HolyCow

The Future of Planning: Convergence.

It was once observed that people tend to view the world through the lens of
their profession - and I make no excuse for doing exactly that here. I have
worked across the industry - ATL, BTL and all points in-between:
brand planning, account planning, connections planning, digital planning and
communications planning – all titles designed to suit particular agency disciplines.
Broadly speaking they all do the same thing: helping to craft and deliver a client’s
brand message to the most suitable audience to affect behavioral and attitudinal
change through the most interesting and fertile ideas.

Oh – and as cheaply as possible!!!

 

All change

But we are now having to rethink the value planning can create because cultural
and societal norms are being shaped by technology and measurable patterns of
behavior are flowing through observable social networks which were previously
hidden. Brands act like halos of associations that illuminate a company, product
or service and most of these associations are increasingly being shaped by
communities of human beings – not by agencies.

As a result agencies are not entirely clear where they start and finish when it
comes to owning the ‘brand’ or the ‘customer’ or whether they are even the same
thing. Most will publicly play fair with the other agencies they are forced to work
with on behalf of their client, but behind closed doors it’s still a bunfight with much
poor quality work as a result. Connections Planning for example is a planning silo
originated in media agencies and has been responsible for some of the most
awful and intrusive urban spam imaginable – ‘turds on the landscape’ as they are
referred to. Does anyone really think we need brands to be displayed on every
imaginable surface while we go about our day? Thought not.

What’s changed?

The most striking thing for me is the uncomfortable discovery that communications
doesn’t really work in the way we thought it did. By that I mean behavior driving
beliefs and not the other way round. We tend to buy things because people ‘like us’
are buying them so we will make almost instant judgements based on that and then
spend time post rationalising it to ourselves afterwards if we need to using peer
reviews.

Advertising acts as a reference point – but rarely the thing that changes our
behavior. This is not true of all categories – fashion being a prime example but it has
been the case in most fmcg categories for decades: women purchase certain types of

soap powder not just on price – but because their mothers tended to buy that brand
before them and/or so too their friends. I suggest a quick read of Mark Earls brilliant
book ‘Herd’ for a peek under the hood on this one.

 

Now I do accept the substantial evidence that shows sending people single minded
messages at key ‘moments of truth’ (dontcha just love that term?) does affect
behavioral change, but as we all know it is usually only incremental and comes with
high a wastage cost. Most of this thinking was the result of overzealous management
consultants selling in the latest CRM tools – 80% of which failed to deliver anything
except broken relationships with customers as human beings were removed to make
way for automation to reduce ‘cost to serve’.

New products are slightly different – they absolutely rely on the oxygen of advertising
and PR - but even they are moving towards a new model that relies on giving the
product away free to a group of people who then tell their friends about it on MySpace,
Twitter & Facebook. Why? Well, people like to share their feelings when they have been
the recipient of a random act of kindness and it’s hard not to say nice things about a
company or brand if the freebie you happen to be given is a shiny new Ford!

This is not terribly good news if you are continuing to ply your trade with the belief that
you can change people’s behaviour purely through brilliantly crafted communications.

Empowered consumers and all that
So much of what we now accept about ‘the customer is king’ and how technology
empowers people is ancient. Technology has been changing the world since the
Stone Age became the Bronze Age and WOM has been the key influencer on
behavioral change since we learned to walk erect. Two recent examples I quite
like are the use of cassettes featuring the Ayatollahs speeches fueling the Iranian
revolution in the late 1970s (Twitter bizarrely now playing a role in the 2009 elections)
and the introduction of the ATL equivalent of the BTL wastebin: the infrared TV remote
control in 1986. The reality is we have always been in control - but we have chosen
not to exercise our power until now.

Convergence Planning: making sense of a messy business
As opposed to ‘target markets’ we can throw messages at in the hope some of them
stick, we now we have to face the reality of dealing with multi-channel narratives based
on non-linear and rather messy human interactions. Human beings just won’t fit our
deterministic pen portraits on the creative brief – assuming we even did one.
Damn their eyes!

Meaningful connections can only occur when it’s 2-way and mutually respectful – just
like real life and so the issue we need to address is not just the message but the
‘involvement’ we can expect as a result. ROI = Return On Involvement. Planners need
to upskill and quickly to ensure their outputs aren’t actually harming the very brands
they are there to assist by planning in a silo – starting here and ending there is no
longer relevant.

Planners now need to be in possession of a fully functioning left and right brain and
to multitask - not be a one channel pony.

I suggest the planner of tomorrow needs to have the following 4 key skillsets 

The Convergent Planner should have:

1) Intellect of the brand architect

2) Financial acumen of the management consultant

3) Geekiness of the hacker 

4) Curiosity of the social psychologist

I still believe the most important attributes are the ability to understand the semiotics
of a category married to the extrinsic and intrinsic motivations and trait displays that
constitute patterns of human behavior. It is easily as important as understanding RSS
feeds, tags, uploads, dwell times, shares, quality of interactions, velocity, comments,
spread ability and contextual search patterns. More of this in another post.

Interestingly, brand attitudes and tone of voice are probably the most important factors
to creating valuable human engagement because it creates ‘propensity to purchase’
rather than just sales and should be measured as for success as such.
As Paul Watzlawick observed in his seminal work The Pragmatics of Human Communication:
‘everything communicates always’ - from the raw information (the ‘digital’ component) to the
way we say it (the ‘analogue’ component), and as an industry we have an image problem.

And so we need a new way to approach communications strategy – not just what is dictated
by our siloed disciplines. We need something altogether more holistic – the best of what went
before, merged with the best of what we need now. If your title says 'Digital Planner' or a 'Social
Media Expert' (enthusiast maybe but 'expert' perleeezz) then you are not helping your agency
and your probably not helping your client either. You need to be a bit more... well, 'convergent'.
 

 

Time for a rethink

Happy New Year to one and all!!!

I predict this could be a rather interesting year one way or another - the year
everything changes because the old guard is running short on relevance.
As an example I reckon Microsoft could be in serious trouble by the end of the
year as the failure of the Windows mobile system to gain credible consumer
market share forces it to stay put in the enterprise only category. Micro-payments
will begin destroying traditional remuneration models (except for everything Rupert
owns btw - never bought the Freemium thing - it was called a loss leader then and
still is but people ALWAYS pay for quality) and China will start going bust... ah, but
that's all for another post.

I haven't been posting much - or hardly at all - frankly because I didn't feel there was
really that much I wanted to say that hadn't already been said. The signal to noise
ratio has been ridiculous everywhere I turn. I have never read so much ill considered
crap masquerading as marketing insight in my life - which is a pity as it wasn't always
thus. Most of it about Social Media of course - the illiterate socially inept marketing
wannabees who wouldn't know the difference between a marketing objective and a
business objective if it twatted them in the face. Anyway the good news is that things
are going to get a whole lot less flaky going forward I think and the gap between the
players who have a real business and the 'busy fool' spectators grows ever wider.
It would be nice if there was more classic hits and less album filler I guess is what
I am trying to say.

Anyway, personally I am torn between the joy of a hastily captured spontaneous moment
or observation/interesting fact noted down on Posterous which acts as my scrapbook -
or the more arduous task of using Typepad - which just seems to be sucking the fun out
of blogging as it takes too long to throw something together unless its something I really
think is worth sharing. I guess I am just being lazy but being a freelance brand planner
seems to take up nearly all of my time these days - which is not such a bad thing. I shall
however be posting things that I have written recently about planning for what they are
worth - and also some more opinionated musings about human beings mixed with the
occasional bit of frivolity fueled by technology to alleviate the pain of being in an industry
whose revenues are going to continue to be under considerable strain.

So, 2010 - here we come - good luck everyone...

Emergent new world orders.

Scuze the long post but it’s a summation of lots of my thinking recently
and I needed to write it. Please bear with me.

I have been thinking about so many things to do with the nature and
meaning of Social Media – far removed from the ‘hey look at this new
thing’ but what it means in the wider sense – the bigger thing hinted at
but never delivered.

I was disappointed by the lack of tangible differences it has made as
highlighted in my post about the ReBoot Britain event where I came to the
conclusion that the prevalent 'sheep mentality' was clouding everything.
We all said the same thing and hinted at ‘something’ but there were no
tangible conclusions. And that the digiteratii are basically lots of affable folk
meeting up and exchanging pleasantries – but mostly not really doing
anything. Perhaps I am being unfair but it's the very thing that has been
giving people like Hugh MacLeod a lot of his ammunition. And of course the
gaping void between just 'liking' something and actually 'doing' something –
exemplified by those actually doing things are the same people they always
were - but now there’s a lot of people commentating on it. Most of whom
somehow, have attached a belief that they themselves are ‘doing something’.
They are not in reality. Plus ca change plus c'est la meme chose.

Dell makes millions on Twitter! At what cost?

Now I do accept that there are case studies to show how Twitter has
made Dell millions which we all jump on say ‘See – told you so’ but of
course the reality is that it is just a discount type message and we really
don’t want our conversations interrupted by those sorts of messages
anyway do we? I am worried about the precedence this sets no matter
how cunningly disguised they are – they are still insidious in my book.
The foot in the door as t’were. And I buy all the ‘community’ influence stuff
– but all it boils down to is better customer service right? Am I right?

So what?

So what I have been looking for is the real revolution - the paradigm shift
where WE change because what we know of the world has changed and
where the relationship of everything to everything else becomes altered.
Like the Stone Age becoming The Bronze Age - not because we ran out
of stones, but because something better came along. The real 'Velocity Age'
and all it means for society.

And I have been sort of expecting something to fill the void like some
magical moment where bad things like the edifices of greed and outmoded
Industrial Age structures came tumbling down around our ears to be
replaced by something better. And then I started to examine what it was
that bothered me and why it wasn’t happening. And it boiled down to this:
no-one has yet got round to breaking the stranglehold on the value we
place on money.

An illustration: I did a talk a year or so ago at BBDO World Conference
where I showed a close up of two banknotes:

Which fake is real?

One of them is fake - one a brilliant counterfeit and I asked the audience
which one they thought was the counterfeit. The audience was divided as
there is so little differentiation - same engraving, same paper, same
everything really - so why was it that one had the authority to be declared
currency and one didn’t (can you tell?). Did someone wave a magic wand
over the one batch of paper in a basement somewhere and declare it
currency and the other simply hadn’t been so blessed? Bizarre right?

So here’s the thing - the only thing that made one of them ‘legal currency’
was that it was somehow sanctioned only by OUR belief in it as real
currency, and therefore one could conclude that it is our trust and belief
that makes it so. It's our fault really.

Taking this further I wanted to see how we had got to the point that
we could blindly place such trust in only one artifact despite them
being identical and it transpires that it goes back to the 12/13th century
(according to Douglas Rushkoff who blames the Renaissance
incidentally) where ‘local currency’ was outlawed in favor of the
Kings own currency.

What was local currency?

Let me explain - not teaching to suck eggs but the context is
important. Local currency (in many ways barter) worked on the
principle that whatever I had to trade (beans, bread, sheep, skills
etc) had an immediate and tangible value to my neighbors and
ultimately to the survival of my community. Why did it work? Well let’s
suppose I am a doctor and my neighbor is a baker. If the corn he uses
is poisoned and he trades me his bread for my services and my family
gets ill as a consequence - the impact is on him - the access to a good
doctor, let alone the social stigma he faces. 

And so the rules about how we should trade with each other had
serious consequences individually and socially and as a result an
equilibrium of value was established 'peer-to-peer' which worked
perfectly well for centuries.

Here come the 'Great Pirates'...

Some artisans became experts at what they did and merchants
emerged that traded these superior goods and services between
communities and as a consequence began to get seriously wealthy -
wealthier than the kings who sought to establish authority through
divine right and ultimate power (just look at how the baubles and
embellishments of state were displayed to intimidate and underpin
ultimate authority). And of course this posed a problem in regaining
authority.
(see Bucky Fullers thoughts on the Great Pirates for more).

And so the Kings abolished local currency - made it illegal - and
introduced their own so they could control their subjects and indeed
make money out of money itself (through interest) so they wouldn't
have to do any work themselves but could accumulate and earn
from others endeavors. Seems a bit unfair doesn't it? And of course
this meant that you were now given money to trade with that you had
to pay back, more than you borrowed – which lead to competition and
the need for growth - rather than the natural symbiotic relationship
between communities based on mutually agreed values.

So where do we go from here? (not down to the lake I fear ;)

Well it seems the real opportunity - perpetuated through Social Media
- is to have some sort of re-evaluation of this through new peer-to-peer
currencies based on respect, trust, kindness, generosity, altruism as
well as individual value based skills that have a value perhaps only
to an individual in specific need of them.

And now our social-based technology is allowing us to find and connect
these people - the whole conversations as markets with a twist.

And one such 'project' if you can call it that, has caught my eye is VEN
run through something called Hub Culture. Here's what they say about
themselves:

'our core mission is to help elevate collective consciousness, Hub tries
to make sure the projects it promotes and develop have a socially
sustainable benefit. The net impact of any project should be positive on
five key indicators by which we measure success: sustainability, social
good, environmental impact, efficiency and bottom-of-the-pyramid
empowerment.'

It is based on the thought that you can trade your skills and good will for
currency - do a good deed or a favour and earn social currency for it or
buy it and use it to trade on a different mutually created value system.
Now this is potentially dangerous stuff because it means that markets
will develop that go around the banks in many areas of commerce
and endeavor.

An end to debt?

A mortgage is potentially the biggest investment you will ever make -
the thing that keeps you rooted in a spiral of work and debt - where
the banks get the majority their money from and which causes nearly
all of our current world problems. In future you'll still need regular
currency but - in future perhaps you might get someone to build you a
house, on a piece of land that you have traded something other than
money for without resorting to the unwilling reliance on punitive bank
interest rates.

I have a lot more to say about all this but for now I urge you to look at
VEN and the HUB and to try it - I am just beginning - but this seems
to me to be the first step into a completely different paradigm - one that
truly changes the game and one that I am very hopeful about.

Here's a nice vid from the Wall Street Journal about it that explains it in
more detail. Its not too long and worth a look:

I would be interested in your thoughts about what this means and how it
could develop as it really is the next step on the road on the real impact
of Social Media above and beyond the obvious stuff being endlessly debated.

Advertising or Marketing agency?

Just a quick thought but, I suspect that agencies will have to start
becoming more 'marketing' focused again in future as the ROIs
calculated across the industry by Deloitte Consulting for the Grocery
Manufacturers of America (according to AdAge) - found in-store
marketing ranked highest in perceived return on investment by
respondents, followed by trade promotions/displays, TV advertising
and interactive/web advertising.

Not good news for the ad agencies potentially - although thinking back
I can remember when lots of the big agencies had guys working in a
sales promotion department in the agency creating trade and in-store
elements fueled by an inhouse research department too. In fact I loved
the sales promo guys - they always had fantastically colorful cardboard
cutouts and free samples dotted around their offices. Handy if it was either
a choccie or booze client obviously. Perhaps they still do but they are not
clearly demarcated and its probably only 1 or 2 teams stuck in a corner
somewhere.

Most of this is now 'out of house' and being controlled by the clients
themselves, and I was wondering how we let this actually happen.
I think the traditional sales promotion agencies found the late
90s and early noughties really hard and many disappeared or got
subsumed and as an industry I think it largely lost its punch. Now I know
there are a few good ones left - but let's be honest - outside of their own
big award shows (the ISP springs to mind) - they are not very visible are
they? In fact I can't recall them attending any of the ludicrous 'loop team'
meetings that the big grocers used to hold in those awful business parks
off the M4 once a week. Don't miss those!

And then I wondered where they sit on a clients budget line - not quite an
ad agency - although probably capable of producing an ad or two, and not
quite a design company - although they usually have a great eye for
typography and design, but they definitely were marketing led companies -
with all the language and knowledge of how categories and margins and
logistics and case values and volume discounts and pricing strategies and
proper category management theory in each of the markets worked -
something that there seems to be a paucity of in many ad agencies today.
I miss all of that and the guys who knew all of that - the sales promo guys
had some of the brightest people in the industry working for them.
Where are they all now?

And now there is this increase in focus on the 'point of impact' on shelf and
instore and consumer and trade advertising budgets being merged, and you
have to wonder whether the ad agencies will seize the opportunity to again
advise clients not only on brand and creative strategy but their marketing
strategy too. Proper Value Based Marketing as Peter Doyle once wrote -
rather than the reliance on superficial creative impacts loosely linked at
best to shareholder value and digital guys measuring the dwindling effects
of CTRs.

I for one certainly hope they do - the alternative is pretty daunting and the
opportunity seems there for the taking.

Zero. The sum of confidence.

So, here we are again in September and the infamous planning rounds
that agencies and clients subject themselves to at this time of year.
Having been party to many planning cycles and the resulting plans it
strikes me that there has never been a better time to relook at the role
agencies can and should play in this process.

There will of course be the usual jostling for position at the clients side
- each agency discipline vying for their siloed specialism to take
precedence - the time to push for the mythical 'lead agency' status' with
over- enthusiastic MDs pushing their planners and GADs to achieve a bit
more leverage and hopefully income to replenish their depleted coffers.

It is again time for projects and plans to be put forward, but this time with 
an actual business context rather than just the next piece of creative work
to chew over lunch. And moreover it's the chance to ascertain which media
channels worked better than others and how to achieve more with less (I
shall smile wistfully as the '10% growth and 15% margin' target gets
bandied around again like some sort of amazing new theory of market
innovation) and again the measurements doled out by the media guys
will no doubt be full of caveats.

Well this year should be interesting and could be the year to make real
progress as an industry. We had news today that the recession ended in
May (according to the RPI - which is bizzare and should get the ardent
media conspiracy theorists happy) so the temptation to do exactly as we
did last year but with a reduced marketing spend might not be the wisest
way to approach things.

Let's not repeat the mistakes of the past

This should be the year that clients try the new stuff: using the community,
engaging in dialogue to create preference and reinforce current patterns of
behavior - rather than trying to change old ones and accepting that perhaps
behavior actually drives beliefs not the other way round. Something that
certain DM agencies would rather not face up to.

Good strategic marketing planning was never about predicting the future -
it has always been about asking the critical questions about how a market
has changed, what the dominant, residual and emerging trends are and
how to harness those across the shared value drivers across the business.

This is the time to see how we can solve our clients business objectives
using smart business acumen first then how we express it creatively rather
than trying to protect our own revenues through self serving strategies that
are post rationalized to fit our worldview as so often happens. The answer
is almost definitely NOT a TV campaign anymore - at least not in isolation.
Yes it is always painful to realize that perhaps we are not capable or
credible of offering anything other than advice in our area of specialism,
but we should at least use this opportunity to see how we can add credible
value in future. And that might mean starting from zero all over again.

Stop thinking like a planner -
Start thinking like a management consultant!!!

We should be asking questions about the value chain - how the internal
organization functions not just the consumer facing one and have ideas
and views on how to help transform cultures positively to deliver exceptional
customer value.

We might suggest adapting an existing or new portfolio to take
advantage of new technological developments - potentially huge unrealized
value that has sat in a silo somewhere. A new product naming strategy perhaps
to achieve better SEO results might actually be a better place for agencies to
deliver value than just another 'big idea'.  Or the creation of what I call 'Value
Based' Social Objects - which score highly on a 'Useful & Interesting' index
that get passed around on the networks so they form a distinct blob on the
social graph. Something that many ATL agencies just don't get and the digital
guys aren't convincing enough to make their own.

We must start adopting the best practices of the management consultancies
married to the explosive qualities of creative excellence that can transform a
category (Meerkat anyone?) to really start to reclaim our place at the
top table and earn proper fees for the value we create. 

One of the best ways to get everyone to re-evaluate marketing expenditure is
to adopt a zero-based budgeting model - no legacy spend but a true evaluation
of how all the channels and value propositions need to work to meet objectives:
strategic, customer and competitor.

But it's unlikely really I accept - zero has always been a scary word - humans
have  avoided it's negative associations, the Greeks declared it to be unnatural -
theologians even argued that God banished the void by creating the universe
and medieval thinkers banned it together with other Arabic ciphers entirely.

Well I say bring it on. Zero is liberating. It is where it all begins because it forces
us to create something to replace it. And in this climate that might just be us.

Towering stupidity

Well apart from the obvious pun here - there is something terribly
important about the recent events surrounding the fake ad for WWF
perpetrated by those wacky boys from Brazil at DDB.

Firstly that an ad was created that could ever or should ever be
construed as offensive. Causing offense rather than causing one
to reconsider one's position, or to take action, or just to see the
world differently and enter a discourse is in many ways a waste of
everyone' efforts.

And I am sure there are some creatives that will argue the ad
actually does all of the above in a provocative and challenging
way, but, I just can't get past the laziness of it. It just reminds me
of something a student would do - or a junior team desperate to
impress a hard to please ECD. And if that had been the case
then one could forgive the impetuosity knowing that someone
somewhere would take the team aside and point out how you
can be more persuasive by rewarding the observer for their time
through subtlety, nuance, and perhaps an unexpected twist
between the image and the words. The sort of 'creative maturity'
that comes from hours of working at something you love doing.
But of course, this wasn't the case. This was a cynical attempt
to win an award with a fake ad and win a suitably impressed client.

Thing is - it wasn't a big idea, it certainly wasn't clever, it wasn't on
strategy for WWF which ultimately meant it wasn't client-winning.
In fact it was so badly received by the client in a way so publicly
outraged they issued this:

"WWF strongly condemns this offensive and tasteless ad and did not
authorize its production or publication. It is our understanding that it was
a concept offered by an outside advertising agency seeking our business
in Brazil. The concept was summarily rejected by WWF and should never
have seen the light of day. It is an unauthorized use of our logo and we
are aggressively pursuing action to have it removed from websites where
it is being currently featured. We strongly condemn the messages and the
images portrayed in this ad. On behalf of WWF, here in the US and around
the world, we can promise you this ad does not in any way reflect the
thoughts and feelings of the people of our organization."

So exactly the opposite of what this ad was trying to achieve for both
client and one of my favorite agency groups of all time. Fail.
(Although rumor has it it wasnt faked after all - watch this space...)
So why did it win an award?

 

'The tsunami killed 100 times more people than 9/11.
The planet is brutally powerful. Respect it. Preserve it.'

Executive Creative Directors: Sergio Valente, Rodolfo Sampaio, Julio Andery
Creative Directors: Sergio Valente, Rodolfo Sampaio, Julio Andery, Guilherme Jahara

Secondly, the One Show claims to be a bastion of creative excellence -
in fact 'the keeper of the flame' no less for advertising creatives all taking
calculated risks with new ideas. I applaud this but to award such witless
endevour brings the industry into disrepute whichever way you look at it.
What on earth was the criteria here? If I used some holocaust survivors in
a fake ad for soup for example - does a Merit automatically follow?
Shame on you.

Thankfully this has remained a moment of madness within the industry,
but it shows how people within the industry can still behave in a rather
unsavory manner. If we are not careful we will end up as reviled as bankers,
property developers, estate agents and car salesmen for goodness sake.
We are not all self-serving, unsympathetic and untrustworthy - but we
are capable of gargantuan charmlessness when left to our own devices.

Thirdly, I am glad that the powers within the One Show have decided
to put some sort of checks and balances in place on these now
seemingly morally corrupt industry awards. The fact that they had to make
a statement about how fake ads and bogus creative solutions for
non-existent clients is in fact 'cheating' is long overdue. We've all known it,
we've all polluted the well so to speak - so let's hope some common sense
will now prevail.

Here's what the One Club's board of directors including David Droga,
David Lubars, Nancy Vonk and Nick Law have agreed on to be introduced
in 2010:

An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad
made for a nonexistent client, or made and run without a client's
approval, will be banned from entering the One Show for five years.

The entire team credited on the "fake" entry will be banned from
entering the One Show for five years.

An agency or regional office of an agency network that enters an ad
that has run once, on late-night TV, or only because the agency
produced a single ad and paid to run it itself will be banned from
entering the One Show for three years.

It is a pity that it had to come to this and I hope other awards take note.
Ideas are our currency and creativity is the fuel that drives them. Let's
remember who we are working for and why. Let's also remember that we
are all in the business of helping our clients solve their business problems
- not using them to solve ours.

Just to put this in context, here is an ad from Humo - an irreverent
satirical magazine from Belgium that ran some time ago.
Award winning ad? You already know the answer to that.

 

Humo - award winner?

Reading the community

 
London Business Book Club

I just wanted to publicly thank Catherine Crawley (aka @topicalfool)
for organizing the London Business Book Club at the Slug and Lettuce
in Hanover Street on Wednesday night. It is a relatively intimate
setting which makes it even more fascinating as it is like 'an audience
with' or rather an 'unplugged' version of what someone like Mark
usually does infront of lots of people. Very inspiring and lovely to
have people not in the marketing 'frat' posing often incisive and thought
provoking questions to the Herdmeister himself.
Apologies for not remembering everyone's tags or names but it was great
to meet you all.

It was also really great to catch up with John Griffiths - the 'Godfather'
(@johngriffiths7) of planning communities - who let's remember started
all this stuff way back in early 2000 - 9 years ago!!! with the first website
dedicated to the craft of planning: Planning Above and Beyond.
Brilliant. Oh, and there were more people than the pics suggest btw!

Anyway, I think the Business Book Club idea is brilliant - and I love the idea
of sharing a book and discussing it, plus, having a really interesting author
there to share his/her thoughts about why they wrote what they did.
I clumsily forgot to bring one - which was naughty. Next time I shall bring
something to share properly Catherine I promise!

In the meantime, there is another one on Weds 9th Sept where American
author: Jonathan Salem Baskin writer of "Branding only works on cattle"
will be doing his stuff.

Apparently 'he is a true contrarian. He'll challenge, he'll make you think,
he might even change the way you behave and act about branding forever.'

Should be good! See you there - and bring a book with you :)

Freedom found

'Volare' in Brown Hart Gardens W1 (M. Hancock)

Just thought I would share this as I found myself 'wandering and
wondering' last Wednesday around London and came across this
amazing little park on a terrace above the Duke Street electricity
sub-station opposite Selfridges.

I have often walked passed it and wondered just what on earth it was
and whether you could actually get onto it. Well it transpires that you
can and its a little oasis of calm with all the restorative power of an
Indian head massage to strip you of any remnants of the insanity of
Oxford Street. 

The sculpture above was created by Lorenzo Quinn who is one of the
world's leading contemporary sculptors and the son of the late actor,
Anthony Quinn. How extraordinary is that! 

He has this to say about the sculpture:
'Volare' is freedom! It means to open ones arms and feel the unabated
expression of happiness flowing through every pour of your fingers.'

It is stunning and I spent ages staring at it and feeling inspired.

 

Brown Hart Gardens (Colin Wing)

Anyway, they have lots of events on in Brown Hart Gardens
throughout the year so check their website, or if your into unusual
and secretive stuff then check out the London Gardens Trust - they
have a list of other neat little gems like this. See you there :)

Multi-dimensional thinking.

I came across this piece earlier today on the ever fabulous BoingBoing
which was originally posted on the site by Cory Doctorow who got it
from a site called Imagining the Tenth Dimension. Phew that's the link
bit sorted. The actual site has even more thought provoking stuff on
it about quantum mechanics and string theory and all that really
good stuff to support a book written by a guy called Rob Bryanton.

Bowloftoast on the site sez:
"This is a short animation that takes the viewer through a progressive
description of all (and all possible) dimensions, up to and including
the 10th. It is an elegant introduction to the fundamentals of string
theory and a mind-blowing toe-dip into the pool of the metaphysical."

Yep just about sums it up. It seems appropriate to look at this stuff now
as we seem to be increasingly able to handle more complex notions
about the world around us than we ever could previously - a sort of
collective intelligence thing and perhaps the beginning of a new
Enlightenment that seems to be doing the rounds currently.

And with all science faction (see what I did there?) it may be right -
or it might not be - no-one can really prove it, but it does force us
to re-examine our notions of reality and how things really are.

Marketing Geometry and Scenario Planning:
One thing for me that it throws up is (although the book was actually
written in 2006!) is that it paves the way for new ways to look at everything
- advertising and marketing in particular.

I have been thinking a lot about what will come next with the cult of the
individual being supplanted with the cult of the crowd and the Herd etc.
and I believe that we will stop thinking about trying to change behavior
at the individual level and more about how to influence positive emotional
responses through the creation of shared interactions. Some work has
already begun in this space currently as we know but very little and usually
and unfortunately in the hands of Social Media Experts - 'Enthusiasts' in my
book not 'Experts' as too few have any classic marketing theory to back it up.
Another post another time.

The implication is that we will need to strategically reconfigure planning's
role to include the creation of multiple parallel and simultaneous effects in
the same way military planners do when considering strategic offensive
operations. But unlike that kind of scenario planning with its military jargon
(target, impact etc) I see the structure that pops out being more akin to
geometry with ratio's, rates, proportions, polarities, ordered pairs, mapping,
isometry and the like to capture the narrative as it plays out.

I shall post more about Marketing Geometry and Scenario Planning later
as it is a separate thought but not unconnected.

In the meantime, pull up a seat, get the popcorn in and watch the video.
It is truly wonderful :)

What will become of 'us'?

I came cross the top left piccie of Faris the other day on a PDF entitled
Are All Ads Spam? in a piece for something called 'The New Next' - not
entirely sure why I saved it - 'cept it does have some interesting bits about
all advertising being spam unless it adds value. I thought at first it was
connected to Chris Brogan and his manifesto sorta thing (worth a read
incidentally) - but I can't find a link there to the article and it doesn't seem
connected. I digress.

Anyway, the thing that struck me (and I'm sure you) is how he has changed.
I wanted to post it for a giggle really as the later pics are - well - somewhat
'different', and it reminded me about the conversations I have had many times
about Keef and how on earth he ended up looking like he does now.

And then syncronistically this appeared on Facebook last night...

...which is a rather neat little thing from Fast Company: to celebrate the third
series of MadMen which aired on Aug 16th:

...which has Faris as Harry Crane - erm - no actual resemblance and actually
not that much in common really, but heck, its great to be recognized in that
way right?

Anyway - that's not the point. The interesting thing is that the pic of Faris BH
(Before Hair) was all fresh faced and sincere - and the second AH (After Hair)
has taken on a sort of messianic appearance, and well, we all know what
happened to Keef.

So I am left wondering how much personal transformation or style is a
result of circumstance and context - it' s the B.F. Skinner in me folks -
or does it work the other way round - we are what we are and then things
happen as a consequence of that. Interesting as outlaws in popular culture
mostly define the antithesis of tribal behaviour  and yet are often the most
revered, and yet we are constantly looking for the things that make us like
everyone else from a brand planning perspective.

And  therefore could the secret of success in future be to look less like
everyone else - be more individual rather than play to the community
perhaps? Have to think on this one as it seems to run counter to a lot of
what is being written currently.

And then yet even more syncronicity this morning as Rory and the IPA
posted a very interesting book and also seminar to come to by a chap
named Geoffrey Miller who has written this:

Spent argues that many of our product choices are driven by the desire not
to feel good, but to look good, by displaying our evolutionary fitness to those
around us.

Apparently it goes beyond the big 5 trait displays (watch out for that meme in a
presentation near you soon): openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness and emotional stability and provides some clarity as to why we
are like we are and why perhaps we look like we do.

I shall have to wait to read it but in the meantime perhaps Faris himself has
some answers for us...

P.S. Not sure if this will work actually but here is a link to the file mentioned above:

Download NewNext_ME_AU06

Andersons not Free here:

Bizarrely the edited free version of the new Chris Anderson book
Free seems to have disappeared from the link below. Which is a
pity as I was rather enjoying it. And then it struck me that as it was
in fact only 'free' for a short period of time - it was sort of going
against some points he had made about 'Freemium' (actually
coined by someone else entirely in 2006). And probably indicates
that his stance on giving it all away free and not really caring
where his IP  ends up or that his was most pirated book on stalls
in China but he didn't care was actually bollocks. Which all rather
undermines the whole thing surely?

And another thing - when I saw him at the ICA he basically went
through chapters 1 and 2 which were about how the old razor King
gave the handles away free so he could charge for the razor - and
of course the old color printer Vs replacement cartridges etc. Yep
got all that - its called a 'loss leader' or is certainly used to be when
I was being slapped around the head with a wet Kotler and Armstrong.
And - his book was on sale in the lobby - not even free - which made
me chuckle at the sheer sort of Emperors new attire moment being
played out.

And I wanted to ask him the question about the loss leader strategy -
which I sort of thought was actually the whole point of his book but
cleverly re appropriated as 'Freemium' - giving something away for
free or below the profit line in order to make a sale somewhere else -
but felt awkward in case I wasn't thinking straight. But on reflection
perhaps I was and the whole Longtail meme has actually just
been exhausted.

I doubt I will be buying a copy of the book in future because it is a one
trick pony - got the bit about Freemium then you've kinda got it really.

Oh, and I had to delete the original link as it kept jumping to the top.

London. Reflections In Concrete

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from holycow's posterous

Give Tweece A Chance

Seems like peace is breaking out all over the place at the moment.
The interesting thing is that companies are using the 'Unconscious
Permission' that Twitter seems to offer to do things like this. This is
the first evidence I have seen of this sort of brand as a sentient
personable entity playing with conversations on Twitter that are really
significant due to the players involved. Brilliant. Sort of 'cold war thaw'.
And, of course there is no real reason why it should just stop at
companies, products, services and the brands associated with them.
It's really quite heartening when you think of the possibilities.
Well done Amnesia for spotting and facilitating it ;)

Alternatively, with my cynical hat on, it could just be that they feel they
should - otherwise there could be negative brand associations
permeating at velocity through social networks which is suddenly a
PR issue.

Interesting and one to watch with other brands either forced to say
hello or just to acknowledge the 'other'. I love the Google one at the
end too :)

Feels like this is the beginning of something. I hope so.

 

Thoughts on #RebootBritain

I enjoyed the sessions at RebootBritain on Monday - it was an
interesting conference - with varying degrees of quality of speaker
and content - some unexpectedly poor - and some terrifyingly
good.

It is an almost impossible task to unpick and then restitch the
information that was shared throughout the day as it was quite
diverse and hard to remember so I thought I would do 2 things
to jog my memory:

1) Re post my rather limited Twitter-feed of the day
(as per my Clay Shirky thing here: http://tinyurl.com/m2j985)
2) Use these to form an opinion in combination with my
scribbled notes.

Here they are in reverse order:

1. The authority of the text was overturned
   when search went mainstream
   5:40 PM Jul 6th 
   
   
2. Well done the Tweeters :)
   5:32 PM Jul 6th
   
   
3. @Bryant's favorite book Politics of Obedience by
   Etiene de la Boetie - might have to read that!
   5:05 PM Jul 6th
   
   
4. Better to package up issues and let Britain
   solve its own problems rather than a group of overpaid
   American consultants
   5:00 PM Jul 6th
   
   
5. Re-balance people over process - hear hear @leebryant
   4:51 PM Jul 6th
   
   
6. New Labour was a policy adopted to deal with the mainstream
   media - Lee Bryant
   4:45 PM Jul 6th
   
   
7. I start with a laugh and work backward - bill bailey on
   joke writing
   2:32 PM Jul 6th
   
   
8. the morality of 'enough' - there's a line to think about...
   2:24 PM Jul 6th
   
   
9. digital revolution: there are no conscripts -only volunteers -
   good line from Alan Moore
   2:16 PM Jul 6th
   
   
10. Interesting that at most sessions they start with -
    'I hope you have all got your laptops and mobiles
    on' how refreshing :)
    1:10 PM Jul 6th
    
    
11. apparently we should be following @peskypeople -
    activist apparently
    12:55 PM Jul 6th
    
    
12. Twittering is onanistic apparently. He is talking total
    wank surely?
    12:32 PM Jul 6th
    
    
13. Voting is just the way we get rid of bad government.
    12:28 PM Jul 6th
    
    
14. Internet tends to describe problems and then we find
    people who agree with us.
    Decision makers do it the other way round
    12:23 PM Jul 6th 
    
    
15. Internet is not the best place for the articulation of
    demand it is the best place for individual communities
    to 'solutionize'
    12:18 PM Jul 6th
    
    
16. We need to be collectively responsible - being
    unhealthy is a personal choice - not down to the
    Government
    12:15 PM Jul 6th
    
    
17. We need to change - not the Government - like this!
    12:13 PM Jul 6th
    
    
18. Decision making cannot be collaborative in Public Service -
    the public is always right collectively - shades of Clay Shirky
    12:11 PM Jul 6th

Looking back it seems I only tweeted those things that resonated
or stuck out as there was a lot to listen to but actually not that much
to take in.

I was impressed by the acceptance of some of those in positions of
responsibility that there are too many people who write about what is
happening culturally and politically - but virtually no-one actually
doing anything. And even if they could - most don't want to or are
resistant to having the responsibility for others actions.

Politics and process and structure and local governance can and should
be changed for the benefit of the community but it does require ordinary
people to actually get involved - not just go to conferences and then blog
about it (spot the irony!)

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose
As I sat in many of the sessions I became aware of the thing that has sort
of been buggin me for a while about the whole 'digital revolution' meme.
There is still a naive fervor perpetuated about 'digital' by certain individuals
all claiming to be 'passionate about digital' - or in some nauseating cases
'experts' or 'gurus' - especially in 'Social Media' circles.

Good for you - but what have you actually done to make the world a
better place I ask? Made your Twitter profile green to show solidarity
with disgruntled Iranian voters? I am not entirely sure that this has made
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shit himself, or perhaps you joined a Facebook
group to save an endangered species or sent a creative viral video to
your mates to think twice before booking another plane flight. But does
this change behavior? Ours perhaps but - and this is the killer - not 'theirs'.

Clay Shirky's latest TED video has him explain how Obama listened to his
constituents about the FISA legislation through his website - the bit about
the right to spy on citizens for security reasons - and then ignored them
and did what he wanted anyway. The funny thing from my perspective is
that it is still seen as a great use of 'social media' - the sheer inclusiveness
of it - how he 'listened to us', how nothing was locked down or shut out.
Right, but so what? Nothing changed - just that he listened.


See for yourselves:


Spectators, critics & actors
And so I guess my point is that although the issues are now more visible
through digital channels and conferences such as RebootBritain the world
is still divided into spectators, critics and actors and it is the actors who
continue to change things because in the real world - that is their job - not ours.

And as for the 'Travelling Geeks' - these mythical cool characters from the
'Valley' who are dripping in easy going entrepreneurial chic - making millions
whilst wearing faded jeans and t-shirts and helping us to do the same in our
'little backwater' while they are here. Well if these are your new digital Gods -
so different to the old capitalists - then I've got some bad news for you.

These are the same well connected, highly educated guys that they always
were, hawking their latest books and blogs and materials around just like
everyone else. There was nothing rock and roll about any of the ones I saw
speak or chatted with. At least Howard Rheingold made an effort to look vaguely
San Fran but that was about it.

The difference in the 'Valley' apparently was that everyone was more
'open and shared more stuff'. Yep, only if you were connected though - from what
I can gather - just like everywhere else!

And so looking at my Tweets and remembering the day I feel a
little bit disappointed - despite Howard Rheingold's wonderful dress sense.
I had arrived full of optimism that huge amounts of creativity once let loose 
through digital channels might herald the dawning of a new age of man's
consciousness and that the world would be a better place or something like that.
All I got was the reality that not much has actually changed, the 'mess' we are in
is entirely of our own making and that pontificating about it changes nothing.

In conclusion
It is not digital that will change the world but people who actually 'do stuff'
- some of which will be digital. And whilst those that actually 'do stuff' might
make easy targets for conference speakers and activists, those currently
doing things with digital aren't really doing much better either.

links for 2009-07-06

• Virl It! - Share Photos, Shorten URLs & Spread News - virl.com
  (tags: inspiration)
• Magical Nihilism
  (tags: cool creativity inspiration)
• Mainstreaming the mavericks
  (tags: creativity Interesting)