We May Be Stupid, But We Are Also Your Users

Mathew retweeted a comment by @jeffsonderman that I thought hit the nail on the head when it comes to the decision by Google to drop Wave:

"My lesson of Google Wave: Innovate by evolving from users' existing habits, not throwing them a whole new, weird thing"

I have to say, I tried Wave for about a day. Holy crap. Atta way to make me feel stupid. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I'm sure it was innovative but really who cares? If i can't use it because it's too complicated to figure out, what's the point?

It was a constant issue when I was working on my own start-up, Oponia. Some of our tech team would get really frustrated when I got the feedback from people using the product. The phrase, 'what are they stupid' used to come up a lot.

It's a serious lesson whether you are a start up, a big company coming out with a new product or taking a look at making relevant marketing communications.

Never over or under estimate your customer because you may think we are stupid, but at the end of the day, we are also your users (whether you like it or not).

photo credit: http://www.obey.com.pl

Social Media Fashionistas Have Discovered This Thing Called - Advertising!

Ever since the Old Spice man commercial launched I've found myself extremely amused at all the hype. And let me just say, it's not because I don't find the whole campaign brilliant. It is.

But that's just it. It is a brilliant ADVERTISING campaign.

Let's try to deconstruct a possible brief:

Problem:
1. AXE is considered more innovative and progressive in the younger demographics.
2. Once someone finds a cologne they like, they rarely change unless someone buys them a new scent.
3. Just fixing our product and coming out with new progressive scents isn't enough because our problem isn't awareness, it's perception.

Target: Women who purchase new scents for their boyfriends

Objective: Reposition the brand (note I didn't say sales Scott ;)

Customer Insight: Old Space is considered cheesy, for old guys, smells like grandpa (H/T to James)

Strategy: Use the bad perception and turn it into a good thing (ala Avis Cars - we are number 2 we try harder)

Tactics: Good old TV campaign and seed the campaign in our owned social spaces (duh)

Now watch and listen. Come up with more ways to engage and be innovative. Extend it even further and use the new network to drive excitement (thus the brilliant Twitter campaign the other day).

So advertising is dead? Tv doesn't work any more? When my 14 yr old teenager walks up to me and starts saying, "I'm on a horse" i KNOW it's working.

Smart insight. Great strategy. Brilliant Execution.

The End.

P.s. I'm personally still waiting for the guest spot on a relevant TV show for the Old Spice guy
pps thx to the two Jeff's (Himel and Burton) for pointing out my blogging too quickly spelling and accuracy errors. Always appreciate the crowd source editing love

iPhone Films, Tree Art Transporation & A Diaspora

An iPhone Film, Tree Art Transportation and a Diaspora....What do these things all have in common?

Kickstarter a website that helps funds creative projects.

Flip through the projects and get inspired. Maybe even fund one or two and you could end up with a profile on IMDB (I'm miscellaneous crew) like i did when i contributed to a film a couple years ago!

ps. for anyone who was following our start-up Oponia, Diaspora is exactly the same product. Start up lesson number 245, timing is everything ;)

The iPad Generation & The Reinvention Of Paid Media

According to Apple, 2 million iPads were sold in less than 60 days. iPad believer or not, it's a pretty staggering statistic particularly as the iPad is more of an inbetween device.

There have been a number of people who have come out and said that they aren't convinced. Fred Wilson says he prefers his browser to apps on the iPad - but Fred also hated the notion of the Kindle and changed his mind 18 months later for the very reasons I think he is going to change his mind about apps.

And I think Interface labs missed the point when they said it's just like the old CD Rom days.

This isn't like the old CD Rom days at all. There is something much bigger going on here.

It's still about the network:
CD Roms were not networked. You had to go to a store or have them mailed to you (thank you AOL). Now I know that sounds kinda dumb but the experience of the CD Rom wasn't the problem. In fact, CD Rom experiences were pretty awesome in some cases. But they were expensive to make, hard to distribute and impossible to update on the fly.

Teaching us that free isn't always better:
If the open Web taught us to expect everything for free, the app store is helping us recalibrate to the notion that paying for something if there is value is ok again. I've spent a good $25 bucks US for my ipad including a fun $2 app that allows my 18 month year old son to finger paint on a touch screen. Watching him scared because he was afraid he was going to hurt his finger? Tell me what that is worth ;)

We are still at the early phases:
While Wired and Sport Illustrated prototypes are criticized for what they lack, we are talking pretty early days here people. Book readers are now accepted, and magazine readers will be as well.

What will this mean for marketers and advertisers?
Everyone thinks it's ONLY about community and engagement? There is a advertising revolution that is going to storm our industry. Immersive experiences - motion graphics, video. Transmedia storytelling like we have never been able to execute in our wildest dreams.

So criticize away and ignore it if you want. Or like me, GET READY. Because we are coming into a new world, an iPad generation and whether anyone likes it or not, the reinvention of paid media.

The Fatal Flaw Of Facebook

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. - MacBeth

I don't understand why Facebook continues to use the old "ask for forgiveness and not for permission" approach to their privacy policies.

Mathew points to an article by Bruce Nussman that asks the question if Facebook has a cultural problem? Mathew says yes but that if they move quickly enough those mistakes don't have to be "fatal".

I'm not so sure. The issue is definitely cultural and it's one of core DNA. Zuckerberg has always been about closed and exclusive - it's been at the core of what made Facebook so successful in the first place. He has the attitude (that some call arrogant) that assumes Facebook is the boss and can do whatever it is they want without major repercussions. Can't you just hear 'em? I bet you pounds to peanuts that Mark said something like this:

"Oh come on guys. No one's going to leave FB because of this stuff except for a few zealots....besides if there is a big backlash, I'll just apologize like i did for Beacon. No harm to foul!"

But I think Mark (and Mathew) are wrong. There is harm, and as any good Shakespearean professor will tell you, that's the problem with fatal flaws - they are generally fatal. It's not one decision, but the accumulated path of a thousand smaller decisions. Just ask Rupurt Murdoch who believed that Myspace was his space. I think we can all agree now, he was wrong.

I've said it before in my "Zuckerberg Shrugged: Man vs. Ecosystem" post the network will go around obstructions. When the network IS your business model, not proactively soliciting feedback on major changes to your service, will eventually be your kiss of death.

Ecosystem Marketing Lesson #1: Open Language Builds Open Cultures

Do any of these things look familiar to you?

Customers now control your brand
Social media should be owned by corporate communications and marketing
HR depts don't have the bandwidth to police social presence
All companies should have full time community managers
We need to build communities not campaigns

All pretty innocuous sounding. But look closer. There are some words that I think are part of a much bigger problem that we need to start to shift.

CONTROL
OWN
POLICE
MANAGEMENT AND BUILDING OF COMMUNITIES

Our usage of language has always been at the heart of how we cultivate culture. If we agree that marketing has to change to a more open approach, (what i talk about in my ecosystem approach to marketing), one of the easiest things you can shift is what language you use in your every day life.

Consumers can become people.
We can focus on proactively empowering positive decision making vs. policing negative actions
We should cultivate and guide communities vs. control or manage them.

The list can go on and on. It's time to start a change. Start that change with the language you use in your organization. It will be one small step for you and one larger step overtime for your new way of marketing.

(feel free to add any other phrases to the comments and i'll add them to my list :)

The iPad Will Only Be Good If [Fill In The Blank]

Sean got his ipad. You cannot imagine the hooplah in our office. It will like he was the second coming and it was the holy grail. Pictures posted on Facebook. Circles of people gathering to pray to the mighty Apple Gds.

So i was surprised to read people like Fred Wilson not being particularly impressed. He said:

"Over time it may turn into a mainstream computing platform but I don't think it is there yet and I don't think Apple has the kind of hit on its hands that it had with the iPhone."

And today he had a different post on a completely separate topic that quotes a Venture friend (that is my oxymoron of the day) of his on the future of the ipads success:

"iPad’s fate depends on entrepreneurs inventing new kinds of killer apps. (remember how desktop publishing saved Mac?)"

Moments later, Sean sends me this amazing video of a 2 year olds first experience with an ipad:



So yeah I agree with Fred and his friend and probably everyone else out there on the planet. The iPad will only be good if:

- you want to use it for Kids under 5
- you want to use it for kids over 5 and under 12
- you want to sue it for over 12 and under 19
- you want to use it for a book reader
- someone develops a killer app
- you want to blog while exercising
- you want to watch movies on the plane
- you have a document to work on and don't want to drag your laptop to the coffee shop
- [Fill In The Blank]


photo credit: The lovely photo of Sean courtesy of Marcia Brady Shapiro on FB