Jaffe Juice

Spoiled Rotten (Apple)

The folks over at Apple are at it again, with their cease-and-desist bullying crap. I'm seriously beginning to wonder whether the brand guidelines specifically and explicitly include the personality attributes of arrogance, egocentricity and conceited superiorty as part of their "core" equity.

C.C. Chapman is pretty steamed (and rightly so) on Apple's pushback on the terms, "podcast ready", "ipod" and even "pod" itself (beware Senseo)

P-Dub's follow-up post is here (props for the image - above - and for suggesting that camera "tripods" will henceforth be known as "tr" 's)

Sigh. Instead of responding, Steve Jobs is just going to create another 30-second spot to rub it in a little more.

My take? One word: REVOLUTION

The fountain of youth

Goodby, Silverstein & Partners have teamed up with Google to create a rather interesting mash-up for their Saturn client.

New York Times reports on this new partnership, which is akin to MSN's custom- solutions initiative, i.e. allow agencies and a media publisher/vendor to create original ideas from a blank canvas.

What I like about it is the following:

• Invisible Technology
• Smart Targeting
• Innovative use of multiple assets such as Earth, Video/Click-to-play
• 3D modeling/viewing
• Personalization

Truthfully, it's not the best execution I've ever seen...a bit band-aided together (with some freaky privacy issues potentially), but it is a pretty good start in the right direction (after all, it's helped make Rich Silverstein 10 years younger - see below)

Here are some keeper quotes:

“Google wants to prove it’s an effective way to market,” Mr. (Rich) Silverstein said. “Saturn wants to sell Auras. And we want to show how we can tell good stories in a 21st-century way.

“The world doesn’t need another area to run a commercial; we’ve got plenty,” Mr. Silverstein said.

“I am so excited,” Mr. Silverstein, who is usually not given to hyperbole, said of the project. “I feel 10 years younger.”

Creativity in Advertising - who's the oxymoron now?

Great article from Washington Post's Steven Pearlstein titled, "What happened to Creative Advertising?"

It reflects on many key points I raised in Chapter 10 of my book, "Life after the 30-second spot" (which you can download for free here)

Here are a few sound bytes of note:

...there is no financial difference between delivering a blockbuster ad and delivering a mediocre one.

Because so much time and money is shifting to the Internet, none of the old rules applies. Now, it is the clients who are pushing the agencies for change, and the agencies are finally examining how they are organized, how they are paid and how they conceive of their jobs.

The article concludes with the following quote: "As a result, after a decade of fighting changes, the industry is coming around to embrace them. Changes once seen as frightening are now being viewed, at least at the top of the ad business, as opportunities"

Personally, I don't think this is remotely close to accurately reflecting the mood, tone and more importantly, progress of the biz on both client and agency sides of the coin. There is a boatload of rhetoric, posturing and lip-service, but sadly or madly, the activation of intent and commitment is sorely AWOL.

Challenge of the I

I just got back from a great trip to The Netherlands, U.K. and Belgium. I spoke at eDay in Rotterdam, moderated (and podcasted) a CEO breakfast in Utrecht, met with a few ATS listeners/Jaffe Juice readers in London including Russell Davies and finally rounded out my trip with a Keynote at the Belgian Direct Marketing Association's "Challenge of the I" Conference.

Here's a little video clip with my European alter-ego (sorry, Mitch) - Jo Caudron. We hope to have the expanded chat on YouTube and Google Video some time soon.

ATS #55 - The New Marketing Podcast live from Utrecht at a CEO breakfast

I am in Europe at the moment on a bit of a whistle-stop tour in The Netherlands, UK and Belgium.

On Friday morning, I swung by Utrecht to lead a CEO breakfast hosted by Klaas Wiema and his online marketing agency, Energize.

At the last minute, I decided to podcast the session and its up for your listening pleasure.

Enjoy!

What kind of genius are you?

Great piece in the July issue of Wired on Creativity, which introduces two distinct groups of creatives: "conceptual innovators" and "experimental innovators".

The article introduces economist David Galenson's Theory of Artistic Life Cycles, an age-based methodology which essentially "reverse engineered ingenuity to reveal the source code of the creative mind."

The article focuses mainly on art/ists - for example, Picasso was a conceptual innovator whereas Jackson Pollock was an experimental innovator - but posits that the same theory should equally apply across a much broader array of disclipines, including - but not limited to - business.

It offers interesting ideas into the concept of "genius", as well as the importance and need to find happy mediums between left and right brain, and extreme classifications.

There are obvious implications for businesses, creativity, new marketing and experimentation. I trust you will see them as brightly as I do...

Super De-Duper Bowl

Coming soon, to a Doritos-heavy, testosterone-SUV charged small screen near you, the CGC Super Bowl. GM (Chevrolet) and Frito-Lay are charging (in varying degrees) their own consumers (gasp) with the challenge of creating their next Super Bowl ad.

MediaPost's Sarah Mahoney reports and my main main, Max Kalehoff spins his story here, with 6 questions:

1. Will advertisers bridge the gap between their traditional television efforts, online efforts and consumer participation, to create one seamless event? 2. Will advertisers and their agencies practice consistency? 3. When engaging consumers to co-create, will advertisers respect the co-creators, keep the creation credible, compensate, and avoid even the slightest appearance of cheap-work-for-hire schemes (not unlike reality television)? 4. Advertisers often use their 30-second spots to announce new products during the Super Bowl, intended for U.S. audiences. Will they be prepared for immediate and increasingly massive spillover to global markets via online video and social networks? 5. Do advertisers have a strategy to measure participation and engagement around these highly viral events, which tend to span numerous media? 6. Finally, do advertisers have a strategy and culture to embrace and actively manage engagement by the community, on the fly? I'll address these on a future episode of Across the Sound. Perhaps Max will be my guest to discuss these in person. For Chevrolet: Consumers 1 Chevy -1 (which is great as your score was -10 before this) For Frito Lay: Consumer 1 Goodby, Silverstein & Partners TBD (not sure if and how the agency will play a role in this...let me know if you know before I pass premature judgement)

The long tail of UNM2PNM

Kirk Skodis just pinged me that he'd finally reviewed Life after the 30-second spot as part of my UNM2PNM initiative. I always intended this to be based on the honor system, and as a result, I decided that I would not chase up the 100+ people who requested free copies of the book in exchange for a bartered - honest - review.

It's great to see the long tail in action, not just in terms of the sprouting seeds of past reviews, but also in terms of "promise activation" which just goes to show...new marketing is not limited to technology, but applies to humanity just as well :)

Why your worst case scenario is your best case scenario

Caribou Coffee picks up the ball that Starbucks so clunkily dropped, by accepting the voided coupons. It's a classic example of how being close to the conversation can allow marketers to capitalize on the lethargy, dysfunction, incrementalism and short-sightedness that is traditional marketing.

It also proves 2 points I've been talking about of late:

1) There's no such thing as local or regional (this was apparently a regional promo) or anymore. The world is indeed flat...

2) Marketers desperately look for signs of life from their customers...they want engagement and yet, when their customers raise their hands and/or reach out to them, they get slapped with disdain, disrespect and disapproval.

Starbucks worst case scenario i.e. the alleged abuse/misuse of an innocuous coupon was a blessing in disguise, but instead of capitalizing on this golden opportunity, they gifted it to a challenger brand and competitor.

It's a one-two sucker punch where the opportunity cost was the opportunity lost.

Resisting change is an acquired taste

Seth Godin has a neat post about defending the status quo. Here are his 17 quotes and I've extended this a bit as well:

1. "That will never work."
2. "... That said, the labor laws make it difficult for us to do a lot of the suggestions [you] put out. And we do live in a lawsuit oriented society.""
3. "Can you show me some research that demonstrates that this will work?"
4. "Well, if you had some real-world experience, then you would understand."
5. "I don't think our customers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this."
6. "It's fantastic, but the salesforce won't like it."
7. "The salesforce is willing to give it a try, but [major retailer] won't stock it."
8. "There are government regulations and this won't be permitted."
9. "Well, this might work for other people, but I think we'll stick with what we've got."
10. "We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up."
11. "Our team doesn't have the technical chops to do this."
12. "Maybe in the next budget cycle."
13. "We need to finish this initiative first."
14. "It's been done before."
15. "It's never been done before."
16. "We'll get back to you on this."
17. "We're already doing it."

18. You have to understand...this is the [insert company name here] company

19. Be patient with us.

20. We move slowly, but we'll get there.

21. You've obviously never worked in the [insert industry name here] industry

22. There just isn't enough budget for change

23. Do you have best practices to go with that?

24. No one ever got fired for putting TV on the plan (yesterday's excuse)

25. No one ever got fired for putting (traditional) Interactive on the plan (today excuse)

26. Our marketing mix modeling doesn't incorporate the approaches you're suggesting

27. Well that might work in [insert country A here], but this is [insert country B]

28. What you say is terrific, but it would just be too hard to implement

29. We need a certain amount of reach in order to be successful

30. Change is good...but not on my watch.