In an increasingly global world, it’s not unreasonable to believe that some tactics used in developed markets will be successful in China. But it’s also important to recognize that new trends or even new uses of familiar tactics make every market different, a fact I was reminded of after moving to China three months ago.

For example, advanced analytics tools for monitoring the social media space will dramatically change the approach to social media and the value placed on it by marketers—once they arrive in emerging markets–just at they did recently in developed markets. The expansion of market leaders like CIC, a digital media research and consulting firm in Shanghai, will help drive this change.

China’s digital marketers can skip some of the mistakes made in other more established markets as they go through a huge digital growth spurt and probably develop new tools (and associated mistakes) on their own. I expect the same thing to happen with some tactics.

As a westerner living in Shanghai, I’ve certainly had to re-evaluate what I understood about China, including the way to approach digital marketing when taking on the world’s largest internet market. Here’s what I’ve figured out so far:

1. There is plenty of life beyond Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
And that’s a good thing, since these banned sites are non-players in the Chinese market. Although the social media space is fragmented, there are major players with hundreds of millions of users that rival even the biggest players.

Although a myriad of players exist in this complex social media space, start by learning about platforms like Kaixin (social network), Sina Weibo (micro-blogging), Youku (video sharing), and QQ (instant messenger). Re-learning the platforms can be challenging, but is possible for non-Chinese speakers by accessing them through Google Chrome with its automatic language translation function. The brand communications principals behind authenticity, transparency, and value in social media still apply, though.

2. Bulletin board sites (BBS) thrive in China.
BBS culture formed the foundation of the social web long before there were social networks in the rest of the world. They provide a rich and fertile digital ecosystem of like-minded people aligned around online communities, physical communities, common passions or needs, or even groups of friends or individuals. Arguably the largest social platform (in aggregate), they provide unique insight into the Chinese consumer and should be addressed in any comprehensive digital marketing campaign.

3. Forget leveraging a user’s social profile (for now).
One of the most (r)evolutionary digital enhancements outside of China in recent years was Facebook Connect (now OpenGraph) which allowed marketers to personalize digital experiences based on a user’s social profile. It allowed for new types of digital experiences that were exponentially more relevant to the consumer. This technology doesn’t exist in China yet, but keep your eye out for the first social network to release a platform like this one, as they’re sure to grow rapidly and become the darling of China’s digital marketing community. Of course they’ll still be up against the challenge of China’s internet community being wary of sharing their personal information.

4. Think mobile first for many digital users in China.
The number of people who accessed the internet on a mobile device doubled last year with the introduction of 3G services. Many of these individuals will have their first digital experiences at school, university, work, or an internet café, but their one consistent experience with the internet will be through their mobile device as opposed to a PC as they might not have the ability to own one.

5. Never underestimate the rate of change.
The rate of change is staggering and only reflective of a society that is undergoing a mind- boggling transformation into the kingdom of capitalist might while simultaneously holding firmly onto their traditional roots. China added 131 million internet users to its population between 2008 and 2009 and another 60 million by July of this year. This same staggering rate of change exists in the growth of the population and simultaneously the sophistication of the population. Expectations around the quality of digital marketing will rise more rapidly then expected.

6. Penetration may be low, but smart phones are big business in China.
Don’t base your thinking on any statistic you read as a percentage point. It’s very easy to forget scale in China. For example, China’s smart phone penetration is approaching 11%–a small number until you remember that it reflects around 180 million people. In tier one and tier two cities—the provincial capitals and main urban (and wealthy) centers—average penetration is even higher.

7. E-commerce plays a different role in China.
Mega players like Amazon and Ebay have never been able to take on domestic China offerings like Alibaba Group’s B2C e-commerce platform Taobao. China’s great rush of consumerism has driven desire for premium brands beyond the tier one cities, but consumers don’t have access to the retail outlets of top tier cities or are unable to afford their new aspirations. E-commerce players like Taobao are able to provide access to these goods across China and appear to be able to provide deep discounts not available at retail locations.

8. Don’t expect insights into people’s offline behaviors to reflect their behavior online.
In China, the internet provides an outlet for people to live an online identity that is quite different from their offline identity. Sometimes these online personas are a reaction to a repressed cultural environment due to religion, the government, or society-based traditions.

In other scenarios, it can be an opportunity to live out escapism and fulfill people’s dreams through a virtual world. Social networks in China boast games like “buying houses” and “parking lot” for example. Don’t rely on standard research and consumer insights to reach your audience as you might find unique opportunities by understanding a consumer’s online persona and how it’s connected back to their offline persona.

Digital marketing in China is at a very exciting stage in its development. It has huge scale and reach, the budgets are growing, marketers’ understanding is maturing, and most importantly creativity is emerging in new and exciting ways. Avoid some of the pitfalls and join the fray.

(as published in AdAgeChina.com)

It always amazed me how SXSW calls for speakers about 11 months in advanced and has to lock down all sessions 6 months in advanced. Of course there could be some timeless sessions that will always make sense, but it’s hard to know how topics will be relevant 9 months from now … With that said, SapientNitro submitted 19 visionary topics that I think will make great sessions; some returning speakers (including Freddie and myself) and some great new speakers.

It’s great to see so much variety of expertise: creative, strategic, business, technology … from SapientNitro, Government Services, Financial Services, and from so many different people like our CCO, Business Lead, Creative Directors, Technology Directors, developers, and even recruiting. Tells a lot about the diversity, multifariousness, mixture of SapientNitro‘s capabilities and expertise.

Please read below and provide feedback or questions on these topics … what else would you like to see us cover? If you like a topic please take the time to follow the link and vote for it to make sure we have the opportunity to share it with you.

Bringing the Love Back to Brands by Gaston Legorburu

Technology has liberated the dialog between brands and customers, sating consumers’ love of sharing, connecting, raving, venting… But in many ways, it’s also driven isolation as we press “skip intro” to proceed to our desired action. In this discussion, Gaston Legorburu, SapientNitro’s worldwide chief creative officer, will explore the unique paradox that technology has introduced to the consumer/brand relationship. From isolation to sharing, technology is driving a massive social revolution. Learn the art of combining design and engineering to create relevant experiences, experiences that transform barely personable brands into “builders of moments.”

Location-Based-Services is so 2010 – Behold Context-Based-Services by Rob Gonda

Defined as using large mashup of data services to enable amazing experiences through mobile devices. What’s not digital nowadays?! Mobile is replacing the pc and becoming that unique personal technology gadget that no one lives without — and with it, comes connectivity, content, productivity, and entertainment. The magic is that mobile links the gap between digital and real world, extending experiences, and more importantly, making is easy, simple, and intuitive. Foursquare and Gowalla gaining momentum, Twitter added Places, Facebook launched their location based service and integrate with the Open Graph, Google “Me” relies on Latitude, location-location-location. But checking-in requires too much effort… Location will evolve from a reactive engagement to a proactive engagement … background services will be always-location aware. Apps will automatically react to actual location, history, friends, places, and a new set of data source mashups such as weather, humidity, light sensitivity, noise ambiance, and more. If you want to get inspired by innovations galore, this is a session you can’t miss.

Found the Crystal Ball – Unveil the Future by Freddie Laker

The world is evolving at an amazing pace and if companies want to keep up they need to evolve too; but evolution is not a simple concept; what are the right choices? where should you invest? what do your customers want, and what are your competitors doing about it? The best VC firms in the world cannot predict the future, but a good understanding for trends, culture and behavioral shifts, technology advancements, brand evolution, micro and macro economics, and having insights on R&D and new product launches. The best brands in the world excel in designing amazing experiences. Loyalty driven through rewards, direct response advertising, and frequency / reach is a concept of the past. Loyalty is a consequence of providing great experiences across any touchpoint with the brand. What if you had a crystal ball that hint you on upcoming trends that will drive and set customer expectations? Good news, we found it!

Old is the New Black: Content’s Comeback by Kevin Nichols

You think you know what content strategy is? Ha! If you think it’s just about marketing or Web strategy…that just scratches the surface. Join industry experts on Technology, Experience Design and Content Strategy as we talk about how content strategy is not just about content, not just strategy, and certainly not just about the Web. Oh, and it’s also not new. This panel will bring together unique viewpoints on the topic and address not only what content strategy is, but where it is going, and why you should in fact care about it. It will bring a focus to content that is largely under-represented in all the hoopla and buzz that is currently going on about the practice of content strategy. The conversation will review how web content strategy, semantic web and portable content are just a few things in a multiplatform and multichannel universe. We will also unveil how content strategy relates to technology and experience design. We will address content strategy as an ‘enterprise’ approach while contextualizing semantic Web and Web content strategy as just pieces to a much larger picture. Join a very diverse group of people as they explore this topic and its various implications.

Privacy Debate: Straddling the Line Between Improvement & Intrusion by Nathaniel Perez

Imagine this: guy meets girl in a bar and offers to buy her a drink. Girl intrigued, but before accepting she snaps a photo of the guy with her iPhone and scan for background info. Seconds later results come back with personal ratings, reviews, comments, and he scores 1/5 stars, is emotionally unstable, and selfing in bed. Needless to say, girl walks away. Technology is advancing at an amazing speed — nothing new here — and enabling amazing experiences. From augmented reality, facial recognition, conversation mining and analysis, mobile payments, and it’s setting expectations of instant gratification; instant gratification that comes at a price: technology needs access to data. Media has driven fundamental culture shifts in what we find to be normal or acceptable about privacy — who would have thought they would share every action, location, check in places, preferences, products and services they like, and make it mostly public. Marketers want personal data to enhance and personalize experiences which will result in better conversion. People want better services that use data to provide value. But when is it enough? There’s a very fine line that divides value and creepiness. Come to discuss and engage in an interactive session to explore boundaries of what’s acceptable.

What Can a Three-Year-Old Teach About Experience Planning by Juan Morales

While baby boomers have been driving purchase power in today’s economy, Gen Y has been driving today’s brand experience … but the true innovators, the digital age, are actually Gen Z. Everyone is trying to crack teen marketing. Everything changes: culture, attention span, intuition, expectations, communication habits … and they are driving the ultimate customer experience thereafter modeled for the rest of us. The best brands in the world excel in designing amazing experiences. Loyalty driven through rewards, direct response advertising, and frequency / reach is a concept of the past. Loyalty is a consequence of providing great experiences across any touchpoint with the brand. Learn how to focus on the right audience to build the brand experience of tomorrow.

Peer-to-Peer and HTML 5 by Rudo Boothe

HTML 5 allows communication over efficient, low-bandwidth connections called WebSockets. Many different types of applications can be built on top of this new architecture; none more exciting than a web-based peer-to-peer network. AWE. SOME. Join me for a brief discussion during which I’ll show you how this immediately impacts everything from widgets to mobile apps.

The Great Paywall Experiment: Evolving Digital Subscription Models by Donald Chesnut

New devices, new experiences, and new ways for making money: the world of media and publishing is on fire. This panel will explore the rapid evolution of content subscription models that are bridging the worlds of offline and digital, presenting new models for customers to subscribe to content, and the opportunities to create new experiences based upon a more market-dynamic and mult-channel approach to subscriptions. All types of content are undergoing evolution as a result of the changing digital landscape: Magazines, newspapers, cable and broadcast tv stations, music… Each is experimenting with new ways to address the iPad, mobile, Web, iTV, and offline. Newer services like Zinio, HBO GO, MagHound, Hulu are part of the newer landscape, while longer-term players like Dow Jones/Wall Street Journal, Conde Nast, and Time Inc are continuing to evolve in their approach to content subscription and distribution. Looking at the landscape, who is innovating and leading the pack? What models are working better than others for both the content/media company AND the customer? How does the type of content change across distribution platform? And where do we think the concept of “subscriptions” is going? Intended for both experience designers or digital business innovators, this panel will bring together diverse leaders from the world of content, media, and publishing to share their thoughts on the emerging trends that are shaping the future of paid digital content.

Rise of the (Vending) Machines: Interactivity that POPs by Michael Leonard

Gone are the days when ”interactive” meant online. These days, interactive technology meets consumers at every touch point via mobile phones, digital signage and even smile-activated vending machines. Interactive technology at the point of purchase (POP) is the next wave of innovation in consumer engagement. As one example, SapientNitro has designed the world’s first smile-activated ice cream vending machine for Unilever, the world’s biggest ice cream manufacturer. A demonstration video of the machine can be viewed at the following link: http://www.sapient.com/en-us/SapientNitro/Work.html#/?project=157. To create this groundbreaking experience, creative technologists at SapientNitro harnessed the power of the latest technology across a number of realms, including facial recognition, 3G and Facebook. Designed in a lab by specialist teams intent on creating a machine unlike any other, the unique features of the smile-activated vending machine include: 3G technology to enable uploading and sharing of smiles via social media with the user’s permission and ground-breaking technology. A spokesperson from SapientNitro can discuss the machine, as well as highlight additional examples of interactive technology being used in new and innovative ways, such as signs that interact with consumers, augmented reality on mobile applications and more.

Designing iPad Interfaces – New Navigation Schemas by Lynn Teo

With every new “form factor” comes a unique set of design conventions and interaction paradigms. The emergence of tablet interfaces such as the iPad marks a new chapter in digital design. How much of web navigation or smartphone conventions persist in this new world? And what are we seeing that’s new? Are there specific wayfinding and browsing mechanisms that make for a satisfying and productive iPad user experience? Based on an assessment of 50+ iPad applications that run the gamut from utility/transactional interfaces to comic readers and other publishing apps, this presentation provides a focused analysis and assessment of navigation methods in a distilled format. Navigation schemas will be explored by interaction design themes, supported by examples, and recommendations on when best to employ them.

Digital Deprivation: 9 Unexpected Days Without My iPhone by Cory Siansky

Unforeseen circumstances cause a 9-day technology blackout. Practical and surprisingly, emotional reaction to the situation = this humorous and poignant SXSW discussion, and a thread on my popular blog, Well Known Fact (wellknownfact.com). The iPhone4 wasn’t in my immediate plans. Then, a good friend mentions 3G units selling well in the um, let’s call it “secondary” market. He explained that I would probably sell my old unit for about the same cost of a new iPhone. Hello, eBay. I listed the phone and watched the price soar. I timed my listing so that the old phone would ship when my new one arrived. Then I, and my 1 million best friends tried to pre-order new iPhones all at once. I was successful 18 hours later. By that time the initial delivery lot was sold out. My delivery date was two weeks away. More than a week would pass between when my old iPhone shipped and the new one arrived. Quickly, my loss was profound. Living, and working, without my iPhone was a much bigger deal than I imagined. Along the way I had to rework routines personal and professional. 3-part presentation: first, a quick discussion of my old iPhone 3G, and how I loved it. Second, my eBay selling process and new iPhone buying process in a Zupruder-film style timeline. Third, the arrival of the replacement phone and getting it set-up. If you’ve read this far, I think I’ve caught your attention. My emotional journey is now your entertainment. Sit back and enjoy.

4chan and /b/ – Internet’s Darker Corners Exposed by Ted Koszuta

4chan is a cultural black hole that most often is overlooked for both complexity and relevance to our business and the general populace. Right or wrong, this single “site” is matter-of-factly known for creating the vast majority of “memes” any digital community adheres to or looks towards/at — as well as being the sole-source impetus for tens of hundreds of digital and IRL movements, raids, protests etc. Black hole? According to the general theory of relativity, a black hole is a region of space from which nothing, including light, can escape. The same is true of 4chan. Nothing that is ever placed online is outside its grasp. Any bit of content (advertising, marketing, media etc.) is not only seen by the folks on 4chan – its chewed up and spat out. The only different is whether they blow a bubble with it, abandon it under a coffee table or throw it on the sidewalk for passers by to walk all over. The simple fact is the Internet has “darker corners” that our work is ultimately disseminated to/through, and the greater our understanding of their reasons for existing and the way they function the better. They are single handedly changing the way we do business, and how we all work and play online, whether we like it or not.

Thin is In. The Future of Digital Wallets by Christina Nguyen White

The growing hole in your back jeans pocket is getting a bit too personal. No need to swipe anymore. Just scan. When can we get rid of our wallets without losing the cash? We know mobile is here. Now learn how far we can take it. Digital wallets are within very close reach. With RFIDs, QR codes, and Big-Brother-like tracking, the technology is already in place. Checkout with your phone. Instantly grab coupons when you checkout. Scan your digital ticket at Friday’s ballgame. Digitally split the bill with your friends. The possibilities that we’ve always wished for are now within reach. Get a glimpse into how retailers are edging towards digital, understand the impact of how this will change the way we buy, and ultimately, as designers, understand how this will change the way we interact with our mobile phones.

Secrets from Five Masters of Multichannel by Brad Simms

It’s clear that Web-only businesses, social networks and highly-capable mobile devices like the iPhone have forced a shift of power to consumers. Consumer expectations continue to rise as large traditional businesses grapple with the design, organizational and technological challenges in presenting a truly integrated experience. Consumers aren’t channel bound but companies are–this troubling fact is easy to recognize but hard to resolve. This panel introduces five leaders driving multichannel integration in Fortune 500 companies–“Masters of Multichannel”–across industries including retail, consumer package goods, automotive, travel, retail finance and the customer experience firm SapientNitro. The panel will be led through a lively and timely discussion of multichannel evolution across industries, highlighting common pitfalls, successes and what to expect next. Special focus will be put on contrasting industries to bring together different perspectives on the term “multichannel”. We see the term used everywhere and marketing tends to overuse it. This panel intends to get past the buzz to make it applicable and relevant.

Bodies Buried Under Social Media’s Front Porch by Dan Willis

re you already dead? In this Age of Disruption, death is swift, but not always obvious. An organization’s lifeblood can drain out long before they board up the windows, shutters the doors and files all the necessary papers. Trivial tweets, user-generated videos and user-rated product reviews look innocent enough now, but just as surely as the Commercial Web has already killed dozens of newspapers and magazines, the Social Web’s treads will soon be clogged with the crushed skulls of organizations too inflexible to get out of harm’s way. To date, we’ve only found a tiny percentage of the bodies. This presentation will examine the characteristics common to Social Media’s known victims and hypothesize about both those least likely and most likely to survive in the future. More significantly, this presentation will help the audience identify the keys to their own survival. But survival isn’t enough. User content and influence has emerged as a powerfully disruptive force that, if harnessed properly, can radically improve the world. The Gov 2.0 movement, for example, isn’t about federal agencies adding Twitter to their communication plans. It is a multinational effort to use Social Media tools in the restructuring of government’s very core in order to create an unprecedented partnership with citizens. This presentation will show that organizations bold enough to experiment and strong enough to weather change have the potential for significant and meaningful evolution.

The Death of the Mouse by John McHale

The discussion examines all new interface interaction possibilities (touch, gesture, kinetics, mobile, etc) and how quickly users are adapting to new technologies. It will not only contain a historical retrospective, but will examine breakthrough interaction models that are setting the standard for what is the future. It’s not about us. It’s about what is possible. We plan on demonstrating this through an interactive experiment asking the audience to create art using their devices.

Kiosks, Mobile and the Evolving Retail Experience by Hilding Anderson

New opportunities for sophisticated in-store and digital interactive experiences are fundamentally changing the way retail stores connect with their customers. These changes – from interactive kiosks, sophisticated mobile devices, digital & interactive vending machines, and the wireless delivery of software – are creating opportunities for brands and marketers to connect and interact with their customers more richly. We will share how are clients are leveraging these tools, and our vision of where it is all going.

Manufacturing Serendipity: How Mapping Moments Integrates Multichannel Experience by Zachary Jean Paradis

Just 15 years ago, the relationship between consumers and companies was relatively simple. And linear. Customers learned about products through one of a few channels–TV, radio, print, mailers or in stores. Competition was more limited and local. The web, mobile phones and digitally enabled social networks (remember The Well?) were experienced by a select few. Now? Competition has multiplied and globalized; communication channels and media have both exploded and fragmented; the world is more virtual, more “social”, more mobile and more context dependant than ever. As UEX strategists and professionals, it’s our job to help clients untangle this mess and make sense for consumers. This presentation will outline a series of tools and methods focused on modeling experiences, discovering “moments”–opportunities for organizations to make the greatest positive and negative impacts with their customers–and identifying critical communication “channel pairs” which allow for more straightforward and impactful experience design. Illustrations used will be pulled both the professional and academic worlds.

Job Seekers – This One’s For You by Emily Brewer

Your work kicks ass, speaks for itself. Your resume couldn’t be tighter. But ever wondered what happens once it enters the black hole of the online application process? Are they into you and just too busy to call? Maybe they aren’t into you, but what if it’s because they missed something? What do you do? Sit back and wait for the call or take charge and make them notice you? Fret no more, this panel will answer all those questions and more! Senior recruiters representing a cross section of leading companies lead a presentation and Q&A discussion for job seekers in the creative and agency space. Learn everything from what they look for in a candidate and what they want to see in a portfolio and resume to dos and don’ts if you land the interview as well as keeping your options open if the timing isn’t right.

Inevitably and as expected, the videos got views, but following rapidly increased across all channels.

According to Visible Measures, “Old Spice Responses” — a.k.a the string of custom-made vids — is one of the fastest-growing online video campaigns of all time. The company compares the endeavor to some of the most popular viral videos to date below, and how they’ve grown over the course of 24 hours (to be fair, “Old Spice Responses” had a time limit attached, so there was more urgency to participate with this particular string of videos than there was to get in on, say, the Susan Boyle craze).

Now let’s compare the numbers to Friday’s post.

The Return of The Man Your Man Could Smell Like kept getting hits and grew from 3MM views to 6.4MM views, and from 21k likes to 33k likes. This video was autoplayed in the Youtube.com/OldSprice channel — destination where people were going to explore all the new videos being posts, over 180 videos in two days.

Some numbers:

• Total videos uploaded: 183
  • 12 July, 2010: 29 videos uploaded
  • 13 July, 2010: 89 videos uploaded
  • 14 July, 2010: 65 videos uploaded
• Combined viewing figures: 10,954,096
• Most watched video: 698,205 views

15 Most Popular Videos

What’s even more impressive, is that Old Spice has by far the most popular channel, and 8 out of the top 15 videos!

YouTube’s top Channels this week. OldSpice shows 13,500,000 views, almost tripling the 2nd best.

Top videos for today (July 16, 2010, just updated the post to add this): Old Spice with the number 1, 2, 4, and a total of 8 out of the top 15 … now that’s impressive.

Now let’s look at Facebook:

Old Spice Facebook fans increased from 563k to 592k, so about a 29k bump since the launch of the social campaign.

Referring Site	Click(s)
www.youtube.com	9,585
www.oldspice.com	968
Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct	537
www.swaggerizeme.com	2
3.hidemyass.com	1
bit.ly	1
oldspicemobile.com	1
translate.googleusercontent.com	1
www.facebook.com	1
www.oldspice.com	1

Bit.ly link tracking from the YouTube channel header tracked 10k Facebook referrals from YouTube, compare to 1k last week.

Old Spice Twitter followers increased from 8k to 66k in 2 days.

Conclusion:

So, 58k new Twitter followers, 29k new Facebook fans, 6.4MM views of the campaign video + 5MM views of all responses in 48h.

Amazing campaign by W+K, simplicity = power. They carefully chose social influences that will promote their personalized viral video, and the true power was speed, amazing copywriting, and a great actor… hats off, I was truly impressed.

[Updated 07/16]: Added Youtube’s top channels and videos.

The latest one, called Old Spice | Questions got 3 million views in less than 1 week.

Interesting to see too how favorable reviews are … 21k positive vs 240 negative …

Other things to notice are the increasing number of call to actions to follow them on Facebook …

The video has links to Facebook in the description as well as an annotation. I actually like the watermark annotation in the video, very well executed, except the message, which should prompt to be best friends but simply land on the Facebook wall … not a good transition. FYI, Youtube does not allow annotations with external links unless it’s an ad buy, so Old Spice must see value on it to be paying per click.

The Old Spice YouTube Channel also has Facebook and Twitter links in the header … These links actually don’t link directly, but use a Bit.ly url to track click-troughs … Wonder why it’s inconsistent … they should have tracked the video annotation links the same way.

Anyways, even with the amazing success of the video in term of views, people have not been clicking much to Facebook from it … Bit.ly shows the following number of the past week, on which the video has had 3 million views

Referring Site	Click(s)
www.youtube.com	1,049
www.oldspice.com	383
Email Clients, IM, AIR Apps, and Direct	52
www.facebook.com	3
oldspicemobile.com	1
swaggerizeme.com	1
translate.googleusercontent.com	1
webcache.googleusercontent.com	1
www.oldspicefathersday.com	1

1000 clicks from Youtube … not impressive.

Also notice they have only 500k Facebook fans … small number had they tried to push traffic from the 50 million youtube views… but I don’t know for how long they’ve been trying. Would be great to have a tool to see historic growth of Facebook following for any public page / brand.

It’s easy to get caught up in today’s trends or even focus on the next six months. Some of 2009′s biggest trends included an increased emphasis on real-time search and information distribution, while distribution of marketing content in widgets and other pieces of portable content that worked across devices and social spaces also saw its stake rise. Plus, there were great improvements in social-media monitoring and analytics. And most notably, marketers finally acknowledged that social media was more than just a fad, with almost complete adoption by all major marketers.

Here are the top 11 predictions for what social media will look like in 2012 (based on a full presentation which is available on my blog). Some of these items exist today in their early stages, but this list is about what I believe will become the norm in 2012. Ultimately, share of voice, point of view and community influence will be more important than brand ownership — and marketers will need to get over it if they want to stay relevant in 2012.

1. Privacy expectations will (have to) change
There will be a cultural shift, whereby people will begin to find it increasingly more acceptable to expose more and more of their personal details on different forms of social media. Sharing your likes, dislikes, opinions, photos, videos and other forms of personal information will be the norm and people will become more accepting of personalized experiences, both corporate and personal, that are reacting to this dearth of personal information.

2. Complete decentralization of social networks
The concept of a friend network will be a portable experience. You’ll find most digital experiences will be able to leverage the power of your social networks in a way that leverages your readily available personal information and the relationships you’ve established. We’re already seeing the beginnings of this with Facebook Connect and Google’s FriendConnect.

3. Our interaction with search engines will be different
Real-time information in Google search, e.g. from Twitter, blog results and user reviews, will be more prominent. Google’s Social Search will change the way we interact with search engines by pushing relevant content from our personal networks to the front of search results, making them more personalized. The importance of digital-influencer marketing will increase significantly.

4. Rise of the content aggregators
The amount of content online is growing at an exponential rate, and most online users have at least three online profiles from social networks to micro-blogging to social news sites. Our ability to manage this influx is challenging, and content aggregators will be the new demi-gods, bringing method to madness (and make a killing). Filtering and managing content will be big business for those who can get it right and provide easy-to-use services.

5. Social media augmented reality
Openly accessible information from the social-media space will be used to enhance everyday experiences. For example: the contacts book in your phone links to Facebook and Twitter to show real-time updates on what the contact is doing before you put in the call, real-time reviews from friends and associates will appear in GPS-based mapping services as a standard feature, and socially enabled CRM will change the way companies manage business relationships forever.

6. Influencer marketing will be redefined
As social media continues to permeate more and more aspects of not only the way we interact with digital media but also other channels such as digital outdoor, commerce or online TV, we will see the significance of influencer marketing grow dramatically. As a basic example, the inclusion of Twitter in Google search results or Google’s soon-to-be-released Social Search will permeate search results with content that will not be managed by Google’s infamous PageRank but by social influence and relevance to your social network. Discovering people that can help you to reach your desired consumer will become exponentially more effective and important.

7. Ratings everywhere
In today’s world, having a commerce site that doesn’t have user ratings could actually prove to be a detriment to sales. In the near future, brands and businesses will more frequently place user ratings and accept open feedback on their actual websites. User ratings will become so common that marketers should expect to find them woven into most digital experiences.

8. Social media agents
Managing the customer experience offline and online is already a key concern for marketers and customer-experience advocates. As businesses continue to support customers by monitoring and engaging in the social media space, tools to optimize this experience will become more important. Expect to see a certain percentage of responses handled by natural language engines that can respond to basic commentary such as “my service is down” or “I never received my package.”

9. Riding the (Google) wave
It’s still early days as Google Wave is still primarily limited to developers but it has the potential to revolutionize collaboration and engagement. Wave offers marketers a unique way, at minimal cost, to allow consumers to engage with each other in way that is miles beyond anything we’re currently using. Savvy marketers will develop extensions for Wave that evolve its unique communication toolset into a rich brand experience that is immersive but allows for new levels of interaction from crowdsourced storytelling to crowdsourced product design.

10. Thinking beyond “nowness”
In 2009 we became very focused on the real-time nature of social media. The implications behind consumer feedback and interaction around brands using tools like Twitter or Facebook’s news stream caused marketers to re-evaluate the power of social media tools in parallel to “traditional” digital-media channels such as search. Looking into the future we’ll need to try and evaluate what’s next and the likely answer is based on the next evolution of the web as we know it: the semantic web. In a semantic web world, search engines, for example, will anticipate the best search results we’re looking for based on what they know about us (such as all our public social networking profiles). There will be an opportunity for marketers who push the limits of their imagination to anticipate what marketing will look like in this next stage of the web and creating new and compelling experiences that we’re only touching the surface of now.

11. Social media everything and the return of digital media
Social functions will become so commonplace in digital experiences that the thought of not having socially-enhanced experiences will seem illogical. Digital media by its very nature is inherently social. I hope we’re not talking about social media in 2012, and we just refer to everything as digital media again.

(This post was originally posted on AdAge’s DigitalNext Blog.)

Social Media 2012 focuses on new innovations in social media that are just starting to appear in production or experimental forms and that I believe will be future trends to watch as marketers. Regardless of your knowledge level with social media you will find content in here that you have not heard or seen before and I hope you find it as inspiring to listen to as I found it to research and develop for this presentation.

The abstract / summary described the session as: A focus universe research strategy; imagine using the entire internet as your focus group. Analyze every conversation, visualize trends, compare brands, learn insights, envisage it over time, and get real factual answers, not just amplified assumptions based on focus and control groups. Now add IPv6 to the picture, digital invasion, UGC/MGC user and machine generated content; we’re not that from the day fridges tweet about food needs, tvs’ about programs, subways and highways about traffic, clubs about nightlife, … So now imagine adding that to the picture, a digital blueprint of society.

It covers real-time culture shifts, experience, and expectations with streaming, commerce, collaboration, customer support, and more … tons of very interesting data points.

Feedback always welcome.

Does “tweeting” mean you’ve figured it out? Does knowing how to “friend” someone qualify you as a modern marketer of the new advertising age? Hardly. In fact, reaching that lofty goal is less about the tactics we employ, and more about our overall approach to the complexities of the modern consumer.

Our jobs are becoming more demanding. Big businesses now operate in a multi-market, multi-lingual, and frequently multi-brand world. A world filled with commercial and cultural nuances. The modern marketers I respect are finding ways to address these nuances by developing cross-market and cross-brand efficiencies. They’re fostering smarter collaboration across teams, agencies, and disciplines, producing big brand ideas that transcend tactical executions and work in markets of varying sophistication, and they’re leveraging their scale to lower costs while focusing their marketing dollars in the right growth areas. All while producing great work.

My personal fascination lies in the fact that digital marketing — and at a minimum Internet based technology — is helping to drive this evolution. Digital marketing is at different stages depending on which markets you are working in around the globe. But in almost all instances, it seems to function as the great connector that helps to bring cross-channel experiences to the consumer.

Digital, once deemed complex and expensive by the rest of the advertising world, actually offers the ability to produce re-usable libraries of common tools that can be shared across markets and brands, empowering them to focus their budgets on brilliant creative ideas instead of unnecessary technology that had been used multiples times in the last year by other agencies and brand teams.

Social media monitoring tools can be set up for enterprise businesses and deliver intelligence to multiple brands across multiple markets at reduced costs while facilitating a deeper understanding of the consumer. Web based collaboration tools are helping to produce better ideas, faster, with equal input from brand agencies, digital agencies, and media agencies.

I’m not discrediting the importance of innovation. I’m the world’s worst culprit for loving new exciting platforms in digital marketing. I just think we need to step back and reevaluate what makes us pat someone on the back for being in a “digital master class” that understands modern marketing. Some of the biggest companies in the world who frequently get accused of being laggards are realizing how scale and digital marketing play VERY well together, and could form the cement in their global marketing initiatives.

In the end, modern marketers are putting their money where there mouth is and, as a result, giving their agencies what amounts to a thinly veiled, but no less justifiable ultimatum: show us results, the analytics to support them, and develop creative in a cost effective way, or we’ll find someone who can. We should all heed the warning. Those who don’t? Well, then they don’t know “tweet” about modern marketing.

Before answering what does it take to make a successful iPhone application we have to define what makes an application successful. Sapient always asks why are we building something, what are we trying to achieve, and how are we going to measure it; so starting from top down, what are the business objectives, the key performance indicators, and all metrics. iPhone applications usually serve one of two purposes: drive brand or drive revenue.

Objective: Drive brand
Applications that drive brand most likely are free since they have to target a broad reach. Objective is usually increase awareness, brand recall, or word of mouth, and is traditionally measured based on simple downloads, usage, and extended with how many share with friends, stickiness, and engagement levels. A good way to take it one step further is tie in social media monitoring and analyze share and velocity of voice, general sentiment, and overall impact of the application within social conversations.

Now that we understand how to measure it, what will the application do? Nowadays brands cannot push messages to the consumers, they have to provide value and we generally call it brand as an enabler. Applications that drive brand usually fall under one of two categories: be entertaining or be useful. Entertaining applications usually have a wider adoption, more downloads, but less engagement as users open it just a few times before they get bored. Useful applications have a smaller reach but higher engagement; less users will download the application, but they will use it much more than simple entertainment applications. However the key for both types is simplicity.

Objective: Drive Revenue
Revenue can be driven directly by the application, or indirectly but multi-channel tie-in with retail and stores. Indirect revenue usually aims to drive users to store fronts, partners, or provide reasons for the user to purchase products or services. Whereas direct revenue is generated by the application. Measurement towards these objectives are always dollars.

Direct revenue can be generated from advertising or downloads, and both have different strategies. Revenue from advertising is similar to brand-driven applications: it aims to reach as many users as possible by providing free entertaining or utilities, and collect revenue through 3rd party advertising. However, download revenue can be a little more complex as it involves pricing strategy.

The secret to maximize download revenue is pricing. The most popular paid applications are priced between $0.99 and $3.99, with predominant 99 cent applications. These applications are what we call the big-fast-sales. Most users download them and use them once or twice; they’re predominantly entertainment and provide small value to the consumer, but the mass download provides great initial revenue and then stops. The most grossing applications are actually priced between $4.99 and $9.99 at 44% and account for 44% of revenue. These applications are downloaded less, but used much more often as usually they do provide value.

Here’s a simple framework to determine your iPhone application strategy

• Set objectives – what is successful?
  • Drive Brand – Free
    • Entertaining
    • Useful
  • Generate Revenue
    • Direct Revenue
      • Business models
        • Free apps
        • big fast sales
        • sustained sales
      • Revenue Models
        • Thru ads
        • Thru downloads
          • Pricing Structure
            • Most popular $0.99 at 50% and 0.99-3.99
            • Most grossing $4.99-9.99 at 44%
    • Indirect Revenue
      • Cross / Multi-channel
      • Point of Sale

Conclusion
So what does it take to make a successful iPhone application? You need a strategy, know what you want, how to get there, and how to measure. Keep it simple, make it engaging, and provide means to share and pass-along.