Jaffe Juice #113 - Cat Moriarty from USPS and I discuss the partnership between Deliver Magazine and Jaffe Juice

There are just not enough case studies or accounts of brands investing in podcasting...let alone any discussion on their efficacy, value and ultimately success. Thanks to Cat Moriarty from USPS, you'll hear a frank account of her reflections on this investment. Also in this episode, blog(ger) maturation, podfading part deux, as well as a listener generated Winners (K-mart) 'n Losers (Best Buy). Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Facebook group.

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- Joseph Jaffe

Eepybird is at it again!

Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe are at it again. I had the pleasure of meeting this dynamic duo at TCCC (that's The Coca-Cola Company) when they wowed the folks at Coke with a demonstration of a conversation which for the longest time, Coca-Cola either ignored or refused to join.

That was then...and since then, Coca-Cola embraced Eepybird and did this together with them:

This is now. Eepybird + Post-It = OfficeMax and Coca-Cola in support, but no 3M to speak of. Confused? You should be. It's hard to figure out who's who in this particular zoo. There's Samurai Girl on ABC Family (pretty damn good content integration if I've ever seen) There's OfficeMax (conventional brand integration/sponsorship, which makes sense) There's Coca-Cola (who seem to be quietly in support, taking a rather passive back seat...perhaps a little too passive in my opinion)

What there isn't, is 3M i.e. Post-its. And what would any social media story be without the clumsy, stumbling brand, right? Stephen (hat tip) questions their lack of response, but I'm pretty sure they're somewhere in this mix...anywhere on the continuum of tacit legal endorsement to backstage producers.

That said, there can be no doubt (can there?) that a more active role could and should be present, front and center. I just don't buy the, " why-would-we-need-to-do-anything-because-it's-being-done-anyway-and-besides-our-presence-would-only-detract-from-the-authenticity-and-or-overall-impact " argument - even if it's true. It's just a cop-out and/or lazy position to take.

In any event, let's not take anything away from this fantastic demonstration of raw (material) creativity. I think I even prefer this to the original. Enjoy!!!

- Joseph Jaffe

Jaffe on Seinfeld on Gates on Microsoft on CP+B

The blogosphere has been lit up over the past week or two regarding the new campaign from American Express Microsoft, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Ballmer Bill Gates. The reaction, with few exceptions, has been decidedly negative - scathingly so.

And now, we find out that the campaign is done:

That campaign either ran its course (if you believe Microsoft) or flopped (if you believe the critics) and is being replaced with an ad that will try to subvert Apple's famous "I'm a Mac," "I'm a PC" series.

(Seinfeld was reportedly paid $10million for 3 spots....2 have aired and 1 is in the "can" waiting for better days)

...or is it? Mashable via Gizmodo says otherwise. Of course, the source in question is a trusted CP+B person, who clearly has no agenda whatsoever.

I should point out that according to this LA Times Blog post, the needle of perception did move a tad, but how statistically accurate and representative this is, I'm not sure: That piece (New York Times) quotes a brand perception expert saying that Microsoft'simage started out 25% positive and 13% negative, but by Tuesday was 28%positive and 8% negative. You have to walk before you can run, I guess.

I thought I'd use this platform to offer some new commentary and constructive criticism to all parties concerned.

 

1. The Seinfeld-Gates spots were not great at all. Here's why: Jerry Seinfeld was a bad, bad casting call. He's associated with American Express (so is Superman). He represents borrowed interest and sends out a signal that the brand cannot sell itself without a celebrity crutch. He's also somewhat old; yesterday's news
2. The choice of Bill Gates was a bad, bad casting call. Gates doesn't work at Microsoft anymore. He's moving on. The company is in great hands in the form of Joanne Bradford Steve Ballmer, remember? Gates is off to focus on humanitarian efforts that save the world, not the Smiths in Peoria.
3. The spots were trying to be too clever for their own good. They were disconnected (I'll come back to this) and confusing. It is a flawed strategy to believe that people care enough about advertising to wait with baited breath for the next episode in the installment of brand propaganda.
4. As a standalone (and ads should be judged independently, when one considers the massive investment in their per airing production and media costs), they failed to deliver a single reason to believe; a single proof point, brand attribute, call to action or nugget of value.
5. From a blogosphere standpoint, most people got to see the two spots (in their entirety) on the Web....which is a good thing as viewers at least got to bust beyond the standardized television constraints. That said, I was horrified when I actually saw one of the spots (I believe I was watching Fringe at the time), paired down to fit the advertising pod, end with the words, "to be connected." Huh? I got the swarmy association between "to be continued" and "to be connected", as well as Microsoft's equity associated with connectivity/networking etc., but as point 4) alludes to, why are we assuming people care enough to wait for the next installment in a series of ADVERTISEMENTS? Episodic advertising is just not viable in my opinion anymore. In any event, there should have at least been a URL to go and view all these ads. And there wasn't.
6. Also, before I move on....where were the outtakes? casting calls? deleted scenes? etc? This is such a 101 from about 10 years ago.
7. Back to the blogosphere, all the feedback almost without exception was negative. Have CP+B not learnt their lessons from Deadenbacher? Can Microsoft afford to be in the center of negativity? When will agencies learn that "buzz" is not good when it's all bad?
8. The new slogan, "Life without Walls" replaces - I guess - the "your life, our passion" (or something like that) one. Swings and roundabouts. I still think most people refer to Microsoft's "Where do you want to go today?" slogan and positioning, which was all about empowering people in the NOW. In any event, Microsoft set themselves up for further ridicule as you don't have to leap very far to discover the disconnect: A life without walls has no place for Windows. D'oh
9. There's no question here that CP+B are an inextricable part of this firestorm (see point 7). On one hand, when you're on top, everybody wants a piece of you, but on the other hand I feel the agency has to work that much harder to avoid being stereotyped themselves as arrogant, self-serving and possibly even negligent ($10 million for Seinfeld). I'd prefer to give them the benefit of the doubt, but I do think they need to work harder - and that includes engaging the blogosphere in a smarter way - to ensure that they don't distract people from their main agenda: serving the brand.
10. The new new campaign, which replaces the old new campaign of Seinfeld and Gates, features a John Hodgman lookalike (the PC guy in Apple's Mac v PC ads), complaining about being stereotyped. Off the bat, this is a little disingenous, given the stereotyping of the Seinfeld-Gates spots, which patronizingly focus on trying to "blend in with normal people like us." That said, I actually very much like these spots. Finally. I think it's spot on for Microsoft to stand up to Apple and demonstrate it's 97% to 3% (or whatever the ratio is) dominance over Apple by letting its customers do the talking - from famous to infamous; from old to young: from inspirational to aspirational etc.

Here's the spot.

Anyway, the point is that I actually think Microsoft ended up in a good place. Humility goes a long way. Moist and chewy swarminess does not.

PS I'm a PC too and I'm a stud!

- Joseph Jaffe

Twen out of Twen for this Election mash-up

Just loving this Election lens, which I think demonstrates the virtual water cooler in full force.

- Joseph Jaffe

2 examples of "this is great"; "no it's not"; "yes it is"

Exhibit A : Billed as the first ever interactive game in YouTube, there's this from Hexolabs. Taking advantage of annotations, it's a pretty low-tech demonstration of non-linear video storytelling. Pretty cool for that reason. Not so much from a gaming standpoint, although there are endless possibilities with respect to "choose your own adventure"

Exhibit B : The return of Shoshkeles . The effect is nothing new (in fact I was reluctantly doing this for K-mart at TBWAChiatDay in 2001), so a big yawn for YouTube trying to demonstrate their advanced knowledge of advertising 2.0, however accolades for Nintendo, with a bulls-eye representation of strategy and creative in perfect synchronization for WarioLand. Check it out here .

PS Half a point for YouTube insofar that all the functionality seems to be working post-effect.

- Joseph Jaffe

Jaffe Juice #114 - A special episode featuring my conversation with Comcastcare's Frank Eliason

The entire episode is dedicated to my conversation with Frank Eliason AKA Twitter's comcastcares (www.twitter.com/comcastcares). Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Customer service inquiries to: We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

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This is the new customer service. Take note. Listen and Learn.

- Joseph Jaffe

Fantasy Baseball Victory!!!

There's no question that Fantasy Sports has become a huge interactive draw card and conversation starter. So much so that ESPN has regular programming dedicated to who's hot, who's not and trade rumors/recommendations etc.

In fact, when I was asked in an interview at ExactTarget's user conference what was the one e-mail I always look forward to/open up every day...I said my Fantasy Baseball update.

...but this post is not about how brands can tap into fantasy sports or what the conversational marketing implications are with respect to Fantasy Sports, it's more to reflect on this South African-born player's victory in a league of his geeky peers!

That's right, "Bobo the Clown" (my team) has just wrapped up a momentous and awesome victory in the coveted, "Social Media Geeks Unite" fantasy league, besting the following power players in the process:

• Daddy Rockstars - Geoff Manning and on Twitter, geoffmanning
• Drew's Dawgs - Drew McLellan and on Twitter, drewmclellan
• Elijah Dukes Charm School - Dan Cordella and on Twitter, filthyfowl
• Fantasy twits - warren sukernek and on Twitter, warrenss
• northoftheborder - Jennifer Evans and on Twitter, jsabini
• Salinas Valley Lettuce Heads - Mike Sansone and on Twitter, mikesansone
• social media geeks unite - Kelly Kermode and on Twitter, ???
• Tatooine Banthas - marc sirkin and on Twitter, msirkin
• The Royal Expos - Mark Goren and on Twitter, markgoren

Fantasy Twits gave me a run right at the end, but ultimately the clowns proved too much for the competition!

I guess there are some "community" proof points in this story. I did use twitter to round up a league of social media folk and within 30 minutes or so we had our 10 players. We even created a Twitter ID, but truth be told it wasn't used much. In fact, the smack talk was rather minimal throughout the season. Perhaps next year...

Lessons learned from this rookie? Simple. Never follow your heart. If I had, I would have had a Yankees-filled lineup that would surely have underdelivered.

Value bets: Xavier Nady (who was a Pirate when I acquired him), Jamie Moyer and Cory Hart

MVP's: C.C. Sabathia, Johan Santana and Grady Sizemore

- Joseph Jaffe

10 Reasons your company *should* blog...

BL Ochman wrote this piece in one of the advertising trades titled, "10 reasons your company shoudn't blog" and specifically references requests for CEO blogs within this corporate category.

Perhaps all of these alarmingly regular requests to BL are being adhered to, as only 74 of Fortune's 500 largest companies (representing 15%) have any semblance of a direct relationship/conversation with their customers.

Personally, I think this approach is dead wrong. In today's day and age, "authenticity, transparency and purpose" (I'm quoting the Senate Banking Committee) are stabilizing forces that keep us honest. Moreover, as marketers we have never had the ability (nor perhaps will we ever have such an opportunity) to establish and maintain such a powerful, undiluted and open pathway of communication between ourselves and our customers. Never.

Whilst I recognize that most attempts or efforts at corporate blogging can be miserable, pathetic, superficial and/or downright embarrassing, isn't it up to us to steward and guide our clients through this virgin territory and proving ground in order to demonstrate how impactful this can truly be?

So with that said, I'd like to build a top 10 list here to counter BL's list and with it, points including "you need to read constantly to be a good blogger", "you need original content" and "you need to drive traffic to a blog".

Perhaps BL can set the ball rolling with some of her reasons in favor of companies committing themselves to their customers....

- Joseph Jaffe

Honey-filled linkety-link

For sweet and scrumptious times ahead, a compendium of links that caught my eye, head and/or heart (but not necessarily in that order)

• Fellow crayonista, Greg Verdino, reflects on a piece by Max Kalehoff which underpin the strong organizational forces required to implement against social media change. The primary bullets include customer experience, company values, listening, humanizing voice and confidence and organizational silos. Good stuff.
• This definitely warrants a separate post...and rant (it's coming), but for now feast your eyes on what is arguably, the worst brand offense at not just faking, manipulating, dominating, controlling or avoiding the conversation (as per Join the Conversation ), but in this particular case an entirely new category: STEALING the conversation. 3M/Post-It: you are on official Jaffe Juice notice. Some brands just don't deserve to have the opportunity to join the conversation.
• Via Andrea Vascellari , an Anthropological introduction to YouTube from Kansas State University's Michael Wesch

• Viddler launches 15-second videos , which almost instantaneously puts 12 seconds TV out of business. Or does it?
• File this under "how the hell did they pull this off???!!!" - Diesel promotes their XXX global party with this one-in-a-billion video (watch out for the Harmonica)
• Is this the worst commercial on TV right now? PS AT&T now that you've found the Internet on deserted islands and in Yeti's back yard, perhaps you can do something about Westport, the I95 around New Rochelle and LGA airport.
• Jet Blue auctions off flights on eBay. Why?
• More on why this is the year of mobile, no it's not, yet it is, no it's not, yes it is....or perhaps next year will be.
• Not sure if this link will work, but it's a great demonstration of Facebook as a conversation "keeper." In this case (assuming you can't get in), Warren Sukernek has aggregated various blogger's posts (all of whom are on Facebook) into a central theme and tagged them accordingly. It's a great way to a) get the contributing bloggers' attention and b) create a visual and uncluttered conversation via comments

- Joseph Jaffe

Join the Political Conversation - part 1

This Yom Kippur, why not show off your political affiliation to the big guy upstairs with either the Obamica or the McCippah .

Created by Shmuly Tennenhaus , a self-proclaimed Serial Entrepreneur based on eating Cocoa Puffs for breakfast, it's another example of consumer generated content (Cafe Press style) with a distinct political flavor this time.

Shmuly has received quite a bit of buzz about his collection, which includes the Vippah (along with lipstick mark to boot) To be sure, Shmuly has an abundance of Chutzpah, including lines such as " I hope to sell a lot of these Kippahs so that I can afford to buy a racing car game for my Nintendo Wii " and " No earmarks were requested for the creation of this Yarmulke."



He was kind enough to send me my very own Obamica for the High Holidays.

- Joseph Jaffe

Join the Political Conversation - part 2

I just love this Obama iPhone application and not for any partisan reasons, other than my love for innovation.

It pretty much harnesses all the sexy form AND functionality of the iPhone for "political gain."

For examples:

My personal favorite, the "call friends" feature, which literally rearranges and sorts your entire rolodex into States, prioritized by battleground States. Now, I'm just a click away from calling Pete Blackshaw for example in Ohio to encourage him to vote for Senator Obama in November. Once I've made this call, the "call stats" will acknowledge this call and cross him off the list.

In practise, I'm not sure how many people are going to spam their "friends' and "colleagues", but in theory it's an absolute winner.

The application also makes full use of the locator/GPS functionality to match up the user with local meet-ups, regional news and other participation/partnership based activities.

There's also extensive multimedia integration to cram additional information into this application.

And finally, let's not forget the little green button to donate to the campaign, which pops nicely against the deep sea blue background.

All in all, a fantastic example of making the most of the tools at one's disposal to stand out from the crowd and connect with a vote on their terms.

Photo credit: CNET News

- Joseph Jaffe

Join the Political Conversation - part 3

Want to know how the election is going to turn out? Don't turn to Gallup, Rasmussen, CNN or any of the me-too news networks. Just do some quality listening and tap into the power of conversation to predict the election outcome.

In this case, it's MotiveQuest's Brand Advocacy 2008 initiative , which currently has Obama leading McCain by 54% to 46% based on their Online Promoter Score(tm) methodology.

What's also interesting is to note the terms most associated with each candidate. For example, Obama has McCain, Palin, Biden, Debate, Truth, Experience, Change, Bush and Black, whereas McCain's tagcloud includes Obama, Palin, Economy, Rove, Bush, Liar, Gambling, God and Old.

Hmmm.

You can find out more about the methodology here, but for starters here's a topline blurb: Every day MotiveQuest pulls data from popular online, groups, forums,blogs and other social media. For BrandAdvocacy08, we’re looking at 30top non-political forums and the 10 top political forums. This gives usa broad sample of conversations to measure advocacy for Barack Obamaand John McCain. Each day we’re analyzing about 30,000 messages from6,000 people.

- Joseph Jaffe

Join the Political Conversation - part 4

Could this "ad" be titled, "silent but violent"? In a very interesting twist, KFC will reach out to the Presidential candidates on Monday night in Nashville (during Dancing with the Stars no less) with the following challenge: " if anyone mentions "world hunger" during Tuesday's debate, KFC will donate $20,000 to World Hunger Relief ".

While I get the spirit of this (at the end of the day, $20K is $20K whichever way you slice it...and surely an organization can choose how it wants to spend its money), I can't help but feel a little uneasy about this. It just feels like a greasy piece of fried chicken to me to be honest.

In addition, I wonder how much the commercial itself will cost (to produce and to air) and why KFC couldn't or wouldn't have just donated this to World Hunger Relief instead.

Either way, I will be impressed if either (or both - would KFC give $40,000 then?) candidate takes the bait although I won't hold my breath.

- Joseph Jaffe

Joe the Plumber

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. So apparently " Joe the Plumber " was one of the most Googled terms during Thursday's Presidential Debate. Looks like Obama's team got on the search bandwagon to determine how Joe will actually be affected (turns out most plumbers are doing just fine during these challenging economic times)

As an side, gotta love the REAL Joe the Plumber who must be benefiting like crazy from all the increased traffic from his URL: www.joetheplumber.com - hell, he's even thinking about making a run for the Presidency, butt-crack and all.

- Joseph Jaffe

Slip-sliding away

From Jack Myers, a report which states that advertising's share of marketing budget has declined 12% within the past decade .

In 1998, advertising represented 34.9% of marketing budgets, direct marketing 10.1% and sales promotion (including events and PR....why I don't know) at 55%. This, compared to 2008's data of 30.6%, 22.8% and 46.6% respectively.

What's interesting is that during this time, total marketing budgets have increased by 94% (advertising for example has increased in absolute terms from $136.8bn to $232.50)

2 insights/takeaways worth noting:

1. As media continues to become more digital, transparent and accountable, advertising will likely see a fairly noticeable "correction" in terms of its total spend within the next 10 years.
2. Currently, advertising represents just 30% of the total pie. And shrinking. No doubt we'll see exponential spend on emerging media and conversational marketing to take on increasingly significant proportions.

- Joseph Jaffe

Terry Tate makes a late charge for President (at Reebok's expense)

Remember Terry Tate, Office Linebacker? In a series of some of the earliest and best examples of "long form content" / digital webisodes, Terry burst onto the scene on behalf of Reebok. It was a really great example of how 4 minute "ads" could compete for attention on a level playing field.

Fast forward to a brief moment in time (we're probably talking 4 years ago) where Terry decided to run for President. I don't recall if Reebok was still in on the sponsorship act.

And now we have this:

With pearls such as " How's that for Drill Baby Drill! You just subscribed to Terry'sJournal of Pain!! And the first issue is free, baby! Whoo!! ... HeyKatie! " the Tate charm is still in tact, but this time he may have overstayed his welcome.

Whether you find this funny (no Governors were hurt in the filming of this...) or offensive, I wonder how much damage this does for Reebok. Marc Fireman, any comment on this?

What do you think? Patently funny or blatantly offensive? And if the latter, how different is this to the SNL parodies.

Either way - in my opinion - "comedy" in some way, shame or form (including of course Stewart and Colbert) will, without question have a major influence and say on the outcome of this election.

- Joseph Jaffe

How about some love, CNN's Rick Sanchez?

Hey Rick Sanchez, I've Twitted my hat to you in the past and now you're using the phrase of my book ....so how about some love back in return?

- Joseph Jaffe

Don't hate the Twit, Hate the Tweet

Thanks to my @ricksanchezcnn Join the Conversation reference , I stumbled upon 2 new services: NowPublic (crowd-powered media) and Qwitter (catching Twitter quitters)

Both have common threads of accountability, transparency and CNN.

- Joseph Jaffe

Jaffe Juice #115 - An interview with author of "The Brand Bubble", John Gerzema

In this episode, I chat with John Gerzema, Chief Insights Officer at Young & Rubicam Group, who authored and just released a very interesting book titled, " The Brand Bubble: The looming crisis in brand value and how to avoid it ." Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook Group or just follow me on Facebook or Twitter .

Direct download here

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Brand bubble website/blog here

Purchase the book on Amazon.com by clicking on the following link

- Joseph Jaffe

Politico Linkety-Link

Here goes my one-sided political linkety-link:

• The original Wassup guys reunite for a very succinct summary of the issues and which candidate they believe will do a better job at solving the conerns that matter. Note the A-B disclaimer at the end....ya think? PS: Try and watch both original and new renditions at the same time if possible

• Apparently I'm the reason why Obama lost the election because I didn't get out and vote. Check out this offensive piece of propaganda from that has-been network, CNNBC. It's not exactly the most original piece of attempted "viral" marketing, but it is done fairly smartly. The video makes some pretty ballsy insinuations, however fictitious and I wonder if this may backfire in some cases.

• Obama is a BMW and McCain is a Ford, according to research by Landor & Associates. Funny, I would never have thought of Senator Obama as arrogant, yuppy and overpriced, and McCain as fuel efficient, young and trendy. Perhaps I was thinking of Models (Z3 and Focus) instead of makes? 

- Joseph Jaffe

Unpolitco linkety-link

It's linkety-link for the independents within us all:

• Osama Bin Twitter ? And you thought Barack had problems. So apparently the proof of concept that a technology has gone mainstream is now 3-fold: the appearance of porn, gambling and alleged terrorism! Sheesh!
• When I went to college in South Africa, I studied Marketing from a textbook authored by Philip Kotler. Now I get to present on the same bill as my Marketing idol.
• Social Media Marketing Advertising Branding Communications Conversation defined by Peter Kim (click the link and you'll get a better understanding)
• The Guidance Economy - lead on my brother, lead on....
• How brands thrived during the Great Depression by Dave Chase (hint: it involved alcohol. Lots of it!)
• Tim Bray from Sun Microsystems is the latest rogue to steal my trademark on the word "conversation"
• The first Twinterview between myself and Jason Baer
• Creativity isn't a destination; it's a meeting place. The launch of Meet is worth its pound of flesh.
• Need more juice for your iPhone. Click here
• Every year, 12.9 million people turn 31 on a Saturday. Celebrate this unique community here . I have no clue where this goes but they had me at "every"
• Armano gives me a migraine with this post on unconventional marketing. I hate how he makes me think. Here's another one on the 4 kinds of free . Looks like someone is trying to write themselves into a new book being written....
• Tim Collins from Wells Fargo reads Jaffe Juice. If only the folks over at Lehman Brothers, Bear Sterns and AIG had done the same...
• The A-Z of better blog engagement
• Microsoft gets nailed from both sides - first from stereotyping stereotypes in their PC vs Mac ad and then from the latest Mac vs PC ad which exposes the ultimate disconnect of modern day marketing: instead of focusing on fixing a bad product, we invest our money into advertising instead

• NYU's Jay Rosen gives a very thoughtful presentation titled, "If Bloggers Had No Ethics Blogging Would Have Failed, But it Didn't. So Let's Get a Clue." Check it out here .
• Unrelated, how do bloggers make money...

- Joseph Jaffe

Patriotic or Pathetic?

Seems like there's a rush of opportunism (or is it just plain and simple patriotism) associated with tomorrow's historic election when it comes to brands.

On the weekend, we popped into Ben & Jerry's and found out we could get a free scoop of ice-cream (I hope it's not Rocky Road; we've had enough of that for a lifetime thank you very much) if we pop in between 5-8pm. More here on their Facebook page . Not everyone likes the idea of "paying for turnout"...or perhaps they just don't like ice-cream? How entirely unpatriotic!)

Then there's Starbucks, who just can't seem to execute a simple idea with any degree of authenticity and credibility ( mystarbucksidea versus Dell's Ideastorm) who are magnanimously offering a free TALL cup of their bitter coffee all in the name of democracy. They even create a 30-second spot to celebrate copy like this:

What if we all cared enough to vote?

Not just 54% of us, but 100% of us?

What if we cared as much on Nov. 5th as we care on Nov. 4th?

What if we cared all of the time the way we care some of the time?

What if we cared when it was inconvenient as much as we care when it’s convenient?

Would your community be a better place?

Would our country be a better place?

Would our world be a better place?

We think so, too.

If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee.

Come into Starbucks on Nov. 4th, tell us you voted, and we'll proudly give you a tall cup of brewed coffee on us.

You and Starbucks. It's bigger than coffee.

Don't get me wrong...the message is admirable and right on the money, but come on...."you and Starbucks" and all this for the smallest cup of coffee on the menu?

I guess the question is whether you agree or not. So while we're on the subject of voting....vote here:

Online Surveys & Market Research

- Joseph Jaffe

That's PRESIDENT Barack Hussein Obama to you

At the end of the day, all the talk shows - conservative or liberal; all the 24-hour news networks, all the ads and all the media dollars mean nothing....it all comes down to the wisdom of the crowds; the people; one man (or woman) - one vote; community. You. Me. Us.

Congratulations Mr President elect. Now get to work....the country and the world needs you.

Gobama, Go!

- Joseph Jaffe

10 Links that will change your life

OK, maybe that was a slight overpromise, but here they go anyway:

• Holy Moly, a laptop with 24 hours of battery life? Say it's so, HP! I see a cross-promotion with Starbucks on the horizon. Mitch Joel , are you paying attention?
• Purchase your CNN Election T-shirt here. They need the money to pay for that expensive new hologram they just installed.
• Blog post: "The real winner of the election: The Internet " - President Internet has a certain ring to it, don't you think?
• Ex-crayonista and resident social media muckety muck at Ford, Scott Monty, finally gets his Common Kraft freak on to illustrate Ford and Microsoft's Sync partnership. Nice Zune, Mr Burns...
• Facebook as a cause-marketing platform hits its stride with this week's Election.
• Article: "Making marketing count in a down economy" - you mean, besides cutting wasteful advertising?
• Jaffe in the conversation here , here , here and here
• Time's Ann Moore says you're crazy if you're still on your 5-year plan. Guess she was talking to all those employees she laid off...
• Hey I know she's going back to plain ole "Sarah from Alaska", but I still want to acknowledge two dumb-ass Canadians who embarrassed their entire country by pranking Palin and on the other end of the spectrum, acknowledge this very interesting usage of uStream to create a stream-a-thon of activism against the Sarah from Alaska. Irrespective of your political leanings, it's worth paying attention to...
• Interesting way to issue a press release: quote an author and blogger who is sure to be monitoring the conversation and will most likely punt the release in the form of a link

- Joseph Jaffe

Jaffe Juice #116 - Join the Political Conversation - A special Election 2008 New Marketing Podcast

In this episode I look back on a historical election and historical result from a new marketing and conversational perspective. Audio comments, halleluyahs and disagreements to +1 206 203-3255.

Join the Jaffe Juice Facebook Group or just follow me on Facebook or Twitter .

Direct download here

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6m - My voting experience

8m - The role that media and advertising played in this Election. My challenge to then-Senator Obama. A rant about money ruling the election. The Obamamercial.

19m - Comic relief: McCain gets Obama-rolled

21m30 - The real winner of this election? The Conversational Web. How would you have broken down and dissected the keys to this election? This entire election was about community, dialogue and partnership. Voting through conversation

25m - The power of video during this election

29m - The role of comedy in terms of influencing the outcome of the Election. Where the right's weapon of choice was "talk (radio)"; the left's was comedy .

32m15 - Before I forgot, disclosure in terms of my leanings...

34m40 - Facebook "Causes" demonstrates its ability to aggregate/congregate a community for a common-goal

36m55 - Jumping on the political brandwagon/brand opportunism

43m20 - A politically flavored "Winners & Losers": My losers are the two schmucks in Montreal who played their "prank" on Sarah Palin in the worst possible taste, as well as Terry Tate trying to resurrect his 15 minutes of fame and finally KFC's Presidential debate gimmick. My winners are election.twitter.com, the Obama iPhone App and last but certainly not least, President-elect, Barack Obama .

Many many links:

• Article: The real winner of the election: The Internet
• Facebook as a cause-marketing platform hits its stride with this week's Election.
• Hey I know she's going back to plain ole "Sarah from Alaska", but Istill want to acknowledge two dumb-ass Canadians who embarrassed theirentire country by pranking Palin and on the other end of the spectrum, acknowledge this very interesting usage of uStream to create a stream-a-thon of activism against the Sarah from Alaska. Irrespective of your political leanings, it's worth paying attention to...
• Starbucks, Krispy Kremes and Ben & Jerry's Election Day plays
• The original Wassup guys reunite for a very succinct summary of the issues and which candidatethey believe will do a better job at solving the conerns that matter.
• Terry Tate jumps the shark
• KFC slips on its own grease
• The Obama iPhone App

- Joseph Jaffe

Is the glass half full or half empty? Who cares if it contains 18-year old Scotch!

I was just interviewed for a piece which appeared on Ragan.com talking about the economically-influenced alleged decline of social media. The piece cites a recent Wall Street Journal (say it isn't so, Emily!) article that talks about marketers cutting budgets on alternative/experimental media. I couldn't access the article (is the WSJ still sticking to their premium priced walled garden?) but if Chrysler is the beacon of marketing leadership, I guess I won't cash in my crayon options any time soon.

I don't want to sound like (or be labeled) a booster (and if you knowme, you know I hate the terms "web 2.0" and even "social media"), butseriosuly, are we even going to go down this path again? The same pathwhere we poo-pooed the 1.0 bubble only to be caught with our pantsdown. Seriously people....it's not about the technology and it's notabout the V.C.'s; it's about the people damnit.

Ask Ruprecht Murdoch(the same dude who just hoping that pesky Internet thingy would justblow over) where he thinks the real challenges lie...the declines rightnow are happening, NOT in the emerging spaces, but rather in theincumbent categories. Take a listento my conversation with John Gerzema, author of "The Brand Bubble" ifyou need convincing as to where the real declines are/will continue tobe.

In other words, trying to debate or mitigate the rise of UNARGUABLY the most game-changing consumer, techology and behavior changes in our lifetimes is insane and inane. 

“When the going gets tough, you’ve got two types of [communicators]:those that will cut the experimental budgets … and those who now morethan ever will be prepared to invest forward,” Jaffe said. “My adviceis to take that path forward.”

That takes care of the WHAT and for the record, I haven't run into a single senior marketing executive that DOESN'T fundamentally buy into and believe in the transformational potential and impact associated with community, dialogue and partnership.

If that is in fact the case, perhaps we should be talking about the HOW. I guess the real issue is whether we're talking about "social media" as window dressing, executional tactics or in fact....a strategic, organizational or cultural imperative.

The other point is whether we're talking about implementing experiments to emulate or replicate push-based, intrusive, scaled communication AKA advertising.

It's way more fragmented that a binary 1 or 0 when it comes to marketers who "get it" and those "who don't". For this exercise, let's assume 50% of marketers are spending and 50% aren't (hence a glass half full and a glass half empty metaphor) In reality, given current spending levels i.e. % of budget on social media (is it even as high as 3%) or the number of Fortune 500 companies engaging in direct conversation (blogs) with their customers (15%), the base is significantly smaller.

And of those that are spending on "social media" 'cuz that's what the C-suite are mandating needs to happen, are either:

1. Looking at it tactically, executionally, as a short term cure-all, as a ROI generator, as a replaced to advertising....or all of the above
2. Looking at it strategically and as a potential game-changing commitment

I'd probably take an educated guess that the split between the two is around 80:20.

Now here's where it gets interesting. Brands are either going to employ the services of specialist boutiques OR they're looking towards their existing agencies (both traditional and digital) to come up with a recommended solution and executional plan for social media.

Again, I'd probably estimate an 80:20 split IN FAVOR of the existing agency versus specialist boutique. I'm started to notice a definite uptick in incumbent agencies making a play for this social media imperative...and increasingly BLOCKING any challenger consultancies or agencies trying to make a bid for the category.

Of course there are those agencies that recognizing their own limitations and in turn, outsourcing or partnering with the same/said boutiques. For sake of argument, let's say the split is once again 80:20 in favor of the mine, mine, mine approach.

So do the math, we're talking about 4 out of every 100 marketers/brands investing in "joining the conversation" as a cultural/organizational/strategic imperative AND working with a specialist consultancy/agency either directly (2) or indirectly through their agency (1.6)

Fortunately for those 4, they are all crayon clients :)

What have your experiences been with with respect to selling through and/or implementing against joining the conversation?

I've implicitly made the cliched assumption that incumbent agencies (traditional or digital) are not equipped to deliver against conversational marketing. Do you agree or disagree?

What percentages would you apply against my breakdowns?

Bottom line brothers and sisters, you're either a leader or a follower and the split is - when all is said and done - about 97:3 (historically and anecdotally). Which bucket is yours?

- Joseph Jaffe

Oh yeah, crayon's 2

I love the fact I completely forgot crayon turned 2 on October 26th. We've come a long way in just 12 months that seems like 12 seconds . But I'd be remiss if I didn't thank our wonderful clients (you know who you are) and our new box of crayonistas (Gary, Earl, Jane, Adam) plus pencil sharpener (Greg)

Photo attribution: Marcin Wichary

- Joseph Jaffe

This holiday season, give the gift that keeps on giving...

Ahead of this year's holiday season, I thought of doing a little experiment in a fairly straight-forward and transparent way. In a nutshell, it's a spin on corporate/bulk sales, mixed in with an experiential twist.

During these challenging times, instead of that throwaway pen or gift subscription to iTunes, why not give something that arms your recipient with knowledge they can use in this rapidly changing, dynamic market?

In exchange for purchasing* a certain number of either/both/a combination of my two books, " Life after the 30-second spot " and/or " Join the Conversation ", I'll barter an increasing amount of services to essentially offset the investment, including:

• Personally autographing** the books
• Providing a thank-you link/blurb on Jaffe Juice (blog and podcast)
• A phone or ooVoo conference call of varying amounts of time
• An on-site keynote presentation*** (domestic or international depending on tier)
• A day's consulting

* I'd put you in touch directly with a Wiley representative that would quote a discounted rate

** From a logistics standpoint, most likely we'd use nameplate stickers.

*** My normal T&E T's&C's would apply and be over and above the price of the books (incl. taxes, S&H)

The tiers are as follows:

• Purchase 100 books: Thank you blurb and link on Jaffe Juice (blog/podcast) and signed books
• Purchase 500 books: 1 hour conference call (oovoo or phone), TY blurb/link and signed books
• Purchase 1000 books: On-site keynote presentation (US only) + TY blurb/link + signed books

For amounts larger than 1,000, please contact me privately to discuss further.

The benefits are obvious to anyone purchasing the book for their colleagues, co-workers and/or customers. It's an original and utilitarian gift, which resonates for anyone whose business depends on creativity, progressive and innovative thinking and embracing a methodology which incorporates change and conversation.

What's in it for me? It's a little less obvious, but in addition to selling books, it's an experiment in of itself, which is consistent with my M.O. If it works, it becomes a new way for authors to supercharge their corporate/bulk sales. To be honest, my most powerful motivator is that I strongly and passionately believe in both messages and so my desire to "spread the word" outweighs the need to monetize it (at least in the short term...)

This offer is good through end of the year or until the Long Tail stops wagging.

- Joseph Jaffe

Monetizing Marketing

CNN's recent merchandising experiment, mashing up headlines and T-shirts reopens a very interesting conversation about whether or not (and if so, how) marketing efforts can be monetized.

It's not the first time this has been done. Think Staple's Easy Button or Burger King's Xbox games .

On the surface it seems like a no-brainer, but I think the deeper you dig, the slippier the slope becomes. Remember when ESPN tried to "monetize" their Sportscenter commercials?

Whichever way you slice it, it certainly gives the phrase "earned media" an entirely new meaning.

PS Get your CNN shirt here

- Joseph Jaffe

Save your career; start a blog

Do it now. Thank me later.

My latest Adweek column talks about why now - more than ever - ad professionals might want to start blogging. The fact remains: your blog is your resume. It's as simple as that. Read more more here .

PS The full article (which was a little too long initially) mentions George Parker and Alan Wolk , along with David Armano , Greg Verdino and Adam Broitman (the latter 3 made the final piece)

- Joseph Jaffe

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

Detroit's Big 3 are whinging at alarming levels right now. Solely blaming the current economic crisis as the reason for their desperate predicament without taking responsibility just underscores the disconnect between corporation and customer.

Hint: Why are none of the Japanese auto manufacturers sharing the microphone with you?

At the end of the day, there are many reasons why the likes of Bob Nardelli (remember his monster-sized golden parachute as a result of his stellar performance at Home Depot) and cronies are begging for help from Washington, but I would submit to you that it's really all about a particular mindset - an outdated, detached, aloof, brash and arrogant one at that.

Now I know you might not all agree that Michael Moore is the all-seeing and all-knowing swami and visionary, but he did put out a movie 20 years ago warning about exactly this. To quote Moore on Larry King last night:

...what really went wrong is that General Motors has had this philosophy from the beginning that what's good for General Motors is good for the country. So, their attitude was we'll build it and you buy it. We'll tell you what to buy. You just buy it. Eventually, the consumer got smart and said, 'You know what, I'd like a car that gets a little better gas mileage. I'd like a car that's safer on the road,' so they started to buy other cars. General Motors still wouldn't change. They still kept building the wrong cars, and more and more people stopped buying them.

Moore continues and specifically says that the big 3 never listened. Bottom line, they did not join the conversation . I can't put it any differently. They never listened to their customers; they never listened to the market; they never listened to the industry.

And they doggedly continued to go to market with a disconnected product line using a disconnected methodology: advertising, led by it's false prophet, the 30-second spot .

I can't help but think of the latest campaign for Cadillac, aimed at predominantly women, spewing drivel about you turning your car on, so isn't it time your car return the favor. Huh? A car that gives a woman an orgasm? Give me a break. What utter crap! And what about the decision to focus on women via the outdated market research and backwards agency strategic advice attempting to pimp an old ride on a new John....or is it Jane?

And finally, there's that flying down to Washington in the Executive Jet thing that - if all else fails - reminds us all that in fact you cannot put lipstick on an old dog, unless of course you want to teach him how to fly, which of course we know is only possible if you're a pig. Whatever. Let's go bail out some more companies, shall we.

My only hope is that when they come back "leaner, meaner and more focused", they do it with a stronger connection with their community, engage in regular, frequent dialogue (including that listening thingy) and partner with their various constituencies to build a better mousetrap.

A man can dream, can't he?

- Joseph Jaffe

Barefoot, Pregnant and in the Kitchen

That's how Moms used to be described. Today, everything has changed, with one small caveat: when they are in the kitchen, they're usually on the laptop - creating, communicating, connecting and collaborating with other Moms, friends, family members, business associates etc.

The incredible kerfuffle of late with Motrin highlights the chasm or disconnect between marketers (and their henchmen, Madison Avenue) and consumers. It's been widening for years now and I expect more of these "come to Jesus" moments to present themselves, at an increasing pace/rate, provided brands continue to whack their customers over the head with the blunt instrument called "advertising".

The story in 30-seconds :) is as follows:

• Motrin creates this ad

• Moms don't like it
• Twittering Moms in particular
• Mainstream media goes ga-ga
• Motrin caves, issues an apology (above) and pulls the ads (where it can)

A lot has been said about this experience already:

• Did Moms overreact? At the end of the day, it's not worth dignifying the drivel forced down our throats in the form of 30-second spots and the like, but it is everyone's right to react and have an opinion. Perhaps that's one of the important new lessons marketers need to learn....whether you like it or not, you'll hear from us. This is the new transparency.
• ...and in the process, do themselves a disservice by raising their collective ire and exposing themselves as a bunch of Prima donnas? Possibly, but not likely. I am always concerned that the entire blogosphere shoots itself in the foot when it critiques a lame blogger outreach program, a Second Life misadventure or a failed Facebook attempt. My fear is that we chase away curious and tentative marketers, looking to do more but afraid of the consequences of trying something new. That said, I always come back to this: the reason why these efforts fail is because they generally suck . Bringing this back to Motrin Moms, if this exercise has done anything, it's to drive home the fact Digital Moms are a powerhouse and need to be taken seriously - explicitly AND implicitly.
• Did Motrin overreact by pulling down their campaign? I'd say yes on many levels. There's a reason why the US of A does not negotiate with terrorists in the slightest. Of course, I'm not comparing "twittering Moms" to Osama Bin Twitter, BUT I think Motrin/J&J exposed itself as being anything on the continuum of spineless to wishy-washy (or is it flip-floppy) in the process. Motrin Moms (on Twitter that is) represent a tiny minority but Twitter is what I call a reach-activator (evidenced by all the mainstream media coverage, which arguably was the machine that created the critical hype in the first place). More importantly, perhaps they did Motrin a HUGE favor in the form of an advance warning. In any event, the spot is out there and will enjoy a tremendous Second Life of infamy, ironically boosted by the efforts of pulling down the spot. Whilst Ad Age argues that the total web (1.0 and 2.0) views is only a fraction of the actual media buy, I think this will change over time (esp. as the Long Tail begins to wag like mad). Also we're talking about potential versus actual views and I would suspect that when the reconciliation is ultimately done, pulling the spot will not have extinguished the headache...

Now some Jaffe commentary:

1. Motrin has a tiny ad budget and now, for the first time, people are talking about them. Genius? Fluke? Lemonade from Lemons? Something to think about.
2. Motrin's apology and subsequent updates have been plastered on their archaic (as in from the time of the Ark) website . On the one hand, it's admirable to devote prime homepage real estate to this admission of error, but come on sister....start a friggen blog already!!! It's staring at you in the face. Either way, her last update was 5 days ago, which in Internet time is like 5 years.
3. I guess my main point regarding this "migraine campaign" was the fact that the real offender(s) was not Twittering Moms and it was not Kathy Widmer. It was the status quo; it was the process itself which FAILED Motrin and surely will fail it's parent, Johnson & Johnson increasingly so if they continue to follow an outdated and flawed code of conduct . As long as advertising continues to generalize, stereotype, hype, exaggerate and oversimplify, it will not only continue to fail...but also backfire in the process.

Here are specific ways the process let them down:

• Strategic Planning/Insights - so Moms wear their babies; some say it's a fashion statement; some say it's a burden; some say it legitimizes them. Big deal. That's enough to create a bonding experience and connection with Moms? Give me a break
• Focus Groups - building on from the previous point, perhaps the problem (I wrote about this in Join the Conversation ) is the difference between Late Majority/"average" Moms and Innovate consumers/Moms i.e. who are you talking to in these focus groups and how are you talking to them? The blogosphere is a real, live focus group and yet we continue to talk to real people through one way mirrors! Just because one Mom says it makes them feel official doesn't mean this should be regurgitated to the masses. I would say we've forgotten to listen, but truthfully I don't think we (as industry) ever listened to our consumers
• Creative - following on from the original point, simply restating verbatims does not a campaign make. In addition, the so-called irreverent tone and treatment in the spot came across as insulting, superficial and arrogant.
• Media - once dem spots are purchased, there's no going back. It might be possibly to splash an apology letter on a website, but everything else has a losing lead time associated.
• Account Management - could this not have been anticipated? Where was the contingency planning? What actually did Motrin do besides apologizing and taking the ad off the air? What about involving the SAME outspoken Motrin moms in the R&D/evaluation process the next time round?
• No conversational/communal activation - where was the seeding to high level influencers which arguably could have set off the fire alarms well in advance...

I'm going to try and reach out to Kathy and invite her on Jaffe Juice to talk about this. Of course Kathy, if you're reading this post itself, you're already moving in the right direction. Let's have a conversation, shall we?

Some links of note:

• Crashing Motrin-Gate : A Social Media Case Study
• Motrin Moms Twitterrage
• Motrin.com
• One of the primary catalysts, Jessica Gottlieb refuses to jump on the mob-wagon
• Queen of Spain blog (99 comments to date!) chastises Motrin Moms ("mobs") for tarnishing the image (and e-commerce implications) of this growing community/demographic

- Joseph Jaffe

YouTube Live - if you missed it, I know a website you can visit to view it

I tuned in on Saturday night to watch parts of YouTube Live's launch . I must say it was quite impressive - a celebration/concert that was pretty slick, even with the occassional geeky and amateur hour moments. 

From the 3 cameras (main stage, backstage, off stage) to the integration with YouTube's recognized interface (comments, ratings) to the usage of YouTube Weblebrities like Tay Zonday to the tie-ins with brand partners (the live wi-fi feed from Virgin America was pretty cool), this was a well orchestrated and executed effort.

All in all, 700,000 simultaneous views at the peak was a pretty good start to YouTube's first stab at appointment viewing, but do I even need to point out the longevity associated with that model :)

I'm also curious as to which marketing bloggers were invited to attend this event (if you were invited and/or attended, let me know...) Often times marketing bloggers are included in programs which seem a bit left field, but this is one of those times where I think it's going to make a lot of sense to involve the marketing community in a conversation about commerce.

Still not entirely sure where this goes (from a money making standpoint), but it's pretty obvious that wherever video is involved on the conversational web, live/streaming functionality will have to follow and when it comes to video, YouTube has an interface/infrastructure that is built to succeed.

Here are some screenshots and a few articles / posts that talk about the "event"

 



 

Oh and here's some video from me as well:

- Joseph Jaffe

Jaffe Juice #117 - Caracas, Satmetrix and biggest mistakes from social media gurus

In this episode, I spend the bulk of my time in conversation with David Spark, discussing a recent post he wrote which appeared on Mashable. In his post, he discusses biggest mistakes made by "social media gurus". I also cover off briefly on the Net Promoter Conference I'll be keynoting at in January of 2009 and have a promo code for you. Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255 .

Direct download here

iTunes subscription here

Follow me on Twitter here or become my fake friend on Facebook.

Net Promoter details here . Use promo code, "Jaffe" For $200 savings and a signed copy of Join the Conversation.

David Spark article here , including the following mistakes:

• Respond to all negative comments
• Participate in flame wars to increase traffic
• Hire a voice talent for $2,000 to read a podcast for you
• Send a specially selected mass mailing to your friends
• Assume that social media doesn’t exist until you arrive
• Post a comment on your own Facebook profile wall
• Don’t engage with people who only want to push their own initiative
• Over-architect a site with features and content without talking to your customers
• Be overly careful about everything you say online
• Don’t come to your own defense when people bad mouth you online
• Accept friend requests from people you barely know
• Stalk women on Facebook

Gurus mentioned in the post: David Spark, Dana Gardner, Paul Dunay, Susan Bratton, Chris Brogan , David Meerman Scott , Ross Mayfield , Deb Schultz , Thornton May , Peter Hirshberg, Robin Wolaner , Stewart Alsop

About David Spark : David is a veteran tech journalist and the founder of Spark Media Solutions , a storytelling production company. Read more of Spark at his blog Spark Minute and to read interviews with many industry thought leaders, please subscribe to Spark's "Be the voice" blog and podcast .

- Joseph Jaffe

Who gives a shit about toilet paper?

I'm sorry but I couldn't resist that post title.

On Saturday night I was in Times Square and came across the Charmin (and Duracell) pop-up retail restroom "experience", which apparently is in its third year now.

With trendy, good-looking hosts and hostesses and DJ-like Master of Ceremonies with pearls of wisdom such as, " Welcome to the number one urination station in the nation," how could this go wrong?

I just loved everything about this non-traditional approach which addresses two universal tourist (or visitor) needs when walking a metropolitan city: needing to go to a (clean) restroom and recharging batteries (of a cellphone or camera).

The connection between Charmin and Duracell if you haven't realized it already, is Procter & Gamble.

Moreover, this investment achieves an almost impossible objective: how do you get someone to care about toilet paper?

The only detraction in my opinion is that this isn't there 365 days of the year. Personally, I'd pay the rent willingly and forgo things like Stupid Bowl commercials for toilet paper (Toilet Bowl)

Here are a few photos from my iPhone (As I take these snaps, the "MC" says, " did that dude just take a photograph of a man coming out of the bathroom? " Well, yes I did!) and a YouTube video (not mine):

 

 

- Joseph Jaffe