ShabuStation

Reflections of Zuccotti Park

2011-11-17T22:00:00.001-08:00

Earlier this week the Occupy Wall Street protest that originated in Lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park was disbanded by local authorities. In late October I had occasion to visit New York City and made a point to visit ground zero of arguably the most unified grass roots protest movement seen in this country since the 1970’s “No Nukes” or the “NOW” women’s rights movement in the 1980’s.

As I circled the park I was immediately struck with the sheer diversity of views, opinions, and axes to grind represented among the protesters. While much of the discourse taking place between protesters and passersby was centered around the unequal distribution of wealth, that apparent focus was lost among the competing voices and signage touting everything from water conservation and recycling, to trade imbalance with China and veteran’s rights.

At face value this lack of clarity may have made it easy to dismiss “the cause”. However the voices I heard spoke, sang, recited and shouted in such earnest tones about their respective issues, it was hard to deny the collective frustration that became, in fact, their unified call. Poet Michael O'Brian gives voice to the frustration as well as the paradox of American society in his spoken word poem "I'm A Pac Man":

Free Speech in action: I was also deeply moved by the powerful evidence OWS gave to our country’s long honored right of free speech. Regardless of the point of view— conservative, liberal, anarchistic—every point of view was not only able to be expressed, but respectfully so.

To be clear I did observe stimulated debate and vocal disagreement between parties, but at no point did participants attempt to repress or subdue opposing points of view. Every issue that had an advocate or a voice was given a platform and designated place to express itself. Given what we know to be the very opposite case in many societies around the world, OWS, if almost because of its many inherent contradictions, at its core, is a movement that celebrates the right of free speech, a right that can easily be taken for granted were it not for the existence of a movement like OWS that displays it so prominently.

For these reasons—unity in frustration over an economic system that many would agree creates serious divisions and disenfranchises the least able among us and, as a testament to free speech as a vital component of democratic society—we all should be very proud, if not grateful, that OWS took root first in this country and clearly has inspired many around the world to raise their voices for change.

OWS also serves as an important reminder that democracy is always messy. But would we really rather have it any other way?

Washington State Budget Cuts - Opportunity In Our Midst?

2010-12-22T12:52:00.000-08:00

Taking a moment to look beyond the headlines and hyperbole, I thought it would be helpful from a business development perspective to identify exactly which services are being impacted by the state budget cuts and see if there are any new business opportunities that might emerge.

Nature abhors a vacuum and, I suspect, given the gaps created in the budget, entreprenuers and private sector companies will be examining the same data and seeing where they might enter the market with new/improved/more cost effective products or services to close the gaps.

Some sectors and relevant businesses that might be in position to exceute against this opportunity in 2011:

What do you think? Are you or your company executing against this opportunity? Please post your comments below.

Our time is now

2010-04-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Two thought provoking videos that, when bookended, really open my eyes to the possibilities/potential inherent in digital media. This is a great time be an artist, producer, film maker, developer, publisher, advertiser, entrepreneur. Our time is now.

VIV Mag Featurette: A Digital Magazine Motion Cover and Feature for the iPad from Alexx Henry on Vimeo.

Strategies for Successful Stock Shooting: What Images Buyers Want and Why

2010-04-09T18:29:00.000-07:00

What happens when you pair top art buyers from Microsoft’s Bing and Starbucks, with editors from Getty, Corbis and Danita Delimont Agency and ask them to share their knowledge of what images they buy/sell and why? Well, whether you are an art buyer/editor/designer or a photographer/producer, if you were in attendance at "Strategies for Successful Stock Shooting" hosted by ASPP you walked away with a boatload of insights that should help improve your chances of success in the worldwide stock image marketplace.

Danita Delimont, founder of her namesake agency led off the evening with her recommendations for photographers that want to crack the broad market for travel and nature images targeted at editorial markets for textbooks, magazines, and online:

Consider all media: Buyers are integrating still images and video across a range of media both print and onine. Photographers who create images that are shot to meet the unique requirements of each media will be rewarded with a greater share of sales. Empowered with DSLR cameras capable of capturing HD video, Delimont recommended photographers add footage to their repertoire. Doing so can grow sales by offering clients both still and moving images of the same subjects/locations.

Local content for global markets: Danita stressed the importance of having deep coverage of local subjects and work with agents in international markets who won’t have the ability to produce the depth of images photographers can create literally in their own backyards. Delimont used the example of placing images from San Juan Islands with an agent in Japan, whose Japanese photographers had little coverage of the San Juans, but for which Japanese tour operators regularly request images.

Ever dream of having your images viewed by one of the largest audiences on the Web? If you are bent on creating unique images that can accommodate Bing’s prominent search bar, Kathleen Green, chief photo editor for Bing shared her criteria for selecting images for one of the world’s most highly trafficked URLs:

“I want to know more”: Supporting Bing’s primary identity as a search engine, Green and her team of editors look for images that only begin to hint at the story that belies the image. Bing makes ample use of mouse-overs that reveal additional information about every image inviting users to click and learn more. Green cited the high volume of email Bing receives from teachers and students who are return to Bing specifically to enhance their teaching and learning.

The overall qualities Bing uses to evaluate images: Evocative. Intriguing. Poetic. Beautiful. The preferred subject matter:

Big nature (include people only to show scale).
Surprise: Whether nature, wildlife or travel, images need to hold some form of surprise
Critters, critters and baby critters: Cute, cuddly, and huggable
Humor
Unique Destinations: whether an industrial site or world heritage site, users love exploring new destinations
Familiar locations with a unique POV
Sports yes, but nature, travel, humor get far more clicks so sports shots must be unique

Here are just a few examples Green shared with the audience and give evidence of the criteria used to select images for Bing.

As Community Manager for Getty Images’ Flickr forum, Tom Wear has a unique perspective monitoring both buyer trends as well as global creative trends among thousands of Flickr photographers now represented by Getty Images. Tom provided stats on Getty’s best selling images from Rights Managed and Royalty Free collections.

Trends among best sellers include:

Green images: whether simple compositions of a water droplet at the tip of a fern frond or a field of wind turbines with a child flying a paper airplane in the foreground, green images are some of the most in-demand and highest selling images.

Abstract: Images that give creatives flexibility to communicate themes/messages as well as allow maximum flexibility to adapt images to layouts. A long exposure image of streaked headlights on a Los Angles freeway has been used for telecom, energy, finance and medical clients generating over $20,000 in sales.

Concepts sell: A simple of image of a cross-cut log communicates multiple concepts (longevity, tradition, time passage, etc) and as a result enjoys repeat sales totaling more than $16,000 to date.

Skylines: Often used as an icon or metaphor to quickly convey place names, skylines are always in demand. And, since buildings change the look of skylines over time, images always need to be refreshed.

Hyper-local: Become an expert on unique locations, the time of day/year that yield images only a local can capture. Tom cited an example of “Manhattan-henge” which apparently only a few dedicated local NYC photographers know when to shoot and as a result, have created a unique vantage point of NYC that is now in demand from advertising and editorial clients alike.

Hyper-realistic: Moving beyond gimmick, HDR images are gaining in popularity with image buyers especially when applied to familiar scenes. Wear showed images of an oft photographed Hiroshima memorial to show how HDR enhanced the mood of the image making it distinct and appealing to buyers.

Here is a screen shot of Getty Images 2009 top selling rights managed and royalty free images Wear shared with the audience.

Starbucks makes ample use of images to caffeinate its global brand. Sr. Art Buyer Jodi Morrison, works with a large team of designers, artists and illustrators to produce everything from packaging, products and displays that appear in Starbucks stores worldwide. Because of their unique requirements to distribute products globally, Starbucks often prefers to license royalty free images to simplify distribution and avoid the additional time and expense required to meter rights management.

Images are typically integrated with designs and as such get selected based on their ability to adapt to a pre-conceived design or layout. Morrison shared this example where she was asked to source images to match a layout an artist had conceived who then combined several RF images to create the final design:

Starbucks also maintains a corporate image library that it makes available to its design and marketing teams in its Seattle headquarters. All images are licensed for worldwide global rights and while fees paid to photographers per image are lower than traditionally commanded for worldwide rights, but participating photographers are licensing more images and hence generating significant revenue.

As an editor for one of the world’s most prestigious image libraries, Corbis’ Carl Gronquist, Director of Editorial Photography, has the privilege to work with world-renowned photographers like Frans Lanting, Louie Psihoyos, Stuart Westmoreland, plus many others. Gronquist shared some of their great images and analyzed why their work continues to be in demand.

Eye contact: Whether beast or bird, images that allow views to make eye contact with subject often wind up on the best seller list.

Unique POV: Gronquist showed several images from photographer Paul Souders portfolio that illustrated Souders command of POV. Whether getting in close to a feeding whale or floating beneath melting icebergs, Souders point of view conveys a powerful story within a single frame that viewers can instantly react to.

Unique icons: Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower and Taj Mahal images are a dime a dozen, but in the hands of a master photographer these all too familiar icons are captured with a fresh perspective. Gronquist’s example was a perspective of the Taj framed by an adjoining archway with the silhouette of two small birds compositionally arranged in the image foreground to emphasize the unique perspective and scale of the Taj in the background. Always look for the unusual angle, light, juxtaposition, etc when photographing the familiar and buyers will take notice.

Closing the presentations the panel responded to Q&A. Moderator Mark Ippolito posted the quested asked whether buyers prefer to buy from photographers directly, agencies or websites. Among this group of buyers, there was a stated preference for buying from photographers directly and both were open to getting emails and viewing online portfolios. Morrison emphasized the importance of responsiveness, turnaround and convenience whether working with an individual photographer or large agency. Morrison keeps a tickler file of photographers whose work she admires and will often call them for stock and assignments when the right opportunity arises.

Referencing the depressed economy, agency panelists and buyers alike all cited the challenges of having to do more with less. Delimont commented that publishers are allocating a specific percentage of budget to lower cost microstock and royalty free images creating downward pressure on pricing for rights managed images. A bright spot, Green commented that while budgets have been tightened, images remain an important element to Microsoft’s overall marketing and promotion efforts and hence healthy budgets have been preserved for getting the images they need.

Thanks to the panelists for their generosity and all the volunteers at ASPP for putting together this terrific event.

A podcast of the entire event is also available on the ASPP website.

All event photos in this post provided courtesy of Tom Wolken.

Future Of News: Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

2009-12-29T13:45:00.000-08:00

Serving as team lead for the November 18th MITEF dinner program "Breaking News", I had the privilege over the last few months of 2009 to interview more than 20 executives in the news industry and hear their thoughts on the future of news. Our moderator Todd Bishop of TechFlash did a marvelous job capturing the top takeaways from the event. To supplement Todd's report of the event, I want to highlight new business opportunities for entrepreneurs interested in providing products and services news executives identified as critical for the growth of the industry:

1) Driving in market behavior: Newspapers traditionally played the role of driving consumer traffic to retailers and service providers. With the demise in circulation for print offset by growth in online (Seattle Times reports 347K paid subscribers for the print edition as compared to 1.4MM monthly unique visitors to it's website), online editions of newspapers need to better connect the virtual to the terrestrial. Whether through couponing, product reviews, comparison shopping, mobile connectivity, etc. revenue is waiting to be unlocked. Newspapers are not the only industry to be challenged by this problem-- think direct mail, yellow pages, and display advertising- all could benefit from a much tighter integration between the "buy it now" conditioning of the consumer and the traditionally disconnected buying process endemic to print. Some success stories this holiday season in the mobile apps space include companies like ShopSavvy, RedLaser, TheFind, ShopStyle and PriceGrabber.com.

2) Authenticating Trust: Without trust news truly is a commodity that holds little value. As brands like MSNBC, Seattle Times, West SeattleBlog and others have demonstrated, both consumers and advertisers benefit from trust. However, with the proliferation of news sources relying on UGC (especially through Twitter and the blogosphere), consumers and news organizations are left to wonder who to trust. Local news blogs like WSB build their network of trusted sources through manual review and gut instinct, while large organizations like MSNBC, who recently acquired social news platform Newsvine, and Patch, owned by AOL, are trying to automate the process through ratings and relevancy. Given the example of Trust-E in authenticating and protecting online privacy, there are certainly opportunities to automate and standardize who we should trust when it comes to the accuracy, and perhaps more importantly, the editorial bias of the news sources we rely on.

3) Transforming data into news: With more access to raw data from government agencies-- as well as the private sector-- data holds the potential to become highly valuable news. Just as saavy service professionals scour the local classifieds for consumers and businesses in need of their services, news organizations are now surfacing publicly available data and packaging it into news. Everyblock, another recent acquisition by MSNBC, specializes in publishing mundane data such as issuance of liquor licenses, restaurant inspections and land use bulletins and turns them into highly relevant news delivered by zip code to hyper local audiences. In a similar vein, a dot com survivor, Onvia, has become the go to resource for contractors wanting to know which government agencies are distributing federal stimulus dollars.

4) Tranforming readers into revenue: On a similar theme as above, news organizations need the help of database marketers and information architects to help them unlock the gold mine of data they hold about their subscribers. Tying personalization to subscriber information would allow news organizations to deliver highly relevent news and information while simultaneously helping advertisers reach consumers more effectively than traditional media. One relatively straightforward opportunity we identified would be to connect the email data of paid print subscribers to their online profile. Doing so would help the newspaper industry leap decades ahead of where they are today to better connect-- and ultimately monetize-- their readers. As Patricia Lee Smith succinctly summarized during her company presentation for The Seattle Times, "we don't have readership problem, we have a revenue problem."

Thanks again to our speakers, our event sponsor WNPA, my dinner program colleagues who worked tirelessly to identify our speakers and organize the event, and all of the folks at MIT Enterprise Forum for making this event possible.

Ready for ReInvention

2009-11-15T21:28:00.000-08:00

Video report from ASPP's Ready for ReInvention workshop featuring Eric Proulx, Suzannah Scully, Michelle Estrin and Danita Delimont. In addition to the terrific insights shared by our speakers, ASPP West was honored to host the first public screening of "Lemonade" produced and created by Eric Proulx.

After viewing the video, please share your comments.

Get the Right Picture for the Right Price

2009-11-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

I recently had the privilege serving as moderator on a panel for ASPP New England. Fellow panelist Pat Hunt of Hunstock.com crafted the following summary of top takeaways from the event. With Pat's permission I've re-published below. Thanks Pat!

On October 8th, 2009 ASPP New England (American Society of Picture Professionals) held an informative panel discussion called, Getting the Right Picture for the Right Price. A lively discussion by a group of experts in the industry helped to shed some light on the ever changing and confusing issues in stock licensing and pricing. The panel consisted of (pictured above l-r):

Mark Ippolito - Moderator and Founder of Shabustation.com
Pat Hunt - Co-Founder and Managing Director of Huntstock.com
John Griffin - CEO of Cutcaster.com
Christopher Kenneally - Director, Author, Creative Relations at The Copyright Clearance Center and Ozmo.com
Jean Howard - Account Executive, Editorial Sales at Auroraphotos.com
Rob Sylvan - Site Director for iStockphoto.com

Mark Ippolito opened by declaring that the digital media industry today is more than just stock images. We are in a mixed media industry, requiring constant upgrading of skills and the flexibility to change with the new technologies and business models. Many of the basics of pricing for still stock imagery are still the same:

Right Managed (RM) – Based on image size and placement, press run, circulation, languages and media for a specified time. Exclusivity is available.
Royalty Free (RF) – Image are priced by file size and are downloaded directly from websites. There is no opportunity for exclusivity. Prices often range from around $50 for low resolution to over $500 for the highest resolution.
Subscription pricing – Offers access to a collection of images, paid for weekly or monthly, and available for daily download, usually up to 25 images. These are all RF images.
Microstock – Founded by iStockphoto in 2000, this business model offers low priced user generated material along with images from professional photographers and artists. Customers purchase “credits” and use them to license images ranging from $1 to over $18, depending on quality, file size and bulk credit purchases.
Rights Ready – Getty’s hybrid of Rights Managed and Royalty Free. One price purchases a whole package of rights often including ads, direct mail, website usage and more.
Preferred Vendor Pricing – Negotiated bulk pricing agreements by stock agencies with large clients. Appropriate for textbook companies or anyone using a large number of images over a period of time.
User Generated Photo Service – This system allows a buyer to pick the image and terms of usage and then set the licensing fee with a bid to the seller. This business model is being promoted by Cutcaster.com.

Comments from the Panel:

Pat – My company, Huntstock, is a lifestyle production company, specializing in some niche categories that are difficult to find and produce – Positive Lifestyle of People with Disabilities, Industry/Technology, Hispanic Lifestyle, and Boston Icons. We struggle with pricing models and with trying to discern which are the best distribution networks. The micro and macro models create a balancing act as to which business model to focus on, and how many images to put into each segment. We feel like we are doing full time change management.

Over the past decade, the pricing has gone down significantly, and there is no way to get rich quick in this business anymore. It feels like the recession accelerated the use of micro pricing. There is a great deal of effort in the industry for creators to delineate styles that go into micro and macro, and I’m not sure you can define them that easily. It is necessary to experiment in all of these distribution models to see where our money is going to come from. In micro you have to do a huge volume in order to make enough money to be worthwhile. Just like any business, it’s just another business model with its own format and its own distribution system; you have to do all your own keywording, uploading, color correction and it’s time intensive. The people making serious money have made a commitment.

John – As a former Wall Street broker turned stock licenser, I took my experience with working in the electronic marketplace like the NASDAQ, and translated that into traditional stock licensing, where sellers can set their own price. We have a pricing algorithm, that helps them find the correct market price. Buyers can purchase any image at the price shown or can bid on content to name their own price. This gives the market some flexibility and made it more dynamic and Cutcaster has been live now since the beginning of 2008 and has been doing well. We write a lot of blog articles and our goal has been to make our information open for the buyer and the seller.

Chris – Director of The Copyright Clearance Center, which is a non profit company founded in 1978 to “make is easy to use and share published content.” We have been trying to build on the licensing expertise that we have developed. Osmo.com is a web based service for licensing independent or user generated content. Ozmo offers no fee to a content creator putting their work into our database; we are trying to extend the mission of the CCC into the user generated content field. We feel that the principals of copyright and ownership matter, and that people should be paid for their work. That is under challenge today, given the way the internet works. Prices are set by content creator. We reach out to the trade organizations as partners and we are working with the PLUS coalition to introduce an advanced pricing module that uses the “Plus Pacs” standards. That will be rolling out later this year. We are also actively seeking out partners with a unique point of view. For example, they are working with a Lowell based company called www.socialdocumentary.net which is using the power of the photography to promote global awareness.

Jean – Aurora Images has changed every year and continues to do so. The core is still RM imagery, but it is now based on the IPN network, where individual photographers can have their sites joined by shared technology and shared pricing models. We began an outdoor collection of extreme sports, along with video and stills. We also expanded into more creative advertising work by an alliance with Getty Images, as asset for our artists that can’t get into Getty. We have at least 12 image partners in Europe. Also we have started an RF branch called Aurora Open and a multi media division called Aurora Novis. Our model is based on providing as much personal service as possible.

Rob – iStockphoto was founded in 2000, and had been a successful user generated stock provider, with photos, video, audio, vector illustrations and flash. Photography is the largest segment. In 2006 the company was sold to Getty Images, which has been a good partnership, offering the advantage of Getty’s controlled vocabulary to spread into different markets. The company is still based in Calgary, Canada.

In 2003 you could license an image for 25 cents. However, prices are inching up and this year we launched Vetta, a premier collection of photos and vector files, adding video in the future. The price is higher for (pixel dimension pricing) 17mp file, which translates to 70 credits or $70. It varies with purchasing credit bundles. The market response had been good, and iStockphoto offers a lot of feedback quickly by sharing on blogs. We need more interaction between creators and buyers.

Some audience conclusions for the evening:

Some images are commodities and some are rare or hard to create. The commodity market is driving prices down, so distinction is based on quality The high production images may become the mainstay of macro, and the commodity images will be the same in the micro market.

In the micro market there is a fear that there exists a blandness from people that don’t have an ability to take pictures. However, iStockphoto’s images have gotten better in quality over the years, and not all buyers need top quality. There is broad opportunity for all types of contributors. Also, competition between websites creates a need for ever better content.

CPM or “cost per thousand impressions” may be one of the new licensing systems in the future. The advertisers split the money with the content creator based on the CPM that they charge to those licensing the images. On a website one sees a banner ad which uses this system that draws people to the site. The drawback in these new pricing systems is being able to make charges appropriate for the accounting departments of companies, who don’t want to change their systems.

It is easy to see that the constant technology and business model changes in the media industry make licensing and pricing a confusing issue for the content creator as well as the licensor. However, opportunities abound to access new and better content with ease. Today’s marketplace makes images available for every price point. Going into the future, there should be extensive growth as mixed media develops.

(Pat Hunt is a writer and workshop leader for the stock photo industry, and Managing Director of Huntstock.com in Boston, a lifestyle image production company. pat@huntstock.com.)

Seattle’s Social Media Marketing All-Stars Share Their Secrets

2009-09-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Social media marketing being the “it” topic among marketers in 2009, it is no surprise that the fall workshop and seminar season has kicked off with numerous events focused on social media marketing. Within a span of 10 days, no less than 5 organizations in Seattle (at least those I knew about) hosted events that brought together subject matter experts to share insights and observations on social media marketing. I was able to attend three of these and in general all of the speakers I heard and met were excellent and had powerful insights to share. To follow are some of the top takeaways from each:

Notwithstanding the fire drill that ensued in the middle of the presentations (literally), Seattle Direct Marketing Association hosted the first, and what in many ways was probably the best event, of the three that I attended. The speakers were not only informative, but each gave helpful case studies, stats and recommendations for tools, processes and tactics that really gave everyone in attendance a lot to walk away with—and put immediately into action.

Social Media as a powerful Customer Communications tool: Shauna Causey, Communications Director at Comcast Cable spoke eloquently about Comcast’s proactive efforts to engage and inform it’s “community” of customers through twitter updates. Using twitter as another communication outlet to enhance both customer service and community relations, Causey reviewed the benefits social media marketing played in offsetting potential negative repercussions for the brand.

Within minutes of learning of the outage, Comcast posted twitter alerts that immediately hit customer’s desktops and hand held devices and, throughout the several hours when service was down, Causey’s team sent updates throughout the day keeping it’s followers informed and thereby reducing the stress of customers -- and staffers-- effected by the outage. Causey also cited the benefits to Comcast’s bottom line: rather than fielding a spike in phone calls to Comcast’s phone center, Comcast was able to shift a meaningful a percentage of potential customer calls (there are over 700 followers for @WA_Comcast) away from the call centers reducing the diversion of man-hours (aka overtime hours) typically associated with a service outage response.

Causey also cited social media’s benefits in helping to quickly network with reporters and analysts who cover Comcast and keep them informed of activities at the company without having to resort to time intensive media briefings and traditional press releases. (side note: in all the workshops, the subject of social media marketing for B2B was always raised by audience members. While not referenced by this panel, Causey’s example of managing business contacts in her role in PR and corporate communications is a direct example of how B2B marketers can leverage social media. More below.)

Based on posts in recent days, Comcast has also successfully integrated social media marketing in its recruitment efforts helping accelerate pace of identifying qualified applicants and avoiding (or at least reducing) recruitment costs.

Messaging - Getting the right mix: Social media’s value on community are well suited to the core brand values of outdoor equipment retailer REI. Natalie Crain, Internet Marketing Manager, REI uses social media to “engage, participate, listen and respond” to its fans and followers on Facebook and twitter. The benefits to the brand are measured not in additional site traffic or direct sales, but rather in loyalty to the REI brand and creating evangelists among it’s members (REI is a Co-Op).

REI’s team of 10 digital marketing professionals (not all of whom focus on social media) enjoy broad support from senior managers to fulfill this mission. Crain’s instruction to her team is to provide fans and followers with a mix of messages that run about 75% “community focus” (recent twitter posts include information about weekend bike races, bag recycling programs, non-profit organizations, photo contests, etc) and 25% “brand and event focus” (eg: sales, in-store events, “deal of the day”, etc). The 75/25 messaging mix was echoed by several other speakers during the “trifecta” and appears to be a best practice among social media marketers regardless of the specific brand at play. With over 10,000 followers on twitter, clearly REI has struck upon an effective mix.

Be in the Relationship business: PCC Natural Markets is a popular local Seattle grocery business, but according to Ricardo Rabago, Social Media Specialist, “PCC is really in the relationship business. We just happen to sell groceries.” Using this credo, Rabago uses social media to maintain and grow the relationships it enjoys with its customers. Rather than pushing specific specials or offers, Tweets typically focus on recipes, meal suggestions and seasonal foods. A recent post on the sudden availability of Copper River salmon, a seasonal delicacy here in the Northwest, created an instant spike in sales. Leveraging geo-targeting capabilities in Facebook, PCC promoted an event at its Edmonds, WA store. Over a busy weekend over 7,000 people turned out resulting in 20% lift in store sales. For a recent kayak promotion REI used similar techniques to target it’s fans in the San Diego region and quickly sold out of the product.

Popular Third Party Tools: In a round up by Blake Cahill who served as an excellent moderator for the event, the panelists listed these as their favorite tools that help them manage their social medial marketing activities:

Twittersearch, CoTweet (manage multiple users on a single twitter account), Google Reader (to place twitter RSS feeds and archive up to 2 years of tweets), Radian6 (social media brand monitor and measurement), Tweety and Tweetdeck.

Why should you care? The next of my trio of events took me to the recently remodeled (lovely BTW) Hyatt Hotel in Bellevue, WA for an event hosted by my colleagues at MIT Enterprise Forum. The panel of assembled experts led of their discussion trying to answer this question.

Eric Picard, Advertising Technology Advisor to the Advertising Platform Engineering team at Microsoft Corporation succinctly stated “it’s where the conversations are happening.” Brands must participate, or at least listen, to these conversations lest they lose control of the conversation that ultimately craft perceptions and reactions to their brand. A simple example of how conversations influence brand and revenues, Picard cited the example of local restaurant Monsoon who clearly understand the benefits of social media marketing. Leveraging both the behavioral and geo targeting capabilities of Facebook, Monsoon delivered a display ad to Picard’s FB page. Intrigued, Picard followed the link. Expecting to be taken to a landing page or website, Monsoon had the display ad to its FB page where Picard could learn not only about the restraurant itself, but als o see first had the user generated comments displted on Monsoon’s FB “wall." Before he knew it Picard spent 10 minutes engaged with this brand and couldn’t wait to book a reservation for dinner where just a few minutes ago he didn’t even know he was hungry.

(Side note: if you need further evidence as a marketer as to “why,” do check out this short video. Maybe I’ve just drunk the kool-aid. But if after seeing this video, if you are a marketer and are still asking “why?” let me know.

The Right Way & The Wrong Way: Jim Watson, Senior Vice President, Managing Director at Razorfish, shared with the MITEF audience one of the most humorous and engaging examples of brands who are getting it right. Entertainment Arts, publisher of the highly successful Tiger Woods PGA video game, was taken to task by a customer who thought it was humorous to come upon an episode in the game where Tiger Woods appears to walk on water to execute a shot during the game. Assuming it was an engineering glitch, the user videotaped the game “malfunction” (there some conjecture that EA intentionally engineered the glitch for humor and/or PR) and posted a video to YouTube titled “The Jesus Shot.” The video quickly garnered several hundred thousand views. Upon seeing the video, EA smartly recognized a viral media opportunity and produced the following video:

After posting a direct response” to Levinator25’s video above, EA’s version has received almost 4million views to date. Watson praised EA not only for the ingenious creativity in the response, but for also being saavy to the culture of social media and for not taking themselves too seriously. Short hand: humor sells.

Contrast EA’s saavy use of social media with the recent episode of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s attempt at using a corporate blog as a bully pulpit air (what many of his customers construed as) controversial views on the health care legislation in Congress. Customers were so incensed that they began organizing—via social networks-- boycott’s of Whole Foods stores. Picard points out that while Mackey has every right as a private citizen to air his views, his miscalculation was to pivot those views against the brand values of Whole Foods causing customers to revolt.

Moving the dial: Does having 3 million fans on Coke’s FB page really sell more Coke? Probably not. However, unlike global brands who often invest in social media simply in effort to be good brand stewards, small businesses have a much better shot at actually moving the dial on their business by leverage the power of social media.

In addition to the Monsoon example, Mike Weaver, VP New Business Development at MRM Worldwide, shared a case study about CAPCOM. A game publisher based in Japan, CAPCOM had insight to its customer passionate interest in the characters depicted in their games. Three months prior to the game’s release CAPCOM created several short videos that share the back story of each character and posted them to YouTube. 700,000 views later, CAPCOM had a sure hit on its hand creating lots of demand for the product among both existing fans and new customers. Larger brands certainly have success stories to share (Virgin America posting coupons on twitter to sell more seats), but agile small businesses can really make some hay with smart social media marketing programs.

Many Voices = Authentic: Brands often struggle with giving up control when considering social media as a forum for engaging with customers. Watson however cites Best Buy’s “twerpforce” campaign as both a willingness to forgoe control in pursuit of a higher objective: customer loyalty. By empowering it’s most knowledgeable experts to engage directly with customers via twitter to answer questions about products sold at Best Buy, the brand, gets the dual benefit of earning important social media “cred” while also offering customers value and utility. In contrast, a brand that doesn’t let go of some control doesn’t add much value and hence begs the question as to why deploy social media campaigns in the first place? Weaver used the example of CNN taking its own twitter feed and simply displaying as a ticker at the bottom of the screen during broadcast. “Where’s the value in that?” says Weaver.

Be willing to experiment: Implicit in social media marketing, experimentation means being open to making and learning from your mistakes. The last of the three sessions I attended culminated with a virtuoso performance from Jim Watson, of Razorfish . Using the expanded format of a keynote address to The Executive Network of Seattle, Jim shared case studies of brands that understood the terms of experimentation. In support of it’s “Code Blue” campaign, Coors Light built and released an iPhone app enabling users to send a “Code Blue” alert (aka text message) to all of their social media drinking buddies (aka young men) to meet at the local bar. While Coors designed a cool app with seemingly a lot of social-friendly hooks, what they misjudged was the app's lack of utility and as a result failed to generate a lot buzz.

Learning from this experiment, Coors launched a modified version of the campaign that not only provided the texting utility, but added social media functionality to include in the “Code Blue” alert information about which bars had the most ladies present. For Coor’s core audience, this added utility put the app on the map and beer in the belly.

The Coors project also served as an example for Watson to remind us that "social behavior is nothing new, but the toolset is” and marketers should exploit the knowledge we have of consumer behavior.

During Watson's presentation he shared four guidelines that served as a coda in many ways for all the presentations I heard these last 10 days, for all marketers to consider when deploying social media:

1) Focus thinking on behavior and create opportunities for sharing, connecting and influencing. Levi's “Project 501” tied behavior (18 - 25 y.o, fashion-forward women’s interest in d.i.y. fashion) into a social media campaign. Results: 36% of the participants in Project 501 learned about the campaign through social media as compared to the 30% of participants who learned about the campaign through t.v. Moreover by exercising it’s social media chops, Levi's attracted a highy desireable audience segment to it’s brand – one they had previous difficulty breaking through to.

2) Do something worth talking about: Simply tweeting or launching a FB page doesn’t equate to success in social media. Virgin America is successful at attracting thousands of followers and fans because they are offering a truly distinctive travel experience.

3) Create utility: Whenever possible create something that people already like to do, and do it better, easier or faster. Nike saw that runners liked to listen to music when they run so they created Nike+ so consumers could have more utility from the products they were already interested in—and tell their friends about it.

4) Don't forget to listen: Success often comes from listening and then deciding how to respond. As referenced above, Whole Foods CEO might have gotten it wrong at first, but how the company responded to the crisis perhaps holds them in a more respected position by their customers.

What about B2B? With a room full of C-level execs many of whom operate in the B2B realm, one of the first audience questions Watson fielded was "What techniques could B2B marketers implement to take advantage of social media?" In essence Watson re-iterated the guidelines above, but submitted that B2B was not an area of expertise. Having successfully leveraged social media techniques in my work over the last several years in the B2B space, in the collegial environment of TENS, I offer some suggestions where I have seen results:

1.) Establish credentials as a thought-leader: Blogs, white papers and speaking engagements distributed thorough social networks, B2B marketers can quickly establish credentials as a thought-leader resulting (typically) in more qualified traffic and leads for your sales team.

2) Give generously: Engage with social media communities not with the thought “what can we get from them?” but rather “what can we give today?” Offering your target audience real value (eg: recruiting tips, financial advice, guest blogging opportunities, white papers, tips, tricks, etc), interspersed with the occasional self-referential promotion will gain you not only followers and fans, but followers and fans who actually share your interests and therefore more likely to buy your product or service.

3) Less is more: B2B is often about targeting the “right” prospects not the “most.” Identify social networks where your prospects live. LinkedIn’s powerful business networking utility, is often overlooked by marketers for it’s very effective capabilities of targeting groups and individuals who should be buying your product or service. Using the various search utilities in twitter, it is quite possible to cut through a lot of the noise we see on twitter and zero in on qualified, if not prospects, at least suspects and drive traffic to your site where they can further self-qualify.

Well, it was quite a 10 days. I’m certainly richer for it and already applying many of the tools and techniques these "all stars" so generously shared with me. This blog post is my small way of thanking them and paying it forward. Hope you’ll do the same.

What best social media marketing best practices are using? Please share your comments below.

Summer Journal: Thriving in Seattle

2009-09-09T20:58:00.001-07:00

As Labor Day loomed this past weekend, I couldn't help but take stock of all the projects and activities that consumed my summer and my prevailing thought was “Wow! What a great summer!” In contrast the WSJ weekend edition plopped on my porch with a lead story by Joe Queenan that gives the summer of ’09 a thorough drubbing in his article “The Summer of Our Discontent”

While one person’s summer is not a measure of the zeitgeist, I feel compelled to balance the editorial scales and suggest to Mr. Queenan and his readers that one’s summer memories should not be tabulated nor defined merely by the sum of external events, but rather by the pro-active action and creativity of the individual.

In large part my summer was so enjoyable precisely because as the days grew longer and the temperatures raised ever higher, in parallel multiple strands of my life, work and interests (and those of my family, friends and colleagues) began to merge into a wonderful set of inter-related activities creating congruency between the personal and the professional and, as a result, all the more fulfilling. To follow then is my recipe for how I created a very memorable and thoroughly enjoyable summer:

Coming into Focus: Photography and Photographers
Photography was a thread throughout the summer connecting people, places and events. The summer kicked off with an evening I helped organize to showcase to buyers new work from mutliple photographers at the ASPP West Chapter meeting. The event not only re-connected me with working photographers, both current and former colleagues and old friends whose new work I had not had the privilege to see, but also awakened in me a dormant need to go out and create new images.

Frank Veronsky’s images of fashion and reportage in particular resonated with me. I was also struck by Frank’s generosity in launching digital photography workshops in his home state of NJ to support learning and creativity of student photographers and it encouraged me to think how I might do the same. I subsequently organized the first photo safari to document the Ballard Sunday Farmer's Market amongst some friends and fellow-photo enthusiasts who were interested in learning from each other on how to create better pictures and expand their range of photo taking skills.

The early results of this first outing are visible here. Given the success of this first initiative the group is now discussing the possibility of taking on a long term project that could result in a group show, website, book or ……

Projects, Inspiration and Pausing to Ask/Listen
A real highlight of the summer was having the opportunity to work with the team at Glow Images to launch a new image portal website at the HOW Design Conference.

A centerpiece of the product launch is the new Glow Images Marketplace which offers designers a new resource of professional stock photographs with prices starting as low as $1. Needless to say, given the quality of the images and the over 4 million fresh photos to choose from, the launch at HOW was a big success. But again, business aside, the most memorable part of HOW was the designers I met on the show floor, in the seminars, galleries and after-show parties. I wrote extensively about the show highlights in the Glow Images Blog.

Surrounded by literally a sea of some of the most creative designers on the planet, one could not help to be inspired to act, create, and deliver. Of the many inspirations were the creative variety of business cards I collected from designers I met at the show. After seeing what these creative minds were able to create with this humble medium, I took the initiative to avail myself of the services of moo.com and designed a set of new cards that feature a selection of my photographs. The feedback from folks I've given them to thus far has been overwhelmingly positive. If you see me, be sure to ask for one!

While spending a good chunk of the summer supporting the launch of a new website for Glow, I paused long enough to reflect upon the many decisions -- both strategic and tactical— marketers and business owners are required to consider when building a successful site. This question led me to a terrific set of informative conversations where I probed this topic with respected colleagues and new contacts alike.

Ric Peterson, a professional photographer and instructor at UW and Art Institute of Seattle has been diligently at work the last few months re-configuring his web presence. Over a pleasant lunch in Seattle’s Occidental Plaza, Ric shared his thoughts about the role of the web site as a lynchpin that not only does a good job communicating to customers the breadth and depth of his work, but as importantly, connects and optimizes traffic flow to and from social media sites where Ric is an active participant.

As you might expect, since re-launching the site this summer, Ric’s strategy and investment is paying off with a 5x increase in traffic resulting in more work and opportunities coming his way.

Stewart McCullough, owner of Montana Banana Website Design and Development, provided some terrific advice in what it takes to succeed on the web: Keep it simple.

Through his own example, Stewart owns the domain teapots.com and launched a web-based business built around this common, yet very engaging product.

Easy navigation, simple graphics, and concise descriptions make for a very effective e-commerce experience. A strong reminder that in the drive to innovate, simplicity is an oft forgotten virtue that adds tremendous value.

And then there was BING!
When Microsoft launched bing their new “decision engine” I was immediately taken with the simple, yet effective design of their home page. I was especially pleased to see photography play such a central role in establishing a unique brand identity for bing.

Far from the sterile (and I would say boring) all white interface of Google, bing offers users a daily dose of dazzling photography and engages visitors to scroll over quick facts and figures about the particular place depicted. On bing’s first week after launch, I was delighted to see several images featured from the collection of friend and collaborator Danita Delimont.

Even better still I was delighted to see the relevant results I was getting from my searches.

As advertised, bing delivers more than search results, but often reveals relevant facts and related resources that I find of added value.

E.g.: Earlier this summer I searched bing for directions to a recital hall to see my daughter’s dance troupe. Not only did bing retrieve accurate driving directions for me, but alongside the directions, displayed a list of nearby restaurants, shops and other services. Anticipating that we might be hungry after the performance, and not being familiar with eating establishments in Shoreline, WA, bing suggested several restaurants, along with user comments pulled in from yelp, and voila! we were off to a terrific dinner after the show. Firefox’s open source community quickly released a bing toolbar widget and now bing is my default “decision engine”.

Moreover, as a marketer and buyer of online advertising, I was also delighted to see how quickly bing drove traffic to the websites I was managing giving me yet another channel to affect customer acquisition, promotions and branding.

You can take it with you!

While launching Glow at HOW I was thrilled to see another client I’ve been working with this year generate new business creating viral videos for Microsoft.

The creative team at VMCreative did a fabulous job taking a fairly dry and arcane message (helping IT managers understand how Windows 7 Virtual PC will run legacy apps smoothly) and turning into a heart warming story.

Check out the latest work from VMCreative and pass it on!

The Enterprise Strikes - Again
After a successful engagement serving as team mentor for a dinner program on the "Future of Advertising" with MIT Enterprise Forum last January, I was asked again to lead a team to put on a dinner program tentatively titled “The Future of News Gathering and Distribution.”

During the closing weeks of the summer, this project has put me in touch with executives and thought leaders from media and technology companies all focused on bring to reality the future of news. For a preview of the complex set of issues facing news organizations today, take a look at this thoroughly engaging discussion presented by the Aspen Institute:

There is almost no business sector or demographic that will not be impacted by the changes taking shape in how we gather, distribute, share, and consume news. If you are in Seattle, mark your calendar for November 18th . This is gonna be a good one. More details on speakers and out issues summary in the weeks ahead, but suffice to say kicking off this project is yet another milestone that makes this summer one for the books.

But all work and no play...
In between crafting and executing marketing strategy, consulting projects, site launches, conferences, event planning and work, work, work I was not going to let this once-in-a lifetime Seattle summer (beginning in May we had 92 consecutive days of sunshine) get away from me. Fortunately, I managed to get out to enjoy the weather and achieve some personal milestones that really make this summer one to remember:

Going Low
I set a goal at the beginning of the season to consistently break 100 – my low round this summer was 94. Most progress was the short game and getting the drives (more) consistently in the fairway. Oh and let’s not forget the inspiration Tom “Terrific” Watson provided all golfers at this summer’s British Open.

The Great Outdoors
Thanks to my daughters, the last few years I’ve re-kindled my love for camping. Not the bring along the RV/trailer, but real roll-out the sleeping bags, put up the tent camping. Well, okay so the cooler was in the back hatch of the SUV a few yards from the campsite. Inspired by my dear friend Carlos' visit to Seattle, we set out for the Olympic Peninsula for a long weekend camping trip with our friend Tom. The weather was gorgeous and nearly matched the impeccable scenery that typifies the Great Pacific Northwest. But it was the camraderie of good friends, taking pictures and creating new memories that ranks this excursion really high on my "all-time buddy trips" list.

Beaching it
My idea of vacation is put me on a beach with warm water and sunny skies. Few places deliver on these criteria than the Jersey Shore. Add in a group of loving family and dear friends and I had a perfect week of pure relaxation.

Family, Friends and More
As I said at the top of this post, ultimately what made the summer of 2009 so very special was the co-mingling of work and pleasure with family, friends and colleagues. This summer I was blessed with an abundance of all. Here are just a few of the smiles I managed to capture along the way.

Add into these highlights, a July 4th parade and neighborhood block party (the 52nd annual) Bastille Day celebrations, lazy weekends at the pool, Julie & Julia, great books ("The Looming Tower" "City of Thieves", "Free: The Future of a Radical Price"), BatMitzvah celebration, recording three-hours of video interviews with my parents, numerous barbecues, making home made blackberry jam from handpicked berries and, did I already mention lots of really fun golf?, together with friends and family, we created one heckuva terrific summer.

Sorry Mr. Queenan that summer was such a disappointment. I respectfully disagree.

ASPP West Chapter Meeting - New Work, Wine & Friends

2009-06-17T15:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks for all of the photographers/producers who submitted work that was shown at last nights' ASPP West Chapter meeting in Seattle. If you are a photo buyer, please support these artists by reviewing their work and requesting portfolios for your next project:

Darrel Peterson

Ric Peterson
Peter Bennett/Green Stock Media
E.O. Reed
Frank Veronsky
Kymri Wilt
Susie Fitzhugh
Mike Hipple
Connie Ricca
Glow Images
Brian Storm/MediaStorm

Special thanks to the folks at VMCreative for sharing their spacious studio to host our gathering.

Hope to see you at our next event!

In Memoriam: Walter Plessner: 1918 – 2009

2009-05-18T15:09:00.000-07:00

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Walter Plessner at the age of 91 on Friday, May 15th. Renowned as a photo industry pioneer as a parter in The Three Lions Photo Agency and founder of Plessner International, Plessner created a rich and memorable legacy during his lifetime.

A Holocaust survivor, Plessner fled his native Hamburg, Germany in 1939 to Guatemala, where he lived and worked on a farm and then for the U.S. Army as a civilian employee. In 1945 he immigrated to Los Angeles where he earned his insurance brokers license while also taking business classes at UCLA. He began his career in the finance industry processing credit applications in the Latin American department at Bank of America’s San Francisco office. A contemporary of Otto Bettmann, founder of the Bettmann Archive, Plessner was invited by other fellow refugees who were also drawn to the growing media business in New York City and came to New York to join Three Lions Photo Agency.

Plessner and his partners immediately seized upon their personal and professional networks in Europe, Latin America and Asia to rapidly expand their distribution of images beyond the US setting the course for Plessner’s future career moves. As his partners neared retirement, they decided to sell the Three Lions agency to 4x5 (now known as SuperStock), but Plessner had more plans in store. He launched a new agency, Plessner International, and set about to build upon his worldwide network of contacts to distribute images from partners and photographers in the US and Europe opening up new markets in China, Japan and the Middle East. Not content to merely conduct business via phone and fax, Plessner traveled extensively to meet face to face with clients, agents and photographers to close business and forge new relationships logging thousands of frequent flyer miles annually. Plessner was also a prominent member of the international photo business community serving as an active member in PACA, ASPP and BAPLA.

A voracious reader of international business, technology and financial news, Plessner took great pride in spotting global trends and business opportunities well before his contemporaries. Though well into his 70’s, a time when most executives would have been content to sit on the sidelines, seeing the vast potential for distribution of digital images, Plessner played a key role in licensing the first set of collections that became the early foundation for Bill Gates’ Corbis Corporation all digital archive.

While finally shutting the doors of his Midtown agency in 2004, Plessner, “Herr Dokktor” was still receiving partners at his home in Great Neck, NY always grateful to hear the latest industry news and offer advice gained during his expansive career. In May 2007 he lost his wife June and during the last years of his life took great pride in his grandson Marc watching him blossom into a bright student and talented pianist. He is survived by his daughter Renee Plessner, an attorney with Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass, and son-in-law, Jeff Fishman

The funeral for Walter Plessner, will be held on Wednesday, May 20 at 11:30 a.m. at Temple Beth-El of Great Neck (in the Rudin Chapel), 5 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023, Tel. 516-487-0900.

In lieu of flowers, donations in memory of Walter Plessner can be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum or the American Macular Degeneration Foundation.

On a personal note, I had the good fortune to meet Walter in 1984 as a twenty-something rookie with my first job in the photo industry. In spite of (and probably because of) his sometimes indecipherable German accent, I intuitively sensed that this kindly, but difficult to understand, older gentleman had an incredible story to tell if I only took time to listen . Listen I did and I learned much from the stories he shared across the lightbox and the lunch counter.

First off, he opened his vast trove of industry information and contacts. If I wanted to gain some intelligence about competitors in our industry, all I had to do was call Plessner and I’d get the skinny. Of course, I knew if I told some inside information to Plessner, it was a fair trade to assume that too would be shared with his other contacts. My colleagues and I would good naturedly joke, “if you wanted to spread some information quickly, don’t pick up the tell-a-phone, just “tell-a-Plessner. “

In the days before Google, if I wanted to learn about trends and opportunities in international markets, a quick call to my friend Walter would yield a detailed discourse on relevant market stats and, of course, Plessner’s unique and always thoughtful analysis. Over the years, I probably amassed several file drawers full of Plessner’s frequent clippings he would send from The Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, The Economist, New Republic, Herald Tribune, etc. His seemingly unquenchable thirst for knowledge was inspiring. He infused in me a sense of the possible; that opportunity is always out there: you just need to find it.

But his generous spirit went well beyond the mechanics of business. His greatest strength was in identifying, building and nurturing relationships. He coached me that the professional accomplishments for which he was most proud came not as a result of his raw intellect or effort, but were generated due to the quality of the relationships he developed during his lifetime. To demonstrate this fact, when I had the privilege of working in Europe and Asia for several years, unbeknownst to me, Walter would make an advance call to his extensive network of contacts, ensuring that a warm contact greeted me at every city where I did business. During my first trip to Japan in 1998, after checking in at my hotel, a note was delivered to my room from Plessner, informing me that he too was in Tokyo (!!!) and I should he ready to meet him for breakfast in the lobby at 8AM so he could make personal introductions to his trusted contacts .

His most important lesson was Walter’s constant reminder to stay grounded and humbled by the greatest asset in our life: love of family and friends. It was love and gratitude for family and friends that fueled his incredibly generous spirit. Every time we ended a call or a meeting, Walter would always take the opportunity to remind me of what was most important to him imploring me, almost demanding me: “Be careful” and “Take care of your family. This is the most important thing.” Above all family and friends were most important to Walter and I am forever grateful for his sharing this essential piece of his wisdom.

Colleague, Friend and Mentor. Herr Dokktor, thank you. You will be missed.

End The Recession: Help A Friend Get Back To Work

2009-03-31T21:43:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago I attended a meeting of The Executive Network of Seattle where I had the pleasure of hearing Rich Doherty of Right Management, a career transition and human resources consultant, provide some much needed perspective on the current job market--- along with a potential solution to cure what ails us. In his role at Right Management, Rich typically works as an outplacement counselor hired by companies to assist terminated employees through a layoff so his insights are derived from his unique position on the front lines of the current job market.

When asked to identify the most effective tactic to find employment, Rich was unequivocal in his response stating that 9 out f 10 offers of employment come as a result of effective networking. Most readers of this blog would concur with Rich’s assessment. I know for me personally my last three full time positions as well as the three current consulting assignments I am managing have all come as a result of contacts in my network who referred me to an employer or alerted me to an opportunity.

Armed with this information, Rich took the next logical step and asked the question: how can we use the obvious power of networking to help put people back to work? His suggestion, using simple math, has powerful implications: Given the current national unemployment rate of 8%, for every 92 people who are employed, there are 8 people who are unemployed. Turning these numbers around, Rich postulates: what if the 92 people who are currently employed proactively helped 4 of the 8 unemployed people find a new job?

(Note: As an economic indictor, a 50% reduction in the jobless rate from 8% to 4%, would return us to a pre-recession level of unemployment.)

So, given this equation, what can you do to end the recession?

Simple: If you are one of the 92% who are privileged to be working in this economy, dedicate one hour of your time this month, to helping someone you know find a job. The math gets better: If every one of the 92% employed dedicated just one hour each month in Q2 helping the 8% find work, every unemployed person would receive nearly 35 hours of quality networking time from the exact people who are most likely to help them get find work.

Extending yourself to help a friend find employment also helps you to build your own network and create currency with others that you may need to draw upon next time you need assistance in finding work or exploring future business opportunities. The rewards of a well-established, active network are many, but are only available to those who are willing to give.

If you are reading this blog and you are currently employed, please consider committing yourself to end the recession. Reach out today and schedule one hour with someone you know who is unemployed. Whether a friend, a former colleague, family member or someone you’ve just been introduced to, the key is for those of us with gainful employment to be proactive and reach out to those who are not currently employed.

One hour. This month. Commit yourself. Let’s end the recession and help our friends get back to work.

Extra credit: If you are willing to share your stories about the people you’ve helped or the results you’ve created (or if you’ve been the recipient of one hour from the 92%), I’ve created a Facebook page “End the Recession: Friends Helping Friends Get Back to Work” where you can share stories, post photos of coffee meetings, share great results, and learn what other people are doing to help put friends back to work.

Thanks in advance for making a commitment to help friends get back to work. And thanks to Rich Doherty for stimulating fresh thinking that offers promise to change the equation.

User Generated Video Scores Big Win @ Super Bowl

2009-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

Turning the ad model on it's head, user generated video scored a big victory during Sunday's Super Bowl broadcast. Of 51 spots aired, Doritos scored the most viewers with the "Crystal Ball" entry created and submitted by Dorito fans Dave & Joe Herbert:

The winners in UGC:

Brand Managers: Certainly the brave folks at Doritos who trusted that fans of their brand were able to communicate both passion and good humor. Moreover, the buzz generated by this "win" will undoubtedly fuel the creative fires of UGC wannabe's eager to snag bragging rights-- and a $1MM reward-- to the next big promo they can attach their name to. Stay tuned to Zooppa and the work they are doing to connect a community of UGV content providers and advertisers.

Media Buyers: While Doritos identified a talented and creative pair of personalities they can put to work to promote the brand in future promotions, Media Buyers will see the upside as buzz metrics will drive demand for more placement of future creative-- online and offline.

Sticking to a strategy: Doritos is no stranger to success of UGV to promote it's brand. Last spring, Doritos tapped Goodby Silverstein to manage a UGV campaign leveraging the popularity of MTV's "Next" series. Goodby certainly earned their stripes by driving the strategy behind the latest Super Bowl UGV campaign.

Given the broad appeal and multiple constituents who can lay claim to victory for UGV, the Dorito campaign should prove to be the tipping point for much broader adoption of UGV.

Want to know what UGV thought leaders are saying? Be sure to track the upcoming User Generated Content Expo February 9th & 10th in San Jose.

Everything Must Change: 10 New Rules for Marketers to Live By

2009-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday’s inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th president signals a clear change for our country and the world. The inauguration is no stand-alone catalyst, but takes place within the context of a complete upheaval of our worldview as we knew it. Amid the crushing reality of failed banks, over-speculated real estate, a crippled financial system, reduced consumer confidence and mounting job losses, a new reality has emerged for businesses and consumers. Depleted natural resources and irrefutable evidence of green house effect are forcing people and nations worldwide to find alternative and renewable energy resources while simultaneously preserving the natural resources that remain. Democrats hold majority seats in both chambers of Congress setting the stage for domestic and geo-political landscape to undergo a major policy overhaul effecting finance, transportation, education, housing, energy and much more. Moreover, all of this change is taking shape within the context of a global explosion of mass, social and personal communication mediums that only serve to accelerate the exchange of information and hence the pace of change.

Within the context of the dizzying array of changes and conflicts underfoot, I have come to the conclusion, regardless of your industry focus, specialization or geography, that many of our assumptions about “what works” or “this is the way we’ve always done things” must be challenged. Hence, a new set of rules—and opportunities-- are emerging for those marketers paying attention and ready to challenge long held assumptions. Here are 10 new rules for marketers to live by:

Change #1) Authenticity Rules: On one level, it’s absurd to even have to make this statement, but with so many consumers burned by the false promises offered by real estate speculators, “sure thing” investments and overly-leveraged CDOs, marketers can no longer assume that customers will be content to sit back and lap up whatever gruel is being served up. These ill-conceived business practices have undermined consumer trust. The anecdote: Be real. Be authentic. Brands that do so will be rewarded with customers who are engaged and therefore have the potential for loyalty. See Hyundai’s latest efforts to build trust. In the age of disintermediation, what could be more valuable than loyal customers?

Change #2) Born to Serve: A faltering economy brings with it the seeds of increased empathy and desire to help others. Look no further than the thousands of service programs spawned in honor of MLK Day to get a glimpse of the emotional power and deep satisfaction derived from service. Non-profits should pay close attention: rather than gnashing of teeth about big donors snapping their purses shut, they might do well to follow the example of candidate Obama and tap into the much broader donor base that awaits them through effective use of social medial and networking. Witness the groundbreaking work of Beth Kanter and the example she is leading with in using social networks to drive donor contributions in the non-profit sector.

Rule #3) Surviving not thriving: Multiple sectors of our society will shift from aspirational consumerism to survival mode. This will be especially true for boomers, seniors and millennial’s who have no secondary education (of which 50% of the population can be counted). Post-war education modality in the US (i.e. educate kids to reach the minimum standard or lowest common denominator) combined with the evaporation of high-wage/low-skill blue collar employment opportunities leaves many ill equipped to tackle the complexity of competing in the context of a global economy. Marketers that offer education, re-training and skills advancement are in line to make significant gains (and most likely will have government programs to assist in funding re-training efforts). Simultaneously, these same consumers, and those who by necessity re-trench their spending habits, will continue to purchase “indispensable goods” (e.g.: consumables, alcohol, energy, and most forms of entertainment) even while in survival mode. Marketers that appeal to thrift, while maintaining dignity, will come out ahead.

Change #4) The road to riches has been re-defined: As a college grad in the 80’s the path many of my college friends took to the road to riches was Wall Street and the financial markets. Certainly some found fame and fortune. More importantly, however, it was the “promise” of riches that led them and their considerable talents to the financial sector and away from other creative, and potentially profitable, endeavors. What’s an out of work securities analyst to do? (Hopefully lots!) But more importantly, this fact gives rise to the promise that rather than draining our talent pool to create yet another generation of financial and legal experts that fueled the explosive growth-- and over-speculation-- of the US stock market, what should emerge are large numbers of graduates—as well as mid-career make-overs—applying their talents to real businesses—ones that generate real jobs, real products and real promise to our economy. Marketers and businesses that identify this trend should be in line for a serious talent upgrade and leverage these skilled workers to new standards in innovation and performance for the respective industries.

Rule #5) Retail Re-Invention: The rules of creative destruction are already taking hold. Over expansion (Starbucks, Circuit City), tired/irrelevant concepts (Sears, Sharper Image), non-distinguishable brands (Macy’s, Kmart) better buckle up and get ready to take your medicine. The winners will continue to provide relevance, access and resonate with the needs and lifestyles of today’s consumers and most importantly be vigilant to avoid the irrelevance syndrome: striving be everything to everybody (often at the demand of Wall Street not smart marketers) can often equate to becoming nothing to no one.

Rule #6) Price trumps all: Consumers want more for less. Period. Marketers who deliver will grow share in a down market. Consumers: See McDonald’s “More Hoity, Less Toity” coffee campaign; Subway “five dollar foot long” spots; Staples, and Sprint.

Rule #7) Color Me A Rainbow: Look no further than the election of Barack Obama (and photos of his extended family) along with Hillary Clinton’s historic campaign to see that the role models most Americans identify with are no longer white or male. Yet it astounds me how many marketers still rely on the visual clichés of white dad, white mom and fluffy dog when promoting their brands. Get over it! Marketers that reflect and authentically engage with the unique cultural identities that are now represented in post-millennial America will win the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers.

Rule #8) Competition is global: Forget the old idea of looking within your borders for your competition. Your competition- especially for knowledge workers—is literally worldwide. As was exhaustively documented by Thomas Freidman, the world is indeed flat and the implications have changed the rules—forever. At a recent technology industry event I attended, I had the privilege to meet a very polished business development representative for a product engineering firm based in India who is competing quite successfully and winning computer programming work among America’s top corporate giants. Fortunately just a few feet away another engineering professional was sharing stories how his eight person team of US engineers are creating new products for major corporations and charging competitive rates while securely ensconced in their offices in downtown Seattle. Too many marketers have fallen prey to the notion that American companies can only win when we compete on price. But this overlooks the greatest asset we still hold as a nation: Innovation. The salesman from India is selling services TO innovative American companies; therefore let’s make innovation our greatest export. Think IBM, Boeing, Google. Innovation is our value play and is never traded on price alone.

Rule #9) Green is not a slogan: The auto industry made the mistake relegating the development of green products to a marketing slogan they could simply tag to a vehicle. Toyota got it right and was rewarded with market dominance. IBM is also getting it right with their current “making a difference” campaign. Being green is not a marketing initiative, but rather must be an integral part of the entire manufacturing and product cycle strategy – from womb to tomb. Green must be authentic. Green must be real. Products that disingenuously play the green card risk irrelevance at best, elimination at worse.

Rule #10) It’s not always about the money: Seemingly a contradiction to the other changes above, but as consumers comes to terms with the flawed assumption that having a job equals security, and the fallibility in relying on money for “emotional security” they will begin to place greater trust in brands, people and institutions (esp. faith communities and wellness organizations) who reward them not with dollars and cents, but with a sense of renewal, prosperity and health. Marketers would do well do invest in brands that deliver on these essential, yet often overlooked, human needs.

Summary: Challenge all the assumptions: A broad statement I realize, but I would recommend marketers look hard at your brand and every pending promotion with new eyes and think through the implications of all the changes underfoot and ask yourself these questions: Is the brand/product/service still relevant? To whom? Are we targeting the right customer? How has the customer changed/been impacted by recent events? This is not to suggest we should be paralyzed, but quite the opposite: succinct analysis and reflection should provide insight for new opportunities to grow loyalty among customers and the resulting revenues that come with increased loyalty.

Extra credit:

Resurgence of micro-businesses and temporary workers: When the going gets tough the tough get going. Whether food services, work for hire, housekeeping, temp accountants, field sales workers, network marketing, etc. as economies tighten the workforce will be forced to become increasingly entrepreneurial and will set out on their own. This change will probably first show up as a reduction in the number of unemployment claims. While fewer folks will be on the dole, they will not be finding full time work, just merely making it up as they go along. Marketers would do well to equip and train these workforce wannabes.

Forget venture funding; find an angel: For a period of time venture capital firms enjoyed a prestigious role in the ecosystem of founding and building great companies. However, the entire premise of venture funding—invest a relatively small amount to get an outsized return-- is completely broken. Due to the fact that too few companies deliver outsized returns, instead of seeing dividend checks, limited partners in VC funds are getting capital calls. Exposing portfolios to ever-greater risks for LPs has become intolerable and therefore capital raises for VCs impossible. With most major corporations in belt tightening mode for the next 2-3 years, there will be few opportunities for M&A exits and even fewer exits via IPO. Therefore, unless a venture backed company is cash flow positive during its Series A, start-up entrepreneurs should start polishing up their resumes and not waste time trying to secure B round funding. The alternative: Angel investors with long time horizons look more attractive than ever.

Darkness lurks: As jobs tighten and survival becomes paramount, we will see more crimes of opportunity. Brands and marketers focused on protecting assets – real and imaginary—will see uptake in demand for their products and services.

Please add your comments or feedback below.

Advertising Thought Leaders Technology Forecast 2009

2009-01-15T11:33:00.001-08:00

Last night MITEF hosted a dinner program where thought leaders in advertising and technology shared their views on how the future of advertising will be shaped by technology. The evening's program concluded with the panelists providing a succinct forecast for 2009 and beyond. You can view the following short video clip to hear their predictions:

Other top takeaways included:

The winners will be brands that are willing to give up some degree of control to the customers they serve and want to engage.

Consumers no longer wait for news therefore technology deliver advertising to consumers at the same moment news is breaking

Tapping local advertiser dollars online: technology must evolve to capture local advertisers. Of 20MM local advertisers in the US; only 1MM advertise online.

Metrics must evolve to from clicks to measuring actions: Did this action result in furthering the transaction. A local Seattle start-up, Visible Technologies, is one of the companies making progress in this area.

Focus on prioritizing value not technology: brand strategy and attributes should drive the technology and media selected and should align with the brand values.

As consumers have more access to information, advertising must be relevant and authentic. Personalization and profiling is key.

Mobile offers 16BB untapped ad units (i.e. # of calls made per day) and will be monetized. This compares to 11BB ad units served per month by Google.

Saavy users requires authenticity: 65% of teens have created and/or uploaded content to the Web therefore brands have to be authentic.

Give consumers an experience that they will remember: When designing your website, don't ask yourself what cool new technology we can deploy, but rather, what is the experience you want your customer to have and remember. The experience that is consistent with the brand wins the customer.

Get people to stop saying no to advertising: Behavioral advertising boasts that their ads see an 8x improvement in click thrus as compared to traditional display ads. While impressive, displays ads only see a .01% of traffic click through so in essence behavioral advertising realizes a .08% average CTR. That's a lot of people saying "no" to the advertising and this can only be improved through relevance. Technology that can aggregate geo, profile, timeliness, preferences and permission will win consumers.

Branding is about doing a few things -- and being recognized for it-- really, really well. Get your customers and employees to be your story tellers and be ready to engage.

Mining the Zeitgeist

2009-01-07T12:11:00.000-08:00

Marketers interested in taking the pulse of consumers would be wise to keep tabs of Google Zeitgeist. Check out the top keyword "global movers" in 2008:

Fastest Rising (global)

1. Sarah Palin

2. Beijing 2008

3. facebook login

4. tuenti

5. heath ledger

6. obama

7. nasza klasa

8. wer kennt wen

9. euro 2008

10. jonas brothers

One quick observation:

Social networks (still) rule: If there was any doubt that 2008 (as well as 2007) was the year of social networks, 4 of the top 10 keywords (fb, tuenti (spain), nasza klasa (poland), wer kennt wen (germany) give evidence of consumers continued interest in connecting, creating and lurking in social networks.

For the US market, Google draws out some specific subsets (economy, farewells, who) of interest however I find the greatest value for marketers is to dissect meaning and opportunity from "how to" and "what is":

How to: What is:

1. draw 1. love

2. kiss 2. life

3. write 3. java

4. cook 4. sap

5. tie 5. rss

6. hack 6. scientology

7. run 7. autism

8. cite 8. lupus

9. paint 9. 3g

10. spell 10. art

Given the uncertainty in the economy, is it any wonder consumers are interested in pursuing more simple pursuits (draw, write, cook, paint) and looking for love never seems to go out of style.

I also find it interesting, that the dark side of a down economy rears it's head when "hack"ing is a top pre-occupation of web surfers. Hopefully, these are IT geeks working to close security loopholes in their networks and not an army of saboteurs about to unleash evil code on us all.

And perhaps, for surfers wanting to know more about "life" marketers can shine a light of meaning and purpose to help these folks come out from the virtual world and into the world of the living.

We can only hope.

Please share your insights/observations.

Thought Leaders on the Future of Advertising - Jan 14th

2009-01-07T11:19:00.000-08:00

I've served as a volunteer with MIT Enterprise Forum to identify and select panelists for this event. Whether you are a Media Buyer, Agency Creative Director or Marketing Manager, the companies and thought leaders on this panel should be of great interest. Hope to see you on the 14th.

Register today: http://www.mitwa.org

See you there!

Mark

======

MITEF Technology Forecast: Successful Advertising in 2009 and Beyond
Location : Hyatt Regency
900 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA 98004
Date & Time : January 14, 2009 - 5:00pm - 8:30pm

MITEF Technology Forecast: Successful Advertising in 2009 and Beyond

Fortunes will be won and lost through the advertising and marketing decisions that individuals and companies make in the coming year. An explosion of content, advertising platforms, and display mediums--along with rapidly evolving trends like social networking and interactive multimedia consumer experiences--have made the process of managing advertising, marketing, and branding more complex than ever before.

Join us Wednesday, January 14, as the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Northwest hosts a dynamic and thought-provoking dinner event featuring a panel of forward-thinking executives. Come gain insights and actionable perspective on current and future advertising and marketing technologies, and how they will change the face of marketing and branding.

Our panelists for this event will be:

· Stephen Meade, CEO, Cenoplex
· Wil Merritt, CEO, Zooppa.com
· Blake Park, Vice President, Group Director of Strategy & Insights, Wunderman
· Lynn Parker, Partner, Parker lePla

The event will be moderated by innovation strategist Peter Balbus, Managing Director at Pragmaxis, LLC. Peter is an MIT grad and for several years led the MIT Enterprise Forum Chicago. The panel discussion will focus on key issues framed by audience input, as we delve into questions of keen interest to anyone involved in advertising, marketing, and branding including:

* How are emerging mobile technologies – including location-based services -- changing the world of customer outreach?
* What are micro-ads, and how are they changing the face (or sound) of advertising?
* How can emerging advertising technologies be harnessed to build brand awareness and brand equity in markets increasingly becoming micro-segmented and commoditized?
* Where are media buyers – and venture capitalists – putting their money today?
* In the midst of an economic slump, which advertising technologies and techniques can best help you gain traction in 2009 and beyond?

This event is an absolute MUST SEE for media buyers, agency creatives, marketing and brand managers, business strategists, corporate executives, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and the services providers who support them.

Please join us for this educational, entertaining and timely discussion.

Obama Insider Shares Remarkable Images from Election Night

2008-11-11T12:22:00.000-08:00

David Katz, a photographer and staffer on the Obama campaign, provides an insider's view of the reactions and emotions on display within Obama's inner circle as the returns came in on election night. These images are in and of themselves remarkable and historically very important. Other than merchandise being offered through Katz's website, I trust the images are being preserved by the copyright holder or the campaign and made available for licensing/publishing. A quick search for photographer "David Katz" in the editorial collections at gettyimages.com and corbis.com yielded zero results.

The images are available today on Flickr.

How Photo Buyers Work: 2008 Art Buyer Panel @ PACA

2008-10-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

Attending the PACA Conference in NYC this weekend, I took special interest in hearing the current views of four top photo buyers on what they are looking for and how they go about finding it in the hyper connected, deadline driven world of 2008.

Photo Buyer Panel at PACA: L-R: Maggie Hunt, Stock Shop (moderator); Darrell Perry, Wall Street Journal; Jennifer Lim, Bill Smith Group; Marc Sirinsky, Rodale Books; Brian Bobinski, Freelance Designer

Top takeaways:

1) Email/Print still get attention: In spite of the profusion of SEM, online marketing, blogs, social networks, etc, Email AND Print marketing STILL works for this group of professional photo buyers.

2) Metadata spells OPPORTUNITY: Whether how meta data helps buyers find images OR how it helps them to organize projects, generate reports/analysis, picture providers with good meta data will find an increasing demand for images

3) The photo editor/art buyer is your champion: search tools and good websites are important, but ultimately people make the decisions to buy pictures. Help them sell your photos by providing great service, accurate meta data and be responsive when they need you.

Full transcript below:

Art Buyer’s Panel – PACA
New York City, NY
Saturday, October 25, 2008

Q: How do you start looking for images?

Brian Bobinsky: Unless I have just received an email that features an image I really like and have a project I can use it for, I usually start with searches online. I prefer to do my own searches.

Mark Sirinsky: If the project calls for stock, I start online. Looks for new images, new photographers. Will reference in-house database of images. If title has used images sourced internally, typically I will select images from internal DB as the brand has been established.

Jennifer Lim: We start searches online for book publishing clients (textbook). Will search mostly Rights Managed for very specific subjects but increasingly using microstock.

Darrell Perry: Started using 40 – 50 images per day. Hard news wire services 50%; 50% stock. Now we are using 200-300 images per day. Result: we are using more and paying less per image. We are assigning as much as 30%. Subscriptions with hard news vendors (“all you can eat”) takes up 60-70% of pages with stock taking up 10 - 20%. Exceptions are Personal Journal, Health, Home, Weekend Journal that do use more single image stock. Online uses more stock. Online uses a higher % of single image stock – must be clean, iconic. Micro has limited use because of limited meta data and requirement for more breaking news.

Q: When do you turn a project over to a photo researcher at an agency?

MS: Do my own search, but if I have a large set of specs I do reach out to vendors I trust.

BB: Since I align myself so closely to the creative team, I take the specs and send the emails to the contacts I have developed a relationships at the photo agencies we work with. If I do kW searches, typically they return too many images and I trust my vendors to sort the best images and only forward those most relevant to me.

JL: Unless the image request is so obscure or esoteric, we usually do our own research in-house. Typically fulfilling 1000’s of specs per week. We do use Photographer’s Direct and AGpix to source images directly from photographers.

DP: We have specialized email lists (Research Medical, Research Travel) that go to specific vendors, but due to time constraints, unless the return lightboxes immediately, we don’t use them. We’ve added more researchers internally so we do more research ourselves again with the exceptions for Medical, Health and other specialty subjects.

Q: Could stock agencies make this service easier for you?

BB: There are times that I will reach my top 10 sources and ask them to be thinking about themes subjects I anticipate I will need. But most projects, I will be looking and needing things immediately. Reps will be proactive asking about the projects that we did last year and asking whether or not we’ll be re-licensing images (esp for retailers that we do a lot of work for). That is helpful, but for ad agency clients the needs are constantly changing that we can’t anticipate.

MS: Whenever I get a proactive lightbox that is tailored to our “typical” requirements I will definitely review those. Sometimes we see things we really like and buy. Some reps do this routinely and that is helpful. A model agency did the same thing, and we did wind up using not one they sent, but I called and asked to see more talent that we did hire.

JL: At BSS we import meta data of images we license and we search the internal DB to locate images that we may re-use. Metadata searching could be interested. RSS image feeds are helpful.

DP: Every image should be downloaded with meta data. We asked Corbis to do it and they did it. We went to Granger and searched for historical images of the 1929 market crash and a few days later someone emailed me and said “we saw you were searching for images of the crash” and they sent me a lightbox of relevant images that I had not seen. I was impressed as hell and sure enough called them back to use some images.

Q: Have you licensed Creative Common images? What are the advantages? Disadvantages?

DP: Yes, in the past we have found images from Wikipedia. However, because of our authentic news requirements, we have a policy not to do it.

JL: It’s in our best interest to support photographers and agencies. We don’t use CC.

BB: We need to work with reputable suppliers. When it comes to general market advertising, the clients simply cannot take the risk and need to be able to contact the copyright holder and hold them accountable if there is a question or issue arises.

Q: What % of images do you use online v print?

DP: We use 50% more images online than in print

BB: Every license we purchase covers print and online.

JL: (Gave demo of in-house system used at BSG to capture image meta data, track images, vendor type (esp those with preferred rate plans), gender type, project status. This information is available to clients to review and generate reports: Photo credit reports, licensing, budget/cost per project, and more. Has web interface for internal/external users to access. Certain publishers have quotas to achieve: volume, micro, gender and the system automates all of the reporting. Having accurate meta data live with the image is vital to making this system work and remain automated.

Q: How fresh do images need to be? When is an image to old to be used?

BB: I am typically looking for current/contemporary images (esp with people), probably 18 months is about the life of an image.

JL: If historical we can use anything. If the images include children

MS: For sports and fitness, about a year is average life we would see. For garden/house titles, life-span can be longer, but on average one to two years.

DP: We get in trouble from our readers if we publish image that are dated. Usually we have a two year window but try and buy pictures shot in the last 6 months.

Q: Do you use preferred vendors?

DP: We use our contract vendors first (top 5 or 6)

BB: No preference. Our criteria is to find images that are current relevant. I use the top 5 but then I’ll also send specs to off the wall sources to find things that are fresh.

MS: If it the right image, we’ll pay for it. We do have some preferred vendors, and we do use them more (mostly because of our previous purchase history), but we do use the niche agencies to find fresh images.

JL: It swings the other way too, we have a “do not use list’

MS: A horror story: Working with a high profile agency on an important project on deadline for exclusive images after hours. The rep complained that she was missing her yoga class and the total lack of professionalism almost caused the agency to lose the job. A reminder when we ask you to go over board for us, remember that we as photo editors are the ones going to bat and advocating for photographers and agencies. If we ask you to go the extra mile, it’s because we are too so please remember that.

Q: How important is exclusivity?

JL: We don’t need exclusives for interior textbook uses

DP: we don’t need exclusive, except if it is important to our brand then we will just shoot.

MS: For covers we will ask if an image has been used on a cover. If it has been used, we may still use it, but it’s good to know.

BB: If exclusivity is important, especially for

Q: If WSJ hires a photographer, are rights exclusive for WSJ or all NewsCorp brands?

DP: Currently when we shoot, the rights are one time non-exclusive for WSJ properties only. Not Dow Jones, not NewsCorp. In the future that may change, but when and how I’m not sure.
Q: What’s most important to you in selecting images?

BB: Believeability. I get promo cards from a medical stock house that have an over-reliance on special effects. I will never use those images. In contrast, there is a food photographer who sent me a card of a beautiful image of a pastrami sandwich and I wanted to eat the card, it looked that good. That’s the kind of images that I like. I’ll also see photographers where it was obvious that they had access to a group of models and a good location and while the overall quality is acceptable, often it looks like “stock” and I’ll be less inclined to use.

Q: From a journalistic perspective, do you have challenges using non-news images?

DP: We have come under criticism for using non-news images in our Personal Journal which is more of a magazine look and the images are used more as illustration rather than hard news. I simply can’t hire a photographer to shoot a guy with a laptop for $4000. If I did, I’d have photographers lining up around the block. I can’t do that and I won’t. I use the images I want to use from the agencies we have agreements with.

Q: Do you look at emails sent by agencies that you don’t know?

BB: Yes, I look at all emails.

MS: We have some unique email system issues, but yes, I always look at the emails I receive. If it is a photographer I know, I may not open it, but generally I will look at all talent and agencies that send me new work.

JL: If it is an agency I am aware of, honestly I don’t always look at the emails, but if it is a new agency I am more likely to open it and read.

Do you demand copyright buyouts for licenses? Do you require rights for third parties? (increasingly licenses requests and purchase orders are including this language)

BB: We’ll ask for unlimited rights not buyouts. But the clients ask for it because they don’t want the hassles and complications of re-licensing. I don’t agree with it, but the account side promises these rights to a clients and then I’m put in a compromised position because I respect the rights of photographers, but unfortunately I get put in a “take it or leave it” position. Sometimes it’s a lack of education—clients doesn’t really need buyout just unlimited usage- but will insist on it simply because they don’t want the complication of tracking rights.

DP: Some clients are willfully ignorant. They don’t want to know, they just want to use the image.

BB: A 25-minute video of the corporate history include album cover art, promo posters and other copyrighted material. I asked where the video would be used and was told it would only see limited use at a trade show. I cleared the rights with a few agencies and photographers. I left for vacation and when I returned I learned that the video was being broadcast on a jumbotron in Times Square. I contacted the SVP Account Manager and let them know of the legal risk the client was under. The response I got was until someone files a cease and desist, they were going to keep using the video. While the client did not respond to the legal risk, I was troubled by the ethical implications of using artists’ work without permission and ultimately that is what troubled me.

Q: Do you expect to pay more for print or online?

BB: I would expect to pay more for online rights. Print is limited in terms of print run of who is going to see. Web is virtually unlimited. But web is still the red-headed stepchild; even media companies don’t know how to charge for web (v. print) and measure it, so

DP: The web for us (WSJ) is working. The viewers are paying for it. However, while they are still innovating. The paper is actually a loss-leader to drive people to the web. We differentiate ourselves as an institutional investor newsletter and that’s what people are paying for.
Q: Do you read printed marketing materials from photographers/agencies?

DP: Yes, I definitely review and keep postcards. Especially locations because often I am looking for photographers in specific locations. What I don’t appreciate is random phone calls or meetings.

BB: I look at the printed material just like the electronic email receive. I don’t file it goes up on the wall. When I get an printed piece and then also receive and email, I also tells me the individual knows what they are doing.

MS: Email is a good place to start. I usually don’t respond, but that’s not that the point. It’s just to get me to look at the work. I will keep promo photo cards. For assignment photographers, I do like to look at (portfolio) books. We have 150 books we are printing each year. Looking at a portfolio really helps us to circulate the work to art directors – many of whom are old school and like looking at print. Don’t like cold calls, but I understand the need to follow-up after sending a book, but don’t pester us.

For more buyer intelligence, see my post from the Chicago ASMP Buyer Roundtable in March 2008.

Google Chrome May Put the Shine on Adware

2008-09-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

Reading Walt Mossberg's review of Google's newly announced Chrome browser he does all the expected feature and speed comparisons between Chrome, IE, and Firefox. But no where does he mention the very real possibility that the primary motivation for Google to compete in the browser wars is to serve more of it's highly profitable ads in an ever more targeted way to consumers that "opt in" to download the Google browser.

Check out Google Chrome's privacy policy provided before and during on install, and you'll find some language that while seemingly benign requires the user to "agree" and gives Google the right to track personal information through the use of the browser. Eg:

Section: Information Google receives when you use Google Chrome
"When you type URLs or queries in the address bar, the letters you type are sent to Google so the Suggest feature can automatically recommend terms or URLs you may be looking for. If you choose to share usage statistics with Google and you accept a suggested query or URL, Google Chrome will send that information to Google as well." -- okay so not only will Google re-direct you to a page which it is not illogical to conclude will be optimized to show ads that yield the highest return to Google when clicked, but Google will also do you the favor of "sharing usage statistics" which again only help Google optimize yeild for ads served and insure bid prices that advertisers pay continue to rise.

Section: Uses
"Information that Google receives when you use Google Chrome is processed in order to operate and improve Google Chrome and other Google services." The "Google receives" link is broken in this text so I have no idea what they plan on "receiving" nor does Google explain "processed." Again, on the surface benign, but surely Google did not include this language for filler. The implication is that Google is recieving information about your browser (i.e. the pages you view, the cookies you store, downloads from websites, etc.) and is "processing" the information to optimize the ads it delivers to the browser.

In fairness, Google provides links to opt-out of these "features". Throughout the copy Google provides links to "disable this feature" and refers to "incognito mode" allowing you to disable stored history of pages viewed on your machine.

However, given the foggy policy statements referenced above, Chrome looks and smells a lot like adware. This is not a bad thing, but for heavens sake, I would hope Google would not perpetuate the sins of the past and at least be candid about their objective: Google wants to create a product that delivers more targeted and relevant ads that benefits advertisers and consumers alike. Yes, consumers can benefit from this approach, but only if there is full disclosure and consent. The murky language above leaves lots to doubt.

Dismiss me as paranoid, but why else would Google enter the browser wars? Are they really motivated to grow market share for yet another browser--that ostensibly replicates most, if not all of the features already available in IE and Firefox?

I think not.

Apple Gives Back

2008-09-01T21:48:00.000-07:00

Was delighted to see Apple offer free full length video and audio downloads of Barak Obama's acceptance speech at Thursday night's Democratic National Convention in Denver. Great move by Apple to use it's market leadership to not only make a buck, but to promote the spread of democracy.

Viral Loop using Slide.com

2008-07-05T14:37:00.000-07:00

Enjoyed this article from Andrew Chen regarding creating the Viral Loop. Slide.com was offered as an example and in about 2 minutes i had it set up and embedded in this blog:

[ Note: On 1/8/09, I removed the slide.com referenced above as it was slowing down page load for my blog. You can see the slide.com show here: ]

Let's see what happens....

Where We Get the Music Matters

2008-05-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Bud's Jazz Records closed last Tuesday. With great sadness we said goodbye to an icon of Seattle's music scene. It was at Bud's where in 1988 I purchased my first Wes Montgomery (Live at the Vanguard with Wynton Kelly); and did a deep dive into Donald Byrd, Gerry Mulligan, Horace Silver, Stan Getz, Dextor Gordon and so many other jazz greats.

I recall fondly the music piped out of the subterranean windows, spilling out onto the sidewalk above calling me to descend Bud's steep stairwell to discover the music. Often, as happened on Bud's last day of operation, I would purchase whatever Bud was spinning-- his taste was always impeccable (last week it was Jay Thomas, Live at Tula's 2002). And the best part, is that each time I play those discs, it transports me back to the very moment of discovery at Bud's surrounded by mountains of vinyl and jewel cases each one holding the promise of a special musical journey that I longed to take.

While I am the first to embrace and indeed celebrate the speed, access and choice that digital music delivery offers, I find it hard to believe I'll have depth of emotional connection and memory to Itunes or Amazon the way I will always have to Bud's Jazz Records.

Would love to hear memories about "your Bud's Jazz"-- I hope everyone has at least one. Post a comment below.

Guerilla's in the Mist

2008-03-26T13:56:00.001-07:00

Leaving the office last week, I spied a Jeep Wrangler equipped with a generator and projection system casting a SBUX promo against a brick wall in Pioneer Square in Seattle. The two guys in the Jeep told me they work for a company who does this kind of work up and down the West Coast with "affiliates" in NY and Boston.

Apart from the legality, definitely got my marketing mojo going.

Chillin' with Facebook: Making Meaning

2007-12-04T20:41:00.001-08:00

Egged on by several colleagues at Digital Railroad, I recently created a Facebook account. Having dabbled previously with MySpace and Second Life to little effect, I had low expectation for the amount of engagement I would have with the latest social networking craze. Boy, was I wrong.

Not only am I engaged, but I am having F-U-N! And while I certainly do not see as many of my business contacts roaming on Facebook the way we do on LinkedIn, the ones that are there are also having fun and creating opportunities to connect about issues that are of both personal interest (tastes in music, books, games, photos etc) making the interactions we have in our professional lives that much richer.

As humans it has been said we are nothing more than meaning making machines. In our warp speed transactional world where the lines between work, play and family are increasingly blurred, Facebook may very well be the 21st century's answer to help us, if not create, perhaps sustain, deeper connections with those we find empathy and with whom we wish to discover meaning.

That's progress.

In Memory of Anthony Ippolito

2007-11-18T12:11:00.001-08:00

June 30, 1927 - November 18, 2007

In Defense of Summer Vacation

2007-08-26T20:33:00.000-07:00

Witnessing colleagues growing reluctance to take earned vacation time, I read with great interest a recent article in the WSJ titled, "Vacation Deflation: Breaks Get Shorter" highlighting a growing trend among US workers:

- 35% do not use their annual allotment of earned vacation days
- 14% of full time employees take 2 weeks vacation
- More employees are opting for long weekends and forgoing one week vacations all together
- Dual income households find it harder and harder to coordinate time-off

Whatever pressures today's worker are subject to (leaner workforce, always-on connectivity, internal/external competition, etc), having just returned from a one week vacation, I can tell you unequivocally me, my family and yes, my employer, have all benefited from my brief sabbatical.

Making it a point not to check email, voice mail, cell phone, internet, IM, etc, I was able to truly disconnect from the daily pressures of the job, and focus intently on my vacation goal: rest and relaxation. Having indulged in 9 straight days (yes, I'm counting bookend weekends) of uninterrupted fun, exercise, exploration and reflection I now feel refreshed and re-juvinated and look forward to returning to work and a job I truly love.

While I know my absence required others to pick up some chores and shoulder some decisions that I would normally make, I left the workplace one week ago knowing I had done the same for others earlier this summer. Having earned this "currency" among my peers, I felt no qualms about asking them to now reciprocate.

Not only am I an advocate for the rejuvinating benefits of earned vacation, but I also believe it is important for organizations to expect employees to take a break an d prepare for it. Show me an employee who is "unable" to schedule a week away from the office and I'll show you someone who probably has been ineffective in executing their respective goals/plans for the year and has not invested in an internal peer network and support mechanism that promotes their ability to get some well earned time off.

For managers, if I am unable to leave the workplace for a week, and have confidence that the team I have built/led is able to support the business without me, then I probably haven't done a very good job managing my team the other 349 days of the year.

So, work hard, build some currency with peers and consciously create your support network throughout the year and if you"re lucky, you'll have (at least) a week of fabulous weather and memories that will keep you as pumped as I am about the next 51 weeks.

Can't wait for my next vacation....

Disneyland: Welcome to Marketing 101

2007-06-18T21:10:00.000-07:00

The moment you cross the threshold into the Magic Kingdom, you enter a world that is the apex in execution of what marketers refer to as "brand experience." Of course visitors to the park expect to see Walt's vision play out in every piece of gingerbread Victoriana on Main Street; in the elegant simplicity of Alice's tea cup ride; in the bawdy playfulness of his Caribbean Pirates and come to full blossom in the Small World utopia that we all yearn to experience. Yet what is truly remarkable is the combined effect these world famous attractions have when orchestrated in combination with a total brand experience.

While the attractions are plainly visible, what may not be as apparent, but no less essential to every guests' enjoyment of the Disney experience, is the artistry that goes on behind the scenes: the "cast members" (aka Disneyland employees) play their roles to a tee and no operational detail is left to chance. Eg:

- The ice cream shop floor sweeper, who jubilantly informs you, in spite of just having pulled a 24 hour shift, after 35 years of service he measures job satisfaction knowing that whatever task he completes he contributes to making a guest "feel happier than before they entered".

- The actors who patiently play musical chairs with a group of young guests and as each child is eliminated from the round, happily announce that they are "UN-WINNERS!!!" (No one could ever be called a "loser" in Disneyland.)

- The crews who are constantly emptying trash cans and cleaning the park throughout the day and evening to insure that not a scrap of paper is ever underfoot-- this in a park teeming with nearly 100K visitors daily.

- The ride operators, who after serving 1000's of customers each day, still greet your arrival with an earnest smile and genuine appreciation as if you were the first customer of the day--- and offer a high five to celebrate your successful completion of the ride.

- The waits in line: yes, the eventual long wait in lines are made far more bearable and dare I say, almost entertaining, since most of the featured attractions have waiting areas designed to be part of the ride experience and in fact help to add to the excitement and anticipation as you wait to officially start the ride.

- The Park Photographers strategically stationed in prime photo spots throughout the park, armed with the latest digital camera and strobe set-up, that just "happen to be waiting for you" when you want to capture that memorable group portrait that even the family's photographer (aka Mom or Dad) gets to appear in.

- The photo kiosks that display your action photo "magically" captured while riding the log flume on Splash Mountain and is available for print--with frame or without-- as you come walking out of the ride.

- The snack stands that not only sell cotton candy, soda and ice cream, but also give families the option to buy fresh cut pineapple spears, watermelon and bottled water.

Looking for a lesson in executing on total brand experience that your company can learn from? Just head to Disneyland.

RSS Photo Feeds From Digital Railroad

2007-03-23T09:51:00.000-07:00

Photo buyers for a thirst for what's new/now can get images delivered to their desktop in real time as new images are posted from Digital Railroad's 1000+ photographer members. Here is a custom feed I created that delivers just released images of presidential candidates created by DRR member CandidatePhotos.com:

Create your own custom feed available now at Digital Railroad.

What The World Needs Now

2007-03-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

Do a Google search for the word "forgiveness" and you'll find 17MM entries. Search for "war"
and you'll see 581MM entries. A ratio of 34:1. "Hate" gets you 236MM hits or 15:1.

Let's begin to even the score.

Practice forgiveness.

Digital SLRs - Obsolesence in the Making

2007-03-10T12:25:00.000-08:00

Shopping for a new pro-level camera? You may want to think twice about dropping $5000 for the latest model. Reading updates from PMA it was fascinating to read comments from Michio Kariya, president, CEO and COO of Nikon Corp. where during his keynote address he explained how the life cycle of digital cameras have changed dramatically.

When Nikon released the F3 in 1980 (the then-standard bearer of pro photographers) the company had the benefit of 20 years of development to perfect the product. That camera stayed on the market for 20 years allowing Nikon to reap it's well earned return on investment.

Contrast that product cycle with today's digital SLR: In September 1999, Nikon introduced the Nikon D1, which had a life expectancy of 1.5 years. When introduced the camera had a retail price of $5000 breaking the then $20,000 barrier for a 10+ MPx capture camera. In 2002, the D100 was introduced with many of the same features of the D1 and cost just $2,000; two year later the D70 cost $1,000 and the D40 after that was $599.

Spend wise, grasshopper (or just check eBay first...)

Canon EOS 5D SLR - Fun & Fast!

2007-02-28T09:18:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I got my hands on a new Canon EOS 5D with a fast 24-70mm 2.8 zoom and had a blast taking photos of kids in a local youth soccer league here in Seattle.

If you are looking for a robust set of features in a pro-level camera, yet intuitive in its ease of use, I highly recommend checking out the 5D. After spending about 10 minutes reviewing Canon's quick start instruction booklet, I had a handle on all the many features of this powerful camera. Most importantly, as I was on the sidelines trying to capture fast moving action on the field, the camera's intuitive design and easy to use on board software never got in my way of getting the shots I wanted.

I've included some highlights of the images I captured in my Digital Railroad archive.

Enjoy!

Shopping Brands v. Shopping for Deals

2006-12-09T13:13:00.000-08:00

Doing any holiday shopping online this Christmas season? Are you conditioned to shop brands (either brick and mortar retailers or online) or are you shopping for deals? I for one am conditioned to shop brands, but clearly not everyone shopping the web this holiday season is. On Monday, Dec 4th the NY Times reported the "Top 10" Cyber Monday traffic results:

The winners: as measured by unique visitors (growth over 2005 in parens)

1) eBay - 9.5MM (-6%)
2) Amazon.com - 4.6MM (+24%)
3) Walmart.com - 3.4MM (+57%)
4) Dell - 2.5MM (+35%)
5) Target.com - 2.4MM (+8%)
6) Shopzilla - 1.9MM (+42%)
7) BestBuy.com - 1.8MM (+17%)
8) Overstock.com - 1.6MM (-20%)
9) Circuit City - 1.4MM (+18%)
10) MSN Shopping - 0.3MM (+164%)

Surprising to me was to see Shopzilla, a comparison shopping destination acquired last year by EW Scripps, increase uniques by 42% and placing it in the top 10 above Best Buy, Circuit City and MSN. While unique visitor traffic is not a direct reflection of revenue, seeing a comparison shopping destination rank so high among these high profile brands is yet another indication of how Web 2.0 companies are stimulating interest among consumers and influencing online shopping behavior.

The Future Is Calling - Are We Ready?

2006-12-06T10:45:00.000-08:00

As we approach year end, it's always intriguing to look ahead and see what business opportunities we can expect to see develop in 2007. At a dinner hosted last night by the Washington Software Alliance (WSA), six panelists from the tech industry-- senior execs from companies such as Sun Microsystems, IBM, Forrester, eccentric, Futurist.com and a former Microsoft Exchange PM now leading a startup, HelpShare-- offered reflections on the year past and predictions for what may lie ahead.

L-R: John Cook, Seattle-PI; Fulup Foll, Sun Microsystems; Glen Hiemstra, Futurist.com; Gerrit Huizenga, IBM Linux; TA McCann, Helpshare; Robin Murdoch, Accenture; Ray Wang, Forrester (cropped).

One of the more enlightening exchanges took place, when moderator John Cook, Seattle PI technology reporter, asked each panelist: "If you had $5MM to invest in start-up companies, which market opportunities would you bet to win?", the panelists responded with some very intriguing ideas:

1) Anonymous identity provider - in an online world where privacy has increasingly become a antiquated notion, there is an unmet pain point that needs to be served
2) Multi-player gaming enabled through ad sponsored product placement - let the game experience revolve in and around product placements that resonate with the target demo and encourage users to interact with the product and the community
3) Healthcare record management - again, in the call for privacy, and in an effort to eliminate accidental deaths due to poor record keeping or availability, enable patients to have total control and real time access to their complete healthcare history
4) Housing solutions for the aging US population: provide scalable and affordable housing options for 65 y.o. plus market
5) DNA Mapping products designed to predict future disorders (as identified in DNA code) and pro-actively prescribe health care options to mitigate expected health problems
6) Social Networking that integrates brand advertising - there is a $70BB brand advertising market that is not being effectively addressed by the current crop of social networks
7) Database killer - eliminate databases worldwide and empower ubiquitous access to data through ASP solutions

Conversely, the panelists identified these marketing opportunities as "overhyped" in 2006 and expect consolidation or outright elimination of these businesses:

1) Wireless streaming of TV to mobile phones - given the user experience and alternatives (flat panel, HDTV)
2) Proprietary applications competing with existing standards - eg: SKYPE
3) Open doc format - the power of the MS .doc standard has proven to be far too beneficial to users to be supplanted by open doc
4) AOL
5) Social networks - there are over 100 and many have no legs outside of US market (eg MySpace is non-entity countries like France)
6) Software as service - service is what companies and individuals want when they purchase software
7) User Generated Content - the current "looking the mirror" fascination will wane and it will be evident that consumers vote with their eyeballs and spend the majority of online time consuming professional, hi-quality content

Extra credit - Q: What market should we be looking to take our cues from for the future? A: K_O_R_E_A.

Bold Visionary or Persona Non Grata?

2006-11-20T17:25:00.000-08:00

Last weekend's leak of an internal memo from Brad Garlinghouse, VP Communications Products at Yahoo! (Garlinghouse oversees Mail, Photos, Community, etc) sheds light on one of the more interesting conundrums of the executive suite: at what point does an exec stick his/her own neck out to challenge the status quo? Moreover, will capturing the bully pulpit isolate your views and alienate colleagues? Will it create real change or be received as mere office politics?

Too often leaders in the executive suite, especially in relatively mature companies, get so wrapped up in defending "what is" as opposed to engaging in creative destruction to build "what might be". It is this fact that makes Garlinghouse's "Peanut Butter Manifesto" so striking as it is so rare to see this kind of open challenge to the status quo. The memo is remarkable if for nothing else in its willingness to be rejected.

While the Machiavellian among us may dismiss Garlinghouse's memo as a stunt designed to embarrass superiors and position himself for higher leadership position at Yahoo!, one must also consider the possibility that this memo was written with a pure intent. After all Garlinghouse has a long track record as a loyal employee and has demonstrated an enduring passion for Yahoo's products (to demonstrate his zeal for the company, Garlinghouse is reported to at one point shaved a "Y" into the back of his head). Having met Garlinghouse previously he presents himself as a well-balanced and thoughtful manager. Hardly the type that is taken to grandstanding merely for personal gains.

So why do it? Maybe, just maybe, he really does care. About the employees, customers, colleagues and shareholders he serves. Maybe he cares so much that he is willing to set aside his self interest to challenge Yahoo's leadership to focus on doing a few things better than any one else rather than dip its toes in every online business imaginable. Maybe, by focusing on personalization, an area Yahoo! does better than most, maybe, just maybe Yahoo! can become the Web 3.0 company that few current players have the potential to aspire to. And, maybe his integrity as a leader has compelled him to say 'the Emperor has no clothes" when the rest of the flock is willing to go along, get along.

My hope is that Brad's memo inspires real change at Yahoo! and in turn emboldens other leaders to speak out against convention. If this happens, maybe, just maybe, "integrity" won't become a flaccid platitude relegated to the corporate handbook, but will be the moral force behind bold actions execs call upon to avoid the ship from hitting the rocks.

Cranium's Secret Sauce - 7 Rules For Success

2006-11-17T17:02:00.000-08:00

Richard Tait is the charismatic Founder and CEO of Cranium. In a keynote address at a recent AAAA conference, Richard shared the story of Cranium, a tiny company born out of an idea scratched on the back of a napkin that has grown into the third largest games company in the world today. In his keynote, Richard shared "the secret sauce" of Cranium's success and the seven things (plus one for extra credit) that got them there:

1) Have a Mission - Be able to answer the question: What is your mission? Why are you here? What is the reason you are dedicating yourself to this company? If your people don’t know the mission, how can they follow you? At Cranium the mission is – "Create fun moments and memories that give everyone the chance to shine”. everyone should know the mission and make it passionate – other examples Richard cites: Microsoft, Google

2) Know your culture and bring it to life every day. Culture will be your competitive advantage. Figure out what your culture is: at Cranium there are two: 1) consumer sensitivity “CHIFF” (Creative, High Quality, Innovative, Friendly & Fun) and 2) operational excellence – the human pulse is used as a metaphor creating “PULSE” stations – key operational metrics eg: EBITDA Fever (“Saturday Night Fever” used as soundtrack) & Revenue Racetrack – giant games piece that moves big dollar bills around the office that show revenue performance. Celebrate milestones and touch tones – “bang the gong – launching a new website, hire an employee, shipping a new product.

3) Change the rules: At Cranium the rule change was: “Let’s take the games where our customers are instead of bringing customers to our games.” Cranium was the first game ever to be sold into Starbucks, Amazon (Cranium sales team scheduled "play dates" with the friends of the buyers at Amazon who then recommended Amazon should stock the game), and Barnes & Noble (grabbed two people at the water cooler outside the buyers office and played the game for 15 minutes with the buyer-- they were sold). Also, applaud people in your company who don’t take "no" for an answer.

4) Figure out what you are really, really, really good at and build the whole company around it: Cranium is good at 1) Invention and has “big ears” listening to feedback and customers and 2) Developing products that delivers on the emotional contract with customers. Cranium designed processes to develop products defined in a manner which are consistent with Cranium Culture - eg: Cranium Cuisinart (product brainstorming), Moment Engineering (product refinement), Big Ears (market research and product testing), Customer Celebration (customer feedback), CHIFF Check List (meet the CHIFF requirements for all products), Celebrate Shine (the moment when consumer enjoys the final game experience and recommends to friends).

5) Hire for smarts and rent experience – hire for how people think NOT what they know. Eg: hiring questions include "give me an example of your favorite consumer durable and what would you do to improve it." Exceptions to this rule: Finance and Operations – hire experience! Also Recognize employees through “shine and celebration” eg: employee of the month gets a custom game built, a theme song and is celebrated throughout the company

6) Never forget that your customers are your sales force – the whole company has been built on Craniacs – word of mouth – eg: Cranium has prepped four "Cranium weddings" creating custom games that reflect the couples' history. Conviction to customers lets you make history. Not able to purchase a game locally in a rural area, Cranium hired a private plane and hand delivered a game to a customer just in time for her hustand's 40th birthday party – 6 years ago – she is still writing Christmas cards to the company and spreading the gospel of Cranium to everyone she meets. CEO recieves and reads over 200 customers emails per day. Over 29,000 Craniacs have written their own games. Never forget the power of your customers.

7) Build the company on anticipation rather than reaction “Orbiting the Giant Hairball” (also the title of a book by Gordon McKenzie - must reading for every Cranium employee). Teach yourself to be great at anticipation rather than reaction. Learn how to stay creative-- especially in a large organization.

Extra Credit) Be a company with a heart and give back to the community – Cranium has given over $700K to Kids at Risk programs.

These are rules which we can all live buy.

ad:tech New York 2006

2006-11-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

It is only fitting that ad:Tech NY takes place immediately following the New York City marathon. Runners proudly brandish their medals from this year’s race are seen throughout the Hilton’s hotel lobby now competing for space with runners of a very different stripe – the internet marketing professional. These “runners” are here for a very different race. We are here scrambling from booth, to meeting, to seminar, to keynote, to coffee meeting, to cocktail lounge, to sponsor party, to keynote address in search of that illusive, but plainly apparent, finish line: the well placed contact or piece of intelligence that will catapult each attendee (and participating company) to ever greater revenues and marketshare—and yes, bragging rights for world dominance.

Predictably, with the recent acquisition of YouTube and the growing market share of MySpace, much of the conversation from the speaker’s podium focused on video ontent powered by the now wide adoption of broadbrand. Video (and rich media content in general) is creating new opportunities to engage consumers and generate sales revenues for brand marketers and the ad sales infrastructure that supports them. To highlight this intersection of dependency and opportunity, Tuesday’s keynote panel presentation, “ The Online Video Revolution: A Marketer’s Dream or a Consumer Generated Mess?”, included execs from traditional media (CNN), new media (YouTube), agencies (Isobar) and infrastructure (Akamai).

L-R: Drew Ianni, AdTech Chair, Paul Sagan, President & CEO, Akamai Techologies. Sarah Fay, Isobar Communications (Carat Fusion, Freestyle, Molecular & iProspect), Jonathan Klien, President, CNN USA, Suzie Reider, CMO, YouTube, AdTech 2006 Keynote panel, Tuesday, November 7, 2006, New York City (Photo Credit: (c) 2006 Mark Ippolit0)

Several of the speakers chose to contrast the capabilities of content delivery and internet marketing of 2006 to where the industry was 10 years ago. Akamai CEO, Paul Sagan, who during the 1990’s was President for New Media at Time Warner, was struck with how long it took us to get here. He recalled forecasting in 1996 that broadband would have 70% penetration by 1999. CNN USA President Jonathan Klein commented that CNN.com now sees over 50MM uniques per month and has over 3MM downloads of video new stories each of which engage views for 2 minutes per video with users on average downloading 3-4 stories per session for approximately 12-15 minutes of total viewing. He also commented “pre-roll and post-roll inventory was sold out thru Q4 of this year” and appeared generally bullish about the prospects for online video (ed note: it would have been interesting to hear him comment on whether the growth in online ad sales will come at the expense of CNN’s traditional broadcast business.)

While not specifying the number of streams or downloads, YouTube CMO Suzy Reider, indicated her chief concern that “there is a coming glut of video inventory” from user generated content sites like YouTube (CNN also aggregates UGC via its iReport news channel) and foesaw “depression of prices in the year ahead.” She claimed YouTube was currently enjoying “CPMs in the $20 - $30 range”. Interesting to note that the ad sales organization at YouTube reports to the office of the CMO (Ms Reider’s background is in media sales at CNET and Ziff Davis).

Sarah Fay from Isobar (whose agencies include Carat Fusion, Freestyle, Molecular & iProspect) commented that as a buyer the focus for metrics continues to be engagement and while standard metrics have yet to emerge (and remain somewhat elusive), but confirmed that advertisers are tracking values such as length of viewing as proxies for engagement. Advertisers also continue to fund development at interactive agencies visa vis measurement technologies and investments in media strategy and planning expertise. She cited her own company’s growth from just a few hundred employees in 2003 to over 1600 worldwide.

Jupiter Research released its forecast for Internet ad spending in the US over the next 5 years. With consumers spending as much time online as watching TV the shift of dollars from offline media to online is expected to grow. Biggest investors in online advertising are projected to come from the following verticals: music, entertainment, financial services, travel and automotive.

Mobile advertising was also a thread that was evident in both the sessions and the exhibitors. In the “Now & Next Tech Show” innovation pavilion, all of the emerging companies that were on display were focused on the mobile advertising space. Most were showcasing applications and content (gaming) that have advertising embedded. A number of analytics companies were also in evidence.

(If you’d like to learn more about what was being discussed at the 30+ sessions that took place over the 2 1/2 days, ad:Tech thoughtfully provides a public link to all of the presentations which are shown at the event: http://www.ad-tech.com /presentations)

Most of the action I witnessed was on the show floor itself. This year the exhibit space was spread over 3 full floors of the Hilton’s conference space. Over 10,000 attended the show cramming the aisles, coffee lines and conference rooms. While some complained about the unusually tight hallways and aisles, there were others who like the buzz and sense of urgency that having too many people buzzing about creates for the show. We’ll see what happens: ad:Tech completes their lease agreement with Hilton (ending in 2007) and will determine if the NY event will be moved to the Javits Center to better accommodate future increased attendance.

Quantity does not equal Quality: While we were pleased in the growth in attendance (we saw our raw number of leads captured during the show shoot up 5 fold over 2005), ad:tech seems to be stuck in rut in not attracting visitors outside its core constituents of ad networks, affiliate marketers and service providers. Few if any actual direct advertisers or top interactive agency contacts were in attendance. Considering NY is the financial, media and advertising capital of North America (if not the world) it is perplexing to see so few actual advertisers in attendance.

AdTech NY Nov 2005 – Day Two Journal

2005-11-25T10:38:00.000-08:00

AdTech NY Nov 8, 2005

Cindy Gallup former chair of BBH, offered her contrarian point of view that the consumer is not in control (as was forcefully argued in many of the search marketing sessions), but argued that consumer buying behavior is more influenced by “social endorsement”. “What other people thinks matters to consumers” and drives many purchase decisions. Case studies were presented from Seattle’s own “Ranier Beer” campaign to re-ignite a long dormant brand that still inspired passioned response from loyal customers. Virgin Airlines “Porn Movie,” with tongue firmly planted in cheek, promotes first class luxury to male business travelers by way of the “special attention to service” lavished on male recipients stereo-typically—and quite humorously-- associated with behavior celebrated in the trashiest of porn movies. Gallup argued that Virgin’s use of humor created an intimate bond with viewers who were in on the joke and would share their experience of the humor with other business-traveler colleagues.

James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds expounded on this theme of social engagement putting forward his theory of “collective intelligence”. Citing numerous examples where crowds have a higher success rate in predicting outcomes than individual experts (horse races, internal stock markets, presidential caucuses, HP’s employee market forecasts, “Ask the Audience” technique on “Millionaire), Surowiecki urged marketers to go beyond suggestion boxes and focus groups if marketers want better predictors of a new product or service’s success stating “Customers are the best source of information for determine what OTHER customers will want.” To tap into this cognitive intelligence, markets must create the right set of conditions to extract accurate forecasts:

1) Establish a method to aggregate the data
2) Insure that your audience includes a diversity of perspectives and information about the subject
3) Provide a vehicle to enable and record independent and individual decision making from each participant

Businesses that are adopting this approach include Hollywood Site Exchanges whose members more accurately predict success/failure of Hollywood releases better than the studios that produce the movie; Google’s page rank algorithm reveals “hidden order behind the chaos” of consistently retrieving relevant search results; Brainjuicer.com taps into collective intelligence to predict consumer behavior.

Stimulated with these fresh ideas, we headed back to the booth and our respective customers appointments. The “penthouse suite” continued to alternately impress and amuse client visitors. The sheer spaciousness of the penthouse with its jaw dropping views of mid-town and Central Park combined with the spare and faded glory of the furnishings, create quite a contrast, but never detracted from the conversations we had with customers. The grand piano perched at the edge of the window, on the other hand, proved quite a distraction for yours truly as I longed to tickle the ivories… ah well, next time! (maybe I’ll sneak in a moonlight serenade…)

View from the Penthouse, NY Hilton, Nov 8, 2005

In a seminar titled, “Search Beyond Direct Marketing” Joe Pilotta from BigResearch and an analyst from Piper Jaffrey cited some global market stats/projections and the implications for the current and future search marketing industry:

- Paid search will grow to a $30BB by 2010
- Online advertising will grow to $23BB by 2010
- Search is customer acquisition AND product purchase
- Search re-inforces other campaigns and messages delivered by brands in other media
- Search is uniquely designed to deliver call to action

However, advertisers would be remiss if they extract from these stats an overly rosey forecast of what they can expect search marketing to produce. Joe Pilotta provided these stats with some sobering statistics about the 18-34 year old demographic that marketers mistakenly see as a gold mine waiting to be mined through search marketing:

• Facts about the 18-34 demo:
• Average annual savings rate is -1%
• Average credit card debt is $12,000
• More than 50% will not have the resources to pay off their college loans
• Traditional word of mouth is more influential than purchase decisions than search, internet and email combined.

Pilotta offered these stats and warned marketers to not believe the hype of search marketing and instead recommending that “search should not be used as a standalone, but be used synergistically with other media types” to reach the desired audience. He was also critical of the hype around “behavioral targeting.” Behavioral targeting “is irrelevant if as a marketer you do not know where the consumer has been before they got there.” Given the “consumer interest index” (CII) feature of MetricsDirect newly launched behavioral product which tracks and stack ranks consumer behavior for up to 14 days before presenting an ad, Pilotta’s threshold for delivering effective targeted ads would be greatly exceeded. (Note: Before exiting the seminar, Pilotta was promised by yours truly to get a demo of the new MD behavioral product for review and comment.)

Keeping in mind Zango’s efforts in the games business, we eagerly anticipated the comments and observations from the panelists delivering a presentation on “Games As Marketing Vehicles.” The panel was kicked off with some market sizing stats:

• AdverGaming is a mainstream sponsor driven medium
• Funding continues to pour into the space (DoubleFusion announced this week a $10MM round)
• IGN, interactive game agency sold for $650MM
• Demographics of gamers highly sought after by marketers
• Ubiquitous broadband fueling adoption and reach
• Ad Agencies are opening dedicated AdverGaming divisions
• Avg gamer spends >1 hour per day as compared to ~3 hours/day for the average television viewer
• Jupiter forecasts 360MM online gamers WW by 2009

The speakers including former VP Marketing for Xbox, Julia Miller, now CEO of iBloks, were quick to point out that the hardcore gamer community, while very dedicated are not to be construed as the only gamers online. Women are increasingly apt to spend discretionary time gaming and are twice as likely as men to download mobile games. Jennifer Mekon, VP of IGN Entertainment, a games promotions company, pointed out that games define the audience and therefore make for a particular effective advertising medium for targeting specific demographics. Eg: Need to reach female >35 yo, sponsor Mahjong game. Marketers however cannot dismiss the strong community attribute of gamers. Promotions must be consistent with the values of the demographic and transparent in their intent– i.e. if users already have the full version of a game, why would they would want to download a sponsor laden version? And be warned, as quickly as the community will praise a game product for it’s skill-challenging innovations, they will also just as quickly—and vocally-- disparage what are seen as transparent attempts at exploitation of their community.

Recognizing this attribute of the community, Scott Tannen, VP of Games at Wrigley, and operator of game site candystand.com, recommended “that advertisers who want to enter the game space, should build the game first and then attempt to brand the game experience” once development is complete. Shallow attempts such as Tide detergent’s “shoot out the stains” game are seen as completely one dimensional and therefore completely irrelevant to both the casual and sophisticated gamer. “The game and the experience always take priority in the mind of the gamer.”

This last point in particular really struck home as we identify and evaluate potential content partners in the game space who may wish to exploit the revenue potential of distributing Zango, but may not create sufficient value in the mind of the consumer.

Panelists for “Marketing Through Online & Video Games” seminar. Nov 8, 2005

Under the heading “save the best for last” the closing keynote, and most highly anticipated, was delivered by Guy Kawasaki, founding partner of Garage Ventures and former VP Marketing of Apple Computers. Reflecting on how marketers primary role is that of “evangelist” Guy provided his “10 Rules of Evangelism” as inspired by Constantine Brancusi’s quote; “Create like a god, rule like a king and work like a slave.”

Guy Kawasaki delivers his “10 Rules of Evangelism.” Nov 8, 2005

“Create Like a god.”
1) Kill the cash cows. Have the courage and foresight to go against conventional wisdom. Eg: Apple’s software division was completely isolated from the MacII hardware group so as to reinvent the software with no reliance on the hardware which at the time was 100% of Apple’s revenues.
2) Make Meaning. Make the world a better place. End bad things, make things good or make things better. Eg: Nike converted, cotton, rubber and plastic into meaning (women’s shoe campaign)
3) Jump to the Next Curve. Do things 10x better not 10% better. Eg: HP didn’t attempt to create a better daisy wheel printer; they created laser printers.
“Rule Like a king.”
4) Follow the 10/20/30 rule. Receiving 100s of presentations every week, Guy knows what makes for an effective evangelist’s pitch: Never have more than 10 slides in your presentation. Deliver your entire presentation in 20 minutes. Use a type size that is at least 30 points.
5) Make a Mantra. Explain why you exist not a MBA-style mission statement. Eg: Wendy’s: Healthy Fast Food. FedEx: Peace of Mind. Nike: Authentic Athletic Performance. Target: Democratic Design
6) Niche Thyself. Make sure your idea ranks high on the matrix of “Ability to provide unique product or service” as it relates to “Value to the customer”. Dell offered little that was unique, but was high value to the customers and competes on price. “Stupid” companies offer something unique that has little value to customers. Majority of “Dotcoms” delivered little that was unique and little value. But “Bullseye” companies (Fandango, FilmLoop) deliver something that is at once unique and has high value.
“Work like a slave.”
7) Sow entire fields. Don’t sweat when customers buy your product and you don’t know why. Embrace it and learn.
8) Provide a slippery slope. Don’t make it easy to be copied or replicated.
9) Don’t ask anyone to do something that you would not be willing to do.
10) Ignore Bozos: Thomas Watson, IBM “There are 4 customers who will buy computers.” (1945) Digital Equipment Company CEO “No one will ever buy a computer for their home.” (1977). “That job is too far from my home and I will not commute one hour to get there.” The reason Guy Kawasaki offered in 1996 for not accepting the CEO position at Yahoo!

Guy’s passion, intellect and generous use of humor were on display during the 40 minutes he was on the stage. In closing, Guy provided all attendees with complementary copies of his new book The Art of the Start. Everyone left the auditorium with a palpable sense of excitement and re-newed energy. Guy’s insight and passion for evangelism provided the perfect exclamation point to an exhilarating set of experiences that were AdTech NY 2005.

AdTech NY Nov 2005 - Day One Journal

2005-11-25T10:24:00.000-08:00

AdTech Daily, Nov 7, 2005 - New York City

What do you get when you combine 200 exhibitors, 42 workshops, 7 keynote addresses and 8500 pre-registered attendees? The world’s largest interactive conference: AdTech 2005.

Back in 1995 when AdTech was first launched, discussion among exhibitors and conference attendees speculated on whether or not the Internet would be around in 10 years. Taking residence at New York’s Hilton Hotel, AdTech is celebrating it’s 11th consecutive year and billed as the world’s largest gathering of interactive advertising professionals. And judging from the diverse activities and opinions expressed throughout the day, AdTech is embracing a far greater scope of ideas and techniques than ever before. Today’s blog provides an overview from the perspective of MetricsDirect participation as both an exhibitor and attendee of AdTech’s many workshops and educational sessions.

Day One was kicked off by educational sessions by a pair of thought provoking keynote speakers: Debra Wahl Meyer, VP Marketing for Toyoto Motor’s Lexus brand discussed brand strategy in “The Age of Engagement” using Lexus’ promise of creating a “covenant” with customers to deliver a “luxury experience” at every point of interaction with the product and the brand. Lexus is using interactivity to enhance “intimacy and fluid access” with consumers citing it’s recent launch of the “New IS” model. The company invited customers to load personal photos to www.thenewis.com that would be integrated in a digital photo montage of the company’s new product and displayed dynamically in an electronic billboard NY’s Times Square. Using live chat interactivity on Edmonds.com, Lexus’s General Manager held a live chat session with over 400 sports cars enthusiasts prior to launch and anticipating potential criticisms of the new model before it was release. This tactic neutralized potential criticism the vehicle may have received had Lexus waited until launch to establish dialogue with this important influencer audience.

In a media environment characterized by a bewildering array of media choices confronting today’s consumers, Sean Dee, VP Marketing of Hard Rock International emphasized the critical importance for brands to establish a unique visual identity. Just 20 years ago, a television advertiser could buy a spot on the #2 rated television show (trivia - “Family Ties” starring Michael J Fox was the #2 rated show in fall of 1985) and reach a potential audience 46MM. Today’s top rated show (CBS’s “CSI”) delivers less than _ of that audience size. To make your message stick, Dee recommends translating a brand into image iconography that resonates emotionally with your consumer. For Hard Rock’s “I Rock NY” new store opening, HR relied on image of rock icons (The Who, Johnny Cash, Jim Hendrix, The Ramones, Nirvana) that reflected the core attributes of Hard Rock’s brand: authentic, passionate, irreverent, unpredictable, and democratic.

Taking a break from some of the big ideas surfaced by these big thinkers, the Sales Team from MetricsDirect immersed itself in what we do best: service customers and optimize campaigns. With over 40 pre-scheduled appointments to supplement the steady stream of traffic that was running past our booth, we had numerous opportunities to interact with current customers as well as meeting nearly one hundred new contacts.

The most common feedback from customers visiting the booth:
1) Service from MetricsDirect is always exceptional
2) MetricsDirect self service web site beats all of its competition
3) MD’s new Behavioral Targeting product is a welcome complement to our traditional CPV product

Keith Smith, CEO, along with Quinn McKee, Account Manager and Matt Doden, Account Executive welcome customers and prospects to MetricsDirect booth at AdTech New York, Nov 7, 2005

After a welcome lunch break we returned to a busy exhibit hall with more meetings and drive buys packing the schedule. The afternoon also featured some terrific workshops. Two that were sampled were “Marketing to Women and Children in the 21st Century” and “Internet Brand Marketers and ‘How Pure Play Works Best’”.

A panel discussion among advertisers and market research firms focused on women were emphatic in their assertion that women in the 21st century are a diverse market set with a wide variety of interests and concerns. To create actionable campaigns, Mary Meehan, EVP of Iconoculture, classified 21st women in the following segments:

• Boomer Women: Age 41-59 years old, these women are accustomed to managing it all and associate with brands that above all provide convenience and control. Meehan noted that this segment also contains a subset of Boomer Grandparents citing the average age of a grandmother is 48 years old and number 32 million in the US. These are not your grandma’s grandmother; these women are active, engaged, involved and technologically, very sophisticated with money, lots of money, to spend.

• GenX Women: Age 28-40 years old, GenX’ers are discerning, realistic and pragmatic. “Good enough” will do. They respect authenticity and real voices. These are the women that are blogging and spending time online chatting.

• Latina: Age 21 -44 years old, Latina’s are avid learners and are on a quest to define their identity. Latina is Super Mamá. She can do it all and wants information, support and community.

• Millenials (aka Gen Y’s) age 21-27 years old expect things their way. This is the “cut and paste” generation that is accustomed to support. Everything must be personalized, customized, and shareable.

Lable Networks CEO Kathleen Gasperini added her perspective to the panel. Advertisers like Apple and Burton Snow Boards use these techniques to appeal to youth culture in the 21st century:

• Imagination – speak to youth in a way that demonstrates yours
• DIY – let youth discover your brand
• Viral Cred – blogs provide independent stamp approval to your brand
• Driving Subcultures – Music, Tech, Sports, Fashion are the real drivers
• Be a part of their lifestyle – it’s not enough to have youth buy your product

Turning attention from theory to practice, top internet brands Shutterfly, LowerMyBills and ELoan discussed the techniques they use to drive traffic, sales and life time value from their respective customer base.

Matt Coffin, CEO of LowerMyBills describes the company’s marketing strategy as “Go big or go home.” Living up to this aspiration, LMB is the internet’s largest financial services advertiser spending over $10MM per month using online advertisinig as a primary vehicle to acquire customers supplemented by traditional print, outdoor and television buys.

ELoan CEO Catherine Muriel takes a more surgical approach to acquiring its younger demographic of 35 y.o. customers relying on exhaustive data analysis to identify the most effective sources of leads and conversions. ELoan use on a mix of search engine marketing, contextual and behavioral networks to manage its brand. Similarly, Shutterfly CEO, Jeff Housenhold cites his company’s effective use of partner marketing (eg: 800flowers co-op mailing) combined with rigorous customer life cycle data analysis to drive their marketing and promotions. Shutterfly has developed over 100 customer segment profiles based on demographics, psychographics and past product consumption to stimulate creative, build traffic and effect conversions.

During Q&A, all three CEO’s cited proficiency at statistics and analytics as the most highly prized skill set their organizations will require for future success. When asked “ If you could select one of the following wishes to predict success for your business, what would you choose: Eliminating your largest competitor, doubling your marketing budget or identifying a new high performing advertising network, all of these internet brand CEO’s selected doubling the marketing budget as the best of the three.

Monday’s sessions were closed appropriately by a highly engaging keynote address delivered by Saatchi & Saatchi, CEO Kevin Roberts. Roberts, author of Lovemarks, The End of Brands, and self described “bald, fat, rich white guy” prognosticated on the “screen age” that consumers in the 21st century live in and the opportunity for all marketers to take advantage of SISOMO: as described in Robert’s new book SISOMO, The Future on Screen. (Screens are defined as cell phones, tv, computer, devices, signage, etc). Roberts implores marketers to take advantage of SISOMO to deliver emotion to drive choice in the “attraction economy” where choice is driven by emotion and emotion leads consumers to take action.

Using a mix of tv spots (New Zealand Blacks rugby team, Brazilian beer, New Zealand Telephone, Lexus IS) Roberts illustrates how SISMO inspires “loyalty beyond reason”. All of the spots relied on strong story telling and make magical the moment of truth when the subject of the ad endorses the product. Roberts also warned how market research and testing can deaden creativity; the only measure that counts: “Do you want to see it again?” Make products irresistible. Roberts challenged conventional thinking about brand marketing, saying “brands do not own consumers, but consumers own the brand.” Apple has such incredible brand loyalty because the consumers of Apple own the emotional connection and affinity for the brand. To build this kind of loyalty, Roberts encouraged those advertisers who are attracted to the efficacies of CRM to stop asking customers for permission, and instead create attraction through the use of mystery, sensuality and intimacy. Using the tools of story, music and humor advertisers can create the attraction that the will connect consumers to a “lovemark” not merely a brand. Roberts ended the session re-capping the thoughts above recommending that “instead of making your next call to your office, call your Mom and Dad instead.”

SISOMO Guru and Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts implores AdTech attendees, “Don’t call your office, call your mom & dad.” Nov 7, 2005

Time for one more meeting at the suite, before I think I’ll take Kevin's advice and call home.

Give 'Em Hell Harry! Old Media Trumps New

2005-07-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's release of the latest Harry Potter demonstrates yet again how the power of the imagination trumps manufactured entertainment every time. JK Rowlings latest installment sold over 6 million copies of the new HP series within 24 hours of its much anticipated release. Scholastic, Rowling's publisher, expects to sell nearly 30 Million copies during the first few months of the release. That's nearly double the 18 million sold of the previous HP installment. It appears that with each release in the series the audience for Our Boy Harry, and their insatiable appetite for all things Harry, multiplies exponentially.

In this era of over-hyped multiplatinum video game/DVD/CD/mashup/podcast/PSP/ringtone releases, hats off to old media's ability to capture the headlines and-- most importantly-- the fertile imagination of millions the world over by the simple application of black type to white paper.

Viva Gutenberg!

Citizen Journalist Coming of Age

2005-07-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Coverage of last week's London bombings demonstrated yet again how the landscape for photo journalism is shifting. While no one disputes the power and importance of professional photojournalism, the most memorable--and timely-images from last week's attack were captured not by well known news agencies but by average citizens armed with above average imaging technology namely camera phones. The lead image on Friday's New York Times (as shown, image left credit: Alexander Chadwick/AP) featured subway train survivors navigating from the blast site through the darkness of a London Underground tunnel. Within hours of the blasts cameraphone users blogged over 300 images to Flickr that bore witness to the latest terror atrocity.

Beyond the near-real time access these images provided the news media, the significance of this event points to the ever increasing awareness that common citizens have to the power of wireless distribution of images and the multiplier impact of the web to reach worldwide audiences. This behaviour would suggest that as citizens are increasingly empowered with enabling technology they will use that technology to accelerate-- and monetize-- distribution of their personal images. The implications for professional photographers and agencies--especially photo-j's and celebrity-- are disruptive to the conventional way of doing business and will need to be addressed.

During the last 12 months some of the most memorable--and impactful-- images of world events (Abu Garib prison, the Asian Tsunami, London bombings) were captured by citizen journalists. Industry colleagues (and venture capitalists) who are asking whether or not average user (i.e. non professional) images can be turned into commercial content licensing businesses need look no further than the early success of Flickr (news and event), iStockphoto (commercial stock) and Digital Railroad (editorial and commercial stock) to see how these innovators are taking advantage of this emerging trend.

Steve Jobs: "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish"

2005-07-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Like so many others, I've long been an admirer of Steve Jobs not only for his work as an innovator, but his tenacity and staying power. (And for anyone who has ever seen him pitch new products from the stage at MacWorld, he is a also the world's greatest salesman.) The text below is a transcript from a commencment speech he delivered last month at Stanford where Jobs provides insight to the personal values that have shaped his life and career. This is good stuff.

"I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots. I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never
graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would
someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't
interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on.

Let me give you one example: Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy
class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating. None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac.

It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or
proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college.

But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started?

Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating. I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life. During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife.

Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together. I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.

Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have
looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes. I lived with that diagnosis all day.

Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now. This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself.

And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. Thank you all very much."

A Supreme Victory for Copyright Holders

2005-06-28T12:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's unanimous ruling in the Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Studios v. Grokster case represents a long overdue victory for copyright holders. Grokster's specious argument that restricting its rights to distribute its P2P software would contradict the Court's wastershed Betamax ruling was revealed by the judges for the smoke screen that it was.

Grokster's assertion that it should not be held liable for how its technology is deployed by users would suggest that Grokster was in a business analogous to general purpose software development and the company was an innocent bystander in some egregious mis-use of its technology. The justices got it right and overtly stated that Grokster's "acted with a purpose to cause copyright violations." Moreover the justices found "substantial evidence" that the company's products encourages users to illegally swap copyrighted movies and music.

Grokster's other assertion that such a ruling would stifle the creativity of technology innovators was merely a fear mongering tactic as opposed to a factual accounting of how innovators who work within the boundaries of intellectual property law are not only prospering, but giving consumers what they want. One need look no further than Apple's success with iTunes, Yahoo's subscription music service, and NetFlix DVD rental business to see how innovators who respect copyright innovate their way forward to profitability.

The genie is out of the bottle and certainly P2P is not about to go away. I for one would be delighted to see legitimate P2P companies like Weedshare and SnoCap flourish in this new environment. Hopefully yesterday's ruling will make the way clear for innovation in digital media distribution that works in concert with the interests of artists and copyright holders.

Thank you Justices for getting it right.

Microsoft & Hollywood: Did Anyone Think Win - Win?

2005-06-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

When Microsoft released Halo 2 last year and racked up Hollywood-like box office numbers in its first week of release, it's easy to understand (and forgive) if the execs in Redmond experienced a little rush to the head and perhaps a momentary lapse in judgment believing that the market value of their videogame title "should" be equated to proven box office brands like Spielberg and Cruise or franchises like Star Wars or Spiderman. Surely, once the blush was off the rose and the champagne uncorked, cooler heads would prevail and recognize that, while Microsoft had in fact created a blockbuster videogame, that fact in no way should give the software giant the license to negotiate with Hollywood with the same hubris it displays as the dominant player in the software industry. Wanna bet?

As reported in the June 10th edition of the NY Times, Microsoft's MO was on full display in the disclosure of how it went about negotiating film rights for Halo 2 with the major studios. Rather than recognize (and perhaps humbly submit) that Microsoft was a new kid on the block in Hollywood and, using the bait of an admittedly valuable property, attempt to build long term sustainable relationships with worthy partners who shared their passion for marketing great games, Microsoft elected to play hardball. The Times reported that Microsoft hired a writer to write the screenplay for the Halo movie, invited execs from the major studios to read it and then offered the following terms: The studios would have 24 hours to provide a signed commitment to produce the screenplay Microsoft commissioned, pay a $10MM advance (non-refundable), invest a minimum of $75MM in production (not including actors fees), pay 20% of box office receipts, and pay all travel fees for up to 60 Microsoft execs so that Microsoft could maintain creative control during production. Oh, and for the privilege of producing the movie, the winning bidder foregoes all merchandising rights.

Predictably, once hearing of these terms, 4 of the 6 potential studios dropped completely from the bidding. The Times reported that the two studios who chose to bid, Fox & Universal, submitted terms that equated to half of what Microsoft demanded and have yet to sign an agreement as both sides consider further concessions.

Beyond the sport of Microsoft bashing-- one in which I rarely partake- not to mention the hubris that one can only assume is attached to such an aggressive posture, this episode particularly intrigues me because, if the Times reporting of events and terms are accurate, it appears the folks at Microsoft engaged in some of the most ill-conceived negotiating strategies ever recorded.

Did the person in charge of the negotiations at Microsoft pause for a moment to think that maybe they didn't know the highest value the film rights to this popular game title could command in an open bid market? Did anyone consider that a $10MM advance was too low? Did anyone consider that the titans of Hollywood, who perhaps know one or two things about what it takes to produce a blockbuster movie, consider Microsoft's requirement for "total creative control" as unacceptable? Did anyone think that maybe Microsoft should take the long view and-- assuming Microsoft is confident they will have a string of hit game titles worthy of future development-- engage potential partners in Hollywood with a little more--dare I say-- respect?

In short, did anyone think win-win?

Apparently not. Sure, in the end maybe securing 50% of everything they demanded will satisfy Microsoft so they can claim victory. But, one of the cardinal rules of negotiating is never let the buyer be the one to say "no" to your terms; the seller should always have the last word and say "yes" or "no". Microsoft's obscenely one-sided posture from the outset predicated the buyer would say "no" and Microsoft would have to respond lest they lose the deal (and since 75% of the eligible bidders dropped out, the "no's" were heard loud and clear). Hence, Microsoft may claim victory, but they will never know if they got the best deal. They will never know if they got the best partner. They will never know if they got the best terms. What they got was a reputation that will not serve them in obtaining better terms in the future. What they got was a deal valued at 1/2 of what they wanted. What they got is the deal to which all parties ultimately said "no."

Too bad. It could have been a win-win.

Online Advertising and The Competition

2005-06-02T13:45:00.000-07:00

Internet advertising revenues continues to rebound from the bubble heyday. In 2000 online ads reached $8BB. Post-bubble, internet advertising took a nose dive as advertisers cut back online spending by more than 50%. With the passing of time and the demonstrated real-time effectiveness of paid search, 2005 is on track to exceed $14BB in online ad spending. However, in spite of these impressive gains, internet advertising continues to be the poor cousin to traditional media (network and cable television tracks at $160BB in ad revenues; print advertising and outdoor represent another $20BB in North America alone).

All of these facts represent positive trends for online advertising. As a result investors continue to be bullish as evidenced by the positive gains in search and online media stocks in Q2. However, given the constraint at the macro level of the total pool of advertising dollars spent annually (not to mention the inevitable cyclical nature of the ad business), online advertising will not enjoy an unfettered run at grabbing ad dollars:

Television is the 900LB gorilla and is not standing still: Television executives understand that the franchise is under attack and are not standing still. Interactive TV --long a pipe dream-- has finally arrived on satellite and cable. DirectTV and Comcast among others are rolling out these services with advertisers like Sony and Daimler Chrysler and are creating one:one conversion relationships for its advertisers-- just like the web. Moreover, technological innovation, such as VNU and Arbitron's Apollo PPM joint program ("portable people meter"), will help broadcast advertisers close the gap on cause and effect between the media we see and the products we buy. Finally, broadcasters, understand that they need to start delivering greater value if they are going to maintain their share of wallet. Just witness ABC's recently closed upfront performance. Based on the strength of their programming (last year's Lost and Desperate HW's were unexpected hits), ABC opted to take a modest 6% gain over last years rates (and close up $600MM in upfront commitments) rather than extend the upfront period in the hopes they could simply negotiate higher rates. ABC has made the bet that it will rely on the strength of its programming (sports and entertainment) and secure premium rates in the future as opposed to trying to sell the farm now.

In Store Digital Signage: With the proliferation of sub-$1000 (and soon sub-$500) flat screen displays connected to satellite or wireline networks, retailers are capturing greater revenue per square foot when digital signage is in place. A recent pilot with Bell Canada demonstrated a 9% lift in products sales where in-store digital signage was present as compared to standard paper signs. Expect marketers to divert ever greater share of ad spending to digital signage promotions as they now have the ability to reach customers during "the decisive moment" of buying.

Mobile Advertising: Much as broadcasters subsidized programming with advertising, carriers are doing the same using promotion dollars to leverage the value of their networks. Branded content, games and more will be paid for not by subscribers, but by advertisers. And with the truly intimate relationship marketers have the potential to create via mobile handsets, it will be an irresistible pull for ad dollars to be dedicated to the mobile market. And, yes, it will all be permission based.

Internal competition: Over time the efficacy of online advertising may well prove to suppress the percentage of ad dollars dedicated to online spending. The internet's unique ability to deliver highly targeted-- and infinitely measurable results (no fuzzy Neilsen or Arbitron ratings to interpret) lets marketers realize their nirvana: measuring actual results for every dollar spent. Television and print have always relied on the luxury of their inherent inefficiency to artificially protect expensive space rates. Online advertising has no such place to hide. Advertisers see exactly what they get, but they will only pay for what they get-- nothing more--- because they won't need to.

Image Industry Consolidation and The DNA Factor

2005-05-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

After nearly a three year pause in activity, consolidation in the image licensing business has begun anew. The past 12 months have seen all three of the industries top players investing significant sums in acquisitions. Corbis' acquisition of ZEFA and the Roger Richman Agency, Jupiter Media's (Nasdaq: JUPM) acquisition of Comstock and Dynamic Graphics, and Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) recent announcement of Digital Vision and Photonica all send a clear signal that leading companies in the content licensing business have resumed their bullish outlook on the future of the industry.

And no wonder: Getty's rise to dominance can be almost singularly attributed to their effective execution of an industry roll-up strategy (initiated in 1995 with the acquisition of Tony Stone Images). Moreover, Getty has also demonstrated that by their nearly flawless integration of these companies, that partners and shareholders can realize greater value through effective execution of a roll-up strategy.

For competitors, partners and investors alike, acquisitions provide insight to the buyer's business and the buyer's DNA, aka strategy and approach, to the market:

Corbis: This Bill Gates-owned company (and the distant #2 player in the industry at $170MM as compared to Getty's $700MM) has been active in acquisitions and their inherent DNA - slow to innovate and avoid risk -- seems to be playing out again. The ZEFA acquisition, while certainly a move that bolsters revenue was done primarily to preserve market share and remain competitive in Europe with Getty. ZEFA adds little to Corbis' ability to innovate and as such is low risk/low return. Similarly, The Roger Richman Agency acquisition, while strengthening Corbis' rights clearance business (and appealing to their trained-as-a-lawyer CEO), the bottom-line effect will be minimal due to the nature of the rights clearances business. While Corbis will no doubtedly enjoy the spotlight of managing rights of famous artists and celebrities, rights clearance by definition is a labor intensive business fraught with complexities and therefore will be near impossible to automate or scale.

Jupiter Media: By contrast, Jupiter's DNA is an internet media company and their acquistions reflect this fact: While also pursuing acquisitions for content and market share, Jupiter is primarily using acquisition to accelerate adoption of a "subscription licensing" model very different from Getty and Corbis. Subscription revenue is something media companies live and die by (and highly desireable as a preferred model for business operators "to see revenue" in the future). And, unlike, Getty or Corbis, Jupiter sees itself as a pure internet play and is using it's acquisitions to enhance its position as such. Evidence of this strategy taking effect can be found in the superior Alexa rankings for the collective Jupiter properties when compared to Getty and Corbis (not to mention traffic generated to and from Jupiter's numerous affiliates). In short order, measured by acquisition, traffic and total revenue, Jupiter's DNA has guided the company in becoming the 3rd largest player in the industry.

For its part, Getty knows a good thing when it sees it. Its recent acquisitions reinforce Getty's DNA: acquire, integrate for efficiency, improve margin and generate free cash flow. Some have argued that Getty paid too much for Digital Vision (Getty paid $165MM; it has been rumored that only a year ago DV was to be had for less than half this amount). Don't bet on it: Jonathan and Co. are investment bankers by training. They ran the numbers, amortized the acquisition cost and will deliver to The Street exactly what it wants: Greater margins. By no longer paying DV a royalty for images sold, Getty gets to realize 100% of every sale and gross margins upward of 70%. The recent Photonica acquisition reflects a similar rationale: The Photonica acquisition not only buys Getty better margin, (Photonica, like DV, is also an existing Getty image partner) but will also give Getty a stronger footprint in the Japanese and the larger Asian markets which it greatly covets.

When looking at the acquisitions through the lens of a company's DNA, a very clear and consistent picture emerges. Competitors, partners, customers and investors should take note.

Lessons in Hardball

2005-05-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I read the book "Hardball, Are You Playing to Play or Playing to Win? by George Stalk and Rob Lachenauer published by HBS Press. The authors cite numerous case studies and reveal explicit boardroom strategies of companies (Frito Lay, Dell, Citibank among others) who use their dominant market position to block or, in some cases, crush would-be competitors. Having worked for two companies that held dominant positions in their respective markets, I can speak from first hand experience how maintaining a hardball focus provides winning results. Conversely, I've also been part of two companies who held, and then lost, their dominant position, because they lost the hardball edge.

Watching this week's events unfold with the announcement of Yahoo!'s new Unlimited Music subscription service, let's take a look at some effective hardball strategies at work:

1) Leveraging dominant market position as world's # 1 digital media portal: Yahoo! is unequaled in its market position. Some will argue that whether or not Yahoo! makes money from music subscription fees (and I'm sure they will), the recently announced music service will retain and draw even more qualified and targeted traffic for Yahoo! to sell to its advertisers and partners and THAT's ultimately what drives Yahoo!'s business. This strategy is analogous to what many successful retailers do in aggressively discounting certain products (described as "impulse purchases" -- low price music CDs are often deployed in this fashion) that in turn attract customers, then make them linger in the store longer to the consider the purchase of the more expensive-high margin products where the retailers really make their money.

2) Market leaders use price to their advantage: While lower price is an obvious tactic, market leaders who have profitable businesses can completely undermine and obliterate nascent competitors by using low price to buy market share. This is a page right out of Wal-Mart and Costco's playbook and a strategy that virtually pre-clude competitors from entering their space. Moreover, it will force the hand of current competitors to respond if they are to survive.

3) Hardball players move markets: Just take a look at how Napster's stock price got hammered after the Yahoo! announcement. Lower stock price means less capital and resources to respond to the hardball tactic. And to think, just 4 months ago on SuperBowl Sunday Napster-to-Go literally swept both Apple and Real off the headlines and had analysts and columnists everywhere lauding their brilliant strategy.

Hardball? You bet. Yahoo!'s move this week qualifies them for the Cy Young.

Hey Kid - 5 CDs or 800,000 Tracks-- Which One Do you Want?

2005-05-11T07:31:00.000-07:00

As an avid listener (and collector) of digital music, I've always believed in owning the tracks I listen to and haven't seriously considered buying into any of the music subscription services-- until today. Yahoo! Announced their Yahoo! Music Unlimited service at the remarkable price of $4.99 month giving access to over 800,000 tracks from the major labels.

When I pause to think about how I can best leverage my investment of gear (computer, home WiFi network, broadband connection and integration with my existing home stereo), I start to salivate at the possibility of pumping 800,000 tracks through my system. Moreover, when I consider my additional (and ongoing) investment of time (purchasing CDs, downloading, ripping tracks), $5 a months sounds like a no brainer.

Has the promise of music subscription finally been realized? This one will he interesting to watch.

"Daddy, Does the Music Come From Your Cell Phone?"

2005-05-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

Driving my 6 year old daughter to an after school event, we were listening to music from my iPod through my car stereo. (Apple teamed with BMW to make a neat adapter cable that allows you to tuck away the iPod in the glove box and operate the player's functionality though the existing car stereo controls-- I love it). My daughter only cares about the music ( huge Beatles fan) and not the technology that makes it work. But as I pulled into the drive, turned off the ignition and grabbed my Treo cell phone, even she made the natural connection between the portability of the cell phone and the infinite enjoyment of being able to take your music with you EVERYWHERE.

She's not alone in her observation: A recent Consumer Mobility Study by In-Stat/MDR finds that 11.4% of US mobile subscribers are very or extremely interested in moving beyond basic ringtones and purchasing more full-featured music/audio services for their wireless phones including music and news/talk content available as downloadable content or on demand. The most popular service concept is the ability to download MP3s or other digital music files directly to wireless handsets, followed closely by the ability to listen to streaming music on demand.

Here are just a few of the activities underway that are helping to bring her vision to the market today:

Robust storage capacity is here: SanDisk says, in 2005, phone manufacturers will introduce 200 new phone models with memory card slots. Samsung Electronics has developed a cell phone that runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile operating system and includes a 3GB hard drive. The drives in the Samsung phones are similar to those used in some portable digital music players, such as Apple Computer's iPod Mini, and the phone maker is employing them so that it can offer similar music player functions on the handsets.

Best of both worlds - Dual Track Download: Loudeye (NASDAQ: LOUD) in partnership with Nokia and O2 recently announced functionality for users that download a full track to their mobile device will simultaneously receive a “dual download” of the same track sent to their desktop optimized for playback on a PC or other portable device. This service will allow users to “synchronize their mobile music collection with their PC. Tracks optimized for transmission over mobile networks are typically in the 500 to 750K range which are considerably smaller than the average MP3 file which for a 4 minute track typically weighs in at 4-5MB.” (Excerpt from Loudeye company press release, 3/9/05)

P2P Goes Mobile: Using Melodeo’s peer-to-peer feature, (www.melodeo.com) users select a song from the play list of tracks on their mobile phone. They can then send the full track to another user with a Melodeo-enabled mobile phone located within Bluetooth range. The song file, which is DRM protected, pops up on the recipient’s mobile phone and he or she can listen to a 30 second preview of the song. If the person likes it, he or she can easily choose to purchase it and the Melodeo server then sends a decryption key via the carrier’s network to unlock the song, and bill the purchase to the recipient’s account. Melodeo has launched the service with tracks licensed exclusively from Warner Music. (Adapted from Melodeo press release, 2/10/05)

70,000,000,000 Images: Coming To A Hard Drive Near You

2005-05-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

At the recent CTIA Wireless conference in New Orleans, Dan Carp, CEO of Kodak, gave the keynote addressed and shared this staggering statistic: During the next 12 months, over 70BB (that's Billion with a "B") digital images will be captured worldwide. Kodak estimates about 1/2 of those images will be taken with camera phones; the other 1/2 with digital cameras.

Since hearing this statistic (and observing recent activity in the M&A arena) the implications of such rapid global adoption of the digital image platform creates significant opportunities for companies--both large and small-- to introduce products and services that help users edit, manage, share, print and distribute their digital image content. One area in particular that deserves exploration is archival storage.

During the last 3 years since adopting digital capture, I personally have amassed a collection of over 5,000 digital images. While I am delighted with the flexibility and speed (not to mention creative freedom) digital has provided me, I am also nervous as hell: Will my images stand the test of time so that my kids and their kids will be able to enjoy all of the special memories long after the current media I use for storage is obsolete? (Currently, I use several storage mechanisms including serial external hard drives for real time back-up and a combination of DVD/CD for archival storage.)

Archival storage of images is not a new problem: During the past 15 years, I've been part of several leading edge companies that have developed both the expertise and invested in very sophisticated (and very expensive) state-of-the-art digital archive systems to manage and preserve millions of images. But what about Soccer Mom? Who will she turn to? Can we really expect consumers to have the patience and/or foresight to recognize that the digital images they are creating today must be proactively archived and managed in order to preserve their digital memory for future generations?

Life used to be simple: My father's brother captured images of my parent's 1959 wedding on his Brownie camera using Kodakchrome 25 film. Last week, or 46 years later, I loaded those same images into a slide carousel (which I was informed Kodak has stopped manufacturing) and projected them on a screen for my children and family to enjoy. The colors were brilliant, the images sharp and the memories, most important, were/are intact.

With digital capture, some companies (esp. those who make a their living from selling ink, chemistry and paper) would like you to believe that the only way to preserve memories is to make a print. And I agree-- printing is the only guarantee I can think of that provides this security. But in many ways, printing makes me feel like I'm taking a step backwards.

Companies that can provide solutions for real-time, state of the art storage-and most importantly, those that can create or leverage a brand identity that resonates with "longevity" and "permanance" stand a good chance of filling the void between the smart card, the hard drive and the photo album. Moreover, let's not be satisfied with static storage-- the winner should also allow customers to better leverage the unique attributes of digital content to share, search, edit, and distribute their images within a real-time dynamic architecture.

After all, 70,000,000,000 images deserve to live somewhere-- let's find them a home.

What is ShabuStation?

2005-05-03T12:48:00.000-07:00

Welcome to ShabuStation. Like many of us, I've been lurking in and around blogs for several years now. Truth be told I have exploited the power of blogs for commercial purposes beginning in 2002 when I published a weekly blog for a software company I used to run. But to date, I have avoided creating a personal blog. That is until today.

Given my 20+ year background in and around the distribution of digital content, my small (but growing) group of industry colleagues in technology, media and content seem to be in ever-more animated dialogue about the exciting possibilities taking place in our industry. I couldn't agree more and have initiated this blog in the hopes to capture some of the more salient points which emerge from these discussions at ShabuStation.

What is ShabuStation: On my first visit to Japan in 1998, I had the privilege of enjoying dinner at the home of a colleague where I was introduced to "Shabu-Shabu." To enjoy this method of dining, you take thinly sliced pieces of raw meat, fish or vegetables grasped between chop sticks and quickly dip the selected item into a hot broth. This action has the effect of cooking the meat or fish before you eat. In Japanese, this type of cooking is called "Shabu-Shabu" or "swish-swish" and hence while I won't pretend to do deep-dive analysis of the digital media industry (there are others who do a much finer job than I), I will hopefully attempt to provide quick dips or tastings as I come across them. These tastings will be provided for you to enjoy, dismiss or deride. Of course, the intended purpose of blogs is to encourage two-way dialogue so that all participants may expand our horizions on any given subject. Thank you in advance for your help in achieveing this objective.

Eat in peace.

Best, Mark

Life After iPod: The Future of Digital Music

2005-05-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

Digital distribution of music is here to stay and not a day goes by that someone, somewhere isn't creating new ways to deliver music to the people. I've been priviliged to be part of a team working on behalf of the MIT Enterprise Forum, Seattle Chapter to bring together a group of music industry, technology and artist thought-leaders who will discuss their respective views beginning 5:30PM, Wed, May 18th at the Bellevue Hyatt in Bellevue, WA. Our panel includes:

Presenting Musical Artist:
Dave Dederer, guitarist, singer and songwriter, The Presidents of the United States of America

Expert Panelists:
David Ring, Universal Music , Senior V.P. Business Affairs & Business Development
Bill Valenti, Melodeo, CEO
Robert Acker, RealNetworks, Vice President, Music Services

Moderator:
Michael Malone, Founder of AEI Music Network, board member DMX Music

Our program will explore opportunities and challenges in the emerging world of digital music. This program will explore the impact of digital distribution on the artists and how they are likely to respond to the changing environment. Specific questions that will be addressed in the program include:

1. How do musicians/artists take advantage of new technology and new platforms to get music to their fansand while maximizing revenue and protecting their creative property?

2. When will digital music sales comprise a significant percentage of total music sales?

3. Where will the growth in digital music sales come from? Is mobile the answer?

4. Between artists and listeners, what opportunities exist for digital music entrepreneurs?

For those friends and colleagues working in the digital content industry this is an event not to be missed. If you will be in Seattle on May 18th, I urge you to attend and be part of this stimulating conversation. Register online at http://www.mitwa.org. See you there.

Sunset at Ecola State Park, Canon Beach, Oregon, USA

2005-05-03T12:08:00.000-07:00

Ecola sunset
Originally uploaded by ShabuStation.

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From time to time I'll post personal work. This image was taken at sunset during a family trip to the Oregon Coast. Click on the image to see more at flickr.com