Never get out of the boat

Thursday, June 25, 2009

ritz crackers

Ritz Crackers (or rather the ad agency) spotted in comments on YouTube that viewers were trying to find out the name of the tune in their TV ad, but couldn't find it online or on itunes etc.

This was because it was a 30 second 'song' commisioned for the ad.

Ritz then responded by posting another vid explaining that they would turn the 30 second tune into a 3 minute song if the video achieved 10,000 views.

The song would then be available for sale on iTunes with all proceeds going to the artist.

They also invited the fans to a competition to create the itunes artwork.

Here's how it went...
Watch them in sequence.

thought on Demons and Primeval biting the dust

Earlier this month we heard that ITV was in talks with SkyB about switching its ad-funded digital channels (ITV2/3/4 etc) to subscription, meaning they would no longer be broadcast on Freeview.

Poor ITV are looking into this as a result of of the worst advertising revenue downturn since it launched in 1955.

Add to that the news this week that ITV are cancelling prime time shows Demons and Primeval. Stephen Armstrong in the Guardian calls it 'A budgetary ice-age...sweeping through UK television'

It's a shame that the crash in ad revenues means that less proper programming is going to be produced, and it's the viewers that have to suffer because the networks have been too slow to look at their business model.

But why should advertisers feel obliged to prop up commercial tv channels when it is patently clear that there are now far more efficient and measurable ways to reach with their customers?

marxism

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

theory of value

A bit more on Japanese educator and philosopher Tsunesaburo Makiguchi mentioned in the previous post, and whom I’ve been reading up on lately.

Makiguchi reckoned that the ‘lifelong happiness’ of students to be the goal of education, rather than simply churning out ‘knowledgable’ citizens.

His philosophy toward developing the value-creation potential of students can be summed up as being that each individual has the inherent ability to significantly influence the world (should they decide to) based on the notion of interdependence - between humans and the environment and also humans in their ‘social relations’.

Makiguchi said that the creation of value as the ultimate purpose of human existence, ie a happy and fulfilled life is one in which the ability to discover and create value has been fully realised.

According to traditional Western philosophy, Value is made up of three elements;
Truth, Beauty, and Good.

Makiguchi's theory of value, however challenges the notion of ‘Truth’ as a value.

For Makiguchi, truth is found in the ‘correspondence between an objective reality and the words and concepts applied by humans to that reality.’

In other words, value is ‘relational’.

To illustrate this, think about the a news report of some incident or other. The news report itself is either true or false.

But the truth or otherwise of the said report is independent from the concept of value, ie the value lies in its positive or negative impact on people's lives.

Makiguchi considers truth a matter of ‘qualitative equivalence’.

Value must then be viewed as the 'relational power of the object measured by the quantitative response of the subject'.

So value is derived from the interaction between humans and their environment. It’s relational.

So Makiguchi proposed a different three elements of value.

'Beauty' (or it’s opposite, Ugly?) relating to sensory response.

'Gain' extends and expands the total experience ('loss' is obviously the flipside).

'Good' is the ‘social’ benefit (ie in the same way that gain is to the the individual ('evil' being the b-side of that).

This philosophy of value, therefore, is an invitation to engage with and create beauty, 'gain, and good.

In this way individuals, organisations, networks or brands can create ‘potentially limitless value’.

Yeah?

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

value creation #124

This one is from Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944), Japanese philosopher and education theorist, who identified the 'central purpose of education as the creation of Value', formed around a belief in the unlimited potential and creativity of every student.

His emphasis on independent thinking and self-motivation challenged the authoritarian Japanese establishment of the early 20th C. They did not like that.

Among his proposals was one for an educational system combining time spent in school, home and the community, 'each of which had responsibility for a specific part of the educational task.'

This was back in the 1920's but still seems pretty innovative thinking today.

He noted; 'Humans cannot create matter: what we can create, however, is value and value only. When we praise persons for their "strength of character," we are really acknowledging their superior ability to create value.'

This mini-snippet inspired by Neil on Making Money from Social.

Mark McGhee versus the forces for mediocrity

I spent last week having a break back home in God's own country. The day we arrived up in Aberdeen was the same day that my beloved Aberdeen FC appointed Mark McGhee as the new manager. The same McGhee that pulled on the famous red shirt from '78 - '84 or so during the glory years of the mighty Dons domination of both domestic Scottish football and European competition (and referenced many times in this journal).

Much excitement among the faithful, as you can imagine, for those who were around during that golden period and for those for whom it is folk lore passed down through the ages.

Successive Aberdeen managers have found it difficult dealing with that legacy and the supposed 'expectation' of the fans as year on year we have slipped from the top and relinquished power in Scottish football to the great unwashed (C*ltic, R*ngers). So it goes.

But what really irked me was the coverage in the local media of the appointment, principally the comments of the 'director' of football, Willie Miller.

The ink was barely dry on McGhee's contract when we got a stream of 'managing expectations' quotes from Miller - and other directors - basically indicating that the fans should not get too excited, we have no chance of ever winning the league again, the best we can hope for is 3rd spot and maybe some success in cup competitions.

I'm reminded of this nugget from Mahatma Gandhi, which I've quoted previously in this blog.

“Carefully watch your thoughts for they will become your words. Manage and watch your words for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions for the will become your habits. Acknowledge and watch your habits for they will become your values. Understand and embrace your values for they will become your destiny.”

To Mr Miller and co. Be certain. If MEDIOCRITY is all you expect to achieve then that is exactly the best you can expect.
What is most disappointing is that you, Mr Miller, were also part of that team that dominated Europe in the '80's. I very much doubt that Sir Alex Ferguson told that team you were part of to settle for 3rd best.

Hopefully Mark Mcghee is made of sterner stuff. He did a couple of seasons at Millwall, after all.

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it”
Michelangelo

Now bring on next season.

Monday, June 22, 2009

the future of magazines

How Magazines Can Survive the Digital Age

An interesting take on how magazines can survive, and thrive, in the digital age by Canadian digital marketing chap Jason Dojc of sociallymediatedlife.

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

The Coltrane Manifesto

Coltrane famously described his jazz as ‘a whole expression of one's being’.

If we agree that content, reputation and behaviour are also definitions of the brand it’s clear that things the brand does are more important than just what they say.

Customers are paying with their time and expect communications to be interesting,important and meaningful. If it’s not they will simply switch off. And move their business.

With purpose comes value and while we are still in the early days of the social web we’re certainly not in the early days of customer service.

The Coltrane Manifesto
A Love Supreme – (Customer service in 3 movements)

# Part 1: Acknowledgement
Value the customers’ time, attention, data, needs and opinion. Cut the up sell and cross sell pitches at every turn.
Let your customer talk and demonstrate that you are listening by thanking them, rewarding them and solving their problems.

# Part 2: Resolution
Answer their email, phone calls, and other messages as quickly as possible. Even if just to say, “we will get back to you within 5 working days’
And using some sort of auto-response robot does not fly. Human talk to Human.

# Part 3: Pursuance
‘the continuance of something begun with a view to its completion’
In a campaign or acquisition mindset there are peaks of activity then it all goes dark until the next campaign.

Think about committing to your customers and the lifetime value of these relationships.

'We run our warehouse 24/7, which is actually not the most efficient way to run a warehouse, but it gets the shoes out to the customers as quickly as possible. So a lot of people will order as late as midnight and we do surprise upgrades for our weekly customers and so a lot of them end up getting it eight hours later on their door step and that just creates the whole wow experience and it drives that repeat customer and word-of-mouth behavior.' Tony Hsieh, Zappos.

A Love Supreme -‘a whole expression of one's being’.

Monday, June 08, 2009

why digital matters

Why Digital Matters

This is my current 'roadshow' presentation which we take out trying to plant a few seeds amongst those who are starting to dip their toes into digital marketing/advertising. Hopefully debunking a few myths and showing that the best practice in digital marketing is essentially the same as offline.
Start with permission and purpose, then it all falls into place.

It's a featured pres of the day on slideshare, thanks to all who 'favourited' it.

Friday, June 05, 2009

9 nuggets on email marketing

Things should be a simple as possible but not any simpler, as Uncle Bert used to say.
Following these nine steps makes it as simple as possible to be able to email some people about your stuff.

If you can't be bothered with the ppt the 9 steps are:
# 1 Only send emails to people who have opted in to receive them.
# 2 Only include stuff the person has asked to hear about.
# 3 Be consistent with your mailings. Weekly, monthly – or as agreed with the recipient
# 4 Your messages should come from the name of a person. And keep it consistent.
# 5 Get the timing right. To be safe: know your customer.
# 6 To avoid spam filters ask recipients to add you to their contacts list
# 7 Always include both text and an HTML versions.
# 8 Go easy on caps or exclamation marks. They will trigger spam filters.
# 9 Encourage people to opt-in at every other touch-point.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

And not the words of one who kneels.

An important, yet often forgotten, point for marketers to note when building brand platforms, brand experiences, communications strategies, tactics and whatever, is this: 99% of the time no one really gives a shit about you.

All I care about is me. MY opinion. MY data. MY privacy. MY preference. What's in it for ME? Why should i pay with MY attention? When are you going to listen to ME? You want permission to talk to ME?

I'll only share something if it says something about ME. If it makes ME look good, or there's a something in it for ME. Does this product or service fit in to MY life somehow? If I can do it MY way then I might be interested. Humans are pretty much always motivated by self-interest and selfishness, even in what seem to be acts of altruism.

Even when people choose to help others, they do so ultimately because of the personal or reputational benefits that they expect to obtain, directly or indirectly.

[The pic - poor Sid, God rest his soul - is the slide I am starting to use in pressos to illustrate]

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

herd

Mark Earls should just show this video as his next presentation and be done with it.

People like do do what other people are doing. And if it's enjoyable (and authentic - thanks Giles) in some way - and the behaviour is easy to copy - even better.

HT to @sorl for the tweet.

UPDATE: Benjamin Ellis has a more in depth analysis on this over at redcatco blog.
'the very thing that causes the majority to join, will cause the innovators to leave and go to dance with someone else'

boredom

It's a sad truth that in many organisations the marketing is actually controlled by the legal department. As a result decisions are taken (or avoidance of any meaningful decisions) based on compliance with certain internal policies, with scant recognition of what's happening out in the world.

Yet despite having nothing of value to add, a lot of money is still spent saying nothing.

The inevitable upshot of this is total boredom. For customers , employees and everyone else.

I quote this nugget from Doddsy

'...the corollary [of saying nothing, if you have nothing to say] is the redeployment of some of the time and money you would have wasted by making a song and dance about nothing. A redeployment towards examining the pressing question of why your business is so uninspiring to you, let alone your potential customers, that you find yourself having nothing to say.'

The other oracle,Guy Debord says: 'Boredom is always counter-revolutionary. Always.'

Or in a meta sense, you know the scene is very hum drum.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

a digital media discussion starter in 9 tweets

digital media discussion starter in 9 tweets

View more OpenOffice presentations from eaonp.

This is the discussion part (end bit) of a pres I'm taking out to clients, or prospective clients. Whiles away 20-30 mins easily with lots of audience input.

Monday, June 01, 2009

monday morning nugget

Friday, May 29, 2009

Cassetteboy vs The Bloody Apprentice

Seriously, just about pissed myself laughing at this. Total genius by cassetteboy.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

5 step structure for your presentation

Structuring presentations for maximum impact - there's plenty of theories out there - the Guy Kawasaki 10,20,30 rule is popular.

I like this one (it seems to work) for short high impact presentations, which I learned recently from an ex-film director who came in to give us a few pointers.

It's a five step plan (satisfies the first rule of blog club too - lists are good!).

It's grounded on this methodology: A.R.M.E.D.

get the party started...
A - Get their attention – big intro can do this (think: Bond movies - big action scene piques your interest before the narrative unveils, Jaws is another good one) or perhaps a controversial statement, whatever it is; make it a big bold one.

next up...
R - Make it relevant – follow up section should describe specifically why the intro piece matters to your audience.

then cut to the chase..
M - Your central message - (should contain IQ rational + EQ emotional triggers)

back it up...
E - Give an example – how have eg: competitors done this? Or how have we done this successfully for another client?

then to round up...
D - What we want them to do? (Always leave them with an action step – ie follow up with the cheque(!), or: let's all go for a beer next tuesday sorta thing)

What do you reckon?

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

any excuse

A popular parlour game amongst my fellow countrymen (Scots) - when England are involved in the World Cup - is to try and predict how many seconds into the TV commentary go by before someone mentions 1966 (usually less than a minute).

I'll have to eat my own dogfood and confess that every time Manchester United (and Sir Alex) are involved in a European final it is only a matter of a few nano-seconds before my mind wanders back to that night of May 11th 1983 in Gothenburg, and the scene of Fergie's greatest European triumph as Aberdeen destroyed Real Madrid to lift the European Cup-Winners Cup.

Good luck tonight United.

note: is it tempting fate to display this pic of Fergie with Mark McGhee, bearing in mind the managers office at AFC is currently vacant?...

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

influence vs popularity part 2

In 1967 the biggest selling (ie most popular) album of the year was More of the Monkees.

Extremely popular, but ultimately throwaway tat.

Also released in 1967 was The Velvet Underground's first album 'The Velvet Underground and Nico'.

The mighty Velvets never troubled the top 100 album chart with this, or any of their subsequent albums, but nigh on every one of the brave 10,000 or so souls who made that step and purchased went on to form their own bands or become painters, gimp gear clad whip dancers or artists of some description.

The 'influence' of the Velvets can be felt as it permeated right through much of the important non-mainstream white music from 1967 to this day. I don't need to list them here.

But the point is that the true measure of 'influence' is what happens next. How the idea propagates through networks. How people adopt an idea to go and do something with it.

But we can only identify this with hindsight.

In 1967 nobody knew that the Velvets were going to be influential. They were one of many New York groups that emerged as an antithesis to West Coast hippiedom. Their influence was only apparent later on.

...note: As a young art student in 1984 my Velvets album was a permanent 'under arm' fixture - as signal and, of course, as a 'social object'...

Influence can only measured by what people do as a result of exposure to said influence.
And it's usually only visible after-the-fact.

Case closed

influence vs popularity part 1

Without wishing to add to the never-ending noise about social network 'influence' ranking - as calculated by how many 'friends', connections one has and how many other users read and republish material - there needs to be a distinction between true influence and simply popularity.

Many self-annointed 'influencers' main point of influence seems to be the endless postings of tactics for gaining more followers on twitter. Whether the is any real value in amassing huge networks is moot. If this empire building does not propagate the spread of any purposeful idea then it's pretty meaningless.

The stamped of brands on to Twitter hoping to get celebrities to re-tweet (in the interests of 'influence') is really no different from any other bullshit celebrity endorsement in any other broadcast media (except it is 'free media' of course).

Having said that, here's a good, simple twitter influence idea from @Penguinbooks.
Penguin followers were encoraged to tweet 140char book summaries using the #shortpenguin tag and direct their tweets @penguinbooks.

Penguin then retweet the reviews to the whole network.

Why this is good...
Penguin facilitates discovery - the rest of the network see the short versions and maybe decide to investigate further - and connectivity through sharing - the potential for members of Penguin's network, ie accidental influencers, to connect with each other based on interest.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

hungry like the wolf

Google are playing ball with Wolfram 'semantic' search thingy anyway...
Good spy by Scott in the office.

Monday, May 18, 2009

usability

I heard somewhere that here's only two questions about usability.
1. Did you get what you wanted?
2. If 'no' why not?

This weekend we went shopping down to Gunwharf Quay in Portsmouth.
This usually fills me with dread as any potential enjoyment is tempered by the two hours spent driving at 5mph round the multi story car park before we even get to the shops.

No more...

Some bright spark has made the car parking experience much more satisfying with the adittion of two simple usability measures.

fig. 1
On entering the facility a green or red light (X means full) at the side of each lane indicates how many (if any) spaces are available in said lane.
Thus heading off at the pass any pointless manouvering up and down lanes and the inevitable rage resulting from lurkers who fill up the lane waiting for spaces to become available.

fig. 2
Red (filled) or green (vacant) lights above each space indicate which spaces are free in the particular lane.
See a green light at the end? fill yer boots.

Simple bit of user friendly service positive.
Happy parkers = tills ringing in Baby gap et al.

Friday, May 15, 2009

VW YouTube mosaic

Google describes YouTube Mosaic as 'a visually impressive eye-catcher which improves the session length and exposure time of the brand channel's visitors. Therefore it makes Youtube a more attractive social media platform for brand advertisers.'

This new format has premiered on the VW branded channel to present the videos which were sent in by users for the German 'Volkswagen Movie Star Contest'.

The mosaic picture shows a red VW Golf which is build out of 400 videos (interpretations of classic moves - I've spotted Braveheart, When Harry met Sally and Terminator) that were uploaded by fans, and in which a VW car plays a leading or supporting part.

Nice bit of tech and ,of course, the now obligatory #connect with fans.

Special thanks to Michael Gross, for finder services and translating the German.

view from the trenches...

Splendid new in-office vista behind my desk courtesy of our Head of Art @trainhitsboy.
Shirt by Duffer, hair - model's own.

On the actual desk, books - model's own (apart from Chomsky, one day I'll give it back Sam...), Swearbox (au naturellement), daily reminder on why we are doing this courtesy of Gaping Void (I can't afford a print so photocopy will have to do), daily reminder of why I exist (pics of MrsP and my wee boy - blurred to protect the innocent). Emergency packet of Kool-aid also present.

I've shown you mine, now you show me yours...
David, Neil, Katy, Stan, Jamie?

If you can be arsed joining in, tag it 'view from the trenches'.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

10,000 hours to rock and roll

To reach the top of your game spend 10,000 hours honing your skills, according to Malcolm Gladwell.

The Dolls have done that (and some) - that's why they are, despite their bus pass qualifications, the kick-arsest most rock'n'rollest gang in town.

Careerist popsters take note.

Hey Jon Howard - you and me know it!

service positive

Remind me to quote spiritual rationalist, philosopher, musician, thoelogian and all round good egg, Albert Schweitzer, the next time i hear things like:
How do we exploit social media?
How do we leverage that community?
How do we target influencers?
Where is the ROI in utility and service?

"I don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I do know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve."

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

mike arauz's 5 rules for digital agencies

A new business model for digital agencies? We've been loving this article 'A new business model for digital agencies' by Mike Arauz from Undercurrent New York (seems he is a colleague of our other current fave rave, Bud Caddell).

Mike has encapsulated nicely some of the same things we have been talking about round Geronimo towers for a wee while to avoid the pitfalls of what David Armano described as 'The Wheel of Marketing Misfortune' and principally the dangers of 'death by big idea' and stuff like 'flashturbation'.

Here's his 5 point plan summarised:

Rule 1: If it can't be done quickly and cheaply, it's not an option.
...you should be able to launch up to 20 small digital experiences each week.
(me - lofty goal - but keep 'em 'on-point' and it's do-able)

Rule 2: Make a lot of pots.
'A ceramics professor comes in on the first day of class and divides the students into two sections. He tells one half of the class that their final grade will be based exclusively on the volume of their production; the more they make, the better their grade. The professor tells the other half of the class that they will be graded more traditionally, based solely on the quality of their best piece. At the end of the semester, the professor discovered that the students who were focused on making as many pots as possible also ended up creating the best pots, much better than the pots made by the students who spent all semester trying to create that one perfect pot.
(me - yep, i'll have that)

Rule 3: Sell ideas, not things.
When this agency pitches clients, you don't pitch one big idea, you pitch the first 10 small ideas...These ideas will each be designed to spread your message, attract the attention of your desired audience, build relationships, and compel action, if applicable.
(me - wahey! - totally)

Rule 4: Everything launches, the client gets to buy the hits.
No one can predict which idea is going to become and internet sensation. And not every potential hit will get approved by the client's legal or PR department. These concerns don't matter because you're going to launch every good idea you come up with...If they don't want it, the agency can either take it for themselves or kill it.
(me - straight out of 'screw it let's do it' - spot on)

Rule 5: Phase 2 - Everything is iterative.
Work on all of these select projects using an agile process, making small changes as you go. There's no finish line, there's just one improvement after another.
(me - your mantra should be 'test and learn, test and learn, test and learn...')

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

connect with fans revisited #3

When Public Enemy launched on a unsuspecting UK raver generation with 'Fight the Power' at the height of the (3rd?) Summer of Love in 1989, for many white kids outside of the bigger cities (certainly us in the north of Scotland) it was the first 'black' music we felt a direct first hand connection with.

Prior to that moment 'black' music, for me anyway, was kinda a 2nd hand experience.
Reggae via the Clash, Tamla via the Beatles, Ska via the Specials etc.

With PE there was no white equivalent.

A great ironic comedy moment in the Neil Innes Beatles 'spoof' movie 'All You Need is Cash' (featuring the Rutles) happens when the documentary reporter visits the deep south to interview delta blues legend 'Blind' Lemon Pie.
The 'blues' is described as 'black music - played mainly by whites'.

Here's a great sound bite from PE's Chuck D, talking about the fan-driven online music project Sellaband in this morning's Metro.

Sellaband allows fans to invest and connect directly with bands/artists they want to support.
'With as little as $10.00 you can support an artist and help them on their way to the recording studio. By buying a ‘Part’ for $10.00 you become a ‘Believer’ in an artist and if they make it to the studio, this first Part will make sure you receive a Limited Edition of the album you helped create.'

Shit name but great initiative.

As Kevin Kelly says in 1000 fans 'They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version.'
Chuck calls these fans 'believers'.

That led me to this excerpt from Hugh MacLeod's 'Hughtrain'....

'It's no longer just enough for people to believe that your product does what it says on the label. They want to believe in you and what you do. And they'll go elsewhere if they don't.
It's not enough for the customer to love your product. They have to love your process as well.'

Connecting with fans = believers.

Friday, May 08, 2009

marketing: helping people buy?

According to Greg Verdino's blog (from a few weeks back but I'm playing catch up in google reader...) an unconfirmed source claims '..in an early usage of the word, 'marketing' referred to a service that one person performed for another person'

So an offer to 'market for you' would mean exactly that. Go to the market and get your stuff for you. Or in todays terms 'I'm nipping out to the shops. Do you want anything?'

So marketing wasn't about helping a company sell. It was about helping people buy.

Greg explains:
'If you were particularly enterprising lad or lady you might have even found a way to earn your livelihood by marketing for others. Run out to the marketplace, pick up a few things for a few people, earn a pocketful of pence and -- voila -- you, my good sir, were a marketer.'

The way the web allows people to create and share content, thoughts, feelings and product/service reviews with friends and peers has resulted in a growing importance of word of mouth/mouse in the buying process, and its only going to get more important, as we all become 'marketers'.

To quote Seth:
'The future belongs to brands who can establish a foundation and process where fans can market to each other and ignite consumer networks.'

Figuring out how to reward this attention - from the customers who 'market' for you - then becomes a nice problem to have.

Footnote:
Bloke in the comments had a nice buddhist proverb to drop
'it is what we pay attention to that grows.'
- ie we should pay attention to customers first, because if they grow, we grow, our brand grows.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

gurus of new marketing #411 John Cage

Innovation nugget from 'avant-garde' composer, and pioneer of electronic music, John Cage.
Cage is probably most famous for his prepared piano pieces (ie its sound altered by placing objects inside the piano).

everybody smash up your seats...

This is the original shot taken by Pennie Smith of Paul Simenon, smashing his bass into the stage of New York's Palladium ballroom, that became the cover of The Clash 'London Calling' album (and certainly one of the most iconic images of the era)

Ray Lowry (Clash resident 'war artist' on tour) added the pink and green lettering in homage to the first Elvis RCA album and the linage was complete.
From Elvis via The Who (smashing instruments on stage) the dots were joined.

Marketing science bit:

By 1979 punk had become defined by the convention of angry 3 min songs played fast released on 7inch singles.

The Clash responded with a double LP (for the price of a single) mixing up jazz, reggae, rockabilly and soul. Not to mention a tasty line in Fedoras and 40's gangster chic.

An easier thing to do would have been to pander to the expectations of the audience and the record label and conform to the perceived idea of what punk was about.
By not doing that they defined the punk spirit even more.

And Sandinista was still to come...

Footnote: For some stupid reason I had it in my head that the shot came from one of the shows from legendary Bonds Casino residency, but that was '81, of course.
On a recent trip to NYC I made a pilgrimage to Bonds, just off of Times Square. It's still there but is now a pizza joint.

Thanks to Bud for the spy.

UPDATE: Just found The Clash YouTube channel.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

vid: real life twitter

Another twitter related post. Ups my twitternoise to signal ratio a bit so I promise this will be the last for a while.
Again found by Sam.
via collegehumor.com

It don’t mean a thing if it don’t mean a thing. Part 1

Couple of things about advertising/marketing via digital ‘channels’.

This will be a series of posts, possibly 10 as it’s a good number (maybe less, maybe more, we’ll see how it goes).

For those of us immersed in digital based communications (apologies for catch-all term but I can’t think of anything better) it’s second nature to strategise for digital around terms like interaction, relevance, advocacy, permission and engagement.

For others digital simply means things like display advertising, microsites, SEM and pre/post roll ads (or if you are feeling a bit more adventurous chuck in ‘viral’ video).

Many digital agencies simply turn above the line creative into banners.
They are missing the big opportunity.
We are supposed to be the ones who live and breathe this stuff.

The truth is that their clients (advertisers) are looking for leadership from their agencies. Particularly in understanding how people are using digital media. Because it’s the users themselves who are responsible for much of the innovation we see online.

Lets be clear on one point.
Online advertising was invented to serve the needs of media owners and sellers in order to monetise their spaces.

We have a duty to our paying clients to do the right things for them to solve their business problems not to solve media owners business problems.

Friday, May 01, 2009

tweet tweet biiitch

Total genius by Andy Milonakis and Koool Kojak.
Trainspotter props to Sam.

http://twitter.com/andymilonakis
http://twitter.com/kooolkojak

no fun for swiftcover

Interested to read that the ASA have given the Metallic K.O. to Swiftcover's 'Get a life' car insurance ads featuring godfather of punk, Iggy Pop.

Whoever The Idiot was that said Blah Blah Blah to the clause in the insurers policies that stated driver cover was NOT available to drivers in the entertainment business was certainly a Naughty Little Doggie.

Swift cover have now been forced to Search and Destroy all the ad material. The creative director responsible has been told 'Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell'.

On the upside, Swiftcover have subsequently implemented some New Values which now allow the insuring of musicians. The Stooges in the product development department can now Soldier on and no-one is going to Beat 'Em Up.

You see what I did there? <= that's plenty - Editor's voice

too cool for school

Thanks to the IDM for their kind invitation to partake of their diploma in interactive marketing. The envelope arrived today.

I wonder what they think they are going to teach me about?

It certainly won't be much about the importance of:
- Value of data
- Knowledge of customer,
- Relevance of message
or Permission.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

conversation on a train...

I'm sat on the train looking through the bits of twitter I've missed during the night from the West coast USA lot and my Oz posse (and the early morning UK) on my BlackBerry. Bloke sat next to me see's what I'm doing and starts up a conversation...

Bloke: 'Is that Twitter?'
Me: 'Yeah, I'm just catching up with what's been going on while I was offline'
Bloke: 'Who have you got?'
Me: 'Eh?'
Bloke: 'Who are you following?'
Me: 'Oh, ok. A bunch of people I know plus some geeks, and advertising/marketing types, that kind of thing'
Bloke: 'Yeah but which celebrities? Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross?'
Me: 'Erm....none. Hang on....Scoble?'
Bloke 'Who?'

Monday, April 27, 2009

growth category

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

digital connections : timeless marketing classics

Graeme Harrison has asked a few people to recommend their choice of the most important or influencial marketing related books for a series of posts at his blog digital connections.
Here's what i wrote...

Seth Godin: Purple Cow

I first encountered Seth Godin’s ‘Purple Cow’ around 2004, I think it had been out for a year or so. At the time I was working as Creative Director with an online gaming firm, I had a gut feeling that we were approaching both the design the marketing of our product from the wrong angle.

I was under pressure to conform the look and feel of our games to look similar to the other casinos and gaming sites and the press ads, online ads etc were just not delivering the traffic.

I knew we had to do something but was not sure what.

I was pointed to ‘Purple Cow’ by the manager of one of the local branches of a well know book retailer. He was a convert and had used the principles of Purple Cow to turn around the fortunes of his store the previous year. He had been voted store manager of the year at the company’s conference and also went on to receive industry wide recognition at the national book awards as bookseller of the year.

I’ll have some of that, I thought.

In a nutshell, Seth describes ‘Purple Cow’ as:

‘a manifesto for marketers who want to make a difference at their company by helping create products and services that are worth marketing in the first place. It is a plea for originality, for passion, guts, and daring. ..Today, the one sure way to fail is to be boring. Your one chance for success is to be remarkable."

Some say that Seth Godin can be too simplistic (the advertising plannersphere may look down it’s nose at him) I prefer to call him accessible.

Anyone can pick up this book and get something out of it., and it gives you a framework for judging the worth of an idea - simply ask yourself ‘why is this idea totally remarkable? Why would anyone bother to tell anyone else about it? Where is the ‘purple cow’ in this idea?

I’d like to be able to finish off the story by saying I used the cow to transform the gaming company from also-rans to world beaters. No such luck.

But reading this book was the first step for me in realising that it was not enough to just make pretty pictures, I had to get interested in the ‘reasons why’. I also realised that this was not going to happen in the job I was in so I quickly left (see another essential Seth title ‘The Dip’).

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

gurus of new marketing #239 - arsene wenger

Good one from the ever quotable 'le professor' in this mornings Metro...

Monday, April 20, 2009

i wish i was a nine inch nails fan

The latest in a long line of disruptive, innovative, 'connect-with-fans' initiatives from the nine inch nails people.

NiN:access is a simple iphone app which (amongst other things) not only connects NiN to their fans, but CONNECTS THEM TO EACH OTHER. It's location-based tech, via google earth, means fans in specific geographical areas can connect. See below. Sandwiches are a hot topic in post-grunge land ;) So what, it's up to them.

Found via chrisbrogan.com - he says 'Location plus peer-to-peer interactions = a huge win'.

We agree.

Now if only the music was not such a godawful racket.

Friday, April 17, 2009

behavioural targeting = spammers delight

Here’s why I am extremely skeptical over the idea that behavioural targeting is anything other than spammers flavour of the month.

Out of curiosity I attended the IDM seminar on ‘Emerging digital trends’ last night at The King’s Fund over in Cavendish Square.

The first speaker up was a chap called David Walmsley who is head of ecommerce for UK department store, John Lewis, his presso centered around behavioural targeting as the secret to their success with e-marketing.

The idea of behavioural targeting is that by collecting information about people’s activity online - web sites they visit, what they click, time spent, following their travels round the internet. etc - marketers can make decisions on how best to target advertising, email etc at them.

Aside from the issues of privacy (Phorm et al) - these have been well documented elsewhere, most notably by Sir Tim Berners-Lee - so I won’t go into them here - I doubt whether, for advertisers, behavioural targeting actually delivers any better than any other form of interruption based marketing.

What I found most ironic was that John Lewis’ brand is built solidly around it’s customer service. In the physical store the real-time human interaction with the staff is some of the finest to be had on the UK high streets. I’m a big fan and regular customer.

Would it not make sense for John Lewis to spend the time and money to connect that human interaction and service onto the online experience rather than spend on elaborate interruption robots?

David even admitted that at Lewis’ they have not figured out how to make that connection between customers in-store visits and online visits.
And their e-crm mechanic is still based on that old chestnut segmentation.

Even for high value big spending customers.

A real future trend in digital marketing is the seamless integration of people’s on and offline lives. Behavioural targeting does not address this.
It still adopts a brand to consumer messaging approach. One to many.
Ads is ads is ads. The key is permission.
And the object of permission is to build personal relationship, which leads to high value customers. Not just in value of spend but these people are the ones who will tell the story to others.

Traditional advertising holy grail was about showing the right message to the right person at the right time. Behavioural targeting is just another fangled technologically advanced trick to attempt the same thing. Except creepier.

If anything it actually accomplishes less than traditional broadcast advertising. On a very basic level, how does it know who is using the computer, for instance.
In any home there is likely to be more than one user.

In broader terms it does not know why I am visiting any given website.
I might spend a week researching underground Croatian hip hop for a magazine article I’m writing. While I'm being stalked what kind of ads are going to be flung at me? And for how long?

Where is the relevance there?
At least SEM is relatively contextual as it’s based on intention - I’m potentially in a funnel.

Bah, humbug.

Thursday, April 16, 2009

gurus of new marketing #238 - joe strummer (rip)

Classic Strummer-ism from circa 1976 as far as I can glean.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

'advertising not dead' shocker

It's a popular misconception that the bbc does not feature advertising. Of course it does, it's just that it only advertises it's own products.

This advertising is effective because contextual and relevant - and it's also permission based.
Albeit the level of permission is low. At best it's at the second rung of the permission ladder - 'brand trust' - but mostly it's at that first level of 'situational' permission.

For the same reason the ads in Vogue magazine or GQ (or even something like Fisherman's Monthly or whatever) are permission based.
The ads are integral to the content - and in the case of fashion mags they are part of the reason these mags are bought in the first place.

If i'm watching Waterloo Road, a good bbc drama, I'm more than happy to see the trailer for the new series of Ashes to Ashes, for instance.
In fact I am actually interested, which is good news for them.

Bad news, though, for the advertisers on commercial networks because they are no nearer solving the permission challenge than they were on day one.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

self confidence #2 : henry ford

Some of his politics were a bit muddled but you can't argue with his one-liners.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Touchscreen Turntables

It was inevitable that touchscreen technology would eventually extend its searching tendrils into that most tactile of activities.

Rocking 'da' house on the wheels of steel.

As a club dj of some repute/infamy - back in the day - this was of particular interest.
My description above of said disc jockey-ness will indicate how far back in the day that was...

This digital touchscreen deck was premiered as part of the Picasso & His Collection exhibition at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) of Brisbane, Australia.

'...the brilliance of the turntables lies in the linking of a platter taken from a Numark HDX deck with an intuitive touchscreen. As the platter spins, the user is able to manipulate a range of adjustable filters onscreen to build, rearrange and reinvent the MP3 songs on the drive. While relatively easy to pick up and play, the turntables also possess a steady learning curve, letting the more committed and ambitious users create works of intimidating aural dexterity.'

Hat-tip to Becky in the office who found it at coolhunter.

Pattie Maes - the 'Sixth Sense'

Ive watched this through 3 or 4 times and I'm still loving it.
Pattie Maes' TED talk on 'wearable technology' that enables 'interaction' with objects and environment. I'm supposing this is kinda connected to Kevin Kelly's 'internet of things'- another great clip from the TED archives.

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

out to lunch : mastercard

When neither your brand manager, ad agency or media agency recognise that - in your dumb press ad in today's Metro - 'Britain' does not mean 'England'...WORTHLESS.

Ok, lip-service paid to the Welsh, but that's all it is...

Thursday, March 26, 2009

we're in a viral!

Not much to say other than this is total subversive genius.

the average person...

Leonardo Da Vinci describes the average person as one who “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness, inhales without awareness of odor or fragrance, and talks without thinking'

Pretty much the definition of mediocrity.

As opposed to the outstanding boogie-tastic person who sees the possibility in everything, feels deep in their soul, walks Spanish down the hall, eats, breathes and drinks-in everything life and asks themselves 'is the world a better place because I opened my mouth and spoke.'

Ask yourself every day which one you are going to be.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

garden of tweetdom - the origins of twitter

The Garden Of Tweetdom

View more presentations from The Kaiser.

Genius from Marcus, as premiered at the Garden of Tweetdom last month.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

permission marketing revisited

I enjoyed this thought provoking aricle; Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet - by Eric Clemons, on techcrunch this week.
excerpt:
'Pushing a message at a potential customer when it has not been requested and when the consumer is in the midst of something else on the net, will fail as a major revenue source for most internet sites. This is particularly true when the consumer knows that the sponsor of the ad has paid to have this information, which was verified by no one, thrust at him.'

Clemons argues that advertising fails for 3 main reasons:

1. Consumers do not trust advertising
He quotes from Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational - a firm fave at Boat HQ...
'messages attributed to a commercial source have much lower credibility and much lower impact on the perception of product quality than the same message attributed to [non-ad sources].

Neilson's assertion that 78% of us trust peer recommendations above all other media backs this up. I use that chart in just about every presentation.

2. Consumers do not want to view advertising
I'll come back to this point in a minute.

3. And mostly consumers do not need advertising
No arguments there.

As it goes, Ive been re-reading Seth Godin's Permission Marketing in the last week or so while developing some ideas for a client eCRM programme and these two strands seem to intertwine.

To recap on Seth's premise, and I paraphrase...

The effectiveness of marketing directly corresponds to the level of permission the customer has given to receive the communication.
The level of permission we have - Combined with knowledge of customer and relevance of messaging - allows us to deliver 'anticipated, personal and relevant' messages to people who 'actually want to receive them.'

We don't start by asking for sales at first connection. We earn the right, over time, by developing our knowledge of the customer and increasing the relevance of our communication.

3 Steps to leverage permission
1. Offer the customer an incentive/reward to opt-in
2. Using the attention offered by the customer, inform about your products/service and build a relationship.
3. Over time, leverage the permission to influence customer behavior.
Benefits

One of the key benefits of a permission approach is the low cost of getting information to the people who want to receive it. Email, RSS and social platforms mean we can treat customers as individuals, and it means we can let them choose what they receive and in which format.

It is more effective because the person is more receptive to marketing that they have chosen to participate with and more cost-efficient because the prospect has already identified themselves, and the data we have tells us know which level of permission we have to talk to them.

note: see Clemens' point above about 'push'.

Seth's Five Levels of Permission Marketing

1- Intravenous.
This is the ultimate level of permission. The brand who has this level of permission can make buying decisions on behalf of the customer.

2. - Personal relationships
When we have a personal relationship, we have an ongoing dialogue. We have permission to ask more personal questions, recommend other products, even offer products or services on ‘approval’

3. - Loyalty/Points.
Air-miles and Nectar points are examples of this level of permission People opt-in to these programs because of the benefits to them. They offer their personal data to allow us track their purchase history and to send them related offers and information.

4. - Brand trust.
This is the level of trust that traditional marketing aspires to. Brand trust is fickle however, and is hard to measure. You can use brand trust to create brand extensions, or cross sell other products.

5 . - Situation.
This is the most basic form of permission. A customer has initiated an interaction by purchasing a product or making an enquiry. Employees who deal with customers and prospects are the tool to use for situational permission eg ‘Do you want fries with that?’.

I've switched points 2 and 3. Since 1999 when Permission Marketing was first published I think the developments of the social web etc validates moving Personal relationships up the ladder.

So, in a Permission based programme every contact with the prospective customer, should seek to move them one step further up the ‘permission’ ladder.

In many of the subsequent writings following the publication of PM it has been alluded to that their still requires that first 'interruption' to kick start the journey up the permission ladder. Generally that would be the role of some form of advertising.
It does not have to be in the form of an interruption though.

Going back to Clemons' statement that 'Consumers do not want to view advertising' I would argue that this is potentially a bit bold.
Advertising that someone has chosen to view (or participate with) is then permission based. It's how that advertising is distributed that is key.

And as Uncle Bert says: doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result - is insanity.

Friday, March 20, 2009

reasons to join

Oasis singer Liam Gallagher has launched his own line of clothing via his new company Pretty Green. Nothing particularly remarkable about that, although this kind of brand extention is more common in the hip-hop world rather than UK lad (or is it dad?) rock.

What caught my eye on the home page of the site was underneath the sign-up option was another link 'reasons to join'.

Reasons to join.

Members get to comment on Liam's blog, have their questions answered via video and of course get first dibs on the product before anyone else.

Connect with fans + Reason to Buy = Business model.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

They say Rome wasn't built in a day, but I wasn't on that particular job.

It is probably the best book about football i've read, here's hoping the movie lives up to it.

If the trailer is anything to go by the answer looks like a yes.

The Damned United tells the story of legend Brian Clough's short but eventful spell at the helm of Leeds Utd (at the time, the most hated team in England - ouside of Leeds) in the 1970's. Starring Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, and Jim Broadbent, the film is on release from March 27th.

There's a Facebook page with some choice Cloughie-isms and a few pictures too.

Friday, March 13, 2009

SMEBS alert: Twitter Power: How to Dominate Your Market

The latest in snake oil douche-lit for prospective twitter-spammers.
Just by the title you kinda know where this is going.

'Joel Comm is the leading social media expert to explain the fundamentals of Twitter in an easy-to-follow format.'

Never heard of him.

The foreword is written by veteran of 115 tweets, Tony Robbins

Thursday, March 12, 2009

unavoidable media!

Jeez. These media agencies and media owners (aka the axis of evil) never tire in their endless quest to INTERRUPT and ANNOY ME when I'm trying to get on with my life and FLEECE MY CLIENTS with bullshit measurement like 'millions of..' 'eyeballs' and 'impressions' etc in order that they buy into this bollocks.

'You can't go over it, you can't go under it, you can't go around it, you have to go throught it' FFS!

I honestly thought this was a joke until I witnessed it for real at Waterloo Station this morning.

Go on, chuck your money down the drain.