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Do you find that limits and structure make you more creative, or are you most creative when you have all the time and opportunity in the world?

 

 Episode #17 - Creativity and Limits: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Things have been a bit nuts for me since the very successful Canadian Marketing Association Conference “From Mass to Grass” but I did want take a moment to share three of my favorite quotes of the day:

“Treat every (customer) who calls like they are Oprah.” - Julie Cole from Mabel’s Labels

“It takes three people commenting to change (the direction of) the conversation on a blog post.” - David Usher

“Consumers are talking more about marketing than they are about brands.” - Andrea Wojnicki, Rotman School of Management

I think there’s a tonne to consider in those three statements, let alone the rest of the amazing discussion that happened on Thursday. Thanks to all the presenters, the CMA staffers, and my fellow WOM committee members for helping to make it a fantastic and thought-provoking day!

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Will old media be killed off by new media? History would seem to indicate otherwise, but what do you think?
Mentioned in this episode:

• Steve Ballmer in the Washington Post, Thursday June 5, 2008
• For Immediate Release #351

 

 Episode #16 - Old Media, New Media: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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From Billboard.com today:

AC/DC’s next studio album will be exclusively sold at Wal-Mart stores in the United States, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The as-yet-untitled Columbia album, which, as previously reported, was produced by Brendan O’Brien, is expected in the fall.

First The Eagles, now this? It was weird enough when the band who did “The Last Resort” offered their latest release through Wal-Mart, but now AC/DC! It may be good business, but does this seem utterly incongruous to anyone else?

Do you think these classic rock groups doing more damage to their brand and their legacy with these kinds of deals, or do you think it’s just a way to sell more records so good on ‘em?

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…There will be no media consumption left in 10 years that is not delivered over an IP network. There will be no newspapers, no magazines that are delivered in paper form. Everything gets delivered in an electronic form.

Steve Ballmer in the Washington Post, Thursday June 5, 2008

It never ceases to amaze me how many otherwise smart people simply don’t understand the history of media. New media NEVER kill off old media, they just change the role of the media that came before.

People still go see and hear live music despite the existence of records and CDs. People still go to the theatre despite the existence of movies. People still go to movies despite the existence of TV and DVD players. People will still read newspapers and magazines despite the existence of computers and the Internet… for a very, VERY long time to come.

Thinking about how digital will change the role of traditional offline media is a worthy and interesting pursuit. Proclaiming them dead is just intellectual laziness.

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Listening today to last week’s Media Bulleye roundtable podcast (in particular their discussion of “social media burnout”) got me to thinking about the status of various technologies relative to our dear old friend the “fishbowl” a.k.a. the echo chamber a.k.a. are we all just a bunch of nerds talking to ourselves?

This list is by no means exhaustive, (not even close!) nor are the statuses I assign going to necessarily be correct next week (or by the time I hit the publish button for that matter) but here’s my current take on some of the most familiar names in Web 2.0-osity as relates to how they are seen by those inside and outside the mythic Bowl…

Facebook
Fishbowl Status: OUT

Facebook is arguably the poster child for a social media technology that has broken through to the mainstream. That’s been good and bad for it. Most of my friends from high school seem to be on Facebook, but many of them wouldn’t know a blog if it hit them in the head. In the meantime bloggers like Neville Hobson have turned up their noses at Facebook — personally I’m still not sure if I consider this elitist or an excellent mental health preservation tactic, but I do find it funny how success with the masses often breeds contempt with the pioneers and early adopters.

Twitter
Fishbowl Status: ON IT’S WAY OUT (?)

It seems like Twitter has been getting a lot of press and attention lately. The Toronto Star published yet another Twitter article this past weekend, which is usually a sign in this country at least that something has broken through to the general consciousness. Personally I’m still not sure if Twitter really has a place in the lives of most people — for the connectors and mavens of the world it plays a clear role, but will the vast majority of people find real value in a stream of Tweets? (And that’s assuming the service is up when they check, a dubious prospect these days at best!)

Myspace
Fishbowl Status: WAY, WAY OUT

Myspace is all but forgotten among the social media elite, but it’s important to remember that it still has larger overall traffic than Facebook or Twitter. As Christopher Penn pointed out in a blog post last year “Myspace is over its Dip.” It may not be relivant to those interested in the cutting edge, but for marketers, musicians and others, there’s still juice to be had in Myspace-land.

Second Life
Fishbowl Status: WAS OUT, NOW BACK IN

A little while back I blogged about how Second Life was and is a concept just a little bit ahead of its time. Since then, there seems to be some renewed interest in last year’s media darling. Part of the reason seems to be the installation of Mark Kingdon as the new CEO for Second Life parent company Linden Lab. That Kingdon comes from an agency background is particularly interesting — it’s useful to remember that Linden never really marketed Second Life, nor did they directly engage with most of the companies who created presences there. Putting Kingdon at the top seems to indicate that they are actually ready to partner and promote what remains a virtual world with amazing potential.

Blogs
Fishbowl Status: READING, OUT. WRITING, IN.

I think there’s a common perception inside the social media fishbowl that everyone has their own blog. It’s not true. It’s really, REALLY not true. For example, I work at a digital marketing agency. Everyone who works there, by definition, has a higher-than-average expertise and understanding of online technology. They are, again by definition, all involved at some level in marketing, design and programming, which are three of the most common blogging topic areas. They are also all pretty darn smart. I would estimate 5-10% have a blog. 15%, absolute tops. Pretty low, all things considered. That said, many of them read blogs of one kind or another. But it’s that old 1% rule at play… a small minority create, the rest consume.

Podcasts
Fishbowl Status: STILL IN. (SIGH…)

I hate to say it, but podcasting may be doomed to be the ham radio of the new millennium. The only podcasts that seem to have much notice by the public at large are those created by traditional media outlets or celebrities. The fact that the CBC or Ricky Gervais can have popular podcasts is great I suppose, but it’s not exactly been the breakthrough medium many of us had hoped.

YouTube
Fishbowl Status: LIKE, TOTALLY OUT

While podcasting seems to have faltered, media producers trying to reach a mass audience do have YouTube as a place to publish. You’ll be up against everything from John Stewart to cats on tricycles, but at least you won’t have to explain to anyone how it works.

FriendFeed
Fishbowl Status: SEEMS TO EXIST TO BE IN

FriendFeed’s primary use is to take all the feeds from all the other networks you use and put them into FriendFeed. Until all its content sources are out of the fishbowl, can FriendFeed itself every truly be out?

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“Back-channel” conversation in online chat rooms and Twitter is becoming increasingly commonplace at many conferences. Does this detract from the conference experience, or does it enhance it?

Mentioned in this episode:

• Podcasters Across Borders
• From Mass to Grass: CMA Word of Mouth Marketing
• Mass to Grass singing hamster video
• Stevie Z
• Dave Delaney

 

 Episode #15 - Conference Back-Channel Chatter: Is it Good or Bad?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Years ago when I was in university, it was my good fortune to do an internship with the company Tambre Productions. Tambre president and creative director Marvin Dolgay was and is one of Canada’s top commercial music composers. Marvin said something to me once that I’ve always remembered: he said he would tell his clients “don’t talk to me about music. Talk to me about what you want the music to DO.”

I’ve been thinking about this in context of a song called “Make the Logo Bigger” which I’ve been listening to quite a bit recently. It’s a common joke among designers, particularly at agencies, that clients always ask for the logo to be bigger on their creative. While this sounds like a reasonable request, many folks who do not come from a design background don’t seem to understand the need for balance and whitespace in design, and moreover they forget that making one element bigger invariability means making something smaller. Often, that “something” is the special offer or call-to-action that the creative is being designed to communicate in the first place. So, that seemingly simple request can cause more harm than good.

If you are working with an agency, what you need to help your agency partners understand is WHAT you want to accomplish, not HOW they should do it. The trained designers, copywriters, programmers, etc. will do what they do best to make sure the execution achieves your goals. That’s what you pay them for.

Popularity: 55% [?]

I’ve been using TubeMogul for a few weeks. Most recently, I’ve used it to upload and track views for “Mass To Grass,” the video I created to help promote the Canadian Marketing Association’s Word-of-Mouth Marketing conference on June 12.

One of the nifty features TubeMogul offers is the ability to embed their tracking reports in other sites — like this one:

TubeMogul also has a great uploader tool that allows you send you video to multiple sites at once. And perhaps most interesting of all, you can track ANY video on YouTube or other videos sites, regardless of who put it online. If you got clients or competitors with videos out there you want to track, you can start doing it today. Imagine — video statistics stalking!

Popularity: 56% [?]

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Bloggers like C.C. Chapman and Michael Arrington complain in Twitter about the service they get from Comcast, a big cable company. Comcast responds and fixes their problem.

This is great, right? Comcast is listening and responding to the new media conversation. But is there a flip side to this? Is there a danger of those consumers who are not in the conversation becoming more disenfranchised.

Will the best customer service be reserved for those on the soapboxes?
Mentioned in this episode:

• Comcast Wins With Twitter on C.C. Chapman’s Managing The Gray
• Comcast, Twitter and the Chicken on Techcrunch
• Comcast on Twitter
• Technorati
• Google Alerts

 

 Episode #14 - The (Noisy) Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth?: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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