Ugo Orlando
November 2011
2
ESPEME
IS A SCHOOL WITHIN THE
ACCREDITED BY
EQUIS, AAACSB
EDHEC GROUP, FRENCH STATE.
AND THE
MANAGING A BRAND STRATEGY THROUGH THE DIGITAL MEDIUM, IS IT BETTER DONE IN-HOUSE OR OUTSOURCED TO A COMMUNICATION AGENCY? A REFLEXION ON THE CURRENT STATE AND THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FROM EXPERIENCES IN NEW MEDIA COMMUNICATION AGENCIES AND IN THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT OF A SOCIAL GAMING COMPANY
UGO ORLANDO
YEAR-GROUP
GRADUATING IN
2011
THESIS ADVISOR: MR. DENNIS DAVY
Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the EDHEC-ESPEME degree 2011
3
The opinions expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of their author.
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A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to: • D e n n i s D a v y , Thesis Advisor, for his time and his precious pieces of advice. • F a r i d H u m b l o t , Student at Edhec/Espeme, for the discussion we have had. • L . J . , Digital Planner in a large digital company, for the interview we have had. • O l i M a d g e t t , co-Founder of We R Interactive, for the discussions we have had. • J é r ô m e R é m i n i a c , ex-Head of New Media at TBWA\Auditoire, for the interview we have had. • F r a n c e s c o T o s a t o , Game Designer at wooga, for the discussions we have had. • C é l i n e V e r l e u r e , Founder at Olfactive Studio, for the interview we have had. • T h o r b j ö r n W a r i n , ex-Head of Marketing at wooga, for the interview we have had.
And also:
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6
“THE
BEST WAY TO PREDICT THE FUTURE IS TO CREATE IT.”
PETER DRUCKER (1909-2005)
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I NTRODUCTION
W global
e
are
all
digital
brand
strategists. While searching for a flat, a job or love, we do this on the Internet: not expecting a direct response, but managing a
brand
image,
involving
contacts,
building relationships and showing in different spheres who we are. Beyond promoting ourselves, we will see here how to do this with a real brand: an emotional relationship between a product and its customer. A brand should be recognizable and meaningful. Some might think the digital medium is just another tool to communicate the brand to the customer. However, the digital medium itself opens a wide range of opportunities. In a few years, no brand will be communicating to consumers anymore, but with the customer instead. This shift has been happening for a few years and is turning advertising into a bidirectional communication-relationship. 8
Customers already communicate through brands. If someone checks-in a Starbucks, s/he is communicating another message compared to someone who is posing with a McDonalds hamburger. The whole issue is then to communicate through the customer or the potential customer, trying to drive
dialogues and to enhance talkability , constantly giving him/her the opportunity to be exposed to the brand image, to enjoy a meaningful brand experience and eventually to share brand content. Even though the brand can orchestrate the customer, it will never own him/her.
Throughout this thesis, we will try to ascertain whether a company can manage its digital brand strategy in-house or should call in a specialized communication agency, and which kind of agency. First,
we
will
analyze
the
working
atmosphere,
comparing the methods, the processes and the people at the agency with those at the advertiser. The next part will acknowledge that the digital medium is much more complex than the other main forms of advertising (film, radio, print, event, street). Therefore,
a
communication
campaign
using
a
complete set of different digital tools would deserve the label “360° Digital”, just like one involving film, radio, print, event, street and digital is currently called “360°”.
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We will then focus on the future of gaming mechanics in the advertising world, as well as in the world in general. This thesis explores the present and the attempts of brands
in
the
digital
medium,
which
open
opportunities for talented people to shape them.
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T ABLE O F C ONTENTS A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 I N T R O D U C T I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 FOREWORD ................................................................................... 14
P A R T 1 . H O W D O T H E Y W O R K ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 8 1 . 1 . T H E P E O P L E I N T H E R E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 1.1.1. Working Atmosphere ...................................................................................................... 20 1.1.2. Strategy Mindset ............................................................................................................... 23 1.1.3. Product Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 27
1 . 2 . T H E C R E A T I V I T Y P A T H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 1.2.1. Who Is The More Creative? ......................................................................................... 31 1.2.2. The Decision-Making Process ..................................................................................... 35 1.2.3. Relationship With ROI ................................................................................................... 38
WHO IS WHO? ............................................................................. 42
P A R T 2 . 3 6 0 ° D I G I T A L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 2 . 1 . T H E C O N T E N T I S I N T H E H O U S E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7 2.1.1. The Corporate Website ................................................................................................. 47 2.1.2. Who Should Be The Community Manager? .......................................................... 48 2.1.3. Pushing & Pulling .............................................................................................................. 51
2 . 2 . M A S T E R T H E T O O L S F I R S T ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6 2.2.1. Community Management: Let The Conversations Start .................................. 56
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2.2.2. Social Media Advertising: Facebook Ads ............................................................... 58 2.2.3. Dedicated Websites: A Personal Experience ....................................................... 60 2.2.4. Viral Films ........................................................................................................................... 60 2.2.5. Mobile Apps: Brand Content At Your Fingertips ................................................ 65 2.2.6. Flashcodes: Connect To Real Life ............................................................................. 67 2.2.7. Captchas: To Transform The Existing Tools ........................................................ 69
WHO IS THE MORE 360° .............................................................. 71
PART 3. THE GAME LAYER ON THE TOP OF THE A D V E R T I S I N G W O R L D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 3 . 1 . I N - G A M E A D V E R T I S I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 8 3.1.1. The Old Schools ................................................................................................................ 78 3.1.2. The Social Era ................................................................................................................... 80 3.1.3. Which Structure? .............................................................................................................. 83
3 . 2 . A D V E R G A M I N G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5 3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: The Perfect Match ................................................................................ 85 3.2.2. “If You’re Going To Crash The Party, Bring Some Champagne” ................ 89 3.2.3. This Is Real Life ................................................................................................................ 91
3 . 3 . T H E G A M I F I C A T I O N O F T H E W H O L E B U S I N E S S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 3 3.3.1. Great Gaming Mechanics ............................................................................................. 94 3.3.2. Under Construction ........................................................................................................ 96
WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? ................................................... 99
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS .................. 103 T A B L E O F I L L U S T R A T I O N S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 9 L I T E R A T U R E R E V I E W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 APPENDICES ................................................................................. 119 12
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Agency-people have different mindsets than their clients. Let us compare the atmosphere at the advertiser with that at the agency and see which process is the best fit for which communication issue. Who are the people in there? What is creativity going through? How are decisions made?
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1.1. THE PEOPLE IN THERE Let us compare the workforce and methods of the agency with those of the client (=advertiser). Pragmatism versus imagination? Fun versus formality? Jeans versus ties? Some statements given are just clichés, other ones are quite true, but are agency and advertiser people so different?
1.1.1. W ORKING A TMOSPHERE What is a good working atmosphere? Digital-communication-wise, a company offering a welcoming working environment would be: • All-ears to best practices • Open to new ideas • Not stuck in old-fashioned corporate offline communication • Ambitious about its brand equity • Stable enough to build a long-term strategy • More into PowerPoint than Word • More into Instant Messaging than Emails • Understanding of the product and the communication tools. Do we have more fun in the agency?
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comparing revenues after a few weeks should design the perfect datadriven user funnel. This is very easy to do in IT industries, as you can give two different users a completely different version of your product, which can hardly be done for a brick-and-mortar retailer. Amazon is commonly known as the inventor of the A/B tests.
“We don’t mind testing a lot of weird ideas. At the end of the day, numbers tell you how good your idea was.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
Coming from Sweden, Thorbjörn Warin was hired at wooga as the Head of Marketing. He then moved moved onto a new startup in Berlin: Hitfox.
More and more companies do not try to understand facts any more, they just run tests and figure out what to do next. This is the case of wooga, on the startup landscape, but some advertisers from the old economy are finding out the benefits of the “trial and error” method. A/B tests are a very common thing to do in the IT industry. According to Tim Harford, a British economist, this is spreading out to the whole of society 7.
7
Watch Tim Harford’s TED Talk, 2011: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html
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In these situations, the advertiser does not need a bunch of surveys before creating a campaign: one less field to take care of for the agency - one less reason to be needed.
1.1.3. P RODUCT K NOWLEDGE We know what we are doing The advertiser’s marketing people work, have lunch and attend meetings with their co-workers - the ones who make the products. They know about every aspect of them, they know about improvements, potential new products, they know about the strategy and the most valuable sectors to target. They can see the product growing and often suggest improvements to it.
“In some gaming companies, we really feel the influence of the marketing department on the products. Working close to each other is very precious. The agency, on the other hand, doesn’t usually come up with very relevant ideas of improvement. But they come in with completely fresh eyes!” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
Advertisers know exactly what they are selling and whom they are selling it to. They are not bothered by other accounts from other industries. At the same time, they are less experienced at selling different kinds of products. They know their market extremely well but are less in touch with trends on the global market. Nowadays, almost any kind of product needs to be new! Every product launched needs to be innovative and every old product needs
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to receive a new image once in a while. Sometimes these products are sold by old industries, and in this specific case, the company needs to hire people who are more up-to-date with the current trends - but not too much.
Over-trendy people in the agency? Agencies
tend
to
apply
a
“winning”
and
“trendy”
communication
recommendation to any kind of advertiser. This sometimes works, but people from the agency sometimes become too comfortable with this and think a magic recipe can work all the time. They want to be first to share a set of photographs, possibly a day or two before the usual trendy blogs which their co-workers check daily - do. This unfortunately does not make them efficient ad-men & ad-women. In reality, light painting + Facebook connect + street art + blog activation does not result in an “epic advertising win” all the time.
This is good for an agency to keep a constant eye on trends. It is a threat for them to be too focused on “what’s hot” – for egocentric purposes - and to forget about marketing basics: linking the product and the customer. Agencies need both people with egocentric drivers (often juniors) and other people with ROI and customer satisfaction drivers (often seniors).
This way, juniors will tend to be innovative and follow trends - for the heck of it - and seniors will put this into the customer’s perspective - for the good of the business. Agencies need to balance their workforce this way. A lot of them do. Those who do not, do not stay alive for long, as advertisers can not see any added value in asking them for digital communication strategies.
Different People, Different Areas of Expertise
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• A woman is more likely to find benefits in lipsticks. In the illustration below, secretaries from the fictional agency Sterling Cooper were asked for inputs, as the Creative department was only run by men.
Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007) In addition, everyone feels very useful to the company and involved in a final creation. In the end, feeling creative , even if one is not part of the creative department, is very important, from an HR perspective.
…And at the Big Agency? Bigger agencies tend to be less flexible and to involve only the most relevant people in the process. Reasons are simple: • As there are more accounts, someone who would like to attend every brainstorming would not have time for his/her regular job. • As there are more employees, brainstormings would be very messy. However, if you have heard about a project, nothing prevents you from sharing an idea with the relevant people. This process is partly the reason why Jérôme Réminiac believes what follows…
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“Some agencies with aging management are giving very
valuable
communication
advice,
but
are
bringing no added value on digital topics. Smaller agencies are usually more dynamic and more relevant to get involved with digital topics: their consultants being digital natives.” Inteview with Jérôme R.
Jérôme
Réminiac
founder
of
the
was New
the Media
department at TBWA\Auditoire. He
has
now
moved
to
freelancing projects.
1.2.3. R ELATIONSHIP W ITH ROI 14 Pragmeativity at some advertisers In ROI-oriented companies which do not need advertising agencies, creativity is only a nice-to-have bonus: pragmatism being a more valuable competence.
“In our field of advertising, creativity is important, but if it comes down to a creative person or an analytic person, I would rather hire an analytical person. It is fun making assumptions, but in the end, data will always tell you where to go. So it’s good
14
ROI = Return On Investment
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WHO IS WHO? Advertisers may have the knowledge - agencies have to know how. At this point, a few things are obvious: • Old-fashioned companies need small and dynamic digital agencies or independent consultants to carry out their digital strategies. • Modern companies can either hire an agency or build a whole digital communication department with disruptive people, who are getting the right budget (as La Redoute did). • Old-fashioned agencies need to hire persons who understand the digital landscape. • Startups do not need (and can not afford) anyone. It all is a matter of culture and flexibility. Would this mean that entrepreneurs and small companies are better able to do business?
Here is a comparative SWOT chart summing up this first part. This shows Strength and Weaknesses of In-house employees in carrying out a digital
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brand strategy. The second part shows Opportunities and Threats in outsourcing to advertising agencies.
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The digital medium is so rich and important that no brand can possibly do without it. Let us announce it: a communication campaign can be called “360°�, even though it is 100% digital. In fact, the digital media are plural.
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2.1. THE CONTENT IS IN THE HOUSE A brand has to be present on every relevant digital medium and to deliver its message in a specific way, but it is not about focusing on the tool. From the in-house perspective, the corporate culture is the most important, as it helps to bring brand content.
2.1.1. T HE C ORPORATE W EBSITE Content is King In a corporate website, a user-friendly interface and some well-written content are very important, but it is not only about a campaign or a smooth shopping experience. A corporate website’s main strength is its opportunity of giving valuable information. The content is king and the advertiser knows this better than anyone else.
The Old-fashioned Ones are Not So Demanding Old-school advertisers will believe they absolutely do not need advertising agencies to write content for them. They know their company better than anyone else and they disagree with the saying “ It’s not what you say, it’s
how you say it ”.
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Either not asking professionals or buying very bad work from one, led until a few years ago to really bad websites, precisely for brands that are worth a lot more, and deserve a lot better.
The New Cool Kids Know How To Do It SEO 16, Inverted Pyramid 17, fast-browsing, user funnel, social features, ‌ some people know these words, some do not. Hiring people who do and are used to making good corporate websites is always useful, even in the B2B area. Yet, these competences do not have to be at the agency, as creativity is really limited on these kinds of jobs. Internalizing web designers and content writers is totally fine: their decisions would not lose much of their meaning going though validation processes - while creative insights might. The main reason why editorial agencies exist and have work is mainly because of the lack of dedicated workforce at the advertiser’s.
2.1.2. W HO S HOULD B E T HE C OMMUNITY M ANAGER ? At the Agency: a Professional New jobs such as community management evolve within agencies, as conversations are about innovative tools.
Digital agencies are specialized and the community manager has been present for a few years already. Over time, agencies have tended to offer more and more permanent contracts.
16
SEO = Search Engine Optimization
17
Inverted Pyramid = Web writing technique enabling efficient user-catching and an enhanced
user-experience
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2.2. MASTER THE TOOLS FIRST! The content is king, and the king of content is in-house, but what would great content be without the right tools to wrap it, diffuse it and even sell it? If advertisers can usually deal themselves with content, agencies remain the kings of the tools. Let us analyze what a 360° digital approach could involve.
2.2.1. C OMMUNITY M ANAGEMENT : L ET THE C ONVERSATIONS S TART Virality Virality is not just a buzzword for qualifying YouTube lolcats 22 or a lot of senseless
retweets.
Virality
can
be
orchestrated
for
communication
purposes; you only have to add a secret ingredient called talkability 23 to your master recipe!
22
A portmanteau from "lol" (laughing out loud) and "cats". This defines a YouTube trend,
because the most watched and shared videos involve cats in funny situations. 23
Ability for a story, film, campaign or brand to be shared and talked about. This factor is
essential in today’s advertising landscape.
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Below are the key performance indicators for one campaign managed by the agency Buzzman for Tipp-Ex 24 “a hunter shoots a bear” (2010). These KPIs are all about sharing, the creative key being talkability. Source: Buzzman’s case study (2011)
Almost any product can be sold and benefit from a great digital advertisement. Buzzman did it for Tipp-Ex, apparently rather boring products (correction fluids, pens or tapes). Another KPI – the ROI – was also very positive, as sales increased considerably a few weeks after the launch of the ad: 30% up, compared to the previous back-to-school period.
24
Tipp-Ex is a brand from the Société Bic (France). The « a hunter shoots a bear » campaign
will remain an innovative best practice and still earns awards (in fall 2011).
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Talkability can also be sustained from the offline side 25, but will always take place online.
Influence This is also a key competence at advertising agencies. Relationships with influencers are very valuable, and agencies often have to organize fairly expensive events or clever set-ups to perhaps obtain a blog post about a product launch, for instance. This is called, activation or influence. As advertisers typically do not have enough ideas, do not have contacts, did not identify best practices and do not have time for influence purposes; an agency is therefore totally indispensable.
2.2.2. S OCIAL M EDIA A DVERTISING : F ACEBOOK A DS The Place to Be? Facebook Ads are known to be the most valuable and best targetable advertising solution, in almost any industry, not exclusively online, but in the whole physical world. In the other hand, Facebook ads constitute with flash banners the not-sonoble and not-so-creative side of digital communication. Consequently, if one wants to bring traffic to a website from a dedicated audience, Social Media Advertising is the right thing to use, but activities which require more commitment, and a less direct call-to-action probably will not always opt for Facebook ads. 25
This operation from BMW China was very unexpected, but a bit awkward. The media
coverage was negative as the culture is not used to very disruptive advertising techniques, the audience did not appreciate being orchestrated: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/31/bmwscrop-circle-marketing-campaign-confuses-chinese-media/
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“The vaguer the action, the more creativity is required in its marketing. We only require simple action.” Interview with Thorbjörn W.
This quote appears in this thesis for the second time - but it is worth being highlighted twice.
The End of Demographics Targeting an audience according to their beliefs, behavior, connections, likes and interests is totally new in the advertising landscape and goes far beyond typical demographics. According to Johanna Blakley 26, “ shared
interests and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings than demographic categories. I’d much rather know whether you like Buffy
Source: Johanna Blakley on TED (2010)
26
The Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center (California, USA).
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The product not being present at all in the movie, only the advertising world noticed that Absolut produced it. Specialized blogs talked about it, but the video was then shared just like any other beautiful and wellproduced short movie. Of course, outcomes in terms of sales will not be worthwhile – but is not a KPI for this kind of campaign. However, the results in terms of brand image are not even guaranteed.
Just Like the Other Ones Commercials that are alike are not new in advertising industry. However, to a certain extent, brands blend into the trend and lose their identity: consumers forget about a strong brand image and just see the same trendy films. A poem, catchy and fast-paced pictures showing youth and energy, products all through the movie without them being really noticeable, a “duty” tagline and a pure logo in the end. It seems that Nike 29 and Levi’s 30
29
Cf. Nike’s commercial “Vive le football libre” (January 2011): http://vimeo.com/18911762
(French) & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH06ltXfhvA (English) 30
Cf. Levi’s commercial “Go forth“ (June 2011): http://vimeo.com/27525961
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have found a winning technique there: it indeed guarantees them a lot of exposure.
However, their respective agencies (Leg Agency, W+K) were of course aware of the power of these short films, but they were probably not afraid of losing some brand uniqueness in the long run. Adidas Originals 31 somehow played on the same field, which has been confirmed by Magic Garden Agency , on its own fanpage.
Source: Magic Garden Agency’s fanpage
This mindset can be held for a while, but will most likely lose effect over time. Worse still, it may make the brand equity weaker, because of troubles for the target to recognize the brand amongst all the other ones
31
Cf.
Adidas
commercial
"all
originals�
(September
2011):
http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B5-fFNMXiLU
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2.2.7. C APTCHAS : T O T RANSFORM T HE E XISTING T OOLS A captcha is a little box that asks users to type what they can see in an image in order to verify there are not robots. See a typical example below.
Examples of captchas - Source: Public Domain
Over time, some other forms of captchas have been seen. Sometimes, you had to answer a very easy question or solve a very simple operation, which actually made it interactive. Users had to pay attention to this “2+3” operation – mixed into random curves and rings in order to confuse robots – and finally type 5 into the text field. This might soon be taken over by advertising 37 – it was crazy leaving this attention and engagement unused for so long – here as well with some gaming mechanics, to put a minimum amount of fun into it.
As shown below 38, the user has to interact with a brand in order to enter the website, either by just typing a slogan (engaging and memorizable), or by playing a mini-mini-game interacting with an image.
37
Source:
http://www.techi.com/2010/04/captcha-advertising-coming-soon-to-a-website-near-
you/ 38
Examples from the provider http://www.adscaptcha.com/ (based in New York) for the
advertiser Philips.
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Source: Adscaptcha.com (2011)
Adcaptcha’s business development seems oriented to agencies, as they may want big brands to advertise, they want their agency to pitch this idea first. Agencies are a great intermediary when it comes to canvassing something innovative for the company.
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WHO IS THE MORE 360°? The right content without the right tools will not reach the right audience. However, the best tools with no content are just empty Twitter accounts.
Of course, both have to evolve hand-in-hand: clients have to surround themselves with social-media-aware people. Agencies and consultants need to understand communication issues beyond the scope of the tools.
“The social networks do not have a good image with advertisers. I would say small agencies and freelancers are the best ones at understanding the marketing impact of a great Facebook strategy. This has to be explained to the advertisers.” Interview with Jérôme R.
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Lots of banks 39 have now made it possible to open an account via Twitter. They were most likely advised by a consultant or an agency to make it possible and known. However, if community managers are needed for debugging or customer care issues, changes have to be followed up quickly by product managers, and community managers need to have a deep understanding of how products are made. Therefore, gaming companies or e-business websites need to hire in-house community managers. No matter how large they are, it matters how large their userbase is – and it often is indeed large.
The advertiser had better use an autonomous agency but must be willing to communicate with the people in there on a daily basis, delivering information, validating their communication choices but also reacting quickly to their feedback from the community feeling. If the advertiser plans on communicating via the digital medium over the long term, then they might consider hiring a creative, autonomous and experienced person to carry out 360° projects. This person should then be able to have an influence on the company’s product. The top management indeed tends to trust agencies rather than in-house people, and in-house people tend to pitch fewer out-of-the-box ideas than an external workforce.
“Clients have become much more aware of the importance of digital marketing, even more so in the last few years - as we can see in the shift in how marketing budgets are allocated.
39
At least Bnp Paribas or La Caisse d’Epargne in France, many more all over the world.
72
“But
most
of
the
big
clients
-
with
aging
management - still need to be advised on the best way for them to use digital and that knowledge comes from agencies. “The agency expertise can vary a lot as well: the traditional agencies may not know enough about digital to come up with the best social media strategy, and some digital agencies do not have inhouse technical knowledge to make a good mobile app, for example. “However, it is not rare to have 3 or 4 creative agencies working for the same client: 1 main ATL 40 agency which is responsible for the main brand strategy, a digital agency, a direct agency and possibly a small keen start-up mobile specialist added in if the digital agency is too expensive.” Interview with L.J.
The following comparative SWOT chart aims to sum up this second part, showing how helpful and harmful can in-house or outsourcing solutions be, in the scope of how they use the whole set of digital communication tools.
40
ATL for Above The Line: an advertising strategy targeting mass media to deliver messages to
a large and mainstream audience - typically an offline TV + Radio campaign - while BTL (Below The Line) investments are usually less expensive and their ROI is much more accurately mesurable - typically a 100% digital campaign.
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74
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Games and gaming mechanics are playing a bigger and bigger role in advertising campaigns. Beyond this, a whole “gamification” of the business is happening. Will advertisers need agencies to make this “mutation” happen?
Seth Prietsbach’s TED talk (which will be introduced in this 3 rd part) called “The game layer on the top of the world” has to be given credit for the title of this part.
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3.2. ADVERGAMING Any advertising operation that aims to fool the consumer will be a serious failure in the long run, if not also in the short run. Lots of advergames are in the form of a Facebook application, gathering personal data and trying to “ make the buzz happen ”, but simply moving a canvas from a website to Facebook does not make a game “social”. Some other developers or agencies advocate respectful gaming mechanics and end up offering a quality brand experience.
3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: T HE P ERFECT M ATCH I AM PLAYR is a game on Facebook which is about living a footballer’s life, literally through his own eyes, as it mixes game sequences, with POV 47 film sequences.
An Innovation What the British developer We R Interactive has done with I AM PLAYR 48 (2011) is to make it fun to play, and moreover to make it fun to play with brands. 47 48
POV for Point Of View. Movie technique showing what the character is looking at. Know more about the game: http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/11/i_am_playr.php
Play the game: http://Facebook.com/iamplayr
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This game is definitely fun, disruptive and innovative. Even though it does not look like any other social game, several characteristics definitely make it a social game: • It is more fun to play with friends • You can purchase virtual items with real money • It has daily rewards • It is evolving and has an undefined lifetime • Users evolve along with their avatar.
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Without losing any fun at all, the player visits Nike stores with his girlfriend, and he has to struggle to get a sponsorship contract with Nike – his agent puts pressure on him to score in key games and become famous. To make the user interact a lot with the Alfa Romeo brand, for instance, one has to select one by one the desired options for the car, as shown above.
All this brand content is put into a very high quality game, with customized film sequences. The product placements are not annoying any more, because the consumer is respected, with expensive design.
3.2.2. “I F Y OU ’ RE G OING T O C RASH T HE P ARTY , B RING S OME C HAMPAGNE ” Respect the Consumer This is a very popular saying amongst agency people. The French agency Buzzman has made it one of its mottos, acknowledging anyone a brand tries to interact with, should enjoy a high-quality experience. This was originally a quote from Bob Thacker, senior VP – Marketing & Advertising at OfficeMax: “The secret is respecting the consumer. You are interrupting their life. All advertising is unwanted, so if you’re going to crash the party, bring some champagne with you”.
The right moment, the right medium and the right message are not enough: a very good production and the right moment is necessary to “borrow” some attention from the target.
Respecting users by building quality gaming mechanics into a brand message is starting to be a standard for the industry as it shows great involvement behaviors. However, this mindset currently is only wide-spread 89
within agencies. The “a hunter shoots a bear” Tipp-Ex campaign (mentioned earlier) is an excellent example of this 51.
This philosophy goes against all the traditional above-the-line agencies selling mainstream products by interrupting the consumers during their… • TV program: film • Radio program: audio • Way to work / Way home: billboards • Information gathering: press • Internet browsing: banners, pre-rolls, pop-ups. Here, the consumer chooses to consume the product, which makes the message considerably stronger, and the brand much more memorizable. Hopefully, advertising will not be seen as an annoyance again, in the next few years.
The Role of the Agency Advertising agencies can certainly reach out to game developers, like publishers, to get their client’s brand into a game mechanic. However, as this does not require being embedded in any further communication set-up, the client can just skip the agency step and go ask the publisher directly.
There are only two prerequisites: • Knowing about these new advertising spaces and being able to identify the right support for the desired digital brand strategy • “Bringing the champagne” instead of being stuck to a short-term ROI objective.
51
More details in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Community Management > Virality
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Of course, the agency is able to fulfill those requirements, but if a company is aware of these objectives, has sufficient skills in-house and has regular needs, it is perfectly imaginable that it will skip the cost of an agency.
3.2.3. T HIS I S R EAL L IFE Get the Target to Play, Then Sell Authenticity The following talk by Jesse Schell - a very influential Game Designer (2010) is about how brands manage to get their target into the virtual world, for the “real” world to feel even better. The strategic insight is actually about reality , according to this talk (from 10’30’’): in other words, this is an authenticity driver.
This also gives a short overview of how important the gaming industry is. In addition, there is a hypothesis about gaming and competition dynamics becoming closer and closer to our lives, at least in the Western world.
Part of Life Good games bring an actual service to their players. It is thus only a matter of time until they get a brand to enjoy it – and pay the developers, as did
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3.3.1. G REAT G AMING M ECHANICS The Daily Appointment In social games, this takes the form of a daily reward: every consecutive day you log into the game gets you a better gift, so you do not want to miss a day, otherwise you will get back to a small gift. This daily appointment makes the game (brand) part of users’ (consumers’) lives. For business, it can be used in pop-up stores for instance. Showing up at a certain time, between certain dates, allows you to either meet a star, receive free samples, get to know exclusive brand content or find help for your current issues 55.
Geolocation This has been used since geolocation was made possible, starting for instance with Geocaching, back in 2000 56. In communication, this takes the form of city quests, war games, exclusive retailing 57 or Coupons: several startups indeed offer deals via geolocation.
T h e U n c e r t a i n R e w a r d 58 The uncertain reward is known for being enlightening. Studies have shown that being unclear about the aim of an action produces greater results than when it is about a known reward. 55
« Mes colocs »’s pop-up store in the heart of Paris, helping future flatmates to meet and deal
with paperwork. See in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Viral films > Web-series 56
For more information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching
57
See vitaminwater France’s iPhone App (by \Auditoire, 2009)
58
See Marketing Science/Vol.22, No.4, Fall 2003 > The Effects of Effort and Intrinsic Motivation
on Risky Choice > Intrinsic Motivation as a Moderator of the Impact of Effort on Preferred Rewards
>
The
Role
of
Intrinsic
Motivation:
http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/centers/mks/articles/51d0762ea0_article.pdf
Discussion as
well
(p.487): as
Tom
Chatfield’s (Gaming theorist) TED talk (2010): http://tiny.cc/tom-chatfiled-ted-talk
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This is used a lot in community management: when a brand is organizing a mini-contest, users become more involved when it does not say specifically what is to be won.
The binary call-to-action Source: Tipp-Ex Experience on YouTube (2010) Using the same uncertain reward mechanic, the same way, the opposite campaign shows a binary choice at the end of a teaser video. This involves an uncertain end, which
is
much
more
appealing than one simple “continue the experience” call-to-action button. This minimum amount of gaming dynamics still participates a lot in making a promotional message both successful and respectful to its users.
“Level Up!” In
business,
badges
were widely used by Foursquare
first
(2009), and a lot of other
actors
been
following
have this
trend, which makes it die by itself – or will have done so by the time this document is
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WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? The Target Shift A typical social games paying player is a 43-year-old woman, not a 15-yearold boy 63. The usage of the web has shifted in the last few of years from consuming content to creating and sharing content. On a medium where self-esteem within a semi-private audience is a more important driver than ever, sharing positive results – in any game – is a strong motivation to spread brand content.
Brands should acknowledge this shift, as users have already done. Agencies are communication professionals, experienced in target definition, who seem to be more able to drive the change. However, very pragmatic and
63
Commonly
known
fact
in
the
gaming
industry.
Read
more
about
it
(2011):
http://www.slideshare.net/ctrottier1/designing-games-for-the-43yearold-woman/
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disruptive advertisers such as small companies in a new market can totally surprise everyone and innovate in this area.
Advertiser + Agencies + Gaming Company In addition to their dynamics, game designers should really be watched by the whole economy as their business models usually are very valuable and their marketing techniques are most of the time very efficient and innovative. Gaming companies are therefore the first ones to efficiently build on this game layer. It is very strategic for marketing people to observe gamingpeople and perhaps to do business with them.
Just like almost every new trending topic, agency-people are typically more aware of it and keener to make unusual partnerships than in-house people. Here as well, startups or flexible companies can easily do it efficiently if they want to. The future of advertising-people depends on what the gamingpeople are currently inventing. Let us get into the game.
The following comparative SWOT highlights that both advertisers and traditional advertising agencies surprisingly do not know a lot about gaming yet.
Just like TV in the 60’s, the web in the 90’s, the social media in the 00’s, the advertising will most likely take a while before integrating this trend of the decade to come. Its reactivity is exemplary within the whole economy, though. What is for sure is that first 360° to integrate gaming layers in their campaign recommendations will soon master the game, alongside their clients.
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This chart shows that agencies need to integrate gaming mechanics – not only a minimum amount of it – in order to keep providing an added value to their clients.
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C ONCLUSION & Recommendations
M
ost
brand
managers
calling
on
advertising agencies to act on the digital medium, do not do it for direct sales but for a brand image
p u r p o s e 64 . I f i t i s n o t f o r r e p u t a t i o n , i n house
traffic
managers,
for
instance,
monitor ROI data more efficiently.
“No agency can do user acquisition as well as we do it. But my department would not be good at building a brand.â€? Interview with ThorbjĂśrn W.
Partly for the reason described above, 50% of brands employ social-media dedicated people 65. This does not mean they do not ask agencies to work with them, but it still implies that brands give a growing credit to their digital strategy. 64
Source: Marketing Magazine UK (2011): http://marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1098242/Brands-
social-media-long-term-investment-finds-study/ 65
Source: New Media Age (2011): http://www.nma.co.uk/news/half-of-brands-employ-dedicated-
social-media-staff/3030935.article
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There is work to do for these people, as they currently are not present enough for members of their communities on social networks. Too few complaints and questions are solved (29% on Twitter 66, 5% on Facebook 67). It is the agency’s job to advise their clients on reaching out to their customers. But, once this educational work is over, it is the advertiser’s job to interact with its communities.
Below is a summary of strengths, weaknesses of advertisers in managing their own digital brand strategy, and of the opportunities and threats of outsourcing it to an advertising agency.
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The Drum (2011): http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/10/13/71-companies-ignore-consumer-
complaints-twitter 67
Source: Social Bakers (2011): http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8149-companies-respond-to-just-
5-of-questions-on-facebook
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Of course, the final advice on whether one should outsource
one’s
strategy
depends
on
the
advertiser’s size, budget and objectives, but it also depends on the agency’s evolution. In a digital world in which everyone has control over everything, agencies need to progress by integrating competences from the startups’ universe, the gaming universe and the high-tech business universe. Advertisers also need to evolve and hire more managers with advertising backgrounds, which is helpful when keeping smooth process and good relationships with agencies.
This shift is exciting. Not everyone will be part of it.
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“IT
IS NOT THE STRONGEST OF THE SPECIES THAT SURVIVES, NOR THE MOST INTELLIGENT THAT SURVIVES.
IT
IS THE ONE THAT IS THE MOST ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE.”
CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882)
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November 2011, ugo Orlando, All Rights Reserved
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