Posted by Jesse Poe on October 30 at 12:16 PM
So a short time ago Björk bought the house next door to me, well a couple doors down to be exact. I have to say that although I agree with the Wire that Army of Me could be one of the top 50 songs of all time as far as "songs" go, I am not the biggest Björk fan. Nonetheless, it has made my neighborhood more exciting, more alive, more like New York.
Last night as I was coming home the windows to Björk's building were open and the sound of an acoustic guitar and an impassioned voice were bellowing out of the wide open windows. However, it was a Beatles cover and it wasn't Björk's voice, it wasn't even her window, it was the window below hers.
I had to laugh, you probably are too right now, thinking of the poor guy belting out his Beatles cover in hopes, in hopes! that he will be heard by Björk and she will help him land a record deal.
Not laughing at him, just the sweetness of it, the beauty of it, the innocence and humanness of it.
It could happen, most musicians do get signed as result of knowing the right people. By other musicians with record deals saying that they like such and such band and then next thing you know that band is signed. That's how I got signed for my first record, thanks to Godspeed You Black Emperor talking about my then unsigned record. Furthermore the other night at the Housing Work's concert/signing of Merge Records book Our Noise, Mac and Laura owners/founders of Merge (as well as Superchunk) admitted that they usually found musicians to sign through other musicians.
So not only is it possible, it is one of the few ways to get heard by a label.
So I found myself laughing for the remembrance of how to make things happen and the pleasure of it in such a pure example:
1. Open you windows and let the world hear you, especially the people who can make something happen.
2. Surround yourself with a creative/birthing setting. A place of inspiration and possibility.
3. Believe that if you are heard you will be rewarded.
4. Do it with all your heart.
5. Be excited that things are happening. That tenacity, passion and proximity to greatness will make you great.
I am sure that Björk will probably be buying insulated windows soon, but I hope that the guy below her doesn't ever realize that, because in his pursuit of the 5 points above, he will achieve something for sure.
He will find his voice, he will learn to use it, he will get good, he will gain confidence and although he might not be found the way he wants through Björk, his trying to do so will be found by others, he will get the attention of others, he got mine!
Today I found a nice little start up that not only has a useful idea, they have a great business model: Don't Let Your ideas Become Fossils, Turn them Into Dinosaurs.
(at least that is what I am calling it)
The start up Hashceratops.org has created a way to make hashtags uniform.
“HashCeratops is a project created by members of buzzd.com to create better uniformity and standardization among local apps and services. HashCeratops is a publicly available, community-built project aimed at uniquely identifying places. It is a set of standards.”
What I love about their start up is not only the effort to make info more accessible and therefore more useful, I love that even though this service would best be housed within Twitter or whatever local app you might like to name, they have put out. It's there, it's useable, it's adding to the betterment of our world.
They are not waiting for anyone.
So Don't Let Your ideas Become Fossils, Turn them Into Dinosaurs like Hashceratops, that go out and get noticed.
And if you need help doing so, we're here for you!
One failed me even though both had similar themes, the sort of hero's journey, leaving home to find your way, which is a common theme in all of Dave Eggers' work. It is a timeless theme, and Eggers aimed lock, stock and both barrels at my generation, with these two films.
I am not going to pit Sam Mendes against Spike Jonze, they both created nice films that held my attention and either made me laugh or made me cry. I'm going to lay the blame on Eggers.
Why? because he can handle it (he is a great artist/editor) and we can learn something from him.
Although I found Away We Go to be very funny and well written, it failed where Where the Wild Things Are didn't. It failed as a film by hanging it's ending on the assumption that all people have an idea of home.
As a man who had a wayfaring childhood, I don't have a solid idea of home/returning to home, and I would assume there are lot's of others who don't either. So assuming that imagery of returning home is a way to nicely wrap up a, 'til then, good film, was a gross error and left me with the question, "why should I feel emotion for someone else's implied emotions."
Where the Wild Things Are ended much the same, a warm home coming of realizing the importance of your own home, just like Away We Go, but Where the Wild Things Are, spent the time to build the home for me to want to return to it, to feel the emotion of returning.
My point is simply this: You cannot make things for everyone, you would just get a watered down ineffectual mess, BUT....
BUT.... you can provide enough of a context and development to allow people
to enter your own world and share your emotions.
The implications for business are easy, know your audience, design for them, market to them, but also give enough that a curious on-looker can appreciate your work, this is how you can expand your market.
This is how you create crossover.
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As a little download gift: here is a link to an hour long music mix by Spike Jonze "We Love You So" found over at Gorilla Vs. Bear
The strength of this site is the simplicity of the videos, their range, and the understanding that perhaps not everyone knows how to do the same things. Plug in your Laptop into your TV, apply foundation, or tie a tie; this site answers questions that some might be afraid to ask, in an informative, thorough, simplistic way.
Savvy presentations made super easy, giving overview, details, and relationships without slides which often obstruct your audience's view. See ours for example.
Crowd Sourcing Architecture and Urban Planning is cool and creative. A fun tool for anyone to use and can even be helpful, if for no other reason than raising awareness of our surroundings and fighting urban sprawl. (Now if it would only let us take buildings down as well! Couple Eye Sores I'd like to see go.)
This cleverly named site, keeps you up to date with internet pop culture. Nice because not everyone can spend the day surfing and happening upon every trend. You stay update and yet don't waste time (not as much time at least).
Posted by Rowland Hobbs on October 21 at 4:45 PM
Running north on Second Avenue, I was a man possessed. I weaved my way past strollers and drunken frat boys, turned sharp at 86th Street, and bounded west towards my local Gamestop store. According to my cell phone the time was 9:50. According to a text message on my cell phone, I had to get to the Gamestop by 10PM to finalize my pre-payment on my order for WWE Smackdown Vs. Raw 2010 for the Playstation 3.
Nothing would stop me. I would have my game. Granted, I would have to return to the store at midnight to pick up the game. And yes, it seemed odd that I would have to stop at the store in advance to pay before coming back two hours later to pick up, but the text message from Gamestop on my phone told me explicit rules and I would follow them.
I got to the door at 9:50 and pulled on the handle. It didn’t open. Inside, the employees looked at me, confused. I held up my phone. They mouthed some things that I couldn’t understand. I pointed at my phone, and then held up my hands to count to 12.
“Be back at 12?” I asked.
They nodded, if they understood me.
And so I stomped off, furious. I had ran uptown from a party in Chelsea to get to the Gamestop before 10. I had left my friends behind at another bar uptown to get to the store on time. I was starving and I had to go to the bathroom. But I couldn’t address any of these needs because I had to make the arbitrary deadline.
A deadline that ended up meaning absolutely nothing.
Now, you read accounts of mobile strategy – the greatest thinkers of our digital generation. If they heard of this situation – people driven to act by an incorrect mobile marketing message, they’d probably come down with the vapors, and maybe pass out. “They’ll leave you in droves!” they’d scream, scrambling for their smelling salts. “You have violated their trust!”
So, was I angered enough to not return to the store? Of course not. I was there at midnight with the other wrestling video game nerds to pick up my precious game. Why? Because I had already put $20 towards it, and because it was the only place that was open where I could get it.
I even asked the employees at the counter about the text, they hadn’t heard about it and hadn’t been told it would be happening.
So maybe you think this is proof that you can jerk your customers around and they’ll stick with you. Well, maybe they will. If you are the only horse in town, you won’t see the local cowboys deciding to try and saddle up the local bar wench. But trust has been lost. You can bet your ten-gallon hat that I will be taking future mobile communications from Gamestop with a grain of salt. They are liars and are not to be trusted.
What’s funny is that I hadn’t even signed up for a mobile alert. It must be something the store now does when you give them your phone number and they enter it into their system. I was actually pleased, shocked, and excited when I received the unexpected text earlier in the day. Of course, that rapture drained out when it proved itself to be 140 characters worth of rotten, terrible lies.
So what’s the lesson here? It’s a simple one. But, since it just happened, clearly it bares repeating:
1. Hold true to your word.
Even if it’s written on a cell phone screen, it is still your word. Don’t say something you can’t deliver on, and don’t write checks your assets can’t cash.
2. Make sure one hand knows what the other is doing.
I don’t think Gamestop lied to me on purpose. Though, if they did, that makes them a very respectable form of evil that should be studied by cartoon villains. Don’t automatically send out a text message that your employees do not know is going out.
3. Streamline your requirements. I ended up paying the rest of my purchase at the store at midnight when I picked up my game. There was no reason for me to pay it at 10. I was actually angry when it seemed like my acquiring of the game lay in the balance of whether I’d get there in time. That anger turned to unbridled rage when I came face-to-face with a locked door and ignorant employees.
Mobile marketing is a very powerful tool. It creates an almost instant, strong, bonded form of trust between you and the recipient. But, unfortunately, that trust can be almost instantaneously obliterated.
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 21 at 10:33 AM
A quick personal story of the "power of free" making money:
Last year I played at Terrastock 7 (a three day music festival of cult fame, American Apparel was even there making a film about it, looking forward to seeing that). I had the pleasure this time to play with one of Japan's greatest guitarists Makato Kawabato.
Instead of the typical cd sales plug from the stage, I changed my mind in mid-sentence,
"hey, there's so many great bands here with great records, so if you want my music, save your money, just bring me a cdr and I'll burn you whatever record of mine you want."
I can do that since I own the rights to my records.
I burnt a lot of cds after the show.
Success metrics:
Over next days of the concert, I never paid for a drink nor meal. People came back with friends and bought my other records. I was given cds as gifts which people had purchased from other artists performing that weekend. I was given artist prints, t-shirts, professional photographs, you name it. I played the first night and continued to sell cds the remaining days of the concert. People would come up saying they had missed my show but heard a cdr in the hotel of a friend and wanted to buy a record. Etc. I went home with more money than I had ever thought, and suitcase full of gifts.
The greatest result: Community. Many of the people who came to me with blank cds, are still in contact with me, they are a part of my community, which is better than a one time cd sale.
Isn't this the Google model?
How can do the same for your business?
We can help you.
There are many free tools that we use to keep our costs low, so that we can focus our efforts on tailored approaches to each client we work with. We stay up to date on the latest in an effort to always find the right tools for each unique situation. As an example, here is video of a new Google tool released yesterday.
DMDxd uses tools like this one to help people discover ways to grow their brand and find their audience. Helping them create meaningful relationships between that audience and their brand.
Before Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, etc., even before email the Grateful Dead created a following that is still legendary. How was this so-so band able to establish a countrywide network of people and what can we learn from them?
Some might say the question is equal to the unexplainable construction of the Pyramids, but it's not.
What The Grateful Dead did and how you can do the same.
1. It's all in the name.
After ditching The Warlocks because it was already taken, they settled on a good name and embraced it. Providing constant branding even as they evolved and grew.
2. Start local.
The Grateful Dead started with a community of friends and followers and then built out from there, always taking their initial base with them, or at least inviting them. The Dead were always true to that initial community in their stance and sound, making it possible to remain communal even as it grew.
3. Not all content is created equal.
They understood from the beginning that content was important and that not all content had to be definitive. The Grateful Dead understood the difference between a tweet, a blog post and a white paper. And they delivered all in the appropriate amount of time that their community would want to consume it, even within the confines of a concert.
4. Encourage and support community interaction.
How was it that they were able to have often the same people coming to their shows night after night?
Jamming. Through jamming they were able to create a town square.
You came to this square because of the songs, but you stayed because there were others there in the square to talk to and a lot of jamming intervals between songs that allowed you to talk. The Dead gave people a place to come together knowing when to deliver their songs and when to just create sound for their fans to talk to each other and bond. In this way of not constantly demanding attention and engagement the Grateful Dead were participating in true community building and building it around themselves.
5. Surrender control.
They let their community have control and participation in their content, through bootlegs and t-shirts and paraphernalia. This participation created zealots, sure they lost some chances to sell their own product, but what they lost to "competition" they gained ten-fold in a faithful following that would carry them for a life time.
6. Evolve, don't evaporate.
They constantly changed their sound while always maintaining an obvious brand image/sound. They would incorporate whatever they found interesting moving with the times, but they never let that overtake their core image/sound. Even with their trademarks/symbols from the bears to the skeletons to concert posters, you could always recognize a Grateful Dead product due to a consistent brand image even as it evolved.
7. Know your audience.
The Grateful Dead knew their audience, and they created music that reflected that audience in their lyrics. They supported and romanticized their following in their songs. The Dead knew how to woo their audience. This of course created a continuos circle of their audience adopting the Grateful Dead's image, and even to this day, four decades later, you know a Dead Head when you see one. Think about that for awhile.
So 7 lessons about building a community from the Masters of creating a following. I have to admit I like, maybe, 5 of Grateful Dead songs, but I have to admire how before the advent of modern social networking tools the Grateful Dead did what most people cannot today.
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 19 at 1:27 PM
I had a weekend of lines.
1) Where the Wild Things Are: one of the most wonderful movies about childhood ever made. A call to action for understanding each other and the child in us.
2) Prada Sample sale: 4 hours in the drizzling rain, realizing how the culture of cheap put me here.
Ok so your probably wondering about my sanity,
1) for the waiting in the 4 hour line for Prada
2) even mentioning that did such a thing
3) how I think Prada & Spike Jonze's new film should be a call to action
Let me explain as simply as I can.
I stood in line for 4 hours because I wear a men's 7 to 7 and a half or 38/39 european.
No where in the US, not even in New York City, can you find men's dress shoes in my size. They start at size 8 and boys stop usually around size 5. Where is missing shoe?
And god forbid that you like men's dress boots those typically start at size 10. I know I have asked everywhere, you just can't find them.
EXCEPT at PRADA!!!!! yeah! dress shoes that fit!
But they cost $1,000.
Can't do that, at least not enough to have a brown and black pair like most normal people do.
So thus 4 hours in line with the hopes to buy brown shoes at 80% off, finally the price most people pay for shoes.
While waiting in line freezing in the drizzle of a New York City Oct saturday morning, I had ask, how did it come to this? Why do I have to pay more than everyone else just to have shoes in my size?
There among the pages of the Saturday NY Times, was the answer.
Please pay attention so that you don't find yourself freezing in a similar line:
What does that have to do with not finding shoes in your size?
A LOT !!!!!!
I didn't used to have problem finding shoes in my size, or sweaters, or coats or pants or anything.
Now I have to buy everything made to order or from luxury stores. Why?
The problem of Cheap.
Cheap stuff, cheap batteries, cheap toilet paper, save a dime here save a dime there, is costing us dearly.
I am not going to make this too long, so here it is broken down quick (email me if you want more info).
You want to save a buck or two so you go to Wal-mart or Barnes & Noble.
Everyone else does the same. Everyone wants to save a buck!
Wow, no more local owned indiependent stores (outside major cities there are very very few, and they can't give you the selection they could in the past due to the competion from the BIG guys).
You: Hey why can't I find what I want?
BIG Store: Ordering is done nationally to bring you more savings!
You: But I can't find my size shoes, pants, shirts, (thing you need.... like Books not written by Best Sellers).
BIG Store: Sorry. (if your lucky)
You: Now I am FORCED to buy only from places who tailor or "luxury" size (which means they have sizes for everyone), because there is no more local stores with all sizes, or at least could order them for you.
But I need shoes now, mine have a hole in in them, and only Prada has my size! I can't afford that!
Big Store: Well sorry but the batteries are 20 cents cheaper & books cost less than what it costs to make them! Think how much you are saving!
So how does this tie into Where the Wild Things Are?
Well because Maurice Sendak's books were once controversial and even banned. Lucky for us there were cool independent stores who sold his books enriching our lives as children.
Lucky for us that there are still film makers who can make films we want to see. That there are films for 'kids" that are not made by Disney. I like Disney films, but I wouldn't like ONLY Disney films.
Cheap is hurting our lives and pushing us out of normal things, imagine if you couldn't buy shoes affordablely.
(however I would recommend it, it is our other inconvenient truth)
However, the interesting thing is that Free is helping our economy, it is turning music around. There is more amazing music today than 10 years ago and tons more people of every type listening to it. This sort of thing is spreading across every sector and the people who are embracing Free are becoming rich where as the people who are embracing Cheap are becoming poor.
Part of what we do at DMDxd is use Free Services in unique and exciting ways that help people achieve their goals and yes, acquire wealth. It is available for everyone, in every size.
We would be more than glad to help you understand and use the free tools available to make your business or brand grow, be it personal or corporate, by making you or your brand, personal and unique instead of the homogenized one size doesn't fit all blandness of Cheap.
Free not cheap, and apprecitating worth; helping it happen and hoping for a future where people like you, Jonze and Sendak will still have jobs making our lives magical places.
This is a map of the Wal-marts in America, I didn't have the heart to show the Global map.
Posted by Rowland Hobbs on October 16 at 12:00 PM
In the past few weeks, Jesse and I have been engaging in a sort of New York City tour, introducing our new company, meeting with digital marketing managers and social media gurus in companies large and small, local, national and even international. And every once in a while we find ourselves face-to-face with people who are in search of, or are convinced that they've found, the Magic Bullet.
If you work in the web, mobile and social media space, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The magic bullet, which has been known to help kill werewolves in its previous incarnation, is the fallacy that a single strategic move, tool, idea, or cup of coffee will cause manna and gold bricks to fall from the sky and propel your organization or company into both the spotlight and eternal success.
I'm sure you've heard this before: "We need to be on the web: build me a website!" This was the common battle cry about 3 years ago. No one bothered to talk about what would be on the website, how it would work, or why anyone would care to go there, it wasn't important. A website by its very nature would bring success and cheeseburgers.
Today, it seems that people have walked away from that belief (at least for the most part). However, a new magic bullet is in town. "Our websites not enough, make me a Facebook fan page and a Twitter!" Yes, these days everyone wants to be social - and they are willing to put all of two and a half minutes into becoming social by erecting a fan page and Twitter account, and then leaving it there to wither and rot like a steak left in the middle of a field.
But this is okay. This is why Jesse and I do what we do. It's not just about selling websites, twitters, fan pages, and mobile applications. If we walked around peddling crap without sound thinking and innovative craziness to back it up, we'd be snakeoil salesmen of the worst degree. No, a large part of our daily efforts is re-education: showing people that there is no Magic Bullet.
It's a bitter pill to administer in these times. Recessions, lost jobs, decreasing profits. The easy way out is to rob someone blind by selling them a Twitter and then leaving them there, staring at it with no idea what to do with it, yet expecting a 55% increase in Snuggie sales. But that's not our job as web and social media people.
But listen to me: for the good of our industry, you need to help us bury the Magic Bullet theory. Just like people discovered suddenly that having a towering edifice in Second Life wasn't going to rake in the millions, they are sure to find that out about their brand spankin' new Facebook fan page.
So what do we do?
1. Break it to them gently: You don't need to say "Your Facebook Fan Page ain't worth Jack." What you CAN say is "Hey, let's take a look at all the other things you're doing next year. Oh! Look at that, well we can tie that in here, and here, and mention it there..." Draw a picture for them so they can better understand it.
2. Get them excited. Ask any of the people that I pitch too these days; I'm a frigging whackjob. We'll start talking about their assets - what they have at their disposal, and suddenly I'm off like a shot, sketching on paper, my eyes wide, talking about the sheer mass of things they can accomplish with only the things they have, or free tools on the web. They like this. They get excited too.
3. Don't give in. They may fight you. Tell you they don't have the time. Or the resources. Or that a Twitter and nothing else is more than enough. If you allow them to have their way with you, then you are a weakling. Pack up your Mac and jump into the East River. No! You must fight the good fight. That's why we are social media and web gurus, and why they are really good at selling or manufacturing whatever it is they do.
4. Show them how to tell others. Chances are there are higher-ups that your contact has to deal with. Fellas in large wood-paneled offices with animal pelts hung up on the wall. They just found out about Google yesterday, and think that YouTube is something they offer at the hospital if you can't get up to pee. Take your simplified explanation to them and break it down - you need them to cheerlead on your behalf, lest your team end up alone on the field with nothing to do.
The Magic Bullet has existed for some time and may stick around a lot longer. Why? Because it's easy. The media jumps on new technology, a new idea, blows it out of proportion and suddenly it's on everyone's tongue. Much like those machines that electroshock your stomach to give you a six pack, it is often ill-advised, way off-base, and potentially deadly.
We didn't get into this profession because it's easy. We got into it because we love it and it keeps us awake at night. Don't get lazy when you make it to the boardroom - think of it like a race. Everyday we're jogging. But when there's that chance to put the magic bullet away and embrace a 360-degree online and offline plan... well, it's time to start sprinting uphill.
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Posted by Jesse Poe on October 15 at 2:03 PM
Halloween is 16 days away and smells of Fall are all around us. Pumpkin Lattes at Starbucks, Kiss candy at Duane Reade and the sweet campfire-y smell of books burning in North Carolina. Non-King James Versions especially.
"I believe the King James version is God's preserved, inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God," Pastor Marc Grizzard told a local news station of his 14-member parish.
David Lynch, a resident of nearby Asheville, N.C., told Raw Story "it's a little disconcerting how close this is to my home."
"They are burning so much stuff I've dubbed them the hypocritical Christian Taliban," Lynch said in a phone interview with Raw Story. "Just the scope of all the information they want to destroy is pretty disturbing."
Iron should sharpen iron (Prov. 27:17) KJV of course!
Although it is obvious that the overalled Marc Grizzard isn't the sharpest tool in the shed he seems to have just emerged from. It is worth pointing out that his 14 person church is now one of the best known on the east coast, as they have made their way up the blogosphere and twitter trends, which have already crashed their website from the deluge of disbelief. Now even known to famous film makers like Lynch.
Daily proof of the power of social media.
Now if they had just used that power for something good.
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please note that even though a chicken roast will be held at the Bible burning I refrained from making puns by removing the "R" from Brother Grizzard's nameTopics: 0 CommentsRead Full Post
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 14 at 1:13 PM
This morning I was awoken to one of the most beautiful and yet most terrifying sounds of New York City*, the deadman clancking and hissing of my radiator rattling free of it's summer slumber. Like the wonderful tuning of an orchastra pit, it hearlds the coming of harvest time, the death march of nature and the clebrations of holiday cheer.
Fall is my favorite time of the year. Perhaps it is the Poe in me, but the early fall of night lighting the edges of turning leaves, spicy hot drinks, the first smells of fireplaces and chill of the air endears the season to me and backlights everything with a touch of mystery and acuteness to my surroundings.
And of course a great time for reliving favorite ghost stories, which I have proven to be a lightening rod for in my short life. So today when I heard the monster stirrings of my ancient Brooklyn waterfront pipes, I was devilishly happy and excited to start the grey morn.
How curious that today I would also read a wonderful post on just such themes, Tempi Morti (Viventi) by Nicola di Bowery AKA Beniamino Ambrosi, a wonderful blog which is sometimes in Italian and sometimes in English. As that today's post Tempi Morti (Viventi) was in Italian, I thought that i would carry the theme over to Extreme Discovery (and of course elaborate a bit!).
In his post he basically questions why we are currently so obsessed with Zombies? And gives us examples and links to all sorts of wonderful current Zombie pop-culture references. From the newest Woody Harrelson box office success to Zombiebeatles to Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up Pride & Prejudice & Zombies to the wonderfully catchy Jim Jones-esq cool-aid pop of Dead Man Bones "My Boby's a Zombie for You". (which I have to admit has been the soundtrack to this post and I have listened to constant repeat like a Zombie since I heard, thanks to Nicola di Bowery's post).
Also we have the Zombie fans - dating at www.gk2gk.com among others. In fact as stated here sometime back mentioning Zombies is part of the recipe for the Optimal Online Dating Message according to OK Cupid's analytics.
But why?
Our fears reflect our society and the morbid line between the benign and seemingly insignificant normality is always the greatest well for our fears. See my great great great uncle Mr. Poe, for more on that theme and how he stirred up the most frightening tales from those things we find most commonly.
But why Zombies? And Why now?
Have we not all become somewhat Zombiefied by the iPod as we shuffle back and forth from work with our little white headphones blocking us from each other. Some of us even buy different colored headphones to show how unique we are in Zombieland. This, and many other little things like this, have hit the zeitgeist button hard as we look around us and see everyone zoning out, droning out, drowning out.
Of course not that we see ouselves as such, but isn't it from the cellar of the sub-conscious that fears usually arrive?
Need we even stir the narcissistic waters of Facebook to find more Zombie Food?
Seth Grahame-Smith’s mash-up is genius for picking up on this so quickly and presenting it in this style. Here is an author aware of the pulse of society. I would call him to ask the weather forecast before checking the internet.
The drone-rant of 24hour News only adds to this cauldron, as South Park so precisely underlined by resurrecting the scary little woman from Poltergeist, Zelda Rubenstein, to give a modern interpretation of Purgatory as being on an Airplane sitting on the tarmac waiting for clearance. (watch here)
Yet another point of view is David Sirota's, who wrote about this at political nests AlterNet ( & later Mother Jones). Sirota attributes it to our political situation.
Here we are, a year after a financial implosion that should have driven a stake in the heart of free market fundamentalism. Here we are, a year after an election that was supposed to pour holy water on Wall Street vampires, exorcise the economy's demons and challenge the ancient mummies of neoconservative foreign policy. Yet here we are, with virtually nothing changed, watching the same zombie crises indomitably stumble forward.
Which is an interesting answer to the current glut of Zombie material. Also an idea that has been poised before, as a comment to his post inadvertently alludes to by posting a clip from Bob Hope's Ghost Breakers.
I am no film historian, but this stab at Democrats was most likely a sentiment of the Hungarian Jewish owned Paramount that was rightfully infuriated by Roosevelt's declaration of U.S. neutrality while Hitler was moving through Europe. This makes a bit more sense than jabbing Democrats per se, as that the theme of the movie based on a Paul Dickey's play is that the beautiful Paulette Goddard inherits a supposedly haunted plantation in Cuba. Sounds like our President's plight.
Posted by Rowland Hobbs on October 13 at 5:49 PM
It seemed silly enough - an iPhone app in a sea of thousands. It had 24 different types of "chicks" you may want to score with. You picked one that most matched the dame on a date with you - vegan, military, married, and it (smartly) linked you to online tools - whether "pulling in information from Wikipedia on the punk movement for a girl who's into punk rock, or offering suggestions and directions to vegan restaurants if you've got a "treehugger" on your hands." (thanks, Adweek)
Sounds painless enough, in fact it sounds like something you'd see coming from Axe - the upstart Unilever deodorant and guy-product line. Problem is it didn't come from Axe. It came from Pepsi.
Well, to be technical, it came from Amp. But Amp is under the gigantic umbrella of PepsiCo. An old colleague of mine, Bonin Bough, who works for Pepsi digital marketing (or once did) probably has his hands in the chaotic cleanup that is currently underway.
Now, all of a sudden, the blogosphere is in a tizzy. First Mashable, then Jezebel. Then Amp apologized via Twitter, and other Pepsi brands followed suit.
Is this smart? Maybe. Maybe not, I guess we'll have to see. In the end, it's all about transparency. Pepsi NOT talking about it would be silly, Amp is their brand, and it's a load of hooey to act like they had no idea. Sure, maybe some higher-ups didn't see the "misogynistic app," but I'm sure there were plenty of channels it had to go through.
I say bravo to Amp for going after their core demo with an interactive and daring flash application. Could it be handled more tastefully? Sure. But Amp is marketing tastefulness. It's marketing to horny skater dudes with long hair who want to score. Whether those dudes actually use the app to score is up to them.
So what is my advice? Know who you are, and what you're dealing with. If Amp were a mini brand, floating on its own in that great sugary sea of cavity-inducing beverages, this app might have been a major moneymaker. But sadly, it is owned by Pepsi. So suddenly, it's as though Amp is the really obnoxious kid at Christmas Eve mass who's playing his PSP Go and talking loudly right next to his mother, who is both mortified, and being stared at by everyone in the surrounding pews.
Know your role, take a risk - I am all for these things. But also, be sure to understand potential fallout - because you never know what's going to happen, until there are posts all over your Google reader, and egg all over your face.
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Posted by Jesse Poe on October 13 at 10:32 AM
Growing up in a family of 6, there were a lot of things learned by mere observation instead of direct parental guidance. One was the squeaky wheel gets the oil (or the backhand).
When you're on that 14 hour pre-SUV car ride to grandma's and somebody wants to torment you to allay their own boredom; shut-off.
Close down, go numb, play possum...... UN-FRIEND.
.... and they'll move on.
In the last couple weeks I have come across a couple of articles on where our personal romantic past meets up with our social network today. Such as should we "friend" old flames? (last week in the WSJ)
The most interesting of which is an article from Ars Technica which gives a step-by-step guide on how to handle an on-line break up. The article can be read in full here, but even if you don't have an ex-whomever to avoid, it is a good way to simply spot check the security of your on-line life.
Your on-line life is every much a part of your real life as walking the dog or paying bills. Be careful with it and use it to the fullest!
Listen to Part 4 of Interview with Mitch Joel
Thanks for joining us for this great interview. If you liked this join us again for our Back-toBack series that we'll be starting where engineers, designers, musicians, artists, marketers, CEOs, poets, etc. will talk back to back about 3 questions.
Join us tomorrow for our final segment with Mitch Joel, part 4 of this 4 part interview, where we discuss: The mystery of Bono, who to follow on Twitter, metrics and his book Six Pixels of Separation.
Join us tomorrow for part 3 of this interview, where we discuss new content creators, War and Peace on the subway, & Kanye West, Metallica and being nice!
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P.s. if anyone would like the quote that Mitch asked me for. Here it is:
Il Gattopardo di Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
"Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga come e, bisogna che tutto cambi."
(translation)
The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change."
Posted by Rowland Hobbs on October 6 at 10:55 PM
Here at DMDxd we are constantly opening our clients' eyes to social media. Sure it's a wild and woolly world out there. Of COURSE we can't promise sky-high links and results in three and a half days. That's what's so great about Social Media - it's an affordable experiment. If it doesn't work, you can change it. And if it does work, you look like a genius and you'll be seen as a god among men.
Today AdAge gave us yet another reason to bang on that Social Media drum. It turns out that your social media presence has a strong effect... on your pay per click search marketing campaigns.
Now, if you're not doing PPC... well... nobody's perfect. And let's fix that fast.
But, here's what the study found:
"The research by WPP's GroupM Search, M80 and comScore found that consumers exposed to a brand's social campaign, anything from watching a YouTube video to friending the brand on Facebook, are 2.8 times more likely to search for a brand and click rates rose 50 percent. The rise is even more significant when a searcher who has seen a social campaign uses a brand's name in the query: the CTR then increased from 4.5 percent to 11.8 percent."
Yes Yes Yes! That's what I'm talking about! And of course it makes sense. The more you see a brand in the channels you trust, the more you're likely to trust that brand. The brand becomes familiar to you, gives you an "oh yeah! I remember those guys," moment... and increases the possibility of engagement.
So, yet another reason to get your company, agency, business, squirrel zoo onto Social Media platforms... it'll make your Pay-Per-Click ads that much more effective. Topics: 0 CommentsRead Full Post
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 5 at 3:46 PM
On the 6th anniversary of his Blog Six Pixels of Separation, we had the opportunity to talk to Mitch Joel about his new book by the same title:
It’s no longer a world of six degrees of separation. Only six pixels of separate us from one another and this proximity and possibility is changing the world of business.
Mitch discusses with us:
Should we blog?
When are prime-time hours and when is it ok for the station to go fuzzy; off-line time?
What is so brilliant about Daniel Johnston’s iPhone App?
Newspapers?
Sally Potter’s film Rage and reading War and Peace standing up.
Interviewing Metallica and Bon Jovi.
Who to follow on twitter and much much more!
Over the next four days we will be posting the interview in 6 to 8 min segments. Think of it as a morning inspiration to get you charged about using your day to connect with the world of business around you.
Make some coffee, tell a friend, and find us here bright and early tomorrow at DMDxd.
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 2 at 10:42 AM
Have you ever started down a street and then got a strange feeling, turned around, walked back to the corner and went down another street for no other reason than, the street felt wrong?
I make a point to always follow my intuition even if means I might look a bit silly, or have to go out of my way sometimes. The thing is though, there are no metrics on these things.
I never know if a piano didn't fall on my head because I don't go back to check, and then if I did go back to check how would I keep from getting into some sort of Schrödinger's cat paradox.
The good thing is that there are metrics on the T-Pain App I wrote about on 9/4 and 9/9.
300,000 + downloads in 3 weeks
14,000 + downloads a day
66 mins the average time spent on the app
12.5 the average times each have opened the app
4. 1 MILLION user-generated songs made by the users of the app
Now they have branched out with the release of I'm on a Boat by Lonely Island featuring T-Pain, lowering the price creating an engaging and fun youtube contest.
Amazing how simple success can be, and that it can actually be monitored, measured and maintained. The key is the simplicity, in contrast look at the failure of Ralph Lauren's recent QR code 10 step fiasco.
Reminds me of my first lesson on composition in high school art class: KISS keep it simple stupid.
Kudos to Smule for keeping it simple and on their success!
Posted by Jesse Poe on October 1 at 10:19 AM
I read more than half of my day, definitely more than half my waking hours. I read the paper in the morning, my iPhone on subway (easy to turn the page while ape-hanging to work), google reader at work, blogs at lunch, sidewikis and comments, magazines in the restroom, books in and before bed. And this morning (among others) I read this article Curling Up With Hybrid Books, Videos Included by MOTOKO RICH.
The subject (if you didn't read it squeezed between 4 others on the subway or clicked over just now to skim) was Vooks.
A subject that with the coming of the Courier and whatever Apple will brand it's tablet, will be much discussed.
I have to admit that I don't feel that I really need another manner in which to read, however I do not see this as the trumpet blast of the coming end of literature or the death of printed books. I'll leave that to apocalypse obsessed journalists who can't wait to be the first to ram the R.I.P. flag into whatever bastion of society they think the latest technology will supplant.
(side note: what is the media's obsession with proclaiming the death of everything? Overly Victorian in my opinion. They are cutting their own throats in eagerness to be the first to proclaim something obsolete before it even is, and therefore contributing to that obsoletion. As if the R.I.P. flag mentioned above is driven into the ailing subject killing it in the process. But that is another topic for another day.)
I have to agree with some of the authors quoted in the article and I am sure most of you, that other than how-to books etc., video clips will not enhance the reading experience but detract, and beg the question what is the difference between this an a movie or TV.
However, what I am excited about is the possibility for a new art to arise and I will be crossing my fingers that there will be creative souls out there that embrace the medium to not simply retro-fit this new medium with old ideas, but to create something entirely new. Or at least to create a new wave in which to make material with these new devices.
It's obvious that history books and other such formats will benefit from this medium, they will be able to affordably show photos and news reels and mixed media, that will bring a great richness to the subject. Like a focused and reigned in version of the internet.
I am sure that other types of books will benefit as well. However with the novel, I am not convinced that publishers will do what is necessary to make the mashup integral. Nor will they understand limits. Where do you draw the line between a novel and a movie in this new medium?
What I am betting on though is a new school. A group of people who make a new type of content, who see the device for what it is.... NOT a book, NOT the internet/website, NOT an iPod, etc. It has been done before and I am excited to see it happen again.
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It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance... and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process.
Henry James
