Social media: Moving mountains to MySpace

In its campaign to provide "reality" information to kids who smoke or are on the verge of getting into it, ad agencies Arnold/Crispin Porter + Bogusky decided to reach teens with Broadway-esque, spoofy, web-centered theater bannered "The Sunny Side of Truth"--with story-telling at the heart.

I love the media strategy, as described in Communication Arts:
"Today, The Sunny Side campaign is using the Web, social networking sites, iTunes, and mobile media to communicate its message. Instead of trying to tear teens away from their MySpace pages, The Sunny Side features pages on MySpace, Bebo and Hi5."

To be relevant, you have to live where they're living.

Chronicles of Appreciation: Foothills Equestrian Nature Center (FENCE)

Working with colleague John Huie, I recently supported this long-time equestrian and nature preserve beautifully situated beneath the Saluda escarpment in its quest to establish an outdoor academy that recognizes "master ecologists."

Our strategies emerged after developing a full field curriculum which we were able to test with FENCE members. Based on email survey responses, we shaped the course offerings and the academy's organization, and uncovered an opportunity to link up with the South Carolina Master Naturalist Program, whose first chapter was born in the state's coastal lowlands.

Many thanks to: John Huie, and to Melissa LeRoy, Norm Powers, and Tom Jackson of FENCE.

Magazines, lately

We're on hard scrabble roads in the magazine publishing world. For an established advertiser, a back cover could conceivably be offered for next to nothing. Rates for e-zines are more likely to hold, I'd imagine, but the times may offer up some opportunities.

Revenues being what they are, the great trick is to hold on to excellence of content. Beautifully written pieces offered by outside sources, well-researched and verified, drafted to fall within the context of a specific editorial framework, may be just the ticket for a particular business and of considerable help to a particular publisher. If the integrity of the piece holds, everyone benefits, and especially the reader.

Analytics, in perspective

After a good bit of "white paper" research, I started to get this picture:

The beauty of converting printed pieces into web content has to do with the ground gained in being able to track the popularity of a particular on-line article, message, forum, viewpoint, sketch, image or idea.

There are no on-board metrics, so to speak, with a printed magazine.

On the other hand, given the same publication on-line, an editor can see how specific content is faring by monitoring page views, unique visitors, actions made per visit, subscriptions, logins, registrations, click-throughs to links, and cancellations--not to mention direct feedback from readers.

These tracked responses can set up the possibility of Stradivarius-like fine tunings.

Analytics serve the storyteller. By trying different sorts of content, you can evolve a tighter understanding of your audience, blend editing and measurement, give air to new ideas, get better at what you do.