Experience Manifesto

Havas Attempts To Innovate -- Agency Spy

You know, I'm always challenged with announcements like this. On one hand, I want to gently chide them for joining us 5 years after we started. Especially when they say thing like "Hence, the need for a new kind of entity, which is focused on driving new ideas - but also focused on igniting experimentation and discovery.” I mean, really, we've been doing this for a long time and started the Lab for just this purpose. To create a physical environment where clients can explore, experiment & discover just what can be done to create new ways to engage their target audience. We add the storytelling elements because we believe that without having a great story, everything else is just a tactic.

But, I also want to congratulate them on starting to to change their game. It's really critical that agencies truly try to change how they're bringing new thinking to clients (see here and here for some other posts on this issue). They should all have their own media labs to explore how technologies are changing the game.

So welcome to the pool -- the waters fine! And holler if you need any pointers!

Umair Haque, London Business School graduate, Harvard staffer, author, new media economist and consultant (his company is called Bubble Generation) has is heading up the Havas Media Lab. The lab is slated as a new kind of strategic advisor that helps investors, entrepreneurs, and firms experiment with, craft, and drive radical management, business model, and strategic innovation.

Link: Havas Attempts To Innovate -- Agency Spy.

Being Peter Kim: What's wrong with mobile marketing

If you want to know what's wrong with advertising and why it has so many problems, take a look at the list of reasons that mobile advertising isn't working. You'll notice that not one person mentioned there's no real value for the consumer. That's why mobile marketing isn't working right now. Once again, for all of our talk about the consumer being in control, we're looking at mobile as a tool that the consumer can't control. Because all we're trying to do is things like forcing bluetooth messages down people's throats. Take a look at this discussion going on at Retail TouchPoints: New Mobile Device Apps Impact Marketing & In-Store Experience - Retail News. Look at how people in the retail industry are talking about using mobile devices. None of the discussion is about how the audience uses it. It's all about how we can use it like traditional advertising.

Take a look at The Problem with the Advertising Model, a piece we wrote back in 2006. The advertising model is simple -- take content and place it on things. You used to place the content in print, radio and TV and it was a pretty simple gig. And today, the industry mainly keeps coming back with advertising placement ideas, not advertising engagement ideas.

So we find a new medium and we simply want to see how we can place advertising on it. We don't really spend enough time trying to think about how we can use these new mediums to create better experiences for the consumer.

So, as we get ready to take mobile advertising and set it's adoption back by several years by forcing a lot of bad ideas onto the consumer, why not take a look at what we can do to use mobile to create a better consumer experience. If the consumer is really in control, then their POV is the first one we should be seeing whenever we look at a new medium.

If you want to know why, here's what I heard today:

From Evan Neufeld of m:metrics: "what is driving us forward and holding us back"

Pricing: consumers are getting nickled and dimed to death for data.
Devices: need better devices to spur usage.
Bandwidth: consumers want to drink from the hose.
Subsidization: Largest audiences for text messaging, a low value ad play.

From Jeremy Wright of Nokia, formerly of Enpocket. "Why isn't mobile advertising bigger today?"

Fragmentation. Buyers say it's hard to make a deal.
Measurable ROI. Reporting isn't great.
Engagement post-click. Lack of ecosystem partners and campaign integration.

From David Verklin, CEO of Aegis Media Americas. "The biggest barrier to mobile advertising."

Speed. 2.5G isn't fast enough.
But most marketers don't even know what we're talking about, 2.5G, 3G and so on.
We need to use mass media to drive people to concentrated places, i.e. from TV to web.

Manish Jha, CEO of Vantrix (and formerly of ESPN Mobile).

His company deals with interoperability issues - they have a database of 13,000 phone types. Think about it. You may have enough of a headache building your website for PC and Mac. Or just on PC, for IE and Firefox. Or just in IE, 6 vs. 7. Think that's bad? Try 13,000 phones.

Verklin actually came out and said it: 2008 isn't the year of mobile. 2009 is.

Link: Being Peter Kim: What's wrong with mobile marketing.

Beneath the Brand - Blog Archive - Let the Lists Begin

UPDATE: Uwe Hook posted a similar piece on his blog at Uwe's blog: Have we become assholes?. Loved what he had to say!

Two interesting things that seem to be coming together. Predictions that digital agencies will be on top and that there'll be more emphasis on creating experience or being more experiential. While we couldn't agree more on the experiential point, we're not sure that it will be the digital agencies leading the way. Perhaps, 2008 will be the year of a new category of agency, the experience agency. Not the experiential -- usually a new name for event marketing -- agency. But a company that understands that everything you do is part of your brand experience -- and that's not just digital. Of course, we'll still looking for good definitions for What Does It Mean to be Digital? anyway.

In a November commentary in MediaPost, Joe Pine & Jim Gilmore (authors of The Experience Economy) had this to say:

There is an undeniable phoniness underlying much of today's marketing practices. Think of the appeal of any mouthwatering hamburger in a TV spot versus the reality encountered in the actual fast food joint. Or consider the countless direct mail pieces for shiny new automobiles versus the dirty or disheveled dealership one has to visit to buy or lease one. Or think of any airline, hotel, or even hospital advertisement; if you could only check into the ads, you'd have a great experience. Indeed, the easiest way to be perceived as fake is to advertise things you are not.

The challenge right now has been that when the advertising talks about experience design, it's generally in the context of online user experience and not the larger "everything" experience design that we talk about. That's why we don't believe that simply being a digital agency means you're ready to help a company create experiences across all of their touch points. In fact, digital agencies may not even know how to create compelling interactive experiences unless they're online. And one of the things that we've certainly proved with AudienceGames, is that people love interactivity offline as well. They want the rest of the world to be as dynamic as their online world, which is why we think that things like location-based group interactivity and the need to e-tail your retail will be such important issues in 2008.

So, by all means, look to people who can give you the best solutions, whether it's digital or not. If you're looking for success in 2008, it's pretty simple. Create great experiences for your consumers in every interaction. If you do that, the method of communicating will not be so important.

Digital Agencies Rise To The Top. : Marketing will become “Experiential”. The category “Digital Agencies” will gain new meanings and power as client demand thought leadership in this innovation-driven environment. Roster agencies based on channel will become redundant as clients look to task based allocation of accounts, covering disciplines and channels. Ad agencies realize the need to change from creating ads to creating experiences but need to team up with innovation strategists.

Innovation and Design Rules. Marketers’ ingenuity will continue to expand as the competitive marketplace challenges brands and even business survival. Efficiency has reached its limit and innovation is the new competitive advantage. Companies will turn to “design” and “design thinking” to help fuel innovation There is no turning back — and design will rule.

Link: Beneath the Brand - Blog Archive - Let the Lists Begin.

Link: .

Related posts:

Link: Experience Manifesto: Brand New Day Word of Mouth: Madison Ave.--Are You Listening? - BusinessWeek.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Prediction 7: You need to E-tail Your Retail.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Prediction 1: Authenticity is the Key.

The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos

Was reading through the blogword last night and came across a post on Richard Edelman - 6 A.M. about a piece written by Dan Ackerman Greenberg, the head of the Comotion Group.

Over the past year, I have run clandestine marketing campaigns meant to ensure that promotional videos become truly viral, as these examples have become in the extreme. In this post, I will share some of the techniques I use to do my job: to get at least 100,000 people to watch my clients’ “viral” videos.

He then goes on to give his 9 secrets for getting videos on youtube to become viral hits. And by that he seems to mean how he fakes the whole thing! Some of the things he does:

We reach out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually pay them to post our embedded videos. Sounds a little bit like cheating/PayPerPost, but it’s effective and it’s not against any rules.

We start new threads and embed our videos. Sometimes, this means kickstarting the conversations by setting up multiple accounts on each forum and posting back and forth between a few different users. Yes, it’s tedious and time-consuming, but if we get enough people working on it, it can have a tremendous effect.

Yes, you read that correctly. He creates fake accounts and then uses them to pretend that it's different people making comments on the video. What's the harm he says in response to people complaining about doing this. Then there's this little gem (emphasis mine):

Every power user on YouTube has a number of different accounts. So do we. A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this). Everyone loves a good, heated discussion in the comments section - especially if the comments are related to a brand/startup.

Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions.

We usually get one comment for every thousand views, since most people watching YouTube videos aren’t logged in. But a heated comment thread (done well) will engage viewers and will drive traffic back to our sites.

Early on he says I can’t reveal our clients’ names and I can’t link to the videos we’ve worked on, because YouTube surely doesn’t like what we’re doing and our clients hate to admit that they need professional help with their “viral” videos. Yea, no surprise that clients don't want him naming names when he basically says he fakes the whole process to turn videos that no one seems interested in into "viral hits." I mean, who wants to say yep, we hired him to do that!

The shame is that he has lots of good points about making good videos, but by then talking about how he games the entire system, he starts to lose credibility. If you follow all of his good tips, why would you need to make fake comments and "heated" conversation? And, if the videos are mediocre to start with, then why waste your efforts trying to get people to watch them? Why not just make something that people want to watch?

It's interesting that given how he positions what he does, there's some interesting discussions about whether or not he's faking the controversy in order to generate business for himself. Well, his article certainly generated a great deal of attention! There's the old adage, no press is bad press!

Link: The Secret Strategies Behind Many “Viral” Videos.

Advertisers anxious to see writers strike end - Media biz- msnbc.com

Yep, more & more people are starting to worry about this issue!

As the Hollywood writers strike enters a second week, advertisers are worrying it could seriously disrupt the TV schedule — and the number of eyeballs viewing their ads — in coming months.

So far, the strike has forced only late-night talk and comedy shows into reruns, since their material must be freshly scripted every day.

But when marquee shows like "The Office," "Desperate Housewives" and "24" halted production, the supply of ready-to-air prime-time hits came under threat — and that has been unsettling to advertisers.

The real worry is what effect a prolonged strike could have on future TV show development and on audience loyalty to big-name shows, particularly as viewers face more and more choices for watching video — streamed over the Internet, uploaded to a media player or on cable channels.

"This could become a watershed moment," said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media, a major advertising buying and planning agency. "There's a lot of opportunities that consumers have with digital media, and advertising dollars are going to follow the eyeballs."

In fact, consumers' opportunities are at the heart of the current labor dispute. Writers want a share of future revenue from new media video channels such as streaming over the Web, but networks are balking. They say it's too early to tell what that business looks like.

Link: Advertisers anxious to see writers strike end - Media biz- msnbc.com.

Really, It's Just Media. Pay up.

Paul McEnany over at Hew Haw marketing has a very interesting take on the writers strike. Hadn't thought about the fact that the writer's could just use the internet as a new distribution tool and forget about TV all together. That's a pretty interesting scenario. I mean, would people watch installments of 24 online instead of TV?

And this strike is going to have a major impact on the advertising industry. With TV budgets already facing challenges, what client is going to pay premiums to either be on reruns or some lame reality show that they networks put together just to fill the air? Not likely. And if TV just isn't pulling the numbers, advertising will leave for other areas. And unlike the last time there was a writers strike, there are a lot more places to go. So it will be a real challenge for TV advertising to maintain it's levels, especially when we're hearing that the strike could go 9 or 10 months.

So the question for people like us who do a lot of non-traditional work, is how much advantage do we take of the situation? Do we start pushing the message that this is speeding the decline -- not death -- of the 30 second spot? Do we encourage the writers to move their content to other distribution points? Do we talk to our clients about how TV will be less effective for the duration of the strike and that they should move their advertising dollars out of network buys?

We can imagine how the networks are feeling about the strike, but I also wonder how much this will start to impact the media buying companies as well. Already harder then it used to be, how will they ramp up to convince buyers that TV is still a place to go? And at what point will they just pack it in and tell their clients to put their money somewhere else?

I’d love to get feedback from other folks in the industry, so if you’re part of a network or a media buying company, what are you thinking these days?

Really, It's Just Media. Pay up.

Just one quick thought on the WGA strike. What if all those rich writers put some money together and distributed their own content on the web? What if the crew from the office got together and told NBC to go fuck themselves, and made their own version?

For the first time ever, that could actually happen. These networks are playing with fire. Not surprising when you throw common sense out the window and let lawyers run your company. It's apparent that being a big media conglomerate requires that you become stupid and out of touch. Same mistake, over and over, doesn't matter if it's the networks, record labels, the mpaa, riaa or Prince, it's a constant struggle for sameness when there's nothing left that's the same.

Luckily, Ze Frank came back to break up the blackout.

Link: Hee-Haw Marketing: Really, It's Just Media. Pay up..

Adrants Gets Cozy With Watershed Publishing

Congrats to Steve for this news! I always read Adrants and I'm very happy that he's got this deal going!

So yes it's true, Adrants has sold a percentage of its soul to Watershed Publishing, the company behind MarketingVOX (which, back in the day, I had a hand in founding), MediaBuyerPlanner and Marketing Charts. But, not a majority of it's sole so things will remain as they have always been around here and under my control.

Link: Adrants Gets Cozy With Watershed Publishing.

Advertising Age - Ogilvy New York Co-President Andy Berndt Goes to Google

OK, now Google is gunning for us, opening up a lab for advertising innovation. Hey Google, give us a call. We already have the Lab up & running and we'd love to be part of the Google family!

Andy Berndt, co-president of Ogilvy & Mather's New York office, has left his post at the agency to go to Google, where he will helm a new global unit dedicated to collaborating with marketers, agencies and entertainment companies.

According to several ad-industry executives familiar with Mr. Berndt's future plans, the new unit will be a lab for innovation.

All eyes on Google again
There has been much speculation over the past year whether Google would try to get into the agency business. The new global unit isn't being called an agency, but any unit offering creative consultation and account services could be considered one. Interestingly, Google had been trying to lure more creative talent to the company over the past year, according to ad industry executives familiar with the search giant.

Link: Advertising Age - Ogilvy New York Co-President Andy Berndt Goes to Google.

Cadbury Ad

Lots of other industry blogs have written about this commercial before and I thought it was cool. Didn't know my socks off, but cool nonetheless. But I was in London last week in a pub having a few pints of Guinness when this ad came on the TV. And people stopped to watch it. Then they went back to what they were doing. Shows the power of storytelling. Doesn’t matter if it’s old media or new. If people like the story, they’ll be engaged.

Advertising Age - As Technology Develops, So Does Role of Geek Marketers

I missed this article when it came out, but I do agree with this piece from Steve Rubel. This is exactly why we started the Lab almost five years ago. We understood the need to create an environment where technology and marketing could come together, while adding the piece missing from too many of these conversations -- storytelling and experience design.

And I agree that this isn't a trendy occupation du jour, that we're only at the beginning of the impact of technology on marketing and advertising. Some of the geeks I know are already talking about marketing to avatars, what happens when people live in wearable computers and Augmented Reality for Advertisers. Oh yea, that's a presentation I'm making later this month in Amsterdam. Damn, I really am a geek! Although my SCOTTEVEST/SeV® probably already told you that!

Enter Geek Marketers. These cross-trained specialists are fluent in both worlds and bridge them. They are marketers by trade, yet they also have a hard-core interest in technology and social anthropology. As curious individuals, they are constantly studying how digital advances are changing our culture and media. Armed with these insights, they regularly apply them in a marketing context by working closely with brand teams to codify new best practices.

Geek Marketers create competitive advantage through rapid-fire testing and learning. The people I know in this role are shepherding the development, testing and measurement of all kinds of groundbreaking marketing programs. Their pilots span from the simple, such as building RSS feeds, to the complex, creating multifaceted community programs. Often they are paired with people like me, who are in a similar role on the agency side.

This may sound like the trendy occupation du jour, but something tells me the position has staying power. To be sure, the entire industry is innovating and everyone's technical acumen is slowly rising. Still, Geek Marketers are freed to live just a little bit further out on the edge than most. And with no end in sight for what technology can do to transform business, they can continue to play a key role.

Link: Advertising Age - As Technology Develops, So Does Role of Geek Marketers.