Influx Insights Weblog

re-inventing the world's biggest and most boring band

Influx Insights — 2008-05-13T15:01:26Z

Coldplay sold 10 million copies of their last album, but despite the success they realized they were in serious need of re-invention.

Their music had become predictable and formulaic.

They were just like U2 in 1992, who turned to veteran producer Brian Eno to reinvent themselves.

Coldplay followed U2's path to Eno.

Eno is clearly a master of shaking things up and getting the band to think and behave differently.

This month's article in Q Magazine, mentions some of Eno's tactics.

1. Hypnosis-Using it to help the writing process

2. Changing the studio hours from rock star hours, to business hours

3. Thinking about making music as performance, not a studio act

4. Encouraging experimentation- getting the band to play with rhythm and time signatures

5. Cutting things down- encouraging brevity

6. Widening the bands musical knowledge- getting them to listen to German death metal and African folk.

On the evidence of the first single- The LA Times seems impressed.

"there are moments where "Violet Hill" ranks as some of the more exciting music Coldplay has recorded. The first guitar crush arrives after a lengthy ambient intro, and brings an electrifying jolt to the striking piano melody. And Martin brings a booming confidence to his vocals that has been more evident in Coldplay's live shows than on record, his dip into a falsetto in the chorus more matter-of-fact than sorrowful."

However, everyone will need to wait for the album to see if Eno's done enough to shake the critics off the band and deliver that's something truly fresh and interesting.

The point is re-invention is a serious job, it's not cosmetic and it requires action and the willingness to shift out of your comfort zone. This applies as much to inspiring creative teams and re-positioning brands, as it does to people and bands.

If you want to create change, you have to do something and not just talk about it.

Posted by Ed Cotton

getting insight from web research- the next generation

Influx Insights — 2008-05-13T13:52:28Z

People have been using the web to do consumer research for over a decade. Its had its fair share of problems especially in quant, where it's already been proven that only a very distinct group of consumers ever complete surveys online.

However, as people become comfortable with sharing more and more of their lives online, it's becoming a very interesting place to get a feel for what people are thinking and doing. People are using blogging tools and media uploading tools to help them get a better understanding of their consumers and these are often richer and more insightful than the typical focus group.

With 2.0 technologies, all this only going to improve.

One example I really like is Noah Brier's Brand Tagging project. This simple application that allows people to enter words they associate with specific brands

and see the results from others.

What I like here is that the tool employs some good thinking. It feels more like play, than research. It doesn't take a lot of time and who doesn't want to be rewarded after they've contributed by seeing everyone's results.

Obviously, Brand Tagging isn't going to replace anything fast, but it illustrates the power of a relatively simple and low cost tool to generate some useful insight.

It would be great to hear of more examples of this type of thing

Posted by Ed Cotton

harley says screw it

Influx Insights — 2008-05-02T16:52:21Z

Picking up a copy of USA Today this morning it was easy to be struck by the negativity of the content.

- Nelson Mandela is a terrorist

- Jet fuel prices set to make air travel a luxury item

- Fed rate cut does nothing to change Wall St. sentiment

Basically, doom and gloom all around.

Then there was this Harley ad, which offered a contrary point of view.

It reminded us that America is a strong nation and it's bounced back from tough times before.

It took the long view and reminded us not to be fearful with the simple statement:

"We don't do fear"

Some might say this irresponsible, but I say it's brilliant to seize on the moment and offer a counter point that's so true to the brand and its ridership.

It's brave and gutsy, just like the brand.

I don't have the ad, but there's a taste of it on the Harley web site.

Posted by Ed Cotton

how far can you go with an idea that's bigger than your product?

Influx Insights — 2008-05-15T16:45:32Z

AEG Electrolux has embarked on an interesting campaign in Europe, the company sells quieter washing machines and has developed a campaign about noise pollution to sell them.

I've often talked about the need for brands to rally around a big idea that transcends their products, but I am not sure about this one.

It certainly works great in the cities where AEG's innovative interactive billboards inform citizens of noise levels, but it seems a little far removed from the washing machine that creates a fraction of the noise compared to construction work and of course, transportation.

On the positive side, it demonstrates good citizenship in helping drive awareness about an important and often ignored topic. I also wonder if AEG has got themselves wrapped up in an issue that's too big for them to make an impact?

When Unilever celebrated the goodness of kids getting dirty and playing, they could demonstrate their belief in the idea by taking urban kids on trips out to the countryside.

Other than pointing out the issue, I am not sure what role AEG can play?

While Unilever's kids can get their clothes clean with Lever detergent after playing in the dirt, I am not sure how quieter washing machines really help city noise levels.

Perhaps AEG needs to close the loop on this for us?

Any thoughts?

Posted by Ed Cotton

starbucks and crowdsurfing - the ideas are flooding in

Influx Insights — 2008-04-30T05:12:14Z

Back in March, Starbucks asked their customers for ideas, it created a website and the ideas have been been flooding in, exceeding the expectations of the company.

It makes me thing that every brand should be doing this, why not?

Here are the top 20 ideas that are being considered.

It's a great list that includes new products and experiences, ways to reduce waste and more healthy items.

Option to not print Receipts

Complimentary Wi-Fi

The Road Trip

Great Conversations at Starbucks

Starbucks Facts on Cups

Punch card system

Coffee Ice Cubes

Dark Chocolate Mocha

Flavored Foam

More Sugar Free Syrups & Sauces (more than 180 posted ideas for this!)

Increased Personal Cup Discount

Healthy, High Protein Breakfast

Smaller Portion Sizes

More Whole Grains

Gluten Free Options (almost 150 posted ideas for this!)

Vegan Options (almost 75 posted ideas for this!)

Electronic Sign showing Song Now Playing

Birthday Brew

Name Tag / Sewn Apron (almost 50 posted ideas for this!)

Encourage commuter & in-house mugs (More than 200 posted ideas for this!)

Posted by Ed Cotton

the death of the faceless corporation

Influx Insights — 2008-04-24T14:51:10Z

Social networks are now becoming corporate and if you are a company there's no hiding.

This trend means the people behind the company get to show themselves and interact with other human beings in the real world.

The idea of one-on-one interaction can happen. If you trust your employees you can let them out of their cages and cubicles and empower them to represent your brand in the real world.

They can solve problems, answer questions, entertain and inform.

They can become friends with customers and in short, they can be your pure brand ambassadors or the best ads you ever had.

Of course, this all depends on how brave you are.

It also depends on how much you value and believe in your employees.

If they are merely dispensable drones who you believe are stealing from you, you know only by their employee number and zip code, you may have some work to do.

Welcome to the death of the faceless corporation.

There is no nowhere to hide and if your people aren't out there interacting, you are missing a massive opportunity.

It appears that Zappos gets this idea big time.

Who else is brave enough to follow its lead?

Posted by Ed Cotton

what can your brand learn from van gogh?

Influx Insights — 2008-04-23T21:17:00Z

What can your brand learn from Van Gogh?

He never went to art school
He didn't start painting until he was 30
He started a movement called expressionism
He wasn't an elitist
He wanted everyone to see art differently

Take a look at this painting

It breaks the rules

He rewrites the history of landscape painting
He reverses perspective
He scrambles our assumptions
Are the crows flying towards you or away from you?
What are the green things- trees, hedges?
He makes paint talk

All this has been stolen from Simon Schama's excellent BBC series "The Power of Art."

How can your brand behave more like Van Gogh?
Can it challenge conventional thinking?
Can it change our assumptions?
Can you start a movement?
Can it make us see the world differently?

Posted by Ed Cotton

mcmenamins- local power brand

Influx Insights — 2008-04-23T14:44:41Z

Mcmenamins has spent the last 30 years building a local empire in Oregon.

Starting out with brew pubs and moving onto hotels, wineries and a distillery. The brand remains true to its roots and exhibits a wonderful, infectious and quirky character that helps it to stand way apart from the boring franchise chains.

You find character in the names of its beers- Terminator and Hammerhead, in the design of its pubs and hotels and in its graphic design and in hotel rooms named after and dedicated to local musicians. Even its events pack the same quirky feel, from UFO festivals to acoustic sets from local musicians played in an eight-seat capacity bar.

Great stuff.

Mcmenamins is a testament to what nurturing and sticking to your personal vision can create for a brand. It also shows that you can build a little empire without going national with VC cash and do it all in your own locale.

Thankfully, the brand hasn't taken a bucket load of cash from an international brewer to expand the concept globally because it would kill its charm. McMenamins remains Oregonian and in that lies its appeal.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to stay in the brand's Hotel Oregon, deep in the heat of wine country. I took some local quality pictures on my iPhone, which can be seen below.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Posted by Ed Cotton

are you desperate for attention?

Influx Insights — 2008-04-17T18:28:29Z

It appears a number of ad agencies are thriving (with the industry rags and critics!) in the interactive world by simply doing more of what they usually do off line in an online world.

They are using online as a vessel that allows them simply to store and share more content than the typical TV spot.

So, with these experiences there's lots of content and some depth to the presentation, but something appears to be missing, interactivity.

These agencies are operating in what I would call a DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION mode.

This leads to experiences that fail to engage because they are simply one way and don't involve or engage the user in any way.

The creators want to be noticed and hold the audience in rapture because of the supposed humor, etc.

Is this realistic?

These sites are usually heavy bandwidth hogs and take ages for the film to load.

The experience ends up not being a good one for the user.

The DESPERATE FOR ATTENTION mode is all about ego and the selfish belief that for some reason your content is so great people want to spend time with it.

Time for a reality check.

The best experiences can't be one way, they need to engage and involve the user from the get go.

This is not a sit back TV world and the same rules no longer apply.

Posted by Ed Cotton

watch out, your green creds are coming under attack

Influx Insights — 2008-04-16T14:50:35Z

It seems we are now at a very interesting moment in the environmental movement meets green marketing, trend.

The cynics and skeptics are coming out of the woodwork and are ready to bash anyone who isn't thinking this thing through properly and merely trying to "Greenwash".

This isn't just coming from the expected sources.

This is from Core 77, yesterday.

"At first glance, Feel More Human seems to have everything for the conscious consumer with a modern design sense. The online store has an eco-friendly home and lifestyle section, with tables from Scrapile, sofas from Dutch designer Björn Mulder, and even a Buddha cat perch made from renewable bamboo plywood. There is a content section featuring interviews with inspiring eco-entrepreneurs, a classifieds area where visitors can buy or sell their pre-owned modern design goods, and the whole operation is powered by 100% wind energy.

Yet scratch beneath the surface and you'll find that even those with the greenest of intentions have a hard time making the most environmentally sound choices. Mixed in with all of the bamboo, reclaimed wood, and toxin free fabrics are not-so eco foams, lacquers, plywoods, and plastics, like the NotNeutral Melamine Snack Set for kids. How did a kid's dinnerware with melamine, a resin manufactured by mixing urea with formaldehyde, get onto a site devoted to sustainable lifestyles? Or chrome, a material known for emitting toxic elements into the air, land, and sea, which can be found in several items in the store, such as the Tokyo Shelving Unit or the Valis Chair. Jill Stalowicz, the company's founder, says, "smart design goes beyond aesthetics now, people are questioning how products are constructed."

The lesson here is that the practice of green is harder than the promise, and that Feel More Human might want to take a look at how all of its products are actually made."

Posted by Ed Cotton

would just do it get you to nike+?

Influx Insights — 2008-04-11T22:50:12Z

We are now playing in a very interesting world where the efforts of R/GA with Nike+ are generating as much news as W&K's Nike commercials did in the mid 90s.

I wonder if it's possible to create rich experiences using the same reductive strategic model?

The same one that's used to create advertising.

I am sure you can't.

The world of classic communication is all about being reductive. We talk about funnels, filters, core propositions, single minded ideas, USPs.

It's all about distilling the essence down to a single thought and working from there.

It's all about creating a smart bomb meme that can puncture mass culture.

It starts with the question.

What can we do to get people to pay attention to us?

If you look at the world of experiences, the question is very different.

What experience(s) can we create to delight the user?

These questions are radically different and represent two very different worlds.

Artist vs. Team
Ego vs. Teamwork
Ownership vs. Sharing
Single idea vs. Multiple ideas
Single layer vs. Deep layers
Disrupt life vs. Integrated into life

I am not saying that advertising is going away anytime soon, but it's very clear that we are moving into an era where our clients are looking to us to create experiences for their brands. Those things no longer look like advertising, and as a process it requires new tool sets.

It starts to look more like product design that anything else.

The demands on Strategy/Planning are therefore significant.

We aren't looking for language anymore, we want to deeply understand needs and behaviors if we want to create experiences that matter.

This is no about distillation, but an exploration of reams of potential possibilities.

Posted by Ed Cotton

retail experience: nokia vs. apple

Influx Insights — 2008-04-10T00:35:02Z

John Dodds over at Make Marketing History has a nice post about the differences between Nokia and Apple in their retail experience.

He compares two stores in Oxford St, London and concludes;

The Nokia store is a gallery.
The Apple store is alive.
The Nokia store staff are tech sellers.
The Apple store staff are tech users.
The Nokia store is a place where you browse.
The Apple store is a place where you use.
The Nokia store is about surface.
The Apple store is about corporate DNA

In essence, it's clear that Apple has a brand and Nokia doesn't. This was fine for Nokia when they had the mobile world to themselves, but it looks like they need some serious brand work to prevent Apple from taking some major share in this space.

Posted by Ed Cotton

is your brand open?

Influx Insights — 2008-04-06T21:40:01Z

Radiohead continues to demonstrate its understanding of the 2.0 world with its new remix contest.

Potential remixers download the elements of the track "Nude" from iTunes and then upload their remix to http://www.radioheadremix.com.

The band seems to have given up on the whole idea of free and instead charges a $5.99 for the elements.

Browsing through the entries you quickly come across one that stands out from the pack; the remix, currently ranked No3 was created by a blogger(s) named Hipster Runoff.

It's interesting because it complete take down of the band and their obsessive/nerdy fans.

So far, it hasn't been removed and there's always a possibility it could win the contest.

It would be easy to remove it and have less to worry about, but it would be tough for the band to live up to in the long run better to have a sense of humor about the whole thing.

Unlike Radiohead, most brands aren't happy letting critics into the conversation, clearly in this changed environment, you have no alternative, but to open. You brand and your people have to be ready to take the rough with the smooth.

The more open you are, the more respect you are likely to generate and importantly, the more you are likely to learn about yourself.

Posted by Ed Cotton

guest column- the spitzer effect and the era of deeds-mark barden- eat big fish

Influx Insights — 2008-04-04T13:42:29Z

Call it the Spitzer Effect: No one can take anything anyone says at face value anymore. In fact, more often than not, what they say might be the complete opposite of what they do. Putting aside the fascinatingly twisted “shadow” psychology on public display here, what are we to make of it all?

Perhaps the most jaded response I’ve heard to this latest shocker is the, “is this really such a big surprise?” response. Well, yes! At least it was to me. Maybe I live in a little house on the prairie where we expect people’s walk to match their talk, but yes, it was a surprise. Seems that some of the world lives in permanent Survivor mode, tensed and ready, only momentarily shocked, but in the end, surprised? Not so much.

We simply don’t know whom to believe anymore, so all too often we choose to believe no one. It’s a natural defense mechanism to so much dissonance. Cynicism becomes common sense.

Oh, brother! Are we in trouble now! At precisely the time in history when things seem so broken that we need someone to believe in more than ever, cynicism is getting the upper hand. (Wait! I hear you say, what about Barack? We’ll get to that in a minute.)

Of course it’s not fair to place the blame for this at Elliot’s feet. He’s just the latest in a long line of liars paraded before an increasingly jaded public: Jim Bakker, Ken Lay, Roger Clemons, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, name your favorite villain. Those who say one thing and do another, who lie effortlessly, who use so much dastardly double speak that George Orwell himself would blush at the crassness. No wonder trust in public figures is at an all time low.

Now, the majority of us are good, hard-working, honest folk. That’s true. And our actual daily experience of honesty doesn’t grab the headlines. Also true. So our own reality-based bubble doesn’t contain the horror played out on screens of various sorts around the world. True. True.

Still, the headlines do shape the culture and the perception is that all too often those with high public profiles will be judicious with the truth. That goes for religious leaders, elected officials, superstars . . . and corporations and their brands.

If you’re in the business of trying to raise your public profile, as most brands have to be, then watch out, you’re about to raise suspicion. In the public domain we’re all trying to earn and spend the same kind of currency — fame, for want of a better word — and the exchange rate is moving in the wrong direction. Fame is increasingly about infamy. It’s not just the obvious villains who have taken us there, just check out the tabloid magazines the next time you’re in Lucky’s.

And so for those of us who help determine what companies say, and often say it for them in clever headlines and funny films, I wonder if the gig isn’t up, somewhat. We live in a world where it matters less what you “say” anymore, only what you do and keep on doing. Or at least, what you say matters not one jot until people see it backed up by deeds. This is the Era of Deeds. The whole world lives in the state of Kansas, the Show Me state.

Deeds tell us what you believe in far more than anything you say. Deeds are the products you make, the experiences you create, how you spend your money and energy, what you do in the world. Deeds are about seeing with your own eyes that you actually can get 50 mpg in your Prius if you drive it right, that the Peet’s coffee did just get ground right in front of your eyes, that the Manager of the Umpqua Bank really did just play Wii Bowling in his store, that a bowl of Quaker Oats really does sustain you better than a Pop Tart. These are small, but real, personal experiences and they convey so much more than some misplaced ‘image campaign’ ever can. Seeing is believing only when you see it for yourself out there in the real world unmediated by the screen.

So the future has to be partly about putting your money into creating really good experiences. Surely Comcast could spend its quarter of a billion dollar ad campaign on actually training technicians, actually keeping appointments, actually providing excellent customer service rather than saying ‘how can I provide you with excellent customer service?” when they eventually pick up the phone. It might be harder, but it’s surely the only thing that will work long term.

Ray Davis of Oregon’s Umpqua Bank knows this. His “World's Greatest Bank” slogan is less a tagline and more a bar set everyday by everyone who works at his 181 stores, where they need to prove day in day out that they are worthy of such a claim.

Richard Reed of Innocent Drinks in the UK knows this, too, which is why he spends an inordinate amount of time and money working around a logistical system designed to prevent him putting real fruit in his fruit smoothies.

Neither of these brands has built them by advertising. It’s interesting how few of the new brands have. Google, Wii, Prius are all deed brands.

But if you have such truths then advertising can partly be about “the truth well told” (if advertising is necessary at all). When it is incontrovertibly true like the coffee at Peets, and Wii at Umpqua, or just about anything Apple says about its products (okay, apart from the iPhone’s email) then you’ve got demonstrably better stuff and people can see it for themselves. The truth — real truth, not made up marketing truth — will win out if sustained over time.

And if you’re lucky enough to have all of this then it gets really interesting. Then you can start using your “advertising” as the deeds themselves. Your communication can be a gift from a trusted friend, a moment of joy, exhilaration, melancholy, love, hysteria, that briefly punctuates the daily torrent of detritus gushing your way from the screens in your life. Your advertising can be this because you’re delivering on all your other promises and no one feels let down. Your communication doesn’t have to try to persuade because your other deeds have.

These brands are few and far between, but so are brands that can claim to be The World’s Greatest anything with a straight face and get away with it. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen and that it shouldn’t be a goal. Sometimes there is something to believe in.

Which brings us back to Barack. His speech about race in America was a great speech. And a great deed. By refusing to do what most politicians would have done and thrown a family member under the bus, he behaved differently. This wasn’t a speech so much as it was an action which spoke volumes.

Despite The Spitzer Effect, as debilitating as it can be, one of the things that makes human beings human is their capacity to believe in someone or something — their need to believe in someone or something — because, as Vaclav Havel puts it “[hope is] . . . a dimension of the soul and is not essentially dependent on some particular observation about the world”.

We have this capacity within us. It is tested more than we’d like, the bar is raised ever higher by the Spitzers of the world, and yet it endures. Audacious indeed.

And in that context, only a few people, or things, will ever be able to become beacons of hope. And so when we see something that holds this possibility, whether it be as trivial as a cup of coffee, or a car, or as important as a politician, we should run toward it with open arms, because we need it to go on, to sense a better future, whether it materializes or not:

“Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.” Havel

Mark Barden is the lead partner of Eat Big Fish in the US. Eat Big Fish is a consulting company specializing in challenger thinking and behavior.

Posted by Ed Cotton

ad agencies- television advertising is the future

Influx Insights — 2008-04-02T16:56:41Z

Of course, the moronic title is designed to attract curious and concerned parties who are hoping/fearing that I have finally lost my mind or believe it's just another blogger taking advantage of April 1st.

I believe we're in the middle of a radical new wave of content creation, that's in essence an evolution of the television spot, the thing about it is, that this content
isn't destined for to be consumed on a television set, not yet, unless yours happens to be hooked to a broadband internet connection.

One thing we've learned in the last few years, is that despite all the advances in new media and the new opportunities that seem to be arriving daily and I include within these, the shoe trays at airport security, there's nothing that comes close to the power of audio-visual content.

Now that technology has caught up and we can stream this stuff to any screen anywhere in the world, even that mobile one you carry with you, things are going to get exciting.

There's trouble ahead if you continue to think that film content is only a 30 or 60 second television spot.

Sure, spots ain't going away tomorrow, but there seem to be way more opportunities at the edges of the time frame; short virals, longer-form documentaries, shows and short films will be the content of the future.

Clients are now essentially media companies and with lots of stories they know the best way to tell them is through film.

Some advertising content might lend itself to longer-formats especially when you remove the insane cost of media time.

Now, there are probably more opportunities than ever to use film than there ever have been.

The challenge for ad agencies is to realize this and start getting involved because if they don't there are host of people who are only to willing to pla -- production houses, PR agencies, in-house ad departments, etc...

Instead of looking at the shrinking world of television advertising as a catalyst to go into worlds beyond film, agencies should leverage their relationships and skill sets to move in different film formats and styles.

True alchemy will happen when the power of film is fused with the power of the web and my hope and bet is that ad agencies will be the first ones to crack this code.

Posted by Ed Cotton