Watching that amazing Sofia Coppola movie in my hotel tonight. After seeing all the freaking troubles & issues, wars & unrest we live in this world on BBC. Should we not try to stay committed to make our world a better place. You might find it naive or demago ... or you might just see it as the opportunity to effectively reach your consumers through social purpose. And you' d be spot on: 85 percent of consumers worldwide are willing to change the brands they buy or their consumption habits to make tomorrow a better place.

And if your help your customers with their humble but noble cause, chances are that your reach to your dedicated audience will dramatically and organically grow: 55 percent of them would in turn help you "promote" your product as long as  a good cause lays behind it.  And not only are they more prone to talk about you, the brand, they're also willing to pay your products more to participate (70%).

Social interest i.e helping others and contributing to community comes to second highest source of personal contentment just after spending time with their loved ones, according to a global survey by Edelman and Goodpurpose released this week.  88% saying they feel it is their duty to contribute to a better society and environment. 

Ironically enough, the study also points out that lack of money was a barrier mentioned more often by 'developed' countries than by less wealthy countries.  For more on this check the findings at Marketing Charts.

I spent a great day in Netherlands today meeting our local team and some press. This Great Nation once running in the forefront of online now sees a slight slowdown in online growth - with TV back growing up to 17% year on year... Lack of adequate people in online planning, lack of "risk taking" marketeers, agency cost saving when doing "the usual TV stuff" etc etc etc all the "good bad reasons" are back in the game. But the team is in great shape, great leadership in place - so online will prevail. Keep going guys. We have a mission... 

Then think about that poor marketeer that is on that tipping point of 'online or not' - doet ie het of doe ie het niet so to speak. Imagine that same guy looking at the online media mix. Imagine having to convince him about "social media" being part of his strategy. Excuse me, no budget to test Social Media? Well, cut it off from your in-store retailer shops: 82% of  consumers prefer online peer reviews to in-store sales assistance. The findings are coming from the recent ' Social Shopping Study 2007' whose objective was to find out how influenced 1,200 regular online shoppers (buying at least 4 times a year with a minimum of $500 yearly spent) were by peer products reviews.

The social shopper is a social researcher: 65% of the surveyed consumers turned out to actively search for peer reviews before making their purchase decisions. "Currently, 81 percent of consumers use customer reviews to decide between two or three products or to confirm that their final selection is the right one."  Better provide those reviews on your retailer site or they'll leave it to find the content they're looking for...

If you need more numbers to get convinced that Social Media strategy starts with leveraging your existing online selling platforms,  think about those "93 percent of consumers who indicated they are likely to start their shopping process on a Website that offers Social Navigation." Social navigation is a new coined term meaning product selection based on peer reviews. And it clearly is a strong competitive advantage: not surprisingly, Social Researchers are 76 percent more likely to shop on a retailer’s Website vs. their competitor site if it offers social navigation .

Wanna see a good exemple of social shopping and social navigation? Check out eBay Neighborhoods. This is a  great illustration of content co-creation between a brand and its consumers. As of today, eBay's initiative provides more than 600 micro social shopping guides organised around mass and niche products. You'll even find a Ford Mustang  Neighborhoods. I know at least one person who's checking this out daily at least - aren't you Kris ?

When we look for best practices and lessons learned in Web 2.0, we turn to the US to find inspiration, data, do's and don'ts. Same goes for Japan as far as mobile advertising is concerned. We might now pretty soon give it a second thought and turn to Tudou instead of Youtube, Xiaonei for Facebook, Wealink for  Linked In , Yuppo for FlickR and Fanfou for Twitter. I'm often asked about the Chinese adoption of social media tools. More and more American companies are investigating into Social Media to reach the 172 internet users living in the Middle Empire. 

Recent surveys, like the one from Netpop, reveal numbers enlightening why they're going to take it seriously. Chinese consumers are definitely more influenced by Social Media than their US counterparts- 58% of purchase decisions are driven by UGC, compared to 19% in the US- and they are also more active contributers - among broadband users, 48% are creating content on blogs and other chat rooms & forums,  compared to 28% in the US. True, the average user is in his early thirties, meaning by age group belonging more prone to participate actively than the US user on average 10 years older.

"On average, a Chinese consumer communicates in one month with 8 people about brands. 17% of the consumers however talk about brands with more than 10 people monthly. 80% of the consumers think that the Internet is the most essential medium in their life. The Internet is the most important medium for Chinese consumers to learn -for the first time- about a new brand or a new product, followed by TV commercials." The first survey done on Chinese Social Media at Jan Van Den Berg's - the Belgian Shanghai-based president of i-merge/ boondoggle- and Sinomonitor's initiative, looks at brand and product recommendation on the Internet in China and corroborates the Netpop findings.

(If you want to go through the complete data released at the end of last October, download the results here ). Jan's conclusion to the report is that " in China, like everywhere else on the planet, marketers underestimate the value of the phenomenon".  Which significantly summed up my short answer to the initial question: Social Media adoption in China is high and low. High on the consumer side, low on the marketer side. 

For those who are curious to follow the marketer's adoption over there,  let me suggest you to RSS  some influential sources and register to the brand new I Media Asian newsletter . These are in English but if you' re among the most motivated ones, you might want to start using this site: http://chinesepod.com/

Also listen to Jan's podcast he did with the China Business Network on what makes the new Chinese consumer tick.

Looking for an interesting Christmas present ?  MSN UK are running a Harry Potter Competition in conjunction with the launch of the “Order of The Phoenix” DVD.  Harry Potter fans have the chance to appear on the big screen by answering a series of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix-related questions. The lucky winner will participate in a "crowd scene" (which may or may not be a silent scene:-)) in the next movie.  Needless to say this is going to be a highly contested competition !  Quoting Josh Berger, President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. UK, said: “Digital plays an important role in our marketing mix.  We’ve been investing in digital for many years and are constantly pushing the bar to break new boundaries and create campaigns that truly engage with the consumer. Digital enables us to achieve cut through in a very competitive market and allows us to engage with consumers in innovative ways.”

Alain Thys - storyteller and agent of change as he described himself, founder of FutureLab and author of the great I am the media presentation I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, wants to take Europe on the virtual map of the world.  I have been talking a lot lately on conferences about story telling in this new digital world -so I feel like passing on his wake up call. True, markets are taking off and the European IAB objective for 2010 -10% in digital marketing spend-  will  probably be achieved in most of the concerned countries. But the % dedicated to Social Media in general and virtual words in particular is still ridiculously low- if not missing, leading European customers to engage more and more on US platforms. or localised versions. 

Alain is calling up to European brands and businesses and also universities and governments to seriously consider being part of the new world of advertising. And he's willing to make this happen by offering to host the first round table organized on the subject where brands and agencies would brainstorm and converse together and with the experts brought on board by FutureLab with one common objective: "launching a branded virtual world for European audiences in 2008."

Despite the fact that I also have a lot of questions around virtual worlds, and the ROI of investments made - I still think this is a great initiative which should be answered and nurtured. This is a project we want to contribute and actively take part in. Count me in Alain.

... in previous post a minute ago that I was speaking at an ENG conference on Effective Webmarketing & Analytics in Brussels. Was pleasantly surprised by the level of engagement & knowledge of the 50 or so high level marketeers attending. They questioned me on privacy issues around Facebook, on the power of mini-aps, gadgets & widgets, and when I asked who was an active user of Facebook i guess around 60% raised hands - which left me stunned.  

If you ever questioned the history and definition of Social Media, I suggest you read the instructive last issue of the  Journal of Computer- Mediated Communication, October 2007 co-written by famous blogger danah m. boyd* (*yes without capital), from the University of California -Berkeley and Nicole B. Ellison from Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media from Michigan State University. 

The issue is not 100% rounded up but the introduction is ready for you to get these highly educated scholars' perspective on the subject- that is what it is, where does it originate from and where it's going. 

boyd and Ellison also worked on a non exhaustive but very enlightening timeline list of SNS (Social Network Sites).

The first recognizable social network site, Six Degrees, launched in 97 and closed in 2000. Back then few people agree to meet 'strangers' online and too few applications allow it to be more than an online address book enabling users to send emails. Too early a precursor, the site dies from lack of massive adoption.  

From the beginnings in 97 and the social familial and friendship use, the timeline - and combined article- highlights the major SNS stressing the two following important waves, the first one in 2001 when SNS were used to leverage business networks (with no more existing Ryze) and 2003 when SNS hit the mainstream and start proliferating worldwide (with site like LinkedIn, MySpace, etc.). 

For once, let's forget about the advertising and/or marketing approach and widen the discussion. Soon you'll be talking about 'impression management' and 'friendship performance' . Or 'taste fabric' instead of interest targeting. 

Or if you prefer, take it at the opportunity to learn everything you've always wanted to ask/know about SNS but were afraid to do so, "pression oblige".

I have been off for some time. Had a great visit to Madrid, our sales teams and the IAB conference/festival. Interesting to see the spanish market now taking off pretty fundamentally. What a big shit compared to 18 months ago.

Was thinking about the Web Trendmap 2007 I mentioned in previous post... you could have guessed it a year ago if you're a regular Time reader. But if you missed both pieces of information here's an other chance to catch up with the news:  Half of the most popular websites are social media , at least for last September data. 

And yes indeed, the other half is search-metric. An easy shortcut would be to say internet users are searching sites where their final objective is to participate and create content.  With the social networking penetration growing quickly worldwide and particularly in Europe, 3 out of 4 of the social networkers are now living outside the US. Consider even more rapid international page views growth as social sites' usage is no longer the privilege of non US trendsetters but not yet the addictive 15 mn leisure break of the majority of the worldwide online population.

The article neatly mentions the possible monetisation issues we will be running into when trying to sell this "plethora of new inventory". valid point - but there is more between heaven and earth than dreamt of in your philosophy. To be continued.

FutureLab was catching up an interesting Web trend map of the 200 most popular websites, updated and released last June by Information Architects Japan.  Im' taking the opportunity to share it here and now and appreciate their job, based on the Tokyo Metro Map, ordering the sites by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective and applying them weather forecast (from sunny 'nice' to stormy 'trouble') and a web generation number (unfortunately they're not being too talkative about the methodology they applied).

Choose their clickable online version and get ready for a few discoveries ( especially with the special Chinese line). You (the person of the year, remember?) majestically occupies the Emperor palace, at the center of the map (look for a pale green diamond square). 

MSFT station is on the technology line, sharing a junction with the moneymaker line (I don't get the ' Microsoft has moved to Ikebukuro, if you know what I mean' joke. Anyone?) MDAS station is a big connection place with junctions to four different lines: the two previously mentioned and the news and main sites line. More junctions could be added here though... watch our space...

Both are qualified 1.0 sites and submitted to 'changing to stormy' weather conditions - but weather forecasts are know to be bad in weather predictions right? 

(A few suggestions for next releases: Make each line singly clickable  and let the visitors build the map by choosing how they want to add lines (making the content more easily readable); Decline it with "most popular blogs", "most popular social networks", etc;  Include sentiment detection based on web and blogs monitoring for the weather forecasts ) - just suggestions really.

Last week I posted about customers taking a growing part into one - or several- of the 4Ps of marketing. I also mentioned the two existing main streams: consumers being offered guidelines by brands to do so or being left without clear framework or contest rules at all to play with. The second option usually leading to a great deal of poorer quality content submissions and eventually a great waste of time. 

Crafting guidelines is definitely the option new Customer Advertising Content platforms are pitching on. One -purists- can disagree that consumers are being asked - or willing - to participate in the creation of the 'dream' or the seduction game brands try to create to entice them. Call it pragmatism but what better way to be most certainly seduced than to show what you actually find attractive? 

With more than 130million Internet users generating content, one - not the same- can hope that great creatives are part of this group. That's in any case these new platforms' wish, and more than their wish, their thoughtful business model. 

The concept is quite the same : consumers are invited to answers brands' pitches by creating and uploading their ads, be it baselines, videos, etc. The 'consumers' identity' though differ a bit from platform to platform. On the

Blogband site, a Publicis Group development, submissions are opened to 'creative' bloggers with no required specifications, while on the OpenAd.net , the 'biggest creative department' network (more than 10,000 creatives from 122 countries) participants are all qualified as professionals, be them freelancers or working in advertising agencies. Besides community's and sometimes worldwide recognition, successful participants are getting commissioned on their work - and fellow members of the network are also being paid to display ads they like on their blogs as long as others click on it. Additionally, buzz is generating by the users themselves (and by the voting process to elect winners).

I agree it probably works better for one-shots campaigns rather than long term brand image building but, still, great long term ideas can also come from creatives in a flash.

After a couple of days work in Helsinki & Copenhagen I am ready for the last stage in Oslo. But in between all the work I had a fantastic dinner with my good old friend Torstein. He took me to this amazing Ekeberg restaurant up the hill with a breath taking view over cold Oslo. We obviously changed the world, found the meaning of life and also enjoyed the delicious food. Once in a while it is not too bad an idea to step back and look at what life holds for us - the view from the restaurant on the city gives you a different perspective on how it functions than being in the city itself. CU soon in Leuven buddy :-) and keep enjoying what you do...!   

Sitting in CPH and looking back at today's interviews and presentations. I was doing a presentation in Finland this morning and somebody asked me an interesting question about using word of mouth as a promotion strategy. I gave a long answer :-) but gave it some more thought on the plane to CPH - so this post is for you:

Just read Mack Collier's article for Marketing Profs. (Mack is the author of The Viral Garden blog, which besides sharing great insights from his social media consultancy experience, publishes the list of the 25 top marketing blogs, updated every week.)  His reading echoes and elaborates over my recent posts on participatory times and the power of social media. Mack's stressing that more and more companies are turning over to their consumers to develop at least one the 4Ps of their marketing strategy. 

Like Threadless with consumers defining their Product, like Radio Head  with buyers deciding which Price they would offer to get Rainbows, the group's last album ($0 was an acceptable and accepted price though average price per album was around $8 and 1, 2 million of them were downloaded on the first day), like FlickR allowing customers to choose the Place where to distribute the site's content through a widget, like Maker's Mark bourbon  successfully relying on its loyal customers to take care of the Promotion.

Why are these companies doing so? Because recommendation from a friend is the best WOM to boost your Promotional strategy (rethink online ambassador programs). Because your customer, individual part of our target group, knows the Places the entity is hanging out (think widgets development), because your consumer shares practical and efficient ideas to develop your next Product generation (re/think co-creation of products). And yes because it can also be cheaper.

Mack adds that one the biggest reasons for companies to give part of their marketing away is the first mover advantage. Id' say one of the biggest reasons to do it now is because, you wanting it or not, customers are already voicing and acting over your 4Ps as we speak. So better know what and how they're doing it. Leverage your findings and offer them a framework to contribute to your brand's building. Give away and you will get. 

This is the sort of week I like. This morning I set off on a plane to Helsinki - and from here i'll go to Copenhagn and Oslo. All 3 countries have Digital Marketing seminars lined up and having me as a guest speaker on 'story telling in the new world of advertizing'. I like to engage with customers, listen to their feedback and questions. Today was a great start with a couple of journalists. Amazing to see the seismic shift from the two years ago sceptical look at 'why is Microsoft in the Ad business' to today's focus around the 'yes sure you are but how do you see the future and how are you going to accomplish this'. On top it was good to hear the local team talk about the Finnish market taking off, getting closer to the 10% in digital marketing spend on total media. Almost that is :-) but at a healthy growth.  And our Country Manager as President of the IAB Finland helps. Good job Mikko. Anyway, tomorrow a big customer seminar and then off to CPH, the Amsterdam of the Nordics (but that is my interpretation - don't start harassing me on that judgment :-))

On a more serious note: this late September I posted an entry about a new industry awards, the Groundswell Awards, organized by Forrester social media experts Li and Bernoff. While I was a bit dubious about the seven categories they chose to sort the submissions they received (upon reviewing the 78 entries, they added an eighth one, the Company Transformation awards fairly attributed to Dell ), I found their major criteria to elect winners- business value- valuable enough precisely to remind me to watch carefully for the post featuring their winners.

They were some time ago at their last Consumer Forum in Chicago and I recommend you go and study their selection of projects to find inspiration from big players across the more 'prone to social media' industries like the healthcare, the automobile, the finance and the telecom. (Pity though Forrester did not publish all the projects' profiles and qualifications). What inspired me most was that among the 19 winners and finalists' projects, 3 of them were initiated by Communispace. Communispace is one of the leaders in building and managing private online communities where customers are invited to voice their opinions about a brand "with the goal of coming up with new ideas, offering advice to the sponsoring company and other members, sharing their experiences, commenting on market trends, and helping the company identify and solve business issues" .

No wonder then that 2 out of their 3 projects were nominated for the Listening category, rewarding projects focused on "finding out what customers are really saying about a company". GKS made it to the second place and Schwab won gold.  Facilitated social networks like the ones offered by Communispaces and the like are the new generation online focus groups, providing brands efficient tools to listen and engage with their consumers in a closed/private social environment. Immediate advantages for the brands: they don't have to build their community from scratch, they learn to give up control in a less intimidating environment and for a given time while fostering the customer to customer dialogue. In the winner case, thanks to the community insights, the brand lowered the entry level to meet her audience requests, leading to a 32% new clients' increase compared to the previous year. Sure enough Experience is still more important than Technology. But when Technology can help and lower the access to make brands more comfortable in engaging with their audience thats a sure first step to create Experience.

A recent study from Yahoo and Media Vest brings to light positive and relevant numbers on why marketers should try and create heartshare -as I discussed recently in previous Brand Loyalty post. The title of the study itself summed it all up: ' Passionistas: The New Empowered Consumers'. No need for an other anatomy lesson here - the link between passion and heart should be self explanatory to all. As self-evident but all the more crucial are the findings the study breaks.

• Passionistas spend more time engaging in activities related to their passion meaning they also spend more time engaging with communities about their passion. Study shows they are  52% more likely to recommend or influence others about brands engaged with them.  More detailed numbers here
• They are also more prolific content creators, meaning not only they're proactive UGC but they're also delighted to be asked to play the games their beloved brands will set up for them.
• They have high expectations as how they should be woo though so better take the time to know them well, think about the best way to approach and charm them and not to be forgotten: the love proofs. 

In this case the biggest the interactive creation tools kit you offer the better you'll enable them to show their passion and spread the word even more easily. Any marketer's dream has always been to identify these passionate customers.  Once they do they usually try and find the best rational to attract them.  Engagement - that is willingly creating a more intimate and long term relationship-  is a step the most adventurous are taking now. 

Microsoft Surface has been elected number 1 most brilliant innovations of 2007 by  Popular Mechanics