Ant Hill Marketing

This past Saturday I attended Cre8Camp III. This was one of a series of unconferences for creative industries professionals. At Cre8Camp, participants learn, network and share in an open environment. The idea is that when creatives get together, magic happens. Who am I to argue with that?

And so, this past weekend I experienced the Magic. The great thing about this unconference, is that it was clear that the term “creative” encompasses more than just ad-men and artists. It is anyone out there who takes a creative approach to solving problems; whether that be developers, account managers, consultants, or teachers.

We gathered in the morning and brainstormed topics. Some of those included:

• Milk Bath – how do you decompress?
• Unstuck – Getting unstuck in your way of thinking.
• SEO
• Semantic Web
• Bridging the Gap – Communication styles between clients, managers, designers, programmers, etc…
• Emerging Trends
• Branding Yourself or Product
• Designing on a Budget
• and more…

After the topic brainstorm, we broke up the topics into sessions and created a schedule. Attendees were free to join sessions that interested them. The collaboration and brainstorming was very energizing. It was great to peer into what other creatives are working on and how they approach certain subjects.  I am looking forward to the next one, and the mothership event, Cre8Con in September. I hope to see you there!

For those of you who may not have heard, Skittles has recently launched a new website. Instead of bringing you a taste of the rainbow through a flashy site that offers product giveaways, colorful contests, and a branded interactive experience, they have chosen to leverage what YOU the consumer are saying about them by utilizing existing social media outlets, such as Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, etc…

To Skittles credit, in the past few years they have been very brave with their ad campaigns and branding. Some of their commercials rank among my favorites with their off-the-wall concepts. But I have to wonder what is this new risky venture into social media saying about their brand? Already I have seen attempts from saboteurs twittering racist rants coupled with the #skittles hashtag. Are they really going to hand over the reigns to us?

Their strategy so far has just been to point us to the conversations that are occurring at the moment about Skittles. That’s it. And to that, I say BIG DEAL…but what benefit does the consumer get from seeing your Wiki page, or becoming a Skittles facebook friend? Is there really a brand culture that exists for Skittles, where taking this type of approach is going to help foster their brand? They are certainly getting plenty of PR buzz by taking a page from Modernista‘s playbook. But is that sustainable? How quickly will this schtick become tiresome?

This approach is still new. What I hope to see is that they will carry forth that edginess that was in their campaigns and engage us! What off-the-wall innovation is Skittles going to bring to these conversations? How will they wow us? And what are they going to do with their products to BACK IT ALL UP!

I know you are watching, Skittles, but are you listening?

The more I dive into social media, the more I start to realize there is an endless amount of information, articles, technologies, case studies, do’s, don’ts… and the list goes on… it starts to become exhausting. I tend to get easily distracted where there are too many sites to visit. I find myself hopping from one place to the next until I can’t remember what I was even searching for. Here are some basic tips for sorting through the clutter and finding the info you need (and still be able to get some work done).

1. Read Groundswell- This book does an excellent job of setting you strait on how to approach social media from a business perspective. It walks you though valuable information on not only the technology but the strategy behind it.  It also has some really powerful case studies that provide real life examples.
2. SmartBrief on Social Media- This daily email has been a quick way to reference the most popular topics in social media of the day.  I find that I can easily skim the email to find the most relevant information.
3. Follow key people on Twitter- Depending on how your using twitter (or if you’re using it at all) it can be a great way to keep up on the recent buzz in social media marketing. Find some interesting people to follow (that also provide valuable information) and check in daily.  (for example, @mashable is a good one) Also, if you are tweeting on behalf of multiple accounts use tools like Splitweet into consolidate your tweeting to one interface.
4. Create a dashboard- If you look at my iGoogle homepage, it somewhat resembles a command central, filled with widgets to keep me posted on all of my social networking sites, mail, blog & twitter feeds, news, docs, etc. This helps me find the information I need w/out visiting multiple sites.
5. Don’t focus too much on the technologies- There will always be another widget, social networking site, etc. It can be really overwhelming. If you put to much emphasis on keeping up with each new technology, you can begin to lose sight of what the purpose for the technology is and how it can help your brand connect with its audiences.

A mid-week stack of bagels, lounging in one of the bagel bins.

Here at Ant Hill, we have a delicious tradition we’ve deemed Bagel Monday. Each week our kind agency partners bring in a bag ‘o’ bagels and enough schmear to get us through. Come Friday,  there are not many bagels left and all of our tummy’s are a little fuller. Some of our favorite flavors include: sesame, cinnamon, cheese and onion. Yum.

Kim prefers to bring in Kettlemen’s , with tons of lox spread where as Grant is a loyal Noah’s fan. Personally, I don’t care as long they’re fresh and there’s plenty of cream cheese to gobbled.

What’s your favorite bagel place/flavor?