Learn about some of the techniques SS+K has used with market leaders around the world to solve strategic communications challenges and engage audiences. Part of the MaRS Best Practices Series. There are videos of this presentation and more information available at the following: http://www.marsdd.com/bestpractices/may23

1. 1
BUILDING BRANDS + OPINION
IN A FRACTURED WORLD
23may07

2. 2
OUR PREMISE
YOU CAN!T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT …
Traditional agencies [ad, PR, marketing] not giving clients what they want
Communications challenges increasingly complex, requiring multiple disciplines
Clients rarely need straight ad or PR solutions, but rather integrated communications that cut
across numerous functional areas
BUT IF YOU TRY SOMETIMES, YOU JUST MIGHT FIND YOU GET WHAT YOU NEED
Most agencies have roots in, and thus biases toward, one type of solution
Ad agencies think in terms of ads, PR shops generate PR ideas, etc.
SS+K offers a more strategic, collaborative and media-agnostic approach born in political
campaigning and raised in the world of creative branding
Strategies based on sound research linked to an organization!s objectives
Campaigns unbound, financially or professionally, to one tactic or another
OH YEAH, WOO-WOO!
Our approach often creates buzz and news and, more importantly, exactly the types of big
ideas that resonate in today!s fragmented media environment

3. IT!S HARDER THAN EVER TO REACH TARGET AUDIENCES
3
AND CAPTURE THEIR ATTENTION

4. 4
NEW TECHNOLOGIES GIVE CONSUMERS MORE CONTROL

5. BRANDS THRIVE WHEN THEY!RE IN POPULAR CULTURE
5
AND CONSUMERS CHOOSE TO ENGAGE THEM

6. BRANDS MUST NOW BE BUILT NON-TRADITIONALLY:
6
STORYTELLING + EXPERIENCE > MEDIA

7. 7
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO SS+K
FOUNDING FACTS
Opened doors in 1993
Roots in politics, creativity + technology
Integrated since Day 1
CURRENT FACTS
100 people in New York, Boston + Los Angeles
Haven for refugees from ad agencies, p.r. firms, design shops, interactive
companies + political campaigns
$70 million in billings
Partnership with Creative Artists Agency [CAA] and the Intelligence Group [IG]
Still independent after all these years

8. EVERY AGENCY HAS A PHILOSOPHY.
8
HERE!S OURS.
ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS™
The art + science of building brands + opinion in a fractured world

9. COPYCAT THINKING CREATES A SYMMETRIC
9
PLAYING FIELD
public relations
public relations
online
online
If unoriginal thinking didn!t
work very well in a yesterday!s
media environment, imagine
print
print
how ineffective it is in today!s
media environment.
direct mail
direct mail
event
event

10. 10
HOW WE DO IT: ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS
public relations
+ invent a clandestine
organization
+ stage an
urban game
+ start a
movement online
+ launchtour
a
music
create stealable
+
print ads
+ writeathe brand
into TV script
+ brand a
wristband
direct mail
+ place the product
on quot;Letterman!
+ light up a
building
event
+ fire the icon
brand!s

11. HOW WE WORK [ PART 1 ]:
11
RESEARCH AND TREND ANALYSIS
Online flash-polls
Telephone studies
Brand tracking
Online trendsetters The Cassandra Report™
Industry insiders Latino Intelligence
Trend immersion Secondary Research Studies
Focus groups
Interviews
Ethnographies
Custom blogs

12. HOW WE WORK [ PART 2 ]:
12
NOBLE PURPOSE
CONSUMER TRUTH BRAND TRUTH
What experience, behavior, belief or What single fact is + always has
problem do consumers have that relates to been unique + central to this brand?
the brand or category?
To create a magnetic north for everyone involved with the brand.
NOBLE PURPOSE

13. HOW WE WORK [ PART 3 ]:
13
ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF
WHAT IS THIS CLIENT’S NOBLE PURPOSE? [1.] WHAT’S NEW? [3.]
This is the client’s raison d’etre. It’s why it’s on the planet. A brief description for this communications effort. This may be
It’s the client’s magnetic north. No brief should be written that the brand is launching a new product or service. It may
without a Noble Purpose. be that the competitive or cultural situation has changed.
TARGET : WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED? [4.]
[2.]
What is the brand’s big issue? How can communications
A brief description of who we need to talk with.
help? Be realistic. Communications should not be sent to do
jobs it cannot do.
INSIGHT [7.]
What human emotion or cultural
fact will make this catalyst relevant
+ potent?
CURRENT STATE [5.] BIG IDEA [8.] DESIRED STATE [6.]
What does our target think or What’s the catalyst that will change What do we want them to think
do now? their mind? or do?
ASYMMETRIC AVENUES [9.]
What are our target’s media consumption
habits? How and where can we start a
dialogue?

14. HOW WE WORK [ PART 4 ]:
14
CONSUMER TOUCHPOINT MAPS
WHERE THEY LIVE
GADGETS
ONLINE
THEIR MEDIA HABITS
SHOPPING
WHERE THEY WORK
COMMUNITY OFFLINE

15. 15
WHAT WE!RE ESPECIALLY GOOD AT
INJECTING BRANDS INTO CULTURE CREATING BUZZ + MOVEMENT
VS.
ENGAGING AUDIENCES IN NEW WAYS SUCEEDING WITH COMPETITIVE
CATEGORIES

16. 16
WHO WE WORK WITH [CLIENTS]

17. 17
WHO WE WORK WITH [PARTNERSHIPS + ALLIANCES]

18. ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS IN ACTION
WHAT WE!VE DONE … AND LEARNED
18

19. QWEST COMMUNICATIONS
ENGAGING A CYNICAL AUDIENCE IN A SLEEPY BRAND
19

20. 20
HOW DO YOU MAKE A BRAND LIKE QWEST RELEVANT TO TEENS?

21. 21
UNDERSTANDING THE TARGET AUDIENCE
Youth Ethnographies
The Cassandra Report™
Youth Deep Dive
Qwest Youth Survey
Expert Symposium

22. 22
GEN Y LIKES TO DISCOVER THINGS ON THEIR OWN
Give them the tools + opportunities.
Don!t force feed. Let them close the loop.

23. 23
GEN Y IS READY FOR ANYTHING
They see life as an adventure + thrive on experiences.
They!re confident + comfortable with themselves.

24. 24
Nalgene bottles
North Face jackets The Urban Outfitted
MAINSTREAM ADOPTS THE EXTREME LOOK ...
... not the whole lifestyle.
The look of quot;rugged preparedness
[the extreme gear, the SUV, etc] is sufficient.

25. 25
QWEST ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF
INSIGHT [7.]
Young people gear up to
project confidence with
SUV!s, North Face jackets,
and Timberland boots, etc.
CURRENT STATE [5.] BIG IDEA [8.] DESIRED STATE [6.]
Preparing for life in the
Getting the right mobile RUGGED
real world means having
phone is about getting PREPAREDNESS
reliable, rugged,
the latest bells and
advanced cell phone
whistles. Qwest is part of getting
service.
ready for anything.

26. RUGGED PREPAREDNESS APPLIED
26
CONQWEST

27. THE NEW YORK KNICKS
RECONNECTING A BRAND WITH ITS FANS
27

28. 28
KNICKS ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED?
To overcome the fans! apathy + cynicism about
a new coach + rookies after several lackluster
seasons.
CURRENT STATE DESIRED STATE
THE BIG IDEA
I love what the Knicks I almost forgot how much
A GREAT SPORTS
used to be but I’m I love the Knicks.
FRANCHISE IS THE
frustrated with the
SUM TOTAL OF ITS
way the players + Win or lose,
PAST, PRESENT +
management have I’ve got to be there.
FUTURE.
performed in the last
few years.

29. 29
THE WORK

30. LANCE ARMSTRONG FOUNDATION
IGNITING A MOVEMENT
30

31. 31
LAF ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED?
Phase 1: get cancer on the national agenda
Phase 2: turn the yellowband wearers into a community
+ eventually, an army
THE BIG IDEA
CURRENT STATE DESIRED STATE
Phase 1: I!m going to buy
Phase 1: Somebody must be
+ wear a yellow
working on something as Phase 1: LIVESTRONG™ LIVESTRONG wristband.
deadly as cancer but I don!t
really know who!s doing what.
Phase 2: If we band
Phase 2: SHARE YOUR together, we can make a
Phase 2: I!ve been wearing
STORY difference in the fight
the LIVESTRONG wristband in
support of someone who against cancer.
has/had cancer, but I!m willing
to do more.

32. 32
THE WORK

33. MSNBC.COM
DRIVING BRAND DIFFERENTIATION THROUGH CONSUMER INSIGHT
33

34. 34
MSNBC.COM ASYMMETRIC COMMUNICATIONS BRIEF
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED?
MSNBC.com needs to drive more people directly
to the MSNBC.com site and view more pages
during their visits.
INSIGHT
Don’t just show me what I’m
looking for, I find joy in
the process of discovery
CURRENT STATE DESIRED STATE
THE BIG IDEA
My online news routine Dive in. MSNBC.com captures
gives me the info that I Swim around. my imagination.
need.

35. 35
THE WORK

36. 36
COMING SOON: SPECTRUM WALL

37. 37
MSNBC.COM RESULTS
msnbc.com moved to #1 in Nielsen!s Netratings for April
more users turned to msnbc.com than to any other online news source
33 million unique users an all-time high [prior was ~29 million]
First month of the campaign [April] saw substantial increases vs. March
1.3 billion page views, +17%
99+ million unique visitors, +13%
285.4 million visits, +11%
102.3+ million video downloads, +37%
Early click-through analysis indicates the online campaign is performing above
expectations and industry averages
More than 100,000 visits to the Newsbreaker game with an average visit
length of 49 minutes
High volume of positive buzz in print and blogs domestically and abroad