The other day I put up a poll on Hard Knox Life asking you the readers what you’d like to see me write about.  As you can see from the below, people are pretty evenly interested in the areas I have been covering.  Talk about Marketing Innovation was at the top of the poll, followed by more information about Brand Management overall.    This should really help me focus my writing so I really appreciate the feedback.  

Also, I just found out the PollDaddy works with WordPress.com.  So I am going to be adding more polls over the next few weeks.  What questions do you think I should ask?

66.7% Marketing Innovation including digital, social media, etc

40.0% Brand Management 101

20.0% Opinions of current marketing campaigns

46.7% What daily life is like for a Brand Manager

I’m not talking about the Patron variety of tequila shots but instead the mini-book “Tequila Shots” by word-of-mouth and brand identity agency Brains on Fire.  I came across these guys thanks to John Moore’s “Three Reads“ over at Brand Autopsy.  Since it was a lazy Sunday, I spent the morning taking Tequila Shots to see what the style of this agency was all about.   Here is what caught my eye from the quick read:

1. This book is a stellar way to show the company culture…both to potential clients and to new employees.  You instantly get a feeling for the pulse of the place.  I love the line “if your work is your calling and not just a job, you will embrace it in everything you do.”
2. I love their concept of Marketer-in-Residency.  It’s a way for the agency to give their clients access to some of the “smartest thinkers and doers in marketing.”  This is a brilliant way to bring fresh blood into the agency on a short term, while giving individual marketing practioners access to the overall structure of an agency.  A similiar structure has worked for years with Venture Capitalists and their “Entreprenuers-in-Residency” programs so why not agencies as well.  Very cool idea that I think a lot of agencies (and even companies) could learn from.  I could see myself really enjoying something like this…
3. “The growth & development of people is the higest calling of leadership.”  More people need to think this way.  If people around you succeed and grow, you will be successful as well.
4. Courageously Honest - I love this insight.  Some people call it being blunt….courageously honest is another way to put it.  There really shouldn’t be any gray zone in work.  Ideas are either good or bad.  Marketing either works or it doesn’t.  More people need the courage to be honest…it is pretty refreshing when they are.
5. “If it ain’t fun, we must be doing it wrong.”  First, I love the picture of the bulldog that goes along with this quote.  But I love the idea even more.  More people need to have fun with work.  I am a huge believer of work hard, play hard, have fun.  As a Brand Manager, this is the type of relationship you need with your agency.  Unfortunately not enough people act this way.  Judging by the number of drinks in this mini-book, I think these guys know the definition of fun.

Take a tequila shot for yourself by downloading the book here.  Great, quick read if you have the chance.  This agency is one I’m going to be keeping my eye. 

P.S. -  If someone from Brains on Fire happens to read this post, you made the classic mistake of misspelling Procter as Proctor in John Moore’s biography on your site :)  Might want to change that.  Just practicing courageous honesty and all to point it out.

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I was up in Cincinnati last week for a session on Digital Marketing (finally meeting Deb Schultz in person).  My part in the whole thing was giving a presentation on what Digital Marketing inspires me.   Still need to add more examples of CPG brands but this is what I presented as starters. 

UPDATE: SlideShare.net named this a “featured” presentation.  That always feels good

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Every once in awhile you come across a presentation that blows you away…both because of its content and because of its design.  The latest from Helge Tenno is one of those presentations (which I found thanks to Paul Isakson who consistently delivers his own great presentations).  Helge’s presentation takes you through the concept of Content Marketing, pointing out that “Content isn’t king.  Conversation is king.  Content is just something to talk about.”

Wonderful stuff that I really encourage you to check out.  My favorite quote of the presentation:

Content Marketing = Participating in activities facilitated by the brand (slide 62)

I started a post last month that I never finished. It was a response to the latest viral video from Levi’s called “Guys backflip into jeans.” I was planning on taking Levi’s to town for doing a disservice to a great American brand through a lack of creativity. But before I could finish the post, Ian Schafer beat me to it when he asked if “we have run out of viral video ideas…or just directors.” You see, that Levi’s video was a plain rip-off from a Ray-Bans viral video from 2007. What was sad about the Levi’s effort is that it was the same director as Ray-Bans…and the Marketing Director at Levi’s who bought the idea was at Ray-Bans ad agency when the video was first crafted. Even worse, when your brand’s major equity is “original”, it is just plain bad business to not be original in your marketing.

So needless to say, I wasnt very impressed with “Backflip” because that type of lack of creativity gives all of us marketers a bad name. However, Levi’s is starting to win me over because they didnt stop at just one film. In fact, they have created a YouTube channel called Unbuttoned Films and have continued to release two more films called “Super chill monkey does Hollywood” and “Guys fill their jeans with helium.” What is impressive is that they have found a way to keep their 501 Jeans at the center of each film. You can tell that the creative brief for each probably said “You can film anything you want…but it needs to have at least one shot where the main character buttons/unbuttons the 501 jeans.” Good branded content isn’t about slapping your brand logo everywhere in a film. But at the same time, it isnt just about making funny or outrageous content either. To make something work, it needs to be entertaining AND it needs to build your brand equities in some way. Levi’s seems to realize that, which is why I am giving them a second chance.

Now I’m interested to see if Levi’s continues to have success with these videos. The “Backflip” video has almost 4 million views so far. But the “Chill Monkey” follow-up only has 400K views and “Helium” doesn’t even have 100K views. Not exactly strong numbers but I applaud their efforts to keep going with this branded content….that is, as long as they stay original and faithful to the brand.

I came across this interesting site from P&G thanking our agency partners as we won Advertiser of the Year at Cannes.  Honestly at first I wondered if this was an officially sanctioned P&G effort but it appears to be.  I need to find out who did this internally to applaud them since it does a good job of not taking ourselves too seriously, while still talking about Brand Purpose through our efforts like HERO/Proctecting You, Protecting Futures. Check it out at: http://www.thankstoallouragenciesforhelpinguswinadvertiseroftheyear.com/

So I didnt notice it but last week I wrote my 100th post here on Hard Knox Life.  I think that is cause for a little bit of celebration if I do say so myself!

But it is also probably a good time for self reflection and getting the feedback of the community.  I would love to hear your feedback on what you like about Hard Knox Life.  Any particular areas you would like to see more of?  I have a few thoughts of mine own so I’ve included a poll to get the feedback of the community.  Please case a vote by clicking the link below (unfortunately WordPress won’t let me embed the poll)

http://www.vizu.com/poll-vote.html?n=102720

At BrandWeek’s “What Teens Want” Conference, my friend Tina Wells from Buzz Marketing Group just did a great presentation on teen trends.  In the presentation she covers what’s hot in music and technology, while also giving a comparison on why The Hills is performing better than Gossip Girls with teens.  Most interesting to me were the 6 key teen trends she highlighted including:

• Wharholism: Teens & their 15 minutes of fame
• Massclusivity: Teens want exclusive products designed for the masses
• Technoholics: Youth thrive off new technology
• Global Mobiles: Teens are globally connected, while the world is big & portable
• Insta-Messengers:  Teens consumer content instaneously and want immediate communication
• Transculturism: Merging and converging of cultures

Nike does it again with their Director’s Cut of “Take it to the next level” from Guy Ritchie.  The original video was good but this extended version is just stellar

Lately I have been thinking more and more about the concept of User Experience and how it applies to design…especially digital design.  Well leave it to David Armano from Logic + Emotion to point out an amazing example of User Experience courtesy of the Google guys.  Google sums it up beautifully with their aspirations and ten key principals.  Click below to read their full UX promise

The Google User Experience

Our aspirations

The Google User Experience team aims to create designs that are useful, fast, simple, engaging, innovative, universal, profitable, beautiful, trustworthy, and personable. Achieving a harmonious balance of these ten principles is a constant challenge. A product that gets the balance right is “Googley” – and will satisfy and delight people all over the world.

Ten principles that contribute to a Googley user experience

1. Focus on people – their lives, their work, their dreams.

The Google User Experience team works to discover people’s actual needs, including needs they can’t always articulate. Armed with that information, Google can create products that solve real-world problems and spark the creativity of all kinds of people. Improving people’s lives, not just easing step-by-step tasks, is our goal.

Above all, a well-designed Google product is useful in daily life. It doesn’t try to impress users with its whizbang technology or visual style – though it might have both. It doesn’t strong-arm people to use features they don’t want – but it does provide a natural growth path for those who are interested. It doesn’t intrude on people’s lives – but it does open doors for users who want to explore the world’s information, work more quickly and creatively, and share ideas with their friends or the world.

2. Every millisecond counts.

Nothing is more valuable than people’s time. Google pages load quickly, thanks to slim code and carefully selected image files. The most essential features and text are placed in the easiest-to-find locations. Unnecessary clicks, typing, steps, and other actions are eliminated. Google products ask for information only once and include smart defaults. Tasks are streamlined.

Speed is a boon to users. It is also a competitive advantage that Google doesn’t sacrifice without good reason.

3. Simplicity is powerful.

Simplicity fuels many elements of good design, including ease of use, speed, visual appeal, and accessibility. But simplicity starts with the design of a product’s fundamental functions. Google doesn’t set out to create feature-rich products; our best designs include only the features that people need to accomplish their goals. Ideally, even products that require large feature sets and complex visual designs appear to be simple as well as powerful.

Google teams think twice before sacrificing simplicity in pursuit of a less important feature. Our hope is to evolve products in new directions instead of just adding more features.

4. Engage beginners and attract experts.

Designing for many people doesn’t mean designing for the lowest common denominator. The best Google designs appear quite simple on the surface but include powerful features that are easily accessible to those users who want them. Our intent is to invite beginners with a great initial experience while also attracting power users whose excitement and expertise will draw others to the product.

A well-designed Google product lets new users jump in, offers help when necessary, and ensures that users can make simple and intuitive use of the product’s most valuable features. Progressive disclosure of advanced features encourages people to expand their usage of the product. Whenever appropriate, Google offers smart features that entice people with complex online lives – for instance, people who share data across several devices and computers, work online and off, and crave storage space.

5. Dare to innovate.

Design consistency builds a trusted foundation for Google products, makes users comfortable, and speeds their work. But it is the element of imagination that transforms designs from ho-hum to delightful.

Google encourages innovative, risk-taking designs whenever they serve the needs of users. Our teams encourage new ideas to come out and play. Instead of just matching the features of existing products, Google wants to change the game.

6. Design for the world.

The World Wide Web has opened all the resources of the Internet to people everywhere. For example, many users are exploring Google products while strolling with a mobile device, not sitting at a desk with a personal computer. Our goal is to design products that are contextually relevant and available through the medium and methods that make sense to users. Google supports slower connections and older browsers when possible, and Google allows people to choose how they view information (screen size, font size) and how they enter information (smart query parsing). The User Experience team researches the fundamental differences in user experiences throughout the world and works to design the right products for each audience, device, and culture. Simple translation, or “graceful degradation” of a feature set, isn’t sufficient to meet people’s needs.

Google is also committed to improving the accessibility of its products. Our desire for simple and inclusive products, and Google’s mission to make the world’s information universally accessible, demand products that support assistive technologies and provide a useful and enjoyable experience for everyone, including those with physical and cognitive limitations.

7. Plan for today’s and tomorrow’s business.

Those Google products that make money strive to do so in a way that is helpful to users. To reach that lofty goal, designers work with product teams to ensure that business considerations integrate seamlessly with the goals of users. Teams work to make sure ads are relevant, useful, and clearly identifiable as ads. Google also takes care to protect the interests of advertisers and others who depend on Google for their livelihood.

Google never tries to increase revenue from a product if it would mean reducing the number of Google users in the future. If a profitable design doesn’t please users, it’s time to go back to the drawing board. Not every product has to make money, and none should be bad for business.

8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.

If people looked at a Google product and said “Wow, that’s beautiful!” the User Experience team would cheer. A positive first impression makes users comfortable, assures them that the product is reliable and professional, and encourages people to make the product their own.

A minimalist aesthetic makes sense for most Google products because a clean, clutter-free design loads quickly and doesn’t distract users from their goals. Visually appealing images, color, and fonts are balanced against the needs for speed, scannable text, and easy navigation. Still, “simple elegance” is not the best fit for every product. Audience and cultural context matter. A Google product’s visual design should please its users and improve usability for them.

9. Be worthy of people’s trust.

Good design can go a long way to earn the trust of the people who use Google products. Establishing Google’s reliability starts with the basics – for example, making sure the interface is efficient and professional, actions are easily reversed, ads are clearly identified, terminology is consistent, and users are never unhappily surprised. In addition, Google products open themselves to the world by including links to competitors and encouraging user contributions such as community maps or iGoogle gadgets.

A greater challenge is to make sure that Google demonstrates respect for users’ right to own and control their own data. Google is transparent about how it uses information and never shares data outside Google without a user’s explicit consent. Our products warn users about such dangers as insecure connections, different privacy policies on other websites, actions that may make users vulnerable to spam, or the possibility that data shared outside Google may be stored elsewhere. Google is reassuring but truthful about data sharing so that users can make informed choices. The larger Google becomes, the more essential it is to live up to our “Don’t be evil” motto.

10. Add a human touch.

Google includes a wide range of personalities, and our designs have personality, too. Text and design elements are friendly, quirky, and smart – and not boring, close-minded, or arrogant. Google text talks directly to people and offers the same practical, informal assistance that anyone would offer to a neighbor who asked a question. And Google doesn’t let fun or personality interfere with other elements of a design, especially when people’s livelihood, or their ability to find vital information, is at stake.

Google doesn’t know everything, and no design is perfect. Our products ask for feedback, and Google acts on that feedback. When practicing these design principles, the Google User Experience team seeks the best possible balance in the time available for each product. Then the cycle of iteration, innovation, and improvement continues.