In a classroom in Japan, a young boy struggles to correctly draw a cube on the paper in front of him. While the other students had successfully rendered their cubes, his was cockeyed and the least resemblant of the teacher’s example. Noticing this, the teacher did what would be considered a rare occurrence in a similar setting on Western soil.
In the wake of one of the most important presidential elections in history, many are left wondering, “How did a race that was declared a dead heat end up in a landslide win for the incumbent on election day despite the fact that many predicted the exact opposite?”
When we began concepting the Pinning Parlor in early 2012 we didn’t have any context as to what would be considered a successful Pinterest promotion. 10 pins? 100 repins? One Billion pins served? All we knew was that we were starting at zero.
The first transatlantic cable was made from over 300,000 miles of copper and iron wire. Once in place, the cable made it possible to use electrical impulses to send any message imaginable to the other side of the world. And, messages that once took 10 days to pass between North America and Europe could now be transmitted in mere minutes.
Human beings are hard-wired with a deeply motivating impulse to connect and communicate with other human beings. And our desire to know that we’ve been heard is just as motivating.
A friend asked me today if there was any information out there that illustrates how to best use social media. I thought about it for a minute and realized…no…there isn’t.
There is, however, a veritable plethora of examples of how people have used social media effectively. And they’re as close as your nearest search engine.
The more time I spend honing my culinary skills, the more I realize how many marketing lessons can be learned in the kitchen. One of my favorite ways to learn what works and what doesn’t with food is by watching. Specifically, the show “Chopped.”
Chopped is a high-energy, fast-paced cooking competition that challenges four up-and-coming chefs to turn a selection of everyday ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal in a finite amount of time. After each course, a contestant gets “chopped” by a panel of esteemed judges until the last chef standing claims victory and a $10,000 cash trophy.
The most grave mistake made in marketing is, perhaps, the practice of playing it safe. These days, brands that avoid conflict or lack an element of social tension are like a political figure without a party.
Brands that create tension tend to be “stickier” and more relevant than brands that avoid rocking the proverbial boat.
Confession time. I’m a foodie and a Travel Channel junkie. And when I’m not marveling at Andrew Richman’s magnanimous, meat masticating “Man vs. Food”, drooling over a deluge of “Diners, Drive-ins & Dives” with Fieri as my “Guy-d”, or blenching at the unflinching bravery of Bizarre Foods’ Andrew Zimmern, I’m riveted to the ardent, bohemian rantings of Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations.”
Those who know “No Reservations” know that it is, in simple terms, nothing short of food porn. Which is to say that Anthony, or “Tony” as his crew calls him, travels the globe enjoying the kind of gastronomic experiences about which most folks merely fantasize. And it’s all captured on video, edited, scored and played back for my hedonic, voyeuristic enjoyment in gratuitous sixty-minute segments.
Sure, there are nods to the cultural aspects of the places Tony visits, along with plenty of nods from Tony to himself. Which is part of the show’s appeal. But mostly it’s about the food. Which is probably why the inaugural episode featured the comestible wonders of Paris, France.
A hundred episodes later, Tony and the crew returned to Paris to find that something strange and wonderful was going on. Change. And not just any change. A change in the way Parisians think about, prepare and consume food. While watching, I couldn’t help but notice how this change is reflective of the shifting way in which we Americans think about, prepare and consume media.
While many brands are gobbling up oodles of precious time and money gunning for Google’s coveted, number-one, unsponsored, search result listing, a handful of progressive, pioneering brands are moving on to the next thing-a thing so new that it has yet to become an acronym.
Well, alrightey then. Here’s your chance.
Whether you work with a full-service advertising agency or have an in-house marketing team and creative department one thing is certain. There are ways to ensure the best possible results. Chief among these ways lies the challenge of being the best client you can be. Which is just as hard, if not harder, than being the best agency.
One of the most difficult things for us stubborn humans to achieve is the feat of changing or even challenging our own beliefs. Yet, the very act of challenging certain beliefs is essential to the process of innovation. Which is to say that when we are unwilling to let go of certain beliefs, we cannot be innovative.
Some say it was Roy Rogers. Others credit Gladiola Montana. Whoever it was let us off the hook when s/he said, “If you’ve done it, it ain’t braggin’.”
So, shamelessly, we’re going to share with you a few key learnings about how to make waves in a new media sea, and we’re going to couch it in a story about a recent success we are celebrating as this post is being written.
The crowd was 18,000 strong. And after a rousing rendition of our National Anthem by Grammy Award winner Jason Crabb, the throng was graced with the well-rehearsed existential musings of Krish Dhanam of the Zig Ziglar corporation who bestowed upon the crowd of 18,000 this painfully accurate maxim;
According to statistics from the National Coffee Association, Women indicate that drinking coffee is a good way to relax. Men indicate that coffee helps them get the job done.
Neither of these are true. But don’t blame the NCA for the falsehood, blame the people they asked. They are the culprits. They are Americans. And they are lying. But not on purpose. No. They lie because they don’t know the real reasons they drink coffee.
