With so much social media, why a Census Super Bowl spot?

February 8, 2010February 8, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

So many Super Bowl ads, so little attention to go around. I’ve always been saying these ads are a total waste of time. Do you really care if the Clysedales didn’t appear in a spot? (Apparently we do. They polled that question -and created a Wikipedia entry for them. Really!)

So, speaking of polling, I have to say that the $130 million Census campaign –never mind the cost of making the Bowl ad– is worth a second look. Especially with the cost of running the ad being in the neighborhood of $2.5 million.

“We’re advertising again,” the Census chaps say, observing what we all know that the Bowl is “rare, in that viewers are just as tuned in to see the commercials as the program itself.”

And yes, there’s the media-relations effect: Run the ad, get editorial comment. The famous carrot that says viewers will rush online once they watch the ad, because it that’s how TV –practically on life-support, tethered to the Net –works today.

But after they dispense with the popular wisdom about buzz and multiplier effects (perhaps after so many meetings with its agency, DDB) they note in true Census-boys style that “If just one percent of the folks watching the Super Bowl had their minds changed to mail back a census form they would have otherwise ignored, it helps save the taxpayers between $25-30 million in expensive follow up costs to collect these forms later.”

???

Translation: Watch ads, adjust your attitude toward being asked personal questions, save the country a boatload of cash, help us pay our agency.

I get that, Department of Census. No need to repeat this point about 3 times in your blog and press releases.

Yes, I mentioned a blog. This is where this campaign gets interesting because the obscenely expensive ad is supported with richer slices of content, some of which is embedded in social media channels. I like the fact that the Director of the Census is blogging, that there’s a Road Tour Blog and lots of space devoted to answering the questions people ask that make of break a census. The Flash site may be a tad too addy, but it documents stories, a la Story Corps, of ordinary people. The YouTube channel has plenty of video outtakes. The Flickr site has snapshots of an America few of us see every day. This one on left is supposedly at a Lutheran Church in Richmond, California. Thai dancers! The 5,000 fans on Facebook must mean something. and there’s Twitter just in case you miss all other channels.

So with all of this content so well thought out, is the cost of a Super Bowl ad really worth it? I liked the ad, but the greatest ad is not worth being tossed into a space filled with products and services that only seem to lust for eyeballs and water-cooler talk.

There are plenty of other ways to get buzzy, even if that was the objective. As Erik Qualman observes, why not use Facebook and Twitter to GET people to answer those darned 10 simple census questions, and not be entangled in “a $340 million boondoggle“? Because that not feasible, why not use social media to incentivize people to fill out their forms. If the media-as-a-repeater argument is important, why not let 300 million people start something that the media will talk about. (Rather than feed this controversy.)

Why not start with those 2,035 followers on Twitter!

As the character in the ad says at the end (somewhat perplexed) “Absolutely!”

Quotes for the week, ending 6 Feb, 2010

February 6, 2010February 6, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“People always clap for the wrong things.”

J.D Salinger’s character, Holden Caulfield. Salinger died last week. He last appeared on this TIME magazine cover in Sept, 1961.

“Salinger never swallowed this capitalize-on-your-fame command that Simon Cowell and YouTube have turned into an American birthright.”

Author, and syndicated columnist, Mitch Albom, on Salinger’s attempt to not be famous.

“I might go to the bathroom during that ad,or make popcorn.”

Susan Estritch, commenting on the controversial ad at this year’s Super Bowl, about abortion and choice that will air among the predictable ones about job sites and Clysedales.

“The secular religion of global warming has all the elements of a religious faith: original sin (we are polluting the planet), ritual (separate your waste for recycling), redemption (renounce economic growth) and the sale of indulgences (carbon offsets).”

Michael Barone, on How Climate-Change Fanatics Corrupted Science

“It’s too early to tell if this round of Facebook changes will create a backlash, but at the time of this writing there were almost 3700 mostly negative comments on the company’s blog post detailing the new homepage design.”

PC World, on Facebook’s latest round of layout changes.

Inane chatter, walkie-talkie reporter and TV News

February 1, 2010February 1, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

This is hilarious.

But it is also a sad comment on the formula into which most news has slipped.

For years most of us communicators have been saying that it’s time to break out of the structure of news –how stories are told.

But how could you blame the reporter who has joined an organizations that requires him to do it their way, which conforms with the industry standard, which is really a formula invented about half a century ago? Bucking the trend and attempting to frame a story opposed to the inverted pyramid or the sound-byte sandwich is a good way to be back on the street.

And so we have the evening news full of this.

Yes, we get a few variations of this:

All the news that’s fit to miss – Networks have been losing audiences (1 million a year!) over the past 25 years (Journalism.org study)
All the news that’s fit to sell –when the market creates the story that a poor talking head pretends to turn into news
All the fluff that’s fit to Tivo/surf away from

So what do we do?

How about demanding a new news format for a start?
How about hiring reporters who are master storytellers, rather than “award winning” fact-finders?
How about blending long features into mix ? (By this I don’t mean “16 horrible health violations in the restaurants you frequent, next!”)

Something has to give. I don’t see these conversations happening in my local TV stations, and few (like Tak Hikich) asking for a different formula.

So until then, we’ll see a lot of the walkie-talkies and statutory shots, I guess.

Quotes for the week ending 30 Jan, 2010

January 30, 2010January 30, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Was he a talk-show host masquerading as a politician? Or a politician masquerading as a talk-show host?”

Editorial in the Arizona Republic, on J.D. Hayworth, giving up his 3-hour slot on talk radio, to possibly run against John McCain.

“Democracy in a nation of 300 million people can be noisy and messy and complicated.”

Barack Obama, State of the Union address, 2010

“Reverse Psychology: Chinese Knock-Off Firm to Sue Apple Over iPad”

Fast Company, on Shenzen Great Long Brother Industrial company claim that the iPad is a knockoff of its P88 model, presented six months prior at the IFA

“It’s time to find your voice and get an online printing press.”

Wayne Kurtzman, at MediaBullseye

Plenty of “non-experts” – tons of social media expertise

January 29, 2010January 30, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

A funny thing happened in the lobby of MADCAP Theater, Monday.

It had nothing to do with these two familiar faces. Most of the 400 + attendees at the Social Media for Business event –a..k.a SMAZ –about all things digital, indulged in one of the oldest communication tools, business cards.

I loved how, despite seeing a Twitter handle on the last statutory slide of every preso, this tiny cardboard rectangle still works. It probably illustrates how social practices like this will not go away despite the attention we give to trackbacks, Tweetdeck or Posterous.

In between working the floors wearing that funny hat, I sat in on some great sessions. The panel on Building Brand Evangelists with Social Media, moderated by Kevin Gawthrope (@gawthrok), was very enlightening.

Then there was our very own Linda Vandrede moderating Social Media 101 a panel that included Amanda Vega, Chris Hewitt, Scott Andrew and Sheila Kloefkorn. Talk about heavyweights! If you’d been to last year’s SMAZ, you would have notices how the audience had changed, even at a 101 level. One of the sticky topics that came up was about outsourcing content. There were two schools of thought here, but both maintained that content creators have to be transparent and committed. Blogola and astroturfing won’t cut it.

As I mentioned earlier, the tone was set by Sitewire president, Greg (“I am not a social media expert”) Chapman but having said that, there was plenty to glean from. Especially in the hallways!

My takeaways (updated):

Be the message, don’t just post the message!
Don’t treat Facebook like the Yellow Pages.
Listen first, tweet, post later. Use Social Media as a listening post.
Be cognizant of the ‘channel agnostic customer.’
Google handles hyphens better than underscores, so be watchful when you write headlines, tags.
“Social media is free” is a huge misconception. There’s a human resource cost attached to it.
Social media is not a strategy – it is what you embed into your Comms strategy, marketing strategy, PR strategy.
Google’s new search engine, Caffeine, will knock your socks off.
Think less about the platform, more about the content.
Content isn’t king. Optimized content is king!
Start with small things. If your boss or client wants to start tweeting, facebooking, start with small goals before the big-hairy-audacious ones
There’s a difference between a News Feed and a Live Feed on Facebook.
Train others freely. Give away secrets. The rising tide lifts all boats.
Differentiate between Goals and Tactics. People mix these up.
Just like the way they confuse Strategies and Tactics, I suppose.

If you read other takes on SMAZ , you’ll see that there’s a lot of tech stuff to wrap your head around. But for all the talk about ‘matchbacks’ and Seesmic, Tweetie and Flowtown, I came away with three things:

“Social Media is an ingredient, not an entre.” – Jason Baer
“Hang out where your customers hang out” – Sheila Kloefkorn

And …

Bring a lot of business cards, next time, dammit

Cross-posted from ValleyPRBlog

“Stop treating Facebook like the Yellow Pages”

January 26, 2010January 26, 2010 / Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Evo Terra was firing rounds of ‘measurement’.

Jason Baer was his usual self –provocative, helpful, and making some terrific observations of where we are heading.

As with last year’s Social Media for Business Conference, (see post here) now better known as SMAZ, this year’s conference had some outstanding panels.

The event kicked off with Sitewire president, Greg Chapman making statement that was more of less repeated at every session: “I am not a social media expert.”

Followed by a “however…”

So in the company of these non-experts, I learned some amazing things, and confirmed a lot of the approaches I’ve been taking. Here are the ones that I liked:

Don’t treat Facebook like the Yellow Pages.
Listen first, tweet, post later. Use Social Media as a listening post.
Be cognizant of the ‘channel agnostic customer.’
Google handles hyphens better than underscores, so be watchful when you write headlines, tags.
“Social media is free” is a huge misconception. There’s a human resource cost attached to it. Social media is not a strategy – it is what you embed into your Comms strategy, marketing strategy, PR strategy.
Google’s new search engine, Caffeine, will knock your socks off. Even if you’re in flip-flops 🙂
Content isn’t king. Optimized content is king!
Start with small things. If your boss or client wants to start tweeting, facebooking, start with small goals before the big-hairy-audacious ones
There’s a difference between a News Feed and a Life Feed on Facebook.
Train others freely. Give away secrets. The rising tide lifts all boats.
Differentiate between Goals and Tactics. people mix these up all the time.
Just like the way they confuse Strategies and Tactics, I suppose.

SMAZ also turns out to be a great way to connect with the people we only meet virtually here in the Phoenix area (I met many of our readers from ValleyPRBlog), whether no matter where we are on the analog-to-digital scale.

And lest we forget the person behind the curtain who makes this happen, I want to tip my hat to Fred VonGraf.

Hoipolloireport

Angelo Fernando's blog since 2004