A long way

This interview of PwC chairman Dennis Nally from last week’s Wallstreet journal looks at some interesting trends in talent retention. One thought that clearly stood out of the article is how organizations are changing to adapt to the new generation. When a firm is trying to hire the best of young adults graduating from schools across the country, what is it that they need to do to cater to their interests? These are people who log on to facebook the first thing in the morning from their bed, those that cannot imagine a life without iPads and smart phones. As rightly pointed out, “If your HR policies aren't responsive to what they are looking for, they are going to go to a company that is.” 

From times when the sole reason many organizations considered installing web filters to block orkut and myspace, here stands the corporate world fully prepared to wholeheartedly embrace the new technology and the people addicted to it. It feels  like we have come a long way in a short span of time.

Social Media and Customer Engagement

There are times when we all fall for an ad campaign for the sheer creativity and the genius of its proponents :). Social media is a tool immensely powerful and the ways in which it can leveraged are only limited by our imagination. Here is a sampling of some very innovative social media campaigns from the recent times:

Burger King – WHOPPER Sacrifice : This campaign from 2009 is a true show stealer. Burger king offered free burgers for users who were ready to sacrifice ten friends on facebook! Users were quick to cash in and the campaign used the numbers to project how the temptation was stronger than friendship :P. It did however had to be rolled back following discussions with facebook. Nonetheless, brilliant idea there!

Starbucks – MyStarbucksIdea : The last time I checked Starbucks claims to have 23 million fans on facebook :O !!! To brighten their business the company launched a website to let its fans give actionable ideas for them to improve. The ideas were taken pretty seriously and the site did spread like wild fire across various social media. The clear message was “We’re listening!”

Nike – Destroyer Burrito : Another intelligently conceived and executed campaign. Nike ‘tweeted’ asking its fans to go to a place, ‘check in’ on facebook and ask for a ‘Destroyer burrito’… When they did, they won themselves a new Nike jacket :)

Dominos – Pizza King & Queen : This campaign launched exclusively in parts of Europe was a facebook app where fans could graduate to “superfans” by recruiting more fans and earn coupons and gifts. The winner was of course duly rewarded with freebies and the title of a ‘King’ :P

There are a number of others that I can keep going on and on about. But what really made me write this blog is a recent article that was quite critical of the trend. Do these campaigns, in the name of innovation, move away from marketing to entertainment? Nothing's wrong with that if we still are in sight of our ultimate goal (selling stuff) and achieve it... and we don't lose sight of the thin line of difference between popularity and success (measured only in terms of sales revenue). Indeed an interesting point. As the technology matures the 'silly' social media hopefully will perish and give way to a smarter one.