Creative masterclass on: Generating buzz

reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear."

People have had faith in personal endorsements from someone they trust
since the year dot. So what's different now? Before committing pen to
paper, I did something pretty conventional. I spoke to someone face to
face (shock horror): George, our managing director of iris Digital, a
serial blogger. I then jumped online and almost got flattened by the
conversations that broadband now spits our way. Information and, more
importantly, opinion are quicker and easier to share than ever before.
It is that speed, scale and sheer number of conversations that make it
so exciting. As we move away from interruptive advertising to honest
opinions, we find the rules of engagement have changed.

Welcome to a space where there is too much clutter and consumers are
looking for trusted sources with which to have conversations. These in
turn influence their behaviour. Sites such as BzzAgent recruit
individuals and connect them with products in which they will be
interested. BzzAgent talks about a "word-of-mouth revolution" where
ideas are shared and flow freely over the giant chatroom that the
internet has become. So how do you harness the creative power of all
this buzz?

Go beyond banners

For some, a digital strategy revolves around where to place
predetermined banner and skyscraper ads. This outdated approach to
digital media planning is plain lazy. The digital space is so much more
than just a banner ad. Chucking in rich media content to cover your
tracks just won't cut it. Doing a microsite simply because you think you
need one is equally impotent. Think beyond this and create an integrated
digital strategy to realise the creative potential of the net.

Avoid jumping on the bandwagon

Is Second Life the most over-hyped thing since Pete and Jordan?
Probably. Just because "advertising" people are all talking about
something does not mean it is the right buzz. You have to consider the
relevance to the brand and the consumer.

Content is king

If you want something to go viral, then it has got to be better than
everything else on metacafe, or BoreMe. If you want people to dwell,
then it needs to be as entertaining as a TV comedy series. The idea is
everything if you want people to talk about it. Comic creations where
the character is clearly fictional can live within social networks. For
example, Nathan Barley has 5,341 friends, and The X-Men have 2,866,476.
Despite the differences in scale, they both have something in common -
people are genuinely interested in the content.

The consumer is the emperor

The consumer determines what is suc- cessful and what is not. The
consumer also creates. The consumer is more savvy than ever before.

Go mobile

Pitch, the UK's first advertising-funded mobile content provider,
launched a fully interactive entertainment community for mobile handsets
in November last year. Pitch's chief executive Lourens de Beer stated:
"The mobile phone has taken the next step in becoming the ultimate and
indispensable social communication tool."

So it appears that we are all destined to be closer to our network of
influencers, wherever we are, 24/7. The challenge we face today is to
create ideas that people actually care about - and want to talk about.
And, with more clutter out there, they are going to need to be better
than ever.

- Grant Hunter is creative director at iris Digital.

MY FAVOURITE CAMPAIGN: SONY ERICSSON UK

With the launch of Sony Ericsson's first Cybershot mobile phone, iris
was challenged with positioning the company as the imaging leader in the
UK mobile category. Iris created a digital campaign based around the
insight that everyone thinks they are a photographer.

The campaign consisted of two microsites and a seeding campaign to drive
traffic. On www.sonyericsson.com, the Undiscovered Photographer
microsite invited people to upload their 10 best pictures to win an
assignment to Morocco. The site allows people to browse a virtual
gallery to see the competition, and gives in-depth product information
on the Sony Ericsson K800i.

Alongside the official site, we created a comic character called Carl,
who believes he is The Undiscovered Photographer. To generate buzz,
films were seeded out on video community sites, while Carl's snaps were
posted on Flickr - to date he has 550 MySpace pals. His "vlog",
www.carlcastlefield.com, features 15 films about Carl and his mate Baza,
capturing his 10 favourite things alongside his top pro photo tips.
Through discovering Carl, you discover the competition. Ultimately, you
know you have to have a better chance of winning than our sad,
delusional Mancunian.