Experience Manifesto

Fortune Innovation Forum: Program

Americans are shopping mostly at super centers and that has required a different

James A. Euchner -- You have to be focused on the customer experience or it doesn't matter what technology you use or what else you do.

A recurring theme of many of the sessions today was the need to get people outside, into the real world, to watch the consumer with the product. I think that's why our walking tours are becoming so popular with our clients, because we're helping people get out and see what's really happening in the world. We also believe that it's critical to look outside your world, because you don't know where innovation will come from.

I once heard Bran Ferran give the example of encyclopedia companies. Back in the day (which most of you younger readers will not remember!), encyclopedias were sold door-to-door by the letter. Each company watched what the others were doing, but didn't look at what was happening outside of their space. When I was in high school, Encyclopedia Britannica owned knowledge. Today, I don't really know that many people who still even use it.

SINK OR SWIM: A CANDID LOOK AT INNOVATION IN TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES: A roundtable discussion

Innovation is a bittersweet symphony: If you are too risk averse, you'll witness your competitors boldly going where you were too afraid to tread; or if you go out on a limb, you risk failure on a grand scale. Too often, when innovation efforts are showing clear signs of failure, companies throw good money after bad, failing to admit defeat and switch gears to minimize the fallout. Here, a progress report on several recent innovations in traditional industries, and an inside look at the key factors in bringing these ideas to market: timing, the incubation process, and barometers for evaluating success. When and how will leaders decide whether to continue on the same path, or divert to another?

Confirmed speakers:
Franz Brandstetter
President, Polymer Research Division
BASF Aktiengesellschaft

James A. Euchner
Vice President, Advanced Technologies
Chief E-Business Officer
Pitney Bowes Inc.

Steven J. Klinger
Executive Vice President and President, Packaging
Georgia-Pacific Corp.

Thomas J. Wilson
President and COO
The Allstate Corporation

Moderator:
Navi Radjou
Vice President
Forrester Research

Link: Fortune Innovation Forum: Program.

RIM Suffers Another BlackBerry Legal Defeat

Potential bad news for all of you out there hooked onto your Crackberry!

The $450 million patent dispute settlement between the Canadian-based maker of the popular BlackBerry wireless e-mail device and NTP, Inc., a Virginia patent firm, is invalid, according to a court ruling issued Wednesday morning. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said the term sheet entered between Research in Motion and NTP in March to settle the litigation is not an enforceable agreement. Other details of the ruling were filed under seal by the court.

The ruling is another legal setback for RIM following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Octobee denying an emergency appeal of the patent infringement ruling against the company. RIM contends it wasn't aware of NTP's intellectual property when it launched the BlackBerry in January 2000. It also argues that it hasn't received sufficient proof of the relation of the patents to RIM's products.

Wednesday's decision opens the door for NTP to press for perhaps as much as $1 billion in infringement damages and seek an injunction barring RIM from marketing it services in the United States. According to a statement issued by NTP, the ruling allows the company to continue moving forward in the case, including re-confirmation of an injunction that "prohibits RIM from selling, using or importing into the United States infringing BlackBerry hardware and software until the last of the litigated patents expires in 2012."

Link: RIM Suffers Another BlackBerry Legal Defeat.

Fortune Innovation Forum: Program

Very interesting to hear Michael Milken speaking and talking about the need to support our children as an incredible asset for the US. He did put up an interesting slide that showed in 1925, 23 companies in the top 100 were railroads -- today, there are none! In the start of the 20th century, 1 in 5 Americans did not live to celebrate their 5th birthday. It's amazing how far we've come in terms of our health issues.

This was a great slide -- In theory, trains can travel at 300 miles per hour. In reality, it moves no faster then it did 100 years ago? Why, the tracks and the thinking.

I'm going to get the presentations downloaded so I can put them up here on the blog with more information.

THE PROSPECT OF FASTER CURESKeynote presentation and interview FORTUNE called Mike Milken "The Man Who Changed Medicine" in recognition of his successful three-decade effort to drive innovation in medical research. Mr. Milken will discuss what still needs to change if we are to produce medical breakthroughs in less time. "For the first time in history," he says, "we can eliminate much of the burden of serious diseases within our own lifetimes %u2014 if we have the will." His talk will be followed by a special interview with FORTUNE's Cliff Leaf.

Link: Fortune Innovation Forum: Program.

MediaPost Publications - Wal-Mart Claims Network Isn't Just Big, But Better Than In-Home TV - 11/30/2005

So, you know how I feel about the way most in-store digital networks on implemented, but I did want to show some information from the other side! Of course, it seems to say that they didn't buy because of the advertising, just that 15% bought something that was advertised. And 85% of people saying that planned on buying in the future is kind of vague, don't you think? Well, you decide!

SINCE ITS INCEPTION, WAL-MART TV--THE fledgling place-based TV network operated by the retail giant and partner Premier Retail Networks--has been positioning itself as an alternative to conventional in-home TV buys. Now it's claiming superiority. Armed with new consumer research, Wal-Mart now claims that its in-store TV network is more effective than broadcast and cable TV on the basis of an important marketing goal--the ability to generate sales.

The research, conducted by the TNS Media and Entertainment Group, surveyed 5,630 people in 20 Wal-Mart locations installed with Wal-Mart TV, and found that commercials on the in-store network generated higher motivation levels than in-home television advertisements for comparable brands.

While the study is based on consumer perceptions, and not actual behavior, it represents a new tack for Wal-Mart TV, which previously focused on measuring the size and demographic composition of its audience--as well as brand recall levels--via custom research from Nielsen Media Research.

Big advertisers such as Unilever, however, wanted to "dig down a little deeper," says Mark Mitchell, executive vice president-ad sales at PRN, which handles ad sales for Wal-Mart TV, founded in 1999. So Wal-Mart and PRN commissioned TNS to conduct a study measuring the current and future purchasing intent of consumers exposed to Wal-Mart TV ads.

The study found that 15 percent said they purchased advertised products "today," while 85 percent said they planned to purchase advertised products "in the future."

"We are a supplement to media plans," concedes Mitchell, who nonetheless sees a rise in the number of major companies utilizing Wal-Mart TV. He claims that advertising renewals among Wal-Mart TV's blue chip advertisers are more than 80 percent. One possible reason for the higher purchase intent scores, says Mitchell, is that marketers have begun to learn how to utilize the new medium more effectively, adapting customized commercials developed specifically for the "in-store space."

Unilever, for example, runs ads for its Dove brand on the network, and has begun running spots featuring an older Wal-Mart employee who thinks it's beautiful to sport gray hair and wrinkles.

Mitchell says other Wal-Mart TV spots have been modified to target consumers at their "highest motivational level--when they are shopping," zoning ads based on store locations, and even based on the location of individual TV screens within each store.

Link: MediaPost Publications - Wal-Mart Claims Network Isn't Just Big, But Better Than In-Home TV
- 11/30/2005.

Fortune Innovation Forum: Program

Scott Cook started this session with an excellent overview on innovation and process. He had this quote:

"The bottleneck is always at the top of the bottle." Peter Drucker

Excellent example of changing your mindset talking about shipping. Shipping speed was always a matter of the actual speed of the ships. A.P. Moller - Maersk Group saw the mess on the docks and created shipping containers. That increased the speed of shipping.

Some pointers from Scott:

Mindset most need of change is likely yours

Celebrate failure. Learn from the failures to retool your throughts. They learned last year that for younger people, tax day is not about the filing, it's about the refund.

Protect & guide...with discipline. excellent story about an employee who had a child with enourmous health issues and almost $1 million in medical bills. He was drowning in medical paperwork and that helped ceate the Quicken Medical Expense Manager.

PROFILES IN INNOVATION:PRODUCTS AND PARTNERSHIPS
Two leaders whose companies are celebrated for their ability to continuously change, reinvent themselves, and innovate their way to profitability, growth, and value share their innovation stories. Each speaker will offer a short presentation, followed by a discussion.

Confirmed speakers:
PRODUCTS:
Scott D. Cook
Founder and Chairman of the Executive Committee
Intuit

PARTNERSHIPS:
Kenneth T. Lombard
Senior Vice President and President
Starbucks Entertainment

Link: Fortune Innovation Forum: Program.

Fortune Innovation Forum: Program

ANATOMY OF A GROUNDBREAKER: THE HBO STORY

HBO is most profitable entertainment network out there, but it is an idea. Although they are doing $3 billion/year in subscriptions! It's about how HBO would do something. During meeting in 1995, they decided to become the company that they were pretending to be. They had appeared to be a small, outsider but they were really working like so many other studios in the industry. Their early shows that they made themselves, featured unusual people -- like Tony Soprano -- that went through normal live issues.

Great thought -- they didn't try to figure out what people wanted to be popular, but they held onto their point of view about what they wanted to be. This is one of the problems that Chris thought more traditional broadcast networks have -- they're constantly just trying to figure out what's going to be popular and I would add that they then lose their point of differentiation!

What really makes the internet so compelling is not that we can repurpose content onto these new technologies, but create new content that works on these new technologies. Again, this to me is a key thought. Too many companies spend their time trying to figure out how to simply re-do what they do on these new formats. They don’t spend time seeing how they can create new content. Just look at the music industry and what they’ve had to go through when they didn’t figure out the new mediums available to them.

Some Q&A:

Does innovation always involve risk? I think it’s an over used word. It’s more about being bold.

What’s the biggest differences in your approach to the job now that you’re CEO? Instead of simply thinking of myself as they creative person, I need to balance that with the needs of running a business. He’s worked to channel his creativity from a content POV into creative approaches to how they will run HBO. It’s not about imposing vision, but helping it move forward organically.

Do you allocate budget specifically towards break through ideas? No, they put money towards programming that the believed in. They look for programs that felt like they belonged at HBO, that were of the right quality and could be made distinctive.

ANATOMY OF A GROUNDBREAKER: THE HBO STORY

Controversial topics. High-profile talent. Thought-provoking, emotionally charged dramas. No, it's not TV. HBO has forever changed the rules of the small screen. Between smash hit shows and comedies like "The Sopranos," "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Da Ali G Show," "Deadwood," and "Carnivale" to captivating original films such as "Empire Falls," "Warm Springs," and "Maria Full of Grace," and from first-rate documentaries to sports specials, HBO is an innovator like none other. With so much success, how does HBO avoid complacency and continue to take risks, stay different, and keep innovating? How does the network foster a culture that embraces change and continues to try harder? Time Inc.'s John Huey sits down with HBO's Chris Albrecht to find out.

Confirmed speaker:
Chris Albrecht
Chairman and CEO
Home Box Office

Confirmed interviewer:
John Huey
Editorial Director
Time Inc.

Link: Fortune Innovation Forum: Program.

An Adman's Guide To Survival

The flip side to my recent posting about the AAF survey on advertising. Guess Bob didn't participate in the AAF survey!

Greenberg is the sort of media futurist who has stopped talking about the "third screen" (on your cell phone) because he's onto the fourth (massive outdoor digital signage -- think Times Square or Tokyo). The 57-year-old CEO and chief creative director of Interpublic Group's New York-based interactive ad agency R/GA has made much noise of late outlining what ad agencies must do to survive this media moment. As he sees it, as bad as the current great unraveling is for TV and newspapers, it's worse for ad agencies. "They aren't in the business of ads anymore," he says.

Their new business of selling is a far cry from the days of mass media models. Ad agencies now have to be conversant with information architecture, he says. They also have to be able to design e-commerce, play in the world of personalized media, and create retail environments.

The jargon boils down to an agency that creates marketing -- or a marketing experience -- that blends the strictly functional with gamelike gewgaws to draw consumers on entertainment value alone. R/GA itself is behind both the Nike iD Web site -- on which sneaker freaks can endlessly design their own kicks -- and Circuit City's unflashy but smartly efficient e-commerce site.

Link: An Adman's Guide To Survival.

AAF | News: Press Release

OK, so here's everything wrong with the advertising industry today. MediaPost had a story today about this recent study by the American Advertising Federation. “Prepared by Atlantic Media Company, the third annual AAF Survey of Industry Leaders on Advertising Trends compiled the responses of 75 industry leaders who represent all sectors of the industry, with over 90 percent having at least 11 years of experience in advertising and more than 50 percent having over 25 years.” (Emphasis mine)

So these folks have a great deal of experience in the advertising business and they think that the best non-traditional ad tactic was having someone buy all of the ad pages in a magazine?? Are they freakin' kidding me???? How the hell does that even vaguely qualify as non-traditional advertising?

A study conducted for the American Advertising Federation (AAF) reveals surprising attitudes among leading advertising industry executives regarding current media challenges. While industry leaders are very concerned about new media, most are tentative about its effectiveness. Blogs, podcasts and Web-enabled cell phones are seen as relatively weak advertising vehicles. Of all nontraditional ad tactics, the single-sponsor buyout of media, e.g. Target and The New Yorker, was rated the most effective. However, the share of spending for online advertising (once nontraditional) is expected to continue growing, and there is a more rapid shift predicted toward such advertising than previously expected.

Traditional advertising challenges remain major industry concerns, such as demonstrating ROI, creating ideas that break through the clutter and integrating creative across media channels. However, new technologies that threaten traditional ads and the impact of new media on consumer attitudes and behavior are among the top five most important business challenges. Fifty-eight percent of ad execs have already changed or expect to change their ad buys in response to DVRs, and many maintain that such technology will have a significant impact on the 30-second spot.

Now, just to show how clearly this is a pretty useless survey, here are two other factoids from the article:

The top campaigns of the year were (in order) Apple iPod, Burger King, Target, Mini Cooper and a three-way tie for Hewlett-Packard, UPS and Verizon.

Traditional advertising challenges remain major industry concerns, such as demonstrating ROI, creating ideas that break through the clutter and integrating creative across media channels.

Mini didn’t do any traditional advertising until just recently; Burger King ran Subservient Chicken. They were both pretty non-traditional in their approach. Of course, they don’t really define what a top campaign is, so I’m not sure how they judged these! But how do you create “ideas that break through the clutter” and integrate across all media channels if you’re not using all of the channels available to you?

Unfortunately, if you look at some of the executions that big agencies have done with things like blogs and podcasts, they can be pretty lame. Some one told me about a promotion that Porsche did where they sent people an MP3 player with a narrative about how cool the car is. For all of the creative thought in that, why not just send a brochure? At least what we were told by the person who received it was that it talked about the engineering, blah, blah, blah. Let me hear the engine purring. Let me here what it sounds like cruising down the highway. Let me program my favorite driving songs so that every time I hear one of them, I think Porsche. Use the medium to its full, creative potential — don’t just reformat what you do.

Listen, I'm going to be 46 and I think that I try to stay pretty tuned into what's happening. But, you know what, I'm old! I'm sometimes behind in my thinking. I mean, I laughed when I first heard about ringtones. But these are senior people. These are the people who should be visionaries leading the charge. It’s no wonder that the larger agencies are losing accounts to smaller shops and that big clients are losing ground too.

But, I shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds me. After all, if it weren’t for industry survey’s like this, there wouldn’t be a need for people like us, would there?

Link: AAF | News: Press Release.

Fortune Innovation Forum

Remember to check back starting tomorrow for live blogging from the Fortune Innovation Forum. We're very excited to be participating in this program and looking forward to hearing such a variety of speakers talk about the topic of innovation. You can find the program at Fortune Innovation Forum: Program, so let me know if there are any questions you'd like to ask any of the speakers and I'll see if I can get answered! Lots more to come!

Link: Business Innovation 2005.

sisomo | article | sisomo in sisomotion

I've written about Sisomo before (here and here) and I wasn't really complimentary. So, I was a little surprised to see my postings come up on the sisomo web page. It's a good conversation on the site with a balanced view from those who support and don't support sisomo as something new. And I think that where I stand. It's not that it's wrong -- how can it be? -- I just don't think it's all that new. But, I'm sure that we'll be hearing a lot more about it in the future!

Link: sisomo | article | sisomo in sisomotion.