Should McDonald's Serve Billions and Billions on Twitter?

I stumbled across the verified McDonald’s Twitter account (@McDonalds) and an unverified sight that seems to be the official Burger King Twitter account (@BurgerKing). As of 9/21/10, @McDonalds has about 47,000 followers and @BurgerKing has about 1100 followers.

These numbers are hardly a reflection of the overall Social Media strategy for my two favorite restaurants from 1980 through 1998. But it leads me to believe these two rivals have two different approaches to Twitter.

With a little bit of unscientific research, it seems like McDonald’s reach is much broader and more intensive. They have a PR team that also tweets under the umbrella of the Golden Arches. Each member is semi-focused on customer and franchisee satisfaction, as well as the general interests of their core consumer. Basically, it’s a textbook strategy for a method of communication whose textbook is still being written.

But BK (again without too much of a deep-dive research effort on my part) seems to be taking a bit more of a laissez-faire approach. They’re responsive to the customer, but with only 1100 followers, I can’t imagine they’re aggressively seeking to grow this number. There are also quite a few localized BK accounts; I assume these are their franchisees. It’s an interesting and exciting move for the franchisee committed to PR.

I think both McDonald’s and Burger King recognize that the Twitter community is comparatively a small part of their target, and most of their true fans probably already follow them on Facebook. But does BK have a Whopper of a Twitter problem? And is 47,000 McDonald’s followers a satisfying number for a company that loves to tout the fact that they’ve served “Billions and Billions?”

There are plenty of ways for both to grow Twitter followers exponentially (for starters- hire creative copywriters in order to give the King his own Twitter feed and give The Hamburglar a new lease on life online). It may not be their most pressing need today, but it wouldn't hurt. After all, you never know when Google will start optimizing their search engine by total of Twitter followers. Or some other such business nonsense that continues to keep us all on our toes.

Mentors: The Career-Maker

I’m convinced that you need two types of mentors in your professional life. One is the more seasoned person who rose through the same ranks you’re trying to navigate, and the other is a collection of professionals that might come from a variety of different areas of expertise.

Most people truly only consider the first one their MFL ("Mentor For Life", trademarked by yours truly). Somebody who has been there and done that. A person who is not only sitting where you hope to be sitting one day, but also living their life the way you want to live yours. Do they stay late? Do they take extra long lunches? Did they change their identity after the Korean War and regularly cheat on their wife who was stuck at home with two young children plus an infant? It’s important to consider how your MFL got where he/she is.

But don’t discount all of these other people that can help you. For advertising creatives, this means getting to know your Account Supervisors, planners, media gurus, and even your junior-level colleagues. Everybody brings a learning nugget to the table. They have a professional perspective that you can’t get from your immediate supervisor or MFL. If you want to be successful in your current role while fanning out your good karma to agencies across the country, start by recognizing that everybody knows at least one thing that could be of benefit to you.

With the right combination of people that you respect looking out for you, your career will stay on track. And more importantly, you’ll always have somebody with whom you can eat lunch.

Want to get your foot in the door? Don't put it in your mouth.

Freelance creatives and job seekers are constantly trying to get people to look at their portfolio. My recommendation is to know what you’re dealing with before putting on the hard sell.

Here’s how I approach the various types of people that I want looking at my work:

Junior-Level Creative: Tell a junior copywriter you’d be happy to re-art direct some of their spec work. Tell a junior art director you'd improve some of the headlines in their spec book. You’ll be in their office within 24 hours.

Creative Assistant: The gatekeeper to the creative department. Pre-stalk them on Facebook to learn about their bio and interests, and tailor your message accordingly. Keep the tone of your message casual and personal, and not overly professional.

Executive Creative Director: email is the best introduction here. Doesn’t really matter what you actually say in the body of the message; mention somebody important that you know in the Subject line of the email.

Associate Creative Director: Let them know that you know they’re in a leadership position. Tell them how much you’d love to work for them. Make sure they know that you know their opinion actually matters within the creative department. Really lay it on thick. Conclude your interaction (email, phone or face-to-face) with something like, “I hope to work FOR you someday.”

Copywriter: Be careful if you’re a writer writing to another writer. Ask if they know about other teams at the agency with writer needs. Don’t make the staff copywriter think you’re trying to replace him/her. If you’re an Art Director, this isn’t the right time to send that amazing logo you made. Rather, forward along a couple samples that make the headline the hero of the campaign, but require very little body copy.

Recruiter/Resource Manager: The key here is quantity. Regular messages will keep you front and center. But prepare yourself for a continual one-way conversation with yourself. Your work will (eventually) be seen, but prepare yourself to write a bunch of email openers like this: “Dear Recruiter, I hope your Good Friday was better than good.”

Art Director: Finally, an email that doesn’t require you to re-read what you’ve typed in order to look for spelling and grammatical errors. You have two choices here. One is to just pour out your heart in a stream of conscious and then immediately send it. The other is to just say it very straightforward without any capital letters: “dear art director, i’d like job at you agency. ken i show you mi book!” Remember, don’t use the default font on this email.

Good luck creatives!

Does Facebook Places Have a Place for Copywriters?

Seems like the topic du jour this week is Facebook Places. So I’ll jump on the bandwagon too.

Facebook Places is basically their version of Foursquare. But since they already have 500 million registered users (aka-“friends”), the assumption now is that the world is ready to let others know where they are at all times. And as you check in more frequently, the advertising messages that reach you will be even more targeted.

So what does this mean for advertising creatives (specifically copywriters)?

Well, on the surface, nothing changes. It’s just the same puzzle creatives have already been dealing with on foursquare, only now you can see the mainstream light at the end of the tunnel.

But most importantly for advertising creatives, it seems to me that as messaging gets more targeted, the less “creative” the message needs to be.

Say you check into Old Navy and get a 10% coupon off your purchase. Or check into your favorite all-you-can-eat joint and get a note from Pepto-Bismol about the nearest store where it’s sold. In both examples, the message is served at the moment of need, so cutting through the clutter becomes a lot less daunting for these brands.

The only brand messaging here is “hey look at us, we know our audience.” It hardly matters how they say it. Or maybe it does, who the hell knows! Hopefully there are some savvy creative teams who can crack this nut the same way the Old Spice team dominated Twitter and Youtube a few weeks ago. My fears will start to alleviate when somebody lets the advertising world know that copywriters are still an integral part of getting the message out. I wish I could be more positive, but until that day, this is the type of technological breakthrough that makes agencies and big brands shift salaries away from the creative department.

But then again, there’s always a chance that 499 million Facebook users could reject Facebook Places.

Leaping Over the Digital Divide

Somebody recently asked me how I successfully made the leap from being a copywriter for mostly traditional media to handling Social Media and Digital projects as well.

My first response was that I’m merely a survivor, not yet a success story. Everything is still moving and changing way too quickly to announce to the world that you know everything there is to know.

I have no doubt that most creatives with a solid background in print, broadcast, promotions etc can make the transition. But in my experience, the hardest part of the transition is convincing somebody else you can do it. But here are a few helpful hints for traditional creatives (especially copywriters) to help build a foundation and hopefully make a smooth transition into the future.

• Grow your digital footprint: If this piece of advice never occurred to you, you might be too far behind the curve already. But hey, it’s never too late. Get your profile up (and more importantly, up to date) on the major sites.

• Treat Twitter as a professional tool: Don’t just use it as another venue to tell your friends what you ate for lunch. Follow leaders in advertising, marketing, social media, PR and any other industry that interests you. And if you’re having trouble finding “leaders,” the next best thing is to follow me ;) here.

• Track the digital presence of potential bosses/clients: If you sniff a job opening at Agency Y where you’d be working on Client X, of course you know to go to these company websites. But make sure to find out what else they’re saying online and where they’re saying it.

• Teach yourself how to put together a Facebook Business Page: Do you have any spec print work in your book? Well, now you can do SM spec work without calling in the digital cavalry to help put it together.

• Know the basics of all the latest in digital, social, and mobile: You don’t really “get” foursquare? That’s ok. But you better be able to check-in, and more importantly, understand why so many people enjoy doing so.

• Keep generating ideas: Nobody really knows what will be the next big thing, and we’ve barely scratched the surface on how to engage consumers with the options already out there. But if you keep thinking and jotting down thoughts, agencies will believe you could be just the person to help them successfully make the leap too.

I’m sure I left out a few hints. And I’m even more certain that in six months time there will be even newer info to consider. But for now, this advice should help keep your goals in perspective for what seems like a very daunting task.

Hey Creatives, I'm on my high horse

Have you seen the big plunge Old Spice has taken into the world of Social Media? Here’s a behind the scenes look at what it’s all about.

And here’s an interesting quote from Iain Tait, the Global Interactive Director at Wieden & Kennedy: “If the message that comes out of this is that you can make TV commercials in 30 minutes, then we're all out of a job.”

Of course, that was said a little tongue-in-cheek (but just a little). But I actually think the success of this campaign is some of the best news in a while for traditional creatives and those trying to find their place in a constantly evolving web 2.0 (or is it up to 3.0 now?).

Here’s why:
• This was a collaboration of SM-savvy talent with traditional creative. They both needed each other and leaned heavily on each other’s skills.

• Whether it was designed and put together in a day, a week, or had been in the works for months, this was professionally produced, TV-quality work. Strategically, its not much different than the “Subservient Chicken.” But executionally, it has nothing in common with a webcam.

• This campaign started as a traditional creative campaign. The viral way it exploded owes to the internet, but it had the head start of a high profile TV debut.

• Most importantly for copywriters such as myself, from the original TV spot all the way through the 87th video, the success depended on a specific type of copywriter. One that’s funny, full of ideas, works quickly, and has such a complete understanding of the brand voice that they can speak for the brand through a unique character.

So creatives can only hope that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I’m not looking for Starbucks to say “I’m on a horse.” But I’m looking for agencies that work with great brands, and those that aspire to be great to start seeing the value of the full spectrum of skills required by their brand messengers.

Will Soccer Ever Be the "It" Sport?

“Soccer is the 'now' sport for a variety of timely reasons.”

When do you think a U.S. sports executive uttered these words? Last week? During the 2002 World Cup when the Univision “Goooooooallll” announcer burst on the scene? Try 1977.

With the World Cup starting this weekend, expect to hear a lot more quotes like this one and others that have been said over the past 30 years. But for some reason soccer continues to be the sport of tomorrow here in the States, while never being the sport of today.

Oh sure, it has grown. But rather than in a burst, its making a Bataan-like march towards popularity.

And every time soccer’s popularity gains here, you can’t help but notice how far behind we still lag from the rest of the footie-fanatics all over the world:

• During the past few weeks, ESPN has been promoting this year’s La Copa Mundial by showing us the incredible passion other countries have for this sport? These spots make me feel guilty for presumably thinking about sex at some point over the next five weeks.

• Saturday’s U.S. game is arguably the most anticipated US game ever. But that didn’t stop MLB and the NBA from scheduling games this weekend, or movie studios from releasing ”The A-Team” and “Karate Kid.”

Soccer is now the 5th most popular sport in the U.S., based on attendance, TV contracts, and cultural zeitgeist. I expect it to overtake hockey very soon. Beyond that, the smartest thing U.S. Soccer leaders could do is to continue moving slowly, smartly, and strategically. Tomorrow will eventually arrive for soccer, but regardless of how the U.S. team performs in South Africa, it won’t be today.