FACEBOOK MARKETING FOR THE CAT-ON-THE-WALL

FACEBOOK IS MORE ADDICTIVE THAN TV!
FACEBOOK MARKETING FOR THE CAT-ON-THE-WALL

Every senior executive is being badgered by the fresh faced youngsters to get into social media marketing. The grey haired brasses know something big is happening out there, but are not able to decipher anything tangible amongst the barrage of techno-garble. So they just give a blank stare and postpone the inevitable decision.
This is an attempt to break the cacophony into digestible sound-bits for the senior decision makers. We will take up each major component of Social Media; but before that some generalized observations

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA IS DIFFERENT - SOME KEY STATEMENTS

1) NOW, "THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE"
This famous dictum of Marshall McLuhan acquires a new dimension. The interactivity makes a brand friendly and vulnerable like any relationship does. So Social media is more in the realm of Relationship marketing, offering a plethora of touch points with one's customer.

2) NOW, THE SUM OF YOUR CUSTOMERS' VOICE IS YOUR BRAND
Social media vehicles are like a dip-stick test of your brand experience.
I started promoting Sampoorna Global, a small veg restaurant in Velachery and just mentioned some patrons' reviews in http://chennai.burrp.com on my FB, orkut and print media.
The walk-ins escalated and these new acquisitions also went on to review their eating experience on the social media web site. There was an extrapolation of awareness that challenged Sampoorna Global's delivery logistics.
Today this new small joint Sampoorna Global has more patrons' reviews than any other joint in Velachery and stands overall in the 3rd place in whole of Chennai. That’s what social media can do for a small business.
In case you are curious, I can give more personal case histories in person.

3) NOW, THE CUSTOMER RESPONSE IS EASILY MEASURABLE
No need for complicated metrics. Simple statistics reveal the trends in almost real time

4) NOW, RESPONSE TO RECTIFICATION IS LIKE 0 TO 80 IN 5 SECS
If something is wrong in your product or service, you know it like a ball bouncing back from the wall. It demands nimbleness and agility to contain a negative response or exploit a positive response. The crux is you know early what’s brewing.

5) NOW, NARROW-CASTING IS NOT A MERE JARGON   
In the Neanderthal age of 80s we in advertising spoke in awe of DM the fashionable acronym for Direct Marketing. Well to put it in proper perspective, in that age we waited 5 years for a landline connection and 3 years for a Bajaj scooter! Got the cue?!
Today Social media offers a gamut of channels where we can drill down into demographic profiles and keep a finger on their pulse.

6) NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND CRORES WITH A "SPRAY & PRAY' TECHNIQUE
Social media allows to start small, gain traction, apply course-corrections and then decide on big ticket expenses.
That the tip of the iceberg to use a much abused cliché. More will follow on the specifics of FACEBOOK MARKETING.SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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How to brief an ad agency - Part 3 How to respond to the agency's creative presentation

How to respond to the agency's creative presentation

The agency's creative presentation, especially the first time, is a critical phase. Till then both the Client and the Agency were talking tangibles and forming opinions. It’s only during the creative presentation these opinions are either reinforced or reversed.

How to judge an Idea?

It could produce a "WOW" or "hmmm". Every one of us have our likes and dislikes, which will influence the supposedly objective view.
Very tough, but anyway let’s try to get some clarity.

1) If it’s a Good idea say so and proceed further.

2) If upfront the Idea doesn’t tingle you, you need NOT overtly say so. The agency will know you are nowhere nearing an orgasm.

3) If the agency tries to push the Idea aggressively, tell them you are NOT looking from your perspective but from your customers' perspective. They can’t argue with that, since you are closer to your customers than they will ever be.

If the agency claims understanding your customer without any research support, point out how they are off the mark with your statistics. That should silence the "Google pundits"

4) Even if the Idea is not exciting you as a client, analyze whether the agency has put in quality energy into its idea. This can be found out by asking probing questions on the various elements of the Idea - like the Headline, Choice of visuals, Colors or back ground music and so on. If the agency has thought through it you will get coherent responses.

5) If you feel the ad agency has put in a genuine effort but missed the route, point out specifics.

Avoid responses like “It lacks PUNCH" or “It’s good but NO DHUM". These will only make the agency go back, put brighter colors, make the headline fonts bigger and comeback to you with a rehash. Or similar patch up work in the case of a TV spot or a radio jingle.

So please be specific on what bothers you.

6) If you as a client is sitting with your team, discourage herd mentality. Whatever the client's senior man says should not be reinforced in different ways for the sake of giving a single voice. The agency will be deflated.

Remember even though many creative professionals claim they like challenges, they generally tend to react to criticism with aggressive defense or silent frustration.

7) But DONT reject the agency based on ONE creative presentation. Especially if it’s the first one, give them time to go through the learning curve.

After that it’s your prerogative.

Some suggestions -

• Most of the agencies present Half page in newspaper size or magazine double spread size creatives. They look really impressive in isolation.

• If you cannot sustain that kind of media spend insist on seeing smaller size adaptations.

• Paste a printout of the creative in actual context and judge how it performs in reality. 

Probably we should have a series of articles on best practices in Print, Radio, TV, Outdoor and Online advertising. Some other day. That depends on your feedback to this article.

SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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How to brief an ad agency? Part 2

Factor 2 - Giving a coherent brief

Half the job is done by giving a coherent brief. The reality is many of the clients wax eloquent as they are in love with their offering. The agencies struggle to separate the brief from the chaff.

The best way to start is by giving the agency a tangible fact sheet. Send the agency back to mull over it and come back for a qualitative discussion.

What should this initial fact sheet contain, preferably in an A4 sheet? 

• Product definition

• The market for it - demographic, geographic or any relevant segments

• The players in the market -

• Your product's differentiators -

• If possible, your indicative budget -

If the client can’t put this down in B&W, it’s unreasonable to expect the agency to comprehend the task at hand.

Many of the big spenders do have a defined brief template. It’s the SMEs, who are not familiar with agency-handling, need to start the relationship with such good practices.

The exploratory kiss is an indicator of exciting things to follow. (OK...That’s another proven advertising device...to bring an element of sex and whet the appetite)

SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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How to brief an advertising agency - Part 1

Choosing the ad agency

The relationship between The Client and The Ad Agency has many phases like any relationship - Wooing, Romancing, Marriage, Children, Mutual Dissatisfaction, Resigned to Status-quo or even Divorce.

What one has to accept is, it’s a dynamic relationship, due to the presence of many variables like Competition, Change in Client's or Agency's priorities and People shifting on both sides.

Having said that let’s move on to factors to consider in "Choosing the Ad agency"

Factor 1- "As a Client, am I exciting enough?!"
An agency works hardest when the Client is at its aspiration level. The aspiration can be either in the Billing Volume or a Creative Challenge.

A mature ad agency will still consider a small startup's account if the Client's product is intriguing enough. It also gives them an opportunity to try out their maverick ideas, which will in all probability be wet-toweled by a big client, set on his strategy.

The Client has to look at his Business Volume and the Product profile while choosing an ad agency, and ask "Do I bring excitement to this relationship?!"

SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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HOW TO WRITE A PRESS RELEASE WHICH GETS PUBLISHED

• GIVE HEADLINE MATERIAL -
" 22 year old girl kicks the shit out of 3 eve-teasers at Nungambakkam "
Now compare it with "KravMaga is popular in Chennai."

• Remember the publication is looking for NEWS, which will interest its readers. So give headline material the journalist can build his story upon.
• ( … and get an opportunity to slip in the info you want to convey. :-) )

• GIVE A SYNOPSIS UPFRONT

• Remember journalists are always running against deadlines. Especially those in dailies.
• So start with a bullet pointed Executive Summary, which captures the salient points in less than 150 or 200 words. Most of the experienced journalists can immediately churn out a good story with this synopsis itself.

• DONT WRITE A COMPANY PROFILE IN THE GUISE OF A STORY

• Don’t C&P the "About Us" from your company website. It’s an immediate put off.
• Make the story relevant to the headline. 

• CUSTOMIZE TO THE PUBLICATION'S PROFILE
Slightly reword the story to suit the Publication's profile.

• General Interest - " 50 million computers infected with SreeRam virus"
• Business - " 60% PCs of corporate India infected with SreeRam virus"
• Life Style - " Are you spamming? SreeRam virus targets your mail box. "
• Teens - "Beware! Torrent downloads come with SreeRam virus."

• HAVE GOOD MANNERS

• Don’t mass mail a general draft to every journalist in your address book. Address them by name and send individual mails.
• Don’t be bossy - “PFA our press release as a word doc. Kindly Publish". Remember the DELETE button is a few cms away. So, at least give a synopsis in the body of the mail and then inform the journalist that the story is in the Attachment.
• Please don’t attach 20 MB high resolution images as a zip. If you are attaching pictures, take the trouble to optimize them to say 10 cm width @ 300 dpi., preferably in CMYK.
• Send large files separately after getting the consensus of the journalist.
• Wherever possible, follow-up with a phone call or email.
• And for Dog’s sake rum a spll cheque.

SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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The Stress of Social Media "Presence Management"

The "nowness" of social media presents a 3 fold challenge -
* Over-whelming - too many streams of activity
* Expertise - constantly evolving technology
* No control - Anxiety extrapolates when one is not able to contain the response from the audience. 

Add to this the traditional factors like -
The worried management - since negative feedback is in public domain, and one can’t wish it away 

Social media is a twin-edged sword. To avoid self-inflicted injuries the company has to -
* Have a well planned response strategy, with an inbuilt escalation mechanism
* Maintain a participative tone in all communication
* Provide perceived or real transparency
* Retreat without ego to minimize damage 

The responsibility of "Presence management" should be with a person who
* understands Web 2.0 nitty gritty
* possesses marketing acumen
* relates to visual and text components of creative inputs
* and an aptitude for Public Relations.


SreeRam is a Chennai based marcom professional.
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