[excerpt]

As social media continues grow as the go-to function for web users, as brands continue to integrate social elements into brand sites and brand elements into social sites, the metaphor of marketing as a conversation ceases to be a metaphor. It’s real now. The conversation is happening. It’s live, and it’s in real time.

Full post at Adotas.com:  http://bit.ly/cfmL0

While I believe wholeheartedly in Social Media as a viable communications vehicle that almost all brands should find a place for, I also recognize that social media content creation isn’t for everyone….AND THAT’S OK!

I tell everyone who is leery about the time commitment of content creation that they can participate in social media without taking on that role — and feel good about it!  Afterall, listening is the first tenant of a good social media strategy anyway…and we can all be good listeners.

Here are 3 simple steps to begin to be an effective listener.  Do these and you will be well on your way to becoming a participant in social media — even if you never make another post.

1) Set up Tweet Deck and organize by the following areas: Your clients, Your industry, Your company, Thought Leaders, Your industry pubs…and then for fun, your favorite Entertainers and Celebrities

2) Spend 10 minutes every morning, 5 minutes at lunch, and 10 minutes a the end of the day scanning these posts — in 30 minutes a day you will be amazed how much you have absorbed about your business from all angles

3) Establish an iGoogle account and take the time to set up every industry RSS feed that you can think of.  Add more as you have time.  Scan them quickly each day.

From there, you may become comfortable starting to comment on these links, posts and tweets which is great.  But if not, It’s ok to be a follower.

But what struck me most was the fact that Abbey Klaassen declared that one of three types of agencies were poised to take the leadership within the Social Media realm - PR agencies, Media agencies and/or Digital agencies. All were mentioned as leaders in the race to claim ownership in this emerging space.

Although I have a somewhat biased view, I believe that there is another type of agency that is the most equipped to help clients leverage the fast and ever-changing social media landscape - the larger, integrated, independent agencies. My rationale stems from the fact that there are so many pieces to the puzzle when delivering successful social media programs.

While any of the agency types that Klaassen mentions, with the right strategic and creative thinkers in place, would certainly have the capability to conceive smart, social media driven programs - they would all almost certainly need to bring in other partners or outsource certain aspects of the program due to their vertical skill sets - and that can become problematic when it comes time to quickly react to consumer feedback, or to a certain aspect of the program that is working well - or not.

The elements of successful social media programs include all of those that the article mentions - Digital, PR and Media (although I would rank traditional media toward the bottom in importance). But other skill sets are equally important including Creativity, Content Development, Business Intelligence and 1-to-1 (isn’t social media the ultimate 1-to-1 conversation?). While specialized agencies will continue to play an important role, Social Media blurs the lines like never before and agencies that deliver holistic thinking as a natural way of working are poised to lead the way.

“This is the most important New Media event of 2009,” said Creative Director, Emerging Media, Ernie Mosteller. “We hope you’ll find the conversations interesting and informative — but more than that, we hope you’ll join in.”

You can follow the conversation at http://www.smarterfaster.com/ beginning March 13^th and for the entire conference which runs through March 17^th.

Here’s one of Ernie’s first posts:

Spring Break for Geeks.  The Biggest Little Interactive Festival in Texas.  The most important new media event of the year.  Of course we’re talking about South by Southwest Interactive, the place to be for the next week or so, if what you do has anything to do with pixels.

Seven top creatives, representing Brunner’s three offices, and the widest possible range of creative disciplines, are headed to Austin to listen, converse, learn, and report.  We’ll be tweeting individually, blogging with keyboards and webcams, and collectively sharing what we learn — right here. We hope you’ll join the conversation with your comments on the blog.

We think SXSW is the perfect venue to spark more conversations between creatives who are digital natives, and those who have more traditional backgrounds.  Originally, like many agency learning experiences, the trip to Austin was going to be the subject of several internal agency reports generated by the participants.  But where’s the fun in that?  We thought it far better to make the conversations real time, and put them here so others can read, watch, and participate as it happens.

So, join us for the next few days as we report live on the things we learn, the conversations we have, and yeah, probably, the stuff we eat and drink along the way.

Every day, we continue to hear these questions from the market:

“We need to be on YouTube!”

“Where’s our Facebook icon?”

“Why aren’t we on Twitter?”

We agree that smart digital design should have share-ability baked into its fabric. But we continue to advise: it’s not what tool to use, it’s how you use the tool.

First How. Then What.

]]> http://blog.brunnerdigital.com/2009/03/09/social-media-ubiquity-first-how-then-what/feed/ http://blog.brunnerdigital.com/2009/02/10/interactive-creative-skills-every-agency-needs/ http://blog.brunnerdigital.com/2009/02/10/interactive-creative-skills-every-agency-needs/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 17:16:56 +0000 Shaun Quigley, Interactive Practice Director http://blog.brunnerdigital.com/?p=276 Our DC-based creative director Ernie Mosteller caught up with the Capitol Communicator, a site dedicated to communications professionals in the Mid-Atlantic. Check out Ernie’s thinking on how marketing and creative talent need to evolve for the digital age.

You can view my complete take on the interesting results on MediaPost and please feel free to join in with your perspective by commenting below — we’d love to hear your thoughts.

It’s hard to say what will happen this year. Some viewers have already started to tune out during the playoffs.  Overall, 13% fewer homes watched this year’s AFC Championship game compared with 2008, and 23% fewer homes watched the NFC Championship game.  In Pittsburgh, the household rating peaked at 64.5% during the January 18^th playoff game.   Arizona’s ratings were lower, with a household rating of 48.7%.

The highest local market rating during the 2008 Super Bowl was 56%.  No surprise that it was in Boston, home of the New England Patriots.  The second-largest local TV audience, with an average of 54.1% was Indianapolis.  Jacksonville, Pittsburgh and Ft. Myers followed respectively as the next three markets with the largest Superbowl audiences.    The last time the Steelers played in the Super Bowl  (2006) the local household rating in Pittsburgh was 61.6%.  Based on the playoff game and the 2006 ratings, the Brunner media team is estimating a rating of 63% in Pittsburgh.

Household Ratings – 2008 Top 10 Markets

So who was watching?  As expected, men watched the 2008 Super Bowl the most (42.9% rating, or 45.8 million viewers). But a significant amount of women tuned into the game as well. Approximately 37.7 million women over the age of18 watched Super Bowl XLII for a 32.9% average rating. Overall female viewership of the Super Bowl has climbed each of the last five years.

With all this talk about ratings and audience numbers, what can we expect from advertisers?  Despite rough economic times, advertisers are investing in 2009.   Sources at the LA Times say that advertisers are defying the economic downturn by shelling out millions to create and run  ads in this year’s game.   Spot costs on NBC are as much as $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime during the game.  That’s 11% more than the $2.7 million that Fox charged for the top slots during last year’s game.  

Average 30-second Cost

The 2008 Super Bowl aired 50 minutes and 50 seconds of commercial time. Fifty-two unique brands aired commercials that competed for viewers’ attention for a total of 84 advertisements. The highest rated commercial minute was the Victoria’s Secret commercial at 9:44pm., which was seen by 103.7 million people. Total spending for the game reached over $195.7 million.

Some first-time Super Bowl advertisers will be taking the plunge in 2009, including dog food maker Pedigree and restaurant chain Denny’s.  A few of last year’s big players like FedEx Corp. and General Motors Corp., decided not to advertise during this year’s Super Bowl.  Anheuser-Busch has already reserved 4 1/2 minutes of advertising time -30 seconds more than last year.

Some advertisers have already gotten a jump, posting their spots several weeks in advance on sharing sites.  In 2008, the Super Bowl commercials placed on YouTube received over 6 millions views in two days.  Collectively, Super Bowl 2008 advertisers saw a 24 percent increase in Web traffic after the big game last year.

So which advertisers were capturing the most attention last year?  Thanks to a pre-Super Bowl push, Pepsi’s commercial featuring Justin Timberlake was the most viewed Super Bowl ad on YouTube with nearly 1.3 million hits. Pepsi also claimed the second-most views on YouTube with a SoBe ad featuring Naomi Campbell (399,202 views). E*TRADE followed up in the third and fourth spots with commercials featuring a talking baby.   

Who will be the favorites this year?  Come back next week to see which ads rose to the top in the minds of Brunner employees.

Source:  The Nielsen Company’s Guide to Super Bowl XLIII