Jaffe Juice

I've been thinking about this topic for a while now and every person I talk to, I tell them that I want to write a blog post about it...so here goes.

I'm sick and tired of this notion that there is a singular BIG IDEA out there (unless we're talking Donny Deutsch and a television show). Marketers demand it from their agencies and agencies in turn expect it from media sellers and technology vendors.

And they all want it yesterday PLUS no one wants to pay for it.

The biggest problem I have with the concept of undertaking on a journey to lampoon the elusive and coveted BIG IDEA is that OUR version of the big idea might not the same as THEIR (meaning our consumers') belief of what is a big idea.

A big idea for humans could be paying the mortgage or finding a way to squeeze 15 more minutes out of the day. It could be throwing ball or having a pint of Guinness as opposed to a millions multi-colored balls bouncing down the streets of San Francisco or tracing back our love for alcohol to the dawn of time.

Big ideas take too much time to find and we don't have the time to find 'em (not on current accountability time)

Big ideas are equated to expensive ideas...hence the word BIG. They're meant to create a splash; secure buzz; enrapture the masses with pomp, grandeur and ceremony.

Big ideas are similarly, full of hot air, fluff, inflated with self-importance, exaggeration and hyperbole; they are obtuse and esoteric and are about as grounded in reality as my avatar in Second Life resembles Arnold Schwarzenegger's physique.

I like to think of ideas as sparks or seeds of conversation; each one capable of igniting a raging fire of passion or sprouting a giant, protective Oak Tree.

I like to think of many (AN = one of many) small ideas. SMALL = grounded in reality; capable of being internalized, understood and related to on an individual level.

Ideas are about potential. As Victor Hugo once said, there is nothing as powerful as an idea whose time has come...but the idea is a catalyst; a conduit; a means to an end...and NOT an end unto itself.

Today, the only time BIG IDEAS are means to an end is when that end is winning a new business pitch or a Grand Prix at Cannes. Most new business pitch BIG IDEAS are unimplementable and how many Grand Prix winners at Cannes have gone on to change the world or transform businesses, business models and/or lives.

Arguably this year was a sea-change year with Unilever's Dove and the Campaign for Real Beauty cutting against the grain and heading in a different direction. That said, Unilever is also being questioned for talking out both sides of its mouth with Dove and Axe (Lynx) seemingly saying and doing completely polar-opposite things. Yes, two brands and two different target audiences, BUT one company with one culture and one focus which appears to be schitzophrenic.

You won't hear me talking about THE BIG IDEA anymore, but rather MANY SMALL IDEAS or AN SMALL IDEA (one at a time please) I'll only use the word BIG when my or your consumer tells me its BIG to them or when I witness the ability for an idea to overdeliver on impact, value and relevance.

It's time to get out of the business of desperately seeking the HAIL MARY or GRAND SLAM and focus on SMALL BALL or winning through a series of calculated gains of inch increments.

It's time to truly recognize the power of SMALL (being the NEW BIG as Seth Godin might say), which more often than not begins with one human; one individual; one life; one smile; one spark; one seed and grows and takes off from there...

Really glad to see that the Center for Media Research picked up on the SNCR-TWI Surveys research conducted for my book, "Join the Conversation" on Conversational Marketing.

Who needs a publicist when you have community generated parody (CGP)? Join the Conversation gets its first UNpromotional video!

Enjoy!

It's hard to believe, but little infant crayon has just turned one. Not without its diaper rash, eczema, night feeds and spit-up, but equally not without its first smile, giggle, tooth and crawl.

One year ago, crayon was launched in Second Life. It was a day I'll never forget. We walked our talk and stuck it out. We dueled with Urizenus Sklar and in the process, become crayonistas and made a friend in the process.

We're proud to have done work with companies like The Coca-Cola Company, American Airlines, Firebrand, ooVoo, LaTeen, Luckie & Company, SpiralFrog, GSD&M and many, many more....with hopefully a few more to be announced very soon.

Along the way, we said hello and good-bye to a bunch of very special people in our family. To them. To you. To frequent participants in coffee with crayon. To the incredible community that believes so strongly in the power of community, dialogue and partnership - the recipe for conversation.

Thank You.

A raised glass and a toast to friendship, loyalty, passion and the pursuit of something better, as we close out the first year and look forward with hope, excitement and anticipation to becoming a toddler.

Cheers.

Radiohead's landmark experiment has certainly got people talking...

Some feel duped by Radiohead...but for the most part people participated at an average price (or tip) of $8.

British website http://www.Gigwise.com has reported that Radiohead sold 1.2 million copies, a figure thought to be largely based on the pre-orders of the album placed in the 10 days between when Radiohead announced the release and the day it went on sale: Oct. 10.

I'm not sure if this is referring to their CD sales or purely the digital downloads, but either way it shatters the 300,000 from the band's previous release within its first week of sales.

There's also a cool leaked e-mail (who doesn't like those) from EMI's Chairman, Guy Hands.

This is the first episode of the Deliver Magazine partnership with Jaffe Juice. Check 'em out at www.delivermagazine.com. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255 and don't forget to Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook group

Direct download here

iTunes subscription here

3m - A recap of my DMA workshops on blogging, podcasting and virtual worlds, plus some very cool demonstrations of social IMmediaCY and activation

6m45 - Our Geek dinner in Chicago, including an audio recap from Kevin Behringer

13m45 - Introducing the first conversation starter in a 12-strong series, brought to you by Deliver Magazine. In this vignette: going green and corporate leadership in socially conscious endeavors

27m45 - A recap of Bumrush the Amazon.com charts for Join the Conversation, including an apology to Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff and Michael Yusi, the originators and 3 conversations with Tim Coyne, Evan Keller and Len Edgerly.

Links:

• Join the Conversation Facebook Group
• JTC BRTC Facebook Event Page
• Jaffe Juice post chronicling the progress of the initiative

An important Mea Culpa, hat tip, tip jar and request: Chris Penn brought it to my attention that in fact Bumrush the Charts was not his brainchild, but in fact Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff, in a conversation with Michael Yusi.

Mark and Michael, apologies for not giving you the deserved credit.

My original plan was to donate the affiliate proceeds from the initiative to charity. My thinking was to donate this to Leo Laporte's 1-laptop-per-child cause...but if you'd like me to rather steer it to continuing to support sending deserving kids to college, just let me know.

Also, I'm going to extend this from 1 day (Sunday) to 30 full days i.e. all affiliate sales from Join the Conversation will go to charity.

Finally, please consider this an official request for permission from you to use the name. Yes, it's after the fact, but I hope it counts. Should you however, not want to grant me retro-permission, I will be more than happy to rename this, Rushbum the Charts (RBTC for short)

At the peak of the day at 6.22pm, JTC hit #26 overall and #2 in Business behind only Alan Greenspan!!! Thanks to everyone for your incredible support and participation. And if you're still wanting to buy the book, click here!

On Amazon.com this morning (Monday, 10/22), "Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way)." 

Good morning everyone. True blog style, I'll be keeping an online journal today of my our attempt at bumrushing the Amazon.com charts today. This post will be decidedly non-linear i.e. I'll be updating it constantly with a simple format: time, rank, commentary, but also adding to it throughout the day with comments from people, perspective and other multimedia

8.52am - #4,840 - I've received acknowledgments from London, Sydney, Belgium and Singapore.

8.59am - 1 hour to go before the "event" kicks off. Still wondering how many people via Facebook actually thought this was a physical event, somewhere in Westport. Don't get me wrong, it's still an event per se, but it's purely digital.

9.22am - #1,813 - #2 in Advertising; #2 in Customer Service and #5 in Accounting (???) - could someone please re-tag this book properly!

10am - ...and we're off. Personal video message here

10.30am - #1,999 - ranking slipped a little, but I'm starting to get plenty of confirmations via the Wall. Thank you richard@dell, @david, @timcoyne, @stefan, @rohit, @tim, @andrea, @marvel, @philippe, @darryl, @john, @bob,  @guido, @lise,  @michael, @ruth, and @hugh 

11.19am - #974 - first milestone achieved, which was to break into the top 1,000; currently #1 in customer service and #2 in advertising; the next milestone is #500; thank you @andrei, @sarah fay, @jeanniey mullen, @tim kopp, @bryan eisenberg, @bill green and @shaun abe

12.30pm - #334 - second milestone achieved; JTC is now #54 in ALL business books; #3 in marketing; #2 in advertising...we HAVE to dethrone Tipping Point (ironically); Thanks @alex harris x 2, @tim windsor. @bobby hewitt, @mark silva, @michael szpilzinger, @rob clark, @louis somersille

1.22pm - #133 - Halfway mark and we're close to breaking into the Top 100!!! Currently #22 in business books with Freakonomics and Trump's "Think big and kick ass" in my sight (15th and 14th respectively) 2nd overall in marketing; thanks @tac anderson; @alan wolk; @lydia sugarman; @philip robertson; @ck, @paul mcenany, @marc snyder, @lisa abourezk, @michael donnelly, @memo, @dave guerra and @bill sobel

2.15pm - #85 - WOW!!! double-digits now and more importantly, #13 in business books (next in my sights: Getting Things Done and Good to Great at #10 and #9 respectively) and #1 in marketing and advertising; Thank you SO MUCH @evan keller, @len edgerly, @roland hachmann, @zena weist and @karl long

3.22pm - #67 - We're now in the overall business top 10 - 9th to be precise. Looks like the incline is getting steeper, but I'm not slowing down. Suze Orman, here I come! Thanks @steven silver, @bill rice, @albert maruggi, @KW Low, @erik martin, @scott sigler (the original master of the Amazon.com BRTC effort)

4.21pm - #54 - Sooooo close to breaking into the Top 50; #7 overall in Business and Trump is now in my rear view mirror, but Suze Orman is still ahead. Thanks @david beaudouin, @scott bender, @ed schipul, @peter mello, @kelly stewart, @nick johnson, @uwe hook and @greg verdino

5.27pm - #38 overall - WOWOWOWOW!!! This is so incredible. #5 overall in business. #1 in business management, marketing and advertising. Thanks to @normand miron, @kirk skodis, @john wall, @cc chapman, @jay berkowitz, @paul isakson, @jens thraenhart and @drew mclellan.

The day is not done, but I'm going to take my foot off the gas now and spend some time with the family. You can still purchase the book if you're just getting home or around the computer to check e-mail etc.

I'll check back a little later to see if we're able to keep up the momentum. For now, let me just thank each and every one of you for your enthusiasm, passion and support. I am simply overwhelmed and hope you'll take away from the book what I poured into it.

6.23pm - #26th overall and 2nd overall in business (behind that Alan guy...) - thanks to @rax lakhani, @david rubin and @david libby

Oh and one more thing, the 1 four books ahead of me in Business are waaaay too scary to keep up there. Very doom and gloom. Let's do something about that, shall we? Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert need fresh meat:

• 4th - The Conscience of a Liberal
• 3rd - Blackwater: The rise of the world's most p

I'm proud to announce that ooVoo is crayon's newest client and together we'll be collaborating to make sure that the word, Google, is displaced by ooVoo in the popular consciousness and social vernacular. (it has 2 extra oo's for starters)

Here's the social media version of the press release.

Put simply, ooVoo is a breakthrough video chat platform, that allows free, real-time video conversations. For me personally, the a-ha moment is the ability to engage up to 6 people at the same time on the same screen.

crayon will be focusing on influencer outreach, blogger activation, seeding and conversational marketing.

To put it to the test and live the brand, I'm going to be using ooVoo on Sunday to Bumrush the Amazon.com charts for my new book, "Join the Conversation." So if you're in front of your computers on Sunday (and have a web camera), download and install the ooVoo software and ooVoo me (my handle is: jointheconversation). I'll be more or less in front of the computer from 10am - 5pm EST.

Here's more from the horse's mouth so to speak :)

The first is a pretty meaningful piece in the New York Times covering Nike's dramatic shift from traditional to non-traditional/experiential marketing. It's significant given whom when it comes...

The second is a warning (WSJ - subscription required; if anyone wants to paste a text version in the comments thread, feel free to do so...) from WPP about a 2009 slowdown in advertising, admittedly due to external variables from the Presidential Elections through the housing market slowdown.

The third is the topline results from the SNCR/TWI Surveys research conducted on behalf of Join the Conversation about the (continued) rise of Conversational Marketing.

Nice triangulation.

To quote a line from Highlander (one of the greatest movies ever made), "It has begun"

I wanted to run through a topline bulleted list of key points for Sunday's Bumrush the Amazon.com charts for my new book, "Join the Conversation"

• All affiliate proceeds will be going to charity. I'll provide a snapshot of my affiliate page as verification at the end of the day.
• All purchases should be made in increments of "1" i.e. if you want to purchase 5 copies of the book, do it 5 times (you can always bundle the books together after the fact or take advantage of Amazon.com PRIME i.e. 2-day delivery free shipping)
• If you can't make the purchase on Sunday, do it on Saturday (or even today) It's all part of a weekend concentration of effort and communal activation...but just to be clear, Sunday is first prize.
• When you've made your purchase, add yourself to the Facebook Join the Conversation Group and confirm your purchase on the Event page/wall. At the end of the day, I'll be selecting one person to co-develop and co-present at next year's Podcamp NYC (Feb 29/Mar 1, 2008)
• Throughout the day, I'll be twittering via "jointheconvo" (add yourself), blogging @ Join the Conversation (and fyi, you can become an author of this blog as well), podcasting and chronicling our progress via Facebook.
• I'll be available from roughly 10am-5pm EST via ooVoo (handle: jointheconversation) for multi-person video chat and skype (handle: jaffejuice). You can also send in audio comments for my podcast, Jaffe Juice, to +1 206 203-3255
• The affiliate link is here
• Finally, if you're so inclined, spread the word to your clients and colleagues, and/or if you are a blogger, twitterer, podcaster etc., do likewise. Sunday's "event" will be what you and I make it. Simple as that.

At the end of the day, this is both an experiment (putting my talk into walk) and an active display of "UNM2PNM" i.e. practicing the principles espoused in the book to demonstrate and validate the power of community, dialogue and partnership.

My belief is that if we (and I stress, "WE") succeed on Sunday i.e. propel JTC into the Amazon.com stratosphere, we all win. Some of the more cynical of you might be scratching your heads and questioning the assertion that the benefit to this experiment is lopsided. On one hand, I can't help the fact I wrote the book (d'uh), but by donating the affiliate proceeds to charity, sharing all the data and stats with you, putting myself out there and being prepared to fail, AND recognizing that this can become a case study for us all (plus if the book does well, it validates so much of what so many of us believe in), hopefully we'll all feel a sense of ownership and pride to be a part of this effort and community.

I'm not sure what will constitute success or failure. It's all relative and it's all subjective. Breaking into the top 250 should be doable...I found this image from my LA30 folder, which seems to indicate that I was able to hit 226 about a month after the book came out (that's with pretty good press pick-up etc). Emulating that seems realistic.

As for a stretch goal...I won't get too presumptuous or ambitious, but sufficed to say that if we break into the top 10, drinks are on me and you're all invited to a geek get-together, where and when, TBD.

As I wrote in the book, this is not my conversation. This is not your conversation. This is our conversation. Let's make it count (literally)

I'm giving a workshop right now at the DMA in Chicago (but you knew that already didn't you?) and got an interesting question: how many (or what %) of blogs are in fact dormant (abandoned)?

According to Technorati, there are over 108.9 million blogs that are now being tracked. I wonder how many are active (and also, what the definition of active is)?

In conjunction with and on behalf of the launch of my new book, Join the Conversation, I'm pleased to announce - together with the Society for New Communications Research and TWI Surveys - the launch of a research study dedicated to conversational marketing.

The full research release is here . Digg the release here.

The primary findings are on a continuum of stunning to pleasantly surprising. Here are the highlights:

• 81% of marketers believe that in 5 years they'll be spending as much or more on conversational marketing vs. traditional marketing
  • Nearly 57% of respondents report that in 5 years time, what they spend on conversational marketing will be greater than that of traditional marketing.  Another roughly 24% believed it would be the same as traditional marketing
• 70% are currently spending 2.5% or less of their communications budgets on conversational marketing, but two-thirds plan to increase their investment in conversation within the next twelve months
• Respondents noted that the primary obstacles currently preventing them from investing more in conversational marketing include: “Manpower restraints” - 51.1% “Fear of loss of control” - 46.9% “Inadequate metrics” - 45.4% “Culture of their organizations” - 43.5% “Difficulty with internal sell-through” - 35.8%

There are plenty more findings...which are available and represented in the book.

I must admit that when I first saw the results, I struggled to believe them. Could it be possible that within 5 years from now, conversational marketing will actually outpace traditional marketing? I checked with TWI Surveys and they stood by the data. Then I saw this 1-2-3 punch from Veronis Suhler, which validated this data second to none:

1. Alternative Media is becoming a tradition
2. Internet Ad Spending set to overtake all other media by 2011
3. Time spent with media falters, digital spawns shorter attention spans

In addition, most people I speak with don't seem to baulk at the fact that traditional marketing is going to be a 2nd or 3rd tier component of most marketing plans in 5+ years' time. If digital takes center stage AND most mediums will be digital anyway, then it seems like a no-brainer that "traditional" marketing will continue to fade and be phased out. Other than print advertising (although surely RFID is not too far away...), not many media will be immune to digital integration.

The second factor is conversational marketing (community, dialogue and partnership), which is as much cultural, strategic and philosophical, as it is tactical per se. It's probably safe to say that most brand initiatives will contain an unbeatable punch of interactivity and conversational activation by 2012...hence the belief that linear, one-way or unidirectional, intrusive, poorly-targeted and static communication will take a back seat to the rise of what I believe will be the next way of growth, innovation and evolution of marketing (as a conversation)

I want to send a big thank-you to Jen McClure at the SNCR, as well as to Tudor Williams at TWI Surveys. I'm also proud to announce that I'm now a Senior Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research and I look forward to contributing and collaborating more with SNCR in the foreseeable future.

Geek Dinner in Chicago on Wednesday, October 167th at 6.30pm. Venue: Bennigans at 150 S. Michigan, at the corner of Michigan and Adams. e-mail me at: jaffe [at] getthejuice [dot] com if you plan on making it. Hope to see you there!

(The 17th)

USA Today gives an update on time-shifting behavior and while, the spin seems to be on how DVR's are adding viewers to overall audience numbers (hooray, reach), I can't help but wonder if the networks really think their buying clients (agencies, marketers) are that dumb.

In the case of The Office for example, DVR time-shifting adds as much as 22% viewership:

-The Office (NBC)
DVR viewers (in millions): 2.41
Total viewers (in millions): 10.8
Percent DVR: 22.2%

...which is another way of saying that a minimum of 2.41 million viewers watched ZERO commercials.

Amongst the most time-shifted series from last week is Survivor China, which one might think would be more resistant or immune to time-shifting. Not so.

-Survivor: China (CBS)
DVR viewers (in millions): 2.24
Total viewers (in millions): 15.1
Percent DVR: 14.8%

DVR homes make up 20% of Nielsen's sample, which doesn't exactly explain how some shows have time shifting audiences over 20% (VCR's?), but what is interesting is that a significant percentage of these homes are making full use of their time-shifting ability/capability.

The new figures "are very reassuring for us," says CBS research chief David Poltrack, by reducing year-to-year viewership declines from 7% to a "more manageable" 4% for the Big 4 networks.

It's a catch-22 to be sure, which surely puts a lot more pressure on in-program monetization e.g. branded entertainment in order to extract incremental value from "more manageable" audience loss.

Sounds like a lose-lose situation to me. More measurement and more audience = declining ad revenue?

On Friday of last week, I recorded my last "Across the Sound - The New Marketing Podcast" ever. The podcast I began 2 years ago with Steve Rubel, named "Across the Sound" as Steve lived in Long Island and I, in Westport, CT, hit 93...falling 7 shy of the big 100.

...or did it?

Starting today, Across the Sound is rebranded and renamed as....Jaffe Juice (ta-da!) Sounds simple enough...and it is. For all the right reasons, it made total sense to bundle and consolidate both social media assets (blog and podcast) under one umbrella brand.

I'm looking into forwarding/redirecting the feed (I believe that's possible) which seems like the obvious solution. Another one is just to subscribe to Jaffe Juice in iTunes (or your favorite podcatcher) - the direct iTunes link is here. Also, if you're not a listener, take this opportunity to subscribe and give it a shot.

And so, if you want to get the Juice, you can in its two forms: text and audio (and who knows....shudder...and some point soon, video as well...which is a bad idea as I've been told I have a face for radio) Jaffe Juice - the New Marketing Podcast will continue where ATS left off as JJ #94.

Part of the timing is to coincide with the launch of my book, Join the Conversation, and part of the reason is to celebrate a new partner. As of today, I'm thrilled to announce a 12-episode partnership with Deliver Magazine, an innovation-focused web and print magazine,

published by the United States Postal Service. The press release is here

The partnership will last roughly 12 episodes and will take Jaffe Juice through the 100th episode (as many of you will recall, I set out to find a sponsor for this milestone...and I did!)

Each week, the editorial team at Deliver will send in an audio vignette, which will focus on a common area of interest in the field of innovation. I will respond to the question, comment, and/or meme and then invite the Jaffe Juice (ATS) community to do likewise. I'll also be contributing 6 articles to the magazine and 6 thought leadership pieces to Deliver's website over the next 12 months. To kick off the association, I'll be signing books tonight at a USPS reception.

The folks over at Deliver Magazine, USPS, Campbell-Ewald (USPS' agency) and myself have worked hard at this and I'm really proud of where we ended up. It's further proof that podcasting is real, substantial and valuable. To be honest, I never thought I'd be on this side of the equation, but irrespective I now have my own example (from the inside-out) of a podcasting sponsorship outside one of the anemic handful of ones usually brandished about.

It's a strategic and integrated initiative and I truly hope (I have a say in the matter) it "delivers" (sorry) the goods and the value that is being sought from this conversational experiment. One thing that is also very cool is how open everyone is to this being an evolving association i.e. letting it unfold and grow naturally.

fyi - check out Deliver Magazine and give it a trial (the subscription is free) It will surprise you big time. You can also subscribe to the feed. Nice!

JJ #94 is available for your downloading pleasure here

We're exactly a week away from Bumrush the Charts - Join the Conversation Edition. I've been overwhelmed by the excitement and awareness about the event and to this point, I want to continue to keep this momentum alive and growing...

btw...when I first announced about the book, I saw sales shoot up, but when I told everyone only to buy on Sunday, October 21st, they begun to slow down (ironic, huh?) which is terrific i.e. focusing all purchasing on one given day.

If you're so inclined to purchase the book and moreover, to spread the good word, here is the HTML code which links directly to Amazon.com. Just click on the hyperlink and copy the URL verbatim from your browser bar. Please note that there is a unique affiliate code embedded in the URL, which is for 2 reasons:

• Tracking/measurement
• I’ll be donating the full affiliate take from the day to charity…

I don’t mind if you use your own affiliate code, however should you use the one provided (my affiliate code), I'll be able to easily measure the impact of the day and of course donate the proceeds to charity (I'll supply screenshots etc. as verification)

There's also a Social Media Press Release on its way, plus a free chapter to give away: Download ccc_jaffe_104-119_ch10.pdf

I'll be available throughout the day and will encourage anyone to “call in” via +1 206 203-3255, ooVoo (jointheconversation) or Skype (jaffejuice) and become part of the chronicling of the day. In addition, I'll be live-tweeting from the new Join the Conversation twitter account

Oh, and one more thing. When you do purchase the book, join the Join the Conversation Facebook Group and acknowledge your purchase on the Wall. At the end of the day, I'm going to award a few prizes, including the following:

• I'll pick one person to co-develop a custom presentation with and co-present at Podcamp NYC in Feb 29/Mar 1

Any other suggestions for "prizes" welcome. I have been mulling over some kind of "stretch goal" i.e. along the lines of, "if 100,000 people join this group..." and/or if the book breaks into the overall Amazon.com Top 10 for the day, I'll...[fill in some crazy, outlandish, radical idea here]. What do you think? Too gimmicky? Suggestions welcome...

I'm in Chicago this week for the DMA and thought a Wednesday night social media shindig might be a good idea.

I know Chris Thilk and Kevin Behringer are most likely in, with tweet-crazy Armano most likely North of the Border.

If you'd like to get together, comment below or e-mail me: jaffe [at] getthejuice [dot] com.

I'll come with my Nikon D80, iPhone and even a copy of two of my new book...

The very final episode of Across the Sound (find out next week what becomes of ATS) Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. In this episode, I sit down with Real Pie Media's Kirk Skodis and we judge the Experimentation case study submissions.

This the final installment in a terrific series of sponsored podcasts celebrating experimentation. A big thank you to Kirk and Real Pie Media for their commitment and investment in this series.

Direct download here

The submissions are from:

• ElectroCity
• Peter Stevenson from On Communications
• Len Edgerly
• Jay Berkowitz on Omniture
• Adam Broitman on Virtualive (press release here)

...and the winner goes to???

I think I found the next level up from my iPhone for an episode and Vaio/Macbook Pro for a month experiment...it's a cartoon (a special one at that) for a quarter of sponsorship in 2008.

What makes this kind of cool is that the exact price tag is both variable and transparent.

Who's interested in joining the conversation?

Hat tip to Gideon Television.

Do I even need to comment on this?

That's the headline verbatim from the ANA, ahead of their annual meeting (which I hope to speak at next year...you'll see why in a moment)

The highlights of a study conducted amongst 250+ of their marketer base revealed the following:

• 90% say they plan to increase their investment in digital
• only 24% of them believe their organizations to be "digitally savvy"
• Barriers preventing them from spending more include: insufficient metrics (62%), lack of organization support (51%) and lack of experience in new media (59%).

The study, which was conducted in association with Booz Allen, the IAB and the AAAA, revealed 5 key themes:

This first part of this survey is not dissimilar from the previous 3 years: digital is on the increase...we need to spend more...our organizations don't get it...we need better metrics for new marketing (because our metrics for traditional marketing are just so advanced and we have such a good read on ROI, don't we!?!?)...we need better training programs

2 things strike me though as unique: Firstly, the number (90%) is overwhelming. It's never been this high and the consensus has never been this pronounced. Secondly, there is the constant unmet need for training, which I can tell you from first hand experience is not being met within the organization.

Now let's segue to the 5 themes and begin with the one which obviously I have the most interest in: Marketing as Conversation. This is in fact, one of the central premises of my new book, Join the Conversation, which is literally due out on October 21st (when we bumrush the charts and hope you will join in as well), namely that Marketing can be a Conversation (an extension of Cluetrain's premise of Markets as Conversations)

What concerns me is the fact this is being directly (and exclusively?) associated with P.R. In conjunction with the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) and TWI Surveys, we piloted our own research on conversational marketing and the consensus was certainly not that P.R. was best positioned to lead this vital effort. I'm not saying that P.R. doesn't have a role...of course it does...but based on some of the efforts to date, I wouldn't exactly say P.R. has hit it out of the park. In addition, I believe the agencies (yes, I said it), consultancies and emerging/specialist boutiques (yes, crayon would be one of them) are well positioning to deliver and fulfill against this mandate.

Media is the New Creative bores me. Simplifying this business to content creation and distribution is too superficial. Holding up communications planning as the bridge between the two is equally limiting. I'd like to believe that there are more evolved forms of planning than comms planning - consider conversation planning, content planning or a discipline which gets into the very core and fiber of the organization, covering off on employee and internal communication, crisis communication, customer service, R&D and innovation. Let's move this process along, shall we? At the end of the day, as the "93 colors" continues to play out, the need for a group of connectors or integrators is going to be that much more critical.

The Network Effect. I am less preoccupied with the bundle, unbundle or rebundle debate. I am more concerned with the blurring of roles between media and creative and more importantly, the role that strategy will play in this evolved model. Certainly, which model or agency-type will be best suited or structured to lead and win is going to continue to be an elusive challenge. I do believe that part of the solution is going to come from "generalists" that come to the table with traditional, interactive, media, creative, direct response, branding, product marketing and P.R. experience to name a few. If there is a new model out there, it doesn't exist today. Sure, I can tell you that that's what we're trying to achieve at crayon, but crayon aside...this is about the ability to dynamically assemble a think tank; a consortium of smart, strategic and creative people, who are balanced from a vision and activation standpoint; who can balance and reconcile brand and business drivers and objectives.

So there you have it...another year; another survey; another bunch of empty resolutions, where marketers come to the table with hopes, dreams and delusions of grandeur of being able to bust out of the insanity echo chamber. Who knows...maybe next year will be different.

No news to report, except that I'm maintaining which can only be a good thing. This is the most consistent my weight has ever been in recent memory, however I'd still like to drop another 5-7 more pounds before the end of the year.

Bob Garfield is not just a pretty face that reviews pretty 30-second spot. Turns out he's also a customer...or when it comes to Comcast, an ex-customer (much like Monty Python's ex-parrot, only he's very much alive)

Jeff "Dell" Jarvis isn't joining the crusade, but does have less terminal words for the sloth: Comcast must listen - which, if not heeded, is pretty much the same as Comcast Must Die.

It's one part branded entertainment - ala Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - and one part giving something to the community.

To tell you more about this initiative, I hand you over to the Social Media Press Release (it's a wonderful thing):

• Any family can submit audition videos now via the website, for a chance to be chosen for an upgrade.       
• Chosen families will have their houses decked out with the latest in high-tech networking, theater and gaming equipment, tailored to their individual needs.
• Each house upgrade is unveiled at a community-wide block party where the attendees watch the live action on the Jumbotron and enjoy other festivities.
• Currently three families in the Philadelphia area and two families in the Pittsburgh area will get a complete technological home upgrade FREE from the My Home 2.0 team.
• TV Episodes will air on major local network channels, FiOS TV video-on-demand and online at http://2pointhome.com
• Families' stories will live on through the website, along with regular updates from the Tech Guru hosts and FiOS techs.

It's a Verizon FIOS initiative that basically moves around from town and town and then once the makeovers are complete, everybody parties.

Steve and CC are working on this project and from what I've read, it seems like a great experience thus far...and anything that takes me away from those ghastly FIOS 30-second spots can only be a good thing.

Now on another note, I'll gladly barter a month's sponsorship on my podcast for a Verizon FIOS upgrade makeover :)

Jason Calacanis asks, gets answers and provides his official definition:

Web 3.0 is defined as the creation of high-quality content and services produced by gifted individuals using Web 2.0 technology as an enabling platform.

I know I have my definition of Web 3.0 and not sure it has anything to do with Jason's definition (oops).

So before I show you mine, why don't you show me yours?

As Keanu Reeves might say in one of his signature one-word lines, "Woah!"

Radiohead has done a Dell and cut out the middleman BIG TIME in what I would call "direct-to-consumer". They're essentially leaving it completely up to their fans to determine what they should pay for the band's new album.

They even remind people that there are no strings attached:

NO REALLY. IT'S UP TO YOU.

Whether you believe Radiohead's new album, In Rainbow is worth UK 1p (or US 2c) or an exponential multiple thereof, ultimately that's your choice and your decision.

Woah indeed.

No iTunes. No Limewire or Kazaa. No SpiralFrog. No HMV. No Virgin. No problem. No way!!!!

I'd like to see this go one step further i.e. let listeners go back to the original transaction and - based on their level of satisfaction - increase or decrease their original offer. Now that's what I would call "satisfaction guaranteed"

It's a totally original spin on true market forces, no?

Hat Tip to Greg Veerman.

A mainstream media article on Twitter, which is fairly rare to see (as well as the fact, it's not calling its users lunatics)

Considering their proximity (both in San Francisco), one wonders whether Linden Labs shouldn't share its PR secrets with the folks over at Twitter, but then again...perhaps that's the goal i.e. stay somewhat under the radar and build up a loyal and solid base of "followers".

I've been using Twitter for some time now and don't regard myself as a raving lunatic. I've been using jaffejuice as my primary handle, and shortly will introduce a new one for my book, "Join the Conversation" - http://www.twitter.com/jointheconvo

"blogging about twitter right now When I'm done I'll twitter about my blog post :)" (with 59 characters to spare, I might add)

Twitter is definitely still growing and improving, for example...when one is on the road and tweeting via mobile, Twitter becomes decidedly one-way/communication based, as opposed to conversational insofar that the Tweeter will not get to see all the responses to their tweet. This is mainly because of a) the volume of incoming tweets and b) the cost of text messaging  en masse.

A suggestion to improve this might be the ability to create an mobile-rule which allows any tweets with the tweeter's name preceded by an "a" sign i.e. @jaffejuice.

The above point is less of a shortcoming and more of an opportunity (in fact Twitter is starting to make some interesting progress on the mobile front...an essential component of its strategic recipe for success, no doubt)

It also points out a very interesting consumer insight about Twitter, namely the seeding of syntax into our social media vernacular. The naming convention i.e. @jaffejuice or @Scobleizer (the handle of well-known blogger, Robert Scoble) has successfully infiltrated blogging as a nifty way to respond via the comment thread to multiple people at the same time.

A nice cup of Joe to start the day

A huge part of Twitter is the immediacy of it all. The company was founded on a simple insight, "what are you doing right now?", but as the article above suggests might be evolving to a more aspirational platform i.e. capturing life in 140 characters or less.  To be sure, the former might have led to some of the earlier negative PR

What's so special about having a cup of coffee to start the day and who cares that Joseph Jaffe is about to have a cup of coffee to start his day?

Maybe so, but I will say 2 things about the randomness of things like "on a train into the city with my daughter for the day," it led me to meet up with Derek Mehraban, who was in town with his daughters on vacation. The same Derek Mehraban, who approached me to speak at Arb Camp in Ann Arbor on October 27th. Socialdipity my friends.

What Twitter now has to figure out is how to literally capture the essence of that immediacy and extend it's value accordingly.

With automatic feeds from blog posts (still haven't figured out how to do that myself), seeding announcements, thought leadership, beta invites and events is incredibly efficient. Google is already capturing tweets and many people have been surprised to find tweets in search results and/or in Google Alerts. I've also finally (thanks to Mitch Joel) figured out how to update my tweets automatically in my Facebook profile.

All in all, it's "IM meets social networking" (that's my 26 character elevator pitch) and  will present intriguing possibilities for marketers and brands as it - along with brands - continue to explore the future (hopefully together)

Take a gander, nod your head and say, AMEN. This is the follow-up to the incredible Evolution. Is the sequel as good as the first movie? Not sure that's the question. However, perhaps it's the answer to what Dove did next en route to their goal of reaching 5 millions girls by 2010 as part of the Self-Esteem Fund.

What interests me is how the rest of the "beauty" industry must feel about these very authentic ideas, which hit home on the travesty of misrepresentation, misdirection and borderline indoctrination and propaganda that is the "30-second spot"

6 months ago, a group of forward-thinking, social media gurus like Christopher S. Penn got together to help an incredible band by the name of Black Lab "bumrush" the iTunes charts. I wrote about it here and podcasted about it here.

The "experiment" didn't exactly catapult Black Lab to number 1 in iTunes, but it did break the top 100 and in some countries outperformed beyond wildest expectations.

Next came author, Scott Sigler, who bumrushed his book, Ancestor, into the Amazon.com chart stratosphere. I participated on the day and witnessed Ancestor climbing all the way to the overall Amazon.com top 10 - #4 to be specific. I blogged about it here.

In short, BRTC is one part flash-mob and one part communally-infused product launch.

I wrote about it in my about-to-be-released book, "Join the Conversation" and it seems fitting to use the same approach to help promote and launch my book. It's classic UNM2PNM meets "community, dialogue and partnership" which is the entire pretext of the book.

So here's where we are. On October 21st, we get to Bumrush the Amazon.com charts for "Join the Conversation". What does this mean? Simple. If you're planning on buying the book (and I hope you are), please don't purchase it before October 21st....in fact, do purchase it on October 21st through Amazon.com

I will be providing specific links etc closer to the time, but for now...mark Sunday, October 21st on your calendars, tell your friends and help me spread the word.

There are going to be several conversational components to the day and I'll fill you in within the next week or so. I'll be on hand to chat with you throughout the day through various video, audio and text means and we can track the progress of the book and the relative success of this conversational marketing experiment.

In terms of expectations, I'm certainly not expecting to displace Harry Potter or current #1, Clarence Thomas' My Grandfather's Son, however it would be cool to top the business or at least marketing charts on the day. Ultimately you'll be the arbiter's of whether that will be possible or not...