Experience Manifesto

Getting Ready to Head to Warsaw

Leaving tonight for Warsaw and I'll be there tomorrow afternoon. First time going to Poland and I'm really looking forward to it. If anyone has anyone places in Warsaw that I have to see, please let me know! I'll be there until Friday afternoon if anyone there wants to meet for a drink or something.

We had so much fun doing the retail walking tour with the folks from Ad Age (see Niche Retailers Work Their Brands In-Store - Advertising Age - Video), that we're going to try to do some more from Warsaw as well. So look for some video postings later in the week of the coolest retail Warsaw has to offer!

do zobaczenia w następnym tygodniu (See you next week!)

[ paul isakson ]: JetBlue's Happy B.S.

I covered this topic in Advertising vs. Experience, but Paul Isakson has a good posting about the recent issues with Jet Blue charging people for blankets & pillows. I actually thought that Jet Blue might be able to make this work because they generally provide a pretty good experience. Although, I've had a pretty bad experience on Jet Blue myself and I have to admit that a bad experience on Jet Blue is even worse then bad experiences on other airlines. But, I really like his suggestion as to what they could've done instead of charging folks.

Hmmmm. Looks like we should play a game of "One of these things is not like the other."

They can try to spin it from every angle possible as to why it's a good idea - it's "the green thing to do," people get to keep them once they buy them, there's a $5 coupon in the package for Bed, Bath & Beyond... Whatever. It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, this isn't in line with "putting the humanity back into air travel."

The thing is, a good solution was right around the corner. Instead of charging people for blankets and pillows, sell the opportunity to have branded blankets and pillows to Bed, Bath & Beyond. Or Target. Or whoever. Take whatever money the pillows and blankets were costing and charge another company that amount or more to provide them for your customers. It's a win-win-win situation.

JetBlue lives up to their brand promise and covers or more than covers the costs of the blankets and pillows; another brand gets a chance to make a positive impression on unsuspecting customers by making sure JetBlue customers get to keep using a pillow and blanket for free; the customer doesn't feel like they're being squeezed for every last cent for something they already don't like doing and are trying to avoid more and more (dealing with air travel).

One of the major reasons people have grown to distrust advertising is because of companies promising something to try to win them over but then not delivering on it in the end. JetBlue just gave us a fine example of this.

It has always been true, but in today's hyper-connected world it's more important than ever - don't make promises you can't keep.

Link: [ paul isakson ]: JetBlue's Happy B.S..

What is Social Media?

Been thinking a lot lately about the whole social media (SM) movement and how it impacts the advertising biz. Also been trying to figure out the challenges SM faces in becoming part of the advertising mix. A lot of time when you hear about examples of companies doing it well, say Zappos.com, and yes, they're cool on Twitter and all, but is it because they're using social media that they're good or are they using whatever tools they can to connect to their audience because they're good.

This inner dialogue was moved along by a recent posting, Is it time for Social Media yet? - Search Engine Guide Blog, which talked about how SM was gaining traction. Here's what they had to say:

The corporate adoption of social networking sites increased from 27% to 49%, Online Video adoption rose from 24% to 45%, blogging more than doubled from 19% to 39%, wiki adoption rates increased from 17% to 27%, and podcasting almost doubled from 11% to 21%. The only technology asked about that didn't wildly increase was adoption rates for message / bulletin boards / forums, which increased from 33% to 35%, but I'd say that's because it lies more towards the mature end of the social media toolset.

And it frustrated me because they talked about things that seem not to be part of social media, like online video. I mean, how is that really different from broadcasting? Same things goes for podcasting, although I guess people do expect more feedback from a podcast. But is it really a social media? And I would have to argue that a lot of brands are using sites like Facebook and myspace to run ads, that they're not really doing anything social there.

I think one of the biggest challenges is that no one can really define it. At least, no one has defined it when I've asked. And any definition I've seen is so vague, that it pretty much covers everything you can do. Take a look at Social media - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Social media is the use of electronic and Internet tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings.

Doesn't that kinda' sound like all media? I mean, everything we do in this business is about sharing and discussing information and experiences with other human beings. How does that help as a definition? Is it just that it's focused on electronic and internet? Would that make letters to the editor, which seem to be social media, not social media simply because they're not delivered through an electronic media? That doesn't seem right.

During a twitversation yesterday with Mack Collier (who I like, BTW!), he had two thoughts about what made something social media:

The ability to interact or give feedback

That monetization is not the primary objective

Well, again, the first one can really cover everything you do. By that definition, broadcast TV is social media. After all, look at how many people gave feedback during the famed Nipplegate fiasco? That fit both pieces of Mack's definition, since she certainly didn't expose her breast for money -- well, maybe she did!

But I can go back to my youth with some examples:

How about Soupy Sales and the famed New Year's Eve incident:

On New Year's Day 1965, miffed at having to work on the holiday, Sales ended his live broadcast by encouraging his young viewers to tiptoe into their still-sleeping parents' bedrooms and remove those "funny green pieces of paper with pictures of U.S. Presidents" from their pants and pocketbooks. "Put them in an envelope and mail them to me," Soupy instructed the children. "And you know what I'm going to send you?

A nice post card from Puerto Rico!" He was then hit with a pie.[4]

Several days later, a chagrined Soupy announced that money was unexpectedly being received in the mail. He explained that he had been joking and announced that unreturnable contributions would be donated to charity. As parents' complaints increased, WNEW's management felt compelled to suspend Sales for two weeks.

Certainly people both interacted (kids sent money) and gave feedback (parents complained a lot!), and monetization wasn't his first goal (he was actually pissed about working on New Year's Day), so this would fit the definition.

Or how about Winky Dink and You? During his show, viewers were encouraged to draw on the TV screen a missing item (say a bridge crossing a river), so the hero could get safely from one place to another. Winky Dink also left the airwaves because apparently lots of kids drew on the TV screen but not enough of them had purchased the special Winky Dink screen that went over your TV screen and they were drawing directly of their TV sets. According to Wikipedia, even Bill Gates called this the first interactive TV show. Learn more at Winky-Dink and You.

Lastly, what about Quisp vs. Quake back in the 70's? Probably not the first time it happened, but Quaker actually asked folks who should remain and the loser would stop being made. When Quake lost, it was actually pulled from the shelves for a while, although it did come back sort f redesigned. BTW, a grocery store in Wayne, NJ now sells Quisp for any of you boomers who really miss it!

You see, I think that once again, our inability to articulate what social media is makes it very hard for clients to figure out how to use it. Last August, I asked What Does It Mean to be Digital? because I felt we had the same problem with digital as we do with social media. If you either can't tell me what it means or it means everything, that how much value will it really have for me? While asking in the twitterverse a few weeks ago about this issue, buddy Tom Cunniff had this to say:

Anything that can be consumed by more than 1 person can be defined as "social media". But doesn't it dilute meaning to zero?

Yep, I agree. We really need to figure out what the hell we're calling social media and how it really fits into business planning. Too often it seems that we're really just renaming something to make it seem hipper & cooler then it really is. I know we're marketing folks, but we really can't just keep renaming things too much longer before people catch on!

So, what does social media really mean and can brands that aren't really all that social in the first place, use social media to open themselves up? And, what about Naomi? (See Love of Chair for that answer!)

Link: Twitter / TJCNYC.

Link: Twitter / MackCollier.

Link: Twitter / zappos.

Related links

Link: Experience Manifesto: Are Social Sites this Centuries Penny Press?.

Link: Experience Manifesto: The Measurement Excuse.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Why Advertising Will Destroy Social Media.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Prediction 8: Everyone's a Critic.

Heading to Warsaw!

I'm going to be heading to Warsaw for my first visit next week and really looking forward to it! I'll be there September 1st through the 4th and maybe an extra day or two as well. We're heading there to present AudienceGames to ING and, while it's a quick trip, we'll hopefully get some time to visit Warsaw and explore the city. And if you're in Warsaw, give me a shout and let me know. Maybe we can get together for a quick vodka and Pierogi while I'm in town!

Need a Favor!

In the 4 1/2 years that I've done this blog, I don't think I've ever used it to solicit something for me. Well, I did try to get an E90 from Nokia a while back, but sadly, I didn't get one. (Buy hey, I'd still like one if anyone from Nokia reads my blog!)

But I need a favor and thought I would reach out to my network and see if you can help me out. As you may have read, I'm heading to Sydney (the city) to speak at the Experiential Marketing Summit next month. They provide my travel but, for the first time, Sydney (the daughter) wants to go with me. She's dying to go to a city where, as she says, "There's so many things named after me!" I also have family there, an uncle I've never met, so I thought that would be cool for Sydney too! She really wants to take this trip with me and my family there is looking forward to meeting Sydney too.

So, I thought that I would put the word out on my network to see if anyone can help me. I'm looking to do some barter for one RT ticket on United (that's what I'm flying) so I can bring Sydney with me. I can trade consulting or a speaking engagement or maybe even bring an AudienceGame demo to your next event. I'm pretty open if you have other ideas!

So if you have any contacts at United and think you can help, I'd be very appreciative! And so would Sydney! I'm scheduled to leave on the 15th of September, so I kinda' need a quick favor if you can help! Feel free to contact me directly at [email protected] if you have any questions or need any additional information.

I'm counting on you!

Retail Design Diva -- Has Shopping Lost Its Charm?

This was at the heart of our discussion about the socialization of place and now there seems to be some numbers to support the theory. His what we think. As more & more people do their actual purchases online, what's to become of the physical real estate of retail? We first wrote about this back in 2005 and then again in early '06 at Retail Design Diva -- Socialization of Real Estate and we think it's going to be even more important in the future. Here's what we said back then:

It made us ask the question, what is the value of real estate for retailers today? Does a record store really need to exist as it's been for the past 40+ years? Or banks, grocery stores, fashion retailers? If, thanks to the internet, people are much more comfortable getting their purchases sent to them, rather then getting them right away, do we need that much space dedicated to merchandise? So, if we can do away with the inventory portion of most retail spaces today, what else would you do with the space? How could you make it a much more social environment, rather then being a retail environment? After all, this is exactly why places like Starbuck's or the Apple stores have boomed -- they created a social space, rather then a retail space.

And these numbers seem to support the thought that people just aren't going to the stores like they used to. Now, the economy is also having real challenges today and people are not shopping as much as they were, say a year ago, but this was about traffic, not shopping and I think we'd be seeing some declines no matter what the economy was doing. Yes, there was also a decline in online shopping of 1%, but you can't compare shopping data with traffic date. With gas being up (although now we can get it for about $3.55 by our house, so it's dropped about $0.80 recently) and retail experiences tending to be so bad, it's creating a huge reason not to go to stores.

When you combine that with the consolidation that's hitting the retail industry and you're coming to a perfect storm of reasons not to go to the local mall.

So, if you're a retailer and you're not looking to significantly increase your retail experience, then understand that you're going to be losing more & more money on your real estate holdings. It's just not worth the hassle for people any more. Back in its time, if I went to a place like Spag's, I was cool with it being such a difficult retail experience for the bargains I got. Or look at the annual wrestling match more commonly known as the Filene’s Basement World Famous Bridal Event. But, if we're going to Macy's or Old Navy or Target or any one of a thousand of look-alike retail experiences, with many of the same items at very similar prices, you'd better start thinking about what that real estate is worth to you and how much you're going to need to spend to create a compelling, relevant and authentic retail experience.

We also wrote in early 2006:

Raise your hand if you’ve ever gone to a store, taken up a great deal of the sales persons time, only to go home and buy online because you could find it cheaper? Come on, you know you have. Everyone does it. And this helps to turn the retail space into a showroom, rather then a place to actually purchase. Worse, technologies like SCANBUY Shopper let you check the price on something by using your camera phone to take a picture of the bar code and then finding the best price. And that’s before we start talking about AI shopping bots!

So, you make the retail experience worse and worse and we use it less & less causing you to make it worse & worse, causing us to use it less & less....see where I'm going with this?

The truth is too many retail experiences are either neutral or they plain suck, so we find other ways to buy. Sam Ewen from Interference recently commented on a post about brand ambassadors and said "Would you spend $250,000 on a tv spot placement and then hire a high school film student to direct?" Yet we have no problem spending billions on the actual real estate while paying your employees as little as you can get away with. In a recent blog post entitled Shouldn't Every Employee be a Brand Ambassador?, I posed this quesiton -- "Do you hire to save money or to find the best people possible to represent your brand? The consumer will know the difference."

So, if your physical retail real estate has real value to you, then you need to treat it likes it that important. You need to:

Staff it like us being there is really important to you. Ever go to a house where you're not quite welcome? Well that's sometimes how we feel at your stores. And it doesn't make us want to come back!

Although it's not a retail experience directly, take a look at Coca-Cola 'rewards' may have cost longtime employees their jobs - Vallejo Times Herald. So frequently the employees are treated like they're not welcome either and that feeling ends up deposited at the consumers feet. They work for you damn it, treat them like a guest! They're your front line in the war to be successful, why do you spend so much time hobbling them? If you treat them well, I can guarantee you they'll treat me well. If they feel unwelcome, so will I.

Look for better ways to combine your offline & online retail. You need to E-tail Your Retail. If i can do it online, I should be able to do it in-store.

Ask yourself what your space would be if it wasn't about inventory management. What would make me, the consumer, come in?

Are you experimenting with social media, whatever that is? Well, bully for you! No really, that's good. But are you doing anything social in your space? After all, every day, thousands of people walk through your doors and you've probably never thought of the social media power of your own space. Walk over to the Apple store and see the results of retail as social media.

There's a lot more to think about, but this is probably enough for one post. I'd love your feedback. What stores are doing a great job retaining guests despite this drop in traffic? I'll be they'll be the ones still standing when the economy gets back on its feet!

According to research by TNS Retail Forward, most shopping venues are losing audience at a steady pace, year-by-year [has shopping lost its charm?]. The TNS Retail Forward ShopperScape survey found that shares of monthly shoppers are declining the most at shopping centers, including both traditional malls and lifestyle centers. Regional mall traffic of monthly shoppers declined from 34 percent in 2006 to 30 percent in 2008; while lifestyle centers showed a decline in monthly shoppers from 24 percent in 2006 to 20 percent in 2008. According to the report, both formats need to do more to attract shoppers.

Power centers held firm at 59 percent of monthly shoppers in 2006, and 60 percent [slight increase] in 2008 [no surprise, with price driving more purchases in this economy]. And factory outlets increased from 10 percent to 13 percent, while strip centers with grocery anchors decreased from 55 percent to 49 percent. Online sales lost 1 percentage point, falling from 43 percent to 42 percent, over the period. That’s not much of a difference, but it seems at odds with analysts who speculate that the downturn is driving [no pun intended] more shoppers online, seeking to save money on gasoline.

Link: Retail Design Diva.

Link: Retail Design Diva -- Socialization of Real Estate

Link: Experience Manifesto: Socialization of Place.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Brand Autopsy: Designing Retail Experiences – The Apple Way.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Luring MP3ers Back to the Mall - January 01, 2006.

Link: Experience Manifesto: The Socialization of Real Estate.

Our Beginnings

I've been going through lots of old files -- way too many -- and I've been running across the materials we put together when we first started BEL. Doesn't sound all that radical today, but 6+ years ago when we started, it was! Always like the visual image of advertising as the language of the hunt. So take a look at this mash-up of some of our previous language and let me know what you think. Still as necessary & important today as it was 6 years ago?

About the Brand Experience Lab

The Brand Experience Lab (BEL) is a new marketing and communications resources company. New, as in its establishment…new, as in its approach to consumer franchise development via communication…new, as in its commitment to experience marketing as a key to brand building…new, as in its use of emerging technologies for marketing and communications…new, as in the development of technology solutions to meet client needs.

Overview

It’s not just a cliché, it is a new world. The changes in the advertising world are like no other time in history. Never before have we been able to reach an audience in so many ways and places and never before has the audience had the power to turn off that advertisement in so many ways.

Listen to the language of advertising agencies, it sounds like they’re on a hunt. They look to capture audiences everywhere and claim that as success.

It’s time for a new language. One that speaks for the times and has learned from many years of experience.

A language of relevance, authenticity and transformation.

What does the Brand Experience Lab provide? Everything about advertising is used to drive people to a place where the transaction occurs and that is the one place that advertising has no control. BEL creates the compelling experiences that ARE transactions. We’re the connection place between advertising and transactions and not a single agency in the country is playing in that space. That is our unique selling proposition.

"Tell me and I will forget, Show me and I will remember, Involve me and I will understand!" Confucius

“Explore the Possible – Deliver the Practical”

The Brand Experience Lab believes that the key to brand building and brand loyalty involves developing a relationship the consumer. We seek to provide your brand, your service, and your business with the ability to entertain, engage, and involve your target audience by creating compelling and authentic brand experiences.

We believe that generating this engaging experience can be accomplished through an in-depth understanding of the brand’s objective and its’ consumer, using BEL’s creative and innovative experience marketing techniques.

We also believe – and what sets us apart from all others – is that carefully applied new/emerging technologies that are purposively exploited, can capture the consumers’ attention, engaging them within the experience and successfully create a powerful relationship.

We believe that this experience marketing can be accomplished through an in depth understanding of the brand’s objective and its consumer using creative and innovative experience marketing techniques.

The mission of the Brand Experience Lab is to:

Offer an “experience of creating an experience”

View, test, present, develop and discuss different concepts and technologies in branding, marketing, advertising and promotions.

Be an agency of the future in which marketing messages are paired with innovative, compelling mediums to engage consumers in the storytelling process.

In short, the Brand Experience Lab is a place to explore the next generation of tools and technologies needed to create compelling brand experiences.

The Importance of the People

Had a meeting at our offices a few weeks back and folks came in talking about this cool promotion they saw up the block. There was a life guard stand right at the corner of Prince & Broadway and the life guard was telling people that sharks were in the water and to be careful. So, after the meeting I walked up the block to see what all the hoopla was about and encountered two lifeguards and the lifeguard stand. Both lifeguards were good, but the guy in the chair was a hoot. Funny and really playing his role well, he made sure that people had a good time while delivering the message about Shark Week for Discovery Channel. It was done by Interference and I ran into Sam Ewen, the head of Interference, while I was there and congratulated him on what was clearly a successful experience.

This morning on my way to work, on the same street corner, I encountered another street team person handing out samples of their product. I don't want to get this person into trouble by mentioning the brand, but, suffice it to say, this person wasn't very good. Could barely understand what she was saying and she actually seemed pretty shy for being part of a street team.

I'll tell you, as much as I like being on stage or presenting at conferences, I wouldn't be a good member of a street team. But, if you're going to hire street teams, they should be as outgoing as the liveguard that Sam hired. As I said in Experience Manifesto: Shouldn't Every Employee be a Brand Ambassador?, every employee needs to be a brand ambassador, but your brand ambassadors really need to be good at what they do.

Stand Up to Cancer

Howard Greenstein, writing over at Stand Up to Cancer | Social Media Club, has asked folks to promote an event coming up this September called Stand Up to Cancer. As he writes:

SU2C is a multi-party effort started out of a group of Media Executives who are trying to raise money to fund ‘game changing’ research and “dream team” research teams who can make a huge impact in our fight against cancer.

You may have heard of the effort, as all 3 Network News Anchors appeared on all 3 Network Morning Shows recently to discuss it. On September 5th, NBC, CBS and ABC are doing a “Roadblock” of the kind you normally see during a presidential address. They will run the same show for an hour during prime time on that night. The show, hosted by Katie Couric, Brian Williams, Charles Gibson, and others, will attempt to raise awareness of the SU2C efforts and raise money.

My Dad died from cancer about 4 years ago, so our family has been directly touched by cancer. And I can tell you this, that even though people tell me I can still talk to my Dad every day, it's really not the same when he doesn't talk back. My Dad had colon cancer and, even though I'm adopted, I've had two colonoscopy's since my Dad was diagnosed. And the truth is that if Dad had a colonoscopy earlier, he'd probably still be here today.

So my message is this. Get the tests done! If you're a guy, have the colonoscopy. If you're a woman, get regular breast exams as recommended. Early detection is the key to beating cancer, so don't delay. You can't beat it if you don't know it's there.

Howard's asked for people to share the message, so pass the word along. Spread the word and let everyone know about Stand Up to Cancer.

Link: Stand Up To Cancer.

See more Henry Winkler videos at Funny or Die

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Link: Virtual Stand Up.

My First Job

I've written about my first job before, (see Experience Manifesto: WDW Electric Light Parade to read more about it), but recently found this video on Youtube. I got a real kick out of seeing it, even if you can't actually see me. Near as I can tell, I'm in the front row on the other side of the trolley. This were the days. What a first job to have out of college. Kinda' fucked me up for all of the real working shit I have to do today!