Category: Musings

Online Sunshine

Posted on by Drew Neisser

It’s rainy cats and dogs here in NYC, a perfect day for a little casual web surfing. Frankly, its something I don’t do enough of and have found it thoroughly entertaining and enlightening.

My stops included about 20 different blogs including Noah’s sister’s (she’s blogging about blogs for her college thesis–oh those Briers!) and a Belgian site called BuzzingBee that posted a very funny Volkswagen ad that features a singing dog. Adverblog encouraged a visit to this “hearing test” from the Norwegian Red Cross, one of the cleverest appeals I’ve seen in a long time. They manage to get their message across in an entirely unexpected way–wonder if anyone will find it annoying–I can’t say more without ruining the experience for you.

Speaking of Brier’s, Noah’s recent post on the new Modernista site is going to get a lot of agency heads thinking about their more conventional “who we are & what we do” sites. This one certainly shows they understand the Web 2.0 world. I just wonder if any prospective clients will find what they’re looking for–after about 5 minutes of trying, I couldn’t find one example of their work. Of course, this could be irrelevant since the cool factor probably tells the whole story. (20 minutes later) Realizing I probably overlooked something, I went back and found more navigational options in the upper left hand corner. There I located their mission statement, which I absolutely love:

We believe brands are like people. They have hopes. Dreams. Personalities. Insecurities. But ultimately, brands want love, happiness and a long life just like the rest of us.

And, not surprisingly, they develop relationships just like we do. In our experience, people fall in love with brands that know who they are, that have a clear point of view and aren’t afraid to express themselves.

Our most fulfilling relationships are with ambitious brands who are enthusiastic and optimistic about the world they live in. Our mission is to make these brands matter.

From there, I found myself on Laura Ries’ blog reading her thorough commentary on the Starbucks’ closing and her article called “By the numbers or by the brand.” Looking for a way to comment on her story, I ended up joining Newsvine and posted an extensive comment which begs the question, if a comment is posted in the blogosphere and no one is there to read it does that comment really exist? Gotta go walk the dog while you contemplate that one…

Cai Guo-Qiang at the Guggenheim

Posted on by Drew Neisser

If you go to one museum between now and May 28th, make sure it is the Guggenheim. Chinese artist Cai Guo-Quiang’s exhibit called I Want To Believe is nothing short of mind blowing. The reviews have been universally strong and far more detailed than anything I can offer:

  • Newsday: If it weren’t so massive, the arrangement of nine full-sized automobiles hung from the top of the Guggenheim’s spiral, might look like a mobile dangling
  • NewYorker: Cai Guo-Qiang, the Chinese installation and pyrotechnic artist, recently told me that as a child he had a recurrent
  • New York Times: Cars and Gunpowder and Plenty of Noise – New York Times The Guggenheim Museum’s retrospective of the work of the Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang is nothing if not action packed. The galleries are so rife with the

The guy paints with gun powder. He suspends hurling wolves, exploding cars and arrow-riddled ships. You gotta see it to believe it. And for you Olympic fans, Cai Guo-Qiang is responsible for the pyrotechnics at the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Games (August 8-25, 2008).

The Viral Vote

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Four years ago I called the 2004 Presidential campaign the first “internet” election (see archived article here.) Things have progressed a bit since then and now campaigners are working hard to see who can get “the viral vote” by unleashing the most contagious, the most shared, the most viewed online content.

In the last week, I’ve received several emails encouraging me to check out various videos for Obama and for Hillary. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given my party affiliation that the McCain camp has left me alone (we’ll see if that continues after the conventions). I already wrote about the massive success of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video. On Friday I received an interesting request from a strong Hillary supporter (and good friend) to not only check out a website but also pass it on to friends in specific states (“especially to Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wyoming and Mississippi”).

Since video views on YouTube appears to be a new measure of campaign momentum (and Barack appears to be winning this popularity contest hands down), my friend’s email also included a link to a YouTube site. Unfortunately for the Clinton campaign, she appears to be losing the viral vote. A quick review of various pro-Hillary videos on YouTube suggests that her most watched segment has only garnered 160,000+ views. Compare that to the over 5 million of Obama’s “Yes We Can” music video on YouTube and another 6 million or so on DipDive.com it is easy to see who’s got the “big mo” with the viral vote.

Since comedy also plays a part with the viral vote (remember “this land is your land”), I also wanted to share a bit of light satire that compares Barack and Hillary. Clearly, the creators of this are fans of the former as continuous clicking on the solitary headlines reveals lines like “Barack Obama subscribed to your feed” and “Barack Obama built you a robot.” The complementary but not complimentary Hillary site offers up such lines as “Hillary knows all the words to all Celine Dion songs” and inside jokes like “Hillary voted for Sanjaya,” a reference to a not so gifted American Idol contestant. Don’t forget to click on the headlines to see a broad set and to seek out your pop-culture maven if you don’t understand a particular reference (my son caught one of the references to a Lost, the TV show, character).

I’m sure you’ve seen other examples of the viral vote in action. Keep ’em coming.

UPDATE 2/28/07 from MEDIAWEEK:

As crunch time approaches in the Texasand Ohio primaries, Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama has
launched an aggressive local Web campaign and first major Web effort by a presidential candidate to incorporate video. Mediaweek’s Mike Shields and Katy Bachman have the story.

For more details, and for breaking news throughout the day, go to http://www.elabs2.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=cc4,17l8,21,m887,kn0v,646q,7zwm

Inspiration from Perspiration

Posted on by Drew Neisser

I was reminded this morning why I like to start the day reading the Sports pages–there always seems to be a story that is inspirational, of individuals overcoming impossible odds to achieve their goals. Here are two of them from today’s New York Times:

The first story is about a Chinese table tennis player who is now pursuing her Olympic dream as an American with the help of a Holocaust survivor who happens to own a table tennis club in Manhattan. Having been selected for the sport by the Chinese system at the age of 3, Wang Chen narrowly missed playing table tennis for the Chinese team in the Atlanta and Australian Olympics. Frustrated by the experience she emigrated to the US in 1999 and all but gave up the sport. That’s where Jerry Wartski comes in–he convinced Chen to teach at his club and ultimately renamed it in her honor. Now 34, Chen is taking one more shot at the Olympic Games, ironically in her native country, but will be doing so in tremendous pain. Get this, when she is competing, she needs three back rubs a day just to be able to stand up straight. Amazingly, at 5′ 10″ she’s too tall for the sport and the strain on her back is extraordinary. Despite the back pain, she was one of only two non-Chinese citizens to reach the quarter finals of last year’s world championship. This automatically qualified her for the Beijing games at which she’ll be representing an under dog American team.

The other story was about high school basketball star from Brooklyn named Erving Walker. Walker, who is a puny 5′ 8″, plays like a giant, recently scoring 28 points including five three pointers in the final minutes of the game. A clutch shooter from just about anywhere, this teeny tiny teen is going to the University of Florida on a full scholarship after having been recruited by several D1 schools. I love this story. This veritable gnome is simply out-dribbling, out-hustling and out-shooting the big guys every where he goes.

The metaphorical opportunities abound here folks–whatever business obstacles you see on your horizon, think of Chen beating the pants off her younger rivals while fighting off near-paralyzing back pain AND Erving zooming past the lumbering giants, too busy being successful to worry about all the reasons he shouldn’t be.

Bad Sports
Now clearly I’m not referring to the scandalous saga of Bill Belichick and his sign stealing video cameras. Patriot fans must be wishing there was a magical delete button for this one–no such luck guys, despite the NFL HQ’s efforts to erase the past (and the tapes), this one will remain big box office until justice is served.

Is Obama a cult marketer?

Posted on by Drew Neisser

A reporter asked me the other day my thoughts on the Obama campaign and if it was a viral success story. Here’s what I said:

The Obama campaign is an unquestionable viral success and has all the makings of a cult. Obama’s “yes we can” music video has been an enormous success on YouTube with over 10 million views in under one month. That same video is running on a site called DipDive.com, which in less than three weeks has attracted over 6 million visitors. DipDive is ranked by Alexa in the top 7000 sites for US-based traffic [which is amazing given its short existence.] This is viral marketing at its best. By the way, my 17-year old daughter was the first in my household to see the video and she then shared it with the rest of our family. She had heard about it from one of her friends who linked to it from her Facebook page. And so it goes.

Obama has struck an emotional chord with millions of Americans. Not since JFK, has the word “charisma” been so often associated with a presidential candidate. People who know him speak highly off him. I was at lunch with a business associate in New York who had a good friend who knew him from Chicago. That friend heaped praise on him, sufficiently so that my friend in New York was prepared to support him even though she really had no idea what he had done or what he hoped to do. It is almost to the point of blind faith. And that’s what a cult is all about. Many want to follow a leader with a grand promise who exudes confidence. That’s Obama. He makes himself very easy to like. He makes it exciting to be excited about a candidate. My daughter, who turns 18 in August, will be voting for the first time this November and is simply thrilled at the prospect of casting her vote for such an exciting candidate.

The Next Level, Please

Posted on by Drew Neisser

If another client says “we need to take this to the next level” I’m going to shoot myself. The bottom line is that at the end of the day even if I go the extra mile I can’t for the life of me level set the conversation to ground zero let alone from 30,000 feet. Perhaps as an industry we need to circle the wagons and prioritize the tried and true, getting back to basics while pushing the envelop. Admittedly this a bit of goat rodeo but if we rally the troops and think outside box we can find the tipping point where content will again be king. I’m certainly prepared to belly up to the bar and do my share without fixing what ain’t broke. I hope we are on the same page here in saying that a little well-placed blocking and tackling will hit the nail on the head and we can all get down to business. Of course, the business at hand is a bit like herding cats requiring your best minds to collaborate synergistically rather than operating in a vacuum.

Dare I suggest that you make it your business to gather around the campfire at the ANA/BtoB Magazine conference called “Taking B-to-B Marketing to the Next Level.” I kid you not. They tell me if you order now you will also get more cliches than you can shake a stick at.