Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 288

The New Digital Age

There's a new book in town that is worthy of your attention.

No, this isn't a self-promotional post about CTRL ALT Delete (as I head into promotion for it next week, you can be sure that there will be plenty of it ;). Eric Schmidt (Google's Executive Chairman) and Jared Cohen (Director of Google Ideas) recently published a business book titled, The New Digital Age - Reshaping The Future Of People, Nations And Business, that takes you deep inside everything from the Internet and mobile to how technology has fundamentally changed the nations it has served, and what happens to nations that have not been so adept at the adoption. In short, if you're an Internet, technology and business nerd (like yours truly), this is simply nirvana. It is well written. moves quickly and shapes ideas about technology and connectivity that has, literally, had me rethinking some of my own values about business and our culture. Recently, Schmidt and Cohen appeared on Charlie Rose for a conversation about the book, the state of technology and what this could all mean. In a word: fascinating.

Watch it here: Charlie Rose - Eric Schmidt & Jared Cohen on The New Digital Age.

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the new digital age

Attention All Robot Shoppers

Do you love shopping? Do you hate shopping?

I'm one of those strange beings that truly loves the act of shopping, but doesn't really buy all that much. I have no idea how to reconcile this, but nothing makes me happier than strolling through an amazingly large shopping mall while, on the other hand, I'm not a spend thrift (some might actually call me a minimalist). That being said, most people either love shopping or they hate it. Recently, a new kind of retail experience has entered the fray that is attempting to cater to both kinds of shoppers (the lovers and the haters) by creating an experience that is both digital and physical.

The robot will see you now.

It's called Hointer, they sell jeans and the shopping process works like this:

Step one: download their app.

Step two: stroll through the store and choose your style of jean by scanning the QR code on the pair.

Step three: enter the size of the jeans you would like to try on.

Step four: complete your order by hitting ok and the app tells you which dressing room to visit.

Step five: the jeans are waiting for you in the dressing room! The are delivered by robots behind the scenes. Try them on and buy them!

Let technology remove the pain.

We've all struggled with the pain of buying jeans (a first world problem, if ever there was one). The racks and racks of different styles and tough visibility on sizes, etc... It seems like Hointer has figured out a simple and enjoyable experience that brings some of the gimmickry of technology blended with what makes technology so astounding and coupled it with an in-store experience that is unique and utilitarian enough to make it work. While robots work behind the scenes to pick and place the clothing in the appropriate fitting room, all of this makes room for sales associates to spend their time consulting and selling... if the consumer even wants that kind of attention.

Take a peek inside...

What's you take? Is this the future of retail or just a parlor trick?

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The Power And Disappointment Of Digital Marketing

Everything is digital.

I've been banging that drum for well over a decade now. At first, it was heresy, then it was wishful thinking and now it is suddenly becoming a reality. You know it's a reality when traditional advertising agencies are claiming that digital is just another kind of execution when - in reality - they're watching both their budgets dwindle and the lion's share of advertising dollars shift in ways the industry hasn't seen since television became a red-hot medium. This is further being validated as two recent studies came to light that paint a very interesting picture of the marketing dollar landscape. According to the Marketing Charts news item, CMOs Predict Sizable Budget Shift to Digital Marketing: "Fresh on the heels of a report finding that 4 in 10 global marketers around the world will be reallocating budgets to digital marketing (a report which itself came shortly after a US-based study indicating the same trend), a new study from Accenture has emerged looking at the topic from the perspective of CMOs around the world. And the takeaway is much the same: digital marketing is going to get more of the overall marketing budget next year. About 2 in 3 respondents said they would be devoting at least 25% of their budgets to digital marketing next year, up from 46% who said they would allocate that much this year. What's more, the majority of that increase comes in the 'more than 50%' category. That is, fully 23% of CMOs surveyed plan to devote the majority of their budgets to digital marketing next year. That's about double the 11% giving digital that much of the pie this year."

It's a digital world, but there's something rotten in digital land.

What neither report speaks to is how effectively and efficiently these dollars are being spent. It's easy to stand up and applaud the simple shifting of the media dollars. It's easy to take a look at Google's advertising revenue and be impressed that it shadows that of the entire print industry's advertising revenue, but you still can't buy a Facebook like without hearing CMOs complain about performance. In short, they're shifting the dollars based on where the audience is but they're not, necessarily, adjusting their philosophies in terms of digital being that much more of an active media channel or how digital advertising is a very different game.

What? They're spending more in digital but not being smarter about it? 

In a word: yes. How can I prove it? Digital advertising is not "set it and forget it." It lives - live and in real-time. It can be performance-based (look at Google AdWords, CPA deals, affiliate marketing, retargeting campaigns and more). Beyond that, digital advertising is always proven most effective when it is driven by multivariate testing and marketing optimization. Sadly, most brands still run their digital campaigns much in the same way that they run their traditional campaigns. There is little testing before a launch and there is often little in terms of true marketing optimization that happens during the campaign to tweak it. A blanket statement? Sure, but the disappointment is not unfounded. Not even forty eight hours after the exciting news about budget reallocations to digital, Marketing Chats releases another news item titled, Optimization Activities Not Getting Any More of the Marketing Budget This Year. How this for horrifying: "Not only is optimization not getting a bigger slice of the marketing budget pie this year, it may actually be getting a slightly smaller share, per results from the Adobe 2013 Digital Marketing Optimization Survey. This year, 53% of the digital marketers surveyed from around the world said they devote less than 5% of their total marketing budget to optimization activities (including agency fees, professional services, and technology), up from 48% last year. Only 6% of respondents are allocating more than one-quarter of their budgets to these activities, relatively unchanged from last year's 7%. The study indicates that those allocating more of their budgets to optimization tend to have more success with their conversion rates."

Again: the more you optimize... the better your conversion will be!

When will we learn? Nearly a decade ago, my close friend, Bryan Eisenberg (widely regarded as one of the world's thought leaders on marketing optimizing and co-author of the best selling business books, Waiting For Your Cat To Bark? and Always Be Testing) once told me in passing that the first thing that typically gets cut from the marketing budget is the optimization work. It stopped me dead in my tracks. That's right, dear marketers, the one thing that actually works, increases conversion and makes the entire marketing team smarter and better is usually the first to go. Now, nearly a decade later, it's nothing short of reprehensible that this is still par for the course. Digital advertising is a monster (and a growing one). The only way that digital truly works is through optimization. It's also the one true way for all of us to actually test and see what works and what doesn't... and then optimize it. Instead, what are we doing? Tossing money where the audience is and hoping that everything falls into place.

More money is great. More money with smart people spending it is much greater.

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waiting for your cat to bark

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #150

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:

Zygote Body . "It's only for Chrome browsers, and it's a bit clunky still--but it shows the immense power of the Internet to democratize information. Here's a fully explorable, anatomically correct 3D model of the body for you to explore. That's cool. What's transcendent is to think about the textbooks of yesteryear, which cost hundreds of dollars, and to compare them to what's available absolutely free today." (Alistair for Hugh).

How Lego Became the Most Valuable Toy Company in the World - AdWeek . "This Adweek piece sums up just how good Lego has it--an almost Apple -like fanboy ecosystem, along with the ability to partner up with just about anyone they choose. Great look inside the marketing machine of a company everyone loves." (Alistair for Mitch).

Mobile phone data redraws bus routes in Africa - BBC . "Using geo-located mobile phone usage data to help determine the need for/location of new bus routes." (Hugh for Alistair).

The Birth of a Format: How Netflix Reinvented Television in Just 13 Hours - Bonnier . "Netflix took a look at its user data, and decided to build a 13-hour series to spec (House of Cards). An interesting twist: all 13 episodes from season one were released simultaneously (I watched them all over a 3-week period). So, what does this mean for makers of content?" (Hugh for Mitch).

Nilofer Merchant: Got A Meeting? Take A Walk - TED Talks . "I have been using my Jawbone Up bracelet fairly regularly since attending the last TED conference . It measures how active I am and how my sleep is. The truth is that I am way less stressed out now because I see that I actually move and sleep quite more than I thought. As anyone in a startup - or who acts as an entrepreneur - will tell you, sitting through meetings all day may make you richer, but it's hard to stay in shape when we simply don't move all that much. In this fun (and short) TED Talk , my good friend Nilofer Merchant says to take a hike for your next meeting - literally. It's a great idea and makes perfect and simple sense. The truth is that golfers have been doing this forever but now is the time to take it off of the green and into everyone's life." (Mitch for Alistair).

The Death Of Blogs? Or Of Magazines? - The Dish . "Here we go... again. Google Reader is leaving and people just don't have the patience to follow one, specific, writer as they rant and rave through their own personal blog. The true future of blogs is like an online newspaper. Ummm... no. Publishing changes, yes. Blogs are something else from what they once were, yes. We have to stop confusing evolution and changing habits with the death of anything. Or, at the very least, lets get some real data to back these sort of headlines up." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Because this is the 150th time that Alistair, Hugh and I have shared our links for one another, Hugh provides this bonus link:

Goat On A Hippo.

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apple

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human 20

iambik

jawbone up

leg

librivox

link bait

link exchange

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managing bandwidth

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netflix

nilofer merchant

pressbooks

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solve for interesting

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The Secret To Getting Picked

Being picked by someone or choosing yourself and leading... which do you choose?

It seems like an obvious answer. Any self-respecting individual would say that they would prefer to choose themselves and be solely responsible for their own success and self-worth. It seems like an obvious answer, but the vast majority don't choose themselves. They prefer to be picked. We see it everyday. It happens when we apply for a job, ask for a raise, beg for a retweet and more. We are hoping that someone chooses us. The thing is this: many think it's easy to choose oneself. It is. But, it's hard to see it through and it takes more than most are willing to sacrifice to see it through (all the way to the bitter end).

A true story about picking yourself.

In the late eighties, I was a music journalist. You have to forget everything you know today and think back to a day and age when there was no Internet and the most advanced technology we had (in terms of connectivity) was a fax machine. Mobile phones and modems were still fairly nascent. As a young - heavily motivated - journalist with little experience, I spent my days phoning and writing pitch letters (and yes, these letters were sent by snail mail) to magazine and newspaper editors - the world over - to pitch a story idea or my skills as a writer. It was a miserable, harsh, cold world out there. People who didn't even know me were quick to dismiss me. Countless letters went unanswered, rude editors would hang up the phone on me, and that was on a good day. I spent the bulk of my time not writing or crafting my trade but being rejected.

Brutal.

Waiting for others to choose me. While I left journalism long ago, the feeling of choosing myself was profound when I first started this blog  back in September 2003. As one of four partners at Twist Image, that same feeling of waiting to be chosen was weighing heavy on me. I was doing everything I could to make a name for our digital marketing agency and working the channels at all of the industry trade publications to share my thoughts on what marketing and branding could be. I was often faced with the same type of scrutiny and rejection from the industry press as I received from the music magazine editors over a decade before. Who was I? (a newbie) What kind of credibility did I bring? (not much) Who were our clients and our success stories? (we were just getting started). But Blogger was taking hold and I made the choice. I made the choice to choose myself. To put everything I would put into an op-ed industry trade piece into our own, company blog. To spend the time - each and every day - to think critically about the industry I serve and what it means to brands. To create content that would not be self-serving but of true value to those who would connect with it. To bank on what I felt inside over what others weren't willing to give me a shot over. It was a simple choice, but I'm still working on it - day in and day out - nearly a decade later.

The secret about picking yourself.

Seth Godin had two amazing blog posts in the past few days that have generated a lot of attention (Getting picked (need to vs. want to) and But I don't want to do that, I want to do this). You see, most people will tell you that they did choose themselves but that not much has happened to change their lives. Recently, I was asked to write a guest column for a very respected global business magazine. I put in a significant amount of time on the piece and - if we're talking here amongst friends - I thought it was one of the better pieces I had written in a long time. I submitted it, and couldn't wait to see it get published. Instead, I got an email from the editor saying that the piece didn't work for them, that it was out of my area of expertise and that they will be passing on it. I felt like that teenager back in the eighties again. Rejection.

Salvation.

Within seconds of receiving the news, I did two things. First, I immediately published the piece on my own blog. Second, I let the editor know that while I respected their opinion, it didn't really matter because the general public will best decide if that piece worked (or didn't). As suspected, this particular blog post got more shares and amplifications than I have had in a long while (it was even retweeted and shared by the publication's direct competitors). Salvation or the secret to picking yourself is knowing this: just because you pick yourself it doesn't mean that your work will resonate. That takes an undetermined amount of serious time and commitment (think Malcolm Gladwell and his 10,000 Outliers hours). Reflecting on this last encounter with the editor, it wasn't about whether or not I had a blog. It was about the long decade that went into cultivating everything that would lead into this one moment: the moment in time where there was an audience of my own to share, engage and connect with. Yes, I chose myself over a decade ago, but none of that mattered if you weren't along for the ride. None of that choosing matters if the time isn't put in to build an audience that replaces the need for others to give you access to their audience.

It's easy to say that now.

It doesn't really matter what Seth Godin tells you, or Tim Ferris or Bob Lefsetz or even little, old me. What matters is that you put in the long, hard hours to prove yourself right, instead of making a hasty judgment that what these folks have to say is wrong. Like it or not, they have all built a substantive audience who love how they think. It's not just that these individuals chose themselves. They did it and they invested everything into proving that they made the right choice.

So, what choice will you make? What will you do to make sure you see it through?

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tim ferris

Is Google Breeding An Army Of "Glassholes"?

The Post PC world will not be kind to advertising as we have known it.

There are two trains of thought here that are important for media professionals to think about as we move forward into a world where screens are ubiquitous, cheap, connected and virtually everywhere.

Train of thought #1: Screens everywhere means advertising everywhere. This is the Minority Report scenario. Connected screens that are either physical or simply appear as heads up displays that know who we are based on quick retina scans of our eyes. All advertising is highly personalized and customized to match our experiences, wants, desires and more. Screens are also motion/touch sensitive so that consumers can interact, move and access more information through them. It seems chaotic, ridiculous and science fiction-y to even think about this world, but it also seems somewhat plausible as more and more screens get connected and more and more devices start having connected screens in them (think about major home appliances and more).

Train of thought #2: The main screen is the screen we wear. While still nascent, wearable technology is all the rage these days. From Nike FuelBand to Jawbone's Up and the pending public launch of Google's Project Glass and whatever Apple has up their sleeves for their own wearable technology, it is becoming increasingly obvious that our connected computers will be more a "part of us" than ever before. This won't just be devices or destinations for use as needed, but integrated into the very fabric of our clothing and accessories. If we are all sporting our own heads up display that puts a screen in our faces whenever and wherever we need it/want it, maybe the rest of the the physical world won't have a need for screens on every kind of surface? And, if they do, perhaps those public screens simply interact with and augment the wearable technology's screen and experience.

Crystal balls never looked so interesting.

Regardless of which train of thought becomes our virtual reality, we are beginning to see the technology companies that we know and love (Google, Apple, Amazon, etc...) all starting down the path of wearable technology. Back in February of this year, I had the chance to try on Google's new Project Glass and the experience profoundly changed the way I think about technology and how we connect to it. While many are quick to dismiss this form of wearable technology as a parlor trick and some are already calling those who use them "glassholes," we are missing the bigger picture. This is new technology. Any new technology will find its fair share of criticism. We're quick to call people wearing these devices glassholes, but we're equally quick to forget how many found the use of mobile phones in public socially unacceptable not all that long ago (and yes, those are the same people who now speak freakishly loudly on their smartphones in the most inappropriate places). What makes Google's Project Glass so fascinating is this: the connected device is no longer about using your hands and fingers to manipulate it. It is now all about using your eyes and voice to navigate and engage. Ultimately, the experience of wearing Google's Project Glass moved technology from hands and touch to eyes and voice.

It is profound, but it will get even more profound. 

From a business perspective, it has been reported, that Google will not be allowing advertising in the apps that are being developed for Google's Project Glass. As Technology evangelist, Robert Scoble, points out: "This is a huge shift for Google's business model. I believe Larry Page is moving Google from an advertising-based company to a commerce based company." This business play makes perfect sense. Why charge for advertising when you can earn more revenue as a master affiliate? Advertising is a supporting revenue stream for content, but in this very different world - where voice and eyes are creating and manipulating the experience - why wouldn't Google take a commission-based approach to successful experiences from making reservations to full on transactions? The ability to be connected at a social level (through Google +, Twitter or Facebook) coupled with a connected virtual wallet that can facilitate micro-payments also makes this business strategy that much more interesting (and lucrative). But, from an advertising perspective, this creates a very different world than the one that is littered with screens just itching to dash a message in front of us, doesn't it? It also engenders a world where screens that do have advertising may be able recapture a core component of what makes advertising work in the first place: scarcity. With screens everywhere and ads everywhere we enter into the world of abundance in terms of inventory. If, suddenly, the majority of our content is being consumed through wearable devices where subscriptions, transactions and more are where the revenue is made (but is free from ads), perhaps when screens do have advertising on them, it is not only more relevant to the consumer but much more valuable to the advertisers buying the space?

What kind of marketing world do you think we're going to see?

The above posting is my twice-monthly column for The Huffington Post . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original version online here:

Huffington Post - Is Google Breeding an Army of "Glassholes"?

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Overcome Your Fear And Gain Confidence. Advice From Someone Who Kicks A** (Literally)

Episode #355 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.

When I was a kid, I got into martial arts. Along with taking a more traditional form of Kung Fu, I stumbled into training on a fairly regular basis with Tony Blauer. Tony's approach was always very different and eclectic. Instead of focusing on forms and traditions, he believed in doing the physiological things that your body could best do (use what works, toss the rest). On top of that, the majority of his training (which you could say is a mixture of self defense, street fighting and close quarter combatives) spent a good chunk of the time talking about how we react and deal with our fear on a psychological level. How the vast majority of confrontations are not won or lost by the physical part, but rather in the mind... long before the fight ever happens. Having worked with Tony for years, there was a time when I was a certified coach in his system and would teach classes and seminars with him (and on his behalf). None of the training that I have done with Tony has ever left me. I think about it daily and apply the vast majority of his thinking to my work - with each and every passing day. I was thankful that Tony agreed to come on the show and talk about fear, managing confidence, performance and more. Since those days, Tony has moved to San Diego and is currently one of the world's leading close quarter combative instructors who has worked with everyone from civilians, military and law enforcement to UFC champions and celebrities. A celebrity in the world of martial arts, Tony is one of the smartest human beings I have ever had the pleasure of calling a true friend. 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 #355.

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advertising podcast

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blogging

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ufc

Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #149

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:

Fake AP Stylebook - Twitter . "My first time mentioning a Twitter feed, I think. This account tweets Associated Press style guidance (and given that it's topical, it recently pretended to get hacked.) Past gems include, 'Avoid unfortunate typos: remember the lessons of The New York Times, whose 'Valencrime's Day' message in 1985 resulted in mass looting and avoid using 'husband' or 'wife' in reference to same-sex married couples; instead use 'roommates' or 'confirmed co-bachelors.' A must for anyone working with the press." (Alistair for Hugh).

McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II - Wikipedia . "Sometimes Reddit's Today I Learned posts take me way too far down a rabbit hole. Here, I learned about the time someone collected enough points to buy a military fighter jet, only to be denied by a (surprisingly reasonable) legal decision. Also good lessons for marketers about how to handle disputes. I'll just point you at the start of it and let you do the clicking." (Alistair for Mitch).

Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google CEO Eric Schmidt - WikiLeaks . "Would you love to be a fly on the wall during the meeting between Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and Google CEO, Eric Schmidt ?" (Hugh for Alistair).

Apex Predator - Popsci . "Sharks!" (Hugh for Mitch).

20 Literary Facts To Impress Your Friends With - BuzzFeed . "My guess is that Alistair doesn't need a cheat sheet like this for simpletons like me. Still, BuzzFeed proves - once again - that with a catchy headline and a clever idea (with a payoff to boot), you can learn quite a bit. This one really does have some gems and what it ultimately did was send me over to the Kindle store to stock up on some books that I should have read when I was much younger. Thankfully, it's never too late." (Mitch for Alistair).

The Death of Deep Reading - Big Think . "My next book, CTRL ALT Delete , comes out on May 21st. As I was looking at the final hardcover version this week, I remembered that when I wrote my first book, Six Pixels of Separation , back in 2009, I was surprised that my editor wanted more headings and sub-headings throughout the book. I was fine with the content broken down by chapters, but I was told that people don't read like that anymore. They need bolded headlines with catchy titles to keep their attention and push them forward towards the end of the book. My new book is chunked out the same way. We read in tweets. We read in spurts. We read in iPhone screen pages. Where is the depth? Is the depth gone? Does this spell the end of deep reading? I hope not." (Mitch for Hugh).

Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.

Tags:

alistair croll

associated press

big think

bitcurrent

book a futurists manifesto

buzzfeed

complete web monitoring

eric schmidt

gigaom

google

hugh mcguire

human 20

iambik

iphone

julian assange

kindle

librivox

link bait

link exchange

link sharing

managing bandwidth

media hacks

popsci

pressbooks

reddit

social media

solve for interesting

the new york times

twitter

wikileaks

wikipedia

year one labs

Why Things Catch On

What makes something contagious?

This is the question that consumes Jonah Berger, the James G. Campbell Assistant Professor of Marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He's also the bestselling business book author of Contagious - Why Things Catch On. Most recently, he is featured in the latest edition of Fast Company magazine (the print edition) and I recently published a podcast conversation with him (you can listen to it here: SPOS #353 - Contagious Marketing With Jonah Berger). One of the best ways to truly capture the ideas of people like Berger to see them live and in action. Recently, he presented his thinking at Google, and you can watch the full 40 minutes of it here.

Jonah Berger, live from Google on why things catch on:

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google

jonah berger

marketing professor

podcast

university of pennsylvania

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The Sad State Of Brands This Week

This post is not going to earn me a lot of friends (and I really don't care).

I am a proud marketer. It's not easy to say that. It's not easy to write that... but it's true. I love marketing. I love helpings brands figure out their competitive advantage. I love it when brands need help in defining everything from their pricing strategy to how they promote themselves. Pushing that further, I love digital marketing because it enables brands to connect with consumers like never before. Finally, the brands that are willing to can have real interactions between real human beings. They can create a new layer of comfort and culture. They can help consumers make better (and more informed) choices. Then, there's the other stuff. There's the spammers, the manipulators, the hucksters and those who are over-promising on a product (or service) that severely under-delivers. Even those that give marketers a bad name (the ones that tend to involve the need for government to step in a set up legislation to control these antics) become somewhat tolerable in a world that gave us two very depressing moments this week that both deserve your attention and require your action...

Number one: people die when goods are too cheap.

I know we're still reeling over the Boston Marathon terrorist attacks that took three lives and injured so many more. We still have so many unanswered questions that require a semblance of closure, but on this day, we're also trying to sort out the collapse of an eight-story building in Bangladesh. Over 300 people are dead, many more injured and many more still trapped. Are brands to blame? Not directly, but this is a building that housed garment factories with workers for brands that many of us know, love and are currently wearing (I wonder if those brands have stopped tweeting and posting to Facebook during this tragedy?). This isn't an isolated incident. Building like this have had tragedies before... and it's probably an indication of many more to come. If you want to better understand the ramifications of a business world that demands more and cheaper products, please read the CNN piece, Bangladesh factory collapse: Who really pays for our cheap clothes? To put some context around this, particular, tragedy: work wages in Bangladesh are the lowest in Asia at around $37 a month (yes, $1 per day). This building didn't even have the permits in place to be built. When brands turn around and claim that these types of tragedies are not their fault, we really do have to delve deeper into the problem and recognize that we are all to blame. Just how many types of t-shirts, sneakers and more does our world really need? This pressure for consumption is core to why we have these tragedies in our lives. Like I said, this past paragraph probably won't earn me any friends, but it is a truth that is going to be increasingly hard to ignore.

Number two: when you're wrong don't claim you didn't know.

A well-known South Korean car manufacturer had an unwanted viral video sensation on their hands this past week. In a TV commercial posted online to promote a new car that has 100% water emissions, the creative agency decided to tell the tale of a middle-aged man attempting to commit suicide by asphyxiation in his garage only to uncover that the clean emissions won't kill him. Beyond the appropriate, "stay classy!" comments that are well-deserved, I'm less interested in the discourse about whether or not things like attempted suicide are the proper fodder to sell a car, and much more upset by the fact that the car manufacturer is disavowing any involvement in the ad. Huh? What? I've been in this industry a fair number of years and no piece of advertising ever makes it to the final product without multiple approvals and meetings to discuss everything from the strategy and creative to execution and media plan. What makes this even more laughable (in a very tragic sense) is that the ad agency in question is actually owned by the car manufacturer. That's right, instead of just having internal creative services, the car manufacturer spun-off their internal marketing team and turned it into its own agency business. So, even if they claim that they were not involved in the production or the original posting (as if any seasoned marketing professional would ever buy that), they still actually own the agency. Doesn't that make them fully responsible?

Earn your stripes.

Marketing is not easy. More often than not, marketing professionals are stumbling around in the dark doing everything they can to find some kind of edge, insight or unique selling proposition that will make the consumer choose one product over a myriad of other - relatively good - options. It's a hard job that has only become more complex in the past few years (with no signs of letting up). That all being said, this week wasn't pretty for our industry. Tragedies, disasters, missteps and more demonstrate that we have a long way to go in truly earning the public's trust and in truly becoming more transparent and social brands. I'm hopeful that I'm not the only marketer embarrassed and upset by how brands have reacted this week. I'm hopeful that I'm not the only marketer who is proud of our profession and feels that we can do a whole lot more to make the world a better, more open and exciting place as well.

Am I?

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