Sarah Biedak: Why We Seek the New: A History and Future of Neophilia – An interesting look at why we all are always trying to discover the next best thing.

Jesse Davis: Social media measurement is difficult. There’s no one tool that does it all, no one strategy for measurement, no one department that owns this space, but this article by Fast Company has some interesting thoughts about how to organize, strategize and analyze social media ROI.

Melissa Lion: I don’t condone crying at your desk, however, if you’re up for a bit of a weep and some very beautiful stories from people all over the world, check out DearPhotograph.com. And hand me a tissue.

Julie Yamamoto: Video: where good ideas come from http://youtu.be/NugRZGDbPFU.

Gary Rubin: How social media is changing college athletics and recruiting. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/recruiting/football/story/_/id/7510010/social-media-makes-mark-recruiting

Stefanie Week: Ever wonder what those tech-savvy youth are doing online and with their mobile phones these days? Ekaterina Walter from Intel compiled an impressive list of the top stats for how Gen Y is using technology.

What did you read this week?

Stefanie Week: Is anyone else as perplexed as I am about why it’s taking Twitter so long to publicly introduce their ad platform? It seems like they’ve been in beta for years now (or maybe I’m just really impatient.) Mashable says that Twitter has finally introduced their self-serve ad platform… but it’s still being tested.

Sarah Biedak: Who sits and watches TV without surfing the Internet or checking Facebook? I know I don’t. According to a recent study conducted by Google, tablets have emerged as the go-to multitasking devices which has strong implications for mobile advertising.

Gary Rubin: Sometimes, you just need to read a story that makes you smile and tip your hat to the journalist assigned with telling the tale. Or tail.

Bill Fisher: From Mashable: With the recent announcement of Google+ brand pages, many companies – and their agency partners – are wondering “We’re already active on Facebook and Twitter. Why should we bother with yet another social media channel?” While on the surface Google+ brand pages can seem like just another Facebook with a fraction of the user base, there are a few unique elements that are absolutely worth considering.

Julie Yamamoto: From the Harvard Business Review, What I Learned Building the Apple Store.

Melissa Lion: As a knitter, I’ve been spoiled by Ravelry, possibly the best database ever. As a cook, I’ve been disappointed by communities and databases for food. The sites either seem clunky or the recipes have been reviewed by so many people with different tastes than mine, I can’t trust the ratings. So I was very excited to explore Food52. The creators hoped to build the first community-sourced cookbook, but it’s evolved into a community of fellow food lovers and home cooks.  And it’s the home to the All I Want for Christmas Peanut Butter Cookies.

What did you read this week?

Turntable.fm

A web, and now mobile, app that allows users to act as DJs within virtual dance clubs (“rooms”).

Social: Interaction among the DJs and the audience plays a key role in each room’s popularity, as the members can chat with one another and the crowd has the opportunity to rate each song played on a scale from “Lame” to “Awesome” (“Lame” songs are skipped).

In case you haven’t heard it, here’s the background: two weeks ago, Gap tried to introduce a new logo to replace its decades-old blue box icon. Customers and designers piled online to heap criticism and venom on the new artwork, and ultimately forced the retailer to bring back the old version in a public show of humiliation (and probably at great expense).

I’m not a graphic professional, but I know where to find some experts in the field. So for a little perspective I asked some of CMD’s design pros for their thoughts and what they would have recommended to Gap. Here’s a little taste:

Jenn Brewer, CMD designer, says brands need to look at their logo and brand history while keeping an eye on their audience when they go through a rebranding exercise. Only then can a redesign campaign (slight modifications or a total overhaul) be determined. Does she think Gap should have given in to the criticism?

“No, it should have been confident enough in its new logo that it could rationally and intelligently deflect the criticism,” she said. “Giving in to the criticism tells me that perhaps the company was not in agreement about the new logo in the first place.”

Thom Marchionna, CMD creative director, said that a logo is only the tip of the spear for a brand evaluation, and other companies could learn from this situation by paying attention to core issues first before introducing a refreshed logo.

“Solve any underlying business problem first, such as product quality, customer service or differentiation,” he said. “Only when you can make a promise to your audience that things are positively better and different, can you introduce the symbolism that reinforces that. To do otherwise is like putting a fresh coat of paint on the hull of the Titanic.”

And what should Gap have done differently?

“Pretty much everything,” he continued. “Forget the lousy logo. Those happen all the time. Entrusting a logo redesign to a traditional ad agency may have been the first mistake. A branding firm would have started with more probing questions, the first three of which might be, ‘how much equity exists in the current logo with our most loyal customers and influencers?’ ‘what is the nature of that equity?’ and ‘what do we risk by changing our symbol?’”

Marchionna said the real failure, in his opinion, was a surprising lack of understanding of the power of the social web.

“It is the most immediate and powerful focus group technology in history,” he said. “And it dictates a code of conduct that one would expect a company such as Gap to be attuned to. Its response to the criticism was disingenuous at best and tragically underestimated the audience’s intelligence to see through ill-conceived efforts to save face. All of which violated the implicit social contracts on which all relationships are based: trust, honesty, and authenticity, to name but a few.”

As this situation showed, indeed every brand change is now open to debate and fair game for backlash by the public and the marketing community. The key to success, in my opinion, is to do the research, answer the tough questions that need clarification internally, and have the confidence to stick to what your gut tells you. I had a basketball coach once who said “you can’t lie to yourself,” so if Gap was lying to itself about its overall business shortcomings and thought a new logo would help distract the public, it was asking for criticism.

What do you think?

Today, of course, marketing is a different environment. Compared to a 1960s ad blitz, a modern campaign can incorporate elements such as traditional print advertising, search engine buys, ongoing two-way conversations on numerous social media channels, a contest, special website landing page, blog, trade show experience, video, and so on.

How does a client today manage all of these activities? The answer is to work with an agency that offers marketing synergy.

The benefit of partnering with a synergistic marketing agency, which offers more than one marketing discipline, is simple: it’s the ability to handle multiple marketing tasks, put strategic thinking behind each initiative, and blend the tactics together to increase the overall value of each component. This saves clients the time and energy of coordinating separate agencies and juggling various budgets with a number of firms.

Working with a one-stop shop is different than with a single-disciplined firm, so here are three tips to keep in mind when looking for a partner that can handle all your marketing needs:

Be open to concept extensions: Sometimes clients come to us with a singular request, such as a website, a video or a special event. Because we are a synergistic agency, we tend to look at how the other components in our toolkit of capabilities could support that singular idea and grow it into a complete campaign. We have found that in many cases, it’s that extension of a concept that the client is really after.

Define success: Before embarking on any campaign, understand what success means to your organization. If you don’t know, we won’t know. Success comes in many different forms. For an integrated campaign, each tactic should have a goal, such as total number of downloads, registrations, purchases, etc. That success definition should always be a point of reference when a tactic is being considered and developed.

Be honest and collaborate: Last year we worked with a new client who had a high-visibility product launch and a short time frame. Sound familiar? While a traditional approach may have worked fine in the past, this job required a constant flow of communication between us and the client in order to fulfill all the various campaign elements. This took the client’s honest feedback and commitment to daily engagement, and it got them what they wanted—a successful project.

At the end of the day, marketing synergy brings simplicity to today’s multifaceted marketing world. Simple. Done. Pass the Scotch.

These brands feed me useful and timely communications, special pricing based on my pre-stated interests and consistently deliver a quality product. And I am fiercely loyal.

But brands can take communications too far, much as a smothering date who calls too much, can’t seem to remember your favorite color, and continually asks you to pick up the tab. If it’s unacceptable in personal relationships, is it acceptable for a brand’s relationship with its customers?

Shouldn’t notes be personal?

Shouldn’t offers of affection be based on customer needs, not brand mandates?

Shouldn’t relationships grow over time?

Even Molly Ringwald had to roll her eyes when Ducky left her eight messages in one evening when all she wanted was one message from Blaine (it’s a name, not a major appliance).

What to do? What to do? Look at the customer database like a personal relationship. Would your best friend enjoy four invites to watch your home movies, or a quick note about sharing a great bottle of wine she mentioned to you a few weeks back?

Consider the following:

1. Value each name: the act of providing contact information is no longer a given, so treat each name as a person and foster the relationship.
2. Be considerate: people are busy. Don’t hit the database with one communication after another. Have rules on usage so the brand doesn’t build a relationship based on customer voicemail and junk mail.
3. Be informative: when communicating, give customers what they want. Avoid the temptation to over-communicate.
4. Be there: be available to support customers. Provide options in case there are additional questions.
5. Get smart: each communication is an opportunity to learn about the customer. Take each click or download and apply it to the record. Use it to create custom communications.

Customer relationships, just like personal ones, require time, dedication and fidelity.  Share the love.

Follow the below link to the voting survey and select your favorite. Voting is open until July 11, 10 p.m. PST.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CLJF8DK

Watch for the winning haiku announcement on Monday, July 12.

Good luck to the finalists!

Since joining CMD I’ve had the opportunity to listen to, engage with and get to know people from around the globe. But even after the many @replies or wall posts that I exchange with someone, I’m still left with the inherent desire to know the person behind the other computer – and I’m not the only one.

Recently, I was at a convention with a client, and countless attendees approached our booth wanting to meet me – the person behind the social media accounts. Enter smile and a handshake. Those face-to-face interactions with our audience lifted the veil of digital anonymity (though it’s much less in social media than in other spaces) and transitioned their once online-centric connections with the brand to real relationships with a real person. As a result, the users I met in person are now creating and sharing amazing content on behalf of the brand, inviting friends to join in the conversation, and much more.

We recommend that our clients not forget the personal aspect of social media, and remind them that social interaction doesn’t always have to be through digital means. So how can your brand begin to bridge the gap between the online and offline worlds? Here are a few tips:

• Start small by personalizing your social media properties with a picture or name of the person who is operating the account. While this is still a far cry from a face-to-face interaction, it puts a person behind your communications rather than a faceless logo or image.
• Host a TweetUp at an event where your audience will already be present. This makes it easy for them  to make it to the meet-up, and alleviates your concerns about securing a venue and creating an entire experience for your attendees.
• Invite your audience to tour a new facility, try a new product or sit down to chat with your CEO. Providing your social media connections with unique experiences not only deepens your relationships, but is a key first step in creating brand evangelists.

Connect with Ben any time for a handshake and coffee.

But can it really be done in today’s online culture?

To find out, I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Pat Carew, CMD’s social media video expert and a member of the agency’s film and video department, and ask some questions about what viral video means and how achievable it is as part of a larger campaign. The big question, however, was can you plan a viral video?

“By definition, something viral happens on its own,” said Carew. “The bottom line is you just don’t know if your plans will succeed. They are incredibly hard to do. While you can say you want to produce a viral video, ultimately it’s up to the audience to decide if you have succeeded.”

If you do attempt to make a go at producing a viral video to reach your audience on YouTube or Facebook, Carew suggests a few tips to include in your strategic planning:

Go with humor: Most popular videos contain sex, violence or humor. Since brands tend to stay away from the first two, humor is left as the most-used theme. But, according to Carew, humor is the most difficult to pull off. The most popular videos on YouTube, like this one, simply make people laugh. Be sure to work with professionals on this task to represent your brand well and be tasteful.

Ditch the call to action: A viral video must have a cool factor; it should not be an advertisement. That means no call to action, such as a phone number or email address. This can be the most difficult thing for marketers to pull away from, since it’s a traditional part of video advertising, but remember the goal is entertainment and eyeballs, not direct leads. This Old Spice video is a good example. Notice there’s no call to action. It just entertains while delivering its message in a humorous way.

Monitor for production trends: Stay on top of production trends by researching top videos. Whether they’re stop-frame animation, tilt photography or auto-tuning vocals, there are always interesting production trends that sweep though social media videos that can make them more eye-catching. Don’t worry about the technique being a fad, either. Your goal is to get as many positive impressions as fast as you can. As you can see from this search, auto-tuning is particularly popular right now.

Provide the unexpected: Like the Old Spice commercial, and this video that was produced for Microsoft, the best chance of a video becoming viral is when you provide something unexpected. The viewer doesn’t really know what’s going to happen next in the Old Spice commercial, and although the stunt in the Microsoft video is not real, it provides a “no way” response when viewed. Making the impossible seem real is a big trend now in the most popular online videos.

Be transparent: Above all, be honest in your video distribution. Refrain from posting a video from a personal account or trying to promote it without identifying yourself. This is risky in today’s social media world and can potentially be a big problem.

Finally, remember a video can be successful without being labeled as viral. A video with the right message, like this one produced by CMD, seen by the right people, might be more effective than a wide-reaching clip viewed by the masses.

What are your favorite online videos? Would you label them as viral? Share your thoughts and links with us, and we’ll revisit viral videos in future posts. If you have any questions about video best practices, contact Pat Carew at pcarew@cmdagency.com.

To help our clients keep up-to-date on Twitter best practices, the CMD Earned Media team has presented numerous Twitter how-to seminars over the past year, guiding and showing how to use the channel strategically and addressing the basics of getting started. (See our earlier blog post on our Twitter 101 session for local Portland media.) We recently held a seminar for our CMD colleagues to offer insight and best practices to those who wanted to learn more and get started. The session was spirited and full of interesting questions, including these five:

Q: I’ve set up a Twitter account, but really, why should I be on it?
A: We all use social media to communicate in various ways. Some people use it to keep in touch with family and friends. For business-savvy users, you can listen to what is being said about your clients, research your competition, find recent news pertaining to an industry and connect with media and people who share common interests. If you’re interested in what others are interested in, then Twitter is for you.

Q: What type of information should I list in my profile?
A: It’s important to note that all information on your Twitter profile is searchable, which means that what you tweet will show up in real-time search results based on keywords that you use. Make it easy for people to find you by listing the company you work for, your current location, occupation and interests. Now that Twitter search results show up on Google and general Web search, it’s more important than ever to ensure that what you’re twittering is relevant and interesting, and not just a space-filler, i.e. “I’m eating lunch.”

Q: How do I develop followers or find people to follow?
A: There are many ways to develop followers. For example: using Twitter’s search bar, doing a Google search, or using one of our favorite free tools, www.twellow.com. Twellow is like the Yellow Pages of Twitter – with over 12.5 million profiles listed, you can harness your following/followers by looking up your favorite hobby, the industry you work in, location and more.

Q: What if I accidently share something on Twitter that I did not want to?
A: As we like to remind our clients, once you send a tweet, it technically lives forever in the “twittersphere.” Sure, Twitter offers the ability to delete a tweet (when you hover over your update when viewing your home or profile page, you’ll see a trash can at the end of the update), but there is no way to prevent it from ever not turning up in search results. When in doubt, re-read what you’re about to tweet to make sure you’re comfortable with the message.

Q: Can I update multiple social media channels at once?
A: Yes. We are busy people, and managing different social media profiles takes time. If you are interested in integrating both your Facebook and Twitter profiles simultaneously, visit: http://www.ping.fm/ (another favorite tool of ours). Also, LinkedIn has recently been enabled for Twitter updates, so your tweets can appear in your network updates section.

Questions? Tweet us @CMDPortland. We’re here to help.