STOP Stopping

Posted on 2012/08/03 by

How would you START
[insert Noun or Verb here] differently
if you knew you had enough time and resources for
[insert Goal here: success/completion/continuation]?

I’m revising my Brand Strategy syllabus, this time for Open Curriculum. I had previously held back from contributing to Open Curriculum for two self-constructed reasons:
- “I’m relatively new at teaching” (am I though? This is my sixth semester/fourth year)
- “Engaged students and peers reviewing my syllabus is fine by me, but anyone/everyone…in the world!?!”

These reasons are being flattened, nay CRUSHED, by evolving technologies + group dynamics. The tipping point for me came unexpectedly in the guise of a sketch comedy writing class.

“It’s so hard to be funny,” “she’s SO much funnier than me,” and other unfunny thoughts would evaporate after the Group riffed, improvised, redirected and deconstructed. Each sketch was MEASURABLY funnier (from smiles to LOLs to tears) after the Group had its way with it, even a sketch of mine called “Yellow Fever“.

What are we willing to open up to critique, to refinement? And for what intention and purpose?

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Shake that Long Tail

Posted on 2012/05/09 by

The Long Tail short: specificity + uniqueness (rarity) = higher value

Usually mentioned in close proximity to The Long Tail (at least here in the Bay Area):  Chris Anderson and Amazon. By marking up rare, out-of-print titles Amazon can lose money on blockbusters as loss leaders while gaining customers. Or as an Amazon employee puts it:

“We sold more books today that didn’t sell at all yesterday than we sold today of all the books that did sell yesterday.”

What does this mean for content creators? This recent post from Penelope Trunk connects the dots:

“…the trick is not to write a book and get it published. That’s no longer difficult, or even clever — the whole world has a book today. The real trick is to build your own audience to the point where you can sell directly to them.”

Thanks for sharing the trick, Penelope! The long tail of the cat is out of the bag, to mash metaphors.

But wait, there’s more. The Secret to the Long Tail? Says Chris Anderson:
1) make everything available, 2) help me find it

Some combinations of those two factors might look like:
1) and 2): Amazon, YouTV, eBay
1) not 2): Android, open source
2) not 1): Apple, Disney

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Old news: “Ethnic” New Majority already outnumbers “White”, globally

Posted on 2012/02/20 by

2042-compliancy is the latest unspeak for marketing to ethnic audiences.

This type of mandate reeks of “play where the puck is going to be” opportunism (no offense to Gretsky, G.O.A.T.), directed at smaller businesses and regions.

In 2042, audiences will be so specific and tagged per niche of BEHAVIOR, if an organization is aiming for the by-then-old New Majority it is still appealing to one of the lowest common denominators of demographics, race (gender and age come before race in traditional marketing).

In fact, if you replace “race” with “gender” in this article, it antiquates this approach to pre-suffragette notions of culture.

“According to Census projections, by 2042 America will be a “majority-minority” nation, where so-called ethnic minority populations will collectively outnumber the White majority.”

Globally, “ethnic” populations already outnumber the “White majority”. Multi-national corporations already know this, hence, multi-national.

Global Population Distribution

Region Number Percentage
Asia 3,879,000,000 60%
Africa 1,102,011,000 14%
Europe 731,000,000 11.5%
North America 528,720,588 8%
South America 385,742,554 6%
Australia 9,009,073 0.5%
Antarctica 1,000 0.00002%
Total 308,745,538 100.0%
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_world)

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To play or be played: games + brands

Posted on 2011/04/15 by

image

“Games as a medium communicate through systems for emergent solutions, not prescripted outcomes.”

- Michael Mateas, Director, UC Santa Cruz Center for Games and Playable Media.

I see a parallel with brand experiences, just as the most effective of brands communicate via a holistic strategy that combines experience, senses, memory, and self-identification.

Games and brands are temporal cultures that we dip into, realizing the culture as we play along, play with, and are played.

The difference is that games are voluntary, and in this way brands would benefit from modeling game experiences – to be voluntary and explicit.

Because no one likes being played.

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Intrinsic Branding Via Social Media

Posted on 2011/04/08 by

Intrinsic branding = people-based research providing the surest, quickest means to reaching audiences via already-existing channels/media, behavior, and values.

Co-written by Jody Turner, previous guest speaker for my CCA dMBA course Brand Strategy, along with IDEO’s Suzanne Gibbs Howard, Rachel Switzky, and Meija Jacobs.

IDEO: Five Companies That Mastered Social Media’s Branding Potential

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Why start now? America 2049 + Sword & Sorcery

Posted on 2011/04/07 by

I’m a leapfrogging adopter: I will wait until all the bleeding edge early adopters test 1.0 at premium pricing, wait for the mass market 2.0 and price cut, wait and wait until evolution pops out TNBT (or until it all comes full circle). I skipped DVRs to dive into download and on demand, palmed my Palm until smartphones, held onto my LPs since OMD – until OMD came back.

Besides research, I’ve yet to latch on to a compelling social networking game experience. America 2049, will you be my first?

As for iPads, I’m waiting for Ender Wiggin’s version.  But Sword & Sorcery, your pixel art and soundscape beckons like a siren song…

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Cha-ching: The Experience

Posted on 2011/03/16 by

(thanks Kristian, lolcatz winz)

Zynga’s latest, Rewardville, capitalizes on gold farming behavior as a marketing hub for cross-promoting its games.

“…this new release is not a even game. It simply rewards you for your addiction, offering up virtual coins that can be traded for virtual — but exclusive! — game items. Alas, you get 80 points per game just for playing — and up to 300 coins a day.” (Michelle Castillo, Time.com)

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