If you provide excellent content, social media users will take the time to read and talk about it in their networks. That’s what you really want. You don’t want a cheap thumbs up, you want your readers to talk about your content with their own voice.
Social Media buttons are cheapening your image.
NASA is more than a space program. It gives dreamers hope. And that spurs the economy.
“Stay true to your vision. Remember why you do it….What you do, who you are - that’s your art.”
The stereotype goes that planners just sit in a meeting and like curious children ask the question ‘why?’ until they get to the bottom of an issue.
Well, that is one type of ‘why’ question. But this is about another kind of why.
WHY? brings together three topics I have been exploring the past year: cultural strategy, behavioural economics and leadership.
In short each of these are:
Content strategy is bogus.
There, I said it. And content strategy is what digital strategists say instead of communication. That’s the gist of what I have settled on.
The number of ‘content strategy’ how-to articles published each day rivals the number of times Mashable is retweeted. That is to say, too many. These articles chatter about creating content to go into your digital stuff. They outline the best content strategy for our crazy new democratized world filled with the mind reading engagement hungry robot humans we seem to have become.
Dan Wieden shares his view on advertising.
He believes that strong communication provokes a conversation with an audience, no matter the channel. Then the provocation can set the stage for an intimate conversation & ongoing relationship.
Dan, I agree wholeheartedly.
Lesson: Great communication gives a voice and personality to brands so to be able speak to and with people.
Think like a contrarian. I have written that there is too much echo in marketing. That it is important to form your own view. To steer clear of the bandwagon. Not mimic others.
For the past 6 months, I have been exploring the concepts of engagement, interactivity, digital and social media participation value. I have been struggling with a thought: “is it just me, or is something a bit off with these hot topics”. I have had discussions and heated arguments with people who believe steadfastly in the strength and value of all those concepts above all else. Finding proof has been a slow and difficult process. The data I have interpreted, the lessons I have learned and thoughts that follow are slowly appearing on this, my notebook. The first of which have been coming out in posts called ‘communication over code’.
Last week I came across this great presentation from BBH’s Charles Wigley, and Rob Campbell of W+K. They stuck their heads together and pumped out 5 truths that go against the hype. Truths that most agencies cannot acknowledge because their sales pitches would become redundant. The first 4 truths reflect my belief of ‘communication over code’.
I think will take 2 years before everyone puts down the whacked out song sheet and sing the truth.
Put down the highlighter. And think: What is the key message? What do you want to say? Then choose one thing.
In many projects I have been involved in, clients say, “we need to highlight this”. No problem. Then it’s, “And we need to highlight that”. “And this, and that and this other thing we just remembered”.
The problem with highlighting everything. Putting everything into the ‘key message’ or ‘above the fold’ is that everything becomes watered down.
I want to share a great anecdote I read in Dave Trott’s book ‘Creative Mischief’.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was about to resign as France fell to the Germans during WW2. He called Churchill and Lord Halifax to his office. He said. “Well, one of you two will have to replace me. Who’s it going to be?” Churchill knew no Englishman could ever say ‘Give it to me’. So whoever spoke first would be the loser. Eventually Halifax couldn’t bear the silence and cracked. As he did he realised that he had conceded and said, “Well, I suppose you’d better give it to Winston.”
This is a really great lesson in being quiet. In being patient. It’s something I have applied at work. I noticed in my silence was the space to consider how and when people talk in group (3+ people) discussions. It seems the persuasiveness of what is being said is impacted by when it is said.
Many don’t know what planners do. Even fewer understand what a planner would do at Mobiento, a creative mobile agency.
The agency doesn’t do production for other creative agencies. We work direct with brands like Volvo, H&M, Systembolaget and many others. Some of our work is creating services that in themselves become marketing. Other work is more campaign focused. Both require strategy + creative.
Channel choice is not a communication strategy. Digital platform choice is not a strategy. Neither are original or effective ideas.
Everyone loves ‘gamification’. Except maybe me. And others who think petty rewards and badges wouldn’t motivate a monkey to do anything. Because even monkey’s don’t work for bananas these days.
Intrinsic motivation (built into real games, not marketing BS) is for real. But that is a whole other thing.
An article about Gawker Media’s thoughts on creating a new commenting system contains this very accurate assessment of incentives, learnt from their experiment in a ‘rewards system for blog comments’:
It was a terrible mistake. It doesn’t work because people game it — and the people who game it are the people with time and social-media expertise, and those are not the people with information or insight. What person who actually has a job and a reputation… would give a f*** about getting some little badge like they’re in high school? It’s patronizing.
The article can be found here.
Lesson: If you are going to create incentives, make sure they’re for the right people.
Image by Julie Aniela Sikonski
When evaluating creative communication, it’s about objectivity not subjectivity. It’s about whether it works. Whether it resonates with consumers and moves a brand to where it is strategised to go. So what do you need to consider to determine if ‘it works’?
Here are 9 things:
Two weeks ago while having lunch with our CD, I discussed the ever more isolating effect of digital media.
Case in-point is the ‘Phone Stack Game’. A game played when eating dinner out with friends. Each person puts their phone in a stack in the middle of the table. The first person who gives in, pays the whole bill. If no one gives in, you all split the bill as normal. Additionally, your reward is a whole dinner uninterrupted by ‘people and things elsewhere’.
The game a sign of the emerging digital counter-culture. Few want to go wild and throw out all the tech. But more and more are getting the courage to disconnect, even if for a short time. They may not always know why, but they feel something is wrong. Something has to change.
And now this week, digital culture psychologist Sherry Turkle warns the digital world of what is to come. Not apocalypse. Not the worst virus in history. Not ADHD. Loneliness. One of the most troubling of feelings in the human condition.
So what is the lesson in all this: digital media, like everything, should be consumed in moderation.
What happened to the ‘communication’ part in digital communication?
Today digital strategists and digital agencies are mostly about digital channel planning and tech strategy. No wonder media agencies are muscling in on the territory. They are competing on the same proposition. Adding to the mess is blog after blog abusing the word strategy, using it to describe digital tech implementation. And then the big guys like Google talk about advertising insights that are mere observations of tech usage. Nielsen interviews thousands and reports about ‘trust’ in digital media, but conducts its survey in a way that treats the media as a channel devoid of message or sender.
Is it just me, or this is why digital media is less impacting? Less meaningful?
My breaking point was last week when Google Think Insights tweeted that ‘Art & Code’ is the new ‘Art & Copy’.
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I am an account planner named MAREK.
This is a digital notebook containing my learnings, thoughts & ideas on marketing and creative strategy.
Read my Manifesto
What is Creative Strategy?
