The web, of course, brought comments.  And virtually every online medium now invites readers to weigh in. Twitter’s arrival on the scene distributed those comments beyond the confines of a destination website. And more recently sophisticated comment platforms like LiveFyre  help media properties use original content not only to stimulate and spread online chatter, but to identify what kind of content will generate the most conversation to begin with.

Still this is only the beginning. As more and more media properties realize they’re in the business of connecting readers to each other as well as to content – the same holds true for brands, by the way – we’ll see the creation of more social networks like the one Boston’s WBUR launched today: Healthcare Savvy.

Instead of simply reporting on health care, the NPR station has started a collaborative site that invites listeners to share and learn from each other how to purchase and evaluate health care offerings.

This is smart on three points.

It attracts more listeners

Smart brands everywhere now know that they have to create value. This is a perfect example of a media property building something that has genuine utility. Potentially it could become a new reason to engage with WBUR. And if the station becomes part of your health care decision making, it might also become your go-to source of news on the topic.

It’s a source of content and news for WBUR

Health care will continue to be a lead story for years to come, especially as baby boomers age and government subsidized programs come under increasing pressure. The shared content, comments and dialog regarding the costs, services, fears and frustrations that all patients face will provide WBUR with essential content and insight for its own news coverage of this topic.

It demonstrates social responsibility that is good for business

Simon Mainwaring writes about brands doing good in his book We First.  Harvard B-School Professor Michael E. Porter makes the same point in a recent Harvard Business Review piece.  Addressing societal issues is integral to profit maximization, not external to it.  Granted NPR stations don’t generate profits. But they do raise money.  The idea that doing something good for the public — beyond programming — should come back and benefit the bottom line. Aren’t you more likely to donate, or donate even more, if your public radio station creates a service that saves you money on health care?

We’re seeing collaboration, the inclusion of readers and customers, and platforms that encourage it to a greater and greater extent.  But the fact is, we’re still only  learning how to do this so it benefits all of us.

Got any other examples?  Please share.

Within two years 50 percent of American employees will work remotely or via mobile.

Wireless will be soon the dominant channel for tracking investments and conducting online trades

Mobile advertising will grow 50 percent in 2011 to over $1 billion

4G will put all of our vending machines and appliances online

Application developers are thrilled with iAd performance and revenues

The biggest opportunities for entrepreneurs and start-up companies will be for those who develop better battery lives

One percent of AT&T customers use 40 percent of its data services

I spent this morning at the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council’s (MTLC) Mobility Summit. The theme, no surprise, was ubiquitous connectivity. Thanks to mobile in its current state we are all connected all the time. Connected to news, information, each other. And with 4G coming we’ll be connected in even less time. Though we’ll pay the price. One speaker alleged that, “If we leave our 4G on, we use up our $90.00 a month worth of data in the first 40 minutes of the month.” Gulp. Not sure I want to see what the rest of the month is going to cost.

Costs aside however, it’s clear that mobile is not only what’s next, it’s a race to see who figures it out first. The service providers – AT&T, Verizon, Sprint – along with the Cisco’s and Akemai’s labor furiously to make 4G a reality and to enlarge the last mile of pipe. Emerging location-based platforms struggle to get their revenue models right. New start-ups with tools and applications for everything from analytics to social aggregation to mobile community building, battle it out for access to venture capital. Meanwhile brands and advertisers search for the marketing mix that might make sense, evaluating and experimenting with mobile banners, contextual offers, iAds, rich media executions, custom apps and QR codes.

What’s interesting at a “summit” like is to see all the different perspectives. To the providers it’s all about technology, capacity and speed. To investors it’s about revenue models, growth and exit strategies. To platforms it’s about user experiences and downloads.

But if you’re a marketer, you have to think about all of that. Technology creates new opportunities for content, video and applications. If subscription costs affect the rate of adoption you have to decide whether to invest simply in basic ads (the CTRs are often better) or to build more robust experiences for a smaller community. And the user experiences in which you do invest — from apps, to utility, to context, to the accessibility of your mobile friendly website – not only have to be great, they need to be considered in light of everything else you do.

In poking around yesterday, I noticed that while numerous retailers have entered into mobile with coupons, LBS offers, and functional apps, others haven’t even converted their websites to be mobile friendly.

That might be the first place to start.

Interested in more?

Mobile trends from Noah Elkin

Marketing thoughts from Brenna Hanly

Fast Company vs Bloomberg Businessweek: two perspectives on the state of advertising

When it comes to self-criticism, advertising tends to be an industry that loves exaggeration, speculation and especially self-flagellation. We beat ourselves up – or tolerate being berated by others — on a pretty regular basis.  Among the many predictions we’ve endured in recent years: The end of advertising as we know it; Agencies just don’t get it; The Chaos Scenario; and most recently Fast Company’s  Mayhem on Madison Avenue.

The latter, which hit the newsstands last week (though appeared in digital form 10 days earlier) basically suggested that all those dinosaurs who’ve been bringing you the :30 TV spot stand somewhere between too slow to evolve and the edge of extinction. (Note that Mullen was included among those who’ve transformed themselves enough to count as evolved.)

This week, however, we have a very different story. Playing the contrarian, Bloomberg Businessweek suggests that the “lumbering advertising behemoths have advantages over smaller, cutting-edge firms.”

Writer Felix Gillette, after his obligatory references to MadMen, multiple-martini lunches and expense account dinners at Nobu (can’t have an ad agency article without recallying all of that cliche’d imagery for the thousandth time) eventually gets around to disputing the claim that the big, dumb agencies are dead. Instead he insists that the big, dumb agencies are actually kicking the butts of all the little digital shops with funny names.  (That would be Big Spaceship, Blue Barracuda, glueisobar, et. al.)

The poster boy for the article is BBDO NA’s chairman and CCO David Lubars. Throughout a long career, Lubars has produced great advertising work: from his early days in Providence when we ran the Keds business, to an LA stint on Apple, to his time at Fallon where he launched the seminal BMW Films.

So maybe he’s not only entitled but correct when he claims in the Bloomberg story that the little hot shops, who are thumping their chests and declaring the end of mass marketing and the death of the Big Dumb Agencies, do so as a business posture, an attitude for journalists, and a sales pitch to clients. “They don’t believe a word of it,” he says.

Lubars goes on to talk about all the digital work being done at BBDO while the agency still manages to win best Superbowl spot.

One thing both Fast Company and Bloomberg do agree on is that we are in the midst of turbulent times.  Digital shops strive to develop better creative ideas. Giant ad agencies throw money at technical talent in order to compete with the funny-named agencies. And no less than Google, Apple and  Facebook, along with a slew of  hybrids — from the likes of PSFK to multiple new retail platforms –  all have  their own opinions of where the industry is going.

So who’s right? Fast Company? Or Bloomberg? Will the big agencies adapt fast enough and prevail? Or will the smaller, more nimble digital shops with UX and engagement in their DNA win out in the long run.

Hard to say. One thing is certain, however. Given the fact that no other industry in the world seems to inspire more discussion, debate and analysis as the advertising industry, we can be certain the conversation isn’t over.  Like the Energizer bunny, it keeps going and going.

New Economist poster campaign asks provocative questions that are harder to answer than you think

This week The Economist announced a new campaign, “Where do you stand?”  The campaign poses provocative statements on posters:  Prisoners should/should not be allowed to vote.  Drugs should/should not be legalized.  Trading human organs should/should not be allowed.

Each poster includes a few key facts around each issue that make committing a lot harder than you might initially think. For example, in favor of selling human organs it declares:

There is a desperate shortage of organs. Around 1000 people die each year in Britain waiting for a transplant.

In 1988, Iran changed the law to allow people to sell their kidneys. Within three years, the country no longer had a waiting list for kidney transplants.

Banning the sale of organs drives the trade underground. That makes transplants riskier for both donors and recipients.

It then asks you to text your answer to the designated number in return for a free copy of The Economist. Presumably the magazine will aggregate answers and publish results.

In many ways the new campaign is brilliant. It demonstrates the thought provoking nature of The Economist, turns you into a participant rather than a reader, and gets you to actually think in the process.

While the posters primary call to action is to text your answers, it’s also cool that the magazine has created a new Facebook page where the debate can take place on line.

(Note that I have modified this post from the original. When I had initially checked The Economist Facebook page there was no mention of the campaign. Nor did it appear on their site. But shortly after this post went live, suggesting that The Economist had missed an opportunity by not extending the conversation to Facebook and elsewhere, I received a note from Jamie Credland, a marketer for The Economist who corrected me. Gotta love social media.)

For sure this campaign belongs on places like Facebook and Twitter, or even better on Livefyre, where it could benefit from a focused debate. It appears that Jamie and his colleagues get that.

If the initial news announcement in The Guardian is correct, the campaign runs for a mere two weeks. I find that a bit perplexing as it seems this is an idea with a much longer life.

But on the positive side we have a traditional medium and an advertiser that realizes a reader isn’t simply a reader but a participant, content generator and distribution channel.  I’m willing to bet that The Economist will see the debate and dialog continue long after the posters come down and that this will not only be the beginning of another great campaign from the magazine that brought us the great red and white posters of the past, it may be something we see copied elsewhere.

So, is this the new advertising?  Where do you stand?

Here are some links that I’ve been able to find so far.  Perhaps there will be more to come from The Economist and its agency AMV BBDO. If you find out anything else, please share.

The posters in Campaign

Story in The Guardian

The agency behind it: AMV BBDO

Faris’s Blog: Talent Imitates, Genius Steals

I want to like this video. I really do. It’s a pitch-perfect parody of the new integrated social media campaign.  A fictitious ad agency launches a fictitious car, the Zebra, with a cockamamie campaign that includes: opening an actual zoo; crowdsourcing its inhabitants; inviting consumers to engage via Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and other social networks; launching an online TV network called Zoo TV; and spreading viral memes in numerous physical environments before realizing the absurdity of the whole thing and deciding instead to run a print campaign. In newspapers.

If it weren’t so pathetic it would be hysterical. Here once again is another example of the newspaper industry — in this case the Swedish newspaper Dagens Industri — reminding us that it has failed miserably to convey the virtues of its medium to readers and advertisers. So in hopes of delaying its inevitable demise, and having nothing persuasive to proffer readers regarding its merits, it settles for a less than convincing swipe at the very media that are bringing newspapers to their knees.

This 1993 campaign for a fake beer demonstrated the power of newspapers 17 years ago

What’s interesting, for those of us who’ve been around a while, is that it’s also a bit derivative of the famous Neil French XO Beer campaign.  In 1993, as an April Fools’ joke, and to prove the efficacy of newspaper advertising at the time, The Straits Times engaged French, who skillfully conceived a phony campaign for a beer that supposedly got you “pissed quicker than any other.”  The purpose of the fake campaign was simply to demonstrate that newspaper ads worked.  And in 1993 they worked pretty well. Ads like the one above, showing a guy in the men’s room passed out from drinking XO, generated so much interest in the beer that liquor stores had to fend off eager customers.  When the campaign was revealed to be a hoax, it came with the claim that only newspaper advertising could create so much demand so quickly.

Unfortunately, the Zebra video, a  modern version of the fake initiative, pales in comparison. Sour grapes don’t work quite as well as high alcohol content hops.

Last I checked people shopped for cars online

If the rate at which newspapers continue to shut down is any indication, recent campaigns — whether they criticize the competition (even with tongue in cheek) like the video above, or make declarations that are so far from believable they appear futile (like the ad to the left) — are completely and totally ineffective.

Meanwhile, the industry’s last remaining crutch, the Sunday circular, which generates significant revenue, isn’t long for this world either. As soon as retailers crack the digital code for how to replace this anachronistic marketing medium — and they’re all working on it, given that their customers spend more time online than in the pages of a newspaper — there will be even fewer reasons to advertise in newspapers.

Newspapers would be better off figuring out how to take what they do have to offer – quality content, reportage, celebrity reporters, objectivity, and a commitment to truth – and finding a way to make those qualities relevant.

Hey, here’s an idea.  Perhaps the newspaper industry needs to embrace social media.  Maybe it needs a campaign just like the one it made fun of in the Zebra video.  Certainly wouldn’t be worse than what they’ve been doing, which from what I can tell is basically nothing more than praying.

Nearly 60 percent of independent bookstores have closed in the last 10 years.

I stopped in at my local bookseller today to pick up a copy of Ian McEwan’s Solar. Despite owning a Kindle and an iPad, I still enjoy holding a real book, admiring perfectly kerned type (in this case a digital version of Bembo, originally designed by the Bolognese Renaissance type cutter Francesco Griffo) and feeling the pages as I turn them.

Plus, for some odd sentimental reason, I remain dedicated to supporting local bookstores in hopes that my loyalty will save our downtowns from yet another Starbucks, CVS or chain of some kind.  (Yes, I know it’s a futile effort, but one has to try.)

I asked how business was and got “eh” for an answer.  A reply that suggested the cash register definitely wasn’t getting enough of a workout.

Having just read a number of pieces about publishers’ recent negotiations with Amazon and Apple, having observed the jaw-dropping reaction of kids turning book pages on an iPad, and believing that it’s only a matter of time before a generation of digital natives grows up and introduces their kids to Make Way for Ducklings on a digital screen, I suggested that local bookstores, even those woven into the fabric of a community, were facing an uphill battle.

“Nah, books will never go away,” the manager responded a bit defensively.  “I’ve tried the Kindle and it’s just not the same.”

I asked if he’d experienced books on an iPad but he hadn’t. “Well you should see what it’s like to turn pages on that device,” I replied.  “It’s pretty cool.”

“Maybe, but I still don’t think books will go away.  We have parents in here all the time introducing their children to books. The tradition won’t die.”

Not one to pass up a good debate, I suggested that was only because most parents were probably over 35, and digital or not, they grew up with books as their primary medium for reading.

“But what happens when everyone under 25 reaches parenting age, having consumed most of their media on a screen, and introduces their kids to digital books, complete with interactive games, mixed media, sound and more?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but I still don’t think books will go away.”

The manager uttered that same sentence, unconvincingly I might add, at least four times during our conversation.  But never once could he back it up with any reasons as to why he might be right.

The assumption held by the bookstore manager — that physical books, along with their most dedicated advocates, the local bookseller were too important to disappear — reminded me of Clay Shirky’s recent SxSW talk about abundance breaking more things than scarcity.

Shirky is fond of telling the tale of how 15^th century scribes, honored and revered for their rare skills, were instantly made obsolete by the printing press. If Amazon and its Kindle along with Apple and the iPad aren’t the epitome of abundance today, then I don’t know what is.

The sad thing for books and local bookstores is that they’re both victims of a publishing industry that remains hopelessly archaic.  As I reminded my bookseller, I’ve probably bought 50 Knopf titles in the last 10 years, yet the publisher has no idea who I am, what I read, the volume of books I consume, or what’s on my library shelves.

Amazon on the other hand knows a lot.  As does Apple and iTunes. Enough to make recommendations, add my information to their clouds of content, and even predict my future consumption.  Meanwhile publishers think that bookstores, rather than readers, are their customers.

If you read between the lines of Ken Auletta’s New Yorker piece this week, publishers are as defensive as my local bookstore. They believe that their talent –for identifying, nurturing, and supporting those needy authors who have to be constantly encouraged and coddled in order to finish a book — is indispensable.

But what’s stopping Amazon from hiring the best editors themselves, signing authors to better contracts, and taking publishers right out of the picture?  I wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon eventually puts both publishers and bookstores out of business while the two insular industries are busy proclaiming their invincibility instead of pursuing innovation.

Ironic to think that booksellers and publishers — both of whom are literate, intelligent, and well-read — can be so good at seeing the writing on the page and so bad at seeing the writing on the wall.

I hope that physical books and the local bookstore are around for a long time. But I’m putting my money on Amazon and Apple.  What about you?

Huffington Post's Twitter Edition offers lists you can follow

Last week Huffington Post rolled out its Twitter edition. Media, Politics, Business and Technology now have their own individual Twitter pages, each featuring a list of “notable tweeters.” Politics offers you national reporters and pundits.  Media serves up personalities and media watchers. Business presents readers with insiders and analysts. The lists, aggregated by Huff Post, make it easy for you discover and follow a person, or grab an entire list.

For me there are a couple things worth noting. One, Twitter is rapidly becoming a serious business tool. It’s the new means of spreading and sharing content not only for individuals, but businesses and media channels.  Two, Huffington Post’s beta experiment is a perfect model for any marketer or brand to emulate.

Consider that none of us can buy share of voice anymore (the Internet is infinite); that consumers and communities prefer to connect with real people rather than logos (think Zappos, Martha Stewart or even Gary Vaynerchuk); and that everyone wants to create and participate (that includes many of your employees); and it seems this is an ideal opportunity for any company.

Twenty five percent of all Twitter users follow brands, nearly 23 percent in anticipation of useful content.

Last November this Razorfish study concluded that while most people fan or follow a brand in hopes of receiving an offer, nearly 23 percent do so in anticipation of relevant content and information.  Think about that.  On the web, in social media, your product is not only the content you create,  but the content you share.

Sure you can blog, carefully tag your bookmarks and make them available, but why not do a version of what Huffington Post did?  Curate or aggregate relevant streams of Twitter content – from employees, customers, or suppliers – and make them easily accessible to your community.

You can categorize them.  Organize them by subject.  Even track how many people follow the lists, giving you a sense of whether or not you’re offering useful, RT-able content.

Think about how you use Twitter yourself – as the ideal filtering system to find content and links that make you smarter, save you time, and connect you to new people worth knowing.  Doing the same for your community and customers could be a valuable service worth offering.  As Clay Shirky once said, the problem isn’t that we have too much information, it’s that we need better filtering systems.  Why not create one?

The Eisner is one of the only museums dedicated to advertising

This Thursday, March 25^th, I have the privilege of speaking to the Milwaukee Ad Workers, United 208.  The event will be held at the Eisner Museum, which is pretty cool. It’s the only museum in America dedicated to advertising.

I plan on opening with a short video and the story behind it. (Remember how in the old days when you went to the movies you got a short?) I’ll share some of my own experiences, observations on consumer behavior and what I/we/Mullen have tried to do over the last year or so to stay current, become more digitally centric, and experiment in the social media space.

The fact is I don’t know any more than anyone else — especially in social-savvy Milwaukee, home of AJ Bombers who made the news for its Foursquare Swarm badge event – but since I spend a fair amount of time thinking about social media, trying stuff out and working with clients to get smarter, I’ve got a few stories and examples; some of them are from Mullen, many from all the other agencies leading the way.

Whenever you speak anywhere these days, you can expect non-stop tweets from the audience. If you want, you can capture the stream in real time, project it on a screen, follow what people are saying, and even respond right then and there. A little too much multi-tasking for me and perhaps more suited to a panel or a Q and A session.

I thought I’d try something different instead:  assign a Stickybits barcode to my presentation.  That way, rather than simply shooting off tweets, people can attach all kinds of bits:  photos, comments, links, even audio bites.  And we’ll have them preserved in the Stickybits archive, accessible long after the hashtag stream has disappeared from the search.twitter.com. One of my main points is how we all need to conceive ideas that generate content (by getting others to tell brand stories for us, or co-create them with us) and experiment constantly.  So here’s an example of both. Whether it’s foolish or brilliant remains to be seen.

So, here you go.  If you want, you can scan the above barcode right now, and add stuff to it on Thursday.  Log onto stickybits.com for an account or download the iPhone app so you can scan it.  Look forward to seeing, reading and hearing whatever you want to attach.

The Donkey Show, where the audience is part of performance

It’s starting to look like no one wants to sit and watch anymore. Not even at the theatre. At two recent American Repertory Theatre productions, going on now in Cambridge, and Brookline, MA, patrons are part of the performance. In A Donkey Show, a musical riff on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream, the audience mingles with performers and even shimmies with bare breasted actors.

In another production, Sleep No More, an actively involved audience meanders through the sinister settings of a four-story theatrical installation, taking in the story of Macbeth in a completely novel way.  Wandering through forests and bedrooms, preferably in comfortable shoes, an audience member can choose how and when to proceed. Not unlike a video game narrative.

As you might expect, this approach to theatrical production is attracting a new audience. One that’s younger and more interested in the experience that takes place throughout the entire venue, not just what’s happening on the stage. While there is no shortage of critics – “intellectually barren” is one Donkey Show review that appears on ART’s website – the shows are sold out and being extended.  Even more interesting is that numerous people go to the performances more than once; some have even been attending weekly.

In the case of A Donkey Show, a production that’s successfully brayed through London and New York, you could argue that it’s nothing more than disco masquerading as theatre. But if you listen to director Diane Paulus, there’s both story and a context. The latter informed by those blurry days of Studio 54, which was, arguably, a theatrical experience in and of itself.

Since I can’t help but look at everything in pop culture from the perspective of a marketer, this story interests me less because it’s a different kind of production and more because it’s further evidence that the trends regarding the actively involved audience that we’re seeing in other media – video games, social media, websites, augmented reality, interactive TV – are beginning to appear everywhere.

Even iPhone apps have moved beyond the grip of one’s hands, instead calling for greater and greater physical interaction. Case in point is Untravel Media’s Murder on Beacon Hill. Using geocoded videos to take you back to Boston in 1849, the app turns you into an active sleuth attempting to solve the murder of the prominent Brahmin Dr. George Parkman.

Walking Cinema: Murder on Beacon Hill: Introduction from Untravel Media on Vimeo.

My last post argued that consumers are ready to become creators if we simply invite them to.  These examples suggest they’re also ready to become part of the story in other ways: as cast members in a live performance, not necessarily seeking the glory and visibility of American Idol, but willing and anxious to play the role of extras.

What does any of this mean for brands and marketers?  Do we invent new ways to tap into this willingness and enthusiasm? Do we encourage it?  Are there advantages in terms of awareness and loyalty if we do?

I think maybe yes. What do you think?

The consumer used to be the one in the picture. Now he's the one creating the picture.

I know, I know, it’s totally pretentious to even make predictions. And yes, most are either obvious or wrong. But what the hell, everyone else is making them. Even really smart people.

In fact none other than Forrester is in search of the answers. I recently had a conversation with analyst Sean Corcoran to talk about this very subject. Sean has the enviable (or regrettable, depending on your point of view) task of collecting, evaluating and synthesizing answers (and predictions) from a long list of ad agencies, marketers and journalists in an attempt to define where this tumultuous business is headed. (Good luck, Sean.)

He asked six simple questions.

What has changed in the agency landscape in the past six months, two years, five years?

What are the biggest challenges an agency/company faces today?

Is there new competition from tech companies, PR agencies, and consultants?

Has the agency/marketer relationship changed?

What trends are emerging in agency models?

What will (your agency name here) agency look like in two years?

They are good questions and no doubt agencies and marketers will fill hours of tape with their prognostications.

You could answer these questions from any number of perspectives:  the economy, emerging technologies such as mobile, the impact of new social media platforms.

Of course the real answer to all of these questions starts with “the consumer,” a term that in and of itself sounds dated. After all, the elusive customer has become everything from a critic to a content creator. He has the ability to control the conversation. And with new tools and applications that offer mobile access to information and competitive pricing, he wields even more power.

Red Laser gives shoppers price comparisons on demand

It was as early as 2003, maybe earlier, when the more prescient media thinkers took note of the fact that consumers were leaning in rather than sitting back. But it’s only been in the last couple of years that agencies and marketers have really caught on and started to react to the change. Perhaps a little too late in some cases. The challenge remains unlearning the business of messages and story telling and mastering the art of conversation and community.

No one really knows where everything is going but it appears everyone is willing to wager a guess.  Google “the future of advertising” and you get 153,000,000 results. Knock yourself out.

In the meantime, here are my predictions and indirectly some answers to Sean’s questions.

1.  Consumers will play an even greater role as critics, commentators and content creators

2.  Crowdsourcing will go mainstream

3. Applications, utility and platforms will trump messages as an agency’s most important creative output

4.  Analytics will inform more and more decisions

5. Quality will be defined by instant, accessible, portable (less about polish, finish, and big production)

6. Everything will be social: print, mobile, TV, service

7. Brands will act more like people

8. Curator/choreographer will emerge as the new important role

9. Creativity will matter more than ever (the opt in power of consumers will demand that when they do lean back even sales messages better be entertaining)

10.  Whoever hires the best developers will win (the most important lesson from Googled and why the NY Times, Mel Karmazin, and traditional ad agencies have lost out to CNN, Google/YouTube and digital shops).

What about you?  Got any ideas on where things are going? In the next couple of months I have to give a few talks about the subject. Would love a little help.