Random Notes for my OMMA Social Panel

 

I’m on a panel at OMMA Social today to talk about the use of applications as marketing on social and mobile platforms. These are the notes I put together ahead of time to guide the conversation.

Social Marketing at Scale – Barak Obama

The recent recap of Obama’s strategy is a great rundown of what a major brand campaign on social media would look like. Here are facts and observations I culled from it.

• 60% – 70% of social networking fans were on Facebook
• Were seeking a “social majority” on issues which seems like a great opportunity for brands during this time when brand presence on social networks does not match overall brand awareness.
• Their basic approach was to do everything incrementally better, not on extensive innovation
• They had a 10-1 advantage in online staff with 11 senior staff members and a full staff of 30.
• Their social media director reported to the campaign director.
• 5-1 advantage in total friends acquired
• Administration is adding a 5-day comment period on all new legislation – talk about social getting mainstream.
• Focused on only 15 top social networking sites
• 2,000 official YouTube videos with 90M views
• 440K user created videos based. Official videos key seeding component for UG.
• Made sure to provide opportunities for the most casual to stay involved. (Facebook Fan’ing great example of this.)
• Used tools that people were familiar with
• 90% of Americans have their cell phone (I don’t believe this.)
• 90% of text messages are opened (I do believe this.)
• Text messaging reminders bumped turnout by 4% and cost $1.56 per vote versus $20-$30 per vote for phone calls.
• Major announcements drove rhythm of text messaging
• Spent $2M in hardware and software before the campaign kicked off.

Thoughts on Mobile as a platform for Marketing applications.

• Apple app store has 15,000 apps, and adding more at a steady rate and 500M downloads.
• There are 17M iPhones being used, and an additional 10M-15M app-ready iPods
• Gartner predicts 190M smartphones this year – 32% growth. It’s not all about the iPhone
• Even with all these apps, it’s still easier to get noticed here than online.
• 40% of Pandora subscribers now come from the iPhone app and they cite being in the app store from day one as the key
• If it’s too late for the iPhone, what about other platforms?
• Android has only 800 apps now
• Blackberry is launching their “Application Storefront” this year
• Microsoft launching “SkyMarket” app store in Feb for Windows Mobile
• Palm is opening an app platform for the new Pre in the first half of 2009.

Miscellaneous thoughts on using applications as marketing

• Facebook – 52K official apps, 80K-90K total.
• The definition of an application, I believe, is a continuum. In all cases, you’re delivering value to consumers, but the amount of professionally produced content versus the amount of energy users need to do to create content can tell you how much of an “app” you’re dealing with.
• An application is most valuable if it contains very little professional content and gets users to do the work to create incremental value. This is how applications scale.
• Apps can help but they can hurt as well. Scrabble on Facebook is the focus of rage for many – 600 reviews and 2,900 wall posts – the vast majority of which are emphatically negative.
• Dynamics of content creation are anathema to those of app development.
• Developers value every pixel of screen real estate to give users interactive value. Content creators and brands want space for visuals and copy.
• What’s working?
• Applications can generate new buzz and consumer PR.
• TripAdvisor – Cities I’ve Visited 1.8M MAU on Facebook
• Warning – three other apps with basically mo MAU
• Yearbook Yourself – 1.8M users in 4 months (US) and more than 4M users worldwide in that time. (comScore)
• No code connection to Facebook, but Facebook was top source and loss destination in the first month
• Got buzz on Facebook at the same level as Britney Spears and Zac Ephron for about a month. (Facebook Lexicon)
• Beware the Doghouse – 3M users in December (month 1) and great Facebook Connect integration.
• Kidnap! 2.6M MAU and natural tie-in to the travel channel.
• Lessons learned from application start-ups
• Fail fast. Few things work, so make sure you know what failure looks like and move on quickly. (Make failure the default.)
• If an application is not growing organically or showing an organic after-effect from promotion.
• Good News: Developers want apps to be used. As a brand, you can make that happen. It’s a trade-off developers like.
• Applications atrophy and need ongoing maintenance.
• Signs of life: comments, reviews, growth noticeable above the promotion rate (no straight lines), buzz/PR, suggestions for improvement.
• Other thoughts
• Biggest challenge: Your building and promoting a whole new thing to promote something you already have. Should you?
• App development has dynamics like both online and offline.
• Offline: Subject to great creative risk and can’t be readily optimized.
• Online: Everything can be measured.
• App ROI gets compared to highly optimized ROI for banner media – tough comparison.
• Big agencies have smart people who understand social media and speak at conferences, but the odds are slim that they are impacting your program.
• Biggest Opportunity for Brands
• Take the monetization pressure of new types of apps early with natural and non-invasive sponsorships.
• Examples
• TripIt with Hertz
• Jackson Fish Market – building apps on spec.