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Next week, San Diego

I'll be going to the AAAA account planning conference next week in San Diego.  If you're going and want to meet up, drop me an email or a comment.

I'll be doing a breakout session with Mark Lewis on the seven deadly sins of account planning.  Of course, they're not deadly in the real world sense but we feel they may be for our discipline if we don't wake up and do something about it.  You can get a sense of what we'll be rambling on about here.

UPDATE:  Jason Oke has just put up a post planning a beersphere on this continent Sunday night at 8pm, Top Of The Hyatt Bar.  It's apparently 'upscale' so I hope they let my like in:)  I'll be there, and seems as good a place as any to meet.

Citizen journalists

For a while, Todd And(rlik) has been building a site of the Top 150 global marketing blogs based on an algorithm based  on  google, technorati and blogline rankings (plus a little of his personal opinion).  I'm still humbled and amazed to be clinging to a place in the top 100 among some fantastic blogs.

He's just announced that he is partnering with Ad Age where it will be used as the main benchmark when referencing blogs, and the Ad Age site will also host the chart.  Feels like another step forwards for the legitimization of the blogosphere.  (But will it be the dawn of sweeps week like behavior?) 

Gut matters

Reading a fantastic book by Gerd Gigerenzer called Gut Feelings (subtitled the intelligence of the unconscious) which is about how we more often than not make decisions based on rules of thumb (aka the posh term, heuristics). Well worth a read because it challenges a lot of the old assumptions about the way we tend to model how advertising works - things like AIDA, etc.

Now you may well be saying to yourself - so what, how is this different to a book like  Blink?  Well it is in one fundamental way.  A big portion of the book is given up to the importance of social intuition ie one rule of thumb is if others are doing it then I'll do it.    It shows that intuition is not a 'personal' thing but a social thing.  As Mark Earls says in Herd  "we do what we do largely because of others".

Get a taste of the conversation

I've talked about the book I contributed to with another 102 bloggers - 'The Age of Conversation' - before.

Thanks to Steve Woodruff (a great blog btw) you can now get a taste of the whole book as he has given a taste of what each author has written.  So go take a look:

A Taste From A-D

A Taste From E-J   

A Taste From K-R

A Taste From S-Z

It's a great, eclectic read by some smart people.  If that's not enough it raises money for the children's charity, Variety.

You can buy the book here.   

Hurt

One of my favorite songs, and another cracking ad from Nike.  Is it just me, or are Wieden & Kennedy on a roll at the moment?

The Dirty Dozen

Fantastic video show over at Slate where Seth Stevenson reports on Donald Gunn's 12 'master formats' of (TV) advertising (and shows examples of each). 
So, we're not a one trick pony industry after all, we're a 12 trick pony.  Here's the dirty dozen:

1.   The demo
2.   Show the need or problem (perhaps best described by Adam Morgan as the 'that's why' school of advertising)
3.   Symbol, analogy or exaggerated graphic to show the need or problem
4.   Comparison
5.   The exemplary story (a narrative that demonstrates the product's benefit)
6.   Benefit causes story
7.   Tell it (aka the testimonial)
8.   Ongoing characters or celebrities
9.   Symbol, analogy or exaggerated graphic to demonstrate the benefit
10. Associated user imagery
11. Unique personality property (aka the usp)
12. Parody or borrowed format

Feels like a pretty accurate typology of the tricks we use in film (be it TV ads or viral films).  And perhaps why the idea (promoted by Zeus Jones) of 'marketing as a service' is so appealing to us as an industry, and real people out there.  Because it's new.  And, as President Coolidge made famous, the new (aka creativity) is highly appealing to us as a species.

It's all about placement

A colleague, Aaron, sent me this link to 15 unfortunately placed ads.  Well worth a visit.  I guess this is what happens when you don't sweat the detail.... 

Movies

I've banged on a lot about how a lot of musicians seem to be using communication in a much more creative way than brands and ad agencies.  Time now to mention some great movie marketing examples (beyond the brilliant 7-Eleven Simpson tie-in) that put a lot of what we do to shame.  The first two (especially the latter) really embrace the whole idea of transmedia storytelling.   All are well worth a visit and play.

The first is for The Bourne Identity -  visit Search For Bourne to take a mystery trip around youtube, google and google maps.  Not only is it a great example of partnership with a single media owner, but it shows how the use of media can tie in to the spirit of a movie.

The second is for the new JJ Abrams movie Cloverfield.  Mysterious trailers appeared before the Transformers movie that didn't precis the film (or even give the title) but set up intrigue.  There's puzzles to solve online at a number of sites and it's really helping to build the hype for a movie that won't be released until next January.  This is a pretty good summary of what's going on right now.

Finally, there's already been lots of good stuff done for the Simpsons movie, but I love this tie-in with Burger King where you can simpsonize a photo of yourself.  Here I am about to visit Apu.

Wrapping

The wife just got her copy of the new Harry Potter book delivered by Amazon this morning.  Seems like they've been remembering the not nearly famous enough observation from Adam Morgan in Eating The Big Fish that packaging is your most pervasive and cheapest medium of communication.

Age of Conversation is out now

From today, the Age of Conversation is available to be purchased.  Two good reasons to get it:

1.  It's written by 100 very smart thinkers about marketing (and me).  I've put a list (with links) to all the authors below.

2.  It's for a great cause.  Profits will go the kids' charity Variety.  No author or editor is making a cent from the book.
 

You can buy the book from here.  It's available in three formats:

e-book: $9.99 
paperback book: $16.95
hardback book: $29.99

Please go and get a copy.

Here's a list of the great group of authors:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman