If you ain’t adding Value, you ain’t addin Sh-t! (Advertising: The life mirror)

Take a look at the two spots below. One says, “Haven’t you had experiences like these, and couldn’t you use something like this?”


The others says, “We are so creative!”

Now, I think that one of these spots is a work of art and the other is advertising. One adds Value and the other “ain’t addin Sh-t” (but it is really cool and I cannot wait to watch in high def on my 42 inch plasma)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwkNjNntxKM]

Google apparently does not want to make it easy for me to share video with going to their site!!! (perhaps I am a fool but, i got you tube working)

Click here for the second of the 2 videos

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=2823418698186438651 

I WANT VALUE!

I think that I am going to change the name of this blog to “A Valuable Circus”. Well, perhaps not as, this is a blog about Media (although, I think I speak as much about advertising and marketing).


Does Adidas really need to draw valueless attention? Do they really need to say, “look at me!”

I love art and think that there are some great creative things being done be ad agencies from a creative perspective but, take a look at these two ads. One if creative visually and adds not value to the product.

The other is just creative and adds tremendous value.

You take a stab at which is which.

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/ADIDAS-STRIKES-AGAIN---WHAT-A-GOAL!/

http://www.thecoolhunter.net/ads/PERSONAL-STAMP-AD/

Carl Orff: Ad Man of the 20th Century?

Every morning I get to work and turn on my computer and the Answers daily highlights (which I have opted in to receive) pops up. It tells me whose birthday it may happen to be, a few “words of the day” and it gives me a quote.



Today’s quote was by the composer Carl Orff (I had the pleasure of seeing the Carmina Burana a few years ago at
Lincoln center so, I am a fan!).

The quote was this:

"Tell me, I forget; show me, I remember; involve me, I understand." – Carl Orff

What exactly was he talking about? Is it possible that Carl Orff foresaw the 21st century advertising/marketing shift?


Lets look at the sentence more closely:

Tell me, I forget; show me, I remember: This sounds a bit like broadcast radio and television advertising although, these days, you can show me and I will still forget.

…involve me, I understand: The Web, Blogging, Podcasting, Tivo, Mobile etc.

One point I want to make is, involvement does not equal conversion but, an engaged consumer is far more likely to be receptive to marketing messages so, Carl Orff, you were a 20th century advertising genius!

Viral=Value?

Along with the rise of social media came a surge in viral marketing but, is viral enough?  

Below is yet another example of a cute 30 second spot that will no doubt be passed around the world via the web.


My question is what value is being added here? What is this commercial really selling? Is this simply a less expensive way to do the same thing that the traditional 30 second spot has always done (be cute and sell nothing)?


I must say, I am not sure!


I can tell you that Bunker shoes has gained no favorable brand positioning in my mind and to be honest, when I started writing this, I had already forgotten what company the ad was for.


Is there no way to be viral and add value at the same time?


[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnqmhxrx5kQ]


I am going to do a test and see if Joseph Jaffe has a watch for his name (I know I sure do). I would love his opinion on the matter as well as anyone else’s.

I Am the Owner Of Walmart, Best Buy, Sony, Nike and Apple (all within my head)/SEPR Part 1

I recently encountered many conversations about “brand ownership”. One was in Mediapost and the others, well, I cannot even remember if they were podcasts, blogs or actual conversation (once again, the effect of media fragmentation on media memory).


The conclusions of all these conversations were that consumers are the real brand owners, managers and communicators. My professor, mentor, friend and media legend, Charlie Warner always stressed that people like and trust people like themselves (this was one of the things that he brought in his Media Selling textbook but, he knows that it is true in life overall).


This statement may sound obvious but, its implications are tremendous. When judging a brand people place as much emphasis on the wisdom of crowds (if not more so) than on advertising and marketing messages. Being a search marketer, this fact is very important to me as, now matter how much I bid and how great my copy is (which it always is J ) there is always the possibility of natural rankings containing some type of negative messaging.


Enter Search PR.


To my fellow search marketers, do yourselves a favor (if you do not already). Listen to the Hobson Holz report, Inside PR, any PR blogs you can find and do everything in your power to not just understand SEM but, to understand SEPR (Search Engine Public Relations).


What I mean by this is, it is just as important to police the natural rankings and make sure that you are pleasing the public (as they are the true owners of your brand) as it is to pay for placement.


I will write more about this subject but, I woke up this morning to get ready for my big move to my new apartment and began to search for flat panel monitors at PC Richards. Although I did not see anything negative on Google I thought to myself how easy it would be to dissuade me from every going to PC Richards if my eyes caught a glimpse of something negative about the company in the natural rankings.


With so many options these days, I have not time to be loyal!

I Am One (even in a world of 1’s and 0’s)

I was listening to episode #38 of Across the Sound (one of my favorite podcasts, Jaffe, you’re the man!) this morning on the way to work and one of the topics was digital identity.


Now, this is a topic better suited to be debated by some of my great old professors at the New School however, the way that my day unfolded prompted me to want to continue the conversation.


In this new digital world we are asked to create profiles for ourselves in many different places (Flikr, MySpace, LinkedIn etc). I for one will be the same person in all of the places and quite frankly, the over saturation of the social networking space is getting annoying. I simply do not have time or the want to re-create myself (with the exception of Second Life in which I am Mockben Hegel, but that is a different story for a different post).


The bottom line is, I want one digital identity that can apply to all social networks. Enter people aggregator (information courtesy of Michael Arrington’s Tech Crunch post yesterday). Boy have I been waiting for this one (or at least what it aims to be!).



I am one person in the flesh, let me be so in binary code, should I choose to be!

Are You A Consumer Conversationlist?

http://www.bluelineresults.com/the+reality/Nobody+is+Listening!/default.htm


No doubt you have heard the buzz surrounding social media properties such as MySpace, YouTube etc. Blogging and Podcasting have become essential topics for traditional marketers desperately clinging on to their jobs while online advertising look at these technologies as natural extension of the online space, or do they?


I came across this article and thought to myself; online advertisers who are simply throwing banners on a page are just as ineffective as advertisers spending millions on out of home clutter.


The bottom line is clutter is clutter, in any medium.


They key is to engage in a concise, directed and honest conversation!


Does this mean that PR is the future of marketing?


Is social media the job of the media planner, the marketer, the PR agent or the creative director (perhaps it is the job of the secretary)?


It is my opinion that, if you are open minded and willing to study all of these disciplines, you will be an effective consumer conversationalist. That is the best way to build trust for your brand and feed your bottom line!

All things come to an end

All in all, Supernova was a great experience!

In my eyes some of the key themes were:

1. The (re) centralization of information or, the minimized importance that is place on the desktop
2. Net Neutrality (just ask a ninja)
3. The future of information and the way we sift through it (search).
a. Tagging (del.icio.ous)
b. Social Search (Jookester)
4. The push to ubitquitize (I realize that is not a word) our information for access anywhere, anytime, on demand
5. There are a ridiculous amount of start ups doing the same thing!
6. The US could be much better in terms of drumming up competition in order to further broadband access
7. “Love” does play a role in business (once again, thank Craig and, to all you naysayers, good luck!)
8. Virtual worlds are not necessarily games

My favorite people from the event:

1. David Sifry (thanks for the insight)
2. Frank Gruber (we are now Linkedin)
3. Colette Vogele (call me back, I have questions about podcasting and the law)
4. Michael Copps (thanks for the inspiration)
5. Glenn Thomas (Ideal World is going to be a great movie!!!)
6. Philip Rosedale (thanks for blowing my mind)
7. Craig Newmark (thanks for the love)
8. Jeremiah Owyang (thanks for the flikr pic)
9. Jerry Paffendorf (the electric sheep company)

And of course Kevin Webach, thanks for the events!

Finally, can someone help me with my new Blog “A Media Circus”. Obviously my design skills suck!!!!

The Magical Disappearing Desktop Part 2 (the ungeek version)

I find the concept of the end of the desktop as we know it very interesting. I would like to, in this post speak using as little jargon as possible as, I have been accused of being dense and, the purpose of this blog is not to speak to the technorati as, they are much smarter than I am 

IBM pioneered the mainframe (a large computer that all other computers in a network interfaced with in order to retrieve and process information) in the 80’s. Each computer (node) on the network was essentially dumb and was subject to the will of the mainframe. The computers on the network did not run applications. They did not store very much information at all.

As the PC became affordable, information and applications were able to be stored and executed from the desktop and information was rapidly decentralized from the mainframes. This was a very powerful movement in information usage and storage.

A problem arose. What if you had more than one computer? What if you had many email clients on many different machines? What if you needed access to your computer and were without your PC?

Enter the proliferation of broadband and AJAX powered applications. It is not important that you understand exactly what these terms mean but, the bottom line is, all of a sudden information no longer need to be accessed from a mainframe or a PC. Now, information could be accessed and manipulated on the web!

AJAX allowed for word processing (or any information processing) tools to reside online and not act in the clunky manner that the static HTML web acted in. Information could once again be stored in a centralized location and accessed from anywhere at anytime. Think Gmail, Basecamp, Flikr, Picasa, MySpace, Blogger and probably 20,000 other applications that have been deemed Web 2.0 apps.

Some futurists have called for the rise of Web OS or, the web as operation system. If this were the case, why would we need a desktop?

Is the Internet really My Space?

Micheal Copps of the FCC spoke this morning. In referring to the way in which Washington was handling the broadband era he said,

“All is not well in Washington… The US is 15th in the world in terms of Broadband penetration… We totally lack a national strategy….” (this quote is a mash-up but these statements are not taken out of context)

15th in terms of broadband penetration? How is that possible? How can the leaders of the free world be so far behind in communications infrastructure?

Perhaps the Digital Revolution is being led by media companies that do not have the common person’s best interests in mind. Perhaps the internet is headed down the same road of media consolidation that we have seen in the past with other forms of media.

What will this mean in terms of how we use the internet? Censorship aside, if the duopoly (the cable companies and the telco’s) that is currently in place gains more strength what are the possible outcomes? Well, the phone companies are certainly not happy with free VOIP so, they made decide to prohibit the use of that service.

What if the massive web portals were able to use economic strength to gain traffic preference (i.e. more bandwidth).

I am writing this as he is speaking so, I have not had the ability to think about this but you can be sure I will give it more thought.

Copps made a call for all of us to take action,

“Decisions without you are most often decision against you”

The Key Is Wanting to Know

A quick plug for my company and my great co-workers...
A rising star at Morpheus Media, Andaiye Taylor, wrote this in response to an email I wrote about second life:

"I'm really going to have to make it a priority to get up to speed on this stuff. Much thanks for keeping us abreast. You're right -- this second life thing is gonna be a beast!"- Dai

You go Dai!