Brands

Trend #3 in a 5 part series following Marketing Goes Real Time and The Web Leans Back

3. BRANDS TAKE USER GENERATED DATA SERIOUSLY

The third trend focuses on user-generated data (UGD) rightly being taken seriously.  The ongoing big data conversation can often spiral out of control and although enterprise data is a rich seam of intelligence it’s the largely unstructured and chaotic world of user generated data that is of most immediate value to marketers.

In fact 70% of the world’s data is currently being created passively by individuals and their daily digital and social actions⁸.  Facebook is unsurprisingly the biggest beneficiary of this with its 1 billion odd users creating 500 terabytes of new user data each day⁹.  In isolation each of these seemingly small data points (a like, check-in, photo tags etc) is principally inconsequential but combined can build a really rich audience picture.  Interestingly the #2 social network, twitter, generates a small in comparison 12 terabytes of new user-generated data each day!

The value of this UGD is starting to find traction with traditional and emerging organizations alike.  Nielsen recently bought Social Guide¹⁰, a social TV analytics platform and have in fact shifted their entire social media strategy to focus on analytics as opposed to monitoring.  Twitter on the back of creating the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating have also acquired a social TV analytics technology in Blue Fin Labs¹¹, so expect more movement in this space is it continues to mature.

As the value of UGD is more thoroughly explored we’ll start to see its impact felt in different ways;

Firstly brands and agencies will need to invest in increased data rigor and processing.  With up to 60% of the social signal categorised as noise UGD will need to be subjected to the same level of cleansing as other consumer sources.

Secondly the increased levels of data confidence that will come with this rigor will help drive a shift in campaign measurement.  Traditional media currencies will come under pressure as more insightful and meaningful alternatives emerge.

Lastly the UGD set will grow in prominence and value to brands as they look for an immediate source of insight and feedback to power the real time marketing trend mentioned earlier.

Sources:

• 8 – IDC Whitepaper – The Diverse & Exploding Digital Universe 2008
• 9 – Gigaom Facebook Report 2012
• 10 – Nielsen Press Release 2012
• 11 – Twitter Press Release 2013

Zuck and the Facebook crew have been tinkering again.  This time the Facebook news feed has been placed under the spotlight with a complete redesign.  The reason?  Clutter, and being honest the news feed was a pretty horrible experience.  I never once managed to get my head around why I was expected read stories, top stories and real time stories.  Surely the premise of having 3 separate news feeds bundled together in one was counter intuitive to what Facebook was striving to achieve with its ranking algorithm in putting the most valuable content front and center.  Anyway, the design changes look pretty strong in my opinion, the clutter is gone, the content pops off the page and I’m sure from a user perspective people will begin to enjoy the more streamlined experience.

But what if you are a brand who has spent big coin building out a brand page?  Well on the surface it appears you are f*cked!  Sorry, let me rephrase, your f*cked if you don’t have a big marketing budget ready to spend on pushing you ‘advercontent’ out through the news feed on a daily basis.  This actually feels a little backward, remember when Yahoo! was focusing on monitising the biggest brands via there search engine?  Then Google came along and monitised the long tail and the rest is history.  This feels very similar.  The big brands will invest, the 1000′s of smaller brands most probably won’t. What are your thoughts?  For a publicly listed organisation Facebook certainly likes to keep fussing with its core revenue stream!

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Here’s a nice little synopsis of the most viral video’s of 2012. Although there seems to be one massively obvious omission, PSY & Gangnam Style which is tracking at over 1.2 billion view now, a closer look shows this is brand related content only. The most interesting part of the infographic though centers around the twitter vs Facebook virality ratio. Apparently video content was shared 85% more on Facebook than twitter and the average viral video has a 1:53 share/view ratio.

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Space seems to be back in vogue!  With the private sectors space race now fully in motion, brands like Virgin Galatics commercial ambitions and XCOR and their reusable shuttle program have helped bring the final frontier back into peoples consciousness.  Mix that supposedly increasing accessibility (for Joe Blogs and freinds) with 2012 break out campaign, Red Bull Stratos, and the scene seems very well set for the next Space/Brand idea.  So here it is, the Lynx Space Academy where 4 lucky contestants will battle it out in Florida for their chance to be sent sub-orbital at 60km above earth!

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It has to be a constant fear for brands actively involved in the conversation.  No matter what frameworks, contingency plans, training and approval gates there may be between private opinion and public updates there is always a risk the wrong thing might leak out or the right thing may be taken in the wrong way.  On the other hand there are clearly some people out there that completely lack common sense, a moral compass or brain filter.  Here are some of the best!

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Did you attend but were too partied out to pay attention, or were you jealously following the tweets like I was from afar?  Either way Jesse Desjardins (as he did last year) has pulled together a great snapshot of not only some of the thinking but also how important the story and creative delivery is.  Enjoy.

Consumer confidence in marketing has shifted radically in recent years.  Peer reviews, friends & family and word of mouth has grown in importance while the trust placed in paid for media has taken a hit.  Brands are being forced into transparency as they look to narrow the gap between marketing claims and actual consumer experience.  So what’s the end game?  I’m hoping a renewed focus on quality & experience.

How is trust in marketing changing?

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Anyone working in the communication industry will be familiar with the increasing importance of a brands story.  Having purpose and authenticity is now just as important as having a recognisable logo.  Toms shoes, Zappos and Whole Foods are all examples of brands that have excelled through a well crafted brand story backed up.  Another brand that is fighting to be added to that list is Quicksilver who have recently installed wave powered generators outside their production facility.  Why?  Well Quicksilver don’t just want to make products for waves, they want their products to be made by the waves!

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I thought I’d share something simple today, not a new campaign, piece of technology or infographic, but rather a glimpse at the opportunity Facebook cover photos can offer brands.  With the hard switch over only happening 4 days ago I’m sure there are many brands and agencies out there still trying to understand or define best practice, so hopefully the following 50 odd slides will provide a little inspiration.