1000heads: Postcard from Cannes (Part 1)

Hello from sunny Cannes!

20062011551

[yes, I know you all hate me and that the weather in London is terrible BUT!] I come bearing gifts of news, insights, words and pictures!

1000heads are over supporting Nokia as part of their lead sponsorship of the Young Lions Competition* kicking off later today. However, before that all gets under way, I want to explore and share some of the findings from some of yesterday’s talks.

Consider the following notes as a monumental brain dump to be consumed, digested and used as talking points for further conversation –

PHD: Beyond the Horizon

PHD, a global media agency, came under fire earlier this year for their ‘We Are The Future‘ video and I was intrigued to see what kinds of thoughts and theories they wanted to put forward around future technologies.

  • ‘Connected TV’ to be a firm fixture (along with 3D) in the homes of the future
  • Facial recognition will tailor ads to the person watching TV (I’m not sure)
  • Facebook Connect already structures websites around your social graph (eg: Trip Advisor) expect more of this in the future – personalised experiences based upon what you (and your friends’) behaviour and habits

  • Wi-Fi areas, already prevalent globally, will be running with wireless power – ‘Wi-Po’ (or Qi) networks – which will provide wireless charging of compatible devices
  • ‘Natural UI’, already widely available via Xbox Kinect, will replaces the traditional remote controls for home devices
  • “Change will never be this slow again” – Mark Holden, PHD
  • “People that are good at social will be the tomorrow’s superstars in business” – MH, PHD (one might argue that this is not a trend for 2016, but rather a trend for 201o, ’11 and ’12)
  • “The race is on for brands to become content creators” – MH, PHD (again, not new but still – these races take time to properly get going)

Like I said; just a brain dump. But some starting points for sure. Tomorrow I’ll be back with notes from the Diageo session (who we’ve written about before) and what efforts they’ve been putting into extending their brands globally.

Any thoughts on the above? Dive into the comments below…

 

*Keep your eyes on the Nokia Nseries blog and Twitter feed for more details on this later today

1000heads: B2B and Social Media – #dellb2b

Last week 1000heads was invited to attend the B2B edition of ‘Social Media Huddle’ hosted by Dell, Google and For Immediate Release [FIR].
The networking event – the third in its series – takes the unconference route in its execution, whereby guests can create their own sessions for others to attend on the day. I’ve been to a few events like this in the past and it can make for a really interesting day as you never quite know what to expect until you arrive.

The #dellb2b event (to give it its proper twitter name) however, had a very specific aim of ‘bringing together senior communications and marketing professionals to exchange and share experiences on B2B social media for their mutual benefit’. Nice.

The big draw in this instance was guest speaker and internationally recognised thought-leader in the social space, Brian Solis.

Brian Solis @ #dellb2b

I’ve known Brian for a few years now but this is the first time I’ve heard him speak in the UK. A master of the soundbite, his talk was insightful and to the point. I’ll post the slides from the day in a second, but first  – here’s a snapshot from my notes and tweets for the day [including key quotes from the man himself] –

Brian Solis
James Whatley

“46% of B2B respondents said social media was perceived as irrelevant to their company”

“By not saying anything in social, you’re saying everything”

“B2B marketing spend will grow from $11m in 2009 to $54m in 2011”

“93% of business buyers believe all companies should have a social media presence”

So basically, what BS is saying is that, when it comes to B2B – believe it or not – you should apply the same rules of listening and engagement that you do to consumers – ie: You listen. You learn. You engage. You create.

“What is the ROI?”

“There is no ROI of social media programs.”
“However, there is definitely ROI for social media programs that are setup to do something”

Again. Not new. But a truism.

Some choice tweets?





All in all,  plenty of food for thought there, raising a number of issues that we’ll come back to another day.

If you’d like to listen to the presentation yourself, Nevile Hobson has kindly posted the audio version and it may well make an interesting accompaniment to Brian’s slides, embedded below.

Dell B2B Huddle UK with Brian Solis

View more presentations from Brian Solis

What do you think?
Interesting? Thought-provoking?
Your comments, as ever, are welcome in the field below –

1000heads: Two #smwldn minutes (with Molly Flatt)

09022011832

Last night, chief word of mouth evangelist here at 1000heads, Molly Flatt, was asked to appear on the DMA Social Media Council’s panel for ‘Social Media, Direct Marketing and Making Money‘.

Covering off such areas as; where money can be made in social, the ethics of marketing in an online space, the new soon-to-be enforced ASA remit and also how to protect yourself legally when things go wrong – the panel was an informative and enlightening group that fielded questions from the chair, Justin Pearse, and the inquisitive audience in the room.

Molly will be back here later with her thoughts on this event (and a few others) but for now, here’s a two minute audioboo interview captured [by @thinmartian] with Miss Flatt, just after the panel came to an end…

Enjoy!

With two days of Social Media Week left to go, you can keep track of where our ‘heads are over the next couple of days with this handy blog post.

Until later…

1000heads: We LOVE Cupcakes

Social Media Week kicked off in earnest yesterday with a number of events not only all over London, but also across multiple major cities across the world.

Our Social Media Surgery sessions closed their doors at around 3pm [with write ups to come from each doctor shortly; no fear, patient confidentiality will be maintained!], which left us plenty of time to throw our glad rags on, head on down to the opening party and surprise each and every one of the guests with their very own 1000heads-themed mini cupcake…

we're on our way! #smwldn

— via the rather awesome Crumbs & Doilies

Some might say we have a thing for cupcakes here at 1000heads (and they may very well be right). However, when it puts smiles and happiness into the world like the snapshot below, can you really blame us?

Were knuckling down today to get everything done so we can get out to all of the other events we’re appearing at later this week.

Stay tuned to 1000heads.com [why not subscribe to our RSS feed?] for our Social Media Surgery write ups and, once more, have a great Social Media Week everybody!

1000heads: Social Media Week is here!

Social Media Week LondonAnd the official #SMWLDN/1000heads official Social Media Surgery is open!

We’ve been taking appointments over the past few weeks from those in need of some social care and attention and today, the patients arrive for their sesssions.

Keep an eye on the @1000heads twitter stream throughout today for a running commentary on who we’re talking to and about what and please, feel free to fire over any questions you may have.

If you didn’t manage to book yourself in the surgery today then no fear, you can still catch up with one of us ‘heads throughout the week at any of the many events that we’ll be attending –

The venues in bold indicate where we are panellists…

Mon Feb 7th –
Social Media Surgery
@ 1000heads HQ
Collaborative Consumption conference @ NESTA
SMW: Opening Party @ Light Bar, Shoreditch [we hear there might be cake]

Tue Feb 8th
Protecting Reputation in a Digital World @ Hill & Knowlton
Social Telly: Campaigning/Commentary/Community @ The Design Council
10 Ways to Suck at Social Media @ eOffice

Wed Feb 9th
Ask Don’t Tell; Talking with Families Online @ Digital Outlook
How Social Media can Influence Purchasing & Drive ROI @ Agency: 2
Like Minds Social Commerce Immersive
@ Adam Street
Social Media, Direct Marketing &  Making Money @ Concrete
The BBC & The UK Sports Network present: Sport & Social Media @ The Design Council

Thu Feb 10th –
Social Media Monitoring @ We Are Social
Trust, Transparency and Advocacy: Social Media Trends 2011 @ Addiction Worldwide
Social CRM @ The Design Council
Social Media: Where Behavioural Science meets Measurement @ Ketchum London
Communities Talk
SMW: Last night Community Manager saved my life @ The Hub
SMW: Mythbusting, Propel London @ The Design Council

Fri Feb 10th
SMW: Tuttle Club @ The Centre for Creative Collaboration

On top of that, a large number of our team can be found at various events around the world supporting Nokia’s random acts of kindness push… aka – ‘NokiaConnects

If you’re attending any Social Media Week event anywhere across the main participating cities across the globe, then please ensure to check in using the hashtag #NokiaConnects and you might just bump into one of them yourself…

Have a great week everybody!

1000heads: SMWLDN: Social Media Surgery

Social Media Week is coming!

If you’ve not heard about it yet, it’s pretty big (with events being held all over the world) and it’s only going to get bigger.

Globally, we’re going to be keeping ourselves busy supporting different activities on behalf of the headline sponsor (who also happens to be one of our clients) while locally, here in London, we’ll be doing our bit in the office with our very own:

“What the hell is that then?” – I hear you cry…
Allow me to explain:

To kick Social Media Week off with a bang, we’ve decided to setup the official #smwlondon / 1000heads Social Media Surgery.

With resident ‘Doctors’ Molly Flatt (WOM Evangelist), James Whatley (Marketing Director) and Tim Denyer (Group Development Director) each giving up their day to help all and sundry with their social media ailments, why not make an appointment now?

Tim’s your man if you want to talk integration, performance and measurement

Molls specialises in ethics, training and social business

And James (that’s me) will bring you the low-down on engagement, tools and presences

One-on-one private sessions are available (as are larger group sessions for up to eight people) throughout the day, and coffee and biscuits (quite nice ones) will be provided. While we can’t guarantee all problems will be solved immediately, we can promise to bring a little TLC to those in need.

If you’re interested in coming, head on over to our specially set up Social Media Week Amiando page and book yourself an appointment!

The Doctor will see you now… 😉

1000heads: Creativity + Curation

This past week saw the Exeter-based gathering that is known as the LikeMinds 2010 Autumn Conference.

likeminds starting day 2

Photo via the lovely Benjamin Ellis

If you’re a regular reader here at 1000heads you’ll know that LikeMinds has become one of our favourite things ever since our first attendance back in February of this year. I’m pleased to say that last week’s event – based around the themes of ‘Creativity + Curation’ – was no disappointment.

Unlike February’s event, where the one key takeaway (for me at least) was the audience-wide understanding of the importance of listening, this time around the lessons were much more broad; touching upon various different subjects, specialisms and industries including; Music, Film, Publishing (traditional and new) as well as other, more thought-provoking pieces along the lines of the impact of social technologies and the much-discussed ‘Big Society‘.

For me personally, the highlights came in varying forms. First, the opening Publishing ‘immersive’ session hosted by Andrew Davies of Idio was rammed to the rafters as everyone came together to discuss the impact of the social web upon the traditional publishing industry. For such a packed event, Andrew facilitated well as the rest of the group swiftly leapt from one area to another covering off not only the real value of brand/consumer relationships (throwing in some real world examples to boot) but also whether or not true curation is just filtering other people’s content.

LikeMinds resident live-blogger, Adam Tinworth, happened to be in the room also and his blow-by-blow recap is definitely worth a look.

Second, Chris Carey from the PRS, yes really – the PRS. Chris is an in-house economist for the music industry and he used the patterns that he is paid to spot day-in and day-out, to illustrate the pitfalls in any market of relying on what you think you know. His example of NBC’s mistake of turning off the Gossip Girl stream on their website was a lesson to us all.

And the third and final one (again, that spoke to me personally) was that of Benjamin Ellis. Who, with one phrase, captured the whole audience:

“A fish would be last to discover water”

— and to give that context, I’d spend some time looking over his rather awesome presentation –

Benjamin Ellis: Why the ‘We’ Generation ‘Knows’ Different

View more presentations from Like Minds.
We’ll be back with more LikeMinds analysis at some point later this week (or maybe next).
In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you on any of the above.. So why not leave us a comment! 🙂