Cake New York » “social media”

Cake NY <3 Internet Week

Mark Meyerhoff — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:19:31 +0000

Cake New York hosted it’s first party last night in celebration of Internet Week.

The event was held mid-week amongst a slew of other IW activity happening around the city, yet we packed the house all night. Cake partnered with artists Nic*Rad and “The Goodwill Ambassadors of the Internet’ to transform our space into a gallery-like environment, where the collective debuted various paintings and sculptures. The Goodwill Ambassadors interacted with guests all night by collecting business cards which will be later designed into…well, you’ll see.

Cake NY had a great time hosting – thanks to everyone who came out and who helped make it possible!

A special thanks to Mel D Cole for a cool group of photos. Check out more on Cake’s Flickr Page.

Will you follow DJ Pauly D on Foursquare?

Bea Villamor — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 02:46:46 +0000

I’ve seen every single episode of MTV’s “Jersey Shore” and yes, I am toying with the idea of following DJ Pauly D, who is the first celebrity that you can publicly follow on Foursquare.

The location-based social network recently launched “Celebrity Mode,” which splits a celebrity’s contacts into 2 groups: Friends and Followers. You don’t need to be approved to follow a celebrity, although the access is fairly limited. Only friends, which requires approval, can see the celebrity’s check-ins.

Foursquare’s Celebrity Mode is reminiscent of Twitter, whose seemingly direct communication between celebrities and the general public made the social network an instantaneous hit.

In terms of social media, Foursquare’s Celebrity Mode opens up a new space for branding – venues, events and other offline activities can be endorsed and promoted by celebrities on Foursquare, which can then sync check-ins and tips with the celebrity’s Facebook and Twitter pages. The blogosphere can also pick up on these posts, propelling its viral spread.

The offline world meets and merges with the online world, which is an essential element in most meaningful brand campaigns today. Endorsement by nature is fairly personal – the celebrity is associating his or her name with a brand – but Foursquare’s “Celebrity Mode” enhances the level of interaction that an endorser can establish and maintain.

It’s only a matter of time till other celebrities jump on the Foursquare bandwagon, prompting more branding opportunities. Until then, I will patiently wait and follow DJ Pauly D as he goes about his GTL routine.

Don’t Be a Brick Wall

Bianca Lam — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 22:59:59 +0000

I joined an AMA Marketing Webcast yesterday called The New Frontier of Customer Feedback, which discussed trends in gathering market research for customer feedback. Traditionally, brands have resorted to gathering information through survey feedback. Coming from a background in online market research, I am familiar with how important feedback is in how companies market effectively to consumers. However from a consumer perspective, I recognize how ineffective these methods are considering the fact that most people rarely take these surveys online, causing an obvious gap or an unclear picture for any brand.

Brands are utilizing social media to share content, update their community, and interact with their customers in general. But many brands are watching their social hubs evolve into a destination for customers to ask questions about products, report difficulties and deal with issues that internal teams may not be prepared to answer. As brands grapple to develop communications plans or decide the best way to respond to complaints, communities can grow impatient and may perceive brands as doing nothing or responding incorrectly resulting in negative feedback. Given this situation, brands can’t afford to dive into social unless preparation is done.

To arm brands with tools for success, the seminar shared 5 best practices:

1 – Practice Active Listening
Make sure you actually read the posts and messages you receive from consumers.

2 – Respond, Rescue, Cross – Sell, Up-sell
Respond to a wall posting/email/message so they know a person is there. This improves any situation that needs it as well as creates potential to up-sell and create loyalty. Don’t be a brick wall.

3 – Look below surface and find actionable insights – not shallow sentiment
If there is a negative post or message, do some detective work to find out why the consumer “felt” this way.

4 – Don’t try to drink from the media fire hose
An immense number of tweets/blogs/messages are posted every day and it can be hard to keep up. Keep monitoring but make sure to use good filters to adopt changing content.

5 – Be ready to modify your approach and response time
There is no such thing as only one way. Be ready to adapt and change but more importantly, respond.

Social media is not only an ever-evolving conversation, but also a powerful customer service tool. Have you seen any brands that are doing a great job of utilizing social media to assist their customers?

Customer Service In 140 Characters or Less #SXSW

Rosie Siman — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:42:22 +0000

Today I attended a panel titled Customer Service in the 140 Character World which discussed customer service within social media outlets – specifically Twitter. As a social marketing strategist who manages brands profiles online, I’m especially interested in the customer service aspect. As a consumer, I’m particularly annoyed with the way that most brands misuse these platforms that are almost built for their success. [I actually wrote another post here titled 'Customer Service is the New Marketing']

Why is social media built for customer support? It allows one on one interactions in almost real time. It avoids automated response systems, support forums and 1800 numbers that provide more annoyance than answers. There is a built in community element – sometimes I get answers from the community surrounding the brand instead of the brand itself.

Agencies talk about customer service with social media a good bit – It’s an unavoidable topic amongst marketers because social media lends itself to support. We’re consistently seeing consumers bypass FAQs and automated messaging systems for real people and real answers. But agencies talking amongst themselves only goes so far. On the panel today, we heard from brands who were not just talking the talk, but walking the walk. Sure, Zappos was almost built around social media – But Comcast? Dell? HP? These brands fall into that “traditional” category… And they are making it work.

A few key takeaways:

- Customer Support is Still Too Siloed. This is a change that has to happen internally. Are PR and Customer Support one in the same? The panelists said yes. They said it was essential to create a workflow that allows for quick approvals and answers from the appropriate people. It’s internal structuring and it’s a change that HAS to happen. How to implement? They advise to start with putting TweetDeck on the CEO’s desk with a Twitter search about the brand.

- Get Feedback and Do Something. As a company, you have to invest in the way that you listen to consumers. The most important thing about feedback is what you do with it. Feedback is worthless unless you are willing to make changes and show your customers that you’re implementing their suggestions.

- Give Answers. It doesn’t matter if someone has 1 follower or 1 million followers, they are all your customers. Give them the answers they are looking for in the platforms that they are on. Take time to explain “why” and give them the whole story even if it is technical and/or boring. If they understand the “why,” they are much more likely to support your brand for the long haul. The Comcast rep said, “We can’t make cable free, but we can tell our customers exactly why it costs what it does.”

Agencies can only do so much. People in the audience representing brands were advised to look to agencies as consultants. As consultants, they can help you understand the space; They can come up with forward thinking ideas; They can teach you the appropriate social interactions. But in the end, the brand has to be willing to make changes and talk to the consumers themselves.

Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, it requires organizations to acknowledge and embrace the power of social media. But it’s not impossible. Customers aren’t going anywhere and neither is social media.

What do you think are the best ways for brands to active customer support through social media channels?

[Full panel notes generously provided by William Hertling here]

Digital and IRL Worlds Collide With Facebook Printing

Rosie Siman — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:26:02 +0000

Kodak recently announced that beginning this summer Facebook users would be able to print their pictures directly from Kodak printing kiosks.

After logging into your Facebook account from the kiosk, you are asked to pick pictures from those that you’ve uploaded. At this point, it doesn’t appear that you can print pictures where you’re tagged if they were uploaded by other people.

Worried about the size? Kodak will show an icon if your pictures aren’t high enough resolution to limit disappointment.

For a walk-through of how it works, check out the video posted on Kodak’s “Plugged In” blog here.

The only bad thing I have to say? The contact info they give on their press releases is TinyURL.com/emailkodak. [Why would anyone use any URL shortener other than bit.ly?!]

With Kodak taking this step, I think we’ll start to see other printers doing the same. We may even see sites like Facebook and Flickr add an element of digital printing/ordering to the site itself. What do you think?

Planning for Social Media

Michelle Shildkret — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:28:56 +0000

Greetings from SXSW in Austin, TX- where I’ll be spending the next few days immersed in what’s new in digital and how we can best use it on behalf of our clients (and also retain our cool-kid, early adopter cred of course).

Before the panels start ramping up, I wanted to share video of my SMart Camp presentation from this past weekend- “How to Make a Social Media Strategy”. It’s good to think about the basics, while coming across all these technologies that scream “next big thing!”. Keeping your strategy airtight will make sure you pick the right upcoming tools (like Hot Potato which is blowing up at SXSW right now), but only if they’re relevant to what you’re looking to use social to do.

Would love to know your thoughts on my presentation. And if you’re in Austin, please say hello. I’m @miishi on Twitter.

SMart CAMP

Michelle Shildkret — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:48:48 +0000

This weekend, I will be speaking at Social Media Art Camp, the first conference of its kind focusing on the social web as it relates to the arts.

Check out program curator (and ex-Cake staffer!) Julia Kaganskiy explain what participants can expect:

My panel “Planning for Social Media” (Sat @ 12.30p) will focus on the essential components of any good social media strategy and outline the questions each individual or institution engaging in social media should be prepared to answer. Please leave a comment if there’s anything you’d like me to cover off during my presentation. Hope to see you there!

Havas Your Cake And Eat It

Rosie Siman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:57:07 +0000

Mike Mathieson, Cake’s CEO, was recently profiled by Celina Maguire from Gorkana. Get the scoop on Cake’s thoughts on harnessing social media and being authentic marketing “twats.” [See what we mean below ; ) ]

You can also view the full article on Gorkana here, but be forewarned you’ll be prompted to log-in prior to viewing.

When I meet Mike Mathieson, CEO of brand entertainment agency Cake, he is still buzzing from a major set-piece stunt his team has implemented that morning for Confused.com to promote car insurance renewals.

After finding the most accident-prone street in the UK, Cake set about enveloping the entire contents of the street in bubble wrap. The whole event was filmed by a crew equipped with a time lapse camera and the sell in spanned traditional media alongside a full social media campaign.

While many agencies are still getting their social media strategy in order, Cake (named after an episode of spoof news comedy Brass Eye) has been doing it in one form or another since the agency was founded 10 years ago. Originally known for its big stunts, the agency now prides itself on both the strategy and creative running through all its work. It boasts clients including Ben & Jerry’s, Sainsbury’s, Unilever, Motorola, Sky and Ikea.

A self-confessed technophile, Mike has always embraced technology and understood the importance of influencer marketing. And he was using a very early form of social media long before the advent of the internet, YouTube or Facebook.

Social media pioneers

Mike’s background as a music PR, along with his co-founder Mark Whelan, who worked in advertising, and another early Cake-er Jez Jowett, who ran nightclubs, meant that between them they had three contact books bulging with details of influential media and celebrity types. Pooling together their considerable and influential contacts they created the Early Adopter Top (EAT) 500, a network of movers and shakers they contacted by post and fax.

“We’d send them stuff, products like Rizla papers and tea bags, that sort of thing along with a tongue-in-cheek questionnaire and ask them to fax it back. It was partly to get products into consumers hands and partly to guage their reaction. When the internet came around we thought it was great because we could then push the content online.”

But it was when they won Budweiser as a client in 2002 that they really got stuck into an early type of social media. Budweiser had just made the classic Whassup?! advertisements.

“That’s when we started experimenting with virals and seeding. We had this great piece of collateral and we could push it out to video sharing sites and really got our heads around understanding it.

“Then record companies started approaching us because they had these enormous databases of fans but wanted help with conversations online. We thought we’d have a crack at it and the first thing we worked on was for the band Travis who had recorded a live DVD in Boston.

“I remember it very well because we discussed how we were going to target the various communities and fan sites and we just thought we’d dive in so we did. And we were saying things like ‘hi I love Travis aren’t they great and I’ve heard they’re bringing out a DVD’. And the response we got was ‘Fuck off you marketing twat’.

“After a swift cup of coffee we changed tack and began our outreach with the line ‘marketing twat here, just thought you might like to know…’ This time the response was ‘thanks for the info’. So I guess it was an early lesson in transparency and tone of voice!”

The art of conversation

Fastforward to 2010 and Mike says there’s a social media “car crash” going on between digital agencies, marketing agencies and PR agencies over who owns the social media space.

“What we did last year was spend the whole of November and December training our staff in the art of social media so that it becomes offline PR and online PR and social media.” Jez Jowett, one of the original Cake team, conducted the extensive training regime and rejoined the agency full-time in January.

Mike explains that Cake has dissolved its digital department because it wants social media to be at the heart of the agency – “we want all our consultants to have those skills”. While there are still digital experts, every Cake PR is equipped with social media knowledge.

“What I wanted to avoid was a client coming in and saying that sounds really interesting and us having to say ‘you’ll need to speak to one of our digital guys’.”

Mike thinks the PR industry is perfectly poised to make the most of social media, and in fact has an advantage over other marketing disciplines.

“The thing I always say is that it’s great being in PR because it’s about the art of conversation and we understand that. Having a dialogue and understanding that dialogue is more important than ever. Everyone has their tanks on the lawn about social media…do I think PR is at the forefront of it all?

“Yes I do because I think it’s a bit like when I was plugging records and it’s like an inverted pyramid. The sharp end of social media is what do you say to people and how do you say it, how do engage with people and keep them entertained?”

But one of the challenges for PR agencies is having proper social media evaluation metrics in place “because clearly some clients take convincing about the relevance of social media over a piece of print coverage”.

“We’re on this cusp where some clients still want to see a piece of coverage in The Daily Telegraph but the reality is it’s much better to have something online because it’s there forever, it helps with your search ranking and helps to build conversation around your brand otherwise it’s tomorrow’s fish and chip wrapping.”

He estimates half of Cake’s clients get the importance of social media and half still prefer traditional print coverage.

“We still have clients questioning the value of thousands of followers on Twitter and what we say to them is ‘think of them as your fan base’ or a ‘giant focus group’. A good example is Motorola [Cake is the agency of record globally] who have gone from zero online conversation to being one of the top 40 most talked about brands on Twitter.”

The other big challenge for the PR industry is creating social media content – “having that delivery mechanic is crucial for PR agencies, you need to cover all those angles”.

Mike gives an example of a campaign Cake implemented late last year to promote a Pink Floyd programme going out on Sky.

“We recreated the cover of Dark Side of the Moon on Primrose Hill and filmed the making of it. That was retweeted 25,000 times to a few million people and you think ‘this is really starting to stack up’ – you can really track where those images are going and control it.”

Social media evaluation is very much on the agenda. Working with US-based Sysomos, the agency is developing its own client-facing dashboard incorporating an evaluation model from digital agency Euro RSCG 4D, part of the Havas group.

Growing up

Having a “global network of support” to call on is one of the advantages of being part of Havas, the company which bought Cake nearly two years ago. Cake’s founders, including Mike, agreed a five-year earn out deal but there are no plans to move on and do something different come 2012.

“I think we’ve proved to be a small, but very useful, partner to Havas. We’re very fortunate in that we’re owned by two bits of Havas – we’re half owned by Havas Media and half by Euro RSCG. We have the benefits of these two networks.”

But before Havas came along there were the usual growing pains of being an independent and it was when the company hadn’t grown past a certain point that Mike brought in a non-exec to help mentor him and shape the business proposition.

“I really wanted someone to come in and kick my arse because it needed doing – Cake is a brilliant secret in the wider spectrum of marketing…if you’re looking to groom your business you need to start thinking about profitability, the bottom line and overheads. It wasn’t seismic changes.”

Cake opened a New York office in May last year with a focus on social media and experiential – “we’ve purposely taken it really slowly”- and things are looking positive for the year ahead both in London and New York.

“Last year was a disappointing year. We didn’t lose a client though and had a very good pitch rate – we pitched to 16 and won 13 but most had a lot less budget than usual. This year it has really picked up – the pipeline is very busy.”

“I’m very excited about this year and particularly excited about the role of social media in PR. We’ve talked about it for so long and now it feels like our train has finally arrived. We can finally create relationships and interact directly with consumers through engaging content and compelling dialogue.”

Mike was speaking to Celina Maguire, Gorkana Consumer Director. Follow Mike on Twitter @mikemath.

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For more Cake Twittering, follow @CakeGroupNY and @CakeGroup or check out what Cake’s employees are saying on this Twitter list.

Creative & Social Filtering

Rosie Siman — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:32:18 +0000

I definitely think that will all the publishing platforms out there, we’ll see more and more around creative (and social) filtering. (Maybe we can even convince brands to play in this space?)

One iteration, by Kikin (a Firefox add-on), allows you to search Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Hulu, Google Reader, Wikipedia, YouTube, Bing etc, from within your Google search.

But then the cool stuff happens – If you connect Facebook or Twitter, you can choose to see public comments or comments just from your friends. If you’re looking at a product on Amazon, a Kikin bar will come up at the top of the page that shows you recent searches along with feedback from FB/Twitter.

What do you think about Kikin?

DOWNLOAD // EXPLORE // PLAY: http://www.kikin.com/