With temperatures climbing into the eighties, beer ranges among people’s favorite drinks. Drinkers of Warsteiner’s Premium beer mixes will discover something special these days: Within each six-pack there’s a €10 voucher of DeinDesign.com. With their vouchers, beerdrinkers can purchase DesignSkins by DeinDesign - uniquely designed vinyl covers to protect and customize their electronic devices or furniture. Victoria Chirita – Founder and Sales Director at DeinDesign – is convinced that this marketing strategy works for her company: „This is a powerful brand-building tool. People who wouldn’t pay attention to our product in the internet or on TV, can suddenly be reached when they buy a beer.“ But Berlin-based DeinDesign who is the market leader in its niche also uses TV for brand-building: They started television commercials with different brand names on pro7, rtl, viva, mtv and dmax. Victoria explains why this is really worth it for her startup: „Our product is very visual – when people see it on TV, they just type in the domain and buy it because it’s not that expensive.“ Victoria finds TV to be „a great tool to do marketing and to build reach“, but would personally focus on offline marketing: „I don’t mean the normal print thing – do something different. You can work with great cooperation partners which you would never have thought about before...“ All of Viktoria's videos from the next conference 2009 can be found in the next09 category. To watch the namesakes in an earlier interview (in German) please click here.

Anybody interested in using social media in banking and financial services shouldn’t miss Darius Miranda’s presentation and the discussion following it. Although Wells Fargo with its team of 250.000 employees has been one of the first US banks to blog, they’re not saying „we’re the best at social media", "we’re doing it right" – "but we are doing it really thoughtfully and with the costumer in mind“ says Darius. The head of internet services of Wells Fargo’s wholesale division talks about the company’s approach to B2B social media, various Wells Fargo blogs, Best Practices for costumer engagement as well as the new site „Wells Fargo Business Circle“. Some of Darius’ hints are „Engage compliance and risk management from the beginning“, „Know your audience“, „Test your social media tools in house first“, „Encourage three way conversation and be transparent“ and last but not least „Share the human side of business“. To learn even more about Wells Fargo and its focus on costumer, please watch Viktoria’s interview with Darius Miranda from the next09 conference. All interviews from next09 can be found here. Please also note that Tiburon-TV is media partner of the next banking conference on June 16, 2009 in Berlin.

„Zaghaft und oftmals unbeholfen, wie ein Kind das gerade laufen lernt“ – so beschreibt Thorsten Hahn, Geschäftsführer des bankingclub.de, die Versuche deutscher Banken und Sparkassen, die modernen Tools des Social Media Marketing zu nutzen. Dabei müssten die Banken gerade jetzt in der Krise ihre PR-Maschinerie auf Hochtouren laufen lassen, um Vertrauen zu schaffen: „Leider verharren viele Banken in der Deckung, statt sich anfassbar zu machen und mit den Leuten in Kontakt zu kommen“, bedauert der Diplom-Bankkaufmann. „Banker müssen sich über ihre eigene Firmengrenzen hinaus austauschen können“, betont Thorsten. Der BANKINGCLUB bietet Mitarbeitern von Banken, Versicherungen und Finanzdienstleistern ein solches Forum. Mit 46.000 Mitgliedern rangiert der Club mit seiner XING-Gruppe mittlerweile auf Platz 7 und wächst laut Thorsten „wie Schaum“. Der Banker ist überzeugt, dass es für den Ausbau von Netzwerken kein besseres Business Development Tool als das Internet gibt: „Wenn man heute ein Netzwerk wachsen lassen will, dann bedient man sich des Internets. Plattformen helfen dabei, Netzwerke sichtbar werden zu lassen und die Verknüpfungen der Mitglieder aufzuzeigen.“ Darüberhinaus bietet der BANKINGCLUB zahlreiche Live Networking Veranstaltungen mit Club Abenden, Kongressveranstaltungen sowie einer BANKINGLOUNGE an. Nischenanbieter wie die quirin bank mit Honorarberatung und die Fidor AG mit Banking 2.0 sind für den Bankingclub-Geschäftsführer wie „Nadeln, die die Branche braucht, um zu ihrem tradierten auf den Kunden fokussierten Banking mit modernen Ansätzen zurückkehren zu können.“ „In den letzten Jahren haben wir uns mit Investments und Produkten, die kein Mensch verstanden hat, vom klassischen Banking wegbewegt“, findet Thorsten „diese Art von Produkten brauchen wir nicht, ebenso wenig wie die damit verbundenen Risiken. Was wir dagegen dringend brauchen ist mehr Kommunikation mit unseren Kunden.“ Veranstaltungshinweis: Next Banking Konferenz am 16.6.2009 in Berlin mit Tiburon-TV als Medienpartner. Alle Interviews von next09 findet Ihr hier.

Obviously Renato Valdés Olmos loves different kinds of hats (he wears a summer style hat in this interview and a pretty stylish winter hat at his interview from AWS Amsterdam) and is professionally interested in multiple identities ;) The founder of My Name is E explains: “Mynameise.com is a cloud service that manages multiple identities. People can create any business card they want for each situation they’re in and select and exchange these immediately between any mobile phones. It works all through the browser so you don’t need to download anything“. The Amsterdam-based startup will be offering native iPhone and Android applications very soon and is focussing on getting its API out. Renn believes that competitors Poken (click here for an interview with Poken’s founder Stéphane Doutriaux) and mingle360 „have great products and are actually good for us since they opened the market for personal sharing devices. When we started pitching the idea 2 ½ years ago, people didn’t really feel the need for a service that would manage and share multiple identities. But we operate out of a different kind of philosophy: E is about the cloud service around it. We provide our users with a selection of tools to connect. So we start out with sharing contacts but we want to be your gateway to the world.“ Mynameise monetizes its products and services on three levels: First, on an end user basis by implementing pro features like brandable business cards. Furthermore by offering B2B solutions: The web service in the back end can connect to corporate CRM systems and corporate branding can be added to both software and hardware. Last but not least, they sell their highly compatible connector hardware which stores around 265 contacts. Anybody need a connector for the next conference? Prices range between €5 and €10 and can be purchased at sales@mynameise.com All of Tiburon-TV’s interviews from next09 can be found here.

Laurent Burdin is Managing Director at SinnerSchrader, Germany's leading interactive agency, and one of the organizers of this year’s next conference which is all about the share economy: „We’re always trying to choose a theme which is a bit ahead of time. Behind the share economy is the fact that the internet is getting more and more complicated. People or companies want to share things to simplify them. Especially in this moment of crisis sharing things from one consumer to another or sharing platforms from one company to another is a good way to get stronger for the next step after the crisis.“ Laurent finds that the culture in Germany is changing slowly but surely: „All the banks are opening up to social media – they are careful about, but they are definitely progressing. The German Sparkasse with its website gut-fuer-deutschland.de is a case which is very well done. We as an agency are helping companies in having a look at what is Twittered and what’s happening on Facebook and blogs. By the way, the blog is not always the best solution. When you start blogging, you have to continue doing it – this can be very uninteresting for companies...“ Laurent recommends instead using social media for real time marketing: „The old habit is to do your marketing, put your message to the consumer and have him swallow it. The digital revolution changed all that – once the marketers have understood that, you can do a lot of things. Start with a Facebook group of two persons, ask questions and have people participate - then extend it and make it a regular thing. From that, progress and see what the reaction will be...if the users are not happy, we just let it go – but this is where you can start the pump.“ All of Viktoria’s interviews from next09 can be found here.

Few banks are now using social media tools like blogs and wikis with the notable exception of Wells Fargo. "The World's Safest US Bank" does social media to listen to the voice of the costumer: „We want to show the human side of the bank and blog about human interest stories along with banking stories“ explains Darius Marinda of Wells Fargo’s Wholesale Internet & Treasury Solutions team. „We encourage our costumers – middle-market and large corporations - to join the conversation. They do have a lot to say and they like it when we listen. They’re not only responding to us but also to each other – this three-way dialogue is awesome.“ Darius adds: „We think there’s a lot of learning to be done through sharing. We’re very fortunate to have support from our executive management about using social media tools. If done right, social media can help any type of industry, especially financial services companies. It helps companies to align their products and services to be better for their costumers. Another way that companies can use social media is to help identify people within their company – like identifying subject matter experts or people with certain passions. It is one way to connect with other employees.“ Some of Wells Fargo’s goals for its blog is education, online security as well as risk management. The San Francisco-based bank also offers live in-person events like customer advisory councils as well as global payment conferences that are geared toward learning about costumers’ needs and giving them the chance to interact with each other. „We like to be transparent“ Darius points out „and we like to hear both the good and the bad. If we make a mistake we’ll admit that...“ Hopefully, other case studies of other banks will follow... All videos from next09 can be found here.

Jeff Jarvis’ book „What would Google do?“ isn’t really about Google but about the major changes that we are going through right now both in society and in the economy. Jeff - who describes himself as "a post-9/11 hawk“ since he was one of the first to report on the aftermath at the World Trade Center attacks – finds „the best way to look at those changes is through the lens of somebody who has figured it out – and who has done better than Google?“ He points out that „Google built a platform for others to succeed. That’s not the way companies did it before – they tried to own and control everything...Google also changed the relationship with its public: When it releases a beta, it’s saying this product isn’t perfect – help us finish it which necessarily leads to collaboration. Companies never acted collaboratively before.“ But Jeff also says „Google is not perfect – they expect us to be transparent, and they’re not so transparent.“

Jeff finds that „out of this financial crisis the opportunities for startups to take over entire segments of the industry are incredible.“ He thinks that the mass is replaced by a mass of niches with three kinds of opportunities going forward: Platforms, entrepreneurs and networks. He also believes the great lack of trust across the banking sector has to be re-established by creating ultimately transparent banks: „We are going to see new kinds of banks open up that people can trust – you can see the beginnings through things like Kiva and prosper.com.“

According to Jeff, there are a few areas that Google hasn’t conquered yet: „One is the whole idea of a live web – on Google they really only understand the value of content once it’s had time, that’s why Twitter is so interesting and so potentially valuable. Secondly, Google organizes our information but there’s also the opportunity to organize us – whoever manages that, wins. The third is local: It’s really important to get us down to that level of what’s right around me right now – that’s a huge potential. Google hasn’t won those things yet, but it could...“

Please also watch Viktoria’s interview with Martin Recke, conference manager of the next conference 2009. More videos from next09 will be shown here in the days to come.

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Wells Fargo started using social media tools like a wiki in 2005. They have a huge social media based intranet. Also in 2005 they started blogging on three blogs, one about market vision and leadership, next about experiences with customers and the third about feedback from the customers. They now have 12 full-time bloggers at wells fargo!
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www.tiburon-tv.com
www.twitter.com/vik_t

- Posted using MobyPicture.com