Ms. Adverthinker

I talked with Charley Crowson of Today’s THV this morning. Check it out here.

The Interactive portion of the SXSW festival starts tomorrow and I am headed to Austin to partake in the activities.  I will be on Twitter @reeves501 and @stoneward, will be posting here at Ms. Adverthinker and on the Stone Ward Facebook fan page.  I might pop up a few other places, too, but I will direct you to those links when they happen.

For now, I am still in the Little Rock airport, where my flight is delayed.  I am hoping to make it to Austin in time to pick up my badge and registration materials tonight, and get a fresh start in the morning.  It will be a busy five days if I am going to try to stick to a semblance of this schedule.

Continuing its impressive use of technology last week, the White House announced that the President’s Economic Report would be available for free download on electronic book readers:

“As part of White House’s commitment to make government more accessible, the Economic Report of the President is now available as an eBook for your Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble nook, Sony Reader and a number of other devices. We are always looking for ways to bring people closer to their government through new technology.”

The @whitehouse tweet:

“A first: Curl up by fire w/ the Economic Report of President on Kindle, nook, Sony Reader.”

This White House has done more to engage the public in its processes than any other before it: Twitter, blogging, Facebook, an iPhone app, and now books for ereaders.  They have embraced this era of transparency and opened the doors for everyone to enter.  Regardless of political affiliations or presidential popularity, the effort must be applauded.

Just a quick thought.  A few days ago, we were all patting Pepsi on the back for being different and for recognizing the power of social media when it was announced that they were abstaining from the Super Bowl advertising orgy this year and instead launching a socially conscious social media campaign.

Today, when the ratings for the Super Bowl were released we find that with 106 million viewers, it was the most watch telecast EVER.  So, was Pepsi smart to sit this one out?

There was a Super Bowl gathering at my abode, and in between cooking, conversation and conviviality around the Saints, we Googled, blogged and surfed the social networks.  Because we work in the business, our web use centered around the Super Bowl advertising.  And while most commercials were disappointing, there were some stood out from the overdone guy humor that was abundant this year.  I am not going to get into my opinion of what advertising was good, bad or ugly - you can find more than enough commentary about that here, here and here.  I want to talk about is the morphing of the event into an online social experience.

Watching the Super Bowl has always been a social event: friends gather, eat, drink, boo and cheer. The advent of social media made our parties grow exponentially over the last couple of years as we interacted with those we knew online in addition to those watching the game with us in person. Last year, 12% of Super Bowl viewers were online during the game, according to Mashable. But this year, rather than having to search out the pertinent discussions on Twitter and Facebook separately, communities have developed around areas of interest, be it sports, food or advertising.  Hashtags are now used more consistently, making search for relevant commentary outside those communities easier, too.  With these community hubs and hashtag prevalence, our online interactions have gone from just the people we know (and the people they know) to introductions to people, content and views we might never have stumbled upon before.  And just when we thought we couldn’t be more connected to the world.

I didn’t want the Super Bowl fun to end last night. In years past, I have only watched the Super Bowl for the commercials, and even then become bored by the second half. Last night was different, it was bigger and it felt like my world expanded just a little bit more.  And that is always a good thing for the curious being that is me.

For fun, here is my favorite commercial of the night.  Although, as it turns out, it has been around for a few months, last night was my first viewing.

This week, Twitter released a new feature that allows for the creation of “lists.”  This makes perfect sense: with the rapid growth of Twitter, it is becoming harder to figure out which people to follow. The amount of data out there is getting overwhelming; according to a CNN article:

“Approximately 25 million Tweets are posted every day; more than 5 billion have been created since Twitter’s launch.

“Facebook users are even more prolific in aggregate: Forty-five million updates are posted there daily. In May, the last date for which we have data, YouTube announced that 20 hours of video is uploaded to its servers every minute. That’s more than three years of content being uploaded to YouTube daily.

“As the barriers to media production fall — cameras in virtually every cell phone, video cameras in iPods, text messaging as a publishing platform — this content tsunami is growing ever taller”

Lists allow for those you trust to create a filter of all this data, by category, for you.

And, for those that follow Twitter through desktop apps like Seesmic and Tweetdeck, they are working to integrate list following into their applications (Seesmic actually already has; Tweetdeck is still working on it).

Check out the Stone Ward Staff Twitter list.

Admittedly, I am an iPhone “worshiper,” but this latest news proves its capabilities can benefit brands, too.  In mid-September, Pizza Hut released a kick-ass iPhone app that allowed customers to place orders through the app.  As an added bonus, customers that placed orders through the app received 20% off the total price.  To date, Pizza Hut has generated $1 million in sales through the app (according to Mashable).  I have no idea how much Pizza Hut paid for the development of the app, but they seem to have gotten a return on their investment in both sales and cool points.

In a presentation that we gave on social media last week, someone asked, “what is the biggest mistake companies are making in the space right now?”  Our response: “Not being in it.”  Social media and mobile communications really go hand-in-hand as social media gets more social with constant improvements to mobile devices.  Mobile applications–like those available for the iPhone–are the perfect channel for getting in front of customers.  So many brands are just dipping their toe in social/mobile media, timidly trying it out.  Brands should take a dive in and consider an investment in an iPhone app.  Yes, there are 100,000 apps available in the app store, but many consumer brands aren’t there yet.  Just being there will put you ahead of the competition in this social/mobile space (and don’t forget to put a little promotional support behind it; just putting it there will not guarantee it will be found by your customers).  This is not a complete list, but some things to consider when developing an app for a brand, it should: (1) do something cool that others haven’t done yet (or do it in a different way; improve on what is already out there), (2) provide a clear benefit to the customer, not just benefit the brand (example: Pizza Hut offered 20% off orders placed through iPhone app), (3) be free (example: not like CNN), and (4) give the customer a reason to use the app over and over (hint: constantly update/improve the capabilities).

Check out a demonstration of the Pizza Hut iPhone app here:

What pizza brand doesn’t get it?  Domino’s.  Everyone remembers the embarrassing “food defiling” video post by Domino’s employees.  It took Domino’s several days to respond, they signed up for a Twitter account to deal with the consumer response (note that they didn’t ALREADY have a Twitter account), and produced a stiff teleprompter-read video from their corporate office.  In those same days, Pizza Hut put out an ad for a Twitern.  Pizza Hut definitely gets both the digital and social space.

Love this “Know Your Girls” video. Thank you, Yoplait.

Starting today, my favorite morning program - MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” - will be sponsored by Starbucks.  According to the New York Times, this is

“…the closest integration between an advertiser and a national news program in recent memory. Harkening back to the ‘Camel News Caravan,’ an NBC news roundup sponsored by a cigarette manufacturer in the 1950s, graphics and voice-overs will tell viewers that ‘Morning Joe’ is ‘brewed by Starbucks.’”

The hosts, Joe and Mika already drink Starbucks every morning and have conversations about their coffee drinks during several shows a week.  It is a smart move for Starbucks to make the endorsement official.  I am not sure it is smart for “Morning Joe” to accept the sponsorship.  However, I wonder if it will change the honest conversations that Joe and Mika have about the coffee.  Mika regularly chides Joe regularly about his fatty drink topped with piles of whipped cream while she sets a good example with her “healty Starbucks drink.”  Will they have to only make positive comments about the drinks from this point forward?

The sponsorship is encompassing and includes graphics and several mentions during the show.  “The anchors and the coffee company may team up on charitable initiatives. And the program may be broadcast from Starbucks locations when it travels, as it did last year for the political conventions and this year for the inauguration.”

Of course, the show promises to cover Starbucks news fairly and will not be biased by the sponsorship.  Regardless, I think of “Morning Joe” as a serious news show–not the morning candy of “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America”–so when Joe leads into the commercial break with “you are watching ‘Morning Joe,’ brewed by Starbucks” (as he did this morning), I have a harder time taking him seriously.

I have been reading The XX Factor blog on Slate for several months now and I really like it.  It is smart, funny and not the overdone stereotypical female voice.  This is not a mommy-blogger site or a fashion site or a celebrity stalker site.  But they talk about mom stuff, fashion and celebrities.  And they talk about politics, current events and pop culture.  The blog has been received such a great response that they are turning it into its own site: Double X.  Here’s a brief description from The New York Times today:

“To turn the blog into a full-fledged Web magazine, the site will draw from a number of contributors to include commentary and critiques of popular culture, film and television, home design and family life, along with features like personal narratives from women on surviving the recession. Double X has also formed a partnership with Google to offer a news feed focused on women on the site.”

Check it out.

Colleges and universities are finally dipping their toes into the waters of technology.  Last month, I noted that students learn better from listening to a lecture podcast than from attending class.  Last week, the Missouri School of Journalism announced that incoming students are required to purchase an iPhone or an iPod Touch so they can download lectures from iTunes.  MU already encourages journalism students to use Apple computers.  As one can imagine, some students are not happy about the requirements.  Regardless of the choice of brand (although I am fan of Apple, of course), I am glad that MU recognizes the need to be on the forefront of technology and understands that teaching and learning methods have evolved.  Not all journalism schools are so progressive.  This is what led to our creation of SWIM: we were interviewing students who had no understanding of the impact social media can have on marketing and communications.  Our SWIM sessions are also available for download as podcasts on iTunes.

Also on the university and technology front: six universities will be part of a pilot program with the new Kindle DX.  Students at these universities will receive the Kindle DX instead of the traditional pile of text books.  The schools participating in the program are: Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Princeton University, Reed College, Pace University and University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business.

Our next SWIM session focuses on the blogosphere and we would like know a little bit more about Arkansas bloggers.  If you are a blogger and live in Arkansas, please email Emily (ereeves@stoneward.com) and I will respond with a link to our short survey.  Thank you.

Just a reminder that we have our second SWIM lesson this Friday night at Satellite Cafe in the Heights.  Join us at 5 PM in person or online (we will be streaming live again).  Blake’s Think Tank and I will be talking about high impact interactive campaigns.  If you miss us on Friday you can catch the archived video and podcast on Monday over on the SWIM site.

We had a good turnout for our first SWIM last Friday:

I made the point last night during SWIM that I think the media only started adopting social media at its fervent rate upon the use of social media by the Obama presidential campaign.*  His campaign used social media comprehensively and did it right.  Obama as president hasn’t let the social media advocates down: he proves that social media isn’t just for getting elected with the launch of White House 2.0.

By far, the best part of White House 2.0 is the Official White House Photostream on Flickr.  Social media is “about” a lot of things, but for President Obama it is about conveying his personality and bundling his messages up in that personality under an assumed premise that if we like him as a person, we will like what he has to say as a president, too.  That is what these photos seem to say.  And social media is good for that purpose.  We see him laughing; it seems genuine; we believe everything is going to be okay.  Our photogenic president appears serious when it is appropriate, accessorizes fashionably for events, and exudes confidence (or ego) in his overall presentation. 

In addition to the Flickr stream, on Friday the White House announced an official Facebook page, MySpace page and Twitter account.  There are also video postings by the White House on YouTube, Vimeo and iTunes.  All of this was announced as an effort to be more transparent and to engage the public.  And, they are allowing comments on all of these sites.  What I am not seeing in all of the comments are responses from the White House.  It makes me wonder if they are monitoring all of this feedback and providing a real two-way communication, or if this is simply another way to “push” information under the guise of engagement.  If they are not responding yet, I predict they will be soon: this White House knows how to use technology, the Internet and social media.

* While I recognize that many journalists and some media outlets had already recognized its power, for the rest of the slow-to-change media bunch, Obama’s success with social media was the turning point.  And now they just can’t stop talking about it.

Our first SWIM (Stone Ward Interactive Meetings) event was held on Friday night.  We talked about all things social media and generally introduced the topic in this kick-off of our eight-week program.  The video, presentation, audio and photos are all now up over on the SWIM website.  Check it out.  We will be back this coming Friday, May 8th at 5 pm to talk about interactive campaigns that have impressed us in the past several months.  The location will be announced early next week, and remember, you can watch online live, too.

Thank you to everyone that attended the event, both live and online.  And, thank you for submitting your questions and comments.  See you all on Friday at 5 pm.