Defensive Move?

Must be. Google doesn't need to advertise. I mean I can understand their need to stand their ground what with positive reviews of Windows 7 and the yahoo merger, but c'mon. If Google advertises then we have seen the end of Google. Don't mean to be too dramatic, but advertising is like an addiction...once you start its hard to stop and if Google needs to advertise to differentiate itself then I tip my hat to Yahoo!, MSN and AOL (but I'm still going to use Google...)

UPDATE: Google Superbowl spot -- actually a great spot, but never thought I'd see Google in the superbowl. If I see a Google print ad its over.

Work In Progress

Two Fridays ago I ventured out to the West Village to see Work In Progress, a workshop put on by John Leguizamo to test out material for his upcoming show. At $20 a pop, it was a no-brainer.  There were no more than 75 - 100 people in the theater who sat in folding chairs with cushions.  John was up close and personal as he took us through his new material for almost two hours.  It was a true testament to workshop; he was just getting a gauge of his material - what was funny, what was offensive, what was sad, what was thought-provoking.  

I was really appreciative of this show too.  For starters, John Leguizamo has worked with Al Pacino, Robert Deniro, Sean Penn, Harrison Ford, Spike Lee, and Leonardo DiCaprio to name a few.  Additionally, it gave the audience a glimpse into the creative process.  Finally, the venue was perfect -- run by amateur playhouse employees, filled with people across the inebriation spectrum, and set in the middle of the West Village.  I thought the whole experience was really fun and interesting, and would love to do more of that.  The whole show really spoke to the transparency of his creative process.  

And it got me thinking about this whole transparency thing -- I think its something marketers can learn from.  I think we are just beginning to see a tip in the research/CRM process.  The gathering of knowledge and insights is transforming...slowly.  But it definitely is changing.  Over the past few years as an industry we went from a linear process of collecting, synthesizing, analyzing, and reacting to data to one where we measured quantitative data in real-time.  I think we took a huge leap though without thinking about everything we  over-stepped.  

However, some companies have leveraged this unchartered territory to their competitive advantage.  MyStarbucksIdea.com, Dell's IdeaStorm, and GenerationBenz.com are a few examples where companies are transparent about their creative process and gathering new ideas.  And, they are taking it one step further by merging research/analytics with CRM.  By bringing their consumers into their creative process they are also establishing a relationship base with their consumers, which they can nurture and use for up-selling, cross-selling and loyalty.

I think as the online medium changes and display advertising loses its appeal (although not all of it is bad or dismissive), marketers will opt for strategic CRM over mass-reach advertising. Especially, as CRM becomes scalable and engaging -- no more DR flyers or emails, now CRM can be conducted socially, with video and on mobile devices.

Work Work: Twitter Overview

Twitter Overview for Client Presentation

View more documents from jstnprnll.

Book Report: Emotional Branding

"The future is going to be with content, not technology.  The young directors I meet today are incredibly smart.  The ones I started out with did not know much about film-making when they started...but they knew about life."

- Robert Redford

When I started reading this book this was probably the last line I thought I would come across.  The connection between Robert Redford and emotional branding didn't seem intuitive.  But like all aspects of life expertise is second to experience.  So when I came across this quote towards the conclusion of the book it made perfect sense.   Branding, emotional or otherwise, is dependent on life experiences.  Our interaction with life sculpts our perspective of things.  And, that is my takeaway from the Emotional Branding by Marc Gobe.

Emotional Branding did seem out of touch on the surface.  It was written as the DotCom bubble was bursting and therefore is tragic.  But the principles described can be leveraged now and into the future.  Marc Gobe attempts to express that branding is not a superficial component of marketing, but something that impacts our five senses as we navigate a brand experience - both online and offline.  

Additionally, Emotional Branding according to Gobe is not just a consumer facing philosophy but one that can be harnessed within corporations as well.  One of his key case studies talks about a corporate-identity model he devised for his clients.  His work breaks down the common hierarchical structures that inhibit ideation and collaboration into a new model that promoted a new corporate dynamic.  His model moved from one that focused on a corporate culture of rationality (based on the functions and benefits of products) to one of desire (based on the emotional bond people have with a brand).  

Furthermore, Gobe stresses that emotions are instinctual and built-up over time.  So that a brands entry into the marketplace must anticipate the consumer predisposition.  The book spends a lot of time talking about the cross between these dispositions and their impact on commerce (a topic that seemed most relevant to me).  

Another interesting chapter of the book discusses how  marketing movements mimic and inspire lifestyle movements...and that this is critical to the longevity of brands.  The human experience is about change, and as we change so must brands otherwise they become irrelevant.  This is the entry-point into CRM...and not the measurable data-driven CRM, but the intangible relationship consumers have with a brand (think Apple, GAP, Nike, NY Times, etc.).  This is the moral contract that exists between consumers and brands -- a contract that aims to never deceive the the consumer.

However, Gobe explains that through contemporary advertising we lose this intimacy and morality between the consumer and brand.  Even with the proliferation in technology there is a fundamental chasm between the consumer and brands...even when we thought they would be brought closer together.  The secret sauce (so to speak), according to Gobe, is the intersection between sincerity and promotion; this is the key to commerce via emotional branding. 

Overall, this book is a great read for any person interested or employed in advertising/marketing.  Branding and emotions are key to successful commerce of a brand.  And this book goes in depth into the design, the advertising and research needed to impact consumers in a deeper level.

However, my complaint with the book is that it ultimately served to promote Marc Gobe's design firm, D/GA.  Furthermore, I found a lot of conflicts with the reporting in conjunction with the methods of research.  Most of the findings were based on unsubstantiated, subjective research; which for the most part might hold true, but as a sceptic I expect research to have a certain level of confidence.

Finally, some of the reporting in this book seems obvious, which isn't surprising considering I read this book almost 10 years after its publish date. 

I do recommend this book, but in order to truly take learnings away from this book you have to remove yourself from the content a bit and distill the content to its fundamentals.  Those do not change over time, only the application of those fundamentals do.

The New Design Aesthetic

I currently work at a creative agency that specializes in web development, so when I was at a friends apartment last night, who happens to be graphic artist with a specific focus in video and painting, we briefly talked about how his experience in rotoscoping could be of service to the agency. I nodded in agreement, took his card then researched what the fuck rotoscoping was.


In my findings I came across Max Fleischer and his Out of The Inkwell series dating back to the 1920's. Max founded the craft of Rotoscoping and is responsble for timeless pieces of pop culture as Betty Boop, Koko the Clown and Popeye.


I mention this because I watched one of his silent film productions and appreciated the craft of the work, specifically the minimal amount of copy associated with the films. And how challenging it must have been to tell a story without using many words. The viewer is reliant on visual stimuli mostly to piece the narrative together, and when copy does come into to play it has to convey much more than the 6 words typed on the screen. To me that is synonomous with contemporary advertising.


However, whereas silent picture viewers paid money to see these movies and therefore were more willing to distill the narative, advertisers are more at the mercy of the short attention-span of consumers and their unwillingness to pay attention to advertising. In seeing Max Fleischman's movie I realized that we are severly challenged in communicating products and services, and that in many ways we have reverted back to the silent film era of movie making. True, once consumers agree to engage with a brand we can fast forward to current times and dazzle with Flash animation, video and sharing functionality. But that first step is to tell the narrative within a 3-second window of time, with minimal copy and relying heavily on visual stimuli.


As with all challenges there are also opportunities associated with this -- mainly that all advertisers are now on the same playing field (large marketing budgets no longer guarantee share of mind or share of wallet) and that we can now lean more on the design aesthetic as the main point of differentiation. Design has begun to creep more into marketing lingo and subsequently consumer lingo than ever before. Whereas 3 years ago the hype was all about user-generated content (I feel icky just saying those words), we are now about to tip into the era of user-generated design. Nike spearheaded this years ago with NikeID. Kleenex has also gotten into the mix with customizable tissue boxes.


When tissue companies start to innovate through the use of design you know the movement has changed from being a talent that was once acquired through a keen sense of artistic ability and training to something that can now be done by a Soccer Mom right before she runs to pick up the kids (not to knock on Soccer Moms...).


Naturally, technology is responsible for this coup on Design. But there is no point in preventing this movement as it is part of tech adoption, which also enables non-design savvy consumers -- just as millions of people let out their inner Tarantino on Youtube a few years ago.

As advertising matures across all markets, design will be the fabric that brings it closer to the product. So eventually we will get to the point where advertising and the product are one. Or perhaps are we there already a la Apple, Anomaly NYC, Brooklyn Brothers, Pepsi/Arnell Group, et al.


Marc Gobe, founder for D/GA, leader in design, and partner to many marketing gangsters, such as Coke, IBM, and Victoria Secrets, wrote a pretty detailed book on the subject called Emotional Branding. In the book he describes the design aesthetic as something that permeates all five senses and extends to everything from the product itself (think Jean Paul Gaultier perfume bottle design) to the shopping experience (think Whole Foods and Apple Store) to the media and eCommerce platforms platforms (think Zappos, Amazon and Hulu) and ultimately to the advertising itself (think Pepsi).


So what does this have to do with Max Fleischer. Not much, except that design and silent-films are both predicated upon simplicity and intuition to communicate a narrative. Design is the practice of communicating the complex through simplicity. Apple does this. Architecture does this. And now advertising will do this.

Rabbit Run

A throwback to John Updike, author of the famed Harry Angstrom saga and series of novels: Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit is Rich, and Rabbit at Rest. The main character was often referred to as Rabbit due to his pinched ears and protruding two front teeth. I was handed down Rabbit Redux by a senior when I was a freshman at NYU right before we lit up a spliff. It remains one of my favorite books.

But this post is not about Rabbit, John Updike or my naïveté as a freshman. This post is about my recent completion of the 2008 ING NYC Marathon...and perhaps a few other things. Where's the connection you ask? I don't know. But what I do know is that when I think of the title Rabbit Run I think of myself training for and completing the marathon. Harry Angstrom the hero of the Rabbit saga played basketball for his high school and for a brief period of time was a local hero for his success on the team. Overtime though his heroism ran dry and left him a middle-aged nobody. While I am nowhere near middle age nor do I consider myself a nobody I can relate to that sequence of events. After finishing the marathon I was tired and proud. But something inside me wouldn't let me just sit back an milk the moment. Something told me that one marathon is a great accomplishment but that I needed to keep moving.

That was kind of how I felt throughout all of 2008. I needed to keep moving or else I might get stuck.

The year started off with a family crisis. My father suffered a stroke. Perhaps one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced. But like my instinctual feeling my father too had to keep moving. Almost a year later he is now driving and cursing. A lot.

Then my girlfriend and I broke up after being together four and a half years. It was a hard thing to accept but the right thing for both of us to do. But I wouldnt allow myslef to get down about it. Perhaps in a moment of clarity I decided it was then time to visit my family in Uruguay (but not without a week of debauchery in Buenos Aires). It was fulfilling to visit my homeland but not enough. I needed to keep moving. Upon returning my brilliant friends decided they too needed some thrills and suggested we all sky dive. In an email reply I let them know I would do it thinking the day wouldn't come. Yet two weeks later I was driving with three friends to New Paltz, NY for the jump. A few hours later I was screaming "holy shiiiiiit" from 15,000 feet.

But still I needed to keep moving. Around this time I entered in a quiet relationship with a co-worker that bloomed into a rich relationship. She took me to Nantucket where she had summered years before. We rode bikes around the island, soaked in the sun and ate good food. It was a great weekend. From there she took me on a 26 mile run through the boroughs of new York city. It was her initial motivation to do it herselft that eventually made me run. And I'm happy that I took advantage of the opportunity.

Now I sit still looking 2009 dead on wondering what that year will bring. How can I seize opportunities as they come and keep moving? And when would I feel at ease with my experiences and content?

So I look at Rabbit as a role model almost, and admire him for his accomplishments as a high school basketball hero, but wonder where his life would have lead had he continued to achieve instead of rest his laurels on teenage successes.

I suppose I should ask John Updike.

UPDATE: A moment of silence for John Updike who has since passed (RIP: 3/18/32 - 1/27/09)

The Road Ahead

The Economist published an article today on the growth of online advertising during the economic downturn. So far there have mixed reports in the media about the fate of advertising in the next 9 - 12 months. Specifically, online advertising has been projected to decline; however, in this article the author points out that online advertising won't decline as much as it will expand less than expected -- only 8.9% instead of 14.5% as originally projected.

Search marketing will remain unscathed -- as predicted, however, marketers can't really create online campaigns around that channel. Display banners will continue to decrease -- they haven't proved to be very effective. Rich Media will expand especially as the technology and metrics behind it continue to improve. But that's not the real story here. What's most intriguing is that online usership is not decreasing; it's actually increasing -- even more so on a global level.

Just a few weeks ago the CMO of Hewlett Packard spoke to my agency. Much like most marketers he praised interactive marketing and ecommerce as being central to all campaigns moving forward. However, one staggering statistic that he referenced was that out of the 6 billion people in this world, only 1 billion currently have access to the Internet. The implication being that the online marketing is poised to grow six-fold over the next decade or so. And, that growth will be fueled by markets in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

The article also points out an undeniable truth: that consumers are migrating to sites where advertising has proven ineffective, such as social networks and video sites. This is no coincidence and also no attempt by consumers to elude advertising. These sites are just harder to monetize without disrupting the user experience. YouTube and Facebook have been attempting to create sustainable advertising platforms, but have yet to crack the code. And the tactics that have been widely used by marketers have grown stale and predictable, such as user-generated content promotions or fan pages on social nets.

The real boon for publishers has been in content development and distribution. MySpace Music, iTunes and Hulu are examples of successful ventures that distribute premium, professionally produced content and attract high volumes of qualified consumers. So far these sites have broken even or made small margins on their inventory. What this means for marketers is that there is a huge opportunity for innovation. Branded Content/product integration is a tactic that worked well for BMW harkening back to BMW Films and the film Ronin featuring Robert Deniro. Likewise for Cisco Systems with 24 and Dell for The Office. Branded Content won't be the solution for online marketing, but it's something that can weave into the patterns of behavior for online consumers without disrupting their experience -- provided it is done tastefully.

At the end of the day the article was reaffirming in it's point that as online usage increases at least domestically the effectiveness of traditional advertising tactics is declining or remaining stagnant at best. Recessions tend to produce increased innovation...and if there is light at the end of the tunnel it's that innovation will be the save-all for advertisers in during the next 9 - 12 months. It's not easy to innovate, but at least online all campaigns are in perpetual beta and can be optimized on the fly.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of the next year and how marketers differentiate themselves online.

The Four Block Move

All I needed to do was move my belongings from 86th Street to 90th Street. Just four blocks. But of course it couldn't be that simple. Why would it be that simple? I'm currently sitting on my couch (the only thing that isn't boxed up or covered in bubble wrap) watching TV on mute, while drinking a beer. Boring and sad.

I wanted to move for so many reasons yet there wasn't one that could actually get me out of here. My application for my apartment could not be approved due to the fact that one of my financial statements showed less than $3000 dollars for the month. The other months did, plus I put down certified checks for first month and security, and I make 40x the rent...not to mention that I'm a current tenant with the management company. These things did not matter. What mattered is that in September my financial statement showed that I had less than $3000 in my bank account. Forget about the fact that I switched jobs during that month or that my rent is $2,600 per month or that I went on vacation to Argentina a few months earlier. There was no consolation to be had. My management company has strict policies...and god forbid during this economic climate they are more lenient...god forbid that they are more lenient with an existing tenant that is renting another one of their units instead of a competitors. God forbid.

So here I sit drinking my beer amidst columns of brown cardboard boxes and duffel bags full of clothes. This will be my purgatory for the next three days until I hear back from my management company and find out if I can indeed move into to my new apartment.

I'm going for a run.

The Printed Word is Dead...

...maybe the shit you read.

I couldn't be happier with my time spent reading magazines and books. I often walk away from articles and long form edits feeling enlightened (if modestly). Most recently I experienced this feeling when reading Monocle, arguably my favorite magazine, and Microtrends, a voluminous book on recent trends that are shaping the world as we know it.

I can't remember the last time I read an online article and walked away knowing that the rise in Cougars is due to women re-entering the workforce and delaying child birth, that Calorie Restiction is a healthy way to prolong life, and that Copenhagen is the most liveable city based on it's quality of life, position on environment issues, and stellar urban planning. Actually, if I read these articles online I probably wouldn't care about any of it. But at the same time by reading my books and magazines I've diversified my intake and read something that ordinarily I would never have read.

While online articles that are consumed with little regard, the printed word is sought out by users. Their selection marks an investment on their part, both fiscal and mental. And because of this, print readers are loyal; they often follow their favorite authors going back years or even centuries, and likewise often stick to the same magazine due to it's trustworthy and reliable content (be it celebrity gossip, haute couture, science/technology or politics).

However, that is not to say that online content isn't relevant or important. It's just a different read. The virtue of online content is that it gives the printed word posterity. Even Monocle and Microtrends have websites filled with additional content. Online content continues where magazines or books leave off. That being the case online content is good for a bite-sized read, but for a real appetite nothing beats a bound print edition.

And on that note, here are some recommendation to tickle your temporal (et al) lobe:

1. Monocle Magazine
2. Microtrends
3. A People's History of the United States
4. Tropic of Cancer

Who wants to jump out of a plane?

Apparently I did. I recently jumped out of a plane 15,000 feet in the air and dropped down 6,000 feet in 60 seconds...otherwise know as terminal velocity. I guess I was falling at a speed of 120 mph.

You know in Trainspotting, in the beginning of the movie, when Renton is describing heroin use? He says "Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it." Well, skydiving wasn't that good, but it is was pretty fucking close.


My friends are already talking about the next jump. I'm not sure I can do it again so soon. I need a couple of weeks to get back up there, but I'll definitely jump again. Next time in a different location though like a beach or something. You can see my pictures here.

...And enjoy this ridiculous clip of Scott Plamer from Jackass 3 jumping out of a plane without a parachute (props for the music in this video):