Johnny Walker

If you haven’t see the Johnny Walker – The Man Who Walked Around The World video: the take the time.

It’s 6 minutes long but well worth it. At the end you understand the history of the whiskey, the walking story and undoubtedly feel bonded to Johnny Walker and the whiskeys in a way other communication forms could not have achieved.

I want to start seeing equivalent forms of communication from other industries. Why is it I know more about Johnny Walker than the cars I purchase from General Motors? (my family works for GM and I worked for the agency that does Chevy ads).

This form of communication in which information is delivered in a reasonably entertaining fashion strikes me as the absolutely first thing on the list of responsibilities were I introducing a new car into the market. When the Chevy Volt launches (or any of their brands) I better be able to learn at least as much about the reasons that Chevy has gotten it right as I learned from Johnny Walker about the reasons they’ve gotten it right.

Johnny Walker also did a very cool multimedia event described here at <a href="“><a href="”>Food Monkey
Amazing, compelling experience driving deeply the passion for the brand. Now you could argue that it’s easier to win someone over when they’re all liquored up and you’d be right but c’mon, when that Volt launches they should be able to create a comparable experience for anyone interested in learning some more.

Radio Shack / fork-in-the-eye marketing

Lots of press lately about Radio Shack’s plans to use The Shack as a nickname in their latest blitz marketing effort. While I don’t like the nickname much it doesn’t really matter.

What matters is how anyone can think the right way to do this stuff is to launch an all-out campaign in the face of significant customer satisfaction issues. In an article in Adage the CMO responds to the question of why they’d launch the campaign with people unhappy about the store experience by saying that people don’t understand how “The Shack” nickname will be rolled out in the ads. Unless this campaign is going to be a public acknowledgment that the stores have issues and they’re working on them I can’t imagine how these things relate.

It’s simple, you cannot launch a big marketing effort in the midst of having very large customer issues. You have to start with the issues, solve them, and then market any way you’d like. The reverse is incomprehensible. The CMO suggests they’re in the process of addressing these issues but then goes on to talk about the campaign. For Christ’s sake, just wait on the blitz until you’re done. Until then run your Sunday circulars or promotions or whatever you need to in order to get foot traffic.

Now the CMO may be under the gun to do something big prior to the store fixes. He probably doesn’t control that aspect of the company. Many don’t. But that’s the problem then. The store experience is the number one form of marketing for Radio Shack. If it isn’t brilliant then there is no amount of money on earth that will make this campaign work.

After the dust clears, and the campaign fails to lift the fortunes of the chain, and the CMO is ushered to the door he’ll claim, “I told the CEO the stores needed to be fixed”.

Zappos and Slows BB-Q: The Social Phenomenon of Excellence

The story on sale of Zappos reminded me of a recent visit to Slows BB-Q in downtown Detroit. I remember when players like Zappos launched and everyone was convinced you could not sell shoes on the web. And then they went and created a miracle of service and proved them all wrong. Pretty cool, pretty brave.

Slows BB-Q is in a largely abandoned part of Detroit near the old Tiger Stadium. As you drive there and pull up you can’t imagine that it could work. I don’t believe a soul on earth connected to food service, or retail or anything would have predicted it could work. Then they went and did something miraculous. It’s a combination of amazing food, great energy, great beer, great service, a green message about the construction (in an area that you could shoot a north korean missile and not hit another green-messaged business). When you get there you realize that to some degree greatness cannot be denied. If you treat people extremely well, offer them something they love, you will succeed. Whether you’re selling shoes on the web or BB-Q in Detroit.

And, increasingly not only is it a recipe for success, but anything less will likely be a recipe for failure.

Fight Crime / Do Marketing Right / Stick With It

Recent article in The New Yorker about David Kennedy’s Ceasefire strategy for curbing gang violence and public drug sales. Dives deep into what works and doesn’t work in cutting down on crime. Turns out reducing crime is hard work. And most successful when extremely layered. Carrots, Sticks, Jobs, Threats, Social Care, Persistence, Time and Patience are all required for it to work.

What is nice about the Ceasefire strategy is it gives the messiness a structure.

Marketing is like this now. Layered, complex, and requiring all sorts of unique and seemingly non-coordinated, non “structured” marketing events.

We’re all in a race to get the structure right. To make sense of it all. To find our Ceasefire. It’s not simple. And it’s going to require patience while we work through the emerging structures. One thing that scares me is that I think we’re on the right track. That inside-out or bottom-up marketing models are truly helping but that marketers will grow impatient with them.

Recently in an article in Ad Age Jeff Goodby talked about how we’re all becoming Irrelevant Award Chasers

This article terrified me because it struck me as like the call from the old-line police departments referenced in the article who decry the new-age “soft” policing/community strategies and claim we just need to return to kicking ass and naming names. I hope no marketer out there read the Goodby article and thought that perhaps they could get away from the hard work they’re undoubtedly putting in to have successes big and small, broadly viewed, or only relevant to individuals.

The Ceasefire program has found that over time cities and police departments have a hard time sticking to the program because they get restless or look for shortcuts for any number of reasons. I hope we don’t see that happen in the marketing world.

Prop 8, Chevy Malibu and the social touch

Have read quite a bit about the failure in California to overturn Prop 8. All sorts of reasons have been give about why it failed but the most interesting notion to me is that people couldn’t be marketed / advertised through believing that it was legally or ethically right to allow a same sex couple to marry. They had to know someone or get to know someone gay or lesbian in order to “convert” (see dick chaney).

The discussion around this issue reminded me of when Chevrolet introduced the new Malibu a couple years ago and for the first time in a long time it was an extremely good sedan. Every bit as good as the Toyota and Honda alternatives. But how were people going to be convinced if they weren’t still domestic buyers? In the end, people needed to see the car, and feel it and touch it in order to get “converted”. You couldn’t simply spend a lot of money in order to get them into the dealer where they would be magically converted. It required a more social touch.

Similar issue for those looking to overturn Prop 8. I’m not suggesting they not spend money or stop fighting until everyone in California befriends or spends time with someone who is gay or lesbian. However there is talk about another ballot initiative for next year and if that happens and there is another campaign I hope a different marketing tack is taken. More on that later perhaps.

Spending $43.3 million in traditional marketing fashion to attempt to convert pro Prop 8′ers or fence sitters is a tough call when an insufficient number of people have had the social touch that most effectively makes the point.

Kosmix.com: teaching us to fish

Met with Jodi Olson recently, the Director of Corp Comm for Kosmix.com. Prior to meeting visited Kosmix.com and have to admit didn’t have a clue what Kosmix is other than i figured it was another search engine.

She gave me the scoop on the site and their various services and after meeting went back and played some more and it has now become one of our favorite research tools. Really the first place we go to when researching a new prospect, or their competitors, or a category in which they compete. Really anything in which we want to learn about something and have access to everything there is to know about them.

My sons now use it for their school projects. They used to use youtube as their search engine (not sure how many people know how much youtube is used as a search engine amongst the youngsters) but now through kosmix they get their youtube and they get everything else as well. Presented in a format that is just perfect. All the different media forms are organized nicely, from google links, to video content, social media conversations, mainstream media articles. it’s all there. Teaching us to fish rather than whipping that fish at our heads like our pals at Google do.

I still use Google endlessly when i’m just looking for that one thing, but for an agency, or marketing person, or student, or anyone that needs to learn about something I can’t think of a better tool than Kosmix.

SoulWow.com: the catholic church takes a chance

I noticed a link to soulwow.com on a friends facebook page. If you haven’t seen it take a look. I had to watch it several times in order to figure out if it was by the church or simply making fun of the church. In the end I have to conclude it’s from the church. If it’s not then it’s the best marketing the church has done since that big book was written and they should take credit regardless.

why? well crap it doesn’t take a marketing genius to tell you that the church has had some tough moments over the last decade or two. and since people have been getting approximately the same pitch for a couple milleniums a fresh approach couldn’t hurt. i mean they adhere to the best principles of content for social distribution: funny, short, topical, parody of ad form, in your face etc.

And they do it every bit as well as a Crispin or Saturday NIght Live or any other hotshop would do it. now i may get burned at some point and learn that this was a parody and some knucklehead at Michigan State created it but damn that would be a shame.

How’s Your Meter Doing?

Was at the Apple Store this morning getting my iphone fixed. had an unfortunate drop (the damn things are slippery) and the screen wasn’t working. I had no appt. at the genius bar and next available was 4 hours away. that however did not deter the staff. particularly because it was a phone they didn’t want me to leave the store without a replaced or fixed phone. and they didn’t. they got me snuck in through their “in the sandbox” extra genius’s and replaced my phone. free of charge even though it was out of warranty because they found a covered condition that they generously concluded my phone’s issue was the same as. and there it was. all done.

but better than all that was the question they asked me several times in the store: “how’s your meter doing?” which meant, “is your meter running out of time?”. this apple store was in a neighborhood where the parking was dominated by metered spaces. they know that people run out of time while in the store, and then go back to their cars and get a ticket and get pissed. so they consistently doublecheck with you about the time on your meter. if you need to you can run outside and fill the meter and you don’t lose your place or anything.

seems small and this probably sounds like a poor man’s Seth Godin post but freaking hell this Meter thing is brilliant. now we don’t all have retail stores to express our “how’s your meter doing” but i’m thinking that additional or secondary form of service dialogue is a good type for social communication. perhaps worth a test. the primary stuff probably gets managed through direct or traditional means but perhaps the secondary layer is good for social.

Social, Twitter & the Center for Asian America Media

Was at the Asian American Film Festival last week.  Saw a great movie called Tokyo Sonato.  Besides the point though.  Pre-movie there was an ad for the CAAM (Center for asian american media/producers of festival) twitter feed, @CAAM.  It was the first ad i’ve seen created exclusively for a twitter feed.  And it worked.  People were using it to check out where the parties were and give opinions about the movies etc.  probably lots of those at SXSW but my first.

And it seemed real.  Natural.  In a way I don’t see at events like SXSW where the participation is all pumped up on self-promotional social steroids.  I find I can’t read the true long term value of the services like Twitter at places like SXSW.

But at the film festival you could genuinely feel the value.  A social event, people interested in social interaction.  When you go to the CAAM site,  you don’t feel a hint of the exaggerated importance of social / 2.0 etc.  it just feels critical and right.

why is that?  some combination of things like:  live events, mixed with diverse but connected community, consistent interest in relationship and probably a dozen other elements.  worth further exploration and perhaps a list of characteristics that make it work.

The Laws of the Banner

Just noticed this new set of banners popping up on facebook lately.  They’re the ones that ask you to guess how many eyes or lips are on the person shown. They follow what I think are two emerging laws of effective banner creative.

Rule #1: as established by lowermybills.com is that you need a dramatic visual distraction because people don’t want to stop and look at your banner. Dancing martians, or jiggling ladies or 4 or 6-eyed children all seem to do the trick. something more dignified like the mac/pc guys are nice too but they spent 100 million or so building up their comic credibility and this is counsel for the rest of us.

Rule #2: ask them to participate in the banner.  Answer a quiz question like crazy eyes or submit some info in exchange for value as the lowermybills banners do.  While I prefer the offer of value to the quiz question model people seem to like the quizzes.  Don’t think the interaction should be an unrelated tease to your brand.  Make it connect and offer value in exchange for the interaction.

Distract and then Interact.  Seems to work.