Denuology: The Observation and Observations of Denuo. » Advertising

WHY CROWDSOURCING IS NOT JUST FOR ADVERTISING

cblumberg — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:37:37 +0000

Is it possible that crowdsourcing has become even trendier since we last spoke? In just the past six weeks, we’ve seen everyone from bands, non-profit organizations, premium liquors, and auto manufacturers turn to the crowds for assistance. I’m scared to blink, for fear of missing the newest collaboration between a brand and their consumers. But for all of the hype, there is a level of redundancy to nearly every project announced. Despite the subtle twists, there is a common thread: a distinct focus on advertising.

Though a bit dated, my favorite example of collaboration has always been The GoldCorp Challenge. Frustrated with in-house analysis, GoldCorp published all of their geological data on the web, offering a total of $575M in prize money to participants who submitted the best methods and estimates for finding previously untapped gold deposits. GoldCorp received over 1200 submissions from individuals in 50 different countries. 110 new sites were identified, with 80% producing gold. 8 million ounces of gold was found, driving the company’s value from $100 million to $9 billion. All of this occurred despite the fact that many employees were pushing to abandon mining that particular location all together.

The GoldCorp challenge is a great example of leveraging the wisdom of the crowds to solve for a specific business problem. By publishing their data online, the mining corporation was able to get a fresh perspective from a wide variety of viewpoints. Traditional means couldn’t solve the problem at hand, and what the masses were able to bring to the table was an attack from a new viewpoint, using different technologies that GoldCorp employees would have never thought to use. Netflix is another great example of a brand leveraging global talent to solve an internal problem. It wasn’t a Netflix coder that came up with their proprietary movie recommendation algorithm, which generates an average of 30 billion predictions per day. It was a group of engineers that had never met in person sending emails back and forth.

As the above shows, it’s possible that the best solution to a difficult organizational problem may not come from someone inside the building. Yet another way to leverage the masses is not by having them focus on a single problem, but instead letting them point out what needs are going unmet. This can take multiple-forms, such as a new product, process, way of interacting with consumers, or a new business model all together. Take Starbucks for example. The coffee manufacturer built a social platform for consumers to interact with the brand, a place where registered users can suggest ideas relating to product offerings, in-store experiences, and community outreach. Since launch, it’s been consumers that have provided the inspiration behind the coffee giant. And the results? Head into any Starbucks and you’ll see Starbucks Petites and the Mocha Coconut Frappuccino on the menu. Both those ideas came from requests on My Starbucks Idea.

Collaboration with consumers provides a powerful tool for organizations, but as of today many are not maximizing their fan’s potential. Not to say that, when done correctly, a campaign focused on advertising can’t be an effective tool. But as Netflix and Starbucks have shown, the crowds can also solve for real problems that have a direct affect on bottom line. Additionally, these type of campaigns offer access to the top individuals, technologies, and expertise from across the globe. GoldCorp received submissions from over 50 countries; Netflix had registrants from over 150. These are somewhat dated examples, but they remain the gold standard and there is no reason we can’t continue down this path and start solving for problems that actually impact bottom line results. You never know where that next great idea may come from, but when you’re leveraging the talents of a global R&D department, chances are you won’t have to look far to find it.

Collaboration: A Conversation With Your Consumer

cblumberg — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 20:34:23 +0000

In our industry, collaboration is put into practice every day. Whether it’s a group of employees working towards a common objective, agencies swapping secrets to execute a campaign, or a community of fans working together to get their favorite actor cast as the next Peter Parker, the idea of coming together to achieve a shared goal is a beautiful thing. But what really gets us at Denuo excited is a new kind of collaboration in which brands directly engage with consumers to create something neither group could do on their own. You may think you’ve heard this pitch before, just with a different label: crowdsourcing. But true collaboration is something different.

Crowdsourced campaigns are typically very straight forward: a brand makes a request for a specific output and individuals are motivated to participate by some sort of reward. There are tons of examples of companies who have had success with these types of campaigns, especially when they are consumer facing. But crowdsourcing isn’t truly collaborative. In fact it’s just a hair different from outsourcing. But what makes collaboration special is the opportunity it provides for brands to speak directly with their primary consumers, resulting in insights that can be applied across business units.

We’ve seen collaboration result in new products, processes, and consumer outreach programs. This year alone, Wrangler asked its fans to invent the next great jean design, Home Depot is asking consumers where they should spend their grant dollars and volunteer hours, and Fashion Stake is letting customers decide what items go from sample to retail. Collaboration in this way provides an opportunity for loyalists to directly influence the direction of their favorite brands, while some even serve as advocates. Who doesn’t want to show-off their newly created Ben & Jerrys ice cream flavor? Certainly, there are risks associated with these types of campaigns, and in 2011 two of the more successful and highly visible came under public attack.

First, Pepsi was forced to deal with cheating allegations by participants in their online fundraising contest, Pepsi Refresh. Around the same time, Doritos was hit with a whirlwind of controversy when one of the submissions to their Crash the Super Bowl campaign created uproar amongst the Catholic community. You can read more about each brands response here and here, but below you’ll find 3 lessons we learned from these incidents:

• Lesson 1: Communication is Key –Ongoing community management can be the difference between success and failure when collaborating with consumers. Just like a project handled internally, it’s key that everyone involved remains up to speed on the project as it progresses. Much controversy can be avoided by simply addressing community member’s questions and concerns as they arise. Collaboration creates a platform for open dialogue between brand and user, so why not take advantage?

• Lesson 2: Be Proactive, Not Reactive – Speed is mandatory whenever the community starts to show signs of agitation. The longer you let concerns hang out there, the worse things will likely get. More people will take notice, mob mentality kicks in, and next thing you know you’re dealing with a full blown riot. Nip controversy in the bud before it has a chance to fester. As soon as you notice unrest amongst the community, start preparing a response. The worst thing you can do is let the unrest build, and hope it’ll magically go away.

• Lesson 3: Be Transparent – It’s easy to try and ease community concerns with a simple “don’t worry, we got this.” But collaboration with consumers should spark open dialogue, so don’t be afraid to be honest. Open the curtains and give individuals a peak at what’s being done to address the issue at hand. Instead of encouraging consumers to trust the process, Pepsi may have gotten a better response from the community if they had explained what that process was, and provided ongoing updates as the investigation took place.

The opportunity to collaborate with influencers and loyalists is undoubtedly an exciting proposition. In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at different aspects of the collaboration process, including determining the potential value for a client, building the communication scaffolding to do it effectively, and managing it throughout. No one knows where that next big idea will come from, but with collaboration you put the power to innovate directly in the hands of those that know your brand best: the consumer.

Peace, Harmony, Tranquility, Advertising

Lizzy Bogacki — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:52:22 +0000

As my first three months here at Denuo come to a close, I can’t help but compare my new environment to my old. I began here as an administrative assistant in January, leaving behind a career as a massage therapist. I went from working at a small but busy spa one mile from my apartment to working in a giant building in downtown Chicago. My five hour work days that began at 3PM have become 8.5 hour work days that start at 6AM. A casual stroll to work has become a full-speed walk to trains where I sit for 50 minutes trying to avoid eye contact with everyone around me. And really, let’s not even talk about the elevators.

The spa environment is very relaxing, from its looks to its smells to its sounds. Everything is just so serene it is enough to make you crazy. It is so relaxed that after awhile you feel like you are going to turn into mush. There were times I was not sure if I was awake or not. I almost head-butted a client because while sitting on a stool at the head of the table working on her neck…I fell asleep. True story. To some, this may sound like the perfect environment; it is dark, lavender-infused, and soft music plays all the time. Ugh…I am over it. I felt like my mind stood still for a good two years before finally I said I need something new, something different.

Did I ever get different! Advertising and marketing is absolutely wild! The travel, the ideas, the meetings booked one on top of the other on top of the other. It is as if people here are constantly running: to trains, to airports, to cabs, to meetings. It is exhausting. The energy that fills the halls is palpable. There are times where it feels like my head will explode, and let’s be honest, I am the Admin, and I am not going on the trips or to the meetings. All I have to do is book them. Again, to some this is the ideal environment; it is bright, fast-moving and never boring. The Stanley Cup was here this week. NEVER BORING!

While it is all new and fun for me now, what about three years from now? I loved the relaxed environment and quiet of the spa, but it got old. Will this grow old too? Then I had a moment of clarity. What the spa needs is an energy room and 35 WW needs a relaxation room.

At this point the spa is all about relaxation, which is great for clients, but not so great for employees. You are too sleepy, too relaxed and then you get lazy. You don’t want to do any work at all because your brain is not being challenged. The office, on the other hand, is a place full of energy and deadlines and fast movement. It causes your brain to be over-excited and frazzled. At times, it makes you unable to work, because there is just too much going on, and you can’t think.
So, why not take the energy rooms of the advertising/marketing world and replace them with the relaxation rooms of the spas, and vice versa? When you feel yourself sitting at your desk with your mind going a million miles a minute, you can take a 20-minute break and sit in a room with the colors of the sky and sea. You can breathe in the aromas of lavender and allow the sounds of waves or Native American drums to come lightly into your ears. You can clear your mind and become more relaxed and therefore function a little better then before. Conversely, when you feel like you are falling asleep and getting lazy in the spa environment, you can take a 20-minute break and go to a room the colors of fire and ice and play air hockey. Play some Tetris and make your mind speed up a little. Get a little of that energy back!

The Proverbial saying: “Too much of a good thing, is a bad” is true. I urge you massage therapists: Play Angry Birds! Executives: Get your Om on! We will all function better.

REFLECTEUR – Issue 81

Lizzy Bogacki — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 15:50:18 +0000

There’s a lot of data out there about us. In fact, it’s easy to forget just how much information various companies and organizations (and the Internet in general) know about us. The first page of Reflecteur this week looks at the ways two separate sites used infographics to display a huge amount of information with very different results:

* Where Americans are Moving looks at 2008 IRS data to map county to county moves. It’s your one stop shop to US migratory information and it only takes a few minutes of playing with the maps to realize that there are a lot of stories hidden within this data. Just click on ‘Detroit’.
* Watch a Phone Company Stalk a Customer is, not surprisingly based on the title, far more disturbing. This site maps, via a video, all of the data a phone company in Germany gathered on one of their customers over 6 months. It seems more spy movie thriller than real life.

Travel over to Page 2 for a bit more fun:

* Classic Arcade Game Deaths is just that, a video of the death/Game Over scene from numerous classic games. We love that it ties into the nostalgia so promenent within digital culture but remains original. A large reason it stands apart from the countless other 90s video game tributes is the fact that it focuses on an often ignored (but important) part of these games while also playing with its context. Together these attributes help make this such an amusing and captivating view.
* The Reflecteur April Fools Overview discusses our opinion on why this holiday has taken off within digital culture. (Hint: because it shares so much in common with digital culture.) We also include links to some of our favorite website and brand April Fools Day efforts.

As always, Reflecteur is part of VivaKi’s intellectual capital and can be shared with outside parties including clients and partners. Reach out to Ellen Bird, ellen.bird@vivaki.com, or your assigned agency lead for more information about the publication or the other Reflecteur assets.

Download Issue 81 of Reflecteur here.

REFLECTEUR – Issue 80

Lizzy Bogacki — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:10:41 +0000

Page one features 2 reinventions:

* In an interesting twist to the reimagining world theme we often discuss, Picture Cook takes the stuffy old recipe format and redesigns it with a focus on experimentation. Even if you’re more into the cut-and-dry recipe format, these flowchart-like versions of recipes will look great on your kitchen wall.

* Travel Time Tube reworks the classic London Tube map. A fixture in the design world, this site completely changes the focus of the map from relation to time. Put in two stations and watch it change forms based on routes that take the longest.

Page two looks at two captivating photo collections:

* Ghana- The Electronic Dumping Ground of the World highlights the dark side of technology and electronics. Perhaps the ‘new gadget smell’ isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be?

* Finally, we get a glimpse of a somewhat odd underworld in Taryn Smith’s Contraband. These images showcase 1,000 various items confiscated at JFK airport in New York. Some items make sense, but some…. well you just need to see them to believe it.

Download issue 80 of Reflecteur here!