“Perhaps there is no for-profit business model for social networking”

keith — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 07:25:04 +0000

Great article on how social networks will not make successful businesses because they are communication tools, and can’t sucessfully provide a reliable mixture of content with enough integrity to align a brand against through advertising.

Perhaps there is no for-profit business model for social networking. It’s been nearly twenty years and a lot of impressive money and brainpower hasn’t figured it out. Does social networking need a for-profit business model?

Makes me feel optimistic about my own future in a content production powerhouse. But content providers need to find the best balance between providing content, selling ads to their audiences AND providing function,
giving their content to their audience in the way that the audience demands it. Providing just content online is simply not enough.

Cervélo – Branding & Marketing through Entertainment

keith — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 10:30:37 +0000

Let me preface this post I’m not a massive cyclist – at least not as much as I’d like to be. I grew up mountain biking in the Wiltshire Downs – I enjoy cycling, get great pleasure out of it but I think unless I end up with a suitable commute I probably won’t get into road biking myself beyond the odd weekend ride for leisure and fitness reasons.

Regardless, I really enjoy following the pro-cycling scene – well, the Grand Tours at least. Cervélo, a high end bike manufacturer run a pro team who competed in this year’s Tour de France, Giro d’Italia etc., fielding a competitive team and coming home with stage wins and jersey holders. The team has been followed by a couple of documentary makers since birth in 2008, and Cervélo have slowly been releasing beautifully shot episodic updates of the team’s progress.

I really wanted to highlight what they’re doing as a great example of engaging digitally with their customers (and prospective customers). The quality and entertainment value of the video has been consistently high, and the level of engagement it has brought to the brand from me is most likely second-to-none; certainly far more than regular ad campaigns or regular social media. Yes, the $$ cost to Cervélo was probably significant when compared to a regular mag or online marketing campaign; but considering they are running a pro team it’s probably relatively insignificant when compared to a year’s team budget.

I felt that Cervélo have given me something high quality, exclusive and interesting – enough for to return regularly to their site to get the next instalment – and it’s not often that you actually get something good for free.

Cervélo
Documentaries @ Bartape.net

Footnote: other cycling brands doing similar things
Trek Bikes Document series (and on YouTube)
Rapha – their blog and Vimeo account

g.r. » marketing

“Perhaps there is no for-profit business model for social networking”

Cervélo – Branding & Marketing through Entertainment