More Clicks, Less Decks

By on September 28, 2012

Some of the best and brightest talent in the world of digital marketing and communications spend an inordinate amount of time building PowerPoint decks to sell through ideas to our clients and the brands they work on.

At the same time, otherwise well-educated and skeptical marketing professionals are ordering up a “viral” this and an “engaging” that from any number of bewildered and frustrated partner agencies. There is an appetite to do something different, make people love and talk about their brands, but little understanding of the trust and risk-taking involved in the handful of successful case studies that inspire these requests.

The result is countless uploaded hours of expensive failed viral videos, experiences with few visits and social media campaigns with lackluster consumer participation.

Sounds familiar, right?

For the last few years, I’ve been testing and developing a different approach, honing in on a concept I call “real-time brand building.” It’s a platform I’ve been invited to talk about during Social Media Week, Bogota.

I’ll be posting the recorded event as a follow-up, but in the meantime you might want to check out the live feed from my talk on Friday, the 28th (6pm EST).

As part of the program, I might be asking a very important question. Maybe that “rings” a bell.

Social Media Week is one of the world’s most unique global platforms, offering a series of interconnected activities and conversations on emerging trends in social and mobile media. In Bogota, attendance will surpass 12,000 making it one of the fastest growing locations of 14 worldwide.

About Dean McBeth

Dean is the Senior Vice President of Digital and Content Strategy for Ketchum Digital and is based out of New York. He tweets @evilspinmeister. In the past, Dean has worked for clients in a wide-array of verticals from tech to government to consumer goods to action sports to entertainment, always looking for opportunities where smart strategy and big ideas can intersect. In 2010 he served as the social media strategist and architect behind the Old Spice Responses campaign at Weiden + Kennedy. He recently moved to New York to help start-up Barton F. Graf 9000, a full-service Advertising agency.

All posts by Dean McBeth