BUILDING BRANDSIN A SOCIAL WORLDEpic fun & epic failor ”what it’s like to get divorced in 2009”

Tuesday, May 26, 200916.00 – 16.30

WHO AM I?Patrick Gardner, co-founder and CEO Perfect Fools

Digital professional since 1994, back when it was called multimedia

Houdini Digital Creations 1999, Perfect Fools 2002

PERFECT FOOLSDigital creative agency with 37 staff in 3 offices: Stockholm, New York and Amsterdam

Clients include Electrolux, Converse, Unibet, K-Swiss, Under Armour, H&M, BBC …

Grand Prix and Gold at Cannes 2008

WHAT I’M HERE TO SAYWhether you’re a person or a brand being social can and sometimes will suck but much more often it’s amazing the fun is worth the fails! (and in any case we have no choice ;)

SOCIAL IS NOT NEWIt may seem like a recent phenomenon – “Web 2.0” But the Internet has been a highly social experience since it was launched That’s why we first networked computers, so we could communicate and be social with each other Today’s blogging, microblogging, forums, chats, voting, social networking and more all have their ancestors in the form of Usenet groups, news sites, bulletin boards …

MY FIRST SOCIAL NETWORKThe Andromeda Galaxy, 1984 Commodore 64 300 baud modem running on my family’s one telephone line between 9 pm and 6 am every night

THE ANTI-SOCIAL WEBWAS THE ABERRATIONSocial media have existed for a long time The less-social efforts we have seen during the first mass era of the Internet were actually the aberration

The Web has tended to become more social as people have become more accustomed users and creatives have started to realize digital networks’ full potential

TODAY: A MASS AUDIENCEThe difference today is social experiences and tools have achieved a mass usership they never had before – to the point they are now changing society

TODAY: A MASS AUDIENCEThe difference today is social experiences and tools have achieved a mass usership they never had before – to the point they are now changing society

Tio av tio unga har kränkts på skolgården

TODAY: A MASS AUDIENCEThe difference today is social experiences and tools have achieved a mass usership they never had before – to the point they are now changing society

WHAT ABOUT GETTING DIVORCED IN 2009?I’ve actually been going through a divorce this spring It’s given me a “unique” opportunity to experience how much the new social tools have changed the way personal information flows You’ve never truly experienced the power of social networking until your impending divorce gets unexpectedly announced to a wider group of friends by your wife unfriending you on Facebook and you suddenly get flooded with messages asking what is going on 

WHAT ABOUT GETTING DIVORCED IN 2009?… or until you read your 12 year old daughter’s public blog entries about her reactions to the ongoing process

WHAT ABOUT GETTING DIVORCED IN 2009?… or until you read your 12 year old daughter’s public blog entries about her reactions to the ongoing process

BETTER IF SOCIALDISAPPEARED?My point is that I, and we, have no choice in the matter The social Web is here and it’s here to stay – it’s already a key feature of our overall society As interesting as that unexpected shock was for me personally, Facebook has brought many more positive experiences into my life over the years It’s reconnected me with lost childhood friends and taught me things I never would have known about friends sitting right across the room

THE BRAND CHALLENGEBrands face many of the same issues as individuals in this new world The new social experiences are not always positive for brands – sometimes they will suck – but on balance they are massively positive Because they allow for ever-more connected, targeted, knowledgeable and intimate relationships with relevant stakeholders If we are willing to be honest and listen

WE’VE FACED IT AT PFWhen we decided to launch a new pf.com based on XCAP Suddenly uncomfortable questions started to come up like “what if people don’t like us and they say mean things on our site?” Just the same questions that have for come up for many of our client brands, of course Our decision has been to put all that aside and go forward So what if a small handful of folks are negative? Let’s invite them in for a conversation and maybe we’ll end up with new friends!

AND FOR OUR CLIENTS?Social elements have taken on a major role in our work, as tools for spreading the word about brands and also as integral aspects of the experiences themselves K-Swiss Free Running Aggressively seeded in relevant sneaker blogs and forums, yielding 500 000 targeted visitors per month during the campaign period Built on the concept of messaging friends, spreading itself

AND FOR OUR CLIENTS?BBC Survivors Interactive Large-scale social experience in the UK The BBC’s second mostpopular drama site More than 100 000 visitor comments in just 6 weeks

XCAPThese experiences have been incredibly fun to be part of  But for a production like BBC Survivors Interactive, it has become increasingly time consuming and expensive to build the social elements from scratch and impossible to fully load test them under live conditions before launch That’s why we’re so excited about XCAP and Josh, and why we are already hard at work building new experiences based on XCAP We see this as the next inevitable step: for people like us to put aside our custom, one-off efforts and instead build with robust, iterated social tools (and no, Anton didn’t ask me to say any of this, I just couldn’t help myself ;)

FINAL THOUGHTIf you remember one thing from this talk remember this:  Social is the way, and the fun is worth the fails! Thank you.