The Adnostic

The more progressive marketers keep telling us that we're in an Age of Conversation, but I would never see any real evidence of it. Sure, consumers (aka real people) were talking amongst themselves, using communication tools and social nets to spread their words and keep the ambient intimacy going strong. But I rarely see brands take part.

There's Zappos, they're obviously on board and down with the Twitter. Carnival Cruise Lines is getting its microblogging on. Obama is a web 2.0 force of nature. Anything else? I was hopeful that AMC's MadMen was taking a progressive step in the right direction, but that turned out to be the fans taking matters into their own hands and getting burned for it.

I usually see them talking but I rarely hear them answering. It has to be tough to answer the public directly. There's lots of them and one of you. Who speaks for the company anyway? Do you have a community manager? If you're a passion brand you should.

Recently I saw two good examples of brands using YouTube to talk back.

First there was Samsung with its parody unboxing video. Unboxing is a meme where people show pictures or videos of taking their soon to be beloved objects out of the carefully designed packaging they came in. Its usually interesting, but not terribly exciting. Until Samsung asked Viral Factory to make a video for the soon to be released Omnia smart phone:

Then W+K made a viral directly responding to a video made by a fan of the Tiger Woods EA video game revealing a glitch in the then current/now previous version of the game where Woods can walk on water. W+K's video shows that it's not a glitch, "he's just that good."

They also made a video responding to a guy who posts how-to videos on solving a Rubix Cube:

It seems like W+K is finally getting a handle on this whole internet thingamagig. Way to go! About damn time!

via [LA Times, Ad Age, and NotCot]

To tell the truth, when Alex Johnson asked me to liveblog the DIY Days confernce last weekend, I wasn't expecting much. Mostly because it was a free conference and this is what I know of conferences that are either free or just dirt cheap - be prepared to be inundated with shameless self-promoters and an array of sales pitches throughout the day.

But much to my great surprise, it wasn't that at all. It was a really interesting day of people who made and distributed their movies or make video content outside of the traditional Hollywood system who sincerely wanted to tell their stories and help their fellow attendees do the same. For me, it was a bunch of great experiences and opinions of how to utilize the web for marketing on a budget.

Robert Greenwald Opening Keynote - A lot of information on how to best communicate via video online.

The Realities of DIY - Movie making is 10% filmmaking and 90% working out your distribution and getting it seen. If you're not prepared for that, then prepare to be disappointed.

Four Eyed Monsters - went massively in debt trying to find a distributor for their film by touring festivals. Along the way they videoblogged their adventures and built a fan base. By tracking this fan base and logging their requests to see the film they were able to go directly to local theaters with attendance estimates to screen their film in locations with a strong fan base.

We Are the Strange - I give M dot Strange credit A) for his name and B) for his enthusiasm. That and I wouldn't want to mess with his army of 14 year olds. He's a really great example of winning fans by teaching them what you know and involving them in the production process. Gay Kawasaki would call it "eating like a bird and pooping like an elephant."

Marshall Herskovitz Keynote - The bumpy tale of how he produced Quarterlife, built a community around it, and is still trying to raise enough capital to keep it going.

Moving Beyond the Screen - Tommy Polatta is actually a fan of BitTorrent. He did a sold out screening in South Korea where everyone in the audience had already seen the film online. 'If it wasn't for BitTorrent a lot of my stuff wouldn't get seen.'

Extending the Storyworld - This was about using alternate reality games as a marketing tool. Put people in the role of the protagonist and get them familiar with what they're up against. Sometimes you can develop a side story that parallels the film. If its successful, you can turn it into its own intellectuall property and your next project is half way done.

When the Audience Takes Control - You don't build a community, you serve a community that already exists.

I want to live a greener lifestyle. I want to move to a city with better public transportation so I can drive less. I try to avoid drinking bottled water by using a Britta filter for my daily drinking water, reusing the PET bottle a few times when I can't avoid it, and requesting a glass of the city's finest when I'm dining out. I carry a baggu bag with me wherever I go and use it at every possible occasion. I hardly have any plastic bags for trash anymore. I buy organic food even though its more expensive and I'm not gainfully employed. I recycle sparingly, but I want to increase that effort once I'm in my own place (my roommate isn't much for recycling so I hide my bottles and cans in the neighbors' recycling bins). I want to start buying carbon offsets eventually, but I'm not sure if that's any more effective than investing in socially responsible mutual funds. And so on, and so forth.

Here is what I don't want to be - I don't want to be a green know-it-all or a nag, but I'm worried. I'm worried that the sense of an immediate need for a united effort, from for businesses and consumers, isn't being felt and that a greater part of society isn't taking it seriously or doesn't believe it at all. It's not like I am completely certain that increasingly severe weather patterns are a continuous trend and not just a blip along the history of existence. But this video made it easy for me decide:

- If we do nothing and there is no climate crisis, then things continue as they are.
- If we do nothing and global warming continues, disaster is immanent.
- If we so something and climate change abates, then we consume less, are energy independent, produce less waste, etc.
- If we do something and the climate crisis turns out to be very real, then hopefully we can do enough to end or even reverse the pattern of causation.

Either way, it is far better to do something than to do nothing.

But what can we do? According to this article in the New York Times, many people who want to do something feel paralyzed by conflicting messages.

"An environmentally conscientious consumer is left to wonder: are low-energy compact fluorescent bulbs better than standard incandescents, even if they contain traces of mercury? Which salad is more earth-friendly, the one made with organic mixed greens trucked from thousands of miles away, or the one with lettuce raised on nearby industrial farms? Should they support nuclear power as a clean alternative to coal?"

Sure, we would all like to see the issue as black and white - if we do these things then the planet will be saved, but its usually not that simple. Especially for the larger purchases. The only way we can cease to have an impact is to not consume at all, otherwise, everything else is a trade off. Bamboo floor vs. wood = renewable resource vs. smaller carbon footprint. It is the act of making a conscious decision to weigh the costs and benefits to the earth and our future well-being that is important.

Therefore, it is our job as marketers to empower consumers to weigh the pluses and minuses without feeling overwhelmed by them. The M&S carbon footprint label is a good start, but it only tells one part of the story. We can't be can't all be Ed Begley Jr. (he's a borderline nutcase), but we can at least have the information we need to make the buying decisions that make us more good than bad.

I had a friend who insisted on giving every single one of her friends a gift. I really wish she didn't because she always just ended up giving everyone the same piece of if-not-junk-then-awfully-close that she got from the dollar store. I had never meant the words "you shouldn't have" more than when she bestowed her holiday generosity upon me, and then I would sneak a sorrowful look of solidarity towards her other victims.

People, don't be that person. If you can't think of anything good to give then don't give anything at all. Gifting crap that people don't really want only creates an artificial demand for useless shit that will either collect dust or eventually wind up in a landfill. The best possible result would be that it becomes a booby gift in a White Elephant game, and even then it will still be just another piece of eventual trash.

As for myself, I am a highly skilled ninja warrior of gift giving. I try to genuinely think of the person I am giving something to when I shop and put their tastes and desires before my own. I also listen to them throughout the year as they tell me about their interests or new hobbies that they're starting and buy gifts accordingly. I don't always hit the mark, but I think I succeed far more often than I fail.

The only person who regularly stumps me is my father because he buys everything he wants when he wants it and anything that I could possibly find that he doesn't know about he wouldn't want. It would go into the crap pile, so I make him find his own gifts and tell me what to get. Then we pretend that it was a surprise. Collective denial is essential within families.

Okay, so now there's you. Maybe you suck at gift giving, or maybe you're just looking for outside sources of inspiration, or maybe you're just looking for something that doesn't scream "I bought this at the mall." I have two words for you - Shopping Blogs. If you read this blog regularly then you probably already know about these, but if you don't then check them out and at the very least get some inspiration. MightyGoods, Uncrate, NotCot, and Outblush are some great examples.

I'm not saying that there isn't a need for generic gifts. There will always be a need for the mass impersonals, office gifts are the perfect example, all I'm saying is don't just give people stuff (that's a personal thing, I'm anti-stuff, other people sometimes like to accumulate things that serve no purpose beyond just sitting there, but not me) (vinyl sculptures that look freaking awesome on my desk are exempt from this rule) and for god's sake please stop giving candy. Isn't it bad enough that we gain 5lbs every holiday season without the extra help?

So what's the perfect generic gift? Alcohol. Namely wine. I say wine because there are very few people in this world who do not appreciate a good bottle of wine, and even the people that don't can bring it or break it out at their next dinner party for people who do. Ah, perfection. Ask your local wine merchant for a good "value" selection and get yourself a case. If you think far enough ahead, you can even take advantage of the BevMo 5¢ Sale. A full price wine tastes just as good as a half price wine. Hellz yeah.

Then there are the people you just don't know what to do with. They don't need anything, they don't want anything, and you have no idea how to satisfy their tastes. Do not be tempted to even try with these people because you are likely to fail and will waste your money. Let someone else give them something pointless and unmemorable or allow someone who knows them better to succeed. In these cases I suggest charity. Nothing says "you are impossible to buy for so I got an outhouse in a 3rd world country in your name" than charity. You can even personalize it buy giving a donation to a cause that person may have some real or idealistic connection to.

Happy holidays. Good luck with your shopping (I just finished last week, ha ha ha ha ha), and mind the crap.

PS - for you designers out there who keep lecturing us about being more selective in our consumption (buy less of better), that goes for you too.

Notes from the SXSW 2007 Interactive panel on Perspectives on Designing for Global Audiences.

- One size fits all vs. Localization
-- (web immaturity) communication -> e-commerce -> entertainment (web maturity)

- You risk alienating users if you try to use a global stamp
-- Nokia understands local language and product usage

- Any time a brand is one the web, it is a global player. Think ahead.
-- What do you globally standardize in your brand? Logo? Message? Strategy?

- Build a strategy from what your brand is trying to do.
- Empower regional effiliates to leverage their local understanding of the market.
-- Hire locally. Collaborate.

- How does the US keep up with international tech adoption rates?
-- Regional contacts, current employees from other countries, local research
--- Discount usability is better than no usability at all.
-- Avoid analysis paralysis
-- Make sure that you can modify your designs easily
-- Make the target country your next vacation destination
-- Create a "war room" with trend and cultural info
-- Know the audience

- Other countries are leapfrogging entire stages of technology adoption

- South America hates rich media
-- The see it as a barrier to the information that they really want

- Geir Hoffstead research paper

- What is the highest compliment that your product can receive? "That's Cool!"

- Steve Jobs views on products from 1984
-- Technology
--- It shouldn't be like the quote from Samuel Johnson, "A dog on two legs doesn't walk particularly well, but it's amazing that it’s done at all."
-- Features
--- Not overcomplicated like 2nd generation VCRs, more about the features than the task
-- Experience
--- A beautiful elegant solution that works

- Find what people want to do and design the experience and technology around that.

- Products are people too (reactions)
-- Designing products with personality (TiVo)
-- People know who they are
-- Lack of identity results in products that don't satisfy the user experience
--- User Interface -> Logic -> Data

- Experience design strategy
-- Articulate experience vision
-- Leverage the system
--- No user application can fix a bad system
--- Fix the functionality where it is broken

- The Experience is the Product
-- iPod Experience/System
--- Play <-> Manage <-> Acquire

This was an internal video that was apparently leaked to YouTube by a more tech savvy Kodak employee and it's freaking brilliant. This is a great first step towards shaking up an established and stale brand image. It acknowledges it's own shortcomings, pokes fun at itself, and promises a brighter future in a crazy "oh screw it" kind of way that I desperately want to believe.

Good luck, Kodak. I hope you make it.

When I was a pre-pube, the only thing I wanted from Hermes was a Steinkraus close-contact saddle, I was fairly sheltered and my knowledge of brands reflected this. Unless I could buy it at the saddlery or through the Dover catalogue, I was oblivious. Kids today are a wee bit different . . . .

Dressed in pink Uggs, Seven jeans and a matching pink sweater and cap, Elizabeth Cohen looks the epitome of hip as she winds her way through the holiday crowds at the Grove shopping center in Los Angeles. She is a discerning consumer — her Ugg boots are not knockoffs, and she names Prada and Dolce & Gabbana as her favorite brands. She's also 10 years old.

Children are earning their own money through allowances and odd jobs, they are more aware of designer brands through celebrity and fashion driven media as well as their parents purchases and are therefore become educated and discerning consumers at an early age. This is a growing base of consumers who understand, seek out, and purchase good design.

Now if only we can get them more interested in effecting environmental and social issues through dollar voting. That's a thought for the future.

LA Times - Gucci and Prada for the Under 13 Crowd

Tom Kelly (Ten Faces of Innovation)

- Anthropologist, Experimenter, Cross-Pollinator, Collaborator, Caregiver, Director, Hurdler, Set Designer, Storyteller, Experience Architect
- People don't store data, they keep stories
- Innovation roles battle the Devil's Advocate role

Michael Stanat - Understanding the Future of China

- China's Generation Y has an affinity for Western values
- Much change in the last 10 years
- Largest socio-economic gap
- Sea of Western influences (ideas, brands, internet)
- Not willing to sacrifice cultural ideals
- Family oriented
- Third World consumers with a First World appetite
- Motivted and optimistic but dissatisfied
- No roadmap to the future
- China's Little Emperors (results of the single child policy)
-- Limits social skills
- Generation Gap, escape through the internet
- Education is memorization, desire for Western style of teaching individuality and creativity
- Suicide is cause of 90% of young adult deaths
- Unable to what you really want to do, pressure for all around excellence
- Spend 1 - 12 hours/day on the internet (games, chat, email)
- Excessive internet usage is medically diagnosed as Internet Syndrome (superstition)
- Copies of Western TV shows (Supergirls = American Idol)
- Dreams of the good life = white collar, nice cars, travel, want to buy houses for their parents)
- Exciting careers (celebrity, cartoon design)
-- Disconnect from older generation with a desire of a life outside of a career
- Impact on diesgn's future (own voice vs. Western influence)
- Piracy will prevent design community reaching it's full potential
- ChinaGenY.com

Nell Daniel (Sweat Equity Enterprises)

- Teens have creative power
- Creative sector is growing faster than Wall Street
- Lack of quality creative training in schools
- 85% NYC school drop out rate due to lack of relevance
- Use areas of interest (products, fashion, music) to engage students
- Companies having to go overseas for creative talent
- Link youth with industry (they can learn from each other)
- Lauch awareness campaign BigFatF.com
- School systems are tough to change
- We are all interested in public schools
- Cultivation of a diverse, talented workforce
- Partnership with Marc Ecko, considered to be a hot new business model
- 100% return rate
- Entrepenurial philanthropy
- For-profit and non-profit agendas working together

Roger Martin (Toronto Rotman School of Business) - Designing in Hostile Teritory

- Reliability (consistent, replicable, minimize judgement, business people) vs. Validity (outcome meets objective, disverse variables, integration of judgement, designers)
- Take "design unfriendliness" as a design challenge
-- Bring the same level of enthusiasm
- Empathize with diesgn unfriendly elements
-- Understand fears of not going with norms
- Speak the language of reliability
-- "this is cool" vs. best practices
-- Turning up the volume doesn't work
- Use analogies and stories
-- Something in the past is consistent with idea/solution
- Bite off as little a piece as possible to generate proof
-- It doesn't have to be all or nothing

LiAnne Yu (Cheskin) - Exporting Fast Food to China

- Connect brand to China's New Culture of Cool
- Ethnographies in Guatemala and China
- Focus Groups
- China's familial ideals
- Latin America represents a freedom and a sexiness that China is aspiring to (a world outside their own)
- Pollo Campero ~ in Guatemala it is cheap food with great service, a great equalizer
- Pizza Hut ~ in China it offers a dining experience, people make salad sculptures using the all-you-can-eat salad bar (big hit), they save money so that they can go on weekends
- Cheap not necessarily the way to go to appeal to the growing middle class
- Restaurants represent windows to the world
-- Most Chinese can't afford t go abroad
- Child's needs comes first
-- Wherever the kids want to go
-- More because of socialization, lonley, no peer context

Ji Lee - The Bubble Project

I decided to blog my notes from the AIGA GAIN Design Means Business Conference. I hope that they are at least somewhat understandable to the outside world.

Guess what?! The confrence is carbon neutral! Woo Hoo!

Designer 2015 Survey - What are the professional requirements for designers ten years from now?

Tom Kelly (IDEO) - Introduction

- Designers were once considered a cute fashion accessory to business. Now they're front page news.
- Deigners enjoy a new status as trusted advisors.
- There's a lot of money on the table because we haven't fully tapped into the power of design.
- Design is a value generator, a catalyst for love and hate
- Design can add personality to an object. Beauty with a smile.
- From design to design thinking. D(esign) school holds the same respect as B(usiness) school.
- Companies with a steady commitment to design were rewarded with lasting competitiveness.

Moira Cullen - Breaking Down Silos: The Evolution of Brand Collaboration

- Silos, and the turf wars they enable, devastate organizations.
- 1930's: Neil McElroy - Proctor & Gamble, the founder of brand management
- 1950's: Brand image - separating products from brands
- 1970's: Brand positioning - owning a unique position in the consumer's mind
- 1980's: A brand's equity is worth more than the physical assets of the company

- 1770: Design Management - Wedgwood buying the services of local artisans
- 1940: Consumer oriented design - Lucky Strike cigarettes
- 1950: Business oriented design - IBM logo redesigned for business success
- 1980: Corporate oriented design - corporate identity, mostly used for PR

- Old Thinking: Brand = Marketing, Design = Production, Brand = Intangibles, Design = Cost

- The Internet is a space of value
- Progression of economic value: commodities > goods > services > engagement
- Progression of human value: Maslow's hierarchy of needs, physiological >>> self realization

- The balance of power has shifted from businesses to consumers
- 70% of decisions are emotionally based
- We are moving into an emotional economy
- Design is the soul of man-made creation

- Communities of creation - Users are as important as the product (YouTube, Google, Flickr, Etsy)
- Networked communities are acting like businesses and businesses are acting like networked communities (eBay)

- Emotion and Engagement are the new product differentiators
- Transaction Marketing > Relationship Marketing > Engagement Marketing

- Simplicity is the shortest path to a solution
- Design is the best conversation you can have with your organization
- Consumers are co-creating brands, value relationships, design as connection
- Silos are more effective when flat

Bo Barber (Nood) and Michael Hendrix (Tricycle) - All Look, No Feel

- Carpet samples for interior design are a major source of needless environmental waste
- Tricycle developed a way to deliver high resolution, color accurate, virtual or paper samples of carpet to make interior design decisions (via email, iPods)
- Preserve the experience while changing tactics
- It's not about carpet; it's about sustainable design
- Nood is a floor covering fashion brand that completely relies on Tricycles sample delivery tactics
- Nood owner believes that Tricycle designers speak the language of other designers better than suits, "The less I get it, the better."
- Stuff is a commodity. Service is not.
- See journal online

Bobby C. Martin Jr. (Jazz at Lincoln Center) - Creative is Not a Service, It's a Necessity (A Short Story)

- 'Moody doesn't sell.' Ignore them and go with what you think is right. Told client it was going to be magenta, ordered hot pink.
- 'But I thought you promised.' I promised before the 10,000 revisions of the original creative.
- As an in-house designer you have to be an authority on all things.

Scott Williams (Starwood Hotels) - Execute the Obvious to Rise Above the Competition

- We asked customers what they wanted, they told us, and we fixed it
- Keep your eyes open. Observe. Indifference kills. Falling trees are the most common cause of death among beavers.
- When customers adopt products into their daily lives, the company wins (Heavenly Beds at Home). When customers recommend products and change behavior, the company wins.
- Use observational research to fight indifference (surveillance tapes). Customers are not always able to articulate their needs and desires in a focus group, but it is revealed in their behavior.
- First and last impressions of a brand are the most important.
- Read NY Magazine "Group Thinker": Focus groups only confirm what the company already knows. They are comforting and directional.
- Brands that engage emotionally make more money.
- Consumers using brands for self esteem and recognition. ("I'll be a Platinum member in two days.")
- Why are people using your products and services? Watch and learn.

Shane Brentham (AutoDesk) and Kevin Farnham (Method) - Brand and Interface Innovation: Method and Autodesk Build Profitability Through Design

- Look at the experience people have with your brand.
- International web sites: consistent look and feel, consistent information architecture
- Customer centric user experience.
- The web site is a reflection of the user community, not the product
- User expectation deep dives
- Learn to ask big questions (change course mid-design process)
- Trust leads to innovation (strong designer/client relationship)
- Customer centric design processes are the foundations of any strategy

One thing that I could not help noticing while I was at Bumbershoot was all the parents and their kids. Now Bumbershoot is a relatively kid friendly event compared to other music festivals, but it isn't exactly Disneyland either. They have a kid's science activity area and allow people to play in the fountains, but that's about it. Otherwise the programming is somewhat adult.

I saw parents sitting with their kids and grooving to the New Pornographers or dancing with them on their shoulders. I witnessed the lead singer from Of Montreal freak out over the fact that there were five year olds in the audience and asked them to use "earmuffs" as he continued to drop the f-bomb. While we were waiting for Atmosphere to take the stage on the last night, the father sitting next to us in his Piston's jersey broke out a mini-DVD player and earphones for his daughter to watch Toy Story before and during the concert. When did this start happening? When did a cutting edge music and arts festival become a normal avenue for family bonding?

Never before in history has it been so easy for people to stay on top of what is cool and trendy than with today's internet culture. Today's parents are choosing to not trade in their sneakers for a pair of loafers or their low-slung designer jeans for a pair of Gap chinos. They are redefining what it means to be a grown up and how to act their age. Sure, their maturity grows over time just the same as it always did, but they've begun to realize that they don't have to put away the trappings of their youth anymore. It is no longer uncool to be the one creepy old fart at an MIA concert because there will probably be at least a dozen other matures there with you and one of them probably brought their five year old with a pair brightly colored ear protectors at the ready. These are Grups - adults who are not ready to accept the traditional characteristics of adulthood and are still sensitive to pop-culture.

As an old co-worker once put it, "Your thirties are just like your twenties with more money." And young parents are incorporating what they enjoy into family together time. Just because you gave birth doesn't mean you're dead or that you suddenly don't enjoy the same things you enjoyed nine months before, and although little Johnny may not be able to truly appreciate Death Cab for Cutie just yet, but he'll learn and it's a damn sight more enjoyable than listening to the Wiggles non-stop every car ride.

These grup offspring may be just along for the ride right now, covering their ears to the strains of "Spanish Techno" or being more interested in the movie or the people behind her than the two rappers on stage, but that's temporary. These children will eventually appreciate the performances they go to and probably at a much younger age than you or I. But then what? Here you have an eleven year old who thinks hanging out with her parents at a show with The Rapture is an awesome night out, but do you really think that s/he will still feel that way in a few years once puberty sets in? Children naturally require an outlet for rebellion with the onslaught of puberty. How will they establish their independence and self-possession from parents who think that getting your eyebrow pierced or a wrist tattoo is kind of cool. You know that they're going to find a way to push mom and dad's buttons and when they do it's not going to be pretty.

What is the future for these kids? For these parents? When is that Misfits t-shirt going start looking way too dated on that middle-aged body? Will their kids join the Young Republicans while their parents shake their heads and hope that it’s just a phase? What about drugs and alcohol? Will the trademark grup tendency to treat and talk to their children as equals circumvent any travel down a path deemed too dark? Will adult hearing loss one day reach epidemic proportions?

In the mean time, I foresee an increasing market for youth sized band merch, kid-sized earmuffs in bright funky colors, hearing aids, kid-friendly rock bands and concerts, child/parent "time out" areas concert venues both small and large, and unobtrusive GPS tracking/paging systems for when kids get older and want to head off to another stage on their own.

As for myself, having kids is not a high priority at the moment, and it may very well be that I never procreate, but as we were exiting the Main Stage after the New Pornographers, I looked at The Zen Master and said, "If we ever do have kids, can we be the kind of parents that take our kids to places like this?" He smiled, looked back at me, and said, "Of course we will."

Grups together forever.

[all photos (except one) courtesy of Dave Shea]

Sometimes, if you are extremely close to a project, it's good to get an objective opinion before you do something somewhat irreversible, like buy a domain name and spend money promoting it.

Case in point, our sister agency wanted us to buy the following url:

See anything amiss. Our agency couldn't stop laughing when we got back to the office.

Here's a few more examples of good names that don't go well together. It's like peaches and cream cheese. Peaches are good. Cream cheese is good. Peach flavored cream cheese is NASTY. You'll just have to trust me on that one.

I was once watching a friend of mine and his brand new band open for a much bigger band, and afterwards we were talking.

Me: I like the new band. You sound really good. (I was lying. They were okay, but needed to practice more. A lot more.)

Music Man: Thanks. I want it to be just like this. I want to just focus on the music and not worry about the business side of things.

I simply stood there and nodded and decided it was best that I didn't beg him to never quit his bartending job, because when I used my internal Instant Musician Speak Translator, this is what I was really hearing:

"Trying to be a successful musician is too hard. I just want play my guitar, get lucky and score some gigs every once in a while because I know the owners of the club and not because I can actually draw an audience, and not put in the time and effort it would take to market myself, build a sizable fan base, tour, and land a record deal. I'm pretty sure I can still get laid this way."

It has always been a sneaking suspicion of mine that some people (not all, just some) become actors, artists, or musicians because it looks like easy work. Recite some lines, paint a picture, or sing a song and you're done for the day. You have "worked." It must be a real shock for these slackers to realize that the people who are actually successful at these vocations work very very hard.

Successful actors often jokingly refer to themselves as Professional Auditioners. They just run from audition to audition to audition and get rejected 90% on the time. They constantly market themselves to managers and casting agents through websites, videos, postcards, headshots, anything they can get their hands on.

Artists have to market themselves to gallery owners, collectors, and curators in much the same way.

I am always a little weary when a musician says he or she wants to stay independent. Not that I don't think that is great, but I sometimes wonder if they really understand what they are saying. When a band decides to go it alone they are undertaking all of the marketing, financing, and sales that would normally be handled by the label. They can no longer say that they are just about the music, because they're not. They are about the business too.

The Internet has made it a lot easier to do this. International exposure can be accomplished with nothing more than a web site, an email address, and a MySpace page. The bands that are really using these tools to their advantage realize that the Holy Grail for them is the same as it is for every interactive marketer: one-to-one communication.

For a baby band it is not enough that people just dig your music anymore, they have to feel like they know you too. You blog regularly and people read it. If a fan sends you an email you answer it personally and genuinely, not with a form letter and sooner rather than later. You give away free samples of your music and you give people a reason to buy the album and come to the show. Fans these days need more than just a good song, they need to like you as a person too. If they like you AND your music then they will be just that more likely to buy an album or see your show at that shitty bar in the middle of nowhere.

It may take more effort to gain a fan base these days, but the fans you do get through one-to-one marketing will follow you to your grave, or at least until the point you completely sell out and start selling your songs for toilet paper commercials.

My name is Lauren, and I do not work in the music industry. Take this for what it is worth.

I hope you're glad I don't take myself too seriously, because if I did you wouldn't get to see buzz word magic like this:

All joking aside, a word to wise marketers looking to expand their interactive marketing budget - when a company throws buzz word after buzz word at you, but puts no real thought or tangible tracking and analytics into their strategy, then be prepared to receive no return on your investment. I know a few SEM firms who are very good at that.

Marketing without accountability is stupid.

I found out yesterday that News Corp. has bought Intermix Media, the parent company of MySpace. This is the equivalent of finding out your boyfriend has been sleeping with Anne Coulter on the side, it's the best sex he's ever had, she's pregnant, and they're going to get married.

God I feel dirty. Time for a long hot shower and a brand new loofa.

Ad:Tech is a tri-annual interactive advertising and marketing conference held in New York, San Francisco, and Chicago. The industry's best and brightest show up schmooze, speak, learn, and party.

This year the San Francisco meeting invited bloggers to broadcast their impressions in semi-real time. This is great for people who want to go, but don’t have the personal capital or company backing to buy a ticket and finance the trip. People, like myself.

There was one entry that struck me as just plain wrong on multiple levels. Brad Waller has an entry under Exhibit Hall Observations entitled Booth Babes and Other Attractions, which talked about Search Engine Optimization, Inc.'s strategy of using a couple buxom girls in tight tank tops emblazoned with the catch phrase of "Wanna be on Top?" to attract attention from potential customers.

Now, I don't want to come off like a bra-burner, and I'm not about to claim that sex doesn't sell (it always has and it always will), but this is an awfully base stunt for a professional conference with a good portion of attendees being educated females. Why would any professional services firm alienate half of their potential audience?

The post has been edited significantly to remove the author's juvenile odes of appreciation for the booth babes since I first read it, but I'm still a little irked.

Both Mr. Waller and SEO, Inc. could have shown some class.