No offense to my print designer friends (and really, some of my best friends are print designers, I swear!), I’ve lately been thinking about how much I love Interactive designers. And production folks. And developers. Maybe it’s because many people seem to think that a designer is a designer is a designer and the result of this way of thinking is working with clients who, for whatever reason, want the person who designs their offline materials to also create their web site. “You guys can work with so-and-so, right? He’ll do the design and you guys can produce it.”

Sure. Sure, we can. But, the thing is, the web is a unique medium. Compared to print, we have far less control over things like fonts, or colors, or even alignment. I can’t tell you how many times in the past couple of years (or even months) I’ve had to explain to a print designer that the pretty, perfectly-sized boxes they laid out are going to get jacked all to hell as soon as the client starts putting content of different lengths in each one. Or how many times I’ve gotten a web site design where everything is Flash and/or images because the designer wants to make sure that they control every aspect of the experience.

The reason why Interactive people are MY people, why I love them with a burning passion matched only by my love of IKEA meatballs and Gossip Girl, is that they are supremely flexible. They understand that what they lovingly create in Photoshop will vary slightly when it’s produced, and when it’s viewed by me on my Mac or their mom on a PC. They create designs that can handle those variations. They are accustomed to constantly reviewing and revisiting their design in production and tweaking it to optimize both the display, and the end user experience.

Print designers*, on the other hand, tense up at the thought that the headlines and body copy can’t all be [insert obscure font name here], or that my Grandma could increase the size of the body copy WITHOUT THEIR PERMISSION. So, when they are directing the creation of a web site, tension is created between the well-controlled viewpoint of a print designer (who is used to having the ability to tightly control font, layout, color and overall presentation) and the chaos-theory viewpoint of a web production team, who knows that they must plan for a variety of viewing situations that range from cinema screens to Blackberries, PCs to Macs, and browsers, browsers, everywhere!

But while it may make a print designer feel good to control the user experience, and while that may be a perfectly reasonable way to think about a print (or even television) experience — that level of attempted control makes for a very poor user experience online. It can make the site harder to find on search engines. It makes it impossible for someone to resize the font for readability. It can make access by disabled users difficult or impossible. In short, it can succeed at looking good and fail at being usable. A controlled experience is great in print, but it doesn’t translate well to the online world.

As I said, no disrespect to my print designer friends. But please, let my people go.

*I’m generalizing here, and I know it. I know there are a few designers out there savvy enough to design well for both print and online media. But, they are few and far between. So for the same reason you wouldn’t ask your kickass web designer to create a billboard for you, stop asking your kickass print designer to create your web site. A good print designer and a good web designer can — and should — work together under an overall creative direction and produce the best representation of that creative direction in their respective medium.

Coming off of AdTech SF and barreling into the Web 2.0 Expo, I keep hearing talk of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and every other 2.0 social network phenomenon imaginable. Many a glass is raised to toast the advent of social media marketing and the dawn of the conversation age, but when I log on to my Facebook account, I see this:

IS THIS WHAT WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR? A boring insurance ad that knows I am in the Bay Area and a random Discover ad rotating between gambling ads with no idea of who I am or what I want.

Perhaps the champagne should be corked long enough for us to realize the power of marketing in the age of Web 2.0 doesn’t lie in the technology. Rather, it lies in the ability to interact and to connect with each other like never before.

We bore and annoy the consumer by using technology as a crutch instead of a tool. This is the time to delve into the psychographics of a consumer on a grand scale and interact on a very personal level.

Copy and art direction can be as personable and creative as we allow. The corporate voice can give way to personality and an emotional connection between consumer and brand can finally take place.

We have the technology now to interact with the consumer. It’s up to us to make the conversation interesting.

This Friday, Minnesota Women in Marketing and Communications (MWMC) is holding their spring conference, 2008 Women at Work (W@W).

Past President of MIMA and founder of Brain Traffic, Kristina Halvorson, will be presenting, along with Nina Hale (Nina Hale Consulting) and Lori Baker (Evantage Consulting) on the Website Ring of Fire Panel.

MWMC is offering a “Friends of MIMA” discount for those who wish to attend the conference on Friday - $200 will get you in.

April 14, 2008

Several years ago when blogs were hitting the media scene more evidently than ever before, it was common for PR professionals (among others) to compare and contrast the role of “the journalist” and “the blogger.”

In heated discussions, industry pros stood their ground stating reasons of timeliness, credibility, reputation, ethics, objectivity and more. And let’s not forget “credentials.” Clearly, there was more black and white than the gray we see now.

The results of these conversations – whether taking place online or offline – resulted in good insight into the state of the blurring media so as PR strategists we could continually reinvent ourselves to be more valuable to our clients and media colleagues.

Thankfully, that debate exhausted and the discussions around news distribution, sources, influence and users’ trust have since inspired increased understanding and partnership between MSM seated in the newsroom and bloggers logging hours on the Web.

What’s interesting – after all this hoopla just a couple years ago – is how traditional journalists are increasingly joining the ranks of the millions of bloggers and citizen journalists – for personal or professional reasons.

Today, publishers and media organizations are encouraging – and even expecting – staffers/journalists to use the online medium to attract, keep and engage readers from all walks of life. As newspaper and TV outlets shift staffing and find ways to stay competitive, blogging is becoming a journalist’s responsibility – a requirement.

The recently-published 2008 PR Week / PRNewswire Media Survey brings this state of transition to light. In fact, when reporters were asked if they contribute to other mediums outside of their “official duty,” 55.8 percent responded yes. And when asked what has affected their jobs the most over the past few years, 38.2 percent answered that they are expected to contribute more to their title’s online version.

Dave Armon, COO of PR Newswire, explains that those stats offer an upside to brands looking to tell a story:

“[The survey shows] that reporters [are] obviously writing a lot more for online, as well as for the traditional outlets. For a PR person, it [is] very encouraging; the possible hole [for reporters] to fill is much larger now. So story ideas that don’t make it into the [print] publication have a home not only on the online site, but possibly also on the reporter’s own blog. And that just makes for a much more vibrant 24-hour news environment for anyone in media relations.”

With fundamental changes in news reporting and a “vibrant 24-hour news environment” evolving every day, media- and public relations professionals are afforded more opportunities for highly-targeted brand awareness and engagement. However, because of these transitions, it’s more important than ever for brands to constantly re-evaluate their communication practices.

Let’s use the Target media policy shift as a local corporate example – it restructured its communications department earlier this year to increase the number of spokespeople available to the nontraditional media, including trade publications and blogs.

This move was more a reactive than proactive response to the changing media industry. Nonetheless, it reminds companies how close bloggers and journalists are to one another in their mutual ability to make a positive or negative impression on audiences. And as more journalists and reporters add ‘blogger’ to their resume, this policy move will bode well for Target and other companies following suit.

As such, the media state of transition not only creates its own set of challenges and opportunities for journalists, but also brands seeking the right editorial mix and most effective communications policies in a swiftly-moving, socially-dynamic online world.

Katharine (Kaboord) Mudra
Beehive PR

I’ll admit it. I’m bonkers for bunko. Johnny Bunko, that is, in the just-released paperback, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, “America’s first business book in the Japanese comic format known as manga — and the last career guide you’ll ever need.”

The book is written by bestselling author Daniel Pink, with art by Rob Ten Pas, who graduated right here in our backyard: at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

Johnny Bunko is stuck in a dull, demanding accounting job, running numbers, testing scenarios, and considering enrichment courses like ‘Best Practices for Operationalizing Your Managerial Headset,’ when he bleats — “I want to go into advertising or work in a big design or branding firm.”

Well, okay then, Johnny Bunko. Come join all of us here at MIMA.

Through Johnny Bunko, Pink is displaying his none-too-subtle right-brain leanings, which he expounded upon in his bestselling book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. In that book, Pink claimed we’ve moved out of the Information Age and into the Conceptual Age, where succeeding requires “the capacity to detect patterns and opportunities, to create artistic and emotional beauty, to craft a satisfying narrative, and to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new.”

Exactly what Pink’s done with The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: craft a satisfying, if a bit juvenile, narrative, while combining the seemingly unrelated ideas of manga and career advice.

(By the way, apologies to all you left-brained MIMA members. We value your expertise. Really, we do.)

Pink’s read-it-at-one-sitting book is packed with career wisdom that would be preachy were it not delivered by a Japanese comic book heroine, who is, according to the trailer on YouTube, “the most kick-ass career advisor you’ve ever seen.”

Here are the six lessons she teaches Johnny Bunko:

1. There is no plan
2. Forget about your weaknesses
3. Persistence trumps talent
4. It’s not about you
5. Make excellent mistakes
6. Leave an imprint

Pink offers wonderful, quotable advice on each of these lessons, such as “the world is littered with talented people who didn’t persist (lesson 3), “you’re here to serve, not self-actualize” (lesson number 4) and “the most successful people make spectacular mistakes” (lesson number 5).

No stranger to marketing, Pink has also created a new word to accompany his book, “bunko” (not to be confused with bunco, the parlor game), cleverly working it into the story line by having Johnny look in the dictionary to find the verb form of his name, between the nouns bunionectomy and buns. (I warned you there was grade-school humor.)

bun-ko — (v) to make a mistake from which the benefits of what you’ve learned exceed the costs of the screw-up.

I predict it won’t be long before this verb appears in Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary.

The book’s trailer has some nice tight scriptwriting, including this enigmatic tagline: “explode your mind, embrace your chopsticks.” Read the book and it will all make sense.

Matter of fact, in the time it took you to read this post (and I thank you for that), you could already be through two chapters of The Adventures of Johny Bunko.

(Hat tip to Marci Alboher: Career Advice for the Short Attention Span.)

Today I spammed everyone on my AIM contact list with an invitation to join Facebook. I was searching for co-workers on the social network, trying to understand the more useful apps and plugins available to the average user, when I inadvertently clicked yes and authorized Facebook to contact everyone on my buddy list. I was distracted. I was multitasking. I was not as careful as I should have been. And, with one click, I was totally humiliated. My heart stopped for what seemed like an entire minute while I prayed for a confirmation screen that never came. I had misread a question, given my permission, and there was no going back. I just sat there and wondered how I’d explain to my colleagues, friends, peers, and, of course, the random total strangers I’d added to my list along the way, that I was a complete idiot who’d let Facebook hijack my buddy list to solicit memberships. I was one more unsuspecting pawn in the Facebook battle for world domination.

There is value in centralizing data. So many of us are out devouring and contributing to content-rich websites and social networks, connecting with long-lost friends, classmates, colleagues. We’re finally in a position to leverage ‘who we know’. Because, what have we always heard? It’s not what you know, but who. And the who has never been more accessible. We’re separated by miles and years and jobs, but we’re just a click away thanks to networks like Facebook and MySpace and LinkedIn. There are new social and professional network sites trying to get in on the action every day. Today alone I had two colleagues try to get me to join Plaxo Pulse. I couldn’t help but wonder if they even knew they’d asked me to join. Recently a friend’s contact list had been hijacked by Spock (I refuse to link to this evil entity) to invite 2500 of his closest friends to join him there. I felt better about my 125 AIM messages when I compared it to 2500. But the sting was still there.

As more and more of these networks fight for our information, who’s going to prove the front runner? Clearly he (or she) who owns the most data wins. And Facebook’s shift from social network to ‘platform’ seems to suggest they believe they can connect all of this decentralized data floating around on the web and make it accessible via their single, simple, interface. So while the data might be scattered amongst iTunes, flickr, Amazon, AIM and other lesser known entities, a series of simple web applications can integrate all of it into the Facebook platform. What’s more, Facebook turns it around and provides an aggregate snapshot of your contacts’ data. It’s really a win-win. Or is it?

Recently Facebook has taken some heat for invasive marketing tactics via it’s Beacon system. Beacon takes data from external websites and makes it available to your contact list with the intention of promoting product through passive endorsements. If you bought something on Amazon, and you’re my friend, the thinking is I might be interested in that product as well. Because you, my friend, are just so darn influential in my life. The problem with this theory is you might be my friend, but I might not want you to know I just bought zit cream from my favorite zit cream website. Its an invasion of privacy and Facebook is still working that one out. Beyond that though, Facebook is starting to look like the Borg. Resistance is clearly futile. If you want to be in touch with anyone in this 21st century the easiest and most practical way to do it is through the web/Facebook, and peer pressure is unavoidable. Come on, everybody’s doing it. There’s a suggestion of youthful trendiness that we all fall victim to. Once you make the leap, though, you’ve sold your soul to the internet’s equivalent of the devil. Because once you create that profile, there’s (allegedly) no getting that data back. You can’t quit Facebook. Not really, anyway.

What does it all mean? To those of us working in technology? And those of us consuming it? These are tough questions to answer. But it seems clear that one of the most valuable assets of our time is our data. Our information. Yet, in spite of that reality, our data is clouded by a mix of fear (identity theft) and ignorance (my dog’s name is my password!).

What’s our responsibility as creators of content, and websites and systems and as participants of networks? What is our contribution? How can we influence how all of this unfolds? I believe that how we interact with, and collect data from users, needs to reflect truth and authenticity. Sure, we publish privacy statements and terms of use policies. We won’t store data or we won’t sell it or give it away or use it without permission. But it’s more than that. We need to help users understand what it is they’re providing and how easy it is to exploit. We need to give them an opportunity to change their minds, or confirm their understanding of an interaction. In my case for instance, a simple ‘confirmation’ page would have saved me the embarrassment of having to apologize to 125 friends and colleagues for that unwanted IM spam. Facebook knew exactly what it was doing when it required only a single click to access my list. I think it’s a cheap tactic in the race for the most data. The downside is, I’m no longer as enthusiastic about the value of Facebook as a networking tool. I see it as suspect now. The upside is I’ll be more careful when I use little web apps like that.

But our standards for collecting this data aren’t set in stone. We’ve only just begun, so what more can we do to extend real value for the user, and tap into the thing that’s most valuable to our clients? We can consider a user’s understanding of their valuable points of data as part of our commitment to simple, usable web experiences. We should see how we collect data as part of usability. We should only collect what is absolutely critical to the experience and we should make certain the user understands the cost of sharing their data and the return on their investment of trust. Finally, we need to keep our promises. Sharing data should have some reward for the user, in terms of access to content, or connections or something of value. We should treat our user’s data as sacred. If we expect to foster a long-term customer relationship, we need to respect what we know about a user and what we continue to discover. It’s common sense, really. Any of us, even presumed ‘experts’ can fall victim to guerilla data collection tactics. It’s embarrassing. It’s painful. It’s avoidable. The difference, though, is we have the ability to influence change. We have the option of applying some code of conduct to how websites interact with users. We’re not done. We’ve only just begun. Facebook doesn’t get to decide. We do.

After a weekend of music at South by Southwest, one would think Bill Leake may be a little off his game. Good thing for us, he wasn’t.

By 8am the main ballroom at The Depot was pretty full, which was a little surprising to me considering a lot of us are not morning people. I guess this whole Search and Web Analytics thing is finally catching on.  I mean, can you really have successful search (or any online marketing) campaign running without any sort of Web Analytics tied to it? From what Bill said, you really can’t.

The presentation started out with an outline of the basics and some general fundamentals to follow. At this point, I was really just nodding my head in agreement and happy that I’m on the right track with my own thought process. I also noticed a lot of the same thing going on throughout the ballroom. According to Bill, what it comes down to is this; we all know that it’s great to track our campaigns, but do we understand what we’re tracking and what our objective is? That objective is probably the most important aspect of tracking any campaign. Before we even start posting code all over our sites, we need to ask ourselves one simple question. Do we know what we need to get out of this?

Bill made a comment as he was rolling into the topic of testing and tracking that I liked enough to write down. “Measure twice, cut once”. We all know that any campaign should be tested before rolling out, but if you’re not tracking it then what’s the point? He talked about how you can, and should, try anything but you have to track it in order to understand the results. Gone are the days of throwing up some cool creative or a crazy offer out there and seeing what sticks. Agreed.

We all like case studies right? I mean, if someone else can do it, that means we can too. During the morning session, we heard about a B2B client who was spending $110K/month on their PPC campaign, which doesn’t seem too horrible to me. They were finally convinced to optimize their search campaign to find out which keywords were actually converting to sales. What a concept! In doing this, they dropped their overall monthly spend by 40%. Wouldn’t we all like to make our budgets drop by 40% and see more efficient results?

What it all really comes down to is that a lot of us are great with the creative, but not so great with the numbers. The excuses are endless… “Our technology can’t handle it”, “We don’t understand how to use the tool”, “It’s too expensive to set up”, yada, yada, yada. The point that Bill was trying to make, and that I hope we all understand now, is that we have to do the dirty work to get to the good work.

All in all, the session was definitely insightful and Bill kept me awake and at full attention for the 45 minutes he spoke. By the end of the presentation, I wasn’t just nodding my head in agreement; I was saying to myself “that’s a great idea”. I did write down one more quote that I thought was pretty funny with regard to testing. To quote Bill, we should all “put the frog in cold water and turn up the burner instead of throwing the frog directly in the warm water”.

Make sure you download the deck and the podcast when you get a chance.

We all know the power of viral marketing.  But the question is, how do you create a campaign that truly connects and engages your audience and encourages them to pass along your message voluntarily?

As a frequent traveler and lover of deals, I am a regular subscriber to Travelzoo’s Top 20 weekly emails.  For those of you that are not familiar with the site, Travelzoo is a website that evaluates and publishes travel deals for hundreds of leading travel companies.  For a traveler on a limited budget like me, it’s a great resource.

The reason for writing this post is that I recently received an email from Travelzoo that promoted their “Win the entire top 20” sweepstakes, which in my opinion is a great example of a campaign that engages subscribers, encourages repeat visits, and most importantly, referrals to friends.  How did they do this, you ask?  They’ve created a micro-site complete with a “clear the clouds” board game, trivia questions and the ability to post links/banners to the promotional site on social media sites that allow subscribers to earn more entries into the sweepstakes.  If you have the time take a look - but be careful it’s addictive.

I think that this promotion is a pretty compelling offer to begin with, but with the addition of these engagement tools, it’s much more powerful.  You can bet I’ll be paying repeat visits to this site and as this post proves, spreading the message amongst my peers!
I’m curious if anyone else is developing campaigns like this to build internal lists or lead databases – what is your strategy? What has worked for you and what hasn’t?

Matt Dickman is already disappointed in me. You see, it took me way too much time to post this blog entry.

He himself would’ve had it on Twitter, 3jam and Pownce within minutes of leaving the Fine Line Music Cafe in Minneapolis last night.  That’s where he told MIMA members and MCAD students about “The Future of Advertising” and outlined the impact of social networking on mass communications. 

Of course, he wouldn’t have stopped with mere text. Matt Dickman would’ve uploaded photos, video clips and mini-podcasts, too. Then he would have checked any blog mentions through Radiant Six, or used his Google Alert to see where his name had popped up.

Matt is a veteran. He’s been blogging for four years. In fact, he used his Techno//Marketer blog to snag his current gig at Fleishman-Hillard in Cleveland, where he uses digital media for corporate public relations.

His talk wasn’t limited to social networking. He talked about advertising (which is changing).  And traditional interactive (which should be changing). And public relations, too.

Unlike those who worship the latest “bright shiny things,” however, Matt Dickman is a firm — one could almost say traditional — believer in the importance of strategy. Analyze your product. Understand your goals.  Know your audience. It sounds almost like old-school advertising and public relations.

But maybe that’s Matt’s point. We still need big strategies. (A Facebook page is not a strategy.) But as new technologies gain more converts, we also need to keep pace. For our clients — and for our own jobs.

No way, you say.

Think again. Right here in our backyard, Target is asking agencies who might otherwise consider themselves competitors to collaborate. If you’re not cool with this, well then, maybe you better get with the program.

More and more agencies are being asked to set competitive agendas aside and work collaboratively on behalf of their common clients.

Over at MarketingProfs Daily Fix, I interviewed Lance Thornswood, Interactive Creative Director at Target, who speaks about his role managing multiple “best-in-class” agencies.

“I’ve yet to encounter any agency that can handle both the breadth and depth required across all our media types,” says Thornswood. “They either do many things reasonably well or one thing exceedingly well. By orchestrating the integration on the client side and demanding collaboration among our agencies, we get breadth by combining the deep expertise of the best agencies in each medium.” (Read the full interview here.)

Question for all you smart MIMA members:
Are you working side-by-side with competitors?
Is it working?

Please share.