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5 things brands can learn from the Bieber debacle

Come on, you all knew this was coming.

It has not been a good few days for the global superstar. Where do we begin?

The #BieberBacklash (yes, that’s actually a hashtag) began when he had the ‘worst birthday‘ after being ejected from a London club for allegedly smuggling underage fans/guestsÂ through the door.

It’s a tough life, right?Â #BieberProblems.

Then, over the weekend, a seeminglyÂ innocuousÂ tweet kicked off a fracas after Beiber RT’d a (SHOCK HORROR) a non-fan for saying she liked his new album.

The Â Drum reports:

‘A succession of embittered fans jealous that their idol had deigned to retweet someone other than themselves who wasnâ€™t a â€˜realâ€™ fan duly emerged with a series of hate filled tweets; including @julietesqueda who wrote: â€˜Not really a fan of Justin Bieber but his acoustic album is really good!â€™’

Finally, last night, the Biebs was not one but two hours late arriving on stage on the opening night of his four day stint at the O2 . On a schoool night too? Never.Â Never say never.Â

But OK, let’s look at this properly – what can brands learn from this?

1. Think before you Tweet
A few years ago, an agency head got into trouble after being somewhat unkind about the city where his main client was based. A silly error and, looking back through the mist of social media evolution, it seems like it’s a mistake of days gone by. But still, the lesson stands true: think before you tweet and never, ever tweet angry.

2. Reward existing fans, as well as new ones
Advocacy is everything. And, as innocent as it is to celebrate the acquisition of a new fan, treating all others in the same way will reap the benefits in the long term. In short: existing customers matter. Many service providers have got into the habit of offering their latest and best promotions (or at least deals of equal value) to both sets of customers. In future, Bieber might do too.

Sidenote: see also the death of ‘Our 2000th follower wins X!’ competitions. If you see this in action, call it out! Â Why would anyone want to reward this brand new person when the 1999 have been supporting your growth along the way? It doesn’t make sense.

3. Know your audience
Whenever you kick off ANY kind of social media activity it is essential you understake a number of listening exercises to not only understand the current landscape of the market you’re working in but to also understand your audience. If Bieber had any insight – or had done any research – he would’ve known the following:

Monday night is a school night yo!
Travelling in (and out of) London late at night isn’t a fantastic experience (especially for young kids)
If he didn’t hear the boos from his dressing room then he certainly should/could have read about their disappointment online

4. Under-promise, over-deliver
Keeping your brand promises my seem like an easy and obvious one but it’s amazing how often many different brands forget this (at the expense of their fans and consumers). If you’re going to promise an AMAZING concert to all of your LOVING fans at a specific time, then you better make sure it happens.

And if you don’t – if you over-promise and under-deliver -well, then you really need to –

5. Invest in a Crisis Comms plan
Plan for the worst. Know what to do when things go wrong. At the time of writing, the Biebmeister is still yet to address the wealth of disappointed fans that had to leave the O2 early last night. A good crisis comms plan would know what to do in this situation: be that have the man(?) himself apologise on stage or even consider refund the ticket money – there are many different ways he could make this situation better. 12hrs later: none are yet to appear.

Irrespective of your opinion on Bieber-mania, there are a many, many unhappy fans sitting down at school today who feel let down by their beloved idol.

Read over the above again and just think: could it happen to you?

Â Image via Adam Sundana on Flickr

Brazil is the Social Media Capital of The World

Surprised? No, I’m not either. But why?

Image via Ndecam

This needs some analysis. First off, the numbers are incredible –

65m Facebook users (second largest market for the platform)
Brazilians spent 41% more time on Twitter in 2012 vs 2011
Facebook dwell time grew 208% (while the rest of the world dropped by 2%)
129.3m online users
21 billion online searches
Second largest consumer of YouTube videos (the US is at number one)
Top five active user group for Twitter
Expected $81 billion of ad spend in 2013

And this is expected to grow even further. Especially as, come 2015, the country will be the recipient of a 100-gb-per-sec internet connection to carry all of that data.

Interestingly, Twitter has chosen SÃ£o Paulo as its Brazilian base and is in the process of hiring like crazy as I type. Why is this interesting?

Over the past few years SÃ£o Paulo (and the ad agencies therein) have been producing the stellar kind of creative work that anyone would be proud to put their name against. Everything from the $73,000 bar tab, through to getting your face printed on a Burger King Whopper; it’s actually really quite hard to get through one page of Brandflakes for Breakfast without stumbling upon something awesome from SÃ£o Paulo.

Innovative, smart, ground-breaking – all of it social, all of it awesome.

But whyÂ SÃ£o Paulo? Well, you could say that culturally Brazil is more open and friendly, and therefore more creative. You could also say that the way of life and perhaps the weather over there inspires creativity and innovation.

Personally, I think there’s something else. Ready?

How about this: outdoor advertising is banned* in SÃ£o Paulo.

Introducing the ‘Clean City Law‘ –

In 2006, Gilberto Kassab, mayor of SÃ£o Paulo, Brazil, passed the “Clean City Law.” Citing growing concerns about rampant pollution in his city, Kassab decided enough was enough. But this was no ordinary piece of pollution legislation. Rather than going after car emissions or litterbugs, Kassab went after the billboards. Kassab wanted to crack down on “visual pollution.”

That visual pollution? Outdoor ads. Amazing. And the city has never been happier! Hurrah!

As mentioned, this law came into being during 2006 – the year that some might argue that social media started its way down the long road to success. So now you have a whole bunch of brands with outdoor money to spend elsewhere. Where does it go? Into better creative and, of course, new channels – such as social media.

Today, Brazil is the social media capital of the world. They’re hosting the next Olympics and the next World Cup.Â SÃ£o Paulo is an ad-free zone and it drives creativity in all sorts of awesome and inspiring ways.

I might be talking rubbish, but I genuinely believe there’s a connection.

That’s all I got.

*this is not news, I know – but I only found this out this week and I still find it mental

Additional sources: WSJ, The Wall.

Twitter and the monetization of the second screen

Twitter’s been buying again…Â

According to sources, Twitter just bought US-based social TV analytics firm, Bluefin Labs. While the actual number is still an ‘undisclosed figure’, early reports state that this is Twitter’s ‘biggest acquisition to date’.

A few things:

1. This is REALLY interesting

Twitter and TV is clearly going to be HUGE. During the panel I was on at Social TV Conference London recently I remember saying something along the lines of -Â ‘Let’s just be honest: second screen engagement is basically Twitter, we shouldn’t kid ourselves about that.’

I was being deliberately forthright but, looking back on it now, I don’t think I could’ve been any more right.

2. Is this is Twitter buying *outside* of their ‘API quadrant’?

Last summer, much was made about Twitter’s changes to their API. However what made it ultimately clear to everyone on what (and what was not) fair game was this one simple chart –

At the time, Twitter made it very clear that they were encouraging developers to no longer create apps that existed in the upper-right quadrant. In fact, they went so far as to call out the guys they thought were doing a great job in the other areas – stand up Klout, Radian6, and Storify.

However, with this acquisition, Twitter are now parking their tanks on the lawns of many many TV analytics firms out there today, and who can blame them?

My point is: Twitter are moving the goal posts again. To wit:

‘You can develop on our API but as soon as there’s serious money to be made… we’ll have our ball back please.’

3. Monetizing the second screen is clearly the next big thing

This is hardly news but, after the massive success of Twitter at the Superbowl this past weekend (earning mentions in 50% of all advertising)… hang on, before we go any further, some fag packetÂ analysis:

Superbowl ads cost (for airtime alone) $3.8m per 30seconds
$3,800,000 / 30secs = $126,666.66 per second
26 of the (presumed) 52 ads featured during the Superbowl had hashtags appended to them
Let’s say, for argument’s sake, that those ads ran those hashtags for 2-3seconds (it’s probably more, so let’s shoot for the top end of that spectrum)
3secs x 26 ads = 78seconds
78 x $126,666.66 = $9,879,999.48

Which means that during Superbowl 2013, Twitter scored just shy of 9.9million dollars of FREE ADVERTISING.

Wow.

Sorry, where was I?

Oh yes, brands are on the Twitter train (for second screen activity) and the great ones are killing it. How long will it be until others catch on? 5, 4, 3…

4. Bluefin now, Second Sync next?Â

From what I can tell, Bluefin are US only. Which is great, and an obvious win for that team (second screening in the US is clearly the most advanced / widely accepted). However the immediate question is: what’s next for the rest of the world’s TV social analytics market?

The smart money would be on the UK’s Second Sync being next. At a recent London Twitter event, #PoweredByTweets, Second Sync data was present in nearly every presentation – and Twitter were happy to say so too. They clearly do the best job, they’ve clearly been anointed as the chosen ones in this particular region, so are they clearly next in line for aquisition? Place your bets now please…

5. Social TV + The Future

It now goes without saying that 2013 really will be the year of Social TV. There’ll be a lot of snake oil salesmen out there and separating the wheat from the chaff will certainly make for interesting viewing indeed.

Bring it on, creatives of 2013, let’s see what you’ve got.

Speaking: Social Success Mic Up

The quote:

“I’m learning to love my new Ã¤ppÃ¤rÃ¤t’s screen, the colorful pulsating mosaic of it, the fact that it knows ever last stinking detail about the world, whereas my books only know the minds of their authors.”
–

From the book Super Sad True Love Story, by Gary Shteyngart, are the words with whichÂ I started my five minute talk at the social success mic up last week.

[image via Salesforce Marketing Cloud]

The theme for the night? Social Media Predictions for 2013.

Five sets of speakers, five different angles, five minutes each – simple. My pitch?

“Things are moving in 2013, you should know what and you should know where: eyes are moving to second screens, money is moving overseas, social media penetration is moving up the corporate ladder.”

Social media jobs, once banished to the basement of the marketing dept (under Â digital lead, under a marketing lead, under a brand lead) are now seated in director postions and even sitting on the board. 2013 will only see this situation improve further.

If the noughties will be remembered for anything, it’ll be for service providers outsourcing customer care to the emerging (read: cheaper) markets. With social as a care channel becoming more and more commonplace, 2013 will see the out-sourcing of this work to those very same markets. After all, what is easier to script: an unknown call with someone who just wants to scream and shout, or a 140 character response?

Finally, eyes are moving in their droves to the second screen. This is not news. And I’ve said as much before. However, when advertisers and media planners realise that people aren’t watching their ads anymore the cry of ‘JUST MAKE BETTER CONTENT’ will soon grow tiresome, and those keen eyes will want to spend their ad money on those very screens that have stolen their eyeballs. Yes of course, that implies an increase in social media ad spend, but that also means a demand for better and more dynamic media opportunities across those platforms.

And that was me, in five minutes.

Other highlights were Bernie Mitchell reminded us all why Podcasting is utterly brilliant; and the really rather infectious Hera Hussain, who spoke quite brilliantly about how her thesis and analyses on the Egyptian revolution provided insights on what actually makes someone influential.

New Year, New Choices: Speaking

Yes, thatâ€™s right: SPEAKING.

At the tail end of last year (and after much deliberation; is it poncy, is it not?) I added aÂ ‘Speaking’ tab to my blog. First, to record all the speaking engagements that I am lucky enough to get/give and second, to serve as a way for folk to not only see the way I work, but also get in touch should they wish to book me.

Last year topped out at three different presentations and talks, and given that 2011’s end number was six, I really don’t think this is good enough.

After reviewing last year’s fairly lacklustre efforts I decided that this year, 2013, I’m going to proactively hunt down new speaking opportunities and get back into the swing of things again. The best thing is, my new responsibilities at Ogilvy now allow me the freedom to pursue this goal, which means I can make the time where appropriate. Brilliant.

Saying it is one thing, but doing it is another – a bit like running, really; you just need to put the effort in. Which is why, after only three weeks gone in the year, there are four slots already on the horizon!

The two I can tell you about?

January 22nd
TomorrowÂ I’m speaking at the SocialTV conference. The speaker line up looks great and, after my post last year about how hard TV-based social media integration is failing, I believe I’m being pitched in to add a bit of realism to the proceedings. I can’t wait!

January 24th
Then on Thursday, I’m one of the speakers at the SalesForce Social Success Mic-Up. This time speaking about social media trends looking forward into 2013. I made some predictions in August last year and for this sessions I’ll be building on those and trying to see what else we can see coming ’round the corner.

Two confirmed, and two under discussion. If the latter come in, I’ve already beaten last year’s score. Perfect.

It’s amazing what you can achieve when you set yourself a goal like that.

Who’d a thunk it?

__________________________

Additional reading: being a better speaker, by Terence Eden

the pressure of immediacy

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

— Image via cocoarmani

First, I want you to apply the following quote from this Fjord iPad post to all modern smart phones –

It may seem like a small change, but a generation which has instant access, quite literally, at its fingertips, will be a quite different generation to that which did not. We used to consider that someone was erudite if they had spent a number of years accumulating knowledge and expertise which they could deploy at the precise moment which it was required.
.
Given that this information is all now on hand, people will come to rely more on an ability to recall data from the system. Ability to focus, and knowledge of the best places to look, will become the most important facets to consider. These are fundamental changes.

The key word/sentence I’m going to zero in on this time is ‘the ability toÂ focus‘.

We’re losing it.Â

Second, I want you to think of that thing where you’re talking at the pub and someone says: ‘Oh did you see that thing today? Oh my God it was soooo funny! You haven’t seen it? No, I’ll pull it up.’

Not only is it massively anti-social (we’ll come back to that), but also – in the time that it takes you to reach for your phone and start googling for ‘IKEA Monkey’ or whatever, the conversation has undoubtedly moved on and no one is actually that interested come sharing time. Forget it. Move on. Leave it.

It doesn’t matter.

These two notes are what, to my mind at least, drive the ill-perceivedÂ pressure ofÂ immediacy. As in, just because we can look up just about anything on the glass screens in our pockets doesn’t necessarily mean that we should. The pressure toÂ knowÂ somethingÂ immediately is balderdash. It is fallacy, claptrap, and poppycock. It is a make-believe blanket of self-made suffocation that we have placed upon our own social and professional situations that really has no need to exist at all.

So what do we do?Â

At dinner, playÂ the phone stacking game. I have and it works.
At work, create a digital hat standÂ for meeting rooms.
At your desk, invest in an NFC-enabled on/off mat for your phone.
At the pub, focus on your friends.
At home, unplug your WiFi; break habits.

Why?

Two quotes for you –

‘If we learn to disconnect in order to connect with ourselves, the impact will be amazing’
– Arianna Huffington

‘I wish I’d spent more time on the internet’
– Nobody on their deathbed, ever.

Stop. Think. Breathe.

Stay in the moment.

TheÂ pressure of immediacy does not exist.Â

37mins of WIN: the Social Media Week in Review