Never get out of the boat

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

your strategy is showing?

Call me old fashioned, but this put-down line often heard in the halls of advertising makes no no sense to me.

Your strategy is showing?

So what?
Surely that's the point of the communication.
Showing the strategy shows the reason why.
The strategy should be clear to see.

What if we changed the word strategy to purpose or philosophy?

If the brand has nothing of value to impart, stands for nothing, and nothing to say about anything other than itself then there probably is a case for not showing your strategy.

Principally because there is no strategy.
In that case you probably are relying on hoodwinking your customer or some other subterfuge.

In all other cases, i would suggest your strategy/philosophy/purpose is your STORY.

And that's the idea being advertised.

So show it.

Friday, March 11, 2011

appointment to tweet part 4 #twelevision

Back in August, we discussed the notion of appointment to tweet, and how tools like Twitter were turning out to be an unlikely savior of live scheduled broadcast television.

- Enhancing the ‘scheduled’ viewing experience making it more entertaining to watch ‘live’
- Making it interactive and social on a many-to-many basis
- Connecting fans with other fans

So...

Imagine if there was an app that helped you choose which channel and programme to watch based on the conversations happening around it?

A twitter based TV guide which showed you what was on right now, and who was talking about it?

While there are numerous apps that let you check-in to shows or movies, imagine if it worked on a hyper-local basis, using the actual TV guide for your area based on what was being talked about right now.

Channel surfing then becomes about finding the conversations not just the content.

Well, very soon you will.

Twelevision is coming to an app store near you in the next few weeks.
Australia only for the first wee while, then everywhere.

For updates from SXSW, where we have representatives pimping, follow @twelevision on Twitter.

You can also join us on Facebook, please do.

Or have a look at the demo vid in super HD on the Twelevision website.

The revolution will be twelevised.

Please let me know what you think.
I'll be pimping this to death, and telling the story over the next few weeks.

cheers.

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

one insight to rule them all

There's an old post on the @madebymany blog which discusses the possibilities of applying elements of Agile Software Development Methodology to 'agency' process.

Or un-process, if you like.

Their bent is obviously towards the more digital end of the spectrum but the thinking happily applies across the whole communications agency caboodle.

[Planning gets it in the neck]

'The obsession that so many planners have with identifying those 1-2"insights" is a constant source of bemusement. I don't know where the practice of boiling down sacred diamonds (almost mystical in nature) stems from, but it seems ridiculous..'

I've pondered this too for some time. Probably trying to boil my own sacred diamond.

In fact, they have distilled the thinking into a four step 'manifesto' a la the Agile Software development creed.

1 - Collaboration & conversation over strategy decks & documentation
2 - Simplicity of purpose over 'sacred' consumer insights
3 - Testing hypotheses over long-winded research & deduction
4 - Responding to change over following a plan

I'm buying all of the above but would probably argue that there is one insight that definitely does matter.

And one which benefits from remaining un-changed and un-iterated.

This is the brand insight.
And it alludes to, and expands upon point 2 of the above.

What is this brand for?

The following paraphrases Umair Haque in chapter 6 of The New Capitalist Manifesto.
[note: jeez, how many manifesto's can i have in one post?]

How does this brand/company and their product/service have a tangible, meaningful and eduring positive impact on people, communities and society?

How does it make us fitter, healthier, smarter and better connected?

What value does it create?

What is the dramatic difference it makes?

Crack that insight and decisions about what to DO and COMMUNICATE are easy.

One insight to rule them all?
That's the diamond that needs boiling down.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

art wank

It's more often than not that those micro-interactions - the small details - are the things that add the flavour to an experience.

The tiny bits. The nice-to-haves. The little hidden extras.
The extra 1% that makes it different and/or remarkable.
The extra 1% that the others don't do.

The personality.

The sparkle that separates the merely very good from the awesome.

The things you are likely to pass along.

That's why this little function on the ipod (the O) that you are given to guide you round the awesome MONA, the Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart tickled me.

Want the full critic-friendly details on a particular exhibit?
Hit the ArtWank button, obviously.

It could have just read 'info' and been ok.

[note: Delicate flowers who are likely to be offended by colourful language would be advised to steer clear of the subterranean underworld that is MONA.
There's plenty more and bigger confrontational material contained within.
Wee-wee and poo being recurring themes to name but two.]

MONA is the pet project of Tasmanian businessman David Walsh who commissioned architects Fender Katsalidis to design the museum, then filled the space with his own personal collection.

A mathematician by trade, Walsh made part of his fortune gambling (he cracked a formula that worked over and over) and built MONA on the site of the Moorilla Winery, which he also owns.

His fingerprints are all over that too, Moorilla also produce there own craft beers with the tagline 'not for bogans'.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

keynote day round-up #circusfest part 2

So after an action packed first session where would it go from here?

Enter Marvin Chow from Google.
The bulk of his hour was rather predictably a creds/pitch for Google Chrome.

Why did Google make Chrome?
According to their research people didn't recognize the difference between browser and search engine, and despite the rapid changes in the type of content being delivered down the pipe, browsers were essentially unchanged in 10 years.
You had to feel for him when all his technology went tits-up in mid pitch (laptop not plugged in, Chrome crashed)

He did have a few good soundbites.
- Ideas can come from anywhere - check.
- Focus on the problem you are trying to solve - check.
- Iterate, test, fail, launch fast, repeat - check.
- Get to market fast then iterate on the fly and react fast - check.

Next up Erik Vervroegen.
The worlds most awarded Creative Director, currently at Goodby, Silverstein and Partners in San Francisco.

Another creds pitch, really.

While his examples were all beautifully crafted ads, after the early sessions forward looking focus this really seemed like a step back in time.

In almost total opposite extreme, was token social media brat, Josh Spear.

An opening half hour consisting of Cat videos, LOLcats, Rick-rolling and the economy of virtual facebook goods and Farmville was not a great start.

I started to come around when he dropped a Henry Jenkins-ism on why we share.
The old holy trinity of Bond + identity + status.

Always goes down well.

He pulled it together in the end with the thought around 'what if' everyone who is mobilised and motivated to share pointless, if amusing, shite online could be mobilised to share stuff with value and meaning.

Wikileaks is just the same as 4chan but with purpose? - agreed.

Next up, Charles Wigley, Chairman of BBH Asia, but a planner by trade.
His pres, titled Anti-wind tunnel marketing summised that much of the insdustry talk differentiation but produce sameness.

In the trifecta of True + Relevant + Different - he argued that as an industry are we only doing relevant - hence the sameness.

Question number one should be 'Is it different?'.

He also had some good soundbites..

Brand leadership rather than followship - [me - yep, like it]
Look for brand, product, category as well as 'c*nsumer' insights - [me - for sure]
Take ownership of a point of view - [me - most important]
Look at the customers - there's leaders, followers and the rest. Focus on the leaders.

By this part of the day there were some tired eyes and ears, so it was probably the ideal time to wheel out the indefatigable, Rob Campbell.

I've already forgiven him for dissing a bit of our work in almost his first sentence.
If he bothers to look a bit deeper he'll realise this was both rash and WRONG ;)

In between pimping of WK, the nuggets were sprayed round the room scattergun style, all of them repeatworthy.
Here's the one's I managed to collect

- Our job is to attract people to brands
- Not everything about digital is positive
- Make products not just communication
- You can't solve business problems if you just do ads
- Dream bigger than campaigns
- Create culture not category
- Focus on prize not the medium
- Be culturally provocative
- Collaborate
- Take responsiblity for stuff
- It's not just about awareness
- Be brilliant
- Aim for the highest common denominator.
- People know what they want they just don't know how to say sometimes.
- Create fate not ads.

That was it for me. I missed most of Jose Cabaco of Nike who finished the day.

The key takeaways for me were around this notion of the middle way that seems to be emerging.
New media is not replacing old media, they are all transforming.
There's a place for all types of media in the advertising future, as long as each does what it does best.
By media I mean film, pictures, words.

On the question of ROI, it was a commercial creativity conference after all, I'll leave it to Agnello Dias, from Taproot to explain.

Did The Times of India sell more newspapers because they took a stand for something that mattered?

Maybe, maybe not.

But...

Doing what they did gave them the credibility to ensure they always would be the first invited into the room when something of importance needed reporting.

That's worth something.

keynote day round-up #circusfest part 1

Billed as the Festival of Commercial Creativity, Circus kicked off yesterday in Sydney, day one of a 3 day extravaganza culminating in the AWARD Awards on Friday evening.

There's a fair amount to cover so I'll cut to the chase.
Firstly, the lack of Australian voices (ie none) on keynote day was surprising.
I wonder if that was accident or design?

First up was Jeffrey Cole, from the Centre of Digital Future USC.
Jeffrey described how the lack of behavior tracking in the early days of TV has left big holes in our understanding of how big that disruption was.
His work with USC began around 1998 (correct?) to ensure the same mistake wouldn't happened when the next big communication revolution that came along, the internet, and to spot those trends and transformations early.
Jeffrey's research confirms the likely end of landline phones, newspapers and the current model of pay cable/satellite tv in the very near future, when internet penetration in any territory gets above 30% newspaper circulation declines.

And readers that die do not get replaced.
[Note: I remember the same conundrum may years ago when I worked on the Football Pools...]

Nothing new there but he had some other interesting observations around the things youth think then rethink as they get a bit older.

- They think they are not affected by brands and advertising (but try giving a kid a generic mp3 player vs Apple)
- They think unknown peers are trustworthy.
- They think email is for old people (vs Twitter FB SMS etc).
- They think UGC is better than professionaly produced content.
- They think they will stick with communities (but what ever happened to Friendster?)
- They think there is no more privacy so we should get over it.

[Note: Perhaps there's some social media experts well out of their teens (20's/30's/40's...) who still think this way?]

Over time he reports that these views are reappraised and some abandoned
Some stick forever.

- They do exercise total control over their media
- They don't see news coming from a newspaper
- They will never wear a watch
- They watch TV in places other than the living room
- They take gaming very seriously
- Mobile WILL SOON BE everything (smartphones are already outselling PC, tablets will soon follow)
- They are demanding real vs perceived empowerment

[Note: This is the convergence idea, in principle. New media doesn't simply replace old media, but transforms it]

All good stuff.

Next up was Agnello Dias the ex JWT Mumbai CD now running his own operation Taproot.

This was the highlight of the day for me.
I had honestly never heard of the work he did with The Times of India newspaper.
But hearing him tell the story of how a last minute pre-holiday brief for a minor press ad literally DEVELOPED into a mass movement for social change, that's still rolling was AWE INSPIRING.

If I'm going to be picky then there were one or two layers of cheese on top that could have been left off, but overall it was dynamite.
Won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 08 to boot.

Talk about stand for something your customers care about, this is it personified.

Jess Greenwood from Contagious was great as always.
Lots of examples that back up the convergence/crossmedia notion and the idea of continuous momentum, getting outside of the 'campaign' mindset.

Ina nutshell her pitch was:
Broadcast + internet + location + realworld = bingo
And think about projects not campaigns.

Exaples included Mini Getaway from Sweden (see below) plus Levi’s Braddock workshops, a great example of purpose-driven marketing.

All looking good up to the first coffee break of the day.
But what would follow?..

More in part 2, including a geezer from Google, Rob Campbell and some other stuff.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

bumpy johnson

'This is the problem. This is what's wrong with [America]. It's gotten so big, you just can't find your way. The grocery store on the corner is now a supermarket. The candy store is a MacDonald's. And this place, a super fucking discount store. Where's the pride of ownership? Where's the personal service?'

Bumpy Johnson, from American Gangster 2007

Monday, February 21, 2011

the customers are revolting : part 2 junior edition

...and as if by magic, this video nasty from PHD appeared on Charlie's blog, this morning, and is duly reproduced here.

I also offered that these 'children' would be far better off engaged in sensible teen pursuits, such as smashing windows and sniffing glue, than participating in this waffle.

They missed out the part about us wearing clothes made of bacofoil.

the customers are revolting

That's right. They stink.

For some time there's been the question around what the value of a facebook 'like' is for a brand.
Some would argue the case for zero, it takes pretty much zero effort or commitment for a person to click 'like'.

Tell that to the revolting customer though.

The notion in VRM circles around 'everyone is making money off consumer data except the consumer' may be coming up to bite sooner than you think.

And it's not just a theory rattling round academic corridors.

Take this comment from a brand 'fan' page.

'Your Fan page really sucks! you giving nothing & no reason why l will or others will want to click the [BRAND X] like button, just like any relationship eg. man meets girl, he would offer her may be a invitation for a free meal at a restaurant, in Your case [BRAND X] you should offer something like for eg. a % discount on your [PRODUCT A] or [PRODUCT B] that you cant get else where other than clicking your like button it dont have to be a big discount it just needs to be something to give reason for me and others to want to build any type of relationship with you..'

Marry that to this tweet nugget:
"Facebook is rapidly becoming the new Second Life for brands, a wasteland of shattered hopes and dreams"

But who killed Bambi?
Who made these revolting customers?

With facebook promotions and giveaways, bribery and coertion.
marketing took the view that we could buy fans and buy loyalty.

But it was never sustainable, and now, inconveniently, the revolting customers are demanding it.

The question now is; what is a 'like' worth to THEM.

That's right. They stink.
And now so does Facebook, as any kind of viable marketing opportunity.

Next.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

picking a fight: the NAB breakup

Know which side of the bed you are lying on.
Decide what you are FOR and AGAINST.
Stand for something your customers care about.
Find out who's IN and who's OUT.
Have a philosophy first, strategy second.
Have a mission not a proposition
Use each piece of media to do what it does best.
Make media slippy not sticky.
Be informal, entertaining but still serious.
Agitate.
Create situations.
Pick a fight with someone.

NAB have done all of the above as they call out the other Aussie Banks
with a multi-platform, cross media onslaught.

While not a social media campaign per se - in fact in terms of media executions it could be described as traditional - it's disruptive, provocative nature was designed to be a highly social experience.

Especially on Twitter, where we were number 1 and 2 trending topics simultaneously, for @nab and #breakup.

If somethings interesting it will get talked about. End of story.

Sample tweet..
@nab its childish, its immature, and I LOVE IT. this is why i bank with NAB #breakup

Like channeling Malcolm almost...

And my favourite bit of commentary so far, from Laurel Papworth:

'The challenge is, I don’t think even NAB understand how deep this campaign will go [me - yes, they do], it could change the face of marketing for some time to come. Viral ads, leaked tweets, developing story lines, we’ve seen before. But siding with the customer against their own industry was the smartest move they made. Let’s see what they do with it.'

See the rest of the stuff - piano players, helicopters, chalk drawings, spoof videos, public break-ups etc at the breakup.

For fact fans, Mumbrella did a decent roundup of the nuts and bolts.

Photo credits Nick Johnson and Aki Kimono via Monty Hamilton.

Monday, February 14, 2011

in praise of *suits (more on the future of advertising)

For the purposes of this musing, let’s just take it as read that everyone in the agency is a ‘suit*’ (we all talk to clients and represent the agency in some shape or form) to a greater or lesser degree.

As the future-of-advertising debate continues amid much huffing and puffing of hot air the odd flash of sensible thinking pops up here and there.

In Amelia Torode's recent article 'future of advertising" is utterly depressing' (don't be put off by the title, it's a reasonably positive assesment), she identifies 5 key pointers to a better way.

1. Smaller units
2. Madder people
3. People who don't know (or dare I say, care) about Snow Plough or Saatchi & Saatchi in the 80s
4. People who can find stories in numbers
5. People who don't work in the office

2 and 5 I could take or leave but 3 and 4 are the nuggets.
Also point 1 'smaller units' is probably open to misinterpretation.

One could summise that the traditional two person creative team is a small unit, however smaller units means bigger units in this case.
I'm a believer in the everything-happens-at-once method.
As in planning, data, technology, creative, production are all working from the get-go.

Each of the 5 points describes the attributes of people rather than of an organisation.
It matters not whether we talk about the ad agency/social media agency/digital agency.
All of the above, and other incarnations, are simply groups of people of various disciplines banded together to get things done in the realm of communications of one form or another (or many forms).

So, each of us ‘*suits’ has a some of the traits , as described in the 3 circles of the venn diagram below, which appeared to me in a dream the other night...

The sweet spot is right in the middle.
That intersection of creative (the ability to understand or make a creative idea, something of value) combined with the ability to understand why it matters (strategist) and then how it is made (geek).
The ‘geek’ part is loosely formed to include all aspects of production of a thing (be that film, code, origami whatever)

The other intersections are also good
a geek-strategist is valuable, they understand how and why.
the creative-geek knows what and how.
The creative-strategist has got the why and what down.
All good.

What’s not good is when people are one dimensional.
The one dimentional strategist gets lost in verbs.
A hermit geek gets lost in the mechanics, counting pixels or whatever.
The silo’d creative ends up sending biscuits into space or suchlike.

A place to start in disrupting ourselves may be to look at those intersections and see who lives there - and who lives in their own silo.

It's only interesting or useful when everything is connected to everything else.

What do you reckon?

Thursday, February 03, 2011

eTech magazine comes to the ipad #eTechApp

eTEch have been publishing an free online 'magazine' that rounds-up technology news, principally for the design engineer/tech community, for a wee while now, but have kicked up a gear with their, also free, ipad edition just released last week.

Makes much more sense to deliver this kind of content in a more interactive way, especially for non-geeky types like myself for whom getting my geek on is an occupational requirement yet not the thing I wake up in the morning champing at the bit about.

Get the app here, but for the content, at 200mb a pop it's a hefty download so 3Ging it is probably not advisable ;)

Good effort.

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

the sum total of all interactions part 325 #metlink

In another case of syncronicity, I firstly read this short sharp post from Doddsy on Making Things Better...

'Making good stuff from scratch is really difficult.
Removing bad stuff is relatively simple.
The former is to be encouraged, the latter is compulsory.'

Then shortly after, in an unrelated incident, the Metro breaks down in Melbourne leaving families with young kids stranded on Moorabin Station in 40 degrees with no staff on hand, no info, no replacement transport or taxis for more than an hour and no human beings to answer the phone on their 'service' line.

And here's what you get when you submit a customer service enquiry to their website.

'You will recieve a response within 7 business days, as each case IS CATEGORISED AND PRIORITISED'

Then this, 7 has turned into 10.

Useless.

They can, however, produce a fancy-dan iphone app.

the great cut'n'paste swindle - thx @zeroinfluencer

'Banksy’s work now reportedly changes hands for millions.
But he puts up his street art for free. Have you ever wondered
what would happen if you got your hands on one of these?
Does it mean you’ve found a winning lottery ticket or just
scraped some worthless crap off a wall?

Going up against the Art Establishment, Critics, Auction Houses,
Gallery Owners and Authentication Boards in a quest for the
elusive meal ticket, two filmmakers unwittingly gatecrash the
murky and protective world of Banksy.

“HOW TO SELL A BANKSY” raises questions of ownership,
authentication and the true value of art itself. Through all the
chaos and incompetence comes a modern-day, true-story,
crime-theft, comedy-caper.'

howtosellabanksy.com/

I'm a sucker for a bit of detournement, or at least gratuitous mischief making.

Thanks to @zeroinfluencer for the tip, and the post title.

Friday, January 28, 2011

when community produced content becomes part of the brand story itself

Every brand or company is effectively a living, breathing #transmedia social narrative, whether they like it or not.

And better for them if they like it.

This means you BMW Motorcycles.

So while the innovation department at BMW claim to '..turn spectators into astonished fans' by finding new fangled complex ways to burn their logo onto the eyeballs of unsuspecting strangers in the name of 'engagement' some of the greatest brand-building content development and storytelling is going on right under their nose, created by fans.

A key tenet of any transmedia narrative being community produced content that becomes part of the brand story itself.

This video was compiled by the son of a BMW motorcycle owner, telling his story of how he decided to restore an old 1958 BMW R-50 in tribute to his father.

Here's his description:

This is a photo story of my father's 1958 BMW R50:
Boy meets girl, gets married, buys motorcycle. Rides it for 60,000 miles and has accident when wife is pregnant with 3rd child. (me) Wife orders motorcycle to be taken off road until all her children are grown and on their own. One day when bike is moved to a different storage location, son sits on bike and dreams of being a Jedi Master like his father. Couple grows old together and bike is not ridden for 40 years. Husband is now a grandfather of 7 and married for 50 years, when he dies of a stroke at age 71.
Son looks over the old rotting machine and finds note attached to it from his father to him. Son decides to restore the old 1958 BMW R-50 as a tribute to his father. With the help of many friends, especially Peter Nettesheim, world renowned BMW collector, bike is restored to look even better than it did when it was built in Germany.

He even paid $1000 dollars to Pearl Jam's publishing company in order to use the Eddie Vedder track as his soundtrack.

If BMW have any sense they will be all over this, supporting and amplifying as soon as possible, and Eddie Vedder will be personally handing back a grand to it's creator, and playing guitar for him in his living room.

Thanks to Tommy for pointing to this brandchannel article.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

what the shit is and what the shit isn't part 2

Following last weeks Keith Richards quote around what the shit is and what the shit isn't I've been asked to qualify the statement.

As fortune would have it, a fine contrasting example has arisen which demonstrates.

Like Keith and 60's pop, I also can appreciate the shit even when outside of my genre.

Despite being the digital (sic) guy I can still love traditional brand advertising. If it's the shit, of course.

This new spot for PG Tips, kindly shared by Charlie and Rob is clearly the shit.

Character hooks, repeatable catchphrases (aaah, ta-daah), deep cultural resonance, ritual, authenticity, a thing/behaviour to copy!
Brand marketing 101 as the NEW brand marketing!

Contrast that with this grandiose piece of overblown spectacle wolf in 'viral' sheeps clothing from Heineken.

Jonathan Salem rightly points out on his blog 'Branding intended to prompt conversations about branding isn't much of a strategy'.

So, while one can easily see the advertising creative awards tumbling through the door of the agency, the question begs to be asked...what is this actually about?

Jonathan also points out, and I'm in full agreement, there is nothing Heineken about this film. It could be for any brand. A car, perfume or posh chocolate, you name it.

At the end of a minute and a half we are still none the wiser about what this means or what part of the Heineken story it tells.

Other than they have a lot of money to blow on talking to themselves about their imaginary self.

This simply isn't the shit, although ironically it probably thinks it is.

So there you go.

Monday, January 24, 2011

monday basics #2

As a serial under-earner, albeit in remission, this resonated with me and its inherent uncommon sense makes it this Monday's nugget(s).

The characteristics of the typical underearner, as outlined by The 99percent, channeling Barbara Stanny

Underearners have a high tolerance for low pay.
Underearners consistently accept low-paying jobs or jobs that pay less than they need, usually for the “freedom” it gives them.
…
Underearners are willing to work for free.
Underearners regularly give away their time, knowledge, and skills for nothing. They’ll work at no charge without thinking twice. Most of the time, it’s so ingrained, they aren’t even conscious they’re doing it.
…
Underearners are lousy negotiators.
Underearners are reluctant to ask for more, whether it’s to increase their fees or to request a raise. For some, it actually never crosses their minds to ask.
…
Underearners practice reverse snobbery.
Most of us harbor all kinds of distorted perceptions about money. Underearners, however, tend to have a particularly negative attitude, particularly toward people who have it. Many will tell you they don’t like the rich.
…
Underearners believe in the nobility of poverty.
At the same time underearners are spurning the wealthy, they are singing their own praises for surviving on so little. Many of them take great pride in barely eking out a living, as if it’s more noble and respectable to be one of the poor. Not only are people with money bad, they think, but so is money itself.
…
Underearners are subtle self-saboteurs.
Underearners unwittingly throw banana peels in their own path in all sorts of ways, like applying for work they’re not qualified for, creating problems with coworkers, procrastinating or leaving projects unfinished, hopping from one job to another, always stopping just short of reaching their goals.
…
Underearners are unequivocally codependent.
Underearners will sacrifice personal security and private dreams by putting other people’s needs before their own. Their kids, spouse, job, church, and friends all take precedence over their own needs and priorities.
…
Underearners live in financial chaos.
They are more likely to be in debt, have smaller savings, fewer (if any) investments, and little idea where their money goes. Underearners often go from crisis to crisis, constantly moving money from one account to another, borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, careening hopelessly toward financial disaster.

Friday, January 21, 2011

bird is the word

The Angry Birds phenomenon continues to unfold in Thomas the Tank Engine proportions.

Equal parts transmedia-ification, testament to freeconomics and nail-it-then-scale-it.

From a free (lite) app download, then a pay version - 50, million and counting - to soft toys, board game and now tv show.

For a succinct round up of the story so far and some speculation on what-happens-next see this article on Simon Pullman's blog Transmythology.

Mikael Hed, CEO of creators Rovio Mobile, told Variety.

"When you create brand equity, to do that again would be a difficult task. [Better to] nurture and build around what you have."

Sound advice.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

where does the bone go afterwards?

There was some interest the other day over this Facebook app from Greek chocolate brand Lacta.

The app allows people customise a Lacta chocolate wrapper with a name, boy/girlfriend etc, and posting using the wall to wall feature.

While it's reasonably cute, simple to do and shareable and gained Lacta hundreds of thousands of Facebook 'fans' very quickly, I still come back to the same question around Facebook campaigning.

Where does the bone go afterwards?

Campaigns are just campaigns. Unless it leads to something else it's old school straight line thinking. I don't know where the Lacta thing is going to go after this, we'll see.

But many marketers looking at this will be getting excited about the wrong thing.
An addiction to accumulating 'fans' for the sake of it is simply the new churn and burn.
Getting temporary attention and the message out is easy.
Getting people to care is the hard bit.

Yes, it will no doubt result in a short term sales spike, but how is that different from any traditional sales promotion? Fireworks then it all goes dark.

Here's a proper insight for you.

Humans are wired to to take as much interest in others as they believe others are taking in them.

So Lacta have got some people to repeat their campaign line.
It remains to be seen how they will return the goodwill.
Hopefully they will prove me wrong.

Lets see what happens after the campaign viagra wears off.
For the moment this is filed under gimmix.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

one simple metric

In his book, Life, Keith Richards describes how he and Mick initially clicked, in the early days before the Stones even existed as a thing.
He notes that they had almost identical tastes in music (blues, r'n'b) and an almost telepathic understanding, and agreement on which music was right and wrong.

Here he goes..

'...We'd hear a record and go, That's wrong, That's faking, THAT'S real.

It was either that's the shit or that isn't the shit.

No matter what kind of music you were talking about. I really liked some pop music if it was the shit. But there was a definite line of what the shit was and what wasn't the shit. Very strict.'

In the advertising business the whole channel debate is getting so tired now, to the point of being completely boring.

It's not the internet that's killing advertising, it's crappy advertising that's killing itself.

As for the web, well 90% of what passes for social media marketing is the same old crappy digital marketing from 5 or more years ago.

Is it the shit? Or is it not the shit?
Keef is right, there's a definite line.

The question is, can you see where the line is?
That's the skill.

Monday, January 10, 2011

monday basics #1

In which, each Monday of 2011 we will post a nugget of uncommon sense.

Starting with this one...

“Obsessing about your competitors, trying to match or best their offerings, spending time each day wanting to know what they are doing, and/or measuring your company against them—these activities have no great or winning outcome.

Instead you are simply prohibiting your company from finding its own way to be truly meaningful to its Clients, staff and prospects. You block your company from finding its own identity and engaging with the people who pay the bills...
Your competitors have never paid your bills and they never will.”

Howard Mann, Your Business Brickyard: Getting Back to the Basics to Make Your Business More Fun to Run

Thursday, January 06, 2011

london adland

via Charles and George.

can't be done

The late great Peter Ustinov was always there with a neat one-liner.
This one is no exception.

I'm always wary of 'experts', anyway.

File under 'it works in practice, but does it work in theory?'

Wednesday, January 05, 2011

do something

‘The Path of a Doer’, from The Do Book Co is their pocket do-ing guide, chock full of inspirational nuggets to help you to get meaningful stuff done.

'...helping you to achieve more. To help you understand the ebb and flow of making something happen.'

It's an ideal bookshelf partner to the 37 Signals tome 'Rework', in fact.

They offer a free pdf sample which includes timeless advice like;

TELL THE WORLD WHY YOU ARE DOING IT (even if they don’t get it, tell them anyway).

At a mere 3.50GBP the full book has got to be worth a look.

The brainchild of ex-Howies fella David Hieatt and illustrator Andy Smith, a portion of the proceeds are going towards the further development of their other project - the Do lectures, a TED-esque forum for people who do things to share their story and experience.

'The one thing the Doers of the world Do, apart from Do amazing things, is to inspire the rest of us to go and Do amazing things.'

And any book that credits Dick Dastardly as an inspiration gets my vote.

appointment to tweet part 3

As the journey towards total media convergence continues to pick up momentum, there's news of new investment by Google Ventures into Miso - the twitter/foursquare-esque social tv 'check-in' hybrid that's been picking up traction in the US over the past few months.

Perhaps the most interesting nugget is the news of the introduction of the Miso API.

They say:
'With the the API, TV sites, TV manufacturers, set top boxes, or any developer can access Miso in the same way our applications work today. Developers can develop new apps, integrate ‘check-in’ functionality into their own apps, and much more'.

Bearing in mind that it's been predicted that around 60% of all new TVs will have built-in network connectivity by 2015 and over 70% of these TVs will have an app platform built in, the post-digital future is increasingly looking like total digitality.

Appointment to tweet
Appointment to tweet part 2

Tuesday, January 04, 2011

ninja moped - insert coin

I'm a sucker for a great piece of stop-motion animation.

This one from 8-bit knob-twiddlers Ninja Moped is one of those.

There's some debate from stop-motion purists in the comments on You Tube as to the authenticity of some of the sections but either way it's still pretty cool.

HT to Tommy.

new year: new ROI

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”

A simple equation, and our mantra for 2011.

Thanks to tinybuddha.

anti-demographics

Demographics were useful in the age of spray and pray marketing to the mass.
They allowed random messaging to be slightly more relevant by 'targeting' age, gender, ethnicity, and other things like income bracket.

Scatter-gun advertising isn’t nearly as effective as it once was, and now demographics just ain't got that swing.

The internet has been the big disruptor, allowing people to connect and form groups around shared interest on a scale that has never previously been possible in human history.

Santa brought me the DVD of Elvis Costello's Spectacle TV series, in which Elvis has intimate chats with various musical legends. One episode features Tony Bennett, who backs up my argument.

When Elvis asks Tony who he thinks his audience is he replies:
'I'm anti-demographics'.

I remember going to see Tony sing at Edinburgh Castle about 12 years ago, the crowd was an even mix of over 50's, ex-punkers in their mid-30's and teenagers/students.

Figure that one out demographically.

People now demand brands that founded on principles and values.
Something to believe in, not just ever changing campaign lines, tweaked and tickled to fit lazy demographic data.

Tony just sings for anyone who loves swinging jazz numbers and the great american songbook...

Thursday, December 23, 2010

be good for goodness sake

So here it is, Merry Christmas.
As this is the last post before the holiday, I'll just say thanks to everyone who's read, commented, tweeted etc, and to everyone who's provoked and inspired this blog throughout the year.

Also special best wishes to longtime plannersphere and London blogging stalwart, Mark Hancock aka HolyCow, the unfortunate victim of mindless violence in London this week.
We wish him a quick recovery.

re: the last week of responsibility

Chestnuts roasting on an open barbie (I've gone native)...an enduring symbol of Christmas.
Roasted memes being another old chestnut that often rears it's head at this time of year.

Following a starter from Rob Campbell I was tagged by Petar Vujosevic aka Niko Herzeg, to answer the following questions on the year just passed.

1/ Best single thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.
Easy. Finally summoning up the gumption to get out of the UK and try something else, somewhere else.

2/ Most shameful thing [personal &/or professional] you did/achieved in 2010.
That's probably not for me to answer. I'm of the view that you can get way with most things if you approach and execute with the utmost conviction and belief.
Having said that I've never set out to be intentionally flakey, sometimes it ends up there but them's the breaks of being intentionally disruptive, of which I'm guilty as charged.

3/ Ad industry scandal or scoundrel of the year.
Not sure if it's scandal or even scoundrel but the Digital Death World Aids stunt that spectacularly, and altogether predictably, flopped was of particular note.
The world's top celebrity tweeters sacrificed their digital life...no-one cared if they came back.

4/ Your overall rating for 2010 out of 10. [1 = shit / 10 = showoff]
8.5

5/ What do you think will be the most overhyped advertising related subject of 2011?
Social shopping/Groupon et al. If it's not overhyped already.

So...
Dr Coleman
Will
Dan
Alan

ice cream for crow

A belated memorial post for the Captain, who went to the great floppy boot stomp in the sky last week.

Ice Cream For Crow is probably not his finest moment but for some reason it's the one that's had most plays according to my itunes, so there we go.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

born to be mild

I'm quoting Charlie's latest post on Harley Davidson almost in it's entirety.
What he has encapsulated in one brief paragraph is the eternal brand dilemma, made all the more real and resonant in light of the whole Wikileaks/Assange kerfuffle of recent weeks, and in this instance pertaining to the silence/inability of the, on the surface at least, archetypal 'outlaw' archetype brand, Harley Davidson, to walk it's talk in any shape or form.

'Quite possibly the quintessential freedom-brand has nothing to say about freedom of the press, freedom of the individual, freedom of the State to pursue an individual facing fishy rape charges and so we're left wondering if the whole Brand image is an illusion that lives in an abstract and hermetically sealed world that bears no relation to the one ordinary people live in. Ordinary, as in people who don't wear shiny leathers, have long hair and sit on the fence usually reserved for...moped owners?'

We've discussed brand image vs purpose in these pages many times.
There was a window for Harley to make it absolutely clear about what they stood for in regards to freedom and/or rebellion, but they missed it.

As Tony Soprano famously noted 'Indecision is worse than the wrong decision'.

Case in point.

trend hunter 2011 report

Never Get Out of the Boat and Trend Hunter are giving you a free copy of Trend Hunter's Top 20 Trend Report. The report highlights 20 selected trends, pulled from their database of more than 1,000.

Rockstar Self-Expressionism, Democratic Selling, Brand Reversion and many more.
You need never be stuck for some power-point discombobulation to confuse/bludgeon clients into opening their wallets, for another whole year.

Trend Hunter source from over 40,000 hunters, worldwide and have over 92,000 crowdsourced articles for your perusal.

The free top 20 report can be had over here.

Friday, December 17, 2010

word lens

If you've ever been stuck, wandering aimlessly and cluelessly around in a foreign airport or train station looking for the toilet or gate 27 then this is the app for you.

Word Lens translates printed words from one language to another using your iphone's camera, in real time.

HT to Teresa V via twitter.

control your own data?

For a long time now the mantra in certain quarters has been 'everyone is making money off c*nsumer data, except the c*nsumer'.

Allow is attempting to address by acting as a kind of permission broker, protecting customers data, making it scarce, and ergo increasing it's value to the customer his/herself.

Allow users will, in effect, be able trade their data for relevent marketing (Allow will also operate on a profit-share basis with it's users on sale of data) and they will also work on customers behalf to remove their data from UK mass databases they never opted-in to.

One scenario, in simple terms.
If i'm in the market for a new car, Allow would present my data to potential vendors inviting their pitches for a pre-defined period, say a month, then it would be withdrawn again once I've bought something.

Whether this can really scale enough, only time will tell but it's another indicator of the shift towards people taking more control of their data and ultimately benefiting from the use of their data. And that's not going away any time soon.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

tophatful of hollow

Dynamite critique/insight from Jon Savage on The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead' in the Guardian, joining the dots between the dark days of the post-miners strike, mid-Thatcher 1986 of it's release and the student protests of recent weeks.

Excerpt:

'Contrary to the babblings of the commentariat, pop music can have enormous emotional and social power. It can reflect and engage deep psychic and national archetypes. To deny that is to wilfully ignore a wealth of possibility and, indeed, a form of communication shared by thousands, if not millions – a form of communication that enables the voice of youth to be heard.'

benchmark frictionless ROI

If ever there was a time to reinvent end-to-end paradigms and expedite proactive web convergence, it's now.

Enter Buzzword Bingo HD - a free iPad game - that delivers exactly those magnetic synergies.

Get it here. Apparently the phone version is on the radar, and in the pipeline.

HT Stan.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

the boss

Darkness on the Edge of Town eventually came out in '78 - 3 years after Born To Run, Bruce's big breakthrough album. In today's climate that would be nigh on commercial suicide, even in the 70's it was verging on madness.

But as Doddsy points out in this post, the other day, the Boss' ambition was big enough and correct enough to tough it out against the forces for mediocrity that were attempting to mis-manage and go for the quick buck, and focus on doing great work that was true to what he believed in.

'I didn't want to be rich.
I didn't want to be famous.
I just wanted to be great.'

Not a bad marketing philosophy when you think about it.

Monday, December 13, 2010

real horrorshow

According to the blurb this cinema spot for BMW motorcycles '..turns spectators into astonished fans'

Er...I don't think so.

Although goodness knows what neurological lacerations are inflicted by the flash photography projection that BURNS THE BMW LOGO ONTO YOUR EYES, however.

Like no sinny ever viddied before. Hopefully no-one was bound up in a straitjacket and their gulliver strapped to a headrest, droogies.

The quoting of Confucious is a bit rich:

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.”

How this actually involves anyone is not clear.

It's not even a Durango '95.

Real horrorshow.

Friday, December 10, 2010

bring on the dancing horses

If only 'twere so simple. Old marketing tactics dressed up with the social tools of the web and hey presto - the siver bullet, the best of both worlds.

Short-termist tacky promotions via Facebook and Twitter - not unlike those furniture stores in constant 'sale' mode - courting any old eyeballs, are almost like the new pop-up ads, a ubiquitous numbers game with shiny objects to boost fan numbers, followers and anyone who is up for a freebie/discount.

The real value in interactions with customers is using every touchpoint as opportunity to build and sustain loyalty, not just bribery, manipulation or making a quick hit sale.

So bring on the social media gimmicks - the dancing horses -but are they headless and all alone?

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

re: the future of advertising

I should have know better, heeded Bill Vaughan, and avoided getting embroiled in the whole future of advertising debate/debacle...

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

2011 trends briefing

Trendwatching is probably one of the better of the cultural commentator type sites.
Here's their pick of the trends we should have our eye on in the coming 12 months.

I've unfortunately had to apply a filter to this list due to their over-zealous use of the 'c' word.

1. RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
In 2011, expect companies to monitor c*nsumers' public moods and act upon them with random acts of kindness...marketing may never be the same

2. URBANOMICS
Are you ready for hundreds of millions of more daring, more experienced c*nsumers? Oh, and that's just one side effect of rapid global urbanization...

3. PRICING PANDEMONIUM
Flash sales, group buying, GPS-driven deals: in 2011 pricing will never be the same...

4. MADE FOR CHINA (IF NOT BRIC)
In 2011, expect an increasing number of 'Western' brands to launch new products or even new brands dedicated (if not paying proper respect) to c*nsumers in emerging markets

5. ONLINE STATUS SYMBOLS
In 2011, you can’t go wrong supplying your (online-loving) customers with any kind of symbol, virtual or 'real world', that helps them display to peers their online contributions, creations or popularity...

6. WELLTHY
As good health is now as important to some c*nsumers as having the biggest, newest or shiniest status symbols, growing numbers of c*nsumers will expect health products and services in 2011 to prevent misery (if not improve their quality of life), rather than merely treating illnesses and ailments...

7. SOCIAL-LITES AND TWINSUMERS
Expect even more c*nsumers to become curators: broadcasting, compiling, commenting, sharing and recommending content, products, purchases, and experiences to both their friends and wider audiences...

8. EMERGING GENEROSITY
In 2011, brands and wealthy individuals from emerging markets (yes, especially China) will increasingly be expected to give, donate, care and sympathize versus just sell and take. And not just in their home countries, but on a global scale...

9. PLANNED SPONTANEITY
With lifestyles having become fragmented, with dense urban environments offering consumers any number of instantly available options, and with cell/smartphones having created a generation who have little experience of making (or sticking to) rigid plans, 2011 will see full-on PLANNED SPONTANEITY...

10. ECO SUPERIOR
When it comes to 'green consumption' in 2011, expect a rise in ECO-SUPERIOR products: products that are not only eco-friendly, but superior to polluting incumbents in every possible way...

11. OWNER-LESS
2011 could be the year when sharing and renting really tips into mainstream c*nsumer consciousness as big brands and governments put their weight behind this cultural shift...

full briefing at trendwatching.com/briefing/

Monday, December 06, 2010

tubify

This looks quite interesting.

It seems like Tubify searches YouTube and LastFM to create playlists based on which music and music videos others in your area are listening to in semi real-time.

The time-machine feature is particularly quite cute, jump back to '67 or almost any point between then and now for the Billboard US top 100 from that date.

Who remembers the Bay City Rollers actually cracking the US top 20?

With sign in via Facebook or Google getting started is super easy.

Now say goodbye to your afternoon...

Saturday, December 04, 2010

how to get ahead in social media marketing in one simple step

I'm sure you've been there, sat in some 'what is social media?' presentation and the 'expert' starts with; either the one that goes 'if facebook was a country, blah blah...'
or 'hands up who's on [insert your social tool of choice here].

That's enough now, please.

My heart sinks when faced with 124 slides of examples of this or that social media campaign (90% of which are usually trad gimmickery in shiny object clothing, anyway).

For some reason it seems to be the media agencies that are particulary adept at this...

The time has come to start start setting examples rather than looking at examples*.

And, I'm compelled to say, this talk of the 'future of advertising' is another cop out.
By talking about the future that just gives the lazy and risk averse another reason to not start yet.

I'm more interested in the right now of advertising, we're not on the cusp of anything we're smack bang in the middle.

Let's not see what happens, let's make stuff happen.

*Thanks to Umair Haque who's off the cuff remark I'm adopting as a mantra.

wireWAX

There's been a few stabs interactive video over the last few years but other than the YouTube annotations thing (functionally great but aesthetically a bit meh), there's not much that has really cut the mustard.

I stumbled across wireWAX via Neil Perkin, and on initial investigation it looks more interesting.

Here's what they say:
'wireWAX is the world's first and only user-tagging tool. Unlike simple 'hotspots', wireWAX follows (or tracks) the person or object throughout the scene and creates a fluid and natural user experience for both adding tags and interacting with them. Anyone with an account and access to a video may add, edit and delete tags.'

'

wireWAX allows the adding of images, applications, geo specific data and video within video giving the potential for super-rich cross/deep media and all manner of rabbit-holes.

Have a play with the demo video above.

With some commentators predicting that current growth rates indicate that upwards of 80% of the content on the internet will be video based within the next couple of years wireWAX is definitely one to keep an eye on.

Thursday, December 02, 2010

enough with the consumers thing

It's an old topic but worth saying again once in a while.
Can we please stop with the whole 'consumers' bit.

It's people.

Maybe customers, fans, onlookers even, but enough with the consumers thing.

There's no need.

I just clicked on an article from Umarketing on the launch of ZigTech trainers in the UK.

I was fully expecting fuel for future spleen venting at the inevitable gimmicky awareness-fixated lame stuntness of the 'interactive' Pussycat Doll billboard gubbins masquerading as 'digital' cool.

Unexpectedly, I found my venom diverted by the total inanity of the basic intro statement.

'The cameras enabled consumers to talk to Scherzinger through sophisticated production.'

Do you get the same mental vision as me; hoards of one-dimensional zombie-like pac-man munching drooling mutants?

Even factoring in the presence of a virtual Nicole Scherzinger, it's still all wrong.

Why do we continually have to label people as consumers whenever they are being described in anything resembling a vaguely marketing context.

Lazyitis.

divergent thinking and value creation

One of my favourite and most repeated nuggets borrowed from Sir Ken Robinson is his description of creativity.

Creativity being the process of having original ideas that have value.

An essential component for creativity being divergent thinking - the ability to think in a non-linear fashion, laterally and be able to see multiple possible answers to a problem.

Sir Ken points to an example where 98% kindergarten kids scored at genius levels when given divergent thinking tests, however the same bunch several years later given the same test and genius levels were down to 15%.

This dip is, of course, following prolonged exposure to 'education', the nub of sir ken's view being that our current education system - based on an archaic industrial revolution production line model - is fundamentally broken.

My thanks to Roy Leighton, who pointed me at this fantastic RSAanimate film that illustrates Sir Ken's RSA lecture Changing Education Paradigms.

Roy was making the connection between this and the work of Japanese philosopher and education theorist Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944), about whom I wrote a snippet about last year.

Makiguchi identified the 'central purpose of education as the creation of value', formed around a belief in the unlimited potential and creativity of every student.

He also famously 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.'

create culture

This is an hour or so long but the Converse/Anomaly bit in the first half is the most interesting.

Most notable is Paul Graham from Anomaly's observation.

'If you create culture you don't have to pay to interrupt it'.

A bold claim, culture is complex and multi-layered, but without doubt the Converse/Anomaly strategy of creating actual value first and foremost certainly situates the brand within culture and provides cultural artefacts.

Another way of saying; If you decide to be the thing that people are interested in, then YOU [brand] are targeted by THEM [fans/customers].

And, in an unprecedented second Doddsy quotation in 48 hrs;

'Think of your product/service as the customer's target and your marketing as a way of perfecting their aim.'

brand facebook pages [ghost towns pt2]

'No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof.

If no-one turned around when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met cut us dead, and acted as if we were non-existent thgings, a kind of rage and impotent despair would before long well up in us, from which the cruellest bodily torture would be a relief'

William James, The Principles of Psychology (Boston 1890)

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

gimmix! part 3

We all surely agree that brand experience is the sum total of all interactions, those interactions can take place on many platforms and channels.

Doddsy last week berated an unnamed Creative Director for declaring Twitter to be a great customer service tool.

Instead he suggests that '..[twitter] can be a great customer mood monitor, it can be a great way to field customer complaints, but that's not what we should understand as customer service.'

'Customer service is what happens throughout your contact with the customer. If you do it right, you shouldn't need to have a Twitter presence because your customers will be happy.'

I noticed this prophecy manifesting itself perfectly for poor old Quantas, quite reasonably criticised by Chris Lake of Econsultancy for putting the cart before the horse.

Service enquiries submitted to the Quantas website are met with an auto response which offers only to 'endeavor to respond within 25 business days'. From a no-reply email account, to boot.

That's endeavor to respond. So it might not even happen.

That's fairly shabby by anyone's standards but it's further compounded when we discover this.

The lag (the aforementioned cart) in responding to actual customers, and solving actual customer problems in anything approaching real-time, appears to be hampered by the Twitter department being so busy cooking up gimmicky twitter promotions to reward non-customers with free trips to the Ashes cricket match.

Within 48hrs of a hashtag - #getashestotheashes - appearing around a twitter user with no cricket affinity called @theashes, who claimed annoyance at cricket related tweets aimed in their direction, Quantas PR had booked them up with free flights to Oz from New York.

There's clearly something broken when a basic customer service cannot even be guaranteed within a sensible timescale yet a opportunist twitter stunt can be turned around in 48 hours.

A classic, and all too common, case of the clamour for shiny objects leading only to social media confusion.

Add to that; the left hand not knowing what the right hand is tweeting, and it bears the hallmarks of a hapless brand, desperate to play, but not getting the basic things right first.

Must do better.