September 29, 2005
thank you thank you
[Bonus Link:] It delights me to see that “Savage Chickens” now holds the Number Six spot for the Technorati Blog Finder category, “Cartoons”. Savage Chickens rocks.
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
Archive for September, 2005
“the dinosaur stirs”
It’s official: DDB London, one of the most respected ad agencies on the planet, doesn’t get blogging.
I did an internship there many years ago, straight out of college. Nice enough place to work if you’re into that kind of thing. Their former Creative Director, Ewan Patterson, who I knew in a former life before his DDB days, is now a Creative Director for Bartle Bogle Hegarty, another of the A-List London agencies. Nice to see he’s done well.
A lot of people like to ask the question, “When will ad agencies finally start understanding blogs?” Frankly, I’ve stopped caring. It’s not that they don’t understand blogs, they’ve just not figured out how to make money from them in ways that are in simpatico with their fat, tired and increasingly defective business models.
But that’s not my problem.
[Bonus Link:] A new advertising blog: “Beyond Madison Avenue”.
September 26, 2005
busy week
Due to heavy work stuff going on, I’m going to be mostly offline this week. See you on the other side etc.
September 25, 2005
film freebie
A movie is allowing bloggers free tickets, but only if the bloggers agree to write something about the movie, good or bad:
Last week I saw an Instapundit post that said that bloggers could attend preview showings of “Serenity” if they were willing to blog about it. I contemplated this for many milliseconds. Could the blogosphere withstand the replacement of a post about how I drool in my sleep for a post about “Serenity”? It was a tough decision, but I emailed my request to the powers-that-be and was rewarded with a confirmation email this morning (that had better not be a cruel joke).
I think it’s interesting that they made blogging about it conditional to receiving the free tickets.
With the Stormhoek wine freebie (now open to French bloggers,) they don’t have to blog anything if they don’t want to.
A small distinction, but I think an important one. [UPDATE:] Nellie Lide elaborates:
I give them kudos for including bloggers in their viral efforts. But they don’t get this kind of social marketing — bloggers who sign up for tickets are already interested in the movie — they don’t need to be pushed. And to force bloggers to put up the synopsis as a pre-requisite of attending the film, Serenity’s marketers show they’re still in the business of controlling the message. And if bloggers are anything, they’re folks who thinks no one really controls the message — in fact, it’s not a message at all, it’s a conversation.
[VERY COOL:] Shaun Dewberry, A South African blogger, thinks we should make the freebie offer available to South Africans. Graham Knox, Stormhoek principal and the guy running the vineyard, answers in Shaun’s comments:
Shaun,
You’re bloody right.
Give me your address (to the door) and I’ll send you a bottle.
Stormhoek is available (limited distribution) in Johannesburg.
And I’ll be there, trying to get some more, Sunday to Wed.
Then back to the grape vines (growing fast in first weeks of spring)
Graham
Pure Cluetrainy goodness etc..
September 24, 2005
willie nelson
Somebody once asked Willie Nelson why his new songs weren’t quite as [cough] good as his old ones.
“Because I wrote my old songs when I was cold and hungry,” came his reply.
Ain’t that the truth.
book proposal
A wee while ago, Chris Houchens published his manifesto on ChangeThis:
“Does ANYONE know how to market (And will anyone care?)?”
Now he’s trying to turn the manifesto into a book, has written a book proposal, published in blog form.
Check it out.
[Bonus Link:] I love this thought: “The thing that really gets me about chain letters, is that it dupes smart people into believing them. Once a smart person starts to believe a dumb person, it
September 23, 2005
i love it when this happens
I just recieved the following e-mail from James Torio, whose Master’s Thesis I blogged about last week:
Hello Hugh,
Just wanted to give you and update about the thesis.
Since you posted it last week the site has been hit 78,480 times. Not bad since the site is still beta, and before your post I was getting a couple of hundred hits a day.
The thesis has been downloaded 2,072 times. That’s got to be a world record for an academic paper.
I have been contacted by a number of companies to talk about work opportunities.
Thanks for the post that changed my life.
Enjoy the weekend,
James
Congratulations, James. That’s really good news.
A lot of people think blogs are little more than media for mutual-masturbation. Something only the “A-Listers”, internet techies or cynical wine pimps [SFX: Evil Laugh] can benefit from. I strongly disagree.
london girl geek dinner
There’s a second London Girl Geek Dinner on the 11th October.
It should be a fun evening. The last one certainly was.
six-figure shoe blogger
Wonderful. It seems the utterly fabulous “Manolo The Shoe Blogger” is earning six figures. [Thanks to Del Davis for the link.]
The more people who can make real money from blogging (as opposed to beer money), the happier I am. So well done, Manolo.
September 22, 2005
fashion week in paris
[Just found out:] There’s a small fashion-orientated blog conference in Paris on October 3rd, during Fashion Week. I am so going to that.
french freebie
The Stormhoek Blogger’s Wine Freebie is now open to France.
France is not a particularly big market for South African wine. They have plenty of their own, of course, which they’re quite rightly very fond of.
That being said, the French wine companies are buying a lot more South African wine than they used to. So maybe the times they are a’changin’ etc.
Regardless, I think it’ll be fun to spread the Stormhoek meme into France. I’m have some projects happening over there, I’m a big fan of the French etc etc. I look forward to seeing what happens.
So Loic, fancy some South African freebie goodness?
[UPDATE:] The first French blogger just signed up. Thanks, Xavier!
September 21, 2005
crappy wine
“Socialised Media” apparachik, BBC employee Ben Metcalfe calls Stormhoek “crappy”.
I just think it pollutes the blogosphere as you are giving one brand an a disproportionate advantage over its rivals
25%…?
According to a little bit of Technorati research from Stormhoek CEO Nick Dymoke-Marr, 25% of conversations in the blogosphere about “South African Wine” are now about Stormhoek.
Anybody care to verify this independantly? 25% seems really high, and frankly, Nick and I are too close to it to be totally objective.
Still, even for a rough, subjective, blog-pimping guestimate, 25% is pretty amazing.
September 19, 2005
emotional porn
Andreas has some more thinking about Seth and Purple Cows:
Does being remarkable guarantee success? We all know that it doesn’t. Take the portable mp3 player as an example. Apple’s iPod is the market leader, with a 75% share of the market. But was Apple the first company to make portable mp3 players? Not at all. Is the iPod the most feature rich player with the best battery life? Not by a long shot. The companies that pioneered the technology are being left behind or are abandoning the market altogether, despite having created a purple cow if ever there was one. Their mistake? Not communicating that fact effectively. Not becoming part of popular culture.
So what’s responsible for the success if the iPod if it’s neither price, nor features? In a word: Marketing. Advertising. Advertising and marketing that is creating an emotional attachement. People choose the products they buy — apart from price — for three reasons, how they see themselves, how they want to see themselves or how they want to be seen.
Successful advertising, in all its incarnations, including blogs, including WOM, is all about creating the emotional attachment. It’s about becoming a part of who the customer is, or wants to be, or wants to be seen as. It’s really that simple.
I think “Emotional Attachment” is overrated as a marketing concept.
Often when marketers, especially advertisers, speak of “Emotional Attachment”, what they’re really talking about is “Emotional Pornography”.
Which is rarely “remarkable” to begin with.
September 18, 2005
party trick
I have a fun, new party trick, which I use at blogger’s gatherings, e.g. at Our Social World, a week or so ago.
OTHER BLOGGER: So how can you tell if your Stormhoek meme is working?
HUGH: Name me two South African wines.
OTHER BLOGGER: Ok… ummm… Stormhoek… and… ummmmm… ummmm…
HUGH: That’s how I can tell if it’s working.
[Very Cool Bonus Link:] A live Stormhoek wine-tasting podcast.
[Very Cool Bonus Link 2.0:] Johnnie Moore does a splendid job of decontstructing the Stormhoek Marketing Plan:
1. The tone of invitation. No hard sell, just the presentation of an interesting idea to take or leave as you please. No grandiose posturing.
2. The sprit of experiment. Selling isn’t all about certainty, it’s also about curiosity. Hugh is inviting us to play a game of let’s disrupt marketing to see what happens.
3. A cause to believe in, if you like. We’re not talking about saving the world here, but we are offered an interesting windmill to tilt at — namely the established way of marketing stuff.
4. A bit of provocation. There is actually a proposition in here somewhere too — the one of freshness being undervalued in the wine business. Take it or leave it, it provides a bit of interest.
5. The fact that this is so clearly a message from a real live human being, with a personality of his own, not a committee.
6. Transparency, that oft-quoted term. The whole thing smacks of “What you see is what you get, this is what we’re up to, what do you think?”
english cut makes the nyt “style bible”
[The photo that came with the article. Click on it to enlarge etc.]
English Cut just made The New York Times.
For most men, knowing how to choose a tailor and buy a custom-made suit remains as mysterious as the appeal of low-rider jeans. Enter Thomas Mahon, one of Savile Row’s youngest tailors, and possibly its grooviest. He put his money where his mouse is with www.englishcut.com, offering advice for those who go the bespoke route. Mahon, a graduate of Anderson & Sheppard who has padded the shoulders of Prince Charles, Bryan Ferry and Graydon Carter, offers the following pointers.
You need to be registered to read it, but if you’re not, try using my username (“gapingvoid”) and password (“password”).
I haven’t seen the “paper” edition yet, but the way I understand it is, the New York Times publishes a big “Style Bible” twice a year, Fall and Spring. Apparently we made this year’s Fall Bible, which comes out today. If you’re currently in New York, or anywhere near a newstand that carries it, I hope you’ll go pick up a copy.
“Grooviest”. Heh. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I understand Graydon Carter is well known for being one of the best-dressed men in the USA, so having him mentioned in the same breath as Tom isn’t exactly going to be bad for business. Tom used to make for him back when he worked at Anderson & Sheppard.
Also, the article was written by Horacio Silva, who I’m told is THE Fashion Editor of the NYT, not one of the fashion underlings. Again, not bad for building credibility.
[UPDATE:] Dave Parmet, English Cut’s PR man in New York, talks about it some more. Rock on.
[BACKGROUND STORY: English Cut is a blog I started with Thomas Mahon, a bespoke Savile Row tailor, in January of this year. Basically, we sell $4000 suits, with the blog being the main driver of new business. We’ve just published a list of our top ten favorite English Cut articles, which you can read here.]
September 17, 2005
there is no “purple cow 2.0″
Along with the co-authors of the Cluetrain, probably the most influential voice in the world of new marketing is Seth Godin.
Seth has written a lot of books, and I have read most of them. All great stuff. If you don’t have the time to read all his books, fret not, because most of his most salient points are expressed rather well in the speech he gave at the London Marketing Dinner last July. You can download the audio here.
I listened to it again the other day.
Here’s the thing. Seth’s main thesis is that, with the crumbling of what he calls the TV-Industrial Complex, mass marketing has become broken. Suddenly mass media has become to cluttered, too noisy, too fragmented, people are too busy to pay attention, they have too much choice etc etc. So unless you already have a product that is heavily mass marketed successfully, you will probaly fail if you try going down the same road. So what to do?
Seth’s answer is for companies to stop trying to think of clever, “creative” ways to mass market ordinary products, but instead to start making remarkable products.
That means products people will want to talk about, that will create “stories” that people will want to tell to other people, that will create ideas and conversations that will spread. Products aligned with this he calls a “Purple Cow”.
It’s a wonderful, simple idea, and from where I’m standing, glaringly obvious.
All well and good.
What got me thinking was a conversation I overheard at the dinner between Seth and another person. To paraphrase:
PERSON: “Yes Seth, I’m sure you’re correct, but what do you do if the company you work for doesn’t make remarkable products? Then how does ‘Purple Cow’ thinking apply?”
SETH: “It doesn’t. Quit your job and go find something better.”
PERSON: “No, I mean, besides that.”
Obviously, this was not the answer the guy wanted to hear. I get the feeling he just thought if he could slightly “tweak” Seth’s thesis, he wouldn’t need to bother with the hard work, he wouldn’t have to ask the hard questions, or find the hard answers. All he would need to do is put this new & improved, “Purple Cow 2.0″ into gear, and suddenly his career would suddenly be magically transformed, as if on autopilot.
I often find the same is true when people talk about the Cluetrain and the ideas of a lot of bloggers I know.
Because the guy’s boss is an ass, or because the market in question is awash with unremarkable people and unremarkable products, or because the guy is too overstretched with the mortgage, car payments and children’s school fees to handle uncertainty, the idea must somehow be inherently flawed.
Plus
speaking of parmet…
Dave Parmet shares his personal take on working on both the English Cut and Stormhoek memes:
The world of wine marketing, as I
stormhoek u.s.a.
(Aiden Kenny, who took part in the recent Stormhoek Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebie drew this wee picture. Very cool. Link here.)
Thanks to a New York Geek dinner hosted by the lovely Adrianna, 3 bottles of Stormhoek were sampled by bloggers on the other side of the pond [Bloggers’ wine mentions here and here.]
Stormhoek has only just signed a distributor’s deal in the States, so no large wine supply is over there yet. Those three bottles were hand-couriered by somebody flying over last week, then handed over to my main man in New York, Dave Parmet, who brought them along to the dinner.
Is three bottles enough to start an American product launch? I think it is.
September 15, 2005
master’s thesis
New Yorker James Torio has just written his Master’s thesis on blogging, which he did at Syracuse Univeristy, studying Advertising and Design. It’s just about the most comprehensive overview on the subject I have ever read. Very impressive. Well done, James.
[Go here to read it.]
Now that he’s done with his degree, he’s looking for a job. So you can also download his r
September 14, 2005
“blame enron”
It also supports the theory that one of the reasons for lingering unemployment in the current recovery is that job losses in this recession were structural rather than cyclical– which is to say that your whole industry became a permanently less attractive place to work, rather than suffering a temporary downturn in demand that ends when the recession does.
That would explain a lot, especially in the advertising business.
[NOTE TO SELF:] What’s with the “Die, Advertising, Die” kick you’ve been on these last few days? Jeeze Louise.
copenhagen geek dinner
Henriette is organising a geek dinner in Copenhagen on 28th of October. You can sign up here.
[RANDOM UPDATE:] Another Stormhoek Freebie Review, from Merialc:
The idea behind the blogging wine promotion is, in all simplicity, that of advertising. They send me a bottle of free stuff: if I like it, I can go buy more. If I mention it, other people might try it. It
well, this changes everything
Google now has a blog search.
[BONUS LINK:] Quite possibly the most bizarre blog I have ever seen in my life. Like I’ve said before, watching Madison Avenue trying to get on the Cluetrain is a bit like watching a middle-age guy trying to pick up a college girl in a bar. [Link via Jeff.]
note to self:
Blogs will not kill off Madison Avenue.
High overheads will kill off Madison Avenue.
Same applies for Big Media.
September 13, 2005
traffic mag interview
Traffic, a magazine based in Vancouver just interviewed me. Both the paper and online editions are now out:
TRAFFIC: Does the concept of Expressive Capital further blur the lines between marketer/marketee? How, and is it a good thing? For who?
HM: The more informed the market, the blurrier it gets. Whether it’s a good thing depends on how informed you want your customers to be.
Educating your customers is an expensive process, so choices have to be made. Bounty paper towels, for example, are happy to buy thirty seconds of time to educate you about how great their paper towels are (which they are). They’re not willing to send you to college at their expense to teach you, however.
The best thing for a brand is when the customer base elects to educate itself, either individually or in groups, with or without the help of the manufacturer. Apple and Windows are two classic examples. As is Harley Davidson.
[FURTHER READING:] “The Porous Membrane”. Why Corporate Blogging Works.
irish wine freebie rolls in.
The first Stormhoek Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebies are starting to roll in.
Here’s the skinny from Connor O’Neill:
This is the type of wine I put in the eminently quaffable category. It
it wasn’t the tip that hit the titanic
From a recent blog-related conversation in the gapingvoid comments:
Andreas: “On a more serious note, the ad agencies are learning and learning fast.”
Andreas, I’m not sure if I agree.
Why not? Because blogs, when done well, are CHEAP and EASY. Agencies are in the business of selling stuff that is NEITHER.
The thing is, the advertising industry is being unwillingly changed from the outside, not the inside. Like I said last January:
Google Adsense wasn’t invented by Young & Rubicam. Movable Type wasn’t invented by Leo Burnett. The Cluetrain Manifesto wasn’t written by John Hegarty. I could go on for pages…
It’s the old biz school maxim: the railroad companies didn’t get into airlines. The horse and buggy companies didn’t get into automobiles.
What will replace the monolithic agency model? Another monolith? Or lots of different little new models?
The big agencies can react, but they’re incapable of making the first move. Ergo, anybody who pays big agency money to make blogs for them is either a fool, or is being ripped off. Just my opinion.
[PS:] Blogs are just the tip of the Cluetrain iceberg. It wasn’t the tip that hit the Titanic.
[FURTHER READING:] “The Multi-Billion Dollar Suicide Pact Between Clients And Television.”
london geek dinner with robert scoble, december 10th
Robert Scoble and I have planned our second London Geek Dinner on Saturday, 10th December. Maryam will be there too, Hurrah!
Sarah is entrusted in making sure enough women show up.
Also, don’t forget the Irish Geek Dinner just before, on November 30th. Both Robert and I will be there as well, with both of us also at Les Blogs in Paris, December 5th and 6th.
Man. Busy fortnight.
[PS:] Yes, Stormhoek will be supplying freebie wine to all three events. No messing around.
September 12, 2005
dispatches from the we-need-a-blog-let’s-get-the-intern-to-write-it school of advertising
Wieden & Kennedy London, the deadsexy ubercreative superstar hotshop U.K. ad agency has a blog. Groovy.
Lots of groovy blog entries with groovy photos of groovy people in groovy clothes with groovy offices sitting on groovy furniture in groovy meetings talking about shooting groovy commercials for groovy clients. Groovy.
The person writing it doesn’t seem to want to share his/her name with the readers. Groovy.
Can’t say I blame the poor bugger. Groovy.
[FURTHER READING:] “British Advertising Continues To Die (Hurrah).”
September 11, 2005
brand = goodwill
Normally, profits derived from their current marketed products are heavily invested in developing market goodwill. This, essentially, is Corporate Branding.
paid content is a mug’s game
The first lesson is that free ebooks spread FORTY times faster than ebooks that cost money. That should give you pause if your goal is to spread your ideas. It seems to me that it’s really difficult to imagine that the $9 or $12 you can charge for an ebook is more effective than reaching forty times as many as people for free.
I concur with Seth completely. Unless you’re at THE VERY TOP of the foodchain (celebrity, NBC anchorman, rock star etc), paid content is a mug’s game.
Forty. Wow. That’s a lot.
[Loosely Related:] I just finished reading his new e-book, “Who’s There”. All to do with blogs and how it affects your business etc. It looks like it was written for people who don’t know a lot about blogs, or why blogs are important. Not a bad read at all. If you’re new to this whole blogging thing, I’d certainly recommend downloading it etc.
9/11 in memoriam
Thanks to 601.com for the names:
Brian McAleese, 36, Baldwin, N.Y.
Richard Dennis Allen, 31, New York, N.Y.
John Ernst (Jack) Eichler, 69, Cedar Grove, N.J.
Curtis Terrence Noel, 22, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Susan D. Murray, 54, Summit, N.J.
Judith Florence Hofmiller, 53, Brookfield, Conn.
Nancy Bueche, 43, Hicksville, N.Y.
“smarter conversations” is a moral decision
An offline discussion I’ve been having a lot recently:
1. If you want to become an authority in whatever industry you are in, you must engage in what I call “Smarter Conversations”.
2. Deciding to do so is not a business decision. It’s a moral decision.
Your call.
fuck-you pinstripes
Back home in Cumbria, after four nights in London. Lovely.
Our Social World was a nice wee conference. It seemed like it was successful. And Stormhoek supplied the wine.
What else? English Cut is visiting America in mid-October (New York, San Franciso and Chicago) if anyone fancies a $4000 suit.
English Cut is going through a very happy phase. Thomas keeps blogging, and the orders keep coming in. Plus some of the newer customers are beginning to get their first suits in, and are now re-ordering. Very good news.
Savile Row suits are funny that way. As soon as you have one, you want another. And another. And another. They’re addictive. We like that.
My first English Cut suit is now being made. Navy blue three-piece with bright blue “fuck-you pinstripes”. It’ll be weeks before it’s finished and I can wear it around the place, but it gives me something to look forward to.
English Cut has proved to me beyond resonable doubt that business blogging works. But it certainly helps if you have a product well-suited to it.
September 8, 2005
blogging tv producer
Back in 1992, I created a cartoon character named “Mr Hell” on the back of a cocktail napkin. A few years later my friend, TV producer David Freedman, managed to turn him into the star of a half-hour TV show for the BBC.
Now David has a blog. Check it out.
new voices
Other voices are beginning to pipe in over on the Stormhoek blog, including that of Nick Dymoke-Marr, the U.K. Managing Director:
I suppose the question a lot of people will be asking is, why are we bothering with a blog? Why not go with more conventional marketing practices? Why are we listening to this mad marketing anarchist Hugh MacLeod, when we could instead be basking in the re-assuring glow of a famous London advertising agency?
Because if we don’t rise above the clutter, we will fail. It’s that simple.
Stormhoek is a little winery in a country that is probably one of the least skilled exporters of quality wine in the world. The South African currency is weak and there are day-to-day challenges to their existence that most of the Western world has simply not had to deal with for generations. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Stormhoek is 6,000 miles away from the nearest significant market for their wines.
Also check out Graham Knox, Stormhoek principal and the guy in charge of wine production:
Stormhoek’s home is a 200 acre vineyard estate in the mountains overlooking Wellington, South Africa. Wellington is about an hour northeast of Cape Town. There are lots of vineyards in our area and we actually live in our very own little valley called “Doolhof” or The Maze. It is part of the magic of where we are and I will write more about that later.
The plot thickens.
hurricane housing
Rick has an idea, to help with rebuilding after the hurricane:
Genesis can create panelized kits which are complete light steel buildings delivered to building sites for assembly. Our investment centers around the amazing (at least to me) technology which makes all this possible. The facility where we crank out the buildings is, in effect, our lab and revenue to continue building out the systems which we believe are key to a great investment.
What all that means is we have a facility that can turn out homes, elder care facilities, condo projects, apartment buildings, churches, strip malls, etc, that are rated to withstand 160mph wind, in effect a Cat 4 hurricane. They are cost comparable to wood, will go up fast and will stay up.
In light of all the towns that are not in the press spotlight and seeing relief trucks flying by, we thought it would be a great idea to try and go in to help rebuild some homes. Donate some homes, in kits, that can replace the structures which were destroyed. Maybe homes, maybe a senior care facility, small town heath clinic, etc. The point is that we will donate a bunch of this to try and help.
And he’s asking for our help:
2. If you can help us with finding a small town that really got hammered, is
September 7, 2005
irish freebie update
The Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebie is going out today and tomorrow. They should start arriving Friday-Monday.
Two Points:
1. People in the U.K. were also still able to partake, not just the Irish.
2. If you’re one of the of people partaking and you end up blogging about it, if you could leave a link on the wiki, I would really appreciate it, thanks.
I’m still in London and frankly, it’s wearing me out. I’m travelling too much these days. Still, tonight’s wiki party should be fun. All I have to do now is figure out my travel plans up to Our Social World in Cambridge on Friday. I’m thinking of catching an early train, or maybe I can find a lift in somebody else’s car. Either way, is anyone looking for a travelling companion? Send me an e-mail if you are, thanks.
[UPDATE:] I absolutely love Nellie Lide’s synopsis of the blogvertising model:
Let’s talk — that’s how we’ll succeed. Fun, contagious, low-cost, authentic and passionate.
Something like that, anyway.
September 5, 2005
wiki wednesday is go
The London “Wiki Wednesday” party is on.
Oh, and it’s in an investment bank office.
When:
Wednesday, Sept 7
7:00pm-9:00pm
Where:
DrKW
22nd Floor (amazing view)
20 Fenchurch Street (in the City).
[Here’s the map.]
We’ll have complimentary wifi, drinks, and snacks with room for the first 40 people that sign up. Thanks DrKW!
[UPDATE:] If you’re having trouble logging in, maybe try going to Ross Mayfield’s page here and following the links to the London bit.
[TUESDAY UPDATE:] About to head for London. Back home at the weekend. Will be online while I’m there, of course.
September 4, 2005
our social world
This is a list of links I will be referring to during my upcoming talk at Our Social World, on Friday.
1. Why does advertising suck?
2. Why is advertising expensive?
3. The Hughtrain.
4. The Cluetrain.
5. Robert Scoble.
6. Seth Godin.
7. Advertising people are going to have to start acting more like techies, less like “creatives”.
8. English Cut.
9. Stormhoek.
10. Stormhoek Wine Freebie.
11. Stormhoek Wine Freebie Blog wiki.
12. Kathy Sierra: “You are a marketer. Deal With it.”
youth and talent
This cartoon has always been a favorite of mine. It kind of sums up the thing all non-successful artists fear the most i.e. growing old.
I like the expression on the guy’s face– a perfect combination of silence, anger, sadness and self-loathing. Anyone who has spent any serious time in bohemian circles will recognize it.
I still have a few great friends from my younger, bohemian days, but for the most part I tend to avoid that crowd like the plague.
I’ve seen too often what happens to people who take the romantic-artist-lifestyle crap too seriously. And I never liked what I saw.
lists lists lists
Jeff Jarvis has a superb list of all the Hurrican Katrina online resources. He also goes on to say, quite rightly,
By the way, I have no intention of hosting the definitive list of missing lists. That should go to big sites like Yahoo.
It’s interesting to watch how the information is self-organising.
Alan’s Katrina wiki is indeed a heroic effort. Wow.
it takes two years
Back home after a fun Saturday night in Glasgow. It’s turning out to be one of my favorite cities. There’s a real buzz to it.
Travelling too much these days. Glasgow yesterday, Edinburgh the week before, London this Tuesday and Wednesday, Cambridge on Friday, maybe Glasgow again at the weekend etc etc.
Thomas gets back from his 10-day vacation in the South of France today. So it’s back to work on English Cut for the both of us etc.
The Stormhoek project is getting more and more interesting, at least to me. In the Stormhoek brochure I posed the question,
Will the idea-virus spread far enough that suddenly, instead of one or two people knowing about the wine, suddenly tens of thousands of smart, connected people in the UK know about it, and are talking about it?
Is that enough to launch a national brand?
Although it’s still too early to answer that question definitively, my gut tells me, the blogvertising model works. But I think it takes two years.
Two years isn’t bad. A standard ad campaign takes nine months to gestate (strategy meetings, research meetings, media meetings, creative meetings, production meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings…) is EXTREMELY expensive, and rarely connects with people on anything other than the most superficial and banal levels.
Whereas blogvertising costs pennies on the dollar in comparison, gets people really involved, but takes two-three times as long.
I guess it all depends what’s more important to you– time or money.
“the dinosaur stirs”
It’s official: DDB London, one of the most respected ad agencies on the planet, doesn’t get blogging.
I did an internship there many years ago, straight out of college. Nice enough place to work if you’re into that kind of thing. Their former Creative Director, Ewan Patterson, who I knew in a former life before his DDB days, is now a Creative Director for Bartle Bogle Hegarty, another of the A-List London agencies. Nice to see he’s done well.
A lot of people like to ask the question, “When will ad agencies finally start understanding blogs?” Frankly, I’ve stopped caring. It’s not that they don’t understand blogs, they’ve just not figured out how to make money from them in ways that are in simpatico with their fat, tired and increasingly defective business models.
But that’s not my problem.
[Bonus Link:] A new advertising blog: “Beyond Madison Avenue”.
September 26, 2005
busy week
Due to heavy work stuff going on, I’m going to be mostly offline this week. See you on the other side etc.
September 25, 2005
film freebie
A movie is allowing bloggers free tickets, but only if the bloggers agree to write something about the movie, good or bad:
Last week I saw an Instapundit post that said that bloggers could attend preview showings of “Serenity” if they were willing to blog about it. I contemplated this for many milliseconds. Could the blogosphere withstand the replacement of a post about how I drool in my sleep for a post about “Serenity”? It was a tough decision, but I emailed my request to the powers-that-be and was rewarded with a confirmation email this morning (that had better not be a cruel joke).
I think it’s interesting that they made blogging about it conditional to receiving the free tickets.
With the Stormhoek wine freebie (now open to French bloggers,) they don’t have to blog anything if they don’t want to.
A small distinction, but I think an important one. [UPDATE:] Nellie Lide elaborates:
I give them kudos for including bloggers in their viral efforts. But they don’t get this kind of social marketing — bloggers who sign up for tickets are already interested in the movie — they don’t need to be pushed. And to force bloggers to put up the synopsis as a pre-requisite of attending the film, Serenity’s marketers show they’re still in the business of controlling the message. And if bloggers are anything, they’re folks who thinks no one really controls the message — in fact, it’s not a message at all, it’s a conversation.
[VERY COOL:] Shaun Dewberry, A South African blogger, thinks we should make the freebie offer available to South Africans. Graham Knox, Stormhoek principal and the guy running the vineyard, answers in Shaun’s comments:
Shaun,
You’re bloody right.
Give me your address (to the door) and I’ll send you a bottle.
Stormhoek is available (limited distribution) in Johannesburg.
And I’ll be there, trying to get some more, Sunday to Wed.
Then back to the grape vines (growing fast in first weeks of spring)
Graham
Pure Cluetrainy goodness etc..
September 24, 2005
willie nelson
Somebody once asked Willie Nelson why his new songs weren’t quite as [cough] good as his old ones.
“Because I wrote my old songs when I was cold and hungry,” came his reply.
Ain’t that the truth.
book proposal
A wee while ago, Chris Houchens published his manifesto on ChangeThis:
“Does ANYONE know how to market (And will anyone care?)?”
Now he’s trying to turn the manifesto into a book, has written a book proposal, published in blog form.
Check it out.
[Bonus Link:] I love this thought: “The thing that really gets me about chain letters, is that it dupes smart people into believing them. Once a smart person starts to believe a dumb person, it
September 23, 2005
i love it when this happens
I just recieved the following e-mail from James Torio, whose Master’s Thesis I blogged about last week:
Hello Hugh,
Just wanted to give you and update about the thesis.
Since you posted it last week the site has been hit 78,480 times. Not bad since the site is still beta, and before your post I was getting a couple of hundred hits a day.
The thesis has been downloaded 2,072 times. That’s got to be a world record for an academic paper.
I have been contacted by a number of companies to talk about work opportunities.
Thanks for the post that changed my life.
Enjoy the weekend,
James
Congratulations, James. That’s really good news.
A lot of people think blogs are little more than media for mutual-masturbation. Something only the “A-Listers”, internet techies or cynical wine pimps [SFX: Evil Laugh] can benefit from. I strongly disagree.
london girl geek dinner
There’s a second London Girl Geek Dinner on the 11th October.
It should be a fun evening. The last one certainly was.
six-figure shoe blogger
Wonderful. It seems the utterly fabulous “Manolo The Shoe Blogger” is earning six figures. [Thanks to Del Davis for the link.]
The more people who can make real money from blogging (as opposed to beer money), the happier I am. So well done, Manolo.
September 22, 2005
fashion week in paris
[Just found out:] There’s a small fashion-orientated blog conference in Paris on October 3rd, during Fashion Week. I am so going to that.
french freebie
The Stormhoek Blogger’s Wine Freebie is now open to France.
France is not a particularly big market for South African wine. They have plenty of their own, of course, which they’re quite rightly very fond of.
That being said, the French wine companies are buying a lot more South African wine than they used to. So maybe the times they are a’changin’ etc.
Regardless, I think it’ll be fun to spread the Stormhoek meme into France. I’m have some projects happening over there, I’m a big fan of the French etc etc. I look forward to seeing what happens.
So Loic, fancy some South African freebie goodness?
[UPDATE:] The first French blogger just signed up. Thanks, Xavier!
September 21, 2005
crappy wine
“Socialised Media” apparachik, BBC employee Ben Metcalfe calls Stormhoek “crappy”.
I just think it pollutes the blogosphere as you are giving one brand an a disproportionate advantage over its rivals
25%…?
According to a little bit of Technorati research from Stormhoek CEO Nick Dymoke-Marr, 25% of conversations in the blogosphere about “South African Wine” are now about Stormhoek.
Anybody care to verify this independantly? 25% seems really high, and frankly, Nick and I are too close to it to be totally objective.
Still, even for a rough, subjective, blog-pimping guestimate, 25% is pretty amazing.
September 19, 2005
emotional porn
Andreas has some more thinking about Seth and Purple Cows:
Does being remarkable guarantee success? We all know that it doesn’t. Take the portable mp3 player as an example. Apple’s iPod is the market leader, with a 75% share of the market. But was Apple the first company to make portable mp3 players? Not at all. Is the iPod the most feature rich player with the best battery life? Not by a long shot. The companies that pioneered the technology are being left behind or are abandoning the market altogether, despite having created a purple cow if ever there was one. Their mistake? Not communicating that fact effectively. Not becoming part of popular culture.
So what’s responsible for the success if the iPod if it’s neither price, nor features? In a word: Marketing. Advertising. Advertising and marketing that is creating an emotional attachement. People choose the products they buy — apart from price — for three reasons, how they see themselves, how they want to see themselves or how they want to be seen.
Successful advertising, in all its incarnations, including blogs, including WOM, is all about creating the emotional attachment. It’s about becoming a part of who the customer is, or wants to be, or wants to be seen as. It’s really that simple.
I think “Emotional Attachment” is overrated as a marketing concept.
Often when marketers, especially advertisers, speak of “Emotional Attachment”, what they’re really talking about is “Emotional Pornography”.
Which is rarely “remarkable” to begin with.
September 18, 2005
party trick
I have a fun, new party trick, which I use at blogger’s gatherings, e.g. at Our Social World, a week or so ago.
OTHER BLOGGER: So how can you tell if your Stormhoek meme is working?
HUGH: Name me two South African wines.
OTHER BLOGGER: Ok… ummm… Stormhoek… and… ummmmm… ummmm…
HUGH: That’s how I can tell if it’s working.
[Very Cool Bonus Link:] A live Stormhoek wine-tasting podcast.
[Very Cool Bonus Link 2.0:] Johnnie Moore does a splendid job of decontstructing the Stormhoek Marketing Plan:
1. The tone of invitation. No hard sell, just the presentation of an interesting idea to take or leave as you please. No grandiose posturing.
2. The sprit of experiment. Selling isn’t all about certainty, it’s also about curiosity. Hugh is inviting us to play a game of let’s disrupt marketing to see what happens.
3. A cause to believe in, if you like. We’re not talking about saving the world here, but we are offered an interesting windmill to tilt at — namely the established way of marketing stuff.
4. A bit of provocation. There is actually a proposition in here somewhere too — the one of freshness being undervalued in the wine business. Take it or leave it, it provides a bit of interest.
5. The fact that this is so clearly a message from a real live human being, with a personality of his own, not a committee.
6. Transparency, that oft-quoted term. The whole thing smacks of “What you see is what you get, this is what we’re up to, what do you think?”
english cut makes the nyt “style bible”
[The photo that came with the article. Click on it to enlarge etc.]
English Cut just made The New York Times.
For most men, knowing how to choose a tailor and buy a custom-made suit remains as mysterious as the appeal of low-rider jeans. Enter Thomas Mahon, one of Savile Row’s youngest tailors, and possibly its grooviest. He put his money where his mouse is with www.englishcut.com, offering advice for those who go the bespoke route. Mahon, a graduate of Anderson & Sheppard who has padded the shoulders of Prince Charles, Bryan Ferry and Graydon Carter, offers the following pointers.
You need to be registered to read it, but if you’re not, try using my username (“gapingvoid”) and password (“password”).
I haven’t seen the “paper” edition yet, but the way I understand it is, the New York Times publishes a big “Style Bible” twice a year, Fall and Spring. Apparently we made this year’s Fall Bible, which comes out today. If you’re currently in New York, or anywhere near a newstand that carries it, I hope you’ll go pick up a copy.
“Grooviest”. Heh. Not bad. Not bad at all.
I understand Graydon Carter is well known for being one of the best-dressed men in the USA, so having him mentioned in the same breath as Tom isn’t exactly going to be bad for business. Tom used to make for him back when he worked at Anderson & Sheppard.
Also, the article was written by Horacio Silva, who I’m told is THE Fashion Editor of the NYT, not one of the fashion underlings. Again, not bad for building credibility.
[UPDATE:] Dave Parmet, English Cut’s PR man in New York, talks about it some more. Rock on.
[BACKGROUND STORY: English Cut is a blog I started with Thomas Mahon, a bespoke Savile Row tailor, in January of this year. Basically, we sell $4000 suits, with the blog being the main driver of new business. We’ve just published a list of our top ten favorite English Cut articles, which you can read here.]
September 17, 2005
there is no “purple cow 2.0″
Along with the co-authors of the Cluetrain, probably the most influential voice in the world of new marketing is Seth Godin.
Seth has written a lot of books, and I have read most of them. All great stuff. If you don’t have the time to read all his books, fret not, because most of his most salient points are expressed rather well in the speech he gave at the London Marketing Dinner last July. You can download the audio here.
I listened to it again the other day.
Here’s the thing. Seth’s main thesis is that, with the crumbling of what he calls the TV-Industrial Complex, mass marketing has become broken. Suddenly mass media has become to cluttered, too noisy, too fragmented, people are too busy to pay attention, they have too much choice etc etc. So unless you already have a product that is heavily mass marketed successfully, you will probaly fail if you try going down the same road. So what to do?
Seth’s answer is for companies to stop trying to think of clever, “creative” ways to mass market ordinary products, but instead to start making remarkable products.
That means products people will want to talk about, that will create “stories” that people will want to tell to other people, that will create ideas and conversations that will spread. Products aligned with this he calls a “Purple Cow”.
It’s a wonderful, simple idea, and from where I’m standing, glaringly obvious.
All well and good.
What got me thinking was a conversation I overheard at the dinner between Seth and another person. To paraphrase:
PERSON: “Yes Seth, I’m sure you’re correct, but what do you do if the company you work for doesn’t make remarkable products? Then how does ‘Purple Cow’ thinking apply?”
SETH: “It doesn’t. Quit your job and go find something better.”
PERSON: “No, I mean, besides that.”
Obviously, this was not the answer the guy wanted to hear. I get the feeling he just thought if he could slightly “tweak” Seth’s thesis, he wouldn’t need to bother with the hard work, he wouldn’t have to ask the hard questions, or find the hard answers. All he would need to do is put this new & improved, “Purple Cow 2.0″ into gear, and suddenly his career would suddenly be magically transformed, as if on autopilot.
I often find the same is true when people talk about the Cluetrain and the ideas of a lot of bloggers I know.
Because the guy’s boss is an ass, or because the market in question is awash with unremarkable people and unremarkable products, or because the guy is too overstretched with the mortgage, car payments and children’s school fees to handle uncertainty, the idea must somehow be inherently flawed.
Plus
speaking of parmet…
Dave Parmet shares his personal take on working on both the English Cut and Stormhoek memes:
The world of wine marketing, as I
stormhoek u.s.a.
(Aiden Kenny, who took part in the recent Stormhoek Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebie drew this wee picture. Very cool. Link here.)
Thanks to a New York Geek dinner hosted by the lovely Adrianna, 3 bottles of Stormhoek were sampled by bloggers on the other side of the pond [Bloggers’ wine mentions here and here.]
Stormhoek has only just signed a distributor’s deal in the States, so no large wine supply is over there yet. Those three bottles were hand-couriered by somebody flying over last week, then handed over to my main man in New York, Dave Parmet, who brought them along to the dinner.
Is three bottles enough to start an American product launch? I think it is.
September 15, 2005
master’s thesis
New Yorker James Torio has just written his Master’s thesis on blogging, which he did at Syracuse Univeristy, studying Advertising and Design. It’s just about the most comprehensive overview on the subject I have ever read. Very impressive. Well done, James.
[Go here to read it.]
Now that he’s done with his degree, he’s looking for a job. So you can also download his r
September 14, 2005
“blame enron”
It also supports the theory that one of the reasons for lingering unemployment in the current recovery is that job losses in this recession were structural rather than cyclical– which is to say that your whole industry became a permanently less attractive place to work, rather than suffering a temporary downturn in demand that ends when the recession does.
That would explain a lot, especially in the advertising business.
[NOTE TO SELF:] What’s with the “Die, Advertising, Die” kick you’ve been on these last few days? Jeeze Louise.
copenhagen geek dinner
Henriette is organising a geek dinner in Copenhagen on 28th of October. You can sign up here.
[RANDOM UPDATE:] Another Stormhoek Freebie Review, from Merialc:
The idea behind the blogging wine promotion is, in all simplicity, that of advertising. They send me a bottle of free stuff: if I like it, I can go buy more. If I mention it, other people might try it. It
well, this changes everything
Google now has a blog search.
[BONUS LINK:] Quite possibly the most bizarre blog I have ever seen in my life. Like I’ve said before, watching Madison Avenue trying to get on the Cluetrain is a bit like watching a middle-age guy trying to pick up a college girl in a bar. [Link via Jeff.]
note to self:
Blogs will not kill off Madison Avenue.
High overheads will kill off Madison Avenue.
Same applies for Big Media.
September 13, 2005
traffic mag interview
Traffic, a magazine based in Vancouver just interviewed me. Both the paper and online editions are now out:
TRAFFIC: Does the concept of Expressive Capital further blur the lines between marketer/marketee? How, and is it a good thing? For who?
HM: The more informed the market, the blurrier it gets. Whether it’s a good thing depends on how informed you want your customers to be.
Educating your customers is an expensive process, so choices have to be made. Bounty paper towels, for example, are happy to buy thirty seconds of time to educate you about how great their paper towels are (which they are). They’re not willing to send you to college at their expense to teach you, however.
The best thing for a brand is when the customer base elects to educate itself, either individually or in groups, with or without the help of the manufacturer. Apple and Windows are two classic examples. As is Harley Davidson.
[FURTHER READING:] “The Porous Membrane”. Why Corporate Blogging Works.
irish wine freebie rolls in.
The first Stormhoek Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebies are starting to roll in.
Here’s the skinny from Connor O’Neill:
This is the type of wine I put in the eminently quaffable category. It
it wasn’t the tip that hit the titanic
From a recent blog-related conversation in the gapingvoid comments:
Andreas: “On a more serious note, the ad agencies are learning and learning fast.”
Andreas, I’m not sure if I agree.
Why not? Because blogs, when done well, are CHEAP and EASY. Agencies are in the business of selling stuff that is NEITHER.
The thing is, the advertising industry is being unwillingly changed from the outside, not the inside. Like I said last January:
Google Adsense wasn’t invented by Young & Rubicam. Movable Type wasn’t invented by Leo Burnett. The Cluetrain Manifesto wasn’t written by John Hegarty. I could go on for pages…
It’s the old biz school maxim: the railroad companies didn’t get into airlines. The horse and buggy companies didn’t get into automobiles.
What will replace the monolithic agency model? Another monolith? Or lots of different little new models?
The big agencies can react, but they’re incapable of making the first move. Ergo, anybody who pays big agency money to make blogs for them is either a fool, or is being ripped off. Just my opinion.
[PS:] Blogs are just the tip of the Cluetrain iceberg. It wasn’t the tip that hit the Titanic.
[FURTHER READING:] “The Multi-Billion Dollar Suicide Pact Between Clients And Television.”
london geek dinner with robert scoble, december 10th
Robert Scoble and I have planned our second London Geek Dinner on Saturday, 10th December. Maryam will be there too, Hurrah!
Sarah is entrusted in making sure enough women show up.
Also, don’t forget the Irish Geek Dinner just before, on November 30th. Both Robert and I will be there as well, with both of us also at Les Blogs in Paris, December 5th and 6th.
Man. Busy fortnight.
[PS:] Yes, Stormhoek will be supplying freebie wine to all three events. No messing around.
September 12, 2005
dispatches from the we-need-a-blog-let’s-get-the-intern-to-write-it school of advertising
Wieden & Kennedy London, the deadsexy ubercreative superstar hotshop U.K. ad agency has a blog. Groovy.
Lots of groovy blog entries with groovy photos of groovy people in groovy clothes with groovy offices sitting on groovy furniture in groovy meetings talking about shooting groovy commercials for groovy clients. Groovy.
The person writing it doesn’t seem to want to share his/her name with the readers. Groovy.
Can’t say I blame the poor bugger. Groovy.
[FURTHER READING:] “British Advertising Continues To Die (Hurrah).”
September 11, 2005
brand = goodwill
Normally, profits derived from their current marketed products are heavily invested in developing market goodwill. This, essentially, is Corporate Branding.
paid content is a mug’s game
The first lesson is that free ebooks spread FORTY times faster than ebooks that cost money. That should give you pause if your goal is to spread your ideas. It seems to me that it’s really difficult to imagine that the $9 or $12 you can charge for an ebook is more effective than reaching forty times as many as people for free.
I concur with Seth completely. Unless you’re at THE VERY TOP of the foodchain (celebrity, NBC anchorman, rock star etc), paid content is a mug’s game.
Forty. Wow. That’s a lot.
[Loosely Related:] I just finished reading his new e-book, “Who’s There”. All to do with blogs and how it affects your business etc. It looks like it was written for people who don’t know a lot about blogs, or why blogs are important. Not a bad read at all. If you’re new to this whole blogging thing, I’d certainly recommend downloading it etc.
9/11 in memoriam
Thanks to 601.com for the names:
Brian McAleese, 36, Baldwin, N.Y.
Richard Dennis Allen, 31, New York, N.Y.
John Ernst (Jack) Eichler, 69, Cedar Grove, N.J.
Curtis Terrence Noel, 22, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Susan D. Murray, 54, Summit, N.J.
Judith Florence Hofmiller, 53, Brookfield, Conn.
Nancy Bueche, 43, Hicksville, N.Y.
“smarter conversations” is a moral decision
An offline discussion I’ve been having a lot recently:
1. If you want to become an authority in whatever industry you are in, you must engage in what I call “Smarter Conversations”.
2. Deciding to do so is not a business decision. It’s a moral decision.
Your call.
fuck-you pinstripes
Back home in Cumbria, after four nights in London. Lovely.
Our Social World was a nice wee conference. It seemed like it was successful. And Stormhoek supplied the wine.
What else? English Cut is visiting America in mid-October (New York, San Franciso and Chicago) if anyone fancies a $4000 suit.
English Cut is going through a very happy phase. Thomas keeps blogging, and the orders keep coming in. Plus some of the newer customers are beginning to get their first suits in, and are now re-ordering. Very good news.
Savile Row suits are funny that way. As soon as you have one, you want another. And another. And another. They’re addictive. We like that.
My first English Cut suit is now being made. Navy blue three-piece with bright blue “fuck-you pinstripes”. It’ll be weeks before it’s finished and I can wear it around the place, but it gives me something to look forward to.
English Cut has proved to me beyond resonable doubt that business blogging works. But it certainly helps if you have a product well-suited to it.
September 8, 2005
blogging tv producer
Back in 1992, I created a cartoon character named “Mr Hell” on the back of a cocktail napkin. A few years later my friend, TV producer David Freedman, managed to turn him into the star of a half-hour TV show for the BBC.
Now David has a blog. Check it out.
new voices
Other voices are beginning to pipe in over on the Stormhoek blog, including that of Nick Dymoke-Marr, the U.K. Managing Director:
I suppose the question a lot of people will be asking is, why are we bothering with a blog? Why not go with more conventional marketing practices? Why are we listening to this mad marketing anarchist Hugh MacLeod, when we could instead be basking in the re-assuring glow of a famous London advertising agency?
Because if we don’t rise above the clutter, we will fail. It’s that simple.
Stormhoek is a little winery in a country that is probably one of the least skilled exporters of quality wine in the world. The South African currency is weak and there are day-to-day challenges to their existence that most of the Western world has simply not had to deal with for generations. And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, Stormhoek is 6,000 miles away from the nearest significant market for their wines.
Also check out Graham Knox, Stormhoek principal and the guy in charge of wine production:
Stormhoek’s home is a 200 acre vineyard estate in the mountains overlooking Wellington, South Africa. Wellington is about an hour northeast of Cape Town. There are lots of vineyards in our area and we actually live in our very own little valley called “Doolhof” or The Maze. It is part of the magic of where we are and I will write more about that later.
The plot thickens.
hurricane housing
Rick has an idea, to help with rebuilding after the hurricane:
Genesis can create panelized kits which are complete light steel buildings delivered to building sites for assembly. Our investment centers around the amazing (at least to me) technology which makes all this possible. The facility where we crank out the buildings is, in effect, our lab and revenue to continue building out the systems which we believe are key to a great investment.
What all that means is we have a facility that can turn out homes, elder care facilities, condo projects, apartment buildings, churches, strip malls, etc, that are rated to withstand 160mph wind, in effect a Cat 4 hurricane. They are cost comparable to wood, will go up fast and will stay up.
In light of all the towns that are not in the press spotlight and seeing relief trucks flying by, we thought it would be a great idea to try and go in to help rebuild some homes. Donate some homes, in kits, that can replace the structures which were destroyed. Maybe homes, maybe a senior care facility, small town heath clinic, etc. The point is that we will donate a bunch of this to try and help.
And he’s asking for our help:
2. If you can help us with finding a small town that really got hammered, is
September 7, 2005
irish freebie update
The Irish Blogger’s Wine Freebie is going out today and tomorrow. They should start arriving Friday-Monday.
Two Points:
1. People in the U.K. were also still able to partake, not just the Irish.
2. If you’re one of the of people partaking and you end up blogging about it, if you could leave a link on the wiki, I would really appreciate it, thanks.
I’m still in London and frankly, it’s wearing me out. I’m travelling too much these days. Still, tonight’s wiki party should be fun. All I have to do now is figure out my travel plans up to Our Social World in Cambridge on Friday. I’m thinking of catching an early train, or maybe I can find a lift in somebody else’s car. Either way, is anyone looking for a travelling companion? Send me an e-mail if you are, thanks.
[UPDATE:] I absolutely love Nellie Lide’s synopsis of the blogvertising model:
Let’s talk — that’s how we’ll succeed. Fun, contagious, low-cost, authentic and passionate.
Something like that, anyway.
September 5, 2005
wiki wednesday is go
The London “Wiki Wednesday” party is on.
Oh, and it’s in an investment bank office.
When:
Wednesday, Sept 7
7:00pm-9:00pm
Where:
DrKW
22nd Floor (amazing view)
20 Fenchurch Street (in the City).
[Here’s the map.]
We’ll have complimentary wifi, drinks, and snacks with room for the first 40 people that sign up. Thanks DrKW!
[UPDATE:] If you’re having trouble logging in, maybe try going to Ross Mayfield’s page here and following the links to the London bit.
[TUESDAY UPDATE:] About to head for London. Back home at the weekend. Will be online while I’m there, of course.
September 4, 2005
our social world
This is a list of links I will be referring to during my upcoming talk at Our Social World, on Friday.
1. Why does advertising suck?
2. Why is advertising expensive?
3. The Hughtrain.
4. The Cluetrain.
5. Robert Scoble.
6. Seth Godin.
7. Advertising people are going to have to start acting more like techies, less like “creatives”.
8. English Cut.
9. Stormhoek.
10. Stormhoek Wine Freebie.
11. Stormhoek Wine Freebie Blog wiki.
12. Kathy Sierra: “You are a marketer. Deal With it.”
youth and talent
This cartoon has always been a favorite of mine. It kind of sums up the thing all non-successful artists fear the most i.e. growing old.
I like the expression on the guy’s face– a perfect combination of silence, anger, sadness and self-loathing. Anyone who has spent any serious time in bohemian circles will recognize it.
I still have a few great friends from my younger, bohemian days, but for the most part I tend to avoid that crowd like the plague.
I’ve seen too often what happens to people who take the romantic-artist-lifestyle crap too seriously. And I never liked what I saw.
lists lists lists
Jeff Jarvis has a superb list of all the Hurrican Katrina online resources. He also goes on to say, quite rightly,
By the way, I have no intention of hosting the definitive list of missing lists. That should go to big sites like Yahoo.
It’s interesting to watch how the information is self-organising.
Alan’s Katrina wiki is indeed a heroic effort. Wow.
it takes two years
Back home after a fun Saturday night in Glasgow. It’s turning out to be one of my favorite cities. There’s a real buzz to it.
Travelling too much these days. Glasgow yesterday, Edinburgh the week before, London this Tuesday and Wednesday, Cambridge on Friday, maybe Glasgow again at the weekend etc etc.
Thomas gets back from his 10-day vacation in the South of France today. So it’s back to work on English Cut for the both of us etc.
The Stormhoek project is getting more and more interesting, at least to me. In the Stormhoek brochure I posed the question,
Will the idea-virus spread far enough that suddenly, instead of one or two people knowing about the wine, suddenly tens of thousands of smart, connected people in the UK know about it, and are talking about it?
Is that enough to launch a national brand?
Although it’s still too early to answer that question definitively, my gut tells me, the blogvertising model works. But I think it takes two years.
Two years isn’t bad. A standard ad campaign takes nine months to gestate (strategy meetings, research meetings, media meetings, creative meetings, production meetings, meetings, meetings, meetings…) is EXTREMELY expensive, and rarely connects with people on anything other than the most superficial and banal levels.
Whereas blogvertising costs pennies on the dollar in comparison, gets people really involved, but takes two-three times as long.
I guess it all depends what’s more important to you– time or money.