Chinese Milk Scandal

Most of you don’t know this, but early on in my career I was a milk man. Yes, I graduated from Purdue University with a BS degree in Food Science. My first job was working for Dean Foods Company as a supervisor in dairy plant – a milk man. (Here is my microbiology professor – Dr. Maribeth Cousin)

This may sound strange to you, but there is something special about a dairy plant. Milk is a fragile, important, ubiquitous and sensitive food. Taking special care of milk is what we did every day in that plant.

We took special care because we understood that everyone, but especially children depend on milk and if we didn’t do our jobs right, people could get sick. In fact there was a sad incident here in Chicago where there was a salmonella outbreak traced back to a Jewel dairy plant was wasn’t getting cleaned properly. Thousands were sickened and several died. The plant never re-opened.

So this milk scandal from China where they were putting poisonous industrial chemicals (melamine) in milk makes me sad and mad. What kind of person does this? How do they rationalize it to themselves? How do they sleep at night?

I have a pretty libertarian bent, but the USDA here in the USA and most if not all of the food manufacturers do a really good job of ensuring that we have the safest food supply in the world.

TO’B

133 MM Blogs Indeed

Interesting “state of the blogosphere” report from Technorati on 9/22.

All you have to do is look at this chart to understand the essence of what’s happening. Far from being the massive phenomenon that has been shopped around for years, it is obvious that there are a very small number of influential blogs.

I mention this because it is common for companies in the social media analytics space to brag about monitoring over 100 MM blogs as part of their service. How hard could it really be when >94% of the blogs out there have not been updated in the last 120 days?

Blogs are not so much a CGM phenomena as they are a new publishing channel. If you have something interesting and compelling to say you have a chance to get a real audience. Only 0.057% will ever crack the Technorati Authority of 50+.

Not saying blogs aren’t important, but let’s not kid ourselves about there being 133 MM real blogs out there.

TO’B

Perfect Walk Score – 100/100

I put in our office location – 1578 Sherman Avenue – and we have a walk score of 100/100!

Guess they don’t take winter into account. Check yours here:

Walk Score

Evanston Walk Score

Hat Tip to Andy Sernovitz

TO’B

Everything you need to know about YouTube

“An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube”

Title not withstanding this latest gem from Prof. Mike Wesch is not only is this a great presentation (mixed ppt and video) but a must watch for anyone who needs or wants to understand YouTube in particular and Web 2.0 overall.

See Mike Weschs’ table of contents for this video here

The reasons, motivations and payoffs for why people connect online are all in here – and it is very people-centric. All marketers will do themselves a favor to sit down and watch this video.

Hat Tip to Laurel Papworth

TO’B

New iPhone: Evanston at&t Store Line

Heading to Peets for my morning coffee on my arduous 4 block commute this morning I have to say I was pretty surprised to see such a long line outside the at&t store on Chicago Avenue in Evanston.

The insider hype is at a much lower volume that it was last year at initial launch – but this line is longer than it was last year. Interesting.

TO’B

Monetizing Web 2.0

Continuous refrain heard in the Web 2.0 echo chamber – but how is anyone going to make money (@amandachapel) off of this? Below is a case study that incorporates Web 2.0 tools in every phase of the project. Listening to what people say online, using that to inform and execute the campaign, and then measuring results by observing changes in brand advocacy – which are a leading indicator of changes in sales.

Here you go:

1. Listen and learn.
   

   “Mini USA, the American branch of BMW’s Mini Cooper line, tracks everything being said about its brand everywhere on line — in blogs, discussion groups, forums, MySpace pages and much more — then uses what it learns to guide advertising campaigns.”
   

   From Knowledge@Wharton article title “Not a Site but a Concept”: Tapping the Power of Social Networking
   

2. Use Learning to Inform & execute
   

   Use what you learn by listening to inform what you do next. Devise your campaign to connect with what your target is passionate about rather than just making up a story and pushing it at them with $$$. (We learn what people are passionate about by listening.) Here is the slideshow from BSSP’s work with MotiveQuest to develop the campaign with what we learned about the community by listening:
   

   BSSP/MQ Mini Case Study

3. Measure the results
   

   We measured changes in brand advocacy over time (using Online Promoter Score^TM) resulting from the BSSP campaign for Mini and tied the changes in advocacy to sales. Learn è Execute è Measure.

   Measuring Brand Advocacy

So there it is a solid ROI case for Web 2.0 tools and techniques.

Discuss.

TO’B

Social Fastest Growing Emerging Medium

Hmmm – looks like social computing/media is going to keep growing – and I guess this forecast from Interpublic explains why.

Interpublic: Social Is Fastest Growing Emerging Medium; Search Is Slowing (Mediapost Story)

“The fastest growing of the emerging media platforms tracked by Magna, he said, is social media, which includes both social networks and applications like ad-supported widgets. Wieser estimated that social media ad spending would rise 37.4% in 2009, thought that is nearly half the 60.8% rate it is expected to grow in 2008.”

07/2008 Brian Wieser Presentation on Emerging Media

07/2008 Robert Coen Presentation on Advertising Expenditures

Our work at MotiveQuest lays a foundation for social computing/media strategies as we organize analyze and mine all the conversations about a brand & category to uncover the hidden human motivations and drivers as well as competitive dynamics. This information is critical for planning and execution of successful social media strategies.

Are you listening?

TO’B

Best Buy Does it Right

Well call me impressed! My Tivo Series 3 HD Box that I purchased at Best Buy in Skokie last fall broke down. After a quick visit to the Tivo Community Forum (not owned by Tivo – stats:  Threads: 117,677, Posts: 3,006,609, Members: 187,578, Active Members: 8,346) I knew that the hard drive needed to be replaced. Now I’m not good at keeping track of receipts, warranties and such so I had no paperwork. I just pulled out the Tivo box and drove to the store with it under my arm.

Coming in the door someone put a pink tag on it and sent me over to the service desk. One of the cool “Geek Squad” guys helped me out right away. My first issue – that I had no paperwork turned out not to be an issue at all – he quickly found the transaction from 9 or 10 months ago, and he determined that I did buy the extended warranty.

I gave him my diagnosis (from 5 minutes of net sleuthing) and he agreed. He first said we would have to send it out to be repaired, but then after looking it up, he told me BBY would just replace the unit. I walked over to Home Theater, picked up a brand new Tivo Series 3 HD and after 3 minutes scanning in the new serial number and getting a new warranty/service printout I headed home with a new box.

Elapsed time in the store was a total of about 10 to 15 minutes. Best Buy has just converted me into an evangelist and potentially a customer for life. Good work!

TO’B

Viral Marketing is Stupid

I have to give credit to Duncan Watts on this one, but his presentation at iCitizen a couple of weeks ago got me thinking about viral marketing. His forest fire analogy brought it home for me.

Forest fires start and stop all the time. There are thousands of forest fires every year. Only a few of them become the monster forest fires we see on TV consuming homes and acreage in vast quantities. How are these few mega-fires different from the thousands of small ones? Is it because they started from a really “special” tree? (An influential tree perhaps??)

No. The mega-fires started in a place and at a time where fuel, weather and other conditions were precisely right, and continued to be precisely right to grow into a TV-worthy blaze.

What does that have to do with viral marketing? Well, do you think the Coke-Mentos phenomenon was planned by an agency? Do you think the Blend-Tec videos were planned by an agency? NO, they just happened to appear in the right place at the right time with the right content. And they took off.

Viral marketing is like a baseball team trying to win all their games with home runs.

TO’B

Figure 1: Credit – Exp. Flickr

Social Media Winner

Story in yesterday’s WSJ

When Dogs and Robots Collide, Somebody Needs a Talking To

Fascinating story about the relationship between dogs and robots:

“The trouble started when Mr. Hearn first turned on his Roomba automatic cleaner. When the device started scooting around the floor, Mr. Hearn’s dog, Argos, attacked it.

Seeking help, Mr. Hearn found an online forum dedicated to the hundred-dollar Roomba buzzing with similar stories of pet assailants. Owners were offering advice. Among the most popular: Chastise the vacuum in front of the dog.

And so, with Argos looking on, Mr. Hearn shook his finger at his gadget and sternly called it “a bad Roomba.” Argos appeared to be mollified. “After that, he never tried nipping at it again,” says Mr. Hearn, a software engineer in San Carlos, Calif.”

I am listing this as a social media winner, because Roomba was smart enough to get out of the way and let it’s customers do what they wanted with the brand – and guess what – they ended up with a picture on the front page of the WSJ and were the most emailed story in the WSJ yesterday.

Wow – I would challenge any agency to plan that campaign!

TO’B