Well, Abraham Harrison took part in the My ooVoo Day campaign as a subcontractor of crayon LLC and have spoken about it before but I just discovered a really groovy and cool redux of the entire day — well-cut and well done!
No Comments » Posted on May 3rd, 2008
This is gonna be a short post. I am tired, and my baby will wake me at 5am tomorrow. However, I came across a post about Nokia’s efforts in Africa on the Future Perfect blog.
Basically what Nokia is doing is setting up “open design studios” in the shanty towns of Africa (they are also doing this in South America and Asia) asking the locals (mostly teens) to come up with their design concepts.
You should check them out, it is really impressive. I am just amazed at what is going on in the cell phone world of Africa and how Nokia is focusing on this segment. They really get it somewhere.
I have to tell you that almost everyone I know in South Africa adores their Nokia phone. This is an incredible marketing feat for a Northern European company. Their efforts at meeting their customers on the ground and asking them what they want just blows my mind.
I am gonna post again about this soon - I have to spend some time digging around this blog - and a couple others that I have found.
No Comments » Posted on May 2nd, 2008
While reading one of my new favorite blogs yesterday, White African, I came across this video of a presentation by Clay Shirky talking about his new book, Here Comes Everybody
I found the speech rather interesting, and I will have to try and get my hands on his book when I get back to the USA. In fact, I had never heard of Mr. Shirky until reading this blog post.
His main argument is that we have historically tried to find ways to fill our leisure time - first with gin, then with TV, and now with social media. In fact he quotes the fact that in the internet connected part of the world we collectively spend “roughly 1 trillion hours” watching TV. Heck, that is a lot of time. And he goes on to make the argument that if the internet and social media can garner just 1 percent of that time from TV we have the potential for a radical shift.
Why is this shift important? Because what this new media offers is participation - it allows me to write this blog and share it with all of you. It allows people to make videos, and share projects of all types. Basically to participate. Shirky points out that so far we have collectively spent 100 million hours of “human thought” building wikipedia.
I find this really interesting. What does this means for marketing, for products, for ideas and for collective citizenry? I agree with him, that we will always enjoy our TV shows - but maybe the younger generation will be much more into the “interactive” media. The type where they can affect it - kind of like “theater sports”.
Whatever the outcome it changes the landscape. It follows that we will have more and more participation - not all of it will produce good, and useful things. But, it will allow us to use our “free time” differently, and at the very least create the possibility for constructive engagement - at least part of the time, which TV never allowed us to do.
I say watch out TV world - you better come up with some new ideas.
No Comments » Posted on May 1st, 2008
OK, at the beginning of the year I went downtown to a relatively prominent ad agency to talk to them about a client they had. The client is a large business/trade association that’s involved (admittedly laggardly) in the digital revolution. They’re somewhat, but not totally, dinosaurs. An industry that has to change, is taking to long to do so, but has a large enough presence to stymie some elements of change that would actually benefit many of us. And, the client, being a trade association, they are innately slow moving, averse to change.
The ad agency guy told me that they could use me (and Abraham Harrison) in two ways.
The first was advocacy. Grassroots. Online. Offline. Here in DC. And througout the US. The agency itself was a traditional shop with decent interactive capabilities. Neither the agency nor did the ad guy have any political experience. I’ve done that. So has Abraham Harrison. Solid.
The second was social media. Their client wanted to do some “non-traditional” stuff. They wanted to “engage”the public. The need here was a rebranding campaign, as in “Beef, it’s what’s for dinner.” An attempt to get the public to look at the industry that this association represents in a different light. Again, Abraham Harrison.
I followed up how we’d work with him. I gave him some ideas. More than once. It was always “let’s talk in a week or two”. But I could tell that his lack of understanding of social media and political advocacy was a roadblock. He had some fear about coming across clueless to me. And he didn’t want to admit himself. But I’m guessing he was terrified of coming across clueless to the client.
But the client is clueless as well.
I offered to have a conference call set up so we could not so much explain what we do, but to better equip him with idea on how effective social media could be in this case. He demurred, saying that he would first meet with the client.
Bad move. This means that the clueless meets with the clueless to discuss something they are clueless about. Which means that neither of them brings it up because neither one wants to reveal that they are clueless about what they both are choosing not to talk about. Yet they both know in the back of their minds that the thing that they don’t want to talk about is something that they need to know, then talk about, then implement.
But if they don’t talk about it, and not look like idiots, and they can manage to delay all of this that much more.
So then they’re going to run this campaign old style. Part of it is already online. I’ve already seen the logo. It looks like something out of the 1950’s. Seriously. It’s color scheme doesn’t make sense. Nothing bold. Lots of black and white photos to remind you of back in the day. It says “We are a timid industry. In decline” There’s a bunch of print ads, some outdoor ads, a few radio spots. And one online ad.
They are trying to remind us how important they (or more accurately, they’re members) play a role in our lives. Yet they do nothing to integrate us into that equation.
And more and more, people are turning away from what they’re about. I can see why.
2 Comments » Posted on April 30th, 2008
In my digging around yesterday I came across this great site - AfriGadget. You have gotta check out this site. It is incredible the ingenuity and creativeness going on in Africa. Dual Sim Chip cell phones, cell phones built out of recycled parts, bamboo bicycles.
I am really on a reverse marketing ploy here. I believe that Africa gets terrible press - so much so that the people of Africa are even convinced by it. While America and Europe present themselves as the “paradise” existence. I have lived overseas for many years - 15 in total - in lovely Oakland, CA and in Santa Cruz, CA. I have travelled and spent many months in other parts of the USA. It is a great place, seriously, I love America. It is my second home - I carry an American passport, I am married to an American and my daughter was born in America.
But, there is one piece of misinformation - it is not paradise, it is not perfect - nowhere is perfect. The same is true for Africa, it is not a perfect continent. In fact it is far from it on many levels. But, it is an exciting place, it is creative, passionate and at times raw.
Africa is a continent, the second biggest in the world, with the second largest population of close to 800 million people. It is a diverse place, filled with many cultures and peoples. It is a place worth exploring.
I have to say - that most people do not think of Africa as a continent. They see it as one big country. No distinctions between countries, people or places. I know this is especially true because after waiting 5 years for my US green card when it did finally arrive guess what they had put down as my country of origin?
Africa!!!
Yep, Africa. People, Africa is a continent not a country. Come and explore this continent of 53 countries, 800 million people and hundreds of languages. You may just be surprised to find there is something else that they haven’t been telling you.
Then go back and help change the perceptions of this place. We need some reverse marketing.
No Comments » Posted on April 29th, 2008
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