Bites: The Crocodile blog

Something happened at the end of last week that underscores just how much life has changed for the B2B PR professional in the last year. A little over 12 months ago we offered to register a Twitter account for one of our clients as a bit of an experiment. We learnt the ropes, built up a decent-sized following and generally convinced ourselves that Twitter was a viable and valuable extension to our PR offering. More to the point, the client agreed and the Twitter campaign moved from being a self-funded addition to that particular account to being a fully paid-up central plank of an ongoing social media strategy.

Today, there’s hardly a client on The Crocodile’s books who’s not looking to engage in some form of social media marketing and many have already made the decision to outsource both strategy and delivery to the agency. One of these is 3Dconnexion, the Logitech-owned manufacturer of 3D mice, devices that support user interaction with 3D software. 3Dconnexion is a long-standing PR client for whom we’ve managed product launches, reviews and general media relations for over six years. In the six months or so since we’ve been managing 3Dconnexion’s Twitter presence we’ve seen it go from strength to strength. Here are just a few reasons why this seems set to continue.

1. Customer service
Good customer service is often short and to the point, rather like Twitter. We’ve helped 3Dconnexion customers track orders and locate resellers. Twitter is a fast route to information and we regularly answer technical queries and support questions. A single tweet or direct message is often enough to address the issue.

2. Brand
3Dconnexion 3D mice are cool bits of kit and now 3Dconnexion has a Twitter personality to match. Sure we tweet about news stories and product improvements. But we also run competitions, talk to other tweeters and generally have a bit of fun. Being social has enhanced the perception of the 3Dconnexion brand in a very direct way.

3. Awareness
We’ve introduced and popularised a #3dmouse hashtag that has quickly gained currency and is working wonders for spreading the word among users of 3D software. Those that didn’t already know about 3D mice are quickly learning there’s a better way to drive their 3D software. (And of course as well as helping create awareness, the hashtag makes it easy to for us – and the client – to monitor visibility.)

4. Advocacy
We tuned into a conversation where a 3D mouse user was telling a potential customer he was not yet convinced of its value to his workflow. We joined the discussion and invited him to provide more detailed feedback over email. He has gone from being a doubting Thomas to become one of our greatest advocates on Twitter and recently tweeted:

5. New demand
Interacting with a community of 3D users, some of whom are outside its customer base or use more than one 3D software package, has enabled 3Dconnexion to identify demand from users of applications that don’t yet support 3D mice. As a result 3Dconnexion has been able to fast-track development with a couple of ISVs and it’s likely we’ll see 3D mouse support in future releases.

6. New business
Twitter has helped open up new opportunities in one of 3Dconnexion’s existing markets, Second Life. Thanks to a connection made on Twitter 3Dconnexion has embarked on an ‘in-world’ promotional tour of Second Life communities and events and at no extra cost to the company. The touring exhibition has been designed and built by Jura Shepherd, a publicist and promoter inside Second Life who works with in-world businesses and communities and was keen to work with a recognised real life brand. The event will showcase 3Dconnexion 3D mice to thousands of Second Life residents who will be offered special discounts and invited to enter prize draws.

7. New markets
Possibly the biggest kicker of all, Twitter has opened up a new relationship with a professional 3D artist in California. Having clocked his frustration with his first ever 3D mouse, a low-end SpaceNavigator (essentially aimed at light or non-professional users), we offered to set him up with a trial of the professional products. Turns out he’s evaluating 3Dconnexion 3D mice to see if the 70-odd 3D artists he works with could benefit, and he has already found a use for it in the production pipeline. A deal of that size would represent a healthy ROI for the Twitter campaign in itself… but there may be more to come. This particular artist heads a team working on a phenomenally successful online multiplayer game and he believes that with the right drivers, there would be a place for a 3Dconnexion 3D mouse on every gamer’s desk. This would see 3Dconnexion moving from a traditional target of around 4 million professional CAD users and 3D artists to a potential market of 15 million and counting.

Quite a journey in a few short months, and quite a change for the daily life of our PR team. We still write press releases and press the flesh with ‘real’ journalists but we’re spending more and more time using channels like Twitter. In a discussion on LinkedIn recently another London PR type described “traditional” PR  as “Social media without the technology” and while this may downplay some of the broader aspects that characterise PR it does help illustrate how much B2B PR is changing… For the better.

The term “social media guru” is over-used and much abused. There are, though, one or two for whom such a description fits like a glove, and one of those is Michael A Stelzner, who has had more to say on the subject of best practice in social media marketing than most. So when he launches his annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report it’s worth paying attention, especially if you (or your boss/client) are still sceptical about incorporating social media into your marketing mix.

The 2010 report, launched yesterday, is notable for the shift in attitudes it demonstrates since 2009. An impressive piece of research, it’s packed full of statistics about which tools are being used, what people are trying to achieve through social media and what lessons are still to be learned. The most telling fact, though, is the in the first section, the one that deals with the questions most often asked about social media marketing. Last year the main focus was on specific tactics and – to a degree – whether social media was an effective marketing tool at all: exactly what you might expect from an industry still getting to grips with a new form of marketing engagement. This year, questions about tactics and best practice have been dislodged from the top spot to be replaced by “How do I measure social media return on investment?”; the question about whether social media works at all has disappeared from the list completely.

This is quite a shift in attitude. In 12 months we’ve gone from a cautious questioning of a new flavour of marketing to an acceptance that social media is part of the mainstream mix and a desire to examine exactly how it can and should be generating returns. The statistics that fill the rest of the report support this too: 91% of companies using some form of social media (smaller businesses are particularly pro), 85% say their companies have generated more exposure as a result, 48% say social media has helped them to decrease overall marketing spend (although it seems likely that marketing spend would have been down anyway – are these folk retro-fitting a social media strategy to make themselves feel smarter?).

Of course this won’t be much news to the gurus and the hordes of other social media specialists who don’t quite qualify for that exalted status: they’ve been singing this song for years. What this report seems to indicate, though, is that the message has got through to ‘ordinary’ marketers, those of us who have day jobs delivering direct mail campaigns, new websites and PR campaigns; those of us who have to advise clients how to make the best strategic use of marketing budgets more limited than ever; those of us, in short, who have enough to worry about without having to introduce a whole social world of new complications.

It’s not easy for a marketing team – or agency – to invest in the resources and skills necessary to add a new weapon to their marketing armoury, but it seems that, although there are still many practical questions that need answering (those gurus are in for a busy year), that commitment has now been made.

Download the report for free here.

Those of us who see Scrabble as more than a bit of boozy fun over the Christmas mince pies were spluttering into our conflakes on Tuesday when a throwaway news item on the Today programme delivered the bombshell that Mattel (the owners of the game outside the US and Canada) were overturning decades of tradition by changing the rules to allow proper nouns. Why spend all that time learning which ‘names’ are legal because they mean something else (peter, august, victor, erica… I could go on) when any tom, dick or harry (see what I did there?) could come along and not just play these with impunity but also throw in JayZ, Beyonce and Britney for good measure? What’s the point in knowing that kylie is a kind of boomerang if both Dannii and Minogue are suddenly legal too? Surely this was the end of Scrabble as we know it…

Except, of course, it was nothing of the sort. The ‘news’ actually stemmed from the future UK launch of a new game called Scrabble Trickster that introduces a new element of chance by enabling the selective bending of the rules depending on the draw of a card. It’s aimed at encouraging young people to start playing the game and I hope it succeeds: it sounds rather fun and I can easily see it becoming a more inclusive after-dinner version of the game (us Scrabble geeks really don’t approve of anything other than two-player games so we’re hardly social animals around the board).

The question is how this minor announcement got distorted so much that it became international news. Was this a cunning PR strategy designed to encourage bulk buying of ‘traditional’ Scrabble sets or a rather messy PR disaster that reinforces the notion that Scrabble’s owners are doing their best to alienate their loyal fanbase. Again.

The source of the story seems to have been a minor news item about the new game’s launch  in a toy industry trade magazine. Either through overzealous subbing or lazy journalism (or both) the story gave the impression that proper nouns would be allowed across the Scrabble board (as it were). Perky British journalists got wind of this and began calling Mattel who apparently did nothing to disabuse them of the notion that the rules were being changed completely. At this point the die was cast and a barrage of old, new and social media exposure sparked a mixture of equally justified indignation and bemusement all over the world.

So was this a carefully orchestrated PR stunt as Mattel seems to have hinted? Doubtful. Apart from the low-key source of the story – hardly an obvious choice for kicking off such a campaign – Mattel seems to have given a very passable impression of a PR ostrich during this week’s mini media storm, not understanding the virulent nature of such a story and how and when it probably ought to intervene. None of the papers is likely to retract such a hot story (and if they do it will be tucked away somewhere no-one will see it) so many fans of the game are probably still assuming the rules really have changed. Just as many family arguments as ever then.

In the end, of course, it matters not a jot. Mattel will continue to sell Scrabble (in all its formats) and there will continue to be fans of the game at every level. And even I would have to admit that Scrabble is only a game. But it remains a little sad that such a story can have been so randomly mismanaged. One way or another everyone in PR learns early on that however much you might want to spin a story you do serious damage if you actually lie to a journalist. By allowing the rule-change rumour to take hold some proper charlie at Mattel has done exactly that.

Whisper it not, but the flow of marketing briefs seems to have picked up somewhat in the last couple of months. Too early to start spending the fees, of course, but good to be able to look forward to a healthier pipeline in the next quarter or two.

But with quantity can we expect quality? Alas no.

A good marketing brief is fundamental to any successful project or campaign. It can take a number of forms (ranging from a quick email from a long-standing client who knows from experience he doesn’t have to provide chapter and verse) to a formal written statement covering everything from key messages, target demographics, competitive landscape and deal-breaker deadlines. In most cases, if only to cover your arse, you’re going to want something closer to the latter than the former. For a new client you’d be mad to accept anything else.

A good brief benefits everyone. By going through the process of formulating their arguments, clients can satisfy both their bosses and themselves that what they’re trying to achieve stacks up; agency and client can agree on responsibilities and timeframes; strategists, copywriters and creatives all work to the same, clear direction. Expectations are managed; the right results delivered. At The Crocodile we’re such brief buffs that we’ll even bother to write it all down when we know it’s probably a run-of-the-mill repeat job we could probably do standing on our heads.

The trouble is, of course, there’s no industry standard for writing marketing briefs. Those that come from new/prospective clients might range from a stream of consciousness, usually complete with irrelevant back-story, impossible deadlines and ‘a few initial ideas’ (in the worst instances cobbled together using PowerPoint and ClipArt), to a highly structured thesis that covers the competitive landscape in exacting detail but fails to mention the need to adhere to strict branding guidelines that have remained unchanged since 1962.

This lack of standard is not the end of the world, of course, and neither are these (slightly) exaggerated failings: indeed agencies should welcome the chance to push back on the client with the kind of questions and clarifications that will reveal secondary/long-term marketing goals and those nuanced internal politics that make all the difference when it comes to pitching the results of all their hard work. But a good agency is going challenge any brief. The point is the better the brief, the more constructive those conversations will be.

This is the first in a new series of posts designed to offer pointers on how to improve the way briefs are written. And I make no apologies for starting with the most common failing: the budget. I’ve lost count of the number briefs we’ve received from companies who overlook this key point entirely, leave it TBC or proffer some excuse about why it’s up to us. But it really is fundamental to our ability to meet your expectations in the way you’re, um, expecting.

Here are some typical arguments for keeping the agency in the dark when it comes to budget. And a few ripostes from this side of the fence.

We haven’t decided yet…
Really? You’ve worked our what you’re trying to achieve through a marketing campaign and you haven’t decided how much you’re planning to spend on it? This seems unlikely. Our natural suspicion will be that you know exactly what you want to spend but are hoping an agency is going to surprise you by coming in under the bar. Far better to be upfront about it – with ballpark figures at least – and let the agencies give you a realistic proposal in the first place. You may be pleasantly surprised: if it’s a competitive pitch there’s still pressure to give you the best price possible; if you’re working with an incumbent agency, they’d better know they can’t afford to take the piss. And if you really haven’t decided how much you’re going to spend on this exercise… now would be a good time to choose.

We didn’t want to restrict your creativity…
Well, OK, but don’t you think it might help to at least make sure we’re in the right ballpark? With unlimited creativity I can get your product placed on Glee and get Richard Branson to project your logo on the moon.

We haven’t got budget approval…
This usually comes with a carrot along the lines of “if we can show this works we’ll have no problem getting the next one approved…” But using an agency’s unpaid time to help you persuade your boss to magic up some unallocated marketing funds from somewhere is not the best way to foster a mutually rewarding long-term relationship. We’d much rather be involved when it’s in the bag.

We want to compare you with other agencies…
Quite right too, but unless everyone’s working within the same framework how can you be sure you’re really making a fair comparison? Without a budget guideline each agency is going to make its own assumptions based on the size of your company and the objectives you have included in the brief. These assumptions may well differ wildly both from each other (not in itself a problem if an agency can back up its reasoning) and from your shareholders’ expectations (a more serious problem because this is where the buck stops). The only way you can really compare apples with apples is to ask agencies to provide day-rates, but that’s not a happy path: good client/agency relationships aren’t based on such fine details. Again, cut the agencies a bit of slack: give them some budget guidelines so everyone’s singing from the same hymn-sheet and (if you must) do a bit of haggling when the quotes come in.

The bottom line is that if we work together, we’ll be able to help you get the best return on your money – the best bang for your buck – if we know how much many of those bucks we’re talking about. We need to be appropriate as well as creative and intelligent. We can be creative and intelligent no matter what the budget is; but we can easily stray into the inappropriate if we don’t know where the boundaries lie. We can’t answer a brief if we don’t know who your target market is, what your objectives are or what product/service you’re marketing. Why would we be able to answer it without knowing how much we’re allowed to spend?

Funny tail (sic) of how social media can affect real world events. And the lesson? Be genuine, and don’t fear loss of control over your message.

Sooner or later (usually sooner) everyone who pitches a B2B social media marketing campaign or strategy will be asked to justify it. Fair enough. No marketing should be entered into without sound arguments to support it. But it won’t necessarily be easy, especially if the recipient of your wisdom is one of the many out there who are confused or misinformed about what social media really involves.

As someone with a background in traditional trade press and old-school public relations, I’m used to putting the case for PR as a brand awareness tool, as a way of warming up your audience and improving the success of all the other ways you’re targeting them… in short as a key part of the integrated marketing mix. Sure, it’s hard to measure direct returns but it does at least have tangible results (press cuttings), and when seen as part of the bigger picture most clients will accept its value as a way of indirectly influencing audiences with positive and (usually) on-message comment.

Because social media is based on online channels, many newcomers fall for the temptation to lump it in with other digital marketing, much of which inherently lends itself to precise metrics and ROI calculations. This, of course, is way off the mark. Indeed the gloriously dynamic, unpredictable, even fickle nature of the social web means results are potentially even harder to predict and measure than they were in old-school PR.

That’s not to say that there aren’t ways of building measurability into the social media equation. Cleverer people than me have been coming up with all sorts of methods, most of which caution against isolating the social media spend in favour of accepting its influence in the success of broader marketing strategies, whether they’re about proactive lead generation or responsive customer engagement. And for those who can (or already do) accept social media as a powerful but hard-to-measure ally, this may be enough. For others striving for more accountability, efforts continue apace to build new models for measurability.

For those new to social media, though, a little more persuasion is called for, and here you might find it easier to step back from hard numbers and instead paint a picture. Here’s a few metaphors to choose from that should help make the qualitative argument.

Glue
Consider social media an extension of customer service or CRM and it’s not hard to view it as the glue that binds all your marketing initiatives together. Any engagement you can instigate with customers, prospects and other influencers can help steer opinion and overall respect for your brand. And engagement is what social media is all about. Allow social media to permeate your marketing activities and you’ll not only improve their performance but you’ll find yourself with a more effective and rewarding integrated marketing strategy.

Oil
Probably best not to describe social media marketing as both glue AND oil, but the latter analogy certainly stands up. Social media can and does smooth the progress of other marketing campaigns, whether it’s increasing the open rate of an email or encouraging prospects to read and take note of PR-generated magazine or web content. Direct marketing approaches can be transformed from unwelcome intrusions to just another way of staying in touch. This is not a situation that can be abused (social networks are fickle friends) but an engaged audience is certainly a more responsive one.

A mirror
Offer businesses the chance to hear exactly what their customers think of them and they ought to bite your hands off, especially if they’re going to get a chance to respond directly to anything less than positive. Social media offers exactly this kind of engagement with customers and prospects, so if the people you want to sell to are using social media you’d be crazy not to consider it.

A party
One of the traps many newcomers fall into, especially when they join Twitter, is the feeling that they have to keep with every development from all the people they’ve chosen to engage with. This brings about an understandable wariness about the commitment involved. Tell them instead it’s like going to a party where you’re on nodding terms with everyone, you’d feel comfortable having an interesting chat with whoever you find yourself next to at the bar and you’re certainly not going to ignore anyone who strikes up a conversation… but you don’t have to know everyone’s shoe-size, their mother’s maiden name and what they had for breakfast (most people not on Twitter seem to think that giving bland status updates is all it’s use for).

A gherkin
If all else fails (and if you’ve been through an oily, sticky looking glass on your way to a party you doubt your client’s been invited to there’s every chance it will have done) go for a food analogy. Taken in isolation a dill pickle is odd, at best: perhaps even a little unpleasant. But nestled in among some lightly toasted bread, a couple of beef patties, a dollop of mayonnaise and a slice or two or processed cheese it lifts the humble burger to a work of satisfying genius. It is the vital element that renders its companions so much more than the sum of their parts. No-one really knows why it works so well but there are countless golden arches out there to prove it does.

The redevelopment of London Bridge station, part of the ambitious Shard development that will soon loom over the City from across the Thames, will surely mean the end of the line for one of the dinosaurs of business advertising, the childishly suggestive billboard for cityjobs.com that has been testing the patience of commuters for years. It ranks right up there with Legs Eleven, the male-oriented club in Birmingham whose permanent NEC display encouraged post-show visitors with the line “You’ve done the deal. Time to celebrate.” Subtle, it wasn’t, but at least it was a straightforward indication of the kind of thing you were in for. The cityjobs display has far more sinister overtones that can’t sit easily in a business community finally being forced to confront some outdated 20th century attitudes. It might have been seemed a good idea at the time, a bit of humour to lift the rush-hour mood, but the joke has worn a bit thin by now.

Seeing the ad for approximately the 1,645th time this morning prompted me to wonder how prevalent sexual innuendo was in B2B advertising today. Not so long ago it was a commonplace, with scantily clad models and cheap suggestivity scattered liberally throughout the pages of trade magazines, gracing ads for everything from industrial machinery to office calculators. But a hasty, and very not scientific, review of some of today’s crop of B2B ads suggests that this is a tradition that may have all but died out. There were entire magazines without a single smutty innuendo. The closest I could find were this slightly bizarre ad for a light sensor in Professional Engineering:

And this effort in Medical Device Technology:

While the first is just a bit confusing, the second does at least try to tell a story that in some way justifies the foxy lady in the main shot. A very strange story, but a story nonetheless.

Other than these two rather lonely examples, though, nothing. Can it be that the age of sexist and/or sexy imagery in B2B advertising has come to an end? Maybe it really is time to celebrate…