combined role of a planer and creative director}.

Finally and this is the bit that got the blogosphere excited, Mildenhall unveiled an investment model; “3:11: Chapter 7; applying the 70 /20 / 10 investment principles”
In the future Coke will invest in content according to this breakdown;

• 70% Low risk content that ‘pays the rent’ and consumes only 50% of time
• 20% innovate off what already works, engaging more deeply with a more specific audience but still with broad scale
• 10% high risk content, brand new ideas that will become tomorrow’s 20 or 70.

Which reminds me of Google’s 80 / 20 rule for driving innovation by allowing engineers to spend 80% other time on something that interests them personally.

The upshot of this is that Coke is no longer relying on agencies to bring them culturally disruptive ideas, they are going out to the bazaar and peering into all kinds of tents. This can only be a good thing for shaking up agencies, but also for rewarding different models of creation and innovation and spreading the investment pot into some less frequented corners of the market place.

*Coke is an Ogilvy client

For the past couple of months I’ve been talking to the people across the Ogilvy Group who are involved in Listening and understanding the different reasons and ways that they do it.

The upshot is that every one of the ten agencies is doing it, but for all kinds of reasons which can largely be put into two buckets;

1. One-off snapshots used ahead of planning to gain insights, identify topics of conversation and to identify key influencers in conversations. Each agency uses this information in different ways specific to their needs; from placement of in-bound links for SEO to determining content strategies around topics and audiences through to deriving audience insights for offline marketing.

2. On-going monitoring to observe changes in the conversation to

• Track the impact of marketing, both online and offline
• Track brand reputation by levels of conversation and the sentiment of those conversations
• Monitor and manage crises
• Manage conversations with influencers and communities

So on Monday we’re getting the 30-something planners and analysts who are actively engaged in Listening at Ogilvy along with a fair selection of the business partners who access it and holding an internal conference; “Listening@Ogilvy”.

I need to be a little coy about some of what we’re discussing, but here’s a few publicly acceptable items from the agenda;

Nick Brackenbury: Introduction to the 360 DI Listening Centre; The Wall of Ears

Irfan Kamal: case studies from the 360 DI Team in Washington DC

Kohlben Vodden: Ogilvy One: Listening for Clues

Matt Gierhart: Ogilvy Action: Listening for Insight

Michael Darragh: Ogilvy PR 360 DI: Listening for Crisis

At the end of the afternoon we’re going to open the floor and get into where all of this is heading: Listening 2.0 (c’mon - I hadda)

We’ll be tweeting out on #Listening@Ogilvy and the lovely Jez Kay from NowHouse will be capturing it all on video so we”ll stick some highlights up on the Ogilvy Vids channel.

I have in the past, made grandiose promises to blog regularly. Only to be mocked by my friends and revealed to be a hollow braggart by history.

So I am going to try a new approach (s).

• I am  a great admirer of Katy Lindeman’s Week Notes. So there’s a template to copy.
• And I find that I often do a bit of structured thinking in emails. So that’s another source.
• And finally I get on certain jags about things and start collecting them in delicious. So I could always look back at that and see if there’s a nascent post lurking.
• And sometimes I give talks and write articles for other people. So surely the elements of that should provide all kinds of blog-posty goodness.

Yes indeed there is no shortage of opportunities to collate a bit of knowledge and experinece and stick it on the internet.

So why don’t I?

Not Enough Bloody Time. Or at least a perception that there is Not Enough Bloody Time.

But that’s a bit like collecting all of the things I need to make a meal, but never actually cooking. Not that blogging is the ultimate output of my reading, thinking and working. Rather structured ideas and increased knowledge are. And there is nothing like structuring a post, thinking through the links and imaging the critique of a few select audience members to sharpen up an idea or approach to something.

I was supposed to be in Paris all of next week for an internal Ogilvy conference and then Le Web. Instead I recently learned that I need to come back for a meeting on Thursday afternoon. The net result being that I have a meeting on Thursday and my diary on Friday is completely empty. As I went to go and fill it with internal meetings and vendor chats and reviews of one thing and another I stopped. I stopped and realised that I had gifted myself a day of free time.

So that day is going to be spent organsing myself so that I can have a regular day of free time.

Tools that I currently have but don’t use properly and guides to using them better.

Info management

Google mail: become a Gmail Ninja

Google Reader: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/get-more-out-of-google-reader.html

Delicious: Specifically using Stacks like this one I made of these links

Evernote: Random things to do with Evernote and a more introductory ‘Getting Started’ post. Oh, and a really basic intro YouTube video with an awesome voice over!

Task Management

Omni focus: http://www.asianefficiency.com/omnifocus/

Network management

Linkedin: From Guy Kawasaki

Facebook: the new features

And finally Twitter, especially lists.

And my One Tool to Rule Them All: Hootsuite

From @jkrums twitpic: http://twitpic.com/135xa

The report opens with a reassertion of the importance social media of social media as a destination (In January 2011, social networks accounted for 12.4% of all UK Internet visits) and the role of news and media (6.1%). And because of the real time nature of both there is a natural fit: want to know about breaking news, head to twitter (see Michael Jackson’s death, the Hudson River crash and the Icelandic ash cloud as examples of stories that broke in social before hitting the mainstream media).

Cross breed these two and you have an opportunity to respond to the news cycle in social media that can result in increased awareness and the establishment of trusted relationships.

While the connection with Al Jazeera is obvious, I didn’t quite get the Lonely Planet connection. Lonely Planet has a huge audience spread across the globe, sincluding Egypt. Taking advantage of their heavily engaged membership Lonely Planet set up a forum and asked their members to post real time updates of what was happening on the ground, which DOUBLED traffic to their site.

It’s worth noting that while Al Jazeera is an obvious choice when searching for news in the middle east, 20% of their traffic came through their dedicated social channels as they shared video and live blogging updates as well as through Facebook and news links through twitter.

The other example in the Hitwise paper is closer to the more quotidian concerns of a consumer brand: BA providing real time updates during the December 2010 snow storms, again using twitter and increasing traffic to their site 25% over any other airline and trebling positive sentiment towards the brand.

Great: increased traffic, new users, lots of inbound SEO friendly links and an enhanced reputation and brand sentiment.

Is this something other brands can emulate? Find out after the jump…

Let’s look at the common elements to these examples;

• Each had a unique opportunity: access to information that had a degree of exclusivity
• They all used social media in a timely and transparent way
• They established or already had appropriate social channels for this kind of activity
• They were responding to a real need and interest of the online community
• All of these combined in a way that they were actually adding value to the online community

So what are the challenges?

• Is what we have to say unique enough? Why are we talking about this, why should the audience expect us to have an authoritative or informed point of view?
• Can we use social media in a timely and transparent way? If this communication is being handled by an agency, do they have access to the right sources of internal information and the mandate to cover it? If its being handled internally do the company representatives have the internal authority to communicate in this way, and if not what’s the approval process? In constantly evolving news situations timely means real time. Like…Now. And now. And then now again, in ten minutes time.
• Not all social channels are created equal: its probably not appropriate to use a Facebook page dedicated to vouchers and discounts to discuss the health concerns around a product category health scare. So are we prepared to start a new presence and do we have a plan for its ongoing maintenance or its graceful retirement?
• Are we in a situation to respond to a real need? Lots of brands and many aspects of brands and their marketing are not important in users’ lives. Interesting, possibly entertaining, but not vitally useful and important. But dig away and there in the heart of the brand is something that responds to an audience need, otherwise they wouldn’t exist, right?. So the job is to find out what it is that your brand that actually matters to users and when that might occur in the news cycle?
• Adding value: If we’re going to weigh in on a topic of importance are we able to add value? Are we prepared to put aside the valid but in this context inappropriate marketing concerns we have so that we can deliver real and timely information that is of use? (remember and learn from Habitat). We need to ask ourselves; are we marketing or are we communicating? Is this message or activity designed to benefit us the brand or them, the users?

So while the benefits of responding to the news cycle in social are real, so are the challenges. Oh yes, and the news cycle isn’t preplanned. So brands need to anticipate scenarios and forward plan what out any concrete knowledge of what exactly is going to happen.

Ford Sync Dash User Interface (from Jalopnik)

Since I have started working at Ogilvy 360 on social media for Ford, I thought it worth going back and digging up my notes from the SXSW Interactive session back in March earlier this year; “Dude, this is my car” on Day 1: Friday March 12: 2.00: #SXSW #dudethisismycar

It was my first SXSW session and I was suffering little from jet-lag but here is some of what I gleaned;

Both of the session’s panelists were from Ford US;  Paddy Srinivasan and TJ Giuli (interviewed here) and here’s some of what they covered;

The reason Ford were presenting at an interactive conference is because of Ford’s approach to technology in the car with includes developing software platforms that allow for external apps to be developed. The exemplar being the Ford and Microsoft partnership to develop Sync: an in-car technology platform.

What was really sexy about this was that earlier at CES it was announced that this platform would also allow smartphone apps to be accessed…so alongside the Apple App store, Android’s Marketplace, Nokia’s Ovi and Blackberry, Palm and Samsung et al it looks like we we could now have one for Ford’s sync. (Note: Since SXSW things have obviously moved on and there are now moves at Ford to get this off the ground; reg here for updates)

The issue with having an apps eco-system is that it needs to be populated. You only need to look at Apple’s iPhone advertising to see that they rely heavily on the content and functionality provided by the apps to attract an audience. (Link to adverts). So one of the things Ford is doing is making their apps software development packages (SDK’s) available to students.

Ford is doing this by developing Fiestaware. In a partnership with the Uni of Michigan and others they are encouraging students to create apps for the new Fiesta. And as befits a student audience, there is a big focus on social apps with integration with FourSquare, twitter and Facebook. The apps are enabled by a 3G mobile broadband internet connection.

More about this program can be read here and also here in this Wired article.

Srinivasan and Giuli also talked about other Ford app environments such as the Smartguage on the Ford Fusion which allows drivers to choose how much data and what data to display on the dash in four modes;
Inform: Fuel level and battery charge status
Enlighten: Adds electric vehicle mode indicator and tachometer
Engage: Adds engine output power and battery output power
Empower: Adds power to wheels, engine pull-up threshold and accessory power consumption

There is some more detail on this here on Jalopnik.

In terms of where this could go the panelists were interested in exploring more of the social opportunities this data could provide;

They gave the example of performance enthusiasts at a track day who could record their car’s telemetry outputs and then share those results with other drivers from the same day or track and compare results. It seems a pretty niche application until you think about the increased interest that a lot of drivers are going to have in driving more cost efficiently or more environmentally responsibly. The ability to track, store and compare your telemetry in this instances might have a wider appeal.

The other example they talked through would certainly have wide appeal;  driver’s would be able to reach out to the cloud and bring in data about their location that is personalised to their interests; the notable architecture they are passing, what happened here in history in this area and of course nearby restaurants. Instead of the grinding boredom of two hour I-spy sessions, a holiday trip in the car could become a moving history lesson, a Mastermind quiz and yet another opportunity for sibling rivalry. A whole layer of augmented reality apps could transform the process of A to B into really immersive, and actually interesting experiences. I must admit, as a new parent, the prospect of eliminating the age-old whine of “when do we get there” is pretty tantalising. Not to mention the prospect of a running commentary of what follies are near by.

The session ended with questions from the floor which started off with a lot of the inevitable safety queries. Given the tech start-up audience it was pretty disappointing that this was the tack they took, rather then exploring some of the possibilities of the latest and truly mobile app store. So it was at this point that I lost interest and wandered off to see Douglas Rushkoff.

The panel moderator was TV industry journalist and analyst Kate Bulkley and the other two panelists were Jonathan Sykes, ex-head of content for Tiscali (formerly Home Choice) and Peter Cowley, ex-head of interactive content Endemol UK.

There is a short summary of it here and my slides are up on slideshare here.

Unlike the other panelists I am one of the least qualified people in the world to prognosticate about the current state or possible future of TV. What I think Kate planned was that I’d bring a contrarian POV about the intersection of TV and online audience participation (AKA social media).

As part of my prep for the panel I read “It’s Not The End of TV As We Know It“  by Sheila Seles at the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT. In her paper Seles makes the distinction between Broadcast TV as being ‘Live TV (broadcast once)’ and Online TV as being ‘Supplementary Content’ (Webisodes, games, mobisodes etc) and that the intersection of the two results in ‘Duplicate Content’ such as full length episodes broadcast on Hulu or the BBC iPlayer.

TV Types: Seles, MIT

I’m not sure that I agree with the various distinctions and overlaps. I’d see Duplicate Content as it’s own area, not the overlap of Online and Broadcast. But with that change made I thought it formed a useful picture of universe of the opportunities for audience participation in TV. As with all other forms of content there is no distinction between where or when TV happens and  the opportunities for engaging an audience on social platforms occurs at every stage and in every iteration.

TV types; Amended

I reasonably figure that if a news source is worth its salt I can subscribe to an RSS feed. For some reason, something to do with the way it is structured and the fact that there are no human to human communications being buried my overflowing RSS Reader fills me with no guilt whatsoever. Odd, but that’s manners for you. My mother must have muttered something about politeness requiring promptly replying to emails. Probably hers. She’s quite modern that way.

(And yes I know that I could probably do this by following their twitter feeds, but until I get the Seesmic desktop onto some kind of epistemological wrestling mat, that’s just a non-starter).

Also as a result of Mat gently ridiculing me after the last tie I made a declaration of intent on this blog I am going to do it here and now as I type. Yep, live blogging at its dullest;

First to go are the daily updates from all of those strange and sparsely populated Linkedin goups. What did I think I was going to get out of Creative Social anyway? Yep, that’s now a weekly digest. Eh? Weekly? Well you never know. I once got a job interview out of one of them. Same treatment for the Linkedin Digital Media Group, in fact most of what comes from it I could actually classify as spam. Do these people think we’re actually that starved of information that we’ll read these shameless self promotions? No, Hortense. I will not try it to see what response I get. Even I have limits.

The Daily Beast and HuffPO? Why is it that I get my US news delivered by email and everything else by RSS? Inconsistent in my news consumption no more. Both journals consigned to the Google Reader. Golly, what’s Sexy Beast? Hmm, might as well add that in as well.

And now for the greatest offender; MediaPost. Both in terms of volume of emails and level of guilt I experience from not reading them the MediaPost emails exceed everything else by a factor of ten, or so. In my To Read file there are approximately 3,465 unread MediaPost emails on search, advertising, creativity, just launched campaigns, mobile, video and something called ‘Just an Online Minute’ which purports to be “A media industry social diary”. Oh I don’t know, I just subscribed in a moment of weakness. But no more. All of them, even the social diary, are all consigned to RSS. Actually this is one of the more convenient sites to do this on. Arianna and Tina both required a little cut and paste, they seemed determined to wind up on my now defunct NetNewsWire reader. But the MediaPost is keen to appeal to all comers.

MediaPost's abudant RSS choices

And Marketing Charts. I do actually read these ones, there’s always something juicy in them. But they’ll be just as juicy in RSS.

There’s more. Oh there’s so much more, but I think you’ve got the idea. And I’m sure some of them have evaded the sweep by not mailing over the holidays. Note to self: re-de-bacn in 2 weeks.

John Battelle has described Google as the database of intentions, but for me email is the in-box of intentions. So what will my RSS reader become? The repository of resolutions? At least now I can see all the spam my lovely readers are leaving. And honestly, I’m not interested in the pictures of your cheating girl friend.

Yes I know you’ve all seen it before, but I just like how wordle enables you to see things afresh. Like the fact that I have written ‘Open ‘ and ‘Source’ more than I have written ‘marketing’. I quite like that.

Also tooling about with Many Eyes.

Over the past couple of years I’ve been planning and launching social activity for clients and in the process developed a measurement framework for that activity.

This has come about by looking at what clients are aiming to achieve with their activity and what we are able to measure in terms of demonstrating that those objectives have been achieved.

The framework captures

• Coverage: How many times the activity is seen
• Engagement: What does the audience do with the activity
• Action: What business or marketing objective is achieved
• Sentiment: Did the audience like / not like what they saw (simplistically)

So in the interests of eating my own dogfood I’ll be applying the framework to the metrics of Burning Head and using the following tools;

• Coverage: Views: Google Analytics
• Engagement: Subscriptions and clicks on links: Feedburner & Bitly
• Action: Inbound links and authority (influence): Google inbound links (0) & Technorati
• Sentiment: Positive comments: Possibly Comentful, I’ll do some research and let you know.

To add my smidgen to the sum body of knowledge about social metrics I’ll be letting anyone who is interested know about the blog’s results, which I’ll endeavor to report once a month.

Excuse Reason 1: I’ve been guest blogging over at my sister’s blog for the amazing cafe Lantana. Its a ramble about information and how we share it; explicitly through exposing specific information and implicitly by enabling information to be exposed. So yes. it’s a Q and A and some Delicious tags about food and sustainability. But I tried to make it sound a lot cleverer that that. And they have been nominated as Time Out Cafe of the year, so if you’ve ever tried it and loved it vote. If you haven’t, then get along to Charlotte Place and try a flat white and a Lantana Crack Cake (no pipe required).

Reason 2. I’ve been busy readying the flat for the imminent arrival of my  son. Painting, tiling, assembling furniture. I wonder if first borns are a bit like the Queen in that they think the entire world always smells of new paint?

Reason 3. I have started a new job. Having left behind the exciting world of niche small business I have gone a full 180 degrees and am doing some work at DraftFCB in London; big, integrated and global. It’s fun. There’s a lovely helpful woman called Linda who fixes all problems IT related and an amazing woman called Sylvia who makes fresh OJ, amazing coffee (she’s Columbian) and stewed fruit and yogurt. I’ve been working on some very interesting very large accounts and it is to date everything I’d hoped it would be.

So with all of that excitement, its no wonder I’ve barely had time for a shiatsu massage, let alone a blog post.

Will do better next week. Promise. r2wd5h9bcj