Social Placement is a social media product placement company. We specialise in placing brands in to the entertainment world. We then use social media activation campaigns and data mining to measure their success and profile your audience and customers.
We're social, we like to go see things, tell people about them and hear what they have to say, we're going to house it here - Behind the Scenes, the Social Placement blog. |
posted 3 Aug 2012 07:21 by David Angell
Disrupt the prevailing methods of traditional and digital marketing
Virtually everything I've worked on, thought of and written recently has been with the overarching mantra in my mind 'Disrupt', I think you should do this too.
Our PR Agency 'Does' Social Media
Traditional PR and marketing agencies and the methods they use are endangering innovation within the very field they exist. We've seen the monoliths of traditional advertising evaluate how they move from ad-buying - blocking out chunks on TV, in Newspapers and creating what Andrew calls 'Litter' i.e. Billboards. They are still doing this and it makes sense - why rock the boat old boy? There seems to be, especially within the UK an aversion to change, austerity should breed a desire to do things differently, not continue with the status quo, but is it that austerity has scared us?
Politically, financially, technologically, we have seen mistakes of protecting the status quo in the interest of 'we know best'. People felt anger at banks, at politicians and a growing fear of large technology companies either harbouring great power from the data they hold or their constant lack of imagination in innovation in the name of protecting market share. Despite the rumblings of potential for what could be described as constructive upheaval, few genuinely major reforms in mindset or structure have occurred.
Through my career within marketing and digital advertising I've been introduced to the multiple methods of analysing customers, finding out what people want and how to market to them, polling people, creating models and testing focus groups. The practical application of this is more complex, but in reality traditional advertising has until now been about the old adage '50% of my advertising spend is wasted, I'm just not sure which'; then ratings and market research evolved to ask people what they want and like. Where we are now though is a place where the theory and approach is in place, but the approach to communicating with them is about broadcast - blocks of space for your brand to slap people in the face with a message, so you spend your time finding out who your customers are and then assault them. But what about the people that you don't know like your products? You alienate those who love you and ignore those that want to.
One of the most staggering comments I hear when talking to social media practioners is that brands often say 'Our PR agency does our social media'. It's true the some agencies have hired and even implemented talented social media teams, but it is interesting to think - how can a brand express and extend it's core identity though the filter of PR? This is even more magnified when we consider that large agencies market it as a box ticker - just like digital advertising - 'Everyone does social and digital, use us and you can too'. How does this work in practice? Simply - by applying old approaches to new opportunities, buying digital advertising campaigns in ad spend blocks. I've never block bought at an auction and you shouldn't too, for every Monet you get, you might get 100 toilet rolls. Likewise, sending in the PR team to a social environment places an unnecessarily large 'risk filter' between you and your customers, and in terms of innovation, don't expect it soon.
Question Everything
I am fortunate to have grown up with access to some of the first access
to the internet, I can still remember the excitement of being able to
find Roswell photos and pictures of the Turin shroud online, Lycos image
search was possibly the only way to go, this said, they were about the
only two images you could find outside of shady user groups... Why fortunate? Well I can still remember the past, but also see that it's not gone yet. I have seen first hand the growth of Google (working there), the growth of social media and harnessing the power of it (building a political online strategy across digital and social) and was lucky in both roles to be given the remit: 'Try anything, if it doesn't work, learn from it', innovate.
It reminds me of the Noam Chomsky quote: "Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything".
So how did we all get so lazy? The internet age has allowed us to break the prevailing status quo through tracking, measurement, contextual and 3-dimentional advertising, online-offline synchronization and the ability to start a conversation through digital marketing, social and advertising channels. We are still at the start of one of the most significant ages of humanity - the potentially connected globe - it's what should be fueling communication in the same way the Earth Rise fueled environmentalism.
But still, traditional agencies stick to the old approach, much like those fearing environmentalism have held back innovation. As traditional media and ways of purchasing decline, old approaches to new opportunities are dangerous to your business.
Disruption
Disruption is on the face of it a bad word - especially to people in suits. I cannot believe the train system is disrupted, how will I get to work?
In the world of marketing, digital or traditional, use your phone, your laptop, find ways to make the place you meet and the way you interact more fluid, think outside the building not the box (whilst you sit in a cube).
More importantly than this, disrupt everything - start thinking - why am I taking old media approaches to real people? The tools are there to better understand them - a regular poll to find out who the 'Soccer Mum' is, is no match for mass-digital aggregated data on what people feel about your products, what people in the demographics you are targeting actually like. You can even find out what other things people like that like your brand - that's what Social Placement does on top of in-depth digital research. Preach to the unconverted.
I recently helped organise and attended SXSE London, the common theme from speakers, from those in the finance world, to the political, to the social, through to the world of entertainment was that you don't need to be a 'large reach agency' to have a large reach with a marketing campaign. In fact, to ensure positive sentiment, value for money and mass appeal - you need to be innovative, genuine and talk to people that feel common passions, using technology as it was intended - as a constantly evolving tool.
The zeitgeist of 2012 is austerity, as I said, surely you would think it's worth saving money and making it work hard for you? Using old methods without tracking, buying large blocks of ad spend with 50% wasted based on expensive market research that tells you that your current customers still like or dislike your products is like Bob Dylan said:
"Come mothers and fathers throughout the land, don't criticize what you can't understand.
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command, your old road is
Rapidly agin'."
If you make your previous methods and tools redundant by the end of each project, you are disrupting yourself and your organisation. This is why disruption at all levels is the future.
|
posted 20 Jul 2012 08:32 by David Angell
[
updated 20 Jul 2012 08:37
]
by Andrew Walker As you get older, if you're a Shoreditch tech geek, two things start to spoil your fashion life. Firstly, your waist gets bigger so those slinky jeans start biting your beer gut. Secondly, your chunky DC Shoe Company trainers start to get a bit fruity and the smart, clean smelling people in offices who you work with can smell them. There. I've said it. I guess I never noticed when I spent most of my life in a studio full of skinny people with stinky old trainers, or because I was smoking a ten deck of Marlborough lights every day between lunch and dinner so I mostly smelled of fags which covered a multitude of sins. Then one day you find yourself trying to squeeze into a pair of slacks that say 36 inch waist but you suspect it's more likely centimetres. Enter Carhartt. For the last ten years I've never worn anything else. I walk a lot, they don't wear out where my thighs rub together. They say 36 and feel like a 38, meaning you feel thinner than you obviously are. You feel good, and you know they'll last forever. I've got Carhartts that are five years old, they're still going stung. I've taken to walking between meetings. I might walk from Shoreditch to Covent Garden, Victoria, wherever a few times a week. I got some Gap Khakis in their half price promo offer six months ago and they're letting fresh air in round my nether regions. I've stopped shopping for trousers now. I get 36 inch Carhartts in various shades of black, grey, blue, green, brown and that's it. For the rest of my life. Job done. With shoes, I've always shied away from GEOX because they look like uncool Euro shoes and not a proper brand. Then I had a child and GEOX market themselves hard to them. Every day between Bob the Builder and Rory the Racing Car I got kids dancing around in GEOX. Shoes that breathe eh? They are awesome. Two years back I was covering all three political party conferences (in my Carhartts) back to back running a live social media news feed. That's working from breakfast until 2 am, tweeting, interviewing, blogging. You're on your feet all day. I did it in 2009 and by the end of conference two (Labour in Brighton) my shoes smelled like dead badgers. Disasterous when you're trying to do a live interview in the press room with Ed Milliband, fortunately he had a stinking cold and didn't notice, but I did. It was shameful. 2010 was different. By the end of it my first pair of GEOX shoes smelled slightly less fresh than they did when I bought them, but no more than say a jacket or a pair of gloves. I've never gone back. Now I wear brightly coloured Euro trainers everywhere. They also keep your feet cooler so you sweat less. It's win:win. So if you see a fortysomething Shoreditch tech geek in baggy Carhartts and acid yellow Euro trainers, you will know two things. Firstly, he's never going to buy a pair of Levis or Nikes. Secondly, his shoes smell great and he's got room under his belt for a big lunch and a lot a lager without any danger of feeling like he's going to burst the button off his waistband. For everything below my waist (that you can see) shopping is over. |
posted 13 Jul 2012 09:35 by David Angell
[
updated 16 Jul 2012 05:03
]
There is one thing in the world that comes to everyone at some point in their lives. Barbeque. The trouble is, the dream is often very different from the reality. In your mind, it lights instantly, cooks perfectly and makes for the ultimate chill out party in the open air. In reality, lighting it is tough, it takes five newspapers and three lighters, you choke people near it with smoke, resort to splashing petrol on it and burn your face. The real world BBQ get too hot, it incinerates the outer layer of your food leaving the innards raw. You get food poisoning, burns, eye and lung smoke damage. Your friends insult your manhood because you can’t make fire like a caveman. Your girlfriend feels a bit sick from the smell of paraffin and has an early night. You are lonely and ashamed. You are not man, you no make fire, no feed mates, no have nookie.
That’s BBQs are considered a seasonal item by most retaillers. You buy them out of enthusiasm on the first sunny week of the year, and you shove it in the corner of the garden to rust by mid June. Then do it all again next summer. Mr Homebase is rubbing his hands together every spring as he stacks the aisles with cheap steel grills, coals, firelighters and plastic cutlery.
Every year around 25 – 30 people die from BBQs. That’s more than get eaten by lions.
It’s worth forking out a few extra quid and getting Weber. They are expensive, tough, designed to burn effectively and will last for years, not months. Their BBQs also work great. They give you a little dish to measure how much coal to put in. They sell a little chimney that you load with charcoal and is easy to burn and light. And here’s the best bit. They make a little one called ‘Smokey Joe’ that goes on the road with you anywhere. And unlike disposable BBQs, they’re properly vented to they won’t fill your tent with carbon monoxide and asphyxiate you at a pop festival when you pass out drunk on the floor.
Fire it up an hour before with a charcoal chimney. Check. Dump the coals in the bowl of the BBQ. Check. Add a few more coals if you want it to cook for longer. Check. Cook your food. Check. Put the lid on if you want, to cook it slow or smoke it with wet wood chips. Check. Then dump more coal on it after to have a nice little patio heater for drinks and a romantic sunset / chilled out evening with your mates. Check. Job done.
I’ve done one every Sunday since February. I did one every day when I was camping in the rain for a week at the British Grand Prix. I chuckled smugly to myself with schadenfruede as people with lesser disposable BBQs gave up the ghost and got a burger from the scary tattooed cockney who ran the campsite burger van. So I say thank you Weber ‘Smokey Joe’ (RRP £54). Thank you for making me survive in the wilderness… of a campsite with 10,000 people, 2000 cars and 850 caravans. It’s Ray Mears with a lid for urban cavemen.
Social Placement is a social media product placement company. We specialise in putting brands into movies, TV and music videos.
|
posted 6 Jul 2012 07:33 by David Angell
[
updated 16 Jul 2012 05:03
]
It started on a hot eastbound platform, waiting for an even hotter tube to take me out of the city and into suburban bliss. Across the tracks, in the middle of platform, was a Corona poster, simple piece of outdoor design featuring cold beers in an even colder bucket against a sun set. And probably because I was hot, an unusual feeling this summer, and at the end of another long Social Placement day I quite fancied the idea of ice cold bottle. Somewhere deep in its papery depths the poster read my mind and registered my interest, sending a report to Las Hombres de la Corona or a similar covert operation base where cogs squealed, and wheels were set in motion.
The result is that from then on there have been Corona posters at my every turn, around my local area, to and from meetings, even on the way to Chingford to take the kids swimming ... Yes Chingford … Equally it could it be an excellent ad, well positioned for a beer drinkers like me …
by Jonathan Gladwin
Social Placement is a social media product placement company. We specialise in putting brands into movies, TV and music videos.
|
posted 5 Jul 2012 08:46 by David Angell
[
updated 16 Jul 2012 05:04
]
On 3 July 2012, the first ever SXSE London conference that was held in the Thirsty Bear pub in Southwark. SXSE London was a place where social media leaders came to speak about music, politics, finance, as well as other industries.
Social Placement's Andrew Walker entered the SXSE hall of fame, being the first speaker at the event on the subject of Financial Risk and Social Data Analysis.
Measuring the Success
In the hours the day after the conference, people have been tweeting positively about the success of the event, with over 56k impressions, reaching an audience of 28,844 people. The day of the event saw an impression reach of 240k with over 1000 tweets before and during the event.
Highlights
Check out the highlights on our Storify stream:
If you missed it, don't fret because they are already planning the next one to be held later this year in November. Keep an eye on their website to find out more information http://www.sxselondon.co.uk/ or follow them on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/SXSELondon
Social Placement is a social media product placement company. We specialise in putting brands into movies, TV and music videos.
|
|
