Insatiable for Social Media

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Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Everyone’s yammering about social media these days. It would be hard to name a client who’s brought a project to our door over the past year who had not asked that we integrate some sort of social media component with said project. One of our recent favorites was an RFP for an extremely large government initiative that insisted this blandly institutional program be outfitted with all the trendy social media accessories to make it capture the public’s imagination and spread like wildfire. We came up with some fun ideas, but all the same, we couldn’t really imagine the desired result actually happening. Why? Because, inherently, the message at the heart of it all just did not feel like it was worth getting excited about. In our opinion, no one was going to Facebook or tweet about this bad boy. From a social media perspective, we saw this as a very earnest effort to polish a marketing turd.

The fact is, like traditional marketing and advertising efforts, some social media campaigns work, and some don’t. And even if a campaign generates the desired buzz, where does that buzz direct you, and ultimately, does it effectively serve the bottom line? I recently read an article that made some interesting comparisons between various social media initiatives.

For example:

Have you ever had the opportunity to “elf yourself”? If you recognize that phrase, you’ve probably played with the engaging little online holiday application that allows you to personalize a troupe of dancing elves with photos of yourself and/or family and friends. Most likely you, and about 150 million others, emailed your brilliant creation to your circle of friends, and received a few of theirs in return. Lots of fun, and a social media phenomenon. The company that sponsored and paid for the application saw some impressive results for their investment: it has been the most-visited holiday greeting site two years in a row and netted 200 million visitors in 2007 alone.

Now here’s the question: do you know the name of that sponsor company? Chances are, you don’t. Sorry, Office Max. Despite all the activity engendered by the application, Office Max saw it’s sales drop 7.5 percent during last year’s holiday season and has posted losses over several quarters.

Now, when you hear the phrase, “That was easy,” or see an image of a red “Easy” button, what company do you think of? Staples probably bubbles right to the surface. Their “Easy” campaign has consistently and effectively communicated its core message – that Staples efficiently helps you solve problems. The result? From a social media standpoint, that message has become part of the social consciousness, ranking right up there with phrases like “I’m loving’ it.” and “Got milk?” They’ve sold gads of actual souvenir “Easy” buttons which reinforce the campaign in a very tangible way. And most importantly, since Staples remains solidly in the black, the economic results have been noteworthy as well.

To be effective, a social media initiative needs to have a strong connection to its brand. Elves are cute, but after all the ooo-ing and aww-ing, how do you make the connection back to office supplies? And how does Office Max in particular fit into that scenario? Fact is, it doesn’t. Office Max got a lot of fizz for their efforts, but no substance, and no resonance for their brand. Staples, by contrast, continues to get meaningful mileage out of their campaign.

As we move forward in putting more and more social media campaigns together, it would be smart to always do an “authenticity check”, and ask ourselves whether or not the initiative connects to the brand in a meaningful, memorable way. Additionally, let’s ask the even more basic question: does social media provide the right channel for this project? Will people care about the funny, flashy campaign but forget the brand behind it? Just because everyone’s yammering about social media doesn’t mean every campaign should use it.

Kelly Clarkson Open Mic iPhone App on Fox

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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Things that make us happy:

• Pop Rocks
• Field Trips
• Building an iPhone app for Sony and Kelly Clarkson
• Seeing said iPhone app featured on Fox

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Avoiding Design and Advertising Apathy

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Monday, August 31st, 2009

I ran across the definition “Design is art optimized to meet objectives” by Shimon Shmueli of Touch 360. I have found myself defining what I do for family, friends and even clients. For clients, it is not something they usually ask but something we volunteer in the context of explaining, selling or defending a design or design process. When asked about the difference between a designer and a fine artist, I have said we are the whores of the art world. For a fee, we create art that meets the client’s needs. Or maybe it is that we work a client’s needs until it is art? I think I like Shmueli’s definition better.

I will often hear “I know you are the designer, but could you explore or change this or that”. I have gotten to the point I anticipate this and reply along the lines of “We really don’t design for designers. Almost everyone should be able to see, evaluate and critique design – even if you can’t necessarily design yourself.”

The truth is, we are not actually designing for them. Maybe I need to be more forthright about this? We are designing for a demographic that they may or may not be in tune to. We are hired to understand and execute a solution for that audience. Both client and designer can certainly get it wrong when we don’t listen close enough, run with a false preconception, or are just lazy and offer them exactly what we think they want.

Got Milk

An example of lazy, and my latest peeve are the ubiquitous “Got Milk?” rip-off campaigns. Just across the street at a Beauty Supply shop they have this fine advertising example:

There are similar billboards littered across the Wasatch front but this landscape flyer was inspirational. I ask for one last campaign to clean this up, maybe “Got An Original Idea?”

Designers are at fault when we give the client what they want instead of what they need. They used to say in school to throw out your first idea. That first idea is the one the client (and everyone else) also thought of. For a moment you share that magical connection in a tired, cliché design or concept. Amazingly the client may also pick the idea because they thought of it also! On two recent occasions I, or designers I know have wrestled with this. We had considered removing an inferior solution that we thought might be too gimmicky. I had even jokingly said “I bet they pick that one”. I will say the solution was not horrible in either case, but I believe their audience would have appreciated something a little more sophisticated or original, even if the client did not.

Better Brainstorming

Do we act the prima-donna and pout or do we accept this silent change in objective – do we trade inspiring the audience for stroking the client? Even worse is when we are the ones who suggested the “Got Milk?” in an attempt to flush out concepts or fill a pause in the conversation. But there are no bad ideas in brainstorming, right? Possibly, but there may be better ways to brainstorm than we are practicing now or we might need to better prepare ourselves for a brainstorming session. I liked the simple process presented at Business Balls including defining the objective, setting a time limit, and monitoring the follow up process. I would add the personal brainstorming outlined in this article is valuable preparation for a group brainstorming. Laziness is where both client and agency can run into problems. A client needs to value and understand why they hired us. The agency needs refine its processes and better prepare for the creative possibilities.

Rain SVG

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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009

Aaron Hardy wrote an excellent overview of SVG technology used at Rain to provide our clients with a robust set of tools for editing vector images online. We posted this as its own page as a reference on our blog. Check it out here.

Here are a few of our clients who have utilized our SVG library:

• ZenStudio
• AncestryPress
• Aspire

Indiana Jones & The mediaRAIN

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Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Today was our “client appreciation” meeting. Translated: a good excuse to watch a brand new movie, Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. We rented out the whole Scera Theater and hosted our clients, friends and employees to an early premier of the new Indiana Jones movie.

Dave Nibley welcomed everyone and played a little trivia game for amazing prizes, like the Mr. Indiana Jones Potato Head. We handed out some great t-shirts. There were some with “make it rain” on them. Those were the most popular. Then there were two others, one with “ask me if your website sucks” and “Does this UI make my app look big?” Of course the last two were a little more of a programmer focused motif. But still very fun!

We had a lot of mediaRAIN clients show up, over 200 people total! Huge thanks to all of our clients for making us have such an amazing last year!  It was a great mix of people.