CrapHammer

Peachpit: A big hard pit inside a nice juicy peach.

Talk about NOT getting it.

What am I on about?  I was about to purchase the ZAG ebook in PDF format as I wanted to read it right away. As I love Neumeier, I wanted to be sure to give him some of the $$ and support his publisher all at the same time.  Naive of me, eh?

But then my eye caught this little box on the right side of the page.

I have an idea. Hey Peachpit, why not just put the following on your e-commerce website?

To think I was about to hit the BUY button and then my eye caught all these "warnings" and "instructions" about the DRM reader and special software and...  Fuck.  Can you make it ANY more difficult or BELITTLING to buy an ebook?

Sigh.

Neumeier, does he still have it?

This is pretty old, but while I had seen the book, I had never seen the Slidecast.

It's an awesome little refresher on branding and the gap between strategy and creativity.

| View | Upload your own

I love the simplicity of the presentation. Some wonderful gems in there.

“It's not what YOU say it is.  It's what THEY say it is.”

“How do you know when an idea is innovative?  When it scares the hell out of everybody.”

The one part that I still have a strong disagreement with is this whole "valuation of a brand" thing going around still.  Where we take away the revenue and assets and say, "Hey... everything left is the brand."  Strikes me as overly simplistic, but I suppose it's useful to understand that there is an impact to building a strong emotional connection with our audiences.

All in all, I would say Neumeier definitely still has it, that sly old fox.

Modeling the role of Communications

Is it possible to model the role Messaging plays in a campaign? Are there visualization techniques we can use to better explain the relevancy of communications strategy thinking?

Little did I know that a quick lunch with Ryan Coleman would go a long way towards answering these questions. We discussed Mind States and Needs as it relates to Messaging/Ideas.  I thought that was the end of it.  But Ryan emailed me the next day to inform me he had taken a stab at modeling what we spoke of.

The following week would see the model dancing back and forth with a number of conversations, tweaks and questions.

Today I'm happy to announce that Ryan has published the results of our conversations.

[full size version]

I've had a number of client discussions and have even incorporated versions of the above model into presentations and team briefs.  Below I present a simplified version and some of the reasons I find it so remarkable.

Reason Number One:  Simplicity.

If I simplify the relationship into a one-way wheel, as shown to the left, I can speak to the role of Mind State in the individual being engaged and how these are often remarkably different or easily overlooked when we focus only on the Needs we are attempting to reach.  And clients (and creative teams) appear to get the relationship.

Reason Number Two:  Relationship to Product.

It's been spoken of a lot in books, blogs, podcasts and even traditional media.  Marketers have to begin to have influence over the features of a product (where features are everything from customer service to how the product functions.)  And this chart actually provides a compelling 360 degree argument for this.  How it's features that meet the needs.  And that it's features that drive the Messaging.  And if the features don't map, then we have a problem that needs to be solved in order to drive growth, sales and loyalty.

Reason Number Three: Contextual Planning.

This model allows us to explore how we map, measure and deploy communications planning.  I'm interested in how it evolves to interact with this concept of context that is ruling my world at present.  People are choosing how to interact with content and channels on a emotional, personal and intuitive level.  We choose to read a paper, SMS a friend, visit a website, IM an associate and then have a conversation all without much thought or consideration.  We just select the most appropriate channel.  How does our mindstate (and even our needs) shift as a result of these choices? 

Because, while they may shift on a whim, we tend to have selected specific channels for specific messages.

The role of Rational

Now, there is one thing that Ryan and I are still going back and forth on and that is the role of "rational" in the model.  Ryan has removed it from this version as I don't believe rational thought exists outside of language games or scientific exploration.  The real world is about as free from somatic influence as the pope is free from catholicism.  That said, I've found this to be a very small point and not one that necessarily impacts the model, only the labeling.

And his idea that there are one-to-one and one-to-many relationships between some Mind States and Needs has proven most insightful to me on a number of new engagements.

Vertical Channel Management

One of the things that I really loved was how Ryan used the connection between Needs and Features/Benefits to discuss this model from a Product Management point of view.   (He is CTO of a pretty awesome online translation product/service.)

The image to the right illustrates this thinking in true Ryan style.  Scale corresponds to the strength of the item in question.  So when we begin mapping the audience needs to the product features and benefits, we can begin to look for mismatches.  For example, a strong need with a tiny feature means that we may have a weakness in our product in this specific context.

Ryan has simplified the view quite a bit here for illustration purposes. We are not attempting to suggest a one-to-one relationship by any means.

What I love is that this thinking equally applies if we look at either side of the model (the vertical relationships.)

The link between Messaging and Mind States can be thought of as Messaging Management.  How well are we coordinating our messaging strategy to be contextual, relevant and worthy of "breaking through the clutter"?

In Summary

Be sure to check out Ryan's description of the model as well.

I concur with Ryan that this is certainly not a finished model by any means.  So wade in.  Try it out.  Build your own version.  Just be sure to continue the conversation and let us know where you get to, what works or what doesn't.

Shout Out

I  must say that the discussions around this model actually pre-date the lunch Ryan and I had.  And actually began over dinner with the lovely and amazing (read: smarter than me) Renee Quan.  But she doesn't have a blog, so you will all have to find her and take her out to dinner if you want to gain access to her thinking.

Words worth hearing

[Embedded video above]

Thanks to Katie.

A place for serendip?

"The greatest promise of SNS is a seamless network of personally relevant digital channels through which we will be able to share and retrieve information that is personally meaningful and useful."

The dauntingly intelligent Arauz wrote a lengthy piece on how we are getting closer to a Functional Collective Consciousness and the role that Social Networking Sites (SNS) are playing in this.  I love his focus on the shift away from "collective" relevance and towards "personal" relevance.  In other words, when we search for something on Google, we are given what is believed to be the best choices for anyone else in our region searching for the same thing.  Whereas our individual needs and interests are likely different from what is relevant for the collective in our region.

Mike's discussion of "organic organization" is dead-on and quite interesting.

"Each of us implicitly categorizes every bit of information that we encounter."

He talks about how we use an intuitive and organic method of categorization.  And while each person's relationship to information and the world is unique, there are overlaps between each of us that help to define our membership in a group or movement.  ie:  I may think of (and categorize) political "news" differently from my neighbor, yet I am also a member of the same party so we likely share some traits in how we view or process information.

Where Mike loses me a bit is when he shifts into how new tools will achieve personal relevance.  "When we search, we will search through a system that understands what the topic means to us. And when we share, we will be able to pass on the content to only the people who we know will find it compelling."

I agree that the Social Networking Sites will take big steps forward in defining more relevant content, but disagree that these systems will be able to achieve such a utopian state.  Of even more relevance is the implied sense that this is a good thing, if I am wrong and it is indeed possible. 

I would offer that the overlap discussed earlier on how we categorize information, while experienced by us all, is actually an illusion.  It is a non-linear abstract that has no mass and as one digs down it will fractionate in locked step with every increase in magnification.

But even if it does turn out to be possible, what of serendipity?  What of finding content that was NOT desired yet proved critical to moving our ideas forward?  Here I turn to an equally thought provoking post by Richard Huntington.

"Serendipity is not only a beautiful word it is a very beautiful thing.

...

But I’m rather afraid that it is progressively disappearing from our lives, collateral damage in the quest to deliver and receive ever more relevant entertainment and communications."

The history of the word "serendipity" is a very interesting tale in and of itself.  It was coined by Horace Walpole and he sites a Persian fairy tale of Three Princes of Serendip as his inspiration.  It is a tale of three princes banished from their kindgom and how their adventures with the irrelevant and unexpected were but opportunities to discover things by good fortune and sagacity.

"... history reveals many examples of accidental and sagacious discovery while in pursuit of something else. Christopher Colombus’ discovery of America, Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, and Alfred Bernard Nobel’s discovery of dynamite, are just a few examples."   (source)

I will let Richard, in absentia, close out this post with a quote from his blog.  I'm off to try a new sandwich bar in the meantime.

"Now, few of us will have the pleasure of discovering a life saving solution to bacterial infection but we do enjoy the pleasure of serendipitous discovery all the time. It is when we get to do or experience something that we didn’t know we would enjoy. Maybe its a shop we discover hidden down a backstreet that we take because of roadworks on our usual route, or a fascinating article in a magazine left in a waiting room we thumb through out of sheer boredom, a website we come across while hyperlinking through cyberspace, or a sandwich bar you try because it is recommended by someone you meet in a lift carrying their lunch."

Source articles:

Mike Arauz on the Functional Collective Conciousness

Huntington on Serendipity

Three Princes of Serendip by Richard Boyle

Photo Sources: beggs, HORIZON

Death to your agency

 

 

"The kind of content that will kill your agency is briefless content. It will kill your agency because nobody is telling you what to do and you won’t have a mandate to do it. You will have to work it all out for yourselves. It will kill your agency because it will be bespoke, unique and without comparison. You will have to fight harder for it, harder than you fight for stuff now."

 

Taxi gets it.

Do you?

Quote source:  some content

More reading:  other content

Craft of a funny order

The craziest thing I've ever seen on stage.  I'm still amazed that it's not animated.

[link to embedded video]

Thanks to the Frith'ster.

A world of kindness...

Kindness is something that we compartmentalize and dole out within specific contexts. And our relationship to kindness is also quite variable.  How we show kindness appears entirely dependent on our view of the people involved, but I think this is a myth.

Reality is that kindness is about our relationship with ourselves.  Kindness requires a clarity and strength of character that I was unprepared to experience.  How strong must we be to bear the weight of the world?  What about staying above the water line and not getting dragged down?  Or just allowing others to heal?  And how do we be kind in the presence of pain or abuse? 

I re-learned a bit of my lost knowledge of love on this trip.    I did not learn how to be kind, but rather served kindness to the best of my ability.  It was f'ing hard, brutal and led to the most rewarding moments I have ever experienced.

Many of these moments are too personal to share for all involved.  But one moment stands out.  I was in Djemaa el F'Na (Big Square) in Marrekech.  Two sisters, one likely 12 and the other around 7, were making sad faces at me and offering me small plastic wrapped kleenex bundles for money. 

Both were quite beautiful, if a bit disheveled.  The oldest had a long scar under her chin up to almost her ear.  I kept saying "La Shokara" (No thank you).  They would not desist.  My tactic of juggling for the boys in the Medina would not work here as it would just draw a crowd.  So I continued saying "No" over and over.  "La la la la".  Finally, the older one turned away and wandered off.  The younger, however, tugged at my hand to get my attention and then kicked me in the shins before turning and fleeing.

I remember the shock, anger, frustration and then laughter at her spunk.  Did they have much?  Were they well off from all the tourists?  Doubtful.  After a few moments, I wandered into the large crowd to find them again, fingering the two dhiram in my pocket.  A coin for each, or so I thought.

Many hours later, with no sign of the two girls, I gave up one coin to some dancers and the other to an older blind woman.  Heading out of the square for our house in the Medina, I suddenly spotted the older of the two girls.  She came up and began asking for money.  This time I was not alone and was able to watch her as she interacted with my companions.  And I had to struggle not to laugh out loud as I realized she was mimicking everyone's actions and expressions as she was shunned away. 

I remember frowning as I had no money and looked up from my empty pocket to meet her gaze and find her frowning right back at me, but with my frown.  What an amazing young girl.  I laughed and pulled out the brown paper bag of apricots from the fruit stalls, carefully opening it like the sweet treasure it was.  And that's when she did what changed my world.  She reached down to clean her grimy hand on the side of her dress.  Time actually slowed down for me in that brief gesture of humanity.  I have cried many times as I remember that moment.

How easy it is to forget how real we all are.  Cut from the same cloth doesn't even do it justice.  We are all the same.  So I reached my hand in and her hands quickly formed a cup.

A most enchanting smile spread across her face when I filled her hands with the gleaming and luscious fruit.  Apricots of similar quality I have never found.  We shared a most joyous moment before she turned and dashed off, calling out to her friends, sisters, and what have you.

I've been thinking a lot about kindness since this trip.  I hope you enjoy some of the photos and my story.

I'm currently working on a project where "kindness" was the tactic selected (before my trip) based on the key insights.  And I'm also interested in deploying an ad-based model built around the concept of "kind".  Such interesting times.  But more on these things later.

It's impossible to wrap my trip up, but I will cherish the insights and be forever in debt to each of those who came.  I learned to love the unlovable, to see strength where before there was weakness and what it means to be true friends with another soul.

[Image Source: SeanHoward]

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.

Digital in context of experience

"media are not extensions of ourselves but interfaces with experience"

Michele perras twittered the above statement over to me the other day.  Yup, just me (and her other 300 followers.)  What struck me, beyond the insight of the statement, was that the source of this thought was not a philosophical marketing, advertising or brand debate.  Rather it was a look at "Prosthetic Technologies as Interfaces".

This is something we have been talking about this week at Lift Communications.  Experiences are becoming the cornerstone of engagement and it's impossible to build a strategy of engagement without considering context.

Digital is just that:  a context.  It's an extension of our being.  Cell phones, PDAs, laptops, YouTube, portable entertainment devices, nike plus, etc.  So many of these tools are akin to cyber extensions.  They have become interfaces with experiences we are having or desire to share.

David Armano speaks on AdAge's announcement that digital agencies have failed to prove they can manage brands strategically.  And he concurs with AdAge's assessment, but in typical Armano style he paints a clear picture of a path forward.

And I think we can agree that it's not just digital shops that have to pay attention.  Many traditional agencies are so focused on the "Ad" as the ultimate expression and vehicle for a brand idea that they are missing the point.  Or rather, they are unable to interface with the very experience they wish to create.  ;)