Tune In Saturdays: Lift to Experience

It's not often a band so powerful and unique as Lift to Experience comes along. 

LTE makes anthems, soft music that builds into breathtaking crescendos, tinged with the religious struggle in frontman Josh Pearson's life.  A son of a preacher, Pearson's music is absorbed with the embattlement of these theological demons.

"The Texas Jerusalem Crossroads" is an album based on the concept of Texas as the promised land in the end times.  The story goes like this, the USA is the center of JER USA LEM, and Texas is the center of the USA, and as such, is God's land.

"Waiting to Hit" rips at your soul, blazing through heavy rhythms and searing guitars at times, and quiet poetry at others.  The song gives an intoxicating indoctrination into the LTE experience.  Download here.

Unfortunately, Lift was short-lived as they broke up not long after the release of this record.  Josh Pearson remains, occasionally playing in Europe, and apparently getting closer to releasing his first solo record.

MySpace
Bio

Below is the video for "These are the Days".

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX2Xzl6bylc]

It's the Links I Love, My Friend

Lost Remote - Where TV Finds the Future
Brand recall for advertisers supporting ABC's video streaming: 87%.  You had me at hello, ABC (except for the whole broadcasting company thing).

3 Rules for Managing Viral Marketing: What Every CMO Needs to Know - Karl Long (Experience Curve/MP Daily Fix)
Lately, I can't go two blogs without seeing Karl's ideas popping up.  Here, he crystallizes differences in running a traditional marketing campaign and viral marketing initiatives.  While traditional marketing has been all about the big idea, now it's turning to a series of small ideas that may turn into bigger ideas. 

One Size Fits None - Advertising Ourselves to Death
Theater owners and movie makers alike better sit down for this...Only 9% of people ages 21-24 would travel to a theater to see a movie rather than watching at home.  That's an industry in some serious trouble.  How about they try not charging 6 bucks for a box of junior mints?  Or, how about they try to make the theater experience, uhh, not shitty?  Nahh, that's just stupid.

"Customer Service" is Officially an Oxymoron - Beyond Madison Avenue
All you can do is shake your head at this story.  Cingular/AT&T is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to getting new customers, but not just a little time and flexibility to keep Danny, a customer of four years.  What a bunch of friggin' morons...

Do you have an Outbound Marketing Department? - Marketing.fm
Eric talks about the stories you tell by each piece of communication that goes outside your office.  What does a sloppy email or a shitty secretary say about your company?  These small, easily glossed over things can seem so trivial, but go a long way to define what type of company you are.

The Fix is In 6: Commoditization Across Agencies

(5) Commoditization Across Agencies
With hundreds of agencies in the advertising landscape, you must, at some point, ask yourself, why the hell would a company choose you, and not just go for the lowest bidder?

That’s a damn good question considering most agencies say and do the same thing. If you don’t believe me, go to their websites, and read their mindless dribble. It’s all the same, rhetorically, and philosophically. Essentially, they all will say that they’ll make the best use of your dollars, and get to the right people in the fragmented media environment. The only difference from website to website is, essentially, the background color.

The fix:

Stand up and be heard. Obviously, there is and will always be some level of cross-over of capability. That’s to be expected, especially today, when competitive advantage is fleeting. So, winning means enticing the mind. We make connections by joining teams and choosing sides. Stop putting a foot in everybody’s camp, because then, none of them trust you.

Take a stand for what you believe in. Set boundaries. Be firm. What are the lines that you are not willing to cross for a dollar, for a million dollars, for any dollars?

As a side note, if you read Richard Edelman, you’ll see this idea in action with this post. He openly talks about having a fundraiser with Ned Lamont, and tied Ned’s campaign principles into his own. I wonder how Walmart, an Edelman client, felt about that affiliation.

Edelman wasn’t afraid to define himself, because that’s who he is. He didn’t try to be a Republicrat, just to blandly please everyone he works with or may work with some time in the future. Relationships are based not just on sameness and agreement, but also in disagreements, acceptance and trust. And it sure is easier to trust someone who isn’t afraid of their own opinions.

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BLACKLIST.COM

Go ahead, asshole, steal my time and bug the shit out of me for the hope of a few click throughs. I don’t fucking think so.

No more.

Instead, you’ll get exactly what you deserved, and really, exactly what you asked for, my attention. And with this attention, I’ll simply work to avoid you, to loathe you, and to ensure that my dollars will never be wasted on you again. I’m tired of your money grubbing bullshit, and today, it stops.

BLACKLIST.COM is a listing of companies that don’t give a shit about our time, about what we want, and what’s best for us.  These companies use pop-ups, interstitials, expanding ads, and ads that shout at us without permission to hijack our attention and waste our time. The boycott starts today.

No longer will we waste our dollars on you. Our wallets are closed.

In the inaugural list of BLACKLIST.COM, there are only three companies.  These assholes stole my time, so I will no longer patronize them until they not only stop these tactics, but also apologize for them.

Jack in the Box – MySpace.com
Jamster – MySpace.com
questionmarket.com – Bolt.com

These are only the beginning.  Each Monday, I'll add to the list, and more and more companies will be dead to me.  If you hate these thieves as much as I do, e-mail your annoying intrusions to paul.mcenany@gmail.com, and these companies, too, will be added to the list.  I also encourage you to join the cause, and boycott these frauds for the selfish bastards they are.

photo from emperominge via flickr

Tune In Saturdays: Land of Talk

Oh, Canada...ok, I was going to start with the words from the Canadian anthem, but then it hit me, I don't know shit about the Canadian anthem.  Maybe Ben can help me out there...

Land of Talk, a trio from Le Montreal, sounds very familiar.  I can't put my finger on it, so I'll let them describe themselves:

Where Rock meets Rock. Fronted by the daughter of North America's first female alligator wrestler. Backed by Montreal's skinniest drummer and fattest bass player. Land of Talk are a very good band to listen to.

Is that good enough?  No?  Ok, they're brilliantly haunting, heavy on guitars, and this girls voice is just amazing.  These cuts are very raw, but are a good taste of what we can expect to hear. I'll emphasize the raw, because they are, but they have the tinge of greatness that could mean big things.

Head to their MySpace page, and start with Sea Foam.  Then send me ten dollars and your neverending gratitude.

Home.
MySpace.

The Saddest Fist Bump: How a Viral Video Just Became a Virus

Last night, very patheticly, I lay in my bed at 1:15 in the morning contemplating the pros and cons of this whole Agency.com debacle, now that the debate has softened, bloggers have sent out their thank you cards, and have slowly began to pack up and move on....

But there I was, still struggling with my own agency.com demons.  I could feel it coming.  It was the great souring of my opinion of the fist-bumping band of virulent marketers.  I have argued repeatedly that agency.com wins and have already won because of the buzz they gained, and the balls they showed. 

But last night, I made this realization:  Great viral marketing isn't nearly as much about creating the buzz as it is what you do with it.  100,000 views on YouTube doesn't mean shit if there's no point, or nowhere else for the viewer to go.

Agency.com started to get it right.  They were mocked for rolling big, so they joined in on the yucks by starting the whenwerollwerollbig blog.  It was a promising beginning that shamefully death spiraled into it's current role as merely a link aggregator.  They did the job any blog search engine could easily do.

They had the opportunity to bring us all in further.  We could have gotten to know them better, heard their words, and started a conversation with them.  They could have shown that they had real balls, which means to answer your critics.  Ultimately, when they could have taken the platform that they smartly created for themselves, they chose to wuss out, and not take it further, to where it counts.

So, what is Subway to think?  They have proven that they can make a video go viral, but they didn't prove that they understood the megaphone they gave themselves.  They sprinted in the beginning, and collapsed before the finish. 

So, there you go.  I now recant my previous statements in support of Team Fist Bump.  All they did is prove what they couldn't do.  But, at least I'm better for it.

The Seven Symptoms of Web 3.0

1) The Rise of the Digital Identity
Cookies only get us a very small part of the way there.  In the future, we will carry our identities with us like digital ID cards. The web experience will cater to these unique digital personalities. Increasingly powerful security measures will make it possible to do this with a high level of privacy, which will help to mainstream this capability.

2) Increased Usability & Controllability
The next generation will usher in the end of flash intros, interstitials and pop-ups.  No longer will our computers be hijacked by flash and pain in the ass navigation. Now, sites will be a function of the user, not those who made it.  Using our digital identities, sites will tailor themselves to the individual, and no one page will look the same from one user to the next. This doesn't mean mere segmentation, but customization to the distinctive wants and needs of each consumer.

3) The Long Tail of Everything
A function of personalization, the consumer will be allowed infinite choice we can now only imagine.  The surface has barely been scratched by Amazon, Netflix, and Itunes.  Technology will bring consumers a paradise of choice down to every detail.

4) Filter Functionality
This explosion of selection will increase the need for more and more powerful filters.  These filters will be filtered.  Information will pass a system of funnels based on our own and our community’s preferences.

5) Integration Across Platforms
Web 3.0 will bring total integration of digital devices.  All information will be contained in a central hub, with all other devices (phones, music players, car keys, etc) as an extension of that hub.  We can extend our digital experiences anywhere in the world with equal capability in the palm of our hand.

6) The Rise of Voice Technology
Keyboards will become less and less necessary as voice recognition technology becomes more capable, allowing phones, PDA's, IPods and other devices to be much smaller while retaining functionality.

7) The Third Dimension
While the third dimension has remained rather Jetson-esque in the past, in the future, our experiences on the web will more closely mirror our experiences in the real world, with, of course, better personalization.  We will move past only our ears' and eyes' engagement, to other senses.  Touch, smell, and taste will all become important additions to this new web experience.

So what does this all mean for Web 3.0?  It means the environment will become increasingly personalized, with a base in community, and an experience yielded by integration and multi-sensory engagement. These changes will drive marketing further and further down the path towards personal conversations, and precise targeting in accordance with the actual wants and needs of individuals and communities, based not on demographics, but personalities and behavior.

To Sum Up:

1.0 : One-Way

2.0 : Communal

3.0 : Socio-personalization

What about you? What do you think the mark of Web 3.0 will be?

photo from still searching via flickr

It's the Links I Love, My Friend

Social Media: Who's Hot, Who's Not - The Viral Garden
Mack takes a look at the rankings of the top Social Media sites.  YouTube continues to kickarse. I hope they keep hanging on, but some other smaller sites have a more sustainable model. How will they make money?  That's the billion dollar question.

Blog Traffic #2: Excuse Me, Who Are You? - Okdork.com
Noah makes a case for finding a narrow, but engaging topic for your blog.  I listened and started a puppy dentistry blog.  It didn't work.

Blog Interview with Jeremiah Owyang - Marketing Nirvana
Part 1
Part 2
Mario and Jeremiah delve into the wonderful world of corporate blogging, and trust me, we're all better for it.

Why the Agency.com YouTube Pitch Ruled - Experience Curve
I've been squarely in Karl's corner throughout this whole agency.com fiasco.  I see it like this, on a scale of 1 to 10, they get 10 points for having some big ol' balls, and a 5 for execution, which gives them an average of 7.5.  Not too bad.  (5 comes from 1 pt for going viral and 4 pts for whenweroll blog).

On being human... - CK's Blog
CK makes the case for the humanization of Apple in their newest ad campaign.  Really, I would consider myself not a fan of the new campaign, but the point of the post couldn't be more spot on.  Sometimes products are treated as if they are just the things we own, when really, they are the things that define who we are. They're an extension of our own personalities, desires and needs, and should be marketed/treated as such.

Get it while the gettin's good!

Tune In Saturdays: Heaven is a Hotel

A Saturday quickie featuring Heaven is a Hotel. 

One of the best names ever from this indie rock trio, with emphasis on the ROCK.

They drive me nuts because they never play, and hardly ever record anything for release.  It's unnerving, but fortunately, when they do, they always do me right.

They remind me of a little Modest Mouse, a little Arcade Fire, mixed with just a taste of screamo.  Yummy.

Their home page is, not-surprisingly, down, so head over to their MySpace page.  Start with either brake failure or second story man.  Get it.

CDBaby

UPDATE: Is anyone actually listening to this stuff?  This is the one thing I never get feedback on.  It's not like I'm trying to sell you on shitty Ashlee Simpson, or even any of the Simpsons for that matter, including that Cabrerra guy.  I'll continue posting "Tune In Saturdays" cause I like to, but let me know if anything you've heard catches your fancy.  I'm big on finding and trading new stuff.  So, uh, word to your mother.

The Fix Is In 5

(5) Integration doesn't mean you can do television AND radio.
Advertising, Public Relations, Customer Service, Operations, Interactive...
Then Media, Creative, Account Service, Account Planning, Accounting (yes, even accounting)...
Then advergaming, experiential, direct mail, newspaper, internet, tv, radio, guerrilla, search...

What the fuck are we doing?

We are so caught up in our own little spaces, our own little crevices, where it's easy to hide and pretend our jobs are to do the things we think we should be doing.  I produce websites, he places television, she writes headlines.  But those are only pieces of a goal, and if your eyes aren't squarely on that goal, the big picture, then we're all screwed.

WE WORK IN COMMUNICATIONS, PEOPLE!
Who gives a shit what is PR and what is advertising?  Does the consumer know or care whether the placement is paid or not?  Of course they don't!  What they do care about is who they trust, who they feel connections with, and the interactions in which they're treated as more important than whatever they're buying. 

The Fix:
+Throw out our dated terminology altogether. 
Redefine our jobs around the customers of our clients.  You don't write copy; you facilitate communication exchange.  She builds interaction vehicles for and with our customers. It may seem a little trivial to just throw out the words we use to describe our positions, but trust me, it plays a big role. In a t-shaped world, there are still specialties, but it raises everyone's game when anyone may be called on for anything. 

+Develop strategic guidelines and distribute them to EVERYONE, then award those who help to resolve the problem (especially when it's outside their area of expertise).
Give the goal, and tell everyone who will listen what it is.  Make it important (monetarily, or for recognition, or advancement, or whatever) to make their opinions known, no matter the subject.  If an intern or a janitor can find a better way, then let them.  Creatives don't have a monopoly on good ideas.

+Fix your money
So many companies are geared to make their money off the Super Bowl.  Get rid of it.  Get paid for the problems you solve, not how you solve them.

+Enable inter-office communication
Do whatever it takes to get people talking, and not just in their own clicks, but outside of their natural circles.  Force them to engage with people they may not have without a little encouragement.

Yes, I saved the best for last:

+START FROM THE CUSTOMER AND WORK YOUR WAY BACKWARD.
The quickest way to disassemble the current bullshit is to reach your customers where and how they are open to being reached, not where and how it's easiest for you to shout at them.  Find where they are, how they talk, how they get their entertainment and information, and find ways to enhance those experiences.  This, above all else, will keep you on the righteous path of media agnosticism.

photo from ScribeSevenThree via flickr.