Don’t Get Hung Up on Tech

September 1, 2012

For those of you who are regular followers of this blog please note…I’ve decided to shift gears.

I’m no longer a book reporter. I’ve decided to return to my roots, which is being a creative strategist.

One of the things I learned early in my long marketing communications career was to put the importance of messaging before the mechanics of media. More important than how messages are distributed is their content. So let’s put “da’message” before “digital”.

What I’ll be promoting is “It’s the message, not the medium” which directly contradicts Marshall McLuhan’s famous, but misunderstood message of 1964 “The medium is the message”.

McLuan’s book impacted the advertising world. See Wikipedia for the details. Or if you want to encounter heavy thinking, and the proper perspective on McLuhan’s comment, read Mark Federman’s article.

So, I contend, that before exploring the complexity of social media and the endless array of digital tools, it is important to define, and manage, the desired messaging. To compete at marketing communications, and improve the odds of eating your competitor’s lunch, you’re better off with a wordsmith, than a computer engineer.

I was inspired to make this shifting of gears by comments I discovered in the July 23, 2012 issue of Crain’s Chicago Business in their article Marketing’s focus turns to digital world. They were made by Shawn Reigsecker of Centro LLC, a Chicago-based provider of media logistics services, who stated “The…downside of data…is that marketers may be focusing on it at the expense of creativity. Advertising has always been about telling a story about a brand that makes consumers want to engage…and when it’s just about data and analytics, you miss the creativity and you miss the story.”

(Interesting that Shawn is defending creativity when his living depends on promoting media and analytics)

From Chris Brogan, “Don’t get hung up on tech”

In a year old (June 10, 2011) email/newsletter on the topic of the value of mobile vs. the value of the material being distributed Brogan says, “Think instead about how you can enable your buyers to connect with experiences in meaningful ways. That’s powerful. Who cares about the tech that brings it to you? Focus on the experience of what that’s going to do for your buyer.”

As my reinvigorated blog moves ahead over the coming months it’s my intention to help CEOs and CMOs better craft messages that are strategically appropriate to the digital world your customer now lives in.

Continue Reading

Where’s My Mentor?

 “WHERE IS MY MENTOR?” GREAT ARTICLE IN JULY/AUGUST INC. MAGAZINE FOR TECH SENIOR CITIZENS (OVER 50)

Tuesday July 10, 201

If you have a lot of valuable experience that you’d like to share there’s two ways to do it. Mentor (free). Consult (charge).

From author Norm Brodsky,“First, I don’t think you should ever have to pay a mentor. An adviser who asks to be paid is not a mentor. He or she is a consultant, and the relationship is a commercial one. A mentoring relationship has to be based strictly on mutual respect. A mentor should be motivated by nothing more than the desire to help. The person receiving the mentoring should be there to learn.

Second, a mentor’s role is not to advise you but rather to give you a different way of thinking. I often have to remind my mentees that I’m not telling them what they should do. I’m simply offering another perspective, based on my experience. It’s critical that they consider what I say but then make their own decisions.”

From blogger Keith Bates: I found this article particularly interesting, and relevant as well to my own current marketing efforts. A few years ago I downsized my ad agency to a consulting firm. And because of the rising interest in the CMO position I’m promoting my services as a “CMO On Call”. I intend to charge for this work which basically embraces integrating social media with traditional marketing for BtoB vendors in the world of technology where I’ve spent over 20 years.

However, I’ve been approached recently by two friends who have asked me for marketing advice, just over lunch, on a couple of occasions and then followed up those several meetings with a totally out-of-the-blue request to be a mentor to them. I sort of did a double take, and agreed. It was flattering. One of them is a senior marketing exec for a major airline, and the other is involved in e-learning, and has very impressive credentials. We’re having fun together (they buy the lunch) and I’m able to share experiences that have led to the making of a lot of millionaires in the software industry.

While these mentoring experiences are very pleasant they don’t do much for my revenue generation. So it occurred to me that perhaps mentoring and consulting could be blended in such a way that both parties benefit. How? Well, I’m considering the promotion of my coaching and CMO On Call business by first offering a month or so of mentoring (free). Then the relationship could wind down, or it could continue with my overseeing strategy and creative and working with a marketing director to launch a specific lead gen or branding program.

I’ll have to give this some more thought but the concept is intriguing. Contact me if you want to explore the approach. keithbates@kbates.com

Continue Reading

Powerful Inspiration for Startups

In 2007 I launched MyAdventures.com, a social network. I re-launched it again last December. It looks good, and has over a thousand followers, but it’s not going anywhere… and I’ve lost patience waiting. It needs to go viral and The Lean Startup offers clues on how to make that happen. Read the book, visit their site at www.theleanstartup.com.

Do you need to accelerate your company’s growth? Read Eric Ries’ THE LEAN STARTUP. 

It’s about how today’s entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Their story is also in the June issue of Wired magazine.

Hot on the heals of Optimizely, (the ultimate in AB testing technology) which I discussed last month I have now discovered The Lean Startup…and fallen head over heals in love. Optimizely lends itself to testing copy appeals while The Lean Startup lends itself to testing business concepts. To quote, “Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in an age when companies need to innovate more than ever.”

Two endorsements…from people we all know:

“The key lesson of this book is that startups happen in the present—that messy place between the past and the future where nothing happens according to PowerPoint. Ries’s ‘read and react’ approach to this sport, his relentless focus on validated learning, the never-ending anxiety of hovering between ‘persevere’ and ‘pivot,’ all bear witness to his appreciation of the dynamics of entrepreneurship.” –Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm

“Business is too important to be left to luck. Eric reveals the rigorous process that trumps luck in the invention of new products and new businesses. We’ve made this a centerpiece of how teams work in my company…it works! This book is the guided tour of the key innovative practices used inside Google, Toyota, and Facebook that work in any business.” –Scott Cook, founder and chairman of the Executive Committee, Intuit

Over the next few months MyAdventures.com is either going to ‘pivot’ or ‘persevere’. Too soon to say yet. Read the book. Learn the difference.

Continue Reading