ChaosScenario

OpenSocial: Google's Revenge?

Tomorrow, Google will exact it's revenge on Facebook and launch it's new social networking platform known as OpenSocial.  As first reported by TechCrunch, Google has teamed up with other social networks like Friendster, hi5, LinkedIn, and Plaxo to rollout a standard set of APIs that will work across all networks.   While Facebook was first to the punch when they opened up their API to developers, it seems that Google might have the last laugh.  Facebook requires developers to learn and use FBML (Facebook Markup Language) when building a new widget for Facebook-nation.  This creates a number of issues for  developers in that  they have to learn a new language and  they can't  reuse the widget on other social networks.

OpenSocial, on the other hand, will allow developers to tap into three core APIs that will be fed information from the social networks like Friendster and LinkedIn.  These three APIs are:

• Profile Information (user data)
• Friends Information (social graph)
• Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

The beauty of this is that the developers will be able to build their widget while using HTML, JavaScript and Flash.  Simply put, a developer can build one widget which will work across all networks. This is an enormous development for advertisers as social networking continues to explode in growth.

Before OpenSocial, an advertiser that wanted to hop onto the social networking bandwagon would have to pay high dollar to develop a widget from scratch using specific markup languages.  Now advertisers and agencies will be able to build campaigns that will work in a variety of social networks in addition to enabling brand enthusiasts to grab their widget and post it on their own profile, blog or website.

What remains unseen is how Facebook and MySpace will respond to OpenSocial.  In fact, the NYTimes reported that both social networking powerhouses have been invited to join OpenSocial.  Neither, of course, have issued any comment on the open invitation as standardization is a scary word for both. Their differences have long been their self-proclaimed strengths.

What is certain, is that standardization will birth bigger and better widgets for the social networks that we all hold so dear, as advertisers and individuals won't have to worry about building it 10, 20, 30 different ways. -- John Herrington

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Now playing: Dylan Sneed - Killin' Time
via FoxyTunes    

AOL puts users in the drivers seat

Yesterday I had a "digital immersion" session with folks that, for the most part, work with traditional media. During the part of the training where we talk about online marketing, we reached the section where we talked about behavioral marketing... and then came the looks. (if you're not familiar with behavioral marketing here's a great resource from ClickZ)

Whenever we talk about monitoring people's behavior online and then providing advertising or content based on that behavior, people have that look. If they're tracking my behavior online, what does that mean? Can they read my email? Do they know what articles I read? What vacations I take? What photos I see?

When I've helped out with these types of campaigns in the past, I've never felt like they were that evil. Most advertising networks simply plant a cookie on your PC (or Mac) and use it as a unique identifier, track your surfing behavior and display banner ads based on things you might be interested in. They don't really know you as an individual, only a number. They don't track every site you visit, only those sites that are in their network, which for a typical users, isn't all that many sites. For example, if you visited five sites and only two of those sites were within the advertising network, they could only tell you'd been on those two sites.

AOL is one of the biggest behavioral marketing networks out there. They're making a bold move by not only sponsoring a campaign to educate people on what behavioral marketing is and is not, but more importantly allow consumers to opt-out of tracking if they want to.(tip of the hat to AdPulp) The latter takes a lot of guts. It's a direct hit on the effectiveness of your product (potentially). However, it's the right thing to put the power in their hands and allow them to make the choice. In the long run, it will create a better exchange between the advertiser and the target and maybe reduce the fear. - Paul Herring

The Only Thing We Have to Fear...

Harry Brignull of 90 percent of everything (blog) points out a seemingly inexplicable dialog box served up in Windows Vista ("Amusingly indecisive dialog box in Windows Vista").

Essentially, it does the following things:

1. Invites you to activate your software
2. Informs you that you don't have to
3. Warns you that if you don't, it may break your system and require you purchase Vista again
4. Strongly recommends you activate the software

This reminds me a little of an article on AskTog (website) awhile back, where Bruce Tognazzini wrote about the 1996 Lexus RX-350's self-destruct switch ("The Worst Interface Ever").

There is no way to prevent anyone with malicious intent or severely deficient  reasoning ability from destroying something or causing themselves grief. However, engineers and manufacturers need to design their equipment and software so that people who are not engineers can operate it.

As Harry correctly pointed out, most people will not even bother to read the text, and they will go ahead and enter their activation code like a high-level glance will tell them they need to do. However, why risk creating mortal enemies out of the handful that will be harmed because Microsoft made it so easy for users to break their systems? - Cam Beck

Disney Takes Child Obesity Seriously

Ted Mininni has an interesting article over at Marketing Profs DailyFix ("Disney Garden: Eat Your Fruits & Veggies"). Apparently Disney believes that by having their characters hawk healthy products will make kids more inclined to eat them.

I can't help but reflect on my family's visit to Disney World two years ago, when Chip (or was it Dale?) tried to get my son Avery to eat his green beans. Ignoring the signs posted everywhere saying "Don't Feed the Cast Members," Avery tried to feed him right back.

Alas, Avery did eat his green beans. Perhaps we were a test case for the program Ted wrote about. :)

Way to go, Disney! Here's to the hope that your efforts bear... er... fruit.

- Cam Beck

Promise is the new Promotion

We need to rethink the way we teach the marketing mix.

The factors of the 4 Ps marketing model were product, place, price, and promotion. Although some sources include things like sales and service in the promotion category, the taxonomy itself leads one to believe promotions are simply about discounts and special offers. This terminology hampers the model with an unacceptable flaw, and thus it demands revision.

A promotion is almost exclusively sales-focused. Once the customer has left the building, though, the model falls apart.

Customer service is notably absent. So are technical and sales support. Product, price, and place don't address those things at all, unless the product is the service, but even then there are infrastructural issues that remain to be addressed.

This presents an interesting challenge for marketers, who are often held responsible for how a brand is perceived in the marketplace. The problem is the current marketing model does not give marketers the power to correct everything that might help or damage a brand's reputation. Consequently, sales teams are often seen as adversaries of customer service teams, support teams, and engineering teams, and operations teams hold everyone else in contempt - sometimes including the customers.

Promise is the new Promotion
Marketing shouldn't stop once the customer has purchased your product. With a promise, there is no reason sales departments must be at odds with customer service, maintenance, or support. Once the promise is made, everyone has the responsibility to keep it.

If your company creates the right brand promise, you will know how to recruit talent that can cohesively integrate in your company's culture and what audiences are most likely to be attracted to what you have to offer.

A single promise still includes all kinds of promotions, but it goes beyond a natural price fixation and encompasses every consumer touchpoint in an organization. When we think about how we will market, our singular focus should be to satisfy and exceed the expectations of the consumer. However, in order to exceed any expectations, consumers need to have a basis for those expectations.

If you do not take an active role in setting those expectations by creating a viable brand promise that everyone in your organization can buy into, the marketplace will tell the consumers what to expect, and you will thus be reduced to chasing whatever the marketplace does. It is unlikely you will ever get ahead using that strategy.

What do you think? Is the marketing mix outdated? How would you revise it for the 21st century? - Cam Beck

Retailing in social networks

Social networks are the fastest growing properties on the Internet. Traffic to leaders in this category have outstripped giants such as Yahoo! and Google in terms of the total amount of time spent on the sites.

(Note: Attention is defined as "The total time spent on a domain as a percentage of the total time spent online by all U.S. internet users.")

Despite the traffic and engagement of these sites, it's been difficult for retailers to take advantage of the traffic. Despite the fact that a site like MySpace sends a lot of traffic to Google, and that frequent visitors to these sites tend to shop online more frequently, retailers haven't been able to take advantage of these sites and see the types of returns they see on other sites.

This could be changing. Both Facebook and MySpace are beginning to use the data that they have on their users to increase advertising effectiveness. It's actually a bit surprising that they've taken this long as this technology is used by other sites, including online newspapers.

There is also another way that retailers may begin to advertise. Recently, we were sent information from cartfly.com on a widget where people purchase items without leaving the blog, profile, etc. Extending this out, if I can pick the products that I want to sell from different retailers, then put the widget on my blog, I can then not only define my style but show people how to buy it.

Of course not everyone would be able to do this. Anyone who knows me knows that my sense of fashion is pretty much defined by what's available at Kohls. However, I could see other "cooler" people doing it. What do you think? - Paul Herring

Top 3 Reasons Branding Matters to Consumers

I have to go with Jay (blog) on this one. Branding is more than a logo ("The importance of a logo in branding"). I wouldn't go so far as to say that a logo isn't important, but it does not create a brand. If it did, then the London Olympics would be in big trouble ("One Question About Marketing Largess"). Fulfilling promises creates a brand.

Implied in this is a whole host of principles. What is the promise? How much value does that fulfilled promise add to consumers? Who is responsible for it? What is the practical effect of that promise to consumers? To the company? To society?

Branding matters because it helps consumers thin-slice their options based on limited information. Logos help consumers identify the product or service, but if the company doesn't deliver on its promises, the association is bad. Outstanding creative execution of a television ad or website might be nice to look at, but if the ad doesn't do perform its main function or website is not user-friendly, consumers will become frustrated at the brand, and their recognition of it will only be helpful in how this recognition allows them to avoid it.

In principle, successful execution of branding should allow consumers to say these things confidently and accurately:

1. I recognize and can trust this product.
2. If I have a problem with this product, this company will make it right.
3. My reputation is safe if I recommend this company to others.

If instead of making sure your consumers can say these three things, you're spending hours and cash to no end, pushing pixels or changing font sizes, you do not understand branding.

What is your promise and what is its value? Answer that question and figure out how to deliver.

If the focus of the promise appears to add more value to yourself than your consumers, your priorities are askew. The more value you add and the more consistently you are able to deliver it across every channel of communication you use (or, more to the point, your consumers want to use), the easier your consumers will be able to recognize whatever your logo is. - Cam Beck

Image by goatopolis.

Don't Be Afraid of "No."

I was watching the NBC show Journeyman (website) on Monday, and the main characters, a married couple, were having a discussion about the need for the father to tell his son that he sometimes gets unexpectedly thrust back in time.

The father didn't think the a kid of 7 years old would understand (I know, I know... Go figure), but the wife, initially having had trouble believing it herself, deftly pointed out, "Being 7 might actually help."

How many times have you brought up an idea in a meeting where the person with the closest tie to the client tried to stifle the idea by saying, "They won't consider that," or "They won't pay for that?"

How many times have you had an idea shut down because it wasn't in the scope of the project?

How many times have you accepted that answer and settled for mediocrity?

Even worse, how many times have you kept those ideas to yourself in anticipation of being told it can't be done, or because it wasn't in your area of expertise?

When you share your ideas, even if it's not likely to be implemented then, it can be a catalyst for change. Innovative ideas, however implausible, get people thinking (or, the right people anyway). Be warned, though: when you share your ideas, you lose control of them. They in effect become promiscuous. You may get credit for them when they are implemented elsewhere. You may not. But the best thing that can happen, if it really is a good idea, is for it to be implemented.

"You can accomplish anything in life, provided that you do not mind who gets the credit." - Harry S. Truman

When you have an idea, share it like you're 7 years old. Don't be afraid to believe in it with a child-like fancy. Explore. Create. Experiment. But if you are afraid of rejection, you'll never know accomplishment.

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat." - Teddy Roosevelt

- Cam Beck

iChat to the rescue

Meet Christopher Laub, a 4th grader who suffers from Leukemia.  Like most children who are diagnosed with such a serious form of cancer, Christopher has to undergo chemotherapy which saps his immune system and forces him to stay home from school which, as we all know, is a petri dish of germs and bacteria.

Christopher had felt isolated and lonely as he wasn't able to see his classmates or his teacher very often which makes "learning" that much more difficult for a 9 year old boy.  Frustrated by Christopher's situation, his principal, Patti Purcell, did some creative thinking and coordinated with her district to bring Christopher back into the classroom.  The trick was to utilize Apple's iChat to allow Christopher to interact with his friends and teachers while he was at home. A laptop was set on Christopher's chair and through cameras on both ends, Christopher could participate with his classmates and truly be part of the classroom discussion. For Christopher Laub, technology and more specifically, Apple's iChat, has allowed him to resume some normalcy in his young life. 

I applaud Ms. Purcell for taking the time to come up with a solution for a child in a very unfortunate situation.  We need more people like her that are willing to go the extra mile to impact the lives of others.

As a final thought, I really wonder how long it will be before schools eliminate sick days altogether by just following this same sort of thinking?- John Herrington

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Now playing: Grits - Here We Go
via FoxyTunes    

Book Review: The Elements of Persuasion

When I finished reading Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, the only thing I thought was missing was more detailed instructions about how to tell a story, especially since a story often encompasses all of the other elements of a sticky message. What I really wanted was a step-by-step guide to tell a story that people will remember -- a magic bullet that would give me the tools I needed to consistently deliver effective and convincing messages. When I received an offer to review The Elements of Persuasion by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman (blog), a quick bit of research uncovered that this might be the piece of the puzzle I so desperately wanted. Unfortunately, the Holy Grail of books about storytelling is going to have to wait, but The Elements of Persuasion, as part inspiration and part practical advice for telling stories, will remain top-of-mind useful instruction for years to come.

There is a lot to like about this book. The most salient points are made when the authors tell the stories that make the points arguing for the acronym on which the entire book is premised.

Passion
Stories are best when the narration is inculcated with passion. Ultimately the idea is to imbue the person hearing the story with emotion. This is unlikely if the story is told devoid of passion.

Hero
A hero grounds the story and gives us someone to relate to. The authors use both corporate spokespeople like Michael Jordan and politicians like Ronald Reagan to make their point about the role of heroes in crafting effective and convincing stories.

Antagonist
No one can be a hero unless he has something to defeat. This can be another human, or it can be a disease, an animal, an accident of geography, or simply wrongheaded thinking. Defining the antagonist wrong can kill your cause.

Awareness
This is when the hero realizes what he must do to overcome the antagonist. This is the epiphany he has before he takes action. In super-sappy films, this is when the lead character he realizes he has been in pursuit of the wrong woman's heart, or when the hero finally puts together all the clues that will lead him to the killer.

Transformation
The authors describe this point as the one needing the least explanation. It is simply when the hero achieves what he wanted. If we look beyond this for a moment, we will see that it can also be about the hero achieving what he needed. The moment of awareness the hero had, for instance, might have changed the object of pursuit. However, we implicitly understand what we all ultimately need self-actualization (according to Maslow), even if we don't understand what will get us there.

I have only two gripes about the book.

The first is the authors' use of the "5 elements" as a metaphor to make their point. This may have a profound effect on someone else, but it was entirely lost on me, and a bit distracting. I understand the double entendre with the word "elements," but making this connection with Fire, earth, air, water, and ether makes it seem like they're just trying too hard.

The second deals with a major theme in their book (I call it "major" because it came up several times, not because the authors spend a lot of energy making an argument for this premise). The authors claim that stories are "facts wrapped in emotions." However, anyone who has ever read about a persistent urban myth knows this to be false. Stories need not have anything to do with facts, but they can instead be used to manipulate emotions to serve both good and nefarious purposes. To the authors, the blame lies with the emotions that wrap the facts, but history shows us that many times they are built with the lies in order to manipulate emotions.

When taken in the context of the entire, book, though, these issues are fairly minor. On the first point, they don't spend much time arguing for their metaphor, and on the second, as long as you realize the self-evident point that powerful stories can serve both great truths and great lies, you don't need to dwell on this for two long before focusing on the meat of the book, from which some wonderful insight can be drawn.

Buy this book
Although I did receive a free review copy, in order to maintain my objectivity in providing a recommendation, I bought a copy of the book and gave it to John Keehler (blog). I did so in order to convince you of this point:

If I say a book is worth buying, I really mean it.

If you are interested in learning how to tell persuasive stories, this book can help. It is peppered with wonderful examples that are truly inspirational, and when you put them up against the principles taught in this book, you will come away with a greater understanding about why they work, and how to implement them in your own work. - Cam Beck