Major Findings of a recent Social Twist study reveal:

• Despite the social media revolution – traditional forms of networking like email and instant messaging continue to be the most popular mediums of sharing content across the Internet. Nearly 60 percent of overall sharing happens over emails.
• Since it opened itself to all age groups in September 2006, Facebook has displaced MySpace as the most popular social networking site especially when it comes to sharing content online.
• It is clear that Twitter is perceived to be a news broadcast platform and not a “sharing” platform. It enjoys only 5% of “shared information” traffic among popular social platforms.
• Bookmarks are rapidly losing their significance in the social media space. Only 2% of shares happen over Bookmarking sites.
• Google’s services like Google Bookmarking, Google Talk, Gmail, and Blogger have failed to replicate the brand’s search engine success online, especially when it comes to ’shared information.’
• LinkedIn, as a networking site, ranks the lowest when it comes to social media sharing.

See the study summary at http://bit.ly/43T6eY

This offers an excellent contrast to another study from March 09′ that told us that social networking had surpassed email in terms of popularity. http://bit.ly/3zKoyf . The key thing to note is that social networking surpassed email in terms of time spent, which isn’t necessarily a measurement of a communications channel’s effectiveness.

The Nielsen Online study cites Japan’s social network Mixi as an example of why social networking is eclipsing email – because the Japanese, especially the youth just want to connect with each other, says Alan Hshieh of Harvard University, in an interview with the BBC, September 16, 2009. “When you look at Mixi profiles, most users don’t even have a profile picture and only 7% of users show any of their content outside, even to their friends. Facebook lets people create a bold news broadcast about themselves, whereas Japanese and Korean users just want to connect with each other.”

My experience with using social networks for advertising has shown that this is fairly universal. People are spending significant time in social networks, but within them they’re not responding to ads in large numbers. The lesson here is that a traditional approach to display advertising doesn’t work well in social networks, even though some of their reps seem focused on selling this approach. Don’t get me wrong – there are many ways to use social networks for marketing and advertising (think: PR and outreach, and leveraging their technology investment for your online tactics), but don’t forget that email still leads the way for word of mouth, as opposed to staying in touch with friends.

Keep it Simple Stupid

Hold the phone kids. Although I’ve known for years that agency marketing strategists provide clear and unbiased opinions for marketers, I am happy to report that my faith in the value of my own profession has now been scientifically proven! And it all comes down to how human beings make decisions.

This has come to light in a book called “How we Decide”. It’s a fascinating look at the neuroscience of decision making. For a quick overview of the book, check out the review on Boing Boing

When you  think about it, we all always have something on our minds. We are constantly thinking about work decisions, personal decisions, family decisions, short-term decisions, long-term decisions, heck, even what to have for lunch. Could it be true that our brain chemistry may limit our ability to make good decisions? According to this book, the answer is YES. It turns out that the much-used phrase “information overload” reflects an actual fact detectable by neuroscience.

The neuroscience behind decision making seems to make it clear that (thank goodness) our brains are naturally wired to decide. However, research outlined in the book proves that when something goes awry in our brain, (because of trauma, or chemical alterations, information overload, or whatever) we make decisions differently. And differently isn’t always a good thing.

Every day I help clients make decisions about how to spend their marketing dollars, how to position their company, how to integrate social media into their marketing mix, etc. Why is my decision better than theirs? After all, they work for this company, and I’m an outsider. They have more information, more experience in their market, and maybe even more years in marketing (although the older I get the less that’s the case). Shouldn’t they be able to make better decisions than me? And with the wealth of information available to them on the internet, shouldn’t they be able to solve just about any dilemma they face?

 So, how do we know that information overload impedes our ability to make decisions?

An experiment demonstrating this phenomenon is cited in the book. One group of MIT business students was given very detailed reports on companies and asked to buy and sell stocks based on what they learn. Another group was only given the stock-prices. The latter group — betting blind — bets better than the “over informed” group, who have so much information that they can’t decide what is and is not important. The science shows that no matter how good we are at multi-tasking, we might not have the right wiring to sift through all of the information provided to us.

Faced with an increasingly complex world of data streams, we’re all looking for ways to do more in less time, using the data available to us to make better decisions. And we’re starting young: studies indicate that people aged 12 – 24 are racking up 23 cumulative hours a day, engaged in up to five activities simultaneously. Sounds like a typical day for me too, but apparently, this isn’t the way to make a clear decision.

How can we make better decisions? Simplify. At the end of the day, that’s what I try to do for my clients: see the problem or decision in simple terms. Don’t over analyze it. Don’t over think it.

So even in the fast-paced information age, there’s still a place for outside perspective that is not burdened with the complex information available inside the business. I guess my dad’s advice still holds true, “keep it simple stupid.”

Last week at the iMedia Brand Summit I was speaking to a variety of different brands and was in a roundtable discussion on Social Media. I sat at a table with Brand Marketers from the Allstate Insurance Company, and Cirque de Soleil along with the Chairman of comScore. The conversation was lead by Geoff Ramsey, Co-Founder of eMarketer.

I grew up in Alberta, Canada where the major industry is the energy sector. I was of opinion that there was not a strong reason for Energy and Oil and Gas companies to use Social Media (Facebook and Twitter, specifically) to connect with their consumers. This is largely due to the fact that there is insufficient understanding in general of the benefits of social media in this sector, and I was narrow minded and not seeing things outside the box. There are also a few regulatory compliance issues that regulated industries need to be mindful of so… check that out before you get running with things.

Over the weekend, a colleague of mine sent me a link to an article in the Calgary Herald. http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Oilpatch+told+tweet+better+image/2007449/story.html#Comments The article starts with “The Canadian oil and gas industry needs to embrace social media such as Facebook and Twitter to reach a skeptical audience and spread a more balanced message about its products, an American public relations expert urged on Thursday.”

This article changed my view on the subject 100%. I think it’s a great way for companies in the oil and gas sector to change negative perceptions about their brands. Blogs can be used to talk about what these organizations are doing to be proactive in the environmental stewardship and sustainability realms. Organizations using green technology, or proactively taking additional steps to reduce the environmental footprint can use things like Facebook Fan Pages to connect with a younger more cynical audience. This is one side of the equation.

The second thought to this was sparked as I was thinking about “Marketing with Meaning” as outlined in a great book on the future of Marketing written by Bob Gilbreath titled “the Next Evolution of Marketing.”

Early on in the book Bob references David Ogilvy’s First assignment as the head of his own agency in 1951. He produced a full page print ad for Guinness Stout. This was an incredibly important project for David, and the agency. The headline on this ad was “Guinness Guide to Oysters” and the ad consisted of 9 detailed photographs of oysters along with a paragraph describing its history and nuances in flavor. The bottom right hand corner had a picture of a Guinness bottle and a glass with a single simple line of copy “All oysters taste their best when washed down with drafts of Guinness”. They also offered to send anyone a free copy of the poster if they requested it.

Well David learned early on that advertising must be respectful, that it must actually sell product, and that we marketers should aim high with our work. Well his first ad exemplified this… it did not scream “BUY A PINT OF GUINNESS” at you; it was a suggestive ad that actually offered the reader some useful information. Marketing with meaning – means to give your audience something valuable as part of the message.

So what do Oysters and Guinness have to do with Oil and Gas – and why would anyone tweet about this?

Social media is a perfect way for brands to connect with their users, influence brand perceptions, and also listen… We can’t live without oil and gas producers; they are integral to the delivery of products and services such as the textile industry, automotive industry, and heat our homes just to name a few things… Do we as consumers think about that? Not enough in my opinion.

I think that if the energy industry offered consumers more, as Mr. Ogilvy did over 50 years ago, and used social media to do so, they could build brand relationships before they needed them. Perhaps a “Top 10 Ways to increase energy Efficiency in your Home” as a Facebook page, with a daily tip tweeted out to its followers would be a great way to subtly increase brand affinity with consumers. Proactively building these relationships with consumers.

(Keith Ferrazzi can be quoted as the relationship Guru even in this model of building relatationships with consumers. www.keithferrazzi.com)

To sum things up, Social media has its place for all of us. eMarketer surveys show that 23% – 69% of marketers are increasing their social media spend. I was proven wrong, it has its place for all of us, even the oil and gas producers. I am also extremely excited about the resurgence of the theme of Marketing with Meaning, giving our customers something valuable at as many brand touch points as possible.

Lastly – go order these 2 books.  I am not being paid for any endorsement, they are great so this is my version of marketing with meaning, (hope you found something in this post valuable) so if you need some help with tackling your social media strategy, give me a dingle.

Hope you enjoy!

Kent

The weekend was framed around the theme of “Online Branding in Stormy Times”. It was kicked off with Sarah Fay welcoming the attendees and encouraging everyone to contribute to the group, gain valuable insights from the knowledge of important members in the digital marketing world and help determine the way forward for some of the biggest brands in America.

Over the course of the Summit, I had the chance to attend a variety of speakers, eat and drink with digital marketing mavens, “Speed Date” with over 60 of the worlds leading brand managers, and join in on a town hall style discussion on the future of branding online.  I also met a few folks who came up with some of my all time favorite online campaigns!

All though we may be going through some stormy times – the future is looking good! No one needed to put rain jackets on all weekend; It was also smooth sailing when we head out for a tour of the bay on my friends 60′ yacht. We had a great discussion on the future of their new brand, and its going to be a tasty one! I am glad we have a chance to help them with it.

At the end of the day – the summit was great. Lots of new insights were gained, new friends made, and themes that we believed were confirmed to be true. Thanks again iMedia! I will break out some additional thoughts and share some insights over the next few days.

Join us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/raremethod and feel free to take a look at some of the pictures from the event and others!

Kent

Since 2002 iMedia has hosted the annual iMedia Brand Summit. It’s an exclusive invitation-only event that brings senior-level marketing executives from top brands together with their peers and senior executives from online publishers and technology service providers.  This summit is a forum for discussing trends, strategy and tactics that will help marketers get maximum value for their digital marketing investment.

The event includes:

• Three days of peer-to-peer exchange
• Sessions & keynotes on the most timely and critical issues
• Roundtable discussions

Some of the notable attendees and presenters include:

• Sarah Fay – President of Isobar U.S – Guest Host of iMedia Brand Summit
• Clark Kokich, Chairman, Razorfish – “Moving Beyond Tactics to Digital Strategy”
• Gian Fulgoni, Chairman and Co-Founder, comScore, Inc. – “Should We Really Be Optimizing for Clicks?”
• Geoff Ramsey, CEO, Co-Founder, eMarketer – Town Hall: “The Future of Branding Online”

Rare Method will be there and we look forward to sharing the insights and ideas generated from this event. Stay tuned for daily updates from San Diego.

iMedia Communications is one of the largest trade publishers and event producers focused on interactive media and marketing. Their mission is to advance the business of interactive media and marketing by serving as the primary conduit between buyers and sellers and to inspire marketers of all types to explore and embrace interactive marketing strategies.

A question I am often asked is, “What is the next big thing in marketing?” We have seen an amazing evolution in marketing in the last decade, which is accelerating with the ubiquitous use of technology in our everyday lives.

The classic parody of evolution showing man evolving from hunched-over monkey, to man walking upright, to man hunched over a keyboard, says it all. It’s where we have come from and where we are going. But the image has it only half right, because we continue to evolve. We are now upright (again) –  mobile, social, unique, identifiable and looking to be engaged like never before.

Traditional agencies (let’s call their model “Agency 1.0”) have had a good run.  People consumed based on what mass media told them to consume. These agencies got fat, rich – and a bit complacent – selling their expertise and exercising control over the primary media channels of the day, with tightly controlled messages in TV, print, outdoor, etc… a la ‘Madmen’.

But… because of technology, in the last decade the power has started to shift to the consumer, and therefore to interactive agencies who can offer accountability. And this evolution has seen traditional agencies going up against interactive agencies in the battle for budgets.

Traditional agencies have tried to maintain a semblance of control in the evolving market by repurposing their creative for emerging channels. They preach to their clients that traditional advertising is still the best tactic and should be the primary driver of their overall strategy. Often this move is more in the best interest of the traditional agencies than their client’s. As much as traditional agencies have tried to discount digital as simply another channel to be controlled and used like other mass media, the evolution of marketing has passed the tipping point. Digital is now central to all marketing strategy and tactics.

During this evolution clients are faced with a difficult dilemma:

1. Trust a traditional agency to develop and manage an integrated strategy – though they have limited knowledge or appreciation of digital strategy.
2. Or, enlist multiple agencies, often working independently, to handle various aspects of their marketing requirements.

In the process business objectives, budgets, and marketing effectiveness have suffered. So when asked “What is the next big thing?”, I say it’s an agency that is more rooted in the future than the past, that understands brand, marketing and technology, and that knows how to create engagement at macro and micro levels.

The next big thing is the Agency 2.0 model. This is an agency that is idea-driven, media neutral, and accountable. An agency falling under this model employs a united team that can create and maintain brands, leverage all communication channels, crunch data, and understand and achieve measurable business goals. It has strong traditional skills, but its DNA is digital.

In this new model, there is no traditional or digital, there is only media convergence and digital engagement. Digital allows brands to create ‘prosumers’ – consumers who advocate and create on behalf of a brand. Prosumers are becoming central to business and marketing strategy. 2.0 agencies will become trusted partners – extensions of their clients and integral to their marketing and operations.

Some 1.0 agencies are making the leap to the 2.0 model through acquisition and restructuring. A few have evolved from the primordial digital marketing ooze to become fully integrated agencies that embody the 2.0 model. As a result (and in the natural order), organizations like AKQA, Tribal DDB and Goodby Silverstein – and other like-minded mid-tier shops that share the same DNA, such as Rare Method – are becoming the agencies of choice, or lead agencies, on more and more accounts. It’s evolution. And it’s the next big thing in marketing.

Some other points of view from like-minded people and organizations.

• Digital Brands vs. Traditional Brands: Is There Really A Difference? | Joe Crump

• The Agency 2.0 Model | Jonathan MacDonald

What is the definition of Agency 2.0 you ask? Agency 2.0 is the next-generation model that many Advertising/Marketing agencies are actively seeking. It promises to heavily influence how a brand is “marketed” and experienced across a variety of customer touch points and channels.

How do marketers find a balance between push vs. pull media? It seems like marketers everywhere were trying to get their heads around integrated marketing for 10 years, and along came the social web and the new challenge of social media marketing.

Paid placements (push) and earned media (pull, or social media) are fundamentally different (think Advertising vs PR). Naturally, both have costs: Marketers pay for listening, engagement, and participation, or to buy placements. Either way, you pay. Savvy marketers today are moving past this little conundrum. They have allocated budgets within an integrated plan, are paying for both, and have attached success metrics to their campaigns and individual media channels, and as you read this, are optimizing them.

Granted, large media buys are likely going to be more expensive, but let’s assume for a moment that costs are the same and results comparable or unknown. What should marketers do? The utter stampede towards the social web should provide you with a quick answer. Internet use in North America and Europe now reflect population demographics, and social media is trending the same way.

Assuming your head isn’t in the sand with respect to social media, let’s look at how paid media and earned media fit into the categories of awareness, lead generation, and retention. I’d argue that social media marketing (SMM) should be firmly rooted as a retention-type strategy, followed by lead generation (assuming you allocate some budget paid media to promote your SMM effort) with brand-building coming up last. Some examples of success in social media marketing support this. Comcast improved their customer service through their presence and monitoring on Twitter. That’s a great place to start. It provides a foundation for using the social web for lead generation or brand building. What about when customer service isn’t as critical?

Skittles.com is worth examining in this case. I’d argue that the site wasn’t really about community at first – its launch was meant to capitalize on the buzz of web 2.0, and to be new and different. It was a stunt, and design changes had to be made to reduce the fun people had tweeting obscenities onto their home page. I think they saw that coming, and they knew the sting would be overshadowed by the significant (earned) media attention. Moreover, they started to learn what works for them and they built a community they could work with for future promotions. This is now showing positive effects on brand awareness.

Finally, does social media marketing sell? Does the social web generate leads? Dell says it does. Tweeters who sent a message using the #moonfruit hash mark and keyword had the chance to win one of 10 MacBook Pros that Dell was giving away. They claim that this campaign generated a 200% return on investment within one month. Representatives from Dell also claim that they’ve seen tangible uplifts in sales directly attributed to marketing on Twitter, and that the brand’s Twitter account has driven $3 million in sales since it began operation in 2007.

Building a social media monitoring, outreach, and publishing machine to “earn” exposure is a complex marketing initiative, and while media placement fees are lower or zero in this category, the people and systems required to earn exposure aren’t free. While different industries and sectors face challenges unique to their offering, marketing leaders will find a way to create a mix of both earned and paid media that supports their marketing objectives, and helps them achieve their sales and marketing goals.

Every marketer would like to get the media multiplier effect that comes from ads that create buzz. These are ads or online experiences that are so good, viewers will not only NOT tune them out or set their PVRs to avoid them, they’ll actively pass them on to friends – via Facebook, email, Twitter, or good-old-fashioned word of mouth.

Despite the old saying, ‘ all publicity is good publicity’, the numbers say that all buzz is not equal. Let’s look at two campaigns, each of which created terabytes of buzz in highly competitive industries.

First up, the recent* “Most Interesting Man in the World” TV campaign for Dos Equis beer by Euro RSCG New York. (See the TV and online here http://dosequis.com/.) Briefly, TMIMITW is a silver-haired Hemingway-esque man of the world, ladies man, and man’s man. Over faux archival footage of our hero’s ultra interesting life (freeing a bear from the steel jaws of a leg trap, arm wrestling a sweaty South American military dictator-type, enjoying a night-time boat ride with Miss Universe contestants – in evening wear) a narrator intones his exploits: He once had an awkward moment, just to see how it feels. He can speak French – in Russian. Police pick him up for questioning just because they find him so interesting. And so on.

TMIMITW has been a YouTube sensation.  And that certainly has played a part in making the campaign a massive marketing success. Sales of Dos Equis are way up in Canada – where beer  is losing ground to wine in the booze market (can you freaking believe it?).  In fact, in 2008, overall beer sales declined in Ontario but Dos Equis sales tripled.

Now let’s look at the work done for Burger King by the gods of cool creative, Crispin Porter + Bogusky. There was the granddaddy of “viral” pieces, ‘Subservient Chicken’, a grotesque big-headed Burger King cavorting with starlets, videos for the fictional chicken-headed thrash band, CoqRoq (get it?), and many more wickedly creative ideas and executions.

But CP+B has taken some heat recently when it was pointed out that their decade-long run of ultra inventive and ultra award-winning work has produced no gain in market share for Burger King.

Mitigating this are the facts that individual CP+B campaigns have produced spectacular sales successes and that Burger King hasn’t lost market share.  But still… any marketer would prefer the TMIMITW result to the CoqRoq result.

So, two campaigns that are likable enough to give them a leg up with free buzz media. But one produced better sales results. What’s the difference?  Here’s where it gets very subjective.

I would argue that  it’s all about how the ad or web concepts relate to the respective products they are trying to sell– not the brands, the products, what people open their wallets and pay money for.

While the Burger King material encompasses many individual ads, micro sites, interactive games across many campaigns, as a whole they went for the “edgy” approach. Funny stuff that often will make you squirm. It’s not friendly – it’s too cool for that. The subservient chicken piece encapsulates the overall ethos. It is a website that allows a user to play dominatrix (or dominator) to a stocking-clad chicken in a B—grade porn scenario. (Chicken, any way you like it. Get it?) It may have kitsch appeal but it does NOT, for this viewer, have chicken nugget appeal. Yuck.

On the other hand, with TMIMITW we are invited to sit at a table with our favorite uncle. He tells great stories, he’s wise, larger than life and funny. And he attracts other interesting (and, yes, very attractive) people into his orbit. He’s making me want to sit down and have a beer. Yum.

Sounds like typical beer ad stuff? Kinda. But the idea and execution are so refreshing it’s like seeing a drink-this-beer-and-you’ll-have-fun-like-these-beautiful-people ad for the first time.

Oh, and one more gem from the TMIMITW,  perhaps the brightest one: the sign off.  It’s delivered by our hero, sitting at a table, surrounded by women too beautiful for mortals. “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends.” 25 seconds of zany hyperbole capped with a 100% relatable truth about the place and value of beer in most folks’ lives. The truth feels nice, in fact it’s worth passing on. And it’s making me thirsty.

We started working with Ivanhoe Cambridge (the parent company of CrossIron Mills) back in January, when the mall was basically a patch of land and a few posts in the ground. Partnering with their offline agency, Rare Method ventured to design and develop their ‘best in class’ mall website. Have you ever looked at a mall website? Don’t bother. They really are horrendous for the most part. At the very least, they all need work.

To date, CIM has received a ton of positive feedback on the website, especially the interactive map. I personally have been interacting with this map for a while. I should know this mall inside and out by now. I’ve seen photos, floor plans, a tenant list, etc. But nothing could have prepared me for this Grand Opening experience. Although they did warn me.

A couple of weeks before the Grand Opening, my client called me and said that we needed to communicate alternate ways of getting to CIM, other than Deerfoot Trail. Apparently the police were concerned about traffic volumes. With a tinge of disbelief, but trusting our client to know better on this one than us, we created enough attention on the homepage to beat visitors over the head with alternate ways to get to CIM. And it’s a good thing we did.

When I arrived at the mall, there were hundreds of cars already lined up to park. Luckily, our lovely clients gave us VIP parking, so I skirted past and found a spot immediately. My colleague, Eleanor, was not so lucky. She took a wrong turn and ended up amongst the hordes of people. I walked in, registered, and grabbed a green tea. I ran into a reporter friend of mine, had a chat, grabbed a chocolate covered strawberry and then moved past the front entrance.

Once I found my colleagues, we set out on a self-guided tour. Now, I have to ask… can a mall actually be beautiful?  Because this mall is stunning. From floor to ceiling, the design and layout of CrossIron has been so well thought through. Eleanor and I were also discussing one of the first things we noticed, which was that all the stores were of a decent size and quality. The themed artwork found in all the Neighbourhoods is incredible too. The Ranch Neighbourhood has this sculpted bonfire, with flames leading up to the sky, a corral with straddling cowboys hanging from the ceiling, and huge cowboy silhouettes guarding each path. The Neighbourhood at the Resources entrance has an operating oil derrick that pumps water into a fountain. The Neighbourhood at the Sport entrance has a sitting area with at least a dozen flat screen TVs each showing the latest on a different sport. (We nicknamed this Neighbourhood the ‘Boyfriend’ Neighbourhood… ‘Husband’ Neighbourhood for you married gals.)

As we were enjoying our leisurely stroll through the mall, we heard an announcement: “CrossIron Mills will open in 5 minutes.’ I stopped dead in my tracks. Oh dear… the doors are about to open. We walked a bit further, strategically directing ourselves away from an entrance. Or so we thought. CrossIron is very well planned. There are entrances at every corner. Distracted by all the eye candy, we forgot about the 5 minute warning. Suddenly there was this high hum sound and I saw people running! Was there a fire? No. The first visitors to CrossIron had been given a gift bag filled with deals that were for the first arrivals at any given store. It was a stampede!! We braced ourselves, took the crash position and waited out the storm.

After the air cleared, we made it back to the Happy Trails Food Neighbourhood (I mean, how can you dis’ a Food Neighbourhood called Happy Trails?) for the Opening Ceremonies, emceed by Kelly Hrudey. We met up with our clients, Belinda and Aleisha, took some pics, gave them our congratulations, heard about how well received the website has been, and then let them do their thing.

The opening ceremony included a funky little dance troupe to kick things off, speeches by a few of the cats from Ivanhoe Cambridge and ended off with the 10 second count down, a big boom and some sparkly confetti! We finished our visit off by visiting some of the malls great retailers such as Cork, Just Dogs! Gourmet and our favourite Buttercream Bake Shoppe.  We had to pick up some cupcakes for the team back at the office. Ya, that’s right… for the team.

All in all, it was a classy event and we were proud to be a part of it.

Fast forward a decade…

The whole personalization thing sort of died down. Or has it? Well I don’t read about how much value personalization brings – but I am reading lots about tracking, metrics, portals, and content management systems (CMSs).  Apparently “everyone needs a CMS and a tracker hooked up to it to see how well the website / marketing strategy is doing”.  So sad to see that those numbers that come out of the tracker end up in an excel spreadsheet with formulas applied, which ultimately get pasted into a nice 2 page report on an executive’s desk as justification for next year’s marketing strategy.   What a waste!

So why not re-apply them actively back into the system and have the website utilize them directly to alter the user’s experience? It really doesn’t have to be a million dollar adventure. With tools like PHP5 and .NET being a sure commodity today, personalization, or more appropriately “scenario management” is achievable.  OK, so if the technology, skill sets and information are available, then why isn’t it happening more often?   Here are some common reasons:

• When the strategist and information architect work together to lay out the web solution, they may not involve the technical architect in the strategy/planning process.
• Clients often fail to appreciate the power of dynamic scenario management – especially since the solution is really difficult to link to a specific business problem.
• Web solution vendors often go on the cheap and put scenario management on the user by providing him or her with an easily accessible instrumentation interface with “settings”. Why don’t you go ahead and… “check off the items that you have the most interest in.”

There are also scores of technical reasons, which I will spare you from. The only thing I will mention is that you no longer need an expensive app server, (i.e. Websphere, Oracle Fusion) to make this happen!  If you have a detailed understanding of the business problem that the client is trying to solve, a thorough model of the user interface, and have some idea of how the users will interact with the website – then ask your technical architect about how certain aspects of the site can be managed based on a statistics gathered from user behavior, and the user’s direct preferences!

Lastly, sites with successful implementation of scenario management often feel very clean and easy to use. Users do not need to fight with the user interface to turn off some screen that keeps popping up. Examples of such sites are Apple.com and Gmail. Notice that when your friend sends you an E-mail about purses, all ads around it will be about.. you guessed it, purses! This is probably the most blatant example of personalization / dynamic scenario management.  You may also be surprised to learn that this technology is already being successfully applied in another product that you are probably very familiar with: the car.  Most recent models will “learn” to try and optimize fuel consumption based on your style of driving.  Let us all take a lesson from them and make our websites friendlier to the end-user!