My Time at Best Buy

As most of you are aware my time is now officially up at Best Buy.  After over two years at the US company (I can’t believe it is that long either) it is time to move on.  A lot has been achieved over my time there, some of which I will account for below and I have met a number of very good people.  Above all I joined Best Buy for two reasons.  One reason was to launch a brand from scratch, something most marketing professionals in th UK have yet to do, and fewer digital marketers have had that responsibility.  Secondly was because of the great people-based culture Best Buy had.

The second part of that has changed during my time in lovely North Acton and I suppose it had to change to a degree as the organisation comes to terms from being a start-up to becoming a dominant player in the UK CE space, something they should be well-equipped to become.

So what was achieved?

Launch of a Brand

We had a lot to do on this. Rather than just transmitting the US brand to the UK, we had to establish what the UK consumer wanted and needed and deliver propositions against that.  In the early days I was one of the key stakeholders in the process and we had some great debates on how to shape the brand and in turn the plans accordingly.  As the Marcomms team grow and we went from launch and branding to BAU this moved to the more traditional team.  We won an award for one of the service propositions we created ‘Walk Out Working’

Social Media

I may have been lucky in joining a brand that embraces Social Media more than some, at a time when social media was going from infancy to adolescence.  But, I feel this was one of our main success stories – recognised by being voted number 5 in the UK’s Top 100 Social Brands.  We did more than just build buzz around driving Facebook page numbers or Twitter followers.  We tracked behaviour and listened to conversations and reacted accordingly.

In addition we created content calendars to drive Social Media currency and providing worthwhile content for people to visit and engage with us on our platforms.  This included attending Trade and Consumer shows in addition to covering Entertainment events.

One of my brainchilds TechXpert did very well and given the right backing by the business will help differentiate Best Buy in both Social Media and through site usability.

Watch out for others on the horizon that have already been developed including TwelpForce and IdeaX.

Affiliates

Our affiliate programme grew from absolutely nothing to a roaring success over night.  We built very strong relationships with key affiliates including Quidco, MyVoucherCodes, Nectar and CoolKitchen as well as with some of the others you may not know.  We created a programme that was far more competitive than anybody in our sector and listened to affiliates and their needs.  This was recognised at this years A4U Forum where the Best Buy programme won ‘Best Newcomer’

Mobile

Although not launched officially as yet,  the work already put in means Best Buy is well-placed in terms of apps and m-Commerce.

Site

The site in my opinion is the cleanest and most customer-centric of all core-CE competitors.  It was built using a combination of best-practice and usability studies with our customers.  We also used Exit Surveys post-launch to see where we could change further.

Social Commerce

We were the first retailer in the UK to launch a Facebook store-front, allowing users to access the entire catalogue within Facebook, share or like with friends and go off and buy.  Other work in this area has been done, but it would be unfair to reveal what that is.

Viral

We produced a great viral to link Best Buy and our people with the World Cup.  That despite no link with the World Cup and no online presence.  The video which also featured a competition element, pitted two of our brilliant blueshirts from Merry Hill setting up the ultimate mancave featuring great tech but also a kebab oven, slush puppy machine and man nappies.  The video got c. 250k views and loads of comments within just two weeks.

Overall

There was a lot covered in the two years and it was a great learning experience, not only for me but for all involved.  There is a lot more that we managed to do that is not in here, but I didn’t want to bore you all too much.  I joined Best Buy for a challenge and it certainly delivered in that respect.  It was a great time with its fair share of ups and downs but overall good.

Last word

I couldn’t write this post without acknowledging perhaps one of the best leaders I have ever worked with.  Now I don’t normally go for the cheesy American stuff or Raa Raa as most of you know.  But one of our original leaders at Best Buy was absolutely inspirational.  He believed in what we were doing and was absolutely passionate about Best Buy.  He treated every employee as a member of his family an he genuinely had the best interests of everybody at heart.  Paul Antoniadis sadly left Best Buy and in my humble opinion I still don’t think they have replaced his passion or enthusiasm.

I know Paul is off doing his own thing now and doing very well for himself (I imagine with much shorter days as well).  There were many other people within Best Buy who were good and helped make it a great place and they know who they are.

Now I move on to new things, which will be revealed very shortly.  Needless to say everything I have learned over the past two years will be utilised and built upon.  So watch my LinkedIn profile to see what’s next.

Blendtec – Will it Blend

Will it Blend?

Blendtec is not really unique. It isn’t a particularly inventive idea. It isn’t even particularly well produced (although that is the point).  So why am I featuring it?

The simple truth is that Blendtec founder, Tom Dickson, took one of the 5 F’s of Social Media and used it to bring to life, a quite frankly, dull subject, blenders.  While most manufacturers were trying to make the products either sound like a must-have or focussing on key features, Blendtec took the unprecedented step of trying to make the topic of blenders fun.

What is it?

Blendtec was created after Tom first tried to blend a box of matches.  The mess created, inspired Tom to kick-off his unusual marketing campaign, which has turned into a viral success.  Blendtec now has its own sites with regular videos being placed on the site.  Tom Dickson still stars and utilises his inane grin as he subjects the items to the blender.

The campaign took off from almost day one.  The fact that the episodes offered shock value was enough, but the fun factor hasn’t tired.  Each episode centres on an item that really shouldn’t be blended, lighters, cans of fizzy drink and even a 6ft garden rake.

Part of Will it Blend’s appeal however is the fact that Tom normally offers up a reason for things being blended.  A common request from fans of the show is to blend a crowbar.  In one episode which appeared to bow to viewer demand it appeared Tom was going to attempt to blend a crowbar.  Completely by chance, this was interupted by a mobile phone.  Tom’s response was to blend each and every phone of the crew.

He has also earned money by doing shows based around the superbowl, blending in relation to movie launches and a disc of GTA IV.  Perhaps the standout feature was when Tom blended his iPhone citing the reason that he needed to upgrade.  The shock value in one of the most in-demand products being destroyed in front of your eyes made this episode one of the most watched in the series.

Fun

For me this is a perfect example of a campaign that just works.  It strikes a chord with people as it demonstrates a rather dry subject and creates theatre, involving something that the general public wouldn’t consider.  The main underlying theme for me is that the deliberately cheesy set-up and low-cost production values make the whole thing, a lot of fun.  This is truly one of the most successful viral/social campaigns there has been.  Not purely because of the buzz created.  Not purely because of the sheer volumes of views it has received.  This campaign has delivered real commercial return.

It is rumoured this very low budget viral has delivered up to 500% sales growth.  Proving that impact campaigns can deliver real commercial benefit.

How Does Viral Marketing Work?

Viral – How does it work?

I have been in the online Marketing game now for a number of years.  I have seen successful and unsuccessful viral campaigns.  I have probably been involved with a few (I won’t say which end of the spectrum mine were).  But how does it work?  The whole point of viral marketing is that it spreads.  People either reference your material by sending e-mail to their mate or just telling others about it.

How it used to Work

When I first started in online advertising there were no social networks.  No social bookmarking.  Very few blogs.  So how did it work?  Well creativity was absolutely crucial (remember people didn’t have broadband then and they were in the main still paying by the minute), what you had produced wither had to be thoroughly entertaining or have an ultimate payoff (generally simple games or competitions).  Very few were visually arresting as the connection speeds were too slow for video or extended sound files.

Your material would then get sent via your e-mail base, if you had the budget you would support with a display advertising campaign and if you were particularly clever you would do some seeding in forums or chat. rooms (the early social networks).  Some worked some didn’t. 

The distribution was still with the end game to get your message out to as many people as possible.  However it was potentially more difficult to do it in a cost effective manner.  Later came areas such as FHM and Lycos where you could get your viral listed in their Viral Charts.  If you made either of the Top 10 you normally had a relative success on your hands.  There are many more routes nowadays which I will expand on later in this post.

Six Degrees of Separation 

There have been many articles written on this subject (so I won’t try to explain the concept in detail) and it has even inspired numerous plays, books and films.  The concept basically centres around the notion that everybody is connected to everybody else in the world by a maximum of six degrees of separation. So what?  Whether you believe the theory or not the concept links intrinsicly with social media.  You often see on sites such as LinkedIn – you are connected to this persons network by x level.  Social sites such as Friendster also play on this concept.  The social sites use it as a way to help you expand your direct network, i.e. if Serena Privett knows James Booth, Serena is shown in my network even though I don’t know her myself.  I may never have come across Serena if James wasn’t in my network and now I can make contact if I wish.

This was an example on a professional site.  Imagine this same scenario on Facebook.  You know Joe Bloggs, Joe Bloggs is friends with …. and so on and so forth.    That is the whole premise of social networking.  You know Person A, they know Person B that has similar interests, you see this and conenct to Person B, you have now made a connection.  In theory you can connect to any other person in the world through only six steps.  Obviously the Facebook and LinkedIn scenarios are limited to the fact that people need to be members of those sites for the theory to be applied. 

Taking this into consideration, I am connected to anybody who reads this blog within a maximum of six degrees of separation.  Taking it to the extreme, I am linked to anybody in the world within six degrees of separation, whether that is former Countdown presenter Carol Vorderman or US President Barack Obama.  A social networking site call SixDegrees.org has been launched by Actor Kevin Bacon with this theory in mind.  This started with celebrities showcasing their charities and now anybody can showcase their good cause.

Just to add further credence to the theory, over 4m people have downloaded the 6degrees app in Facebook and at present the average degree of separation is 6.12. 

OK but what relevance does this have?

 

Distributing your message

Well we have all heard the phrase “Its a small world”.  The 6 Degrees theory is an illustration of that saying.  So social media hasn’t told us that it has merely highlighted it in a visual and practical way.

What it also allows marketers to do, is to track those relationships.  While in the good old days we relied on pure creativity, contact lists and good fortune.  We can now target much more precisely the type of people we want to get our message across.  Social networking presents these opportunities because of the depth of data on people’s interests, hobbies, relationships and most importantly networks.  We can target people if our message is broad e.g. we’re Coca Cola or if the message is niche, e.g. replacement parts for Mitsubishi Evo cars.  If one person engages, then their entire network picks up on it.  If one of them engages, their network picks up on it.  You then in theory can reach mass audiences extremely quickly.

Social networking sites are just a component of distribution though.  Social bookmarking can be a great tool, use sites tools such as Del.icio.us and Digg, make sure you load your bookmarks with tags people will associate with your message.  The same theory of six degrees could come into play.

Send it to your e-mail base and ask them to refer it on to their contacts.  There is nothing more powerful than a direct referal from somebody you trust.  Seed on forums, chat rooms and on specialist sites, the old tactics are still as relevant today as they were back in the beginning.   Remember, just because people are used to engaging with brands online through social than perhaps they were in the past.  Do not, start mass seeding your material everywhere.  Be open and transparent.  If you find a relevant forum, ask the forum administrator for permission to post a link.  Obviously if it is a forum you are active on already, you will know if its right or wrong.

However, I would recommend you don’t just rely on, build it, they will come and they will forward it.  You need to put some money into it as well.  Support with some advertising spend, maybe a PPC campaign or reward affiliates on new sign-ups.  Work out who the influential bloggers are in your areas and try to get them to blog about your activity.

Making it work

So it sounds easy.  Create something.  Put it on some social sites. Chat in a forum about it and do some PPC.  Bang, it is viral.  No!  If it were that simple every single marketer in the land would be doing it.  The magic of viral is still in what you are actually saying.

Your viral has to be entertaining or informative but above all engaging.  No matter how successful your distribution strategy, there is no guarantee people will look at it or respond favourably.  Don’t seed in out of context environments, and make sure your viral has something to offer the recipient.

Remember if your viral is good they will recommend and refer it to friends.  If it is bad, at best they won’t do anything with it, at worse they will tell everybody how hopeless it was an tarnish all your efforts.  The best chance of referral is to offer them something they probably haven’t seen before or something with a money can’t (generally) buy reward.

Super surfers

If you examine any SEO texts or read any social networking commentary you will know that they are always referencing influencers and super-users.  I call these people super surfers.  They are the ones that engage with numerous tools and in theory are as important as traditional media sources such as ITV or The Sun.  They are the active people on YouTube, regular forum posters and bloggers.  They may only have a direct influence over 100-300 people, but those people are normally engaged.  They can be talking about very niche subjects such as Ex-Battery Hens, but if you are marketing a range of hen food, this is a perfect audience.  There may be only a few hundred on that forum, however they are bound to know others, who know others etc etc

That was a specific example, but there are many others, if you want to attract teenage girls to a new line of make-up you may target a forum for girl band The Saturdays.  If you were trying to promote a traditional corporate venue to professional people you may want to influence a Freemason forum.  Just remember there are sources there for every walk of life, with these super surfers who have the acorn of influence over a wide array of people.

Key Steps

• Identify super surfers
• Get your distribution strategy right
• Create an engaging viral that offers the audience something they haven’t seen before

Has it worked?

Something a number of people neglect when creating viral campaigns is the review of has it been a success.  At the brief stage, be very clear about what you want to achieve.  Don’t forget that objective throughout the process.  Is it mentions in the press, e-mail sign-ups, increase in brand consideration or just views?  Whatever it is make that guide the process and don’t get carried away by the creativity.  Make the creative process support your end objectives.

Above all, ensure you have the correct mechanisms on place to track behaviour and performance against your KPIs.  Otherwise you may be able to provide anecdotal evidence to say it has work, but there are no hard facts.  Otherwise you may have to wait a while until you can do another viral campaign.

Free Online Promotion

Free Lunch?

OK, so not everybody is an SEO genius, able to generate copious amounts of free website traffic.  What other options are there?  The beauty of “Web 2.0” is that most of the concepts are still trying to find their commercial purpose. A a consequence the majority still offer free possibilities for any business. If you are clever and have something decent to offer you can also find your message or promotion spreading exponentially.

1.Facebook offers real opportunities to get your message out there, via your personal profile, a company page and/or groups
2. Twitter – its one of the most talked about sites at the moment and you can easily send your message to thousands
3. MySpace, if you’re related to music, this is still the place to put your messages – millions still look at MySpace
4. YouTube – depending on the concept, good video with a viral element will gain great mass coverage and quickly
5. Classifieds – places like GumTree and even eBay are great place to put your message out there
6. Directories and search engines – these are critical to your success
7. Guerilla – use tactics on forums, chatrooms to get your message out, but make sure they are relevant or you will be hounded out and lose any credibility
8. Produce blogs and articles, some good resources have already been listed in terms of areas to place and feed content.
9. Yahoo! Answers. Become a knowledge partner, great source if your area is interesting and has a number of questions
10. Do some real PR and contact online publications or journalists. You really need to sell yourself – I don’t think Press Releases are enough, you need to make contact with the key figures.

These are just ten ideas, however there are endless opportunities and if you want to put even just a small amount behind it, you can really make it take off.