brand new

We can learn from music

Clearly the music business is in a state of massive change at the moment.  There's a lot of pain, but in the midst of this there's some interesting (and successful) innovation going on.  And I think it can point the way for those of us working in the advertising industry.  In fact, when you think about it the issue that both industries face are not dissimilar - changing distribution models, the inability to buy attention, etc.

I wanted to point to a couple of things.  The first is a Trent Reznor interview from last week with Kevin Rose of Digg.  Well worth a watch, as I think Nine Inch Nails have been behind some of the more interesting marketing ideas of the last few years (for example the Year Zero ARG).

The second is a new initiative launched by Smashing Pumpkins.  They have just announced they are launching a subscription service for their new album where fans will be able to track the progress of the recording of the new album through videos, photos, etc.  Billy Corgan said this about the idea: 

"The goal is to create a working model that is not profit motivated but rather information and access motivated. In exchange for a fixed resource base fans will be let inside in an unprecedented way to the creative process of preparing to make the next (Smashing Pumpkins) album while also inspiring an interactive dialogue that will help shape the work."

This is a great example of getting fans to participate, but I think also is of note because it makes the process itself of interest and more interesting.  Be interesting to see what happens.

And while we're on the topic of fan culture, go and head over to Bud Caddell's blog where he's been writing some great stuff over the last week on fan culture.

Annual Planner Survey

Heather LeFevre is organizing the 5th annual planner survey.

The more people who contribute the better the survey will be so please take some time to answer the survey here (should only take ten minutes) and sign up for results here.

Swimming with the tide

One of the things that's really important to grasp if we accept we are a herd species, is that we're more likely to be successful if we swim with, rather than against, the social tide.  

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with Mark, but there is a new initiative in the UK to reduce binge drinking by moving the frame of debate from disease and sickness to one of calories and weight control. The new campaign is designed to show the amount of calories 'hidden' in drink eg 5 pints of lager a week is equivalent over a year to eating 221 donuts.  Feels like an approach that may have success (a little like the anti-smoking work for young women that looked at smoking's impact on exterior beauty) as it makes the issue part of an everyday conversation rather than something people feel simply doesn't apply to them ("but I'm not like them, it won't happen to me".)

What social media revolution?

Agency Spy kindly asked me to write an op ed. So I decided to write something that's been gnawing at me for a while.  You can read it here.

Afternoon tea in London, Wednesday April 15

I'm having a flying visit to London next week so was wondering if anyone fancies a quick cuppa on Wendesday afternoon?  Thinking 2.30 at The Breakfast Club, 33 D'Arblay Street.  Thought I'd try a new usage occasion to add to breakfast and beerspheres.

APG Young Talent Award

This is a fantastic idea from the UK APG. From their site:

"The APG Young Talent Award is a nationwide competition for 16- to 22-year-olds to design an original brand that will appeal to their peer group. Submissions will have to prove to a panel of the communications industry’s most experienced judges that their brand is based on such genuine market need and consumer insight that it would be a successful brand amongst a 16- to 22-year-old audience. The judging panel will include a venture capitalist looking to invest and make the best entries a reality. All entrants will, of course, retain intellectual property rights."

If you fit the criteria, I urge you to take part.  No matter how you do, you'll come out richer from the experience.  And I have to say it's a brilliant idea to get people to think about a career in advertising and, in particular, planning.  I sense we'll get a better quality of candidate as a result of initiatives like this.

You can find out more here.

Looking back at PSFK New York

Last Thursday I spent a fantastic day at PSFK's conference in New York (thanks again for the kind invite Piers).  Piers and the crew always put on a good show and this was no exception.  Really good pick and mix selection of speakers and panels, and a great chance to meet up with some old friends who I get to see far too infrequently - hello Paul, Noah, Domenico and Ben in particular.

The great thing is everyone seems to have their personal favorite bits of the day.  Here are mine:

1.  A great demonstration of reinvention of the tired, bloated healthcare industry.  Richard Fine of Help Remedies put some elegant simplicity back into the dull world of medication (think method in the drug cabinet) and Jay and Sean from hellohealth showed how their using technology as a platform to create a better relationship between patients and doctors, as well as cutting out the disincentives created by insurance middlemen.

2.  Celestine Arnold (wish I could find a link) gave a brilliantly impassioned talk on the ghost in the machine, or how mutlicultural society is so badly portrayed in video games (it makes the ad industry look positively progressive).  May have something to do with the fact that despite non-White groups having a higher penetration of video game playing, 98% of game designers are white.

3.  Kevin Slavin of area/code gave a great talk packed full of examples of what mobile really means.  It's not just people talking to people, but stuff and objects talking to people.  Like the fantastic botanicalls which our house desperately needs.  He also shared Project Blinkenlights which is fantastic hacking culture on a massive public scale..

4.  The panel on agencies and IP/new models had some good discussion about why the industry needs to rethink what it makes and how it gets paid.  Carl Johnson of Anomaly succinctly summed up the problem as time remuneration which makes crap ideas worth the same as good ideas.  There's clearly progress here, but a hell of a long way to go.

The Optimist Conspectus

Ian Fitzpatrick has started a wonderful web compendium called The Optimist Conspectus.  The idea was born from a simple observation - there is a great deal of optimism in society at the moment, even as we are witnessing massive economic turmoil, warfare and significant threats to our planet in the form of environmental destruction and disease.

The ultimate aim is to build some kind of visualization around the nature of optimism so this requires lots of contributions.  If you have a few minutes pop over to the site and add your own perspective.

Truth in advertising

The usually ridiculous infomercial until they admit a new usage occasion about 30 seconds in.

The paradox of advertising

We spend 90% of our money distributing an idea and 10% on the content of the idea.

Yet we spend 90% of our time and interest on the content of the idea and 10% on it's distribution.

Clearly it's time for a new model with a better distribution of money and attention.