Last Monday, I had the opportunity to attend a very interesting event, organized by Advertising Week and the branding agency Team Epiphany. The subject of the panel discussion was “The New Consumer Engagement Model,” featuring an interesting group of speakers (hyperlinked names lead to their Twitter accounts):

• Marc Ecko (founder of Complex Magazine and Marc Ecko Clothing) 
• Stephanie Agresta (EVP, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media at Porter Novelli)
• Bonin Bough (Director of Digital and Social Media at PepsiCo) 
• Garth Holsinger (Business Director for Klout.com) 
• MODERATOR: Coltrane Curtis (CEO Of Team Epiphany) 

The panel discussion kicked off by reviewing why everyone was there: “To effectively engage millennial consumers, brands must learn to move at the speed of influence.”

Highlights From The Event

Please note: the crowd was standing room only and I didn’t have a seat, making it very difficult to take accurate notes. If you were one of the speakers at the event and I misquoted you or misrepresented what you said at all, please contact me @RossSheingold and I’ll correct any inaccuracies.

- Marc Ecko discussed the idea that consumers always have a desire to connect to their favorite brands in a counter-culture way and the digital world is a perfect place for that. He mentioned that social media has democratized the relationship between brands and consumers.

- Stephanie Agresta was asked about the role that “traditional PR” plays in our increasingly digital world (traditional PR was not defined, but my assumption is that it means broad, press release-based PR outreach).  To paraphrase, her answer was that in a vacuum, traditional PR can no longer exist. Digital and traditional integration is key in advertising, PR and marketing. The power comes from working in tandem.

- Bonin Bough talked about how much time he spends trying to turn consumer insights into brand innovations. He used their Gatorade brand’s “Mission Control” as an example. Mission control is an area of computers in a central brand space containing real-time data visualizations of online consumer sentiment about Gatorade. This ensures that everyone sees the “heartbeat” of the brand on a day to day and can focus their time and energy on products that consumers want.

- Garth Holsinger of Klout introduced the service they are providing and explained how the idea of consumer “influence” is becoming measurable and scientific. The question was asked how these consumer “influencers” don’t lose credibility when they are connected with brands. The general consensus was that “influencers” need to be open, honest and transparent, which wasn’t exactly groundbreaking information. They didn’t touch on my questions about Klout. 

- In general, it was discussed how silos within organizations prevent brands from optimizing the tools at their disposal.

- Marc Ecko spoke about a recent philanthropic project he was working on that caused frustration. The not for profit organization wanted to dabble in social media, but wanted metrics for everything, which held up the entire process. He made the point that it is difficult for a business or brand to innovate when adoption of a new idea depends on metrics.

- Bonin Bough chimed in about PepsiCo’s approach to new opportunities in the digital space. They jump on the opportunity to try new platforms for consumer engagement (he used the example of Foursquare), essentially because they can. He said that a lot of brands balk at the idea of embracing Foursquare because they “only have 2 million users.” His response is that PepsiCo has a large-enough user base to contribute to the success of a platform, If it becomes another channel for Pepsi to listen to compelling consumer insights and enhance user engagement, why would they need metrics to prove its worth before jumping in?

- Bonin Bough also said that his goal is to get every one of PepsiCo’s over 200,000 employees communicating via Twitter. He said that everyone in the organization needs to be human and held accountable and Twitter can do that. I contacted him via Twitter after the event for some more clarity on the topic. I wanted to know if his goal was for everyone at PepsiCo to discuss their role at the company, or just contribute to Twitter in general. His response:

- The event ended with some of the panelists “looking into the crystal ball” at trends in the digital world that will continue to disrupt the consumer engagement model:

1.  Marc Ecko discussed geofencing location tools. This is essentially Foursquare on steroids, where people can only “check-in” and unlock rewards if they are within a certain distance from a location. This can lead to hyper-targeted consumer engagement, based on where people are. He also mentioned IPTV, which is essentially television over the internet. We’re already becoming more familiar with this in the form of Netflix, Boxee and Apple TV. He said to keep an eye on the space because the traditional cable powerhouses like Comcast seem asleep at the wheel and don’t realize the power of IPTV. 
2. Bonin Bough mentioned the idea of philanthropy and doing good with social media. He made a powerful statement: “social media is transformational and has big implications that we don’t yet realize.” He also referenced a stat about 10% of South Korean youth being at risk for internet addiction, I’m guessing to prove that the internet is shaping lives? 
3. Stephanie Agresta discussed the integration between advertising and social media and believes that it will get even more interesting in the next 6-12 months.

Additional Thoughts

Marc Ecko was the most “famous” person in the room, and a close friend of moderator Coltrane Curtis, so he ended up dominating much of the conversation. This led to a lot of banter that took time away from specific examples and campaigns that Stephanie Agresta and Bonin Bough brought to the table.  Still, Ecko was very entertaining and you could tell he has great chemistry with Coltrane Curtis. Speaking of Curtis, I hadn’t heard of him before this panel discussion, but I’m glad I got to see him in action. He seemed genuinely loved by many people in the auditorium and is committed to creating authentic connections between brands and consumers in a fresh new way. What’s not to like about that?

Garth Holsinger didn’t do a great job of selling Klout’s services. I have become very familiar with Klout and many of his off the cuff answers to questions from the crowd weren’t well thought out, or consistent with Klout’s messaging. On the way out the door, I heard multiple people discussing how unimpressed they were with the Klout contributions (I actually overheard someone saying that his Klout score would be a 10. Ouch!) That being said, Garth had a crowd of people surrounding him during the impromptu networking session after the discussion, so he seemed to be doing just fine. In my opinion, Klout knows he isn’t the best live speaker, but he is just carrying the message that “Klout is measuring online influence.” He is an older gentleman and doesn’t seem as looped into the social media world, so he is much easier for traditional brands to approach about Klout’s services, especially since they are offering all-important metrics. Don’t get me wrong, I have met Garth and communicated with him via email - he is a good guy. I just think that others on the Klout team would have been better suited for speaking on this particular panel. 

As you might be able to tell from the recap, I was most impressed with Bonin Bough from PepsiCo. He obviously “gets” the social media and digital marketing space and almost everything he said was insightful or thought-provoking. If you have an opportunity to attend an event that he is speaking at, I’d highly recommend it.

The event was held in a large auditorium at the Paley Center For Media and the crowd was standing room only. At the end of the event, they mentioned that it was one of the most well-attended ad week events, proving that businesses are eager to understand how to engage “Consumer 2.0.”

Most would agree that we’ve reached the saturation point of major brand social media marketing immersion.  Fortune 500 companies are holding “digital days” for management, Twitter and Facebook are key facets of corporate strategy and every company wants to reap the rewards of social media involvement. Unfortunately, there are speed bumps ahead.

Many see the warning signs.  Eric Fulwiler at Social Media Today calls it the social media bubble, describing the inevitable backlash of “inauthentic and unoriginal presences and promotions.”  There is a bubble, and it may burst, but what will lead us to that point?  I have some ideas. 

Businesses Are Involved In Social Media For The Wrong Reasons

These days, corporate entities and businesses get involved in social media without stepping back and understanding what they’re getting themselves into.  Anyone even remotely involved with social media or digital marketing would stand to benefit from viewing this presentation by Nicolas Christakis, professor of sociology at Harvard University (h/t Simon Mainwaring). At the heart of the fascinating presentation is the idea that humans form social networks to do good. He refers to social networks as living things or human “superorganisms.” These “superorganisms” are “governed by the collective” and the sum is greater than the individual parts. He concludes by saying “overall we form social networks because the benefits of a social networks outweigh the costs.”  

Social networks have always existed in society, but they’ve never been as prominent as they are in the digital age. With each passing day, it becomes easier to find like-minded people.  It has also become easier for profit-seeking entities to force their way into social networks. They see groups of people that might be interested in their services and they see dollar signs.  Unfortunately, far too many of these entities will fail in their attempts at social media immersion when they try to force their way into social networks without offering benefits to the collective.  

Failures are in it for the wrong reasons. Potential profits will overwhelm the ideals of engagement and innovation.  The power of social networks is the wisdom of the crowds and the successful brands will leverage that power.  In short, if a business is getting involved in social media, it better be for reasons other than increasing profits. 

The Rise And Inevitable Fall Of The Online Influencer

There is no buzzword quite like the online “influencer” these days. Savvy brands are quickly realizing the power of these social media influencers and are working to isolate them and use them to their advantage.  Services like Klout are measuring online “influence,” and it speaks volumes that leading brands such as Starbucks and Virgin America are partnering with them to connect with influencers.  

The idea is that consumers have become wary of brand messaging and fellow consumers are more likely to sway their opinions. In general, online influencers are individual entities who have an engaged audience but don’t have a profit-seeking agenda. More than ever, brands are reaching out to these influencers in order to reach their highly engaged audience.  This is positive when brands do so to open up lines of communication with their target audience, but there is also a dark side.  As this strategy becomes mainstream, brands will do more and more to win over influencers, and the influencers will lose their credibility.

We’ll call this the “influencer bubble.” The most successful brands will seek out influencers who have gained a following because they have valuable ideas and insights.  The key to engaging these influencers won’t be money or gifts, but transparency and idea sharing. On the other end of the spectrum, so-called “influencers” will get greedy and will leverage their power with lazy brands that don’t take the time to understand the power of an influencer relationship. They’ll quickly be exposed as shills and their influence will diminish, leaving the brand worse off. The “influencer bubble” will have burst. 

Misunderstanding Of The Shifting Privacy Paradigm And Societal Norms

We’re getting to a point in society where a new paradigm of “privacy” is being created. People are slowly but surely seeing the benefits of an open and online social graph (what Facebook is doing with their “like” button and partnerships across the web). There are some obvious benefits to a decreased level of what we formerly considered “private” information, but there are some pitfalls as well. 

New societal norms are being established based on social media and the digital world. We’re all actively participating on Twitter and Facebook and other digital forms of communication.  Whether we realize it or not, we’ve also established sets of rules for what is OK and what isn’t OK to say and do in the digital world.  The most savvy social media users are able to manage their online presence without a set of privacy controls instituted by the service they are using.  

As much as social networks are working to “govern by the collective” and form new sets of rules for a digital world, profit-seeking entities threaten to slow the process.  Brands are understandably monitoring social media, but the bubble risks being popped when brands actively invite themselves into online conversations without observing newly founded societal norms in the digital space. As much as a cable company thinks that they’re helping by barging into a conversation on Twitter or Facebook to tell us about an upcoming network dispute, they’re not. All they’re doing is being rude.  

If we were in our local Starbucks with a friend talking about ESPN, we wouldn’t expect a cable company representative to randomly interrupt our conversation and tell us that ESPN might not be carried on our cable provider soon.  It would be creepy.  It just isn’t what is accepted in society. The privacy paradigm is shifting and digital norms are being ingrained into society as a whole.  Successful brands are adapting to these cues, but as more and more become involved in social media the nuance is lost. Brands see potential consumers to influence and pounce on the opportunity without thinking of the ramifications.  

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As brands harness the power of social media, marketing and engagement opportunities will inevitably arise. Stepping back and understanding the broader idea of social networks and digital communications is the key to avoiding pitfalls and setbacks. 

QR codes - popular abroad, funny looking barcodes here in the U.S. In reality, they hold the power to bring a stale medium to life.

Savvy marketers have been talking about the impact that QR codes are going to have on advertising for a long time, but I’m more intrigued by the impact they are going to have on the medium of print in general.

A couple of days ago, I was reading an article about Cee Lo’s new “Fuck You” video in the print version of the New York Times. It wasn’t alive at all. It was black and white. It was print.

Now, imagine if there was a QR code on the NY Times page that I could scanned with a QR code app on my IPhone.  Upon scanning, my IPhone would “link” to a blog post on NYTimes.com with Cee Lo’s video. I’d be engaged and my experience would have been thoughtfully enhanced. As a not-so-insignificant side effect, page views on the NY Times blog are increased and ad revenue increases. 

Doesn’t this seem like a no brainer?