Wednesday, April 15, 2009

The Personality Project: Women of Personality

There are generally three kinds of ideas. The most popular two are the ones that you act on right away and those that you never do anything about. Those are the majority. Most of us love the third kind. Those are the ideas that are too big or complex or important to do quickly, but that you simply cannot let die because of how you feel about them. Today I finally launched that kind of idea. Since Personality Not Included came out about a year ago - I have been getting emails from people sharing their experience with the book and how they felt about it's main premise that businesses (like people) need to have a strong and authentic personality.

Soon after the book launched, I noticed that many of these emails were coming from women working in professional roles and those that had started their own businesses. These female entrepreneurs were responding to the message of personality in a way that I didn't expect. So since that moment I started thinking about bringing those voices together. Of course, part of the reason would be to promote my book ... but like most authors the important thing for me was for my idea to find a home and actually help people change their careers or make their business more successful.

So today, you can download a free ebook called "The Personality Project: Women of Personality." It is an extension of a site that I launched some time ago with a similar mission - to get visionary people in many industries to talk about why personality matters. This ebook features 20 business women that I respect and admire who each agreed to share their story as part of the ebook. These include founders and CEOs, best selling authors, popular bloggers and online personalities and even the first woman to ever row solo across the Atlantic Ocean (and she's now making her way across the Pacific).

See the ebook embedded below and click on it to download a free PDF copy:


Once you get a chance to read it, please visit each of the contributors sites and blogs, buy their books and support their efforts. The best thing you can do is to validate their ideas and use their examples to improve your own business and your career. And then let them know they made a difference.

PS - If you mention this ebook on your blog or twitter or facebook or anywhere else online, use the tag #wop (on Twitter) or "WOP" (anywhere else) as this is the one that all the contributors will be watching and responding to.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Trendspot: A Potential Influx of Expats

Regardless of how you feel about the way that the US presidential election turned out, there is one fact that seems fairly indisputable ... the world outside of America overwhelmingly supported Obama over McCain. One site in particular that crystallized this truth is called www.iftheworldcouldvote.com. The site invites people outside of the US to share their choice for president and nearly 1 million people from 213 countries shared their votes with the results about 87% in favor of Obama. Add this to the dozens of groups (many with thousands of members each) on Facebook all supporting Obama and you could point to a definitive pattern of support from outside the US for Obama.

So now that he has won the election, what is this likely to mean? Hopes were high even before the results of the election about the potential impact on America's reputation that Obama's election could have. Some media outlets are already reporting about widespread optimism and goodwill towards America that has not been seen since the days directly after 911.  In my own network of friends and colleagues living outside the US, there is one interesting development in particular that I think may shape this country in the next few months and years to come. Many people with ties to the US (or longstanding dreams of living here) who are currently living abroad are now actively considering moving back.

Of course, the economic climate means that they're not yet moving back in big hoardes, but as I speak to more and more of my international friends ... the common theme on many of their minds is that they are now seriously thinking of returning - and it is directly related to the results of the election. Is this big enough to warrant a trend or just a few early thoughts from a small circle of people? I get the sense it may turn into a trend, but I'm willing to admit that my network may not represent the situation in the real world. What do you think - is America more appealing today to those who left, and will they start to come back?

Monday, February 11, 2008

Trendspot: Peripheral Marketing

Marketers love big events. Whether it's a big game like the Super Bowl, or a holiday specifically fabricated for marketing reasons, like Valentine's Day, these themes offer a marketing opportunity hard to resist.  Usually, this means that most events are very crowded when it comes to marketing messages.  As a result, it's tough to stand out.  When you are having a sale on the same day as everyone else, you are forced to compete on the same terms as them.  There is a technique that I have seen being used a few times over the past few weeks that offers an interesting alternative by focusing on being "peripheral" to the big event that every other marketer is focused on.

Imb_hbo_breakfastinbed2_2 My colleagues at Ogilvy just launched a campaign that fits this category for a new Honey Bunches of Oats cereal with chocolate pieces.  It features a fake band called "Dawn's Early Knights" singing a boy-band pop song called "I Made You Breakfast In Bed."  Here's the video:

Instead of focusing on Valentine's Day itself, the campaign is all about the morning after Valentines, on February 15th.  It is extended online by a Facebook group, a Flickr gallery and a campaign website.  This is also a technique that got several brands significant buzz around the Super Bowl without forcing them to pay the hefty price tag to run a spot during the game.  My favourite example is the "Miller High Life Delivery Guy Rant" which already has more than 50,000 views and has been getting great buzz for how the beer brand positioned itself outside the game and yet still made an impact:

Reebok's effort with it's "Perfectville" spot, filmed with two potential endings, has also generated great buzz outside of the Superbowl:

So, in 2008 with the arrival of social media and lots of other ways to reach consumers, is peripheral marketing going to be here to stay?  From what we've seen so far, it will be a technique to watch and one that smarter marketers continue to use to stand out.   

PS - In case you were wondering, here's the alternate ending for the Reebok spot that would have run if the Patriots had won the Super Bowl.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

A Recap of Ideas from Nielsen's CGM Summit 2007

Imb_nielsencgmsummit I spent the day today at the Nielsen CGM Summit in NY listening to some panels and presentations from Nielsen and many of their clients about the future of measuring CGM.  One thing I was looking forward to about this event in particular is that the percentage of brands vs. agencies in attendance would be much more favored toward brands.  It is sadly ironic when you think about all the events that agency folks attend to basically talk to themselves, while their clients are all interested in (and spending time attending) events on measurement (which few creative folks from agencies would be able to stay awake through).  I must admit, I had a bit of a hard time staying awake myself today ... but to be fair, that was probably due to my redeye from the west coast to NY last night. 

In any case, I managed to stay awake throughout the day long enough to take some notes on some key takeaways from the summit which you will find below.  I also had the chance to meet several folks in person that I have been reading or known from afar, including Peter Kim, Henry Copeland, and Emanuel Rosen (author of The Anatomy of Buzz).  Though some of the "wonder of Nielsen" presentations that I expected throughout the day ran a bit long (not yours, Pete!) - overall the day was a great deep dive into all the ways we can and should be measuring.  As one speaker shared earlier in the day, "media is not an island" and is interconnected as consumers watch and interact with messages across mediums. Marketers may be specialists in one particular channel (TV, Online, Mobile, WOM, etc.) ... but consumers are most definitely becoming experts in all of them and use them concurrently. 

Anyway, here are some key notes and insights I took away from the event:

  1. Influencers are emailers.  There was an interesting data point in one of the presentations that said that 55% of people who were considered "speakers" (those who share opinions vocally) have emailed directly to a company about a product that they liked.  This was a big insight throughout the day, as it indicated that brands seeking their influencers may simply need to listen more closely to the feedback they are already getting.
  2. CGM generates powerful insights, not just influential voices to "target" - In response to a question from Max, I shared this point of view during the recap of the day and it was something that came up repeatedly throughout the morning.  Listening to CGM can drive strategy if you find the gaps which you can use CGM and social media to solve.  One example I shared was using CGM to find the conversation about Julian Beever (a sidewalk chalk artist) before we started our Fountain of Youth program for Aveeno.  We learned that there was lots of discussion online where people wanted to see more of his images and know how he does it.  So we created a Flickr gallery of all his images and a video of him drawing to rave reviews online.
  3. Buzzphrase #1: Consumer Fortified Media - This was a new concept that Pete introduced in his presentation about how brands are putting their commercial messages online (like Dove Evolution), and consumers are talking about them and adding credibility to these messages, thus making them fortified.  Of course, there is a handy acronym for this as well: CFM.  (I suppose it could be CFM2 when those commercial messages are for products already "fortified" ... um, like Fruit Loops).
  4. A new reason 2008 Superbowl ads will be better than the game - The guy from Fox Interactive shared that next year Fox has a deal with the NFL to create an official site where the 30 second spots will be accompanied by "long form video."  The smart marketers will take the chance to create "making of" secondary ads around their $3 million Superbowl spots.  Not sure how CGM plays a part here (unless lots of brands do the "you can create our Superbowl ad" thing again), but I still thought this idea of extending the most watching ads in the world with long form content behind them is a great concept.  Maybe worth an idea bar post at some point ...
  5. "Getting out of the way" is a strategy - During the panel where media brands shared what they believe will happen in 2010, the guy from CBS talked about the things that they are doing and noted a significant moment where a random user placed a clip from Letterman where he interviewed Paris Hilton on YouTube and the clip got millions of views.  His point ... we didn't go after him, which signifies a great case study.  I loved the irony that getting out of the way is now considered a strategy.  Actually, sometimes it's the best one. 
  6. Buzzphrase #2: Consumer Emulation - In this second concept from Pete's presentation early in the day, he talked about how we are in the midst of a wave of "consumer emulation."  Citing examples like the JetBlue and Mattel CEOs addressing the public as if they were doing consumer produced Youtube videos, or politicians and celebs who have Facebook or MySpace pages  - the point he made is that the pros are sometimes emulating the amateurs.  And of course, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't ...
  7. It's not about volume anymore - The great conflict with how brands used to purchase media to buy influence online versus how they do now is that tricky measure of CPMs.  When you are buying in blocks of thousands of impressions, it is impossible to say you are not buying volume.  Yet as many marketers noted today, less is really becoming more.  One thought I shared is that sponsorships of blogs and social media sites that are persistent can offer a much higher value, but not measured in terms of page views, but rather in terms of brand perception.
  8. The silo-fication of marketing remains a barrier - Many of the brands that participated in the day were large ones, and all seemed to struggle with similar issues when it comes to ownership.  This was not about the typical debate on whether blogs belong in corporate comm, or product development, or marketing, etc.  The silos on a macro level are those between marketing/communications, customer service, product testing, and other large divisions.  In many large organizations, these groups are in geographically disparate locations.  CGM may be a brilliant place to gather insight, but if the marketing team who gets the blog monitoring reports isn't sharing them with product development, or the customer service team who is speaking with a blogger doesn't share that information with marketing ... the power of CGM is never realized.

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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Influential Marketing Blog Featured in Wall Street Journal

Imb_wsj_logo

Many of you may have already caught this yesterday, but this blog was cited in the Recommended Reading  section of the Wall Street Journal yesterday in an article by Keith Huang.  As Jay Berkowitz from Ten Golden Rules shares on his team blog, my blog was one of 60 resources that they recommended to the journalist as part of their reading list and was selected from that list as a recommended resource for companies looking to "optimize their online presence."  Here's the writeup:

Influential Marketing Blog, rohitbhargava.typepad.com
Rohit Bhargava's blog is intellectual and educational. In a recent post, he discusses the art of stamp collection and how, even today, many smaller countries use stamps as a key marketing tool. He writes, 'Next time you pass a post office in any country, pay attention to how they are using their philately to promote the country, cater to tourists, or commemorate moments of significance.'

It is a great media hit and to be selected from a list of what I am guessing were 60 stellar resources is flattering.  I'm in awe at being included among the other bloggers and authors mentioned in the article - including Seth Godin, Steve Rubel, Matt Cutts, John Battelle, Chris Anderson, Joseph Jaffe, and Danny Sullivan. Thanks to Jay for including me in this great list, and to Keith for selecting to include my blog!

Friday, May 25, 2007

Rohit Bhargava: Social Media Today Podcast Just Launched!

Social_media_today__podcast_2 Last week I was invited to do a podcast interview as part of the Social Media Today Weekly Podcast series being put together by Maggie Fox.  I am part of a group called the Social Media Collective which is a group of bloggers that write often about social media and it's impact on business and marketing.  Our content is republished on the Social Media Today site and it is a wonderful collection of writers and thinkers in the social media space.  During my brief conversation with Maggie, we had a good dialogue about the future of blogging, social media marketing, effective techniques and a few thoughts about social media optimization.  You can check out the podcast on the original site or on Maggie's Blog, or you can download it direcly from here

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Trendspot: Using Social Media to Tell the Inside Story of a Book

I2m_turnhere_simonschuster__2 Getting the "inside story" is an appealing thing.  Whether you are talking about business, or entertainment, or even gossip about people's daily lives, knowing the inside story means you are part of an elite club.  Inside stories are engaging, and they pass quickly from person to person (often, regardless of whether they are meant to be secrets or not).  In the publishing and entertainment world, giving people the inside story has become a big marketing trend.  "Making of" documentaries are produced for films and events.  DVD releases of films include "behind the scenes footage.  Some films (eg - King Kong) or books (eg - The Long Tail) even publish ongoing blogs throughout the creative development process.  Simon and Schuster is taking another step towards helping authors connect with readers with the recent announcement last week that they will be partnering with Turn Here to create a series of author videos to help promote books.  As Sue Fleming from Simon & Schuster explains in a ClickZ article:

"Publishing in particular has been thought of as a very old media industry, and we have a tendency to only think one-dimensionally. I think all of us who are working in [online media] have a challenge to think multi-dimensionally," said Fleming. "Books have always been promoted on television, and through a visual experience. You see an ad, or hear an ad, or you see an interview on the news... Video for us seems a logical extension."

Meeting the challenge of standing out in a sea of content competition, this type of new thinking about marketing is more and more likely to become a core part of publisher's efforts to sell books.  I wrote some time ago about 5 case studies for what I felt were very smart examples of book marketing with new thinking.  Blogs from book authors around their books are increasingly common.  Authors can "claim" their book on Amazon and respond directly to feedback in the world's largest book marketplace.  Podcasts, video interviews posted online, and even commenting on blogs are all viable ways of connecting directly with readers.  The future of book marketing is not solely about more book tours, speaking engagements and signing sessions in book stores.  It is marketing the inside stories that can make a book more than it's pages, and now more than ever authors are in a position to share them.  Social media may be changing the media landscape by giving everyone a platform to be a content creator, but it's also shifting the way that publishers market the oldest form of published content they have ... printed books.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Are You Marketing Your Product Backstory?

I2m_dole_farmcodebanana_3 Several weeks ago, I noted an interesting story about how Dole is offering "farm codes" printed onto stickers that are placed on organic bananas offering consumers the chance to get to know more about the farm that grew the banana by visiting www.doleorganic.com.  On Dole Organic, you can see such information as a description of the banana plantation, photos of workers, and Google Earth images.  Despite the site's average design and limited functionality (no ability for users to interact with the content or add their voice) - the effort represents a great example of new thinking that product marketers are using to capitalize on the global trend towards ethical consumerism.  As more and more attention is being paid to the manufacturing or acquisition process for products, as well as the carbon footprint behind these processes, offering insight into the backstory for how your product is made is becoming more and more necessary.  Certification programs like Dole's Farm Code effort, or the international movement to create a certification for conflict-free diamonds are just two examples.  Soon, the "Made in Tiawan" stickers so often seen and ridiculed through the 80s and 90s may be replaced by reports on the factory, images from the floors, and interviews with the workers.  Social responsibility and ethical consumerism is not just about buying green products, but also understanding the process that they are created with and choosing based on this information.

I2m_lost_smallimage Yet product backstories have more potential than just offering environmental or societal impact assessments for products.  Backstories are a cultural trend.  More and more films are taking a different approach to the traditional beginning to end timetable for telling a story.  Lost is perhaps the best example of the rise of the backstory, as the hit television show has used the engaging format of weaving a backstory of one of the show's characters into each episode to allow viewers to learn more about each character.  The backstories fill in the details and deepen the emotional connection of a viewer, or a consumer.  You might say it's a stretch to say we will care more about our bananas after having seen images from the farm ... but on some level, it has an impact.  Having worked with BuzzAgent (a word of mouth marketing company) on a number of campaigns, I know that when it comes to WOM, the backstory is particularly important.  Knowing more about a product or company's origins make you more likely to tell others about it.  In many cases, the backstory becomes the marketing story.  Most marketing today focuses on product attributes and uses or creating a need for consumers to purchase.  What if more of our efforts focused on a product's backstory?  At least one marketer is betting that's the way to sell a whole lot more bananas.

Update (06/06/07): Dole also has a blog about this effort at http://doleorganic.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

A Recap of the PSFK Conference

I2m_psfkconference_2 Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the first conference event put together by Piers and the team at PSFK focused on trends and ideas.  The agenda was very compelling going into it, and I did leave with many interesting insights and new ideas about marketing and communications.  Though I unfortunately had to duck out early due to client commitments, here are a few key observations I made in my notes:

  1. Getting the "doers" to come and speak. At many industry events, there are lots of great (or average) speakers that are trained to position companies.  The tone at the PSFK was definitely more real, with Piers choosing to feature many "doers" rather than speakers.  The result at times was the necessity to really focus on the essence of what someone was saying rather than being caught up in the speaking, because the presentations could be halting or awkward.  In the end, I think that added to the appeal of the event.
  2. Blogs fill a void in vertical media. This is something I had experienced, but not thought about ... how blogs are augmenting vertical trade publications in just about every industry to offer another channel for learning and information.  Elizabeth Spiers started the day with a somewhat sales-pitchey presentation about her collection of sites for Dead Horse Media, but did share the interesting observation that the secret of success behind Dealbreaker.com was that it allowed lots of 29 year old financial services workers to read something entertaining while "allaying their guilt because it is peripherally related to their jobs."  Seems like a lesson lots of other blogs have learned as well.
  3. Most toaster designs suck. This is something I would never have thought of before Allan Chochinov's presentation from Core77.  He shared lots of imagery, talked about the design asthetic and illustrated how his sites was truly focused on design ideas.  Bucking the trend for many popular blogs, Core 77 does not necessarily post what they like, but rather what sparks the most ideas.  His tour of Flickr, Worth1000 and other sites were worth checking out - as is Core77 and coroflot.  If you have anything to do with design in your job, or are passionate about it, this collection of sites are must-reads.
  4. Gaming was the first social revolution (maybe even leading to UGC?). This sentiment was echoed both through the presentation from David Rosenburg from JWT and Kevin Slavin from area/code.  Until about 2004, video games were played alone against the computer.  Slavin pointed to this as what people 20 years from now might call the dark ages of gaming.  Now it's social, huge and for everyone (especially people in categories you might not expect, like women and boomers).  Rosenberg's survey of the many different types of gaming, evolution of gaming and built in videos was a great 20 minute survey of a very ambitious topic. 
  5. TrendSpotting is not as important at TrendUnderstanding. Simon Sinek  had many great moments as part of this panel, and one of them was pointing out that much of the crappy marketing work published recently comes from brands blindly following trends without understanding the underlying reasons and motivations for them.  Positioning the difference between the academic world and the business one, Grant McCraken from MIT shared the perspective that the academic world is very good and understanding the underlying reasons, but not quickly spotting the trend.  As Simon noted, the marketing world is just the opposite.  I'll be subscribing to his Re:focus blog in my rss reader ...
  6. Using continuity instead of consistency to create a great brand experience. Going against the trend of sameness in retail locations, George Murphy (the former VP of Brand at Starbucks) shared the example of how Starbucks creates an experience of continuity without resorting to consistency.  With so many brand marketers focused on making every aspect of an experience fit together and giving consistency an undue reverance, Murphy's observation offered an insightful caution about avoiding your brand becoming stagnant because of sameness. Planned inconsistency can make a big difference in fostering your brand experience and offering some personality without losing your consistency.
  7. Good guerilla marketing is not deceptive and sometimes even useful.  In a strong panel about guerilla marketing, folks from several agencies shared some core principles of doing guerilla marketing right.  The first idea that stuck out was that you cannot be deceptive otherwise you risk pissing off consumers.  The other interesting concept was that now messages could become inherently useful by offering messages or guides to locations that people need.  Floyd Hayes of Cunning also shared an interesting observation about how we use so many militaristic terms in marketing (guerilla, campaign, targeting, etc.) and perhaps we need to stop treating customers as "targets" and more as people.  Amen.
  8. How to invent assvertising without becoming the "assvertising agency."  This is a topic of particular relevance for me as I focused late last year on participating in dialogue about Social Media Optimization without wanting to become the "SMO guy."  Darren Paul of Night Agency shared the story behind coming up with "assvertising" and how it helped to put his agency on the map to do much more.  It's a great lesson in not being afraid to introduce a big idea even if you are afraid of getting "type-cast" with it.  There's always a way to move on.
  9. Big games and building a "public secret" really work.  Kevin Slavin's presentation about the Brand as activity was one of my favorites of the day, as he shared lots of examples of great games and real life contests that used brands as the focal point for interactive experiences.  This is the concept at the heart of the "creationstorming" idea I posted about earlier this week.  The Tucson Conqwest is a great early example of a mobile "big game" and how effective it can be.  Kevin shared lots of other examples I will be checking out, including several I am linking to in my resource link list below.
  10. Art as advertising is not anonymous.  Most attendees of the event would be familiar with the intense frustration creative professionals feel after spending long hours to produce artistic work as part of a marketing effort, only to have their involvement be anonymous and hidden to everyone but the advertising community through awards shows and trade pubs.  The panel on using art for advertising was illuminating because it represents a different kind of advertising where the art is identified with the artist and the brand is simply a participant.  This was the concept we explored through our popular effort with Julian Beever for Aveeno - and seemed to represent a different type of respect for advertising that most aspired to.

As with most of these kinds of events, I also noted many sites for a follow up visit (or revisit) because of mentions in presentations and tagged them in del.icio.us.  You can check out my list of sites at http://del.icio.us/rbhargava/psfkconference.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Trendspot: Simplicity Marketing from Apple, Nintendo, and UPS

I2m_ups_whiteboard2 Like anyone else, I find Steve Job's product launch presentations to be mesmerizing.  Apple is certainly getting their mileage out of his typically irresistable keynote performance from Macworld, where Jobs announced the iPhone - marketing the download from the homepage of the iTunes store and probably getting millions of downloads already.  Yesterday evening, I also saw another TV spot for the new UPS Whiteboard campaign - dedicated to simplifying the process of international shipping and how UPS can help your business.  Nintendo has also gotten into the simplicity game with their new Wii - using a combination of their website and branded consumer experiences in retail locations to help spread the word about the game console.  Philips has received a lot of credit for restructuring their entire product development teams around the core tenets of simplicity and making this a core part of their corporate culture.  There is a trend in all this, but it's not about the necessity of making products simpler. 

There are plenty of products that we use on a daily basis that are not simple. The QWERTY keyboard is the classic example, having been laid out to actually slow down fast typing by separating the most commonly used letters - but since then we have learned to use it and adapted to it.  Many top selling consumer electronics gadgets further prove this rule.  The point is, people adapt to non-intuitive interfaces, especially when they have no other options.  The real lesson is about simplicity in marketingUsing simplicity to sell is now an imperative, and one that can actually cut through the clutter.  No one adapts to marketing that isn't simple ... it just gets ignored.  Simple stories, on the other hand, are easy to understand and pass along.  They are the essence of a message without the ego of the creative.  They are concepts that respect their audience by not wasting their time.  As an example, just compare the UPS effort to an ad that aired right after it during the NFL playoffs last night, the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot ad for Dodge Ram - where two robots are boxing and then the winner goes on to attack a Dodge Ram and loses.  What's the simple message there - that if my car is ever attacked by boxing robots, I should buy a Dodge Ram?  Aside for standing out for it's lack of relevance, that ad doesn't make the simplicity connection.  It has no insight. 

When Steve Jobs tells the story of an interface, it makes sense.  When he goes "boom" - it's the most natural thing in the world to hear.  UPS simplifies what many business owners believe is an extremely complex task - international shipping.  Nintendo is the anti-game console for an audience that won't go out and buy the latest Alienware desktop system with supercomputer processing power just for gaming.  Sure, product simplicity and innovation is part of the message.  But more and more, the most successful marketing campaigns are those that focus on telling a story  simply and clearly.  Now there's an idea: cutting through the clutter without needing to raise your voice or blindly throw more dollars at advertising creative.  Sounds too simple.










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