Kookmeyer Institute

Research company ExactTarget recently asked punters why they ‘like’ brands on Facebook. The key motivator turned out to be discounts, followed by social badging and freebies. I have a sneaky feeling the whole report has been done in Dutch. I don’t know any Dutch. But the bar graph is pretty easy to understand. And Lauren Bianchi’s translation of the commentary by (Dutch firm) SocialMediaConsultancy is definitely worth a quick read.

‘Viral marketing hotdog’ Jonah Peretti has spoken and the word from on high is that viral success can be yours in five (5!) simple steps. You might remember Jonah from the Nike sweatshop emails in which he tried to get the word ‘sweatshop’ stitched on his Nike iD sneakers (classic!). He’s also the founder of BuzzFeed and The Huffington Post. Jonah likes to target what he calls the ‘Bored at work network’ who will pass on almost anything remotely interesting. If you ask me, the secret is coming up with something extremely dumb that will appeal to the lowest common denominator. A woman I know created a video of gingerbread men doing the haka in an oven – and it got over five million views (5 million!). Case closed.

Jonah Peretti Viral Meetup Talk

Quote unquote, “Lingering longer than a kiss under the mistletoe and more useful than a dodgy jumper, Most Contagious 2009 is our free review of the most talked-about trends and technologies to have influenced global marketing over the past 12 months. Unlike H1N1, feel free to pass on.” Everything in it is really strong, except maybe the Puma Index, which for me is too unrelated (sportswear/stock market). If your agency doesn’t subscribe to Contagious – it’s only £985 per annum – you may as well dump it and call the Kookmeyer Institute. We’ve never had this magazine but at least  you won’t be paying all those ‘expensive agency overheads’.

More essential reading from Razorfish on the way consumers engage with brands in the digital world. One of the most interesting findings was that 44% of ‘connected consumers’ follow a brand on Twitter for exclusive deals or offers. In the words of the authors, “The myth of marketing-free social spaces is just that.” I guess this explains Dell’s amazing success on the site. It also re-affirms to me that there is no one recipe for success on Twitter – you need a mish-mash of offers, insights, breaking news, engagement and customer service delivered in a more friendly way than most corporate comms. What might work for one brand might not for another.

You know, we get a lot of email from people, clients and agencies, guys like Fred Wilson and the dairy owner next door, all asking about the state of play in social media right now. Our standard reply is, “Give us $5,000 and we’ll look into it.” But now, thanks to an email from Andy Monk at the NZRB, I can point them to “The State of Social Media” and they don’t have to spend a cent. It’s the executive summary of a new report put out by MarketingProfs, which is worth a quick flick through. These guys have interviewed 5,000 marketers so the sample size is pretty good. Pre-order the  full report – all 200 pages – before 30 November and you can SAVE US$200!

Small to medium sized business owners rejoice: it’s normal not to get 100% open rates from your email campaigns. If you need proof, take a look at this report from Sign-Up.To, which breaks down open rates, clicks and unsubscribes by business sector in the UK.

Attention all brands that strive to do rather than push: Razorfish has released its latest social influence marketing survey, which you can download now. The 58-page document makes great bedtime reading for valuable insights into a number of issues:

• Can Social Ads Do Better Than Display Ads?
• Viral Marketing through Social: No Free Lunch
• Have Social Graph, Will Travel
• Social Media: The Last Quarter Mile of Customer Relationship Management
• Ten Ways to Make the Twitterverse Work for You