Quote of the day: Jeff Bezos (Amazon) to Charlie Rose (US interviewer) :
"Before if you were making a product, the right business strategy was to put 70% of your attention, energy, and dollars into shouting about a product, and 30% into making a great product. So you could win with a mediocre product, if you were a good enough marketer. That is getting harder to do. The balance of power is shifting toward consumers and away from companies...the individual is empowered... The right way to respond to this if you are a company is to put the vast majority of your energy, attention and dollars into building a great product or service and put a smaller amount into shouting about it, marketing it. If I build a great product or service, my customers will tell each other."
Chris 'moot' Poole, the founder of 4chan, a controversial, uncensored online imageboard, describes its subculture, some of the Internet "memes" it has launched, and the incident in which its users managed a very public, precision hack of a mainstream media website, as well as the good outcomes they have achieved such as the amazing story of Dusty the cat...
The talk also raises questions about the power and price of anonymity and the fact that 4Chan is endangered due to social networks and the call for persistent identity online.
In it, the author claims that there is no specific evidence to support the theories of Nicholas Carr and that brain wiring is dependent on genetic predispositions which a child is already in possession of long before they discover Facebook and the Internet. The article tends to support Clay Shirky's 'cognitive surplus' direction that the Internet gives us access to each other and therefore the collective brain which is far more intelligent than any individual human being could be which is of course very true...
However, one thought that seemed to vaguely resemble Carr's argument around the negative impact of all of our hours spent online, was the notion of the 'illusion of knowledge':
'Although the case that technology increases our intelligence is at least as plausible as the gloomy idea that it is changing our brains for the worse, there are real downsides to the instant availability of torrents of information. The danger comes not from the information itself, or from how it could rewire our brains, but from the way we think about our own knowledge and abilities. As the psychologists Leon Rozenblit and Frank Keil discovered, people tend to suffer from an illusion of knowledge: a tendency to mistake surface-level familiarity with deep understanding. As more information becomes readily available, that sense of familiarity grows and grows, and with it the illusion of knowledge. On-demand access to reams of data can also trick us into mistaking knowledge we could obtain quickly for knowledge we already have and can act upon. And if the illusion leads us to neglect the acquisition of true knowledge, we as individuals could become dumber as a result.'
The idea that the internet is making us think we are smarter is entirely possible when the answers to billions of questions are at our finger tips and can be displayed on our screen within seconds. Why therefore would anyone need to do a degree to learn the methods of rocket scientists when they can find it online (of course you wouldn't call yourself a rocket scientist unless you had an actual degree but you could think you knew enough about it)? It's a significant danger that the next generation will be facing when it comes to their education and vocational training...
At the recent Social Influence conference in the UK, Alexandra Wheeler, digital director of Starbucks shares some insights, actions and philosophies that Starbucks has adhered to in order to be one of the most successful brands in the social web space to date.
Starbucks are the largest brand on Facebook with over 10 million followers, they are also number one on Twitter...
Some of the key notes:
Social is about relationships, not marketing
Relationships in real life have many dimensions so too should relationships within the social space; such as fun, functionality and social responsibility - adding all of these dimensions and more means you have many ways to curate and create content
Ensuring 'authenticity' can be easily translated to 'be relevant to your brand and what it stands for' (i.e. don't try to own a space or topic that doesn't fit)
'Don't outsource your voice' - don't let your agencies do the talking for you, keep it in house
Social should always fit within a larger digital strategy which should, in turn, be wrapped into a larger integrated strategy
Don't get fixated on the number of fans or followers, it's about the idea itself and the resulting opportunity to build new relationships
'Build a coalition' - aka - you need to be best friends with legal, marketing, product, partners (franchisees) & technology and they need to understand why engaging with customers in this way is valuable, if you do this you can make some special things happen (i.e Starbucks made it possible to donate to the Haitian crisis through stores within 48 hours of the disaster happening thanks to all departments working together)
Co-creating the brand experience in partnership with customers leads to infallible advocacy (My Starbucks Idea), and it's not enough just to listen, you need to act (over 100 ideas implemented so far)
Starbucks digital see themselves as 'content archeologists' but in addition to finding great content they've also become good at saying 'no'. Many people in the organisation say 'we want you to tweet this or post that' but Starbucks digital always ensure that unless it's adding value or creating meaning in that environment then it doesn't go up online. However, they say 'no' in a way that makes the other departments want to then give them something of value and of meaning for their community
She show's the 'one song, one vision, 156 countries' video which they created to support their relationship with RED and world AIDS day which is amazing
Opening up new social channels such as Twitter needs to be done with solid consideration of the use of that channel. Starbucks opened Twitter up for their much love Frappucino to help with the discussion about how to customise your drink and to generally tap into the many conversations already happening about that particular product
However, social isn't just about Facebook or Twitter, it's about looking for those relevant extensions and experiences that can be easily built based on a passionate community (content creation, video mashups, mobile, personalisation)
Their latest foray has been into looking at the connection between social and mobile with focus on location based ideas, such as the partnership with Foursquare and the creation of a badge and 'mayor' deals, this is all about rewarding loyal customers
Integrate across the organisation, such as linking in Facebook feedback with that from In Store and the call centre to provide a holistic view of what customers want
It's great to create new relationships and go after new customers but in the end you must always remember to love your existing customers and communities
Have fun with your brand and don't take yourself too seriously
Here's a great article from Fast Company which contains brand examples, strong statistics and simple pearls of wisdom such as 'advocates trump followers' and 'gimmicks marginalise trust' all within a lovely infographic format (because who doesn't love an infographic!)
"When you are 80 years old and in a quiet moment of reflection, narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices, build yourself a great story"
An inspiring Princeton class of 2010 graduation speech by Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon:
(Start from 6 minutes)
As part of Naked's ongoing training program which encourages us to explore everything BUT advertising, we have a regular session known as 'Nudiversity' which is, in simple terms, where we encourage speakers from outside of our industry to come and talk to us and to tell us how they communicate and how their minds work. These speakers could be anyone from musicians to writers to politicians...anything goes.
It's a pretty cool way of conditioning yourself to consistently think outside the barriers and processes, which many of us who have spent time in the industry, have had thrust upon us and within which we've been trained and trained again. After all, creativity is born from human experience, not advertising experience.
This week we had the pleasure of meeting Jess Hall, founder of GoodyTwoShoes communications, she specialises in all things ethical, environmental & sustainable.
She spoke to us about the need for 'radical communications' within these fields due to minimal or no budget and the type of confrontational messaging required to get people to take notice, so thinking outside the box is essential.
She described 'radical communications' as being born out of a formula which can be visualised as:
NECCESSITY (to take action) + MOTIVATION (to make a change) + SIGNIFICANT BARRIERS (no public interest, legal issues, companies favouring their bottom line over doing the right thing, government legislation, people with their heads in the sand, no money) = RADICAL COMMUNICATIONS (driven by requirement)
Now more than ever the opportunity for communications to make an impact has grown exponentially with the rise of the social web & technology alongside the dissemination of power from the media and government to average joe public.
She shared some amazing examples of these 'radical communications' in action, two of which I've outlined below which I thought were pretty special and inspiring for different reasons:
This is a prime example of multi-lateral thinking. In order to raise money for their cause of saving the world's forests, two Norwegians decided to take a slightly different angle on the traditional preaching and protesting and instead tied together their desires with those of others and thus 'Fuck For Forests' was born.
In essence they film hardcore pornography in forest locations and sell it online with all profits going to the ecological charities of their choice. It may sound a bit bizarre and far-fetched but FFF made over $100,000 in the first year alone and donated the cash to the indigenous communities of Costa Rica and the Brazilian Amazon rainforest fund!
Telling lies which should be the truth to raise mass awareness and force change.
These guys are the masters of corporate hoaxes and specialise in bringing attention to social or environmental injustices committed by large corporations who would never themselves apologise, accept responsibility or take action.
The most famous example was in 2004 when one of them posed as a spokesperson for chemical company Dow and talked live on BBC TV on the 20th anniversary of the horrendous Bhopal chemical disaster, in which thousands of people were killed and many thousands more were affected.
During the interview, Mr. Finisterra (actually Andy Bichlbaum of the Yes Men group) shocked the BBC's audience when he said that not only had Dow decided to accept full responsibility for the incident, but that it was going to pay $12 billion in compensation to the victims. In response to the news, Dow's stock value promptly dropped.
The BBC had fallen into the Yes Men's trap because, while searching for someone at Dow to interview about the Bhopal disaster, its researchers had confused Dow's official website (Dow.com) with a copycat version created by the Yes Men (dowethics.com). The BBC had sent an email to the contact info listed on DowEthics.com, requesting an interview, and the Yes Men had happily complied.
Even though no compensation was paid out and no formal apology from the company was given, the Yes Men succeeded in reminding the world, 20 years later, of Dow's questionable ethics and their continued refusal to take responsibility:
Ethical, environmental and sustainable communications don't always need to be 'radical' because brands have the ability to create and build CSR programs to do some good and therefore bypass most of the barriers normally faced.
In addition, Dan Burgess (ex Naked UK) recently wrote a fantastic presentation entitled 'Can the creative industries lead us to a sustainable future?' which compiles some fantastic communications examples and ideas built around the sole purpose of promoting self sufficiency, awareness of consumption and working together for a sustainable future which is well worth a look.
Ultimately I think brands need to take more responsibility for their impact on the environment around them and there is a real appetite out there in consumer-land to hear this stuff and to make a difference together, so rather than leaving these communications to the passionate 'radicals' who ultimately play on a small scale, brands need to get on with it!
Most big corporations fear to talk about their CSR work simply because they're worried they'll be attacked for not doing enough but in reality it's far more likely that people will be receptive to them just doing their bit.
In the words of Clay Shirky "even a brand can tap into it (cognitive surplus) to benefit the greater good".
Food for thought...
Yet another reason for planners to read non-advertising stuff voraciously, have non-advertising interests and get out there and do non-advertising things!
If you remain in a bubble, you create in a bubble and will never break the mold or explore beyond the boundaries you set yourself.
Contagious magazine and creative agency Devilfish last week co-hosted a breakfast for forward-thinking marketers in London entitled 'punching above your weight' which encompassed inspiring talks from heavyweights both client side and agency, and luckily for those of us on the other side of the world they wrote all about it here.
There were several great case studies talked about including the likes of Method and mobile start up GiffGaff , but for me, the most inspiring aspect of the talks stemmed from the simple but altogether crucial 5 principles that creative agency Devilfish hold themselves to:
Be bold
Make friends
Keep talking (and listening)
Make a difference
Spend less
Think harder
Many agencies have a core proposition which can govern work output such as Naked's 'everything communicates', Mediacoms 'people first, better results' or BWM's 'challenge, change, grow' but underneath all of these there should be guiding ideals such as these 5 principles which will add more discipline, positivity and direction to what we do.
It's already clear that some of the award winning work that has been created in recent times has met with at least some, if not all of these principles:
Be bold (aka change the status quo)
Old Spice - the original ad itself (aka talking straight to viewer, continuous shot) as well as the latest 24 hour video bonanza shows us how the future of advertising may look...
Pepsi Refresh - leaving behind a 23 year Superbowl advertising tradition to focus money entirely on a social media project
Twelpforce - Best Buy's customer service goes Twitter crazy and responds to all tech questions not just related to Best Buy and it's products
Make friends (build yourself a community or following)
Again, Twelpforce via customer service and building a strong community following they positively impacted brand health and sales
Keep talking (and listening)
Gatorade recently launched their social media command centre which houses some amazing bespoke systems and softwares tracking every mention of Gatorade on the social web, their truly understanding that consumer knowledge is power
Greenpeace has recently shown the value of their continuous social strategy. They have an impressively comprehensive approach such as using Vimeo as a back up when Youtube removes their videos and singling out companies one at a time to launch the most effective plan of attack and impact
Make a difference
Forbes recently compiled a list of the most innovative CSR programs by brands in recent times which included amazingly simple campaigns such as Tide's 'Loads of hope' which started after Hurricane Katrina and offered to do victims laundry for free as well as the recent Levi's 'Go Forth' idea around urban regeneration
Spend less
A recent campaign for breast cancer awareness in Poland focused on broadening their communications towards men to educate them about how to feel breasts correctly to identify lumps. They used the insight that men who appreciate breasts may spend more time on porn sites so they housed their campaign on one! They only spent 1,300 Euros and educated 175,000 men in one week
Think harder
All of the above campaign examples represent people thinking a bit harder about the objectives and the solutions rather than jumping to the 'tried and tested' or obvious answers and should be celebrated for doing so.
I just came across a great article by 24/7 Wall Street who have compiled a list of 10 brands they think will disappear by the end of 2011.
It's interesting to note that 2 of the 10 are facing closure due to advances in technology and their inability to adapt their business models (Blockbuster Video & Readers Digest), this also affects those brands who have been placed on the 'risk list' but are outside of the top 10 such as Borders book stores.
I have a bit of an obsession with RFID tags at the moment, I love the idea of tying together real-world objects and technology in order to open up a whole world of ideas and stories.
Here's a great example of how it can be used by Oxfam:
People donating items at an Oxfam store in Manchester were asked to tell a story about one or more of their specific objects into a microphone, including when and where they acquired it and any personal stories associated with it.
These clips were then linked to an RFID tag and QR code and the items were tagged with the story and added to the shop's stock.
Shoppers then used their smart phone or a bespoke RFID reader to listen to the stories through speakers in the shop, and were invited to purchase the story-tagged objects.
Dean Christie is a fellow comms strategist who has recently joined the ranks at Naked Sydney. He's written a great post on the Naked blog about his first impressions of us and how he's fitting in!
I saw the headline 'Man decorates basement with $10 worth of sharpie' and had to take a closer look... This article was originally published in September 2008 but I've only just noticed it so bear with me if I'm behind the times!
Excerpt: When Charlie Kratzer started on the basement art project in his south Lexington home, he was surrounded by walls painted a classic cream. Ten dollars of Magic Marker and Sharpie later, the place was black and cream and drawn all over.
There are fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, Winston Churchill lounging with George Bernard Shaw — and the TV squirrel Rocky and his less adroit moose pal Bullwinkle.
I'm not sure if Lexmark/Sharpie subsequently used Mr Kratzer within their advertising activity or if they rewarded him with a lifetimes supply of Sharpies but if they didn't, they certainly should have!
I hate it even more when it forces me to bend my strategic thinking to it's slide-based formatting will. There is not one element of thought that can be effectively communicated using powerpoint. It does more damage than good in client presentations with the constant need to skip forwards and back and for your audience to hold in their memory slide 7 when you're talking on slide 11...disaster.
By using Prezi you are no longer confined to how much content you can fit on a slide, you now have an unlimited canvas on which to tell your story with the ability to look at the top line and to zoom into the detail as and when you require it. Genius.
You can input any form of media from text, images and videos etc...
Best of all, it’s pretty simple to use, is free (online) for the basic version but even the ‘pro’ version is still only $159 per year AND you can even print out an A1 ‘strategy on a page’ if necessary (clients love that stuff)
Idea City recently had their 2010 conference combining 'big ideas from the smartest people'.
Once of those people was the amazing Tavi Gevinson, the 14 year-old creator of the hit fashion blog Style Rookie, and contributor to Pop magazine's blog: tavi.thepop.com. Tavi has already become a key figure in the fashion world and has written for numerous high profile fashion & arts magazines as well as presenting for FashionTV and being an honoured guest of many designers....and all before her 15th birthday.
In her talk, Tavi presents her vision for Sassy Magazine and what it could have been had it stuck to its roots of intelligent, thought-provoking feminist writings rather than going down the 'glossy commercial' route it ended up as following its buy-out in the 90's.
She makes a crucial point that there is a real gap in the female publication marketplace for this kind of writing to return and to help women & girls adopt a more positive 'self-focus' as opposed to hoovering up the rubbish that is put in front of them at the moment about how to please everyone but themselves (i.e how they should look/eat/love/live)
Music sensation Robyn (one of my personal favourites) has just released the first ever 3D interactive music video for her new single 'Killing Me'
It's really simple, very basic graphics but the addition of the 3D piece makes it extra special, not to mention the Twitter feed!
The first portion of the video features visualization of Robyn's lyrics. The remainder of the video is created by users themselves who tweet in what is killing them using the Twitter hash tag, #killingme. These tweets are visualized and credited to the user.
The video has the potential to become the infinite video as users can continue to add on to the endless stream of #killingme comments.
