CK's Blog

Voice-In: Give a girl 5 minutes and 2 cents?

For an upcoming piece, I'm polling the marketing community (that's you, dear reader). It won't take but 5 minutes. Then again, you may need to ruminate on it for a day and then give me your $.02. It's only 1 question. A big one. I really appreciate your time and thought on the following:

What is the single greatest point of value you receive from blogging? New business? New friends? Newfound smarts? Fortune, fame or creative freedom? I'm sure you've found many points of value, but what I seek is the single, the uber, the most rewarding, robust and important point of value you've gained from embracing these tools and investing your time. Just one. And a few words explaining why. (Hint: every answer is right.)

Once I compile the piece everyone involved gets credited and I'll share the results, of course. To start the thread, I've included my two cents in the comments. Should you rather e-mail me your comments, that's great, too. Thanks so much.

**Update (11.08.06): What I did with all your comments is right here.

Access to Supply Powers Demand--and First Sci-Fi Podcast Novel. (Q&A with Scott Sigler)

In this segment I'm speaking with Scott Sigler, the Sci-Fi writer behind the first ever "podcast novel", a Sci-Fi adventure titled EarthCore (the cover, featuring a bloody dagger, is down there on the right). Writing monster stories since the third grade, Sigler has created many novels, short stories and screenplays. But the real story happened when Scott's passion intersected with podcasting.

Sigler had a print deal with Time Warner in 2001, in which EarthCore, his first of three Sci-Fi books, was supposed to be in every bookstore in the country by 2002. But after 9/11 and an unrelenting recession, Time Warner scrapped everything that wasn't profitable--including the imprint that was going to publish EarthCore.

"We couldn't get another deal for the book", explains Sigler, "so it was sitting there when I discovered podcasting in March 2005." Releasing the book via 20 podcasts from March through September--and always leaving audiences on a cliffhanger--EarthCore claimed 25,000 downloads. With proof of demand in hand, Dragon Moon Press printed EarthCore in November 2005. (2,000 copies have sold thus far.)

Listen up marketers, this is the stuff revolutions are made of: because Scott had access to supply--once only afforded to large publishing houses--he was able to amass an audience and create an entirely new category spanning fiction, publishing, entertainment and yes, podcasting.

Scott advises, "The name of the game is exposure. You get your content out there and let the marketplace decide if it's good or not." Whether you market monster stories, manufactured goods, Sci-Fi or Wi-Fi, letting the market be your judge is mighty good advice. More great advice in the Q&A:

Poor Little Guy Got Dumped.

While not marketing related, it is historical. I even let out a girly "aawww" when I caught the newscast. Our galaxy is now 8 planets, no longer 9. It's not that Pluto doesn't exist anymore, it's just no longer classified as a planet. It's been demoted to 'dwarf planet'. So size matters in the milky way, too.

Some scientists are taking this pretty hard. I understand that the decision triggered factions and combative debates (I would have loved to have been a fly on that wall). Kids have cried "it isn't fair". To my knowledge, Disney has no official comment.

Not sure how this affects my daily horoscope. Bad enough the divorce rate is so high on earth, now we're dumping long-term planets. Pluto, you'll always be my 9th planet.

UPDATE (8/30): Worth checking out is Vaspers' "Ode to Pluto" post. Especially the videocast where he channels Pluto and sets Earthlings straight. I'm especially keen on how he explains we humans' need for control (there are more than just 9 planets in our galaxy, we just found more than that number to be, well, unruly). Good, shocking stuff! You owe it to Pluto to tune in.

The "me" in fame.

Seems everywhere I look these days, there it is. That 4-letter word. At every turn it's: Fame in the blogosphere. Fame in our genes. Fame as prime motivator.

According to some accounts, with the right number of provocative posts (at least 6 before lunchtime) and wrangling enough people to digg your posts, you too can be famous. Like Tom Cruise. Or Mel Gibson. Perhaps like Kevin Federline (uh, "K-Fed") you can marry into blogger fame. Or, like Star Jones, maybe you can get fired into blogger fame (Amanda will have to fill us in).

A couple of recent posts had some interesting takes on fame. Noah writes, "The game is changing, for a long time, the only difference between the stars and 'Joe Schmo' was the audience...but not any more". Vaspers pens, "As the commercialized, over-hyped Star System declines, we witness the Rise of Everyone."

While I agree with them both, it leads me to conclude that the democratization of content, and content-publishing tools, hasn't leveled the celebrity field...so much as deemed it irrelevant: because if everyone is a star then no one is.

That rings right since people were never the stars of Web 2.0. Fame is far too me-focused for a 2-way medium. But ideas are we-focused. Ideas are the stuff that memes, best practices and successful businesses are made of.

Since we're all participants and producers, we fuel one another. That's hard for a lot of people outside of the 'sphere to understand. And for some inside it, too. It's just not like other media. Thank goodness. 1 Tom Cruise is plenty.

Chicken Little was right (the sky really is falling).

According to a CNN article released Friday, our ozone layer--or rather the gaping hole in it--will take 15 years longer than expected to close. It won't be until 2065, not 2050 as originally forecast, for the ozone layer (the blue portion on the left there) over Antarctica to recover. Al Gore cannot be pleased. Then again, it does prove his point.

But do consumers care? Care enough to put their collective purchasing power behind earth-friendly products? While green marketing is all the rage right now with marketers, it doesn't appear to be mobilizing our markets.

Customers are certainly buying into all natural and organic, but those are foods and supplements that people ingest, so it's more personal to them. They can see and feel the difference. People tend to focus on initiatives that produce results in the short-term. But 2065 is truly an eternity. The ozone layer and global warming are issues that people feel are by and largely out of their control. And out of control means out of market share.

I'm working on several green products right now and finding the "green benefit" to be a challenging angle to engage customers around. The feedback I'm receiving is that customers like the idea, but they're not invested enough to place the extra money behind earth-friendly products (as with organic, many times these products cost more). So I'm having to leverage the green angle as a secondary benefit since it's not perceived important enough to move into the primary benefit quadrant.

Otherwise, just as Chicken Little's message fell flat, so too may the messages of many marketers. Are any marketers seeing more traction on the green front? Or running into similar challenges?

SoaP: A movie that mother f**kin delivers.

This marketer caught the much blogged and ballyhooed Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) movie opening in Times Ssssquare at 10pm last night, with the AMC 25 theater playing host to all our hollering, hissing and cursing. Having sized-up the movie and chatted-up the crowd, here are the highlights...

The Movie: Worth the $10 ticket? Absolutely. Even when it's not opening night? Yep. When I said it delivers, that's exactly what it did. Like any good brand that keeps its promise...be it Fedex delivering the world overnight or McD's delivering a hamburger that tastes the same whether you're in New York or Nevada...SoaP, true to its promise, delivers equal parts gore, cheesiness, comedy and Sam Jackson. A range of characters that all played true to part. And a ton of snakes.

The Stats (otherwise known as best guess): I would approximate the theater to be right at 70% capacity comprised of 75% male to 25% female. Good mix of 20s, 30s and 40s. Even some suits. Only 1 guy dressed up, that's Sky Captain Kyle and I saluting you down on the left. Kudos on a great costume, Kyle (sorry the pic is fuzzy).

The snakes: All races and breeds were well represented. We even got to see the movie from the snakes' POV several times. Which was just silly enough to be fun.

The biting: Lots of biting. Female parts get bitten. Male parts get bitten off. Cats don't make it, dogs don't either. No one is safe at 30,000 feet.

The genre: Horror meets thriller meets comedy meets drama meets some soft porn.

The surprise: There's another hero, besides SLJ, that's this marketer's favorite (but I won't spoil, you'll have to see it). And the snake expert on the ground is good stuff, too.

Female feedback: I did some real-time polling in the ladies room (a place with a captive audience and long line of us right after the movie). Girls thought it "had just enough cheese but not too much", "was definitely worth the hype" and "would recommend it to others".

The Infamous Line: They make you wait for the line, the stinkers. People were screaming "say it! say it already!" for the 1.5 hours leading up to it. But it's sooo worth it when cool cat Jackson says "Enough is Enough. Get these mother fu**in snakes off this mother fu**in plane." Our three rows orchestrated a standing ovation once it dropped. (and there's a great line about "snakes on crack", too).

The t-shirts: And I even met the guy who created the famous Snakes' T-shirts. That's him over on the right.

The song: The theme song "So Kiss Me Goodbye (Bring It)", by Cobra Starship, and video at the end (worth staying for) are excellent. I'll be snatching up that single.

...and here are the lowlights (sigh):

The trailer trash: They put us through torture with 20 zillion trailers. As marketer, I sunk in my chair. Why didn't they capitalize on the moment by showing interviews with the talent, director and bloggers, instead of forcing us to watch their agenda?

The...Army? And during the trailers there was actually one commercial recruiting for the U.S. Army. Uh, Uncle Sam, if you had heard the reaction I did when that spot was fired up, you would have spent that money on ammunition, not advertising.

Gotta have vision: What's better than watching snakes bite people? Having them jump out and bite YOU. Should have been 3-D, dude.

Product placement (place your product in our HANDS, not just in the movie): Pretty obvious that Red Bull and a few others sponsored part of this movie's budget. Why not give out caffeinated treats and goodie bags filled with plastic snakes to the crowd before the movie, like Target did at the Star Wars opening last year? We got water and mini lightsabers at that opening. You would have bought yourself new customers and a lot more loyalty. All for the price of some soda and plastic snakes.

The media's BIG miss: Where oh where in the Web 2.0 world were you? I know it played on several screens in NYC, but you just happened to miss the Times Square showing? Tsk. Tsk. This hit was your miss guys. A BIG shout out to CNet for being there.

All told, a truly amazing time--buoyed by a movie that delivered on its brand promise. Speaking of delivering, according to Entertainment Weekly, "It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, and it does so in brilliant fashion." It may not be Oscar-worthy, but it's certainly case-study worthy. Thanks to all the bloggers for making this sssilly movie so special.

Pssssst: For those of you new to all this snake talk, please go here to understand this movie-blogger phenom. And check out Viral Garden, it's covering the SoaP Circuit far better than I.

Roped in 3 New Bloggers (yee-haw!)

Having had limited access to all things web this week, I surrendered to being light on the blogging beat. You can't really be blogging when you're the discussion leader; it's sorta rude. And you can't blog while flying since I can't afford a private jet with net access. Yet.

But this is not a post about how much I missed my blog--or you guys' blogs. This is a post about what may just be the most essential activity in furthering this great medium: engaging new participants. Which, ironically enough, happens just as much when you're off your blog, as when you're on it.

How do I know this? Because while I was clocking 6,000 miles of air time and about 48 hours of land time, I helped to rope in 3 new bloggers. Best of all?  Not a single one is in marketing (ha!). All sorts of other interesting fields. Almost as great? Their ages range between 40 - 60 (it's not the 20s and 30s demos that need as much prodding to swim into these scary new waters). I'll share URLs when their blogs launch, but hailing from points east, west and smack in the middle:

• Blogger #1 is a NYC detective that has cracked many headline cases in his tenure and now heads up security for a well-known TV studio (I can't blog on the juicy details, sorry). I can tell you that his staff is forever monitoring blogs for what is being said, but do so for "threat-assessment reasons". So he can't really blog there since he's keeping evildoers at bay from his network's celebrities. But now he'll be part of the conversation on other blogs and one day soon, his own.
• Blogger #2 is a well-heeled expert in food safety. Besides learning all about what's missing from our food sanitation processes (trust me, you don't want the details), it's important that these advocates use blogging as a platform to push better food-safety practices. We all eat, after all.
• Blogger #3 is an eco-friendly company that has invented a new process to cut down on harmful chemicals in business applications. Our planet could use a break from chemicals. So while the planet can't blog, these guys can.

While I'm pleased with helping push three newbies into new technologies, it's not about quantity, it's about engaging thoughtful, brainy, interesting people to join the conversation. To show them just how much they have to share. People aren't used to being producers, they're used to being consumers. They need a little wrangling. So, be it a flight, a business meeting, a subway ride or over lunch you might just find that you can rope in some newcomers, too.

It was so cute when one of the gentlemen--after walking him through blogging and my blog--told me how blogs are great marketing tools. Yea, I know that. Now he knows it, too. (woo-hoo!)

Marketer on a Plane (same thing as a snake, really)

I'm spending a good part of this week inside a tin tube, hopping between coasts over a three-day period. So it's not a bird, nor a plane. Just another marketer flying overhead.

Since many people have called marketers such names as scoundrels, pests and snakes, I guess it's kind of fitting to be flying right before the August 17th opening of Snakes on a Plane, or 'SoaP' (but in this case I'm the snake). While I hope there aren't any real snakes on either of my flights, Samuel L. Jackson is totally welcome :-).

For those of you new to all this snake talk, please go here to understand this movie-blogger phenom. And definitely check out the Viral Garden as it covers the buzz all week.

My only miff is that New Line, the studio producing SoaP, opted not to hold special pre-screenings for bloggers and press...and thusly blew a groundbreaking opportunity to bring professional and citizen journalists together. Sigh. This would have served to bolster both groups and been a boon for the movie and media industries (two industries desperately in need of better revenues, no less).

As for NYC bloggers attending the movie opening; I've secured my tix for the 10pm showing on 42nd Street. Get your snake on. Hey, if the crowd is anything like last year's midnight opening showing of the final Star Wars, it will definitely be worth it: that opening had equal parts storm troopers, darth vaders and drag queens. Most fun I've ever had doing marketing research, save maybe Comic-Con.

Blogger love to Snakes on a Blog. You've gone the distance, and made us proud, this blogopshere wouldn't be the same without you. Now that you've fulfilled your blog's quest to be invited to the red-carpet L.A. premiere, what will you do next? Actually, surprise us, we marketers enjoy a good bit of mystery.

Pushing More Standards, Fewer Regrets (Q&A with Regret The Error)

This segment brings me to Craig Silverman of Regret The Error, a blog monitoring media corrections, retractions and clarifications. Primarily monitoring newspapers and magazines, Silverman reviews up to 125 media outlets for errors, posting between three to fifteen items--er, uh,"regrets"--daily.

Be it Reuters recalling beef panties (instead of beef patties), a local newspaper mislabeling two men as mobsters (two days in a row, no less) or a Fox News pundit identifying a home belonging to terrorists (the terrorists live there three years ago, now the current owners are being terrorized), Regret the Error sees no error as too small.

More change agent than media watchdog, Silverman explains his blog's inspiration, "I felt there needed to be someone raising this issue. It's not about shaming or punishing the press; it's about cataloging and quantifying the problems and having the discussion about how things can get better. My interest is in making the press better, not tearing it down."

Minding the media proves popular: the site clocks 1,500 daily readers and 50,000 monthly page views from media, communications and marketing professionals as well as general consumers.

As marketers a great deal of our daily routines involve clear, correct communications, but our greatest role is facilitating trust among our constituencies. This blogger teaches us how getting our facts straight--and upholding high standards--not only applies to the media, but our own missions. Here's the Q&A:

Gaga over Wawa...

Here's a success story that just melts this marketer's heart. No, not because I get to say "gaga" and "wawa". Because of how simple it is to make customers happy. How happy?

Happy enough to start a MySpace group with 5,000 members boasting "I Love Wawa"--and that's the largest of several Wawa-related groups on the site. Over the moon enough to manage a group called "We Love Wawa" over at LiveJournal with 950 members...that even cites an "Open Prayer to the God of Wawa". Now whose brand among us couldn't use a few prayers?

For those who've never heard of Wawa, it's not a cool coffee house, or trendy eatery. It's a chain of convenience stores. About 550 of them on the East Coast. If you're thinking coffee, hoagies, carbs and fountain drinks, you're thinking right. Their secret sauce? Service. While many of the postings at the fan sites praise this item or that, the tie that binds is good, solid service. Consistently good.

Sure, there's a lot of cult brands out there. That's nothing new. People attest to Hello Kitty's magical powers, Apple's killer products, In-n-Out's tasty burgers, even New Balance's width-friendly running shoes. But lovin' a convenience store full of commodities? That is new.

Which begs the question...why is customer service so hard to deliver, and deliver consistently?

Folks, we've got a crisis on our hands. We've by and largely lost touch--or completely ignored--customer service. Paul Gillin's recent piece states, "Many organizations today unfortunately have quietly forgone the one element that keeps a steady stream of business flowing: catering to the needs of the customer." Rob Walker's article on Wawa (that inspired this piece, pw req) counsels, "What's intriguing about a brand built partly on its service reputation is that the hottest consumer trend in America right now is arguably dissatisfaction with service." Yikes!

Decent customer service shouldn't be a differentiator. It should, well, just be. To the smart marketers that are using it as a differentiator, I tip my hat to you. For others, I can't help but wonder if our oh-so-strategic, grandiose plans have steered us off course from minding this most basic, and arguably most important, detail.

In fact, I'll admit I've been guilty of not paying nearly enough attention to it. I know that more than a few customer-service audits (not just customer research studies) are ahead of me--and will now be standard in my methodology. I sure would love to see some of my clients with a few fan sites dedicated to them (prayers welcome, too).

thankyou.com

Dear Agency.com: Having flamed, shamed and debated your video--on this blog, your blog and others--for several days now, it has come clear to me that a sincere thank you is in order. My feelings on the video stand. But fair is fair. At first I believed that you did this new medium and the marketing community no favors. That is not true. While I can only speak for one little marketer in a big ol' blogosphere, you did much for me--and I think the entire community.

Your video brought me new colleagues and closer to existing ones. Some vehemently agreed with me, some argued that experimentation is good, if tough. But all joined the conversation, contributed new perspectives and gave me their time. I look forward to many more conversations with friends old and new (but hopefully not on viral videos).

Your video confirms that getting closer to the customer means it's about them, not us. If there's one thing this noisy medium is teaching us, it's that listening is the single most important thing we can do to succeed (as mouthy marketers that's ironic, eh?). It also proved that with 50+ million blogs and growing strong, this blogosphere still does a bang-up job of policing itself. Proud of that.

More than anything, your video showed me how many well-intentioned marketers are among us. It's easy to believe the majority of marketers are sneaky, self-aggrandizing and self-centered. That makes for hot headlines and good gossip. But that's not true. There exist many, many fine marketers who have empowering ideas, good motives. I hope mainstream media gets wind of it.

So whether you win the Subway pitch or boo-boo of the year, the marketing community did rally to score a BIG win and became closer in the process--that merits sincere praise and genuine thanks. While you may not feel it now, it will make the pain worth the gain.

Thank you,

- ck

p.s.: Please respond to the multitude of comments on your blog. Many people are taking the time to speak to you--speak back to us (at the time of publishing your feedback has not been updated since August 2nd).

**UPDATE: Agency.com has since updated their blog. They even published this letter...but failed to publish my original post on it (oy!). I've advised them to read YOU guys' great comments to the original post. You gave them your time--they would benefit tremendously from giving you theirs. Do hope they listen.

Gettin' closer to your customers...or your ego?

Not sure how many of you have seen the Agency.com "viral" video created to help them win the Subway account and circulated to, well, supposedly it was circulated to show how close they are to the core of Subway's customers (it certainly showed they can make videos that go viral, dude).

I hesitated to post my issues with it because I support experimentation in this newest of new media--and I've no gripe with agency.com--but this blog is dedicated to getting closer to our markets and there's a lot we marketers can learn from this. First, here's the 10-minute video (for those who are receiving this on a feed, the video is here):

Now, here's the core lessons I take from this exercise:

#1: Oh Mr. Rockefeller can you spare a dime? One day working at a Subway sandwich shop does not place you intimately in touch with the core customer. Nowhere near. But nice job on making bread. Since you say your goal was to show how "immersed you are with the customer" then you might have chosen a location better reflective of Subway's core customer, not a shop located at Rockefeller Center--where the lunch crowd is comprised of the top 5% per-capita income of the nation. Guys, I too live in NYC. You could have hopped a real subway to, say, the Bronx and gotten a sandwich-making gig there...and perhaps gotten a real feel for the core customer.

#2: Meet you on the corner of Fifth Avenue & Myopia Blvd. Then you proudly showed us the Fifth Avenue sign and shots of St. Patrick's Cathedral. While I've never worked for Subway I'd bet good money that Subway's core customer segment does not live or work on the same avenue that hails such tony landmarks as Tiffany's and Cartier.

#3: It was about THEM, not you (...or was it?): You worked hard on the video, boasting 18 hours of footage cut down to 10 minutes. Why not make those 10 minutes really count? Instead of showing us 10 minutes of YOU--your logo, your corner offices, your logo again, your baking bread, your brainstorm process, your uploading the video to YouTube, your logo again--why not show 10 minutes of real customers, real insights?

Please marketers, when we set out to connect with our markets let's make good on it. And if we're going to circulate videos that advance our own agendas, let's make sure they advance the marketing community, too.

Here's the blog that Agency.com created to discuss the feedback. The name? WhenWeRollWeRollBig.com. No ego there. Alas, I guess big agencies win big press and, yet again, little customers lose.

How do you capture a rainbow?

There's a lot of buzz on how best to get buzz (and it's only going to get louder). In true marketing fashion of controlling, containing and claiming, the conversation has moved to manufacturing positive WOM. Sigh.

Are there practices that better our chances of generating word of mouth among our markets? Sure. Listening + listening more + being transparent + creating solid products + providing superior customer service = really safe bets. But an iron-clad, lab-manufactured, 4-out-of-5-marketers-approve viral formula? Doubtful. That's the bane, and the beauty, of buzz.

Gladwell taught us that little things make a BIG difference. That they do. But try as we might we can't force the tipping point--we can only encourage it. Where I fear we get into murky waters is when we start proclaiming buzz is a 1-2-3 step process. You can produce a terrific viral campaign with all the right moves but move nobody. There are unforeseen circumstances, like:

• Clutter: There may be 5 viral programs meriting attention, and successful in their own right, but drown in the din of a zillion YouTube videos.
• Cool Factor: A moving target if ever there was one. Even if your campaign is an award-winner, the buck may stop there. You may engage them, but not their pocketbooks.

As for this marketer, instead of forcing a formula (trying to capture rainbows), I'm encouraging more organic creativity, less clinical processes and the safe bets I proposed above. Less forcing the information cascade, more flow. That said, the viral stampede ain't even started yet -- can you feel the ground rumbling? Get ready for a wild ride.

Psst: A great way to facilitate WOM and get close to your markets is to give them the brand. Mack at The Viral Garden details a prime example of this here (a worthy and moving read). Amazing how many rainbows your customers will create for you...when you empower them.

On being human...

Riddle me this, readers: Why is the current Mac campaign doing so well?

• Because it's funny? Yep, that it is. But that's not it.
• Because it shows the weaknesses we PC users can all too readily relate too? Close, but no cigar.
• Because it makes the Mac so hip and user-friendly, the PC so dopey and cold? That it does. But even tho' he's a dud, we like the PC guy. Heck, he carries the commercial (though most will likely disagree with me here).
• Because we so don't want to be the PC guy? A contender, but not the winner.

By making the PC and Mac actual characters, Apple makes an otherwise lifeless, breathless pile of titanium and silicon human. We can relate to human (they're our species). We're character driven by nature. Human isn't an abstract metaphor or kitchy bent. Human is living and breathing. Fun like the Mac dude; flawed too, like the PC guy. Net/net, it's something we can all process. People purchase what they can process.

Remember when Apple unleashed its series of gem-colored desktops and notebooks? Those were fun, but look around you...everyone seems to be toting the same-color-of-silver powerbooks now. And who could forget the big brother, man-against-the-machine commercial by Apple, lauded as perhaps the best spot ever? It sure did pump some theatre into our commercial breaks, but loads of fanfare and Clios later, Apple still retained 3% marketshare--and likely lost money with how much that spot cost.

So why will Apple's marketshare spike now, after clocking a mighty impressive 25-year run of relentlessly good, original creative?  Because they've gotten away from promoting bells and whistles and moved to making steel and silicon human.

There's a lesson in that. A big one.

Be it our products, services, ads or blogs--especially business blogs--show your human-ness, let people in. Be accessible. It's the only way to truly engage your audience. And if we can engage we can educate. The human factor is especially vital with text posts.

Gettin' social is where this world is going, we might as well get a little more human while we're at it. For another example of making steel human, go here.

Shouts: To all you NYers, this determined heatwave is slated to stop late Thursday. Nothin' quite like a 101-degree packed subway car at 9am, eh? Even when the big apple is stinky, sweaty and sticky...I HEART NY.