Want to know what Conversation Managers really do? Take a look at this video Scott Rodgers recently put together:

We’ve noted previously that more and more brands are attempting to feed this national moral hunger through cause-related marketing efforts, and to that end, many are building awareness of such efforts through social media.

A perfect example is Kraft Foods.  And they’re not just feeding moral hunger; they’re feeding hunger…quite literally. This summer, Kraft ran their Oscar Meyer Good Mood Mission promotion in which they asked consumers to share their good moods – what cures their Mondays, what they love most about mornings, etc. Each time consumers shared content via a dedicated microsite, the company donated food to Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity – in the end donating over 3.3 million pounds of food to the hungry.

Undoubtedly based on the success of the Good Mood promotion, and to coincide with Hunger Action Month this September, Kraft is extending their mission through their new football-themed campaign, Huddle to Fight Hunger. Their goal: donate 20 million meals. But this time, they are not just upping their donation goal, they’re upping the game.

According to PR Newswire, Kraft plans to reach their goal by employing a “variety of marketing support vehicles, such as consumer incentives, high-impact media like cinema, newspaper and magazine ads, a major public relations campaign, as well as social and mobile activities.” They’ve also tacked on celebrity endorsement AND expanded how consumers can interact with the promotion allowing for more ways to contribute to the overall donation. For each of the following “plays” taken from the social promotion’s “Playbook,” Kraft will donate one meal:

• Providing personal contact information (Join the Huddle)
• Like the Kraft Foods Facebook Page (The Facebook Like Button Hook)
• Redeem coupons for Kraft brand foods (The Coupon Cut Route)
• Tweet with the #KraftFightsHunger hashtag (The Twitter Twackle)
• Watch a video from their YouTube Playlist (The YouTube Toss)
• Post a photo to the Kraft Foods Facebook Wall (The Facebook Photo Flea Flicker)

With the microsite as the hub, consumers can also see the promotion’s progress through a “total meals donated” ticker and a state-by-state breakdown of donations to spur friendly competition. Staggering statistics on hunger in America, an online donations section, info on the Kraft Hunger Bowl sweepstakes (and more) can be found on the site as well.

As a marketer, I’m impressed. From the time I first learned of their Good Mood promotion, I have provided Kraft with user-generated content, “liked” their Facebook page (which now provides me with a range of content), opted into emails to stay apprised of their fight against hunger and downloaded their iFoods app. In a matter of a few months, they’ve evolved me from being merely brand-aware to brand advocate – all while making me feel like I’m having an impact on a greater cause.

Here at Media Logic, we’re delivering the same kind of “feel good” marketing to a variety of clients – from one major bank’s effort to “make it happen” for customers through a viral consumer-driven campaign, to a grassroots co-op organization celebrating its centennial through a vibrant social network, to a large health care provider building a social initiative around youth wellness…

Media Logic is delivering emotionally resonant marketing for a social world – the kind that builds engagement, loyalty and a consumer affinity that can withstand economic changes – by helping brands create difference that makes a difference.

Crowdsourcing philanthropy

The exclusively Facebook execution of  ”Chase Community Giving” last year (what Kimberly refers to as crowdsourcing), also ties in well with one of our recent blog posts, Four Metrics for Determining the Value of a Facebook Fan, as it relates to avoiding the misleading measure for successful social media marketing by imposing a monetary value on Facebook fans (“To effectively use social media as a marketing tool, marketers must be able to demonstrate the value that a follower base delivers to their clients”).

I’d bet Kimberly Davis would argue that even the possibility of driving financial business in the future captured immeasurable value, not to mention the unquantifiable value of demonstrating thought leadership by diving right in – “Others have stepped into the crowdsource space,” said Davis, “but they’ve done it very gingerly. They’ve put one toe in the water. We put our whole foot and leg.”

A passion to change and engage

Davis stepped into the role of president of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation in 2006, ready to cultivate a “futurist view” of philanthropy. She’s shifted the foundation’s portfolio from broad causes to more focused contributions to education and community development, which she hopes will eventually feed the financial business. And Chase Community Giving has certainly generated plenty of brand awareness among all those Facebook voters.

It was thrilling to read about Davis’ core passion; according to Invisible Children cofounder, Laren Poole:

…She showed up at 6 a.m. and talked to every single volunteer about what they did at the organization. It was so clear that she’s the heartbeat behind the whole thing. She got it in a way that I didn’t expect. “It,” of course, is how to connect corporate philanthropy efforts with a young generation more passionate about grassroots activism…

And this passion has helped her foster a very adventurous view of the new world we find ourselves in (at age 50 to boot). It was downright inspirational to hear someone saying out loud that we should be taking risks – especially from the president where “as a firm we’re in the business of managing risk”. Davis says, “Philanthropy is where we should be taking risks, but there were a lot of questions about the level of transparency needed to run this in an authentic way. Raising the blinds on the entire crowdsourcing process made a few bankers nervous…”

Staying transparent and authentic

In these times of general unrest over financial trust and leadership, Kimberly’s position on transparency and authenticity are not only important for maintaining engagement, but potentially has the power to be a first step in exponentially changing public impression. For me, Kimberly’s understanding of the power of “crowdsourcing”, or engagement leading directly to brand loyalty, is what conversation-centric marketing is all about. To be able to encourage activism on the scale Community Giving did… priceless.

Related articles:

• Feeding the Moral Hunger: Strategic Social Marketing for the Greater Good? (logicaljuice.com)
• The 100 Most Creative People in Business 2010 (fastcompany.com)
• Chase Community Giving Kicks Off Summer 2010 Program (eon.businesswire.com)

In Part 2, watch them discuss what these trends mean those trying to using social media as a marketing tool… Or, view Part 1 first.

Watch their conversation and hear their thoughts…

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series, when Josh and Fred discuss the challenges and opportunities for companies trying to engage both individuals and communities in conversations about brands.

Just as eMarketer was making this prediction in January, Media Logic was ramping up a strategic social marketing effort with Healthways SilverSneakers Fitness Program® that would help prove its validity and demonstrate how social media can effectively engage the older adult crowd. By implementing a collaborative marketing approach and launching a site specifically designed to encourage information sharing in a safe, supportive online older adult community, SilverSneakers witnessed active engagement on its Facebook page grow from fewer than 500 fans in December 2009 to nearly 12,000 fans today.

The success of our work with SilverSneakers supports the upward trend of social media adoption among older adults while highlighting the value of social media as a marketing tool enabling conversation-centric, two-way models of communication for membership-based organizations.

Working Social Marketing Into a Mature Network
As far as membership organizations go, the award-winning SilverSneakers Fitness Program was thriving – offered to Medicare Advantage plan members through their health plan clients at more than 9,400 participating fitness and wellness centers across the country, SilverSneakers provides an innovative blend of exercise classes, health education and social opportunities to help mature adults maintain active, independent lifestyles. Studies have even found that older adults who participate in SilverSneakers are admitted to hospitals less frequently, have lower overall healthcare costs and experience a significantly reduced risk of depression.

SilverSneakers was already a hugely popular program, but the strategic use of social marketing has provided the organization with new and effective ways of connecting with potential members, and perhaps more importantly, encouraging loyalty to the program, ongoing member participation and involvement.

“The program is an inherently social experience,” according to our client and Healthways’ senior manager of Member Engagement Marketing, Michelle Eckert. “Introducing social media has allowed our participants to further enhance their social connections by sharing stories, photos, tips and notes of encouragement to others. Our experience supports the research that shows older adults citizens will adopt social media and participate, provided they see content and groups dedicated to their needs and interests.”

Managing Social Media Without Breaking a Sweat
While SilverSneakers began experimenting with social media late last year, the program needed a systemic approach, guidance, and support to create stronger interest and active participation. In January, the organization partnered with us and deployed Zeitgeist & Coffee^sm, our social media management suite specially designed to help organizations ramp up their social media marketing efforts, making them more effective and easier to implement and sustain.

Since implementing Zeitgeist & Coffee, SilverSneakers has realized…

• A significant spike in Facebook fans
• A dramatic increase in fans’ levels of engagement
• More fans who are potential SilverSneakers members visiting the Facebook page to learn about the program
• Friends and family members of SilverSneakers participants are joining the Facebook page to lend support and enthusiasm

SilverSneakers’ experience with Media Logic and Zeitgeist & Coffee has meant the difference between having a Fan page and having an active community.  By providing the methodology, marketing expertise and technology to fully leverage social media as a marketing a tool, we’ve made it easier for organizations to engage older adults and foster a meaningful social presence with the mature audience.

Related Articles

• Engaging the Aging: Creating Conversation for SilverSneakers (logicaljuice.mlinc.com)

In recent years, the trend toward outsourcing has dramatically changed the relationship between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and their suppliers.  According to industry sources, “a generation ago, of the total value of goods sold by OEMS, the share that originated with suppliers averaged 40 percent. Today, the average share is 80 percent!” The result has been an increasing concern among OEMs to hold down supplier costs while demanding quality, service and delivery.  Many suppliers have responded by reducing costs (particularly labor) in a downward spiral of price promotion, reduced productivity and unreliable performance. These issues have been particularly salient in highly competitive, technical and error-sensitive arenas such as medical device manufacturing. In dozens of recent conversations with purchasing agents for medical device manufacturers, we heard report after report of the stress these agents faced as they sought to obtain high-quality parts in a timely fashion at a good price.

Enter Media Logic client, MicroGroup. Originally a machine shop, MicroGroup offered “off-the-shelf, finished-to-order, microthin metal tubing products for various industrial segments.” As it saw its products becoming more and more commoditized, it turned its focus to the bourgeoning medical device manufacturing market.

According to Jay Caraviello, President and CEO of the Medway, Massachusetts-based company, “We saw an opportunity to meet the needs of medical device manufacturers by offering consistently high-quality products that meet the demanding specifications and delivery requirements of this industry. But we also wanted to go beyond that to become a true manufacturing partner, to function as an extension of the OEM.”

MicroGroup began what could be called a “cultural evolution,” turning the “get it done” attitude that had become part of its DNA into a corporate commitment to the OEMs, their customers, the medical professionals who use the equipment and, ultimately, to the patients who are being treated by the devices.  Of course, Caraviello and his team implemented new processes and procedures to ensure consistent quality and delivery, but perhaps more importantly, the organization hired project management teams to function as liaisons between the OEMs, the engineering crew and the production floor – spending as much time on the OEM site to ensure manufacturability as they do with their own production department.

In effect, MicroGroup had established the foundation for a new brand in a new market – a brand that offered the value that OEMs were seeking. But how could MicroGroup describe this value in a way that would resonate with its markets – quickly and effectively? How could it use this value to move itself away from continual price promotion and competitive bidding?

Caraviello hired Media Logic for Brand Amp^SM, our fast-track strategic process that helps organizations create “conversation-worthy” brand identities, develop strong positioning and marketing strategies, identify brand community opportunities and prepare for active participation in the conversation.  The Brand Amp process helped MicroGroup:

• Uncover its brand opportunity
• Define its brand positioning
• Design corporate, product or initiative identities
• Begin to establish brand communities
• Develop key brand collateral and online properties
• Create seed social media content

Keying off MicroGroup’s awareness of “what’s on the line” for their OEMs and the patients ultimately treated by their products, we created a new look, tone and feel for the company that reinforced the spirit of the brand.  The brand launch was supported both internally and externally through a new and highly optimized website, an e-commerce site, a video, print ads, online presence and direct marketing campaign. The introduction of the new MicroGroup brand has effectively raised the company’s profile and search visibility and set the stage for additional content development (case studies, white papers, blogs) that will deepen relationships with clients and prospects.

Says Caraviello, “We’re committed to working with our OEMs to improve productivity, quality, delivery times and costs. Ultimately, we’ll all win.  Media Logic’s Brand Amp process allowed us to begin, build and maintain the conversations we need to get found, be credible and create preference.”

The NBC Tonight Show dust-up has shined yet another light on the power of social media.

Most of the noise provided empathy and support for Conan O’Brien, clearly the victor thus far in the court of public opinion… as Jay Leno and NBC execs get painted as villains or village idiots.

Witness the grass roots growth of the Facebook fan page “I’m with Coco.” I checked the fan count a couple days ago — more than 166,000 people had signed up to stand up for their high-haired hero. That’s pretty astounding, given that the page had only been a few days old! Today, that number topped 489,000. Feel free to check out the latest fan count.

And fellow celebrities have joined the fray, voicing their support for Conan on their Twitter streams. And in the meantime, the #TeamConan, #GoConan and #Coco hash tags are flying freely. Just do a search on Twitter.

Throw in some public insults from NBC exec Dick Ebersol, and this appears to be a classic example of a bad situation made worse. Faster and fiercer than anyone ever imagined.

Which leads marketers to ponder how we may one day need to address a similar uprising — either intentionally trying to rally customers/fans around a cause, or working to manage an unhappy constituency. This we know: in the new social world order, we’ll need to act fast. For the battle will be instant.

But for the last 4 years the victor has seemed almost pre-ordained, as each Noel found the winner of that year’s  “X-Factor” show sitting atop the heap. And up until a few weeks ago, this year’s winner, Joe McElderry, must have been feeling pretty good about his chances to repeat the cycle.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the quorum…

Jon Morter is a part-time DJ and rock fan from Essex. In 2008, on a whim, he tried to gather online support to make Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up” that year’s Christmas #1. He failed, but was intrigued enough by the response he got to try again this year – opting this time, to promote Rage Against the Machine’s expletive-filled 1992 track “Killing in the Name.”

His plan? A coordinated social media effort to generate an extreme uptick in sales during the one week it would matter.

Jon started a Facebook group dedicated to his cause and quickly started to see the power of a motivated ”brand community.” The group grew exponentially – in both awareness and support – simply by nature of the message (and the media). Then on December 15^th, successful comedian Peter Serafinowicz rallied his more than 268,000 Twitter followers to act. With Peter’s goose, Morter’s no-budget awareness effort snowballed into a popular campaign that eventually gathered the support of thousands of fans, former X-Factor winners and even Sir Paul McCartney.

When the smoke cleared, more than 500,000 copies of a 17-year-old song were sold over the course of a single week – and “Killing in the Name” was the new Christmas #1. Rage Against the Machine, the unknowing benefactors of the achievement, even pledged to give all profits from their single to charity.

Does this mean that Social Media is always going to be more effective than the traditional marketing machine that drives “X-factor?”

Of course not. Morter’s campaign played off a brand built via traditional media, and no doubt was juiced by many mentions in the traditional media.

Yet this story does highlight the communication power of the exponential networks of friends and followers to which almost all of us are now attached.

Harness the power of social media. Register for your free presentation today and find out how you can use social media to build your brand and business.

“Brand values can be established as a brand identity, but they must believably exist in the mind of the consumer. A brand can’t just say it stands for something and make it so. The consumer will decide, making it more important than ever for a brand to have measures of authenticity that will aid in brand differentiation and consumer engagement.”

–MarketingVOX

Case in point: Purchase College. This premier member of the State University of New York system had what many might consider an enviable situation – it was experiencing very little difficulty in recruiting students.

The challenge was in student retention.

As part of the SUNY system, Purchase College attracted many students expecting a “typical” SUNY experience – something you definitely won’t find at the distinctly different Purchase College. Even internally, Purchase had become a college of two minds, a unique combination of both arts conservatory and liberal arts/sciences mainstay.

In order to get more of the right students to apply and have fewer of the wrong ones enroll, Purchase College needed to start talking about itself in a more authentic and direct way – allowing prospective students to “self-select.”

Through our Mine & Dine and BrandAmp products, Media Logic quickly worked to uncover, identify and create a unified vision. Media Logic provided the necessary forum for leaders from across the campus community to come together and resolve the tension between the school’s “arts” side and its “liberal arts” side.

Under Media Logic’s guidance, Purchase College created a brand that was far more than the sum of its parts. Essential to the branding process were qualitative research, a geo-demographic analysis, predictive modeling and a comprehensive recruitment and retention plan. We were able to determine that Purchase’s ultimate value came not solely from its programs, but from the unique mindset and culture of the students themselves.

The entire campus – from faculty and students to administrators and alumni – embraced the new brand as an authentic reflection of who they really were. It was integrated into all recruitment communications, and guidelines were established to extend it across the entire college.

After the launch of the new brand, applications increased more than 60%. Selectivity was also up 16% (more than 30% for liberal arts), and persistence has risen by 10% and 12%, respectively.