The 25 Random Things.

There are 25 things here. About me. Yes, I've taken the plunge, no matter what the NYT may say.

1. I've read your 25 things. Yes, even if you didn't tag me. You tagged enough of my friends that it popped right up on my "Home" feed, and what can I say, I'd like to know more about you.
2. That New York Times article makes it sound like doing this will give away the last vestiges of your privacy. But I don't see it that way - I live in this online world, and I even make a living from it. I'd much rather be a part of the conversation than sitting out because of fear. That being said, you can't have my SSN.
3. I love slippers. I wear them all the time when I'm home, and even quite a bit while I'm out - except for the hottest days of Summer. I choose very shoe-like slippers, so I can easily get away with wearing them outside. Can't stand it when my feet get cold.
4. I'm really behind on those LinkedIn recommendations people have asked of me. I'll get there, guys, I promise!
5. I think my wife and son are made of pure, liquid amazing.
6. I'm fascinated with the sociology of the mall Play Place, especially since I spend more time there these days. All of those kids manage to (mostly) play well together despite being different ages, races, upbringings, shapes and sizes. A lesson for us all.
7. I have immense respect for other religions. Even as a Protestant Christian, I think you'd have to be a fool not to see the beauty in others' faiths. I hope some day I can have the discipline of a Muslim, the mental clarity of a Zen Buddhist, and the understanding of God's grandeur like a Catholic.
8. I was up to 14 things before I had to restart my browser. Now I've gotta remember what those were, or come up with something better. Stink.
9. I don't know what's so bad about Target clothes. Sure, they're not the most expensive stuff in the world, but I think they do a fine job.
10. I often love bands and singers that have been around a long time, and I usually like their late-career work more than the original stuff. For example, you've gotta be insane if you can't love The Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over", or Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits album from when they got back together, or even some recent Kris Kristofferson.
11. I've recently rediscovered The New Yorker as an excellent source of some insightful reads. Originally started checking them out for Malcolm Gladwell's essays.
12. Speaking of Gladwell, I'm beginning to think the white guy 'fro might be coming back.
13. There are some movies in this world that, even though I know they're going to suck, I almost feel honor-bound to see.
14. I think we should all just stop the insanity and just call tomatoes a vegetable. I know they're not - strictly speaking, they're a fruit - but come ON. You're not gonna put tomatoes in your Fruit Salad, are you?
15. I told my mother-in-law that my brand new HDTV could not show anything playing from a VCR. Because it would cry in agony.
16. I'm not perfectly certain, but I think there might actually be TWO works of man inspired by God: The Bible and Dr Pepper.
17. I don't wanna be a superhero, I wanna be a JEDI. There's a difference.
18. My wife is totally addicted to anime and manga. Which I'm totally on board with, because those are MUCH better than soap operas and reality TV.
19. I'm a Sudoku addict. I usually have a puzzle I'm working on in my notebook I take to meetings at work. And yes, I must admit some times that I'm looking at the numbers more than the notes.
20. I think some parts of Texas are as gorgeous as anywhere else on Earth.
21. Polarizing foods I actually like: cilantro, bleu cheese, and lima beans. Never have liked green beans, though - ever since I was a baby.
22. I couldn't work at an office that didn't let me wear jeans whever I wanted to. I'm all about dressing nice for clients and interviews, and I dont' even wear jeans every day. I just want the option.
23. I'm not putting hyperlinks in these later tidbits because I'm getting lazy and I'm ready to finish this thing.
24. I'm a David Letterman/Craig Ferguson kinda guy. And I LOVED Craig Killborn.
25. I think 25 is the new 10.
    

ESSAY: Meme Marketing

Just finished the piece below - not for any writing contest this time, just wanted to write this up. Let me know if you enjoy it or show it to others! -E

MEME MARKETING

The Marketer is caught in a unique paradox: we want to give our clients the benefit of our years of experience; countless research studies; blood-with-sweat late-night wordsmithing; messages honed with scalpel-fine sharpness. We want our clients to tangibly feel the incredible effects of our work as near as a heart palpitation with a Memorex-like impact. We want them to squeeze every positive adjective (even the made-up ones) into that glowing email to us the day after the campaign launches - we want them to believe that we are capable of nothing less than MAGIC.

Just one problem: we don't want them to see the Man Behind The Curtain. Marketers NEED that level of mystery in their work, because it's the element that keeps Clients coming back time and time again. We don't always want to show them how to fish, we just want to keep them happy with lots of halibut and looking to us for more. And somewhere between the Words and the Wizardry, we came up with this new spell that would keep the Client enraptured for the new Millennium: Viral Marketing.

It all started when somewhere between a YouTube video and a PowerPoint slide we saw something happening. Something we'd never seen before. Consumers - our audience - were taking our commercials, our ideas, our concepts and passing them around in these new "social networks." It was almost unfair. Here we had just produced a :30 special effects product placement explosion, or had just gotten our client on the most watched morning show in the country, and now some person named DrPepperLvr156 was passing out our Moment in an "unauthorized" channel. Friends and acquaintances and cool-mongers were commenting by the hundreds, all without us seeing a dime of commission or even a tiny trophy. Then the remixes and mash-ups started appearing, and our beautiful flower of a concept had officially left the walled garden we'd created for it: now it was fighting for its life in the social equivalent of the Amazon rainforest.

Some Marketers, seeing this disaster of diversity sought to game the system, to insert a seemingly “natural” or “amateur” idea into this ecosystem, hoping to entice unwitting consumers into passing on an idea that has a hidden trap door: a dotted-line connection back to a brand and back to a purchase. After all, if a low-budget film gets millions of views, the ROI is motivation enough - even if the purchase-to-conversion rate is microscopic. They thought these “great” ideas would be passed on almost involuntarily, with the same uncontrollable network effects of… a virus.

It worked the first few times – successfully, even. Network effects were leveraged, and marketers got to sample the intoxicating drug of media impressions that nobody paid for. But soon, these gifts from the Community came fewer and further between as the consumer evolved a new level of brand-detection skill. This formerly fertile soil had become effectively inoculated against our efforts, and would only let the “genuine article” take root and thrive. The spread and growth potential were still there, but it seemed like we’d lost the chance to do anything in this space that still met a Client’s bottom line. Marketers today really have to unpack what we thought was viral marketing to reach down to its true potential and see that self-sustaining campaign effect once again. Our first strategies for leveraging this concept were really based on the symptoms of the Idea Virus, crafted without understanding how it works – its true DNA.

Viruses (of any sort) are built with one goal in mind: to reproduce. When the virus is a cold, all we notice is how bad we feel and how the tissue boxes stack up. But for the virus, your misery is the result of successfully finding a fertile environment, gaining a foothold, and reproducing like crazy. Every marketing campaign designed to “go viral” has to do the same things as your favorite illness AND turn an ROI – connecting those people reached to a purchase. It’s not impossible, but it’s not near as accidental anymore. In fact, great work in this space isn’t just Viral Marketing. It’s Meme Marketing.

Memes are the ideas, symbols or practices that naturally spread throughout a culture. From the Greek word for “mimic,” these thoughts are the things that just seem to “catch on” – whether it’s coffee houses, doing “The Wave” at a sports event, or tightrolling your jeans back in the ‘80s. In a 2007 interview with Spike Jones, hip-hop sensation Kanye West said “What the hula hoop was to America, I want my music, my pieces of art to be that.” This is the new ground an idea competes on – whether a song, a toy, or a marketing campaign.

Memes that make it resonate for a specific audience. If the new currency of social media is recognition, your concept – metaphorically – needs to be money. Something that members of this Community you’re targeting will want to pass around, because it elevates their own status within that Community. When one member can unearth or create something that others within the Community want to copy, they’ve expanded their influence. If that idea belongs to your Client, then you’ve successfully meshed their brand with that Community.

Memes that make it create a connection. It’s not just about being the loudest car commercial on TV, or the most offensive idea imagined. These things can grab attention, but they’re ignored just as quickly. Great memes are noticeable, memorable, AND actionable. Some of the best solve a problem – whether practical or just a cognitive dissonance. The arch, for example, spread across the world as an engineering meme because it solved the problem of how to span long distances efficiently. But it was also something easy to see, remember, and put into practice when you got back home.

Memes that make it are easy to reproduce. YouTube isn’t the #1 source of streaming media because they’re technologically advanced. In fact, many other sites use a more advanced codec or provide more features. Their fulcrum is in that little box of code labeled “embed.” I can take a video clip and replicate the entire viewing experience on my blog or Facebook or MySpace. And in doing so, I’ve validated that meme, because the people watching it on my blog know ME. If they want to pass on the meme in the same way, all they have to do is copy-paste.

Meme marketing is an engineered idea infection. It’s difficult, rare, and powerful. But most importantly, it’s deliberate. The next generation of successful marketers will be able to craft these memes, seed them into a receptive Community, and they’ll watch them spread like… a virus.

Hyperactive Hyperlinking HyperBlogger

In the latest of a string of successes for my writings, my recent essay on Continuous Innovation has been posted to the RAPP Global Blog! This is directly at the "front door" for our agency worldwide, so it's a huge deal. Plus, I had the chance to work with some great people outside my regular circle here, which is just additional fun.

We wanted this version to be a little more readable and interactive than the original, so we came up with the idea of splattering it with links all over the place - making it the hyper hyperlinked remix version, if you will. Take a look at some of those links, they were half the fun in getting this done.

The Hottest Wallpapers I've Found So Far

Some people go for pictures of their kids as their computer wallpaper, but I think my little Squid is so cute that hiding behind my open browser windows doesn't do him justice. Besides, I like having something there that's utterly different and unique.

So here's a few of my current favorites, gathered from hither and yon. I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you to first go check out the STUNNING wallpapers from mandolux.com and desktopography.net. Now enjoy what I've got here while the bandwidth's available!

ESSAY: Continuous Innovation

Update: Received a wonderful comment from a user identifying themselves as the Chief Technologist for NASA at Langley, VA. Here's hoping I can help space exploration, if in some small way!

I guess I must be good at this essay thing. They had another writing contest here at work, and I decided to enter. I wasn't really looking to do anything special, just wanted to see for myself if it was a fluke: if it was possible that I could write that well again. I really figured I had no chance, because of course, they wouldn't let me win twice, right?

Well, they did.

This contest was supposed to be about "Innovation." Here's the full essay, along with the announcement email, from the same Global Strategy guy. Plus, some minor mentions from later in the year. Enjoy!

Continuous Innovation


You have two minutes to do something innnovative. 120 seconds. Go.


Can we all be honest with each other here? When you look at the results from your latest campaign and see a click-through rate of .05%, or an open rate of 1.14%, or an average time on site of 00:00:14 with a bounce rate of 85%, you're not excited. Even though these numbers may be well above standard for your client's industry, or average rates for the medium, you can't help but wonder about the majority. The ones that just didn't do what you wanted them to do.

So what happens? You get in the office the next day and flip through your Rolodex of optimization techniques, survey out a 30+ variable testing matrix that would confuse a rocket scientist, and set about to "move the needle." Brief, blow out, build and blast; you manage to make that K.P.I. look a little less S.O.L., and your client is happy to carry on doing the same thing with the same messages in a slightly better looking package. That needle's moved, but that majority? Still there.

So why doesn't this FEEL good? Why doesn't this inspire your work and infuse your day?

Why doesn't this feel Innovative?


90 seconds.


The fact is, a lot of the things we fill our day with are NOT innovative. And really, there's nothing wrong with that - great work relies completely on great execution. An excellent process or cutting-edge idea will be the inspirational equivalent of a blank sheet of paper if it isn't carried out with absolute attention to detail, timing, and budget. The world needs people that do this, and for at least some part of our lives, we all must be one of them.

The problem is we confuse Innovation with The Work. We can't block out 30 minutes on our calendar to just "Innovate." Innovation doesn't generate any discrete deliverable, follow any Visio flow chart process, or wrap itself up neatly into a revenue stream by the end of Q2. Innovation is like a rainbow: ephemeral, beautiful, and impossible to precisely predict.

But, you CAN create the right conditions for it.

Just like we all know that stormy-sunny mix that gives the best opportunity for a solar color gala, we all intrinsically know the circumstances that will foster innovation within our organizations. We know the value of those hallway conversations, the break room areas, the coffee machine (oh YES the coffee machine), the foosball table, the huge whiteboard, the iPod with noise-cancelling headphones. We know those things that don't have a direct return, the stuff that's expensed before the bottom line, the things that usually get axed when numbers need to add up.

We know what fosters innovation - we're just afraid of it.


60 seconds.


The core problem with innovation is that it is rooted in, and generated by the Unknown. We can fertilize and water the field all day long, but ultimately it is innovation that makes a seed become a plant. The fear is that you might throw all your might and resources into a singular project to foster innovative growth and... it doesn't happen. Or worse yet, you take your baby idea out of the incubator and try to introduce it to the real world and guess what? It fails.

You know what we call new ideas that succeed? Innovation.
You know what we call new ideas that don't? Failures.

Under this paradigm, it's easy to see why a project with unclear and uncertain returns would never get off the ground. It's understandable trying your hand at the tried-and-true before ever venturing off into the unknown. When the world is black and white, why would you ever want to put yourself in the red?

And that's your problem.

If you see every new venture, every weird idea, every novel concept as ultimately falling down the plinko machine into one of those two buckets, the risk is always 50-50. You're always that fixed distance away from perceived utter disaster, and you're always going to stay there.

Take a moment and think of the enormous gamut of problems you work with and attempt every day - from a way to remember to pick up the dry cleaning, to some method of resolving conflict with a co-worker, to influencing a new audience to buy your client's product.
The wrong thought is to rank these solutions the same way we would a coin flip - heads/tails, right/wrong, successful/not. We deal in a work that so tightly integrates with the human experience, that of communicating and carrying understanding of a client to groups of other humans. We play on emotion, on aspirations, on cognitive dissonance. So how can we call one idea absolutely innovative, or another absolutely a failure? How can we not appreciate the campaigns that "showed a small ROI" or "did sorta well" for what they are - learning opportunities.


30 seconds.


If asked about his greatness, Edison would tell you about the thousands of ways he discovered how NOT to make a lightbulb. Einstein would tell you about the 42 years of life BEFORE he won his Nobel Prize for Physics. Michael Jordan would tell you about the 26 times he was trusted to take the game-winning shot and MISSED. Greatness only germinates from the ashes of failure. Innovation will only spark after countless ideas are tried, tested, and most are found lacking. The world's Next Big Idea isn't sitting out on the sidewalk like a lost penny - it's hiding behind a veil of missteps, mistakes, and missed opportunities.

The clear fact is that in order to foster innovation in ourselves or in our organization, we need to create a mentality that ALLOWS for failure. We need to build into our campaign plans an aggressive process for correctly identifying results, then extracting every single bit of meaning or understanding from them - both "good" and "bad." This knowledge then needs to feed our future works. This knowledge must be immediately shared within our organization. This knowledge needs to be openly celebrated in front of our clients, to prove how we've positively built from failure and made our partners' money really worth something in the long run.

We need to innovate, or we will become irrelevant. Therefore, we need to fail, or we will never find success. And when we fail, we must intensely scrutinize the results in order to innovate.


Time's up. Did you innovate? Did you fail? How about both.

I am pleased to inform you that our writing contest winner is once again Eric Swayne. Yes, that's right. Eric Swayne. Again.



Well done Eric!



This contest focused on innovation. As direct marketers, innovation is a bit of a strange bedfellow. I mean, we typically focus on a linear approach of testing, learning and then optimizing. Innovation requires new, often lateral thinking, is often inefficient and as Eric rightly points out ...gasp...can actually require failing, maybe even repeatedly, before getting to the Promised Land. And yet now more than ever our ability to innovate as customer obsessed agents on behalf of our clients is the litmus test by which we are judged as true leaders in our space.



Traditional executions across traditional channels, nuanced by creative and offer are simply not working as well as they used to. Consumers demand more...more relevance, more experience, more inspiration, more opportunity to co-create across multiple touch points. Across channels heretofore not even considered media. To truly succeed for our clients we are going to need to be brave, pioneering and yes, perhaps even fail from time to time. Different than many the Rapp way, the way of data igniting creative experiences, of direct marketing sensibilities informing new applications across emerging channels, gives us an unfair advantage. It slides the odds of success to our favor. And I am happy to take any advantage I can get, fair or unfair, on behalf of our clients.



Take the time to read Eric's entry on risk taking, on having the courage of our convictions and on our mandate to innovate as a brand. It is inspiring. Please join me in congratulating Eric on what is quickly becoming the Swayne Writing Contest. (Actually, the entrants are presented to a panel of judges without name!) I encourage all of you to participate in the next iteration and help us crown a new champion. Not to mention win a bunch of money :-)

This next one came from the CEO of all RAPP itself. He CCed our Global President, and the President of North America:

This is really well done Eric. I’d like you, [name witheld] and [name witheld] to trim this down, add a couple of real Rapp examples of innovation and put this on the website blog. This is a very relevant topic.


Thanks Eric.

And here's the blog he was talking about: http://opinion.rapp.com/. I'm working with other amazing luminaries of the RAPP stratosphere to get this live, and I'll let you know here when it's up.

I'm still utterly amazed and honored to win this go-round. The money's nice (VERY nice), but the validation as a writer and strategic thinker is many, many times more valuable. It's mind-boggling and humbling to have a reputation throughout the world-wide stretch of RAPP. I hope I'm afforded many more chances to do this kind of free-form, blue-sky thinking.

So I Should Probably Let You Know...

You all remember this essay I posted earlier, mentioning that I entered it in a writing contest here at work. I'm glad to tell you that I WON!!!1!!! (LoLCat punctuation intended.) Yep, in addition to being an award winning web designer, I'm now an award winning writer!

The award (read: check in an envelope) was given me at an all-agency meeting on Monday. The Director of the entire freakin' office, the lady that can fire me if she just doesn't like my hair that day, asked me to read my essay for everyone. Normally, I'm very good speaking in front of crowds. I did a talk back in my LTC days for about 4,500 people no sweat. This time? My hands were shaking so hard I couldn't hold the paper in front of my face - I had to put it down on the podium to read it. People told me later I read fine, but WOW have I never been that nervous.

Later in the week, the Global Chief Strategy Officer (yeah, that's a big title) sent out the following email. I've redacted some parts here.

It is with great pleasure I announce the winner of our first RCW Writing Competition:

ERIC SWAYNE, Rapp Collins Worldwide, Dallas

Eric is an Interactive Project Manager who joined RCW about two months ago...and certainly has not wasted any time making a great impression! I urge you (or perhaps contextually it would be better if I “invited” you) to spend a few minutes reading through the entry. I find it to be a treasure trove of insights and provocative thought. Return on Interaction? Brands as parties? Brand Matchmaking? The birth of communication as anthropology and the end of hypnosis? Fantastic! As with everything we do at Rapp, I ask that you consider the points being made, debate them internally and with co-workers, enhance them, make them yours and then evangelize! This is how we grow organically and evolve our own brand.

We also want to thank everyone who participated. The responses and the writing are amazing and we recognize those who take the time to think and share the message.

Congratulations to all, and Eric, well done!

VIDEO: These Videos Have Nothing to Do With Each Other

Normally, I try to bring content with a theme, even if it's a niche one. Normally there's some common thread running through these snippets of web glory, but no such luck this time. This is just stuff that I find interesting or funny, and hope you will, too. Enjoy!

Synchronizing Metronomes

Interesting demo of a little physics here.

Virgin America's Safety Video

There's not much good in the category of Airline Safety Videos, but somehow Virgin makes me want to fly them even more with theirs.

Cat on a Treadmill

Seriously, do you need me to tell you why this is funny?

Darth Vader Feels Blue

Okay, hang with me here through the first few minutes. I promise it's worth it.