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Dialog statt Diktat // Gastbeitrag in HORIZONT 39/ 2013

Nachdem jetzt genug Zeit verstrichen ist, um meinen Gastbeitrag, wie es sich gehört, auf Seite 26 der Print-Ausgabe zu studieren, hier die digitale Version. Der Artikel ist die deutsche Zusammenfassung des, zugegeben recht langen, Traktats, dass ich hier in den letzten beiden Wochen häppchenweise gepostet habe. Viel Spaß beim Lesen! 

  Dialog statt Diktat

Als ich Ende 2011 erstmalig das SoundCloud-Büro betrat, war ich überwältigt und verunsichert zugleich. Überwältigt von der Attitüde, die Welt zu verändern “no matter what”. Verunsichert, da ich dazu verdammt war, der meist gehasste Mensch in der Firmengeschichte zu sein. Die Mission: Entwicklung und Implementierung einer Werbestrategie für den US-Markt. 

SoundCloud ist die größte Social Sound Plattform der Welt. 2008 gegründet, wird sie heute von über 180 Mio Usern im Monat besucht. Erster Kontaktpunkt ist meist das Player-Widget, das auf Facebook, Google+, Twitter und Tumblr eingebunden werden kann, um Audiodateien im Social Web zu verbreiten. Ursprünglich als Kollaborationsplattform für Musiker erdacht, ist SoundCloud heute eine einzigartige Community von Musik- und Audioproduzenten, Künstlern und Soundliebhabern. Kernmarkt sind die USA mit 30% der Gesamtnutzung. Die Plattform ist werbefrei. 

No advertising, no issues

“We don’t have advertising, so we don’t have issues.” Das war meine inoffizielle Begrüßung. Aus dem mittelmäßigen Start wurde bald: “We put product first, second and third, so we don’t have issues”. Die Strategie geht auf: Zwischen April 2012 und 2013 konnte die Plattform 60% an Nutzung zulegen (Quelle: Unique Visitors/ month USA, Comscore). 

Die “kritische Masse” die SoundCloud in die Top10 der am schnellsten wachsenden Sites in den USA katapultiert hat, ist mündig und selbstbewusst. SoundCloud steht prototypisch für Plattformen, die ihre Nutzer mit dem Respekt behandeln, den sie verdienen und dadurch eine außergewöhnlich loyale Community aufbauen. Wie aber implementiert man ein Werbemodell auf einer Site, die seit jeher werbefrei und “im Besitz” solch einer kritischen Zielgruppe ist? Die mutige Entscheidung nach 12 Monaten: Wir gehen unseren eigenen Weg. Jeder spielt nach den Regeln der Community. Jeder ist gleich, egal ob er Skrillex, cjlea oder Red Bull heißt. Wie jeder andere können auch Marken SoundClouder werden, können inspirieren, sich inspirieren lassen, Sound erschaffen, teilen und gehört werden.

Frei nach Howard Gossage hören Menschen nichts, was sie nicht interessiert. Man könnte annehmen, es sei naheliegend, auf einer Audio-Plattform Audio-Werbung anzubieten. Falsch. Eine Community ist per se selbstreinigend. Wenn man ihr etwas aufzwingt, das nicht “weggewischt” werden kann, beschädigt man sie. Soll eine Botschaft oder ein Inhalt gedeihen, muss er die Community bereichern.

Streng genommen bedeutete der Entschluss, werbefrei zu bleiben. Wir waren darauf bedacht, eine möglichst organische Evolution des Produktes zu initiieren. Wir mussten Formate finden, die im Sinne unserer Partner arbeiten, ohne die User Experience zu beeinträchtigen. Unsere erste Idee erwies sich als die richtige: nichts hinzufügen, sondern nutzen und verbessern, was wir haben. So entstand das ProPartner Program, das von Fachpresse und Werbepartnern in den USA gelobt wird, sowie zwei weitere Herausforderungen: 

Marken brauchen Content, um auf der Plattform stattzufinden. 

Wir bringen wir das bloß den Agenturen bei?

Das Spiel muss sich ändern

Jede Marke hat relevanten Content. Er erzeugt Emotionen, erreicht Herz und Kopf. Er ist aufmerksamkeitsstark, weil er inspiriert und Marke erlebbar macht. Es gilt nur, ihn glaubwürdig in Szene zu setzen. Versuchen Sie nicht, Menschen zu überreden, Sie zu mögen. Bringen Sie Menschen dazu, über Sie zu reden. 

Zukünftig geht es darum, jederzeit überall die richtigen Inhalte und Informationen zu bekommen. Es geht um Transparenz. Darum, als Konsument in der Position zu sein, zu vergleichen, zu bewerten und maßgeschneiderte Leistungen zu bekommen. Es geht um Vertrauen, nicht um Schnäppchen. Mündige Konsumenten möchten eine Marke “besitzen”, nicht von ihr unter Druck gesetzt zu werden. Die Zukunft ist Dialog, nicht Diktat. 

Druck funktioniert nicht bei Multiplikatoren, Variety Seekers, Millenials oder wie auch immer Sie Ihre Zielgruppen nennen. Wenn man sie erreichen will, kann man keine alten Media-Strickmuster verwenden. Es gibt keinen Autopilot, kein Copy&Paste. Dennnoch bestehen Media Networks darauf, dass zeitgemäße Online-Kampagnen in untaugliche Angebotsformulare aus den 90ern gepresst werden. Nachdem ein Angebot mit falschen Tools bewertet wurde, folgt die Standardfrage: “Und was verdienen wir?” Natürlich gibt es Ausnahmen. Wenige. Das Spiel muss sich grundlegend ändern.

Kontrolle loslassen

Kürzlich sprach ich mit einem Marketingmann über “Kontrolle”. Ich regte an, “loszulassen” und (ausgewählte) Communitys mit seinem Content spielen zu lassen. Menschen bekommen eher das Gefühl, eine Marke “zu besitzen”, wenn sie Einfluss auf die Brand Experience haben. Seine Antwort war vorhersehbar: “Menschen besitzen unsere Marken nicht. Wir besitzen sie. Menschen interagieren mit ihnen, weil wir es ihnen sagen. Unser Marketing Board stellt sicher, dass wir die richtigen Entscheidungen darüber treffen, wie unsere Marken wahrgenommen werden. Das ist das Ergebnis langjähriger, professioneller Markenführung. Wir haben stets die volle Kontrolle.”  

Ich war versucht, ihn zu fragen, was das Marketing Board im Sinn hatte, als es dazu aufrief, gegen die jüngsten Äußerungen des CEO Sturm zu laufen und den Konzern auf allen sozialen Kanälen wegen Genmanipulation und der Verwendung von Plastikflaschen zu attackieren. Man kann “das Internet” nicht kontrollieren. Wenn Sie schlechte Produkte verkaufen, wird man Sie dazu auffordern, sie zu verbessern. Wenn Sie zur Herstellung Ihrer Produkte Kinderarbeiter einsetzen, wird man Sie drängen, es sein zu lassen. Es gibt nichts, was Sie tun können - außer Ihr Verhalten zu ändern. 

Marketing Boards entscheiden nicht über Glaubwürdigkeit. Glaubwürdigkeit muss man sich verdienen. Sie können Ihre Spendings im Social Web verzehnfachen - so lange Sie nicht glaubwürdig sind, wird es keine positive Verstärkung Ihrer Botschaft geben. Ganz im Gegenteil: Die Gegenreaktion der Community wird umso heftiger ausfallen, je mehr Promoted Tweets und Sidebar Ads sie geschaltet haben, wenn Ihnen ein PR-Bug unterläuft. Es gibt keine Stratgie Es zählt nur Aufrichtigkeit. Sie sind ein einfaches Mitglied einer selbstreinigenden Community. Willkommen in der echten Welt. Die Einwohner schätzen Relevanz, Glaubwürdigkeit, Tranparenz und Mitsprache. Hören Sie Ihnen zu und nehmen Sie sie ernst. Geben Sie Ihnen Kontrolle. Sie werden Ihre Marke gegen Angriffe verteidigen und sich mit Kritikern auseinandersetzen. Alles was Sie tun müssen, ist relevant, transparent und glaubwürdig zu sein. Wenn Sie das nicht sind: Lassen Sie um Himmels Willen die Finger vom Social Web! 

Die virtuelle Welt ist die echte Welt

Sie haben keine Kontrolle

Gehen Sie Risiken ein

Werben Sie nicht im Social Web - werden Sie ein Teil von ihm

Seien Sie relevant, glaubwürdig, und transparent gegenüber Kunden und Konsumenten

Inspirieren Sie Menschen, anstatt sie zu beeinflussen

Sie entscheiden nicht, wie Sie eine Community aktivieren - die Community entscheidet, ob sie Sie aufnimmt.

Ihr Produkt verändert nicht die Community - die Community verändert Ihr Produkt.

Wenn Sie mit Konsumenten reden, werden sie antworten. Kommunikation findet nicht in Kampagnen, sondern im dauerhaften Dialog statt

Bought Media ist die Voraussetzung für Earned Media, Der Schlüssel zu mehr Earned Media ist nicht mehr Bought Media

Content is King

Mit klassischer Online-Werbung verschaffen Sie Ihren Kunden keinen Zugang zu den Zielgruppen, die sie erreichen wollen. 

Klassische Online-Werbung macht Ihre Kunden nicht interessant.

Wenn Sie eine content-basierte Kampagne buchen, sollten Sie Content, einen Produktions- und einen Redaktionsplan haben, nicht nur eine Idee und einen Claim

Funktion und und Umfeld bestimmen das Format

Bei Impressions zählt nicht die Quantität, sondern die Qualität

Ihre Media-Maßeinheiten haben keine Gültigkeit mehr.

Hören Sie damit auf, Netto-TKP und GRP zu optimeren, optimieren Sie das Ergebnis für Ihre Kunden. 

Hören Sie damit auf, Ihre Kunden “dumm zu halten”, Binden Sie sie ein, und ermutigen Sie sie, Ihre überholten Media-Gebote zu brechen

Ihr System kann die echte Welt nicht messen und bewerten. Versuchen Sie nicht die Welt zu ändern. Bauen Sie ein neues System

Wenn Sie keine Lust haben mit der Kreativagentur zu sprechen, heuern Sie ein paar fähige Entwickler und Designer an, die die echte Welt verstehen. Andererseits könnte es effizienter sein, die schrägen Bohemains ab und zu anzurufen

Ein schlechtes Produkt bleibt ein schlechtes Produkt. Die Zeiten, in denen man Katzen in Säcken verkauft, sind vorbei.  

Hören Sie jungen Menschen zu. 

Seien Sie im Zweifelsfall alles, was Sie in den letzten 60 Jahren nicht waren.

Layer Ads suck Big Time!  

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We dig Greenpeace Energy

We proudly announce, that DigThis Media will support Greenpeace Energy with implementing their upcoming fall campaign. We're taking care of media buying/ planning and will try to get the maximum out of a minimum budget - eager to grow attention for GPE's mission and products and the long overdue energy turnaround. It's awesome to be able to contribute to such an important cause. Stay tuned for updates! 

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Of kitten hats and native ads // My lessons learned from 20 months of ADventure (Part 8/8)

“I believe credibility is one of the biggest issues yet to be addressed by internet advertisers.” Jef I. Richards (Part 8/8)

Social Media empowers people to overthrow governments. The communities of mature self-determined millennials, that you like to reach, have the strength to mobilize nations and cause rebellions. How dare you think, you can control them. Credibility is not something you can decide upon in a marketing board meeting. Credibility is something you have to earn by acting according to the community’s ethical standards. There is no way to maximize your earned media exposure without credibility. You can multiply your media spendings on the social web, but you will never ever earn positive word-of-mouth amplification, if you are not transparent, reliable and “lovable”. On the contrary you will experience the community backlash to be even more massive, if you are present with cheesy sponsored posts and sidebar ads right when your CEO claims that access to free water is not a human right. The real world is not about strategy, it’s about sincerity. Having to handle a so called “shitstorm”, or as I’d rather put it, a backlash, is probably an unpleasant task. The worst thing, that you can do though, while desperately trying to control it, is treating your Social Media channels as if they were “owned media” by cleaning your profile from unpleasant comments. You do not own your Facebook page. Your borrowed it from Facebook and Facebook borrowed it from the Facebook community. There’s no way you will get away with ignoring these facts and trying to persuade yourself, that you were in control. You are just a member of a self-cleaning community. This is the real world. Its inhabitants appreciate relevancy, credibility, transparency and having a voice. The first step to credibility is listening to their voice. Respect their opinion(s) and take them seriously. Hand over some control to them. There’s nothing you have to fear as long as you are relevant, credible and transparent. They will defend your brand against attacks without you having to intervene. They will sort out things with critics and you will after all benefit from the community being self-cleaning. If you’re not credible and transparent: Stay the hell away from the social web! 

To sum it up, here’s a short addition to the above to-do list especially for brand marketers/ advertising companies: 

Admit to yourself, that you are not in control

Take risks

Do not advertise on the social web - become a part of it

Be relevant

Be credible

Be transparent

Be sincere

Treat our planet with respect (and feel free to talk about it)

Obey ethical and moral standards (and feel free to talk about it) 

Inspire people

Be everything that you have not been over the last 70 years

And Finally: 

Try to get used to the fact, that it’s often people, that seem to know nothing about advertising and marketing, that can give you access to the real world. This world is full of constantly changing opportunities. Take your time to look at even the smallest entities, that shape the future and change our reality every single day. It is seldom the big time corporations that start revolutions. I was lucky enough to meet some of these lone wolves. Guys, that are part of the “critical mass”. Guys that make a difference (in marketing) even though they do not care about advertising and corporate brands. Guys, that care about people and how to inspire them. Lee Martin is one of these guys. I met Lee for the first time at the SoundCloud office in San Francisco. He had been working in the music industry for quite a while and joined SoundCloud as a creative hacker. I had already seen some of his builds on the SoundCloud blog and other developer sites and was truly impressed by his way of approaching, implementing and explaining things. Hence I was really excited to finally meet him in person. We quickly found common ground over a beer on the roof deck and so we hung out for Whiskey and beer for three nights in a row. He had published a “timed comments hack”, which in addition to the storywheel hack mentioned above inspired me to get a new perspective on advertising on SoundCloud. So I picked his brain and soon we found ourselves pitching random ideas, ready to change the world instantaneously...or rather on the next morning. After all we significantly changed one, wait, two things: My and his perspective on advertising and last year’s Whiskey sales revenue in The Mission District. We approached from different ends of the world. I had a pure standard media sales background, trying to calculate a cpm for everything and driving everyone at SoundCloud crazy by constantly talking about net reach, GRP and efficiency. Lee had worked in the entertainment industry, so he was all about engaging people, making them touch, feel and experience a product. He would have preferred five users that actually try out his build and experience the product over 1000 impressions. We somewhat met in the middle. For me this one and our later encounters were game-changing experiences, that had a real impact on the way I look at my business. Even though there’s definitely just one Lee Martin out there, there’s a whole bunch of creative beautiful minds, that know, how to be relevant and credible in the real world.

So, my last advice is: Look out for these people. Listen to them. Try to understand them. You don’t need consultants to tell you, how to optimize your social media campaigns. You need the guys, that actually build the world, you're trying to get comfortable with, to tell you how to create and present relevant and engaging content. You need to start thinking about contact quality in a different way. You need to stop thinking in terms of campaigns and start a consistent transparent dialogue, that really makes a difference for your consumers. Tear down the sidewalls of that good old media box. You will not harm your brand by taking the risk to follow these advices. You will harm your brand if you stick to buying media on the central market an keep on communicating like you used to. At least, this feels right to me. On the other hand I might just have crush on smart Cajuns wearing knitted kitten hats. 

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Deduction for relevancy and credibility // Of kitten hats and native ads (Part 7/8)

The truth is - and I would really love brand marketers to understand this: (Nearly) every relevant brand has relevant audio content. Relevant audio communication is not about audio ads. Relevant audio communication is not about creating branded playlists. Relevant audio communication is not about licensing songs of famous artists and putting your logo on it. Relevant audio content is about making the spirit of your brand be heard. It’s about triggering emotions. It’s about reaching your consumers hearts and minds. It’s about getting their attention by touching and inspiring them instead of drowning out competing noises. Give your brand a voice by using the sounds you’ve already got. What does your brand sound like? What is the tone and timbre of your company/ your service? What do you feel, when you talk about your brand with pride and compassion? What does the environment typically sound like, when your product is used? What do consumers feel, when they experience your brand? What is its impact on life? What are the objective benefits of your product? What are the flaws? Sounds like these are relevant. These sounds evoke emotions. They make you earn credibility, trust and finally love. Don’t try to talk people into buying your product. Make people talk about your product. Make people engage with your product and let them alter it - or at least the preset image. Allow them to change the context, to add their perspective. Let them get creative and don’t dictate how to handle your brand. You are not in control anymore anyway. Just admit it. 

I had a chat about this topic with a marketing director of a major global CPG company a couple of weeks ago. I told him, to let go. To just set some general “crash barriers” and allow some (selected) communities to play around with the brand, i.e. the brand’s content. According to my observations, people will more likely feel like they really “own” a brand, if they’re allowed to add their own personality to a brand experience. I must admit, that I was pretty cocky, when I further told him, that it was an illusion, that a marketing executive was in charge of his brand in the real world. You cannot control “the internet”, so why don’t you let “the internet” take some control and suit your brand communication and company policy to it. His reply was as disillusioning as predictable. It went something like this: “People do not own our brands. We own them. People interact with them, because we tell them to. If we want them to get creative with our brands, we tell them what to do and how to do it. Our marketing board ensures, that we make the right decisions on how our brands are perceived in the public. If people feel like they own our brands, it’s just because we want them to believe it. This is a result of longstanding experience and appropriate, highly professional branding. We are in full control. Always.” 

Well, as I said, the answer did not catch me off guard. For a moment I was tend to ask him, what exactly the marketing board had in mind, when they told people to be up in arms about their CEO’s latest thoughts on the world’s water resources, to complain about GMO in cereals and attack them for selling plastic bottles all over the company’s social channels. I seriously do not have enough information to judge on these topics, but all of this is proof enough, that they are everything but in control. They do not communicate. There is no visible community management, that is trained or entitled to actually manage the community. There is no content to engage with than trivia games and “share-this-if-you-...-posts”. According to some critical posts on their Facebook page, the only reaction on negative comments seems to be to delete them. I would have expected more from a company, that according to Reuters recently doubled its social media spendings and installed a “control center” in order to “win over a sometimes hostile world”. Oh, there it is again: control. Control the internet. This is some life’s work. Let me repeat: You cannot control “the internet”. You cannot control social networks. You cannot control the real world. If your company sells crappy products, people will find out and ask you to change it. If your company tries to file a global patent on a flower, people will find out and tell you to stop. If your company uses child labor to manufacture its products, people will find out and require you to alter the production. There is nothing you can do about it except for changing your behavior. 

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How a brand can become a part of SoundCloud // Of kitten hats and native ads (Part 6/8)

When we decided to roll out native advertising instead of running a trial with standard formats, we actually decided to not do advertising at all. We decided to invite brands to join the SoundCloud community and give them tools at hand, that make it easier for them to integrate, arouse attention and grow followers. The general user experience though should be pretty much the same that it is for “regular” creators using the platform. In the process of creating, evaluating and discarding these tools, we were anxious to let everything appear as an organic evolution, a reasonable progression of the product. We needed to find formats and features that give our partners extra exposure without harming the UX. As often happens, we came to the conclusion, that our very first thought had actually been the best one: Let’s not add something new, let’s use the tools, that we already have and enhance them. Let’s learn from our community how they use the platform to make themselves heard. Let’s take a closer look at where plays, likes, reposts and followers actually come from and leverage these learnings for new and existing partners. The result is as simple as compelling, but it came with a challenge: We had to build a business model on processes and formats that we were familiar with, but had never been monetized before. To cut this short: It will work, but it still is a long way to go. When we launched our so called ProPartner Program, it was embraced by the press as well as by our launch partners. 

Sound has a unique power to trigger emotions. Coupled with the right images, shown at the right moments during a track, the new visual tool has the potential to greatly bolster engagement, takeaway, social shares, and for Pro Parters that get creative--revenue. Fast Company, March 11, 2013

The tech biz loves revolutions and we started one. We invented a new advertising format based on storywheel.cc which was initially built by Johannes Wagener and Katharina Birkenbach, unleashing a great feature, that already had been living quietly in the SoundCloud API for a couple of years. This “eye-catcher” is only the tip of the iceberg though. A tool that enables brands to create slideshows based on a sound and embed them in the regular SoundCloud experience. Here’s some examples: www.soundcloud.com/msdemos 

Just to make this perfectly clear, we’re not talking video. It’s always sound first, visuals second. Still the underlying track alone has to have the power to trigger emotions. The visuals only serve to enhance the experience or address an additional sense, if you like to put it that way. The real power of the ProPartner program lies under the surface though. It’s in the small features, buttons and processes that you take for granted, when you are familiar with a platform. These offer a whole lot of opportunities for brands, that want to start a dialogue with SoundCloud’s unique community. 

Everyone can record sound

It’s way easier to create audio, that sounds good, than shooting a video. Furthermore audio is the more intimate, more emotional experience, and it’s just a push of a button away. It really is as easy as this. So as you need to provide content to be relevant in the real world anyway, why don’t you give audio a try? Funny thing is, that most of the brands I talked to directly initially say: “This is pretty awesome, but wait, we don’t have any audio content.” Then they usually start thinking and realize, that they have tons of audio content, but never thought about using it before. There has been this social media manager of a major sports brand, who, after constantly denying the existence of audio content in his company’s archives for at least 10 minutes, suddenly realized, that they own the rights for hundreds of interviews with famous sports stars going back to the 1950s. Well, that’s what I call relevant audio content. I also recall a marketing manager working for a manufacturer of famous sunglasses, telling me, they only had video content like “this awesome feature with famous actors and musicians talking about their shades”. I was just about to ask him, if the “awesome feature” maybe had a soundtrack in order to understand what the guys interviewed were actually saying. when the penny finally dropped. 

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THE LIST // Of kitten hats and native ads (Part 5/8)

They believe, they’re thinking outside the box, but they haven’t even knocked against the sidewalls. (Part 5/8)

The standard question still is (after evaluating a plan with inadequate tools and benchmarks): “What’s in for us? How can we make this more profitable for the agency?” Even after 10 years in the media business I am still amazed by the amount of profit-centered short-sightedness you’re confronted with, when trying to negotiate a media plan with a network agency. There are exceptions of course. There always are. There are independent digital buying agencies, that are willing to leave the beaten paths and even take risks for the sake of their clients. There are some digital agencies, that do a good job at being ahead of the game, even though they’re part of a global network. The problem is, these small entities only seldom account for budgets that are big enough to keep all your company’s staff well fed and living in permanent residences. The game has to change for brands as well as for up-to-date media vendors. There are at least 20 things, big agencies and traditional marketers have to learn, in order to deliver top-notch service again:

The virtual world is the real world.

You do not determine, how to “activate” a community - the community decides, if you are allowed to become a part of it. 

Your product does not change the community - the community will change your product. 

When you talk to your customers, you should be ready to stand the echo and get back to them again. Communication today is not about campaigning, but constant, respectful dialogue. 

You have to buy media in order to earn media, but the key to more earned media is not just more bought media. 

Content is king. Amen. 

Standard ads will not give your client access to the communities you should long for. 

Standard ads do not make your client interesting, becoming a publisher instead of an advertiser does. 

If you decide to book a campaign, that is based on publishing content, it makes sense to have content, a plan of production and an editorial schedule, not just a neat idea and a tagline. 

Function and environment dictate the format not the IAB.

Impressions are not about quantity but quality.

Your media metrics validity in the real world (see 1) has expired. 

Stop optimizing the eCPM or even the GRP, start optimizing the results for your  client. 

Stop taking your clients for fools. Involve them, teach them and encourage them to break your outdated media commandments. It’s about time. 

If your system cannot measure the real world, don’t try to change the world.  Build a new system.

If you’re not willing to talk to the guys over at the (digital) creative agency, hire some developers and designers, who understand the real world and can adopt your campaign to it. On the other hand, it might be more efficient to just call these weird creative bohemians once in a while...

A tacky product stays a tacky product stays a tacky product. The days of selling a pig in a poke are over. 

Be transparent, honest and respectful towards your clients and consumers. 

Always listen to young people. 

Layer ads suck big time. 

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Audio is the new video // Of kitten hats and native ads (Part 4/8)

I am not saying, that it is not possible to inspire people with audio advertising. 

I am just saying, the vast majority of audio ads I have heard so far do not even inspire a dog to poop. This is quite a shame, as consuming with your ears gets more important, the more mobile our lives become. There’s a whole bunch of studies on this topic, the most recent I know is this one: http://blogs.forrester.com/anthony_mullen/13-07-31-avoid_the_visual_clutter_and_go_for_in_stream_audio_advertising. 

As far as I am concerned I do not need a study to proof the obvious: The more time we spend on the move, the less time we have to actually look at something for more than 30 seconds. The more time we spend outsides, the more visual impressions we get. People, cars, billboards, signs, magazines, stickers are all over the place. All of these blend into a visual white noise with no particular message standing out. Consuming audio on your smartphone for example protects you from all other noise there is around you. What you hear is in your head, set apart from the street noise, the people talking around you et cetera. Audio books are on a continuous rise, because they are convenient and you are less disrupted, when hearing instead of trying to read while standing in a crowded subway. On a side note: I chose the verb “hear” instead of “listen” on purpose, because you do not even have to make an effort to follow and understand the voice, talking in your head. Mobile music consumption is growing as well, and this is just as little a surprise. Putting headphones on is basically the only way to regain a portion of privacy, when in a public place. It is like wearing blinders, that do not narrow your sight, but save your brain from being overchallenged with all the information and noise it is confronted with. 

Your cell phone is your portable home, your safe harbor to go. 

You are operating it with your voice to keep your hands free and it is talking back, providing you with audio information, putting through phone calls, voice-navigating you through the city and entertaining you with audio and music. If the future is mobile, the future is audio. What the future is not, is audio ads. At least not in the way, we know them today. The future is about targeted relevant information (content), when I need it and where I need it. The future is about transparency, about doing yourself good, doing the planet good (if affordable), being in the position as a consumer to evaluate and compare, telling a brand what you need, getting tailored service in return, saving time and last and definitely least saving money. The future is not about bargains. It is about faith. It is about being perceived as a mature consumer and rather owning a brand than being put under pressure by one. It’s not you, who tells me, what I have to buy. It’s me who tells you, what you have to sell. It’s a dialogue. It’s not a dictate. Producers of audio ads still seem to be caught in a weird 1950’s advertising philosophy though:

“We tell you, what to buy. If you don’t buy it right away, we apply more pressure. We annoy the shit out of you until your brain boils over and you get your friggin’ windshield fixed, even though you don’t even have a car!”

Well, this probably still works for a good amount of people. The so called mass market. (Which is by the way one of the most disrespectful phrases ever invented) It does not work for the people, the communities, I described above. It does not work for peers, for multipliers, for early adopters, variety seekers, millennials or whatever names these precious target groups, marketeers are keen to reach, might have. You cannot apply the same old media schemes if you want to impress this audience or even interact with it. It’s like trying to force a 6-speed manual gearbox into ‘D’. Apparently there is no ‘D’ anymore, no auto-pilot, no copy and paste of your traditional media plans. 

If you are just about to put me off right now, thinking I am stating the obvious, you have either not dealt with a media network recently or are working for one. Media networks are still trying to squeeze native engagement campaigns in 1980’s rfps, urging site owners and social media vendors to apply specifications, traded wordings and creative (standard) dimensions, that just do not fit the purpose. 

[digthismedia]

The Critical Mass // Of kitten hats and native ads (Part 3/8)

A “critical mass” is usually defined as “a mass of people you need in order to achieve a certain goal”. The “critical mass”, that just rocketed SoundCloud into the Top 10 of the fastest growing sites in the US, derives its name from “being critical” as well. Critical in a positive sense. Critical in terms of being mature and self-confident, not just about creation and how creation is dealt with on ‘their’ social audio site, but about freedom of choice in their audio- (i.e. media-) consumption. Frankly the users’ identification with the platform frightened me in the beginning and I still have the deepest respect for the community-team, dealing with a 7-figures number of visitors and  “shareholders” each day. 

Users feeling like being a part of and therefore “owning” a platform, is obviously one of the most tangible external signals for having built a real social network. Something that matters. Something people care about, and thus complain the shit out of you, as soon as you change the color of a button, the shape of a visual or even the terms of service. From this state of identification, it’s only a small step to “becoming a verb” and thus ascending to social media Olympus. Don’t get me wrong: This is a good thing. This is actually the best thing, that can ever happen to you, if you’re able to deal with it, take the critics seriously and treat everyone who soundclouds as an eye-level partner, when deploying new features or even re-launching the whole site, like SoundCloud did in October 2012. 

SoundCloud is a role model for companies that grow by treating their community members with all the respect and love they deserve and constantly improving the product in order to make it even more compelling and user friendly...whilst having the marketing guys locked down in the basement.

All the joy does (of course) come with a challenge: How do you implement a functional and profitable US advertising model on a site, which has been ad free for 5 years and is “owned” by the most critical, “hardest to get” (and therefore most desirable) audience you can imagine. It took us only from December 11 to December 12 to finally decide, which formats to start with. Seriously, regarding the complexity of the general task and the risk, which might be higher than the potential gain (you might remember, there was a MySpace before JT), it was a fast, extremely dynamic and intense process. In a regular old-economy company, the protagonists would have given up half way and turned their minds towards a new scope like selling t-shirts or starting one of these good old printed lifestyle magazines. 

There are basically two poles, that matter and in between which the project’s shareholders’ convictions and hearts gravitate.

  1. Standardization

pros: quick start, hook up to network, least effort for agencies, no need for sales- team

cons: low cpms, no control, potentially huge community backlash,

2. Native Advertising

pros: organic evolution, less community backlash, no pricing dictate, full control

cons: slow start (“evangelize” market first), biggest effort for agencies, in-house sales-team needed

A brave call

After weighing all pros and cons, creating myriads of mock ups, calculating countless business cases and gathering megabytes of intel from all available sources, we finally made a simple, but brave decision: Let’s do it our own way. The SoundCloud way. 

Well, you might ask what the hell this means. SoundCloud’s VP Community once put it in a handy phrase: “We act as custodians to a community that we haven’t built, rather that has built itself. We are inviting brands into the mix to come and play.” Still everyone has to play by the community’s rules and all members are equal, regardless whether their names are Skrillex, CJLea or Red Bull. On this understanding our offer quickly took shape - at least from a philosophical point of view: Like everyone else, who is interested in sound, brands can become a part of the SoundCloud community to inspire other creators, be inspired by them, create and share original sound and even get famous. Regarding inspiration and fame brands and artists are not that different. Both need to touch people’s hearts or minds in order to to become relevant parts of their lives. 

Making yourself heard is not about being the loudest speaker or playing the biggest drum set. It’s about inspiring someone to listen, not about forcing him to. 

“The real fact of the matter is that nobody reads ads. People read what interests them and sometimes it’s an ad.” - Howard L. Gossage 

As a matter of fact, people don't listen to stuff, that doesn't interest them either. Some might say, native advertising on the world’s leading sound platform had to be audio advertising. Seriously...it does not. Native advertising, or let’s say “native communication” within in a community driven by sound is in deed audio (based), but it is not necessarily audio ads. Imagine a community of sound creators, sound lovers, sound experts and other (as I mentioned above) critical enthusiasts being shouted at to “Buy Michigan’s cheapest car insurance”. After having been forced to ear-witness a fake agent getting hysterical about “the lowest rate in the whole state” for the fifth time, 1% of the victims might even decide to sign in order to be left alone again. 99% would probably delete their account and try to cope with MySpace’s horizontal scrolling and get themselves excited about “Justin Bieber getting naked for his Grandma”. Well, on a second thought, maybe they wouldn’t. What they definitely would do though is lose their faith in the guys who “act as custodians” to the community and subsequently the community itself. The nature of a community always is, that it is self-cleaning. If you force someone or something on to the community, that cannot be swept, you damage the community’s main functionality. This means - stated in a positive way - if a message or a piece of content shall live and grow within the community, it has to be accepted and supported. It has to be inspiring. 

[digthismedia]

Of kitten hats and native ads // My lessons learned from 20 months of ADventure (Part 2/8)

Day #1

When I first arrived at the SoundCloud offices in Berlin in 2011, I was stunned and insecure at the same time. Stunned by the warm welcome, the tangible spirit of common bond and equality amongst all team-members and the attitude of changing the world “no matter what”. My partial insecurity was mainly caused by two facts: 1. There were no landline phone, but LEGO bricks spread all over the twelve IKEA tables. 2. I was supposed to implement a scope of business on the US market, which I knew most of my new colleagues wouldn’t have too much love for: Advertising. 

One significant situation, that occurred on my first regular work day is still haunting my mind: I was walked around the office by Eliot from HR. The small space was already bursting at the seams. Back then we were 75 working in two offices - Base on Rosenthaler- and Re-Base on Gormannstraße. My initial workspace - an ale-bench in Alex’s and Marc’s office - was located on 2nd floor in Re-Base. On the ground floor, accessible through our rentors’ kitchen only, was a place called “the dungeon”. A dark place, with it’s much maligned inhabitants hardly seeing the sun even on the brightest summer day. I was intimidated by the overwhelming sadness, that crawled towards me from the dungeon’s maw. Nonetheless I dared to ask Eliot, what these pitiful creatures’ task was. “Marketing”, he whispered with his eyes nervously flickering, making sure not to draw attention towards him. “Marketing”... The word echoed in my mind. “These are my people”, I thought and my spirits revived. I took courage, plunged into darkness and introduced myself: “Hi there, I am Chris. I am dealing with advertising issues.” After two seconds of perfect silence a toneless, coarse voice replied from the murkiest corner of the room:

“We don’t have advertising, so we don’t have issues.” 

What sounds like a rather mediocre start of my ad-venture, turned out to become an important guideline for my next twelve months’ work. I started doing extensive US advertising- and tech-market research, gathered intel from those who were (probably) best in class (google, twitter, tumblr, Facebook), learned a lot about ad-networks (most of them suck) and pricing models (simplicity still beats flexibility) and met with a bunch of inspiring people who reflected on and helped me iterating my own thoughts and interim models. Yet most importantly I was able to dive into and understand the sheer beauty and genius of SoundCloud.

“We put product first, product second and product third, so we don’t have issues”, would be the correct interpretation of the quote above.

The approach, even though hard to handle from a marketing perspective on the first glance, makes the decisive difference, when comparing SoundCloud to other sites, that are dealing with audio and music content. Whilst most other tech companies in this space have grown (or at least have been trying to grow) by spending millions of dollars on marketing campaigns featuring billboards on Times Square and Melrose Avenue or giving away sports cars at CES, SoundCloud put their money in building an awesome, reliable product, which has increased its audience by 60% since April 2012 (unique visitors/ month, source: Comscore).

With the current product having evolved from a platform, that was built to enable musicians to collaborate over a distance by up- and downloading stems and songs, exchange their thoughts by using the timed comments and make contact with the music biz, the SoundCloud community today is probably the purest and largest pool of creative, tech-savvy, taste-making audio-/music-producers and -connoisseurs in the world. 

[digthismedia]

We proudly announce that DigThis Media joined team illphonics tonight. We’ve been constantly looking for thrilling partners in the music and entertainment space to round out our portfolio. Hence we feel greatly honored to get the opportunity to act as official European representatives of the...

[digthismedia]

We dig illphonics

We proudly announce that DigThis Media joined team illphonics tonight. We've been constantly looking for thrilling partners in the music and entertainment space to round out our portfolio. Hence we feel greatly honored to get the opportunity to act as official European representatives of the highly awarded St Louis based HipHop fusion pioneers. Stay tuned for updates and the full story. In the meantime check out "Love's a Bitch" taken from illphonics' awesome self titled 2013 debut album: 

[digthismedia]

The online marketing pros of dmexco know, how to run engaging campaigns. Now this is what "Leading the global digital industry" is about...got it. Did someone say banner ads were dead?! How dare you...

[digthismedia]

Of kitten hats and native ads // My lessons learned from 20 months of ADventure

Prologue (Part I/VIII)

I started out writing this article a couple of weeks ago, willing to author a piece on my time with SoundCloud. I wanted to put down the last 20 months that probably were the most exciting yet most painful of my professional life. I wanted to get all the stuff I learned, all the things I was allowed to experience out of my system. Sort out things. Explain, what I was doing, when I was undercover, not tangible for the world, separated from my social life. (At least that's what it felt like apart from all the gladness that comes along with making new friends and meeting barnstorming thinkers and innovators.) I wanted to write a piece on what we have achieved, about our fights, our struggles, the spectacular launch at SXSW, where Snoop Lion, The Dream, Bobby Valentino and Usher crashed our party at the boathouse. I wanted to boast. I wanted to shout out, what I have been spending my last 1.5 years on, because I am unbearably proud of it. I wanted to lay out how I presented at the major media networks’ headquarters in New York, met up and brainstormed with the cool digital creative guys in Los Angeles and San Francisco, learned how to operate a weed vaporizer at a twitter party in Las Vegas and was finally accursed by a Sushi Chef in West Hollywood, when recovering from yet another fight against online advertising myths.

I wanted to share the joy that comes along with launching a unique native ad product and the challenge you face, when sales turns into evangelization. I wanted to tell the story of a road trip from tech heaven to media hell and back, starring Planning Directors, who want to believe, but are held prisoners by outdated media commandments and archaic evaluation tools; Brand Marketers, who do not dare to give in to their gut instincts, Creative Directors, who have to corrupt brilliant ideas due to the data fetichists‘ ongoing dictate, and finally: the guys, who do everything right, the ones that overcome traditional media superstition and therefore are way ahead of the game. The ones that will soon overthrow the tired of office oligarchs, because they dig the nature of 21st century communication. Because they grasp that relevancy and impact cannot be found in a pivot table, that excellence cannot be gauged with cpms and grps, and that inspiring fifty people is more valuable than shouting at a thousand. 

Seven pages later, I realized, that I was writing about something completely different. I suddenly found myself thinking about the state of advertising in general and audio advertising in particular. So, this tractate was once supposed to be about SoundCloud, but it is not. It’s just about me, my takeaways from one of the greatest challenges I have ever faced and the alarming imbalance of our business these days. 

In favor of reading pleasure I decided to split the text into eight parts, which I will publish on a daily basis, starting today.  No rocket science, just good clean fun. In case you want to keep track of the whole story, it might make sense, if you followed one of my tumblrs, which are cjlea.tumblr.com and digthismedia.tumblr.com, or liked https://www.facebook.com/digthismedia. Just saying. Well, enjoy then. 

[digthismedia]

Project Noise // Sennheiser UK

Yet another great campaign utilizing SoundCloud is coming your way - at least, if you are in the UK. Sennheiser teamed up with London based producer Labrinth to bring you Project Noise, an exciting collaborative approach to creating new music. 

DigThis Media advised executive agency Billington Cartmell on how to leverage SoundCloud.com and the SoundCloud API the best way possible regarding campaign assignments and user experience.

As Sennheiser UK already has a decent number of Facebook fans, their corporate timeline and a Facebook APP are supposed to be the hub, where the promotion starts, submissions are showcased and users interact with sounds/ tracks. In order to implement a seamless sound-driven campaign on all of their social channels and guarantee maximum 'shareability', i.e. amplification, of the content, using SoundCloud sure was the right (and only) choice. After going back and forth on the various ways to record, upload and share sounds using the social sound platform's API, we finally decided on the most traditional, yet easiest way, which is sharing by e-mail. Even though this implies some moderation effort on BC's end, the solution provides them with maximum control and minimum susceptibility to errors. In order to streamline the user journey they created a Facebook APP, which makes use of standard SoundCloud features and guides fans, who like to contribute, through the process. The result is a perfect example of 'community-sourcing' your corporate sound on the social web. Why buy expensive licenses and associate your products with random music, if you can rather produce something unique in collaboration with your fans? The technology to make it happen is already out there, you just have to know how to use it.

As a side effect, the SoundCloud HTML5-widget provides Sennheiser with some extra branding, whenever a Project Noise sound is shared. Just mouse over the cover artwork above and see the magic. 

Btw...if you happen to seek a cool digital creative agency in the UK, you should check out Billington Cartmell. These guys rock! 

[digthismedia]

Levi's #makeourmark

After months of negotiations and preparation Levi's #makeourmark campaign finally launched on SoundCloud last Friday. The remix contest is part of the public arts project Station To Station, which is currently happening in the US, made possible by Levi's. DigThis Media acquired the campaign for SoundCloud in cooperation with SF-based agency nativ.ly. Executive agencies for Levi's are OMD and AKQA. It was a huge effort to tie up all ends and shape the contest's userflow and the promotion media, so I am relieved and a little bit proud to see the campaign finally come to life.

The "raw material" for the remix contest is automatically uploaded from web enabled instruments installed on the STS train. In addition to these sounds, Pitchfork contributes "sparks" created by collaborating artists. SoundCloud Creators, who want to participate download the sounds from the #makeourmark ProPartner Profile and upload their submissions to the corresponding groups, which are used as "dropboxes".  In order to promote the contest within the SoundCloud community, OMD booked profile- sound- and dashbox-promotion. 

Levi's #makeourmark marks the end of DigThis Media's intensive work for SoundCloud. I created, implemented and finally launched the brand revenue program "Pro Partner" with them and acquired first partners such as Red Bull, The Grammy's and Levi's. Now that a sales infrastructure in the US has been installed and all sales-business has been committed, it is time to move on. It has been a pleasure and a great opportunity to work for such an awesome company. I'm looking forward to seeing the ProPartner Program thrive with more brands discovering the power of sound in general and the beauty of SoundCloud in particular. 

[digthismedia]

Heute neu und nicht überraschend. Trotzdem wie immer einen Blick wert. 

[norsksoul]

23. Juli, 14:45, Limburg, Es ist ein Junge, hurra! Wenn ich noch ein lustiges Royal Baby Bild von irgendeinem Markenartikler sehe, der denkt, er hätte Social Media verstanden, muss ich kotzen. Habe gerade den Twitter-Trend in UK gesehen. Die Tatsache, dass Beyonces Haare sich im Ventilator...