The Kmiec Ramblings

You just have to love this.

I was going through my photos today in Picasa and this one made me smile.  It’s from day 240.  The Burberry sweater was a gift from my friends and colleagues at ePrize.  They did a great job picking out something that would make an impression.  We loved the photo so much we blew it up to poster size and hung it in the house for eveyone to see.

Abbey Road is my favorite Beatles album.  There isn’t one bad sung on the disc.  I stumbled across this great image the other day.  It’s a Legos version of the Abbey Road album cover.  Very cool.  Made me smile.

As marketers we have so much to be thankful for.  There are so many tools out there that make our lives easier.  I’ve been in the interactive space since before the dot-com boom and I can tell you that it’s so much easier today to do my job.  There was a time, around 1997, when someone would ask for a website and we’d counter with a request for a $1,000,000.  This wasn’t a case of over-charging; we just didn’t know any better.  Unlike TV, Print, and Direct we didn’t have the benefit of years of historical data/projects to rely on.  Things were so new.

Fast forward to today.  It’s such a different world.  We have the benefit of 10 -  15 years of history to rely on. We can look at and learn from all the mistakes and successes.  Ok, well with all these great tools and all this experience to rely on, why are websites still so expensive?  Don’t get me wrong, some websites are just so fundamentally complex that they require a significant investment to execute.  For example ElfYourself, Nike.com, and TheBar.com.  These are sites that break the mold and are focused on providing a rich immersive experience.  But, the number of sites that need to do that are few and far between (when you consider the millions of sites on the web).

In my opinion you can boil every site on the web down to the following 3 categories:

• Search: These sites help you find things.  Google, YellowBook, and Facebook are great examples.
• Commerce: These sites are focused on transactions.  Amazon, eBay, and Buy are great examples.
• Content: These are sites primarily focused on providing information.  ESPN, WikiPedia, and the NY Times would be found in this category.

At the core building any of these types of sites is relatively easy.  It’s when we add on the “experience” layer that the costs escalate.  Amazon’s Window Shop site is a great example of providing an entertainment experience on top of a commerce site.

I see there being a true 80/20 rule in web site development.  80% of sites don’t need the experience layer and if you were to take an inventory of all the web sites on the internet you’d find that 80% (or more) fall into those 3 categories.  It’s that 80% I’m focused on in this post.  Ok, I’ve preached long enough, you deserve the “goods.”  So here you go.

Research
This is one area where significant progress has been made over the last 15 years.  It seems like every day there’s a new tool or site focused on making you smarter.  This is just a list of my favorites.

• Quantcast
• Compete
• Alexa
• Google Insights
• Google Trends
• Vitrue
• How Sociable
• Twitter Search

With all the information you can glean from the above tools, you’ll have a great idea about who people are on the web, what they’re doing, and to some degree what they’re seeing.

Analytics
The backbone of your site is going to be the metrics.  Without them you’ll never know if you’re making progress or meeting objectives.  You also won’t be able to tell how many people are visiting, who they are, and what they are doing on the site.  There’s a litany of web analytics offerings.  Some cost $1,000s of dollars and require “software” to be installed, which of course means you’ll be involving IT.  Did you just shudder when you read that?  Yeah, me too.  Here’s a list of FREE web analytics options.

• Google Analytics
• Quantcast
• AW Stats
• Webalizer
• W3Perl
• Piwik

My personal cocktail is one part Google Analytics and one part Quantcast.  With those two you get all the information you need to be successful.

Content Management
Great, you’ve the got the analytics sorted out, but now you need to start thinking about managing all the content you’re going to have on the site.  Lucky for you, there’s a bunch of options.

• Google Sites
• Wordpress
• Expression Engine
• Plone
• Slash
• Drupal
• Joomla

I personally like Wordpress for sites that are going to be primarily text and image driven.  This site is built on Wordpress.  The Wordpress community is enormous, allowing you to benefit tremendously from the innovation of others.  Wordpress also has a library of design themes to pick from; all are customizable to your liking.

Site Design
Let be clear, there really is no substitute for designing your site with the help of people that understand your brand’s DNA.  This is one of the major reasons agencies are leveraged.  From the art director to the designer, you’ll have a team of people to think about your brand and come up with the right blend of design and experience for your needs.

Ok with that out of the way, there are ways to design your site on the cheap.  If you didn’t want to use a CMS that leveraged themes, like WordPress you’re going to need a design for your site.  Honestly, there isn’t a better option than Template Monster.  From less than $100 to several $1000, you’ll have a variety of creative options to pick from.

Misc. Features
There are things you’re going to need/want beyond the research, measurement, CMS, and site design.  Here’s a list of common site content add-ons that are all free or damn close to it.

• YouTube - Video Hosting
• Blogger, TypePad, and Wordpress - Blog Engine
• PBWiki - Wiki Content Enabling
• Yuku and Pro Boards - Message/Bulletin Boards
• Ning - Create Your Own Social Network
• Flickr and Picasa - Photo Hosting and Streaming
• Free CRM and Sales Force - Customer Relationship Management/eMail List and Distribution
• Mofuse - Develop Mobile Version of Your Site

I hope this helped.  You can be smarter, you don’t need to outspend, you can out think.  If you have things you think are worth adding to the list, please let me know.

SPECIAL NOTE: I don’t normally use the term Web 2.0.  I find it silly, unnecessary, unsophisticated, and irresponsible.  However, given that so many people have helped make it common day language, I thought it appropriate to include the terms in the title since many of my recommended solutions fall within the “web 2.0″ umbrella.

It’s about just over a week since Motrin-gate. Yes, it’s officially a “gate.” The dust has settled and here’s where we’re at.

Motrin issued an apology; I’m not surprised. The full text of the apology is:

Nov 20th

So…it’s been almost 4 days since I apologized here for our Motrin advertising. What an unbelievable 4 days it’s been. Believe me when I say we’ve been taking our own headache medicine here lately!
Btw - if you’re confused by this - we removed our Motrin ad campaign from the marketplace on Sunday because we realized through your feedback that we had missed the mark and insulted many moms. We didn’t mean to…but we did. We’ve been able to get most of the ads out of circulation, but those in magazines will, unfortunately, be out there for a while.

We are listening to you, and we know that’s the best place to start as we move ahead. More to come on that.

In the end, we have been reminded of age-old lessons that are tried and true:

When you make a mistake - own up to it, and say you’re sorry.

Learn from that mistake.

That’s all… for now.

Sincerely,

Kathy Widmer
VP Marketing
McNeil Consumer Healthcare

The next thing to come will undoubtedly be an official mommy council/panel.

AdAge does a great job of chronicling the situation here.  The article will of course be taken shortly, so I’ll give you the best bits here.

Meanwhile, even some mommy bloggers saw signs the whole episode had hurt their community more than helped it. “Right or wrong, the rest of the web is now rolling its eyes, again, at our community,” Erin Kotecki Vest said on Nov. 17 at QueenofSpainBlog.com. “I’ll be honest, they are right. What happened this weekend went from smart, powerful activism to Palin-rally lynch mob.”

“We listened extensively to moms, the insights about their lives, and how their pain impacts them,” Ms. Presnal said, reading from Ms. Widmer’s e-mail. She continued from the e-mail: “I think where this went wrong was the creative expression we used. … The tone was intended to be real and lighthearted, but it came off as irreverent. … We did conduct focus groups with moms. But truthfully they probably weren’t extensive enough to uncover this.”

In fact, most online buzz about Motrin-gate was either positive or neutral in tone toward J&J and the ads, according to analyses by Tom Martin, president of Zehnder Communications, New Orleans, and Lexalytics.

Meanwhile, the core group behind the Twitter storm numbered in the low four figures. A Google search on Monday indicated around 4,000 tweets on Twitter, and analyses by Mr. Martin using Radian6 data and by Lexalytics suggested around 1,500 tweets involving around 1,000 individuals using the #motrinmoms hash tag.

Can you believe the insanity of this situation? Can you believe the power the internet and social media has?

There are several key takeaways for me.

1. You can’t please everyone.  There will be critics of the work you do and they are often the people who scream the loudest.
2. Have a disaster plan ready to launch should the need arise.
3. Keep site of the big picture; was yanking all the work and incurring the expenses to do so really worth it to appease a sliver of a fraction of your audience?  I can’t answer that one for Motrin; only they know the answer.
4. Every company should have someone (internal or external) who is responsible for all things social media.  If Ford can do it, so can everyone else.

This was a classic tempest in a teacup situation that 5 years ago we’d have never known about. However, we operate in a different world right now. With internet penetration in the U.S. above 90% of all households, nearly everyone is connected. The web provides a mechanism for things to accelerate quickly. In general I believe we need to be actively listening, monitoring, and communicating. I think Motrin did a great job of doing the listening and the communicating, but did a poor job at the monitoring. Had they monitored better they might have been able to temper the situation. The key word is “might.” Personally, I think that when people have an axe to grind, their going to grind that axe into the ground.

The one thing I do hope is that marketers don’t look upon this situation as a reason not to invest in social media. This was only 1 example of social media that backfired. There are so many GREAT examples of companies that have successfully invested in social media. Your company could be next.

Where The Suckers Moon should be at the top of your list if you work in marketing and advertising.  This quote is so remarkably appropriate given the troubles plaguing the U.S. auto industry.

Subaru of America had learned the lesson of advertising. Advertising did not work by entertaining or assaulting the intellect of its audience, as the company’s previous agencies had believed. Nor did it work through subliminal manipulation, as so many Americans, ever on the lookout for conspiracies, misguidedly thought. Instead, advertising, as the great ad man Bruce Barton had acknowledged decades before, was “something big, something splendid, something which goes deep down into an institution and gets hold of the soul of it.” To succeed, advertising cannot seek to invent a new soul. Instead, it must reinforce and redirect the existing image. It must serve as a form of mythology, providing the corporation’s various and often competing constituencies - of which consumers are only one of many - heroes, villains, principles, rules of conduct and stories with which they can rally the faithful to remain true to the cause. Only then, with luck and effort, can they win new converts.

It’s been one crazy week that really hasn’t left a lot of time for blogging.  That’s the awesome thing about twitter.  I can stay connected with bleeding edge, soak up the knowledge, and share some thoughts.  I’ve been collecting links all week that I thought were worth checking out.  Enjoy.

• A man tried to pay an overdue bill with a drawing of a spider.  Yes, I’m serious.  That drawing eventually sold for $10,000 on eBay.
• Yahoo has finally brought “Glue” to the United States.  Glue, offers up a new way to see search results.  This is a great write-up on why Glue was created and what it can offer.
• Apple released version 2.2 of their iPhone software.  It’s supposed to address stability and battery life.  My favorite feature of the software is that Google Maps now let’s you customize your directions based on how you’ll be traveling: car, bus, or walking.
• Google launched Search Wiki.  It let’s you customize your Google Web Search results. You can rank, remove and add notes to any result page and see those tailored results anytime you do that search while you’re logged in to your Google Account. This video does a fantastic job of explaining the tool.
• McDonald’s, naked pictures, and a lawsuit.  Need I say more.  Click here.
• Shaq is on twitter.  Yes, I mean it.
• Great tweet from Barry Judge the CMO of Best Buy.
• Further proof that IT organizations at company’s are considered painful, non-efficient, and difficult.
• Malcolm Gladwell asks the question, is there such a thing as pure genius?
• Neat tool, called Vitrue, for measuring the social media footprint of brands.  It has potential.  Another options is this tool.
• The new Pepsi logo/packaging is in market.
• Great blog post that explains the genius behind Alltop.
• American Airlines is offering paperless check-in.  Now how about not charging me for bags.
• I heart you Seth Godin for this post.  I won’t spoil it; just read it.
• YouTube broadcasted live this week.  Very cool and different.  Makes me warm and tingly.
• Talking about attacking red headed people is a hate crime in Canada; even when it’s done on Facebook.
• These speakers are absolutely beautiful.  I want them.

I haven’t been this fired up in weeks.  There’s a little shit storm brewing online (it’ll spew over into the offline world this week) because of this Motrin ad that appeared on the new Motrin web site:

To keep this simple, so that I don’t waste any more time than needed on a silly subject, the following happened:

• Motrin posted the above ad on their site
• Jessica (correct on 11/17) Gottlieb, who’s twitter profile states she’s “Easily outraged, often wrong, seldom apologetic” was asked to check out the new Motrin.com, which features the ad
• She, as you might imagine, was offended and decided to take some action via twitter
• People following her on twitter, like a lynch mob, grabbed their virtual pitchforks and demanded retribution; these moms got royally buggered by the ad (for the record my wife and mother of our child didn’t)
• They were buggered because they believe that slings are not an in-vogue fashion accessory

Yes, I’m serious…no really I am.

All the “experts” and “thought leaders” have started weighing in.

• David Armano
• Sarah Evans
• Peter Shankman
• And many others in the twitter-sphere.

Motrin capitulated, took their site down,and apologized to the 1% of moms (estimating here) that were buggered.  You can engaged with Motrin directly, via twitter, if you want to ad in your $0.02.

OK, so those are the facts, albeit with a little bit of ‘tude in the there.  This is so completely ridiculous.  As a dad, marketer,and interactive “thought leader” (I’m quoting someone here) I’m appalled, saddened, frightened, vindicated, and excited.  Let me address them one-by-one.

• Appalled: People have already started speculating on who will get fired.  Will it be the brand manager?  The CMO?  The agency?  It’s disgusting.  People always want to point a finger and look for someone to blame.  How about instead of trying to get people fired, we look for ways to constructively communicate with Motrin?  They’re on twitter?  It’s not like you can’t talk with them.
• Saddened: Motrin’s good intentions have gone to waste.  The 1% of hyper-connected opinion makers have potentially killed an ad that might connect really well for the other 99% of people in their target.  Surely, they tested the ad with ASI-IPSOS or a similar format.  Clearly it tested well.  If it didn’t you can bet no CMO worth their 18-month average tenure would have signed off on it.
• Frightened: When things like this happen, it makes it 1,000s of times tougher for agencies to convince brands that they need to take chances, try to connect with their base/community, open up a dialogue, and the obligatory leverage social media/web 2.0.  I’ll bet you there were no less than a dozen projects killed this morning in light of this blow up.
• Vindicated: This certainly proves the power of the web and social media.  It proves that twitter can be a tremendous force.  For all the people, brands, and clients that sometimes thought it was all rhetoric, well here’s your proof. Unfortunately, it proves the concept, but doesn’t make clients feel any more comfortable about investing in this area.
• Excited: I don’t want to share too much just yet.  However, this whole situation really supports the POV I wrote for The Project 100.  We all have a role to play in the community.  We all have a voice.  What we decide to do with that voice will ultimately determine how company’s choose to invest in the future.  When things like this happen because of how we used our voice, it makes companies less willing to create tools like Nike+.  After all, why take on the risk?  No sense it creating a conversation, is there?

Ads are designed to connect with the majority.  They are designed to connect with a certain target.  No one expects them to connect with every single person.  We’d love them to, but it never happens.  When they don’t connect, no one is more disappointed than then brand, because it affects their bottom line directly.  But, we, as a community NEED ads.

Do you realize that if companies stopped spending money on ads we wouldn’t have TV shows to watch, radio stations to listen to, websites to visit, or magazines to read.  Sure, there might be a few that exist because they’re government or publicly funded through donations.  But, for the most part you’d be left with little to no programming.  Yes, that’s an extreme point of view and one not likely to happen in the near future.  However, I think it puts a nice little exclamation point on my perspective.

I love the passion of these people that so ticked with Motrin.  I’d love to see it used to drive real change on real problems, like:

• Battered/abused women
• Healthcare coverage
• Newborn screening
• More maternity and paternity time off

The point of my post today is: remember that while you have a voice, you need to use it responsibly.  It’s really no different than having free speech, but then electing to yell out fire in a movie theater, when one doesn’t exist  It’s not only irresponsible, it’s illegal.

Awesome article from Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO, on how companies can truly innovate…and why innovation is the lifeblood to your company’s success.

My Favorite Part

The biggest barrier (to innovation) is needing to know the answer before you get started. This often manifests itself as a desire to have proof that your idea is worthwhile before you actually start the project: “show me the business proof that this is going to be a good idea.” You can understand this, of course, because it’s an attempt to mitigate risk. But wanting to know whether you’ve got the right idea—or the assumption that you’ve got to have a business case—before beginning to explore something kills a lot of innovation.

In other words, stop trying to measure the idea, while it’s still being baked…have a little bit of trust in the people you’ve hired or are working with.

I really hope this is from a real submission.  This person captured the very essence of how I feel about people that think video games are to blame for peoples’ actions.