Cuene.com

Category: Business Strategy

  • Fallon: What we Can Learn From Butch Vig & Rick Rubin

    Great post from Chad Koehnen (Planner at Fallon) about "Smart" vs. inspiring. He comes down in favor of inspiring, not surprisingly. It's a great read, and especially helpful for brands trying to understand how to get the kind of creativity they need today. Good quote: 

    Here’s a little secret that Planners would be advantaged to learn: Nobody (real people) truly cares about smart. That’s not to say it isn’t important, but it’s an input, not an output. Therefore, the only evaluation of smart should be through the work it inspires. People don’t care about what Producer Butch Vig told Nirvana during the making of Nevermind. People just care about how “Smells Like Teen Spirit” sounds like the perfect angsty, balls out, cymbal-crashing soundtrack to their life.

    Whether it be Music Producing or Account Planning, smart is only as good as the interesting, hilarious, touching, persuasive, rocking, and beautiful product it inspires.

    I also like this one (which i might put on a T-shirt): 

     Or more specifically, it’s a Planner’s job to fight on the side of people who love to consume amazing shit.

  • Modern Brand Builders: The Importance of Having a Distinct Voice (from Dick Costello, pre-Twitter)

    This is an absolutely essential post for anyone trying to build a brand today. It's from Dick Costello, before he become the head of Twitter. It's not surprising that it comes from 2007 when social media was really taking off and brands and companies were trying to humanize themselves for the first time, but it's still as relevant today as then. People you are trying to connect with have plenty of choices, plenty of alternatives to choose from. The kind of experience you deliver really can make the difference. And, having a clear, unique, distinctive voice is key to that. 

    It is a competitive advantage for you to have a unique voice in your market. Companies with unique personalities give themselves a leg up because people want to embrace other people, and we all dislike antiseptic and bland corporate communications.

    I should also point out that when I say it’s important to have a unique voice, I don’t mean that you have to make sure people think your company is fun and cool. Your company voice can be serious or esoteric and still your customers will appreciate you for having a unique voice.

    Note that you don't need to be "young", "modern", or "tech savvy". you just have to avoid coming off like a distant,  glossy behemoth. 

    Bonus: I love that he namechecks Moosejaw (@MoosejawMadness) , one of the brands i cite the most frequently as doing a great job breaking through via a clear, distinct voice (in this case: Funny, sarcastic, energetic).

  • Huckberry is Refinery29 for Dudes & The Future of E-Commerce

    If you're interested in seeing what the future of E-Commerce looks like, you can check out Huckberry for a pretty great example. It's Refinery29 for dudes. And, i love it.

    They are playing well at the intersection of a couple key trends: 

    • Unique, new brands – If you look at the kinds of brands they are featuring, the brands are almost exclusively "new" to most of us. Many of the brands – like American Giant – seem to be riding the wave of "Made in America". Whether imported brands, or start up brands, Huckberry is merchandising their site with interesting options that are hide to find elsewhere, and especially in one place
    • Great Stories – People want to love their stuff they buy, and often the stories about the products are what seals the deal. It could be the founder's story, it could be product's long history, or it could be about the values that shape the culture of the company. When the products come along with a story, they're going to be more valuable. Just ask J. Peterman.
    • Membership-based pricing – Like Gilt Group, RueLaLa and The Clymb, Huckberry asks you to become a "member" before you can browse and buy. It's a marketing ploy, but it does set the right expectations for your experience. 

    What's especially great about Huckberry, though, is how fully formed their brand is. And, it's delivered exceptionally well through their overall digital experience, but mainly through the voice that comes out in the copy. Primarily in the emails, but across the whole site, you definitely get a sense of the personality of the organization. And, it's a key part of the differentiation from other platforms. It's so fully formed and richly expressed, you actually care. Care enough to open the next email to see what they are presenting. Care enough to look for it in your inbox folders (when Google moves it to the promotions tab).

    I think the sort of experience delivered by Huckberry is the future of a certain segment of commerce. Call it "content commerce" or "story sales"  or something different, but ultimately it comes down to buying stories vs. buying simple products. Or, it's story and eperience as the differentiator over price. In the end, Huckberry is doing something useful for me: Help me discover interesting brands and products i wouldn't have otherwise found, tell me their interesting stories so i know why i should care, and do it in an interesting and entertaining way.  

     

  • Ozy Starts / What Can Modern Marketers Learn?

    I'm always excited when new publishing titles start, because it's a chance to see the vision and values and beliefs of the founding editors come to life in, almost, realtime.  And, over the last couple years, we've seen a couple really interesting examples.  XOJane, Quartz, or the Kernel, or even the ever-evolving Forbes.com are in different phases of their evolution, but their editorial "point of view" has been clear from the beginning. 

    Modern Marketers, as they continue to evolve from a "mass marketing" mindset to a "audience building" mindset,  can learn a lot from successful publishing brands who have built great audiences over time. And, in this case, new publishing brands who are trying to connect with an audience for the first time. The first couple statements from a new publishing venture – their first articles, their first "letter from the Editor", their manifesto - form the foundation of their brand. And, it's a great chance to see how well the editor/publishing team know just who they are as a brand and where they want to go. 

    Ozy Media is launching this week, and it will be interesting to see how their "voice"  evolves. Here's the vision, from Carlos Watson: 

    At OZY, our goal is to bring you news and information in a completely different way. Instead of just giving you the same 25 stories everyone else has, we’re going to give you what you really want – the new and the next. Every day, OZY will deliver stories on new people, places, trends, ideas and opinions. And when we say “new,” we’re not just talking about what’s trending now. We’re not focused on three hours or three days ahead; we want to tell you about things months before you hear it elsewhere. 

    We want to show you more of this bright, interesting, colorful world we share. And if we do that, then in the end you’ll not only see more, you’ll be more.

    And, here's what i think is their version of the manifesto: 

    We are the go-to daily news and culture site for the Change Generation, bringing you up to speed on what happened in the last 24 hours and vaulting you ahead by previewing new people, places, ideas and trends in bite-sized original articles that are intelligent, compelling and stylish. OZY is the place where you get a little smarter, a little sooner. Our mission is to help you see more, be more and do more

    That's pretty nice. But, it would be great for them to start all this with a more clearly articulated foundation: 

    • Beliefs – What they believe in, and how those beliefs will guide their editorial coverage
    • Values – The basic human values that will guide their decision, and motivate their actions
    • A clear Purpose – A single, clear statement that lays out why the platform exists.

    And, in this particular case, i think Ozy is onto something kind of important: the idea of the Change Generation. It would have been awesome for them to take a shot at articulating who the change generation is, why we should think as a "generation" vs. a cohort (and why that matters), and what the change generation really needs.

    At this point, i wonder if they were focused on getting the platform up and running, and getting the first articles out the door instead of fully, clearly, convincingly defining their vision, their point of view, their reason for being. With so many alternatives, a new platform needs to convince the audience they are different, they are worth paying attention to, and worth watching or reading.

    Modern Marketers are often in similiar situations, trying to convince people to pay attention and care about them. They're rushing to get their social media touchpoints established, their communities started. But, they often skip past the foundation that attracts an audience: Shared values, common beliefs, and a purpose that humans want to be part of. 

    At this point, Ozy is interesting because it's new, but i wonder if, over the long haul, they'll be valuable because they've got a voice that matters in the conversation. Brands should be considering the same challenges.  

  • Starting a Reading List for the Modern Marketer / Need input?

    Starting a reading list of stuff for a couple soon-to-be Modern Marketers who are joining my team. Add your suggestions in the comments or tweet them at me (@jcuene).  This will (hopefully) be updated soon)

    Books

    Presentations online: 

    Methods: 

    (updated 9/11/2013)

  • Content Designed for Sharing

    We’ve all been watching examples of great brand efforts that
    resulted in a lot of sharing and discussion of brand content.  That is, content that gets shared or passed
    around (like the first Man Your Man Could Smell Like or the Darth Vader VW
    spot) or talked about a lot (like Old Spice WolfDog efforts or the recent Dove
    work). We all get excited about the idea of this kind of content for the right
    reasons:

    • Friend to friend sharing is a much more efficient way for
      your content to get reach. You don’t have to pay for the media
    • Friend to friend sharing comes with an implied endorsement,
      so it’s more likely to be received well
    • Word of mouth drives interest in the brand
    • It’s generally done digitally, so you can often see the data
      trail
    • And, when it’s digital, it can live pretty much forever in
      the Google search results (for better or worse).
    • Ultimately, it just makes your paid media work harder

     A lot of the examples we see seem like viral magic, an
    alchemic reaction cooked up by a lucky wizard. But, increasingly, we’re seeing
    examples that are pre-planned and pre-programmed for sharing; creative efforts
    that were specifically designed and built for sharing, which is different than
    how we typically approach it. We generally plan a great TV idea, then seek
    something else – “surround”, social content, magic influencer dust – that gets
    our stuff shared.  In the worst cases, we
    try to engineer the sharing of a tv spot, something that is, by almost all
    definitions, content for a passive audience. It’s doomed to fail. Except for
    some edge cases, nobody cares enough about your tv ad to share it with their
    friends.

     So, how do you design creative and execution specifically for
    sharing? No one has the secret, but the two examples below characterize the best
    of what I’m seeing when brands try to generate a lot of sharing (vs. simple
    awareness) and discussion.

     Oreo
    – Wonderfilled

    You can almost hear the brief on this one. “the Daily Twist
    worked great; we’ve got 33 million fans. How do we get people – young people –
    talking about our product, preferably online?” Or, put more simply: Get as many
    people as possible creating content about our brand: sharing it, talking about,
    reacting to it, etc. From the very conception, this was an idea that was about
    social sharing and discussion as much as it was about the product and brand.

    First: What is it that they created? Is it an ad? A music
    video? A song? A commercial? Social Object? All of the above?

     Second: the idea was open ended and designed for a consumer
    response – “What would happen if *you* were given an oreo?” It almost
    demands the consumer think about it and perhaps respond.

     Third: The execution was truly talkable. Remarkable, even.

    • Owl City is either loved or loathed, depending on who you
      are. Hipsters in Brooklyn probably moaned, but the tweens and young adults
      cheered. They all did it on social media.
    • The song is, depending on your perspective, either awesome or
      sacharine. No middle ground. Lots of debate.
    • The idea of top of the pops singer writing a love song to a
      brand      ? Sellout! Savvy! Debatable.
    • Even the animation was discussable

     Fourth: The rollout was designed for sharing:

    • Stunt media buy: They launched it as a 90 during madmen, when
      all the ad nerds were watching, knowing it would generate discussion. Lots to
      discuss:

      • A 90! Who does those?
      • Visually, it was SO different from the show, it was
        noteworthy just by juxtaposition
      • They did a 90 so the ad skippers would  HAVE to see it and go back (“What was
        THAT?!?”)
    •  They rolled it out via their FB page (33 mm fans)
    • They had OwlCity tweet it to his fans (>1M) and Twitter
      followers (>1MM)
    • They supported it with lots of PR and events (again, to get
      the kids talking)

     In hindsight, it’s really, really clear that their goal was
    to do something remarkable, in a remarkable way so that people would talk
    about, giving extra reach to their efforts. TV was just the stimulus to get the
    talking started.

     

    REI-
    Sharing as part of a Collaborative project

     REI recently launched their 1440 project with the goal of
    capturing 24 hours of people doing what they loved in nature (1440 minutes).
    Pictures for every minute of the day. It’s one of my favorite projects I’ve
    seen. For REI, “sharing” was a way to generate both incremental reach (through
    the shared content) but also a way to create a marketing asset.  For every picture contributed, REI asked the
    contributor to share it to *their* networks. And, each image became part
    of the overall collection, available for all future visitors. Plus, this effort
    resulted in at least 1440 pieces of content that could get shared out to REI’s
    network over the course of the year, and presumably each of those 1440+ images
    were good enough that when published to REI’s feed, the fans/followers would
    then like/retweet or favorite the images out
    to their network.

     
    5-15-2013 3-57-32 PM
    But, to me, the best part of this project is that it comes
    right from their values – celebrate being out in nature – and their core
    purpose as a coop: A collective effort to help their members have their own
    kind of experience, to  inspire and  celebrate others who are doing the same. This
    whole project demonstrates their values perfectly.

     

  • The Well Deserved Fortune of Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin creator, Visionary and Genius

    The more i read about it, the more fascinating the whole Bitcoin thing is becomeing. How could a whole ecosystem grow up around a fake monetary system cooked up by guy in his bedroom? 

    TL;DR version: The creator, a mysterious guy named Satoshi, set it up so he got a super small amount from every bitcoin his algorythm created into the future. 

    "The graphs were made by a new block chain analysis technique I tested that consist on tracking the ExtraNonce fields in the coinbase field of the coinbase transaction, which is the one that creates bitcoins. As far as I know, is hasn’t been done before. In the following graphs each dot is the creation of 50 BTC. I have only analyzed and printed graphs from block 0 upto block 36288. I wonder what will I get when I process the remaining three years.
    The extraNonce fields increments every time the nonce fields (which is 32 bits) overflows, so it’s a slow realtime clock, until the application is restarted, in which case it goes back to 1. Note the X-Axis in the graphs is not time (as it’s said on the graph). It’s the block number (that’s a mistake)." 

  • Dealing With Native Ad Formats

    This issue – the rise of native ad formats – is one to watch.
    Love it or hate them, banner ads provide websites a common currency for
    advertisers.

     http://adage.com/article/digital/native-advertising-media-savior-custom-campaign/238010/

    This article focuses on content-driven experiences on websites,
    supporting what they call “Content Marketing” (geez, I hate that term! ) as
    advertisers seek deeper engagement beyond the box of ad units and publishers
    seek better ways to monetize (Most can’t sell more than 40% of their available
    display units, anyway) at a higher rate.

    What this article DOES NOT discuss is an issue that I think
    is even more important: What the mobile/app centric publishing model will
    unleash. With the exceptionally fast uptake of a mobile-dominant experience,
    there will be a proliferation of “native” ad formats that are app/platform/media-title
    specific. Examples: Promoted tweets in twitter, sponsored stories in FB. Tumblr
    has them, Flipboard’s ad formats are unique. Foursquare will have them. iAd is
    unique, for the most part.

    Key implications:

    • Media buying in the digital space may get even more
      complicated
    • Long term, we may see a rise in eCPM’s
    • Cross-publisher comparisons will be more difficult, due to
      the differences in the ad formats
    • Measuring “engagement” will get easier
    • Measuring the sales impact – always a challenge – will not
      get even more difficult

    What's a brand to do in the short term? Monitor closely and do small tests and learn on your own. 

  • Brand Ecosystems

    TLDR version: Brands can create strategic differentiation by delivering a fully realized consumer experience across an entire ecosystem. By moving beyond simplistic persuasion messages, mass marketed brands can now offer a richer, more relevant value proposition for consumers. 

    Doing a quick scan of how others are talking about brand ecosystems. It's a pretty suggestive term, but still nebulous enough that there's plenty of room for interpretation. I know we've been using the phrase here for years (but it's never gotten an especially warm embrace), but it seems like it's gaining steam more broadly. 

    Jennifer Rice talked about way back in 2004 and i know others were using the term way before that. Forrester's been talking about it for years too, most notably Nate Elliot's recent work on ecosystems and how to balance presence across paid/earned/owned touchpoints. Here's a useful, publicly available deck that lays it out visually. The official Forrester stuff is worth buying, by the way, if you're just getting your head around the subject. 

    Brandmdna  take a different approach, looking at the various elements that make up a brand itself, suggesting the facets – Brand DNA, goals, purpose, vision, visual identity – form an ecosytem of sorts. I don't think this is the best use of the metaphor though, and i think it misses the importance of the connections the brand has elsewhere and to other contributors.  

    I think Dan Pankraz was onto this theme years ago, suggesting the best brands need to embrace their role in a broadly connected community. Extended quote: 

    it’s an organic model,  where the role of the brand is to listen to the conversations happening around it, energise those conversations with interesting content and experiences. It’s all about giving the ‘brand community’  something to talk about within their own personal social networks and ‘influencers’ in youth culture are then able to add velocity to your idea penetration …eg: make sure it hits the mainstream as quickly as possible. It’s a virtuous circle that keeps re-inventing itself, so brands need to be listening to whats happening in culture so they can quickly react and create conversation around topics, new experiences. If you stop contributing, you’re dead. 

    He's got a unique visualization that's worth checking out, too. 
    image from danpankraz.files.wordpress.com

    (via http://danpankraz.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/brand-ecosystems-and-participative-branding-the-future-of-communicaiton-models/)

    BRR does a direct comparison to a true ecosystem, visually laying out the brand analogues to the biological counterparts. Their focus is on nurturing and adapting the brand overtime in a sustained way. 

    The brand ecosystem is not just an integrated network; it is a living system that functions by the interaction of each of the system's elements. When you think of the external factors of the brand ecosystem, like climate to a biological system, your competitors, markets and the economy can play an unexpected role in your company and brand. So its about quickly adapting and realigning every aspect of your system – not just about changing your logo or updating your website.

    Here's their visualization: 

    image from www.brrltd.com
    The seemingly unstoppable David Armano has a useful visual that articulates increasingly complex connections a brand has to have to thrive. The write up is really useful too, arguing businesses are social, brands must be social, and the focus has to be long term and essentially generous for brands to thrive. 
    image from darmano.typepad.com

    @Quarkstone's write up of the engagement ecosystem is definitely worth reading, too. He's squarely in the "networked world" view, and his approach blends a descriptive overview of what the components of the ecosystem are with a strategic role the element plays in helping the brand meet its business objectives. 

    Most recently, Cindy Chastain presented her talk about brand ecosystems at the 2012 MiMA Summit. While her primary focus was on the way work will change for experience designers as a result of the many touchpoints, her overview of ecosystems themselves as a business model strategy drive was really helpful. Most importantly, she articulated a critical shift in our thinking about messaging and the creative experiences that drive it. The ecosystem approach enables brands/businesses to focus primarily on a multi-faceted value proposition vs. a simple persuasion message. For mass-marketed brands (e.g. breakfast cereal, clothing, snack items, beverages, etc.) this is a huge deal. The competitive field for high-turn, consumables is no longer constrained to the product itself or the effectiveness of their mass advertising. Brands can now seek ways to differentiate and win over a full consumer experience – inclusive of inspiration, persuasion, service, support, promotion, and expression. Example A: Redbull.  

  • Blown up Articles? the Future of News Publishing?

    A couple really good articles on the future of news publishing in a digital age to remind us of the power of our mental models.

    Key point: we have to shake the mindset from print, when you only had one shot to publish something.

    This article from Mathew Ingram sparked some challenging thoughts about how to reframe what it is we do. His message: the "article" as the atomic unit of the news is the wrong unit. 

    The always thoughtful Jeff Jarvis is pushing my thinking hard via posts like this one, where he breaks down the "article" into it's component parts. It's part of his effort to rethink and, um, reimagine, what news will look like when we don't have to jam it into its old containers (like articles).