Over the course of any given day a bunch of interesting quotes and anecdotes cross my path.  I’ll bag them up and pass along once in a while.

Here’s some gems lifted from my scratchpad from the month of April, 2012:

“Celebrate who you are not what you do.”
- Andy Stefanovitch

‘We Don’t Believe in Digital Marketing … [But] Marketing in a Digital World”
Clive Sirkin, CMO, Kimberly-Clark

“Advertising isn’t really dead. What’s dead is an agency process whose only outcome can be advertising.”
- via @robbiew

“I have a lot of respect for Weiden & Kennedy. They are consistent, unaffected, and they let their success speak for itself. They have been able to grow, expand and win big pieces of business without ever losing their creative edge. You never see any blowhards from Weiden & Kennedy sitting on panels espousing some BS about the future of marketing. Instead, they are doing the work that everyone else is talking about.”
- via Brian Morrissey, Digiday – interviewing a blind Agency CEO

Yes, of course you have to make promises to earn attention and trial.”
- unattributed

“If you are tired of starting over – stop giving up.”
- unattributed

“Those who move comfortably and intelligently across the disciplines of technology, creative, and business.”
- David Gillespie, Senior Digital Strategist, Big Spaceship (Defining the term “Integrated Digital Thinker)

“Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls”
- Joseph Campbell

“There isn’t a recovery because this isn’t a recession. It’s the end of one path to prosperity – and the beginning of a newer, better one.”
- @umairh

Test

And today, much like it was then, marketers and agencies are caught up in it, looking at where communities and audiences are building in order to play a part in these new and exciting experiences.

But as we figure out our place inside the connected world, it makes me wonder if we are becoming better adept at assessing tools and taking our eye off of solutions for our clients.  Again.

One night, a few years back, an interesting discussion on NPR caught my attention.  It was focused on the pharma industry, and more specifically on the tribulations of GSK in the UK. BBC’s Peter Day put together an interesting show on how research and development costs have skyrocketed with diminishing returns for the industry.

GSK UK CEO Andrew Witty spoke very openly about how the industry has a vast number of tools at their disposal, but that these tools are being seen as solutions to situations. And that there is opportunity if you can look beyond the tools that exist in order to solve the issues that they are facing.

An example of this came up as I recalled an Edelman PR effort for Levi’s, that needed some repair post-launch.  I worked on a crowdsourced brief a year ago to fix an experience, which was at shapewhatstocome.com (a women’s community / forum). During that journey I saw a site and brand experience that was built on tools. A map view to explore user created profiles was one instance of a tool that didn’t even functionally work,  nor was a great way to explore the large numbers of profiles that have been developed. The footer also included a war chest of social channels that Levi’s was using as part of the campaign/program. It was obvious that the brand and agency felt in order to reach a splintered audience they needed to use the social tools available to them to get in front a bunch of people.

It turns out the issue for the brand wasn’t a fractured audience it was that they were not engaging enough people on their site, due to a poor experience and weak expectation proposition that was offered.

Successful campaigns and programs are built on the understanding of how each communication channel works in conjunction with others. Not on the breadth of tools available to you to use and employ.

Therefore, don’t pick a tool because it is what you think will work or where you think you need to be.

Understand your audience, their needs and what you are hoping to accomplish. And define the problem you and your client are hoping to solve.  That way, solutions come to the forefront, and you can avoid chasing shiny gold balls that are always there as a distraction to the job we really have as brand stewards in the digital arena.

“Branding” as an active verb seems to say to me we’re exploring and frothing to find something connective to say that might hook people, to create artificial demand.

But in our world today the opportunity to connect with people exists as it has for generations: create a great product.  Develop a kick-ass service.  And build a culture of experience that delivers on the expectations you and (and your customers) have set for your brand.

Equationally, a brand is essentially the result of two things:    brand = promise + delivery  And if so, a well articulated brand strategy (the promise) is based on equitable truths of your product or service, brought to life with an operational and smart communications focus (delivery).

So simple.

My hope in all the digitization and social media’fying of our world is that advertising professionals may realize that it isn’t our job to paint a complicated position for a client’s brand – that we instead find better ways to deliver and craft messaging based on something that is already there.

Marketing case study darling Zappos is a perfect example of the above equation at work.  They defined their firm’s differentiator in the busy and messy world of online retailing as being able to offer the best customer service possible.   Once determined, they set out to bring that to life.  For instance, one of the biggest strategic decisions the company made to provide great customer service and deliver the brand promise, was to move operations to Las Vegas. Why Vegas?  Because Las Vegas, per capita, has the largest population of call-center professionals in America as residents.  And the thought was these people know how to do the job, and take pride in the work as a profession, not a side job.  They’ve focused on the delivery of the brand and continue to do so when they build experiences and craft their advertising.

Therefore:  stop “branding.”  And start delivering.

With display being the bulk of digital ad spend, it is something digital strategists, planners and creatives should really give a shit about.  It is a key aspect of a lot of clients’ audience development programs, and despite low click-through – it drives oodles of traffic with volume. And for that reason, I offer some of my thoughts on display.

Today, we start with an assessment of a unit I saw recently for Warby Parker eyewear…

A lot of effectiveness studies, like this one conducted by Dynamic Logic show that visuals in display attract eyeballs.  So the Warby Parker brand is not only expressed well in the ad (with the right choice of model) they have leveraged a best practice in going with a large image as a primary element in this unit.

A lot of data I’ve gone through also shows that reveal ads just don’t pull effectively.  And it makes sense, users are focused on scanning and consuming content on the page, not following plot and story of display units on a page. And even if they were, most sites that show display ads are serving multiple units on a page, therefore it is obvious that they aren’t watching or reading your ad intently. So the ad below follows suit – in that it rotates the attributes it wants to display to consumers, to enure that if the ad gets a quick glance, a reader can take away what the brand is trying to say to them.

And potentially incent a click event.

I am keeping a Pinterest board of interesting display ads I’ve found, find it here.

However often times because this is a function of a planner or strategists’ role the result becomes research to do research as opposed to understanding what needs to be studied in order to fill key information gaps.

This especially happens in qualitative research scenarios where people tend to probe for information and end up asking panels what they want vs. spending the necessary time in getting to understand them better overall.

Ultimately great design is a by-product of understanding your constituents. Not asking them what they need. Spending time with them and knowing how they go about their day, evaluating your brand/products place in that life and finding ways to make it better through features or function is the appropriate approach.

So if you are strategist, a designer, etc, find ways to get to know your audience. Live with them, breathe with them. Then synthesize what you are learning and offer great details to your assembled team.  Then, pressure test your emerging solutions with what you know – not what you were told.

The concept isn’t new – think Angies List etc.  But the offering is timely, hitting on the trend of empowered consumers, and in this case that is the differentiator.  The consumer rules the marketplace – they list tasks that they need help with and the potential help comes to them with an offer to do the work.  You check out their history and profile, and determine if that person is interesting for you, and bamn, the connection is made.

Compete.com data showed a significant spike in September, 2011 of over 100,000 UV’s /month.  However it has scaled back to around 30,000 UV’s a month.  Still, traffic is solid and shows a burgeoning marketplace.

For more details on TaskRabbit click  HERE

One that has popped up on the radar is Onswipe.

Their platform allows Wordpess blogs to easily publish a tablet friendly site via a easy-to-install plug-in.  But yet another cool aspect of their offering, is by setting up an Onswipe account, you can compile your social media content you are creating and contain into one tablet friendly site.

I haven’t played with the aggregation account as of yet but definitely see the potential here and will provide a review in the coming weeks.

For more Platforms to Watch in 2012 please visit an ongoing Delicious stack gathered HERE

The concept is simple, give users the ability to add notes, photos and other annotations to places that they have been, for others to read and consume.

Although the primary experience is expected to be app based, you could see this taking off much like a Pinterest, in that this becomes a way to be locationally active without having to be game-y like in Foursquare. It will be a way to check-in and leave your thoughts about a place for others to enjoy, both privately and publicly. The back and forth sharing, etc could make this a large ecosystem.

The startup has some serious backing to date (True Ventures, Founder Collective, SV Angel, Keith Rabois, James Joaquin, Shoshana Berger. Redpoint, Betaworks, and Ev Williams’ and Biz Stone’s Obvious Corp. are all involved).

I just got my beta invite and will write more on the platform and how it works in a week or so.

For more on Pinwheel, TechCrunch has written an outstanding article on Pinwheel HERE

But how about “the act of introducing SOMEONE new? Leaders in that? Homeboy Industries.  The work these guys are doing to change the lives of some very challenged members is staggering.

Father Greg Boyle, the creator of Homeboy Industries (way back in 1992 as a religious organization to aid gang members in personal transformation) wrote a book a few years back I’ve enjoyed a great deal, “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion.” Boyle is widely respected for his work with troubled young men and women, and the innovative programs offered through Homeboy Industries, including job placement and training, as well as a variety of free services, such as tattoo removal, education and counseling, that reflect the group’s philosophy of “jobs not jail.”

For over 20 years, Homeboy Industries has helped thousands of gang members from over half of Los Angeles County’s 1,100 gangs.

The organization also runs five successful businesses: Homeboy Bakery, Homegirl Café, Homeboy Silkscreen, Homeboy/Homegirl Merchandise and Homeboy Maintenance. They even have a salsa being sold. (I hear through Ralph’s Supermarket’s).

Introducing “new people” isn’t easy. Its hard work. But the lasting success of this program is a testament to the good work and follow-through of those involved.

Check ‘em out. Its a great case study.

See below for some collected in March, 2012:

“Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong.”
- Peter T. Mcintyre

“Let’s stop bragging about who we are, where we’ve been & focus on where we’re going. if you want to do new things just do it & provide value”
- Can’t Attribute

“Personality shows when everyone is looking… Character shows when no one is.”
- Can’t Attribute

“You rise or fall, succeed or fail, by the image of yourself that you hold in your own mind.”
- Can’t Attribute

“Better, I think, to decide what matters first, and go do that.”
- Can’t Attribute

“A goal is a dream, with a deadline.”
-Napoleon Hill

“It’s not the consumer’s job to know what they want.”
- Steve Jobs

“Get enough money, give away as little as possible, keep your head down, do not listen or talk to anybody – except listen to your audience when it makes sense. Early feedback can often be off base – stay on the path.”
- Barry Diller, at SXSW

“What would you do if tomorrow the government said it was illegal to advertise your product. How would you do it now?”
- Josh Spear

If you know what you believe in and you know what you’re passionate about, you can make good decisions. Because what’s presented to you and what you choose to do are very closely aligned with what you believe in.
- Can’t Attribute