Author: Angelo Fernando

Spreading a little darkness in Phoenix

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Tonight here in Phoenix, at 8 pm Mountain Standard Time, we were one of the four cities in the US that went dark for one hour to commemorate Earth Hour. Dubai, Melbourne, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv joined in too. Candle light dinners and waiters wearing glo-sticks were expected to compensate for the darkness. As Erin Zlomek of The Arizona Republic observed of the Chase ballpark, “Tonight, the well-known circular landmark melted into a sky of black.”

Another “landmark,” the white Google.com home page, turned black for that hour. Online, one Wikipedia editor whined that doing this for one hour was of no value. “Think of Earth every minute not just once a year for an hour! Take your bike, turn off lights whenever possible… There’s so much you can do every day!” Said the Googleplex: “we strongly support the Earth Hour campaign, and have darkened our homepage today to help spread awareness of what we hope will be a highly successful global event.”

Nice job, Phoenix.

Quotes for the week ending March 29, 2008

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“In our rush to create social networks in cyberspace, we often forget that we already have a start (at least) of our social network in our physical spaces that just need some cultivation.”

Chief Experience Officer, David Polinchock, quoted in Ad Age, about an audience game using a motion sensor and the movements of the wisdom of the crowd.

“Let’s take a look at social media. It doesn’t have hard edges.”

Steve Rubel, on why three internet careers (“Social Media Consultant,” “Internet Advertising Sales,” “Digital Talent Agent”) that will soon disappear.

“Writing a business plan: that can be taught… but a really good idea, you can’t teach that.”

Rhett Wilson, community and entrepreneurial liaison at Arizona State University, in The State Press, on the $25,000 grant for a faculty of staff member with a winning business idea.

“What is the purview of a county sheriff, at least our county sheriff, is publicity.”

E. J. Montini on Arizona Sheriff, Joe Arpaio’s losing a Supreme Court case, but winning free PR.

“I say a lot of things — millions of words a day — so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement.”

Hillary Clinton about her “just words” moment, when she recounted visiting Bosnia under sniper fire 12 years ago.

“Guess what I think the fifth ‘P’ (in marketing) should be ?”

Rohit Bhargava, in a new book Personality Not Included, called released this week.

Digital and Analog: Two ways to be heard.

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Care2 is a petition site that allows people to stand up for what they believe in and get others to support their cause.

Whether it is a petition about water, animal welfare, breast cancer, or war there are groups ‘signing’ petitions online. Which is fine, because we can now pool our energies and brains from every continent to raise our collective voices. Facebook too has a lot of activism.

But I have to say that in spite of so many inspiring platforms for digital activism, the online noble causes such as free rice, and FB groups protesting on behalf of Myanmar, nothing stirred me more than when I joined a group one Sunday to picket outside a strip mall where one of the tenants was an abortion clinic. People driving by would honk and wave in approval. Others gave us the finger.

All because a group of about 30 people were carrying (analog) signs.

Personality Not Included” released today

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Rohit Bhargava‘s book, “Personality not included,” a book on branding, is being released today on Amazon. I downloaded a copy of the introductory chapter, via a Facebook group I was invited to. The full title, which includes “Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity And How Great Brands Get it Back” explains what the curious title is trying to achieve. In a social media era, where he says “all forms are portable, personal, and filtered,” brand identities are susceptible to perception, as much as communication. A true personality becomes a brand’s secret weapon.

Having interviewed Rohit before, I know how passionate he is about digital marketing and branding. In keeping with the recipe of branding he advocates in the book, he’s letting his personality flow through. He is eschewing the “Bum rush the charts” approach to create a surge in sales and asking people -personalities–to be his advocates. He’s also posting on Twitter.

More un-meetings please!

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There are conferences rooms, and there are six comfortable faux-leather lounge chairs in the coffee shop at Borders book store on Mill Avenue. We meet there often to plan projects, or just brainstorm on an upcoming event. Sometimes it’s a visitor, sometimes it’s with a media person. My two highly creative designers seem to thrive in un-meetings –the agenda or core idea staring at us on the back of a napkin.

If you’re in marketing, PR or strat planning, you know there is value in structured meetings and white boards, but too often the format substitutes for the outcome.

Un-meetings, on the other hand, are less intimidating. People check their ‘strategic’ meeting vocabulary at the door and yammer on like real people –like customers. Maybe it’s the coffee shop atmosphere that reminds us that we are customers first and worker-bees second. In coffee shops you hear words like “I swear I got goosebumps when I read that report.” In a conference room, with a supervisor staring down at you, that same thought would go like “I tend to agree on the substance of his argument…” or some nonsense like that.

So here are the five reasons why un-meetings in public places work:

  1. They permit attendees to let their personality, their biases and their passions show through
  2. They let people interact with each other in a non-threatening way
  3. They force people to think like customers –being surrounded by them
  4. They seldom run over the time limit –folks feel they have to get back to “work”
  5. No need for Outlook meeting requests

McCainSpace needs a redesign, rethink

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John McCain’s blog roll doesn’t include a link to his daughter’s blog, McCainBlogette. Though it does have Conservative blogger Michele Malkin (HotAir) and LaShawn Barber. Oversight? I don’t think so.

Meghan McCain maintains her distance for a good reason — if you read her blog closely. She does write about her Mom, fund raisers, the White House etc but does her own thing. The McCAin site, however is a tightly managed brand. It features issues, insights, trove of a photography, multimedia, and a networking tool called McCainSpace.

I experimented with it, and was confirmed within a few hours. But it is not what I expected. Since it riffs on MySpace, it suggests a networking space not a fund-raising funnel. It urges you to “build your own network of grassroots activists, take action and have fun.” On the site I created, categories include Modify your goals and Review Your Donors. The only way to build an address book is name by name –no uploading a database.

Huh?

Call me naive, but networking and activism isn’t only about getting people to drop money into a fishbowl. “Taking action” and “having fun” won’t go anywhere fast if those on the network are called ‘donors.’ I think they launched McCainspace too fast. Perhaps they have some functionality in the works, but the clock is ticking.

Rapp Collins’ scrambled print ad drives web traffic

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Rapp Collins epft tuvoojoh xpsl. That’s “does stunning work” in case you didn’t quite decipher that.

It ran a double spread ad with 53 names of ad people –scrambled. The only way to unscramble the names that turned out to be one Matt Jacobs, Nancy Vonk and Christian Barnett and others, was by looking at a web address at the bottom of the ad, and figuring out the letter substitution needed. The url itself was not the company address, but ‘greakfuckingplace.com’ which leads you to greatfnplace.com, which lets you type in a first name and last name to see a customized message.

Type a wrong name (you have to be pretty dumb to check if you’re not one of the 53 being poached) they allow you to contact them –basically apply for a job. But hey, this is Direct, so it’s no sin to ask directly, I suppose.

But in spite of the clever approach of going after creative officers and strat planners, and the trouble to encode their names, they do a poor job by making everyone of the 53 people being targeting see the same message –even traditional variable data printing does a better job of varying the fields and responses. But it does the job of driving traffic to the microsite, and maybe the main web site. Which justifies the expensive double spread in Advertising Age.

And speaking of Rapp Collins’ regular website it’s a tuvoojoh experience –unlike any other agency site I have seen.

Quotes for the week ending 22 March, 2008

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“Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90.”

News that sci-fi writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, promoter of the communications satellite, died in Colombo, Sri Lanka on Wednesday 19 March, 2008.

I’m as delighted as anyone that Starbucks joined in the “conversation” this week.”

Sarah Wurrey of Custom Scoop’s online magazine Media Bullseye.


“One of the unintended consequences of my dad becoming the presumptive Republican nominee is the increased level of public scrutiny on him and our family.”

Meghan McCain, daughter of John McCain, who blogs at McCainBlogette.com

“Barack Obama is three things you want in a brand … New, different, and attractive.”

Keith Reinhard, chairman emeritus of DDB Worldwide in a Fast Company article on “The Brand called Obama.”

“Financial woes overshadow all other concerns for journalists.”

Headline of a report by Pew Internet, on the positive response many journalists give new media.

“PR stunts can definitely be a great way to make a splash and get some attention — but you’ve really got to know where to draw the line.”

Len Gutman, at ValleyPRBlog, commenting on giant fetuses displayed by ASU students supporting right to life.

“The Internet feels like Dubai.”

Steve Rubel, on why the future of the web is web services not web sites –a combination of big ambitious projects and small initiatives.