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.