One main point is the notion that: Customers Own Your Brand, NOT YOU (the marketer). The case study I showed was Kettle Foods People’s Choice Awards where the company allowed its customers to name the next flavor of potato chips (Doritos is now copying this campaign 2.5 years later). My Dad understood my point that customers have a huge influence on your brand, but vehemently denied that customers truly owned any consumer brands that were near and dear to their hearts. Those brands controlled their own strategic decisions and at the end of the day, legally and financially owned their own organizations.

Of all the people in the world that I hate to admit he may be right, it’s my Dad (I respect him so much that I’d rather the roles were reversed with me giving the counter-point to his argument). But, the truth is – I need to choose more specific words that don’t exagerate the concept that Customers Must Co-Create Your Brand with You (instead of being talked at).

So, how does that point work for you, Pops?

Vote for the Next Kettle Flavor
Kettle Foods Passport to Flavor
www.passporttoflavor.com

Wow. Amazing Production
The Stuntman
www.thestuntman.la

The Black Diamond
www.thomsonblackdiamond.com

Getting Creative With Consumer Generated Campaigns and Food Clothing Stains.
Stain Art
www.stainart.com

The Fifth Freedom
www.myfifthfreedom.com

I got an email from a friend (okay, it was from a co-worker of mine), and it struck me as the best “Send to a Friend” email creative I’ve seen. Well, full disclosure is that we (eROI) did the email and web creative, but sometimes it’s nice to celebrate a great partnership with a client that produced a really cool website and email campaign. As you can see from the above creative, the email is from Kettle Foods which just launched its Passport to Flavor campaign today. The email creative reflects the early 1900’s old-world traveller feel to it where you might find an authentic ink stamp on a postcard or even your passport as you travel abroad. The site www.PassportToFlavor.com allows the user to send a unique postcard creative for each of the five outrageous flavors.

Who ever heard of a Chocolate Potato Chip? Check it out when you get a chance and when you vote for your favorite flavor or buy the chips to taste these crazy flavors, you can be eligible to win a $4,500 travel gift certificate from REI Adventures: www.PassportToFlavor.com

See what kind of person you are: www.findanewflavor.com

 

I am Unconventionally Strong and Tangy

A salty dog; I like adventure. A high-seas kind of person, my drum beat is just a little bit different than the rest. I know what I like and I’m not afraid to go for it. I can be sharp and witty, but I never mean to cause a sting. I just know that a little sour makes every sweet sweeter. Oh yeah, and I might have a pirate costume in my closet.

http://www.findanewflavor.com

 

I am Bold, Grown-up Cheese.

I’m a bold, big city person. Museums, theater, fine dining and cool shops… I can even appreciate performance art. I’ve got grown-up tastes but I’m not stuffy or stiff. I know how to have fun and I’m just as comfortable at a white linen-laid table as I am at the hot dog cart. I’ve got style. An individualist who isn’t afraid to show my true colors or to stand out in a crowd.

Drinks Anyone? Vote today as the content ends in two weeks.

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Today we have many online vehicles to move our messaging across the globe in a relatively inexpensive way, but it also leads us into new, unfamiliar waters of relinquishing some control. This may be the hardest part of the entire movement; where people outside of your ad agency or internal marketing group can make or break your message.
How have we approached it?

We have been fortunate to help many companies move from the sidelines to the frontlines of this next wave in marketing. We are not going to tell you that it hasn’t been without fear or trepidation on the parts of many VPs and Legal Counsels, but in the end it’s been an eye opener to the power you can unleash for your brand and campaign. So, before we dive into a quick overview of how your business might be able to use this medium, fasten your seat belt and throw some of your old notions to the wind, but not to chance.

Kettle Foods Dips Toe into Social Media
In the second year of the Crave campaign that was executed by Maxwell PR and eROI for Kettle Foods, all parties involved wanted to leverage the momentum of brand evangelism and consumer generated media. But what would be a simple way to move into this realm without releasing all control. The answer came in the form of the StraightUpFlavor.com site for voting on the next flavor of Kettle Foods chips. This provided a way for consumers to supply feedback to the company. After planning on the method of collection, the new site opened up to accept this media in an uncontrolled format. After the first week of results, Kettle Foods loved all of the consumer comments. Thus, the company has created a way to get direct consumer feedback for new concepts/flavors.

Jack Klugman Podcasts
Jack Klugman, the actor from the Odd Couple and Quincy MD, was releasing a new book on his life and friendship with Tony Randall. The national media tour was planned; book signing dates set and PR ready to roll. However, what about the audience that wouldn’t be hit through these channels? The idea for a TonyandMe Blog was born. This blog would allow Jack to create a new media strategy in a real grass roots way. Sitting down with his son over a long weekend, Jack started recording stories about the friends he had in his life and anecdotes about each. Besides sharing the stories with his own son, he was also able to share his stories online with many. The plan used RSS (Real Simple Syndication), Podcasts and grass roots efforts to let others pass and interact with his message. With a few calls to Itunes, Jack was placed in the home page rotation of featured content driving his podcast to unimagined highs and downloads. With this new organic visibility, small video clips were created from live events, old footage and interviews to keep the content library available and active and to keep the online audience engaged through the first few months of the book release and holiday season.

Mass Media and Our Love of Celebrities
DeliveryAgent approached eROI to help test the waters for a new site as well as support for the current paid effort for the ShoptheScene.com (NBC, ABC, Miramax, Project Runway, Queer Eye and more). A new blog and social media plan is what resulted. The idea was to use a blog to test efforts and define what types of media (text, audio and video) would be rapid drivers of organic search engine and social media traffic. A three tiered strategy was created as to not over extend the internal requirements of the DeliveryAgent team from current roles, and build a plan that could be ramped up or even killed off if deemed a liability. The use of a blog or disposable URL gives the ability to scale or kill a concept that is not ultimately tied to other sites or the brand.

How will you approach it?

There is a not a magic pill for getting into using social media for your online marketing efforts. In fact, many companies are just dipping a toe into the water through sites like MySpace, iTunes and technorati. These sites are good examples of the viable ways to spread content and allow others to use your content and comment on it. However, always remember that you should enter into this with a plan and a measurable outcome. Below is an example of a high level plan to launch a new consumer blog. The goal of the blog is to build a community, provide a platform for social dialogue, create a revenue stream with traffic and most importantly drive sales. Below is an example of Social Media campaign plan:

Month ZERO
• Create a working document that will organically grow and change based on where the consumer takes it.
• Create a compelling blog with content that has been back posted 3 months so it does not look like it is too new.
• Write a content plan and guidelines that will follow best practices for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for organic rankings.
• Train the team as to how to engage and approach the consumers and consumer feedback (comments) on the blog.

Month One
• Index with top Blog Search and Aggregation Engines.
• Set up RSS feed for individual subscriptions.
• Set Up Complimentary site and blog content notifications.
• Syndication of Content to Vertical and Influencer Sites and Portals.
• Create a del.icio.us Feed to allow “tagging of content” by peers.
• Send to a Friend System.
• Sign Up for Weekly Alerts and Email Newsletters.
• Allow a system to let consumers tell “us” about relevant news and stories.

Month Two
• Paid Blog Ad Strategy across complimentary blogs.
• Placement on the parent and children shopping sites for reverse link and traffic building.
• Online business development with DTI (Direct to Influencer) Blogs and Sites to grow blogosphere visibility.
• Increase the frequency of daily posts.
• Increase the amount of video and audio content.

Month Three
• Contests that grow with online team work and voting.
• Create Viral Buzz with Ad Agency Nationwide Contacts as influencers.
• Create a MySpace, Xanga.com, Friendster, Facebook and Hi5.com campaign with profile built around the authors or brand.
• Vertical Search Engine Shopping Feeds to bring awareness to products.

Month One to Three
• Evaluate daily traffic, referrals; RSS take/use rate, shopping/ad conversions and signups.
• Allow for flexible plan for months 4-6 based upon success.
• What you need to be cognizant of, no matter the effort, is that you will not have complete control