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PSFK posted an article on their blog about Starck feeling that “Design is Dead” and is also shamed for all the excess he has created in his designs. Well it was sometime ago when he spoke about his distaste for design, and a year ago we covered this Icon article, where he indicated similarly. This time around he continues his tirade by telling a German news weekly Die Zeit that:
by: Idris Mootee
The headline "Don’t Mistake Innovation For Strategy" posted by my friend Bruce Temkin (Forrester) on his blog Customer Experience Matters caught my attention. He was quoting Al Reis' article in Advertising Age with the title: Innovation Should Be Seen as a Tactic, Not a Business Strategy. Here are some excerpts from Ries:
by: Matt Rhodes
By now we all know about the fiasco at Heathrow Terminal 5. We’re into the weekend, and BA is still having to cancel flights. The outlook is not good for the weekend; flights are being cancelled and the press is full of discussion about how the recent days is humiliating for the UK (see here).
Continue reading "The T5 Fiasco: Some Free Advice on Customer Engagement for BA" »
by: David Armano
"In future there will be no more designers. The designers of the future will be the personal coach, the gym trainer, the diet consultant." ~Philipe Stark
Continue reading "Design Isn't Dead. Design's Gatekeepers May Be Dying." »
by: David Wigder
Today, many executives, and especially those working in carbon-intensive industries, are grappling with how future carbon regulation may impact their businesses and industries.
by: Idris Mootee
Talking about "service deisgn" or "experience design..forget Disney or Club Med, the Belgian chain Le Pain Quotidien (Our Daily Bread) is one best example of great experience design.
Currently there are stores in California, DC and NYC. Toronto is opening one soon. My friend Scott is obsessed with it. I love the communal table and everything is organic there (I teased the people by asking them all the time if the tea is organic).
Continue reading "Service Design and Experience Design: Starbucks Vs Le Pain Quotidien" »
by: David Jennings
I've signed up for NESTA's Innovation Edge conference in a few weeks. Though I'm looking forward to what promises to be a stimulating day, I'm kind of surprised that the abstract concept of innovation remains so popular with policy makers and agencies.
by: Alex Eperjessy
In-game advertising – it’s been around for a while but only became a hot subject in the past few years. Brands, consumers, media – they’re all talking about it and everyone has a different take on the subject. The chart above is meant to illustrate a few of the stances gamers take on the subject and where these stances fall, on a Skepticism/Believer and Purism/Opportunism system. Comments and explanations inside.
by: Stefan Kolle
As I pointed out in my previous post, in my opinion we are measuring the wrong things in marketing, and many of us are still living in a delusional world of measurability. Let me take this discussion into the realm of Word of Mouth (WoM).
by: Mark Rogers
A lot of brands are dipping their toes into social media marketing. They naturally want to know what ROI they can expect. For that reason we are delighted that our client Avis UK has gone public with the results of their 2 year experiment in monitoring and responding to online conversations. They are experiencing double digit growth in a sector (car rental) that is growing at 1% per annum.
Continue reading "Avis: Showing the ROI on Social Media Marketing" »
by: Matt Rhodes
I’m constantly impressed by the levels of innovation and adoption of new techniques that go on in the not-for-profit sector. A couple of weeks ago I met Jon Parsons from the Woodland Trust and was talking about what work his organisation does online at the moment. I often find that the best of the not-for-profit sector can be as good as if not better than the best of what larger brands are doing.
Continue reading "The Woodland Trust: Online Innovation from Not-for-profits" »
by: Stefan Kolle
One of the vexing matters in innovative marketing is the lack of reliable metrics. David Polinchock’s post on the Measurement Excuse is one fine example of the discussions going on. I’d like to add my opinion to the discussion, as the whole issue of metrics in the modern media space has been keeping me thinking (and more often than not, ranting) a lot recently. And I came up with something I want to share with you.
Continue reading "Metrics vs Attention, Relevance and Reputation" »
by: Scott Goodson
Making a Splash with Social Media Measurement
Measurement is a really tough issue for social media proponents. Every business needs to measure results. But social media is different than say, PR clip counts. It's not the placements, it's the conversations. And some conversations are obviously more valuable than others.
Watch this video - it's the best example of a social media promotion and how to measure it.
Original Post: scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/03/how-to-measure.html
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Best AR demos poised to revolutionize video games
Continue reading "Serious Games Taking The Pulse Of Augmented Reality" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko
One of the few press releases that reach the front page of Digg: Dr. Pepper promises (and blogs about it) a can of Dr. Pepper to everyone in the States if Guns'N'Roses releases its long-overdue Chinese Democracy album in 2008. Axl Rose is pleasantly surprised but isn't promising anything.
Continue reading "Dr. Pepper Promises Free Soda To Everyone " »
by: Karl Long
German web site Pundo3000.com has done a case study of 100 product and package shots of packaged food and compared it to the reality of what is inside the package. Great stuff, we need a US version of this because even the product shot of herring bits in sauce looked nasty 
by: Scott Goodson
Marc Andreessen has written a very inspiring and thoughtful piece about managing an entrepreneurial elite company entitled the Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgement. It's well worth a read here.
Continue reading "The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgement" »
by: Idris Mootee
How often we hear that managers complain about their innovative ideas are not heard and that everyone is only interested in the immediate bottom line?
Continue reading "Everyone Loves Innovative Ideas But No One's Doing Anything About It?" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko
Someone known as Skullphone has hacked into a few ClearChannel billboards in California to insert the trademark image.
-- via Textually
Original Post: adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/03/hacked-digital-billboards.html
by: David Polinchock
This thought has been running around my head for quite some time, but a couple of recent events & conversations have really galvanized it for me. It's how measurements and new tools keep circling each other.
by: Guy Kawasaki
There is an art to sucking up. Done too blatantly it will backfire. Done too weakly, you won't get what you want. The perfect suck up contains the following elements
by: Roger Dooley
WIRED ran an interesting piece that suggests increasingly invasive brain technologies will become a legal battleground. The more obvious areas have already been discussed here and elsewhere: using brain scans as lie detectors or to see if an individual recognizes someone or something (as part of a legal investigation, perhaps). That could be just the beginning, though.
by: Matt Rhodes
What’s the future of Advertising? There is none.
Continue reading "The Future of Marketing and Advertising" »
by: John Caddell
I've been reading a lot about the Wright Brothers this week, given our stopover at Kitty Hawk on the way to South Carolina for spring break. The novella-length Wikipedia entry was interesting reading on the Blackberry web browser while we headed toward North Carolina at 11pm. [As soon as I get a chance to edit the video I shot at Kitty Hawk, I'll post that as well.]
Continue reading "Wright Brothers set the standard for entrepreneurial thinking" »
by: Roger Dooley
Readership of Neuromarketing keeps growing, but now Yale researchers have published a paper that reveals my dirty little secret… cloak BS in neuroscientific jargon, and people find it more plausible!
Continue reading "Neuromarketing Blog: My Secret Revealed" »
by: Yann Gourvennec
Virtualisation of customer services interaction was quoted by Time (March 2008) as being one of the ‘10 ideas which are changing the world‘. Pascal Levy-Garboua, Director, Business Development of Virtuoz.com, a leading-edge provider of IVA (intelligent virtual agents) technology, is giving us more insight into the future of customer relationship management in this post written on behalf of Visionary Marketing.
by: Joel Makower
50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth is back in print, updated for the 21st century.
If that doesn't send a mild shiver down your spine, then you are under 25 years old.
Continue reading "The Death and Rebirth of "50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth"" »
by: David Armano
Stop what you are doing and check out Paul Isakson's excellent slideshow which nearly perfectly captures the change that many Ad guys & gals are no doubt feeling both in traditional, tradigital and digital shops. And clients too by the way.
Continue reading "Here's The Future of Advertising. Now Go Do it." »
by: Idris Mootee
What is “Super Normal Design”? This is the first time I’ve heard about the term. As an economist I am more familiar with “Super Normal Profits”.
Continue reading "Does "Super Normal Design" Go Against The Mainstreaming Of Design?" »
by: Matt Rhodes
There’s a great set of slides from Andy Hanselman on how to turn delighted customers into devoted ones. Andy is right that your best customers and best brand advocates are those who have high expectations of your brand and a great experience when they use it.
Continue reading "Turning Delighted Customers into Devoted Customers" »
by: David Armano
Photo Credit: Scott Gries
" I just wrapped up two days at the Ad Age Digital Marketing conference in NYC ...The panel I took part in was the official “social media” discussion. It was a great conversation, and the conference itself conducted polls from the audience in real time.
Continue reading "Experience, Social, Word of Mouth. Is it All Just Advertising?" »
by: David Polinchock
So Lane Hartwell just posted this on Twitter (sorry if it offends anyone!)
Um.ok.wtf. @ gap in SF. Just found a dried, bloody tampon in the pocket of some pants i was trying. Barf.
And that lead Sarah Lacy to reply:
@lanehartwell: wow. wow. wow. wow. wow. never going to the gap again.
Continue reading "Here's Where Social Media Really Hurts!" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko
This windmill farm in the recently released SimCity Societies was brought to you by BP. Other energy sources in the game are coal and nuclear plants, but those are unbranded, and I haven't seen any other kinds of branded assets in the game either.
by: Guy Kawasaki
I love Sk*rt
. You can think of it as "Digg for chicks" (in the words of QueenofSpain), and it features the user-selected stories in topic such as Arts & Entertainment, Design & Crafts, Family & Parenting, and Food & Home.
by: Roger Dooley
Starbucks has been under pressure to increase store revenue and profits, and, once again, they are turning to sensory branding for the solution. The most startling change is that the firm will go back to grinding coffee in its stores for the sole purpose of improving the coffee aroma. Presumably, it’s cheaper to ship the coffee pre-ground in sealed packages, but Starbucks management apparently feels that any productivity loss at the stores will be offset by improved customer loyalty and higher sales.
by: Dick Stroud
The UK press has given a “report from the Foreign Office” (a part of the UK Government) a lot of coverage. Strange that I can find no trace of the report or even the press release from the FO.
This coverage in Management Today is typical of what is being reported.
by: Sigurd Rinde
Seems it has dawned upon the VCs that yet another social network might not be the thing.
And when two "Facebook widget applications" (heh, a category by itself) startups are valued at substantially more than Bear Stearns, well, how can you avoid being hit by a blinding flash of the obvious: Something is not quite right.
by: Roger Dooley
Did you ever wonder why some people have such insight into the behavior and feelings of others? Certainly, some of the great advertising execs, copywriters, and other pros seem to have it, particularly for certain groups or markets. But are these insights always accurate?
