Experience Manifesto

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!

Advertising vs. Experience

This is part of our slide that we use during our presentations and although it'll just be short post here, it'll hopefully start an interesting conversation. Paul McEnany writing over at Hee-Haw Marketing: Build Me One of them Dinasours! also has a great post about the same concept. But I have to say, he was a much better video to illustrate his post and yes, I've borrowed it here too! Hope that's cool Paul! And David Armano has a great piece on designing experiences entitled Developing an Experience Strategy in 4 Parts over on his blog and he has much better graphics then I do too. Damn, I really have to learn to draw better! Everyone's talking experience these days!

So the quick point is this. Experience always trumps advertising. Always in the long run anyway. We'll give you one, maybe two times where your experience doesn't match your advertising and then we're gone. And we're not likely to come back anytime soon. Not without a really, strong compelling reason.

So while companies like Home Depot, all the airlines and US automakers (and many others) reach out to new agencies to help them craft a better message, what they really need is great experience designers to help them create compelling, authentic and relevant brand experiences. Without that first step, they're really just going to piss away hundreds of millions of dollars with little or no positive impact on their business.

On the same note, a few weeks back, I wrote Experience Manifesto: American Takes Flak Over Bag Fee, Despite PR Strategy - Advertising Age - News, a piece about how much of a hard time American Airlines was taking for their baggage fees. Just a few days ago, JetBlue announced charges for blankets & pillows (New JetBlue charge: $7 pillow, blanket - Aug. 4, 2008) and they received much less flak so far. Why? It's simple. We believe that JetBlue has always been there to help us, so we're ready to help them when they need it. Most other airlines? They've never given us a lick of help, so when they ask for it, we're not so inclined to help.

So, as you go about your planning and looking at agencies and cool commercials and viral campaigns and branded entertainment and social media and island in Second Life and WOM marketing and everything else you do, remember this simple thought. If your advertising doesn't match your experience, your audience walks.

There's a big difference between the advertising model and the experience model in terms of making an authentic connection with your audience.

It's relatively simple to get people to talk about you, it's much harder to get them to buy you.

Where does "create a better experience" fall on your list of reasons to create your processes and procedures?

Extinct, my ASS! from The Original Joe Fisher on Vimeo.

An Enduring Legacy - Carnegie Mellon University

Randy Pausch died this morning. As I've said before, I haven't seen Randy in a few years, but I worked with him & Don Marinelli when they started the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU. Don was the loud, outgoing one, Randy was sort of the typical geek guy. Well, except he was really tall and in good shape! I'm not sure how comfortable he'd be with all of the attention he's been receiving since the Last Lecture and especially today. When I read The Last Lecture, I had this to say:

One thing stood out last night. He asks if you'd rather be a Tigger or an Eeyore and honestly, I'm usually an Eeyore. Sure, when I'm up on stage doing a presentation (performing), I seem pretty Tigger like, but when I come off the stage it's really easy to become Eeyore.

I've actually been in a pretty Eeyore state of mind for a couple of weeks, so maybe I need to go back and read The Last Lecture again and get myself inspired again. For me to read a book like this does make me put my own challenges in perspective, and Randy really did live his book. I know lots of students who took classes from Randy and they're still inspired by how he taught them.

My condolences to Randy's family & friends.

Randy Pausch, the professor at Carnegie Mellon University who inspired countless students in the classroom and others worldwide through his highly acclaimed last lecture, has died of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47.

Also a Carnegie Mellon alumnus, Pausch co-founded the Entertainment Technology Center and led researchers who created Alice, a revolutionary way to teach computer programming. He was widely respected in academic circles for a unique interdisciplinary approach, bringing together artists, dramatists and designers to break new ground by working in collaboration with computer scientists.

Outside the classroom, he gained public fame for delivering what would come to be known as "The Last Lecture." On Sept. 18, 2007, only a month after doctors told him that he had three-to-six months to live following a recurrence of pancreatic cancer, he presented a lecture called "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" to a packed auditorium at Carnegie Mellon.

The moving and often humorous talk recounted his efforts to achieve such childhood dreams as becoming a professional football player, experiencing zero gravity and developing Disney World attractions. In the process, he shared his insights on finding the good in other people, working hard to overcome obstacles and living generously.

"If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself," Pausch said. "The dreams will come to you."

The video appeared on countless websites and has been viewed by millions. Appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC's Good Morning America and the CBS Evening News followed.

A book version, "The Last Lecture" co-written by Jeff Zaslow of the Wall Street Journal (and a fellow Carnegie Mellon alumnus), became a best-seller upon its release this spring.

"Randy had an enormous and lasting impact on Carnegie Mellon," said Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon. "A brilliant researcher and gifted teacher, he was a key member of our Human-Computer Interaction Institute and co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center. His love of teaching, his sense of fun and his brilliance came together in the Alice project, which teaches students computer programming while enabling them to do something fun — making animated movies and games. Carnegie Mellon — and the world — are better places for having had Randy Pausch in them."

Pausch was also a pioneer in the development of virtual reality, including creating the popular Building Virtual Worlds class.

A memorial service at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh is being planned; details will be announced at a later date.

He is survived by his wife, Jai, and three children: Chloe, Dylan and Logan. The family requests that donations on his behalf be directed to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2141 Rosecrans Ave., Suite 7000, El Segundo, CA 90245, or to Carnegie Mellon's Randy Pausch Memorial Fund, which the university will use primarily to support continued work on the Alice project.

Link: An Enduring Legacy - Carnegie Mellon University.

Link: Experience Manifesto: Randy Pausch Video, Moving On - WSJ.com.

Link: Experience Manifesto: ABC News: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life.

American Takes Flak Over Bag Fee, Despite PR Strategy - Advertising Age - News

American Airlines has taken a pretty big hit lately because of their $15 fee for your first suitcase. Of course, flying today is a general nightmare for the most part. In general, the airline industry is showing some of the worst customer satisfaction numbers in history. Here's a great quote from the Ad Age article:

Mr. Fornell said consumers' hopes for a positive airline experience have become so diminished that the business plan for any airline wanting to distinguish itself from the competition needs to follow is a simple one. "Bring your passengers to their destinations on time with their luggage," he said. "Nobody has higher expectations than that now." (Emphasis mine)

But here's as so frustrating about things like this. When things are going well, most brands aren't out there trying to do things for the customer either. There's no real relationship being developed. I happened to be in London during last year's crisis at Northern Rock bank and he's what I observed then:

It does beg the question as to how much loyalty Northern Rock created with it's customers before this all began. Too many brands use a crisis as the first real time they reach out to say "Hey, we're here for you. Help us get though this and we'll be there for you when it's all over." But when the crisis is over, they go back to business as usual. Do you think they'll offer to drop the interest rates on their mortgages for people who leave their money where it is? Or will they send your nasty notes when you're a day late with your mortgage payment?

So to American Airlines I would say this. The reason you're not getting any sympathy for all of your troubles, even legitimate ones like much higher gas prices, is because we don't have any reason to give you that sympathy. You've never really been there for us. You ask us to make sacrifices for you all the time. But every time we've ever asked you for help, you almost always say no. Show up late for a flight and you almost never say "Hey, no problem, we're just put you on the next flight." No, usually you say too bad, you'll need to pay the change fee, blah, blah, blah. I can't tell you how many times I've had a chance on other airlines to change to an earlier flight flying into a different airport in NYC and been told that I'll have to buy a new ticket. All convenience for them, none for me.

So, now you need our help and you just don't understand why we're not supporting you in this time of need. Well, after years of a one-way friendship, we're just not that into you!

Link: American Takes Flak Over Bag Fee, Despite PR Strategy - Advertising Age - News.

Link: Experience Manifesto: The Power of the Crowd.

The Value of Communicating

We have used Valueweb to host our web sites for probably almost 10 years and although we've had our hiccups, generally the service does what it's supposed to do and we've been pleased. But, when there's a problem with their service, it's usually a doosey!

And that's happening right now. Something happened to their main server farm last night and all communication went down. Not only could we not access our sites and e-mail, but you couldn't access their site either. And all of their phone lines went down. There was no way to get any information about what happened and when it would be resolved and people started wondering if they had gone out of business.

I finally reached someone about 12:30 last night and was told that they had some pretty serious system issue that did, in fact, shut everything down and they were getting it all resolved. Should be up & running again in a few hours, thanks for your patience.

This morning I tried to check e-mail and there was still no connection to their servers. But if you go to ValueWeb - Systems Status, you'll see it still listed as There are currently no system outages. Of course, that's the last listing and it's from April 23rd. Not making me feel secure that they're so far behind in updating their server status, something that's so critical in today's web-focused world.

Funny thing is that they were calling this a minor system problem until recently, when it was upgraded to a serious network issue. But when you call, they also tell you not to hold as hold times are going to be long with all of the problems they're having.

But when you go to their web page or server status page, there's nothing saying sorry or we're trying to fix it ASAP or anything. It would help a lot during times like this if they broke down their usual corporate communication barriers and told us what was happening. That little effort would go a long way in helping people get through challenges like this.

Link: Web Hosting Services for Business and Ecommerce from ValueWeb.

Shouldn't Every Employee be a Brand Ambassador?

I was doing an interview for a new book about experiential marketing and I was asked about the importance brand ambassadors. My response was that while they were certainly very important when you were doing marketing events, the truth is that there shouldn't be a select group of brand ambassadors. Every employee that you hire should be a brand ambassador. We've written about the importance of retail in the past and updated our thoughts:

Retail Grows in Importance: Retail spaces will become even more important as a connection point between the consumer and the brand. And the people you hire to run your retail is becoming even more important today. Do you hire to save money or to find the best people possible to represent your brand? The consumer will know the difference.

So think about that the next time you're getting ready to hire someone. Would they be a great brand ambassador or are they simply a warm body that you can get on the cheap. Yea, I know money's tight, but give your employees something other then money to motivate them. Give them a passionate place to work. Give them the tools they need and let them make decisions. And don't be pissed off when you're employees don't care about the company when you cut their salaries/benefits while announcing that upper management made tens of millions in bonuses for saving the company money. If you're not going to treat them like they're important, they won't act like the company is important.

I'll remind you again of something we wrote back in 2003 for Event Marketer magazine. These rules are even more important today then when I wrote then 5 years ago. So read them and learn them. Your survival depends on knowing them!

1. Make it compelling. Is there a narrative story that the audience understands? Is there a narrative at all? What is the story that you tell to your customers every day? Could you define it? More importantly, can your audience? Make the product experience as good as the marketing experience. Ursula LeGuin describes a story this way -- What makes a story is - you want to 'find out what happens next' - this bit of the story leads you to the next one. When people interact with your brand, are they really interested in finding out more?

2. Deliver on your message and don’t use slogans to deliver an empty promise. Do you say that you’re committed to total customer satisfaction and then create rules of engagement that are of benefit to you and not your customers? Do you train your customer service staff to only say yes to a request after the customer has asked a certain number of times? Are you prepared to live your slogan in everything you do, and not just the easy things?

3. Make it a movement. Jim Ward, vp-marketing at Lucas Films, said recently that the next generation of brand marketing is creating a movement. Would people camp out in front of anything for up to three weeks for your product? Many companies have created movements—just listen to any Mac user talk about PCs. Is your brand a movement or simply a product? Are people passionate about your brand, your products, and your services? Do they sincerely want to share their stories of your brand with other people? Are you telling the same story with all of your employees? Are they telling the same story to your customers?

4. Be authentic. If you need more answers, talk to consumers. Be who you are and leverage what your company stands for. I recently had the opportunity to work on a product for a Fortune 100 company, helping to position them to a specific target audience. They wanted to talk about speed, but as anyone who has worked with large companies knows, speed is not one of their authentic story lines. They had many other authentic stories to tell, but it took a while for them to understand that and work with different language. Note that stories must be organic and can’t be rushed.
   

Link: Download Are You Just Hunting.pdf

Some Random Thoughts on Tactics

I know, I've been quiet lately. Part of it is travel, part of it is work and part of it is probably ADD setting in and just losing interest in blogging. It's been almost 4 years, so it's not surprising that I'm losing some steam.

But part of it is also trying to figure out what else I can keep adding to the conversation. I'm using Twitter a little more these days, because I can just write something quick & get it out. With only 140 characters, I don't have to think that much about what I'm going to say. I just say it and move on.

With the blog, of course, I feel like maybe I need to write something more in-depth, with some real thought behind it. But, maybe I can take from the twitterverse and just do some short, random thoughts. After all, no one likes to come to a blog with no recent updates. Is something better then nothing? Do I sound like Carrie on Sex in the City? And, what about Naomi?

It is interesting to continue to watch the ad industry continue to jump from tact to tactic. A few days back, someone twittered about how all of the cool people had community in their title. Now, I think they were really just being funny and all, but if you look back over the past couple of years at the ad industry, it's actually a good indication of what happens.

After all, a few years back, everyone was talking "branded content." That was the future of our business (despite the fact that branded content was almost as old as content. Apparently none of the branded content gurus had heard the story of why they're called soap operas!). I would love to know how many branded content firms were created back then! But more importantly, I'd like to know how many are still around today.

Next, we all became WOM experts. It seemed like even more then the branded content, thousands of WOM companies & experts popped up over night, helping clients understand the very complex world of WOM and being viral. (I was being sarcastic there.) And as we learned when we all became authentic, WOM can't be manipulated. We said then and continue to say today, WOM is a by product of doing something well. It's not a tactic by itself. And once again I'll say, if you allocate X% of your marketing budget to WOM, doesn't that have to mean you expect the rest of your marketing to be too lame for anyone to talk about? Shouldn't 100% of what you do be designed to generate WOM?

Then we moved to Second Life & the virtual worlds. Suddenly, we had all these experts in the metaverse explaining why virtual worlds were the next big, frontier. Again, lots of companies started around this one, single tactic, while proclaiming it the future of advertising. Lots of hype, lots of money poured into Second Life and lots of mediocre results for the most part. Companies just didn't understand how to use virtual worlds and most of the experts didn't have any better handle then the clients did. And before you write me off as just not getting it, I did my first Adweek interview on advertising in virtual worlds in 1994.

Today, we're all experts in social media and community. Once again being hailed as the future & savior of the advertising industry. Blogs, twitters, Facebook, Myspace, etc. And now everyone cool has the word "community" in their title. And for my friends in this new world of community, how many brand communities to you actually belong to? I mean, ones that aren't a client and therefore paying you to be a part of.

And for all of the community experts out there, how many of them are recommending physical, face-to-face community efforts? I mean, lots of brands have billions of dollars of real estate that most community experts don't even think about! Apple has a huge community and they do a lot of their socializing right there, in the stores. I love Twitter, but it will never replace actually meeting people. Just look at how the attendees of the recent Blogger Social talk about that event. Sure, online communities are important, but if you're not talking to your clients about offline communities too, should you really be calling yourself a community manager?

And that's why me and lots of other folks talk about experience so much. Because your brand is the accumulation of everything you do. You don't succeed or fail based on a single tactic. You create compelling, authentic & relevant experiences across every interaction with your audience. The formula is really pretty simple (man, I wish I could make pretty pictures like David Armano does!):

Great Product + Great Experience = Great Success

Play & experiment with everything you can. Use all of the tools & tactics available to you. But understand, that a good blog or Twitter program won't help you overcome a bad product or generally bad brand experience.

And maybe one, all of the cool people will have experience in their title.

PS — I’ll buy a beer for anyone who knows where the Naomi reference above!

Sent wirelessly from Nokia 9500 & T-Mobile

ABC News: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life

I wrote about the Randy Pausch Video last fall and had a chance to see the ABC News program featuring Randy last night. If you haven't seen it, well, you should. I saw Randy quite frequently when he (and I) was very active in the ETC there, but haven't seen him in a while. But, every time I see the video or read more (I'm going to try and get his book tonight), it really brings some important life lesson to me. It's one thing to read someone else's book about overcoming challenges, etc., but it's another thing to know the person that you're reading about.

One thing stood out last night. He asks if you'd rather be a Tigger or an Eeyore and honestly, I'm usually an Eeyore. Sure, when I'm up on stage doing a presentation (performing), I seem pretty Tigger like, but when I come off the stage it's really easy to become Eeyore. I can't tell you how many times I'ce had to remind myself to be a Tigger today. And hopefully, I'll keep reminding myself until I don't need the reminder anymore.

Randy, you've made a huge impact in some many peoples lives. Thanks for the video, the story and the book. Our prayers are with you & your family!

Link: ABC News: The Last Lecture: A Love Story for Your Life.

Link: Amazon.com: The Last Lecture: Randy Pausch,Jeffrey Zaslow: Books.

Why Advertising Will Destroy Social Media

OK, can I say I don't get it? I was reading Social Media Biggest Shift In Marketing Strategy Since Television? at ExperienceCurve and I read something that makes my head want to explode. Now, I read Karl's blog a lot and usually completely agree with him. In fact, he has two great pieces (here and here) just from the last few days that are well worth the read. But this one. Not so sure I agree with Karl on this one.

The article talks about a TNS media intelligence/Cymfony report on the difference between social media revolutionaries and those companies that are taking a more wait & see attitude about social media. There was a quote in the article that says "Revolutionaries focus more on listening to consumer and bloggers’ points-of-view." And that's where I thought to myself How the heck can listening to the consumer be considered revolutionary??? I mean, seriously, isn't this the cornerstone of customer service, something that's been around for, what like a 1,000 years? The tools of social media may be new, but if listening to your customer is the cornerstone of defining social media, then social media isn't new.

What is amazing to me is that our industry has so lost touch with the consumer that we think listening to the consumer is a revolutionary idea! Engaging the consumer isn't new, companies have been doing that for centuries! Listening to the consumer certainly shouldn't be new. And it sure as hell shouldn't be considered something that's only done by revolutionary companies!

One of our slides talks about those that don't know history are destined to think everything they do is new and social media should be right at the top of that list! Yes, there's cool stuff being done with technology out there and lots of it is fun. I told the National Association of Newspaper audience that every paper is the US should have Twitter set up for their readers. I believe in the power of connecting to your audience through these new tools to help create more authentic, compelling and relevant brand experiences. Look at how Adrenalina is using the Flowrider to create a cool surfing community right in the store. And I helped start a Lab here in Soho because I like cool new toys more than just about anyone I know. I can't wait to see to start playing with things like augmented reality to see how we can create damn cool brand experiences with them.

But the discussion by most in the ad industry about social media is just the latest tactic du jour. We had branded content, Second Life, viral, WOM, and on and on. Read the trades and look at how many times over the past couple of years, a slew of companies were built around chasing the tactic du jour. How many social media companies have been started in the past 6 months? But we do this instead of helping clients understand the true value of connecting with their audience by any means possible and appropriate. For many agencies and clients, they're just tactics that we jump on and jump off like they were a trampoline.

And this is why I believe that, as a whole, the advertising industry will completely screw up the entire social media thing until it becomes just as useless as what we now call traditional advertising is today. Because too many of them think that listening to clients counts as doing something revolutionary.