Brian Zafron: I Eat Web 2.0 for Breakfast

As an entrepreneur, whether you’re a one-man show or an established bigwig, you’re bound to run into considerable amounts of stress. The responsibilities and pressures of developing a business are endless – everything from making phone calls, to lunch meetings, to working against deadlines can take a toll on your emotional well-being. And sometimes, when the toll becomes great enough, you reach a boiling point and want to do something drastic – like throw your computer against a wall.

Personally, I probably think about throwing my computer against a wall three to four times a month, but due to reasons of finance and general practicality, I have never given into the urge. Not yet, anyway. However, I imagine many of you are in the same boat, struggling with the same urge, and perhaps closer to giving in than me. So, rather than write a post about stress management - there exist about a googabillion such articles across the blogosphere – I want to outline what you should do when your stress prevails and you prepare to throw your computer against a wall.

1. Concentrate on the grip. Your mind is probably racing with all sorts of anger and non-rational emotion, but if you’re going to throw your computer against the wall, make sure it’s a solid throw. I mean, this might not be a shining moment in your professional career, but nonetheless, it will certainly be a moment to remember. So make sure you wipe off your clammy palms before you pick up the computer, and grip the computer’s base firmly with both hands. You must maintain this firm grip as you rotate the computer towards your throwing side and propel the computer across your body towards the wall.
2. Clear the area. This one goes without saying: if you’re going to chuck a heavy metal object through the air, make sure no co-workers are standing in the way. Not only will they hinder the computer’s spectacular smash/explosion, but there’s also a pretty decent chance they could get hurt. At the very least, have the courtesy to yell “Four!”
3. Confirm the right people are watching. Throwing your computer against a wall is an act of epic proportions, something people often threaten to do, but in reality, never come close. Aside from immediate (and fleeting) moments of stress-relief, the single greatest benefit from throwing your computer against a wall will be the bravado you demonstrate to your co-workers. They may think you are a mildly crazed hot-head, but I’ll be damned if they’re not inspired by your decisiveness. Who knows? Maybe everybody will join in and throw their computers at the closest wall, as well. We all have stress, but we don’t all have leaders.
4. Milk the spectacle for all its worth. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of it, but there’s this new, fun website that’s really taking off called youtube. Yeah, you know the one. Everyday over 100 million videos are watched on the site, the majority of which are created by no-name folks like you and me. So, if you’re going to throw your computer against a wall, why not cash in on some celebrity. People love watching others behave like jackasses, and by throwing your computer against a wall, yes, you immediately qualify as a jackass. Simply ask a co-worker to film you on his iphone, upload the video to youtube, and with a little luck (not to mention some effective word of mouth marketing), you could be a pop sensation before morning. Or conversely, maybe only a few people will watch the video, but your friends will thank you for sharing your insanity, and years down the line, when you’ve gained some perspective on your crippling stress issues, you’ll enjoy a hearty laugh.

All right, my friends. Those are the essential elements of throwing your computer against a wall. These elements, as I suspect some of you are wondering, apply to both laptop and desktop computers. Once again, I am not advocating such wild and crazy behavior, but if you must throw your computer against a wall, I implore you: please make the most of it.

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I often hear people using “word of mouth marketing” and “viral marketing” interchangeably, when in fact, they have two completely different meanings. To illustrate these meanings, let’s throw our imaginations into cruise control and head back to high school.

If the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked popular dude, Joe Margolis, then both Jacqueline and Joe’s friends will soon start spreading the word – in bathrooms, during gym class, after the school day has ended. This spread will take place through several generations, through several demographics, before it eventually dies. Herein lies word of mouth marketing.

On the flip side, if the wicked popular chick, Jacqueline Beantree, decides to sleep with the wicked overweight dude, Trevor Tubblesome, then word will somehow leak out (it always does…), and everybody and their grandmother will soon be talking about the unexpected affair – at home, at the supermarket, even on the Internet. Word will spread at an exponential rate, through manifold generations, through limitless demographics, regardless of Trevor Tubblesome’s involvement, who most likely prodded the spread in the first place. Herein lies viral marketing.

To sum up, the distinction between word of mouth and viral marketing is the manner and speed in which the content is spread. Word of mouth marketing spreads like a common cold, and viral marketing spreads like a virus. Obviously, viral is the preferred mode, but let’s be honest with ourselves: how often does the popular chick sleep with the overweight dude?

(If the answer was “often,” high school would’ve been a happier time for me.)

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Last night, Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country For Old Men took home a shit-load of honors at the 80th Academy Awards, including Best Pic, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actor (Javier Bardem). Although No Country was the odds-on favorite for Best Pic heading into the night, that wasn’t always the case.

Back in November, for example, New Line’s fantasy/adventure The Golden Compass looked primed to ride the coat tails of Lord of The Rings all the way into the winner’s circle. But a few lukewarm reviews and half-empty theaters later, the two-year, star-studded (Nichole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Dakota Fanning…) $180 million dollar production lost momentum and faded into Hollywood oblivion – right next to Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure and every film that has featured Shaquille O’Neal.

Then in January, Michael Clayton, starring the melt in your mouth, not in your hand George Clooney, was the irrefutable front-runner. Nikki Finke, the LA Time’s Entertainment editor, commented: “every Oscar voter I talked to at that time kept mentioning they liked [Michael Clayton] best.” But then, within a matter of weeks, No Country ousted Clayton building off Best Pic victories at a variety of contests, including the Screen Actors Guild and Critic’s Choice Awards.

Herein began the No Country word-of-mouth fever: the mainstream media and in turn, the movie-going public, rallied behind the Coen Brothers’ off-beat, episodic Cormac McCarthy adaptation. Next, the Academy members, who vote on all the Oscar nominees (and who hate appearing out of touch with the American public), jumped onto the bandwagon. The buzz was fucking palpable.

At this point, it’s worthy to note that although Academy members vote on all the Oscar nominees, they are not required to watch them. In other words, they often rely on their impression of the given film, which is obviously shaped by associated buzz. And oh, did I mention that the president of the Academy, Sid Ganis, is the producer of such gems as Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigalo, Big Daddy, and Mr. Deeds? The Academy clearly isn’t without its flaws.

I am not trying to convey that No Country wasn’t worthy of Best Pic honors. I’m simply illustrating that the waves of word-of-mouth factored into this end result. And also, if I can leave you with one final word of wisdom, the Academy kinda sucks.

*By the way, the Oscar statuettes are made from 92.5% tin and 7.5% copper, with a gold plating. Gold plating, homies.

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Do you remember that feeling when you realized that Santa Claus was actually your overweight cousin or uncle? Or when you discovered that your father, your idol through infancy and childhood, was just an ordinary dude, capable of making mistakes?

I personally never believed in Santa Clause or in the perfection of my father (I was a cynical kid, I confess), but I honestly did believe Kevin Rose, the Founder of Digg, was a real-life superhero…until recently.

Rose has consistently maintained a popular ratio (percentage of articles that reach Digg’s front page) of at least 99%. Like a superhero, or at least a superhero of the Internet, he can pull a lever and initiate massive floods of traffic.

However, the recent Digg algorithm change, which is intended to create a more level playing field amongst Digg’s users, might be a mild form of kryptonite. Rose’s popular ratio has recently dipped to 98%, with four articles in the past three weeks failing to reach the front page. To give you some perspective, Rose has submitted a total of 347 articles since he birthed Digg in December 2004, and a whopping 341 of them hit FP.

So which articles have come up short? I’m glad you asked. I’ve dug them up (no pun intended) and compiled them for your curiosity and viewing pleasure. Check it:

1.

2.

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4.

5.

6.

So what’s the deal? Why are Rose’s submissions underperforming?

Well, for one, the algorithm change seems to be making a discernible impact. It’s no longer as easy for a top Digger, like Rose, to reach the front page at will. Many armchair Digg experts and bloggers now point to the need for an increased diversity of diggs. In other words, the new algorithm puts even more weight on diggs that come from users who do not typically digg each other’s submissions. 10 diggs from strangers, for example, is more meaningful than 25 diggs from friends- now more than ever. This change displaces power from those users with tight-knit followings, often built up through track records of quality submissions.

But the algorithm encompasses more than vote diversity: the number of submissions, and the number of submissions that reach the FP, are also widely accepted as important factors. Both these numbers feed into a user’s popular ratio, which many consider to be the preeminent factor. This ratio is lowered for every submission that does not reach the front page, creating a negative snowball effect for a user who continues to submit articles that come up short. In this light, I ask the following question: is it a coincidence that Rose’s valley in FP success occurs simultaneously with a peak in the number of his submissions?

Since the algo change came into effect on January 22nd/23rd , he has submitted an uncharacteristically high 16 submissions. As JD Rucker, a popular Digger and blogger, pointed out in a recent Soshable column, “that’s more than [Rose] submitted in November and December, 2007, combined.”

Below are two graphs that illustrate Rose’s submission activity for both 2008 and 2007. Take note of the activity’s recent elevation.

Rose submitted a personal high of 22 submissions this January, closely followed by 21 subs in August of 2007 - when the algorithm change wasn’t even a bleep on anyone’s radar.

Of course, it’s possible that the only reason Rose isn’t making FP as consistently is a decline in the quality of his content, or perhaps in the gusto of his popularity. However, my bet is that the algorithm is simply leveling the playing field, exactly how Rose and his Digg homies intended.

But at the end of the day, even if Rose isn’t a superhero, he’s still pretty awesome. I mean…. he did invent Digg.

* By the way, we’re running a caption contest for the following Kevin Rose picture (courtesy of his Facebook profile). Please submit the best/funniest captions to me at brian.zafron@gmail.com, and we’ll let you know the cream of the crop next week.

[Your Caption Here]

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Last night, I wore slippers to a downtown club called Elevate, a sizzling melting pot of Manolo Blahniks, fake boobies in tube tops, and of course, a whole lotta “bump and grinding.”  After waiting in line for five minutes, my boy “Slug” and I were rejected at the door by a three hundred pound Steven Segal look-alike who deemed our sandals inappropriate and didn’t buy my “shoe thong” euphemism. Fortunately, I had both a pair of penny loafers and slippers in the truck of my car (long story, don’t ask), so Slug and I were experiencing the “bump and grinding” while the night was still young.

Although many would naturally be embarrassed wearing slippers in a trendy club, I chose to rock them with confidence, and the results, I shit you not, were fucking amazing: throughout the night, about ten women, aging in range from 19-45 and deliciousness from 5.2-9.7, noticed my slippers and complimented them. Basically, I stood out from the crowd and they dug it.

This brings me to tonight’s soapbox: don’t dress your company in traditional shoes, but let it wear slippers. In other words, dare to be different. The most successful companies, big and small, blaze new trails, embrace fresh perspectives, breath life into tired problems.

Some great, recent examples of companies wearing slippers include Chipotle and Apple.  Chipotle revolutionized the meaning of fast food by placing added value on the quality of ingredients and amping up prices a lil’ bit. The result: it was one of the premier success stories of 2007 with its stock up 157% for the year. As for Apple, their decision to re-brand their gadgets and technology with the pregnant letter “i” made a huge statement about shifting power to the consumer, customizing to the individual. And accordingly, 2007 was a tremendous year for the company: it launched the iPhone, experienced a huge growth in computers sales, and savored the near doubling of its stock price.

I am not telling you that taking chances equates to guaranteed success. You also need, amongst a slew of factors, strong content (what’s beneath the slippers; moldy feet or manicured?) and equally strong marketing (do you rock the slippers with confidence; do the right people notice and enjoy your slippers?).

However, if the night is young, and you’re ready to choose an outfit for your company, consider what matches your Hush Puppies before picking out your shirt and pants. In other words, build your company around your uniqueness.

End of article, end of metaphor.

(If you’re wondering whether I took home a luckily lady last night, you’ll have to keep on wondering. I’m a gentleman, folks. And gentlemen don’t kiss and tell.)

(OK, you win. Her name was Rebecca. She was ooober foxy.)

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C’mon. We’ve all experienced it. At one point or another, whether channel surfing between E! and Skinemax, or trolling through the jungle of youtube, you discover a psychedelic ipod commercial and want to start dancing alongside the sexy/Rastafarian/Paul McCartney silhouetted figure. The commercial drips with funk, freedom, and fucking awesomeness and what’s more, it’s so close you can taste it. But then, like always, the commercial ends and your brief feeling of elation makes you feel like a complete jackass: “Did I really just piss my pants (metaphorically speaking) over an ipod commercial?,” you ask yourself.

Truth be told, Apple’s success is predicated equally on their consumer-friendly products and their kick-ass, balls-to-the-wall marketing. (If you don’t agree with me then… well, I’ll fight you.) Their TV commercials, in particular, always stand out from the rest of the crowd: media critics, professional and armchair alike, cite them for their sleekness, their catchiness, their uncanny ability to translate Apple’s simple/cool products into an emotion that seeps into customers’ bloodstreams.

Certainly, we could spend the next two and a half hours deconstructing Apple’s marketing campaigns (in which time we could watch approximately 275 ipod commercials on youtube), but instead, allow me to roll up my sleeves and simply put the spotlight on their campaigns’ common thread, their reason for success:  escapism.

We hear this term “escapism” thrown around more than Ike Turner threw around Tina, but it’s usually in reference to films, novels, and TV shows. However – and this where I let the cat out of the bag – the most effective marketing campaigns, regardless of the medium, embrace escapism. In other words, when consumers “interact” with these campaigns – in magazines, on billboards, through TV sets – they are able to leave the real world for a moment and step into the world of the campaign.

This transition of worlds can be an incredibly pleasant experience, as in the case of ipod commercials, or an extremely haunting one, as in the case of “The Truth” anti-smoking spots or horror film trailers. Regardless, the transition itself is a sign of meaningful engagement, essential in building brand awareness and loyalty.

In closing, boys and girls, don’t feel bad if you wish your life were more like an ipod commercial. Just appreciate the escape… and the brilliant marketing.

By the way, a shout out to my boy Tony who asked me the titular question the other day on gtalk, the inspiration for this post.  And yes, I just said titular.  Deal with it.

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Obese people eat.

Smelly people smell.

Interactive marketers, like me, interactively market.

Tuesday’s post talked about the increasing necessity of interactive marketing. Of course, the necessity is only one piece of the puzzle. Thus, today I present you with the remaining pieces, or at least the next ten… you know what? This metaphor sucks. Let’s just cut to the chase: 10 Outrageously Helpful Tips To Succeed At Interactive Marketing

(These are tips that I’ve implemented in my businesses for as long as I can remember.  Read them, learn them, and if you really want to get interactive on this crazy, crazy St. Valentine’s Day, try to eat them. )

1. Get people excited. If you don’t pique the interests of your customer, you can chuck your product and your wonderful marketing schemes out your 100th story window. Tap into passions. Get a feel for your demographic and cater to their embedded likes and dislikes. And then, and only then, start contemplating interactive designs. To those simple-minded readers, let me throw it down like this: people don’t care shit about shit unless they’re excited.
2. Think immersive. Once you get the customer involved, you want him/her to stay involved for as long as possible. No wonder 64% of this year’s Superbowl commercials included a website. That’s right, homies: 64%. Here’s a sub-tip: Utilize microsites and extensive ad units to maximize the brand experience. Basically, the more you can immerse the consumer (without overwhelming him/her with too many options/too much complexity), the better. Check out Reebok’s awesome multimedia site when you a moment – I bet you won’t want to leave anytime soon.
3. Make it personal. People are unique, or at least we like to think so. Many interactive marketing campaigns thrive on their personalization functions, the ability to customize to the individual. People love how sites like Amazon and Netflix, for example, are able to recommend products based upon past activity. But how can you customize without becoming Big Brother?  The truph (truth with a “ph” because it’s just that raw): hard work and test runs.
4. Simplicity is key. It’s not that people are stupid. We’re just busy as balls and don’t have the time nor desire to sift through convoluted information. Interactive marketing only works when the customer is interested before overwhelmed, interacting before scratching his/her head. See Hot or Not for an example of excruciatingly simple, but highly effective (and trafficked) interactivity.
5. Don’t neglect ROI. It doesn’t matter how you measure it – CPC, CPM, CPA, etc. – but clients need to see concrete results in the form of dollars and cents. All interactive marketing efforts need to keep in mind conversions down the line, particularly how text links and search words will feed into your broader campaign. In other words, target, target, and oh yeah, target.
6. Let the customer do the work. Sometimes the best way to get the word out for a campaign is to step aside. Customers enjoy the sense of empowerment and influence that comes with editorializing a brand on the Internet. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that people are listening, particularly when you are passionate about the information you are distributing. Great examples of interactive marketing, in which the “marketers” step aside, include Swiffer’s video contest and companies like Affinitive and BzzAgent.
7. Explicitly encourage virality. Give the customer a kick in the pants, so to speak. Rather than cross your fingers and hope he/she will send an email, bookmark your site, or spread the word at next week’s cooking club meeting, simply dole out specific instructions: you’d be surprised at the rate of response. Although people like to think they’re unique, they also don’t like thinking -  so go ahead perform the “thinking” for them. Take a gander through Facebook at any time and note the directness of the advertisements along the sides of the page. “Sign up for x video contest,” “Get involved in the Ron Paul Revolution,” etc.
8. Make An Offer They Can’t Refuse. Lure them in with an offer that’s sweeter than candy. The offer has the potential to not only bring in direct traffic, but if sweet enough – and I’m talking sweeter than a tootsie roll here, but not necessarily sweeter than a chocolate soufflé -  it can also initiate flurries of referrals, or in other words, virality.
9. Any tips of your own? This tip is meant to encourage you, dear readers, to respond to this post with your own tips. Let the interactivity begin.
10. Seriously, any tips of your own? This tip is supposed to encourage even MORE interactivity. Also…. I’m hungry, and I want to go eat some lunch.

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“Interactive marketing is the ability to address the consumer, remember what the consumer says and address the consumer again in a way that illustrates that we remember what the consumer has told us.”- John Deighton, Harvard, 1996

With the growth of portable and on-demand technologies, marketers are forced to deal with an increasingly elusive consumer. Bombarding consumers with advertisements is unfortunately not the easy, fix-it-all solution, but rather, it makes matters worse – causing further desensitization and sometimes flat-out resentment.

The trick, evidenced by trends in marketing departments and acquisitions across the world, is including the consumer in the conversation. Here we find the most effective breed of targeted advertising – where the target is also the one taking aim. No one likes being spoken “at” or spoken “to.” Adults, children, extra-terrestrials. No one.

Take Friday’s acquisition of Hot or Not as evidence to the effectiveness of interactivity. The website’s excruciatingly simple functionality is based upon users ranking randomly selected pictures of men and women according to hotness (or notness.) The buyers are investors connected with Avid Life Media, and paid somewhere around $20 million for the site. Moreover, Hot or Not has spurred many generations of knock-offs, most recently Web Hot or Not, created by Technorati founder, David Sifry.

Interactivity is even bleeding into Superbowl commercials. (Click here to watch dem suckers). Sit tight, and let me hit you with some examples:

• The cute girl who sang “Message From Your Heart” in the Doritos spot was featured because she won an online, consumer-generated video content.
• Tide’s talking stain commercial, promoting the Tide Pen, called upon consumers to participate online by sharing their own stories.
• GoDaddy’s spot showed someone at a Super Bowl party visiting their website in order to see content that could not be shown on TV, a subtle little invitation to do likewise. The result: GoDaddy turned a 30 second TV spot into a significantly more lengthy engagement. They recorded a half-million site visitors in the first 30 minutes after the spot, with traffic up 2,434 percent compared to last year’s Super Bowl.

So what does all this mean for marketers? Well, it’s simple: engage the consumer. How? Well, that’s a bit more complicated.

Check back for tomorrow’s article: “10 Outrageously Helpful Tips To Succeed At Interactive Marketing”

www.brianzafron.com/blog/2007/02/12/Interactive-Marketing-Is-The-Tsunami-Of-The-Future:-Take-Shelter! 

If you watched last week’s Superbowl, you probably noticed something a little different about this year’s smorgasbord of commercials. For one, they weren’t exactly a smorgasbord.

Although the subject matter was obviously varied, the tonality of the commercials was decidedly homogenous. Oddball, inherently random, humor was featured in one commercial after another, with little variation, particularly amongst the “comedies.” Five years ago, this oddball humor was the exception, showcased in the handful of gems amongst the dry and non-daring bunch, but times have indeed changed.

Examples from this year’s crop, to name a few from many, include: Shaquille O’Neal riding a race horse, (Vitamin Water), a baby articulately explaining online stock trading (Etrade), and a witch doctor showing up at a car dealership (Cars.com).

So, what’s the connection between this trend in Superbowl commercials and American politics? Perhaps nothing. However, I would suggest - and feel free to visit my house and beat me with a Vitamin Water if you disagree – that these Superbowl commercials are evidence to America’s current embrace of the oddball, at large. In other words, the marketing wizards behind these Superbowl commercials understand that our country, now more than ever, with one African American and one female running for president, is fascinated by the outlier, the fish out of water.

Of course, this fascination did not spring from thin air: our two most distinguished Democratic candidates, by the grace of Capital Hill gods (and lobbyists) just happened to fall into non-traditionally presidential demographics. Does this make them any less qualified? Hell no. But, although we may laugh at Shaq Daddy riding a horse, are we  capable of putting an African American or a female into the oval office?

As a mere entrepreneur, I do not attempt to guise myself as a political pundit, much less a psychic or even a successful Ouiji player. However, I would suggest that the oddball humor in this year’s Superbowl commercials is not without cultural grounding, and as such, if effectively integrated into you and/or your company’s marketing campaigns, would very likely resonate with today’s consumers.

For more discussion on last week’s Super Bowl commercials, check back for tomorrow’s post entitled: Interactive Marketing Is The Tsunami Of The Future: Take Shelter!

http://brianzafron.com/blog/2008/02/11/An-Outlandish-Entrepreneur’s-Perspective:-what-do-last-week’s-superbowl-commercials-mean-(or-not-mean)-for -American-Politics?