A happy and blessed new year!

As 2011 draws to a close and a shiny new year looms, like many this evening I will be looking back on the highs and lows of what has gone before and hoping that 2012 is kind to me and mine.

Looking back it was another good year. When things seemed to take a turn for the worse they in fact brought blessings and new opportunities. When one door was closed others were opened.

Over the years this pattern has repeated itself time and again. My mother has always said, “What’s for you won’t pass you by” and I have to say there is a great deal of comfort to be had in this piece of wisdom. It brings a confidence that no matter what lies in wait around the corner I will be able to cope with the challenges as indeed they were always meant to be.

So far they have been changers to a brighter tomorrow. All I can ask is that they continue to be just that.

Have a very happy and blessed new year!

The customer is always right?

You know the old adage “the customer is always right”… right? Wrong!

Worst still is if the customer thinks he is always right.. or is treated as if he is always right. Right? Right.

You see, so many customers and suppliers (and I too sometimes find myself in customer mode and at other times in supplier mode)  fail to value their relationship enough.  It is one of convenience.  I thankfully have clients who appreciate they don’t know it all. They also appreciate the fact that I don’t know it all. They know this because I tell them… and because sometimes its obvious.  But like in all relationships there is give and take, more experience in a certain area on one side and more experience on another. The point is that our business relationship is improved and optimised by the fact that both parties bring their expertise to the table and work together to reach consensus… a road map. There is trust.

Therein lies success.  The antithesis to this success? The kowtowing to the customer which leads to a dismantling of commitment, vision, creativity and proactivity within the supplier agency. Something which starts at the top and rots away at an agency and those who work on the account. It gets to a point where account managers daren’t move… and trust me… they make the day to day decisions on your account.  Not the boss!

If you recognise a lack of these things in your business relationship question its structure. Are you too dominant? Or does your supplier force this upon you and hide behind it (much safer that way isn’t it?).

I have always thought that a good litmus test is to observe whether your agency head would take your side or the side of their own account manager working on your account (this obviously doesn’t include sexual flirting with you partner on IM, selling your trade secrets to competitiors or bad body odour).  If they always take your side then you need to question how committed they are to a mutually respectful relationship.  How much they value the staff they put on your account (today and in the past). How committed are they in ensuring an environment of vision, creativity and proactivity around your account?

Next time demand from your agency that you are treated as if you’re not always right. Right? Right.

 

A vet or doctor? A builder or architect?

There are lots of SME business owners and marketing heads out there who know their limitations when it comes to the development of an online marketing strategy. I think it’s good to know your limitations… although you should be careful it doesn’t lead to inertia and paralysis through fear of the unknown.

There is also a larger number who brazen it out, especially marketing heads from an offline or PR background who believe that:

1. Simply applying old world tried and tested principles to new world methods is enough.
2. They should continue in an offline bubble, hoping the nasty online stuff remains a fad. “When PR became mainstream everybody got really excited, but it soon settled into the mix”. The same will happen with digital.
3. The burden of responsibility (most often self-inflicted) to know everything in my field (every aspect of my business or every aspect of my marketing discipline) is such that I’ll make it up as I go along, or transform my image into a converted digital guru.

I was reading an article recently about the struggle in parts of Africa against HIV Aids and how the situation is exacerbated by ignorance, a lack or willingness to understand and a lack of organised and effective education. I don’t mean to flippantly relate my point to a world killer, but the article went on to discuss how some sufferers seek the “help” of witch doctors, others from vets, and the better informed/luckier from qualified doctors and nurses. Obviously witch doctors are at worse charlatans, and at best misguided in their own belief system. They peddle ignorance. Vets, although in a directly related industry, are just not qualified for the job. I think most of us, given the choice, would opt for the qualified doctor or nurse.

Let me develop another analogy to further tunnel down and dissect the difference between a doctor and a nurse (although I’m sure we all know what we’d prefer). The point I would like to make though is that they are qualified in the same area but in different disciplines. They have different functions and do different jobs.

I’ve never been lucky (or unlucky) enough to build my own house, but I know there are a number of options open to me.

1. Build one yourself. Just think of the challenge of a whole new expertise and trade. The experience and expertise of professionals crammed into 6 months. 2 years. 5 years. Hmm…
2. Get your neighbour’s nephew to build you one. “He’s good at that sort of thing” (if it wasn’t so pathetic it would be laughable). Even if his only qualification is that he knows more than you it is surely a good start. Hmm…
3. Get a builder. The builder will do the job for you and he’ll make a decent job. He wont have developed a strategy (thats not his job – he builds). It won’t have been properly planned, the lay out won’t be to your complete satisfaction and it might not get approval, buy you can make do. Right? Hmm…
4. Hire an architect and do the job properly. There will be a strategy and plan in place. He can advise on best practice, cost effectiveness and who is needed to do the job properly. He will also ensure legal compliance. Jobs a good ‘un!

When approaching the whole online thing (and we’re not just talking websites), what kind of business professional do you wish to be? Who should you be approaching?

If I needed medical attention I would go to a qualified doctor. If I wanted a house building I would go to an architect. If i wanted to know how I should approach digital, and what I should do to ensure an ROI on my investment, I would go to genuine online specialists who deal with digital strategies.

Another blog post

For a number of weeks now I’ve been trying to decide what to write about for my next blog post. At one point I had three ideas swirling around in my head. I just couldn’t choose. The swirl swirled so long that the ideas themselves slowed and turned stagnant.

The ideas haven’t yet been replaced.

I have a block. My juices aren’t flowing. The river’s turned to jelly. The trinitrotoluene is on the damp side. The beaver’s ran out of wood. You get my drift?

The strange thing is that my usual source for my usual ramblings (ie life) has never been busier.

The first stage of our latest site Asensio digital marketing agency has gone live. The requirements for digital marketing in Teesside, Durham, Newcastle and the Universe have never been stronger. We’ve been busy with website design and development, and there’s enough being done on the social media, mobile and search engine optimisation front too. Certainly on the SEO front! Then there’s the new bathroom I’ve just finished over the August bank holiday weekend, the children’s last week of the Summer holidays and nursing my brave Mrs as she recuperates from the curious incident of the garden fire-pit in the nighttime.

I’m sure it won’t be too long until an idea lodges itself where it should. I’m sure another blog post is just around the corner. In fact, wait a minute… well what do you know? How do I manage it?

Happy Birthday World Wide Web.

Today the World Wide Web will have woken up to breakfast in bed, cards a plenty and an array of presents including the obligatory pair of socks.  Later it probably met with friends for coffee, a bit of shopping and then enjoyed a meal out with its significant other half in that posh new restaurant in town.  The World Wide Web celebrates its 20th birthday today.  Happy Birthday to you!

On 6th August 1991 Tim Berners Lee and his team gave birth to the first website.  It was a tad basic, a bit ugly, and a lot boring… a birthing ritual still kept alive by a number of traditional advertising agencies today.

First website.

With each passing year the Web has evolved, morphing and evolving into an essential element of our everyday lives.  From the screech and whistles of early dial-up modems to the introduction of high speed broadband, wifi and mobile 4G around the corner, advances in technology and expertise has improved the online experience and harnessed the essential of engagement.  The Web has become a hyper information conduit, and made the world much smaller by bringing us into easy contact with friends, family and acquaintances…

…it makes me feel so warm when I get friend requests from former school bullies on Facebook!

As well as giving me a job, the Web has genuinely revolutionised communications.  It took Radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, it took TV 13 years, but only 4 years for the Web.  Further to this, social media has revolutionised the Web itself. Facebook reached 200 million users in less than a year!  With 50% of the world’s population under 30 and 96% of Millenials a member of a social network, you won’t appear on Oprah as a talented clairvoyant to work out what the future holds.

How the web will develop is difficult to say, especially given the changes we have seen in so few years.  Nobody had heard of Facebook just five years ago! What we do know is it will continue to replicate the society in which it is growing up: one where there is good and bad, where there is openness and closedness, where there are principles and where are those eager to fob off and make a quick buck (oops trad ad agency tangent again).

Happy birthday World Wide Web! No longer a teenager and well on your way to getting the key of the door.

Twitter. Revolutionary or revolutionary?

At 4:29 am on December 5th, 2008, Malcolm Gladwell of Blink and Tipping Point fame posted his first tweet. It read, “Nice to join this jungle.” One year later in October 2009 he tweeted his last. It was a failed experiment. It hadn’t been that nice after all. He hadn’t seen the wood for the trees. Gladwell, it would seem, wasn’t impressed! “What?” I hear you ask… after all, Twitter has brought down governments and brought MC Hammer closer to over 2 million of his followers!

Over a year later, and in an article in the New Yorker, Gladwell attacked Twitter’s revolutionary credentials. He suggested that there is a limited application of social networking tools to activism in the “real world”. The Twitter Revolution in Moldova hadn’t really happened. The social network that Ahmadinejad banned at the height of the 2009 troubles had in fact had no effect on the streets of Tehran. Facebook hadn’t lead to the downfall of Ben Ali in Tunisia or indeed Mubarak’s flight from Egypt.

I have to say… I agree and disagree.

Gladwell it has to be said has a propensity to simplify, but as my mother always says – and she really is wise – “Things are never black and white. They are always grey.” It is as ignorant to say that Twitter caused a revolution as it is to suggest that Twitter, or indeed Facebook, had no effect whatsoever. Such events are multi-layered and multi-faceted. Hell, I would even agree with Julian Assange when he took part credit for the events in Tunisia and Egypt because of his Wikileaks revelations.

There is no doubt that social media was used as a communications tool inside and outside of these events, allowing leaders to influence and spread news. There is no doubt that it influenced global mass media, and in doing so influenced politicians. However, the likes of Twitter and Facebook are just tools. They aren’t revolutionaries in their own rights. They are used by revolutionaries who may or may not be that skilled at influencing, organising and toppling as the next cyber-Chez. And they are used alongside muffled coffee shop conversations, discrete text messaging and incendiary leaflets disseminated around the corner from the local Mosque.

When we think of ‘leaders’ I think we have to remember that with the democritisation of the web through the social networks, ‘leaders’ has come to mean ‘you’ and ‘I’. We all communicate and influence. Social change may have traditionally been seen to be hierarchical, but that does not mean it is the case or that it will always continue to be so. Social networks give people this voice and magnify it. I find it odd that Gladwell seems to have missed this. Isn’t that what Tipping Point was all about?

Of course it will always be easier to get somebody to ‘like’, ‘poke’, ‘retweet’, ‘follow’ or ‘share’ but that has more to do with the energy behind their revolution than it does anything else. The social networks are a tool, amongst many, but powerful tools to be leveraged by those with an axe to grind.

Stars in their eyes

When I was a kid I think I wanted to be a fireman.

A man who fights fire.

I also seem to recall wanting to be a dog handler.

But only handling dogs with long ears.

I’m pretty sure I went through a phase when my dream was being a stunt man.

Stand to the side please, Evel Knievel!

I can however, say for certain, that I never considered being a ‘celebrity.’ I don’t think they existed when I was a child. Certainly not the breed that is famous for being famous. It sounds a bit vacuous, a tad irrelevant, and a lot dull. Don’t get me wrong, as a father I just want my children to be happy, no matter what they decide to be when they grow up. I just can’t see how putting stars in their eyes or announcing they have some kind of X factor will ensure they develop into fulfilled and happy individuals.

Mind you… I’d have killed for free tickets to the premiere of Tron. There’s a blast from a rose-tinted past.

Did you order bags?

I had a very interesting conversation with somebody I don’t know via SMS yesterday evening.  It went something like this…

He to me – Did u not order bags last week?

This came as a surprise.  No, not the sloppy use of “u” instead of “you” but the fact that I couldn’t remember having had the responsibility of ordering bags, and worst of all I couldn’t think if that responsibility extended to ordering bags of ‘something in particular’.  Did my lack of ordering mean I was in a bit of bother – and before Christmas too – not good!  What disappointment had I caused and what would be my punishment?  As my breathing became laboured and my palms sweaty I suddenly realised I didn’t recognise the number.  After checking through my contacts to see if they shared the last three numbers I had just memorised I decided it might be prudent to ask.

Me to he – Sorry who is this and to which bags do you refer?

It took a couple of minutes but the response came back.

He to me – Chris – we’ve ran out of bags

The only Chris I know is my brother and he is in the USA on holiday.  I guessed he wouldn’t be footing the bill for trans-Atlantic communications to bag-bother me.  We certainly hadn’t had a conversation about bags recently and my palms started to dry.  Was this a mistake on the part of this unknown Chris?  Had he got the number wrong?  Was he harranguing the office junior with hard earned bag ordering responsibility?  I needed to make sure…

Me to he – Bags for what Chris?

He answered.

He to me – Jd bags

This pretty much confirmed that Chris had made a mistake. However, what did “Jd” refer to?  Did he mean JD Sports?  Was the company in trouble?  My palms became sweaty again.

Me to he – No! What do we do?

I was starting to panic.

He to me – Did you order sales bags Monday

He to me – Got no bags at all.

Oh boy! This wasn’t good!  Whoever I was meant to be I hadn’t ordered sales bags! If I had ordered them Monday they should have arrived by now! Now I faced the fact that we were 4 days form the Big One and we had no sodding sales bags for the 26th!  It was desperate but I made a suggestion…

Me to he – Can’t we borrow them from elsewhere?

Surely to God I was the only idiot! Surely every other JD Sports bag ordering dimwit of a junior in the region had properly prepared themselves for the January Sales!  It happens at the same time every year for crying out loud. If not, well we were completely screwed. Screwed I tell you!

He to me – No everywhere is in same boat we are completely screwed

This confirmed it.  Okay we had to think outside the box.  The whole organisation (certainly on a regional level) seemed to have missed the opportunity of thinking inside one.

Me to he – Well I wouldn’t put it like that! Can’t we improvise? Tesco bags, black bags, JJB bags… If everybody else is in the same position we can sink together. What ideas u got?

I thought at the very least this might make him feel better about this awful mess.  I even tried to bond with him by using “u” instead of “you”.  There was no response.  I was desperate.  I couldn’t let this guy suffer.  There was only one thing I could say…

Me to he – Anyway snow will keep everyone away – they say its going to snow tonight.  Sorted!

He must have checked whether the last three numbers of the number he dialed matched any of his contacts.  The answer must have been “no” because he didn’t text back.  Shame really as I’ll never know if my suggestions helped!  Merry Christmas Chris whoever you are.

Shh!

Following on from my post “Mayor of Foursquare” a number of weeks ago, in which I described a visit to the pub with my 3 year old son, the experience was completed this morning when he woke a tad too early, and making too much noise I had to take him downstairs before he did the same to his brother and sister. I kept softly telling him to “shh!”. He thought it would be fun to tell me to “shh!”.

Needless to say this quickly descended into the two of us giggling as we tiptoed down the stairs in the dark, pressing fingers to our mouths and telling each other to “shh!”

Blissful ignorance

I had a very interesting conversation with my 5 year old daughter in the kitchen this morning as teacakes toasted under the grill.

“We’re going to play Disneyland Paris!” she announced. By this she meant she was going to parade around the dining room gleefully ‘meeping’ with her twin brother as they waved jazz hands above their heads. However I was soon to learn that things would be different this time.
“They don’t talk in Disneyland Paris, Daddy” she explained. By ‘they’ she meant the characters. She had remembered what I’d said during an advert we had watched together when I had recounted my experience of Mickey the Mute and Daffy the Dumb during a holiday to Florida many years before.
After a short pause she asked, “Why don’t they talk in Disneyland Paris, Daddy?”
I wanted to say “Because they’re just people wearing costumes, darling. They’re just pretending to be chipmunks, mice, ducks and dogs. They’d give themselves away and ruin the experience for park visitors, including children, if they talked!”
So I said “Because they’d have to carry televisions with speakers around with them everywhere they went so that you could hear them. That would just be silly, wouldn’t it?”
“Yes that would be silly, Daddy!” she grinned as she turned around and walked through to the dining room to happily join her brother in silent procession around the table as he ‘meeped’ in blissful ignorance.