Crayon, join the conversation

Bob and Joe together. It's like 2 naughty schoolboys about to set fire to the schoolyard. Actually we're chatting about his Apocalypse Now piece in Ad Age. Good times. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Follow me on twitter: @jaffejuice.

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Bob Garfield links:

• On the Media
• Ad Age
• Chaos Scenario

Having gotten annoyed one too many times by friends feeding their Twitter updates directly into their Facebook status field, devoid of relevance and context -- do I really need updates like "@twitterbuddy17 lolz for realz.;-P" cluttering up my mini-feed? -- I updated my Facebook status to vent my frustration.

An interesting debate ensued.  See below to read what some of my FB friends had to say.  What do you think?  Is status status or does context count?

SXSW came and went. I wasn’t there, but crayonistas Jane Quigley and Greg Verdino represented us in full force.

They also represented two of our clients: ooVoo and Panasonic – with the latter being involved in a unique live taping of cultishly popular Diggnation, led by their two hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.

The partnership in question (episode #194) was to highlight Panasonic’s Living in High Definition initiative in a promotion called, “Diggnation lives in HD”

From Greg:

If you like taking pictures or shooting video — or just want to take a look at our latest social marketing tactic to promote the Living in HD community site – visit the promo page to find out how you can qualify for the competition.  Don’t forget to join LiHD, friend the Diggnation crew.You might win a sweet Panasonic digital still camera or HD camcorder.

Greg’s photos from the event are here.

SXSW came and went. I wasn't there, but crayonistas Jane Quigley and Greg Verdino represented us in full force.

They also represented two of our clients: ooVoo and Panasonic - with the latter being involved in a unique live taping of cultishly popular Diggnation, led by their two hosts Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht.

The partnership in question (episode #194) was to highlight Panasonic's Living in High Definition initiative in a promotion called, "Diggnation lives in HD"

From Greg:

If you like taking pictures or shooting video -- or just want to take a look at our latest social marketing tactic to promote the Living in HD community site -- visit the promo page to find out how you can qualify for the competition.  Don't forget to join LiHD, friend the Diggnation crew.You might win a sweet Panasonic digital still camera or HD camcorder.

Greg's photos from the event are here.

Jack in the Box (which I'm told is best described as a perfect cross between White Castle on Crack mixed with Stephen King's IT Character) recently dipped its cone into the social media snark-infested (oh I am trademarking that - full attribution required from hereon end) waters with it's "conversation starter" Super Bowl commercial commercial.

Bringing back shades of Frontier Airline's Flip the Dolphin, JITB created a website - Hang in there Jack - which included 81,000 get well messages from "concerned" patrons, including videos and songs. There was also (of course) a blog, which included comments like these:

• You all are morons. I like checking out most dot com websites .but yours is the epitomy of the worst. Your humanity is absurd
  
• Makes no difference to me, because Jack never came up here to feed us New Yorkers. We should grill Jack like a Pig and eat him.
• Your food makes me poop

That's where it gets interesting and where JITB might (I stress might) have succeeded where Skittles failed. With the exception of vulgarity and profanity, of which poop is apparently neither, the company let the conversation extend and evolve (or devolve) as it might...

No question that irreverence is a major part of this brand's make-up and personality. Couple that with a more open-minded, pragmatic and honest approach to dealing with consumer generated content and the "conversation", and you have a pretty authentic mixture of good and bad...peacefully co-exiting side by side.

According to the LA Times, the six-week "Hang in There Jack" campaign (Secret Weapon Marketing, Santa Monica) was a remarkable document: a 360-degree social media event that mocked even as it exploited the power of YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Along the way it leveraged irony to the breaking point with "viral" cellphone and faux-paparazzi videos, ring tones and texting. Among the crowd-sourced content were 27 get-well videos from fans, some quite brilliant. A man in Hawaii bought Jack's size-14 Bruno Magli shoe on EBay for $910. Now that's buy-in.

Clearly there was leadership, pre-sell and management of expectations by and from both client and agency in this case. JITB execs contended that the social media component of this program generated impressions (4.8 million video impressions for example) which would have cost "three times as much" using traditional media.

The other obvious ingredient in this taco was strategy (repositioning; relaunching) as hard as it may seem when you read a blog post written by a fictional demented clown titled "My post coma plans"

Jack's back, baby. Jack's back.

Yesterday, Jane Quigley and I spent some time chatting with John C. Havens about everything from mobile social software and charitable causes to SXSW coolness and Adam Broitman (it was mostly John talking about Broitman, but still...)  That conversation aired live on Blog Talk Radio, courtesy of PepsiCo, and you can listen to it on-demand whenever you have the time.

[I've removed the BTR embedded player because it auto-plays but the show is at your fingers with just one click.]

My latest Adweek column is up and it's already getting its fair share of comments - with some particularly negative ones leveled at me.

The piece is about where I think "social" media really fits and why - based on this assessment - I think it's a flawed strategy to charge a digital or PR agency with the AOR responsibilities associated with this imperative.

PS If you're going to be a hater, please indicate if you work for a digital or PR agency :)

Full text here:

Who Owns Social Media?

A clue: don't look to digital agencies or PR shops

March 15, 2009

-By Joseph Jaffe

There are three worlds. Or perhaps I should say three environments. And whether you know it or not, you're living in all three right now.

Let's start off with the physical world, also known as the real world (and I'm not talking about an MTV program). The physical world, from a media standpoint, is the one governed by television, radio and print. It's also the world in which most word-of-mouth conversations happen. Face to face.

Then there's the digital world. Web 1.0. The world of Web sites. Of big, Flash-based, SEO-unfriendly "skip intro" edifices built to glorify brands. This is the world of e-mails, banners and buttons. It's a world of advergames and gargantuan portals. And it's become synonymous with "traditional interactive" -- a sterile wasteland devoid of life, creativity and innovation.

Finally, there's the virtual world. Yes, it includes the obvious virtual reality, the maligned Second Life, MMORPG experiences like World of Warcraft and more kid-friendly environments like Club Penguin or Webkinz. But, I would argue, it also includes blogs, podcasts, presence applications like Twitter and social networks. My definition of a virtual world is any environment that utilizes avatar and/or profile-based participation, with the option of anonymity. In short, it's a place or space where people can interact with other people in ways they could never do in the "real" or digital worlds.

So where does social media fall? The obvious answer is right in the middle of these three worlds, which is exactly why neither a digital agency nor the PR industry is equipped to deliver against the three-pronged imperative of community, dialogue and partnership.

Digital agencies today are stuck somewhere between scalability hell (tasked with automating and compartmentalizing the lowly impression) and storytelling schlock (replicating obtuse and detached hyperbole in an advertising-unfriendly environment). It's a world governed by performance-based pricing and ad networks on the one side and pre-roll advertising and clunky Web builds on the other.

Exactly where and when did the digital space earn the stripes and credentials to tackle the high roads of authenticity, transparency or peer-to-peer collaboration (just to name a few of conversational marketing's core tenets)?

The PR business is really no better and no worse than the digital one when it comes to social credentials. With its claim of being champions of "earned media," it tacked the word "relations" onto blogger, lumped it together with "media relations" and "journalist relations," and somehow went unchallenged.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying PR shouldn't be at the table. I'm just questioning how "relations" between corporations and journalists equate with real people hanging out with other real people.

Whereas the digital space has very little claim to the "physical" world and hasn't proven itself in the virtual space, the PR industry resides more comfortably in the physical world, with a superficial grasp of the digital space and an anemic understanding of the virtual one.

In both cases, the ability to connect the dots among the three environments, find the commonalities and establish obvious synergies is barely practiced.

I've seen client after client duped into charging a digital or PR agency with-arguably-the most transformational opportunity we've been given in our professional lifetimes and the result is almost always a shambolic disappointment. From Sony or Wal-Mart's fake blogs to the recent Skittles.com mess, the culprits are almost always digital or PR agencies.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying every digital and/or every PR agency is ill-equipped to deliver against "social." What I am suggesting, however, is there's an acute and fundamental flaw in equating "social" with "digital" or "social" with "earned media."

So what's the solution?

Perhaps the solution is to return to the clichéd "integration" drawing board and figure out how to ensure that all three sides of the equation are equally represented around the table. In this scenario, there's a definite and defined role for an "integrator" -- an independent third party (internal or external) that is the generalist to the physical, digital and virtual specialist verticals, with less interest in ensuring success in any one world than in simply ensuring your success, period.

Having said this, it may also turn out that there is no such thing as a social AOR.

But don't take my word for it. Continue to vest your future in companies that build elaborate destination Web sites, construct parties that nobody shows up to and deliver ostensibly social solutions that reek of control, manipulation and fakery.

Hey, at least people will talk about you, right?

Last night, crayon client Panasonic helped the Diggnation boys rock South by Southwest at a killer throw-down that packed two thousand or so Kevin Rose fans into Austin BBQ joint Stubb's.  The highlight of the night was a live taping of Diggnation episode #194, during which Kevin and Alex announced the Diggnation Lives in HD contest.

But you didn't need to be at the party to join in the fun.  If you like taking pictures or shooting video -- or just want to take a look at our latest social marketing tactic to promote the Living in HD community site -- visit the promo page to find out how you can qualify for the competition.  Don't forget to join LiHD and be sure to friend the Diggnation crew (and me, while you're at it.)  You might win a sweet Panasonic digital still camera or HD camcorder.

If you're interested in seeing my photos from last night's Diggnation event, you can check my Flickr stream.