digital brand strategy - ugo orlando

Ugo Orlando November 2011

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E S P E M E I S A S C H O O L W I T H I N T H E E D H E C G R O U P, A C C R E D I T E D B Y E Q U IS , A A A C S B A N D T H E F R E N C H S T A T E.

MANAGING A BRAND STRATEGY

THROUGH THE DIGITAL MEDIUM,

IS IT BETTER DONE IN-HOUSE

OR OUTSOURCED TO A

COMMUNICATION AGENCY?

A R E F L E X I O N O N T H E C U R R E N T S T A T E A N D T H E F U T U R E O F

D I G I T A L C O M M U N I C A T I O N S T R A T E G I E S F R O M E X P E R I E N C E S

I N N E W M E D I A C O M M U N I C A T I O N A G E N C I E S A N D I N T H E

M A R K E T I N G D E P A R T M E N T O F A S O C I A L G A M I N G C O M P A N Y

UG O OR LA N D O Y E A R- G R O U P G R A D U A T I N G I N 2 0 1 1

T H E S I S A D V I S O R: M R. D E N N I S D A V Y

Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the

EDHEC-ESPEME degree 2011

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The opinions expressed in this document

are the sole responsibility of their author.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to:

• Denn i s Davy , Thesis Advisor, for his time and his precious pieces of

advice.

• Far id Humb lo t , Student at Edhec/Espeme, for the discussion we

have had.

• L . J . , Digital Planner in a large digital company, for the interview we

have had.

• Ol i Madget t , co-Founder of We R Interactive, for the discussions we

have had.

• J é rôme Rémin iac , ex-Head of New Media at TBWA\Auditoire, for

the interview we have had.

• Francesco Tosa to , Game Designer at wooga, for the discussions

we have had.

• Cé l ine Ver leure , Founder at Olfactive Studio, for the interview we

have had.

• Thorb jörn War in , ex-Head of Marketing at wooga, for the

interview we have had.

And also:

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“THE BEST W AY TO PRED ICT THE FUTURE

I S TO CREATE IT . ”

PETER DRUCKER

( 1 909 -2005 )

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INTRODUCTION

e a re a l l d ig i ta l b rand

s t ra teg i s t s . Wh i l e search ing fo r

a f l a t , a job or love , we do th i s

on the I n te rne t : no t expec t i ng a

d i rec t re sponse , bu t manag ing a

g loba l b rand image , i nvo l v i ng con tac t s ,

bu i l d i ng re la t ionsh ip s and show ing i n d i f f e ren t

spheres who we are . Beyond promoting ourselves, we will see here how to

do this with a real brand: an emotional relationship

between a product and its customer. A brand should

be recognizable and meaningful. Some might think the

digital medium is just another tool to communicate

the brand to the customer.

However, the digital medium itself opens a wide range

of opportunities. In a few years, no brand will be

communicating to consumers anymore, but with the

customer instead. This shift has been happening for a

few years and is turning advertising into a bi-

directional communication-relationship.

W

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Customers already communicate through brands. If

someone checks-in a Starbucks, s/he is communicating

another message compared to someone who is posing

with a McDonalds hamburger.

The whole issue is then to communicate through the

customer or the potential customer, trying to drive

dialogues and to enhance talkability, constantly giving

him/her the opportunity to be exposed to the brand

image, to enjoy a meaningful brand experience and

eventually to share brand content. Even though the

brand can orchestrate the customer, it will never own

him/her.

Throughout this thesis, we will try to ascertain

whether a company can manage its digital brand

strategy in-house or should call in a specialized

communication agency, and which kind of agency.

First, we will analyze the working atmosphere,

comparing the methods, the processes and the people

at the agency with those at the advertiser.

The next part will acknowledge that the digital

medium is much more complex than the other main

forms of advertising (film, radio, print, event, street).

Therefore, a communication campaign using a

complete set of different digital tools would deserve

the label “360° Digital”, just like one involving film,

radio, print, event, street and digital is currently called

“360°”.

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We will then focus on the future of gaming mechanics

in the advertising world, as well as in the world in

general.

This thesis explores the present and the attempts of

brands in the digital medium, which open

opportunities for talented people to shape them.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNO W LEDGEM ENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 INTRO DUCT IO N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 FO REW O RD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

PART 1 . HOW DO THEY WORK? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

1 . 1 . THE PEO PLE IN THERE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 1.1.1. Working Atmosphere ...................................................................................................... 20

1.1.2. Strategy Mindset ............................................................................................................... 23

1.1.3. Product Knowledge .......................................................................................................... 27

1 . 2 . THE CREAT IV ITY PATH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 1.2.1. Who Is The More Creative? ......................................................................................... 31

1.2.2. The Decision-Making Process ..................................................................................... 35

1.2.3. Relationship With ROI ................................................................................................... 38

WHO I S WHO? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

PART 2 . 360° D IGITAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

2 . 1 . THE CO NTENT I S IN THE HO USE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 2.1.1. The Corporate Website ................................................................................................. 47

2.1.2. Who Should Be The Community Manager? .......................................................... 48

2.1.3. Pushing & Pulling .............................................................................................................. 51

2 .2 . MASTER THE TO O LS F IRST ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 2.2.1. Community Management: Let The Conversations Start .................................. 56

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2.2.2. Social Media Advertising: Facebook Ads ............................................................... 58

2.2.3. Dedicated Websites: A Personal Experience ....................................................... 60

2.2.4. Viral Films ........................................................................................................................... 60

2.2.5. Mobile Apps: Brand Content At Your Fingertips ................................................ 65

2.2.6. Flashcodes: Connect To Real Life ............................................................................. 67

2.2.7. Captchas: To Transform The Existing Tools ........................................................ 69

WHO I S THE MO RE 360° . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1

PART 3 . THE GAME LAYER ON THE TOP OF THE ADVERT IS ING WORLD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

3 . 1 . IN-GAME ADVERT I S IN G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

3.1.1. The Old Schools ................................................................................................................ 78

3.1.2. The Social Era ................................................................................................................... 80

3.1.3. Which Structure? .............................................................................................................. 83

3 .2 . ADVERGAM IN G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: The Perfect Match ................................................................................ 85

3.2.2. “If You’re Going To Crash The Party, Bring Some Champagne” ................ 89

3.2.3. This Is Real Life ................................................................................................................ 91

3 .3 . THE GAMIF ICAT IO N OF THE WHO LE BUS INESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 3.3.1. Great Gaming Mechanics ............................................................................................. 94

3.3.2. Under Construction ........................................................................................................ 96

WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

CONCLUS ION & RECOMMENDATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

TABLE O F I L LUSTRAT IO N S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 L ITERATURE REV IEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1 APPEND ICES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 19

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Agency-people have different

mindsets than their clients.

Let us compare the atmosphere at

the advertiser with that at the agency

and see which process is the best fit

for which communication issue.

Who are the people in there?

What is creativity going through?

How are decisions made?

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1.1. THE PEOPLE IN THERE

Let us compare the workforce and methods of the agency with those of the

client (=advertiser). Pragmatism versus imagination? Fun versus formality?

Jeans versus ties? Some statements given are just clichés, other ones are

quite true, but are agency and advertiser people so different?

1.1.1. WORKING ATMOSPHERE

What i s a good work ing a tmosphere ?

Digital-communication-wise, a company offering a welcoming working

environment would be:

• All-ears to best practices

• Open to new ideas

• Not stuck in old-fashioned corporate offline communication

• Ambitious about its brand equity

• Stable enough to build a long-term strategy

• More into PowerPoint than Word

• More into Instant Messaging than Emails

• Understanding of the product and the communication tools.

Do we have more fun i n the agency ?

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comparing revenues after a few weeks should design the perfect data-

driven user funnel.

This is very easy to do in IT industries, as you can give two different users a

completely different version of your product, which can hardly be done for

a brick-and-mortar retailer. Amazon is commonly known as the inventor of

the A/B tests.

“We don’t mind testing a lot of weird ideas. At the

end of the day, numbers tell you how good your

idea was.”

Interview with Thorbjörn W.

Coming from Sweden, Thorbjörn Warin was hired

at wooga as the Head of

Marketing. He then moved

moved onto a new startup

in Berlin: Hitfox.

More and more companies do not try to understand facts any more, they

just run tests and figure out what to do next. This is the case of wooga, on

the startup landscape, but some advertisers from the old economy are

finding out the benefits of the “trial and error” method.

A/B tests are a very common thing to do in the IT industry. According to

Tim Harford, a British economist, this is spreading out to the whole of

society7.

7 Watch Tim Harford’s TED Talk, 2011: http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_harford.html

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In these situations, the advertiser does not need a bunch of surveys before

creating a campaign: one less field to take care of for the agency - one less

reason to be needed.

1.1.3. PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

We know what we are do ing

The advertiser’s marketing people work, have lunch and attend meetings

with their co-workers - the ones who make the products. They know about

every aspect of them, they know about improvements, potential new

products, they know about the strategy and the most valuable sectors to

target. They can see the product growing and often suggest improvements

to it.

“In some gaming companies, we really feel the

influence of the marketing department on the

products. Working close to each other is very

precious. The agency, on the other hand, doesn’t

usually come up with very relevant ideas of

improvement. But they come in with completely

fresh eyes!”


Advertisers know exactly what they are selling and whom they are selling it

to. They are not bothered by other accounts from other industries. At the

same time, they are less experienced at selling different kinds of products.

They know their market extremely well but are less in touch with trends on

the global market. Nowadays, almost any kind of product needs to be new!

Every product launched needs to be innovative and every old product needs

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to receive a new image once in a while. Sometimes these products are sold

by old industries, and in this specific case, the company needs to hire people

who are more up-to-date with the current trends - but not too much.

Over - t rendy peop le i n the agency ?

Agencies tend to apply a “winning” and “trendy” communication

recommendation to any kind of advertiser. This sometimes works, but

people from the agency sometimes become too comfortable with this and

think a magic recipe can work all the time. They want to be first to share a

set of photographs, possibly a day or two before the usual trendy blogs -

which their co-workers check daily - do. This unfortunately does not make

them efficient ad-men & ad-women. In reality, light painting + Facebook

connect + street art + blog activation does not result in an “epic

advertising win” all the time.

This is good for an agency to keep a constant eye on trends. It is a threat

for them to be too focused on “what’s hot” – for egocentric purposes - and

to forget about marketing basics: linking the product and the customer.

Agencies need both people with egocentric drivers (often juniors) and other

people with ROI and customer satisfaction drivers (often seniors).

This way, juniors will tend to be innovative and follow trends - for the heck

of it - and seniors will put this into the customer’s perspective - for the good

of the business. Agencies need to balance their workforce this way. A lot of

them do. Those who do not, do not stay alive for long, as advertisers can

not see any added value in asking them for digital communication

strategies.

D i f f e ren t Peop le , D i f f e ren t Areas o f Exper t i se

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• A woman is more likely to find benefits in lipsticks. In the illustration

below, secretaries from the fictional agency Sterling Cooper were

asked for inputs, as the Creative department was only run by men.

In addition, everyone feels very useful to the company and involved in a

final creation. In the end, feeling creative, even if one is not part of the

creative department, is very important, from an HR perspective.

…And a t the B ig Agency ?

Bigger agencies tend to be less flexible and to involve only the most

relevant people in the process. Reasons are simple:

• As there are more accounts, someone who would like to attend every

brainstorming would not have time for his/her regular job.

• As there are more employees, brainstormings would be very messy.

However, if you have heard about a project, nothing prevents you from

sharing an idea with the relevant people. This process is partly the reason

why Jérôme Réminiac believes what follows…

Source: AMC’s Mad Men (2007)

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“Some agencies with aging management are giving

very valuable communication advice, but are

bringing no added value on digital topics. Smaller

agencies are usually more dynamic and more

relevant to get involved with digital topics: their

consultants being digital natives.”

Inteview with Jérôme R.

Jérôme Réminiac was the

founder of the New Media

department at TBWA\Auditoire.

He has now moved to

freelancing projects.

1.2.3. RELATIONSHIP WITH ROI14

Pragmeat i v i t y a t some adver t i se r s

In ROI-oriented companies which do not need advertising agencies,

creativity is only a nice-to-have bonus: pragmatism being a more valuable

competence.

“In our field of advertising, creativity is important,

but if it comes down to a creative person or an

analytic person, I would rather hire an analytical

person. It is fun making assumptions, but in the end,

data will always tell you where to go. So it’s good

14 ROI = Return On Investment

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WHO IS WHO?

Advertisers may have the knowledge - agencies have to know how. At this

point, a few things are obvious:

• Old-fashioned companies need small and dynamic digital agencies or

independent consultants to carry out their digital strategies.

• Modern companies can either hire an agency or build a whole digital

communication department with disruptive people, who are getting

the right budget (as La Redoute did).

• Old-fashioned agencies need to hire persons who understand the

digital landscape.

• Startups do not need (and can not afford) anyone.

It all is a matter of culture and flexibility. Would this mean that

entrepreneurs and small companies are better able to do business?

Here is a comparative SWOT chart summing up this first part. This shows

Strength and Weaknesses of In-house employees in carrying out a digital

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brand strategy. The second part shows Opportunities and Threats in

outsourcing to advertising agencies.

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The digital medium is so rich and important

that no brand can possibly do without it.

Let us announce it: a communication

campaign can be called “360°”, even

though it is 100% digital. In fact,

the digital media are plural.

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2.1. THE CONTENT IS IN THE HOUSE

A brand has to be present on every relevant digital medium and to deliver

its message in a specific way, but it is not about focusing on the tool. From

the in-house perspective, the corporate culture is the most important, as it

helps to bring brand content.

2.1.1. THE CORPORATE WEBSITE

Conten t i s K ing

In a corporate website, a user-friendly interface and some well-written

content are very important, but it is not only about a campaign or a

smooth shopping experience. A corporate website’s main strength is its

opportunity of giving valuable information. The content is king and the

advertiser knows this better than anyone else.

The O ld - fa sh ioned Ones are Not So Demand ing

Old-school advertisers will believe they absolutely do not need advertising

agencies to write content for them. They know their company better than

anyone else and they disagree with the saying “It’s not what you say, it’s

how you say it”.

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Either not asking professionals or buying very bad work from one, led until

a few years ago to really bad websites, precisely for brands that are worth

a lot more, and deserve a lot better.

The New Coo l K id s Know How To Do I t

SEO16, Inverted Pyramid17, fast-browsing, user funnel, social features, …

some people know these words, some do not. Hiring people who do and

are used to making good corporate websites is always useful, even in the

B2B area. Yet, these competences do not have to be at the agency, as

creativity is really limited on these kinds of jobs. Internalizing web designers

and content writers is totally fine: their decisions would not lose much of

their meaning going though validation processes - while creative insights

might. The main reason why editorial agencies exist and have work is

mainly because of the lack of dedicated workforce at the advertiser’s.

2.1.2. WHO SHOULD BE THE COMMUNITY MANAGER?

At the Agency : a P ro fe s s iona l

New jobs such as community management evolve within agencies, as

conversations are about innovative tools.

Digital agencies are specialized and the community manager has been

present for a few years already. Over time, agencies have tended to offer

more and more permanent contracts.

16 SEO = Search Engine Optimization 17 Inverted Pyramid = Web writing technique enabling efficient user-catching and an enhanced

user-experience

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2.2. MASTER THE TOOLS FIRST!

The content is king, and the king of content is in-house, but what would

great content be without the right tools to wrap it, diffuse it and even sell

it? If advertisers can usually deal themselves with content, agencies remain

the kings of the tools. Let us analyze what a 360° digital approach could

involve.

2.2.1. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT: LET THE CONVERSATIONS START

V i ra l i t y

Virality is not just a buzzword for qualifying YouTube lolcats22 or a lot of

senseless retweets. Virality can be orchestrated for communication

purposes; you only have to add a secret ingredient called talkability23 to

your master recipe!

22 A portmanteau from "lol" (laughing out loud) and "cats". This defines a YouTube trend,

because the most watched and shared videos involve cats in funny situations. 23 Ability for a story, film, campaign or brand to be shared and talked about. This factor is

essential in today’s advertising landscape.

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Below are the key performance indicators for one campaign managed by

the agency Buzzman for Tipp-Ex24 “a hunter shoots a bear” (2010). These

KPIs are all about sharing, the creative key being talkability.

Almost any product can be sold and benefit from a great digital

advertisement. Buzzman did it for Tipp-Ex, apparently rather boring

products (correction fluids, pens or tapes). Another KPI – the ROI – was

also very positive, as sales increased considerably a few weeks after the

launch of the ad: 30% up, compared to the previous back-to-school period.

24 Tipp-Ex is a brand from the Société Bic (France). The « a hunter shoots a bear » campaign

will remain an innovative best practice and still earns awards (in fall 2011).

Source: Buzzman’s case study (2011)

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Talkability can also be sustained from the offline side25, but will always take

place online.

I n f l uence

This is also a key competence at advertising agencies. Relationships with

influencers are very valuable, and agencies often have to organize fairly

expensive events or clever set-ups to perhaps obtain a blog post about a

product launch, for instance. This is called, activation or influence. As

advertisers typically do not have enough ideas, do not have contacts, did

not identify best practices and do not have time for influence purposes; an

agency is therefore totally indispensable.

2.2.2. SOCIAL MEDIA ADVERTISING: FACEBOOK ADS

The P lace to Be ?

Facebook Ads are known to be the most valuable and best targetable

advertising solution, in almost any industry, not exclusively online, but in the

whole physical world.

In the other hand, Facebook ads constitute with flash banners the not-so-

noble and not-so-creative side of digital communication. Consequently, if

one wants to bring traffic to a website from a dedicated audience, Social

Media Advertising is the right thing to use, but activities which require more

commitment, and a less direct call-to-action probably will not always opt

for Facebook ads. 25 This operation from BMW China was very unexpected, but a bit awkward. The media

coverage was negative as the culture is not used to very disruptive advertising techniques, the

audience did not appreciate being orchestrated: http://www.bmwblog.com/2011/08/31/bmws-

crop-circle-marketing-campaign-confuses-chinese-media/

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“The vaguer the action, the more creativity is

required in its marketing. We only require simple

action.”


This quote appears in this thesis for the second time - but it is worth being

highlighted twice.

The End o f Demograph i c s

Targeting an audience according to their beliefs, behavior, connections,

likes and interests is totally new in the advertising landscape and goes far

beyond typical demographics. According to Johanna Blakley26, “shared

interests and values are a far more powerful aggregator of human beings

than demographic categories. I’d much rather know whether you like Buffy

26 The Deputy Director of the Norman Lear Center (California, USA).

Source: Johanna Blakley on TED (2010)

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The product not being present at all in the movie, only the advertising

world noticed that Absolut produced it. Specialized blogs talked about it,

but the video was then shared just like any other beautiful and well-

produced short movie. Of course, outcomes in terms of sales will not be

worthwhile – but is not a KPI for this kind of campaign. However, the

results in terms of brand image are not even guaranteed.

J u s t L i ke the Other Ones

Commercials that are alike are not new in advertising industry. However, to

a certain extent, brands blend into the trend and lose their identity:

consumers forget about a strong brand image and just see the same trendy

films.

A poem, catchy and fast-paced pictures showing youth and energy,

products all through the movie without them being really noticeable, a

“duty” tagline and a pure logo in the end. It seems that Nike29 and Levi’s30

29 Cf. Nike’s commercial “Vive le football libre” (January 2011): http://vimeo.com/18911762

(French) & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH06ltXfhvA (English) 30 Cf. Levi’s commercial “Go forth“ (June 2011): http://vimeo.com/27525961

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have found a winning technique there: it indeed guarantees them a lot of

exposure.

However, their respective agencies (Leg Agency, W+K) were of course

aware of the power of these short films, but they were probably not afraid

of losing some brand uniqueness in the long run.

Adidas Originals31 somehow played on the same field, which has been

confirmed by Magic Garden Agency, on its own fanpage.

This mindset can be held for a while, but will most likely lose effect over

time. Worse still, it may make the brand equity weaker, because of troubles

for the target to recognize the brand amongst all the other ones

31 Cf. Adidas commercial "all originals” (September 2011):

http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=B5-fFNMXiLU

Source: Magic Garden Agency’s fanpage

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2.2.7. CAPTCHAS: TO TRANSFORM THE EXISTING TOOLS

A captcha is a little box that asks users to type what they can see in an

image in order to verify there are not robots. See a typical example below.

Examples of captchas - Source: Public Domain

Over time, some other forms of captchas have been seen. Sometimes, you

had to answer a very easy question or solve a very simple operation, which

actually made it interactive. Users had to pay attention to this “2+3”

operation – mixed into random curves and rings in order to confuse robots

– and finally type 5 into the text field.

This might soon be taken over by advertising37 – it was crazy leaving this

attention and engagement unused for so long – here as well with some

gaming mechanics, to put a minimum amount of fun into it.

As shown below38, the user has to interact with a brand in order to enter

the website, either by just typing a slogan (engaging and memorizable), or

by playing a mini-mini-game interacting with an image.

37 Source: http://www.techi.com/2010/04/captcha-advertising-coming-soon-to-a-website-near-

you/ 38 Examples from the provider http://www.adscaptcha.com/ (based in New York) for the

advertiser Philips.

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Adcaptcha’s business development seems oriented to agencies, as they may

want big brands to advertise, they want their agency to pitch this idea first.

Agencies are a great intermediary when it comes to canvassing something

innovative for the company.

Source: Adscaptcha.com (2011)

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WHO IS THE MORE 360°?

The right content without the right tools will not reach the right audience.

However, the best tools with no content are just empty Twitter accounts.

Of course, both have to evolve hand-in-hand: clients have to surround

themselves with social-media-aware people. Agencies and consultants need

to understand communication issues beyond the scope of the tools.

“The social networks do not have a good image

with advertisers. I would say small agencies and

freelancers are the best ones at understanding the

marketing impact of a great Facebook strategy.

This has to be explained to the advertisers.”

Interview with Jérôme R.

72

Lots of banks39 have now made it possible to open an account via Twitter.

They were most likely advised by a consultant or an agency to make it

possible and known.

However, if community managers are needed for debugging or customer

care issues, changes have to be followed up quickly by product managers,

and community managers need to have a deep understanding of how

products are made. Therefore, gaming companies or e-business websites

need to hire in-house community managers. No matter how large they are,

it matters how large their userbase is – and it often is indeed large.

The advertiser had better use an autonomous agency but must be willing to

communicate with the people in there on a daily basis, delivering

information, validating their communication choices but also reacting

quickly to their feedback from the community feeling.

If the advertiser plans on communicating via the digital medium over the

long term, then they might consider hiring a creative, autonomous and

experienced person to carry out 360° projects. This person should then be

able to have an influence on the company’s product. The top management

indeed tends to trust agencies rather than in-house people, and in-house

people tend to pitch fewer out-of-the-box ideas than an external

workforce.

“Clients have become much more aware of the

importance of digital marketing, even more so in

the last few years - as we can see in the shift in how

marketing budgets are allocated.

39 At least Bnp Paribas or La Caisse d’Epargne in France, many more all over the world.

73

“But most of the big clients - with aging

management - still need to be advised on the best

way for them to use digital and that knowledge

comes from agencies.

“The agency expertise can vary a lot as well: the

traditional agencies may not know enough about

digital to come up with the best social media

strategy, and some digital agencies do not have in-

house technical knowledge to make a good mobile

app, for example.

“However, it is not rare to have 3 or 4 creative

agencies working for the same client: 1 main ATL40

agency which is responsible for the main brand

strategy, a digital agency, a direct agency and

possibly a small keen start-up mobile specialist

added in if the digital agency is too expensive.”

Interview with L.J.

The following comparative SWOT chart aims to sum up this second part,

showing how helpful and harmful can in-house or outsourcing solutions be,

in the scope of how they use the whole set of digital communication tools.

40 ATL for Above The Line: an advertising strategy targeting mass media to deliver messages to

a large and mainstream audience - typically an offline TV + Radio campaign - while BTL (Below

The Line) investments are usually less expensive and their ROI is much more accurately

mesurable - typically a 100% digital campaign.

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Games and gaming mechanics

are playing a bigger and bigger

role in advertising campaigns.

Beyond this, a whole “gamification”

of the business is happening.

Will advertisers need agencies to

make this “mutation” happen?

Seth Prietsbach’s TED talk (which will be introduced in this 3rd part)

called “The game layer on the top of the world”

has to be given credit for the title of this part.

85

3.2. ADVERGAMING

Any advertising operation that aims to fool the consumer will be a serious

failure in the long run, if not also in the short run. Lots of advergames are

in the form of a Facebook application, gathering personal data and trying

to “make the buzz happen”, but simply moving a canvas from a website to

Facebook does not make a game “social”.

Some other developers or agencies advocate respectful gaming mechanics

and end up offering a quality brand experience.

3.2.1. I AM PLAYR: THE PERFECT MATCH

I AM PLAYR is a game on Facebook which is about living a footballer’s life,

literally through his own eyes, as it mixes game sequences, with POV47 film

sequences.

An Innovat ion

What the British developer We R Interactive has done with I AM PLAYR48

(2011) is to make it fun to play, and moreover to make it fun to play with

brands.

47 POV for Point Of View. Movie technique showing what the character is looking at. 48 Know more about the game: http://www.contagiousmagazine.com/2010/11/i_am_playr.php

Play the game: http://Facebook.com/iamplayr

86

This game is definitely fun, disruptive and innovative. Even though it does

not look like any other social game, several characteristics definitely make it

a social game:

• It is more fun to play with friends

• You can purchase virtual items with real money

• It has daily rewards

• It is evolving and has an undefined lifetime

• Users evolve along with their avatar.

89

Without losing any fun at all, the player visits Nike stores with his girlfriend,

and he has to struggle to get a sponsorship contract with Nike – his agent

puts pressure on him to score in key games and become famous.

To make the user interact a lot with the Alfa Romeo brand, for instance,

one has to select one by one the desired options for the car, as shown

above.

All this brand content is put into a very high quality game, with customized

film sequences. The product placements are not annoying any more,

because the consumer is respected, with expensive design.

3.2.2. “IF YOU’RE GOING TO CRASH THE PARTY, BRING SOME CHAMPAGNE”

Respec t the Consumer

This is a very popular saying amongst agency people. The French agency

Buzzman has made it one of its mottos, acknowledging anyone a brand

tries to interact with, should enjoy a high-quality experience.

This was originally a quote from Bob Thacker, senior VP – Marketing &

Advertising at OfficeMax: “The secret is respecting the consumer. You are

interrupting their life. All advertising is unwanted, so if you’re going to crash

the party, bring some champagne with you”.

The right moment, the right medium and the right message are not enough:

a very good production and the right moment is necessary to “borrow”

some attention from the target.

Respecting users by building quality gaming mechanics into a brand

message is starting to be a standard for the industry as it shows great

involvement behaviors. However, this mindset currently is only wide-spread

90

within agencies. The “a hunter shoots a bear” Tipp-Ex campaign

(mentioned earlier) is an excellent example of this51.

This philosophy goes against all the traditional above-the-line agencies

selling mainstream products by interrupting the consumers during their…

• TV program: film

• Radio program: audio

• Way to work / Way home: billboards

• Information gathering: press

• Internet browsing: banners, pre-rolls, pop-ups.

Here, the consumer chooses to consume the product, which makes the

message considerably stronger, and the brand much more memorizable.

Hopefully, advertising will not be seen as an annoyance again, in the next

few years.

The Ro le o f the Agency

Advertising agencies can certainly reach out to game developers, like

publishers, to get their client’s brand into a game mechanic. However, as

this does not require being embedded in any further communication set-up,

the client can just skip the agency step and go ask the publisher directly.

There are only two prerequisites:

• Knowing about these new advertising spaces and being able to

identify the right support for the desired digital brand strategy

• “Bringing the champagne” instead of being stuck to a short-term ROI

objective.

51 More details in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Community Management > Virality

91

Of course, the agency is able to fulfill those requirements, but if a company

is aware of these objectives, has sufficient skills in-house and has regular

needs, it is perfectly imaginable that it will skip the cost of an agency.

3.2.3. THIS IS REAL LIFE

Get the Targe t to P lay , Then Se l l Au then t i c i t y

The following talk by Jesse Schell - a very influential Game Designer -

(2010) is about how brands manage to get their target into the virtual

world, for the “real” world to feel even better. The strategic insight is

actually about reality, according to this talk (from 10’30’’): in other words,

this is an authenticity driver.

This also gives a short overview of how important the gaming industry is. In

addition, there is a hypothesis about gaming and competition dynamics

becoming closer and closer to our lives, at least in the Western world.

Par t o f L i f e

Good games bring an actual service to their players. It is thus only a matter

of time until they get a brand to enjoy it – and pay the developers, as did

94

3.3.1. GREAT GAMING MECHANICS

The Da i l y Appo in tment

In social games, this takes the form of a daily reward: every consecutive day

you log into the game gets you a better gift, so you do not want to miss a

day, otherwise you will get back to a small gift. This daily appointment

makes the game (brand) part of users’ (consumers’) lives.

For business, it can be used in pop-up stores for instance. Showing up at a

certain time, between certain dates, allows you to either meet a star,

receive free samples, get to know exclusive brand content or find help for

your current issues55.

Geo loca t ion

This has been used since geolocation was made possible, starting for

instance with Geocaching, back in 200056. In communication, this takes the

form of city quests, war games, exclusive retailing57 or Coupons: several

startups indeed offer deals via geolocation.

The Uncer ta in Reward 58

The uncertain reward is known for being enlightening. Studies have shown

that being unclear about the aim of an action produces greater results than

when it is about a known reward.

55 « Mes colocs »’s pop-up store in the heart of Paris, helping future flatmates to meet and deal

with paperwork. See in 360° Digital > Master the tools first! > Viral films > Web-series 56 For more information : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocaching 57 See vitaminwater France’s iPhone App (by \Auditoire, 2009) 58 See Marketing Science/Vol.22, No.4, Fall 2003 > The Effects of Effort and Intrinsic Motivation

on Risky Choice > Intrinsic Motivation as a Moderator of the Impact of Effort on Preferred

Rewards > The Role of Intrinsic Motivation: Discussion (p.487):

http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/centers/mks/articles/51d0762ea0_article.pdf as well as Tom

Chatfield’s (Gaming theorist) TED talk (2010): http://tiny.cc/tom-chatfiled-ted-talk

95

This is used a lot in community management: when a brand is organizing a

mini-contest, users become more involved when it does not say specifically

what is to be won.

The b inary ca l l - to -ac t ion

Source: Tipp-Ex Experience on YouTube (2010)

Using the same uncertain

reward mechanic, the same

way, the opposite campaign

shows a binary choice at the

end of a teaser video. This

involves an uncertain end,

which is much more

appealing than one simple “continue the experience” call-to-action button.

This minimum amount of gaming dynamics still participates a lot in making

a promotional message both successful and respectful to its users.

“Leve l Up ! ”

In business, badges

were widely used by

Foursquare first

(2009), and a lot of

other actors have

been following this

trend, which makes it

die by itself – or will

have done so by the

time this document is

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WHO WILL MASTER THE GAME?

The Targe t Sh i f t

A typical social games paying player is a 43-year-old woman, not a 15-year-

old boy63.

The usage of the web has shifted in the last few of years from consuming

content to creating and sharing content. On a medium where self-esteem

within a semi-private audience is a more important driver than ever,

sharing positive results – in any game – is a strong motivation to spread

brand content.

Brands should acknowledge this shift, as users have already done. Agencies

are communication professionals, experienced in target definition, who

seem to be more able to drive the change. However, very pragmatic and

63 Commonly known fact in the gaming industry. Read more about it (2011):

http://www.slideshare.net/ctrottier1/designing-games-for-the-43yearold-woman/

100

disruptive advertisers such as small companies in a new market can totally

surprise everyone and innovate in this area.

Adver t i se r + Agenc ie s + Gaming Company

In addition to their dynamics, game designers should really be watched by

the whole economy as their business models usually are very valuable and

their marketing techniques are most of the time very efficient and

innovative.

Gaming companies are therefore the first ones to efficiently build on this

game layer. It is very strategic for marketing people to observe gaming-

people and perhaps to do business with them.

Just like almost every new trending topic, agency-people are typically more

aware of it and keener to make unusual partnerships than in-house people.

Here as well, startups or flexible companies can easily do it efficiently if they

want to. The future of advertising-people depends on what the gaming-

people are currently inventing. Let us get into the game.

The following comparative SWOT highlights that both advertisers and

traditional advertising agencies surprisingly do not know a lot about

gaming yet.

Just like TV in the 60’s, the web in the 90’s, the social media in the 00’s, the

advertising will most likely take a while before integrating this trend of the

decade to come. Its reactivity is exemplary within the whole economy,

though. What is for sure is that first 360° to integrate gaming layers in their

campaign recommendations will soon master the game, alongside their

clients.

101

This chart shows that agencies need to integrate gaming mechanics – not

only a minimum amount of it – in order to keep providing an added value

to their clients.

104

CONCLUSION & Recommendations

o s t b rand managers ca l l i ng on

adver t i s i ng agenc ie s to ac t on the

d ig i ta l med ium , do not do i t fo r

d i rec t sa le s bu t fo r a b rand image

purpose 64. I f i t i s no t fo r repu ta t ion , i n -

house t ra f f i c managers , fo r i n s tance ,

mon i tor ROI da ta more e f f i c i en t l y .

“No agency can do user acquisition as well as we

do it. But my department would not be good at

building a brand.”


Partly for the reason described above, 50% of

brands employ social-media dedicated people65. This

does not mean they do not ask agencies to work

with them, but it still implies that brands give a

growing credit to their digital strategy. 64 Source: Marketing Magazine UK (2011): http://marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/1098242/Brands-

social-media-long-term-investment-finds-study/ 65 Source: New Media Age (2011): http://www.nma.co.uk/news/half-of-brands-employ-dedicated-

social-media-staff/3030935.article

M

105

There is work to do for these people, as they

currently are not present enough for members of

their communities on social networks. Too few

complaints and questions are solved (29% on

Twitter66, 5% on Facebook67).

It is the agency’s job to advise their clients on

reaching out to their customers. But, once this

educational work is over, it is the advertiser’s job to

interact with its communities.

Below is a summary of strengths, weaknesses of

advertisers in managing their own digital brand

strategy, and of the opportunities and threats of

outsourcing it to an advertising agency.

66 The Drum (2011): http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2011/10/13/71-companies-ignore-consumer-

complaints-twitter 67 Source: Social Bakers (2011): http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/8149-companies-respond-to-just-

5-of-questions-on-facebook

107

Of course, the final advice on whether one should

outsource one’s strategy depends on the

advertiser’s size, budget and objectives, but it also

depends on the agency’s evolution.

In a digital world in which everyone has control

over everything, agencies need to progress by

integrating competences from the startups’ universe,

the gaming universe and the high-tech business

universe.

Advertisers also need to evolve and hire more

managers with advertising backgrounds, which is

helpful when keeping smooth process and good

relationships with agencies.

This shift is exciting. Not everyone will be part of it.

108

“ I T I S NO T THE STRO NGEST O F THE SPEC IES THAT SURV IVES ,

NO R THE MO ST INTELL IGENT THAT SURV IVES .

I T I S THE O NE THAT I S THE MO ST ADAPTABLE TO CHANGE . ”

CHARLES DARW IN

( 1 809 - 1 882 )

digital brand strategy - ugo orlando

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