Have we become assholes?

People love to be part of tribes. The advertising community is not different. We have the traditional tribes, the digital tribes, the Web 2.0 tribes and and and.

In the last few months I've seen a lot of blog posts, heard many podcasts and overheard conversations where the Social Media/Web 2.0 guys sounded like arrogant hypocrites: The big agencies don't get digital, everything is about the 30 second spot, they're just trying to hold on to their riches. Traditional folks have become enemies. Outdated jokes we look down upon.

And, the digital guys are the Rambo's and Rocky's of the new era. We know the answer to everything, we know where the game is going, we know the future. In short: the traditional folks sit in dark-wooded bars sipping on their three martini lunches while we sip on organic fruit elixirs changing the world one pixel at a time.

By talking and acting like this, we have become the enemy. We act like arrogant 'know-it-alls' , stopped listening to the traditional folks and, basically, turned into the people we warned others about.

In the end, we need to understand that the advertising world is a community. Sure, there will be differences, discussions, fights, politics. And we will continue to see things from our point of view and will continue to struggle accepting the 'traditional' point of view. But we have to make this a productive process, not a destruction path that goes nowhere.

The advertising community has many problems: limited attention of people, dramatically changing media usage, overwhelming amount of channels - you know the drill. That's our real enemy (if you want to call it that), not the other side of the advertising community. High School attitudes and cliques won't get us any further in tackling this enemy.

Ultimately, we should take our own advice of listen and learn to the advertising community. It's not about who's right. It's about doing the right thing in this new marketing reality. At this moment, all of us are one eyed kings and queens. Let's work together to get the whole picture.

Chevy Malibu - How can I ignore you?

Chevy tried something interesting today on Yahoo's homepage: Quoting user reviews and linking directly to the Yahoo! Auto Chevy Malibu review page.
I counted 41 reviews at 9.20 am PT: 22 positive, 12, negative and 7 reviews discussing the advertising tactics or supporting domestic automakers with patriotic arguments.

A few quotes:

I WAS WITH HONDA FOR 5 YEARS IN THE CAR BUSINESS. THIS NEW MALIBU WILL TURN ASIAN CAR BUYERS BACK TO GM. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, THEN YOU HAVEN'T DRIVEN ONE YET. GREAT CAR.

Why there are so many haters in this country? Some poeple says so nagative about it, and obviously, they don't even own one. People are already saying it breaks when warranty expires. but the car just out. Why are u such a bad person? To judge it buy one and tell us when 5 years later the warranty expired and when the car does break. It just don't make sense over the old products agains the new ones. Or does someone paying you to say it?

The last American car that I owned was a Chevrolet. It was a maintenance
nightmare and a piece of junk. Since this horrible experience I only drive vehicles for Toyota and Honda.

CHEVROLET MALIBU IS THE WORST CAR THEY ONLY LAST AS LONG AS YOU ARE UNDER WARRENTY, AFTER THAT THE CAR GO DOWN HILL

another piece of general motors junk..i have been waiting 30 years for them to come even close to camry or accord. needs better pricing to bring the folks back..lutz is a joke..discusted detroiter..

i love the new malibu. it is the best i ever owned. all i ever by is a chevy. my grandfathers car has over 300,000 miles on it and it runs great. and the trucks are awesome 2

best car for the price
when i first saw this car i thought is was a audi a6

just wondering how many of these comments were written by GM, the lack of cons gives it away

is car is the definite class act of the mid-size market. Styling is heads and shoulders above the Accord and especially the Camry (does anyone really think the bulbous styling is really attractive?).

This is a giant step forward and is a compeditive offering. We should stop bashing our selfs as Americans and stop living in the past with respect that only Japan can build a good car at this price point.

Go test drive this car and take a close look. It may change your perspective!

Some of these comments explain why our country is in is decline. Go to Japan and Germany to see how loyal their people are to domestic autos. They understand the importance of the auto industry and the export business. Our country has become an import happy country and all the good jobs are gone because we have no loyalty to our own products.

If the good reviews supposedly come from GM dealers or GM HQ or GM marketers, then the reviews bashing the Malibu probably come from Toyota dealers, Toyota HQ or Toyota marketers or all other "foreign" car makers.

I was under the impression that these comments were to be left by people that own the cars so you could get an impression of what people think about it on a daily basis. Its a little unnerving to see that half of the people on here that are just in LOVE with their rice burners have nothing but bad things to say about this car, because well, its a car that will probably knock their company off its high horse.

Holy Cow, how many of these reviews were written by GM dealers or someone at the GM HQ's.. WOW..!!! I had a 2003 Malibu that was the biggest piece of crap I've ever owned, and that included Ford Escorts..!!! I sold it at 44k with a blown intake manifold, yeah, they've been building cars for 80 years but can't make an intake manifold that won't leak.

Not for nothing, I think Yahoo to support the the ad on its homepage or GM marketing wrote 90% of the user reviews on this board. The language and the style of most of the posts seem like the same person wrote the positive feedbacks. Thats not to say that the car isn't decent, it is. But, it would be a travesty for these two publicly traded companies, to put an ad up Quoting Yahoo Users to get people to click and then misrepresent themselves as normal owners and buyers. The truth is that this car is competive against Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. It does have standard features that are included that the other cars lack. But we all mistrust the longevity and future values of a Chevy and I doubt it will hold up as well as its Japanese look-a-likes. If you are shopping check it out, but don't be fooled by these self posts that GM is flaunting in its Yahoo AD.

I just bought this car and am very impressed with the overall performance and value of this vehicle.... Job well done Chevy !

It's interesting how the discussion changed from reviewing the car to discussing the quality issues (or perception thereof) of domestic automakers. Chevy should have expected it because that's the real conversation happening out there. People have the perception that domestic automakers don't have the same quality product as Japanese automakers.

You can't fight this perception with a massive media blitz and hope for attitudinal changes. Instead, Chevy should have a found a way to insert themselves into this conversation and answer critics with facts (extended warranty) and maybe even some discussion about other brands. If you want to access the world of conversational marketing, you need to listen, respond and join. Just linking to user reviews and hoping for the best doesn't do the job. It will do more harm than good.

Update: I started this post at 9.20 and it's now 10.20 am - No reviews have been posted in the last hour.

Update: Interestingly, the number of reviews have not changed but new reviews are coming in. Bad reviews are still visible but they seem to be switching out old ones. Not sure. However, the discussion has deteroriated. One of the last posts:

Jesus is God!
YAYAYAY YAY YAY YAy YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!! GO GM GO ...

Update: It's 10:08 pm, the campaign has ended. Still only 41 reviews, it seems the old ones drop and the reviews are limited to 41 posts. Lame.

Will it blend?

It still works and entertains but the series has lost its luster. I guess it's time to blend the blender as the big finale.

We are the people we have been waiting for

Brilliant Thomas Friedman discusses the climate change in his newest column, titled 'The People We Have Been Waiting For'. He sees no hope that any politician will drastically change the approach to climate change, but, at the same time, he sees major signs of hope outside of the beltway. He names Google and their announcement to invest million in developing its own energy business and the M.I.T Energy Club.

Friedman ends:

"They’re not waiting for G.M. Their goal, they explain on their Web site — vds.mit.edu — is “to identify the key characteristics of events like the race to the moon and then transpose this energy, passion, focus and urgency” on catalyzing a global team to build a clean car. I just love their tag line. It’s what gives me hope:

“We are the people we have been waiting for.”

We see it everywhere, people are taking control. It's much more than just fast-forwarding through commercials or posting Jackass-style videos on YouTube. It's on a much more fundamental, society-changing level:
Politicians and big institutions have failed us. Slowly but surely, we're chipping away at their power base until these institutions will be just faint reminder of better (for them) times.
Politicians and brands need to understand that old formulas are just that: old formulas. They don't need a new formula, they need a new approach, a new mindset.
And they better do it fast because we have no reason for wait. We're working on our own formula.

Make love not war

What do football and media planning have in common? Both are littered with military analogies: We launch media 'campaigns', implement 'the blitz', 'target' audiences, hope for 'hits' and 'impacts'. We want to hold our audience 'captive' by delivering 'sticky' experiences. This use of language in the marketing world has defined relationships between brands and people. And created a divide between 'us' and 'them'.

As we know, brands have become the Miami Dolphins of 2007 and people the New England Patriots. It's an unfair battle. Even without spygate, the Patriots (people) have an unfair advantage:

- They have a better strategy (Ad avoidance - Bill Belichick)
- They have stronger weapons (DVR/Adblocker - Randy Moss/Tom Brady)
- They have a huge home advantage (My Media on my terms - Gillette Stadium)

There are two ways to go:
Either we build up our team through draft (bring in new weapons), developing better strategies (Think DMA, Napster, etc.) and try to develop a walled garden that eliminates the home advantage and puts brands/publishers in the driver's seat again.

Or, we develop a new language and, most importantly, replace our current American Football metaphor with something more communal and relationship-building.

As Doc Searls describes:

"Advertising is about supply finding and "creating" demand. Nothing wrong with that. At its best it's good and necessary stuff. But think about what will happen when demand can find and create supply. That's the real holy grail here. And it's one that will take fresh development effort on both the supply and demand sides. The difference between those two right now is that the supply side has been working on targeting, creating and controlling demand for the duration, and the demand side is still getting started."

Clearly, we haven't found the right models for the demand side yet. But we need to start now. And the way to start is with adjusting our marketing language.

Ludwig Wittgenstein said:
The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.

Our current language limits us and our relationships with people. Let's change it.

The end of the Internet Part 2

I joined the digital world in the late 90's: Razorfish, Dot-com's, bubbles, layoffs, etc. Exciting, nerve-wrecking, sleepless times. One afternoon in 2001, I 'surfed' the Web and suddenly had the realization that everything on the Web was boring. It felt so stale, nothing new happened, no innovation just pure stagnation. It felt like I had reached the end of the Internet. I shut down the computer, opened a book, listened to radio and watched TV. End of Part 1.

Fast forward 6 years. Part 2.
We're on the brink of a recession, traditional media spend growth will slow, digital advertising spend will increase dramatically and social media is the new, new, new thing.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

Not really.

Sure, more and more brand are moving money to digital agencies but I don't really see innovation. Most of the transferred money will end up on search engines and portals, some of it on MySpace and Facebook. But, where's the innovation?

Where are the ideas and campaigns that utilize communication tools such as Twitter? How can we create experiences on Jaiku and Seesmic? Where are the digitally integrated campaigns that utilize all the tools Web 2.0 users are working with each and every day?

The window of opportunity is wide open: Brands have tired of print and TV, they look for digital marketing to save the day. As providers for marketing solutions, we need to be prepared for this dramatic shift in spend. If we don't innovate and offer new models to connect with and engage people, brands will quickly tire of digital marketing and move on. We have to find new ways to spend money, new places to engage people, new methods to converse with people.

Recessions are scary times. People tend to act more conservatively, tend to regress to known and stay away from the unknown. One failed campaign can mean a financial disaster, restructuring and/or, ultimately, the loss of a job. Your job.

The window of opportunity is wide open but it will be closing. Fast.
One day, your client will sit in front of you and ask you: 'What have you done for me lately?' If your answer will be filled with words like SEM, SEO, portals, reach, CTR, engagement, you better shut up and let silence speak for you.

The time to innovate is now. All of us have to save the day because now is the time to develop integrated, digital models. New ideas.

Are you ready to save the day?

Will the strike elevate digital entertainment?

In case you lived under a rock, a strike is imminent in Hollywood. It's a dispute over higher home video residuals between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Crunchgear writes:

"One rule, in particular, caught my interest. It says; “The Rules prohibit writing services performed for a struck company in connection with new programming intended for initial viewing on non-traditional media (such as the Internet and cellular telephones), and the option or sale of literary material for that purpose.” Basically, no writing for websites owned by big media companies. No rules against online ventures that you start yourselves or that are owned by someone or something independent of the companies against which you’re striking.

Reuters makes a very interesting point concerning all of this.

“The last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike, restless viewers turned to cable, sending the category into a growth spurt that continues to this day. With a writers strike set to be announced Friday, the question looming over digital Hollywood is: Can the Web become the cable of 2007?”

(...)

To those of you in the Writers Guild; whether or not I agree with the reason you’re striking, I wish you the best of luck and I hope you consider creating content for the web. And if you do, I hope you’ll realize that you don’t need the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to get that content onto the Internet. Remove the slow, old, awkward, paranoid middle man. This is a great opportunity to change your distribution system. If all the content you created went straight to the web, you’d save us consumers a lot of time and money."

This could be a watershed moment, indeed. Digital Entertainment is only as good as the TV shows we watch online, the latest fall with your dirtbike from the roof and some diamonds in the rough. Nobody has really invented the sitcom advertising pod for the Web yet, the perfect length and content structure. I hope we'll never fixate on another formua like the :30 second spot but innovative ideas for content are way overdue. And a shift in the power from publisher to creator.

What's your digital identity?

Fred Cavazza listed on this graphic all the platforms that Web 2.0 offers to express yourself. The quadrants give you an opportunity to explore what you're focusing on:
Is it more about expression or profession? How about hobby and knowledge?
Your digital footprint gives you an idea about your digital identity. I wonder if your digital identity is in line with your real life identity.

In my case, my digital identity reflects 50% of my real life. My life as a husband and father is completely missing from my digital footprint.
What about you?

Web 2.0 - How to do it right

Seth Godin has a great post about the new world of marketing and how organizations have to adopt to succeed in the Web 2.0 world (Or whatever you want to call it.)

He writes:

"Organizations don’t fail because the Web and the New Marketing don’t work. They fail because the Web and the New Marketing work only when applied to the right organization. New Media makes a promise to the consumer. If the organization is unable to keep that promise, then it fails.

New Marketing—whipped cream and a cherry on top—isn’t magical. What’s magical is what happens when an organization uses the New Marketing to become something it didn’t used to be—it’s not just the marketing that’s transformed, but the entire organization. Just as technology propelled certain organizations through the Industrial Revolution, this new kind of marketing is driving the right organizations through the digital revolution.

You can become the right organization. You can align your organization from the bottom up to sync with New Marketing, and you can transform your organization into one that thrives on the new rules."

Too many organizations still apply the old rules and structures to their marketing approach. Seth points out that if Web 2.0 strategies and tactics don't work, you should have a long, hard look at your organization and not put the dunce cap on your Web 2.0 strategy.

If your company had the right structure and organization 10 years, chances are very good you have to adjust today. Or better yesterday.

Shrinking Cities

Our human nature makes us focus on and celebrate booming cities like New York, Mexico City, Tokyo and Vegas.
But we're surrounded by cities that are disappearing in front of our eyes: Detroit, Venice and Leipzig come to mind. Rural towns in the Mid-West.

This phenomenon has reached virtual worlds as well: Second Life lost 2.5% of its population in June and some of the bigger corporations have left for now.
Leaving behind abandoned buildings and islands, marketing displays celebrating nothingness, and one of the largest banks in the virtual world, Ginko Financial, closing down because of insolvency. Abandoning urban areas seems to be a pattern of our civilization.

The German project Shrinking Cities focuses on this social, cultural and economic challenge. It started with the fact that in Eastern Germany since 1989 more than 1 million apartments remain empty and countless structures and facilities have been abandoned.
And the project continued with a global research on this topic, Second Life being one of the global players.

Currently, they are sponsoring a contest in order to reinvent Second Life.

This is an intriguing project since we tend to focus on the new, new, new thing and when that turns into an old, new, new thing, we forget about it quickly.
It might be too late for Second Life to get the major marketers back but it might be enough to catch a second wind.

The new world of social networking

This is how the world of social networking looks like: Facebook is a very strong international contender, but hi5.com is the most global network. Friendster, as reported before in the LA Times, is the leader in Southeast Asia.

Since we are still trying to find ways to integrate marketing into these new sites, it will be fascinating how marketers will connect with global cultures on these networks. Becoming part of the community might work in country A, could be detrimental to the marketers in country B.
For example, shall there be a global Facebook approach to marketing or shall it be adjusted from country to country?

My recommendation: everything is local. In order for bigger networks not to become irrelevant by the onslaught of niche networks, the big boys need to stay close to the ground and understand what each cohort/culture/group desires. Each affinity group could wants to be marketed to in different ways.

There are no golden rules. Just don't use the sledgehammer approach.

Via Valleywag and psfk.

Another dot-com bust?

Since the housing market started to implode, many industry professionals have wondered if digital marketing will face another dot-com bust, this time fueled by limited credit opportunities and advertisers reducing their investment in online marketing.

Catherine Holahan's article in today's BusinessWeek article titled 'Tech Stock Oasis: Can it last' points us in the opposite direction, and she claims a possible recession might dramatically increase the change of investment from offline to online marketing:

"For one, it is generally cheaper to reach 1% of households using the Internet than it is to reach them via print and television campaigns, says Tim Vanderhook, chief executive of ad-targeting network SpecificMedia. Many premium sites charge $30 to $200 for every 1,000 people who see an ad. Television ads fall in roughly the same price range for cost per 1,000 views. However, nonpremium sites without clearly targeted content—a category comprising most of the Web including e-mail sites, social networks, and most user-generated content sites—charge $20 or less. The nonpremium price typically increases a few dollars when ad networks apply additional targeting, but is still often cheaper than advertising in other media. As a result, when marketers needs to trim the budget, but still reach as many people as possible, they are likely to opt to spend less on other media formats and more online.

S&P's Kessler also says a marketing budget crunch could accelerate the shift of advertising dollars from traditional media to online. "Online is a lot less expensive, and you can spend it in small bites," says Kessler. "When you do television buys, they are generally big commitments where money is required up front."

Not directly related to this article but still very relevant, AdAge reports today that Beam Global Wine & Spirits (Jim Beam, Sauza Tequila, Courvoisier Cognac)is shifting their overall marketing strategy from advertising to word-of-mouth tactics.
Beam's CMO Rory Finlay Web 2.0 quote: "A brand that's dynamic is much more interesting to talk about than one that sits in the corner shouting at you."

Hats off to Beam Global Wine & Spirits. They seem to understand that building a community around their brand infuses new life and offers people the opportunity to make the brand their own. People are passionate about their alcohol choices and they want to share their passion with others.

Many elderly people resign just to die very soon after because they isolated themselves from the outside world. They don't learn, experiment or try new experiences. In order for brands to stay alive and relevant, they have to connect with the outside world: Learn, experiment, experience.

Fog Screen

And you thought your flatscreen at home was cool: This piece of innovative technology allows you to walk through a screen.
"Using nothing more than tap water and ultrasonic waves, FogScreen projection screen machines employ a patented technology to create a smooth foggy airflow that captures images just like a screen. You can walk right through a FogScreen projection screen without getting wet. The microscopic fog droplets actually feel dry to the touch, just like air."
Ok, I won't see this in my home anytime soon but we'll see more of these in pop-up retail stores or events. Experiential without being too experiential...