Life Is a Snowball Fight

The 2009 Blizzard Snowball Fight in Times Squares, as captured in breath-taking photographs by Doug Kim -- and as critiqued by the masses -- demonstrates a lot about human beings. From the some 183 comments posted as of Christmas Day, emerged 15 archetypes. Marketing Brillo can’t prove it, but the guess is that these archetypes emerge in the midst of every human endeavor, in every culture, nation, and tribe.

Consider the following 15 archetypes, along with a snippet of their representative quotes. What say you?

1. The Enthusiast. "Fabulous pictures of a fabulous event! We are all kids at heart and the photographer has captured that nicely."

2. The Mystic. "This makes me believe even more that nothing is accidental, Doug – you were supposed to be there with your camera at that exact moment ..."

3. The Hater. “GOD” has nothing to do with this or anything else. Get a life. Just a bunch of people having a good time. Why do you Jesus lovers always have to ruin everything by bringing god and religion into it??????"

4. The Art Critic. "I was not greatly impressed with your photos. Very few faces or expressions. The majority of pictures are hooded faceless mannequins in frozen tossing mode. I would have liked to have seen more expression of individuals . You did a few but not enough in this display. The sepia effect (no real zones) made the snow look dirty and the scene muted). I understand the circumstances were difficult but..." yada yada yada yada...

5. The Visionary. "Great photos! The absence of traffic and snow covered street make the scene look it was from another century. The space looks so human-sized and reminds me of paintings, Breugel, the Dutch artist did of villagers playing in the snow in the 16th century. I hope it was as fun for everyone as it looks. Did people choose sides? Was it a free for all? Was there a feeling of community? How did it end?"

6. The Peacemaker. "Nice pics and what a fun event. Pay no attention to Jim. Since you did check out his work, you can clearly see his skill level stops at the disposal camera buy-in level. I like what you did there."

7. The Politician. "Bloomberg’s notion of closing down part of Times Square to traffic doesn’t look so dumb after all."

8. The Joiner. "Hey! great photos! There’s a Facebook group for it now: The Times Square Snowball Fight of 2009."

9. The Cynic. "at least the cops did not break this snow ball fun up with their guns drawn!"

10. The High Priest. "If only for a moment humanity sheads the cloak of idiocy that is adulthood and exposes the elemental heart of the playful and innocent child that exists at the core of us all. Behold, if only for a moment, heaven existed in Times Square."

11. The Tribalist. "OHHHHH! THIS IS MY HOMETOWN! THIS is what I loved about NY. Food parties during blackouts, people helping people during crises…bigass impromptu snowball fights with total strangers!!!"

12. The Cheerleader. "THE PICTURES ARE WONDEFULL. THEY SHOW US THAT THERE IS JOY IN THE SIMPLEST THINGS. WE AS HUMANS NEED MORE TIMES LIKE THAT."

13. The Pornographer. "that was not a fucking blizzard you pussies. thats like a light covering"

14. The Observer. "I couldn’t help but notice that the guy a the bottom of the pile in the last photo appears to be wearing hockey skates. Is there a rink in Times Square somewhere?"

15. The Insider. OMG– I’m so happy you posted these.. I was there and got to experience it. This is one moment I will never forget. We had so much fun. It was my first trip to NY too! Amazing!"

It takes all kinds ... and that's the bad news.

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Is this the moment for Charitable PR that gives back to US?

By many accounts, advertising is washed up, in the toilet, a lost enterprise, wasted -- and good riddance. If you want the statistics, you’ll find some in this slideshare presentation from FutureLab ... or, if you just want to attend the funeral of traditional advertising, watch this sentimental video.

Does any of this explain why a lot of consumers -- and even some industry observers, past and current, here -- or here -- or here -- believe that the trillions spent on advertising every year is wasted? Maybe. And maybe it's time for somebody to take a risk, gamble, and win big. For instance ...

Suppose the companies that have the millions and billions gave the dough away to something people care about. We might call this gesture Charity Begins at Home PR.

What would happen if -- instead of spending $4 million in advertising, a company donated $4 million in health care benefits to its employees? How much free TV and print space might that earn? Might it be more coverage than they could ever buy for the same price?

Suppose some of us quit advertising and quit out-sourcing -- and then set aside the $20 million saved to hire people in the community to do the jobs being shipped overseas? ... Or what if we took that $30 million and built an eco-friendly factory in the U.S.?

Just wondering how far that measure of commonsense and exemplary behavior might get us. Wish I had the money to test it.

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A Tech-Savvy CEO Explains Why All Large Companies Must Also Be Media Companies

Credits to Tom Martin, who posted the video interview with Tom Wilde on his blog.

In the interview, Wilde talks about why and how large companies need to deal with audience fragmentation and deconstruction of content. “It used to be [that people consumed] a complete magazine, a complete program, a complete newspaper.. the Web has made it possible for users to deconstruct that content and consume just the pieces they are interested in.”

Such content deconstruction puts pressure on media companies to assure that content is consumed in the right context, that brand is protected, and that they can monetize that content effectively. He emphasizes that all large companies are now media companies. "Even if you’re a B2B manufacturer, you need to be a media company because that’s how marketing is going to take place.”

Wilde emphasizes that, for media companies, the big challenge is:
• how to I make my content more discoverable?
• how do I include engagement once people are on my site?

RAMP works with such companies as Reuters and CNBC to process their video content through a workflow process that richly attributes the content with timestamp transcripts, automatic tagging, and other special features. For example, the content optimization platform allows insertion of hyperlinks in text to mark up the content in specialized ways.

Content as it now exists needs to be “normalized,” he says, noting that RAMP spun out of BBN Technologies, the Boston-based defense-technology firm sold in October to Raytheon. Wilde explains that BBN’s rich speech detects, natural language processing, and search technologies were developed for national security applications. “We took that technology and have been steadily building solutions for large media companies.”

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Video Snacking Will Starve the Mind. Long Live the Knowledge Center.

Lucy Kellaway's article -- "When Too Much Information Harms the Office" -- was published in the U.K.’s Financial Times in late November. Kellaway wrapped up a story that’s been obsessing Marketing Brillo for months, to wit: What are people actually doing about information overload? Answer: Stuffing the ears, closing the blinds, shutting down.

Kellaway offers anecdotal feedback that workers aren’t reading anything. “The first comes from a friend who works in communications for a large organisation. She has noticed that her staff are responding to the information overload not by digesting too much of it, but by stopping to digest anything at all. She tells me that, in her company, the written word has lost almost all its power. No one reads e-mails any more - with the exception of those from the boss. Messages from anyone else are either deleted unread or given a cursory glance and then ignored.”

Counter-offensive #2 also is pretty shocking. Kellaway reports that companies are dealing with too much information by closing down their libraries and knowledge centers. “In one big consultancy, all the people who used to sort information into usable chunks have just been fired, and consultants have been told that they will have to 'self-service their knowledge needs'."

The buzz that prompted Kellaway’s article came from Carol Bartz, president and CEO of Yahoo, who contributes to The Economists’s “the World in 2010.” Bartz notes that -- in the free flowing information waterfall -- managers are losing control of employees. “That’s why the greatest mandate for leadership in business is the ability to cut through the information clutter and make clear decisions without apology. More than at any time, employees need—in fact, desperately want—unequivocal direction.” As for Yahoo itself, Bartz talks about video “snacks,” calling video the “cornerstone” of Yahoo’s strategy.

That's confusing. Where does a a preferred diet of light weight video snacks square with a CEO's mandate to lead, manage information overload, and make unapologetic, unequivocal decisions?

Snack video may be able to effortlessly quell hunger pangs for "vital information," but factoids have little to do with thought and judgment, and not a whit to do with leadership. Marketing Brillo sincerely hopes that CEOs will remotivate employees to consume a full-course of considered, well-written, prudent content, no matter how long it takes to serve it. Long live the knowledge center.

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I Felt I Had Failed As A Mother. Here's Why.

Roger Dooley writes about applying brain science to marketing and sales. Pointing to the famous John Caples ad, Roger tweeted the following: “Sell with stories, they light up the brain #neuromarketing."

Marketing Brillo agrees wholeheartedly that there is much to learn from classic advertising and recommends www.vintageadbrowser.com for a treasure trove of copywriting genius.

In the 30s and 40s, copywriters were telling complete stories to pull in the audience. Even today, silly and dated as vintage ads might seem, who can resist headlines like these from the 1930s?

“He called me a waster, but took it all back afterward.” (1930)

“Will their Dream come True, or will Sex Ignorance Mar their Happiness?” (1930)

Take the "young mom" market segment, for example, and consider whether 1930s and 1940s vintage advertising to that group doesn't include a few rich lessons for copywriters today. Test yourself. Take a look at the headline below and see if you, too, aren't compelled to read the first block of copy in this faux comic-strip ad from October 1943. In fact, see if you don't simply have to read it all the way through.

“I felt I had failed as a mother!”

Block 1: Once when my husband was away, Little Harry and I were home alone. Ordinarily, we’d have had a lot of fun “keeping house.” But this time, Barry needed a laxative. I tried giving him the same one his Father takes, but he balked at the taste, as I tried to force it down him. Afterward, he cried as I punished him by sending him to bed.

Block 2: I kept telling myself I’d done it for the child’s own good, but I couldn’t help having an awful feeling of guilt. Just then, Aunt Margaret dropped in and I told her about it.

Block 3: “Goodness,” she said, “forcing a child to take bad tasting medicine can upset his whole nervous system and may do him more harm than good . Why don’t you give him Castoria? It’s made especially for children.”

Block 4: “It’s pleasant tasting, so a child won’t struggle against taking it. And, Castoria is gentle and safe, yet effective. It doesn’t grip and won’t upset a youngster’s delicate insides. Ask your druggist.”

Block 5: Sure enough, my druggist said Aunt Margaret was right. He told me many doctors approve Castoria for children. He also said that, since it works almost naturally in 9 to 11 hours, it doesn’t disturb sleep.

Block 6: And he suggested the new Family size bottle, containing nearly 50% more Castoria at the same price. So I gave Harry Castoria the next time he needed a laxative. He loved the taste and it worked wonderfully.

You may have failed as a Mother, my friend, but you were a heckuva copywriter.

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Are You Among the Hopeless 20% of Business Executives Who Can’t Write A Decent Sentence?

Today I got an ad for a book called “Business Writing: 83 Tips to Keep You from Looking Dumb.” Maybe this is a good book. I don’t know. I do know it’s 20 pages long and costs $99, so there must be a market for executives who need to write stuff, have $100, and think it’s easy to buy a little book and get by.

If that describes you, good luck. Executives who are among "The Hopeless 20%" should definitely hire a professional. It's worth the cost to turn out cogent, convincing content that makes your organization look good. Otherwise, you are leaving a far worse impression than you imagine.

How do you know if you're hopeless? Even if you think you’re a good writer -- because some of the worst offenders sincerely believe they’re good (I know, because they tell me) -- you owe it to yourself and your organization to -- at least once -- ask an impartial professional for an honest evaluation of your writing. If, using the grading scale below, your writing earns a “C” or worse, hire a professional to write or, at least edit, your articles. Never mind protecting your own sorry reputation, this will absolutely, positively make a difference in how your business is perceived in the marketplace.

And now for the grades ... Over the years, I've been the editor of several monthly B2B publications, the content of which often is contributed by executives. I've seen lots of writing from non-writer folks in professional positions: department managers, PR people, even top executives. Here are the Business Writing 101 grades I’d give those executives.

• About 15 percent of the writing is excellent: concise, enticing, useful, clear. Grade A.
• About 20 percent needs a little work, but the thought-processes are solid and the writing is clear. A good editor can fix this up. Grade B
• Another 45 percent is mediocre and needs considerable editing for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. This groups also suffers from the most common flaw of inexperienced writers: flubbed structure. The reader leaves with no clear takeaway and a bad impression. Grade C
• The last 20 percent is God awful. Grade F. I read this failing 20 percent and shake my head. Maybe someplace in the article I can find a point, but when I do, the essential thought is so simple and obvious that two sentences would have been enough to say it. This writer has not only lost the audience, they’ve bored, perplexed, and irritated almost every reader. So what went wrong?

1. The writer doesn’t have a point to make! No time has been spent thinking. They just know they need to write 500 words to get into print and they don't care how they get there. Advice: If this is how you feel, get someone else to write the article.
2. The writer has no idea where to start, so he/she jumps into the topic and starts flailing in every direction at once. The result is an incoherent mess that no one wants to read. (Note: This sort of mess becomes brutally apparent by the third paragraph). Advice: Outline, outline, outline. The headline for a business article is the theme. The subheads are the points that support the theme. Arrange these in a logical sequence that carries the reader along and your writing will improve dramatically.
3. The writer has zero concept of punctuation. Increasingly, people use dashes and ellipses in place of periods, semi-colons, and commas. Why? Because they don’t know how to punctuate and figure little bits of squiggly will cover up the inadequacy. Advice: Writers who find themselves doing this should spy a huge Editorial Red Alert: Danger, Poor Writing Ahead.
4. The writer hates and fears writing. Marketing Brillo feels the same way about public speaking, so she can relate. Unfortunately, sometimes we can’t avoid our worst phobia. Advice: To make writing easier, always start with step two above. Then -- above all else -- keep it simple. No highfalutin words like “enterprise” where words like “company” will do. No jargon, few acronyms, zero adjectives (for example, delete all phrases like very useful, exceptionally good, really terrific, etc.) Kiss, Kiss, Kiss.

I realize these don't add up to 83 tips, but most stubborn business writers who refuse to hire professionals should be able to improve with these four bits of advice. Except for the hopeless 20 percent. You folks must hire a professional.

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Smart Phone Meets GPS, Meets Social Media, Meets Marketing

Last week, I saw a tweet that said, “I'm at Dupont Circle Park (Dupont Cir NW, 19th St NW & P St NW, Washington).” My first thought was, "Who cares?" But, then I figured it was time to learn a thing or two about the mobile GPS frenzy.

Some folks are playing “geo location games” like Urban Defender. Creepy, but not surprising. The serious push, of course, comes from the commercial side. Here’s how that can work.

Less than a month ago, on December 23, Twitter acquired Mixer Labs, the creators of geoAPI. This little smart phone app helps people find their sweet spots and – presumably – spend money.

Certainly, users want the purely informational stuff like GeoAPI’s Reverse Geocoder, which can take a latitudinal/longitudinal coordindate (that's a "lat/lon" to you) and convert it into people-speak (neighborhood, city, state, and country). Good to know. But that's not commercial yet.

GeoAPI also contains “deep data about 16 million businesses and tens of thousands of points of interest” (hours of operation, address, etc.). From there, customers can get seriously involved. Using GeoAPI’s “Entity Creation,” the user can annotate his or her own personal entries. For example, such citations as “awesome sidewalk art” or “best bargains ever,” enable the user to create a virtual world overlay to their own blocks and neighborhoods. Now we're talking customer-intelligence integrated with GPS. There's more.

GeoAPI’s “Media Layers” let the user integrate info from social media sites like Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube. This feature lets you check out tweets coming from Central Park in New York, or photos of the Native American Museum in D.C., or what New York insiders think about Magnolia Bakery (Lazy Sunday with 3.7 million YouTube views, proves that people will look).

GPS activity on smart phones will be big business, say experts. Referring to mobile GPS as a "new layer of the web, " Mashable's Pete Cashmore suspects location-sharing devices will be the "breakout services of the year." Loic LeMeur, founder of Seesmic, Inc., predicted that “Location will be one of the most widespread status update’s on Twitter." Max Gladwell calls geolocation "the trend for 2010," noting that a dozen companies already are in the space.

Can you hear me now?

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