About the ethics of social media

I read a great article this morning about a big FMGC brand from France named Orangina (equivalent of Fanta) that created fake fans profile on Facebook to create fake interactions on its Facebook fan page. What is that practice in 2012? This is really unethical and really shocking to me. Especially when I read the tweets from the agency dude who’s behind it because he is actually proud of it!

“@kikukoloko On se croirait dans le cyclisme quand ceux pas encore pris la seringue dans l’orteil feintent l’angélisme. Nice job #orangina “

I thought we should all learn from it, and this is why I translated the post so it doesn’t stay in France, the global community can now read it, share it and comment it.

At the end of the day, we (digital experts) have to raise our voices against those practices that will prevent other brands from creating faithful connections with their fans. Because they will create frustrations and doubt in consumers.

The attitude of Gontran Paillez, the guy who is behind this, reminds me of the famous Kit Kat story where a stubborn social media manager damaged the brand globally in a couple of days because he was neglecting fans and comments from the community.

I can hardly believe agencies are still thinking advertising should be made through lies, like in the 1990s, this is quite disappointing from Fred&Farid. A strategy that probably reveals their vision of the digital world and lack of understanding of what social media is about.

Just as you do, I believe in digital communications and I want to make the world of advertising a better place. I believe in building connections with people around truth, transparency and real values.

Please circulate among your peers, sparkle conversations and ensure the ethics are known and respected.

—-

My humble translation:

Orangina fools its fans on facebook

Edit: we just got contacted by Orangina, they are not aware of those actions and they are against it. They are trying to understand what happened and will get back to us as soon as they will have more clarity on the situation

In the text below, we are are using the word “fool” but we should actually say “lie” because even if this is a strong statement, at the end of the day, those guys are trying to get you believe something that doesn’t exist. Which is a lie.

What it looks like
If we look at the Orangina facebook page everything seems to be OK. With almost 300.000 fans, ongoing posts, comments and shared messages etc.
Looking closer at the community of fans interacting with the brand posts, we start seeing that the active fans are frequently the same. Looking again we can see that they are actually the same exact fans who like/comment/share.

Which is actually something that sounds right: the most active fans are more likely to be your brand ambassadors, they are more likely to come back to the page often and to engage with the posts.

Right, but…
Because there is always the but you don’t like, you end up asking yourself “who are those people coming back to the page every single time to engage with the brand updates?”

So we stalked them, yes we did and we are not ashamed of saying so. We visited their profile to see who they were in our attempt to understand where this unconditional love for an orange beverage was coming from.

And… how surprising!
We found two different types of profiles:
1- users with almost no friends, who liked a very little number of pages and users who were only doing one thing on facebook: commenting Orangina France status updates
2- weird fan pages that were only sharing Orangina France status updates even if they had almost no fans.

Here are some examples.

So we won’t quote everybody here, but it seems that there are many others.

The conclusion is quite obvious: most of those users and pages are certainly fake ones, created only to raise the interaction/engagement rate with the brand.

An example that speaks for itself
Take for example the most famous status update that has ever been posted on the Orangina page, on red hair people. Remember, this post already started a controversy as it was talking down at red hair. You can see screen grabs of this status below. To make it easier for you to read, we removed comments saying “this doesn’t make sense” and “you should be ashamed of insulting red hair” and we highlighted in red the comments for the profile we believe are fake.

Here is what we got:

It seems pretty obvious. Those pricks really look like they are using a couple of accounts to imitate consumer behaviors and actually discretly plead for their own cause. If you still doubt it, look at the profile yourself, you will find it obvious too. You can also note that the language is quite similar from one profile to another and they also work in close circuit: they like each other, share between each other…

Shameful
The brand is cheating on her facebook fans: she is pretending that fans are talking to each other when they are actually talking to fake account. She is pretending that she cares for their comments and points of views but this is only an illusion. Instead, it prevents people from sharing views. No, no, no they must say what we want to hear only, they must say they love the brand and this is it, if they don’t like it it’s because they didn’t understand it. So let’s use fake profiles to insult them and force them thinking what we think is right.

Those fake pages are not only used for that reason. If a question on the fan page isn’t answered on time or doesn’t get enough comments? Well, let’s use the fake accounts to start it. We are missing likes on a status? Let’s do the same thing. And of course, the more sharing you get on facebook the better the stats are on your page, which is always good in the report.

It seems that Orangina is stuck to the traditional advertising era: “here is what I have to say, don’t say anything, just listen and like what we say and buy the product. Even if this means we aren’t ethical anymore.”

About ethics, we raised that flag recently about the decrease of ethical behaviours online. Thanks Orangina for illustrating our point so perfectly. Apparently, the brand really doesn’t get the potential of social media. Instead of playing by the rules, by being transparent, engaging and listening to her fans, she prefers making fun of them. She does so by using fake accounts as soon as a critic appears, avoiding the conversation to truly happen.

By cheating the conversations happening on the facebook page, Orangina has decided to ignore the core principles of social media. They have decided to not behave like brands are expected to act in social media, with honesty and sincerity.

No need to say we find this really lame.

What if advertising could evolve to a non-linear narrative that your communities can empower on their own?

If you like this presentation, please vote for me so I can share it with more people at the upcoming Digital Shoreditch event.

>> Vote here

Enjoy!

Let’s face it, EVERY single book on advertising refers to Bernbach and his work at DDB for the Beetle back in errr… 1959! Fact is the “Think Small” ad remains the best advertising campaign ever, certainly the one that marked the beginnings of the Golden Age of Advertising, 50 years ago…. Wait, 50!

I think it’s time to wonder who the new Bernbach is today?  Our industry is going through a revolution and I’m looking for this guy/gal because I’d love to be on board with him! In my search to trace this person down,  I’m looking at the ingredients that made “Think small” THE ad, and what would that mean if we were to reproduce such an impact in 2012.

Here are some of the major innovations this ad offered back then:

• Strategy: instead of the usual USP the angle here is to position the car as SMALL in days where everything was about being BIG. The game plan was to disrupt the category by promoting the new entrant as a completely new way of doing cars.
• Art direction: from painting, handwritten fonts to B&W picture and Futura as well as major innovations in the layout (the car isn’t centered for example).
• Message: the line “think small” combined with the visual assumes that the audience is smart and is part of the message resolution. There is a moment when you get it. The magic happens just here.

I think there is room today to recreate an ad that will change the face of advertising for the next 50 years. In the late 50s, the revolution was mostly contained in the message ; the 2012 revolutionary piece will come by challenging the concept of “media”, hence “ad”, itself.

The Anomaly, Naked, Sid Lee, Frog, WK… One of these might host the next Bernbach, here are some interesting similarities they share:

• The need to disrupt. By being independent. By embracing chaos in the way ideas are born and produced. By being media agnostic, not being attached to a media company as most networked agencies are. By being product agnostic, they don’t necessarily answer with a TV campaign, they are ready to answer without a campaign.
• The focus on GREAT story telling. Inspired from the world of video games and cinema, their ideas are stories. Not a one-line for a spot but stories that are easy to understand, to remember and to share (in any form of media from social to TV and retail).
• The need for change. They know advertising is changing and they want to lead the pack. They are very entrepreneurial and they want to master this change as soon as possible. So they don’t fear doing it, and experiencing new things with conviction. They select clients willing to embrace innovation as well as risk taking.

Who knows where the new Bernbach is… Names to share anyone?

I love the idea of reimagining prosperity and how to live a greater life. An idea that has caught my attention in different places these days.

Is there an opportunity here that brands should consider in their efforts to advertise differently (read getting more earned media)?

“ In an era where the prosperity we once took for granted appears to be crumbling around us, when the plight of the present seems to be somewhere between facepalm, headdesk, and epic fail, when the great challenges of today are nothing less than rebuilding economy, polity, and society — here’s what I believe you’re going to have to get lethally serious about: your own human potential, and how deeply, authentically, and powerfully, over the course of your life, you’re going to fulfill it.“ - Umair Haque

Let’s look at facebook.
As Mark Zuckerberg says it, the mission of his company is ‘to make the world more opened and connected.” He wants to help people discover more through their friends. He had a vision for fulfilling inherent human needs in order to make “our world richer”. Knowing that he reached out to almost a billion people now, he probably gave people something that made their lives better.

If we look at the new timeline feature on facebook, we can see that the individual is at the forefront. What she likes, as well as what she watches, reads, what she likes… At the end, it is a celebration of what makes her unique and interesting.

Smart is the new cool.
If we consider the “mass intelligent” audience (Slide 27) - those interested in ideas, receptive to new concepts and catalysts for change –  as key influencers for a brand, there is probably something to do with it to get more out of your communications dollars.

What if a brand could connect with them by helping them achieving more of their human potential? Well, if we are to change the advertising industry to make the world a better place, this one does it for me!

What if your brand started to (really) care for human beings?
Looking at the HBR article, the solution could be in one of those areas:

> Helping people cultivate their better self, share content that will educate on arts, wisdom, humility, grace… There is maybe a direction here for the media & news industries. Spotify is a great example as well as Nike.

> Helping people find and pursue their passion, help them be an active builder (PressPausePlay http://www.presspauseplay.com/ is a must-seen).

> Helping people experiment, understand and forgive their failures (indulge your brand for the same attitude, as facebook did also when Beacon was first launched).

Social is not a question of media, it’s the way your brand is acting with people. A facebook page cannot achieve it for you, your brand must embrace a social attitude in its overall plan.  An attitude that places people at the heart of what you do so you don’t make sense if it doesn’t make sense for them.

Finding this purposeful connection will help you create an authentic and valuable connection with real people.

The perfect mix

Well, obviously, there is no cookie-cutter template in our industry, so no one size fits all recipe I’m sorry…

However, owned and earned media are now understood and integrated by leading agencies as key pillars to launch and to sustain a brand when the mass media (read paid media) is shut down.

Objectives for owned and earned being:

• To extend the reach of the mass media,
• To engage with consumers in the digital sphere (data base/knowledge building),
• To raise loyalty among existing fans-clients (owned).

Inevitably, achieving those objectives mean that the mass media, aka “the campaign”, cannot live on its own in paid media anymore. It has to be part of a broader idea, a conversational idea.

The campaign should be treated a the spark in your annual marketing activities. The moment where you gather the reach you will work from the rest of the year. That’s a fact, we cannot pay massive mass media all year long and even if we could, we all know it wouldn’t deliver the expected results anyway.

So here are some (humble, feel free to comment) conclusions I’ve come up with in the last year by working on multiple POE communication mixes:

1. The communication idea is the start, not the media. It must be true to your audience’s behaviours as much as it needs to be true to your brand DNA. It is the element of connection between people and brands that will survive the paid media exposure. The #makeitcount campaign Nike released last week is a perfect example. Finding out this idea requires deep dive into existing conversations about your brands as much as your audiences. You don’t want to reinvent the wheel, if you can find something that already is a conversation, then go for it, this is your gold mine.
2. The raise of creative strategy. This idea cannot be purely creative anymore; an amazing story told in TV is not enough anymore. It has to embed a media potential in it. What is a media potential? This idea must be the start of an interaction whether it be sharing (The Force) or engaging consumers with the brand (Old Spice). This can be nurtured by inviting people to create something with the brand and its ambassadors (please read my last post on this topic where I mention pop-culture as the new insight).
3. From frequency to a call-to-action.  I’m under the impression that frequency is evolving to a new era where it is not only the role of the media buy to provide frequency. But instead the creative idea must embed a capacity for building frequency on its own. How? By embedding a clear call-to-action for example that will generate reach and frequency in social media (ie: Write the future).

Hence, the evolution of paid media which becomes a mean to capture attention, to touch the heart of the people you need to engage with to support your brand/your product. The messaging here being focused on sparking emotions more than building a traditional USP-USL messaging. It is not to say the full story any more, if you do a great job they will keep up with you in digital.

This is where the advertising industry as a lot to learn from the video game and Hollywood industries. Those two being at the leading edge of the culture of transmedia.

Who ever said a great creative idea should be contained and expressed in one distinct media support? Isn’t this fantastic that our industry has yet to reinvent itself?

Happy daring & innovative 2012 to all!

In fact, the insight is now completed with a new spin that gives it more emotional traction. What strikes me is how icons and celebs made popular through TV are becoming a new element of the messaging. 4 out of the 10 top spots by Times are in fact leveraging those TV/pop culture icons:

• 2. The Force — Volkswagen x Darth Vader
• 6. Imported from Detroit — Chrysler x Eminem
• 7. All In — Adidas x Katy Perry x Messi (…)
• 8. Best Fans Ever — NFL x Simpsons x Dallas x 90210 (…)

When looking at the other messages, we can see that they refer to “digital” experiences we all share:

• 1. Dear Sophie — Google
• 3. Reply All — Bridgestone
• 4. The 4G “Spider” — Samsung
• 9. Dog.ppt

Leveraging one or the other allows the brand to connect with people outside of the pure product functional or emotional benefit. Using pop culture or digital behaviors as a new layer to the brand story certainly adds depth to the brand messaing making it more authentic and true to people.

It says “I am also part of your world and I know you have a life outside of my product’s usage”. Well, that was about time, this sounds really inspiring for our future

Looking at that list, the outsiders are clearly  5. Bold Choice — Jim Beam (by StrawberryFrog) and 10. Parking Garage — Citizens Bank (by Ogilvy & Mather) that are using the “same old same old” way of doing advertising…

And yes, I’m very proud of seeing the spot Montreal-based SID LEE created for adidas in that list!

Credits: Seb sensei, FlickR

Aside from being a very trendy thing, I think it’s a solution among many others and before deciding if it’s a good one or not, you need to ask yourselves a few things.

Step 1. Questions

• Business. How do you want to make more money? How much? By when?
• Audiences. How, when, why… Does your audience navigate in the digital world?
• Connection. Where is your brand relevant to earn their time and influence the new thing you want them to do, think or say about your business.

With a good understanding of the situation this is time for you to define your strategy: what is the main problem you can solve in the next 12-mths that will truly impact your business’ performance?

Now you can ask yourself: is a game relevant to serve that purpose? Yes? So you can move to step 2.

Step 2. Gaming Pros and Cons

Step 3. The basics.

• Must be on brand DNA and aligned with your ATL messages.
• Must be relevant to your business objectives
• Shouldn’t be category base – you need to find that one thing that your competitor couldn’t duplicate.
• Execution must be perfect, because you won’t have many chances to convince your consumer – you should consider embedding talents from the gaming industry.
• Product integration shouldn’t be intrusive but should be made possible through the game environment.

Step 4. Data (=value)
Before going any further in your production plan, you need to attribute a value to the investment made and measure accordingly. In a Ted Talk this week, a researcher said “If you can’t measure it, it doesn’t exist.” I think it’s a pretty good way of considering how to define your vision for measurement.

Valuable data insights could be: learning on consumers’ behaviours as geo localisation, time spent, hours. This can help you link it back to where buying your offline media in order to raise your frequency for example, or where to position a pop-out store.

A game is also a great way to start building a qualified database (of mobile users) that then can be leveraged for your marketing efforts.

Tomorrow.
All this investment won’t deliver the expected results if you don’t integrate it with media that will give you a powerful reach, that means TV, radio, in-store, PR, outdoor or else. But if you don’t build a communication mix with true assets and invest to promote your platform, its efficiency is seriously compromised.

One thing that I believe in, especially after reading the Art of Immersion, is that advertising + movie + gaming industries will keep overlapping each other.

At the end of the day, we all strive to capture the same time and to connect with the same people in order to drive a business. This is why asking the right question and aligning your efforts with a strong strategy is key to make a true difference.

As he put it very well, can we say that Apple is still in the Computer industry? As they are now the #1 music store? Reality is that agencies became commoditized where actually the next step is to offer solutions that go above the traditional solutions.

We need to build an ecosystem of values that consumers can share with the brand, and that can live through a functional integration. Great examples being Google, Apple, Amazon.

For example, BMW is adapting its products to digital offer making it more valuable for a consumer to be a BMW consumer.

This seems to be a great step in putting digital at the heart of consumer relations-communications.

Last week I was one of the lucky one to be in Cannes and outside of the parties – (which ARE truly awesome!), there are the smartest advertising people sharing their knowledge and expertise.

The W+K Workshop on planning was one of those inspiring moment swhere after listening to this military guy planning war in Afghanistan you feel like you don’t know anything about planning.

Anyhow, I wanted to share with you some of the key takeaways that I couldn’t agree more with:

• Don’t expect a brave creative execution without a brave strategy to start of with; if the planner isn’t bold the creativity cannot bring it.
• Planning is a mean to make stuff happen, it needs to be practical.
• A planner is an architect of choices and behaviours; at the end of the day we want people to do things differently (pay more, come back more often…),
• Let go: planning is there to create the conditions and then you need to let people to take it to somewhere else and go with it.
• You can never have all information; trust your intuition, your own judgement is important.
• Your enthusiasm needs to be communicated, if nobody understands the plan it will never work.
• Did it work? Come back and learn from what was implemented so next time you can do better.