IanSchafer.com

Google's Ironic Billboard Similarity.

In all this Google vs. Microsoft talk, I find it funny/ironic that these two billboards look so similar.

A little tooooooo ironic. Yeah I really do think.

Giving Media the Second Degree

Something I've been thinking a lot about lately is that the practice of interactive media planning and buying for brands, or rather, planning/buying with a goal of 'branding' (which would include lifting awareness/intent, shifting perceptions, etc.), has changed forever. The problem is, many marketers have not.

All of us that were trained to buy interactive media were trained to buy its first degree -- that is, an impression that was meant to be displayed to a consumer, whose goal it was to get that consumer to interact with it. It's the way traditional media did it, and the way interactive advertising began. As media planners and buyers, our branding goals were simple; deliver as many impressions to the right people as possible, lift awareness and intent (usually measured through some sort of panel-based branding study), and attain a higher-than-average clickthrough/interaction rate. It was enough to keep our bosses happy, and our jobs safe.

But the world is different now.

Historically, publications and TV programming, have come and gone. But consumers' consumption of it either remained the same, or increased. It was always a question of more, or less. As planners and buyers of this kind of media, we found the right impressions, and bought them, plain and simple. Then, the creative agency filled those impressions up with the right message delivered in the right way. There was only one degree of interaction with the consumer -- advertiser to eyeballs. And media buyers purchased that first degree.

But something happened with this internet thing. It's become as much of a platform as it was a content channel. It's as much of a communications medium as it is a creator of ad inventory. The depth of engagement has become as important as the breadth of reach.

We all know that social media, and more specifically, social networking, and even more specifically, Facebook and MySpace, have changed consumers. And consumers have changed the way they use digital media -- and the way they communicate. As marketers, we are learning that what gets said by consumers about our brands is as important as what we tell them. And with social media planning and buying, we know our goal now needs to be giving those consumers the tools, information, channels, and messaging that they need to form their own opinions (hopefully positive ones).

Because of this, it has become impossible to separate social media planning and buying from the creative process, and both from the technology and communications processes. Each moves so quickly, with so much velocity, so close to one another, that differentiation is often futile. And when done right, it doesn't take the form of binary (displayed or not displayed) impressions, but rather, conduits that facilitate interaction between people -- at a greater scale and around a particular piece of content or messaging that a simple on/off ad can not do. It's that second degree, the interaction between people, that social media planning should be influencing. Sure, it's possible can be done with typical display advertising, but more likely, it's a combination of creative, technology, placement, and communications being applied in a seamless way that presents a seamless experience to the consumer -- all driven by giving that consumer a reason to connect with someone else.

And I dare you to separate the creative from the technology from the communications strategy from the media and still make that happen consistently.

This medium changed everything.

**UPDATE**

And right on cue, The Financial Times published an article called 'Social networks threaten advertising growth' that basically echo my sentiments. Read it here.

Social Media for Social Good at the Ad Council.

I spoke today at the Ad Council's Partner Conference, where many of the causes the Ad Council supports get together to discuss the burning issues around raising awareness of their very important initiatives.

At this event, the focus was squarely, 100% on social media, and understandably so.

In doing my part to set the table for the day's discussion, I gave the following presentation where I talked about some significant research findings, best practices, and case studies including our recent major effort with the Ad Council, SHARE YOUR VOICE.

Enjoy!

Social Media for Social Good

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Deep Focus Partners with The Ad Council to Launch the Exponential Action Network.

What you see above is one of the first widgets deployed as part of the Exponential Action Network, a major social media initiative we created in partnership with the Ad Council.

When we were invited to work with the Ad Council we were flattered, and inspired.

We wanted to reimagine the Ad Council in today's era. For decades, the Ad Council worked because of donated media by cable and broadcast networks. But what if the Ad Council was rebooted today? We live in a world where people aren't just consuming media -- they are creating media. And if media were people-powered (like so much of the web is) we could create a whole new distribution and interaction mechanism for PSAs and their associated causes.

But wait, there's more. What if people that were donating their own media could actually see how much of an impact their advocacy had on others? And what if we got millions and millions of impressions donated by the likes of Facebook, MySpace, imeem, Netvibes, Clearspring and others to promote it?

Thus, the Exponential Action Network was born.

Check out the press release here -- it pretty much says it all.

We're proud to be doing good, and we're proud to be working with the Ad Council. Support a cause and share your voice today!

Watch My Panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks.

From the Social Ad Summit last week in NYC, watch this fascinating (yes, 'twas) panel on Branded Experiences in Social Networks, featuring:

Me
Don Steele, MTVN
Scott Monty, Ford
Deborah Korb, JP Morgan

There's some great insight here into what brands think of branded experiences in a social networking environment, what they're spending, and how they're spending it -- now, and in the future.

Upcoming Events You Should Consider Attending.

The next two weeks are flush with events in NYC, orbiting around the sun of Advertising Week.

I'll be flush with events too, so here's a heads-up on how you can catch me...

Monday, September 15th

Social Ad Summit

Tribeca Rooftop, NYC

11:15am - 12:00pm

Branded Experiences on Social Networks

Large brands spend billions of dollars every year on advertising. Hear from a few of those large brands about how much they are allocating to social networks. Find out what has worked and what hasn’t as well as the hurdles for brands getting on social networks.

Thursday, September 18th

OMMA Global

Marriott Marquis, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


Getting Social Sites to do your Work for You

Are you looking to precisely target based on demographics or activity? Targeted ad networks are showing promise for delivering more precise demographic segments for marketers than the big global networks. Could the same be true for vertical social networks? Social shopping, reviews, and more targeted groups can provide better engagement for those people you want to reach.


Moderator:

Brant Barton, Founder, Bazaarvoice


Speakers:

Adam Cahill, SVP, General Manager of Carat

Michael Carrier, CEO, StyleHive

John Riordan, Director-National Sales, Yelp.com

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Thursday, September 22nd

MIXX 2.8

Crowne Plaza Hotel, NYC

4:45pm - 5:30pm


The Self-Service Revolution


It sounds too good to be true: A completely automated process for setting up and executing highly-targeted ad campaigns. But how do we separate the hype from the reality? In this interactive session, you'll hear from marketers and platform-providers working together to define the automated future.

Moderator:

Michael Wolf, Partner, Farrallon Point, Inc.



Panelists:

Dan Ballister, Chief Operating Officer, TRAFFIQ

Aaron Finn, President & CEO, AdReady

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Jay Sears, EVP, Strategic Products & Business Development, ContextWeb

Tuesday, September 23rd

Advertising Week

Paley Center (formerly the Museum of TV and Radio), NYC

12:00pm - 1:00pm


Social Media: Giving Voice to Social Causes



The explosion of social media has created countless new ways for advertisers to engage consumers. It’s also created countless ways to promote social causes and increase civic engagement. Whether it’s social networks like MySpace and FaceBook or bloggers, widgets, twitter, or friend feed, these powerful tools can and are being used for the greater good. This panel brings together the best of the best to discuss where social networking meet social change.

Panel:

Moderator: Bob Greenberg, Vice President, Corporate Brand Marketing
Panasonic Corporation of North America

Douglas Atkin, Chief Community Officer, Meetup

Chris Colborn, Chief Experience Officer, R/GA

Lexi Reese, Head of Media Platforms, Google

Ian Schafer, Founder & CEO, Deep Focus

My First Webinar: A Blueprint For a Successful Social Media Website

I'll be co-hosting a Webinar with the fine folks at KickApps on July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT. Here are the sordid details:

On July 23rd at 2PM ET/11AM PT, we’ll be hosting a webinar where we’ll share tips and best practices for creating and running a successful social media website. If you’re in the process of putting together your social media website or are looking for ideas to take your website to the ‘next level,’ this webinar is for you.

Topics we’ll be covering:
1.Designing your social media strategy and experience
2.Leading and managing your online community
3.Programming your website’s social media experience
4.Social marketing for growth

We’ll be joined by a couple of special guests who are leading minds in their respective fields:

Ian Schafer is the CEO of Deep Focus, one of most innovative marketers around whose award winning agency has developed numerous social media marketing campaigns for brands like HBO (Flight of the Conchords) and Vitamin Water. Ian will share some ideas and thoughts around putting together a social media strategy and marketing a social media website.

Stephen Merrill is the general manager of BudgetTravel.com. Stephen recently launched My Budget Travel, inspired by the magazine’s daring, user-generated June 2008 10th Anniversary issue that showcases a reader-submitted cover photograph, and feature-length articles written entirely by readers. The KickApps powered social media section of the website gives readers and travel enthusiasts the opportunity to share their fondest travel experiences and adventures, and discover new ones. Stephen will talk about how to integrate social media and user-generated content successfully with editorial programming.

Sign up for the webinar at: http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=49150.
Once you’ve registered, just click on the link above to attend the webinar. If you need to use another machine, just re-register. We’ll send you a reminder a day prior to the event.

If you've been thinking about whether or not to build a social media website (or a social network itself) rather than advertise within a MySpace, Facebook, or Bebo, this one's for you.

Twitter This: Me @ OMMA Social on Monday, June 23rd.

I'll be performing live at OMMA Social at 4:15pm on Monday, June 23rd at the Yale Club (getting back at them for not accepting my application), speaking on a panel devoted to social media metrics.

I've sat on the sidelines for this discussion way too long. Seen too many panels on social media metrics that didn't address them at all. I'm hoping to do all I can to change that with this panel.

Here are the lascivious details:

4:15pm: Valuable by Any Measure: Metrics that Mean Something in Social Media

A soft drink advertiser boasts about the brand’s thousands of Facebook fans; a car advertiser is thrilled that its new car model is the talk of the blogosphere. Certainly this interest in their brands is better than the alternative, but what does it all mean? The search for metrics that mean something in social media.


Moderator: Jodi McDermott, Director of Product Management for Widgets, Clearspring Technologies

Heidi Browning, SVP, Client Solutions, MySpace

Blake Cahill, SVP Marketing, Visible Technologies

Ian Schafer, CEO, Deep Focus

Adam Weinroth, Director of Product Marketing, Pluck Corp

Stephanie Pike, Strategic Program Manager for Digital Marketing, Circuitcity.com

Be there, and be part of the solution.

And take the discussion to Twitter, people.

MySpace Homepage Redesign, Starring Batman.

MySpace Homepage 6-19-08, originally uploaded by Penny Kim.

I really, really like the MySpace redesign. I'm just not a big fan of the execution of The Dark Knight homepage takeover. I don't know...I guess I was just expecting...more.

What do you think?

MySpace Data Availability: What Does It Mean?

Today, MySpace announced "Data Availability" with partners Yahoo!, eBay, Photobucket, and Twitter. Check out the press release here.

To summarize:

Yahoo

Information on a user's MySpace profile may be integrated into Yahoo! services in a variety of ways. For example, users that have chosen to share their MySpace content and data with Yahoo! Instant Messenger might find their MySpace default photo, interests, and favorite music displayed to their Messenger contacts directly in the IM client. Additionally, MySpace users will be able to choose to display their data within Yahoo!'s universal profile or leverage it in Yahoo! Mail's smarter inbox, both launching later this year.

eBay

eBay profiles will be able to be enhanced with MySpace bios, interests, pictures, and videos. When browsing or transacting on eBay, the availability of external social information can help users make decisions quickly about whom they can do business (and forge relationships) with.

Photobucket

Photobucket users will be able to have a single view of their photos across multiple services, as well as opt-in to displaying their MySpace profile data in their Photobucket albums. Users will also be able to leverage their existing connections on MySpace to share their content on Photobucket more easily, without having to re-establish connections and friend lists.

Twitter

Twitter profiles at present are primarily focused on current updates and are relatively sparse on user information. Users will be able to incorporate their MySpace profile content and data points previously not included in the Twitter product suite. Once the implementation is complete, a user will be able to bring in their MySpace content and data including their bio, blogs, and photos, ultimately making the Twitter site a more enriching site with content previously unavailable in its interface.

Say want you want about whether or not anyone really wants to see MySpace information elsewhere, but this is part of the '3.0' stuff that everyone's been talking about...and other properties will follow suit.