a hundred avatars

Hybrid thinking @ P&G and beyond

Check out the piece that Dev Patnaik of Jump Associates wrote for the Fast Company blog recently.

In it he argues that the growth due to innovation that happened at P&G over the last 6+ years was the result of integrated thinking that launched their design revolution.

As a planner who has always succeeded by being a bit of a round peg in the square hole of advertising/media/technology I have to agree of the importance of this type of thinking, especially at P&G. Of course many planners (and designers and artists and creatives and my wife) who benefit from such holistic/hybrid/integrated/lateral thinking tend to come from slightly strange or mixed backgrounds which explain the predominance of funny names, bizarre ethnic mixes and odd personal histories in all of those professional creative communities.

Diversity breeds inventive minds. Fortune favors the hybrid mind.

But one question is why that thinking hasn’t spread throughout the company.  I have the great pleasure of working with P&G for the last few years in both advertising, ethnic marketing and PR.  And while I never cease to be impressed by the quality of the minds with whom I’ve had the chance to work in marketing and research, I can only wonder how those great minds would benefit from being unleashed by a similar desire for integrated thinking further downstream in the product development process than described in Dev's piece.

In other words, as Dev says, hybrid thinking or "the conscious blending of different fields of thought (has helped )to discover and develop opportunities that were previously unseen by the status quo” 

You could say that this hasn’t happened in marketing or communications at P&G in the same way as it has in product development.

I know we’ve started to try at my agency, with some success (to cite one example among others I can't quite share yet). If I have one promise to make or one goal to set for myself for the coming year, it’ll be to unleash what this kind of thinking can bring across the board to make these products or brands to live in the world.

To do any less would be to do less than this great company deserves (even if they haven’t always realized it themselves) and less than we ourselves deserve.

Let's see how this works out. Have you tried in your sphere of influence?

Twitter is for old people and apparently so is boring research

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article6703399.ece

I thought this article was interesting, as much for the (half baked) insights this kid has as for the idea that one kid, texting a bunch of friends can make a piece of research that is more valuable that all the other stuff a huge investment bank is generating.

Kind of makes you wonder if we or our clients are using our intuition to dig for consumer insights or letting 'corporate constipation' stand in the way of digging for good ideas.

Anyway, it was interesting and sparked some very good ideas. (thanks Eliza for sending it to me.)

New really means new. Different really means different.

I was fortunate to be invited to participate in the Horowitz “New Generation: Everyone, Everywhere, All the Time” conference.  At the conference Adriana Waterston presented some of their findings.  Afterwards a group of us were asked to respond to the implication of these changes on how people and brands behave. 

Some thoughts:

(Caveat: I don’t have the presentation yet so although directionally the data is right, I may be a little off in my numbers. Deal, ok?)

The behavior of the non-White members of the New Generation (18-35) across multiple screens is shockingly distinct from that of White non Hispanics. Although black, Latino and Asians do all the same things (user generated content, mobile video, etc etc etc) we’ve heard “the kids today” do,  Horowitz found is that they do it all a lot more. A lot.  

For example, about half of  non Latino whites 18-34 make content vs. about 70% of Latinos the same age. Blacks and Asians fall into the middle. Blogs and social networks also vastly overindex. Huge implications for brands and others who want to connect with these groups, right?

Broadband penetration does lag amongst Hispanics. A bit more than I thought. But when you control for age, it’s pretty much a commodity amongst younger Latinos. So what content are you giving them to fill the fat pipes going into their homes? And once we all have 4G speed on our laptops and cell phones?

Another point:  The question isn’t which latinos under 35 have smart phones that can deal with social networks and mobile video. The question is which Latinos under 35 don’t  have them.

The future? Already here.  Multicultural youth aren’t lagging what used to be called the general market in adopting and adapting new technologies. This intense use of multiple screens tells me that however much non Hispanic whites who have grown up digital feel underserved and underwhelmed by most of the content they have, Hispanics in particular are fleeing options in both English and Spanish in droves.

Yes they still watch TV. In both languages. But the dissatisfaction they have with existing options is driving them increasingly to create the content themselves.  If I were in the content business (wait, I am in the content business, aren’t I?) I would push to find more ways to shape that across mobile and broadband and engage them in the creation and selection of content that feels right for them.

Brands who believe in the market have a responsibility to make this stuff come into existence.  This isn’t just about doing the right thing, it’s about doing something that makes money and creates a new and better reality for everyone. 

This may be a bit cliche, but I read a quote today from someone’s profile on Facebook (wish I could remember whose) from Antoine de St Exupery that sums it up:

If you want to build a ship
don't herd people together to collect wood
and don't assign them tasks and work,
but rather teach them to long for the 
endless immensity of the sea.

Our people are already heading for the beach. Let's make the experience as grand as we can...

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

I thought this was particularly well done visualization of how the credit crisis went down. It's more entertaining than that sounds. Surprisingly after watching it it turns out I had a good idea of what was going on.

Still, this makes it crystal clear and goes to show the importance of good visualization and simple storytelling in communications and public affairs.

Hopefully we'll all start looking at things, really looking at things, deeply and with creativity ahead of time so that we stop painting ourselves into these corners. Or maybe it's just human nature.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

The practice of social

Put the practice into social media best practice...

After being pinged by Dino to respond to a meme on here on "Social Media Best Practice" I came across this podcast on various views of the notion of practice from Buddhist perspectives

Dino's point was that the lesson from social media is that focus should shift more to how we think about brand values than focusing solely on marketing tactics. I'm going to talk even less than he did about social media and more on thoughts on the word 'practice.'

I'm going to finally summarize that Dharma talk in an effort to add a different perspective to the notion of practice.

Although all Buddhist traditions focus on the cessation of suffering and the interdependency of all things (!), each tradition has a different take on the 'how to', or 'practice'. Perhaps these various perspectives will be of some use in our own increasingly interdependent vehicles of values and communication.

What is interesting is that Buddhist practice (meditation, mindfulness training, etc) is by definition a neutral tool. By itself it has no impact on behavior, but the notion of calling it 'practice' as a part of (or opposed to?) ritual by definition means that we are moving beyond passivity, actively seeking to diminish our suffering or that of someone else. It means an engagement with our selves and a take on how what we do impacts others.

Analogously, older forms of advertising are built on passive mechanisms. Sure spending $100MM on TV advertising feels like an action, but because it wasn't constructed with feedback and interdependence in mind, just how valuable is it? Blind ritual, lacking in introspection, right?

By using tools that help cultivate our potential, we must rely on instinct and individual judgement. We question the input of our senses, but external tools (quant studies, etc) will only be of so much use as technology accelerates our feeling that we are a part of a larger whole, connected. Is it any surprise that sustainability thinking has arisen around the same time as digital social networks?

At the same time, another lesson is learned from Buddhist traditions. Some traditions say, our inherent Buddha nature that aids us in perfecting ourselves, that cultivation alone is insufficient.

In this case one wonders if these are the intellectual forbears of those who claim that strategy alone guides the way. Does a brand have an inherent value in and of itself outside of its behavior? Digital social media brings practice and theory together in a way that was previously difficult to understand.

Or is who we are defined by what we do? Is, ultimately, the value of a practice in just that: the practice.

Looking at the word "practice" through various definitions, one finds three main uses of the word that are remotely relevant to this now longwinded analysis (blog posts are supposed to be short?!): practice as repetition; practice as taking an idea into action; internalizing a concept and bringing it to true realization and integration into one's being.

Now that I've completely overanalyzed 'social media best practice', it's the last of the three that I think is relevant to us.

Social media is about a preparation that is, to paraphrase Dogen, at best a continuous mistake. To do it well, we must use our judgement (that's the 'best' part) but be flexible and open-minded. Best practice here is about not fixating on the tool, but rather on relishing their lack of relevance. Best practice here is an internalization of the challenge that no fixed center brings to our work. Rather than generate illusions of effect (400 GRPs X MB copytesting score of Y=Excel Lies) we can look at the role of interdependent relationships between people and seek to understand and encourage those.

Despite the chaos of the last few weeks (and it has always been thus) the future is bright, but challenging. Paradoxically, technology fades as it improves and it will just bring us all closer together as humans, not avatars. Those of us who make a living at creating those networks should be well disposed to, well, practice.

Old Fart Stands Athwart History...

In this video, Jon Steel stands athwart history, shouting, "Stop!"*

And you know what? He's right...

The more I get enmeshed I get in digital ideas, iPhone applications, social media platforms, etc and the more I'm fascinated about how technology affects our lives, the more I realize how critical (and often underutilized by clients and agencies) the basic tools of account planning are.

So, while I don't think any of us really want to stop progress (frankly things are a whole lot more interesting now, and I suspect Jon would agree), there's no need to reject the work it takes to invent a great idea and make it feel effortless.

Effortlessness takes a lot of work.

Jon Steel: Planning at 40: Solving the wrong problems from JWT on Vimeo.

*The term 'old fart' is used by permission, sort of, and in a spirit of agreement with said old fart. Jon is neither old nor a fart. Oh, and there will be a prize for anyone who recognizes the inspiration for this quote.

A thin line indeed

Last week's Economist has an obituary of Sam Manekshaw, a prominent Indian general.

An interesting character, of whose career and accomplishments I don't pretend to know much or have a considered opinion.

I did like the following quote of his, however:

There is a thin line between being dismissed and becoming a field-marshal

.

That line of thinking and a great mustache will get you very far.

How the future was created and will be too

At risk of turning into a Kurt Anderson fanboy, I wanted to point out the recent segment on Bell Labs.

No new news there. But still...Our world was created at Bell Labs. (What is it about New Jersey, anyway?)

In any case, although perhaps past its prime, Bell Labs is fascinating (and well worth further investigation from those of us paid to generate ideas and create possiblities) as a case study in how to create an environment of trust and creativity.

Unlike Microsoft, these were guys who used their monopoly well to invest in pure research that transformed the world (OK, unfair, Microsoft has transformed the world, just not as elegantly as I would like) without having to worry about how it affected their quarterly P&L.

Some things I took away from the segment:

1. Open collaboration works.  Put enough smart people into a safe space where failure is encouraged and rewarded and you will be rewarded. Use this as a case study the next time someone says that creativity is a solitary act. Yes, people still say that.
2. Diversity breeds innovation. Diversity goes beyond racial/ethnic diversity (although that helps too). Mix up disciplines, get ceramicists working on semiconductor problems.  Planners don't need to call their ad the 'bad ad' anymore.  Creative really isn't just a department, although far too often it is and good ideas can only come from there. Except they don't always. So pay attention to the media guy. Invite software developers into the process at the beginning.
3. Create chance encounters.  The segment demonstrates how the value of people being invited to meetings that are on the face of them irrelevant to their core competence.  No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. (Albert Einstein, probably). Which leads to...
4. Design and architecture matter.  Space breeds or influences culture.  In the case of Bell Labs,  the lunch room became the petri dish for ideas and collaboration. Think about how the space in which you work affects behavior and inspires chance encounters.
5. Eliminate red tape. Hard to do in the era of Sarbanes-Oxley etc, but this fact makes the suits even more important than ever.  Just as good strategies clear a space in the mind, great business and client sense clear a space in the world for the miraculous.

It worked for Bell Labs...

Spinoza's Clarity of Scope

Planners are fond of saying that the right (and clever) definition of a problem is often the first, best step towards the best (and most clever) solution.

To wit: I'm catching up on some reading and am enjoying The Courtier + The Heretic , which has been hanging out on my bookshelf waiting to be read since last year when I name checked Spinoza a few times at a few lectures I gave at NYU and FIU last fall on identifying and using consumer insights.

The book is enjoyable so far (even compared to the highly enjoyable Betraying Spinoza), and in it the author quotes a letter Spinoza wrote to Henry Oldenburg in 1665 where he laid out his his motivations to finally publish "a treatise on my views regarding scripture:"

1. The prejudices of the theologians. For I know that these are the main obstacles which prevent men from giving their minds to philosophy...
2. The opinion of me held by the common people, who constantly accuse me of atheism. I am driven to avert this accusation, too, as far as I can.
3. The freedom to philosophize and to say what we think. This I want to vindicate completely, for here it is in every way suppressed by the excessive authority and egotism of the preachers.

Prejudice,  reputation and freedom. Crystal clear...

Why is this relevant? Because a clear definition of what you want to resolve and how is the answer from the very beginning, and that's forgotten far too often.

Great creative and incisive minds perhaps have an aptitude for clear vision from the very beginning. The rest of us have to learn how to approximate that clarity. But we can learn how to set that powerful a foundation for ourselves.

Genius is too important to be left to the genius.

Sing, muse!

Wordle is my new favorite toy. A great tool. Drop in text and it creates a world cloud for you. Words with greater frequency are bigger. Even better, it gives you the tools to play with fonts, colors and layout.

A great way to see trends in large bodies of information in a simple, graphic way.

This is my word cloud of Butler's translation of the Iliad, courtesy of MIT's Internet Classics Archive.

via Infosthetics