Can A Flowchart Make You Happy? Try This

A new study from Mindshare looks at the impact of paid media against that of social media. Specially relevant at a time when more and more advertising monies are shifting to the online space, and brands are experimenting in the unchartered waters of blogs, Facebook and Twitter. If the new buying cycle consists of awareness, consideration, preference, and loyalty, consumers who were exposed to a brand’s activity in brand-influenced social media were far more likely to search in lower levels of the buying system, as compared to those who were not exposed to social media messages. Also the study showed a 50% increase in clickthrough rates on paid search among consumers who have been exposed to social media. Additionally, consumers who were exposed to both social and paid search exhibited a 200+% increase in the search behavior than customers who were exposed only to paid media. Mindshare believes that the study will enable them to better allocate budgets of future campaigns to get the best out of their paid media campaigns.
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Alex Bogusky writes: I loved being a creative director. On most days I probably felt like I had the best job in the world. To be a creative director is to be paid to be insane. A sort of professional Schizophrenia. And there is a huge distinction between professional insanity and amateur insanity. The former pays much better. To be a creative director is to be paid to be insane. I do believe all good marketing and branding is essentially philosophy. Create a philosophy and express it. But it’s definitely philosophy light. More

Now that the hype behind the world’s best job has died down, let’s welcome Coke’s Happiness Ambassadors. And these ambassadors are on a mission to find happiness in the 206 different countries that sell Coca-Cola products across the world. See the introductory video here. Participants in teams of 3 had to nominate themselves and go through some grueling rounds of voting to get to become the team to visit all the countries that sell Coke the world. The year long mission starts in Jan 2010. Visit the Expedition 206 site here. More here

New York Times reports that Accenture now believes that technology is finally getting good enough to deliver Web display ads tailored to consumers’ demographics and interests. And big companies, it says, are eager to shift more of their ad spending onto the Web. Last month Accenture announced that its new Interactive unit would be handling the technology and services on Procter & Gamble’s consumer web sites. More about Adchemy is here

Pulp Fiction Version Of Google Wave

One of the most visible elements of a website these days. Tiny little icons that help visitors share the entire story or bits of it. From Facebook, Linked in, Meebo, Twitter, Digg, Reditt and more… Link sharing has become so big on the web just now that it beats traffic from search engines. Celebrity gossip site PerezHilton has more visitors coming to the site via Facebook, 15%, ahead of Google 9%. And chances are that the link your friend posted on her Facebook page would be more credible than anything an algorithm based search result, the thing that sites like Google did well with until now. But with more and more links being shared by real people on sites like Facebook and Twitter, a human curated web may well be on its way. From New York Times Also Clive Thompson writing on Wired: How the Real-Time Web Is Leaving Google Behind here.

Adage writes. The report, due out next week from Forrester, finally puts the onus on marketers to change their structures. The new "brand advocates," as Forrester suggests renaming the role, will be seemingly more powerful and consumer-centric, much nimbler, and more real-time-oriented. Forrester suggests "brand advocates" be responsible for rapid adaptations of global brand platforms and programs, charging centralized global brand strategists with ensuring what local managers do conforms with the brand equity and strategy. It also advocates ditching the formal annual budgeting process and upfront media-specific allocations in favor of frequently updated, on-the-fly plans that adapt quickly as conditions change and money earmarked upfront for initiatives, not specific media. Read it all here.

W+K Portland is kicking off a new campaign for their client Levis. As part of their ongoing campaign for the denim brand is a promotion where $100,000 is buried somewhere in America. The online and offline treasure hunt that started lastweek will have multiple phases and will end in mid November. When a final challenge will be revealed to the 100 finalists who make it through the first three phases. The first of the 100 who figures out the last piece of the puzzle gets to dig up a steel box with the $100,000 inside. More here

Online shooting games – are they a loyalty program? Josh Lovinson writing on Media Post thinks so. Sure there is a lot of stickiness about these games, but what can traditional brands learn from places like WOW or even short-lived phenomena like Farmville? Read this story to find out