This post comes indirectly through one of my dear friends and colleague, Theresa Stephen. As we are both New Yorkers, living in Toronto, Canada, we often share info about what is happening there— although we’re focused on different industries.
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Today I had lunch with a new potential client. He has a successful business but is looking to grow and educate his customers on a product that does have some challenges in its brand perception. He came to me to discuss the possiblity of creating and implementing a strategy that would provide a forum for engagement and education but was so FEARFUL of failure.
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Maybe it’s the snow coming down like rain or the aspartame rotting out my brain, but I’ve really been having a hard time focusing lately (Simpson’s nod for those who might be wondering). For the past couple of days, I’ve found myself flitting from one post subject to the next—everything from the suicidal Pepsi Max campaign to how men and women respond to social media. But I’ve been unable to settle on a topic. However, there’s an issue (of sorts) that I haven’t been able to shake. I don’t know why. Perhaps there’s something in it that speaks to my own fears for someone I love very deeply (long story for another day). So permit me to state my case and then I’ll gladly swerve back to discussing the fun side of social media and the new Marketing Democracy.
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Recently, I read an article on Scobleizer about the virtues of “ugly” sites. Comments such as “more sticky” and “generally more fun to participate in” were mentioned to justify the revenue driving power of “anti-marketing design”. That, and the notion there’s more street-cred (so to speak) in sites that look like my 5 year-old put them together. Why? Because they don’t look like blatant marketing ploys (just thinly disguised ones, in my opinion).
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I am going to post the link to the article where I found this quote. I think it’s one of the most helpful and insightful articles I have read in quite a while. The title is “Multiscreen Madman” and it’s from the New York Times (yes, one of my favorite sources of information). This article features an interview with Robert Rasmussen, executive creative director of the Nike account at R/GA, AKQA chief creative officer Lars Bastholm and Barbarian Group CEO Benjamin Palmer.
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