The advertisement provides an example of how open journalism with and through digital social technologies could cocreate a news story about The Three Little Pigs, a fairytale first printed in the 1880′s. This is a story many of us maybe familiar with, where the three little pigs act to defend their home from a big bad wolf intruding into their personal social space.

The advertisement acts to imagine how a news story may be covered by open journalism. From the story breaking, to open source news reports of arrest activity, to crowd sourcing public opinion on justice for defending ones home. The advert is coupled with good theatrical effects from actors, an emerging narrative, and content that traverses social media contexts entwined with a crescendo of music sources.

The advertisement provides an example of the viral escalation a news story with and through social technologies. How the narrative fluid and evolving is socially constructed through a plethora of digital viral interactions. Those involved in sharing – sharing the story, sharing an opinion, sharing a digital artefact – traverse from ‘what was’ to ‘what could be’ to ‘what should have been’ to ‘why it was so.’

Very cleverly done to represent perhaps not what is so much the future, but in some instanced current open journalist practices.The digital social ways within which everyone – as open journalists, citizen bloggers, opinion givers and social sharers –  how we coexist with and through social technologies, crafting the story from multiple sources – official, informal, social, reactive, and in this … socially constructing it.

From one perspective, open journalism can serve to unlock what is the real story of the people, as evident in stories that have emerged worldwide. However, from this video I also came to consider Who is the big bad wolf? Who is intruding on the three little pigs personal social space? Is it the police? The journalist? Or is it us. Tweeters, bloggers, FB friends, curating our own version of events and sharing it with others.

The video left me revisiting my thoughts on OUR role as SHARERS with and through digital social technologies. A thought I fear we rarely reflect on let along talk about. Reciprocity is key feature of social interaction (be it unmediated – face to face, or digitally mediated). In this reciprocity is the in-kind positively or negatively connotated responses of individuals towards the actions of others. However, when we share with and through digital social technologies, sometimes we may not consider in the moment the effects or responses towards our actions. So I wonder:

What is our role in what we share, how we share it and whom we share it with. And as a consequence, what is our responsibility in the effect our sharing has on others.

“When you share about yourself, is your choice. When you share about others, it is your responsibility!”

Those that know me know I am an advocate for social ways of working, learning and living with and through social technologies. But I am also an advocate on how we learn as individuals and learn collaboratively to participate responsibly, with care and good intention with and through social technologies.

Kelly

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How important REALLY is online word of mouth? How could an online community of music consumers use social networks to oppose an international music franchise and make British music history?

‘Rage against the X-Factor’: it was real; it happened in real time, and it had a real impact!

CASE Insights reviews the music campaign launched by Jon and Tracey Morter from Essex who showed Simon Cowell that they, their friends and their friends-friends certainly have much more than the X-Factor.

The X-Factor is a franchise originating in the UK in 2004, devised as a replacement of Pop Idol. Produced by executive producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco TV, X-Factor is franchise spanning 24 European countries.

The format sees aspiring pop artists and performers drawn from public auditions compete, with finalists being voted for by the viewing public for a recording contract and publicity. Despite, being highly criticised as exploiting aspiring music artists and for it’s lack of artistic integrity, it has been a hugely popular reality TV show watched by millions.

The UK Christmas Number 1 selling single is Britain’s most hotly-contested music chart of the year. Compiled by the Official UK Charts Company, for the past 4 years Simon Cowell‘s X-Factor winners, from Shayne Warne, Leonia Lewis, Alexandra Burke and JLS, have dominated the Christmas charts. However, this came to an end in 2009 with one of the most exciting and anticipated music chart battles ever in the UK. The British public sick of the manufactured artists widely supported and promoted a social web campaign to ‘Rage against the X-Factor’.

Fed up with the possibility of yet another X-Factor Christmas No. 1., Jon and Tracey Morter from Essex, started a protest campaign through a Facebook Group. They promoted the sale of their favourite single ‘Killing in the Name’ by artists Rage Against the Machine (RATM) as a possible contender for the 2009 No. 1 Christmas chart position.

‘Rage against the X-Factor’: Through over 1 million Facebook fans, over 50,000 YouTube search results and endless Twitter chatter, individuals encouraged their friends, followers and fans to buy a download of the single by rock band, RATM by the end of Saturday 19^th December (23:59pm).

The aim: to firmly contest conventional marketing techniques by publicly bringing down a major players mass media campaign through online social networks and word of mouth (WOM). Jon and Tracey felt passionately and wanted to stop the domination of the Christmas music charts by X-Factor manufactured artists and in that make a statement about the power of online WOM and marketing ethics.

The results: ‘Killing in the Name’, the single by RATM, officially released over 15 years ago, spent very little on it’s marketing activities, yet in December 2009, in one week, they sold over 502,672 copies of it’s single, beating X-Factor winner Joe McElderry by approximately 50,000, making it the 2009 Christmas No.1 in the UK.

In taking the title for 2009, ‘Killing in the Name’ also set two new landmarks for the music industry. It became the UK’s first download-only Christmas number one and notching up the biggest one-week download sales total in British chart history.

This has been matched with numerous fake websites, dozen of mock twitter accounts, hundreds of new blog posts, and thousands of YouTube entries for the single – Killing in the Name. The No. 1 search result on YouTube has received over 12 million views and been rated by 40,000 visitors. HMV’s Gennaro Castaldo said “This is a truly remarkable outcome and possibly the greatest chart upset ever”.

The campaign also raised through Just Giving over £93, 000 for the charity, Shelter.

In response: RATM announced on 19th December 2009, that they will be holding a FREE concert, a massive ‘Thank You Gig’ in the UK in Spring 2010 to celebrate the victory of the people’s campaign.

Marketers (and Simon Cowell) can learn a great deal from this social web campaign and how reality TV shows, audience voting systems and mass media ratings are not necessarily reflective of wider societal opinion and consumer choice.

WOM has always been a very important channel in marketing, but now coupled with increased reach and awareness because of digital social channels, it is by far the most powerful channel in marketing today.

For the digital immigrant or newcomer and the marketing traditionalist, take note: “The RATM campaign shows that marketing through the social web is about being real, in real time and having a real impact!”

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