To Trippi, the political power structure that supports this corporate structure has become corroded – across the board, it’s broken, much as before the printing press, disenfranchising the poor and their needs in the favor of those of the rich and the corporations they own. He contends that this situation is unsustainable and beginning to break down.

Carville’s famous quote has changed – where it used to be the economy, stupid, now it’s the network, stupid. The scale and power of the tools available to execute political campaigns has shifted massively even since the last presidential election. When obamas campaign was finished, he had over 100k followers on Twitter. Now he has over 15 million – a step change in his ability to work directly with voters. In the past, when you had to cut a deal at the top of a labor movement or another interest group to get their members, the dynamics were set, and encouraged corruption. When people become fans of campaigns, there isn’t a need to go to the interest groups.

(I’m not sure that last piece is entirely true – even if the campaigns are speaking directly to voters, people tend to follow the advice of those they respect. That said, political campaigns ability to speak and interact directly with people will likely make interest groups more accountable to their users, lest they seem out of touch vs. the campaigns talking directly to their members.)

Probably the most compelling example of using technology for better government was that of the connected campaign of Nigerian president  Goodluck Jonathan, where SMS, Facebook and Twitter was used as the central hub and messages went into the poorest villages via SMS – even in a country with 13% internet penetration. Now, the Nigerian government is using their Facebook page as a means of taking suggestions for improving Nigerian government, including opening an embassy in San Fransisco in order to connect Nigerian tech talent with an area that might be able to leverage it. While the Obama campaign has done something similar with its open petitions initiative, the Nigerian example is based on frank conversation, where the Obama effort has come under fire for being less than responsive to key audience concerns.

Trippi’s thoughts resonate for me in the context of the need for brands to define and live their purpose as a means of connecting with their audiences and being responsive to their values. Unfortunately, sometimes the way that brands define and live their purposes can lack force. The question Trippi poses – what slingshots is your brand distributing? – looks to me like a useful filter for brand purpose and the implementation of that purpose. If the brand isn’t helping take down an audience-relevant Goliath by empowering its people to with weapons help fight together, they’re off the mark.

Berland spoke about “The Digital Transformation of American Express: Social, Local, Mobile & Viral” at Mashable Connect 2012, sharing insights from AmEx social media campaigns and her experience trailblazing in a very large organization.

The AmEx social media team had lofty goals when they started, but Berland shared that the company’s foray into social media started with launching one Twitter account, @AskAmex. The first tweet, 3 weeks in the making, Berland noted, simply stated the purpose of the account and asked, “How can we help you?”

Since then they have scaled their social efforts and are now an innovator in the industry. Through Berland’s leadership, American Express now holds strategic partnerships with all the major social media platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, YouTube and Zynga.

These relationships helped pave the way for future programs and integrations. In November 2010, Berland guided the launch of “Small Business Saturday,” a wildly successful Facebook campaign that quickly garnered 1 million fans and created a movement in the industry that is now in its third year.

And AmEx continues to innovate.

Just this past March, AmEx launched its Twitter Sync campaign to create a better couponing experience for users. AmEx invites you to, “Turn your tweets into exclusive offers loaded directly to your card.” The process does not involve any hard-copy coupons, you simply, “sync, tweet and save.”

The experience is very streamlined:

1. You sync your AmEx card with your Twitter profile (through a secure AmEx-hosted site)
2. Tweet with a special offer hashtag
3. And then the offer is immediately loaded on your card (saving you money)

What Makes AmEx’s Twitter Sync Work?

Berland emphasized both the user experience & critical partnerships as keys to the success of Twitter Sync.

1. Ease of Use
The couponless campaign allows you to stay on the Twitter platform and instantly receive benefits from signing up to participate. Users do not want to deal with multiple screens and websites and redirects in order to join a new program.

If you have a cool campaign but your barrier to entry is complicated and logistically difficult, conversions may be low because users are likely dropping off between sites.

Also, as we should know by now, the old saying “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” really holds true with digital and social media. When users are on Facebook, they want to stay on Facebook and they want content that’s appropriate and optimized for Facebook. Likewise for when users are on Twitter.

So, what does this mean for your campaign?

You should optimize for the platform most relevant for your audience and create applications and campaign integrations that allow users to stay on that platform, acting as they normally would.

2. A Network Of The Right Partners
AmEx launched Twitter Sync with 16 launch partners for this campaign, including (client) McDonalds,Virgin America, Whole Foods and Best Buy among others. In total, AmEx’s partnership network for Twitter Sync included 7 million followers.

The launch mechanism for the campaign was launched organically through conversation on Twitter, which resulted in a viral campaign resulting in viral growth early on.

The Overlooked Key To Social Media Campaigns

Berland also spoke about the various forms of relationships that are necessary to create a successful social media campaign.

This should be intuitive given the industry is called “social” media, but sometimes we get so focused on the ROI we overlook the critical role of relationships.  Relationships make the campaigns possible and give us something to measure.

The HOVA
By the way, the Twitter Sync launch event included a concert at SXSW featuring an artist with 2 million Twitter followers who hails from the Empire State. That’s right. Jay-Z.

HubSpot summed it up nicely in its campaign review:

This Jay-Z concert was the official launch of the cardholder’s program, and one of the 25,000 tickets to the show was offered to every cardholder, for free, who synced their AmEx card and Twitter account… marketers should care because this is an example of not just one brand, but many brands coming together and actually executing a large scale Twitter campaign correctly.

So, as you’re considering your next social media campaign, heed these lessons from AmEx and ask yourself two questions:

1. Is the user experience aligned with your goals?
2. And have you invested in strategic partnerships?

The article notes that Sonia takes pride in working at Porter Novelli, a company founded by people unafraid to stand up, speak out and fight for things they believed in – especially things that drive social change.

“All people, Latinas or otherwise, do their best when they are in an environment like Porter Novelli has created. One that offers the encouragement, the tools and the opportunity to think big, act big and provoke measurable business change for our clients. Truly great work – transformative work – happens when smart people are allowed to thrive.”

The special issue can be found here.

1)      We’re in an arms race with the bugs, and as anyone knows from studying history, no one ever really wins an arms race. Even to keep pace requires exponentially more money, time and innovation. Right now we’re not even keeping pace with the bugs we already figured out how to kill. This year, according to TEDMED speaker Andrew Read, a University of Pennsylvania professor and infectious disease specialist, more than 100,000 will die in the U.S. alone from bacterial infections we could easily treat with antibiotics not 30 years ago. What’s required is a global, coordinated plan to manage microbial evolution, which in and of itself will require new evolutionary science plus the willingness of physicians, patients, regulators and others to prioritize the future effectiveness of the drugs we have now when thinking about how to treat patients with minor infections. We need more investment in research and physician and patient education programs, plus immediate regulatory action. Fortunately, as FDA Commissioner Peggy Hamburg was pleased to announce during the conference, the FDA has just moved to restrict antibiotics use in farm animals to help prevent overuse and the development of microbial resistance. But though the FDA is leading the initiative, already it is under fire for failing to specifically restrict continued use of antibiotic therapies to compensate for overcrowded or unsanitary conditions.

2)      Patient engagement leads to improved quality and reduced cost of healthcare. Todd Park, U.S. chief technology officer, called for putting the power of information in consumers’ hands via technology that enables better engagement and collaboration in providing patient care. But the role of the patient in healthcare is still hotly contested; as someone put it, “If patients are customers, does that mean the customer is king, or buyer beware?” Still, the trend is already underway – new networked tools that map health data are already available, and flourishing online health communities are encouraging people to pursue nutrition, fitness and weight loss goals while providing community support.

 3)      We need to be clear headed about getting in front of the growing prevalence of Alzheimer’s. Look around. Will the people around you reach 80? Will they reach 80 and still remember their children? Gregory Petsko, professor of neurology at Weill Cornell Medical College, says 80 is more feasible than ever these days – there will be 32 million octogenarians in the U.S. by 2050. But 80 without Alzheimer’s disease? The world is looking at having to treat and care for more than 300 million Alzheimer’s disease patients by then.  We’re aging and the therapeutic and diagnostic technologies aren’t keeping up with us.  In fact, more and more pharmaceutical companies are exiting neuroscience research altogether (let’s hear it for Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, which continues to advance new science and research against Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the brain.) What’s needed is a new way of approaching science – not iteratively but in a way that allows for scientific theory and practice to move forward in a cross-disciplinary and parallel way. Unlocking the mysteries of the mind isn’t easy, and we are running out of time.

 4)      Imagination is the key to scientific and medical innovation. Edward O. Wilson, research professor emeritus at Harvard and inventor of the field of sociobiology, told us that “in science what is crucial is imagination” and “advances in science rarely come from upstream, but instead they are the product of downstream imagination.” Yet several speakers took issue with how we select for medical and science professionals – valuing deep knowledge and book smarts over imagination and the ability to see the big picture – as well as how science is brought forward in increasingly deep and narrow silos. The prescription is putting greater focus on and incentivizing imaginative, holistic thinking that uncovers unexpected connections across scientific disciplines and enables greater convergence among them.

I’d give my right arm (and, yes I’m right- handed) to see what we’re discussing at TEDMED in another 10 years – which of these problems we’ve solved and which we’ve still barely cracked.   Science and technology are increasingly challenging– let’s hope our downstream imagination will enable us to create meaningful – and affordable – solutions from complexity.

How Do We Make Sure Developing World Vaccines Are Available?

The answer to this question came out of contrasting presentations by the World Bank and MSF (Doctors Without Borders, as it is known in the US).  The World Bank presented a pilot case study showing how, by using advanced market commitments (AMC) made by public and private partners, they had been able to get vaccines against pneumococcal disease rapidly and cheaply into developing markets.  Unfortunately, they have no other such programs underway.  The current economic environment has meant that none of the governments previously involved could commit to the level they had previously.  AMCs have always seemed like a remarkable way to make going into developing countries attractive to large vaccine manufacturers, and this pilot proved it.  The next presentation by MSF said we should be looking outside AMCs since they have only benefitted large multinationals rather than encourage local industry.  MSF also believes that AMCs stifle incentives to develop vaccines directly for developing world needs.  Instead, these countries get second-generation vaccines that were created for industrialized countries and don’t take local needs into account (like lack of reliable refrigerated transport, or cold chain).  The MSF speaker then managed to get everyone in the room angry by comparing vaccine manufacturing to iPod manufacturing.  A very lively discussion ensued. On my final day, the esteemed Dr. Francis, one of the early AIDS pioneers, gave an encouraging talk about the rapidly growing vaccine industry that is taking place in countries like India, Brazil and China.  It is hoped that these new entrants will spur innovation in vaccines against developing world illnesses and keep prices low locally.

Partner, Partner, Partner

There were multiple presentations throughout the week on partnering: partnering to reduce risk, partnering to get new technology, partnering for local access, partnering for access to antigens, partnering to get product to market more quickly.  You name it, there is a reason to partner on vaccine development today.  One Sanofi Pasteur presentation looked at its Phase I, II and III pipeline vaccines and pointed out that all of its Phase I vaccines are results of partnering.  The attendance at the conference reflected this new mindset — most of the attendees were either business development people from large pharma, researchers from big and small companies and vendors selling services to all.

The Scary Viruses Are Still Out There 

A really frightening presentation by a modern day virus hunting organization showed that there is genetic proof that HIV originally appeared in Africa sometime in the 1920s but didn’t have any way to migrate.  Of course all that changed in the 1980s.  The viruses we should be most scared of manage to cross species barriers.  This is a perfect storm for creating new viruses is a region where people live in close, routine proximity to animals, where there is not much agriculture, a lot of hunting for bush meat and an encroaching industry, like logging.  This environment creates opportunities for human and animal blood and fluids to mingle easily and then transport disease rapidly to dense populations.  One of the interesting things these types of virus-hunting organizations are doing to spot pandemics early is to equip Masai warriors in Africa with cell phones and text instructions so they can spot any new diseases among their herds.  I love when technology and health care come together so beautifully.

Technology Will Save the Day

New technologies will impact the speed with which we create new vaccines and make vaccine development more efficient.  Imagine one universal vaccine for the entire world that will impact every strain of Hepatitis B, or influenza.  That is the ultimate goal.

Boomer Vaccines Ahead

Several speakers mentioned that new vaccines need to be developed not only against developing world diseases (malaria, HIV, TB, etc.) but for our currently aging populations.  Imagine a whole new series of vaccines that impact common infections found in the elderly — from gum disease to skin infections to bacterial stomach infections.

All in all, I found the conference to be hopeful and inspiring for the industry and for global health.  We are finding new ways to get vaccines more rapidly and inexpensively into countries that need them. New technologies will make vaccines more streamlined and efficient and because companies no longer think they need to “go it alone,”partnering is the norm for achieving success.  If you want to read the detailed blog posts from all the sessions I attended, please check out the Vaccine Nation blog.

The article notes that Sonia credits her success to the values instilled in her by her parents growing up in El Salvador, which she carried with her on her journey from El Salvador to Los Angeles to New York.

“Now, in a meeting room at Porter Novelli on the 36th floor of Building 7 World Trade Center in Manhattan’s financial heart, the executive [Sonia] exclaims that having been born and lived part of her childhood in El Salvador is the basis of her professional success. In fact, the [civil] war years … and the 1986 earthquake are in her memory with lessons of solidarity and teamwork to succeed.”

The complete article can be found here.

So after five days of dining at an all-you-can-eat buffet of insights, data, best practices, the future of this and the end of that, what were some of the main talking points? I’ve picked out three (with a little help from some other Porter Novelli attendees) we believe marketers will be discussing long after the remnants of the last breakfast taco have been swept from Austin’s streets:

1. Business for good

The topic of better business and social good led to some packed and passionate discussions. One session that inspired a lot of energy was “Don’t just sell things: change the world,” where big beasts from agency life urged businesses to put doing good at the heart of what they do. This is a topic close to Porter Novelli’s heart: When our agency was founded 40 years ago it was to pioneer the idea of social marketing, or using the power of communications to change people’s lives for the better. Fast forward to 2012 and this topic is again back on the agenda, and judging by the way the digerati of SXSW packed in to join the discussion, it’s more relevant than ever. It’s also a hot topic among start-ups, too: Tim O’Reilly’s call to entrepreneurs to create value in more than monetary terms by creating products that benefit their community triggered a lot of excited buzz. So the outtake for brands seems to be: Think about your business for good strategy before some new competitor grabs that space.

2. The intersection of broadcast and social

Broadcasters are looking at how they can increasingly harness social from the start, rather than have it happen around them. Now that we are having a three-screen experience—watching TV, tweeting on our mobile and browsing with a tablet PC all at the same time—they recognize we want to participate in programming. Bravo’s Andy Cohen and Top Chef  Head Judge Tom Colicchio described how the show managed to create a newer, deeper, more interesting engagement level with the audience through transmedia storytelling. ABC News digital strategist Soraya Darabi even suggested that social discussions could influence programming directly, like choosing who should present the Oscars. And my colleague Stefan Vadocz got a great video interview with Beverly W. Jackson, director of marketing, strategic alliances and social media for The Recording Academy who organizes the GRAMMY Awards and her advice to focused on delivering consistent results across multiple channels gives an insight for brands on how this is already happening.

3. Brands are getting smarter at involving Gen Y

Some great discussions around the rise of Gen Y took place. Porter Novelli Gen-Y’er Valerie Elston was impressed by how brands like Chevy and GM are bringing people like here into the creative process.Some, like Red Bull, are even sidestepping traditional media altogether and creating their own documentaries around extreme sports events that bring its values to life. This is a group who are super-consumers of social media and have an always-on connection to the Web mainly through mobile devices. To reach them brands can consider different strategies from co-creation to developing content that is so disruptive or engaging, it cuts through this group’s information overload. The key word here, though, is strategy: Activity needs to be on-brand and authentic to strike the right note. Simply jumping onto the latest cool social media service is not enough.

This post originally appeared on CommProBiz on March 19, 2012.

]]> http://blog.porternovelli.com/2012/03/19/three-top-trends-of-sxsw-2012-business-for-good-broadcast-meets-social-and-engaging-gen-y/feed/ 0 http://blog.porternovelli.com/2012/03/14/google-facebook-amazon-apple-and-microsoft-will-die/ http://blog.porternovelli.com/2012/03/14/google-facebook-amazon-apple-and-microsoft-will-die/#comments Wed, 14 Mar 2012 16:35:49 +0000 Danny Devriendt http://blog.porternovelli.com/?p=5246 That got your attention, right? Every year, my favorite science fiction author, futurologist and nostalgic thinker Bruce Sterling wraps up #SxSW. Sterling is, along with William Gibson and Pat Cadigan, the very foundation of the cyberpunk movement. “Chairman Bruce” gives the public what it wants: dark thoughts that analyze societies (current and future) with a razor sharp vision dipped in vinegar.

Bruce is brutal. Mankind is abusing the planet on which it lives, climate change hits us now, and we’re all heading towards being old and smelly people in dirty, overcrowded cities, afraid of the lightning skies. Bruce preaches hell and devil, in a completely atheistic way. It doesn’t make it any less scary.

When Sterling shifts his focus towards the Internet, his forward-looking vision got the full attention of the audience. Sterling predicts the failure of what he calls the Stacks: vertically integrated social media. “Stacks try to carve out a piece of internet for themselves, an independent ecosystem with its own rules, and its own operating system. They try to grab us into their walled garden, and try to make the rest of the internet irrelevant for you.”

Sterling refers openly to the big five: Google, Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft. “They all think they’ll be the one Stack… and render the others irrelevant. And they’ll all be rendered irrelevant. That’s the future of the Stacks.”

Sterling says that people like the Stacks because the Internet scares them, and they feel more comfortable at home within a walled Stack. “Like cattle,” he said: “The Stacks do not care for prosperity, security or well-being of their human users. Except for their shareholders, that is. The internet has users. The Stacks has livestock. The Stacks think you are a dog.”

And once Sterling is on a roll, there is no stopping him. With skill, he shows how all the Stacks want is to become the one and only Stack, buying and annihilating other media. They are playing The Lord of the Stacks. In a friendly, nerdy way. But without any mercy. Sterling does not understand it. Why are we sheep? Why do we bow for young smart people that try to be Napoleon? “What if Mark Zuckerberg trips over a skateboard?”

Sterling says none of the five will succeed in herding us all in, de facto destroying the rest of the internet. Sterling has been right before… very often. I sure hope he is right once again….

Encyclopedia Britannica has been in continuous print since it was first published in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1768. 1768. That is way before Napster and Netscape! But yesterday its management announced that it will pull the plug on the publication of its printed editions. It will, however, continue with digital versions online, available through subscription.

The book lover in me is sad that the 32 volumes of knowledge, more than 37 kilograms of wisdom, will never rest on my bookshelves.  But at 1400 Euro ($1,500), the gargantuan print edition did not exactly come cheap. And, truth be told: by the time Encyclopedia Britannica was printed, each edition was by definition outdated.

The silent retreat of Encyclopedia Britannica is clearly another sign of the steady and unstoppable dominance of the digital content era.

I’ll pull a Bruce Sterling on this, and show you the future. Encyclopedia Britannica will not survive, not even on the internet superhighway. Knowledge is just a click away, and internauts hate to pay for content and knowledge that is freely available elsewhere.

Oh, I can hear some die-hards and anglo-nostalgics say that Encyclopedia Britannica was more than books: it was peer reviewed, correct, irreproachable. Only, it was not. Every single test over the last couple of years between the iconic book series and online crowd-sourced info sites (like Wikipedia) has proved disastrous for the paper queen of wisdom.

Yes, some people will subscribe. Yes, money will be generated through some cool-looking apps. But the era of Encyclopedia Britannica is done; it has lived out both its use and its purpose. It went from the emergency room into palliative care.