Two Really Good New Books

I am reading Seth Godin's new book "We all are Weird" were he talks about the decline of normal and the rise of the new weird. The old normal was based on consumers wanting to be like their neighbors and conform to what society said they should be. Industry and commerce were built on producing few products with limited options that appealed to the widest audience. During this period, mass media, especially TV, allowed advertisers to reach a large audience at the lowest costs per thousand (CPM). Advertisers were reaching the great middle and selling products with limited differentiation. In the new normal consumers are free to explore whatever they want in whatever niche appeals to them. Today, consumers have choices not only in the products they choose, but also where they spend their media time. With the rise of the internet and the proliferation of media outlets, a person can find the content they want when they want it no matter how strange or esoteric. You can find a blog or site that focuses on whatever passion you happen to have. Speaking about me, I love new media, surfing and Dr. Who and there are plenty of sites for me to stay current on all those activities. For new media, Mashable, Gizmodo, Venture Beat and All things Digital are just a few of the sites I visit regularly. For surfing, Surfline and Magic Seaweed are two of my favorite sites. Dr. Who is easy, BBC and YouTube. I also love watching old episodes on Netflix. For that matter, my Twitter newsfeed pushes stories to me, about surfing, social, Dr Who, whatever I want. For an advertiser it is all about finding and targeting smaller and smaller groups of consumers. However, these smaller groups of people represent consumers that are passionate about their activities and hopefully passionate about your brand. What an advertiser may miss out in terms of the size of an audience they make up with passion and commitment of that audience. However Seth Godin says an advertiser needs to embrace this new normal and embrace these new groups not with a token commitment, but a total commitment to make products and marketing communications that reflect what this group actually wants. The other book I am reading is “On-Demand Brand” by Rick Mathieson who has the premise that consumers no longer want to wait, instead they want what they want now. He uses Burger King’s famous phrase, “Have it your way” as evidence of a change in consumer behavior. From a macro perspective, Rick is correct. Media choices have evolved from having to wait to watch a weekly TV show to first VCRs and DVRs which allowed you to time shift your favorite show to iTunes, Hulu or Netflix where you can instantly watch whatever you want when you want and on the device you want, TV, tablet, or mobile phone. I love the example of music. In the old days, you listed to a top 40 radio station and if you heard a song you liked, you had to wait until they played the song again. With the rise of online radio stations such as Pandora. Slacker, and Jango you now can listen to groups that are similar to what you wanted, but not your exact song. You can also game these stations, but that’s another story. Now with the rise of Spotify, Rhapsody and others you can listen to whatever song you want when you want and on the device you want and all for about $10 a month. Obviously, iTunes also gives you music on demand but makes you buy the music whereas with Spotify, it’s more like renting than buying. When you combine these two ideas Marketers now must appeal to these smaller groups and must appeal to them with content they want when they want it. We live in an exciting time.

Why I got into the advertising business

I was a marketing major in college at the University of Richmond and earned my MBA from Pepperdine and I have always been fascinated by advertising. After graduating college, I confess all I knew about advertising was the creative department and account management, I knew nothing about media. However, I answered an ad for a media assistant in the OC Register for an agency in Newport Beach and once I was in media I really enjoyed it. Media is fascinating because it’s always changing.

Even the idea of what is a medium is changing. Is a medium just mass media? Or can it be one to one communication, such as mail, email, or phone calls. What about screens in unusual areas such as on Taxi-cabs, or in the grocery store? The list of media is endless. At one time society was dominated by a top-down media structure where only selected professionals had access to mass communication vehicles, but now we have the democratization of media where anyone with an idea and a computer can communicate to large number of individuals. If anything, the problem now days is how do you filter the millions of websites, blogs, videos and social posts to fine information that is reliable and pertinent. This is why social recommendations are so critical now days to help consumers find not only good media content, but other products and services. Advertising must change to less of a push strategy to more of a partnership with consumers where we provide beneficial content that is compelling and also provides solid rationale for buying a product of service.

Besides, from “Bewitched”, to “Bosom Buddies”, to “Thirtysomething” to “Melrose Place” to “Mad Men”, advertising agencies have always looked cool on TV.

Where Good Ideas Come From

Reading a great book by Steven Johnson on the history of innovation, called Where Good Ideas Come From. It's a must read for anyone that wants to encourage their organization to be more innovative. I love this quote: "Innovative environments are better at helping their inhabitants explore the adjacent possible, because they expose a wide and diverse sample of spare parts-mechanical or conceptual-and they encourage novel ways of recombining those parts (location 494-98 in Kindle).

Thursday: 2/10/11 7:21 am

It's a pretty day in So Cal. There is no fog and there is lots of sun. It's a bit windy. The commute was easy this morning. It took me less than an hour to go from Redondo to Irvine. I was able to talk to my old college friend, Archer Irby for about 25 minutes. Even though he lives in NY, I woke him up when I called at 6:30 my time, 9:30 his time

Saturday January 22, 2010

It was a good day. The weather was mild, mid 60's and sunny. The Santa Ana's kicked in a bit, but it was not too windy. We had one exterminator come by to give us an estimate to fumigate the house and one concrete guy came by to give us an estimate of managing the back yard. We picked up a great Bundt Cake at a small little place in Manhattan Beach. We picked up Mary, my daughter and visited mom and dad in Fullerton. We had a bit of birthday party for mom and headed back up.

What's in my backpack

This morning I was thinking about all the stuff I lug around in my backpack. It’s so heavy that I lean when I carry it like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

I have paper copies of Blankets, the graphic novel, and Groundswell the book by Forrester on social networking.

I have my Kindle with an electronic copy of Groundswell and books on the Open Source Revolution. I actually love my Kindle because it is so easy to make notes and underline things which you can access quickly to double check a reference.

I have a paper copy of the UCLA Extension Winter Schedule. I don't think I will take a class this quarter since I am still recovering from last semester’s work load.

I have extra thumb drives and pens and paper along with my check book and check register. An interesting thing about the check register, is I don't use it anymore instead I rely on mobile banking to check my balance.

I have bills I need to pay and some like solicitations from Heal the Bay and Surfrider, I don't have to pay, but want to, to help the environment.

I have two recent copies of Wired in my backpack and the most recent copy of The Surfers Journal. In many ways, my backpack is a microcosm of my life and the things I care about for work and recreation. I need a digital frame so I can carry photos of my wife and kids in my backpack, since they are the most important thing in my life.

Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins

Confessions of an Aca-Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins

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