If At First You Don't Succeed

Image via WikipediaEvery so often Nait (Northern Alberta Institute of Technology) asks me to instruct a continuing education course for them dealing with marketing and business. This past weekend while I teaching a course on delegation and teamwork, I was reminded just how important allowing people to fail is to building trust, respect and innovation. Some companies thrive in allowing their people to fail and then learn from there failures. 3M makes it mandatory for people to fail. In their mind if they are not failing, then they are not learning and inventing new category defining products.

So back to what struck me this past weekend. I was watching with the class a DVD on the design consultancy IDEO, and a quote from one of their great talent jumped out and smacked me in the face. The quote was "enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the lone genius." Now I am not sure if this was his original thought or he borrowed it from some other great mind, but it quickly reminded me that people need to be encouraged to try things that scare them, things that just might not work. Too often business cultures breed stagnation and like mindedness in product design, business models and marketing communications.

In my mind the reason so little marketing activity jumps out at people and very little is differentiated and relevant, is because no learning was done it the development process. No one was encouraged to try new things and know it was ok if it didn't work because they knew they would learn from it and be even better next time. Maybe that is why I love the idea of beta sites in the webbed world. Beta sites and their thinking says we'll figure this out as we go along, some things may not work and we're fine with that because it will make the things that we do well for you become even better.

So make a mistake today and celebrate it. Then get back up and fix it so your next idea is even better.

Related articles

• Are you ready to accept failure? (ericbrown.com)

Try Before You Buy

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Building new business relationships that you can trust is getting harder than ever. So much hype exists in the noise of business building, that "trust me I can do it" becomes the key differentiator in many cases. With this reality, your past client references are critical, but in some cases these are not even enough if you do not have a referral from some business your prospect knows deeply. Many times I have come across the words "Sure you have done that for Coke but have you done it for Ted down the street?". Once again proving the point that if your story is not relevant to your prospect then you are nowhere.

With the palpable desire out there for the building of a trust bridge that is relevant to both parties, one solution becomes starting the relationship with baby steps. In 2000 I was living in Singapore and leading McCann Erickson's pitch for Caltex (Chevron's brand in Asia Pacific and Africa). To build trust and prove our relevance to Caltex, we were tasked do produce a TV spot that would bring to life the campaign we had wowed them with in the initial pitch process. In other words they wanted to give us their business in all of Asia Pacific and Africa but they were not quite sure our walk matched our talk. So they agreed to pay all out of pocket costs to produce the spot and we agreed to commit our time to bring it to life. In the end we went up the road to Malaysia to shoot a rally car spot that highlighted Caltex's Havoline motor oil. The spot turned out great  (see below and look for me being sprayed with mud!). More importantly, Caltex learned how we worked, and we built our relevance to them every day we were in that Malaysian jungle. Within weeks the awarding of the business to McCann Erickson was formalised.

So as you approach building your business in 2011, try taking some baby steps with your prospects. Prove your relevance by suggesting a trial project that is fair to both sides and go out there and build some trust.

 

 

Related articles

• Why the real referral engine needs individual rewards (leadsexplorer.com)
• The Art of Prospecting (onemann.blogspot.com)
• The importance of Trust in the Customer Experience (customerthink.com)

The Business Christmas Party Can Be Costly

Last night I held my firms Christmas party. It is a small affair attended by those that I think have been good souls to and for Bamboo Strategy over the past year. Business stories were shared, including a few business travel nightmares, all in all it was a great time to chill out with some really good people.

Banter at Bamboo Strategy's Gentleman's Evening 2010

It was after the party when I read about a recent poll done by Travelodge in the UK, that hangovers from Christmas parties will cost the UK economy about $1 Billion this year. Now I did not suffer any loss in productivity today but clearly based on this study, many will this holiday season. Enjoy reading the very interesting post Christmas party poll results from the attached link below.

http://www.freshbusinessthinking.com/news.php?CID=&NID=6864&Title=Hangovers+Will+Cost+the+UK+Economy+%A3620+Million+this+Christmas

Related articles

• Christmas parties at 5-star hotels attracting the rich (lookatvietnam.com)
• Want to have fun at the office Christmas party? Don¿t invite the boss! (dailymail.co.uk)
• Oh Sh-t It's Christmas: 12 Days. Really?! (crushable.com)

Gaga Over In-flight Saftey Demonstration

Campaign Asia is the marketing communications trade book in Asia Pacific. Currently they are looking back on the best viral campaigns of 2010. As one would expect the Old Spice Guy is on the list. What you may not expect or know about, was a viral video for Cebu Pacific the Philippines second air carrier. The crew performs the standard safety instructions to the vocal styling of Lady Gaga and they and the passengers don't miss a beat. The video was picked up globally by major news networks.

Cebu has a fun and friendly positioning and this just reinforces it. Maybe Air Canada can use Nickelback to bolster their instructions. Just a thought. Enjoy the video below.

The Power of Celebrity

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I had seen the power of music during my time working on ad campaigns for Canadian brewers Labatt and Molson in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Molson Canadian set the bar high with their iconic music video style campaign for Canadian, and the rush was on for beer brands to try and jump it. However, it wasn't until I was working in the agency business with McCann in Asia Pacific, a few years back, that I really became aware of the power of celebrity.

You see in Asia, celebrities are used to sell everything. In many cases if a client did not have a relevant strategic idea they would default to using a celebrity. If you have been to Asia, you will know what I mean, as you are inundated with fresh faces (with signatures underneath them) on every street corner and flat panel HDTV set.

It is with this mindset that I attended an event put on by Trixstar and Axe Productions in their Edmonton warehouse this past weekend,. It was a great example of the power of celebrity, in that they sprung upon an anticipative crowd, season two American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, and 1980's Canadian rockers Streetheart. While neither of these acts are the biggest celebrities today, the mood at the event went up dramatically when they respectively hit the stage, making the event an even bigger success. The power of celebrity has arrived and Mike Anderson, Trixstar's CEO, knows this better than most in the Edmonton area.

Agents Of What?

Image by DavidErickson via FlickrI recently asked several of my peers in the advertising world for their views on a few things, one of which revolved around the future of the Ad Agency. Tony Altilia, one of my first bosses in the Agency game back in 1985, (who is now a principal at http://www.maximpartnersinc.com/ in Toronto), replied with this link to a recent article in Fast Company called Mayhem on Madison Avenue. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/mayhem-on-madison-avenue.html?page=0%2C0.

To me I think the article is required reading for anyone who is related to the Advertising Agency world in anyway today. Lines like "They're all well aware that coding is now prized over copywriting and that a resume that includes Xbox and Google is more desirable than one featuring stints at BBDO or Grey." should make classic agency people shudder. Currency today is technology and insight to stakeholders and communities. Both of these demand an open mindedness that has not been the hallmark of the traditional advertising agency.

As another one of my former colleagues, Chris Beaumont (Past CEO Grey Japan), said, "perhaps this Brand New World demands a new 'agency' paradigm - where we look at what it is important to be an 'agent for'...". I think Chris has hit the nail on the head and that those firms that figure out what the word "agency" means today will be the winners. The days of Mad Men went decades ago, as did the original definition of "Agency". No longer do you need an ad agency as a 'go between' media companies and marketers. No longer do you need an ad agency as a 'go between' stakeholders and the organization. So the question I ask you is what defines "Agency" today?

Related articles

• The Future of Advertising: Three Agencies' Visions (thedenveregotist.com)
• Digital Youngsters Have Mad Men On the Run (observer.com)

Is On-line Pivoting Marketers Into Publishers

The discussions rage about the deepening of the media pool from the shallow end of paid media (think traditional media) to the deeper end of owned media (think web site, facebook page) and earned media (think rating sites). Some, like the attached McKinsey article, advocate for the addition of two more levels of deepness, in the form of sold (my site sells ad space to another brand) and hijacked media (some community member rallies opposition on facebook to my brand). The key to the definition, as laid out by McKinsey, is in the definition of "who owns the interface with the consumer".

No matter where you stand on the topic, one cannot help but ask the question, as marketers go deeper into engaging with their customers, will they have to start to think like publishers, in that they now must create content themselves that continues to service the more demanding needs of their customers/readers?

Furthermore, with the knowledge that McKinsey has learned, that as consumers move through the journey with a brand they hunger for something deeper, more authentic and transparent. Do you think the ad/digital agency creative talent is currently capable of delivering this, being a third party resource to the client and brand?

As marketers build their online presence (in an owned or earned manner) to stay relevant, they will have to feed the channels/publications they have built, and this takes a commitment internally to have talent that can quickly say the right thing to quell a hijacking, or write with passion and knowledge about the company's products, services and promotions.

I believe many things will challenge marketers going forward but to me one of the biggest questions that I have, and one I get from my clients on a regular basis, is who will own the web/social content development and its consequences, because they know they have to but they also know it will mean creating a skill set intenally that they do not have. They will have to learn to think like publishers!


Enjoy the thought provocative piece form McKinsey in the attached link. Make sure you also listen to the audio piece inside the link. (I am aware you have to become a member to the McKinsey site to get the full story but it is worth it. They are the world's number one business consultancy out there. Oh yeah, and it's free to join.)
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Beyond_paid_media_Marketings_new_vocabulary_2697