Instantly Obsolete

Above: Angry Birds Theme, covered by Pomplamoose — the VideoSong was filmed with a Samsung Infuse 4G phone.

Recently, I participated in SAY Media’s Create conference with an inspiring group of passionate people who are all creating amazing content and building culture around the things they love.

The event got me thinking about the future of media — and how brands can best position themselves alongside “passionate” content to foster more meaningful connections with their customers.

Media creation and consumption continues to fracture and expand into every conceivable space. What once were a few trusted sources has become an ever-expanding universe of niche players. Never before has there been more content available in more places. However, consumers and creators are often overwhelmed, finding it difficult to know what’s relevant, and to connect with others who care about the same things they do.

For brand marketers, this landscape has become frightfully convoluted, proving to be a difficult ground to find reliable tactics for consistent success — particularly when it comes to connecting meaningfully with their target audiences.

So, how are people discovering media today? What draws them in? What inspires them to engage and what compels them to come back for more?

One thing is clear; people aren’t waiting for it to be delivered to them from the same old mass media channels.

Consumers are actively, sometimes feverishly, seeking out content about their passions. They’re on the lookout for fresh thinking from people who share their interests and demonstrate like-minded views. Generally these passionate creators also foster a persistent exchange with their audiences — catalyzing communities that generate even more content for, and about their passions.

Their voices are authentic. Their platforms are open. And, in aggregate, they’re drawing profound, even massive audiences.

New jack media networks like SAY, are capitalizing on this phenomenon by aggregating and connecting the best independent content creators and their communities to provide simple ways for brands to engage with passionate audiences, at scale.

This new wave of media networks continue to experiment with opportunities for brands to get closer to the content and provide meaningful ways to engage with audiences.

It was in this vein that Odopod helped develop the Master of All Skills promotional contest for DonQ Rum earlier this year. A highly bespoke program that positioned their brand at the center of deeply engaging custom content from publishers with passionate interests, including Cool Hunting, Instructables and Good Magazine.

What’s more, it seems the individual creators don’t mind working with the brands either. In fact, when a brand shares their interests, they welcome collaboration, even earnest co-creation.

For example, during their presentation at Create, Jack Conte, of the musical duo Pomplamosse, discussed their collaboration with Samsung to develop one of their inventive YouTube video-songs (see above) in order to generate buzz an upcoming product launch.

And, that’s the kind of relationship can propel a brand out of the cluttered margins, and smack dab in the center of passionate conversations and cultural relevance.

PS. Thanks for the invitation Troy.

The Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Atomic Age, the Jet Age, the Space Age and the Information Age — every technological era has brought about profound effects on socioeconomic and cultural conditions. They’ve reshaped human behavior and reset reality.

But, before the full effects of each of these technological developments have taken hold and fully permeated the collective understanding, people and businesses undoubtedly found themselves navigating a strange “in-between” time — a time where future visions are uncomfortably mingled with legacy artifacts and pre-existing expectations.

Today, in the Connected Age, technological innovations are bringing about seismic shifts in our reality every day. The dust is far from settled, and perhaps, it never will be. For businesses and brands this uncertain and unpredictable landscape is rot with danger. Red herrings, pitfalls and fruitless dead-ends surround us, while opportunity is elusive.

But fear not, Larry Johnson (Odopod’s Associate Director of Strategy) and I have been hard at work cataloging the common mistakes, collecting helpful techniques and distilling best practices to survive and thrive in today’s in-between times. We’ve compiled them neatly, into a presentation of course, and would love the opportunity to share them with you, our industry friends and peers at SXSW 2012.

But we need your help. Please vote for our SXSW session : Danger is Everywhere: Illuminating common pitfalls of marketing’s in-between times and take a peek at some example slides here.

This preview is just a taste of what’s to come. We promise to keep it short, sweet and useful so send us a vote and we’ll see you there.

In advance of my participation at the upcoming Storyworld Conference, I’ve found myself debating the meaning and usage of the term Transmedia. Sometimes with my colleagues and peers, and sometimes with myself.

Without a doubt the “T” word is frightfully overused—and with its growing popularity with marketers, and the like, it’s becoming increasingly misused. Or at least, contorted from it’s original definition.

In a recent post from Henry Jenkins, the Provost’s Professor of Communications, Journalism, and Cinematic Art at USC, the man who who first popularized the term, he outlines the range of uses, definitions and reflects on it’s continual evolution.

Transmedia 202.

I found it fascinating and thoroughly insightful.

More good reading on the “T” word:
Why Transmedia is Catching On — July 5, 2011
Transmedia Storytelling 101 — March 22, 2007

Everyone’s talking about innovation. Some are even doing it. But how do you institutionalize it? Susan Wojcicki’s contribution to Google’s latest Think Quarterly offers eight guiding principles. Smart and clear thinking.

A recap of the Planningness session this May. The full set of presentations can be found here. Including a great one from old pal Colin Raney of IDEO. How to Design a Business.

Now, go forth and make some sh*t.

I’ve been having more and more conversations about the quickly evolving role of media in the marketing landscape. Specifically, the role of, and relationship between, “paid”, “owned” and “earned” media.  Not just in the digital realm, but also across every medium, channel and context that people are encountering it. It’s time to map this new landscape… so we get down to the business of blurring the boundaries even further.

Each with it’s own unique superpower.

Individually, these media types have can be extremely effective, however, they tend to do certain tasks better then others – a primary function, if you will.

Paid Media, such as broadcast, display, print or OOH is especially good for brand reach – garnering impressions and building awareness. It’s a great for seeding promotions, content and directing people to other media assets. In the case of search, paid is a critical component for lead generation.

Owned Media, such as sites, branded content, apps and events, is the lifeblood for creating engagement, fostering participation and driving consumer consideration.  It’s most effective when it leverages common interest with the audience, offering content that entertains, and/or provides utility.

Earned Media, such as editorial, reviews and the many forms social media, is the most influential of the three – providing social proof, which is so persuasive. Once dominated by P.R. firms, this space gone through a seismic shift with maturation of the social graph.

Ah, the lovely three-headed hydra.

More interestingly then how paid, owned and earn media function separately in the ecosystem, is how they work together. Not just as additive components, with one leading to the next, but as multipliers.

Recently, I’ve worked on some very successful programs in which we’ve bypassed established planning methodologies and rethought how launch a new product into the market.  They’ve come in a few different flavors so far, but they certainly have common threads.

One key has been creating branded content around audience interests in conjunction with, and designed to fit seamlessly with established content publishers. Another is partnering with genuine influencers, incenting them to create and disseminate participatory content.  Both of these generate organic engagement that’s authentic – and the roll of paid media is to supercharge spread.

It has required a mystical mix of traditional planning, digital savvy, classic PR as well as secret handshakes and slight of hand. Activities favoring nibble, scrappy agencies that are aware of, but unfazed by, what they don’t know.

It’s clear we’re at the midst of some big changes in the media planning landscape.

Long overdue if you ask me.

It’s here. SoDA has released the 2011 Digital Marketing Outlook. And, it’s packed with data.

In this year’s DMO I edited a section on the digital consumer and contributed the following article. While it was written a few months back, the topic couldn’t be anymore timely. Today at Odopod, as I’m sure many other digital consultancies, we are in the throes of rethinking the shopping experience at retail.  From augmenting  in-store visits and digital coupons, to inventing revolutionary new ways to find products. With it all, the new frontiers seem to lie in enabling “digital” shopping behaviors, and addressing new consumer expectations in these spatial, tactile environments.

—

The Last Mile

For well over a decade, e-commerce has been a cornerstone in the growth and development of the Internet. In that time, e-tailing has matured, the experience has been refined, and consumer usage has grown rapidly. In fact, online sales in the US are projected to be over $170 billion in 2010. Nonetheless, while online retailing has experienced phenomenal growth, the lion’s share of consumer transactions still take place out in the physical world. In 2009, that share was 72%.

E-commerce is now ubiquitous and new digital technologies have shifted consumer behaviors and attitudes, encouraging the brick and mortar retailers to find digital means to enhance and augment the customer’s in-store experience.

We’ve seen a great deal of experimentation in this arena in the last two years, much of it the form of conceptual prototypes. But now, with the proliferation of web-enabled, geo-aware mobile devices and state-of-the-art display technology, many new concepts are starting to take shape that are directly applicable to physical retail experiences.

> View the 2011 DMO on SlideShare

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Auto-Tuned news clips. LOL cats. Star Wars Lego animations.  Bedroom lip sync music videos. Justin Bieber anything.

It was just a matter of time. Well, that’s what we thought when Google approached Odopod to help bring the YouTube Trends project to life. Sure, they’re not a content publisher per se, but, when you’re sitting on some of the best data in the digital world, you’ve got some responsibility to make use of it.

So, using viewership data and aggregated information from top sites YouTube created Trends. A real-time window into “what’s poppin’” in in the world of web-based video.

It some pretty awesome features, including; algorithmically-generated feeds that highlight trending videos and topics, curated collections from top video sites, a running blog with a deeper look at videos trends enhanced with using YouTube’s own internal data.

It also has a dashboard that allows you to check out what’s trending in different geographic regions, with specific demographic groups. Not to worry data visualization junkies, there are charts and graphs o’ plenty.

My favorite features is that it makes me look like I’m doing something smart when I’m really just procrastinating.

I wanted to share a presentation I did last week at the SFMOMA for an event entitled, Design Is Dead! Long Live Design?. The event included wide breath of designers, from product to digital, addressing the future of design in Pecha Kucha format.

It was my first experience presenting in the format and I must say it was challenging – I’d imagine  like being on Iron Chef. I, of course think design is very much alive, and in fact is at an important crossroads. And, while did lean on my queue cards trough much of it, I was the only one of five presenters who managed to follow the presentation format – 20 slides, 20 seconds per.

Please make the jump the get my slide-by-slide replay. Many of you digital marketing nerds will recognize much of the referenced material; however the following voice over is necessary for comprehension.
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A little Monday rant. And, why advertising won’t change the way you smell.

Last week, Tim Barber and I sat on two separate panels at Creative Review’s Click event in SF. There were some notable industry folks participating (representing the likes of R/GA, GS&P, AKQA, W+K), however, the panel discussions seemed to devolve into the same-old conversations.

The two topics, “Agency Landscape of Tomorrow” and “The Future of Online Advertising” both quickly became feeble debates about what agencies were best positioned to “win” out in the future – Traditional or Digital. And, as Mr. Zada added to the mix, “Tradigital” (a mix of traditional and digital).

The fact that we even engaged in this dialog seems ridiculous. First of all, you must have a common definition of success. What do you mean by “win”? Is it about being named AOR in the trade press? Is it about the most PR or industry awards? Is about whose controlling the production budget? Or which agency has the highest annual billings?

I would argue that it should be none of the above. In fact, it shouldn’t be focused on the agencies position at all, but instead be focused on our client’s standing – assessing the value we deliver by the value we generate.

At Odopod, generally we have three types of assignments for our clients: online marketing (or campaign driven work), platform development (the highly-functional sites and delivery systems) and product innovation (on mobile devices, TV or wherever people are encountering the web). More and more, it’s our product-focused work that’s generating the greatest impact for our clients and garnering the most influence. Primarily because product experiences are the most direct extension of the brand and are directly tied to our client’s business model.

Marketing’s role is to speak for the brand when the product or service isn’t there to speak for itself. And it’s clear that many agencies enjoy the ongoing cycle of communication initiatives that are great for their own bottom-line, but often very short-term fixes for their clients most pressing issues.

My case and point from last Thursday evening – great advertising is most critical when the product and/or service are suspect. Take the Old Spice case for an example – no matter how fantastic the current campaign is; it hasn’t changed the way the product smells. In contrast, Apple’s current ads are completely unremarkable – essentially glorified product demos. The difference is that people love the Apple products.

It’s long past time to stop comparing traditional vs. digital agency models and start discussing what we need to do to move the needle for our clients.