livingbrands

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No posts for a couple of weeks as I'm off on hols.

Bonny Scotland beckons: eating haggis, drinking whiskey, looking for the Loch Ness Monster, wondering why it looks like it's going to snow when the rest of the country is baking in a heat wave, that kind of thing.

Urban spamage

I posted recently on the rise of urban spam. Now PSFK have gone one further and made a film about it...

What I found most worrying is how (subjectively) great a lot of these ideas were, from the perspective of someone who works for a creative agency. But it did challenge me. Obviously, the crass, the boring, the bland and the pointless is just a whole waste of space. But does 'clever' make it OK if your still clogging up the world around us?

Maybe it comes down to whether you are rewarding people or not with what you do. But then 1 persons reward is probably 10 people's spam, so that doesn't really work either.

It's a tricky one and I need to ponder some more.

Wagging the tail

Chris Anderson's The Long Tail seems to be everyone's 'next book to read' du jour. Have to admit I've not yet read it (it's next on the list...). But the gist (simplistically), as most will now be aware given all the coverage it has received, is that the internet has opened up a world of unlimited choice. In this choice rich environment, it is argued, businesses need no longer fixate on the big hit, but can instead look to exploit the multitude of low volume/niche opportunities in the long tail.

It makes a lot of sense, but some commentators are offering a world of caution. Grant McCracken, for instance, points out a danger in having a polarised view that sees only a few blockbusters at one extreme and the long tail at the other.

His argument (with a bit of my editorialising) is that the established heavy hitters already have the muscle to 'buy' a hit regardless of quality (whether that's Universal Pictures or P&G). And anyone can have a reasonable stab at long tail success, targeting a niche audience. But the real business challenge lies in making a success of the middle ground: delivering a hit, often with moderate resources, by boxing clever and taking risks.

This is difficult! And the danger is that, in a Long Tail world (exciting as the opportunities this offers are) we will lose these vital marketing skills.

Read his last post here, then scroll down. The Johnny Depp/Pirates of the Caribbean comments are very good: resisting the pressure to behave like a conventional, and neutered, blockbuster, to risk it...and be risky...in the middle ground.

Innovate constantly (becuase you can't trust the future)

How times have changed, as this Sony ad demonstrates...

Mid 70s I reckon.

Nowadays you're lucky if things last until next week.

Just goes to show, constant innovation is the key to success. And not the process-heavy, take-8-months-to-come-up-with-a-safe-idea-that's-already-missed-the-boat-by-7-months kind of innovation that is the norm in most companies.

Just do stuff. Continuously. Get it out in the market. Some won't work. Others will be so massively successful they will more than out-weigh the failures. It's the only way to get truly new, paradigm-shifting ideas

There's Ross Perot's brilliant maxim: 'Ready. Fire. Aim'. And Soichiro Honda's belief that success is born out of failure and courage.

We need more of this.

The challenge is to create a working environment, and relationships between agencies and clients, that encourages having a punt and doesn't punish failure. But maybe that remains a tall order for most companies.

Nobody's Watching

If you wanted proof of the (potential) power of You Tube, look no further than Nobody's Watching.

Here's a high concept sitcom for you: two twenty somethings make home video bemoaning the state of sitcoms; send it studio; get asked to do better; hilarity ensues (or not)...hence Nobody's Watching. The problem: Warners found the whole thing too post-modern-ly complex, and so the pilot didn't get past test screening stage.

This was 18 months ago. Recently though said pilot appeared on You Tube by, it seems, rather cloak and dagger means. And, in a rather ironic twist on it's Wayne's World-esque premise, has found a ready audience: nearly 400,000 downloads and counting.

Conspiracy theorists will obviously cry foul, and say it's a scam. But interviews with key players suggest not. And what this shows is how the hegemony of media owners is coming under pressure from web 2.0. Previously, media owners controlled content because they controlled the route to market. But with things like blogs, You Tube, Myspace Films etc., the barrier between production and distribution is breaking down. And I'm not talking 'funny' home movies here; I'm talking the real deal direct to the audience.

You are your own media, and if you make it they will come.

At the threshold

I've always been fascinated by the enduring potency of folklore and mythology (the narratives and the characters), and the modern expressions of these tales found in movies, comics, TV shows and novels. And given that pretty much our whole lives are defined by the stories we hear and tell, it has always surprised by how little interest is shown in using stories as a model for developing brands and comms. It's an approach that's always hung around at the margins, but never really gained acceptance in marketing world fixated on (functional) messaging/proposition and empty imagery.

A particularly interesting facet of folklore is its link to initiation rites in ancient cultures. These are something else that brands and businesses might usefully learn from, not least because echoes of so many can still be spotted (albeit in watered down form) around us today. Your first car, your first alcohol, getting your ears pierced etc. etc. Historically, things like this were all linked to coming of age and gaining independence, with clear parallels in the initiation rites of old (the fact that a lot of this stuff is now happening at a younger age, when kids aren't yet emotionally ready for or to learn from 'initiation' is, I think, a significant issue for society today).

Central to initiation rites is the idea of liminal space, which you can read a bit more about over at Genius Steals. Liminal space is the point between what was and what could be; the 'doorway between places', where the past has finished and the future has yet to begin. And it is here that you are forced to consider your place in life. The trick is not to go back to the old ways, or even go forward to the new, but stay in the liminal space as long as possible to learn and grow.

In a world that is all about change and either chasing after the next thing or seeking security in the old, standing still is quite an interesting strategic thought. And I do wonder whether it is a big cultural idea that brands could make more of.

FutureScope 51

Just to let you know, the latest edition of my trends newsletter is now out: "emerging trends, new ideas and general thought stimulation"...or so it says on the cover.

Blogs R Da Future

This made me laugh. Probably reveals some deep insight about something as well.

(Thanks to Not Martha, whose copyright I may be infringing - never sure how it all works)

Design inspiration

You can check out the winners here (and it's well worth a look).

Need an NPD brainstorm process? There are probably a lot worse things you could do than go top to bottom through the lot and see what ideas it throws up.

The very best thing in the world

Here's an interesting little insight from some Viacom research, called Nickelodeon Generation. According a UK National Kids Day Survey carried out in Dec 05, these are the 10 most 'very best things in the world'...

1. Money and getting rich
2. Being famous
3. Football
4. Pop music
5. Animals
6. Families
7. (Computer) games
8. Holidays by the sea
9. Nice food
10. God

As a Christian, it's good to see the Big G sneaking in at no.10. Although numbers 1 to 9 do seem to encompass pretty much everything else in life, so I don't know if 10 is good or not.

I also like that 'animals' and 'holidays by the sea' are in there as well.

One thing that did strike me though, was the expectedness of the list: given how much we a told the experience of childhood has changed (and as a parent, I would have to say it's true), the 'very best things in the world' don't seem that different to when I was a kid. The nuances, specifics and order may be different, but the top 10 feels pretty similar: fame and wealth were just as important 30 years ago. The literal 'stuff' may be different, but relative to the time in which you live, it just goes to show how little changes (and I bet a social anthropologist could tell you it as ever been thus).

It's a truth we need to remember: as important as external (superficial) trappings and trends are, and no matter how much they might change, deep down there are core, primal needs that always stay the same. And whether talking to kids or adults, it is these which drive us.