Greg Verdino

First we'll land on the moon. Then we'll buy blouses.

If hindsight is 20/20, then foresight is -- well -- sometimes shockingly accurate too, even if some of the fine details are a bit blurry.  This video from 1969 (that's 40 years ago people) extols the virtues of a connected future: online shopping, webcams and live video streaming, electronic banking, email, touchscreen-based devices and even content delivery networks.  Plus it has a suitably creepy soundtrack. 

[If you're reading the feed or get my blog posts delivered by email, you may need to click through to watch the embedded video.]

So here we are in 2009 and I'd wager most of us would be hard-pressed to make predictions that will hold up 40 days from now let alone 40 years.  OK - maybe 40 days is a bit of a low estimate, but you get my point...

What do you think 2049 holds in store?

via Get Elastic.

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before...

This video, portraying a funny-because-it's-true reality about how clients negotiate with their agencies, made the rounds on Twitter yesterday.  On the other hand, I'd imagine there's ample fodder for a video response that dramatizes all of the unsavory ways agencies 'manage' their clients.

Well... no matter which side of the table you sit on, the video is worth a few minutes of your time if you haven't seen it yet.  Enjoy!  And don't forget to chime in with your witty commentary.

[Feed and email readers: visit the blog to watch the video.]

Storytelling at the brink of the future?

Although the odds are pretty good you'll never read a fiction review on this blog, I can't help but tell y'all about J.C. Hutchins' forthcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art.  It's a supernatural thriller that pits an art therapist at a psychiatric institute against a blind serial killer/patient -- it may or may not be your cup of tea, and the actual content of the book isn't why I'm telling you about it.

The thing that probably will interest you is the way (ways plural, really) J.C. has taken what he has learned through years of social media self-publishing to create a work that goes well beyond the printed page, encompassing digital, mobile and the physical world to create a fully participatory multimedia narrative.  In many ways, Personal Effects is a novel custom-designed for digital natives (although J.C. and his publisher may not think of it that way) and it just might offer a glimpse at the future of storytelling.

 And the future of storytelling should matter to you no matter what products your company produces or promotes because, as marketers, our success often rides on both our ability to tell compelling stories and our customers' willingness and ability to spread their own stories about their experiences with our brands.

 Of course, everything begins with the book itself.  Let's assume it's good -- I haven't read it yet, but look forward to digging into the advance copy I received over the weekend (thanks J.C.)

But Personal Effects really gets interesting when it gets innovative.  If you aren't familiar with J.C. Hutchins (frankly, I only knew of him through some mutual contacts and from hearing his name bandied about in social media circles), he is a good example of what I have called a "whatever expert" -- someone who is good at what he does and has found a way to succeed at it through smart, effective use of social media.  Although Personal Effects is his first published novel, he has been writing for years, releasing his work as free audiobooks and using the web and social media to build a loyal audience.

J.C. isn't a marketer by training or trade, but the digital and multimedia components of his project offer a practical blueprint for any marketer looking to transform their brand storytelling into an active, participatory experience that is fueled by community and optimized for customer-to-consumer word of mouth.  Readers can enter the world of Personal Effects in a variety of ways:

• Technology-Fueled Calls-to-Action: Clues peppered throughout the novel and in the killer's personal effects packaged with the novel (e.g., a drivers license, photos, hospital paperwork) drive readers to companion websites, forums, onto email lists, into mobile phone voicemail systems and opt-in text messaging programs and more where they can find and explore additional layers of narrative.

• A Distributed, Online Experience: Readers can get inside the heads of key characters through their social network profiles, personal blogs and Twitter streams.

• Original, Distributable Content: Tapping into his heritage as a popular and well-established podcaster, J.C. has produced an exclusive audio-only novella prequel, as well as a series of YouTube-friendly video promos featuring well known horror personalities.

• Seamless Integration with Relevant Third Party Sites: One of the characters (yes, a fictional character from the book) has written columns for Suicide Girls, a site (some content NSFW) whose readership seems to be well aligned with J.C.'s audience, and there is a planned deep integration that brings Suicide Girl models into the novel's fictional world and provides readers with an additional web-only subplot.

• A Fan Community: Readers can 'commit themselves to the Brink' (aka Brinkvale Psychiatric, where the novel takes place), submit their own artwork for display in the community gallery (a logical tie-in with the fact that the book's protagonist is an art therapist at the Brink) and receive personalized intake paperwork.  In other words, readers don't just consume the story; they become part of it.

• Creative, Innovative Influencer Outreach: This is how I became aware of the book in the first place and may bear some of the most relevant lessons for social media marketers.  Over the weekend, the mailman delivered an unexpected package, a good-sized box that contained materials that immediately piqued my interest, earned my attention and (true to the spirit of Personal Effects) drew me directly into the fictional world of Brinkvale Psychiatric.  Containing not only a reviewer's copy of the book and the obligatory media kit, the package was filled with my personal effects from my own stay at the Brink.  Everything was hyper-personalized and it was impossible not to dive in (and just as impossible not to tell others about it -- and last time I checked, that's what influencer outreach is all about.)  Here are a couple of photos and you can check out more on Flickr -- but be warned, you're bound to dismiss your run-of-the-mill blogger outreach emails as downright asinine...

 

 

So what's the bottom line?  J.C. is tapping into the power of digital and the potential of social to turn the lay-back (and some might say dying) act of reading a novel into a fully immersive lean-forward experience.  It's equal parts fiction and alternate reality game, powered by a healthy dose of practical Web 2.0 know-how. Followers of pop culture may draw parallels between Personal Effects and the similarly rich multimedia storytelling approaches used to fuel films like Blair Witch Project, television shows like Lost, video games like Halo 2 and even a recent album release by Nine Inch Nails.  Brands have occassionally tapped into this form of multimedia storytelling to do cool and interesting things -- see Audi's Art of the Heist, for example.  But to my knowledge, this is the first time an author has undertaken something so ambitious in association with a novel -- and it just might get digital natives to pick up a plain old printed book. 

Am I gushing?  Sorry.  It's pretty cool and makes me want to curl up with Personal Effects, my laptop and my iPhone right now.

Barring that though (damn you, workload, damn you), I'd love to hear from you.  Which of J.C.'s approaches do you think you can apply to get your customers involved in your brand's story?

All marketers really need to know about social media

Announcing: the Diggnation Lives in HD Contest

Last night, crayon client Panasonic helped the Diggnation boys rock South by Southwest at a killer throw-down that packed two thousand or so Kevin Rose fans into Austin BBQ joint Stubb's.  The highlight of the night was a live taping of Diggnation episode #194, during which Kevin and Alex announced the Diggnation Lives in HD contest.

But you didn't need to be at the party to join in the fun.  If you like taking pictures or shooting video -- or just want to take a look at our latest social marketing tactic to promote the Living in HD community site -- visit the promo page to find out how you can qualify for the competition.  Don't forget to join LiHD and be sure to friend the Diggnation crew (and me, while you're at it.)  You might win a sweet Panasonic digital still camera or HD camcorder.

If you're interested in seeing my photos from last night's Diggnation event, you can check my Flickr stream.

Hang with the life o' the party at SXSW

Now that Mashable has finally acknowledged what all y'all have been thinking for years -- that the party blows up when Verdino shows up (see Tweetup DO #5 in Stuart C. Foster's post on organizing successful Tweetups) -- I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to hear that I will be at the SXSW Interactive Festival in Austin. TX.  I arrive -- with my two best girls on my arms -- on March 12th and roll out on the 17th.

In between, it's all party party party. Oh, and some work work work.  A couple of crayon's clients -- Panasonic and ooVoo -- have some interesting SXSW goings-on planned for the geek elite, so it should be a productive but fun bunch o' days hampered only by my ability to hobble around Austin on my bum foot.

So if you're planning to be at SXSW and would like to hang out -- drink drinks, grab coffee, pitch me your services, hire crayon (hint hint), pose for sexy pictures -- let me know.  Pop your info into the form below and I'll be sure that we connect and schedule some time.

Transform: possibly the best 10 minutes of your day

I happened upon an interesting short film by a photographer named Zack Arias and liked it so much that I decided to share it here.  I'm not much of a photographer and maybe you're not either.  If you are, you certainly don't read my blog for photo tips.  None of that matters.  I'm not sharing the video because it will help you take better pictures.  I'm sharing it because it contains lessons that just might  help you be better at whatever matters to you - whether you strive to be a top marketer, a successful leader, an inspired creative or just an all around good person.

Entitled "Transform," it contrasts the drudgery of the day-to-day details that define what you do with a more profound meditation on who you are and how you can be who you want to be.  In other words, it contrasts the crap that doesn't really matter with the vital things that do.  Very, very inspiring stuff -- whether you're a creative soul or a stodgy suit.

The video runs ten minutes but I can guarantee it will provide ten of the best ten minutes of your day.  As a side note, you'll need to watch through the first minute and a half to get to the good stuff -- but the first minute and a half provides good context so don't just drag the status bar to 1:31.

[Feed and email readers will need to click through to watch -- and everyone should think about toggling this to full screen.]

Hey chicken, where's your head?

No doubt, you're familiar with the phrase "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."  In fact, if you work in media, marketing, advertising, PR or (let's face facts) just about any industry at all you're more than just familiar with the phrase -- you might be a living embodiment of it.

For the past few years, we ran around trying to get ahead of the proverbial topple of "old marketing" and get up to speed on all of the new media goodies we now had at our disposal -- from web video to social media, and everything in between.  Sadly, for many this amounted to little more than a series of pointless sprints across the shifting sands of early adoption.  We'd read an article about some hot new Web 2.0 tactic or catch wind that a key competitor was trying something "innovative," and we were off and running.  But rarely did we look where we were going, or even look around to figure out where we were starting out.  I can't even count the number of times I ranted (on this blog) or advised clients to slow down and take a more measured, more strategic approach to new marketing -- not to the detriment of progress, but for the betterment of the business.

And now we've got the current round of economic woes to deal with as well.  They're certainly cause for concern.  Budgets are being slashed, people are losing their jobs, entire companies are going out of business.  Scary times.   Client-side marketers are scrambling to cut-cut-cut-cut-cut.  All of those experimental tactics that they couldn't wait to try before the recession are now being left on the cutting room floor.  If you're an agency-side marketer (whether traditional, digital, social or PR) you're probably so afraid of being slashed along with those cutting-floor-things that you're killing yourself to over-service your clients for less money than they paid you last year.  

I get it... Times are tough, and we all need to do what we need to do in order to survive.

But here's the sad truth about chickens with their heads cut off -- they can run around all they want; they're still gonna die.

The good news is that you're (probably) smarter than a chicken.  If you're really smart (and the company you work for is smart too), you probably already had a hard times plan in place long before the economy took a downward turn.  You exercised a bit of foresight and managed to keep your neck away from the blade -- maybe you had a few feathers plucked but at least you still have your head.

Now might be a good time to use it.  Stop running around in a state of panic.  There is plenty of chaos already (in the world, in your industry, probably in your company as well) -- nobody needs you to create more chaos.  But others can probably use your help in creating order. 

Try this:

• Take a deep breath.
• Think about what needs to get done.
• Come up with a reasonable plan to do it.
• And then do it... and do it well.

As I read those four sentences, they seem laughably simple.  But is there really any other way?  Has there really ever been any other way?

OK - end of rant... :-)

so_many_a_second: global data on a human scale

As a former sociology major, I have a thing for statistics.  But that doesn't mean I don't sometimes find it difficult to wrap my head around big numbers -- especially when we're talking about numbers that are global in scale.  For example, there are 19 blog posts published per second.  Sounds like a lot of activity, but is it really, when you compare it to the 787 porn searches that happen each second?  This kind of analysis can sometimes make your brain hurt.

Enter data visualization and a nifty little service called so_many_a_second.  In their own words, so_many_a_second "is a visualizer that shows mondial statistics on a human scale.  Depicting the ongoing stream of events, this application tries to get the user in touch with the emotional actuality of these objective data."

In practice, it lets you see and compare a handful of population, technology, internet and product stats, using simple animations that represent volume of change per second.  It's hardly comprehensive and not entirely scientific (the site's disclaimer indicates that they've done a bit of homework to ensure that the stats are correct, but obviously can't guarantee accuracy) but it's no less interesting for the casual observer looking to dramatically illustrate a point. 

A point like: for every one computer purchased, there are three mobile phones purchased.  So hey, do you think maybe marketers need to think harder about how to engage increasingly mobile consumers than they do about, say, building that next super sticky (ack) microsite?

For a few moments of distraction and maybe an eye opening (or at least eye pleasing) visualization or two, check out so_many_a_second.  And if you're feeling ambitious (and have access to any interesting data points), you can even create your own custom visualizations and submit them for inclusion in the site's main drop downs.

Related: If you dig infographics and data visualization, you might also want to check out the Information Aesthetics blog.  Just discovered it today and it looks pretty rockin' (in a "don't-tell-the-guys-down-at-the-local-watering-hole" data geek kinda way.)

Love, a-marketing style

The economy may be in the crapper and lots of marketing pros might be more than a bit uncertain about how 2009 will end, but - hey - at least Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  Stealing a couple of pages from the books of Gravel (ask a lot of questions) and Brogan (don't offer any answers), I thought it might be fun to think about what we love about our industry, our jobs, and the massive changes we're living and working through.

Here are five chances for you to declare your love for this crazy little thing called marketing.   So have at 'em -- and let's try to keep the responses Rated G. ;-)

1. Your Valentine Brand: what's the one brand you love more than any other -- and why?
2. Your Valentine Campaign: what's the one current marketing program that really does it for you?
3. Your Valentine Trend: what is the one marketing-related trend, tool or technology that gets you most excited?
4. Your Valentine 2.0: what's the one social media site you simply can't live without?
5. Your 9-to-5 Valentine: What's the one thing about your job that gets you going every morning?

(And I'll say it so you don't have to -- yes, with this post I have hit an all time low.  But I do look forward to hearing what all y'all have to say.)