Someone told me this week that years ago her university tutor postulated that social media would facilitate the return of true democracy - the real voice of the people. Well this week we’ve just seen how social media has changed the world. Obama’s campaign manager is a genius who embraced the many on a one-to-one level through a smart campaign that relied heavily on citizen journalists, bloggers, twitter feeds that kept fans updated first, fan groups, all decrying is one single, strong proposition: CHANGE.

I’m a big fan of David Meerman Scott’s blog - you can real all about exactly what can be learned from the Obama campaign. It’s also worth reading his free ebook New Rules of Marketing. Word of mouse marketing really is the way forward!

Subtitle: What is Calm’s Blog, [AKA] ‘A Space to Talk Differently’, [AKA] ‘A Bit of Daily Calm’ ALL ABOUT?

Well, it is our firm belief that companies need to be real and touchable. They need to converse with their potential customers, otherwise those customers will just go ahead and initiate conversations without them! (Think Dell Hell). So that’s what the team here at Calm have set out to do.

We talk about what we know -  we have some fascinating people in here who can talk passionately about every aspect of marketing - starting from brand and filtering through to the kaleidoscope of ways in which brands realise themselves - design, media, message, digital, social etc. We also post things on our blog that we think represent the way we think and show you videos, pictures and link to other blogs that say it better.

Also, we want to be found! We want more business than we can [currently] handle. And the Calm Asylum will grow to fit! A blog that talks about the things we do best has got to be one of the best ways we can think of to get into Google’s top ranks without even trying! See David Meerman Scott’s blog for more on this.

We really want you to see a bit of our personality in this blog. So you’ll also find stuff about things that tickle us pink from time to time. We also want you to participate, comment and get in touch. Think of our blog as a little peek into the minds of the inmates at the Calm Asylum - welcome to our space (and grab a free poster while you’re there)!

An interesting viral ad for Wonderbra.  (Calm down boys)!

Introducing the Calm Asylum online interactive Advent Calendar 2008!

Forget sending Christmas cards this year, they’re not good for the environment and they are BORING!
 
Send your clients to a fun online Advent Calendar instead, and let them play a game a day throughout December. Take advantage of our early booking offer and save £200 by ordering your interactive Advent Calendar today. (Early booking offer ends August 15th)

Click here to try one of our all time favourite games and see just how easy it is to put a smile on your clients faces.

We’ll personalise it for you to include your company logo, you’ll get a graphic to add to your own website, and a branded email to send to your clients too.

We’ll also keep track of how many of your clients and their friends visit your own website from the Advent Calendar. Last year one company received over 200,000 hits to their website!

Posted by Calm People

Levi’s have made a few virals recently, their last being the men back flipping into jeans. This is another extreme way of wearing (or flying) in their jeans!

John Bell, WOMMA Board Member asked the same question, saying a channel is one way and measured, whilst a discipline, requiring techniques and method leads to potentially deeper relationships with audiences.

I see channels as being defined by messengers (Pushforms, the outbound delivery vehicle for messages), that are themsevles defined by receivers (Audiences) and their media preferences (Inbound interfaces).

I don’t think I can sign up to the idea of word of mouth being a channel, it just doesn’t sit comfortably for me. 

I see word of mouth as the trust barometer of a brand or company’s relationship with its audience. The team here at Calm tend to agree.  It reads both the positive and negative atmosphere around the relationship and as such is invaluable to brand owners who want to gauge audience expectation against the perception of their brand delivery.

In terms of learning more about this fascinating area of human communication, Dave Balter, founder /ceo of BzzAgent managed word-of-mouth media company, shares his unique perspective on how best to get people talking about products/services in TWOMM.

True to his credo, he’s doing something to generate buzz. Instead of releasing the breezy-to-read TWOMM through a major publisher, Balter is self-publishing it. And, as any self-publisher must do, he’s self-promoting it by offering the manifesto as a free PDF download. He’s also offering it as a bound book for sale on Amazon.

Hilarious - The Calm Asylum’s favourite man on the net…

Known as The Poetic Prophet AKA the SEO Rapper AKA M0Serious, he’s created raps covering conversion closing, search, links, design code and more.

How to change the habit of a lifetime…

This is unbelievable - a viral campaign that changed the hygeine habits and behavours of literally millions of people in India - beyond all expectations….

(maybe we should try something like this to change the hygeine habits the boys here at Calm)…

I love The Apprentice for it’s cringeworthy characters, their hapless delivery (or non-delivery as the case may be), and their boardroom lynchings (and occasional disembowelments courtesy of each-other not to mention The Great Man).

But it worries me that the methods preached by Sir Alan - especially where the marketing and advertising are concerned - seem to be a tad archaic in the age of web 2.0 and the ethos of getting up-close-and-personal with customers.

It’s all about advertising in the traditional mould - TV adverts etc… (why when we’ve all got sky plus and iPlayer? who doesn’t fast-forward the ads)? Unfortunately this is still how a lot of the big corps think it’s done as illustrated by Sir Alan.

Wednesday’s episode was a great exercise in the use of Personas - each team developed a rounded individual that represented the potential buyer of their perfumes. A good start to getting to know your audience that did appear to be anchored in a teeny bit of user-testing…

…In a real-world scenario this could have been developed into a real conversation with potentially millions of future customers using a whole host of tactics that don’t even come close to matching the budgets that traditional mass media demands. When Alex and Helene were asked how the dinky split bottle idea would impact the bottom line, and the advertising budget, they were flummoxed!

They could have taken a leaf out of Proctor and Gamble’s viral marketing book and reached millions of potential customers, in this instance, teenagers virally, through their “Tremor” advocates - a network of teens recruited to chat about their products to their mates. .

Or indeed, apply some guerrilla-style tactics like Carlsberg: USA - moles going into bars asking for Carlsberg (the barman never heard of it)! and a couple of days later a Carlsberg salesman arrives…; Fake Passports;  £10 notes … the genius is endless.

* This thought was developed after inspiring discussion with the DECTATOR, who is the source of much knowledge (being omnipotent and all that).