August 31, 2011
The Mainstream
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 |
|---|---|---|
NY NY |
$275 |
Archive for August, 2011
Never Go Mainstream
NEVER GO MAINSTREAM
Back when I was a kid and aspiring to be a professional cartoonist one day, I had this dreadful fear hanging over my head:
That the only way to become successful as a cartoonist, was to go mainstream. Cute and cuddly, warm and fuzzy. In the world of the big money cartooning, there was little room for “Edge”.
Check out the traditional US Sunday comics section of any newspaper, and you’ll see what I mean. Utter, cutey-pie dreck.
I just couldn’t see myself doing it. My stuff was just too “out there”, and when I tried to reign it in, it just made it worse.
Of course, that was before the Internet came along and changed everything…
Anybody who courts the mainstream deserves everything they get. There’s far more action in niches.
August 29, 2011
“Ambition is for amateurs”
[Orlando Gibbons (1583 – 1625)]
So somebody asked me recently in an email interview, “What’s next for Hugh MacLeod?”
Which I answered:
There is no “Next”. There is only making more drawings and writings, and trying to stay healthy and happy. “Ambition” is for amateurs.
I think it’s too easy to confuse the AMBITION of doing something, with the actual DOING of something.
That confusion is the domain of the amateur…
“My work doesn’t belong in art galleries, it belongs in cubicles.”
[“Creativity With Purpose”: One of my recent canvases etc.]
I get asked all the time: “Why don’t you show in art galleries?”
And I always answer the same: “Because my work doesn’t belong in art galleries, it belongs in office cubicles.”
Even if you go back to the 1990’s, back when I was starting out, it was the same story. I always liked making art SPECIFICALLY for the workplace. I always liked making work that pushed that aspect of human existence further in the right direction.
After family, the time you spend in your place of work is the most important arena of your existence. That is where you go to find out, over time, who your true self really is.
And your true self needs art around it, your true self needs constant reminding that your true self ACTUALLY exists.
Your true self needs TOTEMS around that INSPIRE it on a daily basis.
That’s what I hope the cartoons help articulate, help bring to the surface. Unlike most of the knucklehead art you see around the gallery scene…
Besides, it’s a niche most other artists don’t really think about– they’re too busy trying to conquer other worlds. Which is fine, even if those other worlds are already too crowded; already SATURATED with the froth of other knuckleheads.
“My work doesn’t belong in art galleries, it belongs in office cubicles.”
It’s not a bad life, I suppose…
August 26, 2011
“The King”
[Buy the print here etc.]
THE KING
The thing about the pawn and the king in this cartoon is… well, they’re both right.
The good news is, they’re just not both right all the time.
People often think that the moment they get to the top, their problems are over. History tells us the opposite, the Roman Emperors who lasted more than a couple of years before being assassinated or killed in battle were the minority.
The Treasure Factor
Not too far down the road from my house in Far West Texas, my friend, Glenn Short and his team make, and I kid you not, the best store-bought beef jerky I have ever tasted (And I have tasted A LOT over the years). The Lights Jerky Company is phenominal, check it out.
After a few years struggling to get it off the ground, business is booming. I met one of his people last night, drinking beer over at The Railroad Blues. He was just EXHAUSTED at the end of the day from busting his ass, filling orders. It was, how you say, the right kind of exhaustion to have…
Out here in the Texas desert mountains, where it’s ALWAYS been a tough place to make a living, I’ve noticed three kinds of business:
1. THE LOST CAUSES. New ones open and close all the time. Well meaning people who don’t really get what they’re doing, don’t really get what their customers are after, don’t really get much, in spite of their often valiant and kind-hearted efforts. Retired school teachers from Dallas, who never run a business before, who just moved out here recently because they liked the scenery, who SUDDENLY decided to go into the restaurant business or whatever. These places usually close down in less than nine months. They’re not uncommon.
2. THE COMMODITIES. Stuff you’d expect to see out here. Gas stations. Convenience stores. Fast food joints. Nothing too special, but they provide some needed service, same as any where else. Nice local people working there and all, but nothing to write home about.
3. THE TREASURED. These are the rarest birds. Products that are not only INSANELY GREAT, but are done with such, imagination, love, flair , or even just plain ol’ hard work and good manners, failure JUST isn’t an option.
And treasured they are. If you live out here long enough, you start to realize soon enough that if you don’t ACTUALLY TREASURE the businesses you love, I mean REALLY treasure them more than you would in a big city, say, these places will just close down eventually, just blow out of town like tumbleweeds. Their unique magic will be gone, forever, without nothing to take their place.
And people KNOW that.
Lights Jerky is one of these. So is The Pizza Foundation, The Marfa Book Company, Harry’s Bar, The Murphy Street Raspa Compaany, Novak’s Barber Shop, Tacos Del Norte, The French Grocer and The Saddle Club, just to name a few.
And yes, these businesses are Social Objects. When something happens in one of these places– somebody loses their job, or somebody gets sick etc– news travels WAY faster around town than with the other places. Because people ACTUALLY do care. BECAUSE they are treasured, the social dynamic is far more intense than in say, a national fast food chain.
And what is true in small-town West Texas is true in any big city. You don’t have to be Amazon or Apple or IBM or McDonalds to be a social object. You can be a small jerky company, bookshop or taco stand. As I’ve always said, “Meaning scales”.
But The Treasure Factor HAS to be there, somehow.
Is your business treasured? Or do people just give you money? Serious question…
August 23, 2011
The Whale
[This cartoon went out in the newsletter earlier today. You can buy the print here etc.]
One day I drew a fun little picture of a whale, just for the hell of it.
Then I added a line about “meaning” that I had written on Twitter earlier that day, just for the hell of it.
Somehow it worked.
Hey, I like whales…
“Because unless businesses and brands get their head around the Social Object concept, their marketing will fail, end of story.”
[Buy the print here etc.]
With my recent post, “Reclaim Blogging: Why I’m giving up Twitter and Facebook” making all that fuss all around the Web, obviously I’ve been reflecting a lot on blogging in general.
What is blogging for?
More specifically, what is gapingvoid.com for?
Even more specifically, what is gapingvoid.com actually ABOUT?
Blogging is the same as careers: Every now and then it helps to take some time off, to reflect, to regroup and refocus. Which is EXACTLY what I’ve been doing these last couple of days.
Having a big ol’ think.…
My conclusion?
Besides drawing and posting cartoons, which I’ve always done and will always do until I die, I believe the focus of gapingvoid should be something it’s riffed on nonstop for the last half-decade.
i.e. Social Objects.
i.e. Why Social Objects are, I believe, the future of marketing.
And why are they the future of marketing, exactly?
Because unless businesses and brands get their head around the Social Object concept, their marketing will fail, end of story.
And Marketing is too important to fail, not just for businesses, but for society in general.
This is a conversation that HAS to happen, end of story. And where better to start this conversation than on gapingvoid? Exactly.
And yes, I expect some REALLY COOL art to be made in the process…
Rock on.
August 22, 2011
“Because you can’t live in a hammer.”
[One of my early bizcard drawings. New York, 1998.]
[The following was originally posted in March, 2006. Appropos to a lot of the conversations I’ve been having recently:]
Blogs are like hammers. They are tools for building stuff.
When you talk about building a house with a carpenter, you don’t mind him talking about his hammer for a while.
Nobody minds indulging a craftsman, within reason.
“This hammer is great for this,” he’ll gush. “This hammer is great for that…”
So you think yes, hammers are good things, and indeed his hammer looks like a particularly fine example.
But eventualy you’re going to interrupt his joyous ode to hammers. After a couple of minutes you’re going to abruptly change the subject:
“Cool. Now let’s talk about the ACTUAL HOUSE you’re going to build for me…”
And if the carpenter is any good, he won’t have any problem with that.
Blogging Disciples vs Blogging Peers: Some random thoughts on “Guru-nomics”.
It’s not a bag gig, I suppose…
You have a successful blog, read by lots of people, where you dole out lots of advice on how to create a successful blog, read by lots of people. And you rake in the cash doing so.
i.e. You’re a “Guru”.
I’ve been there myself. I’ve shared TONS of my tricks of the trade over the years, which has indirectly helped my bottom line no end… And I have to say, it’s a good feeling to think you’re actually helping people in real and meaningful ways.
Sure, compared to how most people have to pay their bills, being a “guru” is not a bad gig, not a bad gig at all. And there’s some good ones out there, doing a splendid job helping people move their lives forward. No wonder why so many other people are also chasing after the very same gig, themselves.
But guru-dom has never sat well with me, somehow, no matter how good it was for business. And for the longest time I couldn’t quite put my finger on it why that was.
Then recently I got talking to an old friend, somebody who spent a lot of time practicing as an Eastern mystic, who studied under REAL gurus and knew all about gurudom. The closet thing to a real Holy man that I ever had the privilege of calling a friend.
Then one day he just gave it up completely. Just totally stopped. As he explained in his email:
I found enlightenment to be overrated. It turns out that when this comes about, all of the Karma in your life comes due at once… both good and bad. I’ve had to pay the sufi master three times to get out of town and leave me alone.
Many groups, end up in a sycophantic embrace and I found that to be distasteful, be careful. Since we live so many lives, There is plenty of time for this state to take effect. I’d advise anyone to take it slow. However, there are a few good ones out there, who really aren’t into all these shenanigans. At least that’s my experience.
Really believe that knowing the future creates a boring life, no surprises any more. Remote viewing opens one up to things that one would rather not know. Powers of healing, brings all kinds of sick people around from all over the place and you end up tripping on them. Deciples, needy and clinging. More and more I think that it is all about gaining the ability to hang in there and keep it together in the face of life’s shit-storms. I especially like the ability to make people laugh at the absurdityof it all. You already have that power.
[…]
There is a big difference between being an influencer with a blog and being a guru. But the same kind of thing applies. I never tried it because I never really had anything meaningful to say. If I said it, then there always seemed to be a certain “falsness” to it. The influencers have a cannonical form, that requires talking more than listening, and feigning listening, which is taken as agreement, when maybe it’s not. Which is dishonest. Charisma is a way of crapping on half the people you meet in such a subtle way, then they thank you for it.
Yep. That sums up a lot of my feelings. Something about the job-tile, “Guru” just kinda makes me queasy. I just don’t think I like the baggage, the “karma” that comes with it; I just don’t think I like the guru-nomics of it all.
I don’t want to write for DISCIPLES, I want to write for MY PEERS. There’s a difference, a BIG one.
i.e. I don’t want to write about how I can help random people do great work, I want to TRY to do great work myself, and CELEBRATE other people who are ALREADY doing it.
You don’t get successful because some enlightened being told you how. You get successful because somehow circumstances forced you to ACTUALLY put your balls on the line. And this has always been the case.
But maybe I’m weird for thinking that…
August 21, 2011
“I’m sick to death of hearing the phrase, ‘Driving traffic to your site’.”
Well, it looks like my last post, where I announced I was giving up Twitter and Facebook, caused all sorts of brouhaha. Over 150 comments, and Lord knows how many hundreds of retweets and whatnot on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ yada, yada, yada.
I’m not sure why all the fuss, to be honest.
More than a few people were concerned that by not doing the Twitter-Facebook thing, I wouldn’t drive so many people to my blog.
To which I replied in the comments:
“I’m sick to death of hearing the phrase, ‘Driving traffic to your site’.
People should come to your blog, not because somebody drove them there, but because it was important for them to come there.
Otherwise you’re just wasting your time, otherwise you’re just acting like everyone else.
And the trick to Web 2.0, as in business, is to be UNLIKE everyone else.”
Granted, that might be a wee bit too purist for most people, still, Kathy Sierra left a great comment:
From John Mayer’s address to grads of Berklee College of Music:
And possibly more alarming, Mayer realized that pouring creativity into smaller, less important, promotional outlets like twitter not only distracted him from focusing on more critical endeavors like his career, it also narrowed his mental capacity for music and writing intelligent songs.
“The tweets are getting shorter, but the songs are still 4 minutes long. You’re coming up with 140-character zingers, and the song is still 4 minutes long…I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. And I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it. And I stopped using twitter as an outlet and I started using twitter as the instrument to riff on, and it started to make my mind smaller and smaller and smaller. And I couldn’t write a song.”
You see where I’m going with this?
Whatever. The issue really isn’t Twitter or Facebook, the issue is, if you’re spending more time promoting your stuff and chit-chatting to people about your stuff than your are ACTUALLY MAKING stuff, you’re doing something wrong, VERY wrong [Believe me, I’m as guiity of this as anyone. I have BEEN there, more than once.].
Quit your yakkin’ and get busy. Quit wasting time obsessing about pimping your ass and checking your stats. Instead, MAKE stuff. Make AMAZING stuff. Make stuff that is so good that people have no choice but to find out about it. Otherwise, you REALLY are just wasting your time. This game is already TOO hard and TOO BIG a time suck to fritter away on what is, for the most part, a big ol’ distraction.
There. I’ve said my piece. This is hopefully my last blog post on the subject. I’m getting back to what I do best: Writing books, drawing cartoons, selling art and helping my clients kick ass. Amen.
[PS. I’m not completely stupid and out out of touch; I do realize that A LOT of my friends still use Twitter at the expense of everything else (including RSS) and may need some time to adjust, so for now, we’ll still using my Twitter account to retweet links to my blog, just like Seth Godin does with his. But I won’t be spending any personal time over there, either. In fact, I’ve given my log-ins to Laura (she runs my gallery operations) and asked her to handle it instead. My personal online presence will just be here on my blog, and of course the newsletter. But I’m pretty much done with everything else…]
August 19, 2011
Newsflash: Babson College is gapingvoid’s latest client.
So gapingvoid has a new client: Babson College. Or to put it another way: gapingvoid is now the oficial cartoonist for Babson College.
Babson is a small, private college in the western suburbs of Boston, dedicated to the study of entrepreneurship. In fact, it’s been considered the top school for entrepreneurship in the country for the last 18 years in a row, beating out Harvard, Wharton, Yale, M.I.T. etc etc
Some inititial thoughts:
The college president, Len Schlesinger is an interesting guy. He has divided his career pretty equally in both academia and commerce. Over the years, the two have informed the other. Click on his link and see for yourself, he has gotten plenty of kudos in both worlds. He was a professor at Harvard Business School and a CEO of a well known company (i.e. the parent company of Victoria’s Secret). Very few people are so informed by the limitations of both, and also their lack of limitations.
He is also pretty much the biggest collector of gapingvoid prints that we have. His walls are absolutely covered with them. He was collecting them like baseball cards. So there was an pre-existing alignment there.
We met for Chinese food the last time I was in New York and hatched an “Evil Plan”. Good times.
This is such an obvious gig for gapingvoid, I cannot tell you. There are so many threads worth riffing on, I canot tell you. Education and entrepreneurship are BOTH rich, deep veins. OF COURSE they are.
Is there ANYTHING in the world that is more ripe for disruption than Education Industry (Yes, it IS an industry, sorry to break the news to my Marxist academic friends)? I mean, really…
I have some thoughts on formal education and entrepreneurship in general. See the cartoon above…
It’s amazing how this fits with a trend I’ve been noticing lately: When Jason (my business partner) and I talk to people in business who use the cartoons, it is always about the same thing: It helps them lead their organizations. Communicate better, and tell stories that they feel people should be reminded of. Around the office, we’ve become fond of saying that the work helps leaders lead.
I am TRULY honored that someone of Len’s stature is able to use my work to lead his business. Art with purpose, it’s why gapingvid does what it does.
OK, I’m ready to rock out. Next steps: Anyone got any ideas where to start? I have a few thoughts myself, of course, but please feel free to share, either by email or by leaving comments below, thanks.
Let the aventure begin! w00t!!!
August 14, 2011
Your customer won’t take a bullet for you
Your customer won’t take a bullet for you
[Today’s guest post is from the world’s most admired ex-blogger, the great Kathy Sierra.]
“Customer Loyalty” is a figment. Business “Loyalty Programs” are nothing more than rewards-based marketing. And by rewards (aka “incentives”), I mean bribes. That we so easily refer to a customer with a bagel punch card or virtual badge as more “loyal” is an example of just how far we’ve allowed corporations to abuse the language around human relationships.
I would storm a burning building to get my kids. THAT is loyalty.
I would even storm a burning barn to get my horse.
But I won’t storm a burning Best Buy no matter how awesome their Reward Zone program.
I’m not going to become more loyal to a business no matter how well-executed their Super Awesome VIP Exclusive Content Access Status Rewards Achievements Gamification program is. Not even if Banksy made their badges.
That I often DO buy (and sometimes buy more) from the businesses that offer formal Rewards Programs does not imply I am loyal to those businesses. I’ve nothing against my wallet-full of coffee cards (which I use, and appreciate). But that is not loyalty. I’m happy to “LIKE” your Facebook page for an entry in your iPad giveaway, but that is not loyalty.
I’m willing to comment, favorite, star, plus, and potentially even share your content, but if I do it purely for the points/status/rewards, that is not loyalty. In fact, when you “incent” me to “engage” with your site, deep in my heart I understand now that I have sold out. By giving me bribes/incentives, no matter how much you call them “rewards”, you have communicated to some part of me that if I had to be incented to buy/act/engage/whatever, it must have lacked value on its own.
This de-valuing effect can be true even if the thing really DID have intrinsic value for me. In other words, even if I’d actively wanted to do the thing-you’re-bribing-me-to-do, you’ve tainted it. Possibly even wrecked it for me, even if I am not consciously aware. (See Self-Determination Theory and the Over-Justification Effect for some of the potential issues with gamification’s use of extrinsic rewards)
The darling of traditional “Loyalty Programs” is, of course, Frequent Flyer miles. But odds are most of you have taken a flight you didn’t want, on an airline you hate, thanks to a Frequent Flyer plan. When we make tough choices based on our “rewards” program, that’s not loyalty we’re feeling… it’s resentment.
A way to tell you’re heading down a dark path is to ask:
“If we took away the incentive/rewards programs, would our customers behave in exactly the same way?”
If we have to pay to get it, it’s not loyalty.
That doesn’t necessarily make it wrong to use customer incentives, but don’t mistake the results for actual loyalty.
So, how do we explain the companies, brands, products, services, etc. that we do feel fiercely loyal to? The ones that did NOT incentivize, bribe, coerce, coupon/Groupon us into choosing them over competitors? The ones we talk about to friends NOT because we get a referral bonus? Isn’t that true loyalty?
Almost. Sort of. If you tilt and angle it just so. Because I DO have a few products I appear loyal to:
I would give up my iPad for Adobe InDesign.
I would give up sleep for the latest Neil Gaiman book.
I would give up carbs for my Astund Icelandic saddle.
And I’d give up all of the above to keep using my Mac.
That sure looks, sounds, smells, quacks like loyalty.
And it is.
But it is NOT loyalty to Adobe, Gaiman, Apple, or my Icelandic saddlemaker.
I’d walk through hot coals for those because I’m loyal to… myself.
The key to understanding (and ultimately benefitting from) true “customer loyalty” is to recognize and respect that customers – as people– are deeply loyal to themselves and those they love, but not to products and brands. They are loyal to their own values and the (relatively few) people and causes they truly believe in. What looks and feels like loyalty to a product, brand, company, etc. is driven by what that product, service, brand says about who we are and what we value.
That doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from customer loyalty. The moment we stop trying to manipulate, coerce, incentivize, gamify customers into being loyal to us is the moment we free ourselves to consider how to help them where their true loyalty lies. And it starts with the deep recognition that:
If I buy from you it’s not because I like you but because I like myself.
As I said in my previous post, the key is to help users become better at something they care about. My what-looks-like-rabid-loyalty to Apple, Adobe, Gaiman, and Astund is because they have all contributed to Me Kicking Ass in a measurable, meaningful, sustainable, powerful way. Yes, even author Neil Gaiman. (His work has not just entertained and inspired me, but provided the foundation of my wedding ceremony. Long story, ‘nother time.)
If you want to benefit from a customer’s loyalty to himself, you can’t bribe it, you must earn it. Deserve it. Focus not on upgrading your product but upgrading your user’s capabilities. If you can’t enhance your product, enhance the context in which your product is used. Provide better and more inspiring documentation. Make YouTube tutorials. Join forums and offer expert help where it’s most needed. Use every nanosecond of your social media time to help people become better at something for themselves. Understand and design for Social Objects. Relentlessly ask, “How are we helping our users kick ass? What can we inspire, amplify, teach, enable, empower?”
There is always a way to help users be better at something, even if that thing seems disconnected from your product. Help them be better, smarter, stronger, funnier, more aware. Better coders, better shoppers, better parents. Better designers, better DJs, better citizens. Better puzzle-solvers, better photographers, better writers. Better joke-tellers, better conversationalists, better gardeners. Better makers, better cooks, better cartoonists. Better brainstormers, better bloggers, better runners. As Hugh once put it, “if you can’t figure this out, you’re just not being creative.”
Instead of “rewarding the customer” focus on “how can I make the user’s experience and result more rewarding”? And by “rewarding”, I mean FOR REAL. Not because of a little dopamine hit they get from earning your next virtual badge. I mean rewarding as in, “OMG look at this amazing thing I just made.” Rewarding as in, “That was one of the most stimulating conversations I’ve had.” Rewarding as in, “It’s official then. I’m bad ass. Look at the what I am now able to do that I couldn’t before…”
Of the four products I appear loyal to, none have ever given me an extrinsic reward. No punch cards, frequent-purchasing discounts, or Exclusive Access VIP Status (Now! With Better Badges!). No leaderboards, no contests, no discounts. But all have given me something far more valuable: enduringly rewarding experiences.
They have upgraded my personal skills, knowledge, and capabilities. They have made my life better. They have made ME better. THAT is the ultimate customer reward. When you give your users that, you still won’t have loyalty, but you’ll have something sustainable, robust, and honorable.
Those that understand and support the loyalty we have to ourselves are the ones to whom we write glowing unsolicited/unrewarded reviews. They’re the ones we will not STFU about in our on– and off-line conversations. They’re the ones whose logos we wear on our shirts, shorts, and car bumpers. The companies who we appear loyal to are those that best help us define, refine, and express who WE are.
[Footnote: if you do want to give an extrinsic reward to a valued customer, the most powerful, effective, and appreciated way is ALWAYS an unexpected, surprise thank-you acknowledgement (which may or may not include a valuable or symbolic gift). Rewards that are expected are perceived not as rewards but simply part of the product.]
–Kathy Sierra
“The Market For A Scotch To Believe In Is Infinite”
[One of the Dewars drawings I did while attending TED Global etc.]
[Today’s guest post is by Jason Korman, my business partner since 2005, and CEO of gapingvoid]
“The Market For a Scotch to believe in is Infinite”
There are millions of cases at stake for the guys who get the messaging right.
We’ve had Scotch on the brain lately. We’ve done wine, we’ve done suits and we’ve done tech, but Scotch has its own particular set of challenges.
What makes any bottle of scotch different? And, does anyone care, anyway? There are, what Hugh’s dad used to call, the “whiskey bores” who drone on and on about all things whisky, but I’m told there aren’t that many of them left. So, what matters to everyone else?
There is the realm of the single malts and high end scotches. But they seem to need to be marketed more like Congac or Champagne, a bit of bling, sexy packaging, and hyped up associations.
For more broad market Scotch, the opportunities are much greater and the challenge much more complex. Scotch is a distinctly masculine product. It is strong, it is interesting, is implies thought and intelligence. It s a product that wants to have meaning.
Given that, what we see mostly in Scotch marketing is a reliance on ‘authenticity’, with everyone trying to have the most authentic conversation grounded in centuries of history. The question is really: is this relevant? Once a consumer knows your Scotch is ‘for real’, do they care enough to want to know the details? I’d guess, probably not.
With alcoholic beverages, what you do have is a desire from the market to want to know: Why? What do you stand for? Why do you exist? And does your brand represent something that I believe in — does it share my world view.
J&B says, “Let’s Start a Party”. I know that they are trying to make an old brand younger and relevant. But, OMG, does it seem disingenuous. It comes across as a little inconsistent with what the product is about. It’s not tequila, its not vodka, it’s really NOT a party drink. It feels like granny dancing on the table at your cousin’s wedding – kinda cringeworthy and creepy. Oh, and in an acknowledgement that even they don’t buy into the party thing, they also tell the story about Mr. Justerini traveling from Bologna to London in 1749. Not sure what they’re thinking, but stream of consciousness brings me to paraphrase the Artist Formerly Known as Prince… “Let’s party like its 1749″.
Chivas goes with “Live with Chivalry”, and tells “The Story Behind the Legend”. It’s place centric, it’s a nice story about a Scotsman traveling to NY a hundred years ago. But, it sounds a lot like things we’ve heard before. More importantly, they seem unconcerned with relevance in 2011. Their ultra-produced videos are like Public Service Announcements, urging people to be nice. Yawn.
As with both of the above, Dewars goes with the place centric, authentic Scottish thing, so they cover that base. But it feels like a brand that wants more. Their messaging is really very ‘of the moment’ and involves people who are actually alive today — It focuses on the top bit of Maslow’s hierarchy. They want to find people and facilitate people being self– actualized. The message is, as beings we are happier doing things that we believe in.
A bright spark at Dewars had the idea of aligning with the TED conferences. After all, Ted’s speakers do, by definition, embody the qualities that Dewars represents.
Enter Hugh. They also hired Hugh to draw at TED Edinburgh and distill the speakers ideas into his style of illustration. Hugh likes to say that his goal is to draw a cartoon that rips your face off the first time you see it, and is still doing it and the tenth time.
One of those is posted above.
We ask ourselves: Is Hugh’s style too edgy, too disruptive, not art directed enough, to be used in main stream media? How can a brand like Dewars better communicate what it stands for than through one of Hugh’s cartoons?
In today’s world, where everyone is saying advertising is dead, what they are really saying that advertising the way it used to be done is dead. Giving people something they believe in, in a way that they can’t help but notice, is where the action really is. Getting noticed. Doing stuff that gets noticed, doing it smart, and in a way that your audience will think is cool, is where its at. Have beliefs that are strong enough to build a movement, not just a brand.
We’ve got Scotch on the brain, and we’re liking it. A category ripe for disruption.
Jason Korman
CEO, gapingvoid.com
August 5, 2011
More To Life
To paraphrase Seneca, the tragedy isn’t that life is short, the tragedy is that we waste so much of it.
The other types of tragedy, the more violent kind, never worry me too much, thankfully. I never lost much sleep, worrying about wars or serial killers or whatever.
But the thought of getting to the end of my life and realizing that I had wasted most of it, that froze my blood.
As it should…
August 1, 2011
All Products Are Conversations
As the great Doc Searls famously wrote in The Cluetrain, “markets are conversations”. So it stands to reason that products are, as well.
Products OF a dialogue.
Products ARE a dialogue.
How you talk to your customers affects how your products get made. Of course they do. Tony Hsieh of Zappos understands this very well. In molecular terms, his company is little more a call centre and a warehouse full of shoes. But it is the social interaction which makes the company rock.
The social dynamic.
The conversation.
Exactly.
