The New York Times published an article this week detailing the new social media marketing partnership developed between General Mills, and the immensely popular Facebook game, FarmVille, created by the Zynga Game Network.

The agreement between Zynga Game Network and Cascadian Farm, a General Mills subsidiary, allows users to plant an actual Cascadian Farms product – organic blueberries. The aim of the in-game crop branding is to increase awareness, as well as educate consumers about the benefits of switching to organic produce.

Cascadian Farm’s integration into FarmVille represents a unique step forward in both social media marketing and in-game advertising. The majority of social games have incorporated ads that takeover the entire game, or are custom games designed for the brand itself. In this situation, Cascadian Farm is opting for a more subtle approach, and is simply sponsoring a single crop within FarmVille. By becoming part of the game, rather than take over the game, they avoid harassing players with excessive advertising. They give the user the choice to “opt-in” on their own, and choose to plant their branded crops.

Users who choose to plant the Cascadian Farm Organic Blueberries will be rewarded with shorter harvest times and larger cash returns. By adding extra value to the crop, players have an extra incentive to plant the blueberries. This is a savvy marketing move on behalf of FarmVille. Adding the extra value to the crop increases the likelihood of a user planting it, this, in turn, increases Cascadian Farm brand name awareness.

Will the FarmVille product placement generate brand awareness for Cascadian Farm? I think so, but only because there is an extra incentive for users to choose to plant the Organic Blueberries. Can Cascadian Farm educate users about the benefits of choosing organic products? Potentially, but I don’t have high hopes for this effort. Users don’t want to be directed to another website while playing FarmVille; they want to focus on their crops, not leave and go elsewhere.

The partnership between Zynga and General Mills is reminiscent of deals negotiated in the mid 2000’s, when the virtual world of Second Life was at the height of its popularity.  Many real-world corporations couldn’t establish an in-game presence fast enough. Second Life, like FarmVille, allows users to play for free, but encourages citizens to purchase the in-world currency to enhance their ‘second lives’ by purchasing in-game items.

However, while brands like Adidas, Coca-Cola, and AOL were clamoring to be first to open a store or sell products to Second Life residents, the citizens of the virtual world weren’t all that enthusiastic about being treated as ATM machines.  They were less than enthused by the new corporate invaders. Pay a visit to many of the real world corporate presences in Second Life today and you’ll more than likely find an entirely new and unrelated building, or more commonly, vacant land.  Ruins of a failed brand experiment deleted long ago.

Perhaps the most important question in the Zynga and General Mills scenario is whether or not the brand awareness generated through this in-game advertising will translate to actual revenue for Cascadian Farm? While I do approve of the method, I don’t envision much success at the cash registers. FarmVille users are logging in for an escape; to tend their crops and have fun online. They’re not coming to learn about organic produce and green living. Besides, who’s to say that the grocery shoppers in the household are even logging on to FarmVille in the first place?

Because of the added incentives offered to the user for choosing Cascadian Farm’s Organic Blueberries, I think that Cascadian Farm’s foray into branded content within FarmVille has the potential to succeed at increasing brand awareness.  However, I don’t think that this integration will generate increased real-world sales and revenue.  There’s simply not enough to motivate the user to actually purchase the product in the stores. 

I read an insightful New York Times article by Stephanie Clifford titled "High Fashion Relents to Web’s Pull" offering commentary on the sudden influx of luxury brands launching ecommerce stores.  She notes the dominant reason for the increase being, as most would expect, due to failures in the economy; people just aren't buying  $1,600 t-shirts in bulk anymore. And when brands like Balmain make them, they are often criticized for it.

So what happens to that $1,600 t-shirt after months on the market and only a few have moved? They get heavily discounted and put up for sale on department store websites, like Saks.com and NeimanMarcus.com. Or they get sold to independent online luxury retailers like net-a-porter.com and discounted some more.

Well, based on trends, it looks as though luxury brands have had enough. As per Clifford's article, designers are moving rapidly in the direction of launching their own web storefronts where they can:

• Take back control of their image, and more importantly –  take back control of pricing
• Repair (or attempt to repair) any damage to their image that may have accrued over the years by the association of "discount" in connection to their names
• Tailor the online experience to reflect more directly with the brand’s aesthetic

What took so long? Luxury titans like Marc Jacobs are just now in the process of launching online stores, with Jacobs' ecommerce site scheduled for release in September. And more importantly, how does this affect what I call their "designer websites", which display their artistry and typically has:

• All flash everything (which usually mimics and supports the designer's overall vision)
• Zero consideration for non-broadband visitors (probably because if you don’t have broadband, you probably can’t afford their product anyway)
• In-your-face HD videos of the most recent fashion shows
• Unnecessarily complicated, but really cool navigation
• Some form of annoying background audio

See the current marcjacobs.com, versace.com and the stunning johngalliano.com if you want proof.

So what’s going to happen to these designer websites if their purpose is to expand from just being a continuation of the brand to offering a user friendly checkout experience?  Opening a skinned HTML/CSS ecommerce store in a new window isn’t what I’d call "designer." And, at least for now, an entirely flash retail site isn’t going to do very much in Search Engine Optimizing your storefront either. It also makes it difficult to update frequently and quickly like the recently launched online accessory retail catalog for Balenciaga (based in flash).

I'm looking to the near future for that luxury brand with:

1. A sexy site
2. User friendly ecommerce
3. Product pages optimized for search

 If you know of any, comment and let me know.  Not that I'll buy anything.

Last year, one representative from Flightpath traveled to the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin.  This year we sent four – including me.  Next year, I hope we’ll send eight or more.  As I decompress from the last five days in Austin, Texas, I wanted to try and reflect on reasons why we need to be there. So, I crafted this subjective, Flightpath-centric list of the Top 10 Best Reasons to Attend SXSW Interactive.  Hopefully, next year’s Flightpath contingent will be able to use this list in planning for and experiencing the event.  I trust it’ll have some value for those beyond our agency as well.  

1. Identify and learn about new/innovative things can be immediately integrated directly into our work to deliver better experiences, provide more value to clients and make our day-to-day more interesting and productive. 

2. Get a broader understanding of the competitive landscape by seeking out and interacting with people from other agencies similar and dissimilar to ours.

3. Get to know other people beyond the agency world who are doing interesting things in other parts of the industry. 

4. Attend the Web Awards Show as a team – a very important way to stay on top of some of the best work in our industry. Share and discuss opinions on the award winning work during and after the event.  Similarly, seek out talks/panels with industry leaders in order to learn from some of the absolute best.

5. Learn and share things that aren’t necessarily directly aligned with your job but are relevant to others in our organization that weren’t able to attend.

6. Tweet, blog, and report on things of interest to clients, colleagues and others.  As was drilled into my head at countless SXSW talks: all companies, brands, etc. are content producers and programmers.

7. Meet with clients and partners who may be in Austin with you.  Make best efforts to plan meetings prior to traveling to Texas.

8. Go out of your way to identify new revenue-driving business/agency growth opportunities aligned with things you learn, people you meet or trends you identify.  Try and come home with a meaningful list.

9. Swap stories, ideas, learnings and experiences with colleagues while in Austin.  It’s an interactive conference and should be experienced interactively as a team – not individually or in silos.

10. Take advantage of the time in this creative environment to decompress and think about your role and day-to-day work  from a fresh perspective.  And while you’re at it, be sure to take advantage of the parties, food, music, weather, lakefront and everything else the city has to offer.

Thanks to everyone I met in Austin for being so open, enlightening, gracious and kind (except for the guy that tried to charge $300 of Patron shots and nachos to my hotel room).  I look forward to meeting more of you at next year’s conference.

Here’s a report/review of another panel at SXSW… Helen Klein Ross and Michael Bissell of the aptly named Brand Fiction Factory, gave an interesting presentation around (you guessed it) brand fiction.  What is brand fiction? You could start by looking at it as ‘twittertainment’ but on a deeper sense, it’s a story/vernacular/zeitgeist or mythology around a brand’s unique attributes or promise.   This material can make its way to the public via all kinds of different channels.

Much of the discussion centered around the presenters’ work on brand fiction via Mad Men character tweets.   Other examples raised including Marisa Tomei’s forthcoming webisodes for Bertolli pasta and a series of 1980’s TV commercials involving two young lovers with a taste for Nescafe.

If you buy the assumption that brand fiction (done right) can generate and build brand awareness and loyalty, here’s a paraphrase of their top 10 guidelines for creating and propagating it:

1. Content is King: Success depends on quality of creative.  It’s recommended that someone with the skills of a scriptwriter sit at the helm of all efforts.  At the get-go, you should design a brand fiction canon with a detailed account of characters and settings – akin to a style guide or production spec.

2. Maintain Continuity Across Platforms: Assuming your brand fiction plays out beyond Twitter, be sure to keep your story straight.

3. Be Authentic: This is an old saw for all social communication but important to mention…. Your content must embody your brand values and be authentic

4. Be Relevant to Your Audience: Know your brand’s fans and what distinguishes your story from others.

5. Share: Respond, retweet, relationship! “Participation is the new metric.”

6. Don’t Trust a Bot to do the Job of a Human: Genuine editorial work is required to get this right.

7. Don’t Dilute the Brand: The example given was that Betty Draper shouldn’t shill for Betty Crocker – but it was recommended to use secondary/tertiary characters to do this kind of dirty work.

8. Campaign Assessment: You should observe the story to make sure that (a) you’re on track and (b) you don’t need to pull the plug.  Assessment activities/metrics include:

• Monitoring
• Engagement
• Redirecting
• Tracking
• Archiving

9. Don’t Underestimate Time Effort Necessary for Success: It takes work.  This isn’t free

10. Have Fun!

This whole idea of brand fiction was consistent with a theme that’s played out in multiple discussions around SXSW – brands (along with companies, individuals, etc.) are evolving into content providers and programmers.   When done right, there are great rewards to be had.

The folks at Mediapost were kind enough to publish a commentary I wrote called Social Media And Today's 'Marketing Athletes'.  Part of the story outlined "The Common Rings of Social Media and the Olympics."  Namely:

1. Measurability matters -- you don't podium if you don't medal. Facebook (Twitter and others -- more all the time) has incredibly compelling numbers to back up even more compelling stories for brands. Numbers can lie, but they don't here.

2. The Olympics are extraordinary because they always bring out the best athletes on a global basis. Social media is now attracting a similar elite talent pool because technology, consumer strategy and creativity all are leveraged for the "greater good"... like the Olympic spirit!

3. Change is what's normal. At the Winter Olympics, look at how snowboarding, ice dancing, etc. looks compared to just the last Games in 2006. Social media is the most dynamic media platform any of us have ever experienced. Technologists can't keep up with brand desires and vice-versa.

4. Three common "linked" words: Stretch body and mind as to what's possible today and in the foreseeable future. Test new approaches and equipment. Finding harmony can be hard, but it's worth finding. Be Nimble to capitalize on both of the above.

Even though the Olympics ended last night, I hope you'll read the full piece here.

Brands usually do everything to not act or talk stupid, in public or anywhere their consumers may see them. You could also say it’s usually not smart to act stupid, to share your inner stupidness in social situations, included social media. But Diesel shows just how compelling, how insightful from a brand positioning, messaging and target demo perspective a “little stupid” can be!

Diesel’s recent campaign “Be Stupid” is a total deep integrated marketing dive -- digitally/socially, store level, traditional media -- into creating a counter cultural POV. A total “We”, not “Them” state of mind. Simply, “Be Stupid” is the ideological twin of Apple’s historic “Think Different” campaign.  It took an Einstein to bring Apple’s effort to life.  The face of a genius was not needed here, just the face of a bold brand to drive real relevance for a consumer looking for the "it" to put down real dough in order to be part of something real…stupid!

The “Be Stupid” campaign featured an extremely engaging, very elegantly simple word based video that told the stupid story on their site, via YouTube, Facebook and other places-http://www.diesel.com/be-stupid/. It tells how easy it is to be smart, how expected it is to do the “smart thing” and how being stupid (aka a “contrarian”) takes the stuff of real stuff…another aka -- “balls”! The video is one great piece of communication, but not the only one. The outdoor posters riff off the same song sheet and the sentiment on the retail windows are real world “social media” looking to literally bring you in.

Eye candy today is everywhere. It’s the reality of our rich graphical playing field. But, Diesel’s “Be Stupid” effort shows why a really well thought out marketing idea that makes people think beyond the brand, will always be the smartest way to elevate a brand.

This stupid post was written by Cliff Medney and designed by Ryan Kitson!

It’s Social Media Week in New York City, and the digital scene is buzzing with conferences and brimming with ideas and insights about a culture that’s constantly in flux.  Yesterday, I attended the Advertising Research Foundation's event dedicated to 'The Science of Social Media' (#ARFSMC), and found myself particularly engaged by a presentation given by Jeff Doak, Chief Technology Officer of Converseon, called Social Media Mentoring Metrics.  Jeff’s presentation revealed some staggering insights into the analysis of social media metrics that confront the challenges of analyzing metrics via the confines of automated tools that are still in the infant stages of their technical evolution.

The first monitoring metrics that came under the lens were metric returns for “volume”—which is basically to say how many times a brand is mentioned, period.  The context for which a brand was mentioned in is, of course, up for grabs, and that is one of the biggest problems.  Volume without context is really pretty useless, and it’s really up to humans to decide how that volume aligns with overarching business objectives.  One trip to Twitter shows you that your friend Bill did, in fact, wake up this morning with his usual glass of Uncle Matt’s and drove to work in his Prius—and not much else. There’s your volume.

Well, what about influence?  Maybe Bill’s got the hottest blog right now on a low-emission lifestyle and over a hundred-thousand devoted readers who are hanging on his every tweet.  That’s not something your influence metrics are going tell you at face value, and those metrics are never going to provide perspective for the way your brand fits into Bill’s sphere of influence.  That’s the kind of pithy insight that only comes with human analysis.

Lastly, we really can’t forget about sentiment metrics, which is to say how people are talking about your brand.  Current social media monitoring tools measure something called “automated sentiment” which is basically an algorithm that searches for “sentiment words” and their proximity to your brand or product name.  Huh?  This analysis seems logical in a mathematical way, but we’re talking about words and that arbitrary phonetic symbolism that begets meaning.  Human beings can also be pretty witty, and as Jeff so bluntly puts it, “machines don’t get sarcasm or slang.” 

Enter the hammer and the scalpel.  Jeff prescribes the use of one these tools, metaphorically of course, to analyze your social media monitoring metrics.  The hammer is most appropriate for those analysts looking to smash into that data and create some cool charts that’ll impress the boss.  For the rest of us, it’s really the scalpel that going to come in handy.  The scalpel is best suited for that kind of detailed analysis that requires a surgeon’s precision and a human being’s understanding.  Scalpels let you bisect tiny segments of consumer data to bring under the lens and expertly carve around other irrelevant brand chatter.  It’s the scalpel that’s going to help you understand if it’s Bill’s preference for your organic orange juice that’s driving sales, and how you might leverage that affinity to connect with your consumers.

Right now, we’re working with social media metrics that have been around for as little as eighteen months.  The measurements are bound to get better over time, and it’s nice to imagine having tools that create easily accessible and understandable data.  But that’s just not where we’re at right now.  I have faith in the human ingenuity that will eventually lead to greener pastures, but until then, I’m keeping my scalpel on hand.   Kudos to Jeff from Converseon for an enlightening presentation.

Here’s hoping that little cyber Groundhog doesn’t see his shadow on the internet today.  Then he’ll be able to chatter his little teeth together, put his nose to the ground, and start sniffing out a whole new perspective for 2010. 

Five digital marketing trends I would gladly wave goodbye to:

1. Template Flash-Game Banner Ads – Wherever I’m at on the internet—reading an article, browsing product reviews, searching for tech support—the last thing I want to do is  STOP what I’m doing and throw a frame of virtual ten pin.  This is just not an enticing offer, and when it comes from a one-stop-shop website for flash banners, it doesn't portray the product or service in a unique way whatsoever.  Flash games can definitely be fun, but make sure your consumers want one and make it original.

2. Keyword-Stuffed Websites – I’m a human being not a piece of software.  This means that I have a really low tolerance for repetition, especially in sales copy, and all those unnecessary keywords start to bore me quickly.  When I land on a site that’s stuffed full of keywords and zero content, I start to think the product might be full of similar flaws.

3. Relentless Pop-Up Ads – You know the ones that appear out of nowhere and, with Gladiator strength, obstruct your browser window.  The animation is swirling and flashing all over the screen and finding the minimize button is a needle-in-the-haystack type of quest.  After much anxiety and obnoxious distraction, you can finally move on to whatever it was you were doing before you were digitally assaulted. 

4. Targeted Social Media Ads – Believe it or not, I don’t really mind being marketed to when I’m on Facebook.  The ads don’t really bother me because they’re nicely sequestered to the margins, but I really DO mind the content.  Ads that have fished my user profile and responded with teeth whitening discounts for New York City copywriters make me feel the exact opposite of special.  I don’t mind that they’re fishing per se, but they could bait that hook with something a little more creative. 

5. Irrelevant Landing Pages – Sometimes, I think landing pages were created in a vacuum, free from all external influence and completely void of oxygen.   There’s just no other explanation for landing pages that don’t align with the PPC ad or other link you’ve clicked on.  Consistency and relevancy really matter in targeted, niche markets, and when I get to a landing page that doesn’t fulfill my expectations, I leave. 

So if all goes well today and one cyber Groundhog pops his head up and finds himself out of the shadow poor digital marketing campaigns, my top 5 just might become obsolete.  It’s not real likely, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed anyway.

Foursquare has been living in the social media spotlight.  Sure, it is fun for users; you virtually check-in at certain venues across your city and receive digital badges and accolades for frequenting select spots. But, what do businesses have to gain from Foursquare? What business model will this new chosen one of social media show us in 2010 that will solidify it as a digital tool and not just a trending topic?

Among the best recent news out of 4sq headquarters is the announcement of global domination. Though the game was once restricted to specific cities  with numerous venues within each, you can now check-in from any location across the world, and any venue in any location is fair game. This global awakening is just the first step in providing access to millions of businesses’ who couldn’t reach users before.

No venues? No problem! In 2009, 4sq partnered with Motorola for its CLIQ and DROID parties. When the party elite arrived at New York City's Morimoto restaurant and pulled out their gadget of choice to check-in, they were greeted with a Foursquare surprise! Upon check-in, they received a special message encouraging them to tweet with a suggested hashtag and giving a few lines of info on the party. Though Foursquare has made it's rounds encouraging venues to offer incentives and deals, in terms of temporary events, this was a first. And, by enabling this check-in, Foursquare made it easy for bloggers and microbloggers to share information from this event.

Also on the horizon for the GPS based app, don't be surprised if you see Facebook-like fan or business profiles. Though every Foursquare user is provided with a profile, A venue could potentially work with the company to create branded top user and mayor lists, incentives clubs, and daily specials. Brooklyn Museum, for example, is one of the first company's to use this model by providing a great to-do list for museum go-ers and locals interested in arts and culture. The online savvy hot-spot lists staff picks in the area and links to a mobile site where users can find out more about the art on display.Effectively, you would check-in upon arrival to the museum, via Foursquare, click over to the mobile site to browse the galleries, and click back over to the staff picks list when it's time to head to dinner. Pretty effective planning on the part of the museum.

With the many incentives Foursquare can create to draw new business, locate where patrons visit the most, and entice frequent trips, this start up has definitely proven its worth in terms of a steady business plan. Though they are closely related, and often thought of as a predecessor of Twitter, I wouldn't expect a Twitter-like wait for this business model to become mainstream. Though some of these initiatives are still in beta or early form, they are paving a path for future business models, as well