Career Branding - The 5x5 Method (Slideshare Slides)

Raise your hand if you have ever browsed monster.com and indeed.com using the shot-gun method - Copy. Paste. Submit - Copy. Paste. Submit. I just applied to 10 jobs! 

Well congratulations Butch Cassidy, how has that been working for you? Don't get me wrong, I am guilty of the same crazy, desperate, late-night methods and still expected overly ambitious results. In marketing we refer to this as a push strategy - "I am going to blast content (read: job applications) out into the world in the hopes of hitting interested customers". This however can be a waste of time and in the long run won't sustain a healthy career.

Wouldn't it be great if employers approached you instead?

This is what we call a pull strategy, which takes more time and investment. So Happy 2014, Resolution #1 - invest energy into your own personal brand. Approaching your career like a business, this post will help you brand and market yourself concisely and effectively. Follow the steps!

Career branding 5 x5 from Andrew Carson

Chipotle, ‘Cultivate Campaign’ - makes us feel warm and fuzzy.

Chipotle's Brand Evolution

The Chipotle Cultivate campaign is a very good example of rebranding. Their brand story really shows the life of a developing brand.

Chipotle traditionally was heavily associated with the aluminum brick burrito (see picture). Now, we all associate the silver bullet with Chipotle goodness. Chipotle's advertising however has evolved greatly over its growth to stardom. Initially the company associated itself with burritos then healthy, locally sourced ingredients and now sustainability and "cultivation" from the source. It has shifted the dialogue to a higher level, and embraced an altruistic brand message that is loftier and transcends the burrito. At the end of the day, it allows them to connect with their customers more deeply and really create positive impact. 

Chipotle Cultivate Campaign

This clever campaign had four main components - all listed above.  

1. Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. This foundation's main purpose is to address and support family farms and sustainable practices in the farming industry. This allowed all marketing initiatives to have a charity component and legitimize their claims on sustainability. They demonstrated their commitments and also provided tons of great content to use in multi-media campaigns. Here is their website. 
2. Loyalty Program.  Utilizing an old marketing tool, Chipotle put a new twist to an old idea. Instead of encouraging customers to eat more burritos - Chipotle's loyalty program (Farm Team) makes people learn about sustainable farming practices and family farming to be awarded points. It spreads knowledge and awareness and further demonstrates their commitment to the cause. As the program reminded its customers, "What your food eats, you eat"
3. Cultivate Food Festival. What did this festival celebrate - what else, healthy, locally grown food. Ingredients matter. With bands, craft brewers, artisans, chefs, local farmers, musicians and healthy crowds - these festivals were a great success. They helped cultivate a community around their new brand message. Cultivating healthy food. 
4. Short Film.  Obviously such an amazing campaign cannot go without its central viral element - a film short (below) called "Back to the Start". This short was aired during the Grammys for the first time and garnered much positive attention and 10,000+ tweets. Currently with 7.4 million views, this viral piece did great work to call attention to Chipotle's efforts. 

Coldplay's haunting classic 'The Scientist' is performed by country music legend Willie Nelson for the soundtrack of the short film entitled, "Back to the Start." Download the song now available on iTunes. Label and proceeds benefit The Chipotle Cultivate Foundation.

Sweet and Smokey Success

Why did Chipotle's efforts pay off so handsomely for the brand? 

• One Word. This entire campaign stems from one word - Cultivate. A single word can be powerful if chosen correctly and if used as the driving thought behind all marketing pushes it can help connect efforts across platforms, create cohesion, deliver a stronger resounding message. This perfectly chosen single word campaign performed miracles to galvanize Chiptole's new brand message and story.   
•  The Fuzzy Warm Feeling. Bringing a marketing campaign back to altruistic roots can really help legitimize any campaign and touch people's emotions - allowing for greater message reach. This completely made transparent Chipotle's methods and message and humanized their brand as they adopted such a community oriented goal to their central mission. Lessons learned - sincerity counts.
• Narrative. This campaign had a strong narrative that was clear and precise. In addition, more stories could be drawn from local communities during their festival and in their foundation's efforts to really spread the message in a large way from a local level. 

Wagamama's Summer Engagement

This past week I managed to get myself to Wagamama. #greatsuccess It was glorious - I had the Katsu curry for all those interested (it was a tad too hot for noodles this week). For all those Wagamama virgins, this amazing restaurant is a delicious ramen chain that focuses on speed and quality.

The ramen king and I go way back to when I lived in Washington DC. I first ate in Wagamama in London and was amazed by their effeciency and bench style seating. When I learned that the chain would be moving to the district I was extremely excited. Making a long story short, the store still sits in Chinatown today bearing the sign "Opening Spring 2011". #fail

Although an international brand, it has only managed to conquer Boston in the US. Sadly, this means only when I find myself in the city of notions can I relish a trip to Wagamamas. 

Wagamama Boston - Harvard Square. 

While ordering food I noticed that our paper placemats were advertising a social media campaign. How opportune! Lunch and a social media campaign all in one. Lets dig in.

I really applaud their social media campaign #wagamamasummer, which encourages people to upload their experiences. These experiences make for great social media content that is user generated and tells a story of a wagamama experience.  Plus the general design of these placemats are easy to follow. 

However, a few critiques: 

• Prizes. Gift cards and what other prizes? They never tell us what prizes there are - and gift cards are really not creative enough, in my opinion. There are tons of other options, what experiences can Wagamama offer their customers besides boring over-used gift cards? Other prizes that have greater engagement - being used for a campaign, becoming the summer spokesperson for wagamama, becoming the "mayor" of a particular wagamama with benefits (referring to customers as "customer san", bowing, free meals - fun things), funny uses of chopsticks photo competition. The general prize idea is good but it needs more development. 

• Fun in the Sun.  I don't understand why they used this hackneyed phrase - is this an outdoor brand? Does wagamama want to change its brand to be more fun? I don't know if this is the best phrasing, I bet we could find a more brand appropriate phrase that reinforces the wagamama experience.  

• Design. The layout of the placemat is clear, however I would have made the 1-2-3-4 a little bit more prominent and perhaps with an example picture, while listing more prizes. People need to know what they will be winning!

Virology Series - types of viral content

What happens in a user's head when they click the share button? 

What is going on in social networks when the electric impulse travels like wildfire? 

Social scientists and marketers alike would love to decipher the hidden behaviors and understand the key characteristics of content that generates virality (side note: I know this isn't a term technically, but it needs to be - so it is now).

HECK, I would love to crack the code. I wish this very blog post would immediately overpower you with an overwhelming urge to click the share button (no, but really feel free). Anyone online who says differently is crazy - who doesn't check their Klout.com score every now and then? (read: every five minutes). So I have created this blog series to address this very important topic in digital marketing. This will be the first of many posts that analyzes the science of digital virology - how content spreads the globe. 

Without further ado...

Viral Content Strands (A) and (B)

There are two prominent strands of viral content which can be found online. Each strand type can be easily identified with proper training. Both strand types are very powerful, but each spread the web in a specific recognizable pattern, infecting new viewers at different rates and periods. 

Strand Type A - Single Strand Viruses

Have you ever watched a single video that had over a million views? Most likely that was a single strand virus. They are single strand because in comparison to "type b" they spread from a single, central content piece (video, song, game etc.). This means that they are more likely to have a single url address that spreads through social networks. In their nature, single strand viruses spread more slowly then their "type b" relatives because it takes time for new users to adopt the content, process it (watch it, read it, play it), and repost it. Type A viruses can travel insulated inside certain digital communities and not spread further until they reach a social bridge (an influencer or ordinary person that stretches across several specific social communities). After crossing the bridge it begins to explode again in a new social circle and a new cycle.

These viruses spread more slowly as they rely on sharing-novelty where users believe they are the first adopters of content and first sharers of content in their circle. As this virus travels in cycles with its novelty being reborn from bridge to bridge, it has a longer shelf life. Psy's Gangnam Style is a perfect example of such sustained growth and social bridge usage. The video held remarkably high view rates averaging 9 million views a day. 

At the same time, single strand viruses are also subject to early deaths. If they do not reach their bridges to infect new social circles or if they cross large bridges too early (such as mass-media and television where the novelty value is rendered mostly inert) they die out. 

Can you identify these successful single strand viruses?

Rebecca Black - Friday

Charlie Bit My Finger

Psy - Gangnam Style

Strand Type B - Multiple Strand Viruses

In comparison, multiple strand viruses are born out of a digital habit or behavior - more so than a single, specific identifiable source. As such they can spread quite rapidly with no focal point, as all users across the spectrum in all social circles can embrace the phenomenon at once. These viruses can arise more suddenly and mutate to suit each user's taste, being highly relevant to certain groups. If your own university creates a harlem shake, for example, it is very relevant to you and spreads infectiously within your own university's digital borders. However, the mutated form of the virus cannot travel outside these borders, unless other users adopt the idea - at which point it mutates again. 

Single strand viruses can also become multiple strand as users pick up content and imitate or edit it for their own usage. Just try googling "Rebecca Black Friday Spoof", I'm sure you'll find something. 

The weakness of this strand type is their much shorter shelf life. These viruses catch on fast but burn out quicker. Once you've seen one harlem shake you've seen them all. Novelty is mostly lost. Their short shelf life is also due to their formless nature. They are inherently harder to track and follow, as there is no central point. While you can check to see how many youtube views Psy has, how do you check photobombing? 

 Can you identify these successful multiple strand viruses?

Harlem Shake

Lolcats

Photobombing

Strand A/B Hybrid Super Virus

As far as marketing is concerned, the strongest type of viral content is one that embraces both strategies. Psy's content is hybrid because everyone in the world now knows his dance (and perhaps uploaded a video or two). So marketing agencies should focus on creating content that starts off as a single strand but has a very high potential to mutate into multiple strand. Translation: campaigns should be strong, followable, trackable, centered and they should also  be replicable, user-generatable, spin-off-able, adoptable.  How can you go about doing this? Come back later in the series to find out!!

Next in the Virology Series - The Economics of Viral Content (stay tuned)

Dumb Ways To Die Video - Viral Safety Campaign

Have you seen this video - it currently has 51 million views on youtube and is the anchor behind a highly effective marketing campaign for Metro Trains in Melbourne Australia. 

Get the new free iPhone / iPad game! Now the lives of those adorably dumb characters are in your hands: https://itunes.apple.com/app/dumb-ways-to-die/id639930688 Download the song: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/dumb-ways-to-die-single/id575962249 or http://soundcloud.com/tangerinekitty/tangerine-kitty-dumb-ways-to Sing along to the official karaoke version: http://youtu.be/5QV2HAYKP7E http://dumbwaystodie.com GIFs!: http://dumbwaystodie.tumblr.com/ © Metro Trains

The marketing campaign included many vital elements and content that really made  the message go viral. Here you can learn more about their campaign and how they managed to win a Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Grand Prix award. 

Their campaign included a youtube video (50 million views), iTunes song (which reached the itunes charts in over 28 countries), Smartphone interactive game, online safety pledge and large interactive billboards in stations and around metro train tracks. 

The results are equally impressive. A 21% reduction in accidents and deaths on Melbourne's metro. Additionally, this marketing campaign is considered -

the 3rd most viral ad of all time (not too shabby)

Want to learn more about the person behind this amazing campaign? Watch this cool little video and find out more -

King Content brings you exclusive interviews with the keynote speakers from Content Marketing World Sydney 2013. For more insights and advice from the event, download our free eBook http://get.kingcontent.com.au/cmw-sydney/

The sheer success and creativity of this ad campaign is completely inspiring. From their success we can take away a few important things - 

1. The message behind the campaign was sincere and authentic. They weren't trying to sell you something or brainwash you, they simply cared about your safety.  With this altruistic goal (which resonates with people around the world), the campaign enjoyed unparalleled success as users were more eager to adopt, sponsor and spread this message.
2. The campaign embraced many channels and media types while maintaining voice and narrative. The campaign embraced original music, video, mobile apps, books, billboard ads and interactive content. All of these channels focused on the dumb ways to die characters - a very simple reminder of metro safety.
3. The campaign didn't embrace the normal "shock and awe" tactics that safety ads embrace.  Instead the campaign went a different direction - one that people were probably less likely to anticipate. The decision to satirize "dumb deaths" and make them seem cute and cuddly only added to the campaign's quirkiness and allure. It was also a bold decision (and I'm sure hotly debated) whether to make such a serious subject a comedy - it could have failed completely. However I think the character's cuteness and all out ridiculousness sealed the deal. In the end, cuteness is more shareable then shock.