2010 ISBA Annual Conference: Focus on social media

Last week’s ISBA conference focused heavily on the new media world – with emphasis particularly on social media.

Did the audience come away clear on strategy and how to monetise this world? No – not surprisingly. Did they come away enlightened, a little better informed and with their brains prodded by ideas, case studies and mantras? Yes, certainly.

There was the practical – Renault’s agency i-level manually monitors social media messages about the brand, filters out about 95% of these through an agreed system, and then passes the rest to the client who can then respond accordingly. The result, we were told, is a listening brand which can respond quickly to customer service enquiries, and treats them no differently to the way they would a phone call. Sometimes it provokes other (positive) social messages as a result. Very reactive, but Renault believe it works well.

There was the socially responsible – David Jones, global CEO of Havas Worldwide, very good friend of Kofi (Annan) as he told us a few times, and not one to hide from publicity or from a serious challenge, told an inspiring tale of the tck campaign “the fight for climate justice” and One Young World (a young people’s Davos).

With these agendas, you’re in for the long haul, but David was certainly making immediate impact. His marketing mantras were these:

• The new world of marketing is square (he is so convinced of this that he has trademarked Square Marketing). By this he means all interests are feeding each other (brand, employee, consumer, etc) but he puts social responsibility in the middle of the square.

• The new world of marketing is open source. Create the platform (tck eg) and let anyone join in, and it grows.

• The new world of marketing is socially responsible; 86% of people responding to a survey said that “business should stand for more than just making a profit.” Social media “has changed the speed of events” he told us, “social responsibility will drive social media”.

He concluded by showing the audience his own death (in a video game)! Fortunately the presentation was after lunch!

Then there were the lessons for social media from the equally engaging David Sable, vice chairman, chief operating officer, Wunderman. He took the ISBA delegates through an interesting potted internet history. “Sticky is gone now … linear and portal aggregators are gone … but there is only one internet – data can be personalised more for the portable market, just change the interfaces, it can be the same content.”

David left the audience with his key pointers:

• Understand the eco system

• No one tactic stands alone

• The answer to every question is not “give me one of those. Think!”

• Start with a business outcome

• You will fail … try again… and again.

• It all starts after the click

• All relationships are local.