Jaffe Juice

Linkety Link - September 28, 2007

• Great piece on social networking - it's not just for kids anymore.
• Barry Bond's historic 756th Home Run ball is going to Cooperstown with a big fat "*" on it, courtesy of my new hero, Marc Ecko. Hey Marc - why haven't you contacted me yet?
• Bravo to NBC for admitting upfront that their new venture, Hulu, will have some failures. Whilst I think they're beyond dumb for pulling their content out of iTunes, at least they're experimenting and prepared to make mistakes.
• Great thread on brand commoditization (in addition to product commoditization
• One of the reasons why I defend Virtual Worlds is the fact that I believe our kids will be using virtual worlds in robust ways - even replacing the Internet browser. Why browse when you can experience? Anyway, here's some data which suggests that 53% of kids and teens will visit Virtual Worlds at least once a month by 2011. Still want to cheer the demise of Second Life?

More links? Send 'em my way and I'll update this periodically throughout the day.

You all suck. Now do something about it.

A JWT and Adweek survey released this week reminds us that we are tantamount to nothing more than used-car salesmen and politicians

Via Copywrite. Ink and Adotas, the lowlights read as follows:

• 84% agree (strongly/somewhat), “Too many things are over-hyped now."
• 72% agree, “I get tired of people trying to grab my attention and sell me stuff.”
• 52% agree, “There’s too much advertising — I would support stricter limits.”
• 47% regard “Advertising as background noise.”
• 61% do not see advertising as persuasive.
• Only 14% of those sampled respect people in advertising, which beats national politicians  (10%) and car salesmen (5%), but lags behind lawyers (@ 19%)

On the flipside:

• 82% indicate they had a positive engagement with media overall
• 41% consume “interactive” media
• 2/3 claimed that “advertising is an important part of the American culture.” - that's good news for crayon client, Firebrand

As I wrote in Life after the 30-second spot, we need to make advertising relevant again. We need to embrace more meaningful roles for advertising, other than the superficial informing ('er have you heard about search and social networks?), persuading (see results above) and reminding (read: spam) - such as demonstrating, involving and empowering to name but 3.

192.5 Holding pattern is getting boring

Well at least I now know I can maintain my weight, but ultimately I want to get to a 183-187 range and with my brother's and sister's weddings coming up in December, I have incentive to fit into my Armani Wedding Suit (provided I don't breathe and/or eat the entire evening)

So here goes my final push at dropping 7-10 pounds in 2 months. It's doable for sure, but if - and only if - I can get back into some kind of swimming routine and more disciplined diet.

Fatbloggers Unite!

Advertising Week and the Blogosphere

I could be completely wrong about this as I'm using myself as a sample size of 1, but to my knowledge, Advertising Week did a fairly poor job of engaging and reaching out to the blogosphere (which is in of itself quite telling)

To be clear, I'm not solely pointing a finger at the organizers of Advertising Week (I know them well - individually, as well as the associations that prop 'em up), but am including the various companies (MSN and AOL for examples) that put on pomp and ceremony throughout the week, but failed to let anyone know about it.

Put it this way: of all the companies that should know better when it comes to reaching out to mainstream media journalists, surely you know by now that you should be thinking about supplementing this outreach with a social media flavored mix as well? Then again, maybe not.

Of the one event I was involved in i.e. the Firebrand launch, we absolutely reached out to the blogosphere for support and coverage. Other than that, not sure what else was done.

Leveraging Video for Conversational Marketing

Yesterday I moderated a panel at OMMA on Leveraging Video for Conversational Marketing. While my panel was talking, I was writing down notes and promised to upload them to those in attendance on my blog.

Some of the points might seem esoteric, but there are some good nuggets nonetheless

Life after the 30-second spot?

Yesterday I bumped into an old friend, Todd Herman, at Pershing Square. We reminisced about the time he called on me at TBWA\Chiat\Day about an idea he had to essentially create a portal for advertising. Although I mentioned to him my skepticism about whether people would voluntarily watch ads, I mentioned to him that this idea could single-handedly give the ad industry the shot in the arm it so badly needed.

Over the years that followed, I saw countless imitators attempt to get similar ideas off the ground, but they never did.

And then YouTube came along and offered up another short term solution to a much larger problem i.e. the opportunity for ads to enjoy a new lease on life e.g. doing its best to justify the gargantuan Super Bowl spends for at least 3-5 days before and after the fact.

And now, we get to see one of crayon's clients, Firebrand strut its stuff and test the hypothesis that advertising in context is really not the serial offender we thought it to be. Actually that's not Firebrand's mission per se - Firebrand believes in the power of commercial culture or put differently, the fact that commercials are inextricably part of pop culture. Whazzzup? You tell me :)

When I first walked into the Firebrand conference room, I came head-to-head with Roman Vinoly, co-founder of Firebrand. I knew I liked him straight away because we challenged each other throughout the meeting and when I handed him a copy of "Life after the 30-second spot", he didn't throw it back at me which was a good sign. In fact, we had more in common than one might have thought and at the core, there was the fervent belief that great storytelling would always have a place.

Roman took that one step further. He made sure that great storytelling or even great advertising had a home. That home is Firebrand.

In short, Firebrand will house and curate the best of the best and, by surrounding the Apple's, Nike's, Sony's of the world with layers of interactivity, incentivization and conversation, maybe...just maybe...the 30-second spot and its richer (60+ sec) and poorer (15 secs) cousins will enjoy a new lease on life.

Here's some more information, courtesy of Greg's blog:

It's a new, opt-in entertainment and marketing destination that gives consumers interactive access to their favorite brands, products and promotions.  They program the best and coolest TV commercials the way MTV used to program music videos (with "Commercial Jockeys," even - think MTV's vee-jays with a serious jones for good ads) and are slated to be the first multi-platform network to "go live" simultaneously on television, the web and mobile.

What's the difference between YouTube and Firebrand? For one thing...ironically....clutter. YouTube is - at best - an interim solution, which favors "viral" i.e. exceptions to the norm; Firebrand on the other hand is self-contained and offers a focused and singular alternative solution. Is it for everyone? Of course not. Commercials as commercials are a losing value proposition, but permission-based commercials (laden with offers and adjacent relevant and utilitarian information) are arguably closer to being consumed as content.

In LA30, I introduced R.U.E. - Relevance, Utility and Entertainment (could also be called Engagement I guess) As far as Firebrand is concerned, it's all inside...

This morning was the official Firebrand pre-launch, which the crayonistas attended. So did Daryl Ohrt from Plaid and Brandflakes for Breakfast. All that's left for me to say is best of luck and don't forget to check them out and judge for yourselves. Sign up here to be alerted when Firebrand launches (October 22nd)

Here are some additional links for your browsing pleasure:

• Promo videos here
• Photos here
• Facebook group here

Let's do lunch

I'm in NYC on Monday and Tuesday, September 24th and 25th for MIXX and OMMA. Drop me an e-mail to jaffe [at] crayonville [dot] com or text me on 917 603 4639 if you'd like to meet up.

I'll be at MIXX on Monday, sitting on a panel about the future of online video

The Future of Online Video
Smart marketers are looking to understand how to capitalize on the power of online video in all its forms. Join key thought leaders both from the agency and client side as they battle it out in a moderated discussion and share their unique perspective on the future of online video and where they would each like to see it progress.

Moderator:
Nick Johnson, VP, NBCU Digital Media Sales

Panelists: 

Adam Gerber,
Joseph Jaffe, President and Chief Interruptor, Crayon
Randy Kilgore, Chief, Revenue Officer, Tremor Media
Jeff Minsky, Director, Emerging Media Platforms, OMD

On Tuesday, I'll be at OMMA, moderating a panel at 11.15am on leveraging video for conversational marketing and then later at 4pm, sitting on a panel on social media. Turns out that was actually today, so I messed up and missed this - #@$%#^$#W!

Leveraging Online Video to Drive "Conversational Marketing"

  Panelists confirmed for the event are:

• Scott Witt, Creative Director of Media, Droga5 + Denuo
• John McWeeny, SVP of Business Development, TurnHere
• Michael Donnelly, Director, Global Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company
• Mike Griffin, EVP, Corporate Development, Eyewonder

The panel description is as follows:

Stop thinking about producing a video ad and start focusing on how to create video-driven experience for your consumers. The power of video married with the flexibility of online distribution creates a unique ability to deliver powerful communications, in ways that align to individuals’ personal preferences. Join a unique marketer-centric panel discussion led by Joe Jaffe - one of the industry’s leading provocateurs in the new media space. Hear about participants’ consensus to the notion that we are about to move into a new phase of video marketing that will allow creativity to flourish, and enhanced relevancy to be delivered to consumers.

Decision by Community

Marc Ecko (yes, that Marc Ecko) might just be my favorite Conversational Marketing person of the day.

He either gets this space or he has someone on his team who does. Either way, the purchaser of the Barry Bonds Home Run ball which broke Hank Aaron's record has decided to let the wisdom of crowds speak in terms of deciding on the ball's fate.

The choices are simple: Bestow, Brand or Banish. In addition to voting and signing up for periodic updates, there is also several embedded-HTML banners and buttons to display on blogs and websites, much like I have just done.

Although Barry Bonds thinks Ecko is an idiot, I think he's rather smart. I'll let you  figure out why, but if you're stumped, start with the $752,467 and work your way from there, factoring in his Today Show appearance and so on...

Marc talks about democratizing the ball, but really what he's doing is democratizing the conversation (including taking all the hot air away from the sports and news media). He talks about the "collective consciousness" (I think I call it the connected consciousness) and the alignment between his brand and what he stands for with this pop culture moment.

Pretty Pretty Smart.

PS Marc - if you're reading this - and I suspect you might - do you want to come on Across the Sound and chat about it?

Get the balance right

I wish I could tell you that what I'm about to say is the product of the last few weeks, but in actual fact it's the product of the last few years - 5 of them to be exact.

Since I went out on my own, I slowly but surely chipped away at the boundaries between work and life. My work became my life and my life was my work. Don't get me wrong, I was still a husband and a father (3 times now!), but there was the problem of not being present even though I was around...not to mention not being around much because of all the travel.

I compared myself to my former self (the corporate self) and applauded the fact I was "always on", "always reachable". With a cellphone, Blackberry, iPhone, Skype forwarding etc...I was reachable wherever and whenever. Why?

I prided myself on the ability to respond to a blog post or comment within seconds of receiving my Google Alert. Why?

When I was in another time zone, I would find myself waking up at 5am (or constantly being woken up by that annoying Blackberry buzz) because it happened to be 9am in New York and e-mails were coming through thick and fast. And it just was so important to be able to receive those erectile dysfunction mails in "real time", right?

I can't tell you how many times I've been with my family or out to dinner and I happened to read an e-mail which contained something that totally shifted my mood or at the very minimum, distracted me from what was really important...spending quality time with friends and family.

Working for yourself is one of the most empowering acts that anyone can ever do in their lives. But the danger of a 5 day week becoming a 7 day week is very real - especially with all this rampant access and technology that surrounds us all.

Whilst I might have been critical of 9-to-5'ers, or corporate execs that take their full vacation, Summer Fridays, marginal holidays and fill their schedules with enough padding of unnecessary meetings (with a commitment objective of having another meeting), there is a lot to be said for "working smarter, not harder"

Ultimately this is me facing an addiction of sorts - the always-on addiction - and acknowledging that balance and equilibrium rule over any form of extremity (being too connected and/or not being connected enough)

I'm going to attempt to implement a self-help regime, with these initial/baby steps designed to help me get back the "life" component into the dominant "work" part of my daily grind.

I'm not going to be unrealistic. Some things will never change, but I certainly can do my part to cut down on the computer being "always-on", checking e-mail on the weekends (will perhaps just 3 times a day on the weekends), being the first to switch on my iPhone when the plane lands etc.

Between 6.30-7.30pm when I'm home now the computer is going to be turned off, Blogging and Podcasting will take a chill pill - hey, it's R.S.S., baby - Facebook will have to take a backseat and and Twitter can go get stuffed (you don't need to know what I'm doing with my family...it's none of your damn business!)

Is there a lesson in all of this for brand marketers? Probably and probably not. On the one hand, "response and responsiveness" remain critical - now more than ever. But not at the expense of balance. Sure customers want a quick response - preferably by a human and preferably within 24 hours - but I think they'd prefer a great response (comprehensive, thorough, complete, adequate) compared to a response for the sake of it.

The iphone sponsorship experiment works for another blogger

My iPhone-for-an-episode experiment certainly created much conversation. For starters and to recap:

• I got my first iPhone within 1 hour of posting the show from Custom Scoop's Chip Griffin
• I got my second iPhone within 1 week from LA's Web Maverick, The Hollywood Podcast's and now my friend, actor Tim Coyne
  • In turn, I decided to give this iPhone to anyone who helps Tim succeed in his efforts to land an audition (and ultimately role) on House
• I then stepped up efforts from one episode to a month's sponsorship in exchange for either a Vaio or Macbook Pro. This time, Real Pie Media's Kirk Skodis stepped up and together, we outlined a sponsorship which included a 2-part 3-way conversation with Movie Marketing Madness' Chris Thilk on the movie business, plus a month-long celebration of experimentation and an audio case study challenge (you can still send in your case study to +1 206 203-3255)
• Next to join the conversation was an actual brand - Dell in the form of Richard@Dell, offering up a brand-spanking, fully-loaded Dell XPS in order to interrupt me from the MacBook Pro purchase.
• And now, another blogger/podcaster has found success using the same value exchange. Congratulations Dan Klass!!!

From now until the end of October, The Bitterest Pill will be both sponsored by and supporting of B Movie Books, a publisher of cool and crazy hardcovers and paperbacks sure to please pulp fanatics everywhere. See the ad to the right to see what I mean.

Love this idea or not, it certainly has sparked a number of very passionate conversations. More importantly, it's certainly been a successful experiment, which is not done yet. Was it panhandling or just a new media spin on an old media barter opportunity? Is it a new business model or way to monetize podcasts? Will I get my HD Flatscreen TV with Surround Sound?

Who knows and who cares?

You do, of course!