PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP published a paper “The New Digital Tipping Point” in late 2011. The report can be found here, and a blog post written by Chris Skinner providing insight to the post is worth a read. Many thanks to trusted colleague Richard Sanders to alerting me to this study.

PwC based the research on interviews with about 3,000 retail banking customers from a range of segments, and included samples from developing markets (China, India, Emirates) as well as developed markets (Canada, France, Poland).

The backdrop for the report is the residual impact of the global recession on the relationships consumers have with their banks. While consumers evidence less trust than ever for their bank, they also have changing expectations for how banking services (both offline and online) should be delivered.

In this case, “changing” translates to “greater expectations” and the report focuses on how the Millennial generation, finally arriving at a point where they will select their primary bank for the foreseeable future, are influenced by the way retailers are using digital strategies to engage and delight them online and in-store.

With this in mind, the PwC report puts forth the premise that there is a renewed opportunity for “banks to create shareholder value is through a focus on “relationship primacy” (being the preferred and main bank for a customer).” Why is relationship primacy so important?

1. According to PwC, it drives increased share of wallet, leading to higher revenue from that customer group, and ….
2. Research showed that 81% of Canadian customers surveyed preferred to purchase additional financial service products from their primary banking provider rather than any other source. Results were similar in Mexico 75%, India 77%, China 79% and UK 52%.

The learning is that banks “have them if they want them”. People are predisposed to stay where they are. Switching banks is neither easy nor fun. The question becomes, how can banks employ digital strategies and what should they consist of to engage consumers and seal the deal to retain “relationship primacy”? PwC concluded that banks need to develop digital strategy that goes beyond “building apps” and includes these key points:

1. User experience
2. Mobile devices and networks
3. Social media and collaboration
4. Customer analytics
5. Channel integration

The study found that customers are willing to pay for a new breed of banking services which transform the ordinary into a WOW moment when the information is delivered through a digital channel. These include receiving transaction notifications via via Twitter or Facebook, having availability of spending analysis tools, and receiving relevant third party promotional offers on occasion.

Loyalty was right in the middle of it all, as 65% of those surveyed in UK said they would be willing to pay for loyalty services provided by a bank and “storing loyalty cards and converting points to cash” were in the top 5 services noted by consumers. Consumers in the survey estimated an optimal price of £4.20 per month for loyalty services, a figure translating into additional annual fee income of about £50 per customer.

If banks take the hint and realize that the pot of gold they seek may just be in their own backyard, relationship primacy will be in the spotlight. In that case, data-driven customer strategies will receive even more attention as banks seek to rebuild lost trust, build engagement, and create a better value proposition for their customers.  Just remember that by executing a smart digital strategy and prioritizing relationship primacy, that banks can win not just with Millennials, but also the wider population of “Consumer 2.0″.

Aeropostale, Inc. is a specialty retailer fighting for the attention of a client base exhibiting limited or no attention span. I’m not mean, just the father of three children, so let’s just say that I’m experienced.

No matter how you describe it, today’s consumers are distracted and its not easy to engage them for long. That’s been the dilemma of marketers trying to reach Consumer 2.0, the always-on, always-connected generation of shoppers who seem to give as much attention to their mobile handsets and touchpads as they do the person next to them in line.

If it’s a challenge to engage and maintain dialogue with Millennials and those of us in older generations who have adopted the electronic life, think of the orders-of-magnitude greater challenge that exists when targeting 14 to 17 year-old young women and men (Aeropostale®) and 7 to 12 year-olds (P.S. from Aeropostale®). By the way, marketers need to find another verb than “targeting”. It’s mildly offensive for most people and somehow really doesn’t fit when talking about elementary and middle school kids.

To break through the clutter of this noisy and competitive retail world, Aeropostale® announced the introduction of P.S. Rewards, a multi-channel rewards program designed to benefit customers whether they shop in-store or online. According to the press release dated July 19, Scott Birnbaum, Senior Vice President of Marketing and E-Commerce at Aeropostale, Inc. stated “P.S. Rewards formalizes this (strong following) relationship and allows us to recognize our best customers with special privileges and activities.”

P.S. Rewards is free to join and members can earn 1 point for every dollar they spend in-store or online.  Once members accumulate 75 points, they receive a $5 certificate towards a future purchase, equating to just over a 6% funding rate. To balance reward with recognition, P.S. Rewards members receive “exclusive” benefits including access to VIP sales and events and birthday gifts.

The P.S. Rewards program is enabled by Smart Button, a technology savvy company that is making headway in the specialty retail segment. When asked about the new program, Trevor Edwards, Director of Business Development and Sales, told me “P.S. Rewards is an example of a new breed of loyalty execution that can help retailers enhance brand affinity, increase sales, and deliver a superior customer experience”.

I have no idea what’s planned next for P.S. Rewards, but given the fact that both the kids who love the brand and the parents who are paying the bills need to remain engaged, Aeropostale needs to invoke true creativity to deliver messaging for each group in the channel they most prefer to communicate. It will be interesting to see what comes next.

Loyalty Truth has been giving a lot of thought towards the shaping of loyalty and rewards programs to engage the interest of Millennials and the broader digital consumer group we are calling Consumer 2.0.

With many merchandise offerings lacking imagination as well as value, and airline miles tough to redeem given capacity restraints on available reward seating, cash back has earned renewed popularity as a quick-to-earn and easy to understand reward.

The problem is, rational can be boring. And easy to understand sometimes means too easy to label. With Groupon offering a 50% off “deal of the day”, a 1% deferred cash reward seems to be teetering on irrelevancy.

A 2010 paper written by an esteemed group of professors from Harvard University, University of Virginia, and University of British Columbia, pointed out that, in most cases, people enjoy experiences over things. While an item purchased can bring temporary pleasure, it is an experience that leaves a lasting impression.

Music is experiential and has been described as a “time machine” by some people. Most of us can attest to the impact of hearing a favorite song on the radio. The opening notes can transport us back in time and bring us vivid memories of first dates, world events, or just plain old good times.

If you don’t believe that music is important to human beings, is pervasive in our culture today and can be used to shape purchase behavior, then at least factor in these statistics:

• MP3 players — Just under half of American adults (47%) own an MP3 player such as an iPod — a nearly five-fold increase from the 11% who owned this type of device in early 2005  – Aaron Smith, Research Specialist, Pew Internet & American Life Project October 14, 2010

• 16 percent of Americans age 13 or older are using devices other than their home computers to download software applications (apps), music, video, and other entertainment content from the Web – NPD Group, May 2010

• 75 percent of iPhone and iPod Touch users are connecting to the Web to download entertainment content and apps – NPD Group, May 2010

Rewards and Music have been linked in an interesting way so far. Several digital content providers, including iTunes, have made forays into the loyalty industry. Reward administrators were asked to pre-purchase exclusively download codes to offer music as a reward, and the redemption process was often cumbersome as it required consumers to leave the brand sponsor’s web environment to collect their music.

To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a fully integrated platform to deliver music and other digital content as a reward until PointTunes™ was announced last year. The platform makes it possible for a loyalty program participant to redeem points or miles directly for music, eBooks, software and games with a patent pending transaction process named PointRobot™.

I had the opportunity to interview the founder of PointTunes™, Bill Cunningham, who shared that PointRobot™ can be used to create a customized digital rewards offering where program administrators have complete control over their digital rewards options.

He told me that PointTunes™ has its origins through his work as a Product Manager for one of the largest employee rewards companies in North America. “During that time I was never presented with a viable digital solution by our vendors” said Cunningham, and “myself and other rewards administrators were looking to add digital reward options to help control costs and find new clients.”

If you understand the shift taking place towards customer engagement, you understand how breakage, while a tempting element of a rewards financial model, can have negative impact on customer relationships. With pressure on reward costs, digital content is attractive to brands sponsoring loyalty programs.

Something had been missing from the previous method of including music as a reward in most loyalty programs and Mr. Cunningham “believes digital rewards is a perfect fit for the loyalty market both from an incentive (do this get that) and a loyalty (points, miles et al.) angle.”

Considering that Consumer 2.0 is perfectly at home with social networks and location based marketing (Gowalla, Foursquare, Facebook, Twitter et al.), using digital rewards that are as mobile as your customers makes sense. To meet the need, Cunningham said a mobile rewards platform is planned for launch in 2011, allowing consumers to redeem for music right from their mobile handset.

Loyalty is evolving to become more social and to meet the needs of the brands that sponsor the programs. PointTunes™ is a group to watch as the “Social Loyalty” continues to unfold during 2011.

Social shopping is one of the new terms being circulated today among business people and consumers. Shopping has always been a social activity, so the name doesn’t define anything that we don’t understand intuitively.

Not so long ago, the term might have conjured up images of two friends going to the mall together, discussing stores, brands and products, and ultimately influencing – and helping with – purchasing decisions.

What does Social Shopping mean in 2011?

To understand the concept and gain vision on where this movement is heading, break down the thought into activities that make up a social shopping experience.

1. There has to be a purchase transaction at some point. The question is, does “Social”, as it is currently being used, refer to online, offline, or both?

2. Regardless of channel, “social” implies that a sharing of information takes place. We somehow recommend favorite products and brands to each other. We might even make a formal referral of a friend to brand.

3. There is probably a role for incentives in a Social Shopping network. Sure, the engine can run on Word of Mouth marketing, but referrals in particular need to be driven with incentive and there needs to be some value offered by merchants to ignite the movement of a social network of people towards their brand.

Given the components mentioned, I’m not sure I buy the introduction of shopping carts on Facebook pages as “Social Shopping”. In my book, F-Commerce is just one aspect of the equation. In fact, one could argue that F-Commerce is just good old e-commerce delivered through a new channel and facilitated by a new payment currency, in this case, Facebook Credits.

Social shopping is better defined as an eco-system where value for shoppers and merchants is generated as networked shoppers share opinions, recommendations, and make referrals to drive an increased share of their spend to the merchants participating in the network. Shoppers are provided incentive in the form of rewards (cash back or other means) and will continue to patronize merchants in their network as long as the merchants play the game.

The fruits of “search and discover” will be on display as shoppers will recommend merchants they want to see in-network and prune out those that jumped in, but don’t deliver satisfactory product or service. For merchants, the model is highly evolved from a new customer acquisition and retention standpoint and they can be assured that their marketing dollars are well placed and have measurable return.

To provide a tangible example of a social shopping scheme that works, have a look at Zavee.com. Zavee is designed to encourage shoppers to patronize a participating group of local merchants. Their tagline of Simple, Local, Social is an apt description of the value proposition for consumers and merchants.

Zavee merchants can create their own highly flexible promotional offers, with cash back awarded on purchases. Zavee pays out cash rewards to its shoppers on a quarterly basis. Merchants pay only on activity, which rationalizes the relationship between marketing expense and revenue, and obviously reduces risk to the merchant. There are no sign-up or ongoing maintenance fees for merchants, nor are there complicated changes to point-of-sale systems.

In fact, there is not even a membership card needing to be swiped as Zavee works on a registered card basis. Shoppers enrolling can register as many of their favored payment cards as they wish. From that point, smart shoppers visit the Zavee site to identify merchants, review the available offers, and then do what they do best – shop.

On the social track, Zavee shoppers leave reviews and comments about Zavee merchants on the web site. The remarks are relevant as only shoppers making a purchase with a merchant may comment on that merchant. That squeezes out the troll-like nature of some reviews seen on line today – both falsely negative reviews from competitors and falsely positive ones from the merchants themselves (or their publicists) – and spikes the timeliness, relevancy and reliability of reviews on Zavee for other shoppers.

To complete the value generated within Zavee, each purchase made by a shopper generates not only the cash back reward, but “Care Shares™”, i.e. a unit of value that can be accumulated by the shopper and given to benefit one of the local charities affiliated with Zavee in its network. Care Shares are triggered by shopping and funded jointly by the merchant and Zavee itself, giving rise to a new take on “Social Giving”, another term being tossed about today and with multiple implications.

Zavee is focused on serving the local merchant market. It is being piloted in South Florida and early results are positive. The Zavee model and bonusing engine could easily be adapted to serve an online community or a cross-channel set of  merchants, but Zavee is about connecting local shoppers with merchants within the community and creating value for all parties including charities. It might also represent a bridge between traditional loyalty marketing programs and the way Millennials wish to engage with brands as well as the way forward for coalition loyalty in the U.S.

Given the challenges that small-medium businesses have in today’s market, Zavee is a great asset for a business owner and a more much efficient step up from spending marketing dollars on the Yellow Pages and coupon packs where the investment is non-targeted, funded up-front and the results hard to measure.

People have always engaged shopping as a social activity. Now, they have a vehicle to shop, earn, share, and give all while supporting the local merchants that are vital to our communities and the fabric of our nation.

What do Marketers and Rodney Dangerfield have in common? Neither gets respect and each has resorted to self deprecating humor to deflect criticism – or to make a point.

The Marketer’s dilemma is that developing effective marketing strategy is not as easy as it appears. Sometimes, an awful lot of work is poured in to validating an assumption that we intuitively thought to be true at the beginning of a project. At the end of a planning exercise, observers can rightly ask “what was the big deal?”or “didn’t we know that from the start?” Because of this, consultants have been chided for being the folks that charge you to tell what time it is on your watch.

The temptation to shortcut the planning process is always there, but prudent business people know that working through a process or methodology is the best way to manage risk and ensure that all considerations for strategy are vetted. No matter how much work is done, the project should not be declared a wrap until one important step is performed at the end: a reality check to see if customers will “get” our message and understand the value offered in whatever marketing campaign is crafted.

A while ago I wrote about how Marketers Can Be Real Bozos, and whether it was a good or bad idea to use our own lingo in the ads we create.What happens when marketers go beyond using lingo and take aim at themselves to sell their own products?

Ford’s “No Nonsense” campaign for its F150 trucks took a direct shot at the marketing crowd, shouting in this ad that “we don’t need a bunch of donut eaters at a focus group” to tell us what we want in a pickup truck.

Bank of America has been promoting its Cash Back card product describing it as “Refreshingly simple. Rewards with no hoops to jump through” and reassuring customers that there are “No Hassle, no tricks, I know what I get, not like those other card reward programs”.

Someone convinced Ford and Bank of America that if self-deprecating humor worked for Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld, then it will work for them.

I wonder though if their respective marketing teams paused to take the acid test I suggested. If so, would BofA have criticized its other reward cards offers to benefit its cash back product? And, what does Ford think will happen the next time they go to recruit for a focus group (you know they still do them)?

The Ford campaign is funny and since I’ve never been a big fan of focus groups, we can let them off the hook. BofA on the other hand has to think longer term about its messaging. If all reward cards other than cash back are nothing more than “hoops and hassles”, they have just trained upcoming Millennials and other consumers who pay attention to their ads that cash back is the only way to get value from a card.

Maybe that reality check would not have been such a bad idea after all.

I’ve gotten into a bad habit with my children. Whenever they ask me about overzealous promises from a product advertisement, I just tell them “It’s probably not true, it’s just marketing stuff“.

The bad part is that I am instilling a degree of cynicism in the little ones, but then again “buyer beware” has served us well for decades. To get their money’s worth, consumers need to be cautious, if not skeptical, of claims made and should complement personal research with word of mouth recommendations where possible.

My broad-brush description of marketers can be justified simply by witnessing the lack of loyalty transparency in favored market practices today. I really don’t want to read an email telling me that I can earn a 10% rebate on “all purchases made” only to click through and see that there is a monthly dollar cap on my savings. I also don’t enjoy seeing items priced “less mail-in rebate” while I end up paying a higher price at the register and later struggle with paperwork to realize the savings.

To its credit, Best Buy has partially broken from the mail-in rebate habit as it offered 5 Android smartphones at an introductory price with no strings attached.

In the B2B world, the use of whitepapers as the bait in email solicitation is becoming highly annoying and merits a huge Loyalty Asterisk™.  Just this week, I filled out a form to receive a “Whitepaper” from Socialtext covering critical requirements of enterprise social software. Thinking I was going to learn something, I realized as I was reading the document that it was not much more than a capabilities document for their own product reformatted as a whitepaper.

It is a simple and often used formula – take the key features and benefits of the product you are selling and create an outline that proclaims the same key points as “best practices”. The Loyalty Asterisk™ remains prevalent in advertising and promotional circles today and marketers need to accept that building campaigns with roots in gently misleading the public does not breed long term customer or brand loyalty.

In the words of Generation Y (Millennials) it’s “annoying”! Translated, it means “I’m not buying your stuff!”

If marketers are selling quality, performance, and reliability as part of their product or brand promise, then they need to deliver the message with a higher degree of transparency than is seen today. I consistently advise my clients to deliver offers with accurate pricing and all conditions proclaimed up front rather than play the bait and switch game.

The beauty of Web 2.0 and social media in particular is that consumers have the tools and communications channels available to be able to research products, compare opinions, and provide feedback to friends in an almost instantaneous manner. Brands that market with a heavy dose of the Loyalty Asterisk™ will be skewered on Twitter, Facebook, and in the blogosphere.

Rather than play the game and suffer the penalty, marketers would be wise to play it straight, exercise some Loyalty Transparency, and enjoy the complements and adulation of consumers as they award the brand for delivering just as promised. If you are running your business without social media tools to monitor brand mentions and conversations, you need to step up your game.

Adopting the right tools and building a commitment to marketing transparency will yield improved results. I am here to help you with both endeavors.

Black Cats, Black Magic, and Black Friday … sounds like a threesome to avoid.

But untold millions will be lining up the day after Thanksgiving in the wee hours of the morning with steely-eyed focus and adrenaline pumping – all with the almighty bargain in mind.

Maybe it’s a gender thing, but while you might find me up at 5am to go fishing, you’ll never find me caffeined-up and ready to shop at that time of day. Maybe Black Friday is defined less by gender and more by the American way. We’re competitive and like to win. And, after a year of economic suffering like we’ve had in this country, you can’t blame consumers for wanting to taste even a small victory.

But as any coach worth his salt will tell you, winning comes at a price. Unfortunately, the price of playing the Black Friday game reached an all time high in 2008 when a Walmart worker was trampled to death by a mob of shoppers at a store in Long Island. The repercussions have been strong and retailers are taking steps to calm the crowds and bring order to stores as the holiday season kicks off this coming Friday.

Walmart settled the lawsuits that followed with a nearly $2 Million payout to victims of the incident. Concern is so high that even the National Retail Federation (NRF) has released crowd management guidelines for its members hoping to prevent future disasters.

Consumers seeking ways to get ahead of the game have options. They can check out Top 10 Black Friday websites to find bargains in advance, or they can just sit at home after turkey dinner on Thursday and watch “what not to do” videos on YouTube ranging from Stampedes at Walmart to Scuffles at Target.

Outside of the fun that some people associate with the crazed energy of Black Friday, I have to wonder if retailers knew what they doing when they originally promoted the concept. Competing on price only leads to a “death spiral” of diminishing profit margins. And since there is usually only one acknowledged price leader in a discounting category (ahem, Walmart) the rest of the retailing pack might be much better off taking a higher road to open consumer wallets in their favor.

There have been some really good articles written about the violence of last year’s Black Friday, and academics such as  University of Delaware professor Sharron Lennon are now studying the human behaviors that lead to such incidents. There is also a groundswell of voices encouraging consumers to “Spend time together, not money”.

All of this makes me smile when people ask if Loyalty Marketing programs work. Yep, there are some lame versions of the concept out there, and even the good ones could make use of their data to be more relevant to their customers. But as a business owner, it should be attractive to preserve margins, improve the shopping experience, and justify repeat business at your store without having to fake a “going out of business sale” once a month.  Data-driven Customer Strategies do just that.

I’ll bet there are some forward thinking people at the NRF and among larger retailers that could change the paradigm. Maybe the time has come to return a bit of elegance and class into daily shopping experiences, not to mention air travel. And, retailers had better consider the impact of promoting mass shopping frenzy on Millennial (Generation Y) consumers shopping online at home from their PC’s.

Could it be time for Black Friday to “Go Dark”?

Black Cats, Black Magic, and Black Friday … sounds like a threesome to avoid.

But untold millions will be lining up the day after Thanksgiving in the wee hours of the morning with steely-eyed focus and adrenaline pumping – all with the almighty bargain in mind.

Maybe it’s a gender thing, but while you might find me up at 5am to go fishing, you’ll never find me caffeined-up and ready to shop at that time of day. Maybe Black Friday is defined less by gender and more by the American way. We’re competitive and like to win. And, after a year of economic suffering like we’ve had in this country, you can’t blame consumers for wanting to taste even a small victory.

But as any coach worth his salt will tell you, winning comes at a price. Unfortunately, the price of playing the Black Friday game reached an all time high in 2008 when a Walmart worker was trampled to death by a mob of shoppers at a store in Long Island. The repercussions have been strong and retailers are taking steps to calm the crowds and bring order to stores as the holiday season kicks off this coming Friday.

Walmart settled the lawsuits that followed with a nearly $2 Million payout to victims of the incident. Concern is so high that even the National Retail Federation (NRF) has released crowd management guidelines for its members hoping to prevent future disasters.

Consumers seeking ways to get ahead of the game have options. They can check out Top 10 Black Friday websites to find bargains in advance, or they can just sit at home after turkey dinner on Thursday and watch “what not to do” videos on YouTube ranging from Stampedes at Walmart to Scuffles at Target.

Outside of the fun that some people associate with the crazed energy of Black Friday, I have to wonder if retailers knew what they doing when they originally promoted the concept. Competing on price only leads to a “death spiral” of diminishing profit margins. And since there is usually only one acknowledged price leader in a discounting category (ahem, Walmart) the rest of the retailing pack might be much better off taking a higher road to open consumer wallets in their favor.

There have been some really good articles written about the violence of last year’s Black Friday, and academics such as  University of Delaware professor Sharron Lennon are now studying the human behaviors that lead to such incidents. There is also a groundswell of voices encouraging consumers to “Spend time together, not money”.

All of this makes me smile when people ask if Loyalty Marketing programs work. Yep, there are some lame versions of the concept out there, and even the good ones could make use of their data to be more relevant to their customers. But as a business owner, it should be attractive to preserve margins, improve the shopping experience, and justify repeat business at your store without having to fake a “going out of business sale” once a month.  Data-driven Customer Strategies do just that.

I’ll bet there are some forward thinking people at the NRF and among larger retailers that could change the paradigm. Maybe the time has come to return a bit of elegance and class into daily shopping experiences, not to mention air travel. And, retailers had better consider the impact of promoting mass shopping frenzy on Millennial (Generation Y) consumers shopping online at home from their PC’s.

Could it be time for Black Friday to “Go Dark”?

Earlier this year, I blogged on Loyalty Truth about the Ford Fiesta Movement. As you may recall, the Ford motor company gave new Fiesta automobiles to 100 social media-savvy drivers for six months—hoping they would post videos and blog about the Fiesta, to build some buzz around the car’s early-2010 launch.

I really hadn’t heard much about the promotion since then, probably for good reason. None of the participants are within my social media universe and a search of Google News reveals the Movement has gotten scant post-launch coverage from the offline or online press, aside from a few well-placed stories.

They popped up on the TV show Extra when host Mario Lopez helped launch the Movement’s “Social Activism Month” by donating items to a local charity while riding in a 2010 Ford Fiesta. They also placed a new Fiesta with a writer from Motortrend who made the equivalent of a head nod to the Movement while taking the car on a successful 600-mile trek through the mountains of Utah and Colorado.

Yet, while each of these stories gave the 2010 Fiesta some valuable press time, none featured any news about the participants themselves. What were those 100 Fiesta Movement social media mavens up to?

As it turns out, the 100 so-called “agents” in the program are not hard to find. Ford hosts a Fiesta Movement Web site with links to all 100. There are Live Feed pages that selectively highlight the latest tweets, videos and blog posts provided by the program participants. And a quick glimpse of these pages makes the program look like a buzz-worthy success with constant updates pouring in. It’s all Fiesta all the time!

But this got me wondering: how was this social media experiment working in the real world? Might I be exposed to the Ford Fiesta Movement message if I never visited the Ford Web site but was a quasi-follower of one the Movement agents?

As a quick test, I began looking specifically at about a dozen different agents’ blogging sites. What I discovered is that I had to do some real digging (or in this case, scrolling) to find news about the Fiesta or the Movement.

That’s no surprise really. The 100 agents in the Fiesta Movement were chosen because they already had a social media presence. And it appears that most involved are again writing about the things that made them Movement-worthy in the first place. The extreme spots dude is again writing about extreme sports. The hip-hop girl is out clubbing again. And just like in the real blogging world, one guy has seemingly packed it in, without a single post on anything in over 3 months.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with this lack of Fiesta news, as Movement participants themselves have reported they are under no pressure from Ford to comment favorably on the cars. (Although there does appear to be an attempt by Ford to “sponsor” conversations, as one agent blogger mentions picking up 8 points for a new post.)

Still, I imagine the folks at Ford are feeling a little underwhelmed by the participation of some of the chosen 100. I also wonder if Ford’s 100 agent pool is deep and wide enough to reach beyond a small sliver of what I perceive to be the millennial target market. With hundreds of thousands of bloggers and video posters on the scene these days, it strikes me there’s a certain self-centered, party-on sameness to the Fiesta Movement agents.

But, bottom line: I think we have to give Ford an F-250 truckload of credit here for going where no other major marketer has gone before. This truly is a groundbreaking effort and a sign of things to come. More and more, social media will be used as a customer acquisition tool and will be every bit as important as other online and offline efforts when it comes to launching a major product.

Looking ahead, I see two key questions that still remain to be answered:

• Will the online activity turn into offline success? Despite its noble effort, I’m wondering if the Fiesta Movement has made a big enough impression for a national product launch. Will it really deliver bodies to the showroom? Ideally, Ford is on top of this and is already getting a read as to whether this experiment is working or not. I also wonder if it wouldn’t make sense to feature the participants in more traditional advertising efforts, including print, banner or TV spots, that tell people about the Fiesta Movement and point them to the site.
• Was launching the program a full year before product launch a bit premature? While the new Ford Fiesta is already the number two car in Europe, it won’t be released until early 2010 here in the states. And with the promotion scheduled to be over by late 2009, I wonder if they should have started the effort closer to the car’s release date. By early next year, the Fiesta Movement’s many tweets, blogs and video and picture postings may already seem like old news.

Look for another update to come in a few months.

Regardless of your hobby, profession or even your belief system, these days it’s easy to find a group of people just like you. Go to online community organizer Ning and you’ll discover over 1 million communities, for everyone from sand volleyball enthusiasts to landscape architects to supporters of the Kwam Um School of Zen.

Now it seems more and more companies are getting into the act, especially those focused on the Gen Y (Millennial) market. From game maker Xbox to the Vans shoe company, companies with true-blue followings have created thriving online meeting centers where the devoted can exchange ideas, discuss products, solve problems and even schedule meet-ups.

But while social communities can work for some brands, it definitely feels like a stretch for others. So upon learning that Allstate had joined the fray with its Good Hands Community, I was skeptical. After all, who wants to join a community sponsored by an insurance company?

Yet, even before looking at the site, I saw how it might work—if Allstate didn’t stray too far from its core area of expertise, insurance. The Good Hands site could be a place where customers could engage with agents on insurance issues, from making sure they had the right coverage and deductibles to learning how to adapt policies to life changes like a new car, new house or new baby.

But the folks at Allstate appear to have set their sights on a much wider mandate. As the Good Hands Web site states, it’s a community where you can “share your thoughts with others about hopes, dreams and challenges. Together you can share ideas about keeping families safe, saving money and preparing for what’s next”.

The community home page feels a little more down-to-earth with menu categories that include “Making a Difference”, “Daily Spending” and “Personal Finance”, and discussions on “helping others” “stay-cations” and “living debt free”. It’s all well intentioned, but the topics feel a little off-base for Allstate and better suited for the Peace Corps, AAA or Capital One respectively.

For auto insurance policy holders, there is a category on “All Things Wheels”. But I can’t seem to find any discussions on auto insurance, as posts are concentrated on issues like checking my oil, being alert at the wheel and hybrid automobiles. How about helping me figure out how much collision I should carry on my 8-year old Saturn?

The other thing that doesn’t feel right is there is not an insurance agent to be found on the Good Hands site. You see, the chief bloggers and hosts of the community are Allstate employees Ben and Amit who are both identified by the title “Strategy and Content Manager”. No offense guys, but I think Allstate policyholders would prefer to communicate with honest-to-goodness insurance agents.

So overall, a kudos to Allstate for the effort. It’s a nicely designed site that really is trying to engage with current and potential customers. But let’s not forget, you’re an insurance company. And with so many potential communities for people to join these days, it feels like Allstate may be stretching its good hands a little too wide.

Final note: For a company that does an online community right, check out Intuit. Its Intuit community connects customers with small business owners and features discussions hosted by Intuit-sponsored business professionals. The Intuit community keeps the focus where it belongs: helping small businesses succeed.

Tom Rapsas is an independent Creative Director, Writer and Strategist. He can be reached at tomrapsas@gmail.com.