All are being hailed as social media innovations and harbingers of the death of traditional advertising. More accurately, they are examples of big brands scrambling to cope with consumer empowerment and a fractured media landscape.

Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” campaign is the most ambitious. At the very least it is a great stunt. The company made the news by deciding to not run Super Bowl ads. That announcement probably generated more media exposure than running Super Bowl ads would have. Beyond the stunt, the campaign is a brave experiment. Pepsi is gambling that distributing $20 million across thousands of bloggers/activists will gain more media exposure than $20 million spent during Super Bowl. They’re gambling on the social media “network effect.” And they are gambling that “do-gooders” will not be embarrassed to attach their ideas to a big corporate brand. We think Pepsi could have given the campaign more of a traditional media push. Regardless, if it works, Pepsi will have succeeded in killing two birds with one stone – they will effectively counter their “big bad global brand” image and multiply their media investment. What is notable about this campaign is that it is all about mission and has nothing to do with product.

Domino’s “Pizza Turnaround,” on the other hand, it is all about the product. It’s the story of how the company changed its standard pizza formula in response to customer feedback. No mission, but very conversation-centric. The launch video struck just the right note. It’s lighter and less ambitious than the world-changing Pepsi campaign, but then again we are talking about soda pop and fast food here. Because it comes off as honest, responsive and relevant to the product, this campaign is likely to connect. It will drive reconsideration and trial. Whether the “new” product can live up to the promise, well … Regardless, as an example of a good conversation-centric marketing campaign, it’s a hot four-cheese success!

Finally, the Taco Bell “Drive-Thru Diet” campaign. Hmm… Rather than leverage the conversation to address the company’s real product issues, like Domino’s is trying, or focus on a mission, like Pepsi, Taco Bell is attempting to use an integrated media strategy to do that old fashioned marketing trick – sell us a counter-factual pile of beans. They’re going to try and get us to believe that stuffing down fatty foods in our cars can help us lose weight. What? Who is going to buy that? I can believe that a Subway lettuce sandwich is a better choice than a greasy burger. But can I really believe that a Taco Bell “diet” will make me skinny?

Yet, despite the critique, I have to applaud all three efforts.

We are living in interesting times. And if there is one truth in our new conversation-centric marketing world, it is that brands need to be fearless and try new things. Cut the strings of caution! Experiment. Even if Taco Bell customers don’t lose weight, Domino’s doesn’t deliver and Pepsi falls flat, there’s little downside. That’s the irony of consumer empowerment. Brands have lost a lot of authority, but they’re no longer expected to be perfect either.

In mid-September, Hansen’s Beverage – a Corona, California-based beverage company – issued a simple legal missive to Rock Art Brewery of Morrisville, Vt. It wanted Rock Art Brewery to cease and desist the use of its “Vermonster” beer product label, as well as any effort to trademark the name nationally. You see, Hansen’s owns the Monster energy drink brand and, of course, there’d be a lot confusion between the two products:

Did you, uh, sense my dripping sarcasm? It seems pretty obvious that the two products appear to be visually quite different. So you can imagine Rock Art brewer and co-owner Matt Nadeau’s surprise when his legal adviser told him, “Not so fast.” Those unfamiliar with trademark and intellectual property law were as stunned as Nadeau was when he learned that Hansen’s could drain him in court – even though he was absolutely not infringing on their trademark. The legal advice to Nadeau: Get a new name for Vermonster and keep your business.

But then a funny thing happened on the way to Vermonster changing its name: Nadeau said no. The word “no” and some resilience lead to conversations with customers, which led to a forum post on BeerAdvocate, a community of passionate if not zealous beer aficionados. Forum posts led to Twitter posts. Twitter posts lead to #hashtags. Soon, a Facebook Group page was started by an upset fan and supporter of the Rock Art Brewery. Fans and supporters of Rock Art took to emailing Hansen’s and posting messages and pictures on the Monster Energy Drink Facebook fan page.

While the Rock Art Brewery community was rallying on various social networks, Matt worked on a video with Green River Pictures to tell his story of why he was not willing to just give in. Since that video posted to YouTube on Oct.14^th, it has been viewed over 75,000 times. All of the social media attention aroused interest from the local newspaper and on Vermont television. This combination of noise began to put enormous pressure on the folks at Hansen’s Beverage, who were refusing to give ground on the issue based on the notion that they might someday get into the business of selling beer.

That all changed when an investor in Hansen’s Beverage contacted Nadeau wanting to get right to the source. Nadeau spoke with the investor and simply asked to speak to the CEO of Hansen’s with the intention of coming to a reasonable conclusion. What exactly sparked that investor call is unknown, but it certainly was fostered by the combination of community activism creating momentum and interest from established newsprint, TV and radio outlets. That call with Hansen’s CEO was arranged and the two sides began to work out a mutually agreeable solution. At the end of the day, both sides were able to come to a solution outside of a court, likely much to the chagrin of a lawyer or several thousand.

So what should you take away from all of this? First, communities are powerful and highly engaged when presented with a passionate cause. Given the proper tools (which with modern technology are easily accessible) they will demand and expect a reasonable explanation and solution. We also see that those horribly pigeonholed traditional media are not so dead, after all. In fact, this story provides an excellent example of how new media and established media converge to make a complete impact. The social media flurry is not unimportant, but social media being plugged into established local media in Vermont will reach the interest level of larger news institutions such as the AP, The Boston Globe and The New York Times. That is what collectively pushed the story into the realm of something Hansen’s had to address head on.

Other take aways? Well, for starters, social networks are a serious place and if you are going to be there as a company, you really need to consider why you are there and who is speaking for you. In this case, as the conversation came to Monster Energy Drink’s Facebook fan page, a fairly significant conversational faux pas occurred. There was a flurry of dissatisfaction being posted on that page, but one of the earliest posts was met with the comment from the page administrator: “Nobody cares, get a life.” To be fair to the folks at Monster, and the individual responsible for posting and deleting that comment, nothing could have prepared them for what they faced in the last couple of weeks.

Here’s a “must” inclusion in the social networking handbook for brands: Listen first and then think twice before responding. Over at the Radian6 blog, Lauren had a very good post on how to handle negative comments recently. She follows that up with another interesting look regarding how to sort out responding to brand mentions in the social space.

There are several ways that the negative comments being posted to the Monster Energy Drink fan page and on Twitter could have been handled. I dare say we have a great tool to facilitate that discussion, and to arrive at strategies for not only how to manage your brand in the social space, but also to address these unanticipated events in a proactive and “social” manner. Don’t wait for the problem to come knocking at your door via a well-intentioned fan page or Twitter account meant for simple customer engagement. You need to be equally prepared to address the conversation that happens away from your community space. A well-informed and engaged community manager at Monster or Hansen’s with his ear to the ground should have been able to pick up on the storm that was brewing (pun intended) at BeerAdvocate. At worst, they could have been asking internally whether legal had this right much earlier in the timeline.

So, in an enormous convention hall packed with the world’s largest manufacturers of foods and beverages, how did Fortitech command an audience?

With a little bit of child’s play.

Using the power of Social Juice Promotions^sm Media Logic helped Fortitech (a maker of nutrient premixes) create a big splash at a leading national event – and capitalize on a new trend toward fortified products for children.

Using a unique “Camp Fortitech” theme, attention-grabbing graphics and a roving troupe of children chanting camp songs with nutrition-packed lyrics, the promotion helped to build awareness of this emerging product genre. The promotion created valuable buzz for the Fortitech brand and, most importantly, drove prospects to the Fortitech booth where they sampled nutritious, kid-friendly food samples (like fortified ice cream) and discussed solutions for their fortification needs.

Media Logic designed, developed and coordinated it all – even hiring and training the happy campers.

It all combined to create an event at the event, making Fortitech the social star of the show.

I speak to large and small companies on a daily basis and everyone seems to say the same thing: “We have to get in on social media marketing.” Some companies are taking the lead to do it themselves. They are establishing “social media” or “new media” or “digital media” departments that will head up the company’s social media initiatives. They are asking about tools that will monitor the social space and easy ways to distribute content. And of course, everyone wants to know about tracking and reporting. Some are going through a very rigorous exercise of shutting down renegade bloggers and using taskforces to establish guidelines and standards prior to foraying into the social space. And yes, there are still a small few who haven’t quite drunk the Kool-Aid®. For this article, I want to focus on the enthusiasts – companies that are eagerly entering the social media space.

To give you a sense of how many are doing just that, Facebook fan pages are being added at the rate of 24,000 per day. It’s clearly reached a critical mass, and most companies at this point are eager and enthusiastic to get going. Last year, companies exhibited a lack of urgency and interest in social media – this year, they are trying to more than make up for “lost time” and in some cases are forgetting their common marketing sense. For all the companies that are getting themselves “some of that social media,” I ask you to please take a deep breath and consider a few things before you drive yourselves – and your companies – down a wrong path.

First, do not establish a new silo in your company. If social media is leveraged correctly, it can influence and impact multiple organizational functions – not just marketing (advertising, direct, promotion and PR) but sales, operations, HR, customer service, product development and research. Social media should not be sanctioned to one department in a company.

Nor should it be the responsibility of just one individual. Do not think that hiring one social media specialist will answer all your needs. That’s like saying you need only one person to run the accounting office – they can do all the accounts payable, receivable, payroll, purchasing, employee benefits, etc. social media has moved beyond the lone-gun cowboy blogger.

Before you start tweeting, consider what you are trying to accomplish through social media. Social media can be employed for many different reasons. Decide how you want to use it and what you want to get from it. Is it to build your brand awareness and create thought leadership? How about brand preference and loyalty? Do you need to answer customer needs and enhance engagement? Are you looking to build traffic and new interest? Have you considered what it can do to help with gathering market intelligence and research? Do you want it for a recruitment tool? Do you expect it to drive sales? And don’t say “yes” to all – everyone says yes to all. What is realistic for your company? You may need to re-prioritize your expectations.

Once you have established your objectives, you need to sweep the landscape. Do a thorough vetting of what is being said and who is saying it. You should be able to capture information about keywords and themes relating directly to your company/brand/product; the opinions and perceptions of your customers, employees, partners and your competitors; and you should also be able to identify key influencers, what they are saying and where you can find them. Think of it like a social media messaging/media plan – you want to uncover where the conversations are happening, who is engaging and what they are talking about.

Now consider your company – are you conversation ready? Is your brand even in the conversation? Do you have something of value to share? Are you ready for a corporate-wide solution or is it better for you to focus on key markets or key products? Be very clear about what you can take on before you launch. Consider which social media platform will work for your needs. They are all different with varying benefits (go back to your objectives).

Don’t forget to consider roles and responsibilities, including internal hiring and outsourcing. There are a lot of tools, technologies and talent available to help monitor and manage social media. Do a thorough review of what is available before you start hiring staff.

And remember, just because you build a social media platform doesn’t mean people will come. You have to engage them and inspire them to participate. You have to have something of value that matters to them. Social media is a two-way conversation, a give and take. Do not just start tweeting out corporate news and expect people to follow you. Consider social media as part of your integrated approach to marketing, and leverage it for all it can do.

Social media gives real-time and immediate feedback – be realistic on what you want to measure (line it up with your objectives), and don’t get caught up in all the information that you don’t need. Use the data to help inform decisions, and don’t be afraid to test, learn and make adjustments as the tide of conversation changes. This is a whole new world, and a very exciting time in marketing – don’t panic, use common marketing sense and enjoy the ride.

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.

First, I’d like to introduce you to our xTeam, which is an internal team that is responsible for staying plugged in to what’s happening across the entire media landscape, including owned, earned and paid channels. The team evaluates all emerging media to determine if and when they might have a place in our marketing toolkit. This provides a lot of peace of mind for our clients who don’t need to try and keep up with everything that’s going on.

The team drives Media Logic’s commitment to media neutrality, which we’ve practiced since our inception and is a concept that is more important today than ever before. The xTeam was formed many years ago and includes our exec CD, director of media integration, director of interactive marketing, marketing director, a member of our IT team (who is an über user of mobile and social media) and me, the agency president.

Another important role of the xTeam is to “share the wealth,” which leads me to our second piece of ML jargon, xBOTs. xBOTs are forums in which we help everyone at Media Logic “Expand Our Bag Of Tricks.” Simply put, we share what’s happening so we’re all on the same page. Whether part of a staff meeting or done as a “brown bagger,” the goal is to get everyone connected so we can collaborate as creatively and effectively as possible.

Clients are always welcome. If you want to participate, just let us know.