Amongst the speakers were Kevin Eyres, Managing Director Europe, LinkedIn, Trevor Johnson, Head of Strategy and Planning, Facebook, Mark Watts-Jones, Head of Development and Innovation, Orange UK and representatives of many other global brands.

The scene involved two days of wearing a compulsory LinkedIn lanyard on the neck, surrounded by marketers and agency heads constantly clinching their iPhones and Blackberries. Imagine two days in halls and vestibules, which resounded with the buzzwords of the day - Foursquare, Gowalla, , Facebook Location Based API, and social games. (less dramatic players included MySpace and Google Buzz). Two fantastic days.

So what can we expect in social media from the viewpoint of chiefly London-based agencies and marketers? Staunchly certain, a little unclear and perhaps even for that reason, rather exciting. All this despite the fact that the term “social media” won’t last another year most probably to the chagrin of the conference organizers. That’s at least what was uttered from the ranks of the lecturers. “Everything will be social. We will stop saying social media, it’ll just be web”, concluded speaker Alex Miller, the head of the London-based agency Jam specializing in social media.

They spoke of the waste and dark side of the strength of social media – about agencies that try to blaze trails by paying bloggers in exchange for writing up positive reviews on products. About social media spam. About tweets devoid of souls. Parallel workshops featured a series of important case studies, and lobbies held dozens of company stands demonstrating their tools for working with social media.

Besides other visitors saw tools for monitoring conversations about brands in social media, semi-finished white-label community platforms, and instruments enabling agencies management of conversations in social media for dozens of brands at once.

So what can we expect and hope not to miss? 

Organizations that have been social media maidens up till now will begin to unavoidably begin searching for external specialized agencies, and in parallel, to form their own social media position and later entire specialized teams…all this in order to soon disperse them like Orange UK a year ago, and added work with social media into the basic job description to much wider layers of their employees, including their customer care department.

Quick-thinking work contractors realize that authentic engagement of a brand in social media requires responsibility, will, and capability to constantly listen, discuss and create interest. That is, professional and valuable participation (for the brand and consumers) in social media is a 365/7/24 commitment that cannot be taken lightly. It's really a long-term strategic decision.

Smart work contractors gradually lose their fear of unavoidable negative consumer comments. They realize that when they enable open venting of such comments within the framework of social media and enter the debate with its authors, instead of buttering them up(!), most will have all to gain and nothing to lose. 1. Venting a problem would happen anyway and anyhow, without any chance to react. 2. There isn’t a better opportunity to improve the relationship with the brand than an upset customer and a fast, responsible reaction to the brand. This applies of course if the brand has resources available and the aforementioned unwavering responsibility, will and capacity to listen and become involved in discussions.

Social media will become an entire natural part of client briefs and will be more and more neutral in terms of the platform. From today’s “and one more page or Facebook application”, things will lead to submittals containing on and off-line, mobile and broadband, Facebook and a number of other existing and so-far non-existent platforms. From pendants, tails and accesories of above-line campaigns to truly integrated communications that engage the consumer in ways they like. Platforms will be created, develop, compete and fall on their sword…but consumers, users of social media and the capacity of brands to capture their attention is all that matters at the end of the day.

Professional monitoring of conversations in social media and tools that enable immediate engagement of a brand in reported discussions will soon be a similarly natural budget line item for most marketing managers as fokuska. The question remains whether existing research corporations will be successful on the market…those introducing monitoring of classic media or local or global monitoring start-ups specializing exclusively in social media. A myriad of these companies were presented in London.

The mobilization of social media, which is already an undeniable reality, will offer many opportunities for non-offensive, welcomed engagement of the brand into the life of consumers and outside their sesle and notebooks. Marketers will certainly begin to develop a taste for the rich opportunities of engagement in stores and operations centers. Proof is found for instance in the aforementioned Foursquare, which even in the CR is slowly gaining in popularity amongst users of social media and even handfuls of job-contractor pioneers. Briefly from Mars: 40 % of on-line retail in Japan is realized via mobile phones.

Social media does not concern ones and zeros or bits and bytes. It mainly concerns people, human relationships and interpersonal interaction. It’s about universal human needs. Brands using social media that teach behavior as a welcome participant of these interpersonal interactions gain significant advantages. 

Such is the near future of social media in the opinions of the speakers at the Social Media World Forum 2010. I look forward to this future, as well as to next year’s SMWF. 

Winning works were selected on the basis of the following criteria: clearly defined business aim; insight; creative solutions; results, by which the campaign contributed to solving the business aim. The winners were announced at the WOMMA summit in Las Vegas on November 20th. 

We won the award for the project of customer co-creation of the football beer Ostravar Bazal, which took place from October 2008 to February 2009 in the Moravian-Silesian Region. Over several rounds, fans had the chance to vote how the beer would taste, its name, how the logo design and packaging would look, and they could even appear on the beer bottle label. The project registered major interest of the target group and media alike, the latter of which wrote over 100 articles about it. The attribute of the brand Ostravar as “favorite brand” grew over 30% over the previous year, and other built-in attributes registered a 25% growth. The product itself went on sale in a limited number of authorized pubs and recorded sales of up to 250% of the brewery’s original plan. The cherry on top was found in that pub owners not capable of selling Ostravar Bazal actually began buying quantities of it from selected pubs, so that they could offer the beer to their own customers, though not in one of the selected pubs.

Such campaigns can’t exist without above-the-board support of clients. We’d like to thank the marketing department of the Staropramen Breweries, namely Petr Dvořák, Jana Dubová and Pavel Barvík, who through courage and providence entrusted a major part of their budget for the brand into our hands, and bet on this Word of Mouth project. This effort achieved success amongst the people of Ostrava, the regional and national media, and now, in sunny Las Vegas.

The non-profit organization Informační středisko Mikuláš, o. p. s. [Information Center Mikuláš, o.p.s.], needed help with preparing activities leading to increased consciousness about the organization itself, as well as the crux of their efforts, which is placing children into foster families, instead of leaving them in children’s homes. Since the most promising group in terms of realistic effect are practicing Christians, our first steps led us to the nearby Church of Our Lady of the Snows at the square Jungmanno náměstí to see the priest Antonín Klaret Dabrowski. Our search together for the most effective method of influencing the network of  parishes within the Czech Republic proved to be quite a breath of fresh air after years of commercial communications. Next follows production of materials designed for distribution through Christian parishes, articles in Christian magazines, and a documentary film may even be shot.  The Lord helps those who help themselves...

The promised Peugeot arrived and I got inside. I greeted the driver, but without even a “hello” the driver left me sitting there for three minutes while he wrote something down. After finding out how far we needed to go, the driver, instead of being happy from the money to be made from the distant ride, was angry because it was in the opposite direction of his home and he was looking forward to going to bed. We headed out. But wait… we were riding in the wrong direction, so the driver turned around and we headed towards Vypich. I was playing a game on my phone and not paying attention to the ride. That was a mistake; the driver passed Vypich and started taking me on the scenic tour that amounts to four km extra travel. 

Despite this I will not allow anyone to disparage City Taxi, I refuse to change companies and I highly recommend it for taxi users since this ride. Why? Immediately after getting out of this objectionable taxi I called the central office and complained about the driver and his attitude. The lady from the call center willingly recorded everything, apologized for the driver and thanked me for the information. This is where most companies would stop. The customer got the feeling of being listened to and that the problem would be solved. City Taxi however called a week later wanting to know a few more details about the entire situation. A week later they called me again, saying that they discussed the entire situation with the driver. They apologized profusely once again and assured me that that particular driver will not be the one to drive me again, and that if one more complaint comes up on him, he will get a one-week "distance”, basically meaning that he won’t receive a job from the central office for an entire week.  

The fact that the company City Taxi stood up to the problem, didn’t try to smooth anything over, listened to its customer and performed corrective actions based on his information, not only created a permanent customer, but even a strong ambassador, who stands firmly in its corner. 

How does your company deal with customers’ unpleasant reactions?

The time that the consumer spends with any marketing message is usually determined by “footage” of the given media channel (ex. a 30-second TV commercial, a mere second’s drive past a billboard on the motorway, etc.), and also the consumer’s will to digest the message and the time that he/she wants to devote in doing so.

Data from BzzAgent has shown that the average Word of Mouth debate (a debate, in which the consumer passes information about the brand to another [other] consumer[s]) lasts 6.18 minutes. The enclosed graph shows how other (US) media channels rate.

But before they got back to their parents, a minor catastrophe occurred. The brittle ceramic pepper shaker fell and broke in pieces on the ground. There parents told their demoralized kids to try to get an exchange for it, so they went back in the shop, albeit not too optimistically. To their amazement the Disney employee who had sold them the shakers apologized for not wrapping them better and gave the stunned kids a new set.

And why are the salt & pepper shakers valued at $100,000?  Randy’s entire family came to have a completely different relationship with the Disney brand, and according to Randy’s calculations, the Pausch family has spent just about that amount on Disney products and services since that event. And from the position of the independent customer experience advisor, Randy often asks managers at Disney “If I were to send my kid into your store with a broken salt&pepper shaker set, would you allow your employees to be as nice and exchange it for a new one?” And how would you have answered Randy?

Distinctive region

Ostravar is fighting against their enduring nemesis Radegast in the Moravian Silesian region for the favor of beer drinkers. This region, which according to recent research by TNS Aisa, is the greatest bastion for new trends in the CR. In it live a people known for their distinctiveness, frankness, accent and pride in all things Silesian and north Moravian. They’re the kind who must be gained through patience and in a different manner than classic advertisement schemes.

Trip out of the city

Ostravar is strong in its hometown, Ostrava, but Radegast is indeed number one elsewhere in the region. In the past few years, Ostravar has systematically built influence in the entire region and has penetrated local pubs. This was possible thanks to careful work with pubs, to production of special beers by systematic media communication proudly reaching out to the region and by partnership with the Baník Ostrava Football Club.

An end to classic advertisement

After several years the client decided that it’d had enough with classic communications using outside advertising or radio, perceiving that if it truly wants to gain the hearts of the people in the region, it is necessary to “draw” the target group into its communications. The aim of the new submission was thus to build an unorthodox form of buzz about the brand amongst beer drinkers, to strengthen both brand relevance and the attribute “favorite brand”.

Strategy “walk the talk”

We decided in the client’s case to apply the “walk the talk” strategy, i.e. no polished advertising claims, but true deeds by which the product will prove its affiliation to the region and pride in it. The techniques we chose were buzz marketing with the aim of forming themes that would be interesting not just for beer drinkers but also for media, and co-creation; an opportunity for consumers to actively engage in co-creating the brand and the product.

Project “Our Football Beer”

Ostravar is a long-term partner of the region’s football icons, Baník Ostrava. And how best to confirm a partnership and give fans added value of this union than through a limited edition of football beer? But we didn’t want to form a product behind the walls of the brewery and then introduce it to the market with some grandiose advertisement campaign. We decided to give fans and beer drinkers the opportunity of creating their football beer from A to Z. We therefore came up with the project “Our football beer”, which these people perceived as a public vox populi lasting for several months. Whoever wanted to could engage in voting and thus influence the taste, name or even the appearance of the football beer. We divided the project into several phases, where in each one a decision was reached regarding a different aspect of the product. The aim was to create for the consumers the greatest possible number of opportunities for discussing the brand Ostravar.

Qualification of taste and name

The project launched the qualification phase at the Havířov Celebrations. During this event, people had the chance to decide on the future flavor of the football beer and suggest the ideal name. The qualification part lasted a month, and was held besides Havířov in other frequented locations in the region. These were selected establishments in and around Ostrava, on the famous Stodolní street and in front of city shopping centers.

First round – name and glass, second round – logo and label, third round – photographing the brave

In October’s opening round, people chose a winner from amongst eleven of the best proposals for names, and decided on the design of the glass into which the football beer would be poured. A month later during the second round, inhabitants of the Moravian Silesian region chose from three logo variations and the overall appearance of the beer labels. In the last round over a hundred brave souls wanting to put their faces on the beer bottle label got the chance to have their picture taken in the brewery and at Bazaly stadium. 

The whistling of the Launch

The result of several months of activities communicated through events, the press, radio, a Website and POS of materials culminated in the semi-dark football lager, Ostravar Bazal. It is poured into mugs, it has an attractive design and has eleven different faces. That’s just how many differently labeled bottles with the faces of real football fans can be cracked open of this limited beer special. 
The ceremonial tapping of kegs in selected locations in and around Ostrava formally marked the market launch of Ostravar Bazal on March 27, 2009. The launch itself was preceded by buzz guerilla activity, when on the night of March 26-27, several thousand whistles bearing the Ostravar Bazal label were hung to various things around the city, along with a small booklet containing a list of all of Ostrava’s pubs where they could get their hands on the football lager. 

Plan fulfilled by 250 %

Thousands of people from the entire region took an active part, and tens of thousands talked about it with their friends. The theme was a hit with consumers and the media alike. Throughout the entire existence of the campaign, over 100 articles were written about it in national and regional printed and internet media. The campaign saw the increase in monitored image attributes of the Ostravar brand by 25% over last year, and a 30% growth in the attribute “favorite brand”. These numbers indicate that this uncommonly conceived campaign scored far higher than the previous classic media campaigns. Sales themselves of Ostravar Bazal in pubs have hit 250 % of the brewery’s projections, whereas it is not acting as a parasite towards the main product of the portfolio – Ostravar Premium. Moreover, thanks to its higher price in stores and pubs, Ostravar Bazal has become the most profitable product in the Ostravar brand family. 
A curious indicator of the raging success in the campaign is the fact that certain pub proprietors who were not amongst those officially selected to pour Bazal beer are buying Bazal through these selected pubs to be able to offer it to customers in their pubs, albeit not officially selected. Cases have also emerged where the whistles from the buzz guerilla event have been sold in Web auctions as collector items.

No, that’s no double typo, but an entirely new way to reach your potential customers. Paartyy is a new, effective alternative to approaching marketing appeals that were difficult to resolve employing status quo methods. Forget traditional channels for a while and bet on the influence of influencers – opinionated leaders. With the help of PAARTYY, you can address your most influential customers, influencers, advocates of your brand, and prepare unique brand experiences for them and their social surroundings. Positive Word of Mouth will spread around the population like the latest bug. 
Carefully selected influencers form your brand advocates and customers will get the opportunity to arrange original home parties with your brand for themselves and their friends. They’ll become hosts. They’ll receive a valuable party package, whose main content are samples of your products. Surrounded by other thematic content, your label will become the hit of the party – events – that bring together family, friends and various acquaintances. Each party package is custom designed so that discussions about your party will linger and linger, even if your product isn’t exactly a flashing karaoke machine.
Everything has been thought out so that the party would revolve around your brand, and so that everybody would have a good time. If we play a series of parties for mothers with children, its content will be entertaining for the oldest to youngest. Whether it’s a night out for the guys or the gals, the package will be sure to make it worth everyone’s while. Digital cameras will flash, video cameras will shoot and positive WOM about your brand may begin to spread both in the off-line and on-line environments. That’s because thanks to Paartyy, everybody attending the party will always relate your brand to the great time that they had. This enables you to:

• build your image
• build your testing
• plant the seeds and speed up the spreading of Word of Mouth
• create a bond between the target group and your brand
• gain brand ambassadors
• and of course to support your sales

Image that when you arrange 1,500 parties, you can achieve a total scope of reach of up to 500,000 people. People will talk with them about the product and the experience, they’ll upload photography and strengthen the message in photo albums, they’ll write about the party in our profiles in social networks… And what’s the best part? No advertising messages, no slogans, no door-to-door salesmen. People who have a relationship with each other and trust one another will begin to talk about your brand. According to our WOMonitor from 2007, Czechs regard family, friends and colleagues up to a 6x more reliable source of info than classic media such as print or television. On top of that, Keller Fay’s research claims that 70% of discussions between friends and acquaintances have a direct influence on purchase decisions. 

Try out the new Word of Mouth marketing medium -PAARTYY. Take your brand directly into the homes of influential customers and watch how it spreads amongst their friends and beyond. Download our presentation. and see for yourselves. You may contact us by writing to paartyy@outbreak.biz or by calling +420 222 743 413.