I really wanted to get back to blogging action but until my sleeping-deprived brain will get back into full capacity let me share a failure with you.
For some time now, I wanted to make a video (the videos you’re about to watch were made few months back). I always thought that while I made my blogging career writing on UGC and YouTube, I have never actually contributed something myself and I was keen to get into a more active participation, so I waited for the good idea. Than one day, when I found myself uncharacteristically hyper-excited with something on my MacBook Pro, it all came together.
As a mac convert myself (and reluctant evangelist) I’ve decided to create a rather tasteless cultural commentary on gadget-porn culture, mac worshiping and user generated advertising. And this is how maclovin was born….
As you can see, my future doesn’t lie in making videos and while I didn’t do any seeding whatsoever, I can assert with confidence that I suck at viral video. But it was a nice experiment nevertheless. I really enjoyed the DOING bit. And sharing the things you suck at is quite cathartic (emotionally purging, that is) - you should try it yourself!
Ads usually suffer from lack of credibility. They always show shiny happy people especially in all health & beauty categories. That’s why I was rather surprised from the image of the lady in that banner for some diet.
I waited to see something changing but nope. It’s just a static image. She clearly suffers. She’s in pain. Maybe it’s kinda No Pain No Gain strategy?
One of the loveliest trends that came with the revolution in social media and it’s implications for modern marketing is what you an call the emergence of hippy-marketing.
I’m not talking about new business opportunities for modern tree huggers and ethically conscious consumers but rather about the fact that as the shift in balance of power as well as the shift for ever stronger emphasis on product and experience are gaining momentum, companies today are in the business of happiness.
It is a fascinating trend that is influenced by different forces, among which is the growing interest in positive psychology and the pursuit of happiness as a viable, realistic personal goal in modern life (for the privileged developed world one must add). Additionally ever since we got the opportunity to freely express our emotions on all things that make us tick or creak it became clearer which brands, products and services we love and which one we hate, and that added another dimension to business and marketing:
Make ‘em happy.
Imagine that ‘make them happy’ was on the top of the list of companies goals / missions. Not ‘reduce churn’ or increase sales by 30%’, ‘achieve 37% marketshare’ or even ‘increase satisfaction rates’. MAKE THEM HAPPY. So simple, yet so difficult for companies to comprehend and implement. It’s just not the way they think and behave.
Come to think of it, the title of this post is somewhat misleading. It should be Hippy Business. Marketing is only one way you can make people happy and frankly, not the best one to start with. In times when your product is your marketing is your brand etc it’s better to start thinking about happiness much earlier in the process. There are so many ways in which you can make people happy, depends on your category, but the most obvious one, and the one that need immediate improvement is customer service.
Easier said than done. Now check this - Tara Hunt took this idea of happiness as business model and created a bloody good presentation that rises beyond the cliche’ with brilliant mix of storytelling, wit, prescription and case studies to inspire the most dull and conservative suit. Big hug to you Tara.
The Orange I am everyone campaign is up and running (TV, outdoor, print) and we just launched I am Jont.
We teamed up with Jont, a charismatic, brutally optimistic unsigned singer songwriter to take Unlit, his and Dave’s heartwarming, life-affirming initiative of intimate house gigs on the road in the UK this summer. Orange will provide them with everything they need (from winnebago to GPS phone and everything in between) to go on the road for 2 weeks of unpredictable journey of love and goodness. We’re really hoping to bring to life the Unlit philosophy that it’s the people we meet and the experiences we share that make us who we are.
This is going to be very special. And you can get involved on so many different levels - anything from following the tour on different platforms, to offer your house for a gig or, if you are a musician and want to participate in unlit, you can leave your details on the microsite
While on the same subject, Mike sent around this gem. Turn out the whole campaign is not really original - I am Orange been running for quite q while now. Oh boy.
In the past 2 weeks I’ve had this weird feeling of deja-vu from reading bloggers and twitterers getting all excited about brands that ‘listen to the conversation’ (especially the Twittersphere), replying immediately to people’s rants and solving customer service issues.
Sounds perfect, you say, why are you spoiling the party?
Well, let me take you couple of years back to Iain’s unpleasant experience with Virgin Media. He described in details his ordeal and, surprise surprise, someone from virgin contacted him and solved his problems. That was just one story of that increasing trend of companies staying tuned to the blogosphere and replying to people rants - and we all blogged about these cases and how wonderful and advance these companies are and how the ‘get it’.
And now the story repeats itself on the twitter platform. Excuse my cynicism but I’d be a bit more critical and less hasty in heaping praises all over the place. Since Iain’s case I’ve only heard more horror stories on Virgin Media CS, most recently Dave’s ordeal. And I say, don’t hurry to make an invaluable PR service for companies with bad CS reputation.
They are smart and cynical. They learned that satisfying a couple of angry Tweets is the easiest and cheapest PR trick as the public rant turns into a public praise and gives the false impression that this company has a great customer services.
Mind you, for every one satisfying tweet there are probably hundreds of angry customers that don’t blog or tweet. They do it the old fashion way by talking to their friends down at the pub - and their problems don’t get solved that way. Their problem meet layers of poorly designed pre-recorded menus and canned responses that don’t actually help them.
Only time will tell if the sea change we crave for will come and businesses will (truly and deeply) change their ways and invest in their most valuable brand building scheme - customer service - or will they simply employ 2-3 people to make sure that they satisfy social media rants and that would be the end of it.
Yes, yes I’m on Twitter (If I wore a hoodie I’d be covering my face with it in shame). Damn that social pressure. But I guess that after my hasty, bossy sneer back in Feb 2007, I ought to explain why I finally broke and got on board…
The shortest answer is that I was simply wrong. I completely underestimated the flexibility of the platform and the resourcefulness of the users/community to make Twitter what it is today. And indeed usage of Twitter has changed quite dramatically since it started as simply status updates of ‘what are you doing now’.
The way I see it, (and the main reason I decided to join) Twitter expanded texting (SMS) behaviour to a far greater circles than each of us have. The immediacy of throwing something to the twittersphere and getting replies in minutes is for me, the key forte of the platform. Put differently, it’s the only way or me to get hold of David - emails and facebook are non existent ;-). So it’s less about the short personal stories and more about the multiple micro-conversations, exchange of ideas, links and blurbs - this was the main reason of my feeling that I’m left out of the party and not staying on top of what is happening.
As a self-aware junkie and a sucker for good conversations I need to be really careful not to be drowned in tweets. And I’m determined NOT to let Twitter take over blogging - reading AND writing.
I’d love to hear any good tips on maintaining a normal, fairly productive life with Twitter - Mack?Andy?Dino?Neil? anyone?
We’ve been together for almost 7 years which means you are now 140 years old (It is a common belief that 1 human year is equal to 20 handset years). And in all these years we spent together, you never once disappointed me. You were always there - basic, solid, bold, rough, resilient and, extremely reliable.
Up until our very last days together you still insisted on being charged just once a week - you never needed more than that. No matter what happened to you - drowned in water, splashed in snow, free falling from 10 fit on hard concrete - nothing broke you. You just kept going on and on and on, doing what you’re doing best - making calls, sending texts and reminding me about stuff.
In the past year or so we’ve been both an object of ridicule as well as admiration. Some people looked at with a pity smile while others gave us the approving in-the-know nod. But I didn’t care - for me you were a reliable companion as well as a personal (environmental) statement. As your fellow handsets became more and more sophisticated, loaded with unnecessary features I loved you more and more for what you are (admittedly, twice over these years I had a short fling with younger, newer handsets. But in both cases I came straight back, begging for forgiveness. And you never made a fuss or bear a grudge.)
I recently noticed that I don’t leave as many comments on blog posts I read as I used to and I think I’m not the only one as i can see the decline from the receiving end as well. There is just too much stuff going on hey? We scan and skim, we twit and plurk, we TED and Mint and we just don’t leave comments anymore.
Have you noticed that as well?
That’s not good. Blogging doesn’t worth a penny without the dialog, without the conversation.
I pledge to leave at least 1 comment a day on blog posts I read
