SuperBowl Ad Agency Failures

Gary Vee brings up a great point during half-time of this year’s SuperBowl.  While The WHO were sounding like their age but with a highly cool light show, Gary made the point via a quick and dirty video about the lack of online engagement strategies supporting the SuperBowl ads.

Personally, I believe that in this age of social, many organizations lost an opportunity to engage.  Doritos seems to be the clear winner of this year in terms of laughs and online conversational footprint among consumers.  With one clear exception, there’s no one talking to me or anyone else for that matter about Doritos online from Frito-Lay.

Bridgestone Tires has a SuperBowl specific section on their site but that’s not enough.  Here’s E-trade’s Youtube Channel as listed in their continuing baby commercials and NO online interaction that I can find.

Gary Vee quickly pointed out this issue and I find it clear evidence that many a large enterprise and their ad agencies for all their tweeting and Facebook groups and fan pages are still living in the…

“build it and they will come, bolt it on rather than bake it in mentality.”

They still don’t get it.  This is the difference between having accounts and using them effectively to build brand presence and social capital.  I’ve enjoyed many of the commercials this year, and I wonder if the lame ones like Boost Mobile could have improved their status through online engagement?  I’m watching the game as I type this so if someone finds something interesting regarding some online engagement let me know…

Check these Twitter accounts out: @vizio & @dockers – disgraceful…thanks for pointing this out – @josephaldrich

Here’s the Youtube AdBlitz 2010 channel with all the ads from the SuperBowl so you can check them out.

Open Government – A personal lesson from Tim O’Reilly

Below is an opinion based on what Tim O’Reilly shared with me this past New Year’s Eve.

This whole conversation with Tim happened as a result of doing research for my upcoming book entitled Escape Velocity and Tim was kind enough to share an unpublished chapter from his upcoming book – Open Government.  He gave me permission to work with small parts of this body of work in support of helping me form thoughts about Government 2.0.

Tim has approved this content which is an important point, as I want to ensure I don’t overstep my bounds.

Being this fortunate means not only has Tim afforded me with the ability to study his work ahead of release, but also to communicate with him directly.  This wonderful gift also means that I can share brief thought provoking portions with you here on my blog as part of the process.

You’ll notice elements of his work in my PowerPoint from the recent ALI Social Media for Government Conference available for download here.  http://bit.ly/anwOWY

From Tim O’Reilly’s chapter within the book Open Government.

As President Obama explained the idea during his campaign: “We must use all available technologies and methods to open up the federal government, creating a new level of transparency to change the way business is conducted in Washington, and giving Americans the chance to participate in government deliberations and decision-making in ways that were not possible only a few years ago.”

Allowing citizens to see and share in the deliberations of government and creating a “new level of transparency” are remarkable and ambitious goals, and would indeed “change the way business is conducted in Washington.” Yet, these goals do not go far enough.

I agree

I agree with Tim that the idea of an Open Government Initiative as explained by then Presidential Candidate Barrack Obama doesn’t go far enough.  The next paragraph that Tim provides starts to talk about “government as a platform.”  Why?  Simple, just having citizens participate in a government based conversation is only the beginning of the change required and the change that is taking place.

For example, one of the things I’ve personally experienced is that it is the private sector who in many ways is driving innovation within an open and transparent government ecosystem.  Open Data is a step towards the foundation of government operating, as Tim would say, a “platform.”

My firm is a direct beneficiary of Open Data and we’re the ones driving a specific form of innovation on behalf of three city governments at the moment with respect to our Route 411 transit application.  We’re not the only ones or the first but we’re in the game.  As Chris Moore, CIO for the City of Edmonton told a crowd at Pecha Kucha the other night.  ”No tax dollars were harmed in the making of Route 411.”

I’m not making the above point to brag, only to reinforce one of the many positive outcomes which go beyond citizen generated conversations or direct participation in government deliberations.

The Open Data movement is a concrete step that governments can take to inspire innovation while saving tax dollars in the process.  Our goal as citizens should be to push this effect further via those important digital conversations.  Let your government know (regardless of level) that this is important to you.

Social experience

I agree, the words “social media” are being over used!

Yesterday I read “Is Social the new dirty word?” by John Moore out of Boston.  Moore’s post highlighted what I’ve been feeling for nearly a year or more but especially in the last 6-8 months.

I’m concerned with the dramatic “watering down” of the burgeoning industry that my team and I work in full-time.  So I thought I’d reference a point in time and then tell a bit of our story.

For example, I was walking to my truck while at nextMEDIA in Banff, Alberta last summer.  The timing was such that I happened to bump into Kris Krug (@kk) who was outside taking photographs of the beautiful scenery,(here we are).  We had an interesting chat, not only then but later on camera, as the fusedlogic team streamed live interviews from nextMEDIA and Kris was kind enough to stop by.  Kris is a unique character, a non-conformist, and I’ve learned a staunch evangelist for his community, his craft (photography) and the non-use of labels.  I know Kris well enough now from our online exchanges and phone calls to know that he reluctantly refers to himself as a “web strategist” but really, he’s a guy who likes to be a part of the social experience through is crazy skills as a photographer.  He’s also committed to and an integral part of the cool happenings around his community of Vancouver which often includes considerable charity work with the Union Gospel Mission and others.

Here’s the dilemma, not all of us can develop the nomadic persona or lifestyle of a Kris Krug, our clients wouldn’t understand it and it wouldn’t be authentic.  That’s in part, what makes Kris a unique human being and business person, he has real-world experience having started Bryght in 2004 and successfully selling the company in 2007 to Raincity Studios.  That aside, he’s just being himself.  I respect Kris for what he’s accomplished and I suspect countless others do as well.

Having said that, I’ve never asked him directly, but to Kris during that chance meeting at the Banff Springs Hotel I must have appeared to be that outsider guy, that “what gives you the right to be a social media strategist guy?”

Interestingly, Kris said something I’ll never forget after our interview was over.  I thanked him for taking the time to speak on camera and told him I really enjoyed the experience of meeting him.  Kris said, “no problem, you know, it’s interesting we’re all here to talk about social media and you guys are in the room doing it….that’s cool man.”

Here are the “yummy chunks…”

November 2004

This is the night my Web 2.0 journey began. I watched CNN as they pulled commentary off of political blogs for the broadcast.  I found this amazing and started researching the blogosphere.

Many haven’t heard the fusedlogic story so I’m going to go over the last year or so rather than go over every blog post starting in September 2005 from my blogspot blog or since our incorporation in March of 2000.  (Secretly, I’ve been doing some thinking about where fusedlogic has come from and where we’re going, since this coming March will be our 10th anniversary).

Interestingly, I blogged about Twitter in April of 2007 but didn’t join until 2008.

In 2008 we continued to deliver social media work for several small businesses including Edmontonians Magazine, also notable was our project with the Public Affairs Bureau – Government of Alberta.

Crossing into 2009, we worked for ATB Financial, MacEwan School of Business, EEDC, Fringe Theatre Adventures – Industry Canada’s Marquee Tourism Program and we broke all sorts of ground on that project, multiple projects for NorQuest College which are still in play and again a number of small businesses mingled in.  Including our first Pay-Per-View live streaming sporting event with Aggression MMA. (our second PPV event will be tomorrow and it’ll be even bigger). We’re proud to say that our footage from the last event (as with our work tomorrow) will be broadcast on the FIGHT network, as well as, HDNet.

Also in 2009, we took on the digital marketing for Pik’s Revenge, an ambitious indie iPhone game developed by Edmonton’s Fluik Entertainment Ltd. Starting with zero Google search results for “Piks Revenge,” we now have nearly 1500 results and it will continue to grow as we’re expecting a big review from a major US property later this month.  The game was featured on the Apple app store which is not an every day occurrence.  Also, we’re doing something different with Pik as we build out the character a bit in real-life, expect more fun and dare I say “cheesy by design” things on that front soon.

Further, I started writing my book on Government 2.0 in 2009 entitled Escape Velocity, which is due out this spring provided I live up to the expectations of my editor.

In January 2010, we finally launched our iPhone transit application Route 411 and in less than 2 weeks we’ll be posting an update that will dramatically change the user-experience in Edmonton, Vancouver, and Toronto.  All I’m willing to say at this moment is that we’ve integrated York transit data with Toronto and we hope folks out there will appreciate that integration because it wasn’t easy to pull off that’s for sure.

Also, we’re celebrating a big week as we’ve closed a few new deals including a project with Health Canada and Alberta’s Centre for Child, Family and Community Research.  There’s much more to say about February and March but I’ll leave it there for now.

My point with all of this is simple, credibility in this game (as with all business and life) is paramount.  If Kris had asked for background in Banff I would have at least been able to provide names and brands as above where we have taken projects from concept to metrics. Granted, the brands are not global brands like Coke or Virgin, but to us and our clients, they are successful examples of digital planning and deployment experiences and it’s a story we’re very proud of and not even close to finishing.

Shaping the identity of a community

Interview with the Mayor of Hinton, Alberta – Glenn Taylor

I first met Glenn on Twitter, when he put a link out asking for feedback on a housing report for the Town of Hinton.  I replied asking if he and his administration had considered using a wiki for policy feedback from citizens?  He replied, “No, but I’ll pass it along.”  Then becoming Facebook friends and continuing our discussion, we found out that he was presenting at the ALI Social Media for Government conference.  This gave me an opportunity to meet Glenn in person for the first time.  Glenn was presenting a fire-side chat (no PPT slides) with Ken Chapman of Cambridge Strategies about the Grande Alberta Economic Region (GAER).  The story is interesting in terms of how this particular region has been impacted by many different issues.  The Mountain Pine Beetle for example has had a devastating effect.  After the conference we agreed to follow-up and today’s interview was our next step.

WS: Why become an elected official?

GT: “That started in the sandbox, I was learning about the political process in grade 5 which was when I became class president.  After school I was involved in unions and activism.  For me, it has always been a sense of representing other’s concerns that’s interested me. Union politics turned out to be too limiting, contractual negotiations etc – a narrow lens of looking at the world.

The opportunity to represent citizens’ concerns to administration is what I found fascinating and why I really love governing at the municipal level.  You can discuss something at Council and the next day be having a cup of coffee over the fence with a neighbour fielding questions about the decision.  That has translated into what is currently my 3rd term on council and 2nd term as Mayor.  We’ve focused on shaping the community identity.  We’re an industrial town, and yet, as a community realize that we have a responsibility to give back to the land.”

During the ALI conference, Glenn described his initial response to Ken Chapman’s suggestion that he start using social media as resistive.  ”I don’t have time for this,” he stated while speaking at the ALI conference this week.   However, what I don’t think Glenn bargained for is how persistent Ken Chapman can be and so @mayorhinton is now active on Twitter.  Also during that presentation he revealed that others on his Town Council are on Facebook now, although they’re not as active as they could be and more Twitter accounts have been set-up recently too.

WS: What resistance if any has there been from your colleagues on Council, administration or the region?

GT: “Well I would start with the traditionalists being afraid to engage, the silent majority if you will.  They’re asking, how can we control the message?  What’s motivating that fear are examples like what’s happening with elements associated with Rockyview County Council generating a facebook group.  Basically fixating on the negative.

We (government) can’t be superficial, can’t just listen and continue to do the same thing.  We need to take action.  However, within administration there can be fear that change will bring about more work.  Fear about change of the status quo.  At the provincial level there’s a tendency to consult with citizens through town halls so that it can be stated folks were consulted and then do what was planned anyway.  As the community changes, we need to bring that message back from the citizens to the government.  In a municipal government it’s truly the citizens issues being presented to the government and that’s my favourite part.  The challenge becomes then, how do we get those issues to the administrative team…for change in process?”

Glenn didn’t name the group but I found this one called Stop the Madness in Springbank! which seems to be against development.

WS: How do you see social media impacting your region economically?

GT: “Well number one – you need to make decisions with good information which means you have to gather good information first.  Being open to listening is key and understanding the challenges.  How do we tap into that knowledge?  Traditional invitations to discuss the issue and also connecting people online through various channels.  Flexibility has to be present in our approach so that we can reach as many citizens as possible.  In fact, we’re hosting a workshop on social media to help folks understand the tools better.”

WS: What challenges lie ahead for you and your community?

GT: “We’re really at the beginning stages of engaging the citizens.  I believe that we’re ahead of the curve and that’s a source of pride for us. However, there can be a disconnect between administration and council that sometimes exists and that will be something we have to work on.”

WS: What advice would you give to other elected officials?

GT: “Build the business case, not I have a dream, rather it’s what I have learned. It’s way easier to to operate in reactionism rather than finding the path.  I’d say it’s important to be proactive rather than reactive.  For example at our GAER Board meetings we now start with blue sky sessions and ask what’s on the horizon?  What are you hearing in your communities?  Is it a priority, do we need to spend time working on it…that means that key issues have a chance to help us set our course at the beginning.”

 

“Leaders get the behaviours that they themselves exhibit and tolerate.”  - Larry Bossidy, Author of Execution: The discipline of getting things done.

And with that in mind, I’ll leave you with the same question that Glenn has posted on Facebook and like other elected officials I’ve come across (but unfortunately not all), he cares about the answers you give…

GT: What does community mean to you?

“Bottom-up social engagement governance.”

I’m listening of Mayor Glenn Taylor from Hinton, AB and Ken Chapman.  This discussion is fascinating and they’re telling us the story of about the Grande Alberta Economic Region will be a new site on Feb 8th.  Thanks for the clarification from Twitter pal Kai So or @RuralAlbertan and Town of Hinton.

I’m writing this post feverishly about a statement that Glenn mentioned.  We’re not taking the top down approach, but “bottom-up social engagement governance.”  Glenn was referring to how they’re getting the word out and the consultative process involved using social media.  This is a REALLY COOL!!! This is the kind of grass roots movement that you need to pay attention to and participate in.  I’m going to update this post later and include links because I’ve got to grab the mic from Ken and Glenn, this chat should have been last and we could have spent hours listening, at least I could have.

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