Marketing used to be about two things: Creating a big idea and executing it as cheaply and efficiently as possible without sacrificing quality. We looked for large audiences and negotiated tough deals.
That’s evolved somewhat in recent years, as both agencies and clients recognized that too much emphasis was being put on outputs and not enough on outcomes. Just because you reach a lot of people doesn’t mean that you’ve driven the business forward.
The ROI movement sought to more closely align tactics with business goals. It has been highly successful. So successful, in fact, that most of the important problems have largely been solved. What remains involves computational resources and integration. Therefore, we are now entering a post-ROI world of innovation, open brands and co-creation.
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We all have ideas all the time. Some are good, but rather ordinary, (like spontaneously buying flowers for your wife on the way home), some are bad (like buying her a knife set for her birthday) and others, like Google’s PageRank are unquestionably great.
Just a few stand out above all the rest. They change the course of history and affect the lives of millions who aren’t even aware of them. Amazingly, some are largely the work of a single person.
Those ideas are truly great and seven really stand out. To make my selection, I applied three criteria: Longevity (i.e. they survive a long time without being amended or surpassed in any significant way), impact (i.e. they greatly affected the lives and work of others) and authorship (i.e. they can be traced to one person). Here’s my list, see what you think.
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Strategy and innovation are often conflated. Recently, I even had someone say to me, “last time I checked, strategy and innovation were the same thing, is that not correct?” in a tone just like the one my 2nd grade teacher reserved for the dullards in the class.
No, it is not correct. Not even close. In fact, they are quite distinct, requiring vastly different people, skill sets and processes. Try to do both at the same time and you’ll likely do none of either. That’s a serious problem.
The conundrum is that every business needs both. Without strategy you have no direction, without innovation you lose relevance. They both need to be part of an integrated effort. So it is important to be clear about what each needs to succeed, where to deploy them, who should drive them and what to expect. Here’s a guide that will set things straight.
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We Americans are practical people. As I said in an earlier post, we like to do rather than think, prototype rather than plan, and let the profit motive guide our society. We go with what works and when it stops working we try something else.
Overall, the results have been good, some would say spectacular. We have remade the modern world in our image, compete in every major industry and dominate high-tech. No one can match our innovation track record, but what does the future have in store for us?
Throughout the 20th century, we were driven by a spirit of discovery. We not only put a man on the moon, but led basic research in everything from physics to biotechnology. Our journalistic standards were the envy of the world. It was our farsighted investment in the fundamentals that drove our achievements. Have we lost that spirit of discovery?
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America is famous for its media giants. Facebook, even after the disastrous IPO, is still worth $60 billion. Google already trades at $200 billion. So called “old media” companies are massive too. Disney is worth $80 Billion; Time Warner about $35 Billion.
And why not? The US is the world’s biggest media market by far, accounting for about 35% of the world’s ad market. Make it here and you are a massive player globally.
Not surprisingly, we don’t pay much attention to the rest of the world, but we should. That’s where 95% of people live. 7 billion people with ideas and energy, who are unlocking value where we never thought to look. Probably the best example is Naspers, a $22 billion South African company that already owns chunks of Facebook and Zynga.
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Innovation is a fancy word. We therefore expect it to be well dressed, smooth talking and brilliantly executed. We like the good things in our lives to be clean and shiny.
But breakthrough innovation is not smooth. It stutters. It is often overweight and poorly groomed, with dark circles under its eyes from overwork. It comes into the world stumbling and falling, only later to gain Olympic level prowess. When we first see it, it looks like crap.
This poses a problem for organizations who seek to innovate. While they need to deliver for customers, investors and employees, there is a constant tension between optimization and innovation. Don’t optimize and you won’t keep up. Don’t innovate and you’ll become irrelevant. You have to do both and it’s not always pretty.
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Digital media people can be an annoying lot. While the rest of the economy is mired in muck, the webheads are sailing through, minting money and making outrageous fortunes.
There does seem to be something unfair going on. While most of us slave away at our Sisyphean careers, a bunch of twenty-something whiz kids become billionaires in a few short years and seem to be having a lot of fun while they’re at it. Where’s the justice?
So it’s not surprising that since the much-anticipated Facebook IPO has gone south, there has been an outpouring of schadenfreude. “I knew it all the time,” people say, thrilled that their doubts have manifested themselves ia a plummeting stock price. That’s silly and, for the most part, the criticisms are either dubious or wholly without merit.
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Ahhhh Summer! It looks like it’s gonna be a good one. Despite the lousy economy, we have a lot to look forward to this year.
London will host the Olympics (let’s hope the weather will be better than the food!), Barak Obama and Mitt Romney will be slagging each other off all summer long, nearly guaranteeing us at least one juicy scandal and even the wars seem to be winding down.
In between the endless hours of sun and fun we also have time to catch up on some reading. Like in previous years, I’m providing a list with a theme. This year, it’s books that inspire thought. Some are very readable, others more challenging, but all open up new worlds, help us question what we thought we knew and well … make us think.
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Who is your target consumer? That’s been the “go to” question of branding consultants for generations. People who come up with insightful answers are valued and admired.
There has been no shortage of strategies and methods put forth to answer it. Consumer surveys, focus groups and statistical techniques have sought to identify, communicate to and acquire the right consumer for the right product.
Yet it’s becoming clear that we are, in large part, a product of our social networks. Our opinions and behavior are greatly affected by a complex web of social influence. That realization is leading to a new mindset and a host of new strategic possibilities. Network analysis has been useful in other fields and the potential for marketing is enormous.
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Throughout his career, Rupert Murdoch built a fortune by marrying tantalizing content with superior distribution. I can see why he’s pissed.
The media value chain has been thrown into disarray. Lines between creation, curation and outright piracy are blurry at best. Some would say that they don’t exist at all. And distribution? Once information is out, it’s out. The Internet has infinite memory.
It seems like some rules are being violated, but whose rules? Shakespeare was a habitual plagiarizer (by today’s standards anyway). Many scholars believe that Homer never really existed, but that the epics were created and honed by generations of oral transfer. Many of the norms we revere are recent, not historical. So, what should guide us?
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