Big Orange Slide is pleased to introduce “Food for thought,” a series that explores initiatives that may be of interest to the marketing world. This series is intended to spur creative thinking and problem solving, so be sure to add your thoughts and reactions to the comments section.

______________________________________________________________

This week’s thought focuses on a feel-good initiative called Litre of Light. Not only is it an inspirational story, but it provides some, well, food for thought on how to make a real difference in peoples’ lives through their experience with a brand. Good Magazine recently ran an article titled “Plastic Bottle-Bulbs Shed Some Light On The Situation.” In it, the author talks about the lack of available light in corrugated iron-roofed shacks, such as those in certain areas of Manila, Philippines. A new project called Litre of Light has been organized with the aim of addressing the lack of available electricity using materials that are readily at hand.

The premise of the project is brilliant and deceptively simple. Holes are cut into the corrugated iron of the roof of a shack. Plastic bottles are filled with bleached water (to keep the water free of algae), and fit into the holes to refract sunlight into the house. To date, 10,000 solar bottle bulbs have been fit into homes across Manila and neighbouring provinces, a move which Illac Diaz (the social entrepreneur behind the project) believes can improve “the standard of living across the board for the bottom 90 percent of this country.”

The bulbs have previously been used in Brazil, where a mechanics worker started using the technique during power shortages in São Paolo and Haiti. While the lights are obviously functional only during the day, they’re a great step toward reducing poverty, not to mention energy independence.

Food for thought
Imagine if this initiative was brought to you by a soft drink company. How would that make you feel about the brand?
Ok, so it seems lofty for sure. But, when it comes right down to it, this project takes accessible materials and thinks about them differently. Public perception of a brand is based on the sum of the things a brand creates and stands for. To what extent can we leverage our brands on our home turf in the service of a better world? Is there a place for thinking about our products’ lifespans after they can run the course of their intended use?

Research In Motion, the maker of BlackBerry, hasn’t had much fun lately. Its stock is down 60% from its 52-week high, its Playbook tablet is facing poor reviews and recalls, employees are saying all kinds of nasty things in public, and its developer community is upset. Meanwhile Apple’s iPhone just passed BlackBerry in its US share of mobile subscribers and its 15 billion app downloads have provided a $2.5B industry for eager developers worldwide with no signs of slowing down.

It’s anybody’s guess if RIM will regain its technological edge with the next great device or its much-touted QNX platform. With $3 billion in cash and no debt, it has some time. But what’s more impressive than the financials – and what could enable a much faster recovery – is its digital presence. In the race for valuable online connections RIM is the clear leader over Apple and most global brands.

In a presentation at the Conversational Marketing Summit in June, Brian Wallace, RIM’s former VP Digital Marketing and Media, said BlackBerry is the 2nd most social brand in the world, a top 10 brand on Facebook, and a top 5 brand on Twitter. Where Apple maintains strict control over its online presence with just one voice and a tightly controlled PR department, RIM has openly embraced the social channels for years.

Credit goes to Wallace for his foresight and investment in social media long before it became a popular pursuit. What does this mean for RIM today? It means it can reach 60 million BlackBerry fans online through owned media properties on Facebook, Twitter, the blogosphere and other channels. Rather than publish general content to one passive global pool, RIM took a unique hub-and-spoke approach and created many country-specific communities. On Facebook alone it now has access to 9 million highly engaged fans across 32 country Pages and another 7 million fans on its Blackberry Worldwide Page.

But it doesn’t stop there.

“In doing all of this stuff really really well we ended up building what is one of the world’s largest content networks,” said Wallace. “I wasn’t in the business of managing websites; I was in the business of managing an ever-expanding premium content network.” RIM’s earned media numbers are staggering. With 16 million highly engaged Facebook fans RIM’s teams can reach 400 million people through one degree of separation. And here’s the kicker: they can distribute and syndicate content to this massive global audience for free.

Social media can’t save RIM or boost their stock price. But if a great BlackBerry product is released tomorrow the marketing teams can instantly put that positive message in the hands of millions of fans for free and watch it multiply worldwide. In a consumer industry dependent on word-of-mouth, RIM’s massive online communications network is a powerful weapon that can support a rapid comeback.

In addition to his full time role as Group Director Business Development at Grip, Andrew is also a Huffington Post columnist providing digital-related advertising insights. This post and others can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-cherwenka.

I’m not treading new ground when I say that group buying sites are changing the way we shop. Groupon has entered our lexicon as a noun, and .com staples like Facebook, Google and Amazon toyed around with their own versions. While accustomed to seeing these companies rely on email and ad buys to tout their offers, I recently received a deal through an unexpected source: an SMS message. For me, relying on mobile reduced the signal-to-noise ratio of a full email box by being delivered to my pocket with its own notification.
With precious little real estate to waste, the layout delivered the bare necessities in one screen: a map of the store location, the deal and the fine print. That, and it drove to a mobile-optimized website – a simple (but crucial) detail that many companies seem to overlook. The only noticeable call-to-action was the “Buy Now!” button which, when clicked, took me to a confirmation page informing me that the charge would appear on my phone bill. Yes, that’s right. No sign up, no entering your billing information, no privacy concerns with credit card numbers.
To me, this was one of the more efficient lo-fi approximations of Near Field Communications (NFC) I’ve seen. NFC will allow for payment by swiping your handset by a point of sale reader, essentially turning your phone into your wallet. Those looking to make the leap from plastic to mobile transactions should take note of the simplicity of their layouts and the how well optimized their experience is for mobile.
What are your thoughts on the best ways to turn your phone into a wallet?

I have been on the fence about Klout since I first heard of it a few months ago. There is, however, little doubt Klout has been gaining popularity as an ROI tool. So much so, that Fast Company ran an article on how Audi has been using Klout to find key influencers, shower them with swag, and try to leverage them to spread a marketing message. Viscerally opposed to the idea, I tweeted: “I think this is a company trying to rip off brands and consumers with meaningless numbers.”

But why did I react that way?

I concede that Klout and other tools like it can be useful to brands and evangelists. They give you great metrics on your reach and influence on certain subjects. But what is “influence”? Social media is not about reach. But reach is quickly turning into the measurement tool of choice when determining ROI – which smacks of the logic used to determine the efficacy of ad placements in mass advertising.

In my opinion, trying to use old numbers to understand new concepts is not the best approach. Social media is a brand’s opportunity to facilitate word of mouth marketing. Brands shouldn’t be identifying their influencers based on frequency of retweets, but rather how often an individual happily recommends their goods or services. That is the power of social media. To facilitate that conversation, and conversations like that on a grander scale.

The utility of Klout lies in its ability to pick out social resonance. Take my Klout profile for example:

I expected to see social media on that list. But the reality is, I do not believe I have any influence over television, and people that do have influence over such things might not have a high Klout score at all. What it actually tells me is when I tweet about TV, what I am saying is resonating with my audience. Similarly, brands can also use this tool to see they are being heard, and, with their pulse on their audience, connect with them based on their interests, beliefs and concerns.

At NXNE I asked a panel of foodies if one hundred average consumers’ positive opinion of a burger would trump a negative review by Anthony Bourdain. Both the audience and the panel agreed that it did. Key influencers have no more authority than anyone else in the community. Even on a one-on-one basis, you’d still potentially try a burger that your friend loved and Bourdain disliked. Hence, Klout falls down as a tool to convert key influencers into brand evangelists. Someone with 50 friends or followers could have near absolute authority on purchase behavior. Someone with 10000 followers might only sway 50. Who is the key influencer again?

Klout is a tool for determining if what you are saying is connecting with your consumer; it’s not a solution, and not a guide on who should speak for your brand.