Google Think Branding 2013 Event

At the Royal Opera House on a freezing Tuesday (today), Google held their annual Think Branding event #thinkbranding2013. This conference was almost entirely focussed on YouTube with several interesting speakers and examples. Below is a short summary of the seminar. Apologies where the summary is thin – I was listening more than typing. The full seminar will be available online, on YouTube of course!

After a welcome by Shuvo Saha (Industry Director Branding), Matt Brittin (VP Northern and Central Europe) kicked off on the topic of Remastering Marketing talking about the T-Mobile flash mob at Liverpool street station which was then also shown on TV in the form of an ad directing everyone to YouTube (and generating 18 M YouTube views and started 18 Facebook pages). This was 4 years ago so the big question was "how much has changed 4 years later?"

The 3 themes for this event were:

1. Reframing Brands (e.g. Band-Aid think bigger using an app that recognises Muppet character on a plaster and makes a dancing character)
2. Reimagining  Media (e.g. Pizza delivery giving physical app for fridge, GoPro cameras marketed by customers on YouTube 240 M times sharing their videos, Oreos at Superbowl tweeting " you can still dunk in the dark" with 14 M retweets)
3. Rebooting Organisations 

PART 1: Reframing Brands

Connie Kalcher, VP Marketing & Consumer Experiences, Lego

• Lego means play well (2 Danish words)
• There are also interesting partnerships e.g. with Star Wars 
• Lego facilitates conversations and segments customers according to affinity with brand. They see the power to get advocates to flip content and be brand ambassadors. 
• Launched Mindstorms "robotic invention" for adults which was hacked. What do you do when your customers hack your products?
• Fans share a lot on social media - see Star Wars cantina on YouTube. I searched and found a range of clips – this is the one with lego.
• Created a site called "We Brick" tagging all the content on fan sites to be a platform for them to shine. Adult Fans of Lego (AFOLS) have events attended by 9 M people a year. 
• An architect's idea formed a new Lego product for adults. They have Lego Certified professionals who are licensed to do business off the back of the Lego brand. 
• What about the kids? 40 M views on Lego channel on YouTube as part of 360 degree approach. Lego has become an experience brand! 

James Hilton, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, AKQA

• James introduced some key principles in the digital world. For starters, take the pain away! Make it simple! E.g. "Silver car" only have 1 car - silver Audi a4, Disney created the magic band so parents aren't continually opening up their wallets every few minutes at the Theme park.
• Disrupt or be disrupted. 
• Democratise what is for the elite and give power to the people. E.g. NHS, Google democratised data, Nike personal trainer in their pocket
• Help people be better e.g. Building Lego
• How? Start with vision.
• James gave some great examples of how brands reframe themselves. 
  • Nike Kinect training making it a habitual part of people's lives
  • Delta with bag scanning, airport navigation. It's not just about getting people on planes but helping them. The future of in flight entertainment (IFO) on iPhones and tablets. Went not just from pre-flight to inflight giving access to inboard wifi e.g. Glass bottom aircraft allows you to see where you are flying over, which friends of yours have been there, interesting facts etc.

PART 2: Reimagining Media

Dan Cobley, MD UK & Ireland, Google

• Dan introduced this part by talking more about video. 45% of online video watched on smartphone sand tables.
• The distinction between content and advertising Is blurred.

• There are 3 implications:

1. Type of context is changing
2. Measure for success is changing
3. Consumer insights and media planning is changing

Derek Scobie: Head of Propositions, YouTube

• An entertaining speaker, Derek talked about the content you currently get from YouTube vs. what you expect vs. what you will get to see
• YouTube's unpredictability is a challenge with lots of UGC (what you currently get) whereas YouTube wants to be more broadcast, professional and controlled (Note: BBC has more views on YouTube than on iPlayer!)
• Very interesting to learn that new original for YouTube content being made. E.g. Fast and furious, earth unplugged, fas#tag, Jamie's Food Tube. This leverages content from professionals with YouTube super users! E.g. The Daily mix made by 9 top beauty stars in YouTube (> 1 million views) with professional production company. This is the new YouTube. 

Bernardo Correia: Industry Head, Google UK

• How can you use data for brands to make successful content?
• I was interested to learn that the ideal content strategy should contain both "Hero" content and "Hygiene" content (see below)
• Content metrics should look at how much a video is loved and therefore create huge sharing social multiplier. 

Stuart Sullivan-Martin: Chief Strategy Office, MEC

• The magic for brands lies in the intersection between technology, media and psychology
• Data can sometimes be the currency of the marketing idea. E.g. Nike Auction site and Nike Zombie Run fitness app
• Searches for healthcare words gives insights
  

Part 3: Re-booting organisations

Andy Bird, Co-Founder and Exec. Director, Brand Learning

• There are barriers to digital are there and we need to shift the mindset - we need to embrace the new mindset and play to win! 
• We need to move from the relatively stable position to an agile position used to constant change

Paul Randle, Global Head of Digital, Akzo Nobel

• World's largest paint company, owner of Dulux, is on a corporate journey to go from being a chemicals company to being a paint company to being a decorative company
• There is a phenomenal amount of decorative conversation going on in the online world
• They started by conducting an audit: where are our customers, what are the conversations etc. and found that things were not good
• Paul found that he spent more in a year at Starbucks than the company spent on search!
• He also learnt that 0.9 FTE doing work with 2.5 agencies so he realised they had no control and decided to bring more in-house
• How do you make a vision come alive? Put the right organisation structure in place, get key teams on the bandwagon. Biggest challenge is doing this with limited budget

J&J, Juan-Jose Gonzales, MD Northern Europe. Johnson &Johnson

• J&J are an old client of mine from my time at Microsoft and I have fond memories of presenting at their global country managers meeting in Marbella to over 300 folks several years ago. Their portfolio includes several iconic brands like Neutrogena, Listerine and Acuvue
• Their story starts in 2008 when they lost 10% gross profit due to a depreciating £
• This gave them a strict cost-focus and emphasis on digital
• Then asked how many websites they had, the answer was unclear!
• Juan-Jose outlines the key elements for the digital journey: (These are exceptional good to hear advocated as JaffeBlend specialises in helping with points 1-5)

1. Training (!!): 24 mandatory training a year and 36 best practice sharing activities email, video. You build a very sophisticated level of IQ if you do this over 4 years
2. Infrastructure: there has to be a team looking at next gen technology, implications of social and mobile e.g. they realised that the legal team was not sufficient to deal with volume of contracts
3. Processes: the way they deal with communications briefs etc.
4. External Partners: they were not convinced that existing partners were in a position to support with new IQ
5. Targets: get idea to start spending up to 30% - they also looked at metrics, analytics, ROI to actually calculate the value of the move into digital
6. Leadership: very little can be achieved without this. Leadership= personal commitment. This is done by asking the right questions e.g. asking a particular question that can only be answered with Google Analytics or giving the order to reduce all media spend except digital. How do you personally embrace this as a leader? Do you sit together in a training?

• J&J have a global digital centre of excellence doing a yearly audit. 
• Current digital spend has gone from 4% to 22%.
• In 2011 they asked moms to share videos for Calpol which generated 100k likes and 24,000 submissions, Mouth vs. Life campaign for Listerine received 2.5 M channel views (300% more views in less time than Pepto Bismol).
• 2013 will see more relationships and e commerce development. 

Andy Bird then wrapped up the final part with 3 imperatives:

1. Integrate all drivers of capability

  

2. Inspire and enable behaviour change

3. Provide customer-focussed leadership 

Last, but not least, was a profound and moving session by Eric Whitacre on the Virtual Choir. This is a global choir to a piece of music composed and conducted by him, incorporated submissions via YouTube. The latest choir as more than 4,000 participants from all over the world. This is a moving example of social media collaboration producing not just beautiful music, but also helping talented music lovers to connect across the world giving them a sense of fulfilment and intimacy. I strongly urge you to watch some of these videos

I hope you've found some value in this post with highlights of the session. Thanks to Google for being such a fabulous host and for helping to educate marketers (albeit about their own products)! Next week I'm off to some cherry-picked sessions at Adweek so watch this space!