[ paul isakson ]

Opportunity Is Everywhere

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"Don't look for the next opportunity. The one you have in hand is the opportunity."
Paul Arden, It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be.

Where most people see a dirty wall (or more likely, don't even notice the wall at all), Paul "Moose" Curtis sees an opportunity to make something better. He sees an opportunity to create art that takes something dingy and turns it into something delightful.

Green Works, or somebody working with them, noticed the reverse graffiti movement and saw an opportunity to bring this great idea forward, along with highlighting some people behind it, by creating the Reverse Graffiti Project.

As a planner, it is part of our job to find opportunity where others see none. For our creatives. For our clients. For our account handlers. For ourselves. For the people we're hoping to connect to our clients' brands.

Always look for opportunity. Always inspire.

Brand Building in the "Application Economy"

Much ado has been made about the Domino's Pizza Builder. It has been praised, including here, as a great example of branded utility. While that is still true and deserved, one of their biggest competitors recently threw an oven-fresh piece of pan crust pie in their face.

Yup. Pizza Hut not only re-tooled their online ordering experience, but they also launched a slick application running on Adobe Air. Now if it's too much work to go to Pizza Hut's web site to order, you can place an order right from your desktop.*

Why am I pointing this out?  Good question.

Long before many of us got into this business, someone decided that they could stand out by putting their product in attractive packaging. They were right. At first this probably worked tremendously for them, but then all of their competitors started doing the same thing.

We're looking at a similar situation today, only in a different environment. The evolution of the internet, the growth of broadband, and expansion of WiFi (and soon the presence of a more powerful mobile web) have made most products or services a click or two away from virtually anywhere. The same is true for 360-degree information about those products.

As people dig for more and more information on what they buy and online shopping continues to grow, having a great digital experience for your brand becomes as important as, if not more so than, having the right packaging at retail.

The problem is, any brand can work with their agency (or hire a new, better one) to make their digital experience more engaging, rewarding, useful and valuable. While this is quite important to do, and it can provide short-term competitive advantages, it doesn't necessarily communicate what makes your actual product or service unique and special and it doesn't give you any real long-term advantages. It just makes it easier to procure/engage with your company today. (The content within a brand's digital experience most certainly can differentiate it and make it more meaningful to people, however.)

When every one of your competitors has essentially the same quality of application/utility/experience as you, and eventually they all will, then what? Mobile? Nope. We'll be having this same chat when the code gets cracked there too.

Now, I'm not saying developing applications, making better digital experiences, and creating greater brand utility aren't important. They are. They're new pieces you need to add to the mix that will help contribute to the overall feeling a person has about your product or service (otherwise known as your brand).

But they're not the magic solution to leap-frogging the competition that many are making them out to be. They're a cost of entry to doing business today and tomorrow. They're not the long-term solution to making people want to buy your product or service over a competitor’s.

No, this all points to why the essence of what modern advertising has been about - building emotional connections between people and brands - is still needed. (But let's stop with all of the annoying and interrupting people, o.k.?) Especially as advancements in technology continue to make borders disappear and markets open up.

It is precisely why despite all the talk about this being "the application economy," having an engaging and interesting way to communicate what actually differentiates you from your competition, and that helps people feel something emotional for your brand, matters most.

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*For the sake of transparency and honesty, I've not spent much time with their ordering tool, nor have I downloaded the application. The experience could fall short of what Domino's has done for all I know. But since the point of this post was about the importance of brand building today and not a review of their new application and online ordering tool, I didn't feel it required me to do so.

Free Idea for Netflix

Saw this just now. I say, "Why not?"

How much better would that make a Netflix subscriber feel about Netflix?

Picture it...

You haven't returned any of your movies in a while. One day, you come home, open your mail box and find a Netflix envelope with a bag of microwave popcorn and a note inside that reminds you it has been a while since you returned a movie.

The note could be written in a fun way that assumes you must be really busy / working hard / entered the witness protection program / etc., and advises you to take some time for yourself, enjoy the popcorn and watch one of the movies you have.

With it, they could offer up that if the person wants to, they can lower their movie titles per month so they're not paying the higher subscription amount and when they're ready for more titles per month again, they can always put it back up at the existing level.

It seems like Netflix has some very devoted subscribers/fans. By doing something like this, they're only going to further entrench the love people feel for them. They just need to trust that people will manage their subscription level to suit the time they have for movies. When they can watch more, they'll bump it up. When they can't, they'll lower it. By reminding people that they can do this, they'll be more likely to have people hang on rather than cancel.

Anyway... just a thought based off of robfinn's tweet.

David Report no. 9 - I Shop Therefore I Am

David Report has posted their newest issue - "I shop therefore I am." You can read it at their site or it's also available to download for free. The very high-level description:

We are proud to announce the new David Report bulletin called "I shop therefore I am". In this issue we are looking into the world of consumer culture from different point of views; ethical, social, political, economical and humanistic.

Shopping has turned into a lifestyle. We consume as leisure and a way to pass time. But at the same time many are realizing that the power of consumption is stopping us from finding true and sincere happiness; and that shopping often works as a substitute for something that we´re missing in life. At what point does the accumulation of material goods become less fulfilling and more stressful and overwhelming?

Our consumption grows in the same pace as our economic growth. Studies shows that in hundred years we consume eight times as much per capita as today. Can our globe take such a strain? The power of consumption is being questioned and there´s a change in attitude and way of life. We don´t want to be consuming goofs, we want to be considered aware and responsible. It is all about WHAT we buy and WHAT we choose to invest in, the world we live in will be the result of those choices.

In the future consumption will be more about experiences and services than things. Perhaps giving will be more important than having. Are the companies, who survive on our consumption, prepared for this transition?

The David Report bulletin no 9 "I shop therefore I am" also offers insight on the subject from strategist Kristina Dryza and Zen-Buddhist Sante Poromaa. On top of this an interview with Mathilda Tham, guest professor at Beckmans school of Design.

There were a couple things that stood out in particular to me on this. The first was this thought:

In the future consumption will be more about experiences and services than things. Perhaps giving will be more important than having.

To me, this talks to the on-going hot topic of utility and the desire of today's consumers to use products and services that actually do things for them vs. buying brands in an effort to say things about themselves.

This statement goes beyond utility though and talks about supporting brands that make the world a better place, not just our own lives. In this regard, my mind immediately goes to TOMS Shoes, where purchasing a pair of TOMS not only gets you a pair of shoes, but also gives one to a child in need somewhere around the globe.

This is all further cementing the direction things have been moving in for quite some time. Especially with younger shoppers. People are becoming more conscious about what they buy, what went into producing it and what happens to their dollars post-purchase.

More and more people are moving away from buying things to make a statement about who they are; to buying things that give them an experience or help them do something that then shapes who they are and gives them a story to tell.

The evolution of this is going from purchasing products and services that do something only for our own good to supporting products that also do something for others in need or for the betterment of our planet.

The other piece that jumped out at me initially was a block of text in support of Herd:

A classical psychological symptom is also reflected in our shopping, humans are group animals and will do anything to stay in their group. To be excluded means death and to avoid being excluded people do what all other people are doing, in this case shop! Don’t be different, look like everyone else, do like everyone else etc. ...

In thinking about this in relation to the above point, as more and more people begin to shop with a more conscious mind about how they're spending their dollars, others will follow suit. In my mind, this says marketers need to do things with our marketing that supports and informs these changes.

The brands that start helping people feel better about their spending habits and where their money is going are going to get ahead quickly. The brands that continue to be selfish with their marketing and their dollars, or that just try to appear they're doing good? Well, let's just say they won't need their shades in the future.

How can brands do this? By creating experiences for, or sharing experiences with, people. Experiences change behavior. It is through doing and seeing others do things that we learn and change our own actions. We don't often change our behavior simply from hearing or reading words. Hearing and reading are important as reminders, but the the act of doing/experiencing is far stronger.

If you don't believe this, just think to when you hear a mother tell her child, "Don't touch that, it's hot," for the first time. Being that the child has never felt it before, they inevitably touch it to learn for themselves. Then, the next time their mother tells them the same thing, they recall the burn (action) of the first time and refrain from touching it this time.

Anyway... if you are a brand that is doing good with the money people spend on your products, don't stop at telling people you're doing it or going to do it. Show them you're doing it. Invite them to help you. Make them feel as much a part of the experience as possible. Let them decide how much they want to get involved, but give them every opportunity you can to join in.

O.K., I think I've gone on far too long on this one now. Read the report when you have a few free minutes as there are some interesting things in it to consider as you think about the future of marketing and advertising.

Google Turns Out the Lights for Earth Hour

Google has turned out the lights to help raise awareness for Earth Hour. I think it's a great example of brands using their marketing and advertising* to make things better. It certainly fits Google's brand and their desire to do no evil.

Judging by the the fact that I can't get Earth Hour's site to load, and thus the prior link to their Wikipedia page, I'd say it's working.

You can take part in Earth Hour by turning out your lights tonight for one hour at 8 P.M. local time.

*I say advertising in this case because many of the major "portals" sell ad space on their home pages or allow home page takeovers by brands so that brands can promote a new product/movie/etc. Think of how much money Google could make if they let brands take over the background on their "home" page. Yet they don't do it. Yup. Makes me feel better about Google.

The Future of Marketing + Advertising

So here are the slides from the presentation I shared with everyone at work on Friday during our monthly, "What's Next" lunches. These lunch sessions are one of my favorite things about working at space150. It's fun to see what people are interested in and what makes them excited to come to work every day. Not only that, but with my having only been here around six months, it gives me more insight into the people presenting, which helps me get to know them better. Anyway...

Quick background on these lunch sessions: Each month, three or four people are called upon to share either what inspires them or what's going on in a specific area. So far, I've seen some of our creatives talk to what motivates them and share trends and up-and-coming names in art and design; some of our tech team talk to emerging technologies, showing off what they can do and how they're relevant to our clients; and finally some of our modern media team share the newest ways we can help people find what they're looking for more easily and get more relevant information in front of them for our clients. Like I said, it has all been very fun to take part in as well as quite inspiring and energizing.

For this one, I was asked to share what's going on in marketing and where things are moving. What you'll see/did see is that I ended up using a little bit of what I've been posting about here and some of what has been getting covered both within the trade pubs and on blogs to give me the outline. If you follow the plannersphere and other social media and marketing blogs, then this probably won't be much new, but it might connect the conversations a little more. Or maybe not.

Mostly just wanted to share it since I did put a bit of time into pulling it together and was inspired by many of you who've been writing about similar subject matter. Also because what limited free time I did have last week went into putting it together instead of writing on here.

Note: Most of the examples in it are the more covered ones used to support the topics they're associated with. With limited time, I opted for the easy-to-find examples. Sorry about that. One that isn't as covered across the blogs and in the press yet is the My Vegas site. For more info on it see David Armano's post.

As always, if you've got any thoughts, questions or comments...

Some Thoughts on Utility

[ image inspired by Joshua Porter ]

Asi has a really good analysis of Facebook Apps over on No Man's Blog. Give it a good read - especially if you're considering creating any of these for your brand(s) and/or client(s).

In his write-up, he links to my post earlier in the week where I shared the ADWEEK article on brands moving toward doing things that, well, do things for people along with a few of my thoughts around this. I'm not calling this out to brag. I'm calling it out because the way I read it, he's rightfully taking a jab at me for just talking about doing these things. 

Fair enough. I gave no proof as to what we're doing in this area. I wish I could, but I can't. For one, some of it's not done yet. Additionally, and unfortunately, for those that are done I'm not allowed to talk about them per contractual agreements we have with the clients we're working with on them. I attempted to share one before and almost as soon as the post went live, I was pinged with a request to take it down. Lesson learned. As soon as that changes, I'll be sure to let you know. But anyway...

I'm glad he called me out because I wasn't entirely happy with where that post ended up. It turned into something I wasn't intending it to. I didn't mean for it to sound like you should never create another micro-site or extend an off-line campaign into the digital realm. There are definitely cases where you should.

I left it as it was though because it felt like a good place to start the conversation on moving from just creating more noise online to creating utility. So, it was a good push for me to pick back up sooner than later.

First, I agree that it's absolutely "easier said than done." If it weren't, we'd see a lot more brands who have cracked this nut. This is also why everyone keeps referring to the same case study which Asi is tired of hearing about. I have to agree that I'm tired of hearing about it as well. The hard thing is, because it is in a class all on its own and it's the gold standard, it ends up being the champion for utility in the digital age. The good news is that I think we will see more and more of them soon, but right now there aren't many. (For a few examples, again, see the ADWEEK article.)

Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the first stage of creating utility...

Take anything digital you might be creating or are thinking about creating and plug it into the blue character's chat bubble above - Web site, micro site, application, MySpace profile, Facebook fan page, widget, digital thing-a-ma-bob, etc. Then look at your answer to the red character's question. If the answer is no, maybe it's time to press pause and see how you can turn that answer into a "yes."

Dictionary.com defines useful as:

1. being of use or service; serving some purpose; advantageous, helpful, or of good effect: a useful member of society.

2. of practical use, as for doing work; producing material results; supplying common needs: the useful arts; useful work.

I take this to mean that useful can be accomplished in a variety of forms. From the user perspective, useful can be as simple as giving someone information they were looking for quickly and easily. Useful can be teaching someone something new. Useful can be helping people communicate with each other easier or better. Useful can be saving people time. Useful can be extending the value or capabilities of your real-world product. And, under the right circumstances, useful can be entertaining someone.

From the client/brand side of things, useful can also mean several things. Useful can mean opening up a new channel for conversation with fans/users of your product or service (please use it for conversation and not just to spam people). Useful can mean creating a new stream of revenue. Useful can mean engaging people in something that encourages them to purchase more of your product or service in order to extend that experience. Useful can mean reinforcing a first time purchase. Useful can be simply giving them yet another positive experience with your brand so that they're more likely to want to buy your brand again in the future.

It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of new technologies and new places where people are gathering and then rush to do something in that area so you can say you've done it. Before creating whatever it is you're thinking about doing, just ask yourself how both parties involved will find it useful. You need to figure this out in the beginning. After it's created is too late.

Let's all try to remember, it's not only not enough to be first, it's also not enough to only be useful to one of the parties involved. Especially if the only beneficiary is the brand. It needs to be useful to both parties involved.

More to come on the subject of utility for sure. This post has already gone too long as it is.

ALSO: I would love to hear any thoughts any of you have around this or any other post I put up. I realize that the way I often tend to write things may seem like I'm not asking for participation, but please share anything you wish in the comments. Share if you agree or disagree. Share if you have a great example that counters or supports it. I'm just sharing what is in my head here and by no means am arrogant enough to think I'm right all of the time. So please, comment away as much as you please. We'll all be smarter because of it...

New Web Math: Form + Function > Pretty + Funny

Brian Morrissey has a great article in ADWEEK today on the coming age of marketing as a service/utility.

(Download a PDF of the article here .)

It supports a lot of what has been rattling around in my head for the past several months as well as a recent post by Gareth that I've been meaning to write about, in addition to what many others have been writing and thinking about.

The not-so-shortened version of the article:

The overarching thought is that the time has come for brands to stop creating one-off Web sites for everything and start building brand loyalty by delivering utilities that both "improve people's lives in some small way," and, "directly pad corporate bottom lines."

The first step in getting there is that brands need to stop treating the digital space like old media. It's not about forcing your brand message at people through your site. Yes, consistency in how you present your brand is important. But the digital space is not TV, print, OOH or radio. It requires a different design process and a different approach to being successful in this space. It's a two-way interaction and communication tool, not a one-way one.

This means no more pushing your off-line marketing campaign online through a shallow micro-site that is more like a set of really bad "matching luggage" to your TV spots and print ads. That means no more treating online video as a TV spot. It means no more site navigation terms that only make sense to the people who work at the agency or at the client's company.

The second step is that everything you do in the digital space needs to revolve around the people who will be using what you create and it must be designed for them. Yes, everything.

It's not about how you want to present things, what you want to tell them, or forcing them to a place where you want them to do this. It's about allowing them to easily get what they need from you, how they want to get it and where they want to get it. Even if that's not on your Web site.

Beyond that, it is even more powerful if you can give them a tool that in some form adds value to their life. Nike+ and the Dominoes Pizza Builder are two popular examples of this right now. The more you can create a connection between your real-world product and the digital space by making the two work together to make peoples' lives a bit easier when it comes to using them, the better.

Ultimately, building emotional connections is still the goal. Same as it ever was. Only it's even more attainable now. If you can create something that helps people get through their day with a little less effort or that saves them a bit of time or that makes something they care about more enjoyable, you have an even better shot at having them form an emotional attachment to your brand.

Anyway, you should really give the article a read. It's full of good quotes and thoughts from those who are practicing this already. Here are a few of my favorites:

"The days of making funny things that may or may not have an effect on the client's business are ending." - Jeff Benjamin, interactive creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky

"When you create a utility, you're creating something that gives people time back. It becomes less about information as pollution and more about information to help people get through life." - Nick Law, CCO for North America at R/GA.

"Five years ago, people would muck through a site with non-standard navigation that was confusing because the whole Internet was confusing. Now the Internet is so big you can't do anything that's annoying anymore." - Benjamin Palmer, CEO of Barbarian

"There's a big possibility to deliver on your brand through the tools or functionality you can give people that are positive." - David Armano, vp of creative at Critical Mass

"No digital property is an island anymore. Everything can be connected to everyone. You have to design for that." - Garrick Schmidt, vp of user experience at Avenue A/Razorfish

"We're trying to think from the beginning of how to syndicate them [Web-based applications] out to other platforms. That's been a mind shift for us because a year and a half ago there wasn't that expectation." - Conor Brady, ecd at Organic

"If you think we're just going to be making Web sites in the next five years, anyone with that business model isn't going to be a business." - Dan LaCivita, executive director at Firstborn

"It's a different way of approaching marketing. The creative has always been about telling stories. It's obscuring a truth until a punch line. It's linear. Designers want to make the message or functionality apparent immediately. It's fundamental to what we're doing in marketing." - Nick Law, CCO for North America at R/GA.

UPDATE: More on this topic here.

Listening to the Obvious

Jonathan Harris and Sep Kamvar have collaborated on a new project - I Want You To Want Me - which is now on display at MoMA as part of their Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit.

The details on what it is and how it works are on Jonathan's site, as well as within the IWYTWM site. Also interesting to view is the process of how the project came together.

Now, this is certainly a very interesting endeavor, as is much of the work from these two gentlemen, but that's not why I wanted to discuss it here. (But please do go read about it and if you can, go see it.)

As the volume on the "brands should be doing things, not saying things" song gets turned up louder and louder, we need to start moving from talking about doing, to actually doing, doing.

People are sharing more and more information publicly about who they are, who they want to be, how they want to be seen, how they want to be communicated with (not to), what they want, who they want to be with, etc., etc.

Whenever I look at some of the past work Jonathan has done, or see something new that does something similar - taking bits and bytes of shared information and making them more useful or interesting - I am reminded of this.

Opportunity is all around us to start helping our clients do things that are more useful to the people who use their products and services. People are sending out public signals every single day about their lives and giving us insight into how we could help them. Are you listening? Because they're telling us what they want. Sometimes yelling. Sometimes whispering. But always telling.

The brands that capitalize on this and are first to meet the evolving needs of people in ways that are relevant to their products and services are going to rise to the top. Brands that continue to think they know what people want and operate in isolated secrecy, well, their ivory towers are going to begin to lose a bit of their shine rather quickly.

In other words, tomorrow belongs to the brands that help people become the heroes of their own stories by listening to what people want and then giving them the things they need to accomplish their goals.

It's time to listen and do more than think and talk. Well, still think, but applied to listening and doing. Not talking. Which I'll stop doing now. Thanks for listening.

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Related note (2/26): NY Times review of the Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit here.

Forrester to Agencies: You're Doing It Wrong

[image via ginthefer]

A new report from Forrester has been covered in ADWEEK and WARC recently. (PDFs of articles below if links are broken.)

According to the articles, Forrester is stating that consumers don't trust the mass marketing messages cranked out by agencies and brands any longer. Instead, they are turning to family, friends and peers within their communities to help inform their purchasing decisions.

The report is also saying that to survive, agencies are going to have to change their ways from sending out one-way messages to taking part in communities and conversations. They go as far as saying that an example of this would be, "agencies comprised of community members – mothers for example, who would help, say, Procter & Gamble to play a constructive role within communities of other mothers."

Forrester believes creative and media agencies are lagging behind in truly integrating digital into their capabilities, quoting an unnamed client-side marketer as saying, "Most senior ad execs appear more comfortable with conventional channels, which they claim are 'integrated' because they have tacked on a website."

They state that digital agencies have a better understanding of how to deliver more "interactive" experiences but aren't competitive with the more traditional shops when it comes to branding skills.

Peter Kim, a Forrester Research analyst and co-author of the report, believes that there isn't an agency out there right now that represents what the agencies of five to 10 years from now will look like.

"I don't think agencies are going away," Kim said. "They're going to be the ones that help marketers to communities of mutual interest."

I completely agree that many agencies are out of touch and need to learn how to facilitate and participate in the conversations taking place vs. interrupting them. I'm also not surprised that they found people are distrustful of advertising and marketing messages as a whole. However, I don't believe the answer is an agency of mothers working with Proctor & Gamble to help them better communicate with this segment.

The answer, in my opinion, lies in agencies and their clients learning to look at things from a new perspective. Instead of looking at what brands can tell people, we instead need to be looking at what brands can do for people. How are people really using the products or services of your client? What are they actually saying about them? (No, not what they say in focus groups. What they really say about them.) What do they wish they could do better? What could brands do to make peoples' lives better/easier/happier/etc.?

It also means agencies and their clients need to start spending more time with the people who buy and use their products and services - both in the real world and where they spend time online. While communities and social networks are growing and expanding more and more every day online, people still do have lives outside of their computers and only looking at them through the monitor will not give you an accurate picture for how to create positive change.

Overall, a more collaborative model needs to take shape. One that more openly involves the interested parties in the process from the creation/evolution of products and services through how they are then communicated to the world. Instead of companies largely creating their products/services in isolated towers and agencies creating communications in theirs, both seeking only limited input from the people who will actually be on the receiving end of them, we are going to need to be more open and seek greater input and dig for richer insights with the people who actually use the products/services and receive the communications around them.

More thinking on this to come...

For a couple different views on the Forrester report, read what Mark Earls and Simon Andrews have to say.

For some interesting thoughts on new ways of approaching things, here is some thinking on marketing as a service and here is some more looking at using the idea of Transformation Design in terms of marketing.

Download the WARC article as a PDF.

Download the ADWEEK article as a PDF.