Why ad agencies should learn about Springpad

Springpad re-imagines how sharing and discovery should work.

If you are a regular reader of Fuel Lines, you know that I am a big fan of Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer (formerly Chief Creative Officer and Chief Social Media Officer) at Mullen. Edward was among the few creatives to understand the importance of social media as an active practitioner. He has led his agency by example.

I’m honored to have Edward share a new social media platform through this guest post that will help your agency and your clients.

Over the last five plus years we’ve seen the emergence of numerous new social platforms change how we market, distribute content, and engage with our consumers. The smartest, most forward thinking ad agencies jumped in early. They introduced their clients to Facebook long before its users numbered in the hundreds of millions. They incorporated Twitter into marketing plans when most agencies were still asking, “huh?” And they did the same with Instagram and Pinterest long before they became the “app of the month.”

As a result, they successfully built their social business, added revenue and won new clients.  In some cases they built entire agenciesaround the idea of using the platforms, understanding their potential and educating clients in how to use them.

At Mullen, we did all of that and more. And as a result we now have a healthy standalone social media business as well as a digital offering that leverages all of the above, creating paid, earned and owned content across most of them.

Personally I am a huge advocate of trying out the new stuff. I play with it, use it, get inside it and think about how it might help both the agency and our clients. That thinking has recently led me to Springpad. (Note that I have been enamored enough with the technology for a few years now to the degree that I joined the board and am currently acting as interim CMO.)

Now that I’ve dispensed with that disclaimer, I’m here to suggest that you play with it, too.

Simply put, Springpad is a platform and app that that lets people discover, save, share and act on the things that matter to them:  movies, books, recipes, tasks, destinations.  Because its format is a “notebook,” Springpad makes it easy for users to record and access the content they save. Because it’s social,

Springpad lets people discover and share with others whose interests are similar. And because the platform automatically provides users with relevant information about everything they add to a notebook – alerts, offers, prices – it saves them time and money.

Perhaps of equal importance is that Springpad users are expressing both their interest and their intent, creating one of the first platforms where brand and marketing content will actually be welcome and embraced, able to be delivered only to those who can benefit from information or offers.

What does that mean for brands and marketers? A number of things. One, this is a platform where you can post content and it might actually be welcome. Better yet, you can use Springpad to demonstrate your expertise by sharing not only for own stuff, but useful information from other sources, organizing it all in a notebook that offers up a gift of knowledge for your users. That might help you identify mutual interests you share with customers. Or it might be a new way to get people interested in your brand. Ideally, should they express that interest, by “springing”something into one of their notebooks, they’ve essentially raised their hand and you have an invite to market to them. After all, if someone says they “want” to own a particular camera, or book or piece of furniture, chances are they won’t be resistant to receiving an offer or a price drop, both of which can be automated via alerts and updates that are far more user friendly than the typical email. The process saves you from spamming or targeting demographics or friends of friends who, just because they share certain characteristics with your existing customers, may have no interest at all in your products or messages.

There are other advantages, too. Platforms like Springpad assure that your content is persistent. Rather than disappear in the never ending stream, notebooks are always there — findable, searchable, usable and, of course, mobile friendly.

True, Springpad doesn’t yet have hundreds of millions of users.  But you don’t go there for reach, at least not yet. You go there to learn new and hopefully more effective ways to market using the interest graph versus the social graph. And perhaps to impress your current and future clients with your willingness to explore the new stuff while it’s still new.

Mullen is a four-time winner of Adweek’s New England Agency of the Year. In 2011 the agency was named to Ad Age’s A list as the third best agency in the country. In the same year, Fast Company named Mullen to its top 10 innovative marketing and advertising companies.

I would invited you to read Edward’s blog, creativity_unbound  and follow him on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and  Springpad