Jaffe Juice

Unpopular Brooklyn Half

First of all, let me thank New York Roadrunners for giving me this week's column. Yes, that was a bit snarky, but genuinely I appreciate the content inspiration.

Secondly, I expect (in fact I hope) some fans to defend @nyrr. They tried their best. Give them a pass. Cut them some slack. No doubt! This is the power of advocacy after all. 

On Wednesday, January 22nd at 12 noon, registration opened for the popular Brooklyn Half Marathon. 

A bit of context:

• The half marathon is sponsored by Popular Bank. I had never heard of the brand and I actually had to do some digging to find out who they are. So there's a positive outcome from this story off the bat.
• It's one of the most popular races in the country. Last year, there were 26,841 finishers. I was registered but sadly had to bow out with an injury.
• It starts at the Brooklyn Museum, travels through Prospect Park, and ends at the iconic Coney Island boardwalk.

This year, myself and two other runners were at our respective computer screens around 11.45am gearing up to snap up our registrations before the race filled up. This typically happens within 30 minutes. We noticed a new procedure with what appeared to be a "virtual line." On the surface, this makes sense and actually humanizes the idea of waiting in a non-physical line.

All looked good until the registration went live. At this point, there was a message that the line was paused and then around 12.15pm, I was informed I was 25 minutes away from registered. This went down to 10 minutes and then suddenly shot up to 48 minutes and soon over an hour.

I was bewildered and turned to Twitter and it was only through Twitter that I was able to ascertain an incredibly embarrassing and frustrating #EPICFAIL.

Around 12.22pm, @nyrr informed there was some kind of technical glitch and you'll see my response to @nyrr around 12.41pm

New York Road Runners did not post again until around 1.21pm when they informed the problem would be fixed within the hour and if it wasn't, they would consider rescheduling the registration.

Rescheduling was clearly the consensus based on Twitter responses: 

 So what happened? 

• The problem was NOT fixed within the hour 
• Registration went live again around 4pm 
• At no point did any e-mails go out to inform people of this  
• I assume this was listed on their website and then there was Twitter.  
• All in all, 11 tweets were issued from @nyrr's account. This included 2 tweets about the registration nearing capacity and 1 apology (see below)

Fortunately for me, my running partners texted me registration was open around 4.15pm. If they hadn't I wouldn't have known and probably wouldn't have been able to register. I got in.

OK, so what were the learnings? This post is not - only - about beating up on @nyrr. If indeed President Capiraso is serious and committed to be better in the future, then the bullets below should help him and @nyrr. You're welcome!

1. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Or, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Brooklyn Half registration worked fine in the past, so while the bright and shiny object of a virtual queue makes sense, doesn't mean it's a better option.
2. Personally, I like this idea, BUT I would manage expectations and in this case reassure someone who is waiting for 30 minutes for example that they WILL get in...but just need to be patient. Nothing worse than getting to the end of the line and being disappointed.
3. The most egregious mistake here is that this was not QA'd or stress tested. At least, I can't imagine it was. How could they not anticipate the demand and the rush? Or the partner they used? Did they try and do it themselves? Did they cut corners and costs in terms of implementation? This really is unacceptable. 
4. Every company. Every company must plan for every single campaign, launch or program prepared for both best and worst case scenarios. In some cases, it might be the same thing I.e. the website crashes. It's not ok to be surprised if you are a corporate.
5. When the problem happened, the clock was ticking for @nyrr to figure out a solution. And quickly. As per (4), they should have had a plan. Enter Twitter...THE greatest direct-to-customer-service channel ever known to business. And yet how few companies actually take advantage of this. 
6. @nyrr should have been communicating early and often versus what appeared to be 2 tweets within an hour.
7. @nyrr should have been responsive. As of today, they still haven't responded to extremely frustrated and despairing customers. Including me. Michael Capiraso - the gauntlet is thrown. Reach out to me. Acknowledge this post and my frustration. I don't expect you to be subscribed to this newsletter (although you should), but surely someone knows someone who knows someone who knows you...
8. @nyrr should have enlisted the help and support of their base. Help us spread the word!!!!
9. @nyrr should have been more decisive. They should have postponed registration and given advance notice for new registration, for example a day later at 12 noon EST.
10. The "additional entries" approach is interesting. Clearly there were going to be a lot of people who didn't end up getting in that should have based on clearing their calendar at 12 noon EST. I wonder what happened here. Surely this opened the door to every single person who didn't get in jumping on this bandwagon. 
11. As bad a situation as this was, there was so many ways @nyrr could have turned lemons into lemonade. Examples: complimentary AND guaranteed entry in next year's Brooklyn Half, guaranteed entry into the TCS NYC Marathon (very hard to get in)
12. At the end of the day, people are reasonable (at least most are.) Where @nyrr screwed up is that they didn't respect people's time; they didn't empathize. People took over an hour of their work week AND still might not have made it in to the race. Just the ability to express true remorse, humanity and empathy goes a long way. 
13. In a situation like this, complete transparency is the only way to go 
14. e-mail. e-mail. e-mail. @nyrr used e-mail to remind people the day before, so why not during? Why not after? As of today, I still haven't seen the apology letter in my in-box. Twitter and nyrr.org is fine, but that's not on your customer's terms. Your website is your home field. Twitter is a neutral venue. Your customer's in-box is their home. 
15. Maybe you think I was too harsh in my criticism, but as per tweet, if they were a business (and they kind of are), they would be OUT of business. As per my Instagram quotable from last week, "you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression" BUT "you DO get a second chance to make a good second impression." 

 It's not how you start...it's how you finish and that analogy is perfect for a half marathon!

Jaffe Juice #189 - Walk, Climb, Or Fly with Leigh Durst

 Congrats to Leigh Durst on publishing her first book!!!

In this episode, Leigh and I sit down and discuss SxSW, similarities between Built to Suck and Walk, Climb, Or Fly and Spirit Animals.

Buy the book here.

You can become a part of this show, just call in +1 (203) 689-8661 and leave a message.

You can download or listen live here or of course subscribe to the podcast via iTunes etc.

 

 

Jaffe Juice #188 - Call me, Maybe?

In this episode, I respond to David Hachez's question about employees v customer prioritization. I also discuss Delta and Diet Coke's recent "creepy" kerfuffle inviting customers to hit on their "plane crush." Ewwwww.

You can become a part of this show, just call in +1 (203) 689-8661 and leave a message.

You can download or listen live here or of course subscribe to the podcast via iTunes etc.

 

 

Jaffe Juice #186 - Egghead, Egglikes and Egglogos

Been a little quiet for the past month as it was holidays and all. Plus I started another podcast (a spiritual one) and most importantly, I've been in full-on editing mode for my new book, "Built to Suck" (March, 2019)

Felt inspired to do a new show this morning and keeping to the format of one discussion topic (roughly 10 minutes) and then Winners and Losers, Rant of the Week, listener comments/questions etc.

In this episode, I discuss the imminent Bezos divorce and what that will mean for both Jeff Bezos and the future of Amazon.

In Winners & Losers, I give the American Egg Board the +1 for @world_record_egg's successful attempt at dethroning Kylie Jenner's most liked Instagram post ever. The irony of course is that they probably don't even know about it!

My loser is Mastercard for their groundbreaking new logo and what this says about them and their future.

Listen direct here or subscribe here.

Jaffe Juice #185 - Marketing is Finance is Business

Occasionally I'm going to pepper in an interview or two with fellow authors, influencers, opinion leaders, subject matter experts (you get the drift) and so in this episode, I am pleased to share my conversation with a real life marketer and business leader, Chris Burggraeve. Chris was the global CMO of ABInBev when I met him and over the course of several years, we had the pleasure of working together. 

He's now a consultant, VC, educator, speculator, all around entrepreneur and now...author. 

He's written a book called "Marketing is Finance is Business: How CMO, CFO and CEO cocreate iconic brands with sustainable pricing power in the new Galactic Age." It's a mouthful but that's intentional. This guy knows what he's talking about. He doesn't just talk. He's walked the talk and ultimately, brings a unique perspective you're not going to see/hear every day (or any day)

So give it a listen and enjoy.

More importantly, you can buy the book here. There's a textbook version. A kindle version. And coming soon, the Galactic version (hardcover). Love it.

Or subscribe here.

The extinction of brands?

Shann Biglione, Chief Strategy Officer, Publicis Media Greater China, wrote a terrific article on LinkedIn (hat tip: Eaon Pritchard) titled, “People who predict the death of brands don’t understand why they exist.”

In it, he outlined how harbingers of doom (or marketer serial killers – love it!) who have been harping (or is it harbinging?) on the death of TV, advertising and now ultimately brands, point to 4 contributing factors for this proclamation:

 

1. e-commerce
2. Consumer reviews
3. Decline of mass advertising
4. Artificial Intelligence

He ends the article wonderfully, “Predicting the death of brands fails to understand their Darwinian nature: they do not exist because they were imposed unto us, they exist because of us.”

So I thought I would provide a counterpoint that is less a rebuttle and more a triangulated perspective.

To begin, I think the assertions of “death of” TV, advertising and brands are absolutely connected and evolutionary in nature. TV is a subset (and the biggest component) of advertising; and advertising has been the predominant input or contributing ingredient of the brand recipe. Classic marketing theory has been built upon the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) and it is the P of Promotion that similarly has enjoyed the lion’s share of attention and investment in the Brand Mix.

I wrote, “Life after the 30-second spot” some 13 years ago and in it, I asserted that the 4 P’s have become commoditized. All washing detergents work; all toothpaste cleans; all candy tastes good but is bad for you. Pricing is essentially transparent. Location is ubiquitous. And don’t get me started on the backlash against advertising.

If you think about it, Shann’s 4 variables fit quite nicely into the 4 P’s paradigm:

• consumer reviews would translate into the P of Product AKA you can’t put lipstick on a pig
• e-commerce is probably best aligned with the P of Place
• decline of mass advertising – obviously the P of Promotion
• AI is probably the least obvious, but I guess we can attribute to the P of Price, especially when comparison shopping, recommendations and automated purchasing and renewals make this a much more programmatic decision thread

To be clear, I’m not sure I would necessary “harb” on the same 4 points (I was just reconciling them).

My concern is with the final statement: brands exist because of us and the key word here is “us.” So who is us? It’s not the consumer. It’s Don Draper. It’s the marketing profession and advertising industry who have perpetuated this Wizard of Oz façade for so long, where packaged goods, tires or food are brought to life with animated mascots like Jolly Green Giants or Marshmallow Men or weird Peanut Englishmen trapped in time; where brands make promises but never keep them; where brands are supposed to capture the values, touchpoints, ideals and beliefs of the companies that keep them and yet those same companies are being taken over by private equity cutthroats, cost-cutting and jettisoning brands at alarming regularity; where new “brands” like AirBnB, Uber, Snapchat or Instagram burst onto the scene attracting massive market valuations (or did I mention used zero paid media to build their….brands)

WE created brands. WE kept them alive (and some on life support) by romancing and doubling down on the formulaic narrative. And now WE will need to figure out how to save them.

The fact remains, if brands are to survive, they’re going to need to remain relevant and provide real value to their entire ecosystem and their stakeholders. They’re going to need to evolve. And by definition, evolve implies the openness and ability to adapt to change. And that change will absolutely pivot around distribution, promotion, loyalty and advocacy, R&D, innovation, customer service and more.

Right now, I fear that many of these items are being ignored or neglected at worst, and paid lip service to at best. And if that continues, those same harbingers will be moving on from the death of brands to an even more ominous prediction, the death of corporations.

Oh wait, that’s already happening…

Donald J. Trump is the Ultimate Z.E.R.O. Marketing Case Study

In Flip the Funnel, I outlined Obama '08 as one of the best in class case studies exemplifying what it is to deploy a "retention as the new acquisition" inside-out approach to marketing. Little did I know, I would be turning to politics once again to demonstrate and validate my* 4th book, "Z.E.R.O."

Donald J. Trump - hate him or love him - and I will keep my personal opinion separate to this piece (you just need to visit my Facebook page to see what I really think) has shown without much wiggle room or doubt the power of "Z.E.R.O. Paid Media as the New Marketing Model".

Before I continue, let me just state a point which I think is clear and obvious: Have any doubt in the assertion that Paid Media is on the precipitous decline - or just plain doesn't work - why not look towards the political process itself? Think about a race where both candidates are spending obscene amount on paid media. One is going to to win and one is going to lose. And so if you're going to point to the efficacy of paid media in helping one candidate declare victory, then surely you need to declare paid media as being completely ineffective and wasteful in the loser's failed quest...

Oh I know where you're about to head...you're going to blame the "message" vs the "medium" Stupid creative! Be more persuasive next time (to the tune of Homer Simpson)!

Still fighting me? Of course you are...you're going to blame the "product" versus the advertising and possibly cite that ridiculous and pathetic excuse, "there's no better way to kill a bad product than with great advertising."

Hey, I'm just demonstrating that paid media is not the panacea it once was. Don't shoot the messenger (regardless of your position on the second amendment) 

Hang on, you're still protesting that the political bubble is unique and is not representative of the real world. You're right...it's much simpler than the cluttered, noising SKU-infested REAL world of toothpaste, detergent, cellular providers, cars and home mortgages where the tyranny of choice makes life damn near impossible for you.

...and now we return you to our regularly schedule program, the reality show that is Donald J Drumpf.

The Donald might as well be called "The Dude" when it comes to playing the system; the media; and well, playing you as well with a simple spin on "Sticks and stones make break my bones, but words will never harm me." 

As a conspiracy theory aside, I've wondered whether he was always trying to pull of a Verbal on us by pulling off the greatest MEDIA con in the history of the business...using the MEDIA as the perfect conduit and weapon of mass distraction. I always felt there was going to be an A-HA reveal; a gotcha....but it never came. The Jimmy Kimmel skit with Producers' Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick was not far off. 

Perhaps Trump was looking to further his brand, which he currently values at $3bn! 

...and then, when the media, together with the gullible, desperate and/or dumb populous lapped up the rhetoric and did not immediately reject and regurgitate it in disgust, something weird happened: he either started to believe his own lies (a common side effect of narcissism) or unequivocably did not and instead doubled-, tripled- and quadrupled-down on nonsense in an attempt to shock the body to reject its host.

Think about it: xenophobia, bigotry, veiled threats of murder, racism and EVEN TAKING ON THE POPE!!!! Nothing seems to work (and here I type this on Super Tuesday...gee, I wonder how today is going to go No surprise, he did pretty well.)

Personally, I think - I KNOW - that should he be offered "The final rose", he will break our hearts by telling us he is not in love with us...but in fact with someone else (HIMSELF) and reject our proposal. 

So what does this have to do with Zero Paid Media as the New Marketing Model? Besides, everything???

• Z.E.R.O. states that in a perfect world, the optimal paid media budget would be zero.
• Why would you need to pay for attention if you're paying attention?
• Why be a tenant (renting media) when you can be a landlord (owning and monetizing assets)?

...oh and Trump knows a thing or two about being a landlord for what it's worth.

Z.E.R.O. is also an acronym for Zealots, Entrepreneurship, Retention and Owned Assets and Trump comes up "trumps" in the Zealots (can you say Trumpets?), Entrepreneurship (the American dream is not to make it...not make it great...again) and Owned Assets categories.

The earned media he's received is beyond compare. It's priceless. This is content strategy at its best. Or worst. Or best.

Whilst I still don't think he is going to become President, it doesn't really matter at this stage. He has proven that "telling it like it is" is less about telling the truth and more about being a mirror or lens reflecting what - some - people are really thinking. And isn't that what a brand is at the end of the day? Nothing more than a mirror or reflection of a company's values, beliefs, and principles and a projection or connection to the people it hopes to serve, service or sell to?

This might be a good time to purchase a copy of Z.E.R.O. - it's purchase price is less than the average contribution to Bernie Sanders and 100% of the proceeds is going to go towards burying the asbestos-laded "Make America Great Again" caps (well then ones that don't go to the Smithsonian)

...but in all seriousness, Donald J Trump has shown - beyond the shadow of a doubt - that power of Advocacy multiplied to the power of the ultimate asset, one's mouth.

He's right you know: we wouldn't be talking about this stuff without him. You know, like racism. Real racism...not like #oscarssowhite. And I'm as guilty as the next. I still have 9 unplayed episodes of Homeland to watch...can't get to them as I'm watching the new reality show hit; the new must-see TV, CNN.

I leave you with the words of CBS head honcho, Les Moonves: It may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS. 

Yes, the media could just stop reporting on this. Yes we could just stop watching, but we can't. Forget "Yes, we can"; the new normal, is "No, we can't!" (stop watching)

We're all disciplies of the Church of Z.E.R.O.

Amen. Hallelujah!

P.S.. Thank you Drumpf for curing my writer's block!

Photo credit: Designcrowd.com

* actually our as in co-authored by my ex-client and current-friend, Maarten Albarda

2 episodes of Jaffe Juice - The New Marketing Podcast on Tech, Talent and Creativity

Hello strangers...

How about 2 episodes of Jaffe Juice - The New Marketing Podcast for the price of Z.E.R.O.? No actually, zero.

Plus you get Mirum's Mitch Joel as value add.

The first episode is #179 where we discuss the Wall Street Journal article, Tech Firms Pull Talent Away From Ad Agencies. 

You can listen live by left clicking or download by right clicking here

The second episode is #180 where we do an armchair quarterback deconstruction, unpacking, post-mortem of Cannes 2016. And yes, there is some bitterness, jealousy, cynicism and good old fashioned ranting as well. 

You can listen live by left clicking or download by right clicking here

Image credit 

3 doses of Jaffe Juice: on Millennials, Visual Story Telling and Word of Mouth

I know I have been long remiss in updating the podcast. So much so that Apple has removed "Across the Sound" from iTunes (ugggh) and I'm now trying to get the feed back up and running.

In the interim, you certainly can download it / listen to it via the Jaffe Juice blog and newsletter, as well as subscribing to the Jaffe Juice feed, which will give you an aggregation of blog posts, audio podcasts and Jaffe Juice TV video content.

So here are the 3 most recent:

Jaffe Juice #176 - Mitch Joel and I discuss Millennials

Photo credit

Jaffe Juice #177 - Book interview with author of The Power of Visual Storytelling, Ekaterina Walter

Buy the book here

Also co-authored with Jessica Gioglio

Jaffe Juice #178 - Book interview with author of fizz, Ted Wright

Buy the book here

JJTV #143 - The Engaged Leader with Charlene Li

Last month, I sat down with Altimeter's Charlene Li to discuss her new book, "The Engaged Leader." This is Charlene's third book and you may recall her first book, best-selling Groundswell.

Charlene is gracious, giving, smart, insightful and really understands the depth behind the superficiality of social media.

Hope you like the conversation and don't forget to buy her book. 

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How Engaged Leaders Use Mobility To Build Brands & Businesses