Obama is the first president to harness digital media, partly because he can as it is now there to be used, and partly because he needed to. So online has been a major part of the Obama brand as it appeals to a new generation of political followers and patriotic enthusiasts. But beyond these, he has tapped into every goofy, geeky seemingly insignificant kid in their bedroom… and given them a voice. A voice that has been identified as having potentially huge ramifications in the virtual world 2.0 – so it may as well be utilized for the good of the whole.

Democracy and freedom of speech, these concepts are intrinsic about people having a voice and fundamental to the American way. Living in UK, we have our heritage in our royalty, passed down generations by blood lines. In the US, it is the brands who are the royalty, who are elected by the people, and proven in the fact they are the first target in any backlash – globally. We expect them to have a moral consciousness, to have a finger on the pulse of modern society thinking, to take a global perspective but be culturally significant at a local level. This is why I think brands and Obama are actually bouncing off one another right now.

Take Pepsi – a global all-American brand. A red-and-white patriotic symbol of ‘times of refreshing’ and very much a part of this royal heritage of all that is American. An American-Global brand utilizing an American-Global icon. And within a global society that is slowly being squeezed towards economic collapse, they know that change is necessary and people need a positive lift, they need refreshing. In fact let’s “Refresh Everything“. Pepsi have tapped into this change and just pressed the cold, hard reset button on brand-building across modern media. People, Obama and Pepsi have just rebooted the entire system, mark my words.

Pepsi’s recent campaign has made consumers part of the conversation: Gone are the days of consumers sitting back and listening to the leader of the country. Now, it’s about engagement at various points of media from social media like Facebook to blogs and tweets, and to in-banner video messages.

So, in celebration of the Presidential Inauguration, Pepsi launched a major web 2.0 event that empowered Americans to speak to the President directly through Pepsi’s video banner ad, predominantly through a YouTube channel and complemented by a destination site entitled “Refresh Everything“. The concept of “Dear Mr. President” ad campaign created by R/GA was promoted by celebrities voicing their well wishes and encouraging you, from your office or home, to do the same.

[youtube _YuMz6xF7Q8]

It allowed everyone with a webcam or messaging platform to feedback their thoughts and wishes, on what should (and shouldn’t) be changed about the country, by sending a text or uploading a video to the dedicated YouTube channel, and facilitated around key media placements though a fully interactive web banner and served through Eyeblaster’s breakthrough technology. So in using online and social media channels to connect with consumers, Pepsi leveraged the common American theme, ‘freedom of speech’ to ignite this event – utilizing online media as open forum for consumers to communicate with Obama, yet all the while staying engaged with Pepsi’s brand.

The shifting digital media landscape has created a cultural shift in the way that consumers and audiences engage – whether brands, movements or politics. Pepsi’s banner ad represents the more innovative use of online media; it empowers the end user to interact, form an opinion and speak directly to the American leader – something that truly is groundbreaking and in doing so, speaks to a new generation of consumers. And the evidence speaks for itself, 14% of consumers who uploaded a video to YouTube did so through the banner. Today’s online consumers are lot more willing than we give them credit for.

It is imaginative conceptually as well as demonstration of modern advertising technology, wrapped up in an advert that doesn’t look like an advert. Pepsi is just enabling people to do what they really want to do, and becomes a facilitator of this inevitable change that is happening around the world. It has nothing to do with Pepsi tastes nice or any product push; it is a brand backing a brand in its pursuit of a change for the better. And I believe it has executed this beautifully and left a very sweet after-taste in the mouth of many a consumer or media disciplinarian who long for its success in order to demonstrate to more cautious brands that they can follow suit.

Obama the messiah of Madison Avenue as appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle

Ironically, I have just seen the latest T-Mobile ad that was filmed in Kings Cross station on my London Underground journey this morning. The ad was playing silently on one of the new Digital display screens on the escalator at Victoria station.

I immediately picked up my iPhone, logged into Twitter and sent a Tweet from my mobile. This Tweet simultaneously updates my blog, LinkedIn page and my Facebook page as well as alerts all my Twitter contacts. That’s quite a few combined people!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, well it’s the latest advert for the T-mobile G1 where phase one is video of a flash mob staging a dance at the train station at 11am on the morning of Thursday 15th January 2009. The campaign entitled “Life’s for Sharing” can be followed on the YouTube channel. It’s already had 1.2million viewers.

[youtube VQ3d3KigPQM&hl=en&fs=1]

Last week I tweeted about this and then shared the video from the YouTube channel on Facebook, after seeing a non-industry friend discussing the ad on their Facebook page – she had commented on her status “Sam is loving the new T-Mobile commercial” and five of her friends then agreed. My brother then pointed me to a similar ad in New York from a while ago. I had comments on Twitter myself, as well as an email discussion about it amongst friends/colleagues.

So here we are on a blog thinking this through.

• To date I still have not seen the ad that was aired on Channel 4 on the TV itself, yet here we are discussing it. (Remember, it was friend who saw the TV ad originally)
• I have seen or discussed this commercial on three other different digital screens; a laptop, outdoor digital display and my mobile.
• The way I have utilized digital media – from search to inStream video to social networks – and yes, Eyeblaster are running the video banner ads for this campaign.
• Think of all the touch points, the “buzz” that is now following across the multiple social networks that I am partisan too.

This is a prime example of modern society engaging in firstly a physical social interaction followed by an equally important digital social interaction, this is a new twist on what we would have previously said was ‘viral’.

So what does this mean for us as digital enablers and strategists?

• Measuring digital effectiveness needs to move way beyond the effects and measurements of the humble banner ad – and fast!!
• TV is an effective enabler for delivering reach, but there is now a percentage of the population who not primarily exposed to adverts on TV – but equally may become more open to its impact on TV as a result of it being highlighted elsewhere; significantly from a digital environment.
• We can no longer see any media channel as an isolated event – different disciplines are going to need to find ways of sharing information and learning’s.
• Digital can no longer be described in terms of a single screen interface (i.e. a PC) – we need to embrace the four-screen approach (i.e. TV, PC, Outdoor, Mobile).
• Cross-channel measurements are definitely going to become mandatory and a necessity moving forward.
• That the effects of brand activity can be to some degree measured across a plethora of digital touch-points, by these social interactions. Buzz metrics will become the new industry buzz word.

So many questions racing around my head:

• So what is the agency actually tracking?
• Are there even the tools they need to be able to do so?
• Are the agency(s) teams all playing together?
• How far are they embracing all these digital touch points?
• Have they carefully strategized all these iterations or are they learning on the fly equally as much as we are observing?
• I wonder what the ultimate digital metric will be when calculating the overall ROI? (I for one hope it will not be limited to CTR or a branding survey..!)
• How would you begin to reveal to the client insights into all this activity?

I am sure you, the reader, are now equally intrigued by what this new digital concept means from an advertising viewpoint moving forward in 2009… and if you hadn’t seen the ad before, you have now.

You too have just become part of this new advertising phenomenon.

Jonathan Rose (sometimes known just as ‘Rose’), Lead Developer McCann WorldGroup �
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Your idea about the perfect working day:  For me, variety is the key to a perfect work day.  My interests range from creative development, to coding, to learning about new technologies in the online space, to sharing development practices with colleagues. If I get to do at least some of these tasks each day, it’s a good day.
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Your muse best comes when: Inspiration comes from many different sources, and if it was consistent, things would be a lot easier. I think the challenge of solving a problem helps me produce some of my best ideas and work, and it’s this challenge that motivates me.
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What needs to be changed in order to achieve ultimate engagement with users: The focus towards design, user experience, and messaging tailored to individual users has begun but it is still in the early stages. There is so much data about users available to marketers now, and delivering messages based on this data quickly and efficiently needs to be the standard, not the exception.
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Favorite Brand Experience: Microsoft Office Real Life Tools (RLT):  From an engagement perspective, this is the kind of ad people want to play with and share with friends and family, just the kind of interaction that is so valuable to our client.  From a technical perspective, we managed to pull off some sophisticated functionality for this campaign. Reproducing parts of Microsoft Word to create a greeting card in an expandable banner took a lot of work, and we worked closely with Eyeblaster to implement the necessary server side technology to send out an email with the final output.  

The impact of the recession on online advertising/changes you have already seen/felt:  2009 is going to see a lot of changes for the online advertising space. It’s going to come down to who your clients are, and what kind of services you can provide for them. Ad budgets will get trimmed, but companies with a strong digital presence are not going to drop all their advertising, they can’t afford to. What they will do is ask agencies to do more for less. Agencies like Mccann San Francisco, with the ability to offer a full range of services from media purchasing, to broadcast production, to Flash production, to strategy and analytics, are in a good position to respond to this.

Posted by Tom Buchok, Preston Kelly

Lately, there has been a lot of chatter about banner ad ineffectiveness.  And we’ve all heard about search marketing’s supposed inability to build a brand.  Advertisers are in a great position to put both of these myths to rest with sophisticated campaign management.  Let’s take a look at what it takes to build a truly effective brand-building campaign – it’s not as complicated as you might think.

Idea is still king

In advertising, one thing will never change: the importance of the big idea.  But now ideas must be challenged by questions, like:

- How does messaging change when introduced to tiered messaging and re-marketing?
- How do you talk to current customers versus those who are less far along in the conversion cycle?
- Is the idea dynamic and adaptable to a variety of media – in-stream video, television, email, direct mail, search, point-of-sale, and so on?
- If an idea can’t live everywhere it needs to, is it good enough?

These questions create a tough litmus test for any idea, yes, but fear not – the canvas to build a brand has never been so massive.

Production must co-exist at all times

A television shoot that doesn’t produce online assets has fallen short; an email campaign that doesn’t reach back to in-store media isn’t trying hard enough.  If advertisers are tasked with finding big ideas that can live anywhere, they must also prepare content for each and every channel.  No longer is there “just a TV project”, or some one-off banner ads.  Successful brands will be built by content that is efficiently produced and strategically interdependent.

Integrated campaign management is the Holy Grail

Virtually anyone reading this blog is familiar with banner campaign reporting, keyword optimization and pre/post-awareness testing.  All of those things are a good start, but it is now time to integrate data tightly.  Banner ads are catching slack because of low click-through rates.  Are we forgetting about the people interacting with our ads?  And how do banner ads affect search results?

The answers to these questions lay within holistic campaign management, the Holy Grail of online advertising.  Effective advertising relies heavily on integrated campaign management.  Integrated campaign management allows you to re-market to your audience, tier messaging, gauge ad effectiveness beyond the “last click”, and more.  These tools are a game-changer.

What do you think?

Ideas spanning myriad channels and touch points … effective content that exists in every medium … sophisticated measurement and tracking across an entire campaign.  The future of advertising is challenging and filled with opportunity.  What do you think?

I started 2009 standing at the base of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia admiring the magnificence of modern architecture rising 452m from the ground like two enormous steel stalagmites. Yet it was the Skybridge linking the two towers together that ultimately captivated my imagination – so should anything ever happen to one tower, there was a point of escape to the other tower at mid point. After visiting Ground Zero in New York, the site of the other famous twin towers, there are obvious lessons that have been learned.

To date, digital media has single-mindedly pursed a new way of measuring the consumer experience at tangible touch points with new important metrics that challenge the status quo of advertising. Though often these metrics miss the holistic synergy of how multiple media exposures across all channels work together to build an overall pattern of how consumers move through a life-cycle; from awareness to conversion to advocacy.  Like the Petronas Towers, media channels are needing to be linked together in order to work in unison as opposed to isolation to bring the conclusive results that marketers seek – and it is digital media that offers the tools to offer a new wisdom in how one channel could assist the other.

As we enter 2009 there’s a lot of confusion and uncertainty across the globe on many different counts, and none more so in the world of media – with more demands for justification for the remaining expenditure following budget cuts – advertisers are going to want to see real actionable results. There are many questions beginning to emerge in my own mind in terms of how we now move on; TV budgets are going to be under increasing pressure to justify performance in a way they have so far managed to avoid, for example. But what digital interactivity has shown is there a wealth of information about consumer behaviour that other media channels have never had the luxury of understanding – until now.

As opposed to working out the online equivalent to the mass media metrics like Gross Rating Point (GRP), I believe the shift this year will be more on how one channel supports the next as people move from awareness to investigation to purchase – ultimately what is the most effective and cost-efficient media mix in generating the maximum ROI with minimum outlay and effort – and advertising delivery technology is fortunately becoming smarter to be able to help answer this. From an online marketing perspective, the credit crunch is just going to escalate much of what was going to happen in time anyway.

2008 was a turning point for online without a shadow of doubt.  We ended the year with an exciting integration of media; search, display, video irrespective of whether users were browsing, gaming or social networking. Complemented by delivery across of multiple range of viewing devices; from web browser and computer desktops to mobile devices – with an ever increasing awareness of TV and outdoor, as they too take a digital connection. Agencies are linking strategy and planning between on and offline more than ever, and technology products from vendors are becoming integrated and ramped up in order to give them the strategists the tools they needed to cross-analyse.

Accountability, which is the mainstay of online effectiveness is going to have to go back to basics against tangible objectives.  Ethereal numbers like impressions and clicks, will become more personable – how many people saw what and for how long and then followed by what did they do and where and on what device?

Can we allow people to convert direct where they are within a banner and thus reveal a greater yield against a DR objective then merely click-thru? How does the personal web facilitated by mobile fit in to the conversion cycle? What about inGame and InStream video, and will these opportunities finally move beyond mere re-purposed TV commercials to facilitate viral aspects, widget grabs or even interactive video in situation in order to drive deeper emotional connections with a brand beyond mere linear story telling?

For some this will be ensuring interactivity in situation within a single creative execution, carefully placed and timely targeted, will ensure the user has an option to respond right where they are – and an increased willingness to do so as the message seems ever more relevant. This it will ensure DR aspects of advertising will lift the overall ROI and ensure a single campaign could deliver both brand and DR components within a single media buy as the technology changes the creative messaging per exposure.

The ability to see and control subsequent exposures whether in a browser, a desktop or on a mobile – integration with communication channels from mail to messenger; discussion and feedback within social networks – it is in understanding how all these connected points of consumer investigation prior to purchase that are at the heart of the development of the Eyeblaster Channel Connect strategy. It is bringing the open source concept of the original web, connecting multiple points together for the benefit of the whole, but from a commercial viewpoint.

If anything, social networking and buzz marketing is highlighting this shift into understanding people likes and objections and the need to listen to consumers closely and then turning this into a marketers advantage. Perhaps this will eventually lead to buying people’s time and interests as opposed to mere exposure?

With Channel Connect now integrated with Eyeblaster’s Advertising Campaign Manager, seeing the correlation between standard display, rich media, video, gaming and mobile is just the start of building those sky bridges between the isolated media towers as we move ever closer to the consumer utopia that marketers seek.