Experience Manifesto

Thrillist : SitOrSquat

To kick-off Bathroom Blogfest week, I got this in the mail today from Thrilllist. As I said, I wasn't as aware of the need for clean, secure bathrooms until I had a daughter and realized wow crappy (pun intended!) most bathrooms were. Sometimes at nice places too! So, having a list available where you can find clean bathrooms and how to actually get into them, is pretty cool! They have a pretty comprehensive listing and I really do like the notes and ability to comment on the locations, just in case the quality of the location has dropped! I might even do some testing of their locations this week if I have the time!

Every NY block's replete with restaurants where you can discover delicious foreign cuisine -- which you'll briefly savor before urgently needing to expel it from your body. Dropping the knowledge you need, SitOrSquat.com.

A disturbingly comprehensive, user-generated GMap/ratings system for public and semi-public crappers, Sit's the work of a husband-wife team who've apparently moved way past peeing with the door open. Simply click the blue icons to get venue name (from Fiddlesticks to the Forbes Building to Crate & Barrel) and a descrip including ingress strategies ("Just stroll past the doorman and you're in", "2nd floor past kids' books"), plus ratings, photos, and features, e.g., "Seat Covers", "Condom Vending Machine", and "Attendant" -- a.k.a., Mint Vending Machine, but don't tell him that. Anyone can submit a stall, but you must profile up to rate others' posts and add specific ass depots to your favorites list. So you'd, uh, better create that profile.

Link: Thrillist : SitOrSquat

Link: SitOrSquat.com.

Link: Welcome to Bathroom Blogfest.

Another Quick Trip to Poland

Another trip to Poland, this time heading to Wisla in the south. It's kind of a quick trip, so I don't think I'll get much sightseeing in, unfortunately. Had dinner in Warsaw my first night with Jacek Zięba and we went to Restauracja Zapiecek - Polskie Pierogarnie z Tradycjam (see photo below), a pierogi restaurant that Clilly & I found on our first trip here. Since they had pierogi's, I already wanted to eat here, but the addition of fried chicken livers moved it to the top of my list. I just don't eat pierogi and fried chicken liver enough at home. Although I am a Slovak on my father's side, my Polish pronunciation is apparently very bad. So, while I was trying to order a Tyskie beer, I apparently mangled the name so badly, the waitress wasn't quite sure what I was ordering. I said it a few more times before she started blushing and spoke to Jacek in Polish while I tried to point to the beer in the menu. While relieved to see I was ordering beer, but still blushing, she explained to me that the way I was saying it sounded like the slang for "tits" and she was trying to figure out why I was asking for tits from her. We all had a good laugh about it and it became a running joke everytime I ordered a beer with Jacek.

On Wednesday, we drove from Warsaw to Wisla with Jacek & Piotr Panek, who are learning the AudienceGames system for some upcoming events here in Poland. Also with us on the bus were the 10 model/hostesses for the event in Wilsa, who started out pretty strong, laughing, talking, etc., but were soon all sacked out.

We stopped at Wiejska Chata, a small, roadside restaurant that seem to be all over the highways here. Old-fashioned places, kinda' like truck stops, but very rustic and charming. They served very traditional Polish food, including a very sweet, berry drink that I unfortunately didn't try. Next time I guess! I had some more pierogi's and would've eaten more if not for an earlier stop at McDonald's. Although I'm not slim by any standards, I'd really be huge if I stayed here for a while and continued to eat pierogi's, kielbasa and drink this much beer.

We stayed at the Hotel Gołębiewski and it was a well-known, Polish ski resort. Although for the life of me, I can't understand why a resort with as many modern amenities as this one, only offered dial up internet in the rooms and only one place, the lobby, with a wireless hotspot. I heard a few people grumbling and when I asked the clerk at the front desk, she said Yes, everyone complains about that. Here's a Brand Experience Lab Rule -- if everyone is complaining about something, it's probably something you should fix! The show went well and I, left Jacek & Piotr behind to party with our model friends, as I headed back to Warsaw, so I could be back on Saturday for my flight home.

I decided to head into Warsaw for one last meal at my pierogi place a little sightseeing. Yes, I got the same waitress as I had the other day and we laughed again about my bad pronunciation!

I also went to Fotoplastikon Warszawski (see two photos below), something Clilly & I missed the last time we were here. It opened about 1905 and since then, it's offered residents of Warsaw a 3D journey around the world and an escape during bad times. It's actually a stereoscopic display with approximately 3,000 photographs in the collection. Just seeing the stereoscope system itself was pretty cool. According to their information, it's the only system of its type in the world. As someone who studies how audiences react to group experiences, it was really cool to see something that's been around as long as this has. If you're in Warsaw, make sure you stop by and see it. It's at Jerozolimskie Avenue 51, in the courtyard.

We're two hours away from NYC and its another successful AudienceGames installation and another good trip exploring the world and meeting new people. If my family were with me, then I'd be able to say It doesn't get any better then that!

Facebook | The 2008 Bathroom Blogfest - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces All Around Us

During my presentations, I talk about how the importance of clean bathrooms increased dramatically when Sydney was born. And maybe two years ago, Link: C.B. Whittemore, Stephanie Weaver and Susan Abbott started the Bathroom Blogfest to share thoughts on the importance of clean bathrooms in the overall experience. Too many companies think that the experience ends when you start to walk down that hallway to the bathroom. It's also amazing how many companies don't really provide a good bathroom experience for their employees either. It's the little things people!

So add your thoughts to the blogfest. Tell them about your favorite or least favorite bathrooms and how they've impacted your overall experience!

A blogfest to celebrate the customer experience. For 2008, The Bathroom Blogfest is about Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces All Around Us.

Join 20 women bloggers who have committed to the Bathroom Blogfest '08 taking place next week.

Post to your Blog, Flickr, Twitter, go mobile or suggest a new social media platform with material relating to this Blogfest, during the event timeframe. Include the event logo, and use #ladiesrooms08.

Rules: you must publish at least one post about bathrooms and/or forgotten spaces during the Blogfest timeframe. Add the tag above and the logo, too.

To benefit all those partiicpating with link love, each post should include - with the event logo - a list of those participating.

Consider a google alert and commenting on the amazing range of customer experience observations that Bathroom Blogfest '08 - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces Around Us is guaranteed to generate!

Add your voice to this terrific event. Let everyone you know about it and invite them to consider the customer experience and all of those forgotten spaces that need cleaning up, including the bathrooms.

Any questions, let me know.

Thanks and Happy Bathroom Blogfest 2008!
Stephanie, Susan and CB

Link: Welcome to Bathroom Blogfest.

Link: Facebook | The 2008 Bathroom Blogfest - Cleaning Up Forgotten Spaces All Around Us.

What if a Client Designed the Stop Sign?

I thought that I posted this a while back, but can't find it now. Was looking for something else and came across it again on youtube and it still made me laugh!

Terry Tate Video

Saw this on AgencySpy and just had to share it here. Make sure you watch to the end!

http://view.break.com/592038 - Watch more free videos

Link: Terry Tate is Our Friggin' Hero - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy.

Orange Involves Concertgoers

A few weeks ago, Clilly had the chance to bring AudienceGames to Royal Albert Hall for the Orange RockCorps concert. We played opening act to Busta Rhymes, the Guillemots, John Legend, Feeder and others. Overall, it was a pretty cool gig for us.

What BEL wanted to achieve, aside from creating a fun environment, was to see if the technology compelled people to play, which it did, said Castiglia. "So that was a real win on our part. And it was nice to see that even in such a large environment, the technology still resonated because the screen allowed everybody to feel like they were a part of the experience," she said.

Jodie Fisher, account director at M&C Saatchi, which worked on the project on behalf of Orange, emphasized the carrier's new brand vision launched earlier this year in several markets, "Together we can do more." The positioning was "born from the insight that people can achieve more working together than they can on their own," said Fisher.

The agency was challenged to make the brand live and breathe through sponsorship, to underscore to Orange customers what the brand represents. "Sponsorship is a good way to bring the brand vision to life, because it often involves experiences where people come together and can actually provide a real proof point for that vision. The human joystick exemplifies what 'Together we can do more' stands for," Fisher said.

Link: Orange Involves Concertgoers.

The Ad Contrarian

Just came across this new blog, The Ad Contrarian, and I'm really enjoying it a lot. It's written by Bob Hoffman, CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising in San Francisco and St. Louis. This particular post is part of a 5 part series called The Crisis Of Advertising. I've posted some highlights here, but go to the links below and make sure you read the whole series. Sorry for the problems with links, but there seems to be a problem with the TypePad QuickPost system. Once it gets fixed, I'll update the links.

So here are some random thoughts about how the agency business needs to change, how you as an agency or you as an individual might want to think about what's next.

Contrary to all the nonsense you read, advertising is not dead. You can't swing a dead account planner without hitting an ad. It's everywhere -- urinals, grocery check-out separators, dry cleaning bags. Advertising is thriving, but ad agencies aren't.

There just isn't enough value anymore in big, slow, expensive ad agencies. Smart, industrious clients can cobble together small groups to get the work done at lesser cost and with superior creativity. They just don't know it yet.

The most important client-side marketing job currently does not exist: Someone to coordinate the activities of a variety of small, nimble marketing and advertising resource providers.

The idea that global agencies can provide global marketing solutions is an idiotic fraud that anyone with the intelligence of a gnat can see through. You can't find a single agency to get done everything you need done in Houston, how the hell are they supposed to do it worldwide? That global agencies even exist is a testament to the laziness of global marketers.

There will always be a place for BDAs because there will always be BDCs.

There will also be a place for regional, independent agencies because there will always be entrepreneurs and regional advertisers.

The middle, however, will continue to collapse. This will create big failures and enormous opportunities.

The web has turned us all into liars. We pretend the web has opened up huge new advertising opportunities when we secretly know that it has mostly been a dismal failure as an advertising medium. We cling to the few big successes and argue from the extreme. We pretend we know how to "do it all", but we don't. We pretend to be "media neutral" but secretly are either broadcast-centric, print-centric or web-centric.

The strategic part of what agencies do is going to disappear. Smart clients have no confidence in account planning. Those who haven't yet, will soon take strategy away from agencies and place it in-house or in the hands of consultants.

All their baloney notwithstanding, the huge media buying conglomerates have commoditized media buying and it is becoming a price war.

The one and only leverageable asset agencies will be left with will be creativity. The definition of creativity has evolved into more than just making ads, and it will continue to evolve.

Agencies will try to create relationships with creative resources outside the industry (directors, writers, performers) and, as always, this will fail. You will need your own outstanding creative resources.

Some strategies to think about:

Specialize: Go against the grain. Every agency is trying to convince clients that they can do it all. Instead, be an agency that does only one thing really well. Specialize in retail, or become expert in marketing to Mid-Westerners, or only work on luxury brands, or only do creative work. Find something you can be famous for.

Get small and do it yourself: The economics of the ad industry are going to hell. It's hard to make money. Soon big agencies may realize they can be more profitable by outsourcing to smaller, nimbler entities. Become a small, nimble entity (SNE?) Have your own clients and do contract work for BDA's.

Confederate: Form a confederated brand with other small, nimble entities. One does strategy. One does creative. One does media planning. One does promotions. You are independent, but you work cooperatively. You provide clients with a single service or a suite of services.

Something completely different: This is the most likely answer. The next model for the ad business is likely to be something we haven't even thought of.

Link: The Ad Contrarian: The Crisis Of Advertising, Part 5: What To Do.

Life Before Twitter!

As always, Zits hits the nail on the head!

Flying Home

Heading back after our really great vacation in Sydney and the return trip hasn't started off well. Upon arriving, we found out that our plane was going to be delayed two hours. Fortunately, it didn't seem to interfere with our connecting flight at LAX, so that was cool.

Of course, that meant an extra two hours at the airport which is enough to send me off the deep end. Not really crazy about killing time at the airport, especially an extra 2 hours. But we got some cool last minute items at the gift shop, so I guess it wasn't too bad.

But then came the logging onto the Telstra internet service at the airport and that didn't work so well. It's bad enough to pay such high prices for short term connections ($14 for 60 minutes) but then they disconnected me after 5 minutes! So I made the mistake of trying to call customer service and then letting that experience really piss me off. First guy seemed totally clueless as to anything I was talking about, putting me on hold for a while and then disconnecting me. So, I called back. This person also had no clue about anything and yes, he disconnected me too. Yes, I did have an attitude, but I wasn't rude, just exasperated.

On my 3rd call, I just asked for a supervisor and waited on hold for that to happen. He couldn't help me either and started to explain to me how I called the wrong number. I explained that he should just get someone to help me. I was transferred again and by this time, I had already bought another 30 minutes and now all I wanted was a refund for my first 60 minutes. Not surprisingly, he couldn't help me with that and I was once again transferred to a number that doesn't work on the weekends! What's up with that? How could five people, including a supervisor, not be able to help with my fairly simple request?

In my e-mail to them, I said I'd be tracking the story on the blog, so let's see how they respond. I deserve a refund for the first $14 and expect a refund for the second $8 I spent. Of course it probably cost me $30 in phone charges to get absolutely no help from 5 of their customer service reps. We'll see how this all works out. Telstra, we're waiting! (UPDATE -- It's been over a week since I had this problem with Telstra and not a single response from them. Not very customer focused of them!)

On the plane and just found out that the TV system in our section isn't working. When I asked, the steward said "Well, we were having problems and if we waited to fix it all, then we would've had to wait another two days before this crew could fly again. So since everything but this section was working, we thought that was better then nothing" I reminded him that back here, we had nothing and he pointed to a monitor that was akin to a "water view apartment" in NY, where yea, if I sat at just the right angle, I could almost see the whole screen. And Sydney, from her seat next to me, couldn't see anything.

Not sure what they should. We spent $3,000 for our RT seats and certainly we should expect the service that money buys. Is it really fair that they're not giving us the service promised but not offering anything in return? They could've offered something, a free drink maybe? Maybe some bonus miles? I'm not sure, anyone here have any suggestions for United and other airlines that have problems like this? A two hour delay and a 14 hour flight with no video entertainment is just going to be painful. I'll certainly reach out to United when I get home and see what they offer. As you might have read, I really enjoyed the flight out, so I was hoping for an enjoyable flight home. A much nicer stewardess said she'd see if they had a seat where Sydney could see the screen, so we'll see how that works out. For the time being, Sydney & I are doing a crossword puzzle and rocking out to Kids XM radio. I've gotten hooked on YouTube - YEAH TOAST!!! and we've been singing it the whole flight!

UPDATE -- OK, they did give everyone in our section of the plane a certificate to redeem online, so they did acknowledged the problem, apologized again and they did make the offer. So I'll give them positive marks for this flight as well.

So, that's the end of the trip. Monday it's back to our regular routine and organizing photos. I'll post a link as soon as we have some up. Can't wait to see what next year's adventure will be!

How Many Times Do We Have To Say It?... - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy

It's just sooo much fun for us to see folks at the really big agencies say things that we've been saying for years and act like it's a new thought. But hey, at least they're talking the right talk. Now let's see if they really know what it means to deliver those experiences.

We have to stop thinking about media as bridges that we march messages over into people's mouths and mind. And start thinking about creating experiences that change behavior and providing access to those experiences in the most relevant places." - Andrew Robertson, president and CEO of advertising agency network BBDO Worldwide.

Link: How Many Times Do We Have To Say It?... - mediabistro.com: AgencySpy.