'Paid Owned Earned: maximizing marketing returns in a socially connected world'

Yesterday I got an email from Nick Burcher about his new book. Nick describes the book, 'Paid Owned Earned: maximizing marketing returns in a socially connected world', as an "exploration of the different aspects of Paid Owned Earned and how everything links together - with the text split into individual chapters around 'Listening', 'Community Management and Content Hubs', 'Content', 'Optimization', 'Seeding and Distribution', 'Broadcast', 'Performance', 'Responding' and 'Measurement'".

He goes on to say, "[that] Paid, Owned, Earned is about the complexity of media channels confronting brands, agencies and advertisers. With a multitude of case studies and original thinking it provides a clear framework on how best to approach the fragmented media landscape."

I was absolutely delighted to find out that Nick has released a free editorial sampler featuring excerpts about linking paid owned and earned media together as well as an exploration of how TV and social can be linked.

Paid Owned Earned by Nick Burcher


The full book blurb:
“The complexity of media that now sees multiple channels accessed through multiple devices has created major challenges for today's marketing and advertising professionals. Consumer time is split between TVs, laptops, iPads, X-Boxes and smartphones, with traditional media, websites, videos, social networks and apps all competing for attention, meaning it's difficult for brands to decide how best to reach and engage their audiences. Paid, Owned, Earned defines the constituents of each area of 'paid', 'owned' and 'earned' media and shows how they are linked together. It proposes a blueprint for how to think and navigate across this space using a framework made up of key elements such as communities and content, social media optimisation, seeding and viral distribution, broadcast mass media, social performance media and measurement.”

Paid Owned Earned is available for pre-order now with an official on sale date of the 3rd March 2012 from from both online and offline retailers.

Beer enthusiasts quench their thirst for knowledge

---Press Release---

ThisIsBeer.ie has arrived. Thisisbeer.ie is Ireland’s newest online beer hub built to celebrate the natural goodness of beer. Some of the best beer brands in the world have come together to create a platform where enthusiasts and novices can discuss, learn about and experience beer to its fullest.

Over 40,000 beers worldwide are made of just three natural ingredients; water, hops, and barley, making beer a natural match to food. ThisIsBeer.ie offers up a wide range of beers with delicious recipes, in keeping with the fast growing global trend of matching food.

With regular blog contributions from a wide range of experts in beer, nutrition and food, Thisisbeer.ie is the perfect place for budding beer aficionados to keep up to date on news and facts about beer. Thisisbeer.ie delivers video blogs, true or false beer quizzes and tips on how to pour, store and cool beer for the discerning beer drinker.

David Forde, Managing Director at Heineken Ireland said “This website is a great opportunity for both beer enthusiasts and those who enjoy an occasional beer to get the best out of the most refreshing drink out there; beer. With its natural ingredients, a beer is the perfect accompaniment for food and ThisIsBeer.ie offers the perfect combination of creating a meal to complement your favourite beer, while also showing how beer enhances your food.”

The website is a Heineken Ireland initiative and features the wide range of beers available from Ireland’s number one lager company. Heineken Ireland’s portfolio includes beers from around the world such as Ireland’s number one lager; Heineken, Tiger, Coors Light and a full range of specialty beers which includes Paulaner, Moretti, Affligem and Zwyiec.

ESB Electric Ireland - Tweet 'em Home For Christmas

Yesterday ESB Electric Ireland announced that Mike Carey, Liz Cotter and Ian O’Flynn were selected as the lucky drivers who will help Tweet ‘em Home for Christmas. Each of the drivers and their “star navigator” will receive €10,000 from ESB Electric Ireland for their chosen charity and will also have the chance to win an additional €20,000 for the winning charity by competing to generate Tweets using the three team hashtags.

Team A: Musician Mundy and Comedian Joe Rooney
Charity: Concern Worldwide
Hashtag: #ESBElectricIrelandTeamA

Team B: Comedian Andrew Stanley and RTE Presenter Katie Van Buren
Charity: Irish Cancer Society
Hashtag: #ESBElectricIrelandTeamB hashtag

Team C: Magician Keith Barry and Rugby Commentator Brent Pope
Charity: ISPCCwill
Hashtag: #ESBElectricIrelandTeamC

The teams will travel from Dublin to Galway and back again this Thursday and Friday, December 8th and 9th in a Renault Trophy, a DeLorean and a New York yellow taxi cab. The teams will compete in a number of challenges in various towns along the way to earn additional Tweet energy for their cars.

Ken McKervey, Commercial Manager, ESB Electric Ireland commented, “ESB Electric Ireland Tweet Em Home for Christmas is just around the corner now. It gives people the chance to give something to charity this year in a fun and engaging way by simply using social media like Twitter and Facebook. We want to urge everyone to help our three teams by tweeting or by liking on Facebook using the relevant hashtags to power the cars as they drive across the country on Thursday and Friday!”

People can follow the progress of each of the teams in real time using the Facebook App on the ESB Electric Ireland Facebook Page

For further details on ISPCC visit www.ispcc.ie, on Irish Cancer Society visit www.cancer.ie, and on Concern Worldwide visit www.concern.net

Google Says Happy Birthday

I would imagine that pretty much everyone is familiar with the Google Doodle. The Google Doodle is when Google swap out their regular logo on their homepage and show a special, stylised version to commemorate a historic event, a famous birth, a national holiday etc. The doodle can be different in different countries or they can be global doodles.

Some of the most recent ones are above: Father's Day, the Lunar Eclipse, Les Paul's 96th Birthday and Martha Graham's 117th Birthday.

My favourite, however, is the one that I can see today. I say 'I' as unless you happen to share the same birthday as me, you won't be seeing this. This is the Google Doodle that Google display to you on your birthday:


In my humble opinion, this is very cool.

The State Of The Internet

Just watch...

52 Weeks, 52 Girls, A Whole Lot of Burritos!

A little while ago my mate Richie moved to London to a new job with We Are Social. I was lucky enough to be over in London back in February and I can safely say that London suits Richie perfectly. He clearly loves the place and I have a sneaking suspicion that London loves Richie. You see back on the 25th March Richie attended the London Twestival. Not anything too strange or exciting about this, so did 464 other people. So who showed Richie the love?

At the twestival the nice people of Chilango, the Mexican food chain, donated a super prize for a giveaway in aid of Concern. The prize was a year’s worth of free burrito meals. I presume you can guess where this is going. Richie was the lucky winner! It being a Twitter event the news was out on the web pretty fast, and as you can imagine Richie's initial plan to selfishly stuff his face with burritos was soon dashed. So in a moment, of what Richie described as equal measures weakness and greatness, the decision was made to share the prize. Of course the question remained, how best to share out 52 weeks of burrito meals?

Being a young, good-looking, marketing professional, Richie came up with the genius (whichever way you want to look at it) idea to take out 52 different girls for burrito meals - 1 girl every week for a whole year! And so was born the story of the 52 Burrito Dates…

I won't spoil the story here by sharing any of the amusing tweets that Richie has already received but you should pop over and check them out. I'll be posting regular updates as the story unfolds (including how his first date with @photogirluk goes!) but for all the good bits you really will need to get to Richie's blog.

Enjoy :)

Online PR With Damien Mulley

First I'd like to apologise for the lateness of this post - I don't really have any excuse. Back at the end of January I was lucky enough to be offered the chance to join a small group of individuals to participate in Damien Mulley's first Online PR Training Course. As would be expected with anything that Damien does, the initial session had over 80 requests to attend for the 30 places that he had to offer, so I was extremely delighted to be able to attend. The event would act as a sounding board and "staging environment" for Damien to put together a full publicly accessible version for Digital and Public Relation professionals.

For the session that I participated in there were 6 fundamental areas that Damien covered:

• 0. Basics of Online Comms
• 1. Developing a Communications Bible
• 2. Developing a Comms Philosophy
• 3. Working with: Blogs, Forums, Twitter etc.
• 4. Finding Tools – Who is talking about you online?
• 5. Crisis Communications

While this may seem like the lazy way out, and I hope you'll be convinced that it isn't, I decided that the best recap I could possibly write up on the event wouldn't surpass the excellent write up and video that Leo Fogarty wrote. So with that in mind, please have a look at Leo's recap and stay tuned to Mulley.ie for news of an upcoming course that you could take - I highly recommend it!

Paulaner Oktoberfest 2009

The Irish may be the stout kings of thew world, but when it comes to beer the Germans know a thing or two about brewing. Specifically those clever folk in Bavaria. Luckily you don't need to go all the way to Bavaria to enjoy some of the finest German beers and foods. It's that time of the year again and Oktoberfest is upon us!

The annual Paulaner Oktoberfest kicks off next week on the 8th October and runs for a full 10 days until the 18th. This is the second year that the festival has travelled to Ireland is not to be missed. It's a free event, and is absolutely family friendly. You can experience traditional German fun, food and entertainment. Even better news, for those of us living in Ringsend, is that the Paulaner Oktoberfest will again be located in Dublin’s George's Dock. Perhaps even better news is that the festival will feature its famous marquee (representative of the Munich Oktoberfest), a host of German market stalls, and over 24 Munich barmaids, all aiming to share some German fun, food, entertainment and seriously tasty Bavarian beer. The Paulaner Oktoberfest will also offer visitors a taste of authentic Bavarian brass and dance music from the German group, Mostland Stürmer.

The traditional German market will feature over thirty German speciality food traders, all of whom are travelling to Dublin specifically for the festival. So make sure to try the speciality sausages, meat, Käsealm and candy and ginger bread hearts. The festival will also offer visitors the chance to try Paulaner and Paulaner Non Alcoholic, as well as the special Oktoberfest brew.


Last year over 70,000 people visited the festival and don't expect it to be any different this year. Whatever you do, don't miss this great opportunity.

For more information check out the Paulaner Oktoberfest website, or email info@paulaner-oktoberfest.com

Alternatively, why not join the 190 festival fans already on Facebook?

For a taste of what's to come, check out this video of last years Oktoberfest:

IKEA and Vedana

During the week, what may seem like a seemingly insignificant event, swept across the web creating a huge amount of debate and coverage. IKEA changed their font.

Seriously.

IKEA's signature Futura font has been replaced by the Verdana. For the last 50 years, IKEA have been using IKEA Sans, a customized version of Futura. However, for their new 2010 catalogue, IKEA have made a switch to the Verdana typeface. As it turns out, fans and designers are extremely unhappy with the change. On Wednesday, design consultant Marius Ursache even went as far as to create an online petition to stop IKEA from changing the font. So why did IKEA make the change and why are their such strong feeling over this?

In an interview with the Swedish design magazine Cap & Design, IKEA’s Ivana Hrdlickova said that IKEA's central reason for changing fonts was to allow the company to use the same typeface in all countries it currently operates in. IKEA's previous font Futura did not allow for Asian characters. As Verdana was designed for the web, it allows the company’s image to remain consistent online and in print. Unfortunately, that's also the main reason for the backlash. Verdana was never intended as a print typeface and was created purely for use on screen. Microsoft invented the font for shipping with Internet Explorer 3 in 1996.

Here are a selection of a few comments that have been made:

Simon l'Anson, a creative director in London, said "it has open, wide letterforms with lots of space between characters to aid legibility at small sizes on screen," but "it doesn't exhibit any elegance or visual rhythm when set at large sizes. It's like taking the family sedan off-road. It will sort of work, but ultimately gets bogged down."

Carolyn Fraser, a letterpress printer from Australia, said Verdana is "dumbed down and overused."

"They went cheap," said designer Iancu Barbarasa. "Designers have always thought of Ikea as one of their own, so now, in a way, the design community feels betrayed."

The issue has gained such coverage that Time Magazine have even covered the story. So what do you think? Does this change really make a noticeable difference?

The fonts in question...

Bad Reporting on Silicon Republic

I have about two dozen Google Alerts that I run, and get results from everyday. Mostly client brand terms and company names, but I also run some generic alerts on industry terms. I was interested to see Zesty's recent Social Media survey referenced in the teaser for a Silicon Republic article. Nice I thought, good coverage for Niall and Lauren, I better take a look at this.

So I click through to have a read.

I was less then over enthusiastic about the article's title 'Workers waste two hours a day on social networks', and could immediately see that the author, John Kennedy, was already on track to produce a sensationalist piece of nonsense.

The article references 300 people as having participated in the survey and goes on to throw around statistics from this that it attributes to "the Irish public". The number of people who participated in the survey was 182 (though not all participants responded to all questions). As someone who has studied statistics for over 5 years through various parts of my education, I will tell you straight off that this is not a statistical sound representation of the 'Irish Public'. Neither is it a sound cross-section of the 'Irish Public'. How was the survey promoted? Who are the target audience / regular visitors to Zesty's site? Both extremely important questions that are not even considered in the article. This is a PR site that was promoted through Social Media channels. Reason stands that the participants will be Social Media users.

For those who care; to give statistically sound inferences on the entire 'Irish Public', with a confidence level of 99%, with a confidence interval of 1, it would be necessary to survey 16,575 people (based on a July 2008 Irish population figure of 4,156,119).

I would also like to point out that the survey does not delve into the reasons why people who participated in the survey were using Social Media. I took the survey and can tell you now that I definitely skewed the results. I work in Digital Marketing, I currently have several live campaigns all active in Social Media channels. I therefore spend a huge amount of time every day on Social Media channels. However, in this case, my employer should be worried if I'm not on them, not if I am.

I would like to make this very clear - I don't have a problem with the survey at all and I think it's great that Zesty took the time to do it, and freely shared the results. Fair play! Zesty themselves describe the survey as an "overview of how Irish people use social media" and nothing more. They indicate that the major stand out for them was "just how much time people were spending online", but again this is no huge revelation and is merely a reinforcement of the widely recognised fact that media consumption habits are changing (have changed) and digital is the fastest growing media.

My problem is with the completely sensational article that John Kennedy has written, and the "conclusions" that he has drawn. Very, very disappointing that Silicon Republic would happily publish this.

Street Performance World Championships

I was delighted to get invited to last night's Street Performance World Championships Corporate Evening, hosted by Emergent Events, in The Sugar Club. Going on last night (Tuesday 14 July) and tonight (Wednesday 15 July), the event is a corporate showcase and networking event to show off some the best street performers in the world.

The guys at Emergent Events are the official agents for some of the SPWC's best performers; including Beautiful Stu; Senmaru; Charlie Caper (winner of Sweden's Got Talent); Grant GoldieJack Wise and the world renowned Space Cowboy.

Mark, Conor and Dan are the gents in question, and I highly recommend that anyone hosting a corporate event of any kind gives them a call.

Check out the following videos as a taste of what we enjoyed...

Plaid Nation Tour 2009

I can't believe it's been a year since I posted about the Plaid Nation Tour (2008). But sure enough it has been and the guys will soon be back on the road doing what they love doing. I got an email from R.J. just there at the beginning of July to remind me the tour was fast approaching and to ask me to send him my details so he could post on the annual Plaid Nation Swag Bag.

Well today, as I sat there getting ready to start the working week, a nice little envelope dropped on my desk. As soon as I saw the address label I tore it open...




So for those not in the know, what is Plaid Nation and what is the Plaid Nation Tour?
PlaidNation describes itself as a "rolling celebration of creativity and a demonstration of social media in action". Picture an agency taking to the road in their fully customised, social media optimised, technology enabled Ford Flex, driving around the states to meet up with as many creative, marketing, brand and internet folk as they can. Their aim - to engage, interact and celebrating all the innovative things that Social Media has to offer. What's particularly cool is that the whole thing will be brought straight to your pc as a 'kind of' reality show (but better, they promise).

So what does it all mean and why should you be interested in it?
This is a seriously cool opportunity to connect and engage with the latest social media tools, the cutting edge of modern marketing, without so much Tweeting a Tweet or Commenting a Blog. Plaid will dish out their learnings and insights about how and why the world's biggest brands are using Social Media. In this wonder-tour the Plaid Flex will be visiting (and driving between) Detroit, Milwaukee, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Branson, Memphis, Jackson and New Orleans. Though don't fear if you're a West Coaster, or don't even live in the US, as they also actively reach out to the International Interweb community (they found me!) to share what they learn from all the marketing, brand and creative people they meet.

In case I'm doing a poor job of conveying the coolness of all this, check out their video...



Plaid Links:
Plaid
Plaid Nation
About the Plaid Nation Tour
Plaid Nation Downloads
The Plaid Nation Blog
Plaid on Twitter
Plaid on Facebook

Complaining Web2.0 Style

Back in 2008, the band Sons of Maxwell were on their way to Nebraska for the start of a one-week tour. They were flying via Chicago's O'Hare airport and while sitting on the runway waiting to depart O'Hare a number of people on the plane commented that the United Airlines baggage handlers were throwing around a guitar. Dave Carroll, lead singer of Sons of Maxwell realised that it was his own Taylor guitar. Dave would later discover that the handlers had caused $3500 worth of damage.

United Airlines didn't deny what had happened but for the next 9 months Dave got passed from employee to employee, each of whom just failed to take any responsibility for dealing with the damage. Dave was finally told that United Airlines would offered the singer a $1,200 flight voucher to cover the costs for his guitar repair, as he had not followed the correct complaints procedure.

Feeling that there was nothing that Dave could do, he told the last person who gave him this news that he planned on writing and producing 3 songs about the experience. He also promised to create videos for each song that would be posted online for everyone to see. Below is Sons of Maxwell's first of these songs, simply titled 'United: Song 1'. The second song, 'United: Song 2' has been written and the video production is currently under way.The third song will follow soon.

'United: Song 1' was posted on YouTube 5 days ago on the 6th of July. In that short space of time the video has already received over 2 million views.

In light of this, United Airlines was forced to apologise to Dave and the band. The airline issued a statement via Twitter, saying: "This has struck a chord [with] us and we've contacted him directly to make it right."

In true internet brilliance, the 'United: Song 1' video now ranks number 2 in Google for searches on "United Airlines" and number 4 for searches on "Taylor guitar".

You can follow Dave on Twitter and read the full story of what happened on Dave's website.

Digital PR & Communities Manager

I am extremely happy to announce that my role within Cybercom has taken on an extra dimension. While I am still working as a Digital Account Manager, I now also have the responsibility of becoming Cybercom's Digital PR & Communities Manager.

I will act as brand ambassador and evangelist for Cybercom and all our clients, working to develop and manage all Digital PR and Social Media activities across all channels and platforms. As both a Blogger / Social Media Advocate and a Digital Marketer, this role allows me to combine all the elements I love most about my work, and expand them across the entire breath of clients that we have the pleasure of working with.

Exciting times!

Arnie Wants The World Cup

The Californian governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has launched himself onto the Social Media circuit to bolster the Californian bid for the Fifa World Cup in 2018 or 2022. As the newest member of the board of directors for the USA Bid Committee, Schwarzenegger has created a video message in support of the committees preparation to apply to get the Fifa World Cup back to the USA.

Schwarzenegger says, "Soccer is the world's most popular sport and California has been home to some of its most exciting games, and I am proud to be a part of bringing the World Cup back to the United States."

Eight other countries have formally declared their intent to host the Fifa World Cup in 2018 or 2022.



Interestingly, Schwarzenegger revealed his new role on Twitter.

The Black (Pixel) Truth

Here is a great article from Nick Burcher, discussing the reality of black screens vs. white screens when it comes to energy consumption.

Facebook + Election Canditate = Problems

This was covered fairly extensively in some of the National press but a lot of people seemed to miss the story entirely. Don't get me wrong, if this was an ordinary Joe Public I'd be the last to republish the story, but they're not, and I feel that this is a prime example of the pitfalls that the unsuspecting can encounter when it comes to Social Media.

Emma Kiernan, one of Fine Gael's rising young stars found herself in a spot of bother when a photo of Ms. Kiernan out with some friends hit the press. I don't think there's much to say, it's all fairly obvious. If you're running for election, at any level, bear in mind who is taking your photo, and what you're doing in that photo.





The stupid thing is, that in the grand scheme of things, this is a completely harmless and innocent picture. In my honest opinion all it does is show that she's twenty-something girl who goes out and has a bit of fun with her mates. She's not obviously drunk. She's not smoking or doing anything illegal. Seriously, I don't really see an problems. In fact if this was the worst picture that anyone had of you, I'd be pretty happy!

A Blurred Line Between ARG And Viral Social Media

It all started back in November 2008. Following a 5 year hiatus from the music scene, information started leaking out that Eminem was working on a new album. In and off itself the news attracted some online chatter but nothing was confirmed. However, within a very short space confirmation of the forthcoming album, "The Relapse", began to pop up on various Social Media platforms. Although not in isolation, the most public tool in service was Twitter.

Use of Twitter or other Social Media platforms wasn’t a new move by any means, but the approach most definitely was. Over the course of the following 6 months Aftermath / Interscope Records created a stunningly impactful and captivating campaign. Flitting between Eminem's troubled public past and the new terrifying imaginary world from his latest album, the marketing team dragged fans into an eerie game of hide and seek. Using Twitter, a mix of disturbing thoughts and weblinks were filtered out to the digital community. All of this revolved around a fictional mental institution, Pompsomp Hills, in which the rapper was housed.

Besides the stark and grim mental images tweeted by the star, a number of images were also posted. These included a link to the album's cover, a collage of pills forming Eminem's face; screenshots of an iPhone game set in Pompsomp Hills; and a link to the following trailer for the album’s first single "3 A.M.".



Clearly set in the fictional institution, the video is both disturbing and frightening, as if some sort of demented cross between the Blair Witch Project and a Japanese underground horror. This was the precursor to albums microsite and interactive experience. Both these elements coupled with a “real” looking, amateurish website for Pompsomp Hills brought to life a stunning narrative that almost begged to be real.

Without doubt this was an integrated effort on several key fronts that started a long time before anyone was aware of where it would take them. And although the ‘clues’ were never hard to figure out, and sometimes as simple as a straight forward link, the campaign still stands out as one of note. Fans have been engaged and interacted with on a level that has not only created an exceptional amount of online chatter but ultimately an anticipation that will drive record sales.

Of course this isn't the first time an ARG has been used to promote an album. Most famously, Trent Reznor masterminded (of Nine Inch Nails) the "Year Zero" album release in 2007, that expanded the album's dystopian story line into a full blown audio, visual and mental experience, driven by hidden messages and microsites littered through out anomalously posted images and videos. Unsurprisingly perhaps, recent news has alluded to the concept being turned into a TV show.

Continuous Digital Strategy

Here is a fantastic article by Gavin over on Servant of Chaos about the concept of a continuous digital strategy. I highly advise all digital professionals to give it a read, and then while you're over at the site, have a good look around. Gavin produces top content and writes one of my favourite blogs on the subject of branding and social media.

Your Blog - Top of the World!

I have three simple questions:

1. Are you a Blogger or Tweeter?
2. Would you like to see yourself at the roof of the world?
3. What would you say if I told you all you had to do was suggest a cool digitasl strategy for a charity?

No brainers, right?

Well here it is, the simplest, most easy, and only, way to get your Blog or Tweet to the roof of the world, Mount Everest!

I work for Cybercom and we have been lucky enough to be given the chance to work with Gavin Bate, one of the most inspirational people on the planet. What do we have to do? All we have to do is the stuff we love doing - blog, tweet, code, optimise and market. What is Gavin doing? Well aside from running www.movingmountains.org.uk (an absolutely incredible charity), aside from making his 5th attempt to reach the highest peak on earth, aside from doing just about everything humanily possible to make the lives of those less fortunate just a little bit better, aside from all that, he's giving one lucky Blogger or Tweeter the chance to send him a message with their name and their Blog/Twitter URL where he will photo them on top of the world!

Seriously, how cool is that!

Get the full story here, but in a nut shell it goes like this...

Gavin is an expert mountaineer but he isn't a digital marketer, cyber guru or online addict. So Gavin needs help and has asked for ideas from the Irish digital community to promote his current summit bid (eventful). Why would you want to do that though? Well as Gavin said himself, "Unlike many of the climbers out here I don't really need to stand on a bit of real estate over 5 miles up in the sky. My sole reason for doing this is to raise money and the profile of my Charity www.movingmountains.org.uk "

So what do you need to do?

Gavin wants killer ideas that will help him promote his website (and donation page). In return Gavin will promote you from the top of Mount Everest by way of a picture with your blog's name on it or via an audio blog mentioning both your name and your blog's name.

Just send a link to your blog post of promotional ideas by Tweet (@gavinbate or @cybercom using #cyb10) and may the best blogger win!