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Wilde Advice

Taken together, these three bits of wisdom from Oscar Wilde pretty much sum up what I think about brands:

• "It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious." (just substitute people for brands)

 

• "Everything popular is wrong." (nothing great ever happens by following the pack)

 

• "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." (a good mantra for creativity and interestingness).

image via

NIN, Transmedia and the silly RIAA

You may have read about the Alternate Reality Game launched by the Nine Inch Nails' record company. It's brilliant. I totally agree with Gareth too: bands, labels, some films and even film characters (Borat) are doing the most inventive marketing that I'm seeing.

But the story wouldn't be complete without a clueless institution mucking things up. The RIAA and lawyers in Europe have been ordering participants who are posting material to pull files down from their own weblogs. So participants are helping to spread the word, and then getting fined for it.

Someone fire the lawyers!

Kind of Like Football

I'm a big fan of the idea that brands need to be a lot more nimble in their communications, by relying less on The Big Idea and concentrating more on new opportunities and bundles of small ideas. I trust anyone that planner-geeks reads this is already familiar with what Russell and John Grant have to say about this. Here's a little blurb from Conan O'Brien, just another way to think about it ;)

“Which reminds me of one last piece of wisdom I heard a running back say about football. He said that despite the best planning and blocking, “the hole is never where it’s supposed to be.” What this man was saying is that real life is about reacting quickly to the opportunity at hand, not the opportunity you envisioned. Not thinking and scheming for the future, but letting it happen and reacting. In this way, life is a lot like football, right down to the part where you pat the ass of the man next to you.”

The future can't be defined or planned for now as before. Reacting and letting it happen is good advice for modern brand communications, though I'd probably stop short of patting the ass of the man next to you.

How dare they blog about a PITCH?!

Too funny: ad agency dinosaurs react to Weiden and Kennedy's blog posts about a Nokia pitch. Neil Christie, the author of the blog post, didn't divulge anything private, but nonetheless, it was considered a no-no by these guys.

"You never talk about a pitch" publicly, said Laurie Coots, worldwide chief marketing officer at Omnicom Group's TBWA. "It makes clients nervous. It spooks them."

You'd think that these guys are guarding state secrets, it's a bit ridiculous. So self-important.

If they're spooked by blogs, they have much, much more to be nervous about than Neil Christie's observations.

The Rules Have Changed

Did you hear about "Vote Different", that Hillary Clinton Apple-like ad that has received over 2 and half million views and counting on You Tube? Unreal.

 We always talk about the changing media world and how it changes marketing, but the implications for politics are just as strong, and more meaningful. 

James at Collaborate posts some thoughts and a link. 

Flurry

I've read a flurry of great posts and articles in the last few days, and with too much going on in my life I've been too busy to note it all down here. So in true lazy-blogger fashion, here's a scattered round-up or some recent things that I've been meaning to get to:

• A new weblog I came across, Culturemaking makes some interesting observations on comedians and cultural relevance. Brands can learn a lot from them, something I've always believed in (and I think that DJs share some things in common here: they're both amateur demographers figuring out ways to be interesting and relevant).

in that their whole profession/act is based on cultural relevance and constant reinvention.  Their attention to news/media issues, societal tensions and cultural norms is second to none – putting most marketers, planners and cultural researchers to shame.  And as one critic pointed out, their ability to talk about high brow subjects in a low brow manner, and vice versa, is often a core part of their stand up strategy - an effective way of 'doing interesting"

• It looks like there's a little bit of rift opening up in the design community, instigated by some comments made by Bruce Nussbaum; to me it sounds quite a lot like the "is blogging killing planning debate". 

"Thinking" (making it up?) versus "Craft Skills"; sound familiar?

Whatever side you're on, it's clear that this divide will continue to grow, for planners, designers and any others in areas that are radically changing.

Still with Mr. Nussbaum, here are some comments he made on the craft trend worth noting:

We may be on the verge of one of the most creative periods in history. In a way, it is a return to craft. When tools and clothes and houses were all designed and made singly and individually, they were uniquely special. Mass production and the industrial age ended much of that.

Now, thanks to web 2.0 and other technologies such as fab labs, we may be returning to an era of craft as we begin to do our own designing and manufacturing again. Companies who provide us with the tools to create and participate WITH us in making them are going to make a lot of dough in the future.

Somewhat related to this is the blurring of the lines between amateur and professionals, or the "cult of the amateur" as this new book puts it. Sounds interesting, I'll have to pick it up. But how awfully alarmist. The book description from Amazon:

In today’s self-broadcasting culture, where amateurism is celebrated and anyone with an opinion, however ill-informed, can publish a blog, post a video on YouTube, or change an entry on Wikipedia, the distinction between trained expert and uninformed amateur becomes dangerously blurred. When anonymous bloggers and videographers, unconstrained by professional standards or editorial filters, can alter the public debate and manipulate public opinion, truth becomes a commodity to be bought, sold, packaged, and reinvented.

How terrible!

• I sure Web 2.0 zealots will be quick to dismiss Mr. Keen (and sometimes I'm one of those zealots). It's easy to defend the democratization of creativity, but until I read the book, I'll reserve judgement. From the perspective of the world I come from (music), I often think that important parts of culture are being eroded with the avalanche of user-generated content and disposable creativity. This is still something I struggle with, so I won't get into here, but I look forward to reading the book for a fresh take on things.

• I was thinking of "knowledge communities" when I was talking to a colleague about Transmedia Planning and Henry Jenkins, and came across some good examples: Faris points to a PS3 launch campaign that has some fine Transmedia elements. Good stuff, and while on the subject of gaming consoles, have a look at this Flickr based fan-group (tagged "Mii Madness") collecting images of user-generated Wii avatars. A new creative cottage industry, spawned by the genius of Nintendo's Wii, and definitely a kind of knowledge community made possible by digital technology and amateur creativity. Maybe Andrew Keen should think about this before being so snappy about the end of the world. (See, told you it was easy to dis the man).

Plenty more, but the grandparents will kill me if I don't get the kids there soon. More later. (Oh oh, Twitter is infecting my posts).

WTF CNN?

A concept that was just waiting to happen: WTF CNN? highlights bizarre headlines that come up on the CNN news feed.

"Scabby lip promo, hitting mom make meth ugly".

Writing those litle news bursts can't be easy, but c'mon: WTF CNN?!

via Fimoculous

Reboot: Flow

I have no hope of actually attending this conference, but it sounds great. And it would be worth it for Stowe Boyd's bit:

Social presence tools -- like Twitter, Facebook, Plazes, MySpace, and
Jaiku -- offer us a simple way to remain connected to those that
matter to us. Building on the legacy of IM presence, this new
generation of social tools makes the Web into a village, a third
place, where we can sense people's comings-and-goings, their everyday
annoyances and joys, and receive a wink or pat on the back from people
thousands of miles away or just down the hall. Connection has its
costs, however. The transition from a page-based Web to a Web based on
the flow of traffic -- streams of messages traveling through social
networks -- is speeding up, based on RSS and the meteoric rise of
social presence tools. In order to adapt to this new Web -- or perhaps
because of it -- we will have to adopt a new mindset: to rewire our
neurons, and rework our ethics and etiquette to match the flowing
world that is emerging. Luckily, it is a better state of consciousness
than the one we leave behind.

Be an Explorer

  "Incorporate indeterminancy" is excellent advice.

via SwissMiss

He's hot, and there are charts to prove it.

A graphical representation of the number one song in the U.S., "This is why I'm hot" by Mims.

Infographical hip hop. Genius, sheer genius.