This is from the Google Zeitgeist earlier last year, but it deals with the issue of leadership and collaboration through the metaphor of conducting orchestras. He points to the importance of opening space for interpretation within organisations and the price of over- control; what he calls "doing by not doing". It seems to me that the same metaphor can be applied to the development of "social' strategies and initiatives as well as organisations. And it looks likely to be a challenge for brands in the social space for a fair while to come. It calls for a clarity of vision and a high degree of confidence and understanding (empathy?) of the role of the brand and its relationships with its communities. Well worth half an hour to watch.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Mum's no longer the word
It seems that corporate behemoth's are intent on continually demonstrating their lack of understanding of how to embrace our new "Social" online world. Their lumbering marketing and business initiatives are really looking prehistoric .
Following on from the the Nestle/Greenpeace/Facebook debacle, (see here and here), the company has continued to reach for new heights in misunderstanding the online social space..
A short summary from John Howard...
MumsOnline (the US version of the UK's Mumsnet - and presumably similarly influential ) have apparently long been a thorn in Nestles side, over in the US. They had also been trying to acquire the .com version of their url from a third party. When the registration for this lapsed, they were on the verge of taking ownership of their own name. Only to be gazumped by Nestle at the last moment. Who then pointed the url to their own site (try it and see: http://www.mumsonline.com/).
Faced with a website that was being critical of your brand what do you do? Engage with them? ... listen to what they are saying, engage in the conversation? Of course not, let's antagonise them even further. In fact let's antagonise them in such a way as our actions will be reported all around the world (by those people in the online social world that we don't understand).
When will they ever learn?
P.S. This is beginning to weaken my long-standing addiction to Shreddies!
Following on from the the Nestle/Greenpeace/Facebook debacle, (see here and here), the company has continued to reach for new heights in misunderstanding the online social space..
A short summary from John Howard...
MumsOnline (the US version of the UK's Mumsnet - and presumably similarly influential ) have apparently long been a thorn in Nestles side, over in the US. They had also been trying to acquire the .com version of their url from a third party. When the registration for this lapsed, they were on the verge of taking ownership of their own name. Only to be gazumped by Nestle at the last moment. Who then pointed the url to their own site (try it and see: http://www.mumsonline.com/).
Faced with a website that was being critical of your brand what do you do? Engage with them? ... listen to what they are saying, engage in the conversation? Of course not, let's antagonise them even further. In fact let's antagonise them in such a way as our actions will be reported all around the world (by those people in the online social world that we don't understand).
When will they ever learn?
P.S. This is beginning to weaken my long-standing addiction to Shreddies!
Paul Smith's design rules
i.e. The design rules of Paul Smith.
"My whole life is about being childlike; not childish, but childlike. Which means you have a lateral mind; a lateral way of thinking. You are curious.
If you are looking at what other designers are doing, or what other products are out there, then you are already buying yesterday's news...and yesterday's news nobody wants".
..unless they want nostalgia or history.
Evian clearly believe Paul Smith's design rules (OK).
Final thought....being childlike and curious and open are, I think, a prerequisites for researchers, planners and lot's of other people, many of whom, like myself could be considered to have a designers bone in their body (apologies to all those hip well dressed planners and researchers out there).
Friday, March 26, 2010
Remarkable!
This presentation is from Polle De Maagt about Being Remarkable. The main (and popular planner) themes are about how it's not about the technology, or the channel. It is about being generous and the power of great storytelling. There are some great examples that demonstrate this really well. It's worth taking the time to watch this.
Being Remarkable
View more presentations from Polle de Maagt.
Bits of Wisdom from Harmut Essling
This guy runs Frog Design - creating products and services for the likes of Sky (HD Set-Top Box) and Yahoo (Music Unlimited interface). He's got some interesting things to say about about design, boy more especially about hiring people and having an organisation adjust to people, not the other way around - that is of course on the basis that they are very talented.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
How can you lose Tesco?
The latest press ad for the iPhone features the "Tesco Finder". Judging by the twitter traffic it is proving quite popular. The description in the press ad says you can use it to find your local Tesco store, and in (some) stores us it to locate product on shelves. Now call me a grumpy old man but what happened to asking someone for directions, you know having a conversation. It's not as if there is a shortage of Tesco's or Metros; isn't the general consensus that there are too many and that they are strangling local retail businesses. And anyway, if you are in a strange (or should that be unfamiliar) town, how many people would be absolutely desperate to find a Tesco, over any other supermarket?
Once inside the store, do Tesco want to move us to a world where we use our phones to find all we want, and then use a self-service checkout! That way we won't have to speak to anyone.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that part of the future of marketing is for brands to deliver more on being useful and enhancing our lives, but please God don't let widgets be the only solution.
This reminds me of a short talk given at TED early last year by Renny Gleeson, where he very humorously demonstrated the impact mobile phones have on our humanity.
One of my favourite TV ads of the last decade makes a very similar point.
Once inside the store, do Tesco want to move us to a world where we use our phones to find all we want, and then use a self-service checkout! That way we won't have to speak to anyone.
Don't get me wrong, I believe that part of the future of marketing is for brands to deliver more on being useful and enhancing our lives, but please God don't let widgets be the only solution.
This reminds me of a short talk given at TED early last year by Renny Gleeson, where he very humorously demonstrated the impact mobile phones have on our humanity.
One of my favourite TV ads of the last decade makes a very similar point.
Telling stories that make a difference
There's lots been written about the power of storytelling across cultures and time. And as much about how great brands are, in effect, stories well told. Maybe like me you have put in a lot of time and energy to help develop such brand stories, and sometimes reflected that OK you've helped sell more tins of beans or sold more holidays, but have you made a real positive difference to the world? We are all aware that web 2.0+ has turned us from from consumers to potential producers (of news, views and other content)and we spend a lot of time discussing how it's impacting on our clients, their brands, and their audiences (who are not audiences anymore, if they ever were). But how much time do we spend thinking about its impact on the bigger issues? Yes we know how powerful it was in mobilising Obama's supporters, but what about on a smaller more personal scale? The SalaamGarage is a great example of citizen journalism in action. It is a storytelling, citizen journalism organisation that partners with International NGOs and local non-profits. Participants (amateur and professional photographers, writers, videographers, etc.) connect with international NGOs, create and share independent media projects that raise awareness and cause positive change in their online and offline social communities. This short presentation, by its founder Amanda Koster, tells more, and inspires us to do more with our cameras and and our social media tools to help communicate untold stories that make a difference
Monday, March 8, 2010
That's not my name!
Ever fancy a change of identity? You could do worse than become Swedish.
Look how successful Abba and Bjorn Borg were. Maybe the secret is to be called Bjorn. If not, how about taking your inspiration from that other great Swedish success - IKEA furniture.
Thanks to Stan Lee aka Brand DNA for spotting this little widget. Go here and give it a try. Hopefully it will a little more revelatory than this answer for guess who? - TINNG TYNGS (doh!)
Look how successful Abba and Bjorn Borg were. Maybe the secret is to be called Bjorn. If not, how about taking your inspiration from that other great Swedish success - IKEA furniture.
First (challenging) thoughts
Following on from the theme of conversation starters here are more examples, from FreedomLab's "Penny-for your-Thoughts" programmme, where they ask opinion leaders around the world to share some unfinished thoughts with them.
First up is Pakistani-born political scientist and futurist Sohail Inayatullah, sharing some possible futures for a world that is being transformed by the global financial crisis. He sees the key transformation as a sign of the end of the industrial era. And believes each of us needs to help in creating the transition.
Alan Moore sees the challenge of the future as being a better understanding of the interrelationships between people,society, technology,commerce and communications, which isn't something you can sit down and solve before your first cappuccino of the day. But as he indicates falling revenues and profits are likely to give a lot of brands a big incentive.
More from Alan's colleague Gerd on Alan's blog here. technolgy revolution
First up is Pakistani-born political scientist and futurist Sohail Inayatullah, sharing some possible futures for a world that is being transformed by the global financial crisis. He sees the key transformation as a sign of the end of the industrial era. And believes each of us needs to help in creating the transition.
Alan Moore sees the challenge of the future as being a better understanding of the interrelationships between people,society, technology,commerce and communications, which isn't something you can sit down and solve before your first cappuccino of the day. But as he indicates falling revenues and profits are likely to give a lot of brands a big incentive.
More from Alan's colleague Gerd on Alan's blog here. technolgy revolution
Baby Steps
My first rule for a blog. As with most things digital, everything is "forever beta" so we'll make improvements along the way. So lets just dive right in and see where we get to. Despite (or because of) the fact that I have worked in advertising almost 30 years (with time off for being a tad disillusioned, and doing my own thing for a few years in the '90's) I've found the last couple of years the most exciting and interesting. It could be that I've been walking around with my eyes closed before then or that my memory is not what it was, but I prefer to think that with the advent of all things Web 2.0+ and the "social" revolution, the world of advertising and marketing has got a whole lot more interesting and stimulating, whatever age you are!
There's so much great stuff to be devoured, so many opinions, ideas, theories and innovation to get you thinking, and its changing so quickly. And probably the best thing is that there are few if any definitive answers or solutions. We seem to be living in a time when much of what is written and practiced (in both senses) is almost a (collaborative) "work in progress"; We are developing new ways of doing things, but before these are committed to marketing textbooks and theory the speed of technological development is challenging us to re-think and adapt.
A good illustration of this is the recent work done through the IPA on Social Media. (I do hate that term. As has been pointed out by many, it makes some just think in terms of media channels - Facebook, Twitter etc. I'll call it "Social" from hereon - unless of course I'm referring to Facebook and other applications). October last year saw the publishing of 10 points of view, each by an individual planner, on what they had jointly agreed as 10 of the key principles around (so called) Social Media. As Neil Perkin indicates in his summary presentation, these are not meant to be the 10 commandments, but rather the beginnings of ongoing conversations and idea development. You can join the conversation on Facebook.
For those of us that also need to have a practical view on Social Media, this cheat sheet from Drew McLellan looks like a good reference.
And finally, just because I love it and so want one, here's the ad for the iPad - do you think they are targeting current Apple Passionistas?
Well alright, finally finally, I aspire to write a blog as entertaining as this. I wonder if Elika started with baby steps or just hob nobs?
There's so much great stuff to be devoured, so many opinions, ideas, theories and innovation to get you thinking, and its changing so quickly. And probably the best thing is that there are few if any definitive answers or solutions. We seem to be living in a time when much of what is written and practiced (in both senses) is almost a (collaborative) "work in progress"; We are developing new ways of doing things, but before these are committed to marketing textbooks and theory the speed of technological development is challenging us to re-think and adapt.
A good illustration of this is the recent work done through the IPA on Social Media. (I do hate that term. As has been pointed out by many, it makes some just think in terms of media channels - Facebook, Twitter etc. I'll call it "Social" from hereon - unless of course I'm referring to Facebook and other applications). October last year saw the publishing of 10 points of view, each by an individual planner, on what they had jointly agreed as 10 of the key principles around (so called) Social Media. As Neil Perkin indicates in his summary presentation, these are not meant to be the 10 commandments, but rather the beginnings of ongoing conversations and idea development. You can join the conversation on Facebook.
For those of us that also need to have a practical view on Social Media, this cheat sheet from Drew McLellan looks like a good reference.
Well alright, finally finally, I aspire to write a blog as entertaining as this. I wonder if Elika started with baby steps or just hob nobs?
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