A new wave of multichannel video service providers, or MVSPs for short, are transforming the television experience by kicking the traditional TV viewing format into a far more  social sphere. Maximising on interactivity by offering second screen capabilities, revolutionary new forms of usage behaviour are emerging relating to social discovery. For example in advertising breaks, a large number of brands and retailers now mention the ways in which you can connect via Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. MVSP systems will allow viewers to tap into these social channels via multi-screen technology at the click of a button, without leaving the program.

The main selling point however of social TV is its ability to provide personalised information connected to either the show or logged in user.  Taking this concept further, tailored advertising such as that found in the right hand columns on Facebook can draw on information gathered from the user’s viewing preferences or activity whilst logged in on social networking sites to offer personalised advertising solutions. 150 billion minutes of video content is downloaded from YouTube each month – that’s the equivalent of 4 million TV channels – proving that social television is the next logical step to connect social media and mainstream television.

Considering reports that Facebook will reach one billion users by 2012 out of two billion internet users worldwide, that’s a staggering statistic; a mass audience beyond the wildest expectations of any broadcaster for advertising possibilities. “We want to be your partner in unlocking 750 million friends,” Facebook’s European head Joanna Shields told broadcasters at IBC 2011’s keynote on Social Media. To be successful, social TV needs to be executed in alignment with a brand’s existing social strategy. It is for this reason we focus the attention of our broadcast clients on developing the right strategy to take full advantage of the opportunities available through social TV because the solution is nothing with the strategy.

Social television presents opportunities for extended content related to either the television show itself or brands featured in advertising breaks. Along with a broadband TV viewing experience comes countless opportunities for audience engagement and monetisation via additional content videos; real-time conversations related to the TV show and interaction between fans. Social television opens up opportunities to use smartphones and tablets as remote controls and program guides, not only making use of extended functionality and inter-connectivity but streamlining the whole viewing process.

“Social TV solutions provide the canvas for creative content producers, advertisers and merchandisers to create social TV experiences that matter” concluded Alex Blum, COO at KIT Digital. When social TV is adopted into the mainstream it will open out countless opportunities for brands to engage with their consumers more closely by understanding their purchasing behaviour and viewing habits. Furthermore, by tapping into this information brands can offer solutions to problems at points where the viewer is most susceptible to take note and buy, converting views to sales via ecommerce platforms on broadband enabled television sets. Welcome to the dawn of social TV friend!

A recent infographic detailing the history of Facebook Commerce – or F-Commerce as it has come to be known – throws up some interesting facts about the way we use Facebook to shop and carry out our online purchases. 67% of shoppers spend more money after following recommendations of friends from their social networks, highlighting the importance of presence and increasingly the ability to carry out transactions straight from a brand’s Facebook page. Although research by Forrester argues the case against F-commerce, suggesting it offers only 1% click-through and 2% conversion rates (compared to email at 11% and 4% respectively), it is a new concept with huge potential for growth.

The digital generation has high expectations from brands. Continually plugged in, they want everything at the touch of as few buttons as possible. Research shows that although 11% of those surveyed have bought from Facebook only 8% of retailers’ FB pages currently accept a transaction; that’s an awful lot of missed opportunities for potential sales.

Not one of the top 100 Prestige Brands as ranked by luxury market experts L2, sell from Facebook. Although there is a lot of discussion as to whether social networks suit the exclusivity of the luxury market, surely an extra opportunity to buy wholly integrated within the Facebook page and other digital assets is a help rather than a hindrance? Then again for the likes of Burberry, D&G, Gucci and Chanel who do not allow fan posting (read our blog post discussing the pros and cons of this here), not listening to customers seems to be their current strategy.

Bucking the trend is US designer Diane von Furstenberg whose Wrap of the Month concept highlights how F-commerce should be done. Rolling out a new limited edition each month, the exclusive dresses will be available via Facebook only, with fans contributing comments and the ability to share the purchase once added to their shopping bag.

Instead of just replicating online stores, consumers want authentic social content that maintains brand integrity at all times, offering something more than just the opportunity to buy. Levi’s are leading the way with their Friends Store showcasing only products liked by your social connections and inviting friends to browse the store together. The Friend Store is proof enough that F-commerce is thriving: besides acting as an alternate storefront it also works as a social way of displaying and predicting sales, benefiting both customers and the brand.

Although the visual nature of fashion lends itself well to being showcased on Facebook, it is not just clothing brands and designers experimenting in the world of F Commerce. Delta Airways launched Ticket Window back in August 2010 to allow user to book flights directly from their FB page proving the convenience factor is high in the success of F-commerce initiatives.

History of F-Commerce SlideShare

With nearly half the teenage population of the UK armed with smartphones, reckless looting thugs “mis”-used such popular platforms to co-ordinate the uproar in anti-social disorder throughout the capital and beyond. These (mostly young) opportunists were able to determine the next target areas to attack and to summon other potential rioters to join them in looting and vandalising local businesses. The police issued warnings to individuals who were using tweets as a means to promote further havoc, that they wouldn’t go unpunished. A major surge of law-abiding twitter users expressed their anger towards the ghastly events. One tweet read “Only in the UK can rioters wear £100 trainers, arrange riots on £300 smartphones and claim they’re in poverty”.

It turns out Blackberry Messenger has been widely recognised as the main communicative medium among teens inciting the angry violence compared to Twitter and Facebook. Why? BBM is what you could call a “shadow social network” – this free and easily accessible service has managed to replace traditional SMS, and Government authorities as yet have no facilities to effectively trace private conversations taking place between Blackberry PINs. One-to-many BBM broadcasts send out messages to all saved BBM contacts in an instant. The Guardian discovered a remorseless broadcast in particular which said:

“Everyone from all sides of London meet up at the heart of London (central) OXFORD CIRCUS!!, Bare SHOPS are gonna get smashed up so come get some (free stuff!!!) fuck the feds we will send them back with OUR riot! >:O Dead the ends and colour war for now so if you see a brother… SALUT! if you see a fed… SHOOT!”

Who would have thought a Blackberry phone originally made for corporate business folk would be a threat to national security in the hands of misguided teenagers? Thankfully, the police intervened and the West End plot fell through. The power of social media was quick to counteract the intense level of the damage done for an exceedingly uplifting cause in a desperate attempt to reclaim the streets of London. The “R.I.P Mark Duggan” Facebook fan page has received almost 30,000 likes in support of his family and the police since it was created last week. Wall posts were urging those partaking in the disruptions to stop.

Meanwhile, Twitter played a crucial role in organising one of the highest trending topics of the week – #riotcleanup – which saw hundreds of amazing people from all backgrounds respond with a united heart for their communities. Anti-riot locals eagerly volunteered to clean up the mess in their neighbourhoods with the help of good old rubber gloves, brooms and heavy-duty bin bags.

Furthermore, the ever-growing collation of released photographs on the Catch a Looter Tumblr blog bluntly exposes looters caught on camera in order to encourage members of the public to help the police identify and crack down on those involved in the burglaries. The Metropolitan police have also established a Flickr photo set called London Disorder – Operation Withern as an additional method to track and prosecute destructive criminals. So far, this has proved successful and police have made 1,051 arrests since the London riots subsided on Wednesday – a number of which were connected to provoking violence through social media. In addition, almost 600 people have been taken to court and charged, and a 17-year-old girl from Croydon even handed herself into the authorities after photographs of her standing at the crime scene were shown on national television and newspapers.

Yesterday in his speech at the House of Commons, Prime Minister David Cameron claimed: “We are making technology work for us, by capturing the images of the perpetrators on CCTV – so even if they haven’t yet been arrested, their faces are known and they will not escape the law.”

Cameron has also proposed banning suspected rioters from having access to social media tools, in an attempt to stop them being able to cause further trouble. Despite the obvious ethical and freedom of speech issues, home secretary Theresa May is expected to meet with Facebook, Twitter and Research In Motion to discuss their perceived responsibilities. This could mark a shift in UK internet policy that will doubtless spark tension between freedom-of-speech believers and the government. Attempting to ban Facebook and Twitter from the younger generation is a pretty impossible mission and it will be interesting to see what final decisions are made in light of the Government’s love/hate relationship with the industry.

Fair enough, social media played a part in stirring things up, but this was only the case in the hands of criminally minded agitators. However, we also think that social media deserves some credit for turning things around and helping to bring communities back together. Let’s hope calmer heads will prevail in a few weeks and both the Government and local communities can move beyond calling for knee-jerk reactions.

What have the CIA, Lady Gaga, Fox News, and Hugh Grant all got in common? They’ve all been hacked of late and we’re pretty sure they’d rather avoid a repeat in the future. Whether it’s unscrupulous newspaper publishers or activist groups, the internet is awash with pesky rogues of the digital generation all ready to pounce, bringing down your brand’s hard-earned reputation.

The amount of destruction caused depends on the hackers’ motivation; “Hacktivists” – unlike serious cyber criminals – are usually low-scale and low funded, seeking to embarrass companies, individuals and even parts of government by exposing humiliating internal emails or contact information in order to make a statement or gain publicity. On the other hand, true cyber criminals hacking for payroll or credit card information, or committing bank fraud are far more serious.

Groups such as the much publicised Lulzsec and Anonplus fall into the former category, taking advantage of coding errors called SQL injections behind the scenes of the website. Whilst LulzSec may have hacked into the CIA, many describe their efforts as “pranksters” putting cyber security in the spotlight as the silver lining of the hacking thunderclouds.

So how exactly can you protect your social media account against these digital fraternities? We’ve rounded up 8 tips on minimising accessibility to hackers:

1. Maximise privacy settings on social networks by enabling Secure Browsing (https) and Login Approvals on Facebook to encrypts and protect your activity to prevent anyone accessing information without your permission.

2. Become familiar with Google’s “Me on the web” tool. With a Gmail account you can remove URLs of not only pages containing confidential information but Blogger, YouTube and Maps content that may breach privacy.

3. Beware of links that look like this: “hAha Is tHIS you in VIDoe? – http://www.infectedlink.ru“. They are worms and once clicked self-replicate to spread and infect networks.

4. Check it out. Zone Alarm’s made an infographic on which social networking sites are most secure.

5. Log out of any mobile devices. If the phone is lost or stolen you’ve already granted immediate access to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.

6. Change passwords regularly. Think outside the box and include capital letters, numbers and punctuation, even incorporating shift and alt key symbols for maximum security.

7. Check third party apps frequently and revoke access of the ones you do not use.

8. Lastly, if you do get hacked, follow Twitter’s advice here and Facebook’s here.

Are you or your company concerned about your security and safety on the WWW? What measures do you have in place to prevent hacks? If you have any further tips or advice to share please let us know!

Path is a totally different application for iPhones – rather than connecting to your existing social networks, such as Facebook, it creates a small private one for your timeline that you share with up to 50 friends. With privacy online being a hot topic these days, people are often (understandably!) worried about sharing their lives with the world.

By no means is this a full-blown replacement of something like Facebook, but it does easily let you share photographic and video moments with just your close friends. 50 friends might seem like a harsh limit when you probably have hundreds on Facebook, but if you think about it, you probably only communicate with a handful on a regular basis.

http://www.path.com

Diaspora launched in early 2010 and began to gather a fair amount of buzz towards the end of the year. It’s not really ready for use, but it brings up some interesting ideas about where social networking could head.

The basic idea is that instead of keeping the social network’s data in one place under the control of the network’s owner, everything is distributed amongst a large collection of computers. The point is that no single company or individual “owns” your information. Diaspora aims to put you in control – your information only reaches those who you want it to.

http://joindiaspora.com

Starbucks logo

Interesting article in Marketing that talks about the slagging match brewing (pun intended) in the coffee world with Costa making the most of a Starbucks spillage (less effective pun also intended). Whilst the recession has stalled maturity in the coffee market, leaders still point to YOY growth of 2% upwards.

You can read the whole article by clicking here

Marketing coffee wars article

But the really interesting part is at the end by Jeremy Caplin (an interesting chap I met a few years back at Media360) who adds “The out-of-home experience of visiting a coffee shop is transferring in-home”. He cites the rise of brands like Nespresso and Tassimo, whilst the article talks of Starbucks new instant Via Ready Brew. For the brand owners, this makes digital the next frontier to enhance the ‘home coffee shop’ experience. It’s important that the brands do all they can to extend the experience online, to provide an additional point of difference or value add. Coffee shops offer a level of social engagement that is hard to repeat at home but at least online can help bridge that experiential gap and offer a worthwhile alternative. One solution could be a niche social network. This is something that Neoco has delivered for several clients with very impressive results – particularly for developing brand loyalty and understanding consumer motivational factors. Another could be actively engaging the audience in NPD – which Neoco also have a welath of successful examples with brands such as Aquafresh, Pringles, and many more.

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.

Earlier this month Facebook removed a branded application by fast food giant Burger King over fears that it was against their privacy code. But then that’s probably what Burger King wanted, seeing as it has won them global press beyond the capabilities of just a facebook application, not matter how ingenious. The whole affair has triggered multiple debates on the state of social networks, the place of applications and the effectiveness of simple but extreme marketing stunts.

The facebook application in point invited users to ditch their friends (or defriend as it is now technically known) in return for a free whopper. A fun concept that’s win:win for all. By exploiting the fact that adding friends on facebook has become rampant and meaningless they can offer the user a freebie in return for practically no cost (we can all think of 10 friends we only added out of politeness/drunkenness/confusion/because we have to work with them!!) and BK makes a very powerful point in the process. On one level they are proving that whoppers rank above some of our friends, but they are also proving that they understand their audience very well and they are not afraid of sticking their necks out.

Like other’s that have picked up on this over here, I’m sad that BK was only running the offer in the US. In terms of marketing strategy they have always seemed to be less locally focused than their biggest competitor, and it’s a shame that a campaign with such appeal to a UK market as well wasn’t rolled out over here – sometimes I even think that the clown cares about us Brits more!

A real strength of the application is that it’s non-intrusive. By its nature it doesn’t require you to pass it on virally to your friends and it’s temporary. This is a shift that Neoco is also embracing in the facebook applications we build for clients. It’s better to make a statement that people want to pass on of their own accord. What BK have done so well is grab hold of the right statement at the right time.

To those unfortunate enough to be forced to listen to my rants of personal grievance it will be known that Burger King have been my thoughts for other reasons of late. I had an interesting ‘debate’ with a member of their staff last week on being told that not only would BBQ sauce cost me extra, but it was not possible to swap the tomato sauce that had been forced upon me for a condiment of my own choosing. The next day at another branch of the same chain I was informed that, over night, the price of BBQ sauce had risen from 10p to 15p. Particularly irksome because I was all ready to swallow my pride and hand over my 10p but I didn’t have another 5 little pennies! I understand that this is probably my own fault for eating at Burger King twice in one week!

The moral of the story, however, is that actually going to a fast food chain is often not the nicest experience – involving bad service, dashed expectations, and pointless, faceless, policy (I’m not involving the quality of the food for obvious reasons). The challenge in marketing such brands is to manage expectation and get consumers engaged with a brand image that makes sense. As BK have shown, there’s still a lot of fun to be had, and that doesn’t have to mean just ticking new ‘healthy,’ ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘caring’ boxes.

And now I’m off to clear out my facebook of the friends I can do without and then reward myself with a burger…but without the incentive over here I will probably just buy it from the nearest store!