Sharing leads to purchasing

Last night in my networking group, we got into a discussion of content rights and how companies are trying to protect themselves from unauthorized sharing (ala YouTube). Several people, including myself, made the argument that with the staggering amount of content available these days (online, radio, TV, cable, theater, video, mobile, etc) it's impossible for people to find content the old-fashioned way. We're often told about it by a friend. Given the right push, we can become serious consumers of this content but it sometimes takes a little bit of free content.

Today, I had lunch with an old friend and we were chuckling about how, sometimes, a whiff of something at a restaurant will take us back to our food service days (sometimes grossing us out). He sent me this hilariously relevant video, "Waiters Who Are Nauseated By Food."

I was almost in tears it's so funny, and at the end, I read some of the comments and found my proof of how a bit of free content can spawn a purchase.

Problem is, people aren't necessarily purchasing the content companies might want them to. The content actually has to be good and desirable. Maybe that's why many companies don't mind getting a little "free" publicity on YouTube. They know their users will spread the word, get hooked, and purchase. It's the ones with crappy content that should be worried.

By the way, remember what people said about cable back in the day? That people would never pay for television when they could get it for free. But they did pay. Then they said people wouldn't pay if there weren't any commercials. But they kept paying. People pay because cable has the best content. Ultimately, quality is all that matters.

Analyze THIS

A few years ago, everyone knew they need an online presence. Companies started taking their offline marketing budget and throwing it online marketing. Web agencies flourished and big ad agencies scrambled to make alliances with smaller web companies to outsource the work to.

All marketing departments were getting the directive:
Put up a website, make some banner ads, get the top search engine ranking, send some emails. "Hell, send a LOT of emails."

Last year it went more like this:
Do some promotions, put up some mini-sites, make banner ads to promote the mini-site, do viral marketing. "Hell, does anyone even know what viral marketing is?"

What marketers like about the web is that you can track user behavior. They like being able to say that a million people watched their video on YouTube. And it does indicate a higher level of interest than say, a million people seeing your billboard on Wilshire Blvd. However, it doesn't tell you much more than that. You don't know why they watched it, whether they sent it to a friend, what they said in the email to that friend, or whether (ultimately) they're more likely to be a customer.

Think of it like a car lot. You've got cars sitting there and people drive by. Sometimes they stop. Sometimes they park get out, come into the office, tell the salesman what kind of car they want to buy and actually drive off the lot with it. Would you attribute any of that behavior to your sign on the side of the road? No.

Would you want to know the background of each customer with the product - their exposure, beliefs and feelings - AND the exact details of their conversation your salesperson? The ones who bought, the ones who said they'd come back and the ones who showed no interest? Yes!

So the web has given marketers a lot of exposure and a bunch of numbers, and even some interaction. How many people just drove by. How many stopped. How many bought cars. Unfortunately, it isn't telling them very much about their marketing and they know it. Now, the marketers' bosses want to know "What's our ROI on web marketing?" because they've been told that everything can be tracked. But it's not like they could ever measure their ROI BEFORE on billboards, print ads, radio and TV commercials.

So analytics becomes very scientific. You have to form hypothesis - known as use cases - what do you think people are going to do? Track it, find out. Make educated guesses as to what's happening. Tweak it and track it again. See, analytics aren't to show ROI, analytics are to improve your offering to your customer. Analytics are what brings the marketer into the user lifecycle.

What makes a video campaign viral?

Just started the new job I'm not afraid anymore. But I am excited! The CEO came by my desk and we chatted about video campaigns. He showed a couple of successful (in terms of views) examples in the Monday Meeting. But what makes content virally successful? Is it just the entertainment value? Or does it matter where it's hosted? Are people more likely to watch a video on YouTube than on a corporate site? While people know that they're watching professionally produced content on You Tube much of the time, I think there's a thrill in the fact that they "found" it.

One of the funniest videos I've seen is an interactive video for Coke Zero (think Subservient Chicken). I only saw it because a friend of mine is the actor in it and forwarded to me. Otherwise, I've heard nothing about it and it's never been forwarded to me. Because it's interactive, it can't be hosted on YouTube but it's amazing to me how often I see a lot of production going into a concept but the whole "viral" component is completely missing. How did they intend for this video to circulate?

I think companies think these things just magically become viral. They don't. There's too much content on the Web for things to just be found. You have to get the ball rolling yourself. Then, if it's entertaining, relevant and accessible, it might become viral. Or not. Entertainment is not an exact science and more than ever, people want to be entertained.

An example of a site with crazy functionality but very bad exposure was to advertise The Simpsons. The contest was to create a trailer for their Halloween special using provided video clips, audio effects and music. The online editor was pretty good, not terribly accurate, but good enough to hook me. I spent several hours after work one day creating my trailer. Then what? I couldn't find it. I couldn't send it to a friend to rate it. I entered my email address but never received an email! I didn't even get a notice that the contest had ended. Nothing.

Too often, companies are sold on a cool idea but someone forgets to make it relevant (see my earlier post Faking It) or viral. To see an example of simple and really effective content, check out Church Sign Generator. I first got this on Friendster (before MySpace!) several years ago and it was just the first design shown. This obviously isn't selling anything, but can you see how this concept could?