erniesblog

The Interview

I hate being on camera.  Which is why I've spent most of my career behind it.  Nevertheless, Kenneth Yeung over at TheLetterTwo was able to convince me to sit down in front of his camera for a pretty cool interview.  It's a little long, but that's my fault for talking a lot about stuff I'm passionate about:  Interactive marketing, where creative fits, why some agencies and clients get it, and others don't.
Check it out.

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Something's missing

Summer is my favorite time of year.  And since it's almost over, I'm going to make the most of it by not spending a lot of time inside today.  I'll probably forgo a post next weekend altogether, because I plan to be body-boarding.  This week, a quick thought, brought on by some interesting conversations about integration:

The past two weeks have been really empty around here.  The rest of the family, all the Canadians in the house, have been in Canada visiting other Canadians.  While this has allowed me time to move into my new MacBook, upgrade Final Cut, watch a bit of the Olympics, bond with the dog, and eat whatever I damned well please, there's something missing.

Which brings me to this:

Talk to a digital creative about what traditional creatives don't get, and she'll tell you that it's not about the words and pictures, so much as it is about the way people interact with the idea, via the thing we make, whatever that turns out to be.  In other words, the most important thing is the user experience, as expressed by the flow of the interactivity.

Talk to a traditional creative about what digital misses, and his answer will be about the art -- the finish, the production value, the cleverness of the concept, the interwoven visual and verbal presentation.  In other words, the user experience, as expressed by the skin of the interactivity.

What's missing?  Understanding.  From both groups.  Because both things are important.  And both things, together, define the user experience.  How they interact is critical.  What they see, read, and hear affects how they interact, and sometimes affects whether they interact.  The two aspects are inseparable.

Try to build something with just one, and you'll quickly find that something's missing.

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Creative Direction from Seth

I've said something like this many times.  Unfortunately (for me) I don't think I've ever said it this well.

Seth's Blog: The Dead Zone of Slick

Wordle

Fun.  This blog, according to Wordle.net

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List: Five off-topic thoughts. Kind of.

I have a Moleskine where I write down occasional thoughts that don't always have to do with much more than the fact that I thought them and wrote them down.  Sometimes, they turn into bigger thoughts and theories, but mostly, they're just observations about people, the world, and my own sometimes twisted view of both - enthusiastically including myself in each category.

Rather than rant today about how someone else's perception of what advertising should be is different from what I think it should be, I thought I'd just share a few of these random thoughts.  Five, actually.  Maybe something will happen.

1.  Not letting that guy into your lane in traffic saved you, maybe, 10 seconds.  Cutting him off did not teach him the lesson you think it did.

2.  "I can't thank you enough,"  is a hollow, exaggerated phrase.  Truth is, you can. But by saying you can't, you won't have to.

3.  Which is more valuable: A two-carat diamond, or a glass of water?

4.  My most prized material possessions tend to be little things with big meaning.

5.  Discuss a good idea long enough, with enough people, and it will cease to be a good idea.

Out of respect for Number 5, I won't belabor the point.  But the truth is, this list isn't really off topic.  There are advertising and marketing lessons in each one of these.  I'll be brief:

1.  Customer experience is probably the most important marketing tool you have.  Sometimes, you have to grit your teeth to deliver it, but it's still important that you do.

2.  People just don't believe the same old empty fluff anymore.  Actually, I'm not sure they ever did.  But the web has given them more alternatives now, and they're completely unafraid to use them.

3.  What matters to you doesn't matter.  What matters to your customer does.

4.  Emotion is a key human motivator.  In a society that has the essentials covered, it's probably the key motivator.

5.  Act quickly.  You can fix it if it doesn't work.

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Coming Soon

www.ageofconversation.com

Somehow, I feel better now.

It's my job to think up new stuff.  That's a good thing, because I spend a lot of time thinking up new stuff, and I must be decent at it, because people pay me to do it.  But I would probably do it anyway, paid or not, simply because I like to.

Thinking up new stuff isn't that hard, if you have the right mindset.  The hard part comes after you've thought some new thing up.

Anyone who innovates, or is an early adopter, knows that the hardest part about new stuff isn't thinking it up, or even making it, or getting it made.   Those parts can be hard, but not nearly as hard as getting other people to see the potential you see for that new thing.

Talk with any advertising creative.  Or any software developer.  Or any artist, or inventor.  The hardest part about creating things isn't the creation itself.  It's the process of getting permission to create it. Permission comes in many forms, but for most of us, it's in the form of funding. Whether it's getting that client to buy an ad concept, or convincing a potential customer that your app will deliver better results than what he's using, the permission wall is typically about someone who doesn't quite understand your idea being willing to write a check so you can produce it anyway.

Technology in general, and the web, in particular, have lowered that wall for a lot of folks, by bringing down the cost of production and delivery for a lot of things that get produced.  But cost isn't always the only block in the permission wall. 

Frequently, it's a simple question of what Seth calls worldview.  If the new thing you've thought up doesn't fit the worldview of the person you're asking permission from, it's harder to get that permission. This doesn't mean, however, that the potential permission-granter must embrace and want to use whatever it is you've thought up.  It just means that he or she must have a worldview that allows for the notion that enough other people might embrace it.  In other words, it helps if the potential permission granter is open minded enough to understand that other people might very well love what he or she doesn't like or understand.

I know I'm preaching to the choir.  Because most people who read my ramblings, I assume, work in advertising or tech or both.  So you understand that getting new ideas sold through is the most difficult, and frequently the most frustrating, part of our jobs. 

But, today, I read a Slashdot post about The Flat Earth Society.  Seriously.  The. Flat. Earth. Society.

I only hope it's real.  I truly do.  Because it will forever place in perspective any frustrations I've ever had about selling through some unbelievably complicated piece of creative (which, of course, results in an elegant user experience, but never mind that).  Remember, the next time the client doesn't buy your stuff, because they just don't quite get how people might like or use it -- there's an active society of people who believe the earth is flat.  Perspective.  I feel better now.

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The Content Creation Conundrum

It's all about content.  Content is everything. etc. 

I preach that a lot.  Because I believe it.  Last week, a post I wrote for the Brunner Digital blog chronicled the evolution of corporate websites from what I call "kitchen sinks" to fresh-content-driven cut-flower arrangements.  Huh?  Click through.  You'll get the analogy.

Not every corporate site is going to be a full-blown web 2.0 site.  Not every one is going to be a 3.0 site, whatever that is.  Right or wrong, there are going to be sites that continue to present a defined experience, and attempt to put up a wall or two to try to keep people in for as long as possible.  But increasingly, instead of walls, marketers are beginning to understand that rewards work far better than punishment.  And increasingly, those rewards come in the form of fresh content, delivered by the technology and worldview that defines web 2.0.  Which means, new sites are going up every day -- every minute, really -- that have all kinds of shiny new gizmos embedded in them.  Video embeds, podcasts, blogs, feeds -- seems every single site we build now has one or more of these elements. (A big "duh" to the more tech savvy of you who read this, but keep going...)

The catch is, that stuff has to remain fresh.  Not good enough to deliver a video, and leave the same video as the only choice for a long time.  Gotta have new videos.  From here on out.  Perpetually.  That consideration isn't always a consideration when the concept for the site is presented.  But it's a reality, once the thing is built.

So, who's going to make all that content?  Who's going to write the CEO's blog for him when he realizes it takes up a lot of time he didn't have anyway?  Who's going to deliver that new podcast from the CMO every single week for the next 52 weeks?  Who's going to deliver fresh video content every month?

Seth, I'm sure -- and I know the 2.0 purists -- will say it's part of the marketing job now, and that the CEO should absolutely write his own blog, because it's all about transparency.  And that's the spirit of the thing, to be sure.  But the reality is different. It happens, but it's rare, and although it'll increase, it'll remain relatively rare.

Corporations can turn to less expensive video production companies to shoot what they're told - and they do.  And how many talking-head, marketing and tech jargon-filled videos have you recommended to friends lately?  The spirit of the brand, and, sadly, the creativity, are frequently victims of either (A) budget; or (B) a less-than-intimate knowledge of the brand and its target.  There are blogger-for-hire and podcast services, but they haven't truly tapped into the mainstream yet, as far as I can tell.  Which leaves marketers -- if they even realize that they need fresh content regularly -- turning, mostly, to the agencies (including full-service, with digital capabilities as well as digital-only) who built the site in the first place, to deliver new content regularly.

Except, most agencies aren't really set up to do that.  They're set up, for the most part, to make money on the biggest, most visible, and first element of the project -- the site itself.  The first iteration that's delivered, is, of course, chock full of content.  But the creation of new content down the line, without the financial support that is provided by the much bigger job of creating the site itself, is difficult to staff and budget for. At least, the way agencies are set up now.

Is it a conundrum - or an opportunity?

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