Friday

Enough Said...


A pretty cool sequence of photo's taken by a supporter during Obama's Chicago victory speech.
Not ad related but a fun find.

Wednesday

The Links - Bulk Edition

You might not have heard, but there was an election last night. As a result, a ton of sites are posting election related materials and you can find some cool links below (and, of course some great ad related ones...especially with Marketing Week going on in Toronto right now. Check 'em out:

- Need a cool graph to make sense of social media insights? Check this out.
- What will Obama do with his massive digital network? He can start to plan for 2012.
- Fan of Xbox Live? Get excited. The new UI launches on November 19th.
- LinkedIn user who wants to do more with the social network? Check these apps out.
- Think that only your friends check your Facebook profile? Better be sure your employer doesn't. Especially if you work for Virgin.
- We've all seen the countless attack ads politicians run during an election. Want to make your own? Now you can - trust me, this app is sweet.
- If you work for a not-for-profit, you've got to read this post as soon as possible.
- Just remember, Atheist's can advertise too.
- You think American political ads are bad? Check out the Canadian ones.
- Great app from Brazil that lets you ringtone yourself.

Pretty Good. Pretty, Damn, good.

Got together with a group of friends tonight to watch the election results and I've got to say, the McCain and Obama speeches were fantastic.

It's not often that you see a moment like this one - the culmination of a two year campaign, a horrible state of American affairs, the need for new leadership and the hope that comes with a new President.

We've blogged a lot about the successful tactics of Obama. He won Marketer of the year and, as a result, has tried a number of different things (from an iPhone app to In game advertising).

That being said, the most memorable point of this campaign is this image of Obama - Alone, silent and human.

Brands rarely execute their promise - no matter what it is. Obama is just a man, but his story of hope and change is much more than that. And that story helped to transform the American voter and make them do something they've never done before.

I've never felt as hopeful as I have tonight when it comes to politics. The Obama brand is something I believe in and I've been a loyal consumer for the last 12 months. I'm excited, thrilled and so happy that a brand has acheived it's promise.

Yes, we can.

Monday

My Favorite Digital Conference Quotes

  • "The back-side of advertising will become more important than the front" - Tim Armstrong, Google
  • "But enough about me, what do you think about me?" - Rob Walker (citing another)
  • "The consumer just doesn't have any money anymore" - Rob Walker
  • "You may not like change - but you'll hate irrelevancy even more" - Military commander

10 Quick Tips to Start Engaging in Social Media Right Now

1. Do a Google Blog search on your company’s brand, category and industry. Start doing this on a regular basis and read through the content. Start to get a pulse, subscribe to some Google Alerts on the topics.

2. Do the same search using search.twitter.com. There are lots of resources and guides on using Twitter and other microblogging platforms - but creating an account and getting acclimated is a longer term investment of time. I would start with looking for mentions and understanding what is being talked about. For that matter, Mark Meyer has a great post on many ways to listen to many sources in social media.

3. Join Facebook. Connect with friends, colleagues, get to know and understand how it works. Look for colleagues from your company and see how they are representing themselves. Are there Facebook groups mentioning your company? Does your company have a page? What about your competitors?

4. Join LinkedIn and set up your profile. Also connect with friends and colleagues. Get to know how the social network works. Understanding social networking will be important - as will the ability for customers and business partners to know you exist. Learn about who you should connect to and who you should avoid on each network. Here’s my view of how I scrutinize connections, but many people use social networks differently.

5. Ask around your company and find out who blogs, who is on Facebook, who is on Twitter or who is using other social media tools. You can learn a lot about social media by observing what they see and do in this space. I think you’d be surprised at how many folks in the organization already have a blog, even if it’s a personal one.

6. Start using a RSS reader like Google Reader. Search for reviews of your products or services. Find 5 sites where people are talking about them, in forums/discussions, blogs, or other sites. Subscribe to feeds from those sites to start listening.

7. Start using a bookmarking site like Delicious or StumbleUpon. Create a category or tag for blog and press mentions, and start to save/accumulate links about your company and industry. Connect to colleagues with similar interests and see what they find.

8. Find 5 blogs in a related industry by searching in Technorati, Delicious or another bookmarking service. Read through posts, and comment on them. Be sure to disclose which company you are with if you are promoting or voicing an opinion on a product or service, including a competitor’s.

9. Go talk to Legal. Is there a corporate policy on social media? Does your industry have specific concerns about participating representing the company? Understand the guidelines and policies if they exist. Scott Monty has talked about how this step was crucial when he joined the team at Ford as to lead their social media effort.

10. Go talk to PR. Chances are they are wrestling with understanding blogs and the importance of reacting timely to concerns. Let them know you are interested to and willing to share a voice.

found on Adam Cohen's blog

Ad Quote of the week part 2

I loved this quote too much to not share. I will post tomorrow even more with this thought in mind...

"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
~ Andy Warhol

The Last Seven Posts

A week ago, I wrote about how I wanted to focus more on digital opinions and post some of my thoughts to AdJoke. I stuck to it for about a week and have linked to my individual opinions below.

A few quick thoughts:

- While it's great to post opinions, I was dying to comment on a few campaigns but held off to keep my seven post commitment. It made me realize how much I like providing an opinion on all of the work out there

- Balance is key. I'm going to make a huge effort to always include an opinion in whatever is posted and hope that you feel good commenting (I promise to respond quickly)

- Nobody has a clue what is going on in digital. Nobody. Anyone who claims to know what's coming doesn't. If they say they do, run.

The Last 7 (not including the plethora of PJC's cool posts / opinions):

1. The Only Place I Want to See an Ad
2. A set of eHaromony ideas
3. Some overall thoughts on the Digital Space
4. Warning: Gamers are Cool [and influential]
5. 6 Steps to Better Display Metrics
6. Key Questions to Ask About Your Agency and the Digital Revolution
7. Seth Godin's New Book - Triiibes (an Opinion)

Ad Quote of the week

"You can't predict the future but you can arrive there a little less surprised." - Peter Bishop

From Chuck Brymer's presentation on "creating swarms".

Twitter in Plain English



If you don't understand Twitter, this is for you....

Evolution of the cellphone



Marketing Magazine just used this video to open their mobile marketing session.

Sunday

Tribes - my 65 second take

Alright. I just blew through Seth Godin's 218 slide presentation on Tribes in about 65 seconds. No audio, no speakers notes, just slides.

Here is what I got out of it....

  1. Marketers are leaders of tribes. Act accordingly.
    • It is your job to take your product or service benefits and connect them to the right market (your future tribe) through the right communication channel (based on your tribes behaviour).
  2. Make it emotional
    • Tribes are formed because they believe in something. Tribes are formed out of a common purpose. Purpose is connected to emotion. So make it emotional.
  3. Be a heretic
    • Do not conform to the established attitude. If your entire industry saying one-thing, behaving one-way, act another.
Do the above and people will feel like they apart of something when they buy your product, mention it to a friend, blog about it, or rally a tribe around it.

Ty just finished reading the book. So how did I do?

Heres the slideshow:

Seth Godin on Tribes
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: book tribes)

Restaurants Gone Digital



From Springwise

"The impatient and hungry tech-heads of London have been given a new treat with the launch of Inamo, a pan-Asian restaurant that has canned the traditional printed menu in favour of an interactive ordering system. An illustrated menu is projected onto the diners’ touch-sensitive table, which also lets customers personalize the décor of the booth by selecting sounds and animated, projected table ‘cloths’. While waiting for their meal—the pan-Asian menu was created by head chef Anthony Sousa Tam, previously of Nobu, Ubon and Hakkasan—diners can use the touch-table to watch a live feed of their chefs at work, or to find information on what’s happening in the neighbourhood. Should the evening be going well, courting couples can use the system to book a taxi home, or if the evening descends into kill-me-now silence, rescue is at hand in the form of the system’s built-in games.

The restaurant’s inspiration came from the founders’ frustrations at inattentive waiters when dining elsewhere. However, this doesn’t mean Inamo is devoid of the human touch: food is brought to the table by staff members, who are also on hand to answer diners’ questions. The restaurant's designers also wisely avoided a tech-inspired décor, instead creating a look that's fresh and attractive, with technology offered not as the main course, but as an integrated enhancement.

With Adour’s interactive wine bar, and uWink’s entertainment kiosks at tables, food and beverage venues are bringing a digital dimension to their offer. For more on how the offline world—also known as the real world, meatspace or atom-arena—is adjusting to and mirroring the increasingly dominant online world, check out trendwatching.com’s briefing on OFF=ON.

Website: www.inamo-restaurant.com

Triiibes - An Opinion

Paul and I write a lot about Seth Godin. When I first started to get interested in digital advertising and the new world, his blog and books were the best resources I could find. He is, unequivocally, the owner of the top marketing blog in the world and has been a continual source of innovative ideas within business and marketing.

Through reading Godin's blog, I found an interesting post in the spring. If you pre-ordered his new book, you would receive an invitation into an exclusive social network called Triiibes. I wanted to see what it was all about so I pre-ordered and sure enough, received my invitation.

With about 2,500 members, Triiibes (the network) is an interesting place. It's full of marketers, entrepreneurs and people who just want to share ideas. It's also full of people who are trying to spread their own messages - about their consulting businesses, blogs, new marketing theories or books. I spent about 4 weeks on the site and got a bit tired of some of the conversations about how we could change the world by creating this website or that one.

Still, it was an interesting tactic and a great way to sell a book for Godin followers like myself. After reading tribes in an afternoon (it's about 140 pages in a huge font), I have a few thoughts:

- The concept of leading a Tribe is not new. People lead organizations, charity groups, teams everyday. The main idea in this book is that leaders don't have to come from working their way up through a corporate framework, they can come from anywhere as long as they are passionate for their idea and followers.

- A couple of choice quotes:
  • "The end result is that many people spend all day trying to defend what they do, trying to sell what they've always sold, and trying to prevent their organizations from being devoured by the forces of the new...Defending mediocrity is exhausting"
  • "In unstable times, growth comes from leaders who create change and engage their organizations, instead of from managers who push their employees to do more for less"
  • "Life's too short" is repeated often enough to be a cliche but this time it's true. You don't have enough time to be both unhappy and mediocre. It's not just pointless, it's painful. Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, may you ought to set up a life you don't need to escape from"
- Godin does a good job inspiring his readers to feel good about taking risks and making changes. He doesn't provide you with a framework to do so but does cite examples of people who have taken a shot and succeeded (or failed many times and kept trying until they win)

Overall, I'd recommend tribes mainly because every Web 2.0 blogger and ad person will probably read it. It's a good, easy read and although it might not make you write a Jerry Maguire-type memo, it will give you some good things to think about.