It's been a busy year. I have travelled a lot and seen too litlle. I bought a lot of nice books and read only a couple. I 'did' a lot and 'thought' too little. Perfect timing to forget about Microsoft and digital marketing and advertizing and and and - and go where no tam tam can reach me (well... psychologically that is). I'll be back in 4 weeks and wish you a delightful holiday. No posts in this period. But as my favorite actor said, I'll be back.      

While I'll be enjoying my summer break - and consequently a temporary break in my contribution to the total amount of UGC-  a quite significant number of today content consumers will turn into content creators: the Emarketer's new study forecasts that the total amount of user generated content creators will increase by more than 20 million by 2008, heading up to a total of 237,7 million for 2011. That's indeed a lot of cats & dogs videos to come.

And if they don't have cats, they'll probably start by videoing their cutie kids and participating to an other 'classique du genre': the brand's product video contest like the one Heinz started last April and which generated 1498 entries so far- which is relatively low if you compare it to the amount of Ketchup customers and to the appealing $57,000 price. Maybe I could do one before I dash off today.

Or they'll post about their experience with one of the Wal-Mart products on the 'new' Wal-Mart corporate website which just implemented customer ratings and reviews and forums. With products reviews published within 5 days of submission.... 5 that is :-)  So much for transparency...

Or maybe they'll go directly to square 2 and show even more commitment to their beloved brand and make their voice really count like this new Facebook group who's trying to rescue Business 2.0 from Time Inc 's decision to get rid of the publication.

The value of the social platforms will come from its content creators. Me, You. Challenges ahead! Back in September that is.

This week I was in London - the last time before my holidays - and between brackets also enjoying a fantastic play "In celebration" I can seriously recommend  (although the accents were a serious stretch on my understanding English... ).  

A play about a Yorkshire miner’s family - a miner and his wife celebrate their 40^th wedding anniversary – their 3 sons come back home from their worlds. Colin - a manager in the car industry, Steven (Orlando Bloom – yeahyeah the pirates of the carribean guy – calm down ladies) is a teacher but wants to be a writer, and Andrew, he quit being a lawyer to become a self proclaimed artist. The play brings you from an ‘authentic’ family atmosphere (cup of tea, a fag and just use the unlocked back door) to a world that lives a painful inaptitude to express emotions, an inability to live with the unexposed secrets their parent’s apparently happy marriage hold. All wounded characters, distorted and hurt by their past and youth. And a great open inclusive ending. Grim – but I loved it.

The day before, after a lovely dinner, I enjoyed another play on CNN. Less grim but quite revealing. US politics took a pretty significant step in leading the path to new connections with their audience. CNN and YouTube partnered to set up the first political debate where US citizens could take part by videoing the questions they wanted to ask to Democrats candidates. Republicans will go through the exercise next September. Probably a question of political agenda but let's not debate over the politics' issues here, let's celebrate the media initiative and its mixed citizen-professional journalistic approach. It's not the first time in history that a handful of citizens are given the possibility to publicly express their questions with the chance to be heard and answered live by politicians but it's the first time in history they participated by creating their own videos and it's the first time they get such a big visibility worldwide. Politics 2.0 so to speak.The amount of press coverage was pretty amazing as well. 

But it also raises the fact that we're part of the happy few- living in this world of seemingly endless social tools' possibilities. For some of the participants, it was indeed the first time they even go to YouTube. So surely while CNN benefited from the younger and more proactive audience (I agree with you Joseph ) of its partner, I'm convinced it does work both ways - and I'm talking about the benefit to prompt access to the major connecting tools to the largest possible audience. At least one-third of the videos CNN chose to be asked during the debate came from people who registered only a few days before the show. And it shows their motivation to engage is high. YouTube bloggers sent in almost 3000 questions - CNN selected 39.

True the method is still to be perfected (debate should imply real time and direct interaction for one), but don't forget it's still one of the first attempts to play the 'be honest game' (watch the 'be honest' question 39 and the candidates' answers). And it sure brings more interest, more authenticity, less restrained contribution, a better sense of connection and a bigger emotional impact than the somewhat "langue de bois" talks we hear during usual political encounters. At least on the voters' side.

I've been talking about 'consumers in control' quite often lately and I'm appreciative of all initiatives demonstrating that brands are one of the favorite online discussions' topics. So obviously I am intrigued by the freshly released report of the UK PR agency Immediate Future, which describes itself as a 'snapshot of brand's share of voice in social media'. I won't go into details nor entering a debate over the methodology of this study or the comparison with the Interbrand Top 100 global brands (for more info on both, see here and here ) - but some interesting takes anyway:

• Brands have different online profiles determined by their audience's profile. For example Microsoft's profile shows a bigger presence in social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and among the general blogosphere.(Would have been nice though to have a distinction between Consumers Generated Media and Brand Generated Media). The brand's online profile helps marketers define from where they can build their community and where they have to develop/reinforce their presence.
• The majority of the top brands analyzed in the 'share of voice' report does not rank among the Interbrand Top 100 brands list. In like manner Interbrand defines brands as "financial assets that create significant shareholder value', Immediate Future list could be described as "brands as reputation assets that create significant share of voice value". My obvious guess is that next year the correlation between both lists will increase. The web is already number 1 most influential in shaping consumers's purchasing decisions. UGC will soon account for the majority of all the published online content (from 70 to 80% according to different sources in a window of 3-year time). Interestingly enough Microsoft is 4th on share of voice list, and 2 on Interbrand's one. A close unusual correlation shared only with Disney and BMW. Comment from Immediate Future: "Microsoft, Disney and BMW show the closest correlation with the Interbrand rankings, revealing that these brands’ economic rankings are more closely aligned to consumer awareness in social media. Shell, Starbucks and LG show the greatest difference in rankings."

If you look at the Interbrand's rankings as a 'top 100' list  'evaluating brands on the basis of how much they're likely to earn in the future', Immediate Future's choice to compare it with the online reputation of these brands is a wise one. Remember Dell Hell and its impact of the company's stock performance.

"Only 12% of senior marketers say CGM has a place within their marketing mix. The survey also showed that while marketers acknowledge the power consumers wield, only 22% are "very willing" to let consumers shape their marketing initiatives."   This is part of the results of the fifth annual PRWeek/Manning Selvage & Lee (MS&L) Marketing Management Survey I just read on the WOMMA site. 279 U.S. chief marketing officers, VPs of marketing and marketing directors and managers surveyed is probably not a big enough sample to draw significant statistics but still, it does ring a little 'overhyped but undervalued' bell to me...

Isn't that the easiest of all things to do: thinking that social media is all about hype and leave it to that. Probably easier too to consider that feedback features on a website are already a nice UGC iniative ("pls push the 'give feedback' button on our website") and leave it to that (50% of surveyed marketers!). Probably easier not to have consumers 'that close' to your business (6%). And probably also easier to stick to traditional online activities (82%) and to hide behind the 'not clear ROI' (32%).

And it's probably safe to assume that the main reason why UGC is so overhyped but still undervalued is that the majority of marketers just don't get it: they keep talking about it using buzz words, trying a video on Youtube here, a page on MySpace there because it's hype (36% in this survey) not because they truly believe in the engagement with their audience or understand the ROI of "a conversation". It takes at least two to discuss, to relate to & engage with. Marketeers have a huge responsability in creating that platform & investing in that opportunity. The news you don't want to listen to, and the feedback you don't want to discuss is never really good news. As a person or as a company. No 'probably' there.

The blogosphere is welcoming a new corporate participant. Sony Electronics actively entered "the age of conversation" yesterday with the release of the Sony Electronics blog, SEL External News Blog.

According to Charlene Li's post, there could have been no better choice to start the conversation than Rick Clancy. As Sony Electronics head of corporate communications, Clancy is the highest 'voice' authority. Adding the facts the guy has a reputation of a 'straight shooter' and the experience of a long time Sony insider it was probably indeed a no-brainer.

Everybody my age probably remembers the 'Sony...No baloney' advertising slogan. Clancy picked up this theme for his first post. And indeed, it helps sweetly set up the blog's tone of voice as a 'a unique combination of the whimsical Sony spirit and the candor that I hope to bring to this blog'. His promise? To share his experience and love of SEL products of course, to deliver insights and perspectives on new technologies, marketing and retail strategies,.. but also to explicit misperceptions and debate hot topics - while acknowledging he won't deal with either unrespectful comments (moderated before being published) nor outside US activities.

So far 19 comments have been posted to welcome SEL's initiative. Consumers feel they eventually have their direct channel with the brand. UK and Latino market managers should already been feeling the pressure to go on with the initiative on their local markets. Besides the warm welcomes, the conversation has started for good: products' details and developments' are already being discussed. Even better: in this single so far post, Sony Electronics already found a 'Very Loyal Sony Customer/Entusiast' who offers to become one of the blog's moderators. Welcome Rick - to be continued.

I have been out for a week but for good reasons; we hosted a big EMEA / America's sales Kick off in Lisbon. Educating and stimulating 500 sales guys and celebrating our successes. I think it was a great success - amazing too see how much energy you can create in a room with 500 digital marketing people...  As always we included some 'outside in' view in the agenda and let the floor to Fernanda Romana, the Executive Creative Director for Lowe NY and moving to Madrid soon - she is a piece of character with very nice provocative thoughts on creativity in digital and the role of agencies - and ours... Certainly more on that soon...!

Which leads me neatly into the observation that there are hardly any females in the creative department of most digital ad agencies.  She Says wants to do something about it – hold events and provide a mentorship programme, where top females in the industry would share their thoughts and help people to either get started or work their way up. Thought i'd share you some of the viral they produced while attending Cannes.

At least it is the starts of a conversation. And hee - while i am on that topic: the interesting project/book/blog is out today:'The Age of Conversation''...  All info on David Armano's blog. 

 The idea came to marketing professionals and bloggers McLellann and Heaton after McLellan, founder of the consultancy McLellan Marketing Group, posted about an experiment he just discovered. The 'We are smarter than me' purpose was to have a bunch of people co-authoring a book on the power of communities and the leverage of social networks. Heaton was the first to comment it and the rest is... euh ..conversation really. This ' quick ebook' - no more than a 400 words page by author-, is a conversation from the community on communities. The conversation involves more than 100 influential marketers and innovators from around the world. The majority of them never met physically nor spoke but via IM and the like. 

Active professional participants who not only observe, advice, preach about the new media but who also engage with it in their everyday life. This book yet is not about tools but about - as Armano put it- "discovering our purpose through finding each other". About collective stimulation, organic networks, the power of sharing. About how we- on personal level and corporate levels- are being influenced by our participation in the conversation. And how we influence it by taking part*.

Speaking of corporate participation, our two Belgian local heroes & Microsoft guys Kris Hoet and Geert Desager took part in the project.

Reading the book will engage us in two ways: 1) reading - read listening- is the first step to participate in the conversation 2) and 100% of the proceeds will be donated to a kids' charity. 

Today MSN is sponsoring Live Earth, The Concert for a Climate in Crisis. This 24-hour global event is featuring more than 150 of the world’s top bands performing on all seven continents, with concerts in Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Istanbul, London, New York, and other cities around the world. All of us have been looking forward and counting down towards today. We expect more than 2 billion people to access MSN or tune in on TV or radio to enjoy the concerts. The concerts can be viewed on http://liveearth.msn.com but also after the event, you’ll be able to watch the concerts on-demand exclusively on MSN.

At this site our teams have posted an extensive collection of interactive media and content that is designed to entertain, educate, and inspire people to work together to create a more sustainable environment.  So even if you don’t get to watch the concerts, visit the Live Earth portal and find out how small individual lifestyle changes can help make a big difference.

I was invited to the London concert and I had to decline... am spending a day with the family as I am dashing off to Lisbon tomorrow for a couple of days for our EMEA Sales Summit. Not a tough choice really. :-) Enjoy the show.