Seriously, buy yourself a copy of "Life after the 30-second spot". Written in 2004. Published in 2005.
An accurate prophecy of what just happened at Cannes:
Time of death: Saturday, June 27 2009.
Good riddance.
Joseph Jaffe
This show sponsored by HP.
You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:
There's so much lame influencer outreach these days, so when something finally works it's worth taking stock and giving credit where credit is due.
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Joseph Jaffe
Last night, social media serendipity led me to a video of a man dancing at an outdoor music festival. The dancing man himself isn't anything special -- a clumsy show of flailing arms and legs that wouldn't get him through the first round of auditions on So You Think You Can Dance.
What happens next is pretty special (or at least interesting.)
When the man starts dancing, he is the only member of the crowd moving. In fact, it almost seems as if the rest of the audience is blissfully unaware that they're at a music festival at all. But within seconds he's joined by one, then two, then three other dancers. Within three minutes, hundreds of people are dancing.
And like countless other seemingly insignificant moments, all of it was caught on video and uploaded to the web. Within a month of being shared on YouTube, more than one million people have viewed the clip, more than five thousand have rated it, and more than three thousand have left comments. And it turns out that these few minutes in time were captured and uploaded by several different amateur shooters who were there to witness it, so the cumulative numbers are higher still.
That's a pretty impressive ripple effect (or maybe it's a butterfly effect) for something that began with literally just one person willing to do something nobody around him was doing.
Now is probably as good a time as any to watch the video, if you haven't seen it:
[Feed and email readers, click through to view.]
OK, so what does this have to do with marketing?
Certainly the dancing man provides a clear (if trivial) example of how the actions of a sole individual can provide the catalyst that not only directly influences the behavior of the people around them, but also have the potential to scale up to have something approximating mass reach. Rather than reaching out to millions in the hopes of finding and connecting with "the one" (who responds, who buys, who changes their behavior), why not start with the one who can influence hundreds and ultimately reach millions?
Perhaps the dancing man also offers a lesson about risk and reward -- as a marketer, are you willing to try something (and potentially look foolish) on the off chance that it will deliver an exponential result? Or will you sit on the sidelines for fear of failure?
But mostly, it leads me to ponder how marketers can have their own Dancing Man Moments. Off the top of my head, here are five ways:
Greg Verdino
Greg Verdino
This show sponsored by HP.
You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:
Attempt 2 or Strike 2? Come on in, O, you're still number 1 in my book!
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Joseph Jaffe
A recent post by Steve Rubel inspired me to dust off my "lightly used" (a euphemism for "never used") Posterous account and launch a new blog-like-object called Verdino Bytes. With an easy-to-use bookmarklet for clipping content straight from the web and an even-easier-to-use post via email function, Posterous is ideal for creating and sharing content that falls somewhere between my fully formed blog posts and my malformed tweets.
It's a perfect tool for capturing and sharing everything from cool photos, interesting videos, random thoughts, stray ideas and crap I find all around the interwebz. And with my regular blog output dialed down while I peck my way through the manuscript for my book, it's a simple low-impact way to pump out web content (ahem, make that micro-content) without giving my McGraw-Hill editor reason to believe I've taken her money and run.
The blog you're reading now is and will remain my primary online hub, but if you're looking for more regular updates over the next few months -- and are OK with the eclectic nature of what I'm posting over there -- you may want to subscribe to Verdino Bytes. For the most part, there will be no duplication between what I post here and what I post there so it's more great Verdino for the same low price (e.g., free unless you're reading this on your Kindle, you big nerd.)Even if Verdino Bytes doesn't seem like your cup of tea, you still might dig this video I posted there tonight. Produced by an Australian reputation management firm (meaning a reputation management firm based in AU, not a firm dedicated to managing Australian reputations), it draws parallels between the punk rock movement in the 1970s and the social media revolution going on right now. Good stuff.
[Feed and email readers click to the blog to watch the video.]
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Greg Verdino
Greg Verdino
This show sponsored by HP.
You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:
Don't talk about change. Prove you've changed. And you're not going to prove it through advertising. Or if you do, do it differently. My reflections on GM's 30-second spot hot on the heels of their Chapter 11 filing.
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Links:
Joseph Jaffe
This show sponsored by HP. See the end of this post for details on how you can join their friends 'n family Employee Purchase Program for discounts and deals on HP printers, Netbooks etc.
Every time a blogger hits the publish button, they're essentially asking for a response from you. This was inspired by the Domino's affair, where the company only responded to bloggers who explicitly reached out to them. Also check out my Adweek article.
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Remember, you're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP). Here's what you need to do to be eligible to receive friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products:
By joining the EPP program, you'll receive aggressive discounts combinable with EPP mail-in and instant rebates, coupons and other exclusive EPP deals. Payment can be done with a major credit card, PayPal or online financing.
Joseph Jaffe
Friend, look-alike, PR man and Now Is Gone author Geoff Livingston is stirring the pot today, with a pretty provocative proclamation -- "social media is dead."
Tucked away in a post about why the next Blog Potomac conference -- slated for October 2009 and featuring fellow crayonista Jane Quigley -- will be the last, lies Geoff's eulogy for a form of media and marketing that many still consider the latest shiny object in the marketing practitioner's box of baubles.
The technology adoption cycle has been maturing for social media (and social media, web 2.0 whatever you want to call it is definitely inspired by technology) for some time. Widespread corporate adoption is happening as we speak, albeit with many stumbles. Based on conversations I’m having, even the most conservative organizations are adapting now.
The time when social media as a special or unique or “shiny and new” type of communication is rapidly ending. Does that mean it’s going away? Hardly.
But from an innovators standpoint, as someone who lives on the edge, who wants to be where new frontiers are being created, we’re at the end. For me, social media is dead… That means it’s future forward.
While my experience with conservative organizations leads me to suspect that Geoff thinks we're further along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (or more precisely the "marketing adoption cycle" - I don't think we can debate that the technology itself is mainstream) than we really are, I'm not sure that Geoff is wrong. At least not entirely.
If we're talking about social media as a category, as something special, unique or new, then it probably is (or should be, anyway) dead or dying. The notion of social media as a silo and as something that warrants specialized expertise is nothing more than a point of inflection between a new media landscape that is entirely, seamlessly social and an old media landscape that was always social anyway (even if we didn't know it.)
Then again, I'm not sure the death of social media matters a whole lot to anyone but the "next new thing" innovation junkies. Is Geoff arguing in favor of shiny object syndrome at a time when, frankly, most marketers are still not making the best use of the last big thing? Hey, I'm an innovator too (or at least, I like to think I am) and I'm also keen to identify and understand whatever lies around the next bend, but I also know that tomorrow's toys don't amount to a hill of beans to an in-the-trenches marketer who is (let's be honest) at best dabbling in social and still thinks they've had a coup if they convince their agency creative director to display the corporate URL at the end of the new 30-second spot.
So on the one hand we have a small band of serial innovators already seeking out greener pastures. On the other, we have the rest of the herd who are just beginning to suspect that the ground might be shifting right beneath their hooves.
So whether social media is dead or not, it surely seems to be trapped in limbo.
What are your thoughts? Is social media dead or is Livingston burying it alive?
Greg Verdino
Greg Verdino
I've always been an information junkie. I suppose you need to be if you want to stay one step ahead of the changes that happen just about daily in marketing nowadays.
Now that I'm working on my book though, I find that I need to be a lot more disciplined about actually keeping track of all the relevant news stories, interesting factoids, ideas, tips, tricks, case studies and concepts that might (just might) serve as useful background for a chapter, paragraph or sentence I might tap out months from now.
Sometimes the tidbits come from traditional media, in which case they find themselves ripped from the sources and scattered about whatever surface I happen to be working on (see Exhibit A, above.)
But for the most part, I find my inspiration on the web. Shocking, I know.
If you're interested in getting a peek behind the curtains -- and into the cluttered anteroom of my mind -- as I tap my way through the manuscript for microMARKETING, you can keep tabs on my Delicious tags.
I've been tagging interesting articles and other people's blog posts "micromarketing" since April, and will continue doing so as I find things that may come in handy throughout the writing process. You don't get to shuffle through my stack of loose magazine clippings unless you stop by for a visit (or live here), but my Delicious bookmarks are the next best thing.
Don't get lost and try to leave things more or less the way you found them. :-) And, if you're so inclined, feel free to suggest pieces you've read elsewhere that you think I might find interesting.
Greg Verdino
Greg Verdino
One of the main reasons I started JJTV was to fill a void in the marketplace, namely there wasn't a single marketing related show on TV, radio or anywhere else. I also wanted to "challenge" brands to step-up and support this show. Marketers are used to getting premium IP for free...it's time to change that.
Fortunately for me, someone was listening....HP! Starting today, HP will be sponsoring JJTV and showing their support for marketing thought leadership, innovation and creativity.
AND....there's something in it for you as well. You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP). Here's what you need to do to be eligible to receive friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products:
By joining the EPP program, you'll receive aggressive discounts combinable with EPP mail-in and instant rebates, coupons and other exclusive EPP deals. Payment can be done with a major credit card, PayPal or online financing.
That's the deal my friends. So please join me in welcoming HP to the conversation and show your support for them and the show by spreading the word and of course, purchasing that Netbook you've always wanted :)
Spread the word:
Joseph Jaffe
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