Last week found me back in Johannesburg listening to the inimitable Charles Foster, CEO of Millward Brown South Africa, as he reviewed the last 25 years of advertising in that country. The combination of 25 great TV commercials and Charles’s enthusiasm for his subject made for a very enjoyable experience, and also highlighted a point that has been emphasized recently in two of our Points of View: Sometimes ads that resonate well with a local audience simply do not make sense to people from other countries and cultures.

I have just returned from South Africa, where I attended a Millward Brown global conference for senior management.  At the meeting I met new colleagues from around the world and reconnected with others I have known for years. The experience reminded me that I am privileged to work with a diverse and talented group of people. It also reminded me of the phrase I first heard from Brian Fetherstonhaugh (the chairman and CEO of OgilvyOne Worldwide): “Relationships are wine-enabled, not web-enabled.” No matter how well you know someone and how many emails you exchange, without face time your relationship will weaken across time and distance.

Over the last week, about one in ten visitors to mb-blog.com have come direct from Twitter. Apparently  my recent post “Are marketers creating a social media bubble?” attracted some attention in the Twitterverse, and this led to an unprecedented surge in visits to the blog. While this level of attention is  very welcome, it will just be a temporary blip unless I can continue to provide content that interests these new visitors. And that poses a dilemma. Do I post what you want to hear or what I want to say?

Last week I published a post titled “Big is Beautiful for Social Media.” What I did not say in that post  was that the same principle - the advantage of being big - applies to viral video as well.  If you want to hit critical mass with a video (generally considered to be 1 million views or more) you need both great creative and wide dissemination.

I also posted on this topic back in 2007 (click here to read), but since then we have uncovered a lot more evidence that mass marketing is necessary for viral success.

While at the Corporate Image and Branding conference in New York City on Thursday, I was lucky enough to hear a presentation by Bernd Schmitt. The thesis of Bernd’s presentation, that successful brands think big and innovate in ways that disrupt the status quo, is hardly new, but his delivery was very engaging. In one almost throwaway line he suggested that it was “narrow thinking” that resulted in the financial bubble that catapulted us into the Great Recession. This was a great segue to my presentation because I think that very similar narrow thinking is creating a social media bubble today.