Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 246

Duct Tape Selling Brings Marketing, Sales And Customer Service Together

Episode #415 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

It's hard to argue that marketing, sales and customer service could well fall into one, bigger, bucket within organizations in the coming years. If you don't believe me, check this out: Time For Digital Transformation (and read #5 on the list). John Jantsch is one of the people who is pushing this idea forward with his latest book, Duct Tape Selling. Jantsch spends his days helping small businesses grow. His company, Duct Tape Marketing, has spent years helping small companies to think small (effective and profitable). He has authored three bestselling business books prior to the launch of Duct Tape Selling: Duct Tape Marketing, The Referral Engine and The Commitment Engine. This idea of integrating marketing, sales and customer service is a whole new mindset for business professionals today. In the end, this isn't just a show for those in small business, but rather a conversation about the new state of business and how everyone must adapt. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #415.

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Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #209

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

Nick Ut on His 'Napalm Girl' Photograph, 42 Years Later: 'Never in My Life Have I Seen What I Saw' - People . "It's one of the most harrowing, memorable, and iconic images of the twentieth century. It almost single-handedly turned the tide of public sentiment in Vietnam. But I never knew the story behind it, or what happened to its subject. Spoiler alert: she's a goodwill ambassador in Canada. More details in the article." (Alistair for Hugh).

The Drax Files: World Makers [ Episode 18: Paradise Lost] - YouTube . "A friend of mine is half of a team making plays in virtual reality. His most recent work is a staging of Paradise Lost, put on in Second Life. They had to write a lot of the code themselves, and some of that code controls the audience, triggering where it looks and what it's dressed as -- in this case, changing them into angels and devils throughout the narrative. This brief video, part of a channel that showcases artists in Second Life, is pretty amazing. With the pace at which products like the Oculus Rift, (umm, Facebook) are advancing, five years from now this could be going mainstream." (Alistair for Mitch).

Disruption is a dumb buzzword. It's also an important concept - Vox . "Point, counter-point. Timothy B. Lee isn't convinced by Jill Lepore's argument against disruption." (Hugh for Alistair).

The Disruption Machine - The New Yorker . "Jill Lepore, in The New Yorker, skewers the theory of the technology disruption, and particularly one of its most famous proponents, Clayton Christensen, author of the Innovator's Dilemma. That book - read by every aspiring start-up entrepreneur in the universe - promotes the theory that cheap new technologies brought to market by nimble little start-ups will usurp the big companies who can't radically change course, because their existing businesses still make them too much money. Lepore isn't convinced, and she has data to back her up. She takes Christensen to task for cherry picking examples, and trumpeting the short and fleeting success of small disrupters over big companies. It turns out, that many of those nimble start-ups went out of business, while the big companies continued to dominate at the top of their industries. In short: the old, slow companies that were supposed to get eaten alive by quick-moving disrupters... usually outlast the disrupters." (Hugh for Mitch).

Retail In Real Time - Retale . "I can't take my eyes off of it. Stare. Behold. Watch the numbers click up and up. This is consumerism at its finest (and most staggering). With data to support it, this is what a visualization of popular US consumer spending looks like. This is how and where the US spends its cash, and just how quickly the numbers grow. Go ahead, I dare you not to stare." (Mitch for Alistair).

In Search Of Meaningful - Seth Godin . "Putting aside that I'm a total Seth Godin fanboy, this is just a marvelous, witty and insightful piece about the media. As Seth does so well, he simply educates and reminds us all about what the true value of content is. It's not about how far and wide our content reaches, it is about who it touches. As every media company tries to become the next BuzzFeed , this blog post is a great reminder of just how anemic and low-calorie most of the media is that we click on... and aspire to be." (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

buzzfeed

clayton christensen

complete web monitoring

facebook

gigaom

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

innovator's dilemma

jill lepore

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

media hacks

napalm girl

nick ut

oculus rift

paradise lost

people

pressbooks

retail in real time

retale

second life

seth godin

social media

solve for interesting

the new yorker

timothy b lee

vox

year one labs

youtube

Birds And Lions. New Platforms And New Engagement

Is there a difference between real time and in-the-now moments versus watching a TV show or going to a movie?

This past week was the Cannes Lion. It's the annual belly-rubbing of the advertising industry in southern France, where awards are given, industry experts envision their future and parties. Lots and lots of parties. It's a star-studded event, and this was a very interesting conversation (dubbed as a "debate") between Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo, and Viacom President and CEO, Philippe Dauman. The session is moderated by founder and CEO of WPP (yes, the same company that now owns Twist Image), Sir Martin Sorrell. It's over an hour long (so pack a lunch), but it really is interesting to see just how much Twitter is edging into traditional media spaces and how badly Viacom needs to advance their own digital integration.

A tale of two cities, if you will...

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viacom

wpp

The Only Screen That Matters

The only screen that matters is the screen that is in front of me.

Welcome to the one screen world. We used to talk about three screens (TV, computers and mobile), but we're closing in on the one screen world. Screens are everywhere, they're connected and they're cheap (and getting cheaper... and more pervasive). Screens are no longer fixed destinations. We carry them (smartphone, tablets, etc...) and they're on us (Google Glass, wearable technology and beyond). Our speed and connectivity is only going to increase, and all of this has been validated in what I consider to be the most jaw-dropping stat that I have been exposed to in 2014:

The rise of smart connected devices relegates PC to an accessory for mobile.

How staggering is that? According to the article, IDC: Rise of Smart Connected Devices Relegates PC to an Accessory for Mobile: "Looking further out into the future, IDC expects the number of smart connected devices (SCDs) shipped worldwide each year to grow to 2.4 billion units. Elaborating on IDC's outlook, Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker research analyst Jitesh Ubrani stated, 'Apple's iOS-ification of Mac OS, and Microsoft's implementation of Modern UI throughout different form factors are clear indicators that we're living in a mobile-first world... The PC will be the new accessory to mobile as smartphones become the first and primary computing device for many.' With that said, IDC anticipates smartphone shipments will outpace total PC shipments by more than 6 to 1 in 2018."

Get responsive... and get responsive design now.

The burden on marketers is paramount at this point. We live in a world where the vast majority of digital marketing is still being conceived, developed and nurtured for a Web and browser-based consumer, while the data is clear: mobile first. One screen world. It's here. It's now. Yes, shifting all development to responsive design is the practical move, but thinking it through, it's not hard to see just how limiting that might be. If your brand doesn't feel like it's a part of the one screen world, but rather adjusting a frame to fit into it, consumers (who already have expectations) are going to feel let down. Responsive simply means that it will fit and adjust to a screen. Responsive doesn't mean that it will interact and engage in a mobile-first way.

Thinking this through.

How does your brand truly connect in these smart connected devices? Does it feel like a Web browser experience shrunken down to fit a more mobile screen? Does it move and adjust with the consumer's intentions? Have you seen what Amazon's just released Fire Phone can do (not even sure why we're calling these devices "phones" anymore)? If you haven't, you should check out what they're going to do with Dynamic Perspective, Firefly and Mayday. While many will question why Amazon is joining the handset business now, they're quickly demonstrating what digital business looks like in comparison to a regular business. Amazon's phone is the 2014 version of "cradle to the grave" (or owning the customer relationship... or building a profound direct relationship... or having real sex with data). There's an intimacy and connectivity that these mobile devices bring, and they're simply not the same as the Web as we have known it to date.

These are not just smaller screens.

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microsoft

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Time For Digital Transformation

How much will marketing change in the next five years?

It's hard for me to believe this, but it was about a year ago this week, that I was in New York City at the Google offices launching my second business book, CTRL ALT Delete. It really was an incredible evening (and book launch) that hosted over three hundred guests, who came and watched a conversation about the book with Seth Godin (you can watch the full video of the presentation below). In the book, I write about the five movements that have changed business forever that most brands are doing little-to-nothing about. The book also looks at what we, the professionals working within this new environment, must be like in order to adapt and thrive in this very different work space. The major message of the book was that the next five years are going to look nothing like the past five years, and things are going to get more disruptive than ever before.

That ain't no hyperbole.

If you think about the past year, you can already feel just how true and dramatic things have changed. Think about this: the rise of connected devices has already relegated the PC to an accessory for mobile. Google has bought a bunch of robotic companies. Google also bought Nest for over three billion dollars, which acted as an indicator that the Internet of things is going to have a substantive impact on everything we thought we knew about the Internet. And yes, even Facebook's acquisition of Oculus Rift points to an ever-changing Internet that will be more virtual reality than screen-based. So, the question becomes: what is a Chief Marketing Officer to do?

In the face of disruption, perhaps transformation is the only choice.

At the end of CTRL ALT Delete, I write about how marketing must shift from a vertical within the organization to a horizontal that flows through every department at every level. If the Chief Marketing Officer of a brand is not staying abreast of the latest in disruption, it is going to be increasingly more challenging to transform the brand into one that can embrace the realities of consumers and their digital first posture. Accenture Interactive recently launched their CMO Insights 2014 with a report titled, CMOs: Time for digital transformation or risk being left on the sidelines. It is a must-read.

What are the areas of fundamental change for marketing over the next five years?   

That is the primary question that this report asked CMOs from all over the world (this includes both B2C and B2B professionals with varying sales and from emerging and mature markets). The results may surprise you.

The top ten areas of fundamental change for marketers over the next five years (in order of importance):

Analytics skills will be a core competence of marketing.

Digital budgets will account for over 75% of the marketing budget.

Mobile will account for over 50% of the marketing budget.

Marketing will become more of an on-demand information provision function.

Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service will be merged into a single function.

We will not know what a marketing campaign will look like in advance: campaigns will unfold in real time, depending on the individual needs and intents of each customer across every device and channel.

Earned media will be more important and receive more support than paid and owned media.

Marketing and IT will be merged into a single function.

CMOs will be the most important relationship for CEOs, surpassing the CFO and other C-suite executives.

We will be known as a digital company.

Why I believe in the digital marketing agency model.

We live in a world where many brands are looking for a one-stop-shop for all of their marketing needs. Traditional advertising agencies now flex their desire to deliver a "fully-integrated" solution to their clients by bulking up on their digital advertising skills. It's simply not enough. Go ahead, re-read that list. This is the list of things that is keeping the Chief Marketing Officer awake at night. They're wondering how to transform. They're wondering how to move from an advertising-driven model to a business solutions-solving model. When I look at some of the better known digital marketing agencies around the globe (and yes, I count Twist Image among that list), I see a very long (and wide) runway for them, while the traditional creative agency may well be on the cusp of a sunset. A digital marketing agency can lead the brand relationship as advertising becomes one of many channels to build customer engagement.

Did you notice anything different here?

In reading through the report and studying the list above, the importance and dominance of advertising (and its effectiveness) is not even rating anymore. It's not even about how to be more effective with the advertising budget, and it's much more about how a brand transforms itself (and its people) from a business, into a digital business. A strong digital marketing agency can guide a brand. They can provide digital products and services that enable a brand to become a digital business. They can build frameworks for success and layer in paid, earned, owned and even rented media properties to tell the tale. Disruption doesn't have to be a scary word. In fact, disruption, transformation and the evolution towards a digital business make this one of the most interesting times to be an active marketing professional... probably in the total history of the marketing industry.

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We Have No Idea If Online Ads Work

Are you doing pure branding or are you trying to make something else happen?

The real issue that threatens online advertising is not the data, the creative, the spend, the marketing mix, the Cannes Lion awards or anything else. The biggest threat to online advertising is treating it (or hoping it acts) like traditional advertising. This isn't a new message. It's a drum I have been banging since the late nineties, and it's an important message to think about if you're managing a brand and trying to figure out what works (and what doesn't). There is way too much misinformation out there. Sadly, some of the coolest and most interesting digital media properties are the perpetrators of such heinous advertising crimes. They're trapped. They're stuck in a position where they are being forced to show brands - by comparison to traditional advertising - metrics like reach and audience instead of looking at the true opportunity: building a relationship.

Relationships don't have to be serious (at first).

I haven't dated in many years (my wife doesn't let me). I'm not sure what the dating scene is like these days (but, if Tinder is any indication, things have changed drastically in the past few decades). Dating is a lot like advertising. You have individuals seeking attention, so they put their messages out there and market themselves in a way to attract the right match (ok, this is being overly simplistic, but bear with me). The point is that while the world is full of one night stands, dating is the first step in the long road towards marriage. Along the way, there are milestones that need to occur (and they're don't always align between the couple, in terms of when they happen). For me, saying that we have no idea if online ads work, is the same as saying that we have no idea if dating leads to marriage.

We know that online ads work.

Slate published a long piece today titled, We Have No Idea If Online Ads Work. From the article: "In 2013, Randall Lewis of Google and Justin Rao of Microsoft released the paper On the Near Impossibility of Measuring the Returns on Advertising. In it, they analyzed the results of 25 different field experiments involving digital ad campaigns, most of which reached more than 1 million unique viewers. The gist: Consumer behavior is so erratic that even in a giant, careful trial, it's devilishly difficult to arrive at a useful conclusion about whether advertisements work." And then there's this: "The problem... is that much of the data websites generate is more or less useless. Some of the problems are practically as old as marketing itself. For instance, companies like to run large ad campaigns during major shopping seasons, like Christmas. But if sales double come December, it's hard to say whether the ad or the holiday was responsible. Companies also understandably like to target audiences they think will like what they're selling. But that always leads to the nagging question of whether the customer would have gone and purchased the product regardless. Economists call this issue 'endogeneity.' Derek Thompson at The Atlantic dubs it the 'I-was-gonna-buy-it-anyway problem.'"

Am I missing something?

Can't every piece of creative (be it a search ad or a display banner) have it's own unique link to better understand what was seen and what was acted upon? Can't every piece of creative that isn't getting a response be dumped, optimized and tested for efficacy? Can't all pieces of creative lead to a unique (and trackable) landing page with a clear call to action? Can't those landing pages offer up multiple opportunities for a brand to date the potential customer instead of marrying them on the first date (get them to watch a video, offer up something compelling for an email address, etc...)? Can't every piece of creative - and the landing pages that it leads to - be looked at and optimized? Can't they take ads and use multivariate testing to see which landing pages respond better? Can't ads be a great engine to lead to content that will keep a consumer's attention? 

Of course we can... but most don't.

The Slate article is actually one hundred percent accurate. Brands will never know if online ads work, if all they're doing is treating them like traditional advertising. It sounds like most brands are still satisfied checking the "online advertising" box in their media buys, by simply pushing for whatever creative looks nice during the agency presentation and ensuring that everything is reported back in a way that may be palpable to a Chief Marketing Officer (one that is most comfortable looking at GRPs). It's sad. The opportunity to build a sales funnel and an engine of conversion in online advertising offers brands an unparalled dating experience. The ability to build little moments of micro-conversions (hat-tip to Avinash Kaushik) and manipulate your online advertising to be more reflective of a consumer's true path to purchase has never been easier.

The problem? The real challenge?

It's not in the brand and agency DNA to do the strategic media planning on the frontend and then have the resources, aptitude and diligence to see it through. If you're looking for simple mass reach, it's going to be hard to tell if online advertising works (and, the Slate article is then validated). What marketers in today's age tend to forget is that advertising is no longer based on a scarcity model. It's now a model of abundance. You can place an ad anywhere (and it's fairly cheap to do so). What the smarter marketers in this day and age do is focus not just on what kind of space they are buying, but how they are going to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the advertising opportunity to not just capture a consumer's attention, but to capture some information in an effort to get a chance at that elusive second date.

And, who knows where things might go from there?

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microsoft

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Will You Drive An Open Source Car?

Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It's not a long segment - about 5 to 10 minutes every week - about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you're interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I'm really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

Does it make sense for Tesla Motors to kill the patents and make everything open source?

Welcome to the open source car.

Priceline buys OpenTable for over $2 billion dollars. Just another week in the billion-dollar acquisition world.

Is Amazon going to make YouTube videos appear in 3D with their new phone (which is coming on Wednesday)? Watch the video below.

Swab the inside of your nose with this bluetooth enabled device and you'll know instantly if you have the flu.

We live in Star Trek.

App of the week: Resy (and, congrates to Gary Vaynerchuk on the launch).

Listen here...

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chom 977 fm

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ctrl alt delete

ctrl alt delete with mitch joel

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guest contributor

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The Future Of Digital Marketing

Episode #414 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

What do you think the future of digital marketing holds? Mark W. Schaefer brought forward his own thoughts in a very smart blog post title, The future of digital marketing will be built on fun. If you're a frequent listener of the podcast, you know that Mark is a regular guest, insightful marketing professional (and professor) and passionate communicator about how marketing has changed. He's written many successful business books (Return On Influence, The Tao Of Twitter, Born To Blog and Social Media Explained) and brings a wealth of real life experience to the discussion. We look at the many revolutions that the Internet has brought to marketing, and jam on some ideas as to where this might all be going. It gets intense and it's all a little meta, but I do believe that we came to some solid future visioning. Enjoy the conversation...

You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #414.

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born to blog

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mark w schaefer

marketing podcast

return on influence

social media explained

the tao of twitter

twitter

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #208

Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?

My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, Solve For Interesting, the author of Complete Web Monitoring, Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks and Lean Analytics), Hugh McGuire (PressBooks, LibriVox, iambik and co-author of Book: A Futurist's Manifesto) and I decided that every week the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".

Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:

23 and me: The complete James Bond - Medium . "Last week, while on vacation, I watched the BBC 's absurdly fictionalized, Fleming - The Man Who Would Be Bond , an Ian Flemming biopic. It's fun, and of a period, but does little to explain the goofy-camp-misogyny of James Bond as he's been played over the years. Bond's half-century span is a window into the ways our attitudes towards sins of all kinds have changed, and this chronicle of someone watching the entire oeuvre is well worth it." (Alistair for Hugh).

iOS 8 to stymie trackers and marketers with MAC address randomization - Are Technica . "I know you've been watching the Amazon / Hachette Book Group wars closely. But Apple is just as of big a player. When it decides that it wants something, it can wreak havoc on the industry. Just look at Healthkit , which centralizes health data on a phone (and crushes dozens of fledgling startups along the way.) Well, this one is a bit harder to parse, and far more far-reaching, and might have slipped past you. But that's why I'm here, right? There's a unique address in every Ethernet and wifi device called a MAC address , and it's built in at birth. In fact, some people have been charged with hacking for altering it to hide their identity. And this unique fingerprint has been cleverly used by all manner of tracking tools, from security systems to store loyalty programs, to analyze consumers. Making the MAC address variable in iOS 8 is like burning everyone's fingerprints off, and potentially a game-changer for a whole army of location-based passive marketing and analytics tools." (Alistair for Mitch).

"Let's, Like, Demolish Laundry" - New York Magazine . "Including an infographic of almost a dozen laundry-related startups." (Hugh for Alistair).

"You should be left with a f*&king mess of unanswered questions" - Medium . "A long Q&A with one of my favorites, Louis C.K." (Hugh for Mitch).

Amazon.com plans local services marketplace this year - sources - Reuters . "Amazon announced this week a new streaming music service (currently only available in the US for their Amazon Prime members, and the catalogue is fairly limited). The news that they're going to launch a local services marketplace this year is still fresh. I often think about the directories business and how they will ever thrive in a world where anybody looking for anything (in terms of a local business) can simply let their fingers do the walking on Google and how companies like Amazon, Craigslist and Angie's List are attacking from all sides? It seems like consumers are not willing to do much work, when it comes to finding local businesses in their neighborhood. Everything is just a simple Google search away these days. And, if you think about this play for Amazon, it makes perfect sense. If they can optimize how you buy products with such an amazing level of efficiency, why can't they do the same with services or local businesses? I'm sure there are many pundits who might argue with that statement, but I'm willing to bet that if Amazon does pull the trigger on a local services marketplace, it's going to be a stunner." (Mitch for Alistair). 

How Marvel's API Will Change Cultural Criticism - Fast Company . "Let's start with the facts: I'm a comic book nerd. It started before I could hardly read as a young chap, and I still can't walk by a comic book store without walking in (if not just to grab a whiff of the latest releases or gaze at a classic cover). I love the artwork. I love the stories. I love the sentiment. With that, I also happen to watch the demise of the print industry with a hint a sadness and dose of 'I told you so.' As people lament the closing of book stores or the battle between book publishers and online merchants, I am constantly reminded of just how smart Marvel has been in its many years of ups and downs. What does a comic book publisher have to gain by opening up their API to the public (and who would care)? Maybe nothing dramatic at this moment in time, but who knows where this could all lead? Plus, it's a great lesson for other, more traditional, brands to think about as well." (Mitch for Hugh).

Feel free to share these links and add your picks on Twitter, Facebook, in the comments below or wherever you play.

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alistair croll

amazon

amazon prime

angies list

apple

ars technica

bbc

bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

complete web monitoring

craigslist

fast company

gigaom

google

hachette book group

healthkit

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

ian fleming

ios 8

james bond

laundry

lean analytics

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

louis ck

mac address

managing bandwidth

marvel

media hacks

medium

new york magazine

pressbooks

reuters

social media

solve for interesting

the man who would be bond

year one labs

Google's Driverless Car Project - Everything You Need To Know

This is simply fascinating... and very exciting.

How often do you get a chance to peer into the future? It feels like Google is giving us this opportunity on a much more frequent basis than any one of us could have ever imagined. Whether it's Google Glass, their hefty acquisition in the robotics space, attempts to connect the last few billion people on earth and, driverless cars, of course. Over a year ago, I was able to take a Google driverless car for a test drive (I guess, in theory, it took me for a test drive). It was eye opening. It worked. It was efficient. It was smart. It was picking up things on the road (like construction pylons) that I didn't even see. It made realize that Google wasn't trying to make a robot a better driver than a human being, but that Google was trying to create something that was a better at driving than any human could ever possibly be. With that, Charlie Rose, recently sat down with the two Googlers who are leading the driverless car project team. How they talk about this opportunity (and the challenges) and what it means to humanity is inspiring and very exciting.

Are you ready to always be a passenger?

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>google

charlie rose

driverless car

google driverless car project

google glass

robot

test drive