Seth's Blog : Two ad campaigns of the moment

 

Two ad campaigns of the moment

I don't usually write about these, because they're almost always over produced and riskless affairs promoting me-too and banal products.

But, consider this new book promo from O/R. They're also giving 20% off to Google employees, which is a clever touch.

And then amuse yourself with this pitch perfect ad from GE. Big-time ad execs could never run something this self-aware on TV, but of course, we don't need TV anymore. Not when people (instead of networks) spread around the stuff we choose to watch.

       

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• The sophistication of truth
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Seth's Blog : The sophistication of truth

 

The sophistication of truth

A common form of complexity is the sophistication of fear.

Long words when short ones will do. Fancy clothes to keep the riffraff out and to give us a costume to hide behind. Most of all, the sneer of, "you don't understand" or, "you don't know the people I know..."

"It's complicated," we say, even when it isn't.

We invent these facades because they provide safety. Safety from the unknown, from being questioned, from being called out as a fraud. These facades lead to bad writing, lousy communication and a refuge from the things we fear.

I'm more interested in the sophistication required to deliver the truth.

Simplicity.

Awareness.

Beauty.

These take fearlessness. This is, "here it is, I made this, I know you can understand it, does it work for you?"

Our work doesn't have to be obtuse to be important or brave.

       

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• Wishing vs. doing
• Two purposes of user feedback
• None of this makes sense
• A simple way to look at effective advertising in a digital age
• Symptoms and diseases

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Seth's Blog : Wishing vs. doing

 

Wishing vs. doing

By giving people more ways to speak up and more tools to take action, we keep decreasing the gap between what we wish for and what we can do about it.

If you're not willing to do anything about it, best not to waste the energy wishing about it.

       

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• Two purposes of user feedback
• None of this makes sense
• A simple way to look at effective advertising in a digital age
• Symptoms and diseases
• Feeling the heat

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Seth's Blog : Two purposes of user feedback

 

Two purposes of user feedback

What's a customer worth?

A customer at the local supermarket or at the corner Fedex Print shop might spend $10,000 or even $25,000 over the course of a few years. That's why marketers are so willing to spend so much time and money on coupons, promos and ads getting people to start doing business with us.

But what happens when it goes wrong? What if a service slip or a policy choice threatens that long-term relationship?

If you know what's broken, you can fix it for all the customers that follow. It seems obvious, but you want to hear what customers have to say. After all, if people in charge realize what's not working, the thinking is that they might want to change it.

At the same time, a critical but often overlooked benefit of open customer communication is that individuals want to be heard. Your disgruntled customer doesn't want to hear you to make excuses, and possibly doesn't even want you to fix yesterday's problem (probably too late for that), but she does want to know that you know, that you care, and that it's not going to happen again. Merely listening, really listening, might be enough.

Big organizations (and smaller, unenlightened ones) grab onto the data benefit and tend to ignore the "listening" one. Worse still, in their desire to isolate themselves from customers, they industralize and mechanize the process of gathering data (in the name of scale) and squeeze all the juiciness out of it.

If you live in the US, you might try calling 800-398-0242. That's the number Fedex Print lists on all their receipts, hoping for customer feedback. It's hard to imagine a happy customer working her way through all of these menus and buttons and clicks, and harder still to imagine an annoyed customer being happy to do all of this data processing for them.

The alternative is pretty simple: if you're about to lose a $10,000 customer, put the cell phone number of the regional manager on the receipt. That's what you and I would do if we owned the place, wouldn't we?

Answer the phone and listen. It's an essay test, not multiple choice.

When in doubt, be human.

       

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• None of this makes sense
• A simple way to look at effective advertising in a digital age
• Symptoms and diseases
• Feeling the heat
• Smaller and smaller

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Seth's Blog : None of this makes sense

 

None of this makes sense

Your own personal media company, the focus on building individual skills, the networks that we're all part of...

It makes no sense that we're busy spending our 'work' time weaving together audience, passion and new competencies.

Unless.

Unless we also acknowledge that the old method of productivity, of being a good employee by obediently doing what you are told, is obsolete.

Our job is to figure out what's next and to bring the ideas and resources to the table to make it happen. Otherwise, all of this (this blog, your online activity, the courses you take) is nothing but a worthless distraction.

We've created a huge web of inputs and levels and skills and distractions. It's thrilling to see people doing something with it. Go.

       

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More Recent Articles

• A simple way to look at effective advertising in a digital age
• Symptoms and diseases
• Feeling the heat
• Smaller and smaller
• But the Beatles were out of tune

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