Automation vs. Curation

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Google recently was dinged by an ex-worker for its data-driven design approach. The not-so-disgruntled worker suggested Google tests everything before making any firm design changes — the hue of the blue, for instance. If dark blue clicks through better than sky blue, dark is published.

 

Marketing is about “science” and “art.”  Finding the right mixture is the key. Creative directors hate focus groups and research that dictates what form the art will take. And data geeks feel the creative people are self-absorbed megalomaniacs. Automation vs. curation is what we’re talking about here in the digital age. There’s no formula for the perfect combination of these dueling approaches but they must both sit at the table.  Art and science. Left brain, right brain.

 

The best marketing shops are those that thrive in this coexistence. It’s not peaceful coexistence and it shouldn’t be, but it must be respectful. Burger King’s CMO Russ Klein might say this coexistence should be a couple of baby steps from “conflict.” Peace!

 

Proud to be an Ad Guy.

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For years I have read the results of polls placing advertising people and lawyers at the bottom of the image totem poll. It seems like American’s think ad people are not trustworthy and therefore hold us in low esteem.

 

Well, I’m here to tell you that we may remain low in the esteem polls moving forward, but we are not draining the economy the way some industries are. I haven’t heard about any bailouts of Interpublic or Omnicom, have you?  And if ad agencies and agency holding companies were managed like Bank of America, GM or Chrysler, I haven’t read about it. Who says agency people are too creative to be good business people?

 

I am proud to be in advertising. Yeah, we tell off color jokes. We may index high for drinking and smoking. Our music may not be mainstream and our shoes are expensive, but by God, we know about business. And as an industry we know how to pay bills and stay on the right side of the ledger. Be proud ad wo|men. Be proud. As my Norwegian grandfather might have said “Poles. What do they know!" Or was that “polls?” Peace!

 

Ear buds

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When I was a pup, sometime after everyone was wearing fedora hats and the world was black and white, if you went on the subway you saw people with their faces buried in newspapers. Go on the NYC subway today or a bus in Chattanooga and you won’t see a paper — but you will see ear buds. Everywhere. They’re attached to phones, MP3 players and iPods and they are pumping out music.

 

Earbuds are the new paper. Digital (music), the new media. I’ve been writing Cablevision and Newsday (local Long Island businesses) trying to get them to see that if they marry the earbud with news and entertainment they will take a giant step ahead in the business of news delivery. (They aren’t really taking my call.) You see, making podcasts easy and fast is a major opportunity for original content providers. It therefore is a major opportunity for journalism and news organizations. Someone will win here, I’d love it to be Newsday. Peace!

 

 

Meep meep.

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Chrysler’s reorg may reduce their number of models from 32 to 13 according to The New York Times, so what do you think that says about GM? Washington didn’t listen to my Detroit Bailout Challenge idea, suggesting a jump ball/winner-take-all approach to the big three bail out, so the car companies will be left to their own devices. 

 

One such device will be to lose car brands (buh-bye Saturn, Pontiac, maybe Buick) and car models. As you drive around the streets and highways today, take a look to the left, right, fore and aft and know that one of those American models will be gone by the summer of 2010.

 

America’s highways are going to look and sound differently very soon. Lighter cars, egg-beater sounding engines, meep meep horns. Closed, rusting gas stations will dot the highways. Can’t wait!       

 

Intel vs. McDonald’s

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The new Intel campaign by Venables Bell and Partners sounds a bit unfocused. The idea behind the campaign “Sponsors of Tomorrow” sounds good enough, though a couple of years ago the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA) did something similar through Toy-NY which was a bit trite. Intel’s campaign, according to reports, has three different executional ideas which makes it messy:  Portraying Intel R&D people as rock stars, comparing the Intel culture to popular culture ("our clean room isn’t like your clean room"), and showing what the future will be like thanks to Intel (a digital campaign). That’s three ideas, one tagline.  

 

The new McDonald’s McCafé advertising from DDB, Chicago, on the other hand, is based on a very tight idea. And a powerful idea. When you buy a McCafé beverage, it transforms wherever you are into a café, highlighted by a visual accent popping up on the “e” of the location name. (A commute turns into a commuté, for instance.) Pairing this graphic idea with amazingly lush film of the coffee takes the viewer out of greasy burger heaven and into – in the mind at least — an aromatic French café. Simple. Focused. Evocative. About the product. Peace.   

 

The New Newspaper…

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The newspaper business is in trouble and therefore print journalism is in trouble. To compound the problem, David Carr of The New York Times today implies that some journalists are getting a bit lazy. Thanks to the Internet and easy access to data and sources, and ability to quickly search anything, he suggested journalists may not be leaving the building as they once did in pursuit of stories.  

 

Ad revenue is down, circulation is down, college kids aren’t reading paper papers and the model needs to change. The news business is about reporting and distribution. Newspapers aren’t efficient because they deliver a lot of waste — stories we don’t read. Same with TV, but we can always change the channel. The net is somewhat better because we can focus our search, but the results are often citizen journalism which is hit and mostly miss. The solution lies in a system that allows us to select the type of professional news we want, from the journalists we prefer, delivered in the medium of our choice. What might that look like? Stay tuned.

 

 

 

Twitter…Still a Fetus.

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Twitter is big today and will be bigger tomorrow. We just haven’t really figured out how to use it yet. This week and last there have been a number of stories about Twitter topping out. Even Ofrah (sic) is tired of Twitter. I don’t think anything could be farther from the truth.

 

The Epicurious application on iPhone is a very cool app that lets you graze at the grocery store and when you see a wonderful product access great recipes for that product in real time. Twitter offers the same type of solution opportunity, but from live people. A number of computer start-ups were built not too long ago whereby people could pay for answers online.  The main problem with those services was many questions come up while away from the computer.  Pay-for solution providers for mobile consumers will be a cool new application and one for which Twitter seems a perfect medium. Cha-ching.

 

 

Shanzhai Agencies.

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The “shanzhai” phenomenon in China — flooding the market with low-cost counterfeit mobile phones — is big business. In the U.S. we also have a shanzhai phenomenon but it’s tied to small and mid-size advertising and marketing agencies who pretend to be digital marketing experts.

 

It usually starts with building a client website, then it extents to creating and placing display ads and email marketing. These shanhzai pretenders are going to school on unsuspecting marketers and it’s creating problems for everyone.

 

Websites are built in Flash and are, therefore, not searchable. Emails are created that look like brochures with hundreds of words of copy. Online ads aren’t linked to landing pages and website navigation doesn’t come close to reflecting any standard of reasonable usability. The pretenders aren’t getting rich on this stuff either. It’s a disease.

 

One way to make sure you don’t fall into this shanzhai digital trap is to check the shop’s website. Is it impressive? Logical? Does it load quickly? Does it excite? “Google” them and see if they show up. Do they have a blog? Check out their digital work and contact their digital clients. Ask if the people are on staff or freelance. Don’t buy counterfeit goods. Peace!