I am generally bored by presentations, business, academic, or otherwise. I fidget, I doodle, and my comments or questions tend to fall into the "distracting/sometimes comedic" category. And while I've sat through my share of boring presentations, I will freely admit that I have likewise conducted some of my own. Moreover, I have known the searing pain and embarrassment of consciously doing so.
I've tried to play with the genre in order to liven things up. At academic conferences, I've eschewed the traditional reading approach and spoken ex tempore. In business contexts, I've used Godin-esque PowerPoints featuring provocative images and 5 words or less per slide, and I've even daringly presented without a PowerPointed net.
Still, I have yet to try Pecha Kucha. A Pecha Kucha Night is an event whereat designers present their ideas on design under rather strict limits: Each presenter gets 20 slides and 20 seconds per slide. If you do the math, you'll realize that gives each presentation 400 seconds, or a little over six minutes.
The founders of PK Night, Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture, realized that, if you "give a mike to a designer (especially an architect) ... you'll be trapped for hours." At the same time, they wanted to create "a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public." Incipit Pecha Kucha.
I'm loving the concept. Can you imagine a speaker telling you, "Yes, I'd be happy to present at your conference, but I refuse to speak for more than six and a half minutes"?
If that sounds like a dream come true, CALL ME! I would be happy to speak anywhere, on ANY SUBJECT, Pecha-Kucha-style. Even if I'm boring, the light at the end of the tunnel of boredom is coming atcha in twenty 20-second increments. So don't worry. It will be over soon.
Image Courtesy of Sam Takes Photos.
Debbie Weil is a corporate blogging and social media consultant who literally wrote the book on corporate blogging, which she aptly entitled, The Corporate Blogging Book. I had the good fortune of interviewing her the other day on the three "don'ts" of corporate blogging (don't focus on the technology; don't outsource the writing; don't overestimate the amount of work it will require), journalistic standards and blogger credibility, and the revolution in corporate communications.
I invite you to listen in on our conversation. You can do so by clicking on the device pictured below or by clicking on this link here. You may also download the mp3 by "right-clicking" ("control-clicking," Mac-wise) on that link, or check out this and all other Talent Blog Podcasts on iTunes.
powered by ODEO
A few highlights of the podcast can be found at the following time coordinates:
01:43 - How to become an "expert"
03:31 - It's not easy to do a really good corporate blog
08:50 - Top 3 Dont's of Corporate Blogging
11:38 - Think of a blog as a next generation website
15:53 - Manufacturing authenticity
21:38 - A collection of intersecting communities
23:10 - The first step is always to listen
25:05 - You can't start blogging until you're in a different mindset
28:02 - Can you make a career in blogging? (Answer: Probably not)
Image Courtesy of hyku.
I interviewed Debbie Weil yesterday for a podcast on corporate blogging (which I'll be posting tomorrow morning - watch this space!). While doing a bit of research on Debbie, I came across her compilation of the "Best Top Ten Lists" for 2007. What threw me for a time-loop was this list of "Top 10 Tips for New Bloggers" assembled by the fellow who coined the term "blog," Jorn Barger.
Actually, it wasn't the list that threw me so much as seeing Jorn's robot wisdom weblog, which was the first blog I ever read (while sitting in the Aquent office in Osaka, Japan back in 2000). It reminded me once again that a weblog, now commonly called "blog," was originally defined by Mr. Barger as a collection of links documenting someone's travels around the web. The journal-esque form of today's blogs suggests that the genre has drifted somewhat from his original concept, according to which, as he puts it, "...del.icio.us is actually better for blogging than blogger.com."
In other words, blogging is about the links, not about self-important pontification, snide carping, or insipid personal reflection. (Thank the Heavens that I never indulge in such frivolities on this august and painfully earnest corporate blog!)
So, in the original spirit of bloggery, I present the following links upon which I have recently pointed and/or clicked:
How do you like them blog apples?
Image Courtesy of iangbl.
The Advertising Research Foundation, which publishes The Journal of Advertising Research, released a white paper last month entitled, "On the Road to a New Effectiveness Model," (you can purchase it from the ARF here), which got written up in Brandweek, and elsewhere, such as in this MediaPost column by Max Kalehoff.
The upshot of the ARF et al. study was that advertisements which tell a convincing or engaging story more effectively make a positive impression on viewers than those that focus on positioning a product in terms of its benefits. Max Kalehoff insists that the real lesson here is not about advertising effectiveness but about brand effectiveness. Specifically, he says, brands need compelling foundational narratives that connect with people by distilling and embodying that brand's essence.
I believe that is just what I've been trying to do with this blog but, just in case that has not been entirely and intuitively obvious, please allow me to explain.
click to continue...
In this third and final installment of our podcast mini-series, we speak with Carol Burke, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at AMN Healthcare. Carol discusses how she makes sure that her team is using the marketing channels most preferred by AMN's constituents and what she does to create marketing content with a life beyond marketing.
You may listen to Episode 3 here:
powered by ODEO
You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 3 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of pingnews.
In this episode, I speak with Jim Hauptman, Creative Director and Managing Editor at LL Bean. Jim addresses the complexities of "multi-channel" marketing, an approach that seeks to leverage the specific advantages of diverse channels, as opposed to "multiple channel" marketing, which tends to push the same message or content through many channels. He also reveals how winter camping off-sites can lead to great marketing insights.
Listen to Episode 2 here:
powered by ODEO
You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 2 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of davelanders..
In conjunction with the webcast we're presenting today, I interviewed a few folks we work with and asked them how they coordinate their marketing messages and programs across a variety of media from print to web and beyond. I then created a three episode podcast mini-series of these interviews.
In this episode Dave Harrell, the Director of Advertising at Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, talks about some of the grassroots, infotainment marketing efforts that his group has undertaken recently. In doing so, he also discusses the processes they follow to keep messages and branding consistent from channel to channel and audience to audience.
You can listen to Episode 1 here:
powered by ODEO
You can download this podcast by "right clicking" ("control clicking" on the Mac) this link, Episode 1 MP3, or check out The Talent Blog Podcast feed.
Image courtesy of jimbowen0306.
A friend of mine sent me a link to this gapingvoid post, which contains forty-five random notes assembled by Hugh MacLeod on his experiences creating the site and his thousands of "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards."
My friend was also kind enough to send me an additional link, a very lengthy annotated list drawn up by Mr. MacLeod on the subject, How To Be Creative (apparently, the most read post on his blog).
Although the list is thirty-one items long and the annotations run to 10,000 words, I would encourage anyone who has ever struggled with striking a balance between creative pursuits (art, music, poetry) and making a living to read it (though, given that he gets something like 3,000 pageviews a day, you may bloody well already have).
click to continue...
Gerry McGovern, an "authority on managing web content as a business asset," posted an interesting article entitled "Impediments to seeing information as a task," in which he makes some interesting claims on establishing the true value of content on the web.
His argument is summed-up in the following statement: "Until the Web, the act of creating content and the impact that content had on the reader were not really connected. But the Web opens up a window through which we can look and see if the content is actually delivering on its objectives."
McGovern's perspective is informed by the notion that web usage is task driven and that "[m]ore than anything else, it is content that will influence the successful completion of these tasks." Accordingly he concludes, "We need web writers whose first and foremost concern is the action their content will drive."
While I agree that the web allows us to apply metrics to writing, at least in terms of page views, feed subscriptions, comments, etc., I don't agree that the "completion of tasks" is the best measure of content value or that content influences the completion of tasks "more than anything else." Furthermore, I disagree that the goal of all or even most content on the web is to "drive actions" (unless we count as content the word "Continue" written on a button on an e-commerce site).
Within a business context, it goes without saying that we need to be able to evaluate and justify the things we do in business terms. At the same time we need to make sure that we are comparing apples to apples. Content <> Content. Entries in an FAQ are not the same as product descriptions, which are not the same as user reviews or the instructions for submitting a review. Content needs to be judged against its stated purpose, not against the general purpose of "driving action."
What do you think?
Image courtesy of santheo.
Talent Spotlight: Doreen, Aquent Chicago
Doreen's career started in the advertising world. Graduating with a degree in journalism, she spent 4 years in account management at a couple specialty agencies before trying her hand at field marketing management for a restaurant chain. Discovering that this wasn't exactly the right fit, she decided to chart a new course and re-entered the advertising industry on the creative side as a copywriter.
After taking a few months to create a "spec" portfolio containing hypothetical campaigns for a broad range of consumer products she hit the streets. Finding work was a challenge and over the course of the next year she went through "60 or so interviews." Although interviewing was a hard slog, Doreen also found it to be a real confidence builder. "After a while you stop taking things personally. You take into consideration what someone has to say about your work, but in the long run you have to have confidence to listen to your creative instinct. So, if you happen to catch someone on a bad day, rather than getting down on yourself, you end up thinking, 'What was that about?'"
Pounding the pavement eventually paid off and she landed a job with Frankel. "That was a real turning point," she says, "because I'd actually gotten a job doing what I wanted to do." Not only that, it turned out she was good at it. The next several years found her doing award-winning promotional work for department stores from Marshall Field's to Target. Following her position at Target she worked at another prominent promotional agency on brands like Kellogg and Kraft. Gradually, her role morphed from copywriting to creative direction as she moved into TV and radio as part of Publicis Mid-America, working on successful campaigns for Del Webb and OfficeMax.
When Publicis closed their office in 2003, Doreen started free-lancing. Although she was able to find work through her many contacts, she also chose to register with Aquent. She made it clear up-front that, as she was planning on having a child, she would only be open to off-site work. The folks at Aquent were flexible and set about finding off-site opportunities for her. Among them was a gig through a national design firm concepting and writing copy for a leading, "cloth like" paper towel brand. This role was a particularly good fit for her since, as a working mother, "I was writing for myself. I was the demographic they were going after!"
"You can change if you put your mind to it," Doreen says when asked if she has any career advice for marketing and creative folks. She also encourages anyone making a career change to take the inevitable rejection in stride and remember that everyone's pretty much making it up as they go along. "It sounds corny, but don't listen to someone else's opinion of you, listen to your heart. If I had listened to other people's negativity I would never have left my house."
Doreen's experiences have taught her that passion and perseverance can ultimately take you where you want to go. "If you're happy doing what you're doing, keep it up," she adds, "And if you're not happy, find out what it is that'll get you there."
Science and Design
Apr 26, 2007 @ 5:04 PM · Matthew Grant
In December I wrote a post about an eye-tracking study conducted by the folks at MarketingSherpa in conjunction with their research partners at eyetools. That study showed that readers of HTML e-mails would click on almost anything and almost always on pictures and logos.
I was reminded of this whilst reading a recent article on Jakob Nielsen's website useit.com. An eye-tracking study conducted by his group determined that one "should show numbers as numerals when writing for online readers."
I love it when we can use science to guide our editorial and design decisions. What better way to resolve a dispute about a particular creative direction than to invoke the data? What better way to prove the effectiveness of our design than by literally testing it?
How many of us actually do this? I realize that testing is a common part of web design methodology; has anyone out there tested their print work recently?
According to Nietzsche, our conscience tells us, "Become what you are" (advice not to be confused with transversal theorist Bryan Reynolds' recommendation to "become what you aren't"). Unfortunately, when you work as a copywriter, it's more likely that you will become what you've done.
I was reminded of this while speaking with a writer named Karen who works through Aquent out in Los Angeles. Karen got her start at a fairly well-known agency working on automotive advertising. While she enjoyed it and learned a lot, after a while she discovered that everywhere she went they "put her on a car account."
Eventually, she left the agency world and went in-house at a company specializing in hair care products. How did she do that? Well, as a junior writer, in addition to car stuff, she also got projects here and there in the field of skin care. When it came time to branch out and work on something that didn't involve city miles versus highway miles, or rich, Corinthian leather, she was able to use this other experience as a starting point for a new direction.
There are probably a lot of lessons here but the one Karen emphasized when I asked her was this: "It's really important for young writers to take everything; you never know where it's going to lead." Though it's not always obvious at the time, those random assignments and odd jobs from way-back-when can turn out to be the first steps down a new path.
When you wanted to change course career-wise, what did you do?
Wars of Words
Mar 24, 2007 @ 11:03 AM · Matthew Grant
"Marketing isn't about us VS them - it is about us AND them. It is not something you do TO a person, but rather something you do FOR them," writes Greg Verdino in a recent post on the bellicose rhetoric of marketing. Drawing attention to the words marketers use - "target," "campaign," "penetrate" - he insists that they belie an adversarial mindset when the "new" world of marketing calls for a collaborative one. Accordingly, "partner," "service," and "invite," should be our watchwords.
The world of business is dominated by the vocabulary of war - I work in Aquent's "headquarters" from which we support "the field," for example - and that's not just a function of the defense budget. I think it's a function of the competitive nature of what we do (which is why combat metaphors are followed closely by sports metaphors in popularity among the business folk, isn't that right, "team"?).
For this reason, the idea that marketing is something we do "for" people, rather than "to" them, smacks to me of, well, marketing. If we are talking about "enlisting" the aid of customers to help us market to other potential customers, "virally" or whatever, then I could see us saying that it's something that we do "with" them, at times. But as long as marketing "aims" to influence people, particularly influencing them to give us, instead of our competitors, money in exchange for goods or services, we are "camouflaging" our intentions if we tell them we're doing it "for" them.
Talent Spotlight!
Julane Marx calls herself "a natural editor," although she admits that it's kind of a curse - she can't read the newspaper, for example, without spotting typos. With an MBA and a career that took her through a range of tech-oriented companies involved in technical training, software, and Web-based business services, she finally found herself ensconced as a VP of Marketing spending 90% of her time doing things she didn't enjoy like sitting through endless meetings and agonizing over spreadsheets.
Striking out on her own, Julane's love for words and interest in the English language led to one of her first freelance editing gigs. As a subscriber to Michael Quinion's "World Wide Words" newsletter, one day she stumbled across a mistake in it, which she duly brought to his attention. Being a stickler for proper syntax and usage, Mr. Quinion appreciated Julane's eagle eye and American viewpoint and enlisted her as an "Advisory Editor," setting in motion a "series of fortunate events" that has turned into a second career as a freelance copyeditor.
Julane has found freelancing to be a "fun way to make a contribution" while retaining the freedom to explore new possibilities once the project has ended. She came to Aquent back in 2002 thanks to a clever ad for proofreaders our Los Angeles office ran and successfully passed the fairly challenging proofreading test that we administer interested candidates. She worked for Aquent here and there, eventually landing a long-term assignment with a Fortune 500 biotech firm specializing in human therapeutics.
Starting out as "one of the troops," she later moved into a role as manager of the proofreading team, then took responsibility for training the vendors our client brought in to take over this function as our contract was phased out. Overall, Julane found the environment particularly rewarding, partly because she enjoys working with really smart people, and partly because proofreading for products with medical applications is beyond mission-critical. As she put it, "If you get certain things wrong, someone could actually die."
Her successes on the proofreading front led to a new role as a marketing communications manager for the company's brand protection department, the main purpose of which is to combat drug counterfeiting. During this temporary assignment, she updated the department's public position statement on drug counterfeiting, created a fact sheet about the department, penned newsletter articles raising its profile in the organization, commissioned two logos and a multi-use tabletop display unit, and worked on a plan for rolling out an important new product security feature to be launched in the fall. She enjoyed flexing a number of different muscles she has used in the past in an interesting new setting, plus there were "a manageable number of meetings and not a spreadsheet in sight."
Having worked in a range of environments and worn a series of different hats, Julane's primary advice to others pursuing a career in marketing is to "try everything." "Variety is a value in itself," she says, "and it's the ideal way to discover what you do best and what makes your heart sing." Exploring the possibilities in order to find out what you love to do isn't just about following your passion, as we're so often told. More importantly, it's about becoming a valuable and engaged participant wherever you work; someone who understands not only his or her own function but also how it fits in with the big picture. In Julane's words, "You aren't going to be effective if you don't care about what you're doing."
When I entered grad school 20 years ago, I got to know a fellow who was just wrapping up his graduate career and preparing to go on the job market. He told me that his personal motto had become, "I am a box of Tide."
I was reminded of this quote this morning when I read, "Copy Writers: See Yourself As The Product," by Chris Marlow. Written with the intent of helping freelancers create for themselves a "lead generation machine," she writes, "The first step requires you to see yourself as a product or service, because in fact, that's what you are." She puts a finer point on it by continuing, "If you think of yourself... as a commodity, it becomes more apparent what you must do in order to market yourself effectively."
If you are going to build a clientele as an independent contractor/consultant/freelancer, you could certainly do worse than heed Ms. Marlow's advice and take the time to identify your unique selling point and articulate your particular offering(s). In fact, unless you are already famous, you will have to do this in one form or another if you want to attract people who will pay you money to do what you do.
It was just that her turns of phrase, "a product... that's what you are" and "think of yourself... as a commodity," hit a long dormant academic nerve with me, and not only by reminding me of the cynical/apt words of my erstwhile co-inhabitant of the Ivory Tower (who is gainfully employed as a professor in San Diego and just recently published a fascinating book on representations of the "Mexican" in American culture).
You see, a long time ago I read a book called History and Class Consciousness, which, in its well-known chapter on "Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat," asserted that, in capitalist society, relationships between people increasingly take on the appearance of relationships between objects. (This was meant as a damning criticism, for those of you who have not studied early-20th century Marxist thought.)
The point is that there is something de-humanizing about thinking of ourselves as "products," "services," or "commodities" - and something disturbing that we don't even notice it. Shouldn't we think of ourselves as people who have certain skills or talents that could be "commoditized" and marketed to other people who have need of them? "Think of your clients as data-points, because that's what they are," would be a strange thing to say, right?
As every sports fan knows, and has been reported all over the place, Gino Bona won the NFL's "Best Commercial Ever" contest yesterday.
Aside from being a "winnah" - as we say here in Ye Olde Newe Englande - and a talented, funny writer, Gino has been registered as a talent with Aquent since way back in '01.
In other words, if the NFL had only called us, they wouldn't have had to run a big contest just to find him! Oh, the humanity!
Alls well that ends well, of course, so let me just say this: Gino Bona, we at Aquent salute you!
