Never get out of the boat

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Mick Jones: the Rock & Roll Public Library

Just been pinged this. Mick Jones, of the Clash, BAD and latterly producer of the Libertines, is exhibiting all the 'paraphernalia of performance and marketing materials of the bands he has worked with. This archive sits alongside a parallel general collection of books, magazines, videos, ephemera, toys and games which mark out his life, times, and influences.'

The 79-82 period of the Clash featured some of the finest hats in rock'n'roll history.
This will be of particular interest...

The exhibition is titled 'Mick Jones: The Rock & Roll Public Library' and runs for a month from 18th March at Chelsea Space, part of the Chelsea College of Art and Design over in SW1.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

anarchy in the uk

I think it was Billy Bragg, the bard of Barking, who famously noted that: if everyone who claims to have seen the Sex Pistols perform in 1976 actually had seen them, they would have needed to have sold out Wembley Stadium for 7 nights on the trot rather than a dozen or so nights in Soho strip clubs, various art colleges, the screen on islington green and a couple of pubs in Dunstable and St Albans.

So follows the story of the 60 or so souls - who braved the wilds of a drab Southwark evening on Monday to huddle in the upstairs lounge of a Borough market bar - as they witnessed the first official live tweet reading 'the garden of tweetdom' by Marcus Brown.

As the story weaves itself into the fabric of social media [mess is] lore, our grandchildren will ask us to replay the mystical night in history as we happily relive; the first airing of the full unedited SMEBS documentary, the reading of the tweets of audience members including @will_humphrey and @johndodds. The megaphone (for twitter broadcasting irony effect), ipod singing and 'ein prosit' interludes.

Where were you on that day in history?

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

not dark yet...

Had to have a wry chuckle at an article on Brand Rebublic that was pinged round the office this week.

Titled 'Personalised DM significantly more likely to succeed' the article claims
'The majority of consumers are between five and ten times more likely to respond to properly personalised marketing offers compared to [superficially personalised] communications..'

According to direct marketing agency GI Direct, 'more than 70% of UK adults take more notice of mail that is aimed specifically and accurately at them'

Apparently their research gave "hard evidence of the critical importance of targeted direct marketing...[Marketers need to] examine the level of personalisation applied in their direct marketing campaigns, in order to ensure, at the least, they are matching competitor standards, and at best exceeding the market norm in order to improve campaign responsiveness and subsequent sales."

Nice try but spectacularly missing the point - and to set mediocrity (match competitor standards) as a benchmark is mildly depressing.

Personalisation is good but without PERMISSION it means nothing. The article fails to recognise this, and this is the big problem that direct marketing - whether on or offline - is still struggling to address after all this time.

If the communication is unsolicited it is SPAM. And what's more - if it's too personalised (but still unsolicited) its CREEPY SPAM.

Why am I getting my knickers in a twist? Here's a laugh for you.

In the last month or so Ive recieved 3 mailshots, from different companies to my home address, personalised to a degree (ie my name, and they know my age) for fucking MOBILITY SCOOTERS. Yes, the things old people drive round the supermarket.

I'm (just) over 40 so according to 'demographics' and 'specific and accurate targeting' I'm on my last legs and will shorly be road-raging round Sainsbury's, presumably looking for food that can be taken with a straw.

Total fail, based on broad assumptions, flaky research and ignorant speculation all dressed up as personalisation. Zero relevance unfortunately and another waste of paper.

Looking forward to the next mailshot for false teeth, hearing aids and zimmer frames.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Marks and Spencer launch twitter utility innovation

UK high street giant Marks and Spencer are beta testing a 3D real-world ‘desktop’ twitter robot utility – known as ‘the tweeting chick’.

The desk robot’s revolutionary voice recognition audio nanotechnology - housed in a deceptive fluffy yellow ‘chick’ casing - allows the device, once pre-loaded with the users twitter account and pre programmed tweet-active keywords, to record and auto-post 'tweetable' nuggets from ‘real world conversations’ thus ensuring off the cuff tweet-worthy remarks are not lost into the ether.

The device is now available in public beta mode as an ‘add-on’ from the checkouts at participating M&S outlets.

In an unlikely twist, Guy Kawasaki was not available for comment at the time of going to press.

Madras Rubber Factory

This fictional album cover randomiser project is a bit of a lark. I was tagged on facebook for this project but thought it might be fun to spin over onto this blog and the related 'sphere.

To create your fictional album:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “Random Article... Read More”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it on your blog with this text in the tags 'albumcover' and also tag the friends you want to join in (also link to this post if you like, that way I can track 'em and compile - also will give me some much needed technorati juice)

I'm tagging Neil, Sam, Will, Joe, Stan, Jon and Jonathan.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

the ROI of the tiger

Pondering over the Futurelab ‘Reconsidering the Advertising Industry’ report, and in particular chapter 5 ‘Walk the Digital Talk’

The chart below represents the view of a panel of 200 CMOs, polled by Sapient, who were asked about the skills they were looking for in their agency. My initial reaction was one of ‘if only ‘twere true…’

Futurelab also speculate:
‘Digital Agencies often miss depth in communication and strategy….Many “new media” agencies outskill and outthink traditional houses on the digital front. But they often lack the broader perspective that comes with true 360°, ROI based thinking….they chase the technology rather than look at the end customer’s actual media consumption. And all think of digital campaigns rather than using digital as a platform for relationship building.'

This segues neatly onto the ROI of the tiger…

In a recent post Collaborate Marketing's James Cherkoff quotes Nick Gonzales from Inside Facebook:

‘There’s currently a metrics vacuum in the social media space and it’s being filled with traditional metrics pulled from search and display. The only problem is that these metrics don’t make sense for brand campaigns in social media.’

I would argue that it’s even worse than that, in many cases its still the largely unmeasureable traditional advertising that’s viewed as more effective despite the fact there’s not even a ‘conversion event’ ie click through.

James also addresses the ROI question with regard to social/engagement activity.
‘Compared with what?’
With that in mind, allow me to relay to you a true story.

I recently pitched a digital engagement idea which would have delivered:
- Connection with a large core group of BrandX’s most passionate advocates
- Connecting those fans with each other in the brand’s space
- Invaluable data from the above and appropriate permission to continue to engage
- 6 months of activity where the advocates create and share content
- The ability to leverage that content for SEO
- A strategy to reduce dependence on paid search over time
- Something the advocates would ‘advertise’! (ie viral by nature)
- A permanent activity based asset for the brand to reuse.
- The activity was contextual to NPD delivering a reason to buy.
- NO MEDIA SPEND (£0) (zilch) (not a fucking sausage)
- All for the same price as the MEDIA ONLY of a one month press ad across half a dozen national titles.

Whilst the idea was well received the client bought the press ad instead.
Here were those metrics, something like 68% OTS (of 5.5m) at 2.9.
That means 68% of the ‘target audience’ might ‘see’ the ad about 3 times in that month.
These numbers, of course, identify reach only and not any depth of engagement.
Head => brick wall.

With nowhere else to turn I consulted the oracle.

‘The fundamental issue is that it is very difficult to enumerate an accurate "gain from investment" when it is clear that a lot of the new marketing has an almost osmotic effect and works indirectly.
And the defence is this. If the "cost of investment" is low, as is clearly the case in much of the new marketing, then it is equally clear that only a small impact on revenues will generate an impressive ROI. ‘

The upshot is; social media and engagement activities can only be measured in the context of contribution to the overall effectiveness of all the interdependent marketing activity, surely?

The quest continues….

Footnote:
One of Cherkoff’s commenters added:
‘Do you think Nike are worried about the metrics on Nike Plus?’
Totally agree, but can I just state for the record that if I hear Nike+ rolled out one more time as a case study I will literally chew my own leg off and gouge my left eye out with a spoon.

the product is the marketing #371

Was talking to a client the other day about products that are being used in ways other than how the brand might have anticipated. my example was Landrovers - adopted by hip-hoppers in the 'hood - which in turn led to the urban SUV's we now know.
Wish i'd seen this before that conversation.

One for the ladies?
Props to BrandDNA

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

most people won't read this

If I had a pound for every time I've heard some variation this...

Most people do not have an iphone.
Most people are not online most of the time.
Most people don't use twitter.
Most people will not upload a picture/movie etc
Most people will not leave a comment.
Most people will only buy the cheapest.
Most people can't be bothered with x.
Most people are not interested in y.
Most people are not on a social network.
etc etc.

Then what follows usually includes some of these words; eyeballs, reach, mass, target audience, demographics and some generalisation 'persona' profiling.
This is the language of carpet-bombers and spammers. And it is rife.

Here's some other things about most people:

Most people don't click on banner ads.
Most people use their pvr to skip TV ads.
Most people completely ignore posters on the tube.
Most people hate spam.
Most people use their mobile phone principally to communicate with other people.
Most people think it's rude to interrupt.
Most people use the web to connect with other people interested in the same stuff as them.
Most people are literally gagging for relevance and personalisation.
Most people are not interested in you they are interested in 'me'.

MOST PEOPLE ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO CONNECT WITH MARKETING THAT THEY HAVE CHOSEN TO PARTICIPATE WITH, THAN MARKETING THAT IS FORCED UPON THEM.

diagram from Jonathan MacDonald's 'The Communication Ideal'

spam of the week

I'm looking forward to recieving my $800,000 USD and tickets for the 2010 World Cup in SA as special guest of Prince Charles.
I can only assume this is in recognition of my twitter influence status and, of course, my post of the month in January.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Connect with fans (CwF) + Reason to buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

Pure gold! Techdirt's Mike Masnick on Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails' album release and connect with fans strategy.

Why is this important?
BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR JUST ABOUT ANY BUSINESS!

Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

found this via hypebot

UPDATE:
It just gets better and better.
The ex-NIN drummer is at it for his solo project. Josh Freese story via mashable.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Meatballs, marriage and Seth Godin – the London Session:

Popped down to the amazing Church House conference centre behind Westminster Abbey on Tuesday to hear Seth Godin talk, in a rare appearance in London.

As a nice touch the afternoon kicked off with a special ‘unplugged’ session with 50 Tribes members and an intimate Q&A with Seth before the main presentation.

Seth was on good form, delivering an almost ‘Greatest Hits’ set, covering the best bits and themes from Permission Marketing through All Marketers are Liars, Purple Cow, Tribes and big doses of Meatball Sundae, before fielding a 2 hour Q&A.

It seemed liked a mixed bag audience of die-hard Seth disciples, new converts and some others who had been dragged along by friends or colleagues to hear the gospel.

The key ‘penny drop’ moment for many of the new recruits in the audience came during the Q&A when someone asked a question around ‘What can I do in my organisation when the bulk of the people in the middle don’t ‘get it’ (in terms of new marketing, collaborative working etc) and are resistant to change’.

The answer was, of course: don’t bother with them.

Focus on finding the others who are embracing new ideas and change, work together with them, and if you can find two or three other individuals each and turn them around before long you have enough leverage to turn the mass in the middle who just want to do what everyone else is doing.

I bumped into Anjali (quel surprise!) - who has kindly summarised the day over at madebymany - and Craig from Sue Ryder Care again (we need to stop meeting like this!) plus I made a couple of new acquaintances – Helen Jerome from Wall to Wall (her company developed ‘Who Do You Think You Are' for the BBC) and had a nice chat with Marcel Baron from IBM’s innovation department.

The clip below is Seth freestyling on meatballs, marketing, marriage and dating. Shot with my Flip Ultra (Flip VRM outreach: I'd like to try the Flip mino...)

Seth Godin in London from eaon pritchard on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

thought for the day....

'The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is that little extra'

Thanks Sam.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

graham brown (mobileyouth) on: the next ten years

excerpt: 'we live in a network era - awash with industrial brands served by industrial agencies relying on industrial tactics using industrial metrics'

The Next 10 Years by Graham Brown (mobileYouth)

View more presentations from Graham Brown. (tags: mobile attention)

more thoughts on mobile and youth marketing - industrial vs social - on mobileyouth.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

mighty putty - learning to speak human

In the context of Learning to speak human, this made me laugh this morning.

question re: ad funded web apps a la Spotify...

Playing with Spotify, its a pretty cool service (don't know if it's the saviour of the music business yet) but i have the same question that i have for all of these ad-funded apps.

What happens when the advertisers pull out? People are ignoring the ads in Spotify the same way they are ignoring them in most other media.

Everything I read about Spotify includes something along the lines of 'the user only has to put up with an ad every 25mins..'
The ad funded model suits the users and the developer
but wheres the value for the advertiser?

Friday, February 13, 2009

Go Home Productions does Nike 'Ignite'

The audio/mix for this new Nike football spot was created by my mate Mark aka Go Home Productions.

The spot, featuring Arsenal v Man United, was first aired in Japan the other day during the Australia v Japan world cup qualifier.

Mark is a big Arsenal fan and has cleverly multi tracked himself chanting 'we've got Cesc Fabregas' into the crowd sections.

Think Tank...and the winner is - ME!

Managed to dodge the paperazzi this morning following my resounding victory in the Think Tank post of the month.

I now join Valeria, Dino, Jonathan and Charles in the Think Tank Hall of Fame.

This musing on Interdependence was the one that done it.
Thanks to everyone who voted.

And well done to Gordon, who ran a close second with the poetic I can Hear the snow, faintly falling through the universe.

Gordon and his posse were also kind enough to give me some valuable tips on punctuation and pointers on my 'eye wateringly dull' content.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I can read movies by Spacesick

Ohio based Artist/illustrator Spacesick has designed these fantastic book jacket adaptations of classic films in a sort of retro-futuristic style.

There's 24 in all, have a look at them on the Spacesick blog. Excellent work.

Thanks to Clarence for the tip.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Trust - a ten year low for business

Check out these clips from the 2009 Edelman Trust barometer survey.

Mark Earls showed one of the slides at a 'influence and social networks' workshop we attended at NESTA the other day which showed how 62% (globally) of those surveyed trust business less than they did a year ago.

Though trust is up in emerging economies (ie Asia, S America). it's significantly down in 'established' economies (ie UK, US & Europe) and particularly in the industries associated with 'affluence' - auto and banking (no surprise there, then).

Edelman are calling this the 'trust divide'. The other big shift, as we know, is that now we are - more than ever - trusting each other over any other media.

Here's one of the clips with the stats I've mentioned.

Friday, February 06, 2009

the Shopkeeper's tweet readings

I've not been able to write anything here this week after watching Marcus's tweet reading series. I'm kinda thinking he has said the final words on social media/blogging etc. There is nowhere else to go after this. It's over...

Official Tweet Reading IV: Reading Valeria Maltoni from Marcus Brown on Vimeo.