Preposterous Propositions V: Make it Ownable

Outdoor common space, like the neighborhoods streets, is a luxury. But, all too often it's left marred with litter or graffiti or the like. So, today's preposterous proposition: develop a model that gives surrounding community a monetary stake in their neighborhood - some way that the value of the 'common space' can be directed tied to the value of the home. Of course this already happens in condo/gated communities, but what about urban areas?

Back to It.

It's been over a month since Truth Be Own has been given any love. It's like a lost toy left in the dark resources of my digital room. A lot has changed, new home, new job, new air and with these benchmarks comes new dedication.

Here we go.

FutureM: Where's the Talk On Internal Branding?

FutureM, a week-long series of panel discussions and presentations on the future of marketing, is going down in Boston this week. Not surprisingly, there has been a lot of discussion around leveraging social media. The common theme: make your brand authentic and find the most relevant tools to build meaningful connections with consumers. Conversation has been great, but there are two issues that feel underrepresented in the panels I've attended (caveat: other panels may be covering these):

• The evolution of the consumer and its affect on the brand/consumer relationship
  
• The importance of effective internal branding

While FutureM may not be the right forum for an in-depth discussion about the evolution of the consumer, I think this needs to be part of any conversation around the future of brand/consumer communications. Just a few thoughts:

• It goes beyond privacy. It's about openness and expectations. What are we sharing now that we weren't a few years ago? How are our conversations evolving? Can brands predict what we'll be sharing tomorrow (not virally, but what personal information will we be disclosing)?
• Why are the conversations taking place? Are the tools driving the conversations? Or is the desire to share driving the tools? What's happening in our culture?
  

Internal branding, on the other hand deserves a seat at the table, if not at the head of the table. Josh Bernoff, of Forester, touched on the topic, as did Rick Burnes, of Hubspot, but overall the discussion around brand integration/cultural cultivation is lacking. Here's a few points and an example or two (these are also half-baked but I wanted to get this out there):

• Employees, regardless of title or position, need to understand their impact on the consumer experience. Whether it's direct or indirect.
• A product/brand experience is born from culture. Everyone at a company contributes to that brand culture. Everyone.
• The entire marketing budget rides on the personal experience with your employee (if you're retail) or your product. All marketing tools are driving to one thing: a personal connection (whether it's a product or a purchase experience). Traditional or not, the goal of marketing is to get someone to buy something/engage with your brand. If that experience is negative, you're wasting your money.
  
• There's a lot of talk around humanizing a brand via social media and creating meaningful connections. The best way to make happen is to connect people with people.
• It's not just for brick n' mortar, this applies to online brands too. The experience may need to be modified slightly (think ease of use/functionality vs. friendly encounter with clerk at checkout) but the same principle holds true.
• Our favorite example: Zappos. A brand committed to service and making sure everyone understands the mission. Remember their practice of paying people to quit after orientation (article here)?
  

This is a small blog, and usually treated a journal more than anything. Admittedly this post is not as thorough as it should be, but I'd love to hear peoples thoughts on this. Am I missing some great discussions? Have some kick ass examples? Do I have it all wrong? Share. Talk amongst yourselves.

Just A Thought: Our Digital Tools Tell Stories

I'm reading AdAge's article on the team behind the simple, but amazing, Google Superbowl ad (it's below). Since I hadn't seen the ad in some time, I took another look. While watching it again (and guided with some extra focus from the article) I was struck by what is a seemingly obvious insight: we are indirectly writing our stories in the digital space through the tools we use. Yes, through blogs and free range editorial tools like Facebook and Twitter, but the stories there are intentional, contrived and exaggerated. Our search patterns, YouTube habits, RSS feeds, pornography viewing, online dating, length of a site stay etc. these are the real stories of who we are. It's the same as the tools used by our ancestors from hundreds of years ago. The tools we use reveal, perhaps better than any other way, the problems we are facing.

The web has in inadvertently become our own dynamic archeological site. I hope these stats are being recorded and decoded somewhere. Even if it means a violation of our privacy. After all, there is no privacy in anthropology or archeology. The Google 5 got this and made it beautiful.

I wish I had the fortitude to make this an amazing insightful article with samples...maybe sometime, for now let's mull on it.

Preposterous Propositions IV: Let No Wall Go Uncovered

Why do we leave our exterior walls barren and lonely? Paint them. Make them creative and beautiful. Challenge ourselves and the people around us.

Simple as that.

Building owners. Do not be complacent. Emptiness is not an option. Philly is doing it, as reported on NPR (this is a must listen). And Wooster Collective is full of examples of unbridled creativity, beauty and inspiration.

Just a thought.

A Digital Quilt: A Response Against Burning Things...Like Books

I'm blown away that after all the hundreds of thousands of years around this earth humans have yet to evolve beyond destroying things to solve their differences. There are signs everywhere but the hubub around this "International Koran Burning Day" is hitting me hard (you can hear more here or check the video below and of course they have a Facebook page here).

So I have a thought (albeit an incomplete one...please add and share). Simple as this. I want a digital representation of hope and unity. I want a digital quilt that unites all of us out there that know we are evolving to a more tolerant species. I want to collect images, ideas, video, all expressions of unity and weave them into an interactive digital fabric.

You may argue this is already being done by default (you know YouTube etc.)...but I want a 100% pure dedicated space that will serve as a direct response to demonstrations of hatred and intolerance. We could have separate quilts for different events/topics.

Beyond demonstrating our collective beauty and, well, reason... it would be a chance to steal some of the spotlight the radical movements get (which do nothing but further the volley of hatred). That way we can stop getting all excited about the handful of folks causing a ruckus and start focusing on what's going to make us better.

It's really as simple as that. I just need to find someone who loves the idea as much as I do to help me build it. I think all the tools exist. In a dream world this gets picked up tomorrow and we execute it before 9/11...oh ahem...International Koran Burning Day. Who wants to help?

Some other thoughts:

• It'd be neat to have the interface be like this: http://www.oskope.com/
• I think it would be cool if the "quilt" was laid out over a globe so you could see where the posts were coming from
• All forms of media should be accepted

Let the radicals try and tear things down, the rest of us will focus on building it up.

Here's an interview with CNN on hate:

What the Fuck Has Gotten into Cougar and Prince? Long Live Music on The Web

Pink houses, purple rain and internet hate. Son of a bitch. What are we supposed to do when the very pillars of our crumbling elitist rock community refuse to embrace our digital connectivity? A Spartan mountainside is calling. Leave the withering giants to the birds and yetis.

In the past few weeks Prince and John, formerly the Cougar, Mellencamp spit fiery hatred on our digital selves. Prince pronounced the internet dead and Cougar likened it to the atomic bomb. Pause for a moment and forgive the Cougs for invoking the atomic bomb.

So, after watching two amazing shows tonight on this archaic and wholly dangerous medium called the internet. I couldn't help but start to jot down a few examples of why the internet is pretty damn swell and more of a tool than a implement of destruction.

1. Radiohead in Prague
Radiohead gives members of the audience flip cameras. They record. Footage is edited by fans. Radiohead releases sound from show. Instant awesomeness.

2. Arcade Fire Live from MSG
On August 5, 2010 Arcade Fire teamed up with Terry Gilliam and digicasted (is that a word?) their show. It's up again for a limited time. Simply amazing.

3. Arcade Fire's The Wilderness Downtown
It's like a music video if someone progressive was to think about how we'd really want to watch a music video.

4. The myriad of random blogs I love.
Gorilla vs. Bear
Day Trotter
Stereo Gum
NPR Music & All Songs Considered (not to mention their first listens where you can listen to album before it's released)
Pitch Fork
La Blogotheque
When You Awake
...just to name a few we're barely scratching the surface

5. Mix Tapes and Sharing
Links have been taken down for some of the greatest namely: Wu Tang vs. The Beatles and The Gray Album. But the 500 Days of Weezy and Big Boi for Dummies will do.

That's just a start. The digital space isn't a beast onto itself. It's not an escaped monster that controls us. The digital world is an echo of our desires and our growth. To ignore this space is to ignore the evolution of our connectivity.

Data or Love?

I'm reading an article in warc's morning newsletter titled "Brand Owners Must Build New Marketing Systems". It provides great commentary on the need for brands to think beyond the banner ad and approach the digital space differently than traditional media, correctly stating "in a Web 2.0 world... [it] isn't simply a matter of throwing some banner ads against a few likely websites and seeing what sticks." I was expecting the article to take a deeper dive into relationship building, however what followed felt like more of the same old, advice... more 1.5 than 2.0:

Any adequate response to the evolving preferences of shoppers should be premised on exploiting the vast amount of data now available

More broadly, corporate leadership, skill sets and incentives ought to be "geared towards the digital world" rather than reinforcing outdated models

While the article (based largely on data from a recent Booz & Co report) is tactically focused, almost systems based (and presumably not meant to address communication/relationship strategy), the absence of brand culture and community building is hard to ignore.

It still surprises me, even when we're talking about amplification tools, that we can ignore the importance of brand integration and brand culture. Echoing what so many have said before: branding is no longer (nor should it ever have been) the sole responsibility of the marketing department. No matter how fine tuned a communications plan is, if brands continue to focus on a) marketing materials to carry the burden of the brand message and b) building a brand that is not lived and loved by ALL employees, meaningful connections will not be meaningful at all, they'll continue to be traditional advertising (maybe in a non-traditional format). Zappos, Patagonia, Apple etc. are all great cases of integrated branding done right. Comcast, just about every legacy carrier, Bank of America etc. are examples of integrated branding gone wrong.

Let's face it, there's no ignoring internal branding. Every interaction with a company from traditional mass communication to the mile long receipt you get on check out, is a brand experience that gets hardwired into the consumer's mind.

My point is this: while the digital world is quantifiable and measurable, its greatest asset is qualitative. It's the relationships it has enabled us to build. Rather than spend millions focusing on fine tuning metrics and determining the best time to email, allocate resources to defining the brand's personality and expressing that in a natural, human way. It's a damn shame that we've gotten to the point where this is synonymous with unconventional in the business world.

I've long heard the phrase data is king. It's time data took up an advisory role and brand culture took its rightful seat at the head of the table.

What Does Your Stream Look Like?

We make things too complicated.

And, while the list is long... I'm specifically referring to how we communicate. And that's not to say that we need to communicate more clearly or succinctly; after all, succinct communication takes effort, time and heavy filtering, which can ultimately lead to message alteration/loss of poignancy. We shouldn't create a mess of our words; but, we should be careful not to lose purity of meaning through our filters (let's learn a lesson from bottled water).

The above said. Here's the source of motivation: the work of artist Michal Kubacki, the man behind "timeless line" (note I'm not a fan of "branding" a technique, but I like the motivation behind this). Timeless line is an exploration of how the unfettered subconscious is expressed. It's direct, unfiltered art. And I dig it.

There's a lot to learn from an approach like Kubacki's. What happens when we deconstruct our filters? Are we, and our clients, doing ourselves an injustice by operating within the confines of social norms, tradition and the established service relationship? Does true synergy require the meeting of the subconscious?

Here's Kubacki's statement and a quick video. Thanks to Atielier29

It all began one day when I was drawing.

I began to realize that my subconscious, not my conscious self, was guiding my hand and I was merely holding the pen for my subconscious to draw through me. Upon this momentous realization, I began to notice life in different dimensions of time. This influenced me so much, that I could not deny absolute of being.

I draw "Alla prima" with ink, sometimes I use marker pen on paper. I invented a special technique which expresses my philosophy- TIMELESSLINE.'

Timeless drawing from Timelessline on Vimeo.

Instead of Starting to Do It Right, Let's Stop Doing it Wrong

I was listening to an interview with a retail manager at Macy's on NPR's Marketplace on my way home last week. They were discussing their new marketing strategy, which was in essence – listening to consumers, tracking what they purchased and holding events that were customized to the local demographic. Or, in other words, "looking for other ways to stand out...retailers are tailoring products to local shoppers."

In short, this particular Macy's had started to think and act like a community member instead of a mega corp. Fine and good, but what strikes me as odd is that we're talking about this strategy as if it's something new. If large corporations are just thinking of this strategy now (despite the fact that companies have been doing this for ages, not to mention the fact that the web is founded on customization) then...well shit, I'm at a loss for words.

It's time we, as consumers, demand more and we, as brand partners, help clients understand that the brand experience goes beyond logo and brand personality. It needs to be integrated into all facets of the business model from sourcing to web functionality to business process to how easy it is to open a package.

One Size Fits All Brand Strategy.

Name it Awesome.

Digital Distraction: What the F@ck Do I Care?

With Nicholas Carr's book, "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains," the ever persistent conversation about how new media channels are distracting, destroying and devolving us has chimed up again.

Here are my thoughts:

a) No one wanted to sit around and memorize poems, sonnets or biblical passages back in the day. There was nothing else to do. I guarantee you if there were Nielsen studies of home readership during the enlightenment, ratings would go way down if there was a really cool battle or something outside.

b) Now with sites like What the Fuck is My Social Media Strategy and What the Fuck Should I Make For Dinner I can afford to be distracted and waste time because these things do my work for me.

So stop bitching.

Spill Your Guts: Strategy & Intuition...Sitting in a Tree...

In a meeting earlier today, while discussing strategic direction for start-ups, someone chimed in "let's not plan to the point of perfection and sacrifice actually getting something done." It made me stop, smile, and remember that some of the greatest strategy is guided straight by the gut, influenced by opinion and cemented with passion.

I don't want to sit here pontificating on the reasons why this is the case; and sure enough, this is nothing new...the same "don't ignore your gut" advice is in every book on planning. However, at the end of the day, a strategy is only as good as its execution. And that's one huge advantage of a direction that the team is emotionally invested in...it's a hell of a lot easier to get excited about sound strategy built on sweat and love than reams of quantitative and piles of binary. Which begs the question, how good are you at selling the "unromantic."

Preposterous Propositions III: Personal Energy Meters // Bringing Energy Use Closer to Home

This installment of Preposterous Propositions is based observation, assumption and intuition (a winning combination).

The Preposterous Proposition.
Place "sub-meters" on all residential energy meters requiring consumers to purchase energy in small "installments." The meters act as "gas tanks" for home energy consumption (not large oil tanks filled once every few months). The digital meters would provide analytics on energy use and the current rate. Users would use a credit/debit card or online account to refill the "tank."

The Observation.
When gas prices go up, travel goes down. We self regulate when can directly we see the implications of our consumption on a small scale.

The Assumption.
Our current payment model for energy use is archaic and makes energy consumption an ambiguous number on a bill. Consumers are only concerned about the bottom line and keeping that number in an acceptable (aka affordable) realm.

The Intuition.
In order to change our behavior we need models that support our behavioral patterns. Asking consumers to change habits without providing proper support for doing so is like asking us to drive a 55 on the autobahn and enforcing the speed limit only using signs.

The Web: The Great Aggregator / Stating the Obvious

Part of shutting out the broadcast signal, or rather the cable blur, from my life was an attempt to push boundaries of experience and redefine media/information consumption. It's been over a year now and just a few months since I've started this blog. And I wanted to reflect a brief moment.

It wasn't until I truly started to dig into assets like Twitter and the Blogosphere that I realized the impact and possibility of what we are creating. We have condensed the world. It's cliche to say that the world is getting smaller, I know. But I don't mean "condensed" in the sense of homogeneity and singularity, but literally condensed. The web is a living journal, anthropology in motion. It is (and this has become one of my favorite phrases) "the great aggregator." It has brought all our interests into a central location, enabled communities to develop where there were none.

Another, disconnected point: is that very few of us use the web for purely web based things. We use it as a tool to share, to research, to learn, to connect, but most of the pay off happens in the corporeal world. I expect that to change in the future, we've already seen it start with ebooks and movies.

What I appreciate about the web is its depth. After skimming through the endless sheen of superficial information, users have access to the brightest, most innovative minds in their respected fields, or the best gossip, or most entertaining videos...it's endless. And with that comes connection. In addition to aggregation, the web has become an open forum that has redefined "popularity" and reconstructed "elite."

The bottom line is that this truly is anthropology in motion. And the web exists because of the connections we make through it. And without those connections there wouldn't be much of a web at all, just flailing sinews.

Preposterous Propositions II: Real-time Vehicle Monitoring for All?

This is a short edition of Preposterous Propositions, with a simple question - why don't we mandate black boxes in cars, or at the least public transportation/vehicles...or maybe we do and I'm not aware? I'm a little in love with the possibilities (and security) that come with OnStar. In-vehicle monitoring should not be limited to a paid service.

I don't know if I am ready to support real-time monitoring of all vehicles on the road; but I wholly support monitoring of public vehicles and a some sort of accident reporting/recording system for all vehicles. Lives and money would be saved.

With the above comes the inevitable question of privacy, a subject too big to tackle here. Suffice to say, in my opinion the definition of privacy is constantly evolving and, what are rigid boundaries now, will soon turn porous against the wave of digital and social advancement.

The Advertising Challenge & Johnny Cash's One Piece at a Time

I'm rereading Jon Steel's Truth, Lies & Advertising. In the opening chapter he addresses the ever-persistent rift between effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency, Steel explains is "doing something the right way" and effectiveness is "doing the right thing." A narrow minded, intense focus on "the right way" leads to the wrong results. In other words, if we're too focused on checking the boxes, we're likely to miss the intangible that make things work beautifully.

It's a forest through the trees thing and his point reminds me of the challenges agencies and brands are facing today. Looking down briefs, processes and project requirements, too often we're hitting check boxes blindly in an effort to meet productivity goals and get a project out the door. The effect, as Steel writes, is a tightly manicured, but misguided product

In my own view, the advertising industry too often preaches effectiveness while actually pursuing efficiency, transforming...a real world of difficult decisions and uncertain evidence into a comfortingly simplified one where indicies of performance are hard facts...

A friend sent me this video this morning, and I couldn't help but draw the parallel. And as I wrote this...Johnny Cash came to mind. In both cases all the pieces are there, the boxes are checked...so we've got efficiency covered...how about effectiveness?

Harvard Tea: Brand Micro-culture...or Synchronisity?

I made a mistake today when I was on Harvard's campus. While at the university's bookstore, I saw a POS display promoting "Well Red" tea from Republic of Tea. Guessing the tea company was nodding to the Harvard Crimson, I thought "shit, that's smart...make a tea blend specifically for a stressed-out audience and tap into their demonstrated enthusiasm. Way to integrate yourselves and way to think of a small audience with potential huge payoff..." But I was wrong...the "red" in "Well Red" is a line of tea using the red tea roobios as its main ingredient.

Despite the mistake, the idea is born from brand association/sponsorship that has been around for ages from toys in Happy Meals to product placement (Audi anyone?)...brands have always been looking for the right opportunity to integrate themselves into their audiences' lives.

It's almost cliche to say it, but with the increased clutter/competition brands face in the market and an audience that is ever distracted, integration is more important than ever. However, in my truly humble "bloggy" quick opinion, I'd argue there's potential for brands to do a better job with their partnerships.

What struck me about my make believe Republic of Tea/Harvard partnership was that a) tea is a perfect product for stressed out college students b) it was an inventive use of red tea and c) it was an example of brand micro-culture, which, in essence is why we love the web. It was the long tail theory in practice in the corporeal world - as if someone was saying "you like tea, you like Harvard, there's a product for you." It's that type of intimate, close to personalized connection, that once made relationships between brands and consumers so great (way back before mass production) and the web has made so great again. Just sayin'....

Have an example? Share it.

What Am I To Do With This CD?

I loaded a real live CD into my computer today for the first time in months. It had music on it. And I wanted to listen to that music. So I took said CD, inserted it into the drive in my computer, after a few moments my computer registered said CD and my experience began. I was bored. Yes I had the music (which was great) but I wanted more. I took out the booklet that accompanied said CD, read it. It was full of insightful, curious, mind bending information, like where the CD was made, who the sound techs were, and most importantly...the lyrics. The lyrics to the songs that I was listening to. It was a multi-dimensional experience. And I was blown away...the only thing missing were my 3D glasses.

The fact is, downloading music from a CD is ridiculous. I don't see any merit in it...the sound quality between a CD and music from the interweb is the same when I am listening on my computer and the difference is negligible from downloaded song to stereo vs. CD to stereo (whereas vinyl is a totally different experience).

The process made me realize how much I a) appreciate blogs and music websites and those folks who pour their hearts out to make listening to music a broad experience...an act of discovery and b) the innate social value that music has and c) the compact disk's coldness and uselessness.

Prince, I love you but the web is not dead...and it's poetic that you released your CD with a medium that may truly be dying...newsprint.

Now I have coasters.

Preposterous Propositions I: Tubular Transport

Public transportation is underutilized, underdeveloped and a poor example of our fine nation's innovation and social achievements. It's equally obvious that our cities' streets are cluttered with inefficient delivery vehicles often idling and exhaling their carcinogens to an already troubled atmosphere.

Today's Preposterous Proposition is a birds and stones solution (you know...two for one): Dedicate a number of subway cars for freight, build an infrastructure to support quick offloading and transfer deliveries to electric/clean energy light vehicles that will complete short delivery to destinations in a select radius around each stop. In peak hours delivery trucks would be banned from city limits, except for special exceptions and a toll would be charged for delivery trucks that need to come into city limits. POW.

Designer Philip Hermes presented a similar concept titled Urban Mole for the 2009 VisionWorks Awards. The system used pneumatic tubes to deliver smaller goods.


http://www.visionworksaward.com/05-winner/second.html

Welcome to Preposterous Propositions

Truth Be Own gets a new section today. A home to random ideas. They are poorly researched, vague and whimsical; in short, everything a blog should be. It's an idea bin full of bad, good, absurd and genius... guaranteed it will not be well thought out. It's the digitization of my notebooks and will be added to revised, reformed and remade. Get ready.

col*LAB*orate IV: Canned Beauty

Via unconventional art watch, Wooster Collective, comes news of a new installation of ProjectorRoom from Agents of Change. In ProjectorRoom, three members of Agents of Change work from the same canvas building off, and deconstructing each other's work in an organic collaboration. It's an unplanned unified vision driven by movement.

Dig.

col*LAB*orate III: If Monsters Can, Why Can't We?

Selecting Sesame Street for our next installment in the col*LAB*orate series was an obvious choice, the challenge is which feature of the production should be highlighted. Sesame Street bridged the socio/economic divide, it captured the spirit of the time, it taught kids, it taught adults and it was funny as all hell. But above all, what really struck me about this show, was its far fetched approach to diversity and tolerance.

Henson and his team tackled these mammoth topics with a light-hearted, caviler nature that we all too often shelf when we attack big issues. So we're tipping our hats to one of the most perfect col*LAB*orations I know, the bond between monsters and humans on Sesame Street...teaching us that if Grouchy-Trash-Can-Living Creatures, OCD Counting Nobility, Imaginary Animals, Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Asians, Old, Young and everyone else can get along...what's our problem?

Thanks to A&E Biography for their inspiration from their feature on Sesame Street.

Paradigm Shifting & Brand Cultures

During this morning's reading I came across little description of paradigm shifts via Erik Du Plessis in The Advertised Mind. Some of my favorite lines follow

• A paradigm shift derives from a discovery in one field, but a major shift affects other fields as well...
• Many people cling to the old paradigm even after it is clear that the new one is a better fit with experience...
• When there is a shift to a new paradigm previous knowledge makes more sense...
  

We are in the midst of a full fledged paradigm shift. The sinewy threads of the World Wide Web have connected folks previously stranded on an island of their peculiar interests (both personal and brand related). There are communities for everything. It's a cross section of celebrating individuality and a threat of homogeneity as we all discover that we're not that unique.

One implication, that we've written about before and continue to be enthralled with, is the effect of transparency and the aggregation of information. The Internet has reinforced our natural desire to build and interact with cultures, not just objects or products. And that is a clear paradigm shift. We're all recognizing the impact of our purchase decisions and that a purchase supports more than a product, it supports an entire brand culture.

More than ever, brands need to understand they are a culture and that a consumer's purchase is an investment into that culture. Likewise, as consumers evolve they will need to understand the power of their purchase. With the web making transparency and sharing easier and easier, we can expect to see some exciting changes and advancements in conscientious consumption and consumer communities.

Blogs vs. Crate Diving

I came across this amazing cover of Roy Ayer's "Everybody Loves the Sunshine" by Seu Jorge on Now Again Records buy the album here. It melted me. It got me thinking...is blog searching the new crate diving? As said before, I've long admired those with the patience to dig through crates of vinyl and find hidden gems. It's an art form. But this morning as I started to catch up on some daily reading, I started jumping from blog to blog, digging deeper and deeper into the depths of inspiration, friends and like minded ears. I started to think...is this the next generation of crate diving? Are we in the digital music dive? Just a smidge of what I'm truly loving right now (this list will grow):

Gorilla vs. Bear
Now Again Records
Daytrotter
Comb & Razor
When You Awake's Mixtapes
NPR's Music
Pitchfork's Forkcast
Funky 16 Corners

Music Videos. Why?

Earlier in the week STARWORKS highlighted new videos for MGMT and Mike Snow and I couldn't help but ask, why? Music videos used to have cache; they connected a fan to a song in a new way. But then MTV, slutted itself out to Jersey Shore and the likes (oh and if you haven't checked out the Jersey Shore Nickname Generator on Unlikely Words, do so) and we were left with a channel that promotes sterility over music.

But then comes along the Web giving us new ways to connect with music we love (which parallels nicely to the demise of all things music on MTV). The kids love it. And musicians do too. All sorts of inventive things are happening out there (check out last month's post on collaboration here). But the question remains...why traditional music videos? Rarely are they engaging or inventive. Rather than build a weak three minute story that costs millions to produce...why not build some equity in the band's culture, invite the audience in and encourage them to share? Take the below...which is is more compelling? which inspires sharing? and most of all which makes you want to engage with the band?



OR this?

an EVEning with Ray Bradbury

if it's work. stop it. do something else. it should be fun. loves should be multiple.

you're subconscious is telling you i don't like you anymore. i set out to have a hell of a lot of fun.

aRt.

via one of my favorite resources for street art, Wooster Collective, comes this beautifully subtle response to our slimy friends at BP by artist: aprovocateur.

col*LAB*orate II: Oxfam & Thao

Limiting collaboration to just one post is silly. The entire digital world is built on collaboration, sharing, connecting and more... so we're (er...I) will be blowing this thing out deeper, exploring more and adding, adding, adding.

I've got a list an arm's length long and I stumble across more everyday, but today I got notice from Oxfam America about an exclusive release of a video collaboration from Thao Nguyen (of Thao and the Get Down Stay Down) and Dianna Argon from Glee. Check it:



The video is fun, but I really get excited about is the connection between Thao & Oxfam America. In an evolving age of consumerism and connection, brand experiences need to be thought of less as product/mission focused and more experiential communities. It's not new, but the power of a global community has made it easier and more important. We're all looking for opportunities to learn more, be clued in and plugged in. And why shouldn't that come from the brands that we know and trust? Expose me to the culture that makes your brand (and, logically, product, great and right for me).

In the case of Oxfam, chances are I'm not always going to be in the mood to hear about global calamity, but I love the organization and there's no reason why they shouldn't be exposing me to their culture and what inspires them. Zappos is a perfect example of this, check out their corporate culture page here.

I don't want to pretend that this isn't already happening. Brands like Scion, Mountain Dew, Red Bull...are all well versed in experience marketing through event sponsorships and the like. But that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for raw brand culture, community building and more collaboration between like-minded partners.

Crossroads of Quantity and Quality and Depth

The digital world has changed the way we read in so many ways, but perhaps the most profound is our instantaneous access to supportive services that augment the reading experience. Our entire life is footnoted and annotated, and the Web provides quick access to reams of data that have the potential to enrich our reading experience or distract the hell out of us. And with the introduction of multi-purpose reading devices like the iPad the boundary between data and the reading experience will become even thinner. So the challenge is this...in a society where information moves quicker than we can grasp how will we adapt to this thinner boundary between content and supportive information? For example, I am reading an old favorite The Count of Monte Christo in the traditional format. As publishers evolve the reading experience, my current footnotes on the various histories of France, which I can barely grasp or care to, will turn into multidimensional voyages, giving me an opportunity to become an expert on important things like Elba. So an item I once may have glossed over in the past now has the capability of consuming my interest.

We're at a crossroads. When technology first launched it was all about quantity, how much information can you absorb how many friends/fans do you have, how many blogs do you subscribe to etc. We are now approaching the point of enrichment. How do you make my experience better, how do I get more out of the information that you're giving me, who are the quality friends/fans. It's the murmuring of a retaliation against the information onslaught. The question is are we ready for more quality? Or are we satisfied with chewing the information cud like we have been?

Marine Week: Guns & Merry-Go-Rounds

Last week was Marine Week in Boston. What had the potential for a patriotic assembly in honor of the men and women serving their country, felt more like a fairground for weaponry; like field day but with guns, trucks and death machines.

The homepage for Marine Week says that visitors can “expect to see Marines volunteering with community groups, hosting physical fitness challenges and sports clinics in city parks and showcasing state-of-the-art Marine vehicles, aircraft and equipment.” The challenge is that when we talk about “state-of-the-art equipment” we're really talking about weapons; and weapons are designed for one thing – to kill (er...umm “defend”). So while the PR knife can cut this into a neat shape, what I walked into on the the Boston Common was a display of America's force, complete with hundreds of kids (and adults) running from one weapon to another to explore our “state-of-the-art”-ness/ability to kick some ass. Oh and there was a merry-go-round too.



It's unrealistic to think that we have evolved beyond the need for weapons and that diplomacy will reign supreme. However, displaying weapons in this forum, completely removed from the severity of their invention, has an odd effect. Weapons out of context (and by context I mean people shooting at each other and the ramifications of ending life) are cool, hence the popularity of combat video games. So when the Marines set up camp and show off their equipment it's simple to guess how kids are going to react: they were psyched, running around from gun to gun, playing war and imaging the glory of battle. In short, they were entertained. Which begs the question: are enrollment numbers so off that recruitment has devolved to entertainment and gadgetry as opposed to duty and honor? After a visit to Marine Week I was left with one impression: if you want to play with this stuff for real: Join us.

This begs a deeper exploration.



This post is riddled with disclaimers and it reflects an hour walk through the event and about an hour of observation. Truth Be Own is all about opinions and observation, so unbunch the panties and take it for what it's worth. Oh...and I more than willing support the folks who lay it on the line, but like most others I hope for a different answer.

R.O.C.K.E.R.S & the Magic of Ernie B

At 20 years old I had dreadlocks to the middle of my back, a radio show called The Electric Church, a healthy dose of self righteousness and a serious love of reggae. Sans dreadlocks and radio show, armed with touch of self righteousness and a crate of vinyl I'm wandering through the yester-years. And it made me want to share.

Before there was the endless swath of digitized music, finding the gems was a rare art that required utmost patience. I did not possess such patience, but I did have a healthy love for music and the catalog to Ernie B's reggae super store. Tonight, inspired by the sounds of the R.O.C.K.E.R.S. soundtrack I set out on the world wide web to see if Ernie made it across the digital divide. He has: http://www.ebreggae.com/. My life will never be the same.

Oh and if you haven't see R.O.C.K.E.R.S - good god - dig it:



Chalk up. Break out the headphones. Dive in.

Knock. Knock. Who's There? NPR!

I had a love-hate relationship with National Public Radio for years. I loved the idea of great news radio but I felt distanced by random high-brow-esque stories from random Cambridgites who felt the need to extol the virtues of tracing their lineage to the Mayflower. Between this and the sometimes esoteric stories about making butter in the region once known as Tibet, I felt NPR was anything but public radio, unless of course your idea of the public is stuffy white folk.

Now, I am in love. It took the beautifully shrill voice of Ira Glass on This American Life. Nerdy? Yes. Amazingly simple, down to earth and honest? Checks across the board. This American Life delivers stories in a truly accessible voice with the right amount of entertainment and weight to engage listeners of all types from all walks...you know, the public. The most amazing story ever told is The Giant Pool of Money. The most glorious way to learn how the capitalistic system nearly hung itself.

I just want to say thanks to Ira and the team. Especially the folks over at Planet Money . A team dedicated to kicking your ass into an economic powerhouse (or at least someone who understands what the hell is going on).

col*LAB*orate

Artists getting together. Getting together to make things. Giving things they make to the people. What more can you ask for?

I get all romantic and jealous when I think of Harlem jazz gods floating in and out of hole in the wall joints and blessing lucky bar goers with epic phonic journeys. And like all narrow minded soldiers of today I think...shit why couldn't I have been part of that. And that's bullshit. Yes those were great times, but today with the digital wonderweb connecting everyone we get glimpses into greatness. And I love it.

So with that set up. We direct you to Beck and his merry making rock n rollers. True there's oodles of amazing music and great collaborators and we'll talk more about them later, but right now it's Beck's Record Club project that has me hooked. Simple: friends hang out. pick records to cover. record it. we watch. I dare you to ask for more. Right now it's INXS. Dig on.

Record Club: INXS "New Sensation" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Digital Vinyl Sorted by Others

Crate diving is a romantic exercise I’ve long admired. But I lack the fortitude and endless curiosity (not to mention patience) that’s required for this pastime. I’m lucky to have discovered three partners that challenge my ears and expand my soul.

Javelin

Two friends, who are cousins, making music out of everything and anything, yelling poetically and making your heart skip a beat.

Funky Sixteen Corners

A man with more records than I can imagine, makes playlists that inspire you to shake and move and fall in love with the past and the future.

Chances With Wolves

A street-side radio show with soul.