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BBH has a new campaign out in the UK for Barclaycard touting ease and convenience of payment, but what struck me most was the URL they use at the end of the spot, where instead of the corporate dot com address, there's a Facebook url.



This is a clear sign of the move away from corporate web destinations in favor of the locations where consumers are spending most of their time. This is a big shift and one that must be quite a challenge for companies to get their heads around, but it reflects the new reality.

This is just the start because it forces the agencies hand to work out how best to Facebook and looking at the Barclaycard example there are certainly some challenges.

Interestingly, the experience seems just like a corporate web site and not the organic, fluid experience you expect on Facebook.

While it's smart understand where your customers are, getting the experience right is critical .


Posted by Ed Cotton According to Campaign, VW is looking for a social media agency in the UK.

This will add another partner to the company's already expansive communications roster, add incremental fees and mean there's more to manage and co-ordinate. In a an environment where budgets and resources are being challenged, it seems counter-intuitive.

However, the media has done a good job, Influx Insights included, in hyping the social media space to such a point that client's probably believe the need a specialist to help them in this complex and challenging environment.

On the surface, at a moment in time when the CMO and his or her bosses seem fixated on the thrills of Facebook and Twitter, holding a review and hiring a specialist seems like a problem solved.

In reality, it might be more trouble that it's worth. If you take a step back and look at how social media breaks down and what's needed, it's pretty basic.

1. Someone has to listen and respond- probably best for the in-house customer service team to work on this.

2. Posting relevant content to get conversation-likely to be split between PR and advertising who both play a role in getting content out to the crowd. Good companies in these fields are already up-to-speed and know the world of social media.

Social media is another channel that must be a part of the communication mix, but fragmenting responsibility, while it seems like a sound plan, might make a marketers life a lot more complicated.

It would be great to get people's thoughts on this topic.


Posted by Ed Cotton Steve Rubel suggests that we might be approaching the end of the media website as news and media organizations simply plug straight into the social media universe, rather than having dedicated sites.

"Conceivably the next great media company will be all spokes and no hub. It will exist as a constellation of connected apps and widgets that live inside other sites and offer a full experience plus access to your social graph and robust community features. Each of these may interconnect too so that a media company's community on Facebook can talk to the same on Twitter.

Facebook might be the first venue where this starts. It could become a mini news reader for millions who don't care about RSS or Twitter. Over time this may obviate the need to create large news sites. It's easier to create a rich interactive experience there than start a new news site and hope that people come to you. They won't have time to find or visit."

The implications of Steve's suggestions are significant.

If media companies don't have websites, what's the point of any brand having one?

Is the future all about applications and ideas that lock brands into social media?

If so, this will have huge implications for digital agencies who will no longer be needed to build web experiences and sites. 

The bottom line is if you are an agency and you aren't playing in social media now and adding value to your client brand's experience, you are going to be in trouble.

Posted by Ed Cotton Social media is what many brands want a part of, but very few have made it.

On the surface, it seems simple, but dig a little deeper and you come across a myriad of complex political and structural issues that are standing in the way of success.

It seems there's probably a role for consulting companies to step into the vacuum and help companies navigate their way through this complexity. It appears Charline Li, formerly a superstar analyst at Forrester felt this way, because she now has her own consulting group- Altimeter.

Glancing through Alitimeter's Slideshare credentials deck, it appears they have a vibrant business model. There are very few consultants or agencies digital and otherwise who can help clients answer every single one of these questions the credentials deck suggests they answer.

Strategy

How do emerging technologies impact my strategy?
How can I align technology with my business goals?

Leadership

How do I lead my company in this new landscape?
How do I transform this organization with these technologies?

Tactics

What channels should I use to reach my audience?
How do I integrate technologies into existing systems?
When should I use which technologies?

Technology

How do I decide which technologies/service providers to use?
What's the future of emerging technologies?

How long before Altimeter gets an on offer from IPG, Publicis, WPP and the rest?



Posted by Ed Cotton It's now clear that viral and social media has reached something of a threshold that it's now fair game for specialists to thrive in the marketplace. Both areas have won over the the client cynics and now mass brands are eager to explore new venues in these domains.

Looking at the world of viral, it seems to have shifted into a new gear recently. The LED sheep film for Samsung is evidence of the sophistication of viral. It's no longer a one hit gag wonder, it's layered and detail and full of lots of elements.



Recent work for the MINI Clubman (not done at BSSP), also hints at a new sensibility. One where the tricks of the viral trade are so well known, that it's now time for an ironic wink and a nod at the medium.



With social media's accelerated rise thanks to Facebook and Twitter, clients are now all over these worlds and looking for answers. This new world is incredibly labor intensive and involves all kinds of discrete skill sets from monitoring and analysis, through to smart strategic responses.

It's now clear that creating a great viral or building and executing a smart social media strategy are very specific skills that demand subtle and nuanced understanding of the medium. They also require bandwidth and speed of response.

Ad agencies aren't that well equipped to play in this space, given their fundamental skills are all about creating commercial messages, not bare bones, message free entertainment. In social media, it's about having specific tools, data sets and people skilled in the media who can create responses and ideas with social applicability.

In the short term, this will force agencies to identify and work with third parties to engage in this practices, where strategically relevant.

In the medium term, agencies with an eye to the future to re-inventing themselves will be wise to bring these new and very different skill sets in-house.


Posted by Ed Cotton From the FT..

At Dell:

"Bob Pearson, former senior vice-president of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.."

"He now has 45 people working for him..."

"The core team works on “blog resolution” – trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. "

"Others on Dell’s social media team manage the company’s 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell’s forum for customer feedback."

It's an example of clients seizing control of the conversation response and moving it in-house from out of house and from reactive and slow to proactive and fast.


Posted by Ed Cotton