Those of you that know me, are well aware of my view on the necessity for good quality data and I think this is going to be one of the big things for next year. Developing access to multiple sources of information and having analysts capable of scouring through reams of seemingly indecipherable numbers to identify traits and patterns is something that agencies and organisations alike are now recognising as a business imperative. It may not be as sexy as buying developing augmented reality applications for mobile devices, but in a post recessionary environment where many of the economic indicators are still unstable, being able to prove the merit of your work is becoming an operational mandate. For everyone.

Add to this an increasing complexity within the agency world, where agencies are diversifying both horizontally and vertically in an attempt to find new sources of income (Skive’s success at the CIPDs should be a stark warning to us all) and the changing dynamics of the HR world, where we are already starting to see a consolidation of traditionally decentralised units into single departments like ‘communication’ and ‘branding’ and the message is clear: if you are unable to prove your worth, you’ll be left behind, scrabbling for scraps of work to survive.

The positive news is that Hodes has a good reputation for delivering work that is effective. The challenge we face is how to help ourselves and our clients set up systems that allow us to monitor and respond to an increasing number of touchpoints, especially when those touchpoints may be raising questions that people are (understandably) reticent to answer.

One of those questions is often raised in Direct Sourcing workshops – in a world where it is incredibly easy to find out vast amounts of information about individuals, where should a business draw the line? Ian Ruddy, HR Director of O2, has actively stated that Facebook will not be used in any part of the recruitment process, recognising (as many do) that individuals see Social Media sites like Facebook and Bebo as tools for personal conversations, as opposed to sites like LinkedIn which are purely professional. But other HR Directors (and their agencies) have not been as forthcoming.

It is heavily apparent that candidates believe the distinction is clear. But the recruitment world has yet to make up its mind. And while this quandary is digested, discussed and debated, more data is being added to the mix. The problem is that data is fails to discriminate between information used for personal purposes and that used for professional purposes. Interpretation is a task for the analysts. Or lawyers.

There is a nice presentation I came across on Slideshow that outlines the challenges posed by the melding of all our social groups, which is definitely worth looking at. This is something I expect all our clients to be asking us about. And we need to be prepared to help them find answers.

For those of you who prefer the less verbose, then here are a couple of nice sites to look at, courtesy of Messrs Dix, Gunnell and Henchman:
•    www.thewildernessdowntown.com (ideally viewed in Google Chrome)
•    http://coolmaterial.com/roundup/if-historical-events-had-facebook-statuses/
•    http://www.bartleboglehegarty.com/#/europe/our-work/mentos-diamond-white-banner

Enjoy

Our theme for this week is all about the power of the cloud and the crowd. We have talked in many a Friday mail about how the digitisation of media is making it easier for individuals to group together for collective benefit, without having to be encumbered by huge infrastructural or set up costs. We have also touched upon how the notion of a job is also changing. But many of the transformations that are taking place around us go beyond technology. A more sociological shift is happening which requires us to rethink the nature of both what we do and how we do it.

The first example below is a classic example of this. It highlights how an age-old publishing model is being completely redefined by what is quite a simple technological approach. The second example just got me thinking about how the postal industry has been decimated by sites like Flickr and Facebook. It used to be that baby announcements were made in a newspaper, then formal mails were sent out to kith and kin, supported by a beautifully shot photo. Thanks to photo sharing and social media sites, each organisation or service in this supply chain (newspaper advert sales, paper and pen manufacturer, stationary sales, film producer, photographic processor, postperson) has simply been removed. Or at the very least severely impacted. The final site just appealed because I like Scalextric.

Enjoy

A new model for storytelling (http://blog.storybird.com/)

Storybird is a service that makes it simple for families and friends to create short, visual stories together that they can share and print. For artists and writers, Storybird is next-generation publishing: global, viral, and instantaneous. The site goes live next month, but I love the business model, which enables artists and illustrators to form a direct relationship with consumers, rather than being forced to go through publishers. Tony. I expect to see your work up here sharpish!

If that doesn’t appeal, then just look through the illustrations. Some are just beautiful.

Storkmail (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75111&id=566379719&l=596c944783)

Just as we welcomed a bleary-eyed Paul back to the team, with hearty congratulations, then Mrs Clode decided to have her baby early. For those of you who want to see the latest addition to the ever-extending Hodes baby club, Stu has dropped some photos on Facebook. Raya, apparently, means “friend”, “wise guardian” or “the heaven”. Aaaaaaaaahhhhh

An old game made new (http://www.magicsocket.com/)

As someone who never reached the echelons of Scalextric ownership, I was immensely jealous when my 8 year old was presented with his very own Dukes of Hazard Scalextric set for his birthday. And now, courtesy of Paul Gass, I now have my very own set, which sits as a backdrop to navigating through a site. Hugely addictive. Heavily interactive. The only issue I have is that it detracts from me actually looking at the rest of the site. But then, I guess I’ll be coming back again and again, so I have plenty of time to engage with the company’s brand.

Obama and the power of Facebook (http://my.barackobama.com)

The Barack story is interesting, because there is a parallel with the Conservative rise to power of the early 70s. In both cases, the political parties/candidates recognized the power of new channels to activate and capture the attention of previously hard to reach candidates. In the 1970s the channel was TV; in the case of Obama it was the internet.

There is a lot of material about the Obama campaign (I’ve included two links below), but for me one of the most interesting and unique features was its use of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. Chris Hughes, the founder of Facebook, was brought onto the Obama team and immediately set about activating a whole tranche of activities, run by engaged supporters. Some of the stats have been included below:

·         More than 1.5 million people visited the mybarackobama website and organized themselves into 35,000 separate groups

·         Over 150,000 meetings and events were organized during the 21 months of Obama’s presidential campaign

·         Supporters bombarded YouTube with videos of his speeches to boost his online presence

·         The campaign raised over $600m in donations from 3million people, many of whom contributed online

·         When the Republicans started the viral rumour mill, the Obama camp used the internet to counter the various rumours that were being aired.

Simon Rosenberg, who worked on Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, said: “He’s run a campaign where he’s used very modern tools, spoke to a new coalition, talked about new issues, and along the way, he’s reinvented the way campaigns are run. Compared to our 1992 campaign, this is like a multinational corporation versus a non-profit organisation.”

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24610850-5018194,00.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7412045.stm

Pincha La Rueda de Hamilton

In the run up to Sunday’s Grand Prix, competitive fervor was at an all time high. For those of who were either dead or simply don’t care the premise was this. Felipe Mass, racing on home turf, needed to come 1^st or 2^nd and needed Hamilton to come 6^th or 7^th respectively to win the grand prix. If Hamilton came 5^th or higher he would automatically win. Added to this, Fernando Alonso, who had very public spats with Hamilton last year, had implied in press conferences that he might try to assist Massa (or at the very least hinder Hamilton). Man vs. boy; Spain vs. England; black vs. white. Take your pick – there were plenty of angles to choose from.

In the pique of nationalistic fervor, TBWA, an Omnicom agency created a site called Pincha La Rueda de Hamilton. The site, which translated means “Burst Hamilton’s Tyre”, invited visitors to place a virtual nail on the track at Interlagos, the setting for Sunday’s title showdown with Felipe Massa in the Brazil Grand Prix.

The site was closed down after hundreds of abusive messages were posted, some of which referred to Hamilton as a “half-breed” and others which used the n-word. It’s a classic campaign of an organisation creating something and then foolishly not monitoring how it gets used.

Now let’s be clear – this isn’t the first time that a voodoo style campaign has been created; in the most recent football world cup there were sites where you could stab effigies of key players with a pin in an attempt to curse them prior to a game. It isn’t even the first time that an agency has used the web to push the boundaries of acceptable marketing behaviour. The problem here was that the agency didn’t respond immediately when offensive comments started to get published and when Lewis won the championship, the story became incredibly newsworthy.

There is only one fitting epithet to this story…