The missing link?

Just got back from a walk in les hills.
Whilst out I had a stellar thought come to me: what's the link between:

1) Reality TV shows and the success of their stars (e.g. Big Brother + PopIdol)

2) Coca Cola's sponsorship of the English Football championship league

3) Mac Donald's sponsorship of grass roots football coaching

4) Brands like Shell and Principality Building Society creating free Advergames for the public to play (www.FlicknKick.com)

5) A charity running a campaign based around www.DisabilityDebate.org

6) The Arctic Monkey's becoming the fastest ever album selling band

7) The popularity of the Lottery, and people's addiction to it + also the popularity of sports betting shops amongst lower demographics

8) Virgin promoting an open ideas policy (and paying their staff f**ck all)

9) Barclays sponsoring or "supporting" citizenship education packs

. . . the list goes on . . . including the HSBC + Red campaigns I mentioned last week . . .

The answer is of course participation. Each example promotes participation in some way, as a means to an end - that end being to increase capital - either the kind of capital that ends up on a company's balance sheet, or social capital (which indirectly effects the former).

Which is most successful?
Well, certainly on a basic ROI basis the Arctic Monkeys (www.ArcticMonkeys.com) wins hands down - as they managed to generate over 300,000 direct sales of their first album out of grass-roots support generated through networks like www.MySpace.com

Interestingly, many music commentors have pointed out that the free / participation-based network effect would never work in the same way with an established act . . . however I don't necessarily think that's true. It's often the case that an established band will use networks + guerilla + participative techniques to generate a new buzz + direct sales . . .

mmmm, any way. There are my thoughts for the mo.
I think that leaves an open space to generate some future thoughts - especially around how brands could use participation techniques more effectively + also whether consumer participation suits all brands . . .

Interestingly I've just worked out how to add a link to my blog postings - so expect many more of these in the future . . .
+ I'm fooooking freezing - as I have to write this sat in the hallway of my none-to-well-insulated house . . .

Bonjour and the rest

I'm in France at the mo, taking a week off from work in London to think about the whys and wherefores of the world, e-democracy, brand participation and viral marketing.

I'm staying in my house in the foothills of the Pyranees. It's absolutely beautiful, with snow all around and the mighty white mountains leering in the background. I'm off skiing this wkend with some buddies from London - can't wait!

Although I haven't had many brand observations whilst in France as such, there is one striking thing about France - that is the fact that it is so amazingly wired up. I live in the middle of nowhere surrounded by cows, grass and mountains and yet I have access to broadband! It's amazing + also importantly it indicates where France should be heading, rather than it's present direction which seems to be backgrounds protected by its over-bloated subsidy system. Instead of their insessant complaining, they should be piorneering the first ever cyber-farms - allowing farm sick Britons to farm remotely via the power of the inter-web. Genius! (of sorts).

Anyway, enough bigging up of the French telco system - unfortunately I'm still actually only on a dial up, and it's killing me with its speed. . . so au revoir!

I'm on a roll . . .
Consider these:
HSBC's www.yourpointofview.com
AOL's www.aol.co.uk/discuss
+ Bono's new "Red" brand - aimed at helping solve Africa's AIDS problem with the help of a credit card (AMEX), a pair of retro trainers (Converse) and some dodgy beige slacks (Gap).

What do you get?
You get where advertising is moving in the near future . . . you get Corporate Social Responsibility influencing mainstream marketing in a big way and making a big change for the global 500 . . . and as a part of this you get a bunch of blue chip brands all clammering to be the cleanest, greenest and zero-rated meanest of them all.
'Cos that's what the public like in a brand these days. We like to spend our money with companies who spend their money making the world a nicer place, and making their share holders pockets a nicer place at the same time . . .

this is getting interesting . . .

The start

I've been wanting to write a blog for an age. And so, here it is! My blog. The idea of the blog is to write about participation. In particular e-participation. And more particularly, brand participation - as this is something from a work + general perspective, that I'm interested in. So here it is!

I intend to use this kinda of as as link dump + also as a place to muse.