The usage of social media in the B2B world

Why companies need to create online content

The butterfly effect of Twitter : Make a small showcase in Brussels, end up overnight on Fox News

It sounds like a modern metaphor of the butterfly effect at the time of Twitter.

You showcase once, in Brussels, before a crowd of 200-250 Belgian people interested in web entrepreneurship. Four or five attendants fire a small range of tweets about your prototype. Almost 24 hours later, you end up on Fox News plus a bunch of US media. Then become worldwide famous…

That is basicaly what happened to a group of students and their professor from the University of Hasselt, in Belgium, a few days ago. The prototype they developped, largely for fun, Twoddler, is now, unexpectidly, an international curiosity.

A flap of wings in Brussels…

As mentioned in the Fox News footage, Twoddler is a Fisher Price board for very young children that is linked to a Twitter account. When a toddler touches a mirror or a button, he/she sends a pre-written message to his/her parents via Twitter. As simple as that.

Twoddler was presented on December 2nd in Brussels, at the Beta Group, an association of Belgian web entrepreneurs. Around 200 to 250 people attended the pitch hosted in an auditorium of the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Only five or six people in the audience tweeted about Twoddler that evening (see screenshot).

… can set off, the day after, a flood of articles in the US and beyond

During, 24 hours, nothing happened. But on December 4th, Twoddler rose suddenly on the Twitter radar screen. Mashable, the prestigious online media, wrote a post  entitled “The Baby Toy that Twitters“. Overnight, Twoddler became worldwide famous …

We asked Adam Ostrow, chief editor of Mashable and author of the post regarding Twoddler, how he did hear about the “Toy that twitters”.

“I think a reader just submitted a link to us and we thought it was neat, so we wrote about it ” answered Adam Ostrow, to us.

“We did nothing special, but talk at the Beta Group, in front of a Belgian audience…That’s the power of Twitter”

The word was spread. The following days, the most respected websites and medias told about Twoddler: CNET Asia, Wired, Engadget, GeekSugar.com, Torronto Start, Geek.com, momlogic.com, slipperybrick.com, voxy.co.nz, and more…

The cumulative readership of all those medias goes beyond the 10 millions… Not bad starting from an evening gathering in an auditorium of a Belgian university (altough with more than 200 people attending)….

Kris Luyten, the professor of the Hasselt University who supervises the Twoddler project, is still under the emotion :

We took no action whatsoever ourselves. We did not contact anyone, we merely gave a talk at the betagroup, and that is the source of every twoddler event (message, post, comment, mail) that followed. So, probably the tweets and posts from the betagroup members are responsible

I guess it is the combination of “something for twitter” and “something for toddlers” that started this unsolicited viral media campaign This combination makes it a news item perfectly suited for social networks to spread and support (…) [Maybe] is it the magic of Twitter ?

[Anyway] I think my students have a lot of fun seeing this all happen, certainly since we never ever expected this to happen at all

Twoddler: Twittering Toddlers from Bart Swennen on Vimeo.

Stories like the one of Twoddler pave the way of a new era, where no border or minimal size can prevent the best ideas to be covered and blossom.

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Alain Thys (Future Lab): “The classic mass advertising model is inefficient and outdated”

Do you remember the soap opera’s in the early days of TV: sponsored by Tide, Gillette or Procter & Gamble. At the time, brands used to link their image to specific entertainment or news production. No commercials interruptions. No interferences (normally) in the script of the program. “To some extend, we should come back to this kind of model, argues Alain Thys, co-founder of Future Lab, a consulting firm in strategic marketing. Classic advertising formats as the 30 seconds TV spot or broadsheet newspaper commercials are outdated. They don’t target the right audience. They  cost a lot of money. Worst, they irritate the customer rather than engage him or her”.

The marketing sector has become an industry based upon the “shout and sell” model. For ages, they hunt flies with a bazooka. Most of the time, they miss the target. They put noise all around without any consideration for context or value added content. “Should these marketing agencies listen to their customers, they would never air this kind of commercials. Sure, every commercials are not useless. But you can cut the marketing budget of many brands by 50% without having any negative impact on the sales”, thinks Alain Thys.

The advertising sector seems like one of these many industries stuck in a legacy model, with many player willing to protect the cozy and profitable position they conquered in a due scheme. Are they in the same situation as jostled industries like music, airline or press ? Could be… But they don’t seem to be aware of it. Marketing industry keeps flooding its peers with creative award. “Though, what would make sense would be a “customer” award for them, adds Alain Thys, demonstrating the relevancy of the delivered message rather than its shine.”

Anywayn, Web 2.0 applications or services like “behavioural” Adsense from Google could soon bring more change in the sector, can we assume.

Here is the video interview of Alain Thys (thanks to Hotel Marriott Brussels)

And find here a presentation regarding the future of the advertising industry, according to Future Lab

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