Jaffe Juice

As I'm heading out to Africa on a pseudo-vacation (I wouldn't be relaxed if I wasn't wired), I thought I'd turn over the reigns of Jaffe Juice to a few luminaries sure to cause a bit of provocation.

The last time I did this, I handed over the conch to Tom Biro and Chris Thilk, then both instilled in the wonderful AdJab (sniff)

This time I reached out to a very close group to me - the group that endorsed my book, "Join the Conversation" - namely: Jim Stengel, Mark Greatrex, Beth Comstock, Nick Brien, Roy Spence, Stan Rapp and Jim Garrity.

Completely understanding busy travel and holiday schedules, I didn't expect too many to respond in the affirmative, but was very pleased that Stan and Jim (the two youngins in the group)

Both Stan and Jim have become (whether they know it or not), mentors to me and so I'm very much looking forward to reading their contributions over the next few weeks.

For those of you that don't know Stan and Jim, I've posted bio's (Stan's is on its way) in the extended post. In short, newly-retired Jim Garrity was Chief Marketing Officer of Wachovia whereas Stan is the same Rapp from Rapp-Collins and a founding father of Relationship Marketing (yes, the category).

I'll do my best to pop in from time to time, but in the interim I'll leave you in the hands of Stan and Jim....

60-minutes (yes, I recognize the irony) segment on The Millenials. Definitely one to watch.

Go Morley, it's your birthday...

This episode brought to you in partnership with Deliver Magazine and the USPS. Check them out at www.delivermagazine.com. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook Group.

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0m - Off to South Africa on Vacation. Look out for JJ#99 some time in December.

3m - Anything can be a conversation. Whether a presentation, a book (you can become an author of the Join the Conversation blog here) or even a song. Thanks to Matthew Ebel for "Join the Conversation"

13m - Len Edgerly joins the conversation and responds with some constructive criticism (tough love?) for the Deliver partnership.

19m20 - Cat Moriarty, Editor of Deliver Magazine, responds personally to Len

34m20 - Conversation Starter #3 brought to you by Deliver Magazine, focused on Greenwashing or why it's important to do things properly or not at all. Link to "The Most Terrifying Video you'll ever see"

43m25 - The finale of Virtual Thirst, with an audio comment from Marty Nish. Links to Virtual Thirst Facebook Group and Video, Jaffe Juice blog post #1 and post #2

48m - A tangent and update on my PC, Vista and Podcasting Software situation. I'm baaaaack with CastBlaster.

58m45 - Part 2 of Marty's Audio comment on his intentions to purchase a Dell XPS M1330 and possibly some kind of incentive to do so from Dell....

1h03 - e-mail our Military audio promo and a Conversational Experiment to accompany the sentiment.

1h06 - playing out with a 12 minute audio comment from first-time commenter, Matt Searles (America's favorite mystic prophet philosopher artist)

6 days left to do your part in what I believe is one of the most worthy causes in recent times. I'm often spoken about a vision of wiring - or unwiring - the world with Internet access. Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop per Child is doing just that.

Make no mistake, this doesn't replace or even displace other causes - from finding a cure to Aids to combating poverty.

That said, my personal belief is that the ability to truly democratize access to "perfect information" can and will create an unprecedented leveling of the playing fields across socialization, education, empowerment and action on a global scale.

There's a special "promotion" on offer right now. Here are the details:

Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).

For all U.S. donors who participate in the Give One Get One program, T-Mobile is offering one year of complimentary HotSpot access. Find out more.

What are you waiting for? Make this Thanksgiving live up to its name.
                   

On Friday, I gave a keynote presentation to the folks over at Samsung Electronics.  Here is a pretty cool caricature given to me from Cheil to capture the moment.

I just finished giving my Keynote at Outsell's Signature event in the lovely Kiawah resort in South Carolina. My presentation was titled, "Enterprise 2.0" and I talked about crayon, and some of the things we're doing or hope to be able to do in the future.

I used the Second Life case study i.e. how we launched and the publicity/pick-up we received in the process. I also covered Virtual Thirst.

In fact, the reason I was invited to speak at this conference (alongside people like Dr Andrew Weil and George Colony etc) was the ABC piece on the Virtual Office.

Unbeknownst to me, the day before the subject of SL came up and there were the usual bashers. Irrespective I gave my consistent POV, namely....you got to be in it, to win it. In other words, if you want to understand Second Life, try it out yourself (either personally or on behalf of your company/brand) I also made mention of the fact that it is less about Second Life and more about Virtual Worlds on one hand, and Second Life as a metaphor for experimentation and innovation on the other hand.

I also mentioned my post on Top 10 reasons why marketers hate SL (but in reality just hate themselves)

And then a thought struck me when it comes to the number 1 criticism leveled at Second Life i.e. "the lack of reach" (which itself is linked to the Ghost Town observation) Now of course, I have my standard response to the whole notion of qualitative reach, combined with the comparison between SL and NBC on one hand or SL and Amazon.com on the other.

BUT, this is the thought that I wanted to share with you today: who is exactly responsible for the lack of reach in Second Life? Linden Labs? Millions of Us? Electric Sheep? Me? Or YOU?!

As marketers, we've been gifted "A New World" so to speak. We've been given a blank canvas to jointly explore and co-develop, alongside with the installed residents. We are Christopher Columbus. We are Vasco da Gama. We are Magellan. Or are we instead a frightened bunch of sniveling, pathetic fraidicats.

My point is this: are we not the pioneers; the explorers; the ones crazy enough to think we can change the virtual world? Why have we not embraced the creative platform and panacea of limitless expression and imagination?

If [insert Fortune 500 brand here] really wanted to, they could create a 30-second spot inviting people to their otherwise desolate island, with or without tour guides or Sherpas to help navigate there.

Is it possible that we are to blame for the lack of imagination, creativity, expression, reach, and critical mass in nascent worlds like Second Life or platforms like podcasting? At what point should we take responsibility or accountability for flogging the worn out and tired cash cow, and neglecting or discarding the next potential one(s)?

...and by we, of course I mean, "you"

So many links, so little time...

• Big Blue sings the blues for mainstream advertising, with 30% of money currently with traditional media companies expected to make their way to the Google's and Yahoo!'s (assuming they even exist) of the world within 5 years time
• Yesterday, we celebrated the end (or is it the beginning?) of the Coca-Cola Virtual Thirst program in Second Life. Here's the commerative video:

• Jen McClure and I gang up against Jim Nail discussing the SNCR/Jaffe research on Conversational Marketing.
• Facebook unveils some kind of breakthrough new advertising program, which I believe narrowly beats out YouTube's overlay adds.
• Grant Proulx follows in my footsteps and offers up his heart and mind, in exchange for a G3
• Mashable's top 10 events for bloggers. Is it bad that I've been to only 1/10 of 1?
• Brogan tweets. The world responds in kind. In this case, 31+ lightening fast responses within 30 minutes to better public speaking tips.
• Dude, you're getting a Tortilla. File this under "Where are they now?"
• Socialdipity - I recorded JJ# 97 next to Susan's Dad. And now we've met because of it.
• When Social Media & PR work together article
• The next time you need to buy a domain, use one of the following codes: PCH1 for 10% off, PCH2 (for $5 off when spending $30 or more) or PCH3 (for a $6.95 domain name). Proceeds will go toward Mark Yoshimoto Nemcoff allowing me to use the Bumrush name for at least another day...

Recorded in the Admiral's Club at La Guardia Airport. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook group, why don't you?

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In this episode, I discuss my new PC (Dell XPS m1330), new operating system (Vista, ugggh) and podcasting software (ePodcast Producer)

12m30 - Matthew Ebel weighs in with an audio comment on ooVoo and the Mac Community, being eco-friendly (a follow up to JJ #95's Conversation Starter segment from Deliver Magazine) and then introduces...

28m - This week's Conversation Starter from Deliver Magazine on CRM.

37m13 - Grant Proulx weighs in and joins the conversation for the first time with his attempt to follow in the steps from my iPhone for an episode Experiment. He wants a new G3 iBook. Can you help?

47m11 - A common thread runs through this entire episode, don't you think?

49m10 - Playing out the Ebel lovefest with Lost my Way...

Ahead of tomorrow's Virtual Thirst finale, I thought I would write a different kind of post...which isn't directly in favor or against Second Life per se; nor is an endorsement for or against Virtual Worlds; but rather an analogy using SL as a metaphor for change and emerging media and juxtaposing it against the mainstream marketing mentality.

So here are my top 10 reasons why some (not all) marketers either don't get Second Life or don't want to get it.

1. All brands are islands (as opposed to: no man is an Island) - everybody got all tizzied up about building huge edifices of grandeur (brandeur? hmmm), which became ghost towns...but no one ever stopped to ask WHY? The why is simple. For the first time brands are finding out that they are unwelcome guests to the party of life. In Second Life, they start out as Islands and need to figure out ways of building bridges between themselves and their communities. Companies - like crayon - recommended brands NOT to build Islands...but maybe, that was the wrong advice. Building an Island was exactly the way to show marketers how uncool they really are. It's a cathartic and mandatory exorcism of arrogance and isolationist mentality.

2. Reach envy - Second Life or any emerging media/platform is not and should not be looked at as a reach play. If anything, it represents qualitative reach as its "residents" are comprised of influencers, innovators and early adopters. Marketers and their mainstream agencies struggle to focus on "small" versus "big" when it comes to being all things to all people and inevitably ending up as nothing to nobody. It's hard to evaluate a new marketing opportunity using old marketing metrics and yardsticks. The same applies to demographics....which are challenging when bald men are hot babes (see number 8)

3. Your brand is not my friend -  Friendship is earned; conversation is permission-based...I could go on. Bottom line is that brands that just show up (often as party-crashers) to someone else's party had better be the life of the party or they will be tossed out on their asses. Without taking the time to listen and learn; to partner with the "locals", brands become nothing more than clumsy buffoons. Working with your customers as partners is quickly becoming a mandatory in this day and age...

4. Marketing as a contact sport - What happens in Second Life....happens in REAL TIME. We're not talking about  LIVE + 7 ratings here...reactions are instantaneous, unfiltered and 1000% honest and authentic. This is essentially part 2 of the Emperor without his clothes (see all brands are Islands) where marketers cannot run and cannot hide and if they do, flying genitalia will surely out them. Second Life is a true mash-up of the focus group and launch initiatives...and the fireworks that come out of the event are often community-generated, as opposed to marketer controlled.

5. Control is not an option - Second Life gives us a glimpse into a future where propaganda and programming are not at the discretion of the marketer anymore. The fork in the road clearly gives only two options: deal with it or be consumed and destroyed by it.

6. The next big thing obsession - It's borderline delusional and incredibly lemming-like to rush in and rush out based on whatever it's the favor of the moment. I'm struck by how influenced marketers are by the mainstream media that plays puppet-master in terms of advocating when the water is too cold or too hot to enter. This, coupled with poor leadership from many agencies, AND a constant unsettled desire to conquest "the next big thing" makes for a mess. Second Life was the Prom Queen that developed bad acne and now is being discarded and forgotten in favor of the next hottie? Come now.

7. Firewall blockage - The fact remains...most marketers (and journalists) have never set foot in Second Life, but dare to judge it or pass judgment on it based on hear-say and broken telephones. This, coupled with the fact that EVEN IF THEY WANTED TO, they are prevented (discouraged?) from trying before they buy by a rigid, ancient and out of date corporate infrastructure that frowns on change (see control is not an option) Marketers need to be living change (first hand) and putting pressure on those around them to do likewise.

8. Schizophrenia rules OK or is it KO? Hypocrisy seems to come bundled with being in marketing today. On one hand we frown on Second Life, but in the pharmaceutical industry for example, we go bananas with talking bees, luminous butterflies and other colorful personified germs that would find a really comfortable home in a Virtual World. As marketers, we buy millions of dollars of television advertising, but when we get home we TiVo (zap) every single spot. We refer to Second Life as a fantasy existence, but in reality isn't our regular status quo more reminiscent of a fairy tale i.e. hoping for that happily ever after ending, but refusing to exchange our wooden sword for something DIFFERENT as we go out to battle the fire-breathing dragon of change? In Second Life, men are women, brands are bands, women are hot, boys are men and the list goes on. Deal with the dichotomy people.

9. Rabbit holes are not great for people not called Alice - I wonder how Alice in Wonderland would have read if Alice had chosen to conduct several rounds of primary research, focus groups, mined piles of syndicated data and waited for critical mass before plunging into the unknown. Second Life is a panacea for creativity and innovation and it is the rabbit hole that takes us into the real opportunity...virtual worlds and how THEY will transform the way we EXPERIENCE brands and interact with them and of course, each other. Risk and experimentation are not mutually exclusive; insights and learnings are not inputs, but outcomes of this process.

10. One night stands are great if you're a frat boy - Oh I'm sorry, I thought you wanted customers for life; I was misinformed that in fact you just want people to BUY NOW on command. Second Life is a proving ground for commitment and tenure. Tomorrow we conclude the Virtual Thirst program, which technically has been 7 months - not in the making (and from a planning process, over a year) - but in fact, in the doing. And after tomorrow, Virtual Thirst as an idea; an execution; and a distributed platform for experiencing the Coke Side of Life will live on...forever....in world, on line and through the magic juice of Google. The real question is whether you have the stomach, stamina, effort, energy and inclination to be in it to win it and to fight off laziness and lethargy that comes with trying get rich quick through carpet bombing your audience into silent submission.

Look in the mirror. Embrace that dumpy reflection (both yours and your brands) and then log-in-world and become a pioneer of the future. It's way cooler than that miserable reflection staring back at you.

Update:

• John Wall weighs in with his take on Second Life
• Adweek picks up this piece, but just to be clear...Firewalls preventing marketers and journalist from entering SL and passing poor or misinformed judgment without first experiencing SL are not one and the same
• Ad Age picks up the story too (You have to admire Web 2.0 boosters for their super-hero-like ability to miss the point...)

From a fellow listener/reader of Jaffe Juice, Alex Wunschel in Berlin on the way to a Web 2.0 expo.

Wonder if Mark Harrison had anything to do with this...

The bulk of this special episode is my Q&A from Arb Camp (Saturday, October 27th) where I debuted my "Join the Conversation" presentation. Also in this episode, Rushbum update and more on Firebrand. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook Group.

Jaffe Juice iTunes subscription here

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- 6POS Interview between Mitch Joel and myself
- Amazon.com Affiliate link to purchase "Join the Conversation" (all affiliate proceeds to charity)
- Firebrand

Here's part 2 of the DMA Workshop on Virtual Worlds and most notably, Second Life.

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Apologies to all those attendees who have been asking me where my workshop presentation is...here it is:

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