cgm

Deck the Halls With Consumer Generated Multi-Media (CGM2)

Just got my first-ever "personalized" video holiday greeting.  David Spark, who I first met at an event in Seattle, and who I haven't heard from in awhile, used the wonders of Facebook video to reach out!  I was skeptical at first (I assumed video-spam was coming my way about some self-serving marketing event or conference) but it was a good old fashioned "hope you are doing well" greeting with a personal touch. Now, I just noticed that David has exactly 563 friends on Facebook.  If he does this for everyone, I'll really be impressed. Thanks, David!   And a happy holiday to you as well.

Ken Burns, World War II, Dad, and the Untapped CGM Treasure Chest

I've yet to produce a wildly entertaining or viral video on YouTube, but that's hardly the point in most of my own CGM2 (consumer-generated multi-media) endeavors.  Like millions of others on the web, I'm creating content that is meaningful and significant to me, and perhaps to my circle of familiars (friends and family).  Over the past four years, I've been diligently recording hours and hours of interviews with my parents, empowered in no small measure by the proliferation of CGM2 tools, from Apple's iMovie to YouTube.  Every conversation counts, it's painful and unnerving to admit.  My mother is in the early stages of Alzheimers, and every video interview seems to reveal a gradual decline in her condition.  My father, now 83, has far better memory, but he recently underwent surgery for colon cancer and he's he's clearly showing age and fatigue. 

When I first read about Ken Burns producing a documentary on World War II -- an endeavor motivated by the realization that my father's World War II generation is passing away at an alarming rate -- it was hard not to find myself thinking about the dozens of stories my father has shared about World War II.  I've always been infatuated with those stories, and I'm far from finished recording them for the permanent digital record.  While my father was fortunate  enough to escape combat (barely), his stories, nevertheless, have always captured my imagination, and they have served as wonderful fodder for deeper conversation on a range of topics.  One story I always loved, captured in this recently produced video (timed with the first segment of Ken Burns documentary) recounts how my Godfather Al Dole (who I regrettably only met once or twice) constructed, while stationed in India with my father, a modern concrete pool in the middle of the jungle.  The pool apparently served as a special secret "escape"  for my fathers friends who spent two years in India servicing large planes headed over the Himilayas to China.  The pool, as my father recounts, was one of the few joys he and his friends experienced during his three or so years of service.  Here's my father telling the story:

My All-Time Favorite CGM

Today my wonderful twins Liam and Leila celebrate their second birthday.  Dos anos for Dos Bebes!  Although I'm frequently stereotyped an an "industry expert" on CGM, I actually take far greater pride in being a "consumer" or "parental" expert in CGM.  The CGM that is most meaningful to me (as well as to my wife Erika) is what I do in my personal time, creating online photo albums, building iTune baby-tune playlists, creating baby-video mashups, and of course, building my Dos Bebes blog. The good news is that all this practice and experience, and ensuing gratification, makes the marketing side of the equation all the more obvious and intuitive.  Although I work for a large market research firm, I don't really need an ROI analysis to connect the dots on why "the age of participation" is taking root.  I, and millions of parents, are doing all this with the frequency of changing diapers.  Anyway, in celebration of Dos Bebes birthday, I thought I would share my all-time favorite piece of CGM dedicated to the twins. 

My Favorite Video Questions from the CNN/YouTube Debate

Great use of home spun humor to get the point across.

Great use of ironic juxtaposition?  Why can't we create a voting system that's as simple as ordering a latte at Starbucks?

Great example of a destabilizing question you'd only get through a format like this, to wit: "Would you work for minimum wage?" 

The wonder of CGM is that it can blossom from any place, any location, any source?  Here's an onsite question related to the situation in Darfur.

Part of what makes CGM so compelling is its sense of authenticity.  Does anyone doubt this person's story?

The CNN/YouTube Debate Kicks Off

Here I am watching the CNN/YouTube presidential debate on our home TV while a stream of real-time blog entries gush out in front my laptop.  The conversation is truly alive, and it's a truly fascinating real-time experience. Here's a sample of the debate flow. 

Apple Wastes No Time In Exploiting Early iPhone Buzz & Testimonials

Why is it important to stay three steps ahead of early buzz?  Because every conversation -- every review, every post, every love letter or nasty-gram -- is material to your marketing strategy.  No one needs to send that memo to Apple computer, which continues to ride an unprecedented wave of pre-launch buzz/CGM around the iPhone.  Take a look at this morning's Apple.com startpage.  The centerpiece of the page is a list of all the positive reviews the brand has received around the iPhone -- from David Pogue of the New York Times, Walter Mosberg of the Wall Street Journal, USA Today's Edward Baig, and others.  Put simple, the brand is exploiting early buzz to drive further momentum.  Importantly, all of these media "influencers" have a material impact of broader conversation by other bloggers, and we're seeing an unprecedented number of links by top bloggers to these early reviews.  Key takeway: always stay close to the pulse of early feedback.  If it's working for you, don't hide it! 

Apple and the Website:  The other key point here is the extent to which Apple makes effective use of it's website.  If you carefully analyze Apple's buzz going as far back as the iPod and Video iPod, you'll note that the brand website has been a powerful ally in providing 'social currency" to buzz-makers and CGM creators.  Put another way, the site gets a huge number of links from bloggers, forum operators, and others. Moreover, the relevant content is always easy to find, easy to share, and often prominently featured during ideal time periods -- e.g. the start page featuring positive reviews.  Key Takeaway: Marketers still have control, and your brand website, if executed smartly, can be your best ally.

Want a Bigger Bite of the Apple?  Later today, I'm co-hosting a webinar entitled "iPhone Mania: Sales Leading Indicator or Evangelistic Hype?."  Starts at 12:30 PM today EST.  Sign up here.

More Consumer-Fortified Media: David Pogue's iPhone Video

Here's another great example of CFM, or Consumer-Fortified Media.  In this case, it's a New York Time's produced a video, placed on YouTube, featuring technology columnist David Pogue recapping his early "review" of the iPhone -- this on top of his written review.  What gives the video lift -- and exposure, and high ranking on lists or search engines -- is the "conversation" that wraps around the video.  As of this morning, this was one of the most linked to videos in the blogosphere.  Again, it's FORTIFIED by consumers. It even now has video responses, many of whom, undoubtedly, will attempt to "one-up" the NY Times expert with their own reactions. Also, worth noting that "influencers" like David Pogue play a key role in this stage of a product launch, and this is probably a point not lost on the folks at the New York Times. 

Can "Complaint Letter 2.0" Benefit From A Few Good TV Copy Insights?

This piece of CGM2 (consumer-generated multi-media) to well worth a peek, but not for the obvious reasons.  Frankly, I'm just not persuaded or convinced the complaint itself warrants a such a high production effort, and maybe that's in part because I just can't identify with the painpoint in the same way that thousands of consumers identified with the pre-YouTube Niestat brother's IPodsDirtySecret, which parodied the early iPod's painfully frustrating battery problem.  Nor can others, it seems, given the dearth of YouTube views and comments on the Cingular spot (relative to other service-gone-bad viral blockbusters.) 

What impressed me most was the degree to which the creator, Justin Calloway (I know his name because he reached out to me, and probably other bloggers as well), took the creative process to an entirely new level.  The video looks like a resume supplement to a job application for Disney Animation studios; he's quite good, and his work reflects the degree to which the line between professional ad man and amateur satirist is being blurred by  "better, faster, cheaper"  tools.  Calloway clearly has a bone to pick with Cingular, but the far bigger point to emphasize is that the site he created to exercise his feedback moment is better looking -- and dare I say, easier to use -- than most corporate websites.  Consumers have certainly come a very long way since the days of clunky product enthusiast sites like my own HybridBuzz.com, which chronicled my up-down-up experience with a hybrid car.   Indeed, since the time I founded PlanetFeedback.com, an early CGM "informediary" (that was the term du jour back then) that helps consumers send letters thousands of companies and brands including  wireless companies like Cingular, I've witnessed an almost mind-boggling shift in how consumers get their point across.  Not every complaint leaving a digital trail across the web is credible, but there's no question the content creators are starting to perfect the same art of persuasion, emotional bonding, and creative imagery my father (an ad man from what me might call "Golden Era" of TV advertising) perfected during his career.  Video in particular notches up the net impact of what we might dub "Complaint Letter 2.0" for the same reason TV has worked so well over the year: reason-to-believe & benefit visualization (remember the Bounty paper towels side-by-side), dramatic effect, and emotional bonding. 

Which leads me back to Justin's video.  I actually think Justin would have scored more views (he's got about 3000 so far) on YouTube if his video better internalized these core building blocks of the 30-second commercial.  Frankly, it's hard to relate to his frustration (e.g. -- burning out speakers with a mobile phone), and four minutes -- eight times the length of a TV commercial -- feels like an eternity to absorb his message and pain.  Indeed, the rules of attention and engagement apply as much to consumers as they apply to advertisers.

Thoughts on YouTube's Proposed Revenue Sharing Model...Revisited

YouTube just announced it would start sharing revenue with key "content" partners.  This is generally a positive direction but it raises a host of new, somewhat challenging questions. Less clear is whether all content providers would share in the revenue, as currently takes place with video sharing site Revver.com.  "Now some of your favorite YouTube members--including LisaNova, renetto, HappySlip, smosh, and valsartdiary--will begin to participate in the same revenue-sharing and promotional opportunities that are available to YouTube's other partners," YouTube said on its blog.  The word I'm fixating on is "some."

But whole hog or half-way, moving to a revenue sharing model is a very big deal, and it has a number of very important implications, including around transparency and disclosure (see my earlier 11/6 ClickZ Column, YouTube or Confuse Tube?).  I outlined a few of these implications last January when the first news leaked that YouTube leaked might be considering a revenue share model.  It's worth another skim!     

Ten Implications of YouTube's Revenue Sharing Model
 

The Official CGM Glossary

The explosion of online video has pushed the definition of what we mean by consumer-generated media, or as some like to to call it, user-generated content.  In my ClickZ column this morning ("The Official CGM Glossary"), I thought I'd take a crack at drawing some key distinctions between what we mean by "pure" CGM versus other forms, including CGM2 (consumer-generated multi-media).  Definitions include:

• CGM:   Consumer Generated Media (example: unaided review on message board or blog)
• CGM2:  Consumer Generated Multimedia (example: "I love my iPod video")
• CFM: Consumer Fortified Media  (example: Dove "Evolution" video spot)
• CSM: Consumer Solicited Media or "co-creation" (example: "create your own" Super Bowl ads)
• CCGM:  Compensated Consumer Generated Media (benign example: Revver, ugly scenario: PayPerPost meets video)

As I note in the column, there are host of other terms used to describe what's going on the so-called "conversational" space, especially with the advent of video: social media, user-generated content (UGC), participatory media, we media, conversation marketing, and more. All are fine, and in some situations they may be more appropriate.

I tend to emphasize tried-and-true vernacular like "media" and "consumer" with my clients because it helps bridge understanding much faster and helps the client sell the vision to higher levels (which is critical to drive organization alignment).   For example, I emphasize "media" rather than "content" precisely because CGM acts like paid media. Whether through search queries or serendipitous discovery, CGM frequently intercepts other consumers during the purchase cycle and, coupled with high trust levels, impacts business results.  As for use of the term "consumer," at the end of the day, we're all answerable and accountable to consumers who try, buy, and judge our products. The simple distinction between "consumer" (buyer) and "marketer" (seller/persuader) helps keep us out of the fuzz.