are brands fracking the social web? - v2.0
Post on 15-Sep-2014
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A quite different, second version of this presentation, given on 21st May 2013 at Squared. Whole new back end, and a more useful one at that, perhaps. Though it's only a day old as a structural thought as I write this, so will no doubt improve. Overall, this version of the presentation is less curmogeonly in spirit, at least where it matters.TRANSCRIPT
john v willshirehttp://smithery.co
@willsh22nd May 2013
are brands
the social web?
http://rivetin.gs/gasland
fracking 2.0v
https://plus.google.com/+WeareSquared
A second, updated run through ofthoughts on marketing, the social web
and collaboration, prepared for...
this is STILL not a standard “what’s the social web” talk...
hopefully it’ll give you interesting ideas to talk to each other about
I’ve also left lots of rabbit holes...
http://rivetin.gs/sennett
let’s talk aboutfracking
“Fracking is an aggressive, invasive technique for extracting valuable raw materials out of hard to reach places”
phil adams, Blonde digital(and Chemical Engineer grad)
http://rivetin.gs/storyfracking
attention is the most valuable raw material there is
are brands fracking the social web?
the question I’m wrestling with:
some context...
I’ve been inadvertently writing this talk for the
last five years...
today, i runSmithery
http://rivetin.gs/smithery
prettyit’s beenthis, googlethanks for
useful
“work of” “goods made”
http://rivetin.gs/artefact
two types of
principleworkbut just one
before this, I worked at PHD Media for seven years as “the excitable scottish innovation one”
...which just became a stick that social and advertising zealots used to beat each other with...
(sorry)
http://rivetin.gs/bonfires
i wrote this in 2009...
http://rivetin.gs/communis
my IPA Excellence diploma thesis
maybe this is the start of this talk, back in 2008...
“I believe that the future of brand communications lies in finding a way to
become part of communities, and communicate with them in a way that is shared, participatory and reciprocal”
http://rivetin.gs/communis
me, five years ago
that sounds really annoying
yep, really annoying.
“Our challenge is that people really don’t care” martin Weigel, W+K
http://rivetin.gs/hownowtofailhttp://rivetin.gs/realpeople
perhaps brands and the social web are just very different types of thing?
brandsbe social,
talk to you, be your friend?
how can
let’s think a little about
“conversations”
I’ve been reading a lot of Richard Sennett lately http://rivetin.gs/sennett
three books about the skills peopleneed to sustain everyday life
The Craftsman2008
together2012
with “cities”to follow...
working well cooperation
http://rivetin.gs/craftsman
“an exchange in which the participants benefit from the encounter”
http://rivetin.gs/together
cooperationthe latest book, ‘together’ is about
it contains a very useful way to think about conversation
“when we speak about communication skills, we focus on how to make a clear presentation, to present what we think or feel...”
Richard sennett, Together
which is old
school “brand”thinking
conversation is about listening
but more important than just listening is
listening well
listening carefully produces conversations of two sorts...
the dialectic and the dialogic
“
”Richard sennett, Together
what the f***?
dialecticfrom work of german philosopher GWF Hegel
the interaction and resolution between multiple ideas
http://rivetin.gs/hegel
dialectic:“the aim is to come eventually to a common understanding”
Richard sennett, Together
dialectic wants consensusA b C D E F G H
bA CD Fe Ge
C ADb G ADf
C ADb ADfg
...no matter how good that
consensus is
C ADb ADfg
http://rivetin.gs/camel
is it telling that very few crowdsourced “winners” are around for long?
dialogicfrom work of russian philosopher Mikhail Bahktin
“A discussion that does not resolve itself by finding common ground...”
Richard sennett, Together
http://rivetin.gs/bakhtin
“[people] become more aware of their own views and expand their understanding of one another”
Richard sennett, Together
http://rivetin.gs/enlightenment
dialogic:
in dialogic conversation, ideologies coexist
A
bC
D
E
FG H
they constantly interact and inform each other
A
bC
D
E
FG H
each ideology can hold more salience in certain circumstances
A
bC
D
E
FG H
changes can be made if a strategy does not have the desired effect
A
bC
D
E
FG H
it’s very reminiscent of the social web...
this might not just apply to
“conversation”
what if there are dialectic and
dialogic structures & cultures too?
are traditional marketing structures likely to be more dialectic?
are social web platforms and
companies more dialogic in nature?
it would help explain the
culture clash
“if we’re used to seeing the world through a centralised lens, decentralised organisations don’t make much sense”
http://rivetin.gs/starfish
Are brands fracking the social web?Perhaps...
but really, there’s just a massive cultural divide
competitionsimplicityCompressioncertainty
cooperationcomplexity
fragmentationexperimentation
these cultures can greatly
each otherinfluence
social web companiesare heading over here
where the money is
they want to create safe, attractive places for brands to place ads
http://rivetin.gs/youradhere
when eyeballs become dollar signs, things get ugly
“Both companies have turned their focus away from users and
toward shareholders to get bigger, not better.”
http://rivetin.gs/fastcoinnovation
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads” Jeff Hammerbacher
””
we promise “
”screw it up!not to
Marissa Mayer, Yahoo
it’s also not greatfor the social web
“we've abandoned core values that
used to be fundamental to the web world”
http://rivetin.gs/thewebwelost
Anil Dash, “The web we lost”
i fear the day when you look on ifttt and there’s only one channel
http://ifttt.com
“There's a little meme I've been hearing recently. Columnists repeating it, "Don't read the bottom half of the internet"...”
rob manual
http://rivetin.gs/bottomhalf
I believe brands can and shouldmove this way a lot more
cooperationcomplexity
fragmentationexperimentation
how do you do
this?
some quickeconomics
the labour theory of value
http://rivetin.gs/labourtheory
developed by adam smith...
...and later by karl marx
modern economics:
the value of a thing is determined by what one
is willing to give up to obtain the thing
The labour theory of value
the value of something is determined by the labour that went into its production
perhaps there’s a labour theory of
brand value**it might need a better name, mind
Field Notes
£0.99 £3.33per padper pad
“marketing is world building. With unlimited bandwidth we can now show you the world.”
@TobyBarnes
We’d rather buy this world...
...than this world
Labour theory of brand value:
you have to make everything with the infinite canvas of the internet in mind http://rivetin.gs/legoinside
What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? Gareth Kay What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we
http://rivetin.gs/thinksmall
“A brand is simply a collection of perceptions in the mind of
the consumer”Paul Feldwick, 1991
http://rivetin.gs/feldwick
“ I don’t think this definition is entirely adequate.”
http://rivetin.gs/farisbrand
faris yakob, 2010
the modern brand islike a bittorrent file
complex, distributed, moving, uncontrollable...
...and yet never complete without every part
impossible for any one mind to conceive...
no, don’t jump...
“blow shit up”cindy Gallop
four ways to break apartdialectic brandsand make them actually useful in a year that doesn’t start with 19..
cooperationcomplexity
fragmentationexperimentation
based onthese four
cooperation
frag
ment
atio
n
complexity
experimentation
*this train of thought is only22 hours old.
so be gentle...
break it down
break it back
break it up
break through
break it down
break it back
break it up
embrace the granularity of everything you’ve ever done
fragmentation
I’m really interested in the making of ‘it’ -where the making is part of the story of the ‘it’...
thomas heatherwick
“”
http://rivetin.gs/heatherwick
It could be blending everything you do now with a rich tapestry of your past...
or It could be showing everyone everything you do to make their thing...
which big brands
factoryhollowfind hard because of their
make brand vaguely interesting& buy loads of media
make product very efficiently
Marx was half right...
it’s not about the
meansof production
http://rivetin.gs/sneveoslo
it’s about themeaningin production
break it down
break it back
break through
It’s all about people, and what they do together to make great things happen
cooperation
yep.
Having lots of people in a company makes it easy...
owning lots of brands makes it harder...
break it up
Don’t consolidate. Fragment by sector,
Product, country, region...
complexity
think of it this way
you are an operating system
they’re not consumers
they’re users
open up your operating system
fight
users
forthe
there is no “one size fits all” in youtube
with the right mechanic, you can fragment
your brand everywhere
you exist...
break through
Experimentationshow people the
future you want to live in with them
sure, It’s easier for some brands
but every market has a future
you just have to show you’re part of it
cooperation
frag
ment
atio
ncomplexity
experimentation
A final thought...
when working together...
remember that your ideas coexist
A
bC
D
E
FG H
you will constantly interact and inform each other
A
bC
D
E
FG H
each idea will hold more salience in certain circumstances
A
bC
D
E
FG H
if a strategy does not have the desired effect, change tack
A
bC
D
E
FG H
if you create together dialogically...
...you will make dialogical things
thank youjohn v willshire
http://smithery.co@willsh
artefact Cards
http://shop.smithery.co