Wheels down. I have arrived in Austin, Texas to embark on my first ever SXSW experience. In the days and weeks leading up to my trip the excitement and anticipation didn’t really settle in until I arrived in the lone star state. Mainly because this boy from Boston who is calling Atlanta home for the moment never really marinated on the idea of visiting… Texas. 

But after the first day in Austin and speaking to some of the local color it becomes clear that Austin is not Texas, as the locals say Austin is ‘Texas adjacent’ from all sides. So far the weather has been below par, but as soon as the clouds break I hear Austin will really come alive.

It has already been an amazing trip and I’ve only conquered the first 24 hours. It’s 10X more than I could have imagined. Once I got through the atrocious line that is badge pick-up I was gearing to go. First panel down the hatch: Brands as Patterns featuring Greg Johnson of HP, Marc Shillum of Method Inc, Robin Lanahan of Microsoft, and Walter Werzowa of Musikverneugen. Don’t try to pronounce that last company; I couldn’t do it either.

The biggest mistake brand planners make before they have even launched is planning for longevity. If variables around a brand may change next week how is it possible to predict the next 4 years? Always plan for adaptation. People change, needs change, plans change, and your brand needs to be able to handle the motions.  And if you’re not including digital than what is it that you’re doing? 

Digital is the world we live in, so plan around it. It should be the focus of any brand design. Think about the interaction and the experience your consumer is going to have when building your brand design. Experiences are liquid, and brands must follow.

When developing brand strategy it’s important to tell a story, a value that the people at Definition 6 hold close to the chest. The story must resonate with the consumer. It must have meaning. Walter was the most interesting panelist to take insight from, as a legendary brand planner, a scientist, and a music composer he has taken all of his knowledge to thoughtfully place music within advertising. While many agencies practice similar methods, Walter has truly got it down to a science, of course.

Next up: What’s the next big thing in social networking?  According to Joel Simkhai, CEO of Grindr and Blendr, it’s the combination of location based apps and bridging the gap between people, places, and things.

Joel has created Grindr, an application that helps gay men find other gay men. The user will use their smartphones GPS to locate the closest gay man to them and provide the two with a platform to communicate.

Soon applications will be able to provide you with information on the people in your immediate area. Sounds a little creepy to me, but Joel does provide some great examples of how users may benefit from this. Take SXSW for example, you might be looking for an "in" at a company and find out somebody in the same room as you works for that company. Or somebody you just met knows somebody at that company. Based on the success of Grindr and Blendr, Joel explains the formula for successful location based apps: unique content, frequent users, simplicity, and critical mass.

At the end of day 1, for the sake of my health, I opted to skip the parties going on around the downtown area. I’ve been battling a cold since early last week so I decided to catch a few of the films being shown towards the tail end of the evening. What a treat. If you get the chance, check out Girl Walk // All Day. I also caught Wikileaks: Secrets and Lies which was also pretty interesting, but predictable at the same time. None the less it is worth watching.

All in all it was an amazing first day at SXSW. 

 

Watch Michael Sater's interview with Definition 6 Expert in Residence Frank Radice on the future of Social TV and the impact on broadcast and cable programming.

 

 

Michael Sater:

Frank, After watching The Oscars last night I started to think, the future of Social Tv has got to be really interesting.  What do you envision?

Frank Radice:

One of the things that started last night because of The Oscars, by a new company, I’ve got it right here, called Umami. Umami is a social TV application that works on your ipad that syncs to whatever you’re watching. It hears the sound and syncs to that show. It’ll show you, assuming you’re in some kind of cable operation that allows itself to sync up like Time Warner Cable does in New York, the program you’re watching on your ipad. If you hit a button you can freeze a frame and then you can immediately share it with all your friends. So when Angeline Jolie decided to stick her right leg out the fifth or sixth time, you could freeze frame it, you could send it out, and you could name it and hashtag it Angelina jolies right leg or something. Point is, a conversation began to start about that and if you took a look at social media last night there were 100’s of thousands of conversations going on or engagements or tweets or Facebook updates about Angelina’s leg. They even named a hashtag out of it. The point is you can do it, and you can do it immediately. Social TV allows you to have a second screen experience with whatever you’re watching.

Michael Sater:

Well the experience of having a second screen is not something that’s all that new, but throwing in video and visual is certainly going to change the way people absorb and receive the content. How do you think that, as a gentleman with a few years of TV experience, that’s going to elevate and escalate those dialogues?

Frank Radice:

I would say it will hugely elevate and escalate those dialogues for people who are younger, people who are really into it, people who aren’t your typical television viewer. I think there are two sides to social television, there’s a really good side to social television which is: you want to get engaged, you want to share stuff and you want to talk about it while you’re watching a show. And there’s a really bad side to social television: Leave me alone while I’m watching my show. So wherever you stand in that scale is where the importance of social television will be to you. I actually think right now we’re somewhere in the middle in terms of our society, I’d say more people are watching television that are probably in the 25-54 age group or even older whereas 18-49 or 18-34 are probably more into being unplugged or having the cable off and experiencing their content through other devises whether it be an ipad or mobile. I think what’s starting to happen is as the older generation of people who want to watch television and be couch potatoes, and the newer generation of viewers and content consumers want to get another way. As they start to come together, what will actual happen will be social TV. That’s when we’ll reach the zenith of it.

 

Michael Sater:

That makes me think of your comments from CES, consumers who are attempting to watch drama’s probably don’t want to interact in a social manner, while people who are in a big community event like the Oscar’s are most certainly wanting to engage and have that dialogue. So as consumers start to age the younger group gets older, do you think there will be a larger adoption of social television practices?

Frank Radice:

 That’s a good point. I think for live tv events, like sporting events or big galas like The Oscars, or the thanksgiving day parade or for the tree lighting at the Rockefeller center, those are things that will allow people to take their mind away from the content and then go back into it. However, and I do agree that drama’s need you to pay attention, but shotime is doing something very interesting, for example you can watch Dexter and have a second screen experience with the shotime application and before a murder occurs it will come up on the second screen application before a murder occurs, do you think Dexter will kill such and such or how many murders do you think Dexter will commit during this episode. It’s a different kind of social engagement, it’s not oh did you see who Dexter murdered, it’s now asking you what you think is about to happen. It’s creating a situation that makes you feel a part of the story.

Michael Sater:

Well by triggering people’s thoughtfulness you’re playing on people’s psychology of changing somebody from a passive consumer to a thoughtful consumer of that medium.

Frank Radice:

Which is really what social television is supposed to be about. It makes you an active consumer fo content.

Michael Sater:

So moving into SXSW, what do you think is coming down the pipeline.

Frank Radice:

You’re going to hear about connectTV, you’re going to hear about iTV which has existed for a long time, but all of these things are second screen applications that will utilize something like the Shazam sound recognition ability for the application to know what you’re actually watching. What I think will start to happen is, they will take what has just been social TV and a second screen application and start to do some of things we’re talking about now. They will actually allow you to become involved in it, involved in the story, to be an active instead of a passive viewer, and to make social television something that truly will become something you can talk about and share with your friends. 

Doug Dimon attended Digiday in Los Angeles last week and spoke on "The Banner is Dead, Long Live the Banner " panel where he was joined by fellow creatives: Sean X, Oliver Duncan, Tim Leake, and Jaime Robinson.

It's no secret that banner advertising has been around for over a decade, but in the last few years it has fallen into a gray area within the advertising landscape. It may be time for agencies to reapproach banner advertising with a new outlook.  Watch as the panel discusses how the banner must evolve to be relevant for audiences and marketers:

Al Leach was recently in Las Vegas for the Ragan Social Media & Corporate Communications Conference and, based on his chats with Chris Brogan and others, Al thinks that interest-driven social platforms are the next wave that communicators should focus on. 

Al Leach was recently in Las Vegas for the Ragan Social Media & Corporate Communications Conference and one of his biggest takeaways is what he calls the contradictory voice of business:

So we all know video is a great way to communicate with your audience to tell your story and evoke an emotional connection between brands and consumers.

And with consumers having easier access to video on the go with mobile devices and tablets, creating and producing videos requires a quicker turnaround time, especially if you are in a PR or social media role where you want to blog and capture interviews on-site at events, tradeshows, parties, and more.

But besides creating the content for these videos, the actual production cannot be overlooked, and may present some challenges. Have you considered the environment for your video?  What about audio?  What type of camera are you shooting with?  Have you considered lighting?

I recently sat down with Definition 6's own Al Leach and Drew Keller from StoryGuide.net at the Ragan Communications conference where they provided some quick guidelines that will help you stay on the right track.

 

My father and I have a lot of things in common. NASCAR and Social Media are not among them. For every race, track, and driver that my dad can wax poetic about, there are just as many social media tools that cause his eyes to glaze over when I talk about them.

We both can thank Brad Keselowski for changing that last night.

During last night’s Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 (which was rescheduled due to a rain delay on Sunday), a jet dryer burst into flames after being hit under caution by Juan Pablo Montoya. Over 200 gallons of jet and diesel fuel spread over the banking near Turn 3, quickly ignited by the initial impact. Unquestioningly, this brought the entire race to a complete halt while the officials and safety crews responded to contain the blaze.

So what do NASCAR drivers do when their cars are at a forced stop on the track? Well, if you’re Keselowski, you reach out to your fans on Twitter:

Before too long, other drivers were gathering around Keselowski on the track, amused by his social media involvement. His fans were more than amused; they were intrigued and re-tweeted his pictures and posts all over the place. In just over an hour, he had added over 100,000 followers to his Twitter account as people clamored to see the first-person NASCAR experience.

Like any responsible driver, he put his phone away when the race resumed, and the final 40 laps were completed without any other fiery surprises.

But who were the big winners here?

1. Well for one, Keselowski. He more than tripled his Twitter following last night.
2. His advertisers. Namely his main sponsor, Miller Lite, as they are associated with a young driver who is already active on Twitter, which allows them more exposure to a key demographic.
3. NASCAR. There may be some fall-out for a driver having his phone during the race, but their lenient approach to social media allows them to give fans the real track experience (as opposed to other sports, most of which have a strict no live-tweeting policy.)
4. My dad and I. Texting with my father at 11pm about NASCAR and social media is something I never thought possible. He now understands how Twitter is used as a part of a brand experience, and I no longer see NASCAR as just a bunch of people too afraid to turn right.

Paul Hernacki and Ashley Reed speak about our recent collaboration with Facebook on the Timeline Movie Maker: 

Paul:

"My name is Paul Hernacki, I’m the Chief Technology Officer of Definition 6. I recently had the fantastic opportunity of being able to work and collaborate with our great team that has been working for quite a while now to produce the Timeline Movie Maker Application that was recently released by Definition 6 and Facebook.  This experience that   we’ve created was to help users create an emotional connection with Facebook as a brand and timeline as a concept.  We looked at this opportunity and saw the ability to create a personal and unique story for every single user of Facebook. To be able to look at what they’ve shared with their friends and their family over the years in their time using Facebook and be able to put that back to them in a very simple and automatic fashion that quickly shows them everything they’ve put out there flowing by in a very cinematic way. And then of course beyond on that, to give them the opportunity to make changes to that and share it and turn that into a really emotionally connecting story."

Las Vegas, Jockey brief underwear sightings, Tweetups and no sleep means that the Ragan Social Media conference has just ended and, well, forgive me if this post is somewhat longwinded, but I am in Las Vegas this week as Definition 6 sponsored the Twitter lounge at this conference, and still not fully recovered. And more about the underwear sightings later.

I've just absorbed so much great insight it still has my head spinning.

Which actually brings me to the one of the key takeaways from the conference, as Chris Brogan put it best in his closing keynote, "we are in consumption overload." Part of the problem is that we have many tools and channels to communicate that it becomes increasingly difficult to cut through the clutter when you try to convey a message, create a connection, and ultimately drive more sales for your brand.  So how can you avoid this?

1- Create good content.  It all begins here. From almost every presenter I've listened to over the past day and a half, they all basically said the same thing.  From Southwest Airlines whose "Nuts about Southwest" blog showcases customers, to Zappos focuses on the mission to "Deliver Happiness" (not just sell products) with video content, it all results in positive social media conversations, high brand affinity and ultimately- more sales.

2- Use Twitter for Customer Service - this is where many companies can exceed expectations or have a PR nightmare.  It's all in the response.  Many presenters talked about this, as Zappos mentioned in their closing keynote, their Twitter account is managed / works closely with the Customer Service teams in the organization.  

3- Tools are not "neato" - stop focusing on the new shiny app, site, platform and create content that resonates. 

4- For lead generation, use Twitter Search vs. "Like-gating" and measuring the value of RTs: Use social media to listen, search for relevant connections and provide value.  By understanding what people are searching for, you can then respond to them and drive sales. 

5- Video Video Video - Video has the power to connect sight, sound and motion, telling your story like no other medium.  Whether you use it as a response to a PR crisis situation, or to highlight the culture of a brand, or even empowering your fan base to create user generated videos that a brand promotes/shares, video has the power to reach us all on an emotional level. 

6 - Google+ is a must. This is the first time I've heard practical advice on why Google+ is so game-changing.  Search Plus Your World combines search, leveraging the data in your circles, connections, and bring you relevant results with meaning.  Every brand should make sure Google+ is on their social media list and do it fast. 

Ragan Conferences are chock-full of great communicators, eager Tweeters and a hunger for knowledge. 

Not only did Definition 6 host a Twitter lounge, but we also had a raffle going on for the best tweet.  The winner was RBelcher3, Ryan Belcher at Jockey, who kept leaving these mini Jockey brief keychains in places around the conference like the Twitter lounge, men's bathroom (so I've heard), conference chairs, the welcome sign and more.  By creating these shareable moments and good content sparked many Ragan attendees to "LOL" and RT the images, and we applaud you for doing so.  With a conference focused on creating content, it couldn't have been a better fit (insert underwear pun here).
 

Building a brand from the ground up is never easy and a lot of thought goes into laying down the foundation for a new company.  What should your logo say about your brand? What is the first reaction going to be when a consumer sees your logo?  It's a critical piece in your effort to brand your product or service successfully. A lot of your marketing effort could revolve around your logo. It will live everywhere that your brand lives, billboards, business cards, pizza boxes, websites, kiosks, coffee mugs, letterheads. The design will impact the public's recognition of your brand and when an audience views the logo it will instantly send them a message.

Well, what happens when a 5 year old sees your logo? What is the first thing that comes to their mind? Adam Ladd, an independent graphic designer, shows his daughter some of today’s most recognizable logos and her reactions are priceless.  When you need genuine, unfiltered feedback, kids are usually the best resource. Watch the video below or see Adam's post on YouTube:  
 

I just got back from the Social Media Strategies Summit on Las Vegas, a great event put on by GSMI.  Our VP of Strategy and Account Services, Paul McClay and I presented on “How to Create Content That People Want to Share” to a highly engaged group of people that are all doing some amazing things in the social media space.  We talked a lot about how creating shareable content really starts with understanding your audience, understanding their persona, and realizing the core needs that sharing content really helps to satisfy.  We used some great examples where we have been successful with this like HBO’s Trueblood campaign, Coke’s Happiness Machine, and our collaboration with Facebook on the Timeline Movie Maker project.

As we rolled out the Timeline Movie Maker last week on Facebook, it's been interesting to see my movie, and friends' movies, as a one minute snapshot of our lives.  And since Timeline Movie Maker highlights the most engaged photos, videos and other content you have shared on Facebook, it gives you insight into your life - kind of like a mini therapy session that prompted me to go on a 40 day detox from drinking and partying!

But seriously, it's a fun way to look back at your Facebook life, and yes, you can edit it after the first time it renders to insert new images, change the music and well, showcase your life's best moments.

Take a look at mine and you can read more about this on my blog for iMediaConnection on what it means for marketers, and how they can use this as an example on leveraging the power of Facebook to create meaningful connections with consumers.

Ok, so the big game was on Sunday, and I could write a blog on how the some commercials were funny, nostalgic, creative and well, how some were just plain boring!  And I can link to all the other blogs or articles with the typical "Day After Superbowl" recap of the winners, losers, and most creative spots. 

But the most important question for marketers surrounding the Superbowl still remains - what worked?  How does a brand measure success?  Is it the most viewed ads?  The most talked about spots? The ones deemed "winners" by trade publications? 

And the biggest question of all...how did the internet and social media impact the biggest advertising spend day of the year?  What did the second screen do to the ratings and the advertising results? Were spots released online more well received?  Or were those spots not as memorable since the "shock factor" was gone? 

Last year, VW released their Superbowl ad "The Force" online and it was a huge success (and to date it has over 50 million views!)  Did the strategy work again?  Let's take a look.

For this year's ad, they released an online teaser, the full spot online, and then the on-air version aired during the game.  Hit or miss?  It didn't make the top 10 Superbowl commercials list in social TV that AdAge and Bluefin Labs released.  But it did receive over 12 million views for the teaser on and over 5 million views for the full spot on YouTube as of Monday at 4:00pm.

And according to TiVo, it was #5 on top 10 most watched commercials list.  And if you checked Hulu's list of "most liked" ads, VW took the top first and third spot. 

I'd have to say that this was a win.  What works for one brand may not be the best strategy for another, but in this case, VW was clearly trying to reach a social savvy, tech-driven audience and I'd say it worked.  Will it make me go out and buy a VW? I don't know.  But do I think that the brand has come a long way since "punch buggies?" - absolutely. 

Pre-releasing ads does have some sort of a buzz kill for the live viewing, taking the excitement away from seeing the ad for the first time, but it does have merit.  Just look at the top three most viewed ads (according to the TiVo report) which did not pre-release online (namely: 1. Doritos: “Man’s Best Friend”, 2. M&Ms: “Ms. Brown”, 3. Doritos: “Sling Baby”).

It certainly raises the bar for the other ads that don't pre-release - they better deliver!!  And with the second screen viewing, they may die on the vine before their :30 seconds are up (especially with Twitter putting out 10,000 tweets per second!)

For those who haven't seen any of the ads, you can watch them all on AdAge.com.

Over the last few months, I have been privileged to work with a talented group of people on a new project for HBO Luck. Working together with the HBO Marketing team, Civic Entertainment Group and Live Stream, we created an application for Facebook that allowed people to become involved in the dark, seedy world of horseracing by practicing making bets on old races before accessing the real betting experience that would lead to a 6-race live Race Day event. An event that would not only be Facebook’s first live racing event, but only the second live sporting event aired over streaming video through their site.

Last night, Definition 6 hosted the PromaxBDA Emerging Media Workshop to talk about trends for 2012.  Presenters ConnectTV, Crimson Hexagon and Google+ talked about what the broadcast community needs to know as they plan for 2012, including how social TV will become more integral into programming, how data (especially social media data) will evolve and the importance for communication planning - right message, to the right audience, at the right time. 
What truly came out of the event (besides great networking and an excuse to eat pizza while drinking beer and wine) was that unified marketing is critical to the success of any brand.  Whether it's on-air content, social media or other owned media online properties, by leveraging the data we can now gather, unifiying your marketing message into the proper channels will exponentially amplify your message and increase awareness around your show, promotion, event or any other marketing objectives.

Google+ showed examples of this by using a simple story about a guy who had just visited Boston, and was asked "how was the trip?"  By Google's explanation, the answer is dependent on the person asking the question. If it was the guy's mother, his response would probably be drastically different than the answer he gives to his buddies, or even his co-workers.  This idea of the right message to the right audience and the right time, is exactly how we look at marketing and branding at Definition 6.  Our unified marketing approach is just that - leverages data to communicate brand messages appropriately to its core customers, in the proper environments and at the right time. 



Thanks again to PromaxBDA for hosting their event here at our offices!

After building a successful empire that turned the average cup of
coffee into a morning ritual for millions of loyal customers, Starbucks is attempting to extend their brand image from a morning stop to an evening hangout. Monday, the coffee giant announced they will begin offering beer and wine at four to six Atlanta-area locations, joining the ranks of a handful of stores in Seattle, Portland and soon-to-be Chicago.

Now that the year has begun, here are some 2012 predictions for advertising, media, and emerging trends:


 
Hi, Michael Kogon here, the CEO of Definition 6, and welcome to our 2012 video blog. I look forward to talking to you about unified marketing throughout the year, and I want to talk and start the year off with six predictions for 2012. 

1 - Year of Mobile – easy way to say it, but what I really mean by that is, how mobile influences the way we shop, the way we interface with retail, and the way we connect with one another.

2 - Second would be Social Networks.  Not just the mere fact that social networks are here to stay, and that Facebook consumes everybody’s time and life, if you are a meaningful brand you have a meaningful relationship with your consumers enabled by Facebook and others, but the notion that social connections are really informing the way brands and marketers have to work together.

3 – Third would be Video.  Just as we are producing video here, we’re seeing hundreds and millions of hours of videos produced, consumed and sent along all forms of devices and airwaves, as 3G turns into 4G, and we end up with very enabled users throughout the country and the planet, I think video is going to be the way we all choose to communicate and connect with our consumers.

4- The fourth way would be the movement of more money into Display Advertising.   I think Search is going to continue to be a big deal, obviously we’re going to see a lot of our digital dollars go there, but I think more and more of our money is going to be allocated towards display.  Again it’s a little bit of the video, it’s a lot of the social, but more importantly, it’s now brands have figured out how to use display to communicate a deeper, richer message that they can rarely do with direct response search. 

5- Fifth would be Turbulent Consumers.  I think consumers are going to shop on deal, I think deal sites are still a very good way to stimulate purchase trial.  But I think the other thing is that a lot of us are going to feel wealthy, a lot of us are going to feel less than wealthy, at any given moment within the year.  I think that kind of turbulence is going to really have an impact on what we have to do as marketers and time our message with behavior we observe our consumers exhibiting.

6- And the last is the Unknown.  The prediction of #6 is I’m not really sure what is going to happen in the sense that one thing is going to be an inflection point on the year.  Hopefully it’s a positive thing, but it could be a negative thing, like a natural disaster or market correction, but it could be a good thing like the Euro zone corrects itself, the Presidential election shapes up to where the country has optimism.  I’m looking forward to this year with you.  Please come back and see what our customers, our partners, and what the other people here at Definition 6 have to say.  Good luck in 2012. 

Definition 6’s Expert-in-Residence Frank Radice and Account Director Michael Sater attended the International Consumer Electronics show (CES) last week, and they are here to tell you about the insights and highlights from the event.

“So, this is Frank Radice down at CES 2012, where I worked on a panel with a bunch of great people from Bravo and Discovery and Yahoo! and Ovation, and we were talking about Social TV, and does Social TV have a legitimate place right now? Can it be intrusive? Is it a good thing?  I think the most important thing that came out of all of CES, for me, wasn’t a lesson that I hadn’t already learned, it was just something that I was reminded of, that you can’t make television for the other people that are in these rooms that are here at these conventions, you have to make it for the viewer, or the user, or the person that actually consumes the content.”

Frank: “So Michael, what have you seen here at CES that you liked?”

Michael: “Well, in CES 2012, Frank, what I found really interesting, was the immense number of mobile devices, tablets, phones, and I think it’s going to be very impactful for the social consumer.  Whether you are in front of a TV, or you want to grab content off of your television or off of the web, you can now have it traveling with you, which is very powerful.  So the consumer can feel more in command of that experience, so if they are watching something in their home, now all of a sudden they can draw up that content on their tablet.  In fact, TiVo is having a device where they can push the content from one TV to the next, and also to initial devices like their iPad. Companies such as Samsung are trying to bring that digital experience into everything, where now your washing machine will notify you when you are in another room in the house that your laundry is done.  For their primary customer, it’s extremely powerful, that they can now not be a slave to that machine, and they can feel informed at all points in time, with the information that’s relevant to them, when they want it, the way they want it, as they are walking around."

You can follow Definition 6 on Twitter @Definition6 or like us on Facebook at facebook.com/definition6.

All across the internet today websites are taking a stand against censorship. Resources such as Wikipedia, Google,  Reddit.com, and Craigslist are all blacking out  content in protest against the SOPA and PIPA  acts. Washington, DC has already begun to buckle this week towards the public outcry, but that hasn’t stopped a whole lot of people from making a voice for themselves today.