FLUID MARKETING

Blog Comment from SD: Electronic Arts picks up Angry Birds publisher Chillingo | VentureBeat

Mobile gamers have become obsessed with small, pudgy and vehemently Angry Birds — mostly playing a game that sends them flying into walls and watching the sparks fly. So much so that Electronic Arts has decided to acquire the game’s publisher, U.K.-based Chillingo, for a reported $20 million.

via venturebeat.com

Following up on yesterday's post, today's announcement that Angry Birds' developers Chillingo has been purchased by Electronic Arts makes a lot of sense for the 800-lb. gaming gorilla. The surprising part of the deal, though, is the price: $20 million seems like a hefty price on the surface. But EA is going to turn Angry Birds into a mega-franchise that could include a killer socialized version of the game app; tv cartoon; a variety of hard-goods merchandise; short- and long-form videos; integration into Family Guy...okay, maybe that's pushing it. Long story short, $20 million is a steal for EA and unless they poison this hugely popular game and turn the community off, the likelihood is this investment will return in spades. Is there such a thing as a cash-bird? Yep.

Guest Post on Ecommerce from Jason Michaels

Beyond “Buy Now” – The online retail evolution

 A note to ecommerce and marketing directors: your SEO-optimized, direct marketing-tuned product catalog isn’t going to attract or retain your best customers in 2011. The future of ecommerce is comprised of a series of personalized customer interactions and experiences – and they extend far beyond your .com website.

We’re not saying that the online retail environment can’t (or doesn’t) deliver personalized shopping experiences – mostly driven by those technologies mimicking Amazon.com. Our take here at Wirestone is that the next evolutionary step for ecommerce is built from a carefully curated mix of brand and consumer interactions. We call it Personalization 2.0+.

Personalization 1.0 – where we’ve been until recently – was built on recommendation engines (i.e., suggested products, cross and up-sell merchandising tools), that tailor product assortments to consumers based on aggregate information about their needs and desires. More recently, retailers have learned that content – reviews supplied by people – were more powerful conversion motivators to close a sale or validate a purchase.

The game continues to change, and it’s now more fluid than ever. Enter Facebook, where a plethora of positive peer recommendations are multiplied to deliver increasingly social connections between people’s social graphs. But we’re finding that negative product sentiment can act in the same manner, so brands have no choice but to pay attention and curate these conversations. The same holds for Twitter -- brands are finding they have no choice but to embrace the platform holistically (i.e., understand the technical and experience protocols; modify dialogue with consumers accordingly). Big companies late to the game, on average, have only suffered for it.

So, how do we corral these silos to create personalized customer interactions and experiences that imbue an overarching brand identity?

1. Know your brand. Employ ground rules for your voice and aesthetic and hold firm when they are challenged. Make sure that these brand guidelines are extended to every consumer communication.
2. Use automation appropriately. Database-triggered communications help manage customer expectations, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t carry your brand messaging – or be fun. Which leads to …
3. Humanize the sales process. The shopping cart and checkout are the perfect environments for a 1-800 number and live online chat. Facilitate the conversation.
4. Meet the customer where they are. If your customer base uses Facebook or Twitter to discuss your brand – meet them there.
5. Do your products justice. Would you merchandise a $3,000 chandelier using one photograph? A single photograph might work for the “comparison shopper” – they’re already in the buying mode – but your new and affluent website visitor will demand “white glove” features such as rich images, live customer service, and perhaps audio or video. Remember to educate and entertain your shoppers.
6. Add value wherever possible. Tutorials, guides, and how to’s deliver both SEO value as well as thought leadership. Every customer loves the story behind a product – and they’re often willing to pay more for that story.
7. Plan for mobile commerce now. Amazon, eBay, and others already have excellent mobile apps, but you can create a mobile version of your website at a fraction of the cost.
8. Innovate and iterate. If you’re an ecommerce website, you’re also a technology company. Don’t shock users with large-scale website redesigns; instead, take a cue from Amazon.com and Facebook by iterating often – introducing new features that are informed by data and customer feedback.
9. Experiment 20% of the time. Projections and goals are key to running a successful ecommerce business, but don’t be afraid to test some well-reasoned tactics. A prior false negative could be your greatest opportunity today.
10. Integrate. Integrate. Integrate. Ecommerce is not a silo. Social marketing isn't either. They are horizontal business activators that should be woven throughout a brand's marketing portfolio. Smart brands view all of marketing through a single lens, where efficiencies emerge through coordinated partnerships, promotions, communications, and product development.

The online commerce marketplace has evolved to a social commerce ecosystem. Brands must harness this fluidity to fully capture the opportunity – understanding how personal the relationship people can now have with brands is the first step. We challenge brands every day to adopt this philosophy, but only a few are truly able to keep pace. Are you? Let us know. Please comment below or contact me, the author, at: jason.michaels@wirestone.com. Feel free to reach out to our other retail and ecommerce innovator, Paul Marobella at paul.marobella@wirestone.com.

Fluid Games

Of all the cool things about the iPhone 4 -- synchronicity between applications; multi-tasking; screen resolution; aggregated Inbox in OS4 -- it hadn't changed my life. Until...

...Angry Birds.

The iPhone turned me into a gamer. For those of you who haven't tried Angry Birds, don't. You will become addicted. If you play already, you know exactly what I'm talking about. More than 7 mm people have downloaded the $.99 app...more than 2mm for Android in the past three days for pete's sake. Why? The game combines just the right amount of technical skill (e.g., micro-touch moves place the bird catapult at just the right angle), goal-achievement (i.e., more than 200 levels, each just a little bit more frustratingly, tantalizingly, intriguingly difficult to achieve than the next), and engaging graphics, animation, and audio.

Social gaming is becoming a significant subset within a new phenomena we know but haven't fully acknowledged as a potent weapon in the marketing arsenal, social commerce -- the nexus of social networks + ecommerce.  Paraphrasing Manny Anekal, Global Director of Brand Advertising at the world's largest social game developer, Zynga, we are on the verge of a social gaming tsunami. More than 60mm people play social games every day; in 2010, people will spend more than $1.6bn -- that's billion, folks -- on sales of virtual goods within social games alone (most of it taking place within Facebook). Something big is happening right before our eyes.

I was like you -- hated getting the senseless Mafia Wars and FarmVille status updates on Facebook and loved it when Mark Z. finally realized that a rebellion was fomenting if he didn't shut down the auto feeds. Angry Birds isn't even really social. It's alone-play, as if I really had the time. And there are no brand integrations...no virtual stores, no virtual gifts.

But Angry Birds became more than just an addictive time-suck after I attended The Altimeter Group's "The Rise of Social Commerce" conference two weeks ago. Playing over and over made me think even more deeply about social commerce, specifically about how game theory is capturing the imagination of people who would never have thought themselves as gamers, or that they'd be susceptible to brand integration within a social game. "Maybe it's the iPhone," I thought. It's the perfect device to whittle away a few free minutes...

I'll reference additional learning from this excellent conference in subsequent posts, simply too much good stuff for a single entry. For now, the "something big" is that big brands are going to go big in social commerce and social gaming. Here are some reasons why:

1. Social games like Mafia Wars -- as well as alone-player games like Angry Birds -- engage people because: 
   • they are extremely easy to play;
   • only require a mouse or simple one-finger touch (vs. 28 moves on a Halo controller);
     
   • are not competitive in the classic sense -- no one loses, everyone wins, and the "competition" is more about cooperation (i.e., helping others find new guns in MW);
   • they build social constructs that help people connect with family and friends;
   • most games are free or extremely low-cost up front;
   • don't require large time commitments -- people can play for a few minutes when they need a break or want to relax for a few minutes;
2. "Gamification" may be the buzzword for 2010. Game developers have known for a long time how to capture attention and keep people playing. Today, game theory is influencing more and more of the interactions we have with brands -- and brands are increasingly figuring out how to apply game theory to capture the imagination and monetize the free-time of fluid consumers;
3. According to Zynga, the "prototype" social gamer is a 40 year-old woman. Hmm. Not quite who you'd think of at first, but upon reflection, the perfect target for social games AND for brands to connect with -- highly social; motivated by cooperative competition and personal achievement; tech savvy enough so that the technology is seen as an enabler, not a hinderance. They also happen to be household budget directors inclined to shop online.

Innovative brand marketers are exploring social games -- some, like Cascadian Farm, found a formula that worked for them for a short time in FarmVille. Long-term, however, the likelihood is that people, not brands, will establish the social commerce comfort zone -- whether it's within a social game or  a widget that generates a pop-up retail store anywhere shoppers surf the Web. The fluid consumer is not going away any time soon, so the more they play games, the deeper brands will have to integrate into the game to connect with them.

Whether or not it's the iPhone's fault that I'm now hooked on Angry Birds, there's a lessen to be learned. Most of us like playing games, and when we do, we like to win. Brands who figure out how to push our inner competitive and social gaming button create opportunities to extract untold benefits, including lots of money. Those who don't risk getting smacked in the head by a nose-diving yell0w-bellied sapsucker.

Solution Architect, Account Planning at Wirestone in Greater Chicago Area | LinkedIn

Do you have experience developing customer insights and using them to create groundbreaking marketing solutions? How about, for example, influencer marketing – can you help b2b leaders identify who influences purchasing decisions among various customer segments?

via www.linkedin.com

These opportunities don't come around often. Looking for ridiculously talented, smart, fun, experienced marketing strategists and account planners. Respond here or to the link above.

The Next Digital Decade

 
A lot of marketers have a crystal ball. Mine lets me look exactly one day into the future. Beyond a day it's pretty cloudy, so I typically refrain from prognostication. Every so often, though, a client asks us to help them peek around the corner to see what’s coming in the next year…or ten.  Here's a recent response...client seemed to like it:

1. Facebook – The Business Platform
   The social network we all know (and some of us don't love) is now a business juggernaut. Facebook is in the midst of shattering past conceptions of what engagement marketing means for both brands and people online – and increasingly offline. While 1bn registered members is a completely rational goal they might actually achieve within a year or two let alone a decade, sheer audience size is only the first half of the story. The second, more intriguing half is how the technical platform has evolved to enables collaboration within and between network members as well as external digital platforms and environments. Size and technical prowess together position Facebook for (pardon the jargon) transforming how brands connect and exploit audience behaviors through usability and experience simplicity AND personalization. All the signs are emerging today -- witness Connect, Credits, and now the scramble now taking place among LBS (location-based services) leaders like Foursquare or Gowalla from the announcement of Facebook Places. Here's what massive size and technical innovation means:
   • Influence: social gaming and commerce are becoming powerful business multipliers (more than $1.5bn will be spent on social gaming in 2010 alone), and Facebook is breaking new ground all the time as the platform of choice. Zynga (maker of 7 of the top 10 Facebook games today, i.e., Farmville and Mafia Wars) shows how Facebook dominates -- Zynga now has  17 development studios worldwide -- all a result of more than 60 million players every day on Facebook;
   • Reach: Ford chose to use Facebook as the exclusive media platform for its 2011 Explorer introduction, figuring it could reach the mass of its target audience in one single effort at a massively reduced cost compared to traditional above the line media;
   • Technical prowess: By 2012, Facebook Connect will have created an undeniable lead position as the engine of a distributed, interoperable social Web. This eventuality is a watershed event – Facebook will (nearly) control near-limitless content sharing and inter-platfrom connectivity, making it nearly impossible for other social networks – even YouTube or Twitter -- to thrive without a focus on greater adoption and specialization, all of which could revolve around Facebook.
   • Flexibility: With influence, reach, and an undeniable technical and development advantage, Facebook propels or crushes competition and electronic marketplaces; it is fast becoming the largest single digital commerce environment; site traffic, time spent on the site, and content volume is larger than any other single web site; advertisers are increasingly investing in FB marketing and some will spend more on FB than they do their own home site or e-commerce environment.
     
     
2. Clouds -- Virtualized business emerges
   Moving the flow of data to virtualized storage and distribution platforms is already happening at lightening speed, pardon the pun. This shift could alter the financial metrics of corporate IT, making life a lot easier and potentially less expensive for CIO's and CTO's; enable near-seamless data and information transfer within and between internal and external corporate information networks; create new -- AND ameliorate some -- privacy concerns; and create new brand/consumer interaction dynamics with in- and out-of-browser capabilities, including SaaS and PaaS;
   
   
3. Big Data -- More than anyone can handle alone
   Analytics will play an even more important role as “big data” (from The Economist -- View this amazing chart) creates immeasurable stress for brands who dive deeply into digital and social marketing, e-crm, etc. Today, it is common for mid- to large-size companies to produce terabytes of consumer and general business data DAILY; more an more data will become available as social, government, and other media platforms develop open APIs. How brands deal with a data tsunami (e.g., figure out the data that matters vs. the data the doesn’t), which impacts nearly every operational department, will become table stakes for competing successfully;
   
   
4. Help -- How brands use agencies
   A fragmented, democratized, (fill in with another clichéd buzzword), global business landscape has become far too complex for brands to understand and manage on their own. It will get even more complicated over the next decade. Whether brands find individual, expert agencies and consultants to pave roads in unique business arenas OR they choose single agency sources who they believe “can do everything digital”, they will need help from smart, experienced, partners – who are in some way invested in the brand’s business…as such, the nature of brand/agency relationships will shift back to brands, who will demand their agencies not only have skin in the game but are staked to win if the brand wins.

Would love to know what you think.

Introducing Fluid Marketing

Like the whack-a-mole player frustrated by not bashing the elusive critter in the head, brand marketers seem to be on a treadmill running to catch up. Consumer attention is more difficult than ever to capture, competitors old and new set higher and higher bars, and emerging technologies are simultaneously enticing and distracting. Not to mention the general economic climate.

Some brands valiantly innovate...most, however, continue to struggle. Why? Because brands historically are the most successful in stable environments where they can count on knowing who their customers are, how markets typically evolve, where competition lurks, and how external factors like technology will likely impact the future.

Fluid Marketing will offer insight and perspective about the increasingly fluid world brands and marketers deal with every day. As a strategy planner, I help brands make sense of marketplace fluidity by looking deeply at a whole bunch of really interesting things, such as, among many others, how consumers shop and purchase; how social psychology influences behavior; how product and marketing decisions are made; how emerging technologies impact brand influence and human interaction.

With these fascinating topics as the backstory, you are invited to read Fluid Marketing -- to peel back a layer, peek around a bend, or participate in conversation about how brands can better-connect with people. That's it. I hope you find Fluid Marketing intriguing enough add your voice to the dialogue and recommend others to join in.

Thanks for participating, 

Scott