Is the Celebrity Ambassador Dead?

It was the sure fire way to brand success in the 90s.

Find a high profile person, call them an 'ambassador' (sounds flash, right?), find an excuse to gather the media flock at an effortlessly fabulous venue (usually a private mansion, or the soon to be launched night spot to be seen) and let your star Ambassador tell everyone how fabulous your company and its products are.

Celebrity Ambassdors were the secret to brand success! It worked a treat, and in some parts of the marketing communications business-scape, still does!

But is it the sure fire road to success in todays globally mobile marketing communications environment?

New digital technologies have changed the way we communicate.

What we say, when we say it and how we say it, is increasingly dictated by a nineties launched commercial entity known as the Internet which houses information systems like the World Wide Web, (an intricate system of interlinked hyperlinked documents) that enables everyday people folk like yours truly, to store and share information (or what academia would proudly deem: knowledge).

Before most of us get up for the day, we have already reached for our smartphone to check the time, date or latest news from social networking hub, Facebook.

We may in fact be listening to BBC radio on our phone as we walk outside in search of a rolled up newspaper delivered by a spotty teen (or their supportive parent) somewhere in the vicinity of our front door. Why?

Because traditional media is not dead, it is simply a part of an enlarged mediascape that shares some of its formality, but very few of its regulations.

IBRC Conference: Social Media Risk Melbourne, Australia

[slideshare id=15281289&w=427&h=356&sc=no]

Social Media & Footy = The Art of Social from tjunee

1 in 7 people on Earth Facebook

It took a little over 8 years and 1 billion people before Facebook made its first brand ad:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7SjvLceXgU&w=560&h=315]

Proof that contextually relevant brands and services intrinsically motivate to engagement...?


#FoodForThought

Not bad for an 8 year old :)

According to the New York Times, this is what the first 200 million looked like:


Wonder how long it will take to reach 2 billion... 12-18 months? #StrangerThingsHaveHappened #WatchThisSpace :D

New Media Advertising: Coca Cola 2020

I was originally excited about this piece of creative. Then I watched it.

I am still struggling to see how this is 'new, let alone something to strive for in 2020 - 8 years in the future!

Messaging should always have stretch. Storytelling should always be robust and timeless...

Come on corporate lions, let's think outside the agency capabilities #IDareYou

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerdMmWjU_E&w=853&h=480]

Cybermedicine Symposia

Following an invitation from Clinical director and obstetrician to the rugby stars, Dr Vijay Roach, I recently presented a lecture on social media and medicine at the Northern Clinical School, Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney Australia.

Here are a copy of the slides presented [scribd id=99786772 key=key-1omhnvyxqopq6kf2tjt2 mode=list]
As always, please don't hesitate to contact me, should you have any questions.

Marketing and Comms fundamentals haven't changed, platform tactics have.

Be open, honest and consistent.

Plan for the worst, so you'll be at your best.

Have an answer for the question you hope no one will ask... It will no doubt be one of the first asked.

If you don't know, find someone who does. Don't bluff, you're online. You've got time.

HOW TO: Avoid a Social Media Disaster

5 not-so-easy steps to managing your brand online | VentureBeat

This is why professional Australian sporting bodies need to seriously consider refining their token engagement with social media technologies, if they don't want to double their workload down the line.

5 not-so-easy steps to managing your brand online | VentureBeat

Twitter - Necessity or Nuisance?

Well, today I finally bit the bullet and joined the Twitter revolution.

Rather than cynically judging it from afar, fearing it like a child does anything containing vitamins, I didn't bother with a swimming suit, I just dived (clothes and all) head first (think Michelle Lee at her best) into the Twitter sea.

Not surprisingly, my virgin experience, immediately had me asking questions about relevance, information management, and strategies for creating and maintaining intrinsic brand value.

And I came to thinking, it's not the Twitter-package that's the problem. It's the age-old language barrier (I know for a fact some academics struggle to decipher it!) as well as, some of the (at times dubious) User practices.

I decided there are categories of Twitterers (really?): the old-hands who have been manipulating code since well before any part of the interactive space became a trendy place to hang.

Then there are the Newbie's (like me) who are still wrapping ailling brain-matter around the art and science of this brilliantly inter-woven, sophisticated cyber network.

And then there are those who are just there to be seen.  The ones paying homage to the trend without truly understanding what or how they are doing it.

Are they Twits or innovators?  Or what the Spin doctors would call opinion leaders?

Are the Twits really embracing the community spirit of cyberspace and the instant-information platform?

As with everything in cyberland, I guess, for the moment, I have my suspicions, but I'm really not too sure.

Is the perception of technacy really enough to ensure positive interaction with your brand, or does brand management in the digital space require a more sophisticated, considered, even interactive think-tank kind of approach?

Watch this space.  I feel a dissertation being born...