Posts tagged "relationship"

Buzzing.

That’s how I felt after 2 hours hearing from the gurus of Facebook and Google. They have changed our world and they will continue to do so. Search and social media. Without them brands and their web-presence are increasingly irrelevant.

Facebook’s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

The power of this mission is extraordinary. The passion of those that work there is contagious. There are 400 million active users. Returning regularly. Sharing their favourite things with those they know.  Did you know that your propensity to click on an article or join a group if you know that one of your friends has, is multiplied around 80 times? The joy of “Your friend likes this”. And it’s free! Community networks and social media are more enormous and more powerful than any media that has gone before. Social media can turn a marketing monologue into a consumer dialogue. It can give a brand talkability, shareability. Ignore it and miss out.

Google = Search.

A concept that the global population is very used to. But, the future of search is making the past look antiquated. It’s mobile and almost human in nature reflecting voice, eyes, skin and location by using speaker, camera, touch-screen and GPS to replace the Google search bar.

“Not being top of search in Google is like the modern day equivalent of being out of stock.”  This comment came from one of the most senior marketers at one of the top pharmaceutical companies. And it really stuck in my mind. How often has search been the last thing on the list?

So what can we learn from all this? A lot. Search and Social Media – If no one can find your brand and no one likes your brand, your brand has a problem. But on the plus side, the opportunities these create are endless. Thank you Google and Facebook for changing the world and making it a better and more connected place.

How our industry is seen is a present annoyance for me.  I was forced by to go to a recent boys charity do and with a load of  bankers – I was turned on with multiple questions on the solid nature of what I do. Apparently ‘Media’ (said with a lightness of voice – try Frank Spencer/crossed with Dale Winton) as a sector is just nonsense. Not real work. Staggering my fellow charity goers all are in derivatives traders – pot – kettle – noir I said – infuriating them further.

I can understand this portrayal of what we do as airy-fairy-nonsense. Last night I tried to explain branding to our old IT guy Tony, who errs on the side of functional to say the least.  He just wasn’t convinced. Despite wearing Nike, carrying blackberry, and swearing by Persil, outside The Blue Posts it became apparent that I was never going to convince him on any decision making other that rational. It was the source of some frustration and much cider. But then he loves Carling because its tastes better than any other lager. (A belief I am still staggered by)

Returning to the bankers, it’s possible the view of the man in the (city) street is of the Gucci loafer wearing, Hoxton types, designing for an hour a day in-between their table fussball games that they really object to. I think also it’s the thought of a group of individuals earning  ”footballer wages” (sic), miles always from any market forces that further angered these guys. These guys just didn’t get what it’s all for. Yet when you speak to them about ads – these seem to be a result of some higher power – that clearly has never been near to a fussball tournament or infantile hand shake.

We need to dissect the elements of creativity, how a piece works, which elements are working  which need work. Assessing ideas requires words borrowed from an emotive/artistic dictionary. Which is why a collection of (daft) terms surrounds us and why often this collection of terms makes very little sense to the un-initiated.  We are immersed in tone, value, emotion, function, all elements of an idea that does something to its viewers. Perhaps this is “not the sort of thing anyone believes for a nanosecond in the real world”. but it’s a reality of our life we need the words to do the job.  I have a feeling that these are totally important to us, it’s their public outings that tend to persuade non – industry bods that what we do is just nonsense. Looking around the 5,000 member Facebook group – “Don’t tell my mum I’m in advertising – she thinks I play piano in a brothel” perhaps sums it up. A good indication of the shame those in our industry feel. Perhaps?  Perhaps not?

Why we shy away from just telling it like it is I don’t really know. Basically all that stuff we talk is for one real aim – to better connect in some way with an audience. The creation of an idea is about savings, it’s budgetary. Really it is.  Whether you are a planner, creative or suit, the business is about efficiency. We just seem reticent to tell others that by doing it this way we connect cheaper. We find ways of developing  relationships with audiences and brands that would otherwise cost more. Agree or disagree, I am not sure why the industry continues to be scared of this – hire us we will save you money seems a blinding recessionary position.

Simple as that.

Ps. No rhyming slang has been used in this blog.

I plumbed new depths of ‘trusted partner’ yesterday. I grabbed a quick lunch with a client prior to having wash up and 2010 planning meeting on a big web project we have just launched.  The poor chap  had managed to chuck himself down a frozen hill badly fracturing a shoulder and near breaking a wrist. MRIs and many specialists later he finds himself trussed up and pretty incapable.

Lunch saw him in great pain, choosing a suitable starter (queen scallops), and then moving on to sausage and mash. No problems on the starter – ideal for the one armed. His main forced us to new levels of agency / client partnership when I had to cut up his food into bite sized pieces.

His brief to cut up into 3 pieces, was soon taken although those cut into 4 pieces proved much more elegant – a classic example of delivering beyond expectations.

It made me think of a section of a recent online procurement RFI that asked us “what additional non-billable services have we offered clients”.  I shall upload this perfect example next time.

I have been contemplating a pitch Shep’ and I did last week  that for a first-time-for-us covered ‘prosumption’ as part of an approach to develop digital understanding and better resources.

In is woolliest form prosumption is useful when we are developing materials for a sub group of consumers when you just can’t follow the traditional; write/art direct/code/build, test, review and rebuild approach. Whether than be for time or budget reasons.

Prosumption is the mixing of  consumer and the producer to produce a new hybrid – the Prosumer. In what (another new word for me this week) I now know to be a portmanteau – a blend of two words and their meaning.

Reading around what I thought was a new internet thing. I find it’s almost as old as Ian, and much older than I am. In 1972, Marshall McLuhan and Barrington Nevitt suggested that technology would drive the consumer to become a producer (‘democratisation of media’ -  I hear Gemma (AD at AMV) shout). In the 1980 book, the term was coined by a futurologist named  Alvin Toffler who predicted this coming together.

The approach results in individuals working together blurring the barriers, between need for something and capability to provide it.

The conclusion of much of this work is that once mass market saturation and standardisation have brought us all happi(ish)ness, the market evolves  to initiate a process of mass customization. Giving consumers exactly what’s wanted with the assumption that this delivers a risk free relationship and a guaranteed happy customer.

Pretty interesting? It does make you think that once we all have perfectly tailored good, where will we go next? Ultimate rebellion should see us go full circle and start buying goods at George at ASDA perhaps?

Anyway fairly standardised fingers are crossed here. We hear Wednesday this week.

PS. I am really trying to avoid puns in headlines. Really sorry.

When you kick off a new business you end up with responsibilities for office services that you would rather do without. In the early days, due to my inability to say no to the rep I landed stationery. Those who I worked for at Shire Health International will know the hilarity of this – I have come full circle – I am sure next week will see me run out and put coins in metres for account directors!

In the less busy days of early last year I grabbed every order of paper, pens, and flipcharts as an indication that we were growing like mad. In the more recent days we all order from our desktops preventing me from any clear sign of growth. Alas I am only left with the P&L and feel from the office on our progress!

My paper guys of choice were Viking – always on time, always in stock, cheap as any and returns were near effortless. A valued if commoditised supplier, products that did what they did and communication that focused on stock lines and deals.

Then out of the blue came an email from Nigel, Viking’s Online Community Manager with an invite to climb aboard a platform on which all of their customers interact, discuss and share ideas on how they and the stationery industry as a whole can get better.

Like most I haven’t aired everything I have felt on stationery. Starting up has been a busy time and stationery although important is pretty low down the list (except when we run out of recycled laser paper during a pitch). Items on this website – span recommendations for ‘Start-up’ kits for new businesses, conference packages, more automatic ordering systems and alternative approaches to pricing.

Kicking these ideas into the business is a team of back office ‘Idealists’ whose job is to investigate the most popular ideas and report back on them on the site and I hope push them into the business.

For a supplier of commodities I thought this was at least a progressive move, a potential pragmatic source of innovation and at most a potential brilliant business driver. See what you think here.

 Almost a year ago I wrote an article on POM to P, a call for pharmacy to embrace the opportunity that new P brands offer. I stand by my argument that pharmacists’ role in consultation gives value to the consumer and allows pharmacy to become true healthcare providers of the high street.

A year on the opportunity arrives. We are proud to have been an intrinsic part of the launch of alli, a landmark pharmacy launch and arguably the most successful pharmacy switch ever. What is so important about alli is that the consultation is a critical part of the offer – more interaction than transaction. It’s a launch that emphasises pharmacy’s shift from a provider of products to an enabler of positive behavioural change. With alli, pharmacists must outline the personal commitment essential to weight loss, help consumers understand their responsibilities and manage their expectations.

To date both pharmacy and consumers have embraced this brand wholeheartedly. GSK have invested heavily in training and pharmacy have enrolled for that training at an unprecedented rate. It feels that this is the switch pharmacy are really going to get behind, proving once and for all that broader access to treatments is good for manufacturers, good for pharmacy, and most importantly good for us all.

Time will tell…

Sermo is a social networking site we have been following here for a little while. It’s bloody successful – 3,000,000 comments, 30,000 discussions and the largest physicians only network with around 50,000 members.  Sermo continuously reinforces its value proposition, making its community secure, more user friendly and in-line with its stated goals and vision.

The Sermo community has had a few tests over the last 8 months or so – each time with naysayers being promptly being put into place by the community. From my old politics days – it was one of the fundamentals of sovereignty that a state provides for its members during peace time and expects those members to look after it when under attack. Perhaps this tenant of nation state theory can be stretched online? I hope so – it make 3 years of my life less of a waste of time!

Initially pharma’s role in this community was seen as something to be defended against. CEO and founder of Sermo Daniel Palestrant stated in an interview with (the ridiculously named) New Paradigm; “As a doctor I thought that other doctors were tired with interacting with Pharma…then we started having more and more members of the community saying, “Hey, where’s Pharma… why aren’t they in the system?”.

Sermo sought further input asking – “Do we want Pharma in here? The result – between 60% – 80% of the community felt a need for Pharma involvement somehow.” This feedback has been taken to heart and given rise to a recent announcement a partnership with Pfizer. Reading this made me feel warm about the benefits of online communities and the requirement physicians have for us lot to be involved.

I was once told across a crowded meeting room that maintaining the divide between business and personal life is important. “It’s business, not personal” still rings in my ears today.

Now I am part of our own agency, I feel I can stand back with a little more authority and give thought to this mantra.

The idea that what I do during the ‘day job’ is very different to who I am on the weekend, is one I have at times aspired to but never really succeeded at. I find it impossible not to be worried at home by worrying office stuff, or for a successful workday not to give me the foundation for a great evening out with my mates. Thus far the flick of the switch on the No. 38 to Angel has eluded me.

The strongest and best relationships we have are ones where we allow ourselves to be human, working alongside other humans, who worry, laugh, err and create… whether that’s at home discussing broad beans or striving for patient-integrated Rx strategy.

Being ourselves and keeping it personal was built into the agency culture from our earliest plans. The business side made Barclays happy and ensured we had rigour and efficiency. But by valuing personality we don’t break people down and rebuild them the ‘hive’ way, or force a process on a relationship. All actors are free to contribute ‘their’ way adding to what we are as an organisation.

What we want most is for people to say that we understand them at a personal level: what they want, where they plan to be, what they love, what they don’t – not just the business of the brand, political situation and process.

Because of this our business could never be anything other than personal.

We have been thinking about agency-client relationships this week, with a request from procurement to build a multiagency-relationship-measurement thing. That is, something that gives visibility to the relationship status between the agency and the brand team.

It’s typical for an agency to be measured primarily by its output. But if you agree that a brand’s health is the key to organisational profit and the quality of your agency-client relationship is a major driver of brand health, then the health of that relationship becomes a key driver of your profitability.

I did some truffling around and found a great article written by Douglas T. Moore from General Mills which just seems to hit home. (More than that actually- I think I would really like the guy.) We plan to use his ideas for our relationship measurement tool. Doug has given us seven areas to work with:

Top-to-top trust – Trust between decision makers enables everyone to take bigger risks and grab bigger opportunities. It does this by speeding up problem-solving.

Agency talent – The best minds in the agency create brand ideas, never letting process, politics, or even budgets get in the way of great work.

Focusing on talent doesn’t just mean recruiting the best. It means finding them, developing them and above all giving them great reasons to stay. Stability is critical, rapid change at an agency can create problems.

Client talent – The great ones realise they shouldn’t ‘manage’ the relationship. Instead, their role is to inspire with the sense that anything is possible; make sure the strategy is insightful and simple; recognise talent and shape it; sell it through client personalities, fears, and politics.

Ideas atmosphere – Cohesion, openness, trust, sharing, and a willingness to dream. The key is creating a collaborative, ideas-driven atmosphere at the core of your partnership. Act like a start-up (easy for us to say). All ideas are welcome. Success is rewarded. Team is sacred. Speed and strategy is fundamental.

Money as a positive force – Passion gets business going… cash keeps it flowing. If your deal is too good to be true, it probably is. Top talent needs to be compensated as such. Equally the agency needs to work with what the business can afford. Consider incentives at an appropriate scale. Try a pilot, put ’significant’ money into an incentive pot, tie specific, quantifiable objectives to it, and track performance changes.

Lots of conversations about what matters – Agreement on the path to brand success is crucial for all – and I mean we must really, really agree, not ‘meeting nice’ agree. Relationships can drag all kinds of ’silent’ issues around for months, sometimes years. Senior leaders on both sides must keep talking about where the brand needs to go and potential worries around trust or ideas.

Shared disciplines – Semantics and language can hinder or enable progress. No matter how many agencies businesses may work with, it’s essential to embrace each unique culture. But having a common framework for discussing brands, strategies, projects, and simple things like clarifying roles and responsibilities, makes a huge impact in success rates and speed.

I love Doug’s list and everyone in the agency is excited by his points. Soon we hope not only to put them into practice, but have ourselves measured against them.

There’s a really interesting new theory circulating called transmedia planning. A quick background: transmedia storytelling was a trend identified by the cultural academic Henry Jenkins, where entertainment brands used different media streams to tell pieces of a story or plot. Transmedia planning was born when a number of strategists, including Faris Yakob, adapted Jenkins’ theory for the marketing world.

TMP places control in the users’ hands by asking us to “Allow your audience to assemble your brand story”. It’s an interesting evolution of 360° marketing where one idea is expressed uniformly by multiple channels. TMP allows ideas (or parts of ideas) to reach consumers from a slightly different point of view, but deliver consistent value and meaning around a brand.

Hive’s business plan adopts a transmedia approach in the context of the important changes happening in healthcare. You don’t have to have read our recent blog comments to know that informed, or partially informed, patients are increasingly the norm. Growing access to different information sources gives patients more control over their treatment. The web allows communities to form and discuss treatment and results. Consumers are showing they need more than shallow promises and that’s where TMP fits the bill.

We have to remember though that the transmedia concept evolved in an unconstrained consumer world. In its purest form, TMP can’t apply directly to prescription brands because of the necessary limitations on patient communications. However, prescription drug users still form communities to share experiences about treatment, particularly those with chronic conditions. Using a transmedia approach here involves setting up the dialogue between prescriber and patient, but acknowledging that some of the dialogue and beliefs around the brand may also be acquired from less informed sources. The reality for patients/consumers is, the relative weight of advice sourced online vs the prescriber is not always as you would imagine.

Building relationships in any industry is about engagement with people. In the healthcare mainstream, the critical commitment may still be the prescriber’s. But it’s vital to remember that the prescriber is not the person experiencing the brand in a hands-on manner. Its time our communication to professionals and patients alike began to reflect that.