Blog

Get thee to the mobile!

2012-05-14T13:03:00Z

Apptastic.

We've been thinking (and talking and researching) a lot lately about mobile apps and their power for our clients and their communities.

With 82% of mobile media consumption today happening via apps, it's a tough trend to ignore.

There's plenty to consider and lots to read and to listen to on this topic these days. Tons of facts, even more opinions.

This week, one of our favourite local companies, and a global leader in their own industry, made their foray into the space and we had the pleasure of jamming with them on this topic.

One of our favourite pieces of the chat was this:

You have to create an optimal experience. It's not about using decade-old technology and trying to jam it into a phone.

That's for sure. Hear more here.

Lunatics at the gate

2012-04-27T11:20:34Z

Beware the crazies.

We had the pleasure of attending and supporting a Fourth Wall exhibition, based on the transformative civic engagement initiative by Toronto's Dave Meslin. One of the big messages that came out for us was the bad rep that people who push change often get. How their motivations are questioned. And how they are labelled -- oh, those "radicals" / "nuts" / "crazies" / "lunatic fringe".

Ask yourself: Are you mislabeling or vilifying people around you? And more importantly, for what reason? Do you judge:

People who engage civicly?
Colleagues who push change?
Citizens who speak (/blog/cast) passionately about what they care about?
Communities that rail against the establishment?
Parents who drive mini-vans?

We all do it to some degree. (C'mon admit it to yourself.) But what we really should be focused on is this:

Fighting apathy.

Beware the apathy that causes disengagement, that supports a toxic status quo (and that's not to say all status quo is bad...but some, is really bad.) This applies as much in your workplace and with your business plan or strategic marketing direction, as it does in your personal and community life.

Let's be careful about labels.

Guess what? The "lunatics" at the gate are the ones guarding it. For the rest of us.

Rock on crazies.

On being alone together

2012-04-16T00:57:51Z

When you believe in something absolutely because you live it everyday, that's often the best time to go out in search of an alternate perspective.

We're huge proponents of technology. We believe that, over time, our online interconnectedness will make things better globally.

Below is a very provocative TED Talk about technology taking us to places we might not want to go. Although we don't agree with everything offered here, there are a number of points worth considering and we thought you might appreciate the juxtaposition with what we usually go on (and on and on) about.

Technology, like everything else we consume, must be taken in some form of moderation. In these early days of unprecedented expressive capability, where pace and frequency often take a front seat to thoughtful in-person discourse, your personal technological balance is definitely worth a little review.

youtu.be/t7Xr3AsBEK4

Fiction in the space between

2012-04-10T01:57:09Z

The right message to the right audience at the right time. Right = Transparent. Accurate. True. A marketing credo. Isn't it?

Technology and the social web are moving and evolving faster than most of us can consistently process. We're connecting with people worldwide who would be strangers on the street but are trusted collaborators online. Our personal data is being collected in ways, in volumes, and for purposes, that we don't yet understand. Companies with no assets and no revenue are being bought and sold for billions.

There's a lot to understand. And to translate. But as marketers and communicators, we've got to be able to stand by the integrity of those translations. Yes, we want to help people understand. To engage. To get involved and to make impact. But that doesn't give us carte blanche to tell part of the story or to create misleading perceptions about how the social web works. Not to clients. Not to partners. Not to traditional media outlets. As practitioners, we ought to know better and have to act better.

We need to tell the full story. Or say we don't know. Or just zip it. That's an ethical responsibility that goes far beyond company brands or personal brands or the bottom line of our agencies. Or there will be consequences industry-wide. Ask yourself: how much do I like to be misled? (This might help if you're a chronic offender.)

Talking 'transparency' is quickly becoming cliché. (It's the new "innovation".) Tragic, because online privacy and trust need her now more than ever. The very existence of privacy and trust online will be altered by the stories we tell, the words we use, the truths (and fictions) we craft.

Technology revolutions aside, great content will be at the centre of the marketing universe, online and offline, for the forseeable future.

The Internet at its best is us at our best.

The next revolution will be tweeted (though it's pretty presumptuous to disagree with Malcom G.)

The sharing of information and ideas 'through space' was once the stuff of science fiction. But not anymore. Let's write the "right" next chapter.

Whatcha say

2012-04-03T02:43:00Z

Language, and its agents, words, are very powerful things.

Words both express and define our perspectives. They also can influence them. Greatly.
Words can inspire.
Words can drive change.
Words can restrict.
Words can cut deep.
Words can give permission and take away right...and dignity.

As marketers (and human beings) we take our words very seriously. And so, we find ourselves seriously concerned about the following words, taken from a local bylaw:

“‘Art’ is the products of human creativity. The creation of beautiful or significant things. A superior skill that you can learn by study and practice and observation. ‘Graffiti’ includes one or more letters, symbols, figures, etchings, scratches, inscriptions, stains or other markings that disfigure or deface a building, howsoever made or otherwise affixed or applied on the structure or thing, but, for greater certainty, does not include an art mural.”

(Thanks to London's unofficial journalist laureate, Phil McLeod, for keeping us all on top of this discussion.)

Though the value judgements here can certainly speak for themselves, it can't hurt to underline the utterly subjective nature of words like "beautiful", "significant", and "superior", not to mention "stains".

The image featured here, we'd say, is pretty significant, pretty beautiful, and as artistic forms go, pretty superior. We'd definitely not call it a stain. (Thanks Ryan, your team and supporters for the awesomeness that is Artfusion.)

Maybe words mean a lot to us because we're part of a collective that would like to see our community move from conservative to leading-edge urban (or even, less conservative.) Maybe words are on our minds because we have a client project right now that philosophically and literally hinges on using the right words to tell a difficult story in a challenging environment, and for a tremendous cause.

Either way, they're important. That needs to be said as much as the right (just, kind, unbiased, change-making, community-building) words themselves need to be said.

So whatcha say?

We've got that strategic feelin'

2012-03-19T01:15:15Z

We've been executing a lot of strategic marketing plans lately.

This = happy. Happy for us because the work is intensely challenging and rewarding. Happy for our clients because we are almost always more effective on their behalf this way.

Typically if we're approached to execute on an individual tactic or suite of tactics (traditional print, special event design, new media marketing etc.,) there usually hasn't been a connection made between that particular executable and the larger business goals or strategic marketing framework. There's a reason for that.

It's hard.

Tactics are about process; strategy is about results.

Example: [tactic] I'm going to write a series of blog posts and post them on our corporate blog. [Strategy] I'm going to divert company resources from traditional media to blogging in an effort to build a long term engagement machine and relationship platform with five key client segments this year.

Building an engagement asset is strategy. Tweets, RSS feeds, news releases, email campaigns etc., are tactics.

If you're actually committing to marketing strategy, you should be talking about it in terms of your entire business. If actions from your marketing plan are falling on the shoulders of one department or person, you're in tactical land.

It's easy to spot once you understand it. The better you get at executing tactics (the process), the harder it is to abandon them for strategy (it's challenging, and you're too busy.)

If you didn't feel uncomfortable in at least a few of last quarter's marketing meetings, ask WHY.

Embrace a strategic approach to your marketing activities and your business will grow.

Ask your self this:

In the most competitive and economically challenging time of our generation, how does your competition view strategy and what are they doing about it?

You're trying hard not to show it, but baby we know it. You've got that strategic feelin'.

(And if you don't, you should get it.)

Kony 2012

2012-03-07T23:53:02Z

The return of peace and justice. Thanks to our new friends - social capital and interconnectedness.

A return to old school values

2012-03-05T14:02:39Z

The world needs more Lemmy.

We're not suggesting idolizing the loud-as-hell, rock and roll, glorified musician lifestyle. (Though we do enjoy a good blow out.) We're talking about someting else entirely. Those undisputable constants that unite to make up the Lemmy brand essence.

Once exposed to them, it's tough to ignore the statesmen (or stateswomen) in your field. They were there at the beginning when your industry was being forged.

They:

Inspire some of the most successful people in your field today and are just as inspiring to those same people 30 years later;
Have a remarkable ability to stay true to their beliefs as entire sub cultures transform the once famililar footing beneath them;
Embody their space and their art, even if it's not always the best commercial or career decision for them personally;
Transcend their own glorified status because the closer you scrutinize the legend, the more it reinforces the authenticity beneath.

If you're leading the way for others, we need your conviction.

If you're going to ship an idea, a product, a strategy, get behind it with everything you've got until it feels more like a lifestyle. an attitude, the only way forward, than a tactic or just something else you're doing.

Change, global unrest and uncertainty isn't going anywhere anytime soon. The last thing we need in this new global landscape is more smoke and mirrors. More profiteering on the backs of unsatisfied customers. More unethical behaviour toward our competitors.

Step up. Pick a side. Do work you know you're kids will be proud of one day. Embrace the long game. (If you're a CEO, that means setting up the next gal. If you're a politician, that means looking beyond your four years. If you're a business owner or NFP leader, that means embracing the strategy over the quick, sexy win.)

Hey, you know what the greatest thing about Lemmy is?

He's real.

The #ldnont municipal imperative

2012-02-22T13:47:32Z

Eddie Burke was right:

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

It feels like our city is falling down of late. We don't have a lot of evidence that local government decision making is poor. It's been said most of the fallout from the recent budget meeting won't be felt for a few years. Instead, it's more of an uneasy feeling that won't go away.

Stuff we don't know:

How to run a city;
How to be a great city councillor;
How to stimulate an ailing economy.

What we do know:

People with power will take advantage of citizen apathy;
Not everyone has a voice and it's a damn shame to waste yours;
When citizens organize to do something to make the place better, we need to take notice and support them;
A strategic direction on the backs of the less fortunate, the disabled and those who can't represent themselves, is just plain wrong, no matter how you spin it.

If you're reading this, you have the privilege and the opportunity to do good. To get involved. To make a difference.

All that is necessary for things to get worse, is for good people that know this, to do nothing.

And that's just what they're counting on.

Not us. Not anymore. How 'bout you?

The anatomy of a passion project

2012-02-11T02:58:43Z

The world needs more passion projects.

The more connected our projects become, the more value they produce.

They're simultaneously tough to spot and absolutely unmistakable. They typically feel something like this:

You can't stop thinking about it
It dominates your thoughts. If you're doing research for another subject all you see is insight into your passion project. Like-minded people begin to organize around you with supportive and developmental contributions because you're focus and passion is unintentionally infectious.

Money doesn't matter
You don't care if you're paid and often invest your own cash to keep things moving. You're not thinking about making a million, you're thinking about making it better. Inevitably, passion pays.

Nine to five becomes a distraction
Factory work and factory hours seem incongruent with efficiency and common sense. After dinner becomes valuable production time as TV is outed in favour of creative activity.

You're happy
You don't need caffeine or theobromine or a boss to stay motivated. Your mind and your passion are all that you require to keep going...and it feels good.

You don't need a degree, a crazy I.Q or years of experience. You don't even need permission. The barrier to entry is hearing yourself.

The world needs more passion projects. There's a stockpile of problems to solve.

So listen up and get started.