Okay, I’m gonna just come right out and say it. 2011 was a very strange year. We seemed to be caught in a limbo, teetering in between crises and recovery and wondering what the hell is going on!
For me personally, it was the year I returned home to the US after 15 years abroad in Eastern Europe. As I watched Ukraine fall back under an authoritarian regime as if the Orange Revolution never happened, I felt a strong sense of deja vu watching the Arab Spring unfold. I hope events unfold more benevolently there.
While the rest of the world seemed embroiled in chaos, the digital world marched on and so did Digital Tonto. Once again, I’d like to thank everyone for their continued support. I’ve learned from your comments, enjoyed conversations on Twitter and elsewhere and have been immeasurably enriched by all of you. Here are my top posts from 2011.
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One of the nice things about getting older is that each year brings a chance to learn new things. While your body withers, your mind matures.
Writing this blog is part of that process and central to writing it is reading great books (and yes, I still read them in paper – I’m a compulsive highlighter). Many of my posts are, to a great extent, ongoing discussions with authors that I read.
2011 was a particularly good year for books, with some outstanding titles arriving on shelves. So, just as in past years, I’m making a list of books that I have read and referred to. I hope they enrich you as much as they did me.
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I’m an App Store junkie. Every day I check out the latest apps to hit different App Stores to see what apps give me new ways to use my smartphone.
Recently Apple’s App Store curators have put a large focus on “microreview” apps that use photo sharing, character limits, and location-based services to help people discover new products, services, and venues nearby. A wide range of entrants into this field: Oink, TinyReview, andStamped are all apps that make it easy for users to review companies quickly and easily through images and extremely short writeups.
From a digital marketing perspective, these apps are a great indicator of how smartphones are changing the way that people discover, discuss and connect with different brands. They truly embody the convergence of multiple trends we’ve seen unfolding online for the past few years.
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Mitt Romney has a problem. In his quest for the Presidency, no one is quite sure what he believes. In politics, that’s a no-no. A leader without strong beliefs doesn’t inspire much confidence.
However, his opponents seem to run into a bigger problem. They are sure in their beliefs, but often don’t think them through, leading to embarrassing gaffs. One by one, they have fallen by the wayside.
I, for one, appreciate the political theater. There’s nothing more entertaining than watching a stuffed shirt deflated on national television. However, the 2012 Presidential race is about more than shits and giggles and the rhetoric to this point opens up a very important question: Where do we draw the line between belief and thought?
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Besides his impressive array of trysts, Captain Kirk had very little on today’s average Joe. Personal communicators are now old hat, tricorders are right around the corner and even teleportation no longer seems completely out of reach.
In fact, in many ways, the technology we carry around today is more impressive than what he had in Star Trek. After all, he and his crew always seemed to be tapping away at keyboards.
And that, mark my words, will be the big thing for the next year. We are about to enter a technological lull, with very little happening of note in the way of new standards or breakaway functionality for a while. In truth, we haven’t really begun to utilize what we already have. The next wave of innovation will change that.
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Are innovators born or made? Surely, those who spawn ideas that change the world are special – different then the rest of us.
Take one look at an Einstein, a Henry Ford or a Steve Jobs and it seems that they were bequeathed with something unique. They have a flair and a surety about themselves that borders on the sublime.
Yet many others also have flair and surety and never accomplish anything of note. Moreover, as I’ve written before, stories of great innovators often contain struggle and privation. Given a deeper look, innovation seems more learned than innate and there is surprising consistency about what drives it. Here are 5 principles to guide you.
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Clearly, psychology and marketing are deeply related. What we buy is a function of how we think and what we think is a product of the way our minds work.
Yet, what doesn’t seem to be clear is that our scientific understanding of how people think and how they make decisions has changed drastically over the last decade or so. Unfortunately, marketing practice has not kept pace.
While it was once believed that people could be expected to behave rationally, the truth has been found to be far different. In both neurological studies and behavior experiments people have been shown to act, to borrow a phrase, in ways that are predictably irrational. It’s time we start applying what science already knows.
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Prognostication is a multi-billion dollar industry. We have weathermen, Wall Street Analysts, political pundits and futurologists. They all claim some expertise.
These people exist because there is strong demand for their services. Businesses need to create budgets. People have to decide what to wear. Politicians are expected to anticipate issues that will matter to society. Without predictions, there can be no plans.
Yet as Philip Tetlock discovered in his 20 year long study, experts are little better at predicting the future than flipping a coin. Moreover, the more specialized the expertise, the worse the predictive performance tends to be. In other words, the people who get paid to know the most, do the worst. How can this be?
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In the old days, you knew what you were. Publishers printed. Broadcasters transmitted over the airwaves. Advertising agencies advised clients and developed 30 second ads. There was some trash talking, but generally everybody stayed in their lanes.
Not anymore. Old categories are becoming defunct, while the new ones are still being defined, changing the basis of competition throughout the business world, especially in the marketing arena.
That’s the essence of what Rishad Tobaccowala calls digital leakage. A pervasive, often unnerving trend that renders past definitions impotent. Further, because the new reality doesn’t fit into old containers, some of the most important implications go unnoticed by conventional metrics, making them easy to miss.
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“I waste half of my marketing money, I just don’t know which half,” is an often repeated, mostly untrue, quote attributed to a number of people. Nevertheless, it’s cute, so it resonates.
That’s common in marketing. We’re good at making catchy soundbites and passing them on. After all, we sell sizzle, not steak. Why ruin a good story by being true to pesky little facts that just get in the way. Boring!
Unfortunately, truth has a way of sticking around and rearing its ugly head at the most inconvenient of times, like when businesses actually expect results rather than just fast talk and snazzy PowerPoint decks. So here’s a guide to some of the most prevalent marketing myths. They, as well, are often repeated yet untrue.
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