If we got together we could make brown babies

There is a tabletop game called Risk! I cannot quite remember all the territories but I think the most difficult to win with was the Russians. Fighting a war on so many fronts was a costly business and often the death of many a player. It’s seems clear that Google never played Risk! as their purchase of YouTube was much like buying the Russian territory in the game – a relentless battle on many fronts that drains resources. But if there was ever an organisation with a war chest big enough to to take the ‘risk’ then it would have to be Google. With some of the brightest minds pouring over the YouTube business looking for revenue models, they have done well to at least stem some of the flow if not plug it entirely. With that we’ve also seen an ascent (?) taking YouTube from ‘Poacher to Gamekeeper‘ and this continues with the (very discreet) launch of their new video rental service.

This is a HUGE piece of news due to the potential impact of this business model succeeding.

last seen wearing a T-shirt that read "I killed Blockbuster Video"

First, there is the competitive marketplace that already exists in this sector. Netflix is the major player here but there are many more like LoveFilm (UK) or the new Hulu service. The issue for those guys is the sheer size of YouTube’s audience which should steam roll them and mean it starts with a significant advantage.

Taking a bite out of Apple

Then there is the already existing rental service of iTunes. This is a big player too but Apple benefits from a large community of advocates (sometimes against reason) who will remain loyal. But this is not the biggest fear for Apple or potential ‘win’ for Google. That comes when we move to future technology. Let’s consider the YouTube rental service does well and picks up momentum. It would be very logical to build a YouTube Android phone…

take me to your iPhone

Android is already hotly tipped to take over the iPhone as the number one smartphone. There is no doubt it can win on units but what about the service. I’ve long said that Apple stands head and shoulders over it’s rivals because of the iTunes platform. It is more reliable, intuitive and ‘ingrained’ with the audience than any other store (including Ovi). But a YouTube Android phone changes that game. Imagine YouTube start serving all music (with optional videos) too. Now with an API on my phone (or dedicated handset) I could stream (on tether to my phone) a massive library of my music and video content. This becomes a major selling point for Google (and their partners like HTC) whilst really eating in to the iTunes dependency of some user. Consider, that I could then also easily share my playlists with friends or arrange to watch a movie at the same time (in different locations) and chat or skype too. There are a lot of possibilities here and it’s very exciting to see where things go.

argg, me hearties. I love's a good Googlin' on the high seas!

Finally, there is the irony element. Forget the potential here, let’s look at the service being a success and YouTube creating original content for their audience. Pretty much every online video service has done this at one point or another. You then have to consider the irony of YouTube creating original content which will be ripped and pirated by the audience and uploaded for free around the web – maybe even on another future YouTube. And is that the point when we recognise YouTube has finally come of age?

NB. I couldn’t put all this in and not mention Blockbuster Video. What has happened to them and where will this leave them?

"I used to be a somebody..."

Channel Chanel

User-generated content is key to social media and fashion. From blogs to Facebook photo contributions to product reviews, the user-generated content is at its apex. One of the most notable and consistent campaigns that are built around user-generated content and social media has been from the brand Charlotte Russe, The brand’s weekly trivia contest on it’s Twitter channel or virals from their YouTube channel, drives the consumers to their website with the high hopes of snagging some great prizes.

Another great example of user-generated content used is Burberry’s Art of the Trench site. The people are encouraged to upload photos of themselves wearing Burberry’s signature style, the trench coat. Burberry is on a roll when it comes to online advertising to showcase their goods.

Moving into 2010, brands and retailers will be delving deeper into social media to reach online audiences. Digital and e-commerce launches of new products have also been a popular way for brands to keep costs low in a tough economy for luxury products. A variety of mobile platforms have taken off as brands, magazines, and web sites to develop apps with the goal of extending their online presence and widening the distribution channels.

When it comes to developing apps, fashion brands are some of the fastest out of the blocks. Chanel shows its runway collections via iPhone app, and the Gilt Groupe app allows users to shop sample sales and receive alerts as to when sales are starting. Guilt free apps to download for the stylish brand hunter! We’re currently developing iPhone and Blackberry apps for fashion brands around London Fashion Week.

The future of fashion is in digital marketing, not only have these brands started to win over the consumers through social media campaigns, but are starting to create their own niche groups. Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana and other major league heavy hitters in the fashion industry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing web sites. Or in the case of TOPMAN, we’ve worked to build their community over existing social networks and channels to lighten the load on the brand and keep things relevant to their audience.

It’s been a tough education, but we start to see less one-way discount promotions, and more genuine interaction between the brand and the people, it makes everyone happier and allows sales to boost, with satisfaction of personally acquainting yourself with who you are purchasing your new outfit from.

get a life... by copying other peoples!

Much like the characters played by Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman in The Bucket List, most people have a set of experiences they hope to have during their lifetime. We’ve already seen two websites aimed at helping consumers track and realize those dreams—Eons and 43things—and recently one of our spotters alerted us to Diddit, a similar but expanded version.

Diddit, which was recently launched into alpha by California-based Ludic Labs, allows users to discover new ideas for life experiences as well as track the ones they’ve already had. More than 300,000 experiences in 20 different interest areas are currently listed on the site—including movies to see, foods to eat, travel destinations and more—available for browsing and inspiration. To participate in the community, users sign up for free and list the experiences they’ve already had. They can then look through the site’s list of other ideas and add the ones they like to their list of goals. As each one gets accomplished they check it off on their list, with the opportunity to network and share stories and photos along the way through Diddit, Facebook and Twitter. A video on Vimeo provides a short introduction to the site.

It’s not yet clear what Diddit’s business model will be, but we’d bet ad support will be involved. After all, whether it’s baby boomers or twenty-somethings using them, sites like Diddit promise a highly directed way for advertisers to target specific groups of consumers with particular goals and interests in common. One to try out, partner with or localize for your neck of the activity-seeking woods…? (Related: A public incentive to stick to one’s goals.)

Website: www.diddit.com
Contact: info@diddit.com

It’s another foray into the niche community which is the way how the online community scene is evolving – as previous covered on here. With that in mind it wouldn’t seem right not to mention one of our client community sites, I Love Design with Quark XPress. A thriving community of designers and related creatives. Keep an eye out for the live event we are also putting on soon for them called 8×8…

grabbed from Springwise

We often get clients asking us about all these different channels and the best way to communicate across them. Good news is that we are going to start running workshops and training days to help expand the knowledge and ability of our clients and their internal teams. This is open to people on either side of the fence (client or agency side).

Are you interested in any of the following? If so, go to http://ping.fm/rSWYc and register your interest.

* Mobile Marketing – Harnessing the power and potential of media targeting
* Online Marketing – Getting to grips with the power of online marketing
* PR – Getting to grips with how online fits into the PR mix
* Audience Building – Unlocking the keys to boosting your traffic and retaining customers
* Blogging – Authoring blogs that get readers and ratings
* Community & Web 2.0 – Building effective online communities
* How the Internet works – Understanding the key components that make up the Internet
* Podcasting – Getting to grips with designing and building podcasting strategies
* Media Targeting – Harnessing the power and potential of media targeting
* Search for Advertisers – Getting more profitable customers through search
* Search for Agencies – Getting more profitable customers for your clients through search
* Email Marketing – Getting to grips with email marketing
* Viral Marketing – Creating effective viral marketing messages
* Research for Online Audience Behaviour – Understanding your customers
* Word of Mouth & Advocacy – Engaging and motivating your audience to promote your brand
* Widgets – The way to create widgets that get results and exposure
* Trends – Understanding the strategic trends driving the digital economy
* Web 2.0 – Harnessing Web 2.0 practices and technologies in your business
* Web Project Management – Running web projects to deliver on time and within budget
Go to http://ping.fm/IqnOz and register your interest.

As reported in January’s New Media Age, Virgin Atlantic are preparing for the soft launch of their new travel portal “Vtravelled”. According to the article, the community site will aim to recruit 2 million founding members between the soft launch date (end of Feb) and the rollout in June – an ambitious target.

The site moves Virgin into territory already covered by their main long-haul airline rival – BA. “Metrotwin” is based around the idea of “use[ing] what you know about one city to explore the other one.” So Borough Market in London is twinned with Union Square Greenmarket in New York. It’s an interesting idea, complimented by the excellent look and feel of the site and interesting content – a point well observed by Alex Bainbridge in his blog.

Virgin’s community site takes a different approach. According to the NMA article, the site will focus on:
• providing an “inspirational” site that will help “spark ideas for new trips”
• image and map content
• hosting “personal travel content” in the form of “trip pods” that allow users to share their travel plans, photos, notes and chat

Ultimately, Virgin want customers to “think of the site when making a travel decision”.

As Alex points out in his blog, with this approach, much of the content appears to be focussed on an individual’s travel plans. This differs from sites such as TripAdvisor and Metrotwin where much of the content is focussed on a place and therefore often of interest to other users.

There is also a crossover of functionality with the large social-network players (Facebook, MySpace etc.). Can Vtravelled persuade users to leave Facebook and other social networks to post photos and chat to their friends?

I believe that the success of the site will come down to the implementation. If the look and feel and feature-set are attractive enough to the target audience (users who wish to share travel plans or plan trips), then users may embrace these tools and make the jump.

Arguably Virgin have the clout to make this happen. Other recent Virgin advertising activities (agreeably not in “digital) seem to have been a success. I joined Virgin Active after the “lose the bits you hate” tube poster campaign and the more recent Virgin Atlantic TV ads are extremely impressive.

Whether Virgin can meet their ambitious targets remains to be seen. I for one am looking forward to following the success of the site, not least because of what it will say about consumers appetite for niche social-network communities. From my experience implementing social networks for our clients I do believe that niche networks are the future. I think users are willing to sign up to sites that they identify with, me included. Recently I’ve signed up for the BA website and a Cravendale branded ‘make the tea‘ site! But at Neoco we know that, however grand the scope of a new social network, it’s expert implementation that will keep members engaged over time.

Top 10s are important for people in Marketing

Part of the service we provide to our clients are opinion and thought leader articles. After a period of time we make these live for the public. Coming soon is an article about the difference between social networks and online communities – as people often confuse these very different models. In the meantime, enjoy the obligatory ‘Top 10 tips’ related to developing a successful online community:

1. Make sure the community needs are inline with the brand needs – look at Trip Advisor above.
2. Address the social challenges, not just the technological ones. Online communities and social networks are about people. Ignore the fact these people are online – do they still resonate with the audience social trends?
3. The community owns the community. If a brand wants a community, it needs to be part of it – look at Trip Advisor example.
4. Growth takes time and effort. Starbucks launched mystarbucksidea.com to build a community that looks to enhance the Starbucks experience. It’s taken a lot of financial resources and several months to get to the stage it is and currently requires 48 Starbucks staff to manage that community. Which leads on to…
5. Communities need managing. They are about people and wherever you have a lot of people you need someone to manage and police activity – even if those people are like the 100 Trip Advisor contributors.
6. Look at new ways to measure success. There are always the obvious benchmarks of page impressions and users but a community is not just a website. Set the targets outside of the obvious. Starbucks measure success on the goodwill they generate and new innovations from their community.
7. Appreciate the many types of communities. Whilst there are similarities, a private community is very different to a public one. Restricting access, limiting numbers and increasing engagement creates an entirely different conversation with users. GSK and P&G are known to use closed/ private communities for huge amounts of R&D across their products.
8. Consumer communities are a form of marketing. It’s a different form of marketing with new rules and etiquette. It’s always best to consult marketers who have a wealth of knowledge regarding community marketing (conveniently neoco can help). As a basic litmus test, put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Would the activity work for you?
9. These are social environments, so the general rules of social engagement apply. A good marketer would never crash a friends party and just start shouting about their brand all night – so why should that work online? Be respectful, honest and conversational – you will find it goes a long way.
10. Make sure the community is connected internally (at your brand). Communities can be a goldmine for consumer insight and innovative ideas. Make sure these fulfill their potential by enabling conversations across your brand.

We’ve just won the pitch to create a new design for global website Contiki.com. Contiki are the worldwide leader in vacations for 18-35 year olds, and we are really looking forward to working on this fun and exciting project.

We are going to be implementing a community focused concept to the site, which we developed alongside Contiki’s internal team. The site will embrace the strong community that exists around the Contiki brand and facilitate its growth inline with the website and the brand as a whole. The site will be enhanced by a raft of 2.0 functionality including Twitter feeds, image and video sharing, social bookmarking and more.

As well as creating the design, we will also deliver the front end build, working closely with Contiki’s development team located on America’s West Coast.

As usual we’ll be sure to keep you posted when the site re-launches.

eBay are suing community ad site Craigslist to “safeguard its four year financial investment”. eBay believe that Craigslist’s executives Craig Newmark and Jim Buckmaster have adopted unspecified measures that have disadvantaged eBay and unfairly diluted their “economic interest by more than 10%”.  EBay’s general counsel Mike Jacobson has said “since negotiating our investment with Craigslist’s board in 2004, we have acted openly and in good faith as a minority shareholder, so we were surprised by these recent unilateral actions”.

In response, Craigslist have said in their company blog that they are surprised and disappointed by eBay’s “unfounded allegations”, and that eBay’s legal action “came to us out of the blue”. It said “we have always treated eBay fairly as a minority shareholder, and plan to continue doing so, despite this unfortunate development. EBay has absolutely no reason to feel threatened – unless a hostile takeover of Craigslist, or the sale of eBay’s stake in Craigslist to an unfriendly party, is their ultimate goal.”

Read the full article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7362221.stm

I think it’s safe to say that it is now officially Facebook vs. everyone else when it comes to OpenSocial!

Yahoo has just announced it’s support for Google’s OpenSocial initiative, and it has now joined forces with MySpace and Google to form the non-profit OpenSocial Foundation. The idea behind the foundation is to “ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.”

Others who are also in on the foundation include: Engage.com, Friendster, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, Six Apart, Tianji, Viadeo, and XING. So, basically, out of all the social networks and web giants on the web, Facebook is the only one that’s out of the loop – for now.

In the OpenSocial camp there is, of course, a lot of hand shaking, back patting and congratulating. Yahoo says they believe “in supporting community-driven industry specifications and expects that OpenSocial will fuel innovation and make the web more relevant and more enjoyable to millions of users;” MySpace is “setting new industry specifications for social web application development,” while Google is reassuring us that “OpenSocial will be forever free and open..” All three companies will work on OpenSocial, everything will, of course, stay under the Creative Commons copyright license, and they’ve created an open source reference implementation called Shindig, available at incubator.apache.org/shindig/.

The official web site for the Foundation is opensocial.org, while the technical bits are still over at code.google.com/apis/opensocial/.

We developed the site around an interactive and accessible community concept that was inspired by both neoco and Quark’s love for design. The content of the site will be largely user generated with the aim being to create a platform where designers from all over the world can join the community, showcase their work, be inspired by the work of others, and discuss their love of design. Users can search, view, and rate designs uploaded by other members and even contact them in a secure way.

The site features the work and video testimonials of leading industry designers including David Carson, Peter Saville and Chip Kidd, providing inspiration for users, as they can watch and listen to their heroes tell their own stories, debate the relevance of design in today’s world, and contemplate its future. Designers can also learn how leading global brands, such as the Salvation Army, Metro International, Design Week , and many others, are using QuarkXPress 7 and view samples of some of their work.

The site is part of an overall campaign that we created, with the focus on harnessing the creativity of today’s designers. It comprises of a design of the week competition, seminars with leading designers, e-mail marketing, online and offline media, and a fun Facebook application called “What font are you?” – why not find out which font you are by clicking the link below:

(http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=22841955173)