Fallon Planning

Syke! New Fallon Blog Address Info and Links

2009-03-24T09:00:00.006-05:00

Rumours of the death of Fallon Blogging are greatly exaggerated.

Long live Fallon Blog at http://www.fallon.com/fallon-blog/

And add RSS feed address http://www.fallon.com/fallon-blog/feed/atom/

Er, its the first day live(ish) so importing the past into the new is gonna take a sec (sorting the tags for instance and redirecting old links). All of the old content will continue to live here so any hotlinks or embeds you may have made in the past is still live and searchable. But all the past content also lives on new blog, and ALL UPDATES WILL ONLY HAPPEN AT NEW BLOG ADDRESS ABOVE. So if you love our blog flavor, come savor it over at the new pad.

Also, peep the new website http://www.fallon.com/ and cop the new social network app Skimmer http://www.fallon.com/skimmer

Over and out.

Fallon Brainfood: Fallon Blog Secrets Revealed! (and the death of Fallon Planning Blog)

2009-03-19T17:41:00.005-05:00

Its been 2 years since we launched the Fallon Planning Blog and 2 years since Ed Cotton and I did our "Blogging The Agency" presentation at AAAA Planning Conference which tried to assess the value of account planners' blogging.

At the time, questions were just starting to arise about agency bloggers and the role we should be playing on the burgeoning social web. I distinctly remember some big name planners insisting that all this bloggery and twittering was a waste of our time and we should get back our proper surveys and focus groups like a good puppy. Interestingly, not a day goes by that a client isn't asking the Insight dept for a POV on social media. Then, social media was a hobby, now its become the job.

What prompted the Fallon Planning Blog? Fallon Planners were asking a philosophical question: Are we merely our work, or are we our ideas and thinking, too? And if we're ideas and thinking, where does all that get expressed and workshopped beyond our client decks? Younger planners were asking how might they learn and hear from experienced planners beyond the annual conference? Other questions abounded about what effect social media might play on us, our industry, our work, our clients? We were beginning to see the seismic shifts that social computing was having on retail, media consumption, music, creative production, distribution, etc. A partial answer to this conundrum was to participate. We started a blog.

The blog launched with little fanfare (or even official sanction) we simply started and assumed to sort it out as we went.

So years later, what has it gotten us? What have we learned from blogging and Brainfooding and Tweeting and social networking?

Fallon Brainfood: Agency Blog Secrets Revealed!

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Highlights about Fallon Planning Blog
-Over 170,000 pageviews and over 27,406 unique visitors since launch in 2006
-Average 600 RSS subscribers a day
-Ranked #142 on AdAge Power 150 - top media and marketing blogs
-over 12,000 pageviews in Feb 2009, this year may be reaching a tipping point!
-Fallon Worldwide/Fallon Minneapolis receives an average blog mention every 11 days
-Fallon Planning receives an average blog mention every 12 hours

Highlights about Fallon Brainfood:
-over 52,000 total views of Brainfood on Slideshare plus countless live webcam views, blog posts, and Tweets
-over 4600 views of Brainfood in Q109 so far
-28,905 Twitter impressions

AAAABloggingtheAgency.pdf

View more presentations from akispicer.

So you might wonder why all the reflective tone in this post? It probably sounds like something is ending. And well, it is...or rather, something new is soon to begin. But for now, consider the Fallon Planning Blog experiment successfully ended.

5 Ways For Brands To Use YouTube

2009-03-12T16:33:00.009-05:00

1. In-Video Overlays

This function allows you to advertise in the middle of a video with small pop-ups. This means a coupon button could pop up right after they see the food, or a “buy this on DVD” ad pops up right after the punch line.

Monty Python Channel

Best thing is, it’s working. Monty Python has recently put some of their most popular content on YouTube and with the click-to-buy links under the video. Mashable reports that even though the content is online for free, Monty Python’s DVD sales have skyrocketed 23,000% on Amazon and reached the #2 on Bestseller list.

2. Brand Channels

These homepages can save a lot of money and be more effective. YouTube now offers enough customization you can basically create a microsite for peanuts. Also, users can stay within the YouTube environment without clicking out to get the coupons, games and other goodies.

Nature Valley’s Brand Channel

3. Annotations

Advertisers no longer need to buy banner space around their content on YouTube. They simply place it within their content for free. Annotations are also great because you can change easily without re-editing or re-uploading the video. This means brands can respond quickly to what people are saying by adding their own comments to sections of the video. Another function of these annotations has been a these choose your own adventure video (shown below). Annotations are changing the way we tell brand narratives.

Samsung Instinct

Street Fighter

4. Out of the box experiences

YouTube is willing to work with clients to make the standard video player more dynamic. Take a look at the creative approach Goodby Silverstein & Partners SF took in advertising the Nintendo Wii game Wario Land.

5.Deeper Insight
YouTube’s Insight portion helps you monitor how hot or cold your video is. It generates graphs at what time your audience is leaving or where they go back for another look. It also gives you demographics and info as to where they discovered the video. After looking at hot spots, you could better decide where to add annotations and in-video overlays. You can also understand how long your audience is willing to stick around.

Mobile T.V.

2009-03-12T14:29:00.011-05:00

As the demand for content everywhere becomes greater, a surge of network and cable television phone "apps" has vitalized. Here are some of the latest.

- TV.com

This application allows you to access channels such as CBS Sports, The CW, and Showtime.

- VH1 Watch and Discuss Live Chat

Chat live while watching your favorite VH1 show. Think of it as a mobile chat room.

- CBS March Madness

CBS recently launched the March Madness app for the tournament. Starting March 19th CBS will be streaming every game live. Since live mobile TV is still in the early stages, it will be interesting to see what happens.

And it's not just for the iPhone any more. Content providers have realized the importance of mobile TV and are making their shows available across numerous mobile platforms (e.g. Android, Blackberry, etc.).

Additionally, with all things new I think there are a few things to consider with this platform. Content owners must embrace mobile as a new medium and craft new experiences that tap the unique characteristics of the mobile environment.

Some ideas that may help mobile TV break through are below.

- Create must-see programming that is only accessible via the phone such as clips that continue a story, possibly using footage that was not shown originally.
- Have interactive experiences that will provide plenty of opportunities for viewers to vote on a show or otherwise give their feedback.
- Don't rely on the 30-minute slot that works in traditional TV; the mobile environment allows for more creative uses of time outside of that format. For example, make a quick TV slot to fill short time gaps - like when waiting for the next bus to arrive. Or longer programs for the distant bus commute out of the city.

Real Life Account Planning

2009-03-10T15:09:00.008-05:00

We like strategy and we like to write briefs. We like to look at ads and decide when strategy is bad or good, but how often do we make a real difference?

Here is a guy who made a difference with account planning. Instead of writing a brief he took his observations and research and created a charity, gave homes to 170 homeless people, and gave them back their pride.

Flash Mobs as Optimism Drivers

2009-03-06T10:08:00.006-06:00

Book stores that were once filled with books about dreaming and achieving are now filled with books about the end being near and suicide prevention, John McCain's Twitter feed is solely devoted to tearing apart the stimulus package, and I passed a man on the side of the road today holding a sign that says 'The End is Near.' When the best news we have to cling to is Wal-Mart's impressive sales numbers for February of ‘09, is there any optimism left?

Although the optimism quotient is in decline there are still glimpses of hope if you look hard enough. One of those glimpses is the resurgence of flash mobs.

Just a few weeks ago thousands of facebook users mobbed Trafalgar Square and the Liverpool Street Station in London to spontaneously dance.

Three weeks ago Taiwan had their first flash mob where 50 people showed up to participate in an organized pillow fight

and earlier this week a theater group in Scotland organized a flash mob to dance in the town centre.

In each case the flash mob is filled with fun and optimism and manifests joy-crazy happiness is on the faces of the participants. In the case of the dancing London flash mobs they were a reenactment of a T-Mobile commercial.
As the economy continues to suck it is important to hang on to the optimism that helps define America. Any time pure joy can manifest and brighten the day of thousands of people it is a good thing, and something people will appreciate. It’s a generous idea.

Fallon Brainfood: "Inspired By Kittens"

2009-02-27T02:02:00.007-06:00

Fallon strategic planner Aki Spicer explores the latest social media metrics of the "Kittens Inspired By Kittens" phenomenon (created by Fallon ECD Al Kelly) as well as the 5 actionable lessons we can apply to our brands.

Fallon Brainfood: Inspired By Kittens

View more presentations from akispicer. (tags: akispicer fallonbrainfood)

Fallon Brainfood: "Inspired By Kittens" from Aki Spicer on Vimeo.

Invite on Facebook

Generosity: A Product of an Innovation Economy, not an Efficiency Economy

2009-02-25T15:38:00.002-06:00

we've been talking a lot about Generous Brands here at fallon, and a point i've been making about why clients need to embrace Generosity is that this country is moving beyond a business climate driven by supply-side thinking focused on maximizing efficiencies, and into a business climate driven by demand-side thinking focused on innovation, ideas, and offering new forms of value to customers. supply-side brands create communications that serve their own needs, but demand-side brands create communications that serve customers' needs... in other words, they create communications that are Generous.

traditional business consultants like McKinsey are going to be less valuable in the future (a business can only get so lean), and new model innovation consultancies like IDEO are going to be more and more valuable (businesses will always need to create new value for their customers). agencies can learn a lot from the processes and the kind of work these innovation consultancies emphasize as we continue to redefine our role in the future. having worked alongside a couple of these companies, i can say that what they do is a whole lot like what we do, but they're probably packaging and merchandising themselves better than we are (for proof, check out how many times IDEO has been profiled in BusinessWeek over the past few years).

this short businessweek post by design columnist bruce nussbaum makes this point pretty well, using some of obama's initial actions to illustrate. thanks to alyson for pointing me to it.

Periodic Table of Social Media Elements Reminds You to Optimze Your Social Media Plan

2009-02-23T15:06:00.005-06:00

Rick Liebling has created a Period Table of Social Elements on eyecube that made me get thinking on brands use of social media. I included the image below, and the key can be found in the original post on eyecube.

In his words: Social Media really is a lot like chemistry. There is a huge pool of elements you can choose from and an infinite variety of combinations you can create. Twitter + sharing + commenting will give you a different result than blogging + LinkedIn + Flickr. Then of course there are the active ingredients - the people. A dash of Chris Brogan plus a big helping of David Armano and the whole thing changes again.

Often we are approached by brands and clients saying "I want a Twitter strategy" or "I want to be on Facebook." But not every brand that succeeds on Twitter will succeed on Facebook. @Comcastcares uses Twitter as a tool, but can you find a successful Comcast effort anywhere on MySpace?

As agencies, we need to find the right mix of social elements, and when appropriate, the right hyper-connected people to work with or learn from, to deliver the best possible Social Media Mix to our clients.

This gives a great image of all the different options in a quick-get way of understanding the mixing and matching capabilities of all-things social. You blow up a balloon with CO2 and it sits on the floor. Inflate it with helium and it floats.

iPhone app shelf life is less than 30 days.

2009-02-20T17:19:00.010-06:00

New Pinch Media data reveals that "for free applications, only about 20 percent of users return to use the app the first day after they download it, and then it quickly drops off from there. By 30 days out, less than 5 percent are using the app...So there is a very brief window of time to capture people’s attention and potential revenues."

Implications/strategy for branded apps moving forward:

1. Add VALUE (utility, organization, efficiency, entertainment, convenience, etc.) or it instantly becomes nothing.
2. Launch app 30 DAYS OR LESS BEFORE BIG EVENT (new product launch, season premiere, box-office opening, etc...).
3. CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION. Constantly add new content; weekly, monthly, daily...whatever. Giving users a reason to come back.
4. Throw the app to bloggers PR style so they can spread it by WOM; their network.
5. Maybe the app isn't free? People may use it more if they have invested in it.

Article and Slideshare here:
http://tinyurl.com/cy43cc

6 Ways to Play Twitter - Winning Strategies for Brands On Twitter

2009-02-20T07:44:00.014-06:00

Not a week goes by where someone doesn't ask me to quick-brainstorm a Twitter strategy for their brand. Then I roll my eyes and grimace as I believe most brands probably should not Twitter (because they really aren't willing to deliver on-demand responsiveness - just one among many factors unique to the Twitter platform.).

Nonetheless, here is an easy chart of 6 Ways To Play Twitter. Pin it on your wall if you're considering just how your brand may fit into the conversation on Twitter.

(click to enlarge or get.pdf or get.png)

Notes:
*All strategies don't fit all brands - do some soul-searching!
**And, yes, some strategies may be combined (like Mortal Combat button combos - "Finish Him!")

***If I'm missing some angles throw 'em at me in the comments (or @akispicer, as I reserve the right to update this chart with better ideas.

Eco-Metrics: Part 2

2009-02-19T08:23:00.013-06:00

Continuing my previous post on monitoring your energy use or carbon footprint with iPhone and/or Android apps, here are a few more.

iPhone

Accufuel - Track your vehicle’s fuel efficiency.

Carticipate - A ride-share app that allows the user to find people in their area to carpool. Think social-carpooling.

Android

PedNav - Helps the user plan their activities efficiently. The app is location aware, so it has the capability of telling the user what is near and of the necessary transportation to get to the suggested destination.

http://www.routeme2.com/products/pednav/

Teradesk - Connects the user to their computers and/or mobile devices and allows them to store files in a digital "cloud" accessible from anywhere, eliminating personal paper trails.

http://www.teradesk.com/tera/index.html

And it's not just the software that is allowing people to be more "efficient." There have been developments in the hardware as well. Here are a couple examples.

Nokia's 3110 Evolve - The covers are made from over 50% renewable material, has smaller packaging made of 60% recycled content, and the charger uses 94% less energy than the Energy Star requirements.

Motorola's Renew - Recently introduced, the “Renew,” is made using plastic from recycled water bottles and can be completely recycled.

Nokia's Eco Sensor - Equipped with a wearable sensor unit with wrist or neck strap made of solar power cells as its power source, it can analyze your health, environment, and local weather conditions simultaneously. It's still in the "concept" stage, so don't look for it anytime soon.

"Good Enuff" Production Values - A New Model of Social Media Production

2009-02-18T09:13:00.007-06:00

Been on a rant recently about a new production option for the social web in face of ubiquitous, cheaper, faster "Good Enuff" technologies like camera phones and laptop editware.

This tech democracy is amplifying how wasteful micro-site development (just make a really hype MySpace page or YouTube Channel with widgeted contents and plow all your budget into savvy media buys) and the overly produced "viral" video is. On YouTube, people probably don't care about our craft. So get to the idea quick(er), cheap(er). Stop pursuing perfect and make it "Good Enuff".

"Good Enuff" isn't just for users, it enables us marketers to shoot more ideas fast(er), cheap(er) instead of rolling all our energies into a single overly produced "perfect" idea that just may fail. So fail fast(er). And fail cheap(er).

At the Social, good ideas are still seen as good ideas as long as production values are "good enuff" (Can they see it? Check? Can they hear it? Good, ship it and see how it fares on YouTube and Digg). And bad ideas aren't made any better on the social web because they were shot expensively (honestly all that gloss goes over the heads of low bandwidth viewers who are skeptical of commercial gloss).

Success at The Social dictates that it is best to fail fast(er) and cheap(er) and Try, Try Again till you strike the right "viral" chord (the more important pursuit).

Below is an interesting user-gen commercial for Trader Joes - shot on a handheld Palm Treo. 212,491 views so far on YouTube.

Target Women Redux

2009-02-18T08:40:00.003-06:00

Google Analytics shows that the Target:Women post a few months ago is popular. So let me milk it with another sure-to-be popular post of newer Target:Women episodes from CurrentTV.

Target Women: Diets

Target Women: Online Dating

Target Women: Lessons 2008

What "Kittens, Inspired By Kittens" Teaches Us

2009-02-13T06:59:00.014-06:00

The daughter of Fallon's own ECD Al Kelly has confounded much of our agency "viral" science in recent days with her unexpected and cute lil' YouTube vid entitled "Kittens, Inspired By Kittens".

In only a few days "Kittens..." has garnered over 300K views, made boingboing, Cute Overload,trended #3 top shared link last nite on Twitter, YouTube honors now incl #3 - Most Responded (Today) Pets & Animals, #13 - Most Responded (This Week) - Pets & Animals category.

Now, the reason this video is confounding to a strategist at an ad agency: it's all serendipity, folks, no budget, no client, no strategy, no objective intent - just Al Kelly sharing the infectious joy of his 6-year-old girl reading a childrens' book. That's the brief simple and plain. Either she's way smarter than us strategerists, or we're way overthinking it sometimes.

The success of "Kittens..." (and hundreds of goofy vids like it) often flies in the face of much of our well-produced, branded, and strategized factory "virals". So what gives? Is "viral" still just a roll of the dice - particularly for brands? Do we embrace the more-faster-cheaper ethos that drives the users? Do we recruit 6-year-olds to generate ideas for us? Do we get her to replicate the magic - this time for a brand? And it makes me wonder, if we had pitched "Kittens..." to a client would they ever have approved it? And if a client would've approved "Kittens..." would they have added too many brand mandatories that would slow down its "viral" appeal?

I do think we may learn 7 applicable lessons from "Kittens..." to add into our "viral video" toolbox for surefire success:
1) Embrace Silly - stupid is ok, too! (serendipity)
2) Getit?Gotit?Good. - make it a fast, easy "get": a girl reading a childrens book about kittens - got it. (science)
3) Embrace 'Good Enough' - shoot it fast and cheap, poor production value is good enough as long as they see it and hear it. (science)
4) Tap an emotional core that people want to share in spreading - people are immediately on this girl's side, we want to help her succeed at this book report. (serendipity)
5) Add Cute Kid - like Billy Dee Williams always said: "Works every time!"(science)
6) Add Cute Kittens (science)
7) Try, Try Again - rinse and repeat the above - the old broadcast method dictated we shoot one big production a year. The YouTube method says shoot more micro ideas and release them freely to the wild. (serendipity)

Generosity Pays Off For iPhone Game Developer

2009-02-11T20:20:00.008-06:00

When the iPhone game ‘Whack'em All’ was hacked, the developer engaged the game’s hacker instead of taking an aggressive stance. The dialogue had a surprising effect. Sales increased 100%, pirates donated money and the game is now available free of charge.

Here is a link to the article:
http://torrentfreak.com/how-piracy-can-boost-iphone-app-sales-090125/

And here is a video demonstration of the game; if you're curious:

Present Like Steve Jobs

2009-02-10T20:08:00.011-06:00

If you haven't seen Steve Jobs present, you're missing out. The link below is one of the best and simplest videos I've seen on how to create great presentations. It takes selections from the MacWorld 2008 presentation and shows you what Jobs did to make it great. There's setting your theme and creating headlines, showing passion and using visuals, making numbers meaningful and what we so too often forget: rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. No matter where you are along the road toward great presentations, this is worth seven minutes of your time.

Notice who's in the intro ad: Eric Ryan from Method (a previous Fallonite).

And, if you haven't explored bnet.com, it's worthwhile, too.

Eco-Metrics: Part 1

2009-02-10T16:21:00.019-06:00

Monitor your energy use or carbon footprint with these iPhone and/or Android apps.

iPhone

MeterRead - Reduce the amount of energy you are using by monitoring it. Keep tabs on your electric meters.

Recycler - Quick access to what kind of plastics can be included in your recycling bin.

Local Reuse - Reuse stuff you no longer want by giving it to others who need it.

GreenMeter - Designed to help you adjust your driving habits in order to reduce CO2 emissions and save you money on gas. App measure forward acceleration, computes engine power and fuel economy, fuel cost, carbon footprint, and oil consumption.

Android

SugarTrip - (coming soon) Helps you avoid traffic jams so you save carbon emissions. Using the GPS unit in the phone, it measures how quickly you’re traveling. Users can plan their trips according to where traffic is located, helping to cut back on pollution by avoiding idling.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/20/AR2008102002565.html

Ecorio - Carbon footprint calculator that track your movement. Mode of travel choices include automobile, public transit and bicycle.
- “RIO” Reduce, Inspire, and Offset.

“Reduce” suggests carpool options via Zimride, a service that matches up drivers and passengers who wish to use less fuel by traveling together instead of as one.

“Inspire” feature offers a Twitter-like social networking to communicate with other Ecorio users. Tapping a user’s profile icon displays their location and how many pounds of emissions they’re responsible for so far.

“Offset,” which links to a site that accepts credit cards to purchase offsets from Carbonfund.

http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/android-app-takes-aim-at-carbon-footprints/

And finally, read about how Google is planning to enter the Eco-Metrics arena.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/10/technology/companies/10grid.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

The New Optimism: 'Yes We Can' Advertising Abounds

2009-02-10T07:49:00.007-06:00

In this time of crisis/recession/fear, advertising is fostering themes of hope and shiny optimism.

What Gift Would You Buy?

2009-02-09T13:19:00.008-06:00

As I was searching for information on the book Wired to Care by Dev Patnaik, I came across this link to an interview with Dev and Business Week. The title is Empathy Loves Company, and it's worth listening to for the couple of minutes. Here's my favorite idea from the interview, which is also written in the book:

Mercedes was trying to market to younger Americans. Some 20-somethings were brought into their offices. Each of the executives were asked to interview one of the 20-something-year-olds for 30 minutes. The interviewee could bring photos or anything else they wanted to share in order for the executive to get to know them better. After the interview, the executive went out and bought a gift for the person they interviewed. The executive was rated on how well the interviewee liked the gift.

How well do you know your customers—whoever they are? Customers aren't found in PowerPoint slides. They're found face-to-face on the street. Do you know your customers well enough to be able to buy them a gift? That gift isn't your product. If you can't figure out what gift they'd like, how can you get to know them better so you can? What would they really want?

More info on the book at: www.wiredtocare.com

New York Times' Interactive Graphs

2009-02-07T14:18:00.010-06:00

On the day Barack Obama was elected President, the New York Times introduced an interactive poll they called the “Word Train.” It asked one simple question: What one word describes your current state of mind? Readers could enter an adjective or select from a menu of options. They could specify whether they supported McCain or Obama. The results appeared in six rows of adjectives, scrolling left to right, coded red or blue, and descending in font size. The larger the word, the more people felt that way. Throughout the entire day a river of emotions flowed through the chart. You could click from Obama to McCain and watch the letters shift gradually from blue to red, the mood change from energized, proud, and overwhelmed to horrified, ambivalent, disgusted, and numb.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/11/04/us/politics/20081104_ELECTION_WORDTRAIN.html?scp=1&sq=what%20one%20word%20describes&st=cse

Recently, the New York Times created another interactive feature that harvested all Twitter chatter surrounding the Super Bowl. By pressing play on this graph, the reader is able to watch the location and frequency of commonly used words during the Super Bowl. In all, there are six different categories to choose from including, “Talking about Ads.”

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/02/sports/20090202_superbowl_twitter.html

These features have proven to pull readers closer through comments and interactivity, rendering the relationship between reporter and audience more intimate, immediate, and exposed. Of the massive 20 million unique visitors per month compared with the daily print edition’s readership of 2.8 million, the readers are flocking to these interactive features. As Jonathan Landman, deputy managing editor puts it, “We’re trying very hard to protect it [the interactive features], because that’s where the action is.”

For an advertising or marketing agency the implications for these interactive maps/graphs are big. The ability to get real-time answers about our products or services has existed for sometime now; think twitter, online forums, live chat…but not in this way. These interactive graphs create an entertainment value and coolness factor for the user while generating a visually appealing way to aggregate all their messages, emotions, or displeasure's about a brand, product, or service and communicate it back to the client in a simple way.

Here are links to some others:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/02/business/media/20090202-business-superbowlads.html

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/08/04/sports/olympics/20080804_MEDALCOUNT_MAP.html?scp=6&sq=interactive&st=cse

And the link to the article about the people who create these graphs:
http://nymag.com/news/features/all-new/53344/index1.html

History of the Internet

2009-01-28T06:25:00.004-06:00

Noticing a "how did we get here?" theme on YouTube in 2008-2009 (clips that explain the financial crisis, to the history of marketing and all the Common Craft series) here is the latest little ditty crunching years of history and advance into 8m.

From YouTube to Powerpoint

2009-01-27T14:13:00.012-06:00

Although it may be old news, it is news to me that you can simply download a youtube video and with one click insert it into Powerpoint. There have been sites were you could only download the .flv file, but this does all the converting for you. Its so simple and so free. Enjoy.

Link: http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2008/04/download-youtube-videos-as-mp4-files.html

A Short History of Marketing

2009-01-25T11:48:00.003-06:00

Shift Happened. Not news to you, but a clever clip nonetheless and client/deck-ready (when you've rehashed those other charts/vids saying the same thing to death).

from german agency Scholz & Friends.

Fallon Brainfood: Return of the Real Hero—From Caricature to Character

2009-01-14T20:37:00.011-06:00

Join us for the next installment of Fallon Brainfood, Thursday January 15th at 1pm EST/12pm CST.

Topic: Return of the Real Hero—From Caricature to Character

Through the lens of the superhero and pop culture, we'll explore the heightened relevance of heroes, what it means to be a hero today, and how brands can empower your inner hero. Presented by account planner Alyson Heller and planning intern Courtney Kuehn.

Tune in via live webcast and follow-along on Slideshare/YouTube:

Slideshare:

Fallon Brainfood: Return of the Real Hero—from caricature to character

Fallon Brainfood: Return of the Real Hero (pdf)

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own.

Ustream Webcast:

Live TV by Ustream

Live chat:

Videos:

Slide 13: Christina Aguilera

Slide 19: SuperHero Comic Guru Interview

With thanks to our interviewees, including blogger Geoff Boucher, "Hero Complex," at the LA Times.

Check back tomorrow for additional clips, links, and information.

PSFK's Good Ideas Salon, London-Style

2009-01-14T10:41:00.007-06:00

PSFK will be hosting a full day-long Good Ideas Salon, in London on January 30, 2009. From a varied mix of PSFK hand-picked innovators and leaders in creative thinking, attendees will gain insight into such areas as: arts & culture, collaboration, design, digital, marketing, mobile, and youth.

The Economist on Advertising (in a Recession)

2009-01-11T10:52:00.001-06:00

Ads on Edge

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: branding recession)

via WillItBrand

Branded Generosity

2009-01-09T17:08:00.012-06:00

John King, Director of Innovation at Fallon, recently wrote this piece on Generosity. It appeared in Contagious Magazine. Below is the story. To view, click each image.

This article was contributed by John King, Fallon's Director of Innovation, to Contagious Magazine - a leading global authority in branding, design, technology and popular culture. To organise a subscription to the magazine, please contact sales@contagiousmagazine.com or call +44 (0) 20 7575 1822.

Target Women

2008-12-12T15:19:00.011-06:00

Sarah Haskins critiques the targeted ad messages to women on Current TV's weekly Infomania. Here's a sample of them
Target Women: Family Dinner

Target Women: Number 2

Target Women: Cleaning

Target Women: Jewelry

Target Women: Cars

Target Women: Birth Control

Community 2.0: Juicy Campus

2008-12-08T08:29:00.008-06:00

Is user anonymity the key threat to brands on the social web?

I missed this Juicy Campus furor (+, +, +) in recent months yet found this intriguing story on Current TV.

The predicament detailed here reminds me of what many of our clients fear - anonymous social terrorists undermining brands on the social web by unfairly calling the brand a slut - with no recourse available to the maligned brand! Is user anonymity a threat to brands on the social web?

Obviously there is no easy answer as the social web can hardly be "controlled". But brands seeking to conduct social web ideas may learn from the success of other social web communities (think eBay and Amazon). These communities foster user privacy and protection yet users can't just say and do any ol' thing and not be held accountable to the community. Maybe this makes an argument for why brands must initiatiate where they want to participate and on what terms - jump in first before you're forced to defend yourself in forums you don't want to be.

For example, Starbucks, a brand that everybody has "2-cents" commentary about took the step of activating a Twitter account and forums like MyStarbucksIdea so that the discussion is moderated fairly (and aggregated in a central place so that suggestions are actionable, not just complaint rants. And everyone may have a go at responding to both good and stupid ideas. Its been interesting to note even President Elect Obama recently opened up the "comments" channels on his weekly YouTube address...now of the thousands of comments I've only noticed a few idiot elements. Will be curious to see if this maintains but I think taking the forward step of opening the response channels (and fostering transparancy with accountability controls like "vote up/vote down") actually deter some of the social web brand bullies.

Election Day Generosity

2008-11-25T13:56:00.015-06:00

Generous brands provide people with something of value. Increasingly, we’re seeing brands offering up more than just ads, messaging, and ‘fuzzy background noise’. We’ve begun to witness brands giving us ideas – things to get behind and care about. Today’s brands that give in such a way have the power to become bigger role players in their audiences’ lives because they offer value beyond plain old messaging. Branding becomes more than just the ad that gets put out in space for all or anyone to glaze over.

When this happens, generosity emerges and helps create more meaningful brand experiences.

One example of Generosity is Starbucks’ free coffee giveaway on Election Day.

To help bolster sales but also to encourage the ideal of good citizenship, Starbucks promised they’d give a free tall coffee to anyone who came in and said they voted.

Their spot that aired during Saturday Night Live asks: “What if we all cared enough to vote? Not just 54% of us, but 100% of us? What if we cared as much on Nov. 5 as we care on Nov. 4?....You and Starbucks. It’s bigger than coffee.”

Other examples of Election Day Generosity include Ben & Jerry's ice cream giveaway

and also Krispy Kreme's doughnut giveaway

It’s simple and makes sense: Starbucks, Ben & Jerry's, and Krispy Kreme said they supported voting if their customers also cared. These brands served up more than just their product; they gave customers social value by encouraging democracy.

Fallon Brainfood: @_S_A_R_A_H_ Case Study at SMBMSP

2008-11-19T08:32:00.018-06:00

How Fallon and SciFi Network are using Twitter to turn TV audiences into social web advocates.
Listen to testimony from a real fan's podcast describing his experience

Fallon strategic planner Aki Spicer and producer Marty Wetherall presented some of their recent learnings from @_S_A_R_A_H_ at Social Media Breakfast/Twin Cities. @_S_A_R_A_H_ is a character from SCIFI Network's Eureka who Twitters to over 3600+ loyal followers. Aki and Marty revealed some of the rewards and pitfalls of maintaining a live, ongoing, public conversation with fans as well as thoughts on how the modern television series is evolving, extending and enhancing their characters and stories using the social web to engage and inspire fans.

FALLON Case Study for @_S_A_R_A_H_

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: : akispicer)

Results to-date:
3676+ followers (as of Nov 19, 2008)
4800+ Eureka mentions
5000+ SCIFI mentions

*AMENDED IMPRESSION METRICS*
1.3 million twitter impressions (and counting).
683 different people @_S_A_R_A_H_'ed.
Multiplying their follower count by the number of @_S_A_R_A_H_'s they tweeted resulted in 604,812 impressions.
Additionally, _S_A_R_A_H_'s tweets resulted in 733,442 impressions.
End Result: 604,812 + 733,442 = 1,338,254 twitter impressions.

Read the world-first "Twitterview" between a TV character and a blog reporter.
Additional notes from Aki and Marty and Pioneer Press
The Creative Idea: "Talk to your favorite character. Really." Imagine if social media could deliver this Marsha Brady Effect to every participating fan.

Politics 2.0: Millennial Makeover

2008-11-19T07:52:00.002-06:00

Current TV's Mariana van Zeller looks at the impact of the youth involvement in the 2008 presidential election, with some intriguing interviews with the authors of Millenial Makeover

Fallon Brainfood: The Mobile 10

2008-11-04T23:16:00.046-06:00

On November 6, 2008 Fallon Strategic Planner Aki Spicer and Senior Producer Marty Wetherall conducted a one hour live presentation about mobile media, using mobile media (such as UStream and Qik)!

Presentation slides via Slideshare

Fallon Brainfood: The Mobile 10

View SlideShare document or Upload your own. (tags: akispicer fallon)

Full presentation video via Google Video

The WINNERS of Fallon Brainfood TXT2WIN contest are: Drew Dayberry of VCU ($25 Apple card) and Pat Sidoti @ Fallon ($50 Apple card).

150 people viewed the presentation via UStream, here is a gallery of some who submitted a mobile photo during the presentation at http://fallon.fanchatter.com

Sponsors:

Contact On The Go Mobile Media at http://www.otgmm.com/ email: jmullin@otgmm.com

Contact FanChatter at http://stadium.fanchatter.com email: marty@fanchatter.com

Age of Conversation 2 Now Available

2008-10-28T17:25:00.017-05:00

I contributed a chapter to this edition of Age of Conversation (AOC2) on the topic of "Open Source Creativity". I jumped at the chance to be able to contribute to the collective voice of AOC2 and put social media theory into practice. Afterall, this is the model for how most everything will be produced in the near future!
THE BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE SO ORDER: AOC2 on Lulu.com
And join in the conversation
AOC2 blog and podcasts
AOC2 Facebook
AOC2 Twitter #AOC2 in your tweets!

AOC2 co-authors (including myself)

Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Chris Brown, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Schawbel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Dave Davison, David Armano, David Berkowitz, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne & Todd Cabral, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, John Herrington, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kristin Gorski, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tim Brunelle, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem, G. Kofi Annan, James G. Lindberg

Fallon Brainfood: The Mobile 10 Invitation

2008-10-20T08:27:00.008-05:00

Fallon Brainfood: Mobile 10 Invite on 12seconds.tv

Date: Thursday, November 6, 2008
Time: 12pm CST/1pm EST/10am PST
Location: Fallon Stage 24 (for employees) and the Interwebnets (for everybody else)

This will be a live presentation about mobile media, using mobile/social media! RSVP via Facebook.

*Don't worry, specific links and coordinates will be forthcoming on day of the event, you will not have to download or learn any new or complicated technology to participate, I promise.

What is Brainfood?
Brainfood is an all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands. Moreover, Brainfood offers us a chance to come together, share a beer and some pizza, and engage in a stimulating discussion on a variety of interesting topics that affect our business. Past Brainfood presentations have included trends and hot button issues such as Virtuality, Design For All, China Rising, Latin America in the Age of Web 2.0, Social 10-Trends in Social Media, Blogging the Agency, and more.

Missed previous Brainfoods? Go to + or + for a sampling

A Metaphor for Web 2.0: The Bubble Project

2008-10-17T07:44:00.008-05:00

Consider this a living metaphor for Web 2.0 (in fact, he says so at the end):

This artist and his Bubbles are the Web 2.0 enablers sprouting up all over the web and mobile (YouTube, Dopplr, Yelp, Twitter, etc), inviting people to participate. People add value by contributing to the blank space in the Bubbles (without the contributions of the masses, the Bubbles are valueless). And well, the collective canvas and conversation starter is the ads (and TV shows and news).

Agencies and creatives now have the choice to acknowledge that these Bubbles will now increasingly pop up throughout the web (and the real world). We may even embrace these Bubbles and actually leave space for them and let their contribution make our communications ideas better/contextually relevant/innovative/participatory/engaging/personal/collaborative ("people add value"). Or not. We can pretend that our ad ideas are the special ones, and we won't ever be Bubbled over.

But it is likely that the Bubbles are coming whether you intend it or not. Don't fear the Bubbles! They don't have to be malicious threats to our idea, in fact, many are simply co-creative and collaborative additions that actually improve on and expand the communications idea (or they can be). And if the Bubbles are negative, we may need to ask ourselves why and is there some truth to be addressed in the Bubbles' response to our brands?

Either way its a fresh and slippy idea for our times.

Bankrupt!: National Debt Clock Runs Out of Digits

2008-10-09T00:53:00.003-05:00

National Debt Clock has run out of digits.

via AdLab

Generosity: Modern Branding is Learning To Give Instead of Take

2008-10-03T12:05:00.013-05:00

Generosity is the recipe of modern branding. It's about providing value to the audience: entertainment value, social value, and brand value.

Generosity Fallon Kc

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: aki spicer)

Here's a presentation I made a few weeks ago at Barkley's Creativity Symposium in Kansas City underscoring the importance of Generosity in advertising.
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Sustainability Dictionary

2008-10-03T11:20:00.005-05:00

The Hartman Group shares insight into green and sustainability with their "Gnomenclature on Sustainability." The interactive report/dictionary is a clever and engaging presentation of both qualitative and quantitative findings. Fun Friday reading and a good, quick reference for those new to the category.

Workshop Recap - DEEPSPACE STRATEGY: Modern Brand Building

2008-10-02T10:18:00.003-05:00

Last week we (Alyson and I) had the extreme pleasure of attending Space 150’s DEEPSPACE STRATEGY: Modern Brand Building workshop. Adrian Ho from Zeus Jones, Dion Hughes of Persuasion Arts & Sciences and space150’s Paul Isakson spit some knowledge at a small crowd from an assortment of MPLS agencies.

What were the top three most interesting tidbits that floated to the top of the presentations and subsequent conversations? Thanks for asking.

One: Manners and Parties
Dion’s focus was on how modern brands should look at themselves like they’re guests at a party and how manners, courtesy, and the desire to leave a good (and lasting) impression can translate into a brand image. Our question: Do all brands want to be the life of the party and talk of the town (Consumer Goods), or do the rules of the party change if you are a different type of guest at a different type of party (BtoB)? Short answer: It’s less about being the life of the party and more about being the ideal guest. It may be OK to rock a lampshade on your head, if that what’s the frat party calls for. Other parties, however, may require more subtlety, manners, and conversation.

Two: Element of Time
This touched on the fact that digital media has extended the audience for brands and increased the importance of timing in brand messaging. Brands need the ability to react to the almost immediate fan feedback (and cynic backlash) that has become available with product and brand specific blogging. The point was made that there are certain limits on cognitive capital, and consumers will only blog about expensive items or those that play a important role in users lives. (It’s at this point, that the words “Apple” and “iPhone” were used a combined 247 times) Although we’ve been seeing plenty of product blogs that do not fit into one of those categories (i.e. Breakfast Cereal), it’s difficult to find a brand blog that does the same (i.e. Cheerios Blog).
Brands also need to rethink the term “first-to-market”. Paul explained how “If you don’t define your brand, someone else will”, illustrated in the Mac vs. PC (248) ads. This also includes beating your consumers to the digital space, or at least playing nice with them if they’ve beat you there.

Three: Advertising Community
Lastly, the workshop itself was evidence of the internal and external changing landscape of ad agencies. There seems to be a move toward a communal exchange of knowledge between advertising minds, especially in MPLS. This allows green planners to mix it up with experienced thinkers, while all can benefit from the occasional re-learning and re-vamping session, especially since new-and-improved branding practices have already given way to smarter-and-sleeker ones.

Politics 2.0: Motivequest Tracks Political Brand Advocacy

2008-09-24T10:14:00.003-05:00

MotiveQuest uses online advocacy as a measure to guage Election '08. Contrast this tool against the "expert" polls and let's see in November. At stake here in this experiment is a battle royale between the reliability of classic poll "ask" research versus online anthropology "listen" research. Whatever the outcome in November, it is increasingly clear that planners will need to balance the two measures (what they say in our survey trackers, and what they say on the web) to get a nuanced understanding of how our brands are perceived in the age of conversation/participation.

Sign of the (mobile) Times

2008-09-23T10:43:00.004-05:00

Great image from NYT. Succintly outlines the opportunity and hazards of the coming age of mobile.

*btw Fallon Brainfood: Mobile 10 trends coming soon.

Culture Dispatch: "Trouble the Water" Interview

2008-09-19T12:32:00.004-05:00

I happened upon a screening of "Trouble the Water" last weekend while in Boston. The documentary follows Kim and Scott Roberts, a husband and wife living in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Unable to leave the city, Kim takes her camcorder to the streets to document the mood of her neighborhood before the storm and the unfolding disaster as Katrina strikes and the levees fail. The film later follows Kim and her husband as they search for opportunity and a new start in the aftermath of the storm.

While there is a political undercurrent to the movie, the focus is foremost on the emotional story of survival (the first-hand footage of Katrina is riveting), defiance, and optimism. The movie open in several more theaters this weekend. I encourage you all to go see it.

After the movie, two of the movie's producers, Carl Deal and T. Woody Richman, answered audience questions about their experience making the film. The third producer, Tia Lessin, was kind enough to chat with me on the phone this week about the film. Planner-relevant excerpts from our conversation:

At what moment did you know you had a big story?

Just by the nature of what had happened on the ground [post-Katrina], the moral failure of our government, we knew [Hurricane Katrina] was a story of national importance. Later when we screened our film on the big screen, we saw that our story was a big story. The characters and events were emotionally engaging; our goal was to construct a story that was equally compelling.

The subject matter had the potential to be emotionally draining. How did you avoid burn-out? What propelled you forward?

Who says I'm not burned out? It was tough to make the film with very little support. We've had to battle every step of the way for distribution; it's been a reality check to see how independent film gets made. We wanted to prove that a film like this is commercially viable. We wanted to make a film that has integrity, that isn't pandering to whatever we're told people want to see, just happy stories. Making entertaining films that also have an edge is a challenge. It was difficult to create a film that had a powerful political and emotional center, that was also entertaining, had god music, and a good story arc.

In the press kit, you state that you "set out to make a dramatic movie, not to deliver information." How did you achieve that?

We knew we needed to put ourselves in an environment for good story cover. You're always casting for characters when you're telling an emotional story. Being an independent production helped. You're always hoping that you're reflecting what's going on around you versus what's in your head or on a production schedule or in the paper.

I think we tried not to rely on a lot of conventional documentary devices such as talking head interviews with experts, voice-over narration, etc. We tried not to make a "see and say movie," but a compelling emotional story.

Was there anything that surprised you about the experience?

Everything! If you're not going to be surprised, you might as well go home.

We were surprised not to see New Orleans rebuilt over the years we filmed. We were surprised to see Kim's hidden talents. We were surprised to get a sense for and capture the feel of New Orleans. We were surprised to have captured such a beautiful story and that we were able to get real distribution interest in it!

Fallon Brainfood: Latin America in the Age of Web 2.0

2008-09-19T08:56:00.010-05:00

Fallon strategic planner Aki Spicer presents a micro-serving of Brainfood, with this quick look at Latin America in the Age of Web 2.0. This is a brief overview of social media and mobile trends for the LatAm market (a complex market made up of many countries and varied conditions). This is hardly an exhaustive analysis, it is meant as a intro and primer.

Fallon Brainfood: Latin America in the Age of Participation

View SlideShare document or Upload your own.

Takeaways from the presentation:
+Connected: Web usage is growing at a fast clip throughout LatAm
+Social: Social networking is experiencing rapid growth in LatAm
+Fragmented: Social networks in LatAm are fragmented and varied by each country - no dominant leader
+Mobilizing: Mobile penetration is exploding - more than broadband. And for many, the web has always been mobile
+Smart: Phones are getting smarter as more people demand functionality
+Shift: Social networking, TV, and purchases will continue to migrate to mobile devices
+Evolve: Cultural mores are evolving, and people are embracing new ways that challenge the traditional institutions
+Participate: The way forward for marketers is to design marketing that adds value to people’s lives and embrace participation

La Caida de Edgar is an example of how ideas spread among people on the social web...

…and savvy brands like Emperador are joining this conversation and participating.

Brainfood is a monthly all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands.

A deeper dive into La Caida de Edgar phenomenon by Rocketboom

*Some good resources for LatAm and Web 2.0 data and insights include Analytics2.0 and ComScore

Oasis Takes Upcoming Album to Streets (of NYC)

2008-09-18T11:47:00.004-05:00

Oasis taught street musicians throughout NYC to play their unreleased songs.

Flickr group links, fans are encouraged to submit their photos here

Social Web Amplifies AIG Advertising Ironies

2008-09-18T08:52:00.011-05:00

AIG's ad message irony: a theme of 'Strength to Be There' sparks a campaign pullout. But the social web never forgets as links and WOM spreads virally.

And this blogger received a direct mailer (and topped Digg ranks yesterday) from AIG asking: "If Disaster Strikes, Will You Have The Protection You Need?".

Perhaps marketers will need to audit their brands' vulnerability in a worst case scenario where the product/company can't deliver on the ad message - in a big public way. This, of course, is the eternal bane of advertiser's existence - the nagging worry that "what if my client can't deliver on our big brand idea?"

via AdAge and IPoopDaily.com

Free Hugs

2008-09-18T08:10:00.003-05:00

//POWERFUL (SIMPLE) IDEA
//GENEROUS ADDED VALUE TO PEOPLE'S LIVES
//MASS INTERACTION
//SOCIAL WEB AMPLIFIED THE IDEA

...Imagine if your Brand had done this?

Social Media is the New CRM

2008-09-11T08:54:00.007-05:00

Noticed yesterday that Home Depot is now on Twitter and answering questions in the vein of Frank over on ComcastCares...I thought this post was a succinct display of the Generosity, CRM responsiveness, and "added value" derived from HomeDepot's social media efforts.

More models for how brands may upgrade CRM and advance value on the social webs.

Virtuality: Image Metrics' "Emily"

2008-09-10T12:12:00.002-05:00

Emily here is explaining why Image Metrics, an animation company, is better than motion capture.

The video's biggest selling point is the fact that Emily isn't a real girl at all, but rather the latest and greatest display of technological advances in CG and animation.

Innov8: The Onion on Product Innovation

2008-09-09T09:31:00.003-05:00

At what price our never-ending "forward advancement"? The Onion shows us the future of product innovation: "Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat"

Domino's Scientists Test Limits Of What Humans Will Eat

Community 2.0: Entourage on Whrrl

2008-09-08T16:39:00.004-05:00

New social net Whrrl (think Yelp! meets Facebook meets Brightkite/Dodgeball meets Dopplr) is trying to gain groundswell with a nifty collabo with HBO's Entourage. Befriend the crew and get personal guides/recommendations/reviews of LA from the characters like they were "real" people.

More examples(+/-) of social media blurring the lines for "fictional" characters (stay tuned for a Case Study and vid of our own activity with Sci-Fi Network's Eureka TV show.

The Feast

2008-09-05T14:14:00.006-05:00

"The Feast" on October 16th in NYC will gather 150 of the world's leading creative mavericks, entrepreneurs, revolutionaries, radicals, and innovators together to inspire action to change the world.

A series of inspiring, mind-expanding, and innovative talks that will showcase a look at social innovation from all angles. From design to business to science, our speakers will share a deep look at changing the DNA of their respective industries by harnessing the power of creativity to propel social change. Some confirmed speakers include Dale Jones of PlayPumps International and Tom Szaky of TerraCycle.

Whether you're a social entrepreneur or socially conscious at heart, "The Feast" will provide you with an excellent platform for inspiration, connection, and action.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.thefeastconference.com

Twittering the RNC

2008-09-03T12:47:00.002-05:00

I am attending the RNC tonight and will be twittering live from the Xcel center. I've never been to a party convention before and am curious to see what it's all about. It should be good ...

Check for a planner's perspective on the convention at: twitter.com/minneswiss

Web 2.0: Advertus Interuptus

2008-09-03T08:09:00.009-05:00

Google released a teaser comic about their latest develops, Google Chrome browser. Besides the fact that I want it (not avail yet) and this mode of Simplexity communications (think CommonCraft) are increasingly necessary in the modern age...

Most intriguing for advertisers are page 23's implications:

I think this page is a really simple metaphor and explainer to clients for just how Web 2.0 has/will continually handicap the classic, long-held interruption model of advertising.

Note other trends of this sort on Facebook such as the new "thumbs up/thumbs down" ad options for voting "irrelevant" or "uninteresting" advertising out of your social life.

As predicted (endlessly) by many of us, WEB 2.0 IS ENABLING PEEPS TO SHUT OUT THE UNWANTED (SPAM) OUT OF OUR LIVES. And the passkey back in won't be in trojan horses and increased noise, but rather: offering up generous value.

Politics 2.0: Sex Ads in Denver Up During DNC

2008-09-01T11:19:00.011-05:00

Timeless behavior, perhaps, but now enabled and amplified by social media - CNet says: Sex Ads in Denver Up During DNC

"Ads seeking casual sexual encounters through the Denver Craigslist site increased an average of roughly 70 percent to 80 percent over the same days of the week earlier in August."

The general content is what you might expect. Posts suggested "Here 4 DNC? Come get sexual with me"; "Does the DNC make you hot?"; and "Looking to service a young Democrat."

And CNet offers this fair disclaimer: "mere correlation does not imply causation - other factors could explain this rise in advertisements." True, indeed. And I would also add to this disclaimer that increased ad spending doesn't necessarily mean increased sales resulted, either. Advertisers could, perhaps, have been pitching to an indifferent target base who were far too busy to care. If anyone has ROI research data on this feel free to post your charts. Will keep eyes peeled for RNC comparisons.

via Adlab

Community 2.0: Hurricane Gustav Information Center

2008-08-30T20:45:00.012-05:00

A collective assembly of Gustav Information. Using Ning platform, the site aggregates content from a variety of social media resources, including; Flickr, Twitter, YouTube, Utterz, Technorati, etc.- all you have to do is tag the item gustav.

*Hopefully, this will be a merely academic exercise in pre-caution.

via Social Media Club

Mass Interactive: Cymbolism

2008-08-20T23:31:00.009-05:00

Cymbolism is a new website that attempts to quantify the association between colors and words, making it simple for designers to choose the best colors for the desired emotional effect. Taking web 2.0 folksonomy to the next stage, users are invited to organize the definition of color itself with word associations and tags.

Social 10: Facebook’s New Social Video Ad Unit is an Engagement Magnet

2008-08-14T07:58:00.008-05:00

A few of us noticed a curious new ad unit pop up in our Facebook feeds yesterday. The unit is a video that also displays open comments from your friends circle about that ad. Real-time, ongoing conversation about the ad - which potentially gives advertisers a peek directly into the sentiment of the audiences receiving the ad. I think this is a game-changer for social ads.

Inside Facebook notes: Facebook will fill the sponsored home page slot with this kind of unit.

The behavior:
1)Clicking on the ad image opens a video player in-line
2)Comments on the video are visible to your entire friend list.

The comments around the ad dramatically increase engagement with the unit, as the highly visible comments provide an opportunity for users to simultaneously draw attention to the ad by drawing attention to themselves.

*While this could backfire if comments degrading the advertiser are abundant ("this movie is Lame"-type commentary could overwhelm - but hey, the comments are from your friends so it has a certain relevance to you), the ad comments take powerful advantage of Facebook’s social dynamics to draw attention to an ad in a way that is impossible without the social graph. When is the last time you heard 9 friends talk about an online ad in the same day?

Ad comments are an interesting step forward in the evolution of “Social Ads.” While this kind of ad may not work as well outside of a few advertiser verticals, expect that early advertisers will be pleased with its performance.

Aki's quick takeaways:
1) Ads will need to become more engaging and comment provoking or risk flaming commentary (or worse, not being worthy of notice and comment)
2) Advertisers will need to become reactionary to response...maybe change the ads up, or try 10 ads - monitor feedback/response/actions taken and let the top 2 effective ads move forward
3) Advertisers will need to become choiceful about what they put in this channel...relevance and interestingness will matter now more than ever
4) EVERY MEDIA will soon be made more accountable to results and data of this nature for every ad media buy

Leave Twitter ALONE!!!

2008-08-12T13:12:00.002-05:00

Imagine that title in the voice of the weird dude from the Brittany video...

Mass Interactive: Nokia Productions

2008-08-08T07:39:00.008-05:00

Nokia Productions says: "Most films are made for the masses. This one is made by them. Join a production crew of thousands and play a part in creating Spike Lee and Nokia Productions’ latest film collaboration."

Check to all the boxes: big participatory idea and user co-creation blahblahblah, BUT the really important (smart) distinction here is Spike Lee has been hired to "direct" the crowd and conduct this orchestra with very thorough and paced "briefings" that detail what user co-creation should deliver on, creatively. This whole format reminds me of an agency process - Spike isn't hindering creative output from the crowd, but nor is he just leaving it up to some teen to submit any ol' piece of video nonsense and we call it "brand passion". Spike/Nokia Productions is deftly briefing in a creative strategy to the crowd (translate: he's keeping all the submissions ON BRIEF and not just random cheese from the masses).

Brilliant answer, Nokia, to the whole "losing control" debate that always come up with regard to user co-creation. Or...I think its a brilliant answer. We'll see, I guess. Fingers crossed.

*My Age of Conversation submission delves into this burgeoning opportunity to "outsource the agency" by recruiting users as panelists and advisors to the creative idea. More on this soon.

Fallon Brainfood: Social 10 *UPDATE: Scrabulous vs Hasbro

2008-08-05T14:42:00.009-05:00

In my Social 10 trends in social media presentation a few months ago, I recounted the cautionary tale of Hasbro's Scrabble versus Scrabulous

Well since then, Hasbro finally beta launched their official Scrabble app on Facebook. And Scrabulous unexpectedly closed down their app last week - only to then relaunch as Wordscraper.

The numbers are in from Adonomics, and Wordscraper has almost matched Scrabble Beta's usage numbers - in only a few days since launch.

Some lessons to learn:
-Again, at the Social, you're competing with the crowd as much as you're competing with "competitors"
-Collaboration may be a better option. So, what Hasbro has created is a new enemy, a formidible competitor more nimble and effective than you (I hear word of tech glitches with the Scrabble Beta, Worscraper is further along and has groundswell)

Electing a US President (in Plain English)

2008-07-31T14:58:00.004-05:00

Common Craft strikes again. Swing thought: planners' job is to make strategic complexity as simple and succint as these guys continually do.

Fallonites ride Critical Mass Minneapolis

2008-07-30T13:58:00.014-05:00

Last Friday, several Fallonites partook in Critical Mass Minneapolis, the Twin Cities' chapter of a nationwide bicycle awareness movement. For those unaware, Critical Mass is a group that meets in Loring Park on the last Friday of each month and consists of several hundred bikers who ride through the streets of Minneapolis. The group's founding mission is to promote bike usage as a regular means of transportation and raise awareness of how unfriendly city streets are to cyclists.

TJ, Claire, and myself took the streets of Minneapolis to experience what exactly this is like. The following is a photo storyline of our experience.

Cyclists begin to assemble at Loring Park around 5:30. Before the ride, a small civilians rights group makes a presentation about how to interact with police if they give you difficulty. (This was presented due to incidents like this which have occurred in Minneapolis.) The group also makes us write a "jail hotline" on our arm, in case we are arrested.

Claire's arm

The police arrive on bike and in squad car to escort the group. After multiple incidents, the MPD has decided to play nice. (Ironically they don't play so nice later, but that is a whooooole different story.)

TJ and Claire cruisin' Lyndale Ave.

CM heads downtown

Fallon represent!!

Post CM celebration at Preston's.

Overall great experience. I will be back on August 29 as will many others hopefully.

YouTube choose your own adventure

2008-07-25T14:12:00.003-05:00

Online video has quickly become the most popular and mainstream form of social media participation. But as it becomes more mainstream, what ideas have surfaced to make video more interesting? Sure, sites like YouTube, DailyMotion, etc continue to spring up, but the videos themselves have remained rather one-side broadcastish.

Until now.

Choose your own adventure (nostalgic of the book series popular when I was in elementary school) utilizes the video response system in YouTube to make online video into a game of sorts. You have to go to the actual site to be able to use it, but the embed will give you an idea.

This particular adventure is about some guy trying to find his cat. I spent awhile searching and thought i had exhausted all of my options in order to find the feline. Apparently I was wrong and never found kitty. Maybe you will be more successful.

Visualization of Information: PicLens, Digg Labs and Twitter/Flickrvision

2008-07-24T13:05:00.002-05:00

Here are three applications that allow you to search visually news, status updates, videos, pictures etc. in cool new ways.

PicLens lets you search for photos and videos in 3-D and in full screen. This web browser add-on makes it way easier to search for things with out paging through a website and its also makes it much more fun. Its like apple's coverflow to another dimension. Once you download the add-on a blue box in the upper right corner will light up when a page is viewable with PicLens.

Digg labs web applications organize all the news items on Digg visually. With Digg Stack, the stories are bar graphs that get taller given the amount of Diggs, so you can watch stories grow. Digg Swarm creates circles around stories that get bigger as they are dugg. All of these applications can be accessed online or used as a screensaver.

Twittervision and Flickrvision allow you to see what people are seeing and saying in real time around the world. Using google maps or a 3-D map this program shows you exactly where tweets and photos are coming from. It can get addicting. You can view it on a browser or download the screensaver. They also have a local version that only shows what is going on in your specific area. There is no way I know of to see only my friends on the map and have multiple tweets or photos up at a time. I imagine these programs will get cooler and developed as GPS is becoming more common in cell phones.

Agencies (re)Imagine the Stop Sign

2008-07-24T08:21:00.002-05:00

"What if there were no stop signs, and a major corporation was charged with inventing one?"

via moneyries

Message For Future Generations

2008-07-15T08:18:00.006-05:00

Mark Earls and Domenico Vitale have created Message For Future Generations a depository of planners' wisdom about Account Planning.

Fallon Planning Blog on Facebook

2008-07-12T14:15:00.004-05:00

Fallon Planning Blog on Facebook, ya'll

don't stop, git it, git it
this app is still a bit *buggy*, so expect RSS feeds soonish...and "confirm" a brotha when you visit (or get my confirm email)...I can't activate the hot features til 10 peeps confirm that I'm me. Recognize.
Twitter feeds comin' soon, too, standby.

What the F**K is social media?

2008-07-10T11:32:00.005-05:00

Found this great slide show on Blog de Nuit today. It's a very simple presentation about what social media is and what it means for brands.

For those social network connoisseurs out there, it probably won't say anything new. But I appreciate the simplicity and clarity. Reminds me a bit of the CommonCraft vids about Twitter and LinkedIN

My favorite quote from the presentation:

"Relinquish control: The goal is not to control the conversation."

| View | Upload your own

via Blog de Nuit

Virtuality: Onion Spoofs Virtuality

2008-07-02T18:28:00.003-05:00

The Onion News Network explores the World of World of Warcraft, a game where you play a person playing a game.

'Warcraft' Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing 'Warcraft'

Fallon Brainfood: Communicators Forum @ University of Minnesota Q2

2008-07-02T09:51:00.008-05:00

I presented a keynote at last week's Communicators Forum at University of Minnesota and I ran over time before I could answer many of the Question Cards from the audience. Let's keep the dialogue going. Here are more answers to one of the cards (expect a few more posts in coming days):  
Q: Many of the examples refer to "selling products" - can you talk about how we might translate this to "selling research"?
Great question. Ironic, too. Because I am, right now, "selling research". Or strategy. Or an odd hybrid, but I digress. My point is, thru all my social media tools, I am working to get insights out of the file cabinet, out of my notepad, out of the presentations for 6 people and never seen again, and into the hands and minds of my living clients/associates/collaborators/students, etc. In this day and age, there is so much data and research that the role of interpreter and guide is more vital than ever. Research matters not if the people who matter don't "get it". Your mission, as researcher, should be to demystify and help them "get it". So be the Virgil of your research. Social media can help you get your research "slippy" and out there and exposed and in the conversations.

How to get your research social? Dramatize your research's effects on people, show us on YouTube what the data means in an engaging way, blog about how it impacts us in ways we never expected, podcast the interviews of those at the frontlines of your research, Delicious your article links to parallel paths of other thinkers in your field. Slideshare your latest thinking, and Flicker the latest charts and graphs. Get it out of the research journals and into the spheres of influence, your peers, your bosses, your financiers, the press, whoevs and wherevs, get the research socialized, man!

The old school approach to research? A mysterious cabal sequesters themselves away and test and think, then come down off the mountain with tablets of new gospel. Well, the new way is

-Open share - you don't own an idea if you insist on hiding it, you own an idea by sharing it. Throughout the research process, tease us with drafts and sketches and updates.
-Open source - in college, collaboration on a test or paper is called "cheating"...but collaboration is the only way to solve problems faster and smarter in this age. Start cheating, and letting others cheat off you which requires
-Open code, make your info stealable, thus it is desirable, thus it is shareable, thus it gets spreadable. Give up a few secrets (charts, graphs, insights, interviews) and let others work on the equation with you and pay you back. Oh, and steal from others, too (just give credit so that person may own their contribution).

Some quickie sites that come to mind for me (while not knowing what form of research you specialize in) of making research engaging and slippy:
http://blog.compete.com/
http://www.wefeelfine.org/index.html
http://twistori.com/
http://www.heynielsen.com/
http://www.trendrr.com/home

Guilty Pleasure: Art of the Title

2008-06-29T10:07:00.006-05:00

Art of the Title is the most thorough (as far as I know) high quality online catalogue of one of our most underrated art forms: The Movie Titles. Check out titles from Vertigo to Alien to Iron Man and more.

The movie titles try to make do in the difficult space between what you really want (the movie) and the penance of reading the names of the behind-the-scenes players. Over time designers have evolved its purpose to explain the movie's essence and sell you what you're gonna get for the next 2 hours, while quickly getting the hell out of the way of the show.

Give a round of applause to these real american heroes, the movie title makers.

Fallon Brainfood: Communicators Forum @ University of Minnesota

2008-06-28T13:13:00.011-05:00

I presented a keynote at last week's Communicators Forum and I ran over time before I could answer many of the Question Cards from the audience. Let's keep the dialogue going. Here are some answers to one of the cards (expect a few more posts in coming days):

Q: Give an example of how you control/mitigate negative feedback in social media on behalf of a client.
A: Control is an interesting word. I don't think you can control negative feedback in social media - or rather, you control negative feedback mostly at the service and/or product touchpoint. I.E. Make good products/services, you control most negative feedback. But I am being coy, I guess.

Lemme reframe the question: 'the villagers are angry, they're outside our gates with blog torches, now what the heck do we do?'

Well, negative feedback seeks a response. And the internal audit that should be had in face of any critique is: 'are they right?' If they are right, um, do something about it. If they are wrong, well do something about that. The tension that often sparks a groundswell of negative sentiment across the web is often the fact that absolutely nothing is done (no repair, no acknowledgment) in face of a critique. This lack of any response fuels a revenge mentality.

In my opinion, many negative feedback crises snowball from 2 faults: 1) not responding properly when the problem was small and indeed "controllable" (think Kryptonite Bic Pen Gate), and 2) not making real change or repairs when/if the negative feedback was made (think airlines still haven't changed the system even after years of us complaining).

This quandry always existed (customers complaining and speaking negatively) - the only difference today: customers can make a blog post and expose you to the world and incite a million-man groundswell against you (though really they are only aggregating a million people that already agreed with the negative sentiment). Let's be real, this isn't the complaining customers' fault (control people's sentiment? no.)- it may be the fault of a problem that actually needs to be addressed and/or changed (control your own organization? yes.).

Strategies for managing negative feedback:

-Take It Seriously. Address the negative feedback when it is just one lone caller/blogger/commenter - try to solve his single problem and turn frowns to smiles (a single change just may help you head off millions of the same latent complaint waiting to bubble up). Today, you never know if that lone complainer has a million followers to his blog.

-Use the blogosphere (or any consumer feedback touchpoint) as your early warning system. Track sentiment. Measurement tools abound (see some of my presentations for dozens of examples).

-Talk back. Directly. Blogs have "comments", make yours. Tweet back. YouTube response video back. Email back. yLive back. IM back. Call back. And it won't hurt you to bring some tidy reparation gifts in exchange, but a clear resolve to the problem is probably gift enough for most.

-Consider inviting critics in - stock your advisory panels with haters/lovers who are likely complaining 'cause they actually care deeply about your brand (funny how that works).

-Adopt a process for personal consumer touch that is proactive (think Comcastcares on Twitter). Phone banks wait for complaints to come, can we meet problems earlier up the stream?

-Enable change agents, not just complaint takers. That means the complaint hotline team needs to be reframed. Organize the negative sentiment into monthly reports, DEFINE THE MOB'S PROBLEM, and have MIB agents who can tap the right officer in the company to deal with these problems. And then hold those departments accountable - think Internal Affairs at the Police Department, somebody complains, somebody gets suspended (or at least investigated). If departments are held accountable to complaints, well, they tend to work harder to prevent the problems. Everybody wins.

I won't pretend these are solely "social media" strategies, as they probably make sense in whatever media your customer touches - its simply called listening and responding (or good business, maybe). There may be some efficiencies to doing these via Facebook, or not.

Yeah, I admit that all these suggestions are not easy. But it ain't easy stomping out a raging groundswell of negative sentiment about your brands, either.

BONUS CASE STUDY: Offer your customers the "Marvel No-Prize"! Marvel Comics has the unique problem of juggling multiple comic characters, with multiple writers and complicated story planes. Over the years mistakes happen in the comic character continuum. Fans are avid and engaged keepers of the brand truth and they will write and call Marvel out on any and all story mistakes. In response to every geek writing in to tell Marvel what idiots they are for missing a story mistake, they introduced the Marvel No-Prize. Marvel No-Prize is the award given to the keen fan who not only points out a mistake BUT ALSO SOLVES HOW THIS IS NOT A MISTAKE AFTERALL (thru some mental jujitsu and back issue research).

A couple things are happening in this model: a) hater energy is converted into solver energy, b) only solvers are recognized in the letters pages of the comics and complaints are "controlled", c) the crowd is tapped on behalf of the brands to co-create and look for holes then patch them up. If you buy my assertion that most haters are secretly your lovers who care deeply about your brand, then the Marvel No-Prize metaphor may work for you, give the haters a paddle in the boat and a way to contribute answers for you, put 'em to work! *The actual Marvel No-Prize that you receive is a heavily branded empty envelope, and your feature in the comic book letters page. Which further proves the point: recognition and credit is half their goal.

Guilty Pleasure: Big Ideas, Don't Get Any/Radiohead "Nude"

2008-06-27T10:29:00.007-05:00

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows". I found this (late) entry to be particularly fascinating and breakout. It takes a bit to get to the "beat" but well worth it as it builds and mashes the music utilizing Sinclair ZX Spectrum Guitars, Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer, HP Scanjet 3c, and Hard Drive arrays. Of particular note is his savvy working of the social net touchpoints to get the work slippy.

Politics 2.0: Babies for Obama Meme

2008-06-26T16:57:00.004-05:00

1500 vids on YouTube for Obama Babies

mini green ideas

2008-06-26T13:35:00.005-05:00

Due to society's elevated green awareness as of late, I've been noticing more and more small changes that could really help in everyone's ability to reduce waste.

For instance, piggybacking off of my shoebox post earlier, another thing I often find myself throwing away is receipts. Think about how many small or insignificant purchases are made every day at retailers and how many receipts get quickly tossed into the trashcan near the front door. That's a lot of wasted paper. What if the little credit card scanner next to the cashier gave you the option, like at gas stations, "Need a receipt? YES or NO." I would be inclined from my own shopping experiences to just say no.

Last weekend, I attended the Rock the Garden event at the Walker Art Center which was fantastic. But in addition to the great bands and music, I was really impressed with how they handled the trash situation. The concert called itself a "zero waste event" which obviously wasn't true, but it was the first time that I had seen multiple recycling bins set up for different types of waste. Not only that, but the event had volunteers stationed at every trash outpost to make sure people didn't get lazy and just throw everything into one bin: trash gatekeepers if you will.

Anyway, I like it. And I think some programmer should just write the 10 lines of code it takes to ask "yes or no" for the receipt.

2008 AAAA Account Planning Conference Prep Rally and Post Show

2008-06-26T08:48:00.005-05:00

AAAA Account Planning Conference

Paul Isakson and Kelly Thompson have created a Facebook group so we can all see who will be attending and better connect/make plans beforehand. We can also use this as a place to discuss expectations, recap thoughts/takeaways afterward, etc.

Additionally, they've proposed a cocktail gathering on Tuesday night at Shore Club's Skybar for people to meet, connect and unwind on the last night of the conference. The details and RSVP can be found here.

Pass along the links/info to others who might be interested.

**STANDBY FOR UPDATES SOON re: PLANNING FOR GOOD (PfG) 24 Hour Challenge @ AAAA Planning Conference.

Planner Survey Results

2008-06-25T09:34:00.003-05:00

For those who haven't seen it yet, Heather LeFevre has posted results from the 2008 Planner Survey.

| View | Upload your own

Check them out and post comments on Heather's blog. There were an amazing 798 completes and loads of great data points, as always. Plus, a quick thanks to the 80 people who mentioned that they read the Fallon Planning/Trendpoint blog ... second in total mentions only to Russell!

Fallon Brainfood: (Teaser Excerpts) from UofM Communicators Forum

2008-06-24T12:04:00.005-05:00

I am presenting the keynote at tomorrows' Communicator's Forum at University of Minnesota.

The theme of the conference is "The Matrix," or Communicating in a Web 2.0 World

Here are some teaser excerpts from the upcoming presentation:

| View | Upload your own

More of the presentation will discuss the impacts of social media on brands with some direction arrows to how Fallon is using web 2.0 tools on behalf of clients.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008
8:00am - 12:00pm:
402 Walter Library, University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN
Registration 8:00 a.m.-8:30 a.m.

More info here

"ZAG" by Marty Neumeier

2008-06-23T16:50:00.003-05:00

Just finished "ZAG: #1 strategy of high-performance brands" by Marty Neumeier and I have to say that I enjoyed it quite a bit. A relatively quick read thanks to a non-traditional format (lots of helpful graphics and larger text) ZAG addresses an issue that many marketers often discuss.... the need to zag when everybody else zigs.

Neumeier outlines a 17 step process by which a successful brand should be conceived or repositioned and while I'm not going to recount the entire process, I marked several quotes that really struck me. Most are pretty common sense, but I feel like sometimes we get caught up in the glamor and glitz of the biz and forget about the simple stuff.

"You can't be a leader by following the leader."
-- This struck me because a lot of times advertising turns into a reactive business. One brand does X and pretty soon everybody is chasing after X trying to catch up instead of trying to figure out how they can leap right over X to Z.

"True vision leads to commitment rather than compliance, confidence rather than caution."
-- Loved this because it has been involved in so many discussions I've had lately. At Likemind last Friday, FanChatter and I were talking about where does the agency influence stop? At communications? Or at biz recommendations? Do we have the authority to say "you need an internal overhaul?" Say that we design an award winning campaign that drives people to be interested in your brand. All of a sudden, the Google phenomenon hits. They google brand X and see that it has the worst rankings of all the brands! In this day, this should be expected. Commitment means not just yelling at people but backing it up. As ZJ says, "actions speak louder than words."

"...zaggning requires that a company define itself by what make it UNIQUE, not what makes it admirable," and on top of that, "Forget about best practices. Best practices are usually common practice. And common practices will never add up to a zag, no matter how many of them you apply.
-- It seems like "admirable" is the enemy of brave and courageous ideas. Admirable leads to the "best practices" which ultimately leads to a bland vision and loss of originality.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. If for nothing else, it's a quick and motivating read doable on a few bus rides to and from the office.

Adding Value

2008-06-20T11:55:00.004-05:00

During this time of economic downturn, I keep hearing the mantra we need to add value--to the lives of the consumer, to our products, to the world. Isn't adding value truly what our products should be doing anyway? Is it time for each of us and society to rethink what adds value and what doesn't add value to our lives and to the world? Maybe it's time to eliminate the nonvalue pieces and develop more of the value add pieces to the mix.

Green threat: shoeboxes

2008-06-18T09:12:00.007-05:00

My second "first day" at Fallon was this past Monday and in preparing for a triumphant return, I felt like I needed some new clothes. In a moment of poor decision making, I drove to the MOA in order to make sure that I would have every option available.

During my shopping extravaganza, I purchased two pairs of shoes from Bostonian, and didn't think much about it until I got home and was unpacking. I took out the shoes, shoved all of the tissue papery stuff back into the two boxes, and brought them downstairs to our recycling center. As I was carrying them, I realized how wasteful shoeboxes are.

Everyday, thousands of pairs of shoes are purchased. As a runner, I have gone through literally dozens of pairs of running shoes over the last 9 years of my running career. Granted, some people save their shoeboxes for other uses (at least I have) but in my closet right now, I can think of only 3 shoeboxes.

Quick calculation:
5 pairs of training shoes/yr
+
2 pairs of racing shoes
+
2 pairs casual shoes
+
2 pairs dress shoes
=
At least 11 pairs of shoes per year x 4 years = 44 shoes boxes during college

41 of these boxes got thrown away/recycled.

I realize that as a runner myself, these numbers are skewed, but think about all of the collegiate/professional teams out there who go through multiple pairs of their own training shoes per year and how many boxes that adds up to. I know that on my team, after a new equipment issue there would be boxes upon boxes stacked next to trashcans (no recycling bins... too inconvenient)

It seems like shoe companies could stand to innovate their packaging from the perspective that boxes are a one time use item. Maybe a re-usable plastic box that consumers can choose to leave with the salesperson at the store to be sent back to company. I don't know enough about the material to know would could be done in terms of compostable material or something, but I see opportunity.

Friedlander Photography at MIA

2008-06-17T11:34:00.004-05:00

How do you shape the way Americans see and understand their world?

Attend the Friedlander photography exhibit at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts June 29-September 14 to see how Lee Friedlander through his photography has shaped how Americans see and understand their world.

Then, take a step back in your world and look at how you shape it. Shift to a different lens and create new shapes. Do these shapes help others (not just Americans) see and understand their world?

Never Give Up

2008-06-16T18:07:00.002-05:00

What you hear doesn't necessarily mean it's true. A couple weeks ago I attended the Obama event in St Paul, Minnesota. I arrived at 6:30 pm on the bus and was dropped off right in front of the Xcel Energy Center. From there I had to walk to the end of the line, which at that time was at least 15 blocks long. The doors opened early from their 7:00 pm start. Even though there was little likelihood that I would get in I stood in line along with the many, many people that arrived even later than I arrived. As 9 pm approached and I was still a good 7 blocks away, about four blocks of the line suddenly cleared. Apparently, the police had told the group that the doors had closed, so some people left. I wanted to at least watch the speech from the outside marquee so wandered over to Xcel. As my standing-in-line partner and I were observing all the umbrellas that had been left on the outside of the building, we walked around to the back of Xcel across from the Science Museum. And, guess what? The doors were still open. We added ourselves to the line, went through security, and two minutes into Barack's speech were sitting in Suite 8. Pay attention. Don't make assumptions. Never give up. Who knows where you'll end up sitting.

Virtuality: Postcards from Small Worlds

2008-06-16T15:12:00.009-05:00

Small Worlds is in open beta, come check me out. I can say that the startup process is easier than Second Life...I created my avatar and dog avatar in mere minutes. The interface, so far, seems a bit more gamelike than 2L, so navigation and activities are just clearer and more accessible.

So far, the clubs seem less like sex dungeons, again with a key on accessibility Small Worlds is pool halls and game rooms that get you into traditional games mentality. And finding them and getting there is easier than 2L. Music soundtracks play in most spaces and the selections are actually not bad (ie, real tracks from artists you've heard of and like, from Aphex Twin to Michael Jackson - don't know how ASCAP rights play out in Small Worlds).

Burning Man

2008-06-16T14:53:00.007-05:00

Received an invite this morning from the DaVinci Institute in Denver to attend Night with a Futurist on July 7. Sometimes I wish I lived in the Denver area as their events usually seem relevant and interesting. Anyway, this next event is called "The Transformative Nature of Burning Man" with Scott Perlman, Co-Founder and COO of Think Like a Genius who has participated in the Burning Man event five times as well as organized the Colorado regional burning man event.

Some time ago, a co-worker of mine shared photos of when she attended the Burning Man event, so this invite reminded me to find out more about it. Upon further exploration, it did get me thinking about some Burning Man questions that may be relevant to what you're doing.

What kind of temporary community would you create, what would you name it, and where would you locate it?
What if there were no selling, no transportation other than walking or biking, and no dogs?
Who would you invite to participate, who would want to participate, and who would just show up as members of your community?
What would it feel like to participate in a community that would totally disappear with no trace within a month's time?
How would you contribute to this year's Burning Man art theme "American Dream" or past themes like Hope & Fear or The Floating World?

Check out the Burning Man website. Review the frequently asked questions, the mission statement and principles, and images of the 30' to 80' past burning mans. One day, maybe I'll participate in the Burning Man event, but until I'm ready to live with wind and dust for a week, I'll continue to experience the event through other people's sharing and my own imagination.

25 Styles of Bloggery

2008-06-16T08:28:00.003-05:00

Rohit Bhargava strikes again with this compilation of 25 basic styles of blogging including tips on how often to use each and potential to create buzz and blog traffic by using each.

| View | Upload your own

Politics 2.0: OhBoyObama Think-tank

2008-06-16T08:06:00.007-05:00

Oh Boy Obama is the unofficial campaign think-tank. Created by Obama supporters for the purpose of giving the Obama grassroots a platform to submit and vote on ideas to better the 2008 primary and general election campaign of Barack Obama. All supporters are welcome to contribute.

Social Wars

2008-06-16T08:02:00.002-05:00

Current TV's amusing commentary on the state of social networks.

Tagging People At The Airport

2008-05-27T01:02:00.008-05:00

While I was sitting at the Orlando International Airport with a few hours to kill before my flight yesterday, thought it would be interesting to write about my experience from the morning.

Prelude to the story: think about how much airport security blows. The hassles, the lines…must be an easier way, right?

When I flew out of Orlando, first thing I noticed was that security was divided up based on your ‘ranking’ as a traveler- Family, Casual, and Expert. There are a few airports experimenting with this (more deets), but this was the first time I’ve seen it first hand. After making a quick and probably unfair assessment of the three lines, I decided Expert was probably the route I should take even though I’m not sure I am one. But I kept an eye on how things were going in each line to see if this segregation was actually working and making security a less problematic process.

Overall I think it worked quite well (for most people). For me, especially after having a horrific security experience at another airport a couple weeks ago, have to say I was loving the ease of the experience.

Expert
As you would expect, the smoothest sailing of the 3. Everyone in this line had no more than two (compact) bags, said little or nothing at all to fellow passengers (even the ones who appeared to be traveling in pairs or groups). Plenty of casually dressed people in this line, many college-age and twenty-somethings. Lack of business suited-up professionals was likely due to it being a holiday, but not surprisingly its not hard to pick out the business travelers.

The flow of the line was fast, faster, fastest. If you didn’t know the motions, people cut in front of you. Asked to go through the metal detector again? TSA agents asked you to step aside so more experienced and seasoned travelers could breeze through while you got your shit together (and no, I didn’t have to go through a second time). If you weren’t fast in collecting your stuff after it went through the X-Ray, people pushed things aside in order to grab their gear and get the hell out of there. A cold and efficient machine overall, and I can’t say that I minded one bit. From the time I stepped into line till I got my bag and was walking to the gate—approx 5 minutes (and it was fairly crowded, too).

Casual
An interesting observation- there were many people (mostly younger, but even some older) who hesitated noticeably between the Expert and Casual line. I saw people look at both signs, look at each other, move towards one line but still keeping an eye on the other, wondering if they were in fact “experts”. It also appeared that since many people who normally travel for business were, today, traveling for a holiday, they seemed to be torn as to whether they were still considered an Expert on this day. In my opinion, “expert” may not have been the right tag, as the majority of people probably wouldn’t use that word to describe themselves (just like even truly wealthy people often don’t consider themselves as such).

The line appeared to be just about as smooth as the Expert line, but moved slower as many people had larger bags, or multiple bags, and I noticed many more people being asked to go through security a second time. Relatively little to none of the line-jumping or “please-step-aside” attitudes of the Expert line. TSA agents seemed slightly (but not much) more patient, speed was a little more relaxed and there wasn’t a break-neck race to gather your stuff after X-Ray.

Family
Absolute chaos. Children screaming, little boys who didn’t want to give up their back packs or toys, Mothers trying to hold two kids at once while trying to take off their own shoes and jewelry, Dad’s trying to wrangle 5 or 6 bags up onto the conveyor, many times realizing that one or more of their bags was in fact too big to fit. Getting through the metal detector seemed to be an ordeal for many, as kids were either too excited and ran through without their parents, or hesitated and didn’t want to put their toys on the conveyer or in the bins. I saw TSA agents waiting patiently for people and rarely hurrying or snapping at anyone (not sure if this is always the case, though).

The frustration of various families didn’t seem to be directed at others but rather at themselves- for their kids behavior (perhaps feeling like others would assume they didn’t have control of their kids), for making a mistake and going through the detector with keys in their pockets, for dropping a bag off the conveyor after it went through X-Ray. I think the biggest difference was that travelers in the Family line seemed to be the most willing to accept the mistakes of other travelers, maybe because they were cognizant of the fact that they themselves were often holding up the line and creating bottle-necks in the process.

**I found it pretty interesting to be a part of, and it seemed that for most people around me, this was the first time they had encountered such a system, too. I can say that, in overhearing snippets of conversations in the Expert line, people seemed quite happy that the separations were in place.

Anyone else have any experiences to relate? A few other airports have similar systems- do you think this type of setup works? Or does it create a further divide between experts and novice travelers? Between first class and coach?

And from a brand perspective, what role could an airline potentially play here- if any?

Planning For Good 24 Hour Challenge at AAAA Planning Conference

2008-05-26T13:27:00.007-05:00

Planning For Good (PfG) will head up a 24-Hour Challenge at this year's AAAA Account Planning Conference. Junior Planners (under 5 years experience) will be invited to work on a team, with a Planning Director mentor, to solve a problem for a worthy cause. 2 non-profits will brief participants, Kiva and Witness. To participate, sign up for "Real Time Crafting" workshop when you send in your AAAA app and fees. Also note which cause you wish to work on (Kiva or Witness).

-You will need to arrive early on Saturday nite before the conference so that you can be briefed on Sunday at 9am
-You will work for 8 hours only to create a solution and a low tech, flip chart presentation. Note: You won't miss any of the conference!
-Kiva and Witness, as well as Planning For Good leadership team, will listen to private presentations by the teams on Sunday evening. A winning solution will be chosen for each cause.
-The work with be showcased and presented at an event sponsored by Good Magazine on the Tuesday evening of the conference.

What is Planning For Good?

1600+ of the brightest minds in advertising want to collaborate with good causes and make a difference.

Planning For Good’s mission is to bring strategic marketing help to not-for-profit organizations by leveraging a global network of communications planners and strategists from the worlds of advertising and branding (over 1,670 members to-date).

Planning For Good leverages the power of social networks (Bloggr, Facebook) to connect and collaborate monthly on a specific communication problem for a non-profit. A collection of this thinking is harvested then presented back to the non-profit. To date, we've responded to project briefs for Unicef, Live Earth, and Idea Village in New Orleans.

Bed feeling a little empty? How about a virtual girlfriend?

2008-05-16T14:11:00.007-05:00

NYU student Drew Barrows recently unveiled a new invention he devised to combat the loneliness he'd been feeling as of late. Called INBED, he brought his idea out at the Interactive Telecommunications Program Spring Show at the Tisch School of the Arts.

A few excerpts on how it works:

"INBED, an “infrared-sensitive” light projected virtual girlfriend"

"So what is it exactly? It’s a single mattress with an attractive brunette who is perfectly quiet. So far sounds like a good girlfriend! Once you sit or lie down on the mattress, she will respond to your every move."

"New York Magazine explains, “Lie on your back, she snuggles up right next to you in a log position. Curl up in the fetal position, she spoons. The only hitch: She’s 2-D."

Odd? No doubt. But I imagine there's a market of lonely guys out there who might get down with something like this. Even though its not real, its the idea itself that I think could find it some success- someone waiting for you to come to bed. It's a comforting thought and helps in part to meet our needs for deep emotional connections with other people. And while this invention can't (nor does its inventor want) to replace the actual thing, the mind has a funny way of believing and seeing what it wants. I bet that if you were that lonely, even the appearance of someone waiting for you could be a soothing thought.

via TrendHunter

Politics 2.0: Things Younger Than McCain

2008-05-15T10:48:00.004-05:00

I don't care if it is "age-ist", I'm loving this blog. It's not just how many things McCain is older than (I'm sure that list is much longer than any blog could ever cover off), but it's the odd things they've found that make it so entertaining.

My favorite so far? McCain is older than plutonium. I don't know why that's so funny to me, but it is.

Peep the blog for yourself and find your favorite younger-than-McCain goodie.

The Humanitarian Lion Project

2008-05-12T11:42:00.005-05:00

Found this last night thanks to a guy I'm following on Twitter named @johnny_bones...

Great idea. Seems like a cool way to encourage/standardize efforts like the Tap Project. Not sure how far along they are but this vid was posted to YouTube on May 5 (so what were YOU doing to change the world this past Cinco de Mayo?).

I'll see about getting Fallon to help them out. Look for updates here on the Planning Blog.

Politics 2.0: Senator Mike Gravel Tries His Luck With Obama Girl

2008-05-08T15:31:00.003-05:00

New from the guys at Barely Political, just over 112K views since it was added yesterday. The haters will hate, but BP and OG still do appear to be drawing at least a few eyeballs for their efforts.

Some of this one in particular is just painful to watch (like hearing Gravel stumble his way through an already lame rhyme) or the attempt at some sort of Soulja Boy steps near the end.

But whatev- its a Thursday afternoon and around that time when people start to hit the wall. It's good for a few laughs.

ROFLCon Musings

2008-05-01T12:30:00.005-05:00

Just because it wasn’t a high school student council conference, doesn’t mean it didn’t feel like one. For serious. I used to attend those. The “it” I am referring to was the ROFLCon conference in Cambridge, MA. The energy was palpable. I hit up the conference and have a few take-aways to impart.

It should be duly noted that this conference has already been documented within an inch of its life. Between Twitter and blogs and video and and and…. The focus on the immediate can hardly be overstated. The play by play of what happened has certainly been delivered, but there were also big ideas discussed. It is fascinating to consider the way in which our collective responses to provocative ideas are being shaped by the desire, nay the demand of an immediate response. Immediacy fundamentally changes the way in which we respond.

Mostly, what this demand for immediacy underscored for me last week was the inevitable changes it means for brand communications. Especially in the online space, if what you are delivering isn’t “eternal beta,” if it isn’t conversation based --- don’t bother doing it. Really, the propaganda machine is dead. We buried it in the ground next to dinosaurs, nuclear waste, and New Coke. Moving quickly means - you’ve heard it here before - letting go of some control and letting people be in charge.

What doesn’t get enough attention is the reality of immediacy of action that is required to play. It isn’t about what you are thinking about doing. It is about what you do. During the opening panel there was a discussion surrounding the fluke that Internet celebrity often is, and it was pointed out that everyone on the panel actually did the “stupid shit” that everyone always talks about doing. You can’t win if you aren’t in the game.

And yet, there must be something more. Something beyond “stupid shit” – there is, my friend, there is. It involves a willingness to play by other peoples’ rules. Most brands, in all honestly, aren’t willing to play in the sandbox with the other kids. Other kids smell funny and don’t care that we have color corrected that video for like, hours and hours. Brands need to be respectful and understand the space they are in. As Ben, from Barbarian Group, brought up during the marketers panel, if a brand aims to hold someone’s attention online for a minute, their competition for that minute isn’t their traditional “competitive set” but every single other thing on the internet that people could be doing with that minute. In order to meet this demand brands will need to focus on collaborations. Brands, like people, should have a lot of friends. Play in the same sandbox people. Make nice.

Lastly, as I sat in the panels, I sank a little lower in my seat every time I heard the people talk about how they were doing whatever they were doing because they just loved doing it. Could these people smell the stink of advertising on me? Would the suit I was wearing under my skinny jeans and artfully deconstructed t-shirt be noticed? And then I exhaled; I realized that there is room in this equation for brands that are passionate about what they do. We talk about authenticity, and I think it makes us, collectively nervous. What does authenticity even mean? I don’t know that I have an answer to that one, but I have come to believe that if brands focus on people they will naturally be authentic. The people that built their company, the people that use their products – if they think about themselves as having human attributes and can talk about themselves in a human way, they won’t have to force it. Lets just all start by being a little more human.

Lifestreaming: Twitter Helps To Free A Student From Eygptian Prison

2008-04-25T11:53:00.005-05:00

via CNN

Quite a story. A graduate student at Berkeley- James Buck- was in Eygpt covering some anti-government protests. He and his translator were nabbed and tossed in jail, and with a one word tweet ("arrested") his network lit up and started taking action to get him out. This may be one of the more powerful examples I've ever seen of how the networks we establish for ourselves online can benefit our lives.

Some excerpts from the story (but check the whole story for all the deets):

"Buck, a graduate student from the University of California-Berkeley, was in Mahalla, Egypt, covering an anti-government protest when he and his translator Mohammed Maree were arrested April 10.

On his way to the police station, Buck took out his cell phone and sent a message to his friends and contacts using the micro-blogging site Twitter.

The message only had one word. "Arrested."

Within seconds, colleagues in the United States and his blogger-friends in Egypt -- the same ones who had taught him the tool only a week earlier -- were alerted he was being held.

Buck's urgent message is proof of the value of Twitter, Stone said. Buck's entry set off a chain of events that led to his college hiring a lawyer on his behalf.

"James' case is particularly compelling to us because of the simplicity of his message -- one word, 'arrested' -- and the speed with which the whole scene played out," Stone said. "It highlights the simplicity and value of a real-time communication network that follows you wherever you go."

Fast Strategy (PfG and IPA)

2008-04-25T06:07:00.005-05:00

The IPA (the UK's AAAA's) are conducting a conference on Fast Strategy this Monday 28 April.

Mark Earls, one of the brains behind Planning for Good is taking part in a live contest against some of the sharpest minds in the London Planning scene and needs to build an army to tackle a brief from the Central Office of Information (the UK Government's communications 'client').

Mark has assembled a crack group of planners - Jon Leach (of HHCL fame), Chris Forrest (ex DFGW and now of the research company The Nursery) and Ian Tait (of Poke to work on the brief as the P4G Allstars. BUT THEY WANT YOUR HELP.

Mark wants to demonstrate the power of P4G by involving any of us with internet access (and favorable time zones) to contribute to the the thinking. Here's the deal.

Monday, April 28, 10amBST brief posted on wiki site; responses by 12pm (noon) at the latest. Mark and the team will present at 2pm BST.

Please try and contribute - it will be fun and a great demonstration of the power of P4G at work.
If you're interested please email faststrategy@planningforgood.org and/or keep an eye on Planning for Good.

Details about the IPA event below..

How can you come up with the right strategy fast? A selection of Adland’s finest will be giving practical advice on how to achieve this at the IPA and Times Media Strategy Conference on Monday 28th April.
Speakers will include:

- Tim Lindsay, President, TBWA Group: 'How taking the disruption approach can help you get to the right answer fast.'

- Tim Hames, Assistant Editor & Chief Leader Writer, The Times: 'What planners can learn from those that write the news and the pressures of doing it fast and accurately.'

- Gurdeep Puri, Head of Effectiveness, and Janey Bullivant, Board Planning Director, Leo Burnett: 'How, counter to popular belief, data can help you to get to the answers fast'.

- Jon Wilkins, Founder, Naked: 'Fast strategy in a media environment'.

- Stuart Smith, Head of Planning, Wieden & Kennedy London: 'Strategic and creative dovetailing - Fast'.

- Rob Forshaw, Founding Partner, Grand Union: 'How to develop thinking quickly from a digital perspective'.

These short, sharp and fast presentations will be presented throughout the morning, whilst leading communications consultant Mark Earls; Phil Georgiadis, Chairman of Walker Media; Johnny Hornby, Founding Partner of CHI & Partners, and their respective teams, will be putting into practice what they do best and responding to a highly realistic but fictitious COI brief, set and delivered by Peter Buchanan, Deputy Chief Executive, COI.

You, the audience, will then get the opportunity to vote for who you think is the fastest strategist in town, when these three teams return to the stage in the afternoon to pitch live in front of the audience.

Says Guy Murphy, Chairman IPA Strategy Group and Worldwide Planning Director, JWT, “The most important skill that strategists need to learn in this era is speed. The quality of a strategic answer is now partly determined by the time taken to create it. Slow-baked strategy, no matter how good, can never be great.”

The conference will take place between 9am-5pm on Monday 28th April at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 0AE.

Networked Self: Axe on Yahoo! Live

2008-04-18T12:31:00.006-05:00

Looks like Axe Brazil is using Yahoo! Live to good effect.

I guess it beats lookin' at my channel

*Unfortunately, the dudes here seem creepy. Put a shirt on!