This impressive…

SpaceX’s entire history, including rocket design, testing, and launch operations, has cost less than Facebook paid for Instagram.

Now when people talk about disruption in a market place. You get my point. It’s not like he built a photo app or something.

I wonder what would happen if we applied these same mechanics to solving some of the other challenges facing America today?

Anyone thinking Healthcare Insurance?

I quote from the article

“Among Facebook’s big problems, analysts say, is that its advertising technology, although powerful, is far too complicated for most marketers to figure out. Facebook gives marketers the ability to slice their target audience into hundreds or thousands of tiny slivers based on age, location, hobbies and preferences — and to alter campaigns on the fly based on which groups are the most responsive. The technical skill necessary to run such a campaign, or to choose among the more than 30 kinds of ad products Facebook offers, can be overwhelming to marketers used to the simpler requirements of print and television advertising.”

This is exactly why the ability to analyse ‘Big Data’ in almost real time is going to be so critical to making sure that your message reaches the target consumer. Here is the news flash…Facebook is only the beginning…soon this challenge will affect all channels as the new empowered consumer demands more and more personalization and customization.

Being able to analyse customer feedback and interactions in almost real time and deliver personalized content targeted to individual consumers is going to be critical. Consumers will soon simply ignore non personalized content. In the old days you could talk of preparing x versions of a creative based on a set of criteria. Those days are gone. Now creative has to be personalized for each and every target consumer. Mind bomb I know. This is why in the future the role of CTO & CMO will merge into a sort of Chief Technology Marketing Officer or CTMO for short.

I love reading these articles which call ‘Big Data’ a fad. My response to comments like that is yes there is a ‘fad’ in play but the ‘fad’ is those companies that wake up too late that the world has changed. Need an analogy think ‘Blockbuster’. So whether it is ‘Hadoop’ or some other technology if your organization wants to advertise to consumers and have them respond then its time to get on the ‘Big Data’ band wagon.

Read the original article via the link below…

Businesses struggle to turn Facebook ads into higher sales – latimes.com.

Let me know your thoughts by finding me on Twitter @adb1146 or posting your comments below.

Entrepreneurs: 5 Things to Un-Learn From School | Inc.com.

A friend sent me this tweet as a follow up to a conversation I had with him. There has been a lot of discussion as of late around GM’s decision to pull its Facebook ads.

My take is that GM finally got it. Up till now they were still stuck in the past where you could simply throw up impressions and expect consumers to click on them. Now like a spoiled child when it does not work they throw their toys out of the cot. By this I mean making the announcement just before the Facebook IPO. Not good Kama.

Businesses especially big players with deep pockets like GM need to realize that the power has shifted to the consumer and in order to get their attention you need to earn it by providing value. Here is the news flash – flashy creative does not qualify.

Today the consumer wants to be educated. They want content and good content at that. They want to share that content with their community. They want businesses to value their input. After all they are the customer. The top of the food chain.

Businesses that refuse to acknowledge that will soon be made to understand it. Recent examples are BOA, Verizon or United Airlines. Those are only the most public demonstrations of this new consumer power but millions of consumers punish non compliant businesses everyday with a simple click of their mouse. Think of it is as death by a billion clicks. No one click will kill you but cumulatively over time death will come.

What we are seeing in GM’s decision to pull their Facebook ads is further evidence of their impending death by a billion clicks or is it. GM is a truly great American icon. There is time but they need to take corrective action now.

So what should they do to prevent this outcome. They need to create a community around their product. Stop thinking they can control the message and focus on listening to their customers. Their customers want great content that informs and educates which they can share and build a community around.

From a practical point of view this means collecting and analyzing big data. This is what technologies like Hadoop and others were created for. People like to talk about big data as something new. I rather like to think about it like the collective voice of your customers talking about your brand and sharing it with their friends and family. It goes with out saying that the best form of advertising is word of mouth. Well today customers have a bigger mouth than ever and they know how to use it with both positive and negative consequences for your brand.

As a business you need to realize that you cannot stop or control that customer word of mouth. What you can do is make sure you are listening and are part of the discussion. At the very least if you are part of the discussion you can actively participate.

Companies like Informatica and Salesforce are beginning to deliver the tools that companies need to actively monitor this customer discussion. Informatica 9.5 and Salesforce Radian6 are only the beginning but both will go along way to ensuring that companies that want to be active participants in the conversation around their brand can be effective.

Let’s hope that GM and others instead of throwing a tantrum rather start focusing on listening to their customers and creating community because if a player as large as GM can’t make the old way work what does that say about the rest of us.

Interested in hearing more of my thoughts follow me on Twitter @adb1146

Update 1: It appears according to a quote in the Wall Street Journal that apparently GM does agree…

“We essentially regularly review where we are with overall media spend and it’s not unusual to adjust along the way,” said a GM spokesperson. He added that the automaker, which has 380,045 fans on Facebook, would continue to pursue an “aggressive content strategy” on the social media platform for its product and brands.”

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/174794/gm-slams-brakes-on-facebook-advertising.html#ixzz1vMVSRBhL

Update 2: Now GM announce they won’t advertise during the Superbowl…maybe they get it, maybe they don’t. I stand by my ‘billion clicks’ analogy above…

Just a few days after General Motors upset the Facebook IPO apple cart, the world’s largest automaker dropped another bombshell on the sensibilities of the marketing world: CMO Joel Ewanick revealed that he’s planning to take GM advertisements out of the Super Bowl and won’t advertise in the next one, on CBS on February 3.

“We understand the reach the Super Bowl provides, but with the significant increase in price, we simply can’t justify the expense,” Ewanick said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebuss/2012/05/18/gm-drops-another-advertising-bombshell-on-the-super-bowl/

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Disclaimer – the views expressed above are my own.

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