CrapHammer

The Engagement is over

Dear sweet Gavin.  Whose writing is more poetic than plain.  More insightful than mundane.

He has called for the death of Engagement.  And I think he is right.

"'Engagement' does not reach far enough nor adequately convey the restless desire we have to connect -- with brands, with organisations and with each other."

And the conversation he has awoken is beyond intriguing.

Valeria Maltoni speaks of where engagement fits in our lives.  "I think we are not content with 'engagement' to someone either, yes? We get married or we break up. In other words, engagement is just a phase of our relationship."

Matt Moore responds with "I don't want brands to transform [my] experiences, I want them to allow me to transform my own."  And closes with, "I don't want their spectacle, I want my own..."

The conversation haunts me.  I read the spectacle quote over and over, yearning to taste the insight that sparked this explosion of thoughts.  Missing it, I fight back and yet feel drawn in.

"It seems to me that brands who continue to invest in the spectacle will be able to 'engage' at least some of the people some of the time. But those brands wanting to delve deeper will need to find ways to transform our experiences -- one heartbeat at a time."

It makes me stop and ponder my approach to any campaign.  The use of a lifecycle that maps out the changing levels of engagement with an audience.  What would happen if I applied this to myself and my relationships with others around me?  (Let alone the brands I interact with.)

Would I move so easily and cleanly from one stage of "engagement" to the next?  Do I desire their meddling?

Gavin's full article is beyond worth a read.  It's waiting for each of us to join in the conversation.

So much death these past few weeks.  First Branding.  Now Engagement.  Is anyone giving birth anymore? 

When a blogger grows quiet...

Ever have one of those weeks?

My Mom is visiting.  The government lost my taxes.  A freak storm destroyed our neighborhood.

And before I knew it, I'd forgotten to post.

And then I got this wonderful email from Liz regarding her post on How to be Alive.  I laughed and it felt good.  Try it.

In NY, Liz gave me 4 simple but wonderful tips on how to blog.  I've been meaning to share.  Here they are.

1. Blog your experience.
2. Leave room for your readers.
3. Don't tie it up (leave it open.)
4. Come down from the podium.

Words of wisdom for anyone looking to blog or reach out to bloggers.

And thanks to Lewis for the Tag.  Working on my response.  Wow.  It's a tough one.

P.S.  Thanks to shouty for making sure I was still alive.  ;)

How to get a blogger to read your blog (NOT)

Bloggers are becoming an influential force in spreading memes, messages and even news.  Certainly not new news.  But how one interacts with them IS new.

So, you are a marketer at a firm and want to get bloggers to take notice of a story your boss has written.  What to do????  How will you ever "break through" the clutter?  How will you get the viral growth results you've been tasked with?

Well.  One way would be to email a whole bunch of us with a form letter.  Like the one I received yesterday.

"Hello,

Having read your blog, I feel comfortable enough to say that you have a strong sense of business and more specifically marketing. You understand the importance of  marketing in business.

This is why we are inviting you to read our latest post, Uma Thurman Owes Me Alimony, on our blog Unconventional Thinking. We believe you and your readers would find this blog both interesting and informative as you see a more unconventional approach towards business. It stresses the value that marketing has on a business and how we need to take viral marketing and run with it. Your comments or links would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Chris Kieff
Director of Internet Marketing

MSCO | The Art and Science of Growing Businesses
800 Westchester Avenue
S708
Rye Brook, NY 10573
Tel: 914-251-1500 x25
Fax: 914-251-0800
CKieff@msco.com"

Not really a great way.  But I have to admire Chris for trying.  Or do I?

What differentiates this from SPAM?

Note, Chris, in the future all you have to do is post a comment on a RELATED story on my blog.  I will not only read your article, I will enter into a discussion with you and perhaps even share it with my readers.

P.S.  Anyone else out there get this one?

Social Branding

I've gotten some awesome comments and emails about the Hee Haw "branding is dead" article I commented on the other day.

And then this morning I came across Mack's writeup over at The Viral Garden. I think he hits the nail square on the head.  Craphammer style.

It's not about branding dying, per se.  It's about one-way traditional branding going the way of the DoDo bird.  So, one might argue this is just the one-way vs. two-way discussion in a new guise.  And it is, but it isn't.

Mack coins the term "Social Branding" as a model of building a brand together with ones consumers.  With the idea of giving up ownership of your brand being a key element.  He paints a compelling story and one that moves into this idea of control and co-creation.

"We started this company with the philosophy that the world does not need another soda," said Peter van Stolk, the founder and chief executive of Jones Soda. "That forced us to look at things differently: How could we create a new kind of connection with customers, let them play with the brand, let them take ownership of it? Everything at this company is about sharing ownership of the brand with our customers. This is not my brand. This is not our soda. It belongs to our customers."

Read his full post.

[image source: Alexôme - case in point, from the shufflesome project.]

Branding betrayed

adliterate made an AMAZING post about our approach to advertising (and branding) just the other day. Here it is.

Read down past the creative part and he talks about how "Advertising changed tack and started to differentiate identical products on emotional grounds. More than that, in the absence of difference or advantage in those products it started to believe it could be the difference."

Paul at Hee Haw hit me with the follow-up left hook this morning with "Branding is Dead".  He was responsing to a post by Russell Davies about the demise of branding as we know it. 

"Spend enough time around the blogosphere, and it's real easy to get that 'heard it all before' mentality. But when it comes from the mouth of someone like Russell Davies, there's a reason for pause."

He discusses how branding is being replaced by Design and Technology.  Read Paul's full post here.

Wouldn't it be amazing if we were moving back to creating quality products with true differentiation again?

And now we get to Dinner.

I had the amazing and wonderful opportunity to meet CK, Liz, Matt and Ann at a dinner in New York City last night.  It was a magical evening of laughter, sharing and real conversations.  It was as if I was meeting old friends. As Liz points out so beautifully, there was no small talk.

Liz shared some discussions she has been having with Doc Searls about how the shift to a conversation age is also impacting commerce.  And that we are moving back to a direct interaction between product creators and their customers.  And it struck me that this is tied in with the discussions above.

Could it be that the future of "advertising" or "marketing" is to work with our customers to actually design better products?  (As opposed to how to position, market or package them?)

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Live from FOOA vs. A lesson from Ecuador

Here's a cross-link to my post on BMA about the two keynotes today.  Some interesting stats, but so far it's been very traditional media audience focused.  ie:  A lot of time on the basics of online advertising and media and proving the case for online media as a larger part of your mix.

Teaser:

   
• $112 billion of the $295 billion spent on advertising is wasted
   
• 99% of people pretty much don't remember custom URLs (Amen!)

So click over already!  ;)

But what about Ecuador?

I sat through a number of presentations on monetization, a demo of a social media product that is designed so that the company owns the data consumers create and a man from PayPerPost basically spewing the most insane logic on the planet.  So I took a short walk and found myself with a bit of time on my hands, something in short supply of late.  A perfect chance to get a haircut.

My requirements were simple.  I didn't want to wait or have to setup an appointment.  I was informed this was possible at the first place I walked into.  I was handed a slip of paper and a black gown and sent back down an aisle of busy clipping stylists.

And this is how I met her.  I don't have her permission, so I will call her Corina.  She is from Ecuador.

Before I continue, I have to tell you that I've always hated getting my hair cut by someone I don't know.  The strange pauses.  The small talk.  And let's not forget the dreaded end result that is always nothing like what I asked for.  It's akin to dragging my fingernails across a gritty old chalk board.  And I avoid it like the apocalypse.

But I had commited to a haircut in a strange city, so I began with the awkward smile and quickly moved into what I was looking for.  She kept nodding and saying things like "of course you do" in a heavy spanish accent.  I quickly realized we were far from comprehension on a good portion of what I was saying.  And I laughed.  And as I relaxed back into the chair I threw it all away.  I remember thinking,"It's only hair... it will grow back... someday..."

Corina and I spoke of her children, her youth, her coming to America.  We spoke of my travels, what it's like to live in Canada.  There were many stumbling blocks as her English, while excellent, definitely slipped in places or was made imcomprehensible (to my ears) by her accent.

And let me tell you, Corina meant business. She wasn't playing around.  We weren't talking scissors here.  Nope, we were in full fledge razor mode and my hair was quite literally flying off my head.  And as she worked, we talked.  Not small talk.  But really talked.  I learned about her first son and how hard it was for him to grow up as a young child here.  How she had no resources and no safety net and barely spoke English.  So he grew up primarily indoors.  Very few friends.  No outlets save for school.

I learned about her guilt.  And I shared my own stories of family issues.  And in the end I spoke to her about how as children we don't always understand the sacrifices that our parents made.  We spoke of our hearts of hearts.  And she spoke to me of children.

In ecuador, everyone has many many children.  But not her sister.  She never got married.  She never had children.  And now she is lonely.  And Corina chided me for not having children and wanted to know why I did not have any, and what my plans were.

My hair was washed (at the end of the cut) as if I was a small child.  The water was sprayed into my ears and when she dried my hair her thumbs were shoved into my ears while her fingers scrubbed behind the flaps quite vigorously.  I was smiling as I felt touched and alive, as if I was a grandson and getting my hair cut in her apartment.

As I walked back into the conference it hit me like a wave.  We have a choice in every interaction.  To smile and nod, pretending to care - where we both know that the other person is there to monetize and make small-talk.  Or we can let go and actually connect with that human being "across from us".  And the tangible and intangible benefits of the latter are unbelievable. 

I know that if I'm ever in this city again with an unruly head of hair, I'm going to go looking for Corina. Or maybe I'll just drop in for a touch up and learn whether or not her son got that job.  And hopefully I will have figured out how to apply this to our communication efforts in the interim.

First Image Source:  Lukas Vermeer

[Second Image is of me at FOOA with my new head of hair]

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Going to eat an apple

Just a quick post.  Heading to bed.  Early flight into the Big Bad Apple for the Future of Online Advertising show.

Give me a shout if you are in the city.  We are resuscitating the Pause event Thursday night (tomorrow).  6pm or so.

More to follow from the show floor.

UPDATE:  Whoops. Wrong link.  Pause Event is at the  Pizza Bar, 14'th and 9'th.  Tonight (Thursday) @ 6'ish.

Image Source: toposnoetos

No marketing today

Today I followed Luc's posts on how a group of bloggers got together and dedicated a tree to CK.  And I read CK's response about friendship.  And I began to think about the many events I've witnessed online, where those who had never physically met had acted out of amazing kindness for another.

I have a confession.

I was lost in the connections.
I couldn't see through the conversations.
A part of me desired safety.
No.
Leverage.

But its not about knowledge.
Its about ideas.
Or rather,
It's about sharing.
And ideas are a by-product.

I would like to replicate Gavin's first blog post ever.  As I believe it is even more remarkable today than when he first penned it.

[begin quote]
The Servant of Chaos
We begin with a rant. A rumble. A shout. There is more in the mind, more on the fingertips, more spilling from the edges of our quivering lips than can fill the words of a thousand weblogs.
The diaries of the insane, the newly reposessed, the righteous, the deluded, and yes, even I.
The daily diatribe of the left, the right, the religious and informed brooks no argument.
But we will give them one.
You and I.
We will give them one.
There are more to the words of consumers than the corporations expect.
We huddle in groups, in chat rooms.
We explode on the keyboards of a million call centres.
Our imagination is unheard of. Our thoughts cancel out the process.
We are your hearts and your minds.
We are everywhere, all places, all over the shop.
In your blood, at your workplace.
Serving you tea.
Writing you emails.
Escape?
We don't really want to, for this is who we are.
One.
More.
A new opportunity opens every day.
It opens with the page.
The pen.
Another rant.
In control? Hell no!
We are in slavery to the chaos of our lives.
This is the manifesto of one.
S.
[end quote]

CK spoke recently of her commitment to her lion and showing no fear.  And how it changed everything.  This brought it all home and made me realize I am not being true to who I am. 

I desire to free my softness.

"Like the most powerful bird in existence sitting on its perch and refusing to move."

Eat Sleep Blog, part 3

Session 3 of Eat Sleep Blog is here for your viewing pleasure (or displeasure).

Technology continues to be a bit of a challenge.  I gave up editing it down at about half way through.  So I likely missed some of our discussion.

I'd say this represents progress, but only if we are aiming for a bizarre marketing art installation.

Eat, Sleep, Blog:  Session 3 from craphammer on Vimeo

Oh.  And be advised there is a LANGUAGE warning yet again.  I think the F bomb has dropped to single digit numbers.  Progress!

Here are some of the URLs we call out to in the piece.

Blogger: http://tinyurl.com/32zjk4

Twitter:  http://tinyurl.com/yxpscm

Facebook:  http://tinyurl.com/2mayfg

Second Life: http://tinyurl.com/2zmfub

ABC:  http://tinyurl.com/yp2ma6

Enjoy!!

Update:  Gah.  Forgot to give shout outs to the star of stars Gavin and the eternally electrifying and king of the F-Bomb, Paul.

Packing my bags for the big city...

I'm going to be attending the Future of Online Advertising conference on behalf of Beyond Madison Avenue.  Anyone in the area interested in meeting up, give me a shout.

I will be in the big apple this coming Thursday through Saturday.  My departure is later in the day on Sat.

Apple store, here I come.  Someone stop me.