Mark Zuckerberg

The story possibilities got more powerful; 500 million users can now take you on a journey and invite involvement in real time. Should be interesting.

Wired has a good article covering the new FaceBook app - go here.

Duct Tape Marketing has a nice post on 5 Reasons this is a big deal.

This post was inspired by Luke Sullivan’s post, “Writing to the 2010 Customer” at HeyWhipple.com from July 20, 2010: .

“…as I grew up, black-and-white authority became nuanced with the greys of authenticity.” – L. Sullivan

I easily recall the exact moment my father’s authority became less relevant to me. It was during one phone call in college when he tried to exert influence from a distance without understanding my context. Rejected; his message disconnected from my reality and so things went grey.  Just as Luke mentioned at the end of his post, at that point, I moved from authority toward authenticity; ultimately,  it’s a transition from following to leading.

Our nation’s Daddy lost Authority during Watergate. Spin accelerated; propaganda rules, so we’ve learned  to certify by following agenda’s motivation (often money), gain information from trusted sources, and believe only what feels right or that which delivers gut punches.

In 2010, our world views are individualized by collecting nits we pick off our favorite blogs and media channels. We’re home schooled and attend college on the internet. Walter Cronkite no longer tells us the Way It Is.  We’re in constant conversation but mostly with like-minded folks in a hunt for validation.

Authority is officially decentralized and renamed authenticity.  We are a nation of non-followers; we are “The Man”.  To me, this was recently made plain when a blogger with an agenda, through artful video editing, deceived government leaders and dinosaur media into firing a department manager who didn’t deserve such discipline. Who’s the authority now?

That said, Please allow me to make a thought leap.

Creativity disrupts the status quo; “established authority” if you will.  Creativity is by nature disruptive; always asking questions and refusing to follow.  With our shift from authority to authenticity, wouldn’t it make sense that creativity has shifted too?  Is creativity disrupting as it once did?

Remember the promise of virtual collaboration?  From the late 90’s we thought for sure we’d be working from home in partnership with a nationally diverse  creative team.  “We don’t need no stinking offices.” We’re all connected. Proximity to vicinity no longer mattered. The concept didn’t explode the way we thought.

Most recently, crowdsourcing promises to give us access to the brilliance of others through portals at low cost. Cisco Systems tells us we can “field trip” to China from home base; the virtual experience without experiencing anything. We’re forming tribal networks through social connectivity; we have friends without friendship.

I’m excited but skeptical and looking for a balance.

Another of my highly admired opinion leaders, Edward Boches (Executive Creative Director at Mullen Advertising in Boston), was interviewed by the social media road show now known as Humongo Nation. In the interview Edward talks about social media and Mullen’s new space in downtown Boston.

Ya gotta follow Edward even if you aren’t from Boston like me.

Edward points out that the new challenge for companies is to unite media platforms into something meaningful that drives a consistent message. Rightly so, they’re preaching convergence in a divergent landscape.  There’s a desperate need to organize fragmented authenticity into a central authority; aka – a reliable brand.

Furthermore, in the video, listen for the most important consideration when designing Mullen’s new work environment: They desired to cause unavoidable creative collisions. Not virtual collaboration but rather, they created a space that is conducive to innovative crossover.  What sounds “old school” is new school.

Maybe we’re yearning for an old fashion sense of community; more likely we just know how creativity works. We’ve shattered authority with technology and skepticism, do we now need a replacement? The old way of broadcasting influence has transitioned into collecting authentic influence for distribution; an old fashioned opinion leader or a newfangled network hub.

I can’t help but think of Goerge Clooney’s character in Oh Brother, Where Art Though – Everet – “Vernon’s got prospects. He’s bona fide.”

Looks like our new leaders are going to be curators of the best ideas backed by authentic consumable content. Moreover, creative collaboration is becoming more crucial because collecting and distributing that content is much more complex. Fragmented authority needs to pool into tribes of authenticity.

Check this out.

Humongo Nation Boston – The tour hits bean town with stops at Kane’s Donuts, Mullen and New Balance. The visit with Mullen starts at time code 1:52.

Kevin McKeon via StrawberryFrog.com

Your product launch offers awareness for its unique value. This accounts for most advertising.  Ok, now we know your product is there; you have my attention, educate me. It’s been repeated 1000 + times: “nothing kills a bad product faster than good advertising.” But I’ll change it a little for the internet age: “nothing kills a product like a bad product.”

There. I’ve summed up conventional advertising in one paragraph, and brought it into the crowded, abundant, consumer centric internet years. Now it’s all about ME, keep your damn interruption marketing to yourself, I’ll find you when I want something you got. Unless ….

Unless you give me something authentic of real value for free, like say … social equity? I’m my own broadcaster on the social network and I want social media love. I want to be the guy for whom others create a “bring back [your name here]” fan page if I disappear for a while.

With infinite choice comes a need to embed your product  into culture. If you’re really successful you become the culture, like #43 is to NASCAR. Hint: Start with quality.

In my campaign I’m going to give away personal brand equity – touch my brand and your perceived social value goes up in your tribe.  Touch my quality and you are quality – nice!   I know you want it – who wouldn’t?

A general guide:
1) Find out why they’re there and want to be associated with your brand?
2) Understand who you’re talking to and contribute to their experience by adding authentic value.
3) Remember that in the new landscape, everything is social – no one likes to be sold to, interrupted, or be the subject of a marketing prank.
4) And – now here’s the hard part – keep the social equity your giving prospects immersed in yours.

Repeat after me: real value, authentic value, social value.  Additionally, remember that the value is for your tribal prospect, not you.  In my tribe people come over to eat, not watch YOU eat, and they’re proud to have eaten my food.  Build personal brand equity for participants, immerse your brand into the culture to build advocacy within the tribe, and – if possible – add material reward that is portable all while generating real social brand equity for individual tribe members.

Fast Company Magazine has a nice simple article describing what successful and not so successful brands are doing to create advocates. “Five Steps for Consumer Brands to Earn Social Currency” by Ben Paynter

1) Advocates Trump Followers
2) Context Matters
3) Not Every Brand Should Be Social
4) Social Tools are a Means Not an End
5) Gimmicks Marginalize Trust

Embedded is a short video with boutique ad agency, Strawberry Frog’s Executive Creative Director Kevin McKeon explaining why he considers everything they do to be social.

StrawberryFrog Creative Director: “I Consider Everything We D… – The funniest videos clips are here

“… the artists, idea merchants and marketers that are having the most success are ignoring those that would rubberneck and drive on, focusing instead on cadres of fans that matter.”  [via Seth Godin]

The entire post focuses on our “drive by” short attention span culture and how more and more content producers and companies are pandering to statistics that are so readily available online.  It’s easy to follow stats and change content to raise the number of visitors.

His point is an important one for Creative Professionals who wring their hands during tough economic times.  Our culture is getting faster and more shallow but in agreement with Seth Godin, those people successful in changing minds and moving culture generally don’t follow suit.

“In the race between ‘who’ and ‘how many’, who usually wins–if action is your goal. Find the right people, those that are willing to listen to what you have to say, and ignore the masses that are just going to race on, unchanged.”        [via Seth Godin]

In an oddly unrelated but relevant post, Edward Boches at Creativity_Unbound asks these questions: “So what is abundance doing to brand consistency? Will the proliferation of user-generated content make it unachievable? Does it even matter? “

My take is that by “abundance” he, and others in the social media space, are referring to the consumer’s ability to find and have whatever they want, whenever they want, and many times for free or near free.  Edward’s post brings with it some great points regarding brand and consistency.

My thought is that brand is not your logo mark, packaging, or ad design but is and always has been what you do and how you do it.  Great branding happens when you do everything else right, that is, everything your customer interacts with across all aspects of your product and services.  Great branding is about you and the deep relationship you create with the customers you have.  Design matters but brand control is not found in how you package your product but in the product itself.

Read more from Edward Boches here.

Photographer Chase Jarvis

Very few people have the energy of Chase Jarvis – no matter – his point is valid and everyone can adopt it. He’s having fun making stuff and sharing stuff. Don’t let fear tell you not to have fun with your creativity.

Creativity has always been owned by the masses; everyone is creative and with practice the depth of our creativity improves. The true uniqueness of our time is the new democracy of media; we are all publishers.

If you find the time or if you can view bits at a time, go here for the 60 minute Chase Jarvis Vimeo presentation to the Art Director’s Club of Denver called “The Consequences of Creativity”.

There’s no faulting authentic cause marketing.   Doing the right thing by committing funds is inspiring.  A perfect example is the Ronald McDonald House supporting families of hospitalized children.  It represents everything we’d like a corporation to do with their profits: give some back to the community that buys the product.  All positive public relations are genuinely well deserved.

Pepsi Refresh feels similar.  The soft drink company uses the internet to field ideas and award favorites monthly with large sums of cash to finance a cause.  Excellent.  Spread the love and the goodness of a brand.  The Publicity is good; the causes are great and they used new social networking techniques to make it even more powerful – awesome.  Much better than a one run Superbowl networks 30 sec. spot.

Let’s take a moment to sincerely thank them for this approach.  Honest – no sarcasm intended but it’s hard to write this stuff without it sounding that way.

OK – that said, let me risk more by sounding overly cynical and ask about statistics regarding ROI for cause marketing.  It must be impossible to measure.  Maybe it’s not necessary to measure.  Building a brand by making members of a cause and their benefactors love it, how can that fail?  Pay it forward, right? Everyone will love Pepsi and buy their product because they’re doing the right thing. [Well, that’s a little sarcastic]

While Pepsi’s approach was inspired, it feels like a dead end and outside the brand to me.  Each cause is individually separate and disconnected from anything to do with Pepsi as a refreshment maker other than cash outlay, a brand mark, and a slogan.

I think about those times my parents gave me money for college.  I am eternally grateful but that’s not why I love them.  I also received a partial scholarship from someone but I’d have to go back and dig through papers to find out whom… I forget.  In fact, attach strings to payments and recipients may get resentful: a girlfriend’s Dad once offered $1000 to her for quitting cigarettes – you can guess how that turned out.

A better approach would be to create a product that inspired it’s own cause and its own marketing.  Let’s pretend Pepsi Co. created a delicious tablet that, when dropped in water would give a day’s worth of nutrition in a thirst quenching drink while simultaneously clearing foul water of harmful bacteria.

• The tablet tasted better than sports drinks of the wealthiest fit minded communities.
• The tablets are so effective that it could be distributed to earthquake victims in Haiti and Chile to help solve drinking water shortages.
• Pepsi would be marketing the same tablet everywhere; one which would give 50% profits to groups dedicated to quench the thirst of the world.  [Insert Pepsi Refresh cause marketing here].
• Track profits from areas of the globe and where they go through online mapping – create a competition between shopping segments – who can generate more thirst quenching for drought stricken areas.
• Perhaps a live video feeds from the areas being helped or of people buying the product that will be shipped to the truly thirsty.

These thoughts are incomplete and raw but I think you get the idea.  Everything from the product to the financing to the cause and the outcome are all Pepsi.  The product is the marketing and everything to do with it perpetuates the brand and its thirst quenching essence.  It offers consumers something genuinely healthy to purchase and one that did good tangible things across the globe as well as an opportunity to pick up another Pepsi products sold next to the tablet while at the store.

I know, I know,  the tablet may be a technological fantasy but something isn’t that would fit the scheme.  I’m just sayin’ – Pepsi is doing good stuff but I think they missed an opportunity on this one.

I met Scott in 1995 at an awards show. One of the many things I enjoy about being “a creative” in advertising is that you become a collector of interesting intelligent imaginative just plain nice folks who do cool stuff; Scott is one of those. – Bruce DeBoer

Scott Ballew Senior Vice President and Creative Director

Biography [via - Captrat.com ] :

Scott offers our clients a deep understanding of consumer advertising and national accounts from his experience with high-profile clients such as Kimberly-Clark, TGI Friday’s, Thorlo and Pier 1 Imports. He also brings special expertise in health care and technology, thanks to his work for Ciba-Geigy (now Novartis), the Texas Department of Health and SAS Software. Here at Capstrat, Scott contributes to creative strategy and supervision for a range of accounts and oversees our design staff.

While Scott believes his first priority is aligning creative concepts with strategic goals, his creative executions capture the heart and mind — and every conceivable prize. His award shelf includes honors from Communication Arts, New York Art Directors Annual, The One Show, London International Awards, Clios, national Addys. Archive and Graphis.

Previously Scott served as associate creative director at Howard, Merrell & Partners in Raleigh. He also served as senior art director at West & Vaughan in Durham and as art director for The Richards Group in Dallas. He started his career in the design department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A Texan by birth, Scott graduated with honors from the School of Visual Arts in New York where he earned his bachelor of fine arts degree in advertising.

Contact Scott Ballew through Capstrat.com

Just in case you were wondering about my opinion, Volkswagen is the ad winner – for my money (not that it has anything to do with my money) – of the 2010 Superbowl spots and here’s why:

1. It is centered around the brand showing its depth and breadth and not simply a funny spot where you remember nothing about the product.
2. It reminds their primary target how VW is immersed in our culture and renews an old road game; nostalgia is a powerful draw.
3. The slapstick keeps our attention and makes us laugh
4. Makes us tell stories among ourselves and enhances our love for the brand even if we’ve never owned one.
5. The spot was crafted well enough to make us want to test drive a VW; the cars looked beautiful.
6. The payoff was gratifying with Stevie Wonder and Tracy Morgan; two beloved celebrities.
7. The campaign is easily integrated across all media; its story is easy to share on Social Media and at the Water Cooler.
8. It has legs: visit Sluggy Patterson on Twitter and Posterous.

I can go on but you get the point.  Add to its draw is the fact it was superb among many awful ads we had to sit through this year.  My second choice was the Google’s Love Story ad but I’m still trying to figure out why they bothered, what did they gain exactly?

Go here for the video of Sluggy’s story and here for Punch Dub the game and on FaceBook here.

[update] Barbara Lippert’s Critique in Adweek gave the nod to Google and mentioned Betty White and the Snickers Spot. Both are solid in my opinion but Google on TV seemed gratuitous and without purpose; exactly what were they expecting, more awareness or increased user-ship? The Betty White/Snickers spot was a solid pick but we’ll remember their clever casting of Betty White and Abe Vigota before we’ll recall the brand name; it wasn’t “of the brand” the way the VW spot is.  Both spots – Snickers’ and Google’s – are more limited than “Punch Dub” in their integration across media channels as well.

FYI – Here’s how Stevie Wonder knows it’s a “Red One”.

Full Credits

Agency: Deutsch, Los Angeles

Client: Volkswagen

Director: Frank Todaro

Production Company: Moxie

When turning pleasurable pursuits into a profession there needs to be barriers to entry or exceptional value that adds economic scarcity; conceivably risk, distinctive talent or financial investment.  This is permanently true.   Your value-add – if not unique – requires higher risk, or supplementary resources, or less pleasure if your unwilling to settle for lower (or no) compensation.

In the 80 / 20 hay day [the 80% worth consuming is produced by 20% of the talent], creative professionals would rely on institutions like the recording industry, art galleries or advertising agencies to organize creative output.  Our institutions filtered talent, packaged product, controlled access and provided distribution.  Groups were organized, consumers and producers kept separate, and chaos avoided.

Lately, creative professionals are suffering the heartbreak of  fading uniqueness and coping with pressures to add value in other ways.  Clay Shirky gave his first TED talk in 2005.  His institution v. collaboration presentation must have appeared abstract to more listeners then than now, nevertheless, Clay’s talk hasn’t faded in value for those of us trying to recover our bearings in a once familiar profession.

The chaos of coordinated groups without institutional control is just beginning.  Creative professionals are faced with a massive increase in expressive capability beyond that of the printing press, telephone, recorded media (photos, sound) or broadcast (TV, Radio).  Consider this a call to discover new uses for the new connective media; acceptance is an imperative.

Photographers will find Clay Shirky’s example of Flickr particularly familiar. You can find Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody here.

(via Wikipedia)

Clay Shirky (born 1964^[1]) is an American writer, consultant and teacher on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. He teaches New Media as an adjunct professor at New York University‘s (NYU) graduate Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP). His courses address, among other things, the interrelated effects of the topology of social networks and technological networks, how our networks shape culture and vice-versa.^[2]

He has written and been interviewed extensively about the Internet since 1996. His columns and writings have appeared in Business 2.0, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Harvard Business Review and Wired.

Shirky divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing on the social and economic effects of Internet technologies. His consulting practice is focused on the rise of decentralized technologies such as peer-to-peer, web services, and wireless networks that provide alternatives to the wired client-server infrastructure that characterizes the World Wide Web. Current clients include Nokia, GBN, the U.S. Library of Congress, the Highlands Forum, the Markle Foundation and the BBC.

Predictions? No. Trends? Uhhh, not really, but mainly because I refuse to be called trendy.  What the PTS Watchlistapalooza represents are ideas that make sense for the next five or more years.

All of these points are especially important for the creative professional since we are the tip of the spear.

1. Look for goods that can’t be sucked into the cloud* – i.e. Google getting into the hardware business
2. The “Democratized Renaissance” (via David Burney ) a.k.a. cooperative organizing of creativity, has brought us to chaos.  Watch as the professional class scrambles for shelter – this goes double for my native profession of commercial photography.
3. Marketing messages become more toxic.  The smarter among us will steer their marketing further away from propaganda.  Keep it real by phasing out the ad push of the last century and phase in the pull by providing valuable but authentic content.
4. The return of web ROI.  Information wants to be free but let’s get real folks – and we will – we just haven’t discovered appropriate pay for play models.
5. Content is king; watch for it to return to its rightful place as old institutions transform (or fail) into new organizations.
6. The emerging Renaissance Specialist will find his niche.  Simply having a high skill in a narrow specialty will no longer cut it.  Go ahead, establish a brand based on a specialty but you’d better be prepared to add value across a broader range of skills than you did in prior decades.  Watch for the return of Liberal Studies.
7. Privacy gets more consideration from marketers. The younger generation may have a lesser expectation of privacy but don’t fool yourself, invade it at your peril – social media marketing is a risky proposition for those interested in broadcasting a message.
8. Watch as institutions to get into trouble when the old guard tries new social media tricks.  Remember that rogue employees representing a company on Twitter can communicate messages out of reach of the board room – enter Risk Management.
9. Integration is no longer just an 11 letter word.  The new tools are awesome but like every new toy we eventually return to our real pleasures and passions.  Integrate your product into culture or change culture otherwise no one is going to listen to your message.
10. Not going away: matching of buyers to sellers and “you get what you pay for”.
11. Pay attention to generative values – read Kevin Kelly’s thoughts (Better Than Free) on uncloneable assets around which we can build economic scarcity: immediacy, personalization, interpretation, authenticity, accessibility, embodiment, patronage and findability.
12. Social Media will remain – uhhh well – social.  While there may be a deluge of fan pages, click through advertising and contests, social media participants will never have patience for intrusions into the space where they keep relationships.  Your message might be sitting on someone’s lap, be careful what you put there.
13. Phase out direct marketing mentality, create internet advertising that is magnetically experiential; add value and then make the turn, but rather than asking for the sale like Ron Popeil, ask for a relationship.
14. There’s no longer 10,000 hours (a la Gladwell’s Outliers)  to be an expert at any small thing and the small things are getting bigger.
15. Innovation will move from “perceived” to “real” or the perceived will need to become real by adding value to the experience – see Kevin Kelly’s generative values.

*Also Check out John Hagel’s Edge Perspective