advergirl

Top 5 Ideas

I'm a big fan of the New York Times Magazine annual Year in Ideas issue. It uncovers both magical oddities and major shifts in consumer wants and needs (aka: trends). Here are my five favorites from their A>Z index of how our world is changing.

1. Good Enough Is the New Great. An idea I've been looking for words for - basically, "Companies that had focused mainly on improving the technical quality of their products have started to notice that, for many consumers, 'ease of use, continuous availability and low price" are more important'." Think Flickr, YouTube, iPods (vs. photo books, high def and stereos.) Today, it's often more about what's easy than what's the very best. That's a game changer.


2. An Advertisement that Watches You. Maybe an oddity for now or maybe where our world is going. Using a camera and face-tracking software, a poster in a Berlin bus shelter changed its content this year based on whether or not people were paying attention to it. Look away and the graphics change in your peripheral. The technology is improving all the time. Now it can even identify the sex of a passerby and dynamically change the graphics to match.
   


3. Random Promotions. You've heard, of course, of The Peter Principle - people are promoted to their level of incompetence. If you're good at doing, you get promoted to managing; good at managing, you get promoted to leading. Despite the fact that those three functions require entirely different skills. And, then you're stuck in that role until you use up all the equity that got you there. A new study found that promoting people entirely random improves the overall efficiency of a firm. So much for merit.
   


4. Printable Batteries. You probably remember Entertainment Weekly running the first video ad in a print publication this year. The technology to print those video ads is surprising accessible. The challenge has been how to power them. The solution is to print batteries too. This year, a research team at the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Electronic Nano Systems revealed a 0.6-millimeter-thick battery.
   


5. Subscription Artists. I love it when social gets all practical. You've probably heard of productive crowdsourced business models, like Edison Nation, iStock and Innocentive and do-good ones like Kiva and Microplace. A relatively new player in the field offers the best of both - it's Kickstarter. It offers artists a chance to put together business plans and engage subscribers or funders to pay for it. For perhaps the first time, an artist can quickly answer a nagging question: Does anyone actually want my art badly enough to pay for it?

What I'm reading: Social network impact and connecting with college seekers

Getting to know millennials:

I've been working with a lot of higher ed clients lately. Projects that let us connect to some of the country's most glass-half-full, do-some-good, look-toward-a-brighter-tomorrow audiences: kids shopping for their perfect-fit colleges and their proud parents. A few recent tags:

Gen Y and Boomers Reshaping the Workplace: Harvard Business Review has an interesting look at the demands of the workers who sandwich my generation >> Boomers and Ys want unique kinds of flexibility that deliver not only balance, but broader impact.

What Colleges Don't Know About Applicants: Wow, game changing study excerpted in the Chronicle with lots of incidental, fabulous quotes, like

• ... it costs four-year public colleges more than $400 to secure an applicant, and four-year private colleges more than $2,000


• Parents use the rankings to ask, "What's the best college?" when they should be asking, "What's the best college for my child?"

The Millennial Primer Library: Brand Amplitude has put together an interesting set of white papers and other boot camp basics on the trophy generation. Check out the introductory slides in "Using Social Media to Connect With the Most Connected Generation"

Specialization Helps Colleges Move Up the Ranks: Andrea Jarrell pairs selectivity with strategic specialization in the formula that has helped colleges make big jumps in the all-important U.S. News rankings.

University's Crisis of Purpose: This New York Times series looks at how colleges struggle to meet almost irreconcilable demands and deal with the wave of criticism on issues ranging from the cost of college to universities’ intellectual quality to their supposed decline into unthinking political correctness.

Millennials Set to Do Nothing Short of Changing The World: In this ebook - Generation We - Eric Greenberg and bestselling author Karl Weber explore the emerging power of the Millennial Generation, show how the Millennials  (and their supporters from other generations) are poised to change our nation and our world for the better, and lay out a powerful plan for progressive change that today’s youth is ready to implement.

Impact of our word of mousing:

And, of course I'm endlessly fascinated by the impact we have when we act, share and talk in our everyday, increasingly-online lives. A few top picks from my usual reading list.

Enthusiast vs. Influencer Marketing - Another smart take from Whuffie girl Tara about the the differences in targeting those who wield huge broad-ranging influence online and those who truly love us. I had a similar experience last month. I was featured on a wildly popular, but out-of-my-category-entirely blog. I expected a big uptick in traffic from my A-List association, but in fact - I got nearly 10x the referrals from my own network that week.

Happiness Is Contagious - Mitch takes a highlighter to the top quotes from the recent New York Times mega-piece about how good behaviors — like quitting smoking or staying slender or being happy — pass from friend to friend almost as if they were contagious viruses.  And these social signals can even skip a link - spreading to a friend of a friend without affecting the person who connects them. No surprise, the article is by my favorite newsie - Clive Thompson

What if there is no crowd? Sarah Perez covers some recent research by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) professor Vassilis Kostakos that pokes a big hole in the prevailing wisdom that the "wisdom of crowds" is a trustworthy force on today's web. The findings showed that a small group of users accounted for a large number of rating - there is no crowd, just a big gang.

Dogears: Good stuff I'm reading tonight

Graphic Statement reviews Puma's mobile concept store. Anyone remember the Ashes and Snow exhibit? Clever translation of art to work here.

Fab little brand framework tucked into Adaptive Path's interview with Josh Levine

The Economist calls us Facebook Primates (The Economist is on Facebook? That's like everybody's Dad friending them at once)

The New York Times' Freakonomics Forum thinks Paypal may save the newspaper: What Would Micropayments Do for Journalism?

Advergirl fave Brian Morrissey of Adweek looks at the future of Influencer Programs.

Marketing Vox reports that the average American spent 75 hours online in January. Dude, I've been online 75 hours this week :)

Delightful friends at Plaid take a fresh look at the Great Orange Juice Debacle of 2009 with Congrats! The public hates your design. Now what?

Savvy Bud Caddell at UnderCurrent gets fan focused in a presentation called The Fan Economy 2009.

Technology in Marketing pulls the veil from Twitter to reveal who's really using it. The secret: we're middle aged city dwellers who are addicted to our cell phones. I'll pause while you regroup from the shock.

Can someone tell Citibank to stop spending my tax dollars on INANE FEELGOOD ADS??? Bob Gilbreath, my-favorite-boss-I-never-had, is on the case at Marketing with Meaning.

Brand Camp nails the paradox of choice in yet another clever comic.

Doggears: Facebook activism, blogger snobbers, scary stats and more...

Some of my favorite finds and reads from the last few weeks:

Free guide: Digiactive is offering a primer on Facebook Activism. Great introduction.

NASCAR blindness: Toad uncovers our Myspace / NASCAR / McCain / Desperate Housewives snobbery and reminds us to check it at the agency door.

One man's Zin moment: Woodruff studies his own "spare time" advocacy of a favorite brand

Principles for participation: Herd shares 5 easy guidelines for employees participating in social media

No job if you don't blog: One more great find at Herd - John Robinson, the editor of a regional paper in North Carolina, the Greensboro News-Record, talks about the questions he asks job candidates and just what those answers tell him...

How to be interesting: Davies shares 10 ways to master the skill of being interesting. Good stuff (that I don't have the self-discipline to do).

Awkward agencies: Steve Hall takes on the Carat hype. Shares his own shocking layoff story. (Mine: laid off in a coffee shop owned by my friends the morning after having the person who laid me off over to my house for dinner. Ouch.)

OMG we're lazy: (Left) From Joe Niedecken's blog: the word problem you never wanted to see ...

Talking to Pink: Griner will probably smack me upside the blog for this one, but, checkout this Happiness Project interview with Daniel Pink. Good questions for all of us...

Dogears: What changed in blogging when I wasn't looking and other great finds

When I started blogging - five years ago (!) - the community of readers and writers was much smaller. Once you found a circle of like minds, you tended to read one another, comment on each other's blogs and generally create a preaching-to-the-choir-despite-the-occasional-streaker type environment.

Since then, I've noticed the big shifts happen. When conversation became more global. When content became more valued than commentary. And, now - thanks to the growing group of influential 20-somethings - a shift from the pleasure of anonymity to an emphasis on personal interaction.

If you want to get grand, I'd call it multi-dimensional communications. If you want to stay plain-spoken, maybe knowing your readers. Or, to be blunt - using good manners.

Increasingly, bloggers are expected to interact with readers 1:1. Know them on Twitter. Respond to their comments with personal emails. Generally be the most active participant in the circle they started.

It's a new take on community. One perfectly captured last week in David Cushman's 12 very contemporary rules for blogging. And, one that - despite my own horrible email habits - I really admire.

More great articles and posts I tagged last week:

• For everyone who has ever stuttered their way through an exhausting, ultimately unproductive, or even downright embarrassing brainstorming meeting, here are a few great tips from the blogger crew over at B&A on How to Build a Better Brainstorm


• Tired of the same old new media tactics? Check out the insightful barbs on Armano's Marketing Wheel of Misfortune
  
  For every blogger who has been doing this long enough to be wicked sick of it: Steve Woodruff examines the Evolution of a Blogger


• Is it just me or has Ad Age been delivering really compelling content lately? Two recent faves: The Agency-Selection Process is Broken by Avi Dan and  a great piece on re-integrating media and creative by Linda Sawyer called We're Back to Where We Started...


• Here's hoping that Adverboyfriend's predictions that strategists will be the first on the unemployment line this economic downturn are proved wrong. After all, we're the happiest people around the water cooler according to this mini study by IPA featured on AdLiterate


• Happiest outdoor I've seen lately: Carrot pots by Owen Jones & Partners in Portland

Dogears: Good stuff I pre-read for my favorite readers

• In my continuing search for a responsive brand illustration that does not include Jeff Jarvis, I give you Francois Gossieaux and Lenovo. Ok, not quite the same ring as Jarvis and Dell, but I think it's worth working with...


• Why you shouldn't be afraid of customer reviews. Joshua Porter tackles all the C-suite objections head on.


• Dangers and opportunities of the crowdsourced company. Making me remember how much I miss F*ucked company, Jeremiah Owyang digs deep on humans talking about unmentionables ... salary, process, internal memos, etc.


• New-to-me blog I dig. Alcone's Consumer Lab. Basically the flash card version of blog posting. Nice, digestible little blurbs of ideas and inspiration.


• All that's new is Google. Google merges online analytics with TV measurement (how effective are your broadcast campaigns)? And provides totally free 411 service. And free Wikis. And, gloriously, Streetview is now live in Columbus. Not too much word on the new Google phone yet, but might be worth holding off on the iPhone for...


• If you're up for a little spec marketing, Innocentive has a few video and messaging challenges in their Business and Enterprise section.


• And because we all have jobs and lives away from them - dig this great piece in Sunday's New York Times: When Mom and Dad Share It All. How do you truly split domestic duties? Spouses who are determined to adhere to “equally shared parenting” do it minute by minute.

Dogears: Good stuff I pre-read for my favorite readers

Just a few great finds of late to share ... some are sites, some are articles, but all good enough to be worth spreading.

Engage:

• Every week new inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers are posted at TED. Visit often.
• Great Tree People site for New Zealanders by Genesis Energy. Love how it shows - not tells - community. Check out the Adverblog post for more details.
• New (to me) tools: Track changes on any Web site (RSS enabled or not) and get better free insight into competitive site traffic (or your own if your boss is super cheap)
• Highly passed around already, but worth a watch if you missed: Social Media in Plain English by Common Craft

Read:

• Marketing Charts: Journalists’ Views on Social-Media’s Influence on Reporting Differ by Beat
• Business Week: Beyond Blogs
  
• New York Times: Exposed, Blog Post Confidential
• Found on Adaptive Path ...Harvard Publishing: Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit—And You Should Too
• Bokardo: Designing for the Social Web: The Usage Lifecycle
• Marketing Profs: Sean Howard on The Why and How of Engaging Bloggers at Your Event

PRSA Followup

I still had a few questions to answer from the PRSA event. So, belatedly, here we go:

Q: How does a trackback work and is it annoying to other bloggers?

I answered this Q for one of my offline friends this week, too. Great example of a simple concept way over complicated by technology and specialists.

It's just a notice that someone is linking to or referencing one of your posts.

It's also called a linkback.

Short story: At the end of most posts on Wordpress and SixApart, there's a link called Trackback. If you click it, it gives you a special address. If you take that address and enter it on one of your own posts (there's a special field in the software) it pings the original post's server and the author gets an email that someone is referencing their post.

Basically a digital nod. One I believe is universally appreciated.

Q: What blogs and books do I read to stay on top of trends?

Well, I should say that 'staying on top of trends' is a pretty relative term these days. But, to stay somewhat aware of the cool stuff in my tiny area of addiction/interest, here are my top picks:

Blogs:

Adaptive Path

Advertising Age - CMO Strategy

Andrea Hill

B&A

Bokardo

ChangeThis Newsletter

Chief Marketer

Church of the Customer

Compete

Cowshed Productions

eBusiness.org

Emergence Marketing

Groundswell

Hill | Holliday

Hitwise Intelligence

Horse Pig Cow

How Advertising Spoiled Me

I Believe in Advertising

indexed

Jeremiah Owyang

Jeremiah Owyang

Joe Niedecken

Kelly Mooney

Logic+Emotion

Lynetter's Online Dev Slides

Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Media Buyer Planner

Noah Brier

Own Your Identity

Paul Isakson

Pleasure and Pain

SAW a good idea

StickyFigure

The Brand Builder

Todd And

Tom Fishburne: Brand Camp

Trendwatching

Books:

Andy Beal: Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online

Patricia Martin: Rengen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer - and What It Means to Your Business

Joseph Jaffe: Join the Conversation: How to Engage Marketing-Weary Consumers with the Power of Community, Dialogue, and Partnership

Rohit Bhargava: Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back

Kelly Mooney: The Open Brand: When Push Comes to Pull in a Web-Made World

Charlene Li: Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies

Mark Penn: Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow's Big Changes

 

Q: Two questions condensed to one - how can I connect with doctors and moms online?

Honestly, I have no idea. I think the advice I gave in person was with docs it's probably a closed community of your most passionate users; for moms, it's probably real moms already in your organization, already talking online.

But, for more on-target advice, a few experts from my extended network:

Pierce Mattie PR talks about Pitching Mommie Bloggers

Consultant Bill Ives talks about physicians and social media

Q: How do I avoid a 1000 new friends?

First, can I say - nice problem to have! If you start out in social media and garner 1000 quick followers, you're doing something right.

But, to handle it, it's a matter of managing your pipe. Do you want strangers to be able to 'be-friend' you in every medium? Or will you limit, say, FB to people you know in the flesh and LI to interested onlookers and professional contacts?

Also, boil up your communications. That's a big "why" social media was created. People are increasingly exhausted and overwhelmed by 1:1 email. Social media starts to solve that problem by letting us broadcast content to entire networks. And, pick up or ignore what we want.

So, if you're getting a lot of input, answer general topics via social media rather than returning a slew of emails. Use the tools to manage communications within the time / interest you have rather than letting them push you around.

Q: How do you pull together the group of brand enthusiasts to talk about your brand? It might seem easy to just contact those that are blogging about your brand but would that seem less "real"... recruited/corporate? Is it better to recruit from an existing list of folks that interact with your brand?

Short answer: There are a few companies that will do this for you. Set up and recruit to a closed community for ~$250k. But, I say if the Zappos CEO can stop for coffee with customers, we can probably be a little more organic than writing a check.

If it were me, I'd leverage my customer service data. People who email in. Good or bad. Especially problem solvers (I saw this was broken / here's how I'd fix it). If they took enough time to track down your email form, they're probably an engaged shopper (one way or the other).  (P.S. All the more reason to bury your contact info, uh, Amazon :)

Q: How do you initially prioritize and engage the customer? A traditional focus group? How do you find and engage these customers?

Part of this question is answered in the above. But, there's also an element of segmentation here. How do you prioritize your customer types? I think that question gets kicked back to the statistics gurus, but is informed by social media. Yes, you want to know that your customer is x years old, watches these three television programs and has z number of kids. But, you also want to know what they do online. How they interact. What types of tools they use. How many people they talk to in a week. That will help you find the groups that CAN be targeted by WOM or social media marketing.

As for how you engage them, that's the toughest part. And it's different for every brand. The trick is to figure out what they'll want to participate in and deliver it. With a little luck, you can find an insight in the above (like the Mini example) that will help inform that.

Q: What are your thoughts about second life? The success of it seems limited to the academic arena.

At the conference, Billy Fischer asked how we know what the next big trend in social media will be. Truth is, unfortunately, we don't.

The best we can do is pay attention to what the leaders in the last new thing are trying or what big groups of previously unengaged people are engaging in and ... well, guess. Second LIfe - in my opinion - is the ultimate example of a bad guess. 

A super high engagement  "game" in a medium (Web) that traditionally inspires skimming and scanning ... eh, I was suspect from the beginning, but I understand why brands rushed in. Initial trial (signups) was high. Although actual adoption was low. And the environment itself gave agencies the chance to strut great new creative and strategy skills. 

All that said, I think some brands made it work. Like Case Western. Recreating their campus in the medium and making it accessible to members and nonmembers alike.

Q: How do you have time for all this?

According to my co-workers, it's the time I save by not having babies, car pool or other offspring-related stress.

Dogears: Good stuff I pre-read for my favorite readers

Get ready, I cleared my feeds. Found some really excellent stuff. You're gonna want to start clicking:

Look out Orange Barrel: Cybertecture’s Skinable Buildings

Typographica's Favorite Typefaces of 2007

Slideshow: The Brand Gap, how to bridge the distance between strategy and design

Decommoditizing Social Networks By Connecting User Profiles Via OpenSocial

Groundswell shares free data about consumers' social behaviors around the world

New ways to learn about your future employer (or ding your old one): The house blog's look at LinkedIn Company Profiles

And, an Ad Age tip for interviewees: Tell Me What Sucks

Web 2.0 Funding Jumps 88% in ‘07, Facebook Accounts for 22%

Case Study: Dissecting the Dell Regeneration Graffiti Facebook Campaign

Future Now's envy list: Top 10 online retailers by conversion rate

Friday afternoon fun

A few things to lighten your afternoon... if the agency beer cart isn't quite enough.

An object lesson on why people don't trust advertising:

 

And, a few interesting projects from ad people who moonlight as real people:

• IADBIC: The Creative Director at Barefoot is the mastermind behind these wacky poems riffing on advertising. A little fine art meets our art. What was that quote that used to hang on my office wall ... something like welcome to our everyday struggle between capitalism and grace.

Steve's looking for submissions - so, grab your fountain pen and your issue of Ad Busters and get to it. Here's a little inspiration from his site:

"Where I will spread this couplet on spaceships and title it:
Flirt.
Taxi. Or
Atomic Burrito."

• Indexed: Copywriter turned comic Jessica Hagy recently published her first book of clever (sometimes zany) Venn diagrams. I just got the book in the mail - and, it's fab, but there's lots to enjoy on demand, too:
  • The Indexed Blog
  • Jessica guest blogging on Penguin Books
  • And, her Change This Venn manifesto

My faves: