spills

Where the hell have I been?

jnielson — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 20:11:07 -0700

Planet Fungeye. Funkley, MN. The history center in Blackduck, MN. Michael's Hip Hop Shop and Robert's Shoes at Chicago & Lake. My writer's studio at The Loft. Podiatrist appointments. Sniffing out Sneaker Head websites. Sounddogs. Picklefeather Press. Big Brain Comics for cool graphic novels. And all kinds of other fascinating stops on my journey toward self-publishing frank's first kids' book, "Toe Jam and The Toenail Fairies."

There's no turning back now. I'm hooked by the notion of letting a good idea get a hold of you to carry you where you belong. Maybe, just maybe, there's something to Rolf Skyberg's idea of "Web 2.0 happens when the approachable investment equals zero."

And I've definitely taken up the patriarchal personal challenge that Rilke sets out in this poem:

Sometimes a man stands up during supper
And walks outdoors, and keeps on walking,
Because of a church that stands somewhere in the East.

And his children say blessings on him as if he were dead.

And another man who remains inside his own house,
Stays there, inside the dishes and in the glasses,
So that his children have to go far out into the world,
Toward that same church, which he forgot.

That last stanza is eerie. But with frank partners like JP & Elissa + all kinds of other unruly, disciplined creative friends like Gretchen, Suzie, Brian, Terry, Troy, Troy, Jonnie O, Mike, Stephan and, of course, Toe Jam and The Toenail Fairies, I'm not worried one bit.

Onwards to FaerieCon '07 and future dispatches from the other side!

The Afterglow of Web 2.0

jnielson — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 09:09:06 -0700

For the past 72 hours, I gulped all I could from the Web 2.0 fire hose. And I must admit, the O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo here in San Fran was flat out the most amazing conference I've ever attended. Plus I got tons of mind-blowing insights for frank's own 2.0 presentation in Toronto this June!)

The kickoff video was great. (And how could you not love the Code Monkey video?!)

The keynotes were crisp: Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos; Google CEO, Eric Schmidt; Yahoo network division leader, Jeff Weiner; and Tim O'Reilly himself.

The breakout speakers were inspiring: people who launched multi-million-dollar sites like Flickr, Delicious, Six Apart, Facebook, Digg and others just by tinkering with their passions on line.

The up & comers totally dazzled: Kapow, esnips, Octopz, Mashery, inPowr, vidoop, coghead, Joost, Ning, Swivel, TwitterVision, dogster, catster and tons of others.

Even my hotel turned out to be very comfortable.

But what made the conference so transformative for me was getting how much I have to personally evolve (like by tomorrow morning when I get back to work!) to be able to fully engage with Web 2.0. This stuff is personal. And it challenges just about every business, marketing and creative idea I've ever had. Hold on to those ideas too tightly and the benefits of Web 2.0 go poof! Let go of old paradigms on how to strategize, create and execute new ideas and the real promise and excitement of Web 2.0 busts open.

"Which is what?" you may still be asking. Ahh, yes. The real question on everyone's mind ...

After all the conversations, buzz and beer, the big thing I'm taking home is a crystallized notion of "emergence." Steven Johnson wrote a book on it. To me it means that there's no stopping to try and figure out any of this, there's only creating it. Driven by a personal passion or a product, service or cause you believe in, there's only putting yourself out there using all the open, available, amazing technology that exists today and together with your community, you co-create as you go.

SocialText CEO, Ross Mayfield summed it up this way: "Value comes out of people using your stuff, not what's there at the beginning. It's all about shared control to create new value."

My other take-away? Most people will never get that. But those who do? Look out. They're already changing the world.

TAGS:

web 2.0 expo, Content Week Canada, social media

Called out by Web 2.0

jnielson — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 07:01:10 -0700

I was gushing to my friend Brian about how excited I was to attend O'Reilly's Web 2.0 conference this week and he said, "Sounds like you've found your calling."

Huh. I never thought of it that way. Rather than a calling, what I've always felt is that Web 2.0 is calling me out. To be more transparent with all of my writing. To be more open, respectful and collaborative with everyone I work with. To torch my old marketing, creativity and communications paradigms. To be more frank all the time.

I'm always amazed reflecting on how the web just isn't about technology at its heart.

Whose brand is it, anyway?

jnielson — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 06:00:02 -0700

Today's most powerful brands are transparent organizations in rich, regular conversation and co-creation with the people they serve. So what's a "traditional marketing guy" supposed to do with that? Find the magic in those relationships, crank up the volume on these authentic discussions, get as many people possible involved in the conversation and openly celebrate this new dance every chance possible. (Everything Web 2.0 enables!)

Here's an example .... a participant story featured on a new site frank helped launch for Hearth Connection: an organization committed to ending long-term homelessness by co-creating its value and future with the people it serves every day.

Brand | Customer. Marketing | User experiences. PR | Reality.

Forget the lines, they're gone forever. We are one.

TAGS:

Hearth Connection, Web 2.0, co-creation

McFlogs, cream & sugar.

jnielson — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 12:34:00 -0800

You gotta help me here. On the one hand, McDonald's just got busted by the blogosphere for running fake blogs (flogs) as part of their Monopoly contest allegedly written by their 2004 contest-winner, Marcia Schroeder. Not true. The Consumerist was the first to expose the fact that the blogs were actually created by and content was fed to Marcia by McDonald's PR agency, not to mention that another one of their blogs was written by a character named Stanley Smith who just flat out didn't exist. (Does that leave a lousy taste in your mouth, or what?)

On the other hand, McDonald's is pouring wads of cash into their traditional mass-media campaign, "Let us add the cream & sugar." Like that's going to revolutionize their business, cripple their competitors and drive me into their restaurants.

Cream & sugar added to my coffee by an employee saving me six steps to the left to do it myself or an honest, authentic relationship with their customers and respect for their patronage? Geez. I'm just not sure which I'd like to wake up to every morning.

Bookbeard blogging.

jnielson — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 11:58:00 -0700

O.K. This is going to be fun. Not exactly sure what I'm about to get into, but I'm going for it anyway. 90 days. 3 books. 1 beard. The whole story's over at The Bookbeard Blog where I'm going to finally take a run at writing some stuff that's been rattling around in my head for decades. Whatever happens, I know I'll emerge with at least one thing: a salt & pepper beard just in time for the holidays.

Ikky Guy joins Zaadz!

jnielson — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:16:03 -0700

I just joined and created my new site at Zaadz – and I just discovered another powerful, new Web 2.0 brand! But there are lots of them, aren't there ...

Of course TypePad is awesome. MySpace is raw. Eons is for 50+ers. YouTube is on fire. FaceBook is regenerating. Squidoo is brilliant. Ecademy, Ryze, Spoke, and OpenBC are down to business. LinkedIn is phenomenal. Tagworld is coming up the rear. eHarmony is lovely. Zaadz is self-aware ... and well, you get the picture. It's a picture of millions of people now connected via social software representing an increasingly powerful voice.

So that was my learning this morning ... that getting stuck on one platform, one community, one space – or on one brand for that matter – is thinking too small and misses the real promise of the new multi-dimensional Web 2.0 world: the game is about playing across all of them ... putting yourself out there in many communities ... letting technology do its thing to hook us all together based on relevent content, passion and projects ... letting the magic happen when we authentically put ourselves out there.

So call me Ikky Guy, Picklefeather, Spills or Frank ... I know we'll be talking soon!

"Juicing the Orange" ... from the inside out!

jnielson — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 06:14:57 -0700

Just read an article about Pat Fallon's new book called, "Juicing the Orange: A Guide to the Ad Industry's Third Revolution." Leave it to Fallon to come up with a cool, new metaphor for creating organizations that shine from the inside out ... which is frank's mission through social media.

And I really like how Fallon describes the direction that advertising must go in the future ...

"Unless all the people in and around a company can own the strategy, have it expressed in a way they can embrace, it won't work," Mr. Fallon concluded, quite counterintuitively for an agency leader whose rep was built on awareness and awards. "Today, we start from the inside out."

Exactly! No authentic, internal alignment with external brand messaging, no juice!

Take it from Trudelies.

jnielson — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:23:37 -0700

This month's issue of Ode magazine has a great article on authenticity, entitled "Survival of the Real-est."

There's a lot of great stuff in the article from some brilliant writers on the topic (David Boyle, Neil Crofts, Paul Ray) but a quote from Trudelies Van der Poel hit the hardest:

"This is the biggest challenge facing brands today: rediscovering their inspiration. It is a process that can only be done by going inside, with less market research and more self-examination. It's the fastest way to reach a growing public that is yearing for authenticity, genuineness and inspiration."

Phew! "Authentic branding" is not an oxymoron!

Bobby & Steve's

jnielson — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 11:11:00 -0700

Who ever heard of a gas station being a powerful brand? I don't mean powerful in the sense that an Amoco, BP, Mobil or Shell own the market and can jack us around on gas prices on a whim. I mean powerful in the sense that at the face-to-face customer-service level, they're willing to show that they have a heart, a soul and that they actually give a damn about people.

I didn't think it was possible until I experienced Bobby & Steve's ...

There I am, standing in line for the bathroom at Bobby & Steve's Auto World in downtown Minneapolis. Didn't have my car in for repair. Didn't buy gas. Wasn't even going to get a pop. Just stopped in to use the bathroom.

"Hi there, sir," a mechanic says to me as he reaches inside the fridge for his own drink.

"Hi," I suspiciously respond while processing why the hell this grinning, greasy guy was even talking to me. He worked underneath cars all day. Behind the window in the customer lounge. He wasn't allowed out to mingle with customers; in broad daylight; taking initiatve to engage me in a friendly conversation about something other than upselling me on expensive repairs. This was unheard of. I was in shock.

Then he says – now brace yourself: "I wish you all the best and a most wonderful day."

"Ya, well ... ahh, ya thanks," I manage to mutter.

He smiles, returns to the service bay and leaves me standing there in disbelief.

I can't imagine a more commodity-oriented business than selling gasoline and tires, but on that day, this one auto mechanic sold me the ultimate: a memorable Bobby & Steve's experience I'll remember next time I need my oil changed, my brakes repaired, my engine overhauled, or yes ... my mid-day, low-carb snack (this place really has it all!)

International Personals & Corporate Classifieds

jnielson — Sat, 20 May 2006 07:11:11 -0700

Isn't human transparency awesome?

Well-expressed fallibility is such a powerful way connect with one another. Just check out some of these international personal ads I came across in my new edition of Tin House ...

"Woman lacking love will commute to it 9 am to midnight, except Sundays."

"Man suffering from a great lack of motherhood in search of a woman."

"Man, 46. Appears quite normal, but probably best avoided. What do the doctors know?"

"Nihilist seeks nothing."

"M, 34, would like to meet F to 30 able to scientifically prove the validity of the ten-second rule concerning dropped food."

"Obvious gold-digger welcome if lover of the arts."

But why save this kind of spirited authenticity for the Personals section? Imagine if companies were this straight in their classified ads? We might read something like this ...

"Gas-guzzling Big 3 automaker seeks hybrid-driving PR pro for public image make-over."

"Mutlinational with a lot of bad habits trying ;) to transform itself. Profits are up. Employee morale is down. Need seasoned HR exec to re-connect wealthy egomaniacs running the place with minimum-wage, front-line workers."

"Unconscionable sales rep required to exploit outrageous expense account wining & dining clients because our products are no better than anyone else's."

Just let go.

jnielson — Tue, 02 May 2006 11:00:00 -0700

It's great to see some mainstream ink about what it's really like to be in the marketing and advertising industry these days – especially when the entire article's nailed in the title: "How To Thrive in New World of User-Generated Content: Let Go."

Scott Donaton's recent article in AdAge, offers some real nuggets:

" ... consumer control has turned the marketing model on its head."

" ... the marketing business can't tolerate those who cling to the old ways."

" ... what you should do about user-generated content: nothing."

" ... the most important lesson of the new marketing age: let go."

All stuff I wished someone had told me when I waded into my own personal marketing transformation about three years ago. instead, I learned the hard way, struggling through these paradigms shifts on my own, not really understanding what the hell was happening to me, but knowing something very powerful was happening indeed!

Here were the biggies for me ...

> shift from hoarding to harnessing
> shift from controling to catalyzing
> shift from brainstorming to co-creating
> shift from being guarded to being transparent (the hardest one)
> shift from a view of scarcity to one of abundance

My transformation from the old-school marketing approach of "controlling the dialogue" (as Adam Hanft talks about in the article) to "thriving in the conversation" (as frank-o-philes like to say), was the inspiration for creating frank. now we're helping other marketers, their organizations and their brands "let go" in five steps: Listen, Engage, Co-create, Harmonize and Optimize.

Grant McCracken has a nice take on this process of co-creation: "When the marketing team invites the consumer "into the tent," weird and nervous-making things are bound to happen. The question is whether and when we will come to see the brand as something big enough and resilient enough to withstand the 'rough air' created by new cocreation strategies."

But when marketers do open up to the collective intelligence of their best customers and passionate employees, a wonderful thing happens: the community starts generating marketing, product and service ideas better than any one individual could dream up on their own. And success follows.

A friend of mine used to tell me that "the vital act is the act of participation." I used to say, "B.S. It's the act of observation," like most polished agency guys would probably remark.

But now I get it: it's all about being frank with your best customers, your co-workers and maybe most importantly, with yourself.

Clearcut reason to evolve to social media

jnielson — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:25:59 -0700

Steep Cliff?

jnielson — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 08:09:02 -0800

Here's a shot shared by my friend Kraig who's traveling through Australia right now. He said it reminded him of how so many marketing people feel about stepping into the new world of social media.

But it's not scary at all. In fact, it's actually a ton of fun, totally liberating and very profitable when you learn to let go of old marketing paradigms and start co-creating products, services and marketing campaigns with your customers.

SpreadFirefox.com is a perfect example: it's a website created for users of Mozilla's new Firefox web browser to post ideas, pictures, videos, links, you-name-it of how users are marketing Firefox for the company.

The results?

• more than 130 million users have downloaded FireFox since Mozilla released it 18 months ago
• 160,000 members of SpreadFirefox.com
• Mozilla estimates it's lured 10 million users away from other browsers
• front cover article in next week's issue of RedHerring magazine

Firefox co-creator, Blake Ross, calls the site "one of our superhigh-return-on-investment projects."

And here's the kicker: guess how many people make up FireFox's marketing department?

Miles between Kenya and Minneapolis: 0

jnielson — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 06:47:55 -0800

I experienced the real thing last night: a powerful brand in real action having frank conversations about what really matters. In the case of Give Us Wings, it's saving lives in Kenya and Uganda. Give Us Wings had its annual celebration and silent auction last night, and being there with my two daughters, friends and about 500 others, I felt the distance between Kenya and Minneapolis disappear.

But that's how powerful brands work. "They take up residence in your heart," as Renee Wood said about the children themselves.

Give Us Wings sure moved into my heart last night.

My analytical marketing side wants to break down the magic of the night. How the evening was a perfect example of Pine & Gilmore's Experience Economy in action ... how offline and online branding were beautifully harmonized ... how Give Us Wings is living Forrester's three tenets of emerging powerful brands ... how Give Us Wings has transformed volunteers into evangelists in McConnell and Huba speak ... but that's enough.

The real magic was in how the community celebrated its work and raised thousands of more dollars in mere hours – about $67,000 for the children of Kayoro Village alone. (The photo is of my daughters Amy and Sarah standing with the 67 children who were each supported by $1000 donations last night.)

I just read a story in Ode about a wealthy entrepreneur who asked Gandhi what to do about a particular business problem he had. Ghandi suggested the businessman think of the poorest person he know and ask himself whether his solution to that problem would make a positive contribution to the life of that person. Ghandi said, "If that's the case, it is a good decision. If it is not, you shouldn't do it."

Powerful brands make powerful, postitive impact on people. Give Us Wings is a perfect example. Sure it's a non-profit. But just imagine the impact more brands could have by passing the Gandhi test more often.

Mine, Mine, Mine!

jnielson — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:30:00 -0800

As new social media tools such as blogs, podcasts and wikis empower all of us to post, link, rate, review, write, share and connect to our heart's content, those who try to dam this surge of user-generated content with a finger in the dyke are being very silly.

But co-create new products, services and experiences with customers, partners and employees using such social media tools? You crazy? Rather than co-create, many prefer to litigate. Especially if you once controlled the world of promotion, production, publishing and entertainment.

Take the industries and brands mentioned in an article in the current issue of Mother Jones titled "Intellectual Property Run Amok": their M.O. is still iron-clad control, aggressive litigation and pure greed:

• among the 16,000 people thus far sued for sharing music files was a 65-year-old woman who, though she didn't own downloading software, was accused of sharing 2,000 songs, including Trick Daddy's "I'm a Thug." she was sued for up to $150,000 per song

• 91 pending trademarks bear Donald Trump's name including "Donald J. Trump the Fragrance" and "Trump's Golden Lager."

• in 2002, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America described Hollywood's antipiracy campaign as "our own terrorist war"

• Hooters sued a competitor for stealing its "trade dress," i.e., the packaging of its waitresses

• Martin Luther King Jr's estate charges academic authors $50 for each sentence of the "I Have a Dream" speech that they reprint

• Microsoft UK held a contest for the best film on "intellectual property theft" and had finalists sign away "all intellectual property rights" on "terms acceptable to Microsoft"

(Sure that last one is hilarious, but at least they inspired a lot of interesting user-generated content. Check out the films at Thought Thieves.)

Old habits die hard, of course, especially among the establishment. But they will have to die.

Chris Charron from Forrester Research just summarized the three tenets of the new world of "social computing":

1. innovation will become a bottom-up process driven by communities
2. the value of institutions will shift from the products they offer to the experiences they facilitate
3. the communities that helped drive innovation will take power from the institutions

GM gets it: they're now asking customers to create their own Tahoe commerical.

Stormhoek Wine gets it: they launched their South African wine in the U.S. by sending 100 bottles to 100 bloggers and took their chances from there.

Even a handful of churches get it: they're members of a fiesty new group, Church Marketing Sucks, passionate about reconnecting the church with the people through social media.

So who will be the successful new leaders of the future: traditional control freaks or "architects of partcipation" as Tim O'Reilly has dubbed them? No question where my money is.

TAGS: social media, user-generated content, marketing, IP, social computing

it's in the books: first-ever day of frank!

jnielson — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 12:44:19 -0800

We had a community of about 40 pioneering souls pile into Open Book in downtown Minneapolis to discuss, debate and distinguish this new world of social media we find ourselves in.

Guest gurus who shared their social media success stories included:

- Tom Bartel, Founder & Publisher, The Rake magazine (also founder of City Pages)
- Matt Bartel, Web Host, MNSpeak.com
- Robert Metcalf, Founder, FlySpy
- Griff Wigley, Leadership Blog Coach

And although I had a few slides to share as a co-creator of frank, what I loved most was learning so much from so many others. There's a volatile new mix of tech & talk out there and everyone's trying to figure it out while having the time of their lives playing with it. Everyone at day of frank had a different story to tell about their social media experiences: some leveraging it to the max ... some still skinning their knee on it.

Some of the most fascinating take-aways/learnings/think-abouts for me ...

• tons of smart people still don't know a blog from a bog and I'll stop assuming they do

• in the next year, I'm more likely to end up working for that 20-year-old in the third row than he is for me

• the more closed a culture, the more closed they're likely to be to social media technology and concepts like authenticity, transparency, co-creation. (hmmm ... could be a real problem for Minnesotans!)

• lots of lush new social media to check out: ratemyprofessor.com, last.fm, youtube.com, affinova.com ...

• Mac Powerbooks still don't automatically work with all projectors

Powerful people putting powerful technology to use in exhilarating ways. For me, that was day of frank in a nutshell. Maybe social media, too.

TAGS: social media, weblog, frank

frank debut

jnielson — Wed, 01 Feb 2006 17:55:00 -0800

Very cool stuff going on at the recent WOMMA conference ... just check out the star-studded cast they had at their Orlando conference. One very special attendee was our very own frank.

My colleague Elissa was in Orlando learning, meeting, blogging and introducing beta-frank to the 450 or so attendees of WOMMA. frank even made the WOMMA blog.

So who the hell's frank? It's a new team of people (my friends JP, Elissa, Andrew and I pictured here) working with clients to help them leverage social media to generate organizational courage and authentic branding strategies.

You can read more about frank and sign up for our 2/28/06 Minneapolis seminar on our blog.

But as I think about the warm welcome frank received at WOMMA, I think about my last post about eliminating the distance between people and how exhilarating that feels when it happens. at its heart, that's what frank symbolizes for me: a chance for the people behind powerful brands to show up authentically – inside and out – and have that integrity shine as a beacon to attract others passionate about living their own lives that way.

(Oh, and our business cards were cute, too ... printed on clear plastic to reinforce that it's all about transparency!)

TAGS: WOMMA, social media, blogging, marketing

Disappearing act.

jnielson — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 08:16:00 -0800

I just spent the weekend getting the shit kicked out of me at the Landmark Advanced Course. That’s good. I mean don't we all have a few personal barriers in the way of us being the people we really want to be? I know I do.

Our leader, Scott, talked a lot about “pulling the course toward us.” When I did this, the Landmark experience became totally personal. And to me, it ended up being the ultimate transaction of services, experience, value and love.

“Pull our product/service toward you to make it your own.” Bold stuff. But what a powerful way to extend your own brand to customers!

Then we got into a definition of “transformation.” I never really understood the difference between "change" and "transformation" until I got that really transforming something actually makes something disappear.

Like making the baggage from our past disappear …

Like making the distance between ourselves and other people disappear ...

Like making the distance between brands and their customers disappear ...

One of the exercises we completed over the weekend was the “Be With.” For about five to eight minutes, you literally stood eyeball-to-eyeball with pretty much a total stranger.

Can you see the CEO of your company standing eyeball-to-eyeball with an employee or one of your customers?

Imagine the pretense that would disappear! Distance gone, imagine the co-creation that could emerge from there!

TAGS: Landmark, Marketing, Branding, frank

Welcome PROSUMERS!

jnielson — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 10:24:00 -0800

Oh, so that's what I am? A "prosumer."

Ever since starting this blog, I've been struggling with whether or not I was a content guy or a marketing guy ... a producer or a consumer ... a brand guy or well, just a guy. I've got a lot of personal writing projects going at picklefeather.com. And I love the creative marketing work I do.

Thank goodness for futurist Alvin Toffler. In Kevin Kelly's excellent WIRED article, "We Are the Web," Kelly writes that Toffler would probably say that I've entered the "prosumption" zone," that is, a world in which the producers are the audience and the act of making is the act of watching.

Ohh, so that's what Tim O'Reilly's MAKE concept celebrates: people creating small alcohol stoves out of Pepsi cans, sandals from old Goodyear tires, one-second musical compositions in celebration of the extra second we get in 2006 and lots more fascinating stuff.

So that's what Hugh McLeod and my friend Elissa were jawing about in her blog, Auntie Frank. McLeod said, "when I talk about 'branding is dead,' I'm talking about the death of 'brand as useful metaphor.'"

So that's what the powerful new brands of the future might turn out to be: You and I, actually – interacting with products and services we love, co-creating funky new products and services, sharing them with others who fall in love with them, who in turn produce more ... well, you get the picture.

No wonder half of the Fortune 500 Chief Marketing Officers recently surveyed by TNS Media Intelligence decided to increase their interactive budgets by 30% in 2006. (A baby step since their total online media spend is still only 5% of the total pie.) But an undeniable shift to social media is on nonetheless!

So what's the real challenge for brands that want to endear themselves to the prosumers of tomorrow?

Get the hell out of the way and let us in! Together we're better.

TAGS: social media, branding, marketing, prosumers

A Picklefeather Story

jnielson — Mon, 12 Dec 2005 00:52:06 -0800

My blog is called "spills." My company is called "Picklefeather."

Here's my daughter Amy explaining it best ...

Download amys_picklefeather_story.wav

How Did I Get Here?

jnielson — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 06:50:00 -0800

The Talking Heads ask a good question in "Once Upon a Lifetime."

For me it's been an 18-year journey in the advertising and marketing industry. I still love great brands but I've come to loathe the old ways of building them: put ego, cash, politics and flat-out arrogance ahead of the really meaningful conversations taking place among customers about a brand's product or service.

I've also had a little help from my friends. I've hung out just long enough with Josh who's now at Brightcove for me to get addicted to social media. Andrew at Ciceron is hauling me into podcastville by hosting a recording session for a new pro-bono client Give Us Wings next week. Other friends such as JP and Chuck are blogging when I never thought they would. Then there are all the wise folks in my blogroll to the left who've been writing about these trends for years. All very inspiring stuff.

Things are definitely changing out there. Conversational technology is hot because it's so user-friendly, affordable and powerful. Major dollars are being hijacked from mass media tactics by way more measurable, intimate marketing tactics: Bob Garfield calls it the Chaos Scenario. Marketing folks know they have to evolve, but many don't have the knowledge or the guts to do it.

Transparency. Co-creation. Authenticity. All big ideas. Inside of and outside of brands. Inside of and outside of people. Social media is here to stay and that's scary for a lot of people – especially those trying to maintain a stranglehold on a status quo that serves them well and others not so well.

I can relate. I'm a creative ad guy who's in the midst my own transformation – professionally and personally. You can read my real resume to see all the large and small agencies I've worked in. (ie/ worked in to maintain the status quo!) You'll see I've had one myself. I've even crossed the line for a few years to work on the client side.

Now I've reached a point – especially as a writer at heart – where I'm fed up with the bullshit.

"Frank conversations about powerful brands." That's what I'm passionate about. And it has nothing to do with the size of a brand. For example, one of my favorites is the Princess Garden where I buy Chinese food at best twice a year, yet every time I show up, the owner comes running out of the kitchen with my steaming bag of Mongolian Beef greeting me as if I ate there every day. One of my worst right now is Ski Montana that has a seductive outdoor campaign running here in Minnesota, but then get to their website and there ain't a human voice to connect with anywhere. I'm even running my own brand experiment with Picklefeather Publishing, a social media platform involving a bunch of very vertical narratives near and dear to my heart.

Last question you may be asking: why name the blog "spills?" For starters, that's what I feel like is going on out there – collective conversational spills happening everywhere and impacting everything ... both inside of organizations among employees and outside of brands among customers. I also get a little double-duty out of the name since "spills" is short for "Spiliotopoulos," my dad's last name.

It is personal isn't it? It's not easy to concisely define yet (sorry for the long opening post). But that's what makes it so much fun – for those willing to wade out into authentic conversations about what really matters. In our personal lives. And in our consumer lives.

Thanks for visiting.

Let the real conversations begin!