Archive for March, 2008
March 31st, 2008
The story of the Cobblers Children is an all-too-familiar one. The town’s Cobbler is a busy man—he’s so busy making shoes for his paying customers, that he neglects his own children. It’s a story based on truth and while common sense tells us that the Cobbler should take care of his children as well, reality tells another story. As a follow up to Dave’s recent post about “lights out” and the feedback we received on our blog design, you should know that we heard you and would have even acted sooner—if it weren’t for those clients who pay the bills. 
Truth is, this is a topic worth thinking about. In the race to exceed client expectations, can we sometimes lose sight of our own “children”?
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March 30th, 2008
Quick Links
Sites of the Week
March 28th, 2008
Last week, Starbucks launched My Starbucks Idea. Many have likened the social site to Direct2Dell, or more recently, Dell IdeaStorm. I think any brand who creates a forum to sincerely listen and proactively and consistently respond to all types of ideas and/or complaints deserves some applause. The consumer side of me really commends that.
The marketer side of me, also supports the initiative, but notices a fundamental difference between the two corporate forums listed above. Dell’s IdeaStorm fosters communication on product development for items that have a lifecycle once purchased by a consumer, versus a Starbucks purchase and consumption which arguably starts and finishes over the course of thirty minutes. It will be interesting to see if MyStarbucksIdea can offer a sustainable idea-generating community given that very short purchase cycle. Along the same vein, it will also be a challenge for Starbucks to offer ‘acceptable’ solutions to consumer concerns with such a low-price product. I know what you are thinking – a $5 coffee is not ‘low price,’ but in comparison to how a consumer feels about purchasing a vacation, a vehicle or mobile phone service – there isn’t a lot of thought put into the research and consideration phase of the purchase.
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March 26th, 2008
I don’t know if I’d say the theme of last week’s iMedia Breakthrough Summit was mobile, but there has definitely been movement in the marketplace since this time, last year. There’s no secret in our industry that the mobile web has unlimited potential. Mobile is likely the most important of the emerging platforms. John Hadl, Managing Partner & Founder of BrandinHand, Inc. has been quoted as saying, “We are at the tipping point in terms of consumer adoption and the starting gate in term of marketers’ readiness to embrace the medium. 2008 is the year of rising tides … a rising tide lifts all ships.” By 2011, the mobile advertising market is estimated to be worth over $11.5 billion annually. While there were more noteworthy case studies at this year’s conference, mobile has yet to find a fixed spot in the marketing mix budget. After talking with some of my peers, it seems like the biggest hurdle for mobile is that it is directly competing with online budgets. Should it be? Does it take the place of traditional or online media? Read the rest of this entry »
March 20th, 2008
Troy Young: Video Egg
I just wrapped up two days at the Ad Age Digital Marketing conference in NYC. This post will be short and perhaps bittersweet as I am about to jump on a delayed flight back to Chicago (translation, I’m tired).
The panel I took part in was the official “social media” discussion. It was a great conversation, and the conference itself conducted polls from the audience in real time. Here’s how usage of social networks broke down according to the attendees there:
Facebook: 39%
LinkedIn: 37%
MySpace: 12%
Other: 7%
None: 5%
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March 20th, 2008
Quick Hits
Sites of the Week
March 14th, 2008
This morning I was walking at 5th and 52rd Street in New York on my way to a meeting. Traffic was at a standstill, people frustrated, horns blowing, due to President Bush being in town with his motorcade. As I’m walking up 5th Avenue, I encounter a blind man also walking with his cane. He looked a little flustered. With New York at a standstill, and no sense of movement, he had lost his “signal” for deciphering what was going on. Traffic was gridlocked. Congestion was outrageous. We struck up a chat and he asked what was happening and I filled him in. We chatted for maybe 3 minutes over two blocks. As the cross town motorcade passed at 55th and traffic started to move, I was amazed at his instinctive ability to regain his navigational sense – he once again found the signal within the noise as we walked. Not only could he carry on a conversation, he navigated by sound at the same time. He didn’t need an iPhone with Google maps. He didn’t need eyes, because he had internal vision. An intuitive sense based on deciphering the signal. And an amazing sense of processing that signal in real time.
It’s yet another example of separating the signal from the noise. Its easy to be distracted with the technology and tools, the emerging trends, the mountains of data, the noise around us. Our customer experience “traffic sense” can sometimes seem at a standstill. Often it’s about listening, internalizing, and understanding intuitively what’s going on. Close your eyes, regain the signal and you’ll be on your way.
March 14th, 2008
On Monday, news broke that Eliot Spitzer, the governor of NY, had seven (or more) “engagements” with prostitutes supplied by a call girl service. Spitzer was identified as “Client 9.” Virgin Mobile reacted quickly to this week’s hot topic. The day after Spitzer resigned as a result of the scandal, Virgin Mobile hit the press with the ad shown above.
The ad plays off Spitzer’s “Client #9” label, with the thought bubble reading, “I’m tired of being treated like a number.” The ad goes on to say, “…you’re more than just a number. When you call us we’ll treat you like a person, not a client. Whether you’re #9 or #900, you’ll get hooked up with somebody who’ll finally treat you just how you want to be treated.”
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March 14th, 2008
Innovation Quick Hits
Regular Quick Hits
Sites of the Week
March 11th, 2008
Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Microsoft’s premiere event, MIX 08 (you can see my talk here, and watch a video interview here). But the real star of MIX 08 was Guy Kawasaki. Guy spent a considerable part of his career with Apple, but is currently most known for his adventures as a serial entrepreneur and blogger. But Guy is something much bigger. He’s a master at the art of improvisation among other things.
Contrast Guy’s performance with that of BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy whose highly publicized fiasco at geek conference SXSW will go down in conference history. While Guy remained relaxed, conversational and quick on his feet even as Ballmer unexpectedly tossed Guy’s Mac Air around like a play toy—Lacy was unable to successfully adapt to her situation when the SXSW audience began to turn on her. Take this excerpt from Wired:
“After some more shouted remarks, Lacy turned the microphones over to the members of the audience, challenging them to come up with better questions. Attendees rushed to the microphones and got right to it, asking Zuckerberg about privacy and data portability, and requesting tools to help manage the growing flood of information on their Facebook profiles.”
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