What I think the Skype and Visa announcements mean

May 11, 2011 at 10:37 am · Filed under 2.0 Business Model, Adoption, Banking, Books, Business 2.0, Mobile, Mobile Phones, Movie Making, Netflix, Platforms, TV, User Revolution, Video, Visa, Web 2.0, YouTube

Two announcements this week I think show how the 2.0 web is going to the next phase – where the “rebels” go mainstream and spell the end of the traditional services.

I wont say much more about MSFT’s purchase of Skype – other than this. It spells the end of telephony as we used to know it. Communications will inexorably shift to the mobile platforms and will make video the centre piece. The Mainstream will be Dick Tracy! And this is my point. Mobile is the new platform and video will become so ubiquitous as to replace voice. The rebels are now the players.

In commerce Visa has just thrown down the gauntlet too.

Visa has just announced that it too will make mobile its future. It will take on PayPal directly.  Here are the features:

Visa expects to launch the digital wallet in the U.S. and Canada in fall 2011.

Key features of the wallet are expected to include:

• Click-to-buy: Shop conveniently and securely by simply entering an email address, alias or online ID and password, instead of a billing address, account number and expiration date. In addition, Visa is exploring dynamic authentication technologies that will bring added layers of security to online purchases.
• Cross-channel payments solution: The wallet consolidates multiple Visa and non-Visa payments accounts and can be used in mobile, eCommerce, social network and retail point-of-sale environments.
• Preference management: A menu that enables consumers to set preferences for how their wallet will work, allowing them to customize and control the features of their personal wallet from privacy settings to designating which account will be accessed based on merchant type or purchase amount.
• Merchant offers: A service that allows consumers to personalize their shopping experience by opting-in to receive money-saving discounts or promotions from participating merchants.

“The widespread adoption of Internet and mobile technology is changing the way people connect and transact across the globe, so we’re focused on delivering locally-tailored payments products and services,” said Saunders. “We are introducing new solutions for eCommerce and mobile devices that provide the same ‘Visa-quality’ experience—convenience, reliability and security—people enjoy when using their Visa cards at a retail location. In doing so, we are accelerating the global shift to digital payments by harnessing our brand, products, network and 50-plus years of payments experience.”

Mobilizing Payments in Emerging Economies

In certain emerging geographic markets with significant mobile penetration, Visa will work with financial institutions and mobile-network operators to provide consumers with a secure, reliable and globally accepted form of payment and the ability to transfer and receive funds, manage financial accounts or top-up wireless air time using their mobile handset. The wide range of features and functions being developed for the digital wallet will allow Visa to pursue a number of strategies to tailor or bundle services to local needs.

• In countries like India and Russia, where card issuance and mobile subscriptions are high, but card usage is relatively low, Visa will help drive account activation and usage by working with financial institutions and mobile operators to link existing card portfolios with mobile devices to give handsets payments functionality.
• In countries within Africa and the Middle East where mobile device usage is high and traditional electronic payments infrastructure is less developed, Visa will work with mobile network operators to link new virtual mobile prepaid Visa accounts to mobile phone numbers to enable cash-in, cash-out, personal payments and mobile payments —including bill payments and wireless airtime top-up. Visa also intends to connect existing “closed loop” mobile money services that today provide basic mobile banking and payments services to unbanked and under-banked consumers to its global, open loop network—VisaNet. The integration will open closed loop systems, and provide consumers and merchants with unprecedented scale, functionality and acceptance beyond their existing local geographic footprints.

Across all emerging geographic markets, Visa’s sophisticated payments technology and significant work in establishing global payments standards will aid in navigating the complexity of the myriad of network operators, handset models and operating systems in use globally, helping to enable millions of new and existing Visa account holders to simply use mobile technology for payments services.

Communications and Commerce now. What next? Education and Healthcare seem next.

Maybe there will have to be a Skype and PayPal in these sectors first. And when the mainstream buy in as we see above the shift will be made. Oh yes and are not books and film there too?

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The Attention Economy and Klout

April 20, 2011 at 9:49 am · Filed under Adoption, Business 2.0, Business Intelligence, Business Model, Innovation, Innovator Interviews, Measurement, Media, Paradigm, Relationships, Science, Social Media, Trust, Trusted Space

In the old economy that still lingers you could buy “Attention”. A large advertising budget could force you into the minds of others. But we are becoming numb to this assault. Increasingly we only trust people that we know. “Attention” is shifting from the Institution with the budget to the “Person” with personal reputation or “Clout”.

This transition from the Institution to the Personal is surely one of the most paradigm shifting aspects of the time we live in?

Here is the “Godfather” of the idea of the Attention Economy – Michael Goldhaber back in 1997 explaining this shift from Attention that you could buy to Attention that you could only Earn!

“.. money now flows along with attention, or, to put this in more general terms, when there is a transition between economies, the old kind of wealth easily flows to the holders of the new. Thus, when the market-based, proto-industrial economy first began to replace the feudal system of Western Europe, in which the prime form of wealth was aristocratic lineage and inheritance of land, both the noble titles and the lands that went with them soon ended up disproportionately in the hands of those who were good at obtaining what was then the new kind of wealth, namely money.

With considerable ease, the rising merchant and industrialist class could buy old titles, induce governments to grant them brand new ones, or marry into the old impoverished gentry. The parallel today, again, is that possessors of today’s rising kind of wealth, which is attention, and whom we label stars of every sort, have an easy time getting money.

But now let me point out that the other way round doesn’t work nearly as easily. Contrary to what you are sometimes urged to believe, money cannot reliably buy attention. Suppose it did work that way. Then you could have been paid to sit here and listen closely even if I were to read you something as boring as the phone book or an unabridged dictionary. Presumably it wouldn’t even matter if I kept repeating the same few syllables over and over. If money could reliably buy attention, all I would have to do is pay you the required amount and you would keep listening carefully through all that, not falling asleep en masse, nor allowing your minds to wander. In truth, even if you had been paid a huge sum, this would be most difficult, and if you did it, it would be a testament more to your own deep sense of principle than to a general condition in which another roomful of similar people could be expected to do equally well.

Someone who wants your attention just can’t rely on paying you money to get it, but has to do more, has to be interesting, that is must offer you illusory attention, in just about the same amounts as they would if you had instead been paying money to listen to them — which by the way is closer to the case here. Money flows to attention, and much less well does attention flow to money.”

Attention that people will trust – about an idea, a product, a service, a politician, will come from “Trusted” people in your life and in your network.

Defining and measuring Personal Clout will therefore be very important in the future.

That is why I wanted to speak to the CEO of Klout, Joe Fernandez who very kindly spent time with me on the phone yesterday talking about “Attention” what it is now – how it builds from Robin Dunbar’s research. We also touched on how today’s kids may be having their brains rewired to be able to use a much larger network than was possible face to face.

Here are some of the ideas that we batted around:

• It’s all about how you are as a person - Many newbies still think of Social Media as a big megaphone – they still shout out to the crowd – “look at me” aren’t I great!!!!” – But they most important aspect of the new world is what “Others say about you” and who those others are and how large your and their network is. To get their attention demands that you have something good to say and that you have also won their trust. This then is not easy environment. There can be no instant success.
• It’s all about how you are related in network terms – This is why Klout have set up their algorithms to measure True Reach or the value of your content -  Amplification Probability or how we you are related to the people in your network – how large and diverse is your network – do they find you interesting, safe, or a bore  - and Network Influence or do you influence people with influence. This makes a lot of sense to me. I think that Klout is trying to get a handle on the playing field. I also liked it that Joe kept reminding me that they are at the start of a voyage of discovery. That they may be ahead of others but know that there is so much to discover.
• The online world is likely larger than the personal world - Klout will fond out how much larger. The Dunbar numbers still operate in the personal world and for adults my age I think. But Joe made a case based on observation that he is seeing online Trusted Networks maxing out at about 500 (144 is the max Dunbar number) His own floats between 150 – 350 but he still relies on about 150. The really interesting point he made is that he is seeing a new world emerge with kids.
• Kids have a new social reality – they never lose a friend! – When I was a boy, we moved a lot. So at every move to a new place, a new school etc, I lost touch with 98% of the then friends. Over time they faded from memory. But now, a kid moves or changes school and stays in touch with most of  her friends. Even now as an adult, I am regaining touch with old friends long lost. Joe and I thought that decades of staying connected must have an effect on the wiring of the brain. After all print had that effect by making the left hand side more powerful. The brain is very plastic and can change very quickly as we see with say stroke victims. It is very likely that a child of 5 today who is a keen user of social media, will have a very different brain than I do when they are 25.

This new world is literally unfolding before us. Joe thinks that Klout now is about where Google was in 1997 – the key algorithms are in their infancy but are already able to tell us interesting things. Much more will be possible over time – especially when there is more data to observe.

But 2 things are clear to me – understanding how Clout works is core to the new economy. And that measuring Clout as Klout is doing is going to be very important.

Your reputation is your capital. You and not the institution will have the power.

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Travel Chaos and Twitter – Lessons for all Crises

December 30, 2010 at 7:44 am · Filed under Adoption, Air Travel, Business 2.0, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, Community, Culture, Customer Service, Emergency, Enterprise 2.0, Organizational Design, Twitter, User Revolution, Wisdom of Crowds

Millions of travellers have been stuck this holiday season. The question is what can you as a traveler and what can you as a supplier do about this kind of event.?

The lesson taken from this Christmas is surely larger than travel but also applies to any bad event – such as Skype’s system failure. You can imagine what your equivalent might be in your organization.

I can see that part of the answer is to be found in social media. Here is how the NYT ran their version of the story today:

While the airlines’ reservation lines required hours of waiting — if people could get through at all — savvy travelers were able to book new reservations, get flight information and track lost luggage. And they could complain, too.

Since Monday, nine Delta Air Linesagents with special Twitter training have been rotating shifts to help travelers wired enough to know how to “dm,” or send a direct message. Many other airlines are doing the same as a way to help travelers cut through the confusion of a storm that has grounded thousands of flights this week.

But not all travelers, of course. People who could not send a Twitter message if their life depended on it found themselves with that familiar feeling that often comes with air travel — being left out of yet another inside track to get the best information.

For those in the digital fast lane, however, the online help was a godsend.

Danielle Heming spent five hours Wednesday waiting for a flight from Fort Myers, Fla., back home to New York. Finally, it was canceled.

Facing overwhelmed JetBlue ticketing agents, busy signals on the phone and the possibility that she might not get a seat until New Year’s Day, she remembered that a friend had rebooked her flight almost immediately by sending a Twitter message to the airline.

She got out her iPhone, did a few searches and sent a few messages. Within an hour, she had a seat on another airline and a refund from JetBlue.

“It was a much, much better way to deal with this situation,” said Ms. Heming, 30, a student at New York University. “It was just the perfect example of this crazy, fast-forward techno world.”

Although airlines reported a doubling or tripling of Twitter traffic during the latest storm, the number of travelers who use Twitter is still small. Only about 8 percent of people who go online use Twitter, said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a nonprofit organization that studies the social impact of the Internet.

“This is still the domain of elite activist customers,” Mr. Rainie said.

Of course, an agent with a Twitter account cannot magically make a seat appear. More often than not, the agent’s role is to listen to people complain.

I recently posted about Trust and how important it is. Being silent is THE worst position. Even when you cannot offer a fix, offering an ear and the truth helps. Skype kept a running commentary about their problem and now that they have fixed it have shared the post mortem on their blog. Please look at the comments on the Skype blog – a lesson for us all.

I had been critical of Air Canada until this Christmas - but even they have upped their efforts on Twitter to work with clients and to offer sympathy when they could not help.

They still do promotion as you can see but look at the other tweets – Air Canada are starting to get how this can help their Trust levels.

Now Twitter is still an elite tool for the elite. But all new things start this way. I am thinking of all those who were in the information dark looking over their shoulder at those who were in contact and can see that it will not take long for Twitter and Social media to become the normal for how we find our way around problems. Here is a brief summary of my own travel hell. Where I reach out on Twitter and my friends help me.

This illustrates for me the next phase of using social media to navigate crisis. Right now an airline or your organization can use social media to communicate from your own perspective. But what if you could harness, as I did, the collective wisdom of the network?

In my case I could not be sure of what the roads were like in the last 4 hours of a 13 hour trip. I asked my pals for their opinion and in minutes got enough “TRUSTED” advice to make the call to stop. My pals may have saved my life. So what if an airline could use its followers to help each other look at local weather – hotel rooms – alternative routes etc – even put each other up? What would it take to have a real community of customers? For if you did – they could do this.

Again this demands a new relationship with your customer. A customer is no longer a person out there but a node in here.  If you can build up trust with an inner group, you can partner with this group in all sorts of ways.

• Marketing
• Crisis Management
• Problem Solving

Let’s play with this in later posts.

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E2.0: Looking for Goldilocks

November 16, 2010 at 12:36 pm · Filed under Adoption, Barriers, Business 2.0, Business Model, Enterprise 2.0

There are any variety of descriptions and debates about what E2.0 is and isn’t. One of the challenges is that the answer is contextual for each circumstance: there isn’t a ‘right’ answer. But there is a ‘just right’ answer, borrowing a line from Goldilocks.

The potential for E2.0 is to help right the many wrongs that employees face each day, just trying to get their work done. It’s a matter of ‘fit’ — in too many cases, what they’re given to work with doesn’t ‘fit’ the circumstances. It has less to do with usable, than useful, and would preferably be the right fit: just right.

Let’s start with a classic: desktop software. How well does the classic desktop software meet the ‘just right’ needs of employees for the preponderance of daily activities? How much cognitive overload has not been designed out of these tools and related corporate processes?

How do we simplify for ‘just right’? We learn to design business fractals. Fractals are the means by which simple scales, the means by which to avoid too much and yet achieve endless possibilities: orderly chaos = complexity…vs. the complicated littering the halls today, which is simply a collection of stuff with no relevant underlying order (the operative word here is “relevant”).

Here’s where we transition from fairytale to reality. For Goldilocks’ scenario, in each case she was given a choice of three options and from those options she chose the one that ‘fit’ best. The problem is that those choices were pre-staged. There’s a cost to providing pre-staged choices. Because we’re not living in a fairytale, there is no way to pre-design for all the possible scenarios that would determine what would be ‘just right’.

I misspoke earlier. We don’t really want to design business fractals, we want to design ‘for’ business fractals — we want to provide an infrastructure for the fractals to emerge on their own. How do we do that? With structure…’just right’ structure — not too much, not too little.

We provide the means for stuff to happen, but don’t assume that it will happen. It requires active vigilance.

What form does such structure take? Micro-structure, just like the fractals. What does micro-structure look like? Ask any Marine who knows how to apply the Rule of Three. The beauty of the rule is its flexibility.

There is no set size (number of troops) assigned to any specific element. The size of an element of command depends primarily upon the type of unit and mission. For example, an aviation squadron would have a different number of troops assigned than an infantry company because it has a different mission, different equipment, and therefore different requirements.

While the reference used is “rule”, in reality, I prefer to consider it an axiom — something that can be applied in any variety of conditions and isn’t subject to a specific context to remain true.

The word “axiom” comes from the Greek word ἀξίωμα (axioma), a verbal noun from the verb ἀξιόειν (axioein), meaning “to deem worthy”, but also “to require”, which in turn comes from ἄξιος (axios), meaning “being in balance”, and hence “having (the same) value (as)”, “worthy”, “proper”.

Test that concept in any business setting. Most things in a business called “rules” are only relevant in particular contexts. Change the context: the rule breaks, just like baby bear’s chair — even though it was originally ‘just right’. Look for rules that need breaking or often have to be broken to get stuff done. Study it long enough to find the core truth that needs preserving and claim the underlying axiom. Find ways to make it observable, evident. As Eric Berlow suggests in his July 2010 TED talk, “Hone in on the sphere of influence that matters most.”

In reality, all businesses have a natural order. The problem is that we’ve been deluded into believing that we need to ‘create’ order. We need to embrace the natural order that is inherent — but to do that we have to find it first. We have to adopt eyes that can ’see’ it (like 3D stereograms).

Let Goldilocks be your guide for providing ‘just right’.

Postscript: A grand thanks to @hypergogue for providing much of the sample fodder that uniquely illustrate concepts that have been ruminating for some time — allowing me to get out yet another ‘blog post stuck in my head’.

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The market IS a conversation – Why Kotex is winning vs Old Spice

July 27, 2010 at 6:18 am · Filed under Adoption, Business 2.0, Commercials, Culture

Who has not seen an Old Spice ad recently? The campaign has been a huge viral success. But while it has put the brand name to the front and got everyone talking about this being the new model, has the campaign done what it was meant to? has it increased sales and market share? The short answer is that it appears that it has not. (Bnet)

Procter & Gamble (PG) faces an unpleasant dilemma on its Old Spicebrand: Its campaign — featuring an impossibly handsome man in a towel who tells women, “So ladies, should your man smell like an Old Spice man? You tell me” — is hugely popular but sales of the product are going down. The campaign reached a climax this week as the Old Spice Guy filmed more than 200 improvised videos replying to questions and requests from Twitter users. Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, the Ellen Show and Perez Hilton were among those who got YouTube-ed replies.

But the shower-fresh brand has a dirty secret, as Brandweek notes:

For instance, it was none other than P&G that picked up the Film Grand Prix this year for Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” TV spot from Wieden + Kennedy. There is little doubt about the viral hit’s popularity. Launched in February, the official version has racked up nearly 12.2 million YouTube views.

But sales of the featured product—Red Zone After Hours Body Wash—aren’t necessarily tracking with that consumer appeal: In the 52 weeks ended June 13, sales of the brand have dropped 7 percent according to SymphonyIRI. (That amount excludes those rung up at Walmart.) P&G execs were not available to comment.

* This view of the results is under challenge – they are not my numbers – please have a look at the end of this post for comment that suggests that the Old Spice Campaign may be doing much better

On the other hand, how much do you know about the Kotex campaign for U BY Kotex? Maybe you have not – you have missed some fun there too. But what they have done has worked. This is a new product and in less than 6 months it has reached an 8.3% market share in a mature market and it has not cannibalized the older Kotex brand. So what is the difference. Both had used very funny viral videos. What is the secret? I called on Jordan Miller who is the point person on the campaign and asked her this question.

At the heart of the Kotex Campaign is “Listening” and real conversation. The big idea was to take a taboo subject – periods – and offer up the support and the safe place where women and girls could help each other with advice and support. The funny videos were ‘Ice Breakers” and not an end in themselves. Their point was to make it easier to talk about a topic that even in our progressive time was off limits. The early videos also pointed fun at the old Kotex ads that had girls twirling in white swimsuits and where pads always had a blue liquid. If I have intrigued you go to this link to see some videos – the ones that Kotex made and now also the ones that the public have made.

This Facebook snip says a lot. We see the taboo aspect of the topic and the fear. We can see that Kotex have made it safe to ask questions. We can see that Jordan Miller is personally on top of the site – she never seems to sleep! Many questions are answered personally.

On the main site there is a panel of Experts, Mums and Peers that answer more generic questions.

So what has happened? What has made this work?

Simply, Kotex (Kimberly Clark) have seen through the viral fun aspect of social media – though they have pulled this aspect off very well – and got to the core. They have set up a space where it is safe to have a conversation on a topic where the silence has been deafening.  They have levelled the power by telling the truth about even themselves and laughed at how they used to talk about the issue and the product. All the video that they mock was their own old ads.

Central is no pounding message about the product! But a focus on the people who have concerns about their periods. The Old Spice ad is really about Old Spice. The U By Kotex campaign is about you and people like you who share a common problem.

I asked Jordan what she thought was the secret and her answer was that the senior folks really believed that this was the way to go – “They are the best Client I have ever worked for”. It’s ironic that top level support is still pivotal now when the culture  is so opposed to letting go power.

And power has been let go. All organizations who go down this road are scared that someone will say the wrong thing. All sorts of safe guards are set up that risk reintroducing the corporate voice and slowing the pace down.

Senior leaders gave up this control to their point person – Jordan. Who has been allowed to be very edgy on an edgy topic. The campaign is not run on a day by day basis by a committee but by one person who has a real voice and a rweal personality who is well known to all who participate.

For we know that we can’t have conversations with institutions but only with people. In my opinion this is the most important aspect of the entire campaign – the trust that Kotex put in a single person who has to participate in real time 24/7. There is no time to oversee and still be human. So the choice of who you pick is critical. The give up of power is critical. Not many organizations can make  this move but it is I think the key.

So what next? Kimberly Clark have to go forward. Not only has the campaign been a technical success in that it has moved product – but more important they are now connected to a community of 1.4 million women who have found something important to them in the conversation. What a place to find yourselves in as an organization! No more twirling!

So the “conversation” that we all need to have is not about your product or your service per se – but it is about your customers. What do they need to talk about? It’s not just about a funny viral video and being talked about. It is about having conversations about matters that are important to people.

The “conversation” has to be hosted not by an impersonal institution but by a person who in turn has to be trusted not to let the organization down.

“These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.” (Cluetrain)

This is not easy – everything we have learned to-date makes any of this hard.

Later this week a story about Boingo – who have found some ways about how to make this easier to start.

PS

PS Ciaran McCabe contacted me to tell me that the Bnet news of falling sales for Old Spice is being challenged

According to PR Week sales of the product increased over 100% last month. A piece in Forbes.com uses the same SymphonyIRI study to show that sales were up 7.9% from the previous year. At this time, there is no way to know which numbers are real and which are not. However, the -7% number still sounds fishy to me.” Source: The Ad Contrarian (Bob Hoffman, owner of SF ad agency Hoffman/Lewis)

PPS from a Commentatin: Rob, love both of these campaigns and agree that the Kotex campaign should get way more credit and press, but people have got to STOP citing these SymphonyIRI numbers in reference to the Old Spice campaign. They measure the year ending June 13th, 2010, a full month BEFORE the viral/social aspect of the Old Spice campaign even started. Not only that, they include 7 full months of sales data BEFORE the tv even ran. I recognize you’re just quoting from other reporting, but you ought to stop and consider whether you should perpetuate the incorrect conclusion that a campaign isn’t working by including PRE-CAMPAIGN sales data as your evidence. And guess what else? According to sales data released by Nielsen in the last few days, the body wash sales are actually up 52% over 3 months and 107% over the last month. Let’s all wait and see data from AFTER the campaign ran before we start drawing conclusions. Seems to be that would be fair.

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