SIME Helsinki 2010

Warning: this is quite a long post about marketing. If you’re interested, get a big cup of coffee and a comfortable seat

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the Scandinavian Interactive Media Event, SIME Helsinki for short. You can follow the real-time notes of the attendees in Twitter.While there was no streaming of it, I did take quite a few notes I’ll share with you below.

Introduction – Business as unusual (Ola Ahlvarsson)

  • Evolution of digital from Windows 98 & Wolfenstein 3D to MacOS & blogs to… the Matrix 😉
  • Facebook is the big opium of the people, growing faster than any web service ver.
  • Google branching its business into physical, mobile
  • Rise of apps
  • Traditional media mixing with new platforms: BBC on the PS3
  • Listening is more important than ever
  • Vision-based augmented reality emerging as a trend
  • Cloud computing
  • Cheap iteration
  • Easier access to international markets
  • Internet of things: robotic internet
  • Old industries (books, records) totally disrupted, but content is more alive than ever in the digital world
  • Games going social (sharing gameplay clips an emerging activity)
  • Branding is dead, or isn’t it? Originality more appreciated than ever.
  • Owned, bought, earned media model intro.
  • B2B going B2C

Measurement panel

  • What to measure, what not to measure, how they combine: good discussion but inconclusive.

Voddler presentation:

  • Free movies online.
  • Disruption on three fronts: Business model, film industry, technology.

Rovio presentation

  • Discussion of the Angry Birds case. Best sold app ever, growing to other platforms as well.
  • Best quote of the whole conference:

Because we’re from Finland, we’re so good at branding and marketing.

Social Media panel

  • Intra-organisation Social Media opportunities
  • Forget tools (Facebook, Twitter), identify goals and practices first.
  • Think which ecosystem you want to target: reach out where your audience is.
  • Don’t lie, you can’t shine shit.
  • Know how to engage your audience and channel the energy of your fans.
  • Claim your space

Performance-based marketing

  • Automatically retargeted banners.
  • Relevance is king: ka-ching!
  • Getting numbers are not a problem, making sense of them is.

Blocket (Tori.fi)

  • Classifieds & Marketplaces
  • Expanding globally by challenging Ebay. Growing also in Finland.
  • Measurement based on community interaction.
  • Relevance to community is king (again).

Contagious magazine trends

  • Campaigns need to be useful, relevant or entertaining
  • Entertaining: Durex campaign vs. Old Spice: one-time virals vs. engagement with the campaign reaction (responding to user suggestions)
  • Useful: Carlsberg where’s the party. Find & Share.
  • Useful: Best Buy customer care via Twitter. They archive the request for help for further reference.
  • Relevant: Dentsu iButterfly (augmented reality coupons)
  • Relevant: Ikea Facebook photo tagging
  • Convergenc: Remember what you develop is for real people. Be brave and willing to make mistakes to learn from them.

Mobile marketing panel

  • From ringtones to apps & video ads.
  • Mobile CRM shall not equal spamming.
  • Ingredients for mobile take off are there, ready to get going.
  • Mobile gives timing and location to the relationship.
  • Mobile is intimate.

Qualcomm innovations

  • 5 billion wireless subscribers worldwide.
  • 1 billion are 3G users, will be 2.8 billion by 2014.
  • Chips developed on two dimensions: integration and/or size.
  • New displays: reflective technology with low power consumption and great viewing.
  • Health sensors: pulse, blood pressure, glucometre, ECG, temperature, posture.
  • Visual-based augmented reality: games, toys, promotions.

Hitlantis

  • 70% of teenagers would rather go without sex than music.
  • Bring together music & lovers.
  • New bands sign in, get listeners and fans.

Social media workshop

  • Social media is a diffuse, container term
  • Engaging with as many people as possible… really?
  • Mass communication coming to an end.
    • Quality, not quantity communications
  • Number of communication messages everyday increasing times 10.
  • Internalise social media practices in your organisation.
    • Keep on developing, things never get out of beta.
    • Participate, don’t just enable if possible.
    • Sociology know-how important.
  • Aggregate & summarize (widgets, RSS, etc)
    • Package but allow unpackaging.
    • Data is owned by users, make it portable.
    • Absolute clarity for licenses and permissions is vital.
  • Monetisation is possible & can be planned for: make it free first, charge for additional services later. Made me think of the growth of SMS in the Philippines.
    • Segment product on different layers: Spotify basic vs. premium
  • Presence / status update important, becomes social currency.
  • The combination of social media and mobile has the potential of becoming very powerful, especially with its links to location (& even more, proximity).
  • Recommendations for companies getting started:
    • Start with content calendar.
    • Basic listening tools (Tweetdeck, Google Alerts).
    • Authenticity crucial: you have to be close to the essence of your brand/service proposition.
    • Customer care can be a great way of getting started if you do a good job.  Look at it as cost vs. opportunity.
    • Don’t do external-facing communications if too stiff, but internal blogging/comms are also a great opportunity.
    • Don’t experiment, commit to do it well.

Marketing communications workshop: From one-night stands to meaningful relationships in marketing

  • The full talk from Hasan & Partners. Please make sure to check it first before reading the rest.
  • Heineken Milan Champions League case: One night stand using earned & paid media
  • Gatorade replay: Huge ROI, much more than a one night stand. Concept can be scaled up or down, and continue even if the brand is no longer behind it.
  • Livestrong, Nike Chalkbout: Post-digital executions. It’s all about you (reminds me of that Time cover)

Wrap-up and Conclusions

  • Change is not a choice, it’s a necessity.
  • All marketing is performance based.
  • Social media must be entertaining, useful and/or relevant.
  • Finns can make world-beating services if their vision is big enough.
  • E-health will be close to your heart 😉 .
  • Innovation is definitely accelerating.
  • Creativity in communication is more important than ever.
  • The ones who can connect the dots will win!