Fage: Original Poetry

Sure, it's visually impressive. And yes, it's Willem Dafoe narrating. But what makes this new spot for Fage (by Mullen) good marketing is its original writing. In fact, watching it the first time, I assumed it was a passage from some well-known poet.. some writer who's already said these words a hundred years ago about some other more important moment. But there it was-- an original piece of writing for a product that is unique enough to get my attention.

Does it interest its target audience? That remains to be seen. But Fage finds a unique way to talk about a very un-unique category. Good marketing.

Cole Haan: Superlative sales staff

I recently talked to a good colleague who's relative works for Cole Haan. I mentioned being interested in two styles of shoes to upgrade my business attire, and got the following response. This is beyond helpful. Not only does it show this person's deeply-rooted knowledge of his brand's products, but it shows a care & concern for my unique situation.  It is commentary like this that makes a customer for life.  It's what I call "good marketing."

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HarleyDavidson's Cages

What makes this new spot for Harley "good marketing" is two things:
1) it's simple; one basic idea
2) it's founded on an insight that bikers know & believe (and that non-bikers don't know): anything but a bike is a cage. and cages don't = freedom

When a brand can tell a story that its customers agree with and even celebrate, that brand has done its job.

Demonstrate.The.Product.

what's good?

showing more than telling.  no words, no VO, no technical jargon necessary.

Adding interactivity to EPUB digital book formats

I came across the video above prepared by Liza Daly last week and wanted to share. In it, she covers the basic formats that enable richer more interactive content that can be integrated into the basic EPUB digital book format - TODAY.

How? Three primary ways:

- Javascript

- CSS3

- Geographic & other data sources (via APIs - when connected online)

 

What's great about this is that these interactive formats aren't 100% reliant on Adobe Flash. Because HTML5 is already proving solid use-cases for Java, CSS and the like, these kinds of interactivity that Liza shares are already capable in iBooks and other WebKit based readers. Still - there's a substantial amount of evolution that still needs to take place. Notably:

- widespread eReader support is still limited

- the EPUB spec needs better endorsement

- security considerations are still TBD

- Graceful degradation will be a requirement in the near-term (when interactivity isn't part of the platform or network services aren't available)

I see a future for digital books that have statistics updated in real-time. Or fiction stories that could take place in the reader's neighborhood.  Or textbooks that feature rich animations for historical events, mathematical problems, audio & video clips... seriously - how is the publishing business not jumping on this like yesterday?

Side note: I need to investigate Monocle further. I hadn't heard of that browser-based reading system before today...

Sports Illustrated is cooking up future content in HTML5. [Really exciting alternatives for digital publishing]

What makes this content so beneficial in HTML5? The SI editor answers...
"Every article uses the new HTML5 elements for structure: section, article, aside, et al. We're also using drag and drop (both built-in and custom), geolocation, web workers, video, app cache, and a lot of neat tricks to speed everything up. The app performs significantly faster in HTML5 because we don't have to rely on Javascript to animate objects or Flash to embed beautiful typography."

I appreciate that some publishers are earnestly exploring digital publishing techniques (and not just digital ad-delivery techniques). It is certainly more of a case of staying current & relevant in the face of massive technical change -- but employing techniques that enable rich web-based versions of content provide (I believe) welcome alternatives to the app-heavy world that some believe to be in our future. The future Sports Illustrated is testing may be device- and screen-agnostic. No plug-ins, no special apps. Just a current web browser & an internet connection. I look forward to seeing more examples of this.

Email marketing winner of the day? Qdoba

Why do they win today? Two reasons:

1) They regularly offer *real* specials like food discounts, trials of new menu items and free food via their Qdoba card. I'm aware of very few other QSRs that invest as much into a loyalty program.
2) They included my Qdoba card point balance and (perhaps more importantly) the amount of points required to get my next free entree. I may only eat there once every couple weeks but I never forget that card. 

I know - these are very basic, but when's the last time you received a simple but helpful email from a marketer?

================

Update (from @TryThisColor): Qdoba is using Exact Target (and my guess is they're tapping into AmpScript to include those deets) - +1 for ExactTarget

================

To view this email as a web page, click here.
Please add Qdoba_Mexican_Grill@marketing.qdoba.com 
to your Address Book or Safe Sender list to ensure delivery to your inbox.
     
 

 

 
 
 
YOU HAVE 884 POINTS ON YOUR CARD 
YOU ARE ONLY 116 POINTS AWAY
FROM A FREE ENTREE
 
As of 03/06/2010 for card Cxxxxxxxx4
This email was sent to: 

 

This e-mail was sent by:
Qdoba Mexican Grill. 
4865 Ward Road, Suite 500
Wheat Ridge, Colorado, 80033-1902,
Copyright © 2010 Qdoba Mexican Grill All rights reserved.
Unsubscribe from: Loyalty Club

 

When is a marketing email noticeable? When it's timely & relevant.

I've been a Dropbox user for only two months now and when I registered my account, I opted in to receive emails from the company.  In that time, I have received zero marketing emails from them. Nothing telling me about new services or how to "maximize" my account.  That is - until I received this email last week.

Big deal. it's just a simple email about earning more space.  

Thing is - this email was extremely timely and based on my activity. I had shared a file with a colleague via Dropbox just three hours prior.  Either this was a fortuitous coincidence on their part, or it was sent because Dropbox recognized that I used its service and delivered a large (powerpoint) file.  I recognized the message, it was relevant to my action and it included an offer.

How often can you say you receive emails as relevant? I can't remember the last time it happened to me.

Dropboxemail

Spirit's CEO stuffs himself into overhead compartment

Well, if a company is going to charge a fee that none of its competitors charge, then at least the company recognizes that they have to explain why. And this way of explaining goes a substantial distance in doing so..

Fellas: a six-minute-story worth watching.

As a big consumer of documentaries, I am always on the lookout for new storytellers and stories told. I typically go for full-feature-length stories, but Vimeo has been a growing source of short-form documentaries as people start to gain access to high-production-quality, low-cost video capture tools.

"Last Minutes with Oden" from Phos Pictures is no exception. More importantly, it's exceptional. Stories well told illicit immediate and visceral emotion on the part of the viewer, and this story has been on my mind for over a week. It was intimately shot, carefully edited and includes a really impressive original audio soundtrack. I couldn't help but be affected by Jason Wood's emotion and I think you will to. So I wanted to share.

Is Too Much Math Killing Marketing? The #sxsw debate continues. #toomuchmath

Aggressivecat
Last Tuesday morning, I sat in on a session at South By Southwest that posed the question, "Is Too Much Math Killing Marketing?" For an early morning session, participants Mike Teasdale and Rand Schulman (with moderator Joanna Burton) kept the debate lively and funny-- while still making valid points on each side.  Make no mistake; this is not a new argument (nor a settled one) because as time goes on we experience more successful brands that eschew data for instincts and other brands that find exponential success by rigorously measuring dollars spent and audience attracted.
The emergence of digital analytics tools, detailed testing, KPIs and algorithms now guides what will and won't work best for marketers.  But those same metrics sometimes lead to decision paralysis.  
Mike Suggested Less Math
There are a number of online organizations (ex: Google & Amazon) that use data at their core to make every decision. From which blue to use in a logo to which products to display in front of a consumer who's browsing a site, metrics inform the most efficient & effective approaches.  While these numbers are important, Mike talked about the creative leaders of prior generations, speaking of how successful they were when they started with a problem and found an empathic way to solve it.. speaking to an audience in a way that struck an emotional chord.
“Data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.” -- Douglas Bowman, Creative Director, Twitter

When is too much math a problem?
- When we start with the data - not with a problem
- When we only focus on the things that are easy to measure
- When it stops us from taking giant leaps
Mike believes we've over-optimized the web, and if we're not careful we'll end up with extremely measurable, accurate and emotion-less sites that generally look the same. Organizations that make exponential leaps in ideas and innovation are often far more successful than those that take iterative steps. 
Then it was Rand's turn.. and he made a solid case for metrics:
“What is the sound of creativity when no one can hear it? Zero. Internet Changes the Equation”  
There's a number of reasons for this, but it's hard to argue that empirical structured data is more useful than guess work. There's a number of digital tools that enable optimization- both in online advertising, website design and conversion. 
Rand also proposed a new term for a known concept: he said we are all "Content Engineers." If we split our thinking and concepting into two parts: one for creative direction and the other for data analysis, then we'll be more successful.  He suggests that if we use the scientific method (hypothesize/set up a control/test & experiment/analyze findings) then we'll be better equipped to use the tools that exist today to measure more conversion events & data sources.
My takeaway
I value this debate and the points made by each, but neither proposed anything radically new or different.  It goes without saying that creativity in a vacuum may just be 'art' and metrics by themselves are just numbers-- but we've had more than a few years to prove that metrics do matter to our efforts.  I would have liked to have seen a deeper debate.. maybe one that challenged the current status-quo of banner advertising (CTRs of 0.05% anyone?). Or something that showed when it's best to choose gut-instinct.
Good marketing may be part emotion, part calculation. As far as which part is more important- that's still TBD.
Photo Courtesy icanhascheezburger.com

Why Sync was a good idea...that misses the mark

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Let me start by saying that I want to like Sync. A lot. It's a great idea. I definitely solves an unmet need: browsing one's digital music catalog using one's voice while driving... Sync provides safety, ease, good voice recognition. all these things are solid.

But in my week-long experience with a Ford Focus rental car featuring Sync, here's my basic experience, every time I start the car:
1) Turn on car/turn on stereo
2) Plug in iPhone (16 gig with roughly 1200 songs on it)
3) Sync "indexes" my music catalog
4) 20-25 minutes later, indexing is complete and I'm able to use Sync's technology

I see three problems with this:
1) Per Sync's guidelines (at least if you're not an owner), there is no way to turn off the "Indexing" process (nor can I index while listening to the radio or a cd)
2) I cannot play any of the music on the device until "indexing" is complete
3) 75% of my car trips are roughly 15 minutes long

Thus, the Sync music feature is worthless, and my trips are silent. And if the US Census Bureau's statistics are any measure, the average American commuter would only be able to use this Sync music feature for about 5 minutes (based on my very unscientific observations).  if they were to have a device with roughly 1,000 songs on it. (this means iPhones, iPods, Zunes), they get limited value.

What could Microsoft do about this?  
- Consider an option to turn off the indexing (and simply remember previous index settings)
- Consider enabling the driver to choose certain playlists (or albums or artists, etc) to index

I wish I could say that this might have been something that was simply overlooked, but I wonder what Microsoft considered the average music user and the average music device....and I hope they fix this when they upgrade the software.

 

Dispatches from my First #SXSWi

If you've spent any time monitoring my twitterstream for the past three days, you'd know that I'm in a hotbed of conversation around the emerging digital space: South By Southwest. The interactive festival is a concentrated five-day learning experience that brings together all range of thinkers and doers.. builders and coders.. storytellers and theorists.

Elevate Studios in Chicago has graciously supported my attendance here and I'll be bringing back substantial ideas for clients and thoughts for how to apply them, but more importantly: perspective. That perspective will influence how we talk to clients and approach their marketing problems to solve.

I pursued the typical freshman-year-track here at SXSW: study hard and go to class. I've attended 19 sessions so far (with 5 more tomorrow) on topics that range from Content Management Systems to Content Strategy to the intersection between mobile applications and advertising. And I've also sat in on sessions that challenge the current philosophies of online privacy, digital sustainability and storytelling.

In the coming 5 days, I'm going to pull out specific things I learned from some of my most interesting panels. But today, I figured I'd share some of the sights around Austin and the conference itself. So far... what an experience.

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Brothers Suneel & Dr Sanjay Gupta at SXSW

Narrating stories from every community with the Kahani Movement & StoryCorps...

Photo

Google Maps: mo' betteh with Biking Directions

What's not to love about using Google Maps to plot out good biking courses in a city near you? WITH Bike trails, streets with bike lanes and recommended roads for bikes.. DIG.

(h/t Techcrunch)

One likely company I'll likely seek out @SXSW: Kyte & its new LivePro tech

I've been following the efforts of Kyte for a while now, and they continue to impress me as they evolve their product offerings. Their latest is a backpack developed in partnership by LiveU... Spin Magazine will be giving it a test-drive at SXSW (details TBD).

Their initial audience may be media companies and broadcasters who want to reduce the need for sattelite trucks and heavy equipment (and heavy resources) but depending upon cost - this could easily find its way into the brand marketing content development space.  I've worked with a few clients that did live events (with online streaming) but all of them were restricted to as far as their landlines & powercords would reach.

I'd like to believe that the evolution of HD-quality, live broadcasting using existing wireless networks will enable more brands to become real-time content publishers. Live online events could supplement media buys during critical promotional seasons -- and sponsored events. And seemingly with Kyte's new product, those brands can push the live feeds through existing brand websites and social networks to supplement their other online marketing efforts.

Something like...

 What if Gatorade had its own court-side footage of the Final Four championships in-progress (with its own brand reporters) and pushed that feed to the half-million fans through its Facebook page? Instead of just making it a one-way broadcast, they could take live questions from fans on the page.. interview coaches & training staff during quick game breaks...

Or what if L'Oreal were to have back-stage live feeds of its hair & makeup areas during NY Fashion Week and pushed a feed to its 288,000 Facebook fans? They could show the moments that stylists experience as models are getting ready for the runway, and ask fans what they wanted to know, while those fans were watching the action take place...

 

Microsoft's Pivot: a new tool to explore context on the web

Strategists, planners, creatives--- many people in the marketing business are constantly challenged with uncovering new insights about audience behaviors and interests.  They use media databases, behavior surveys and panels and countless online resources to pull together meaning from disparate data.  But what of the data that people create and post everyday online?  What if they could survey the web's content for these same insights?

The folks at Microsoft have begun to explore ways to make that happen.  I just watched this fascinating TED video about Pivot and wished I could explore it myself right now-- but sadly it's only available in beta for Windows 7 & Vista users.

We may be a long way away from being able to use this kind of technology in our daily lives, but seeing 'context' research tools like this is very exciting.

 

"The Sandpit" is not a movie. It's a stream of more than 35,000 still photos.

Truly inventive content takes work. In this case, the creator used a camera (Nikon D3) to take a series of stills using two lenses at about 4fps-- the fastest his camera would shoot and write to the camera's memory card.  The tilt-shift effect was actually something added in post-production (because shooting it as such would have been even more labor-intensive).. You can read his blog for more of the details on how it was done.
But boy was it done well. and with original music.
(h/t @corbanb for the find)

I think I've found my new MacBookPro case.

Pricey, but pretty classy. Plus, it's generally reflective of how I use it..

Embrace Life: storytelling in rare form.

I know.. i know. It's not digital. It's a PSA.  From across the pond.  But regardless of the medium, this video hits upon so many different emotions in such a lucid way. It doesn't slap us over the head with violence, it doesn't preach at us as an overbearing parent.  It doesn't even say anything.  

It just reminds us why "it" is so important.

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