OTOinsights

ANA 2007 B-to-B Conference: Harnessing the Power of New Media Platforms

Last Thursday I had the honor of sitting on a panel titled ""HARNESSING THE POWER OF NEW MEDIA PLATFORMS" at the 2007 Association of National Advertiser's (ANA) B-to-B Conference in Chicago, IL.

Joining me on the panel were: Barbara Basney (Director, Global Advertising Xerox Corporation) and Ellis Booker (Editor B-to-B Magazine).  Frank Dudley (Vice President of Marketing Guideline Research) moderated.   Our talk centered around the results of a joint ANA/Guidlines/B-to-B Magazine study that explored the use of search, social networks, user-generated content, podcasts, blogging, etc. within B-to-B and B-to-C marketing efforts.

You may download the results of the study here:

DOWNLOAD PDF  | DOWNLOAD POWERPOINT

Overall findings include:

• For B-to-B marketers, a company’s website is the oldest and most often used new media platform that B-to-B companies are using.  Email marketing, online ads, search engine optimization, paid search engine marketing and webinars are also widely used.  Podcasts, blogs and video on demand look to grow over the next year, while little interest is shown in mobile and second life/social networking media platforms.
• B-to-C companies are also using their own website, as well as email marketing, and online ads. SEO-organic and SEM-paid have been in use for the past 3 years.  Blogs and video, both on-demand and viral, look to grow over the next year.  There are no plans to use webinars, Wiki or Second Life within the next year.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C: significantly more B-to-B marketers have been using email,,SEO-organic and webinars for more than 3 years, and have begun to use blogs.  They are also significantly less likely to use mobile, social networks or viral video in the next year than B-to-C marketers. B-to-C marketers have begun to use these platforms in the past year and the trend will continue.
• Of the B-to-B marketers that use these new media platforms, Brand Building is most frequently accomplished through blogs, second life, social networks, viral videos, wiki and their own websites.  Demand Generation is accomplished through email, online, SEO, SEM, and video on demand– while companies use blogs, podcasts and webinars to generate Customer Loyalty.
• Of the B-to-C marketers that use these media, blogs, podcasts, second life, viral video and wiki are use to accomplish Brand Building.   SEO and SEM are used for Demand Generation. And Customer Loyalty is mostly accomplished through emails, RSS feeds, and blogs.  Cross Selling is an objective for emails and webinars.
• Comparing B-to-B to B-to-C, B-to-B marketers use email and webinars for demand generation significantly more than B-to-C.  Of the all marketers who use mobile and podcasts, significantly more B-to-C marketers use them for brand building.
• Effectiveness varies greatly when looking at B-to-B vs. B-to-C companies.  While both have seen success from their own website, B-to-C companies have seen significantly more success from paid key word searches, online ads, and social networks, B-to-B companies have seen success in webinars.
• B-to-C companies typically look at downloads and registrations to their website and specific events.  While B-to-B companies are more likely to measure effectiveness of new media platforms through purchase behavior, site visits and time spent.
• B-to-B Companies spend significantly less on media than B-to-C companies.  As a percent of revenue, they spend an average of .58%, while B-to-C companies spend an average of 1.18%.
• Currently, B-to-B companies are significantly more likely to allocate a higher percentage of their media budget (more than 20%) to new media platforms as compared to B-to-C companies.
• All marketers expect to spend more on new media platforms in 2007 compared to 2006, with significantly more B-to-C marketers trending towards an increase.
• Of the marketers that expect to spend more on 2007,  B-to-B marketers will spend it on their own websites, email and online ads.
• Typically the responsibility for managing new media platforms is added to an internal group.  New internal groups are formed about 15% of the time.
• Internal Marketing Departments and Interactive/Digital Media Agencies drive the use of new media platforms for B-to-B companies.  B-to-C companies new media strategies are also driven by Internal Media Departments, but also by Interactive/Digital Creative Agencies.
• All marketers are concerned about their lack of experience with new media platforms, followed by their inability to prove effectiveness/ROI.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Towards a Sociology of Massive Cultural Production

I've spent the last two days devoted to the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002), who wrote extensively on what he calls the field of cultural production. I think "cultural production" is an important category for study, because I think a lot of recent work on Web 2.0 (such as Tapscott & Williams' Wikinomics book and Benkler's Wealth of Networks) focuses too narrowly on professional collaborations in the discovery, production, and dissemination of "knowledge" and "information." These are important contributions, but many of the big sites aren't about knowledge or information. They are fundamentally about experience: of culture (YouTube, Newgrounds), of friendship (Facebook, MySpace), of shared fantasy (Second Life, World of Warcraft), etc. The Web isn't an encyclopedia: along with the home and the workplace, it's a primary environment in which we live, play, love, learn, and express ourselves. Thus, the sociology of massive cultural production is as necessary to study as the economics of networked collaboration. Which brings us back to Bourdieu.

Among Bourdieu's goals are disentangling and even modeling the incredibly complex inputs that lead to epochs of cultural production, such as late 19-century French literature. These inputs include things like the following:

• The intentions and dispositions of the artist or author
• Economic and political contexts, including material production, income, and influence of dominant class ideology
• The artist's particular use of a generic "language," such as the visual and thematic conventions of a contemporary science fiction movie
• The role of the critic in justifying, discovering, or downright creating the value of a work (think of Oprah's effect on a novel's sales and prestige)
• The education, dispositions, and tastes of the audience and how they combine to create demand

The obvious strength of Bourdieu's approach is that it avoids reducing cultural production to an oversimplified account, such as "the author's intention," or "serving the needs of the dominant economic class," or "whatever happens in the cognition of the reader/viewer," etc. Reductiveness is particularly a problem in scientific sampling, which seeks through its "operational definitions" to place discrete boundaries around phenomena whose very essence is the struggle to create boundaries; in other words, for Bourdieu, sampling of phenomena relating to cultural production predetermines the data, rather than enabling its representation.

The obvious weakness of Bourdieu's theory is that this is not an easy model to go out and apply. Fortunately, Bourdieu does apply his model in analyses of French literature, which we can, in turn, at least try to emulate in a domain of cultural production that we all care about, say, Newgrounds animations, SecondLife builds, or MySpace mini-apps.

So, simplifying for clarity and brevity, Bourdieu characterizes the "field" of cultural production as a "space" in which actors (artists, critics, etc.) struggle. They struggle not only to promote their own ideas over others, but also to draw boundaries of inclusion and exclusion as to who has a voice, who belongs in the struggle. This field he represents as a two-dimensional graph. Different agents, through an interaction between their own predispositions and the objective world of options they have in front of them, position themselves in this space.

The X-axis maps the range of popularity, from no audience to a large audience. Related to that are economic matters: large audiences tend to mean lots of money but also lots of market interference on the artist's vision. Small or no audiences mean lots of autonomy for the artist--who can do whatever she or he wishes--but at the expense of economic profit.

The Y-axis maps the degree of consecration. High consecration refers to academic and institutionalized consecration: the work is recognized as "high art," "worthy," or "important"; it also correlates to the category of the "old." Low consecration is associated with youth, the merely popular, throwaway culture.

Now, here is my central question: Can Bordieu's model be used to represent massive cultural production in the era of Web 2.0? Here are some objections that have occurred to me:

• Both French literature and contemporary mainstream film, books, and comics have high barriers to entry, that is, restricted access; that clearly is not the case (at least, not in the same way) for Web 2.0 creativity.
• Institutionally, we know how to handle all aspects of 20th century mass media: production, distribution, and consumption. Thus, we have established protocols for "consecration." With massive cultural production, the relationships between the relevant institutions (such as the hierarchies of blogs and wikis on the one hand versus universities and journalism on the other) are anything but clear, and the protocols for consecration are likewise confused.

That's all pretty abstract. Let me make it more concrete. In April, Jeremi Karnell, Carl Marci, and I did a presentation for MITX on the Numa Numa dance viral video. It doesn't get any more establishment than the president of a digital marketing services firm, a corporate researcher, and a university researcher coming together to present under the auspices of something like MITX. In Bourdieu's model, that would be a consecration of high order. Did we consecrate Numa Numa in that presentation? Surely we did on some level, but what does "consecration" even mean in this context?

Another example. Earlier this year, YouTube held awards for its "best" videos of 2006, as divided into seven categories. Each category had 10 finalists. That's 70 finalists taken from around 24 million videos uploaded that year. What possible protocol could justifiably identify the best 0.0003% of YouTube videos, from a cultural standpoint? And once this task is complete, for better or worse, again we are faced with the question of what kind of consecration is it to be a finalist of a YouTube video award.

Returning to the original question: Can Bourdieu's model be used to expose and represent the field of massive cultural production? The answer is yes, but with a caveat. Many of the underlying characteristics and concepts of Bourdieu's model will apply (e.g., field, habitus, position-taking, cultural capital), but identifying the specific categories of the space of massive cultural production, that is, finding alternatives to, or at least redefinining "degree of consecration" and large versus small audience, will require deriving or defining the new categories empirically. And that's gonna be a bit of a job. And I've got six weeks to do it. Hrm.

Desktop Applications, Screen Mates, Widgets, Gadgets, Modules, Oh My!!!

Consumer control of media continues to shatter old paradigms of content publishing and distribution.   More and more enterprises are exploring disaggregated media strategies that embrace the web as a platform for services and allowing consumers of information to install, embed, and/or configure small executable applications that are customized to fit into very individualized and personalized media portfolio.  From Branded Desktop Applications such as Southwest Airline’s Ding! to Apple’s iPhone Mobile Widgets, the marketplace is heating up with new and innovative solutions to answer the consumer cry for rich, modular, and customizable streams of content and information. 

Last week, One to One Interactive and MITX hosted the second Digital Marketing Series event that explored these emerging platforms, case examples of successful deployments, and best practices.  Participating in the session was Chris Heitmann, EVP One to One Interactive & Managing Director of OTOlabs, Stephen DiMarco, CMO of Compete.com, Nick Quagliara, M.S. IU School of Informatics, and Dan Gallagher, VP Audience & Architecture of NetworkWorld. 

The presentation and survey data that was discussed at the session may be downloaded here:

Speakers' Presentation (PDF, 11MB)
Compete Disaggregated Media Survey (July 2007)

Special thanks goes to Jeffrey Bardzell, Ph.D. and Shaowen Bardzell, Ph.D. for their valuable contributions.

Comcastic Island Videos

Below are video segments that represent just some of the activities made available to residents of Second Life who visit Comcastic Island.  This footage was shot prior to our final release, so some small things have changed (enhanced really).  However, this will give you a good idea of Comcastic Island if you do not have a Second Life Account and wish to check it out.

Comcastic Island Video: Introduction

Comcastic Island Video: Island Entrance

Comcastic Island Video: Race Track

Comcastic Island Video: Jet Ski

Comcastic Island Video: Jet Pack

Comcastic Island Video: Parachute

Comcastic Island Video: Soda Fountain

Comcastic Island Video: Entertainment Complex

OTOi helps Comcast Launch "Comcastic Island" in Second Life

Yesterday, Comcast announced the opening of Comcastic Island in Second Life, officially becoming the first major North American communications company to establish a presence in a virtual world environment.  Comcast, a client of OTOi, started planning a Second Life initiative at the end of last year.  OTOi developed the strategy and outsourced the build to Million's of Us.  There was a concerted effort  to not do anything overtly marketing.  Instead, efforts were focused on creating value for the overall Second Life Community by developing a massive entertainment venue where in-world residents may go to play and have fun. 

Comcastic Island, which may be accessed by typing in the Keyword "Comcast" within Second Life's World Map search bar or by visiting the following SURL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Comcast/128/128/0, contains a futuristic race track, jest ski course, jet pack course (where the jet packs may be acquired for free and used by residents as transportation  anywhere within Second Life), parachuting, an entertainment complex, cafe, and a secret lab (which you are going to have to try to find on your own).

This is the first of many initiatives planned by Comcast within Second Life.  Ultimately, this project will help inform them on how to engage with individuals in this and other up and coming virtual worlds (see Dr. Bardzell's post titled "Tourist vs. Resident Research").  This learning is vital for Comcast has they continue to transform themselves into one of the worlds leading entertainment companies.

Additional articles and posts about this launch may be found below:

Press:

Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/06/14/ap3822528.html

MediaPost
http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=6239

Multichannel News
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6452096.html

GameDaily BIZ
http://biz.gamedaily.com/industry/news/?id=16508

 
Blog Posts:

3pointd
http://www.3pointd.com/20070605/comcast-parachutes-into-second-life/

MOU blog
http://www.millionsofus.com/blog/

SL Universe
http://www.sluniverse.com/pics/Default.aspx?Name=Kumi%20Kuhr

Blog Spot
http://slambling.blogspot.com/2007/06/comcast.html

ScottSecondLife
http://scottsecondlife.blogspot.com/2007/06/enter-comcastic-island.html

MindBlizzard
http://blog.mindblizzard.com/2007/06/comcast-plugged-in-sl.html

RipTen
http://www.ripten.com/2007/06/15/current-life-got-you-down-comcast-has-the-answer

mySecondLife.it (Italians are into it)
http://www.mysecondlife.it/comcast-apre-un-parco-a-tema/20070615.html

Slandreamedia (the French too, dammit)
http://slandreamedia.wordpress.com/2007/06/06/un-fai-dans-second-life/

Virtual Worlds News
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/06/whos_new_to_sec.html

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Tourist Versus Resident Research

I talk to a lot of business professionals and academics alike about Web 2.0, Second Life, and other emergent Web social spaces and phenomena. Many of the business folks have ideas about doing startups in this space; some of them have gotten some real money to do it. Academics are interested in practicing knowledge-production and teaching in these spaces. All these experts are ready to jump in and colonize these new spaces.

Yet many of these experts in the real world are naive n00bs in the Web 2.0 spaces they seek to colonize.

There are a few different reasons for this. One is that press accounts of these spaces are written by journalists who themselves have only superficial understandings of these spaces. Another is that many of these professionals are making good faith efforts to understand these phenomena, but are looking in the wrong places.

For example, when I talk to business professionals interested in Second Life, they tell me they've been to Reebok's and Pontiac's islands. Academics tell me they've been to look at new media consortium or the activities of such-and-such university. They've all visited IBM, and they're fired up to learn there is a highly active distribution list for Second Life educators. They've read about U2's Second Life concerts, and they know that some woman made, like, a LOT of money selling virtual real estate.

So what's wrong with that?

It's kind of like writing a literary critique of Jane Austen on the grounds of having seen Keira Knightley's Pride and Prejudice at the cinema. It's like an American going to Europe to visit Disneyland Paris. You're not experiencing the culture. You're seeing a cartoon picture of your navel. There's nothing wrong with it as far as it goes, but you don't want to base a startup or a dissertation on that alone.

If you want to understand Second Life, MySpace, Facebook, or whatever, don't be a tourist. Don't limit yourself to the spots Business Week and the New York Times bleat about.

Go live it.

Read blogs written by longtime residents, not scholars and professional marketers, and follow their URLs. Visit their spots in-world. Watch their "home movies" on YouTube. Completely fill in and regularly change/expand your profile. Dress up and make a killer avatar. Customize your user interface. Use new features. Upload your own pictures. Spend a little money. Ask someone you don't know for help. Learn who the famous residents and users are, read their profiles, and visit their del.icio.us pages. Develop online-only friendships that actually mean something to you. Organize a real-life event using a friends list on Facebook.

Nothing says it wouldn't be possible for a tourist to help develop a city, but a resident is in a better position to get it right the first time.

Social Software Building Blocks

I recently came across a wonderful post regarding the building blocs of social software.  Gene Smith, from nForm, has brought to light work done from Matt Webb and Stewart Butterfield that defines seven element of social software.  These include:

• Identity - a way of uniquely identifying people in the system
• Presence - a way of knowing who is online, available or otherwise nearby
• Relationships - a way of describing how two users in the system are related (e.g. in Flickr, people can be contacts, friends of family)
• Conversations - a way of talking to other people through the system
• Groups - a way of forming communities of interest
• Reputation - a way of knowing the status of other people in the system (who's a good citizen? who can be trusted?)
• Sharing - a way of sharing things that are meaningful to participants (like photos or videos)

The above list is a nice filter when exploring how people use Web 2.0 software systems to address there personal and social needs.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

Forrester Research Points to OTOinsights

Thank you Brian Haven, Senior Forrester Research Analyst, for pointing to OTOinsights  in a recent report titled "Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2007" as an example of how marketers should leverage their email and RSS content to support their initial steps into the blogsphere. 

Brain writes:

" Make your first strides into social media with RSS and blogs:  Last year, we said holding off on social media was OK>  But rapid consumer adoption of these channels indicates that the time is now to enter this space.  How to dive in?  RSS is relatively simple first step for marketers with mature email marketing programs in that initial RSS feeds can consist of repurposed email content.  Likewise, email or RSS content can also create initial blog posts.  For example, interested users can find insights from interactive agency One to One Interactive from its blog, via RSS, or in email alerts."

In addition to leveraging existing e-mail/RSS content to support initial blog initiatives we would like to add to Brian's advice by recommending that marketers actively educate their internal constituents on their company's corporate blog strategy and, when appropriate, seek regular contributions from their staff as a way to begin generating new and more relevant content.  Additionally, marketers would be well served by incorporating social bookmarking (like De.licio.us) into their blog strategy as a way to augment their existing content with complimentary content on the Web authored by external sources.

Five Corporate Blogging Success Factors

Dr Walter Carl, the students in his Advanced Organizational Communication class (Spring 2006) at Northeastern University and John Cass and his colleagues at Backbone Media, recently published a research paper that seeks to uncover reasons, conditions, and factors that make a corporate blog successful. 

The research team interviewed twenty corporate bloggers from companies of varied size and industry, and asked each blogger a series of standardized questions.   After careful review, the research team identified five factors for a blog's success:
1. Culture
2. Transparency
3. Time
4. Dialogue
5. Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization

Notable Technology Marketers on MySpace

Below represents three major technology brands that are using social network site MySpace.com to promote their brand and/or products via their own MySpace page.

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Company: Cingular

URL: http://www.myspace.com/cingularsounds

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Company: Dell

URL: http://www.myspace.com/dellditty

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Company: Motorola

URL: http://www.myspace.com/motoq