Passion2Publish

What to Do When Your Projector Breaks During a Meeting

Yesterday, we had clients in our office for a quarterly meeting -- and it was one of those bad technology days.

First, the wireless in our office crashed never to be heard from again. Then, we couldn't get the high definition plasma television to show the presentation. We did the few minutes of scrambling, plugging things in different places, rebooting computers, a few of us prayed, there was nervous sweating, the "umms" and the "Did you see we brought in breakfast in the kitchen?"

Pretty quickly though(it was only a few minutes, but it felt like eternity)  we realized we had to give up, we had to get the meeting started, we asked everyone to take out their printed copies (thank god for Ross who always binds our presentations too) and flip to page one.

I won't speak for our client (of course our technology should be functioning), but it was one of the most productive client meetings I've ever had. When I no longer had sole control of how things progressed, no slide clicker, no way to make the last idea disappear -  it became what it should always be -- a conversation. We talked until there was consensus to move forward. Sometimes we moved things along, "if you look on the next slide, you'll see the next steps" and sometimes our client made the choice for us, "can we move ahead for now."

All too often, we have meetings where we slickly jump from topic to topic all heading for that "TA DA!" moment (where the woman is cut in half, or the statue of liberty has disappeared) -- and nervously we wait to see a reaction.

How to Launch a Magazine

Read some of Michael Brooke's, of Concrete Wave Magazine, thoughts on what he does (I bolded my favorite parts):

1.      I am not publishing a magazine – I am helping to document and foster change within skateboarding. The magazine is part of a greater movement within skateboarding. Concrete Wave exists to spread specific ideas. The more people we can spread these ideas too, the more success we achieve.

2.      I am not merely building readers or subscribers – I am building a cult of supporters, each of whom will further support the cause and bring in more readers and subscribers.

3.      I build marketing INTO the product and distribution. By limiting the kinds of advertisers I allow, by keeping the editorial strictly focused and by carefully distributing the magazine, my readers and advertisers trust the magazine to deliver on its promise of 100% skateboarding. I will never betray that trust.

4.      Concrete Wave wishes to remain a ball bearing – small, hard to find and continually in the state of being polished. Our goal is to provide readers with a deep impression when they get hit with it. Conversely, we do not aim to be a beach ball – big, seen all over the place, colorful and yet leaving very little impression when it hits. A beach ball is very fragile indeed and must avoid challenging environments, because it requires so much air to keep it afloat. A weighty ball bearing can withstand both challenging environments along with the pin pricks of adversity.

(via)

Our thought process should become, "We don't produce magazines, we don't build websites. We create engagement. We build cults of supporters."

Marketing Has Been Flipped

When was the last time you proved you knew your client's customers this well? Sadly, this is the promotional work of a new all-female agency -- and give me one reason, after watching this video, they haven't immediately positioned themselves at the top of advertising to women.

Watch for this sort of video proof in the near future -- while marketers certainly can't copy all of their vertical knowledge, they (we) can blatantly steal their methods.

Fuser Wants to Connect Your (Online) Life

I originally covered the concept of a single site managing your entire online social life with Google's SocialStream project -- it looks like Fuser has taken the challenge head on.

As reported on Techcrunch, give Fuser access to all of your email accounts and social network id's (myspace & facebook only for now) -- and all messages, wall posts, etc show up right next to your emails in a queue. Moreover, you can reply from the Fuser interface itself.

I expect as more members join Fuser, it will take on social network features of its own -- I mean, you're already there, and you're already using social networks, maybe you haven't met "Steve", he shares similar interests with you and is also a friend of your friend on Facebook .... Oh, and now that I know everything about you, here's this product I've been paid to promote.

Enough About Me, How About You? What Do You Think About Me?

We've entered the era where the term "social media marketing" is no longer new. When I meet with clients and potential clients, they have some idea about what it means when I say "social media", "online communities" and one-to-one marketing ...

Why? Because everyone is doing it. But mostly, everyone is doing it wrong.

I used to think it was really tough, explaining everything, convincing companies of the value, assuaging their fears, and holding their hands as they step out of their crumbling castles. But I was wrong, too. This is the hard part -- when everyone has the wrong idea about social media. They want me to pitch a new contest, "tell me you're going to have users create a new jingle for our brand!" -- once and for all, that's not a conversation, that's a promotion. Maybe it has its place, but it's not how you bring your customers closer and learn from each other in the process. It's how you get hits on your site, it's not how you get people to come back after the promotion is over.

Grant put it best, "It's distressingly like that old joke: "Well, enough about me.  What about you?  What do you think about me?"  We have been concentrating on making marketing about the consumer for roughly a hundred years, and what do we do with the new media marketing?  We make it about the corporation again."

Friday Fun: The Unblendability of Chuck Norris

Honestly, this may be the moment that Blendtec's wickedly popular video series "Will it Blend?" jumped the shark. But at 1:20, it may be worth it.

I love this series for its utter simplicity. Just turn on the camera, turn on your product, and have a little fun with it. Oh, and earn a few million visits/views in the process.

If You've Never Been Amazed by The Power of All of Us...

.. then you have to watch this presentation by Blaise Aguera y Arcas at TED. I know I'm very late at finding this, but it's really amazing nonetheless.

Go watch now

Apparently Bob Garfield of AdAge Reads Passion2Publish.com

Oh bloggers.. when we're not calling you amateurs or hacks, we're plotting to turn you into drone worker bees.. or 'pollinators' as Bob so eloquently puts it. He's right got a point though.. it's my point, but he's got a point. Thanks, Bob!

(only kidding)....

Times Select and the Flawed Logic of Paid Content Models

I was reading through an article on Poynter about the NYTimes dropping "Times Select" -- their paid content model, and something about the tone of the story and the tone of the situation rubbed me the wrong way.

Everyone is talking about how the NYTimes is giving away this service now to their readers, and even those icky 'indirect readers' (worst term ever by the way -- it's called potential customers... you know those you want to court and engage...) -- but the Times really suffered through a vital lesson in scarcity. If everyone is giving away something -- it may not be as profitable for you to try and sell it outright.

What's baffling to me is that the Times just doesn't get it. When I buy a newspaper, I'm not buying the news -- I'm buying the portable format itself. I can get news for free -- everywhere -- I don't need to shill out a couple bucks for news alone. As technologies adapt, and as Imagination buys me that iPhone (:), I will no longer need to buy that portable format anymore either -- hence no more buying the newspaper. Sorry.

Friday Fun: Mystery Meat & Contextual Advertising

Well, I was scouring the ol' tubes this morning, looking for a Friday Fun worthy post for you, dear readers, when I came across this little viral gem. Basically, it's super close up photography of disgusting meat.

Oh, internet, what bizarre niche audience don't you satisfy?

But the meat itself isn't the funniest/strangest part -- this site actually runs contextual ads -- ads of related content -- and boy, I know as an advertiser, I'd want my ads to show up right under some nauseating photographs of packaged meat products!

This shot was from my visit to the site:

Someone else actually found an instance where a KFC ad ran below the photo.

Herein lies the rub with contextual advertising -- you really never know where/how your ad will be served. You just can't predict what is going to take place online. I'm just not convinced that this is a safe advertising venue yet.

Here's another example, but this one isn't so funny:

Wow, and the list continues:

• Olive Garden makes you sick, then wants you to come back
• A Microsoft ad pops up in a story about a woman drinking herself to death
• Death sells books
• Death sells jewelry
• Bill Murray & the subtle difference between "movie star" and "adult movie star"
• Vonage introduces the bowel phone, brings new meaning to "voice over i-p"