Viva La Revolución

ALTERED STATES

Shana Ting Lipton of The Huffington Post writes...

For today's geo-quiz, as NPR has been known to phrase it, we're looking for a country that is fast adopting the four-day work week. Gas prices are high, so people are buying smaller cars, even as petite as the SMART car and the Austin Mini. Though this nation is still one of the leading economies in the world, they're starting to look like a sloppy second or third compared to other growing nations. And soon they'll all be drinking Belgian beer.

Where are we? All evidence would seem to point to Western Europe, yet oddly enough the above describes the state of a millennial era United States. It seems as though, the U.S. has inadvertently received a European makeover. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama has even made the long overdue suggestion that maybe Americans should bother learning another language or two so that when they travel abroad they're able to say a few respectful phrases in native tongue. Lucky for those lazy linguists among us, few Americans can afford to go to Europe these days. They'll just have to settle for imitation as the sincerest and most ersatz form of flattery: the faux Eiffel Tower at Paris Vegas.

It's a pity that John Kerry isn't running for president in '08 because maybe in the wake of this Euro-tinted era, his alleged "Frenchness" would resonate with voters.

The latest news of Anheuser-Busch being purchased by Belgian brewer InBev has a lot of red-blooded (and red-faced, ahem Lou Dobbs) countrymen up in arms. The King of Beers might as well already be dubbed, Le Roi de Bières. InBev is buying the company for about €32 billion Euros. That's $52 billion dollars for anyone who cares to know what that is in chump change, or what I like to call the U.S. Peso. For God's sake, even rap artist Jay-Z's hip to that--he flashes Euros NOT Dollars in his video "Blue Magic."

And of course THEY are flashing those Euros all over town, buying up hot property like New York's Flatiron building--while we Americans, especially Californians, suffer in the wake of a real estate meltdown. At least we can be proud of our 'country within a country'--Google--which continues to keep us relevant. Silicon Valley may in fact be all we've got. The rising price of doing business in the Irish "Valley" has even forced I.T. giants like Dell to make large cutbacks on European operations.

Essentially Europe and just about every country that's NOT the U.S. has become increasingly culturally and economically relevant. One need not read the tome-du-jour The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria to notice that all things non-American are it.

 

Just a few months ago, the New York Times proclaimed Indian contemporary art a hot commodity on the heels of Chinese art's years-long boom. The Japanese can boast that Toyota is the world's largest auto maker thanks to their foresight with the Prius (a brand name practically synonymous with 'hybrid'). Reva, a company in Bangalore, that's Bangalore India, folks, is the leading global producer of electric vehicles. But just wait until 2009 when Norway introduces the Th!nk EV to the U.S. Sure, we've got the Silicon Valley-birthed Tesla Roadster--but typical of our 'no bling left behind' nation--it's a flashy sports car few regular working Joe's could afford (at 100k per vehicle).

As a sort of bridge between East and West, Europe in particular is experiencing a new financial AND cultural Golden Age. When some ECO-nomists sing the praises of hydrogen to solve our energy problems, they're singing an old tune that the French and Icelandic have been playing for years--making them time-tested experts on fertile ground. Even Amsterdam is enjoying a renaissance. The petite North Sea city is the advertising industry's little darling hot spot. Dutch boutique agencies like 180 and Strawberry Frog have already opened up offices in New York and L.A.

Don't get me wrong. American has also recently influenced Europe. Let's not forget the smoking ban. That sure squelched some indigenous culture in the City of Lights, yeah!

I recently took a trip back to Amsterdam (where I had lived for four years). I was looking to reconnect with old friends and to drum up business that could actually earn me pay in a currency of value. Were it not for the kindness and generosity of my local acquaintances, I might have been traumatized by large expenditures--like buying a sandwich. I will never forget the pitying look on their faces as they offered to pick up bill after bill--breakfast, lunch and dinner. I felt like a gypsy pauper who had just asked them if they could spare some change. Yet, there was something right about this 'oh so wrong' feeling. It was addressing the imbalance that had been in play for decades with America cast as the 'popular kid' and all other nations just lowly geeks attempting to catch a smile or a wave from the big man on campus.

Years ago, I was in Hong Kong for my cousin's wedding and this very topic came up--America's slippage to second or third place. A successful New York businessman chimed in that it wouldn't be the end of the world--we'd get used to not always being #1 and maybe it would even make us a happier nation. His prescient words ring truer today than ever for me.

As a dual European/American citizen--who was born in London, grew up in L.A., went to French school, American university and Dutch grad school--it's not that I want Europe to make mince meat of the U.S. That would be as stupid as fighting myself. I'm just suggesting that we take this opportunity--this coffee break (and we love those)--to reframe and get a little perspective. When you don't have to be #1 there is a lot of freedom: freedom to enjoy one-month vacations, and freedom to sit back in a café for hours, drinking Belgian beer, chatting with strangers, (NOT smoking your Gitanes)...taking it all in and living a slow-paced, well-balanced, healthy life.

STRAWBERRYFROG LOOKS FOR LILY PAD IN INDIA

Savia Jane Pinto | afaqs! | Mumbai, July 15, 2008

India seems to be on everyone’s radar these days. StrawberryFrog, the independent full service agency that is best known for its global work on Heineken, plans to start operations in Mumbai in 2009.

This isn’t StrawberryFrog’s maiden venture on Indian terrain. The agency was responsible for the launch of the Mahindra & Mahindra vehicles, including the Scorpio, in the US market. It has also done some work for the NGO, Nanhi Kali.

StrawberryFrog is now known to be in talks with marketing professionals from top Indian agencies. It is looking at various structures in order to start operations in the country, including individuals who will build the business from scratch and partnerships.

In an email interview with afaqs!, founder and chief executive officer Scott Goodson revealed the recent happenings at StrawberryFrog.

Scott Goodson

Why is StrawberryFrog looking at India now? Goodson says, “We just don’t think that the systems of traditional holding company agencies are the systems for the future. They are outdated and were developed for a very different era. That era has changed dramatically in most parts of the world and it is changing in India too, especially for GenY.”

Goodson wants to tap the talent in India for the agency’s global clients. He is looking at engaging Indian talent for StrawberryFrog in the US and other markets. He says, “We want to work together on fantastic briefs for the US, Europe and India. StrawberryFrog Mumbai will mean connecting with a totally new amazing group of driven thinkers, who think big and fresh.”

Another reason that StrawberryFrog is setting up shop in India now is because it is focusing on helping Indian companies launch their brands and build their market in the US, Europe and South America and also bringing European and Brazilian brands into the Indian and Asian markets.

Speaking about competition in the form of BBH and Naked Communications, which will also be coming to India soon, Goodson says, “We don’t really compete with them. India is a big market. There is room for all sorts of brands. It will depend on what the clients are looking for.”

He says that unlike BBH and Naked, which are owned by holding companies that are far away, StrawberryFrog is independent and StrawberryFrog Mumbai will be part owned by its Indian partners. So, the decisions for StrawberryFrog Mumbai will be taken in Mumbai, where people on the ground have a much better sense of what’s going on.

The team hasn’t been put in place as yet. “It will be an entirely Indian team, which will be educated and trained in the processes and systems of StrawberryFrog,” says Goodson. He says he is looking for someone who wants to be free from shackles to think really big.

StrawberryFrog will differentiate itself from other agencies with its Cultural Movements process. Cultural Movement is a strategy designed for clients, where, instead of developing a brand idea, then communication, then taking it outside to the consumer, you first identify or look outside for a big social change and use that to develop an idea. With a Cultural Movement set in place, “you can do anything in this age of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Orkut,” says Goodson.

Another aspect that will set StrawberryFrog apart from the other agencies, says Goodson, is the system of the legacy agencies. He says. “The talent inside the traditional corporate network dinosaurs is very good, but the systems of the legacy agencies hold them back. StrawberryFrog will give strategic and creative thinkers the freedom to do business building work.” The age old structure of the legacy agencies is devised to weed out people who think too freely. StrawberryFrog intends to tackle its competition by out-thinking them versus outspending them.

StrawberryFrog has a presence in New York. Recently, it also entered the Brazilian market with an office in Sao Paolo. “The market in Brazil is not very different from that in India,” says Goodson. Important accounts that StrawberryFrog has worked on are PepsiCo, P&G, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart and Microsoft.

HOW TO MAKE ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE COOL

David Leonard, senior writer CNNMoney.com

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- It was too weird to be true. In late 2006, a series of videos appeared on YouTube about a Willow Springs, Ill., resident named Kyle Bone who'd created a successful product called "the anti-shirt" - a shirt that exposed the area of one's torso that a normal tee shirt would cover and revealed the area that would otherwise be exposed. In short, said Bone, it cured the age-old problem of "farmer's tan."

Viewers who investigated Bone's site found a link to another site, www.ideawins.com, where they could enter an American Idol-like search for the best small business idea in America. And, oh, they would also download a free copy of Microsoft Office Accounting.

As you've probably guessed, Bone doesn't actually exist. He was invented by StrawberryFrog, a ten-year-old ad agency based in New York City. StrawberryFrog is one of those small, self-styled renegade shops like Mother, Brooklyn Brothers, and Our Man in Havana that big companies call when they are having trouble moving products and don't feel they are getting results from their large agencies.

Thanks to StrawberryFrog, more than two million people have downloaded the free version of the accounting software. (The company won't disclose how many users have upgraded to the paid version, but it claims the number was substantial.) Meanwhile, the agency's campaign was short-listed for a prestigious Lion award in June at the 2008 Cannes International Advertising Festival. "StrawberryFrog hasn't been around that long," says Jane Bedford, founder of The Bedford Group, a consulting firm that helps large corporations select ad agencies. "But they are very well known for their creative work and their digital skills."

In this case, Microsoft (MSFT, Fortune 500) was struggling to sell software to small business owners. According to the research firm IDC, Microsoft had a mere 3% share of the accounting software market for U.S. companies with fewer than 100 employees. Its largest competitor, Intuit's (INTU) QuickBooks, enjoyed a 24% share.

These are not the kind of numbers that warm the heart of Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO. So Microsoft snubbed its longtime agency, the Interpublic Group's McCann-Erickson Worldwide, and turned to StrawberryFrog to craft one of its signature out-of-the-box campaigns for Office Accounting.

The people at StrawberryFrog say they don't do traditional ad campaigns. They prefer to say they craft "cultural movements" for their clients, which include such blue-chip names as PepsiCo Frito Lay, Morgan Stanley, Procter & Gamble (PG, Fortune 500) and Disney (DIS, Fortune 500). By this, the agency means, it strives to come up with ideas that get consumers talking on Facebook, posting videos on YouTube and twittering with each other on their cell phones. "We have to stop thinking about only selling a product and instead think about activating a massive virtual community," says StrawberryFrog founder and CEO Scott Goodson.

Microsoft and StrawberryFrog decided early on that it would be difficult to get small business owners who were already using QuickBooks to go through the hassle of moving all their data from one accounting program to another. Instead, they targeted small entrepreneurs who might not be using accounting software at all. "We noticed a lot of small business owners were doing their accounting in a very old fashioned and sub-optimal way," says Paul Prokop, group product manager for Microsoft Office Accounting. "They were sticking Post-Its on their computers. They were keeping records in shoeboxes."

Not surprisingly, StrawberryFrog discovered these potential customers weren't interesting in talking about crunching numbers. They much preferred talking about business ideas. The ad agency and the software giant decided to tap into their zeal by creating a Web site called IdeaWins where entrepreneurs could download a free version of Office Accounting and enter Microsoft's search for the best American small business idea.

How would people find IdeaWins? StrawberryFrog would drive them there. It arranged for free copies of Office Accounting to be parachuted into Willow Springs, Ill., Bone's purported hometown. Soon after, videos of the event - some of them made by townspeople and others by the agency - appeared on YouTube. StrawberryFrog auctioned off anti-shirts on eBay. The agency seeded small business blogs with comments about IdeaWins. In January 2007, the ad shop set off in the IdeaWins Ultimate Challenge R.V. to hand out hats and t-shirts and collect ideas from entrepreneurs in Seattle, New York, Las Vegas and Chicago.

Microsoft ended up with more than 7,000 ideas. In March 2007, a trio of judges - Carolyn Kepcher, a veteran of Donald Trump's The Apprentice series; Los Angeles maternity wear designer Liz Lange; and Microsoft corporate vice president Chris Capossela - selected four finalists. They included hip-hop inspired poetry group from New Jersey that wanted to start a restaurant and a school, a Florida woman with an idea for a do-it-yourself wallpaper business, an Illinois woman with an upscale clothing rental proposal, and a Maryland resident with a plan for an "organic beauty bar."

The judges announced the winners - the poetry guys from New Jersey - on NBC's Today Show. Microsoft couldn't have been happier. "We were absolutely stunned by the response to the contest," says Prokop. "That's the kind of publicity you can't buy."

The software giant and its ad agency are currently working on a new campaign for the next version of Office Accounting, which will be available later this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft says thousands of people continue to download the current edition on www.ideaswins.com.

It's not clear yet if IdeaWins increased Microsoft's share of the accounting software market. IDC hasn't released its 2007 market share figures yet. But Microsoft and StrawberryFrog can took comfort in this: A bunch of consumers seem to think Microsoft Office Accounting is actually kind of cool now. Who would have thought such a thing would be possible with small business accounting software?

THE ART OF CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN FOR TOYOTA

Scott Goodson writes...

Our business objective was simple: Ignite love and passion for Toyota Scion “culture” among existing owners, and let these like-minded fans spread the word.

We accomplished that goal by creating “Scion Speak” as an online social-networking tool that allows Toyota Scion owners to meet and communicate with each other in both the online and real worlds.

We started from a very personal level because StrawberryFrog’s own Monica Svetak is not only our resident ethnographer, but also a Scion owner herself. She knew, just from driving around in her car and interacting with other drivers, that the Scion owner is part of something special.

As one Scion enthusiast put it: “It’s more than just a car, it’s a community and an outlet for you to be creative.” Or, as another said: “Scion’s like a cult without the Kool-Aid.”

More than anything, the Scion brand stands for personal expression. So, we developed a virtual language of hundreds of design symbols that Scion owners could use to express themselves. For example, Scion Speak symbols can communicate what kind of music you’re into, what type of relationship you’re in and where you’re from.

To see how this works, visit scionspeak.com, where you will be offered a series of tools to use these design symbols to customize your own coat-of arms— or crest—to declare your lifestyle and interests. Your personal crest can then be adhered to or painted onto your Scion, uploaded to your Facebook or MySpace page, or emailed to your social network of Scion fanatics.

StrawberryFrog creative director Chaz Mee explains: “If you are thinking about making something people can customize that represents who they are—a digital fingerprint—then a crest makes sense. Crests can be broken into different elements; they have the most flexibility in terms of design and customization options. Plus, crests felt right for the audience, like a personal tattoo of their personalities and passions.”

But while inviting Scion owners to express themselves by designing their own crests is the basis for the campaign, this was only partially the reason it has become so successful. The main reason is that we understood the “rules” of creating a killer social-media campaign.

We started by inviting the culture into the creative process. We let them take ownership of the idea. Then, we engaged a respected graffiti artist—the former creative director of Kid Robot— to create the design symbols and bring their visions to life.

In other words, we did something most brands wouldn’t dream of doing: We handed it all over to our consumers. We furnished them with tools. We let them play with those tools. We let them talk about it online and spread the word, months before the official campaign launched. We let them take pride in it.

Then—and only then—did we open the floodgates and launch Scion Speak campaign. The point is, you don’t create an authentic social-media campaign. The culture does.

Define The “Social Strategy”

To date, social-media marketing is usually a failed concept because brands engage in practices that are alienating to users, and do not provide useful services to them. Social-media marketing also tends to fall between the cracks because it is so new and it is not funded properly.

In addition, social-networking activities sometimes fail because they do not define the social strategy ahead of executional considerations. Following are some tips on how to develop a social-media marketing strategy, citing examples based on our experience with Scion.

Define the key social behaviors of your target online. Where are they socializing? What are the social habits, (e.g., Forrester has social-networking consumer profile segments such as critics, spectators, sharers, etc.) online?

For Scion, the target audience was creatives who use social-networking tools as a means to express and showcase their creativity and individuality among their peers.

Identify your brand’s social behavior and objective in the social space. How should it socialize with your target? What is the brand’s primary purpose in the social network? Facilitating self-expression? Listening? What is its role at this social party and what useful tools can it create to facilitate this?

One of Scion’s key values is customization. Therefore, Scion had to bring these tools for passionate self-expression to social party. This was identified as the brand’s role in the social context.

Create social-media content; don’t advertise on it. If you’re not providing content, ensure that you are providing a useful service. Social media helps people manage their social lives. It enables them to do something they are already interested in. It gives them the tools to allow for this. Social media provides a service—information, connection points, etc.

Brands need to figure out how to become part of the service, provide their own service or just limit their level of annoyance on the playground.

They’ll listen to your marketing message if you’re providing a service because people aren’t interested in advertising per se—they are only interested in what it can do for them. Call it utilitainment, interactive digital or whatever you want—your brand idea has to have a purpose.

Social-Marketing Traps

Too often, marketers and brands violate basic rules of social media. Facebook faced a revolt because it was never meant to be a platform for marketing—its purpose was 100 percent social. Brands and advertisers constantly forget this in their desperation to chase consumers down every dark alley and try and corner them into submission.

With Scion, we ensured that we developed Scion Speak in collaboration with the Scion enthusiast audience. In fact, we used some of the leaders of the existing online Scion communities to help us to develop the Scion design language. We also ensured that this brand site was designed for purely social and expressive purposes and did not feel like a corporate or money-generating venture.

Be careful you’re not duplicating established social communities. If your audience is using a strongly established community (i.e., recipe sharing), why create a duplicate, marketing-based branded version of the same community? Why would your target leave the existing community for a branded version of the same offer?

Because there are hundreds of existing Scion communities and socializing sites online, we knew from the start that we had to create a totally new kind of social tool for Scion owners so that it would be relevant and frequently used.

Don’t hijack consumers’ social networks. At the least, marketers should be invited into the social culture. But even better, marketers should create their own culture that consumers want to join. They should also be mindful of forcing friends to endorse products among their peers. Users should be voluntary brand ambassadors, not an enforced sales force.

For Scion, the best evidence of success is the happiness of the car owners themselves. As Lynnley Browning reported in The New York Times: “At least some Scion owners who have created their own coats of arms seem pleased with the results. A Scion driver, writing online as Monsterslovecandy, created a design that included a harlequin pattern, crossed wrenches and a phoenix, and wrote on a fan website: ‘I think it came out freaking sweet.’”