The Big Think: Sadness fills my computer screen
There were few like him.
An innovator cut from a magical cloth that cloaked all our lives.
And today, my ipad is a touch slower. My MacBook Pro gleems just a tad less brightly. And my iphone rings a sad tone.
The news, somewhat expected, still stopped me in my in my tracks. Frozen and lost in almost a vacuum of thought. The void that Steve Jobs leaves is deep and profound and it travels across the internet with a gentle touch that embraces his memory with compassion, love and a special sensitivity that is so unique to Steve.
We have lost something that is difficult to grasp...and only time will let his memory form in the richness of his accomplishments.
Think different. And with those thoughts, remember a man who change my world
The Big Think: Think, Search & Act—-Using SEO to Craft Your Message
SEO. It seems everywhere I turn, search engine optimization shows up. Now I know I spend time in odd places (like advertising agencies), but something important is going on here.
We often take concepts like "key word selection" as part of our digital sphere and delegate it off to the technocrats to do what they do. But there's something much richer here. Key words are an essential part of crafting and refining a powerful promotional message.
THINK--the cognitive and amorphous aspect of our desire. The impulse and drive. OUR DESIRE FOR THE BRAND!
SEARCH--the very specific words that define our intellectual and emotional journey. OUR SEARCH FOR THE BRAND
ACT--Thought brought to life. Our behavior. OUR PURCHASE AND ADOPTION OF THE BRAND.
What happens between THINK and ACT is the powerful fulcrum of behavior.
Key words are actually the bridge between DESIRE and ACTION in the digital world and provide a a two-way street of information!! The application of key words, and the resultant hits, allow us to refine our message based upon the success and failure. It's market research right at your finger tips.
So, the next time you talk about SEO and key word selection, look at it prospectively and retrospectively. This methodology will help discover the "search terms" that should be part of your messaging--not the other way around.
The key observation is that very often, the messaging (typically done first) doesn't match up with the real-world search dynamics of the audience.
Search on....but be smart about it!
The Big Think: The 4 Pillars of Contemporary Marketing
A wise old man once told me to stop asking him questions about the past and to go and invent the future!
He was right. We spend so much time looking back and re-tooling old ideas that we end up getting run over by the future. And today, the future is coming at us so quickly that in essence, if it works, it's already obsolete. This is particularly true in the cognitive realm, where your thoughts must be your private (and public) laboratory of inspiration and innovation.
Today's marketplace requires much from those who wish to plot its future. And here's one way to frame it up: The 4 Pillars of Contemporary Marketing...
Pillar One: Strategic Insight. Marketing is the fruit of strategic thinking. It's as simple as that. And this is at the very core of all initiatives. The ability to uncover the subtle insight and to craft a single-minded position still remains the most difficult aspect of marketing today. And yes, get the position (and promise) right, the creative is downright easy! Yet today, many big companies pile dollars on extensive creative explorations only to find out (or not find out) that they are really testing and fine tuning their positioning statements through the rounds and rounds of very expensive creative developement.
Pillar Two: Your Marketing Gut. Yes, instinct. We all know those "greats" who could pick a winner and size up a marketplace with exacting specificity. Maybe it was experience, maybe just intuition, but that level of "expertiese" is something special. And to add a bit of contrast, we all know that "other guy" who can't or won't make a decision because he or she just doesn't get it. And in the final analysis, it's often just a matter of recognizing a great idea or concept and pushing into the machinery of adverising, including marketing research.
Pillar Three: A Creative Voice. Markekting and advertising are about creating ideas that stick to the roof of your customer's brain. Creativity is an essential component and required everywhere, from media to account serivce and, of course, copy and art. Creativity is magic. And this process is fragile, bold and electric! It generates fear, excitement, frustration and passion. Creative intensity is very powerful. And it makes many people very frightened. So, be afraid...but be creative!
Pillar Four: Digital Swagger. Yes. Swagger. Too many people today talk the talk of digital. They know the lexicon, but don't tweet, blog or participate in the world that they so boldly advocate. I'm proud to work with a digital team that I see in the hallways and on the screen!! So, in today's new order. It's digital or die....Klout or be killed!
So, that wise man who told me to look forward had another important message implied in his story. And that's moving forward is also part of the momentum acquired from the past. So our digital chops are just an extension of the first three pillars. But when it all comes together--strategy, instinct, creativity and digital--you have the critical mass to change the world!
What are you waiting for...?
The Big Think: My CEO, Steve Jobs
Chief Executive Officer. Cool Executive Original. Crazy Eclectic Opinion.
The list can go on an on. But for me, Steve Jobs is the man who changed the world...again and again. From the early days of Apple to the ever evolving domination of the iPad, Steve is very much that icon we have come to admire and watch with interest and anticipation!
Remember the 1984 TV spot? Remember the Mac interface? Remember actually picking a typeface on your computer screen? Oh, and how about Pixar?
An iconoclast for sure, Steve is, for many, the un-CEO who drove innovation and creativity to places that will forever be linked to him. Yet it's Apple's market value that reflect that genius in the rigors of finance that have burnish into financial achievement that rivals any industry at any time. Make art, create and innovate, listen to your instincts (and your customer), embrace aesthetics and the dollars will follow.
So, Steve is stepping down as CEO. But is he really?
Apple = Steve Jobs. And there's a feeling that wanders the halls of Cupertino that transcend time and space. And that somehow, when you get a job at Apple, you really get a Job.
Steve Jobs is my CEO. The Creative Excellence is Obvious!
I wish him well as the future he created unfolds and flourishes around us...
The Big Think: Your Company’s KLOUT SUM
By now, most of you know about Klout. It's basically your FICO score for social media. It's a valuable tool that establishes the level of individual "connectivity" with the digital world. It's by far not the end all and be all...but it's an emerging too that help put things into perspective. Further, a Klout score is a valuable tool for marketers to identify potential customers that not only meet their product demographics but also offer the added advantage of digital connectivity! Matching a qualified lead to a high Klout score can be a powerful way to diffuse innovation--Fast!!! Of course, bad news travels faster, so you have to careful and confident in your message.
But Klout also lets me understand a system as well as just an individual. If I'm choosing a digital agency or partner, it might be interesting to see the Klout score of some of their gurus. But the total clout of the company might be better expressed as the sum of the scores. This gives you the collective "digital muscle" that can be brought to use. I'm calling it the KLOUT SUM. It might be the next score you ask of your agency!!
Sure, you can stack the deck, and that always happens. But the KLOUT SUM can always be divided by the individual staff members to get an average. At least that will keep them honest.
Digital muscle is something people often talk about. Now here's a way to express it: THE KLOUT SUM
The Big Think: The Twitter Anthem
OK, this just popped into my head. It's the Twitter Anthem sung to "Rockin' Robin" by the Jackson 5.
Call me crazy...but I think it's fun...
(sing along...)
He types on the keyboard all day long
Huntin’ and peckin’ and tweetin’ his song
All the little birdies on Folsom Street
Love to hear the people go tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweetly-tweet
Go little birdie
'Cause we're really gonna tweet tonight
Every little message, every little sign
Every little word got to fit that line
The wise old whale, and those who know.
Slapping those keys singing go tweet go!
Follow follow, tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweetly-tweet
Go little birdie
'Cause we're really gonna tweet tonight
Yeah yeah
Late in the evening when the chat is done
Told them how you really had so much fun
But just when the chatter begins to end
The next big thing pops in the trend!
He types on the keyboard all day long
Huntin’ and peckin’ and tweetin’ his song
All the little birdies on Folsom Street
Love to hear the people go tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweetly-tweet
Go little birdie
'Cause we're really gonna tweet tonight
Every little message, every little sign
Every little word got to fit that line
The wise old whale, and those who know.
Slapping those keys singing go tweet go!
Follow follow, tweet tweet tweet
Follow follow, tweet tweetly-tweet
Go little birdie
'Cause we're really gonna tweet tonight
Yeah yeah
Late in the evening when the chat is done
Told them how you really had so much fun
But just when the chatter begins to end
The next big thing pops in the trend!
The Big Think: Confessions of a Digital Man
What would David Ogilvy think...as we frolic in the new world 100 years after his birth?
Smart phones, digital billboards (he predicted their demise), and the vast social network that define our world today would certainly make red smoke rise from that famous pipe!
The man in the Hathaway shirt might very well be the woman with the Ipad. Or Dove might very well be headed to global domination with their insightful and consumer-centric strategy allowed to florrish in the digital space.
David would love it...but raise an eye with an important concern. He would certainly embrace the innovation and enhance connectivity with the customer. But in the final analysis, he would ask "Does it sell?" But I think that David would have that ipad tucked into his leather brief case and a heafty Klout score!
For me, my confession is simple. Obsession.
I love the vast word that exists at the tips of my fingers and farthest recesses of my mind. I love the connections with my customers and the instant gratification that I recieve. I love my Twitter friends and the banter, RTs, #FF and #MM that is all served up before me with the touch of a button--anywhere and anytime.
But obsession has transformed me in ways that I never expected. In a funny way, I've become more human. More connected. And more responsive in both the real and digital world...and a push of a button has become the shake of a hand and exchange of a smile. It's made me a better marketer, thinker, father and person.
So, thanks David Ogilvy for teaching me to innovate and push boundaries. You would have made a great "digital man" too! Happy 100th birthday.
The Big Think: Heaven, Hawking and Other Fairy Tales
Stephen Hawking is an interesting man. Trapped in his own body he is left to ponder the mysteries of the universe. Recently, he made this pronouncement.
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
I disagree.
I don't think that heaven is on a white puffy cloud or place that is far away. You see, heaven is very much related to our consciousness and a direct result of an expanded awareness. Our minds have the ability to grow and expand...and evolve our awareness. It's a little bit like the evolutionary process of black and white to color vision. This is an expanded sense of "color" awareness that has made our senses greater and richer. The frontier of human awareness is to expand our senses to a broader level and realize that the current reality is nothing more than a myth.
OK. Let's stop right there. A myth?
The Big Think: Greatness (a yell from within)
Greatness is a wonderful thing. The the creative roar of the passionate lion and the rebel yell of the iconoclast thinker. And sometimes it takes courage to roar out loud or yell at the top of your lungs.
Courage to stand up against the many and varied voices of mediocrity.
Sometimes, the notion of greatness is heaped upon the disinfranchised pile of human achienvements called ego. And while the attachment to the ego can be a pracarious thing, the pursuit of achievement is more than a task, it's a drive to fulfill our birthright....our "inalienable right" to manifest our true human potential and experience the profound joy of intellectuct.
Our capacity to think, to reason and to experieince life is too frequently left to the static role of the classroom and the exterior sense of learning that takes us only a very short distance away from facts to the destination of knowledge.
Our capacity--our biomemory and neural processing abality--is vast. And sometimes we just need to flip the switch and recognize that.
Genius (yes, a profound and rich realization) is our birthright. And mediocarity is self-imposed.
The Big Think: Good Cholesterol, Bad Cholesterol. And Now…Good sugar, Bad Sugar!
Do you know your cholesterol? Chances are, you do. Or at least you have a vague familiarity with the concept. But you might also understand the notion of "good" and "bad" cholesterol...and even the complicated lexicon around HDL and LDL.
It's important information.
But there is another important biological concept that is emerging these days and that's about sugar. Sugar, isn't just sugar (like cholesterol). Sugar is found in many forms. The most biologically active and responsible for our cellular metabolism is glucose. But we also have a variety of molecules that tend to complicate the issue. Table sugar or sucrose, for example, is actually a combination of glucose and fructose molecules.
Without getting too complicated, the central point I would like to bring froward is that we need to look at sugar differently and not substitute one sugar molecule for another and suggest that they are equivalent--equivalent in terms of calories or how the body metabolizes them. Glucose, responsible for calories as we understand them, is the "good" side of the story. It provides the metabolic energy that our cells needs. However, glucose can still drive obesity and isn't a completely innocent player in this story.
But the devil might just be fructose!
Fructose is NOT metabolized like glucose. It's processed in the liver and sets off a cascade of events that result in significant problems. Avoiding too much scientific jargon, fructose sets off a process that makes fat. Liponeogenesis, if you're looking for the scientific term. Fat that ends up in your liver and in your body...as, who would have guessed it, as part of your cholesterol profile!
So, what's the Big Think? Simple: We should consider sugar in a similar way that we think about cholesterol (not the very same way, but a similar way). Fructose is a BAD SUGAR. Glucose, still a caloric problem, but less of a metabolic problem.
So, all sugar isn't the same...and we need to really understand just what we're eating...keeping in mind that table sugar (sucrose) is about half glucose and fructose. And, to really make things interesting, high fructose corn syrup is about 60% fructose. So, the "high-fructose corn syrup" fear in the marketplace might be well served, but switching to other sugars don't solve that fructose problem at all!!! Even "healthy" substitutes like agave syrup are not effective fixes. While there is a range, agave syrup is about 50% fructose, so it's not an appropriate substitute at all!
Then there's fruit. Fruit sugar, or fructose!!! How could it be? Is fruit bad for you? Not really, as the answer is really about quantity and the interesting fact that fruit sugar is delivered to you with a health dose of fiber! Fruit consumption and the small associated amount of fructose isn't really the problem. It's the incredibly large amount of fructose that exists in so many of our food sources--from soft drinks to processed foods.
And isn't ironic that the fat-free fad simply exchanged the fat for sugar (and fructose)! And look where it left us!!
I want to reference Dr. Robert Lustig. He's a thought-leader in the field of childhood obesity and is a compelling speaker on the topic. Here's a dynamic video where he takes you on a long, but vitally important path to understanding this problem.
So, let's review. All sugar is not the same. Our bodies need sugar to fuel our metabolic engines but picking and avoiding the wrong fuels is very important. Remember, fructose, the "bad sugar" makes it way into many types of sweeteners--some recognized as bad and other as "natural" and healthy. And it's not a fuel--it's a toxin.
The time has come to recognize, like cholesterol, sugar is a more complex compound and requires some "smart" thinking to maximize it's central role in health and to minimize it's toxic role driving illness and disease.
Maybe that biblical apple (dare I say, that biblical fructose) was telling us another important story!!??