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Maybe you're thinking about buying microMARKETING but want to get a better sense of what's between the covers first. Or maybe you just want a souvenir of my MarketingProfs webinar. In either case, you've come to the right post.

Here's the newest version of the presentation slides based on the book. Of course, this touches on only a few of the key themes and presents just a small handful of the case studies and stories I've crammed between the yellow covers - but it should be enough to whet your whistle. As always comments welcome.

While I've been eyeballs-deep in a bunch of little edits to my manuscript, Amadeo Plaza has been thinking about "thinking small" (a key theme from the book actually) and some great think small ideas he gleaned from the PSFK Conference. And so without further adieu, here is a second guest post pulled from RockMeAmadeo.com. Good stuff. Feel free to share the link or drop a comment.

The idea of agencies and companies thinking small is no new notion. People have been saying it for years, including Greg, who’s gong to push the point further in his upcoming book, microMarketing. The problem is, very few have actually been practicing it. At the PSFK Conference in New York last week, Andy Spade and Anthony Sperduti of Partners & Spade gave a “Think Small” presentation highlighting the work they did for J.Crew.

Prefacing their lecture, they shared their passion for film, publishing, and product development, which helped guide the work they did for J.Crew. The brand’s menswear had little equity. Partners & Spade felt that regardless of how they tackled the problem, going in waving the J.Crew banner would make their plan fall flat. It was a big brand that everyone already knew, and expressly didn’t care about. They had to develop a strategy that shrunk J.Crew. Something that made the brand more intimate and approachable. Because, like the partners said on stage, “no one likes big.”

An interior shot of the J.Crew Liquor Store in TriBeCa.

To answer the call, the partners decided to open a liquor store. But not your average slipshod speakeasy. It was an abandoned TriBeCa tavern restored and restocked with J.Crew’s menswear instead of booze. The boutique is affectionately named “Liquor Store“. The shop is adorned in a way that gives it a lot of classic male character and makes is very distinctive from a typical J.Crew outlet; to the point that you wouldn’t know it’s a J.Crew store. The partners went so far as to staff the store with their own people, including Tremaine Romeo, the “Storetender”; sell some exclusive clothing and accessories; create specialized products, such as throwing darts and shot glasses; and even published a book, “What A Man Should Know”.

The Liquor Store was deemed a great success by the partners, and was written up in dozens of blogs and magazines who they said wouldn’t have written about the store otherwise if it had been branded as a typical J.Crew location. It was the small, cozy and personalized nature of the boutique that made people especially interested in it. In other words, a big brand acting small made it that much more compelling. The partners believe that the bigger a brand gets, the smaller it needs to act. An idea defended by a quote Spade likes to use: “For every accountant you hire, hire an artist” to maintain the delicate balance of big and small.

Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of software development company, 37Signals, spoke at the AdAge Digital Conference this week and blasted “full-service” ad agencies, using the same grounds as those used by Partners & Spade: think small. He made the point that agencies are trying to do everything for everyone, instead of focusing on a small number of things that they do very well, championing specialization over full-service end-to-end.

“Companies end up hiring people to do these things they don’t know how to do, they get really big and then they slow down. That’s how you get big and slow and expensive. What’s wrong with doing just a few things really well?,” Fried said. He recently co-authored Rework which reiterated this point.

It’s easy for agencies to think too big. Oftentimes they assume they have to in order to stay competitive, or successfully launch a project. But the Liquor Store, and the story of 37Signals for that matter, act as as testaments that bigger isn’t always better. “Think small” is often looked upon as an idealistic buzz phrase, hardly ever applicable in real world situations. But there are numerous examples where thinking and acting small paid off. It’s about sticking to your guns when you have a good idea, big or small. Big Bang Theory sized strategies are not the best solution most of the time, and tend to be filled with elements that underperform.

Years ago, before giving up “the noble profession of journalism,” as my father puts it, I remember going to the CSPA convention and listening to a New York Times writer who said something that stuck with me to this day, and something I think applies here: It’s not about using big words. It’s about using the right words.

PSFK and me -- we go way back, yo. I attended the trend site's first NY Conference a couple of years ago and walked out with more good ideas than I usually come across in a month. The following year, I got to give people some good ideas when I moderated a panel about collaboration and coworking.

This year marks Piers Fawkes' third time around. The PSFK 2010 Conference happens at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in downtown Manhattan on Friday, April 9th.

I'm happy to offer you a 10% discount off the ticket price - just follow any of this post's links to the Eventbrite order form and you're golden.

I won't be able to attend this year but wanted to encourage those of you in New York to check it out. What's in it for me? Nada - although I am sending my man Amadeo Plaza in my place (disclosure: Piers provided a discounted ticket).

What's in it for you? Plenty of great ideas, brilliance and inspiration from all walks of business and life. This year's speakers include:

• Colin Beavan - Green pioneer and journalist aka No Impact Man
• John Dimatos - Resident Researcher concepting tech solutions for UNICEF at NYU
  
• Nick Felton - Designer and creator of the annual infographic Felton Report
  
• Zach Lieberman - Creative technologist whose work bridges the real world with the digital
  
• Steve Grasse - Revolutionary behind Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction
• Andrew Hoppin - CIO who leverages digital media to create political and social impact
  
• Grant McCracken - Anthropologist and author of the book Chief Culture Officer
• Shantell Martin - Illustrator & VJ who creates vivid video-projection 'Oras'
  
• Steve Powers - Contemporary artist who recently created the city-wide A Love Letter For You
  
• Erik Proulx - Creative catalyst who inspires peers about their future; filmmaker behind Lemonade
  
• Avner Ronen - Television and entertainment market change maker and founder of boxee
  
• Tina Roth Eisenberg - Graphic designer; and global tastemaker through her blog SwissMiss
  
• Naveen Selvaduri - Social agitator and founder of mobile application foursquare
  
• Andy Spade & Anthony Sperduti - Creative experience builders behind Partners & Spade
• Ouigi Theodore - Visionary community-led brand builder behind BK Circus
  
• Rob Walker - National columnist and instigator of Significant Objects storytelling project
• Adam Wells - Design Director incubating new ventures & experiences for Virgin Group USA
  
• Peter Weijmarshausen - Realigning the product delivery with his 3D printing at Shapeways

As you can see, this isn't the usual roster of the same ol' marketing and social media faces. I hope you'll have an opportunity to attend.

I'm also going to ask (ok, tell) Amadeo that he needs to drop me a couple of guest posts about the best ideas he hears so even if you can't attend, you'll get to drink in a bit o' the PSFK Conference goodness.

No seriously, what is it? I'm not even being snarky (for a change.) If you're a custom publisher who still butters your bread with print magazines, this whole social media thing should give you pause. You really do need to think about what the word content means today -- it might still be an 80-page book on glossy stock, churned out of a printing plant in suburban New Jersey. But it for certain is also an 80-character Tweet or 80-second video from your most ardent fan or vitriolic detractor. 

I know I'm probably preaching to the converted here, but this morning I was preaching to a whole new crowd...

So... I'm coming atcha from Nashville, where I spoke this morning at the 2010 Custom Content Conference. My presentation -- dubbed What Is Content? -- debuted some of the ideas and even a couple of the stories included in microMARKETING. This was probably one of my more nerve-wracking presentations -- it was mostly new material, the slides didn't really come together and start to flow until about midnight last night and, even then, it's all a bit stream of conscious and I never got around to summing up the key takeaways (oops.) But I think it turned out aiiight.

As usual, now that the talk is done I want to share my slides here. And as usual, they sure are purty but might not make a whole lot of sense without the words that accompany the pictures (especially if you aren't familiar with the examples I included - all the more reason to pre-order the book... wink... wink...)

That said, thanks to a handful of Twitterers in the room you can get a decent sense of the points that resonated with the audience by searching Twitter for #ccc @gregverdino (or just click the search term and I'll send you straight to the results.)

Feedback welcome, as always.

 
It has been at least a couple of years since I've done a proper "predictions" post, although last year I contributed to a fantastic 2009 predictions ebook that Peter Kim pulled together. This year I contributed to a similar ebook, but this time with my new best buds at Powered, Drillteam and Stepchange.

The book makes for some interesting reading and will give you a peek into some of the things the new Powered is thinking about right now.

You can download it for free right now but I'd like to give you a little taste. I have just one prediction -- that in 2010, marketers will (have to) stop just messing around and actually get serious about social media. Here's what I had to say...

I think it’s time to admit that for the past couple of years, we’ve had it pretty easy. Before you shout me down, hear me out. I’m well aware that the recession slashed our budgets, hammered our headcount, and applied an almost unprecedented amount of pressure to deliver outsized results with whatever it was we had left. But when it comes to social media marketing in particular, we’ve been getting a bit of a free ride.

In 2009, most companies still looked at social as an inexpensive, experimental nice-to-have tactic. They knew it was no longer a good idea to sit ‘this social media thing’ out, but ticking boxes on an innovation checklist often took the place of rigorous planning and results-oriented thinking. When so-called social media experts weren’t trying to convince one another that now might be a good time to invent some new-but-not-improved definition for the generally accepted success metric ROI, they were chiding naysayers with flippant questions like, ‘What’s the ROI of putting on your pants in the morning?’ If this doesn’t sound like you, congratulate yourself for being ahead of the pack.

But for everyone else, welcome to 2010: the year social media gets down to business.

This year, we’ll see more companies go beyond flavor-of-the-month tactics to approach social from a strategic perspective, considering both where it fits within the integrated marketing mix and (more importantly, from my perspective) how social thinking gets infused into all components of the customer experience – from the first awareness impression through every last post-purchase interaction. We’ll see marketers think about how social can deliver against their company’s key business objectives and then design sound programs that actually do exactly that (hint: ‘get on Twitter’ is not a key business objective unless you’re Biz Stone; increase customer satisfaction, retention and repeat purchase are.) And finally, we’ll see a serious focus on accountability. When social media was on the fringe of the marketing roadmap, we got away with playing around. Now that it sits squarely in the mainstream, it has to work hard.

I’ll admit my prediction isn’t as sexy as others you’re likely to read this time of year (give it up for mobile social, geo-location and augmented reality everybody) but I can guarantee that this is the one that must come true if we all want to be sitting around the table peering into the crystal ball at the start of 2011.

I wrote this prediction back in mid-December (and frankly have been harping on this particular point for a couple of years now) but those of you who follow goings-on in the social media space will notice that in the time between mid-December and now, others (including Forrester Research) have pointed to the very same trend. So that must mean it's true. Right again, Verdino...

Grab your copy and share the love. As always, feel free to chime in with reactions, thinking and snide remarks.

As the new year kicks into gear, my speaking calendar is already starting to fill up. Here are the details on my first two 2010 speaking engagements - a February panel appearance at the Engage! Expo in NYC and a March presentation at Custom Content Conference 2010 in Nashville. 

Hope to see some of you in the audiences. Read on to learn more...

 
On February 17th I'm speaking at the Engage! Expo in New York City. This year's Engage! (the conference that grew out of the old Virtual Worlds event series) is co-located with the 2010 Toy Fair, and will have a big focus on toy marketing, youth marketing and marketing to parents. I'll be playing the role of "token dad" on a panel that will include Maria Bailey from BSM Media, Natalie Hornsby from Cepia LLC (Zhu Zhu Pets) and Katja Presnal from Collective Bias. Katja is a former Walmart Elevenmom and I had the pleasure of connecting with her while I was doing some research for microMARKETING, so I'm looking forward to meeting her in person next month.

The panel details are:

Mommy Bloggers, Twitterers and Kids: Meet the New Influencers 

February 17 at 2:30pm (60 minutes)

Mommy bloggers, DigiDads, Twitterers, forum posters, and kids themselves. They all contribute to your product's branding. And unlike TV, print, or direct in-store messaging, they fall outside your range of control. But there are ways to court the new influencers and turn them into brand sirens and evangelizers. This session will introduce you to the new landscape of peer-to-peer marketing that is actively taking place on blogs, microblogs and social networks: who are the new influencers, how do you reach them, and how do you control what they say about your product? Understand 360 degree marketing in the digital age and find out how to tame the new recommendation engines.

You can all the show details and register (early reg discounts end on January 15th) at the Engage! Expo site.

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In March, I'm heading to Nashville, TN (it'll be my first visit to Music City) to present at the Custom Publishing Council's Custom Content Conference. The event takes place from March 24-26 at the super-cool-looking Hutton Hotel and looks like it's going to rock twang.

This one is a keynote-style solo slot and I'm excited about it because this presentation will be the first time I preview some of the ideas from microMARKETING. In keeping with the event's theme, I plan to focus specifically on the microcontent revolution, how it has changed everything from production to distribution, and what all of this means for marketers and publishers.

Even if you think content and custom media aren't your thing (think again actually: content marketing is one of the hottest inbound marketing approaches around) I can say for sure that this event generally draws a nice crowd of blue chip marketers - so don't think you need to be a custom publishing pro to get value from the sessions.

Get the details about the event and register to attend on the CCC site.