One million dollar question

While we are focused on get customers and prospects engaged, there is one single and straight preliminary question:

are you ready to get your brand engaged?

If you do not ask this question in complete transparency and honesty, beware of the consequence of asking clients to be once more time creditors to your company

The ivory tower and a non sense car

Some companies seem to live in their own ivory tower. Worst is that their press office do the same.
In the last months, the much rumored ethanol was debated about being a eco fuel or a solution worst than the original problem.

Tons of articles about the impact of producing ethanol on the food prices.
The boss of Nestlè, Peter Brabeck, claimed that food price could double in a very short time because of this issue.
Some riots for the food prices are expected in the most poor countries.

On the other side, the Suv are under strong criticism because of pollution and high emission of CO2.
The London Mayor put high tax on the Suv circulating in the city limit.


In this perfect situation, GM came out with this amazing news in a car blog:

The Hummer is going green!
Within 2010, the entire line of Hummer will be ethanol powered.
And this because of GM green attitude.

The post got 34 comments in one day and guess if they were positive or negative.
Now my question is rather easy to be asked:
do they read newspapers? do they see tv news? hear the radio? got an internet connection?
how thay can imagine to spread this news in such a way and get positive comment?

The best quote: imagine Count Dracula president of the blood donors association.

Apple and the Italian mobile market

As anticipated in this blog few months ago, Apple was forced to change its strategy so to enter the Italian mobile market, which is one of the biggest and most profitable in the world.

The change of strategy reflects the way this market is moving:

- lot of attention on the newest and trendiest device
- an attitude to shift from one operator to another
- a market where operators play a really big role (two big operators, Tim and Vodafone, a medium one, H3G)
- poor wifi availability

The answer is an agreement based on exclusive distribution via Tim for 6 months, no revenue sharing, UMTS based device (44% UMTS share in Italy vs 20% France and 18% UK).

The other key fact is a consideration about device and software.
Motorola is going bankruptcy even if its Razr is the best sold device ever. Why? Because Motorola was not able to deliver contents (software, platform, etc) and get eventually caught in the price trap of the mobile market.
Apple has one chance to avoid this trap: its browser, Safari.
In US 70% of the internet access via mobile comes through Safari.

Selling more devices is the way to remain on top for more advanced market, as Italy.

Integrated marketing and the brave new world

Apparently, advertising agencies are revamping the integrated marketing approach trying to incorporate the web 2.0 brave new world function in it.

This may prove to be a rather poor way to squeeze some money out of a field they do not own nor fully understand.
But it is a sign of weakness. Strategically, if the web 2.0 activities must go along with the advertising activities it does not mean that advertising should lead the pack.
The strategy should turn from advertising to communication and communication is led by the vehicle most suitable to deliver it. And this is not necessarily advertising.

This consideration lead to a crucial question to clients and consultants: who should retain the leadership of the project?
Once it was the adv agency account. Now he is revenue driven by his own boss bottom line and this may not coincide with client's best interest.

More than in the past, the web 2.0 and the communication tools of the next years call for a bigger involvement of the client structure. But is clients ready to play this role? Do they have the resources to get into the game?

The Waterloo of strategy

You may have heard of the hilarious accident of one of the top executives , Luca Luciani, of Telecom the biggest Italian phone company.
In this video(with english subtitle), you may hear the guy talking about Waterloo as one of the best success of Napoleon. Well, maybe he got confused.
But what is really weird is the tone of his speach, pretending to motivate but with a very low profile indeed.
This should have been a motivational speach, something to make your people feeling proud of their company and of their job.

But this is not all. The worst is that Telecom try to pull out the video from You Tube: bad move.
It was uploaded under other tags and someone opened a blog to save all the comments and the video from the tentative censorship.
Now this was a very stupid move by Telecom and they should know how to handle the web.

People felt even more upset abd begun to post about the salary of the executive, the fact that he should resign.

As usual, admitting a mistake is the best way to face this issue and the only way to turn a Waterloo into an Austerlitz.

Free Tibet

This post has a rather strong political message inside.
But not only political, but economical, too, and marketing.

These Olympic Games show a rather high chance to be a fiasco from a marketing point of view.
Even if China has a lot of power, manufacturing a significant percentage of all the goods on the market, still if I was a sponsor of the Games I would be very upset.
My brand will be associated with a retrieve country, a country where censorship is a daily practice, where you can get sentenced two years of prison because of an article on a blog.

Yesterday in London and, most, today in Paris for the first time in centuries, the Olimpyc torch was turned off and a Tibet flag is on the Mayor house.

Look who's talking

A new venture originated by my company, Buzzdetector, has been launched this morning:

www.buzzpolitico.net

Everything you would love to know about Italian election as seen by the net.

The crew behind the project is here.

The cleanest line to retain a customer

There is only one company where I really would love to work (other than Buzzdetector, indeed): Patagonia.
The ability to deliver great product, good vibe, clean and discerning approach to the world where we live. And the ability to make a customer feeling confident about the money he spend when purchasing stuff from Patagonia.

I bought few months ago a jacket to ride my Vespa around in winter. Few weeks ago, I ripped a sleeve: my fault. I brought the jacket to a Patagonia store, they took it, send it in Portugal where they have a plant, repaired and send it me back. Cost for this: 15 usd.
This is what I expect from a company and this is what they have delivered.

And, by the way, check their blog, The cleanest line.
It's a great example of selling company value and it is open to employees, customers and friends.

Is the adoption of the Web 2.0 only a tactic to save money?

With troubled times ahead and a slowing if not crashing economy, I sometimes think that one of the most powerfull selling tool for the Web 2.0 vs traditional media is the cost.
A tv campaign does cost x times more than a buzz activity, as well as the implementation of a blog does cost much less money than a billboard campaign.
But is this a key fact to sell a project to a client?
Are we tarnishing the inner value of the on line activity making it cheap?

Indeed cost control is crucial and to tell the truth on line metrics are still at an early stage to detect the contribution of each single activity to the bottom line.

What's your opinion?

Another call to action

These days are terribly sad to me, as a Buddhist and as someone believing that world should be a better place to live in.
And these days do confirm to me that China is a cancer for a civilized world.
A country where there are no civil rights, no freedom, where thousands of people are send to death every year, where two millions of cats and dogs are skinned alive every year.
A country where communism is still alive.
A country where the communist party and money are the only religion.
A country sending around the world products done violating all the basic rules for our safety and health.

I believe that if we are interested in a better world, in freedom, I believe we have to boycott the Olympic Games.
We were told that the Games were a great way to turn China in a democratic country.
Well, they lied to us.
I believe that we should send to China a strong and clear message that they have to change its attitude.

For the first time since I have this blog, I feel that I'm not willing to accept any criticism to my post.
I feel that I'm so upset with all the people and the corporations that cover their eyes for the sake of money.
I feel that we have to do something to stop China in all these malicious practice.

A pray for freedom

A pray for the Buddhist monks fighting for the Tibet indipendence.
49 years ago, China invaded Tibet and begun an endless list of violence.

Shame on the US that, for money, two days ago delisted China from the countries that violate human rights.

Wanna play with big money? Web 2.0 maybe is not your playground.

I just get into this brilliant post by David Armano.
I do totally agree with him.

Le Roi est mort

Is Roi still a valid definition to measure the result of the activity on the Web?
I believe it's not.

We talk about engagement, trust, conversation and still define the return on the investment.
therefore I suggest to use new definition: Return on engagement, Return on trust.
I will talk about it at the first ever conference about Wom in Italy, on April 2/3.
I run the morning workshop about it.
I called it: Roi and his brothers (quote from a famous Luchino Visconti's movie Rocco and his brothers).

The issue of metrics is crucial in developing clients' trust and a bunch of players are throwing in the market their own solution.
But it seems the war of format between Sony and Toshiba: which standard will prevail?

Crap is crap

In this time of neverending exploration of the unlimited frontiers of the web 2.0, we sometimes get lost in thinking that there is a solution for every problem.

So is for our clients.

This new brave world makes marketing dream come true.
I can talk with consumers, show them I much I care, subliminaly introduce my products, turn them to customers. And all of this with less money than the average cost of mass media advertising.

Well, my dear marketers, there is an undeniably truth still around: is your product sucks, it sucks.
No matter how articulate can be your strategy, or the strategy of your agency or consultants, the web will not keep you safe from this reality.

What you can do, now?

Be honest: do not pretend that your product is the best in town
Be transparent: if there is some faults, try to fix them not to hide them under the carpet
Be consistent: choose the resonating strategy and strive for it

Your reputation will be rewarded, then.

Betrayal of the Olympic spirit for the sake of money

The IOC finally disclosed the Guidelines for the accredited participating at the next Olympic Games in China. (via La Repubblica, the doc is the english version)

The limitation for bloggers are the perfect representation of what China think about democracy and freedom of speach.

This is the apotheoses of business vs ideals:

1. forget about human rights
2. forget about democracy and freedom
3. forget animal rights

This is really a sad moment for the western world, this is a sad moment for the democracy and for all the people who believe in freedom.

Now that China is so hot, just think about it.

Meat exacts a costly toll

This great essay of Mark Bittman put another step in my personal process toward a conscious way of eat.
And put another step, or it should, in the mind of marketers.

"Mr. Rosegrant of the food policy research institute says he foresees “a stronger public relations campaign in the reduction of meat consumption — one like that around cigarettes — emphasizing personal health, compassion for animals, and doing good for the poor and the planet.”

The key fact is that the public relation campaign against cigarette begun when the web was not born yet. It took several years to achieve some results.
But we live in an era of fast change, sometimes faster than we can imagine.


We live in a world with almost 6 bn inhabitants and every single shift in habits may turn to prove incredibly healthy for millions of people.

Therefore, if you work in a food industry, it's time to re think your perspectives. Before it may be too late, all of a sudden.
What about you?

Still able to eat meat?

This video from Repubblica may have nothing to do with marketing, er, wait a minute this could have a lot to do with marketing.
Imagine you are approaching your favourite restaurant or fast food. You already feel the taste of a filet or a double hamburger or whatever is your meat plat du jour.
You sit down, got connected wireless and look at these images.
Two option:

1. your restaurant provide you with a certificate that the meat you eat come from places where animals are treated well and killed softly
2. your restaurant cannot exclude that the meat you are going to eat come from places where cruelty is the routine

In case #2, are you still able to eat that meat?

That's why this has to do with marketing.
Because in a world more and more conscious of the need of a fair treatment of the world, this may become a lethal weapon for your competitors.
To apply ethic principles at every step of the production is a must for all the companies. And it will be vital, at least I hope so, for all the business.

Me? After having seen the video, it's two days that I eat only vegetables.
No, I'm not turning to be vegetarian. But I'm thinking a lot about it because of video like these.

Microsoft new look

Did you read Robert Scoble's yesterday post? Intriguing, isn't it?
Wow, Microsoft is going to become the next cool thing.
Or is it just a great piece of PR, Apple style, for Microsoft and for Fast Company TV?
Too many question and no answer.

Let's see on Feb. 27th, then.

It's the recession , stupid.

Do you remember how Bill Clinton won the first round as president of the US? With this basic approach to the economy: it's the economy, stupid.
Now that most of the countries are facing a slow down of their economy and, perhaps, a recession, it's time for us as marketers and for the companies, to think that with a weak economy, some basics do change.
In this great post from Groundswell, Josh Bernoff hilights key factors that will influence the way companies face these tough times.

Awareness ads will lose effectiveness
But social applications are about consideration, not awareness
It's cheap

It's the recession, stupid!
Getting to know what your customers, of today or prospects are far more important in troubled times, cause they can be the provider of consideration.

The buzz is on!

Yes, we do all know that the buzz is on.
Around us or generated by ourselves. About us or our friends, about the brands we love and the one we hate.
So why do not add my two cents?
Friday will be the kick off day of Buzzdetector, a company that I founded and own.
The goal is to hear from, to understand the sentiment of the web and to translate the voices in strategic advice.
Some clients are already on board as I tested the process since May 2007, but this is a work in progress, as any project related to the web.

I'll be happy to welcome you on www.buzzdetector.com this Friday.

Stay tune.