Healthy reminders for marketers

Gosh, another month has gone by... I've turned into a once a month blog poster.  Depressing really.  Sure, I'm still juggling some internal stakeholder focused publisher platforms at work, and there's been a lot going on in my "real" life.. that thing that has lived on the sidelines for a while during a period of intensity at work, but still!  I'm sure I've missed out on a heap of interesting stuff.

I can at best claim to have managed to watch one TED talk in the last month. Must try harder... TED never ceases to inspire me.

My digital treasure find of the month was Comscore's really useful paper on UK / European digital trends, full of handy slides like this one... Might not be rocket science but good to have stats to back stuff up.

So, with a slightly calmer week, I've fired up Tweetdeck, and started nourishing my inner curiosity monster again. He feels so much better already!  So nothing desperately new today but a few nice examples of things that as marketers we should remember to stop and remind ourselves of once in a while.

So first up... this great Slideshare from W&K, providing a healthy reminder for those  that spend too much time at work, that we also wear a consumer hat and we should reconcile the two more often, nothing new in the thinking but a story well told deserves sharing...

How to (not) Fail from Martin Weigel

One of undoubtedly many such posts kicking around the internet on the topic of marketing kpi's... and why we need to remember ultimately we should be measuring the right things that answer the objectives and not just measuring stuff cos we can... nothing new here again but a brief reminder does no harm.

A nice post from the Harvard Business Review that whilst likewise is not revolutionary does a nice job of simply starting to explain attribution and predictive modelling.  As just one potentially small part of the mix these days, Twitter are trying to demonstrate their ad formats really work with this Nielsen research piece.

And whilst there's been lots of interesting things going on with both the CeBit conference in Hanover (Spotify player on the web and in Volvo & Ford cars for example), the Mobile World Congress (still no phone capable of making & bringing me tea in bed yet though), nor SXSW in Texas this week, my discovery of the week is this post from Stephen Wolfram (of nerdy but awesome computational knowledge / solutions engine Wolfram Alpha), who predictably has taken the notion of data visualisation and personal data modelling into a whole new league.  Seriously nerdy yet quite fascinating in a world where Nike + & Fuelband, apps that monitor all sorts of things are increasingly helping us make different decisions about our life (02 health are doing some interesting things in this space)  and measure our goals.

As I type, Mark Zuckerberg is announcing the latest re-design for Facebook - new larger images (the instagram influence), a new approach to the newsfeed... and a heap of new things I'll now have to explain to my Dad. ;-)

Spotify embraces Facebook Open Graph

Spotify have joined the Facebook Open Graph gang adding a heap of extra features and making sharing the music you like to listen to easier and altogether more sociable/shareable.

More on that later but for now watch this to see how it will work...

Nice engaging ad possibilities from Spotify

Those nice chaps over at Spotify sent me a nice beta / mock-up this morning to show off what they can do with their lightbox ad format.

In essence you can scroll around the ad format (in this case highlighting an individual character), and you get a nice spotlight that hints at more interactivity to come....

And from there deliver content directly from the ad format....

 

Fun. And all without leaving Spotify.  

Like all the best executions I've seen recently on Spotify, this ad would be triggered by a user clicking on a standard display format, in itself promoted by applying the principles of good radio creative to the ad.

Spotify might run in the background all day, but I only tend to interact with the interface itself if I am either choosing what to listen to, or my curiosity is aroused by a good "radio" ad.

I quite liked this recent example promoting a forthcoming new series of Grey's Anatomy on Living.... 

The idea was "get him out the house" (so you could indulge yourself watching the show), but the creative execution was nice- it featured a publican encouraging boys to come down the pub and leave the ladies to it.

Top tracks of 2009 from Spotify

Those nice people at Spotify have kindly put together a playlist based on the most streamed tracks of 2009 across the 6 countries they are currently operating in. (Currently Sweden, Norway, Finland, the UK, France and Spain, although there might be a glimmer of hope for the US according to TechCrunch today).

Defer the what to listen to today decision by getting it here....

Mashing is flattering

It's said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

In the digital space someone wanting to play with your concept is generally considered to be a good sign of engagement and resonance with an idea.  The tweaked version is often referred to as a mash-up.

I've mentioned several times how great I think the Spotify / Fiat 500C partnership was, but today it's hats off to Peugeot.  They clearly recognise smart thinking when they see it.  Whether Fiat will feel flattered or not by a concept that so clearly ressembles their own I know not....

...but as with all good mash-ups it's a variant on the original: The Peugeot Drivesexy Spotify playlist adds a chart / voting element that goes beyond the Fiat 500C (original) campaigns notion of song nomination.

There are 20 tunes in the "Drivesexy Tunes Most Popular Today" playlist which is a little different from the 2.5k in the Fiat 500C Playlist but there's every reason to believe that it is a daily play list (I'll be checking tomorrow) unless the inclusion of "She's like the wind" from the Dirty Dancing sound track is entirely co-incidental and unrelated to Patrick Swayze's death yesterday.(Update: It does refresh, new tracks today 17th Sept, including the one I submitted)

In my humble opinion though they might be missing a trick: Fiat did a great job of combining involvement with the opportunity to build a relationship. Peugeot let you submit a track without any sign up (I had to try of course), only requiring you to submit details if you were bothered about winning an iPod (which I wasn't, I've got 2 already). Arguably no sign-up = less barrier to entry, but also less ongoing value to the brand as it's a wasted opportunity to build a relationship, in a world where relationships with consumers are becoming more and more desirable and valuable than ever before.  Fiat flagged their presence on Twitter and have been using it to talk to me on an ongoing basis.  Bravo! No Fiat pun intended. Honest.;-)

Ongoing happiness thanks to Fiat 500C

Yup, as predicted in my original post about the Fiat 500c Happiness playlist on Spotify, 2 months later I'm still regularly listening to it, albeit I've also recently added some other "shortcuts" from Sharemyplaylists.com. I'm also looking increasingly fondly at the Fiat 500's I see around and about and whilst changing my Mini is on the cards, trading it for an even smaller boot really isn't practical so it's just going to have to be unrequited love, for now at least.

They ended up with 2498 submissions to their playlist (double click it and then double click within Spotify, & get in touch if you are in a Spotify market and would like an invite) which is not bad for a week long campaign. Then, having got people to engage with them, thumbs up for having twigged the importance of follow up in relationships. They emailed me just a few weeks later about their BIG SMILE event. Sadly I was away and couldn't make it, but they've been smart enough to put photos up on their website:

Then yesterday, I got a tweet announcing the voting is open for the Fiat 500C Top 50 feelgood tracks. More ongoing reasons for me to engage with the brand (I duly voted of course).

Shortcuts within shortcuts. Makes a huge amount of sense given Spotify's recent release of the iPhone and Android app. I'm looking forward to adding the Fiat 500C top 50 happy tracks playlist soon.

Bitesize is good on mobile. Especially given the purported short-ness of battery life for iPhone 3GS.

I'm looking forward to my next Fiat 500C smile-instigator.

Spotify App for iPhone now available

At last! Premium Spotify subscribers can get Spotify on their iPhone or Android-powered mobiles

Making a song and a dance this week...

Hurrah! Apple approved the Spotify iPhone app. To be available soon (date tbc) for Spotify Premium users but you'll be able to cache music / playlists to listen to when you are not online/connected. Scratch the new iPod from the Amazon wish list then.

Spotify have also started to create a PAYG retail model for Spotify Premium in Sweden so it's bound to be in a newsagent near you before too long.

On the subject of PAYG, T-Mobile announced the launch of the 1st PAYG Android phone, (to be called the Pulse) with release date set for October. A princely £180 of the Queen's finest pounds to you. Dear Father Christmas.....

YouTube and the PRS kissed and made up (although there was purportedly a cash lump sum involved too) so all your favourite music videos will be back online again soon.

YouTube also LovesFilm (or thinks it might): YouTube are trialling a full length film rental subscription service amongst 10, 000 Google employees after securing deals with a number of major studios.

Whilst we're on the subject of movies, here's a nice film showing the evolution of visual effects in film over time. Once you've worked in animation you can't but help like these things!



Web based catch-up tv services will no longer be confined to viewing on your laptop after Sony announced that you'll be able to connect your Sony Bravia TV, Blu-ray player or Home Cinema to your broadband, and did a deal with Channel 5 for their Bravia Internet Video Service, so you won't have to ever miss Neighbours or have to watch it hunched over a laptop.

But conversely the need to be connected but not weighed down by a huge laptop has seen Netbooks take 22% of worldwide portable computer sales in Q2 this year.

And finally.... There are now 104 Twitter-ers who have more than a million followers. Amazon celebrated recruiting their millionth follower by giving away a free mp3. E-Crm - it's all about value exchange.

Let the people create the content and let the brand reap the benefit

It's no secret that I am a huge fan of Spotify. I'm also a fan of many things Italian. So happiness is when I see the two put together in a way that brightens my day and in all probability will brighten many many days to come too.

Bravo Fiat! They're running a multi-media campaign for their Fiat 500C (c for cabriolet), which has ticked lots of boxes for me in the world of smart use of the digital space. Ok, the summer may not be living up to it's name, but we all like the idea of wind in our hair and soft top cars. Apparently the UK has the greatest penetration of cabriolet cars in Europe. Yet arguably one of the most variable climates.

So what have they done? Created a campaign that harnesses the power of music to make us feel good, with a platform that facilitates participation via the creation of playlists / songs on demand & then got the consumer involved in an easy-to-engage fashion to create content that the brand derives benefit from. Brilliant.



So far, in the 5 days the campaign has been running, 1926 tracks have been submitted, and there've been numerous people commenting via Twitter. The smart thing about this campaign is that not only do I get to feel involved because my track has been included in the playlist with minimal effort involved in contributing, (so I feel part of the 500c Spotify community), but because in a time pressured, information overloaded world I now have a ready made playlist to listen to full of tracks that make people smile. Better still is the fact that I now have an easy default option of something jolly to listen to when I can't be bothered to make an active decision. I regularly default back to playlists I've been sent as long ago as February when I first started using Spotify.

So for Fiat, they stand a pretty good chance of remaining on my radar for months to come, and bringing a smile to my face time after time. Good for them. And they didn't even have to create the content, just facilitate its creation, which for me is a good illustration of a brand that has understood the social media space. It's part of that letting go of control thing that brands are having a hard time grasping. You don't always have to be in control to reap the benefit.

So cheer up your Friday, listen to what the people say make them smile (You'll need to have downloaded the Spotify app first, then doublc click on link /500c playlist icon that appears on LHS of the Spotify window). It's eclectic but that's part of the fun. Open the sun roof this weekend, crank up the stereo, and pretend you are nipping around Rome in a soft top Fiat 500c. It doesn't take much imagination for that combination to conjure up a smile.