Oh Ogilvy...

I thought you knew how to party.

The article below is from the blog of Peter Rojas. He's the guy who founded Engadget and Gizmodo and co-founded Gdgt. So he knows a bit about social media and marketing. A wee bit.

Here's the article in all its glory.

Ogilvy engages in tone deaf social media marketing for the AmEx Zync card

Yesterday I got an email from a social media marketer at Ogilvy about a new card that American Express is introducing and how they’d like to strike up an “exclusive relationship” with me. I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant by that, but I’d done some work for AmEx in the past — I spoke to some of their executives about the future of mobile a few years ago — and so I figured I’d at least see what was up. I wrote back (and this is all I wrote back), “Could you give me an overview of what you’re describing?”

The email below is what I received in return. If you can get past all the buzzwords (“for 20somethings by 20somethings”, seriously?), basically the deal is that in exchange for the “privilege” of signing up for the Zync card I get to give AmEx free consulting (because paying me would make me lie to them, apparently) and then host a party where I can market the Zync card to my “network”.

So let me get this straight: I get to sign up for a product where they make money (in terms of card fees), where I give them advice and insight that AmEx used to think was worth paying for (but now is not because that would make me dishonest), and then to wrap it all up I get to pimp out all my closest friends? I can’t believe AmEx would be stupid enough to give Ogilvy money for this program, I hope they convinced them to accept payment in Zync card accounts and tweet-ups.

UPDATE: I should make it clear that it’s not about getting paid or not getting paid — I’m happy to contribute to all sorts of things for free, even things for big companies like AmEx — this is about it being a very one-sided arrangement where one side seems be asking for a lot and not delivering any discernible value in return. Value can come in lots of different forms. I’ve beta tested products before and given my honest, unpaid feedback to those companies, but I did so because I felt like I got some value out of being able to use the product and learn more about it. There isn’t much offered here — I already have an AmEx card, so it’s not like I need to gain some experience using. The value only moves one way, from me to them. They’re asking to leverage my usage, my knowledge, and my network.

Hey Peter,

Not a problem! So, here is the deal: If you don’t know Zync…

Zync is the new American Express Charge card for 20somethings. This card is created for 20somethings by 20somethings that is all about customization: consumers can choose packs of benefits. So if you like buying say tech products, you can specifically choose the tech pack tailored to your needs to give you extra membership rewards. It’s all about you and what you want.

Another important thing to know is that the card is currently in beta testing – that is where you come in. As a person who is in the tech world and is out and about in the New York City scene we felt that you would be an awesome person to test out the card and be part of the ongoing discussion with product development team. Since this card is in beta, this truly is a card that is for you by you: you get to choose during beta what works and what doesn’t.

Lastly, since we want this to be genuine, we won’t be paying you for your time to participate because we want the feedback you give to be honest. The benefit is that you have an access to an exclusive relationship with the Zync team, cool events, special committee standing in our Zync Tank and the opportunity to host your own tweet-up, completely paid for by the Zync team. All that is detailed below-

o Zync Immersion Event:

§ To start the relationship, we want to get you to know Zync

§ While we enjoy our PPT presentations, that is not how we want you to get to know Zync

§ For this day, we will be doing fun activities all around New York City so you can really interact with the Zync team

§ This will be a one-and-a-half day experience full of exciting and exclusive events that tie into the Lego Packs (eco, tech, social and green)

§ This will take place sometime in early February

o Zync Tweet Up:

§ While we are looking for feedback we are also celebrating the development of the new card

§ For this, we want to co-host Zync tweet ups for you and your network

§ Will be held in top metro areas (e.g. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco) themed around one or more Lego Packs

§ Events will be for 25 – 50 people at fun locations related to packs such as Brooklyn Boulders

§ This will take place sometime in February/March

o Zync Tank:

§ Since you will be a Cardmember, we want you to get the full experience of the beta testing of the card

§ For this, we have something called Zync Tank. Zync tank is our online community/listening tool that we use to get sentiment of Zync from Cardmembers participating in the beta program

§ With this relationship, you would be able to be part of the “Special Committee” in which you really get to provide feedback to the product development team on ideas for iPhone applications, the next packs and much more

There is a lot that we want to accomplish. With you, we are not asking you to write anything on our behalf or provide us a post. Merely, as a person we value, we want to experience the card with you while we develop it so it’s not just American Express but from a person who really can put a lot of value into the card and perhaps vice versa.

Let me know if you have any other questions. I’ll touch base with you tomorrow to see if you are still interested or have any questions!

Best,
Priya

I love a man in uniform

How do they recruit in Singapore? Well, they hire a smart agency and let them do their job.

And this is what happens.

Saatchi came up with a DM piece that went out to potential recruits, mainly graduating 'A' level students.

I wonder if McDonalds has thought of this?

Breaking News - Twitter Generates Profit.

For someone else.

Smart business uses every avenue to communicate. Every avenue.

From Reuters:

By Clare Baldwin

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Social media company Twitter is struggling to craft a profitable business model, but the Web-based service has helped Dell Inc chalk up millions of dollars in sales.

Dell said on Thursday it has raked in more than $3 million from Twitter followers who clicked through its posts to its Web sites to make purchases. The company, which has posted to Twitter about two years and tracks the sales with proprietary software, made more than $1 million in the past 6 months.

"We're going to watch it over time to make sure it's tracking at the right level," said Lionel Menchaca, Dell's chief blogger. "It is trending upward and that's what we're going to be looking at overall."

Three million in sales over two years is a pittance for Dell, ranked by IDC as the world's second-largest PC maker in the first quarter of 2009. Dell posted $12.3 billion of revenue in the first quarter of this year, alone.

But the PC maker has become one of the first public examples of how companies might profit from Twitter.

Twitter does not charge companies for such benefits, but does not rule out doing so in the future.

"For now, monetization of this type of activity remains unknown," Twitter spokeswoman Jenna Sampson said in a statement. "However, as the network grows, the company will be committing more resources toward profitability."

Gartner analyst Allen Weiner said such financial success could provide a model for Twitter, itself, to make money.

"Certainly one of the ways Twitter can begin to think of itself as a money-making operation is to facilitate a lot of these things, build it as part of the infrastructure. So if you're a company, you can pay Twitter a certain amount of money and they can directly distribute coupons on your behalf, or clear transactions," Weiner said.

Twitter is building add-on tools and services for businesses and professional users, co-founder Biz Stone told the Reuters Global Technology Summit last month.

Dell said it posts 6 to 10 times a week to its DellOutlet account, which is where the majority of Twitter-based sales have come from. Stephanie Nelson, who manages the account, said almost every post includes a coupon or a link to a sale, and about half of the posts are Twitter-exclusive deals.

The PC maker, which has about 600,000 followers, is one of the Top 100 most-followed accounts on Twitter, according to private trackers TwitterCounter and Twitterholic.

Other non-media companies ranked in the Top 100 include Whole Foods Market Inc, Woot.com, Zappos.com, JetBlue Airways Corp.

Whole Foods and JetBlue said they have not tried to monetize their Twitter presence. Woot.com and Zappos.com were not available for comment.

Twitter had approximately 17 million unique U.S.-based visitors in April, and about 24 million worldwide, according to Nielsen. Its number of users has grown by more than a thousand percent over the last year.

Small companies are also finding financial success on Twitter. New Orleans-based Naked Pizza, which turns $1 million in sales annually, is "betting the farm" on its Twitter presence according to co-founder Jeff Leach.

The company, which created a Twitter presence about two and a half months ago and has about 4,300 followers, last week said nearly 69 percent of sales generated during a one-day Twitter advertising blitz came from customers drawn in from the site.

Leach posts 1 to 15 times a day and said his company sees a sustained 20 percent of sales dollars from its Twitter presence.

Leach recently put up a billboard advertising the company's Twitter presence and is planning mailings bearing the company's Twitter contact information instead of a phone number.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin in San Francisco; Editing Bernard Orr)

This is why a proofreader is a good thing.

What's in your wallet? If you believe Capital One's letter to some customers, it's an extra $5,000. Don't believe it for a second...what they actually meant to say was $50.

It's an easy mistake. I've lost count of the number of times I've confused 50 with 5000. Happens every day.

Jane, get me off this crazy thing!

We can agree that DM has a place in almost every marketing campaign. That's a given. But you've really got to wonder what's going on when someone receives 16 separate pieces of DM in one month, from one company for one product.

And just to compound it, the claim that "the system is automated, we can't change it" is used. Which is really quite scary. Is this the dawn of the thinking machines? I've seen the Terminator movies...once the automated mailing software becomes self-aware, we're in trouble.