I didn’t say that; Guy Kawasaki did.
It came out in an interview a week and a half ago about Fast Company’s Influence Project, in answer to a question about why Social Media is so powerful.
It’s true in so many ways; the faceless, nameless, abbreviation-filled world of social media allows anyone to do just about anything online, from creating Super Bowl ads (for $2000) that win a million dollars to sending in stoopid piktures of kats with misspelled capshuns. Both of which, millions and millions of people have seen and loved.
Appropriately enough, the interview was short, but full of interesting tidbits from Kawasaki, the former chief evangelist for Apple. I follow him on Twitter and have always been intrigued by the fact that he offers up almost no original content, just links to things he finds interesting. Which, if his followers go check out, makes him eminently more influential. He’s definitely a somebody.
But the interesting thing is, it took him a while to become a somebody that people trust and believe and are willing to stick with and listen to over the long haul. He wrote books, he spoke, he got visible. he worked it. I haven’t heard about the guys who created the winning Super Bowl ad since they created the winning Super Bowl ad. They spiked and faded.
Guy might be right in his assessment of nobodies being the new somebodies. But as in any marketing effort for a brand (which he certainly is), in order to create loyalty and relationships, you need to have a diligent, consistent, strategic effort. It takes a lot of time (or in Kawasaki’s case, a staff of ghosts).
In the era of social media, nobodies can be somebodies, but if they’re interested in anything other than fleeting fame, they better work at it. With apologies to Andy Warhol, everyone will get their 15 seconds of fame. If they want it more than once, they better work at it.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The wondrousness of snap decisions
I was in my favorite paper store today—great cards, stationary, writing utensils, doo-dads for making cool stuff--and as I was paying, a very stylish, sophisticated-looking older couple (around 70ish) walked in almost out of breath and asked the salesperson—demanded, really— “What’s the quickest you can make wedding invitations!?!?”
Talk about a question that conjures up a thousand different stories.
Their printer’s building (and their daughter’s newly printed invitations) burned down last night.
They both floated in and out of relationships but nothing ever clicked and neither ever married, and they just (finally!) found each other on an S&M site and knew instantaneously that they were bound (literally) to be together.
Or perhaps they just fell in love without the aid of J-date, Vegas, or martinis…just a random meeting earlier in the day, perhaps a misunderstanding around a Mate Latte at Argo Tea…their eyes met and they knew. And they decided to get married. Quickly. No time to waste, right?
So they started with invitations. Who knows where they were going next? Maybe down the block to the bakery. There’s a church down the street. And a travel agency.
They’re probably in Tahiti by now.
Look how far a quick decision from the gut can take you.
Talk about a question that conjures up a thousand different stories.
Their printer’s building (and their daughter’s newly printed invitations) burned down last night.
They both floated in and out of relationships but nothing ever clicked and neither ever married, and they just (finally!) found each other on an S&M site and knew instantaneously that they were bound (literally) to be together.
Or perhaps they just fell in love without the aid of J-date, Vegas, or martinis…just a random meeting earlier in the day, perhaps a misunderstanding around a Mate Latte at Argo Tea…their eyes met and they knew. And they decided to get married. Quickly. No time to waste, right?
So they started with invitations. Who knows where they were going next? Maybe down the block to the bakery. There’s a church down the street. And a travel agency.
They’re probably in Tahiti by now.
Look how far a quick decision from the gut can take you.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Up with Humans!
You know what the great thing about the world is?
Humans.
If you don’t like humans, or think they’re annoying, please stop reading. If their smell bothers you on the El, or the way they slurp their soup too loudly at Panera makes you want to put headphones on, you are excused.
Because I think humans are awesome, I say, “Up with people!”
One of the great things about humans is, they come up with amazing ideas. They think up things like the theory of relativity and the Flowbee (800 watts of stylish suction).
The guy who sells me my teriyaki chicken has ideas about a lot of things, some good, some bad; his recent ideas were around Chicago’s July 4 fireworks and how more people could see them (make ‘em bigger and higher!”).
A few years ago, the marketing world realized the value of humans and the power of their ideas and became an enabler to the development of User Created Content, also known as Consumer Generated Content. In other words, marketing communications that’s created by regular humans instead of professional marketers.
It’s some of the very best marketing communications out there. Here’s a very recent example. And here’s one of my favorites, a TV commercial created by real humans and voted by humans to be the best Super Bowl ad of 2009—and which helped coin the temporarily famous headline, “Two nobodies from nowhere.” Good stuff, don’t you think? You gotta love real human ideation.
One reason humans usually like Consumer Generated Content so much may be because it’s created by real humans. It doesn't have to jump over the many hurdles like an idea created by real marketers, such as focus group testing and rounds and rounds of revisions, so it hasn't had to have too many changes along the way, and the idea is often closer to what it originally looked like. The work may not always be as strategic as ideas that go through rounds of focus groups, but other humans sure seem to like it.
Just think if real humans created all of the marketing communications. It might be marketing anarchy. But it sure would be fun.
Humans.
If you don’t like humans, or think they’re annoying, please stop reading. If their smell bothers you on the El, or the way they slurp their soup too loudly at Panera makes you want to put headphones on, you are excused.
Because I think humans are awesome, I say, “Up with people!”
One of the great things about humans is, they come up with amazing ideas. They think up things like the theory of relativity and the Flowbee (800 watts of stylish suction).
The guy who sells me my teriyaki chicken has ideas about a lot of things, some good, some bad; his recent ideas were around Chicago’s July 4 fireworks and how more people could see them (make ‘em bigger and higher!”).
A few years ago, the marketing world realized the value of humans and the power of their ideas and became an enabler to the development of User Created Content, also known as Consumer Generated Content. In other words, marketing communications that’s created by regular humans instead of professional marketers.
It’s some of the very best marketing communications out there. Here’s a very recent example. And here’s one of my favorites, a TV commercial created by real humans and voted by humans to be the best Super Bowl ad of 2009—and which helped coin the temporarily famous headline, “Two nobodies from nowhere.” Good stuff, don’t you think? You gotta love real human ideation.
One reason humans usually like Consumer Generated Content so much may be because it’s created by real humans. It doesn't have to jump over the many hurdles like an idea created by real marketers, such as focus group testing and rounds and rounds of revisions, so it hasn't had to have too many changes along the way, and the idea is often closer to what it originally looked like. The work may not always be as strategic as ideas that go through rounds of focus groups, but other humans sure seem to like it.
Just think if real humans created all of the marketing communications. It might be marketing anarchy. But it sure would be fun.
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