You can check out more of our work with Plain Lazy here.

(This last link is worth a look if you want to see how good my Parkour skills are. Hint: I’m hot / they’re good.)

And, I recommend you follow Larry (pictured above), Plain Lazy’s super-slack (meaning very, very good) Marketing Honcho on Twitter via @lazbash. He’s an interesting chap. Designer, creative and tip top marketeer rolled into one.

Regardless, I reckon the campaign was a pretty big success. It was ingenious in its simplicity. So much so that it seems like, after the initial idea, there was no work involved in maintaining it: no real effort needed to be applied over time because the creativity was baked in to the implementation. All the content displayed on the site was created by people who meant what they said. They were people who consumed and enjoyed the product – thus, Skittles avoided any outbreaks of horrible marketing speak, or cases of middle aged ad-men writing copy that cringingly tries to ‘get down with the kids’ as so often happens with these youth-orientated brands.

It also worked on the very simple conceit that people will be more likely to tweet something knowing that it’ll appear on the site. Because it’s like being internet famous, innit?

So after this bold, innovative campaign what do Skittles do next?

This:

They’ve gone completely the other way and turned the site into an unending roll of wacky pictures with Social sharing buttons next to them. It seems like they’ve heard about ‘memes’ and thought ‘Hey, we can do that, all we have to do is post a funny picture and tell someone to share it’. (Otherwise known as the ‘Forced Meme’.) It’s not creative, it’s lazy. And it shows what happens when you approach Social Media like it’s advertising.

The previous campaign’s Twitter feed worked because it used Social Media as the underlying mechanic, rather than trying to tack Social Media onto a misguided creative idea. It capitalised on existing customer sentiment, taking comments that you previously had to be following someone on Twitter to be able to see, and showed them to everyone. It was social, easy to get involved with and had the added fame incentive.

The new site requests more effort on the part of the user. We’re expected to find these pictures funny and want to share them with our friends. And what if we do? It doesn’t really say anything about Skittles does it? Nor does it reward us in any way for doing so. And even so, if we choose to share something by clicking the email button, the default message we get is this:

See what I mean about getting down with the kids?

With this new campaign, Skittles are putting words in the mouth of the person sharing the content. With the Twitter campaign, the words were those of the user, not of the marketing department.

Maybe I’m being a bit too hard on them. Clearly Skittles are a great brand and they’re experimenting with their online PR campaigns. So well done them – we applaud that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

But there’s a lesson here.  We shouldn’t be applying this sort of ‘let’s make it go viral!’ thinking to Social Media. Bearing in mind that 50% of Social Media campaigns fail, launching a campaign that is based on a hope that people will find something funny and want to share it is a very risky strategy. As Roger has been saying recently, campaigns that are based entirely on creative thinking are high-risk.

Social Media campaigns only work if there is a reason to get involved and share something – which means that either the content has to be useful, or that there is some incentive to share it. Or ideally, both.

Tell us what you think. Does it matter that there was no filter for the Twitter campaign? That anyone could say anything? Do Skittles give you cancer?

Here’s a sneak peek at the results of our recent #CGWhiz Social Media campaign with leading CG and VFX Academy, Escape Studios.

(Campaign devised by us and delivered with some help from Escape Studios’ PR agency, Brands2Life – who handled media relations, video production, the competition draw and other day-to-day aspects of comms).

The project was a barnstorming success. YouTube, Twitter and Facebook were used to promote the brand and enable participants to win a free course at Escape (which is a HUGE ticket for young VFX heads), as well as a work placement at industry leading Visual Effects studio, The Mill (the guys who do all the visual effects for blockbusters like Gladiator, and ads for mega-brands like Adidas).

Granted, with an offer and a cast like this we’d all be fools to screw it up. But, all in all, we’re rather proud of the results. In a nut:

• Overall site registration/conversion goals increased by 63.36% month on month
• Contact requests increased by 35.16%
• Purchases increased by 209.09%
• …and e-Learning service subscriptions increased by 107.62%

Check out the PPT below – a bit of a ‘How To’ guide, explaining tactics, goals set and results gained.

…and please do tell us what you think of it all!

Meantime, here’s what they’ve been up to lately…

C&M is a ‘Social Media Agency.’ We’re also an ‘Online PR Agency’ and a ‘Social SEO’ firm …which is to say that we do great PR, acquisition, retention and SEO through the use of Social Media tools, platforms, channels, communities and so on.

Confused? Yes, it’s all a bit mangled isn’t it?

We figure this is to be expected in this brave new world of ‘Social Media’. So much noise, so many claims and – let’s be honest – so little substance. Our intention here is to share some learning with you. We’ve been around the block a few times with folks like IBM, Hackett and Expedia/Hotels.co.uk and we have Social scars and Social medals to prove it.

If you’re looking to hire a Social Media Agency, here’s some things to consider:

• DO NOT PANIC – DESPITE WHAT AN AVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY MAY SAY
• THERE IS NO NEW WITCHCRAFT (DON’T LISTEN TO AN AVERAGE SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY!)
• THERE IS NOTHING TO FEAR. GOT IT? YOU CAN RELAX NOW
• (…THERE ARE, HOWEVER, A BUNCH OF NEW TOOLS AND SKILLS TO GEN UP ON)

Meantime, to help you in your quest, here’s a bunch of thoughts and some free best practice ‘Social Media Agency’ white papers and ‘Social Media Agency’ resources to make your life a little easier…

For the record, we feel that:

1: Social isn’t media (there’s no such thing as a ‘Social Media Agency’)

(You can read why here…. It’s a blog post that talks A LOT about the dangers of getting fixated on the Social Media channel and not the message. An old one but a gold one – and a view we very much still stand by.)

2: Forget the labels: Social Media Agency / Online PR Agency / Wotnot

(Read why this idea is very important here…. It’s a post that talks about the relative importance – and limitations – of the labels that we all apply to ourselves. If you want yourself some Facebook, then read on. You might need a Social Media Agency. You might equally need an Online PR Agency. But don’t get wigged out by the label – you probably just need some specialist help from people who have done good work in this domain before.)

3: Trad PR is dead meat (err, you may need a ‘Social Media Agency’)

(Read why this is the case here… It examines why, in the current economic climate, not many traditional PR agencies are taking the necessary steps to build skills, processes and services offerings to deliver great work in the Social / Online sphere – whereas your average specialist Social Media Agency / Onine PR Agency is …and so you’re probably better off working with them instead.)

4: Measurement rules. You need smart Social Media Agency thinking

(Read why here… It’s a post that describes why the search for a Holy Social Media Measurement Grail can be a dangerous diversion: it can become a veritable fire hose of data p0rn. What you need is an approach to measurement that’s driven by objectives – and this requires a different kind of Social Media Agency mindset.)

5: Social Media Agency ROI should be measured qualitatively

(Read why here… A post that looks at how you can establish Social Media Agency ROI in some essential – but very different – ways. Importantly, all this new-fangled Social Media-ness may just be helping you to buy your Corporate identity back. Forget outsourcing all those fancy Dan creative ideas and get on the content wagon yourself…)

6: Not Rocket Surgery. Run from the Social Media Agency that says it is

(Read how simple the principles are here… In it we describe that 99% of what we do revolves around good old fashioned content marketing. The difference is that we’re trying to help our clients to do (better) content with a small ‘c’, not a capital ‘C’… Oh, and it also talks about how we’re trying to wean them off of building new things. Because there’s more traffic acquisition headaches in them there microsites.)

Meantime, here’s some of our free best practice ‘Social Media Agency’ papers

We hope you enjoyed the rants. If you did, and if you’re in the mood for some DIY, then fill your boots. Here’s what a decent Social Media Agency does Mondays through Fridays…

C&M Guide to Social Media Agency Campaigns

C&M Shut Up Listen and Spin 5 Step Guide to Online PR and Social Media Agency Work

C&M Party Harder 5 Basic Theories of Online PR and Social Media Agency Work

…And here’s some free best practice ‘Social Media Agency’ resources

Still curious? Good – so you should be… We feel the following should be pretty helpful. It’s a collation of thoughts, guides, presentations and other curios from the darkest corners of the mind of a ‘Social Media Agency’.

C&M Social Media Agency Content Strategy Map

…And here’s some pretty sweet ‘Social Media Agency’ case studies

Still with us? Great. That means you’re probably wanting to know how this stuff comes together in practice. So here you go…

C&M IBM VFC Social Media Agency Campaign

C&M Case Study Online PR Agency

C&M Social Media Case Study Hotels.com

That’s all Folks

That’s it. Free-thing-fest and general rant over. Do tell us what you think…

And, if you’d like some help from a ‘Social Media Agency’ then please do get in touch….

*NB: this stuff isn’t rocket science.