Old Spice - Funny & Smart

What a great week for social media! A real red-letter week that has changed the shape (and hopefully standard) of the social media landscape forever.

For those who chose to spend last week in Outback Chad, I'm talking about my good friends at Wieden + Kennedy and the success of their "Old Spice" campaign.

As Creative Director Iain Tait said:

We just brought a character to life using the social channels we all use every day. But we’ve also taken a loved character and created new episodic content in real time.

This amazing holistic media campaign shows that creating characters that people like, then providing opportunities for them to be immersed in their world is the way forward.

The power of the idea is still king. It's something we build our whole business on here at Radical Love, and it's wonderful to see it validated (even if it is by the competition) in well-thought, well-executed campaigns like this.

And that's what I think is so amazing about Old Spice. It's a fresh idea that doesn't play to the normal (and popular) social media stereotypes. There's no shocking moment to hook people in. There's no reference to old faithful memes like Starwars Kid or Tron Guy. This is a beautiful union of well-written, well-produced content that connected with people for its honesty, reality and transparency.

So well done Old Spice... and please know the certain influx of cheap ripoff campaigns won't spoil this wonderful moment in cyber-history.

Social Media - A Definition

One of the questions I get asked constantly when meeting with clients for the first time is for a concise definition of what exactly "social media" is, especially in the context of a marketing tool. Most people I bounce this question off at conferences or workshops fumble around between the academic "democritisation of information" and the schoolyard "Twitter and shit".

Personally, it's a question I'm still looking for answers on.

One of the better answers I've heard comes from a keynote given earlier this year by Shiv Singh, VP of Razorfish. He took self-described "social ecologist" Peter Drucker's classic business definition of "The purpose of a business is to create customers" and gave it a social media slant:

The purpose of a business is to create customers who create customers.

I really like the simple and effective imagery this quote gives to the purpose of social media from a brand or business standpoint. Although possibly over-simplistic from a business theory angle, the sentiment is right.

Thinking about it further, and in my deep desire to achieve a perfect definition on this, I think I've stumbled upon a new definition for business in the Information/Attention Age:

The purpose of a business is to create a community.

Brands can no longer look to satisfy or please the individual, and can no longer present themselves as a single, unified voice. Connecting with customers today involves being transparent and open to the people you're selling to and letting the consumer dictate the brand image.

To the old folk entrenched in the Old Media world it's a scary proposition, where brands were the core to which communities flocked. The future is the inverse, where brands must come to communities and earn their trust, respect, loyalty and advocacy through unique and engaging concepts.

In summary - it's an exciting time to be a consumer.

Goverment 2.0

It's always baffled me why governments and government agencies, the institutions that are meant to lead us and guide us, are always so far behind the curve when it comes to implementing social technology. Now, I'm not going to try and push any political agenda with this article, but I suppose I should just point out I'm usually surprised and scared of any person in a public political office that doesn't understand Twitter, Facebook, or blogging.

The thing that stops me tweeting my lament into despair at this point is that it's clear our governments want to embrace social media, they just need some guidance from the people below.

I was overjoyed a few months ago to hear the NSW Government had begun an initiative to push towards what American policy makers would call "Open Government" - creating a digital environment that is characterised by transparency, citizen participation, and collaboration.

A wonderful example of this is the State of Delaware (check out their website HERE). Their transition from treating government websites as a policy-preaching soapbox and converting it into a digital round table for conversation is a positive step in the right direction. Facebook, Twitter, RSS, YouTube... all the big players are there, ready to be consumed, shared and conversed about.

For me, this is the role of government embodied in a digital space and has implications and applications that are tangible, imminent, and indicate a paradigm shift for the way our local, state, and federal governments can connect with their voters using the internet.

The speed and spread of information possible today is invaluable to governments and residents alike. Beyond gimmick benefits like alerts on your mobile for when the Premier is in your suburb or an email when new health announcements are made, the power of clear and communal comment/feedback loops on government policy can only allow for better decision making and a more informed and engaged voting public.

One Small Film For A Man. One Giant Leap For Crowdsourcing.

The good people down at YouTube are on the road of pioneering social media once again, this time with a vision to make a complete UGC feature film.

The company has pulled in the big guns of Ridley Scott and Kevin MacDonald to turn the humble day of July 24th into the most visually documented day in the history of humanity. The project, titled Life In The Day, will premiere at Sundance next year and stream simultaneously on YouTube.

"I hope it will be something that will open people's eyes to the possibilities of user-generated film," Macdonald said. "Of course, it's a risk. It could be that I won't get anything interesting back. But I don't think that will be the case. I'm sure there will be some real gems, some real magic, which is what I'm looking for."

I think this is an interesting moment in the evolution of social media as the professional pantheon of Hollywood opens its doors to the idea that quality content can come from the untrained, unskilled everyday person. It's certainly a form of affirmation that the barriers to entry for filmmakers are nearly all but gone. To think you can get a credit on a Sundance-premiering Kevin MacDonald film for simply filming your morning breakfast is a concept inconceivable only five years ago.

The power of the social marketplace is starting to rumble the foundations of the big media players, and it's wonderful to see some people embracing the movement rather than fighting it in courtrooms.