October 30, 2010
whimsy
Hugh MacLeod
I’m Hugh MacLeod. I’m a cartoonist. Occasionally I write books. gapingvoid is interested in start-up culture, because changing business for the better is what we’re about; that’s what Social Object Factory is about. We live and breathe it; we help everyone from lone entrepreneurs, to mid-sizers, to Fortune 500’s do the same. Check out our work here.
We create art that helps companies kick ass, end of story.
We also have a daily cartoon newsletter that makes a lot of people happy.
If you just want to say ‘Hello’, feel free to email me, anytime.
If you want to talk business, then it’s probably best to please contact my business partner, gapingvoid CEO Jason Korman, here. We look forward to working with you. Thanks!
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Archive for October, 2010
yesterday we sent out the 200th cartoon on the newsletter. hurrah!
[You can buy the print here etc.]
Friday [yesterday] marked the 200th cartoon we sent out on the newsletter. We sent out the cartoon above. Very cool.
Thanks to everybody for supporting it. It’s been quite an adventure so far. Not to mention, a lot of fun. Rock on.
October 29, 2010
“ideas that do not risk offense, aren’t.”
[Moleskine drawing from 2009: “Tried Meaningful”. You can see the enlarged image here. See more like this over at the Moleskine archive etc.]
“Ideas that do not risk offense, aren’t.”
And yes, your business is an idea. Your product is an idea. The conversation you’re trying to have with your market is also an idea.
Hey, I didn’t say any of this stuff was easy…
the REAL reason why brands screw up on social media
[I drew this cartoon back in New York, 1998. Backstory here.]
Mark Earls, one of the greatest marketing minds on the planet, is bored of social media. Or at least, the conversation about social media.
So let’s try to get at least this thing really straight:
Social networks are not channels for advertisers or for the adverts/memes you, your clients or any of your so-called “influentials” create, social networks are for all of the people who participate in the network.
Being a social creature means you spend your life in social networks; being part of a social network gives each individual a number of benefits — shared protection, shared resources and most importantly shared learning. Our ability to learn from each other (the appropriately-named Social Learning) is one of our all-too-mutual species’ most characteristic capabilties and the engine by which stuff gets pulled through populations (from technologies to health habits).
In other words, social media (and the brands that want to be part of it) are at their most powerful when they offer two things:
Shared learning.
Shared teaching.
Great art teaches. Great artists teach. What do you teach? What does your business teach? What is actually learned, imparted? Not just the practical stuff, but the deep, messy stuff about ourselves?
Just thought I’d ask…
[UPDATE] Darren left a great comment:
I frequently talk to people and companies who are looking to take their first stab at social media presence specifically for the purpose of advertising their product or service. No! No! No! Its about engaging your audience in meaningful conversation. Inevitably, they push forward, create a Facebook page and Twitter account, post for a few weeks. They have almost no fans or followers and wonder why their 27 posts with 10% coupon codes brought no increase in revenue!
Because their 27 posts and 10% coupon code played no part in shared learning or shared teaching, that’s why.
wicked problem #47: the lucky trucker
So I just did this cartoon for my client, HNI.
Basically, the truckers that are most profitable for any trucking company are generally the most hard to insure. The ones who score highest on safety make less make less money for the company… and then you’ve got these Feds coming in with “CSA 2010″, making it even more complicated. Lucky truckers…
The cartoon by itself, is not that interesting.
The fact that HNI are the only people in the insurance industry willing to talk about it in the open, are willing to have a “Smarter Conversation” about it, is interesting.
At least to me…
Comments Off 
October 27, 2010
“if you’re david, fighting goliath, don’t let goliath choose the weapons”
Our client, Line 2, is a small VoIP start-up, aiming to take some business from Goliaths like AT&T.
So Line 2, like David in The Bible, has to choose its own weapons i.e. like the cartoon above. Heh.
[PS: The “Don’t let Goliath choose the weapons” line is an idea I shamelessly stole from my old buddy, Sigurd. Hence the quotation marks etc.]
Comments Off rackspace: die trying
[Download the printable version here.]
I did this print a few months back– I thought the sentiment would also make a good cube grenade for our client, Rackspace. Et Voila…
[Bonus link] From Euan Semple, 2006:
Maybe love does have a place in business after all. Maybe more and more of us will start to have the courage to begin to talk about what really matters to us about work and our relationships with each other and to push back the sterile language of business that we have been trained to accept. Maybe we will realise that accepting love into the workplace reminds us of the original purpose of work – not to maximise shareholder value but to come together to do good things, to help each other and hopefully to make the world a better place.
Maybe …. Oh and by the way if the above is too new age and namby pamby for you I reckon social computing is capable of talking 25% out of the running costs of most businesses – so there!
October 18, 2010
“how do do you amplify a start-up culture inside a big company?”
[Download the printable version here.]
A couple of days ago my buddy, Robert Scoble (himself a Rackspace employee) twittered the question, “How do do you amplify a start-up culture inside a big company?”
A damn good question, Robert. I thought it would make a good piece of art, hence the cartoon above. More specifically, I thought it would make a good image to go on the back of a Rackspace business card.
Rackspace is a big company (3,000 employees), but not big enough where they can no longer remember when they were a small company. So maybe it’s better to start a conversation (which is what handing out a business card does, ideally) with a pertinent question, rather than the usual “Here’s why you should buy our stuff” shpeel…
October 16, 2010
the hughtrain mkii
THE HUGHTRAIN MkII
1. The market for something to believe in is infinite. We are here to find meaning. We are here to help other people do the same. Everything else is secondary. We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature.
2. The most important word in marketing is “complicity”. It’s not enough for the customer to love your product. They have to love your process as well.
3. Your customers are becoming smarter about your market a lot faster than you are. Thanks to the internet, your customers are able to talk to each other. They are able to find better information about your product than you are able of willing to give them, much quicker than you are capable of giving them. The conversation will happen with or without you, you’re better off joining in.
4. The primary job of an advertiser is not to communicate benefit, but to communicate conviction. It’s not about what you have; it’s about why it matters.
5. A company’s primary role is to function as an “idea amplifier”. A company’s primary role is not to make or do stuff. Making and doing are mere subsets.
6. The future of advertising is internal. The hardest part of a CEO’s job is sharing his enthusiasm with his colleagues, especially when a lot of them are making one-fiftieth of what he is. Selling the company to the general public is a piece of cake compared to selling it to the actual people who work for it.
7. Your job is no longer about selling. Your job is about firing off as many synapses in your customer’s brain as possible. The more synapses that are fired off, the more dopamines are released. Dopamines are seriously addictive. The more dopamines you release, the more the customer will come back for more. Your customer thinks he is coming back to you for sane, rational, value-driven reasons. He is wrong. He is coming back to feed.
8. Good-bye, Messages. Hello, Social Gesture. A well-executed marketing campaign is an act of love.
9. Control the conversation by improving the conversation. Choosing to have a “smarter conversation” with the market is not a marketing decision; it’s a moral decision.
10. The more porous the membrane that separates your business from your market, the easier it is for both parties to be in alignment. And the more porous the membrane, the easier it is to fix non-alignment.
October 14, 2010
are you a beacon?
[“Adventure”. Buy the print here etc.]
Are you a beacon?
A beacon is a navigation signal that tells you where you are when you’re lost at sea.
We spend a lot of our careers being lost at sea.… paddling away, not quite sure where we are, hoping to God that a big wave won’t come along and swamp our little boat.
And we look for beacons to guide us, to give us hope, to tell us where we are, to show us where the standard is, to show us the way forward. Beacons can be people, products, businesses or even ideas.
“Life might suck right now, but one day I’ll land a kick-ass job as Creative Director for Crispin Porter!”
“Life might suck right now, but one day I’ll write as good a novel as Jonathan Franzen!”
“Life might suck right now, but one day our product will be better than SAP or Oracle!”
These are beacons…
Obviously, if you or your product is a beacon to other people in your own industry, you have a considerable advantage going for you. Not to mention, a really good reason to get up in the morning.
So in my typical way, I’ll ask you, are you beacon? If not, don’t you think you should be?
To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about you when I sat down to write this, sorry. I was actually thinking about my client, Rackspace. Are they a beacon? I know they’re certainly capable of it.
I’m just thinking outloud, here…
October 12, 2010
30 – 60% off: the main reason to subscribe to the gapingvoid newsletter
Tens of thousands of people now get the Daily Cartoon Newsletter. The list grows and grows, and every day we get lots and lots of mail from people showing the love.
But the NUMBER ONE benefit to subscribe is that each day, for 24 hours, the cartoon de jour– the print– is available at around 30– 60% off the usual price. Just the day it’s initially published and after that, it goes to full price. So, all the hardcore print junkies are buying them on the issue day, and after that, they and everyone else pays retail.
There is a secret offer code on the bottom of each email, that reveals the discount of the day. Just use it when you go to checkout.
Start the day with an ass-kicking cartoon and maybe save some money as well etc.
Sign up here, and join the club. Rock on.
October 6, 2010
fanatical
[Download the printable version here etc.]
Rackspace likes to describe their customer support as “Fanatical” [It’s right there on their homepage. Go see.].
Which got me thinking, what does being “fanatical” actually mean? What are its real-world implications?
So I drew a cartoon with my take on it…
October 5, 2010
just a paycheck
[Download the printable version here.]
I find something rather amusing about the idea of people at Rackspace printing out this cube grenade, and hanging it up everywhere in their San Antonio office. It would sure send a message to the newbies…
HR may not be able to say things like this, but hell, I’m a cartoonist…
October 4, 2010
things i wish my phone did 06
[Download printable version here.] [thingsiwishmyphonedid.com] [#smarterconversations]
October 3, 2010
“don’t be the best in the world at what you do; be the only one in the world who does what you do.”
[Last Friday I was signing prints– 175 of these puppies. SAP, the large, German enterprise tech company put in a very large order, to give out to certain key people within the organization. Trying to have a Smarter Conversation. Exactly.]
“Don’t be the best in the world at what you do; be the only one in the world who does what you do.”
That quote is me paraphrasing Jerry Garcia, lead guitar of The Grateful Dead. The thought always resonated with me.
If people like what you’re doing, and you’re the only one who’s doing it, you win.
Which is why I like doing Cube Grenades. Compared to what most people are selling out there, they’re fairly unique.
It’s also what makes blogs so powerful a marketing device. People can just see your own unique shtick evolving right there on the page, over time. They’ll either get it eventually or they won’t. No sales pitch needed. No need to compare yourself to somebody else. No need to fit into some pre-existing model, if you don’t want to.
It has never been a better time to be unlike anyone else. I hope you’re already taking full advantage…
![[Download the printable version here.]](http://gapingvoid.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/rackspace-1010-07j.jpg){kind=link}
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