manage to experience

Three (of many) valid answers to "Isn't self involvement the key ingredient in any ad agency? What differentiates them otherwise? What agency isn't like that?"

Questions from @paulblaser.

1. Yes, if your brand's best hope is to bask in the creative glow of a hot agency.
2. Perhaps, so long as ad industry awards and kudos don't take the place of meeting clients' strategic objectives.
3. No, if you run across an agency that knows its strengths, understands its clients' businesses, and is focused on the clients' success.

Read this essay about Howard Gossage (MS Word document). It's a window into thinking that has inspired my outlook on the ad business. Gossage was a copywriter and agency owner whose sophisticated understanding of the ad game still stands out today. He understood audiences as contributors (a view that presaged interactive marketing), the influence of media as more than a set of communication channels, and the need to engage the world in meaningful ways. He was interested in more than advertising; he was interested in life, a point of view that steps beyond mere self-involvement, and one that's still valid today.

Not that he wasn't damned good at creating advertising, of course.

Agree to these 3,696 words and you can follow WalMart on Twitter

Forget about just clicking that "follow" button. The SM gurus in Bentonville want your agreement to 6 single-spaced pages of terms and conditions, before you read their tweets.

The more relaxed Target, on the other hand, attaches no strings to their invitation to follow. Ditto for the super-enthusiastic tweeters at KMart. 

UPDATE: WalMart revises its Twitter TOS. That was quick.

Fake Steve cuts to the chase, explains Chrome

Leave it to a fictitious character to explain why Google's announcement of a new operating system is less than it seems. Read the whole thing, but here's a taste:

"Forgive me if I'm missing something here, but I don't see how a free OS or a free browser helps Google. To put it another way, have you ever met anyone who said they'd really like to try out that Interwebs thing, but they're just put off by the low-quality operating systems and browsers that are available at this time, so they're sitting it out for now? Or like maybe they're on the Internet now but they would just be soooo inclined to spend soooo much more time on the Web, and they'd be soooo much more likely to actually click on the ads, if the OS and browser made it somehow less onerous to, um, type in a URL and go to a page?"

Your company can be a star

via youtube.com

This is a little song...a song about a little airline that broke a guitar...and then passed the buck.

With the right degree of indifference to customers, any business can become the star of a widely seen music video.

Wrapping up a customer survey for an agency client.

WSJ: Martin Guitar revives Depression era strategy

The Wall Street Journal reports that Martin Guitar, which relies on hand work for much of its manufacturing, is retaining its skilled workforce by ramping up production of its solid-wood, 1-series guitar, which retails for under $1,000: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683752846098045.html.

On Posterous

Compared to Twitter, posting to a blog is cumbersome. But my experience with Posterous, an email posting-based blog platform, demonstrates that blogging – and simultaneously posting to other social networks – can be quite easy.

August Insights for June 2009

The latest issue of August Insights, my consultancy's e-newsletter, went out today. You can read it online, and even subscribe if it strikes a chord. This month's issue asks if the traditional Web site, as organizational online presence, is past its expiration date. And, I point out the lesson that Amazon's Kindle can teach us about our customers.

One in an occasional series of status updates

Clearly, posting here has been on the light side. Between a crush of projects with longtime clients, starting up a consulting gig for a new client (B2B services), and juggling a variety of other items, I haven't devoted much time to this poor blog.

That's not to say I'm inattentive to my online presence. Rather, I've been spending more time with Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and LinkedIn. Each plays a role in keeping me connected, and in the flow of shared ideas.

This will come as no surprise to Twitter users, but the platform generates the most interest among clients and colleagues, while being the least understood. My advice to them: Get an account, start using it, and the value will become clear.

Web analytics + user experience

I'm in the early stages of working with a new client to improve the user experience of his company's Web site, and in turn, increase site traffic conversions.

This presentation captures some of the substance of our conversations – understanding what is happening on the site in its current state, why users responses to the site, and using that knowledge to improve the user experience and boost business.

There are a few too many slides, but it's a relatively quick scan:

Marrying Web Analytics and User Experience

View more presentations from Louis Rosenfeld.