Inspired by Greg Verdino's Verdino Bytes, and indirectly kick-started by Steve Rubel's post on Posterous, I have created another blog. It is cleverly named the minidisco. Because, y'know, the main blog is discobeta. The new one is mini. You get it.
the minidisco fills a void that my blog, twitter and lifestreams (both crayon and FriendFeed) don't: the need for to me to post items (mostly unrelated to marketing) with as little thought-out commentary as possible. They are items that I find interesting, inspiring and humorous for reasons that generally speak for themselves. At least to me. A lot of the content is filtered to me through friends, so it also serves as a "best of" my custom social web.
Basically, it's fun, which is what creating content -- even if it's recycled -- is supposed to be. Take a look and give it a subscribe if you like what you see.
One thing there should never be shortage of are ideas that inspire positive change. Speaking at the 2009 PSFK Conference NYC, Graham Hill, founder of Treehugger, lists 60 people, products and services making the world a better place.
I first heard the legend of Leroy Smith last week and since then, he has been hard to avoid. In a very good way.
According to Leroy's personal site, GetYourBasketballOn.com, he is "the man that motivated Michael Jordan". The Leroy Smith character is based on the real Leroy Smith, who beat a young Jordan for the final varsity team spot in high school. Following that disappointment, Jordan worked twice as hard and became...well, Michael Jordan.
Created for Nike by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy, Leroy's character is played by the hilarious Charlie Murphy (of Chapelle Show fame). Leroy's personal site includes motivational DVDs, a video game and a petition to induct Leroy into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Adverblog has a review of the campaign here.
I love this campaign because it's the perfect storm of creativity, compelling content and social media execution.
The idea This campaign is a departure from the tone Nike usually lends to air Air Jordans. With Leroy Smith, they have created a character in the spirit of basketball that manages to pull in an audience beyond basketball fans with humorous, engaging content. Of course, Leroy's portrayal by Charlie Murphy goes a long way in bringing in those extra fans.
Most importantly, the campaign stays true to the brand. The legend of Michael Jordan is the star.
The right use of digital/social Giving Leroy his own personal site to distribute motivational DVDs, spectacular songs (such as "My Gift to the Game"), and his petition for the Hall of Fame, is a no brainer. Making these items shareable isn't exactly a reach either. However, I am pretty impressed by the twitter and Facebook presences. Leroy uses twitter to spout motivational wisdom that you can't find anywhere else. A tweet from last night (in reference to Manny Ramirez):
Leroy is interacting with his followers and fans as well, and his presence in social media extends the experience while managing to synch with the digital elements. In this case, twitter and Facebook aren't seen as boxes to check off in the marketing mix. They received just as much attention as every other piece.
Above and beyond The use of digital hubs with social media staples Facebook, twitter and YouTube have become the new campaign distribution formula. Especially for reaching a coveted demographic that now spends more time consuming media online than anywhere else. But this audience isn't only on Facebook and twitter all day, which is why Nike went the extra mile and made sure Leroy got interviews with ESPN's Scoop Jackson and CNBC's Darren Rovell. The interviews blur the lines, prompting the reader to ask again -- "Who is Leroy Smith?" And, as with the rest of the campaign, the voice of Leroy is spot on, forming another nice piece in the marketing mix.
When it comes to reaching an online audience, the challenge every marketer faces is not only giving their audience a reason to care about the message, but a reason to share it. Digital media doesn't work alone, and neither does social media. Making them work together (and the audience work for you) is the new traditional campaign, and it's exactly what Nike does with the Leroy Smith character.
Advertisers used to struggle (and often fail) at the integration of TV, print and online banners. Well, the new challenge is digital. Fortunately there's a formula. Just ask Leroy.
As brands continue their mad rush into social media -- building customer communities, tweeting with their customers and urging people to join their group on Facebook -- Influx Insights brings up a valid point: "Should Corporations be Nasty?".
The more you Tweet and Facebook friend your consumers, there's always the potential that you loose your point of view and edge because you're so busy trying to be "them" and cater to their every whim.
If every brand is following the same social formula -- "add me", "join me" and "what do you think of us?!" -- do the brands that don't become the differentiators?
To create a metaphor:
The social brand is the guy in student government. He knows everyone. He's friendly, he's outgoing and just about everyone likes him. There are no surprises. But some people may be more interested in the guy chain-smoking across the street from the high school who doesn't give a crap what you think.
Our perception of brands works the same way. For some, there is more value in being sought out vs. readily available.
Of all the social networks that I participate in, I actually KNOW the fewest on twitter. And I'm guessing if you follow/are followed by more than a few hundred people, you are in the same situation. twitter is one of the few social networks where it is completely acceptable to follow people you don't know, and want them to follow you back. It is one of the things that makes twitter unique.
I am following marketers, technologists, designers, news services and a slew of early adopters, and I am followed by many of the same. As twitter has grown over the last few months, the one group I have now added is friends. As in, people I know personally -- relationships were constructed offline and are now seeping onto twitter.
I joined twitter as a digital marketer wanting to learn more about a tool that has now become essential to maintaining a social media presence, and ended up talking to people doing the same. My real friends weren't there, so the people I talked to the most we like me: early adopters, marketers, people interested in new media. Now that my friends have rolled into twittertown, my twitter personality is changing. The people listening and talking back to me on twitter are no longer early adopters and marketers -- they are people I grew up with and had beers with long before twitter existed.
It is unusual for a social media service to become more social, but that's what twitter has become for me. I'd rather tweet to and for friends I know than hope for a retweet from early adopters. That doesn't mean it's one or the other, but the presence of my friends has changed the way I converse on twitter.
If I really want to maintain a certain personality on twitter, the obvious answer is to have a couple different twitter handles, but that defeats the purpose of social media. Social media is about relationships - the new ones and the old - and one of the things that makes social media interesting to me is the fusing of the those relationships and the information/interactions that result. As more of my friends join twitter, it becomes better (and more social) for me. And to be honest, I think it makes the conversation on twitter better as well. So I'll be sticking with my current twitter handle and look forward to more friends rolling into town.
Saturday, July 4, 2009 at 11:17AM 
