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Benn will be at WOM UK’s next Espresso Briefing on Wednesday 30th July from 8.30am until 10.00am. This session will look at how to use social networks and online communities to amplify Word of Mouth, and will be held at One Alfred Place, London, WC1E 7EB.

As a member of WOM UK, Neoco client’s can get in for free with us, and our friends can get discounted rates - so make sure you let Benn know if you would like to come along by posting a comment or emailing him directly.

The briefing will look at one of the hottest issues in marketing at the moment - how brands take part in social networks and online communities. Using examples from the US and Europe, the session will help to identify when it’s right to join in social networks and when a brand should build its own community. The briefing will show the benefits different organisations have had from engaging through social networks and online communities, how they can help engage customers and, critically, who they build advocacy and amplify word of mouth.

On Wednesday I went down to Online Marketing & Media 08 at the Business Design Centre. As the workshops were free to attend, I wasn’t expecting much to be honest, but the selection I went to in the morning were interesting and provided some good tips and case studies (although there were some rubbish workshops too…but I’m not going to name names!)

Anyway, the first workshop I visited provided a recap on viral marketing and outlined some of the viral video success stories of the past few years. Over 200,000 video clips are uploaded to the internet every day, so it’s becoming harder and harder for brands to stand out. It can be done though! And the following couple of clips show how. Because they did so well, you’ve probably already seen them, like I had, but they give a good reminder of how brands have got viral campaigns right.

1. Quicksilver’s dynamite surfing viral - 20 million unique views.

2. Agent Provocateur’s Kylie viral - created as a cinema advert but quickly became viral online with 360 million unique views!

I was also reminded of some non-branded virals that had huge success (mainly because they are so funny) so I’ve thrown a couple of them in too…

The Star Wars Kid

The Hoff drunk

…and when I say ‘meet’, I mean kind of saw from a distance… …and when I say ‘hero’, I mean graphic designer I have definitely heard of.

On Wednesday night me and a couple of colleagues were given the opportunity to see the ‘most influential graphic designer of today’, talk about his work in Hammersmith. As a mere student/scavenger, I know when I see an offer I can’t refuse/normally afford, so I took my chance.

The three hour seminar (by neoco client Quark XPress & I Love Design) provided us with a glimpse at the ‘chaotic’ world of David Carson and some of his favourite work. Two hours in, after the projector had jammed for the fourth time, the audience didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, although fortunately the majority did the former. It was hard not to chuckle when the old machine was literally throwing slides of his work across the room, and vibrating on the spot. Luckily David saw the funny side too.

David Carson was undoubtedly entertaining and certainly had some great work to show and some interesting stories to tell, even if half of them were about his latest surfing accident in California. He liked to use images of his wounds to wake the audience up, which reminded me of when your at school and you want to show your best mate your biggest scab. He seemed to ‘potter about’ a bit too much though, fiddling with things on his desktop, unsure of where files were and you couldn’t help think it might have been an act. When he did get down to showing his work though it was very interesting to see his how he worked through a project and what his relationships with the clients were like.

At one point he made some refreshingly down to earth comments about having to (to paraphrase) bullshit clients. It was moments like these he connected to the audience at a personal level and won us over a bit. I think it would have been better if it was half as long though, leaving you wanting more rather than wanting to leave (which people had to towards the end).

Despite all the subtle hints of the staff (‘we should probably wrap it up now’), he didn’t want the show to end. When it eventually did, some of the hardcore fans queued up to buy some one-off pieces of work which he signed. I managed to capture him amidst his glory. I’m definitely glad I went and it was a great experience for me. So thanks again to the team down here at Neoco!

“A big part of being a designer is seeing stuff which is around you and incorporating it in your own way in your work…”

“…your family, how you grew up, these are the things which are unique to you, no one else has these things so use them in your work“

“a design shouldn’t necessarily be timeless, the fact that it relates to the culture of it’s time is often what makes a design successful”

David Carson 18th June 2008

On Tuesday I spent the day at the Being Digital Mashup conference. It was a really interesting and insightful day - although there were way too many pitches crammed into the programme.

For those of you that didn’t attend, I’ve put together a summary of the key predictions from the event, outlining what is going to happen within digital marketing over the next 5 years:

• Media fragmentation and the decline of mass audiences will continue as there will be constant shifts in the way consumers live their lives, but this should be seen as a positive instead of a negative. After all, ad spend can be reduced through advertising to smaller fragmented audiences, as there is less money wasted on irrelevant audiences. Advertisers will need to create innovative and targeted ‘marketing pieces’ for their consumers, reaching them via their niche channels.
• Although it is often thought that young people watch less TV than they used to, research shows that there has been a 10% increase in the time that 16-24 year olds spend watching TV each day (since 1997 their daily viewing has increased from 1.61 hours to 1.77) and this is likely to remain constant.
• The penetration of mobile internet is currently at 30%, but with continued promotion from the iPhone and other key players in the mobile industry, this is going to see huge growth.
• Most sites will have an element of social networking or online community in the near future, as consumers continue to want this functionality.
• Online shopping is not going to take over or replace offline retail. Research has proven that consumers like being able to use a combination of online, store and call centre when shopping, and when given this option to shop across multiple channels, consumers exhibit a higher degree of loyalty – their average relationship ‘lifetime’ with the brand is 2 ½ times greater which is very valuable. As a result, the future will see online and retail work hand-in-hand.

However, the two areas that I think are going to have the greatest significance over the next five years are branded content and location. Predictions for these topics are:

• Branded content is going to be huge over the next five years and brands are likely to benefit hugely from being associated with entertaining or relevant content, as indicated by Nigel Conway from Nestle. Their annual advertising budget currently stands at around £5bn, of which £3.5bn is spent on TV advertising. However, Nigel believes that in 7 years time, this £3.5bn will be spent on branded content. Research has shown that branded content is the most popular of all advertising formats, with 67% of all consumers finding it acceptable or valuable.
• Location is going to play a major part over the next few years, as GPS and mobile internet become more widespread. We all know how to find things on a map if we have the postcode, and with GPS we will all know where people are located - but the key question is how do marketers use this data to add real value to consumers? Many companies are trying to create 3D search interfaces and immersive environments for consumers but at the moment they are too expensive and very difficult to develop, and despite all efforts the interfaces are really hard to use.

My prediction is that whoever can create a user friendly, and ultimately useful and valuable location mashup for consumers will be much much richer in the next five years.

We enjoyed an interesting lecture last night from the dutch design trio Experimental Jetset…’interesting’ probably being the operative word, as the team seemed to have lacked a little rehersal time when putting their presentation together. However, despite not being as polished as the previous lecture we saw, ‘Digital Pecha Kucha,’ it was entertaining (though perhaps for all the wrong reasons), and refreshing to see a company talk in such open and frank detail about their work.

I especially liked their logo and identity designs for the 104 (Le Cent Quatre), building. Based in Paris, this is a French cultural institute that will open its doors later this year. A work in progress then, ongoing over the next few months, yet is looking pretty polished at this early stage. Based on the and raw structuralism encompassed by the as yet incomplete construction of the building itself, the design work plays with the concepts of scaffolding and assembly resulting in a really great typographic approach characteristic of the Jetset threesome. They even embraced the bizarre client request that the finalised logo be elongated to an eight word sentence impressively well – a situation that methinks would have left many tearing their hair out.

All in all an interesting and worthwhile lecture, worth going alone for nuggets of wisdom such as treating design the dutch way, as garden rather than a singular flower… oh and along similar lines, ‘never trust the French.’ Touché Danny.

Just a reminder that the FUEL conference is next Friday (13th June) at RIBA.

It should be a really interesting and insightful day with presentations and case studies from Innocent, Virgin and successful start-up Moo.com. Sessions will look at how you can use new web tools to interact with existing customers and bring in new ones; build strong and loyal communities; use the latest in online marketing; and use innovative technology to push every boundary of business.

The organisers are also going to hold a drinks reception in the evening. Benn’s  going to be there, so let him know if you are too.

www.fuel-conference.com

The team and I will be at various events this month, including:

• Facebook Developers Garage - 4th June
• D&AD Presidency Lectures: Experimental Jetset - 5th June
• Being Digital - 10th June
• FUEL - 13th June
• D&AD New Blood - 23rd June
• Online Marketing & Media 08 - 24th/25th June
• Plus, 20:20 Cricket at the Oval - 11th June

Let me know if you’ll be coming down to any - it’s always great to catch up!

Both myself and Benn will be at June’s Facebook Developers Garage, next Wednesday 4th from 18.30. This month it’s going to cover: VOIP apps for Facebook, Facebook desktop apps and Facebook connect - as well as all the regular updates.

So come down and see us for the latest news on the platform and learn about the new apps to watch. Or if you can’t make it, get in touch and we’ll give you a lowdown.

Quick heads up for those heading over to Media 360 (May 14th - 16th). Benn will be there trying to shout about the power of digital to the ‘hard of hearing’ incumbents. If you are going to be there then why not Twitter!

WOM-UK have a couple of great events coming up, which we will be attending and wanted to let you know about:

This month’s Breakfast Espresso Briefing will be hosted by Face Group, and will look at the launch of their Headbox influencer index www.headbox.com - an online collaboration community for young consumers. The event is on the 22nd April, and is just £20 for us members, or £25 for non-members - and you get your breakfast included.

WOM-UK are also holding a three day exhibition at IDFM - the International Direct Marketing Fair 08. Various WOM-UK members will be running drop-in clinics, and covering all topics relating to word of mouth marketing.

For more info on these, or other WOM-UK events, visit http://www.womuk.org/Events.aspx