Title: Get Creative, Get Weird, Get Noticed Innovative Ways to Get Your Message Spread
1Get Creative, Get Weird, Get NoticedInnovativ
e Ways to Get Your Message Spread
2The Agenda
- Introduction
- Word of Mouth
- The Key Grassroots Multipliers
- Technology to Enable Your Effort
- Getting Creative
- Mobilizing Multipliers
3Introduction
4Introduction Todays Presentation
- Getting a message spread
- Word of mouth at grassroots level
- Finding the spreaders
- Using technology
- Using creativity
- Political focus, but lessons for brand/product
spreading as well
5Introduction John Hlinko
- John Hlinko President CEO
- Early leader, MoveOn.org
- Top 5 PR Professionals of the year, PR Week
- DraftWesleyClark.com DraftObama.org
- Founder ActForLove.org
- Lots of other awards from prominent adults (see
www.Grassroots.com if youre curious)
6And yes hes going to win
7Introduction Grassroots Enterprise
- Serve the F-500, trade associations, nonprofits,
governments - Investors are Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn) and Peter
Thiel (Paypal) - Team has built and led some of most successful
grassroots movements ever - Offices in DC, San Francisco, and Toronto
- Combine technology with communications strategy
to build grassroots support for products,
companies, and causes - Identify and mobilize evangelists
- Spread awareness and adoption of client offerings
- Respond to regulatory, legislative or marketplace
challenges - Grassroots communications experts
- Messages that work online, messages that are read
and spread - Leveraging social networking/emerging media
technologies - We dont just build web sites or communities, we
build movements
8What We Do
- Recruit
- Design, architect, and build online presence
- Connect with universe of existing stakeholders
- Identify and recruit new stakeholders
- Engage
- Use regular, frequent contact to build trusted
two-way relationship - Build a compelling narrative
- Build profiles using actively and passively
provided information - Identify and cultivate Multipliers
- Monitor and influence blogosphere/social media
- Mobilize
- Recruit others through email, widgets, social
media (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, personal
blogs)
9Selected Client Experience
10Recognition
- 2008
- 3 Best awards (and counting) for use of social
media - 2007
- Golden DotOutstanding National Online Campaign
- 2006
- More first place Internet Pollies than any other
firm (6 in total) - PR Week Top 5 PR Professional of the Year
- 2005
- PR Week Campaign of the Year
- Sabre AwardInternet Site Health Care
The Grassroots team has a unique passion for the
blogosphere, understanding how to knit together
ads, site creative and ideas into a narrative
that really engages online hyper-influentials...Th
eir playfulness, passion, teamwork, theatrical
intuition and risk-taking translate into uniquely
effective campaigns. - Henry Copeland,
President, BlogAds.com
11Word of Mouth Marketing
12Why Is It Important?
The Media Landscape is Changing Rapidly
- Consumer skepticism 76 dont believe that
companies tell the truth in advertisements
(Yankelovich 2006) - Media Fragmentation The average US household now
receives 100 TV channels, compared with 27 in
1994 (Nielsen Media Research 2005) - Content Creation 35 of internet users
participate in creating media online - (Pew Internet 2006)
13Word of Mouth Marketing
- The concept is simple
- Giving people a reason to talk about your
products and services - Facilitating that conversation
- Why do it?
- When it works 0 CPA
- 65 rely on friends/family most for product
recommendations - In buying products, 85 rely on peer reviews than
experts - The practice is a bit harder
- Authenticity
- Transparency
- Measurement and analytics
- Its more difficult than direct marketing
14The Old Way.
15The New Way
ISSUE
CANDIDATE
16What Does This Mean?
New Opportunities.
- Everyone has now has tools and platform to help
build your brand. - Platform encourages viral spread of messages and
memes across profiles - Opportunities exist to get people to interact
with issue on a deeper level
New Challenges
- Loss of control over positioning as consumers
control conversation - Everyone has now has tools and platform to tear
down your brand - Video or audio mash-ups of official branding or
messaging can go global - Conversations that used to happen offline are now
indexed and searchable
17The Key to it All The Multipliers
18Who are the Grassroots Multipliers?
- Individual as publisher
- Brand advocates Mavens Influentials
- Vocal about their preferences
- Willing to take action
- Eager to recruit
- Multipliers online and offline
- One Multiplier 5, 10, 50, 100, 1,000 others
19What Content Inspires Multipliers?
- Topical/in the news
- Emotionally impactful (humor, anger, etc.)
- Cognitive dissonance
- Dash of Beavis and Butthead
- 117 emails
- Ignore the joy sponges
20Finding Multipliers using Technology
- Multiplier Mining Not just spread, but read
-
- VS.
21Social Media Scan
Social Networking
Social Media
Social Bookmarking
22Social Media Automatic Multiplying
- Items you add to your profile get spread to
others in their news feed - Post Items to Your Feed! News articles, videos,
blog postings, photos anything that promotes
your issues - As people join groups, become friends or add
photos it is broadcast to their list of friends - If a friend says he or she is associated with a
product or cause, its a higher value touch point
than just seeing a traditional ad
23Social Media Automatic Multiplying
24Mobilizing Multipliers
- Measure what is spread
- Pitch them like reporters
- Get them active in their social media groups
25Using Technology
26The Grassroots Multiplier Platform
Web Content ManagementEnable extremely rapid
publishing and editing of customized and
personalized information on the Web, and
generation/moderation of user-generated
contente.g, blogging, rich media
Interactive CommunicationIntegration of
personalized e-mail, fax, and phone
communications among organization, stakeholders
and third- party decision-makers
Database and Results Tracking Track and centrally
store all stakeholder profile information,
campaign activity and enable precision targeting.
Provide excellent visibility into ROI, including
actions taken and response rates by stakeholder
group, geography, issue interest, etc.
Transactions Integrated online fundraising/
transaction capability, with ability to deliver
targeted solicitations based on stakeholder
profile and behavior
27Customize and Personalize
- Identify individuals attributes, issue
preferences and commitment levels for action - Use actively and passively provided information
- Customize and personalize on individual level
- Engage across the spectrum of commitment
- Cultivate stakeholders and increase level of
engagement - Make the right ask of the right person at the
right time - Measure results in real time and respond
accordingly
28Getting Creative Case Studies
29TFK One Site? No, 200 Sites
30Guerrilla Marketing for a Brand
- DC Olympic Curling Team
- Issue driven campaign
- Blog-driven media strategy
- Became a phenomenon
- Minimal investment yet explosive growth in
traffic - Print coverage Washington Post, Roll Call, Time
Magazine - TV NBC, Fox, International
- Online Salon, innumerable blogs
- Labatt approached for sponsorship
- Minimal investment Explosive growth in traffic
- Coverage in Washington Post, Fox News, Roll Call
- 2006 Viral/Email Campaign of Year
31Entertainment Software Association
- Video Game Voters Network
- New movement to mobilize adult gamers to take
political action - Over 10K signups in first week, over 150K at last
count - MySpace site launched to complement main effort
- Rapid growth, with prominent celebrity friends
added quickly - New paradigm for exponential expansion of support
and reach - Golden Dot finalist for Online Campaign of the
Year
32PC Ontario Leveraging Social Networks
33Draft Wesley Clark
- One of the most successful grassroots movements
in American political history - In under six months
- 2 million in pledges
- Over 50,000 supporters
- Hundreds of local chapters
- Worldwide media coverage
- Convinced Wesley Clark to run
- Received the 2004 Golden Dot for Best
Breakout/Impact Internet Movement
34The Sweet Secret
35CafePress.com Not Just Logo-Wear
36Mocking a Villain NBCC
- Golden Boob award to highlight opponent
- Focus on Abortion Breast Cancer Coalition
- Generated grassroots firestorm
- Turned antipathy for opponent to support for
cause
37Using a Villain Park the Movie
- Happy name coincidence
- Existing villain
- Focus on multipliers in specific community
38ActForLove.org Power of Primal Urges
- Online dating for Democrats
- Promoting causes and products
- Take Action, Get Action
39Mobilizing Multipliers
40Amplifying DraftObama.org/YouTube
- Leveraged small support base to drive placement
on YouTube - Became top news YouTube video, which in turn
caught attention of other YouTubers - Became major media story in matter of hours
41Amplifying Great Big Sea
- Small but loyal base of fans cultivated online
- Driven to buy album during first week of release
- Led album of traditional Irish folk music to open
3 on the chartsbeating Alicia Keys - Large opening gave album enhanced media
attention, legs
42Amplifying Park the Movie
- Leveraging focus on opening weekend in small
market (Pittsburgh) - Building a list of pre-customers in advance
- Using Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and blog ads
- Stay tuned
43Wrapping up
- Find and mobilize Multipliers
- Social media audit
- Measure what is read and spread
- Pitch them like reporters
- Amplify the power of supporters
- Channel action at the most buzz-worthy time
- Take advantage of social media opportunities
- Use the power of a villain
- Use the viral power of a cause
- Find a cause even if tongue in cheek to act
as the viral host mechanism for your brand
44Contact
- John Hlinko
- President CEO, Grassroots Enterprise
- 202-741-3798
- JohnH_at_grassroots.com
- www.Grassroots.com