Sunday, October 9, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
A PC's Thank You to Steve Jobs
Thank you.
Thank you for making the entire tech industry so much better and smarter.
For your passion for the emotional side of the "user."
Heck, for thinking about us as people instead of as "users."
For destroying the putty-colored commoditization of the device business.
For making a PC in "Tangerine."
For proving that desktop software needn't be buggy and frustrating.
For forcing MSFT to give up DOS and provide the Windows GUI.
For introducing millions of kids to the remarkable technological frontier.
For instilling passion and excitement into an industry that has enlivened and enriched the creativity ofhumanity.
For showing manufacturers the virtue of simplicity and how a few products that are well thought through can be more popular than thousands of permutations of disappointment.
For making a cell phone I actually could work and enjoy using.
For making every other cell phone manufacturer follow suit.
For creating a fertile field on which thousands of developers can create mobile apps – and make a decent living doing so.
For showing us the virtue of recognizing when you are on the wrong track, admitting it, and making the tough decisions to correct a company's course.
For creating brands instead of products.
For delivering creative ideas instead of bullet-point-riddled sell sheets.
For teaching "tech marketers" what marketing actually is.
For never standing still.
For never resting on your laurels.
For making every other company struggle to keep up, or at least not fall too far behind.
I was never an Apple groupie. I never owned a Mac. I buy books with a Kindle. I use an Androidphone.
But I have always been thankful that you were such a force in tech.
Because without you, the industry would still be making buggy, confusing, insular crap.
Because without you, so many things I now take for granted wouldn't exist.
Though I didn't buy many of the things that bore the best logo in tech, I know that they and you were what made everything I bought better.
And inspired everyone to be better.
Sent from my iPad
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
How Amazon Fire is Saving Civilization
Such heresy! The idea that people who make content should get paid directly for what they produce. Hey, I am no enemy of free content. As a fairly prolific blogger, I am well aware that providing free access to content is an incredible force for free expression. And it appears that Amazon is more than aware of that value. In fact, it has created a browser to help people get and consume the free content of their choice more quickly and easily.
No, I am talking about the other side of the content equation. The one where professionals make great stuff that is rather difficult to properly monetize in the current environment. The situation where professional reporters get laid off in droves because publications cannot pay them on the meager revenues they generate from the online web.
Reversing this decline in professional content is absolutely critical to maintaining a real culture and civilization.
Without a way to monetize what pros produce, our culture really does suffer. We need investigative reporters, independent film producers, full time authors, and the like to provide the richness of our society, and the checks against growing government power.
And besides, the free web really isn’t free. What’s happened is that hundreds of billions in investment capital – a synonym for which is our pension and 401K money -- have been subsidizing the “free” infrastructure of pipes and pictures and videos and words. Oh, there are also ads to monetize it – something like an average of 14 blinking ads per page – many sold for less than a dime per thousand.
But that arrangement hasn’t favored “good,” it has favored “all,” which is marvelous on some levels, and has made more than a few people millionaires from its democratic largesse. But we also need to ensure that the best and brightest can make their livings producing content.
And that’s also where Amazon Fire fits in. A device that tens of millions more will be able to afford versus iPad. A device created in large part to monetize content through purchases made by those that choose to consume it. A MOBILE device that is sufficiently different from a PC that most expect people to be willing to actually pay for the good stuff. Paying for the best content out there. So great content producers can make their livings creating great content.
I am very grateful for the “free” web – especially in an era when a handful of companies own virtually all American media. I am grateful as well for an FTC that is trying to promulgate net neutrality. But I am also grateful that Amazon has launched Fire – a device that holds the promise of helping the best content creators make enough to live on. Because they are just as important to the preservation and expansion of “civilization.”
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Selling Inside and Six F-Words
As is my wont, I got better with a little list of things to remember as I prepared my pitch. I thought I’d share my little list in the chance that it may help someone else improve their win rate for internal selling.
Fit: Naturally any digital solution needs to fit the brand challenges facing the company. But the better you know the immediate issues facing the brand — and the language the brand uses — the more likely you can point out the features of your recommendation that make it an ideal fit for. We complain about internal company silos all the time, but our own success as digital advocates requires that we destroy silos instead of complaining about them. By improving the flow of information we can be of greater service to our brands.
Fear: Our insular way of talking about the industry and the digital divide that separates us from “regular people” – in our companies and in our target audiences – creates discomfiture among final decision makers. When we make an effort to explain things clearly and give decision makers a chance to, for example, try new platforms, we make those around us feel smart. The security of feeling smart helps people feel good about saying yes.
Faith: We need the trust and confidence of others to succeed. There’s a certain “type” of person in our industry that tries so hard to be different than others in organizations. In my experience these people are the least effective at internal selling because in their zeal to appear different they become disconnected from the people and the business. And if people don’t trust you – don’t think you have their backs – they won’t have yours.
Fog: While keeping up with everything in digital is hard, that is often not the responsibility of the final decision maker. That’s YOUR responsibility, as is distilling the oceans of new platforms, ideas, and hype that wash up on shore into coherent strategies and programs. Digital people find this stuff fascinating. Lots of other people don’t. When we can demonstrate the value of things with clarity, and without burying those around us with extraneous information, we clear the fog that makes it harder for people to say yes.
Follow through: In an era of extreme accountability, you need to make the most of every opportunity that reaches you. Match the risk profile of your recommendations with the stage that your company is in the progression toward adopting digital as a central part of its business. And make damned sure that when you get an OK on a project you do everything in your power to make that program successful. Success opens the floodgates of budget and responsibility. Failure slams them shut. There is a lot of discussion in the industry about the need to fail to stay out front of developments. I embrace the spirit of that, but before you fail, make sure you bank some cred with some successes. Usually, the first things a brand should do in digital are not fraught with risk. The risk is in not doing them.
Fun: People get into marketing because it is more interesting than they think finance or accounting or operations would be. Launching a great new product or launching a great marketing campaign is supposed to be thrilling. In digital, we get so buried in our ability to present millions of “metrics” that we forget the emotional side of what we do. Digital efforts are inherently exciting because their capabilities are unprecedented. Help decision makers feel the thrill. Show them how social motivates real people to express their love for the brand. Demonstrate how dynamic video is so compelling. Use the feedback loop of digital to enrich the empathy that is such a central part of marketing.
For me, remembering those six “f-words” as I formulate a pitch makes it far easier to put a tick in the win column. The help people feel smart, empowered and excited about digital. When you pair those emotional wins with a compelling argument for the rational side of your proposal, you’re unstoppable!