• Is All of That ‘Noise’ a Bad Thing?

    Posted on May 15th, 2012 by and currently 2 commenting.

    How many times have you heard talk about the dreaded ‘noise’?

    The other day a friend of mine lamented about how digital camera prices have dropped to a point where ‘everyone’ is calling themselves a ‘professional photographer’ and its creating so much ‘noise’ in the industry.

    But it seems to be everywhere – from startups releasing a product, to companies exploring social media, to ‘content strategy,’ to hundreds of people applying for the same job opening.

    Everyone seems to be asking, “how in the world are we going to break through all of this noise and capture people’s attention??”

    As I’ve thought through this subject, the first question that keeps surfacing is, ‘what exactly is this noise?’

    This probably warrants a longer discussion, but here are a few thoughts:

    • A lot of ‘noise’ is advertising…but that’s nothing new, right?
    • People seem to be talking about a ‘new’ sort of noise, and much of the conversation seems to be centered on the internet.
    • Whatever else is included, it seems to me that a sizable amount of this ‘new’ noise is people creating and sharing. Call it the ‘social web’ or whatever term suits you, but more people than ever are (publicly) writing, sharing photographs, making music, coding applications, interacting, reading, etc.

    Those thoughts begged these questions: “Why do people talk about noise as an enemy? And is it really a bad thing?”

    I think noise scares people because of this: it’s much more difficult to get noticed in in a room of 100 people than it is in a room of 10 people. (Got the next Twitter in beta? Awesome. So do a thousand other talented people.)

    No one will contest the fact that standing out in a larger crowd is a difficult barrier to overcome – the reality is that our job got a whole lot harder, and is changing a whole lot quicker than it did before. I think that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. (It should probably make them hungry to learn.)

    But I’m not convinced that a conversation about ‘breaking through the noise’ is the best way to think about what we do. After all, aren’t we making things and messages for many of the people who are creating that so-called ‘noise’?

    I think we need to be asking these questions:

    • Am I solving an actual problem or providing a better solution for people?
    • Am I making every effort to produce remarkable things and communicate about them in remarkable ways?

    Our jobs may be more complicated in the current marketplace, but if we weren’t willing to solve problems, come up with better solutions, or do the work of being remarkable before, any success would have been temporary even when there wasn’t so much ‘noise’.

  • Nostalgia, Mad Men and Emotions

    Posted on May 14th, 2012 by and currently 0 commenting.


    Yours truly at a Brains on Fire Mad Men Christmas party a few years back.

    I’ve never gotten caught up watching the show, Mad Men. But the other day someone showed me a short clip that got stuck in my heart for many reasons.

    Take a minute and watch it.

    Don’t you love that?

    The definition of nostalgia as a pain of or ache is wonderful. Even happy memories can create that tug.

    Since we’re in the word of mouth marketing business, we think a lot about the role of emotions in igniting conversation. We know that brands and organizations that evoke strong emotions and storytelling are more likely to get talked about.

    I sent this clip to Cordell last week and he came back with this insight:

    “When we are deeply moved to the emotional edges, we are the most human. We are the closest to who we really are, closest to each other. And only when we are there can we see our truth, if only for a moment before the tears and smiles are wiped away and we slip back into our disguises.

    That video reminds me of how true that is.”

    Today, as you go about your day, think about the brands you talk about. And what triggers you to share. I’d love to hear about those stories from you!

    P.S. Check out Geno and John Moore‘s prezo on Wommology if you haven’t seen it. Lots of good stuff about the role of emotions in Word of Mouth Marketing.

  • Hello (and some photos) From Chicago

    Posted on May 9th, 2012 by and currently 2 commenting.


    We’re at the WIT. Love the little brilliant details in this hotel, like birds quietly chirping in the halls.

    I’m in Chicago this week at Womma‘s womm-u with Cordell and Geno. And I’m so glad we all came. Honestly, I wish everyone from Brains on Fire could attend. Yesterday’s keynote speaker Steve Knox is shiny brilliant (he spoke at the FIRE session two years ago and was a huge hit). Every time I get the chance to be in Steve’s company, I take it. And every time I hear him speak, I learn something new. Here are just a couple of things that stuck in my mind:

    (I love to write from memory after I hear someone speak and not notes. The little nuggets that stick in your heart and mind are usually the ones worth sharing.)

    Steve stated “advocacy marketing can be your new competitive advantage.”

    The opportunity for brands today is to understand and practice being “neighborly”. And oh my goodness, he said it, LOVE their customers. If you ask your neighbor for help, they usually just do it. They don’t write it down. They don’t keep track of what you do for them (like loyalty cards).

    He also quoted one of his former associates at P&G.

    Start small to go big. Go slow to go fast.

    So many people are caught up in quick numbers and instant scale. But it’s not about volume.

    Ed Keller and Brad Fay also gave a great talk. It was their first time sharing their insights from their new book, The Face to Face Book. They are a steady reminder to all of us that 90 percent of all WOM is offline. Still. Watch for a Q+A guest post from Ed in the coming weeks.


    Ed Keller with Suzanne Fanning, Womma’s President

    Rod Brooks gave a presentation on his work with Pemco. I love how they start every single meeting with a customer story. He also talked about LOVING your customers.

    Geno and John Moore put together a presentation on WOMMology: Dumbing Down Smart WOMM Research. The beautiful slides (from Greg Ramsey) are online if you want check it out. Then last night Geno shared Justin Gammon’s amazing artwork in 10 Rules for Your Community to Survive a Zombie Attack.

    We’ll let you know as soon as this prezo hits slideshare!

    I loved a comment from someone in the audience.

    You need to be lovable to be loved.

    So with that, I will say bye! Off to catch a plane. Here are just a few more pics from our happy hour at Edelman’s crazy cool offices.

    David Armano, Geno and Greg.

    Geno, Jackie Huba, and Rick Murray (Edelman)


    The amazing, wonderful view from Edelman’s offices.

  • The things that make us happy. And human.

    Posted on May 3rd, 2012 by and currently 1 commenting.


    Poster available via weareyawn.com

    Hmmmm.

    The things that make us happy are not really “things” at all, are they?

    Today Cordell sent me this brilliant Harvard Business Review article.

    I love the question that Umair Haque asked his social media friends.

    What makes us human? In one word, preferably.

    The most common answers were: empathy, consciousness, compassion, love.

    From the article:

    …few of us go the office, the classroom, the bank, or the clinic to expect, evoke, elicit, or enjoy anything resembling empathy, consciousness, compassion, love. I’d bet the farm, the house, and the Apple shares on the following proposition: Our institutions are failing not merely because they’re bankrupting us financially, but because they’re bankrupting us in human terms — that, having become something like Alcatrazes for the human soul, they fail to ignite within us the searing potential for the towering accomplishments necessary to answer today’s titanic challenges.

    I hope I have inspired you to go read Umair’s words.

    So what do you think? What makes us human and how can an organization be built on love, compassion, consciousness, joy, empathy, or kindness (the things that make us happy)? What would that look like to you?

  • Arousal, Word of Mouth Marketing and WOMM-U

    Posted on April 23rd, 2012 by and currently 0 commenting.


    Yup. Kind of blurry iphone photo. But that’s Geno.

    Quick — before you read this post, drop and give me 50 push ups. Nope. I’m not kidding. I’m doing an experiment. Do your push ups, (I’ll wait.) Then keep reading!

    Ok. Done? Good.

    I’m getting excited about going to WOMM-U in May.

    Are you going?

    For one thing, Chicago in the Spring is magic. Another reason I am excited is somewhat self-promoting but the honest truth.

    Geno and John Moore(part of our extended tribe and Brand Autopsy Founder) are teaming up again to teach a class on Monday (5/7) afternoon. This go around, they’re taking some high profile super smart research and boiling it down to bite-size nuggets of marketing know-how. We’ve been doing a lot of learning and talking around here as they prep. It’s been good for all of us.

    We’re all in marketing grad school.

    One of the interesting studies they’ve dissected is from Jonah Berger. It hits on WHY people share stories and ideas.

    Berger sites arousal as a key trigger for sharing.

    From the Association For Psychological Science:

    “In a prior paper, we found that emotion plays a big role in which New York Times articles make the most emailed list. But interestingly, we found that while articles evoking more positive emotions were generally more viral, some negative emotions like anxiety and anger actually increased transmission while others like sadness decreased it. In trying to understand why, it seemed like arousal might be a key factor,” says Berger, the Joseph G. Campbell Jr. Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Pennsylvania.

    In the study, Berger suggests that feeling fearful, angry, or amused drives people to share news and information. These types of emotions are characterized by high arousal and action, as opposed to emotions like sadness or contentment, which are characterized by low arousal or inaction. “If something makes you angry as opposed to sad, for example, you’re more likely to share it with your family and friends because you’re fired up,” continues Berger.

    Hmmmm. Lots of good insight in this for those of us in the conversation business.

    Here’s how they went about verifying this concept:

    Two different experiments were conducted to test Berger’s theory that arousal promotes information sharing. In one experiment, which focused on specific emotions, 93 students completed what they were told were two unrelated studies. In the first study, students in different experimental groups watched video clips that made them either anxious or amused (high arousal emotions) or sad or content (low arousal emotions). In the second study, they were shown an emotionally neutral article and video and asked how willing they would be to share it with friends and family members. The results demonstrated that students who felt high arousal emotions were much more inclined to share with others.

    The second experiment dealt with arousal more generally. 40 students were asked to complete what they assumed were two unrelated studies. First, they either sat still or jogged in place for about a minute – a task proven to increase arousal. Then they were asked to read a neutral online news article and told they could e-mail it to anyone they wanted. The findings showed that students who jogged in place and were aroused were more likely to e-mail the article to their friends and family, as opposed to the students that just sat still.

    So back to my experiment. Were you more likely to share this post if you got your heart rate going before you read it?

    Hmmmm.

    There’s a lot of smart research going around. What do you find most interesting and why?

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