Marketing (&) Mischief

This is long overdue but I finally got the collected learnings from Web 2.0 Expo 2009 on to Slideshare. Lot of great thoughts and buzz. I especially loved the way Twitter was used in the conference by the speakers and the attendees and tried to collect some of the best Tweets that I came across to the preso as well.

Thanks to @DaGood @r2r0 @anssimakela @Jussipekka for inspiration, notes, RT’s and obvously great company!

Following (on Twitter), talking with and reading posts from smart guys in the industry (like @jussipekka, @dagood & @Britopian) has made me think really hard about the new nut we marketers are all trying to crack: marketing in Social Media. And the more I think about it I keep on coming back to the same questions: Is there such a thing? Can you really market in Social Media? Can you really approach something as profoundly revolutionary with just your marketer hat on?

My answer is that you can’t.

Let me explain.

What is Social Media? It’s all about give love to get love. I help you and you’ll help me. We all come together to share experiences and thinking in a way never before possible (thanks to ze Interweb). It’s based on very basic human behaviour and at the same time it is very liberating and empowering. We are no longer reliant on what the powers that be (governments, media, marketers) want to feed us. We are in control of the most powerful media ever created. That changes the game and that’s why brands and marketers are worried. They can’t hide crappy products and services behind great advertising anymore. Like a very special FBI agent once said: The truth is out there.

The result of this change? Clueless and scared marketing managers turn to the equally clueless and scared advertising agencies around the world posing THE question: How do we tackle this new monster messing our well oiled screw the consumer -machine? And the answer that the (at this point scared shitless) agencies have come up with? Social Media Marketing!! Don’t worry guys. It’s just another media we can control. We’ll just create a Facebook app and a brand Twitter-account for you and you are all set. We can then push all the same messages to this new “media” and keep your campaigns nicely integrated. You know, 360.

But it does not work that way. Social Media is not a media in the traditional sense of the word. You can’t control it. It’s an environment where true, transparent and honest interaction and involvement pays off. And if you are not ready for that not just a brand but as a company then don’t bother.

So let’s stop talking about Social Media Marketing and start hammering in the idea of Social Media Ethos. Something that touches everything a company does. A new way of behaving. A set of rules by which a company conducts it’s business in a way that is truly taking into account the needs of their audience. From R&D through Comms to Sales. Everything.

I know it’s scary and I get tired of even thinking about all the headaches and frustration it will cause but THAT is the real challenge we all need to overcome.

Just read an article on Mashup.com about how Disney has bought a stake in Hulu.com – the number one on-demand HD-site in the US. Great stuff I thought…but at the same time my old grudge popped up and I wrote a rather heated comment to the article…almost like a blog post of it’s own….hmmm…

So here goes.

The news is all nice and dandy for the viewers in the US but when will the studios and other content owners realize that they need to give up the old  revenue streams of gradually milking the non-US viewers by releasing their shows and content in phases to us poor saps? First sell to the TV-networks…then put out a DVD…a Blu-Ray and maybe if we get lucky we can at some point then view the content on-demand and in HD. And oh yeah…a few re-runs on TV just for the hell of it.

Come on guys…get your head out of…well you know…and don’t repeat the mistake the music industry made by clinging on to their “good ‘ol days” and by doing that teaching us that to get music online equals P2P. You might still have a chance if you move fast.

No wonder torrents are getting more and more popular. The mechanisms are in place (I’ve got iTunes, XBOX360 with a Live subscription and….yeah – a browser + a 100meg broadband) but for some reason there is no way for me to legally watch the HD content I want and when I want online.

It’s not that people are by nature purely evil and want everything for free (well not all of us anyways) but it’s quite simply that the powers that be at NBC, Disney, Fox, ABC, HBO, Warner (the list goes on…) are not even giving us the opportunity to do the right thing.

As I write this I’m listening to Spotify for which I’m paying 10€ / month. That’s right…streaming music and happily paying for the great service. So give me my BSG, Lost and 30 Rock in HD and I’ll pay happily (as long as you don’t try and rip me off like you are doing with Blu-Rays).

I just attended a half-day workshop / seminar held by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) aka the “Finnish BBC”. The topic of the day was their fairly new company strategy: “YLE Enabler Strategy”. I had not really dug into what they mean when they say “enabler” before attending so it was a nice surprise to notice that it actually means what I hoped it would mean: That these guys actually get it.

I’ve been ranting and raving about how businesses need to embrace the change by engaging their audience through being more transparent and focusing on true end-user benefits and needs and here I was sitting and listening in amazement when my speech was delivered to me by Mikael Jungner, the CEO of YLE.

Hold on a minute.

The CEO of the monolithical remnant of the 50’s and 60’s talking about openness, wanting to be the enabler of new business models and being the platform for new and better ways of creating and distributing great content.

Did not see that one coming.

So what is YLE doing right?

1. They’ve already made their sites “social media compatible”
2. They are already sharing their content archives (limited only by the pre-historic copyright laws): Elävä Arkisto / Tehosto / Areena
3. They see the opportunity, not the threat. And they see it high enough in the organization to really make things happen.
4. They’ve got the right people, with the right mind-set working on their services – with the backing & blessing of the CEO
5. They don’t claim they have all the answers: They want us / you to help them.

Lesson for everyone: If YLE can adopt this new approach then there is NO excuse for any other company / entity to not follow in their footsteps.

YLE troops: You’ve got a new fan. Thanks for a great day and keep up the great work!