Final bit from the Future of Social Media Conference, Chris Davies, digital marketing manager from BA, was good on the challenges that new media marketers can face internally and he did with the world's (sometime) favourite airline. Bit of an update also on its new social media site (MetroTwin.com).He kicked off by talking about the BA Pam Ann viral, which was a big hit and a challenging project for BA.I'd seen this and thought at the time it was a smart move. It is funny, a little edgy, and not the kind of thing you expect BA to do. Davies said he had a difficult time getting these through senior management who were clearly nervous about the implications for the brand.You can see why, but it was a big hit. He says the first, second and third efforts were largely rejected and it was not until the fourth pass that this viral bit of content reached the web. The results speak for themselves. It attracted millions of views and 5,000 referrals to the BA jobsite for cabin crew, which was one of the main goals of the viral along with showing the professionalism of its onboard staff.He estimates it probably achieved £700k worth of media spend and it is still going. Davies also revealed that comedienne Pam Ann could be set to make a return in a new set of BA virals.The next project he highlighted was BA's Caribbean Challenge, which the airline launched to educate consumers about its routes and to capture data. Nothing really inspiring here, an online game with entrants going through to a prize draw, but that said the seeding work that BA did here was what was most valuable.The airline working with Agency.com seeded the game to blogs, communities and discussion forums and it is building those links that helps marketers succeed in social media.Finally he gave a little news on its latest venture, which is truly social media: MetroTwin.com BA's new London and New York social networking site, which builds on all things NYLON. If you've not seen it take a look. There's lot to admire.The idea is to partner with various sites, Beauty & The Dirt, Xfm, VisitLondon, Not for Tourists and Dandy & Witt among others, to bring the best of London to New Yorkers (and visa versa) in terms of food, drink, culture et cetera. The idea is to offer the best and cut through the clutter. Time will tell. I think personally it is a smart idea. It was interesting to hear him talk about how BA weighed up the pros and cons of "should we launch our own social media site or partner with an existing one" before launching. In the end BA clearly voted to go it alone and create a new social media property because it was so strongly associated with the London/NT route (it’s the airlines bread and butter) and because it has a large database via its executive club.The site has only been up for a month and so far has racked up 3,000 registered users in three weeks.The site's USP is its twinning of venues/places in London and New York and allowing people to vote and rate them. For instance the Peculier Pub in New York (rated 48 by users on the site) is twinned in London with Ain't Nothin' But...(rated 61).This brought him on to the potential perils of user generated content and the legal implications, which he said was another tough sell inside the organisation. It is amazing sometimes to hear the resistance that brands have to opening up and allowing the consumers in. Do they not now realise that if they don't let them in they will stand outside and make a bloody (social media) racket?He was spot on though when he said that the key to UGC is an excellent moderation policy. He also reiterated his views on seeding. So repeat after me: seeding, seeding and more seeding.
I could be wrong, but I don't think he mentioned Twitter. First one of the day I think.
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Rohit Bhargava – senior vp, marketing at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence is the first main speaker today
More bullets from today's Future of Social Media Conference. Got to say one thing though everyone
Good review of a great conference. There was a big focus on the personal, professional and market driven social groups, but for me there was one major admission from the presentations: the potential for location based social media applications and the impact of location aware devices on social media. While Ian Pearson talked about the potential applications of his future filled with digital jewelery however the iPhone is already starting to enable this sort of thing. I expect such devices will have a considerable impact on social media networks.
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Gordon Macmillan
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