I remember seeing this great piece of advertising a couple of years ago. I may even have written about it here on my blog (but just cannot find it). If you have not seen it yet, it was created for the Argentine political campaign of Lopez Murphy in 2006.
This idea has been taken and adapted for a competition. Now, rather than discussing politics and vision, The Lost Generation prompts us to rethink what it means to be part of a generation entering adulthood in the first years of the 21st Century. Some excellent copywriting and storytelling (via Garr Reynolds and Carl Moggeridge).
A couple of weeks ago, Mack Collier kicked off a long Twitter discussion on the subject of blogging. By tagging his question #blogchat it allowed others to join the discussion, which then took off in other directions – and ended up lasting a couple of hours.
Spurred on by this success, Mack decided to make this a regular occurrence – each Sunday at 8pm CST (US). But this week, it was suggested that we take a different approach – let’s try and make this discussion follow the sun! So after a couple of hours of facilitating, Mack would pass the ball to those of us here in Australia (around our lunch time).
It turned into a fascinating event around the topic “how do you generate comments/conversation on your blog”. The discussion ebbed and flowed, with some great comments/suggestions. But at one stage I decided to run a poll, asking how many people on Twitter also had a blog or other social networking profile. The results were quite surprising:
But then, Kate Tribe started keeping an eye on the statistics (as TwtPoll does not provide access to raw data) as they came in. By sampling the data at various points, Kate observed:
From what I can gather, the results for the total votes, is not each person, but each option selected. I came to this conclusion because from timepoint E to F, is an addition of 4 (the same as if you select every option). So all the poll is really telling you is that there are more people with Facebook than LinkedIn, Blog, or Other. It doesn't mean that only 26% have a blog.
Which, I guess, is why you need to have a really smart researcher design, monitor and evaluate your market research efforts.
You can read the full feed here, but some of the highlights for me included:
@MackCollier@KakieF YES! Make ur blogging PASSIONATE! Readers will pick up on your passion, & that makes ur post more intrstng
Heidi Cool also bookmarked about 30 blogs from those participating in the conversation which is bound to generate even more conversation in the weeks ahead (once we all start reading each other’s blogs).
BUT most importantly, please remember to join us all next week – that is Sunday in the US and Monday in Australia for what is quickly becoming a fascinating online forum.
A while back, Ian Kath and I got together for a chat. He is an interesting fellow and has a true curiosity for the people that he meets – which is just as well, as he produces the YourStoryPodcast series.
His website and iTunes catalogue now contains well over thirty podcasts and covers meetings with people from all over the world. In this podcast, Ian meets with the women behind the Hidden Europe magazine in a cafe in Berlin; while a little closer to home, Ian talks with Andrew Leavold about odd and eccentric DVDs and video recordings. One of my favourite interviews, however, was with Mel Poudroux who shares her personal story and discusses, along the way, tattoos, scarification and what it means to be normal in an abnormal world.
Most recently, Ian took time out from his Sydney trip to talk to me about social media, marketing, innovation and social judgement. Hope you enjoy it. I did.
Mike Arauz is one of the most considered bloggers that I read regularly … but he has a bee in his bonnet about the term “social media”. It’s not that he doesn’t love it, it’s that he feels it’s being destroyed or desaturated of meaning. His Passionate Rant About Social Media reads, to me, like a manifesto of social media blame – and there is plenty to share:
I blame everyone who claims to be a social media expert when no one can even begin to imagine what social media is going to become.
I blame everyone who says social media when they really just mean Facebook.
I blame everyone who asks for a social media marketing strategy when they really want a mass-media strategy without having to pay for it.
I blame everyone who treats social media like a game to be won by getting more followers.
I blame the mass media journalists who write and produce story after story about the latest buzzwords without ever bothering to even attempt to understand what the hell they're even talking about.
Take the time to read through the whole post. And then, think about WHY you or your brand is considering social media and then reframe your approach. Consider HOW you might begin to walk a shared desire path with your customers – and then, maybe, you will avoid the blame game altogether.
I have written before about the great approach to strategy taken by the folks at Zeus Jones (learning to fail – and learning from failure – while often flippantly discussed is much more difficult in practice). But strategy is one thing – what happens when you want to actually transform a situation? What happens if the brief is to change behaviours for the long term? And how do you apply disciplined thinking, creativity and social technologies to large-scale problems – like sustainability?
This presentation by Zeus Jones won the PhizzPop final at the recent SXSW conference. The brief was simple: “Help the citizens of Austin live more sustainably using currently-available technologies.” (I won’t go into details around their response to the brief – you can read about the approach taken here.)
There are some great lessons for planners and creatives alike here:
Reframe: rather than offer-up a me-too solution around the issue of sustainability, the fundamental human issues were reconsidered and addressed. This insight-focused approach helped the team to re-think and reframe their approach not around consuming less, but consuming more wisely
Thinkbig, not big idea: aim to build or exploit the weak ties between social groups but don’t hammer communities with “the message”. The solution suggested that local, community and city resources could be meshed together to create change that would transform the functions and role of all involved.
Transform: Aim your efforts towards transforming BEHAVIOURS so that your messaging, your activation and applications focus on a tangible human action that can (or needs to be) changed for the better.
But perhaps the most exciting thing about this, is that the Zeus Jones folks are thinking about actually APPLYING this approach in their own community. Now, that is awesome.
Thinking about the places and ways in which people’s lives intersect with various brands, products and services can get rather messy. We are, after all, subject to serendipity – which often borders on chaos. Think about your most prized possession, and then think about how it came to you. Now, tell me, was it planned or was there an accident involved? Was it an unexpected gift?
My bet, is that for many of you, the item that you most love has come to you thanks to a series of apparently random events.
The thing is, however, that we often mistake chaos for randomness. It isn’t. Underlying random events is Desire as an organising principle. What this means is that we seek out, attract and are attracted to things that gratify our desires. And in the process we unconsciously order our world and make decisions and choices that obey the laws of desire – not the laws of logic. It’s why we buy things like Alfa Romeo cars and Ducati motorbikes – not because we are smart, but because we feel compelled to.
When we step onto the web, this is amplified in sometimes surprising ways.
Mike Arauz has put together a great deck that shows how this can play out. Called Desire Paths, Mike talks about the way that brands need to be begin connecting with their audiences in ways that align with an individual’s passion. He points out that these paths are OUR paths – and that they cannot be made by institutions – and therefore that brands can be invited on our journey along these paths on the condition that they are useful to the person travelling this path.
Desire paths tie-in nicely to social judgement. Certainly there is a great incentive for brands to tap into the collective power of a desire path; after all, we do not walk these desire paths alone – and technology is making it ever easier for us to find like-minded travellers all around the world. As Apple has found, good design is not just appreciated by “me” but also by “people like me” – or perhaps as Mike would term it, “people who walk with me”.
After a desire path and a brand collide in this way, the outcome is transformative – for everyone involved. For the paths that we take, and the choices we make either unconsciously or deliberately, also mark us as belonging to this tribe, or that – and this is perhaps, the heart of social judgement, and why understanding its mechanisms remains elusive.
When you start to prepare for a pitch or a presentation, what do you do first? If you are like most people, you will turn to your computer, fire up Powerpoint and knock out a quick outline. And while that can work for some, this approach often means that you overlook the nuances and potential of a good story.
But even if you DO have a good story … what happens next? Tim Noonan suggests that we need to pay more attention to our most powerful and persuasive tool – our voice.
In his excellent Your Voice PDF, he outlines the seven strategies you can use to achieve vocal brilliance:
Record Every Speech You Give
Review With Eyes Closed!
Build Trust and Understanding through Sincere Delivery
Speak WITH, not TO, the Audience
Warm Up Your Voice
Smile as you Speak!
Play your Instrument and Express your Passion!
These are not mere words or suggestions – as a blind man, Tim is acutely aware of the power of your voice – and has been known to do “readings” where he is able to tell a lot about your personality simply by asking a few questions and listening to the response. It makes me think that there is great opportunity for these skills when it comes to online conversation. I have always believed that we give away more than we know in all this text/writing. Perhaps only those who are truly attuned to the rhythms of our voices can really tell.
Plucking up the courage to start a blog or joining a conversation by commenting is not easy. For many of us, it means stepping out of our comfort zones – comments and blogs are, after all, easily found by the all seeing eye of Google; and you never know whether you might face a backlash or become embroiled in a heated discussion. But while it’s easy to sit in the shadows and read a blog – there really are great rewards for those who step into the spotlight.
Some time ago, Todd Andrlik suggested that I read Step into the Spotlight by Tsufit. The book appealed to me because of my background in theatre – so when Tsufit asked me to share a personal story about stepping into the spotlight, I couldn’t resist. In this guest post I share the trepidation I had when first commenting on Russell Davies’ blog.
I am sure you know what it’s like … “am I smart enough”, “is this witty”, “will I get flamed?” … all ran through my head. But in the end, it was the best thing I could have done.
Polonius. What do you read, my lord? Hamlet. Words, words, words.
— Hamlet, Act II, scene ii
There is no place to hide … if you pick up a newspaper these days you are likely to see it. And if you go online, you will find it there too. Two words. “Social Media”. These two words sit uncomfortably together like ex-lovers.
Kevin Rothermel has an excellent rant on the growing focus and interest in this social media beast. He points out that there are plenty of people clogging up the various social media streams with noise and announcements:
Wading through this mess, day-in and day-out, it has become apparent that these folks think they have figured marketing out. They will say things about how tools like Twitter will be “the only corporate communications vehicle in the future.” Anything that doesn’t take place on social media is old school, and people that work in agencies don’t get it. (which is only true some of the time)
But as Kevin suggests, the potential of social media is not about the unwritten rules, recipes for success or even the championing of one communications vehicle over another. It is about the fundamental human desire to connect – to share, be interesting, and be found interesting by others. And the more that advertising in any form works to take advantage of the Auchterlonie Effect – whether that be a movie, TVC or some conversation buzzing through the web – then the more interesting, inspiring and RELEVANT it will be to us all.
It’s not the dead words that inspire us to action. It’s the way they are spoken, owned and embodied.
I remember a performance review early in my career. I was looking for constructive feedback, wanting to know where I could improve the way that I worked and what particular steps I could take to gain a promotion or better conditions in the following year. But all my manager could respond with was “add value”. And the further I pushed this topic, the more I realised that he really did not know what he was talking about. He was simply reverting to “corporate speak” to avoid giving me a pay rise.
In the world of marketing, there is also a lot of talk about “adding value”. But what does this mean? What are the practical steps that we can take to deliver this "value" to our clients? How do we work as agencies to transform the experiences of consumers? Both Sean Howard and Paul Isakson point out this great presentation by John V Willshire that takes us down the path of creating and delivering value.
What shape does this take? What can we honestly do to transform the work that we as marketers or agencies do.
John’s approach is to look at both the history and future of communities, by understanding the dynamics by which communities come together. The important aspect of this, for me at least, is that the focus is on the co-creation of context – which means that we need to strategically consider context over placement.
But as the focus of this presentation is about how we engage communities – whether they are business communities (which gravitate towards brands or products) or local (geographic) groups and so on. John suggests that there are four clear areas where we should focus our added value efforts:
Do something that is useful for people
Entertain people
Educate people
Connect people
This presentation positions the brand at the very centre of the consumer experience, but Sean suggests that this misses the true opportunity. Rather than pre-empting Sean’s thinking around this, I will wait to see what he comes up with. But I have a feeling that it centres around two things: passion and social judgement. The anticipation is delicious.
