Kid Confidence

My son is doing his first science experiment at school.  I convinced him, even though the electric principles are beyond his 3rd grade curriculum, to build different sized batteries from quarters from a project in The Dangerous Book for Boys, and to measure the difference in voltage.  The principles of electricity were easy for him to pick up using the analog of water flowing through a river.  My greater hope was just that it would force him to focus, to read and understand reasonably complex instructions, and to apply a discipline to perform and report on his work.  Regardless of the outcome, that is what his teachers are looking for, learning and applying the scientific method.

He Blinded me with Science!

He's been worried about this project for a while.  Last night, we built a test battery, so he could become comfortable with it.  Today, he presents his project and the hypothesis he wants to test to his classmates.  I told him, as we built the battery, to document the steps in his notebook, to help him commit them to memory.  We built the battery successfully, and he measured the voltage with a multimeter (~1.7V, for those morbidly curious).  We then ate Pork Meatball Banh Mi sandwiches, which were awesome, but that's another story...

After we built the battery, documented it, and ate our sandwiches, he had to practice his speech.  This terrified him.  I gave him all the usual tips: to relax and breath, to simplify messages so they were easier to remember, and to practice.  The most important advice I gave him, though, was when I asked him if anyone in the class knew how to make a battery, he told me no, not even the teacher.  So, he was the expert.  His little Chicken McNugget brain lit up, and he got more and more confident while he practiced.  He stopped sticking his hands in his pants.  He stopped rocking back and forth and making us seasick.  He starting nailing his speech.

It's tough to separate which comes first, confidence or focus.  This morning, my son woke up and gave an excellent speech about his project and what he was going to prove, in front of the camera.  He wondered out loud if he would become a scientist, or maybe a sports broadcaster.

Either way, be the expert in everything you do.  The confidence and focus it provides is incredible.  It even keeps you from putting your hands in your pants while speaking in public.

When Mobile Stole Xmas

From the initial indicators, mobile is having a distinct impact this holiday shopping season.  With online sales growing almost 40% during Thanksgiving, mobile traffic almost tripled!  iPad and iPhone traffic alone accounted for 10.2% of Black Friday traffic, according to a report from IBM Coremetrics.  There are recommendations for apps to load to simplify or make holiday shopping better.  Holiday couch commerce is born.

The important point for most retailers and consumer package goods companies to realize is that mobile, even more than traditional PC, has an impact all the way through the consumer journey: from awareness through loyalty.   Sometimes the shopping experience might start with the PC web or tablet or even the mobile, if the consumer is on-the-go, but can be finished through any other channel, often in store.   For what can be controlled, it's important that the experience is holistic, and the consumer state is passed seamlessly from one channel to the next to continually crown the customer and make them feel special.

There's no one-sized-fits-all strategy for mobile, as many consumers start with web or mobile search and end in the store.  However each consumer uses mobile this holiday shopping season, one point is clear: consumers don't leave home without it.

What's in the Cookies?

My mom bakes a lot.  Some people bite their nails when they are restless or nervous.  Bubs bakes.  She can whip up some chocolate chip cookies like others blink.  She puts everything in the cookies: raisin, nuts (or as my niece instructed once, "no gnats, please"), raisins...you-name-it.  We joke that if you're too quiet or still in the kitchen, you'll end up in the cookies.

She used to bake cheescakes for local restaurants.  She had a list of 49 different flavors that the restaurants could choose from, to rival Baskin-Robbins' 49 flavors of ice cream, at the time.  We used to help her bake them sometimes, after school, up at the fraternity on Lafayette College, where she used to cook after my parents were divorced.  It was all fun, however, I rarely eat cheesecake anymore.  Like maybe once or twice in the last 30 years.

There's always a cookie jar at my mom's house.  Always a stash of something sweet somewhere.  Always some new baking idea that must be discussed and obsessed over.  My wife also loves to bake and bakes well, too.  I think of it as a gauntlet for my health and waist.  Kind of like Cookie Frogger.  We find ourselves baking with the kids on Saturday or Sunday afternoons, when there is nothing to do.  Some brownies.  A batch of Alfajores.  Some Dulce de Leche Cheesecake Bars, which may have been one of the times I ate cheesecake in the last 30 years.

The children are easy to corrupt in this way.  And, the cycle continues.

Free Beer

I live in Texas, and I’ve dreamed of improving my guitar skills, starting a band, and leaving the marketing and technology world behind.  I would name my band Free Beer.  We’d play Texas Rock, some Blues, and throw in an occasional Radiohead song to keep the audience on their toes.  You’d drive down the local Farm-to-Market road by Joe’s Roadhouse, and the sign would read, “Free Beer Tonight.”  Sure, we might need to find a new town to play in, every night, to make the marketing ploy effective, but, hey, Texas is a big place!

Jamming or constipated?

Yesterday, our excellent Marketing Director sent me a link to a new mobile app produced for Moosejaw outfitters, called Moosejaw Xray (Android, iPhone).  Download it.  It corresponds to their winter catalog, and it uses augmented reality to give shoppers a more risqué view of the models in their catalog, without all those puffy, winter outer garments. 

As the male of the species, I found the marketing ploy intriguing.  I must study this catalog, intently.  As a marketer, however, I wondered if their budget would have been better spent elsewhere.  Hey, I admit, I downloaded it and looked at their catalog.  I even tweeted about it, and now I am writing a blog entry, referencing their campaign.  It’s got sexy women in lingerie, for Pete’s sake, what am I supposed to do, ignore it?

The reality is, however, they don’t sell the under garments, from what I can tell, so the campaign is really about generating buzz and brand awareness.   I don’t know Moosejaw, but I’d guess that the campaign is in line with their brand, as well.  It’s probably not a bad idea, in the end, but I just wonder if they will need to find a new town to play in the next time.

When Good Mobile Design Goes Bad

The average Joe or Josephine thinks of good design, and they think about how good something looks.  As my user experience colleagues would argue, beauty is not skin deep.  Many excellent designs are the results of tireless and maniacal focus to a tight set of goals and inherent acumen to user design that is applied to a product, from components to packaging and everything within.

When something is designed well, it appeals to you from the first look, the first touch, and every interaction you have with it through your experience.  I was reminded of great design and poor design at the same time, from the same product, this weekend.  My Sony Ericsson Bluetooth HBH-IS800 Headset.

Recently, I learned that I could link my American Express points with Amazon (awesomeness!), which has led me to buy many things that I may not have necessarily needed, including this headset.  I bought it so I could jog and listen to podcasts, without the nuisance of the cord that I occasionally yank out with my clumsy arms.  I am not beauty in motion, mind you.

So, as you can see from the photo, the headset is amazing, in that its minimal, simple, and extremely light for a stereo wireless headset.  Exactly what I needed for running.

Now, look at the power adapter.  This has been my pet peeve for years with mobile phones and laptop computers.  Electrical designers would skimp on the power design and have these massive bricks that you would need to charge the phones.  So, the phone would be thin and light, but the power brick would be just that, a brick!

Sony-Ericsson has had this particular accessory/power adaptor for at least 13 years.  Look at the sleek, simple headphones plugging into this odd adaptor.  There are multiple ways to plug it in, but only one of them is right.  The power brick is bigger and heaver than the headphones.  Looking at the two connected puts visions in my mind of a nice sports car with rims from low-cost, value car.  Ideally, this should be able to plug in to a USB port, so I would not have to bring this extra cord when I travel.

Needless to say, with good design, the experience pleases from start to finish.  There's no use having a tiny laptop with a huge power brick, unless you are promising unlimited battery life, so I can travel without compromise.  Focused goals and vision, attention to every detail, and a disciplined regimen of user experience from the beginning of the produce process to the end.

3 Fatal Misuses of Market Research

I'm not blogging to knock audience measurement or market research.  It put bread on my table for 3 years, while I worked at The Nielsen Company.  My advice, if the numbers don't help your story, turn the graph 90 degrees and check again.  You won't be the first marketing person to do so.

Do blogger moms think I'm sexy?

Having seen the sausage being made, I can say there is more science to it then some would care to recognize, but, still, I see people quote stats all the time and make three fatal errors of market data usage:

1. Asking and understanding the methodology: What were the questions asked, or sometimes, more importantly, what was asked?  Who did they ask?  How many people did they ask?  Was the sample representative?  One classic case you see in reporting on mobile phone sales is comparing sell-through numbers with sell-to numbers.  What's in consumers hands vs. on shelves.  Big difference.
2. Market research is only directional for the innovator: If research data could predict the future, a lot of Nielsen, Gartner, Forrester, IDC, etc. analysts that I know would be retired on a beach somewhere.  They're not.  Data can definitely give you both a status of where the world stands today, and trends, so they offer great directional insight.  When it comes to innovation, however, that's probably the limit.  I've had people ask me if I had research which would validate the innovations they had planned.  That's equivalent to expecting people to say they wanted the Facebook before it was available.
3. Cite your source: If you are going to use some data, cite the source and date of the data.  Otherwise, I can assume you made it up, or its 3 years old, which is okay if your nostalgic, but not so cool, if you are trying to make informed decisions.

Have a good weekend.  I don't have the data to prove that it's going to be good.  I just have a feeling.

Android, Screen, Me, Tide, Bad

The Weekly Wrap

Monday: Android

Tuesday: Screen

Wednesday: NFC

Thursday: Me

Friday: Tide

Saturday: Bad

Sunday: Family

Enjoy!

Family Meal

As we all wrap our work to depart on our family adventures for Thanksgiving, it made me think of the great meals that I have had.  While there have been some good food that I have had, while traveling, alone, all the good meals have been with friends and family.

Thanksgiving with family at Uncle Eddie's in Rockaway Beach.  Bad Excuse Dinners in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress with friends.  That 9-course meal with Tatiana our first time in Paris together a La Table d'Anvers.  Team dinner at Doug's house, when he would flex his culinary skills with Northern Italian cuisine.  In New York City, with Bubs, at the Spice Market, when she had a childhood neighbor walk in and surprise me.

I love food.  It just taste better with friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Bad Design! Bad, Bad Design!

I stumbled across this website today, which points out the poorer choices in mobile web design that many have made across the Internets.  It's educational, entertaining, and just fun.  It's like the People of Walmart for nerds and designers.  Just not quite as funny.  Or shocking.

Having said that, I agree with some of the sentiment that is noted in tweets that they present, there is no mobile web, just the web.  With good, modern responsive design, companies and agencies can develop one website for most modern devices.

The Boston Globe did this and claimed a lot of notoriety for their work.  I like the way that the user experience scales down appropriately as you resize the browser window to smartphone and feature phone sizes.

It's interesting, as the questions for brands has shifted from "should I do a mobile web site" or "should I do mobile web or mobile apps" to "should I redesign my .com site to be responsive to serve all devices"?

The Tide is High

My least favorite Blondie's song.  I prefer One Way or Another, Call Me, or Heart of Glass, not the calypso rhythms of The Tide is High.  It's actually sad to watch the videos posted on Youtube, like One Way or Another, as we must have been very gullible as children, as they are not even trying hard to pretend they are lip-synching the song.  The electric instruments are not even plugged into anything!

But, alas, I am not reminiscing about 1980 this morning, but rather a small business lesson that I learned over the years during a previous boom and bust cycle from yesteryear.  When the tide is high, it hides a lot of garbage on the beach.  When you are in a business or market that is growing, it's easy to get caught up and be happy that you are growing and profitable.  It's really important to inspect the infrastructure that you are building and be honest and open to review failures to understand the causes and take definitive action.  When the tide is high, those failures might not seem as important, but when the tide goes down, you'll notice how they litter the entire beach.

It's easier to grow in a growth market.  A great business can grow and be profitable in stagnent and depressed markets, as well.

Me, Myself and I

Nothing that Mike likes talking about more than Mike.

"Your customers are mobile, are you?"

If you are really a glutton for punishment, or maybe high and need a giggle, and you missed ad:tech New York City, you can check out my two sessions on Tablets In Marketing:

How We Really Use Them
Innovations Beyond the Screen

Touch Me

No, we're not talking Penn State football today.  Is it too soon to joke about that?

We are doing many campaigns at work that integrate SMS or scanning of Quick Response (QR) codes that allow shoppers to engage more with retail or brands, while shopping.  Sometimes, it's additional information or comparisons.  Other times, its to get a quick link to something else, like an app download.  I do like this idea from J.C. Penney which effectively is a voice-card for holiday gifts that is recorded and activated through QR and your smartphone.  As I've said in the past, however, QR, as a technology has challenges that probably limit is shelf-life.

My good friend Loïc Hamon is Vice President of Marketing at InsideSecure, one of the world's largest providers of contact-less technologies, like Near Field Communication (NFC).  He rightfully looks at NFC not as a payment mechanism but more fundamentally as a new user experience, enabling the smartphone, in effect, to be a new form of mouse, or interactive device.  The NFC user experience is easier than QR: just tap to get more information, to take some action, to swap pictures or apps, or to pay.  They've been doing it in Japan for years with FeliCa, allowing people to tap their phone to get into the subway or make small payments at convenience stores.

At the heart of it, the use of the camera by QR or Augmented Reality (AR), while interesting for those apps, is a use for the camera that was not its original intent, so the user experience will always suffer and be more burdensome.  Unlock your phone, open an app, align a camera to an image...am I taking a picture or scanning something?  

I say, "just tap and go."

UPDATE: It's the Screen, Stupid!

I remember when the Palm IIIc came out, Palm was on top of the handheld organizer world.  You could not imagine a day when they would not be on the top of the PDA heap.  As they moved to color screens, they focused their engineering decision on cost and low-power, while HTC, who made the COMPAQ iPAQ chose the best screen possible for their color Windows CE PDA.  Hey, it was the focus on that criteria that put them to the top, but the world was changing beneath them.

When consumer came up to the glass case at their local COMPUSA or Circuit City (you remember them, don't you?) they would see this Palm device with a washed out screen next to the iPAQ with bright, clear colors and details.  Sold.  The iPAQ did well in the market.

Motorola DROID RAZR

I was bummed yesterday when I read the review for the new Motorola DROID RAZR.  The review focuses on the poor screen chosen for this slick, new Android smartphone.  I was thinking of buying one, and I guess I still might, but we still have not learned our lessons.  For some reason, engineers get caught up with buzzwords like AMOLED (LCD screens).  I've actually seen it on commercials for one company's big screen LCD HDTV sets.  Like my mom knows AMOLED from baking powder!  C'mon, we can do better than this, people!

Consumers don't give a rodent's posterior about acronyms.  In this case, they want bright screens, vibrant colors, and sharp details.  This is supposed to be the slickest, thinnest phone.  A revered phone brand revived to revitalize the return of Motorola.  Like that alliteration, huh?  Seriously, why do all the great things to make a great phone and mess up the most visible (and, hence, the most important) part of the experience of the phone: the screen?

Unfortunately, it takes a while to make a phone, so they can't scrape off the top and put it back in the oven.  Hopefully, there is a fix already in the pipeline.

UPDATE: I went to Best Buy for 1 hour on Friday to see both the DROID RAZR and the Kindle Fire, first hand.  The Kindle Fire seemed nice in some ways, maybe a bit jerky in scrolling.  The demo unit just played videos of the web browser and apps, which was strange.  The sales person brought us a unit we could really play with and it was okay.

The DROID RAZR's screen was better than the L.A. Times article noted, but was over-saturated and the whites were not white, so they were not far off with the review.  It was extremely thin, very fast, but also quite wide and tall.  I would love the thinness, with a smaller and better quality screen, for sure.

Android, Where Art Thou?

At work, we have a large client for whom we develop an application for on both the Android and the iPhone.  We have driven a lot of downloads of the application without any use of paid media, so far, but most interestingly is the ratio of iPhone downloads vs. Android downloads, where there are 1.6 times as many iPhone downloads than Android.  So, I started to dig into this mystery.

First, if I look at more instantaneous data, the weekly downloads were equal.  So, maybe while early on in the apps life, before the sales of Android devices grew and surpassed iPhone sales, the iPhone installed base grew big.  Second, maybe the demographics of this client's customers are more skewed towards iPhone ownership?  Hey, although we have not used paid media to get any of the downloads, maybe the marketing is more skewed towards iPhone owners somehow.  Dunno.

With Android commanding almost 1.5 times more market share, however, it needs more explanation.  When I was back at The Nielsen Company, we had a set of data we had collected, which did not specifically show, but implied, that there still are swaths of Android owners that don't know they have an Android phone.  It was the free phone with the 2-year contract, or buy-one-get-one-free with their spouses new phone when they switched carriers.   They have a Porsche on the Autobahn, but still are driving the speed limit.

If this is true, it might explain the lower usage on Android devices vs. iPhone and could also explain this download phenomena, as well.

Mom, Beer, Addict, Me and Ice Cream

The Weekly Wrap

Monday: Mom

Tuesday: Beer

Wednesday: Addict

Thursday: Airplanes

Saturday: Me

Sunday: Ice Cream

Enjoy!

Stephen Colbert, Ice Cream Genius

This year, I've changed the way I eat, and ice cream is not normally on the new menu.  In fact, one of the most significant changes I've made is to not eat dessert anymore.  For the most part, it sucks.  No other way to sugar-coat it.

Genius

I have lost over 20 pounds, however, and I'm back to my college weight.  I do still eat dessert, just much more infrequently.  Recently, I decided that I would have ice cream, with the kids, one Sunday afternoon, so I went to the frozen altar to unlock the sacred milk of Saint Ben and Saint Jerry, and there were 3 offerings to choose from: S'mores, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, and Americone Dream.  I tried all 3, of course.  I wouldn't want to anger the ice cream gods.

S'mores is a favorite of mine.  With desserts, anything with marshmallow or caramel or apples is going to draw my attention.  The toasted marshmallow shake, for example, at Stand in New York City, is a natural favorite and highly recommended if you are down near NYU or close to SoHo.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  Yum.  'Nuff said.

And, this, Americone Dream...it had a picture of Stephen Colbert on it.  Puzzling, indeed.  So like a wild animal sniffing its kill as a safety measure, I read the label and noticed it had caramel in it, easing any fears, and I dug in.

What a magnificent concoction it was!  The mixture of the vanilla, fudge-covered waffle cone bits, and caramel were both a great mix of flavors as well as textures.  It actually got me thinking that although Mr. Colbert is quite popular on the television, he might be in the wrong line of work.

So, on this fine Sunday, go out to your local convenience store and pick up a pint (snack size, as my brother would say) or the several 3.6 ounce tasting samplers, and try it for yourself.  It goes well with football.

"Me" Time

At ad:tech this week, Christine Cook (@cooktine), SVP of Advertising at The Daily, spoke on one of my Tablets in Marketing sessions, and talked about how their subscribers make significant amounts of "personal primetime" for The Daily, usually after dinner.  This, along with the fact that their content expires, increasing its contextual value, fascinated me.  For me, since kids, I've often lamented the loss of "me time" or "nothing time".  I never realized how much of it that I had, until I didn't have it.

The Daily

I hardly remember it now.  Some days, I did absolutely nothing.  Nothing.  Quite proud of it, actually.  I don't know how it even works anymore.  The "me time", though, is slowing reappearing.

The kids are 8 and 5 now, and its seems like Sunday mornings are coming back.  Tati and I will stare at each other, while drinking coffee and reading the Sunday Times, which is a great tune by Loudon Wainwright III, and just be amazed.  The occasional fight breaks out, so it's important to read the thicker sections first, because they are more powerful when you roll them up.

So, for you parents who also struggle to remember what "me time" is, grab your iPad and subscribe to The Daily.  It will magically reappear.  And, for you DINCs thinking about having children.  It's great.  Just go on a movie binge the weekend before labor, and take a strong mental snapshot of your "nothing time". It's about to go away.

The Mile High Club

Blogging from 35K feet is something that you have likely only read in letters to the editor in adult magazines, but I am doing it right now.  And, I like it.  Apart from the gent to my right that is snoring incredibly, leaning on me, and just generally encroaching in my space entirely too much, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

I am on the way home from ad:tech New York City, where we had two really good sessions on tablets in marketing, and in the second, we focused on innovation.  I've had a Facebook chat with an high school friend, tried, but was unsuccessful in downloading an episode of Breaking Bad, watched Return to the Planet of the Apes with no sound, fended off the large gentleman to my right, listened to several podcasts, and now I'm blogging.  These are either signs of innovation, or some form of ADD that I suffer from.

Next thing you know, they'll serve free peanuts on flights and treat you nicely.  Now, that would be innovative.

My Mom, The Addict

So, I had the immense pleasure of enjoying a fine meal in New York City, at má pêche, last night with Bubs.  Nothing like a fine meal with family.  What amazed me more than the great drinks, great food, and catching up with mom was her self-admitted addiction to her iPad.  She sleeps with it!  Wait until Dick finds out...

She not only admitted she loves her iPad and doesn't know what she would do without it, but she has downloaded and uses apps on her iPhone and iPad like CardStar and Zite, without consulting her IT department!  That would be me, of course.

Frankly, it's amazing at so many levels.  She has bought, used, and loves this technology, without her nerdy son promoting it or provoking her.  She has done things with her devices that I have not.  She told me that her iPhone makes communication so much easier.  Even Nielsen is seeing that Americans aged 55-64 are adopting smartphones at second fastest rate of all other age groups.  What is this world coming to?

I don't know whether to feel sad and shed a tear that she's growing up right in front of me, or be angry that she would do all of this without consulting me.  I feel so...cheap.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City this Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, tell a friend and live vicariously through them!

Free Beer

I live in Texas, and I’ve dreamed of improving my guitar skills, starting a band, and leaving the marketing and technology world behind.  I would name my band Free Beer.  We’d play Texas Rock, some Blues, and throw in an occasional Radiohead song to keep the audience on their toes.  You’d drive down the local Farm-to-Market road by Joe’s Roadhouse, and the sign would read, “Free Beer Tonight.”  Sure, we might need to find a new town to play in, every night, to make the marketing ploy effective, but, hey, Texas is a big place!

Jamming or constipated?

Yesterday, our excellent Marketing Director sent me a link to a new mobile app produced for Moosejaw outfitters, called Moosejaw Xray (Android, iPhone).  Download it.  It corresponds to their winter catalog, and it uses augmented reality to give shoppers a more risqué view of the models in their catalog, without all those puffy, winter outer garments. 

As the male of the species, I found the marketing ploy intriguing.  I must study this catalog, intently.  As a marketer, however, I wondered if their budget would have been better spent elsewhere.  Hey, I admit, I downloaded it and looked at their catalog.  I even tweeted about it, and now I am writing a blog entry, referencing their campaign.  It’s got sexy women in lingerie, for Pete’s sake, what am I supposed to do, ignore it?

The reality is, however, they don’t sell the under garments, from what I can tell, so the campaign is really about generating buzz and brand awareness.   I don’t know Moosejaw, but I’d guess that the campaign is in line with their brand, as well.  It’s probably not a bad idea, in the end, but I just wonder if they will need to find a new town to play in the next time.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City this Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, tell a friend and live vicariously through them!

Yo' Momma!

Having worked in technology-related pursuits for over 21 years, I often use the "my mom test" with my work.  I mean, does Bubs "get it?"  I've worked on enough cool new projects that have never made it to the shelf that I figure if my mom does not understand what I'm working on, there's a higher probability that others won't, and its really not the shizzle.

It's not to say that, with new technology, early adopters won't like something and create the buzz that later the "my moms of the world" love.  But for the love of all that's holy, I want my mom to at least understand, in some broad sense, what it is I do.  It's not nuclear physics, for Pete's sake.  I mean, who knows what she's telling her friends at the bridge game?

So, the next time that you're gearing up to pitch a VC on that new service that is like Facebook crossed with Instagram with a built in gamification like Angry Birds, test it out on your momma, first.  Sometimes, momma really does know best.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, tell a friend, and I will think of you while enjoying NYC!

Calamari Pancakes and Digital Messes

It's Sunday, so I normally take a break from my mobile and digital world to wax poetically about food and dining.  I don't want to disappoint, and as I am heading to New York City this week on business, I am reminded of one of my favorite appetizers: the Sautéed Calamari and Artichoke Tart over Fresh Radicchio Salad at ViceVersa on 325 W 51st Street.

It's a fav and when on business, I like to wander over to ViceVersa, or its sister restaurant EtceteraEtcetera, sit at the bar to order an appetizer and a drink, and chat it up with the bartender.  The calamari tart is like a crisp, loose pancake that combined with the bite of the radicchio is just wonderful combination of flavors and texture.  Having said all of that, however, thinking of going to New York and eating well make me think of a great Slate piece on restaurants' websites that I read this year, discussing the bad side of restaurant website designs and implementations.

It brings up the interesting hypothesis that many nice restaurants with bad site designs are likely due to their own Executive Creative Directors, the chefs, trying to control digital like they do food.  It's an interesting theory that makes a lot of sense.  At work, our ECD talks about the continuum between user experience and brand experience, and it would seem that for many nice restaurants, the designs are likely straddling the fence in uncomfortable ways.   Neither very usable or brand-right designs.

Although the sites are sometimes over-the-top or annoying, I'm just glad the chefs don't straddle the fence when it comes to the food design and preparation.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, tell a friend, and I will think of you while I eat my Calamari and Artichoke Tart!

Darn Youth!

I have often said that after the introduction of the iPad, and watching how my kids interact with modern smart phones and tablets, they will look at our computing as my generation looks at mainframes and minis.  It's not that they won't use it, but it will be like my computer classes back in college, in the late 80s, when I had to do my assignment in the CS building from a terminal connected to the mini.  Why would you want to?

It's not just smartphones and tablets either.  All of the technology trends that we create that catch-on with our youth and later seep into older society.  Yet, we as adults have designed these innovations.  Is it because we know more, but still can think and act like children.  I've been accused of acting like a child, quite often, around the house, actually.

It just made me think this morning of what if we gave a design brief or creative brief to kids?  What would they come up with?  Sure, a bunch of it would be nuts, but I'd have to think there would be an awesome idea in there that most adults, no matter how much vodka, would not come up with.

Maybe we should give them an Etch-A-Sketch and let them have at it?

Tablets in Marketing at ad:tech

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, I'll miss you, but tell a friend who can!

$5

I was walking into Whole Foods Market the other Sunday, and I saw a $5 in the parking lot.  I picked it up and looked around to see if it would recognize its previous owner, and, alas, it did not.  Nothing like finding a $5 bill to add some unexpected joy to the day.

Marketers can find that mobile can offer that same level of surprise, when treated with respect and a understanding of their customer.  No need to search farther than their pocket or pocketbook for the delight.  Not many retailers or brands have gotten to this point, yet, but it will come.  The more that they know the consumer holistically, across online, mobile and physical retail, the better.

To get to this point, however, the retailer or brand has to earn the trust of the customer to begin with.  This is nothing new.  The mobile or tablet or online channel are just that, channels, and equivalent to another physical store.   They offer specific capabilities and opportunities, but like any other channel, if the customer has a great experience, and it adds to the total customer equity.  If they have a bad experience, and it could affect the equity across all channels.

But, treat your peeps right, and what joy they will have when they find their own 5-dollar bill in their pocket.


Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, I'll miss you, but tell a friend who can!

Mobile, Tell Me Something, Quick!

During the day, I run the mobile practice at a digital agency.  Mobile includes tablet, although I don't consider tablets to be "mobiles", as much as I don't consider tablets to be PCs or TVs, though I can browse the web on them or watch videos.

Where the two can offer similar apps and services, it pays to optimize a mobile experience for quick hitting information and click-to-actions.  As the dialogue from the robbery scene goes, "In and out, no one gets hurt."  I might play games, check information and even browse content on my mobile at work and at home, but its highest value is on-the-go or at my particular destination.  Optimized user experiences allow me to find the nearest deal or location, look up comparison pricing, check ratings and reviews.  The quicker I can get the phone started, initiate the query and get to relavent information, the better.  In the moment.

Tablets offer a more relaxed browsing experience.  Flipping through the web, media, or catalogues while lounging at home (sipping a vodka gimlet, of course).  Time is not necessarily of the essence, and neither is screen real estate.  Richer, more engaging content can soak more time from the viewer, shopper, or fan.  While it could be done, I don't see many people up and down the aisles at big box retailers aiding the shopping experience with tablets, or people in the streets holding their iPads above their head filming protests.  Tablets offer the opportunity for deeper engagement at times when people can spare their attention.

Come see me and other industry leaders from Sam's Club, BBC America, The Daily, Ogilvy & Mather, Nutro, The Weather Channel, and Starcom Mediavest talk about tablets in marketing at ad:tech New York City next Thursday at 3:00PM Eastern and 4:30PM Eastern.  If you can't make it, I'll miss you, but tell a friend who can!