The truth about working for an agency

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Have you ever thought about starting a career in marketing and wondered what it’s like to work in an agency? Well, here is a short and amusing video which gives you a flavour for what it’s really like.

Enjoy.

Wolfstar to work for a superstar DJ

I thought we better announce our latest bit of new business on the blog formally as I know not everyone needs to read our newsroom. We (Wolfstar) have won the contract to run a social media campaign for Chris Lake a world renowned DJ and dance music producer.

Chris has received critical acclaim and even managed to get into the UK charts last year with his track changes, in fact it reached number one in the dance charts in the US.

You can view our news release on this story here. Needless to say I and my colleague Seb can’t wait to get cracking on this because we both live and breathe dance music.

In the meantime, I have added a video of Chris in action at Space in Ibiza.

Have a good weekend.

Measurement Camp - How to measure social media. My take on the event…

I was in the big smoke yesterday at the second instalment of the social media measurement camp organised by Will McInnes. Both Seb and Stuart attended the Chinwag event on measuring social media that inspired Will to set up the camp and have posted about it previously but I thought I would give you my thoughts on this one, especially as it’s one of the first events I’ve been to whilst working in the PR industry.

I really enjoyed the set up of the meeting. It was really informal so and we were split up into groups to discuss issues therefore allowing everyone to make contributions to the discussion.

The key thing I came away thinking was that nobody really had any definitive answers about the best way to measure social media. Nielsen had some good examples of the tools that they use to analyse social media campaigns, however it was clear that these are not necessarily always effective for all the types of social media. Some useful insights into benchmarking by creating snapshots were also shared.

The questions were plentiful and really got me thinking about social media and the practicalities of measuring it. Here are some of the questions that we came up with to get your brains around:

· Should the different types of social media platform be considered as separate media forms? For example should a Twitter campaign be measured in a completely different way to a blogger outreach campaign? My initial thoughts were of course, but then this led to me questioning how you measure a campaign that translates across the different platforms, for example if a YouTube video is uploaded and is then posted on a blog, then added to a group on Facebook?

· From this we started to consider whether the true value of social media is in the story/content rather than where it appears?

· What is the definition of a successful Facebook/MySpace/Twitter campaign?

· How do you identify appropriate mavens and how do you value them (e.g is more people talking more important than influential people talking?)

· How do you measure the effects of your online campaign offline?

One of the key conclusions that I came to after the event is that one of the biggest challenges in measuring social media is defining what makes a campaign successful, especially as this can be specific to each client and to each individual campaign that is created.

I think I definitely have to agree with Stuart and Will again that “understanding is more important than measuring” and that to measure we must understand.

File sharing public relations - download now for free!

I’ve recently been talking to a good friend of mine who works in the music industry. A conversation that crops up more than any other is that of file-sharing. A term most people believe to be synonymous with ‘free-music’. At the somewhat naive age of sixteen, I myself downloaded Napster onto my parents computer, pulled off a few tracks before I accidentally added a nasty virus to their play-list. I forget the name of it, but needless to say, the PC was out of action for a long time!Based on this experience I swore never to indulge in ‘file-sharing’ again.

My friends main point was this; "if you see a car that you like the look of do you think you can just take it?" An ideal thieving opportunity presents itself - the key’s in the ignition, the door’s open, nobody around… Granted, this situation physically doesn’t compare to a few clicks on a mouse, but surely it becomes a question of morals…

When a CD cost £15-£20, 15 years ago, you did feel that it was a tad expensive, but it was a luxury good, so you paid it. You bought music when you could afford it, and it was special. Now the music industry is saturated. As a result you can by a whole album for next to nothing, be it on download or in the shops - this is one product that’s price hasn’t increased with inflation…. shhh… don’t tell Gordon B!

I’m aware there are several more debates to be had here, but I’m trying to drill down… So, how does this all relate back into public relations?

Well after having the afore mentioned conversation, I then brought the topic up with a couple of mates, who also work in public relations. At first they disagreed wholeheartedly… they believed artists to be "well paid", and "what was the problem?" … "It’s like lending a CD to your mate for a week." The obvious problem I had with this was that allowing several thousand people to share your files is a hell of a lot different to lending a CD. Then I found an analogy that had them both questioning their long-standing views:

How many times had they researched a brief at work, put together a high quality presentation and/or worked on a detailed proposal document? The answer was obviously lots! They immediately knew where this was going. I asked how many times, despite failing to win the new business, they’d seen their ideas, their concepts and sometimes even their very own time-plan and strategy, used and abused by an in-house team or competing agency post-pitch…

It makes me feel nauseous. If you want to hire an outside agency to do some work for you - then honour the process. If you decide to make your sourcing process competitive, fine, by all means do so, but don’t sit through a bunch of presentations and then rip off all their ideas. Word of mouth is a powerful thing, and before long you’ll earn yourself a reputation, and bad rep’s tend to stick….

Plus I’m a big believer in karma - and - what goes around comes around… try and do something on the cheap, and at some point or another it will go wrong… such is the way of the world.

An unfriendly Facebook user gives the thumbs down to Facebook Chat

There I was, checking my friend requests and reading my private messages when all of a sudden I was bombarded with several instant messages from my ‘Facebook-friends’. I’m not sure I am a fan of the social networking sites new upgrade. Facebook have just launched a new instant messaging facility, where you can chat to your online friends. For a week or so now I have been quickly exiting Facebook as soon as one of my ‘foreign-friends’ (who I have never met but still, for some reason unbeknown to me, wanted to add me) starts talking to me. Luckily Beth has informed me that there is the option to set myself ‘offline’ if I am feeling un-friendly. Although my Facebook account has become more essential to me than my mobile phone, I can’t help but feel that my privacy is slowly slipping further and further away…

In hindsight though, I guess the new facility is another useful communication tool, which most people (me included) have for many years now, looked to MSN Messenger for. Personally I think the visuals of the Facebook Chat facility leave a lot to be desired and it’s really annoying that if you leave Facebook, your chat automatically ends. I still much prefer MSN’s version of instant messenger, but as so many young people nowadays spend hours a day on Facebook, perhaps MSN will see a decline in the usage?

Recently, the BBC’s technology program ‘Click’ found a potential flaw in Facebook’s security. After creating a malicious program, masquerading as a harmless application, they were able to steal personal data, without the users knowing. I am constantly receiving applications which is a huge down side to the site in my opinion. ‘How Barbie are you?” and “Which Hollyoaks  character are you?” are just two which have been sent to me today and which I have automatically deleted, as I always do. However, it is obvious that some people actually enjoy downloading these applications and it is now apparent that they need to take caution. These applications are run on third-party servers, not Facebook but maybe it’s time Facebook took back control and started to decrease them?

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Facebook chat, social networks, msn, bbc, bbc click, facebook applications

Are you looking for work experience in public relations or social media?

Calling all students - are you bored of getting up at 3pm? Are you tired of drinking and partying until mid-day? Has cold pepperoni pizza really lost its appeal at breakfast time?

Right then, listen up, social media specialist Wolfstar is again on the hunt for some enthusiastic recruits to join its team on a part-time work experience basis.

Are you interested in a career in public relations? Do you have an interest in social media and word of mouth marketing? Do you want to find out how this all fits within the marketing mix? Well, if the answer to all of these questions is yes, we have a great opportunity for you right here with us.

We are currently looking for a couple of professional but fun students to join in the action. If you would like to gain some fantastic experience with a young team of communications professionals, drop me an email with your CV at chrisn@wolfstarconsultancy.com.

If you have any fears about starting to work, have a look at this.

Time to get writing chaps……

Technorati Tags: Students,Wolfstar,Work experience

Ethics, cheerleaders, schools and word of mouth marketing

It seems Beth’s last post on word of mouth being used for youth marketing has sparked off quite a debate both in the comments and other blogs. It has also flagged up quite a few issues, which I’ll deal with in turn:

Blog policy - our own opinions

First of all I’ve noticed that our house rules blog policy isn’t actually on the blog! Something, which I’ll sort out straight after this post. The reason that it’s important is that it says “All views expressed are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Wolfstar and other members of the team.”

Blog policy - drive by spam press releases

Secondly, we won’t tolerate rude and ignorant people who think it’s OK to paste a press release in the comments and can’t be bothered to take part in the conversation like a normal, polite person. So Lisa at Six Flags I’ve deleted your comment - the first time we’ve had to do so on the Wolfstar blog. You are welcome to come back and join in the debate.

Youth marketing

And now the crux of the argument, which is the around the ethics of youth marketing.

I did have some disquiet when I first read Beth’s post about how some brands in America have started to use word of mouth marketing to target influential teenagers - in this case cheerleaders.

However, you have to read the post carefully and see exactly what it is actually saying:

Samantha Skey at Alloy Media & Marketing, a youth marketing agency, says: “So advertisers are going into schools, forging new platforms for youth connection.”

Now personally, I don’t have a problem with that as children are exposed to thousands of brand messages and it can actually be beneficial that this happens in a controlled school environment and is done in a responsible and ethical way.

I agree with both Ourman and Sally in the comments that schools should be for learning and “kids protected from commercial pressures”. But that’s an argument to allow marketing in schools, in order to educate and protect children.

As my daughter grows up I want her to develop the critical skills to be able to understand marketing messages. It is my responsibility as a parent, and her teacher’s responsibilities when she starts school, to help her acquire those skills. I’m actually more relaxed about responsible marketing in schools than I am about some of the more irresponsible advertising you see for fast foods and soft drinks.

Secondly, most of the examples Beth cites aren’t actually in schools and are aimed at older students (16+).

My personal view as MD of Wolfstar is that we would be more than happy to engage in marketing in schools. But anything we did do would have to be totally ethical, honest and transparent. It would also be up for discussion by the whole team as to what we consider to be ethical. Just since Beth’s post we’ve had some lively discussions about what we would and wouldn’t be willing to promote.

Personally I’d have a problem with soft drinks, not so much because of a moral objection, but more because I don’t like the taste (far too sweet and sickly) and I can’t believe why anyone would pay good money for sugary water. That said, everyone else in the team appears to live off soft drinks.

I think the real point of the debate is probably more what the product is, rather than the principle of marketing in schools. I used to sit as a none-exec board member at a Development Education Centre. The DEC was contracted by charities such as Oxfam to produce resources for use in schools. Those resources were very explicit in pushing Oxfam’s development messages. But that’s OK, because it’s Oxfam.

If the principle of marketing in schools is OK for Oxfam, it’s OK for brands. But it must be done in an ethical and responsible way.

My final point is that this should be addressed in legislation and by regulators, in a similar way to Ofcom’s total ban on adverts for unhealthy food and drink around programmes for under-16s. Although I think a better idea than a ban would have been a levy on advertisers, so that for every pound spent on advertising junk food, then three pounds was spent on advertising healthy food.

Spreading the word, cheerleader style. Word of mouth: the new cool in youth marketing

We keep banging on about Word of mouth and its bountiful possibilities over here at Wolfstar and now it seems that the big brands are starting to catch on to this clever technique.

The LA Times featured an article yesterday about how brands in America, struggling to reach the youth market, have started targeting the influencers in the teen world to spread the word about their products. And who better to shout about the latest stash out then cheerleaders.

“Forces are making it very difficult for advertisers to connect with young people,” said Samantha Skey, executive vice president of strategic marketing at Alloy Media & Marketing, a youth marketing agency. “So advertisers are going into schools, forging new platforms for youth connection.”

Companies like Herbal Essences and CoverGirl have been giving out free samples at national cheerleading competitions and Gatorade sponsored ‘hydration breaks’ at cheerleading camps across the US. And it doesn’t stop there. Old Spice have been targeting high school football players and department store giant Macy’s Inc. sent templates of T-shirts to elementary schools encouraging students to design shirts and enter their designs in a contest.

The idea is that these teens are people that other students admire and look up to and are therefore ‘mavens’ in their own rights. And we all know that teenagers LOVE to talk. Nearly half of teens talk about personal care and beauty products, compared with just 29% of the general public, according to a study by research firm Keller Fay Group.

I personally hope that the trend catches on, most of all because I am a cheerleader myself. Anyone want to give me some stuff to talk about?…Anyone?… Prada?

Are we seeing the fall of advertising?

For some time now I’ve firmly believed that word of mouth marketing and social media have been becoming much stronger as effective marketing tools for companies to use to promote their products. However, I have never really had any strong proof to back it up, other than the usual statistics from surveys and reading other people’s opinions.

I read an interesting article on CBC (Newspaper print ad revenue falls at record pace in 2007, online ads rise) that highlighted how, in New York, newspaper print advertising fell by a record percentage in 2007 whilst online newspaper advertisements increased but at a slower pace (the slowest pace from 2003), leaving quite a big gap in amounts spent.

Although the article does not mention word of mouth or any other forms of marketing it makes me think that surely these have been partly to blame.

I know there are threats of a global slowdown and a possible recession but I don’t believe that marketing teams will have just stopped spending money by reducing their advertising budgets. I think they will have just found much more tactical and effective ways of promoting their goods to their consumers.

Something must be filling the gap where advertisements used to be and in my opinion word of mouth marketing and social media will probably be somewhere in there eating up these big budgets.

Acer customer support 1, PC World 0

Yesterday I attended WOM UK’s first ‘How To’ workshop event. Very interesting day, with impressive presentations from Fiona at MESH, Andy from Ramp, Dave at Bzz Agent and Ivan at Wildfire. After even just a day out of the office it always seems to take a little longer than you’d like to get your inbox in shape, and your to-do list back on track.

For example - I’ve only just picked up on a post written this afternoon by a colleague that sits no more than 1.5m away from me. And… thinking back on the busy day, I do suddenly recollect a fair amount of agro coming out of his ‘moody’ corner. It seems the level of customer service he received from PC World regarding a fairly serious IT issue, was dealt with in a somewhat poor manner….

On the flip side of Wolfstar’s IT scenario, I myself sent my Acer Travel Mate off for repair (that only took two short conversations, one with Acer and one with DHL) last Friday - today it was sat back on my desk, fully fit and raring to go… so hat’s off to the Acer crew down in Plympton - thanks very much!

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