To negotiate difficult briefings or clients you need to have a very clear idea of where - and why - you stand. I hang onto clever little thoughts which throw light on difficult situations.
Ten wisdoms to consider
1. If you build it, why would they come?
The old motto “Build it and they will come” has proven useless. Go to where your audience is, instead. “Consumer touch-points”.
Here’s a radical line of thought: Who wants to visit your website? Who wants to know about your history? I mean, really?
Why would you ever visit the corporate website of any particular brand?
2. We don’t sell, we entertain.
We are not in the business of selling. We are in the business of entertaining people and bringing the brands to them. We create concepts, not shopping carts. We measure PR value and Brand reputations, not click-throughs. If we fall in the trap of trying to sell, we will be judged with the same yardstick as Direct Marketing and shopping cart makers.
3. Inter web navigation
Understanding of how people navigate their way through the different, often disconnected pieces of branded media online can give a greater insight in the broader context. There seems to be a perception that the brand (and its sales) are diluting in a world of YouTube, facebook, Twitter and microsite presence. At the same time there is a redoubled interest in diversifying media presence, to be everywhere at the same time.
4. Branding over sales
Branding creates a reputation and a perception - often an emotional link - with the audience. Its measurement works on a completely different scale than Sales.
5. Do not duplicate the message
Be mindful of the journey of a user through the branded media; so they do not come across the exact same message twice as the move from one media to another.
6. Remember when and how people enter the virtual space
People can enter the virtual space from anywhere - make sure it makes sense for all.
7. Free vs shared
When you give something away for free it’s disposable.
When you share it, it’s done with love and acquires value.
8. Scarce resources are valuable.
Abundant resources aren’t.
9. Why would I click on this?
Check if your concept works online. Always ask this question.
10. An incentive is never a solution.
A good concept should be rewarding on its own and not rely on prizes. Emotional satisfaction should rank higher than a limited material gain.
It is no secret the recession is having a serious impact on the way business is done on the internet, both in budget and method. At the same time, the way people use internet has changed in the last twelve months, with social media becoming the star of 2009.
If 2008 was about online video and blogging, it seems 2009 will be about social networks and mobile devices. Keeping this in mind when devising an internet advertising strategy goes a long way later, in the concept development phase. From the list below, I can think of several examples in our day-to-day concepts and proposals for each point - from viral iPhone apps for Beck’s, functional screensavers for Peugeot and framework-based platforms for 4D, Jacob Cronat’s Gold and the Daily Different.
Here is a quick recap of what’s in store for 2009, via techradar.
1. Multi-platform browsing: Browser monopoly on accessing web content is ending. Mobiles, iPhone, console games are coming on their own.
2. Desktop development starts to come of age. (Adobe Air, desktop widgets, etc)
3. Flash gets funky (3D, video). Javascript kicks ass (Ajax, Mootools, jQuery). Video moves from 3:4 to 16:9.
4. Frameworks rock. (Wordpress, rapid prototyping, webjam.com, blog-influenced design)
5. Think smart: recession strikes. Less “redesign”, more “refine”.
6. Think energy-efficient. Green issues and not-for-profit clients become bigger. People get jiggy with presentation tools. Spend less on useless features and more on refining existing. More cross-sell initiatives.
7. Reach customers where they hang out.
Once you have the brilliant idea, here are some guidelines to making it known (if it is a viral video)
1. Not all viral videos are what they seem
Get the viral word out with people like http://www.thecomotiongroup.com/
2. Content is NOT King
Once the video or idea has been created, here are some ways of making it known:
- Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips
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Design for remixing: create a video that is simple enough to be remixed over and over again by others. Ex: “Dramatic Hamster”
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Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing. Ex: Sony Bravia
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Make it shocking: give a viewer no choice but to investigate further. Ex: “UFO Haiti”
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Use fake headlines: make the viewer say, “Holy shit, did that actually happen?!” Ex: “Stolen Nascar”
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Appeal to sex: if all else fails, hire the most attractive women available to be in the video. Ex: “Yoga 4 Dudes”
3. Core Strategy: Getting onto the “Most Viewed” page
So how do we get the first 50,000 views we need to get our videos onto the Most Viewed list?
- Blogs: We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos. Sounds a little bit like cheating/PayPerPost, but it’s effective and it’s not against any rules.
- Forums: We start new threads and embed our videos. Sometimes, this means kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users. Yes, it’s tedious and time-consuming, but if we get enough people working on it, it can have a tremendous effect.
- MySpace: Plenty of users allow you to embed YouTube videos right in the comments section of their MySpace pages. We take advantage of this.
- Facebook: Share, share, share. We’ve taken Dave McClure’s advice and built a sizeable presence on Facebook, so sharing a video with our entire friends list can have a real impact. Other ideas include creating an event that announces the video launch and inviting friends, writing a note and tagging friends, or posting the video on Facebook Video with a link back to the original YouTube video.
- Email lists: Send the video to an email list. Depending on the size of the list (and the recipients’ willingness to receive links to YouTube videos), this can be a very effective strategy.
- Friends: Make sure everyone we know watches the video and try to get them to email it out to their friends, or at least share it on Facebook.
4. Title Optimization
Once a video is on the Most Viewed page, what can be done to maximize views?
It seems obvious, but people see hundreds of videos on YouTube, and the title and thumbnail are an easy way for video publishers to actively persuade someone to click on a video. Titles can be changed a limitless number of times, so we sometimes have a catchy (and somewhat misleading) title for the first few days, then later switch to something more relevant to the brand. Recently, I’ve noticed a trend towards titling videos with the phrases “exclusive,” “behind the scenes,” and “leaked video.”
5. Thumbnail Optimization
If a video is sitting on the Most Viewed page with nineteen other videos, a compelling video thumbnail is the single best strategy to maximize the number of clicks the video gets.
6. Commenting: Having a conversation with yourself
Every power user on YouTube has a number of different accounts. So do we. A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this).
7. Releasing all videos simultaneously
Once people are watching a video, how do we keep them engaged and bring them back to a website?
A lot of the time our clients say: “We’ve got 5 videos and we’re going to release one every few days so that viewers look forward to each video.”
This is the wrong way to think about YouTube marketing. If we have multiple videos, we post all of them at once.
Once our first video is done, we delete our second video then re-upload it. Now we have another 48-hour window to push it to the Most Viewed page. Rinse and repeat. Using this strategy, we give our most interested viewers the chance to fully engage with a campaign without compromising the opportunity to individually release and market each consecutive video.
8. Strategic Tagging: Leading viewers down the rabbit hole
This is one of my favorite strategies and one that I think we invented. YouTube allows you to tag your videos with keywords that make your videos show up in relevant searches. For the first week that our video is online, we don’t use keyword tags to optimize the video for searches on YouTube. Instead, we’ve discovered that you can use tags to control the videos that show up in the Related Videos box.
9. Metrics/Tracking: How we measure effectiveness
The following is how we measure the success of our viral videos.
For one, we tweak the links put up on YouTube (whether in a YouTube channel or in a video description) by adding “?video=1” to the end of each URL. This makes it much easier to track inbound links using Google Analytics or another metrics tool.
TubeMogul and VidMetrix also track views/comments/ratings on each individual video and draw out nice graphs that can be shared with the team. Additionally, these tools follow the viral spread of a video outside of YouTube and throughout other social media sites and blogs.
An ARG (alternate reality game) is an interactive narrative that uses the real world as a platform, involving multiple media and game elements to tell a story affected by the participants.
Alternative Reality Games have been around for quite some time - DreadNot (1996), The Art of Heist (2005) for Audi… and Nokia Games by Euro RSCG 4D (1991 - 2005).
About that last bit, Nokia games. Euro RSCG 4D Amsterdam has a Wikipedia entry on Alternative Reality Games (here) - I work with the people who created the original Nokia Games I have learned to love the ARG principles - and how they fit into advertising concepts. I have even worked on a couple of ARGs myself - both as a player and as a creator. (Ask me about it, I love talking about ARGs! )
I came across some interesting notes on what NOT to do when creating an ARG. I think they are valid, and worth remembering when fleshing out the story and its mechanism. (Via sixtostart)
Everything you know about ARGs is wrong
1. A few misconceptions about ARGs:
- Don’t have enough players
- People who play are weird
- People who play have no money
- People who play aren’t mainstream
- ARGs are only for the hardcore
- They are too expensive
- They don’t scale
- They lie
2. Alternative reality: a made-up story.
A game: Enjoyment and recreation
Therefore, an ARG is A STORY - GAME.
- Tell a good story in the context of ALL STORYTELLING
- Get straight to the point. The audience does not want to wad through stuff.
- The internet is NOT video.
3. Games are supposed to be FUN, so - please - no more of this:
- Viewing source code
- De-stegging
- Waiting
- Codebreaking
- More codebreaking
- Esoteric knowledge
- Viewing more source code
- Solving stupid puzzles
- Buying stock in UV torches
- More waiting
- Not telling me what to do
… and more of THIS:
- Short, snappy and fun
- Last call poker
- The lost sport
- Playtesting
- Playful design
- Proper game design
- Repeatable
- Social
4. We make games and tell stories.
The axis: Everbody vs Nobody, Game vs Story.
We want Everybody to play a Story-Game.
5. No more of THIS:
- “This is not a game” (it IS!)
Lazy calls to action, such as:
- Helping a teenage girl
- Helping an attractive amnesic teenage girl
- Some secret order (illuminati, etc)
- Countdowns
- Treasure hunts
- Millions of blog entries
- Jumping through hoops
Masturbatory platform excitement:
- ooh.. a movie credit
- ooh… a website
- oohh.. an autoresponder
- ohh, a phone number
- ohh, a voicemail
- ohh… a secret note
- ohh… a website
- ohhh.. another secret code
UNLESS it makes the game/story better.
Do you want VIEWERS or PLAYERS?
Is it a MARKETING CAMPAIGN or a GAME?
Do you REALLY need a story?
A few more comments:
1) Fan created wikis just don’t cut it. They’re VERY poorly written - for example, it’s often very difficulty to tell whether a puzzle has been solved or not - and often confuse more than elucidate, for all their good intentions. The puppermasters must control the story and provide a clear thermometer as to what’s happening. The learning curve for newbies and latecomers is too steep.
2) Loose ends suck. If some puzzles haven’t been solved, release the solutions - don’t let them limp on like a wounded dog. It also lets people see the working that went into the challenges - sometimes as interesting as the puzzles themselves (called “Showing the plumbing” in the TV trade).
3) Rounded to the nearest percentage point, 0% of people know about ARGs. That’s a low figure. ARG builders need to find a way of getting “ARG: the TV show” on air so that at least half a million people get exposure to the idea. And it needs to be on BBC2 or C4 at least, not BBC Backstage/Switch/whatever.
4) Have proper endings that work. Too many ARGs have to improvise because things go wrong or aren’t ready in time, and I’m also a fan of having proper start and end dates.
5) Mass collaboration is not always good. It usually means someone, somewhere is faster, cleverer and generally more obsessed than me. I want to do puzzles largely on my own, at my own pace. Sure, if I then get stuck I’ll ask for help either from friends or forums, but otherwise it’s very difficult for “part-timers” get involved in the good stuff. Perhaps if there’s a prize involved, it should be chosen at random from all the correct entries, not necessarily given to the first person to find it.
6) Hook people in with a simple premise - you can complicate it any number of ways after that if you like, but make the initial proposition easy to understand.
7) Test your puzzles/activities and put them on a difficulty curve. If my Mum can’t do level 1, you’re probably aiming too high.
If you really must do a story, keep the number of characters down to the bare minimum.
9) 95% of people can’t/won’t attend live events, so only 5% of 0% will bother. That’s another low figure. Find better ways of broadcasting where everyone can take part simultaneously but disperately.
and finally
10) Like it or not, ARG creators probably need to start again from scratch in building up an audience. There’s too much appreciation of “well, that worked well before” and not enough of “only 3,000 people outof 60 million played this”. Forget about what the ARG fans rave about, concentrate on the Man on the Clapham Omnibus who could get interested in the concept given the right environmental conditions.
Now go and create!
There is no book of rules just yet - but until then, here are some thoughts to guide and test your ideas. They are values appropriate for just about any Big Idea or briefing, but particularly true for Viral mechanisms.
1. AT A GLANCE
What is the most relevant and differentiating idea that will surprise consumers or challenge their current thinking of the brand?
2. TENSION
What is the psychological, social or cultural tension associated with this idea? What makes our target tense about the idea? (is it too tense, or not enough?)
3. QUESTION
What is the question we need to answer to complete this assignment?
4. TALK VALUE
What about the brand could help us start a dialogue between the brand and our consumers, among our target and / or within pop culture?
Why are we not yet seeing consistently great work, and in particular strong enduring campaigns, in the interactive space? Here are a few thoughts - and hopefully by identifying the problem, we can come up with answers.
Via BBH-Labs
1. SPEED - A lack of speed in responding to the changing landscape, a blight suffered by agencies of both old & new skools, digital & analogue, hampers creative innovation. (mostly disagree)
2. ENDURANCE - We suffer a particular weakness at creating work that endures over time. (mostly disagree)
3. VALUE - There endures a disparity in budget allocation between offline & online worlds, suggestive of a pervasive disparity in value in clients’ eyes, perhaps.
4. EFFECTIVENESS - The online mix is inevitably ‘optimized’, resulting in the replacement of brand building content for ‘hard sell’ work that ‘really delivers’.
5. USER ENGAGEMENT - Interactivity can certainly make an ordinary brand more useful or more relevant, but truly great interactive ideas still tend to come from brands that people care about already.
6. LINEARITY - Involvement of the specialist digital agencies occurs too late for them to show what they can really do; they provide a microwave meal-style service rather than the full Cordon Bleu of which they are capable; they manage rather than soar.
7. BELATEDNESS - Even when the right people are cast together (the geeks, the strategists & the creatives) they are often consulted too late in the process, when there is little budget, time and options left.
8. REINVENTING THE WHEEL - We’re frequently creating from scratch rather than borrow with pride.
9. NARRATIVE - There’s currently less of a culture of developing narrative or storytelling on the web. I look enviously at the output of Campfire and other such agencies in this respect.
10. RISK - We’re crap at taking risks. (Disagree)
11. INNOVATION - There are no resources or time devoted to R&D outside of a project within the agency. The clients are having a hard time understanding the current technology - let alone innovations which spring from it.
