It's Time For A Social Network Co-Op

You know the Ad campaign:

"Why do WestJetters care so much?
Because we're also WestJet owners."

After reading this bubblegeneration post Research Note: (Facebook's) Evil is in the DNA alongside all the Google wants our data posts over the years, here is my pledge -

The first group to create a social network co-operative - where we all own the network and then share in the creation of how our data is collected, shared, and monetized - I will join. And I will ask all my friends, neighbors and country people to join.

We will own the network. And when people ask the question,

"Why do social network X owners share their data so much?

We will say:

"Because we're also social network x owners"

Trend Watch: Planet Doomed Because Of Eco-Marketers

Doesn't this just take the cake. Bad bandwagoning marketers have doomed our planet through overuse and abuse of the trendy and frankly, annoying Eco-marketing ploys. Trendwatching calls it Eco-Fatigue and states:

...serious ECO-FATIGUE is upon us, as independent and experienced consumers are fed up with being told what to do, or, more specifically, told what not to do. Treated like unruly infants by Al Gore and his ilk, the ECO-FATIGUED increasingly rebel against the green movement’s obsession with ‘no’"

It's ok. I had the solution to global warming a while back, it's only a matter of time until someone implements my plan....

Mooohaahahhhahahhhhhhaaaa.......

Networks Are Beautiful

I can't recall how I got here, but from visualcomplexity, "Skyrails is a Social Network and Graph Visualization System with a built-in programming language."



It's simply beautiful. It would be amazing to consider how we could build logic behind this and program it with client data and other behavioural marketing information to model how customers connect their social shopping patterns and/or social graphs....

Sometimes I Just Want To Jump Off The Web 2.0 Ledge

A friend who works at an unnamed place came by the other day with some classic stories. You know the kinds of things that as a digital strategist, make me want to jump off the Web 2.0 ledge. So in response, i have two things to say today:

1. Facebook widgets are not a strategy dammit! (nor is a myspace page, a corporate blog or a second life store) They are called tactics!

2. No one, and I mean NO ONE (be they clients, creative directors, account people etc.) should ever, EVER ask the question "Where are the Web 2.0 features?"

Whew. Thanks. I feel better now.

Digital Has Changed Everything: Except For Traditional Advertising Agencies

Working on the launch of Rogers@Home High Speed Internet, I remember thinking - this is the easiest gig I have ever done. The clients thought the subscription numbers were high but having tracked the growth of online for a while, it was obvious to me that the chasm had been crossed and the pace of change was going to be much faster than their highest expectations.

And here we are again. I was looking at some Forrester and Jupiter numbers for the growth of online advertising and while to the Advertising world these numbers look a bit scary, the truth is I think they are low. Why? Couple things...

1. These numbers only encapsulate traditional online advertising - meaning CPM, Cost per click and cost per action numbers. This doesn't include all the other digital advertising that is going on including corporate websites and digital experiences.

2. People are starting to get that it's not online vs. offline but rather everything is digital. Everything being connected to everything else. The implications of that will be staggering as more and more communications companies attempt to be invited into people's social graphs. The complexity and the pieces that will need to be twined together to create any meaningful stories will require new skill sets and new tools that we have not even conceived of yet.

3. Clients are starting to mandate the allocation of their budgets frustrated with the fact that traditional advertisers are not moving pace with their needs and consumer habits. I had one Sr. Executive tell me a US based client requested 35% of their budget go to digital. 35%!!! Imagine if all clients did this in the coming year. Are the CFOs out there listening?

The IAB has a recent study that states:

"More than 80% of marketers surveyed indicate consumer insights and behavioral targeting are major priorities, underscoring digital's ability to understand the customer." (please excuse the colours of the chart below - blame the IAB not me)



So it goes, digital has changed almost everything - everything except the way traditional advertising agencies build brands and communicate with customers. But the chasm has officially been crossed. It won't matter anymore if Agenices offer up communications plans without signficant homage to digital...customers by their actions are now mandating it and clients are therefore demanding it. It's finally a sea change and it's going to be a wild ride.

Update: I just found some great stats from recovering journalist further proving the point (oh by the way, i have a friend who distributes newspapers for one of the biggest here in Canada - he said his revenue goes down about a third every year if that doesn’t tell you something)



More New Stats: Via Paul Kedrosky, new emarketer stats



Even More New Stats From the IAB (this is a good one as shows history although take it with a bit of a grain of salt bc the IAB has a pretty serious bias)

Game Over Documentary on CBC Tonight

Sara Marino a close friend of my brother's and his wife Nancy, has produced a documentary on the Nature of Things with David Suzuki called Game Over about conservation in Kenya.

It's on at 8pm tonight on CBC. Be sure to check it out.

Adaptive Blue Smart Link Test

I'm testing how Adaptive Blue's smart links work. Apparently, now that i have inserted the smart link into my site, once i talk about something that then links to their partners sites, a smart link will be automagically inserted.

So i'll create a link to Grant McCracken's new book which I want to buy called Flock and Flow and apparently then a smart link will be created.

Let me know what you think!

(of both the book and smartlinks)