My 5Qs with Tameka Kee

I wanted to share with you an interview I did with Tameka Kee from Digiday Daily on my new position at BuzzLogic.  Check it out by following this link digiday:DAILY – 5Qs with BuzzLogic’s New CTO

Here is also the copied text for your reading enjoyment

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How do I turn social media buzz into increased sales? I know who my “brand ambassadors” are, but are there ways to influence them more directly than with a Facebook fan page? These are the kinds of questions that brands continue to ask their agencies, as social media becomes an integral part of every marketing campaign. And for John Donahue, BuzzLogic’s new CTO, leaving the agency side of the business seemed to be the best way to help his peers — agency execs — find answers to those questions for clients.

With over 12 years of experience in business intelligence, technology and analytics, Donahue (pictured) has a distinct read on the kinds of data that brands need to answer the “what’s my ROI” question. Having most recently served as the global head of client solutions at Omnicom Media Group (OMG), he’s also well aware of the challenges and opportunities inherent in agency culture.

Donahue oversaw the development of OMG’s social media measurement strategy, so digging into BuzzLogic’s technology — which mines blogs and other social sites for consumer “sentiment,” and then lets advertisers buy targeted inventory — was a natural segue. We chatted with him as he settled in to his first week at the S.F.-based social media analytics and technology firm, to find out why he had to leave Madison Avenue to help better connect it with Silicon Valley’s social insights. 

DIGIDAY:DAILY: With so many agencies developing their own social media listening and other online analytics practices, is there room for companies like BuzzLogic in the market in the long-term?

John Donahue: Definitely. Look at what Omnicom CFO Randy Weisenberg said at the BMO Capital Markets Conference a few weeks ago: Technology is changing so fast, and the agencies don’t necessarily want to invest in it when there are partners they can turn to that are already vested in the development. That goes for everything from demand-side platforms (DSPs), to social media listening and tracking tools.

But, there are agencies developing their own DSPs, among other things.

Yes, and that’s in response to a new data-driven media-buying market. Agencies are going to continue to develop some technological capabilities in-house — they have to — but most are white-labeling existing platforms at best. For example, with the DSPs, most of the holding companies outside of WPP are just white-labeling established ad-buying platforms. Will they also invest in social media listening and targeting, in an attempt to create an “uber-platform?” Maybe. But companies like BuzzLogic close the gap between just having social media insights, and having a platform to actuallydo something with those insights.

So how does BuzzLogic do that?

We offer paid media execution in earned media inventory. So, we find the 40 blogs that are key influencers for a specific brand or product, and then give the agency or the brand the ability to buy inventory against them.

Typically, it’s difficult for clients to get to this inventory on their own. It’s difficult to assemble 30 or 40 blogs on a media plan, for example — especially on the longer tail — and know you’re reaching a specific influencer group if you’re using a categorical ad network. It’s also inefficient. BuzzLogic takes social media “insights” out of the realm of just information — customer sentiment, brand affinity, brand loyalty, purchase intent — and lets them act on it.

Blogs and “buying influence” on them got Pepsi and ScienceBlogs in hot water recently. What’s your view on the community response to the idea of sponsored blog content?

Without passing judgement on Pepsi or ScienceBlogs, I’d just say that what BuzzLogic does is very different. That wasn’t a brand buying inventory around a blog to continue or start a conversation, that was a brand trying to develop content and live as the consumer voice. And those are two very different things.

It’s not in our interest to disenfranchise ourselves from the bloggers that we sell inventory for; encouraging a client to try to compete with them with their own content would be doing just that. We say, sponsor the already available inventory, and I think its influence in a much more subtle fashion, but with a clear ROI.

Moving forward, what kinds of new products and platforms can we expect to come out of BuzzLogic?

We will be focused on a few things. One is to continue take this trove of data — all of the archived editorial from our blog partners — and integrate it into the agencies’ creative, planning and buying processes. Agencies are always changing their processes based on the client. It makes sense, because they’re trying to fit in with the company they’re representing, but that’s not always efficient. We want to be able to give them the most efficient way to apply social media insights across brands, and be able to buy inventory accordingly.

We’re also focused on more qualitative studies; giving brands a read on how buying this media impacts metrics like brand affinity and loyalty. And we’re also working to deliver better analysis of three key questions: Why should I care about these conversations, what do I do to influence those conversations, and then how well did my efforts to influence it pay off.