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.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

any guitar and any bass drum...



A nice little movie 'We All Want to Be Young'; the output of studies conducted by BOX1824, a Brazilian research company specialising in behavioural science and general trendspotting, around Gen Y, Millenials, Global Youth or whatever the latest catch-all term is.

Thanks to Gavin for finding, and as he rightly points out 'expect to see this coming to a presentation deck near you soon'...

muji christmas

What happened when the intern at MUJI got sent down to IKEA for the tealights...



Also in full screen glory at muji.com.

HT to the Hidden Persuader.

Friday, November 26, 2010

talent + innovation = dynamite *MUST SEE



This is just about the most amazing thing I've seen on You Tube in recent times.
This fella has built his own percussive pipe organ thing and knocks out a few mean tunes using what looks like kitchen utensils.

The internet was made for stuff like this.

change


Thanks to @trevoryoung for today's twitter nugget.

'Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.'
- George Bernard Shaw

rockmelt



Rockmelt, they describe themselves as 'the browser re-imagined'.

I've signed up for the beta to see for myself.
You can too. Go to rockmelt.com and connect with your Facebook id.

sneakerpedia



People + Passion + stories.

Bringing people together, giving them something to do to create their own value.

Top marks to Footlocker.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

lindsay lohan is marc ecko’s AR muse



Here's fashion designer Marc Ecko talking about making his Fall 2010 launch and AR experience, featuring Lindsay Lohan - as the designers digital 'muse'.

Fans can storyform and save their own video by manipulating the virtual Lindsay through various chapters using the web application.

Ecko is reputedly be influenced by legendary American illustrator Robert McGinnis, who's film poster credits include Barbarella, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and umpteen iconic James Bond posters.


The AR bit was made by Boffswana, right here in Melbourne.

i am playr

I'm tickled by the prospect of I AM PLAYR.

'Mixing first person perspective gameplay, interactive video and storytelling through different media to create a rich gaming experience'

Where social gaming, deep media, storytelling/forming/dwelling and community collide.

With muddy boots.

I'm not mentioning the 't' word, Marcus has already told me off for that.



The full story over here.
Thanks to contagious.

fake it 'til you make it 2


A nice slice of wisdom from The Wire as the Eastside and Westside clash on the the basketball court.

Eastside 'coach' Prop Joe is called out by Avon Barksdale for his choice of attire.

Avon: 'How come you wearin' that suit? Its 85 fucking degrees outside and you tryin' to be like Pat Riley.'

Joe: 'Look the part, be the part motherf*cker'

Avon: 'You walking around with a fake fucking clipboard, you can't even read a playbook. Be for real... ya bunch o' bitches!'

There's fake it 'til you make it, and just plain fake it.

Cheers Petar for the nudge.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

gang of four: free EP download



3 tracks to download, completely legal, from Gang of Four.

A new version of Glass (from '79 debut album Entertainment!), Sleeper (totally new non album track) and I Party All the Time from the forthcoming set Content.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

if mandela had tweeted

Here's Jonathan MacDonald giving a dynamite talk at TEDx Youth in Manchester tackling the conundrum around the impact of social technologies on social change.

Jonathan asks: 'Is it the tools in our hands or what's in our hearts?'




Genius, Conviction, Imagination, Passion, Persistence, Compassion and Bravery being the seven key attributes he identifies as being in the hearts of people who have changed the world in some way.

He reminds us that Facebook is not among that list.

We now have the tools to propagate what's in our hearts faster and further than at any time in human history.

What are we going to spread?

branding

'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 they 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.'

I'm sure @herdmeister won't mind being quoted in the same context as Mahatma Gandhi, and he summarises thus:

'Brand is something you get.
It's the scoreboard, not the game'.

Monday, November 22, 2010

mott the hoople syndrome


Older readers may remember the mighty Mott. Emerging in the late 60's with a power r'n'b style and later morphing into bovver glamsters under the mentorage of one David Bowie esquire, Mott faded somewhat around '73/'74 in an unfortunate tangle of cliche and gratuitous self-reflexivity.

This gave it's name to, a condition known as Mott The Hoople Syndrome.

The syndrome described the point when the subject of Mott's oeuvre became simply that of being in Mott The Hoople.

Sadly this also equates to the bulk of what we see in the postmodern advertising space.
Brands talking about themselves, and to themselves.

Like the Bette Midler character in Beaches.

'That's enough about me...let's talk about you.
What do YOU think about me?'

Thursday, November 18, 2010

incidentally...

It works in practice but does it work in theory?
Or is it the other way round?

Either way there's undeniably a few cute notions in this incidental media theme from Dentsu London labelled Making Future Magic.



At the end of the day their earnestness is admirable but I can't help but be slightly terrified of a near-future where every surface is a media channel to push messaging.

Just 'cos we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Basically I'm thinking this just equates to more noise and sometimes the best thing brands can do is just shut the f*ck up for a bit.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

more post digital

As the digital-post-digital debate continues I'll point you to this sagely nugget from Russell Davies' blog this week.

'The only way to be a Post-Digital business is to be a thoroughly, deeply, massively digital one. To be digital in culture not just in capabilities. To know how to iterate in public, to do experiments not research, to recognise that it's quicker and better to code something than it is to describe it in meetings. You need to be part of the wider digital culture, to have good sharing habits, to give credit where it's due, and at the very least to know how to do ellipses in Processing.'

Monday, November 15, 2010

less is more



I was recently temporarily seduced by a NokiaN97 handset, with it's myriad of features, sliding keyboard, built-in sat-nav and all the rest.

In the end it went back, it was just too clunky, too complicated and the fact that they had thrown the kitchen sink at it made it ultimately unusable and a time-suck to do even the simplest of tasks.

In the quest for the iphone killer Nokia and many others bow to conventional wisdom that in order to beat the competition you need to cram more 'value', more stuff, more features into your thing.

Jimmy in this office just showed me his John's Phone as the antithesis of that.

They understand that for some people a phone is just that. A phone.
It makes and receives calls. End of story.

No text messaging.
No camera.
No apps.
One ringtone.

Here's their line.

'John’s Phone is the world’s simplest cell phone: you call, you hang up, and that’s it.'

John's phone does contain a simple address book, it's a deliciously analogue paper notepad and mini-pen, it's one nod to personalisation comes in it's 5 colour choices.
Snow (white), business (black), tree (brown), grass(green) and sweet (pink).

Sits alongside the Flip camera in the Less is More file - subset the product IS the marketing - and testament that doing one thing great is always preferable to doing lots of things with mediocrity.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

sharpies



Sharpies were a unique street subculture in Australian cities from the late 60's to early 70's. Essentially the bridge between skinheads and the bootboy faction of glam (a la Slade), the Oz twist of what we called Suedeheads in the UK.

This film is one of the great documents of the time, shot at Melbourne Showground circa 1974 by Sharpie Greg Macainsh.


Looking at this early pic of AC/DC from around '74 by Philip Morris - himself a touch sharp, he just picked up his camera aged 15 and began to capture the 60's rock'n'roll scene he loved - you just know that a couple of years earlier they were the people in this movie.

Fascinating.

Friday, November 05, 2010

junior


I'll be doing a turn as guest talking head at Junior, the Melbourne networking event for young ad creatives, photographers, writers etc on Tuesday 9th November.

It's at the Workers Club up in Fitzroy from 7pm.

All the deets at lifeatthebottom.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

stupidity


This terrified goldfish was sent in to the office in a plastic bag as an attention grabbing stunt by some so-called 'creative' type along with their resume.

Presumably they thought that this bit of wackiness somehow reflected their creativity.

All it reflected was utter stupidity, cruelty and total disregard for the life of a poor creature.

Moronic.

gimmix! part 2



The marketers dilemma when faced with that plethora of shiny objects and whoopee cushions with which to shout and fart into the void.

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop.

This is the night, what it does to you.

I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."


Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) - On The Road 1951

a small belief can mean you'll never walk alone

Just to re-iterate a point that's been made in these pages many times.
There is a massive difference between a brand standing for something and simply making a vacuous mission statement or concocting some convoluted commercial proposition.

Dynamic engineering for the modern world or some other generic bollocks is NOT standing for something.

It might look nice in some brand onion but means diddly squat to people.
And it's people who you need to connect with.

Standing for something means putting a stake in the ground, drawing a line in the sand or putting up the flag and saying 'this is what we believe is right and this is how we make a difference in the world, today'.

Saying and doing something that actually matters.

Making a commitment.

Doing this saves time and money because you don't have to think and debate and argue the toss about what to do every time and it immediately connects you with others who share that worldview.

A small belief can mean you never walk alone.

I keep coming back to the five questions posed by Tom Peters in Re-Imagine.

1 - WHO ARE YOU?
2 - WHY ARE YOU HERE?
3 - WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?
4 - HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE?
5 - WHO CARES ABOUT YOU?

This is where it starts.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

godzilla '56 part 2 #transmedia rock'n'roll mystery


Regular readers will recall that I posted one side of the great lost Godzilla '56 45rpm 'Freeze Frame Baby' back in February.

The B-side '(1-2-3) Come on Baby (Let's Go)'- note use of double brackets - still remains lost unfortunately, however some promo photographs from the same period - circa '88 - did surface this week.

This rare pic features the (almost) full and definitive line-up.

From left to right:
Surfboy Carter - Fuzz Guitar
Smeg - Space Drums
Neil Rocker - Vox
DJ Elvis - Twangy Guitar

Not pictured is Producer and unofficial 5th member Cowman BassRobot, who is currently busy relaunching Bellboy Records.

music management in the new digital world

Finding and launching a new band today on the internet couldn't be easier.
Just follow the simple steps outlined in this clip by Peter Malkin.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

I got 99 problems but #transmedia storytelling aint one


Jay-Z and Bing have collaborated to turn the corporate rapper's book launch into a nice bit of transmedia gameification, under the guidance of Droga5 New York.

According to the official Jay-Z website:

'Every single page of JAY-Z’s book will be released to the public before the book is in stores, with pages physically placed in locations related to their specific content. The immersive journey will take players from the projects in the Brooklyn neighborhood where JAY-Z grew up and the London streets where he found inspiration, to the building of his empire in Manhattan and beyond. Fans physically in those locations and those playing online with Bing will be offered never-before-experienced insights into JAY-Z’s highly personal process. In addition to high profile media placements around the world, DECODED‘S three hundred pages will be appearing in places and on objects that have never before been used as advertising. From pools and pool tables to bronze plaques and high-fashion clothing racks; a variety of unexpected surfaces will become the canvas for JAY-Z’s art.'

Point to bing.decodejay-z.com

Immersive, extractable, spreadable, drillable, playable, virtual, real-world, connecting with fans. You have to say it's got the lot.

Note: Jay-Z fans will have to be arsed to install Silverlight and use Bing, of course.


HT to Tommy.

Monday, October 18, 2010

focus on the quality of your storytelling



Couple of good nuggets from Tom Peters for you.
All conveyed in a punchy 1min 55secs, almost like a classic Buzzcocks 45rpm of business juice...

The story is more powerful than the brand.
The best story wins.
So...
Focus on the quality of your storytelling.


HT and finders fee to wethinkthis.

walk your talk


I almost gave full marks to Subaru for this very funny, if somewhat arch, 'launch' of the 2011 Mediocrity Sedan.
'Finally, a car that feels like every other sedan on the road'.

Including the ubiquitous customisation/personalisation tool...
'Do you like glove compartments? And cup holders? Customize your 2011 Mediocrity with this handy tool. You select the options and we’ll price it out for you in “real time.”

The community (ghost town) feature...
'Join fellow Mediocrity fans and friends on all your favorite social networking sites. If you’ve got nothing exciting to say, we’d love to hear it.

BUT....

Follow the click through to the ‘real’ Subaru site - the supposed antithesis - and the experience can only be described as.......a bit mediocre.

Just like any other Sedan microsite, in fact.



The danger when pointing the finger is that there are three of your fingers pointing back at you.

Better be sure you can walk your talk.

Shame.
Close, but no cigar I’m afraid

Friday, October 15, 2010

building an online character

Following yesterdays post, it's worth looking at this case study from Marcus around how he created and executed the Jack character. Something needs to work small if it's going to work big, Jack nails and scales.Building an Online Character

Thursday, October 14, 2010

auf wiedersehen #transmedia pet


The word 'transmedia' sounds science-fiction in itself. Immediate associations with The Matrix and suchlike, understandable in as much as the term was coined in the Henry Jenkins book Convergence Culture with the aforementioned franchise as a key example.

It's taken me a while to fully get my head around this (I'm still working on it) from a marketing/advertising perspective, particularly on how it could play out for less cool or sexy early adopter type of brands.

What on earth does transmedia storytelling look like for dogfood?

But, suppose I was, say, a workwear brand looking for a way to connect with customers and fans, and had bitten the bullet of branded 'content' being something that would deliver relevance, context and branding?

Also suppose, if you can, that the much-loved UK comedy/drama series 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' had never been written, and was invented by said workwear brand as a piece of branded content and story 'spark'?

The workwear products are integral to the content, obviously, and feature throughout in classic product placement/branded content style.

A very simple example of the principles of transmedia storytelling in practical application, easily achievable in an unlikely category might look something like this.

A weekly video podcast episode distributed via itunes, and a dedicated YouTube channel, while also embedded in the story hub website and on the Facebook fan page.

This distribution strategy giving the opportunity for the 'audience' to subscribe, watch, comment and share on a basic level of (mostly) passive consumption through thechannel of their choice.

It's still a bit one-dimensional and linear though...

There's a nugget in the 37 Signals book 'ReWork' around 'by-products'.
The notion being that 'when you make something, you also make something else'.
Once that penny dropped I started to get it much more.


By-products and subplots introduces the idea of 'drillability' to compliment the spreadability.
The story contains multiple characters and subtexts. Each of these take the story off in other directions, which can be followed by niche factions within a fan group.
And, of course, multiple possible entry points for newcomers.

For example, individual twitter streams for each character, photo albums, playlists.
Spin-off narratives and everything else.

The myriad of social technologies, through which the author-directed story plays out, also invites interaction and participation from the audience, of course.

According to the 1-9-90 law of participation in engaged communities around 1% will then create their own content based on the original story 'spark'.

In the case of 'Where are the Joneses' the Ford sponsored online sit-com from a few years ago, the 'audience' actually edited the script, locations and story threads, and appeared as extras in the episodes.

Each different delivery channel can then communicate a different story element or thread, each of these threads can make perfect sense on their own or can be pieced together by the 'audience'.

As much or as little as suits them.

Coming back to 'by-products', all this content and participation then creates the disruptive possibility that the more conventional advertising and marketing materials (tv ads, direct mail etc) can be by-products of the participatory experience itself, and therefore further rabbit-holes for entry, already loaded with context.

And so it goes.

As I was writing, this piece popped up in my reader from Edelman's Steve Rubel.

'To stand out today it’s critical that businesses create content. Activating your cadre of internal subject matter experts is the surest path to visibility. According to the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer, the public is increasingly relying on subject matter experts as trusted authorities...The reality is, however, that organizations need to do more than just unleash their subject matter experts en masse. They need to activate them in multiple channels at once and equip them in how to create a compelling narrative'

Finally, props to the fantastic Scott Walker who's been helping with my intermediate transmedia indoctrination...

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

scenius

A new word for the lexicon; scenius, reputedly coined by Brian Eno and quoted in the conversation (of which below is an excerpt) between Kevin Kelly and Steven Johnson in Wired, as they discussed their respective new books.

Johnson: Also, there’s a related myth—that innovation comes primarily from the profit motive, from the competitive pressures of a market society. If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect.

Kelly: The musician Brian Eno invented a wonderful word to describe this phenomenon: scenius. We normally think of innovators as independent geniuses, but Eno’s point is that innovation comes from social scenes,from passionate and connected groups of people.


via boing boing and @anjali28

your number one research question

There are one or two fundamental, and oft overlooked questions to ask before even thinking about 'how to engage' or 'leveraging social media' or how to 'exploit' whatever new shiny object is saveur du mois.

My thanks go to @shwmackisack for kindly pointing this out in the diagram below.