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"It’s inherent to our nature to want to share information with one another, from stock tips to gossip, from the hottest new gadgets to the coolest new bars or the best Chinese restaurant on your block."
[ 9tomorrows ]
Thought I'd start keeping track of quotes and things that support some of the books I've been reading/have read before. Here's one for Mark Earls' book HERD.
Celeste pointed me to Tupalo this weekend. I've spent a minimal amount of time on it so far, but like the idea of it a lot. If this takes off and is able to become a large community for like-minded people around the world, it will be a great alternative to Citysearch and AOL Cityguide.
Here's how they describe themselves:
Tupalo is social mapping for independent culture, allowing members to share and review their favorite locations around the world catering to those who think a little differently. Tupalo is for locals and visitors alike who want to know where the best venues, record stores, vegan cafes, salons or fringe fashion boutiques are in their area.
Tupalo was created by 9tomorrows, a games and web services developer in Vienna, Austria. Members of the Tupalo and 9tomorrows team have been involved in independent design, fashion, games and music for over 15 years.
Check it out when you get a chance and let me know what you think in the comments area of this post if you remember to...
"When there's no sense of possessiveness or ownership in the artistic process, great things happen."
[ Paul Budnitz | Owner | Kidrobot ]
From the article Beyond Plastic in the March 2007 issue of Fast Company
Seth Godin was in town this morning. The title of this post was his opening remark, or close to it after his story about sticking a suction cup rattle to his head to entertain his kids. He then quickly rolled into his shtick, talking about the subjects his books cover and providing real world examples.
I didn't walk away from his presentation blown away by any of the information. But I wasn't really expecting to be. If you read the marketing and planning blogosphere with any regularity, you already know his content quite well.
His case studies are very effective to make his points sink in well though, and he's a very engaging presenter and storyteller. If I took anything in particular away from this morning's session, it was this:
1) How to do a better job of using Keynote to tell a story with your presentation (his presentation was pretty much just using visuals/pictures in Keynote slides to support what he was talking about) and how to make the presentation more interesting.
2) Remember to look more for uncommon case study examples to go along with your more well known ones to help give your audience the feeling that you don't have to be a gigantic consumer brand to do this stuff.
All in all, I'm very glad I went. I'm even more happy that one of my clients was in the audience as well. Seth's presentation reinforced everything we've been talking with them about doing to launch a new product. To the point that he cited examples we've been using. It couldn't have come at a better time.
A few of my notes in case you don't know what Mr. Godin covers:
- Traditional advertising is broken
- Trying to sell someone something who doesn't have a problem with their current solution doesn't work
- Marketers have been dealing with clutter by creating more clutter
- Interrupting people's lives with clutter doesn't work anymore
- People are willing to pay for things that make them feel something
- Nobody wakes up thinking about your brand other than you
- To win, you have to play on the edges or beyond them - being in the middle gets you nowhere
- If you're going to make something, make something worth talking about
- Old marketing vs. permission marketing = hunting vs. farming
- People like doing what other people are doing (Sounds a bit like HERD don't you think?)
- If cat food were really for cats, wouldn't they have a mouse flavor? Cat food is really for cat owners and baby food is really for moms. The cat foods and baby foods with the best stories win.
- Always tell the truth
- Tell a good (true) story about your brand that consumers find relevant to their lives and one that is easy to retell.
- Be remarkable
If you work in an agency and Seth is coming through your city, I'd highly suggest taking your clients. Hearing a well published author talk about the same things that many of us preach every day to our clients certainly doesn't hurt you any. And if you're not talking to your clients about the things Seth covers, well, shame on you for not staying on top of the increasingly faster changes that are going on in our business.
Finally, if you're reading this and you were there as well, I'd love to get your thoughts. Please feel free to share them in the comments section or send me an email - paul[dot]isakson[at]gmail[dot]com.
I've been seeing a fair amount of these new spots for BP lately. My first reaction was something along the lines of, "Are you kidding me? They can't be serious! Are they really trying to make us think they're a 'green' gas station? They sell GAS!" This spot and the other one that I've seen running really didn't sit well with me.
How can a company whose main product contributes significantly to the detriment of the environment come out and make a fun commercial like this that gives one the sense that they're doing good for it? Feels a bit like a known billionaire drug dealer touting the fact that he gives a million dollars to charity each year. I was getting more and more turned off each time I saw these spots to the point that I decided to write about them here. To me, the fact that they sell gas but were airing these spots felt wrong. I was really going to let BP have it. But before doing so, I went ahead and dug a little deeper.
Now I'm reconsidering my original stance. After looking up the spots on YouTube, I went over to alittlebettergasstation.com. That led me to The greencurve. On the sites, it's easier to see what they're doing to try and be just what they say - a little bit better. They're not saying the gas they sell doesn't add to the current problems we're facing in regard to climate change. They're saying they want to do what they can to try and elminate as much of the bad stuff as they can. They appear to be serious about wanting to do what they can.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the need for gas isn't going away anytime soon. So why not try and make the best of the situation if you're BP and do what you can, no matter how small it might seem compared to how much you're making in sales from gasoline? We all depend on gas in some form or another in our lives. (Well, except for maybe those that live in a biodome.) We're not going to magically get rid of all the cars, trucks, etc. and/or stop people from driving. Creating significantly less dependence on gasoline is going to take a long time to happen. And if you're a company that sells gasoline, it's better to do something that's good for the environment than nothing. Even better if you're doing everything you can to try and even things out.
So yes, my tune has changed on these new BP ads. I could stand a little less of the floating, spinning circle things in the TV spots that give one the impression they're putting good things into the air, but overall, I think they're doing something decent. The tune is catchy. The animated illustrations cut through the clutter. And in the end, when you dig into things a little, you can see that they're trying to do a fair bit to make good for what their main product has done and is doing to our environment.
BUT, we can't forget that in the end, BP is trying to make us feel better about them so we buy our gas from them. So, is this going to make me seek out BP gas stations to fill my car up? No. For one, all the BP stations here in Denver were bought out I believe. But even if they weren't, I don't pay too much attention to my fuel needs until my tank gets close to empty. When that happens, I usually find the most convenient known brand name station (Conoco, Valero/Diamond Shamrock, Exxon Mobile) and fill up. (Quality of gas is important to me.) If there are two gas stations right by each other, I'll go with the one that has the cheaper price. BUT, if one of those two were a BP, even if it had a little higher price, I might go for it knowing what I know now. Does that count as meaning the advertising is working? Hmm...
Got this in an email from Nike today. It made me feel really good about them. It made me say, "Wow. That's a great message and a great idea. There are so many things going on every day that brands can do something good with. Why don't more of them do stuff like this?"
Thank you Nike for saying something you didn't have to. Thank you for having a voice and sharing it. Good work. Very good work.
Thanks to Sloggi living up to their lack of fear for pushing people's buttons, you can. Just go here and click away. And if that wasn't enough, you can watch this.
Got this in an email today. Maybe it has been around quite a bit now and I'm just slow to find it. Anyway, if you haven't done it, try it. You might laugh a little.
1. Go to google maps
2. Click on "get directions"
3. Type " New York" in the first box (the "from" box)
4. Type "London" in the second box (the "to" box)
5. Click "Get Directions"
6. Scroll down to step #23
(If you want to do the opposite, from London to NYC, it's step #37)
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