Chris Brogan IMS10

The Inbound Marketing Summit ended yesterday with a flourish. It was a well conceived, smoothly run show.  Here’s a look at the high points of the second day.

• The Pulse Network: This Social TV start up  launched at the summit streaming all the programming and archiving the sessions on their site. www.PulseNetwork.com.

• Captain Nathan Broshear began his presentation on how the Airforce is using Social Media with an emotional video of the Air Force entering Haiti after the earthquake, shot entirely by the servicemen on the scene.  The images were striking. The effect was powerful. His presentation was filled with interesting stories and great quotes. “Seek intimacy with your audience, not publicity” and “Every Marine is a rifleman. Every Airman a  communicator.”

• Robbie Vorhaus @vorhaus gave a decidedly non techie take on handling crisis.  To me, this presentation was the most engaging of the conference.  The theme: There is 100% certainty that you will soon experience some type of crisis, but almost every crisis can either be avoided or reduced simply by acknowledging the possibility of the event. His secret for crisis prep: follow your heart, dreams and desires.

• Tim Washer @timwasher: Tim, a comedian who works for Cisco encouraged us to use humor in our communications. Why? According to Tim, humor humanizes the brand, evokes positive emotion and keeps the story interesting. He demonstrated this though a series of hilarious videos including one that promoted the Valentines day launch of a $250,000 router as a great gift for a loved one.

• Gillette Stadium: It really was a great place to host this event. Before attending, I  thought this was just a football facility. I couldn’t be more mistake. I was very impresses with the layout, food (really!), AV and  access.

Kudos to New Marketing Labs for producing this event. Over the course of two days I was treated to a panel of top-flight speakers who  shared their visions and experiences in social Media ROI, using video, generating remarkable content, Grateful Dead marketing tips,  SEO stratgies, Inbound Marketing techniques and a host of other relevant topic.  If you missed it, I highly recommend viewing the content at ThePulseNetwork.com

Bottom Line: The  Summit exceeded my expectation and left me looking forward to attending next year.

Today was the first day of the Inbound Marketing Summit. The fourth annual event, held at Gillette Stadium, was part of a Future M, a week long multi-venue “gathering of thinkers” being held in Boston. I was lucky enough to hear some of the best and brightest minds in marketing and social media. Here are 4 takeaways from today’s event:

1. We can all learn from The Grafeul Dead. Resident Deadheads David Meerman Scott @dmscott and Brian Halligan @bhalligan (both have attended 100 Dead Shows)  gave a spirited, music filled presentation imparting marketing tactics that made the Dead an iconic brand.
2. Government is highly effectively using social media: Alex Howard, Director of Digital at Hill Holiday, and Jess Weiss showed us just how savvy Massachusetts is with its social media programs.  From boil water alerts to park education initiatives, they demonstrated how effective government can be in the social media space.
3. O and O is the new approach. Using a mix of Off-line and On-line channels was being touted by Tim Hayden @TheTimHayden of Blue Clover Studios.  Nuggets like “93% of word of mouth happens off line” underscore the fact that going exclusively on line with your marketing efforts is a big mistake.
4. Save the best for last. The day ended with funny, non nonsense rant from Scott Stratten @unmarketing. He repeatedly made great points on a variety of topics.   In reference to creating viral content he said, “People don’t spread fairly average , they spread awesome”, or on SEO Scott offered, ” Write great content. That’s what people want”.  His humorous take on  the dos and don’t of social marketing left me wanting more. All in all it was a great end to a worthwhile day.

The event wraps up tomorrow with another day packed with content. Check back for my wrap up.

For the past few months I’ve been wondering and a little perplexed about how marketers view the social media phenomenon. Never before has a media segment grown so quickly. The statistics are staggering. Consider; it took Radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV 13 years, the Internet 4 years and iPod 3 years. Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 month and iPhone applications hit an astounding 1 billion in 9 months.

With this phenomenal growth comes the false sense that Social Media is the panacea for successful brand building. I agree Social Media is an important component of building your brand; it’s tactical by nature and it’s a tool to achieve the end game…brand engagement.

One does not have to look far to find dynamic examples of how smart marketers are using the enormous power of Social Media. Today I saw this headline:

“The Gap Steps Up to Social Media in New Denim Campaign”

The article explains that Gap, admired as much for its TV commercials as for its clothes, was abandoning TV in favor of Social Media.  What message does this send to an over-stimulated, instant gratification seeking group of young marketers?

Reading the article makes it easy to assume that the formula is: Any Brand + Social Media = SUCCESS.

The article fails to mention the time, research and strategy that are crucial to brand development…all the thinking that must take place before any tactical considerations, including Social Media executions, can be developed.

Let’s not lose site of this basic fact: Social Media is by definition…media.  Just as TV, Radio, Print and Banner Ads are media.  Social Media carries the message. It is not the message. This is where many marketers are missing the mark.

Successful brand building starts with a basic understanding of core brand values, i.e., what the brand stands for and the emotional connection it creates with its customers/fans. Understanding these brand fundamentals are critical before a Social Media (or any media) program can be effectively implemented.

Take care of the basics; understand your brand’s core values and you can use Social Media as a terrific means to support it, but don’t be mislead in thinking Social Media can lay the fundamental brand foundation.

We hear it all the time…..  “Google launches new product”, “Google stock soars”, ” Google named best place to work in America”.  It seems they rarely misstep.  Well I was perusing some of my favorite blogs today when there it was….Google’s Data Culture Drives Designer Crazy — and Out It seems that Google’s obsession with analyzing, testing and justifying everything has led to the resignation of their lead designer, who grew tired of a culture where even minor design elements are the subject of debate and the focus of tests.

What message does this send to the Brand Marketers…to Entrepreneurs…to anyone bold  enough to have a creative, original idea?

Creativity is not the product of machines or tests. It comes from within. Great creative has the ability to touch people’s emotions.  It’s emotion that motivates people to make decisions on which brands to buy. Emotion impacts people and it’s people, not machines that make purchase decisions. Creativity is subjective.  It is the antithesis of logic. Creativity cannot exist when tested, debated and quantified  ad nauseum .  

So I worry when a very successful company like Google takes an engineering point of view on Creative. Their successes have led them to believe they can do no wrong.  Their  approach sends a very bad message not just to marketers, but to anyone with a dream.  We need to nurture our creatives,  I’m not just talking about the creatives in advertising…I’m talking about entrepreneurs, teachers, young people…all the right brain thinkers.    

Now don’t get me wrong…I have nothing against Google.  iGoogle is my home page, I use Google Docs, Google Earth, Google Tasks and Google Analytics….but their take on creative is just plain wrong.

Ernie uses Abrams talk to  drives home a popular theme - find inspiration from new things, things you don’t know, tell and unexpected story, and of course, use your imagination.

It’s really interesting, with all the technology and stimulation around us, it’s a really simple concept that could bring out the most brilliant creative within us. Search within, don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes, dig and use your imagination – it has to make the work so much more powerful.