ChaosScenario

Business is good... maybe too good

The agency I work for, Click Here, is now looking for a well-rounded experience planner who has a foundational background in information architecture. I'm posting the job opening here because I'm also an experience planner, and the workload is cutting into my blogging time, which is simply unacceptable. :)

If you know of any user advocates who might be a good fit in one of the top (in my very humble, very biased opinion) interactive marketing agencies this side of the Rio Grande, please have them send their resumes to me. Usability engineering experience is a big plus.

Competitive salary... blah blah blah. You know the drill.

I'm most interested in someone who has a passion to do the right thing and the talent to pull it off. If this description fits you, I would be honored to have you on our team. - Cam Beck

Please Notice Me. Please.

I'm coming to the sense that advertising is designed to bring out the little hedonists in all of us.

"Our product will make you pretty. Thin. Popular. Happy. Wealthy. Safe."

On its face, there seems to be some merit in the approach that recognizes a sort of psychological hedonism. After all, as human beings we are often driven to excellence through our desire to improve our lots in life. We'd be much less healthy as a society, for instance, if the drive to win World War II had not led scientists to build on Alexander Fleming's research that identified (but couldn't mass-produce) penicillin.

The same approach that exploits our best tendencies to innovate poses a threat, though, by lulling us into the misunderstanding that the want for pleasure and absence of pain is not only the fact of life, but the preferable state of everything. I see it all the time when companies insist on interrupting people, refuse to allow consumers the voice that they want to have because they might have something bad to say, and violate their privacy for no other reason than to exploit that information for the company's own financial gain. They are afraid. The activities they participate in are designed to reduce risk and the threat of pain. They not only believe that is a natural state, but it is also the normative one.

The advertising we get is just a symptom of the problem. Take this example of a banner ad placed on Drudge Report for Lincoln. The ad activated when the mouse rolled over it, which was a probable event since it fell right between the address bar and the content.

The advertiser, sensing people would likely skip over the ad if it did not find a way to butt itself in, ensured that they had to notice it by not even providing a means to close the ad. It was going to be noticed by everyone, come what may. Lincoln's fear of losing the attention of the user intent on doing something besides look at an ad caused them to fall back to the old interruption model of advertising that has cluttered up the television space and has made broadcast advertising less effective over time.

Advertisers -- and I have heard this very argument -- will say that they're providing the content for free, so users should expect to be required to look at ads.

Hogwash. People don't owe you jack unless they want to buy what you're offering.

Mark Shipley of Marketing Profs recently wrote a good article that stated "Truth is the New Lie." There's some good thinking behind it, and I highly recommend you check it out.

However, I don't think that sentiment right. Lies were never welcome. We just didn't know they were lies. Instead, it's more accurate to say that interruption is the new lie. In time, it will become just as unwelcome as the lie has always been. - Cam Beck

The second-most terrifying words in the English language

I found this on the MySpace page of a friend. If anyone knows who created it, please let me know so that I can give that individual credit.

In case you're wondering, the MOST terrifying words in the English language are, according to Ronald Reagan, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help." - Cam Beck

I hope he's a better doctor

Here's the copy from an ad I received in my mailbox yesterday. Except for the doctor's name, it is verbatim.

"If you're like most people, you want to make the right choice for the first time when you choose a doctor. Especially, a doctor for eye surgery. And, that choice would be Dr. Bxxxxx. You see, Dr. Bxxxxx has not only performed more than 86,000 LASIK procedures, he was voted 'The Best' by his physician peers at D magazine, and voted 'Consumer's Choice' two years in a row. So, if you're considering laser vision correction look no further than Dr. Bxxxxx. Because, most likely your doctor would and your neighbor would."

- Cam Beck

Mom Would Be Proud

This blog is rated 'G' for all audiences.

- Cam Beck

Chasing Cool pt. 3 - Borrowing equity

I think that that Borrowing Equity was my favorite chapter so far.

Marketing people try to use celebrities or attach their product to a culture without really thinking if that celebrity fits or if there is any reason that a culture would want their product. The authors effectively use examples of where advertisers have tried to borrow the 'sound', 'street cred' or 'personality' to attach to their product to make it seem cool and boost sales. These schemes end up in boosting sales but only for a short time. If you're racking your brain  trying to think of an example of this type of advertising, look no further than ads on MTV or BET where every product in the world is trying to become 'urban'.

There are other times when a 'culture' or 'personality' finds or attaches itself to a product. Most of the times these are outside of where marketer's targets. How marketers react to this attention is key. Many marketers will turn their attention to the new audience without any research or investigation.

Consider Hilfiger. When the clothing line was first introduced, it was targeted to a young, upscale audience. It was embraced by urban youth, probably because it didn't represent who they were as much as who they wanted to be. It was also an expression of who Tommy Hilfiger was as a clothing designer:

"I knew exactly what I wanted to do: I wanted to build a brand of clothing around my own attitude and my own lifestyle." -Tommy Hilfiger

Unfortunately when Hilfiger saw the urban trend they re-focused their campaign on this audience, in other words, they tried to make their product more 'cool'. When they made this shift, maybe because they really didn't understand this audience and the reasons they were using the product, sales fell and the product was no longer cool. They've since reversed course.

There are other products who haven't lost their focus. An example from my own experience is Patrón. There are a lot of rappers and famous celebrities who mention the tequila in their songs and in appearances. However, the company hasn't attempted to leverage these relationships at all, allowing them to exist organically. Maybe that's why the popularity of the brand has increased dramatically over the last year, as well as sales.

Stay tuned, I'll be finishing up the book this week. - Paul Herring

I Blog, Therefore I Think

Philippe from Bad Idea, Indeed honored me by putting ChaosScenario on his short list of blogs that make him think. He of course qualified it by saying, more or less, that we don't agree on everything, but there is a long line out the door of people who don't agree with me on just about anything, so I'm quite humbled that Philippe still reads and considers what we talk about here.

Rather than track down all the blogs I read regularly (the list of blogs that make me think is just waaaaay too long), I just wanted to take Philippe's lead and run with it. Here is a list of blogs I often disagree with, but which I love reading anyway because they often provide great perspectives and sometimes force me out of my comfort zone:

Freakonomics
Moda di Mango
Indexed
Media Orchard (with special props to Spin Thicket)
Shake Well Before Use

If your blog was left off this list, please don't feel bad. I disagree with you, too, about some things, and there will be plenty of opportunities for us to explore our differences in the future. That's part of what makes life -- and this medium -- so much fun! - Cam Beck

Update: It seems like others are getting in on this act. Lewis, tagged by David Reich, was very kind to put ChaosScenario on his list, too, a fact for which I'm very grateful and humbled.

Web 3.0: The Cure for Web 2.0

Andrew Keen apparently knows how to bait bloggers. With the recent release of his book The Cult of the Amateur: How today's Internet is killing our culture he may as well have thrown chum in the water. I haven't read the book yet, but rather a review of the book on MSNBC. I also read the reviews of heavyweights such as Jeff Jarvis, Dan Gillmor, and Lawrence Lessig. Though in the lightweight category, I guess you can now add ChaosScenario to the list.

I won't pan a book I haven't read (although I'm very tempted), but I do want to address one topic brought up in the MSNBC article, which was the supposed loss of originality the Web brings. Far from being testimony of the destruction of our culture, it is challenges such as the ones Keen cites that bring out some of our best works.

Specifically, as if to suggest lying is a new phenomenon, Keen apparently thinks the Internet makes plagiarism easier, because it allows students to cut-and-paste information directly into term papers. This is true insofar as students know how to use the Internet and teachers do not.

Companies that are designed to scour the Internet for identical or similar content already exist. Google is free to use, and colleges ought to already have access to databases that allow them to check for copied works. As mean connection speeds become faster, as Internet2, which is already being used in college campuses, becomes more widespread, and as we inch closer and closer to Semantic Web, it will be as easy to check a paper for plagiarism as it is to do a Google search.

I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft or some other company develops a plug-in for Microsoft Word that allowed teachers to detect plagiarism from multiple sources, including the Web and Encarta. Teachers should even be able to do a batch detection, allowing their computers to work for them overnight as they get some much needed rest, themselves.

The technology already exists to detect most types of plagiarism Keen fears is contributing to the destruction of our culture. Some of it is already in use. Making the process more efficient requires a talented and motivated individual or organization to bring it all together. The very commission of resources to this end, egged on by the demands of society that values honesty and original thinking, is a testament to some of our culture's best virtues. We ought not fear it, but rather look for ways to make use of its best attributes while guarding against the problems that are caused -- not by the technology -- but by the very fallen nature that gave rise to the problem before the technology was even a product of our imaginations - Cam Beck

How to Ruin Internet Advertising

It's generally accepted by now that pop-up ads are bad. The maxim is so well-known that companies that use them no longer have an excuse. Only the foolish would even recommend them.

Additionally, it's becoming more and more apparent that people want to control the manner in which they consume their entertainment. They don't like watching your ads, and they couldn't care less about how much money it cost to produce the show or provide a salary to overpaid actors. To your audience, programming should be entertaining, nonintrusive, and free.

This poses an interesting challenge to content producers, since one way or the other, the content has to come from somewhere, and it most certainly isn't free.

Still, I'm a bit amused at BravoTV.com's approach for its Top Chef video section, which is to keep users on the page long enough to watch an ad.

When I realized I selected the wrong video and wanted to change, BravoTV's website informed me, through a pop-up, that before I switched videos, I would first have to watch the ad they were showing me.

I don't even remember who the advertiser was. It could have been anybody. Whoever it was, they gave me no compelling reason to pay attention. I just find it funny that they would rather frustrate me by forcing me to watch something that doesn't apply to me than delight me by allowing me to go where I want to go and watch what I want to watch.

On another note, Bravo is going absolutely nuts with the blogging on Top Chef. By my count, there are no fewer than 10 blogs covering season 3. This is a great way to enrich the content of the show and keep people engaged during the week. However, presumably to give users more exposure to advertising, the individual articles are broken up into multiple pages, which makes the experience a little clunky.

To ruin Internet advertising, companies must either throw so much up there that none of it sticks, or they must make it more painful to stay at the website than go elsewhere. Looks like BravoTV.com is 2 for 2. - Cam Beck

Book Club Discussion with Dan and Chip Heath

On Tuesday, the discussions for Made to Stick were opened at the Marketing Profs Book Club. Please brush up and come on over. If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you. Come by anyway and see what questions we're wrestling with.

The authors are there, participating in the conversation. This is an important book. Take advantage of the opportunity while you can. - Cam Beck