Monthly Archive for February, 2008

TED Tuesday - Jan Chipchase

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 26, 2008
in Communication
. 0 Comments

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TED Thursday is now TED Tuesday! I know, I know it’s exciting, but why the change? Well for one thing it sounds better, it really does. But also because it’s earlier in the week. A lot of times we’ll catch something that makes you think, but if it’s close to the weekend it gets filed away and some of the impact is lost.

So while the neurons are still firing, enjoy this great talk about mobile phones from Jan Chipchase a researcher at Nokia (and if you like Nokia check out their unbelievable Morph Concept)

If viewing in a reader, hit the link for video. It’s worth it.

Jan brings up a lot of great points in this talk. The last 5 minutes are especially insightful. Everyone can benefit from the lessons he’s learned in his years studying people and the way they interact with their environment.

5:15 - …the point of reflection, it’s that moment when you’re walking out of a space, and you turn around and quite often you tap your pockets..”
I’m sure all of us do this, I certainly do. In almost a ritualistic way I tap my right pocket, left pocket, back pocket (keys, phone, wallet) every time on my way out the door. It’s such a simple act, but it’s funny to think of it as almost a universal human trait.

6:05 - “The absolute 100% guaranteed way to never forget anything ever…is to have nothing to remember.”
A great quote.

11:18 - “…and it’s all about the social network, and the knowledge floating around.”
Common knowledge is important, but the application, as with the people that actually fix the mobile phones, is what makes the difference. Great knowledge without application is not great.

14:30 - “And actually the benchmark for a big idea is changing. If you want a big idea, you have to embrace everyone on the planet.”
If you’re going to innovate, to be future ready, you have to go outside your comfort zone. No longer are ideas only locally relevant.

Twitter Is The New Zen

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 22, 2008
in Communication and Marketers
. 0 Comments

What are you doing?

By now many of you have heard of Twitter, the micro-blogging/status network that’s popular with a lot of marketers right now.

Regardless of how you feel about Twitter or it’s use, you can’t deny it’s Zen quality.

When you’re using Twitter and in the “Twitterstream” you’re in. When you’re out, you’re out. There’s no searching the archives, no paging back for hours reading the comments of everyone you’re following. You have to accept the fact that the information thats happening now is the most important information there is. As they say, “The past is past, The future is yet to be”.

At first it may seem unsettling because there’s a tendency to feel like you’re missing something, like you’re out of the loop. But soon you begin to realize that everyone’s out of the loop.

Unless, of course, they’re in the loop.

Happy Twittering (and follow me if you’d like)

These Are Exciting Times

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 18, 2008
in ANM
. 3 Comments

Just a quick update on all the action-packed goodness going on with me latley.

You’re on Facebook — Now What? - Facebook is all the rage these days, and Jason Alba and Jesse Stay have put together a great guide. You’ll find everything you need from getting started to some pretty advanced stuff about FB Apps. Check it out(and keep an eye out for my quote on Chapter 2!, you won’t be disappointed.

Blogger Social ‘08 - I’m extremely pumped about this one. I’m now offically attending Blogger Social ‘08 going on April 4-6 in NYC. This is going to be a great opportunity to interact with a lot of the heavy hitters in the marketing blogging space. Check out the attendee list here, pretty fancy eh?

Join The Conversation - I’m part of the UNM2PNM (Use New Marketing To Promote New Marketing) project for Joseph Jaffe’s new book. I wanted to do something different so I’ll be doing my review in a slightly different fashion. Look for a series of interviews with some leading thinkers on new marketing as I review Join the Conversation with conversations. Brilliant!

Connections - Last but not least, I’d like to invite all of you to connect with me across the various interwebs that I use on a daily basis. Check me out on Twitter, LinkedIn andStumbleUpon.

And as always, thanks for reading ANM.

How To Not Get Hit In The Face

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 11, 2008
in Communication and New Marketing
. 3 Comments

When I was in college, a friend and I were have a catch with a large orange (don’t ask) in our house. After a couple of rounds of back-and-forth, my friend got tired of throwing to just me. He yelled out a quick “hey, catch!” to a girl standing near by and then launched the orange in her direction.

She wasn’t paying attention.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen someone get hit in the face with a two-seam citrus fastball, but it’s not pretty. Needless to say, my friend was embarrassed, the girl was hurt, and I was pretty surprised at the whole thing.

Now take this story and swap out the orange for your marketing message.

You might be throwing you’re message out there pretty hard, so you can be sure it gets where you want, but people have to be ready for it. When I search for multivitamins I’m ready for ads for multivitamins. When I go to the movies, I’m ready for for previews of upcoming movies. Knowing what’s coming makes a big difference.

Matching the right product to the right audience is key, but you also have to consider how open they are to the message.

It’s worth the extra time it takes to make sure it’s right. A bad marketing message hurts a lot more than a speeding orange.

Yeah, But Why?

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 8, 2008
in Bad Marketing, Marketers and New Marketing
. 0 Comments

“Tracy, will adding that chicken salad make us THE low-fare airline from Houston to Las Vegas? Because if it doesn’t help us become the unchallenged low-fare airline, we’re not serving any chicken salad.” Herb Kelleher, CEO Southwest Airlines in Made to Stick

The above may be one of the top 10 greatest marketing statements of all time. I honestly believe that, chicken salad and all.

The message is what’s really important. We often get so caught up with what we want to do, or what we’re already doing that we never stop to just ask why?

Sure its cool to have a Superbowl commercial running, but why? Budwieser, Underarmour, GMC, I understand. But didn’t anyone at Careerbuilder or Salesgenie stop and think “Wait, are we sure this is the best use of 50+ % of our marketing budget?”

I guess not.

My first rule of marketing: Know Thyself.

TED Thursday - Malcom Gladwell

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 7, 2008
in Communication
. 2 Comments

Welcome to a new series: TED Thursdays. Every Thursdays I’ll be presenting a video of a speech given at the TED conference. Each speaker/video is unique but they all provide incredible value.

On a side note, I’m doing everything I can to get to TED 2009, but $6,000 is a little out of my range. Anybody want to sponsor my endeavor, either fully or partially? I’m sure we can work something out.

Either way, enjoy the clip.

Malcom Galdwell is an absolute champ. I don’t know how many other people can pack as much meaning into a speech about spaghetti sauce. My favorite moments are as follows.

4:11 - “They were looking for the perfect Pepsi, and they should have been looking for the perfect Pepsis.”
This is a home run. So often we spend so much time thinking about what one thing will be the perfect solution for everyone, we forget that there might be a million perfect solutions for a million different people.

10:28 - “People don’t know what they want…and a critical step..is to realize that we cannot always explain what we want.”
Asking people want they want is not enough. In this case, actions really do speak louder than words. Let them show you instead of telling you.

Don’t Be Tone Deaf

Published
by
Matt
on Feb 1, 2008
in Communication and Marketers
. 0 Comments

“First of all, I think y’better watch your tone son. I’m Leonard Washington.” Dave Chapelle as Leonard Washington

Now did Dave Chapelle intend to give us a marketing lesson with that line? My guess is no, but they’re wise words none-the-less.

If you want people to share your message, to pass it along, then you need to make sure it’s in the right format.

Take the latest car insurance commercial from Nationwide, which proclaims “Switch to Nationwide and you could save like 500 bucks.” Grammatically incorrect? Sure is. Little big of slang? You bet. Sound like something almost anyone you know would say? Exactly!

It’s much easier to hear yourself saying “Hey, Brain. Did you know with Nationwide and save like 500 bucks on your car insurance? than “Were you aware than the average savings for customers switching to Nationwide for their auto insurance was 489 dollars?”

I’m not saying we should eschew all grammar and sentence structure in the name of “speakability”, but if you want people to run with your message, you better make sure it’s something they can carry.