Hammerkit Blog

I took a little look at how companies are utilizing Facebook applications. Most of them engage the public by different competitions, polls and all kinds of ad hoc information. Everyone seems to be out there crying for likes, but it is baffling to notice that in most cases a real call for action remains forgotten.

A large portion of all web browsing already takes place in the social networks with Facebook dominating that scene. So my question is why are companies not bringing their money making process to where people spend time, talk, share and compare?

For example, a charity organisation can for sure raise a lot of discussion over its cause. But why not include a simple app that asks people to go donate right there and then?

I did find some cases where the opportunities seem to have been grasped.

Check out the examples below:

1) Integrating an online store interface on Facebook
Shnajder Shop was set up in Facebook for promoting the work of Macedonian designers. The best T-shirt designs could be purchased directly from an embedded e-commerce application with an integrated payment system on Facebook. And in this case this was the only point of purchase. The result was an increase both in fan base as well as T-shirt sales.

2) Creating awareness and collecting supporters
Following the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 a group of women came together to start a viral campaign for drawing attention to the region’s coastal erosion. The goal was to gather signatures to a petition in support of funding and implementation of a plan for a protected and restored Gulf Coast. A Facebook page was set up with the petition and an online toolkit for users to go sign it directly without having to navigate off the page.

3) Connecting with job seekers
HR managers are among the ones most likely to hugely benefit from social media. And the international recruitment agency Adecco taps right into it by utilizing Facebook in their recruitment campaigns where job offers can be browsed directly within the app. Job seekers may also apply directly from the page if a suitable offer pops up.

Now ask yourself: How is your business using social media? Is it enough to be liked, or could I add another money making channel? Are you providing that genuine interaction and essentially a call for action?

In the past week or so, we have seen two very big cases that indicate both the power and the torment of social networks. The Komen case in the US and the TripAdvisor ruling here in the UK have proved that you can ruin a reputation at light speed today if you are not careful. In both of these cases there has been significant damage to their reputations not only by official sanction, but by the negative energy permeating from the social networks. It has never been more important to understand your online reputation and to create coping mechanisms for if/when it all goes horribly wrong.

One format we have been looking at recently is the concept of dark sites. These provide a mechanism to launch a completely self-contained site for managing a crisis. The format includes a video blog, social network integrations and a blog/RSS feed to help you get across your message, share important information with customers and stakeholders and react quickly and professionally. Importantly, you can direct traffic to this site and when the crisis is over, you can close it down (unlike your .com site).

If you would like to know more about our dark site format contact me and we can share it with you.

A web format is a package of materials that allows a new web service to be localized, redesigned and rolled out according to a pre-defined formula.

The obvious thought is that a web format is just a site template that we copy. If that were true, we would all be using web sites that work like that. In actual fact, to make a format you need a lot more. It must encompass the sales and marketing, design, production and maintenance phases of the solution lifecycle. Here is the list of the things we design and produce when we make a format: 

-       a product design: what it is and what it does
-       a web site template: how the functionality is packaged
-       a format bible: how we made it and make it again and again
-       a business case: what the business benefits are for a client
-       a range of examples: what it can look like
-       a financial case: how much a PR agency can make from it
-       a FAQ and support statement: how we support the agency and client
-       a commercialization plan: how we licence and sell the format
-       a 2-sheet and 4-slide sales pack: support materials for account teams
-       client reviews: what the clients think of the solution
-       delivered repeats: what the real delivered cases look like in live action

We are not going to into all of these in detail here, but suffice to say that you need to broaden the thinking beyond just making web sites to make repeatable digital solutions a reality.

How do we know this? We worked with a range of producers and borrowed ideas from an industry that has been making formats successfully for decades – TV. We are all familiar with formats like Pop Idol, X-Factor, Who Wants to be a Millionaire – but we are probably less conscious of just how much TV is format-driven. The commercial reality is that format TV far outstrips ready-made TV in the profitability stakes and we believe that the Internet industry is heading in a similar direction.

There are lots of potential examples of great web formats for the PR industry, from corporate communications and mobile sites to social media integrations. This means lots of potential for completely new sources of revenue and profit.

If you would like to learn more about how we make web formats and repeatable solutions send me an email or connect with me on Twitter @msorsaleslie

In a word: profit. The most successful form of television for the last 5 decades is format TV. From the standards we know today like American Idol, to ages old game shows like Family Fortunes, formats are a perfect fit for the consumption habits of the TV viewing public.

Viewers love formats: why? Because they know what they are going to get and the producers know that for a format to fly it needs viewing figures. When we relate this back to the digital PR world, we find that clients also like to know what they are getting – surprises are not good – so format-thinking helps the client to order with confidence, in full knowledge of what they will receive.

Producers love formats: Why? Because formats are cost effective and fast to produce. They have clear production guidelines (called Format Bibles) that set out in minute detail how to make the programme. This makes it easy to budget, finance, staff and roll-out. In the digital PR world, we are pioneering the use of Format Bibles for our web formats that make it faster and easier to produce new web solutions using the same principles.

TV Advertisers love formats: Why? Because formats draw huge audiences of a given demographic to a particular timeslot that buy products and services. This makes it easier to target the audience and, consequently for the TV channel and producer to leverage supply and demand to drive up the price of advertising. In the digital PR world, a close-fitting format targeted at a demographic of client can create be offered at a premium price – because building a one-off would not be possible at that price point, but being without the solution would be more costly.

In the digital PR world, treat clients like viewers, developers like producers and clients like advertisers. Give them tried and tested formats that will deliver what they need and profits will follow.

“New techniques, new approaches, new technologies and upset the old order and change the rules of the game. This is what trucking and air transportation did to railroads, what container shipping did to traditional ports, what superstores did to small shops, what microprocessors continue to do to computing and what digital media might do to entertainment.”

This statement from Andrew S. Grove in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, published in 1997 succinctly summarizes the how things progress from the way it was done to the new way. He goes on to talk about very large changes in one of the competitive forces in an industry as a “10x” change, suggesting that the force has become 10 times what it was in the past. This he calls the “strategic inflection point”.

So what has this to do with web formats and repeatability in PR? Everything – because PR is facing 10x changes to its daily work from forces it cannot control, like social media, citizen journalism and digital tools that empower clients directly.

One powerful lesson that I drive from Andy Grove was that if you want to change something you have to think big. You have to 10x it – meaning if you want your sales to increase by 10% next year, 10x that number and aim for that – the result will be more than 10% not because you aim for 100% growth, but by 10xing you have to think of new ways to achieve it – you innovate, get creative, think of ways to save, ways to market and grow that you just would not if you aimed for 10% growth.

Web formats are a 10x lever for your digital PR business. The force you to think, “Could I sell the digital solution again?”, “How many sales opportunities do I have for this?”, “What other offices could sell this format?”.

Web formats 10x your business in three important ways:

1. They take a one-off project and turn it into a product that you can sell again.
2. They force you to ask your clients what they really need and to create just that
3. They make the intangible into a tangible thing that a client can use and understand.

Web formats are not a technical innovation in themselves, but you can apply format-thinking to your digital practice and help to multiply your revenues.

So, for the next web project you build, ask “Could I sell this 10 times to 10 clients?” If the answer is yes, you just may have invented the new best selling web format.

TV studios and production companies are operating in an equal complex environment as we with the Web. Making TV programs is very expensive and labor intensive, the risks are big and the competition tough. In addition to the Web they don’t even have the luxury to fix anything after it’s ready: If the joke was bad, you can’t get it back. But it's gone and forgotten quick, the Web has a longer memory. 

Hammerkit’s Helsinki team had the pleasure to visit the rehearsals and the recording of a TV format called “Sing-A-Long”, produced by Zodiak Television in the studios of MTV3 in Pasila. The most experienced format producer Anssi Rimpelä was our guide. Our intention as the producers of Web Formats was to find out the similarities and differences in the format production and format business.

It was very impressive to see the machinery of a TV production in a studio. Everything went smoothly, everyone knew his or her place and role, it’s obvious that a healthy amount of pre-production has been done before entering the studio. And as our host Risto Kuulasmaa said, “When you are in the studio, there is nothing you can do anymore". The camera men (are they always men?) were doing their job silent and professional, not questioning anything and didn't even need any advice. The actors and the studio host were joking and remained good-mooded and full or energy even after hours of working in the dark studio. That is another type of professionalism, seen often in movie making-of's; how to create the same emotions over and over again. That energy was transferred to us, too, even though the show audience work is hard work. I am not used to clap for longer than 3 minutes, except after Wagner operas.

Our main interest was in the business side of the format production, is there anything new we could learn when creating our  Web Formats and writing the Web Format Bibles. The TV people seem to divide the world in two: into "ready-mades" and "formats". We call our ready-mades "One-Offs" and the formats we call formats. The benefits of the mass-customatization are the very similar, scale, extra revenue and lower buyer's risk. Our formats aren't game or talent shows but event sites, crisis communication management systems or extranets. Not quite as entertaining but crucial for our clients and still fun to make. From the business point of view I learned one big difference: Through our format production we can reduce the cost in the production of Web sites and solutions, this isn't the case in the TV world. The benefit of the format is in its success: There isn't such thing as not-succesful format and it is the secure success that sells. The Format Bible, where all bits and pieces of the production is documented, is more the documentation of the success ("Put the camera here, it works") than a technical documentation.

The field trip also reminded me how great it is to feel the energy of actor's work and presence on the stage. The theater season is over but thanks God there are the good old Finnish summer theaters with hard open-air benches, mosquitos and bright sun light even after 11 pm.

Have a great Midsummer, no mercy for the mosquitos!

The web industry is obsessed with facts, figures, trends all packed into beautifully presented infographics. However, there seems to be one area of fact-collecting that evades the industry – what are the best-selling web services right now?

We can, of course, use deductive logic to work out that Facebook apps are on the rise, that blog sites have been massive for ages or that general corporate websites are the mainstay of the industry, but between the lines we do not know what features, functionality and services are really beginning to trend worldwide. This might seem like a “so what” issue, so why is this important? Well, every industry knows what products and services are selling well and use that information to direct sales teams, marketing resources and customer attention to drive revenues. If we are not able to know what is a best-selling service, how can we do this?

The truth of the matter is we do not. We are reactive as an industry, not proactive and we are certainly not aware of the trends that shape the activities of teams of developers around the world. When designing the CloudStore we had this thought in our minds and wanted to ensure that every agency that uses our service would be able to see at a glance what is selling well and know where the sales are happening.

Again, why is this important? Well, it means that the agency can ensure clients are shown things that they should consider and that opportunities for new sales and revenue can be shared across all of the offices of the group. Web services have a limited shelf life, so getting this information around the group quickly is important.

I would love to find a service that helps me see web best-sellers, so if you know about any, please drop me a line.