Hee-Haw Marketing

Internet Equations

Cool Pop Song + Nice Childhood Memories + Clever Remixology = Propagatory Success

(Phoenix - Brat Pack Mashup - via MBV)

On boredom

Maybe it's the recent extremes in workload, but it's tough not to appreciate Jonah Lehrer's case for reveling in boredom.

"And yet, as Brodsky points out, boredom can be a crucial mental tool. In recent years, scientists have begun to identify a neural circuit called the default network, which is turned on when we're not preoccupied with something in our external environment. (That's another way of saying we're bored. Perhaps we're staring out a train window, or driving our car along a familiar route, or reading a tedious text.) At first glance, these boring moments might seem like a great time for the brain to go quiet, to reduce metabolic activity and save some glucose for later. But that isn't what happens. The bored brain is actually incredibly active, as it generates daydreams and engages in mental time travel."

"While there's some tantalizing evidence linking daydreaming, the default network and creativity, I think the most tangible benefit of boredom is probably social. Mostly, what we daydream about is each other, as the mind retrieves memories, contemplates "what if" scenarios, and thinks about how it should behave in the future. In this sense, the content of daydreams often resembles a soap opera, with people reflecting on social interactions both real and make-believe. We can leave behind the world as it is and start imagining the world as it might be, if only we hadn't lost our temper, or had superpowers, or had used a different pick-up line. It is this ability to tune out the present moment and contemplate the make-believe that separates the human mind from every other."

That last sentence seems particularly comforting. So get your bored on, folks...

Social Media Myopia

Social media strategies are bullshit. It’s a thought crystallized by the swarm of social media experts and aficionados descending on Austin for SXSW. To be honest, I’m not even sure why it had that effect exactly. Maybe it was the 80% iPhone penetration or what the Romans called the “twitterati ubiquita.” I do think it’s largely a product of what those tools do, not just what they are, but it’s hard not to scratch your head when you say tweetdeck and there are no scrunched faces. Particularly when something like AOL community gets 4 times the traffic. The jury is clearly still out on whether twitter is an essential personal tool or the second-coming of second life.

But here’s the thing, social media is something that you are, not something you do. And when you talk about it like it’s another channel, it becomes an add-on to an existing infrastructure, not the transformational cultural shift that it should require.

Don't get me wrong, there are great social media broadcasters out there. They have tons of friends, fans or followers. But their issue is that they're not really taking full advantage of their sphere because people are coming together around a brand asset already held. And frankly, that doesn’t require all that much strategy. Coke might have a good fan group on Facebook, but that doesn't really come from anything other than a shit load of existing brand reputation. Or more simply, it's easy to get a brand talked about when everyone likes talking about them anyway. If I were the social media agency for pot, I could just start a facebook group and get 250,000 fans pretty easily and look like a hero.

But that’s really the point I think, the brands that are positioned well for facebook or twitter or myspace or whatever we’re talking about tomorrow, are so because of who they are, not what they do in any one channel. For companies to thrive, what we should be talking about is something much more fundamental, much more cultural and important than you might be able to talk about if they’ve slotted you or your company as “those guys getting us facebook hits or views on youtube.” If that’s all it’s about, you won’t be left with much when those platforms are gone. And considering that Google, a company just moving out of the dorm room 10 years ago, would be the closest thing to the quaker oats of internet brands, I’d consider the transient nature of the web to be a high-level concern for all of us.

Which is partly why I’m so taken by transmedia planning, and why I don’t consider it just a new branding technique, but the central consideration for the ad industry to not just survive year after year, but thrive through a media landscape that will look much different in 5 years. Is what we’re doing building communities, not through a series of platform tactics, but the exploration of who we are and what makes us important to them?

Do we matter?

(by the way - read Mike's take on the use of Social Media. Or how it's been used. Well worth it.)

UPDATE: These new numbers from Nielsen indicate twitter is up to 7mm uniques, twice the size of aol community, and they were roughly equal just in December, so I stand corrected on that point.

Couple things

First - the COnsume More font from SMeltery. Probably useful for one of our advertis-y presentations, yes?

Download for free here.

I'd also like to point out that since my Monday morning posting of the dulcet reggae tones of Mr. Marley and his three birds, stocks rallied. That's right, Bob Marley caused Citibank to be more stable than we had once perceived and AT&T to go on a hiring spree. No shit.

So, we flat-lined a bit today. How about another rally tomorrow?

 A Second Song for Our Socks

I encourage each of you to send the investors a little love, too. They're not all bad. Just a little down on their luck, that's all. Let's cheer 'em on up.

For the Investors on a Monday Morning

About time we had a good day, no? So press play and let's have some fun today. Thanks.

A Song For our Stocks

All around the internets volume 17.

A Passionate Rant about Social Media
"I blame the executives who ask their teams to do whatever they read was cool in this Sunday's NYTimes Magazine, or heard was cool this morning on MSNBC, or was told was cool at the last TED conference without bothering to ask if it's the right thing for the long-term success of their company."

Ken had a rough night

Air Bed and Breakfast
"AirBed & Breakfast is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling. "We enable people to earn money by renting out extra space, and offer travelers a viable alternative to hotels."

50 Twitter Tools for Designers & Developers

Deconstructing Analysis Techniques

"In many respects, analysis is crucial to realizing the value of our research since good analysis can salvage something from bad research, but the converse is not so true. This is where the literature tends to fall a little silent, jumping over the analysis techniques straight to a discussion of how best to document and communicate the findings from analysis. This article seeks to begin to redress that imbalance by breaking down the analysis black box into its major sub-techniques."

Ethnography is not an in-home interview

"At it's best, ethnography supplies the biggest picture. The trick is how to do those interviews in home but still generalize to the larger cutural, competitive and strategic factors that make it make sense. From a parochial point of view, I like to think of this as putting the anthropology back in the ethnography. But if I too am obliged to take the larger view, it's also a matter of putting the IDEO, the Lafley, and the McKinsey back in ethnography."

I Dream of Denver

"These are places (except for Orlando) where spectacular natural scenery is visible from medium-density residential neighborhoods, where the boundary between suburb and city is hard to detect. These are places with loose social structures and relative social equality, without the Ivy League status system of the Northeast or the star structure of L.A. These places are car-dependent and spread out, but they also have strong cultural identities and pedestrian meeting places. They offer at least the promise of friendlier neighborhoods, slower lifestyles and service-sector employment. They are neither traditional urban centers nor atomized suburban sprawl. They are not, except for Seattle, especially ideological, blue or red."

Good vs. Evil: Good wins

With a hat tip to Tom, the case is now settled. Good wins.

The most good country? Uganda.

And the most evil? Mexico.

Thanks for settling the debate, Google.