Our very own Wade Forst moderated this month’s Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA) last night, titled Branding 2.0: The New Online Community. The event had an amazing turnout of around 200 people.

Wade was able to pull two speakers from heavy-hitting consumer brands; Tom Daly with Coca-Cola’s Global Interactive Marketing and Michael Friedman, who is in charge of Strategy and Planning for Darden Restaurant’s interactive marketing.

The topic of Web 2.0 is a popular one. Last night’s event touched on some very interesting ways consumers are interacting with brands online.  For those of you not able to attend the event, here are some of the key take-aways:

• Consumers will be part of the brand with or without you. It’s your job to leverage and enable the consumer’s interaction - without it feeling unauthentic (i.e. Dove’s video advertisement on YouTube).
• Support what customers are doing and do not dictate their actions. To work you have to let them interact freely with your brand.
• Seeding can be risky because people can be vocal about authenticity.
• You can’t buy viral.  Something will either catch on or it won’t. Forcing it won’t appear natural and consumers will be turned off.
• Fish where the fish are - don’t try to get them to swim in your pool first.
• It’s not just about sending people to your website any more.  Interaction with your brand happens within multiple, fragmented mediums.
• Companies have less and less control over brand today. You must relinquish full control and seek to guide and influence it.
• There are different kinds of KPIs for user generated content. It’s not all about driving traffic; there is a reinvigoration of the importance of brand lift online. 

I stumbled across a post on Fast Company’s blog about Calvin Klein’s new fragrance. Written by an authentic GenY-er, the post makes an excellent point about how tragically wrong the branding of this fragrance went. The article that got him on his hysterical Gen Y rant appeared in the New York Times Thursday Styles.

Before I launch into my own hysterical marketing rant ….. I can appreciate CK’s desperation to create a new “hit” fragrance. I mean, CK One (THE fragrance in my youth), which pulled 90 million yearly in its prime is now collecting only a third of that. They need a new hit fragrance.

The article talks about the grass-roots market research the company did; eventually leading to the trademark of (brace yourself) “TECHNOSEXUAL” to describe its target audience of “casual hookup” text messengers. Ouch. Maybe they didn’t do their homework. This same word has in the past been used to describe people who are “attracted” to machinery. (Yikes!) In the end, this intensive research yielded “in2U” … a play on GenY’s abbreviated text communication.

What is painfully obvious is how incredibly out of touch CK was when they began this initiative. Honestly … in2U? Yes, technology has advanced quickly. Yes, GenY uses text and instant messages and social media more than any generation before them. And, yes all marketers will have to respond to this shift. But, I don’t think it means patronizing their lifestyle with SILLY advertising.

Yes Silly. The article says: “A typical line from the press materials for CK in2u goes like this: ‘She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It’s intense. For right now.’” Bleeeeh.

Off my rant, I have to give CK some positive marks for recognizing they need to address this audience with relevant branding. But ask any GenY-er and they’ll tell you they want nothing more than to get away from blatant advertising, let alone be the obnoxious target of it. They like to feel like they’ve uncovered their own brands and then spread it around with their peeps. Get it? Think Scion. Talk about underground marketing with a HUGE GenY following.

BUT. You never know …. I have not heard their online strategy. If they are able to effectively (quietly) infiltrate social media, they just might create a following. Because one thing is true in technology, and certainly with GenY, it’s always changing. CK might just be able to crack this egg if they can put themselves in the right places, even if the messaging is “wrong.”

A viral marketing attempt is mistaken for a series of bombs placed around Boston this morning, and completely disrupt rush hour traffic. The campaign consists of light brights made of LEDs and are apparently characters called “Mooninites” from the adult cartoon, “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”

(Watch the video)

After the first sightings of the unknown devices the police were called on the scene to investigate the ‘bombs’. The bomb squad detonated a few of the devices and have declared that the light brights are an apparent ‘hoax’.
“It’s a hoax — and it’s not funny,” said Gov. Deval Patrick.

But personally I think its hilarious that you could possibly mistake an adult swim character light bright for a Bomb!

After a short and bumpy ride on the technologically savvy bandwagon, the generous, yet equally thoughtless, minds of Sony’s marketing department decided to take one for the team and call themselves out for not completely reading their Web 2.0 manual. At the same time, they taught us all and important lesson by clearly defining the unmitigated importance in the interwoven domains of tech, marketing, and consumer relationships.

Realizing that, in the past weeks, ‘viral’ was one of the many ephemeral buzz words that brought much excitement to our interactive halcyon; Sony took two doses of YouTube with a side of deception, but forgot to ring their doctor in the morning. The company, previously known for its’ edgy and successful marketing campaigns teamed up with Zipatoni, a customer activation firm, to create a fictional taping of a hired foolish rapper (actor) endorsing their PSP. After strategically placing their brilliant short on YouTube, Sony closed shop early, ran to catch the last bandwagon home, and left their campaign’s fate in the hands of a ubiquitous buzz word.

Here’s where Sony falls short: rather than reaping the benefits of a well thought out and relevant marketing campaign, they took the road more traveled, failed trickery 101, and lost the trust and respect of their coveted ‘generation MySpace.’

Aleks Krotoski, from Guardian Unlimited explains why businesses should approach the interactive marketing realm of integrated tech resources with caution. He defends, “Transparency is key in the modern advertising-savvy marketplace. Bad fakes can be spotted a mile away, and good fakes often get found out with a fanfare of negativity…The most important currency online is trust.” Unfortunately, Sony learned this lesson the hard way when realizing the only thing that spreads faster than a successful viral marketing campaign is a disturbing ‘dog and pony show’ disguised as the campaign valedictorian, class of Web 2.0.

Sony further realized this truth with a slap on the wrist from their consumers and the gaming community. Intent on fully utilizing life’s proverbial mulligan, Sony released a statement tacking the viral campaign’s downfall to speech that was “too funky fresh,” and the fact that they were just “a little too clever.” Nothing says “I’m sorry” like “I’m smarter than you.”

In other news, the Guinness Book of World Records announced today that the heaviest package ever sent by post was received by Sony. The contents: a seemingly countless number of dictionaries all with the definition of clever flagged.

Starbucks just recently launched a very engaging holiday microsite with some great viral capabilities. The site is located at (http://www.itsredagain.com) and lets the user browse through holiday traditions and even submit their own… in hopes that it will be engaging enough to get posted, or even better get produced (see the cook-off video #1).

The “Personalized Greetings” section lets the viewer send a personalized holiday greeting to a friend via text-to-speech or a phone-in message. This “record by phone” technology allows for real-voice recordings sent via email with your greeting. The technology provided by Oddcast makes for an even richer new-media experience.

With viral campaigns being so popular lately, it isn’t surprising that companies are realizing the importance of these microsites and the marketing power of rich-media, Email and SMS.

I hope you enjoy the link, your experience and your warm mocha-lota-no whip-ginger-latte.