Experience Manifesto

Lonelygirl15 from youtube

My previous post on lonelygirl15 seems to have given me some good rankings on searches for lonelygirl. And there sure are a lot of folks talking about her. She’s been covered in BusinessWeek (BW's Jon Fine and Lonelygirl15 Sleuthing and Lonelygirl15: A Likely Scenario), the New York Times Blog, New York Magazine, adfreak and numerous other media outlets, fan clubs , etc. Just do a google search on her and you’ll see what I mean.

But, I still don’t get why she’s getting all of this attention. Showed some of her clips to my wife and she was just as dumbfounded about her popularity as I am. But don't take my word for it. Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Funny Commercial

My wife is not really into this whole new world of technology and doesn't really understand what's so exciting about it. So nothing gives me greater pleasure then her finding something and then being excited to share it with me! She laughed her butt off over this commercial!

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

We met Jeff during the SIGGRAPH conference and his stuff is crazy-cool, as my sister-in-law would say!

Heliodisplay

We've worked with the Heliodisplay and people sure liked it a lot! Hopefully we'll get one back in the Lab again this fall.

Strategic Horizons LLP | thinkAbout

Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore bring their thinkAbout to Baltimore on September 13th & 14th. It's a great opportunity to meet the folks who wrote the book on experiences that started much of the conversation we're seeing today! Seating is very limited, so register right away of you're interested!

We invite you to take stage with us, Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore, authors of The Experience Economy, as we host this year’s thinkAbout on September 13 + 14, 2006 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Our annual thinkAbout event is now in its ninth year and recognized as the premier gathering for professionals seeking to design and stage truly unique and utterly unforgettable experiences. Join us in Baltimore – with Camden Yards and the Inner Harbor as dual settings for the event – and embark on two whirlwind days of discovery and insight, including:

• Our latest thinking. Dispatches from the Experience Economy, plus a probing look at the rise of Authenticity as the new consumer sensibility;

• Our signature Learning Excursion. Encounters in and around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor designed to challenge your thinking about value creation;

• A talented ensemble of thought leaders and experience practitioners. Six thought-provoking experts embedded within our Learning Excursion, provoking you to look at the world of experiences in new and different ways;

• A focus on practical new ideas. Dedicated time with fellow participants to help you extract important principles and uncover untapped business opportunities;

• The best of the best review. Our annual countdown of Top Ten experiences to take in during the coming year, plus celebrations with our Experience Stager of the Year (EXPY) and Experience Management Achievement (EMA) award winners – all aimed at inspiring you to stage truly compelling experiences.

Link: Strategic Horizons LLP | thinkAbout.

MediaPost Publications - Penney For Your Thoughts: Retailer Tries Live TV Spots To Engage Consumers - 08/30/2006

Interesting idea, be fun to see how this works for them.

IF LIVE CONTENT TENDS TO reduce DVR-aided skipping, perhaps JC Penney is onto something. It plans to air live-content ads during Thursday's Video Music Awards on MTV.

The two live spots are part of the retailer's category-exclusive sponsorship of the VMAs and a last-gasp push in its back-to-school campaign. The creative concept takes live footage from the VMAs and places it on screens embedded within the spots, which include shots inside teens' and kids' bedrooms. Ultimately, it links back to the live show inside New York's Radio City Music Hall.

Link: MediaPost Publications - Penney For Your Thoughts: Retailer Tries Live TV Spots To Engage Consumers - 08/30/2006.

PICNIC '06 :: Cross Media Week :: PICNIC '06 - Home Page

Wish this wasn't happening during Advertising Week!

Pack your picnic basket and head to PICNIC '06, Amsterdam's annual event for all those interested and involved in cross media content and technology in Europe, North America and Asia.

Link: PICNIC '06 :: Cross Media Week :: PICNIC '06 - Home Page.

Pop!Tech - What is Poptech

Pop!Tech is a great program coming up in mid-October. And while it may seem strange to talk about the locaiton as a key selling point, in this case, it truly is. There is a real sense of community about Pop!Tech. In most conferences, the speakers run off as soon as they're done and it becomes very hard to really get into any meaningful conversations. At Pop!Tech, that's not the case. Being in a small (although beautiful!) location, means that people gather more, rather then run off into the night. And even when you totally disagree with a speaker, they create great conversations. Well worth the trip if you can make it!

Every October, in the beautiful seaside village of Camden, Maine, at the height of the fall foliage season, there is a one-of-a-kind conference called Pop!Tech.

Held in a beautifully restored, 19th-century opera house, this three-day summit explores the cutting-edge ideas, emerging technologies and new forces of change that are shaping our collective future. The conference brings together 500 visionary thinkers in the sciences, technology, business, design, the arts, education, government and culture.

But the conference isn’t a talking heads festival; nestled between mind-expanding presentations on a huge variety of subjects are musical performances, short films, demonstrations, and other one-of-a-kind surprises. Over the course of three days, every part of your mind is engaged.

The breathtaking content, beautiful setting, intimate scale, and informal tone make Pop!Tech an experience like no other. At the end, you’ll leave with dozens of new ideas, a better sense of where the world is headed, a new network of relationships and a lasting inspiration to create a better world.

Link: Pop!Tech - What is Poptech.

Amazon.com: Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win: Books: William C. Taylor,Polly G. LaBarre

I received an advance copy of Mavericks at Work, which will be available in October, and I've been enjoying read. But I came across a quote today that I just had to post:

"One of our core philosophies is that we spend money that other people would spend on marketing to create a store experience that exceeds people's expectations. We don't spend money on messages -- we invest in execution." Glen Senk, Anthropologie

Now that's putting your money where your mouth is! It's not about telling people what you do. It's about doing what you do.

So, if we were in the Wal-Mart pitch, we'd be saying "Don't spend $500 million on advertising. Put $500 million into creating the most authentic, relevant and compelling retail experience you can create. Then let that new experience speak for you! We think that will deliver a message that will really impact your bottom line."

Are you ready to put your money where your mouth is? Sure, it's easy to spend money on messaging, but you create a much better value when you spend money to execute well. Take look at a piece that Dan Pink wrote for Yahoo Finance:

Today, utility is abundant. We have more products and services than we can handle, and most function just fine. To stand out in a crowded marketplace, sellers must make a dramatic leap in utility -- or stand out in some other way. They can try to compete on price, but that usually ends in a downward death spiral.

So the alternative is to compete not on left-brain attributes like price and functionality, but on right-brain qualities such as emotion, meaning, and look and feel. Case in point: Target sells toilet brushes and vegetable scrubbers designed by superstar architect Michael Graves. Even the most mundane, utilitarian objects in our lives have been turned into objects of desire.

I've identified an initial group of five publicly-held companies that differentiate based on design: Apple (AAPL), Target (TGT), Starbucks (SBUX), Motorola (MOT), and Procter & Gamble (PG). (Surprised by that last one? Don't be. P&G CEO A.G. Lafley has said many times his company "is in the design business" and that design is how the company avoids descending into commodity hell.) Turns out that these five design-centered companies have easily outperformed the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ over the last five years. (Emphasis mine)

So let's build this index together. It's your DADI, too! Send your nominations to me at [email protected]. I'll put the list together and report back to you in a later column.

So, putting your money where your mouth is might actually make you money! Are you listening Wal-Mart?

Link: Amazon.com: Mavericks at Work: Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win: Books: William C. Taylor,Polly G. LaBarre.

Link: Good Investing by Design: The Trend Desk - Yahoo! Finance.

Fine On Media - BusinessWeek Online

You know, when I first started writing Are Social Sites this Centuries Penny Press?, I originally started to actually review the videos that I had seen and at the time, I just didn't have the time to do. But one of the series that I watched was the lonelygirl videos. They were ranked among the most popular and I guess still are. And, it seems, that they may not be as natural as they are pitched.

Now, whether or not they are real, or a group of actors telling a story, I don't know. Although I'm sure we'll find out in the future. But, I have to tell you, they were boring as hell! I mean seriously boring. I didn't find them compelling or interesting. They didn't grab me in any way. When I said I mean, my life can be pretty boring on its own and I wouldn't want to put any more time into watching snippets of other people's boring lives. in my original post, I was talking about the lonelygirl videos.

I gott'a be honest, I just don't understand why this is one of the highest watched videos on youtube. Real, faked, a promotional hype, it just doesn't matter to me. It's not that interesting. Does anyone else think they're dull & pointless too or have I just become a really bad judge of good stuff???? And what makes the blogshpere so interested in this story? I, for one, am mystified!

So late last week I made a bunch of phone calls and sent a bunch of emails and youtube messages regarding the ongoing soap opera of lonelygirl15--the allegedly home-schooled 16 year-old named Bree whose channel on youtube is, as of this writing, the most-viewed on the entire site today.

Judging from the comments of more than one person (and, though I'm sorry to add to the layers of murk here, each refused to talk to me if I quoted them), a likely scenario goes something like this:

Lonelygirl15 is not "real," but, contrary to some early speculation, the videos are not part of a viral marketing campaign dreamed up by some major advertiser, nor some music marketing company, nor a promotional stunt set up by one of the Viacoms or NBCs of the world.

Rather, it's the product of a coterie of smart and not-yet-massively-famous performers (and, perhaps, others). These people, or their representatives, have had discussions with at least one major company regarding a deal to produce what I take to be short-form serial stuff on the Web.

Link: Fine On Media - BusinessWeek Online.