Brands and Blogs: The Movie
Before it all kicked off today we took the chance to chat to some forward-thinking folks to find out their thoughts on blogging and new media. Here's the result.
6th July, 11.30am-1pm
Ashley Norris of Shiny Media + final Q&A
Ashley Norris is finishing off today's Brands & Blogs event, explaining what Shiny Media does, and why advertisers should be engaging with "influential, intelligent, informed and interested" bloggers. Latest entry is below, with chronological updates after the jump.
13.10: Another question: do brands play nasty and attack each other in these kind of campaigns? Richard says it's happening on messageboards and forums, where brands pay people to write negative reviews of their competitors, but not so much on blogs. Jeremy says B5 Media has caught some companies out - "we thought, who feels that strongly about socks?!".
13.11: Questions are hotting up now: should brands respond to negative comments on blogs? Jeremy says yes, but only if you can respond honestly, and you can't do it for all comments obviously. But it's worth doing selectively.
13.14: And that's it. Lunch, wine, and a chance to go up to the 18th floor of Centrepoint and spot rainclouds.
Brands & Blogs debate
Now we've got a discussion with Jeremy Wright of B5 Media, and Richard Rocca of Glam. They're both involved with big blog networks in North America, and are here to tell us how things are working over there.
12.42: Richard is talking about all the blue-chip advertisers on Glam - they're all keen on working with professional blog networks, as long as they really are creating quality, trusted content.
12.43: Ooh, a question asking for hard data - what return can brands expect on spending money in this area? SHOW ME THE MONEY. Jeremy says it's important for blog networks to establish what brands are looking for - survey responses or time in front of a viewer or something else. And then create a campaign to deliver that.
Neil DuLake of The Guardian
Now it's the turn of Neil DuLake, digital consultant for The Guardian. He'll be explaining how even a Big Media firm like Guardian News & Media is preparing to lose control over some of its content. Latest entry is below, with chronological updates after the jump.
12.26: Also, The Guardian must be part of the web, not just on the web. The most successful brands in this space will be that – encourage debate, be provocative and edgy, and move to a multi-way conversation. And the best brand campaigns in the future will probably be created by the consumers themselves. Does this mean Saatchi & Saatchi will pay me a huge fee for YouTube videos of my cat? No. Ah well.
Helen Nowicka of Shiny Red
Next up is Helen Nowicka from Shiny Red, who's going to be talking about how consumers feel about brands connecting with them through new media tools like blogs and social networks. Latest entry is below, with chronological updates after the jump.
12.11: What's a good online PR campaign? Think on and offline for starters, it's not one or the other. Remember you're a guest in this space – don't behave in a disrespectful way. It's about a dialogue, not a monologue - or even a three-way conversation - brands talk to people, people talk back to brands, and then people talk to people about how rubbish / good the brands are.
Fourth, embrace the new rules. Don't pay a blogger to pretend to be your CEO (they'll probably be too scruffy in any case), and don't fake it - go into this space with an open attitude.
Jeff Meers of Shiny Media
Today's first presentation comes from Shiny Media's own Jeff Meers, who's going to be outlining some of the research on New Influentials, and how marketers can converse with them. Latest entry is below, with chronological updates after the jump.
12.02: We're not yet in the mainstream though - marketers don't see blogs as must-haves on their schedules. At the mo, we're jumping across the chasm to mainstream adoption from brands – the sheep and dinosaurs. Although we probably won't call them sheep when trying to sell them ads.
12.03: Savvy marketers can beat up the dinosaurs – get to the online influentials first. And that's a wrap.
All set for kick-off at Brands & Blogs
It's a bit empty in here. What's that? Ah, nobody's arrived yet because the event hasn't started. That'll explain it.
Anyway, we're going to be liveblogging all the speakers at today's Brands & Blogs event, as they explain who the New Influentials are, and how brands can engage with them.
Attendees are munching breakfast outside, with the event set to get underway at 11.30, so stand by for live updates during the key presentations.
Brands and Blogs - The Speakers
JEFF MEERS, SHINY MEDIA
Jeff has been an agency Account Planner (BMPDDB), Media Agency director, International Account director (Bozell), Client, Global Publisher of Old & New Media, Founder of MAID/Dialog and E-commerce CEO.
Graduating as an Industrial Psychologist, Jeff built a career in advertising, winning numerous media and creative awards and an IPA Advertising Effectiveness Award.
Jeff has started many companies including MAID, Ad Agencies, IDG companies, and several internet businesses - most recently Koodos.com and Samstax.co.uk
Marketing and advertising is in Jeff's blood but since he started online information (MAID) 26 years ago the endless possibilities of the internet has taken over!
HELEN NOWICKA, SHINY RED
Helen is a board director at The Red Consultancy, a leading UK PR agency, where she has won multiple awards for her work on consumer technology clients like Expedia and Microsoft. In 2006, she formed Red’s new media division, Shiny Red, with Shiny Media founders Chris Price and Ashley Norris. Prior to going into PR Helen worked as a news journalist on national papers including the Guardian, Times and Observer.
SHINY RED
In 2006 The Red Consultancy and the founders of the UK’s leading blogging company Shiny Media joined forces to create Shiny Red, an innovative new media PR practice, to help brands take advantage of the communications opportunities now available online. Recognising that businesses are at different stages of adopting new media, Shiny Red's offer spans initial education and training; innovative online PR campaigns; blog building; bespoke databases of online influentials; and web communications consultancy.
NEIL DULAKE, THE GUARDIAN
Neil DuLake is the Guardian's Digital Consultant. His role includes educating clients and agencies about the digital landscape and in particular Guardian Unlimited's commitment to online excellence. Neil has spent the previous 2 years with the Guardian Unlimited agency team, playing a major role in creating a double award winning sales team. He has over 5 years online advertising experience and specialises in behavioural targeting, creative executions and the b2b sector.
THE GUARDIAN
Long-established as the most credible newspaper brand in the UK, Guardian News & Media has also proved to be an industry leader with Guardian Unlimited, its online platform. Since launching in 1994, Guardian Unlimited has been at the forefront of digital innovation, both editorially and commercially. GNM have long embraced Web 2.0 with a range of blogs sites over the past 5 years, culminating in the launch of Comment is Free, their highly acclaimed collective blog site in 2006.
JEREMY WRIGHT, B5 MEDIA
A serial entrepreneur, Jeremy is one of b5media’s co-founders and a well-known blogger, consultant and speaker. He began contributing to his first blog in 2003, and has helped hundreds of people and many high profile companies develop strategies to incorporate blogs into their business plans.
B5 MEDIA
b5media is a global new media network featuring more than 200 blogs on a wide variety of subjects ranging from entertainment and news to technology and sports. With content written by passionate people and dedicated Channel Editors from all over the world, the Toronto-based company’s blogs attract more than three million unique visitors a month.
RICHARD ROCCA, GLAM
Before joining Glam, Rocca served as vice president, business development for Gorilla Nation, and led the team that recruited more than 130 publishers and developed 6 new content verticals. Prior to Gorilla Nation, Rocca was a director at I/Pro Corporation, a site-centric audience research organization in San Francisco. At I/Pro Rocca drove a passion to educate both the agency and media buying community and over 750 mid-tail publishers on how brand advertisers should buy on niche audiences using site-centric traffic reports and demographic profiles. Prior to this Rocca was an account executive at the legacy network, Premium Network.
GLAM
With reach of over 30M unique visitors worldwide, Glam Media brings brand advertisers a new integrated way to communicate and engage with their target consumers via their content specific and high quality editorial Publisher Network of more than 350 popular lifestyle and fashion websites, blogs, and magazines.
ASHLEY NORRIS, SHINY MEDIA
Ashley Norris is a Founder and director of Shiny Media, the UK’s leading commercial blogging company. Ashley is one of the most respected UK commentators on new media and blogging in particular. He has delivered presentations on new media to Sky, BBC Radio Five Live and countless PR companies and marketing agencies. Ashley is also a freelance journalist with nearly a decade of experience of writing on technology for newspapers such as The Guardian.
SHINY MEDIA
Europe’s most successful commercial blog network, Shiny Media now has over 30 websites in key verticals like gadgets, fashion and sport. It attracts over 2.5 million unique readers to its blogs and has worked with an impressive range of bluechip brands including Sony, Samsung, Dyson, Marks & Spencer and Nokia.
Brands and Blogs - Shiny Media leads the debate (again)
Just two days to go and we're all getting very excited about our Brands and Blogs: Talking With The New Influentials conference on Friday. Ash is just putting the finishing touches to his rabble-rousing speech about how important people who read the Shiny Media blogs really are. And Jeff has got his nose down in the latest stats from Jupiter Research - it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it.
We've also added two speakers from the other side of the pond who will talk about the US experience. That's Richard Rocca, Senior Director from online fashion network Glam.com and Jeremy Wright, CEO of B5 Media. We're really excited they've decided to come on board.
Of course it's not all about Shiny Media. From The Guardian there's Neil Du Lake who will talk about how 'old media' titles are adapting to the new media environment and chairing the event will be new media guru and general all round good guy Mike Butcher
So all in all it should be a great morning. Followed of course by a lovely lunch and splendid views over London from Centre Point. If you can't make it - or you just haven't been invited - then check out the live blog here on Friday morning.