It's very interesting and useful to follow how the social gaming landscape is gaining speed and evolving lately. With the increase of attention on Empire Avenue, it's possible to define a model and identify the main kinds of "social media games" that are available today. This exercise allows to understand the opportunities for both people and brands, in building a conversation that takes the gaming aspect in consideration.

File this under "huge potential". It's just about a technology, that could be a first evolutional step towards a deep transformation in the way we think about advertising.



Let's start from the technology. A few days ago, Pepsi MAX aired a spot that could be "tagged": which means "recognized" on a mobile device. People could use an application, called "IntoNow": by allowing the device to "listen" to the spot, it would understand if it was showing the Pepsi MAX spot, and tag it. The consequence? A coupon to buy the product.



This is a first step, but that's where the opportunity comes in. What if, instead of giving a coupon, a spot could be the starter for a conversation?

Every commercial could potentially be linked to its brand and to relevant conversations for people who are watching it. The most interesting point? No one is forcing people to continue the relationship: if you're interested in what the brand says and want to have a conversation with it, go on, tag, and make it a relationship starter.



Instead of coupons, brands could offer:

• The opportunity to meet other people;
• The opportunity to have a conversation with the brand and its community;
• The possibility to comment on content;
• The chance to unlock rewards;
• The unique starter for a conversation;

Can you see the potential? Right now it's just an experimental technology, used for a very tactical objective, but - given the strong developing convergence between TV and Social Media, it has the opportunity to become a game changer. What do you think about it?
Note: Yahoo! saw the opportunity and just bought IntoNow.

As Wendy Clark recently said "Brands can't buy their way to greatness any more". This has a huge impact if you consider Wendy is in charge of integrated marketing and communication for Coca Cola. And she also added that the right approach is being "Liquid and Linked". Liquid because the social media landscape changes everyday, Linked because no channels can be kept isolated from an overall strategy.

Money is not enough anymore, particularly on social media. The old logic was: build an average product, invest lots in advertising, make your brand appear everywhere, sell. Today, your message cannot be average anymore: targets are not average (have they ever been so?), but made of a thousand niches. You need to speak to all of them and to stimulate all of them. Focusing on money is not enough, here are five things you can do instead, with some of the money you can save:

1. Study your target to find out where people interact and what interests they have;
2. On the inside, understand processes so well that you are sure you're already providing the best experience your company can provide. If not, find a way to improve (maybe with a little help from your community);
3. On the outside, listen carefully to reactions and adapt everything you're doing in real time;
4. Build a strategy, think about it as "liquid and linked" if you want: define it not just for social media, but for your whole brand, giving social media the right weight;
5. Invest in adapting your service and product to conversation: it could be just about adapting communication, but it could move on in making what you offer something more conversational, remarkable and worth sharing;

Companies are made by people. Brands are made by people. Like it or not, the human component in every business is fundamental. In marketing and communication, when a brand didn't want to show its people, it was easy to hide them behind a shiny logo and a catchy payoff. But then came social media.

People are now more important than ever, also because they cannot be hidden, because their nature directly influences the way their brand interacts with its community. What you, your colleagues and your partners are has never had such a big impact on how you're perceived by people you want to reach.

The reason for all this? We love to interact with people, not with logos. We love conversations, not websites that are built as beautiful shiny mechanisms, with no trace of humanity in them.

Let me tell you about two stories that got my attention this week.

The elephant and the CEO.
One week ago a video circulated on social media. It was not the usual "wannabe viral" video, but a reportage of Bob Parsons killing an elephant in Zimbabwe. Bob Parsons is CEO at GoDaddy.com, one of the most famous domain and hosting service in the world. How did I found out about that? An email from their competitors telling me to switch to a company that doesn't kill elephants, while offering a special discount and a contribution for SaveTheElephants.com. Beside this reaction, story brought a lot of negative attention to GoDaddy.com. Bob Parsons tried to explain his reasons a few days later, claiming he was in fact helping a village against the elephant, but the GoDaddy.com reputation has been strongly hit by this. The boundary between the "company" and the people is so thin that it's hard to detach them.

The entrepreneur and her passion
The second story is from a TEDx talk, by Tara Hunt. It's about how her personal passion impacts everything she does and the way she can help her startup to keep pushing. It takes a lot of faith and perseverance, but entrepreneurship, seen as a mission, adds value to every company or every brand. If you read Delivering Happines by Tony Hsieh, you know what this means: building a great culture and favoring people's passion is the best way to build an effective brand. Watch Tara's talk and you'll see for yourself: how much strength can this kind of passion bring into a business, a brand, a conversation, a relationship?

It's so much important today to understand that business has never been so human. Finding the right partners to establish a relationship is not only a good idea: it's the only way to be successful and create value with people. The fact that you will also sell them a service or product will come as a consequence.

Can you feel it? Is your business becoming more human everyday? Is it demanding that you communicate to people as people? Feel the change.